Everyone wants a piece of the $19 billion U.S. subscription video market that Netflix created, then cornered.
The big picture: Netflix has already reached saturation in the U.S. with nearly 60 million domestic subscribers, and it can't afford to lose customers to new streaming rivals.
Fake Washington Post papers filled with anti-Trump stories were distributed around D.C. on Wednesday morning, the real Washington Post reports.
Details: The fake paper, which was supplemented with a live online edition, led with a front page story reporting that President Trump has left office. Per the Post, a video was posted by liberal activist group Code Pink of its founder Medea Benjamin passing out papers and saying, "The crisis is over — Trump has left the White House." Liberal advocacy group MoveOn was suspected to possibly be behind the fake papers, but the organization tweeted: "While we love the headline, we didn't produce today's satirical Washington Post."
It's fun to imagine lounging in our cars once they start driving themselves, but safety engineers are worried about how to make sure we'll still be protected if there's a crash.
Why it matters: A dashboard-mounted airbag could land like a sucker punch in the back of the head if we've swiveled our chair around to talk to rear-seat passengers.
The two sides may not be talking to one another, but some sort of resolution to the giant Apple-Qualcomm legal dispute may be getting closer as more courts weigh in on the matter. That said, who's winning depends entirely upon who you ask.
Why it matters: Should Apple prevail, the battle could lead to dramatic changes in how Qualcomm licenses its patents and sells its chips, which are widely used in high-end smartphones.
Dozens of AV-related companies have launched in the past few years, but recent consolidation suggests there may be a limit to how many companies can muster the data and talent to succeed.
The big picture: As saturation continues into 2019, players lacking in capital face a choice between joining a more powerful player and narrowing their focus.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will introduce a privacy bill Wednesday tasking the Federal Trade Commission with recommending, and Congress with finalizing, national rules for companies like Google and Facebook.
Why it matters: Rubio's bill seems to steer clear of giving the FTC wide new authority, instead only letting the agency write rules itself if Congress fails to do so.
Some experts warn of an impending automation-fueled upending of work, and they argue that non-technical skills will become increasingly valuable as rote tasks are handed over to computers and robots.
What's happening: Automation is roiling jobs, but in a way that is redefining the skills in demand. The top five skills companies now seek, according to a LinkedIn analysis, are creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability and time management. Their popularity outstripped more than two dozen hard skills.
Why it matters: Although Snap says that Stone's departure is not due to any disagreement between him and the company, he is nonetheless the latest in a string of executive departures over the last couple of years.
Attorney General nominee William Barr said he was interested in examining the power and impact of large tech companies during his Tuesday testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Why it matters: The fact that Barr singled out privacy and competition as key issues for tech — and that so many lawmakers asked him about it — is a sign that Silicon Valley should expect scrutiny from a Barr-led Justice Department.
Netflix is raising the prices for all three of its subscription tiers beginning Tuesday, Jan. 15. Shares for Netflix were up over 5% after the news broke Tuesday.
Why it matters: The business model behind Netflix's strategy is to accumulate as many users worldwide with as much original and licensed content as possible, and then to hike the monthly subscription prices on those users once they are hooked.
As Intel's quest for a new CEO passes six months, one name that has been on the company's list but hasn't been previously reported is Apple's Johny Srouji.
As SVP of hardware technologies, Srouji has overseen the company's push into, among other things, designing more of its own silicon. While not an insider, Srouji does have quite a bit of experience with the chipmaker, having worked at its Israel facility from 1990 to 2005.
Intel declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported Monday that several executives that had been under consideration are now out of the running. These include former Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha, and two former Intel executives Anand Chandrasekher and Renee James.
The big picture: In case it's been so long that you've forgotten, Intel has been looking for a CEO since cutting ties with Brian Krzanich for a consensual relationship with an Intel employee.
CFO Bob Swan has been interim CEO and is not currently a candidate for the gig full-time.
No, Beto O'Rourke did not live-stream his teeth cleaning on Instagram — any more than Al Gore ever actually claimed to have invented the internet. But if you were under the impression that O'Rourke did precisely that, you're not alone — we did, too!
The big picture: This is how online myths start.And they are that much harder to counter because there's no original of O'Rourke's posted video we can consult: Instagram Stories, like the Snapchat Stories they are modeled on, typically disappear after 24 hours.
Two big efforts to test horizontal swiping over vertical feed scrolling interfaces may offer hints from Silicon Valley about where mobile UX design is headed.
Be smart: The popular "Stories" format that was created by Snapchat and then adopted by Facebook-owned Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and the core Facebook app, have used this function for a while to allow users to advance through more content more quickly.
The New York Times plans to build custom Alexa skills for advertisers through its branded content studio for roughly six figures. The campaigns will be sold as a white label service, with no distribution offering — just production.
Why it matters: Amazon doesn’t let brands sell sponsorships or ad integrations for Alexa, so this is the next best way for the NYT to make money off budding new technology for marketers.
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei denied accusations on Tuesday that the company is being used by the Chinese government to spy on other nations, the Financial Times reports.
The big picture: Zhengfei's daughter and Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was detained in Canada last month and faces extradition to the U.S. for violating sanctions on Iran, which has caused the Chinese government to pressure Canada for her release. Last week, a Huawei executive was arrested in Poland after allegedly spying for China’s secret service — and promptly fired by the telecom giant amid intensified Western scrutiny.
Facebook says it's granting a total of $300 million to news programs, partnerships and content over the next three years, a similar amount to a commitment from the Google News Initiative last year.
Why it matters: The relationship between the news industry and Facebook has been rocky since news organizations blame tech firms for taking away ad revenue and Facebook algorithm changes dramatically affect how newsrooms get web traffic.
Canada is embroiled in escalating disputes with two authoritarian powers, without the U.S. to lean on for support.
The big picture: Ferry de Kerckhove, a longtime Canadian diplomat now at the University of Ottawa, says the disputes put Canada in a "profoundly unusual" position. "We live in an entirely different world,” he says, where the Chinese and Saudis know the U.S. won’t stand behind Canada.
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