Today at the Code Conference we’ll be hearing from Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and others. But before all that gets going, here’s a roundup of what happened yesterday:
- Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ Mary Meeker delivered her twentieth Internet Report, detailing important trends and statistics in the tech industry. The big takeaway: Facebook and Twitter growth is slowing down, but the on-demand economy is (predictably) heating up.
- Les Moonves, the head honcho at CBS, said he’s not worried about competition from Netflix, Viacom and CBS aren’t merging anytime soon and CBS will probably be a part of Apple’s upcoming TV service.
- BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti wants to take the company public one day, and Peretti and Editor in Chief Ben Smith said we should expect to see BuzzFeed on TV one day as well.
- Jeff Williams, the Apple exec who led the company’s Apple Watch drive, confirmed that the product’s developer kit is coming very soon and acknowledged rumors about the company’s ongoing automotive efforts. Williams also called the car “the ultimate mobile device” and, in classic Apple fashion, simply said “a lot” of Apple Watches have been sold.
- Talking about Reddit and her gender discrimination suit, Ellen Pao explained that she’s not nearly as complicated as most people think. She talked about inadvertentlybecoming an icon for women in tech, and what’s going on with harassment and censorship on Reddit.
- General Motors CEO Mary Barra revealed that Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are coming to Chevy cars, and (eventually) robot cars will be here too.
- Airbnb’s Brian Chesky is just fine with being more toned down than entrepreneurs like Travis Kalanick, thank you very much; his company is approaching one million guests per night.
- Omid Kordestani, chief business officer at Google, confirmed that a “buy button” is imminent, and the company’s not stopping its “moonshot” projects anytime soon.
- Oculus boss Brendan Iribe said the total price for Oculus Rift will be around $1,500. He’ll talk more about controllers for the product at E3, and he wants to make it kid-friendly as well.
- Brian Cornell, the relatively new CEO of Target, is warm to the idea of a partnership with Uber and he wants to accept chip-and-PIN credit cards before he integrates Apple Pay at Target locations.
- Using GoPro’s new 3-D recording software, you too can know what it’s like to be interviewed in the red chair by Kara Swisher. The company’s CEO, Nick Woodman, talked more about GoPro’s media business and why it’s getting into virtual reality and drones.
- Pinterest chief Ben Silbermann said he’s totally committed to gender diversity within Pinterest, and Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure promised that Sprint will become the No. 1 wireless company (but that the company’s unlimited plans aren’t going to be around forever).
