Teams, Microsoft’s Slack competitor, is about to become a whole lot more competitive

Enlarge / Teams looks good, but it’s unfortunate that its chat is quite bulky in a vertical direction. (credit: Microsoft) Microsoft’s IRC-like, Slack-like collaboration tool Teams looks likely to pick up a couple of key features that’ll make it a great deal more competitive. The first of these is guest access. Currently on Teams, every […]

Spotify and Apple Music just killed another competitor

Thomson Reuters The cutthroat market for premium on-demand music streaming keeps claiming casualties. Microsoft announced on Monday that it will be shutting down Groove Music, the former Xbox Music streaming music that it rebranded two years ago. Microsoft will be discontinuing its Groove Music Pass subscription service by the end of the year, and Groove Music app users […]

Google is working on an Echo Show competitor (GOOGL, AMZN)

BI Intelligence This story was delivered to BI Intelligence IoT Briefing subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here. Google is working a screen-equipped smart speaker to compete with Amazon’s Echo Show, reports TechCrunch. The device, codenamed “Manhattan,” will be unveiled at an event later this week, along with other updates to the Google Home […]

The FDA just approved the first direct competitor to a billion-dollar cancer drug (ROG.VX, AMGN)

REUTERS/Karoly Arvai The FDA just approved a version of Avastin, a blockbuster chemotherapy made by Genentech that brought in $ 6.7 billion in sales in 2016.  The newly approved drug, made by Amgen, will go by the marketed name Mvasi. It’s a type of medication called a “biosimilar.”  Biosimilars are a bit more complicated than your average […]

This Echo Dot competitor has almost all the same features and capabilities — for $20 less

The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you’ll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.       EufyUntil recently, the best advice for anyone who wanted a cheap way to get Amazon’s Alexa into their home was “get an Echo Dot.” That’s […]

Josh.ai raises $8 million to build an Amazon Echo competitor for smart homes

JStar, maker of smart assistant Josh.ai, has raised $ 8 million to create hardware for large homes to compete with Google Home, Amazon Echo, and other devices with intelligent assistants inside. Today users can talk to Josh through Alexa-enabled devices, Google Home, and iOS and Android apps. Above: A preview of the device being created […]