NEWSWORTHY
Unplugged. Make that one less company chasing the electric car dream. High-tech vacuum maker Dyson said Thursday it's abandoning its effort to make a vehicle. "We simply can no longer see a way to make it commercially viable," founder James Dyson told his staff.
Twofer. There's a changing of the guard at European software giant SAP. After nine plus years, CEO Bill McDermott is resigning and will be replaced by Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein as co-CEOs, the company said on Friday. Both are long-time execs at SAP.
If all you have is a hammer. A top federal regulator offered his opinion on Thursday that digital currency Ether should be treated as a commodity, not as a security. Of course, that regulator, Heath Tarbert, heads the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, not the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Avoidance is the best policy. Third quarter PC shipments jumped 5%, the biggest gain since 2012, market research firm Canalys said. But the 71 million machine quarter may have been an anomaly, as companies rushed to move product before getting slapped with tariffs in the U.S.-China trade war.
Undo. The Chinese drone race that the Drone Racing League is broadcasting on Oct. 16, mentioned in my essay yesterday, will have Chinese pilots, but it took place in Ohio, not in China.
FOR YOUR WEEKEND READING PLEASURE
A few longer reads that I came across this week that may be appealing for your weekend reading pleasure:
Is Amazon Unstoppable? (The New Yorker)
Politicians want to rein in the retail giant. But Jeff Bezos, the master of cutthroat capitalism, is ready to fight back.
A Day in the Life of Architect David Rockwell (Wall Street Journal)
From designing Nobu Downtown to creating Broadway sets, the architect's wide-ranging practice involves seeking out each project's narrative thread.
The Billion-Dollar High-Speed Internet Scam (Bloomberg Businessweek)
Elizabeth Pierce impressed investors with hefty contracts for fiber—until they learned she was the only one who'd signed them.
Margaret Atwood: 'I'm simply the messenger' (Financial Times)
The Canadian novelist on being a 'bad' feminist, the trouble with memoirs—and how it feels to see your dystopia come true.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Essential, the gadget maker founded by Android creator Andy Rubin, leaked pictures of an upcoming new phone this week that looks almost bizarrely thin and long. The building hype has also marked the reemergence of Rubin after a year of silence in the wake of a New York Times story accusing him of sexual misconduct while at Google. Wired's Lauren Goode examines the question of whether the product can be separated from the man , or, more generally, whether tech devices can be seen apart from the reputations of the companies that make them.
Now, it's nearly impossible to disassociate Amazon's Ring DIY camera kit from its role as a police surveillance tool. It's difficult to disentangle Amazon's consumer bonanza days, like Prime Day, from stories about the stress being put on the company's logistics workers—not to mention the global environment. Facebook now makes a home video portal with cool AR features, but its reception in your home probably depends on how your roommates or family members feel about Facebook's privacy policies, its role in politics, its position as a veritable vacuum for your personal data. Apple often boasts about its polished and impeccable industrial design, but it has accomplished this by making it nearly impossible for consumers to repair their own products or, God forbid, try to leave its ecosystem.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Pinterest Says It's Using A.I. to Dramatically Reduce the Amount of Self-Harm Posts Users Are Seeing By Lisa Marie Segarra
A.I. Remains a Disruptive Force in Finance—Even for Fintechs By Bernhard Warner
Why WeWork's Failed IPO Might Not Mean Disaster for SoftBank After All By Erik Sherman
Amazon Says Its Delivery Drones Won't Crash Into You or Your Clotheslines. Here's Why By Bernhard Warner
Apple Is Selling Microsoft's Xbox Wireless Controller. But What About Sony? By Don Reisinger
FORTUNE Analytics: Management Insiders Forecast a 2020 Recession By Lance Lambert
BEFORE YOU GO
While Adam ponders mapping, I have been thinking about the stars this week. I'm on the local school committee in my town and we named a just-opened elementary school after astronaut Sunita Williams (who grew up in our town). Suni, an impressively inspiring and charismatic speaker, is in town this week for the dedication. On Thursday night, she told an audience of our youngest students that she and NASA were planning Mars missions that would be ready for them to take some day. But first, she's heading back to space to test a new Boeing rocket next year. Fly safe, Suni!
This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman. Find past issues, and sign up for other Fortune newsletters.
No comments:
Post a Comment