LATEST TECH NEWS: Zuckerberg offers $10 million in fight for racial justice. 4 other things and a trivia you need to know today, June 1, 2020

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

1. Zuckerberg offers $10 million for racial justice

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has committed his firm to funding organizations fighting for racial justice. The CEO made the announcement in a post where he underscored the essence of social justice in the world. According to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook has commenced the search to identify organizations that would benefit from the funding.

“Facebook is committing an additional $10 million to groups working on racial justice,” Zuckerberg stated. “We’re working with our civil rights advisors and our employees to identify organizations locally and nationally that could most effectively use this right now,” he added in the public statement. However, Mark noted that he understood “… that $10 million can not fix” the challenge of racial justice. And, that the only way to address it was through a “sustained, long term effort.”

2. Singapore’s startup Beam raises $26 million

Singapore-headquartered micromobility firm, Beam, has announced raising $26 million in a new financing round. Industry analysts have noted that this will see Beam to actualize its plans to expand its footprint in Korea, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Taiwan.

Reports in the media have indicated that Sequoia India and Hana Ventures led the Series A financing round. However, the nearly 3 year old startup also attracted participation from several other investors in Asia Pacific region including RTP Global, AppWorks, Right Click, Cherubic and RedBadge Pacific. Further reviewing the startup portfolio, this new raiser will put its total to $32.4 million.

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Tech Trivia:

Before becoming the web’s video giant, what was YouTube supposed to be?

A. A video dating service
B. A Napster knock-off for videos
C. A virtual movie theater for independent films
D. An aggregator like Digg for videos

Answer: See end of post.

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3. GIZ, IBM join Ghana Tech Lab for AI accelerator

Ghana Tech Lab has reportedly joined hands with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and IBM to run an AI-focused accelerator programme. The accelerator (themed: Africa AI Accelerator) was been designed by the Ghanaian firm to promote local innovations in the field of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data usage.

Read also: LATEST TECH NEWS: Trump attacks Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, others. 4 other things and a trivia you need to know today, May 29, 2020

According to press, the first cohort will support 10 AI startups from Ghana, South Africa, Rwanda, and Uganda, with programme partners IBM and GIZ, whose AI and technology entrepreneurship initiatives include FAIR Forward and Make-IT in Africa. GTL, while commenting on the new development, revealed that the programme has been structured to provide startups with technical product development and business development support through a blended accelerator with a virtual and physical interface.

4. Coronavirus falls global smartphone sales in Q1

Courtesy of the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, reports have indicated major fall in the global smartphone sales in Q1 of 2020. According to Gartner’s latest report, analysts puts the global market at a 20.2% slide versus the same time last year. It was further indicated that every global top-five manufactures saw large declines for the quarter, except for Xiaomi, which saw a slight uptick of 1.4%.

The Chinese handset maker got a surprise bump, thanks of international sales. However, amongst worse hit, Samsung and Huawei and Oppo all saw double-digit drop-offs at 22.7%, 27.3% and 19.1%, while Apple declined 8.2%. Gartner specified that other companies combined for a sizable 24.2% loss in the quarter under review.

5. SpaceX records first human space launch

SpaceX has been praised as it made history today, Monday, June 1, flying NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to space aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft using a Falcon 9 rocket. The launch, according to press, titled ‘Demo-2’, was for the final demonstration mission in the human rating process of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Falcon 9.

This means that once this mission is complete, the launch vehicle will finally be certified for operational use for regular transportation of people to space. Although, this launch was the second attempt, after an initial launch trial last Wednesday was scrubbed due to weather conditions; this, however, is the first time ever that humans have been aboard a SpaceX vehicle as it launched.

Tech Trivia Answer: A dating site

YouTube’s domain name was registered on February 14, 2005 and it launched as a video dating platform supposedly influenced by Hot or Not. With the slogan “Tune in, Hook up,” the founders intended for users to upload videos introducing themselves. After five days without a single upload, they posted Craigslist ads in Las Vegas and Los Angeles requesting women to upload videos of themselves for $20. No one did.

It wasn’t long before people began using the service to share videos of everything from their pets to their vacations and the developers encouraged this by June 2005, revamping the site to make it more generalized. A year later in October 2006 the company was purchased by Google for $1.65 billion in stock.

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