Twitter elongates, Ford and Lyft take an autonomous spin and Garmin hits the sweet spot for kid-friendly fitness branding. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for September 27, 2017.

1. Twitter wants you to go long

Twitter has been 140 characters since its very beginning, but now it's testing a 280 character limit with a select group of users. I've tried it: It's weird (but here's maybe why they're doing it).

Long tweets actually lose my attention, which is a sad comment on the effect Twitter has had on my attention span to begin with, I guess. How do I even manage to hold my attention long enough to write this newsletter? In 140 character increments, is the answer.

2. Ford and Lyft partner on self-driving

Ford is the latest automaker to sign on to Lyft's open self-driving platform. Here's a handy filter through which to view all these partnerships, since there's bound to be more announced: It's early enough that there's nothing to lose by teaming up as broadly as possible, and plenty to gain.

3. Garmin enlists Disney to help get kids active via wearables

Garmin's latest fitness tracker is aimed at kids, with an updated Vivofit Jr. device that features tie-in Disney branding, including Marvel and Star Wars. I want them.

4. Kik's ICO raises almost $100 million

Kik's Kin initial coin offering has raised nearly $100 million, which is a lot. That's without its home country of Canada, where the country's traditionally conservative financial regulators deemed the token a security – something that was likely smart and in the general consumer interest.

5. Google pulls YouTube from the Echo Show

Things tend to get messy when huge internet companies want to play in the same sandbox: The latest example is Google pulling YouTube from Amazon's Echo Show, noting that it violates YouTube's terms of service. Honestly it probably has more to do with Google wanting to make its own smart home assistant play.

6. Dyson is working on an all-electric car

Dyson actually knows a lot about electric motors, and it's been making them longer than many carmakers. The vacuum maker has entered the EV fray, officially announcing plans to bring an electric car to market by 2020.

7. Equifax CEO "retires"

I mean, I'd probably "retire," too, if I oversaw the largest exposure of private consumer data in U.S. history.