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The Trump administration exempted Apple’s AirPods and Apple Watch from its latest round of Chinese products targeted with a new 10 percent tariff. Also removed from the tariff list: Bluetooth devices, bicycle helmets, high chairs and car seats. President Trump yesterday announced new tariffs on about $200 billion in Chinese goods, from luggage to seafood; once the new measures take effect on Sept. 24, Trump will have imposed tariffs on nearly half of the Chinese goods imported to the U.S., which last year were valued at $505 billion. [Jacob M. Schlesinger and Vivian Salama / The Wall Street Journal]
IBM is being sued for age discrimination after firing thousands of older employees. Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer who has styled her firm as the champion for employees left behind by powerful tech companies, filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of three former IBM employees who say the tech giant discriminated against them based on their age when it fired them. The suit draws heavily on a March 2018 ProPublica report that said IBM has fired more than 20,000 employees older than 40 in the last six years. [Gerrit De Vynck / Bloomberg]
Twitter is making it easier to get a simple, pure, reverse-chronological timeline, bypassing its algorithmic sorting. For now, uncheck the “Show the best tweets first” box in settings; Twitter said it will make this easier in a future update. [Nick Statt / The Verge]
Amazon plans to unveil at least eight new Alexa devices this year, including a microwave oven and an in-car device. The company will reportedly hold a product event later this month where some of these will be revealed. Amazon still arguably leads the voice-assistant category, but Google is coming on strong. That said, we don’t expect Google to get into the microwave business. [Eugene Kim / CNBC]
Apple launched iOS 12 yesterday with seemingly no major hiccups. The main improvement for most people should be speed, especially on older devices; there’s also “Screen Time” to limit your Instagram addiction, “Memoji” and an interesting automation tool called Siri Shortcuts. But if you’re in the mood, here’s a comically detailed, e-book-length review of what’s new in iOS 12. [Federico Viticci / MacStories]
Stripe made its name with online payments, but yesterday it unveiled a new service for paying in-person. On Day One of Recode’s Code Commerce conference in New York City, Stripe co-founder and president John Collison announced Stripe Terminal, which is targeted at fast-growing, digital-first companies that have only recently started expanding into physical retail or are considering doing so. Meanwhile, Stripe may have given up on bitcoin, but Collison is still excited about the future of crypto. For more highlights from the conference, check out our “Tales of Retail” pop-up section below. [Jason Del Rey / Recode]
The holiday shopping season is still two months away, but U.S. retailers are already scrambling to find enough workers to staff their stores. Faced with record-low unemployment and rising wages in other industries, retailers began their annual push for holiday workers earlier than ever, raising pay and offering perks such as profit-sharing and paid time off for part-time associates. Delivery companies are facing a shortage of drivers so severe that retailers in some areas are asking all employees to pitch in by delivering inventory to stores. [Suzanne Kapner and Inti Pacheco / The Wall Street Journal]
Elon Musk revealed the first private customer who will fly a SpaceX rocket around the moon: Yusaku Maezawa, founder of Japanese fashion brand Zozotown (and the more recent, innovative Zozosuit). [Loren Grush / The Verge]
Tales of Retail from Code Commerce
Amazon’s new small-business product “feels like a trap,” says Shopify’s CEO.
Tobi Lütke thinks giving your business data to Amazon might not be a good idea.
Instagram is testing a dedicated shopping channel on its Explore tab to see if that grabs users who are intentionally looking to spend some cash.
Here’s why Amazon rival Flipkart still wants to IPO even though Walmart bought it for $16 billion.
It comes down to talent.
Amazon is going to try. But will it work?
Stores and Stories: How two successful consumer startups find their customers.
The founders of Framebridge and Away share the latest from the digital-native commerce world.
Top stories from Recode
After Benioff’s big deal, Time is bringing back the bar cart.
Time employees get ready to toast their new owners; Fortune and Sports Illustrated hope they get to celebrate, too.
On the latest episode of Recode Media, Holofcener says a normal studio asked her to cast “six A-list stars” if they were going to put the movie in theaters. Netflix said, “You can cast whoever you want.”
This is cool
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
