We hope that the conflict in Ukraine 💙💛 will reach a peaceful conclusion soon. We pray for the lives and families of those affected, no matter where they were born.
Amidst the sobering geopolitical shocks, we find resolve that the world would progress, as it always had. This week we officially launch our first Expert Circle cohort. In a time like this, we need more unity, compassion, and love. With the mission of humanizing tech, data, and design, we believe in the power of a cross-disciplinary approach to help us comprehend what is happening around us.
On the news front, we find Amazon’s e-reader dominance meeting an unlikely competitor; a backlash at Salesforce; and, an upstart against Tesla.
Introducing Our First Expert Circle Cohort!
Last month we announced the launch of ABD’s Expert Circle, a group of individuals who strive for bringing clarity and accessibility towards the most important developments in their disciplines and industries. Thanks to you we’re proud to announce the first batch of our first cohort! We’re excited to work with them and bring you the freshest insights! Stay tuned!
Aren’t you a little bit curious about why Cohort 1A are only men? We asked the same question too. Help us reach gender equity by nominating awesome people below.
Analytics, Digital, Design In Action
Huawei Enters the eReader and PC Fronts
It’s been more than a decade since Amazon pioneered, revolutionized, and, frankly, dominated the eReader industry. However, the Everything Store meets an unlikely foe: embattled Chinese telecom giant Huawei. Huawei announced the launch of its MatePad Paper, bringing the twist of a half eReader, half tablet.
MatePader’s a larger-sized reader with access to the 2 million or so titles in the Huawei Books store, as well as various other file types, including PDF. The device runs Huawei’s proprietary HarmonyOS.
Huawei has been battling geopolitical tensions for the past few years, even getting banned out of the Android ecosystem. However, it proves to be undeterred, launching MatePad, empowering its own OS, and even launching a desktop PC to duel Apple, together part of its Smart Office Launch.
Bottom-line, Huawei is girding itself to be the next prime consumer electronics player.
Salesforce Employees Say No to NFTs
Salesforce employees are protesting the company’s reported plans to launch non-fungible token (NFT) services. Roughly 400 employees signed a letter that’s circulated within the cloud software company’s messaging channels, calling on it to abandon crypto plans it apparently discussed internally last week. The letter cites the negative environmental effects of NFTs as well as their status as “unregulated, highly speculative financial assets.”
Salesforce plans to launch an “NFT cloud” sales platform that could let users create and release token-based content, potentially even competing with the dominant OpenSea NFT marketplace.
The NFT market has exploded over the past year, with NFT sales soaring past $25Bn in 2021, compared to just under $95M the year before, according to market tracker DappRadar.
On the flipside, NFTs have been criticized for their carbon footprint as well as for facilitating risky speculation and having loose fraud protections.
Tesla Meets its Battery Match
Amprius announced that it has used 100% Silicon Nanowire Technology, achieving significant breakthroughs in both specific energy (energy emitted per electrode) and energy density. The lithium-ion battery has a battery density of 450Wh/kg (1150 Wh/ L), the highest energy density of any lithium-ion battery currently available.
The Panasonic 2170 battery currently used in Tesla Model 3 is a world-leading battery with an energy density of 260 Wh/kg (730 Wh/ L). For the same weight, the Amprius's lithium-ion battery is 73% more energy-dense but 37% smaller.
Amprius lithium-ion batteries are currently being used in high-end critical areas and will soon be extended to electric vehicles and consumer applications as manufacturing capacity grows.
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