What a year this is turning out to be. If war and inflation wasn’t enough, we’ve still got Covid-19 doing its thing. Whoever sent the memo that the pandemic is waning apparently left China off the distribution list. Yet another Covid-inspired lockdown in China has closed Foxconn factories in Shenzhen until at least March 20. That’s bad news for Apple, as Foxconn is its primary manufacturer. According to a Morgan Stanley report today, the immediate impact of the lockdown on Apple should be limited, as it estimates that Shenzhen accounts for production of only 20% of iPhones and a “minimal” number of iPads and Macs. But there’s a decent chance the China lockdowns will last much longer than a week. Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb was quoted by CNBC today saying that China’s population is vulnerable to a new, even more contagious variant of Omicron, partly because the quarantine policy used there has prevented natural immunity from developing. Assuming the factory shutdowns go past next Sunday, the impact on Apple will grow. How bad could it get? Well, the iPhone 13 line has been on the market for months, so the timing isn’t as bad as it could be. But Apple’s new iPhone SE goes on sale on Friday. There has to be a worry about the impact of an extended lockdown, particularly one that affects shipping, at least on supplies of the new phone. The bigger issue, though, is the cumulative impact of component shortages Apple was already grappling with, as well as inflationary pressures on consumer spending. Other big tech companies are facing variations of these challenges, of course. All in all, this year so far seems to be one governed by Murphy’s Law: Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. Which makes you wonder, what else is coming down the pike? Fuel Costs and Drivers Here’s a notable stat: A survey of ride-hailing and delivery drivers by The Rideshare Guy found that 15% of them had quit over rising fuel prices while 38% were driving less. That’s according to the website’s founder, Harry Campbell. In other words, more than half the drivers responding to the survey had cut back to some degree. Uber last week responded with a temporary surcharge, affecting both its ride-hailing and food-delivery services and lasting for 60 days. All of the money will go to Uber’s drivers, the company said. Lyft has plans for a similar surcharge, The Verge reported. A surcharge is a logical way to keep drivers satisfied, but it will test customer loyalty. Another Ugly Stock Day Stocks are starting to look downright cheap. The Nasdaq fell another 2% today, which means it is down 19.6% for the year so far (and 22% below the high of 16,057 it reached in November.) How is big tech faring so far this year? Data courtesy of Koyfin. Amazon -14.9%
Apple -15%
Airbnb -16.8%
Microsoft -17.8%
Twitter -23.6%
Nvidia -27.5%
Tesla -27.5%
Uber -30%
Pinterest -38.5%
Snap -40.5%
Meta Platforms -44.5%
Netflix -45%
DoorDash -48.9%
Snowflake - 50.8%
Asana -55.8%
The Information Events Tuesday, March 29—How Platforms Help Digital Stragglers Achieve Maturity Join us for a live video summit on how platforms and small and medium-size businesses can work together to accelerate SMBs’ digital growth. Platform executives will discuss how they are working to better support their SMBs, and SMB merchants will provide perspective on the platform tools that are helping them thrive and what they still need. Reserve your spot here. Thursday, April 21—Fintech: Women in Tech Leadership Forum We’re hosting our next Women in Tech Leadership Forum on the topic of fintech, convening executive women leaders virtually. The event is free and by invitation only, for C-Level women in established tech companies. Limited space is available. Apply for an invitation or submit your interest in speaking here. Wednesday, May 25—*SAVE THE DATE*—We’re hosting our second virtual Creator Economy Summit, convening creators, platforms and investors to talk about what’s next in one of tech’s hottest industries. More details here. In Other News… China’s central bank found violations of rules against money laundering during an inspection of Tencent’s hugely popular WeChat mobile payments platform, according to The Wall Street Journal. The report said the company could face a record fine as a result.
Discovery says it will combine its Discovery+ streaming service with WarnerMedia’s HBO Max at some point after completion of the WarnerMedia acquisition, a Discovery executive said, Variety reported.
Former Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger joined the board of Genies, an avatar tech firm.
Discovery awarded its CEO David Zaslav a big package of stock options valued at $190 million last May, when he struck the WarnerMedia deal, the company disclosed. The ultimate value of the options will depend on Discovery’s stock price, however. The exercise price varies from $35.65, Discovery’s stock price at the time of the grant to as high as $43.33, a securities filing shows. Discovery shares today closed at $23.88. Right now, those options aren't worth much.
New From Our Reporters Inside Apple’s Decision to Blow Up the Digital Ads Business What We’re Reading Remote Work Attracts Women but Could Hurt Promotions Sequoia Sees Weakness in OpenSea’s NFT Dominance Tech Behemoths at Risk of Losing Top Market Spots A Rivian Factory Becomes a Political Lightning Rod in Georgia | Daily Convergence Update 03/14/2022 |
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Good Afternoon. I’m Virtual Peter. Let’s explore how converging exponential technologies are transforming industries and our lives! |
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| | Einride Unveils World’s First Remote Pod Operator of Autonomous, Electric Vehicle Fleet | AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Swedish freight technology company Einride announced today at SXSW the official introduction of the world’s first Remote Pod Operator, a role that has been fulfilled with the hiring of long-time trucking veteran Tiffany Heathcott. The position will shift how humans play a role in the increasing prioritization of autonomous vehicles in the freight industry, enabling a strong safety case that is scalable from day one for shippers looking to automate their shipping fleets.
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| | Holoride's in-car VR tech arrives in Audi vehicles this summer | Virtual reality is coming to Audi vehicles. On Saturday, the automaker announced it would support Holoride’s in-car VR technology starting this summer. In June, select Audi models with the company’s MIB 3 infotainment system, including the A4, A6, A8, Q5 and , will ship with the necessary software to sync with Holoride-compatible headsets, with the company planning to support the feature first in Germany, the UK and US before making it available in other markets.
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Selected By Virtual Peter
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| | New partnership set to use AI to accelerate regenerative medicine | Biotech Pandorum will leverage Wipro’s AI capabilities for faster development of advanced therapeutics and regenerative medicine to improve patient outcomes. Wipro Ltd, a global IT, consulting and business process services company, and Pandorum Technologies, a biotech working in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, have announced they have embarked on a long-term partnership. Together the companies plan to focus on development of technologies that will shorten time-to-market and maximise patient outcome during R&D and clinical trials of regenerative medicine.
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| | Volta aims to be the Tesla of electric lorries | The Volta Zero, engineered in the West Midlands, is not only green but has improved all-round vision for the driver, making the roads safer for other users By the end of 2023 all diesel vehicles will be banned in Paris, the most aggressive attack on the fuel of choice of the delivery industry anywhere in Europe. With other French cities planning to follow, there is a growing assumption that the progressive low emission policies of City Hall in London will lead to an all-out diesel ban in Britain’s capital not long after. The race is on to provide the zero-emission technologies for the haulage ...
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| | Audi Cars Turn into Virtual Reality Platforms | Audi becomes the world's first automaker to bring the virtual reality entertainment of the holoride feature into mass production. Rear seat passengers will be able to spend time with various media formats such as games, movies and interactive content by wearing virtual reality glasses (VR glasses).
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| | Salcit Technologies Researchers use AI to detect Lung Disease with a Single Cough | India researchers from Salcit Technologies have developed a novel application that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology named Swaasa to detect lung diseases in humans with a single cough. The official statement claims that this technology’s validation and pilot deployment has demonstrated encouraging results for COVID-19, with over 95 percent sensitivity under laboratory circumstances.
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| | FDA Clears First AI Software to Read Dental X-Rays - Dentistry Today - | MashupMD is the premier medical news aggregator that’s completely free of data-tracking algorithms. Optimized for rapid and efficient access to the latest headlines in the medical world.
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| | Mitsubishi Electric develops teach-less robot system technology | Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has announced that it has developed a teaching-less robot system technology to enable robots to perform tasks, such as sorting and arrangement as fast as humans without having to be taught by specialists. The system incorporates Mitsubishi Electric’s Maisart AI technologies including high-precision speech recognition, which allows operators to issue voice instructions to initiate work tasks and then fine-tune robot movements as required.
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| | New AI-driven technology boosts IoT for smart cities | Ayyeka unleashes the power of AI to dramatically improve the data quality of IoT for critical infrastructure. There are many moving parts to IoT projects, ranging from sensors through edge devices to cloud platforms, making it easy for things to go wrong. In large-scale IoT projects, it is not uncommon to have data quality and reliability issues that render the data useless. Whether it's gaps in the data, unstable readings, or the sensor is just stuck at a certain value--the user now has only two options: either clean the data or give up on it. Detecting, fixing, and overcoming those issues is...
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| | Interstellar Lab raises $5M to build closed-loop systems in space and on Earth | Interstellar Lab has raised $5 million in a seed round with investment from Urania Ventures, Auxxo, 7percent Ventures, Seldor Capital, E2MC, Kima Ventures, and BPI. This round will enable the startup to double its workforce by the end of 2022 to accelerate the manufacturing of the first BioPods for the Earth market this year. It also seeks to support the development of new products for the space market, including their recently NASA-awarded food production system. The 20 recruits will strengthen mechanical, electronic, and software engineering teams, as well as design, agronomy, and manufactur...
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| | New funding to help develop space power station and create water hunting robot | B ritish space technology could help develop a power station in space, create a robot to hunt for oxygen and water in lunar rocks and tackle issues such as the delay in communication between Earth and Mars. |
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