Watch a TV news report on the wacky Apple II knockoffs of the 1980s

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Back in the 1980s, a lot of people wanted to own an Apple II, the first blockbuster product from the company cofounded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. But certain electronics manufacturers based in Taiwan hoped that some folks would be willing to settle for a Pineapple. Or an Orange or a Banana. In early 1985, The New Tech Times , a public TV show about consumer electronics, turned its attention to the scourge of imitation Apple IIs, which stole Apple’s ROM software and then built a cheap computer around it. Here’s the segment—introduced by New Tech Times host Mort Grim and with Hall and Oates’ Yacht Rock anthem “Private Eyes” on the soundtrack: Some of the rouge machines came in cheesy knockoffs of industrial designer Jerry Manock’s iconic Apple II case; others apparently stuffed ripoffs of Apple’s innards into whatever case the pirates had handy. The bad guys also helped themselves to Apple’s documentation, making crude edits where necessary. (I love the bit in the report showing the manual for the Golden II, whose pirated manual claimed the Golden had been invented by Steve Wozniak himself.) You’ve got to assume that at least some U.S. purchasers were aware they were buying a computer of questionable origin. They presumably paid well under the asking price for a real Apple IIe, which cost around $1,500 at the time with two floppy disk drives and a green-screen display. Even if purchasers knew the computers weren’t from Apple, that wouldn’t have made the situation any more tolerable for the company. As the segment reports, it worked closely with the feds to try and shut down the distribution channels that let the fakes into the U.S Read More …

Netflix is asking some users to prove they’re not sharing passwords

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Don’t call it a crackdown just yet, but Netflix is testing a new way to keep password sharing under control. In a screenshot shared on Twitter this week, Netflix appeared to seek extra verification before letting users into the app, offering to send a one-time passcode to the account holder via email or text message. The prompt also showed an option to “verify later.” O no. Netflix doing the purge?!? pic.twitter.com/XXlHtfgfsy — chante most (@DOP3Sweet) March 9, 2021 “If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching,” the message said, while offering a 30-day trial. Netflix confirmed the test’s authenticity to streaming news site The Streamable but offered few additional details. “This test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to do so,” a spokesperson said. Is a crackdown coming? Netflix’s overall posture toward password sharing has stiffened in recent years as subscriber growth has slowed down. Although Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings once referred to password sharing as “something you have to learn to live with,” chief product officer Greg Peters said in 2019 that the company was looking at “consumer-friendly ways to push on the edges” of password sharing as it monitored the situation. But in lieu of more information, it’s hard to say how drastic a measure this might be. Netflix has not answered additional questions about what type of usage would trigger the test or what happens if users ignore the verification prompts. (We’ll update this story if we hear back.) Media companies in general have been extremely wary about cracking down on password sharing in a draconian way Read More …

Look out, Amazon. Asia-based companies such as Coupang are leading the next e-commerce revolution

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If you want to understand the future of e-commerce, look to Asia. Today, Coupang went public on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $4.6 billion in the biggest U.S. IPO of the year (so far). The South Korean e-commerce giant’s success is a compelling reminder that many Asian companies are among the world’s leading innovators in digital retailing and beyond. In the U.S., we have all been amazed by the speed, ease, and selection of Amazon. In reality, we are three to five years behind Asia. Americans are familiar with e-commerce giant Alibaba, but a new wave of companies such as Coupang, Pinduoduo, and Bytedance are quickly transforming the online shopping experience for millions of consumers. (Softbank Investment Advisers, my firm, is an investor in Bytedance and Coupang, and Softbank Group is Alibaba’s largest shareholder.) Here are the four prominent e-commerce trends in Asia that I predict will take hold in the U.S. and around the world: From e-commerce to “AllCommerce” using social media Asia’s brick-and-mortar companies were making the transition to digital well before COVID-19 forced businesses to shut their physical footprints. South Korea’s high-density urban landscape, high mobile penetration rate ( 95 percent of adults have smartphones, more than anywhere else in the world), and culture of late-night shopping have enabled the rapid growth and success of e-commerce by connecting local brick-and-mortar businesses to the online world.   In 2020, technology platforms such as Flipkart in India and Tokopedia in Indonesia added new offerings to support the digitization of small businesses and “solopreneurs.” (I am an investor in Tokopedia and backed Flipkart, which Walmart now controls.) Tokopedia launched TokopediaByMe, which allows influencers and individuals to build their own affiliate businesses via social media. These easy-to-use tools brought an extraordinary array of businesses online, from the local warung (family-owned) shop to the neighborhood restaurant. Tokopedia also offers logistics support to help sellers deliver products and services to their customers.   I expect we’ll see more e-commerce companies integrating with social media platforms to make it easier for small merchants to sell their wares without having to build a website or digital storefront. A great example close to home is a new feature from Shopify that adds shopping functions to Facebook and Instagram pages. Look for future marriages of e-commerce tools with social platforms such as Facebook and Bytedance’s TikTok. The upshot is a future in which every social post becomes an opportunity to make a sale. It’s not e-commerce, it’s “AllCommerce.”   Live commerce Though not a term yet familiar to most Americans, live commerce is a very simple but powerful modality that has seen explosive growth in Asia. Live commerce enables purchase engagement between a customer and seller through live video and chat. For Americans of my generation, this format is best understood as the next generation of HSN or QVC on mobile platforms. Read More …

India’s punishing new social media rules could be a nightmare for the tech giants

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In late February, India, the second-largest internet economy, released new regulation that is supposed to hold social media platforms “accountable against their misuse and abuse.” The new digital media rules aim to tighten the government’s grip over how social networks regulate their content. Along with the changes, the country’s ruling administration has also reportedly dispatched written warnings threatening to jail Facebook and Twitter’s India-based employees if they fail to comply. The message is clear: Follow the government’s orders or risk prosecution. In a punishing move, tech companies only have three months to update their platforms to comply.  As the lines between political speech, hate speech, and misinformation blur, social media platforms have increasingly found themselves in a constant censorship battle with local authorities. Similar rules to India’s have been rolled out by many other countries before, like Germany, whose NetzDG law mandates removal of illegal content within 24 hours, and Australia, which penalizes social networks for not taking down abusive and violent posts in a timely manner.  But India’s new law edges closer to the digital censorship of autocratic nations such as Russia and China, and could endanger the very foundation of free expression online.  At its core, the new rules remove legal protections for tech companies over what their users post. If an “unlawful” piece of information—anything that’s prohibited under the country’s law— is reported by the local authorities, the new regulation requires that social networks act, else face the loss of immunity and potentially criminal prosecution.  That might sound reasonable on the surface. Read More …

Biden and Trump supporters see two different Facebooks, and here’s proof

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The nonprofit news organization The Markup launched a new tool on Thursday that compares side by side the Facebook “filter bubbles” of Biden supporters versus Trump supporters. They are two very different worlds. The new tool, called Split Screen , is one of the first fruits of The Markup’s Citizen Browser Project , in which the group paid 2,601 people to report—via a special browser—the unique mix of content Facebook’s algorithm serves them based on their demographics and political leanings, among many other factors The tool can compare the news posts, group recommendations, and hashtags that are likely to be suggested to Biden voters (on the left) versus Trump voters (on the right): For the Biden crowd, Facebook was more likely to show content from NPR, The New York Times , NBC News, and The Washington Post . It was far more likely to serve the Trump crowd articles from The Daily Wire and Fox News, and somewhat more likely to serve them articles from CNSNews.com and Newsmax . According to Split Screen, Biden voters were far more likely to see recommendations for groups about Star Trek memes compared to Trump voters. The algorithm was modestly more likely to suggest wholesome comedy groups to Trump supporters. Read More …