Tech Brew Ride Home

Podcasting has its biggest news day ever, some pretty big executive shakeups, the new emojis for 2019 and how to steal a million dollars from an ATM without anyone noticing. 

Sponsors:

QCon.ai Promocode: QCONAI2019 

Metalab.co

Links:

Spotify has bought two podcast startups and it wants to buy more (ReCode)

Relaxation app Calm raises $88 million, valuing it $1 billion (CNBC)

Facebook’s top PR exec is leaving (ReCode)

230 New Emojis in Final List for 2019 (EmojiPedia)

Programmer finds ridiculous ATM loophole that let him withdraw $1 million in cash (The Verge)

It’s getting more expensive for Google to make money, Facebook turns fifteen, choosing your own adventure is becoming a trend, and one specific way Fortnite is measurably bigger than the Super Bowl. 

Sponsors:

Metalab.co

DataDogHQ.com/ridehome

Eero.com/ride and code: ride at checkout

Links:

Being Google is getting very expensive (QZ)

Zuckerberg's Facebook Post

Facebook Makes First Blockchain Acquisition With Chainspace: Sources (Cheddar)

Boring Game Plus New Orleans Rebellion Leads to Ratings Drop (NYTimes)

'Fortnite' Had 10 Million Concurrent Players In The Marshmello Concert Event (Forbes)

iPhone XR Review (AnAndTech)

Amazon Alexa Now Lets You Choose Your Own Adventure (Geek.com)

Soon you can play Xbox live everywhere, Google unveils Live Transcribe, Slack files to go public, the most crypto story ever and why CAPTCHA’s have gotten so difficult.

Sponsors:

QCon.ai - Save $75 with code: QCONAI2019

Metalab.co

Links:

Microsoft wants to bring Xbox Live cross-platform gaming to Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, and more (WindowsCentral)

Slack confidentially files to go public (CNBC)

Crypto Exchange Says It Can't Repay $190 Million to Clients After Founder Dies With Only Password (Gizmodo)

Locast, a Free App Streaming Network TV, Would Love to Get Sued (NYTimes)

MacBook keyboard failures could end with introduction of glass panel keyboards (AppleInsider)

WHY CAPTCHAS HAVE GOTTEN SO DIFFICULT (The Verge)

Ars Technica's Timothy B. Lee gives me odds on my self-driving car wager.

Sponsor:

Eero.com/ride promocode: ride

For years, Jay Yarrow and Farhad Manjoo had a podcast, the Jay and Farhad show. You might remember Jay from his time at BusinessInsider (he’s an executive editor at CNBC now) and Farhad of course is a NYTimes columnist. Well, they stopped doing the podcast late last year, which was a super bummer for a lot of us. Jay and Farhad had a super cool chemistry and I know a lot of people for whom the show was unmissable. Well, I got Jay and Farhad to put the band back together, so you’re about to hear a special reunion episode of the Jay and Farhad show! We talk Apple! Facebook! Layoffs! (No twitter, oddly...) It's great!

Sponsors:

Vistaprint.com. Code: ride

Burrow.com/tech Code: tech

Turns out Google poked Apple in the eye also, layoffs hit Vice, Amazon reports earnings and reports that a ton of people responded to that minimum wage hike, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

Sponsors:

DataDogHQ.com/ridehome

Tiny.website

Links:

Apple restores Google's internal iOS apps after certificate misuse punishment (TechCrunch)

Twitter removed some accounts originating in Iran, Russia and Venezuela that targeted U.S. midterm election (The Washington Post)

Vice Media to Reorganize, Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff (Exclusive) (The Hollywood Reporter)

Why the Outlook for Digital Media Behemoths is Worse than You Think (Talking Points Memo)

Amazon Notches Third Record Profit in a Row (WSJ)

Americans are lining up to work for Amazon for $15 an hour (QZ)

Why Alexa usually won’t respond when someone says ‘Alexa’ on TV (VentureBeat)

The SmartTouchUSA.com Weekend Longreads Suggestions

The ShopTalkShow podcast

Is Alexa working? (Benedict Evans)

As I.P.O. Approaches, Lyft’s Chief Is Nudged Into the Spotlight (NYTimes)

Why Technology Hasn’t Fixed the Housing Crisis (NYTimes)

The Secrets of Lyndon Johnson’s Archives (The New Yorker)

Facebook returns to growth, iPhones might be getting USB-C and 3D cameras, Hulu’s launching pause-ads, and on Reddit, it’s paintings of paintings of paintings of birds, all the way down.

Sponsors:

Tiny.website

DataDogHQ.com/ridehome

Links:

Mark Zuckerberg wants to get back to building new Facebook products (ReCode)

Nintendo cuts Switch sales forecast despite strong holiday season (The Verge)

Apple Is Planning 3-D Cameras for New iPhones in AR Push (Bloomberg)

HACKERS ARE PASSING AROUND A MEGALEAK OF 2.2 BILLION RECORDS (Wired)

Hulu announces a new ad unit that appears when you pause (TechCrunch)

The Reddit Painting Links:

The orig post

Tweet storm showing the painting progression

The painting tree illustrated on github

Flipboard Links:

https://flipboard.com/@thomasgalla1pp6/techmeme-ride-home-daily-podcast-tc2a63l7y

https://flipboard.com/@thomasgalla1pp6/techmeme-ride-home-weekend-long-reads-m64k8fj9y

Facebook decides to mix it up a bit: what if we had a scandal that pissed off our business partners? Apple’s earnings are mixed but you can see where they’re going with this. Why Americans no longer answer the phone and are you ready for 1TB smartphones?

Sponsors:

DataDogHQ.com/ridehome

Tiny.website

Links:

Facebook pays teens to install VPN that spies on them (TechCrunch)

Apple blocks Facebook from running its internal iOS apps (The Verge)

Apple Reports First Quarter Results (Apple Newsroom)

Report: Americans got 26.3 billion robocalls last year, up 46 percent from 2017 (Washington Post)

1TB phones are coming and I’m so f***ing ready (TNW)

Flipboards:

https://flipboard.com/@thomasgalla1pp6/techmeme-ride-home-daily-podcast-tc2a63l7y

https://flipboard.com/@thomasgalla1pp6/techmeme-ride-home-weekend-long-reads-m64k8fj9y

Pretty major FaceTime bug from Apple, the DOJ makes it’s case against Huawei, the first successful ICO of the year and what Bluetooth ‘direction finding’ might do for you.

Sponsors:

Tiny.website

DataDogHQ.com/ridehome

Links:

Major iPhone FaceTime bug lets you hear the audio of the person you are calling … before they pick up (9to5Mac)

U.S. Charges Huawei With Stealing Trade Secrets, Bank Fraud (Bloomberg)

BitTorrent Tokens Sold Out in Under 15 Minutes, Netting Over $7 Mln (CoinTelegraph)

Bluetooth gains ‘direction finding’ for location accuracy to the centimeter (VentureBeat)

After backlash, BuzzFeed says it will pay out earned paid time off to laid off employees (CNN Business)

Aiming to change the way people take medicine, Lyndra Therapeutics raises $55 million (TechCrunch)

An Apple subscription gaming service? Is Facebook Watch still alive? The GDPR floodgates are truly open. And losing to AI’s might have some benefits.

Sponsors:

DataDogHQ.com/ridehome

Tiny.website

Links:

Apple Plans Gaming Subscription Service: Sources (Cheddar)

A Tiny Screw Shows Why iPhones Won’t Be ‘Assembled in U.S.A.’ (NYTimes)

China created a unicorn every 3.8 days in 2018 (South China Morning Post)

China's smartphone shipments dropped 14 percent in 2018 (TechCrunch)

Facebook Watch Isn’t Living Up to Its Name (Bloomberg)

Google and IAB ad category lists show 'massive leakage of highly intimate data,' GDPR complain claims (TechCrunch)

AI Helps Amputees Walk With a Robotic Knee (IEEE Spectrum)