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Technology
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A big thanks to all of you who read this newsletter and our work over the last year. Here’s to a healthy and happy 2020! In today’s letter: The little word that became a big business; Victoria’s Secret’s algorithm-powered competitor; shooting, sex crime, theft and Airbnb; the persistence of robocalls; and more. But first ...
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Tech That Will Change Your Life in 2020
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ILLUSTRATION: JASON SCHNEIDER
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We don’t like to brag around here but we’re basically the Ms. Cleo of technology. Just check out our list of 2019 tech predictions. Facebook under privacy scrutiny? Happened. Streaming service overload? Happened big time. Foldable phones arrive? Happened, even if it was unwise. Harry Potter AR game takes over the world? An iPhone software facelift? Look, let’s just keep those between us.
Our annual tradition of forecasting the year ahead in tech continues with ten predictions for 2020, co-prognosticated with my colleague Wilson Rothman. If you were thinking the coming year would be a bit mellower than the past one, think again. Facebook and Twitter are going to be at the turbulent center of the 2020 election, scrutiny of Amazon and its tremendous growth is likely to remain high and the subscription streaming video services can’t stop, won’t stop. Also 5G is coming—for real this time.
We’re going to be presented with a lot of the same issues as the past year. We’ll continue to struggle with how to balance the excitement of new tech and the consequences of big tech. As my colleagues Jason Dean and Katie Bindley covered this week, we’ll also continue to watch those big tech companies (Uber, Amazon, Facebook, etc.) struggle with the size and unruliness of their platforms. Responsibility for what happens on platforms will no longer be just an afterthought.
Keep us honest on our predictions this year. If there’s something big you think we missed or if there is something that doesn’t come to fruition by Dec. 31, 2020, email us with the subject line “You’re so wrong!” Don’t worry, we can take it.
—Joanna Stern is WSJ’s Personal Technology columnist, based in New York City.
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📖 Read This: Shooting, Sex Crime and Theft: Airbnb Takes Halting Steps to Police Its Platform
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ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS GASH
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Airbnb employees had a proposal in 2017 for making the home-sharing platform safer for both hosts and guests. Everyone who signs up, they suggested, should have to provide a government identification such as a driver’s license.
The company had suffered through a string of embarrassing safety problems, including prostitution, theft and voyeuristic hosts using cameras to watch guests. An ID requirement might deter bad actors, the employees argued.
It wasn’t the first time members of Airbnb’s trust and safety team had made such a proposal, according to people familiar with the discussions. Once again, after heated debate, other company executives, including co-founder and Chief Executive Brian Chesky, rejected it. Airbnb had studied the issue and found that some users would stop signing up if asked to produce ID, said the people familiar with the discussions.
Read the full article by Kirsten Grind and Shane Shifflett.
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Broadband, Narrow Choice: Americans in low-income neighborhoods and rural areas get slower broadband speeds but generally pay similar monthly prices as those in wealthy and urban areas. The country’s biggest broadband provider charges more in markets without competition. These are among the findings of a WSJ analysis of America’s internet bills.
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Mo’ Robo: Lawmakers, industry and consumer groups say the anti-robocall bill represents big steps forward, but they also concede that the calls are likely to continue. A lasting solution continues to elude companies and regulators.
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Kids These Days: Like many children, Ryan Kaji knows what he wants for Christmas: a Roblox gift card. What makes him different is that he’s also the face of a brand that buttresses a $150 million retail empire. He is 8 years old.
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Smart Spending: Technology giants such as Microsoft and Amazon are opening their checkbooks to keep pace in the hot field of artificial intelligence. Intel’s purchase of Israeli startup Habana Labs for $2 billion this month is the biggest AI deal in a year when those transactions have already hit a record.
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Electrified 2020: A slew of new battery-electric cars will debut next year, when global OEMs, startups, suppliers and investors had been expected to finally join the EV fray. Here’s a look at the lineup.
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Super-Size Subsidy: Tens of billions of dollars in financial assistance from the Chinese government helped fuel Huawei’s rise to the top of global telecommunications, a scale of support that in key measures dwarfed what its closest tech rivals got from their governments.
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🎬 Watch This: In the Elevator With the CEO Shaking Up the Bra Industry
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CREDIT: ANDRIA CHAMBERLIN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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• ‘I am going to say quiet words in your face just like I did with Trump’: a conversation with the Zuckerbot (Guardian)
• It seemed like a popular chat app. It’s secretly a spy tool. (NYT)
• The 10 tech products that defined this decade (Wired)
• Why did scientists cool LEGOs to nearly absolute zero? (Gizmodo)
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📖 Read This: One Word Defined Tech Companies’ Growth. It Is Now ‘Exploding in Their Face.’
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Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, left, and Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey are sworn in to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in September 2018. PHOTO: JIM WATSON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Behind the mania for a seemingly humdrum term “platform” is a business concept that became a springboard for enormous growth and wealth.
Companies—from Facebook, Google’s YouTube, and Twitter to Amazon, Uber and Airbnb—collectively gained billions of users and created hundreds of billions of dollars of market value by deploying software systems to connect content creators with viewers, sellers with buyers, drivers with riders, hosts with guests. These companies wield power with little historical precedent over how people communicate, what they know and see and the ways they shop and get around.
Read the full article by Jason Dean and Katie Bindley.
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✉️ Reader Mailbag: Your Tech Questions
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This week, Personal Tech columnist Joanna Stern answers questions about iPhone sizes and quiet keyboards. Got a question of your own? Reply to this email or write to us at personaltech@wsj.com.
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Q:
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The iPhone 11. Will it fit in an upper front shirt pocket?—Joe Blythe from Memphis, Tenn.
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A:
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I took this question very seriously—even got out the measuring tape. The answer fully depends on the shirt. I tested on two medium-size men’s shirts—one custom, one Costco—and both times the iPhone 11 stuck out just under an inch. On a women’s shirt, however, the same phone stuck out an inch and a half.
I suggest that you try a small experiment to see for yourself. Get a piece of paper, measure 6 in. by 3 in.—the rough measurements of an iPhone 11—and cut it out. Then place the paper in your pocket. Or better yet, go to your local Apple Store or Best Buy and pocket the real thing. Just don’t forget to pay for it before you walk out.
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Q:
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Do you have a recommendation for a quiet keyboard for my desktop computer? I’m always typing when I am on the phone and sometimes the noise bothers people.—Constance Baker from Baltimore, Md.
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A:
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When I made this video on quiet keyboards a few months ago, I primarily tested laptops. However, I did do some minor testing with Logitech’s K780 keyboard, which is marketed to have “comfortable silent typing.” I didn’t test the decibel level but it certainly sounded a lot quieter than the typical clickety-clacky desktop keyboards. I’d suggest trying it out. If you don’t like it, you can always return it.
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Note: Questions are edited for clarity and length.
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📖 Read This: ‘Amazon’s Choice’ Isn’t the Endorsement It Appears
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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY WSJ; PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
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Americans shopping on Amazon see lots of results that include “Amazon’s Choice” products. Many will assume that is a dependable stamp of approval.
It isn’t.
Amazon attaches the badge to countless legitimate listings, but also to products regulators have raised safety concerns about, that make false claims or whose listings appear to have been manipulated by sellers to get the endorsement.
Read the full article by Shane Shifflett, Alexandra Berzon and Dana Mattioli.
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CREDIT: REUTERS
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...when even the robots know we have stinky feet.
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