Companies Invest Heavily in New Technology
Emerging Tech Roundup — May 29, 2020 from Quantious
This week in tech: AR aims to help online shoppers, China invests in their digital infrastructure, Uber recycles electric vehicles, online VR meeting tool is launched, a virtual cybersecurity school is founded, Slack gets an upgrade, and Facebook launches a new voice app.
Augmented Reality Can Improve Online Shopping, Study Finds
(Cornell Chronicle, May 27)
A recent Body Scan Research Group survey found that online shoppers return 70% of the clothing they buy online. Customers order multiple sizes and colors so that they can try them on, then they return what they don’t like. Researchers believe that an augmented reality tool could help online shoppers by enabling them to see an image of themselves in the selected clothing prior to purchase. A tool like this would lower a company’s shipping and shelving costs, as well as decrease the carbon footprint. However, skeptics question whether shoppers would like the tool since they won’t be able to evaluate the fabric, weight, and actual fit of items.
Tencent Pledges $70 Billion Investment in High-Tech Areas as Beijing Pushes Digital Infrastructure
(CNBC, May 27)
Tencent, a Chinese technology company, plans to invest 500 billion yuan ($69.9 billion) into cloud computing and artificial intelligence over the next few years. The investment encourages Beijing’s push for digital infrastructure, and it bolsters competition with other Chinese technology giants like Alibaba. Tencent said that they are aiming to build new industrial parks, innovation centers, and large data centers that have over one million servers each. The company is also looking forward to working with scientific research laboratories so that they can invest in major technological research.
Uber Destroys Thousands of Bikes and Scooters
(BBC, May 27)
On May 7th, Uber sold its Jump electric bike and scooter business to transportation company, Lime. Recently, Uber began destroying thousands of its old electric bikes and scooters, instead of selling them or donating them to charity. The company opted out of selling or donating the electric vehicles because many of the older vehicles had issues that raised liability and safety concerns. However, Lime did acquire some of Uber’s electric bikes, and the company plans to deploy them in the near future.
MeetinVR Launches Online VR Meetings With ‘Superpowers’
(Venture Beat, May 27)
At the online-only Augmented World Expo, VR headset maker, Varjo, announced that they have been collaborating with MeetinVR for the past three years. Now available in open beta, companies can register for a free 30-day trial of MeetinVR. With the tool, users can host online meetings with whiteboard interactions and 3D viewings, or they can host a meeting in a plane that they’ve designed. With the current pandemic, Varjo has seen an increase in demand for the VR headsets from companies, and they hope their efforts will address “Zoom fatigue” and assist companies with maintaining high team morale.
Virtual Cybersecurity School Teaches Kids to Fix Security Flaws and Hunt Down Hackers
(CNN, May 26)
A school-based program teaching cybersecurity has now expanded and developed into an entire virtual cyber school. Using games to teach, kids learn how to fix security concerns on a website, decrypt different hacker codes, and uncover cyber trails. The program is available for ages 13–18, is free in the UK, and costs $150 annually in the US. With concerns from the government about the current skill gap around the cybersecurity profession, the program’s availability will hopefully encourage more people to take up a career in the cybersecurity field.
Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield on Competing With Microsoft, the Future of Work, and Managing All Those Notifications
(The Verge, May 26)
Slack, a messaging platform, is looking to update its app with a variety of new features such as scheduled messages, stories, short video, and audio messages. Slack decided to opt out of expanding its video-chat offering because they want to focus on synchronous communication. However, the newly added tools will allow for better notification management and ease when it comes to tracking tasks that were put on the backburner. With these new efforts, Slack is hoping to provide teams with more options to communicate project updates, statuses, and other large amounts of information — without feeling overwhelmed.
Facebook Launches CatchUp, an Experimental App for Voice Calls
(CNET, May 26)
Facebook’s New Product Experimentation team released a voice call app called CatchUp. This app allows users to host group phone calls for up to 8 people. The app shows when contacts are “available” to talk, and it has an “auto-availability” option which automatically updates users’ statuses once they’re connected via bluetooth. The app also shows group chats that are in session so that users have the option to join the conversation. Due to the current pandemic, Facebook is hoping the app will bring people together during hard times.
