This week Matthew and I look back at TechCrunch Disrupt in Berlin to discuss 4 start-ups. The question we answer is will the technology fly, or die. For example, Wandlebots introduces a simple way to program robots. Surprisingly (to me, at least), we have different view points on almost each company’s technology. The companies and their descriptions are below.
Amazon wants Youtube on the Show. Google doesn’t, unless the experience is the same as their other players. Google would also like their products, like the Chromecast, sold on Amazon. Amazon doesn’t. The feuding is starting to pick up steam and we’re here to talk all about it. Show notes are below.
Next week the FCC will vote to repeal the Open Internet Order (a.k.a. Net Neutrality). Matthew and I get into a hot debate on whether or not the FCC should and what would be the ideal outcome. It’s a great show with a ton of notes from the show below.
Tesla announced their newest contribution to the automation revolution: a new electric semi-truck. It’s sleek, safe, and high performing (also, not cheap, though the total cost of ownership should be lower). But this is one step in a much bigger trend to automate semi-trucks. For example, a new law to install ELDs (Electric Logging Devises) is already one huge step in automating the tracking of drivers… Drivers, btw, don’t love these new devices. There’s definitely some friction with something called the “Golden Triangle of Freedom”. We dive deep into each of these in our show.
EA released a new Star Wars game called Battlefront II. One game mechanic got the Internet (represented by Reddit), into a roar: in-game micro-transactions that open random loot boxes. Not only were they expensive, but they also influenced how well you did in multi-player mode, which seemed unfair and greedy on EA’s part. With all the criticism, EA pulled the loot boxes at the last minute, but it begs the question: what is the true cost of a game? Why does EA feel it’s necessary to charge micro-transactions for performance? Is that OK? Or are they going too far?
Sean Parker said in a speech that they knew Facebook would turn into an addiction, and created it anyways. We discuss a few points of that statement: did they really know? Is Facebook, and social networks in general, addictive? What can be done, if anything, about it? Pay attention because this is important.
What happens when a founder/leader gets tired of their main product and decides to take on a secondary product? For the second product, they’re no longer starving artist, but a fat artist. Does massive amounts of money and people help? We discuss this idea in this week’s podcast with many examples.
Guy Hursh wrote and interesting article that discusses why Apple is commanding the share of profits, and the share of premium phone sales. He’s starts from the stance that both phones are functionally similar, and therefore it has to do with Apple’s better ability to promote themselves. In this show we dive deep into that claim.
August was acquired by Yale (the lock company) and it got us thinking. What startups will succeed and which will fail? In this episode we talk about the criteria and then run the test against the top startups of 2017.
Google released new hardware with a goal to be radically helpful. They’re doing this by combining Hardware + Software + AI. They showed off 6 new pieces of hardware which we dive into.