At the Geneva Motor Show, the beautiful… and the damned?

 Passing by the glittering, luxury cars, with models draped elegantly over the hoods, you might get the impression that you were witnessing the height of power for the automotive industry. Not only has the internal combustion engine reached dizzying heights of refinement, but the plethora of electric, hybrid and fuel cell engines could leave you wondering if anything more need ever be… Read More

Facebook Messenger’s PM director Martinazzi leaves after launching Day

 Completing almost 8 years at Facebook, Director of Product Management Peter Martinazzi has left the company. His last product, Messenger Day, shipped on Thursday. A Facebook “OG”, Martinazzi was well-liked and respected at the company. He worked with the growth team in some of Facebook’s breakout years before the IPO, and ran all of Messenger product during its modernizing… Read More

Gillmor Gang: Mojo Filter

Gillmor Gang Artcard The Gillmor Gang — Michael Arrington, Keith Teare, John Taschek, Frank Radice, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, March 10, 2017. The Gang blends fake tech news with real media disruption and machine learning-aided AI. Plus the latest G3 with Denise Howell, Francine Hardaway, Mary Hodder, and Tina Chase Gillmor.
@stevegillmor, @arrington, @jtaschek, @kteare, @fradice
Prod/Dir… Read More

Watch Zelda’s directors go deep on creating the masterpiece that is Breath Of The Wild

 The newest Zelda game, Breath Of The Wild, is — and I say this without any attempt at being hyperbolic — an instant masterpiece. I won’t go so far as to call it the best game of all time — but if such a title can exist objectively, this one is certainly in the ring. It’s rare to see something like this thrust into the world and have it so quickly and widely… Read More

The case for tenured voting

 It’s hard to get too worked up about unequal voting rights, which are seen by public market investors as giving founders too much control, while viewed by founders as necessary to protect their companies from short-term shareholders. The reality is that only a minority of companies can command these terms, most famously Google, Facebook, Zynga, Groupon and now Snap. The majority of… Read More

Houston, Kalanick and Zuck walk into a headline

 And a bar called SPiN, where photos of them playing ping-pong have the tech media in a great mood this Friday morning. The reason? At the same time as Houston’s ping pong birthday fun, SPiN was also holding a (wait for it… it’s totally worth it:) “Babes & Balls” party with “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” as the theme. Read More

Self-driving coalition gains safety and mobility members

Ford Fusion autonomous test vehicle The Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets doubled its membership this week. But rather than adding more car manufacturers and tech stars, the coalition added organizations that have a real stake in the implementation of self-driving cars: Mothers Against Drunk Driving, National Federation of the Blind, United Spinal Association, the R Street Institute and Mobility 4 All. Read More

Verizon Ventures and R/GA partner to launch a digital media ‘venture studio’

 Verizon Ventures and R/GA are announcing a new program called the Verizon Media Tech Venture Studio.
Stephen Plumlee, R/GA’s global COO and managing partner of R/GA Ventures, explained that the interactive agency’s “venture studios” started out similar to other startup accelerator programs, but they’ve expanded to provide access to “financial capital… Read More

Hulu’s new live TV service scores A&E’s channels, but not Viacom

 Hulu’s forthcoming live TV streaming service is starting to shape up. Today, the company announced it scored a deal with A&E Networks, which will bring six more channels to the core package, including A&E, History, Lifetime, LMN, FYI, and Viceland. The deal follows others Hulu has made with CBS, 21st Century Fox, and Disney which, combined, add 40 networks to its service… Read More