March 7, 2018

People keep giving Magic Leap loads of money. It's The Daily Crunch

THE DAILY CRUNCH
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7 2018 By Darrell Etherington

Magic Leap raises a whole lot more money from... the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? Sure. Also Amazon is funding a Nest competitor that loves Alexa and also now subsidizing Prime for Medicaid recipients. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for March 7, 2018.

1. The FUTURE is very expensive to build

Yes, the all-caps FUTURE, which means the really important one. Like the one Magic Leap is building, maybe, with its hundreds of millions (actually $2.3 billion, just checked) in funding taken in.

Magic Leap is building AR glasses remember. I'll look like a fool when this all works out, but for now I'm laughing at everyone involved in this. Here's a picture to explain why:

2. Ecobee raises $61 million in new funding from Amazon and others

Amazon keeps investing in this smart thermostat maker which is putting a ton of Alexa functionality into their connected devices. Amazon is acquisitive around hardware companies lately. Who knows what might happen.

3. Amazon debuts low-cost Prime for Medicaid users

Amazon is creating a half-price, full-featured version of Prime for Medicaid recipients. This isn't because it's benevolent, mind you: It just wants people incentivized to spend money on its platform, regardless of their financial situation.

4. The UK is gearing up to allow self-driving cars by 2021

The UK is embarking on a three year regulatory review to hopefully come out the other end with a legal framework in place to ensure autonomous cars can use the road, with proper guidelines on how.

5. 23andMe gets FDA approval for cancer risk test

Mail-in genetic testing startup 23andMe has an FDA approved, cancer risk test on the way. That's a big step, especially because it can be had without a prescription.

6. It's the anniversary of the iPhone SDK

You might not even know what that is (you probably do if you're reading this) but it's the reason you're most likely reading this via your Gmail app on your iPhone, and that you're going to leave here and go check Instagram or Twitter on the same device.

7. Airbnb hires Amazon's head of Prime

This article features a picture of the guy in a fancy treehouse, which is all you need to know about everything.

Get more stories at techcrunch.com 

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