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Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Samsung rules the chipmaking world. It's The Daily Crunch.

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THE DAILY CRUNCH
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31 2018 By Darrell Etherington

Samsung takes the chipmaking crown, Google wants to warn you about flight delays and Uber looks at bike sharing. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for January 31, 2018.

1. Samsung is now the world's biggest chipmaker

Samsung is the world leader in terms of total sales of chipsets, per its latest financials. That's in terms of revenue from the category.

It's the first time Samsung has done bigger business in this category than Intel, which has rivaled all others since 1992. Obviously, the mobile shift is mostly responsible, but you have to wonder whether this trailing indicator won't matter much in a few years when AI rises even further in prominence.

2. Google flights wants to predict delays before they happen

Flight delays aren't fun. Google is hoping to make them easier to deal with by predicting delays before they're officially confirmed. It'll flag them up once it's 80 percent confident that it'll happen in the Google Flights search product. Still, that seems not certain enough to make any plans around.

3. Uber working with Jump on dockless bike share in SF

Uber is mirroring some of its Asian rivals with a new trial launch of Uber Bike, a service that makes it possible to book on-demand bikes from dockless bike share startup JUMP in San Francisco.

4. SoftBank is working with Line on its mobile service for Japan

SoftBank will own a majority stake in Line's mobile business in Japan, which is an interesting move for a carrier relative to a young, much smaller MVNO.

5. Spotify is building a Pandora-like playlist app

Spotify has an Android-only app debuting in Australia (a common test market for these sorts of things) that resembles Pandora and focuses on playlist-based radio.

6. Amazon wants to make its own QR codes a thing

Amazon is hoping QR codes can still catch on in North America, and it's using its so-called "SmileCodes" to make it possible to link directly to products on its platform from real-world marketing. The iPhone now has native QR code support, so maybe it'll work. Big maybe.

7. Amazon's amorphous healthcare announcement sends stocks tumbling

Amazon's power is such that when it announces... something to do with healthcare in the works with partners JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway, almost all other healthcare stocks tumble.

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Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Amazon's healthcare play begins. It's The Daily Crunch.

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THE DAILY CRUNCH
TUESDAY, JANUARY 30 2018 By Darrell Etherington

Amazon tips its big health play, and opens some spheres in Seattle. Also, the Valley's main AI hotshot is launching his fund officially. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for January 30, 2018.

1. Amazon (and friends) want to reinvent private health care

Amazon is working with JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway to build a new independent company that will seek to rethink how health care works in the U.S. Citing rising costs, and a failure to deliver proper care to employees, the companies have decided they can figure out how to do better.

They haven't figured that out just yet, however: This is basically a notice of intent, rather than an announcement of any solid plans. But they seem eager to get started building something more material, too.

2. Meanwhile, Amazon's got spheres

Yes, spheres. Big weird geodesic dome things that Amazon is opening to its employees and to specific tour groups at its HQ. I wonder if they can be sealed off from the rest of the surrounding environment in case of a health scare.

3. Andrew Ng launches his big AI fund

Google Brain founder and SV AI luminary Andrew Ng has officially launched his own $175 million AI investment fund. Can I have some money Andrew? My AI is nearly indistinguishable from a human brain.

4. Snapchat vastly expands its Bitmoji customization option

Snapchat has added additional customization options that add up to multiple septillion new variants of a final product. It's called Bitmoji Deluxe, and it's designed to help address a diverse user base as well as provide more customization options.

5. Uber has sold its leasing business

Uber was all set to simply shutter its Xchange Leasing business for cars on its platform, but it's now been acquired by leasing startup Fair. Uber shed the business because it was losing money, but a venture focused on the leasing side specifically might stand a chance.

6. Waymo stocks up its self-driving fleet

There's a lot of talk about imminent launches of autonomous car fleets, but those require the actual fleets to exist. Waymo has ordered 'thousands' of its Pacifica vans from FCA to make that a reality.

7. The new PlayStation 4 remake of Shadow of the Colossus is amazing

It's hard to understate how good this game is. Just go play it, if you have a PS4.

Get more stories at techcrunch.com 

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