Google Cloud adds support for more powerful Nvidia GPUs. “…For companies working with machine learning workloads, having access to GPUs in the cloud provides them with flexibility to pay for what they use with by the minute pricing, and the sustained pricing model means if they end up running the GPUs for a sustained period of time, they get up to a 30 percent discount, depending on the usage. In other words, they don’t get whacked with a huge bill because they like the service…”
Apttus is putting artificial intelligence to work on contract management
Why Google is spending $1.1 billion to acq-hire 2,000 HTC engineers
When is the internet going to change TV ads for real?
“…More than 30 million people are now paying for a subscription streaming service in the U.S., which pushed streaming revenue up 48 percent, to $2.5 billion, in the first half of the year. Streaming now accounts for 62 percent of the U.S. music business…”
Tesla’s remote upgrades to its vehicles during Hurricane Irma are the future of tech
Spacex will call global internet satellite network Starlink
Jack Ma: We need to stop training our kids for manufacturing jobs
Five ways mobile technology can help in humanitarian emergencies
Virtual U.S. Tutors Are Helping Chinese Kids Gain an Edge…Online schools battle with traditional tutoring academies for supremacy in an $80 billion market.
Microsoft and Amazon partner to integrate Alexa and Cortana digital assistants
Amazon has finally added multi-room audio support to its Echo devices, allowing users to simultaneously stream music over multiple speakers in their homes.
“Our goal is to overtake Amazon in four years, whether that’s in customers, technology or worldwide scale” Alibaba Cloud President Simon Hu
Email and Calendar Data Are Helping Firms Understand How Employees Work
Can 10 Minutes of Meditation Make You More Creative?
Amazon officially owns Whole Foods and is slashing prices by as much as 43 percent
the fully autonomous … branded cars will start hitting … around 2020 and 2021
“…DRIVE PX 2 AI car platform began shipping just one year ago, more than 225 car and truck makers, suppliers, research organizations, and start-ups have begun developing with it…” “…NVIDIA expected its DRIVE PX 2 platform to be capable of delivering Level 3 autonomy for cars, trucks, and shuttles by the end of the year, and Level 4 autonomy by the end of 2018…”
Infographic : Visualizing the Massive $15.7 Trillion Impact of AI
Google and Walmart are partnering on voice shopping in a challenge to Amazon’s Alexa
The solar eclipse was bigger for Facebook than any of the last four Super Bowls.
Facebook says 66 million people “interacted” with the social network for the eclipse.
Uber drivers have earned $50 million in tips in just over 50 days
Full transcript: Lyft Director of Product Taggart Matthiesen on Recode Decode
Salesforce slides past its $10B annual run rate target
This European country may hold an ICO and issue its own cryptocurrency
Ofcom Communications Market Report (3 August 2017) UK Stats
3h32minutes spent watching broadcast TV per day
183 minutes spent listening to radio per day (among radio listeners)
25.3 million : Number of fixed broadband connections
10.8 million: Number of superfast broadband connections
36.2 Mbit /s : Average actual fixed broadband speed
“…While 91% of UK adults watched live TV in an average week in 2016, data from BARB show that the amount of me UK adults spend watching has fallen since 2010, with a decline in average daily viewing me of 36 minutes (-14%) to 3 hours 51 minutes per adult (16+) per day in 2016…”
GM is beta testing a ride-hailing app for autonomous EVs
Disney wants to make a huge shift in its business model — but it’s not ready to do it yet
SoftBank is pumping $1 billion into the online sports apparel retailer Fanatics
SoftBank leads $1bn investment in US biotech group…”…The investment in Roivant Sciences, which is developing experimental medicines for a range of illnesses spanning Alzheimer’s to rare diseases…“
RBC Capital’s Mark Mahaney believes Snap will report ARPU of $1.19 per user in Q2, growth of 138 percent year over year.
Michelin’s 3D-printed tire is as stunning as it is futuristic
The hyperloop just had its fastest test yet, nearly hitting 200 mph
California Goes All In – 100 Percent Renewable Energy By 2045…It would set in place a goal to produce 50 percent renewable energy by 2030 and 100 percent renewable energy by 2045…
Ikea now sells solar panels and batteries in the UK
The BBC just built an experimental iPlayer that knows who you are by your voice
“…Apple sold 41 million iPhones during the quarter, up slightly from 40.4 million a year earlier, while Mac sales rose slightly to 4.29 million units from 4.25 million units in the year-ago quarter following the introduction of a number of updated Macs in June…”
Game of Thrones script reportedly obtained by hackers
“...Instagram is most popular for people younger than 25, who the company says spend an average of more than 32 minutes a day on the photo-sharing app…“
Mozilla launches experimental voice search, file-sharing and note-taking tools for Firefox
The Makers of Roomba Want to Share Maps of Users’ Homes With Smart Tech Companies
Tesla saw about 63,000 cancellations of Model 3 preorders. The company had a total of 518,000 preorders but 455,000 net orders at last count.
Jack Dorsey wants Wall Street to know that Square Cash can be a real business. Square Cash, the company’s free, digital money-transfer service.
Tesla is worth more than Ford and GM, despite having just 1 percent of their sales
Since the iPhone launched, Apple has made as much as Microsoft and Alphabet combined
Blockchain-Enabled Electric Car Charging Comes to California.”…the company launched a beta test of a distributed, peer-to-peer charging marketplace in California that lets drivers pay each other for use of their home chargers…“
Curation of the news and articles I read this week
Finnish breakthrough: Making protein out of thin air and electricity
Google now blasts autoplay videos straight into your Search results
Adobe is ending Flash support in 2020, tells everyone to jump ship
Nearly 40 million Americans use Roku, beating out Google’s Chromecast
Alphabet has nearly doubled its headcount since 2013 to more than 75,000
Google leads the world in digital and mobile ad revenue
Even with 45,000 robots, Amazon is working hard to find human warehouse labor
Softbank Said to Take Stake in Roomba Maker iRobot
“…Musk’s master plan is to help owners add their vehicles to a shared fleet at the touch of a button. Instead of sitting unused 22 hours a day, the car will be able to drive itself and passengers, to earn money for you while you sleep, work, or go on vacation…”
The Biggest Facial Recognition System in the World Is Rolling Out in China
Amazon Hub: A package delivery locker specifically for blocks of flats
SpaceX now valued at $21 billion as launch market dominance looms
“…The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has approved institutional bitcoin derivatives platform Ledgerx LLC as the first federally-regulated bitcoin options exchange and clearinghouse. Ledgerx plans to start trading bitcoin options in the fall and ether options a few months after that….”
“…How Blockchain Can Make Identification Borderless and Immutable…a blockchain platform for digital identification called BanQu…Banqu estimates 2.7 billion people around the world lack an economic identity. But of those 2.7 billion, 60 percent have mobile phones…”
Google Has Started Adding Imagination to Its DeepMind AI “…One of the ways they tested the new algorithms was with a 1980s video game called Sokoban, in which players have to push crates around to solve puzzles. Some moves can make the level unsolvable, so advanced planning is needed, and the AI wasn’t given the rules of the game beforehand.The researchers found their new ‘imaginative’ AI solved 85 percent of the levels it was given, compared with 60 percent for AI agents using older approaches…”
LinkedIn data can predict how likely you are to quit, and it’s being sued to keep it public
Amazon reportedly acquired GameSparks for $10M to build out its gaming muscle… “…GameSparks is a “backend as a service” for game developers to build various features like leaderboards into games, and then manage them, all in the cloud…”
Facebook active users 2.01 B, Whatsapp 1.3 B, Messenger 1.2 B, Instagram 700 M
WhatsApp is building out its business team to start bringing in revenue
Oculus, the virtual reality company owned by Facebook, has created its first VR movie