Beyond Devices Podcast

We're back after a two-week break, and this episode is exclusively devoted to a review of major tech companies earnings for Q2 2016, which were reported over the last several weeks. We take a thematic approach to the topic, focusing first on hardware companies, principally Apple and Samsung; then on the big ad-focused companies: Google, Facebook, and Twitter; and then two companies that stand somewhat apart: Microsoft and Amazon. We discuss the themes that emerged from earnings this quarter, and also some of the surprising elements in each company's results. Next week, we'll be back to our usual structure, with a News Roundup, Question of the Week, and Weekly Pick. As usual, you'll find related links and other ways to listen to the podcast on the website at podcast.beyonddevic.es.

Our News Roundup this week covers Amazon's Prime Day, Twitter's recent deals and experiments around professionally produced live video, and Microsoft's announcement of Surface as a Service. Our Question of the Week is "What do the economics of the mobile gaming industry tell us about the future of Pokemon Go?" The game has burst dramatically onto the scene, and already provided a nice boost for Nintendo's share price, but past experience suggests massive hits can be short-lived in the mobile gaming market. We discuss the potential hurdles and challenges for the game, and for Nintendo as it finally embraces the mobile gaming market. We also talk about the implications for augmented reality. Our third segment is about Facebook Live Video and how it's been used in recent weeks for some harrowing footage very different from what it was originally conceived to do, and in contrast to the type of live video Twitter is now pursuing. We talk about the responsibilities that come with such power for Facebook, and the

Our News Roundup this week covers three topics: BlackBerry killing off its Classic device (though refuting reports that it's killing the BlackBerry 10 OS); Comcast and Netflix reaching a deal to put Netflix on Comcast set top boxes; and a report that the new iPhone will start at 32GB rather than 16GB of onboard storage. As usual, we discuss the ins and outs and implications of each of these stories in the opening segment. Our second segment is our Question of the Week, which this time is "What new health sensors should we expect in Apple Watch 2 this fall?" and by implication is also about how the health and fitness aspects of other smartwatches might evolve in the coming months and years. Although Aaron's initial response is simply "not much", the rest of the conversation focuses on the challenges of trying to gather health and fitness data from the wrist, the potential for Apple-made and third-party extensions to the Apple Watch (and iPhone), and the potential for doing more behavioral analysis with the se

Our News Roundup this week covers three topics: Microsoft's announcement that Windows 10 now has 350 installations; Twitter's addition of stickers to photos shared through the platform; and Amazon's new strategy for selling third-party Android phones with ads on the lock screen. Our Question of the Week is "How is Apple doing in India, and how can it do better?" It builds on research Jan has been doing over the last few weeks on what Apple might do to boost its fortunes – and specifically the iPhone's fortunes – in India. We talk about the unique characteristics of the Indian market, and how it's different from China; the state of the smartphone market in India; Apple's current position there; and four major themes around how Apple can accelerate growth and increase its addressable market there. Our third segment covers the changes Facebook announced to its News Feed algorithm on Wednesday, the reasons for the move, and the likely implications for users, for publishers, and for Facebook. As usual, we wrap

We returned to our usual format this week, kicking things off with a News Roundup, and including a Question of the Week and Weekly Pick. Our News Roundup covered three topics: Instagram's release of user numbers, including 500 million monthly active users and 300 million daily active users; Tencent's acquisition of a majority stake in Supercell for $8.6 billion; and BlackBerry's earnings. Our Question of the Week is: "How can differential privacy make my life better?" Aaron did a bunch of homework on this concept, which Apple introduced to many of us at WWDC last week but has actually been around for much longer. He tells us what differential privacy is, what some of the real-world applications are, and the benefits and limitations of this approach. We've included some links to some of Aaron's reading material in the show notes. Lastly, we discussed some other topics relating to WWDC which we didn't get to last time or which have emerged since last week's episodes, including the reviews of the macOS Sierr

This episode is entirely devoted to covering the 2016 edition of Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), which we previewed last week. Rather than go through chronologically, as we often do with these episodes, or even by product/platform, we felt it might be more interesting to pick up on four big themes from this event and discuss those, incorporating a lot of the biggest announcements in the process. The four themes are: * Openness, or loosening the reins – which includes the new Siri, iMessage, and Maps extensions; making Apple's apps deletable; and the new lock-screen UI for VoIP apps * AI and deep learning and pushing back against the narrative that Apple is behind – including advances in Siri, Photos, QuickType, and the concept of differential privacy * Things that should have happened sooner – or, as Aaron named this segment, "Finally" – watchOS 3 and its new app and dock model; single sign-on and the Remote app for tvOS; the Home app for setting up and controlling HomeKit devices; Siri on t

This week's episode marks the one-year anniversary of the first episode, with both episodes offering previews of Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). Given the anniversary, we thought it would be fun to do a little retrospective of some of the things we've covered on the podcast over the past year, and so we made that another topic of discussion on the latest episode. There's now a permanent page on the site where you can easily see a full listing of past episodes, so you can easily browse them. But we spent some time highlighting some of our favorite episodes from the past year, as well as discussing the past year in consumer tech. Links to the episodes we mention are below in the show notes. We also added a page to the website listing all the Weekly Picks we've recommended. If, for whatever reason, you don't feel like reminiscing with us, you can skip to 21:20, when start talking about this year's WWDC. Specifically, we talk about Siri and digital assistants in general, something Jan's been aske

This week's News Roundup covered three topics: Microsoft's deal with Xiaomi to share patents and pre-install Office and Skype on Xiaomi devices; rumors of a new 5K display from Apple; and a new EU Code of Conduct on policing hate speech signed by major American tech companies. We discuss the ins and outs of each of these stories and their implications. Our Question of the Week is "What's the state of the smart home, and how will it change?" This topic builds off a recent piece Jan wrote for Techpinions which was syndicated to Recode, titled "The Smart Home is Stuck", in which Jan argued that the most high-profile element of the smart home market – the retail purchase, self-install segment, is stuck at the early adopter phase. However, we also discuss the other major segment in the market, which is the service-based alternative, which sees devices professionally installed and managed, and charges monthly service fees rather than a one-off device purchase fee. This part of the market, exemplified by companies

Our News Roundup covered three topics: Spotify's financials, which Jan wrote about earlier in the week; Microsoft's decision to exit the consumer smartphone market; and Twitter's planned change to the 140-character limit. Our Question of the Week piggybacks off Aaron's recent trip to Ghana, which is one of a number of trips he's made there over the last nine years. The question is "What's the state of consumer technology in Africa?" and we spent a good amount of timing doing a deep dive into this topic, based not just on Aaron's personal observations but on additional research (see the show notes for a couple of good sources). Our third topic this episode was Apple's efforts in AI, and a narrative that seems to have emerged recently about a perception that Apple is behind in AI, and that this will be problematic for the company. We talk about the pros and cons of this argument, how it relates to Siri specifically, and how Siri might evolve at this year's WWDC. Lastly, we have our Weekly Pick, which is actua

Aaron is finally back from his travels in Africa, and so we returned to something more like our usual format this week. We kicked things off with a News Roundup, with two of the topics concerning Apple in Asia. We first discussed Apple's investment in Chinese ride-sharing service Didi, and what that's really about, and then talked about Apple's smaller but still significant investments in India, also announced this week. Lastly, we discussed Microsoft's sale of its feature phone business to Foxconn. Our main topic this week, though, was Google's I/O developer conference, and the announcements it made there. We kick things off with a discussion of the Google Home device and the Google assistant that will power it but also exist elsewhere. We next discuss the two new communications apps from Google – Allo and Duo – and whether they're likely to help Google's position in this space (spoiler: probably not). We also discuss Android N and the thinking behind moving up the preview release earlier this year, Android

As a reminder, Aaron is still out of the country for one more week, working with students and fellow faculty on various projects in Ghana, Africa. He'll be back for next week's episode. In the meantime, this week's episode is an interview with Christopher Mims, tech columnist at the Wall Street Journal, which he joined in April 2014. Christopher writes about a whole range of tech-related topics for the Journal, and we discussed three recent columns of his in particular. The first of those columns was published this week, and talks about what governments can learn from the tech industry, and cites the example of Estonia, which has successfully embraced this new way of working. The second column we discussed was last week's, which was widely shared and generated quite a bit of discussion, and argued that there's a bubble in the tech industry. Lastly, we discussed a column from the end of March, in which Christopher argued that the iPad Pro wasn't quite ready to replace PCs for most people yet. Up front, we als

As we said last week, Aaron is out of the country for the next couple of weeks on a trip to Ghana, in Africa. As such, we're switching up the format of the podcast a little in his absence. This week, that means you get an interview between Jan and Ryan Wright, who was formerly SVP, Global Marketing at Sony Music, and who is now CMO at music startup Kobalt. Our conversation kicked off with a brief history of Ryan's career in the music industry, which included launching the Backstreet Boys in Korea and working with other artists such as Britney Spears and Michael Jackson. Ryan also explained what he does at Kobalt, which is a tech startup that helps labels and artists (and others) get their money from all the many parties that pay to play their music. We then talked for quite a while about how the industry has evolved over the last 15 years, and where it's likely to go from here, including the rise of streaming and whether ad-supported streaming is good or bad for the industry. Thanks to Ryan for his time this

For the next few weeks, we're going to be messing with our usual format as Aaron will be traveling. This week, the only topic was Apple's earnings for the March quarter. The first twenty minutes or so are mostly Aaron, who had just a brief window before heading to the airport, and the second twenty minutes are just Jan sharing his take on the earnings report and riffing off his two posts on the blog this week. Aaron also explains at the beginning why he's heading off to Ghana for two and a half weeks. Over the next couple of weeks, while Aaron is away, Jan will be having conversations with guests instead, so the format will be different from usual, but we'll still have an episode for you each week. As ever, there are some relevant links on the website at podcast.beyonddevic.es.

Our three News Roundup topics this week were: * China's blocking of two Apple content services * Apple's MacBook update * Uber's settlement with drivers. Our Question of the Week is "What should we make of the European Union's antitrust action against Google?" We discuss the EU's process for investigation these allegations, the specifics of the allegations against Google, and whether they hold water. We also talk about the parallels and differences with regard to the EU's case against Microsoft roughly 15 years ago. And we talk about the likely outcomes of this case. Our third topic is a review of tech earnings over the past week, focusing particularly on Alphabet, Intel, Microsoft, and Netflix. We discuss the common thread of mobile disruption overhanging several of the results, as well as Netflix's coming price increase and its international expansion. As ever, we wrapped up with a Weekly Pick, this week a gardening tool recommendation from Aaron. As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as

Our News Roundup this week featured the following topics: * Amazon's new Kindle Oasis * KGI Securities' downbeat Apple Watch forecast for 2016 * Hands on with the iPad Pro. Our Question of the Week is: "What is corporate venture capital and is it worth doing?" Aaron talks us through this subset of the world of VC, where corporations such as Google and Intel engage in venture funding of startups, based on research by David Benson (Aaron's brother in law) and others. We discuss CVC's reputation for being "dumb money", what it's intended to achieve, the risks associated with it, and ultimately whether it's worthwhile or not for the companies that do it. Our third topic is Facebook's F8 developer conference and the major announcements made there, including a major new focus on chat bots in Facebook Messenger, a Live Video API, a 360 degree camera rig, and other announcements. We talk about the potential for bots in general and our experience with the first bots to be released on the platform and also about Fac

Our News Roundup this week covered the following topics: * Conflicting reports on early iPhone SE sales * Samsung's decent preliminary Q1 financials * Twitter's deal for NFL rights. Our Question of the Week is "What is Apple News like for a small publisher?" and focuses on our experience publishing to Apple News over the last several weeks. We talk through the reasons why Apple launched Apple News, the different ways publishers can get content onto Apple News, and the pros and cons of each. We also talk about how Apple needs to evolve Apple News to remain competitive against other options like Facebook Instant Articles, Google's AMP project, and platforms like Medium. Our third topic this week was Tesla's Model 3 announcement and the pre-order process that accompanied it. We talk about the significance of those preorders, the convergence of cars and tech and Tesla's role in that, and the interesting questions Tesla raises about how car design could change in a world without gasoline-powered engines. As usu

This week's News Roundup covers three topics: * Music News – Tidal had its one-year anniversary and announced 3 million subscribers, while SoundCloud launched its paid subscription, SoundCloud Go. * The FBI/Apple case regarding the San Bernardino shooter finally ended as the FBI announced it had been able to access the phone with help from a third party * Foxconn finalized its acquisition offer for Sharp. Our Question of the Week tackled the corporate social responsibility efforts of Apple and Google and what other companies can learn from them. Aaron, who is a business professor who specializes in business ethics, talked us through the history of CSR and how it's evolved, and then covered three different areas in which Apple and Google have been involved in CSR – corporate giving/philanthropy, environmental initiatives, and what Aaron called core competencies. Aside from calling out the positive things both companies have been doing, we also discussed some criticisms of Apple and Google in this area. Our

This episode of the podcast is a slight departure from our usual pattern. We dispensed with our News Roundup, Question of the Week, and Weekly Pick segments and simply spent the whole episode talking about today's Apple event in Cupertino. Jan was at the event, and so we recorded with Jan sitting in a car just outside 1 Infinite Loop – as such, apologies for any audio issues this time around. We covered the content of the event pretty much in order, with a discussion up front of the three non-product-related topics: privacy and security, the environment, and health; followed by discussions of the Apple Watch News, iPhone SE, and iPad Pro. We'll be back to our usual structure in next week's episode. As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast on the website at podcast.beyonddevic.es.

Our News Roundup this week covers: * The announcement by navigation company HERE that it will discontinue its apps for Windows 8 and Windows 10 * Sony's big PlayStation VR announcement * A Recode article about a healthcare startup that's working on an electrocardiogram that will work with the Apple Watch (and is led by Vic Gundotra, who formerly ran Google+). We decided to forgo our usual Question of the Week this week and instead make a preview of Apple's event next week our main topic for discussion. We discussed Jan's Techpinions post last week about the iPhone SE and how that might be priced and positioned, and also talked about the prospects for a revamped iPad Air. Our final topic for the week was the announcement about Apple News being opened to all comers. We realized we haven't really discussed Apple News much on the podcast so far, so we had somewhat of a broader discussion about its prospects too. Next week, Jan will be at the Apple event in person, and we hope to do a quick episode shortly after

Our News Roundup this week covers three new items: Android's early developer preview of Android N; the conclusion of the Apple eBooks trial; and the debut of Amazon's first live TV show. Our Question of the Week is "What is 5G? And should you care?" and piggybacks on an article Jan wrote for Techpinions on Monday offering something of a primer on the technology. We talk through the first four Gs briefly, and in particular talk about what's unique about 4G, before moving on to where the process of defining 5G has got to, and when you're likely to be able to actually use it. Our third topic is Samsung's new phones, which were reviewed by many publications this week. We discuss the consensus from the reviews as well as what the phones seem to signify about the state of Samsung. We wrap up as ever with our Weekly Pick, which is another cooking-themed recommendation from Aaron. As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast on the website at podcast.beyonddevic.