 Coming up on DTNS, why India and Nigeria may give birth to the next big tech companies. Tesla wants to build a humanoid robot and drivers start their own ride hailing company to compete with Uber. DTNS starts now. This is the Daily Tech News for Friday, August 20th, 2021 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt and coming in from DTNS East, Maryland. Chris Ashley and I'm the show's producer, Roger Chang. We're just spending a good time on good day internet talking barbecue with Chris Ashley. If you want to get that conversation and some tips to go with it, become a member, patreon.com slash DTNS, where you can join our top patrons like Jeffery Zilx, Tony Glass and Phillip Less. Let's start with a few tech things you should know. The UK's Competition to Markets Authority or CMA published an assessment of NVIDIA's proposed acquisition of chip designer ARM from SoftBank. The government will now need to decide if the CMA should carry out an in-depth probe into the proposed acquisition. Concerns from the CMA include whether the merged business would have the ability and incentive to harm the competitiveness of NVIDIA's rivals by restricting access to ARM's IP, which is currently used by a lot of competitors to NVIDIA. Loss of competition could also stifle innovation across a number of markets according to the CMA. The CMA's National People's Congress passed an online user data privacy law stating that gathering personal information must have a clear and reasonable purpose and limited to a minimum scope. The law also sets out conditions for collecting personal data and requires regular audits to ensure compliance. The legislation goes into effect November 1st. Alright folks, time for another edition of What Has Google Killed Off Today? In a memo to employees, Google announced it intends to break up its health division planning to split its various projects across other parts of the company. Insiders sources say Google Health Chief Dr. David Feinberg will leave the company to be CEO at the electronic medical records firm Cerner. This is not the alphabet health company, this is the health division within Google. But Google also confirmed its ending support for Android Auto for phone screens starting with Android 12. But all of the functions from that separate app can already be found in Google Assistant driving mode, which you can find in Google Maps. So at least it's pretty much still there. Motorola announced a new $700 Edge smartphone, offering a Snapdragon 778 5G system on chip. The same 108 megapixel camera found on the Edge Plus, a 5000 mAh battery, and rated IP52 water resistance. It uses a 6.8 inch 144Hz LCD screen, although it features a flat rather than curved screen like Lasher's model. It's available unlocked from US retailers now coming to Verizon and Spectrum in the coming months. And Duolingo announced a family plan, get this, six people can share the benefits of Duolingo Plus for 120 bucks a year, right now a solo plan cost you 80 bucks. So that's a fairly decent deal if you've got enough people to take advantage of it. Duolingo Plus gives you unlimited access to lessons, some additional features that you don't get in the free version. And one new feature that they announced coming to lessons is the ability to teach alphabets like Hangul and Cyrillic and a bunch of others. All right, let's talk about robots. Tesla showed off an idea for a five foot eight tall 125 pound humanoid robot called the Tesla Bot, which will use the same tech in autopilot. This camera's Tesla's full self-driving computer to move around, but not very fast. It'll move no more than five miles per hour. A presentation slide said Tesla Bot is designed to handle dangerous, repetitive and boring tasks CEO Elon Musk said he would like a prototype to be ready sometime next year. Important point, it was a drawing and a mannequin, not a prototype. Prototype isn't even here yet. The announcement was the capper on AI Day, where Tesla goes deep explaining how its systems work, both in cars and factories, hoping to attract top talent in the area. And yes, Elon Musk likes to announce things that don't always turn out to be real products, but for every robotic snake charger, there is an actual Tesla car in existence. So who knows? Maybe this will be real. All right. So the first thing when I see something like this, I wonder is how many laws will it have? And then after that is, you know, I get bummed out because when they use terms like, oh, we're just building this for boring and repetitive jobs, those are people's jobs that people are doing today that you're replacing with. So please don't trivialize the fact that you're yet again, technology is, you know, moving in a direction that is costing people jobs. Now, I get it. It's the way we have to move as a society and hopefully they can be retrained and do other things, but I just, I hate that minimalizing of terms that are used. But with that being said, if it's successful and it works, and especially for dangerous jobs, okay, you know, now you got me there. You don't have to send people down to do things that are, you know, putting their lives at risk. Yeah, I'm all for that. Yeah. I mean, I tend to be an optimist on this stuff because I think people overestimate just how money-grubbing most companies will be. And I always point, I think I used this example earlier this week already, but I always point to computers came in, eliminated the need for the humans that were originally called computers, and those people became administrative assistants and project managers. And there were things that you couldn't afford to pay people to do that suddenly you could pay them to do because you were saving money because the computer came in. And I think that happens a lot with robots. I think that's going to happen a lot where a company will not just cash out the savings and replace everybody with robots, but realize like, oh, humans are really good at this, but we couldn't afford good customer service in the past. Now we can. We can actually have a human talk to you. Like, I think stuff like that might happen. So I'm fairly optimistic, but that said, I take your warning of like, but that's not going to be 100% true all the time. So we need to pay attention to it. Yeah. And I'm always happy to be more optimistic than anything else. Yeah. Meanwhile, what it would before we before we move off this, what do you what do you give the chances that we ever see a Tesla bot? No, you know what, on a scale, on a scale of a snake robot charger to hyperloop to Tesla Model S. Where do you where do you put it? I'm going to give it 50% chance. You're going to you're putting in the hyperloop. I'm putting in a hyperloop. All right. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I what about you? I was probably going to say hyperloop to, but I'll just go full on Model S. We'll see him. All right. It'll take 10 years just like the model. It'll take a lot longer, but we'll get him. I don't know. All right. So Microsoft announced the first office 365 pricing increase since the service launch in 2011, starting March 1st, 2022. Microsoft 365 business basic goes up one buck to $6 per user per month. Most other plans are increasing two to three dollars a month with the Microsoft 365 E3 tier that includes a version of Windows increasing four dollars a month to thirty six dollars. These increases only affect commercial subscriptions. Consumer and education prices are staying the same. But if you're a commercial service, you might be interested to know that the Document Foundation released Libre Office 7.2. Adding support for Apple Silicon improved compatibility with Microsoft Office file formats and better handling of large files and images. In the released announcement, the Document Foundation also urged the increased number of enterprises using the free volunteer maintained version of Libre Office to switch to Libre Office. Enterprise versions from partners. I always chuckle when I hear we've got more organizations that are using our software, it's like, oh, yes, you do have more. But Earth is using Office for the most part, you know, Earth business. You know what I mean? And yeah, I love that Libre Office is still around, you know, that it saved itself when when Sun took over open office. It's still kicking. It sounds like it just gets more and more feature filled. And I do think it's interesting. They're like, hey, could you use the enterprise version if you're an enterprise? Because otherwise, we may not be able to continue to maintain this because you're right. Everybody just uses office. And one of the reasons is they haven't raised prices on this three sixty five in 11 years. I mean, by the time this price increase goes into effect, they're telling you it's a price increase, but it's not happened until next March. I mean, that's right. Not bad. And if you're already in office three sixty five, are you going to purchase on the officers? If I plan and then purchase Libre Office Enterprise, probably not, you know what I mean? You just get Microsoft is going to pressure you to go with the bundle. They're like, oh, if you're already here, you might as well just do this. They'll even discount it for you in the first year or two. And then, you know, once you're in, you are in. You're not going to be like, all right, we're going to switch to something with less functionality that has to build compatibility with what we were previously using. And then, yeah, we're better off there, you know, schools and stuff like that. OK, you know, they have Google Docs, so that's another leap they'll have to get past. So I but I don't want them to go away. Don't get me wrong, because they're there. You know, the more in the in the space, the more pressure it is to get better at your software and what you can do and what you bring to the table. So I'm not I'm just saying it's just it gives me a chuckle every time a software says, oh, yeah, we've been picking up steam when the enterprise is like, come on. If anybody out there is like, no, no, no, I usually braffas enterprise. There's a partner. It's really good. Let us know feedback at Daily Tech Newshow.com. We'd love to hear about it. But yeah, I mean, this price, this price increase. Usually I see a price increase story. I'm like, OK, here comes the hate. But this one is like only a couple bucks. It's only commercial. And there's plenty of notice. I mean, this once every 11 years is not bad for our beds. And the funny thing is, you know, I was talking about this with some co-workers and they're like, but wow, they really haven't raised their prices in that long. And then we just think it was like, well, look at it. It's news headlines. We're all talking about it. And so, yeah, that's why, right? Because if they raise their prices every time they raise a price, it's national news, you know, in the tech industry or side of the thing. So it makes sense, I guess. Well, folks, if you want to know where to look for some of the next big ideas in tech, you know, where's the next Microsoft? Where's the next Apple? Where's the next Facebook, for goodness sake? A couple of articles out today you might want to pay attention to. Bloomberg notes that India is on track for a record year for IPOs. Zomato went public in July with shares rising 70% afterward. And now India's most valuable startups are all in one stage or another of IPO planning. Online lodging, Booker Oyo. We might think lodging right now, horrible business. And Oyo's no exception. But the fact that they've weathered it as well as they have has caused a lot of people to go like, look, if Oyo is doing, you know, they're not doing great, but if they're able to survive through this, what happens when people start traveling again? Anyway, they're aiming to file in October. Bloomberg says e-commerce giant Flipkart, which is controlled by Walmart, but is planning an IPO in Q4. Digital education company Byjuus is in early talks with bankers about its IPO and Paytm filed its documents and estimates it might end up being the country's largest IPO ever. Ride, Hailing Service, Ola and FinTech startup Pine Labs are also reporting that they might consider IPOs and Payments company Phone P, also owned by Walmart, is considering shifting its corporation from Singapore back to India to get some of this local investor attention that's going on. Some of the boom is thanks to China, to a Vendus Capital Executive director Pankaj Naik told Bloomberg, India may not be as attractive as China in the broader economic sense, but it's looking like a safer bet because of all the tech crackdowns and uncertainty that's going on in China. Now that's just India. If you're into FinTech, you need to look at Nigeria. The Financial Times notes that FinTech companies in Nigeria have brought in a billion dollars in venture capital in the last two years. Nigeria has 200 million people, 60 million of whom don't use traditional banks. It's a huge market for these kinds of systems. Startups are filling the gap with network payment services and both the Sub-Saharan Africa unicorns are in Nigeria. Payments company Flutterwave, topped a billion dollars valuation last year and payments processing company InterSwitch reached it after an investment from Visa this year. Mobile money, digital-only banks, microlending and more are driving all this growth and the central bank of Nigeria helped kickstart it as well. There's some concern about what they're doing lately, but they started to drive toward electronic payments back in 2011, introduced a bank verification number to make credit easier in 2014. And while cash is still predominant in paying people, folks are paying friends, mechanics, food stalls and others with a mobile app way more often in Nigeria than they are in most Western countries. And it doesn't hurt that 70% of Nigerians are younger than 30 and mobile first as far as online goes. That's all led to a rise in agency banking where people can store and transfer money at a phone credit stall. Don't need a bank account. They just go to the stall, you top off your account, you can send some money, transfer some things, act like a bank. Nigeria had 18,000 of those agents at the end of 2017. It now has 600,000. And even VC funding is going mobile. Financial Times talked about early-stage seed rounds for Nigerian companies, values around $200,000 or more being closed over WhatsApp regularly. They're just using the mobile app to talk and make the deal. So Chris, I don't know which of these might end up being the next big thing, maybe none of them, but it's kind of interesting to keep an eye on that because you don't hear about these as often. Yeah, for sure. And I love the fact that there's just yet another area where new technology can be fostered, right? And no matter why it's happening, I love seeing new technology hit, especially if it becomes useful to me because it's fun. That aspect is still fun to me. There's so much of it getting in the latest OS on my phone updating my computer and suffering through bugs and stuff. Not so much, but anytime something new comes along, I'm like, ooh, that's cool. I can use this and I can see how I can incorporate into my life. I still like that. So if there's more money out there to make this happen, I'm all for it. Yeah, one of the things that's happened in China, we've seen a lot of money go into China. They've built a lot of domestic companies like Alibaba and Tencent, and those are the ones getting cracked down right now. But those companies have had a harder time making an impact worldwide. You're seeing Alibaba with Aliexpress and even Alipay make some good decisions worldwide. But when you're talking about worldwide companies, you're still talking about the same ones, Apple, Facebook, Google, et cetera, Amazon. When people say like, when's the next one gonna come? I mean, TikTok and ByteDance, a Chinese company, is sort of the next one on the horizon, but it's really the only Chinese one that is considered truly worldwide applicable because they bought musically, because they acquired TikTok. So it's interesting to me to look at this because Nigeria and India won't have the same hurdle of having to have a version that runs in their home country and a version that runs elsewhere in the same way. Obviously there's localization, there's language and issues, but in China, you have to have a separate company run your local thing. You can't even use the same company outside of China. Yeah, so with those rules being a bit easier for these companies to foster and develop, you could truly see something come out a lot faster and a lot better. So yeah, definitely something to keep an eye on. Hey folks, don't forget, starting next week, starting this Monday, Experiment Week on DTNS. We know a lot of the world vacations in the summer, so we're swapping out our normal DTNS show and trying out some new show ideas hosted by DTNS producers and contributors. We got Jen Cutter with video gaming, Rob Dunwood, Tech John with Terrence and Stephanie, Rich's Ask a Luddite, and Chris Ashley gonna bring some barbecue tech to us. I'm looking forward to that, man. It's good. It was a lot of fun to record. We did a little early, but I really think that people are gonna enjoy some of this barbecue talk and some of the tech that I use, the tech of the barbecue itself of the smokers and as well as some of the tech that we use to make it better. So it all starts next week, Monday, August 23rd with the Tech John with Rob Dunwood. And on Friday, you get barbecue tech with Chris and Rod and it finishes up with Jen and the video gaming show on Saturday. And you don't have to do anything. If you listen to this, it's gonna show up the same place you found this in all the DTNS feeds. So check it out right here. One of the big criticisms of ride hailing is that it exploits drivers, keeping their earnings just high enough to keep them driving, but without all the benefits of a full-time job, low pay and low benefits, not an attractive situation, but for a lot of folks, it's better than nothing. The Ubers and Lyfts of the world argue that, hey, it's just economics, but what would happen if the drivers ran the company? Would they get more pay? Would they get better benefits? Well, the drivers cooperative is putting that idea to the test. Protocol has an in-depth look at the effort. It's using Crowd Investment Platform WeFundr to raise $1,070,000 to start a driver-run ride hailing business. Not even start, they're already underway. They just wanna build out their app, build out their service better. It's close enough to its goal that by the time you hear me say this, it may have already funded. And a quick note about WeFundr, this is not Kickstarter where you get a sticker and maybe a book or something. WeFundr returns your investment. It's actually a contract. So for drivers cooperative, it will split up 2.5% of the revenue each quarter to divide amongst its WeFundr's investors until each investor has made 250% of their original investment. Drivers cooperative is positioning itself as a platform that does right by drivers, but also they say they think they can deliver cheaper fares. They pay drivers $1.64 per mile, which is above the $1.26 minimum that New York City sets. The platform takes 15% from the fare to operate. So how do they keep the fares lower? Well, Uber takes 21.5% by comparison. And it's co-op. So the drivers are also the owners of the company. Each driver gets a voting share in the company, one voting share. Drivers also get points for completing rides, recruiting drivers and passengers and attending co-op meetings and a few other things. And those points are used to determine how profits are split up amongst the drivers. Some of it goes to the WeFundr's, but the rest of it gets split up amongst the drivers. The co-op was founded by black car driver Ken Lewis, originally from Granada, Alyssa Orlando, former operations manager for Uber in East Africa, and union organizer Eric Forman. The drivers cooperative does not consider its driver owners employees though. They're still contractors, but also owners. And it doesn't provide health insurance, which is one of the big things that even some of the bigger ones like Uber have started to do, but it says it wants to. It needs to get more riders first. It wants to do insurance, it just can't do it yet. The app launched in May, has 40,000 registered users and 3,400 drivers. I love everything about this idea. I would love to see this be successful so that other industries can follow this model. I really would like to see our businesses in this country, and in every other country really, start being more owned by the people that actually do the work as opposed to some CEO who's just sitting on the board of another CEO company and then they're just helping each other out with these golden parachutes and this other nonsense. I think they have an important opportunity and if they were to spend any money anywhere, it would be in the marketing, not so much of the company, but of the idea behind the company. Because there is a huge sentiment where people are just really sick of these big corporations and all they take. So if you can ride that wave and really get people to understand like folks, support a company that is owned by the people. And I think if they could make that, get a good message out of that, I think they could see some real success. Yeah, it's one of the things they wanna use that 1,070,000 from WeFundr4 is that kind of marketing. I think that is important. I think, I don't know, I'd feel nicer riding in a car if I'm like, hey, I know this driver is gonna get there, they're just deserts, they're an owner in the company, they're not being exploited. However, this company still has to deal with all the things the others deal with, which is like, do they do background checks? Do you know, they're not doing insurance yet, right? They're like, we can't do it yet. Should they be required to anyway? That's what you're saying to other companies? I mean, I think their approach is good. Their approach is we just want to compete. We don't wanna drive Uber and lift out of business. We're not saying they're evil, we just wanna compete. They think if they get 3% of New York City, that they'll survive. And my guess is if they can get to 3%, they'll probably get past that and then start to operate in other areas. I think they could become a player. I think they could become a competitor and they could push your Ubers and lifts into being a more high-end service, a more like black car, limo type service while drivers co-ops could take over the true ride sharing. We call it right at the very least. Push those companies to do better by their employees. Add that too, yeah. You know what I mean? And so, and I think it'd be, I think honestly, I get why they didn't, they don't have the insurance right now, but that should be a priority for them. Because if they can then have the insurance, then it's easier to attract even more drivers. You'll get people that'll, yeah, I'd rather drive for them and even more work for myself and actually own something than just drive for one of these other guys. And so that should be a priority for them is to get that insurance going and get their people taken care of. Yeah, and I think that's a real good point about one of the benefits. And I think the founder even said that, one of the benefits is like, if we get Uber to give their drivers more of a stake in Uber, we'd consider ourselves a success, yeah. Huge win. Well, tell us about this Epic Google thing that we heard about. Yeah, so just real quick. Newly unredacted documents from the Epic Google lawsuit show that in 2019, Google ran a premier device program which offered Android OEMs a greater 12% of search revenue instead of the standard 8% if they agreed not to pre-install third-party app stores. Some OEMs like LG and Motorola also received an additional 3% to 6% of money spent in the Play Store as part of the program. These agreements include a provision that restricted companies from making public statements about the program. Epic claims the premier device program was not publicly known and Epic only found out about it during discovery for trial. Epic claims BBK, which makes Apple, Vivo and OnePlus phones designated 70% of its new devices as premier. Sony reached 50% and Zelmi, 40%. Consider also that an internal Google report from 2017 found that 4% of app downloads in the US were from the outside the Play Store. All right, let's finish up with some Lego Japan news. Lego Land Japan and Toyota Gazoo Racing have built a life-size model of the Toyota Supra GR sports car. From wait for it, 477,303 Lego bricks. The Lego model took 3,000 development hours and additional 2,400 building hours for a total of 5,400 hours to make. It weighs in at 1,885 kilograms which is more than the actual car weighs. The wheel, driver seat, gauge cluster and badging all come from an actual Supra. So does the electric drivetrain that they added so that you can actually drive this Lego car up to 28 kilometers per hour. That's more than twice as fast as previously built Lego Bugatti which you could also drive. You can see the Lego Supra in person at Lego Land Japan until October 11th. Super cool, really cool. I'm glad that they keep doing this. I wonder who gets to ride in it, right? They're not going to be driving this thing around a lot but they built it to be driven so somebody's going to get to drive it sometimes, right? Yeah, they'll probably have one person drive it in and one in that same person drive it out and everybody's just going to go with it. Yeah, it's a demo like look, you can actually drive it. I mean, you can't actually drive it but this person can actually drive it. Imagine being a jerk to be like, oh, what if I turn this brick around the other direction in an ill-fossiled part? I was floored by the fact that it would actually weight more than the real car until I realized they'd put a drivetrain and some of the other stuff in like the driver's seat. I'm like, oh, okay, that does bring up the weight but man, Lego bricks are heavy. Had no idea. I guess they definitely glued it together though, right? Oh, then last time. Especially if they're driving it around, right? Yeah, they definitely. I can't imagine they wouldn't have. I know it's only going 28 kilometers per hour but a couple bricks come loose while you drive it. Bricks flying in the air. Not a good look. Oh man. Let's check out the mailbag speaking to driving around on Wednesday's show. We were discussing a lack of jobs for truckers to easily transfer into if and when automated trucking takes over. That's when I was talking about robots taking your jobs earlier this week. All right, Matthew wrote in and said, I've been driving trucks for over a decade and dealing with the industry for my entire life and honestly, it's not something I'm worried about. Mostly due to the severe lack of drivers and a large portion of drivers nearing retirement age. As of right now, the lack of drivers is increasing driver pay with the counter of shippers not wanting to pay more for freight. This is compounded by regulation limiting how long drivers are allowed to work in a day and in a week. If automated trucks would be allowed on the interstate we could be far more efficient. Interstate driving is boring and simple. Let computers do that. Let us focus on the complex driving so the automated system can't handle yet. Still, I suspect it'll be five or 10 years before we start to see a major shift in the trucking industry. Super interesting point of view, especially from somebody that actually drives one of my closest friends is a driver as well. And honestly, if I wasn't doing the IT work that I do today, I would definitely be trucking. Yeah. Something that's always interested me, yeah. Would you automated truck? Would you just be like the human supervisor just hanging out? I wouldn't have a problem with that afterwards. But much like I would approach smoking food, you got to do it first and then you do the easier method. Then you can do the techy thing. Yeah, you do the tech thing. Because you got to know how to do it and be able to withstand all the ins and outs and the nuances of it. And then you just take it easy and not only adjust as needed. Hey, thanks, Matthew, for sharing the insight. Really appreciate that when people have expertise and write in to feedback at dailytechnewshow.com. Also, two days in a row, we got a new boss. Thank you, Will. Will just started backing us on Patreon, man. You back us on Patreon, especially this time of year. We're gonna make a big deal out of it because we appreciate every single patron that we have. So all you existing patrons, welcome Will into the tent. Thank you, Will. And thank you, Chris Ashley. Obviously we talked about the barbecue tech thing coming up next Friday during experiment week. What else you got going on? You can always check me out on SMR podcast. Check us out over at smrpodcast.com. Me, Rob Dunlow, Rod Simmons, three homies talking tech and other social issues that we may come across that affects us. It's a fun show. You feel like you're one of our pals. And man, I just rarely find anybody that listens to the show and doesn't enjoy the conversation. Come on, hang out with us. Two great things on this week's SMR podcast. One, Rod's explanation of the Windows 365 vulnerability was so spot on and so well, well discussed by y'all. And two, you hear Chris jump to Elon Musk's defense. Even though I'm not a fan of the guy. I know, I know. That caught my ear. I was like, what is going on? All right, folks, we're live Monday through Friday, 4 30 p.m. Eastern 2030 UTC. Find out more at dailytechnewshow.com slash live DTNS off next week for the regular show to make room for experiment week. We start the ball rolling Monday with The Tech John hosted by Rob Dunwood. Tune in for that. This week's episodes of Daily Tech News Show were created by the following people, host producer and writer, Tom Merritt, host producer and writer, Sarah Lane, executive producer and booker, Roger Chang, producer, writer and host, Rich Strafolino, video producer and Twitch producer, Joe Coots, associate producer, Anthony Lemos, Spanish language host, writer and producer, Dan Campos, news host, writer and producer, Jen Cutter. Science correspondent, Dr. Nicky Ackermanns, social media producer and moderator, Zoe Dettering. Our mods, Beatmaster, W. Scottus One, Biocow, Captain Kipper, Jack Shit, Steve Guadirama, Paul Rees, Matthew J. Stevens and J.D. Galloway. Mod and video hosting by Dan Christensen. Video feed by Sean Wei. Music and art provided by Martin Bell, Dan Looters, Mustafa A, A-Cast, Creative Arts and Len Peralta. A-Cast ad support from Trace Gaynor. Patreon support from Stefan Brown. Contributors for this week's show included Scott Johnson, Justin Robert Young and Chris Ashley. Guests on this week's show included Belair Bazarich and Annalene Newitz. And thanks to all the patrons who make the show possible. This show is part of the Frog Pants Network. Get more at frogpants.com. The Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.