🎙 Episode #6: Litigious Musk, Facebook’s slide, Amazon Care, and England Lionesses
🎙 Episode #6: Litigious Musk, Facebook’s slide, Amazon Care, and England Lionesses
The podcast about tech my mum can understand.
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In this episode of Big Tech Little Tech
Rick Huckstep and Shaun Weston discuss Amazon Care, Elon Musk’s latest ups and downs, Facebook’s downs (mostly), AI balls, Ted Lasso, and the England Lionesses. Plus, Rick finds out when he will die thanks to the Population.io website.
Listen to it here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Anchor
To help you along as you listen to the latest episode, we’ve laid out the topics, timeline and a host of useful links below. We hope that you find this episode of Big Tech Little Tech both entertaining and informative.
00:00 Preamble
What tech caught our eye recently: Rick found a website called Population.io by World Data Lab.
It's a fascinating website that reveals the number of people in the world, life expectancy by region, and how long a person is expected to live depending on where they live.
Fun Fact: 84% of the world is younger than Rick 👶
Ahead of World Cup 2022, Shaun is intrigued by semi-automated offside technology (SAOT), which Pierluigi Collina – the chair of Fifa's referees committee – says will "offer something that gives a quicker answer”.
We're referring to offside decisions in football, which typically uses slow motion and constant rewinding of video evidence.
⚽️ We also talk briefly about Ted Lasso 🤠
Further reading
World population projected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100 (UN)
How semi-automated offside technology will change Qatar 2022 World Cup (Forbes)
▶️ Brian Clough hits his own fans (YouTube video)
Why 'Ted Lasso' is a feel-good show that's winning over viewers (Today)
07.53 Tech news
1️⃣ In the rush to be like TikTok, traditional social media platforms have jumped en masse into showing us non-stop videos. The backlash has begun, with Instagram users rebelling against the changes, saying “Make Instagram Instagram again”. Adam Mosseri of Instagram said last week that the app would row back some of the changes.
How Instagram’s copycat strategy has backfired with loyal users
How Instagram influencers become enterprises, and what happens next
Instagram will support full-screen photos, testing begins soon
RICK’S WRITING: Facebook v TikTok: The Battle for Attention and Addiction
2️⃣ Elon Musk is suing Twitter after Twitter decided to sue Elon Musk. Musk walked away from a $44bn purchase of Twitter, but it’s all still up the air. Litigation on all sides is underway, and this one is set to go on for quite some time. Undeterred by lawsuits, Musk has apparently launched thousands of satellites into orbit, which will form part of the Starlink internet services network.
RICK’S WRITING: Does Elon Musk Have A Get-Out-Of-Jail Free Card Up His Twitter Sleeve?
3️⃣ Costs are going up everywhere, and Amazon is the latest to raise the price of its services. Amazon Prime monthly subscriptions will increase £1, making it £8.99 a month. Annual membership goes up to £95, up from £79. This is its first price rise since 2014.
RICK’S WRITING: Ambient Computing: Amazon's in the house
4️⃣ Meta's total revenue slipped 1% to $28.8bn, says the BBC. The company warned investors that ad sales were likely to fall again in the coming months. Mark Zuckerberg said Meta will reduce its hiring "steadily" over the next year.
RICK’S WRITING: Sandberg Leaves Facebook: All You Need To Know
5️⃣ Denmark is banning Google's services in schools, after officials carried out a risk assessment around the processing of personal data. Denmark's data protection watchdog, Datatilsynet, revealed that data processing involving students using Google's cloud-based Workspace software suite "does not meet the requirements" of GDPR data privacy regulations.
Denmark bans Chromebooks and Google Workspace in schools: Here's why
What is GDPR? The Basics of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation
RICK’S WRITING: Surveillance and Lack of Data Privacy in the US is Under Scrutiny
10.48 The Musk-Twitter soap opera continues
A judge has ordered a trial for the Elon Musk vs Twitter lawsuit. What does the walkaway clause in the initial negotiations actually mean?
Rick believes Twitter will win the case.
What happens if Musk is obligated to buy Twitter? What happens if Twitter loses the case? What Elon Musk might do to Twitter if he acquires the company.
Rick explains his prediction that Elon Musk’s secret plan for Twitter was to be a cryptocurrency payments engine scenario.
Twitter’s history of innovation (not much to speak of). Twitter and its remote working policy. Why is Tesla’s Cybertruck taking so long to get to market?
Twitter has perhaps helped Tesla’s marketing strategy. The Tesla window smash (yes, they did it twice).
Further reading
Musk accuses Twitter of deliberately miscounting spam users in countersuit (The Guardian)
Twitter pares back on city office space in remote work shift (Crain's New York)
Tesla’s Cybertruck is going to be more expensive than originally planned (The Verge)
Comparing Tesla’s spending on R&D and marketing per car to other automakers (Visual Capitalist)
▶️ Elon Musk's epic Cybertruck 'bulletproof' window smash fail (YouTube video)
▶️ Bill Gates, Windows 98, and the Blue Screen of Death (YouTube video)
RICK’S WRITING: Elon Blames Twitter Bots For A Mess Of His Own Making
21.32 Is Facebook buggered?
Facebook statistics are on the downturn. What’s the cause? Rick outlines four reasons.
Digital advertising, privacy measures and falling revenue streams.
TikTok and the attention economy, and its effect on Facebook’s earning potential.
Mark Zuckerberg’s “day of reckoning” for the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Who is Sheryl Sandberg? (See also Episode 3.)
Facebook’s pivot to metaverse – is it working? (See also Episode 4.)
Further reading
Facebook revenue declines for first time, and Meta’s downfall is expected to get worse (MarketWatch)
TikTok has changed everything, especially book publishing (Observer)
The Cambridge Analytica scandal changed the world – but it didn't change Facebook (The Guardian)
Vitalik Buterin on corporate attempts to develop metaverse (IBT)
▶️ Zuckerberg explains the internet to US Congress (YouTube video)
RICK’S WRITING: Is This The Beginning of The End for Facebook?
30.29 Amazon’s healthcare proposition
Why is Amazon in the healthcare market?
Amazon is buying One Medical to offer walk-in clinics.
How might a healthcare subscription work?
Bolstering the Amazon customer ecosystem with healthcare services.
Amazon already own PillPack, a full-service pharmacy service.
Amazon knowing everything about us.
Could customers be tricked into subscribing?
Understanding the nature of the Amazon ecosystem.
Further reading
Amazon just took over a primary health care company for a lot of money. Should we be worried? (Tech Explore)
How will Amazon approach US primary care? (Harvard Business Review)
Accidentally signed up to Amazon Prime? You're not alone (Which?)
Amazon Prime: how did I become an ‘accidental’ member? (The Guardian)
RICK’S WRITING: BigTech's Pursuit of the Healthcare Dollar
40.41 Wasn't it great watching the England Lionesses?!
Neither Rick nor I could be bothered with the men's international game, but it was so much fun to watch the Lionesses winning the Euros final recently ⚽️
See you next episode!
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