Tech Insights – July 2020

The newest R&D project from Google; Shoploop

With many businesses and realtors switching online to an e-commerce platform to appeal to the “new normal,” Google has created a user-friendly video shopping platform to help customers learn about new products in just 90 seconds. It’s called Shoploop, and the developer of this program, Lax Poojary, has stated that “his new idea for interactive shopping was inspired by how consumers today use social media and e-commerce when considering purchases. For instance, users can visit social apps like Instagram and then visit YouTube to know more about the product or see a demo, then — if they like what they saw — are likely to make a purchase”.

Although clever, video shopping is no “new concept” in e-commerce and online shopping. For example, Amazon runs Amazon Live, giving users similar shopping experiences. Even Instagram, a social media app that is highly acclaimed, allows users to shop for various things as they swipe through their feeds. There is also Depop, an app that allows users to resell new and gently used products, that use photographs and videos to close out several sales. With all that in mind, Shoploop is not the frontier for a new development on the internet, but instead, joining a bigger group of a tapped-in trend, we are seeing today (Source: TechCrunch).

The Calm meditation app turns to a much bigger screen with its HBO Max show.

With everything happening in the world we live in daily, mental health and meditation apps have been a staple. With the success of an app such as The Calm meditation app, with a simple mission of making the world a happier and healthier place according to their website, it is no surprise HBO Max has chosen to take them on in a TV format. But what is to be expected from an App turned TV series?

It has been announced that it will be titled A World of Calm, featuring ten half-hour-long episodes of serenity narrated by several household names such as Nicole Kidman, Zoë Kravitz, Lucy Liu, Keanu Reeves, and many more. TechCrunch states, “Calm started life as a meditation app, but the brand has evolved far beyond that,” Calm co-founder and co-CEO Michael Acton Smith said in a recent press release. This new series aims to mimic that of Netflix’s fireplace videos or the plethora of relaxing content available through YouTube with its twist of staying true to meditation.

How farming and blockchain technology go hand-in-hand

Within a world constantly being changed and impacted by technology, it is no surprise that blockchain technology can help farmers on various Frontiers, “Blockchain technology enables the traceability of information in the food supply chain and thus helps improve food safety. It provides a secure way of storing and managing data, which facilitates developing and using data-driven innovations for smart farming and smart index-based agriculture insurance.”

The Farmers Connect app strived and worked hard to do just that. Farmers Connect’s vision is to bring a more ‘human’ factor to consumption and that technology should lend its hand in bringing people together and creating a ‘smaller’ world.

Image Credit: LeewayHertz

But what does all this mean to the real world and the food industry moving forward? Well, the Farmers Connect app helps to connect farmers to the supply chain through the App, get cleared through identity checks as well as income which helps them to get loans, as well as support and help businesses such as coops, exporters, importers, and traders store and share various information about the products they have. In summary, this helps farmers to advance in the technological sense so that they, too, can reap the benefits of the technological world around them.

Google Meet will increase protection against any ‘Zoom Bombing’ shortly.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on how we go about our daily lives, the Zoom app for video conferencing has grown extremely popular and valuable amid these unprecedented times. Even with Zoom being an essential part of our “new normal,” another term has slipped into our vocabulary: Zoom-bombing. So what exactly is Zoom-bombing? Forbes describes it as an “uninvited person attending your meeting; even more unfortunate is sharing pornographic images and content.”

Because of the wide range of possibilities for things to go wrong, Google has taken precautions in its own Google Meet to help protect educators against unwanted attendees.

According to Mashable, “Google will consider someone as the anonymous user who has not registered with a Google account. Any person who has GSuite for education will have their privacy increased. This allows anonymous users to no longer be able to access and join meetings organized by anyone with a “G Suite for Education or G Suite Enterprise for Education license” (Mashable). This should not only help ease the frustration of educators and students alike but promote better learning environments moving forward and foster a safe and friendly online environment for all types of individuals using video conferencing and online chats for various reasons.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, the U.S. has beaten China in app-store downloads for the first time since 2014

Due to a surge in working from home and socialization through various mediums offered by technology, it is no surprise that there has been an increase in app downloads during 2020. According to Sensor Tower’s Q2 2020 Store Intelligence Data Digest, it has been gathered that “the mobile app ecosystem’s unprecedented growth during Q2 2020 with an in-depth exploration of the mobile apps, publishers, categories, and stories that contributed to its record-breaking 37.8 billion downloads”. During this data collection, it was found that the U.S. surpassed China on app installations from April to June at a steady rate, according to TechCrunch. The main contributing factor can be attributed to the Coronavirus’s impact on both China and the U.S., as China experienced its surge of downloads much earlier than the U.S., which was hit much later with rising cases and stay-at-home orders that were put into place.

Will the new laptop chip in a Macbook Pro be released before 2021? It is possible; here is why

On June 22nd of 2020, Apple announced that it planned to start developing and transitioning its silicon chip for its Mac computers. Apple believes “this transition will also establish a common architecture across all Apple products, making it far easier for developers to write and optimize their apps for the entire ecosystem” (Apple). Apple has confirmed that they have complete plans to begin shipping out the first of its kind by the end of the year, which will lead to the full completion of this project over two years.

This is no surprise to Apple consumers, as they release new Macs regularly with various changes and exciting new technologies on a reasonably regular basis. As stated in Mashable, “This is potentially fascinating because we could have two otherwise identical Macbook Pro models on the market later in 2020, one with an older Intel chip, and one with a new Apple chip”. Apple hopes that with the transition of this new custom silicon chip, there will be better battery optimization over more extended periods due to a better way in the laptop itself having a more efficient way of consuming power, among other attractive factors of this new chip.