Tag: Amazon

Apple Acquires Edge AI Firm Xnor

According to VentureBeat, Apple has acquired artificial intelligence (AI) startup Xnor.ai for roughly $200 million.

Xnor specializes in “the efficient deployment of AI in edge devices like smartphones, cameras, and drones.” Apple has been making increasing inroads in the AI field, first with Siri and then with the Neural Engine hardware on the company’s line of chips used in iPhones and iPads. With Apple’s emphasis on privacy and security, however, the company is trying to do as much as possible on-device, rather than relying on the cloud.

Xnor’s technology is a perfect fit for Apple, as it would help the company expand the AI capabilities of its devices. According to GeekWire “the three-year-old startup’s secret sauce has to do with AI on the edge — machine learning and image recognition tools that can be executed on low-power devices rather than relying on the cloud.”

Geekwire also believes the acquisition is likely to help improve the iPhone’s image processing features.

“The arrangement suggests that Xnor’s AI-enabled image recognition tools could well become standard features in future iPhones and webcams.”

Apple made headlines when Siri first debuted, but quickly lost its lead in AI as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and countless startups focused more heavily on the burgeoning field. Apple has a long history of leapfrogging it’s competition, however, so it will be interesting to see what role Xnor will play in the company’s AI endeavors.

January 16, 2020
Walmart Can’t Let Amazon Out Walmart Walmart

“I’ve been watching Walmart since 1968, they only came into existence in 62, they’ve done the same thing to the rest of retail,” says Jan Kniffen of J. Rogers Kniffen Worldwide. “They kept making a new step every time and the rest of retail had to follow and they won the game, they got all the market share. They can’t let Amazon out Walmart Walmart (when it comes to free one-day shipping). Walmart will fight this battle to the bitter end.”

Jan Kniffen, CEO of J Rogers Kniffen World Wide, discusses Walmart’s likely reaction to Amazon’s free one-day shipping announcement in an interview on CNBC:

Walmart Tweets One-Day Free Shipping…Without a Membership Fee

Walmart is going to get to same-day delivery and so is Amazon. They’re just making the steps down. I would have come out with that tweet because they can say we’ll give it to you maybe same-day and no membership fee. They’ve been tit for tat for with Amazon right along. I think that Walmart with its 4,500 stores that are many distribution centers can keep up with Amazon on delivery. Can anybody else? Maybe not, but those two certainly can.

One-day free shipping…without a membership fee. Now THAT would be groundbreaking. Stay tuned.
— Walmart (@Walmart) April 26, 2019

Walmart can do same day and they should do it. The real question is what’s the cost to them to do this and what’s the cost to Amazon? They’ve already told us, it’s hundreds of millions of dollars. But what’s the cost to everyone else? Because market shares are what it costs everyone else. Walmart’s got to do this if Amazon does. They can’t give Amazon market share just because their deliveries are not as fast. But can anyone else keep up and pay the price that it takes to be able to do it? It’s really hard to imagine other people can. Amazon and Walmart both can.

Walmart Can’t Let Amazon Out Walmart Walmart

If you’re the investor I’m sure you’re going I don’t want this to happen. If you’re Walmart you’re saying I don’t really have a choice if Amazon does this I have to be competitive. Amazon caused Walmart or Walmart’s competitive nature caused it to spend a fortune over these last five years to be competitive with Amazon. When Doug (McMillon) came out and talked about it the stock went down a lot. Now it’s all come back and it’s all paid off and Walmart’s winning the game versus all of the other retailers. They’ve got to continue to do that.

I’ve been watching Walmart since 1968, they only came into existence in 62, they’ve done the same thing to the rest of retail. They kept making a new step every time and the rest of retail had to follow and they won the game, they got all the market share. They can’t let Amazon out Walmart Walmart. Walmart will fight this battle to the bitter end. The question is do you still want to own the stock? My answer is yes you do just like you still want to own Amazon stock. These two win the game.

Target is the Third Man Out in This Three-Horse Race

I’m not pushing Target. I think Target is the third man out in this three-horse race. Target has done a great job. They’re a much better retailer than they were three or four years ago. They were the best retailer in the country in 2006. Now we’ve reached the point where it is sort of a three horse race and I just don’t see how they continue to win the game.

I understand the call (by Barclays) and they are doing a much better job in apparel than they’ve done in years. But they’ve still got to fight this battle on things like same-day delivery with Walmart and Amazon. I don’t see how they win.

Walmart Can’t Let Amazon Out Walmart Walmart

January 15, 2020
Amazon Wants Court To Block Microsoft From Working On Pentagon Contract

In what seems to be a never-ending saga, Amazon is preparing to ask a federal court for a temporary injunction preventing Microsoft from working on the Pentagon’s JEDI contract, according to CNN.

Microsoft beat out IBM, Oracle and Amazon for the Pentagon’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract worth some $10 billion. Many industry experts had expected Amazon to win, given the company’s long history working on sensitive government projects. In the wake of Microsoft’s win, Oracle and Amazon have launched legal challenges in an effort to roll back the clock.

In Oracle’s case, it is challenging the terms of the contract award, trying to force a multi-vendor contract rather than winner-takes-all. Even if Oracle was successful, it would still not qualify for the contract for other reasons, but that hasn’t stopped the company from trying.

Amazon, on the other hand, is trying to stop Microsoft from starting on the contract when they’re scheduled to on February 11. As CNN points out, Amazon believes it lost out on the contract due to remarks President Trump made, and is arguing it was unfairly eliminated. Given that Amazon—unlike Oracle—actually had a very good shot of winning the contract, it’s hard to say whether the court will grant the injunction.

Either way, it will be interesting to see how far these two companies take their legal challenges. Even Disney knew when it was time to retire a certain Jedi saga. At least for now, in the context of this JEDI, neither Amazon nor Oracle seem so inclined.

January 15, 2020
DOD Lawyers Trying To Shut Down Oracle’s JEDI Lawsuit

The controversy surrounding the Pentagon’s recent $10 billion JEDI contract seems without end, although the DOD is aiming to end at least part of it by trying to shut down Oracle’s appeal, according to GCN.

In the recent bidding process, AWS, Oracle, IBM and Microsoft were the four top companies in the running. Oracle and IBM were eliminated first, leaving AWS and Microsoft. Many industry experts believed AWS was all but guaranteed to come off with the win, as the company has extensive prior experience working with sensitive government projects. To everyone’s surprise, Microsoft ultimately ended up winning the coveted contract.

In the midst of Microsoft’s win, Oracle has launched repeated attempts to have the results invalidated and a new bidding process started. In particular, Oracle wants a multi-vendor contract, rather than a single, winner-takes-all award. Oracle also claimed there was unfair bias toward AWS due to a conflict of interest stemming from a Pentagon employee who was trying to sell his own company to Amazon, while allegedly tailoring the terms of the contract to favor the cloud provider.

The DOD is arguing that Oracle’s contentions are essentially moot points. First and foremost, even if Oracle won and the terms of the contract were redesigned, the company would still not qualify, even in a multiple-award result. Second, since Microsoft ultimately won the contract, the DOD is arguing that any possible conflict of interest is a non-factor that ultimately did not benefit AWS.

It will be interesting to see how far Oracle continues to fight this, given there seems to be little evidence they had any real chance of winning the contract under any circumstances.

January 12, 2020
Microsoft Gaining Ground As Retail Cloud Alternative To Amazon

According to a report by Bloomberg, Microsoft is increasingly positioning itself as the cloud vendor of choice for retailers seeking to avoid Amazon, as well as more generalized software vendors.

The software giant has been rolling out a number of cloud tools and services designed specifically for the retail market. Microsoft has had tremendous success in this market, as many retailers want to avoid relying on software made by their primary competitor, Amazon.

“A key part of our offering is that we partner and we don’t compete,” Shelley Bransten, Corporate Vice President, Global Retail & Consumer Goods, told Bloomberg.

One such feature that has come from that partnership is one that allows Teams users to use their phones as walkie-talkies for in-store communication. Microsoft is quick to point out, however, that features such as this one have value far beyond the retail environment.

The end result of this focus has been some large, high-profile defections from competing products to Microsoft. Ikea, for example, has already moved 70,000 employees from Slack to Teams and “plans to have the rest of its 165,000-person workforce on Office 365 cloud software and Teams by the end of spring.”

As Bloomberg points out, Microsoft’s stature in this market is turning heads. CEO Satya Nadella is scheduled to speak at the National Retail Federation’s annual show next week, “underscoring how significant the industry is to Amazon’s biggest cloud competitors.”

January 11, 2020
Google Cloud Invites Partners To Accelerate For The First Time Ever

Business Insider is reporting Google Cloud is taking the unprecedented step of inviting partners to its annual Accelerate sales event.

The move underscores how important Google’s cloud business is, as it seeks to gain ground against Amazon and Microsoft. Latest estimates place Amazon’s AWS at 47.8% market share, Microsoft Azure at 15.5%, while Google Cloud holds a distant 4%. There has even been speculation Google may purchase Salesforce in an effort to bolster its cloud business and leapfrog Microsoft.

As Business Insider points out, partners are an invaluable part of the cloud business and Google is looking to Accelerate as a way to help bring partners “deeper into the fold.”

Tony Safoian, president and CEO of Google Cloud partner SADA Systems, told Business Insider: “It delivers on the promise of the journey with Google Cloud, to treat partners as an extension of themselves by inviting them to their sales kickoff, which has never been allowed before.”

As Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian pursues the stated goal of Google becoming the number two cloud vendor within five years, it’s a safe bet this Accelerate is only the beginning as Google continues to cultivate strong partner relationships.

January 11, 2020
Amazon’s Ring Fires Employees For Improperly Accessing User Videos

In the wake of reports of Ring devices being hacked, Amazon has informed senators of four incidents where employees improperly accessed user videos, according to Ars Technica.

Amazon was replying to several senators who have sent inquiries to the company regarding their Ring business. Originally, the inquiries centered around Amazon’s relationship with hundreds of law enforcement agencies to promote Ring’s cameras. As news of Ring’s security woes became widely known, a group of senators sent a follow-up inquiry regarding those breaches.

In their response, Amazon admitted there have been four employees in the last four hears who have improperly accessed user videos. In each case, according to the company, the employees did have legitimate access to user videos, however “the attempted access to that data exceeded what was necessary for their job functions.”

Amazon says swift action was taken to fire the employees involved and “take appropriate disciplinary action in each of these cases.” In addition, “Ring periodically reviews the access privileges it grants to its team members to verify that they have a continuing need for access to customer information for the purpose of maintaining and improving the customer experience.”

Even with these steps, this is unwelcome attention for a company trying to prove its products can be trusted.

January 9, 2020
Google May Buy Salesforce To Help Bolster Its Cloud Business

According to Business Insider, RBC Capital Markets believes Google may purchase Salesforce and use it to better take on Amazon and Microsoft.

Google is currently a distant third among U.S. cloud providers. As of 2019, Gartner estimates Amazon’s AWS has some 47.8% of the market, Microsoft Azure accounted for 15.5% and Google Cloud brought up the rear with a mere 4%.

Even worse, a recent report shows that 97 percent of companies polled are using Azure to some degree, and far more companies are planning to deploy Microsoft’s cloud platform than are planning to use AWS or Google. While Amazon has room to lose market share, Google Cloud does not.

According to Business Insider, a source said Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian has the goal of Google becoming “at least the No. 2 cloud.” For that to happen, however, the company will need to gain significant ground. RBC doesn’t see that happening without making a major move.

“We don’t see a viable organic way to get there,” said the RBC note.

If Google does purchase Salesforce, RBC estimates the deal could be worth as much as $250 billion. While expensive, it would catapult the company into the No. 2 spot.

January 8, 2020
Goldman Sachs: Microsoft Making Significant Inroads In Cloud Market—At Amazon and Google’s Expense

According to Business Insider, a recent Goldman Sachs poll shows Microsoft making significant inroads into the cloud market at Amazon and especially Google’s expense.

Goldman Sachs polled 100 IT executives from Global 2000 companies to see what cloud platforms were in the best position moving forward. The results showed that while Amazon’s “AWS still gets the largest share of cloud revenue, a ‘significantly higher number of respondents’ indicated they use Microsoft Azure and plan to in the next three years.” In fact, “97 respondents said they are currently using Microsoft Azure, compared to 58 using AWS and 25 using Google Cloud Platform.”

This should be deeply worrying to Amazon and Google. Amazon recently lost out to Microsoft in the bid for a Pentagon contract valued at $10 billion. Microsoft is also the second company to achieve the coveted Impact Level 6 security clearance—behind Amazon—allowing it to store sensitive government data in the cloud. Achieving that clearance will only improve the company’s odds of scoring other major contracts in the future.

With Microsoft currently being used in so many companies, and the inherent advantage it has due to its established software ecosystem, Amazon and Google will have their work cut out trying to avoid losing any more market share.

January 7, 2020
CES 2020: Alexa Coming To A Fuel Purchase Near You

Amazon has teamed up with ExxonMobile to give drivers the option of using Alexa to pay for fuel, according to CNN Business.

The new feature should be available at 11,500 Exxon and Mobil gas stations beginning in April. According to CNN, “customers using Alexa to pay for gas will be asked to confirm the station location and the pump number. Transactions will then be processed using Amazon Pay with payment information stored in their Amazon account.”

Integrating Alexa with gas station purchases has benefits for everyone involved. ExxonMobile sees it as a way to differentiate their stations, adding a level of convenience that just might bring in more drivers.

“Paying for fuel from the comfort of your car is an innovative way to really wow consumers,” said ExxonMobil’s consumer marketing manager Devin Miller.

Alexa integration could also improve security. There have been a number of serious cybercrime attacks targeting fuel stations recently, with anyone who has used a credit card to purchase gas at risk. Just as using Apple Pay is safer than using a debit or credit card, using Alexa to pay for fuel adds another layer of separation between cards and the cyber criminals who want to steal them.

January 6, 2020
Amazon Threatens Employees Speaking Out Against Its Climate Policies

The Washington Post is reporting that Amazon has warned at least two employees for speaking out against its climate policies.

In September, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (who owns the Washington Post) announced The Climate Pledge, the company’s commitment to meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early. In spite of that, some employees have been critical of the company’s climate efforts, two of whom were quoted in a previous Washington Post article.

Evidently, Amazon did not take kindly to two of its employees criticizing the company.

According to the Washington Post, “a lawyer in the e-commerce giant’s employee-relations group sent a letter to two workers quoted in an October Washington Post report, accusing them of violating the company’s external communications policy. An email sent to Maren Costa, a principal user-experience designer at the company, and reviewed by The Post warned that future infractions could ‘result in formal corrective action, up to and including termination of your employment with Amazon.’”

The company defended its external communication policy as “similar to other large companies,” according to a spokeswoman. In spite of that, Costa vowed to continue speaking up and fighting the company’s censorship.

This is just the latest in what has been termed “employee activism,” where employees hold the companies they work for responsible for their actions. With this trend on the rise, companies have had to be far more careful to take their employees’ values into consideration when making decisions.

“No company today is completely immune to these types of risks, so the issue is how to minimise their potential and recover quickly if damaging events occur,” Leslie Gaines-Ross, Chief Reputation Strategist at PR firm Weber Shandwick, told CEO Magazine.

Amazon may find itself in a sticky situation if it fails to deliver on its Climate Pledge, or engages in other things that undermine it.

January 2, 2020
Amazon and Ring Sued In Federal Court Over Failure to Secure Cameras

TMZ is reporting that Ring and its parent company, Amazon, are being sued in federal court in California, claiming they have failed to protect users.

Ring made headlines a couple of weeks ago when a number of cameras where hacked. In one particularly disturbing incident, a camera in an 8 year-old girl’s room was hacked, with the hacker talking to her, claiming to be her best friend. There have been other incidents as well, with a woman woken by a hacker shouting at her and a couple subjected to racist comments about their son.

To make matters worse, VICE tested the Ring devices and found their security was abysmal. There was no way to see if anyone else was logged in to the camera, nor was there a log of who had accessed the device in the past. In other words, once a camera is hacked, there is virtually no way of knowing it has been compromised.

The lawsuit’s plaintiff, John Baker Orange, seems to have a similar story as the other hacking incidents. He claims that “someone hacked into his outdoor security cameras and started commenting on his kids who were playing basketball … encouraging them to get closer to the camera.” If the claim is true, it could be the earliest known example of Rings being maliciously hacked, as Orange claims the incident occurred last July.

For a company specializing in security hardware, failure to provide basic security measures is beyond abysmal—it is unforgivable. It’s a safe bet this won’t be the first lawsuit Ring and Amazon face.

December 27, 2019
Microsoft’s Mixer Still Lags Behind Amazon’s Twitch Despite Growth

According to StreamElements year-end report, Microsoft’s Mixer streaming service grew some 149 percent in 2019, yet still lagged far behind rival Twitch.

Amazon’s Twitch has long dominated online game streaming, with 1,256,000 average concurrent viewers. Over the last couple of years, Microsoft has tried to challenge Twitch with its Mixer streaming service, even scoring some major exclusivity deals. One of the biggest was when Microsoft poached Twitch star Ninja.

While such deals helped Mixer grow, it still only commands a mere 3 percent of the streaming market, as opposed to the 1 percent it had in 2018. The same is true for Facebook Gaming, another streaming platform for gamers. While Twitch did lose market share, it only lost two points going from 75 to 73 percent, leaving it as the overwhelmingly dominant service. Similarly, the second place streaming service, YouTube Gaming, lost a single point, going from 22 to 21 percent.

In spite of the two leaders losing market share, they both registered growth in viewership. YouTube Gaming saw a 16 percent growth rate over 2018, while Twitch registered a solid 20 percent.

According to StreamElements, the platforms cumulatively accounted for a total of 12,731,686,280 hours of viewership in 2019, up from 10,344,857,722 in 2010. In view of this report, two things are clear: viewers appetite for watching video game streaming is voracious; and Microsoft Mixer, as well as Facebook Gaming, have plenty of room to grow.

December 27, 2019
FAA Proposes Rule to Identify and Track Most Drones

Dominos Pizza, Amazon and Workhorse are just a few of the companies looking to use drones for deliveries. A new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rule is about to pave the way for much wider adoption of drone technology.

According to the Federal Register, the FAA put forward a rule Thursday that would allow it to identify and track most drones in operation. According to the document, the rule will “require the remote identification of unmanned aircraft systems. The remote identification of unmanned aircraft systems in the airspace of the United States would address safety, national security, and law enforcement concerns regarding the further integration of these aircraft into the airspace of the United States while also enabling greater operational capabilities.”

The rule would apply to the vast majority of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) with very few exceptions. Some of those exceptions would be amateur-built UAS, unmanned aircraft weighing less than 0.55 pounds and UAS operated by the U.S. government.

While some UAS operators may balk at more regulation, the rule should help spur drone adoption by “creating situational awareness of all UAS flying in the airspace of the United States, which would allow additional and more complex UAS operations to take place.”

December 26, 2019
Electric Vehicle Startup Rivian Raises $1.3 Billion

Tesla may have made headlines recently when it unveiled the Cybertruck, but it’s not the only game in town. Electric vehicle startup Rivian just announced it has raised an additional $1.3 billion in funding, for a total of nearly $3 billion in 2019.

Although Rivian has yet to produce a single truck, the company has been making waves in the industry, inking deals with Amazon and Ford. Rivian will produce 100,000 vans for Amazon and its technology will be used by Ford in its upcoming electric vehicles.

One of the things that makes Rivian an appealing alternative to Tesla is its more mainstream designs. The Cybertruck’s design have been one of its most polarizing features, looking like it came straight out of a science fiction movie. In contrast, at last year’s Los Angeles Auto Show, Rivian debuted a pickup and SUV that had a much more traditional aesthetic.

According to Rivian, Amazon, Ford and funds managed by BlackRock were part of this round of investment.

“Starting with a clean sheet, Rivian has developed its vehicles with adventurers at the core of every design and engineering decision,” according to the press release. “The company’s launch products, the R1T and R1S, deliver up to 400+ miles of range and provide an unmatched combination of performance, off-road capability and utility. These vehicles use the company’s flexible skateboard platform and will be produced at Rivian’s manufacturing plant in Normal, Ill., with customer deliveries expected to begin at the end of 2020.”

December 26, 2019
Microsoft Acquires Pentagon Certification, Closes Gap With Amazon

According to the Washington Post, Microsoft has achieved Impact Level 6, the Pentagon’s highest IT security certification.

Prior to December 12, Amazon was the only company to have achieved Impact Level 6. The certification allows a company to store classified data in the cloud. Under normal circumstances, “defense and intelligence agencies typically use air-gapped, local computer networks to store sensitive data rather than the cloud-based systems that most companies now use to harness far-off data centers.”

As the Washington Post points out, the security clearance helps justify Microsoft beating Amazon for a lucrative Pentagon contract. Amazon, as well as many experts, thought the company was all but guaranteed to win the contract, in part because it was the only company to have Impact Level 6. In addition, the company has previously worked with the CIA, giving it valuable experience with sensitive or classified data. In spite of that, Microsoft managed to secure the contract, worth some $10 billion.

Amazon has maintained the bidding process was compromised by comments President Trump made and is challenging the results in court. In the meantime, having Impact Level 6 will only help Microsoft as it continues to challenge Amazon for government work.

December 26, 2019
Amazon Settles On Redmond, WA For Project Kuiper, Its Space-Based Initiative

Earlier this year Amazon announced “Project Kuiper, a new initiative to launch a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world.”

On Wednesday, the company disclosed, via its blog, that it has settled on new headquarters for the project in Redmond, WA. According to the post, the new facility “will consist of two buildings with a total of 219,000 square feet of space.” The facility will be used for R&D, design, prototype manufacturing and office space, with the Kuiper team expected to move in sometime in 2020.

When Amazon made the initial announcement about Project Kuiper, a company spokesman emailed GeekWire the following statement:

“Project Kuiper is a new initiative to launch a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world. This is a long-term project that envisions serving tens of millions of people who lack basic access to broadband internet. We look forward to partnering on this initiative with companies that share this common vision.”

According to GeekWire, “Amazon said the satellites would provide data coverage for spots on Earth ranging in latitude from 56 degrees north to 56 degrees south. About 95 percent of the world’s population lives within that wide swath of the planet.”

With multiple companies rushing to provide space-based internet service, Amazon is one of the bigger entries in an already crowded field.

December 19, 2019
Apple, Amazon, Google and Zigbee Alliance Partner to Establish Smart Home Device Open Standard

Apple announced today that it is working with Amazon, Google and the Zigbee Alliance to form a working group that will establish open standards for smart home devices.

The group “plans to develop and promote the adoption of a new, royalty-free connectivity standard to increase compatibility among smart home products, with security as a fundamental design tenet. Zigbee Alliance board member companies such as IKEA, Legrand, NXP Semiconductors, Resideo, Samsung SmartThings, Schneider Electric, Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), Silicon Labs, Somfy, and Wulian are also onboard to join the working group and contribute to the project.

“The goal of the Connected Home over IP project is to simplify development for manufacturers and increase compatibility for consumers. The project is built around a shared belief that smart home devices should be secure, reliable, and seamless to use. By building upon Internet Protocol (IP), the project aims to enable communication across smart home devices, mobile apps, and cloud services and to define a specific set of IP-based networking technologies for device certification.”

The announcement comes on the heels of news the Amazon Echo has become the first non-Apple device to natively support Apple Podcasts, the latest in a series of moves indicating greater cooperation between the two companies. With tech companies—especially, Amazon and Google—under increasing scrutiny for what some perceive as anticompetitive behavior, the move toward greater compatibility is a welcome one.

December 19, 2019
Echo Becomes the First Non-Apple Device to Support Apple Podcasts

Starting Friday, Amazon Echo has become the first device aside from Apple’s HomePod to offer full support for Apple Podcasts.

Prior to this announcement, the only way to play Podcasts on an Echo was to AirPlay them from another Apple device. With native support, “Alexa customers in the U.S. will be able to listen to more than 800,000 podcasts available through Apple Podcasts on their Alexa-enabled device.

“Whether you’re listening at home or on the go, you don’t need to worry about losing your spot. Link your account in the Alexa app using your Apple ID, and you can seamlessly pick up where you left off listening on the Apple Podcasts App or your Alexa device. Pause the subscribed episode you’re listening to in the Apple Podcasts app on your commute, and continue listening with your Alexa device at home by asking Alexa to resume the podcast.

“It’s easy to find and play your favorite podcasts with Alexa—all you have to do is ask for the episode you want to hear.”

As TechCrunch points out, this “is the latest in a series of partnerships between the two rivals, which also included the launch of the Apple TV app on Amazon’s Fire TV platform, as well as the launch of Apple Music on Echo devices and Fire TV. Amazon, in response, has expanded its assortment of Apple inventory to include Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch and more.”

Whatever the motivation, further cooperation between the two companies is good for users on both sides.

December 14, 2019
Microsoft May Be Working On a Version of Windows 10X For IoT

According to Windows Latest, a recent LinkedIn job posting would seem to indicate that Microsoft is working on a version of Windows 10X for Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Windows 10X is a version of Windows designed specifically for multi-screen hardware. The operating system (OS) will power the Surface Neo, expected in 2020, and is based on Windows Core OS. Windows Core OS is Microsoft’s effort to unify the different versions of Windows, running on different hardware. By having a single, core OS, it’s much easier for the company to then make minor adjustments to specific implementations to accommodate different hardware profiles.

According to the job posting, the successful candidate “will build the next generation IoT operating system based on Windows 10X.”

Not surprisingly, the job will be part of the Azure team, as Microsoft continues to make headway against Amazon’s AWS.

“Do you want to participate in enabling the intelligent edge vision with the Azure Core OS IoT team? The IoT team is on an exciting journey to enable industry platforms with a highly secure and supported OS that enables intelligent computing on diverse silicon at the edge….The team owns software stack both on the edge and complimentary services on the cloud that power innovative secure offerings like the recently announced ROS on Windows and Trusted Cyber Physical Systems. Our team is right at the forefront of defining and implementing what edge intelligence and computing looks like on IoT devices.”

A version of Windows 10X for IoT devices could be a big help to Microsoft’s Azure efforts, by giving administrators a common platform to work with.

December 10, 2019
Workona Launches Desktop For The Cloud; Raises $6 Million in Seed Funding

Workona has announced “the launch of their cloud desktop, a work management platform that allows users to access and manage resources across more than 75 popular cloud apps from a single unified system.”

The company recently completed “a $6 million seed funding round, led by K9 Ventures and August Capital, to accelerate its product development and user acquisition.”

Recognizing that “modern teams run on cloud software,” Workona is trying to bring the disparate pieces of a cloud-based workflow together in a productive, intuitive manner. Workona’s cloud-based desktop connects to the most popular cloud apps in use today, such as Amazon, Asana, Basecamp, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, Google Docs, Outlook, Zoom and more. Each app can be accessed and worked with inside Workona. Shared workspaces take collaboration up a notch, increasing productivity even more.

“So many people spend their days working in the cloud, but there was no platform to manage that work. That’s what Workona does,” said Quinn Morgan, Workona co-founder and CEO. “Previously, all of your cloud apps, projects, and documents were scattered across the web. Workona’s cloud desktop pulls them together into one powerful system.”

Having a central location to access different tools and platforms significantly increases a user’s efficiency.

“Workona is a force multiplier because it impacts every level of your work,” Morgan said. “Your apps and projects are at your fingertips, so every action you take is significantly faster.”

“Workona solves a problem that is staring us in the face, but we haven’t noticed it yet,” said Manu Kumar, Workona board member and K9 Ventures investor. “Microsoft and Apple used to put an enormous amount of engineering power into optimizing the desktop, but all that was forgotten when we transitioned to working in the browser. Workona has picked up where they left off by bringing the best features of a desktop to the cloud.”

The company says that early users come “from both startups and Fortune 500 companies, and include industry leaders like Twitter, Salesforce, Amazon, and NASA.” It’s a safe bet that list will continue to grow.

December 5, 2019