Tech Brew Ride Home

The UK Parliament docu-dumps on Facebook, Qualcomm fires the starter pistol on 5G rollout, an actual test drive on Waymo’s new ride hailing service, and behind that $100 million Friends deal.Sponsors:Metalab.coDataDogHQ.com/ridehomeLinks:Note by Damian Collins MP (UK Parliament)Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon 855 and its news under-display fingerprint sensor (TechCrunch)Qualcomm announces first ultrasonic fingerprint reader: Headed to the Galaxy S10? (CNET)Fortnite’s Minecraft-like creative mode launches tomorrow (The Verge)RIDING IN WAYMO ONE, THE GOOGLE SPINOFF’S FIRST SELF-DRIVING TAXI SERVICE (The Verge)The story behind Netflix’s $100 million ‘Friends’ deal (Recode)

Another day, another data breach, this time Quora, Microsoft might be replacing the Edge web browser, and maybe even replacing Windows, a review of some low-end smartphones and why 4k streaming and data caps are on a collision course.Sponsors:DatadogHQ.com/ridehomeMetalab.coLinks:Quora Security Update (The Quora Blog)Microsoft is building a Chromium-powered web browser that will replace Edge on Windows 10 (Windows Central)What is Windows Lite? It's Microsoft's Chrome OS Killer (Petri.com)NVIDIA's new AI turns videos of the real world into virtual landscapes (Engadget)MOTOROLA AND NOKIA’S NEW PHONES MAKE $350 LOOK LIKE $1,000 (The Verge)Your 4K Netflix Streaming Is on a Collision Course With Your ISP's Data Caps (Motherboard)

Tumblr bans adult content, is Apple going to sit on the 5G sidelines, Uber has held talks about acquiring either Bird or Lime, a new self-driving car yardstick and resetting your web browser to square one.SimpleContacts.com/rideMetalab.coLinks:Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th (TheVerge)Apple Will Wait Until at Least 2020 to Release a 5G iPhone (Bloomberg)Kuo: ‘All-new design’ AirPods in 2020, wireless charging model in first quarter 2019 (9to5Mac)Uber Exploring Deal to Buy Bird or Lime (The Information)Tencent Music Moves Forward With IPO After Delay (WSJ)Microsoft PowerPoint is getting real-time captions and subtitles for presentations (The Verge)The first self-driving car you use will most likely carry your groceries, not you (Vox)How to Reset All of Your Browsers Back to Square One (Gizmodo)

The monster Starwood Hotels data breach, Apple music comes to Amazon Echo devices, Instagram rolls out “close friends” lists, Airbnb wants to build your house, not just rent it, and the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.

Links:

Marriott says 500 million Starwood guest records stolen in massive data breach (TechCrunch)

SEC charges Floyd Mayweather, DJ Khaled for promoting ICOs without disclosing payments (CNBC)

Apple Music is coming to the Amazon Echo (TechCrunch)

Instagram now lets you share Stories to a Close Friends list (TechCrunch)

Exclusive: Airbnb will start designing houses in 2019 (Fast Company)

Techmeme now publishing paid and free "Leaderboards" showing the most influential reporters around a specific news topic (Techmeme.com)

The Betterment Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Our first podcast suggestion: Python Bytes

Microsoft Is Worth as Much as Apple. How Did That Happen? (NYTimes)

How China’s Bytedance became the world’s most valuable startup (The Verge)

China’s Video Craze Drives Growth for ByteDance (The Information)

How Amazon Web Services Reinvented the Internet and Became a Cash Cow (NYMag)

The legacy of PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi, in 24 stories (Polygon)

This Is the Way the Paper Crumples (NYTimes)

Amazon gets into self-driving cars… in a way, Google Assistant adds some familiar features, YouTube rolls out Stories, and WTF is happening in Crypto?

Stories from: @RolfeWinkler

Tweets: @CrankGameplays, @SavinTheBees

Links:

Amazon debuts a scale model autonomous car to teach developers machine learning (TechCrunch)

New Parents Complain Amazon Baby-Registry Ads Are Deceptive (WSJ)

An Amazon revolt could be brewing as the tech giant exerts more control over brands (Recode)

Google Assistant gets visual lyrics and more in big holiday update (Engadget)

YouTube is rolling out its Instagram-like Stories feature to more creators (The Verge)

Facebook Considered Charging for Access to User Data (WSJ)

WTF is happening to crypto? (TechCrunch)

The biggest ad fraud ever? Amazon gets into medical records, Project Fi comes to iPhones, one of Elon’s LA tunnels is canceled, and the Big Mouth Billy Bass enters the 21st Century.

Links:

8 People Are Facing Charges As A Result Of The FBI’s Biggest-Ever Ad Fraud Investigation (BuzzFeed)

Big Tech Expands Footprint in Health (WSJ)

Project Fi is now Google Fi, and it will work with iPhones and most Android devices (The Verge)

Waymo taps former NTSB chair to oversee safety of self-driving ride-share fleet (CNBC)

YouTube to Make New Originals Available for Free, Ad-Supported Viewing With ‘Single Slate’ Strategy (Variety)

Laurene Powell Jobs’s Emerson Collective bought Pop-Up Magazine Productions (Recode)

Community Activists Kill Elon Musk's Plan for an Underground Freeway Tunnel in LA (Motherboard)

Big Mouth Billy Bass Will Now Annoy the Shit Out of You With Alexa Support Built In (Gizmodo)

AWS goes the custom silicon route, Facebook Watch goes after the olds, will Microsoft leapfrog Apple and why does Amazon’s shopping experience suck so much?

Stories from: @katienotopoulos, @ShiraOvide

Tweets: @ajassy, @AlexSchleber

Links:

Amazon Web Services introduces its own custom-designed Arm server processor, promises 45 percent lower costs for some workloads (GeekWire)

Facebook's YouTube competitor is pivoting to older audiences as teens tune out and publishers balk (CNBC)

Half of all Phishing Sites Now Have the Padlock (Krebs on Security)

Employees Say Startup Civil Hyped Crypto Returns, But Failed to Pay (CoinDesk)

Apple has an idea to make Animoji even more fun (Cult of Mac)

Don’t Look Now, But Microsoft Is Overtaking Apple (Bloomberg)

What If Amazon.com Actually…Is A Horrible Website? (BuzzFeed)

AWS goes the custom silicon route, Facebook Watch goes after the olds, will Microsoft leapfrog Apple and why does Amazon’s shopping experience suck so much?

Stories from: @katienotopoulos, @ShiraOvide

Tweets: @ajassy, @AlexSchleber

Links:

Amazon Web Services introduces its own custom-designed Arm server processor, promises 45 percent lower costs for some workloads (GeekWire)

Facebook's YouTube competitor is pivoting to older audiences as teens tune out and publishers balk (CNBC)

Half of all Phishing Sites Now Have the Padlock (Krebs on Security)

Employees Say Startup Civil Hyped Crypto Returns, But Failed to Pay (CoinDesk)

Apple has an idea to make Animoji even more fun (Cult of Mac)

Don’t Look Now, But Microsoft Is Overtaking Apple (Bloomberg)

What If Amazon.com Actually…Is A Horrible Website? (BuzzFeed)

Apple heads to the Supreme Court over antitrust concerns about its App Store; Facebook’s internal documents are seized by the British Parliament; what’s behind the resurgence of Atari; the human story of Black Friday inside Amazon’s fulfillment centers; and Lenny—a chatbot designed to frustrate telemarketers.

Links:

U.S. top court leans toward allowing Apple App Store antitrust suit (Reuters)

My Amicus Brief (AVC/Fred Wilson)

Parliament seizes cache of Facebook internal papers (The Guardian)

Internal documents Facebook has fought to keep private obtained by UK Parliament (CNN)

Atari CEO interview — How Rollercoaster Tycoon revival saved the company (VentureBeat)

The human costs of Black Friday, explained by a former Amazon warehouse manager (Vox)

The Story of Lenny, the Internet's Favorite Telemarketing Troll (Motherboard)

Storm clouds everywhere! Tech stocks in bear market territory, crypto in full-on meltdown territory… but video games might help solve science’s gender problem and this one spacebar trick might make your iPhone insanely more useful. Oh, and the weekend Longreads suggestions.

Links:

It's Official: Once Mighty FAANG Stocks Have All Entered a Bear Market (Fortune)

Silicon Valley wages have dropped for all except highest-paying jobs: report (The Mercury News)

Bitcoin drops 12% to below $5,000 (CNBC)

Tumblr was removed from Apple’s App Store over child pornography issues (The Verge)

Video games could be a short-term answer to science’s gender problem (The Conversation)

“The space bar trick” is the most amazing feature in iOS 12, and the internet just realized it (Fast Company)

The Betterment Weekend Longreads:

How The Wall Street Journal is preparing its journalists to detect deepfakes (NiemanLab)

Self-driving trucks in US offer window into where machines may replace humans (Christian Science Monitor)

When Elon Musk Tunnels Under Your Home (The Atlantic)

The Case Against Quantum Computing (IEEE Spectrum)

HOW GOOGLE AND AMAZON GOT AWAY WITH NOT BEING REGULATED (Wired)

How to Use an iPod Touch as a Secure Device Instead of a Phone (Motherboard)

Scientists say goodbye to physical definition of the kilogram (The Verge)