Edition 97 of my email newsletter, Newley’s Notes, went out on Friday.
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Hi, friends. Welcome to the latest issue of Newley’s Notes, a newsletter in which I share my Wall Street Journal stories and other writings, along with links about technology, business and life.
It’s been a busy week. But before we get going, a heads up that my colleague Eric Bellman and I will be doing a Facebook Live at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time Monday, which is 8 a.m. Tuesday India time. Join us! Details are here. We’ll be discussing…
📝 What I Wrote in The WSJ
…This story: Apple Scraps Like an Underdog in Second Biggest Mobile Market. Here in India, where Apple has just a tiny market share, it’s trying to build brand awareness using some interesting tactics, my colleagues and I report. (Related Tweet I posted today: Photographic confirmation of our scoop last month that the first-ever assembled-in-India iPhones are a reality.)
– CEO’s Resignation Is the Least of Uber’s Problems in Asia. Following Travis Kalanick’s departure, my colleagues and I examined how the world’s most valuable startup is doing in Asia. The upshot: a potentially distracted Uber could lose ground to the likes of Ola in India and Grab and Go-Jek in Southeast Asia.
– India’s Hike Brings Mobile Payments to Its Messaging App. WhatsApp’s rival here is looking to tap into the fast growth of mobile wallet usage following last year’s cash crunch.
💬 What I Wrote at Newley.com
– Weekend Sketching: Pen and Ink is Therapeutic. Just a few pics of some scribbling during my downtime.
📲 5 Must-Reads in Tech
1. Why Uber’s Kalanick quit. My colleague Greg Bensinger has details on how and why it all went down. Meanwhile Axios’s Dan Primack reports that more than 1,000 Uber staff want him to return.
2. Samsung: doubling down on South Carolina? My colleague Tim Martin reports that the South Korean titan is in talks to plow $300 million into a factory in Newberry, S.C.
3. Facebook has a new mission, according to founder Mark Zuckerberg. It’s no longer to “connect the world.” Rather, he wants to give “people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.” That means more focus on Facebook groups.
4. Tesla: creating its own streaming music service? Would that even be a good idea? Recode has more.
5. Sweden has a museum of technological flops, celebrating everything from Crystal Pepsi to disposable DVDs. As Liz Lemon would say, I want to go to there.
💫 1 Fun Thing
1. Beautiful, free, public domain ebooks. A new project called Standard Ebooks is a boon for digital book lovers.
What’d I miss? Just hit reply to send me links, rants, raves, juicy news scoops and anything else.
Thanks for reading.
❤️,
Newley