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Showing posts from 2018

Zuckerberg says the future is sharing via 100B messages And 1B Stories/day

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Zuckerberg says the future is sharing via 100B messages And 1B Stories/day - The News Feed won’t sustain Facebook forever, and that’s scaring investors. Today on Facebook’s earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg stressed that sharing is shifting to private chat, where people send 100 billion messages per day on Facebook’s family of apps, and Stories, where he says people share 1 billion of these slideshows per day (though it’s unclear if that includes third-party apps like Snapchat). But that means Facebook will have to realign its business towards these mediums where monetization is more complex and it has less experience. The result of Zuckerberg’s comments was a reversal of Facebook’s  initial 2 percent share price gain after earnings were announced that dragged it down to a 3.5 percent loss. That was only reversed when Zuckerberg said Facebook would reduce limits on video advertising, pushing shares up 3 percent in after-hours trading. Facebook’s year-over-year revenue growth has alre

As stock rises on a slim earnings beat, eBay tells analysts to focus on payments and ads

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As stock rises on a slim earnings beat, eBay tells analysts to focus on payments and ads - Despite increasing competition from traditional retailers like Walmart and Target, which have invested heavily in e-commerce, and the whupping it’s routinely taking from Amazon among pure e-commerce companies, eBay the 20-year-old lumbering Pez dispenser of an e-tailer, keeps plugging along. Now, as it manages to eke out another earnings win by matching analysts’ expectations, the company is telling the bankers that watch it look to advertising and payments for its future growth. The company met analysts’ estimates of revenue totaling $2.65 billion, up from $2.41 billion in the year-ago period. That amounts to adjusted earnings of 56 cents per share, up from 48 cents per share in the year-ago period and beating analyst estimates of 54 cents per share. Profits for the company hit $720 million for the quarter. The news sent shares up over 4 percent in trading after the market closed on Tu

The Tissot Seastar 1000 is a low-cost and high-quality Swiss diver

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The Tissot Seastar 1000 is a low-cost and high-quality Swiss diver - In the pantheon of watches, there are a few that stand out. Looking for your first automatic watch? Pick up a Seiko Orange Monster. Looking for a piece with a little history? The Omega Speedmaster is your man. Looking for an entry-level Swiss diver that won’t break the bank? Tissot’s Seastar has always had you covered. The latest version of the Seastar is an interesting catch. A few years ago – circa 2010 – the pieces were all black with bold hands and a more staid case style. Now Tissot, a Swatch Group brand, has turned the Seastar into a chunkier diver with massive bar hands and case that looks like a steel sandwich. The $695 Seastar 1000 contains a Powermatic 80/ETA C07.111 movement with an eighty-hour power reserve which means the watch contains a massive mainspring that keeps things going for most of three days without winding. The Seastar is also water resistant to 1000 feet thanks to a huge screw down

The Biggening

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The Biggening - Everything is already big. The iPhone SE died. The iPad Mini was last upgraded in 2015. The 11-inch MacBook Air died years ago. The smaller Series 4 Apple Watch has a bigger display than the larger Series 3 Apple Watch. Apple’s smallest devices are slowly getting bigger and the company’s events don’t suggest those ambitions are going to stop. While the release of the truly monstrous 6.5” iPhone XS Max last month embodies this trend in the most readily apparent way, the way Apple has emphasized external displays on its new iPad Pro and its MacBook Pro line are perhaps more telling of the company’s future ambitions, a world where displays are boundless. If you’re thinking that Apple can only make displays so much bigger while reducing the sizes of the device, there’s a lot further they can take this.  Apple’s wants bigger displays. The old iPad Pro was perhaps too big; its massive form factor was great for creative tasks but it was one of the most niche

Facebook shares climb despite weak Q3 user growth and revenue

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Facebook shares climb despite weak Q3 user growth and revenue - After last quarter’s bloodbath earnings report that cut 20 percent from Facebook’s share price, the social network stumbled in Q3 2018, reaching 2.27 billion monthly users, up 37 million users or 1.79 percent — only slightly better than Q1’s slowest-ever growth rate of just 1.54 percent, and compared to an 2.29 billion Wall Street estimate. It added 24 million daily active users hit 1.49 billion, up 1.36 percent compared to Q1’s 1.44 percent, missing the 1.51 billion estimate. But the real growth story depends on its core US/Canada and Europe markets where Facebook saw zero growth and lost 1 million users respectively last quarter. In Q3, Facebook added 1 million monthly users to reach 242 million in the US/Canada region but held flat at 185 million dailies there. It lost 1 million users in Europe in both dailies and monthlies. Those markets make up over 70 percent of its revenue, which is scaring Wall Street. A

Google’s Gboard now lets you create a set of emoji that look like you

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Google’s Gboard now lets you create a set of emoji that look like you - Last summer, Google introduced its own take on Bitmoji with the launch of “Mini” stickers in its keyboard app, Gboard, which leverage machine learning to create illustrated stickers based on your selfie. Today, Google is expanding the Mini Stickers with the launch of what it calls “Emoji Minis” – meaning, emoji-sized stickers that look like you. Similar to the initial launch of Mini stickers, the new emoji are also created using machine learning techniques, Google says. The company said the idea is to give people a way to use emoji they feel better to represent who they really are. “Emoji Minis are designed for those who may have stared into the eyes of emoji and not seen yourself staring back,” explained Google, in a blog post. “These sticker versions of the emoji you use every day are customizable so you can make them look just like you.” That means your emoji can have different colored hair – like

Up close and hands on with the new MacBook Air

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Up close and hands-on with the new MacBook Air - Why it seems like only yesterday that Steve Jobs first pulled the MacBook Air from a manila envelope for the world to see. It wasn’t, of course — that was 10 years ago this January. In that past decade, the ultraportable laptop has become a massive hit for the company, helping to redefine the notebook space. But the world moves on, of course. In fact, that was kind of a theme at today’s big event in Brooklyn — bringing some overdue updates to some of the company’s most iconic lines. Heck, even the Mac Mini got some love onstage today. But no Apple product deserved a makeover more than the MacBook. The big change to the product is the most obvious — and far and away the most requested. Apple FINALLY brought a retina display to the device. That puts the new 13-inch screen at 2560 x 1600 — and it looks great. The bump up will be like night and day for longtime Air users who are finally ready to upgrade. Of course, the update

Up close and hands-on with the new iPad Pro

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Up close and hands-on with the new iPad Pro - The new Pro marks what is arguably the single most significant design change to the iPad line in its eight and a half year existence. In fact, the new slate is almost unrecognizable as an iPad from the front, on. That’s probably a good thing, of course. The tablet-defining line was long overdue do for a rethink. After nearly a decade in existence, it’s time to shake off the cobwebs. And naturally, most of the design upgrades on the new product will ultimately filter down to the rest of the line. As a starting point, however, Apple took a good, long look at the iPhone for a few insights into to how to remove some of that unsightly bezel. Not altogether, of course — after all, the user needs somewhere to put their hands. Anyone who’s ever held the iPhone X in their hands can tell you that your fingers and the edges of your hands still have the tendency to accidentally come into contact with the screen, which is a perfectly fin

Here’s everything Apple announced today at its big hardware event

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Here’s everything Apple announced today at its big hardware event - From new iPads to new MacBook Airs, Apple had a bunch of hardware refreshes to debut this morning. Here’s everything they showed off. New MacBook Air The MacBook Air is, at last, getting a Retina display. Roughly six years after the MacBook Pro went high-res, Apple’s slimline is following suit. It has a 13.3″ screen, with a slimmer bezel (now black, rather than aluminum.) There’s a TouchID fingerprint sensor near the upper right corner of the keyboard — a keyboard which, by the way, has been shifted over to Apple’s butterfly mechanism keys. Oh, and it’s got actual function keys. No goofy TouchBar here. It’s got a 20% larger Force Touch trackpad. The speakers are 25% louder than the previous generation with, the company claims, double the bass. Apple says the bodies of the new MacBook Airs are made of 100% recycled aluminum. It’s got two Thunderbolt ports, and crams an Intel i5 CPU, up to 16GB of 2133M

The new Mac Mini is up to five times faster and starts at $799

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The new Mac Mini is up to five times faster and starts at $799 - Now that the Air’s got the shiny new update, it’s time for the other major neglected entry in the Mac line. As Tim Cook noted on stage, the company’s got another “small” addition to the line. The pint-sized desktop is getting it’s “biggest updated, ever, according to the company. The footprint is the same familiar squircle design that’s defined the line since the begin, but now with space gray finish found on the rest of the line. The biggest changes, however, are on the inside. The new device features the latest generation six-core processor, up to 64GB of RAM and up to 2TB of solid-state storage. On the back of the device, you’ll find four Thunderbolt 3, an HDMI and USB-A ports. Like the new Air, the updated Mini is made from 100 percent recycled aluminum. As is fitting with the theme of the event, the company is positioning the product toward creative pros. Apple ’s clearly hoping to blur the lines betw

I tried meditating with a brain-sensing headband — and I didn’t hate it

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I tried meditating with a brain-sensing headband — and I didn’t hate it . I’m bad at meditating. The act of sitting still with my thoughts is a terrifying, anxiety-inducing thing. I’ve been on and off meditation kicks for years now, so I’m willing to try just about any quick fix that promises to keep on track. I’ve had limited results with various mindful apps — Calm, and Insight Timer has proven the most useful thus far. But those are only as good as your own practice. It’s a bit like going to the gym, really. You start to slip. One missed day becomes two, two becomes a week and next thing you know, you haven’t been mindful in a month. The idea of hacking one’s mindfulness practice is pretty appealing, honestly — even if it means wearing a dumb-looking headband while you sit alone in silence. The second generation of Interaxon’s Muse headband features a slimmer profile than its predecessor and the ability to read four activity metrics: body movements, breath, heart rate and “me

What the Bolsonaro victory means for Brazil’s startup ecosystem

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What the Bolsonaro victory means for Brazil’s startup ecosystem - Pedro H. Ramos is a partner at Baptista Luz Advogados. Pedro has been representing clients in the technology sector since 2009. He is an advisor to the Interministerial Committee for Digital Transformation, a board member at ABStartups (Brazilian Startup Association) and co-author of the book “Regulatory Environment: Public Policy Best Practices to Support Startups” (with Felipe Matos). On October 28, far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro won the Brazilian elections, after one of the most polarizing campaigns of the last decades. For months before the result, the economy was destabilized by an unpredictable race during which Mr. Bolsonaro was stabbed during a rally and the primary challenger, center-left candidate Fernando Haddad, entered the campaign after the original candidate, the now incarcerated former president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, was pulled from the race. The uncertainty caused by the elections hi

The Jay-Z-backed life insurance startup, Ethos, has raised $35 million

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The Jay-Z-backed life insurance startup, Ethos, has raised $35 million - Ethos, the startup marketing a new life insurance product for people who probably haven’t really thought about life insurance, may have 99 startup problems but new capital ain’t one. The company  just announced that it raised $35 million in a new round of financing. That’s a pretty significant number for a company in the ordinarily staid life insurance world. But, considering that the company’s previous round of $11.5 million came from the family offices, and investment firms of. Hollywood and sports celebrities like Will Smith’s Smith Family Circle; Robert Downey Jr.’s Downey Ventures; Kevin Durant’s Durant Company; Arrive, the Roc Nation investment company from Jay Z; and leading Silicon Valley investment firm Sequoia Capital, folks probably shouldn’t be too surprised. The new funding was led by Accel Partners, with new investor GV (the investment firm formerly known as Google Ventures) also participati

The corpse of Kodak coughs up another odd partnership

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[ad_1] Kodak isn’t feeling very well. The company, which sold off most of its legacy assets in the last decade, is licensing its name to partners who build products like digital cameras and, most comically, a cryptocurrency. In that deal, Wenn Digital bought the rights to the Kodak name for an estimated $1.5 million, a move that they hoped would immediately lend gravitas to the crypto offering. Reader, it didn’t. After multiple stories regarding the future of the coin it still has not hit the ICO stage. Now Kodak is talking about another partnership, this time with a Tennessee-based video and film digitization company. The new product is essentially a rebranding of LegacyBox, a photo digitization company that has gone through multiple iterations after a raft of bad press. “The Kodak Digitizing Box is a brand licensed product from AMB Media, the creators of Legacy Box. So yes, we’ve licensed the brand to them for this offering,” said Kodak spokesperson Nicholas Rangel. Not

YC-backed Observant uses the iPhone’s infrared depth sensors to analyze user emotions

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[ad_1] Observant has found a new way to use the fancy infrared depth sensors included on the iPhone X, XS and XR: analyzing people’s facial expression in order to understand how they’re responding to a product or a piece of content. Observant was part of the winter batch of startups at accelerator Y Combinator, but was still in stealth mode on Demo Day. It was created by the same company behind bug-reporting product Buglife, and CEO Dave Schukin said his team created it because they wanted to find better ways to capture user reactions. We’ve written about other startups that try to do something similar using webcams and eye tracking, but Schukin (who co-founded the company with CTO Daniel DeCovnick) argued that those approaches are less accurate than Observant’s — in particular, he argued that they don’t capture subtler “microexpressions,” and they don’t do as well in low-light settings. In contrast, he said the infrared depth sensors can map your face in high levels of d

Social commerce startup Goxip lands $1.4M investment to add flexible payments

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[ad_1] Social e-commerce startup Goxip raised $5 million in January, and now the Hong Kong-based business has brought in more cash with a strategic $1.4 million investment from financial services company Convoy. Existing backers including Chinese photo app company Meitu also took part. Convoy offers a range of services that include asset management, insurance and other investment options. Hong Kong’s largest financial advisory with over 100,000 customers, Convoy isn’t in great shape now. It has been in crisis over legal action and a corruption investigation that is centered around a former company director. The company’s shares remain suspended on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange although it recently made appointments aimed at modernizing its business and this deal is likely another part of that strategy. Convoy’s portfolio of strategic investments includes Nutmeg in the UK and Ireland’s Currencyfair, which bought up Convoy’s payments arm. Goxip said it will use the capital a

Lime hires its first chief business officer amid push into car-sharing

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[ad_1] After four months “on the beach,” per his LinkedIn profile, Uber’s former global head of business and corporate development has a new gig. Lime has hired David Richter (pictured) as its first-ever chief business officer and interim chief financial officer. Based in San Francisco, Richter will be overseeing the bike- and e-scooter-sharing startup’s business operations. Richter spent more than four years at Uber leading the ride-hailing giant’s global business development, corporate development, experiential marketing, autonomous vehicle alliances and brand relevance teams. He left in May after expressing frustrations with a series of departures in his group, according to The Information. “As Lime continues to grow, David will bring in unparalleled expertise, particularly in the realm of business development and corporate partnerships, as well as in managing our overall business strategy and deal flow,” Lime co-founder and chief executive officer Toby Sun said in a

Google AI listens to 15 years of sea-bottom recordings for hidden whale songs

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[ad_1] Google and a group of game cetologists have undertaken an AI-based investigation of years of undersea recordings, hoping to create a machine learning model that can spot humpback whale calls. It’s part of the company’s new “AI for social good” program that’s rather obviously positioned to counter the narrative that AI is mostly used for facial recognition and ad targeting. Whales travel quite a bit as they search for better feeding grounds, warmer waters and social gatherings. But naturally these movements can be rather difficult to track. Fortunately, whales call to each other and sing in individually identifiable ways, and these songs can travel great distances underwater. So with a worldwide network of listening devices planted on the ocean floor, you can track whale movements — if you want to listen to years of background noise and pick out the calls manually, that is. And that’s how we’ve done it for quite a while, though computers have helped lighten the load

Failed drone startup Airware auctions assets, Delair buys teammates

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[ad_1] Airware desperately sought cash for 18 months before running out of money and shutting down last month, leaving about 120 employees without jobs after the startup had burned $118 million in funding. Bandaid strategic investments from construction company Caterpillar and others kept Airware alive as it looked for a $15 million round, according to a former employee. A late pivot from hardware to drone software sales through Caterpillar’s dealers went sour, as Airware lacked the features found in competitors and suffered from slow engineering cycles. “So Caterpillar told them, ‘We’re not going to fund you any more. We’re pulling our money.’ So Airware didn’t make payroll,” the source says. The sudden shutdown of one of the most-funded drone startups sent a shock wave through the industry. Drone startup Airware crashes, shuts down after burning $118M Luckily, at least part of Airware’s team is being rescued from the wreckage. French drone services company Delair is bu

Unu raises $12 million to build new electric scooter

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[ad_1] German startup Unu raised a $12 million funding round led by Ponooc with existing investors Capnamic Ventures, Iris Capital, Michael Baum and NRW.BANK also participating. The company has been building electric scooters (the motorcycle kind) and is working on new products and services. For the past five years, Unu has sold 10,000 scooters. The market for electric scooter is quite different depending on your country. In parts of Asia, they are massively popular and are slowly overtaking gas-powered scooters. You can see more and more electric scooters in Europe, but it’s still uncharted territories for the most part. Unu is one of the successful European manufacturers with Govecs, BMW and others. Compared to electric cars, electric scooters present a massive advantage — weight. It’s much more energy-efficient to power a scooter compared to a full-fledged car. That’s why batteries remain relatively small. You can open the battery compartment, pull the battery and plug

Google looks to AI interactions and cats to power its latest AR feature

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[ad_1] Of all the features and hardware that dropped at Google’s event earlier this month, one that felt particularly glossed over was Playground, the new augmented reality mode that’s arrived on the Pixel 3 camera. For a company that has been investing in phone-based AR for quite a while, it was launched rather quietly in a fairly hidden spot amongst other photo modes in the Pixel 3 camera app. I got to take a closer look at the cute little stickers and 3D character “Playmojis” and hear how Google is aiming to ensure that the AR world has a deeper understanding of your environment than just its geometry. Google has long flirted with letting users capture moments that bring virtual characters into their daily life. Since the days of Project Tango, Google has been working to create characters that can live in the virtual space at appropriate scale, responding to boundaries of the room and different lighting conditions. With this release, the company challenged themselves on