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News: Roku’s first original film continues NBC’s canceled series ‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’

September 9, 2021
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Roku’s expansion into original content continues with news that the streaming platform and device maker will debut its first original feature-length film during the 2021 holiday season. In partnership with Lionsgate, Roku announced it will introduce a movie based on the Emmy-winning TV series “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” which will air on its free streaming hub,

The new movie, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas,” will continue where the series left off following its season 2 finale and series cancellation, which had upset fans who had taken to social media in hopes of saving the show by finding it a new home. Roku, as it turns out, is that home — not only will it air the new film, it will also make all 25 episodes of the series available to stream for free on The Roku Channel in the U.S. later this fall.

The feature film, meanwhile, begins production this month in Vancouver, and will see a number of actors reprising their roles, including Jane Levy, Skylar Astin, Alex Newell, John Clarence Stewart, Andrew Leeds, Alice Lee, Michael Thomas Grant, Kapil Talwalkar, David St. Louis, Mary Steenburgen, Peter Gallagher, and Bernadette Peters. Details of the film’s plot are still limited, however, noting only that it will be a continuation of Zoey’s journey as she “navigates work, family, love and everything in between.”

While a significant move for fans who simply wanted more of their favorite show, it’s a bigger step forward for Roku and its original content strategy. The company had already tested consumers’ appetite for original series by acquiring the content catalog from the short-lived streaming service Quibi earlier this year, whose shows then launched to The Roku Channel as the company’s first set of Roku Originals. The debut lineup included 30 titles, but Roku is continuing to roll out more shows as the year progresses. Last month, for instance, it released 23 more of those shows to its collection. The company also recently decided to reinvest in at least one previously Quibi-owned series by greenlighting a second season of “Most Dangerous Game.”

But until now, Roku has not invested in full-length movies.

Movies make a good fit for The Roku Channel, of course, as the free streaming is supported by advertising — and movies, due to their length, offer more ad slots to be filled. In fact, The Roku Channel got its start as free movies hub, before later expanding to include TV shows and other types of content, like news and sports.

So far, Roku’s original programming seems to be connecting with viewers. The company says its top 5 streamed TV shows this summer (May 20-July 18) were all Roku Originals.

The new film is produced by Lionsgate in association with the Tannenbaum Company, Feigco Entertainment, and Universal Music Group’s Polygram Entertainment and Zihuatenejo Productions. The series creator Austin Winsberg will write and executive produce. Richard Shepard, who filmed the show’s pilot, will direct. Kim Tannenbaum, Eric Tannenbaum, Paul Feig, David Blackman, and Daniel Inkeles will also serve as executive producers.

The movie will air on The Roku Channel during the holidays in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

News: Ford builds leadership team of commercial vehicle unit ahead of E-Transit launch

September 9, 2021
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Ford has hired six senior-level executives to its newly minted commercial vehicles and services business unit as the automaker prepares to bring to market the E-Transit cargo van and the F-150 Lightning Pro pickup truck — two electric vehicles it’s betting will become commercial customers’ new workhorses. Ford pulled from within its ranks and outside

Ford pulled from within its ranks and outside the company to fill out the leadership team for the new business unit, Ford Pro. Among the new hires is Muffi Ghadiali, the CEO of Electriphi, the battery management and fleet monitoring software startup that Ford acquired in June. Ghadiali will continue to serve in his role with Electriphi and head up Ford Pro’s charging department.

Ford also hired Tim Baughman, Ford’s former controller for U.S. marketing, sales and service, to be the general manager of Ford Pro North America. Ford Pro’s new CFO will be Navin Kumar, who was previously at Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC.

Tracey Pass, who comes from The Walt Disney Company, has been hired as the chief human resources officer, and Rahul Singh, who was head of software development for Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC, is the unit’s CTO. Wanda Young, chief marketing officer of Samsung Electronics America, has taken a similar position at Ford Pro.

Ford previously announced that Hans Schep will be the general manager of Ford Pro Europe.

Ford Pro is focused on more than just commercial vans. The division, led by Ted Cannis, aims to sell fleet management, maintenance and charging services to commercial clients as well. Ford Pro has said it expects to generate $45 billion in revenue from hardware and adjacent and new services by 2025 — up from $27 billion in 2019.

That’s a hefty hike in revenue and a target that Ford plans to meet by selling a mix of combustion-engine, hybrid, and soon all-electric versions of its vans and full-size pickup trucks; and offering depot and home charging for the EVs, digital services for customers to manage and maintain their fleets, a network of service centers, and, of course, financing.

Ford’s commercial vehicle business has a head start in Europe, where it has been the leading commercial vehicle brand for six consecutive years. In North America, Ford’s share of Class 1 through Class 7 full-size commercial trucks and vans exceeds 40%, according to the company.

A new opportunity to grab more market share has opened up as governments, particularly in Europe, place stricter emissions regulations in urban areas. The E-Transit cargo van, which is expected to ship to customers later this year, and the commercial variant of the F-150 Lightning Pro play a critical role in Ford Pro’s plans. The Lightning pickup truck is expected to come to market in spring 2022.

News: Review: Facebook’s Ray-Ban Stories make the case for smart glasses

September 9, 2021
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Facebook’s first pair of smart glasses doesn’t feel like much of a Facebook product. You won’t find the Facebook logo emblazoned on them or even its name in small print by the serial code. They aren’t Facebook Stories or Ray-Ban’s Facebook Stories or even Ray-Ban Stories in collaboration with Facebook. Unlike other Facebook-designed hardware like the

Facebook’s first pair of smart glasses doesn’t feel like much of a Facebook product.

You won’t find the Facebook logo emblazoned on them or even its name in small print by the serial code. They aren’t Facebook Stories or Ray-Ban’s Facebook Stories or even Ray-Ban Stories in collaboration with Facebook. Unlike other Facebook-designed hardware like the Quest 2 or Portal, the Ray-Ban Stories feel more self-aware and restrained as though the company knew exactly what use cases they needed to hit, and stopped themselves from trying to do much more than that.

The glasses made in partnership with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica are certainly the most basic device Facebook has shipped. They only do a few things, you can take photos and videos, you can take phone calls and you can listen to music. That’s it. But bringing audio into the mix via near-ear speakers embedded in the arms of the frames makes these a much more realized device than Snap’s Spectacles which shipped five years ago.

Ray-Ban’s classic dumb Wayfarers (left) next to the smart Ray-Ban Stories Wayfarers (right)

Let’s dig a bit into what this device does and how it feels to use it in daily life.

One thing to note about the $299 Ray-Ban Stories is that they can be worn pretty inconspicuously. People are probably more likely to notice the cameras than their slightly inflated dimensions. That’s already a revolutionary advance, which pushes these past the level of “toy” which Spectacles never really seemed to eclipse. The Ray-Ban partnership was particularly savvy given the thicker-than-average frames on their standard Wayfarer design.

What onlookers are more likely to notice is you tapping the frame of your glasses to control them. Pressing the button on the right arm will take a 30-second video, a long-press will snap a photo. You can also use the voice command, “Hey Facebook, take a video” and do the same for photos — for the record, I’m not sure whether this is a sentence I’d feel great about hearing a stranger nearby me in public say. A small LED light sparks up when the camera is capturing footage though it’s a pretty low-key indicator.

The photo and video quality of the glasses is pretty middling, but plenty of forgiveness can be levied given the size of the device. The twin 5 MP cameras can shoot 2592 x 1944 pixel photos and 1184 x 1184 pixel square format videos. The quality seems to be about on-par with where smartphone cameras were about ten years ago, so it’s clear there’s plenty of room for improvement. Post-processing on the phone during upload enhances the photos and hides some of their struggles with low-lighting while making the photos pop a bit more with saturation.

The twin camera setup is used to add 3D effects to your photos, but at the moment the filters aren’t great and there’s honestly not much there. Hopefully, Facebook invests a bit more in the software over time but with fairly low quality photos, I don’t completely see the reasoning in having two cameras to begin with.

Also worth noting, is that using the glasses requires linking them to a new Facebook app called View, which is basically a simple media viewer app which gets around limitations in how media from external devices can be uploaded to your phone. This is where you can also make quick edits to your photos and videos before dumping them to your photo roll or sharing them to Facebook or Instagram.

Audio is probably the most interesting bit of these glasses. The near-ear speakers will surprise you with their quality in a quiet spaces and leave you dissatisfied once you find yourself in a noisier environment. Unfortunately for Facebook, most outdoor spaces are a bit louder and sunglasses are mostly being used outdoors. The audio will work in a pinch outdoors for listening to tunes, but I honestly can’t see them replacing my AirPods anytime soon. The audio is much better suited for low-fidelity activities like phone calls, but I also had some issues with the three-microphone array picking up too much background noise while I was walking outdoors.

Battery life is surprisingly solid, but they also have the benefit of a charging battery case which is incidentally the best place to store them. The case is a little bulky but they also include a microfiber pouch to protect the lenses. Facebook says you can get 6 hours of straight audio and “all-day” usage otherwise.

One of their weirder quirks is their lack of water-proofing or even splash-proofing, something that doesn’t seem like a great quality for a pair of sunglasses. It’s just one more thing indicating that while the thicker frame aesthetic of sunglasses makes more sense for a smart glasses design, this product really thrives more indoors.

This isn’t first rodeo when it comes to hardware and you can see the company’s maturation.

They aren’t an AR/VR device, but you can also see generations of Oculus products in the Ray-Ban Stories‘ design. On-ear audio born from the Oculus Go, a touchpad interface reminiscent of the Gear VR, simple and restrained audio controls first launched on the Quest. The hardware is a distillation of features and lessons learned from selling VR to a generally indifferent public that has seemed to warm up to it a bit over the years.

Meanwhile, you can also see years of Facebook screwing up its messaging and torching its brand name in the process, making itself the boogeyman of both political parties, courting enemies in the press and earning an outsized amount of distrust from the average internet user, something that probably led to these carrying so little Facebook branding. The Ray-Ban Stories will certainly have their detractors, but Facebook choosing to be conservative in their functionality and not toss in too many future-flung passive sensors will likely do them a favor. The Facebook View app is bare bones and Facebook details that photos and videos captured using the Stories won’t be used to serve ads. All that said, while we’ve certainly come a long way since the Google Glass debut in 2013, face-mounted cameras still feel icky when it comes to privacy in public and this device will undoubtedly reignite that conversation in a major way.

Baggage aside, my broadest takeaway is that the Ray-Ban Stories feel like a very important product — one that actually sells the idea of face-worn wearables.

The glasses are smartly designed and can be worn discreetly. That said, it’s clear Facebook made plenty of sacrifices to achieve such an aggressive form factor; the glasses honestly don’t do anything particularly well — photo and video quality is pretty lackluster, the in-frame speakers perform poorly outdoors and calls aren’t the most pleasant experience. For $299, that might make the first-generation a tough sell for some, but all that said, I think Facebook mostly made the right compromises for a product that they’ve repeatedly indicated is meant to be a stepping stone on the road towards an augmented reality future.

Facebook’s smart Ray-Ban Stories alongside my pair of classic Ray-Ban 2140 Wayfarers

Facebook debuts its Ray-Ban Stories smart sunglasses

News: Facebook debuts its Ray-Ban Stories smart sunglasses

September 9, 2021
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Facebook announced their long-awaited foray into the smart glasses space Thursday morning, launching the Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses in partnership with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica. The svelte frames are some of the most low-profile yet available to consumers and will allow users to snap photos and videos with the two onboard 5 MP cameras, listen to

Facebook announced their long-awaited foray into the smart glasses space Thursday morning, launching the Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses in partnership with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica.

The svelte frames are some of the most low-profile yet available to consumers and will allow users to snap photos and videos with the two onboard 5 MP cameras, listen to music with in-frame speakers and take phone calls. The glasses need to be connected to an iOS or Android device for full functionality, though users can take and store hundreds of photos or dozens of videos on the glasses before transferring media to their phones via Facebook’s new View app. The twin cameras will allow users to add 3D effects to their photos and videos once they upload them to the app.

The lightweight glasses weigh less than 50 grams and come with a leather hardshell charging case. The battery lift is advertised as “all-day” which TechCrunch found to be accurate during our review of the frames.

Users will be able to control the glasses with a couple physical buttons including a “capture” button to record media and an on-off switch. A touch pad on the right arm of the glasses will allow users to perform functions like swiping to adjust the volume or answering a phone call. An onboard white LED will glow to indicate to the people around the wearer that a video is being recorded.

The glasses, notably, are neither waterproof nor splash-proof.

The smart sunglasses sport come in three classic Ray-Ban styles, with a number of color and lens combinations. The Ray-Ban Stories are fully compatible with prescription lenses. The glasses will start at $299, with polarized and transition lens options coming in at a higher price point.

The glasses notably do not have in-lens displays that will allow users to see digital augmented reality content like competitor Snap’s latest Spectacles prototype.

Snap announces a new generation of Spectacles, streamlined glasses to experience the world in AR

This is a major launch for Facebook, which announced early details about the Ray-Ban partnership and product at its AR/VR focused developer conference last September. The company has indicated that the device is a stepping stone for its AR ambitions and an effort to get users acquainted with the idea of high-tech glasses.

“Ray-Ban Stories are an important step towards a future when phones are no longer a central part of our lives and you won’t have to choose between interacting with a device or interacting with the world around you,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg says in a launch video for the product.

News: Storz & Bickle new Mighty+ vape features faster heating, USB-C and UL certification

September 9, 2021
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Storz & Bickle finally updated the Mighty vaporizer. The original hit the market in October 2014 and quickly became a fan favorite despite its unwieldy form factor and market-topping price. Users point to the quality of the vapor, airflow, and its certification as a medical device as primary reasons for buying the vape. The new

The new version is called the Mighty+ and features a ceramic-coated chamber, USB-C charging, a 60-second startup time, and a new mode that will quickly boost the current temperature. And yes, this version has little feet so that it can stand vertically on a table. The Mighty+ carries a $399 MSRP and is available for purchase on September 16.

The company also updated two of its other products. The Volcano is now available in matte black, and the Crafty+ comes with a ceramic filling chamber and USB-C charging that reduces charging time by 25 minutes.

Storz & Bickle managed to get the Mighty+ certified by UL, a US-based global safety certification company. The Mighty+ conforms to UL8139, becoming the first dry herb vaporizer to carry UL logo officially. To S&B, the UL certification is significant. The company has long differentiated itself from its competitors with a certification from TUV certifying two of its vapes, the Mighty and Volcano, as medical devices. The UL nod certifies the Mighty+’s components comply with the testing agency’s safety standards covering the electrical, heating, battery, and charging systems.

“The Underwriters Lab (UL) came out with a certification,” said Andy Lytwynec, VP of Global Vape Business at Canopy Growth, “and it created a bullseye target for us. It took a lot of collaboration with them, and we just recently achieved certification.”

Lytwynec explained that S&B sees consumers increasingly scrutinizing vaporizer options and feels the UL certification gives owners additional peace of mind that the device will not implode in their pocket. “For S&B, we think it’s the beginning of a trend within the vaporizer market for consumers to be a bit more diligent and thoughtful, saying ‘Well, hold on a second, like, has a third party actually gone through the rigors of testing this.’”

The Mighty+’s new features are incremental updates developed from customer feedback. The device charges over USB-C, which can deliver an 80% charge in 40 minutes. It also heats up in 60 seconds, and hitting the temperature button three times activates an even quicker so-called Superbooster mode that quickly bumps the temp by 59 degrees. The filling chamber is now coated in ceramic which, if nothing else, should make maintaining a clean oven a bit easier.

Mighty loyalists will be disappointed to hear the bright LED remains from the original. Some users find the screen too bright in a dark room and susceptible to UV light that dims the screens when outside. The battery system appears to be a carry-over from the original too.

The form factor is the same, except for the addition of tiny feet. The original cannot stand on its own, making filling the top-mounted bowl challenging without a 3rd party stand. Now there are little fins to help the Mighty+ stand on its own.

How do the changes impact performance? Unfortunately, I can’t tell you until I get the device next week.

I asked Lytwynec about the Mighty’s use of plastic in the top-mounted cooling chamber. Competitors are moving to glass or ceramic for improved taste, I pointed out. Lytwynec notes the Mighty+ is made of a new plastic polymer, and S&B is focused on using materials that allow its devices to be certified as medical devices. The company is aware of third-party accessories but feels the current cooling chamber offers the right benefits to the consumer.

The company also unveiled a new version of the Crafty+, its smaller dry herb vape. The new model features many of the improvements found in the new Mighty+. There’s also a new version of the company’s original vape, the desktop Volcano. This new version is finished in a scratch-free matte black finish and will retail for $699 starting September 9.

Jürgen Bickel and Markus Storz founded Storz & Bickle in 2002 and in 2018, sold the company to Canadian cannabis giant Canopy Growth Corporation. Jürgen Bickel remains with S&B and continues to run the day-to-day and drive product development.

Storz & Bickle sits atop Canopy Growth Corporation’s device segment. According to Canopy’s latest financial release, S&B recorded $24.1 million in the first fiscal quarter of 2022. This marks a 41% ($7 million) year-over-year increase. This growth is attributed to an expansion of its distribution network.

News: With $55M third fund, Scout Ventures is funding veterans ready to tackle the hardest technical challenges

September 9, 2021
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When it comes to people pushing the frontiers of science, few institutions can match the talent of the Department of Defense, the intelligence agencies, and the U.S. national laboratory system. With ample budgets and flexible oversight under that aura of national security, ambitious scientists and engineers are working on everything from quantum computing to next-generation

That wealth of talent is often left behind in the frenetic product development and fundraising world of Silicon Valley. Langley, Arlington, and Los Alamos are a far cry from Palo Alto or New York City. Even more challenging is the career transition: the government is, well, the government, and the private sector is, well, the private sector. Moving from one to the next can be quite jarring.

Scout Ventures wants to act as the bridge between the startup world and that vast science and technology workforce, with a particular focus on veterans of the military, intelligence agencies, and national labs. Founded about a decade ago in 2012 by Brad Harrison, the firm raised two funds and invested in several dozen companies at the earliest stages, including identity verification platform ID.me (now valued at $1.5 billion), men’s subscription service Bespoke Post, and youth sports management platform LeagueApps. It also incubated companies like health services company Unite Us.

The firm announced this morning that is has raised a $55 million third fund, which will continue its focus on backing veterans while centering its investment thesis on frontier tech in areas like machine learning, robotics, drones, physical security, quantum computing and space (that said, the firm does not invest in weapons).

Harrison, who has been a long-time angel investor prior to forming Scout Ventures and is a West Point grad and army airborne ranger, said that when he started to look at the track records of the most successful founders he backed, many of them happened to be veterans. So he started doubling down on that thesis, eventually hiring Wes Blackwell who graduated from the Naval Academy and Sam Ellis in Brooklyn from West Point as his co-partners.

Scout Ventures partners Wes Blackwell, Brad Harrison and Sam Ellis. Image Credits: Scout Ventures.

Scout is a traditional seed stage fund, and Harrison said that the firm targets roughy a deal per month, with a typical check between $500,000 and $1 million targeting 10% ownership. The firm also reserves $2-3 million in capital for follow-on investments.

One of the firm’s unique differentiators is taking advantage of ample non-dilutive funding from government programs and locking that in for its portfolio companies. Harrison said that the firm typically can secure three dollars of such funds for each dollar it invests, allowing its portfolio companies to grow faster for longer and with less dilution. “We’re seeing the most active money flowing through Air Force number one, Army number two, and then you are seeing some money flowing through the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation,” Harrison said.

In terms of companies, the target is so-called dual-use startups that have applications that can be used by both the public and private sectors. These are “core, disruptive technologies that we believe are going to bring a shift change, so they inherently have applications to the DoD and the commercial sector,” he said. “They are hard to find, and that is why we talk to so many companies.”

As examples of startups within this thesis, Harrison pointed to four companies in quantum computing and others in electronic warfare, where applications can be as important to the NSA as to telecoms like Verizon and T-Mobile. He also pointed out companies like De-Ice, which is using electromagnetic technology to make deicing of planes and other equipment faster and safer. Such technology could improve operations for the Air Force as well as civilian carriers.

Ultimately, Scout hopes that its unique network and focus will allow it to access these “hard-to-reach” founders who are “really distrustful of most VCs,” Harrison said. “That makes us competitive.”

Among the LPs of the new fund are the New Mexico State Investment Council (home of the Los Alamos National Laboratory), former Citigroup chairman Richard Parsons, Auctus Investment Group, restaurateur and brewer David Kassling, and Michael Loeb.

News: Shared micromobility can help build communities residents deserve

September 9, 2021
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One of the most surprising yet impactful roles that shared micromobility has filled recently is that of a supporter of racial justice initiatives and events.

Samantha Herr
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Samantha Herr is the executive director of the North American Bikeshare & Scootershare Association and has been working in the shared micromobility space since 2012.

Destinie Hammond
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Destinie Hammond is the communications manager for the North American Bikeshare & Scootershare Association and previously served as a community engagement manager for JUMP by Uber.

Twenty years ago, many of us had never heard of shared micromobility, let alone contemplated it as a tool for developing healthier, more equitable communities.

But as of 2020, more than 200 cities in North America have at least one shared micromobility system in operation with a combined 169,000 vehicles. As the industry has grown, so too has the realization that something as seemingly small as the way people get from place to place can significantly impact their quality of life.

One of the most surprising yet impactful roles that shared micromobility has filled recently is that of a supporter of racial justice initiatives and events.

According to the North American Bikeshare & Scootershare Association’s 2020 Shared Micromobility State of the Industry Report, agencies and operators provided free or discounted trips for demonstrators to get to events, while many systems donated or fundraised for racial justice nonprofits.

Importantly, the increased attention on diversity, equity and inclusion further brought to light our shortcomings and led to organizational change throughout the industry. For example, 71% of shared micromobility systems stated that diversity was part of every hiring decision in 2020, and 69% reported that women and people of color are represented at all levels of the organization.

Of course, we collectively recognize that we are not where we want or should be. However, these metrics demonstrate intention and mark progress toward improved equity, diversity and inclusion in shared micromobility.

We in the shared micromobility industry are continually adapting our policies and practices as we work to fit the needs of the communities we serve, whether providing discount programs for lower-income residents or making adaptive vehicles available for persons of different abilities, we understand that mobility is a right for everyone.

Even more than that, agencies and operators recognize the importance of providing active modes of mobility for people and communities to build healthier habits, which ultimately can have positive economic, social and environmental impacts.

In 2020, North Americans gained an additional 12.2 million hours of physical activity and offset approximately 29 million pounds of carbon dioxide by utilizing shared micromobility.

Additionally, researchers at Colorado State University calculated that in an average year, bike-share users saved the U.S. healthcare system more than $36 million, while another study concluded that scooter users accounted for $921 of unplanned spending per scooter at food and beverage establishments.

Shared micromobility must be considered a part of public transportation networks to maximize the community benefits and build truly functional cities. Multimodal commuting is becoming more commonplace and sought for by urban travelers. In 2020, 50% of riders reported using shared micromobility to connect to transit, and 16% of the 83.4 million shared micromobility trips taken in the same year were for connecting to public transit. Increased use and requirement of the General Bikeshare Feed Specification (GBFS), an open data standard for shared micromobility, clarifies the growing importance of an integrated trip planning user experience.

Shared micromobility is a powerful tool, when fully taken advantage of, that helps transform our cities for the better. As cities, states, provinces and nations face equity, social and climate challenges, now is a critical time to engage shared micromobility as a critical component of change.

News: iRobot’s poop problem

September 9, 2021
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I’m all for encouraging more young people to enter STEM, to explore engineering and perhaps ultimately pursue a career in robotics. It’s a field whose importance will only grow with time, as more of the world looks toward automated solutions. And it probably goes without saying that one of the most effective ways to bolster

That said, there’s really no point in sugarcoating most of this. If you think the day to day realities of becoming a roboticist involve standing onstage while one of your employees does Daft Punk cosplay to Skrillex, I’ve got some unfortunate news for you. A heck of a lot more out there are currently making 3D models of dog poop. Remember, there are no number twos in binary code.

You see, iRobot had a poop problem. There are dozens if not hundreds of YouTube videos documenting the phenomenon, as a Roomba approaches a pile of fresh dog droppings, hovers over it a bit, and then makes a snail-like trail of fecal smears across the hardwood or carpet. It’s honestly probably among the most widespread and unintentionally hilarious (depending on your point of view) consequences of mainstreaming robots.

People’s imaginations tend to project the worst-case scenarios with robots. Any time we post a Boston Dynamics video, I get dozens of responses from people recalling that one Black Mirror episode they saw that one time — it has temporarily supplanted Skynet jokes. But the truth of the matter is that a vast majority of robots have no intention of killing you. But that doesn’t mean they’re not going to unintentionally smear dog crap up and down your linoleum.

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

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In preparation for the latest Roomba, however, the company spent a lot of time with pet poop. Like a lot a lot of time. Arguably an unhealthy amount of time studying the stuff, modeling it, taking pictures.

“The glorious career of roboticists may not have been fully realized when we were sending people home and creating hundreds of models of poo,” CEO Colin Angle recently told me. “Sending people around to photograph and create synthetic models of poo. I don’t know how many tens of thousands of images of all different shapes and sizes of synthetic images were required, but this is not demo code, clearly.”

It was among the weirder homework assignments for the Bedford, Massachusetts-based 1staff. One employee apparently got so into the work she got extremely excited when her dog had an accident on the floor. At least she got some good photos out of the deal.

When real-world animal droppings were harder to come by, the company generated fake poop in order to approximate a wide range of sizes, shapes and consistencies.

“You imagine it, we probably attempted it to grow a large enough database with both real images, images of fake poo and synthetic images that were manufactured of poop to serve as a training model for our robot,” Angle adds.

Image Credits: (Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch)

All of this leads us to Pet Owner Official Promise (P.O.O.P.), which guarantees a free return for the new j7+ if the Roomba runs into (and over) a poop problem. For the time being, however, iRobot is strictly adhering to the old adage about letting yellow mellow. “We can’t do pee,” says Angle. “It has to have some 3D aspects to it.”

The poop problem was far from iRobot’s only struggle over the past year, of course. While the pandemic has ultimately served to accelerate much of the industry, the early days of global shutdowns came with their share of issues for the Roomba maker. In the early days, the company laid off 70 employees and indefinitely halted production of its long-awaited robotic mower.

Says Angle:

The past year and a half has been an extraordinary rollercoaster. At the beginning of the pandemic, it seemed like the world was ending and 60% of our sales was coming from retail stores, which were being closed. It was a really terrifying time as we tried to figure out how to navigate. Then what happened was people were working from home. When you’re spending a lot of time at home, things get dirtier faster. If you’re used to cleaning while your kids are at school, suddenly your kids are not at school anymore. Families were tearing their hair out just to survive and keep things under control. So work from home created a significant acceleration of interest in assistive technologies.

Image Credits: Tortoise/Albertsons

Meanwhile, robotic delivery service Tortoise is about to get a pretty big boost as last-mile logistics company AxleHire announced plans to employee 100 of its robots across the U.S. AxleHire operates in the package delivery space, including perishables from meal kit companies like Blue Apron and HelloFresh. No word on precisely which markets we’re talking about here, but Rebecca notes that the company currently operates in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, New York, Phoenix, Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

And then, of course, there’s the matter of the Robotic Unicorn. I find that nine times out of 10, tech companies’ claims of being “first” are dubious, at best, but XPeng Robotics’ note that this is “its first ridable robot unicorn” seems to check out. It does, however, already have some competition in the broader rideable robotic unicorn category. Forgot the overall rideable unicorn category. You can’t swing a narwhal around without hitting a rideable unicorn these days.

Honestly, it’s tough to say whether this is a stunt, given the extremely CG nature of the video here. XPeng is apparently using the big toy robot as a way to test the waters for a broader entry into the robotics category.

News: LinkedIn doubles down on development with new learning hub, free courses and new search fields for hybrid working

September 9, 2021
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The wider world of employment has seen a huge shift in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Looking for a job, finding someone to fill a role, or simply developing professionally are just not the same as they used to be for many of us. So it’s no surprise to see companies that have built business models catering to these areas changing, too: today, LinkedIn, Microsoft’s social networking platform for the working world, announced a wave of news aimed at moving ahead with the times.

It’s launching a new Learning Hub aimed at organizations to provide professional development and other training to employees. And it’s making 40 courses free of charge to LinkedIn members specifically to address some of the changes afoot, such as how to adapt to hybrid working, how to be a better manager in the new normal, and how to return to the office, and run facilities when they are spread beyond a building to also include people’s private homes. Lastly, it’s also starting to tweak details that people can use to list and search for job openings to account for these kinds of working conditions, and more.

The Learning Hub was first previewed back in April of this year and has been running in a limited beta. Today, as part of a bigger event hosted by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky where they are discussing new trends in the world of work, the Hub is being rolled out more widely.

For some context, LinkedIn has been long on education for years, with acquisitions like the remote learning platform Lynda back in 2015 bolstering its own education strategy and position as a go-to platform for professional development; partnerships to bring in significant amounts of third-party content (for example, when it added some 13,000 courses via third parties in 2018); and efforts to tie together the concept of skills development with professional profiles, running research and building interactive tools for its users.

The free courses that are being launched today (and will remain free until October 9) are a timely set of videos to help companies as some of them start to make (or think about) the transitions from remote to in-office environments, but the bigger product launch, The Learning Hub, is not exactly an altruistic endeavor in that longer journey. It is being sold as a premium service for businesses — existing LinkedIn Learning Pro users will be able to use it for free until July 2022, potentially longer, it said. In addition to being a salient business, it is also connected to the company’s bigger efforts to bring in more businesses-focused services, and more engagement from HR departments, to bolster one of its other main revenue drivers, recruitment.

As a learning experience platform (often described as LXPs), LinkedIn’s relaunch of its own learning hub will bring it into closer competition with the likes of 360Learning, Coursera for Business, Workday, Cornerstone, and the many other platforms used by organizations to manage their own in-house and third-party professional training content. In addition to this, LinkedIn says it will be using its own data on employment trends, plus AI, to personalize content for organizations and users. The fact, however, that it’s also a platform whee those HR teams can also list jobs and source candidates makes it a significantly stickier experience, and one that might feel more cohesive at a time when so much else might be more fragmented.

The new fields that LinkedIn is bringing into its recruitment service are also notable in that regard. It will now let recruiters indicate whether a job is remote, hybrid or onsite; and soon those looking for jobs will also be able to indicate which of these it’s looking for in a new role. Companies will also be able to start indicating more details on their own company status as it relates to things like vaccination requirements, and to let the world (employees, partners, customers, interested others) know whether your physical offices are open for business or not.

These new fields may sound a little trivial, or at least very specifically related to concerns and circumstances that we live with today, but I think they are more notable than this. They speak to what LinkedIn sees (and what many of us feel) are strong priorities in how we view jobs today. That opens the door to how and if LinkedIn might consider other kinds of details in company and personal profiles, as well as details that could be used in recruitment. This is something the company has also been working on for a little while already: in June it started to give users the option of adding pronouns to their profiles. All of this is pretty important, considering that there are a lot of smaller companies and calls for someone to knock LinkedIn off its pedestal. As LinkedIn dabbles with new formats and sunsets others, it’s all signals that it’s attempting to be more adaptable to counteract that.

News: Wisetack closes on $45M to bring ‘buy now, pay later’ to in-person services

September 9, 2021
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Buy now, pay later is growing globally — with various companies expanding to, and in, different parts of the world, such as Africa, Latin America and Asia. Here in the U.S., Affirm and Klarna are big players, and Square recently announced plans to acquire Afterpay, which also is eyeing growth here. Traditional buy now, pay

Buy now, pay later is growing globally — with various companies expanding to, and in, different parts of the world, such as Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Here in the U.S., Affirm and Klarna are big players, and Square recently announced plans to acquire Afterpay, which also is eyeing growth here.

Traditional buy now, pay later (BNPL) gives consumers the opportunity to pay in installments at the point of sale, either online or, increasingly, in person as well. But even domestically, the ability to pay in installments is branching out beyond e-commerce and retail.

Wisetack is a startup that brings buy now, pay later to in-person services. And it just raised $45 million in a Series B funding round led by Insight Partners.

Existing backers Greylock Partners and Bain Capital Ventures also participated in the financing, bringing the company’s total raised to $64 million since its 2018 inception. The latest round comes just six and a half months after Wisetack announced it had raised $19 million across its seed and Series A rounds, which were both led by Greylock.

Wisetack raises $19M as its buy-now-pay-later service for IRL services scales

In a nutshell, the San Francisco-based startup helps in-person businesses offer financing to consumers. Wisetack is not the first company to do this, but what makes it different, according to co-founder and CEO Bobby Tzekin, is that it actually embeds financing options into software platforms that businesses have already built out and are using in their operations.

Its focus is on service-based businesses, such as HVAC contractors or plumbers. For example, if your AC unit goes out and costs thousands to replace, you could have the option of paying for it in installments if the contractor has Wistack’s API embedded into its site.

So far, Wisetack has been able to grow rapidly by partnering with vertical SaaS businesses such as Housecall Pro and Jobber. Those companies offer consumer financing to their respective customer base, which include tens of thousands of home services professionals.

Wisetack clearly seems to be filling a gap. So far in 2021, it has grown its revenue and loan volume “over 10x” compared to 2020. And it works with thousands of merchants, according to Tzekin.

The executive left his job in 2018 to start Wisetack because he felt there was “clearly a massive need,” teaming up with Liz O’Donnell and Mykola Klymenko (who was co-founder and CTO at VaroMoney, the holding company of Varo Bank).

With its new capital, Wisetack plans to expand into other service-based verticals, such as auto repair, elective medical, dental and veterinary and legal services. It also plans to double its team of 40 over the next year.

To Tzekin, the opportunity is huge.

Most service businesses are SMBs, which have historically been harder to serve than large e-commerce players. Americans spend more than $400 billion a year on residential renovations and repairs alone, according to this Harvard report. And the United States automotive repair and maintenance services market is projected to reach $250 billion by 2026, up from $201 billion in 2020.

And while the average BNPL online transaction is a few hundred dollars, purchases made to service-based businesses average closer to $4,000 to $5,000, according to Tzekin.

The CEO believes that buy now, pay later can be more attractive than paying for such purchases with a credit card, for a few reasons. For one, consumers have the option of paying in installments for anywhere from three months to 60 months.

“This often means it’s more affordable to buy the better piece of equipment since they can spread the costs over time,” he said.

Also, just how much they will be paying over time will be made clear at the time of purchase, whereas when paying with a credit card, the amount could vary depending on interest rates and how long it takes to pay the money back, Tzekin added.

The company makes money by charging a processing fee to merchants, as well as charging interest to consumers — which can be anywhere from 0% to 29%, “depending on how good their credit is,” Tzekin said.

“But credit cards charge compounded interest, whereas we charge simple interest,” he added.

Insight Partners Principal Rebecca Liu-Doyle describes Wisetack as “a standout in the industry.”

“Wisetack has a differentiated platform for embedded BNPL that is purpose-built to address use cases that are both more complex and less well-served than e-commerce,” she wrote via email.

Note: The article headline was updated post-publication to reflect the accurate funding amount

As BNPL startups raise, a look at Klarna, Affirm and Afterpay earnings

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