NBCUniversal is yet another media conglomerate launching their own streaming service
Nancy Pelosi unloads on Facebook in response to question regarding tech industry influence
New trade agreement between US & China has significant tech industry ramifications
Google joins Apple, Microsoft and Amazon in the trillion dollar valuation club
Cheap Amazon Echo Dot, Echo Speaker, Echo Show, Echo Show 5, Samsung 27" space saving monitor, 1Password 12m sub, Logitech M585 mouse, Powerpal electricity meter
Not sure how relevant this is for Australians, but there's yet another streaming service in the USA. NBCUniversal will launch "Peacock", with free and US$5/m streaming options that have advertising as a way to ease the burden of customers paying for multiple streaming services. All of NBC and Universal's content will likely go exclusively to this platform as existing deals with other streaming services expire. There will be some original content too, with Tina Fey saying she's gonna write a comedy series for Peacock. It would be nice if there was some sort of competition law that made it so content had to be fairly licensed after a reasonable exclusivity period. If something like that doesn't happen, piracy's gonna be back and better than ever.
Speaker of the US House of Reps (kinda like their Prime Minister, I dunno) Nancy Pelosi let loose on Facebook in her weekly press conference today. When asked by a journo if "tech giants have too much power", she said that "Facebook's business model is strictly to make money. They don't care about the impact on children. They don't care about the impact on truth. They don't care about where this is all coming from, and they have said that even if they know it is not true, they will print it". Adding that "my thought about them is that all they want is their tax cuts and no antitrust action against them". Tell me something I don't know Pelosi - do something about it.
The USA and China have signed a new trade agreement. Again, not entirely sure how this impacts Australia day to day, but for tech companies it means there won't be any new tariffs, but existing ones on semiconductors, modems and other tech components will remain. In what may be more important for tech businesses, particularly ones that manufacture goods in China, the forced transfer of technology (setting up a joint venture in China and giving it all your company secrets) is banned. China also agrees to limit "trade secret misappropriation" (hacking into companies to learn their secrets then using it to benefit local industry), but nobody honestly believes China will abide by that condition, do they?
Alphabet/Google is now valued by investors at on the stockmarket at over US$1 trillion. Seems like the money nerds like the fact Sundar Pichai is now CEO of the entire business with Sergei and Larry doing their weird shit elsewhere, betting that the change in boss will mean Alphabet will generate more profits. Also analysts are predicting Alphabet's Q4 earnings will be a 20% increase over the same period a year ago. It's insane a company worth US$1t manages to grow by 20% a year. On the topic of tech giants having too much power - Apple, Amazon and Microsoft have all reached US$1t valuations over the past 2 years. To put into perspective how much US$1t is, Australia's GDP (the market value of all the final goods and services produced) for 2019 was US$1.38t...
If you live within 10km of Sunshine or Bentleigh in VIC, you can get one of those Powerpal electricity usage meters for free.
Amazon Echo Dot, Echo Speaker, Echo Show 5 and Echo Show - $49, $119, $99 and $299
Samsung 27" WQHD space saving/clamp monitor - $349 at Centrecom, $331.55 at Officeworks with price match
12 months of 1Password for free (new users only) using the code CANVA2020
Logitech M585 Bluetooth mouse - $28 at Harvey Norman or Amazon (Officeworks will price match too)
🎶 U-Mass - The Pixies
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