Virtual Skinny: We Made It!

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on September 20, 2016 in Internet & Tech, Newsletter 0 Comment

9.20.2016

Good to Know: ‘Skittles are candy; refugees are people’ – Statement made by Wrigley, the makers of Skittles, after Donald Jr. tweeted a meme comparing refugees to skittles. Add that to the long list of things not to do in politics alongside posting a question to Reddit about how to strip a ‘VERY VIP’s’ email address from archived e-mails.

MAMA, WE MADE IT!

Hope your week is starting off as awesome as ours. We’re happy to announce that the Virtual Skinny turns 1 this month! Thank you for keeping up with us. Celebrate by helping spread the word about us to your friends! Please ask five of your closest friends to join the fun and subscribe at thevirtualskinny.com.

THE SKINNY

When You Say Yes to DriveRless …

The Obama Administration just gave a thumbs up to self-driving cars with some gentle guidance. Yesterday, President Obama penned an Op-Ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to talk about it. (Fun Fact: Pittsburgh is also where Uber’s testing out its self-driving fleet).

When This Isn’t A Free for All …

This week, the U.S. Transportation Department issued guidelines on how driverless cars can strike the right balance between being a cool, new innovation while keeping people safe on the road. But, how? The focus is less on specific regulations (Think: seat belt laws) and more on best practices like how driverless cars should respond when the technology fails, protecting passenger privacy, and protecting passengers during a crash. The government’s also looking to get data on companies’ latest systems and crashes that occur. It’s all part of the 15-point safety standard.

When You Hear Something …

That’s the sound of the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets advocacy group applauding this move by the U.S. government. Its members are the usual suspects: Google’s parent Alphabet Inc., Ford Motor Co., Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc., and Volvo Car Corp. Tesla Motors is noticeably missing.

When You Draw The Line Somewhere…

The Obama Administration made it clear. It’ll leave things like driver’s licenses, car registrations, traffic laws, insurance, and legal liabilities to the states to handle. But, the federal government has marked its territory when it comes to laying down any law when it comes to driverless cars.

When You’re Looking to the Future …

Director of the National Economic Council Jeffrey Zients said the future will have us all saying ‘look ma, no hands’ while freeing up commuters to relax or get some work done. Way more productive than the occasional road rage. Zients says autonomous cars ‘will save time, money, and lives.’ Ride-hailing service Lyft is right there with him. The company’s president John Zimmer predicts that most Lyft rides will be in self-driving cars by 2021.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

When You Hit the Panic Button …

Over the weekend, New York and New Jersey got a major scare. First, an explosion went down in New Jersey near the a charity race (luckily no one was injured). Then, another in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood. This time 29 people were injured but not seriously. Authorities sent out a ‘loud’ emergency alert to NYC residents’ smartphones letting them know to look out for the suspect – 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami. He’s since been apprehended. Investigations are under way. Meanwhile, Uber is getting slammed for surge pricing right after the NYC explosion. And, angry Internet users are leaving negative reviews of First American Fried Chicken (Rahimi’s family-owned restaurant) on Yelp.

When There are exceptions to the rules …

Skittles are to refugees as bitcoin is to dollar bills. In other words, the U.S. federal government has been pretty clear that bitcoin isn’t ‘legal tender’ aka ‘real money.’ But, that’s not a hard and fast rule. There’s one exception. Bitcoin is considered money if it’s involved in a financial crime. Anthony Murgio learned that the hard way. Murgio is alleged to have illegally run Coin.mx, a bitcoin exchange involved in the cybercrime ring that targeted firms like JPMorganChase. Prosecutors brought two charges against Murgio. He tried to be slick by using the ‘bitcoin aren’t funds’ argument. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan didn’t buy it and said that Murgio’s charges still stand.

THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’

Let’s get social …

Twitter’s finally allowing its users to send out longer tweets. You’ll still have 140 characters to say what you need to but images, videos, GIFs, and polls won’t count.

Facebook’s showing more signs that it’s getting serious about its #NextBillion users. The company just brought on Anand Chandrasekaran, formerly of India e-commerce startup Snapdeal, to help lead the company’s efforts on Messenger.

Is It Time for Another Vacation, Yet?

Google Trips is a new mobile app to help planning each day of your upcoming trip a little easier. Need information on day plans, reservations, things to do, or food & drink? It’s gotchu.

When You’re Still Shopping Around…

Facebook has always got something going on. This time, it’s focusing on hardware. The company just bought California startup Nascent Objects, creators of the ‘first modular consumer electronic platform.’ That’s nerd speak for creating a space where average non-techie folks can design and test out new products at low costs.

Google snatched up API.AI, a company that helps build Siri-type bots that can have decent chats with humans in 15 languages including English, Chinese, French, Spanish, and German.

In Other Good News …

Larry Ellison isn’t mincing words. Oracle’s gearing up to take on Amazon in the cloud services game. The company plans to take an aggressive approach.

School’s back in session. And this fall, 2,000 schools in the U.S. will offer AP Computer Science courses. #ThanksObama

The United Nations’ released a mini-documentary called Clouds Over Sidra about a young Syrian refugee. The organization quickly found out that virtual reality (VR) headsets are the ‘the ultimate empathy machine.’ VR helps people feel more connected to a subject, then they feel compelled to donate funds.

HELLO WORLD!

AirBnb just bought Barcelona-based startup Trip4Real, offering a marketplace for activities during your next vay-cay.

South African Internet firm Naspers is getting into the online classified ads game Stateside. It’s going after Craigslist – big time.

WOD (WORD OF THE DAY)

The ‘Cloud’: AKA ‘cloud computing’; Not an actual ‘cloud’ involving condensed water vapor. But rather, the term refers to storing information on servers that are housed in remote data centers. We can access information pretty easily via the InterWebs (think DropBox). And now, businesses are getting in on the cloud because it’s reliable, secure, and cost-effective. Businesses aren’t settling for just storing their information in offsite locations. They’re also moving towards running applications and services directly from the cloud! #TheMoreYouKnow

Virtual Skinny: ClickBait…

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on August 8, 2016 in Internet & Tech, Newsletter 0 Comment

8.8.2016

Good to Know: It’s #InternationalCatDay. BTW, over the weekend, the hashtag #FirstSevenJobs was trending thanks to @mariancall. People shared their first seven jobs. Did you? If not, it’s not too late! Take a min, reflect a little, and tweet at us (@virtual_skinny)!

THE SKINNY

When You’re Just Looking Out (For clickbait)…

Facebook doesn’t want its users to deal with ‘clickbait’ articles in your newsfeed.

When You Need To Use It In A Sentence …

Clickbait aka articles with headlines that leave you feeling misled, tricked, or underwhelmed after clicking the link (e.g., Headline: You won’t believe what XYZ celeb did! The Actual Content: [Insert uninteresting, mundane activity like a grocery story run].

When They’ve Heard You Loud & Clear …

Facebook users aren’t amused and complain about these annoying clickbait articles. So, FB decided to put some brainpower behind solving the problem. FB employees have narrowed down types of click bait into two groups. Category 1: ‘Curiosity gap headlines’ (see example above) and Category 2: Flat out misleading headlines.

When You’ve Found A Solution …

FB’s changed up its algorithm so that publishers who dabble with the worst type of clickbait just simply won’t reach the number of FB users they’d like. But no need to go to basic, boring, and bulky headlines just yet. FB’s only going after the worst offenders.

When Others Chime in…

Last night, John Oliver dug deep into journalism and even talked ‘clickbait’ and what that means for the future of journalism.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

Didn’t They Tell You That I Was a Savage?

In case you haven’t heard, Instagram hit ‘copy and paste’ on Snapchat’s Stories. That’s right … Insta pulled a boss move and copied Snapchat’s Stories feature. The basic concept is that you can post pics at the top of your newsfeed, but it’ll “disappear” after a day. Insta’s version is called ‘Instagram Stories.’ #ShockerButNotReally Turns out people seem to like it better. And business wise, Snapchat should be worried. Instagram’s got a larger audience (its 350 million daily users v. Snapchat’s 150 million users) and possibly better tools. Uh Oh!

THE STREETS ARE TALKIN

E-commerce site Jet.com tried to take on e-commerce giant Amazon. But, it didn’t work. Walmart stepped in and paid $3 billion in cash money for Jet.com. Now, it’s back to the Wal-Mart v. Amazon matchup. Advantage, Walmart?

Back on! Online fantasy sports sites FanDuel and DraftKings can now legally operate again in New York. But, there’s a catch. NY Governor Andrew Cuomo says the sites’ contests are now considered a “game of skill,” which basically means NY regulators will be watching. And, the sites will have to pay new fees.

Google is off to the races in India. The company’s winning the emerging market (ahead of Facebook and Microsoft) with its free Wi-Fi program, and that’s major! #NextBillion

Yahoo’s going through things right now. But, it’s still got its eye on the prize. It’s launching Yahoo View, a TV watching site, with the help of Hulu.

In more TV watching news, Comcast, Time Warner, Disney, etc. have all poured money into online companies to reach younger audiences. But not Viacom. The company hasn’t gone down the digital investments road yet. Rumor has it that Viacom has its eye on BuzzFeed. Unlikely, but anything’s possible…

Speaking of not making investments, Chinese Internet giant Alibaba has no plans to get involved with U.S. streaming service Netflix.

MAKING MOVES

Twitter just lost a member of its Comms team. Jim Prosser is heading over to marketplace lending company SoFi.

Everyone’s trying to be a tech company, including healthcare and consumer goods company Johnson & Johnson. J&J is kicking of its new tech business with the help of former Dropbox exec Marc Leibowitz.

After almost 8 years on Google’s self-driving car projects, Chris Urmson is peacing on account of he’s ‘ready for a fresh new challenge.’

And now that Verizon is buying Yahoo, the Internet company’s VP of global PR & Communications Anne Espiritu is ready to dip. She’s going the startup route and is joining health-care company Oscar Insurance Corp.

Virtual Skinny: Need A Moment

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on March 8, 2016 in Internet & Tech, Newsletter 0 Comment

3.8.2016

Good to Know: Let’s take a moment of silence for Raymond Tomlinson, aka, the man who put the “@” in email addresses. He passed away at 74 over the weekend. #RIP

THE SKINNY

When People Are No Longer Checkin’ For You …

For the first time in five years, more U.S. residents are moving out of Silicon Valley than those that are moving in…

When You Need To Rephrase That …

To be clear, the talent pool is still growing thanks to highly educated foreign-born workers but homegrown talent is dipping out of the area in search of more affordable housing.

When You’ve Been Replaced …

People are migrating to smaller tech hubs like Seattle and Austin with each city bringing additional 17,000 and 720 workers, respectively. These days, turns out things are slowing all the way down in Silicon Valley and San Francisco’s tech sector (e.g., companies laying off peeps and venture capital money drying up).

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

Good News, Finally …

Lately, it’s been a tough road for DraftKings, FanDuel, and fantasy sport sites in general. After a slew of bad news, the industry finally got a breaky-break. Virginia (VA) just passed the “Fantasy Contests Act,” intended to allow those sites to be on the up and up in the state. The law would require these sites to do things like go through two independent audits each year, pony up US $50K to operate in Virginia, make sure all players on the sites are 18+, and make sure employees aren’t participating in their public contents, etc. Good looks, VA.

We’re Not Gonna Take This …

Last week, a New York federal judge said ‘nice try’ to the U.S. government in its against Apple, Inc. The government brought the case against Apple because the company refused to give it access to one of the iPhones involved in one of its investigations. Now, the government is appealing on account of it thinks that Apple can bypass the phone’s passcode to give the government access with no problems. Per usual, we’ll keep you posted on how this appeal turns out … In other news, Mac computers are under attack by Ransomeware. And, the software works in the way you’d think the name implies. Hackers infect your computer with the software, encrypt your data, and then the hackers ask you to hand over digital $$$ to get your data back. #SAVAGE

THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’

Taking advantage of the situation? Who knows, but what we do know is … After Facebook failed to convince India’s government to accept its Free Basics program to bring Internet access to rural India, Google is now in talks with Indian telecoms to kick off its Project Loon. The project shares similar goals with Free Basics except it plans to use balloons to bring the people affordable Internet access.

Style Code Live, Amazon’s first live online show, is available tonight and is … wait for it … free! It’s a daily fashion and beauty show if you’re into that type of thing. In more Amazon news, it’s putting together its very own virtual reality program and is on the look out for a software development manager to take the lead. And, its second physical bookstore is setting up shop in San Diego. #GoodReads

Ryan Lewis, one-half of the Macklemore and Ryan Lewis duo, is getting into the startup game with his company Disruptive Multimedia featuring a tool called Superphone to scoop up info on customer relationship management and direct sales. The plan is to use the tool to figure out how to monetize audiences. Looks like venture capitalist and investor Ben Horowitz is here for it.

Virtual Skinny: Did You Hear?

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on February 11, 2016 in Internet & Tech, Newsletter 0 Comment

2.11.2016

Good to Know: It’s that time of year again … Valentine’s Day is coming up. Dating apps are changing this up. Here’s 5 of them.

THE SKINNY

When You Listen to Kanye West who took advice from “50”…

Twitter’s switchin’ its style up to hopefully watch its money pile up.

When You Make Things Easy …

Following reports last week from BuzzFeed, the micro-blogging site is in fact making changes to its timeline. But, it’s not what you think. To clear the air, no Twitter isn’t turning into Facebook so we can all cool it with the #RIPTwitter hashtags.

When You Step away for a hot minute …

Some Twitter users follow many, many people. But, who really has time to check tweets all day? Twitter doesn’t want its users to miss the good stuff so it’s making two very similar but different changes. First up, the company will start placing more tweets at the top of users’ timelines (personalized, of course). And second, when users launch their Twitter apps, they’ll be greeted with the “best” tweets right out the gate. Confusing, but we’ll figure it out.

Keep ‘Em Coming Back For More …

Turns out CEO Jack Dorsey couldn’t do much to up Twitter’s user numbers (305 million monthly users) at the end of 2015. The company knows that it needs to make the platform more user-friendly, but it’s a work in progress.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

When Cam Newton Isn’t The Only “Sore Loser…”

The Indian government dealt Facebook a blow earlier this week when it put the kibosh on the social network’s Free Basics program. The effort was intended to help spread Internet access across India by offering a bare bones version of the Web (the technical term is zero-rating). Civil societies in India opposed the program and turns out that their advocacy game is strong. Ultimately, the Indian government essentially banned the program. The Zuck put out a statement expressing his disappointment in the decision but also his commitment to the country. Reports speculate that this decision could potentially negatively impact the company. But before we even get there, the Zuck had to put out yet another statement distancing himself from one of his board members, Marc Andreessen. What did Andreessen say? Let’s just say he referenced colonialism in a tweet convo … Yikes! Many people were understandably upset … Andreessen has since apologized …

When You Don’t Play By The Rules …

Parker Conrad, Co-Founder and CEO of online HR software company Zenefits, is back in the market for a new job. The company grew pretty quickly and became a $4.5 billion in almost no time.But turns out, things don’t work out when you cut corners. The startup operates in the highly regulated industry of insurance, but the company wasn’t exactly on the up and up with compliance, licensing, etc. The company wants to get right with its paperwork and processes so now Parker’s out, and the company’s Chief Operating Officer David Sacks is in …

Wha???

FBI Director James Comey wants people to know that the U.S. government doesn’t want special access to your devices. No, not at all. Comey said they’d rather just have companies like Apple, Google and Facebook to keep your encrypted data just in case the government needs it. *Head Tilt* While we’re talking encryption, two members of the U.S. Congress just introduced a bill that would ban states from passing laws, which would prevent manufacturers from encrypting smartphones. New York and California have already seen these type of proposals. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) don’t this is exactly feasible so they’re trying to stop the madness.

THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’

HBO came out with its HBO NOW streaming service for all you cordcutters, but things aren’t picking up like people thought it would. The service only has 800,000 subscribers.

Verizon Communications is in the market for another Internet company. Looking at you, Yahoo.

Unlike Kenya’s government, Hungary is showing ride hailing app service Uber no love. The country’s considering banning the app.

Wanna step your selfie game up to Kardashian status? Easy … Just pony up US $55 for a Lumee lighting phone case.

Seems like everyone and their moms is on WhatsApp. But, Pope Francis does want he wants. He’s opting for messaging app Telegram to reach out to young peeps during Lent.

Virtual Skinny: Netflix and …

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on January 22, 2016 in Internet & Tech, Newsletter

1.22.2016

Good to Know: If you’re in the Northeast U.S. (NE), here’s what you need to binge watch on Netflix while taking cover from #WinterStormJonas. And if you’re not in the NE, then lucky you!

THE SKINNY

When You’re Not Captain Planet …

Turns out that sending that one line e-mail is bad for the environment – right up there with printing multiple pages … Single-sided.

What Now?

Social media researcher Danah Boyd is making the case at this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Boyd says it’s easier for people to associate cutting down trees for paper and delivery trucks’ exhaust emissions with things that are probably destroying the environment. But, it’s hard for people to wrap their heads around their online activities’ environmental impact.

It’s Not Much Ado About Nothing …

People’s online information is stored in the “cloud” aka a network of Internet servers located around the world, and these servers eat up a ton of electricity.

What Are We Going To Do About This?

Already, tech companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook are letting us know what their doing to remain environmentally friendly. To go one step further, Boyd suggests “branding apps and tech services with the same sort of certification that the U.S. Green Building Council provides to eco-friendly structures.”

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

When Hate Doesn’t Drive Out Hate …

Facebook is encouraging its users to fight hate speech with positivity. The company’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told an audience at Davos that countering negative comments with positive messages is the way to go. It’s what she calls “the Like Attack.” The platform’s got some other things up its sleeve to combat extremists and terrorism (e.g., partnering with the U.S. government to urge college students to kick off anti-terrorism campaigns, teaming up with the German government on id-ing and taking down hate speech, and playing Switzerland with its News Feed algorithm when it comes to hate speech v. positive speech).

That’s Different…

Home-sharing service AirBnB is getting serious about its intentions with cities all across America. The company’s so serious that it’s asking the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a group of political heavy-hitters, to impose taxes on its service. No joke … the company says it’s already paying about $42 million in taxes to 16 cities and is prepared to do the same with 50 of America’s biggest cities. AirBnB legit wants show cities that it’s committed to making things right and paying their fair share. Hotels and home-sharing platform AirBnB have been at odds since day one. Unsurprisingly, hotels aren’t buying it.

When You Have A Rough Week …

Twitter and Square’s stock took a dive this week along with the rest of the stock markets. Each company’s poor performance bumped their CEO Jack Dorsey down a notch from billionaire to millionaire status. If that’s not bad enough, now rumors are cropping up again that the micro-blogging site may be up for sale. Oy!

THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’

The Facebook Sports Stadium is a thing now for all you social media-loving, sports fans. The feature will let you keep up on posts and comments from your friends, celebs, and journalists on the latest sporting events. Just in time for NFL playoffs and March Madness.

Happy Birthday, WeChat! The Chinese mobile messaging app turns five. It’s been through a lot in that time. We’re talking an upgrade from just simply chatting with friends to being able to buy stuff, watch videos, and make voice/video calls, etc.

Lots of Twitter rumors. Reports are saying the platform is thinking about expanding its 140-character limit to 10k characters. In the meantime Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, has already confirmed its plans. The Chinese site is expanding its character limit to 2k.

Switzerland could be the new hot spot for early-stage startups.

Indian e-commerce company Snapdeal could be going public in its home country.

The Virtual Skinny: Time Flies!

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on January 8, 2016 in Internet & Tech, Newsletter

1.8.2016

Good to Know: ‘ILI’ is described as the first wearable translation device. Seems like a bomb product, right? But then, this happened. #MarketingFail

THE SKINNY

Time for a Pow-Wow…

Tech leaders and White House officials are getting together today to talk terrorism.

Who’s On the List?

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, presidential counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, National Intelligence Director James Clapper, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and reps from Twitter, Apple, Google, and Facebook allegedly.

What’s on the Agenda?

(1) How to make things easier for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to I.D. terrorist groups online. (2) Ways to make things that much more difficult for militant and terrorist groups to recruit peeps via social media. (3) Specifically, how to use technology to throw militant operatives off of their violent radicalization and recruitment game.

Team Work Usually Makes The Dream Work …

But, tech companies have a tough balance to strike. While they want to seem cooperative, they also don’t want to appear too friendly with governments. Post Edward Snowden leaks, companies helping governments with surveillance is just not a good look.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

Warning Shots …

Pretty much everyone and their moms in the tech world are jazzed up about next-gen products. But, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is letting tech companies know that they should tread lightly. The agency wants companies to watch how they are collecting and using massive amounts of users’ data aka “big data.” The FTC definitely understands that “big data” could have some important social benefits (e.g., proving people’s creditworthiness for loans), but it wants companies’ to make sure they are doing what they can to decrease social biases.

Who Does That Anymore?

If it’s up to social network Facebook, you should just forget about making regular calls and text messages. Facebook Messenger has now got over 800 million users. The company not only wants to take over how you communicate with your peeps, but it’s got a virtual assistant feature in the works to help with your scheduling, shopping, etc. Pretty cool …

We Want In …

When you see an opportunity, jump on it immediately! That’s exactly what crowdfunding platform Indiegogo is doing with its new “enterprise crowdfunding” consulting service. Crowdfunding has typically been reserved for artist-types and pretty much anyone with a slightly weird but innovative idea. Big brands like Brookstone want to be innovative too and are eyeing crowdfunding platforms. Why? Two reasons: (1) Major brands want to learn a thing or two about crowdfunding, and (2) crowdfunding platforms are a good place to scout out potential products/partnerships. Basically, a win-win situation.

THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’

It’s the same thing Netflix does every night … Try and take over the world. This week at a mega tech conference in Las Vegas, the streaming service announced that it’s now live in over 130 counties. #BizGoals

The new year may be off to a very rough start for some Yahoo employees. The company’s expected to let go of at least 10% of its workforce.

Going … going … GONE! Looks like the fashion deal site Gilt Groupe may have been a victim of its own flash sale model. The company sold yesterday for $250 Mill to Hudon’s Bay, the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue. The sale price is a mark down from the $286 Mill that Gilt previously raised.

Social scrapbooking site Pinterest is getting serious about increasing its diversity. The company just brought on Candice Morgan help step its game up.

Turns out giving young people Internet access via mobile devices is a recipe for success. And, these days India’s the place to be for Internet companies. That’s exactly why Tinder is setting up shop in Delhi.

And ICYMI, Twitter is trying to keep its users so the platform’s playing around with a 10,000 word character limit instead of the 140 we’re used to… Some people think this is no bueno. We could see a change in the next couple of months.

The Virtual Skinny: Happy Holidays from Us to You!

Posted by The Virtual Skinny on December 22, 2015 in Internet & Tech, Newsletter

12.22.2015

Good to Know: See here for our our end of year note to you! Yesterday, we branched out a bit and released the first newsletter of our new financial technology (FinTech) weekly series. 2015 has been great, and we’re looking forward to an even better 2016! We’ll see you back here on Tuesday, January 5, 2016! Happy New Year!

THE SKINNY

In 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully launched and landed its Falcon 9 rocket yesterday after the rocket launched 11 satellites into space.

If At First You Don’t Succeed…

After some failed attempts in landing Falcon 9 over the past year, SpaceX dusted itself off and tried again. This isn’t a case where we can say “NBD” because it is in fact a very big deal. It marks the first time that a rocket of the Falcon’s size and complexity has shot deep into space then made a safe and controlled return back down to Earth. The usual outcome? Rockets launched into orbit are usually either destroyed or lost. Huge step for reusable rockets, which could mean major cost-savings for space travel.

#FunShade or #ShadyShade?

People celebrated the occasion, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who also owns his own space startup called Blue Origin, chimed in with a tweet. Bezos tweeted “…Welcome to the club.” That was a reference to what Blue Origin did about a month ago, which was very similar to Falcon 9’s mission. Differences being that the Blue Origin effort was a trial (not a real mission), and Blue Origin’s rocket was on a “suborbital” flight (i.e., it didn’t go quite as high as Falcon 9). On that note, we’re gonna say #FunShade.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

You’re Not Hearing Us …

Tech companies’ rejection of governments’ requests to gain more access to their users’ personal info is fast becoming their least favorite pastime. The latest? The United Kingdom (UK) now has a bill known as the “Investigatory Powers” bill that would take things a little too far. Internet and tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Yahoo want no part in hacking their own users’ information on behalf of the UK. These companies are speaking out against the bill because it has potential to violate other countries’ laws where they operate. The UK wants everyone to chill as it simply wants to make sure things like child sexual exploitation and crime cartels are handled. The struggle continues …

Lawyer Up!

Google’s experimenting with its driverless cars and turns out that following traffic rules isn’t always safe. Since human drivers don’t always play by the rules on the road, there are more traffic accidents with the driverless cars than expected. Humans are to blame, of course. But, what happens if there’s a computer glitch and an accident occurs? If driverless cars go commercial, plaintiff lawyers may have a field day. The possibilities of whom to blame for accidents involving driverless cars could be endless … One more thing: Google’s said to be partnering with Ford on making the driverless car thing happen by 2020.

When You Mess up, But Not As Badly as Miss Universe Host Steve Harvey ….

Facebook’s effort to bring Internet access to the entire globe, Internet.org, is under fire in India. The issue is whether the program goes against net neutrality since it offers only a few select apps for free to participants and not the whole web. FB’s been sending out notifications to users in India to express their support of the program to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRIA). U.S. users received similar notifications, which people found strange. FB said “our b …” It was a mistake. BTW, whatever TRIA decides about Internet.org is a big deal. For one, India is a massive growth market for FB, and other emerging markets like Brazil and Indonesia will be watching. #NoPressure

THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’

Short videos are the new selfies if Apple and Facebook have anything to do with it. Look for that feature on FB in 2016.

Word to the wise: Don’t let people waste your time and be strategic about how you spend every minute of the day. That’s how Jack Dorsey is able to be the boss man of Twitter and mobile payments company Square at the same time. Jack definitely needs more sleep. Being the boss is hard…

Twitter just filed a patent for “messaging with or from” drones … Interesting …

Operating system Android is still killing it in the U.S. market (sorry iOS).

Apps can be used for good and not just games. Social entrepreneurs are trying to figure out how to use apps to fight human trafficking.