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Snap continues to add new users

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Snap also managed to grow its revenue by 50 percent from the same quarter last year, making $446 million over the previous $296 million. Overall, though, the company is still not profitable, reporting a loss of $227 million in Q3 2019. That’s still an improvement from the $323 million it lost in the same period last year.

In prepared remarks accompanying the results, CEO Evan Spiegel attributed the user growth to “the value we provide to our community.” These include things like “a mobile content platform, an augmented reality platform, a social map, and most recently, a new gaming platform,” he added. Snap has continued to add media partners to its Discover platform, which now sees more than 10 million monthly viewers in Q3 across 100 channels.

Much of the user growth in the past two quarters also has to do with the company redesigning its Android app. Spiegel noted that Snapchat is now “more performant on a wider variety of devices,” helping the company “substantially increase the rate at which we onboard new Android users.”

Snap Spectacles 3

This quarter, the company also announced its new hardware product, the Spectacles 3. These build upon the video-recording glasses by focusing on adding AR effects to the footage captured. They also target a different audience, and are meant for creators and 3D artists rather than your average Snapchatter. They won’t be available for the mass market, though. In his prepared remarks, Spiegel said “We are building low volumes of Spectacles 3 and using this iteration to test and learn more about wearable computing.” He also called the device “an important step forward towards an augmented reality future.”

Spiegel spelled out what Snap will be working on in the next decade. Within the next three years, the company wants to make it easier to create and monetize Snapchat and AR content. In the next three to five years, it plans to keep improving and scaling, and find ways to monetize its maps and gaming platforms.

Finally, over the next seven to ten years, the company wants to “realize our vision of computing overlaid on the world through wearable augmented reality.” Clearly, AR glasses will play a large role in the latter part of that vision. Snap has yet to turn a profit, but at least the company has now shared some plans on where it expects to bring its business in the years to come, which should provide investors some clarity. Spiegel will be answering questions on today’s earnings call, and we’ll be listening to see if he has any other details to share and will update this post with anything we hear.

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Google wants to be your guide to Champions League soccer

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The special search feature is available on Android, iOS and the web, and it’ll keep you updated all the way to the final on May 30th. It might be intimidating if you’re a newcomer — there’s a veritable sea of tables and player stats to wade through. It’s potentially more sophisticated than what some sports news sites offer, though, and it might be just what you’re looking for if you want to know whether your favorite team stands a chance.

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Amazon debuts ad-supported News video app for Fire TV

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Amazon News

Amazon says you’ll be to watch the platform on Fire TV devices, including compatible smart TVs, with a gradual rollout planned over the next few weeks. News will also be available on Fire tablets, such as the updated Fire HD 10 the company announced at the start of the month. You won’t need to create a separate account to access all the content that’s available through News. Some of the other publishers that plan to take part in the app include People, Cheddar, Sports Illustrated, Al Jazeera and Yahoo (owned by Engadget parent company Verizon). You’ll be able to customize the experience by picking your favorite publishers and topics of interest.

For Amazon, News is another way for the company to increase its ad revenue. While its best known for services like Prime and AWS, Amazon also has a surprisingly big presence in the space. In 2018, the company became the third-largest digital advertiser in the US after Google and Facebook. It’s also a way for the company to compete with platforms like Apple News+ and Google News in a way that makes sense for Amazon given its platforms and investments in video.

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Facebook releases Zuckerberg’s upcoming testimony in defense of Libra

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According to Zuckerberg, Facebook is “committed to taking the time to get this right.” But he also points out that China could reveal a similar system in the coming months. “If America doesn’t innovate, our financial leadership is not guaranteed,” Zuckerberg’s prepared statement reads.

Supposedly, Facebook isn’t just motivated by self-interest. “Over the long term, if it means more people transact on our platforms, that would be good for our business,” the statement says. “But even if it doesn’t, it could help people everywhere.” The company believes Libra could benefit the billion people around the world who don’t have access to a bank account, but could through a mobile phone. That includes 14 million people in the US.

Zuckerberg will also assure the committee that Facebook is not looking to create a sovereign currency. “Like existing online payment systems, it’s a way for people to transfer money.”

Just last week, the Libra Association — an independent non-profit established to govern the cryptocurrency — lost another member. It’s now down to 21, and big names like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and eBay have all left. Facebook doesn’t seem deterred, but it’s not a great look for Libra. We’ll see what Congress has to say.

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Scoot makes its new single-seat mopeds available in Los Angeles

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Unlike scooters and regular bikes, you need to be at least 18 years old and carry a valid driver’s license to take one for a ride.

Scoot plans to make the mopeds available in other US cities before the end of 2019.

This isn’t the first time Scoot has offered mopeds. There have been more conventional models in San Francisco since 2012, and in Barcelona as of May 2018. This is the first time Scoot has made use of a newer design, though, and it’s apparent this rollout will be considerably more ambitious. Bird and Scoot aren’t shy about wanting to undercut transportation heavyweights like Uber and Lyft, and it sees the moped as a key part of that strategy.

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AT&T offers the LG G8X with a ‘free’ Dual Screen case

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We’ve asked AT&T about the availability of the Dual Screen for customers on existing lines.

Suffice it to say that the phone becomes a tougher sell if you don’t get that attachment for free, though. It’s an upgrade over the regular G8 with a larger 6.4-inch OLED screen, a larger 4,000mAh battery and an updated interface, but it’s not a fundamental shift in design or performance. If you’re content with a single screen, some of the other more conventional designs might fit the bill.

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Marvel is working on a bunch of new podcasts for Pandora and SiriusXM

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Each of the scripted series will be 10 episodes long. In turn, the first four will focus on Wolverine, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Star-Lord, with the fifth and final series seeing the four superheroes teaming up. As for what else you can expect from the company, Marvel says one highlight will be a regular talk show series that will feature celebrity interviews. The two companies also plan to host themed live events as part of the multi-year partnership.

Once the series launch, SiriusXM subscribers will be able to listen to them on any device that supports the platform, including the Apple TV, PlayStation 4 and Sonos speakers. If you don’t have a SiriusXM subscription, they’ll also be available to listen to on the Pandora mobile app for both paid and free users.

If the quality of Marvel’s Wolverine: The Long Night podcast is any indication of what fans can expect from the company’s new slate of audio productions, then they’re in for a treat. The Long Night was a slick production that featured Castlevania‘s Richard Armitage voicing Wolverine. If you’ve already listened to The Long Night, Marvel’s latest podcast, Marvels, is set to premiere this fall.

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Major credit card companies launch a one-click checkout button

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American Express

To start, the new button is available on the Cinemark, Movember and Rakuten websites, but you’ll find it on BassPro, JoAnn Fabric, Papa John’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, SHOP.com and Tickets.com by the end of the year. It should become more ubiquitous in 2020.

The credit card companies hope to create a consistent, simple user experience (with strong payment info protections) for all sites and cards. Users won’t have to create or log in to an account to make a purchase. And they won’t have to enter their card info into every new site.

This summer, we learned that Visa Checkout is shutting down in 2020. That wasn’t entirely surprising, and given that Visa is part of the team launching this new payment button, it makes a lot of sense.

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Verizon is giving Unlimited customers 12 months of Disney+ for free

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This makes Verizon the exclusive Disney+ carrier, and it could help Disney+ better compete with Apple TV+, which launches on November 1st. Apple recently announced that anyone who buys an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Mac will get a free one-year subscription to its service. Disney doesn’t have its own hardware to bundle subscriptions with, but this partnership with Verizon might be the next best thing.

You can’t please everyone though. The Verizon-Disney+ deal might frustrate customers who signed up for a three-year Disney+ discount bundle and may have also been eligible for a free year through Verizon. With less than a month until launch, you have to wonder if Disney+ can possibly come up with any more deals.

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Fender Songs is an interactive chord book that syncs with Apple Music

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Fender Songs is the company’s latest and TL;DR it teaches you how to play songs… sort of. It’s a chord library, meaning that you can pull up a song that you want to learn and it’ll show you the chords to play. You can see them laid over the lyrics in a pretty traditional layout, or in a scroll that displays the chords you’re supposed to play as moving bars synced with the lyrics. The more traditional layout, where the chord fingerings are all shown at the top and the chord names are simply placed in the appropriate spot in a lyric sheet is great for quickly studying a song, but is a bit information dense for a phone, and not really practical for playing along with. And, at least in the preview version of the app, it was a little buggy. It would always highlight the right chord, but often in the wrong place. For example, in Rihanna’s Stay there are three Am chords associated with many individual lines, and rather than highlight each Am in order it would often just highlight the first one three times.

The scroll is much better for practicing, and really that’s what Songs is all about. It’s not just a glorified reference book. It’s actually designed to play along with. And while there are simple MIDI backing tracks (which at least in the beta version are basically unrecognizable), what sets Fender’s app apart from other chord libraries is that it integrates with Apple Music. This means that you can pull up your favorite Billy Eilish track and the app will feed you the chords and display the lyrics in time with the actual song.

Now, to be clear you will need an Apple Music subscription for this to work. And, unless you’re paying for a Fender Songs subscription, the library of tunes you have to pull from is pretty limited. And I want to be clear here: Songs ain’t cheap. At $42 a year or $5 a month, it’s a pretty hefty investment for an interactive chord book.(On the plus side, a yearly subscription also nets you 10-percent off gear from Fender.)

Part of the reason it’s so expensive though, is because Fender worked with artists, labels and Apple to get everyone on board. There are definitely other chord libraries out there, but most of them aren’t endorsed by the labels, the artists don’t make any money off them and they don’t play the actual songs (and if they do, they’re probably in some sort of legal grey area). I’m not going to say that makes it worth paying for, but it at least helps explain the steep price.

In addition to showing you the chords to a song, there’s also a record mode. Here the app shows the chord changes and lyrics, but doesn’t play a backing track, and instead uses your phone’s front facing camera to capture your performance. You can also build a set list, where you collect songs to practice or perform.

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