Ozan Saglam

• Bionic Reading
• Apple previews new accessibility features combining the power of hardware, software, and machine learning
• “…Ads were supposed to be on their way out, replaced by subscription money. Now Netflix, Disney, and everyone else is learning to live with them…“
• Mastercard Rolls Out Biometric Payments
• “…Apple Inc. executives previewed its upcoming mixed-reality headset to the company’s board last week, indicating that development of the device has reached an advanced stage, according to people with knowledge of the matter…“
• For the first time since the pandemic, leisure and business flights surpass 2019 levels
• Klarna, Buy-now-pay-later startup, valued last year at $46 billion, could see its valuation fall by one-third in a tough environment for tech companies (WSJ)
• Netflix has updated its  culture memo
• Amazon Head of Devices: Company Focused on Real-World Tech, Not Metaverse (WSJ)
• Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley kingmaker, is advising its portfolio founders to “plan for the worst” as startups across the globe scramble to navigate a sharp reversal after a 13-year bull run.
• State of the Java Ecosystem Report from New Relic
• Uber, Grocery Outlet partner to pilot on-demand and scheduled grocery delivery
• Meta Unveils WhatsApp Cloud API at Its Conversations Event
• Scientists Grow Plants in Lunar Soil
• The banks collapsed in 2008 – and our food system is about to do the same
• TikTok plans big push into gaming, conducting tests in Vietnam
• TikTok shot past Facebook’s time-spent record in 2021, reaching 44 daily minutes per user.

Probably the best time in the history of the internet to be a founder.

Multiple mid/top of S-curve categories (mobile, social, cloud etc).

And lots of emerging / bottom of S-curve categories (web3, VR, AI).

— cdixon.eth (@cdixon) May 19, 2022

• Google IO Videos
• Google’s new Android Auto interface works with any screen size
• Google TV app to add casting as Android TV ecosystem grows to 110M monthly active devices
• The first image of the black hole at the center of our galaxy…“…If Sagittarius A* were the size of a doughnut, M87* would be the size of the Allianz Arena…”
• Fostering Effective Energy Transition [PDF]
• E Ink Launches E Ink Gallery 3 Color ePaper
• “…Instacart has filed confidential paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering, the company announced Wednesday…”
• Web3 Is Our Chance to Make a Better Internet
• Disney Plus added almost 8 million new subscribers as Netflix struggles
• A solar power plant in space? The UK wants to build one by 2035.
• Lunar Soil Can Be Used To Generate Oxygen and Fuel for Moon Astronauts
• Research Finds over 1.5 Million “Abandoned” Mobile Apps
• 15th Annual State Of Agile Report

Augmented reality can break down communication barriers – and help us better understand each other by making language visible. Watch what happens when we bring technologies like transcription and translation to your line of sight. #GoogleIO ↓ pic.twitter.com/ZLhd4BWPGh

— Google (@Google) May 11, 2022

• Google acquires Raxium
• Below Antarctic ice, scientists discover a giant groundwater system
• AMD reported more than $5 billion in quarterly revenue
• Fortnite is back on iOS through Xbox Cloud Gaming
• Apple, Google, and Microsoft will soon implement passwordless sign-in on all major platforms… Google blog post
• Tony Fadell archive
• NY Times says Wordle drove “tens of millions” of new users, record growth
• Pandemic killed 15M people in first 2 years, WHO excess death study finds
• The gene-edited pig heart given to a dying patient was infected with a pig virus
• The Marketplace 100: 2022
• Elon Musk expected to serve as temporary Twitter CEO after deal closes
• Blizzard hires a vice president of culture to fix its culture
• Google’s changing its performance reviews
• Microsoft teams up with VW to make HoloLens work in cars
• Mechanical Watch
• Software Architecture and Design InfoQ Trends Report—April 2022

• The Ownership Economy 2022
• Shanghai’s lockdown is giving China’s online grocery apps a second chance
• Apple’s services revenue hits a record $19.8B in Q2, reaches 825M paid subscriptions…The Company posted a March quarter revenue record of $97.3 billion, up 9 percent year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.52.
• The UK’s First Autonomous Passenger Bus Started Road Tests This Week
• Mapping the Brain to Understand the Mind
  • “…Nearly 40 years ago, scientists achieved a milestone by completing a wiring diagram that traced all the connections of the 302 neurons of the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans…Today, thanks to advances in computing and image analysis algorithms, it can take less than a month to map a roundworm’s connectome. These technological improvements mean that scientists can set their sights on larger animals. They are closing in on the connectome of fruit fly larvae, with more than 9,000 cells, and adult flies, with 100,000 neurons. Next, they hope to map the brain of a developing fish and, perhaps within the next decade, a mouse, with roughly 70 million neurons—a project…“
• For Human Settlements on Mars, Solar Power May Beat Nuclear Energy
• MIT researchers have developed a portable desalination unit, weighing less than 10 kilograms, that can remove particles and salts to generate drinking water.
• South Korea’s Oceanix Busan: All We Know About World’s First Floating City
• The Boring Company is finally going to make a full-scale version of Elon Musk’s Hyperloop
• Japan reveals massive VR controlled robots to dominate construction
• DoorDash extends gas rewards program for delivery people on its platform through August…The program enables delivery people using their DasherDirect card to receive 10% cash back on their gas purchases, anywhere in the United States
• Amazon reported a loss of $3.84 billion, or $7.56 a share, for the first quarter… also reported a $7.6 billion loss on its investment in electric vehicle maker Rivian.
• Google, Meta, and others will have to explain their algorithms under new EU legislation
• Delivery Hero increases revenues by 52% YoY
• India to launch open e-commerce network to take on Amazon, Walmart…ONDC is incorporated as a private non-profit company, aimed at facilitating an open public digital infrastructure to develop and transform the Indian e-commerce ecosystem, which is pegged as a US$200 billion opportunity by 2026…The government plans to roll out its indigenously developed online e-commerce network for the public in 100 Indian cities by Diwali to provide millions of kirana stores and consumers an alternative to multinational platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart.
• Airbnb commits to fully remote workplace: ‘Live and work anywhere’
• Intel CEO Promises Quicker Return to Technological Leadership…“Now we think late 2024,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
• The Life and Death of the Original Micro-Apartments

• Amazon Prime Coming to Other Online Sites (WSJ)…Prime members can order items on other retailers’ websites using payment and shipping information stored in their Amazon account.
• Why Apple Acquired An ‘Open Banking’ Fintech
• “…Amazon launched Thursday a $1 billion fund focused on logistics, the supply chain and customer fulfillment with focus — at least in this first batch of investments — on wearable technology that improves safety in its fulfillment centers and robotics…”
• Amazon is hiring to build an “advanced” and “magical” AR/VR product
• Content isn’t king
• WarnerMedia to shut down CNN Plus just a month after launch (FT)
• NASA’s next decade: Build a mission to an ice giant
• Netflix shares lost over a third of their value on Wednesday after the company reported its first drop in subscribers in a decade
• Sony is cooking up plans to run ads in PlayStation games as rival Microsoft plans a similar program with Xbox
• Brave is bypassing Google AMP pages because they’re ‘harmful to users’
• What ‘Severance’ Gets Right About Infantilizing Office Perks
• GPT-4 Is Coming Soon. Here’s What We Know About It
• MIT engineers built a robot for emergency stroke surgeries

You might have missed it, but Snapchat's product is absolutely booming. It's now used by 115 million more people each day than Twitter. Yes, you read that right. pic.twitter.com/EjZ0EEpdn9

— Alex Kantrowitz (@Kantrowitz) April 22, 2022

• A deep-learning algorithm could detect earthquakes by filtering out city noise
• Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter
• How Apple’s Monster M1 Ultra Chip Keeps Moore’s Law Alive
• WhatsApp Communities: Meta’s Messaging App Now Supports Large Groups and Adds New Chat Features (WSJ)
• Google quietly launches its awaited ‘Switch to Android’ app on iOS
• TikTok’s ad revenue to surpass Twitter and Snapchat combined in 2022 – report
• Amazon is still struggling to make drone deliveries work
• DRI twitter thread
• Amazon 2021 Letter to Shareholders
• Epic Games Lands $2B As Sony Bets On Its Metaverse
• Intel Says It’ll Deliver 2025 Chip Tech a Half Year Early
• James Webb telescope’s MIRI instrument goes super-cold
• “…Scientists believe they have found evidence of microbes that were thriving near hydrothermal vents on Earth’s surface just 300m years after the planet formed – the strongest evidence yet that life began far earlier than is widely assumed…”
• ” a new study from the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge suggests the speed of genetic damage could be the key to survival, with long-living animals successfully slowing down their rate of DNA mutations regardless of their size.”

• Improbable raises $150m from Andreessen Horowitz and SoftBank.
  “…Improbable has been developing a technology that allows very large numbers of people — more than 10k — to be in the same online world at the same time. At the moment, even multiplayer games such as Fortnite struggle to get more than 100 players on the same server at the same time…”
• Elon Musk Delivers First Teslas Made In Texas, Teases Future Products (WSJ)
• Trending Apps in Russia and Ukraine Show Shifting Priorities During War
• Google will hide neglected apps in the Play Store…Starting in November, apps that haven’t been updated in two years will be hidden
• Decentralization for Web3 Builders: Principles, Models, How
• U.S. life expectancy falls for 2nd year in a row…76.6 years — the lowest in at least 25 years.
• An Interview with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about Manufacturing Intelligence
• Robinhood Releases Crypto Wallet to 2M Users, Plans Integration With Bitcoin Lightning Network
• Return to Monkey Island confirmed by Ron Gilbert as real, slated for 2022 launch
• Elon Musk has purchased 9.2 percent of Twitter’s stock
• A second season of Severance is on the way
• Portrait Using Only Voice by AI

• Thought works: Technology Radar #26
• Online Grocery Strategy: A Reality Check for Disruptors and Incumbents
• Passenger planes are being converted to cargo planes at record levels to make up for disrupted ocean freight
• Mojo Vision takes another step toward AR contact lenses with new prototype
• Remote islands of French Polynesia, locals made their own online shopping service
• Disney Streaming’s new CTO is a former Google exec who worked on the tech behind YouTube
• China Plans New Restrictions in Its Booming Live-Streaming Sector (WSJ)
• Microsoft Build 2022 will take place May 24th–26th
• Apple plans to build its own financial infrastructure for payments and lending
• Klarna launches new Klarna Kosma division for its open banking platform
• Microsoft acquires process mining vendor Minit to grow its automation offerings

• Nvidia investor day [PDF]…summary
• Mexico’s biggest convenience store chain wants to become a superbank
• Apple will reportedly sell the iPhone as a subscription service…The service could launch in late 2022 or early 2023
• Netflix adds two more games, will release its first first-person shooter title soon
• Uber will feature NYC taxi cabs in its app
• Europe says yes to messaging interoperability
• Apple buys UK fintech firm Credit Kudos
• After Walt Disney, Robert Iger Heads to the Metaverse (WSJ)
• Intel looks on track to fix its core problems
• Sonos might make your next TV streaming OS
• Bored Ape Yacht Club creator raises $450 million to build an NFT metaverse
• App ecosystem growth continued in Q1 with 37B downloads, new high of $33B in consumer spending
• Earth’s orbital economy of tomorrow could be worth trillions…Space-based business is already a $400 billion industry.
• Amazon’s ad department hit $31 billion in revenue
• Windows 1.0 easter egg managed to stay hidden for nearly 37 years
• Microplastics found in human blood for first time

• Bitcoin Was Made for This Moment. So Why Isn’t It Booming?
• Virtual Kitchens: A New Digital Path for Restaurants
• Amazon Closes Deal to Acquire MGM 6.5 B USD “…Amazon will add 4,000 films including the James Bond franchise to its holdings…” (WSJ)
• Intel Plans $36 Billion in European Chip Plant Investments (WSJ)
• Google introduced Last Mile Fleet Solution: Maximize fleet performance from ecommerce order to doorstep delivery
• Getir valued at almost $12bn as investors bet on future profits (FT)
• Deliveroo’s chief predicts break-even by first half of 2024 (FT)
• Android 13 makes push notifications opt-in
• Google I/O returns May 11 and 12, with limited in-person attendance
• Future Today Institute’s 2022 Tech and Science Trends Report
• Most Innovative Countries 2022
• Why AI Failed to Live Up to Its Potential During the Pandemic
• By 2500 earth could be alien to humans
• Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO, said in November that Amazon Care is one of the company’s top innovations.