Five Things Tech: Big Tech, Farming, Apple, Plumbing, BASIC
The weekend starts here! Just read this newsletter before you do anything else. Oh wait, get some coffee, first!
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Hello and welcome back to Five Things Tech!
This newsletter is my attempt to get a better understanding of all the big changes going on in tech right now. Let’s have a look at Big Tech on Trial, at how farms are changing by going digital, at Apple “falling behind”, at Tech and plumbing - and also at BASIC, the beautiful programming language that just turned 60 years old.
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The future of Google — and Big Tech — hangs in the balance at trial
Google pays Apple $20 billion to be the default search engine. Wow. That’s a lot of cash. Let’s see how this trial will pan out.
Old Macdonald Had a Drone: Inside Farming’s Tech Boom
In Germany we have a saying which translates into “the dumbest farmer is harvesting the biggest potatoes” - I’m sure this is no longer the case. I remember a trip to Zurich over 10 years ago when I gave a talk about digital transformation at an offsite hosted by globally operating plant breeding company. I was amazed how innovative they already where and how the company tested automation on many farms around the world. This was just the beginning, I guess.
Apple is behind in AI and killed its self-driving car project. What’s next?
So, what’s going on at Apple? Obviously, the story has been the same for a while now: “after the death of Steve Jobs and the departure of Jony Ive, Apple lacks innovatio.” - while at the same time Apple remains immensely successful and manages to create products people love to by. I assume that Apple doesn’t want or need to be first, they take the time to make it right at a time when the mainstream public is ready for it.
In Race to Build A.I., Tech Plans a Big Plumbing Upgrade
For the last 18 months NVIDIA was the big winner of the AI race and it looks like this will change soon. Big Tech is pouring plenty of resources into new chip designs and also into lots of new datacenters. This will turn into an entirely new ballgame.
The BASIC programming language turns 60
What a blast from the past. I grew up with BASIC and spent many afternoons after school in the local department store, typing BASIC listings into a Commodore C64 or a Schneider CPC, those where the days…
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading! If you missed last week’s Five Things Tech, you can find it here:
— Nico