Entering the last month of 2017 with top tech news of global tech giants and a government institution
Security stuff
Dronemaker DJI accused of sending “sensitive information” to China [New York Times]
Chinese dronemaker DJI has been accused by US customs and immigration officials of using its commercial drones and software to transmit sensitive information about the country’s infrastructure to China, in a memo that was dated August. DJI has released a statement saying that the accusation is “based on clearly false and misleading claims.”
Tesla things
Tesla switchs on world’s largest lithium ion battery [Reuters]
US electric car company Tesla has switched on a lithium ion battery at Hornsdale wind farm, South Australia, that is claimed to be the biggest in the world. In July, the company has won the bid to build a 129-megawatt hour battery at the Australian state, which has been experiencing several black-outs over the past 18 months.
It is said that Tesla founder Elon Musk has successfully fulfilled his promise of building the facility within 100 days.
Social media frenzy
Twitter rolls out Twitter Lite globally [TechCrunch]
Twitter is set to roll out the “lite” version of its app for Android devices in 24 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. The launch follows a “successful” trial run in the Philippines in September.
Twitter Lite is similar with the platform launched by Facebook in June 2016. With its size reduced to under 3MB, the platform is able to load faster on a slow connection. It is targetted on users in developing countries.
Pinterest president to resign by end of year [Recode]
Pinterest announced that its president Tim Kendall is set to resign from the company at the end of 2017 to start his own healthcare startup. Joining the company in 2011, he will be replaced by former Google executive Jon Alferness, who has been leading Pinterest’s ad products. He will report directly to CEO Ben Silbermann.
Fintech matters
Fintech could help banks save costs but also erode their income, says Singapore’s central bank [e27]
In this year’s Financial Stability Review (FSR), Singapore’s central bank Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) highlighted that fintech innovations create more transparent and accurate financial risk assessment models, allow SMEs and consumer to access capital easily, and help mitigate financial shocks to the market by encouraging decentralisation and diversifying of financial risks.
On the flipside, fintech also exposes the financial markets to new risks including operational risks such as cybercime and operational vulnerabilities created by third-party providers, which could be exploited by nefarious agents.
Something to watch on Netflix
Netflix secures distribution rights to popular Chinese detective drama [SCMP]
Netflix has secured worldwide distribution rights to Day and Night, a 32-episode detective drama produced by Youku, which has gathered four billion views since its debut in August. The series is set to Youku’s first China-made internet drama series to be distributed worldwide.
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