Tech responds to Trump on immigration, take two, and Hyperloop hurtles towards its first real road (er, tube) test. That and more in The Daily Crunch for March 7, 2017. 1. Tech's response to Trump's new immigration order Tech's response to the second version of Trump's Muslim immigration ban was more muted than the first, perhaps reflecting a more muted response from media overall. Trump's decision to give a week's advance notice before the ban is actually implemented might be part of the reason why the response has been quieter: the first ban took effect immediately, meaning the tech industry had to act fast to make provisions for affected employees currently abroad. 2. Hyperloop One's desert test track is getting close to completion Hyperloop One showed updated images and footage from its test track under construction in the Nevada desert on Tuesday. The pictures show a significant stretch of tubing, which will eventually house pods traveling at remarkable speed for the first full-scale test of Hyperloop One's tech. That's still set for sometime in the first half of 2017, so watch this space. 3. Lemnos Labs just raised a $50M hardware fund Funding hardware is, like making hardware, hard: It's a fickle market that's likely even more risky than your average startup, and even some of the more solid hardware startups are showing signs of failure recently, including Fitbit. Still, there's still probably room for success, and even potentially for big hits and big returns. 4. The Sonos Playbase is an under-TV soundbar Sonos has its first new hardware in a while, and it's a home theatre accessory. Like the Playbar, it's designed to be used with a TV, but unlike the Playbar, it sits under the TV in stead of in front of it. The sign should help it stay out of the way for TVs that aren't wall mounted, and it's still got all the wireless Sonos and streaming magic on board, too. 5. Twitch creates its own Twitter for gamers I can imagine no more appropriate plot for an episode of Black Mirror than a Twitter made up exclusively of gamers, and yet Twitch has created that on purpose with Pulse, its new dedicated social steam, which allows for text and multimedia update posts. Maybe it'll improve the general quality of discourse on Twitter itself by sapping some of the network's current worst. 6. IBM and Salesforce are teaming up to sell you AI Can a sufficiently advanced AI grasp the concept of 'corporate synergy?' Because that's what IBM and Salesforce are hoping to accomplish by co-selling their artificial intelligence projects to enterprise partners. All the pseudo-AI you can stomach. 7. Justin Kan has a new startup incubator Socialcam, Twitch and Justin.tv co-founder Justin Kan has his own startup incubator now, after the prolific entrepreneur left his role as a partner at Y Combinator. Hopefully he picked up a trick or two, which he can combine with his personal experience actually building companies to give good support for future startups. |
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