The following is an excerpt from The Way to Design, a guide to becoming a designer founder and to building design-centric businesses. Adapted and reprinted with the author’s permission. Until very recently, success in Silicon Valley required focusing almost single-mindedly on an organization’s technical prowess. It meant having an unimpeachable technical founder, 10X engineers,… Read More
from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/30/the-past-present-and-future-of-design-in-silicon-valley/?ncid=rss
This week Amazon took the wraps off a new incarnation of its Alexa voice assistant, giving the AI an eye so it can see as well as speak and hear. The Echo Look also contains a depth sensor that’s being used, in the first instance, to create a bokeh effect for a hands-free style selfies feature that Amazon is hoping will sell the device to fashion lovers, by making their outfits pop… 
Late on Friday, Amazon announced it will be shutting down its “Underground Actually Free” program which offers customers free versions of Android apps that would typically cost money, including those that relied on in-app purchases but were otherwise free downloads. Though it promised long-term support when it debuted back in August 2015, Amazon today says the “Actually… 
On Friday, Microsoft announced that it will create a new role for former Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill. Brill will take the lead on privacy, data protection and regulatory issues at Microsoft as the corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for its Privacy and Regulatory Affairs group. An Obama nominee, Brill joined the FTC as a commissioner in 2010 and served there for… 
Amazon’s Alexa is going to sound more human. The company announced this week the addition of a new set of speaking skills for the virtual assistant, which will allow her to do things like whisper, take a breath to pause for emphasis, adjust the rate, pitch and volume of her speech, and more. She’ll even be able to “bleep” out words – which may not be all that… 
Like every quarter, Microsoft just reported earnings for the last quarter. The company reported non-GAAP revenue of $23.6 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.73. Wall Street’s cadre of crack analysts expected the company’s earnings per share to come in at around $0.70, with revenue hitting about $23.6 billion. In the year-ago quarter, Microsoft reported earnings per share… 
Amazon reported first quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. The company shattered earning expectations, reporting $1.48 per share, when Wall Street was expecting $1.12. Net income stood at $724 million. Revenue came in at $35.71 billion, above the $35.30 billion that analysts were forecasting and up 23% from last year. Shares quickly soared 4% in initial after-hours trading. However… 
Few saw the Chromebook coming. When it launched half a decade ago, the category was broadly maligned for its limited feature set, middling hardware specs and operation that required an always-on internet connection to work properly. But things change in five years. 
Today’s Stories Instagram’s growth speeds up as it hits 700 million users Twitter desperately needed a hit first-quarter and somehow managed to deliver Amazon’s new Echo Look has a built-in camera for style selfies Uber is making it easier to see your rider rating Investor Chris Sacca is retiring from venture capital Credits Written and Hosted by: Anthony Ha Filmed… 
Given all of the security concerns raised by the rise of the Echo and other smart home hubs, Amazon surely knew that adding a camera to one of its devices was going to reinvigorate the privacy debate. After all, an always-listening microphone is one thing — the Echo Look, with a camera designed to sit in its owner’s bedroom, is another question entirely. 
With the addition of a camera, Amazon’s new Echo Look device can now see and hear all. The device is a sort of standalone selfie machine so users can take full-length photos and videos of themselves specifically for the sake of checking their fashion choices in the morning. The new home assistant answers to commands like “Alexa, take a picture” and “Alexa, take a… 
Amazon has a team dedicated to driverless technology, the Wall Street Journal reports, but their focus isn’t on building self-driving cars or trucks; instead, the Amazon squad acts as a kind of braintrust looking at how to best employ autonomous vehicle technology to serve the ecommerce giant’s business goals. The Amazon team was set up just over a year ago, and it’s… 
Amazon this morning gave an update on its Dash buttons in light of its recent expansion to support over 300 brands, and, in typical Amazon fashion, it didn’t release any hard numbers in terms of Dash buttons in the wild, or sales figures generated by these push-button ordering devices. However, there was a hint that Dash buttons’ traction is growing – the company said that a… 
