Weekly#437

  • Anyone is building a marketplace for advice, one 5-minute call at a time
  • Railsbank raises $70M to build out its fintech-as-a-service platform
  • Walmart will be bringing Symbotic robots to 25 distribution centers
  • “…today around 30% of the world’s population is exposed to a deadly combination of heat and humidity for at least 20 days each year, that percentage will increase to nearly half by 2100, even with the most drastic reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions…”
  • History teaches us how to be brutally honest about a problem and yet optimistic for a technological solution
  • One of Dubai’s Oldest Lenders Prepares for a Digital-Only Future
  • A Neanderthal carved a geometric design in bone 51,000 years ago
  • If we want to look for life on Europa, we’d better bring a drill
  • what we know about kids and long covid
  • Humanoid Robot Keeps Getting Fired From His Jobs…Pepper, SoftBank’s robot, malfunctioned during scripture readings, took breaks in exercise class and couldn’t recognize the faces of family members (WSJ)
  • Our brains “read” expressions of illusory faces in things just like real faces…”For the brain, fake or real, faces are all processed the same way.”
  • Japan appoints Minister of Loneliness
  • Virgin Galactic plans to take a tourist to space every day, says chief (FT)
  • Germany establishes new military space command
  • Scientists develop bendable ice
  • NASA Announces Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Reactor Concept Awards
  • Cyberattacks and Ransomware: How Can We Protect Energy Infrastructure? (WSJ)
  • How computers with humanlike senses will change our lives?
  • Amazon launches its mobile-first Kindle Vella serialized story platform
  • VW Group’s 10-year plan: A single EV platform across all its brands
  • With Apple Pay Later, Apple may take another stab at the PayPal model
  • How used cars became the next big ecommerce battleground (FT)

Weekly#436

  • Which airlines will soar after the pandemic?
  • Why Are Gamers So Much Better Than Scientists at Catching Fraud?
  • Smart foam material gives robotic hand the ability to self-repair
  • America’s Vaccine Future Is Fragmenting
  • A traditional diesel-electric sub can stay under water for two or three days. Those with aip can do so for three weeks
  • An Indonesian mapping platform is turning social media chatter into life-saving information during natural disasters.
  • The Chinese content farms behind Factory TikTok
  • Chip shortage to hit TV and smartphone OLED displays (FT)
  • The great chip crisis threatens the promise of Moore’s Law
  • Why Restaurants Feel Trapped By Delivery Apps…can’t live with them, can’t survive without them
  • The Empires Jeff Bezos Built (WSJ)
  • Juni, a ‘vertical’ neobank for e-commerce and online marketing companies, raises $21.5M
  • Tencent Deploys Facial Recognition to Detect Minors Gaming at Night
  • COVID vaccines to reach poorest countries in 2023 — despite recent pledges
  • Bats’ brains predict their next move during flight
  • WhatsApp will let you send images and videos in their ‘best quality
  • Square is going to make a hardware wallet for bitcoin
  • mRNA vaccine technology moves to flu: Moderna says trial has begun
  • Rail Network Hit by Possible Cyber Attack, State TV Says
  • A logic circuit made from DNA

Weekly#435

  • Intel Delays Sapphire Rapids Xeon CPU Production To Q1 2022
  • Virgin Galactic brings forward founder’s first trip to nine days before rival’s Blue Origin mission (FT)
  • Virgin Orbit successfully launches its first commercial payloads to space
  • Starlink’s “next-generation” user terminal will cost a lot less, Musk says
  • Hepsiburada IPO,  F-1 Document
  • Ant Group-Backed Kakao Pay Seeks Up to $1.4 Billion in IPO
  • Bezos Hands Amazon Over to Trusted Deputy Andy Jassy
  • Digital vaccination cards go into effect in Europe, with some turbulence.
  • Physicists observationally confirm Hawking’s black hole theorem for the first time
  • Sony Charging Devs At Least $25,000 For PlayStation Store Visibility
  • TV-Style Commercials Are Coming To Console Games
  • ‘Crucial Time’ for Cloud Gaming, Which Wants to Change How You Play
  • Amazon Demands One More Thing From Some Vendors: A Piece of Their Company (WSJ)
  • AI technology identifies 160 possible new drug treatments for COVID-19
  • Uber will ask employees to return to work 50% of the time
  • LinkedIn breach reportedly exposes data of 92% of users, including inferred salaries
  • Faster Python programming: How these developers built Pyston, and where it goes next
  • Qualcomm can beat Apple M1 chip, says CEO, thanks to ex-Apple engineers
  • Japan’s In-Home Robot Experiment Short Circuits
  • See the Highest-Resolution Atomic Image Ever Captured
  • Good news: Google no longer requires publishers to use the AMP format. Bad news: What replaces it might be worse
  • China’s Zhurong rover returns landing footage and sounds from Mars
  • Ericsson Mobility Report
  • DLD Summer: Videos

Weekly#434

  • Why every platform wants to be a super app
  • Microsoft just unveiled Windows 11: Here’s everything it announced
  • Microsoft didn’t kill Skype, but Windows 11 is shoving it out of sight
  • Microsoft announces Windows 11 will be able to run Android apps
  • Biden’s new $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan includes $65B for universal broadband
  • Microsoft hits $2 trillion market cap for first time
  • Kickstarter CEO: Let’s try a 4-day work week
  • London Underground to Gain Full Mobile Phone Coverage by 2024
  • Google gets a new rival as Brave Search opens to the public…About 32 million people now use Brave’s ad-blocking browser each month.
  • The next pandemic is already here. Covid can teach us how to fight it.
  • Amazon, Google Probed in U.K. Over Fake Reviews (WSJ)
  • Google delays plan to phase out third-party cookies by 2 years (FT)
  • NASA’s Perseverance Rover Begins Its Search for Life on Mars (WSJ)
  • Tesla Shareholder Panasonic Sells Stake for $3.6 Billion (WSJ)

Weekly#433

  • The Future by a16z
  • Spotify acquires Podz, a podcast discovery platform
  • What makes the Delta covid-19 variant more infectious?
  • How to Practice Emergency Preparedness as Self-Care
  • BioNTech CEO Warns Delta Variant Could Lead to a Covid-19 Resurgence”…Roughly 16% of the global population had been fully vaccinated…”
  • Bloomberg Vaccine Stats: 2.51 Billion Shots (Updated: June 17, 2021, 11:59 PM GMT+3)
  • Germany’s Fraunhofer FKIE institute, who’ve built a drone prototype designed to find people by detecting human screams and listening for other signs of distress.
  • Google’s adtech business set to face formal EU probe by year-end –sources
  • The smart home gym that analyzes your moves will soon have Olympian trainers
  • Amazon’s Halo body fat percentage calculator outperforms lab devices
  • Nielsen Now Knows When You Are Streaming
  • Facebook will start putting ads in Oculus Quest apps
  • We Don’t Have Much Longer to Become a Type 1 Civilization
  • TikTok Owner ByteDance’s Annual Revenue Jumps to $34.3 Billion (WSJ)
  • This tech uses augmented reality to give surgeons ‘superpowers
  • Google’s Next AI Move: Teaching Foreign Languages
  • The global chip shortage is creating a new problem: More fake components
  • A DNA-based storage system with files and metadata…Queries can take days, but it’s possible to pull out specific files.

Weekly#432

  • The Ethereum community & Single Sign-On
  • Consumer prices jump 5% in May, fastest pace since the summer of 2008
  • G-20 GDP returns to pre-pandemic levels, with China seeing a massive rebound
  • SoftBank investment helps Klarna to $45.6bn valuation (FT)
  • Suborbital travel isn’t subject to same rules as commercial flight (WSJ)
  • The first new close-up picture of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede in more than 20 years
  • Digital driver’s licenses are coming
  • CarPlay in iOS 15: Announce Messages with Siri, Driving Focus customization, new wallpapers
  • Self-driving Waymo trucks to haul loads between Houston and Fort Worth
  • What would you pay for autonomous driving? Volkswagen hopes $8.50 per hour
  • Linux Foundation readies Global COVID Certificate Network
  • Apple Hires Former BMW Executive for Its Rebooted Car Project
  • Nvidia acquires hi-def mapping startup DeepMap to bolster AV technology
  • Kuo: Apple’s First AR Headset to Launch in Second Quarter of 2022

  • Reverse Engineering the source code of the BioNTech/Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine
  • How the Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Works
  • How Nine Covid-19 Vaccines Work
  • Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker

Weekly#431

  • The concept behind mRNA as a drug is strikingly simple: it is the molecule that your own cells use to carry instructions from your genes, written in a simple four-letter chemical language.In 1815 a volcanic eruption wreaked havoc around the world. But it led to the birth of the bicycle (Economist)
  • Apple Loses Multiple Top Managers From Self-Driving Car Division
  • DHL will deploy 2,000 Locus Robotics units by 2022
  • Etsy buys British fashion app Depop for $1.6bn in ‘Gen Z’ push (FT)
  • Ransomware attack hits meat industry and  Massachusetts ferries
  • WeTransfer Plans IPO at 1 Billion-Euro Valuation
  • Google Photos wants money: Stricter storage limitations kick in next week
  • Chinese ‘artificial sun’ hits new mark in fusion energy mission
  • A New Approach to Hypersonic Transportation
  • 7-Eleven to install 500 EV charging ports by the end of 2022
  • Stack Overflow acquired by Prosus for $1.8 billion
  • The UK Has a Plan for a New ‘Pandemic Radar’ System
  • The mRNA vaccine revolution is just beginning.  “…The concept behind mRNA as a drug is strikingly simple: it is the molecule that your own cells use to carry instructions from your genes, written in a simple four-letter chemical language.….Moderna has taken to calling mRNA therapies the “software of life”, or an “operating system” for medicine…
  • Apple ‘homeOS’ Mentioned in Job Listing Ahead of WWDC
  • Spotted the WhatsApp for iPad official app, under development
  • EU set to unveil plans for bloc-wide digital wallet
  • United Airlines announced it was purchasing a fleet of 15 planes that can travel faster than the speed of sound.
  • Apple wants staff back in offices by September
  • Sharks Almost Went the Way of the Dinosaurs 19 Million Years Ago
  • Realtime Robotics raises a $31M Series A
  • Little Black Door launches app on iOS/Android allowing women to share wardrobes, online and off
  • Silicon Valley bets on crypto projects to disrupt finance (FT)




Weekly#430

  • The Wharton School: DeFi Beyond the Hype (link from Global İşler #37)
  • Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC
  • 24-inch M1 iMac teardown finds… not that much inside, actually…It’s basically a MacBook Air with a large screen and a small cooling system
  • Google launches its third major operating system, Fuchsia…The Google Nest Hub is the world’s first commercial Fuchsia device.
  • Joe Biden opens up California coast to offshore wind
  • From trash to jet fuel in 60 minutes—and 220 ºC
  • Microsoft uses GPT-3 to let you code in natural language
  • iOS 14.6 is now available
  • Amazon Agrees to Buy MGM Film Studio for $8.45 Billion
  • This AI makes Robert De Niro perform lines in flawless German
  • Heirloom Carbon Technologies believes carbon removal for $50 a ton, and aims to remove one billion tons by 2035
  • The wearables, includes smartwatches, fitness trackers, and augmented reality glasses—shipped more than 100 million units in the first quarter for the first time, according to research firm IDC
  • Ford Expects 40% of Global Vehicle Volume to Be Fully Electric By 2030 (WSJ)
  • Apple and the End of the Car as We Know It…As cars become computers with wheels, Apple is joining other tech companies in eyeing the $5 trillion auto market (WSJ)
  • Tesla starts using in-car camera for Autopilot driver monitoring
  • Big Data Model Takes Local London Team to Soccer’s Richest Game
  • Sony lists PC version of Uncharted 4 in investor report
  • Zero-gravity space fridge could keep astronaut food fresh for years
  • The U.S. Is Back in the 5G Game (WSJ)
  • Cities have their own distinct microbial fingerprints
  • Study on use of fuel cell hydrogen in railway environment [PDF]
  • Germany gives greenlight to driverless vehicles on public roads
  • Longitudinal analysis of blood markers reveals progressive loss of resilience and predicts human lifespan limit
  • Immunity to the Coronavirus May Persist for Years, Scientists Find
  • German scientists identify possible cause of vaccine blood clots

Weekly#429

  • Real Time Retail 
  • China has landed a rover on Mars for the first time—here’s what happens next
  • Another media acquisition? This one would involve Amazon, MGM, and ~$9B
  • Toy Retailer Rolls Out Online Shopping for Kids as Young as 3 (WSJ)
  • Spotify will auto-transcribe podcasts over the coming weeks
  • How space weather could wreck NASA’s return to the moon…A new study suggests that extreme solar activity might make future Artemis missions too dangerous to launch later this decade.
  • Apple launches an affiliate program for paid podcast subscriptions
  • How HugoApp squashed Uber in Central America
  • As Covid mutations spread, will herd immunity ever be possible?
  • Here’s who owns everything in Big Media today
  • Android 12 Preview, Google Blog Post
  • China’s JD Logistics set to raise $3.2 billion in Hong Kong IPO
  • Snap announces new Spectacles AR glasses, which let you overlay digital objects on the real world
  • Snap emphasizes commerce in updates to its camera and AR platforms
  • Tencent Q1 profit rises 65% as online gaming revenue climbs
  • Denial of Electricity Service Could Become Next Geopolitical Weapon…with electricity expected to account for a large share of the world’s energy use by 2050, the stakes are high (WSJ)
  • Google announces its first-ever physical retail store
  • 20 percent of Switch sales now going to households that already had a Switch
  • Google, Samsung, and Fitbit team up to save Wear OS
  • factory14 raises $200M to jump into the Amazon marketplace roll-up race
  • Bain Capital Ventures raised $1.3 billion to fund young startups, and young VC firms
  • The top 50 companies by value added $4.5 trillion of stock market capitalization in 2020, taking their combined worth to about 28% of global gross domestic product
  • Opera brings its gaming browser to mobile
  • Ethereum Staking Will Drop Power Consumption by 99%
  • There are over 3 billion active Android devices



Weekly#428

  • Android Automotive OS review: Under the hood with Google’s car OS
  • Apple invests $45 million more in Gorilla Glass-maker Corning
  • 96% of US users opt out of app tracking in iOS 14.5, analytics find
  • Sony says PS5 could be difficult to find into 2022
  • Chip shortage continues, US asks Taiwan to prioritize automakers. Ford, Renault, and Stellantis warn that Q2 production will be heavily affected.
  • Facebook wants to make sure you’ve read the article you’re about to share
  • Lidar startup Innovusion closes $64M round led by Temasek
  • In the emptiness of space, Voyager 1 detects plasma ‘hum
  • The Digital Farmers’ Market: New Shortcuts to the Freshest Food (WSJ)
  • The brain game: What causes engagement and addiction to video games?
  • Electric cars ‘will be cheaper to produce than fossil fuel vehicles by 2027
  • Avoid inbox panic and save your sanity with a digital disconnect (FT)
  • How E-Commerce Fits into Retail’s Post-Pandemic Future
  • EY: The Now, Next, Beyond Consumer
  • Ford will start rolling out major over-the-air software updates to its vehicles this year
  • Sony has 25 PS5 games in the works, including characters you’ve never seen
  • Korea Unveils $450 Billion Push for Global Chipmaking Crown
  • NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Heads for Earth with Asteroid Sample
  • Apple Gave Zoom Access to Special API to Use iPad Camera During Split View Multitasking
  • Move over CRISPR, the retrons are coming
  • eBay embraces NFTs
  • Uber used 50 Dutch shell companies to dodge taxes on nearly $6 billion in revenue
  • Softbank just shocked its critics by landing the biggest profit in the history of a Japanese company
  • Supermarkets of the future: deploying AI in your grocery store
  • Pipeline Hack Points to Growing Cybersecurity Risk for Energy System