Think, Thought, Imagine: Daily tech, media & more (12/11/15)

Dec 11, 2015

Quick News (read the headlines and you’re done)

Whisper Hits 20 Million Monthly Users, Doubling Its Audience in 6 Months – Ad Week

Hoverboards Put On No-Fly List, As Airlines Cite Fire Concerns [those things are literally exploding] – NPR

Amazon Launches One-Hour Booze Delivery in Manhattan Through Prime Now [follows its launch in Seattle earlier in the fall] – Recode

Walmart.com Begins Selling The Apple Watch [online-only so far, but another move to broaden the Watch’s customer base. You can also buy it at Best Buy and Target] – Tech Crunch

Atlantic Media eyes Quartz sale [if a deal goes through, it would join the ranks of recent digital deals, including investments in BuzzFeed and Vox and the sale of Business Insider] – CNN Money

Elon Musk, Silicon Valley Elite Launch 'Open' Artificial Intelligence With $1 Billion – Forbes
[a bunch of tech billionaires are pooling together money to promote responsible Artificial Intelligence research] – Venture Beat

Former White House Adviser Dan Pfeiffer Joins GoFundMe [he joins other Obama alums who have gone on to roles in tech, including at Amazon and Uber] – Wall Street Journal

EA launching esports division [eSports global revenue is expected to hit $600 million in the coming years. Activision launched its own division recently, and ESPN and TBS have dedicated resources to covering this burgeoning area in recent months] – Polygon

Great Reads (why settle for good?)

Dress the Part, and It’s Easier to Walk the Walk – NY Times

"Students who wore a doctor’s white coat to perform different tasks made half as many errors as students who wore regular clothes"

Can Nikesh Arora Make Softbank The Berkshire Hathaway of Tech [it's a bit of a puff piece on the former Google exec, but an interesting read nevertheless] – Fortune

Look, Listen (and um, learn?)

Listen: A or B [on A/B testing] – Planet Money

This Fashion Santa Will Melt The Snow This Christmas – Bored Panda

Culture (more)

Discrimination by Airbnb Hosts Is Widespread, Report Says [study was authored by HBS professors. They sent 6,400 housing requests to AirBnb hosts, and results revealed consistent racial biases. You can read the research here] – NY Times

Industry (we're so Hollywood)

Jack Ma Teams With Arch-Foe Tencent on China, Hollywood Films [the joint venture will fund 10 live action films and three animated features intended for both Chinese and international audiences] – Bloomberg

iOS (top free)
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Trailers

X-Men Apocalypse
The BFG [Spielberg movie based on the Dahl book]
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
Legend of Tarzan [killer cast led by Margot Robbie and Alexander Skarsgard]
The Nice Guys [period caper starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. Directed by the guy who made Kiss Kiss Bang Bang]

Google Trends
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Serial Season 2 – New season debuted, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is the subject
Golden Globes 2016 – Nominations released yesterday
Clash Of Clans – New update just released

Top YouTube Videos
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What's In Theaters +