Killer Apps Headlines

Matthew Boyle / Bloomberg : CIRP: Amazon US Prime membership growth slows, up 8% over the past 12 months to 97M, as members spent $1,400/year on average, versus $600 for non-Prime users   —  - Walmart has tried to blunt the appeal of Prime membership  — Prime members still spend heavily, $1,400 per year on average

Brad Chacos / PCWorld : Gaming chat company Discord says its digital game store, which first launched in Canada back in August, is now launching globally in public beta with 22 titles   —  Discord's war on Steam (which only started after Steam declared war on Discord) is escalating.

Alex Heath / Cheddar : Source: Facebook is building a hybrid video chat/TV set-top box, internally called Ripley, which it plans to announce in Spring 2019   —  Facebook is developing hardware for the TV, Cheddar has learned.  —  The world's largest social network is building a camera-equipped device that sits atop …

Ron Miller / TechCrunch : Paperspace raises $13M Series A led by Battery Ventures for AI-fueled application development platform   —  Paperspace wants to help developers build artificial intelligence and machine learning applications with a software/hardware development platform powered by GPus and other powerful chips.

Vlad Savov / The Verge : Huawei unveils Mate 20 Pro with 6.4-inch OLED display, in-display fingerprint sensor, two-way wireless charging, three rear cameras, and 4,200mAh battery   —  Everything you could want from a phone, and then some  —  Arriving fashionably late to the 2018 contest for super flagship phones …

Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch : Syncron, which offers a SaaS to help manufacturers move to a service model, raises $67M led by Summit Partners, source says at a $175M post-money valuation   —  Syncron, a Stockholm-headquartered company that offers a SaaS to help equipment and other product manufacturers move to a service model …

Jason Del Rey / Recode : Instacart raises $600M at a $7.6B valuation led by hedge fund D1 Capital Partners   —  The startup has a fresh $600 million in funding to boot.  —  As Amazon has ramped up its Whole Foods grocery delivery service to 48 cities across the U.S., a common narrative has followed …

Roberto Baldwin / Engadget : Amazon unveils waterproof Kindle Paperwhite with higher 300ppi resolution, starting at $129, available for preorder now, shipping November 7   —  Sometimes you just want to read a book.  Or maybe all the books.  That's the promise of the Kindle line.  Access to thousands of books …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch : A look at how some top utility apps on the App Store are making millions of dollars by using dark patterns, tricking users into signing up for subscriptions   —  Subscriptions have turned into a booming business for app developers, accounting for $10.6 billion in consumer spend on the App Store in 2017 …

Wall Street Journal : Apple apologizes for the hacking of some Apple IDs in China in phishing scams, says the victims hadn't enabled two-factor authentication   —  Apple apologized over the hacking of some Chinese accounts in phishing scams, almost a week after it emerged that stolen Apple IDs had been used to swipe customer funds.

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch : Source: Apple did not acquire music analytics startup Asaii but instead hired its founders to work on Apple Music   —  On the heels of news of not one but two acquisitions from Apple last week, a report surfaced yesterday that Apple had picked up yet another company, the music analytics startup Asaii …

Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge : Lyft launches All-Access Pass subscription plan for $299 per month for 30 rides costing up to $15 each, for single-passenger trips and carpooling rides   —  Netflix, but for rides  —  Lyft's monthly subscription experiment is going national.  The ride-hailing company has been tinkering …

Wall Street Journal : Sources: Uber could be valued at $120B in an IPO as soon as early 2019, nearly double its valuation two months ago, according to proposals from banks   —  Eye-popping offering, which could take place early next year, is nearly double the ride-hailing company's valuation in a fundraising round two months ago

Vindu Goel / New York Times : Credit card giants Visa, Mastercard, and Amex, as well as other financial players like Amazon and PayPal flout India's new data localization regulation   —  MUMBAI, India — When the clock struck midnight in Delhi at the end of Monday, Visa, Mastercard and American Express were suddenly …

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