June has been a long and exciting month (on a personal level). Spent a while in Canada; saw the beautiful Niagara Falls, had confrontations with border patrol officers; had final exams back in school; and oh, it’s my birthday today. So there’s that. Since there has been a lot going on, I haven’t been able to give IFLSG the time it has deserved –
But I’m back now.
Other than that “personal level”, June has been a busy month for tech. Since you obviously base your entire technological knowledge on our articles, we’re here to bring you up to speed with what’s what.
“Enlighten me”
Sure.
Before we proceed, just know that we own 3 fidget spinners now and could literally not be happier. If you’re interested in sharing this happiness, definitely check our previous article (we include a link for you to get one yourself!).
Facebook wants to help
If you’ve seen the Facebook business aspect of things, their mission statement has forever been “Making the world more open and connected“. However, they recently changed it to “Give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together“.
In Mark Zuckerberg’s words:
“For the last decade or so we’ve been focusing on making the world more open and connected. But I used to think that if we just give people a voice and help some people connect, that that would make the world a whole lot better by itself.”
“Look around and our society is still so divided. We have a responsibility to do more, not just to connect the world but to bring the world closer together.”
Got a tear in our eyes, not going to lie. Zuckerberg plans on making the billion of people on Facebook not only stay “connected”, but also build communities; since online communities make physical communities stronger.
Kudos!
Alexa backfires
Well, it wasn’t like that we hope. However, the story remains true. Amazon recently purchased grocery chain Whole Foods for over $13 BILLION.
The grocery chain has more than 460 stores in the United States, Canada, and Britain; and is best known for its organic, healthy, and local food.
An Amazon spokesman said he had no plans to use Amazon Go technology for Whole Foods though… Do you remember Amazon Go? Amazon’s very own grocery store where you could walk in and walk out without forming endless lines at the cashier? Whoever knows if that was a bust or if it still has a future.
WE’RE NOT DONE. Guess who’s about to pass Bill Gates as richest man in the world?
You did NOT guess because you don’t even know his name: Amazon owner Jeff Bezos. With the Whole Foods purchase, he added $1.8 billion to his net worth and is now worth $84.6 billion; just $5 billion behind Gates.
Now one main reason behind this, is that while people like Jeff Bezos are doing it all to make more and more and more money; philanthropists like Bill Gates are finding ways to give more and more money away (charities, organizations, communities).
Sega Classics
Don’t tell us you haven’t missed this. The gamemakers have planned to release Sega titles every two weeks!!
One of the main reasons behind this is the constant complaining from people claiming that the current games in the Apple and Android app stores aren’t “classic” or “retro” enough.
Mike Evans, Sega’s mobile-division head says “Sega Forever is a celebration of nostalgia”, “about allowing fans to reconnect with past experiences”, as explained in BBC.
The first 5 games you can look forward to are: Sonic the Hedgehog, Comix Zone, Phantasy Star II, Kid Chameleon, and Altered Beast.
Snapmap?
If there’s one company that doesn’t stop bringing the new (or start selling shares), it’s Snapchat.
Their latest purchase goes by the name of Zenly. If you haven’t updated Snapchat yet, definitely go check your phone’s app store. This deal was worth between $250 million and $350 million, according to Tech Crunch, in mostly cash and some stock. Just like Facebook lets Instagram run independently, Snapchat plans on doing the same with Zenly.
What is this? Well, basically Zenly lets users see where their friends are on a map. This might help out while making plans or what not; sort of like the “Find my Friends” app on the iPhone?
You might have never heard of Zenly, but it’s actually huge. Specially at concerts, school, events where you try to find other friends in large crowds.
Uber Uber on the wall…
We found a picture of the uber app saying “Please rate your UBER CEO” and we found that hilarious, but for the life of us we can’t find that picture anywhere.
Any hoo, you might have read by now, but Travis Kalanick, Uber’s Co-Founder and CEO, has resigned from the $68 billion dollar company (app) after a really bad year.
“I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors’ request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight”.
On the other hand, Uber is now letting passengers “tip” their drivers, allowing them to make even more money. If that’s not enough for your broke self, after the first 2 initial minutes, each minute you make an Uber wait for you, you will be charged. This is a direct competitive move against Lyft, who does offer passengers the option to tip.
However, at least in our case, we college students use a lot Uber (which is already expensive come surge time), late at night after clubbing or studying at the library.. With the “tip” option, will Uber drivers start expecting more from us? Will they give us a bad service if we don’t want, or can’t afford, to tip?
One Response
happy birthday, ifl!