Tech Talk Today 275

Pocket Casts gets acquired, and we worry about "big podcasting" pushing for more data collection, Cambridge Analytical is filing for bankruptcy, and Amazon is playing hardball.

Plus a brilliant Kickstarter of the week, some picks of the week, and more.

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Links:

• Cambridge Analytica to File for Bankruptcy After Misuse of Facebook Data - The New York Times — In a statement posted to its website, Cambridge Analytica said the controversy had driven away virtually all of the company’s customers, forcing it to file for bankruptcy in both the United States and Britain.
• Pocket Casts acquired by NPR, other public radio stations, and This American Life — One of the best podcast apps just got bought by some of the biggest podcast producers
• Amazon halts Seattle expansion over city tax proposal | TechCrunch — The new law is designed to address Seattle’s housing crunch, charging large companies $500 per head. The proposal is pretty clearly aimed at Amazon’s own expansion, and the company is taking the move to heart, potentially abandoning construction on a new building and just moving into a pre-existing space instead.
• Amazon success in Seattle has squished families out of housing.
• Amazon Launches Own Pet Product Brand, Wag; Starts With Food - Bloomberg — The Wag brand launched Wednesday with dry dog food and Amazon plans to expand the selection to include other pet supplies. The brand is available only to Amazon Prime subscribers, who pay monthly or annual fees in exchange for fast delivery as well as video and music streaming.
• 2016 MacBook Pro butterfly keyboards failing twice as frequently as older models — Following anecdotal reports of a keyboard more prone to failure than in previous years, AppleInsider has collected service data for the first year of release of the 2014, 2015, and 2016 MacBook Pros, with an additional slightly shorter data set for the 2017 model year given that it hasn't been available for a year yet.
• Humble Software Bundle: Python Dev Kit — Improve your Python development skills with a new software bundle. Get egghead.io, Postman PRO, PyCharm Professional Edition, and more great resources (including books and videos, too). Go ahead, pick up this bundle and see what develops!
• TIC-80 tiny computer — TIC-80 is a fantasy computer for making, playing and sharing tiny games.
• ELIA—the world’s most intuitive tactile reading system by Andrew Chepaitis — Kickstarter