Tech Innovations Fill the Industry’s Growing Space In Our World
Emerging Tech Roundup — April 29
The Quantious team’s top picks for timely trending news in the tech world.
This week in tech: A paper-thin speaker is developed, Meta plans to invest in the metaverse heavily, Apple launches their home repair kit, the swap of windows for solar panels grows in possibility, Google updates their privacy policy for the better, the Holocaust museum incorporated VR and Meta plans to study the human brain.
Researchers develop a paper-thin loudspeaker
(TechXplore, April 26)
Researchers at MIT have created an extremely thin speaker, which can transform surfaces into audio sources. The speaker can produce clear sounds while using much less energy than traditional loudspeakers. The device is lightweight and the researchers claim it can be made on a much larger scale to potentially “cover the inside of an automobile or wallpaper a room.”
Mark Zuckerberg wants to spend big on the metaverse, but investors are skeptical
(The Verge, April 27)
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been a huge supporter of the metaverse concept, and Meta has even re-aligned to create the virtual world. However, the company’s stock price has recently dropped almost 50%, so they are once again adjusting their approach. While the company still plans to spend billions of dollars each year on hardware devices and software for the metaverse, Zuckerberg assured investors that they will “slow the pace of some of our investments”.
Here’s the massive kit Apple will send to your house so you can fix your iPhone
(Mac Rumors, April 27)
Apple is now offering a self-service repair kit to owners of the iPhone 12, iPhone 13, or iPhone SE. If your phone breaks you can rent the repair tools from Apple at a price of $49. The large repair kit includes two boxes, weighing in at 43 and 36 pounds. Each case comes equipped with a battery and display press, protective covers, screwdrivers and more.
Transparent solar panels could replace windows in the future
(Interesting Engineering, April 27)
As more people are turning to solar energy, one hurdle is the cumbersome and unsightly solar panels. To avoid this issue and give solar energy a more widespread market, researchers have created transparent solar panels. The panels would ideally be used on buildings instead of traditional glass. They would keep the appearance of regular glass, while adding the benefit of generating solar energy.
Google will now let people remove phone numbers, addresses from search results
(USA Today, April 28)
In recent years, data privacy has become a major concern for some people. Google is attempting to address the problem by giving users more options to keep their personal information safe. Google’s new policy will allow users to remove their personal information from search results. The types of data include phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses and more.
Holocaust museum’s virtual reality exhibit is ‘so realistic’
(NBC News, April 28)
To help preserve the history of the Holocaust, the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is turning to virtual reality. The museum wants to make sure the firsthand accounts from Holocaust survivors are available to younger generations, and using VR opens the door for unique opportunities to share these stories. One of the VR exhibits available is a 12-minute experience, where two elderly Holocaust survivors tell their stories and lead users through the concentration camps they survived many years ago.
Meta plans to study the brain to build AI that processes language as people do
(Meta AI, April 28)
Meta is working with neuroimaging center Neurospin (CEA) and INRIA to better understand how the human brain processes words and sentences. Using deep learning, Meta hopes to identify algorithms that closely resemble the human brain, then build off the most common and valuable similarities. The research has been going on for roughly two years and has already provided insightful results.
