What’s new
Spotify is working on its first hardware product
Spotify is a music streaming service, but it’s looking to create its first hardware, as new job listings reveal. “Spotify is on its way to creating its first physical products and setting up an operational organisation for manufacturing, supply chain, sales & marketing,” according a job listing. “Above all, your work will impact the way the world experiences music,” says another job listing.
You can read more here.
Nuance ends development of the Swype keyboard apps
Swype got its start on Windows Mobile devices in 2008 before becoming a popular alternative keyboard for Android, thanks to its use of gestures that could speed up touchscreen typing. Nuance has confirmed that they are discontinuing Swype for Android and iOS. “We’re sorry to leave the direct-to-consumer keyboard business, but this change is necessary to allow us to concentrate on developing our AI solutions for sale directly to businesses”, Nuance said.
More info are available here.
New products
Xiaomi ‘Blackshark’
The phone will have Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, 8GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. It will come with full-HD+ display, Adreno 630 GPU and Android 8.0 Oreo.
More info here.
You might want to know about this
Twitter improves its policy on tweets that encourage self-harm and suicide
Twitter said it will be responding to reports of users telling others to engage in acts of self-harm. “While we continue to provide resources to people who are experiencing thoughts of self-harm, it is against our rules to encourage others to harm themselves,” Twitter Safety tweeted.
You can read more here.
Apple is looking to buy cobalt directly from miners
Apple is in negotiations to buy long-term supplies of cobalt directly from miners, according Bloomberg. Cobalt is key in the production of the lithium-ion batteries found in phones, laptops and tablets.
More info can be found here.
Fun stuff
Barbie will teach kids to code
Barbie-themed coding lessons will be available summer. The curriculum, aimed at teaching girls about computer programming, will also expose them to them potential careers like becoming a veterinarian, astronaut or robotics engineer. The larger goal is to introduce coding to 10 million kids by 2020.
You can read more here.
