Tech Brew Ride Home

Is Google tracking you even when you tell it not to? Big executive departure at Netflix, Elon expounds on taking Telsa private, and how machine learning can identify devs simply by the way they code. Links:Lenovo Launches Ultra-Thin ThinkPad P1: X1 Carbon Meets Workstation (AnAndTech)EVEN ANONYMOUS CODERS LEAVE FINGERPRINTS (Wired)Update on Taking Tesla Private (Tesla)China has outspent the US by $24 billion in 5G technology since 2015, study shows (CNBC)An 11-Year-Old Changed The Results Of Florida's Presidential Vote At A Hacker Convention. Discuss. (Buzzfeed News)Dozens of Vegas slots went offline simultaneously during a hacker convention (Mashable)

Is Apple’s secret car project back on? Is Elon Musk in trouble with the SEC? How many people use Apple Pay? Is Alexa coming to cars? And the weekend Longreads suggestions. Stories from: @gruber Tweets: @jbarro, @kairyssdal Links:Tesla is now worth less than it was before Elon Musk's $420 tweet (Business Insider)Doug Field Returns to Apple After Leaving Tesla (Daring Fireball)Apple Pay Increasingly Central to iPhone (Loop Ventures)Amazon launches Auto SDK to bring Alexa to more cars (VentureBeat)VCs Are On Track To Make 2018 A Record Year For Unicorns (Crunchbase News) The Betterment Weekend Long Reads Suggestions:Fintech Frenzy: Hype or Reality? A Closer Look at 6 Key Sectors (Fortune)HOW THE SHARED FAMILY COMPUTER PROTECTED US FROM OUR WORST SELVES (The Verge)“The Lean Startup” is an unproductive legend (Quartz)THE STRANGE DAVID AND GOLIATH SAGA OF RADIO FREQUENCIES (Wired)THE ULTRA-PURE, SUPER-SECRET SAND THAT MAKES YOUR PHONE POSSIBLE (Wired)

The new Galaxy Note 9 is unveiled, New York City caps ride hailing companies, Discord kneecaps Steam—as expected, the continuing saga of Alex Jones and what’s up with Elon Musk now? Links:Samsung Galaxy Note9: Design, specs, features, and pricing (VentureBeat)New York Plans to Cap Uber and Lyft (WSJ)Where’s the Money Coming From, Elon? (Bloomberg Businessweek)

We can actually, finally find out what Magic Leap does, Snap reports earnings, Slack gets ready for war, Patreon is building a patronage empire and why you’re probably getting ripped off if you’re paying for DSL. Links:I TRIED MAGIC LEAP AND SAW A FLAWED GLIMPSE OF MIXED REALITY’S AMAZING POTENTIAL (The Verge)Magic Leap Headset Test Drive: Off Your Phone and Into Your World (WSJ)Magic Leap’s headset is real, but that may not be enough (MIT Technology Review)Patreon buys Memberful but keeps it indie as patronage consolidates (TechCrunch)Tinder’s business will double this year to more than $800 million (Recode)Study Shows How Bad Most of the Country Is Getting Ripped Off By Their ISPs (Motherboard)

Voting via app will be tested during the midterms, Old Bitcoin Money and New Bitcoin money are in a power struggle, the truth about how we use Alexa, and a new combatant joins the fray in the Streaming Video Wars. Links:West Virginia to introduce mobile phone voting for midterm elections (CNN Tech)A Culture War Is Brewing Between Bitcoin’s Old and New Money (Bloomberg)Wall Street isn’t boosting bitcoin (Quartz)Twitter says Alex Jones and InfoWars accounts don't violate policy, will remain live for now (CNBC)The Reality Behind Voice Shopping Hype (The Information)Jeffrey Katzenberg’s ‘NewTV’ Startup Closes $1 Billion, All Major Studios Among Investors (Variety)Cloudflare Stream makes it easy (and cheap) for developers to work with video (TNW)Airbnb for Work claims 700,000 businesses as bookings tripled for second year in a row (VentureBeat)

Nearly every major tech platform bans Alex Jones to one degree or another, does Facebook really want to know your bank balance, MoviePass comes with another subscription pivot, Apple’s plans for India and why $1,000 smartphones might only be the beginning. Links:Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify ban Infowars' Alex Jones (The Guardian)Facebook to Banks: Give Us Your Data, We’ll Give You Our Users (WSJ)Facebook taps banks, but for chatbots not purchase data like Google (TechCrunch)MoviePass Abandons Price Hike, But Will Limit Films to Three a Month (Variety)iPhone Chipmaker Races to Recover After Crippling Computer Virus (Bloomberg)Here’s Apple’s Plan to Keep From Losing the World’s Fastest-Growing Smartphone Market (Bloomberg Businessweek)Why iPhone and Android phone prices will get even higher (CNET)

Fortnite snubs Google, Amazon Prime Video is coming to Comcast, Peloton raises a ton, the top ten programming languages of 2018 and, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.  Links: Epic Games sidesteps the Play Store with Fortnite for Android launch (TechCrunch)Ready, Aim, Hire a ‘Fortnite’ Coach: Parents Enlist Videogame Tutors for Their Children (WSJ)Google Maps location sharing shows your contact's battery level (Android Police)The 2018 Top Programming Languages (IEEE Spectrum) The Betterment.com/ride Weekend Longreads:How Robot Hands Are Evolving to Do What Ours Can (NYTimes)Why the Next Silicon Valley Will Probably Be Outside the U.S. (Citylab)Masayoshi Son’s secret to running his $100 billion fund: Telling start-ups to treat each other like family (CNBC)What Happened to General Magic? (NYMag/SelectAll)Growing Up Jobs (Vanity Fair)

Apple hits a trillion, a midwestern unicorn cashes in, the Surface Go reviews are in, there are no perfect tools for making memes, and Tesla is adding video games to its cars. Links:Cisco to acquire Ann Arbor-based Duo Security in $2.35 billion deal (Crain's Detroit Business)Surface Go review: The ideal cheap Windows tablet... almost (Engadget)The tiny Microsoft Surface Go is available now, and it’s an overachiever (The Verge)Microsoft Surface Go review: Barely better than a netbook (Mashable)The Microsoft Surface Go Is Practically Perfect (Gizmodo)RideOS raises $25M to become the traffic control center for self-driving cars (TechCrunch)As Memes Evolve, Apps Are Struggling to Keep Up (The Atlantic)How Software Ate the Point of Sale (The Atlantic)

Google has a secret plan to return to China, the Apple earnings analysis, Masayoshi Son goes “Brandless” and in praise of microfilm! Links:GOOGLE PLANS TO LAUNCH CENSORED SEARCH ENGINE IN CHINA, LEAKED DOCUMENTS REVEAL (The Intercept)Apple tops 300 million paid subscriptions as it reportedly preps new subscription services (Digiday)This No-Brand Startup Won $240 Million to Fight Amazon on Price and Quality (Bloomberg)Microfilm Lasts Half a Millennium (The Atlantic)

Facebook reveals fresh election meddling, Galaxy 9s might not be selling well, but Nintendo Switches sure are, and Playstation 4s still are, Uber stops truckin’ and Google Maps will predict which restaurant you’ll like.  Stories from: @kerby, @fredwilson Tweets: @LDrogen Links:Smartphone Slowdown Hits Profits at Samsung Electronics (Bloomberg)Sony can't stop making money from PlayStation (Engadget)Uber’s self-driving trucks division is dead, long live Uber self-driving cars (TechCrunch)Where Did you Go to School? (Richard Kerby)Where Did You Go To School? (AVC)WhatsApp group calls are rolling out to everyone, but don’t ditch Skype just yet (Android Authority)Google Maps can predict how much you'll like a restaurant (Engadget)