Re/wind: Apple's Big Week, Netflix Drama and More

If you missed the big news in tech this week, don’t worry, we have you covered. Here are the stories that powered Re/code this week:

1. The week kicked off with the Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple’s dog-and-pony show where they unveil new products that set the stage for hardware to come later in the year. Check out Re/code’s rundown of winners and losers and write-ups of Apple’s new home automation kit, iOS 8, OS X Yosemite, among others. Also, Walt Mossberg weighed in with his view on Apple’s whole game plan.
2. If Netflix was looking for drama, it found some this week with its message to some Verizon subscribers that Verizon was to blame for low-quality video streams. Verizon responded with a cease-and-desist and threatened legal action. Verizon denied responsibility, as did Comcast before it. Meanwhile, Comcast released a mind-bogglingly stupid ad geared at video gamers (which they have since pulled?).
3. Uber’s valuation lived up to CEO Travis Kalanick’s Code Conference promise of a “record-breaking” funding round, raising $1.2 billion of what it expects to be a $1.4 billion round that values it at $17 billion.
4. Lauren Goode tested two new “telehealth” apps that promise on-demand medical services.
5. It just got a lot easier to get your llama-centric social network off the ground, now that new Kickstarter CEO Yancey Strickler threw out a lot of the rules and moderation restrictions, allowing the majority of people to start raising money whenever they want.
6. Houzz, the home decorating startup, raised $150 million in Series D funding, which values the company at more than $2 billion. However, the company oddly declined to comment on the publicly filed documents.
7. After 18 years serving as perhaps the most powerful communications exec in tech, Katie Cotton retired from Apple. Kara discussed working with Cotton and her public perception.
8. John Oliver, comedian and host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” crashed the FCC website this week with his net neutrality monologue that went viral.
9. As if to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the NSA surveillance revelations disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, Vodafone disclosed that some governments have direct access to eavesdrop on calls. In Washington, a group of senators took a look at a bill regarding the metadata collected by the NSA.
10. In video game news, video game streaming site Twitch.tv released details of a study they commissioned to challenge conventional stereotypes of gamers. They’re not all overweight, anti-social dudes! As the video game megashow E3 approaches, here’s how Microsoft can regain momentum in the console wars.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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