On Episode 65 of Digital Trends Live, DT’s live morning show, hosts Greg Nibler and Luke Larsen braved Portland’s eerie morning fog to scavenge for the best news stories from the world of tech. First up this time: Apple has an upcoming event focused on “services.” Among the things we expect to see at this event is Apple’s expected video streaming service, as well as a news service characterized as “Netflix for news.” According to reports, Apple is running into some snags with that news service, as Apple is allegedly demanding 50 percent of the revenue earned from it. The reports go on to say that big publishers like the New York Times have declined to sign up under those terms. Given the financial hardships facing the journalism industry, and the amount of work that goes into creating stories, it’s not hard to see why the people creating articles are reluctant to take a bargain like that.
In other news, it just got a lot easier for anyone who wants to to create their own Alexa Skills. Amazon’s new Skills Blueprints allow people to design Skills for Alexa without knowing coding languages. If you’ve been wanting to craft your own Alexa skill but were too afraid to try, now’s your chance!
Whole Foods customers got a nasty shock recently, as the grocery chain raised prices on hundreds of items. When Amazon purchased Whole Foods, the company lowered prices, which seemed like a great thing to many people. This move, not so much.
Over in DT’s New York office, Jeremy Kaplan interviewed Pierre Nibart, founder of OGarden, a gorgeous indoor garden that takes up surprisingly little space. The circular garden can grow 90 vegetables at once, and is quick to set up. For a lot of people, growing their own plants — for food or fun — is an exciting prospect, but difficult to do in practice, but the OGarden makes it easy.
Digital Trends Live airs Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. PT, with highlights available on demand after the stream ends. For more information, check out the DT Live homepage, and be sure to watch live for the chance to win occasional prizes.
