The Daily Crunch 08/16/16

Google's FaceTime competitor arrives without much fanfare, and Samsung's smartphone success continues. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for August 16, 2016. And if you're looking for something to do later today, maybe check Snapchat.

1. Google's FaceTime competitor goes live

Google made a lot of noise about two upcoming communication apps at its I/O developer conference earlier this year: Allo, for messaging, and Duo, for video chat. Duo launched last night, letting users video call one another across Android and Apple devices, using their phone number as their ID. The big new feature here is that people receiving calls will get a preview of the video feed of the caller, along with network optimizations to make sure video calls work well even on limited connections. Still, it's a weird, barebones app that seems only to add confusion to Google's long list of Android-based messaging apps, so hopefully there's some product streamlining coming soon, alongside the death of things like Hangouts On Air.

2. Samsung's sure and steady smartphone game

The Galaxy Note 7 reviews are in, and people are impressed with Samsung's latest gigantiphone. The device earns high marks for industrial design, along with solid camera performance, better battery and a great display. The only real downside, according to TC's own Brian Heater, is that it's expensive. Another solid outing for Samsung's smartphone division has people applauding its approach to iteration, which still gets a bit in the weeds with outlier tech (Note 7 has an Iris scanner, natch) but manages to deliver where it counts. Now about that software...

3. Thiel's trials and tribulations

Oh Peter Thiel. The billionaire investor has penned an op-ed for the New York Times in which he defends financially supporting the Hulk Hogan suit that bankrupted Gawker, painting the effort as a courageous effort on behalf of victims of revenge porn. TC's Kate Conger and Anthony Ha take him to task, dismantling Thiel's arguments and showing where he used misdirection to skew the facts.

4. Inside Alta's EV motorcycle factory

All-electric motorcycles aren't easy to make, and Alta decided that if you want something done, you best do it yourself. That's what led to the company's factory, located near SF in Brisbane, CA. TC's Lora Kolodny and our intrepid video crew pay the factory a visit to see what it takes to make an electric bike tick. Alta says it was cheaper to do basically everything themselves, hence the need for the place to begin with.

5. Snapchat snaps up a social event planner

Perhaps you are looking for the sweet hangs ce soir. That's what Vurb wanted to help out with. The startup won TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2014's Startup Battlefield competition, and now it won a $110 million acquisition from Snapchat, which could be dipping its toes in real-time events. It would make sense if Snapchat was building a Facebook Events style feature, but with more features aimed at helping you decide what kind of event to have to begin with.

6. Ford and Baidu bet on LiDAR

LiDAR is going to be a key component of future fully autonomous cars, and Velodyne, which used to make subwoofers, seems to be an early favorite for the supplier providing sensors to make that future a mass market reality. The Valley-based firm raised $150 million in funding from strategic partners Ford and Baidu, both of which hope to make LiDAR scalable and affordable enough to integrate into huge fleets of self-driving vehicles in the not-so-distant future. Plus they're all about that bass.

7. Bumbling into revenue

How do you make money from dating apps? Let me count the ways. Bumble now has one – a subscription which adds three features for $10 per month, including a heads up on users who've like you already, a second chance at expired matches, and an extension on matches so you have a bit more time to decide. Get busy, bees.