Weekly#268

Amazon’s new Alexa-powered Dot encourages kids to use the word ‘please’
Twitter is making money now, so it’s going to start hiring more people
Amazon’s newest delivery option for Prime members: Inside their car
Google’s smart-home gadget brand generated $726 million in revenue last year.
Andreessen Horowitz is preparing to launch a separate fund for crypto investments
YouTube Says Computers Are Catching Problem Videos
SuitX is bringing down the price of robotic exoskeletons
Digital banking startup Revolut raises $250M at a valuation of $1.7B
IFTTT raises $24M led by Salesforce to expand its platform to ‘connect everything’
Nintendo’s annual profit rockets by 500% after selling 15M Switch consoles
Amazon’s AWS and advertising businesses are fueling its retail dominance
BBC Sound Effects
Face Recognition Commercialization
AR
new Gmail

Weekly#267

Netflix added more than seven million subscribers during Q1
Walmart is in advanced talks to acquire Amazon’s India rival Flipkart
SoftBank is in talks to invest in data storage company Cohesity at a $1 billion valuation
SpaceX’s valuation is expected to climb to $24 billion
Google initiative looks to preserve walkable copies of Earth’s historical sites on the web
Scientists accidentally create a mutant enzyme that eats plastic bottles
This clever new font combines braille with Latin and Japanese alphabets
Uber Eats is the fastest-growing meal delivery service in the U.S.
Jeff Bezos says Amazon has more than 100 million Prime members
Netflix launches 30-second preview videos on mobile
EarthNow promises real-time views of the whole planet from a new satellite constellation
McKinsey: Notes from the AI frontier insights from hundreds of use cases
China’s WeChat Isn’t Just An App—It’s A Cross-Cultural Education
Apple is planning to launch a premium subscription for news, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
Chaos Engineering
React OS
Personalize Your Alexa Experience in Minutes with Alexa Skill Blueprints

How much would you pay for Facebook without ads?
SpaceX’s president says we’ll be able to take a rocket to Shanghai — or Mars — ‘within a decade’
A cryptocurrency startup is investing cryptocurrency in a cryptocurrency fund that invests in other cryptocurrency startups
Uber users will be able to book e-bikes, buy public transit tickets and rent a car via the Uber app — and it’s all part of a bigger plan
AT&T’s 5G trials produce gigabit speeds and 9ms latency
Researchers have used artificial intelligence (AI) to discover nearly 6,000 previously unknown species of virus.
Disney kicks off its streaming future today with ESPN+
new Gmail design
Apple Music now has over 40 million subscribers
Apple is developing a TV show based on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series
Digital license plates are set to be tested in Dubai
Spotify to offer TV and movies in drive to boost growth
Retail AR
bring #horror movies to life in AR
Amazon spent nearly $23 billion on R&D last year — more than any other U.S. company