1. Snapchat Punks Facebook
Easter and April Fool’s Day both fell on April 1st this year, which won’t happen again until 2029. Brands took advantage of this iconic dual holiday; from Elon Musk announcing Tesla’s bankruptcy to Burger King’s chocolate whopper and to Netflix acquiring the personal autonomy of Seth Rogen, the jokes were on point. The snarkiest prank might have been Snapchat vs. Facebook. Snapchat added a filter to make photos look like a Facebook post, with Cyrillic writing, mocking Facebook’s recent scandal with the Russian government. A move that some may say was made in spite of Facebook “borrowing” numerous Snapchat features. (Source: The Verge)
2. Walmart Travels to Shenzhen
Walmart is partnering with JD.com, a Chinese e-commerce company. They opened their first small-sized high-tech supermarket in China, which will stock products that customers can also buy online at JD.com. Walmart first partnered with JD.com two years ago as both companies struggled to overcome the retail dominance of Alibaba, China’s e-commerce juggernaut.The first store will open up in Shenzhen with 8,000 items ranging from fresh fruit to seafood. Customers in a 3-kilometer radius from the store will get their food delivered within 30 minutes and will be able to use a new shopping application available through WeChat to skip the checkout line. The new stores step up the competition for big retailers like Amazon and Target.
(Source: TechCrunch)
3. Robot Takeover
German engineering company, KUKA Robotics has built a robotic arm that is indeed building more robotic parts. The arm is synced with MakerBot 3D printer where the arm recognizes parts on the build plate and moves them along the assembly line. The robotic arm is able to retrieve its own parts and use them to improve itself. The arm is predicted to significantly speed up manufacturing rates. KUKA predicts the arm will shorten manufacturing time from several months to 4-6 weeks. We can only hope this leads to new job opportunities in the future.
(Source: Mashable)
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