The iPhone 8 and its big brother, 8 Plus, will hit the street on Friday, and the reviews are in: “A solid upgrade.” “Not the future ... just a default.” “The glass back is going to be a love-it-or-hate-it feature.” And “an even better phone is on the way.” One of the most entertaining reviews is this one, by BuzzFeed’s Nicole Nguyen, who says the 8 should be called “the 7s that never was.” [The New York Times]
Recode Daily: The iPhone 8 reviews are here; Amazon Alexa glasses are on the way
Plus, VCs sue the Trump administration, Patreon gets paid and Silicon Valley goes kookoo for ICOs.
Amazon is working on a pair of Alexa-powered smartglasses. It has hired veterans of Google’s Glass project, and may ship them this year. “A bone-conduction audio system would allow the wearer to hear Alexa without having to insert headphones into their ears.” [Tim Bradshaw/ Financial Times]
Top U.S. venture capital firms are suing the Trump administration after it delayed a key immigration program meant to benefit foreign entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty met with Senate Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C., yesterday to urge them to save DACA. [Tony Romm / Recode]
Patreon, which lets fans pay creators of podcasts, videos and other content, has raised $60 million. One of the most interesting media startups in the last few years, the service is on track to process more than $150 million in contributions this year. [Peter Kafka / Recode]
Silicon Valley is obsessed with “ICOs” — that’s “initial coin offerings.” It’s like an IPO but with digital currency like bitcoin. Some of the more forward-thinking VCs, including Fred Wilson and Tim Draper, have been vocal believers in ICOs. “They are not simply a funding mechanism,” Wilson wrote on his blog this summer. “They are about an entirely different business model.” We explain. [Theodore Schleifer / Recode]
Hello/goodbye: Twitter is adding another longtime Google exec to its board — Patrick Pichette served as Google’s CFO from 2008 to 2015. Benchmark investor Kris Frederickson has left the firm for a competing firm; he’s the first public departure since the VC firm launched its lawsuit against former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. And debt-saddled Toys “R” Us filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday; it’s more complicated than just blaming Amazon.
Top stories from Recode
We haven’t seen entire new hardware functions being made available through software upgrades — that’s going to change.
Exec David Cohen also raises some potential concerns with the Sinclair-Tribune deal.
Snapchat still has a bigger share of new users in the U.S. — but not for long.
Věra Jourová, an EU commissioner, is paying Silicon Valley a visit.
Mitu, a Latino-targeted video network, gets a new CEO; Zefr, a YouTube ad service, gets a new president.
The first trial is scheduled for October 10.
This is cool
Let’s try this again: “South Park” messes with Alexa in viewers’ homes.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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