News

LATEST TECH NEWS: Tesla drops lawsuit against Alameda County. 4 other things and a trivia you need to know today, May 21, 2020

Published

4 years ago

May 21, 2020

Ripples Nigeria

These 5 latest stories from the tech space will keep you updated with trends today.

1. Tesla drops lawsuit against Alameda County over Fremont factory reopening

Elon Musk’s Tesla has officially signed to dismiss a lawsuit filed earlier this month against Alameda County that sought to force the reopening of its factory in Fremont, Calif. The dismissal, which was granted Wednesday, closes the loop on a battle between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and county health and law enforcement officials.

Recall Ripples Nigeria reported that the lawsuit was filed on Monday, May 9, hours after Musk threatened to sue and move operations out of state, sought injunctive and declaratory relief against Alameda County. According to feeds from the press, the lawsuit was filed after Tesla’s plans to resume production at the Fremont factory were thwarted by the county’s decision to extend a stay-at-home order issued to curb the spread of COVID-19.

2. Twitter introduces new feature to allow users control audience

Popular social networking site, Twitter, has introduced a new feature that gives its users control over its audience. The social media company announced this on Wednesday, May 20, noting that it would begin to roll out a new feature where users can essentially pick and choose who can reply to their tweets.

Although, reviewers have stated that the feature is overdue, however, the new plug is expected to serve a good use as it gives people control over the conversations they started. Following the announcement, Twitter further revealed that the feature is only available to a small percentage of users globally. Before now, there have been complians on heavy cyber-bullying amidst users which has in the past lead to many forsaking the platform as a result of its open-end, view-by-all policy.

Tech Trivia:

What year was the monopod “selfie stick” used to take selfie photographs invented?

A. 2013
B. 2014
C. 2015
D. 2016

Answer: See end of post.

3. Silicon Valley’s Plug and Play to open centres in South Africa, Morocco

Silicon Valley accelerator and venture capital (VC) company Plug and Play is set to open its first African office in Johannesburg this year. The accelerator, which is behind names such as Google, Logitech and PayPal, made this announcement in a Covid-19 webinar series hosted recently.

Ripples can confirm that former Goldman Sachs investment banker Grace Legodi is expected to head the Plug and Play’s South Africa office. According media sources, the accelerator currently has 36 locations across the world. Further more, Plug and Play marketing director Allison Romero confirmed in an email to press on Wednesday, May 20, that the accelerator is planning to open two offices in Africa, namely in Morocco and Johannesburg.

4. South Africa’s Aerobotics to receive R100m from Naspers Foundry

Tech giant Naspers has entered into contract to invest R100-million in South Africa’s aerial-data analytics startup Aerobotics, through its early-stage business funding initiative Naspers Foundry. The company made the announcement on Thursday in a public statement, revealing that the investment is pending approval by local regulatory authorities.

Aerobotics, which is a subscription-based artificial intelligence (AI) company, provides intelligent tools for the agricultural industry to manage its crops. The 6 year old startup was founded by Benji Meltzer and James Paterson who is a leader in the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in agriculture. Tractions from the company indicates that it has progressed in its technology to engineer fruit counts, and to provide data on fruit size and colour.

5. Nigeria’s Carbon launches social banking service

Nigerian fintech startup Carbon has launched social banking service Carbon Express, a keyboard extension that allows customers to access its services from within whatever app they are using. This new service enables users to initiate and complete transactions such as P2P transfers and bill payments from the keyboard without launching the Carbon app or leaving the app they are using.

According to Carbon, users would, via this service, be able to access services from the touch of their keyboard enabling quicker Instagram or WhatsApp commerce. By application, Carbon Express maintains the same PCI DSS compliant model of encryption, authentication, and security as Carbon’s other services, thereby guaranteeing the security of all transactions.

Tech Trivia Answer: 2014

Homemade selfie sticks could date back as early as 1925 as a photo from that year shows a man taking a photograph of himself and his wife, with the aid of a long pole which is pointed towards the camera and out of frame; however, the term “selfie stick” did not become widely used until 2014. Also, a device which has been likened to the selfie stick appears in the 1969 Czechoslovak sci-fi film I Killed Einstein, Gentlemen. But, down history, only in 2014, did the selfie stick become a global feature with smartphones users.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now