Last Week in Tech 7. Volkswagen's EV promise and more.
Published on March 22, 2021
March 22, 2021Weekly Summary
Electricity for people
Volkswagen, one of the biggest car manufacturers has updated its plan to electrify all brands. In the newest update, German company revealed that they are planning to open six new battery factories in Europe.
Most importantly, however, VW’s board member for technology, Thomas Schmall, has shared the plans to drive down battery costs.
“On average, we will drive down the cost of battery systems to significantly below €100 per kilowatt-hour” he said. The new single cell battery design is to thank, which is supposed to decrease prices for entry level EVs by up to 50%.
We are yet to see whether Volkswagen will keep its word, considering company’s recent history. The adoption of electric vehicles is not purely about the tech, too. A crucial piece of the puzzle is to improve the charging infrastructure.
Match for safer matching
Match Group, the parent company to Tinder, Match, OkCupid and others has made a significant investment in a background checks site Garbo.
What sets Garbo apart is that it focuses on “collecting public records and reports of violence and abuse only, including arrests, convictions, restraining orders, harassment and other violent crimes.” They don’t disclose drug-related offenses or traffic violations. Only accurate predictors of gender-based violence will be shared.
The investment comes after in 2019 a report by ProPublica, Columbia Journalism Investigations and Buzzfeed surfaced. The piece of investigative journalism revelead, that Match Group has consitently allowed sex offenders to use their dating apps.
Cloudfare improves its web analytics service
Cloudflare, one of the biggest web infrastructure companies in the world, has announced they have improved their web analytics service. Their product is a cookie-less offering allowing you to track your website’s visitors.
From notable new features, it’s worth noting that the company has enabled tracking for SPAs. Single Page Applications, are among the most popular ways to create website nowadays, with fully static sites being in minority.
Overall, Cloudflare’s offering is worth trying out.
More money for Android app developers
Google follows in Apple’s footsteps lowering revenue commission from apps and in-app purchases on Google Play for the first $1 million. This is a very heated topic recently, after Epic’s lawsuit against Apple regarding commissions.
It’s worth noting, that installing apps on iOS via non-official ways is really hard, whilst the same operation on Android is a piece of cake. It’s all because Google allows Android users to install apps from non-official sources. We can’t, therefore, talk about a monopoly on app distribution.