- Apple Inc. is in talks to acquire Tidal, a streaming-music service run by rap mogul Jay Z, according to people familiar with the matter.Apple is exploring the idea of bringing on Tidal to bolster its Apple Music service because of Tidal’s strong ties to popular artists such as Kanye West and Madonna. (WSJ)
- Jury Says Oracle Should Pay $3 Billion in Damages to Hewlett Packard Enterprise (WSJ)
- According to a new report from Re/Code, the streaming music service is claiming that Apple has rejected a new version of its app because of “business model rules” and stated that Spotify must use Apple’s billing system.Spotify general counsel Horacio Gutierrez explained the company’s stance in a recent letter to Apple:“This latest episode raises serious concerns under both U.S. and EU competition law,” Gutierrez wrote. “It continues a troubling pattern of behavior by Apple to exclude and diminish the competitiveness of Spotify on iOS and as a rival to Apple Music, particularly when seen against the backdrop of Apple’s previous anticompetitive conduct aimed at Spotify … we cannot stand by as Apple uses the App Store approval process as a weapon to harm competitors.” (AppAdvice)
- 10 Facebook Messenger Secrets You Need to Know (gizmodo)
- Top 10 Tech Jobs for 2016 (Slideshare)
- Meta-Council on Emerging Technologies (World Economic Forum)1. Nanosensors and the Internet of Nanothings
2. Next Generation Batteries
3. The Blockchain
4. 2D Materials
5. Autonomous Vehicles
6. Organs-on-chips
7. Perovskite Solar Cells
8. Open AI Ecosystem
9. Optogenetics
10. Systems Metabolic Engineering - Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant can now order millions of items (CNET)
Just tell your Echo: “Alexa, order Old Spice deodorant” or (hopefully not yelling across the house) “Alexa, order Charmin toilet paper.”Alexa previously was limited to reordering items someone had already purchased or recommending company-selected printers or laptops through a service called Amazon’s Choice. All the items now available for purchase must be eligible for Prime, Amazon’s membership service that includes unlimited two-day shipping. New items are being added daily to the list.Items ineligible for purchase through Alexa include apparel, shoes, jewelry, watches, Amazon Fresh, Amazon Prime Pantry, Amazon Prime Now and add-on items.
- Bank of America Trends in Consumer Mobility Report [PDF]
- Burger-flipping robot invasion is headed to the Bay Area. A few years ago, startup Momentum Machines unveiled a robot that could churn out 400 burgers an hour, and now, Tech Insider reports, the company is creating a restaurant concept around it. (recode)
- The urban sidewalk kiosks from Sidewalk Labs will sport a battery of sensors to monitor cities, traffic and suspicious packages.
The free Wi-Fi kiosks that Alphabet’s urban innovation division Sidewalk Labs is selling — similar to those already on the streets of New York — will come with eyes, ears and a host of environmental, air and digital sensors to give the tech giant an unprecedented snapshot of urban life, according to documents obtained by Recode.
The documents, which formed part of Sidewalk Labs’ pitch to cities participating in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge, show that Alphabet — Google’s parent company — wants to monitor pedestrian, bike and car traffic, track passing wireless devices, listen to street noise and use the kiosks’ built-in video cameras to identify abandoned packages. Each kiosk will also generate an estimated $30,000 a year for the company from digital advertising. (recode)
- Can Flipboard survive without a new new thing?
Eight months ago, it looked like Flipboard was on its way out.The six-year-old company had lost key executives. Twitter had taken a hard look at Flipboard as an acquisition target — and passed. A report in the Wall Street Journal spelled out Flipboard’s struggle to hit revenue goals. And on top of it all, the app’s initial appeal — offering a more visual way to consume news — had been replicated and in many ways surpassed by other, bigger players, like Snapchat and Facebook and even Apple. (recode)