Intelligent Machines (Audio)

• Google reopening offices for some workers on June 6th, people working from home will get $1000 for furniture and office supplies
• Zuckerberg: Facebook employees can work from home, but if you move somewhere cheaper, we'll pay you less
• Big Tech work-from-home workers can buy these Montana mansions for less than a 1-bedroom in San Francisco
• California's anti-freelancer law under attack
• Switzerland: companies must pay rent for their employees who are working from home
• Google employees get a day off on May 22nd
• Twitter labels Trump tweet about mail-in-ballots "Get the facts," Trump threatens to shut down all social media
• Half of the tweets calling to "reopen America" are made by bots
• Pixel 4a not coming out until July 13th
• We are strip-mining the US economy, especially in the news business
• Google launches a podcast about Google
• CBS buys Some Good News, but won't get John Krasinski
• Prime Day moving to September
• Amazon launching local podcasts. Everybody else is launching podcasts, as well
• US court rules that FBI can't look at your phone's lock screen without a warrant
• Electric Taste Machine
• Electric Smell Machine
• Magic Leap stays alive, gets $350 Million- Google discontinues first Google Home
• Taco Bell doesn't want to pay Quibi for their ads, because nobody is watching
• HBO Max launches today, to the confusion of everyone
• What kind of Zoom user are you? Every Zoom user, illustrated by cats

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Stacey Higginbotham

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

Sponsors:

• Why didn't IoT predict COVID-19 and how it can help in the future
• Zoom vs StreamYard vs HopIn.to vs Whereby vs ZoomCast
• Google bans Podcast Addict for hosting COVID podcasts - back now
• Super Spreaders and Covid-19
• Spotify buys Joe Rogan podcast for $100 Million
• New York Times builds its own ad network
• Apple and Google release coronavirus contact tracing API
• Google is making a new Nest Hub Max interface for Senior Centers
• Facebook launches Shops to compete with Amazon and Rooms to compete with Zoom
• Amazon gives T-shirts to all the employees whose pay they are cutting
• Walmart kills Jet.com after buying it for $3.4 billion
• Rumor: Amazon will buy JCPenney
• First species discovered on Twitter eats millipede genitals
• Twitter tests a way to limit who can reply to your tweets
• Google tests touch-sensitive headphone wires
• Google Buds vs Galaxy Buds vs Surface Buds
• Google fights back against accusations that it has cut diversity programs
• IFA will be live this year - 5,000 attendees only
• USA vs Huawei vs Apple
• B8ta launches Shopsafely.co to rate retailer safety
• Protocol is the new GigaOm
• The new work-from-home calculus - when will big tech workers go back?
• Microsoft Build news: RTOS, Fluid Framework, and Azure supercomputers

Picks of the Week

• Leo's Tool: Hugo
• Leo's Tool 2: SpaceX ISS Docking Simulator
• Stacey's Thing: Level Lock
• Stacey's Thing 2: Machine Learning at the Edge Virtual Conference
• Jeff's Number: WeWork value falls from $47b to $3b

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Stacey Higginbotham

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

Sponsor:

How to Work From Home Forever

• Zoom fatigue is a real thing
• Twitter employees can work from home forever - do you want to go back to the office?
• Google employees are charging their shelter-at-home lunches to their expense account
• Pixel shake-up - top members of the Pixel team have left Google
• Jarvis' Pixel Buds are still busted - and now so are Jason Howell's
• Pixel Buds will get feature drops
• Jeffrey Katzenberg blames Covid-19 for Quibi's failure
• Google Meet captions are incredible
• Jeff interviews the voice of Steak-Umms
• Taco Bell Quarterly - Taco Bell Poetry
• Can Facebook possibly regulate itself?
• Google's Sidewalk project in Toronto is canceled
• Facebook's new American Edge pro-tech advocacy group
• Amazon hired 175,000 new workers to deal with COVID order spikes
• Amazon's new Kindle Fire
• Netflix and Amazon Prime win the streaming wars
• Hamilton coming to Disney+ July 3rd
• Uber tries to buy GrubHub
• Australia wants Google to pay for news snippets
• Doomscrolling
• Luminary podcast network raises another $30 million to burn
• France gives platforms one hour to remove pedophilia and terrorism-related content

Picks of the Week

• Leo's Tool: Scunthorpe Sans - A s*** font that f***ing censors bad language automatically
• Stacey's Thing: August Wi-Fi Smart Lock
• Jeff's Numbers: 1.8m people pretend to be ants on FB

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Stacey Higginbotham

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

Sponsor:

Pixel Buds Problem, Pew Die Pie's YouTube Deal

• New Pixel Buds have a major problem
• Elon Musk and Grimes' baby X AE A-12
• Governor Cuomo appoints Eric Schmitt to COVID panel
• Does technology help education? What lessons are we learning from distance learning?
• Apple/Google contact tracing API sample code
• Bruce Schneier: contact tracing apps have absolutely no value
• PewDiePie gets an exclusive YouTube deal
• Some Good News, YouTube, and Facebook hold online graduation ceremonies
• Facebook announces 20 members of its oversight board
• Serena and Venus Williams' Mario Tennis match
• Tim Bray quits Amazon in dismay
• .org sale called off
• Tik Tok is a hard place to make money
• Wink moves to a subscription model
• New Sonos speakers
• New York shuts down the subway for the first time ever
• Twitter will warn you before you send a vulgar tweet
• Tom Cruise and NASA will make a movie in space

Picks of the Week

• Leo's Tool: Jukebox
• Stacey's Thing: Level Lock
• Jeff's Numbers: Zoom is worth more than all US Airlines

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Stacey Higginbotham

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

Sponsor:

Elon Musk vs Coronavirus, Facebook and Oprah's Virtual Graduation

• Elon Musk: "FREE AMERICA NOW!"
• Colleges worry they will go out of business if they stay closed in the fall. Is Zoom the answer?
• What we don't know about Coronavirus is as important as what we do know - how media needs to improve
• Mark Zuckerberg tightens his control of Facebook
• Jeff Bezos back to day-to-day operations at Amazon
• Apple/Google virus contact tracing API launches today
• Facebook and Oprah hold a virtual graduation ceremony for the class of 2020
• Berkeley Students recreate campus in Minecraft
• Google requires all advertisers to verify their identities
• Yale Law Journal: advertising is obsolete in the information age
• Google Meet is now free for all
• Waze tests lane advice
• Google kills Shoelace, the social network nobody knew about

Picks of the Week

• Leo's Tool: Sourdough Discard Recipes
• Mathew's Thing: Boston Dynamics' Spot helps COVID-19 patients
• Jeff's Numbers: Cotter dog derby

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Mathew Ingram

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

Sponsor:

Google Debit Card, Zoom Burnout

• Google is working on a debit card to rival Apple card
• Google posts testing center maps
• Zoom burnout is now a thing
• Microsoft: how to preserve privacy while tracking COVID-19
• Amazon shuts down 6,000 accounts for price gouging
• Twitter tried to tell us that the government is spying on you. A judge just said they can't.
• Tubi is mining credit bureaus to target ads at you
• Palantir will track COVID-19 for Trump
• Is Twitter good again?
• Fortnite on Google Play
• Stuntmen on Twitter

Picks of the Week

• Leo's Tool: How-To: Data Tracking for a Sourdough Starter - Twilio
• Stacey's Thing: Folding@Home on a Pi
• Jeff's Numbers: Twitter discovers White Castle paté

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Stacey Higginbotham

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

Sponsor:

Apple & Google's COVID-19 Tracking: How It Works

• Google starts the 'Journalism Emergency Relief Fund' to support local news in the COVID era
• Haircuts in the coronavirus era
• Where can you get a coronavirus test?
• How to make sure the coronavirus news you are getting is true
• How Apple & Google's coronavirus contact tracing plan will work
• Taco Cabana is like Taco Bell, but with margaritas
• Google Classroom takes Italy schools online
• Google will build its own chips for Chromebooks and phones
• iPhone SE and iPad Magic Keyboard available now!
• Rating the celebrity Zoom calls
• The return of Karsten Cam!
• Tik Tok hits 1 billion, Quibi hits 1.7 million
• WHO releases tips app
• Verizon hits 800 million calls per day, internet traffic also way up

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Stacey Higginbotham

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

Sponsor:

Coronavirus Experts, Zoom Security

• The COVID Tracking Project
• All the best coronavirus experts Twitter links in one place
• Steak-Umm Twitter gives the best coronavirus advice
• We need responsible coronavirus journalism
• How should we design apps to track coronavirus?
• Google Stadia launches free tier at the perfect time
• Zoom brings in Alex Stamos to help them with security
• Thank God for the Net!
• UK Judge: Google must give a ranking algorithm to SEO expert
• Scientists pledge to be open about their coronavirus data
• Google is working on autocomplete for speech
• Facebook Tuned is a new way for couples to flirt
• Samsung Galaxy Chromebook is gorgeous, but has a terrible battery and is way too expensive
• Quibi launches at the perfect time
• Former TV Guide Reviewer Jeff Jarvis reviews John Krasinski's Some Good News
• Google Stadia Pro free for 3 months
• Stacey Higginbotham explains the new super-fast Wi-Fi 6E 6Ghz

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Stacey Higginbotham

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

Sponsor:

Best Zoom Backgrounds, April Fools Canceled!

• Spiffing up your work from home video with Zoom, Prezi, and Sesame Street
• Siva Vaidhyanathan wins Zoom backgrounds
• Rating the media's work-from-home setups
• What do we want the world to look like after coronavirus?
• April Fools is canceled: Google forgoes its traditional April Fools jokes
• What happened to Adrian Lamo? A TWiT true-crime podcast
• Facebook pledges $100 Million for local news outlets hit by the coronavirus
• Amazon fires strike organizer
• Microsoft announces that they will keep their conferences virtual through 2021
• Apple is the new Microsoft - Apple buys Dark Sky and shuts off Android app
• Hangouts is staggering under load
• A deep dive into how weather forecasting works in America
• Google Drive folder structure will change in September
• Wyze updates security cams so you can use them as webcams
• How to set up your point-and-shoot camera as a webcam
• Amazon and Walmart cut off Buzzfeed's affiliate marketing deals
• Astrophysicist coronavirus inventor gets magnets stuck up nose

Picks of the Week

• Leo's Tool: Zotero
• Stacey's Thing: The Hidden Girl and The Paper Menagerie
• Jeff's Numbers: Romance via drone

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Stacey Higginbotham

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

Sponsors:

This week's stories

• Google I/O is canceled, unless they want TWiT to do it for them
• We rate the media's work-from-home setups
• Google's COVID-19 page
• The HUGE privacy debate that coronavirus has brought up
• We craft the perfect coronavirus tracking law
• Tracking coronavirus through Kinsa
• In this time of crisis, we need to listen to experts
• This Week in Virology
• Amazon and other big tech companies are using coronavirus to take over the world
• How much bandwidth capacity can we add?
• Why don't we ban targeted advertising? Jeff vs Leo and Stacey

Picks of the Week

• Leo's Tool: Google Podcasts
• Stacey's Thing: Wyze Band and Scale
• Jeff's Numbers: Conference Call Bingo

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Stacey Higginbotham

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

Sponsors: