Hi Guys! Another working week has come to an end. Across the tech space, there was a whole lot of interesting news from the acquisition of Luno to the launch of the new Andriod 11 and the counter lawsuit by Apple.
Here is a quick roundup of some of the major stories around the globe that you might have missed.
The Moon is Rusting
Earth’s natural satellite, Moon is “rusting”, according to a new study by Science Advance. The discovery has left scientist and experts perplexed about the discovery.
The research explained that the rust may be as a result of water being discovered on the moon but it’s shocking, given the lack of oxygen and dearth of water on the celestial body.
Rust, which is also known as iron oxide, gives Mars its reddish color.
According to the study’s lead author, Shuai Li the moon is a terrible environment for hematite to form in. He explained that the moon has no atmosphere providing oxygen and the sun’s solar wind delivering hydrogen prevents the oxidation that causes rust.
The facts that the rust appears with the environment being unfavourable baffled the scientists. However, they presented a hypothesis that the rust could stem from Earth, given the moon does have “trace amounts of oxygen” thanks to Earth’s magnetic field.
Facebook launches ‘Facebook Campus’ to connect students
Facebook has launched ‘Facebook Campus’ feature to connect college students with campus life. The new feature will be a dedicated section within the regular Facebook app, where students can have separate Campus profiles from their regular Facebook profile.
In Facebook Campus, Students can join school-specific groups, events, as well as have access to campus directory and special chat rooms.
Students will need to use their college email as verification in order to join their school’s page.
According to Facebook, the feature is initially rolling out to 30 schools with more to follow. The schools it will be rolling out to includes Brown University, California Institute of Technology, Duke University among others
Uber want’s to go all All-Electric by 2030
Ride-hailing giants, Uber as pledged to convert its fleet to fully electric cars by 2030. According to the company, all of its rides (Starting with US, Canadian, and European cities) will be aboard electric vehicles, either cars, bikes, or scooters over the next decade.
Uber CEO while announcing the pledge explained that Uber has a clear responsibility to reduce environmental impact on climate. He added that they are willing to work with cities to tackle the climate crisis more aggressively than ever before.
Ubers ‘green’ pledge comes after rival Lyft made similar commitment
However, with Uber not owning any of the cars on its platform, uncertain how the company hopes to achieve it. As things stand, Uber will have push or incentivise its drivers to buy electric cars. There also other factors like policymakers, investors and charging infrastructure that Uber does not control.
Facebook’s new superhearing AR glasses
Facebook Reality Labs Research has revealed that it is working on “novel AR technologies” designed to give the user enhanced hearing. This includes an augmented reality tech which is designed to help focus on sound by amplifying the sound and reducing nuisance background noise.
The company explains that this technology allows you to have clear conversations even in a loud environments like bar and restaurants
“Imagine being able to hold a conversation in a crowded restaurant or bar without having to raise your voice to be heard or straining to understand what others are saying. By using multiple microphones on your glasses, we can capture the sounds around you. Then by using the pattern of your head and eye movements, we can figure out which of these sounds you’re most interested in hearing, without requiring you to robotically stare at it. This lets us enhance the right sounds for you and dim others, making sure that what you really want to hear is clear, even in loud background noise.”
The technology could also be used by both those with and without hearing impairments.
Apple files countersuit against Epic Games
Apple has gone on the offensive in its legal battle against Epic Game. The iPhone maker strikes back with a lawsuit claiming that Fortnite parent company is in breach of contract.
This follows Epic’s initial lawsuit against Apple after removed Fornite form Apple store. In August, Epic attempted to avoid Apple’s 30% App Store fee, which led to Apple removing Fortnite and eventually Epic from the App Store.
Epic’s lawsuit against Apple claimed that the company is abusing its market power.
Apple in its counter lawsuit claims that although Epic portrays itself as a modern corporate Robin Hood, in reality, it is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that simply wants to pay nothing for the tremendous value it derives from the App Store.
While Apple and Epic lock horns, Fortnite players on iPhone will have to wait patiently to see who prevails.
You can check out other news that happened during the week here. Have a nice weekend!!
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