10 things in tech you need to know today (GOOG, AAPL, BOX)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/10-things-in-tech-you-need-to-know-today-june-1-2017-6
June 01, 2017 at 08:48AM

Good morning! Here is the tech news you need to know this Thursday.

1. Uber said it lost $700 million (£544 million) in Q1. It's looking for a public company CFO to replace its current head of finance.

2. Apple has started manufacturing its long-rumored smart speaker, and it could start shipping the gadget later this year. The speaker will use Siri, the voice assistant software on the iPhone and Mac, according to the report from Bloomberg.

3. Google DeepMind's army of AI researchers in Mountain View is now over 20 people strong. The team has been established so that DeepMind can collaborate more closely with Google.

4. New renders show the iPhone 8 will probably be bigger than the iPhone 7. The renders were produced by Apple leaker Benjamin Geskin.

5. "Friendly neighbourhood hackers" politely hacked a billboard at a shopping mall. They left a message on the billboard saying: "We suggest you improve your security."

6. Alphabet-owned Nest has released the Nest Cam IQ. It's the company's first product in roughly a year.

7. Cloud storage firm Box beat analyst expectations and posted revenue of $117.2 million (£91 million) for its most recent quarter. "It was a strong quarter in terms of top line growth," CEO Aaron Levie said in an interview.

8. Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, missed out on a $100 million (£78 million) investment from SoftBank because of Apple. He said in an interview that a conflict of interest with one of the SoftBank Vision Fund's contributors caused the deal to fall through.

9. Online student tabloid The Tab received an extra £3.1 million from its investors after losses ballooned last year. The latest cash injection comes a year after Balderton, the venture-capital firm best known for investing in Betfair and LoveFilm, backed the company with a £2 million investment.

10. Londoners could soon be able to make calls and browse the internet on the Tube. Telecoms companies are going to be invited to bid for a contract after next week's election, according to the Financial Times.

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UK election parties and candidates: Who is standing in your constituency in 2017?

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/uk-election-parties-candidates-standing-2017/
June 01, 2017 at 09:20AM

Pictures of the Day: 1 June 2017

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/01/pictures-day-1-june-2017/
June 01, 2017 at 09:00AM

First officer on Manchester blast scene: I screamed for my colleagues

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/01/first-officer-manchester-blast-scene-screamed-colleagues/
June 01, 2017 at 08:19AM

Girl, 6, 'underwater for two minutes after hair sucked into Lanzarote pool filter'

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/01/girl-6-underwater-two-minutes-hair-sucked-lanzarote-pool-filter/
June 01, 2017 at 07:59AM

Bill Cosby sex assault trial: Everything you need to know about the case against 'America's Dad'

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/bill-cosby-sex-assault-trial-everything-need-know-case-against/
June 01, 2017 at 07:57AM

Creativity In Advertising Reaching New Heights: McCann’s Sean Bryan

Source: https://www.beet.tv/2017/05/sean-bryan.html
June 01, 2017 at 05:18AM

Sean Bryan can’t wait to get to the Cannes Lions festival this year. And it’s not just because he has high hopes for McCann New York’s groundbreaking Fearless Girl campaign and its work for brands like Godiva, Microsoft and Nespresso.

“I love it every year. But this year in particular is going to be an interesting year,” says the agency’s Chief Creative Officer.

One reason for his enthusiasm is that he believes “creativity in advertising is reaching new heights,” Bryan explains in this interview with Beet.TV. “I actually think the industry is better at doing what really matters than we’ve ever been, at least in my time.”

He points to the rise of long-form storytelling and the impact it can have on cultural conversations. It all starts with being able to determine who will be watching such messaging and what they’re going to be interested in.

“If you want to hold somebody’s attention for two minutes, three minutes or even longer you need to be telling them a story providing some news, some information that is going to be rewarding to them,” says Bryan. “It’s a different kind of storytelling.”

He’s not suggesting that traditional 30- or 60-second commercials cannot command consumers’ attention, citing an effort for Nespresso coffee machines starring George Clooney and a host of actors from classic films. “As a sixty it’s fantastic because you really get to enjoy all the great scenes from all the great movies we wanted to see growing up,” Bryan says.

In terms of cultural impact, McCann New York touched off considerable debate when it helped client State Street Financial Advisors install a bronze sculpture of a defiant-looking young Latina woman dubbed Fearless Girl directly in front of the iconic Charging Bull on Manhattan’s Wall Street.

“I could have put together a miniseries about that thing and what it did in the world,” Bryan says. “That’s what’s really exciting. You have these ideas and then to actually see what happens when people see them and interact with them and how they impact the conversation around, for example, women and finance.”

Then there is the agency’s campaign for Lysol, a venerable brand that has traditionally existed in the functional as opposed to emotional mode. It involved an installation under the landmark Brooklyn Bridge about how “mothers in nature are the biggest bad asses there are,” he says.

“We are talking to people about stuff they care about. We’re making brands matter and making them relevant in peoples’ lives. And we’re doing it in different way.”

This segment is part of the Beet.TV lead-up to the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. 2017. The series is presented by Storyful.   For more from the series, please visit this page.

After investing in Twitter, Steve Ballmer gave up investing (TWTR)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/after-investing-in-twitter-steve-ballmer-gave-up-investing-2017-5
June 01, 2017 at 03:51AM

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, California — When Steve Ballmer retired from the CEO job at Microsoft in 2014, he set his sights on becoming a tech investor and soon made a big bet on Twitter, acquiring a 4% stake.

That bet has not turned out very well so far, and now the former Microsoft head honcho admits he's lost his taste for investing. 

At the Code Conference taking place near Los Angeles this week, Ballmer discussed his short-lived stint as a tech investor and his decision to move on to other pursuits.

"I'm out of that phase, for those of you who might be looking for money. I'm not in that phase at all anymore," he said. "I'm out of that investment thing."

He's focused on owning his NBA basketball team, the LA Clippers; running his philanthropic organization with his wife, The Ballmer Group; and playing golf, he told Business Insider on the sidelines of the conference.

Back around the time he bought stock in Twitter it was trading at well above $25 per share. The stock is currently well below $20, as the internet company's stagnant user growth and internal turmoil have tarnished its image on Wall Street.

Ballmer didn't blame Twitter's poor stock performance for souring him on investing, but he laughed about it, saying it was part of a "magical decision" he made at that time to try out a new career.

While he wouldn't say if he's sold off much of his Twitter stake, Ballmer confirmed that he still has a sizeable stake.

A believer and a critic

These days, Ballmer doesn't even tune into the quarterly conference calls, though he says he still believes in the company, its role in sharing information real-time and its ability to let people talk directly to each other.

"I still have a lot of money into the concept that says there is an opportunity to make it into a real business," he said, although he also added he doesn't see "exactly" how the company would immediately do that.

Ballmer continues to be vocal in his criticism of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who is doing double duty as CEO of online payment company Square.

"Being a CEO is a hard job, right? I can speak to that. Being a CEO of two things, I can't even imagine," he said. "You can't do that if you are really going to do the right thing for your shareholders."

Interestingly, Ballmer acknowledged that he's never really gotten into tweeting much himself, feeling like his tweets were sort of boring or repetitive. 

"I just felt like, how many times could I tweet, 'Ho! Great game today!'" he laughed. "I don't want to be that guy. I want to have something interesting to say."

SEE ALSO: Microsoft billionaire Steve Ballmer wants his wealth to help families here at home in the US

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Box CEO Aaron Levie is taking a page from Jeff Bezos' playbook as he primes the company for the next year (BOX, AMZN)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/box-ceo-aaron-levie-jeff-bezos-day-1-mentality-2017-5
June 01, 2017 at 03:45AM

As Box CEO Aaron Levie prepares his company for the future, he's taking inspiration from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. 

If Box is going to stay relevant for years or decades to come, it can't take anything for granted, Levie told Business Insider on Wednesday in an interview following his company's latest quarterly report. It has to try to capitalize on what it sees as its big opportunities, even if that means making investments in things that aren't obvious and won't pay off immediately.

In saying that, Levie was consciously channeling Bezos, who's famously tried to instill in his company that it's "always Day 1," and there is room to experiment and make big bets.

"That's exactly our mentality," Levie says. "We're starting over right now." 

Box has a good base to build on. The cloud content management service (don't call it a file storage app), reported better-than-expected quarterly results on Wednesday afternoon. Its loss narrowed from the year-ago period and, for only its second time, it posted positive free cash flow for a quarter. The company also upped its guidance for the rest of its 2018 fiscal year

All that led Box shares to jump about 4% after the closing bell.

With the company now about two and a half years out from its IPO, Levie is focused on his company's future. 

The whole notion of "work" is slated for massive upheaval over the next decade, as automation, artificial intelligence, and the slow demise of the PC change the way that offices operate, Levie says. With its focus on intelligently organizing files and making them accessible from any device, Box can benefit from that transformation, he says.

"The first core principle is that we have to grow fast enough to capture this opportunity," says Levie. "We want to power how the world works together."

The future

Levie says that Box is making two big bets for the future.

First, it's upping its investment in the Box Platform, which lets developers build Box's storage and file organization into their own apps. By providing developers with a system that lets them store and retrieve files across devices, Box stands to benefit no matter what the next generation of computing looks like, Levie says.

Second, Box is trying to expand internationally as it looks to grow its base of customers.

Customers who are using Box today are better-positioned to take advantage of the wild, AI-powered, cross-device world of tomorrow, thanks to the company's investments, Levie says.

"We need to build a platform that works with that next decade of work," he says. 

The challenge Box faces is to balance those next-generation aspirations with the kinds of things that shareholders want to see, Levie says. Box is already taking steps in that direction too. Not only did its overall loss narrow in its most recent quarter, its sales and marketing spend, long a point of contention, was down as well.

While trying to keep a Bezos-like mindset, Levie says that he also wants to be responsible as Box moves forward.

"We want growth, but we want healthy growth," says Levie.

SEE ALSO: Box boosted its number of customers and topped revenue targets —and the stock is popping

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Europe Flunks Twitter on Removing Hate Speech Online

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/technology/twitter-facebook-google-europe-hate-speech.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
June 01, 2017 at 03:00AM

The findings are part of a study by the European Commission as policy makers and tech companies battle over what should be permitted online.