Category Archives: Google

Week 117 News Roundup – Amazon, Alphabet, Twitter, and Microsoft Earnings

This week’s episode is entirely devoted to Q3 2017 earnings reports which were released this week from four big companies: Amazon, Alphabet, Twitter, and Microsoft. We talk through the highlights of each company’s earnings, the strengths and weaknesses (and warning signs) and the broader competitive landscape around these companies. We’ll likely do a deep dive on Apple earnings among other things in our next episode.

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 116 News Roundup – Samsung Developer Conference, Pixel 2 Reviews, Netflix Earnings, iPhone Rumors

On this week’s News Roundup, we kick things off with Samsung’s Developer Conference and the announcements the company made there, which were more strategic and big picture in nature than most of its hardware announcements. Secondly, we talk about the reviews for Google’s Pixel 2 smartphones, which were published this week and were a surprisingly mixed bag, especially with regard to the displays on the larger phones. Third, we cover Netflix’s earnings, which kicked of the Q3 earnings season earlier this week, and lastly we talk about the two big sets of iPhone supply and sales rumors currently floating around.

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):

The piece I wrote about shutting down Tech Narratives (and about my other work) is 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 114 News Roundup – Netflix Price Increases, Google Launch, Sonos Event

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):

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 113 News Roundup – Amazon Event, Twitter 280, Ecosystem Wars, Google Shopping, Google Event Preview

Aaron is traveling this week, so this is a solo episode from Jan, which means it covers a little more ground than usual. We kick things off with the Amazon event this week and how to think about the announcements made there. Secondly, Jan talks about Twitter’s test of a 280-character limit for tweets, whether it’s a good idea, and what else it should be doing as well (or instead). Thirdly, we touch on a theme in the news this week, which is ecosystem wars between Amazon, Apple, and Google, and a variety of movements that were signaled by the various players over the last few days. Fourth, Jan talks about recent developments in Google’s EU Shopping case, and lastly he shares his thoughts on next week’s Google hardware event, and what we might see there.

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 112 News Roundup – Nest Announcements, Apple Reviews, Google-HTC

This week’s News Roundup episode focused on three news stories. We kicked things off with a discussion of Nest’s biggest set of announcements in recent memories and what it means for the smart home market. Next, we discussed the various reviews that came out for Apple’s new products this week. And lastly, we talked through Google’s investment in / acquisition of part of HTC’s smartphone business.

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 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 110 QotW – Bloomberg’s Mark Bergen on Alphabet and Google

As with our last Question of the Week episode, this one is an interview rather than a discussion between Aaron and Jan. This time around, Jan talks to Mark Bergen, who is the Alphabet and Google beat reporter at Bloomberg, and previously did the same job at Recode. As such, he’s one of the most knowledgeable people out there about what’s going on both at Google and the broader set of Alphabet companies, and has lots of interesting thoughts about all of them. We talk about the Alphabet structure and how that’s working out for the company, some of the other bets including Google Fiber, Verily, Calico, and DeepMind, as well as the non-core parts of Google itself like the enterprise cloud business. We also talk through some of the recent political flak Google is taking from both sides of the aisle and what the company’s prospects are long term.

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 links relevant to today’s discussion:

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 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 103 News Roundup – Netflix Earnings, Lyft Self-Driving System, Google Glass, Twitter Abuse

Here’s our News Roundup episode for the week, with a deeper dive on a few of the big news items from the past few days. We kick off earnings season with a discussion of Netflix earnings and what if anything it has to worry about in future. Secondly, we discuss Lyft’s announcement that it’s working on a self-driving system, as a complement to recent announcements on working with partners on this area. Third, we talk about the rebirth of Google Glass as an enterprise and industrial product, and the broader implications for related products like Microsoft’s HoloLens and AR headsets in general. We wrap things up with a discussion of abuse and harassment on Twitter, which continues to be a problem despite the progress the company touted this week.

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 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.