Google cancels plans to destroy Android

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

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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.