The Comunicano for Wednesday March 8 2017

MARCH 8 - ISSUE #38

Wednesday…HumpDay….middle of the week. Video is the news today. Actually immersive VR based video is in the news….The British Are Coming..well going over the top ( OTT)… Google makes a buy, Shazamthinks sale. 8X8 messages about a buy…Those stories, and LOTS, LOTS more….in today’s COMUNICANO!

Video Watch

CNN launches a virtual reality news unit WWW.ENGADGET.COM – Share The Cable News Network is going virtual. CNN has announced the launch of a new immersive journalism unit called CNNVR that will produce videos and live streams…

BBC and ITV’s BritBox Launches With ‘Prime Suspect,’ ‘AbFab’ VARIETY.COM – Share BBC and ITV’s U.S. service BritBox lets you stream “Prime Suspect,” “Absolutely Fabulous,” “EastEnders,” and more.

Vimeo now supports 360-degree video WWW.ENGADGET.COM – Share Virtual reality hardware wouldn’t be anywhere without content to play on it – that’s why so many big video companies are putting resources towards immersive, 3…

Buy or Sell Watch

Shazam CEO: Company could be acquisition target now that it's profitable WWW.BUSINESSINSIDER.COM – Share Shazam was one of the winners of the early app rush.

What 8x8's Sameroom acquisition says about cross-platform collaboration WWW.COMPUTERWORLD.COM – Share Validation of an opportunity or an end for an idea that was disproven? It’s up to you to decide.

8x8 Bridges Messaging Islands WWW.NOJITTER.COM – Share As part of an ‘open cloud’ initiative, 8x8 picks up Sameroom.io for its ability to provide interoperability among disparate team messaging services.

Google is acquiring data science community Kaggle TECHCRUNCH.COM – Share Sources tell us that Google is acquiring Kaggle, a platform that hosts data science and machine learning competitions. Details about the transaction remain..

Uber Watch

Actually, Uber’s PR disasters aren’t that great for Lyft WWW.RECODE.NET – Share Drivers have long had reason to prefer other services over Uber but haven’t been able to abandon it entirely.

Lyft offers ride hailing for developers to use in their apps VENTUREBEAT.COM – Share Lyft is launching a program designed to give developers more flexibility when it comes to helping their users summon rides. With the dispatch developer program, the company is white-labeling its ride-hailing service and opening up new ways to call a car outside of the Lyft app.

Legal Watch

171 Groups Urge FCC, Congress to Protect Net Neutrality WWW.DSLREPORTS.COM – Share News: A coalition of 171 public interest groups have sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission and Senate leaders, urging them not to kill the agency’s 2015 net neutrality rules. In the let

Amazon gives up fight for Alexa’s First Amendment rights after defendant hands over data WWW.THEVERGE.COM – Share Amazon has abandoned its legal battle to protect its Alexa assistant with First Amendment rights — for now at least.

Biz Watch

Apple’s enterprise success: Mac and iOS usage is climbing fast WWW.COMPUTERWORLD.COM – Share 74 percent of organizations saw an increase in Mac adoption and 76 percent saw more use of iPhones and iPads in 2016 than in 2015

This Is The Stunning Number Of Small Businesses That Have Turned Their Backs On Technology WWW.INC.COM – Share Does this add up?

Qatar Airways unveils new business class product BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM – Share ‘Q Suite’ revealed at ITB trade show in Berlin

Odds & Ends

Telcos feed growing Aussie appetite for data downloads WWW.SMH.COM.AU – Share Data downloads increased by more than half last year as telcos raised quotas to meet demand, an ACCC report reveals.

Disney scraps free digital downloads with Australian Blu-rays WWW.SMH.COM.AU – Share Local movie fans will no longer receive iTunes or Google Play download codes when buying Marvel, Pixar and Dreamworks movies on disc, as The Walt Disney Company …

Local firm rolls out online translation service for multiple Asian languages WWW.STRAITSTIMES.COM – Share While Sim Lim Square is a key retail hub of information technology (IT) products, the lesser-known Sim Lim Tower is a hotchpotch of shops and offices making a real mark on the online world.

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Carefully curated by Andy Abramson with Revue If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe here.