Twitch appears to be getting its own version of Amazon Prime, called “Twitch Prime”

 It appears that Twitch-integrated games are not the only thing Amazon has been working on with the live-streaming site it owns. A small number of Twitch users are now reporting seeing a new section called “Twitch Prime” pop up in their profiles. According to a banner ad spotted by one user, Twitch Prime will include perks like “free loot every month,” as well as… Read More

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/30/twitch-appears-to-be-getting-its-own-version-of-amazon-prime-called-twitch-prime/?ncid=rss

Amazon shows its first games integrated with Twitch

 Amazon Games Studios this week showed off the first games that will be integrated with live-streaming site Twitch, which Amazon acquired for over $1 billion in 2014.  The new games will run on Lumberyard, the game engine powered by Amazon Web Services, that debuted earlier this year. These integrations will allow gamers to stream their broadcasts in real-time, overlaid with live stats,… Read More

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/30/amazon-shows-its-first-games-integrated-with-twitch/?ncid=rss

Dropping the narrative

Okay, you don't like what your boss did yesterday or last week or last month. But today, right now, sitting across the table, what's happening?

Narrating our lives, the little play-by-play we can't help carrying around, that's a survival mechanism. But it also hotwires our feelings, changes our posture, limits our possibilities.

What does this human feel right now? What opportunities to make a connection, to grow, to impact exist that we've ignored because of the story we are telling ourselves about them?

The narrative is useful as long as it's useful, helping you solve problems and move forward. But when it reinforces bad habits or makes things smaller, we can drop it and merely be present, right here, right now.

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/205112592/0/sethsblog~Dropping-the-narrative.html

Amazon to spend $2.5M on university competition to build “socialbot”

 If you need an Uber, Amazon Alexa has your back. Unfortunately if what you need is a conversation buddy, the personal assistant isn’t quite up to the task. In an effort to bolster Alexa’s social intelligence, Amazon is putting $2.5 million into a new university competition to design and build “socialbots” for the platform. Engineers will use the Alexa Skills Kit to… Read More

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/29/amazon-to-spend-2-5m-on-university-competition-to-build-socialbot/?ncid=rss

Microsoft forms new AI Research Group led by Harry Shum

 Artificial intelligence is quickly shaping up to be one of the key defining technology areas of our time. A day after announcing a new artificial intelligence partnership with IBM, Google, Facebook and Amazon, Microsoft is upping the ante within its own walls. The tech giant announced that it is creating a new AI business unit, the Microsoft AI and Research Group, which will be led by… Read More

from Microsoft – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/29/microsoft-forms-new-ai-research-group-led-by-harry-shum/?ncid=rss

Fully baked

In medical school, an ongoing lesson is that there will be ongoing lessons. You're never done. Surgeons and internists are expected to keep studying for their entire career—in fact, it's required to keep a license valid.

Knowledge workers, though, the people who manage, who go to meetings, who market, who do accounting, who seek to change things around them—knowledge workers often act as if they're fully baked, that more training and learning is not just unnecessary but a distraction.

The average knowledge worker reads fewer than one business book a year.

On the other hand, the above-average knowledge worker probably reads ten.

Show me your bookshelf, or the courses you take, or the questions you ask, and I'll have a hint as to how much you care about levelling up.

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/204596182/0/sethsblog~Fully-baked.html

Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM, and Microsoft come together to create historic Partnership on AI

 The world’s largest technology companies hold the keys to some of the largest databases on our planet. Much like goods and coins before it, data is becoming an important currency for the modern world. The data’s value is rooted in its applications to artificial intelligence. Whomever owns the data, effectively owns AI. Right now that means companies like Facebook, Amazon… Read More

from Microsoft – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/28/facebook-amazon-google-ibm-and-microsoft-come-together-to-create-historic-partnership-on-ai/?ncid=rss

Amazon’s Fire TV Stick gets updated with faster hardware and an Alexa-enabled remote

 Slowly but surely, Amazon is incorporating Alexa functionality into its numerous existing hardware lines. A few weeks ago, the company announced an update that would bring its friendly voice assistant to its TV streaming hardware solutions, the set top Fire TV and its smaller dongle-based brethren, the Fire TV Stick. A newly announced version of the latter will now ship with that… Read More

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/28/amazon-fire-tv/?ncid=rss

The ripples

Every decision we make changes things. The people we befriend, the examples we set, the problems we solve...

Sometimes, if we're lucky, we get to glimpse those ripples as we stand at the crossroads. Instead of merely addressing the urgency of now, we can take a moment to focus on how a quiet insight, overlooked volunteer work or a particularly welcome helping hand moves so many people forward. For generations.

How did you get to where you are? Who is going to go even further because of you?

Thank you for passing it forward.

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/204139628/0/sethsblog~The-ripples.html

Amazon could be working on in-home package deliveries

 Amazon’s delivery prowess is impressive; just today, it announced free Prime same-day delivery for my home city of Toronto, and the speed and consistency with which they hit their deadlines is astounding. For Amazon’s next act, it might one-up itself by arranging to leave your packages inside your door, or in your garage, when you aren’t home to receive them yourself. The… Read More

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/27/amazon-could-be-working-on-in-home-package-deliveries/?ncid=rss

Amazon brings free Prime same-day delivery to Toronto and Vancouver

 Amazon continues to roll-out its free same-day delivery offering for Prime subscribers, adding Toronto and Vancouver to the list of cities where it’s available. The free same-day option applies to items labeled as eligible via the ‘Prime FREE Same-Day’ tag located next to the price in a product’s listing. Orders placed earlier in the day will be delivered by 9 PM,… Read More

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/27/amazon-brings-free-prime-same-day-deliver-to-toronto-and-vancouver/?ncid=rss

Wedding syndrome

Running a business is a lot more important than starting one.

Choosing and preparing for the job you'll do for the next career is a much more important task than getting that job. Serving is more important than the campaign.

And a marriage is always more important than a wedding.

It's tempting to focus on the product launch, on the interview, on the next thing. Tempting, but ultimately a waste.

Our culture is organized around transitions, but they're a distraction. What it says on your wedding invitation doesn't matter a whole lot in the long run.

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/203602404/0/sethsblog~Wedding-syndrome.html

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on how AI will transform his company

 Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the stage at his company’s massive Ignite conference to lay out his vision for how deep learning and artificial intelligence will transform the company. “AI is at the intersection of our ambitions,” Nadella said, noting how it will allow us “to reason over large amounts of data and convert that into intelligence.” He likened AI to… Read More

from Microsoft – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/26/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-on-how-ai-will-transform-his-company/?ncid=rss

Microsoft teams up with Renault-Nissan on in-car productivity and connectivity

 Microsoft has already expressed some interest on bringing Office to the car, and it sounds like it’ll continue to do that work with Renault-Nissan via a new tie-up between the two companies. The newly formed strategic partnership will see Microsoft help the automaker develop more connectivity services, particularly through the use of Azure cloud services. What does the partnership… Read More

from Microsoft – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/26/microsoft-teams-up-with-renault-nissan-on-in-car-productivity-and-connectivity/?ncid=rss

AirServer can now transmit your iPhone screen to your Xbox

AirServer, makers of software that essentially turns anything into an AirPlay sever, has announced the availability of AirServer for the Xbox One. That means you can transmit your AirPlay screens to your gaming console, thereby creating a black hole of Microsoft-on-Apple madness. Air Server also lets you transmit via Google Cast and Miracast as well. The software is available now for $9.99… Read More

from Microsoft – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/26/airserver-can-now-transmit-your-iphone-screen-to-your-xbox/?ncid=rss

Microsoft’s Project Springfield helps developers find and squash bugs

 Microsoft today announced a first preview of Project Springfield at its Ignite conference in Atlanta. The cloud-based tool aims to help developers find bugs in their applications by combining fuzz testing, an automated way of testing code by throwing semi-random input at it, with artificial intelligence tools that allow the tool to ask smarter what-if questions when it looks at potential… Read More

from Microsoft – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/26/microsofts-project-springfield-helps-developers-find-and-squash-bugs/?ncid=rss

Windows 10 hits 400 million machines as growth slows post-free upgrade

 Back in July, Microsoft tempered its Windows 10 expectations a touch, noting that its initial projection of mid-2018 for one billion active devices was probably a bit over ambitious. That pronouncement came shortly after the company announced that its OS had hit 350 million machines (after hitting 300 million in May) – and roughly a fortnight before ending its free upgrade period.… Read More

from Microsoft – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/26/windows-10-milestone/?ncid=rss

Microsoft makes its Edge browser safer for the enterprise

 At its Ignite conference today, Microsoft announced that it is making its Edge browser more secure in enterprise environments. As Microsoft explained during a press conference ahead of the event, the so-called Windows Defender Application Guard insulates Windows 10 from untrusted browser sessions by running it in a container that is bound directly to the hardware. Microsoft argues that… Read More

from Microsoft – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/26/microsoft-makes-its-edge-browser-safer-for-the-enterprise/?ncid=rss

Microsoft brings new AI-powered features to Office 365 and Dynamics 365

 Microsoft’s Ignite conference is bringing 23,000 IT professionals to Atlanta, Georgia this week and the company is using this opportunity to talk about how it plans to bring more intelligence to its tools and platforms. As companies gather more and more data, Microsoft argues, it’s becoming imperative that the tools these companies use also become smarter. This means bringing… Read More

from Microsoft – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/26/microsoft-brings-new-ai-powered-features-to-office-365-and-dynamics-365/?ncid=rss

Microsoft signs up Adobe for its Azure cloud computing services

 Microsoft and Adobe today announced a major partnership that will see Adobe deliver its cloud services on Microsoft Azure and that will make Adobe the preferred marketing service for Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Enterprise CRM solution. Microsoft says Adobe will now make Azure its “preferred cloud platform” for its three main services: the Adobe Marketing Cloud, Creative Cloud… Read More

from Microsoft – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/26/microsoft-signs-up-adobe-for-its-azure-cloud-computing-services/?ncid=rss

FreshDirect raises $189 million for grocery delivery

 FreshDirect, a popular online grocery service on the East Coast, is arming itself with $189 million in additional funding.  The round was led by J.P. Morgan Asset Management, with W Capital and AARP Innovation Fund investing as well. The new capital will be used to help FreshDirect build up its “manufacturing capacity” and “open up some new geographies,” according… Read More

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/26/freshdirect-raises-189-million-for-grocery-delivery/?ncid=rss

Spectator sports

Every year, we spend more than a trillion dollars worth of time and attention on organized spectator sports.

The half-life of a sporting event is incredibly short. Far more people are still talking about the Godfather movie or the Nixon administration than care about the 1973 World Series.

Billions of people buying tickets and investing countless hours on something of absolutely no significance.

It turns out that this insignificance and the ephemeral nature of sporting events is the heart of their appeal.

Instead of having passionate arguments about things that matter, issues with consequences, topics where one can be wrong or right, organized sports are a tribal opportunity to vent without remorse.

We've taken that pleasure in insignificance and transferred it to celebrity culture as well. And then on to just about everything else, including science and governance.

Hence the challenge--because when we start to treat things of significance as if they're a spectator sport, we all lose.

Soccer hooligans are a real problem. But hooligans in science (yelling about their opinions, denigrating their opponents) or in world affairs do none of us any good.

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/203039278/0/sethsblog~Spectator-sports.html