Microsoft Episodes

Layoffs at Arm signal the IPO is nigh. Microsoft has brought that fast loading games technology from Xbox to Windows. Twitter heard you were made and has backed down. Crypto dodges another bullet in the EU. And some solid, tangible numbers to prove that streaming has taken over Hollywood.

Windows 11 now requires a Microsoft account just to load. Intel’s roadmap comes into view. Is Meta’s metaverse play already getting traction? Next week might be the biggest regulatory week for Crypto ever. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.

Not just rumors of an Apple AR headset, but actual code mentions of a “realityOS” are showing up now. Microsoft hopes to head off the regulators with some app store rules. Now Flash storage chips might be in for a supply crunch. And why static video memes are all over Instagram all of the sudden.

Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard in the biggest gaming acquisition of all time. Partially this is a metaverse play, but meanwhile, Meta is quietly locking down all the metaverse patents. Crypto.com halts withdrawals on its platform but insists it hasn’t been hacked. And why are countries encouraging their athletes to use burner phones when they attend the upcoming Olympics?

Google Play games are coming to Windows, while Microsoft was apparently willing to bend over backwards if Apple had let xCloud games into the iOS app store. Meta’s first tangible foray into the Metaverse. The English Football punters buying into NFTs. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

All the headlines and releases from today’s Microsoft Surface Event. Robinhood wants to get in the crypto wallet game. Microsoft finds Phishing as a Service on the darker corners of the web. And a rundown of some new Facebook controversies.

Gadget news galore. New Roku Sticks officially announced. New Kindles officially leaked. New Surface Pro’s unofficially leaked ahead of this week’s event. Rumors of foldable Pixels. The NTSB wants Elon Musk to pump the breaks on Full Self-Driving. And why the Emmy’s last night was a milestone for streaming platforms generally.

Serial entrepreneur Shirish Nadkarni came to the U.S. as a teenager with $25 in his pocket. After graduating from Harvard Business School, he worked at Microsoft where he engineered the $400 million acquisition of Hotmail and launched MSN.com, the world’s leading web portal. Striking out on his own in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom, he founded TeamOn Systems, an early pioneer of mobile email that was later acquired by BlackBerry before becoming BlackBerry Internet Email servicing over 50 million users at its peak. His great new book is: From Startup to Exit: An Insider's Guide to Launching and Scaling Your Tech Business

Microsoft has missed the window for Windows 11 to support Android apps, at least at launch. Apple is getting into classical music and Amazon is going deeper into the red-hot audio space. Facebook turns the temperature down on politics. And a new initiative to get, especially younger technologists, to lend their expertise to the Federal Government.

Apple reports earnings but warns of component shortages. Microsoft set profit records but noted shortage materially affected some divisions. Alphabet had good earnings too, but the real story there is YouTube. About the staff walkout at Activision Blizzard. Is Apple asking leakers to snitch on their sources? And an interesting raise to do next generation search on iOS.

The new Windows is Windows 11. Google delays the Adpodcalypse. BuzzFeed finally to go public. Comcast is having issues with Peacock. Google and Jio’s cheap smartphone is announced. Is the biggest ever crypto crime story evolving right now in South Africa? And RIP John McAfee.

Ticketed Space and Super Follows begin to roll out, and depending on how you slice it, folks stand to make a ton of money… or a ton of money for the app stores. Speaking of, Apple launches a PR campaign defending the App Store on security grounds. Microsoft becomes the second company to reach the $2 trillion dollar club. And you know about phishing scams, but let me introduce you to “brushing” scams.

Everyone announced something today. A new Surface Laptop 4. New Nvidia things. New Roku things. Something new from Spotify literally called Car Thing. Oculus is going to hold a product event. Siri leaked the next Apple event. And Grab is going public via a SPAC. Sponsors: LinkedIn.com/ride Fundrise.com/techmeme Links:Microsoft announces Surface Laptop 4 with choice of Intel or AMD processors (The Verge)Siri Reveals Apple Event Planned for Tuesday, April 20 (Mac Rumors)Facebook Announces Oculus Gaming Showcase For April 21 (Upload)Nvidia unveils rental model for DGX Station A100 mini supercomputers (Venture Beat)Roku’s latest streaming device gives 4K, HDR, and a voice remote for $40 (Ars Technica)Spotify’s Car Thing debuts as a limited release for selected US users (The Verge)

Microsoft acquires the biggest name in speech tech. Apple is maybe developing some home gadgets I feel like they should have done years ago. Might we see new iPads by the end of the month? Google wants to stop you from walking and texting. And a review of the new Mercedes-Benz entrant into the EV wars.  Sponsors:Skiff.org/ride Netgear.com/bestwifi and promocode:tech10  Links:Microsoft buys speech recognition firm Nuance in a $16 billion deal (CNBC)Apple Working on Combined TV Box, Speaker to Revive Home Efforts (Bloomberg)Apple Facing Supply Shortage of Upcoming High-End iPad Displays (Bloomberg)Ant to Be Financial Holding Firm in Overhaul Forced by China (Bloomberg)Alibaba’s rivals on alert after China’s regulators hand out record fine (FT)Google starts rolling out “Heads Up” in Digital Wellbeing to stop distracted walking (XDA Developers)THE 2022 MERCEDES-BENZ EQS IS A DECLARATION OF MAXIMUM ELECTRIC LUXURY (The Verge)

Microsoft’s big HoloLens deal with the Pentagon is maybe the big bang for the augmented reality industry. Amazon says their folks can come back to work soon, and in fact, they’d prefer if you did. Bearish signs for the work remotely movement? Why these are boom times for chip makers. And why Siri’s new voices think of gender as a spectrum. Sponsors:Today In Digital Marketing PodcastAirMedCareNetwork.com/tech offer code TECH Links:Microsoft wins U.S. Army contract for augmented reality headsets, worth up to $21.9 billion over 10 years (CNBC)Amazon says it expects some employees to return to the office this summer, most will return in fall (CNBC)TSMC to Spend $100 Billion Over Three Years to Grow Capacity (Bloomberg)Apple adds two brand new Siri voices and will no longer default to a female or male voice in iOS (TechCrunch)Comcast Weighs Pulling Universal’s Movies From HBO Max, Netflix (Bloomberg)Thrasio raises $100M for its Amazon roll-up play, appoints retail CFO for its next steps…

Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy Discord but Discord might just take itself public instead. A ton of video game news including an Xbox rebranding, a new Niantic partnership with Nintendo, and new rumors of that upgraded Nintendo switch. A new consortium wants to take the pain out of browser compatibility and Apple faces a class action lawsuit over the butterfly keyboards. Links:Microsoft in Talks to Buy Discord for More Than $10 Billion (Bloomberg)Microsoft rebrands Xbox Live to Xbox network (The Verge)Pikmin is the next AR game from the makers of Pokémon Go (The Verge)Nintendo to Use New Nvidia Graphics Chip in 2021 Switch Upgrade (Bloomberg)Microsoft, Google, and others join forces to improve browser compatibility (Neowin)Facebook will bring back F8 on June 2 as a pared-back, single-day, virtual-only conference for developers (TechCrunch)Angry MacBook owners get class action status for butterfly keyboard suit (The Verge)Jack Dorsey’s first tweet sold as an NFT for an oddly s…

It’s hardware review Thursday! Reviews of the Xbox Series X, Google Pixel 5 AND 4a 5G. SOME of the new iPhones are getting extra RAM. Room-temperature superconductivity has been achieved for the first time and what that could mean. Landscape is an interesting raise. And Adam Neumann is back… and so is WeWork. Sponsors: NewYorker.com/techmeme TinyCapital.com Links: XBOX SERIES X PREVIEW: THE NEXT GEN FEELS LIKE A PC (The Verge) GOOGLE PIXEL 4A 5G REVIEW: MORE THAN JUST A BIGGER BUDGET PHONE (T...

Again, could Gaming, and Microsoft specifically, be the thing that cracks the App Store open? More hints of consolidation in the semiconductor industry that is massively in flux. A major milestone in self-driving cars has been passed. Could hybrid cable-fiber networks compete with 5G. And in the weekend longreads suggestions, what operating systems do NASA’s spacecraft actually run on? Sponsors: ForHims.com/tech Monday.com/ride Links: Microsoft told employees it plans to release a browser-base...

New Surface Laptop Go and Surface Pro X from Microsoft. Google is going to pay $1 billion dollars to support journalism. Google has a Photos update, but why is Stadia already looking shaky? And a textbook example of a developer’s dream of overnight success that was actually years in the making. Sponsors: MasterWorks.io: Promocode RIDE to skip the waiting list! Metalab.co Links: Microsoft’s new $549 Surface Laptop Go aims to compete with Chromebooks (The Verge) Microsoft updates the Surface Pr...

Microsoft warns that hackers working for Russia, China and Iran are escalating their attacks surrounding the upcoming US Presidential election. I lied…. Apple has blinked in the Epic Games/App Store battle, at least a little bit. A profile of everyone’s favorite note taking startup, Roam. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: DoubleUp.agency Today In Digital Marketing Podcast Links: Russia, China and Iran launched cyberattacks on presidential campaigns, Microsoft says (N...

The details around the new Xbox’s have been revealed. China wants to draw definitive global lines in the tech cold war. Google makes a big bet on the “no code” movement. Content pirates have suffered a historic setback. Was Masa Son pumping up the entire stock market. And we know when the iPhone event will be. Sponsors: MintMobile.com/ride DoubleUp.agency Links: Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S release date and price finally revealed (WindowsCentral) Leaked Xbox Series S commercial reveals 144...

Microsoft’s dual screen Surface Duo is here! Microsoft’s commits to November as a launch month for the Xbox Series X. Foxconn wants to pull back from China itself. Mozilla is in trouble. Silicon Valley and Kamala Harris are quite close, by the way. And why I think a see-through tv is actually a pretty good idea, thank you very much. Sponsors: Fundrise.com/techmeme Liftoff.to Links: MICROSOFT’S SURFACE DUO ARRIVES ON SEPTEMBER 10TH FOR $1,399 (The Verge) Microsoft Surface Duo's dual-screen hin...

TikTok has not been banned by Trump, but it came close this weekend. Microsoft almost walked away from buying TikTok this weekend, but it looks like it’s back on board and might buy non-Chinese TikTok operations soon. Google invests in ADT. The new Pixel 4As are here. And a profile of the alleged teenaged Twitter hack mastermind who has now been arrested. Sponsors: DoubleUp.agency Kiwico.com/ride Links: Inside the Microsoft Talks to Buy TikTok’s U.S. Business (WSJ) Microsoft to continue discu...

Big acquisition for GitHub... which really means: big acquisition for Microsoft as it continues to gobble up the entire developer stack. The iPhone 9 chips will not be underpowered at all. How Amazon is, in fact, trying to cope with the Corona-surge. And is this crisis the tipping point for streaming media? Sponsors:Tinycapital.comTryExpressVPN.com/ride Links: Microsoft's GitHub acquires npm to help JavaScript developers (WindowsCentral) iOS 14 code confirms Apple planning ‘iPhone 9 Plus’ with...