Another week of 2016 and another amazing week in tech comes to an end. Here's Indianweb2.com giving you a quick recap of some of the top stories that happened in tech this week.
1) This Indian American Entrepreneur Has Launched Crowdfunding Campaign For NASA-Tech Enabled Jackets
Indian-American entrepreneur, runner and mother of three, Hema Nambiar, who is the brains behind the startup, 13-ONE, has started a crowdfunding campaign for its Everest Jacket enabled with NASA technology that retains 90 percent of a person’s body heat, giving them added warmth and protection without any extra weight.
Weighing a mere 8.3 ounces, the jacket comes with a self-storing pocket and snug hood, which makes it an ideal clothing choice for athletes, outdoor enthusiasts, travelers or just everyday people on the go.
The thing that sets apart Everest Jacket from all the other jackets is that its silver lining is technology developed by NASA to protect astronauts in space from extreme temperatures.
2) Mark Zuckerberg Builds Home Artificial Intelligence Assistant Called Jarvis
When Mark Zuckerberg takes on a challenge, he is most likely to complete it. This is exactly what he did with the personal challenge he took for the year 2016. He has finally been successful in building himself a home Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant called Jarvis.
Zuckerberg's Jarvis can control perform basic tasks, such as control a particular room’s temperature, playing music, turning the lights off or on, opening doors, and so on.
3) Chennai Based OptaCredit Uses Artificial Intelligence To Assess Lenders’ Creditworthiness
Headquartered in Chennai, OptaCreditprovides short-term, unsecured loans to SMEs and individuals via its unique Credit-as-a-Service platform wherein applicants can apply online and get the funds credited to their account directly.
OptaCredit’s artificial intelligence-powered Assessment Engine helps them underwrite non-traditional data points about an applicant in order to better understand the applicant. This enables them to open their doors to those who loans might have otherwise been rejected by traditional lenders.
4) A Use Case of IoT and Blockchain Together
We keep reading about IoT and blockchain, what they are and the great potential that these two magnificent technology hold, but very often do we come across literature that explains us the uses of both these relatively new techs in the market. Here, we talk about a use case of IoT and Blockchain together.
Let’s start by saying that you want to have a frozen strawberry yogurt. IoT and blockchain when put to use together could make sure that the yogurt in your local market was of the highest quality possible, and it could do this by optimising the whole supply chain.
5) Amid Demonetization, PayTM Delists Its App From Apple Play Store
This week saw the popular e-wallet app, PayTM whose popularity grew off the charts after November 8 demonetisation announcement briefly delisting its iPhone and iPad apps on the Apple’s App Store after it came across some bugs and technical issues.
The delisting of the app from the App Store has sent almost everyone in a tizzy as even when an update is awaiting an approval from Apple, the app’s older version still remains available in the Apple store for download. So, why did PayTM go with the delisting option is indeed a curios puzzle.
6) Government to Launch E-Payments and PoS App Linked With Aadhaar Next Week
The Indian government has announced that it will be soon launching a mobileapplication that will facilitate Aadhaar-linked digital payments. The program will be rolled out on a nation-wide level and will include training over 1 crore people about the ABC of e-payments.
“We are developing a UPI enabled mobileapplication. It will be available in 2-4 days,” said CSC SPV CEO Dinesh Tyagi in a statement. He further added, customers can feed their Aadhaar number, scan their finger on the biometric device, approve the amount on the app that they have to pay and then the payment gets directly transferred from the user’s account to the merchant’s account.
7) Japenese Startup To Partner With Indian Spacetech Startup To Land on Moon
Moon is once again an object of desire, courtesy tech giant Google, which under its aptly named Lunar XPRIZE competition is trying to inspire and challenge innovators, engineers, and entrepreneurs world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. The thing that makes the competition all the more lucrative is the $20 million prize amount that the winner will walk away with.
The latest contender which is almost very close to winning the Lunar XPRIZE is Team HAKUTO, a product of Japan-based startup ispace Inc. The startup has just obtained a launch vehicle to fulfil its plans to send to the Moon late next year. Extending a helping hand to HAKUTO is India-based Team Indus, which already has a contract in its kitty for launching its own rover, aboard a rocket developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), in December next year. The two, Team HAKUTO and Team Indus, have entered into a partnership for the same.
8) France Inaugurates World’s First Solar Highway ‘Wattway’ In Tourouvre
This week saw France inaugurating world’s first “solar highway”, a road that is paved with solar panels capable of providing energy which will be enough to power the street lights of the small Normandy town of Tourouvre, France.
9) MacBook Pro 2016 Receives a Thumbs Down from Consumers
Apple MacBook Pro's 2016 model has become the first ever MacBook from the tech giant to not receive a good recommendation from product testing firm, Consumer Reports.
According to their report:
a) Battery performance has been found to be inconsistent on all the three laptops
b) Tests with Google Chrome gave better battery life results
c) All three models have shown inconsistent battery life performance
10) Nokia starts a Patent Legal Battle with Apple
Nokia sent the entire tech world buzzing this week when it announced that it has decided to sue tech giant Apple in US and German courts on the charges of patent infringement. According to Nokia, Apple is making use of the company's technology in "many" of its products without paying for it. The complaints concern 32 patents for innovations related to user interface, displays, antennae, chipsets, video coding and software.
1) This Indian American Entrepreneur Has Launched Crowdfunding Campaign For NASA-Tech Enabled Jackets
Indian-American entrepreneur, runner and mother of three, Hema Nambiar, who is the brains behind the startup, 13-ONE, has started a crowdfunding campaign for its Everest Jacket enabled with NASA technology that retains 90 percent of a person’s body heat, giving them added warmth and protection without any extra weight.
Weighing a mere 8.3 ounces, the jacket comes with a self-storing pocket and snug hood, which makes it an ideal clothing choice for athletes, outdoor enthusiasts, travelers or just everyday people on the go.
The thing that sets apart Everest Jacket from all the other jackets is that its silver lining is technology developed by NASA to protect astronauts in space from extreme temperatures.
2) Mark Zuckerberg Builds Home Artificial Intelligence Assistant Called Jarvis
When Mark Zuckerberg takes on a challenge, he is most likely to complete it. This is exactly what he did with the personal challenge he took for the year 2016. He has finally been successful in building himself a home Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant called Jarvis.
Zuckerberg's Jarvis can control perform basic tasks, such as control a particular room’s temperature, playing music, turning the lights off or on, opening doors, and so on.
3) Chennai Based OptaCredit Uses Artificial Intelligence To Assess Lenders’ Creditworthiness
Headquartered in Chennai, OptaCreditprovides short-term, unsecured loans to SMEs and individuals via its unique Credit-as-a-Service platform wherein applicants can apply online and get the funds credited to their account directly.
OptaCredit’s artificial intelligence-powered Assessment Engine helps them underwrite non-traditional data points about an applicant in order to better understand the applicant. This enables them to open their doors to those who loans might have otherwise been rejected by traditional lenders.
4) A Use Case of IoT and Blockchain Together
We keep reading about IoT and blockchain, what they are and the great potential that these two magnificent technology hold, but very often do we come across literature that explains us the uses of both these relatively new techs in the market. Here, we talk about a use case of IoT and Blockchain together.
Let’s start by saying that you want to have a frozen strawberry yogurt. IoT and blockchain when put to use together could make sure that the yogurt in your local market was of the highest quality possible, and it could do this by optimising the whole supply chain.
5) Amid Demonetization, PayTM Delists Its App From Apple Play Store
This week saw the popular e-wallet app, PayTM whose popularity grew off the charts after November 8 demonetisation announcement briefly delisting its iPhone and iPad apps on the Apple’s App Store after it came across some bugs and technical issues.
The delisting of the app from the App Store has sent almost everyone in a tizzy as even when an update is awaiting an approval from Apple, the app’s older version still remains available in the Apple store for download. So, why did PayTM go with the delisting option is indeed a curios puzzle.
6) Government to Launch E-Payments and PoS App Linked With Aadhaar Next Week
The Indian government has announced that it will be soon launching a mobileapplication that will facilitate Aadhaar-linked digital payments. The program will be rolled out on a nation-wide level and will include training over 1 crore people about the ABC of e-payments.
“We are developing a UPI enabled mobileapplication. It will be available in 2-4 days,” said CSC SPV CEO Dinesh Tyagi in a statement. He further added, customers can feed their Aadhaar number, scan their finger on the biometric device, approve the amount on the app that they have to pay and then the payment gets directly transferred from the user’s account to the merchant’s account.
7) Japenese Startup To Partner With Indian Spacetech Startup To Land on Moon
Moon is once again an object of desire, courtesy tech giant Google, which under its aptly named Lunar XPRIZE competition is trying to inspire and challenge innovators, engineers, and entrepreneurs world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. The thing that makes the competition all the more lucrative is the $20 million prize amount that the winner will walk away with.
The latest contender which is almost very close to winning the Lunar XPRIZE is Team HAKUTO, a product of Japan-based startup ispace Inc. The startup has just obtained a launch vehicle to fulfil its plans to send to the Moon late next year. Extending a helping hand to HAKUTO is India-based Team Indus, which already has a contract in its kitty for launching its own rover, aboard a rocket developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), in December next year. The two, Team HAKUTO and Team Indus, have entered into a partnership for the same.
8) France Inaugurates World’s First Solar Highway ‘Wattway’ In Tourouvre
This week saw France inaugurating world’s first “solar highway”, a road that is paved with solar panels capable of providing energy which will be enough to power the street lights of the small Normandy town of Tourouvre, France.
9) MacBook Pro 2016 Receives a Thumbs Down from Consumers
Apple MacBook Pro's 2016 model has become the first ever MacBook from the tech giant to not receive a good recommendation from product testing firm, Consumer Reports.
According to their report:
a) Battery performance has been found to be inconsistent on all the three laptops
b) Tests with Google Chrome gave better battery life results
c) All three models have shown inconsistent battery life performance
10) Nokia starts a Patent Legal Battle with Apple
Nokia sent the entire tech world buzzing this week when it announced that it has decided to sue tech giant Apple in US and German courts on the charges of patent infringement. According to Nokia, Apple is making use of the company's technology in "many" of its products without paying for it. The complaints concern 32 patents for innovations related to user interface, displays, antennae, chipsets, video coding and software.
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