Techmeme
May 9, 2017, 3:50 PM

Top News

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Amazon unveils Echo Show, an Alexa-powered speaker with a 7" touchscreen and video calling for $229.99; preorders open now, ships June 28  —  Look out, world: Alexa is coming to a screen near you.  Today Amazon unveiled the Echo Show, a WiFi-enabled home device with a seven-inch screen …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Amazon will add voice calling and messaging on all Echo devices and the Alexa app; Amazon says the feature, called Alexa Calling, will go live later today  —  Amazon may have flopped with the Fire Phone, but don't count it out of the telephony game just yet.
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Snapchat adds snaps with unlimited viewing time and looping videos, which will both self-destruct on being closed, and new creative tools like a “magic eraser”  —  Infinite snaps, loops, and the magic eraser  —  Snapchat added a set of new creative tools to its arsenal today amid …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Several studies show that existing Snapchat users are staying loyal to the social network, despite Instagram stunting its growth  —  U.S. millennials and Gen Zs aren't entirely replacing their Snapchat addiction with Instagram Stories, according to a dozen studies and surveys commissioned or collected by TechCrunch.
More: iMore, TechCrunch, and MashableTweets: @joshconstineThanks:@joshconstine
Dan Primack / Axios:
Sarah Tavel leaves Greylock Partners to become general partner at Benchmark Capital, the first woman in that role at the firm  —  Sarah Tavel has joined venture capital firm Benchmark Capital as its sixth general partner, after having been with rival Greylock since 2015.
Bloomberg:
China's Alipay announces deal with payment processor First Data Corp to let its users shop at 4M stores in US  —  Mobile payments wallet to be accepted at 4 million U.S. stores  —  Alipay says it's part of broader international expansion  —  China's mobile-payments king wants a piece of the world's biggest consumer market.
Matthew Lynley / TechCrunch:
Pinterest adds visual search guides to its Lens and promotes its head of discovery engineering Vanja Josifovski to CTO role  —  Pinterest today is adding a new feature to its Lens — its live camera search — that will help pick apart what's in the image and make it easier to search specific parts of that image.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Samsung opens US preorders for unlocked Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, starting at $724.99 for the 64GB unlocked S8 and $824.99 for the 64GB unlocked S8 Plus  —  Starting at Best Buy and Samsung.com  —  Samsung has opened preorders for the unlocked variety of its new Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus smartphones.
Cade Metz / Wired:
Uber hires University of Toronto AI expert Raquel Urtasun to oversee development of new AI research lab in Canada  —  Uber is hiring Raquel Urtasun, a prominent artificial intelligence researcher at the University of Toronto, as the ride-hailing company aims to build a lab for driverless car research …
Matt Humrick / AnandTech:
Qualcomm unveils 14nm Snapdragon 660 and 630 SoCs with faster charging, improved connectivity, and enhanced imaging, expected in devices later this year  —  Qualcomm is bringing some premium experiences to its mid-tier lineup with the addition of the Snapdragon 660 and Snapdragon 630 Mobile Platforms.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Get your favorite apps talking to Zoho Sign with Zapier  —  Your business didn't come together overnight.  It's something you've built, refined, and fine-tuned over time.  Every tool you use has a purpose …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Grit:
How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
The coming AI security crisis (and what to do about it) | Sander Schulhoff
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Potential, Google's Speedy Model, Copilot Hits Turbulence
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin' Xmas Song
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Betting on reality with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:50 PM ET, May 9, 2017.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

Tomio Geron / Wall Street Journal:
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Sam Gustin / Motherboard: