Tech Brew Ride Home

Amazon Day gives you the ability to schedule your Prime Deliveries, Motorola teases more details about the foldable resurrection of the Razr phone, the state of the smartwatch market, and seemingly every messaging platform might soon have a crypto coin. Sponsors: Tiny.Website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Amazon Prime members can choose a weekly delivery date with launch of 'Amazon Day' (TechCrunch) Motorola confirms its foldable phone is coming (Engadget) Apple self-driving car layoffs hit 190 employees in Santa Clara, Sunnyvale (San Francisco Chronicle) Apple shipped 9.2M Apple Watch units in Q4 2018 to capture half of market, report says (AppleInsider) Uber and Lyft drivers will reportedly get stock in the highly anticipated IPOs (CNBC) Facebook and Telegram Are Hoping to Succeed Where Bitcoin Failed (NYTimes) Mozilla updates Common Voice dataset with 1,400 hours of speech across 18 languages (Venture Beat) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fast flash storage for phones, TikTok passes a billion downloads, FedEx rolls out its own delivery bot, why you might be overpaying for cloud computing and why China wants to map the faces of pigs. Sponsors: Tiny.website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Samsung's new 512GB flash chip is twice as fast as its predecessor (Engadget) TikTok was bigger than Instagram last year after passing the 1 billion download mark (Business Insider) Machine learning can boost the value of wind energy (Google's The Keyword Blog) FedEx unveils autonomous delivery robot (The Verge) Threads emerges from stealth with $10.5M from Sequoia for a new take on enabling work conversations (TechCrunch) As AWS Use Soars, Companies Surprised by Cloud Bills (The Information) Containers may be leading to cloud computing cost overruns (ZDNet) Rotten Tomatoes tweaks audience ratings system to thwart online trolls (The Los Angeles Times) China’s Tech Firms Are Mapping Pig Faces (NYTimes) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Game of Thrones when it comes to modern tech platforms is very much up in the air, Satya Nadella defends making the HoloLens for the US Army, could the FTC undo previous tech mergers and that big Casey Newton piece about Facebook content moderators. Sponsors: Tiny.website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Apple Music Integration Possibly Coming to Google Home Devices (MacRumors) Apple Plans Sleep Tracking Feature for Future Watch (Bloomberg) Microsoft CEO defends US military contract that some employees say crosses a line (CNN Business) New FTC task force will take on tech monopolies (The Verge) Coinbase Lists Controversial Cryptocurrency XRP, Price Jumps 10% (Fortune) This 18,000mAh battery has a phone in it (The Verge) THE TRAUMA FLOOR (The Verge) Facebook Grappling With Employee Anger Over Moderator Conditions (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s a whole slew of headlines from Mobile World Congress: more foldable phones, dates for 5G chip sets and 5G coverage rollouts, and Microsoft unveils its HoloLens2. Plus: why Wikidata proves the bots still need us. Sponsors: Wix.com/podcast DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: MICROSOFT’S HOLOLENS 2: A $3,500 MIXED REALITY HEADSET FOR THE FACTORY, NOT THE LIVING ROOM (The Verge) Huawei Launches the Mate X: Folding in a New Direction (AnAndTech) I held the future in my hands, and it was foldable (TheVerge) Sprint’s 5G network launches in May (The Verge) T-Mobile delays full 600MHz 5G launch until second half of 2019 (CNET) microSD Express unlocks hyper-fast data speeds for mobile devices (Engadget) SanDisk and Micron announce the world’s first 1TB microSD card (MSPowerUser.com) The latest Android devices now let you log into apps without requiring a password (The Verge) INSIDE THE ALEXA-FRIENDLY WORLD OF WIKIDATA (Wired) Princeton Tech Meetup Details Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Taylor Lorenz, over at the Atlantic has the influencer beat down. I’ve told you about so many of her stories, often as longreads. You think influencers… the universe of YouTube stars, Instagram stars, social media stars generally is a niche thing? No way. This is already a huge industry with a ton of money sloshing around in it, and Taylor covers it better than anyone else. Sponsors: Bubble.is (coupon code "ride") Burrow.com/tech Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week there was a bunch of gaming news, and if you’ll recall, I put a shout out to see if anyone could tell me what the heck is going on in the gaming space. Well, Jason Schreier, the news editor of Kotaku answered my Bat Signal, and so, here it is. The state of the video game industry, how has Fortnite changed it, does Fornite have a competitor in Apex legends, and even… what is the state of VR gaming? Sponsors: Burrow.com/tech Bubble.is (coupon code "ride") Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Facebook is shutting down its controversial Onavo app, Google’s streaming gaming service might get some hardware to go along with it, the most acquisitive unicorns and the weekend longreads suggestions. Here’s what you missed today in the world of tech. Sponsors: The Castro Podcast App Legacybox.com/ride Lighstream.com/ride Links: Facebook will shut down its spyware VPN app Onavo (TechCrunch) Samsung will extend Bixby button remapping to premium Galaxy phones running Android Pie (The Verge) Source: Google plans to announce long-rumored ‘Yeti’ hardware at GDC event (9to5Google) Airbnb, Automattic, And Pinterest Top Rank Of Most Acquisitive Unicorns (Crunchbase News) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Late Night Linux Podcast HOW APPLE’S ENTERPRISE APP PROGRAM BECAME THE NEW WILD WEST OF MOBILE APPS (The Verge) “SHE NEVER LOOKS BACK”: INSIDE ELIZABETH HOLMES’S CHILLING FINAL MONTHS AT THERANOS (Vanity Fair) It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town (NYTimes) Guidemaster: The least-awful Android phones (Ars Technica) The curse of the Twitter reply guy (Mashable) YouTube Story 1: Study blames YouTube for rise in number of Flat Earthers (The Guardian) YouTube Story 2: YouTube Unleashed a Conspiracy Theory Boom. Can It Be Contained? (NYTimes) YouTube Story 3: How YouTube helps flat-earthers organize (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Take-aways from all the hands-on reports with the new Samsung Galaxy S10 phones, hands-OFF reports about the Galaxy Fold, Apple teams up with Goldman Sachs on a new credit card, YouTube faces yet another scandal running ads on horrible content, and a look at how law enforcement grabbing location data from Google using "reverse location search warrants." Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Castro Podcast App Links: Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+ hands-on (Engadget) You can remap the Bixby button on Samsung’s Galaxy S10 to do whatever you want (The Verge) The Galaxy Fold makes no sense as a consumer device yet (The Verge) Apple, Goldman Sachs Team Up on Credit Card Paired With iPhone (Wall Street Journal) Nestle, Disney Pull YouTube Ads, Joining Furor Over Child Videos (Bloomberg) On YouTube, a network of paedophiles is hiding in plain sight (Wired UK) Youtube is Facilitating the Sexual Exploitation of Children, and it's Being Monetized (2019) (Matt Watson, YouTube) YouTube terminates more than 400 channels following child exploitation controversy (The Verge) Close Enough (Slate/Future Tense) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The foldable phone is here! And some regular new Galaxies too. Other stuff... (I'm late posting today... sorry! In a rush!) Sponsors: Castro Podcast App DataDogHQ.com/ridehome joybird.com/RIDE - 25% off your first order using code RIDE Links: Samsung’s foldable phone is the Galaxy Fold, available April 26th starting at $1,980 (The Verge) Xiaomi's triple-camera Mi 9 has a fast 20W wireless charger (Engadget) Google says the built-in microphone it never told Nest users about was 'never supposed to be a secret' (Business Insider) Google Set To Unveil Netflix-Like Game Streaming Service (Fortune) Apple Plans on Combining iPhone, iPad, Mac Apps by 2021 (Bloomberg) Princeton Tech Meetup 69 w/ Brian McCullough Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Qualcomm unveils a second gen 5G chip, Huawei’s founder hits back at the US, his biggest investors push back at Masa Son, and why emoji are causing problems in increasing numbers of court cases. Sponsors: The Castro Podcast App Promocode Ride at Vistaprint.com Links: Before the first 5G phone is out, Qualcomm is already moving on to its second-gen 5G modem (The Verge) The US cannot crush us, says Huawei founder (BBC News) How Huawei Targets Apple Trade Secrets (The Information) Walmart’s US e-commerce sales up 43% in Q4, thanks to growing online grocery business (TechCrunch) Key Investors Are Unhappy With SoftBank Tech-Investment Fund (WSJ) Mining Giant Bitmain Posts $500 Million Loss in IPO Financial Filing (Coindesk) Emoji are showing up in court cases exponentially, and courts aren’t prepared (TheVerge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Parliament calls Facebook a “digital gangster,” Australia’s Parliament was hacked, a full year of Apple lineup rumors, and since it’s a holiday here in the US, a mini longread segment. Sponsors: The Castro Podcast App Flatironschool.com/techmeme Links: UK parliament calls for antitrust, data abuse probe of Facebook (TechCrunch) Australia's major political parties hacked in 'sophisticated' attack ahead of election (The Sydney Morning Herald) Kuo: 16-inch MacBook Pro, 31-inch 6K display, iPhones w/ upgraded Face ID & bilateral wireless charging coming in 2019 (9to5Mac) Etsy sellers say their bank accounts were emptied in major billing snafu (BoingBoing) Elroy Air raises $9.2 million for delivery drones that can carry up to 500 pounds (VentureBeat) Google’s Waymo risks repeating Silicon Valley’s most famous blunder (ArsTechnica) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, the reporter who gets Apple scoops like no other. Quick catch up with Mark about his recent scoops, but also some Apple analysis in general: Apple has spent as much as 3 billion dollars on its original content for its new streaming service. But… they have probably fewer than 10 original movies locked and loaded. When it comes to “Project Titan,” Apple’s self driving car project, Apple still doesn’t have any idea where any of this is headed. I was skeptical we’d actually see an Apple AR headset. Actual Apple Googles. Mark thinks we really will... but not until 2021, or 2022. Sponsors: Capterra.com/ride LinkedIn.com/ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Remember that first weekend longread from yesterday, from NBC’s Tech Correspondent Jacob Ward? As I said, it triggered some things that I’ve been thinking about for a while. About data and data harvesting and data capitalism. So, I reached out to Jacob to delve further, and I’m glad I did. Super provocative deeper dive into the ideas of THIS piece: Why data, not privacy, is the real danger (NBC News) Sponsors: Capterra.com/ride LinkedIn.com/ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More fallout and analysis of Amazon ghosting NYC, more signs of blockchain actually taking hold on Wall Street, Samsung’s lineup of gadgets leaks and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: Tiny.website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: The U.S. government and Facebook are negotiating a record, multibillion-dollar fine for the company’s privacy lapses (The Washington Post) Amazon’s Escape From New York (Bloomberg BusinessWeek) Copyright Office Refuses Registration for 'Fresh Prince' Star Alfonso Ribeiro's "Carlton Dance" (The Hollywood Reporter) HSBC forex trading costs cut sharply by blockchain - executive (Reuters) Samsung leaks entire new wearables lineup through its own app (The Verge) Weekend Longreads: The Strong Web (podcast suggestion) Why data, not privacy, is the real danger (NBCNews) Uber’s Secret Gold Mine: How Uber Eats Is Turning Into A Billion-Dollar Business To Rival Grubhub (Forbes) Zillow Wants to Flip Your House (Bloomberg BusinessWeek) The Strange Experience of Being Australia’s First Tech Billionaires (NYTimes) The Secret History of Women in Coding (NYTimes Magazine) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amazon says thank you, but no thank you, to New York City, JP Morgan has its own crypto token, Google might try to come at the iPhone on price, and the legendary Lee Clow retires. Sponsors: Tiny.website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Headquarters (NYTimes) JP Morgan is rolling out the first US bank-backed cryptocurrency to transform payments business (CNBC) Google plans cheaper smartphone to draw users into internet empire (Nikkei Asian Review) Software pirates use Apple tech to put hacked apps on iPhones (Reuters) Lee Clow, mastermind behind Apple’s ‘Think Different’ & ‘Get a Mac’ campaigns retires (9to5Mac) The Tiny Type Museum and Time Capsule (Glenn Fleishman) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An Apple event focused on services, a former Apple Vice President charged with insider trading, the larger gaming industry is having issues, and why your GPS device might have issues on April 6th of this year. Sponsors: Tiny.website Wix.com/podcast DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Apple Plans News Event For March 25 (BuzzFeed News) Publishers Chafe at Apple’s Terms for Subscription News Service (WSJ) The former Apple lawyer who was supposed to keep employees from insider trading has been charged with insider trading (CNBC) Amazon opens up Alexa store for anyone to create and publish custom skills (The Verge) Activision Blizzard cuts hundreds of jobs despite ‘record revenue’ year (Polygon) Fun fact: GPS uses 10 bits to store the week. That means it runs out... oh heck – April 6, 2019 (The Register) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amazon acquires Eero, Apple is putting marketing muscle behind AR, looks like everyone was abusing Apple’s Enterprise Certificate program, and the new video game sensation giving Fortnite a run for its money. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Why Amazon buying Eero feels so disappointing (The Verge) Your Smart Light Can Tell Amazon and Google When You Go to Bed (Bloomberg) Apple Taps iPhone Executive to Be First Head of Marketing for AR (Bloomberg) Apple fails to block porn & gambling “Enterprise” apps (TechCrunch) More than 26 million people have taken an at-home ancestry test (MIT Technology Review) Apex Legends Quickly Surpasses Fortnite (Thurrott.com) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Trump Administration wants America to get serious about AI, Patch is actually profitable, Reddit raises a round, Apple Health for vets and hands on with AR navigation on Google Maps. Sponsors: Tiny.website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Trump to lay out an AI plan (Axios) US military equipped with tiny spy drones (ZDNet) It’s the Real World—With Google Maps Layered on Top (WSJ) The alternative to your dying local paper is written by one person, a robot, and you (Recode) Reddit raised $300 million at a $3 billion valuation — now it's ready to take on Facebook and Google (CNBC) Driverless delivery startup Nuro gets $940 million SoftBank investment (Reuters) Apple teaming up with US Department of Veterans Affairs to bring digital health records to iPhone (9to5Mac) When Amazon Went From Big to Unbelievably Big (The Atlantic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Remember this longread piece? Is Spotify’s Model Wiping Out Music’s Middle Class? It's stuck with me because, a) I didn't quite understand how the math worked out and b) I thought it was an interesting take on the ARTIST side of the equation as we move to a streaming/subscription/one-app-for-that future. So, we're talking to the author of the piece, Victor Luckerson, for more insight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’ve told you plenty that this year, one of the big narratives, one of THE big stories... will be 5G. But what exactly IS 5G? Well, I spoke to Peter Linder, the head of 5G marketing, and evangelist at Ericsson. Here are all the answers to your questions, to prepare us for Mobile World Congress, which is coming later this month, and where all of this 5G stuff might finally begin to happen. For real. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yes, we’re gonna talk about the Bezos thing, is Amazon reconsidering HQ2, Sprint sues over 5G, maybe digital media is just fine, and the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: FlatironSchool.com/techmeme Metalab.co Links: No thank you, Mr. Pecker (Jeff Bezos on Medium) Facing opposition, Amazon reconsiders NY headquarters site, two officials say (Washington Post) Sprint sues AT&T over its fake 5G branding (Engadget) Google warns about two iOS zero-days 'exploited in the wild' (ZDNet) Can Subscriptions Save All Media Companies, or Just the New York Times? (NYMag) Amid bad news in the industry, Business Insider parent says it crossed $100m revenue mark and is profitable (Digiday) The Weekend Longreads Suggestions: How To Be Awesome At Your Job (Podcast) “Do We Want to Be in Business?” The Strange, Never-Ending Saga of MoviePass (The Ringer) The CRISPR machines that can wipe out entire species (Cnet) Inside Wisconsin’s Disastrous $4.5 Billion Deal With Foxconn (Bloomberg Businessweek) Fortnite Is the Future, but Probably Not for the Reasons You Think (Redef) FINDING LENA, THE PATRON SAINT OF JPEGS (Wired) https://kimberlite.fm/ridehome/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Germany is this week’s headache for Facebook, Twitter mixes up its MAU and DAU game, Cluno is subscriptions but for cars and Optimus Ride is what we mean by starting small with autonomous vehicles. Sponsors: Metalab.co DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Facebook ordered by Germany to gather and mix less data (BBC) How Facebook’s Tiny China Sales Floor Helps Generate Big Ad Money (NYTimes) Twitter Q4 Earnings (TechCrunch) Skype Can Now Blur Your Background So You Don't Have to Frantically Tidy Your Room (Gizmodo) Car subscription service Cluno scores $28M in Series B funding (TechCrunch) Another self-driving car startup is starting small, and that’s a good thing (The Verge) Original WWII German message decrypts to go on display at National Museum of Computing (The Register) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

THE expert on the Podcasting Industry breaks down today's big news. Subscribe to Nick's newsletter, HotPod. This episode has a full transcript. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Podcasting has its biggest news day ever, some pretty big executive shakeups, the new emojis for 2019 and how to steal a million dollars from an ATM without anyone noticing. Sponsors: QCon.ai Promocode: QCONAI2019 Metalab.co Links: Spotify has bought two podcast startups and it wants to buy more (ReCode) Relaxation app Calm raises $88 million, valuing it $1 billion (CNBC) Facebook’s top PR exec is leaving (ReCode) 230 New Emojis in Final List for 2019 (EmojiPedia) Programmer finds ridiculous ATM loophole that let him withdraw $1 million in cash (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s getting more expensive for Google to make money, Facebook turns fifteen, choosing your own adventure is becoming a trend, and one specific way Fortnite is measurably bigger than the Super Bowl. Sponsors: Metalab.co DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Eero.com/ride and code: ride at checkout Links: Being Google is getting very expensive (QZ) Zuckerberg's Facebook Post Facebook Makes First Blockchain Acquisition With Chainspace: Sources (Cheddar) Boring Game Plus New Orleans Rebellion Leads to Ratings Drop (NYTimes) 'Fortnite' Had 10 Million Concurrent Players In The Marshmello Concert Event (Forbes) iPhone XR Review (AnAndTech) Amazon Alexa Now Lets You Choose Your Own Adventure (Geek.com) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Soon you can play Xbox live everywhere, Google unveils Live Transcribe, Slack files to go public, the most crypto story ever and why CAPTCHA’s have gotten so difficult. Sponsors: QCon.ai - Save $75 with code: QCONAI2019 Metalab.co Links: Microsoft wants to bring Xbox Live cross-platform gaming to Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, and more (WindowsCentral) Slack confidentially files to go public (CNBC) Crypto Exchange Says It Can't Repay $190 Million to Clients After Founder Dies With Only Password (Gizmodo) Locast, a Free App Streaming Network TV, Would Love to Get Sued (NYTimes) MacBook keyboard failures could end with introduction of glass panel keyboards (AppleInsider) WHY CAPTCHAS HAVE GOTTEN SO DIFFICULT (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ars Technica's Timothy B. Lee gives me odds on my self-driving car wager. Sponsor: Eero.com/ride promocode: ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For years, Jay Yarrow and Farhad Manjoo had a podcast, the Jay and Farhad show. You might remember Jay from his time at BusinessInsider (he’s an executive editor at CNBC now) and Farhad of course is a NYTimes columnist. Well, they stopped doing the podcast late last year, which was a super bummer for a lot of us. Jay and Farhad had a super cool chemistry and I know a lot of people for whom the show was unmissable. Well, I got Jay and Farhad to put the band back together, so you’re about to hear a special reunion episode of the Jay and Farhad show! We talk Apple! Facebook! Layoffs! (No twitter, oddly...) It's great! Sponsors: Vistaprint.com. Code: ride Burrow.com/tech Code: tech Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Turns out Google poked Apple in the eye also, layoffs hit Vice, Amazon reports earnings and reports that a ton of people responded to that minimum wage hike, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Apple restores Google's internal iOS apps after certificate misuse punishment (TechCrunch) Twitter removed some accounts originating in Iran, Russia and Venezuela that targeted U.S. midterm election (The Washington Post) Vice Media to Reorganize, Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff (Exclusive) (The Hollywood Reporter) Why the Outlook for Digital Media Behemoths is Worse than You Think (Talking Points Memo) Amazon Notches Third Record Profit in a Row (WSJ) Americans are lining up to work for Amazon for $15 an hour (QZ) Why Alexa usually won’t respond when someone says ‘Alexa’ on TV (VentureBeat) The SmartTouchUSA.com Weekend Longreads Suggestions The ShopTalkShow podcast Is Alexa working? (Benedict Evans) As I.P.O. Approaches, Lyft’s Chief Is Nudged Into the Spotlight (NYTimes) Why Technology Hasn’t Fixed the Housing Crisis (NYTimes) The Secrets of Lyndon Johnson’s Archives (The New Yorker) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Facebook returns to growth, iPhones might be getting USB-C and 3D cameras, Hulu’s launching pause-ads, and on Reddit, it’s paintings of paintings of paintings of birds, all the way down. Sponsors: Tiny.website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Mark Zuckerberg wants to get back to building new Facebook products (ReCode) Nintendo cuts Switch sales forecast despite strong holiday season (The Verge) Apple Is Planning 3-D Cameras for New iPhones in AR Push (Bloomberg) HACKERS ARE PASSING AROUND A MEGALEAK OF 2.2 BILLION RECORDS (Wired) Hulu announces a new ad unit that appears when you pause (TechCrunch) The Reddit Painting Links: The orig post Tweet storm showing the painting progression The painting tree illustrated on github Flipboard Links: https://flipboard.com/@thomasgalla1pp6/techmeme-ride-home-daily-podcast-tc2a63l7y https://flipboard.com/@thomasgalla1pp6/techmeme-ride-home-weekend-long-reads-m64k8fj9y Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Facebook decides to mix it up a bit: what if we had a scandal that pissed off our business partners? Apple’s earnings are mixed but you can see where they’re going with this. Why Americans no longer answer the phone and are you ready for 1TB smartphones? Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Facebook pays teens to install VPN that spies on them (TechCrunch) Apple blocks Facebook from running its internal iOS apps (The Verge) Apple Reports First Quarter Results (Apple Newsroom) Report: Americans got 26.3 billion robocalls last year, up 46 percent from 2017 (Washington Post) 1TB phones are coming and I’m so f***ing ready (TNW) Flipboards: https://flipboard.com/@thomasgalla1pp6/techmeme-ride-home-daily-podcast-tc2a63l7y https://flipboard.com/@thomasgalla1pp6/techmeme-ride-home-weekend-long-reads-m64k8fj9y Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pretty major FaceTime bug from Apple, the DOJ makes it’s case against Huawei, the first successful ICO of the year and what Bluetooth ‘direction finding’ might do for you. Sponsors: Tiny.website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Major iPhone FaceTime bug lets you hear the audio of the person you are calling … before they pick up (9to5Mac) U.S. Charges Huawei With Stealing Trade Secrets, Bank Fraud (Bloomberg) BitTorrent Tokens Sold Out in Under 15 Minutes, Netting Over $7 Mln (CoinTelegraph) Bluetooth gains ‘direction finding’ for location accuracy to the centimeter (VentureBeat) After backlash, BuzzFeed says it will pay out earned paid time off to laid off employees (CNN Business) Aiming to change the way people take medicine, Lyndra Therapeutics raises $55 million (TechCrunch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An Apple subscription gaming service? Is Facebook Watch still alive? The GDPR floodgates are truly open. And losing to AI’s might have some benefits. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Apple Plans Gaming Subscription Service: Sources (Cheddar) A Tiny Screw Shows Why iPhones Won’t Be ‘Assembled in U.S.A.’ (NYTimes) China created a unicorn every 3.8 days in 2018 (South China Morning Post) China's smartphone shipments dropped 14 percent in 2018 (TechCrunch) Facebook Watch Isn’t Living Up to Its Name (Bloomberg) Google and IAB ad category lists show 'massive leakage of highly intimate data,' GDPR complain claims (TechCrunch) AI Helps Amputees Walk With a Robotic Knee (IEEE Spectrum) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of my favorite people to read is the Wall Street Journal tech columnist Chris Mims. We talked about his piece this week positing that email was back, baby! And I read a piece he did a while back about the new way of constructing super energy efficient homes, but when I did the email piece and remembered he did a piece recently about how I’m more likely to get a burrito delivered to me for lunch than to have my self-driving wager come in by commuting to work in a robot car, I knew it was time to hit up Chris to come on the pod. He’s a listener! This episode has a full transcript. The posts we discuss: The Hot New Channel for Reaching Real People: Email Why Your Ice Cream Will Ride in a Self-Driving Car Before You Do Sponsors: Squarespace.com/listen Risk! Podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Given all the news of layoffs in the digital media space this week, I knew I couldn't sit on this interview with Rafat Ali any longer. Currently the founder and CEO of digital media company Skift—but also, if you weren’t aware, a true digital media pioneer going back to his founding of Paid Content—I knew he could talk about this stuff, and he has a pretty unique perspective on the state of digital media in 2019. TLDR, it’s not good. Dire might even be the word. This episode has a full transcript. Sponsor: Capterra.com/ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now the AIs can defeat us at StarCraft II (too?), Zuckerberg wants to unify his collection of messaging apps, my grand unifying theory for the streaming video wars and of course the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: Juniper.net/try Metalab.co Links: Zuckerberg Plans to Integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger (NYTimes) Facebook knowingly duped game-playing kids and their parents out of money (Reveal) Facebook ignored kids’ spending problems, internal documents reveal (BBC News) DeepMind AI Challenges Pro StarCraft II Players, Wins Almost Every Match (ExtremeTech) Coming to a TV near you: personalized ads (Axios) The SmartTouchUSA.com Weekend Longreads: From Founder to CEO (podcast) EVERYBODY DOES IT: THE MESSY TRUTH ABOUT INFILTRATING COMPUTER SUPPLY CHAINS (The Intercept) Katzenberg and Whitman: Hollywood’s New Odd Couple (Fortune) Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: The Rolling Stone Interview (Rolling Stone) “The Linux of social media”—How LiveJournal pioneered (then lost) blogging (ArsTechnica) Reddit’s r/changemyview is a template for how all online discussion should be (TNW) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bing’s Schrodinger-style China Ban, headphones from Sonos, flying cars from Boeing, layoffs for project Titan, and the serious ongoing layoffs in the digital media world. Sponsors: Lightstream.com/ride Metalab.co DatadogHQ.com/ridehome Stories from: @pkafka, @markgurman Tweets: @stroughtonsmith Links: China Appears to Block Microsoft’s Bing as Censorship Intensifies (NYTimes) Sonos Plans Headphones in Move Outside the Home (Bloomberg) Boeing’s ‘flying car’ lifts off in race to revolutionize urban transport (VentureBeat) The U.S. Government Shutdown Has Delivered A Surprise Blow To Bitcoin (Forbes) Apple just dismissed more than 200 employees from Project Titan, its autonomous vehicle group (CNBC) Verizon Media Group is laying off 7% of its staff (CNBC) BuzzFeed is laying off more than 200 people, its second round of cuts in 14 months (Recode) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

YouTube TV goes nationwide, Jony Ive’s dream phone design, Patreon milestones and is Spotify killing music’s middle class? Sponsors: Joybird.com/RIDE ... Promocode RIDE Metalab.co Links: YouTube TV finally goes nationwide almost two years after launch (The Verge) Hulu drops to just $5.99 per month after Netflix’s price hikes (The Verge) Waymo says it will build self-driving cars in Michigan (Reuters) Xiaomi's flexible phone concept folds on both sides (Engadget) Meizu Zero debuts with no physical buttons, speaker or charging port (GSMarena) Millions and Billions | Celebrating Patrons, Creators, and Major Milestones (Patreon Blog) Digitimes: AirPods 2 launching in first half of this year, redesigned to support ‘health monitoring’ features (9to5Mac) Spotify Will Soon Let You Block Artists (Thurrot.com) The economics of streaming is making songs shorter (QZ) Is Spotify’s Model Wiping Out Music’s Middle Class? (The Ringer) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Munchery bites the big one, Foxconn considers moving production to India, Netflix wants a seat at the adults table, and, yes, even guitar tech is now tech. Sponsors: Metalab.co DatadogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Munchery closes on-demand meal-delivery business (San Francisco Chronicle) Foxconn Looks Beyond China to India for iPhone Assembly (WSJ) Apple Supplier in Japan Looks to Taiwan for Bailout After iPhone XR Letdown (WSJ) Apple Pay coming to Target, Taco Bell and more top US retail locations (Apple Newsroom) Netflix in advanced talks to join major Hollywood lobbying group (Politico) Rosetta Stone for iPhone adds AI to identify objects for live translations (VentureBeat) FENDER'S NEW ACOUSTIC GUITAR HAS A MILLION DIFFERENT VOICES (Wired) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The GDPR fines begin, but the EU “link tax” might be in trouble, Uber wants self driving scooters, and why email is back, baby! (Hint: it never left.) Sponsors: Flatironschool.com/podcast Metalab.co Links: French data protection watchdog fines Google $57 million under the GDPR (TechCrunch) Copyright negotiations hit a brick wall in Council (Julia Reda) Uber is exploring autonomous bikes and scooters (TechCrunch) A POKER-PLAYING ROBOT GOES TO WORK FOR THE PENTAGON (Wired) Amazon helped 50,000 SMBs generate $500,000 in sales (Neowin) The Hot New Channel for Reaching Real People: Email (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ali's Medium Post: Land of the Super Founders On this bonus episode, we’re going to revisit a past weekend longread suggestion and talk to the author of that longread to go further in-depth. Do you remember I recommended Land of the Super Founders a medium piece by Ali Tamaseb who spent 300 hours gathering data on unicorn startups to answer the simple question what did billion-dollar startups look like when they were getting started? What common traits did they share? This episode has a full transcript. Sponsor: Squarespace.com/listen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week had a lot of health tech news in it… a lot of it broken by CNBC’s health tech reporter Christina Farr. So, I reached out to Christina to chat, and we discussed Amazon getting into healthcare—possibly even getting into health insurance—what Apple’s health strategy is, where health tech might go beyond wearables and how the healthcare industry is responding to Silicon Valley invading their turf. This episode has a full transcript. Sponsor: Squarespace.com/listen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Netflix starts to open up, Cortana stops competing, gadget reviews now include shoes as a category and the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Netflix beats on subscriber growth, but misses slightly on revenue — stock falls after hours (CNBC) It’s Official: Satya Nadella Confirms Cortana Defeat (Thurrott) Nike's auto-laced future (TechCrunch) NIKE'S NEW SELF-LACING BASKETBALL SHOE IS ACTUALLY SMART (Wired) The SmartTouchUSA.com Weekened Longreads Drone Radio Show Delivery Drones Use Bird-Inspired Legs to Jump Into the Air (IEEE Spectrum) Why Do Shareholders Agree to Give Up Voting Rights? (New York Magazine) The Attention Economy Is a Malthusian Trap (The Atlantic) The Story Behind Meta, the AR Startup That Just Had Its Assets Sold to a Mystery Buyer (Variety) Rekindled yet again, Nokia’s next-gen phones offer more than just nostalgia (Digital Trends) INSIDE THE STRANGE YET PROFITABLE WORLD OF RETAIL ARBITRAGE (Mel Magazine) EA’s Troubled Decade Of Star Wars Games (Kotaku) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tim Cook calls for a data-broker clearinghouse, a possible criminal case against Huawei, the largest leak of user credentials ever found in the wild, and why we probably need a Unix for machine learning. Sponsors: Tiny.website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior from Russia (Facebook Newsroom) You Deserve Privacy Online. Here’s How You Could Actually Get It (Time) I Mentored Mark Zuckerberg. I Loved Facebook. But I Can't Stay Silent About What's Happening. (Time) Huawei Targeted in U.S. Criminal Probe for Alleged Theft of Trade Secrets (WSJ) HACK BRIEF: AN ASTONISHING 773 MILLION RECORDS EXPOSED IN MONSTER BREACH (Wired) AWS For Everyone: New clues emerge about Amazon’s secretive low-code/no-code project (GeekWire) Former Facebook engineer picks up $15M for AI platform Spell (TechCrunch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More high profile execs quit Snap, Apple’s in talks to get more Apple Watches in the hands of seniors, the state of the App Economy, and the Razr is coming back to herald in the era of the bendable phone. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome (DataDog's Blog Post on Container Trends) Tiny.website Links: WeWork’s CEO Makes Millions as Landlord to WeWork (WSJ) Apple is in talks with private Medicare plans about bringing its watch to at-risk seniors (CNBC) App economy expected to be $120 billion in 2019 as small screen leads digital transformation efforts (ZDNet) FACEBOOK'S '10 YEAR CHALLENGE' IS JUST A HARMLESS MEME—RIGHT? (Wired) Madagascar has become a business outsourcing hotspot thanks to its super-fast internet (QZ Africa) Return of the Razr—With a Foldable Screen and $1,500 Price (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Netflix raises prices, maybe the Apple battery replacement WAS a big deal after all, cops can’t force you to unlock your phone with your face, and Amazon is driving its retail competitors into the arms of Microsoft. Sponsors: Metalab.co DatadogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Netflix will raise prices for US subscribers, with its most popular plan going up to $13 per month (TechCrunch) Apple Q1 Numbers: Missing Explanations (Monday Note) ON APPLE’S $29 IPHONE BATTERY REPLACEMENT PROGRAM AND ITS ROLE IN THEIR EARNINGS MISS (Daring Fireball) MongoDB Follow-up, AWS’ Incentives, Batteries: The iPhone’s Missing Miss (Stratechery) Apple's 5G iPhone shift bogged down by Qualcomm chip battle (CNET) German court throws out Qualcomm's latest patent case against Apple (Reuters) Feds Can't Force You To Unlock Your iPhone With Finger Or Face, Judge Rules (Forbes) Microsoft counters Amazon again with big Walgreens partnership, aiming to reshape healthcare (GeekWire) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Event sharing comes to stories, what this year’s CES says about where consumer tech is at the moment, and then a bunch of stories about what that means for the future in different ways, including wireless chips that suck power from the air, and the dilemma that voice assistants pose for the modern office. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Facebook’s new Stories feature for event sharing actually sounds useful (The Verge) CES 2019: A Show Report (Learn By Shipping/@stevesi) SoundGuys: USB-C audio is dead (Android Authority) Wiliot nabs $30M from Amazon, Avery Dennison, Samsung for a chip that runs on power from ambient radio frequencies (TechCrunch) The rise of Alexa creates a dilemma for your open plan office (Wired) A Picture Of An Egg Beat Kylie Jenner For The Most Liked Instagram Of All Time (BuzzFeed News) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The great Howard Lindzon and I discuss how Wall Street is thinking of Tech right now, what Apple's deal is and what the prospects are for those big tech IPOs coming down the pike. This episode has a full transcript. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Motherboard shames the telecom companies into not selling us out, shareholders are suing Alphabet’s board, the government shutdown claims more tech victims, Apple says, “We can add more cameras also!” and the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: Go.Bitrise.io/ride Metalab.co Links: I Gave a Bounty Hunter $300. Then He Located Our Phone (Motherboard) AT&T says it’ll stop selling your location data, amid calls for a federal investigation (Washington Post) Google Board Sued for Hushing Claims of Executive Misconduct (Bloomberg) Government shutdown: TLS certificates not renewed, many websites are down (ZDNet) Apple Plans Three New iPhones This Year, Plays Catch-Up on Cameras (WSJ) Amazon Developing Game Streaming Service (The Information) The Smart Touch Weekend Longreads: Demon Underneath: John DeLorean and the Invention of the Future (The Outline) The Rise and Demise of RSS (Motherboard) Pitchfork’s Ryan Schreiber shaped Internet music journalism and now leaves it behind (Los Angeles Times) Inside look at modern web browser (part 1) (Developers.Google) The Race to Diagnose Cancer With a Simple Blood Test (2069 - Medium) Lasers vs. Microwaves: The Billion-Dollar Bet on the Future of Magnetic Storage (ieee Spectrum) PREPARING FOR Y2038 (ALREADY?!) (blogs.akamai) VOTE FOR THE RIDE HOME FOR BUZZFEED'S 2019 PODCAST LIST Or: email [email protected] and make sure "podcast" is in the subject line. Thx! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have a good idea when that foldable Samsung phone is coming, Google is actually close to a big legal win in Europe (for a change), the government shutdown might actually be affecting CES and why the “gig economy” might actually be a big nothingburger. Sponsors: Flatironschool.com/podcast Metalab.co Go.BitRide.io/ride Links: Samsung to Show Off Its New Foldable Phone in February (WSJ) Amazon Web Services calls MongoDB’s licensing bluff with DocumentDB, a new managed database (GeekWire) Google Nears Win in Europe Over ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ (WSJ) Google Only Has to Respect Your 'Right to Be Forgotten' in the EU, Court Says (Gizmodo) 2019 is already full of weird and wonderful monitors (The Verge) Government shutdown halts FCC device approvals (Axios) How Estimates of the Gig Economy Went Wrong (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices