For those that care, I am COVID free. It’s another Thursday which means another week of tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. Microsoft announces a delivery date for the Surface Duo, Lyft and Uber threaten to stop sharing rides in California, and Charter Communications want to impose new data caps on your Al Gore, God ge’en Internet. You can listen to Mark and I point and laugh while talking about the wild and crazy technology world every Thursday morning, LIVE at 6:43am Eastern.
DUO IS COMING SOON AND WILL WANTS ONE!
Folding devices might be here to stay. Yesterday, Microsoft unfurled news about its latest Surface device, the Duo. The Duo is an Android powered Surface Phone that folds in half like a little book. The device is reportedly super thin, and is part tablet, part phone, all sexy. The device has two 5.6in AMOLED screens that give you an 8.1 inch display. A lot of talk is being made about the price, the Duo clocks in at $1,400 which is just as much as a single screen and fully tricked out iPhone Max 11. You can drag content, watch a movie while working on a spreadsheet, or read a book while doing your taxes. The new device comes on September 10th, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it fares. Pre-order today.
LYFT AND UBER THREATEN STRIKE LIKE WORKERS AFTER CALIFORNIA ANNOUNCEMENT
Uber and Lyft are threatening to pull out of California if they are forced to classify drivers as employees instead of independent contractors. Uber and Lyft both state that allowing their drivers to operate as contractors allows the drivers to set their own hours and gives them increased flexibility. Labor unions and elected officials argue that since drivers are contractors they are deprived of traditional benefits like health insurance and workers compensation. While a California judge has ruled gig economy companies like Uber and Lyft must treat their people as employees, the gig economy companies are funding Proposition 22 (seems like it’s always prop22) which would override California’s ruling if their appeals fail. Personally, I think they’re contractors.
IN WTF MOMENT CHARTER COMM SAYS CONSUMERS WANT DATA CAPS
Charter Communications has recently argued to the FCC that consumers enjoy service plan with Internet data caps. They said this, during a pandemic, where people are streaming their brains out to Netflix. Charter says that consumers like being able to pay for the data they use and don’t like over paying. Charter also failed to mention that they don’t charge consumers less money for the same bandwidth they don’t use. Consumer advocacy groups, consumers, and Roku filed oppositions to Charter’s argument with Roku stating that data caps are, “relics of the past.” Charter is making this argument as its data cap holiday is expiring one year after its purchase of Time Warner. Go here to file your opposition. For good measure, Charter also said, “competition is beside the point.” SMH