Qualcomm was sued by both the FTC and by Apple; Apple seems to have a much stronger case. Then, is Google buying Google ads a bad thing?
The Great Unbundling
It’s trivial to say that the Internet changed media; what is more interesting is unpacking how different types of media were affected, and why — and what might happen to TV.
Alexa Follow-Up; Alexa vs Cortana, Siri, Google Assistant; Medium Retrenches
Why voice is the interface of the future, and comparing Alexa to Cortana, Siri, and Google Assistant. Then, Medium retrenches.
Alexa: Amazon’s Operating System
Money is made at chokepoints, and the most valuable chokepoints are operating systems; Amazon is building exactly that with Alexa.
Tech and Trump: The Meeting, Google Self-Driving Cars = Waymo, Uber Deploys Self-Driving Cars in San Francisco
The rhetoric of the president-elect in his meeting with technology executives was more worrying that it appears. Then, Google is forcing its self-driving car initiative to actually build a business, while Uber launches self-driving cars in San Francisco in the most Uber way possible.
Tech and Trump, Tech and Politics
Tech executives are meeting with Trump, and it’s the right decision; now is the time, though, to establish the conditions when opposition is appropriate. Then, why technologists should not outsource politics.
Slack + G Suite; Facebook Facing Board Lawsuit; Yik Yak Layoffs
Slack + G Suite is intriguing, but is it the end of the story for Slack and identity? Then, a new lawsuit against Facebook is a reminder that no outside entity has any leverage over the social network. Plus, how Snapchat took Yik Yak’s market and why it was still worth investing in.
Opendoor Follow-up, Fitbit Buys Pebble Assets, GoPro Closes Entertainment Unit
The point of writing about Opendoor was to praise the ambition for the very reason that it might not work. Then, hardware continues to be hard: Pebble is out of business, and GoPro is in very big trouble.
OpenAI Universe and DeepMind Lab, Amazon Go
OpenAI and DeepMind released broadly similar products that speak to their different approaches, but what is most interesting from a business perspective are products like Amazon Go.
Amazon Re:Invent; Google vs AWS vs IBM vs Microsoft; Stratechery Gifts, Schedule, Subscription Switching
Some Stratechery announcements around gifts, schedule, and subscription switching, then a reminder that AWS is still the clear leader in the cloud, and why Google has a customer service challenge