It’s Thursday and I’m heading to New York! It’s been a while since I’ve gone away and I’m looking forward to some R&R at a B&B. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. The big news this week is Bezos blasting off on the 52nd anniversary of Apollo 11. After that, Zoom is going to be offering an in-Zoom marketplace, and the microchip shortage is going to doom auto sales into 2022. You can listen to Mark and I point and laugh while talking about the wild and crazy technology world every Thursday morning, LIVE at 6:43am Eastern.
BEZOS BLASTS OFF HIGHER THAN BRANSON BUT RETURNS WITH CRITICISM
On Tuesday, Jeff Bezos blasted off on a fully automated spaceflight. His Blue Origin spacecraft reached an altitude of 66 miles above the Earth’s surface besting Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic flight by about 10 miles. The flight happened on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing lasted about 10 minutes with Bezos’ crew spending another 11 minutes on the ground. After setting foot back on Earth, Bezos went on to thank Amazon’s employees and customers for giving him the wealth to pay for the flight. His remarks were promptly met with criticism however since he and Amazon effectively pay no taxes. Which means, his flight was subsidized by American taxpayers. It’s still no mean feat to get into space. I ain’t knocking that. I could have worn my cosplay for this flight.
Jeff Bezos forgot to thank all the hardworking Americans who actually paid taxes to keep this country running while he and Amazon paid nothing. https://t.co/tjOeCWbUA8
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) July 20, 2021
ZOOM OFFERS TEAM BUILDING APP MARKETPLACE, WORKERS GROAN
Yesterday, the remote worker’s best friend, Zoom, announced it will be integrating third party apps in its online conferencing platform. As things open up, and employers are planning to return employees back to offices this fall Zoom is looking for a way to maintain its edge with its 300 million daily conference users. Zoom has a marketplace of 1500 apps but each one needs to be download individually. Zoom’s new marketplace will offer in-Zoom app downloads. At launch there will be 50 apps available. Zoom’s product lead for apps, Ross Mayfield, envisions a future where meeting participants can play games as team building exercises. Given how popular Zoom happy hours were during the pandemic, this sounds like a good idea. However, as outside opens back up, some people may want to go to a real happy hour.
MICROCHIP SHORTAGE TO DAMPER AUTO SALES INTO 2022
Yesterday, Carlos Tavares, CEO of the world’s 4th largest automaker, Stellantis, said that the global microchip shortage will affect automaker’s ability to produce cars into 2022. But…it won’t be as bad as it is now. The problem is that the semiconductor factories and foundries that produce microchips for today’s vehicles are lagging way behind in production. Car sales have spiked since things have opened back up, but there aren’t enough chips to go around to build the radio, accessories, and ignition timers needed for modern vehicles. Some automakers are dropping features on some vehicles while others are building their cars and parking them until chips become available. Either way, consumers are going to be paying for it.