Here are some things in the tech world you might have missed while watching the antics of president-elect Donald Trump.
Driving into the future
Ford to test autonomous cars in the UK and Europe in 2017: News 30 Nov, 2016 Self-driving Fords will come to Europe… https://t.co/w79gEsEJj4 pic.twitter.com/HiwGl0tWKS
— Motorhead Daily (@MotorheadDaily) November 30, 2016
Ford’s bold vision to have 100 self-driving cars by 2017 is becoming more realistic, with the motoring giant planning to test them on the roads of Europe early next year.
With many companies investing in semi-autonomous vehicles – think automatic reverse parking – Ford wishes to create a completely autonomous car to combat issues with driver re-engagement.
Vice President of advanced research Ken Washington explained to Business Insider that in order to avoid the mishap of drivers re-engaging too late, they wish to remove it altogether.
“Our research has led us to understand that it [re-engagement] is very difficult to do and we don’t know how to enable that, so that is what led us to pursuing a full level four autonomous vehicle and this re-engagement issue goes away”.
Aussie start-up makes it in Japan
Australian energy tech start-up, CoZero, has landed a big international client, signing a multi-million dollar deal with a Japanese utility company.
The EnergyLink platform is in the process of rolling out to Japanese households, with Japan’s Ennet providing 24,000 customers.
The Aussie company boasts savings of up to 30 per cent on your electricity bill through a cloud-based software which tracks energy consumption via machine learning. Japan’s interest in finding alternative ways to save was certainly peaked.
Long-term changes in energy consumption in Japan. pic.twitter.com/KCwg492Sep
— Carbon Counter (@CO2Counter) August 18, 2016
Zuckerberg left looking sheepish
Medium CEO, @ev, nailed the scope of Facebook's 'fake news' problem with one screenshot https://t.co/7tpmC2Zk3n | https://t.co/fZ1OEK4Vvv
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) November 25, 2016
After a lengthy post on how Facebook plan to tackle the issue of fake news, two distinctly fake articles were ironically sitting right beside the post.
Despite his proclamation that Facebook have been “working on this problem for a long time”, the posts seemed to be mysteriously ‘deleted’ then reposted without the embarrassingly ironic click-bait beside them.
Whether or not this issue will be resolved anytime soon remains to be seen.
CNN buys YouTuber Casey Neistat’s startup
News outlet CNN have bought social media startup Beme, a video-sharing app created by former Vice President of Engineering at Tumblr, Matt Hackett and YouTube sensation, Casey Neistat.
According to Variety, Beme will be shut down and its 11 employees will join CNN to create a new media platform focused on “timely and topical video and empowering content creators to use technology to find their voice.”
The deal, which has allegedly been valued at $25 million, aims to tap into Mr Neistat’s 5.8 million millennial YouTube audience.
Demand for ‘iPhone 8’ could be unprecedented
KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has forecasted big success for iPhone sales coming into next year, expecting sales to reach the 120-150 million units sold mark.
KGI: iPhone 8 to eclipse sales record set by iPhone 6, wireless charging on new high-end and low-end models https://t.co/aS9eU7Nt1k pic.twitter.com/Eqv5dWGnu9
— 9to5Mac (@9to5mac) November 29, 2016
The rumoured iPhone 8 is expected to come in 3 different models, boasting a new OLED screen which curves around the sides, completely bezel-less, an invisible home button and wireless charging all integrated into the new model.
With Google’s Pixel selling at a steady rate, next year will see the competition become more fierce which can only benefit the consumers. – Phillip Logan
Above photo taken from themocracy.com
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