- Amazon Introduces 2 Alexa Voice-Controlled Devices: Amazon’s Alexa is gaining new powers, and a couple of new looks, too. Amazon, the Internet retailer, on Thursday announced two new siblings for the Echo, the voice-controlled household assistant that people address as “Alexa” and that became a surprise hit for the company last year. One new product, Amazon Tap, is a slimmer, shorter, portable version of the Echo. Rather than requiring an electrical wall connection, the Tap runs off a rechargeable battery. It connects with phones and the Internet through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The Tap acts as an ordinary wireless speaker for a phone, but it also provides Alexa on the go. People can ask about weather and traffic, ask for the news, tell it to play a song from a streaming service, or do any one of dozens of other tasks. The device, which will begin shipping at the end of the month, will sell for about $130. Amazon also announced the Echo Dot, essentially an Echo without that device’s powerful speaker. The Dot, which will sell for about $90, looks like a hockey puck, and is meant to provide Alexa’s voice functions for existing speaker systems. The Dot connects to those speakers either through a wire or over Bluetooth; after that, it functions as another Echo. Dot shipments also willbegin at the end of March. Sales will initially be limited to people who already own an Echo or one of Amazon’s Fire TV devices — a Dot buyer will have to ask Alexa to order one. The new devices suggest that Amazon has an expansive vision for the Echo, which looked like an experiment for the company when it was introduced in late 2014. The company has not provided sales data for the device, but it has said that sales exceeded its expectations and that customer reviews are rhapsodic. Amazon appears to have increased investment in the device — it keeps adding new features and capabilities to Alexa, and this year it ran Super Bowl ads about the gadget.
- EBay Banks on Bar Codes for a Comeback: Hoping to outgrow its image as a glorified garage sale and move up in Google searches, EBay is turning to technology developed 70 years ago: the bar code. The machine-readable symbol that keeps supermarket lines moving is helping EBay manage vast amounts of data associated with the 6 billion products—from smartphones to video games, handbags to tires—listed at the online marketplace each year. Merchants will be able to enter a full description of a sales item by using a smartphone camera to scan its Universal Product Code. EBay reads the scan and automatically lists the item’s specifications. Before, every detail, including brand, model, and dimensions, was entered manually. UPCs are a central part of what EBay calls its “structured data initiative,” started in June, to organize items into a catalog that shoppers can easily search using filters such as price, features, and condition. The switch started with auto parts and accessories, one of EBay’s fastest-growing categories. The UPC is also used to call up consumer reviews and product images, which create a degree of permanence on EBay that search engines will reward with better placement. EBay says the code provides a sufficient baseline of information because 80 percent of all products sold there are new. A key goal is to standardize the amount and type of information that merchants list. The initiative will eventually expand to most items on the site.So far, some merchants like the change. Quick Ship Electronics, which sells consumer devices on EBay, had some desktop computers and laptops languishing in its inventory. Once the company entered the UPCs on EBay’s catalog, the items sold within days, CEO Jordan Insley says.
- HP Enterprise's revenue, profit beat estimates: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co, which houses former Hewlett-Packard Co's corporate hardware and services division, reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit, helped by strength in its hardware business. Hewlett Packard Enterprise's (HPE) shares were up 6.4 percent at $14.47 in extended trading on Thursday. Revenue in HPE's enterprise group business, from which it derives more than half of its total revenue, rose about 1 percent to $7.1 billion in the first quarter ended Jan. 31, from a year earlier. The company's revenue fell to $12.72 billion from $13.05 billion.
- Apple supplier Broadcom to slash 1,900 jobs globally: Chipmaker Broadcom Ltd, the company created following the merger of Avago and Broadcom, said it would cut about 1,900 jobs globally across its businesses. Shares of Broadcom, which also supplies to Apple Inc, were up 8 percent at $148.20 in extended trading on Thursday. The company said it expects to take charges of about $650 million related to the job cuts through 2018. Avago completed its $37 billion deal for Broadcom last month. Revenue for the legacy Avago business fell 4 percent to $1.77 billion in the three months ended January 31.
- Snapchat Raises $175 Million From Fidelity at Flat $16 Billion Valuation: Snapchat has raised $175 million in new venture funding from Fidelity at the same $16 billion valuation it raised at back in May, according to a source familiar with the deal. That means Snapchat has now raised around $1.4 billion in total. The Wall Street Journalfirst reported the new funding. A flat valuation isn’t usually a great sign, but the raise comes at a time when lots of tech companies — including Jawbone and Foursquare — are raising down rounds, or taking money at a lower valuation than their last fundraising. In that vein, this investment doesn’t look bad.
- Facebook Messenger adds music, starting with Spotify song sharing: First came the Transportation hub with Uber, and now Facebook Messenger is launching “its very first music integration” with Spotify. Inside the Messenger “More” section in chat threads, all iOS and Android users will now find a Spotify option. Tap it and they’ll be shuttled into Spotify’s app where they can “Search for something to share.” Once they select a song, artist or playlist, they’ll be popped back to Messenger with the option to share the photo of the cover artwork. When a friend taps that photo, they’ll be bounced over to Spotify to listen.If Messenger can become a richer social layer connecting Spotify users, it could inspire deep conversations about music, boosting its engagement. That generates platform lock-in and potential monetization opportunities for Facebook. And for Spotify, Messenger will provide virality that could help it fend off Apple Music and convince more non-streamers of its value.
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- Amazon offers limited free shipping on same-day delivery orders; a study shows same-day delivery, free returns get shoppers online: Amazon.com Inc said on Thursday it will offer limited free same-day delivery under its Prime shipping service as retailers try to outdo each other on delivery deals, and expanded the service to San Diego and the Tampa Bay Area. Amazon offers same-day delivery to Prime members for $5.99 per order and non-members for $8.99, plus 99 cents per unit. The online retailer will allow Prime members free same-day shipping on orders over $35, Greg Greeley, head of Prime, told Reuters. "We know same-day delivery volumes will grow dramatically now that we are making it free," he said. Amazon's announcement comes within days of rival Wal-Mart Stores Inc saying it plans to test a new unlimited online shipping service this summer for $50 per year, a move that may hurt Amazon, which has an annual $99 Prime shipping service. Prime has become the cornerstone of Amazon's growth - and a testing ground for new services ranging from television programs and movies to delivery-by-drone. In 2014, Amazon spent billions of dollars on Prime shipping and has invested $1.3 billion in its Prime video service. Earlier this year Amazon said U.S. Prime membership increased 50 percent in 2014. In December, it said customers ordered more than 10 times as many items via same-day delivery this holiday season, compared to a year earlier. A recent study of 1,400 online shoppers by Walker Sands Communications found that free shipping was the feature most likely to get people to shop online, followed by free returns and one-day shipping.
- As usual, a slew of announcements at Google I/O: Google introduced technologies ranging from a brand new mobile-payments system to a virtual-reality camera rig in front of more than 6,000 software engineers at the Web company's I/O developer's conference in San Francisco. A security makeover for Android: Android M: The next iteration of Google's operating system, which runs on 79 percent of smartphones around the globe, is getting a security makeover, with more robust privacy controls and restrictions on apps' data access. Fingerprint scanning will also become a more integral part of Android, adding another layer of security. Google plays catch-up in virtual reality with Cardboard: Of all the gadgets Google unveiled at last year’s event, Google Cardboard was a surprise hit, putting virtual reality into the hands of everyday users without the high costs that come with specialized devices, such the Oculus Rift. Now, Google is taking the gadget more seriously, seeing it as a way to catch up to Facebook and Microsoft in virtual reality. It's also a way to get affordable, wow-factor technology into more peoples' hands, drawing them closer to Google's Web-based services. Unlimited free storage on Google Photos: While it might seem like a minor upgrade, Google just solved a major problem for mobile users in one fell swoop by enabling unlimited free storage for photos and videos. Google Take Maps Offline: With all the talk of cloud services and streaming media, it's easy to forget that for many people around the world, a mobile data connection is a scarce, expensive resource. To make such existing products as Maps better suited to these customers, Google is adding both search and turn-by-turn directions to the app's offline mode. An OS for the Internet of Things in Project Brillo: Google unveiled Project Brillo, a set of technologies to connect more household items to the Web. The platform aims to make it simpler for developers to build applications for everyday devices.
- Google's announcements on Android Pay and Google Wallet pit it squarely against Apple once again: Google lays out its ambitions for your phone, your home, your car and your wallet: Google made clear Thursday that it's still fighting a multifront war against its old rival, Apple -- and that the battles are as heated as ever. Google on Thursday confirmed the arrival of Android Pay and a revamped Google Wallet, an overhaul of the company’s mobile payments products. Both products are a shift from the company’s past mobile commerce efforts, which largely flopped. The new services, like the world of payments in general, are not simple. Here is how they work. Android Pay is essentially a digital payments system that consumers can use to buy things online or in stores from retailers and others who also use the service. It works almost the same way that Apple Pay, Apple’s mobile payments product, functions both in online and offline transactions. To use Android Pay, smartphone users with up-to-date versions of the Android operating system will be able to load Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover cards onto their phones. From there, they will be able to wave the phone over the terminals in more than 700,000 stores around the United States to pay for items. Android Pay will also work inside mobile apps from participating developers. Google will use a technology called tokenization to provide merchants with a customer’s payment information without having to hand over their actual credit card number. As with Apple Pay, Google will let customers verify their identity using their fingerprint, a technique which will be built into the next version of Android. Android Pay will also integrate with loyalty programs from a handful of retail partners, which will mean that any points or credits earned at —the point of sale will automatically be added to any loyalty card a customer enters. To date, Apple Pay does not offer this service, an issue that many merchants have asked for privately. Apple plans to discuss its loyalty integration plans at the company’s developer conference next month. Google Wallet, the company’s unsuccessful attempt at a mobile wallet, is not going away. It is just going to serve another purpose. Google Wallet is being reintroduced as a peer-to-peer payments app, which is a way for customers to quickly and easily transfer money to each other’s debit or bank accounts. That once again pits Google against PayPal, which offers its own popular peer-to-peer payments app called Venmo. It also clashes with Square Cash, yet another peer-to-peer payments app offered by Square. Such services have become popular with younger users. Now all Google, Apple and PayPal have to do is persuade consumers that these new payment methods are better than paying the same way they have always done — smartphone-free.
- Avago to buy Broadcom for $37 billion in biggest-ever chip deal: Avago Technologies agreed on Thursday to buy Broadcom Corp for $37 billion in the largest merger of chipmakers ever, turning a lesser known company run by a ferocious dealmaker into one of the biggest industry players. Avago, which serves the wireless and industrial markets, is offering Broadcom shareholders $17 billion in cash and Avago shares valued at $20 billion. Broadcom is best known for its connectivity chips, which are used widely in smartphones made by Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics. The deal is the biggest so far by Avago Chief Executive Hock Tan, who has developed a small chipmaker into a $36 billion company through acquisitions since taking the helm nine years ago. Tan, a serial deal-maker, has trimmed Avago's portfolio by divesting units while bulking up in faster-growing areas. The combined company, to be based in Singapore and known as Broadcom, will be the third-largest U.S. semiconductor maker by revenue, behind Intel Corp and Qualcomm. The merger is the industry's second megadeal this year and is unlikely to be the last, analysts said. The merger will help the companies improve their bargaining position with manufacturers. Irvine, California-based Broadcom has been struggling to grow as competition in the mobile chip business intensifies. The company's revenue increased by just 1.5 percent last year. The new Broadcom would have annual revenue of $15 billion and an enterprise value of $77 billion, the companies said in a statement. Broadcom shareholders will own about 32 percent of the combined company. They would also have the option to choose between various combinations of cash and stock. Avago, which is incorporated in Singapore and also has headquarters in San Jose, California, said it intended to fund the cash portion of the deal by using funds from the combined company and new debt of $9 billion.
- Avago's $37 billion deal to buy chipmaker Broadcom Corp may force Qualcomm, the world's largest mobile chip maker to radically rethink its own strategy: Qualcomm, which has dominated the market for connectivity chips on smartphones, has been looking to extend its reach into data centers and network infrastructure, but may find its way blocked by an enlarged competitor combining Avago's strength in storage and Broadcom's power in networking. "Qualcomm has aspirations of moving into Intel's data center processor incumbency that the Avago storage and now enterprise networking (from Broadcom) capability directly overlays," said Drexel Hamilton analyst Richard Whittington. That could result in Qualcomm creating some sort of partnership with Intel Corpx he said, to combat the reach of the new company. Wall Street analysts generally cheered the deal on Thursday, despite some fretting about price, saying Broadcom's strength in wireless networking, WiFi and Bluetooth chips is a good complement to Avago's presence in industrial and wired devices. That presents a challenge to Qualcomm, which finds itself in a tough spot in the maturing microprocessor business, as smartphone makers such as Samsung, Apple and Huawei put more effort into producing their own chips. Now a Avago/Broadcom tie-up - which will take the name of Broadcom - potentially gives handset makers another viable supplier, giving them more leverage and putting even more pressure on Qualcomm, said IDC analyst Mario Morales.
