Blog

France’s Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire criticized Apple and Google for the way they run the App Store and Play Store. According to him, Google and Apple have too much power against app developers. Le Maire will ask a court to look at it and fine tech giants if necessary.

“When developers want to develop their apps and sell them through Google or Apple, those companies set the prices, Google and Apple get back some data, Google and Apple can unilaterally modify contracts with developers,” Le Maire told RTL. “All of this is unacceptable, this isn’t the economy that we want.”

This isn’t the first time French officials pay attention to the App Store and Play Store. Last month, ARCEP president Sébastien Soriano shared a report that said that net neutrality should go beyond carriers and internet service providers. The ARCEP thinks that big tech companies also have a responsibility when it comes to the neutrality of the internet.

“This report has listed for the first time ever all the limitations you face as a smartphone user,” Soriano told me at the time. “By users, we mean both consumers and developers who submit apps in the stores.”

It’s clear that developers have no choice but to comply with App Store and Play Store rules. They have no choice but to pay Apple and Google 30 percent of their sales (or 15 percent for subscriptions).

If Apple or Google remove an app from their respective store, developers can’t take legal action because they signed a contract with them. But at the same time, they don’t have a say when it comes to negotiating the terms of those contracts.

“I’m going to take legal action against Google and Apple with the Paris Commercial Court for abusive business practices,” Le Maire said. Google and Apple shouldn’t really be worried as he expects a fine of a few million euros. But it’s an interesting case anyway.

As for the upcoming European tax plans on big tech companies, Le Maire said that it will become effective by the end 2018. Earlier this month, he said that we will hear more about this in the coming weeks.

Glasses have been en vogue for several years and with celebrities donning them on the Oscar’s red carpet, it doesn’t seem like the trend is about to fade away.

One company that’s benefitted from and also contributed to the glasses craze is Warby Parker, which is getting another $75 million, led by T. Rowe Price, to grow its business. The news was first reported by Cheddar.

And with the latest round, the New York-based startup is said to be valued at $1.75 billion. Warby Parker previously raised over $200 million, dating back to 2010.

The company also announced that it’s now profitable.

So what makes Warby Parker special? It has cute styles at relatively affordable prices, usually $95. I personally own a half dozen pairs of its glasses and sunglasses.

Warby Parker, which does most of its sales online, has a try-it-before-you-buy-it approach, allowing customers to select a few pairs to try on at home and then send the rest back.

They also have been building out its brick-and-mortar business, expanding to 65 retail locations throughout the United States. Customers are also able to test their prescriptions in stores.

The company is expected to IPO someday, but the latest funding implies that it’s not going to go public anytime soon. We’re hearing that Warby Parker is doing well, but is not in a rush.

 

Disney this morning announced a strategic reorganization of its business in order to better reflect its current priorities in the areas of technological innovation, global expansion, the creation of high-quality content, and direct-to-consumer distribution – meaning its upcoming Netflix competitor. Under the new structure, Disney’s business will be reorganized into four segments: a new Direct-to-Consumer and International; the Disney Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products; Media Networks; and Studio Entertainment.

The changes are effective immediately, Disney says.

“We are strategically positioning our businesses for the future, creating a more effective, global framework to serve consumers worldwide, increase growth, and maximize shareholder value,” said Robert A. Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company, in a statement released this morning.

“With our unparalleled Studio and Media Networks serving as content engines for the Company, we are combining the management of our direct-to-consumer distribution platforms, technology and international operations to deliver the entertainment and sports content consumers around the world want most, with more choice, personalization and convenience than ever before,” he added.

Disney is preparing to take on Netflix directly in 2019, with the launch of a direct-to-consumer streaming service detailed last year. The announcement was made alongside the news that Disney’s was taking a majority stake in streaming technology provider BAMTech, as well as its plans for an ESPN streaming service.

However, the company’s organization had not reflected these key goals for the years ahead. To take on Netflix in streaming requires a focus on technology innovations, like those from BAMTech, plus the development of content and user experiences that will convince families to sign up for Disney’s direct-to-consumer offering in an era where people are cutting the cord with pay TV in droves, while movie ticket sales continue to drop.

Disney is naming Kevin Mayer, previously Disney’s Chief Strategy Officer, as the Chairman for the new Direct-to-Consumer and International business segment. Mayer, who will report directly to Iger, had overseen Disney’s acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and most recently, its pending deal for 21st Century Fox, in his prior role.

The new segment will serve as the distribution arm for content created by the Studio Entertainment and Media Networks groups. It also includes Disney’s international media business, direct-to-consumer offerings like the upcoming Netflix rival, Disney’s stake in Hulu, and the soon-to-launch ESPN streaming service.

The Disney streaming service has yet to be officially named, Disney noted this morning. It will carry movies from Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, in the pay TV window, as well as original and exclusive TV series and movies, plus thousands of titles from Disney’s film and TV archives. Some of the forthcoming titles are already known. The service is expected to house four or five original movies and at least five original TV shows in its first year, 2019. None of its content will be rated R.

SVP Agnes Chu, head of programming for the streaming service, is now moving to this newly created segment of Disney’s business.

BAMTech, headed by Michael Paull, will also now fall under the Direct-to-Consumer and International segment where it will continue to develop the technology that will power the Disney streaming service and ESPN+ streaming platforms. And the segment will now house all the consumer-facing digital technology across the company, which will allow Disney to offer better quality streaming, plus personalization of products, it says.

Management of global advertising sales for Disney’s media properties–including ESPN, ABC, Freeform and the Disney Channels–will move from Media Networks to the new Direct-to-Consumer and International segment, as well. Rita Ferro, President, Advertising Sales, Disney|ABC Television Group, and Edward Erhardt, President, Global Sales & Marketing, ESPN, will now report directly to Kevin Mayer.

This change, Disney explains, will allow advertisers to reach all of Disney’s media properties – including its streaming services – in a one-stop shop.

Also moving to the new segment is Disney’s program sales operations, headed by Janice Marinelli, which includes the global distribution of film and TV content to the new streaming service, plus Hulu, Movies Anywhere, and other third-party platforms.

International channels, as the new segment’s name implies, will be consolidated in this segment, too. And it will handle the distribution of all direct-to-consumer services globally – something that reflects Disney’s plans to counter the Netflix threat not just here in the U.S., but on the worldwide stage, where Netflix has been seeing rapid growth.

Consumer products and Parks are merging to become one segment, and will be led by Chairman of Disney Parks and Resorts, Bob Chapek. He will now also be tasked with all of Disney’s consumer products operations globally, including licensing and Disney stores.

The Disney Media Networks business segment will be co-chaired by Ben Sherwood, President, Disney|ABC Television Group, and James Pitaro, who was recently named President of ESPN and previously served as Chairman, Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media.

The Studio Entertainment business segment (Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disney Live Action, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm, as well as Disney Theatrical Group and Disney Music Group) is being led by Alan F. Horn, Chairman, The Walt Disney Studios. This business is not being changed except for program sales management moving to the Direct-to-Consumer and International business segment.

Financial reporting under the structure starts at the beginning of fiscal 2019, said Disney.

 

Years after it was reported that the SEC was looking into improprieties at the once high-flying  blood-testing company Theranos, its founder, Elizabeth Holmes, and the company’s former president, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani,” have been formerly charged with massive fraud by the agency.

The charge, more precisely: that the two raised more than $700 million from investors through an “elaborate, years-long fraud in which they exaggerated or made false statements about the company’s technology, business, and financial performance.”

Theranos and Holmes have agreed to resolve the charges against them, says the SEC, though neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the SEC’s complaint.

For her part, Holmes has agreed to: pay a $500,000 penalty; be barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years; return the remaining 18.9 million shares that she obtained during the fraud; and relinquish her voting control of Theranos by converting her super-majority Theranos Class B Common shares to Class A Common shares.  This way, if Theranos is acquired or is otherwise liquidated, Holmes won’t profit until more than $750 million is first returned to Theranos’s shareholders.

As for Balwani, the SEC says it will litigate its claims against him in federal district court in the Northern District of California.

This story is breaking. Check back for more details.

ClassPass has today announced the launch of ClassPass Live, an at-home workout platform that connects users with fitness teachers via live video.

ClassPass Live was first announced in December of last year. The company purchased a studio in Industry City, along with hiring instructors to develop a proprietary ClassPass workout for users and run classes.

Here’s what ClassPass CEO Fritz Lanman had to say at the time:

At ClassPass we’re flexing our technical capabilities to push the future of fitness, especially as it relates to interactive, immersive experiences – nowhere is that more evident than with ClassPass Live. We’ve leveraged our unparalleled data assets and reviews to create one-of-a-kind, live programming anchored in heart rate training that’s unlike anything else on the market. By expanding into an at-home digital product, we’re able to offer existing members more value and flexibility in how and when they work out while simultaneously bringing studio fitness inspired workouts to more people nationwide.

Folks that subscribe to the product will get access to a starter kit, unlimited live workouts, and a heart rate zone tracker.

ClassPass live will be available for $10/month to existing ClassPass subscribers and $15/month for standalone users, with yearly pricing at $99/year.

Part of the benefit of ClassPass Live is that the company can provide workouts to users without incurring the wholesale cost of buying spots in existing boutique classes. Plus, ClassPass Live allows the company to expand to a new market almost instantly without having to lay any groundwork.

The launch of ClassPass Live comes at an important time for the company. ClassPass recently changed up its pricing structure again with the introduction of credits. Instead of letting users buy a certain number of classes each month, ClassPass is now selling credits that can go toward buying classes, allowing for a dynamic pricing model.

While ClassPass has said that this product was well-received during six months of testing, some Twitter users have expressed disappointment
with the new structure.

Still, ClassPass remains a dominant player in the fitness world, with $154 million in total funding.

Video games are about to look a lot more like the real world. If you’ve enjoyed the thrill of driving through GTA V and spying out Los Angeles landmarks, then that’s a sentiment you’re probably going to start feeling a lot more often while you play video games.

Google is making its Maps API play nice with video game designers, giving them access to the real world’s geography and geometry, throwing 100 million 3D buildings, landmarks and more into developer’s design repertoires. Game studios will be able to use these maps to serve as the basis of their digital environments with all of the models turned into GameObjects in the Unity game engine that are ready to be tweaked and have new textures applied to them.

In practice, that means developers could easily turn New York City into a medieval metropolis, or switch up some textures and change up everything again into some vast alien world. The gaming flavor of Maps API takes a lot of work away from developers that are building vast empires.

“Building on top of Google Maps’ global infrastructure means faster response times, the ability to scale on demand, and peace of mind knowing that your game will just work,” a company blog post on the topic read.

The update also means quite a lot to game developers stylizing augmented reality games that generally call on local maps to orient users in the game world. With this update, developers using ARCore will be able to take the worlds they’re building and slap them onto local maps, giving users a uniquely customized experience wherever they are.

The company is already working with several game developers to build this into new titles (including Walking Dead: Your World and Jurassic World Alive ), they will be showing off more on how this works at GDC in San Francisco next week.

I’ll be honest: When I first got the pitch for “the first blockchain-based video game console,” I assumed it must be some kind of gimmick.

But Jimmy Chen, co-founder and CEO of Blok.Party, said the Ethereum blockchain is “a critical part of this experience,” allowing his team to create “this seamless bridge between the digital and physical worlds.”

Today, Blok.Party is unveiling its PlayTable console, which combines elements of tabletop and console gaming.

This isn’t the first time someone’s tried to incorporate real-world objects into video games — for example, there was Disney Infinity, which shut down a couple of years ago. But by using blockchain technology, Chen said he can avoid many of the pitfalls that tripped up previous efforts.

For one thing, instead of manufacturing new toys and pieces for every game, PlayTable uses RFID tags, which can be attached to existing objects. So players can use the tags to incorporate their own toys and cards into the games.

“We’ve been trying to make toys smart for a very, very long time, but all we’ve been doing is stuffing resistors and transistors inside of them, making them incresingly more inaccessible,” Chen said. Blok.Party, in contrast, is “creating a data set that is inexpensive, that can easily attach to the physical object.”

He demonstrated PlayTable for me using Battlegrid, card-based fantasy duel game developed by Blok.Party, which Chen described as “if Magic the Gathering, Hearthstone and Skylanders had a baby.” I won’t pretend that I followed all the ins and outs of the battle, but I saw that Chen could place different cards and pieces down and the table would recognize them and bring the related characters into play.

“The core of it, the physical manifestation of it that exists only in one space, has proven to be fairly difficult [in the past],” Chen added. “By creating that backend infrastructure, we can make the system a lot more successful. The element that blockchain really enables is this idea of having to a truly unique, open dataset that people can contribute on and can build on top of.”

Chen said Blok.Party is working with third-party developers to create about 25 different titles, some of them based on classic games like poker and mah jong.

The PlayTable is currently available for pre-order at a discounted price of $349. (The company says the regular price will be $599.) The plan is to ship the console in the fourth quarter of this year.

A little over a month after Facebook updated its advertising policy to include a blanket ban on  cryptocurrency, Google is following suit. Shortly after reporting that it had removed 3.2 billion “bad ads” in 2017, the search giant issued an update to its advertising policy page, highlighting a ban on: Binary options and synonymous products […]

360-degree camera maker Insta360 just released a video that shows off a new feature it’s calling “FlowState,” which stabilizes a ‘flat,’ traditional HD video frame by extracting it from a 360 capture. This might be a familiar technique if you’ve followed what GoPro and Rylo are doing with their own 360 cameras, but Insta360’s take […]

The first time Waseem Daher, Jessica McKellar, and Jeff Arnold worked together on a startup, they built one that allowed administrators to patch security updates to a system without having to restart it. So it might come as a bit of a surprise that the next big technical challenge the three MIT graduates want to tackle […]