The Helpdesk

Right to disconnect Victoria Police have won the right to disconnect as part of the union's most recent negotiations. Apart from emergencies, they're not to be contacted outside of work hours unless it's for a welfare check. Other unions are likely to follow - with work increasingly encroaching on our home lives, clocking off is getting harder. Porter appointment to tech portfolio A follow up on the PM's cabinet reshuffle last month, that saw Christian Porter, the former attorney general moved to the Industry, Science and Technology portfolio Tech industry leaders have told the AFR they won't meet with the minister, invite him to things and will think twice about accepting any government grants. The principle complaint is the appointment is damaging to a sector that's working to improve its gender diversity Other criticism includes: he lacks experience in technology and would be too focused on saving his political career and a defamation fight over the ABC's coverage of the allegations, to properly lead the sector. It's always tricky for business to comment on government, and they usually have a diplomatic line about just sticking to their business… and in this case many industry leaders declined to comment, because of their ties to the government.Facebook Information belonging to more than 7.3 million Australians was leaked online as part of a massive data dump of 533 million facebook records. Facebook says the data was scraped due to a vulnerability that the company discovered and patched in 2019. The leaked data contains phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birth dates, bios and email addresses. It does not contain password information.But that information can be used by cybercriminals to impersonate someone online or get them to hand over passwords or credit card information. No company should be able to have that much information that can be accessed through a single exploit. Andrew Laming The Guardian reports Liberal National MP Andrew Laming operates more than 30 Facebook pages and profiles under the guise of community groups to promote the LNP and attack opponents. For example, there's the Redland Bay Bulletin – which uses a similar name to the local news site the Redland City Bulletin – was set up by Laming in October 2015 claiming to be a “community group”.None of the pages include political authorisation disclosures.According to the Australian Electoral Commission, political authorisation is required for information intended to influence the way electors vote in a federal election. Those rules were extended to include social media in 2016. The MP is is on leave from parliament to undertake empathy counselling following complaints about his behaviour towards women,Canva valuation Australian start-up Canva is now valued at almost $20 billion australian dollars after raising $US71 million.This makes it one of the fastest growing The milestone comes with Canva on track to turn over $US500 million this financial year, a 130 per cent... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lots of Uber newsOpal card to extend to Uber, taxis and share bikesNSW is letting commuters pay for Ubers, Lime bikes, taxis and ferries with their digital Opal card in a new trial FYI - uber pool is back in Sydney & Perth How to cut costs on your ride: Uber pools riders back together For anyone hoping 2021 would see a return to travel… WWDC 2021 officially announced, iOS 15 expectedWWDC was one of the better virtual confs i attended last year WWDC is Apple's developer conference, where they announce the developer beta of the latest operating systems for the Mac, iPhone, Watch and iPad The focus is on software usually, but Apple often announces hardware too, while the world's media is paying attention Do you have any changes you'd like to see in software? LinkedIn Making a Clubhouse Rival LinkedIn confirms it's working on a Clubhouse rival, tooNFTs go missingPeople's Expensive NFTs Keep Vanishing. This Is Why See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

SBS reporter Calliste Weitenberg has been leading a double life online. She spent six months creating a fake wellness influencer Mia Wilde aka @ThatCoastalGirl all in the name of uncovering exactly how the influencer economy operates. On today's show, Calliste talks us through the highs and lows on being an influencer, how much fake followers cost and what happens when you dupe a marketing agency. You can catch her full series of Like, Subscribe, Follow 10pm Tuesdays on The Feed, or anytime on SBS on-demand. Read about the experiment here. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nine Entertainment is still reeling from a cyber attack that hit the company's headquarters over the weekend, crippling some operations and stopping shows from going to air. So far the source of the suspected ransomware attack has not been identified. Scott Morrison's didn't win any fans from the tech sector with his cabinet reshuffle yesterday. As James Riley, editor of InnovationAus puts it: the PM has buried the two most controversial Cabinet members by giving them tech-heavy portfolios. Christian Porter has been moved to the Industry, Science and Technology portfolio. While Linda Reynolds becomes the Minister for Government Services and the NDIS. Remember COVIDsafe? Well, turns out it's still around and costing about $100,000 per month to run. Energy companies are working out how to deal with the strain electric vehicles will put on the grid. Origin energy is rolling out 150 “smart chargers” to electric vehicle owners that will coordinate times that their cars are recharged with periods of surplus solar supply. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lots of Slack news Slack now lets you DM anyone Slack is starting to roll out a new feature that lets anyone using the service DM each other.Announced back in October, Slack Connect DMs will let Slack users privately message employees outside of their company.This new DM feature builds on Slack's work with Connect, which started appearing last year.Slack quickly removes message invites in its new DM feature over harassment concernsThe company says in response to concerns the feature could be used to send abusive messages or harassment with relative ease, it's now disabling the option to send a message alongside an invite.Slack is getting new audio features Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield says the company will soon introduce new audio features; Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield said his company would soon add a range of audio features for all users of its work chat app.Terfield said that a feature for leaving audio messages, similar to a function available in messaging apps like Telegram, was available in a beta test.He also said that Slack would soon offer a feature akin to the audio-chat app Clubhouse, which allows users to drop into rooms for conversations without requiring scheduling a meeting or initiating a call.Terfield also said Slack would soon get an ephemeral video message feature commonly known as "Stories," similar to a message format originated by Snapchat and imitated by many, from Instagram to LinkedIn.Amazon has a poop problem The pandemic-induced boom in online shopping has come with an unhygienic side effect. The Intercept reports, Amazon's delivery drivers in the US often don't have anywhere to go to the bathroom during their shifts. Leaving them to pee in bottles or defecate in bags.Amazon, in a fight with Bernie Sanders on Twitter, said this an urban legendBut documents from The Intercept show management is aware of the problem. This story has some amazing passive aggressive emails from management to their drivers… Intel to Spend $20 Billion on 2 New Chip Factories in Arizona.Intel announced massive changes in its "Intel Unleashed: Engineering the Future" webcast last weekNew Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger announced plans for Intel to produce processors for other companies.There are three components of this vision; Intel's in-house manufacturing, Intel using third-party foundries for manufacturing, and the company's new Intel Foundry Services that will produce chips for other companies.Intel expects to build on its existing relationships with third-party foundries, which today manufacture a range of Intel technology - from communications and connectivity to graphics and chipsets.To deliver this vision, Intel is establishing a new standalone business unit, Intel Foundry Services, led by semiconductor industry veteran Dr. Randhir Thakur, who will report directly to Gelsinger.That's a major shift for Intel that could see the company making chips for some of its biggest... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

FRIDAY LINKS:WeWork tells investors it lost $3.2bn last year as it woos them for Spac deal WeWork is back and plans to go public via a SPAC merger. The paperwork shows the company lost $3.2B last year, which compares with a $3.5B loss in 2019. occupancy rates fell to 47 percent at the close of 2020, a drop of 72 percent from the start of the year. Will there be a co-working comeback? Richard Stallman returns to the Free Software Foundation after resigning in 2019“Stallman also had a long history of iffy behaviour that often crossed the line between aloof nerd and straight up fuckwit.” The Sizzle… And a number of FSF members have asked he be removed again Free software advocates seek removal of Richard Stallman and entire FSF boardFacebook is cool with you threatening to kill a public person Facebook guidelines allow users to call for death of public figuresApple Wants Epic Games' Australian Lawsuit Thrown Out of Federal CourtAmong many arguments made, Apple argued that the cases between Epic and Apple are so similar in both California and Australia that it should be settled in the jurisdiction originally agreed upon by the two companies.Super Nintendo World review: sensory overloadThis is the first place i want to go to overseas OnePlus Watch has 14-day battery, $159 price tagNot running Android Wear, but a proprietary system Nintendo's fancy new switch still using off the shelf products - upscaling OLED Nintendo Switch reportedly uses new Nvidia chip with DLSS supportWhy does the homepod have temperature and humidity sensors? HomePod mini reportedly includes room temperature and humidity sensor, could be enabled through software updateButterfly keyboard class action Judge certifies class action lawsuit against Apple over infamous MacBook butterfly keyboardTed Lasso wins writers guild Ted Lasso wins big at Writers Guild... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Thursday 25th Microsoft in talks to buy Discord for more than $US10 billion Discord and Microsoft Said to Discuss Deal That Could Top $10 BillionPopular chat client Discord is potentially up for sale, with Microsoft a potential buyer, according to those in the know The Slack-like service is incredibly popular with gamers, and could easily slot into Microsoft's Xbox gaming environment, on consoles and PCsMicrosoft has another Slack-like chat product in Teams, but that has never really taken off outside of the enterprise - so there wouldn't be much overlap between the two clientsThe only other tech giant that seems like a suitable purchaser would be Amazon, who could roll Discord into its Twitch game streaming service. Or, this could all just be rumours to get Discord re-valued for an upcoming IPO Airtasker goes public The platform you turn to when none of your friends will help you move is worth more than $400 million dollars.Airtasker listed on the ASX on Tuesday with a market valuation of $255.4 million. By the end of the day, it was valued at $412.5 million. CEO Tim Fung, who co-founded the company in 2012, held onto his 12.7 per cent stake in the business through the IPO. His share is now worth more than $52 million. One of the biggest things the company has going for it? Name recognition. In 2020, 99% of Airtasker's new customers came from non-paid marketing channels. That means they don't need to pay the Google & Facebook tax. YouTube to auto-detect products in videos, serve related linksYoutube has a new experimental feature to detect products within a video, and generate links to the websites The system is a bit of a twofer - training Google's algorithms on image analysis, and also providing more ways to monetize youtube content. This seems to be the holy grail of tv marketing, I've read similar experiments over the years from network television, smart tvs, Instagram and even youtube in the past Youtube is already messy enough, do we really want more links and overlays in the service? Prince Harry appointed chief impact officer at Silicon Valley start-up Fresh from his separation from the Royal family, Prince Harry is sprucing up his resume. The royal has been appointed the chief impact officer of BetterUp, a Silicon Valley start-up that provides coaching and mental health assistance for corporate employees.Harry, who has been vocal about his struggles with mental health, used the company's app prior to joining it.In his new role he will “focus on driving advocacy and awareness for mental fitness” and “diversify Betterup's community of coaches and customers through strategic planning”Which famous person would you hire for your start-up and what role would you give them? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to The Helpdesk for Wednesday March 24.We all consult Dr Google from time to time. But what's the best way to manage your mental health online? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to The Helpdesk for Tuesday March 23.The evidence is mounting that Twitter will be adding an “undo tweet” feature. The ability to take back tweets has also shown up on a survey asking Twitter users about features they'd be willing to pay for, as well as in the code for the app, and CNET received confirmation today from Twitter that it is, in fact, being tested.More Twitter news: the company sent out a survey to random users asking if leaders should face more, less, or the same amount of scrutiny as other accounts and if it's okay for the platform to ban a sitting president or prime minister. Apple has announced the executives who it wants to take the stand in the case against Epic, and the lineup is, well, Epic. Plus take a trip into Apple's history… Venture capital company Spark Capital decided to sever ties with Dispo, the app it just gave a truckload of cash to. Got a tech question you want answered? Get in touch at Thehelpdesk.com.au See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to The Helpdesk for Monday, March, 22. Will Apple stand up to China on privacy? Apple warns Chinese apps not to dodge its new privacy rulesZuck changes his tune of Apple's anti-tracking features - kinda. Zuckerberg: Facebook could be in “stronger position” after Apple tracking change Instagram wants your kids to share pics of their babycinos. 'A bad idea all round': Facebook to launch Instagram for kids Streaming services spend big on US sports. NFL media rights deal 2023-2033: Amazon gets exclusive Thursday NightGot a tech question? Get in touch at thehelpdesk.com.au See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to The Helpdesk for Friday, 19th March. Today we catch up on all the stories we missed this week: Federal Liberal MP calls for EV support, ban on fossil fuel cars by mid-2030s Elon Musk crowns himself ‘Technoking' of TeslaAirPods and Apple Watch continue to dominate wearables market but the HomePod has been discontinued Twitter Hacker Pleads Guilty in Florida CourtJudge rules Google has to face lawsuit that claims it tracks users even in Incognito modeGoogle announces new Nest Hub with Soli 'Sleep Sensing'CBA launches Afterpay rival Almost a fifth of Facebook employees are now working on VR and AR: report See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Vaccine booking website frustrates users GP clinics were inundated with phone calls from people trying to book their Covid-10 vaccine yesterday after the federal government's online booking website failed to launch. Bookings opened for vaccinations for people in the 1b group yesterday, but the government's booking page wouldn't let anyone actually make a booking online. The Guardian reports, “the booking website told them to call their nearest vaccinating clinic to book an appointment, receptionists had told them they could not take any bookings as they has not yet been told by the government how many doses they would be receiving.” Many of those people waiting on hold were in their 80s. At a press conference, Health Minister Greg Hunt insisted the website had not been rushed and was always scheduled to be launched on Wednesday.There are a lot of moving parts here… FYI the vaccine booking website – accessed via the Department of Health's eligibility toolInstagram Creeps BlockedInstagram rolling out message restrictions to protect young usersInstagram now bans adults from messaging teenagers who don't follow them. The app will also now show “safety prompts” to teens messaged by adults “exhibiting potentially suspicious behaviour,” offering options to report or block the users. Instagram is going to give safety notices to teens making sure they know they can restrict, report, and block users.The prompt also gives reminders that say “Don't feel pressured to respond,” “Only share with people you trust,” and “Your safety comes first.”Amazon's newest robot cathedral Amazon is building a colossal warehouse in Sydney's West and it is ready for the robots to move in. The fulfillment centre will be Amazon's biggest in the southern hemisphere, covering 200,000 square metres over four levels, it is the size of 24 football fields.It will be Amazon's fifth fulfilment centre in Australia, but the first one with the really good robots. The robots basically do all the heavy lifting and moving the inventory inside the building, and the humans do the picking and the packing. Expected to be completed for the Black Friday sales in November, and will house 11 million items.Is this enough for Amazon to go from quietly competing to absolutely crushing retail in Australia? Wikimedia wants big tech to payWikipedia Is Finally Asking Big Tech to Pay UpFor years now, Wikipedia has made freely available a snapshot of everything that appears on the site every two weeks—a so-called “data dump” for usersToday, the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates the Wikipedia project in more than 300 languages as well as other wiki-projects, is announcing the launch of a commercial product, Wikimedia Enterprise. The new service is designed for the sale and efficient delivery of Wikipedia's content directly to these online behemoths (and eventually, to smaller companies too).seeking the reaction of Wikipedia's... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tinder will soon let you run a background check on a potential dateTinder is working with a non-profit called Garbo to help customers find out if their potential dating partner has a criminal record.How does it work? Garbo allows people to find out whether someone they are interacting with has a criminal record or other court actions, such as a restraining order with only their name & phone number. The service is expected to be integrated into Tinder later this year BUT Hack, which has been following the Tinder story, have confirmed the feature will not available in OZ Is this just another feature Tinder can charge its users for? News Corp Australia signs Facebook deal; Nine reaches agreementAnd a follow up on yesterday's Media Code story, Facebook has struck content deals with Australia's two largest media companies — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and Nine Entertainment.Details are scarce … Nine, the owner of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, has also signed a letter of intent with the tech giant for use of its news articles, according to industry sources News Corp signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Facebook for use of news articles from publications such as The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun and videos from Sky News Australia.So that's one less drama for Facebook to worry about. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2021/mar/16/australia-news-live-pressure-morrison-listen-women-vaccine-delay-albanese-nationals?page=with:block-60501fa38f08b2dc0e123ffb#block-60501fa38f08b2dc0e123ffbThe government will amend its controversial online safety bill in the Senate to provide more transparency over how the eSafety commissioner uses their powers, as well as greater review mechanisms over decisions made about content removal, Guardian Australia understands.The Greens announced on Tuesday they would vote against the legislation.Labor MP Tim Watts expressed concerns about the lack of oversight and transparency. Among the changes will be more reporting from the commissioner about how the powers are used, and an internal review scheme.Opinion piece in the Saturday Paper https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2021/03/13/flaws-new-online-safety-laws/161555400011272 Parliament Is Finally Starting To Understand Video GamesAlex Walker at Kotaku has penned a love letter to three federal Labor MPs. Increased noise and support for the video games industry, particularly from Labor MPs Susan Templeman, Josh Burns and Watts, is at least an encouraging sign. Watts' support for the sector is well pronounced, but the other members have interesting touchpoints with the video game industry as well.Burns electorate covers the main areas of Melbourne that... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Qantas begins trialling vaccine passport appJustin Hendry, IT NewsQantas is looking at introducing a vaccine passport app in preparation for the return of international travel.iTnews reports that the airline is testing the CommonPass app on repatriation flights which logs whether a passenger has either tested negative for COVID or has been vaccinated. CommonPass is not the only app being trialled. Qantas is also testing one developed by the International Air Transport Association. While the app will be limited to international repatriation flights, the airline will at some point integrate the functionality into its app.Qantas hopes to resume international travel from late October with passengers requiring COVID vaccinations to board flights.Culture Amp revenue soars, as workplaces face burnout challengeYolanda Redrup, AFR: Despite fears the COVID-19 pandemic would put a handbrake on employee engagement software company Culture Amp's growth, the $US700 million ($903 million)-valued company has recorded one of its best years yet, with revenue climbing 64 per cent.Former AMP Bank CEO Sally Bruce is now helping lead Culture Amp. Eamon GallagherFigures lodged with ASIC for the 12 months to June 30, 2020, showed Culture Amp benefited as workplaces around the world were forced to grapple with burnt-out employees and low morale during COVID-19 lockdowns.ACCC watching the clock tick as Facebook lags Google in striking news media dealsAsha Barbaschow at ZDnetA fortnight after the media code passed through Parliament, Facebook has only signed a revenue deal with one large organisation. Chair of the ACCC, Rod Sims was asked if there was anything that could be done to move this along.During a recent senate inquiry he said: "I'm happy to give it a bit more time and therefore not do anything at the moment.” According to media reports, Nine and News Corp are close to reaching deals with FB Netflix password sharing clamp-down could be pandemic bad newsJason Gurwin at The Streamable Earlier this week, some Netflix subscribers began to notice that it might be a bit harder to “borrow” someone's password.In the prompt, customers are told that “If you don't live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching.” In order to continue, they need to verify the account with a E-mail or Text Code, or create a new account with a 30-Day Free Trial. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Australia extends tech giant probe to Google and Apple browser dominationZDnet: With the News Media Bargaining Code out of the way, the Australian government has moved its tech giant battle to the browser scene, keeping Google in its crosshairs while putting Apple under the microscope.Led by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the new battle is focused on "choice and competition in internet search and web browsers".The consumer watchdog on Thursday put out a call for submissions, with a number of questions posed in a discussion paper [PDF], centred on internet browser defaults.It claimed Apple's Safari is the most common browser used in Australia for smartphones and tablets, accounting for 51% of use. This is followed by Chrome with 39%, Samsung Internet with 7%, and with less than 1%, Mozilla Firefox.Microsoft and newspapers join forces to fight GoogleGoogle accuses Microsoft of 'naked corporate opportunism'Google repeated how its against “proposals that would disrupt access to the open web,” believing that link taxes “hurt consumers, small businesses, and publishers.”The company then makes the case that Microsoft's participation in the discussion is not being done in good faith, with “self-serving claims” that are “just plain wrong.”They have paid out a much smaller amount to the news industry than we have. And given the chance to support or fund their own journalists, Microsoft replaced them with AI bots.Split Screen: How Different Are Americans' Facebook Feeds? – The MarkupApple sues former employee for stealing trade secrets, leaking information to the mediaApple is taking legal action against its former materials lead, Simon Lancaster, over allegedly leaking trade secrets to the media. The lawsuit accuses Lancaster of abusing his “position and trust within the company to systematically disseminate Apple's sensitive trade secret information in an effort to obtain personal benefits.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Roblox Soars 43% on First Day of Trading as Gaming BoomsThe games industry had a bumper year last year, with the launch of two new consoles and people locked indoors for a good chunk of the yearA record $56.9 billion was spent on gaming last year in the United States, up 27 percent from 2019, according to the NPD GroupThat all set the stage for Roblox first day of trading, which saw its shares jump by 43% Roblox is fascinating story - it was started 16 years ago and launched 14 years ago, so it is hardly an overnight success, but it's still niche enough that many people wouldn't have heard of the company The game is sort of like a online version of Minecraft - while minecraft can be played online, you do need to build your own server, so that's a barrier for most people Roblox allows users to create their own minigames that others can play. Many of the games have been built by kids who grew up with the game, and know it back to front One developer, Anne Shoemaker, 21, said she had earned more than $500,000 from the platform, most of it since the pandemic began. She has used some of the money to hire two employees and a dozen contractors, she said.Epic expands app store fight even further with new legal claim against Google in AustraliaEpic Games is continuing its worldwide fight against Google & Apple's app stores. The gaming company has started legal proceedings in Australia against Google, alleging Google is breaching Australian consumer law by abusing its control over the Android operating system.The legal claim follows a similar action against Apple in Australia filed last November, and Epic's legal fight against app stores now spans the European Union, the UK, and the USAt the heart of the matter...Epic says it's unfair Google and Apple take 30% cut of app revenue and app makers need alternative app stores or alternative in-app payment systems.Facebook Seeks to Dismiss Antitrust Suits, Saying It Hasn't Harmed Consumers Meanwhile, Facebook wants the antitrust cases against it to be dismissed. FB filed two motions this week asking courts to dismiss the lawsuits filed by the FTC and a coalition of state attorneys general last year. It's the first move from Facebook's lawyers in what will be a long legal back-and-forth. Fire breaks out in OVH building in Lille, France Millions of European websites were taken down after a fire destroyed parts of a major data centre. The data centre was located in Strasbourg, in eastern France, and is operated by OVHCloud, a french alternative to AWS and Microsoft Azure. Why is a fire in your data centre bad? Tech's War With News Outlets Flares as U.S. Lawmakers Ready... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Peloton is coming to AustraliaCult fitness brand Peloton is coming to AustraliaThe exercise tech company has often been described as “the Apple of Fitness”, due to it's very shiny marketing, and full stack of hardware and softwareThe exercise bikes feature a large screen for streaming workouts Bikes will start at AU$2,895 - with a $59 a month subscription on top of thatPeloton's announcement follows a massive December quarter for the company, which saw its revenue grow 128% to AU$1.38 billionThe launch is expected in the second half of this yearTwitter is taking on Clubhouse, Substack and Patreon with new productsThe Verge has a profile on Twitter's Kayvon Beykpour -head of consumer productNo new information here, we've talked about all the various new products Twitter is working on, including Spaces, and Super FollowsStill, it's a really thoughtful interview and one that product managers and owners should listen to or read Kayvon talks about needing to shift the culture at twitter from one resistant to change, to one that embraces it. Amazon is working on a new robotAmazon has more than 800 employees working on a new Alexa powered home robot, with the code name VestaThere's not a huge amount of detail on what the robot may do, but it is described as being about “the size of two small cats” that roams around the house & will have multiple cameras and screens Internally, the project has caused some grief due to delays and redesigns, with some worried the device will have limited “mainstream appeal” - or even worse, become another complete dud, like the Amazon Fire Phone Pete Evans Is Back On Facebook, Which The Company Says Is FineCelebrity chef and expensive lamp seller Pete Evans is back on Facebook In November, Facebook banned the page “Chef Pete Evans” for continually breaking the platform's rules on spreading covid and vaccine misinformation. Evan's new page is there to support Evan's senate race, and is called, Pete Evans – Senate – Great Australia Party'“Facebook has a recidivism policy that prohibits people from creating new Pages that are similar to ones that were removed for violating the platform's rules.” But in this case, Facebook seems to think Pete Evans Potential senator is very different to Pete Evans Chef. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Google alternative https://www.forbes.com/sites/martyswant/2021/03/08/after-building-googles-advertising-business-this-founder-is-creating-an-ad-free-alternative/Forbes has a good profile on Srid-har Ramaswamy, a former Googler who is now CEO of search engine start up, NeevaNeeva users will pay between $5 and $10 a month to get the search results without adsIronically, Ramaswamy used to be head of Google's ad division The company has just 45 employees, over a dozen from GoogleStill a long way from being a competitor, but worth keeping an eye on EsafetyThe esafety bill is moving it's way through parliament, and commissioner Julie Inman Grant has made it clear that she won't be going after nudity or sexual content on sites for sex workersSex Industry groups were worried they would become swept up in the new esafety laws - but Inman Grant has said there will be exceptions for sex workers In the US, when a simialr law made advertising sexual services illegal, many sex workers complained this made the industry far more dangerous. Meanwhile, Gizmodo has asked is this the return of the porn face scanner by stealth,,? Sex industry ‘not my concern': eSafety Commissioner defends proposed new powershttps://www.gizmodo.com.au/2021/03/the-online-safety-act-could-bring-in-the-porn-face-scan-by-stealth/ https://www.afr.com/technology/tech-sector-warns-of-dangers-in-rushed-online-safety-laws-20210305-p5788h Another streaming service is coming to Oz Paramount+ will launch in Australia later this year Owned by US media conglomerate ViacomCBS, the streaming service launched in the US and parts of Latin America last week.It's not totally new - Paramount+ replaces/supersedes CBS All Access which currently operates as 10 All Access here in Australia (because remember that CBS bought 10 a few years back for super cheap)The service will also have shows from MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and VH1, as well as some original series. Q. What do you think a streaming service needs to succeed in Australia? Q. How many streaming services will people subscribe to? Is there such a thing as coming too late to the market? Wtf is discord? https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-social-network-without-ads-discord-defies-convention-11615199401The Wall Street Journal has a great story on Discord today, the little social network that could The service went from 60m monthly users at the start of 2020, to 725m users today Discord started as a gaming chat service, popular because of its small resources and low lag Discord is similar in look... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/imac-pro/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-04/nintendo-plans-switch-model-with-bigger-samsung-oled-display See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jack Dorsey is desperate for celebrity parties. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A video clip created by digital artist Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann, was flipped for a record $6.6 million recently. It had originally been bought for around $67,000. Beeple is like a banksy of digital art … Esquire has a good profile on him. CryptoKitties were one of the earliest types of NFTs in 2017 - the idea of buying a digital cat was considered weird back then. What kinda stuff can I buy as an NFT? There's a lot of art. Some of it seems a bit trolly - a Homer Simpson Pepe digital artwork was sold recently forl $390,000 online. In the “real art world” Robert Alice sold his artwork Block 21- at christies auction house last year for $130,000. it was a physical painting that also comes with an NFT. The two pieces are linked: the digital component of the artwork is only visible during daylight within the time zone in which it is geographically located. As the owner of the NFT, the buyer can control the visibility of the artwork by changing where it is located. According to Business Insider, the most popular NFT platform – NBA Top Shot – has sold nearly $US270 ($349) million worth of unique NBA video highlights. These are clips you can find online - but they've been turned into digital playing cards thanks to blockchain. For sports fans The Bleacher report has a good feature on the marketplace. Who's making money? Billionaire investor Mark Cuban is into NFTs has been vocal about his investment in digital tokens like NFTs.Grimes made $US5.8 ($7) million in under 20 minutes selling her digital collection WarNymph on the NFT trading platform Nifty Gateway.Lindsey Lohan sold an NFT for $US59,000 ($76,216) in February. How do I buy one? In order to purchase an NFT, buyers must use digital currencies like Ethereum's Ether (ETH) orWorld Asset eXchange (WAX). While ETH is one of the most popular NFT currencies, each platform chooses its digital wallet service.Nifty Gateway, OpenSea, Rarible, SuperRare,

Nine picked a streaming guy to be its new CEO Mike Sneesby is the new boss of Nine Entertainment. He is a former telco executive and the head of streaming service Stan. He will be in charge of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, but Nine also owns Stan as well as television, radio and other publishing assets. The company has been searching for a new CEO since Hugh Marks abruptly resigned in November because of his relationship with a former member of his executive team. Sneesby has extensive experience in leading a subscription service, but does not have a background in free-to-air television, radio or publishing. There's some commentary around that this signals the TV side of Nine is more powerful than the old Fairfax side… But I think it's a sign that the future is digital and driven by subscription revenues. That's good news for newspapers. Investors value Stan at more than $1 billion. Stan has 2.3 million subscribers. The achievement was met through securing large content deals with US companies such as ViacomCBS, Disney and NBC Universal. There's also Stan Sport… So now Stan is looking for a new boss… Teams upgrades + speaker Microsoft's new Intelligent Speakers deliver its promised meeting room of the futureMicrosoft to add new shared channels, encryption for calls, webinar features to TeamsMicrosoft Ignite is on, and the conference has a few great Teams updates so far Teams Connect will allow users from two different organisations a way to create a shared channel to collaborateMicrosoft is getting into the smart speaker business, but in a very Microsoft way Rather than coming after Google, Apple and Amazon in the personal speaker device, Microsoft's new Intelligent Speaker is an enterprise product The new smart microphone can detect up to ten separate voices and dictate the notes of a meeting, so you can see exactly who did the talking The mic can also translate, in case a host or guest is speaking in another languageNo pricing as yet Meanwhile, Zoom killing it Zoom (ZM) earnings Q4 2021Revenue grew 369% year over year in the quarter that ended on Jan. 31, according to a statement. It's too soon to kill off cash An analogue story from Woolies, which has walked away a cashless store trial at a small number of its Metro storesThe trial started mid-way through last year, when no one was touching cash and in smaller stores that didn't have a high amount of cash payments. But Woolies will be accepted cash again at those locations Woolworths Metro general manager Justin Nolan told iTnews, “While almost all Metro customers choose to pay with cards, cash remains... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Far-Right Platform Gab Has Been Hacked—Including Private DataFollowing Twitter's ban on Trump and Qanon, Parler and Gab became the two main PUBLIC platforms for displaced social media savvy racists. Parler was more talked about, because it only alluded to being a home for racists, whereas Gab proudly was In the weeks following, Parler was hacked, and then it was dropped by Amazon web hosting, knocking the site offline. Now Gab, which inherited some of Parler's displaced users, has been badly hacked too.Yesterday a group calling themselves the Distributed Denial of Secrets revealed what it calls GabLeaks, a collection of more than 70 gigabytes of Gab data representing more than 40 million postsDDoSecrets cofounder Emma Best says that the hacked data includes not only all of Gab's public posts and profiles—with the exception of any photos or videos uploaded to the site—but also private group and private individual account posts and messages, as well as user passwords and group passwordsThe group has not made the dump public, instead, it will be sharing the information with journalists Instagram Instagram is launching “Live Rooms,” which allow up to four people to broadcast live together at the same time. Previously, the app only allowed users to live stream with one other person. The live broadcast formats to allow for things like live talk shows, expanded Q&A's or interviews, jam sessions for musicians, live shopping experiences.There will also be payments ... fans can buy badges to support the hosts as well as use other interactive features like Shopping and Live Fundraisers.The company says it's also now developing other tools, like moderator controls and audio features that will roll out in the months to come.It sounds a lot like Clubhouse, but with the video turned on. Period tracking app Clue is launching a digital contraceptive Clue is a period tracking app with around 13 million usersThe company is working on a digital contraceptive which will offer users a statistical prediction of ovulation as a birth control tool.The Berlin-based company says they've gained FDA clearance for the product, clearing the way for a US launch in 2021.Basically, the app will take data on your cycle and show high risk days for falling pregnant. Period tracking apps already do that. But the company says their new method of calculating the fertile window is a more reliable model of contraception. Clue's medical officer says “[The high risk window] will start out long… Usually it'll be 16 days within the cycle — but it'll shorten over time. It probably won't shorten to more than 11 days.”The ovulation prediction algorithm was put through a year-long independent clinical trial involving more than 700 women.The data shows: Clue says the product has been shown to be 92% effective at preventing unwanted pregnancy under ‘typical use' and 97% effective under ‘perfect use' This is an insight into personalised health services that could become more common. ASX speeding tickets triple on social media-driven speculation GameStop, AMC, and... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Safety gear for UberEats riders Uber has new safety gear and technology for its Australian riders.From today the Uber app will be able to tell whether its riders are wearing a helmet, using object recognition is its app.Riders will also have to complete a checklist of their bike's roadworthiness,And later this month, Uber will start distributing lights, reflective vests, bells and phone holders. The changes come after the deaths of two Uber Eats riders in three days amid a spate of five deaths across the industry last year.As the Nine newspapers point out, “The more resources a company provides to its workers, the more likely they are to be classified as employees than independent contractors and therefore entitled to the minimum wage, workers' compensation and unfair dismissal protections.” But Uber Eats Australian general manager Matthew Denman said the legalities did not factor into its decision to deploy the new safety features. And it's the right thing to do. Ensuring a minimum wage sounds like a pretty good way to improve safety… Social media moves beyond the feed | by Will Oremus | Feb, 2021 | OneZeroWill Oremus argues that Clubhouse and Twitter's Spaces offers a new way of looking at social mediafeed-based platforms are powered by scale and automation. They encourage users to friend, follow, and like liberally, building sprawling networks on the promise that aggressive ranking algorithms will filter out the chaff and surface the most compelling contentNew digital media products are focusing on low-volume, high-attention relationships rather than high-volume, low-attention feeds.Queensland finally has its own QR code check-in app The Queensland government has finally rolled out a QR code check-in app that hospitality venues and other businesses can use for contact tracing purposes, iTnews reports.I've been up here for weeks putting my details into all finds of weird check-in apps… one was literally just a Google Form. The Check In Qld app went live over the weekend. all other states and territories introduced similar apps last year.The app is voluntary for hospitality venues, which means I'll probably still be putting my contact details into random databases... (Businesses that do not take up the app will still need to continue to collect and store details electronically.) Google TV will soon let you turn your smart TV into a dumb screen, and that's a great thing.For true nerds, Google will now let your smart TV become a dumb tv. The new feature, called basic tv, coming to Android powered TVs will allow users to turn off all the smarts of their tv - leaving just free to air and settings, and switch to a HDMI port on start up by default See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Twitter announces paid Super Follows to let you charge for tweetsTwitter announced a pair of big upcoming features on Friday: the ability for users to charge their followers for access to additional content, and the ability to create and join groups based around specific interests. Super Follows will allow Twitter users to charge followers and give them access to extra content. That could be bonus tweets, access to a community group, subscription to a newsletter, or a badge indicating your support. In a mockup screenshot, Twitter showed an example where a user charges $4.99 per month to receive a series of perks.Twitter also announced a new feature called Communities, which appear to be its take on something like Facebook Groups.I've also been added to the Spaces thing, if you want to play with that. 'All the bones are there': could a new electric vehicle be built in Australia?An article in the Guardian suggests Australia could be building electric cars if it had the inclination and government support to do so According to the article, former car manufacturing plants in South Australia and Victoria have been left largely untouched since they produced petrol carsThese plants could be easily retooled to pump out evs for AustraliaWhile critics say that Australian labour costs are too high, advocates for the plan say the actual work of manufacturing electric vehicles is half what it once was. Rather than “guys bending metal” it's more about building the robots that build the cars – and with a highly educated workforce, Australia is highly competitive. Former SolarWinds CEO blames intern for 'solarwinds123' password leakWe've talked about the SolarWinds hack - the security breach that saw access to critical infrastructure in the US, including water, electricity, hospital systems, and the US government payrollThe attack has been described as one of the most sophisticated attacks ever seen. Just last week we talked about the first parts of the attack starting up to 9 months before it was discoveredWell, in front of congress to explain the attacks, the former CEO put the initial blame on the attack to an intern who shared an internal password. That password, “solarwinds123” The password was discovered in 2019 on the public internet by an independent security researcher who warned the company that the leak had exposed a SolarWinds file server. The password was never changed. Katie Porter, who's one of the most tech savvy representatives in Congress, said: “"I've got a stronger password than 'solarwinds123' to stop my kids from watching too much YouTube on their iPad. You and your company were supposed to be preventing the Russians from reading Defense Department emails!"'Hey Google' Voice Command on Wear OS has Been Busted for MonthsThis is so depressing - the very first article i ever wrote on smh was along the lines of “Apple Watch has a huge battle against Google Wear, because Google's voice assistant is so much better..” In

YouTube's ‘supervised experiences' help parents choose what content their kids can seeRing's new Video Doorbell Pro 2 will have a built-in radarBiden Orders Broad Supply-Chain Review Amid Chip ShortagesApple Takes Step to Prevent Further Spread of 'Silver Sparrow' Malware on MacsBill establishing cyber abuse takedown scheme for adults enters ParliamentExplainer: The Online Safety Bill See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

During the great Facebook News ban of 2021, The ABC's News app climbed to the number one downloaded app in Australia, ironically replacing Facebook in the number one spot. Each day of the ban I'd re-check the charts to see whether order had been restored. Yesterday, the ABC news app had fallen but in its place was a new social network called Poop Map.Poop Map is a social network where users, called “poopers”, “drop poops” on their location. As with most social networks, it has the ability to like and follow other users, and to comment on their poops. “Poopers” can even upload selfies to their poops... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Is this the end of Facebook's news ban? It looks like news is coming back to Facebook. Facebook says it will reinstate news content on its platform after the government agreed to last minute amendments to the media bargaining code.Campbell Brown, Facebook's vice president of global news partnerships, said the company would restore news in “coming days” Here's the quote: “After further discussions with the Australian government, we have come to an agreement that will allow us to support the publishers we choose to, including small and local publishers. We're restoring news on Facebook in Australia in the coming days,” Mr Brown said.“Going forward, the government has clarified we will retain the ability to decide if news appears on Facebook so that we won't automatically be subject to a forced negotiation.”So, sounds like not everyone will be back, just the publishers who play nice with FB? The amendments include inserting a two-month mediation period into the code to give the parties more time to broker agreements before they are forced to enter a binding final offer arbitration process. Also: the code will take into account whether the digital platform “has made a significant contribution to the sustainability of the Australian news industry through reaching commercial agreements with new media businesses” Automation set to gut 1.5m jobs from Australian economy Robots will take 1.5 million Australian jobs by 2020, according to new research from research firm Forrester Australia's job market will shrink by 11 per cent by 2030 due to the rise of better automation technologyHow did they come up with these numbers? By tracking the progress of automation on 391 occupations that the ABS tracks. Under the most threat in the near term, according to the report, are the cubicle workers, such as bookkeepers, accountants, human resources staff and office clerks. If your gig involves repetitive and structured tasks it might be time to plan an exit strategy. On the other side of the digital divide are the “digital elites” like data scientists, software and app developers, network and systems administrators, mathematicians and information security specialists who will be even more in demand.https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/22/22295273/spotify-hifi-announced-lossless-streaming-hd-quality?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4Spotify had an event overnight to announce a new high quality pricing tier, although weirdly they didn't announce what the pricing is..The new service, called Spotify Hifi will be rolling out in 80 markets They've also announced advertising tools to podcasts. They've purchased megaphone, a podcast advertising company that currently is used around the world. Disclaimer we use acast for ad insertion, but megaphone has a similar platform that inserts local ads into pods dynamicallyAustralia is not listed as a market yetCanva's... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the UK, Uber drivers are self employed First to London where the UK's Supreme Court has ruled Uber drivers are indeed workers not self-employed. The decision means drivers could be entitled to employment benefits such as a minimum wage and holiday pay. The case dates back to a complaint made in 2016 by two Uber drivers. Uber maintained it was just a booking app, that requires independent contractors to provide the actual transport. The ruling could leave the ride-hailing app facing a hefty compensation bill, and have wider consequences for the gig economy.The AFR has a local follow up, an interview with the Australian barrister Sheryn Omeri, who successfully argued the UK case. It's a good read if you'd like to get into the details on the difference between an “employee” a worker and an independent contractor. Buzzfeed has a long read on how decisions get made, and unmade at Facebook Facebook's rules to combat misinformation and hate speech are subject to the whims and political considerations of its CEO and his policy team leader.They report, CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally intervened when the platform was preparing to ban Infowars founder Alex Jones for spreading misinformation and hate. "Mark personally didn't like the punishment, so he changed the rules,” a former policy employee told BuzzFeed News,Facebook determined that Jones - who claims 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre was a “giant hoax” - should be kicked off the social media site But Zuckerberg stepped in and overruled his own internal experts and opened a gaping loophole: Facebook would permanently ban Jones and his company — but would not touch posts of praise and support for them from other Facebook users.That meant Jones' followers could continue to share his lies across the world's largest social network.The decision delayed the company's efforts to remove right wing militant organizations such as the Oath Keepers, which were involved the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.The security concerns around clubhouse aren't going away Bloomberg reports, that an unidentified user was able to stream Clubhouse audio feeds this weekend from “multiple rooms” into their own third-party website this weekend. the company says it's “permanently banned” that particular user and installed new “safeguards” to prevent a repeat, researchers contend the platform may not be in a position to make such promises.Users of the invitation-only iOS app should assume all conversations are being recorded, the Stanford Internet Observatory,Alex Stamos is the director of the SIO and Facebook Inc.'s former security chief. and his team were also able to confirm that Clubhouse relies on a Shanghai-based startup called Agora Inc. to handle much of its back-end operations. Raises extensive privacy concerns, especially for Chinese citizens and dissidents under the impression their conversations are beyond the reach of state surveillanceAnd that's all for today. We will be back to usual programming on... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Facebook ban follow up Following up on the big story last week, and unsurprisingly news consumption dropped after Facebook banned news from its platform. Data compiled by measurement company Nielsen found that the ban had an immediate impact on publishers. Nielsen used its Digital Content Ratings methodology – which provides data each month on traffic volumes for tagged websites and apps regardless of the source being on or off-platform – to track total sessions and total time spent for the Current Events & Global News category yesterday. Total Sessions fell by 16% last Thursday, when compared with an average Thursday.According to Nielsen about 22% of news audiences consumed their content exclusively via the Facebook app. But, media execs are saying people are coming directly to their sites. And the ABC news app was the most downloaded free App in the App Store on Friday. Above Insta, Messenger, FB and Whatsapp They may have had strong traffic on Thursday because it was a strong news day. It will be hard to sustain that without huge breaking news. If publishers can hang on and adapt it could be a net positive. Facebook news ban: Thuggery shows why we must move fast to fix ithttps://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/facebook-s-devastating-display-of-defiance-is-vintage-zuckerberg-20210219-p5741b.htmlFacebook loses friends as protest over new media code backfiresCOVID vaccinations in Victoria to be tracked by new tech platformAustralia's vaccination program starts today! Victoria will be using a system from Microsoft to keep track of the vaccinations. the Vaccination Registration and Administration Solution (VRAS) is a management platform to co-ordinate the logistics and scheduled delivery of the vaccines at clinics.According to Microsoft, the VRAS technology would also let the Department of Health monitor “cold chain” requirements to ensure vaccines are safe and effective. Hopefully this isn't a covid safe app situation… When it comes to record keeping, the Australian government will use its existing systems, in particular the Australian Immunisation Register. All Covid vaccination info will be required to be uploaded to the register to help track and trace who is and isn't protected from the virus.Previously it wasn't mandatory to report vaccines, but a law change earlier this month means that the gov will have a complete picture of vaccinations.Vaccination records are viewable through Medicare Online, myGov, the Express Plus Medicare mobile app or My Health Record.Ahead of the vaccine rollout, federal government services minister Stuart Robert on Friday called on Australians to link their... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Facebook ban follow up Following up on the big story last week, and unsurprisingly news consumption dropped after Facebook banned news from its platform. Data compiled by measurement company Nielsen found that the ban had an immediate impact on publishers. Nielsen used its Digital Content Ratings methodology – which provides data each month on traffic volumes for tagged websites and apps regardless of the source being on or off-platform – to track total sessions and total time spent for the Current Events & Global News category yesterday. Total Sessions fell by 16% last Thursday, when compared with an average Thursday.According to Nielsen about 22% of news audiences consumed their content exclusively via the Facebook app. But, media execs are saying people are coming directly to their sites. And the ABC news app was the most downloaded free App in the App Store on Friday. Above Insta, Messenger, FB and Whatsapp They may have had strong traffic on Thursday because it was a strong news day. It will be hard to sustain that without huge breaking news. If publishers can hang on and adapt it could be a net positive. Facebook news ban: Thuggery shows why we must move fast to fix ithttps://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/facebook-s-devastating-display-of-defiance-is-vintage-zuckerberg-20210219-p5741b.htmlFacebook loses friends as protest over new media code backfiresCOVID vaccinations in Victoria to be tracked by new tech platformAustralia's vaccination program starts today! Victoria will be using a system from Microsoft to keep track of the vaccinations. the Vaccination Registration and Administration Solution (VRAS) is a management platform to co-ordinate the logistics and scheduled delivery of the vaccines at clinics.According to Microsoft, the VRAS technology would also let the Department of Health monitor “cold chain” requirements to ensure vaccines are safe and effective. Hopefully this isn't a covid safe app situation… When it comes to record keeping, the Australian government will use its existing systems, in particular the Australian Immunisation Register. All Covid vaccination info will be required to be uploaded to the register to help track and trace who is and isn't protected from the virus.Previously it wasn't mandatory to report vaccines, but a law change earlier this month means that the gov will have a complete picture of vaccinations.Vaccination records are viewable through Medicare Online, myGov, the Express Plus Medicare mobile app or My Health Record.Ahead of the vaccine rollout, federal government services minister Stuart Robert on Friday... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holy crap! Facebook has deleted all news sources. And here's some of the stories that caught our eye this week, but didn't warrant a full discussion: Bitcoin (BTC USD) Cryptocurrency Price Jumps to $50,000If you had bought $100 bitcoin in 2011, it would've been worth $6.1m this week Is no one buying the small phone? Sorry, small-phone lovers: The iPhone 12 mini was Apple's 2020 sales flopBut wait! iPhone 13 Mini Still Expected Despite Lackluster iPhone 12 Mini SalesLastpass munted LastPass free restricts users to one device type in MarchLastPass is restricting the way it's free tier works. The next update will make you choose between lastpass on mobile devices, or computers, but not both. DO you use a Password Manager? SolarWinds: How Russian spies hacked the Justice, State, Treasury, Energy and Commerce DepartmentsMicrosoft head of security tells 60 Minutes the Solarwinds hack was the most “sophisticated” he's ever seen!Want a cheap electric car? Ausdroid has a guide Want a sub $20K electric car? Tassie entrepreneurs Good Car co are importing into AustraliaParler BackParler crawls back online empty and with a Tea Party CEO After being kicked off AWS servers in January, conservative social media platform Parler is back online. The new host is SkySilkThere's a new logo and the old CEO John Matze has been replaced by Mark Meckler, founder of the Tea Party Patriots. It's still banned on App Stores so users need to log on via web. XinjaXinja - should see if there's an update after the shareholders meeting 'Gun at their head': Xinja shareholders call for more optionsInvestors who own more than 20 per cent of Xinja's shares are now calling for a third option that includes retaining the company's banking license, raising more capital and flushing out the board. “The license is the most valuable asset the bank has,” NYT Doco on the “Teenager who hacked Twitter”https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12673712/?ref_=ttep_ep5I found this lookin g for the britney spears doco, which i'd also recommend. A new online game -

Media CodeGoogle, Nine agree commercial terms for news content Another day, another deal with Google. Nine reportedly struck a $30 million-a-year cash deal with Google on Wednesday. (although neither side are officially confirming it yet)The AFR is reporting Junkee Media inked a smaller agreement and Guardian Australia and the ABC could have agreements wrapped up by the end of the week. That follows the Seven West deal we spoke about earlier in the week. Under the proposed Media code the options are basically: negotiate or arbitrate This could be Google setting the market rate before it goes into arbitration. Ie News can't ask for $600 million when Nine's already agreed to $30 million Nothing from FB yet. I wonder how those negotiations are going. What would you do with the cash? Well, the media union, the MEAA, says any money from these content deals must “end up in the newsroom, not the boardroom” Facebook Ban https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/craig-kelly-cops-one-week-facebook-ban-for-covid-19-misinformation-20210216-p5730u.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1613459499Federal member for Hughes, Craig Kelly, has copped a 7 day ban from Facebook for “violating the company's COVID 19 misinformation policyFacebook also deleted four coronavirus-related posts from Mr Kelly's official MP Facebook page, including one where he likened the wearing of masks by children to child abuse.Mr Kelly has used his page, which has more than 80,000 followers, to promote treatments for COVID-19 at odds with official government and medical advice.Kelly revealed the 7 day ban in a bizarre interview with Cam Wilson of Gizmodo. At one point in the interview, Kelly is asked what fact checking he does before sharing Covid related stuff and gave this answer: Before I posted it, I checked the credibility of it. He had this long Jewish beard. He looked a bit … I looked him up to see that he was on the up and up and I satisfied myself. So I posted it to Facebook.Amazon just bought an Australian ecommerce company you've never heard ofImagine you're an Aussies entrepreneur, you started your business in 2013 making ecommerce software. Over the years you raise $11 million, and open offices overseas. Then you do the biggest deal of your life and sell your company to Amazon. What do you do? Selz, which was founded in Sydney, announced they had been bought by Amazon in January with 2 sentences of their website. And no one really noticed until this week. “We have signed an agreement to be acquired by Amazon and are looking forward to working with them as we continue to build easy-to-use tools for entrepreneurs.” CEO Martin Rushe There's a few reasons Amazon might have wanted to do this deal, one would be as an acqui-hire (an... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What is Clubhouse Clubhouse is a real-time audio-based social network Clubhouse lets you create and join "rooms," where you can then chat with others in a big conference call. It's just audio & you can drop in and out of rooms at any time. Once the conversations are over the room closes and There's a lot of discussion around start-ups and clubhouse itself. But there's also NBA watch parties and Clubhouse is like crack for big LinkedIn users - I see it as an audio extension of LinkedIn. It reminds me of twitter when hashtags started being a thing - which again reminds me that twitter couldve and shouldve done this first Who's behind it? The company recently raised around $100 million in Series B funding led by existing investor Andreessen Horowitz, valuing the company at $1 billion Founders are Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Paul Davidson and Rohan Seth. who have been working on social products for a decade, with little success. According to Business Insider, the pair have at least nine failed apps between them, including Talkshow, their first collaboration and the predecessor to Clubhouse. Clubhouse was their "one last try" to crack the social graphWho's on Clubhouse? Well apart from Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley types … Theres a lot of talk about Marc Andressen wanting to side step the media - i think thats part of the appeal of ClubhouseIn a post Trump world, we're seeing more people like Elon Musk ignore trad media and speak directly to followers. Just like Trump, Elon has stepped in trouble with tweets, but it hasn't seemed to impact him too muchClubhouse has been downloaded about 4.7 million times to date since launching in September according to Apptopia. Growth is accelerating:It hit 1 million downloads at the end of last year, per Apptopia. For now, it's only available on iOS. Access still requires an invite. I joined without an invite, I just signed up last Friday and 20 minutes later one of my LinkedIn contacts had vouched for me and I got a notification that my account was ready” First Impressions? The app icon is weird compared to every other icon on my homescreenI really don't know what I'm doing in there. But I don't feel old like when I was using house party. I've clicked on notifications, been taken directly to a room and freaked out because I don't know why I'm there. If you've got limits on your phone about how long you can use social media, Clubhouse will burn through those limits really quickly. Why Audio-first? Who's the competition? Facebook & Twitter Facebook Is Said to Be Building a Product to Compete With ClubhouseTwitter launches its voice-based 'Spaces' social networking feature into beta testingThe Case for Twitter Spaces. Why Twitter's Clubhouse clone is poised… | by Alex Kantrowitz | Feb, 2021 | OneZeroAll the possible downsides Clubhouse is facing the same content moderation dilemmas as... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Media Code update Seven West Media and Google strike long-term partnership Federal government concession sends tech giants scrambling After chat with Mark Zuckerberg, Treasurer thinks deals under media code are 'very close' Google, Seven strike News Showcase dealSeven West Media strikes deal with Google, swings to net profitAs we round the home stretch of the media code law - with the vote expected this Friday, last minute deals are being made… Seven West Media has inked a deal to join Google Showcase, Google's preferred way of distributing its wealth to media in AustraliaMeanwhile, the Age reports both Google and Facebook are quote “scrambling” to make last minute deals with media companies to avoid the media code deadline of friday, though that paper provides no detail of these deals. And the ABC reports that treasurer Josh Frydenberg has chatted again with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, again, no new details beyond their budding friendship, but Frydenberg is also optimistic that some last minute deals will be struck. Doesn't that sound like the federal government is somewhat undermining its own proposed law, if it hopes that deals will be struck before it's passed? Not really - remember, the media code was only drawn up after media and tech refused to negotiate. What's happening with Xinja? In December neobank Xinja handed back its banking licence and closed all of its customers' accounts. But the startup didn't go out of business. On the other side of the summer holidays, and The Australian has an update on what's going on with the former bank. The company's future will be decided at an extraordinary general meeting on Wednesday, the paper reports. The options on the table are to pivot from a bank to a US share-trading platform or wind the business up. in a letter penned by chief executive Eric Wilson asks his investors if they would prefer to lock in a loss of 95c-100c in the dollar, or recapitalise and bet on the new venture. Mr Wilson, who declined to comment, writes in the letter, “I don't wish to sugar-coat this. It will be a long and difficult journey with considerable risk. We will be starting with a small team and limited capital. It will require raising further capital” Facebook Meets Apple in Clash of the Tech Titans—‘We Need to Inflict Pain'Forget the cold war between Facebook and Apple, as the Wall Street Journal says Facebook executives have been told to “inflict pain” on Apple There's not much new here, but the details are... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Clubhouse issues https://onezero.medium.com/clubhouse-is-suggesting-users-invite-their-drug-dealers-and-therapists-a8161b3062fcClubhouse has become big news recently and because of that, it is under more scrutiny Will Oremus has looked at how Clubhouse uses your contacts, and its not greatLike most apps, if you grant it access to your contacts, it uploads your entire address book It you dont allow it to upload your contacts, you dont get the much prized invites to invite two friendsBut then if you do, like me, and like Will, you might find it requesting names you cant remember And twitters clubhouse https://bigtechnology.substack.com/p/the-bull-case-for-twitter-spacesClubhouse's launch feels like a throwback with its beg for invites modelMy Twitter dms are full of randos asking for invites https://www.theinformation.com/articles/facebook-plans-smartwatch-with-focus-on-messaging-health?shared=68804956321ee69c https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/12/22280798/facebook-smartwatch-messaging-health-fitness-release-date A scoop from the Information, Facebook is building its own smartwatch Facebook isn't known for its hardware, but it does own VR headset business Oculus and released the Portal video chat devices a few years ago. The smartwatch would have messaging, health, and fitness features, The device reportedly is an Android-based smartwatch. It also says Facebook is working on building its own operating system for hardware devices and that future iterations of the wearable may run that software instead. Peter, where would a Facebook watch it into the wearable market? I guess this makes sense if you think about integrations with Whatsapp or Messenger… https://www.axios.com/microsoft-us-should-consider-aussie-law-vexing-facebook-google-a691794e-2018-4c3a-aff1-172b42864761.htmlAs we've already discussed Microsoft thinks Australia's media code is great and now the maker of Bing thinks the U.S. and other countries should consider adopting media rules.In an interview with Axios, Microsoft President Brad Smith said "we recognize that this is an opportunity to combine good business with a good cause," Exploiting the angst between Google & governments is perhaps the best shot Microsoft have ever had to grow their search business … And the media code is a step closer towards becoming law. The government will introduce the news media bargaining code to parliament on Monday after a Senate committee recommended the bill be passed. The Australian reports the government will seek to push its legislation through the lower house today, and debate on the bill could begin in the Senate as early as Tuesday, with the government hoping to have the code finally enshrined in law within a fortnight.

Bumble is about to go public with a stack of women in the top jobsBumble, the dating app where women make the first move, has priced its IPO at $43 per share - The company will begin to trade tomorrow morning/by the time you hear this podcast with a market cap of $7 billion. 31 year old CEO and founder Whitney Wolfe Herd will be the youngest woman to ever take a company publicThe chair of the board is also female and women occupy 8 of the 11 board seats, that's 70% … that's incredibly rare most big companies in Australia have just been pressured by shareholders to have 30% female representation on their boards.Bumble is free to use but sells features to users. The company had 42 million monthly active users as of the end of September, out of which 2.5 million were paying users, up 22% from the prior year.The company will rival Match Group which owns Tinder, OkCupid and Hinge I think the valentine's day timing is deliberate - proving IPOs are a major branding event. Twitter news Twitter's Jack Dorsey wants to build an app store for social media algorithmsTwitter kept gaining new users after it banned TrumpTwitter has announced its quarterly results and they've had a great quarter, but there were some interesting tidbits from Jack Dorsey on the call Firstly, Dorsey talked about wanting to turn Twitter into a kind of federated platform for chat, that could power other chat services. He believes Twitter could be the “app store” of social media - which is basically what Twitter was back in 2008, before it decided to keep all the conversation to itself, and disable all the weird and wonderful apps people were building on top of twitter, and limiting 3rd party access to the APIAnother interesting data point: Twitter saw user growth AFTER it banned trump and Qanon Dorsey didn't give exact numbers, but indicated the trend proved Twitter “Was bigger than one account” It seems that 13 years into Twitter, it's creator is finally understanding the appeal of the service. Can smart speakers survive without Google Search? Alex Kidman has a story on Gizmodo about how your smart speaker will cope if Google Search leaves Australia. Google has threatened to pull search from the market as a response to Australia's new media code - however it has walked back some of those comments and Google CEO Sundar Pichai has had a “constructive” call with Scott Morrison. But the withdrawal could have consequences beyond your web browser. For example just about every service Google offers relies on search, such as its smart speakers or displaysGoogle has a 64% share of the smart speaker market here in Australia.While Google didn't comment, Kidman writes that most of the smart home IoT device functions of a Google powered smart speaker should continue to operateCopsIs This Beverly Hills Cop Playing Sublime's ‘Santeria' to Avoid Being Live-streamed?In a textbook... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

An incredibly detailed twitter thread on ACCC report on google* Last week? We took a very high level look at a report from the ACCC into the digital advertising market - this isn't the media code, but moreseo looking at how competition in the digital advertising market which happens to be dominated by Google and Facebook. * Jason Kint has taken a deep dive into the 222-page report. He is an expert on the Digital Duopoly (Goog & FB) and he is the CEO of Digital Content Next which is an industry association that represents big publishers in the US like the NYT & Conde Nast. * "hands-down the best report I've ever seen on adtech complex - creates an overwhelmingly clear picture of the problem." Almost makes me want to read it! * One of the key findings of that report is Google's tech is the whole way along the advertising supply chain, that means its technology is representing the advertiser who is bidding on an ad spot and the publisher who is selling an ad spot. * Kint says "the report pretty much summarizes that both sides of the market are screwed due to Google's adtech monopoly power" - DSP and an SSP * He notes that a lot of Google's advantages come from the massive amount of data it collects on us, which make its advertising tools so much more effective than anyone else (except maybe FB). One proposed solution is to make Google silo its data and act as a service provider when selling ad tech. * All of this may go some way to explaining why publishers are so pissed off and pushing the media code so hard Aussies' iPhone obsession is saving the phone industryJohn Davidson of the Fin shares sales figures of mobile phones in the last quarterThe numbers show a modest increase in sales for the last q of 2020, up from 3 per cent A small growth, but much better than the “disastrous” sales at the start of the year, which makes a lot of senseThe rebound was not enough to make up for the slow start to the year, however, and the industry exited 2020 having sold just 8.38 million phones, down 1 per cent compared with the 8.44 million phones sold in 2019.The rebound was led by Apple, which had a bumper final quarter of the year after the release of its iPhone 12. Its market share increased by 3.8 percentage points in the year, Telsyte figures show.The iPhone now has 46.2 per cent of Australian phone sales, compared with 53.8 per cent for the entire Android market.Salesforce declares the 9-to-5 workday dead, will let some employees work remotely from now onIt's almost a year since we all got sent home from the office and companies are still working out what to do about remote work. Facebook, Microsoft, Dropbox have all announced permanent WFH policies in response to the pandemic. Salesforce says the “9-to-5 workday is dead” and that it will allow employees to choose one of three categories that dictate how often, if ever, they return to the office once it's safe to do so. Behind Door number one is Flex - which means coming into the office 3 days per week for team meeting etc. and 2 days at home to hang the washing out and get your packages delivered. The second option is fully remote - committing to a lifetime of Zoom calls and the third is office based, like the before... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Amazon Australia https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/amazon-australia-still-losing-money-despite-hitting-1bn-sales-in-2020/news-story/212a95c7354bc9962e842ff5519118be?utm_source=TheAustralian&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Editorial&utm_content=AM_BIZREV_Newsletter Amazon breaks through $1 billion revenue mark in Australia Amazon Commercial Services, reported $1.12 billion in net sales for the 2020 calendar year, a 99.4 per cent jump from the year prior.This shows the online retailer has also seen a similar boost in customer numbers as other major Australian e-commerce sellers such as Catch and Kogan as locked-down shoppers took their spending online.Despite the huge growth, Amazon Australia's results revealed the company still closed the year with a $3.8m loss, according to its accounts lodge with the corporate regulator.Woolies promises to protect jobs from automation The robots are coming for our jobs. But the economists forecast that while automation will destroy old jobs, new ones will be created. The problem is training people to move from stacking shelves to programming those shelf-stacking robotsAustralia's biggest employer Woolworths will spend $50 million over the next three years on training and education to “upskill, reskill and redeploy” 60,000 of its 200,000 staff. The key training areas will be in: digital, data analytics, machine learning and robotics plus “advanced customer service skills, team leadership and agile ways of working.” In an opinion piece published in Nine newspapers this week, Woolies CEO Brad Banducci says people shouldn't be scared of technological change. Pointing to self serve checkouts: “In 2009 - when we completed the self-service rollout - we employed 113,000 people in our Australian supermarkets. Today, we employ around 140,000, and the number continues to grow.”“the fastest-growing role in our business is one that didn't exist in 2009. It's that of the online personal shopper and at Christmas we had around 25,000 of them hand picking orders for our customers.” iOS 14.5 lets you set Spotify and others as Siri's default music serviceApple's latest beta will allow users to set default music serviceiOS 14 already allowed users to set default mail and browser clients, but more apps would be welcomed Hopefully maps becomes the next default Casey Newton tweets https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1358838280746225665The threat of an antitrust lawsuit is truly the most powerful and benevolent product manager in all of tech Bitcoin Tesla now owns $1.5 billion worth of... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is the Democrats' plan to limit Section 230Now It's The Democrats Turn To Destroy The Open Internet: Mark Warner's 230 Reform Bill Is A Dumpster Fire Of CluelessnessIn the last few months of his presidency, Trump - remember that guy? - rallied against the tech companies over Section 230 Trump believed conservatives were being unfairly targeted on social media, and that's where his focus was - less moderation Democrats have taken a different approach - proposing to change 230 to only protect speech, not actions, information. This means twitter, for example, would still be protected on any speech it hosts, but could be fined for hosting instructions to make a gun, or providing a platform that leads to an insurrection.."No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." Under the SAFE TECH Act, the word "information" would be swapped out for the word "speech,"The SAFE TECH Act was introduced Friday by Sens. Mark Warner, Mazie Hirono and Amy Klobuchar.The bill has already drawn some criticism for the dismantling of protections of 230 - Techdirt complains the bill would make all web hosting unprotected, because “money changing hands” for hosting would strip both parties of 230 protections. Google retracts its threat to leave after Scott Morrison meetingGoogle launches News Showcase in AustraliaScott Morrison has given some details of his call with Google CEO, Sundar Pichai. The Australian reports that ScoMo was upbeat and positive about the call, saying he made it clear that the media code would be going ahead, and Google will find a way to work within it Sundar Pichai hasn't confirmed this, but he also hasn't denied it. Meanwhile, Google's News Showcase product launched Friday. Apparently. I've been trying to see what its like, but it's not in my google news app, or on the web Wait!! I found it - it's under the old newsstand column… So much for a showcase.. Apple versus Facebook on ad-tracking: Harvard sides with AppleHarvard Business Review has examined Facebook's claim that App Privacy in iOS 14 will cost small businesses “up to 60%” of sales because their ads will be less effective Havard's study is long and detailed, so instead I've read 9to5 Mac's crib notesAccording to the site, Harvard thinks these “eye-popping” claims are over stated, saying facebook has conflated correlation with causation - and there's no evidence the anti tracking features will affect salesThey also point out that Facebook's reported increase in ad spend during the pandemic is also highly inaccurate. It's so unlike facebook to exaggerate data to make them look good.. Australia steps up its bushfire prediction... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Some random kvetching on the media code: Google's search engine not as good as its competitors for news, research findsHow I dumped Google before it dumped meScott Morrison meets Google CEO Sundar Pichai over media bargaining codeFollowing on from his call to Satya Nadella of Microsoft, today ScoMo and Frydo got on the blower to Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, to discuss the media code. No details of what they discussed has been released, but for those sick of this story, parliament is expected to submit its report next friday.In related news, The Guardian reports that Bing returns “more trusted news results” than GoogleAccording to a study from Monash University, on Australia Day “Grace Tame” was the most popular search term used on Google – reflecting the fact that she had just been made Australian of the Year. The top 50 results delivered by Google included only 70% of professional news websites, compared with 94% for the same search term on Bing and 82% on Ecosia.Meanwhile, at the Fin, John Davidson has experimented with “dumping google before it dumps me” He's moved to DuckDuckGo, and appreciates the lack of tracking “I've not missed Google search one bit.” writes John. Wired has a look at Amazon's Greatest hits of the Bezos era Amazon's Greatest Gadget Hits in the Bezos Era: Kindle, Echo, and MoreQuite a few duds and hits in the listThe original fugly kindle The Fire Phone that went nowhereDash buttons! Loved the idea of these And the product category the can claim ownership of, the voice assistant speakerIs Apple really really making a car now? Kia Motors Shares Jump After Report Apple to Invest $3.6 BillionKuo adds fuel to Apple-Hyundai electric car rumorsNEWS: Dan Riccio begins a new chapter at AppleApple Car: It's no secret, Apple's actively working on Car techKia Motors Corp. jumped as much as 14.5% after a local media report that Apple Inc. will invest 4 trillion won ($3.6 billion) as part of a collaboration with the South Korean carmaker on making electric vehicles.Rumours have been circling for a while that Apple and Hyundai (a division of Kia) may collaborate - Hyundai almost blew their chances by publicly confirming the talks last month, then walking back the statement a few days later. The fiercely private Apple doesnt like when partners talk.. Could this be the new product that Dan Riccio has been appointed to? Last week Apple announced a cryptic new role for the hardware executive: “Apple today announced Dan Riccio will transition to a new role focusing on a new project and... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Email from Jeff Bezos to employeesJeff Bezos has informed Amazon staff he is stepping down as CEO, after 27 years running the company he founded In an email to staff he said he plans “to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives” - ie, use his enormous wealth to hang out with hollywood celebs Taking over is the current head of AWS, Andy Jassy. This makes a lot of sense, as AWS went from a loss leader to one of the biggest services in the world, powering a lot of the sites you use every day. Who is Andy Jassy, Amazon's next CEO?CNBC has a nice rundown of Andy, “In September, a column in the Washington Post, which Bezos owns, called Jassy the “clear heir apparent” to Bezos.”Microsoft's Bing ready to step in if Google pulls search from Australia, minister saysMicrosoft has jumped into the Media code story. On Monday, ScoMo joked he'd been on the blower to Satya Nadella, to discuss Bing filling the search engine void if Google left the market At present Microsoft's search engine Bing enjoys only 3.7 per cent market share in Australia, compared with Google's 94 per cent.At best, Australians are lukewarm on BingAs those numbers show, most people don't use Bing - and according to the Fin, the average punter is not happy to move. Salon owners optimistic about future without Google, as tech giant threatens to leave AustraliaAlthough the Australian has a story about small business owners who think Google leaving may be a “blessing in disguise”, as so much time is devoted to SEO Microsoft willing to accept new media bargaining code, unlike Google, FacebookAnd just to be even cheekier, Microsoft says it is happy to pay the media code. Clever move. Google Rides Global Ad Recovery to Record RevenueGoogle has reported its Quarterly earnings, and the company is doing alright Google parent Alphabet Inc posted a record $56.9 billion revenue, up from $43.2 billion a year ago. YouTube revenue soared 46% in the quarter, as advertisers flocked to the video-sharing platform amid the pandemic Alphabet's “Other Bets'' division, which is a combination of Google's moonshot ideas, continues to burn money, but at a slower rate. The division lost $1.14 billion compared to $2.03 billion in Q4 2019. Alphabet reports Q4 2020 revenue of $56.9 billion

Apple's App Tracking Transparency coming in early spring – TechCrunchFacebook Preps Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple — The InformationApple's Tim Cook warns of adtech fuelling a 'social catastrophe' as he defends app tracker opt-inThe cold war between Facebook and Apple continues, with Apple once again stating its App Transparency tools will soon prompt users about the amount of data being shared within apps. The Information reports that Facebook has been working on an antitrust complaint against Apple, saying it is violating its own App Store policies by not including these warnings on its own suite of Apps, such as iMessage. Apple CEO Tim Cook has hit back with harsh rhetoric - and while he didn't name facebook, he said “ad based social media companies” that “rely on constant engagement” are fueling a “Social catastrophe” of misinformation and social division. Robinhood restricts trading in GameStop, other names involved in frenzyRobinhood Says It Will Reopen GameStop TradingWhile Wall Street tries to figure out what to do about GameStop's sudden surge, the app responsible for many of the “retail investors” who've bought into the failing game store chain has halted trading of the stock. Robinhood is a retail investor app, and it has been criticised in the past for using similar tactics of gambling apps, targeting young men with get rich quick promises. Late last week, Robinhood suspended trading on Gamestop, Blackberry, Blockbuster, and other stocks caught up in the Wallstreetbets buying frenzy. Angry redditors have flooded the App Store with 1 star reviews, complaining the app is blocking their attempts to throw good money on bad companies, to screw over a bunch of hedge funds. NAB will buy 86 400 for up to $220 million, leaving Australia's neobank experiment looking shakyThe market for neo-banks in Australia has reduced once more, following the news that NAB is buying 86 400, and rolling its technology into its own digital only banking product, UBank.NAB already had an 18% stake in the neobank, and will buy the remaining shares in a deal worth $220 millionThe deal will still need to be approved by regulators and shareholders. 86 400 is being acquired less than a month after neobank Xinja folded, handing back it's banking licence and returning customers' deposits. If you are an 86 400 customer, day-to-day nothing changes and 86 400 will continue to operate as a separate business from NAB, run by its team in Sydney.Normally a $220 million exit for an Australian start-up would be considered a fantastic result. But this has an air of waving the white flag, and acknowledging that start-ups can't take on the big four… yet.

Google's ad dominance under fireThe Australian reports the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission has raised concerns over Google's dominance in online advertising. Again. The interim report for the ACCC's Digital Advertising Services Inquiry warns of a lack of competition and transparency across the $3.4bn display advertising sector and Google's “ability and ­incentive to favour its own related business interests”.The consumer watchdog's investigation into display advertising found Google held up to 90 per cent of the industry when measured via impressions, and 70 per cent of the revenue.Google's technology powers the real-time auctions in which the ads are sold and the company controls virtually the entire ­advertising supply chain.. This report raises concerns that the tech giant preferences its own ad tech businesses. Yet another long legal battle for Google coming up… Online trading platforms see a surge in usage as Redditors take on Wall StreetThis story has been bubbling along all week, and it's been bizarre to try to piece together, so I'll try to explain it as best I can. Retail traders on the subreddit WallStreetBets have been coordinating to buy shorted stocks. The motivation it seems is not to invest in companies that have been wrongly devalued, but purely to troll hedge funds that have “shorted” the stockWhen you short a stock, you're making a bet the value of the stock will go down. Gamestop was shorted by many firms to hit around $4 a share, it is currently trading at $300. Other shorted companies caught up in WallStreetBets read like a nostalgia trip - Blackberry, Nokia, Blockbuster Video, AMC Movie Theatres, all have seen their stock price skyrocket over the last week. Short sellers have lost around $5b so far As Molly Wood said so concisely: “You built the world's largest casino and now you're sorry gamblers showed up…” And now it's a game of chicken for those holding stock - if they sell now, they'll make bank, but they won't achieve their goal of screwing the hedge funds. Wallstreetbets was made private yesterday, as markets scramble to put guardrails in place. Moving on from crazy wall street bets - The tech giants have all reported their earnings for the quarter, and they're all getting richer… Quarterly ReportsApple has reported a 21% increase in revenue, year over year. All major product lines reported over expectations - with iPhones, Macs, iPads, and wearables - including Apple Watch and AirPods - all seeing growth. Even services were up. iPads did best, with a massive 40% increase in sales Year over Year Meanwhile, Facebook reported $28.1 billion in revenue for the quarter, of which $27.2 billion came from ads. Facebook has warned investors that Apple's changes to privacy in iOS 14 will impact its earnings in 2021. Google will report next week, and is expected to also see a rise in revenue from online ads, but it

Queensland trial uses Spotify to slow down drivers near school zones Spotify is creating special songs that encourage users to slow down around school zones, as part of a trial in Queensland. Spotify will use the geolocation information from a user's phone to identify when they're within 5kms of a school zone, and sneak in a track with messages to slow down, and watch out for school crossingsThe audio has been created by local Brisbane artists, and the song will slot into a playlist once the current playing song is finished. The trial officially launched in Brisbane on Wednesday, but will run state-wide. It will aim to cover all school traffic zones, at both primary and secondary campuses. As it's using Spotify's advertising insertion, the slow down tracks will only play for Spotify users on the free tier, premium subscribers will not hear the messages. Google News Showcase launch to go ahead after backflip amid political battleGoogle is planning on rolling out a new product, called News Showcase, in Australia as soon as next month. The service aims to bundle up a bunch of news services under a single paywall, and share the revenue with publishers. Google first announced the product back in June last year, but pulled the launch but pulled the plug when the Media Code was first introduced, telling partners “ it would not launch until it had a better idea of how the proposed laws would affect it financially.”The announcement that News Showcase is back comes just a few days after Google threatened to pull search from Australia, in retaliation to the code. Is this Google saying “take me back, i can change?” Twitter acquiring newsletter publishing company RevueTwitter is getting into the newsletter as a service game, after acquiring the newsletter start up Revue. Revue will continue as a stand alone product separate to Twitter, but will be “closely integrated” into the service, and fees will be lowered to 5%, the same cut Substack charges for its service. Twitter says journalists are one of the most important groups using twitter and "are a valuable part of the conversation and it's critical we offer new ways for them to create and share their content, and importantly, help them grow and better connect with their audience," Apple fixes another three iOS zero-days exploited in the wildApple has released iOS 14.4, an update that patches 3 security issues discovered with its mobile operating system Apple has shared little detail of what the exploits could do, but did say all 3 were discovered by an anonymous researcher, suggesting the bugs may have been discovered by nefarious actors as well. If you have an iPhone, you should update it as soon as possible. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Twitter launches 'Birdwatch,' a forum to combat misinformationTwitter has announced a new service called Birdwatch, which will allow users to flag tweets as misleadingThe service is being rolled out to a limited number of users who have verified their accounts with a phone number - and Twitter says it is targeting influential users and fact checkers first. On its blog post, Twitter says “We know this might be messy and have problems at times, but we believe this is a model worth trying,”Discussion: Twitter is leaving moderation in the hands of its users… Better than the current method of reporting a tweet and getting zero feedback Facebook will let researchers study how advertisers targeted users with political ads prior to Election DayFacebook for the first time is giving researchers access to data on how ads were targeted to users in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election Previously, Facebook has provided information on the advertising campaigns run on its platform, but the information has just been about how much was spent on various campaigns and community groups This new data set, from August 3 to November 3 2020, will show how advertisers targeted users based on demographics Discussion: Is this a risky move for facebook? To see just how much its platform can be used to target individuals with misinformation? Or is this a clever way of shaming those caught into not doing it again? Big Tech nemesis Lina Khan is gaining traction for top Biden antitrust roleLina Khan is being touted as the new head of the Federal Trade Commission in the states, the organisation responsible for, amongst other things, antitrust legislation If Khan is appointed, Vox Media reports we should expect to see a renewed focus on antitrust in big tech As Vox points out, “Khan played a crucial role as legal counsel for the House antitrust subcommittee's 16-month investigation into the Big Tech giants, and in producing the 400-page House Democrat report that alleged that all of the tech giants engage in anti-competitive practices and need to be reined in.”Khan made a name for herself in 2017 when she penned a legal paper dubbed “Amazon's Antitrust Paradox,” - which argued that the current definition of antitrust, that relies on a “bad for the consumer” threshold, is inappropriate when looking at tech companies - because, in this example, Amazon provides a pretty great user experience, while still driving others from the market. Aussie video game company bought by French studio for $55m Australia's Big Ant Studios has been bought by French-based Nacon in a €35 million ($54.9 million) dealBig Ant Studios has made a name for itself being the kind of EA Sports to sports only Australians care about, like Cricket and Rugby and AFL. The deal will see Big Ant Studios run largely independently in Australia, with Nacon providing marketing and distribution to sell these games in markets like India (for Cricket) and France (for Rugby). After two decades of pretty terrible... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Google threatens to leave Australia if Media Code Goes AheadSearch giant Google has hinted off the record it may have to abandon Search in Australia if the media code becomes law. Last Friday, it made the threat public at the Senate enquiry. Google Australia managing director Mel Silva told a Senate hearing on Friday that the proposed news media bargaining code remained "unworkable", and the company was prepared to exit the Australian market.Google's issue of course is not the fee structure itself, but the precedent set if Google has to pay for news in one tiny little market like Australia - which would risk it's “international business model”. To clarify, Google is only saying it will disable search, not it's other products like Gmail, Youtube, and Google Docs. At the same hearing, Facebook again said it would remove news from its product if the code became law. Is it time to migrate to alternative search engines? Meanwhile, in France Google has agreed to pay news publishersTechcrunch reports that Google has agreed to pay French publishers for using snippets of stories in search results and in Google News. While the fight in France was different, there are many parallels between this French settlement and the current media laws being fought in Australia. Google threatened to remove the snippets from search and news in response to the new fees, but in April last year, the French competition watchdog banned this move, saying Google's withdrawal of snippets would be unfair and damaging to the press sector, and likely to constitute an abuse of a dominant market position.Not wanting to open a “monopoly” can of worms, Google agreed to negotiate with France's media industry association - L'Alliance de la Presse d'Information GénéraleFor Australian media organisations looking for a quick win, they should note this law was introduced in 2019, and has only just passed its final appeal process. Back Home, and Australia is starting another fight with Big TechThe Fin reports Australia's eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has warned big tech platforms that they must do more to tackle the problems caused by anonymous accounts on their services.Ms Inman Grant – a former public policy director at Twitter released a position statement on the dangers of anonymous accounts, leading to online bullying and abuse, and fuelling the global rise of conspiracy theories such as Qanon. Inman Grant is not calling for an end to online anonymity, saying it can provide a “powerful form of protection for victims of domestic violence, whistleblowers and people living under authoritarian regimes”Under her proposal, Individuals could be fined up to $111,000 for anonymous abusive behaviour, such as posting revenge porn. Content hosts such as social media, dating or games platforms could be slugged with fines up to $550,000.Concepts such as "digital licence plates", blockchain-based identity management systems and digital signatures are being explored as potential solutions to authenticate people online, without them being publicly identified or... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Amazon is offering to help distribute the COVID vaccine in the USJoe Biden has set a goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans in the next 100 days, and Amazon is offering its distribution centres and logistical expertise to make that happen. Amazon executive Dave Clark wrote in an open letter that “Our scale allows us to make a meaningful impact immediately in the fight against COVID-19, and we stand ready to assist you in this effort.”Amazon also asks that “frontline workers” such as its own workers in distribution centres, and those working in delivery, should get the vaccine “as a priority” - which seems pretty fair, if a little self serving. Considering I can find a useless thing i don't need on Amazon and have it arrive the next day, I'd be happy with Amazon making a similar offer in Australia. Alibaba's Jack Ma makes his first public appearance in months Jack Ma, the billionaire co-founder and former chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has appeared publicly for the first time since late October 2020In September 2020, Ma criticized regulators as having a “pawnshop mentality” when it came to technology, and asked the government for less regulation around money lending. This reportedly infuriated the Chinese government. A month later, Chinese regulators cancelled the IPO of Ant Group, Ma's fintech start up, saying it didn't “meet the listing conditions or disclosure requirements”. The move knocked $68 billion off the value of Alibaba. Ever since, Ma has not been seen, leading some to fear for his safety. His video today, which was described as “happy and positive, and did not look like a hostage video” -- has helped Alibaba shares rebound by 8% LG prepares to exit the smartphone marketThe Korea Herald reports that the CEO of LG sent out an internal memo to staff on Wednesday, hinting that LG is considering exiting the smart phone business. In a follow up to the Herald, a spokesperson for LG said : “Since the competition in the global market for mobile devices is getting fiercer, it is about time for LG to make a cold judgment and the best choice. The company is considering all possible measures, including sale, withdrawal and downsizing of the smartphone business.”It's an amazing fall for LG, who with HTC and Samsung were once the high flyers in Android phones. HTC has already ceased smartphones, which they blamed on spending too long chasing Windows phones. LG on the other hand, seemed to constantly misjudge the timing of features for its phones, and was constantly out-marketed by Korean rival Samsung. Increasingly, LG has looked to crazy gimmicks to market it's phones, see roll up displays and that weird wing phone. But when was the last time you saw an LG phone in the wild? Qanon followers struggle to cope with Inauguration day Axios dove into the Qanon private groups and message threads to see how followers of Q are dealing with the inauguration of Joe Biden. Overall the message boards were a mixture of anger and disappointment that “Trump did not black out U.S. communications networks and send in the military to arrest... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

US Government weighs in on Media CodeIn a submission to the parliamentary inquiry to the new Media Code, that would force Facebook and Google to pay for news aggregated on their websites, the US government described the proposed legislation as:unreasonable, impractical, “fundamentally imbalanced” and could run counter to the US-Australia free trade agreement, The Guardian reports.The US position is the Media code may do “undue harm”, and seems to “unfairly attack” just two companies, Facebook and Google. They ask the Australian government to put faith in “market forces” to sort it all out. To be fair, the code does target just two companies, but both are effective monopolies in their field, so there's not a lot of market force to challenge them… Anyway, hopefully this is the last time we need to talk about the code, due to be discussed in parliament again this Friday, until next week… Facebook did something it promised it wouldn't do I know it's hard to believe, but Facebook has been caught ignoring its own rules again. In the run-up to the 2020 election, Facebook brought in a bunch of “emergency” measures to prevent people from using the platform to spread misinformation or coordinate violence.One such measure was to stop promoting private political groups to users. Zuckerberg testified under oath last October saying the company had stopped promoting political groups, and the company made the claim again in a January 11th blog post. Despite Facebook's promise, the markup has found that the company continued to recommend political groups to its users throughout December and January. Trump voters were most targeted with 25% of all Trump voters.In this study, receiving suggestions to join groups, like, “Rudy Giuliani's common sense group” and another simply called “storm the capitol.” The study was based on users who have downloaded the Markup's browser extension that shows how Facebook is targeting its users. You may recall that Facebook wanted to shut down this research, because it said it violated Facebook's Terms of Service. Netflix has stunned Wall Street with a massive quarter The streaming giant added more than 8 million new subscribers worldwide.You may recall that wall street was a little disappointed in Netflix last quarter.While the company had grown throughout 2020 due to the pandemic. It was spending a hell of a lot of money as well. Investors were hoping that Netflix would rein in its spending.It hasn't done that, but it's created so much wealth that it doesn't really need to. Netflix has even hinted at a share buy back based on its profits. As we mentioned last week, Netflix has over 70 movies premiering this year on the platform, which will no doubt go down well while cinemas remain closed.And finally, Ben Thompson of strategic theory has a long read on Intel's future In his newsletter, Ben explains the last 20 years of Intel chips and how they did very very well in Google's data centers and, therefore, many other... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Intel's new CEO is spooked by Apple's M1 chipLast week, CES announcements were dominated by laptops running chips from AMD and ARM. Intel was still inside many PCs and laptops, but the headlines went to Intel's rivals… Amid the cover of CES, Intel's CEO resigned. Intel's new CEO, Pat Gelsinger doesn't start his new role until February, but he attended an all hands meeting yesterday where he told Intel employees “We have to deliver better products to the PC ecosystem than any possible thing that a lifestyle company in Cupertino [makes]. We have to be that good, in the future.”It's a noble goal, but feels like one of those quotes that could haunt Gelsinger to his grave… Speaking of Apple's M1 Chips… Apple rumour king, Mark Gurman had a raft of Apple product rumours over the weekend, involving said M1 chip Gurman says we can expect to see new M1 based iMacs in the coming months, with smaller bezels and a more streamlined look, based on a more powerful variant of the M1 chip That new chip is also expected in new 14” and 16” Macbook Pros - but for Apple fans the big news is Gurman expects these laptops to reintroduce Magsafe, and ditch the controversial touchbar. Finally, Gurman predicts a new mini Mac Pro and to go with it, a new retina monitor with a more realistic price point, than the current $8k XDR display Mac fans have commented and tweeted that this all sounds “too good to be true”... Your smartwatch knows you have covid before you do Smartwatches that continuously measure users' heart rates, skin temperature and other physiological markers can help spot coronavirus infections days before an individual is diagnosed.Devices like the Apple Watch, Garmin and Fitbit watches can predict whether an individual is positive for COVID-19 even before they are symptomatic or the virus is detectable by tests, according to studies from Mount Sinai Health System in New York. A separate study from Stanford, in which participants wore a variety of different activity trackers from Garmin, Fitbit, Apple found that 81% of coronavirus-positive participants experienced changes in their resting heart rates up to nine and a half days prior to the onset of symptoms.Experts say wearable technology could play a vital role in stemming the pandemic and other communicable diseases.And finally, it's not even news at this stage, but Covidsafe did not detect a single case during the recent Christmas clustersThis period includes the South Australian Parafield outbreak starting in mid November, clusters in NSW on the Northern Beaches and Berala, and community transmission cases in Victoria.A spokesperson for The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Victoria said that from 14 November, out of the 14 cases that had the app, it identified zero new contacts through the COVIDSafe data._________If you have questions or comments for the show, you can find us on Twitter @peterwells and @tessbennett - or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts with feedback. Thanks for listening, and we'll speak to you tomorrow See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

And first up today we have the continuing story of Australian media vs Google and Facebook The Australian reports that “Google said it was burying links from traditional media outlets in some search ­results”The company has described the ­actions as an “experiment”, and just one of tens of thousands it conducts every year.But in the current cold war between big tech and big media, the experiment has raised eyebrows The Greens slammed Google's hiding Australian news content in its search engine for some users as a “scaremongering tactic” while Opposition communications spokesman Tim Watts said his party would support a “workable code”.The New York Times has an incredible story on Twitter's ban on Trump According to reports, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was “working remotely from a private island in French Polynesia when the decision was made. The hands off CEO heard about Trump's 12 hr ban after it had happened. Instead, the decision was made by twitter's top lawyer Vijaya Gadde.Once Trump's 12hr ban was lifted, the company monitored Trump's tweets, just two of them, before permanently banning the account. Twitter had long resisted silencing Trump, but during the 12hr ban, over 300 Twitter employees signed a company wide letter asking for the ban to become permanent. Last Wednesday, Dorsey tweeted that he did “not celebrate or feel pride in our having to ban @realDonaldTrump” because “a ban is a failure of ours ultimately to promote healthy conversation.”Sticking with the US, and dating apps Bumble and Tinder are now on the front line of identifying rioters at the US Capitol. The Washington Post reports the apps are using images captured from inside the Capitol siege and to identify and ban rioters' accounts. Alongside the ban, there appears to be a grassroots campaign of users identifying rioters, and then passing along their details to the FBI. According to the report, “Many women in Washington over the past two weeks had taken notice of a surge in conservative men on dating apps, many wearing Make America Great Again hats or other markers of support for President Trump rarely seen in an overwhelmingly Democratic city.”One user said it was “her civic duty” to swipe on these accounts, get all the information available, and pass it along to the FBI. This idea has sparked a debate on “ethical doxxing” - when is it ethical to turn in an account online? And finally, Joanna Stern of The Wall Street Journal has a great article on the algorithms that rule our lives. It's one of the simplest breakdowns I've ever read of the power of the algorithm, and it's a shame it's behind a paywall. Stern argues we lost control of social media back in 2016, when Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube replaced the standard chronological feed with one curated by artificial intelligence. “Bye-bye, feeds that showed everything and everyone we followed in an unending, chronologically ordered river. Hello, high-energy feeds that popped with must-clicks.”“at the heart of it all, this is still a gigantic technology problem: Computers are in... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.