Tech Brew Ride Home

It’s a whole slew of headlines from Mobile World Congress: more foldable phones, dates for 5G chip sets and 5G coverage rollouts, and Microsoft unveils its HoloLens2. Plus: why Wikidata proves the bots still need us.

Sponsors:

Wix.com/podcast

DataDogHQ.com/ridehome

Links:

MICROSOFT’S HOLOLENS 2: A $3,500 MIXED REALITY HEADSET FOR THE FACTORY, NOT THE LIVING ROOM (The Verge)

Huawei Launches the Mate X: Folding in a New Direction (AnAndTech)

I held the future in my hands, and it was foldable (TheVerge)

Sprint’s 5G network launches in May (The Verge)

T-Mobile delays full 600MHz 5G launch until second half of 2019 (CNET)

microSD Express unlocks hyper-fast data speeds for mobile devices (Engadget)

SanDisk and Micron announce the world’s first 1TB microSD card (MSPowerUser.com)

The latest Android devices now let you log into apps without requiring a password (The Verge)

INSIDE THE ALEXA-FRIENDLY WORLD OF WIKIDATA (Wired)

Princeton Tech Meetup Details

Taylor Lorenz, over at the Atlantic has the influencer beat down. I’ve told you about so many of her stories, often as longreads. You think influencers… the universe of YouTube stars, Instagram stars, social media stars generally is a niche thing? No way. This is already a huge industry with a ton of money sloshing around in it, and Taylor covers it better than anyone else.

Sponsors:

Bubble.is (coupon code "ride")

Burrow.com/tech

Last week there was a bunch of gaming news, and if you’ll recall, I put a shout out to see if anyone could tell me what the heck is going on in the gaming space. Well, Jason Schreier, the news editor of Kotaku answered my Bat Signal, and so, here it is. The state of the video game industry, how has Fortnite changed it, does Fornite have a competitor in Apex legends, and even… what is the state of VR gaming?

Sponsors:

Burrow.com/tech

Bubble.is (coupon code "ride")

Facebook is shutting down its controversial Onavo app, Google’s streaming gaming service might get some hardware to go along with it, the most acquisitive unicorns and the weekend longreads suggestions. Here’s what you missed today in the world of tech. 

Sponsors:

The Castro Podcast App

Legacybox.com/ride

Lighstream.com/ride

Links:

Facebook will shut down its spyware VPN app Onavo (TechCrunch)

Samsung will extend Bixby button remapping to premium Galaxy phones running Android Pie (The Verge)

Source: Google plans to announce long-rumored ‘Yeti’ hardware at GDC event (9to5Google)

Airbnb, Automattic, And Pinterest Top Rank Of Most Acquisitive Unicorns (Crunchbase News)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Late Night Linux Podcast

HOW APPLE’S ENTERPRISE APP PROGRAM BECAME THE NEW WILD WEST OF MOBILE APPS (The Verge)

“SHE NEVER LOOKS BACK”: INSIDE ELIZABETH HOLMES’S CHILLING FINAL MONTHS AT THERANOS (Vanity Fair)

It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town (NYTimes)

Guidemaster: The least-awful Android phones (Ars Technica)

The curse of the Twitter reply guy (Mashable)

YouTube Story 1: Study blames YouTube for rise in number of Flat Earthers (The Guardian)

YouTube Story 2: YouTube Unleashed a Conspiracy Theory Boom. Can It Be Contained? (NYTimes)

YouTube Story 3: How YouTube helps flat-earthers organize (The Verge)

Take-aways from all the hands-on reports with the new Samsung Galaxy S10 phones, hands-OFF reports about the Galaxy Fold, Apple teams up with Goldman Sachs on a new credit card, YouTube faces yet another scandal running ads on horrible content, and a look at how law enforcement grabbing location data from Google using "reverse location search warrants."

Sponsors:

DataDogHQ.com/ridehome

Castro Podcast App

Links:

Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+ hands-on (Engadget) 

You can remap the Bixby button on Samsung’s Galaxy S10 to do whatever you want (The Verge)  

The Galaxy Fold makes no sense as a consumer device yet (The Verge) 

Apple, Goldman Sachs Team Up on Credit Card Paired With iPhone (Wall Street Journal)

Nestle, Disney Pull YouTube Ads, Joining Furor Over Child Videos (Bloomberg) 

On YouTube, a network of paedophiles is hiding in plain sight (Wired UK)

Youtube is Facilitating the Sexual Exploitation of Children, and it's Being Monetized (2019) (Matt Watson, YouTube) 

YouTube terminates more than 400 channels following child exploitation controversy (The Verge)

Close Enough (Slate/Future Tense)

The foldable phone is here! And some regular new Galaxies too. Other stuff... (I'm late posting today... sorry! In a rush!)

Sponsors:

Castro Podcast App

DataDogHQ.com/ridehome

joybird.com/RIDE - 25% off your first order using code RIDE

Links:

Samsung’s foldable phone is the Galaxy Fold, available April 26th starting at $1,980 (The Verge)

Xiaomi's triple-camera Mi 9 has a fast 20W wireless charger (Engadget)

Google says the built-in microphone it never told Nest users about was 'never supposed to be a secret' (Business Insider)

Google Set To Unveil Netflix-Like Game Streaming Service (Fortune)

Apple Plans on Combining iPhone, iPad, Mac Apps by 2021 (Bloomberg)

Princeton Tech Meetup 69 w/ Brian McCullough

Qualcomm unveils a second gen 5G chip, Huawei’s founder hits back at the US, his biggest investors push back at Masa Son, and why emoji are causing problems in increasing numbers of court cases.

Sponsors:

The Castro Podcast App

Promocode Ride at Vistaprint.com

Links:

Before the first 5G phone is out, Qualcomm is already moving on to its second-gen 5G modem (The Verge)

The US cannot crush us, says Huawei founder (BBC News)

How Huawei Targets Apple Trade Secrets (The Information)

Walmart’s US e-commerce sales up 43% in Q4, thanks to growing online grocery business (TechCrunch)

Key Investors Are Unhappy With SoftBank Tech-Investment Fund (WSJ)

Mining Giant Bitmain Posts $500 Million Loss in IPO Financial Filing (Coindesk)

Emoji are showing up in court cases exponentially, and courts aren’t prepared (TheVerge)

Parliament calls Facebook a “digital gangster,” Australia’s Parliament was hacked, a full year of Apple lineup rumors, and since it’s a holiday here in the US, a mini longread segment. 

Sponsors:

The Castro Podcast App

Flatironschool.com/techmeme

Links:

UK parliament calls for antitrust, data abuse probe of Facebook (TechCrunch)

Australia's major political parties hacked in 'sophisticated' attack ahead of election (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Kuo: 16-inch MacBook Pro, 31-inch 6K display, iPhones w/ upgraded Face ID & bilateral wireless charging coming in 2019 (9to5Mac)

Etsy sellers say their bank accounts were emptied in major billing snafu (BoingBoing)

Elroy Air raises $9.2 million for delivery drones that can carry up to 500 pounds (VentureBeat)

Google’s Waymo risks repeating Silicon Valley’s most famous blunder (ArsTechnica)

Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, the reporter who gets Apple scoops like no other. Quick catch up with Mark about his recent scoops, but also some Apple analysis in general: 

Apple has spent as much as 3 billion dollars on its original content for its new streaming service. 

But… they have probably fewer than 10 original movies locked and loaded.

When it comes to “Project Titan,” Apple’s self driving car project, Apple still doesn’t have any idea where any of this is headed. 

I was skeptical we’d actually see an Apple AR headset. Actual Apple Googles. Mark thinks we really will... but not until 2021, or 2022.

Sponsors:

Capterra.com/ride

LinkedIn.com/ride

Remember that first weekend longread from yesterday, from NBC’s Tech Correspondent Jacob Ward? As I said, it triggered some things that I’ve been thinking about for a while. About data and data harvesting and data capitalism. So, I reached out to Jacob to delve further, and I’m glad I did. Super provocative deeper dive into the ideas of THIS piece: Why data, not privacy, is the real danger (NBC News)

Sponsors:

Capterra.com/ride

LinkedIn.com/ride