Technology Continues to Shape Our World

Emerging Tech Roundup — December 25

The Quantious team’s top picks for timely trending news in the tech world.

This week in tech: MIT’s Media Lab names a new director, Arctic indigenous communities turn to technology, Vimeo becomes a standalone company, studies examine COVID-19 misinformation across social media, experts predict tech trends for 2021, Apple plans to debut its car in 2021, and VR helps COVID-19 patients during recovery.

Dava Newman Named Director of MIT Media Lab

(MIT News, December 22)

MIT Media Lab has announced its new director, effective July 2021, Dava Newman. An MIT aeronautics and astronautics professor, Newman’s career includes a broad range of interests and accomplishments, ranging from design to engineering, biomedical research, and more. She developed the BioSuit, a 2007 TIME Best Invention, served as principal investigator on four space missions, and she served as the first female deputy administrator of NASA from 2015–2017. In her new role as director of MIT Media Lab, Newman will be leading over 400 staff members across research groups like robotics, innovative learning, smart prostheses, and more.

On the Front Lines of Climate Change, Communities Are Using Tech to Keep Tradition Alive

(CNET, December 22)

Indegenous Arctic communities have passed down knowledge about ice safety and navigation for years, but this information is becoming unreliable due to the rapidly warming climate. To preserve their culture across activities like whaling, ice fishing and more, Arctic indigenous communities are leveraging technology. With innovations like sensors for crossing the ice, GPS collars for reindeer tracking, and social tools for community knowledge-sharing, the people of the North are trying to preserve their way of life as the Arctic warms at twice the rate of the rest of the world.

Vimeo Is Becoming a Standalone Company After Booming During the Pandemic

(The Verge, December 22)

Vimeo, a video streaming site owned by tech and media holding company, IAC, is splitting off to become a public standalone company after experiencing rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. With 200 million users, and over 30 million new members acquired in the past seven months, the company has raise $150 million, reaching a $2.75 billion valuation. By splitting off, Vimeo will continue to raise funds in order to build new tools around teams and enterprise users, as well as develop additional features, integrations, and more.

Studies Reveal Verified Social Media Users Are Fueling COVID-19 Fake News

(Venture Beat, December 21)

Research teams across several universities worked to investigate the influence of bots on the spread of misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic across social media. Looking at millions of tweets and Facebook posts, the studies found that although bots did play a part in spreading “low-credibility” sources and “suspicious” videos, the bots were not the strongest driver of this spread — humans were. What’s more, the primary sources of this information tended to be official, high-profile accounts, making up 40% of the retweets on Twitter and 70% of the reshares on Facebook of misinformation.

Tech Trends in 2021: Fast Planes and Homeworking

(BBC, December 21)

As the new year approaches, the BBC outlines what technology we can expect to rise in 2021. For one, we can expect increased scrutiny and action around big tech companies, particularly in areas like competition and privacy. The BBC also predicts that in the wake of the pandemic, retail will continue to evolve to be more digital, and work from home will see increased innovation as workers continue to collaborate remotely. In addition, they expect progress will be made in electric air travel and autonomous cars.

‘Apple Car’ Will Reportedly Make Its Debut in Q3 2021, Years Ahead of Schedule

(TechSpot, December 21)

For years, it has been rumored that Apple was working on a car-related initiative. Now, sources say that Apple plans to unveil its Apple Car in the fall of 2021. This comes as no surprise given that the California Department of Motor Vehicles granted a permit to the tech giant in 2017. Recently, it’s been claimed that Apple has been testing prototypes throughout the Bay Area. Though no official date for the launch of Apple Car has been announced, some think the vehicle may be revealed in fall 2021, but the actual launch a will come few years later.

VR Could Be Key to Helping Recovered Covid-19 Patients Get Therapy, According to Experts

(Mobi Health News, December 15)

Virtual reality is now being used to help COVID-19 patients make a full recovery. A new study suggests that utilizing VR within the healthcare industry can offer custom rehabilitation programs from long distances. COVID-19 patients often suffer from Post-Intensive Care Syndrome, which has several emotional and societal side effects. VR helps to distract patients from the anxiety and fatigue caused by the side effects of COVID-19, and it also encourages the patients to keep up with their therapy.