Photo by Riccardo Bresciani from Pexels

Starting off on a Valentine’s Day theme, the co-hosts talk about a Ford survey of 1,000 US adults that found that 75% are more likely to date someone if they own an EV.

Switching gears to the intersection of global events and tech conferences, Michael and Michael talk about the impact of the coronavirus, now named COVID-19 on conferences such as Mobile World Congress.  At the time of the recording, some major corporations were pulling out of the conference, but the conference was still scheduled to take place.  That changed on February 12th with the announcement that MWC would be cancelled this year.  The continuing story of the outbreak ripples throughout the globe, with implications to the supply chain for appropriate supplies and food, as well as significant technology implications and privacy challenges.  Our sympathies are with those affected in China and all over the world.

Winding up this episode, Michael and Michael talk about the next set of innovative phones coming from Samsung in the form of the Galaxy Z Flip and the interesting possibilities for the user experience that such a multi-screen foldable phone could unlock.

Selected Links

Mashable article: Going electric could be good for your love life — https://mashable.com/article/electric-vehicle-love-attraction-survey/ 

TechCrunch article: MWC hangs by a thread after Nokia, DT and other big names back out — https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/12/nokia-pulls-out-of-mwc-over-coronavirus-concerns/ 

GSMA MWC Barcelona — https://www.mwcbarcelona.com 

BusinessWire article:  GSMA Statement on MWC Barcelona 2020 from John Hoffman, CEO GSMA Limited — https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200212005755/en/ 

Reuters article: Coronavirus brings China’s surveillance state out of the shadows — https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-surveillance/coronavirus-brings-chinas-surveillance-state-out-of-the-shadows-idUSKBN2011HO 

Business Insider article: Officials in Hong Kong are using wristbands to track families that are under Wuhan coronavirus quarantine — https://www.businessinsider.com/hong-kong-wristbands-tracking-people-in-coronavirus-quarantine-2020-2?op=1 

Medpage Today article: Track the Coronavirus Outbreak on Johns Hopkins Live Dashboard — https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/publichealth/84698 

TechCrunch article: WhatsApp hits 2 billion users, up from 1.5 billion 2 years ago — https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/12/whatsapp-hits-2-billion-users-up-from-1-5-billion-2-years-ago/