The week in digital (in five minutes)
Mary Meeker’s trend report
Mary’s annual report of internet trends, traditionally a go-to for second-hand soothsayers, is out.
Here it is…
Twitter is testing a Periscope button
Yep, there’ll be a button to take live video within Twitter.
BuzzFeed has some screenshots.
The Guardian creates a ‘beautiful’ new ad format
The Guardian has a few new ad formats, but Focus is the one of most interest.
It’s described as ‘An immersive mobile display experience that hosts an interactive sliding gallery and is optimised for beautiful image-led campaigns on mobile devices (app and web).’
The previews look good. Could mobile ad UX be all about the execution?
Image via The Guardian
Salesforce is buying Demandware for $2.8bn
Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, said in a company statement:
With Demandware, Salesforce will be well positioned to deliver the future of commerce as part of our Customer Success Platform and create yet another billion dollar cloud.
CRM and retail FTW.
Putin spoof Twitter account taken down and reinstated
@DarthPutinKGB was taken down on Tuesday along with several other satirical accounts, all aimed at Russia.
Outrage ensued, including from the Estonian Prime Minister below and the account then reappeared.
Dear @twitter, why in the world have you suspended one of the funniest parody acc’ts around @DarthPutinKGB? It’s a joke account, not a troll
— toomas hendrik ilves (@IlvesToomas) May 31, 2016
Instagram business profiles
They are here and they look like Facebook’s own business admin (if it ain’t broke…).
Insights is a new feature which keeps track of engagement levels and posts can be promoted from within business profiles.
Image via Instagram
Uber funding from Saudi Arabia
Uber has raised $3.5bn from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and is pushing into the surrounding region.
Women are outlawed from driving in the country.
Jawbone sells Up (no pun intended)
Jawbone has sold its fitness band inventory to a third-party retailer.
It’s not mothballing it or getting out now, however with rumours it will develop new health products, does this show there’s no room in the wrist wearable market outside of Apple and FitBit?
Interesting times as many feel the future of wearable tech is invisible tech.
Micro Bit on general sale
The BBC Micro Bit, manufactured by element 14 and designed to get children coding, will be on sale to all.
1m children aged 11-12 years old have received the device free in UK schools. Now partners will sell it for £12.99.
The Micro Bit uses a Microsoft platform for kids to code on, with the tech giant set to be one of the retailers of the device.
EU sets guidelines for Airbnb and Uber
The European Commission is to set out guidelines for the sharing economy with the hope that EU governments will not seek to ban or over regulate Uber, Airbnb and the like.
The FT suggests that whilst this will be welcomed by Silicon Valley, there will also be concern if ‘the commission suggests that companies that do not allow their operators to set their own prices or that force them to take customers could be considered an “employment relationship”.’
i.e. Uber doesn’t want to give its private hire drivers any staff benefits.
Reddit wants to host more content…
…instead of always linking out to it. This way it can make more money from advertising.
As an example, the network is reducing its reliance on Imgur and introducing an image upload feature.
Xiaomi buys Microsoft patents
Smartphone maker Xiaomi has bought hundreds of patents from Microsoft’s all-but-dead smartphone business.
The deal allows Xiaomi to expand into the West without facing damaging actions from other manufacturers.
Microsoft apps such as Office and Skype will now be pre-installed on Xiaomi phones.
