Technology - Google News

TuneIn Launches Premium Service For Amazon Alexa Devices
Microsoft's Windows chief departs as the company pushes further towards AI and the cloud
Recode Daily: Tim Cook talks Facebook, data privacy, domestic manufacturing and tech in education

TuneIn Launches Premium Service For Amazon Alexa Devices

Posted: 29 Mar 2018 07:29 AM PDT

Premium Offering

TUNEIN is now offering a paid premium live streaming service through AMAZON's Alexa devices. TUNEIN LIVE will include MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL (and NFL, NBA, and NHL) play-by-play and other premium content for $3.99 per month ($2.99 for AMAZON Prime customers) and can be enabled with a free 7-day trial with the command "ALEXA, open TUNEIN LIVE."

"There is such a time-honored connection between live radio and sports, baseball in particular," said TUNEIN VP/Distribution and Business Development TONY ARCHIBONG. "To have ALEXA as the first voice service to offer our premium content, and to be able to provide our extensive portfolio of live sports, breaking news, and up-to-the-minute talk radio to ALEXA customers, just in time for Opening Day, we could not be more excited."

"TUNEIN LIVE brings a delightful experience to ALEXA customers with the ability to stream live audio of virtually any sporting event or news broadcast throughout your home," said AMAZON Alexa Director ROB PULCIANI. "Just ask ALEXA to open the TUNEIN LIVE skill and play your favorite team's game -- even synchronize playback across multiple ECHO devices around the home so the whole family can hear as they move around the house."

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Microsoft's Windows chief departs as the company pushes further towards AI and the cloud

Posted: 29 Mar 2018 07:53 AM PDT

Microsoft is announcing another big reorganization today, pushing the core of the company's Windows operating system in a new direction. Windows chief Terry Myerson, a 21-year Microsoft veteran, is departing the company as Microsoft seeks to unify its artificial intelligence and core Windows OS components into a single team. Microsoft is slicing Windows into two teams. The core of what's called the Windows platform team will be headed by Scott Guthrie, who's currently in charge of Microsoft's Azure cloud platform. Microsoft's AI platform work will also move into this single team. Harry Shum will continue to lead an engineering team, AI + Research, which focuses on tech advances that can be used in future Microsoft products.

Microsoft is also creating a separate division dubbed "Experiences & Devices" that will look after Windows client releases that you see on laptops and devices, first-party apps, Office 365, and Surface hardware. Rajesh Jha, previously an Office executive, will be leading this new team as Terry Myerson departs in several months time. This team won't manage the core components of the Windows platform, but it will handle the experiences you see on top of it like the Windows 10 shell. This is all part of Microsoft's future vision for Windows: clever modes that run on clever hardware.

Speaking of hardware, Panos Panay, Microsoft's Surface chief, is now Microsoft's Chief Product Officer for the company's first-party devices like Surface and HoloLens. Joe Belfiore is also remaining under the main Windows team, running experiences for PCs and devices. Belfiore will be responsible for sharing more of the Windows roadmap at the company's Build developer conference in May. The Xbox unit is remaining the same, with Microsoft's overall gaming efforts being led by Phil Spencer.

Despite this shake up, CEO Satya Nadella says "the future of Windows is bright" in a memo to employees. Nadella appears to be focusing the company's core Windows efforts, Azure, and IoT devices into a team that will infuse artificial intelligent into them. At the same time, Microsoft is also creating an AI and Ethics in Engineering and Research (AETHER) Committee, which will bring the company's senior leaders together to discuss policies on how to handle AI issues in what the company calls a "responsible way." Harry Shum and Microsoft's chief legal officer, Brad Smith, have created this committee.

It's hard not to see this new shake up as a major change for both Microsoft and Nadella, and another sign that Windows is more valuable to Microsoft's future AI and cloud businesses than it is in its current form. It's also another sign of Microsoft capitalizing on its growth: cloud, enterprise services, and AI.

Microsoft has struggled with consumer services, hardware, and obviously its failed Windows Phone efforts. Last year Microsoft started clearly pulling away from consumer-focused efforts in a bigger way. The software giant killed off Groove Music, its streaming music platform, in favor of Spotify. Kinect is officially dead, and Microsoft also finally confirmed the death of Windows Phone too. Microsoft is now focusing on iOS and Android apps, and attempting to make those mobile devices work better with Windows 10.

We haven't seen those efforts fully emerge yet, but Windows 10 got two big updates last year that focused on Mixed Reality, creating in 3D Paint, and pen / touch improvements. Universal Windows Apps were supposed to be the future of Windows across multiple devices, but now the true future of Windows looks like it will understandably help the company's cloud and AI efforts while trying to adapt for a future where PCs are a lot different.

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Recode Daily: Tim Cook talks Facebook, data privacy, domestic manufacturing and tech in education

Posted: 29 Mar 2018 06:02 AM PDT

Apple CEO Tim Cook sat down for a rare public interview yesterday, talking with Recode Executive Editor Kara Swisher and MSNBC's Chris Hayes for a town-hall-like public forum at a Chicago public high school. Pressed on domestic manufacturing of Apple's top product, Cook explained that "it's not true" that iPhones aren't built in the U.S. Yes, the units are assembled in China, but the iPhone's display glass comes from Kentucky, the FaceID module on the iPhone X is built in Texas, and plants are going up around the country. "Revolution: Apple Changing the World" is scheduled to premiere on MSNBC next Friday, April 6, at 8 pm ET, 5 pm PT. [Dan Frommer / Recode]

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Tim Cook also criticized Facebook for its handling of the Cambridge Analytica affair, and doubled down on his call for regulation that would limit Facebook and other companies' ability to use customer data. Yesterday, Facebook introduced new privacy measures and tools to make it easier for users to see all the personal data it collects about them. Facebook is also cleaning up its data practices, starting with not using data from third-party data aggregators like Experian and Acxiom. [Peter Kafka / Recode]

Wall Street hammered tech stocks, including Amazon, Tesla, Netflix, Facebook, Google and Twitter. Tesla, for instance, plummeted 15 percent after the National Transportation Safety Board said it was investigating a March 23 fatal crash in California. Amazon stock fell 5 percent after a report said that President Trump is "obsessed" with the company, and has a "deep-seated antipathy" toward it. And Facebook stock is at an eight-month low after the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal. [Rani Molla / Recode]

There's suddenly a lot of movement by key executives in the self-driving space. The co-founder of self-driving trucking startup Otto has left Uber — Lior Ron headed the business development side of Uber's trucking business and was a central figure in Alphabet's recently settle lawsuit against Uber. And the CTO of GM's self-driving car company, Cruise, has left after six months. When he worked at Uber, AG Gangadhar had been criticized by whistleblower engineer Susan Fowler for allegedly fostering a work environment that was inhospitable to women. [Johana Bhuiyan / Recode]

This is cool

The very unnerving existence of Teen Boss, an entrepreneurial magazine for girls.

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