NEXT with John Koetsier

Can you share personal photos online … without sharing your face with the giant global database that is the internet? And, can you share photos of crowds of people, or demonstrations, without subjecting everyone in those photos to AI-driven searches and privacy violations?

Brighter AI thinks they have a solution, and in this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we chat with the CEO, Marian Glaeser. Essentially, his technology replaces every face with an AI-generated substitute to ensure you can share your pictures in a privacy-safe way.

What becomes a question, however, is how real your photos are now ...

Are 50 million YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch creators the new founders? And … are they far more numerous and economically important than we think?

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier we’re chatting with Yuanling Yuan (AKA YY), a senior associate at SignalFire. She recently did a massive study of the creator economy, finding that of the more than 50 million “creators” in the world on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, and TikTok, two million of them are professionals, earning a full-time living.

And that number is growing fast.

Full transcript will be here: https://johnkoetsier.com/

YY on Twitter: https://twitter.com/YuanlingY

SignalFire: https://www.signalfire.com

There’s now a Google TV as well as an Apple TV. A new Chromecast. Google Home is now Nest Audio, and there are now new Google Pixel smartphones.

Google released not quite a googolplex of new consumer hardware and software services today in its “Launch Night In” event. Here’s a rundown ...

My post on Forbes, with pictures: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/09/30/everything-google-announced-including-pixel-4a-5g-pixel-5-google-tv-chromecast-nest-audio/

Imagine the perfect custom talk radio station tailored exactly to your unique likes, with a never-ending flow of great content.

That’s exactly what Apple could soon be delivering with its recent podcasting acquisition, Scout FM. Because that’s precisely what Apple has achieved already — in the music sense — with its new personalized music stations in iOS 14.

Get the story in my Forbes column here:

And, if you'd like to ping me (check the last 30 seconds of the podcast), here I am on Twitter:

I was not a fan of App Clips when Apple announced them for iOS 14.

And wow ... was I wrong.

This story is also available in my Forbes column here:

And, usually, transcripts show up on my personal site here:

I happened to see my wife’s screen time analytics on her phone recently. She’s spending an average of over seven hours a day on her phone.

And she’s not alone.

Apparently, I'm not too far behind, when you add in time from other screen, watching sports and a few TV shows.

Full story:

Amazon's new flying home security drone does not have lasers. Nor can you mount a gun on it, much to the dismay of many, apparently. 

But will you buy it?

To chat about the Ring Always Home Cam and Amazon’s other announcements we have repeat guest Brian Jackson, who is an analyst, researcher, and consultant with the Info-Tech Research Group.

A week ago Facebook announced it was working with Ray-Ban on a multi-year deal to build and ship smartglasses. Mark Zuckerberg says they’re “the next step on the road to augmented reality glasses.”

So why does Irena Cronin say they fail?

She is the CEO of Infinite Retina, an xR consultancy, and a co-author of "The Infinite Retina: Spatial Computing, Augmented Reality, and how a collision of new technologies are bringing about the next tech revolution."

We chat about Facebook's smartglasses, Project Aria, North (which Google acquired), Snap and its Spectacles, and Apple's coming smartglasses product.

Want to work at Tesla? Apple? Reddit? Netflix? You’re not alone.

Most people want to work for a company that is doing amazing work in the forefront of their field. And while we typically think of a brand as something that is relevant to customers and buyers, it’s also critically important to companies that are looking to hire the best available talent.

So Hired surveyed 4,100 tech professionals about the companies they most want to work for ... and I chat with two tech execs about the results.

In this episode of TechFirst, we'll chat with Vanessa Camones, a brand and communications expert and CEO at AnyContext. and Suzie Weitzman, former comms at Apple, now a senior VP at eBay.

Get the full story in my post at Forbes:

And ... here's the lists, if you're interested:

Here are the top 20 public companies people want to work for in the tech industry, along with their ranking in Hired’s “brand positivity index.”

And here are the top 20 private companies in the tech industry that people want to work for:

This is episode 100! Thank you so much for subscribing to TechFirst. I very much appreciate it.

In a year we've taken this podcast to a top-100 podcast in the tech category in the U.S., and much higher in some other countries (#4 in Austria!) :-)

That's because of you, and what you've done. Thank you!

I've decided to celebrate by doing a 100th-episode giveaway ... check the details in the podcast. And, let's connect wherever you're online:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnkoetsier/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnkoetsier