Your Tech News Digest via the DGiT Daily Tech Newsletter for Thursday, October 22, 2020.
1. RIP Quibi
It wasn’t good, it wasn’t well executed (no screenshots ?!) and the contents were a real mixed bag with few gems in it.
- Quibi arrived on April 6, a big tough start with lots of advertising, celebrity star power, and two seasoned executives.
- On October 21, 198 days later, Quibi disappeared.
- (And it was free 90 these days).
- ~ $ 1.8 billion raised, around $ 350 million left over from reports.
A rather sad official announcement from Quibi headquarters closed the company saying it was going to wind up and included the following quote:
- “And yet Quibi is not successful. Probably for one of two reasons: because the idea itself wasn’t strong enough to warrant a standalone streaming service, or because of our timing.
- “Unfortunately we’ll never find out, but we suspect it was a combination of the two. We could never have imagined the circumstances of launching during a pandemic, but other companies have faced these unprecedented challenges and found their way through them. We couldn’t. “
The real Quibi autopsies on later books or documentation will be interesting.
2. Oops: Apple has published Qualcomm’s own 5G modem roadmap and naming convention (Android Authority).
3. You may not need Hey Google to use the Google Smart Display Assistant. Ultrasound may be used to activate the device (Android Authority).
4. Before the Huawei Mate 40 Pro unveiling: Everything we know so far (Android Authority).
5. Indian smartphone deliveries hit a record high in the third quarter of 2020 after lows (Android Authority).
6. Jony Ive brings his design talents to… Airbnb. As a reminder, I was key in updating iOS 7, which gave the iPhone a much more modern look (The Verge).
7. Car design is going to change forever, and apparently the design of the future is a… skateboard? (FastCo).
8. Tesla made and shipped record numbers of cars this quarter, but the growth isn’t exactly a rocket ship as the competition paces up (Engadget).
9. It also shows in more detail how difficult autonomous driving is: Viewing unlisted driving videos from autonomous vehicles from GM Cruise shows alarming behavior (Jalopnik).
10. Breathtaking images show NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spaceship kicking up stones on an asteroid (The Verge).
11. What is friction anyway? (Wired).
12. Devilish iron beetles inspire harder connections for technical applications (nature).
13. Banksy’s painting “Show me the Monet” sold for $ 9.81 million. The auction lasted eight minutes (The Guardian).
14. People share the strangest photos they found on property listings. I lived in a place with the shower in the kitchen. It was … ok (deMilked).
15. ELI5: “What do washers actually do during the fastening process?” (R / EXPLAIN likeimfive).
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