Important Innovations

   DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF                                                                                                  By Journalists Edward Kane & Maryanne Kane NEW LANCIA ELECTRIC CAR CONCEPTS                                                                                                                         Source:  Lancia                                                                                Source:  Lancia Pu-Ra Zero                                                                              Source:  Lancia Model Lineup Lancia, the legendary, 116-year-old Italian automaker known for its "la dolce vita" styling, is being reinvented as a very stylish, premium EV brand by its new owner Stellantis In April, Lancia will introduce a mystery car concept, that's likely to be hybrid-electric to kick off its new direction The new vehicle, to debut during Milan Design Week, comes just a few months after Lancia unveiled the Pu-Ra Zero concept, which is a fasc

  DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF                                                                                                  By Journalists Edward Kane & Maryanne Kane NEW LANCIA ELECTRIC CAR CONCEPTS                                                                                                                        Source:  Lancia                                                                                Source:  Lancia Pu-Ra Zero                                                                              Source:  Lancia Model Lineup Lancia, the legendary, 116-year-old Italian automaker known for its "la dolce vita" styling, is being reinvented as a very stylish, premium EV brand by its new owner Stellantis In April, Lancia will introduce a mystery car concept, that's likely to be hybrid-electric to kick off its new direction The new vehicle, to debut during Milan Design Week, comes just a few months after Lancia unveiled the Pu-Ra Zero concept, which is a fascin

  WORLD'S LONGEST RANGE eVTOL                                           Source:  AMSL Aero's Vertiia Australian startup AMSL Aero's new eVTOL, Vertiia, is powered on hydrogen & is designed to deliver 620 miles of range  The projected range is the longest, thus far, in the eVTOL global industry The Sydney, Australia company has just started test flights on Vertiia The 1st, remote-controlled test flight on a tethered, full scale demonstrator prototype was a success The electric, vertical takeoff and landing vehicle can fly 155 miles on its electric batteries and 621 miles with its hydrogen fuel cell powertrain It has 8 sets of motors and propellers on its box wing design for maximum aerodynamic efficiency Vertiia can carry a pilot and 4 passengers Wingspan is 23 feet, which should enable it to be part of urban aerial mobility Expected to go into service in 2026 for passenger transport, aeromedical and emergency services. GOOGLE BREAKTHROUGH ON QUANTUM COMPUTING          

  Microsoft, GM and Cruise Partner on Self-Driving Cars                                                  Source:  GM's Cruise A New Vision for Autonomous Driving This is a brand new vision of the future of autonomous driving.  A new partnership among Microsoft, GM and Cruise.  San Francisco based startup Cruise just received a huge infusion of cash to develop autonomous cars.  Microsoft has joined GM, which is Cruise's majority shareholder, along with Honda and other institutional investors to pump $2 billion worth of investment into Cruise and its autonomous technology.  Their intent is for Cruise to take their self-driving vehicles to market for widespread commercialization. The investment infusion brought Cruise's market valuation to $30 billion. That is very close to Waymo, the self-driving company owned by Google's parent Alphabet, valued at slightly over $30 billion. Microsoft Tech and the Big Picture Cruise will use Microsoft's cloud computing platform Azure

  SpaceX & Microsoft Tie-Up to Win Space Customers                                                  Source:  Tesla Starlink Starlink and Azure Cloud Computing This technology combination between Elon Musk's SpaceX and Microsoft is fascinating.  Microsoft is expanding its Azure cloud computing platform into space through a partnership with SpaceX's growing constellation of low earth orbiting satellites for inexpensive, global broadband internet - Starlink.  Starlink is a big space-based internet opportunity and is already being beta-tested in the northern US, in tribal communities and in southern Canada.  Starlink can give Microsoft's Azure a potentially big edge over rival Amazon's cloud computing platform for business. Cloud Business Demand Is Soaring Because of the restrictions of COVID-19, demand for cloud services are soaring as adults and children work from home.  Microsoft has tested its Azure cloud with satellites in space and established a space venture addr

Growing Acquisition Interest in US TikTok Operations Source:  TikTok Logo Clock Is Ticking for Microsoft and Reportedly Twitter According to The Wall Street Journal, Twitter has approached TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to buy the US operations of the video sharing app company with a global user base of 800 million.  The talks are reportedly at the preliminary stage and Twitter has made no formal announcement.  Meanwhile, Microsoft hopes to finalize an agreement to acquire TikTok's US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand by mid-September.  The moving force behind the acquisition scramble is President Donald Trump and his threat to ban Chinese owned TikTok from operating in the US. Vulnerability of Amercans' Personal Data TikTok has come under fire from US lawmakers, particularly President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steve Municin, about the vulnerability of Americans' private information to TikTok data collection,  The key issue is that ByteDance could be compelled by

NBA Games With Virtual Fans in Virtual Stands Source:  Orlando NBA "Bubble" Tech to the Rescue of Pro Sports During COVID What a great idea from a partnership between Microsoft and the NBA! On July 30th, when the NBA restarts its COVID-19 stopped season in the "bubble" in Orland, FL, there will be 300 fans.  The fans will be "virtual fans", not physically in the arena.  They will be there virtually on virtual stands by using Microsoft Teams app and visible on giant screens. The fan video and audio will be part of the NBA basketball games' broadcast.  This is an innovative step of bringing fans - virtually - back into the games to provide a more normal ambiance to the pro NBA games. Virtual Fans on Virtual Stands on Giant Screens Microsoft and the NBA are equipping each game court with 17 foot tall screens that wrap around three sides of the venue.  The fans will be sitting beside each other.  That normal audience look will be accomplished by

Plans to Remove Carbon from Atmosphere with Target Dates Source:  Microsoft Commitment from the Top Microsoft has joined the fight against Climate Change in a big way.  It just announced that by 2030 it will have removed more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits.  And, by 2050, it hopes to have taken out as much CO2 as all the direct emissions the company has made since its founding in 1975. Very Different, Innovative Approach The world's largest software company's approach to fighting Climate Change is quite different and innovative.  Most companies promise to cut ongoing emissions or prevent new ones.  By contrast, Microsoft's pledge to remove existing carbon from the atmosphere is unique for corporate America. CEO Leadership The commitment to fighting Climate Change is coming from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.  Speaking today at Microsoft's Redmond, Washington headquarters, he said we, as a global company, have to offset the damag

New Partnership on Streaming Games, Chips and AI by Two Tech Giants Source:  Microsoft - CEO's of Sony and Microsoft Shake Hands on New Partnership The Cloud and the Consumer This is a new and important strategic partnership to develop new innovations.  Two global technology giants Microsoft and Sony are joining forces.  Sony will use the Microsoft cloud to stream games and media.  And the two will work together to develop new image sensors and further the use of Artificial Intelligence in Sony products. Major Consumer Interactive Entertainmen t The purpose of the collaboration is to advance interactive content.  Both have major interactive entertainment businesses:  Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation, that in some cases have been business partners and in other cases competitors. Win-Win This is a big competitive win for Microsoft's Azure cloud computing business particularly over Amazon's cloud market leader, Amazon Web Services.  Sony and Micros

Very Smart Contact Lens Source:  DARPA DARPA's Quest to Give Soldiers Extraordinary Visual Capabilities New vision technology has just emerged from France's engineering school IMT Atlantique.  It's a wireless connected contact lens capable of providing augmented vision assistance as well as relaying visual information wirelessly.  It is so breakthrough that both the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA and Microsoft are very interested in it.  For more information, go to Important Innovations Collection: Smart Contact Lens : DARPA May Have Found It Source:  DARPA Giving Soldiers "Superpowers" The technology comes from France's engineering sc...

First Look at Microsoft's New AR Headset Display - HoloLens2 Source:  Microsoft's HoloLens2 Just Unveiled in Barcelona Microsoft says its new Augmented Reality headset display HoloLens2 has greater immersion, comfort and usefulness.  They say the immersion is greatly enhanced, making holograms more vibrant and realistic.  There's also a new time in flight depth sensor, combined with built-in AI and semantic understanding, that lets you manipulate holograms like real objects.  For a great news blog on this, go to my journalist colleague Ed Kane at Important Innovations Collection: Microsoft's AR HoloLens 2 Headset Just Released : Augmented Reality, Intelligent Edge Device for Holograms Source:  Microsoft HoloLens 2 Greater Immersion, Comfort, Time-to-Value Micr...

AI ID From Face to Deep Space Source:  Dr. Chen Wu & Dr. Ivy Wong, Radio Galaxy Predictions from ClaRan ClaRan Faces off in Space Researchers have taught an AI program that's routinely used to recognize faces on Facebook to find galaxies deep in space.  Its mission has been transformed from face to space.  The artificial intelligence bot is called ClaRan.  It's been created by researchers at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) who also serve on the faculty of the University of Western Australia. Radio Galaxies ClaRan scans images taken by radio telescopes.  It spots radio galaxies, which are galaxies that send strong radio jets from the huge black holes located in them. This new AI system was just created by big data specialist Dr. Chen Wu and astronomy expert Dr. Ivy Wong of the University of Western Australia and ICRAR. Millions of Unknown Galaxies Dr. Wong says black holes are found at the center of most galaxies. They send out &q

Stratolaunch Space Ventures - 4 New Satellite Launch Vehicles Paul Allen's Space Innovation Fleet Space Service 2020 Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's space company Stratolaunch is targeting growing demand for satellite launching vehicles.  He wants to make booking and getting into orbit on a satellite as easy as booking an airplane flight.  Sounds like the Microsoft way.  Stratolaunch just announced a fleet of 4 space vehicles:  a reusable space plane and 3 launch vehicles for satellites.  They expect to start space service in 2020. Capabilities Include World's Largest Plane as Launch Platform This system is proprietary and unique.  It will use the world's largest aircraft as a mobile launch platform.  It's capable of deploying launch vehicles to carry satellites to multiple orbits and inclinations on a single mission. More Details The vehicles just detailed by Allen's company include the space plane, the Pegasus (access into orbit with 35 success