This week, Google successfully defended itself against the $9 billion fair use court case against Oracle, Snapchat’s financials were leaked, Twilio revealed its IPO filing and more. These are the top stories of the week to catch you up on all things tech.
1. Closing out a $9 billion case that has stretched across many years, a jury found that Google’s implementation of 37 Java APIs in Android qualified as fair use. However, Oracle attorneys have already indicated they will appeal the decision.
2. Earlier this week we reported that Snapchat was raising more money. An SEC filing was made with information about Snapchat’s latest Series F round, in which it has raised $1.8 billion. We also obtained a leaked pitch deck revealing Snapchat’s revenue and forecasts.
3. Twilio had a big week as it revealed its IPO filing, signifying that it could enter the public markets as early as next month. The cloud communications platform also announced a new product called Programmable Wireless — programmable SIMs for IoT and handsets with T-Mobile — as well as its new Notify API that lets developers orchestrate push notifications, text messages and chats.
4. Twitter announced it is moving away from its restrictive 140-character rule. The company said it will no longer count media attachments and @names in select replies toward your 140 allowed characters. However, links will still count, and these rules are still confusing.
5. Facebook revealed two new features for Live. Live reactions power a visualized timeline of when a Live video receives the most engagement. So now you’ll be able to see where the video gets interesting. Facebook also enabled Continuous Live Video to power long-form broadcasting like nature feeds and puppy cams. One more thing on the Facebook front: We learned that Facebook has ditched Bing, and users are now seeing Facebook’s own AI text translations.
6. Billionaire investor Peter Thiel made headlines this week. Thiel was outed as gay by Gawker-owned Valleywag in 2007, and has said that he decided several years ago to try to cripple the publication in retribution. Thiel has recently been funding a case Hulk Hogan has brought against Gawker. Now Gawker founder Nick Denton has published an open letter challenging the investor in a public debate outside the courtroom. Story developing.
7. It was a good week for SpaceX. The company has for the fourth time landed the Falcon 9’s first stage after a challenging orbital launch. This week’s landing also makes it the third time the company has landed a rocket on a moving robotic “drone ship” at sea.
8. Natasha Lomas wrote that the original dream of Google’s project Ara modular smartphone concept is dead. Let’s file it under “it seemed great on paper.”
9. Microsoft and Facebook announced they are teaming up to build a subsea cable across the Atlantic that will connect Virginia Beach, Virginia, with Bilbao, Spain. MAREA will be the highest-capacity subsea cable to cross the Atlantic (at least for the time being) and will feature eight fiber pairs.
10. Crunch Network columnist Jon Evans explained Ethereum, a combination of a cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, and a vast decentralized computer, in “All the cool kids are doing Ethereum now.”
11. Brian Heater reviewed Jaybird’s Freedom headphones, writing that they bring Bluetooth earbuds a step closer to mainstream.
12. Reddit launched image uploads, ditching its alliance with Imgur.
13. MIT spinoff NuTonomy announced $16 million in funding to go after its ambitious goal of offering self-driving taxis within two years.
Comment