It’s the end of another busy week in the global tech space. Stories of startups raising funds, hitting milestones, releasing new and interesting products among others made rounds across the tech world.
Here is a quick roundup of some of the major stories you might have missed.
Starship is Elon’s Top Priority
After SpaceX successful launch of its humans to space with the Crew Dragon, its CEO Elon Musk as revealed that the company’s top priority now is developing its next-generation spacecraft, Starship.
Starship is designed to be a fully reusable vehicle that can support both crew and cargo configurations while making trips to both Earth orbit and deep space destinations including the moon and Mars.
The spacecraft has been in development at a SpaceX production and testing site in Boca Chica, Texas, since 2019. When completed SpaceX the Starship wants to replace both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.
PlayStation 5 (PS5) Launch
After more than 4 months of waiting, Sony finally unveiled its latest PlayStation Console (PS5). Announced back at CES in January, gamers and game enthusiasts can now have a feel of the new and improved game console.
The PS5 tower unveiled is pretty slick, with a sort of white with black trim colour. Spec-wise, it has an AMD Zen 2 CPU and AMD’s rDNA 2-based GPU, coupled with 16GB of RAM and an 825GB SSD. It also a separate HD camera accessory and matching Pulse 3D headphones.
Details about its pricing and other features will be released later.
German Flying Taxi Startup becomes a Unicorn
With a new round of funding German flying taxi, Lilium has become a billion-dollar “unicorn”. The $35 million new funding came from
Baillie Gifford & Co., one of the largest investor in Tesla.
The startup which makes an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing passenger jet is now worth more than a billion dollars, according to post-money valuation.
The new funding brings the Lilium’s total investment to date to more than $375 million.
The startup’s CEO, Daniel Wiegand says the company’s goal is to create a transportation system that’s accessible to everyone and not just to be used as a toy for the rich.
Twitter to revamp verification System
Verifying twitter accounts will soon be easier. The social media company is planning to bring back the option that allows individual users to request verification.
The new in-app system for requesting verification was discovered by a reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong.
For years, Twitter’s account verification system has been mysterious as it appeared to be no general form of how or whose account is verified. This has led to confusion among users as to what it takes to actually be verified on the platform.
However, with the new verification system, Twitter has confirmed that the public will know what exactly is require to be verified.
The company didn’t reveal when the new system would go live or what the new guidelines will state when they become available.
Facebook Launches Messenger Kids across Sub-Saharan Africa
Facebook is rolling out Messenger Kids, its video chat and messaging app for Kids between the ages of 6 to 12 years in Sub-saharan Africa.
The app was designed to allow children to have fun by connecting with friends and family in safe space controlled by the parent.
The app is full of features like Playful masks, emojis and sound effects that make conversations to funny and interesting.
It also a library of kid-appropriate and specially chosen GIFs, frames, stickers, masks and drawing tools to let them decorate content and express their personalities.
Messenger Kids is now available to download on the Apple App and Google Play Stores.
This sums it, friends. Hope to see you here next week!
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