WEARABLES

Amazon Joins the Battle for Wrist-share

Amazon dropped a surprise yesterday: Halo, a wearable band, wellness subscription platform, and smartphone app. I’m thinking the device will perform better than the Fire Phone, but worse than Beyonce’s smash hit, “Halo.”

What’s new?

Halo will ship with a number of novel attributes. For one, the gadget is priced pretty low: $99.99 for the device, plus a $3.99 monthly subscription tacked on. 

While the screenless band isn't a medical device, Amazon says it has a number of health and wellness features in addition to more general tech like Bluetooth connectivity and mics.

• Hardware: Halo has an accelerometer, temp sensor, heart rate monitor, and a toggle for mic on/off.
• Software: The “Body and Tone” feature provides users with a 3D rendering of their body, with data on weight and body fat %. 

The mics aren’t for Alexa—they’re for “tone of voice analysis.”  In practical terms, that means the device can purportedly track emotions by analyzing users’ tone of voice. 

“Purportedly” was on purpose

Amazon has patents on patents for voice recognition and emotional intelligence analysis. Emotion recognition is a blossoming AI sub-genre—but experts have doubts about the ability of machine learning systems to discern messy human emotions. Even so, I think it’s a safe bet to say Alexa knows when you get mad at her by now. 

Halo also raises concerns about consumer privacy and Amazon cross-selling products based on bodily indicators. For its part, Amazon says it won’t store voice snippets in the cloud nor use them for ad targeting. And while Halo is a consumer product, it's not farfetched to imagine Amazon using its tech to surveil fulfillment workers.

Zoom out: Amazon likes loss leaders. It sells Kindles at a loss, then runs up its margins through sales of digital media. I’d wager Halo is also being sold below-cost, which Amazon hopes to reconcile through the sweet allure of recurring subscription revenue, and eventually/potentially, add-on services.

3D PRINTING

SPACs, So Metal Rn

~ Obligatory ”here we go again” SPAC joke ~ 

K, moving on. This week, 3D printer maker Desktop Metal announced plans to go public by merging with blank check company Trine. Expected to close in Q4, the deal will value the Massachusetts-based, five-year-old company at $2.5 billion. 

“Desktop Metal accelerated its going public plans as [an] SPAC path became accessible,” Lux Capital Partner Bilal Zuberi told me. He led Lux’s investment in the company. 

Desktop Metal’s bread and butter = building 3D printers and selling them to other businesses, typically those involved in heavy industry. Customers include Ford, BMW, Lockheed Martin, and Georgia-Pacific. 

• Last year, the startup brought in $26 million in revenue. It’s projecting a similar sum for 2020, but hopes to surpass $1 billion over five years, per Forbes. 
• The company will tap SPAC monies to consolidate the additive manufacturing industry. 

Big picture: The 3D printing/additive manufacturing industry hasn’t had the take-up that early proponents predicted. But there’s increasing demand among manufacturers, which could be boosted by the U.S.-China decoupling and the pandemic’s disruption of supply chains. 

“We need to build resilience into our systems. Instead of shipping metals, minerals, and materials around the world, we can now ship 3D models and print designs,” Zuberi said. 

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R&D

Funding Frontier Tech

This week, Washington announced $1 billion in new funding for AI and quantum research hubs. The National Science Foundation, Energy Department (DOE), and other U.S. agencies are pitching in, along with help from the private sector. 

The U.S. is using that funding to establish 12 new quantum/AI research institutes at universities and DOE national labs scattered across the country. 

The focus?

Basic R&D that’s early stage and high-risk. 

Corporate research labs are reluctant to undertake this type of R&D, due to high costs and insufficient avenues for commercialization. 

• AI centers will focus on applying the technology to weather, climate, and oceanography; neural architecture optimization; and agriculture. 
• Quantum centers will be tasked with developing infrastructure, interconnects, and software. 

Zoom out: As you may expect, these developments don’t exist in a vacuum. Policymakers across the aisle have pushed for more emerging tech R&D funding, so the U.S. doesn’t lose its edge to other regions.

+ While we’re here: Dive into the geopolitical dimensions of AI in the guide we released this week.

BITS & BYTES

Stat: Shenzhen, China, is the hardware capital of the world and a hub for high-flying tech companies. Its GDP grew 10,000x in four decades, which, um, wow. 

Quote: “I understand that the role that I signed up for—including running TikTok globally—will look very different as a result of the U.S. administration's action to push for a sell-off of the U.S. business.”—Kevin Mayer, TikTok’s outgoing CEO. He's been in the position for just a few months. After a few months on the job, he’s calling it quits. 

Read: TikTok’s security boss carefully makes his case for the app’s data and privacy practices to CyberScoop (where I used to write!).

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WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• More TikTok stuff: Walmart and Microsoft are weighing a joint bid to buy the app. Oracle has taken the pole position in the Game of TikTok, with a $10 billion cash & $10 billion stock takeover bid, per The Wrap. In this deal, Oracle would give half of TikTok’s annual profit to ByteDance. 
• Apple’s privacy updates in iOS 14 will dent Facebook’s mobile advertising prowess, the latter warned marketers. 
• India is quietly directing telecoms to avoid using Huawei gear in 5G networks, the FT reports. Indian authorities are also placing more restrictions on DJI drones. 
• SF Holdings, China’s largest delivery company, successfully completed a trial of the country’s first uncrewed cargo flight.
• Ford, Bedrock, and Bosch are developing automated valet parking infrastructure, and demoed the tech Wednesday.

GOING PHISHING

Three of the following news stories are true, and one...I made up. Can you spot the odd one out?

1. Machine learning software helped spot 50 new planets by trawling through NASA satellite data. 
2. The FBI foiled Russian hackers’ attempts to hit Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory with ransomware. 
3. Apple says it’s experiencing a dongle shortage.
4. An archaeology and space professor thinks we should grant legal personhood to the Moon.

TECH THINGAMABOBS

For a new Brewsletter: Business Casual podcast host Kinsey Grant makes newsletters for your ears. Now she has a column which hits inboxes every Sunday. Sign up here.  

For an update on a friend of the Brew: Last year, I interviewed astronaut Jeanette Epps and NASA CFO Jeff DeWitt at Nasdaq. This week, NASA said Epps would join the first operational Boeing Crew Mission to the International Space Station. 

The mission, a six-month trip slated for a 2021 launch, will make Epps the first Black woman to live at the ISS for a long duration. Emerging Tech Brew interviewees do cool things, like go to space, NBD. 

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions: 

• Facebook pokes Oculus
• Reverse merger mania
• Apple dominates smartwatch market

GOING PHISHING ANSWER

Apple didn’t say it’s experiencing a dongle shortage.