Think, Thought, Imagine: Daily tech, media & more (1/28/16)
Quick News (read the headlines and you’re done)
Elon Musk To Unveil Mars Plans This Year, Wants To Go To Space By 2020 – Ars Technica
Tesla May Start Mirroring Apps From Smartphones On Its Big Touchscreen [instead of creating its own ecosystem] – The Verge
The $50 Fire Tablet Is Now The Best-Selling Product On Amazon [sure, they probably promote the hell out of it, but they did with their (now defunct) phone too] – Fast Company
Pandora Launches New Browse Feature To Help You Discover New Stations [why interesting: making it easier for people to find what they’ll enjoy is one of the major problems companies are trying to solve] – The Verge
Apple Acquires Education-Tech Startup LearnSprout […which makes software for schools and teachers to track performance – why interesting: Google and Apple have been competing strongly for school markets] - Bloomberg
Facebook Opens Live Video To U.S. Apple App Users [Facebook is quickly incorporating many features and activities that are the core of other companies (for this, see: Periscope), but we’ll have to see if user behavior follows] – USA Today
Snapchat Makes Adding Friends Easy With Personalized URLs [why interesting: adding people, especially “personalities” (see: celebrities) has been difficult on the platform, this allows Snapchat to sit alongside all those Facebook and Twitter callouts – try it out with ours] - Gizmodo
Apple Pay Is Coming To ATMs From Bank Of America And Wells Fargo [i.e. you “tap” you phone instead of “swipe” your card – besides just general ease of use since you’ll likely have your phone on you, it also adds security because Apple Pay encrypts your card number] - TechCrunch
Uber Wants To Take Over Same-Day Deliveries As It Partners With Nordstrom, Google, T-Mobile And More [i.e. businesses can now incorporate UberRUSH, it’s delivery service – along with UberEATS, Uber is trying to become much more than just “let’s grab an Uber”] – The Next Web
Please Explain (someone's gotta do it)
How Two Guys Built the Ultimate GIF Search Engine [people like GIFs, but finding the right ones can be an annoying process, and this company has become the de-facto source for many] – Bloomberg
Pepsi Turns Restaurateur, to Serve Up Some Buzz [they’re creating a mostly unbranded restaurant to test products and yes, create (ugh) buzz] – NY Times
“Everything at Kola House will be centered on the kola nut, a bitter fruit that contains caffeine and gives cola beverages their name. Essentially, Pepsi is trying to market its product without marketing its product.”
Great Reads (why settle for good?)
We’re Not Going Anywhere: Growing Up Latino and Punk in America [an experience / perspective piece from one of your fellow humans – note: some disturbing aspects to the story] - Observer
Look, Listen (and um, learn?)
Listen: IKEA Executive On Why The West Has Hit 'Peak Stuff' - NPR
Listen: Rihanna - Higher [via Pitchfork, scroll down – her album ANTI is out now (exclusive to TIDAL- yup, it’s still around)]
Culture (more)
Barbie’s Got a New Body [they’ve released three new body shapes, including “curvy, tall and petite” in a very big switch for the brand] - TIME
Industry (we're so Hollywood)
China's Alibaba Selling Stake in Online Ticketing Service Meituan-Dianping for $900M [digital ticketing is much more common way of buying in China vs US – but the ticketing companies also reportedly discount the tickets fairly heavily – reason likely for the sale is because they have their own wholly owned solution] - THR
Google Trends
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Challenger - 30 year anniversary of the Space Shuttle crash
Louis Tomlinson - One Direction member had his baby
Federer - beat by Djokovic in the Australian Open
Sonic Boom - a military jet created one on the east coast
Barbie - and you know this wo(man)
Top YouTube Videos
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