We'll be updating this post throughout the day with fresh news and topics
Amazon Expands Home Services to DC and Other Cities
Amazon’s Home Services has expanded to Washington D.C., Boston, Miami and 12 other metropolitan areas. The service allows customers to create either pre-packaged or custom requests, like home entertainment setup or central air installation. With custom services, customers can use text and photos to describe what needs to be done, and Amazon will provide estimates from local professionals. Previously, the service was available in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. Read the entire press release here.
The Case Foundation Funds $1 Million Competition
Steve and Jean Case, in partnership with Forbes, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation, the Pratt Foundation, the Keywell Foundation and Bob Duggan, are funding the Forbes Under 30 $1 Million Change the World Competition. The competition focuses on innovative and scalable ideas with the potential to positively influence the world, and will award five semi-finalists $100,000 and the winner $500,000. The competition will take place during Forbes’ Under 30 Summit, from October 4-7 in Philadelphia. Read Jean Case’s piece about the announcement here.
Sony Has Joined the Drone Business
Sony has announced a joint venture with Japanese robotics and automation company ZMP to produce drones that capture images and other data for business purposes. The business, called Aerosense, will provide services including measurement, surveying, observation and inspection, most useful for industries like agriculture, town planning, and oil, among others. Sony will be majority owner and will provide camera tech, sensors, telecommunications, and robotics for the business. Read more about the venture at TechCrunch.
Big Tech Companies Continue Lobbying in DC
According to Consumer Watchdog, the country’s largest tech companies have continued spending large sums of money lobbying in D.C. Google continues to be the biggest spender after devoting $4.62 million to lobbying in Q2 and Amazon had the largest increase in spending among large companies, increasing its lobbying efforts of last year by 103 percent to $2.15 million, likely in an effort to get the FAA to approve its drone deliveries. Other notable companies to increase their spending include Facebook, which upped lobbying by 27 percent to $2.69 million and Apple, which spent $1.23 million on lobbying, a 42 percent increase from last year. However, others, like Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner Cable reduced lobbying efforts, likely as a result of the Comcast-TWC failure. Read the entire report here.
Apple announces a great quarter, at least for iPhone sales
Apple ($AAPL) announced its third-quarter earnings yesterday evening and overall had good news for investors, with profits of $1.85 per share and a revenue of $49.61 billion, beating analyst estimates. A lot of that was driven by the 47.5 million iPhones sold in the last quarter though, and didn't stop stocks from dropping after the news was announced. CEO Tim Cook praised the sales of the Apple Watch despite rumors and reports that it was not selling as well as hoped. Find out what else happened in the last quarter in Chris Bing's full report here.
Is Jet.com better than Amazon?
A new e-commerce website is promising even better deals than Amazon. Jet.com debuted on Tuesday claiming that it has lower prices than Amazon on over 10 million products. There's a $50 annual membership fee to join after a three-month trial. The idea is that you can get even deeper discounts by buying more, by skipping features like product returns and by paying in ways that aren't a credit card. But the question is does it really offer better deals and options than Amazon Prime? Read more from WTOP here.
How a UMd student is building a startup community at the Startup Shell incubator
University of Maryland junior Chris Szeluga juggles school with running the Startup Shell incubator on campus. Though he's been involved with the incubator since it began, new role puts a new responsibilities on him though, making Startup Shell rather more than just a club or hobby. Find out how he is building a startup community at UMd in our full story here.
Virgina movie kiosk maker gets acquired and plans new types of automatic retail
Alexandria-based Globox, which makes kiosks for renting foreign films, has been acquired by Alps Innovations, a larger maker of retail kiosks. Globox founders Asad Ali and Sammy Kassim will manage the U.S. operations of the Toronto-based company, which has kiosks for salads, beer, protein shakes, even ones for medical marijuana used in Vancouver. Read more about what's next for Globox from WBJ here.
