Category Archives: Uber

Diversity, Episodes, Facebook, Google, Netflix, News Roundup, Surface, Uber

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.

Amazon, Apple, Episodes, Gaming, Google, Microsoft, News Roundup, Uber

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.

Alphabet, Apple, Boston Dynamics, Episodes, iMessage, News Roundup, SoftBank, Uber

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.

Apple, Episodes, Music, News Roundup, Spotify, Uber, Waymo

Week 95 News Roundup – Spotify Financials, Uber/Waymo Lawsuit, Apple Tidbits

This is our News Roundup episode for the week. Having discussed the week’s big Google news in the Question of the Week deep dive episode, this one covers the other tech news, including Spotify’s 2016 financials, developments in the Uber/Waymo lawsuit, and a grab bag of Apple news including its acquisition of Lattice Data, reports of Tim Cook wearing an Apple Watch-connected glucose monitor, and manufacturing iPhones in India.

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.

Amazon, Earnings, Episodes, News Roundup, Snapchat, Uber

Week 94 News Roundup – Amazon Echo Show, Snap Earnings, Uber’s Court Case

This is our News Roundup episode for the week, in which we discuss the announcement of Amazon’s Echo Show device with a screen; Snap’s first earnings as a public company; and Uber’s failure to have its court case with Waymo settled in arbitration and related news. Aaron’s away this week, so this is a solo effort from Jan.

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.

Apple, Assistants, AT&T, Autonomous Driving, Episodes, Health, LeEco, News Roundup, Samsung, Spectrum, T-Mobile, Uber

Week 90 News Roundup – Spectrum, Apple R&D, Uber Finances, Bixby Delay, LeEco

There won’t be a Question of the Week episode this week as we’ve both been busy. Here is this week’s News Roundup episode, in which we cover the following five topics in quick-fire order:

  • Spectrum news including the conclusion of the FCC’s spectrum auction and AT&T’s proposed purchase of Straight Path
  • Two pieces of news about Apple R&D efforts: it appeared on the California DMV’s list of companies with permission to test self-driving cars on public roads, and CNBC reported that it’s been working on glucose monitoring technology for several years
  • Uber released some of its finances for 2016 to Bloomberg, while The Information reported on a Lyft-hacking program called Hell Uber used to run, and the company’s PR head left
  • Samsung announced that its Bixby voice assistant won’t ship with the Galaxy S8 and S8+ when they’re released next week in the US
  • LeEco announced the end of its bid to acquire Vizio and the killing off of its EcoPass content service, and was also reported to have fallen far short of its revenue targets in the US last year.

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:

  • News stories we covered (Tech Narratives links):
    • FCC spectrum auction: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/13/t-mobile-dish-and-comcast-among-big-winners-in-fcc-spectrum-auction/
    • AT&T buys Straight Path: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/10/att-buys-straight-path-in-1-6-billion-deal-for-5g-arsenal-bloomberg/
    • Apple self-driving cars license: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/14/apple-receives-permission-to-test-autonomous-vehicles-in-california/
    • Apple glucose monitoring story: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/12/apple-has-been-working-on-glucose-monitoring-technology-for-diabetes-for-five-years/
    • Uber shares finances with Bloomberg: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/14/uber-shares-partial-flattering-financial-data-for-2016-with-bloomberg/
    • Uber’s Hell program: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/13/uber-had-a-program-called-hell-designed-to-undermine-lyft/
    • Uber PR head leaves: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/11/uber-comms-head-rachel-whetstone-is-departing-recode/
    • Samsung Bixby voice delay: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/11/samsung-says-bixby-voice-assistant-wont-ship-with-galaxy-s8-axios/
    • LeEco Vizio deal falls through: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/10/leecos-acquisition-of-vizio-officially-called-off-variety/
    • LeEco US sales fall short: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/10/leeco-is-said-to-miss-u-s-sales-forecasts-plan-more-job-cuts-bloomberg/
    • LeEco kills off content subscription: https://www.technarratives.com/2017/04/14/leeco-kills-ecopass-video-streaming-and-services-subscription-plan/

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.

Apple, Episodes, Facebook, Fake News, Google, Hacking, Mac, Microsoft, Nest, PCs, Uber, Wikileaks

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.

Advertising, AT&T, Episodes, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Sprint, T-Mobile, Uber, Verizon, Wireless

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.

2017, Alphabet, Apple, Episodes, Facebook, Microsoft, Predictions, Snapchat, Twitter, Uber

Episode 76 – 2017 Predictions and 2016 Predictions Review

This episode is all about predictions. First off, we review the predictions we made a year ago for 2016, including a raft of Apple-related predictions as well as some other company-specific ones and then some industry level forecasts. But most of the episode, from about 15 minutes onward, we focus on predictions for the year ahead. We again start with some company-specific predictions, concerning Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Uber, and Snapchat. But we also include some industry-level predictions again. As last year, the predictions are a mix of those where we feel we’re on solid ground, and those where we’re sticking our necks out a bit. This will be our last episode until sometime in the New Year, so happy holidays!

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.

2016, AirPods, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Episodes, Uber, Waymo, Yahoo

Episode 75 – 2016 Year in Review, AirPods

Our News Roundup this week covers three topics. We start with a second week in a row of Amazon news, this time the announcement of a drone-based delivery trial in Cambridge, England. Next, we discuss a couple of pieces of news about autonomous driving – Google’s restructuring of its self-driving car efforts into Waymo, a separate entity under the Alphabet umbrella, and Uber’s self-driving cab testing in San Francisco. Lastly, the news of yet another massive Yahoo hack.

Our usual Question of the Week segment this week becomes Questions of the Year, as our way of looking back on 2016. We answer a set of questions about the year that’s ending soon, from what surprised us the most this year to which companies we changed our minds about during the year. Next week, we’ll follow up with predictions for 2017 (and a review of last year’s predictions for 2016).

Our short third segment is a quick discussion of Apple’s delayed AirPods launch and the AirPods themselves, which Jan has been using this week.

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.