Not Just Startups: Top News & Events – July 4

By Lipin

Posted on July 4, 2017

‘Not Just Startups’ is TechPluto’s daily series that packs top startup and tech news from across the globe. The only news that makes it to ‘Not Just Startups’ series is what’s worth your time. This is where news appears before becoming a trending one.

#15

Samsung making Solid State Battery

Samsung is producing SSB or solid state battery for their Galaxy line of mobile phones. The company is concerned with the recent sprout of battery explosion and SSB is a solution for that. It minimises the occurrence of battery explosion in mobile phones. It will take up to 2 years to fully develop. Moreover, it is not yet clear that Samsung will use it in future models. Because SSB doesn’t have any liquid electrolyte, the chances of catching fire are minuscule. Samsung Galaxy phones have suffered the most due to the battery explosion.

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#14

Kaspersky ready to hand over source code to US

Recently the US Senate had made a proposal to ban Kaspersky products in the US Department of Defence. After the US authority asked Kaspersky to represent itself in front of the Congress the Kaspersky founder has agreed to all demands. Including the handing over of the source code to the US authorities. After Telegram’s clash with the Russian Government. Kaspersky has now found itself in the dock against the mighty US authority. The US is under the impression that Kaspersky which is a private company might be a stooge for the Russians. Moreover, the Russian officials have warned against banning of Kaspersky.

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#13

$1.2 billion revenue for Pokemon GO

Pokemon GO has become one of the fastest growing interactive mobile games in the history of video games. The company claimed that it generated $950 million in the first year of its launch. The game has been downloaded 752 million times. The majority of players are men in the age group of 18-34.

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#12

125 years later no jobs for humans, says study

Oxford and Yale professors have come out with a report which predicts robot taking over all present jobs in less than 125 years. Moreover, by 2024 the robots will start to work as truck drivers and produce music as well. Further, the intricate surgical procedures will also become a domain for robots.

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#11

ORide to protect your privacy

A group of scientists have come out with an awesome technology solution to provide data protection to the riders of cab hailing firms such as Uber and Lyft. The software encrypts the rider data in such a way that even the developers cannot track the details of riders. Some of the data points are location and addresses. All of this is hidden to the cab service providers while enabling the services at the same time. The technology is developed by a group of scientists at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne.

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#10

UK Data regulators call Google’s Deepmind deal illegal

The UK Data regulators have concluded their investigation on Google’s Deepmind deal with NHS. In the report, they have concluded that the deal broke the law on data protection. The NHS foundation had shared data on 1.6 million patients of acute kidney injuries. Now NHS would need to change the way it works with Google’s Deepmind. Moreover, it would require showing how they protect the data of the patients.

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Samsung reduces workforce for first time in 7 years

Samsung in its restructuring efforts is reducing the workforce. Due to its restructuring efforts, the company has reduced workforces across Asia, especially in China where the reduction has been up to 17.5%. In South Korea, it’s home country the reduction has been around 2-3%.

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Apple steps up in Asia with first store in Taiwan

Apple has opened its first retail store in Taiwan. This move is to increase its presence and prominence in the Asian market. The store is located in the landmark Taipei 101. This move comes after the first store in Singapore, and company’s plans to open in Korea as well. Apple is looking forward to opening stores in India aggressively.

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Amazon to increase its stakes in India

Jeff Bezos has confirmed that Amazon will play a key role in the e-commerce market in India. He tweeted recently praising his meeting with the PM of India. He tweeted that he is excited to keep investing and keep growing in Indian markets. Amazon has become a major player in e-commerce in India.

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Amazon closes merger with Souq

Amazon has completed its acquisition of middle eastern e-commerce firm Souq for $580 million in cash. The acquisition gives Amazon a tremendous foothold in the middle east. Souq claims it has 45 million visitors per month, 8.4 million products in 31 categories.

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Dave McClure resigns as GP of 500 startups

The general partner of 500 Startups, Dave McClure has resigned from the post. 500 startups have confirmed the news as well. Dave McClure was under criticism because of his undue advances on women. The act was considered as a sexual harassment and women complained that this continued for long. At last, Dave decided to resign from his position to save the group from further harm.

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Windows 10 immune to Petya Ransomware, says Microsoft

According to Microsoft officials, Ransomware Petya is not strong enough to break Windows 10’s security. The telemetry data collected by Microsoft shows that the malware does not run on the same computer if you are able to restart it once infected. Therefore, it proves that the malware is not as strong as it is touted by media.

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iPhone 8 will scan face instead of finger

If rumours are to be believed then the latest iPhone yet to be released will feature a 3D face recognition. The scanner is smart enough to scan the depth of face so that no one can fool the system with a user photograph. Moreover, the device is faster when compared to Samsung’s Galaxy S8. 3D face scan will increase the security as it takes more biometric data against the fingerprint scanner. It is still under suspicion whether Apple will introduce it in the next iPhone.

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Google and Facebook hold key to half of the world’s Ad spends

Google and Facebook are the leaders in advertising. Their share is greater than all newspapers, magazines, radio combined on this planet. In 2017 alone Google is poised for an ads revenue of over $80 billion. Next in line is Facebook with $36.3 billion revenue in ads. This is one of the reasons that Google announced that it will no longer read email data. It does not need to when its ad revenue is more than many countries total GDP. Moreover, it has plans to create video ad blocker for the Chrome. Google’s market capitalization is $639 billion. Never in the history of Humankind has there been such a dominant force which engulfs pretty much all the space of marketing and advertising.

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$100 million ‘Fundamentum’ fund for Indian startups

The tech veterans from India, Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal of Helion Ventures have raised a fund of $100 million. Startup Fund is to encourage and fill the gap in the funding of startups. The aim is to bring out unicorn startups from India. Moreover, half of the funds are already committed. The main goal is to scale-up the startups. The fund is called ‘Fundamentum’ Partnership Fund. Its focus is towards Series B and C deals.

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Data compilation by Lipin

Editing and Presentation by Prashant Sharma

News source credits:

News #15 – Source

News #14 – Source

News #13 – Source

News #12 – Source

News #11 – Source

News #10 – Source

News #9 – Source

News #8 – Source