Tech Mania

YC looks to help more of its companies lock down Series A funding

<a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="y-combinator" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/y-combinator/" target="_blank">Y Combinator,</a> the popular startup accelerator program, has never been shy about experimenting. Now, in its latest trial, the outfit is launching what it’s calling a Series A program. The idea is to help alums that maybe picked up seed funding after one of YC’s famous Demo Day presentations but that could use some help thinking through how much to raise in Series A funding, and from whom.
We talked Friday with the YC partner who is leading the program, Aaaron Harris, about how it will work, why YC deems it necessary, and what it signals about the 15 companies that will be accepted into each of these batches, where they will meet every other week over a two-month period to discuss (in part) business models, forecasts, pitch decks, and how to approach meeting with different types of investors.
TC: For readers who don’t know you, how did you wind up at YC and how long have you been involved with the organization?
AH: I’ve been a partner for five years. I cofounded a [since shuttered] company, TutorSpree, which went through YC in 2011 and was funded by Sequoia Capital. Before that, I worked at a hedge fund in New York.
TC: Why create programming around Series A rounds?
AH: As YC has gotten bigger, we’ve had more companies reaching Series A level funding, and what I noticed was that we didn’t have great advice to give them. The advice was sort of scaled up from seed [round discussions] and while that works for some, it doesn’t work for others. It became apparent that founders don’t have a great sense of who they should be talking with and about what.
In 2017, 62 of our alums raised $550 million across their Series A rounds. That’s more than in any other portfolio in the world as far as I’m aware, so we should know more than others. But we hadn’t established best practices around this, so I started advising companies on a one-off basis about six months ago; now, we’re formalizing the process.
TC: How long after companies graduate from YC and close their seed rounds do they raise Series A rounds typically? And what are some of the things you learned by looking across your portfolio?
AH: It’s often between 14 and 18 months afterward, and what we’ve seen is a cadence to Series A funding. You see a lot of rounds [being sewn up] in September and October and November and then they kind of stop until late January, then you start see [most of them again] in March and April and May.
If companies plan far enough ahead — assuming they hit their milestones — they can raise with more control if they’re aware of these cycles.
TC: Beyond that VCs generally slow down in the summer and over the winter holidays, what have been some of your other observations?
AH: A lot of it boils down to the process and the way they work on raising. The thing that founders screw up the most in raising a Series A is they let it get away from them, and they let it fall into a serial process, talking with investors with half a story over many months. When when it comes to this kind of round, you want to make a clear delineation. You might meet investors to start a relationship, but you don’t want to pitch them in an active sense. Instead, when the time is right, you move, saying, “Can I come in and pitch you?”
You want to have those pitch meetings in a tight window so that investors are meeting with you at the same time and there’s little information [leakage] in the ecosystem.
TC: Do you feel like YC — or its portfolio companies — need to be more strategic because the bar for Series A funding has grown higher?
AH: Naturally, there’s fallout from seed to A,  and that’s good; that means risk is being taken at the seed stage.
What we’re seeing are greater and more diverse groups doing Series A investing than in the past. You’re seeing of rounds being led by firms that aren’t the top-tier Silicon Valley names but smaller, newer funds, including funds abroad that invest internationally. I think it just reflects the increasingly global nature of VC now that more capital is looking for yield, whether from sovereign wealth funds or pension funds or other outlets. But founders have no idea how to access those sources of capital. So we’ll have an application for investors to learn which companies are raising Series A round. We’re building software around that information to better match founders with the right investors.
TC: Does YC have concerns about how many outfits are now offering startups seed funding and how many colors of “seed” have emerged, from pre-seed to seed to post-seed and how that impacts A rounds?
AH: Dilution is an important aspect of this. One thing we’re doing is using the Series A program to point all the way back to Demo Day to inform companies on how much they should raise in order to hit milestones that will be relevant to A. It’s not just a YC problem. A lot of founders raise money at seed without thinking about what dilution means. They’ll take money at good terms, but they don’t think about how much money they need. Ideally, you raise the least amount possible to hit your milestones and you don’t overmaximize the price of the seed round; it makes it harder to raise [again later].
TC: You’ll begin working with your first batch of companies this summer. What can they expect?
AH: We’ll have 10 to 15 companies which, over two months, will be meeting roughly every other week with each other and myself and the rest of the Series A team, kind of like the office hours that we do now.
What’s a bit different from YC’s core program is there’s a clearer set of tactical objectives for each meeting It might be about how you build a financial model for when your investor does diligence, or how you should think about who the right investor is and how you have the right conversations with investors. It sounds basic, but founders don’t know how to talk with VCs unless they’ve done it before. It’s a very different conversation than with an angel investor. There’s a lot more to talk about and things you can predict ahead of time that will concern [Series A] investors. There should be more of a story because there’s more of a business.
TC: Are you worried about what this program signals to investors? You can imagine they will either see these as your most prized Series A stage companies or your most troubled.
AH: We’ve definitely thought about this. Anything we do needs to contribute to network, and signaling risk can damage that.
The way we’re structuring this program gets to the heart of what’s so great about the YC network. It acts as a point at which you pull together a group of companies that are at similar stages and allows us to reforge a batch in cool ways. Early on, there’s tons of bonding and peer support at YC, but afterward, everyone tends to go in different directions. Having a new batch where everyone is at the Series A stage and who can talk about the GPs who they’ve met with and what they’ve learned,  or who’ve dealt with particular issues when it comes to scaling and can share, is [a lot of why we are doing this].
When it comes to the companies we work with, some will continue to raise As without us. There are always going to be founders with good VCs in their round who [help with Series A fundraising] and that’s great. They can still as for our advice about term sheets and how to negotiate specific points. The ad-hoc piece will never go away, just as it never goes away for any YC companies.
TC: How often will you “batch” these companies and who, other than your peers at YC, will be talking with these founders? Will you have outside speakers or mentors involved, too?
AH: We’ll bring in alums for their advice and for panel discussions and pitch practice — both alums who raised years ago and can share their good and bad stories, and people who’ve raised recently for some perspective on the market.
As for these batches, if it winds up being 12 batches a year, we’ll figure out how to do that.
 
 
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YC looks to help more of its companies lock down Series A funding

Y Combinator, the popular startup accelerator program, has never been shy about experimenting. Now, in its latest trial, the outfit is laun...

It turns out TechCrunch writers have really strong opinions about Apple’s new walkie talkie Watch feature

Apple today said it is <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/04/apple-watch-gets-walkie-talkie-mode/">rolling out a walkie-talkie like feature for the Apple Watch</a>, which is something that seems a really long time coming but just never made it until 2018 when the Apple Watch was out for many years and is on its third iteration.
The new watch has a cellular connection, which seems like a good enough time to add walkie talkie features (or maybe they were waiting for that red dial to make it feel cool). You talk into your watch inspector gadget style, which seems like a final actualization of our childhood dreams and ignite a hope that the future may finally be here. Or not.
But what was actually a little more surprising was the alarmingly lively discussion that took place following the announcement, as well as the very strong opinions some <a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="techcrunch" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/techcrunch/" target="_blank">TechCrunch</a> writers have about the walkie talkie app and its storied history.
Here’s a couple snapshots of the discussion. Also, everyone was warned about this post, so I have plausible deniability.
<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1650854" height="327" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/screen-shot-2018-06-04-at-11-14-44-am.png?w=680" width="680" /> <img alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1650855" height="490" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/screen-shot-2018-06-04-at-11-14-51-am.png?w=680" width="680" /> <img alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1650856" height="314" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/screen-shot-2018-06-04-at-11-15-03-am.png?w=680" width="680" /> <img alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1650857" height="619" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/screen-shot-2018-06-04-at-11-15-14-am.png?w=680" width="680" /> <img alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1650858" height="194" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/screen-shot-2018-06-04-at-11-15-32-am.png?w=680" width="680" /> <img alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1650859" height="307" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/screen-shot-2018-06-04-at-11-15-43-am.png?w=680" width="680" />
Be sure to check out the rest of TechCrunch’s coverage of <a href="https://techcrunch.com/tag/wwdc-2018/">WWDC 2018</a>, Apple’s annual developer conference in San Jose.
 
 
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It turns out TechCrunch writers have really strong opinions about Apple’s new walkie talkie Watch feature

Apple today said it is rolling out a walkie-talkie like feature for the Apple Watch , which is something that seems a really long time comin...

Apple Watch gets Walkie-Talkie mode

At Apple’s annual developer conference today, the company showed off a new walkie-talkie feature for Apple Watch. The app is uniquely called Walkie Talkie.
“It’s a fun, easy way to talk with friends and family,” Apple VP of Technology Kevin Lynch said at WWDC.
The first time you use it, you send a request to your friend, who can then accept or decline it. If they accept it, you can then walkie-talkie them at any time. This watch-to-watch connection works over cellular and Wi-Fi, and enables you to send short voice messages to friends and family with an Apple Watch. Once you press to talk, your friend will feel some haptic feedback and then hear your voice immediately.
This seems like the type of feature that I wouldn’t want to have on all the time, but it could definitely be fun. Apple first started talking about a walkie-talkie feature back in 2014, before the Apple Watch launched the following year. But that feature didn’t make its way onto the Apple Watch until now.
<div id="attachment_1650870" style="width: 638px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img alt="" class="wp-image-1650870 size-large" height="596" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/screen-shot-2018-06-04-at-11-20-28-am.png?w=628" width="628" />
Apple’s Walkie-Talkie concept circa November 2014
</div>
At WWDC, Apple also unveiled Watch OS5, which you can read more about <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/04/apple-introduces-watchos-5/">here</a>.
<div class="embed breakout">
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="GazYHfxI10">
<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/04/apple-introduces-watchos-5/">Apple introduces watchOS 5</a>
</blockquote>
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/04/apple-introduces-watchos-5/embed/#?secret=GazYHfxI10" data-secret="GazYHfxI10" width="800" height="450" title="“Apple introduces watchOS 5” — TechCrunch" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
</div>
 
 
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Apple Watch gets Walkie-Talkie mode

At Apple’s annual developer conference today, the company showed off a new walkie-talkie feature for Apple Watch. The app is uniquely called...

Apple unveils new screen time controls for children

Apple this morning announced a new set of parental controls for iOS devices at its WorldWide Developer Conference this morning in San Jose. The company had already <a href="https://www.imore.com/apple-new-parental-control-features-planned-future">acknowledged</a> back in January that it had new, more robust parental control features in the works, following an open letter <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/07/two-large-apple-shareholders-say-it-needs-to-research-the-impact-of-smartphones-on-kids/">posted</a> by two large Apple shareholder groups, Jana Partners LLC and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.
The letter from the influential, activist shareholders mentioned recent research from child development experts whose studies have found links between the use of electronic devices by kids, and negative effects on concentration, emotional health, sleep and empathy. One study even found a link between time spent on devices and teen suicide, with teens who spent three or more hours per day on devices at higher risk than those who used them for an hour or less.
In addition, the letter argued that managing children’s device usage isn’t just the parents’ responsibility alone – they also need help from tech companies on the matter.
The shareholders suggested Apple task an executive to focus on these digital wellbeing features aimed at children and parents, and include new setup menus in Apple software that better allow parents to tailor the functionality of the device to the child’s specific ages.
Apple responded by saying updated parental controls were coming, and it <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2018/03/14/apple-parental-controls-features/">rolled out a “Families” page</a> on its website with educational materials for parents.
The company today unveiled for the first time what these new controls would look like, and how they work.
Now, there’s a new activity report for parents and kids that shows how much time is spent using the device and the apps, and parents will have the option of creating screen time allowances for kids.
Another “downtime” option will help kids to unplug, and parents can limit app usage by category or individual whitelisted apps. That way, parents can make sure critical apps will still work even during downtime, like the phone app.
Currently, Apple’s existing set of parental controls on iOS (found under General –> Restrictions) in iOS takes an all-or-nothing approach, where parents toggle on or off Apple’s own apps, configure which apps, music, books, and videos can see based on their ratings. They can also configure various privacy settings related to things like location sharing, advertising, speech recognition, and many others. And parents can configure what the child can or cannot do on the device – like download apps or disable “Do Not Disturb While Driving,” for example.
Meanwhile, other tech companies’ parental control systems have evolved to include more functionality related to screen time.
Amazon, for example, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/freetime%E2%80%8E">offers controls</a> that allow parents to set educational goals that must be met before games can be played, and allows for setting time limits and filtering of content by age. Google’s Family Link, which <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/28/googles-parental-control-software-family-link-launches-to-public/">publicly launched</a> last fall, also focuses on screen time settings.
With the new controls, Apple is playing catch up a bit to an industry that had already made screen time and age filters a key focus. But it’s still an important step, given Apple’s power to set trends.
The addition of the new parental controls is part of <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/04/apple-unveils-a-new-set-of-digital-wellness-features-for-better-managing-screen-time/">Apple’s larger focus on digital wellness,</a> which includes the arrival of new time management features for adults, as well, arriving in iOS 12.
 
 
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Apple unveils new screen time controls for children

Apple this morning announced a new set of parental controls for iOS devices at its WorldWide Developer Conference this morning in San Jose. ...

Apple introduces watchOS 5

Kevin Lynch from the watchOS team introduced the next version of watchOS at <a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="apple" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/apple/" target="_blank">Apple’s</a> <a href="https://techcrunch.com/tag/wwdc-2018/">WWDC keynote</a>. It’s been a slow and steady rise for the Apple Watch. It’s by far the most popular smart watch, and it’s becoming slightly more useful every year.
This year is no different. There’s a new workout type for yoga, another one for hiking. You can now challenge your friends for a 7-day competition.
But I’m even more excited about automatic workout detection. If you grab your bike and your heart start beating more rapidly, your Apple Watch will track your workout automatically. You’ll also get notifications to end a workout.
As rumored, Apple is introducing a new Walkie-Talkie app for Apple Watch users. You press to record a message, release to send it. Your friend will receive a notification. That could open up interesting professional use cases. Cellular Apple Watches make this feature more useful too.
The Siri watch face is getting more integrations thanks to Siri shortcuts. You can receive a Citymapper suggestion for instance.
When it comes to the actual voice assistant, you won’t need to say “Hey Siri” anymore. You can just raise your wrist and start talking.
Apple has ported WebKit to watchOS, which opens up a lot of possibilities. You can view web content from your watch. Apple is adding native podcast support on the Apple Watch too.
Overall, Apple tackled a lot of low hanging fruits. But it’s a compelling pitch and makes the Apple Watch more essential than ever.
 
 
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Apple introduces watchOS 5

Kevin Lynch from the watchOS team introduced the next version of watchOS at Apple’s WWDC keynote . It’s been a slow and steady rise for the...

Apple unveils a new set of ‘digital wellness’ features for better managing screen time

Apple has become the latest tech giant to prioritize digital wellbeing. At its Worldwide Developer Conference this morning, Apple announced a series of new controls that will allow iOS users to monitor how much time they spend on devices, set time limits on app usage, control the distraction of notifications, and control the device usage for their children.
The addition of these features was previously leaked by <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-31/apple-to-tout-digital-health-ar-features-at-software-conference">Bloomberg</a>, but the details on how they worked wasn’t yet known.
In the upcoming version of the iOS 12 software for iPhone and iPad, Apple will include a series of features focused on digital wellness, starting with an upgraded Do Not Disturb feature that will help people who tend to look at their iPhone at night, and then find themselves distracted by the excessive notifications. With Do Not Disturb during bedtime, you can configure so your iPhone doesn’t show your notifications when you look at your phone at night, during hours you customize.
In addition, this feature will include a new morning wakeup screen, that’s similarly bare of notifications so you are “gently eased into your day.”
In Control Center, you can configure when Do Not Disturb will end, as well.
Meanwhile, Apple is also introducing better ways to manage your notifications. Siri will even suggest to you which notifications you should turn off, based on which apps it knows you’re no longer using.
But even more useful, perhaps, is support for grouped notifications. That means notifications will not just be grouped by app, but also by topic and thread. You can tap into these groups and look at those from a particular app, and you can triage all those grouped notifications with a single swipe.
Another part of Apple’s digital wellbeing features includes reporting over how you spend time on your device.
This involes a weekly activity summary that shows you how you used your iPhone or iPad during the week. This full activity report will show you how much time your spending on your device and in apps, and how that breaks down per day. You can also see which apps are sending you the most notifications, so you can make better decisions about which apps’ notifications you may want to disable.
And another feature lets you set time limits for apps that take up your downtime, which you’d like to be more thoughtful about, in terms of your usage. When your time is about up, you’ll get an alert, and when the time is up, a new “Times Up” screen comes up. You can extend your time, if need be, Apple notes.
Other new features are aimed at families who want to control screen time for their children.
This includes an activity report for parents and kids, and the option of creating allowances for kids. A “downtime” option will help kids to unplug, and parents can limit app usage by category or individual whitelisted apps. That way, parents can make sure critical apps will still work even during downtime, like the phone app.
All this is configured by parents remotely from their own device, says Apple.
<img alt="" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1650775" height="469" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/screentime_wwdc.jpg?w=680" width="680" />
Apple is not the first tech company to rethink its responsibilities around device addiction.
At Google’s developer conference just a month ago, the company <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/08/android-rolls-out-a-suite-of-time-management-controls-to-promote-more-healthy-app-usage/">introduced</a> its own set of time management tools for Android users. Its tools help users track screen time and app usage, and include new features like a “shush” mode which turns on Do Not Disturb by flipping the phone over, and a “wind down,” color reduction mode for bedtime.
In addition, other major tech companies have begun to consider digital wellbeing when updating their products.
For example, Facebook earlier in 2018 <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/11/facebook-time-well-spent/">changed how its News Feed operates</a> to reduce users’ time spent on the site in favor of wellbeing. <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/21/scroll-responsibly/">And Facebook-owned Instagram just introduced its first time well spent feature</a>, by informing users “you’re all caught up” when they’ve viewed all the new posts.
The idea is that people don’t know when to stop when in comes to devices and apps, and lack information and tools that can help them make decisions about how much time they want to spend on devices, versus how much time they’re actually spending.
The movement around digital wellbeing is a fairly recent shift for Silicon Valley, where companies until now have encouraged the design of software and apps that continually engage and addict users, without considering the psychological cost. Stress, anxiety, insomnia, distracted thoughts, inability to concentrate, emotional issues and more have been the result of these companies’ desire to keep users glued to their devices.
But now some early tech execs are pushing back.
Former Facebook president Sean Parker has openly worried about <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/11/09/sean-parker-facebook-childrens-brains/">what social media was doing to kids’ brains</a> and admitted Facebook was designed to <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/12/12/chamath-palihapitiya-facebook-society/">exploit weakness in the human psyche</a> to addict users. A former Google exec Tristan Harris launched a coalition of technologists and activists called the <a href="http://humanetech.com/">Center for Humane Technology</a>, which aims to encourage the implementation of new design principles that help to put users back in control of their technology usage.
As the rumblings around digital addiction escalate, other trends are emerging as well – like the <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/02/self-care-apps-are-booming/">booming business for “mindfulness” apps</a> and those that help users <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/27/aloe-bud-is-the-adorable-self-care-app-youve-been-waiting-for/">practice self-care</a>, which includes putting the phone down and taking care of our other needs. Some have put this into practice in an extreme way, as of late – Simon Cowell said he <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jun/03/simon-cowell-says-giving-up-mobile-phone-has-made-him-happier">actually gave up his mobile phone entirely</a>, and feels so much happier as a result.
With its own new tools, Apple has the ability to set a new tone for the industry as a whole, given how others copy its designs – right down to <a href="https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/2/28/17062030/iphone-x-clones-android-mwc-2018">the iPhone X notch</a>. But in this case, mimicry would be a good thing.
The creation of a new culture around technology usage which stops measuring “time spent” and repeat sessions as metrics of success, would be something that ultimately benefits everyone.
<img alt="" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1650775" height="469" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/screentime_wwdc.jpg?w=680" width="680" />
 
 
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Apple unveils a new set of ‘digital wellness’ features for better managing screen time

Apple has become the latest tech giant to prioritize digital wellbeing. At its Worldwide Developer Conference this morning, Apple announced ...

Apple is adding group FaceTime video calls to iOS 12

<a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="apple" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/apple/" target="_blank">Apple</a> is adding the ability to FaceTime more people onto a video call, allowing more than a dozen people to be on the call — and tapping an increasing interest in group video calling stemming from apps like Houseparty
The app spreads out each stream as a series of tiles that will move around based on who is engaging on the call at the time. When someone speaks, the tile automatically gets larger automatically as a way to try to highlight whoever is talking to create a more robust experience. The whole goal is to try to make it easier to video call with a lot of different people all at once in a way that still feels pretty social.
As far as features go, this was a pretty natural addition to the FaceTime App. Houseparty exposed a lot of interest in this area, allowing multiple friends to spin up a video chat. But it’s also a technically strenuous proposition, and Apple does seem uniquely positioned to absorb the technical overhead (and costs) of running multiple FaceTime streams all at once.
Houseparty, for example, sits at around #10 on the App Store for the social category and still a top-200 app, according to App Annie. It has a 4.4-star rating in the App Store and was last updated at the beginning of June, according to the App Store. So it’s still chugging along, though it does seem like Apple may nullify an app like Houseparty if it hasn’t locked in a huge and engaged fan base.
The next version of iOS tends to come out around the time of the next Apple event, which usually happens around September. Apple announced a stream of updates to iOS in its next version, iOS 12, including FaceTime group chats. 
<img alt="" class="breakout aligncenter wp-image-1650809 size-full" height="646" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/screen-shot-2018-06-04-at-11-04-50-am.png" width="1862" />
 
 
 
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Apple is adding group FaceTime video calls to iOS 12

Apple is adding the ability to FaceTime more people onto a video call, allowing more than a dozen people to be on the call — and tapping an...

Apple adds camera effects like stickers, filters, and Memoji to messages

Apple is invading Snapchat’s territory with new effects that let you embellish what you shoot through the Messages camera. Today at WWDC, Ap...

Apple’s Memoji brings an animated you to your iPhone

<a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="apple" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/apple/" target="_blank">Apple</a> showcased a big update to Animojis today, adding a human look called Memoji alongside tongue detection on the silly iPhone X animals.
The company’s Animoji feature was one of the big highlights of the iPhone X reveal in September. The goofy cartoon pigs and chickens utilized the phone’s new front-facing camera array to track a user’s face and deliver recorded messages in a fun way.
Since the initial launch, the company has added a few more characters to the animated repertoire, today is the first big change in how they look and operate.
<img alt="" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1650787" height="325" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/memoji_process-wwdc.jpg?w=680" width="680" />
The company announced today it was adding ghost, koala, tiger and t-rex Animojis (with tongue tracking!), but more interestingly the company added Memoji, a custom Animoji tool which allows users to build their own.
It’s set up a lot like Bitmoji but takes the magic of Animoji live face-tracking to deliver some very fun and diverse experiences that can live in messages or can be directly transposed on your face through the camera app.
<img alt="" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1650798" height="453" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/0304.jpg?w=680" width="680" />
 
 
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Apple’s Memoji brings an animated you to your iPhone

Apple showcased a big update to Animojis today, adding a human look called Memoji alongside tongue detection on the silly iPhone X animals....

Apple says CarPlay will now support third party navigation and mapping apps

Big news for CarPlay, Apple’s in-car service that lets a vehicle’s display act as a controller and ‘reader’ of your iPhone: at WWCD, Apple today announced that it will now let third-party navigation and mapping apps to work with the service starting with iOS 12. Up to now, Apple only allowed its own mapping app, Maps, to work over CarPlay, but now you can use Waze, Google Maps, Here, or whatever other app you might want to use to get from A to B.
The change marks a big shift for Apple, which is well known for favoring its own native apps and generally a more tightly controlled ecosystem on iOS and across devices. But Maps hasn’t been the most popular mapping app by some measure, even for users of iOS. This is in a sense is a tacit acknowledgement that iPhone owners are using a wide variety of other services, and so to get CarPlay used more, this needed to be enabled.
Apple says that most major vehicle manufacturers are partnering with Apple to incorporate CarPlay, which gives iPhone users in-car access to its phone services, Apple Music, iMessage, Apple Books (new name!) and podcasts, along with a selection of third-party apps like Spotify, Google Play Music, NPR and iHeartRadio, as well as Siri support.
It’s not clear why Apple didn’t extend third-party support for other mapping and navigation apps until now. Perhaps it was to sweeten the deal for more people to use its own Maps app.
It’s not clear how many users there are of CarPlay, nor how many cars are now equipped to work with it, but the hope, it seems, is that with increased usefulness, now the service will see more adoption.
 
 
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Apple says CarPlay will now support third party navigation and mapping apps

Big news for CarPlay, Apple’s in-car service that lets a vehicle’s display act as a controller and ‘reader’ of your iPhone: at WWCD, Apple t...

With iOS 12, Apple focuses on performance

<a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="apple" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/apple/" target="_blank">Apple’s Craig</a> Federighi announced that Apple was doubling down on performance with the upcoming release of iOS 12 at the WWDC event in San Jose, CA today.
What’s more, he said, the company would be making these changes to the full range of iOS devices going back to 2013. “And so for iOS 12, we are doubling down on performance from top to bottom making improvements to make.your device faster and more responsive. And because we want these changes to be available the full range of our customers, iOS 12 will be available on all the same devices as iOS 11,” Federighi told the WWDC audience.
<img alt="" class="size-large wp-image-1650739 aligncenter" height="369" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ios_devices.jpg?w=680" width="680" />
Perhaps because customers were unhappy to learn about the <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/28/apple-apologizes-for-not-being-clearer-about-slowing-down-iphones-with-older-batteries/">battery issues with older iOS devices</a> Federighi stressed that Apple has focussed these performance increases on older devices, giving people with older iPhones, the maximum lift. Using the iPhone 6 as an example, he gave some figures about performance increase, stressing that it was still early days. (As an iPhone 6 user, I was listening carefully.)
“Now on that device, iOS delivers a number of improvements. Across common operations you’ll see that apps launch up to 40% faster, the keyboard can come up to 50% faster and you can slide to take a photo at up to 70% faster,” he said.
But he said, the biggest focus, and one all iPhone users can appreciate, is that they are working to optimize performance when it’s under load. As Federighi said that’s when you need performance the most and where iOS 12 really shines.
“We put iOS 12 through our stress tests and we saw in those conditions share sheet coming up twice as fast, and apps launching twice as fast. These are big, big improvements,” he stressed.
Lastly, Apple also optimized iOS 12 at the chip level working with the chip team to optimize performance, while taking battery life into account. If you keep the power pedal to the medal for too long, you suck battery, but Apple is trying to find that perfect balance of power and battery life in iOS 12.
“CPUs traditionally respond to an increased demand for performance by slowly ramping up their clock speed. Well, now in iOS 12, we’re much smarter. When we detect that you need a performance lift when you’re scrolling and launching an app, we ramped up processor performance instantly to its highest state delivering high performance and a ramp it down just as fast to preserve battery life,” he said.
All of this will be available when iOS 12 is released later this year.
 
 
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With iOS 12, Apple focuses on performance

Apple’s Craig Federighi announced that Apple was doubling down on performance with the upcoming release of iOS 12 at the WWDC event in San ...

Apple delivers big updates to its augmented reality platform

<a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="apple" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/apple/" target="_blank">Apple</a> began WWDC talking all about the update it’s delivering to its augmented reality platform, introducing ARKit 2 with iOS 12 which brings several big tech upgrades.
The company didn’t get a chance to showcase all of the things it’s adding to ARKit, but did touch on the big additions, which include improved face tracking, realistic rendering, 3D object detection, persistent experiences and shared experiences.
Apple released ARKit one year ago. The developer platform is based on technology which synthesized the relationship between the inertial sensors of Apple devices and their cameras to track their position in space. This positional tracking allows users to not only move around digital objects but fix those objects to physical places in an environment.
At Google I/O, we saw a new technology called Cloud Anchors which matches up what a pair of smartphone users are seeing in the cloud to allow for multiplayer, it’s not clear how Apple is doing this, but  what’s interesting about Google’s approach is that Cloud Anchors allows for multiplayer across platforms so Android and iOS users can pair up easily as well.
 
 
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Apple delivers big updates to its augmented reality platform

Apple began WWDC talking all about the update it’s delivering to its augmented reality platform, introducing ARKit 2 with iOS 12 which brin...

App Store hits 20M registered developers and $100B in revenues, 500M visitors per week

Microsoft may have just acquired developer’s favorite code respository GitHub, but it is Apple where many of them are making a lot of money at the moment. Today at WWDC, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook announced that there are now 20 million registered developers on iOS, and collectively they have made about $100 billion in revenues, with the App Store bringing in some 500 million visitors per week.
“We’re also happy to announce that this week we’re going to achieve another huge milestone,” Cook said in his presentation. “The money that developers have earned through the App Store will top $100 billion.”
The figures underscore how Apple’s attention has continued to swing more firmly into its developer ecosystem and app marketplace, which is becoming a stronger engine of revenue generation as overall smartphone purchasing slows down in more saturated markets.
He also said that Swift, the programming language Apple developed and uses for its apps, is also picking up some strong momentum.
“It’s the fastest growing programming language out there,” he said. “Apple developers are using it in huge numbers, in fact over 350,000 apps have been written in Swift in the app store. We believe that coding is an essential skill and believe it should be offered by every school in the world. Learning to code has so many benefits, it developers problem solving, critical thinking skills.”
 
 
 
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App Store hits 20M registered developers and $100B in revenues, 500M visitors per week

Microsoft may have just acquired developer’s favorite code respository GitHub, but it is Apple where many of them are making a lot of money ...

Apple introduces iOS 12

<a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="apple" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/apple/" target="_blank">Apple</a> announced the next version of iOS at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/tag/wwdc-2018/">its WWDC developer conference</a>. While iOS 12 won’t be available before the fall, it’s always interesting to get a sneak peek at the next version of iOS.
Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi first talked about some numbers. 81 percent of iOS users are currently running iOS 11. 6 percent of Android users are currently on the last version.
“For iOS 12, we’re doubling down on performance,” Federighi said. iOS 12 is going to be available on all devices that currently support iOS 11.
It’s interesting the Federighi talked about iOS 12 on the iPhone 6 Plus. Apps launch 40 percent faster, the keyboard comes up 50 percent faster and opening the camera is 70 percent faster.
You get the idea, the big new feature of iOS 12 is performance and optimization.
But it doesn’t mean that Apple didn’t think about new features. Apple has created a new file format for augmented reality called USDZ. Adobe CTO Abhay Parasnis talked for a couple of minutes to announce that Adobe apps are going to support USDZ.
Apple is launching a new app to educate people about augmented reality. This app is called Measure and works pretty much like popular third-party app <a href="https://measurekit.com">MeasureKit</a>.
This is a developing post, please refresh for updates.
 
 
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Apple introduces iOS 12

Apple announced the next version of iOS at its WWDC developer conference . While iOS 12 won’t be available before the fall, it’s always int...

Facebook’s latest privacy blunder has already attracted Congressional ire

The <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/03/facebook-says-it-disagrees-with-the-new-york-times-criticisms-of-its-device-integrated-apis/">news</a> that <a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="facebook" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/facebook/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> offered to partners until just recently a form of the friend-scraping capability it claimed to have discontinued back in 2014 has, within hours, brought rebuke and a call to action from the House of Representatives.
“It’s deeply concerning that Facebook continues to withhold critical details about the information it has and shares with others. This is just the latest example of Facebook only coming forward when forced to do so by a media outlet,” reads a statement from Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ).
Indeed, the question of whether and how a user’s friends’ data was being shared with third parties was brought up during <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/09/what-zuckerbergs-congressional-testimony-doesnt-say/">Zuckerberg’s testimony</a>. It is, after all, likely that this is the vector by which millions of users’ data was exfiltrated by agents both malicious and benign.
<div class="embed breakout">
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<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/03/facebook-says-it-disagrees-with-the-new-york-times-criticisms-of-its-device-integrated-apis/">Facebook says it “disagrees” with the New York Times’ criticisms of its device-integrated APIs</a>
</blockquote>
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/03/facebook-says-it-disagrees-with-the-new-york-times-criticisms-of-its-device-integrated-apis/embed/#?secret=yAK7GMa3rS" data-secret="yAK7GMa3rS" width="800" height="450" title="“Facebook says it “disagrees” with the New York Times’ criticisms of its device-integrated APIs” — TechCrunch" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
</div>
In the same line of thinking as “don’t talk to the cops,” the CEO was almost certainly instructed not to volunteer any disadvantageous information unless directly asked. Therefore, it should surprise no one that he failed to mention that there existed until quite recently a similar program allowing third parties to collect data on unsuspecting friends.
It’s telling of Facebook’s current predicament that before they can adequately answer some questions, even more arise.
“Our Committee is also still waiting for a lot of answers from Facebook to questions Mr. Zuckerberg could not or would not answer at our hearing,” Pallone said.
He also called for the FTC to get involved: “The Federal Trade Commission must conduct a full review to determine if the consent decree was violated.” I’ve asked if the Representative will be appealing to the FTC directly, and or whether any existing investigation (the FTC is quiet about these) will be affected.
Pallone is just one among hundreds of Senators and Representatives, but he is one of the crew responsible for the pending Congressional Review Act rollback of the FCC’s new, weaker net neutrality rules. So it’s not a surprise to see him weigh in quickly on another tech issue. Here’s hoping it helps keep Facebook accountable.
 
 
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Facebook’s latest privacy blunder has already attracted Congressional ire

The news that Facebook offered to partners until just recently a form of the friend-scraping capability it claimed to have discontinued ba...

Google’s Hangouts Meet will soon be compatible with hardware from Polycom and Cisco

G Suite is about to get a <a href="https://www.blog.google/products/g-suite/bring-teams-together-new-g-suite-integrations/">slew of new integrations</a>.
<a href="https://meet.google.com/">Hangouts Meet</a>, for example, is <a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="google" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/google/" target="_blank">Google’s</a> designated video conferencing solution for businesses but while it’s easy enough to use, most businesses have already invested in similar solutions from the likes of Polycom and Cisco — or they have opted for Microsoft’s Skype for Business as their go-to service. Soon, however, businesses will get more options as Google today announced that anyone on those systems will now be able to join a Hangouts Meet video call as well. These integrations will go live in the coming weeks.
“Nothing’s more frustrating than hosting a meeting and having trouble getting people to join because of issues with technology—it can interrupt workflows and slow down productivity,” Rany Ng, Google’s director of product management for G Suite, writes in today’s announcement. “We want to make it easier for businesses to use meeting solutions, like Hangouts <a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="meet" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/meet/" target="_blank">Meet,</a> without worrying about compatibility with existing equipment.”
<img alt="" class="breakout alignright size-full wp-image-1650168" height="542" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/calendar-g-suite-image.png" width="975" />
Google built this project in partnership with <a href="https://www.pexip.com/">Pexip</a>, a company that specialized in making meeting platform interoperable. Pexip’s specialty is Skype for Business but for this product, the company is clearly branching out and adding support for Hangouts Meet, too.
In addition to allowing users from more hardware platforms to join Meet calls, Google also today announced that it is making it easier for third-party conferencing services to integrate their services deeper into Google Calendar. So if you are using Webex, for example, you’ll be able to join a Webex call right from Calendar with just a single click. Google says Arkadin, GoToMeeting, LogMeIn, Dialpad, RingCentral, Vidyo and Vonage are currently building similar calendar plugins for their users.
And if you need a room to take those calls, Google also today announced that it is making it easier to view and book rooms that are stored in Exchange and Office 365 in Google Calendar. This integration will only go live in a few months, though.
That’s not all of the integration news today, though. Google is also making it easier to import data from SAP’s enterprise resource planning tools into Google Sheets and analyze it there.
<img alt="" class="breakout aligncenter size-full wp-image-1650169" height="768" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/sap-erp-sheets-integration-final.gif" width="1024" />
 
 
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Google’s Hangouts Meet will soon be compatible with hardware from Polycom and Cisco

G Suite is about to get a slew of new integrations . Hangouts Meet , for example, is Google’s designated video conferencing solution for b...

Lendix raises $37 million for its lending marketplace

French startup <a href="https://lendix.com">Lendix</a> has raised a new funding round of $37 million (€32 million). With this new influx of cash, the startup has one goal in mind. It wants to become the leading lending marketplace of Continental Europe.
Idinvest and Allianz are leading the round, with CIR SpA (De Benedetti’s holding firm) also participating. Existing investors Partech, CNP Assurances, Decaux Frères Investissements and Matmut are also participating once again.
As of today, people living in France, Spain and Italy can sign up to lend money to companies established in those three countries. But the startup is already working hard to expand to the Netherlands and Germany before the end of the year. Next year, <a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="lendix" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/lendix/" target="_blank">Lendix</a> plans to operate in 7 countries.
And it seems like it’s becoming easier to launch new markets. There are now quite a few users and institutional investors on the platform. Lendix doesn’t need to attract Dutch users to start lending to Dutch companies. French, Italian and Spanish users are already willing to put some money in Dutch companies. It’s a true European user base because everybody uses the same currency.
With today’s funding round, it’s going to be easier to launch in Germany. “When you want to open in Germany — and that is our current plan — it’s harder to recruit if you don’t have a German brand name behind you,” co-founder and CEO Olivier Goy told me.
That’s why Allianz is going to be more than just a financial backer. For instance, the insurance company is going to promote Lendix to its corporate clients so that they think about Lendix if they need to borrow some money.
It’s another proof that Lendix doesn’t want to be a French company that operates in other countries. The company also has opened an office in Madrid and another one in Milan with local teams.
Lendix is still a drop in the bucket compared to traditional bank loans. But the company wants to differentiate its product offering from regular banks as much as possible.
Right now, when a company requests a loan, the company’s algorithms are going to work on a basic credit scoring. After that, somebody calls the company to ask a few questions. The Lendix team can focus on more specific information.
“We also have developed a tool called Iris,” CTO Benjamin Netter told me. “It is going to become the biggest intelligence database for European companies.”
France is <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/12/how-frances-open-data-team-is-modernizing-the-french-government-through-data/">leading the way</a> when it comes to open data. You can now access the registry of commerce, the identification number database and important incorporation events. But it’s a mess if you want to access this data. There are different file formats, and the same database uses different fields depending on the region of France.
Lendix has been parsing all this data to turn it into an actionable database. This way, Lendix can get a clear overview of companies that apply for a loan.
The company doesn’t plan to stop there. You could use Iris to detect some fraud patterns. For instance, a person could keep incorporating new companies and shutting them down quickly.
Eventually, you could reach out to companies before they need to apply for a loan. Netter mentioned a restaurant called Street Bangkok. They’ve opened three restaurants over the past six months. It’s clear that they might need some money at some point to invest in new restaurants. Lendix Iris could spot those patterns.
Lendix is still nowhere near as big as <a href="https://www.fundingcircle.com/">Funding Circle</a>. But the company thinks there’s enough room for multiple players in this space. Both can grow at the same time by competing with traditional banks.
And it starts by being faster than a traditional bank. Companies get a rate within 48 hours. “Our goal is that you should be able to get a rate within half a day,” Goy said. Banks will have a hard time giving you an answer so quickly.
Disclosure: I share a personal connection with an executive at CNP Assurances.
 
 
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Lendix raises $37 million for its lending marketplace

French startup Lendix has raised a new funding round of $37 million (€32 million). With this new influx of cash, the startup has one goal i...

Live from Apple’s WWDC 2018 keynote

It’s that time again. This morning kicks off <a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="apple" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/apple/" target="_blank">Apple’s</a> annual World Wide Developers Conference. It’s a week of programming focused on developers, but this morning’s big event has a little something for everyone. Here’s <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/01/what-to-expect-at-wwdc-2018/">a quick break down</a> of what we can likely expect when Tim Cook takes the stage this morning.
The keynote will most likely be focused on announcements surrounding iOS 12 and <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/02/macos-dark-mode/">macOS 10.14</a> — in fact, we got a bit of a preview of the latter over the weekend. WatchOS and HomeKit will probably get some love, as well, along with ARKit, which took center stage at the event, this time last year.
As for hardware — expect Apple to throw us a couple of bones on that front, as well — though the really big announcements around iPhone, iPad and the like, are probably being saved for another day. Beyond that, the sky — or the San Jose Convention Center ceiling, at least — is the limit.
We’ll see you right here at 10AM PT/1PM ET/5PM GMT
 
 
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Live from Apple’s WWDC 2018 keynote

It’s that time again. This morning kicks off Apple’s annual World Wide Developers Conference. It’s a week of programming focused on develop...

Microsoft Azure will soon offer machines with up to 12 TB of memory

Do you have an application that needs a lot of memory? Maybe as much as 12 terabytes of memory? Well, you’re in luck because <a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="microsoft" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/microsoft/" target="_blank">Microsoft</a> Azure will soon offer virtual machines with just that much RAM, based on Intel’s Xeon Scalable servers.
The company made this announcement in concert with the launch of a number of other virtual machine (VM) types that are specifically geared toward running high-memory workloads — and the standard use cases for this is running the SAP Hana in-memory database service.
So in addition to this massive new 12 TB VM, Microsoft is also launching a new 192 GB machine that extends the lower end of Hana-optimized machines on <a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="azure" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/azure/" target="_blank">Azure,</a> as well as a number other Hana options that scale across multiple VMs and can offer combined memory sizes of up to 18 TB.
Another new feature of Azure that’s launching today is Standards SSDs. These will offer Azure users a new option for running entry-level production workloads that require consistent disk performance and throughput without the full price of what are now called “premium SSD.” The Standard SSDs won’t offer the same kind of performance, though, but Microsoft promises that developers will still get improved latency, reliability and scalability as compared to standard hard disks in its cloud.
 
 
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Microsoft Azure will soon offer machines with up to 12 TB of memory

Do you have an application that needs a lot of memory? Maybe as much as 12 terabytes of memory? Well, you’re in luck because Microsoft Azur...

Microsoft promises to keep GitHub independent and open

<a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="microsoft" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/microsoft/" target="_blank">Microsoft</a> today announced its plans <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/04/microsoft-has-acquired-github-for-7-5b-in-microsoft-stock/">to acquire GitHub</a> for $7.5 billion in stock. Unsurprisingly, that sent a few shock waves through the developer community, which still often eyes Microsoft with considerable unease. During a conference call this morning, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, incoming <a class="crunchbase-link" data-entity="github" data-type="organization" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/github/" target="_blank">GitHub</a> CEO (and Xamarin founder) Nat Friedman and GitHub co-founder and outgoing CEO Chris Wanstrath laid out the plans for GitHub’s future under Microsoft.
The core message everybody on today’s call stressed was that GitHub will continue to operate as an independent company. That’s very much the approach Microsoft took with its acquisition of LinkedIn, but to some degree, it’s also an admission that Microsoft is aware of its reputation among many of the developers who call GitHub their home. GitHub will remain an open platform that any developer can plug into and extend, Microsoft promises. It’ll support any cloud and any device.
Unsurprisingly, while the core of GitHub won’t change, Microsoft does plan to extend GitHub’s enterprise services and integrate them with its own sales and partner channels. And Nadella noted that the company will use GitHub to bring Microsoft’s developer tools and services “to new audiences.”
<img alt="" class="breakout aligncenter size-full wp-image-1650574" height="392" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/2018-06-04_0757.png" width="928" />
With Nat Friedman taking over as CEO, GitHub will have a respected technologist at the helm. Microsoft’s acquisition and integration of Xamarin has, at least from the outside, been a success (and Friedman himself always seems very happy about the outcome when I talk to him), so I think this bodes quite well for GitHub. After joining Microsoft, Friedman ran the developer services team at the company. Wanstrath, who only took over the CEO role again after its last CEO was ousted after harassment scandal at the company, had long said that he wanted to step down and take a more active product role. And that’s what’s happening now that Friedman is taking over. Wanstrath will become a technical fellow and work on “strategic software initiatives” at Microsoft.
During today’s call, Friedman also stressed Microsoft’s commitment to keeping GitHub as open as it is today — but he also plans to expand the service and its community. “We want to bring more developers and more capabilities to GitHub, he said. “Because as a network and as a group of people in a community, GitHub is stronger, the bigger it is.”
As for the product itself, Friedman noted that everything GitHub does should be about making a developer’s life easier. And to get started, that’ll mean making developing in the cloud easier. “We think broadly about the new and compelling types of ways that we can integrate cloud services into GitHub,” he noted. “And this doesn’t just apply to our cloud. GitHub is an open platform. So we have the ability for anyone to plug their cloud services into GitHub, and make it easier for you to go from code to cloud. And it extends beyond the cloud as well. Code to cloud. code to mobile, code to edge device, code to IoT. Every workflow that a developer wants to pursue, we will support.”
<img alt="" class="breakout aligncenter size-full wp-image-1650575" height="569" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/2018-06-04_0758.png" width="1024" />
Another area the company will work on is the GitHub Marketplace. Microsoft says that it will offer all of its developer tools and services in the GitHub Marketplace.
And unsurprisingly, VS Code, Microsoft’s free and open source code editor, will get deeply integrated integrated GitHub support.
“Our vision is really all about empowering developers and creating a home where you can use any language, any operating system, any cloud, any device for every developer, whether your student, a hobbyist, a large company, a startup or anything in between. GitHub is the home for all developers,” said Friedman.
It’s unclear whether all of these commitments today will easy developers’ fears of losing GitHub as a relatively neutral third-party in the ecosystem.
Nadella, who is surely aware of this, addressed this directly today. “We recognize the responsibility we take on with this agreement,” he said. “We are committed to being stewards of the GitHub community, which will retain its developer-first ethos operate independently and remain an open platform. We will always listen to develop a feedback and invest in both fundamentals as well as new capability once the acquisition closes.
In his prepared remarks, Nadella also stressed Microsoft’s heritage as a developer-centric company and that is it already the most active organization on GitHub. But more importantly, he addressed Microsoft’s role in the open source community, too. “We have always loved developers, and we love open source developers,” he said. “We’ve been on a journey ourselves with open source and the open source community. Today, we are all in with open source. We are active in the open source ecosystem. We contribute to open source project and some of our most vibrant developer tools and frameworks are open-sourced when it comes to our commitment to all source judges, by the actions we have taken in the recent past our actions today and in the future.”
 
 
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Microsoft promises to keep GitHub independent and open

Microsoft today announced its plans to acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion in stock. Unsurprisingly, that sent a few shock waves through the d...