Techmeme
February 10, 2019, 6:55 PM

Top News

David Pierce / Wall Street Journal:
Hands-on with AR navigation on Google Maps that the company is testing with Local Guides, a group of power users helping Google improve its Maps experience  —  The coming Google Maps augmented-reality navigation feature will look through your phone's camera to figure out where you are and show you where you are going.
Tim O'Reilly / Quartz:
Hoffman and Yeh's “Blitzscaling” offers practical advice for startups but presents a lot of revisionist history and ignores the perils of VC-fueled hypergrowth  —  The pursuit of monopoly has led Silicon Valley astray.  —  Look no further than the race between Lyft and Uber to dominate the online ride-hailing market.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Spotify's bet on Gimlet and Anchor gives it a foothold into podcasting to apply its listener-monetization skills without worrying about sending money to labels  —  Credit Spotify CEO Daniel Ek with honesty; in a blog post announcing a major move into the podcast space, Ek wrote:
Christina Farr / CNBC:
Fitbit launches Inspire, its first fitness tracker available exclusively through its corporate, wellness, health plan, and health systems partners  —  Fitbit has recently introduced a new activity and sleep tracker.  But unlike it's previous devices, this one is only available if your health plan or employer is signed up with Fitbit.
Albany Times Union:
IBM and SUNY Polytechnic Institute announce agreement to create AI Hardware Center, part of a larger commitment by IBM to invest $2B in NY state over 5 years  —  ESD would provide $300 million grant; IBM will spend $2 billion over five years  —  ALBANY — IBM and SUNY Polytechnic Institute …
Mark Suster / Both Sides of the Table:
VCs raised $55B in 2018, similar to what was raised in 1999, but most of the increased funding went into growth rounds, which are effectively private IPOs  —  I've heard a lot of people question whether there is too much money in venture capital chasing too few great deals.

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Google:
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UiPath:
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Zoho:
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Earlier Picks

Kashmir Hill / Gizmodo:
Eric Newcomer / Bloomberg: