Futurum Tech Podcast

The promise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is high, very high. But can we really trust AI systems today to be reliable, accurate, and free from bias? We take a look at three areas were bias is creeping into AI and automated systems. Plus our Fast Five: Tesla pulls its Level 4 Autonomous driving option from its site, while thieves hack a Tesla key fob; Russia and China really hack the POTUS iPhone; Italy targets Apple and Samsung for throttling performance on older phones; and YouTube lets you watch while you surf. Our Tech Bites winner this week? Google, and it's latest coverup. For our Crystal Ball we ask the question "What can we really expect from 5G within the coming year?" The answer might surprise you. This episode features: Fred McClimans (@fredmcclimans) and Olivier Blanchard (@oablanchard). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at info@futurumresearch.com or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com. As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.

Few brands or businesses have been under fire quite like Facebook. From high-profile data leaks and fake news to experiments on the emotions of its users, Facebook has been a leader in all the wrong ways, but Mark Zuckerberg has remained at the helm. Now it's facing an investor revolt seeking an independent Chairman of the Board. Will Zuckerberg remain as Chairman & CEO? Should he? Plus, our Fast Five: Bio-hackers have the a case of the implants; China launches a space race against Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin; Apple preps a "mini" Big Event; Facebook's misleading user/ad metrics; and YouTube's move into concert tickets. Our Tech Bites Winner this week? Bloomberg's Businessweek, for its did they/didn't they China hardware story. And we take a cut at the future of autonomous vehicles - when will they really hit the mass market? This episode features: Daniel Newman (@danielnewmanuv), Olivier Blanchard (@oablanchard), and Fred McClimans (@fredmcclimans). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at info@futurumresearch.com or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com. As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.

Google does a lot of things right, from search and advertising to cloud and apps they are one of the best. But when it comes to creating a sense of brand or digital trust? They fall short. We take a look at Google's overall business model and the Pixel 3, discussing how they can both dominate and come up a bit short. Plus, our Fast Five: Amazon's advertising growth is amazing; Better Batteries for Wearables; Freshworks smart AI bot Freddy is for businesses, not consumers; Realwear brings AR tech and the HMT-1 to the manufacturing floor; and how are Bloomberg's hardware hack claims against China' holding up? Our Tech Bites winner this week: Google, its somewhat squishy data event, and the cancellation of Google+ (shared w/ every company that loves to gather user data but can't possibly secure it). We also answer the question "can Google actually cultivate a unified brand strategy, and can we trust them to do the right thing?" This episode features: Olivier Blanchard (@oablanchard) and Fred McClimans (@fredmcclimans). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at info@futurumresearch.com or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.

Bloomberg Businessweek bet big with an accusation that China embedded rogue hardware into the products of Elemental Technologies (a company since acquired by Amazon) allowing it to gather information on Amazon, Apple, and a couple of dozen other US firms. China, Amazon, Apple, and the US gov't have all called and/or raised Bloomberg's bet with a wave extremely strong denials. We're not sure what the real story is yet, but we know there is a story and it's definitely worth tracking closely. Our Fast Five this week: Cadillac posts some impressive specs against Tesla for assisted driving tech; Microsoft ups its game for Windows on Android devices; Samsung's financial performance is looking very solid; Twitter's #fakenews strategy appears to be lost; and Elon Musk is at it again, riling both investors and the SEC in the wake of settling the SEC's complaint. We'll explain why this is worth tracking (and why Elon is our Tech Bites subject yet again). This episode features: Daniel Newman (@danielnewmanUV), Olivier Blanchard (@oablanchard) and Fred McClimans (@fredmcclimans). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at info@futurumresearch.com or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.

Digital technology has radically changed how businesses gather, process, and gain insights from data. In this Interview Series of the Futurum Tech Podcast, Daniel Newman sits down with Jason Shepherd, IoT and Edge Computing CTO at Dell Technologies, to take a look at how digital tech is reshaping the operational enterprise and offering a path to transforming both business processes and business value. This episode features Daniel Newman (@danielnewmanuv). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at info@futurumresearch.com or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.

Qualcomm and Apple must like each other a lot. Over the years they've found creative ways to spend so much time together, either as partners or in court as frenemies. What else could it be? This go-round it's Qualcomm amending a prior litigation to allege Apple of having intentionally stolen and provided Qualcomm's modem code to Apple's partner Intel. It doesn't get much uglier than it is right now. Hosts Olivier Blanchard and Fred McClimans attempt to make some sense of this mess, plus: Our Fast Five: Uber rival Lyft partners up with Zipcar, DC's Metro, and Capital Bikeshare to offer 50 lucky people a chance to go car-free for a month (and further distance itself from Uber); Facebook announces a data breach impacting over 50 million users; Collaborator Slack looks like it's ready to collaborate with Wall Street and a 2019 IPO; Google adds creator and copyright metadata to Google Images; And after skipping out on the public congressional hearings with Facebook and Twitter, Google's CEO Sundar Pichai finally makes his way to DC for public testimony and... wait, no, make that private one-on-one meetings. What'ev... Our Tech Bites this week: Elon Musk. And we don't need to say another thing. Our Crystal Ball Prediction? :We take a cut at the most likely outcome from the Qualcomm, Apple, Intel litigation - our winner vs loser take, so to speak. This episode features: Olivier Blanchard (@oablanchard) and Fred McClimans (@fredmcclimans). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at info@futurumresearch.com or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.

At the risk of becoming the guest who wouldn't leave, Amazon has put a new twist on being Home Alone, as in it doesn't ever want you to be truly home alone. With a slew of product announcements, from better, faster, cheaper Echo products to Alexa-enabled microwaves to in-car kits, Amazon is staking a serious claim on the privacy of our homes. Is it too much? Is there risk? Can Apple, Google, or even Walmart compete? And what type of a moat is Amazon building this time? We dive in on your behalf. Plus, our Fast Five: How not to steal hotel guest data in China; John Hancock's IoT-enabled Life Insurance Policy; Adobe acquires Marketo to expand its market opportunity; Amazon's To Catch a Thief moment; and Apple's XS battery surprise. Our Tech Bites winner this week: Google! They may have stopped reading your personal or business Gmail, but they haven't stopped letting others take a peek. Is there any trust left between users and the company that gave us the Google Doodle? Hint: we don't think so. Google doesn't exist to make people happy, it exists to keep its shareholders happy. Our Crystal Ball prediction of the week takes a cut at who might be able to step up, or partner up, and compete against Amazon? Could it be Apple, with a warehouse full of cash and some clever acquisitions? This episode features: Daniel Newman (@danielnewmanuv), Olivier Blanchard (@oablanchard), Fred McClimans (@fredmcclimans). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at info@futurumresearch.com or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.

Apple's Sept 12 event had a Mission: Impossible theme w/ cool #healthtech (Slip/Fall detection, FDA-approved ECG) and improved specs (A10 bionic, 7nm, IP68). But it felt like a really, really polite political rally w/ lots of applause but little action. Here's our take on the Good (solid incremental improvements & healthcare focus), the Bad (not much breakthrough or disruptive), and the Who Really Cares About the Color aspect of the event. Plus our Fast Five: EU's fine fine strategy for combating terrorist propaganda; AI's role in transforming organ donations; The risk of cameras invading AirBnB; The FCC's "let's just slow things down" move with the T-Mobile/Sprint merger; and Facebook's Rosetta - extracting text from images! Our Tech Bites this week: Have Crypto Tourists (smaller, retail investors) decided to pack up and go home? After a 70% market fall in crypto currency, it sure feels like it. Plus our humorous attempt to guess what Samsung, Huawei & others will do to counter Apple's attempt to polish its products up a bit. This episode features: Daniel Newman (@danielnewmanuv), Olivier Blanchard (@oablanchard), Fred McClimans (@fredmcclimans). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at info@futurumresearch.com or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.

Our Main Dive: Apple continues to be one of the driving forces in technology. But over a decade into the iPhone, and with an aging Macbook lineup, does Apple still have the mojo it needs to innovate? Bottom Line: Apple's innovations are increasingly incremental, but that's not too surprising given the maturity of the core markets in which it plays. But that doesn't mean we let them off the hook - they need to step it up. Our Fast Five: BMW's in-car #AI assistant; The risk of regulation and monopoly status for the tech/social industry; Lyft's new scooter service; and the person, and the North Korean team, behind the 2014 Sony hack. Our Tech Bites segment takes a look at the lack of government action on the Equifax data breach - a year in and while there was a lot of talk on how to encourage better protection of user data we're still struggling to actually get anything done. No GDPR-like policies, no mechanism to ensure user privacy, and no long-term vision. Does this open an opportunity for states, like California, to forge their own policies? And our Crystal Ball takes a look at the next technology and inflection point for consumer & business adoption. This episode features: Daniel Newman (@danielnewmanuv), Olivier Blanchard (@oablanchard), Fred McClimans (@fredmcclimans). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at info@futurumresearch.com or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.

Our Main Dive: North Korea's Kim Jong-un has risen to a new level of bravado, allegedly getting set to host Pyongyang's first Korean International Blockchain Conference. We have our doubts also our concerns about how North Korea is leveraging commercial technology to create its own black market. Our Fast Five: Salesforce earnings & Mulesoft impact; Microsoft's aggressive paternity program; Google's bilingual Assistant; Apple's move into AR; and Garmin's fitness-focused Vivosmart 4. Our Tech Bites takes a look at the challenges of relying on technology as a substitute for solid process (it isn't). And our Crystal Ball takes a look at Google vs the US in the case of political influence and censorship. This episode features: Daniel Newman (@danielnewmanuv), Olivier Blanchard (@oablanchard), Fred McClimans (@fredmcclimans). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at info@futurumresearch.com or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.

Australia's 5G mobile rollout promises high speeds and high profits, but not for Huawei or ZTE who have been banned from participating amid allegations of "extrajudicial directions from a foreign government" - China. Yes it's political but it's also security focused. This week we dive into the challenges and realities of China's influence over the tech industry. This week's Fast Five: Netflix tries to bite into Apple's App Store profits; Facebook taps HP's Antonio Lucio for a makeover; Slack hits $200m in annual recurring revenue (oh, and raises money); PsiKick takes #IoT batteryless; and Alibaba's $3b bet on local delivery services. Our Tech Bites Winner of the Week: Facebook is again facing criticism in the wake of a report linking Facebook use to violence against immigrants. What's the real story here? Fact? Fiction? A repeat of its psychological experiments from 2014? And why doesn't Facebook hire more social anthropologists? Plus our Crystal Ball Predictions on how much of a bit Netflix will actually take out of Apple. This episode features: Daniel Newman (@danielnewmanuv), Olivier Blanchard (@oablanchard), Fred McClimans (@fredmcclimans). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at info@futurumresearch.com or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.

From security breaches to companies tracking users through biometrics and behavior, the gap between privacy expectations and privacy reality are growing, with both policies and data security increasingly less concrete and reliable than we'd like. This week we dive into the risks of cybersecurity and the challenge of creating digital trust in the growing global economy. Plus our Fast Five: Google's new visual AI home device, NVIDIA and the demise of the home bitcoin miner, Kroger's autonomous home delivery trials, Cisco's reinvention prowess, and Intel's bluetooth-enabled approach to ensuring safe drone behavior. Our Tech Bites Winner of the week: Uber, and its ability to lose money in the pursuit of logistical nirvana (as it begins downplaying self-driving vehicle opportunities). Our Crystal Ball takes a look at the most disruptive tech of 2019. Will it be AR/VR? Edge? AI? Cloud? 5G? IoT? This episode features: Daniel Newman (@danielnewmanuv), Olivier Blanchard (@oablanchard), Fred McClimans (@fredmcclimans). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at info@futurumresearch.com or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.

The Q2 earnings announcement from “camera company” Snap was good from a revenue and earnings perspective but sour from a user growth perspective – it lost 3m users! Is this part of a larger shift that we’ve seen with Facebook and Twitter? Should we be evaluating social media (and camera) companies differently? Plus our Fast Five: Intel's Persistent Memory, Qualcomm's 5G Antennas and its litigation win, the "new" Salesforce CEO, and Apple's Tesla grab. Plus a Chip Company that WannaCry and the sticky issue of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, and a fringe conspiracy theorist by the name of Alex Jones. This episode features: Daniel Newman (@danielnewmanuv), Olivier Blanchard (@oablanchard), Fred McClimans (@fredmcclimans). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at info@futurumresearch.com or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.

Apple's Q3 performance and some strong guidance pushes it into the Trillion Dollar Club, but why? Is Apple really that good? Is there a bubble? And why doesn't rival Samsung (our Tech Bites winner of the week) get any love? Plus our Fast Five featuring Alibaba's DingTalk, Consumer Viewing Habits, Macy's digital push, Cisco's Duo security acquisition, and Facebook's vanishing security officer - plus our Crystal Ball look at the next Trillion Dollar Winner! This episode features: Daniel Newman (@danielnewmanuv), Olivier Blanchard (@oablanchard), Fred McClimans (@fredmcclimans). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at info@futurumresearch.com or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.

Facebook's lackluster Q2 performance cost CEO Zuckerberg two spots on the World's Richest list, but it cost investors a lot more - $119 billion dollars to be precise. What's the real story here, and will we ever look at user growth as the key metric for social companies? Plus our Fast Five featuring Twitter's Facebook week, IPO at the Opera, The Fear of Autonomous Cars, and LinkedIn's Voice Gambit. In our Tech Bites segment it's equity analysts who still fixate on user growth rather than revenue, plus our Crystal Ball look at Social Platforms, Transparency, and Trust! This episode features: Daniel Newman (@danielnewmanuv), Olivier Blanchard (@oablanchard), Fred McClimans (@fredmcclimans). If you haven't already, please subscribe to our show on iTunes or SoundCloud. For inquiries or more information on the show you may email the team at info@futurumresearch.com or follow @FuturumXYZ on Twitter and feel free to direct inquires through that channel as well. To learn more about Future research please visit www.futurumresearch.com As a reminder, the Futurum Tech Podcast is intended as an informational newsletter only. No investment advice is offered. While equities are frequently discussed, no investment advice is offered or implied.