Daily Tech Snippet: Thursday, September 3

Motorola Challenges Apple With a New Moto 360 Smartwatch: With the second generation collection of Moto 360 smartwatches, Motorola is doubling down on design while claiming that it has drastically improved on the technical side, too. The new Moto 360 isn't a single watch with a few small variations, as the first edition was. This watch comes in three basic variations, each with a number of customizable details. Two watches are intended for men, one that's 46 millimeters across and a second that's 42mm. They take 24mm and 20mm straps, respectably. Because the watches have lugs this year (the bits that jut out to hold the strap), all 360 models can use any properly sized watch straps, not just those from Motorola. There is also a special women's watch, which is still 42mm but uses slimmer 16mm straps to give the illusion of a smaller size. The watches have premium look that comes with a premium price tag: from $299. By comparison, the 2014 Moto 360 currently starts at $149. Since Android Wear now works with the iPhone, Motorola seems to be positioning this smartwatch in direct opposition to the Apple Watch, and doubling the price now puts the Moto 360 in the same bracket as the Apple Watch Sport—and still well below the tariff for the standard Apple Watch.

Twitter CEO Search Gains Urgency as Stock Slips, Executives Exits: Pressure on Twitter’s board is mounting. In the three months since the company started searching for a new chief executive officer, the stock has slipped 22 percent and several product executives have left. A leading internal candidate, according to people close to the board, is interim leader and co-founder Jack Dorsey -- who’s already CEO at a company on the verge of an initial public offering. Twitter’s board didn’t have a succession plan in place when former CEO Dick Costolo departed, even though it wasn’t a surprise exit. That means they’re doing the search with the public knowing it’s happening, opening themselves up to scrutiny about their every move, Pozner said. “The board needs to take some action and communicate it to shareholders,” she said. “There’s a huge amount of uncertainty, which creates a really uncomfortable feeling for shareholders and internal stakeholders.” Twitter’s share price has been lingering for the past month around the $26 price investors paid in its initial public offering in November 2013. Part of the selloff was triggered by Dorsey, who bluntly stated after the company’s second-quarter earnings report in July that it will take a while before Twitter is able to reverse a slowdown in growth. He called its product performance “unacceptable.”

Amazon's 'Dash' button now effectively free: Amazon said its 'Dash' button, which allows customers to place orders instantly, will now be effectively free. The company's Prime members can now buy the button for $4.99 and get the amount discounted on their first purchase using the button, the e-commerce giant said on Wednesday. The button will now be available to all Prime members - those paying $99 a year for two-day delivery and other benefits. The company said it will add 11 more brands to the button, bringing the total to 29. The 'Dash' button, launched earlier this year, allows Amazon's Prime members to order a product with just a push, using a WiFi connection, and can be hung or hooked anywhere in the home.

Twitter announces global expansion of self-service ads platform: Microblogging website operator Twitter Inc said it had expanded its self-service ads platform to more than 200 countries and territories from 33 countries. Small and medium-sized businesses can now reach their target audiences on Twitter in 15 languages, Twitter said in a blog post on Wednesday. The company said it had about 100,000 advertisers.

Capillary raises $45M from Warburg Pincus, others: Bangalore-based Capillary Technologies, a SaaS-based CRM solutions provider, has secured around $45 million in a fresh round of funding led by private equity firm Warburg Pincus. Its existing investors Sequoia Capital and Norwest Venture Partners have also participated in the round. It added that the fresh round of investment has more than doubled the valuation of the company to about Rs 1,200 crore and that Capillary has already used the funds to acquire two startups: MartJack, a digital commerce solution company owned by Reasoning Global eApplications and machine learning startup Ruaha Labs. The company had also picked up a minority stake in customer satisfaction management firm CloudCherry recently. Capillary was set up in August 2008 by IIT Kharagpur alumni Reddy, Krishna Mehra and Ajay Modani. It is into cloud-based software solutions that help retailers engage with customers through mobile, social and in-store channels.

Will GIF-Powered Emails Get More People RSVP'ing for Events? Splash and Giphy say the numbers point to yes: GIFs have already overtaken brands' social media and online video. Next up: Email marketing. Event-planning platform Splash and Giphy—a GIF library and search engine—are teaming up today to let marketers plug GIFs into the emails and landing pages that Splash uses to organize gatherings and RSVP lists. Crafting perfect email and event campaigns that get someone's attention is tough these days, and Splash CEO Ben Hindman said the partnership will shake up the dry and un-personalized campaigns marketers are known for sending clients. Adding GIFs to emails isn't particularly new (Giphy also plugs into Gmail and MailChimp's software) but it does show how event marketers are pulling in all kinds of bells and whistles to cut through the massive clutter of emails. Giphy's software is baked into Splash so that users upload a GIF to an email or landing page template like they would add a photo. Then they type in a keyword to find an animated loop. The partnership is the latest in a surprisingly long list of ways that brands can plug Giphy loops into their marketing. Here are four other ways digital marketers can add GIFs to their campaigns through Giphy's tools: 1. Mobile messaging: Giphy powers the animated loops inside apps like Kik, Facebook Messenger and Verizon Messages. 2. Wordpress and RebelMouse: Giphy's technology plugs into blog posts. 3. TV: Brands can turn on Giphy TV to stitch loops together so that they take over an entire browser window to scroll endlessly. 4. Twitch: Game-minded marketers can talk to fans in chat rooms with animated videos.