Category Archives: Facebook

Week 118 News Roundup – Apple and Facebook Q3 2017 Earnings

We’re a couple of days late with this episode – Jan was traveling late last week, but we still wanted to cover Apple earnings, so we recorded first thing on Monday morning, and should still have another episode later this week. Apple earnings are the major focus for this episode, as we go through the various reporting segments in order of size by revenue. But we also spend a few minutes towards the end of the episode talking about Facebook’s earnings.

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 (Tech Narratives links unless otherwise stated):

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 115 News Roundup – Oculus, Apple/Spielberg, Movies Anywhere, Snapchat Context Cards, Twitter

This week’s episode kicks off with a discussion of Netflix’s price increases, and the context and reason for those. Next, we do a deep dive on Google’s event this week and all that it announced, from new Pixel phones to new members of the Home family and a few other products also unveiled. Lastly, we talk about the other event that happened on Wednesday this week, the launch of the first voice-enabled speaker from Sonos.

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 (Tech Narratives links unless otherwise stated):

  • Oculus:
    • Jan’s Take on Tech Narratives ($): https://www.technarratives.com/2017/10/11/★-oculus-announces-199-standalone-headset-other-hardware-and-software-news/
    • Oculus: https://www.oculus.com/blog/pioneering-the-frontier-of-vr-introducing-oculus-go-plus-santa-cruz-updates/
  • Apple/Spielberg:
    • Jan’s Take on Tech Narratives ($): https://www.technarratives.com/2017/10/10/apple-signs-deal-for-reboot-of-spielbergs-1980s-series-amazing-stories/
    • Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-signs-content-deal-with-steven-spielberg-1507656455
  • Movies Anywhere:
    • Jan’s Take on Tech Narratives ($):
      https://www.technarratives.com/2017/10/12/disney-warner-sony-21st-cf-universal-join-movies-anywhere-digital-locker-service/
    • Variety: http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/movies-anywhere-launches-with-joint-studio-backing-1202587915/
  • Snapchat Context Cards:
    • Jan’s Take on Tech Narratives ($): https://www.technarratives.com/2017/10/10/★-snapchat-adds-context-cards-for-ride-sharing-restaurant-booking-other-services/
    • [contact-form][contact-field label=”Name” type=”name” required=”true” /][contact-field label=”Email” type=”email” required=”true” /][contact-field label=”Website” type=”url” /][contact-field label=”Message” type=”textarea” /][/contact-form]

      Snap: https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/post/introducing-context-cards/

    • Jan’s Techpinions piece: https://techpinions.com/google-and-the-disintermediation-of-search/51316
  • Twitter Abuse:
    • Jan’s Takes on Tech Narratives ($):

      Twitter Demonstrates its Inconsistency in Policing Abuse Again


      https://www.technarratives.com/2017/10/13/prominent-women-launch-twitter-boycott-on-friday-over-abuse-issues/

    • TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/12/twitter-breaks-silence-on-mcgowan-suspension/
    • USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/10/12/rose-mcgowans-harvey-weinstein-tweets-got-her-suspended-fromsome-women-and-men-pledge-boycott-twitte/760130001/

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 111 News Roundup – Facebook Ad Targeting, Amazon Buying Channels, Apple Roundup

This week’s news was rather dominated by Apple, but we did still find some other things to talk about in our News Roundup episode. We kick things off with news that Facebook (as well as Google and Twitter) has been offering advertisers the option of targeting users by some pretty unpleasant terms including several antisemitic ones. Secondly, we talk about news from NBC that Amazon is looking at buying several less-watched TV channels from big traditional TV companies that are looking to offload them. And we couldn’t help but cover some of the Apple news that emerged later in the week, both related and unrelated to Tuesday’s announcements.

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 (Tech Narratives links unless otherwise stated):

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 106 News Roundup – Google Memo, Uber Board, Netflix/Disney, Facebook Watch, CR & Surface, SoundCloud

With Aaron away, this is a solo episode of the News Roundup by Jan. Because there’s only one of us talking, there are more topics than usual on this week’s episode: six, to be precise. These are: the controversial Google memo; Uber board shenanigans; Netflix and Disney’s announcements this week; Facebook’s new Watch tab; Consumer Reports’ decision to withdraw its recommendation of two Surface models from Microsoft; and the conclusion of the recent SoundCloud funding saga.

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 (Tech Narratives links unless otherwise stated):

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 105 News Roundup – GoPro & Fitbit Earnings, FB Hardware, iPhone Leaks, Market Share Numbers

This is the week’s News Roundup episode. We’d hoped to have a Question of the Week for you too, but we had a technical hitch in recording and it’ll be out at some point in the next couple of weeks instead, with a deep dive on Apple earnings as usual next week. For today, we cover two other companies’ earnings: Twitter and Amazon. Both offered more of the same, albeit in very different ways, with Twitter seeing more revenue declines and anemic user growth, while Amazon posted rapid growth but a big drop in margins. We also talk about Apple’s culling of the iPod line and the iPod’s historical significance, and Adobe’s announcement of the end of life for Flash.

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 (Tech Narratives links unless otherwise stated):

Jan also mentioned his recent podcast episode on Samsung with Bernard Leong on Analyse Asia – that episode can be found here.

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 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 91 QotW – Facebook and Innovation

This is the Question of the Week episode for this week, and the News Roundup episode will be up tomorrow.

This week, Jan attended F8 and our Question of the Week is “What’s the state of innovation at Facebook?” We use Facebook’s F8 announcements and presentations as a lens to look at how Facebook is innovating both in the products it’s creating today and in the research and development work it’s doing over the longer term. We also talk about what Facebook needs to do differently.

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.

Week 89 News Roundup – Apple GPU and Mac, Comcast Mobile, Facebook Content, Samsung Results

Here is this week’s News Roundup episode, which is a solo effort from Jan as Aaron is traveling. This week, we cover:

  • Two unusual announcements of future plans from Apple: its intention to build its own GPU, and its roadmap for pro Macs
  • Comcast’s announcement of its wireless service, Xfinity Mobile
  • Facebook’s testing of a tab surfacing recommended content not shared by your friends
  • Samsung’s preliminary financial results for Q1 2017.

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:

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.

Episode 85 – Uber’s Ethical Vacuum, Mac vs PC

This week’s News Roundup covers the Wikileaks CIA leak on device hacking and the misreporting that’s been happening around it this week; two “fake news” stories – Facebook’s commencement of its flagging of fake news and Google’s failure to surface true news in its search snippets feature; and reports that Nest is working on some new smart home gear.

Our Question of the Week is “Can Uber be saved from itself?” Uber has been through the ringer the last few weeks as a result of a set of mishaps largely of its own making, but there’s also a long history of questionable, immoral, and illegal behavior as well as poor treatment of both employees and drivers at Uber. Aaron walks us through the ethical shortcomings that lead to behavior like this, and how Uber could change for the better, based on experience from other companies and his expertise as an ethics expert.

Our Third Segment is a conversation about the narrative that seems to be emerging about Windows PCs gaining on the Mac and to some extent becoming “cool” based on a few recent articles. We have a brief discussion about how much of this is real and how much of it is confined to a narrow set of users who happen to be influential.

Our Weekly Pick is a TV show recommended by Jan.

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.

Episode 83 – State of Online Advertising, US Wireless Market Update

Our News Roundup this week covers former Uber employee Susan Fowler’s revelations about how she was treated as a female engineer at the company, and the subsequent announcement of an investigation by a semi-independent panel; Waze’s expansion into becoming a carpooling service; and Microsoft’s launch of Skype Lite, an innovative low-bandwidth version of Skype for emerging markets which launched in India this week.

Our Question of the Week is “What is the true state of online advertising?” We’ve all heard lots about Google and Facebook’s massive revenues from online advertising, and their increasing dominance of the space, but we’ve also seen recent news about increasing calls for independent audits of their advertising metrics, and questions from big advertisers about the effectiveness of online advertising. So Aaron takes us through some of the complex dynamics, challenges, and prospects for the online advertising industry and the potential for companies like Snap, Twitter, and Yahoo/AOL under Verizon.

Our Third Segment is an update on the US wireless market following last week’s announcements by Verizon and AT&T that they will begin offering unlimited plans broadly after several years of trying to kill them off. We talk about the likely impact on these companies of offering these plans and potentially opening the floodgates to higher usage, as well as the competitive impact on the two smaller carriers, Sprint and T-Mobile.

Our Weekly Pick is a puzzle app recommended by Jan.

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.