The Daily Crunch 09/15/16

If you game unanalyzed, do you even game at all? The answer to that question and more in The Daily Crunch for September 15, 2016. And if you're a News Feed robot trying to determine if any of this is fake, I assure you it is not.

1. Mobalytics wins the Disrupt cup

Disrupt SF 2016 is over, which is great for my sanity, and the winner of the Startup Battlefield is Mobalytics, a company that tracks your performance in online games and then gives you tips about how to improve, as well as specific info on your competitors and their play style.

It's basically advanced training software for pro gaming, and it seems super likely they get picked up quick and for a decent sum of money by the likes of Twitch or Microsoft.

2. Salesforce names its first Chief Equality Officer

Saleforce CEO Marc Benioff took the stage at Disrupt earlier this week and said he was going to hire a Chief Equality Officer soon. It didn't take long – today Salesforce has named Tony Prophet as the first person to take that position. Prophet was Microsoft VP of education marketing, but has also been very active with groups championing black employees at Microsoft, and black marketers in general. Prophet also previously helped Benioff fundraise for the UCSF children's hospital when he was at HP prior to that.

3. 3D printing is still fire for manufacturing

3D printing at home may be almost a distant memory, but a company called Carbon 3D just raised $81 million to expand availability of tis rapid 3D printing technology, which is designed for use in industrial manufacturing settings. Its machines claim between 25 and 100 percent speed increases vs. traditional methods.

4. Pandora now has a more modern subscription plan

One of the oldest players in streaming music is finally getting with the times, asking subscribers to pay $5 per day to do more than just get rid of ads. The new Pandora Plus replaces One, and will let you skip more songs, replay more tracks and actually store music for offline playback. It's still not a Spotify competitor, since you don't get full on-demand control, but it's better than what came before.

5. Apple tries to ease you into the iPhone 7 launch day disappointment

Apple put out a statement to help temper people's expectations ahead of the iPhone 7 launch day on Friday. The company basically says you'll be able to get a few phone models in store, but not iPhone 7 Plus in ANY finish, and no iPhone 7 in jet black. It's great news for Apple's pre-order sales, but I wonder how it'll impact launch day enthusiasm at the stores themselves.

6. Don't commute with the Note 7, says the MTA

I don't know for sure, but I imagine Samsung can't be pleased that the Galaxy Note 7 is essentially being barred from New York subways and buses. It's not an official ban yet, but it's a very strongly worded suggestion people don't travel via transit in NYC with the phone.

7. Facebook will fight fakes in Trending with new tech

Since Facebook got rid of its trending news human curators it's been seeing a lot of fake stories climb the charts – and its robots don't currently appear to be able to tackle ID-ing those fakes very well. That'll change, FB's head of news feed Adam Mosseri says, but it's far from a done deal.