Virtual Skinny: Ready to Go!

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on November 4, 2019 in Uncategorized 0 Comment

11.3.2019

Good to Know: ICYMI – the Internet turned 50.

THE SKINNY

When It’s Bad News … Five people tragically lost their lives on Halloween night. A shooting went down at an AirBnB party in Orinda, CA.

When You Want to Know How? Turns out a woman rented out a place for one-night only. She said it was for “her asthmatic family members” to escape CA wildfire smoke. But, that was a lie.

When It’s Time to Take Action … AirBnB co-founder and CEO took to Twitter to let people know that the company takes this seriously and will be upping its game “to combat unauthorized parties and get rid of abusive host and guest conduct.”

When You Want More Details … How’s AirBnB going to do this? Well for one, it says it’ll increase manual screenings of “high risk” reservations tagged by its system. It’s also putting together a rapid response team focusing specifically on house parties. The team will be headed up by Margaret Richardson, its VP of Trust. She’s kicking off a 10-day review to see how to go about fixing this issue.

When People Don’t Believe You … AirBnB has its skeptics. Count Jessica Black (a lawyer and founder of Moms Against Short Term Rentals) as one of them. She says AirBnB probably can’t pull off what it’s saying it’ll do. She thinks this is all for show on account of AirBnB plans to go public next year. Time will tell …

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

When You’re Going In A Different Direction … For a while now, Facebook’s said it’s def not banning political ads because … free speech. Over at Twitter, Jack Dorsey said nah, the Twitterverse don’t play that. In a series of tweets, Dorsey let ‘em know: “We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought.” It’s a thread worth reading.

THE STREETS ARE TALKING …

It’s official. Google’s acquired Fitbit for $2.1 billion. Google says not to worry about your health and wellness data. They say it won’t be used for Google ads.

Dog walking app Wag is ready to sell.

Tik Tok is now under investigation by the U.S. because … national security.

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING …

We’re not sure yet. Apple TV+ , HBO Max, and Disney + are coming out with some good stuff. We’ll let ya’ll decide.

CAREER THINGS …

Robots are coming if Russian startup Promobot has anything to do with it. Looks like the robots that’ll be taking over your jobs are also white men. Hmmm …

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Wishing you a happy and productive week! Tell your friends about us. We’d love for them to sign up and join the community! Also, got feedback for us? Is there something you want to see but aren’t? Let us know! Drop a note at virtualskinnynews@gmail.com. Can’t wait to hear from you!

Virtual Skinny: Here We Go!

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on October 28, 2019 in Internet & Tech, Newsletter, Uncategorized 0 Comment

10.27.2019

Good to Know: Want to be a good leader at work? A little kindness goes a long way in three ways: (1) inspires greater results, (2) leads to better ideas, and (3) improves relationships.

THE SKINNY

When You Come Out on Top … Microsoft just landed a $10 billion contract with the U.S. Pentagon for its cloud business called Azure.

What For? The project is called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure aka JEDI. The project’s focused on getting the U.S. military better at war on account of being able to “store and process mass amounts of classified data” and artificial intelligence.

When You’re Not Happy About It … The contract has been pretty controversial in the tech world. Earlier on in the bidding process, rumor had it that Amazon would take the ‘W’ on this one. Other tech companies like IBM and Oracle didn’t think it was a fair process. Oracle even took it up in federal court and took the ‘L’ on that challenge.

When There’s More To It … Oracle and IBM were both ruled out from the process. Google backed out on account of AI ethics concerns. And as for Amazon … well, unfair competition allegations and being generally disliked by the U.S. President probably didn’t help.

What’s Next … Amazon said it was surprised at the decision but no word yet on whether it’ll appeal the procurement decision.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

When You Want to Stay Ahead of the Curve … China’s government is doubling down on blockchain technology. President Xi Jinping said he wants to “keep our country at the very forefront” of blockchain technology. China’s said it’s almost there in issuing a digital currency.

THE STREETS ARE TALKING …

U.S. food delivery company GrubHub seems to be underperforming on account of increased competition from UberEats and DoorDash. The company’s value is down.

E-Scooter company Lime’s giving freelancers a ‘lucrative’ opportunity to re-fuel their scooters and gather up scooters left on city streets. “Freelance juicers” are making up to $50 per hour.

Facebook News is coming … this Friday. Newspapers can be happy because the social network “will start paying for their work.”

Google’s parent company Alphabet has put in a bid to buy FitBit.

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Virtual Skinny: Shhh, Be Quiet

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on October 21, 2019 in Internet & Tech, Newsletter, Uncategorized 0 Comment

10.20.2019

Good to Know: Many of y’all are saying good morning to everyone except your managers. 64% of workers said they’d trust a robot more than their manager.

THE SKINNY

When You’ve Gotta Watch What You Say … China’s not into getting its feelings hurt. Who is?

What’s Going On? Earlier this month, the National Basketball Association (NBA) learned that the hard way. Its Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey posted and deleted his tweet supporting Hong Kong protestors. Even Lebron James piped up and said its ‘his belief’ that Morey was ‘misinformed’ before tweeting. After all that, it was too late for Morey and the NBA to say sorry. Chinese tech company Tencent told the NBA and the Houston Rockets to say bye to the company’s digital streaming of Rocket games. The NBA apologized anyway.

When It’s a Normal Situation … It’s not just the NBA apologizing for saying something China doesn’t like. It happens time and time again – just ask video game company Blizzard Entertainment, Justin Beiber, and Katy Perry. Quartz investigates and says the Chinese market is just too big for foreign companies, organizations, celebrities, etc to risk ruffling China’s feathers. Bottom line? China’s censorship is impacting folks across the globe. Check out the full video.

When You Need to Jump into Drama … During a Georgetown University speech, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg jumped into the convo to partially defend his company’s political ads policy that we talked about last week. He says he’s not tryna be like China, and none of us should want that either. Political ads are free expression and shouldn’t be censored. Hmmmm, ok Mark – tell us anything.

When You Want to Learn More … Listen to NPR’s Marketplace with Daphne Keller to learn why free speech on the internet … is complicated.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

When You Took It a Little Too Far … In his 40 minute speech, Zuck went on to make his free expression argument and mentioned Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr to make his point. Bernice King, MLK Jr.’s daughter, took to Twitter to tell Zuck to keep her father’s name out of his mouth. She let him know that her father was the target of disinformation campaigns. She says she’s available to educate Facebook about this.

Speaking of campaigns … Democratic presidential hopeful for 2020 Elizabeth Warren is continuing with her push to break up Big Tech companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, and companies ‘that earn $25bn or more in global annual revenue.’ She raised it during the last debate and said they’ve got too much power. Andrew Yang disagreed. Yang says he’ll pass on breaking them up but would rather see them more heavily regulated. The Dem candidates then really got into hot topics in tech like data privacy, banning 45 from Twitter, political fundraising etc.

When Income is Anything But Basic … Andrew Yang’s been running on what he calls his ‘Freedom Dividend’ – ‘a universal basic income of $1,000/month, $12,000 a year, for every American adult over the age of 18.’ Universal Basic Income experiments have been going on for some time now. It’s happening right now in Stockton, California. Since February of this year, the city has been running 125 Stockton residents an unconditional $500 check per month. It’s called the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED). The 18-month program is halfway over. And, the verdict? Well, people are still working – 45% to be exact are either working full or part-time. People are spending their extra cash money on food (40%), sales and merchandise (25%), and utilities (~12%) according to the recently released data from the program so far.

THE STREETS ARE TALKING …

Get you an app that can do both. Video app Tik Tok isn’t just for funsies. It’s also teach English in India via EduTok.

While we’re talking about India, Flipkart wants to be an original – in terms of its content.

Lebanese citizens said the government tried it. Lebanon attempted to put a tax on voice calls made via Whatsapp. It was the last straw for citizens already royally p*ssed over the government’s handling of the country’s economic crisis. Things got pretty bad so the government said just kidding about that tax.

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING …

Royals. On Sunday night, British channel iTV aired its documentary with Harry and Meghan where it covered their recent Africa tour. iTV’s Tom Bradby asked Meghan about her well-being. She got emotional and said, “Not many people have asked if I’m ok.” We didn’t cry, but you did. #WeLoveYouMeghan trended. The documentary airs in the U.S. this Wednesday at 10 PM ET on ABC. We’ll be watching …

CAREER THINGS …

Netflix’s looking for product designs and engineers. Hit up product designer Travis McCleery’s DMs for more info or tweet at him (@cleerdesign)

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Virtual Skinny: Keep Raising the Bar!

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on October 14, 2019 in Internet & Tech, Newsletter, Uncategorized 0 Comment

10.13.2019

Good to Know: WHEW – What a weekend! Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge did the unthinkable and ran a marathon in under two hours. The next day, Kenyan runner Brigid Kosegi set a world record in the Chicago Marathon. Former U.S. president Barack Obama shouted them out. And, let’s not forget that U.S. gymnast Simone Biles also became the most decorated gymnast – ever! She’s now got 25 world medals. Focus and discipline, folks. Let’s keep raising the bar! Stepping into the week like … Nailed it!

via GIPHY

THE SKINNY

When You’re Ready to Play … U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is playing Facebook’s ad game. Her campaign said “no fact-checking” policy? Fine.

Wait … But, What Did They Do? Her campaign ran Facebook ads saying that CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a Trump supporter for the 2020 presidential race. Warren’s peeved that Facebook continues to act as what she’s calling “a disinformation for profit machine.” She says the social media company is knowingly allowing political ads filled with lies, fairytales, and fallacies!

When You’re In Good Company … Another U.S. Dem presidential candidate Joe Biden agrees. ICYMI, Biden is at the center of the alleged investigation that Trump may or may not have asked Ukraine’s president to help with back in July. Biden says that Facebook is allowing a Trump ad claiming that Biden promised “Ukraine money for firing a prosecutor investigating a company with ties Hunter Biden.”

When You DGAF … Facebook says tough sh*t. It’s not taking the 30-second ad down on account of “free expression” on the platform.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch … Trump isn’t focused on Facebook. He’s moved onto video streaming platform Twitch to support his re-election campaign.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

When There Are No Tradesies … Chinese AI startups, including video surveillance firm Hikvision and facial recognition company SenseTime Group Ltd and Megvii Technology Ltd., are on the U.S.’s ~~sh*tlist~~ blacklist. What does this mean? These companies can’t buy parts or components from U.S. companies unless the U.S. gives the go ahead. Why? The U.S. Department of Commerce says China’s messing up with how it’s treating Muslim minorities – which is badly. This is separate from ongoing U.S.-China trade talks.

When You’ve Messed Up … Twitter said, “Whoops, my b.” The social media network had a little personal identifiable information mishap when it used email addresses and phone numbers collected for account security reasons and used it for advertising purposes. Unclear how many people this impacted. Yikes! The good news? Twitter said it was only done internally and not with third party partners.

THE STREETS ARE TALKING …

Another week, another media acquisition. Digital media company Group Nine just bought women’s lifestyle mag PopSugar. Sweet!

UberBoat is now a thing in Nigeria. It’s being piloted in Lagos for a couple of weeks.

First, it was PayPal. Now, eBay, Stripe, Mastercard, and Visa are saying ‘sayonara’ to Facebook’s cryptocurrency association – Libra Association. Meanwhile Mark Zuckerberg plans to show up in front of U.S. Congress early next year to talk about the association. Oh and add Portugal to the list of countries giving this whole thing the side eye. We’ll keep tracking …

U.S. food delivery startup Postmates is taking its time with a much-anticipated IPO in 2019 on account of “market conditions.” Things aren’t looking good though as Uber, Lyft, Slack, etc. haven’t exactly been killing it in these Wall … streets (see what we did there?) Speaking of Wall Street .. Goldman Sachs says newly public companies haven’t performed this badly in the market since 1995 …

Whale and dolphin shows are a form of animal cruelty. India, Canada, Brazil, and the UK are on the same page with that. TripAdvisor is now out of the sea animals performing business. The platform no longer offers tickets to those shows even though it’s technically not illegal in the U.S.

Bagless vacuum cleaner inventor James Dyson started working on an electric car project then said never mind. It wasn’t commercially viable venture. BTW, James Dyson’s interview on podcast How I Built This is A1.

Career Things …

When You’re Just Tryna Be Happy … Remote work is the wave. Remote workers report a better quality of life as well as increased happiness and productivity. A recent LinkedIn survey found that 70% of hiring managers offer work from home opportunity available. You just gotta ask …

What’s Playing?

Movie director Ang Li and multi-hyphenated Will Smith just brought us Gemini Man. The movie stars Smith and … a younger version of Smith. Thanks motion-capture technology.

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Virtual Skinny: Ight, Imma Head Out

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on October 7, 2019 in Internet & Tech, Newsletter, Uncategorized 0 Comment

10.6.2019

Good to Know: Did you learn something new recently? You’ve got about 6 days to put that new info into action; otherwise, you’ll forget about 75% of it. It’s called “the forgetting curve.”

THE SKINNY

When You’re Out … Payments company, PayPal, just told Facebook’s Libra Association, “Ight Imma head out.” They’re leaving the association.

What Happened? PayPal said it’s not them, it’s us. They just want to focus on their core business. PayPal wants “to continue to focus on advancing our existing mission and business priorities as we strive to democratize access to financial services for underserved populations.

What’s a Libra? No, we’re not talking Zodiac signs. Libra is a type of cryptocurrency as well as a financial institution led by Facebook and 27 other corporate backers. The association’s mission is for people to be able to “send, receive, spend, and secure their money” in the name of financial inclusion.

When You Want to Know What’s Next … Even though PayPal is out, Visa and Mastercard could be in. Facebook planned to launch Libra in June 2020. But, there are … challenges. Governments (U.S., France, and Germany) around the world are giving Libra the side-eye on account of Facebook and others potentially bypassing existing financial regulations. The U.S. House Financial Services Committee wants to hear from Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg at a hearing towards the end of October. Then, the committee wants to hear from Mark Zuckerberg himself in January 2020.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

When Things Are Rough … Nigeria’s anti-robbery squad aka SARS is targeting members of the Nigerian tech community. Simply being spotted with a laptop could be cause for detaining you as an Internet “fraudster.” You’ve got two options: Pay a bribe or see how things play out via the system. Nigeria’s tech community leaders are leading a crowdfunding campaign to fight against this.

When Net Neutrality is Back in the News … Last year, the U.S. Federal Communications (FCC) decided that net neutrality (rules that says all Internet communications should be treated equally) isn’t a thing. Many people, including online advocacy groups and 22 state attorney generals, were less than thrilled with the decision and sued the FCC. Earlier this month, a court sided with the FCC with some exceptions – namely, states can do what they want when it comes to how they regulate net neutrality.

THE STREETS ARE TALKING …

WeWork won’t be doing that IPO after all, but it does plan to layoff thousands of employees. Ouch …

$300 billion is how large Southeast Asia’s internet economy will grow to by 2025 thanks to online e-commerce and ride-share food delivery.

Social media video app Tik Tok says no to political ads on its platform.

Google is in on the White House’s job training initiative. It plans to train 250K people for tech jobs.

London-based food delivery platform and Europe’s second-fastest growing startup Deliveroo is on the up and up. The company’s sales went up by £200 million in 2018.

Revolut, British -based digital banking app is on a hiring spree. It’s looking to bring on 3,500 new staff across 24 markets.

Vice Media just scooped up Refinery 29.

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Virtual Skinny: Goin’ to Space

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on September 30, 2019 in Uncategorized 0 Comment

9.29.2019

Good to Know: Turns out crying at work is more common than you might think. Monster, Inc’s survey says 8 out of 10 people cry at work, which ultimately surfaces “key” issues that can be discussed, hashed out, and lead to “positive change at work.”

THE SKINNY

When You Need to Check Up on Your Credit … San Francisco-based food delivery service DoorDash let us know that it’s been breached because of an unauthorized third party service.

What’d They Get? Information like “names, email addresses, delivery addresses, order history, phone numbers … and drivers’ license numbers of 100,000 delivery people”. Oh, and the last four digits of credit card numbers.

What’s the Damage? If you signed up for DoorDash after April 5, 2018, then you’re in the clear. As for the 4.9 million other users affected? DoorDash says it’s got ya’ll covered.

Take Action! What to do next? Here are five things you can do if you’ve been caught up in the latest breach.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

When Something’s Happening … You may have heard – U.S. Speaker of the House of Reps Nancy Pelosi announced that she and the Democrats are officially kicking off an impeachment inquiry. Something about Trump allegedly directing Ukraine’s president to work with the U.S. attorney general to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Yes – it’s a whole thing. Looks like people on the Interwebs just want updates and aren’t interested in arguing about it.

When You’re a Motherf*cking ~~Starboy~~ Starship … Elon Musk thinks space travel can be just like air travel. This past weekend, he unveiled Starship – the critical piece that Musk says will have humans boarding flights to space next year. NASA supports Musk and Starship. The U.S. space agency wants Musk to figure out “how to land vehicles on the lunar surface and help develop a system for refueling rockets in space.”

When You’re Speaking Of … Elon Musk says people should study engineering since that occupation won’t be as impacted in an AI world. Meanwhile Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai says no new ~~friends~~ laws to govern AI. Pope Francis warns tech that “increased reliance on robotics for the sake of profits risked depriving people of the dignity of labor.”

THE STREETS ARE TALKING …

WeWork CEO Adam Neumann is out … and his people are following suit.

Disney CEO Bob Iger said no bueno to Twitter at the last minute. Why? Too much “nastiness.”

Tech entrepreneur Angela Benton’s Streamlytics, an L.A. based startup focused on data around what content people are watching across streaming platforms, just got a new partner – actress and creator Issa Rae.

REAL LIFE STUFF …

Americans have got recession on the mind. Their savings are up now more than they have been since 2012. We’re talking being up 8.2% in the first half of this year. Investor Mark Cuban has 7 money and career tips to get young peeps through the pending recession.

Calling all introverts! Apparently pretending to be an extrovert makes you happier – and more money.

If you’re a woman, being “nice” at work won’t allow you to make money moves.

Interested in computer science, public policy, and the public interest jobs? Check out Ben Green’s new jobs list.

LinkedIn wants users to expand their networking circles.

FEEDING THE MIND …

Oprah’s Book Club is back and partnering up with Apple to connect readers worldwide. First up? “The Water Dancer” by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

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Virtual Skinny: Hey Stranger

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on September 16, 2019 in Uncategorized 0 Comment

9.15.2019

Good to Know: It’s been a minute since our last newsletter. Where have we been? In full transparency, life got in the way. But as they say, onwards and upwards. Moving forward, we’ll be in your inbox once a week on Sundays. And this time, we want to hear from you! More details on how you can reach out to us below.

The Skinny

When Money, Power And … Competition Is Not the Key to Life … Or is it? On Friday, September 13, U.S. lawmakers made it clear that they’re not letting up on big tech companies. Looking at you Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple. They want to see these companies’ receipts. You know, to make sure that these big companies aren’t violating antitrust laws. In other words, lawmakers are investigating whether these companies are causing harm to consumers by either stomping out the competition or not even letting them play in the first place.

When They Don’t Trust It … This request for receipts – including documents and internal executive comms – follows the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s July 2019 hearing with mid-level execs showing up to make their case. These companies say they’re doing right by the law. Other expert witnesses like Columbia University law professor Timothy Wu and Yale economic professor Fiona Scott Morton beg to differ. Morton says users have no choice but to give their privacy and be subjected to ads since there are no other alternatives.

When “the More” Doesn’t Necessarily Mean “the Merrier” …It’s not just the U.S. Congress that’s looking into this issue. You can also count the U.S. Justice Department and the Department of Justice. While almost all 50 U.S. state attorney generals are looking into Facebook and Google’s market dominance, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into Amazon and Apple’s iPhone deal where Apple agreed to let Amazon sells its phone directly on the online marketplace. The FTC’s chatting even chatting with third party sellers to figure out how this deal impacted their business. Lastly, throw the European Union to the list. The EU’s former antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager turned EU “digital czar” is eyeing potentially broadening rules on how companies collect and use data. Phew! What a time …

What Else is Going On?

The Jig is up … Potentially on gig economy companies like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash etc. Recently, California passed a bill – aka Assembly Bill 5 – to provide protect workers and provide clarity on when a worker is considered contractor v. employee. Share economy workers being classified means benefits like health care, minimum wage and paid time off. The law extends to contractors outside of the sharing economy and has the support of California Governor Gavin Newsom. He needs to officially sign off before it becomes law. With that said, Uber doesn’t plan to go out like that. The company says it’s going to keep on keeping on classifying its drivers as contractors and not employees. Why? Uber says its drivers aren’t part of its “core business” – a key aspect of the bill – since it’s a tech platform. Hmmmm ok …

The Streets Are Talking …

MoviePass said “Imma head out.” It’s shutting down for now.

Security company Cloudflare showed up for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares were expected to go for $15 each but reached $19.53 before landing at $17.90 to close out its debut.

1 billion downloads. 150 markets in the world. 75 languages. Video-app Tik Tok owned by Chinese startup ByteDance is blowing up not only in China but across the rest of the world. It’s coming for the necks of other content platforms like Netflix, YouTube, and Snapchat.

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee surprised everyone when he announced that he’d “randomly select 10 families and give them a total of $120,000 over the next year as part of a pilot program for his universal basic income plan.”

France and Germany said nah to Libra – a cryptocurrency backed several entities including Facebook. Not a shocker given that Facebook is constantly under fire.

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Tell your friends about us! We’d love for them to sign up and join the party! Also, got feedback for us? Is there something you want to see but aren’t? Let us know! Drop a note at virtualskinnynews@gmail.com. Can’t wait to hear from you!

Virtual Skinny: Friday Alert!

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on September 9, 2016 in Uncategorized 0 Comment

9.9.2016

Good to Know: The U.S. FAA just hit the red alert button on Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones. Don’t even think about turning it on during a flight on account of its explosive batteries. Exhibit A.

THE SKINNY

When You Make the Effort …

AirBnB is stepping its anti-discrimination policy game all the way up.

When You’ve Been Exposed …

In Dec. 2015, Harvard University hosted its very own #ExposeParty when it dropped a bombshell of a report calling out some exclusionary behavior taking place on AirBnB. The paper said that users with ‘African-American- sounding names’ had a hard time simply booking reservations. It’s the ole “we’re booked for those dates” excuse. #AirbnbWhileBlack

When You’ve Gotta Move Quick …

Can you say damage control? AirBnB brought in heavy-hitters like former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and former director of American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington legislative office Laura W. Murphy to give their two cents on what it can do to reduce discrimination on its platform.

When You Want to Hear Solutions …

Murphy put together the 32-page report with some practical fixes. Starting Nov. 1, users must agree to treat others on the platform fairly and sans bias. Other things will happen like ‘instant booking’ so people can make reservations without first getting approval from the host. And, AirBnB plans to focus less on users’ photos and more on objective information on people’s profiles.

When You’ll Wait and See…

Verdict is still out on whether these changes will actually work. Mixed reviews from advocacy groups and even from founders of competing startups targeting people of color. But, it all raises a bigger question of Internet companies’ role in changing social attitudes and perceptions.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

Out with the Old, In with the New …

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission wants to make your cable TV watching a little easier. This week, the agency put out its final proposal on those expensive cable boxes. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler doesn’t want your cable provider (think: Comcast) to force you to rent pricey cable boxes. He’d much rather the provider offer an app for people to stream content on their device of choice (Apple TV, Roku, etc.). Wheeler says the change would be good innovation. The agency is set to vote on the proposal later this month (Sept. 29). Who knows? The cable industry may finally catch up to 2016. #SorryNotSorry

Trying to Stop A Moving Train …

Fun Fact: For many years, the U.S. oversaw the basic operations of the Internet. But like most good things, that is coming to an end. The U.S. plans to transition its oversight duties to ICANN. Formally, known as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The nonprofit group deals with the Internet’s daily operations. The transition is supposed to go down October 1st, but some Republicans aren’t having it. Four top Republicans just sent a letter to the Obama Administration basically saying that the switch won’t be going down on their watch. Reason for the opposition? They don’t want the U.S. to “giv[e] up control” of the Interwebs. The Internet and broader tech community says that’s not the case. The community sees it as a positive for the Internet’s global support. Republicans probably don’t have the votes to stop the transition, but it’ll at least make for good political drama heading into election season this fall.

THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’

The 90s comeback game is so strong. Super Mario is coming to the iPhone.

Alphabet (formerly known as Google) is teaming up with Chipotle to deliver burritos via drone. Virginia Tech will be the first test-site because it’s FAA approved.

You can now hail a ride from Lyft or Gett directly from Google Maps.

Norway is calling out Facebook for removing its Prime Minister’s post of the Pulitzer-prize winning ‘napalm girl’ photo during the Vietnam war.

Snapchat just hired Morgan Stanley to take out a new line of credit. The Information is reporting that the company’s gearing up for an IPO. Maybe, maybe not …

MAKING MOVES

While we’re on Snapchat, the company just hired former White House strategic communications advisor Rachel Racusen. Racusen is Snapchat’s new Director of Communications .

WOD (WORD OF THE DAY)

IPO: Known as ‘initial public offering.’ The first time when a private company releases stock to the public. Reasons for an IPO vary (e.g., to raise money to grow the company more or to allow the company’s owners and employees to make money off of their company stock).

Goat App, Marketplace for Shoes, Raises $5 Million

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on August 31, 2016 in Culture, Fashion, Uncategorized 0 Comment

GOAT aka ‘Greatest of All Time’ isn’t just a phrase in one of Drake’s lyrics or a nod to athletes with undeniable talent and accomplishments, it’s also the name of one the hottest sneaker apps.

Created by Eddy Lu and Daishin Sugano as a last-ditch ‘hail Mary’ after a few other failed startup attempts, GOAT is basically Nasty Gal (at its core an e-commerce site for vintage clothes) for shoes. The app is a resale marketplace for people to buy and sell ‘rare sneakers.’ The difference between GOAT and other marketplace platforms? GOAT steps in an intermediary to inspect buyers’ ‘merch’ for quality before it’s delivered to their doors.

According to Recode, during Black Friday 2015, GOAT launched a pretty ballsy strategy to get people to download the app. It offered impossible to get shoes – Kanye West’s Yeezy Boost 350) – at a discounted price. Naturally, chaos ensued. So many sneaker-heads bombarded the app until it crashed. Harsh words from potential app users + 10,000 potential sellers on your waitlist = Mission accomplished!

GOAT just raised $5 million and is looking to transition its wait listed sellers into active users without skimping on quality of service. It’s also looking to make a little bit of profit sooner rather than later.

Check out a video below of a GOAT user’s review of the app. He seems pretty happy about it. What about you? Would you use this app? Tell us what you think in the comments.

Virtual Skinny: Space(d) Out …

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on March 3, 2016 in Internet & Tech, Newsletter, Uncategorized

3.3.2016

Good to Know: American astronaut Scott Kelly came back down to Earth after spending 340 days in space. And in other space news, NASA continues to work on bringing the Internet (high speed networks) to galaxies far, far away.

THE SKINNY

When You Need To make space…

Google, Inc. wants to come in between us and the Zika virus. It is throwing resources – as in volunteer engineers and about US $1 million in grant money – to the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

When You Need A Reminder …

Zika, which is transmitted by mosquitoes and has been linked to causing microcephaly in newborns, has been wreaking havoc across the Americas for a minute now. So much so, that the World Health Organization gave it the official “public health emergency” stamp. Note: Microcephaly tends to cause newborns to have unusually small heads, which leads to other defects.

When You’re Coming Up with Solutions, Not Problems …

Google wants to create an open source platform intended to map out the virus’ spread and i.d. potential outbreaks by looking at things like travel and weather patterns and other data points. Why stop there? Well, it’s not. The Internet industry vet also wants people to learn more about the virus via a new web-based campaign among other things (i.e., develop a vaccine since one doesn’t currently exist).

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

When You Just Need to Get Used To It …

We’ll probably be talking Apple v. FBI for a while. This week, both sides took their arguments to U.S. Capitol Hill. And now, FBI Director James Comey is saying “our b.” During a hearing, Comey admitted that the FBI made the wrong decision by changing the Apple ID password linked to one of the San Bernardino shooters’ phones – a “180” from the agency’s previous statement.

When You’ve Watched One Too Many Episodes of ‘Lock Up…’

Earlier this week, Brazilian law enforcement picked up Diego Dzodan, Vice President of Facebook Latin American, in Sao Paulo. By now, it’s pretty much the same story, different script: Criminal activity (drug trafficking in this case) + law enforcement wanting information + WhatsApp denying law enforcement’s request = Judge Ordering WhatsApp to fork over the info. Well, the company stood its ground and said it doesn’t have access to what the police wants, which led to Dzodan’s arrest. FB isn’t pleased, particularly since WhatsApp operates as a separate entity. Meanwhile, over in Germany, FB is under fire for being too big and abusing its power with regards to user data.

THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’

uberMoto, Uber’s motorbike hailing service, is now a thing in Bangalore, India. The company responsible for putting ride-hailing apps on the map is stepping its international expansion game all the way up. It’s shelling out US $250 million to get into areas like the Middle East and Africa. As of today, Uber’s now live in Pakistan.

Kenyan smartphone app, The Portable Eye Examination Kit (Peek), is making eye screening easy for schools located in rural areas of the country.

Tired of seeing pics of your friends’ kids every two seconds on FB? France may be the place for you. The government’s telling parents in the country to stop posting pics of their kids on FB in the name of protecting their privacy and security. Seems like it could be a win-win for everyone involved.

Watch out, Skype and Google Hangouts … New chat app Slack is coming for you with its soon to be launched video and voice feature. Side note: Slack is killing the fundraising game! The startup has raised over a billion dollars in just a year. #Impressive

Not so great news for SurveyMonkey employees … The cloud-based polling service is working to better its business offerings and will drop about 100 employees along the way.

BTW, new app No More Voicemail wants people to talk less and text more #YesPlease