Last night I dined out using Feastly for the first time. It was the way to book seats at a “pop up” dinners across the USA. The dinner was the debut of former Herringbone LA chef Jason Witzl, who is in the process of opening up his own Cal-Ital place, Ellie’s, in DTLA. Not only was Feastly a cool app/service experience end to end, but the communal dining experience made it easy to make new friends, hang with old friends, eat very well and of course BYOB.
Alexa-can you come with me? So many times i wanted to take Alexa with me, so while Telzio had voice enabled access to my Amazon Echo first via their mobile app, almost a full year or so ago, there wasn’t a lot of use. Well the game just changed as Rain Labs has launched Reverb with apps for the Mac, iOS and Android. It’s all made possible by Amazon Voice Service. As I wrote on the Xceptional Blog a few days ago, Amazon keeps looking more and more like a telco/information services competitor to AT&T, Verizon, H-P and more….
So with that, let’s dive into the news in today’s extended edition of Comunicano.
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Facebook just changed its mission, because the old one was broken
Facebook used to repeat its mission statement so often that most tech reporters could recite it from memory: “To give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” And it’s…
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Here are the details of Uber's disastrous public Q&A session with drivers on Facebook
In this Q&A session, the complaints against Uber varied from low fare prices, even lower earnings, and hated services like UberPOOL.
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App Watch
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Messaging Tech Expert: The Year Messaging (Actually) Matches its Hype
Anurag Lal explores how messaging platforms function as productivity tools, encompassing a wider variety of services and capabilities.
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White House Staff Are Using A "Secure" App That’s Really Not So Secure
Some senior officials are using a new messaging app that may not be as secure as it claims. “We would not recommend this app to someone…
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23 Must-Have Alexa Skills for Your Small Business
Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa can help streamline your day-to-day business operations with voice-activated skills across communications, logistics, productivity, scheduling, and much more.
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Money Watch
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Uber Gives Restless Employees a Way to Cash Out
With no public offering imminent, the $69 billion ride-hailing startup is buying back shares from longtime staff.
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Airbnb buys Montreal-based Luxury Retreats to bolster high-end vacation offerings
Acquisition of Canadian company gives San Francisco firm access to luxury rentals
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Verizon acquires Portland startup Skyward, a maker of drone management software
Verizon is bolstering its efforts in drones with the acquisition of Skyward, a Portland-based startup whose software helps commercial drone operators in in
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Daimler’s MyTaxi acquires Greek rival Taxibeat for undisclosed amount
Greek taxi hailing app Taxibeat has been acquired by German competitor MyTaxi, which is owned by Daimler. No financials have been disclosed.
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Soundtrack Your Brand has raised $22 million for B2B music streaming
Soundtrack Your Brand thinks music streaming for business is worth billions.
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Apple Watch
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Apple Vowed to Revolutionize Television. An Inside Look at Why It Hasn’t – Bloomberg
The company is testing a new Apple TV capable of streaming ultra-high-definition 4K. It may not be enough to take on Amazon and Roku.
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Apple may cut the (charging) cord completely with the iPhone 8
As some industry experts wonder whether Apple will add wireless charging to its next iPhone, others believe it will go all in – cutting the charging cord completely, just as it cut the analog audio port in the iPhone 7.
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Cool Things
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The Piaggio Gita Is a Futuristic Helper Bot From the Makers of the Vespa
Piaggio’s Gita follows you around. It goes with you, turns with you, stops with you.
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A breakthrough in Alphabet’s balloon-based internet project means it might actually work
The Loon project says these advancements shorten their timeline for deployment.
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Private Astronaut Taxis by SpaceX, Boeing May Not Be Ready by 2019
NASA intends to put a backup plan in place in the event that SpaceX and Boeing are not ready to fly humans to space in 2019, according to a new report.
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Where is Zealandia? Geologists say they have discovered eighth continent
A new study argues that a mostly submerged landmass about two-thirds the size of Australia meets all the usual criteria for a continent.
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Odds & Ends
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AT&T’s new, new unlimited data plan eliminates an annoying requirement
The move comes days after Verizon launched its own competing offer.
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Jack Dorsey: Twitter Lacked 'Focus And Discipline' For Growth
On Wednesday, Twitter CEO Dorsey offered some insight into the source of Twitter’s user growth problem, which has haunted the company for years.
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Carefully curated by Andy Abramson with Revue
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