What day is it? Does it matter? Time may be a flat circle that got hit by the Covid Truck for many people, but things have happened this month: Apple finally rolls out its four iPhone 12 models, Facebook finally bans Holocaust-denial content and and a House committee finally produces its report on Big Tech and monopoly. El Kaiser and J.D. muse upon it all, along with with a new set of headphones that gets the Rosado Review. Hear it all on PTJ 345!
• Six Russian GRU Officers Charged in Connection with Worldwide Deployment of Destructive Malware and Other Disruptive Actions in Cyberspace (United States Department of Justice)
• The Citizen Browser Project—Auditing the Algorithms of Disinformation (The Markup)
• Facebook says it rejected 2.2m ads for breaking political campaigning rules (The Guardian)
• Twitter, Responsibility, and Accountability (Stratechery by Ben Thompson)
• Apple Launches ‘Apple Music TV,’ a 24-Hour Music Video Livestream (Variety)
• Apple introduces iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max with 5G (Apple Newsroom)
• Apple announces iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini: A new era for iPhone with 5G (Apple Newsroom)
• Apple introduces HomePod mini: A powerful smart speaker with amazing sound (Apple Newsroom)
• Removing Holocaust Denial Content (About Facebook)
• Why Facebook Can’t Fix Itself (The New Yorker)
• The new Nest Thermostat: more energy savings for more people (Google Nest)
• Amazon’s Latest Gimmicks Are Pushing the Limits of Privacy (WIRED)
• Amazon launches an AR app that works with new QR codes on its boxes (TechCrunch)
• The House Antitrust Report on Big Tech (The New York Times)
• Google’s merger with ITA helped it grow into the giant that the Justice Department is scrutinizing (The Washington Post)
• EU targets Big Tech with ‘hit list’ facing tougher rules (Financial Times)
• Exclusive: TikTok rival Triller explores deal to go public – sources (Reuters)
• Disney reorganizes to focus on streaming, direct to consumer (CNBC)
• AKG K553 MKII Headphones
Per the rant on the iPhone 12, though somewhat merited, you made some comments that I think need some fleshing out. What Apple is assuming that that the public has so many USB devices, they are probably swimming in chargers. The rationale of why include yet another charging brick is sound. HOWEVER, Apple includes a (an?) USB type C charging cable which doesn’t align with all the chargers that they have included in years past except for last year. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m lucky, and I have a bunch of old headphones that are much better (and more comfortable) than the ear pods that Apple has included with the phones in the past. In a dark drawer in my office I have a tangle of apple headphones that have barely seen the light, so the exclusion of those don’t bother me. You posited that maybe Apple should have skipped this year in phones. With the introduction of the 12’s all previous phones (which I believe still include all accessories) have been knocked down, going back to the iPhone SE. Therefore one could get the 11 at a better price than they could before the announcement. Anyway, love your episodes. My weeks are always get better when I see that there is a new episode in Spotify.
Thanks, Kevin! I’m swimming in chargers too but it still frosts my rage cake….. LOL!