If you had a busy week on your hands, which didn't leave you much time to remain updated with the things happening in the world of tech, don't you worry, we have got you covered. www.indianweb2.com brings to you the tech wrap up of this week.
1) Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Launches Tech Education Platform Woz U
While Steve Jobs went on to become the public face and showman of the company, Wozniak presumed the role of being the geek-behind-the-scenes. After building some of the most popular products for the company, the Silicon Valley legend left Apple on February 9, 1985 as a full-time employee to pursue outside interests. The week saw Wozniak launching his latest initiative, an online learning platform called Woz U.
Based out of Arizona, Woz U will initially start as an online learning platform that will focus on both students and companies that will eventually hire those students. Eventually, Wozniak aims to launch physical locations for learning in more than 30 cities globally. It also plans on introducing an accelerator program in 2019 “to identify and develop elite tech talent”.
The platform’s main aim is to provide you a personalized approach to coding and tech education designed to get you through the curriculum faster so that you can get into the workforce quicker, and start changing the world.
2) Facebook To Sell Virtual Reality Headset
In what could be seen as a real gift of innovation for Virtual Reality lovers from the house of Facebook, the social media networking giant will soon launch a new virtual reality headset that won’t require a separate computer to operate.
Taking the podium at a conference for virtual reality developers in America, Facebook’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the new headset, which is called Oculus Go, will allow more mobile uses than the company’s existing Oculus Rift product.
Priced at $199, Oculus Go will be shipped early next year, too late for this year’s holiday season but likely to stay ahead of rivals.
3) Chinese E-Commerce Giant Builds The World’s Biggest Delivery Drone
China has once again done it. While others are still simply talking about it, China’s JD.com, also called Jingdong, is soon going to have super-sized delivery drones at the service of its customers. Considered China’s largest online retailer, JD.com has a national distribution network that matches the coverage of global ecommerce giant Amazon.
Being pitched as world’s largest civilian delivery drone, JD.com’s robots are going to be three-engine, autonomous, vertical-takeoff drones that will be capable of carrying a payload of over 1 ton up to 186 miles. Considering it will be delivering retail packages, the weight bracket seems practical.
4) Learn Basic AI With Google’s Latest Tool
While the jury is still out if Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to be a good thing or bad thing for humanity, one thing that we have all wondered is how exactly does the whole thing work? If you’re one of those who has always been curious about understanding the way machine learning works, Google might have something interesting to offer.
Introducing Google’s in-browser experiment called Teachable Machine. Being considered a simple two-minute summary of what a lot of modern AI can or can’t do, Google’s new browser experiment lets one use their webcam to train an extremely basic AI program.
This experiment lets anyone explore how machine learning works, in a fun, hands-on way. One can teach a machine to use their camera, live in the browser– with absolutely no coding required whatsoever. It basically involves training a neural network locally on your device, without sending any images to a server. That’s how it responds so quickly.
5) Mastercard Sets Up Its First Innovation Lab In India; To Work Alongside Local Fintech Industry
American multinational financial services corporation Mastercard unveiled its first innovation lab in Pune, India this week. Mastercard Labs, Pune, is the ninth such lab established by the company globally, and the second one in Asia Pacific after Singapore.
By opening a lab in the country, the leader in global payments is hoping to forge relationships in the country’s local fintech industry on future technology breakthroughs in digital payments, data manipulation, financial inclusion and fraud prevention.
According to Microsoft, the plan for the new Pune lab is to ensure that it not only acts as an incubation hub for experimenting with new payment related technologies but also double up as a support base for startup partnerships through the card scheme’s Start Path programme. The lab will exclusively work on collaborating and co-creating with India-based fintech experts, technologists, developers and academia.
6) Amazon Files Patent For Deploying Delivery Drones in India
Global ecommerce player Amazon is certain on firming its ground in Indian subcontinent as just after months of filing a patent in India for drone technology with respect to propeller safety, the American company has now filed papers for another patent application in India.
This time Amazon has filed patent for exclusive rights on multi-scale fiducials, black and white marks on any object for the unmanned aerial vehicles to identify them from different distances, according to a media report.
As per the patent application, the aerial vehicles would also be capable of identifying aircrafts and other objects flying in the Indian skies.
If the patent comes through, the America ecommerce biggie will be able to use the drones for localisation, tracking and detecting orientation of objects, identifying the target. Another usage could be identifying other drones and UAVs.
7) Govt Planning To Sell Petrol, Diesel Online
Now here’s one government decision that all of us might be able to get behind. In its mission to give its Digital India initiative a much needed push, the government is contemplating putting petrol and diesel along with its various products on ecommerce platform.
Yes, this means, very soon you might no longer have to wait in those long, long petrol pump lines and waste your prestigious time. Just like online shopping for your clothes, electronics and grocery, you might soon be able to shop for petrol and diesel online.
Taking the podium at the recently concluded India Mobile Congress, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan revealed that his ministry plans on connecting oil with IT and telecommunications soon by putting all petroleum products on e-commerce platform.
8) India No.2 Source Country in IoT Attacks Globally
While there are people excited about the rise of IoT and its devices, there are others who are a little overwhelmed thinking about the havoc that can be created if botnet building attackers end up choosing unregulated IoT devices as their cyber weapon delivery system of choice.
According to the report by the American firm, while Spain comes at the top with 25.5 million attacks, the Indian subcontinent occupies the second position globally in the top 20 attack source countries of 2017.
Apart from attack vectors originating from the Indian subcontinent, the report also highlighted the presence of Persirai-infected IP cameras across the country.
For the uninitiated, Persirai is a malware which attacks IP cameras with DDoS attacks.
9) Artificial Intelligence To Add 2.3 Mn Jobs By 2020: Gartner
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an intrusive part of our lives. From aviation to writing to shopping, AI has slowly entered various verticals of our lives and made them faster and better. But, at what cost?
According to U.S.-based research and advisory firm Gartner, while AI will add 2.3 million jobs globally to become a positive ‘net job motivator’ by the year 2020, but it will also end up eliminating more jobs than it creates through 2019. However, here’s the silver line. The firm predicts that the number of jobs created due to AI in 2020 will be able to overcome the deficit. The predictions were revealed during Gartner’s top ten predictions for next year.
The firm further highlighted that the net job creation or elimination will vary greatly industry to industry. While some industries might have to go through overall job loss, others might have to face net job loss for only a few years; and some others, such as healthcare and education, might not have to experience net job loss at all.
10) Global IoT Market To Hit $1.29 Trillion By 2020: Report
Digital technology like Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to transform the way businesses generate and consume data and the worldwide IoT market spend is expected to grow to USD 1.29 trillion in 2020, says an IDC-Aeris report.
The report highlighted that the worldwide IoT market spend will grow from USD 625.2 billion in 2015 to USD 1.29 trillion in 2020, with a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6 per cent.
The report further noted that the installed base of IoT end points will grow to more than 30 billion by 2020, from 12.1 billion at 2015-end.
1) Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Launches Tech Education Platform Woz U
While Steve Jobs went on to become the public face and showman of the company, Wozniak presumed the role of being the geek-behind-the-scenes. After building some of the most popular products for the company, the Silicon Valley legend left Apple on February 9, 1985 as a full-time employee to pursue outside interests. The week saw Wozniak launching his latest initiative, an online learning platform called Woz U.
Based out of Arizona, Woz U will initially start as an online learning platform that will focus on both students and companies that will eventually hire those students. Eventually, Wozniak aims to launch physical locations for learning in more than 30 cities globally. It also plans on introducing an accelerator program in 2019 “to identify and develop elite tech talent”.
The platform’s main aim is to provide you a personalized approach to coding and tech education designed to get you through the curriculum faster so that you can get into the workforce quicker, and start changing the world.
2) Facebook To Sell Virtual Reality Headset
In what could be seen as a real gift of innovation for Virtual Reality lovers from the house of Facebook, the social media networking giant will soon launch a new virtual reality headset that won’t require a separate computer to operate.
Taking the podium at a conference for virtual reality developers in America, Facebook’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the new headset, which is called Oculus Go, will allow more mobile uses than the company’s existing Oculus Rift product.
Priced at $199, Oculus Go will be shipped early next year, too late for this year’s holiday season but likely to stay ahead of rivals.
3) Chinese E-Commerce Giant Builds The World’s Biggest Delivery Drone
China has once again done it. While others are still simply talking about it, China’s JD.com, also called Jingdong, is soon going to have super-sized delivery drones at the service of its customers. Considered China’s largest online retailer, JD.com has a national distribution network that matches the coverage of global ecommerce giant Amazon.
Being pitched as world’s largest civilian delivery drone, JD.com’s robots are going to be three-engine, autonomous, vertical-takeoff drones that will be capable of carrying a payload of over 1 ton up to 186 miles. Considering it will be delivering retail packages, the weight bracket seems practical.
4) Learn Basic AI With Google’s Latest Tool
While the jury is still out if Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to be a good thing or bad thing for humanity, one thing that we have all wondered is how exactly does the whole thing work? If you’re one of those who has always been curious about understanding the way machine learning works, Google might have something interesting to offer.
Introducing Google’s in-browser experiment called Teachable Machine. Being considered a simple two-minute summary of what a lot of modern AI can or can’t do, Google’s new browser experiment lets one use their webcam to train an extremely basic AI program.
This experiment lets anyone explore how machine learning works, in a fun, hands-on way. One can teach a machine to use their camera, live in the browser– with absolutely no coding required whatsoever. It basically involves training a neural network locally on your device, without sending any images to a server. That’s how it responds so quickly.
5) Mastercard Sets Up Its First Innovation Lab In India; To Work Alongside Local Fintech Industry
American multinational financial services corporation Mastercard unveiled its first innovation lab in Pune, India this week. Mastercard Labs, Pune, is the ninth such lab established by the company globally, and the second one in Asia Pacific after Singapore.
By opening a lab in the country, the leader in global payments is hoping to forge relationships in the country’s local fintech industry on future technology breakthroughs in digital payments, data manipulation, financial inclusion and fraud prevention.
According to Microsoft, the plan for the new Pune lab is to ensure that it not only acts as an incubation hub for experimenting with new payment related technologies but also double up as a support base for startup partnerships through the card scheme’s Start Path programme. The lab will exclusively work on collaborating and co-creating with India-based fintech experts, technologists, developers and academia.
6) Amazon Files Patent For Deploying Delivery Drones in India
Global ecommerce player Amazon is certain on firming its ground in Indian subcontinent as just after months of filing a patent in India for drone technology with respect to propeller safety, the American company has now filed papers for another patent application in India.
This time Amazon has filed patent for exclusive rights on multi-scale fiducials, black and white marks on any object for the unmanned aerial vehicles to identify them from different distances, according to a media report.
As per the patent application, the aerial vehicles would also be capable of identifying aircrafts and other objects flying in the Indian skies.
If the patent comes through, the America ecommerce biggie will be able to use the drones for localisation, tracking and detecting orientation of objects, identifying the target. Another usage could be identifying other drones and UAVs.
7) Govt Planning To Sell Petrol, Diesel Online
Now here’s one government decision that all of us might be able to get behind. In its mission to give its Digital India initiative a much needed push, the government is contemplating putting petrol and diesel along with its various products on ecommerce platform.
Yes, this means, very soon you might no longer have to wait in those long, long petrol pump lines and waste your prestigious time. Just like online shopping for your clothes, electronics and grocery, you might soon be able to shop for petrol and diesel online.
Taking the podium at the recently concluded India Mobile Congress, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan revealed that his ministry plans on connecting oil with IT and telecommunications soon by putting all petroleum products on e-commerce platform.
8) India No.2 Source Country in IoT Attacks Globally
While there are people excited about the rise of IoT and its devices, there are others who are a little overwhelmed thinking about the havoc that can be created if botnet building attackers end up choosing unregulated IoT devices as their cyber weapon delivery system of choice.
According to the report by the American firm, while Spain comes at the top with 25.5 million attacks, the Indian subcontinent occupies the second position globally in the top 20 attack source countries of 2017.
Apart from attack vectors originating from the Indian subcontinent, the report also highlighted the presence of Persirai-infected IP cameras across the country.
For the uninitiated, Persirai is a malware which attacks IP cameras with DDoS attacks.
9) Artificial Intelligence To Add 2.3 Mn Jobs By 2020: Gartner
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an intrusive part of our lives. From aviation to writing to shopping, AI has slowly entered various verticals of our lives and made them faster and better. But, at what cost?
According to U.S.-based research and advisory firm Gartner, while AI will add 2.3 million jobs globally to become a positive ‘net job motivator’ by the year 2020, but it will also end up eliminating more jobs than it creates through 2019. However, here’s the silver line. The firm predicts that the number of jobs created due to AI in 2020 will be able to overcome the deficit. The predictions were revealed during Gartner’s top ten predictions for next year.
The firm further highlighted that the net job creation or elimination will vary greatly industry to industry. While some industries might have to go through overall job loss, others might have to face net job loss for only a few years; and some others, such as healthcare and education, might not have to experience net job loss at all.
10) Global IoT Market To Hit $1.29 Trillion By 2020: Report
Digital technology like Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to transform the way businesses generate and consume data and the worldwide IoT market spend is expected to grow to USD 1.29 trillion in 2020, says an IDC-Aeris report.
The report highlighted that the worldwide IoT market spend will grow from USD 625.2 billion in 2015 to USD 1.29 trillion in 2020, with a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6 per cent.
The report further noted that the installed base of IoT end points will grow to more than 30 billion by 2020, from 12.1 billion at 2015-end.
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