| Apple says iPhone XR sales are actually doing well, old Facebook moneymaking ideas get revealed and Amazon announces blockchain services. Here's your Daily Crunch for November 29, 2018. 1. Following report on sluggish demand, Apple VP says iPhone XR is its most popular model In the wake of a report from the WSJ last week that detailed how low demand for Apple's latest iPhones was prompting the company to cut orders for the devices, particularly the iPhone XR, an Apple VP said that the XR is actually the company's best-selling model right now. The disclosure comes from Apple VP Greg Joswiak in an interview with CNET. It's not a particularly juicy quote, only detailing that the device has "been our most popular iPhone each and every day since the day it became available." 
2. Facebook staff discussed selling API access to apps in 2012-2014 Following a flopped IPO in 2012, Facebook desperately brainstormed new ways to earn money. An employee of unknown rank sent an internal email suggesting Facebook charge developers $250,000 per year for access to its platform APIs to make apps that can ask users for access to their data. 3. Amazon gets into the blockchain with Quantum Ledger Database & Managed Blockchain Last year, Amazon dismissed the idea of getting into the blockchain with AWS — but yesterday, that changed. 4. Asana, a work management platform, nabs $50M growth round at a $1.5B valuation Asana, a service that teams and individuals use to plan and track the progress of work projects, is doubling down on its own project: to shape "the future of work," in the words of co-founder and CEO Dustin Moskovitz. 5. Microsoft wins $480M military contract to outfit soldiers with HoloLens AR tech The two-year contract may result in follow-on orders of more than 100,000 headsets, according to documentation describing the bidding process. One of the contract's tag lines for the AR tech seems to be its ability to enable "25 bloodless battles before the 1st battle," suggesting that actual combat training is going to be an essential aspect of the headset capabilities. 6. Instagram is using object recognition tech to describe photos for visually impaired users The accessibility-focused update offers two options to give visually impaired users alternative text descriptions of what's happening in posts. One leverages user text input, while the other uses Facebook's object recognition tech to do the heavy lifting. 7. Lucas Di Grassi says human drivers are the real competitors for Roborace One of the world's best Formula One racecar drivers came to Disrupt Berlin to discuss his plans to build a racing league for autonomous vehicles. | 
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