The Daily Crunch 11/21/16

Instagram copies some more features from competitors and Elon Musk's Tesla dreams come true. That and more in The Daily Crunch for November 21, 2016. And if you're looking to buy Spectacles, it just got ever so slightly easier.

1. Instagram's copy machine is stuck in the "on" position

Ancient office photocopiers used to sometimes freak out and just spit out endless copies of the same thing when you only wanted a couple. I have a theory that's what's happening over at Facebook/Instagram HQ with their Snapchat/Twitter/Periscope feature copy machine. Maybe someone should check if there's a firmware update?

Anyways, Instagram now offers expiring live video and messages so it's kind of like it copied Periscope's original product vision. Maybe all new ideas are bad and we only have old ones left.

2. Tesla closes its SolarCity acquisition

Both your next car and your next roof might be a Tesla, or so hopes Elon Musk as his car company and SolarCity join today. The tie-up has been on track since early this year, but a shareholder vote last week in its favor paved the way for today's deal close, valued at around $2.6 billion.

3. Apple won't be making routers anymore

Apple is getting out of the router business, according to Bloomberg. The last time they updated one was the last time they released a new version of the long-ignored Mac Pro, so it's never been super high on their priority list. And they have books to make, you know.

4. Oracle buys Dyn

Oracle has acquired Dyn in a deal worth north of $600 million, according to reports. The acquisition of Dyn is especially interesting since it comes after the DNS provider suffered an unprecedented DDoS attack that barred access to very popular websites for hours in October. Dyn's value probably wasn't impacted too heavily by the attack, however – it wasn't like a massive data breach or something else where blame could land more directly on the company itself.

5. Google puts $3.4M in Montreal AI research and opens a lab there, too

Google likes AI, and Google likes Canadian academics for AI. That's why it invested an additional $3.4 million US in Montreal-based academic AI research, and opened a new research lab there to work with its Google Brain team in Mountain View. Maybe the cold is more conducive to artificial synapse function.

6. Amazon's hosting its first casual sports event

Tbh I already don't get the appeal of esports, so the concept of casual esports is basically nonsense talk from a shelved Black Mirror script to me. But it's a real thing, and Amazon is getting into it I guess. That's cool for you, spectators of casual gaming.

7. Snapchat finally has a fixed Spectacles store! Kind of.

Hey, look! Snap put a Spectacles store near Central Park right by the Apple Store! That's great. Oh but it only has one vending machine and it ran out like 3 hours into selling the things. But it's there through New Year's, so keep trying!