Episodes

Oct. 14, 2020

Wed. 10/14 – iPhone 12 Pricing and Availability Surprises

Picking up some odds and ends from yesterday’s iPhone event, including some eyebrow raising clarifications on price and availability. Zoom is indeed trying to be a platform by bringing apps to your calls. You know DeFi is ho…
Oct. 13, 2020

Tue. 10/13 – The iPhone 12 Event: All The Deets

All the details from the iPhone 12 event. PC shipments go into the category of “doing well in covid times.” Disney announces a reorg to emphasize its streaming strategy. And following up on that whole Foxconn factory in Wisc…
Oct. 12, 2020

Mon. 10/12 – Nest’s New Smart Thermostat Ditches the Rotating Dial

Google’s Nest thermostat is ditching the iconic dial design. Will regulators first ask Google to divest itself of Chrome? A big takedown of a botnet that could have influenced the election. Update on Quibi’s shopping itself …
Oct. 9, 2020

Fri. 10/09 – Microsoft Game Pass To Do An App Store End-run?

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 be…
Oct. 8, 2020

Thu. 10/08 – AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 CPUs Announced

Bunch of new chip announcements from AMD. Facebook is pausing all political ads… after the election. Square puts its money where its mouth is when it comes to bitcoin. Triller is an interesting TikTok competitor. And what is…
Oct. 7, 2020

Wed 10/07 – The House Antitrust Report

The House has released its big antitrust report on big tech. Facebook has banned Qanon everywhere it can. DDR5 chips are finally here. Shogun is an interesting raise. And could a VR infinity treadmill be the next home workou…
Oct. 6, 2020

Tue. 10/06 - G Suite Is No More! (But Don’t Worry)

G Suite is no more! But don’t worry. It’s just a name change. Apple is removing non-Apple headphones from its stores. And AT&T is killing DSL. Why that’s a problem for a lot of people. Putting interactive advertising on conv…
Oct. 5, 2020

Mon. 10/05 – Nvidia’s Zoom-Killer, “Maxine”

Nvidia’s new platform to fix video calls. Surprisingly, Facebook says breaking up Facebook is impossible. Google slow rolls enforcement of the 30% take on the Play Store in India. A couple of direct Covid-related tech storie…
Oct. 3, 2020

(Bonus) The Creator Economy Opportunity With @JoshConstine

For years, I quoted Josh Constine on this show because he was one of the breaking news-iest folks over at TechCrunch for years. Well, now he’s gone the well worn TC to VC route, and is a principal at SignalFire. I noticed Jo…
Guest: Josh Constine
Oct. 2, 2020

Fri. 10/02 – Tesla Smashes Its Previous Delivery Record

Tesla continues to smash records. Facebook has announced big changes for Groups, and folks are concerned it will smash the platform further. A new startup claims to have smashed quantum computing records. And of course, we’l…
Oct. 1, 2020

Thu. 10/01 – New Surface Laptop Go: Smaller Display, $549

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 develo…
Sept. 30, 2020

Wed. 09/30 – The New Pixel Phones, Chromecast and More From Today’s Google Event

All the news from the Google Launch Night. Say hello to Google TV. Say hello to a new Chromecast and the new Nest Audio smartspeaker. Say hello to the Pixel 4a 5G and the new Pixel 5. But is this a new pivot to midmarket for…
Sept. 29, 2020

Tue. 09/29 - With Amazon One, Amazon Wants You To Pay With Your Palm

With Amazon One, Amazon wants you to pay with your palm. Google is trying the carrot and the stick approach with its App Store controversies. What if Zoom was redesigned specifically for remote learning? The world’s first fo…
Sept. 28, 2020

Mon. 09/28 – Roku’s New $130 Streambar and Updated $100 Roku Ultra

Roku launches a Streambar and an Ultra with Dolby Vision. Dell updates the XPS 13 lineup. TikTok is still ticking, as of this moment. Will we see the return of the mini moniker, with an iPhone 12 Mini that might not actually…
Sept. 26, 2020

(Bonus) TikTok's Secret Sauce With Eugene Wei and A16Z's 16 Minutes Podcast

Eugene Wei and Sonal Chokshi explain plainly how and why TikTok is an evolutionary (and algorithmic) step beyond the social graph. Eugene's original essay, TikTok and the Sorting Hat Subscribe to 16 Minutes News by a16z (pod…
Sept. 25, 2020

Fri. 09/25 – Amazon Announces The Luna Cloud Gaming Service

All the headlines from Amazon’s hardware event. New Echo devices. Amazon is getting into cloud gaming with Luna. And ring has a literal drone that will fly around the inside of your house for the purposes of sentry duty. Int…
Sept. 24, 2020

Thu. 09/24 – The Rebel Alliance Forming To Battle App Stores

The Rebel Alliance has a name: The Coalition for App Fairness. Microsoft will make office available without a subscription. Software as a purchase, if you will, instead of a subscription. Radical. Say hello to the Galaxy S20…
Sept. 23, 2020

Wed. 09/23 – Microsoft “Exclusively” Licenses GPT-3

All the announcements and headlines from Microsoft’s Ignite 2020. Microsoft is exclusively licensing Open AI’s GPT-3. Google has debuted an Airtable rival called Tables. Ming-Chi Kuo thinks we’ll see an iPad with mini-LED by…
Sept. 22, 2020

Tue. 09/22 – Quibi Is “Exploring Options”

Quibi is exploring its options, as they say. The Google Antitrust suit could come next week. Why do you have to return the entire Apple Watch if your wristband doesn’t fit? The CIA has a new plan to compete with Silicon Vall…
Sept. 21, 2020

Mon. 09/21 – ByteDance Says It Won. Trump Says Not So Fast. TikTok Continues… For Now.

It looked like we had a TikTok deal the president liked. Then ByteDance went and pointed out they still had control. Now, I dunno where we’re at. Microsoft buys Bethesda. The founder of Nikola steps down in murky circumstanc…
Sept. 18, 2020

Fri. 09/18 – WeChat Officially Banned On Sunday. TikTok Only Kinda Banned.

The Commerce Department officially has brought the hammer down. WeChat is banned on Sunday. TikTok banned on Sunday too, but it’s complicated. PayTM is banned from the Google Play Store in India. Facebook decides that Facebo…
Sept. 17, 2020

Thu. 09/17 – PS5 Details Revealed. But Good Luck Pre-Ordering!

We have the launch date and price for the Playstation 5. An update on the TikTok and WeChat situations. Why the Snowflake IPO was such a big deal, and such a big success. Red Ventures is affiliate marketing on steroids. And …
Sept. 16, 2020

Wed. 09/16 – Facebook Unveils The Oculus Quest 2

Facebook unveils the Oculus Quest 2, as a part of its Facebook Connect (formerly Oculus Connect) event. Amazon Music gets podcasts. Spotify puts the Apple One bundle on blast. Developers have found yet another reason to get …
Sept. 15, 2020

Tue. 09/15 – The Apple “Time Flies” Event

A full rundown of the Time Flies event from Apple. New Apple Watches, including an Apple Watch SE. Refreshed iPad, but redesigned iPad Air that is giving the iPad Pro a run for its money. An Apple Fitness+ subscription progr…