2019年5月7日
Uber Eats launches platform so you can charge your company for your work lunch order
Uber Eats is coming to your work lunch break, with the food delivery service announcing the launch. Uber is aiming to make the system easy to integrate into company budgets, with bills charged directly to company accounts and allowing individual teams to have budgets to limit how much they can order.
“We’ve been testing this product for the last year in Australia to understand whether there were similarities [to the USA],” Head of Uber for Business, Australia and New Zealand said.
Companies using Uber Eats will get a centralised bill so they know exactly what was ordered and by which team. They can also set a daily cap on spending, with any excess charged to employees. The technology allows for a ‘late night’ policy, with geofencing, meaning any who stay late in the office can order in. The control doesn’t apply as far as how people eat, that’s not been addressed as a long term plan. Using the Uber Eats for Business account also takes the hassle out of keeping receipts and submitting claims, as the expenses are managed centrally and automatically. SAP Concur, an expense management company, finding claims for Uber Eats had grown 194 per cent on its platform in the last year alone.
Apple has bought more than 20 companies since November
Apple has bought 20 to 25 companies in the past six months, according to CEO Tim Cook, but you probably haven’t heard about most of them. Cook’s disclosure came during an interview with CNBC on Monday, in which he said the company mostly acquires for talent and intellectual property.
Here are the Apple acquisitions since November that we know about:
Laserlike – a machine-learning startup in Silicon Valley that The Information reported was acquired in March.
Stamplay – the API development startup acquired in March.
PullString – a San Francisco startup for creating voice apps that Axios reported was acquired in February.
DataTiger – a UK digital-marketing startup that Bloomberg reported was acquired in February.
Platoon – the music-distribution startup acquired in December.
Silk Labs – a startup that makes artificial-intelligence software “light enough” for consumer devices, according to the The Information, which reported the deal in November.
The company has $US225 billion in cash and securities on its balance sheet. But unlike the tech giant IBM, which spent $US34 billion on Red Hat, or SAP, which spent $US8 billion on its acquisition of Qualtrics, Apple hasn’t historically bet the farm on big deals. Some of Apple’s big acquisitions in the past include its $US400 million purchase of Shazam in 2017 and its $US3 billion acquisition of Beats in 2014
Google's biggest conference of the year kicks off Tuesday
Ever year, Google welcomes thousands of visitors to the Shoreline concert pavilion across the street from its headquarters and unveils a collection of new gadgets, services and cutting-edge technology. From game streaming to smartphones to mind-blowing AI, Google is likely to have news and announcements that cover a wide span of products.
Google teased some kind of Pixel news on May 7, and it’s very possible that it will be the rumoured cheaper versions of the company’s flagship Pixel 3 devices. One of the rumours suggest Google’s upcoming Pixel device will cost as low as $US400.
We’d expect announcements for the upcoming big Android update to include details of existing initiatives, like improving privacy settings and transparency in Android and Android apps. Also, it’s reasonable to expect some kind of mention about foldable smartphones.
One of Google’s biggest announcement of 2019 so far is Stadia, the company’s game streaming service that’s currently under development. There are still many lingering questions regarding Stadia.
At last year’s I/O conference the star of the show was Duplex, a conversational AI assistant that sounded just like a human and was able to call a restaurant and book a reservation. So expecting Google to showcase lots of new, eye-popping demos that show the technology’s potential.
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