Week 100 News Roundup – Google & EU, Facebook at 2 Billion, Amazon Echo Show Reviews

This week’s News Roundup episode focused on three major news items, plus one smaller related one. First up, we discuss the European Commission’s action against Google over Google Shopping integration in search, including a 2.4 billion Euro fine. Secondly, we discuss Facebook’s announcement of 2 billion monthly active users and its significance, as well as a subtle shift recently in Facebook’s focus. In the context of those two items about giant companies, we also talk briefly about the Canadian Supreme Court’s ruling that Google needs to take down links in search to IP-infringing product listings not just in Canada but globally and the ramifications of that ruling. Lastly, we discuss both the formal reviews released this week of Amazon’s Echo Show and Jan’s own first impressions on using the device for a couple of days.

As always, you’ll find links to these stories and other things we discussed underneath the SoundCloud player embedded below.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

  • Google & EU:
    • Jan’s Tech Narratives piece (no paywall): https://www.technarratives.com/2017/06/27/eu-fines-google-e2-4bn-2-7bn-over-favoring-google-shopping-in-search-results/
    • The EU’s announcement: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-1784_en.htm
  • Facebook’s 2 Billion:
    • Jan’s Tech Narratives piece: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/06/27/facebook-hits-2-billion-monthly-active-users/
    • Jan’s longer blog post (no paywall): https://medium.com/beyond-devices/facebooks-first-second-and-third-billions-2dffc63e20e7
  • Canadian Supreme Court ruling against Google:
    • CNET article: https://www.cnet.com/news/google-must-yank-search-results-globally-says-canada-court/
  • Amazon Echo Show reviews:
    • Jan’s review:
      https://medium.com/beyond-devices/five-thoughts-on-the-amazon-echo-show-86de415ac632
    • Tech Narratives piece: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/06/26/★-amazon-echo-show-reviews-suggest-solid-performance-limitations-creepy-factor/
    • Techmeme: http://www.techmeme.com/170626/p8#a170626p8

Additionally:

  • Jan mentioned the new Tech Narratives Podcast, which offers a daily roundup of the big tech news on weekdays. You can find it on SoundCloud here, iTunes here, and Overcast here, and which should be available in many other podcast apps too.

As ever, we welcome your feedback via Twitter (@jandawson / @aaronmiller), the website (podcast.beyonddevic.es), or email (jan@jackdawresearch.com).

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. You can reach the individual hosts on Twitter (@jandawson@aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast. And we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes or in your podcast app of choice.

Week 100 QotW – Voice and Amazon

This is our Question of the Week episode for this week, with our News Roundup to follow on Friday. This week’s question is “Is Voice the Next Big User Interface, and is Amazon Really Winning? ” The question comes from the prevailing narrative in the media, which often seems to hold both that voice is going to be the user interface that replaces current ones like touch screens and smartphones, and that Amazon is dominating that voice interface market. We pour some cold water on both assertions and use survey and other data to evaluate the true state of the market, what’s really going on, and whether anyone is really “winning”.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson@aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. You can reach the individual hosts on Twitter (@jandawson@aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast. And we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes or in your podcast app of choice.

Week 99 News Roundup – Uber Changes, Amazon Whole Foods, New Xbox, Apple TV Execs, Gmail Scanning

This is our first episode for two weeks, as Jan’s been traveling, and since Aaron is now busy this is a solo News Roundup from Jan on some of the big news stories from the last two weeks. On the agenda today are all the big Uber news including the Holder Report and the resignation of Travis Kalanick as CEO; Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods; a new Xbox from Microsoft; the hiring of two former Sony TV execs by Apple; and an end to email scanning for the purposes of targeting ads by Gmail.

As always, you’ll find links to these stories and other things we discussed underneath the SoundCloud player embedded below.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

  • Uber:
    • Holder investigation: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/06/13/★-uber-investigation-recommends-many-changes-travis-kalanick-takes-leave-of-absence/
    • Emil Michael leaves: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/06/12/uber-svp-emil-michael-leaves-company-and-board-gets-a-new-female-member-from-nestle/
    • Travis Kalanick resigns:
    https://www.technarratives.com/2017/06/21/★-uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-finally-does-the-right-thing-and-resigns/
  • Amazon-Whole Foods and related topics:
    • Amazon-Whole Foods:

    ★ Amazon Announces Intention to Buy Whole Foods for $13.7 billion


    • Walmart Bonobos:

    Walmart to Acquire Online Men’s Clothing Retailer Bonobos for $310 million


    • Amazon Prime Wardrobe:
    https://www.technarratives.com/2017/06/20/amazon-launches-prime-wardrobe-a-mix-of-home-try-on-and-clothing-box-service/

  • New Xbox: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/06/12/★-microsoft-debuts-xbox-one-x-smallest-and-most-powerful-xbox-at-es/
  • Apple Sony TV execs:
    https://www.technarratives.com/2017/06/16/apple-poaches-two-sony-tv-execs-to-lead-video-programming/
  • Gmail email scanning:
    https://www.technarratives.com/2017/06/23/gmail-will-stop-scanning-emails-to-target-ads-due-to-enterprise-confusion/

Additionally:

  • Episode 85 was our deep dive on Uber – find it in your podcast app or on the site at: podcast.beyonddevic.es/2017/03/episo…um-mac-vs-pc/

As ever, we welcome your feedback via Twitter (@jandawson / @aaronmiller), the website (podcast.beyonddevic.es), or email (jan@jackdawresearch.com).

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. You can reach the individual hosts on Twitter (@jandawson@aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast. And we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes or in your podcast app of choice.

Week 98 News Roundup – Uber Hires & Fires, Boston Dynamics Sold, Apple Business Chat & Gigabit iPhone

Following our deep dive on Apple’s WWDC news on Monday, here is our News Roundup episode for the week. We kick things off with a bunch of Uber news, much of it involving hiring and firing of executives and others, in a sign that Uber may finally be taking its cultural problems seriously. Secondly, we talk about Alphabet’s sale of its Boston Dynamics and Schaft robotics businesses to SoftBank. And third, we talk about two other bits of Apple news from later in the week: Apple’s launch of Business Chat, and news that it won’t include “gigabit” modems in its next iPhones.

As always, you’ll find links to these stories and other things we discussed underneath the SoundCloud player embedded below.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

As ever, we welcome your feedback via Twitter (@jandawson / @aaronmiller), the website (podcast.beyonddevic.es), or email (jan@jackdawresearch.com).

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. You can reach the individual hosts on Twitter (@jandawson@aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast. And we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes or in your podcast app of choice.

Week 98 QotW – WWDC 2017

This is our annual deep-dive episode on announcements from Apple’s WWDC developer conference. We handle the news from today’s keynote in more or less chronological order:

  • Introduction, tvOS, watchOS
  • macOS and new Mac hardware
  • iOS and iPad
  • HomePod.

We discuss each of the announcements and share our thoughts and what we think the implications and prospects are for the products announced.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson@aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. You can reach the individual hosts on Twitter (@jandawson@aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast. And we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes or in your podcast app of choice.

Week 97 News Roundup – Essential Phone, Nest Cam IQ, Apple AI Chip and More

This is our News Roundup episode for the week. Our three topics this time around were the Essential Phone and related products and services announced by Android creator Andy Rubin; the Nest Cam IQ announced by Nest; and a set of minor news items regarding Apple, including a report from late last week about a dedicated AI chip, another that manufacturing has begun on Apple’s home speaker; and two press releases from Apple around Swift Playgrounds and $70 billion paid out to developers cumulatively.

As always, you’ll find links to these stories and other things we discussed underneath the SoundCloud player embedded below.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

As ever, we welcome your feedback via Twitter (@jandawson / @aaronmiller), the website (podcast.beyonddevic.es), or email (jan@jackdawresearch.com).

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. You can reach the individual hosts on Twitter (@jandawson@aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast. And we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes or in your podcast app of choice.

Week 97 QotW – Mary Meeker’s Internet Deck

We skipped last week’s Question of the Week but it’s back this week with a deep dive on Kleiner Perkins analyst Mary Meeker’s annual deck on Internet trends, which was delivered at the Code Conference run by Recode. It’s a massive deck with 355 slides and 11 separate topics, but Aaron spent some time pulling out some of the most interesting insights on three topics: Mobile, China, and India, and shares both those and some thoughts on how to approach the deck with us. A link to the deck and video of Meeker’s presentation is in the show notes.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson@aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

  • Mary Meeker’s slide deck and presentation video are both available on the Recode website here.

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. You can reach the individual hosts on Twitter (@jandawson@aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast. And we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes or in your podcast app of choice.