The Morning After: Testing Nintendo's new toys, Sony's CEO changes

It's Friday, February 02, 2018. Hey, good morning! It’s Friday, and in celebratory fashion, we’ve been playing with Nintendo’s new cardboard gambit, getting hyped over a new Stargate (no judging) and investigating how Uber’s getting into mapping to get your ride where you need it to be. But what about all the memes and parody Twitter accounts?   Sony CEO Kaz Hirai will retire in April   Sony dropped some surprising news ahead of its earnings report last night, announcing that CEO Kaz Hirai will step aside and become chairman. In his place, CFO Kenichiro Yoshida is getting a promotion, in a much better situation than Hirai faced when he took on the role in 2012. Yoshida will unveil his plan for Sony’s future on April 1st, his first official day as CEO.   These crazy Switch accessories aren't so crazy after all. Nintendo Labo hands-on: Cardboard has never been this fun   Leave it up to Nintendo to get us excited over cardboard. Labo, its DIY Switch-powered cardboard accessory line, seemed like the purist encapsulation of Nintendo's philosophy: Play is far more important than having the best graphics. At first glance, Labo seems like a unique mix of digital and analog gaming that kids will likely love. And based on (almost) 34-year-old Devindra Hardawar’s brief time with a few Labo kits today, it's something adults will likely have a blast with as well.   The rollout may finally be complete.   YouTube's live TV service is now available on Apple TV   Looks like Google is making good on its promise to bring its cord-cutting alternative to more popular platforms. YouTube TV is now available for Apple TVs, after having hit Roku devices earlier today. The service is available in almost 100 metro areas and can also be downloaded for Chromecast, Android TV, Xbox One and newer Samsung and LG TVs. Well, it's only taken nearly a whole year.   The iPhone X wasn't enough to keep mobile sales growing for Apple.   Apple's iPhone sales dropped during the holidays   This past holiday quarter, Apple released the iPhone X, probably the most hyped and anticipated device the company has launched in many years. And following whispers that the iPhone X isn't selling as well as expected, Apple did indeed slip a little bit. The company just announced that it sold 77.3 million iPhones in its fiscal year Q1, down a scant 1.3 percent compared to the 78.3 million sold one year ago. It's the first time iPhone sales have declined during a holiday quarter since the phone launched, as best we can tell. Despite that, Apple says the iPhone X has been its top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in early November.    Don’t call it a delay?   'Red Dead Redemption 2' is coming on October 26th   Rockstar Games has pushed back the release of its next big game one more time, saying that Red Dead Redemption 2 needs a bit more polish. Hopefully it has the time needed to avoid an Andromeda situation, but for now, gamers can at least check out some new screenshots. The series premieres on February 15th.   'Stargate: Origins' trailer has an 'Indiana Jones' feel to it   Origin story! The new show will focus on Catherine Langford, the daughter of the person who discovered the Stargate on Earth. In the trailer, she battles Nazis as she fights to figure out what the Stargate is. The show has an Indiana Jones vibe to it, and it looks like a lot of fun.   Ads still make most of the money, though.   Alphabet picks up momentum with Google's cloud and hardware   Yep, yep, yep, Google makes the vast majority of its money from ads scattered across every corner of the internet. Other products are more recognizably Google-y, however, and Alphabet's new earnings release shows off some impressive growth in areas beyond just ad money. Alphabet raked in $32.3 billion in revenue in its fourth quarter, and just about $4.7 billion came from what the company refers to as Google's "other revenues."   When it comes to investing in new businesses, he’s all impulse and instinct.   Jeff Bezos’ master plan is to have no plan   The richest man in the world has been using his wealth in unexpected ways. Jeff Bezos announced this week that Amazon would create an independent company with JPMorgan and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. The new venture seeks to keep employee health-care costs under control and will initially focus on technology that would "provide U.S. employees and their families with simplified, high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost."   That adds health care to the list of industries Bezos has a significant investment in, along with technology, retail, media and aerospace. What is he up to?   But wait, there's more... 1. Uber's battle to get your car to arrive on time 2. Google backs a single stylus for all your devices 3. DARPA turns drone ship development over to the Navy 4. Owl is a smarter spin on a dashboard camera The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you'll miss if you don't subscribe. Craving even more? Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. Have a suggestion on how we can improve The Morning After? Send us a note. Copyright © 2016 Aol Inc. All rights reserved. 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Editor's Pick: Resist: Don't Sign That AT&T Contract

Resist: Don't Sign That AT&T Contract

Mick Brady Feb 1, 2018 5:00 AM PT
	This is a call for resistance that has nothing to do with politics. It's coming from someone who unwittingly walked into a virtual jail cell that was disguised as a DirecTV contract. I'll be behind bars for another 23 months, and I'm counting the days. Please don't take this as a rant or as an attempt to pressure AT&T, DirecTV's parent company, into appeasing me. That ship has sailed. [More...]

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The Top 20 CRM Blogs of 2017: Countdown, Part 2 Where does the discipline of CRM begin? We have a good idea where the software fits, but where does its impact end? With a sale? With a customer saying good things about your company to other customers? With a repeat purchase? And does CRM contribute to these events alone, or is there a web of other activities that help drive these relationships -- and do we ever consider these things to be CRM? [More...]

Alexa Now Can Dash Off Text Messages to Android Phones Amazon on Tuesday introduced new functionality that enables its Alexa virtual assistant to send and receive SMS messages on devices running Android 5.0 or higher. Carrier charges may apply. Alexa, the software that powers the Echo line of smart speakers, can play and send personalized messages from contacts for users who have set up voice profiles. [More...]

Privacy-Minded Smart Speaker May Struggle to Get to Know You Mycroft AI earlier this week announced that its Mark II smart speaker achieved full funding on Kickstarter in just 6.5 hours. As of Wednesday, pledges reached more than three times its $50K goal -- with 23 days remaining in the campaign. The Mark II is positioned as an open source alternative to the dominant Amazon Echo line of smart speakers and its main challenger, the Google Home device. [More...]

Alphabet's New Chronicle Promises to Speed Threat Data Analysis Alphabet has launched Chronicle, a new cybersecurity venture, following two years of development at the Alphabet X research lab. Chronicle will include VirusTotal, a Google-owned cybersecurity and intelligence platform and malware intelligence service. The idea behind Chronicle stems from the fact that many companies receive many more security alerts per day than they can handle. [More...]

Don't Pay the Hackers If you follow security news, you may have noticed a disturbing trend. Last year, we learned that Uber paid attackers $100,000 to keep under wraps their stealth of the personal information of 50 million Uber riders. More recently, we learned that Hancock Health paid approximately $55,000 in bitcoin to bring hospital systems back online. The payment of ransoms could be more common than it appears. [More...]

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