The Daily Crunch 07/25/16

Verizon now owns the nostalgic internet, Twitter's TV morph continues and WikiLeaks wounds the DNC. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for July 25, 2016. And a special welcome to any Yahooligans: Please report to the nearest VZ retail store for processing.

1. Verizon! Buys! Yahoo!

It's official: Verizon is acquiring Yahoo's core assets and brand for $4.83 billion in cash (while the other stuff becomes... something else). The deal was tipped this past weekend, but became official in the early AM hours today. In a memo to staff, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong outlined some of the strengths in a list that likely describes what's going to live on post-unity day (sometime late this year), but the big question is, will Marissa stay or will she go now? A: She'll stay for now but not for long.

2. Twitter's live video push rolls on

In an edition of this newsletter a few days ago, I said that Twitter might be looking to quietly supplant TV as the live video broadcast platform of the future, and today Twitter provided more evidence of this. The company is going to stream live MLB and NHL games on a weekly basis, for free, as well as provide free original programming in the form of a nightly sports highlight show called "The Rally." A lot of us media folks already say "did you see what happened on Twitter last night?" but the phrase might have a meaning more akin to its watercooler predecessor from the heyday of broadcast TV if things keep following this path. Twitter's new marketing reflects this changed identity, too.

3. Pokemon Go's roadmap likely to lengthen its tail

Pokemon Go is basically an MVP, which you'll know if you've tried it. The game's simplicity is good for picking up new players unfamiliar with the franchise, but it leaves lots of opportunity for features to be added later. Niantic CEO John Hanke was on a panel at SDCC about the game, and he dished on upcoming plans, like new Pokemon, PokeStops players can customize with items, and the ability to trade your 'mons. PoGo has a long tail, but Nintendo probably doesn't stand to gain all that much from its success *sad trombone*.

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4. DNC chair walks over WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks dropped a whole lot of emails just before this past weekend, and the dump included a huge archive of Democratic National Committee communications. It was embarrassing for the DNC in general, with fairly explicit evidence that the party favored Hilary Clinton over the more unconventional (from an establishment politics perspective) choice of Bernie Sanders. DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz took the brunt of the leak's impact, resigning from her position in light of the revelation. Let's just be clear, though: Regardless of their supposed impartiality with regards to candidates, the DNC and the RNC always play favorites and we all knew that.

5. Prisma gets amenable to Android

Primsa is on like minute 14 of its 15 minutes, but the availability of the app for Android users is still going to be welcome news to people using non-iPhones. Don't get me wrong, the tech is still impressive – but Prisma is not Pokemon Go, and it probably isn't even Bitmoji in the end. The company had best be finalizing some kind of acquisition before its spotlight fades completely.

6. Amazon might make the best car UI

Echo in the car might be the best paradigm for how computers in vehicles should operate, at least ahead of the arrival of so-called Level 4, or fully self-driving vehicles. Amazon has a knack for creating computing experiences where the user can become an expert very quickly, and where the complexity of the computing experience falls away almost entirely, putting humans in the 'driver' seat, so to speak, in a way that few other computing models have managed to date.

7. Star Wars drones: I want them

These new Star Wars drones actually look good, unlike previous ones that seemed like hastily-created plastic shells slapped onto bargain RC quadcopters grabbed straight from the parts bin. There's a Tie Advanced, an X-Wing, a speeder bike and the Millennium Falcon, and they're going to be on store shelves around the time the next Star Wars film, Rogue One, hits theaters. Let slip these dogs of war.