Google has fired 28 employees for political protests yesterday. A well-known coding school has been fined by the CFPB. Game emulators come to the iPhone. TikTok’s Instagram clone is rolling out. Has Sony perfecting Mini LED TVs? And the Atlas robot has been reborn in a new body! Links: Google fires 28 employees after sit-in protest over Israel cloud contract (The Verge) Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fines BloomTech for false claims (TechCrunch) Third-party iPhone app store AltStore PAL is now live in Europe (The Verge) TikTok Notes starts rolling out as a new rival to In ..read more

T-Mobile and Verizon employees are being offered bribes for SIM swaps. How much coding copilots have taken over. How much would you value Mistral or Cohere in the LLM race? How popular has Airchat gotten? How big has Amazon Prime gotten? And one of the original modern robots is being retired. Links: T-Mobile, Verizon workers get texts offering $300 for SIM swaps (BleepingComputer) Microsoft’s AI Copilot Is Starting to Automate the Coding Industry (Bloomberg) Mistral, an OpenAI Rival in Europe, in Talks to Raise Capital at a $5 Billion Valuation (The Information) Invitation-Only ..read more

Microsoft continues to spread its AI bets. Disney wants to bring back tv channels. YouTube is not gonna let you block ads. What did Humane get wrong with the AI Pin? And can Limitless do any better with its AI Pendant? Sponsors: MackWeldon.com, promocode ride YahooFinance.com Links: Microsoft to invest $1.5bn in Abu Dhabi AI group G42 (Financial Times) To Keep Viewers, Disney Plans a New Streaming Concept: Old-Style TV Channels (The Information) YouTube cracking down on third-party apps that block ads (9to5Google) YouTube Accounted for Nearly 10% of All TV Viewing in March ..read more

Really looks like high-end re-shoring of chip tech is happening, and happening soon. What if satellite telephony becomes a table-stakes smartphone feature? Get ready for the bitcoin halving. Does anyone have invites to Airchat? And get ready for 4TB, yes, TB, SD cards. Sponsors: Shopify.com/ride ArcticWolf.com/techmeme Links: Samsung boosts Joe Biden’s chipmaking ambitions with Texas plant upgrade (Financial Times) Exclusive: Google Pixel 9 series to get emergency satellite connectivity, new modem (Android Authority) Bitcoin ‘Halving’ Will Deal a $10 Billion Blow to Crypto Miners ..read more

Really looks like high-end re-shoring of chip tech is happening, and happening soon. What if satellite telephony becomes a table-stakes smartphone feature? Get ready for the bitcoin halving. Does anyone have invites to Airchat? And get ready for 4TB, yes, TB, SD cards. Sponsors: Shopify.com/ride ArcticWolf.com/techmeme Links: Samsung boosts Joe Biden’s chipmaking ambitions with Texas plant upgrade (Financial Times) Exclusive: Google Pixel 9 series to get emergency satellite connectivity, new modem (Android Authority) Bitcoin ‘Halving’ Will Deal a $10 Billion Blow to Crypto Miners ..read more

Now a big business intelligence company has been breached. Do you get the sense that people are laying the groundwork for something? Google discontinues a product, but this time, its probably our fault. M4 chips are coming from Apple. OpenAI continues to be the drama queen of Silicon Valley. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Links: US government urges Sisense customers to reset credentials after hack (TechCrunch) Google One VPN will be discontinued, Pixel VPN remains with upgrade coming (9to5Google) X’s Premium users can no longer hide their blue checks (The Ve ..read more

Google has a ton of AI announces, including new Arm-based AI chips, utilizing Google search in Gemini, and more. They also released their own Find My network. Microsoft is confident they can release chips that can best Apple Silicon. And maybe OpenAI DID train on YouTube videos after all. Everybody is desperate for data right now. Sponsors: 1Password.com/ride Links: Google Expands In-House Chip Efforts in Costly AI Battle (WSJ) Google Shows AI Model Is Enterprise-Ready After Gemini Mishaps (Bloomberg) Gmail adding voice input, Gemini for Google Chat, Meet ‘Translate for me,’ & ..read more

David Marcus comes on the pod to discuss what he's been working on since leaving Meta. Specificially: Lightspark, and efforts to expand the Lighting Network and bitcoin. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ..read more

Is Apple pivoting to home robotics now that the Apple Car project is dead? Is Google about to pivot to subscription based search? Why is X handing back blue checkmarks whether people want them or not? Why Amazon merchants are upset over return scams. And why the band Kiss might live forever. Sponsors: Kolide.com/ride Links: Apple Explores Home Robotics as Potential ‘Next Big Thing’ After Car Fizzles (Bloomberg) Google considers charging for AI-powered search in big change to business model (FT) X’s ‘complimentary’ Premium push gives people blue checks they didn’t ask for (Th ..read more

Have we just had a major breakthrough in Quantum Computing? The earthquake in Taiwan might lead to some chip issues. We don’t quite know yet. Amazon is retooling it’s Just Walk Out technology. Venture capitalists are having a hard time raising money. And in the last segment of the show, I actually break some news about Coinbase. Links: Microsoft and Quantinuum say they’ve ushered in the next era of quantum computing (TechCrunch) AI-generated songs are getting longer, not necessarily better (The Verge) Top musicians among hundreds warning against replacing human artists with AI  ..read more