5 Ways Twitter Can Win at Live Streaming- DTNS WEEKLY TECH UPDATE 03/16/2017

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Thanks to the folks who responded to last week's column. Please spread the word that this exists for folks! This week I'm taking more of an opinion stance. I think Twitter could kill at live streaming and maybe save themselves in the bargain. I've got fice things I think they need to do first.

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CLOSER LOOK - 

Today on DTNS we're talking about Twitter's reported opening of a live streaming API to media partners to make streaming easier. There's a lot to talk about in just that decision and I know Justin has critiques of Twitter's approach here.

I think Twitter is on the right track and I have five things they need to do to win at this live streaming game.

First don't forget they apparently have a deal for NHL and MLB games though if there's been any hockey on Twitter I missed it. They also have a deal with the NBA and even some major esports tournaments and LaCrosse. 

It's not just sports either, we also see award events like the Oscars and news events like political debates. So what should Twitter be doing to make you care that they have all this?

1. Make Live Front and Center. 

Don't get rid of the tweet stream of course, but put a live player right on the main page, in mute with whatever the hottest live thing is. Draw from Periscope when yo don't have major events but hammer home that Twitter is the place to watch things happen.

2. Get a LIVE tab

Yes you should rightly guard against feature creep, but the "moments" tab does not cut it. It actually looks pretty good and I think you could even tweak it to be the live tab. But you need a tab that says "Here are all the things you can watch as they happen."

3. Invite the crowd in

Once you have it clear to folks that yo9u have compelling live content happening, emphasize what Twitter is best at, making people a part of the conversation. In that new live tab make it easy for folks to add their tweets to the running commentary

4. Put all those social media reporters to shame

Twitter is in the best position to know what's on people's minds and what they care about. Use it. Without treading on your partners toes, you can run actually useful and insightful commentary about what people are saying on social media.

5. Promote it.

Whether it's an advertising campaign or just some tweets of your own, keep reminding people that Twitter is the place to find out what's happening. For goodness sake the President of the United States turns to Twitter first to share his gut reactions. This is being handed to you on a silver platter. Lean into it

I can see a clear future where Twitter replaces a space reserved in older people's minds for Fox News or CNN. Twitter just has to have the will to do it. 

NEWS RECAP

The US Justice Department has indicted four people for breaching Yahoo security in 2014. Two of the accused, Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, are members of Russia’s FSB intelligence agency. They are accused of hiring Alexsey Belan to break into Yahoo's network. Karim Baratov, who was arrested in Canada Tuesday was hired to access 80 accounts outside Yahoo. Some Google accounts were hacked using info from the Yahoo breach and Google helped with the investigation. Russia has denied that two FSB intelligence officers are culpable in a 2014 security breach at Yahoo. http://www.businessinsider.com/us-department-of-justice-charges-four-in-yahoo-hacking-case-2017-3 

-- http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39281063 

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39291096 

Microsoft rolled out its Slack-like collaborative software called Teams for no additional charge to all Office 365 users. Microsoft also launched 150 third-party integrations from companies like Zendesk and Hootsuite. Microsoft launched Teams in preview in November. https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/14/teams-microsofts-slack-rival-opens-to-all-office-365-users/ 

Google announced  Family Link, a system that lets parents give children younger than 13 access to their own Google accounts. Using the Family Link app on their own phone and a companion app on the child’s phone, parents can control screen time, app usage and approve or deny new apps and websites. Parents can also see data showing how their children use their phones. Family Link is in limited beta now for Android with an iOS app for parents in the works. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/03/google-family-link-allows-parents-to-create-accounts-for-children-under-13/ 

Yahoo disclosed Monday that Marissa Mayer will receive $23 million after the close of Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo’s main business. She will not receive an annual bonus or equity award. Mayer will move to Verizon and Thomas McInerney will take over as CEO of Altaba, the remaining part of Yahoo that Verizon isn’t buying, consisting mostly of stock holdings. http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/yahoo-marissa-mayer-23-million-severance-package-verizon-deal-close-1202007559/ 

Intel confirmed it will  acquire autonomous car technology company Mobileye for $15.3 billion. Mobileye partnered with Intel on a self-driving car project and processor production. Mobileeye said it is working with 27 car manufacturers, including 10 production programs with Audi, BMW and others. Mobileye’s CTO and co-founder, Prof. Amnon Shashua, will head up Intel’s autonomous driving division, to be located in Israel. https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/13/reports-intel-buying-mobileye-for-up-to-16b-to-expand-in-self-driving-tech/ 

Nvidia announced Bosch will join ZF as a tier 1 auto parts supplier to sell Nvidia’s Drive PX 2 driver-assist platform to automakers. Nvidia will provide computing hardware and Bosch will develop sensors for the platform. Nvidia also announced a partnership with  PACCAR, which will use the Drive PX 2 platform in autonomous trucks. https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/16/nvidia-partners-with-paccar-on-self-driving-truck-tech/ 

--- http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/15/14934934/bosch-nvidia-self-driving-ai-autonomous-car-supplier 

Pandora Premium was announced Monday for $10 a month. The on-demand music service allows offline play, smart playlist creation and multiple radio stations. The emphasis is on ease of use with recently played music on the home screen. Pandora said it also curated its catalog to get rid of karaoke, tribute and duplicate tracks. Invites start rolling out to existing Pandora users March 15th and others who sign up will get access starrting in mid-April. Pandora Plus users get six months for free. Everyone else gets a two-month free trial. http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/13/14889122/pandora-premium-music-streaming-service-preview-interview 

Starting in Chrome 57, which released this week, background tabs will be limited to an average CPU load of 1%. After ten seconds in the background, a tab will get a limited budget of CPU usage. Tabs playing music or with an active WebRTC or WebSockets connection will be exempt. Google plans to phase out the javascript-heavy background tab operations altogether by 2020 and encourage websites to use a new tech called Service Workers to provide things like background sync and push notifications. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/03/chrome-57-background-tab-suspension-download/ 

The Levi's Commuter Jacker, the first product from Google's interactive garment Project Jacquard will go on sale this autumn for $350.  The Commuter Jacket features a detachable bluetooth device and 15 threads of conductive fabric on the left sleeve. An app lets you set three gestures, swipe in, a swipe out, and a double tap, to do things like get map updates or change songs on Spotify. Battery life  is estimated at 2 days. https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/12/levis-google-commuter-smart-jacket-first-look/ 

Users of Gmail for Android can now send or request money from anyone using Google Wallet. You use the attach feature and choose send money instead of attach file. It works to any email address. Google integrated Wallet into Gmail in 2013, but this is the first time it’s offered the integration on mobile." https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/14/you-can-now-send-and-request-money-in-gmail-on-android/ 

Google is making its CAPTCHA process for distinguishing bots from humans a little more invisible. Rather than ask you to enter words,or check a box that says you are not a robot, Google says the new system uses "a combination of machine learning and advanced risk analysis.” The implication is that your normal interaction with a web page will be studied to determine if you act like a person, rather than a bot, though Google doesn't go into details. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/03/googles-recaptcha-announces-invisible-background-captchas/ 

On Twitter, Elon Musk promised Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes, that Tesla would get a 100MW battery storage farm installed and working in South Australia 100 days from contract signature or it would be free. Musk said Tesla would charge $250/kWh. Cannon-Brookes said he needed 7 days to sort out politics and funding. South Australia has suffered from blackouts during a heatwave in part due to the closing of coal-fired plants across the country. http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/10/14879246/elon-musk-tesla-battery-farm-australia-blackouts 

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