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Here is a curation of various tech gists we found interesting this week. Read up and let us know what you think.
Amazon orders 100,000 fully electric vans from Rivian. The van would be used to convey goods ordered on amazon.com to their various destinations. Rivian is a relatively new name in the electric vehicle industry. Read more here https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/19/20873947/amazon-electric-delivery-van-rivian-jeff-bezos-order
In a global world where data takes the lead, the need to secure user data online becomes super imperative. Here is an article on the World Economic Forum’s website which details how privacy tech is redefining the data economy.
Read more here https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/09/how-privacy-tech-is-redefining-the-data-economy/
Tech giants race to connect the world to the internet via satellite constellation. Companies like Amazon, SpaceX amidst others, have asked US regulators for permission to operate constellations of satellites that provide internet services. According to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the goal is to provide broadband networks everywhere in the world. Read full news here https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/09/24/business/tech/big-tech-space-race-connect-world-internet-via-satellite-constellations/#.XYuClX8o_IU
Amidst the ban laid on Huawei in the US, the company is reluctant to give up its interaction with local developers. Huawei Technologies Co. has offered its most valuable 5G secrets and $1.5 billion to software developers. The money will be used to ramp up investment in Huawei’s development programme for developers over the next five years. See details here https://news.yahoo.com/huawei-dangles-1-5-billion-032222295.html
Xaomi has launched the upgraded version of the Mi 9 Pro 5G phone. The phone which is priced at $520, is supported with 5G services and speeds between 1.78 Gbps to 2.02 Gbps. The phone service is 4 times faster than the typical 4G network. Xiaomi also took fast charging to a new level as the wired charger now gets the phone battery fully charged in 48 minutes. Read up phone features here https://www.technewsworld.com/story/86258.html
Facebook Horizon is in town. Facebook announced on Wednesday that it is building its ready player one basis game. Facebook Horizon is a virtual reality sandbox universe where you can build your environments and games; play and socialize with friends while exploring user-generated landscapes. More like bring your wild cool imagination reality. Read up here https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/25/facebook-horizon/
New air is coming into the education space with the new partnership between Tulsa Tech and local aerospace giant, NORDAM. The partnership seeks to aid the ease of student transition to the working area. The program will train and later match qualified Tulsa Tech graduates to advanced placement in careers at NORDAM, a Tulsa-based aerospace manufacturing, and repair company.
New AI research to begin in Africa. The research will be sponsored by the Molecular Sciences Institute (MSI) at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, in partnership with the Cirrus Initiative. The research will focus on the application of AI in chemical, physical and biological systems. Read full gist here https://www.dataweek.co.za/63791n
CcHub and the Nigerian Innovation Center have conjoined resources to acquire Nairobi-based iHUb. The acquisition was made in a bid to extend CcHub services to Kenya. With the acquisition, CcHUb will build a new 10-story innovation centre in Kenya. The newly acquired tech hub will retain its name and identity under the new administration. Read full gist here https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/26/nigerias-cchub-acquires-kenyas-ihub-to-create-mega-africa-incubator/
And finally, Gebeya, an Edtech startup that provides new-age tech services and trains young Africa software developers, has established a hold in Ethiopia. The startup currently trains interested youths in courses; varying from mobile application engineering, front and back end engineering, blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, IoT and UX design. Read up full gist here https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/25/20883923/amazon-certified-for-humans-alexa-smart-home-certification-program-simple-setup-updates
That’s all we’ve got on the global tech gist roundup for this week. Keep up with us on all our social media platforms @techgistafrica and remember to leave a comment when you visit our blogs.
Thank you and have a great day.