Innovation & Tools
Visa approves settlements within USD Coin cryptocurrency transactions - 03/30/2021
The US payment system Visa approved settlement of transactions in USD Coin Stablecoin. Visa became the first major global payment system to approve such settlements. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are linked to stocks of conventional currencies or physical commodities, such as gold or oil. Their exchange rates are subject to less fluctuation than typical cryptocurrencies ( that is, they...
Study: Humankind will shift to alternative meat in 20 years - 03/24/2021
By 2035, one in ten meat, eggs, dairy products and seafood items consumed worldwide will be made from alternative proteins. This is what the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Blue Horizon Corporation study says. The experts predict that the market for alternative products will reach at least $290 billion by 2035. Under a baseline scenario, it would grow from the current 13 million tons...
French watchdog to check Clubhouse for possible breaches of privacy rules - 03/18/2021
France's National Commission for Informatics and Civil Liberties (CNIL) said on 17 March that it had launched an investigation into the voice social network Clubhouse. The regulator is checking it for possible violations of European privacy rules. The investigation was launched in response to a petition whose authors claimed "possible breaches in the Clubhouse app in terms of privacy". The CNIL...
Huawei will charge smartphone manufacturers for the use of its 5G technology - 03/17/2021
Huawei has announced that it will begin charging smartphone manufacturers a licensing fee for the use of its 5G technology. The maximum payment per device will be $2.5 - less than other 5G patent holders. The license fee will allow the Chinese company to cover losses due to the US sanctions. Chinese tech giant Huawei said it intends to charge smartphone manufacturers a "reasonable" fee for the...
Facebook launches Instagram Lite in 170 countries - 03/11/2021
Facebook has announced the launch of a light version of Instagram, which will allow the service to be used even with poor internet connection, in more than 170 countries around the world. The app is only available to Android users. Facebook has launched a light version of Instagram in more than 170 countries around the world, the company said in a statement. The Instagram Lite app "weighs" 2 MB...
Malaysia's AirAsia to launch flying taxi business in 2022 - 03/08/2021
Malaysian low-cost airline AirAsia intends to launch flying taxis as a new business line in 2022, Tony Fernandes, co-founder and CEO of AirAsia Group Berhad, which owns the carrier, told to Bloomberg. Fernandes estimated that the new service would be launched in about a year and a half. The flying cars will have at least four seats and will operate like a quadcopter, the CEO said. Fernandez did...
Xiaomi to launch Clubhouse counterpart for Android and iOS - 03/02/2021
Chinese company Xiaomi is going to relaunch the social network Xiaomi Mi Talk, which will be an alternative to Clubhouse. A special feature of the updated Xiaomi Mi Talk will be that it will be available immediately on Android and iOS, while Clubhouse so far only runs on iOS. Earlier in February, Xiaomi announced closure of its Xiaomi Mi Talk service. Following this, the company's founder and...
Japan to build the country's largest liquefied hydrogen plant - 02/26/2021
Japan's largest liquefied hydrogen plant is to be built by the Japanese company Itochu and France's Air Liquide. The Nikkei newspaper reported about it on 26 February. According to the newspaper, the new plant will be able to produce about 30 tons of liquefied hydrogen per day, which should be enough to fill 42 thousand hydrogen cars. At present, Japan produces around 44 tonnes of...
Intel and Google Cloud sign 5G partnership - 02/24/2021
US telecoms companies Intel and Google Cloud have agreed to collaborate on 5G, Intel said in a press release. "Intel and Google Cloud today announced a collaboration to develop a telecoms cloud reference architecture and integrated solutions for carriers to accelerate 5G deployment," the release said. Highlights of the collaboration include the launch of a new test environment to help operators...
Clubhouse reports leaked users' conversations - 02/23/2021
Dialogs from some Clubhouse users leaked to a third-party site last weekend, the service has admitted. The company assured that it had blocked the hacker and was taking additional measures. One should not count on the privacy and security of conversations on the social network, experts warned. Online conversation service Clubhouse recorded a hacker attack last weekend, Bloomberg wrote with...