Digital, Startups & Tech Roundup - Issue #105

2019 will go down in history as the first time we saw a record number of diverse women serving in the US Congress and announcing their candidacy for President of the United States. But you know what isn’t budging for the 12.3 million women US entrepreneurs who founded companies? Access to capital.

Sunsama, launching out of Y Combinator’s latest batch, is taking a crack at solving the calendar conundrum with a $10-per-month professionals-focused productivity planner.

Instagram is introducing a new way to showcase local businesses with in-app profile pages.

Compared to the HoloLens we first saw demonstrated four years ago, the second version is better in nearly every important way.

Instagram is threatening to attack Pinterest just as it files to go public the same way the Facebook-owned app did to Snapchat. Code buried in Instagram for Android shows the company has prototyped an option to create public “Collections” to which multiple users can contribute

Amazon is opening up its Alexa skills store for everyone today. You’ll now be able to create custom Alexa skills and share them with the world. Amazon is mainly targeting content creators and businesses, but anyone can create a trivia game and share it on the Alexa store now.

Artificial intelligence is radically redefining the customer service landscape. From automated emails to visual search, AI allows companies to better support their customers at more touchpoints along their journey.

Facebook will drive a hard bargain with influencers and artists judging by the terms of service for the social network’s Patreon-like Fan Subscriptions feature that lets people pay a monthly fee for access to a creator’s exclusive content

Technologies don’t have to be cutting edge to make a profound difference in people’s lives.