Google cancels plans to destroy Android

Key Takeaways

Hey, happy Friday. This week, Google walks back on wanting to kill sideloading on Android. Valve announced a bunch of things that are a huge challenge to the tech industry, and ebikes are in a really bad place. Welcome to the Friday checkout. This video was sponsored by Brilliant. Okay, for my first story of the week, Google is starting to roll out early access for its most controversial feature in a while. This would force verification by Google for Android app developers, whether they distribute their apps through their Play Store or outside of it through other channels. This has caused a lot of push back from people who said that it would completely kill sideloading and also give Google complete control over what can and cannot be installed on an Android phone. But Google says that there's now going to be a way out. Quote, "While security is crucial, we've also heard from developers and power users who have a higher risk tolerance and want the ability to download unverified apps. Based on this feedback and our ongoing conversation with the community, we're building a new advanced flow that allows experienced users to accept the risk of installing software that isn't verified. Now, we don't know what this flow would look like just yet, but by the sound of it, there's going to be a whole lot of pop-ups and scary sounding language to make sure that the only people who actually go through this are people who feel comfortable with it, which honestly, if it's executed well enough, could be a reasonable trade-off. Okay, and for my second story of the week, Valve announced a new set of devices. And while at first glance this just appears to be a bunch of really great gear for gamers, I think these devices also have the potential to reshape the computing industry more broadly in two big ways. To start with, there is a new Steam machine, which is essentially a gaming console, except it's running Steam OS. So, it's basically also a full Linux desktop under the hood, and you can also install whatever software you want on it. Then, there's also a new Steam controller, which looks pretty neat, and also comes with a wireless puck that elegantly also charges your controller when you drop it on top. And finally, there's also the Steam Frame, which is a VR headset with inside out tracking. It can stream games wirelessly from a computer, but it's also a standalone headset with its own ARM chip capable of running games directly, including even x86 games written for Windows and then emulated on the headset. So, right away, those are just some very cool devices, but they also challenge the existing tech industry in two key ways. First, traditional game consoles typically sell in the tens of millions. And if Steam Machine does that well, then there's a real possibility of tens of millions of regular everyday people ending up with a very capable Linux desktop machine right in their homes. That on its own would already be a very meaningful challenge to Windows. But second, the VR headset is also a Steam OS machine running Steam OS itself on an ARM chip, which means that Valve is also simultaneously challenging Intel's and AMD's dominance with x86. And if Valve's emulation for x86 to ARM is as good as their emulation for Windows to Linux was, then this would make the adoption of ARM chips on desktops a lot easier, too. The company has already said that ARM has potential for Steam OS handhelds, laptops, and more. So, in the future, more of their devices might ditch x86 as well. Just a couple of years ago, winel was still the major kind of dual monopoly of the tech industry, and Vault is challenging both of those at the same time. Pretty exciting. Now, devices like these new Steam machines require incredible engineering on both the hardware and the software front. And if understanding how that works on a fundamental level sounds like fun to you, then I think you'll really love a course called digital circuits from my sponsor brilliant. It explains the core logic of computers. So, they start with simple concepts like how binary numbers, the ones and zeros work. Then they move on to breaking down how logic gates work, which are kind of the fundamental building blocks inside your processor. and they continue to build concept by concept towards you actually properly understanding these things. And you don't get to only passively watch videos. Instead, you get to practice each learning with interactive exercises to make sure that you really understand each snap. This kind of learning is not only extremely effective, but also just way more fun than sitting through a lecture. Brilliant, of course, also has topics on many other courses from engineering to science, maths, data science, and more. And if you like computer science, I think the classes on AI and large language models would be especially interesting for you. To try Brilliant for free, visit brilliant.org/tfc or scan the QR code on screen now. Or you can also click on the link in the description. You'll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription which grants you unlimited daily access. Okay, and for my third story of the week, the ebike revolution is looking increasingly shaky. You've probably heard of Red Power Bikes by now as they're America's leading ebike company based out of Seattle. And as they've collected over $300 million in funding, which at one point propelled them to a unicorn status, but now their leadership is warning that they're apparently facing a possible shutdown all of a sudden. The firm says that they quote did not anticipate the sudden drop in consumer demand from COVID era peaks and that in addition, they're also seeing challenges in the form of tariffs and the macroeconomic landscape, meaning that the company likely imports a lot of their stuff. Red Power Bikes maintains that things are not quite over just yet. But the postcoid disruptions also hit the other two ebike darlings, Vanmof and Cowboy, which also ran out of money earlier. And overall, this is quite a worrying trend for the industry. Vanov has apparently found the way out of their situation. Cowboy is hopefully in the process of doing just that right now as well. And so hopefully red bikes can also come out of their hole. But yeah, things are not looking great. Moving on to our release monitor. This week, even reality launched their updated pair of smart glasses called the G2. They start at $599. they still look incredibly slick for a pair of smart glasses. And they claim that their new display is much larger and sharper, that there's IP67 water and dust resistance. And also that there's a new $249 ring that is simultaneously an input device and also a kind of fitness tracker, more or less like an Aura ring. Now, $850 bucks combined for both is very expensive overall for a set of devices that are still extremely limited, but at least they look cool, I guess. Next, DJI launched the Neo2, their upgraded mini 4K drone that is designed to follow you around with simple hand gestures. As you would expect, there's significantly better image quality and smarter controls. Though, my favorite detail was that the ad constantly said, quote, "Professionals do not attempt under any shot taken with the drone that actually looked remotely cool." Like, I'm pretty sure that doing action stuff is why you need a drone like this in the first place, not for walking around at home. Anyway, next, Insta 360 launched a pretty wild set of accessories for the Action 2, including a fairly elaborate cage, multiple attachable lenses, such as what looks like an anamorphic and a fisheye option, plus also, and I kid you not, a little photo printer that turns this action camera into kind of a Polaroid. Crazy. Then, fairly unexpected was Apple releasing the iPhone Pocket, which is a set of iPhone accessories. I guess these are made in collaboration with some fancy Japanese designer and the long one costs $230 while the short one that you wear kind of like a handbag costs $150. That is quite something. My conspiracy theory by the way is that every now and then Apple will release a product like this like the the sock right that we've just seen or also the the wheels for the Mac Pro for example. They're just so obviously outrageously overpriced. And I think the reason why Apple does this is because their mainstream products like the iPhone, the MacBook Air, or whatever, they're not actually like that much more expensive than the competition by today's standards. And so Apple still wants you to think of them as a really premium, fancy upscale brand. And the way that they do this is they they release this these products that everyone keeps talking about and where the prices are just so outrageously high that people associate them with like luxury and and being super super expensive, but then the mainstream products don't actually have to cost that much and they can be affordable for like many many people. This is my conspiracy theory. Anyway, meanwhile, a more reasonable offer is No Man's new metal version of their Apple Find My compatible card. It pretends to look like a regular credit card and it lets you locate your wallet. It can recharge on any chi or Macsafe charger and it lasts up to 16 months on a single charge. That's pretty impressive and it's available with some pre-order discounts starting at 39 bucks. And last in our release monitor is SanDisk's new SSD that is so small that you can just plug it into your laptop and leave it there. The capacity goes up to 1 TB for about 120 bucks and you can get transfer speeds up to 400 megabytes per second. That is not exactly super fast but might be fast enough for many use cases. As usual, the links to all the newly announced products are in the description. And now let's move on to the brief. Famous leaker Evan Blast says that Samsung's next big device will officially be called the Galaxy Z Trifold. He confirmed that the three panels will have a thickness of 3.9, 4, and 4.2 mm, meaning the device will be thinner on one end than on the other. And he also said that there'll be a 200 megapixel camera, a 5,400 mAh battery, and a Snapdragon chip. Now, the battery sounded pretty small to me given the large screen, but I also looked up the Huawei Mate XT, their triple full device. That one has a 5,600 mAh unit. So, I guess this is just more or less how much you can fit into this form factor for now. Next, Horizon Steel Frontiers was announced as an MMO RPG, meaning that you'll soon be able to slay everyone's favorite gigantic robot dinosaurs together with your buddies, World of Warcraft style. They somehow only announced a mobile version of the game so far, though, which is extra weird given that this is originally a PlayStation franchise. But well, then an update that will make many people unhappy is that Amazon is apparently cracking down on illegal streaming on its Fire TV Stick by blocking apps from being installed that are linked to piracy. They're essentially blocking siloing among other things on both new and old devices. So if you're relying on a Fire Stick for doing something like that, you might have to look for some alternative. Then in legal news, CHGPD violated copyright law by learning from song lyrics. This is what a German court has ruled this week. And this could end up being dangerous for the AI business model if it is upheld. Open AI was ordered to pay damages to the artists whose songs they trained their AI on without permission. Though, of course, they're going to appeal. And so, I don't think this is quite over just yet. And then talking of AI, Google introduced what it calls private AI compute. This is basically the same idea as Apple's private cloud compute and it essentially allows Google to upload your sensitive data for advanced AI processing into their cloud and then to use special techniques like remote at the station and encryption on a special w of cloud server that they say is designed so that your data is available quote only to you and no one else not even Google. Of course it's impossible for you to know what happens on a server that you don't actually have access to but it's an interesting idea I guess. And then here's news that was actually announced last week, but I somehow missed. By 2030, NexCloud says that they'll invest over €230 million in ways that should help digital sovereignity. Nexcloud is the biggest open-source alternative to something like Microsoft 365 or G Suite that anyone can host wherever they want. And they say that their business has been booming in the last few years. They claim that since the beginning of the year, interest in NextCloud has tripled and that historically the company has grown its bookings 50 to 70% year-over-year. Better yet, NexCloud aims to achieve this growth without venture capital or other funding as the company that is based in Germany is already profitable. That's a pretty big deal. All right, don't forget to check out Brilliant for free and also get 20% off an annual premium subscription if you choose to get one. And I'll see you next Friday. Bye.