Trump banning TikTok and other tales of the week - Wire Weekly

Aug 12, 2020 3:18 pm

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Welcome back to the Wire Weekly. This week's stories are waiting for you, recorded between 5 and 12 August.

Trump bans TikTok, TikTok Sues Trump

Last Friday, Trump signed an executive order banning all trade with TikTok's parent company ByteDance in the US for "national security issues".
Ever since Trump was in talks of banning TikTok, Microsoft was in talks of buying the US and some other divisions of the social media app, which is the only way to make TikTok running in the US as usual. Microsoft says the discussion on the deal will end by 15th September, while the ban will start on 20th Sept.
TikTok was also previously also banned on one of its biggest markets: India. The Indian administration banned the app over the same "national security" tale.
But TikTok's response varied greatly, while they say they're in the process of complying with the ban and talking with authorities in India, in the US, they say "they're not going anywhere" while also suing the Trump administration. I think this is mainly based on how much citizens in these two countries respect their leaders. (US citizens hate President Trump while most Indians love PM Modi)

Paralelly with the TikTok ban, Trump also banned WeChat, a popular Chinese messaging app with a small user base in the US.
With this ban, Apple can no longer perform any transaction with WeChat. And will have to keep it out of the App Store. This effectively means Chinese will have to use iPhones without WeChat. And in China, a phone without WeChat isn't a phone. Because they use it for more than just messaging, they use it for payments, business transcations and whatnot.
Also majority of Apple devices are made in China, where also lives a significant profitable market for the company.
And thanks to the closed environment of iOS apps, there's no way an iPhone can have an app that's not in the App Store. Apple had made it closed so that it can demand apps on the App Store a share of the profit to remain there.
On another note, WeChat is owned by Tencent. And since it's not specified if the ban applies to Tencent as well, there's some concerning questions. All because Tencent has investments in several American companies like:
100% of Riot Games developer of League of Legends
40% of Epic Games (Fortnite)
80+% of Supercell (Clash of Clans, Clash Royale...)
China’s PUBG and 11% of Bluehole
Single digit stake in various game studios like Blizzard, Ubisoft, PlatinumGames
Tencent Pictures in many hollywood productions
A 2019 5-year deal of $1.5B with NBA to stream it’s game in China
12% stake in Snap of SnapChat
9% of Spotify and its partnering for Tencent Music in China

We don't know what will happen next. But:

the thorniest privacy dispute of 2020 isn’t about privacy or technology at all — it’s about China (The Verge)

Back to the...

📇 Google Launched People Card, A Virtual Visiting Card

If you make your own people card, Google will show all information you choose to give as a special card on the Google search page when someone searches your name.
This will make it way easier to find emails and contact information.

🅾️ OnePlus Unveils HydrogenOS 11 In China

Available as a developer preview in OnePlus 8, it is seemingly inspired from Samsung's OneUI for apps.
Also updated: Dark mode enhancements and Always On Display.

🦊 "Disney has no Fox left to give as it renames TV studio to 20th Television"

(Firstly, it's the actual headline from The Verge.)
Disney’s recently acquired 20th Century Fox TV studio is the latest to have the “Fox” name dropped, with the company announcing today that it’ll be rebranding the studio to just 20th Television, as part of a larger rebrand for all of Disney’s TV studios.
Cutting “Fox” out of its acquired brands was a requirement of the deal that saw Disney gain control of 21st Century Fox’s assets last year, according to Variety.
New logos and end cards will appear on TV shows this fall, including on episodes of The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, and Bob’s Burgers. Existing episodes on streaming and digital libraries will continue to bear the original logos.

Twitch Prime is now Prime Gaming.

Talking of name changes, Amazon recently announced changing Twitch Prime to Prime Gaming by including it in their Prime membership.
Here's what I came up with for Amazon to consider if it thinks of rebranding it's space exploration company BlueOrigins: (pun-intended)

Apple CEO Tim Cook's now a billionaire...

which is quite rare for non-founder CEOs.
Although Cook didn't found Apple, he arguably built Apple into the most valuable publicly traded company in the world, beating out Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company just this July.

Indian MIUI without the banned apps is in the works

as head Manu Kumar Jain announced, this MIUI will be rollled out in a few weeks.
Yes, finally a MIUI without Mi Browser, (Yay!)

Disney to launch a streaming service in 2021

This service, under Disney's Star brand, will include content from ABC Studios, Fox Television, FX, Freeform, 20th Century Studios, and Searchlight. Because Disney owns all of them.

The Google Pixel 5 will probably come this fall with a 765G. (Digit.in)

⚡Mediatek anounces first 5G chip for laptops in partnership with Intel. (Digit.in)

Microsoft's Surface Duo is probably a foldable Android phone. (Digit.in)

75% Indian Parents Want to Continue Online Learning. (Byjus)

Google is killing Play Music For YouTube Music by October. Download and back up your music now. (Ars Technica)

That's all for the week. We welcome your feedback.

Cheers,

Wire Mail Team.

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