Month: August 2018

Lyft, Uber and Via yesterday made an offer to succor New York City’s beleaguered taxi medallion owners: a $100 million relief fund paid over five years to cover the plight of these poor souls. But the city, in its arrogance, refused this generosity! How could they? Perhaps because the money was contingent on New York dropping its proposed regulations of the ridesharing industry. In this light it’s hard to perceive it as much more than city officials rejecting a bribe.

The proposal, as detailed in documents provided to TechCrunch by Lyft, would have the three companies contributing $20 million per year into a “hardship fund” that would be used to bail out taxi drivers who bought into the old system at great cost and are unlikely to recoup their investment.

All that would be required of the city would be for it to drop its proposed wage floors and driver limits for ridesharing companies.

It’s far from “baffling,” as Lyft put it, that the city rejected this offer immediately. This cadre of companies notorious for ignoring and circumventing regulations offering cash for the city to abandon laws governing them must have come across as a brazen attempt to buy their way out of trouble. That the money would theoretically go to New Yorkers in need only makes it look worse when the city rejects the offer.

The effects of these proposed rules are certainly up for debate, and there’s merit to the arguments by rideshare companies that caps would disproportionately affect the outer boroughs and relatively remote areas. And the city really should do something for medallion holders, many of whom have been left hanging by a shifting and uncertain car-hire market that has arguably been inadequately and inequitably regulated.

More importantly to the companies, however, must be that the regulations could very easily take more than $100 million off their collective bottom lines.

That’s why this offer is being made now, in the middle of the PR push to align people against the proposals with scare stories of longer wait times and higher prices. Some of these stories may even prove to be true, and the City Council should definitely be considering such factors as driver turnover on rideshare services and how to accommodate that in caps, or how to intelligently craft fee structures and wage minimums.

Make no mistake, these are not underdogs fighting an uphill battle, but enormous corporations unloading nine figures on very public lobbying efforts.

Here’s some unexpected fun, courtesy of the man himself. Elon Musk announced via Twitter today, that Teslas will be getting a handful of classic Atari titles in the next four weeks, courtesy of a software update.

Along with already announced self-driving features, Version 9.0 of the electric vehicles’ software update will include “some of the best” old games as an “Easter Egg.” The eccentric CEO appears to be soliciting suggestion via social media at the moment, including Pole Position, Tempest and Missile command, among others.

Tesla has relied pretty heavily on software updates to help push features. Sure, this one is in good fun, but an update arriving late last year brought the fairly necessary addition of FM radio and a tripometer to the Model 3 — both pretty glaring omissions.

The games will likely be playable on the cars’ massive center display tablet, which is in positioned in portrait mode on the Model S and X and in landscape on the Model 3. One presumes that the titles will only be playable when the vehicle is parked, so as to avoid having to explain to the officer that you crashed your car because you were playing Frogger.

Speaking of not going anywhere, Pole Position will apparently use the steering wheel as an input — again, when the vehicle is fully parked. $49,000 is an admittedly steep starting price for a new Atari console, but at least you can drive the thing around when you’re done with Missile Command. 

It’s been a week since Lenovo’s Google Assistant-powered smart display went on sale. Slowly but surely, its competitors are launching their versions, too. Today, JBL announced that its $249.95 JBL Link View is now available for pre-order, with an expected ship date of September 3, 2018.

JBL went for a slightly different design than Lenovo (and the upcoming LG WK9), but in terms of functionality, these devices are pretty much the same. The Link View features an 8-inch HD screen; unlike Lenovo’s Smart Display, JBL is not making a larger 10-inch version. It’s got two 10W speakers and the usual support for Bluetooth, as well as Google’s Chromecast protocol.

JBL says the unit is splash proof (IPX4), so you can safely use it to watch YouTube recipe videos in your kitchen. It also offers a 5MP front-facing camera for your video chats and a privacy switch that lets you shut off the camera and microphone.

JBL, Lenovo and LG all announced their Google Assistant smart displays at CES earlier this. Lenovo was the first to actually ship a product, and both the hardware as well as Google’s software received a positive reception. There’s no word on when LG’s WK9 will hit the market.

Being a part of the Disney Accelerator is the gift that keeps on giving, apparently. After introducing R2-D2-hacking Droid Inventor Kit last year, LittleBits is back with a new kit featuring The Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Iron Man is the real star of this one, with kids building a wearable “gauntlet” featuring an LED matrix panel based on Tony Stark’s palm Repulsor Beam. The arm features wearable sensors (including a new accelerometer), Avengers sound effects and nine bits in total.

The connected app offers step by step video instructions, led by various familiar Avengers members (with a 50/50 gender split to make the experience more inclusive), including the Hulk, Black Panther, Ant Man and the Wasp. Kids are encouraged to customize the gauntlets from there, and once done, they can proudly display it on the included Iron Man stand.

“From creating circuits to introducing superpowers like stealth mode, rainbow control, power boost, and more, the Avengers Hero Inventor Kit teaches kids about STEAM in a fun, accessible way,” CEO Ayah Bdeir said in a release tied to the news. “We’re thrilled to extend our relationship with Disney to now work with the amazing team at Marvel to give kids the skills — and the confidence — to change the world.”

The partnership’s a no brainer for both companies. The Avengers are about as hot as movie properties get, and LittleBits some of the best STEM toys on the market. Famous technology skeptic John Biggs called the Droid Inventor Kit “the first STEM toy that works.” High praise, indeed.

The new kit starts shipping August 4th, priced at $150 — which puts it $50 above the Star Wars kit.

Reddit announced today that it suffered a security breach in June that exposed some of its internal systems to the attackers, although what was accessed was not particularly sensitive. Notably the hack was accomplished by circumventing the two-factor authentication Reddit had in place via SMS interception — which should be a wake-up call to any who haven’t moved on from that method.

A post by Reddit CTO Chris Slowe (as KeyserSosa, naturally) explained that they discovered the hack on June 19, and estimated it to have taken place between June 14 and 18. The attack “compromised a few of our employees’ accounts with our cloud and source code hosting providers,” he wrote, gaining “read-only access to some systems that contained backup data, source code and other logs.”

Said access was gated behind two-factor authentication systems, but unfortunately they were of the type that occasionally or optionally allow SMS to be used instead of an authenticator app or token. SMS has some major inherent security flaws, and this method was declared unacceptable by NIST back in 2016. But it is far from eliminated, and many services still use it as a main or backup 2FA method.

Reddit itself, it is worth noting, only provides 2FA via token. But at least one provider of theirs didn’t, it turns out, and the attackers took advantage of that. (Slowe said they know no phones were hacked, which suggests the SMS authentication codes were intercepted otherwise, possibly via spoofing a phone or scamming the provider.)

Although a complete inventory of what was accessed by the hackers isn’t made available, Slowe said that there were two main areas of concern as far as users were concerned:

• A complete copy of Reddit data from 2007, comprising the first two years of the site’s operations. This includes usernames, salted/hashed passwords, emails, public posts and private messages.
• June’s email digests, with usernames and associated emails.

Reddit is a different and much, much bigger place today than it was in 2007; anyone who remembers the big migration from Digg in those days will also remember how small and limited it was.

Still, these data together could still be useful to malicious actors looking to scam people on this list — if I were them, I’d be sending fake email digests asking them to log in, or building a list of username-email pairs and matching those to other sites. And of course you might want to, as Slowe put it, “think about whether there’s anything on your Reddit account that you wouldn’t want associated back to that address.”

If you’re one of the people affected, you should be receiving an email or PM that should inform you of your risk — for example, if your password hasn’t been changed since 2007, which would be its own security risk. I joined in July 2007 and haven’t received either, as a data point.

Slowe also noted that the company has alerted the appropriate authorities as required and has improved security since the event.

Flying cars are BS. But there is actually a chance that we’re on the cusp of a revolution in general aviation as startups and major players like Airbus are looking to modern technology to allow more people to take flight without having to first learn how to steer a Cessna 152 down a short runway (though that’s a good skill to have, too). Boeing, which is not currently a player in general aviation, clearly doesn’t want to be left behind. The company today announced that it is opening a new R&D office in Boston that will focus on designing, building and flying autonomous aircraft.

Perkins + Will (PRNewsfoto/Boeing)

The new office will be staffed by Boeing engineers and employees of its Aurora Flight Sciences subsidiary, which it acquired last year. Unsurprisingly, the company also plans to work with the boffins at MIT, which is the landlord of the company’s new offices in Kendall Square.

“Boeing is leading the development of new autonomous vehicles and future transportation systems that will bring flight closer to home,” said Greg Hyslop, Boeing’s chief technology officer, in today’s announcement. “By investing in this new research facility, we are creating a hub where our engineers can collaborate with other Boeing engineers and research partners around the world and leverage the Cambridge innovation ecosystem.”

There’s obviously plenty left to be figured out with regards to autonomous flights — or even just giving people access to semi-autonomous aircraft that would fall under the FAA’s ultralight designation so that the pilot wouldn’t need a pilot’s license.

Right now, the rules are pretty clear about what’s possible and what isn’t — and most ideas around “urban air transportation” (at least in the U.S.) aren’t feasible under today’s rules. But those rules were written for an aviation system that handles fewer than 250,000 small general-aviation aircraft, most of which feature very little in terms of automation. The FAA has shown some ability to act relatively fast when new technology comes along (see: drone regulations), so maybe that’ll be the case here, too. By 2020, the average Cessna you see puttering about in the sky above you will be close to 50 years old — but who knows, maybe we’ll see sleek electrified personal Boeing drones zooming 500 feet above our heads instead.

While there aren’t many VR hardware startups raising cash out there these days, there are far fewer that are securing investments to actually build the VR headsets themselves.

Even as established tech giants are having a rough go-ahead with the headset market, Beijing-based Pico Interactive is looking to give it a go with a focus on standalone VR headset hardware that can keep up with the innovations of larger firms.

Pico has closed a $24.7 million Series A led by GF Qianhe and GF Xinde Investment, with participation from Jufeng S&T Venture Investment and others, the company said in an announcement. This is the startup’s first bout of outside funding since its founding in 2015.

VR hardware had plenty of entrants around Pico’s founding, but as Oculus competitors were forced to slash prices to keep up with aggressive pricing, margins disappeared, leaving relatively scant space for startups. Pico has made its bet on moving past PC or console-based systems and focusing strongly on self-contained standalone headset options.

Coinciding with the funding announcement, Pico also offered details on a new standalone headset being released in China. Called the Pico G2, it’s an updated version of the Pico Goblin that is built on Qualcomm’s 835 chipset. The company’s hardware runs on HTC’s Vive Wave VR platform.

The company also says that it is planning to release its own augmented reality hardware in 2019.

CBS is today debuting a new portfolio of streaming services designed to deliver local news to cord cutters and other digital media consumers. The services, branded CBSN Local, will live under the CBSN brand – the 24/7 news channel first launched in November 2014 that made its way to the CBS All Access streaming service last August. And like CBSN, CBSN Local’s coverage will also become a part of CBS All Access in the future, the company says.

CBSN Local is essentially a way to bring local news from CBS stations to the streaming TV audience. The content offered will include anchored news broadcasts airing in the morning, daytime and evening, plus breaking live news events from CBS-owned TV stations in major U.S. markets.

Each of the CBSN Local services will also offer additional daily newscasts that are produced exclusively for CBSN Local, as well as content that’s available for on-demand viewing. All content will be led by anchors and reporters at CBS TV stations.

Not all CBS-owned stations are coming online with their local news coverage at launch. Instead, the company will be gradually adding stations in key markets throughout 2018 and beyond. The first station to join CBSN Local is New York City’s WCBS, the flagship station of the CBS TV Network. This will be followed by independent sister station WLNY in Q4 2018, then L.A.’s KCBS and KCAL, and others.

CBSN Local’s news coverage will then be delivered to consumers across CBS digital platforms, including CBSN on CBSNews.com, the CBS News app for mobile and connected TVs, and through CBS TV stations’ own websites and apps.

The service joins CBS’s growing streaming lineup which includes not only CBSN, but also CBS’s more recently launched streaming sports news service, CBS Sports HQ, and its direct-to-consumer offering, CBS All Access.

And while no specific timeframe was offered, CBS says the suite of local streams will “ultimately” be included as live channels in CBS All Access in their respective markets.

Making local news available to CBS All Access could be another draw for cord cutters, who often find it difficult to watch their hometown news after they cut the cord with traditional pay TV. Not everyone wants to fuss with a digital antenna, after all. And not everyone lives in an area where there’s good reception for over-the-air signals, either.

CBS All Access and Showtime combined have around 5.2 to 5.3 million subscribers, CBS said during its earnings. The company has been doubling down on what it believes is working – namely, its investment in original programming, including the new “Star Trek” franchise. The company said in June it would be expanding that universe with new shows, miniseries, and animation over the next few years.

Duolingo, the popular language learning service, today announced that it has now hit more than 300 million users worldwide. A year ago, Duolingo reported 200 million total users.

That’s great, but the number of monthly active users on the service remains stagnant. Duolingo reported 25 million active users a year ago — and that’s still the same today, a company spokesperson confirmed. The company argues this is due to its focus on revenue growth instead of user growth in the last year, but it did grow by 100 million total users. Update: After this post went live, Duolingo called to provide us with revenue numbers to put its user numbers into context, something it hasn’t disclosed before. Its revenue in 2016 was $1 million. It grew that to $13 million in 2017 and a spokesperson tells us that it’s on track for $40 million in 2018. The company also says that its daily active user numbers are up.

Maybe that’s why the company is putting a bit more effort behind its marketing efforts now. As the company also today announced, it has hired Cammie Dunaway as its first chief marketing officer (CMO) to help it reach those next 300 million users.

Before joining Duolingo, Dunaway was the CMO of Yahoo for four years in the early 2000s before joining Nintendo in 2007. In recent years, she took on the role of president and CMO of KidZania.

“This is an opportunity to have mission alignment and work with great people,” Dunaway told me when I asked her what attracted her to the job. “And also to be able to really make an impact and an important point in the company’s history. But on the mission alignment: I am at the point of my career where I want to spend my talents and my energy really helping companies grow who I think make a difference in the world.”

But why did Duolingo decide to hire a CMO now and start to more actively go after new users? Dunaway argues that the company is now at an inflection point where it has paid services and a subscription product. “That gives us the opportunity to put a little bit more focus behind marketing because we want to ensure that we continue to grow so that we’re able to make the service free and accessible to people who need us,” she explained.

So going forward, you’re going to see a lot more brand marketing from Duolingo and see the company tell a lot more stories (and it’s already doing some of that), but it’ll also do some traditional performance marketing to acquire new users that it thinks will likely convert into paying subscribers. As Duolingo co-founder Luis von Ahn noted last year, the company is looking at its subscription product, which provides an ad-free experience, offline access and a few other perks, as a way to subsidize the product for those who can’t afford a subscription.

While it’s ramping up its marketing efforts, though, Dunaway promises that Duolingo won’t lose its focus on building the best product for its users. And sometimes those go hand-in-hand. Duolingo is about to launch a Hawaiian course, for example, to help tourists learn more about the islands they visit. But I’m sure that’s also going to generate quite a bit of buzz for the service.

What Duolingo really has to figure out now, though, is how to turn that huge install base into a growing base of active users. That, after all, is the group of people who will also buy subscriptions and support the service in other ways.

Think there are too many streaming services? How about one more? Today, Vizio says it’s launching its own streaming service called WatchFree that will be available on nearly all its Vizio SmartCast TVs via a separate input. The service itself will be powered by streaming TV provider Pluto TV, and will include access to over 100 live and linear channels featuring news, entertainment, sports, movies, and more.

Pluto TV is a differentiated player in the busy streaming video market. Instead of trying to get cord cutters to pay for a skinny bundle of channels, its over-the-top service delivers content from a number of networks and other sources for free. The service primarily generates revenue through advertising.

For example, the company has content deals with dozens of partners like Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM, Bloomberg Media, Al Jazeera English, CNN, Hearst, Tastemade, Machinima, FreemantleMedia, CNBC, Cheddar, Gravitas Ventures, Asylum, Viz Media, Electronic Music Awards, Big Sky Conference, Stadium, Jukin Media, and many others.

In then assembles this hodgepodge into an interface that looks a lot like your traditional cable TV guide, where you can tune into what’s airing now and see what’s coming up next.

On WatchFree, Pluto TV is bringing channels like Pluto TV Movies, Action Movies, Black Cinema, News 24/7, NBC News/MSNBC, Fox Sports, Frontdoor, Cats 24/7, Crime Network, MST3K, and The Surf Channel. In addition, Pluto TV will launch two new channels on Vizio service – one dedicated to Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares,” and another called “Unsolved Mysteries.”

The service is meant to serve as a selling point for Vizio’s TVs, by offering buyers an easy way to watch free programming. To some extent, the move makes sense, as many TV buyers today are planning to only use the set for streaming content – not cable TV.

Vizio’s SmartCast TVs cater to this audience of cord cutters already by offering easy access to local broadcasts via a connected over-the-air antenna. It also offers Chromecast support built-in, allowing viewers access to a number of paid streaming apps including DirecTV Now, YouTube TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and others. And it (again) supports apps accessed directly, without casting.

To access the new WatchFree service, SmartCast TV owners will press the “Input” button on their remote then select “WatchFree” to be taken to the live TV experience. This makes it feel more like the traditional cable TV experience some cord cutters may be missing.

“Powering VIZIO’s WatchFree service is a pivotal next step in our goal to deliver free, premium entertainment to as many consumers as possible,” states Tom Ryan, Pluto TV co-founder and CEO, in a statement. “From hit TV shows to blockbuster movies, news, sports, lifestyle and more, WatchFree is a gamechanger for cord-cutting enthusiasts.”

The launch of partnership with Vizio follows Pluto TV’s recent hiring of its first Chief Revenue Officer,  Rich Calacci, previously senior VP of sales at Turner Sports and CRO of Bleacher Report, as well as the earlier top-level additions of ex-Disney exec Mike Drath as COO and CFO, and former CBS exec Jeff Shultz as Chief Business Officer.

Pluto TV is backed by $51.8 million in outside funding, according to Crunchbase, from investors including Samsung Ventures, Scripps Networks, Sky, Third Wave Digital, ProSieben, USVP, United Talent Agency, Luminari Capital, Chicago Ventures, Pritzker Group and others.