Tech

A consortium of nine large companies – including UBS, Credit Suisse, Swisscom, Swiss Post, SIX, Raiffeisen, Swiss Railways, Zuercher Kantonalbank and Mobiliar – will enable Swiss consumers to use a single digital identity when making eCommerce purchases.

The aim is to let people use just one login profile to order in shops, buy train tickets or do banking transactions, According to a report in Reuters The group aims to create a joint venture in 2018.

Uber admitted Tuesday that hackers stole personal data belonging to 57 million customers and drivers – a fact it concealed for more than a year.
The attack, which took place in October 2016, resulted in the worldwide theft of names, email addresses and phone numbers belonging to 50 million Uber riders, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the hack.

Researchers from the University of Utah’s departments of electrical and computer engineering and physics and astronomy have discovered that a special kind of perovskite, a combination of an organic and inorganic compound that has the same structure as the original mineral, can be layered on a silicon wafer to create a vital component for the communications system of the future. Scientists are investigating how to apply these light frequencies to convey data because of its remarkable potential for increasing the speeds of devices such as cellphones and internet modems.

Uber Technologies approved SoftBank Group’s offer to buy a multibillion-dollar stake in the ride-hailing company, setting the stage for one of the largest private startup deals ever and which would resolve a legal battle between former Chief Executive Travis Kalanick and a prominent shareholder.

Apple wants to have a standalone augmented reality headset ready for use by 2019, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The company’s interest in the technology is well-established, with CEO Tim Cook stating in a recent earnings report that Apple believes “AR is going to change the way we use technology forever.” The company took a first major step into augmented reality this year with the launch of ARKit in iOS 11.

With the number of digital transactions around the world increasing by the day, Facebook is also looking to improve users’ payment experience on its platform. Making a move in the same direction, the company may soon start testing “red envelope” payments feature that will allow users to send money to others on the platform.

Amazon on Wednesday unveiled an augmented reality feature in its iOS shopping app that shows customers a 3-D rendering of how a given product will look in their home or workspace before they order it.

AR View offers the ability to view thousands of products for the home or office Рincluding furniture, electronics, toys, games, home d̩cor and more Рin augmented reality.

Every company and organization has a never ending task – to reduce costs, to concur price volatility for the commodities and inputs. What do we do when presented with the free commodity? Are we ready to maximize the potential of the 21st Century commodity – data? Picking Alpha has started a search for answers from the European Commission, who generated the idea of free data to be available for the whole world, through it’s massive Space program – Copernicus.