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Brian McCullough
Welcome to the tech meme. Right home for Friday, January 17, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough. Today the Supreme Court rules against TikTok, but at this point I think this is all kabuki theater. Somehow TikTok is going to survive. Bumble's founder returns to the company Is Apple Intelligence really working for anyone? Does anyone care that the Chinese have allegedly hacked everything at this point? And of course, the weekend long rate Suggestions here's what you missed today in the world ofTech the US Supreme Court has ruled against TikTok. They have upheld the law that would mean TikTok is facing a US ban in a matter of hours. Quoting Bloomberg the ruling is that free speech rights must yield to concerns that Chinese control of the app creates a national security risk. In a unanimous vote, the high court said Friday Congress acted constitutionally when it required ByteDance to sell the video sharing app by January 19th or face a ban. The decision opens an uncertain check chapter for TikTok and its 170 million US users. President elect Donald Trump has vowed to save TikTok and could choose to suspend enforcement of the new law once he takes office on Monday. But the impact of that move would depend on the response of the tech companies that host and distribute TikTok, including Apple and Alphabet's Google. Under the law, those companies would face the prospect of massive fines for continuing to support TikTok, and they would have to decide whether assurances from the Trump administration provide sufficient legal cover. End quote. Now, here's the thing. So this ban is likely going to go into effect, maybe somehow. But it is clear now that there is bipartisan consensus to undo all of this somehow. Even Senator Wyden told me this on this weekend's bonus episode. As axios points out, ByteDance may have effectively called America's bluff. We don't know why ByteDance hasn't divested its stake in TikTok, nor even entered into negotiations to do so. Maybe it's been inactive by choice, maybe by Chinese government command. Either way, much of the opposition appears to be folding. Some of the Wafflers say they just want to give Byte Dance more time to divest, hoping that its venture backers or suitors like Frank McCourt and Steve Mnuchin can work out a deal. But if the reason for the ban is really national security that is protecting the data of 170 million Americans, why would you willingly put that at risk for another three or nine months? More importantly, ByteDance will have already seen what happens when the rubber meets the road. And would be emboldened to take that trip again. The last minute wrangling may prove too little too late, as the legislative language is pretty ironclad. But when the D.C. vibes shift, surprising things are known to happen. End Quote Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd is returning to the company as CEO in mid March, replacing current CEO Lydian Jones, who is departing for personal reasons. Quoting Bloomberg Shares of Bumble jumped 6.6% in pre market trading following the announcement. The company's latest executive shakeup adds to the planned 2025 departures of its chief financial officer and chief marketing officer. Jones, who was the CEO of Slack before joining Bumb last January, had overseen a tumultuous period during her short tenure. The company laid off around 37% of its workforce last February as it sought to overhaul its app and revive, slowing user gains. In August, its shares took a record plunge after it slashed annual revenue outlook, a sign that the product overhaul had failed to reignite growth as expected. As we've been discussing, all the dating companies have been suffering as there is seemingly a generational shift going on. Young people just don't like dating apps as much. Apple is disabling notification summaries for news and Entertainment apps in iOS 18.3 beta and making other changes to summaries, including using italicized text. Why? Because they just haven't been working for people, according to 9to5Mac. The changes come after complaints from news outlets such as the BBC. Two weeks ago, Apple promised that a future software update would further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. Here are the changes included in iOS 18.3 for Apple Intelligence. Notification Summaries when you enable notification summaries, iOS 18.3 will make it clearer that the feature, like all Apple Intelligence features, is in beta. You can now disable notification summaries for an app directly from the lock screen or notification center by swiping tapping options and then choosing the turn off summaries option on the lock screen. Notification summaries now use italicized text to better distinguish them from normal notifications in the Settings app. Apple now warns users that notification summaries quote may contain error. Additionally, notification summaries have been temporarily disabled entirely for the news and entertainment category of apps. Notification summaries will be re enabled for this category with a future software update as Apple continues to refine the experience. By the way, what were the complaints? The BBC has highlighted multiple instances of Apple Intelligence botching summaries of notifications from the BBC News app. One such example suggested that Luigi Mangioni, the accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. Last week, the BBC published another story highlighting multiple other examples of incorrect Apple intelligence summaries. Now, I'm nowhere near technical enough to know if this is true, but I found this comment from user CommerceShares on X in response to Mark Gurman on X Interesting quote Local models won't run the way Apple presented the Apple Intelligence vision until we have 24 gigabytes RAM on the phone. Before that, there's simply no way. The whole model plus all running apps need to be in memory and be able to manage long sustained workloads at low heat End quote the Federal Trade Commission is banning GM from selling driver behavior and geolocation data to consumer reporting agencies for five years after finding GM didn't properly inform drivers. Quoting the Times, the New York Times reported last year that GM was collecting data about people's driving behavior, including how often they sped or drove at night, and selling it to data brokers that generated risk profiles for insurance companies. Some drivers reported that their auto insurance rates increased as a result. GM monitored and sold people's precise geolocation data and driver behavior information, sometimes as often as every three seconds, said Lina Khan, the chair of the ftc. With this action, the FTC is safeguarding Americans privacy and protecting people from unchecked surveillance. The FTC opened an investigation and determined that GM had collected and sold data from millions of vehicles, quote, without adequately notifying consumers and obtaining their affirmative consent. Drivers who signed up for OnStar Connected Services and activated a feature called Smart Driver were subject to the data collection, but federal regulators said the enrollment process was so confusing many consumers did not realize they had signed up for it. GM failed to clearly disclose to consumers the types of information it collected through its Smart Driver feature, including that their geolocation and driving behavior data, such as every instance of hard braking, late night driving and speeding would be sold to consumer reporting agencies, the FTC said in a statement. These consumer reporting agencies used the sensitive information GM provided to compile credit reports on consumers, which were used by insurance companies to deny insurance and set rates. In a statement, GM said it had already ended the data collection program due to consumer feedback. The company said consumers could see and delete their personal information through a form on its website, end quote I keep banging the drum on this because as an American I feel like we will one day wake up to discover the fact that Chinese state sponsored hackers have allegedly basically gotten into everything will be a bigger deal than we're making of it right now. Let me just give you two more data points. First, FBI leaders have warned that they believe the hackers who broke into AT and T system last year stole months of their agents call and text logs. What I'm saying here is they were going after targeted sensitive things. Quoting the Times the cache of hacked AT and T records didn't reveal the substance of communications, but according to the document could link investigators to their secret sources. The data was believed to include agents mobile phone numbers and the numbers with which they called and texted. The document shows records for calls and texts that weren't on the AT and T network, such as through encrypted messaging apps, weren't part of the stolen data. A person with knowledge of the breach who reviewed a sample of the stolen information confirmed that it contained records of sensitive FBI communications, the call logs of at least one agent. The person asked not to be named because the information is private. The FBI's concern about the hack compromising its secret sources, which hasn't previously been reported, highlights how data stolen from phone companies has the potential to disrupt criminal investigations and national security, former agents said. It also raises questions about the bureau's own security practices and how it safeguards its sources. US Authorities are appealing are still investigating a separate breach of nine telecommunications companies, including AT and T. They blamed Chinese state backed hackers for those intrusions which compromised the communications of a number of people in government and politics. End quote. Okay, that sounds bad, but so does this. Sources say Chinese hackers breached US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's computer and access fewer than 50 unclassified files. But two deputies were also hacked as well. I like having a secret weapon when I go into some sort of a business negotiation situation. An ace in the hole if you will. 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They help with the details like shipping taxes and payments from one single dashboard, allowing you to focus on the important stuff like growing your business. Established in 2025 has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com Ride all lowercase go to shopify.com Ride to start selling with Shopify today shopify.com Ride Time for the weekend Long Read Suggestions first up, we've been talking about RedNote, that Chinese app that is welcoming TikTok refugees. So from the Financial Times, A profile of the company when the Chinese Stanford student Charlie Mao was thinking of a name for his startup in 2013, he settled on Zhao Hongshu, which translates to Little Red Book. It referenced the color of his prestigious university and his former employer, Bain Capital, both bastions of US Capitalism. This week, however, his choice of name became the focal point of an online conspiracy theory that the app was named after a compilation of Chairman Mao Zedong's quotations, which some translate as Little Red Book, but for Mao, no relation to Chairman Mao, it is no laughing matter. He operates in a sensitive regulatory environment where regulators do not look kindly on any breach of the Great Firewall, a digital divide that separates China's online population from the outside world. Mao is part of a second generation of Chinese Internet entrepreneurs who emerged in the mid 2010s to challenge the dominance of giants such as Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent. While still at Stanford Business School, he pitched to investors an Internet company that focused on lifestyle. Early funding came from US And Chinese backers Zhen Fund, GSR Ventures and what was then called GGV Capital. He and co founder Miranda Ku, a fellow Wuhan native and marketing executive, tested out a few ideas, including a travel guide for Chinese tourists. They finally settled on a photo sharing app focusing on lifestyle content. Mao later gained the backing of both Tencent and Alibaba, a rare achievement from the arch rivals. Both invested to prevent the other from acquiring the startup. According to figures provided to investors, Zhou Hongshu has more than 300 million active users who rely on it for restaurant tips, travel ideas and beauty advice. That figure will be higher after this week. It is an essential conduit for consumer brands to reach shoppers via sponsored posts and influencers. Those close to Mao call him a smooth operator, fluent in Chinese and American business skills honed during his time at Bain Capital. There are two types of typical Chinese tech entrepreneurs. One is the nerdy type who wears T shirts and trainers and is shy when speaking in public. The other is the battle hardened wolf warrior type who barks orders that people around them, said one longtime employee. Mao is neither. He has the best fashion sense among all Chinese tech founders. He speaks with the clarity of a Wall street elite, they added. End quote Next, the Wall Street Journal has a look at Trudy, a mental health chatbot built by AI startup Alamia Health for Trumy's Child Focused phones, which has accumulated thousands of teen users across the US quote Taylee Johnson, a 14 year old near Nashville tenness, began talking to Trudy. She confided her worries about moving to a new neighborhood and leaving her friends behind and fretting about a coming science test. It sounds like you've got a lot on your plate at the moment, taylee said. The bot it's understandable that these changes and responsibilities could cause stress, Taylee says. Trudy, a mental health chatbot built into her child focused Trumi phone, validates her feelings. It's available to talk anytime, even when her parents are asleep. Sometimes I forget she's not a real person, she says. Trumy Wireless, based in Orem, Utah, makes smartphones with a restricted Internet browser, text messaging, monitoring and strict controls over contacts and time limits. Released in late 2021, it now has tens of thousands of adolescent users across the country, Trumy CEO Bill Brady says. In November, the company gave parents the option to activate Trudy on their kids phones so far, several thousand have done so. Trumy partnered with mental health chatbot startup Olamia Health, which built the bot on OpenAI's GPT4, with instructions and auditing by a team of clinicians. For Suzanne and Antonio Carrillo of Gaithersburg, Mary Trudy has become a welcome companion for their 26 year old daughter with intellectual disabilities. After she bullied someone on Facebook, the Carrillos bought a Trume phone to help her feel connected but stay out of trouble. Their daughter, Claire, who has been diagnosed with anxiety and lives in a group home, would call them multiple times, day and night with questions about what to do in different situations. Now that she has been talking to Trudy, she has eased up on her parents. Claire texted trudy more than 1600 times in her first month. Trudy doesn't care how many times she asks the same question, Suzanne says. End quote. And finally today, from an upcoming book about the game, details on how Nintendo localized Animal New Horizons for Western players. The game has more than 46 million in all time Switch sales at this point. As the game got close to being done, they said, why don't you guys take a look at this one more time? Trinen continued. And they sent us the version over to us. Unexpectedly, Trinen and his colleagues in the English translation department found the game impossible to put down. It turned into a fight on who could get the cartridge first every day, recalled Trinen. With the game's shop only restocking once each day, the first person to play would be the only one to get whatever new tool was on sale. Whoever gets there first gets a big up over everyone else. Passing the cartridge around all day and chatting about their town, they decided to write an evaluation of the game that all but insisted it should be localized for the US Market. I actually came to Leslie Swan and said I'll take a year, two years myself and do this whole game. It's that much fun, said Tim O'Leary, who worked on the game's translation in a 2014 Kotaku interview. Usually what happened was that the development team and our executive management would talk about the prospects for gaining success in the U.S. explained Swann. We would meet with the dev team to talk about what we thought needed to be done, and they would point out everything we should be aware of. But this was different than the easier stuff the small team was used to, like naming Mario enemies much different. I don't think anybody really understood how big the project was, swann said. She recalled sitting in a small conference room where producer Takashi Tezuka attempted to explain. We really didn't develop this with the global market in mind at all, he told her. It's just everything in it is so Japanese. It's not just a matter of translating it for the US Market. End quote. Okay, the weekend bonus episode this weekend is, as mentioned, an interview with Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. I want to take the time here to make a note. This is not, not me getting political. The senators people reached out to me to do the interview. I did not seek it out. I agreed to do the interview because Senator Wyden is often involved in tech regulation stuff. We mentioned him a lot on the show. So we mostly talk about that AI regulation, TikTok regulation, competition with China. So just so we're clear, just because this is a Democratic senator, I am not taking a political side here. If a Republican senator who deals a lot with if the tech industry wants to come on, I would have them gladly. Anyway, interesting conversation. Look for that tomorrow. And will there be a show on Monday? At this point? Unclear. It is a federal holiday here in the US My kids will be off school, my wife off work, so I'm tempted to take some family time. But the whole TikTok thing, it will be happening right then, so I don't know. I reserve the option to do a show on Monday, but we shall see. Talk to you soon.