3MTB Newsletter - Vikram Sarabhai Crater; Virtual visiting card from Google; TikTok news

Aug 15, 2020

“He who can listen to music in the midst of noise can achieve great things.”
— Shri Vikram Sarabhai, father of Indian Space Program

12-Aug-2020 was Vikram Sarabhai’s 101st birth anniversary. At the age of 28, he set up the Physical Research Laboratory from his residence in Ahmedabad, which went on to become the cradle for Indian Space research. To commemorate his birth anniversary, ISRO named a crater after him (see image). This crater was recently imaged by Chandrayaan-2.

Some bits,

Byju’s acquires Whitehat Jr. for $300 million.
Amazon India has launched online Pharmacy starting with delivery in Bengaluru and pilot in few other cities. As expected, the Chemists Union have called this move illegal.
It is reported that Reliance may buy out TikTok for $5 billion. May be Reliance is the only white knight for TikTok as there is no other way for the app to operate in India.
Oh Wait! Facebook has confirmed that is testing TikTok style video feature in its app for India. Remember, Facebook owns 10% of Reliance’s Jio now.

Bytes

Fortnite vs Apple

Epic Games’ Fortnite has been removed from Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store, as the game maker implemented its own in-app payment system, bypassing the store’s standard 30% fee.

Though not popular in India, Fortnite is the most successful video game in modern times. Epic Games has filed an anti-trust suit against the App Store’s monopoly and has released an ad which mocked the famous 1984 Apple ad.

Google’s Virtual Visiting card

Google India has rolled out a feature called People Cards. All the user has to do is type “Add me to search”. Google will display a form for you to enter your name, email, website and social media profile. The information you put will help others discover you quickly. This feature will be an immense help to professionals and freelancers.

This feature works only in mobile as of now.

Finally, apologies for not sending the newsletter last week. Sometimes, I needed a digital detox :)

Till the next edition, Stay Home, Stay Healthy and Stay Safe

Best,

-Senthil