Friday, April 20, 2018

Google is "pausing" work on Allo. It's The Daily Crunch.

THE DAILY CRUNCH
FRIDAY, APRIL 20 2018 By Anthony Ha

Google has a new messaging strategy, AT&T hints at a new, cheaper, streaming service and Square is hungry for acquisitions. All that and more in the Daily Crunch for April 20, 2018 — a date that has absolutely no larger meaning in popular culture, no sir.

1. Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

The company says it's now focusing on promoting the Rich Communication Services standard, which is being rebranded as Chat. Like iMessage, RCS allows free chats across different networks on Android or other devices. It can also be integrated into chat apps, as Google has done with Android Messages.

This is bad news for Allo fans (?) however, since Google says it's "pausing" work on the app and moving the entire team over to Android Messages.

2. AT&T CEO says a new $15-per-month, sports-free streaming service is launching in a few weeks

AT&T's Randall Stephenson brought this up while on the witness stand defending his company's proposed $85 billion merger with Time Warner against antitrust claims.

3. Twitter doesn't care that someone is building a bot army in Southeast Asia

Scores of reporters and other Twitter users have noticed that they're being followed by swarms of accounts with generic names, no profile photo, no bio and no tweets over the past month. It's too early to say whether these accounts might be evidence of a new "bot farm" or the groundwork for more nefarious activities.

4. This robot can build your Ikea furniture

The aptly-named Ikeabot is a project built at the Control Robotics Intelligence group at NTU in Singapore. The best part of watching Ikeabot at work is the fact that it also seems to get frustrated and fling parts around.

5. Square acquires corporate catering startup Zesty

TechCrunch itself is one of Zesty's customers. Square, meanwhile, has been already been moving into food by acquiring delivery service Caviar.

6. SNK may be making a mini-console stuffed with arcade classics

SNK is the legendary arcade game creator behind the likes of Metal Slug and Samurai Shodown, and it's teasing what looks like its own tiny arcade cabinet.

7. Equity podcast: Coinbase buys a startup, Discord's a unicorn and Netflix soars

Today we've got a new episode of Equity, TechCrunch's money-focused podcast that unpacks the week's headlines.

Get more stories at techcrunch.com 

Newest Jobs From CrunchBoard:

SEE MORE JOBS ON CRUNCHBOARD
Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month
Facebook   Twitter   Youtube   Instagram   Flipboard
View this email online in your browser
If you do not want to receive this email or you would like to update your preferences click here.
410 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
© 2018 Oath Tech Network. All rights reserved.   TechCrunch is now a part of Oath and a part of Verizon. On May 25th 2018 we will be introducing a new unified Oath Terms of Service and Privacy Policy which will explain how your data is used and shared. Learn More.
                                                           

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Meet the VC fund backing the Bluesky ecosystem

Plus, we round up Hollywood's most notable angel investors ...