Axios

A month after Apple's new iPhone XR release, the company is set to discount the device in Japan, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The big picture: Apple's most recent earnings show sales of iPhones were lower than predicted and the company is reportedly cutting production plans for all three new iPhone models. "Some Japanese consumers say the XR’s price, while considerably below the XS, is too high for the sacrifices in display quality, number of camera lenses, and slower data transmission speed," WSJ's Takashi Mochizuki writes.

In a blog post on Thanksgiving Eve, Elliot Schrage, outgoing Head of Communications and Policy, tried to clean up revelations about Facebook's use of the now-fired Definers Public Affairs, an aggressive Arlington, Va., firm founded by Republican operatives.

The big picture: Facebook has followed a pattern throughout its hectic year: Pay too little attention to a looming threat, engage too little with journalists who are on to it, then rush pell-mell to try to correct the record, calm the storm and look proactive.

Former first lady Michelle Obama's memoir "Becoming" sold more than 1.4 million copies in print and digital in the U.S. and Canada since its release on Nov. 13, Crown Publishing told the Associated Press.

The details: The former first lady's book was a revealing look at her life before her husband ran for president, her time in the White House and how she felt when it was time to exit after the 2016 presidential election. "Becoming" is the number one adult nonfiction book in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Holland, Spain, Denmark and Finland, per the AP. In Germany alone, a second printing of 100,000 copies was prompted after 200,000 were sold.

The everything store really does seem to want to do everything, as Amazon is reportedly working to position Amazon Pay as an alternative for credit card swiping in U.S. stores, the WSJ reports.

Between the lines: "U.S. consumers have been slow to adopt digital wallets, which were responsible for less than 1% of all U.S. card transactions last year... Amazon executives want to gobble up the U.S. market while the competition remains fairly minimal," the Journal notes.

The names and email addresses of some Amazon customers were revealed due to a technical error, but the issue has since been fixed, the e-commerce giant said Wednesday.

The big picture: Passwords do not appear to have been disclosed. Amazon's notice to impacted consumers even says that there is "no need for you to change your password or take any other action." If a bad guy saw the emails and passwords while they were exposed — and we don't know any did — they do not immediately have access to the accounts.

This week I'm driving the 2019 Toyota Avalon, the fifth generation of Toyota's flagship sedan. With aggressive new styling, a roomy interior and a big 10-inch infotainment screen, it looks and feels as upscale as its premium cousin, the Lexus ES.

The car is packed with advanced driver-assist technology. Standard features include blind-spot monitoring, lane-departure warning system that guides you back to center, adaptive cruise control, forward-collision warning with automatic emergency braking and rear cross-traffic alert.

Foxconn, the biggest assembler of iPhones, wants to cut $2.9 billion in expenses next year — including cutting costs and shrinking "non-technical staff" by 10% within its iPhone business — citing a "very difficult and competitive year," according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg.

Why it matters: This follows a string of reports about Apple's suppliers cutting their financial outlooks, plus Apple reportedly cutting iPhone production orders, fueling concerns about weaker demand for Apple's flagship product. In its most recent earnings report, Apple said it would no longer break out unit sales for its iPhones and iPads.

The AV industry has seen $5.8 billion in investments in the first three quarters of 2018 alone. Meanwhile, more than 100 companies tackling the issue of self-flying aircraft have remained under the radar.

The big picture: Any autonomous transport option faces technical, regulatory and consumer comfort issues. Air travel, however, has arguably fewer hurdles ahead than autonomy on the ground.

Autonomous vehicles have the potential to save lives — but they're unlikely to prevent as many deaths as we've been led to believe.

The big picture: Some automakers and politicians have suggested that autonomous vehicles will sharply reduce deaths on the road, if not eliminate them. The reality is that uneven deployment and technological limits mean AVs may save far fewer lives than the hype implies.

After kicking off in Washington, D.C. and stopping in Savannah, Denver and Los Angeles, the Hometown Tour closed out the year in Washington, D.C. Axios Editor-in-Chief Nick Johnston and Managing Editor Kim Hart led a discussion on the state of education, affordable housing and small business in the city and surrounding area.

Why it mattered: 24 leaders from D.C.'s top foundations, non-profits, and think tanks shared thoughts and ideas on how to solve some of the city's biggest challenges.

Housing

Kim Hart opened the conversation by asking for thoughts about Amazon's recent announcement that its HQ2 will be split between Virginia's National Landing and New York City's Long Island City.

• Christy Respress, Executive Director of Pathways to Housing D.C. expressed deep concerns about the move, specifically around housing. She sees the need for "a housing affordability plan for the city that allows people who are here to stay here and balancing out people who are coming to enjoy it as well."
• Melissa Boteach, Senior Vice President at the Center for American Progress and Mark Vitner, Senior Economist at Wells Fargo agreed that new jobs and economic development are a good thing for D.C.'s opportunity zones but also mentioned the need for guardrails to ensure locals are not pushed out.

Education

The attendees stressed the interconnectedness of housing and education in D.C.

• Michael Casserly, Executive Director of the Council of Great City Schools noted the need for cross-sector collaboration, "Inequities that have been referred to around the table get reflected in the classrooms, and show up as achievement gaps in our schools. Schools have limited number of tools to narrow the gaps."
• John B. King Jr., Education Trust President and CEO called for a renewed sense of urgency of education outcomes and preparedness for jobs, especially when considering the Amazon HQ2 arrival. "We need better collaboration between our high schools and colleges, particularly around high demand fields that will be associated with Amazon."

Transportation

The conversation then shifted, digging into the relationship between transportation, affordable housing, and work opportunities.

• Jenny Schuetz, a Fellow at the Brookings Institute emphasized the need for local governments to be smarter and more efficient about their transportation dollars. She noted that designated bus lanes are much cheaper than building metro lines.

Small Business

The conversation evolved, homing in on the impact of big business on small business, and the small business impact on communities.

• Mike Curtin of D.C. Central Kitchen and Marla Bilonick, Executive Director of the Latino Economic Development Corporation emphasized the influence small businesses have on local economies — specifically their ability to hire returning citizens, reducing the influence of the poverty cycle.
• Amazon has the opportunity to hire and create opportunities for small business owners in the local area, Bilonick also noted.

Sunia Zaterman, Executive Director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities closed out the conversation highlighting a strategy she has found effective.

• "One promising practice we have found is cross-sector data sharing as a starting point for building partnerships, problem solving, and identifying shared goals." D.C.'s problems are interconnected and data sharing can help build a coalition for smarter, more efficient problem solving.

Thank you to everyone who joined us, and thank you Wells Fargo for sponsoring this event.

Mark Zuckerberg went on CNN Tuesday to defend Facebook against allegations that he and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg bungled a cascade of scandals over the past year.

The bottom line: Zuckerberg stood by Sandberg and maintained his position that he won’t step down as the CEO of Facebook, less than a week after a major New York Times investigation painted an unflattering picture of the pair.

Apple is in talks with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to help create digital health records that roughly nine million military veterans could view on their iPhones, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Why it matters: Apple is looking to provide patients with better access to their health records, and a deal with the VA would give that effort a significant boost. Apple first approached the VA back in 2017, a source told the Journal. An Apple representative was not immediately available for comment.

The way newscasters speak is unmistakeable, with their exaggerated modulations and drawn-out pauses. And now, Amazon has taught Alexa, its voice assistant, to approximate the authoritative intonation.

Details: The company used machine learning to detect patterns in recordings of broadcasters’ speech and incorporated them into a new voice for Alexa, reports The Verge’s James Vincent. The company is hoping Alexa's new voice will make it more pleasant for consumers to listen to news read out loud by a computer.

A common way to measure the use of robots around the world shows that wealthy countries — like Korea, Singapore, Germany and the U.S. — are way ahead of the curve, while China flounders behind unlikely characters like Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

Why it matters: Taking wages into account changes the landscape dramatically. When comparing countries’ actual robot adoption to the quantity one would expect based on their wage levels, Asian countries far outstrip Europe and the U.S.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, is unhappy with the readiness of Big Tech to produce products for China while many company employees insist on not working with the U.S. military.

Details: Dunford, speaking in Halifax on Saturday, said that the American military needs the help of Big Tech companies to master artificial intelligence, which he said will lead to a battlefield advantage. But his remarks suggested that he continues to find resistance in Silicon Valley in helping the military get there.