2019 was the year of technology.
From 5G finally coming to live, our first HR humanoid by Tech Mahindra, ISRO taking huge leaps like literally, to Google messing up all the SEO plans of the year with BERT…a lot has happened.
To keep informed, we decided to wind back the tech space of 2019 through a rewind blog!
Hold your seat tight, it is going to be a long one!
January
Google acquires Fossil smartwatch for $40 million
The year comparatively started slow.
But within the mid-Jan, Google came out with some pretty exciting news!
Google and watchmaker Fossil Group announced an agreement for the search giant to acquire some of Fossil’s smartwatch technology and members of the research and development division responsible for creating it.
It was an impressive deal of worth roughly around $40 million!
Fossil has specialized in what are known as hybrid smartwatches, devices that do some minor smart features like step-tracking and notifications, but otherwise, look and feel like your standard, semi-expensive wristwatch. This made Google interested in deal in the first place!
For more details- Click Here!
March
Toyota to use Nvidia’s technology to develop autonomous vehicles
Toyota, one of the iconic automobile company made a new agreement were, they decided to use Nvidia’s platform for training deep neural networks, testing, validation and eventual deployment for its cars.
Danny Shapiro, Nvidia’s senior director of automotive commented, “ “It’s our way of developing jointly and building the Nvidia drivers platform.”
Both companies have been working together for a long time. In fact, in 2017, Toyota announced that it would use Nvidia’s Drive PX supercomputer, a platform with a processor called Xavier, to power the autonomous driving systems inside its future cars.
For more details Click Here!
April
Walmart unveils AI-powered store
Even Walmart joined the AI trend this year!
They opened a new “store of the future” and test grounds for emerging technologies, including AI-enabled cameras and interactive displays, in New York.
The store is literally open for public & s one of Walmart’s busiest Neighborhood Market stores, containing more than 30,000 items, the retailer says, which allows it to test out the technology in a real-world environment.
After Amazon Go’s convenience store, Walmart is the one to join the bandwagon!
To get more details on the store, read here.
SoftBank Group Corp., the mega Japanese conglomerate, added another $15 billion for its Tech Fund
Earlier the company sorted out around $100 billion, but in April they started talking to investors for an added $15 billion to their famous Vision Fund.
SoftBank appeared to have a long-term partner in Saudi Arabia. And they have a huge investment with dozens of deals with startups involved in cancer detection, construction, dog walking, indoor farming, ride-hailing, satellites, and window glass.
May
The Official Start of Tech Cold War
As if the trade wars weren’t enough!
U.S & China started the tech war officially the moment when chipmakers including Qualcomm Inc., Xilinx Inc., and Broadcom Inc. have told employees they won’t supply to the Chinese electronics.
This move was to force China to pursue its own technology, in the hope of burning their cash!
The anticipation that the U.S. government would cut off the supply of components to Huawei was there from the beginning of 2019, but the final straw came in late May.
For more details- Click Here!
June
Tech Mahindra introduced AI-powered HR humanoid
K2, an artificial intelligence-powered HR humanoid was introduced by Tech Mahindra, at its Noida Special Economic Zone Campus in Uttar Pradesh, India.
This cool AI-powered humanoid can respond to queries with text display along with speech. K2 can address general and specific HR-related employee queries as well as handle personal requests for actions like providing payslip, tax forms, etc.
Whatsmore it can actually enable the HR team to focus on other important areas for employee development.
Read about this breakthrough here.
PM Modi presented “5-I”
It was a great month for India.
At the G20 Summit on digital economy and artificial intelligence (AI), Narendra Modi presented his “5-I” vision to maximize digital technology for social benefit in his intervention
Wondering what “5-I” means?
The 5 “I” s are for Inclusiveness, Indigenisation, Innovation, Investment in infrastructure & International cooperation!
It was a big development for India.
To read more Click Here.
It was a big development for India.
July
Sony announces a new $185 million fund to invest in tech startups
Sony creates a buzz with its new investment plans & those are big!
The Japanese tech giant announced a new fund that is aiming to raise 20 billion to invest in companies within “key high-growth industries.”
Previously, the company made more than 40 investments, according to the reports from Sony.
Read here for more details.
ISRO launches Chandrayaan 2
On 22nd July India launched Chandrayaan-2, the most powerful Geostationary Launch Vehicle GSLV-Mk-III.
Between June and September, Isro’s focus was largely on Chandrayaan-2, which it claimed from the day was a far greater technical challenge than the controlled crash of its predecessor.
While the Orbiter was successfully inserted into the lunar orbit on September 2, Isro’s attempt to soft-land the Vikram on the Moon did not succeed.
To know more about ISRO’s Moon journey read here.
October
Google’s Bert Update
The one update that changed all!
The BERT update had a huge impact on the search engine protocol.
According to the Search Engine Journal, “The BERT algorithm is a deep learning algorithm related to natural language processing. It helps a machine to understand what words in a sentence mean, but with all the nuances of context.”
For search engine optimization, Google will now take prepositions like “to” or “for” to understand & give more meaningful results.
If you haven’t already read about it, take a detailed look here.
November
Google Acquires Fitbit for 2.1 Billion
Google acquired Fitbit, the iconic smartwatch maker for $ 2.1 billion dollars.
The combo seems to have a bright prospect in the future as Fitbit can actually provide Google with a foundation for Android integrated wearable devices.
For more details read here.
December
Whatsapp to stop working on some mobile phones in 2020
It was earlier said that Whatsapp will cease operating on millions of phones around the world.
The changes will start from 1st February 2020.
According to reports, iPhones operating on iOS 8 or older will no longer be able to use WhatsApp.
To read more Click Here.
That’s it for now!
A rewind for all of you on the Tech world!
Also, Happy New Year to all our readers!
Thank You all for your support. You encourage us to write more innovative blogs everyday! May you have a great new year.
We might come up with another one just in case we missed a few on this one. So if you want to invest some information, comment down here!
And for more tech news or blogs read here!
