All (robotic) dogs go to Softbank, Taylor tries streaming again and Uber can't stem the stream of leaks. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for June 9, 2017. 1. Softbank takes Boston Dynamics off of Google's hands Boston Dynamics' robots have always been a little unnerving to watch: They look like animals, but extremely advanced futuristic death robot versions of animals. Reports claim that this didn't sit well with owner Google (and then mutual parent co Alphabet), which just sold the company to Japanese mobile powerhouse Softbank. Softbank makes possibly the world's cutest active robot, Pepper, so this is quite the match up. 2. Taylor Swift goes back to streaming Taylor Swift has brought her full catalog back to Spotify and other streaming services, ending a semi-detente where her stuff was available some places but not everywhere. Why? Officially, in celebration of 1989 selling 10 million copies. Unofficially? Rival Katy Perry had an album drop at midnight, the same time her stuff went back on streaming services. 3. Uber's unraveling likely only just begun Uber's ungraceful falling apart has likely only just begun – a report from Recode about an email sent out by Travis Kalanick with extremely inappropriate remarks for a CEO suggest that leaks are going to continue to come fast and furious. It's also Friday, which is often when ever more leaks and bad news hit, so keep your eyes peeled. 4. Android co-creator said to have raised $300M for new phone co Andy Rubin made Android, and now he's back with a new Android phone. It looks like it could be among the best Android phones available, but does that really mean much? So far, he hasn't shown us why it'll be much different from what's already out there. But investors seem excited. 5. Instagram employees will probably fight over its first SF office SF may get a rep as a tech hub, but it actually doesn't host that many of the large tech companies, which tend to be based a bit further out in the Valley. Facebook is opening an Instagram office in the city proper, however, which is bound to have employees fighting to be located therein. 6. Japan legalizes Airbnb and others like it Japan has passed laws saying Airbnb is a-ok, as are other housing vacation rental sharing businesses. That's great news for Airbnb, and it's clearly hoping other countries will follow suit. 7. Pandora raises $480M from SiriusXM This sounds like it could easily become a case of the blind leading the blind – Pandora has raised a considerable sum from SiriusXM, the company that used to focus on satellite radio but that has lately been trying to reimagine itself as a connected car services company. |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.