Dec 27, 2019
Updated: Jan 13, 2020
News headlines for the holiday week include record-breaking online sales, looking back at the decade in tech, and looking ahead to 2020.
USA Today: How technology made us bid farewell to privacy in the last decade
The "10s" were the decade in which our privacy went away if we were connected to the Internet, which means most of us.
Wall Street Journal: Tech That Will Change Your Life in 2020
By Joanna Stern and Wilson Rothman
From the implosion of WeWork to the explosion of streaming services to the steady parade of Silicon Valley executives testifying before Congress, 2019 was a chaotic year in tech. Don’t expect 2020 to be any mellower.
USA Today: Americans bought more stuff online this holiday season; e-commerce sales jump 18%
By Dalvin Brown
Overall, seasonal shopping from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 was up 3.4% over last year, with online sales swelling 18.8%, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks spending trends.
Bloomberg: Amazon Leads S&P 500 After Reporting ‘Record’ Holiday Sales
Amazon.com Inc.’s stock had the biggest advance on the S&P 500 Index after the e-commerce giant said its holiday season this year was “record breaking,” with billions of items shipped and “tens of millions” of Amazon devices like the Echo Dot sold.
Recode: Amazon wants to patent technology that could identify shoppers by their hands
Today, visitors to Amazon Go cashierless stores need to scan an app to get in. In the future, Amazon may instead ask to just scan their hands instead.
The Guardian: 2020 set to be year of the electric car, say industry analysts
By Jasper Jolly
Europe’s carmakers are gearing up to make 2020 the year of the electric car, according to automotive analysts, with a wave of new models launching as the world’s biggest manufacturers scramble to lower the carbon dioxide emissions of their products.
InnovationMap: These were Houston's top impact innovation stories this year
When it comes to the impact that innovation has had on Houston, a number of things stand out for 2019. And, so many of these top stories from this past year are just beginning.
Ars Technica: 88% of Americans use a second screen while watching TV
According to data from Nielsen, the TV metrics company, 88 percent of Americans "use a second digital device while watching TV." Seventy-one percent of Americans "look up content related to content they are watching," while 41 percent of Americans are busy messaging "friends/family about content they are watching."
NBC News: How social media has changed in the past decade, according to its influencers
A decade can revolutionize culture, and the 2010s changed the internet in ways that seemed unimaginable at the time.
CIO Dive: What isn't 'as a Service' in enterprise technology?
Three-quarters of tech managers expect their companies to move toward complete adoption of "as a service" solutions in less than five years, according to a Hewlett Packard Enterprise survey of 1,000 IT decision makers in the U.S., Germany and the United Kingdom.