Weekly dose of Business & technology | Edition 2: 29.04.20
Armend Ukshini
A business builder and transformer | Techpreneur | Lecturer of Entrepreneurship | MBA graduate | AI Enthusiast & Product maker | 15+ years in tech industry
Your “Weekly does of Business & Technology” is a weekly, curated newsletter, that is delivered to Kosbit employees, to keep them updated with the most recent news on business and technology and at the same time tries to make their work-from-home more enjoyable. It covers a wide area of topics starting from covsequences (business and technology issues related to coronavirus), up to artificial intelligence, social media, gadgets, apps, startups, entertainment and WTF. WTF is related to news like Apple selling Mac Pro wheels for $699!
The newsletter consists of selected articles about business related to tech, technology news, analysis of emerging trends in tech, and profiling of new tech businesses and products. It identifies trends and presents a glimpse of the tech & business universe. Articles, accompanied by a short entry and key highlights are hand-picked from world renown blogs like TechCrunch, Entrepreneur, TheVerge, Quartz, BusinessInsider, Inc, etc.
In today's world, every company must be a media company, regardless of the industry. Let’s dive in!
Re-shaping the world | Apple and Google team up to reduce the spread of Coronavirus.
Big Brother’s watching!? Last week, Google and Apple announced a joint effort to enable the use of a framework (or app) powered by Bluetooth technology which will use contact tracing between people to identify infected individuals. Once activated, this system lets your phone log other phones that have been nearby and will periodically blast out a small, unique, and anonymous piece of code, derived from your phone’s unique ID. Other phones in range receive that code and remember it, building up a log of the codes they’ve received and when they received them. When a person using the system receives a positive diagnosis, they can choose to submit their ID code to a central database and if there is a match with your ID, you get an alert on your phone saying you’ve been exposed. Tracing our movements violate our human and civilian rights but desperate times need desperate measures, right? They have promised to shut down the app after Coronavirus ends, but hey, who knows?!
Key highlights:
- The system is working off the same antennas as your wireless earbuds: Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).
- Participation is voluntary, and unless you take proactive steps to participate in contact tracing, you should be able to use your phone without getting involved at all.
Read more at:
Covsequences | Airb’n’b ups its debt by $1 Billion amidst Coronavirus travel crunch
As travel freeze continues to hammer vacation rentals, with holidaymakers locked down at home and global travel banned or heavily discouraged for public health reasons, Airb’n’b was forced to up its debt as a result of missing revenues from its business. The $1 Billion term loan looks more clearly targeted at dealing with immediate negative impacts caused by COVID-19. The company itself says that these funds would support its ongoing work to invest in the loner-term projects. Airbnb’s statement seeks to paint an upbeat picture of travel in a post-pandemic future, without the company being able to specify exactly when such a time might arrive; they say its’ strategic investment and not a bailout. The cash injection will “ensure Airbnb can continue to invest in its company and community of hosts and guests in over 220 countries and regions around the world”, the company added. Hey AirB’n’B, there’s no shame in needing money in times like these! We are all broke!
Key highlights:
- The global travel crunch has put a major dent in Airbnb’s IPO hopes. Last September, the company told investors, employees, and the world it would begin to trade publicly in 2020.
- Airbnb has faced anger from hosts faced with a wave of coronavirus cancelations and refunds, after it made a policy change last month to allow guests to be refunded in full for bookings over the coronavirus period.
Read more at:
https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/15/airbnb-ups-its-debt-by-1bn-amid-the-coronavirus-travel-crunch/
Social media | Facebook goes to war with Zoom: introduces 50-person chat feature
During lockdown times, video conferencing apps usage has sky-rocketed. One feature more or one feature less drives more or less users, hence more or less money for the business. Seeing the competition, Facebook is adding a new feature that lets users video chat with up to 50 people, a direct challenge to video conferencing apps Zoom and Houseparty, both of which have seen usage soar amid the coronavirus pandemic. Messenger Rooms lets users invite up to 50 people, even those without Facebook accounts, to both public and private video chat rooms for free and with no time limit. Let me dig this in, a call with 50 people?! Who in the world needs that!?
Key highlights:
- Facebook emphasized that the person who creates the room controls who can join, who sees the room, and if new people can join at all.
- Zoom has been dealing with persistent privacy and security issues as uninvited users “Zoom-bomb” chat rooms with inappropriate images or profanity.
Read more at:
Mobility | UK will use drones to make urgent medical deliveries during Coronavirus
The UK will trial using drones to deliver urgent medical supplies and equipment as part of the fight against COVID-19. Under a trial that starts this week, an autonomous drone will carry personal protective equipment from three hospitals in Hampshire, a county in southern England, to a hospital on the Isle of Wight, an island off England's south coast, and back again. The drone trial was initially slated to take place in 2021, but UK government brought the trial forward due to "urgent need." This specific model of drone used in this case can carry 100 kilograms for up to 1,000 kilometers. Drones are already being used in various countries as a (controversial) means of enforcing stay-at-home orders. Some US police departments in New Jersey and California have started using drones to tell people to social distance and distribute coronavirus updates. Another dystopian scenario, right?
Key highlights:
- The drones could be used to deliver time-sensitive supplies, such as blood and organs, in the future.
- The trial will use a petrol-fueled Windracers Ultra fixed-wing drone, built by the University of Southampton
Read more at:
https://www.businessinsider.com/uk-drones-blood-medical-delivery-2020-4?r=US&IR=T
Artificial Intelligence | AI is better at diagnosing patients than doctors. Who believes this?
Artificial intelligence is entering every pore of our life. Evend in medicine, Artificial intelligence is better at analyzing medical images for illnesses like pneumonia and skin cancer than doctors are, according to a number of academic papers. But that conclusion is being called into question by recent research. A paper published in March in medical journal The BMJ found that many of those studies exaggerated their conclusions, making A.I. technologies seem more effective than they were in reality. The finding is significant because it undermines a huge ongoing shift in the health care industry, which is looking to use technology to more quickly diagnose ailments. Despite this report and other naysayers, in less than two decades we are going to be checked and diagnosed by a robot doctor. As Giordano Bruno said “Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people”.
Key highlights:
- The report calls into question a tech industry that is scrambling to develop and sell A.I. technology for analyzing medical imagery.
Read more at:
Entertainment | Finished with Netflix? Try ‘Cinesquare’, a showcase of Balkan cinema
I bet that, by now, you have watched almost everything that is on Netflix. At least, you have watched all the movies and the series people were talking about all the times. Launched in 2017 Cinesquare brings together some of the best films from across the Balkans, as well as a large number of independent European films. The subscription-based service is available in all 10 emerging European countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia), as well as Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. A monthly subscription costs just 1.99 euros. Currently, there are five interesting films from the region that you can stream right now: Enclave (Serbia, 2015), The Mountain (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2016), 20 Kicks (Bulgaria, 2016), The Eternal Return of Antonis Paraskevas (Czechia/Greece, 2013) and An Unforgettable Spring in a Forgotten Village (Kosovo, 2019). For you that have already seen Balkan’s movies, you know that there is a lot of black humor and strange happenings, just like in real life. Art imitates life, right!?
Key highlights:
- Cinesquare is a fully legal alternative to Netflix and the service is supported by MEDIA Creative Europe, Eurimages and the Macedonian Film Agency.
- Cinesquare is a member of EUROVOD, the association of European Video on Demand platforms specialised in art-house, independent and European cinema.
Read more at:
I hope that you have enjoyed reading the the second edition of the newsletter! You’re more than welcome to express your thoughts on the topics discussed.