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// HAPPENING TODAY
- Arista Networks is trading for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ANET.
- The Palm Pre turns five years old.
- National Doughnut Day
Apple Hopes to Debut Wearable in October
October. That’s the tentative launch date Apple has set for its first, long-in-the-offing foray into wearable devices. People familiar with Apple’s plans tell Code/red the company hopes to schedule a special event that month to show off the device, which is designed to make good use of the HealthKit health and fitness information-gathering app it recently showed off at WWDC. Could things change between now and fall? That’s certainly possible. But right now October is the target date. The Nikkei is hearing the same thing and its sources say that Apple is so confident in the gadget that it’s looking to produce three million to five million units per month. Which may explain not only the company’s latest ad, but Apple VP Eddy Cue’s heady optimism at our Code Conference last week. “Later this year, we’ve got the best product pipeline that I’ve seen in my 25 years at Apple,” Cue said.
Serious Question: If Apple’s iTunes Team Is This Stupid, How Does It Get to Work?
Aylin Zafar, Buzzfeed: “Apple employees confirmed that management actively ignored iTunes’ streaming competitors, with some managers refusing to open or use Spotify. One source said that as recently ‘as last year,’ some members of management didn’t even know that Spotify was an on-demand streaming service, assuming it was just a radio service.”
Yeah, Who Needs a Cellphone to Manage Nearly $2 Trillion in Assets, Anyway …
Bill Gross, founder of Pimco, the world’s largest bond fund: “Our modern age is becoming more virtual than physical, which I find increasingly depressing if only because I’ve failed to keep pace. I don’t even own a cellphone.”
Vodafone Reveals Its Ruling Party Line Service
Vodafone released its inaugural Law Enforcement Disclosure this morning, and it’s every bit as disheartening as you’d imagine, particularly for the company’s 381 million customers across the globe. The 40,000-word document details government surveillance of the world’s second-largest telecommunications network across the 29 countries in which it operates and includes this terrifying revelation: Government agencies in some countries can tap directly into Vodafone’s network, without a warrant or even a formal request. The carrier refused to reveal the names of those countries for fear of retaliation. That said, it did note that it is unlawful to disclose any information related to wiretapping in Albania, Egypt, Hungary, India, Malta, Qatar, Romania, South Africa and Turkey.
Point/Counterpoint: You’re Lying vs. No, We’re Testing
Verizon: “The impression that Netflix is falsely giving our customers is that the Verizon network is generally ‘crowded’ and troublesome. This could cause a customer to … choose to alter or cease their use of the Verizon network. This potential damage to Verizon, because of Netflix delivery decisions, must be factored in to Netflix’s deceptive behavior.”
Netflix: “We are testing ways to let consumers know how their Netflix experience is being affected by congestion on their broadband provider’s network. … Our test continues.”
eBay’s Donahoe Champing at Bitcoin
Has the ignominious collapse of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox and the crisis of trust it has created around the … hobbyist cryptographic currency shaken eBay CEO John Donahoe’s developing interest in it? Not at all. In a Thursday interview with CNBC, Donahoe said support for bitcoin transactions is likely coming to eBay and its PayPal subsidiary. “Digital currency is going to play an important role going forward, and at PayPal we’re going to have to integrate digital currencies into our wallet,” Donahoe said. “I can’t give a specific time, but I think you’ll see bitcoin used in different use cases, whether it’s a peer-to-peer use case, a cross-border transaction — someone’s sending currency to someone else — and over time, you’ll start to see it with some merchants accepting bitcoin.”
Wonder When We’ll Reach “Peak Bitcoin”?
Joon Ian Wong, CoinDesk: “The amount of venture capital raised by bitcoin startups this year has already surpassed the total amount raised in 2013 by more than $27 million. So far in 2014, $113.2 million has flowed into bitcoin businesses, which is 29 percent greater than the total amount for last year, which stands at $88 million. In 2012, bitcoin startups raised just $2.1 million.”
You Had One Simple Task: Secure the Keys to the Key Hook
Kyle Vanhemert, Wired: “The wall-mounted keyholder has two hooks, one for your bike key, one for your car key. If you grab the bike key, you’re out the door and on your way. If you grab the car key, the machine drops the bike key on the floor, forcing you to stoop down and pick it up. At that point, you have both keys in your hand — effectively giving you a second chance to weigh your options.”
Right, Why Would Anyone Be Interested in the Conversations of a Senior Senator on the Intelligence Committee?
Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s top Republican: “My phone data is in the NSA’s database along with everybody else’s, but I’m not worried. And, frankly, I’m not worried because I don’t talk to terrorists, and hopefully I don’t talk to other people who talk to terrorists.”
Tinder Moments — Snap Snap, Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge, Say No More?
Tinder co-founder Sean Rad: “So we realized that Tinder’s really good at helping our users form new connections, so good in fact that we just hit over two billion total matches made on Tinder. But making a new connection isn’t enough. We want to help our users — we want to give our users a better way to get to know their matches and a better way to communicate beyond text, and that’s exactly what Moments is.”
Off Topic
“Four more New York Times columnists and Malcolm Gladwell get really high: what could possibly go wrong?”, the “Sharknado 2” trailer and Dances with deer.
Thanks for reading. Got a tip or a comment? Reach me at John@recode.net, @johnpaczkowski. Subscribe to the Code/red newsletter here.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
