Apple could get way deeper into health tech, Uber's looking at Lyft drivers pretty closely and Facebook faces fresh content concerns. That and more in The Daily Crunch for April 13, 2017. Also Instagram copied Snapchat again which must mean it's Thursday. Or any other day of the week for that matter. 1. Apple might be building real medical devices Apple's efforts with health tech so far have mostly stuck to the wellness and fitness category, but a new report from CNBC suggests it's been building a diabetes monitor that could be integrated into a future Apple Watch. The sensor would use optical detection methods, meaning no pinprick required, and would be a huge change in how patients keep track of their health, if it works. So far, this hasn't been an easy nut to crack, so it's unclear if Apple will have any better luck bringing the tech to market. 2. Uber's Lyft driver tracking program revealed Uber reportedly used a program called "Hell" to monitor activities of Lyft drivers, watching their competitor's supply pool for total size, pricing and dual-drivers. Uber basically created fake Lyft drivers to monitor real ones – definitely not a good look for a company with an increasingly bad rep. 3. Facebook faces fresh allegations of spreading pedophilic content Facebook recently instituted measures to help it stop the spread of revenge porn, but a new investigation by The Times says that it's easy to find child pornography published to the site. The Times attempted to report the content, but was told in many cases that it didn't violate its standards, though it was subsequently removed. 4. Microsoft's Scorpio takes center stage on June 11 It seems like Microsoft's Project Scorpio Xbox hardware update has been in the works for ages, but it's finally going to be revealed in full at E3 this year. June 11 is the date we'll find out more about the console, including hopefully price and availability. 5. Amazon wants others to join its Echo chamber Amazon would like more third-party Alexa hardware out there, and now it's making it easier than ever to build voice recognition into external platforms. It's opening up development kits for the speech recognition tech it uses in the Echo, which is basically the best wide area voice command tech available. This is an invite-only program, however, so apply if you think you want in. 6. Luminar's LiDAR sensor could help autonomous cars go Can a 22-year old's company change the face of autonomous driving? Luminar has raised $36 million thus far from VCs who believe its unique LiDAR tech can do just that. 7. Boeing's spacesuit is even cooler in person Boeing wanted to create a brand new spacesuit for its brand new crewed commercial missions to orbit, which are set to begin next year. So it used its trademark blue in a fresh design that's a lot less bulky than previous spacesuits. Fashion! Is there anything more fashionable than a Boeing spacesuit? There is: Our new weekly startups newsletter, curated by Anthony Ha. Just follow the link below and check the "TC Startups" checkbox to subscribe. |
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