Apple's new iPad will cost way too much money, as will Sony's PlayStation VR headset bundle,
Twitter does something right and more...
It's Friday March 18, and this is Crunch Report.
Word on the street is that Apple's next 9.7-inch
iPad will start at $599 because $499 just wasn't expensive enough. For an extra $100,
Apple's moving the entry level storage from 16GB to 32GB. So, for the five people who
still use iPads, they'll probably appreciate having this extra space...especially on long
flights. We're also hearing that Apple is thinking of this iPad as more of an iPad pro
mini rather than a next-generation iPad air. That means faster processing, compatibility
with the Apple pencil and probably a way to connect Apple's smart keyboard. Of course,
we're not going to be able to confirm the price or name until Apple's big announcement
on Monday.
Speaking of tech things that are too expensive, Sony's PlayStation VR headset bundle is going
to cost $500. The bundle includes the PlayStation camera for position tracking and the PlayStation
move controller for actually playing games. Oh, and the bundle does *not* include the
console, which costs $400. So, that brings the grand total to a whopping $800. For the
people who already own a PS4, the $500 price point might be tempting...considering that
the Oculus rift starts at $600 and the HTC Vive starts at $800. Pre-orders for the PlayStation
headset bundle start march 22.
Over at Twitter, it looks like the company has finally done something right! Twitter
says that very few people have opted out of its new algorithmic timeline. Twitter announced
last month that it would show recommended tweets at the top of peoples feeds, based
on activity like tweets you interact with, topics you like and the behavior of twitter
users similar to you. Since launching recommended tweets, Twitter says it's seen increases in
likes, retweets, replies, tweets and daily usage across the board. Over the past few
years, Twitter's user growth as plateaued at about 300 million users. So, maybe Twitter's
finally on to something? In related news, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey put an end to speculation
that the service is going to extend its 140-character limit. At one point, people were speculating
that Twitter would increase the character limit to 10,000...which would've been absurd.
In an interview with NBC this morning, Dorsey said "it’s staying. It’s a good constraint
for us. And it allows of the moment brevity.”
Meanwhile, in the enterprise world, TechCrunch's Ingrid London has confirmed that Evernote
founding CTO Dave Engberg is leaving the company in May. News of his departure speaks to how
the company continues to be in turmoil, but is also trying to rebuild itself. Here's a
quick recap of the hires and departures at Evernote in the last year. In July, Evernote
appointed its new CEO, Chris O'Neill, to take over Evernote founder Phil Libin's role. In
November, Evernote's COO bounced after being in the role for just a few months. Just yesterday,
O'Neill announced several new executives to the team. *Takes a deep breathe* There's a
lot going on at Evernote, and I barely have the energy to keep up with all of the twists
and turns.
But here's a real twist for you! Sexism is still a thing at Microsoft! Microsoft's Xbox
division hosted a Game Developers Conference after party last night with a bunch of scantily-clad
women dancing around for the entertainment of attendees. Some men seemed to be really
into it. The women, on the other hand, not so much. Phil Spencer, head of Xbox said the
following in a statement to TC: "At Xbox-hosted events at GDC this past week, we represented
Xbox and Microsoft in a way that was not consistent or aligned to our values. It was unequivocally
wrong and will not be tolerated. I know we disappointed many people and I’m personally
committed to holding ourselves to higher standards. We must ensure that diversity and inclusion
are central to our everyday business and core values. We will do better in the future.”
That’s the report for today. I’m Megan Rose Dickey.
Crunch Report airs every weekday at 7 pm Eastern, 4 pm Pacific, on techcrunch.com. You can also
find us on iTunes, and on YouTube. Deuces.