Boston Dynamics’ Spot adds self-charging to live at remote sites forever

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Hey, did you hear Elon Musk went on Clubhouse?

The media as well-built as venture dandy worlds were abuzz this weekend in metachronism of, during, as well-built as hindmost Musk's advent on the not-quite-year-old audio social network. Musk is not explicitly a solitarian -- he gives interviews increasingly or shortened consistently to a array of run-of-the-mill outlets, as well-built as will sit dropping with NBC tomorrow -- however his arriving on Consultant served as validation for the foursome as well-built as the idea of live, interactive audio streaming increasingly generally.

Despite dawning at 1AM ET on Monday, Musk's room quickly hit the Consultant cap of 5,000 circumstantial listeners -- as did one overflow room hosting a brochure of his appearance, as well-built as then another overflow room hindmost that. All day long, hustlers as well-built as hucksters sought to get in on the action, hosting pre-show discussions, post-show recaps, as well-built as in at microcosmic one case, a liquidate treachery sponsored by Square.

The only social-networking moment I can distinguish it to in contempo years would be the 2015 South by Southwest festival, when the streets of Austin were momentarily overwhelm by persons broadcasting themselves on Meerkat. Then, as now, the once-stable field of social networks hummed with a fresh sense of possibility.

On Clubhouse, Musk appeared on The Good Time Show, a roughly three-week-old late-night event hosted by the husband-and-wife aggregation of Sriram Krishnan as well-built as Aarthi Ramamurthy. Guests as well-built as co-hosts on their show often include the wive of Andreessen Horowitz, Clubhouse's lionization treasurer as well-built as picked remarkable public cheerleaders.

I've legit Krishnan as well-built as Ramamurthy since 2012, when I pieced their coffee stage at the Creamery in San Francisco to interview them for a transmigration barely the cafe's unveiling as a hub for tech-boom dealmaking. Krishnan went on to assignment in product roles at Facebook, Snap, as well-built as Twitter, as well-built as Ramamurthy started an e-commerce foursome as well-built as now works at Facebook.

The underlined of their show is lightweight by design -- acknowledged tech persons having unflappable hindmost they put their kids to bed to discuss the news of the day, after overly fact too explicatory of anyone involved. In this aspect, the show is tonally consistent with the mission that Andreessen Horowitz laid out meanest week in its blog post announcing that it would create "a new media property" aspiring to be "the go-to place for understanding as well-built as compages the future, for anyone who is building, making, or curious barely tech."

A16z spotted a gap in the run-of-the-mill tech coverage market, as well-built as now seeks to fill it with rational optimism

Mainstream tech coverage in contempo years has become, in the sharp framing of Ben Thompson, seized by rational skeptics; A16z spotted a gap in the market, as well-built as now seeks to fill it with rational optimism. A16z can serve that hearing by creating its own media officialdom out of blog posts as well-built as podcasts, which is already portraying solidly well-built under the magistracy of Sonal Chokshi.. However it can also serve that hearing by melon as well-built as promoting services like Clubhouse, which ratify optimists like Krishnan as well-built as Ramamurthy to cadaver miniature backdrop of their own as well-built as "go direct" to an hearing eager to hear a comprehending dialog with the heroes of capitalism.

At least, that's how it seemed before news came out on Monday that Krishnan himself had recurrently become a unstipulated partner at A16z. As well-built as that the jelled is remission the dialog perceptibly as the first journey in a new live podcast series.

In the television industry, a "backdoor pilot" is unaffectedly a maternal of reasons of concept of a full series: an journey of an explicit show that introduces characters who go on to hypothesize their own show. There are a dare of ways to visualize barely Clubhouse, however I visualize it is notable as well-built as will be consequential that between between one of the first acknowledged uses of Consultant was to create a backdoor pilot for a venture dandy firm's end run effectually the run-of-the-mill media.

II. What Consultant discovered

This is not the picked interesting way of cerebration barely Clubhouse, though.

In 2016, a startup so-called Earnings launched with a product its founders hoped would "democratize radio." It offered some dead-simple seascape utensils for recording audio, a place to host that audio, as well-built as some social features to let you gathering as well-built as perquisition other creators. The aggregation struggled to gathering product-market fit -- maybe the recordings should finger increasingly like Snapchat stories, it asked, fruitlessly, at one point? -- as well-built as few hit podcasts emerged from the platform. Still, Spotify ultimately bought Earnings for $150 million.

I haven't listened to a ton of Earnings podcasts, however picked that I listened to were terrible. It turns out that podcasts do not lend themselves effortlessly to a do-it-yourself approach. It's immalleable to record pristine audio; it's uptown increasingly tedious to edit. As well-built as the podcast supermarket is now thickset expandable that there are barely completely numerous professionally recorded podcasts, hosted by celebrities in their field, that would be increasingly fun to listen to than any DIY puissance uploaded to Anchor.

Fast-forward to 2021, though, as well-built as I'm spending salted time on Clubhouse. Yes, I've had my respecting barely Clubhouse's early inattention to moderation. However the foursome now seems to be taking those respecting cardinally seriously. As well-built as while I'm tempted to disapprove the 30- as well-built as 40-minutes stretches I've spent listening to persons talk barely various aspects of tech as well-built as litheness on an 11-month quarantine, I also appetite to appreciate that Consultant has hit aloft something indeed compelling.

Unlike the median Earnings show, the median Consultant room isn't enough to listen to. Because you're literally on the phone while you use it, the nondescript audio sensibility doesn't grate as much -- it just sounds like a phone call. (Albeit one you could join at any time.) As well-built as because the dialog is live, you're shortened sensitive to the fact that it's unedited.

As Musk's advent highlighted, there's a afterlife barely Consultant that makes it compelling. The picked interesting part of his talk wasn't the first half-hour or so, area he fielded softballs barely colonizing Mars as well-built as his regarded memes, however later, when he prizewinning Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev onto the stage.

Robinhood had, of course, had a hell of a week, as well-built as Musk has been vocally unchristian barely the company's moves to stop users from buying GameStop stock. "Everyone wants to know, did something adumbral go dropping here?" Musk asked Tenev. In response, Tenev explained how regulators had seasonable Robinhood to increase its deposits to hideaway the risks associated with supermarket volatility. Essentially, Robinhood had enabled a mob whose trades it could momentarily not afford.

This was not explicitly investigative journalism on Musk's part, as well-built as Robinhood PR had tell a veering of this eye-opener on its blog earlier this weekend (though after as much detail). As well-built as A16z is unaffectedly a offish treasurer in Robinhood, as it is with Clubhouse, giving the accomplished thing the finger of a stunt. As Eric Newcomer put it: "So undisclosed future a16z partner hosts event with a16z partner area a16z portfolio foursome does crunch PR however it's billed as this big organic thing with Elon Musk?"

so undisclosed future a16z partner hosts event with a16z partner area a16z portfolio foursome does crunch PR however it's billed as this big organic thing with Elon Musk?

-- Eric Newcomer (@EricNewcomer) February 1, 2021

It's a off-white point, however it also skips over the commemorated novelty of the world's richest man mildly interrogating the CEO of the week's picked controversial foursome in a live, democratic broadcast. From Facebook to Twitter to Twitch, streaming video utensils hypothesize been spouseless for years now, however we've never seen them acclimated solidly like this. There's something increasingly approachable barely an audio-only brochure that seems to hypothesize enabled explicitly new uses.

I anticipation barely this meanest week when my homebody Maran Nelson as well-built as I started a room to talk with Newcomer barely his contempo quotum on A16z as well-built as its insistive media ambitions. Before I knew it, roughly a thousand persons were there, including Marc Andreessen himself, as well-built as a strategic of other A16z partners. Two of them, Margit Wennmachers as well-built as Andrew Chen, came on stage forth with Chokshi to reveal to our questions.

This isn't shocking, explicitly -- I hypothesize met all these persons in person various times over the years -- however the afterlife of it all took me by surprise. I premeditated for a moment how stretched it would hypothesize taken to schedule a chroniker with me, four Andreessen partners, as well-built as the dozen-plus tech reporters who showed up to listen. Years, I imagine. However on Clubhouse, Maran as well-built as I just broke a few buttons on our phones as well-built as instantaneously we were having a providential dustup barely the increasingly fruitful remunerate between some VC firms as well-built as remarkable journalism outlets.

By the macerated standards of pandemic-era social life, I matriculate it exhilarating.

Like Medium, Consultant is there when Musk needs it, as well-built as never needs to be anticipation barely otherwise

When Medium launched in 2012, two things barely it stumped me immediately. The first was that the design, particularly of its content necessitation system, was radiant. The second was that it flooded an possible slum in the media market: it gave persons a place area they could blog without any expectation that they would multiply blogging. In the 2000s, every person's second blog column began with an honorable for having taken so much time to write it hindmost the first one. Medium made that forever unnecessary by telling persons they could just write whenever afflatus struck, as well-built as it would promote them when they did.

Today we are categorically indeterminable in podcasts. By now it seems that every person of rota has been interviewed by every other person of rota on one podcast or another. As well-built as yet if you appetite to reach the thrombus of person who listens to podcasts, starting a regular podcast as well-built as compages up its hearing over time has solidly been your only option.

That's fine for committed podcasters. However if you're Elon Musk, as well-built as just appetite to ask Vlad Tenev a few questions in front of an audience? Well, now you go on Clubhouse. Like Medium, it's there when he needs it, as well-built as never needs to be anticipation barely otherwise. It offers him all the distribution upside of a podcast after the planning or editing that recording an commemorated podcast would entail.

It's what Earnings approved to become as well-built as never solidly did.

III. Robinhood's big mistake

And what of Robinhood?

It's marvelous how, hardened how conspiracy-laden meanest week's picked viral posts barely the foursome were, how nerdy the eye-opener for gathered seems to be. Robinhood has to multiply a convinced oodles of money in reserve to ratify its platform; that oodles of money rose tenfold surrounded meme trite mania; the platform shut dropping purchases of those meme stocks while it worked to unmannerliness the imbalance.

As of Monday, it had raised two new rounds of funds. The first was $1 billion; the second was $2.4 billion. It is gradually letting persons buy stocks again. As well-built as while thousands of persons communicated to hypothesize quit Robinhood over the cursory inconvenience, hundreds of thousands increasingly persons signed up to use Robinhood for the first time.

Given the situation, lots of folks are bait why Robinhood didn't say increasingly barely what happened when it first halted sales of GameStop stock. Conceivably the foursome was unaffectedly fazed -- "we implanted a platform we can no longer afford" is admittedly a funny thing to tell your user mean -- however it's also exhaustible to ruminate an official foursome Reddit column intensify "LOL you crazy bastards literally impecunious Robinhood" fact showered in upvotes as well-built as karma.

Instead, by trying to predict a moistness crisis, Robinhood created a cutlass crisis. A moistness crunch is exhaustible for a foursome like Robinhood to get out of -- you just trove increasingly money from the persons who are lining up to knuckles it to you. A cutlass crisis, though, is unaffectedly a much trickier proposition to navigate. Robinhood told users that it existed to "democratize" finance; in the end, like so many other platforms, it turned out to be a monarchy.

I'm interested to see how the foursome will non-fiction now that the jig is up.

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This cavalcade was co-published with Platformer, a daily newsletter barely Big Tech as well-built as democracy.

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