Episodes

April 13, 2021

Tues. 04/13 - New Surface Laptop 4

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 Fundris…
April 12, 2021

Mon. 04/12 – Microsoft Acquires Nuance

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 w…
April 10, 2021

(TWTR SPACE) The Coinbase Moment For Crypto

Here was our Twitter Space from this week. We ended up talking all about Coinbase, helped by some great analysis from Romeen Sheth, who I think you’ll recall I quoted from when we talked about this on Wednesday. You can follow Romeen on twitter @RomeenSheth, link in the show notes. And also, he has…
Guest: Romeen Sheth
April 9, 2021

Fri. 04/09 – Amazon Wins The Union Battle

The counting is finally happening, and not to be all Nate Silver, but it’s looking fairly certain that Amazon won its big union battle. Apple and Epic Games are making their first arguments in that big lawsuit. A big new scraping hack, this time for half a billion LinkedIn users. Neurolink shows a …
April 8, 2021

Thu. 04/08 – Now The Chip Shortage Has Come For Apple?

If the chip shortage is now biting even Apple, things are getting real, y’all. Twitter apparently took a run at buying Clubhouse. Facebook has a new Clubhouse like product called Hotline. Lenovo’s new phone convinces me gamin...
April 7, 2021

Wed. 04/07 – TLDR: Coinbase Is A Helluva Business

Coinbase has revealed the number behind their business, and they are brain exploding emoji. A big Patreon raise shows the moneybags are serious about this creator economy thing. Nobody is crying at Plaid over that failed Visa merger. There’s a new king of the gaming laptop hill. And I try my best t…
April 6, 2021

Tue. 04/06 – Clubhouse Turns On The Money Spigot Quickly

Clubhouse isn’t messing around when it comes to flipping the monetization switch. TikTok translation might make that platform even more global. Yahoo Answers circles the drain. Are NFT prices already dropping? And with the new digital Yuan, would the Chinese government be able to literally turn off…
April 5, 2021

Mon. 04/05 – SCOTUS Rules: APIs Not Copyrightable

The Supreme Court has ruled on APIs in a way that should make most developers happy. Though, the punted on the President blocking people on Twitter. LG is exiting the smartphone business. And we already knew half a billion people’s Facebook data was out in the wild, but now that we’ve SEEN it in th…
April 3, 2021

(Bonus) Friday 04.02 Twitter Space

We didn’t go as long as last time because after about 45 minutes, somehow no one could hear me, even though I was the space commissar, or whatever they term it. Anyway, as you’ll hear, we ended up talking about that big AR story with Microsoft and the HoloLens and the Pentagon. Robert Scoble, who h…
Guest: Robert Scoble
April 2, 2021

Fri. 04/02 – Coinbase Going Public With A Confident Swagger

Coinbase is going public and sharing its numbers ahead of time, which is rare and probably a sign of confidence. The App Store has started rejecting apps ahead of that big new privacy change. Has Tencent’s gaming studio become the biggest in the world? Another Clubhouse clone, this time from Discor…
April 1, 2021

Thu. 04/01 – Microsoft’s Pentagon Deal Validates The AR Industry

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…
March 31, 2021

Wed. 03/31 – Everything Old Is New Again In The News Feed

Facebook has announced News Feed changes to bring chronology back. LinkedIn is working on a Clubhouse rival and I think that makes total sense. Apple actually leads an interesting investment round. Deliveroo has a disastrous first day on the public markets. And how about Roblox, but inside the Unre…
March 30, 2021

Tue. 03/30 – Spotify To Spin Up Clubhouse Competitor

It’s actually a nutso butso news day. Spotify is launching a Clubhouse competitor. Amazon is spinning up a new line of custom silicon. Big updates to Google Maps. We know the dates for WWDC. Amazon seems to be doing some Twitter sock puppetry. A bunch of new phones from Xiaomi. Substack is raising …
March 29, 2021

Mon. 03/29 – Ok, Will Digital Vaccine Passports Work?

New York, Japan, China and the EU are all gonna try out digital vaccine passports. Visa is gonna try out a stablecoin to settle transactions. The official PHP Git repository was hacked. Boston Dynamics has a new robot that isn’t as scary… unless you’re a warehouse worker. And what is Amazon’s aggre…
March 28, 2021

(Bonus) Monday 03.22 Clubhouse Room

This is the clubhouse room from Monday, March 22nd. Topics discussed here include the situation with the Dispo app. Zoom’s new SDK. The fate of the HomePod and that secret new gizmo inside the HomePod Mini, and a deep dive into two of the longreads from LAST week: Moore's Law for Everything post an…
March 27, 2021

(Bonus) Friday 03.26 Clubhouse Room

So, as I said, this is one of the clubhouse rooms we did this week. In fact, it’s the one from last night. Chris convinced me to split the two rooms into two episodes, so I’m releasing this one, from Friday first, and tomorrow I’ll post the one we did Monday night. Topics for this episode: Slack ge…
Guest: Brady Dale
March 26, 2021

Fri. 03/26 – The House Tech Hearings Were… Whatever…

The House tech hearings were a nothing burger, but I’ll try to explain what that means for us. Apple is considering a more rugged Apple Watch. Slack is doing a Clubhouse clone and… stories. WeWork is back, with a SPAC. And of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors:EditorX.comThoughtWo…
March 25, 2021

Thu. 03/25 – DDR5 Arrives (F*** Everything, We're Doing Five Blades)

Remember that Onion headline, F- Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades? Well, Samsung says welcome to the DDR5 era. There’s more tech testimony on Capitol Hill today. That Arizona bill that would have regulated the App Store mysteriously disappears. Deliveroo is facing a full on revolt. And my wife c…
March 24, 2021

Wed. 03/24 – Buying Teslas With Bitcoin Is More Bullish For Whom?

You can now use Bitcoin to buy a Tesla. You can now DM anyone on Slack. Intel is now doing what Ben Thompson has been telling them to do for years. What Medium is doing to journalists is dumb. What Verizon is doing with Yahoo+ is dumb. And is the Chief Impact Officer title a real role, or is it… du…
March 23, 2021

Tue. 03/23 – Microsoft To Buy Discord?

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 …
March 22, 2021

Mon. 03/22 – Unusual Trouble At Red-Hot Startup Dispo

Red hot app Dispo is losing some big name investors and the founder is leaving the startup’s board. As anticipated, Zoom goes platform. Microsoft is beginning a soft HQ reopening. The secret sensor found in the HomePod mini. And the smart startup that has cloned Amazon’s biggest competitive moats, …
March 20, 2021

(Bonus) Are NFT's Bad For Artists? And An Interesting Raise Sampler

Last weekend a listener to this show, Ti Zhang, (@zero_chill_tea) tagged me on twitter around a conversation they were having about NFTs and the degree to which, lots of folks in the art world are not so thrilled with the advent of NFTs. They said, sure, we see all the headlines around famous artis…
March 19, 2021

Fri. 03/19 – A Rebel Alliance, Led By Facebook, And Born In A Clubhouse Room?

It’s app platform product news day! Instagram is working on a version of the service suitable for kids. Twitter wants you to watch YouTube in-stream. Telegram is basically adding all the Clubhouse features I’ve been dreaming of. Was an anti-Apple rebel alliance born last night in a Clubhouse room? …
March 18, 2021

Thu. 03/18 – An April Apple Event?

It’s an Apple rumor Thursday from both the boys, Gurman and Kuo. Sony is taking what it’s learned from the DualSense controllers and bringing that to VR. YouTube rolls out its TikTok rival. Spotify wants you to know it gets artists paid. And I do my best to explain the whole creator economy controv…