02 | 04 | 2020

March Tech News Overview

 

We are back with our Tech News rubric.

Spring has come: more new enhancements and techniques were the expectation of the new season. Coronavirus crisis and a number of arising gadgets, application and other technical know-how to help humanity combat the ‘omnipresent foe’ are the reality of today.

The giant companies from the world of technology have started to support the peoples across the planet either through financial aid or certain free online enhancements. 

 

Google is Donating $800 Million to Help with the Coronavirus Crisis

To go on with the sad theme of the virus flashy spread, it would sound proper to mention Google’s donation of $800 million meant to support healthcare sectors, businesses and governmental agencies to survive in this wild ride. Namely: 

  • $250 million are contributed to the World Healthcare Organization (WHO) along with global governmental agencies; 
  • $340 million are given to medium and small businesses with recent active capitals; 
  • $20 million are spent on relief fund and financial support for startups mainly; 
  • The rest of the sum is divided between assistance to small business while accessing the capital and oncoming credits for both the researchers and academics who are currently searching for the ways to combat the pandemic. 

Besides Google, a number of other worldwide companies and organizations (e.g. Apple, Facebook, etc.), have joined the flash mob ‘to help the nation’ while donating vast technical and financial resources to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). 

READ MORE: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/27/tech/google-800-million-coronavirus-response/index.html

Apple Releases Coronavirus Screening App and Website in Partnership with CDC.

Apple Inc. has appeared to be one of the first to demonstrate its complicity with the international collapse caused by the coronavirus and releases a website as well as an iOS application, which gives its users an ability to screen themselves for the virus symptoms. The application includes a questionnaire and some useful information on the coronavirus novelty. Essentially, the app does not require any active Apple account to use the screening tools and is totally anonymous, which serves for the service maximum optimization, simplified configuration and user-friendliness.  This is another gesture of a major technology platform to make an effective response to the pandemic. 

What is more, Tim Cook, CEO, has recently announced that the company is planning to donate 10 million masks to people in Europe and the USA. 

READ MORE: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/27/tech/apple-coronavirus-website/index.html

Zoom’s ‘Massive Overnight Success’ Actually Took Nine Years  

One more piece of news the CNN Business channel provides its readers with is unbelievable popularity of Zoom on the background of the crisis, and, subsequently, remote and distributed working mode the absolute majority of the companies practice to protect their employees from the virus adversity. Zoom has gained more than 395 00 users in recent weeks, becoming the most popular social network at the moment. 

What is Zoom all about? The social platform was founded in 2011 while becoming a publicly-trained one in 2019. Its Founder’s and CEO’s vision about video ‘being the future of communications’ seemed to find more and more fans. However, no one expected such rapid and out-of-nowhere popularity soaring so high. Presently, the service comprises a wide range of activities from virtual education and meetings to church services and romantic dating.  

Any challenges on the way to unbelievable success? Yes, definitely. “Zoom bombing” meaning online harassment and privacy concerns as well as making the very service keep up with the growing numbers of users are the main of them.  

Today, Zoom finds itself as popular as Skype, M Teams and other that are the best while satisfying the needs and demands of the people under the current crisis. Witnessing its moment of truth, the service is aware of the fact that new features development and implementation is unavoidable to encourage the users to pay for it. Most likely, we will see such an initiative shortly, but now Zoom is doing its best to handle its popularity challenge and to ensure those choosing it of their choice relevance. 

READ MORE: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/27/tech/zoom-app-coronavirus/index.html

Divesting From one Facial Recognition Startup, Microsoft ends Outside Investments in the Tech

This time let us focus on Microsoft and choose for a short discussion its recent decision to stop investing AnyVision, an Israeli facial recognition software developer.

Where was the conflict enrooted? AnyVision appeared to deliver its product to the Israeli government, with the latter using it to survey the West Bank residents. While the facial recognition tools by AnyVision were used by Israel for monitoring the borders of West Bank, a mass surveillance program in the West Bank was not powered, though. Lawful surveillance, transparency, fairness, mutual cooperation, etc., are the key MS principles clearly stated in the company’s written regulations document.

Understandably, such a situation appeared not to be up to the corporate rules of Microsoft, and, consequently, they decided to make a considerable financial shift while redirecting the funds primarily planned for the startup to donate into the tech industry: “Microsoft’s focus has shifted to commercial relationships that afford Microsoft greater oversight and control over the use of sensitive technologies”, MS website reads.

READ MORE: https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/29/divesting-from-one-facial-recognition-startup-microsoft-ends-outside-investments-in-the-tech/

A kind of weekly review is offered to engage the readers’ attention and to shed light on the current situation in the field of D2C (direct-to-consumer) investing. 

In spite of the coronavirus crisis, the very prospects seem to be quite optimistic. The startups dealing with property management and alike could even increase their profits by making the tenants feel really comfortable staying at their homes. SaaS companies are quite logical to undergo a period of a booming popularity increase due to the majority of people staying home and pursuing a remote working model. SMM turns out to be highly popular as it manages to fill in all the gaps so much needed during the quarantine period, such as socializing and having some fun. 

On the contrary to SMM, SEM (search engine market) is witnessing a certain decrease in digital advertising services and online ad performance.  

What can be done to support medium-sized businesses and startups on the go? 

Tech giants should host costs and other relevant expenses to help those businesses that suffer bitterly because of the crisis. In such a way, the first are always saving their own ecosystems to return to afterward. 

READ MORE: https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/28/startups-weekly-a-new-era-for-consumer-tech/

 

Follow our rubric for more interesting and relevant updates on the current world of Technology.

Highly useful and actual tech novelties are guaranteed.

READ ALSO: FEBRUARY TECH NEWS OVERVIEW

Our recent news

travel app 20 | 03 | 2024
Enhancing Travel Experiences with Symfony App Solution

The travel industry has undergone a massive transformation in recent years, with travelers increasingly booking vacations and making travel arrangements

DevOps strategies 13 | 03 | 2024
Microservice Architecture in Action: How to Build a Scalable System?

Imagine building a system so efficient it practically runs itself. That’s the goal for many businesses, and this client was

CiviCRM solution 08 | 03 | 2024
Revolutionizing Member Engagement and Fundraising: A Multidomain CiviCRM Solution

American education communication is one of the most popular ways of attracting donors to donate funds to educational institutions across