Innovation
Apple targets car production by 2024 and eyes ‘next level’ battery technology — www.reuters.com
Apple Inc is moving forward with self-driving car technology and is targeting 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its own breakthrough battery technology.
Amazon’s Zoox Unveils Robotaxi for Future Ride-Hailing Service — www.bloomberg.com
Zoox Inc., the self-driving startup owned by Amazon.com Inc., unveiled a fully autonomous electric vehicle with no steering wheel that can drive day and night on a single charge.
Technology
Some UK Stores Are Using Facial Recognition to Track Shoppers — www.wired.com
Every time someone enters one of the 18 shops using the tech cameras scan their faces. If they match against a watchlist of ‘suspects’, staff inside the store receive notifications on smartphones.
How Amazon Wins: By Steamrolling Rivals and Partners — www.wsj.com
1. A small business began selling camera tripods on Amazon
2. It reached $3.5 million in sales, 0.001% of Amazon’s revenue
3. Amazon copied the tripods exactly and sold them as AmazonBasics tripods
4. Amazon banned the tripod company from Amazon
Google’s New Perk: Free, Weekly Covid-19 Testing for Employees — www.wsj.com
The search giant has rolled out free testing to work-from-home staff; but demand was so high at the outset that its internal website crashed.
Publishing & Media
There are flickers of hope for local journalism. So far, it’s not nearly enough — www.washingtonpost.com
Fifty-five news outlets have closed for good since the pandemic began — and that’s on top of more than 2,000 newspapers that have folded since 2004. Thousands of local journalists have been fired or furloughed.
Ex-NBA Player’s Group Named Winning Bidder for Bankrupt Ebony Media — www.wsj.com
Bankrupt publisher Ebony Media plans to sell its business to a group led by former NBA player Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman for about $14 million
Year in Review: Publishing Winners and Losers
RT @BoSacks 2020 was unique in that success (or failure) depended largely on a completely external factor: the pandemic
Can you crack it? The bumper books quiz of 2020
What day job did the Booker winner have while writing his novel? Who was rejected by Mills & Boon before becoming a bestselling author? Test your wits with questions from Bernardine Evaristo, Jonathan Coe, David Nicholls and more.
NetGalley data breach: Publishing industry website forces password reset following ‘security incident’ — portswigger.net
Attackers defaced homepage and accessed a database backup file containing passwords
Black Booksellers Denounce Tattered Cover Announcement — www.publishersweekly.com
Black booksellers are offended and angered by the decision of Tattered Cover’s new owners to call the store the country’s largest Black-owned bookstore, which they say appears to be little more than a branding opportunity.
Bronx Book Festival founder announces plans to crowdfund for new Bronx bookstore — www.motthavenherald.com
HT @Sj_Fennell Literary organization The Bronx is Reading recently announced its plans to begin crowdfunding in 2021 to open a bookstore.
Why on Earth Is Someone Stealing Unpublished Book Manuscripts? — The New York Times — www.nytimes.com
ICYMI A phishing scam with unclear motive or payoff is targeting authors, agents and editors big and small, baffling the publishing industry.
Making Children’s Books in the Covid-19 Era — www.publishersweekly.com
Nice to see a bunch of my @BIGofNY buddies and @penguinrandomart/production colleagues quoted! Miss y’all! HT @JVNLA
MGinColor Release Calendar
RT @mgincolor ICYMI, we are making a calendar for all of the MG by BIPOC coming out in 2021. If you are a BIPOC author with an MG book coming out next year, or know of an MG book by a BIPOC coming out, please fill out this form and RT so we can share and promote!
Roxane Gay is starting a book club — and you can join. — lithub.com
The Audacious Book Club from @rgay will span at least one year, and here are the books:
- Jenna Wortham and Kimberly Drew, Black Futures (January)
- Torrey Peters, Detransition, Baby (February)
- Brandon Hobson, The Removed (March)
- Dantiel W. Moniz, Milk, Blood, Heat (April)
- Kaitlyn Greenridge, Libertie (May)
- Gabriela Garcia, Of Women and Salt (June)
- Kirstin Valdez Quade, The Five Wounds (July)
- Ashley C. Ford, Somebody’s Daughter (August)
- Donika Kelly, The Renunciations (September)
- Helen Hoang, The Heart Principle (October)
- Nichole Perkins, Sometimes I Trip on How Happy We Could Be(November)
- Anthony Veasna So, Afterparties (December)
The Village Voice Rises From the Dead — www.nytimes.com
The owner of LA Weekly, another independent publication, plans to restart The Voice next month. In addition to reviving the website, Brian Calle plans a quarterly print edition.
Resources & Opportunities
Have you wanted to give a TED Talk? — www.ted.com
MT @TEDNews Have you wanted to give a TED Talk? This could be your chance to make your ideas heard! Applications are open until Jan. 21 for our Global Idea Search.
Women’s Media Center
RT @womensmediacntr We are now accepting submissions for our premier media and leadership training program: Progressive Women’s Voices 2021!
Women who are eager to dive into the media conversations on today’s most important issues, apply by midnight PST Sunday, March 14!
#PitchDis, a Twitter pitch event for disabled writers, is coming in June 2021
RT @DespinaKarras I’m happy to announce that #PitchDis, a Twitter pitch event for disabled writers, is coming in June 2021! More details will be posted soon, but get those manuscripts and pitches ready #WritingCommunity #DisabilityTwitter #dis #ownvoices #disabled
SCBWI Student Illustrator Scholarship — www.scbwi.org
RT @scbwi Calling all #illustration students! Apply to win a full scholarship to the #NY21SCBWI Winter Zoomference! Two winners will receive admission to the online event AND entry in the juried portfolio showcase. Deadline is JAN 19, 2021. Open to all students.
Women’s Media Group — New Year Networking Ball
Ready to send off stress-aplenty 2020? Join @WMG_NYC for a one-of-a-kind virtual members-only party on 1/6 from 6–8pm to kick off 2021 with flair! This past year was chockfull of challenges, but we pulled through together to host 30+ virtual events and welcome 60+ new members. Come celebrate with us, get to know your new fellow members, and reconnect with old friends. We’ll have guided breakout rooms with festive themes for intimate networking, contests for Best Zoom Décor and Most Creative Cocktail or Mocktail, and we’ll be naming a Belle of the Ball. So, feel free to dress to impress…without having to leave the comfort of your home! Sign up today!!