Theranos CEO net worth goes from $4.5 billion to zero in one year

Forbes magazine on Wednesday reduced its estimate of the net worth of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and chief executive of health technology company Theranos Inc, to zero from $4.5 billion last year.

Of course it makes sense considering all the problems the company faced over the last year, but still, that’s got to hurt.

Try Amazon’s Alexa in your web browser

There has been a lot of talk about Alexa over the last few weeks and now you can try it out for yourself in your web browser. You’ll have to use Chrome though.

EU cautions governments about banning Uber, Airbnb

European Union governments should not ban services like home-rental site Airbnb or ride-hailing app Uber except as a last resort, the EU says in new guidelines, seeking to rein in a crackdown on the “sharing economy”.

Sharing services have faced an uphill battle in many countries, so it will be interesting to see how governments take these recommendations.

India discussing Apple’s request for FDI rules waiver

The Indian government on Monday said it was discussing Apple Inc’s foreign direct investment application that seeks a waiver from a local sourcing rule.

This will be an important decision for Apple. It’s a good sign that the government is even discussing it

Federico’s mixtape

I really enjoyed reading Viticci’s music post this morning—from his first mixtape to trying Apple Music and Spotify’s “Discover Weekly” feature.

CSS octopus

These things fascinate me. Cute little thing.

Jawbone stopped making its UP fitness trackers

Jawbone has three major fitness trackers: The UP2, UP3, and UP4. The company has struggled to sell the devices and was forced to offload them at a discount to a reseller in order to get the revenue it needed to keep the business going, according to the source.

The report also notes that Jawbone is trying to sell its speaker business, as well.

Google Photos: One year, 200 million users, and a whole lot of selfies

Now 200 million of you are using Google Photos each month. We’ve delivered more than 1.6 billion animations, collages and movies, among other things. You’ve collectively freed up 13.7 petabytes of storage on your devices—it would take 424 years to swipe through that many photos! We’ve also applied 2 trillion labels, and 24 million of those have been for … selfies.

Google put together some of their favorite tips for using the service.

AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule out of stock at U.S. Apple Stores

“I was trying to buy an AirPort Extreme today from the Beverly Hills Apple Store and an employee told me that Apple had asked for all of them back from all the stores,” wrote one anonymous tipster.

To verify the tipster’s claim, we contacted an Apple support representative who confirmed that Apple has pulled AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule stock from all U.S. stores. The base stations remain available to order online, while it appears the smaller AirPort Express can still be purchased both online and in stores at present time.

As noted in the story, it could be new FCC guidelines.

Oh Samsung

Talk about a blatant ripoff of the iPhone. I really do hate Samsung.

Two top Twitter execs leaving the company

Two top Twitter executives — Jana Messerschmidt, the head of business development, and Nathan Hubbard, head of media and commerce — are planning to leave the company, according to multiple sources familiar with their plans.

Life as a Twitter exec seems short.

Patent troll tries to shut down iMessage and FaceTime

A company that persuaded a Texas jury to award $625 million against Apple for patent infringement is asking for more. It asked a judge on Wednesday to order Apple to shut down its popular FaceTime and iMessage features while the case goes to appeal.

I hate patent trolls. Something has to be done with these organizations.

Google beats Oracle in Android trial

The jury unanimously upheld claims by Google that its use of Oracle’s Java development platform was protected under the fair-use provision of copyright law, bringing trial to a close without Oracle winning any of the $9 billion in damages it requested.

I really wasn’t sure how this would go.

Apple considered buying Time Warner

iTunes and services chief Eddy Cue proposed the idea of Apple bidding on media conglomerate Time Warner at the end of last year, according to the FT.

I’m not really surprised by this. Apple is looking for ways to enter a tight market, perhaps a purchase would be the right way to go. By the sound of the story, it was only a suggestion–Apple looks a lot of proposals, but they don’t pull the trigger on all of them.

The report also said:

The report adds that Apple plans to ramp up spending on original content to “several hundred million dollars a year” in order to better compete with rivals like Amazon and Netflix, both of which offer a growing number of exclusive TV series.

This also makes sense to me.

Snapchat raises $1.81 billion

Messaging app Snapchat has raised $1.81 billion in funding, the company reported in a U.S. regulatory filing on Thursday, a sign that investor interest is strong despite concerns among some venture capitalists that the platform is struggling to attract advertisers.

Damn!

“Walk this Way,” “Kashmir,” and other classics done in Jazz

There are a lot of Jazz albums that I really like—I’m a big Chet Baker fan, but I’m not a fan of the crazy, all over the place Jazz. This morning I got this new album of classic Rock songs done in Jazz–it’s amazing! Tony Miceli, Paul Jost, Kevin MacConnell, and Charlie Patierno do an incredible job with these songs.

The Double-Drawn Method of Icon Design

John Marstall:

The approach involved creating the icon twice: once as a textured 3D model, and again as a stack of Photoshop shape layers. This seemed nuts — doing twice the work for the same result. Yet there are benefits. The freedom to scale up an icon indefinitely without rerendering is among them. But, more importantly, the Russian “double-drawn” method affords a much higher degree of control.

Pixelmator 3.5

Pixelmator updated its image editor on Thursday with a smart Quick Selection tool, a Magnetic Selection tool, and a full set of retouching tools, among other things. There are also a host of improvements and bug fixes in the new version. Pixelmator also put together some new resources for users including: Pixelmator Retouch Extension Page, Magnetic Selection Video, and a New Pixelmator Tutorial Page.

This is one of my favorite apps.

Automakers, tech companies make deals, not war

Automakers now recognize they may turn ride-hailing services and car sharing companies into steady customers for all sorts of vehicles, particularly hybrid and electric cars, industry executives and analysts say.

You know, that is a good point. I’ve driven in many cars that I wouldn’t otherwise be in if it weren’t for ride-sharing.

Amplified: Sitting Beside the Genius

Jim and Dan talk about the MacBook Pro rumors, WWDC, Dan’s iPhone SE, dual clutch barrel cavity antennas, the new Apple Store opening, Siri, and the Amazon Echo.

Queen’s Brian May makes VR device

If Brian May could capture one moment from his life so that others could step inside that moment and experience it, it would be the time he strode onto the roof of Buckingham Palace alone except for his guitar and played to 200 million people.

“I’d love people to know what that felt like,” said the Queen guitarist. “It was a whole life-changing experience for me.”

I can’t even imagine what that was like. Brian is one of the most humble, and talented, people I’ve ever met.

“Love” your favorite iTunes tracks in Apple Music at once

I’ve been using iTunes since it first came out, and like a lot of people, I’ve spent countless hours rating my favorite songs over the years. However, with the release of Apple Music, Apple implemented a “Love” button for songs, so you can use star ratings and Love. I wanted a way to Love all of my old songs and I did it with a playlist. […]

Apple must sell locally sourced goods to open stores in India

India has said Apple Inc must meet a rule obliging foreign retailers to sell at least 30 percent locally-sourced goods if it wishes to open stores in the country, a senior government official told Reuters.

This is certainly a setback for Apple.