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Spotify CEO on new content policy: 'We rolled this out wrong'
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek admitted the service handled its policy to limit promotion for artists based on their conduct poorly. "We rolled this out wrong and could have done a much better job," Ek said at the Code Conference, according to Deadline. He said that the company never intended to serve as the "morality police" with the policy, and conceded that the framework was too vague at its inception.
Snapchat CEO throws shade at Facebook's poor data practices
Snapchat has had a rough time lately, as it faces criticism about its redesign, its slowing user growth, and the fact that Facebook has copied its product several times over by adding Stories to almost all of its products. But CEO Evan Spiegel doesn't seem to be deterred by the Facebook's copycat moves. In one particular jab against the social network still plagued by the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Spiegel said "We would really appreciate it if they copied our data protection practices also."
Facebook admits it was late on fake news
At the Code Conference today, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and CTO Mike Schroepfer faced questions on all of the issues that has plagued the company lately, like the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and the influx of fake news and hate speech. Specifically, Re/Code's Kara Swisher asked them why hasn't anyone been fired for the Cambridge Analytica scandal. "We do fire people," Sandberg answered, though she wouldn't specify that it was related to the scandal. "We don't trot them out and make examples of them."
Musk: Tesla will do 'the obvious thing' for Autopilot on Model 3
Tonight during an interview at the Code Conference, Elon Musk shared his thoughts on everything from The Martian to AI (he's only worried about one unnamed tech company when it comes to AI, maybe we should Google the answer) to the current presidential race. Most notably however, he mentioned Tesla is planning another Model 3 event this year, saying it's already notched over 400,000 preorders and the design should be done in about six more weeks. Pressed for an answer by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher on the availability of Autopilot on the $35,000 base model, Musk would only say "we'll do the obvious thing." You can watch the interview below for more details on things like why SpaceX lands its rockets at sea and its launch schedule for the next few years.
Peter Thiel is staying on Facebook's board of directors
Ever since news emerged that billionaire Peter Thiel is funding multiple lawsuits against Gawker Media, some have said he should step down from his position on the board of directors at Facebook. A now-public war against the media outlet that he called a "bully" certainly complicates things for the company, which works with Gawker on initiatives like Instant Articles and Facebook Live streams. COO and fellow board member Sheryl Sandberg faced questions about that relationship earlier during an interview at the Code Conference (which you can watch below, embedded from Facebook), and confirmed that Thiel will remain on the company's board.
GoPro is working on a spherical camera rig for VR, and a drone
In case you were wondering what the next move is for GoPro as it keeps its action cameras one step ahead of cellphones and DSLRs, we have answers: virtual reality and drones. CEO Nick Woodman announced both projects tonight during an interview at the Code Conference. GoPro showed off a spherical camera rig after it acquired Kolor last month, a company that specializes in stiching together the resulting footage so it can be experience in VR. The Six-camera Spherical Array should arrive later this year, and a GoPro-branded quadcopter is planned for next year. There's fewer details available about that, but rumors late last year pointed to a model priced between $500 and $1,000.
This is why Apple bought Beats
Ever since the rumors first broke that Apple wanted to buy Beats for $3 billion, the masses have uttered one universal word: Why? Apple Senior VP Eddy Cue and Beats CEO and co-founder Jimmy Iovine sat down with Recode's Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the Code Conference to discuss the confirmed news. Not wasting any time, the execs got right into it. According to Cue, there were three overall reasons why the company made the deal: Talent, great headphones (something many folks will debate) and Beats Music.
Intel's vision for wearables includes... a shirt?
The next biggest thing in wearables is apparently something that's already technically... wearable: A smart shirt. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich came to the Code Conference wearing a shirt laden with sensors capable of monitoring your health, such as heart rate and even emotion. These sensors can communicate with an app on your smartphone.
Skype Translator will let you chat in real-time with people in other languages later this year
Tonight at Code Conference, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella brought his Skype team onto the stage to prove that his company's got the next big thing. Taglined "the pre-beta of magic," the service, called Skype Translator, turns your real-time conversation into a Star Trek-like universal communicator. You can speak to someone who speaks a different language; the service adds the other person's translations for you in subtitle format at the bottom of the screen. It's not an immediate translation: You'll need to wait until the other person is done speaking before the service starts whirring away. We've seen similar demonstrations in the past, but the key point here is that the beta service is due out by the end of the year, and will be on all devices that run Skype. The company isn't committing to specific language support yet, but it likely will be a matter of which ones Skype is able to do the best at launch.
