Episode 42 – Evaluating Corporate VC, Facebook F8

Our News Roundup this week featured the following topics: * Amazon's new Kindle Oasis * KGI Securities' downbeat Apple Watch forecast for 2016 * Hands on with the iPad Pro. Our Question of the Week is: "What is corporate venture capital and is it worth doing?" Aaron talks us through this subset of the world of VC, where corporations such as Google and Intel engage in venture funding of startups, based on research by David Benson (Aaron's brother in law) and others. We discuss CVC's reputation for being "dumb money", what it's intended to achieve, the risks associated with it, and ultimately whether it's worthwhile or not for the companies that do it. Our third topic is Facebook's F8 developer conference and the major announcements made there, including a major new focus on chat bots in Facebook Messenger, a Live Video API, a 360 degree camera rig, and other announcements. We talk about the potential for bots in general and our experience with the first bots to be released on the platform and also about Facebook's broad ambitions to connect the world. As usual, we wrapped up with a Weekly Pick, this week an app recommendation from Jan. You'll find relevant links and other material on the website at podcast.beyonddevic.es.