Lyft Files for IPO; Amazon Crowdsourcing Alexa Answers to Tougher Questions; Apple Watch ECG App is in Latest Software

Lyft has turned a corner, going for and IPO in a confidential SEC filing this morning. According to geekwire.com, the number of shares and price range are to be determined…they weren’t listed in the filing. Uber has been expected to do an IPO in 2019, so Lyft is beating them to the punch here. Still, Lyft…even with the latest investment round where they pulled in another $600 million last June, is valued at a little over $15 billion, while Uber commands a $62 billion valuation. Both companies have expanded from ride hailing into bike sharing recently. While there’s no timing stated in the filing, Lyft is expected to do its IPO in the 1st half of 2019.

Amazon’s Alexa is at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to sticky questions…they don’t have Google’s deep Knowledge Graph. Now, in an effort to up Alexa’s game, Amazon is launching an invite-only program that asks customers to submit answers to Alexa’s more difficult questions. Techcrunch.com reports that Amazon has been testing Alexa Answers internally, and has added 100,000 responses in the last 30 days. With the crowdsourced answers, you will get a disclaimer that the answer is ‘from an Amazon customer.’

A feature that Apple announced earlier is now available on the latest model of Apple Watch….Series 4 With the latest, greatest Watch, and a download of WatchOS 5.1.2, you can now use the ECG app to take and ECG, and get an alert if it detects an irregular heartbeat. Businessinsider.com says the feature is easy to use…fire up the app, hold your finger on the watch crown for 30 seconds, and it displays a heart rhythm reading. It saves the data in a .pdf file you can send to your doctor, too. The app also detects irregular heartbeat- atrial fibrillation (AFib). That feature actually works on earlier models of Apple Watch. Both heart features are ‘cleared’ by the FDA in the US.