June 22nd, 2017 · 50 minutes
Amazon is looking to push organic kale with its purchase of Whole Foods, while also taking on clothing subscription services. Over at Apple, an internal meeting about secrecy leaked to the press. Oh, sweet irony.
Guest Starring: Lisa Schmeiser and Megan Morrone
This episode of Download is sponsored by:
Amazon agreed to buy the upscale grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.4 billion.
Amazon's mission statement is pretty bold: "Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online."
A new program that will let you try on clothes before you buy them. Select at least three Prime Wardrobe-eligible pieces and Amazon will ship your selections to you in a resealable return box with a prepaid shipping label.
Amazon is using the subscription box phenomenon as part of a broader effort to be top of mind when people buy clothes. The online retailer is developing its own stable of fashion labels to sell suits, dresses, lingerie and more.
For online sellers, winning the race for the buy box is similar to landing the first result on a Google search or, in the brick-and-mortar world, being displayed in the most visible, highly trafficked sections of supermarket aisles.
Called Tertill, the round, 2.5-pound bot uses sensors to identify weeds in a vegetable or flower garden. It then uses a spinning string trimmer to cut off weeds near the ground.
Apple's approach includes former NSA agents, secrecy members on product teams and a screening apparatus bigger than the TSA.
Museum Historian John Markoff moderates a discussion with former iPhone team members Hugo Fiennes, Nitin Ganatra and Scott Herz, followed by a conversation with Scott Forstall.
The extreme heat forecast for Phoenix on Tuesday has caused the cancellation of 20 American Airlines flights out of Sky Harbor International Airport.