• 2017 Retrospective: A Monumental Year for the App Economy
• Facebook bought a startup that specializes in verifying government IDs
• Here’s who owns everything in Big Media today
• Netflix now has nearly 118 million streaming subscribers globally
• Amazon Go, a high-tech version of a 7-Eleven, will finally open on Monday — with no checkout lines and no cashiers
• Photos: Here’s what the new Amazon Go cashierless convenience store looks like
• Facebook appoints a new AI research head
• Apple will release its HomePod on February 9
• Alexa’s cousins have plans to infiltrate the financial industry
• Google is working on bringing AR to Chrome with downloadable 3D objects
• Stripe will end bitcoin support because customers aren’t interested
• Google Assistant can now match voices to specific Netflix profiles
• DJI is taking over every inch of the drone market
• First Look at Nintendo Labo
• Airbnb reached full-year profitability for 2017, and it’s adding a former Amex CEO to its board
• Davos World Economic Forum 2018 Videos
• Annual smartphone shipments in China declined for the first time in 2017
• Research into full-body tracking at Facebook hints at broader AR/VR ambitions
• Meg Whitman to Lead Mobile-Video Startup New TV
• WEF 2018: AI is more profound than electricity or fire, says Sundar Pichai
• UK teenagers are to be taught about artificial intelligence with the launch of a new deep learning teaching kit
• 5 ways voice assistance is shaping consumer behaviour
• the new AI-related company has been created in the UK every week for the last three years.
• Netflix is five times cheaper than Pay TV on an hourly basis:
  Pay TV: $0.73/hour
  Netflix: $0.15/hour

• Now Open – Third AWS Availability Zone in London
• Amazon brings voice control to its Alexa app for Android, with iOS coming soon
• Apple has hired tech team from data science startup SVDS
• …Foursquare’s data, with over 3 billion visits/month around the globe, 105 million global venues, and 25 million people globally…
• a new TV series with MSNBC about tech, jobs and the future
• Facebook wants more people watching videos together at the same time…a new feature called “Watch Party” to try and make that happen…
• Tech Nation 2018 UK Survey
• Microsoft execs say in 20 years we’ll all have digital assistants that will be our alter egos — and we need to set ground rules while we still can
• Google’s mysterious new operating system looks completely different from Android
• Amazon raises price of its Prime membership

• Nissan Demonstrates Brain-to-Vehicle Device (Goal is to enhance driver performance for manual driving and improve passenger experience during autonomous mode)
• Germany has gone live with one of the most onerous laws aimed at forcing Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to police content on their platforms.
• Verizon to sharpen content strategy with OTT video service, IoT platform
• Facebook’s Sandberg and Twitter’s Dorsey to quit Disney board
• The Tech Trends From CES 2018 That Will Actually Matter
• Amazon’s ad revenue could reach $4.5 billion in 2018, according to an analyst note by JPMorgan.
• AI Could Diagnose Your Heart Attack on the Phone—Even If You’re Not the Caller
• Here’s how Amazon’s and Apple’s new smart speakers stack up with consumers
• Microsoft is touting “Always Connected PCs,” a new initiative with its partners for super-thin LTE-enabled laptops with as much as 20 hours of battery life.
• Larry Page-backed asteroid mining company launches CubeSat with experimental water detection tech
• Amazon has quietly released a game changer for its cloud: Linux software that runs on corporate servers
• Facebook’s Oculus boss thinks standalone headsets are the key to getting a billion people into VR & Facebook’s Oculus is launching a new VR headset in China
• Dropbox IPO
• Domino’s Pizza’s stock price grew faster than Amazon’s, Apple’s or Google
• Will VR be the future of reading?
• Robo-Advisers Are Coming to Consulting and Corporate Strategy
• Google just acquired a startup that transforms screens into speakers
• More than half of UK businesses still unaware of GDPR

• Didi, the ride-hail company, is buying Brazilian app 99.
• Roku is rolling out its version of Alexa for home speakers and TV soundbars
• Three million people are staying in Airbnbs over New Years. Eight years ago, only 1,400 were.
• GoPro cuts 200-300 jobs, largely impacting its drone division
• Spotify hits 70 million subscribers
• Salesforce wants to reach $60 billion revenue goal by 2034
• Tesla launches a web-based version of its in-car trip planning tool
• Amazon has big plans for Alexa ads in 2018; it’s discussing options with P&G, Clorox and others
• China’s president had 2 books about artificial intelligence on his shelf in his New Year speech
• What You Need to Do Because of Flaws in Computer Chips
• HBO officially confirms ‘Game of Thrones’ won’t return for its final season until next year
• Alar Kolk – Prototyping & Experiments
• Brazil may write new laws with data stored on the ethereum blockchain
• Uber powered four billion rides in 2017
• Visual network map of MegaTrends to 2050
• App revenue climbed 35 percent to $60 billion in 2017

Happy New Year

My presentation is scheduled January 23 at David Game College Training Room / you can check the Eventbrite

 

• SoftBank and its co-investors have successfully acquired at least 13 percent of Uber
• Researchers at Stanford have trained an AI to predict a person’s political leanings based on his or her neighbourhood and choice of vehicle
• Netflix’s ‘Bright’ reached 11M viewers in its first three days, according to Nielsen…“…the first episode of Stranger Things 2 reached 15.8 million people in its first three days, while the second season premiere of The Crown reached nearly 3 million viewers in the same time frame…”
• 2018 Preview: Satellite industry 2.0…OneWeb is shooting for 2021 to achieve 2.5 gigabits per second direct to a rural home…
• Trends in drone technology [PDF]
• Apple apologizes for iPhone slowdown drama, will offer $29 battery replacements for a year
• China begins regulating QR code payments
• YouTube has been deactivated on the Fire TV
• Ripple briefly overtakes Ethereum as the No. 2 crypto
• Hyundai and Kia are developing AI assistants for cars
• Britain’s digital banks: profitable or just popular?
• Google is making moves towards mobile-first search
• The Leader’s Guide to Corporate Culture
• Google Search: Year in 2017
• Why digital transformation is now on the CEO’s shoulders
• Management is about handling complexity. Leadership is about creating simplicity. — Peter Docker
• WeChat App to Become Official ID
• Tinder has 2.5m paid users

My presentation is scheduled January 23 at David Game College Training Room / you can check the Eventbrite

 

 

• Google will turn on native ad-blocking in Chrome on February 15
• Facebook will use facial recognition to tell you when people upload your picture
• ‘Sunday Night Football’ was the highest-rated TV show this year, but its audience is smaller than last year …On average, 18.6 million people watched it this year and 19.3 million people watched it last year.
• How Netflix is trying to rewrite movie marketing with Bright
• YouTube reportedly signs new music licensing deals with UMG and Sony Music
• YouTube TV delays Apple TV and Roku apps until early 2018
• You can now send your Amazon Echo Look selfies for crowdsourced fashion advice
• WhatsApp ordered to stop sharing user data with Facebook
• Eric Schmidt stepping down as Alphabet’s executive chairman to become a ‘technical advisor’
• Instagram now lets you share live videos through direct messages
• Facebook has taken its first real steps into the music business
• Are biometrics a safe way to speed up airport security?
• China ride-hail giant Didi Chuxing has raised $4 billion
• Sequoia is raising a new fund that could top $6 billion, as pressure from SoftBank’s mega-fund increases on Silicon Valley VCs
• Uber has hired former Orbitz CEO Barney Harford as its first-ever COO
• Fjord 2018 Trends
• Personal service robot population, 2000-2050
• Industry 4.0 – Internet of Manufacturing

• T-Mobile plans pay-TV service in 2018 fueled by Layer3 TV acquisition
• SpaceX launches a reused Dragon atop a reused Falcon 9 for the first time
• Alexa skills top 25,000 in the U.S. as new launches slow
• UX: Hide/Show Passwords
• UX How to with Luke Wroblewski
• Apple has finally turned on its podcast analytics feature
• Here come the Facebook pre-roll video ads
• Apple picks up a new space drama from the creator of ‘Battlestar Galactica’
• Google Searches for Path Back to China With Artificial-Intelligence Lab
• Why Apple’s Shazam acquisition could be a big deal for the HomePod
• SoftBank to Invest Around $500 Million More in OneWeb Satellite-Internet Venture
• WSJ: “…$390 Million funding will enable  the supplier of a laser technology (vertical-cavity-surface-emitting lasers, or VCSELs) used in its iPhone X’s facial-recognition capabilities, to speed up production and boost its R&D efforts, Apple said…”
• Facebook is paying WWE to stream some professional wrestling
• Anyone can now build augmented reality face masks inside Facebook. Facebook is opening up its AR platform to everyone
• Disney is acquiring Fox’s film and TV divisions for $52.4 billion…Disney details overarching direct-to-consumer plan possible through Fox deal…”…Iger added that this will allow Hulu to “become an even more viable competitor” to existing services, likely referencing Netflix and Amazon Prime Video without naming them directly. He also said that Disney will, of course, be “flowing more content in Hulu’s direction” now that it owns a controlling 39 percent majority stake…“…Hulu has 32 million subscribers (April 2017)
• Disney CEO Wagers That Traditional TV Can Pave Way to Future
• Disney Is About to Become the ‘Walmart of Hollywood
• Andreessen Horowitz has a new, $450 million bio fund
• Andrew Ng’s Landing.ai wants to bring artificial intelligence to the manufacturing industry, starting with Foxconn
• Nvidia and construction giant Komatsu partner on AI for job site safety
• China’s CCTV surveillance network took just 7 minutes to locate a person…“…There are some 170 million CCTV cameras across the country, and that’s tipped to grow more than three-fold with 400 million more set to be installed by 2020…”
• Elon Musk’s Boring Company is reportedly starting to dig 12.4-mile tunnel in Maryland next month
• A robot can print this $64,000 house in as few as 8 hours — take a look inside
• David Attenborough Warns: Sixth Mass Extinction Is Imminent
• China Blocks Foreign Companies from Mapping Its Roads for Self-Driving Cars
• ‘World’s First’ Solar-Powered train to begin operation in Australia
• Japan’s Yamato plans automated facility to beat labour shortage
• JWT 2018 :The Future 100

• The U.S. suit against AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner likely won’t end until after May
• 2017 was the year digital ad spending finally beat TV…“…Digital ad spending reached $209 billion worldwide — 41 percent of the market — in 2017, while TV brought in $178 billion — 35 percent of the market — in 2017. That’s according to Magna, the research arm of media buying firm IPG Mediabrands…”
• Sony has sold over 70 million PS4 consoles, 2 million VR headsets
• Compass gets $450M from SoftBank; real estate portal now valued at $2.2B
• Google’s mobile search results now include videos of celebs answering your questions
• Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 focuses on AI, VR and battery life
• G.E. Cuts Jobs as It Navigates a Shifting Energy Market
• The Hidden Player Spurring a Wave of Cheap Consumer Devices: Amazon
• When AI is made by AI, results are impressive
• a16z next 10 years
• YouTube to Launch New Music Subscription Service in March
• Google and Facebook dominate digital advertising — and they now account for 25% of all ad sales, online or off
• Amazon has opened a new research facility in the British university city of Cambridge with a wall made almost entirely out of Amazon Echo devices…The new “development centre” will be home to about 400 engineers who will work on Amazon’s Alexa assistant and drone innovation…
• Dropbox’s CEO credits his success to a habit he’s passed on to his executive team
• Amazon may be getting ready to go on a digital media buying spree
• DeepMind AI needs mere 4 hours of self-training to become a chess overlord…AlphaGo Zero needed three days to train up in Go; AlphaZero needed just eight hours.
• Japan eyes startup visa program to lure foreign businesses
• Walmex expands Wi-Fi in Mexican stores, pushing online shopping

• Amazon Plans to Send Alexa to the Office
• Netflix’s ‘Skip Intro’ Button Makes TV Ever More Like an App
• Microsoft is bringing clever tabs to every Windows 10 app
• Hulu’s new UI and live TV service are now on Samsung’s 2017 smart TVs
• Amazon will let Alexa developers use voice recognition to personalize apps
• Google’s AI knows when a stranger is looking at your phone
• AWS launches GuardDuty, its new intelligent threat detection service
• Airbnb launches payment splitting for group trips
• Google is officially 100% sun and wind powered – 3.0 gigawatts worth
• Verizon says it will have 5G service in five cities by the end of next year
• aws re:invent product announcements
• Google is making a computer vision kit for Raspberry P
• Google May Reunite With Nest as It Takes on Amazon
• Ginkgo Bioworks, ‘the organism company,’ is now worth over $1 billion
• SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy launch will now take place in 2018
• AT&T’s LTE-M Button is basically a programmable 4G Amazon Dash Button for businesses
• Volvo’s car subscription service sounds like good way to get the new XC40
• Amazon’s AWS Cloud9 IDE lets you write, test, and debug code in your browser
• Google Assistant can now locate a handyman near you

AWS re:Invent