Longtime Apple design head Jonathan Ive will leave the company later this year and set up his own design shop, with Apple as one of its clients.
Why it matters: Ive has led Apple's product conception efforts for more than two decades and has been involved with nearly all of the company's iconic products, from the iMac to the iPod and iPhone. He is also seen as the Apple executive most closely aligned to the product vision of the late Steve Jobs.
Twitter announced Thursday that it will add warning screens to tweets that violate the platform's rules, but that aren't being taken down because the service determines they are "a matter of public interest."
Between the lines: As the 2020 elections ramp up, Twitter will likely become a hotbed for political attacks, especially by President Trump — whose previous tweets targeting certain individuals have prompted petitions to have him removed from the platform. The flags add a new level of accountability to online content, abusive behavior and misinformation in politics.
Bitcoin prices have swung wildly this week, but the real crypto news has been around so-called "stablecoins" like the Facebook-backed Libra. Another new stablecoin effort is called Decentral, and includes the involvement of Stephen Moore, who was nearly nominated to the Fed by President Trump. He joins Dan on today's podcast.
Facebook is taking the next step in its effort to create an independent review board to make calls on what content should be allowed on the site.
Our thought bubble: Establishing such an oversight entity is super complicated, and the feedback shows that even experts are split over how to handle the mechanics. Also, Facebook will have to really be willing to empower the board and support its independence or it will be easily undermined.
In one fell swoop, Waymo hired 13 robotics experts from defunct consumer robot maker Anki, including co-founder and former CEO Boris Sofman, to lead its nascent trucking initiative.
Why it matters: Waymo, a leader in robo-taxi development, wants to adapt its self-driving technology to other platforms, including commercial trucks. The hiring of Sofman and his all-star engineering team from Anki could accelerate that effort.
A new app aims to address a key unsolved issue of the smartphone era: a replacement for paper business cards.
Why it matters: Two decades after the Palm Pilot allowed people to beam their contact info to one another, there still isn't a great replacement for the old-fashioned paper business card.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose public posture since the 2016 election has been defensive, is making a deliberate effort to show more of himself, and to be proactive about calling for Congress to regulate privacy and data.
Why it matters: With the techlash gaining momentum around the world, and 2020 Democrats targeting Big Tech, Zuckerberg is trying to get out in front of the inevitable by calling for regulation that Facebook can live with.
Less than a decade after Amazon broke into the logistics industry, it has become its own biggest shipper.
Why it matters: While the world has fixated on Amazon's moves into books, groceries and cloud computing, perhaps most formidable of all has been its swift break into a different business — package delivery.
Concerns about how a possible bipartisan privacy bill in the Senate is being negotiated have complicated talks in recent days, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
Why it matters: The talks between six members of the Senate Commerce Committee are seen as one of the more serious efforts to create a national privacy law that can address consumer concerns about data collection by companies like Google and Facebook.
Implementing automation at airport bottlenecks could expedite drop-off, check-in, security, and boarding for flyers and employees.
Why it matters: Between 2016 and 2019, the number of passengers using U.S. airlines has increased by 10.9%. Last year, 1 in 7 travelers in the U.S. missed a flight due to long security lines.
Silicon Valley is notably absent from the Trump administration, after having enjoyed an open-door (or sock on the door?) policy during the Obama administration.
Driving the news: Trump this morning told Fox Business Network: "We should be suing Google and Facebook and perhaps we will," related to alleged political bias, sending both companies' shares tumbling.
Last week, for likely the first time, a heavy-duty commercial truck drove for 9.4 miles on the Florida Turnpike with no one inside. The "driver" was 140 miles away, operating the rig remotely.
The big picture: Automated freight delivery is expected to begin long before self-driving cars are here, and at least a half dozen truck companies are working on the technology, with tests in various stages of development. Starsky Robotics' Florida demonstration was believed to be the first unmanned, high-speed test of a heavy-duty commercial truck on a public highway.
One of the more striking parts of Tuesday's Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the ways tech companies manipulate users was a Google executive's insistence that the company doesn't employ "persuasive technologies," aka "dark patterns," on YouTube or anywhere else.
What they're saying: "Dark patterns and persuasive technologies [are] not core to how we design our products at Google," Google's Maggie Stanphill said, in response to a question from Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
Simulation is a crucial tool in the development of self-driving cars, but it has constraints, especially regarding the speed at which it takes in data and makes decisions.
Why it matters: In the absence of significant amounts of data from autonomous vehicle road testing, companies like Waymo, Uber and Tesla are investing in self-driving simulations, with billions of miles in virtual simulation tested to-date.
Amazon has a strategy in the face of attacks from several Democratic presidential candidates: hitting back.
Why it matters: A Democratic administration could mean tougher antitrust enforcement, and some candidates have gone as far as promising they will try to break up Amazon and other tech giants.
