Week 113 – NR – Amazon Event, Twitter 280, Ecosystem Wars, Google Shopping, Google Event Preview

Summary: Aaron is traveling this week, so this is a solo episode from Jan, which means it covers a little more ground than usual. We kick things off with the Amazon event this week and how to think about the announcements made there. Secondly, Jan talks about Twitter's test of a 280-character limit for tweets, whether it's a good idea, and what else it should be doing as well (or instead). Thirdly, we touch on a theme in the news this week, which is ecosystem wars between Amazon, Apple, and Google, and a variety of movements that were signaled by the various players over the last few days. Fourth, Jan talks about recent developments in Google's EU Shopping case, and lastly he shares his thoughts on next week's Google hardware event, and what we might see there. The show notes below include links to all these stories on Tech Narratives and original sources as appropriate. News stories we covered: • Amazon Event: Tech Narratives ($): https://www.technarratives.com/2017/09/27/★-amazon-matures-echo-line-updates-and-lowers-price-on-fire-tv/ Amazon: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsconsumer&nyo=0 Jan's Techpinions column: https://techpinions.com/amazon-matures-its-echo-lineup/51196 • Twitter 280: Tech Narratives ($): https://www.technarratives.com/2017/09/26/★-twitter-tests-expanding-limit-to-280-characters-in-most-languages/ Twitter: https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/product/2017/Giving-you-more-characters-to-express-yourself.html • Ecosystem Wars: Apple/Google: Tech Narratives ($): https://www.technarratives.com/2017/09/25/★-apple-switches-search-back-end-for-safari-and-siri-to-google-from-bing/ TechCrunch:https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/25/apple-switches-from-bing-to-google-for-siri-web-search-results-on-ios-and-spotlight-on-mac/ Apple/Amazon: Tech Narratives ($): https://www.technarratives.com/2017/09/26/amazon-begins-selling-apple-tv-hardware-again/ TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/26/the-apple-tv-is-back-on-amazon/ Amazon/Google: Tech Narratives (free post): https://www.technarratives.com/2017/09/27/google-pulls-youtube-from-amazons-echo-show-device/ The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/26/16371292/google-youtube-amazon-echo-show • Google Shopping: Tech Narratives ($): https://www.technarratives.com/2017/09/27/google-officially-begins-rolling-out-european-shopping-search-changes/ WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-rolls-out-search-shopping-ad-changes-in-europe-1506528301 You can also find the Beyond Devices Podcast on iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-devices-podcast/id1002197313), in the Overcast app (https://overcast.fm/itunes1002197313/beyond-devices-podcast), or in your podcast app of choice. As ever, we welcome your feedback via Twitter (@jandawson / @aaronmiller), the website (podcast.beyonddevic.es), or email (jan@jackdawresearch.com).