The Helpdesk

Some random kvetching on the media code: 

Google's search engine not as good as its competitors for news, research finds

How I dumped Google before it dumped me

Scott Morrison meets Google CEO Sundar Pichai over media bargaining code

• Following on from his call to Satya Nadella of Microsoft, today ScoMo and Frydo got on the blower to Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, to discuss the media code. 
• No details of what they discussed has been released, but for those sick of this story, parliament is expected to submit its report next friday.
• In related news, The Guardian reports that Bing returns “more trusted news results” than Google
• According to a study from Monash University, on Australia Day “Grace Tame” was the most popular search term used on Google – reflecting the fact that she had just been made Australian of the Year. The top 50 results delivered by Google included only 70% of professional news websites, compared with 94% for the same search term on Bing and 82% on Ecosia.
• Meanwhile, at the Fin, John Davidson has experimented with “dumping google before it dumps me” 
• He’s moved to DuckDuckGo, and appreciates the lack of tracking
•  “I’ve not missed Google search one bit.” writes John. 

Wired has a look at Amazon’s Greatest hits of the Bezos era 

Amazon’s Greatest Gadget Hits in the Bezos Era: Kindle, Echo, and More

• Quite a few duds and hits in the list
• The original fugly kindle 
• The Fire Phone that went nowhere
• Dash buttons! Loved the idea of these 
• And the product category the can claim ownership of, the voice assistant speaker

Is Apple really really making a car now? 

Kia Motors Shares Jump After Report Apple to Invest $3.6 Billion

Kuo adds fuel to Apple-Hyundai electric car rumors

NEWS: Dan Riccio begins a new chapter at Apple

Apple Car: It's no secret, Apple's actively working on Car tech

• Kia Motors Corp. jumped as much as 14.5% after a local media report that Apple Inc. will invest 4 trillion won ($3.6 billion) as part of a collaboration with the South Korean carmaker on making electric vehicles.
• Rumours have been circling for a while that Apple and Hyundai (a division of Kia) may collaborate - Hyundai almost blew their chances by publicly confirming the talks last month, then walking back the statement a few days later. The fiercely private Apple doesnt like when partners talk.. 
• Could this be the new product that Dan Riccio has been appointed to? Last week Apple announced a cryptic new role for the hardware executive: 
• “Apple today announced Dan Riccio will transition to a new role focusing on a new project and...
  

  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

• Jeff Bezos has informed Amazon staff he is stepping down as CEO, after 27 years running the company he founded 
• In an email to staff he said he plans “to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives” - ie, use his enormous wealth to hang out with hollywood celebs 
• Taking over is the current head of AWS, Andy Jassy. This makes a lot of sense, as AWS went from a loss leader to one of the biggest services in the world, powering a lot of the sites you use every day. 
• Who is Andy Jassy, Amazon's next CEO?
• CNBC has a nice rundown of Andy, “In September, a column in the Washington Post, which Bezos owns, called Jassy the “clear heir apparent” to Bezos.”

Microsoft's Bing ready to step in if Google pulls search from Australia, minister says

• Microsoft has jumped into the Media code story. 
• On Monday, ScoMo joked he’d been on the blower to Satya Nadella, to discuss Bing filling the search engine void if Google left the market 
• At present Microsoft’s search engine Bing enjoys only 3.7 per cent market share in Australia, compared with Google’s 94 per cent.
• At best, Australians are lukewarm on Bing
• As those numbers show, most people don’t use Bing - and according to the Fin, the average punter is not happy to move. 
• Salon owners optimistic about future without Google, as tech giant threatens to leave Australia
• Although the Australian has a story about small business owners who think Google leaving may be a “blessing in disguise”, as so much time is devoted to SEO 
• Microsoft willing to accept new media bargaining code, unlike Google, Facebook
• And just to be even cheekier, Microsoft says it is happy to pay the media code. Clever move. 

Google Rides Global Ad Recovery to Record Revenue

• Google has reported its Quarterly earnings, and the company is doing alright 
• Google parent Alphabet Inc posted a record $56.9 billion revenue, up from $43.2 billion a year ago. 
• YouTube revenue soared 46% in the quarter, as advertisers flocked to the video-sharing platform amid the pandemic 
• Alphabet’s “Other Bets'' division, which is a combination of Google’s moonshot ideas, continues to burn money, but at a slower rate. The division lost $1.14 billion compared to $2.03 billion in Q4 2019. Alphabet reports Q4 2020 revenue of $56.9 billion

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apple’s App Tracking Transparency coming in early spring – TechCrunch

Facebook Preps Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple — The Information

Apple's Tim Cook warns of adtech fuelling a 'social catastrophe' as he defends app tracker opt-in

The cold war between Facebook and Apple continues, with Apple once again stating its App Transparency tools will soon prompt users about the amount of data being shared within apps. 

The Information reports that Facebook has been working on an antitrust complaint against Apple, saying it is violating its own App Store policies by not including these warnings on its own suite of Apps, such as iMessage. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook has hit back with harsh rhetoric - and while he didn't name facebook, he said “ad based social media companies” that “rely on constant engagement” are fueling a “Social catastrophe” of misinformation and social division. 

Robinhood restricts trading in GameStop, other names involved in frenzy

Robinhood Says It Will Reopen GameStop Trading

While Wall Street tries to figure out what to do about GameStop’s sudden surge, the app responsible for many of the “retail investors” who’ve bought into the failing game store chain has halted trading of the stock. 

Robinhood is a retail investor app, and it has been criticised in the past for using similar tactics of gambling apps, targeting young men with get rich quick promises. 

Late last week, Robinhood suspended trading on Gamestop, Blackberry, Blockbuster, and other stocks caught up in the Wallstreetbets buying frenzy. 

Angry redditors have flooded the App Store with 1 star reviews, complaining the app is blocking their attempts to throw good money on bad companies, to screw over a bunch of hedge funds. 

NAB will buy 86 400 for up to $220 million, leaving Australia's neobank experiment looking shaky

The market for neo-banks in Australia has reduced once more, following the news that NAB is buying 86 400, and rolling its technology into its own digital only banking product, UBank.

NAB already had an 18% stake in the neobank, and will buy the remaining shares in a deal worth $220 million

The deal will still need to be approved by regulators and shareholders. 

86 400 is being acquired less than a month after neobank Xinja folded, handing back it’s banking licence and returning customers’ deposits. 

If you are an 86 400 customer, day-to-day nothing changes and 86 400 will continue to operate as a separate business from NAB, run by its team in Sydney.

Normally a $220 million exit for an Australian start-up would be considered a fantastic result. But this has an air of waving the white flag, and acknowledging that start-ups can’t take on the big four… yet. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Google's ad dominance under fire

The Australian reports the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission has raised concerns over Google's dominance in online advertising. Again. 

The interim report for the ACCC’s Digital Advertising Services Inquiry warns of a lack of competition and transparency across the $3.4bn display advertising sector and Google’s “ability and ­incentive to favour its own related business interests”.

The consumer watchdog’s investigation into display advertising found Google held up to 90 per cent of the industry when measured via impressions, and 70 per cent of the revenue.

Google’s technology powers the real-time auctions in which the ads are sold and the company controls virtually the entire ­advertising supply chain.. This report raises concerns that the tech giant preferences its own ad tech businesses. 

Yet another long legal battle for Google coming up… 

Online trading platforms see a surge in usage as Redditors take on Wall Street

This story has been bubbling along all week, and it’s been bizarre to try to piece together, so I’ll try to explain it as best I can. 

Retail traders on the subreddit WallStreetBets have been coordinating to buy shorted stocks. The motivation it seems is not to invest in companies that have been wrongly devalued, but purely to troll hedge funds that have “shorted” the stock

When you short a stock, you’re making a bet the value of the stock will go down. Gamestop was shorted by many firms to hit around $4 a share, it is currently trading at $300. 

Other shorted companies caught up in WallStreetBets read like a nostalgia trip - Blackberry, Nokia, Blockbuster Video, AMC Movie Theatres, all have seen their stock price skyrocket over the last week. 

Short sellers have lost around $5b so far 

As Molly Wood said so concisely: “You built the world’s largest casino and now you’re sorry gamblers showed up…” 

And now it’s a game of chicken for those holding stock - if they sell now, they’ll make bank, but they won’t achieve their goal of screwing the hedge funds. 

Wallstreetbets was made private yesterday, as markets scramble to put guardrails in place. 

Moving on from crazy wall street bets - The tech giants have all reported their earnings for the quarter, and they’re all getting richer… 

Quarterly Reports

Apple has reported a 21% increase in revenue, year over year. 

All major product lines reported over expectations - with iPhones, Macs, iPads, and wearables - including Apple Watch and AirPods - all seeing growth. Even services were up. 

iPads did best, with a massive 40% increase in sales Year over Year 

Meanwhile, Facebook  reported $28.1 billion in revenue for the quarter, of which $27.2 billion came from ads. Facebook has warned investors that Apple’s changes to privacy in iOS 14 will impact its earnings in 2021. 

Google will report next week, and is expected to also see a rise in revenue from online ads, but it

Queensland trial uses Spotify to slow down drivers near school zones 

Spotify is creating special songs that encourage users to slow down around school zones, as part of a trial in Queensland. 

Spotify will use the geolocation information from a user’s phone to identify when they’re within 5kms of a school zone, and sneak in a track with messages to slow down, and watch out for school crossings

The audio has been created by local Brisbane artists, and the song will slot into a playlist once the current playing song is finished. 

The trial officially launched in Brisbane on Wednesday, but will run state-wide. It will aim to cover all school traffic zones, at both primary and secondary campuses. As it’s using Spotify’s advertising insertion, the slow down tracks will only play for Spotify users on the free tier, premium subscribers will not hear the messages. 

Google News Showcase launch to go ahead after backflip amid political battle

Google is planning on rolling out a new product, called News Showcase, in Australia as soon as next month. The service aims to bundle up a bunch of news services under a single paywall, and share the revenue with publishers. 

Google first announced the product back in June last year, but pulled the launch but pulled the plug when the Media Code was first introduced, telling partners “ it would not launch until it had a better idea of how the proposed laws would affect it financially.”

The announcement that News Showcase is back comes just a few days after Google threatened to pull search from Australia, in retaliation to the code. 

Is this Google saying “take me back, i can change?” 

Twitter acquiring newsletter publishing company Revue

Twitter is getting into the newsletter as a service game, after acquiring the newsletter start up Revue. 

Revue will continue as a stand alone product separate to Twitter, but will be “closely integrated” into the service, and fees will be lowered to 5%, the same cut Substack charges for its service. 

Twitter says journalists are one of the most important groups using twitter and "are a valuable part of the conversation and it’s critical we offer new ways for them to create and share their content, and importantly, help them grow and better connect with their audience," 

Apple fixes another three iOS zero-days exploited in the wild

Apple has released iOS 14.4, an update that patches 3 security issues discovered with its mobile operating system 

Apple has shared little detail of what the exploits could do, but did say all 3 were discovered by an anonymous researcher, suggesting the bugs may have been discovered by nefarious actors as well. 

If you have an iPhone, you should update it as soon as possible. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Twitter launches 'Birdwatch,' a forum to combat misinformation

Twitter has announced a new service called Birdwatch, which will allow users to flag tweets as misleading

The service is being rolled out to a limited number of users who have verified their accounts with a phone number - and Twitter says it is targeting influential users and fact checkers first. 

On its blog post, Twitter says “We know this might be messy and have problems at times, but we believe this is a model worth trying,”

Discussion: 

Twitter is leaving moderation in the hands of its users… 

Better than the current method of reporting a tweet and getting zero feedback 

Facebook will let researchers study how advertisers targeted users with political ads prior to Election Day

Facebook for the first time is giving researchers access to data on how ads were targeted to users in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election 

Previously, Facebook has provided information on the advertising campaigns run on its platform, but the information has just been about how much was spent on various campaigns and community groups 

This new data set, from August 3 to November 3 2020, will show how advertisers targeted users based on demographics 

Discussion: Is this a risky move for facebook? To see just how much its platform can be used to target individuals with misinformation? Or is this a clever way of shaming those caught into not doing it again? 

Big Tech nemesis Lina Khan is gaining traction for top Biden antitrust role

Lina Khan is being touted as the new head of the Federal Trade Commission in the states, the organisation responsible for, amongst other things, antitrust legislation 

If Khan is appointed, Vox Media reports we should expect to see a renewed focus on antitrust in big tech 

As Vox points out, “Khan played a crucial role as legal counsel for the House antitrust subcommittee’s 16-month investigation into the Big Tech giants, and in producing the 400-page House Democrat report that alleged that all of the tech giants engage in anti-competitive practices and need to be reined in.”

Khan made a name for herself in 2017 when she penned a legal paper dubbed “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” - which argued that the current definition of antitrust, that relies on a “bad for the consumer” threshold, is inappropriate when looking at tech companies - because, in this example, Amazon provides a pretty great user experience, while still driving others from the market. 

Aussie video game company bought by French studio for $55m 

Australia’s Big Ant Studios has been bought by French-based Nacon in a €35 million ($54.9 million) deal

Big Ant Studios has made a name for itself being the kind of EA Sports to sports only Australians care about, like Cricket and Rugby and AFL. 

The deal will see Big Ant Studios run largely independently in Australia, with Nacon providing marketing and distribution to sell these games in markets like India (for Cricket) and France (for Rugby). 

After two decades of pretty terrible...

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Google threatens to leave Australia if Media Code Goes Ahead

Search giant Google has hinted off the record it may have to abandon Search in Australia if the media code becomes law. Last Friday, it made the threat public at the Senate enquiry. 

Google Australia managing director Mel Silva told a Senate hearing on Friday that the proposed news media bargaining code remained "unworkable", and the company was prepared to exit the Australian market.

Google’s issue of course is not the fee structure itself, but the precedent set if Google has to pay for news in one tiny little market like Australia - which would risk it’s “international business model”. 

To clarify, Google is only saying it will disable search, not it’s other products like Gmail, Youtube, and Google Docs. 

At the same hearing, Facebook again said it would remove news from its product if the code became law. 

Is it time to migrate to alternative search engines? 

Meanwhile, in France Google has agreed to pay news publishers

Techcrunch reports that Google has agreed to pay French publishers for using snippets of stories in search results and in Google News. 

While the fight in France was different, there are many parallels between this French settlement and the current media laws being fought in Australia. 

Google threatened to remove the snippets from search and news in response to the new fees, but in April last year, the French competition watchdog banned this move, saying Google’s withdrawal of snippets would be unfair and damaging to the press sector, and likely to constitute an abuse of a dominant market position.

Not wanting to open a “monopoly” can of worms, Google agreed to negotiate with France’s media industry association - L’Alliance de la Presse d’Information Générale

For Australian media organisations looking for a quick win, they should note this law was introduced in 2019, and has only just passed its final appeal process. 

Back Home, and Australia is starting another fight with Big Tech

The Fin reports Australia's eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has warned big tech platforms that they must do more to tackle the problems caused by anonymous accounts on their services.

Ms Inman Grant – a former public policy director at Twitter released a position statement on the dangers of anonymous accounts, leading to online bullying and abuse, and fuelling the global rise of conspiracy theories such as Qanon. 

Inman Grant is not calling for an end to online anonymity, saying it can provide a “powerful form of protection for victims of domestic violence, whistleblowers and people living under authoritarian regimes”

Under her proposal, Individuals could be fined up to $111,000 for anonymous abusive behaviour, such as posting revenge porn. 

Content hosts such as social media, dating or games platforms could be slugged with fines up to $550,000.

Concepts such as "digital licence plates", blockchain-based identity management systems and digital signatures are being explored as potential solutions to authenticate people online, without them being publicly identified or...

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amazon is offering to help distribute the COVID vaccine in the US

Joe Biden has set a goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans in the next 100 days, and Amazon is offering its distribution centres and logistical expertise to make that happen. 

Amazon executive Dave Clark wrote in an open letter that “Our scale allows us to make a meaningful impact immediately in the fight against COVID-19, and we stand ready to assist you in this effort.”

Amazon also asks that “frontline workers” such as its own workers in distribution centres, and those working in delivery, should get the vaccine “as a priority” - which seems pretty fair, if a little self serving. 

Considering I can find a useless thing i don’t need on Amazon and have it arrive the next day, I’d be happy with Amazon making a similar offer in Australia. 

Alibaba’s Jack Ma makes his first public appearance in months 

Jack Ma, the billionaire co-founder and former chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has appeared publicly for the first time since late October 2020

In September 2020, Ma criticized regulators as having a “pawnshop mentality” when it came to technology, and asked the government for less regulation around money lending. This reportedly infuriated the Chinese government. 

A month later, Chinese regulators cancelled the IPO of Ant Group, Ma’s fintech start up, saying it didn’t “meet the listing conditions or disclosure requirements”. The move knocked $68 billion off the value of Alibaba. 

Ever since, Ma has not been seen, leading some to fear for his safety. His video today, which was described as “happy and positive, and did not look like a hostage video” -- has helped Alibaba shares rebound by 8% 

LG prepares to exit the smartphone market

The Korea Herald reports that the CEO of LG sent out an internal memo to staff on Wednesday, hinting that LG is considering exiting the smart phone business. 

In a follow up to the Herald, a spokesperson for LG said : “Since the competition in the global market for mobile devices is getting fiercer, it is about time for LG to make a cold judgment and the best choice. The company is considering all possible measures, including sale, withdrawal and downsizing of the smartphone business.”

It’s an amazing fall for LG, who with HTC and Samsung were once the high flyers in Android phones. HTC has already ceased smartphones, which they blamed on spending too long chasing Windows phones. 

LG on the other hand, seemed to constantly misjudge the timing of features for its phones, and was constantly out-marketed by Korean rival Samsung. 

Increasingly, LG has looked to crazy gimmicks to market it’s phones, see roll up displays and that weird wing phone. But when was the last time you saw an LG phone in the wild? 

Qanon followers struggle to cope with Inauguration day 

Axios dove into the Qanon private groups and message threads to see how followers of Q are dealing with the inauguration of Joe Biden. 

Overall the message boards were a mixture of anger and disappointment that “Trump did not black out U.S. communications networks and send in the military to arrest...

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

US Government weighs in on Media Code

In a submission to the parliamentary inquiry to the new Media Code, that would force Facebook and Google to pay for news aggregated on their websites, the US government described the proposed legislation as:

unreasonable, impractical, “fundamentally imbalanced” and could run counter to the US-Australia free trade agreement, The Guardian reports.

The US position is the Media code may do “undue harm”, and seems to “unfairly attack” just two companies, Facebook and Google. They ask the Australian government to put faith in “market forces” to sort it all out. 

To be fair, the code does target just two companies, but both are effective monopolies in their field, so there’s not a lot of market force to challenge them… 

Anyway, hopefully this is the last time we need to talk about the code, due to be discussed in parliament again this Friday, until next week… 

Facebook did something it promised it wouldn't do 

I know it’s hard to believe, but Facebook has been caught ignoring its own rules again. 

In the run-up to the 2020 election, Facebook brought in a bunch of “emergency” measures to prevent people from using the platform to spread misinformation or coordinate violence.

One such measure was to stop promoting private political groups to users. Zuckerberg testified under oath last October saying the company had stopped promoting political groups, and the company made the claim again in a January 11th blog post. 

Despite Facebook's promise, the markup has found that the company continued to recommend political groups to its users throughout December and January. Trump voters were most targeted with 25% of all Trump voters.

In this study, receiving suggestions to join groups, like, “Rudy Giuliani's common sense group” and another simply called “storm the capitol.” 

The study was based on users who have downloaded the Markup’s browser extension that shows how Facebook is targeting its users. 

You may recall that Facebook wanted to shut down this research, because it said it violated Facebook's Terms of Service. 

Netflix has stunned Wall Street with a massive quarter 

The streaming giant added more than 8 million new subscribers worldwide.

You may recall that wall street was a little disappointed in Netflix last quarter.

While the company had grown throughout 2020 due to the pandemic. It was spending a hell of a lot of money as well. Investors were hoping that Netflix would rein in its spending.

It hasn't done that, but it's created so much wealth that it doesn't really need to. Netflix has even hinted at a share buy back based on its profits. 

As we mentioned last week, Netflix has over 70 movies premiering this year on the platform, which will no doubt go down well while cinemas remain closed.

And finally, Ben Thompson of strategic theory has a long read on Intel's future 

In his newsletter, Ben explains the last 20 years of Intel chips and how they did very very well in Google's data centers and, therefore, many other...

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Intel’s new CEO is spooked by Apple’s M1 chip

Last week, CES announcements were dominated by laptops running chips from AMD and ARM. Intel was still inside many PCs and laptops, but the headlines went to Intel’s rivals… 

Amid the cover of CES, Intel’s CEO resigned. Intel’s new CEO, Pat Gelsinger doesn’t start his new role until February, but he attended an all hands meeting yesterday where he told Intel employees 

“We have to deliver better products to the PC ecosystem than any possible thing that a lifestyle company in Cupertino [makes]. We have to be that good, in the future.”

It’s a noble goal, but feels like one of those quotes that could haunt Gelsinger to his grave…  

Speaking of Apple’s M1 Chips… 

Apple rumour king, Mark Gurman had a raft of Apple product rumours over the weekend, involving said M1 chip 

Gurman says we can expect to see new M1 based iMacs in the coming months, with smaller bezels and a more streamlined look, based on a more powerful variant of the M1 chip 

That new chip is also expected in new 14” and 16” Macbook Pros - but for Apple fans the big news is Gurman expects these laptops to reintroduce Magsafe, and ditch the controversial touchbar. 

Finally, Gurman predicts a new mini Mac Pro and to go with it, a new retina monitor with a more realistic price point, than the current $8k XDR display 

Mac fans have commented and tweeted that this all sounds “too good to be true”... 

Your smartwatch knows you have covid before you do 

Smartwatches that continuously measure users' heart rates, skin temperature and other physiological markers can help spot coronavirus infections days before an individual is diagnosed.

Devices like the Apple Watch, Garmin and Fitbit watches can predict whether an individual is positive for COVID-19 even before they are symptomatic or the virus is detectable by tests, according to studies from Mount Sinai Health System in New York. 

A separate study from Stanford, in which participants wore a variety of different activity trackers from Garmin, Fitbit, Apple found that 81% of coronavirus-positive participants experienced changes in their resting heart rates up to nine and a half days prior to the onset of symptoms.

Experts say wearable technology could play a vital role in stemming the pandemic and other communicable diseases.

And finally, it’s not even news at this stage, but Covidsafe did not detect a single case during the recent Christmas clusters

This period includes the South Australian Parafield outbreak starting in mid November, clusters in NSW on the Northern Beaches and Berala, and community transmission cases in Victoria.

A spokesperson for The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Victoria said that from 14 November, out of the 14 cases that had the app, it identified zero new contacts through the COVIDSafe data.

_________

If you have questions or comments for the show, you can find us on Twitter @peterwells and @tessbennett - or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts with feedback. 

Thanks for listening, and we’ll speak to you tomorrow

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.