Friday, September 21, 2018

Amazon unveils an Echo clock, Alexa microwave and more. It's The Daily Crunch.

THE DAILY CRUNCH
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 2018 By Anthony Ha

Amazon announces a whole bunch of new devices, Adobe acquires Marketo and uBeam's CEO steps aside. Here's your Daily Crunch for September 21, 2018.

1. The long list of new Alexa devices Amazon announced at its hardware event

Those devices include: A new, louder Echo Dot, an Echo for your car, an Alexa-powered clock and the Fire TV Recast, which can record live TV and stream it to other devices. Plus, an Alexa microwave, because why not?

In addition to the new hardware, the company also announced updates to Alexa itself, including a feature called Hunches, where Alexa will learn about certain smart home habits and offer occasional suggestions like turning off the porch light before you go to bed.

2. Adobe gets its company, snaring Marketo for $4.75 billion

The deal gives Adobe a strong position in enterprise marketing as it competes with Salesforce, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP. If you include the recent Magento acquisition, Adobe now covers marketing and ecommerce for a measly price tag of $6 billion.

3. uBeam wireless power's CEO Meredith Perry steps aside amidst B2B pivot

Now rather than trying to build its own consumer products like wireless power transmitters and receivers that could charge your phone from across the room, uBeam is pivoting to licensing its technology for use in other companies' products.

4. Eventbrite's IPO should encourage tech companies to get out while they still can

After pricing its shares at $23 in its initial offering, investors bid up the stock to a whopping $37, putting the company's valuation at nearly $3 billion.

5. Instagram may divide hashtags from captions to end overhashing

Geofenced sharing, Quiz stickers, Stories Highlight stickers and a separate interface for adding hashtags to posts are amongst a slew of new features Instagram has prototyped or is now testing. The last one could finally #cure #the #hashtag #madness that's infected many of Instagram's 1 billion users.

6. Social Capital will no longer raise outside capital

The firm says it will transition into a technology holding company by the end of 2018. Founder Chamath Palihapitiya wrote that this will allow Social Capital to "focus our efforts on businesses where we can make a difference, in keeping with our mission and values."

7. Hulu is making a new season of 'Veronica Mars'

I was underwhelmed by the Kickstarter-funded "Veronica Mars" movie a few years ago. But hopefully, Thomas and his team learned from the experience — and besides, these eight episodes should give them a lot more room to tell their story.

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