The brutal killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man in Minneapolis is one of the most unfortunate incidents that happened this year. Thousands of people all over the nation are showing their support for the Black community in fight against racism.

George Floyd’s death has brought forth the issue of racism once again, and like everybody else, the tech community is deeply saddened by this event. Tech leaders from all over the world are talking about George Floyd’s death and how they are against racism.

All tech leaders have been releasing their statements after the unfortunate event of George Floyd’s death. The big question is if the big tech companies will walk the talk? Only statements will not work here, but we need strong anti-racism policies to be implemented and followed by all tech companies.

Otherwise, these statements which are publicized on Social Media will earn tech leaders good PR, but nothing will ever change. We will all forget about George Floyd and racism in our day-to-day activities, and all these words of anti-racism will be forgotten.

Leaders from the Tech Industry have released similar statements before as well about racism and police killings of unarmed Black people, and this is not a one-off incident. If we are not careful enough or sincere enough in our approach, these incidents might become a norm.

When Michael Brown’s died due to racism way back in 2014, only a few tech leaders shared their thoughts, and most of the big tech giants then did not release any statement. Here are some tweets posted by tech leaders tweeted previously for Michael Brown’s death.

CEO Tim Cook shared a tweet posted on the day of Michael Brown’s death in 2014.

In 2014, Jack Dorsey, the then Twitter’s executive chairman and not yet its CEO, also participated in the protest and tweeted at that time.

Now hundreds of eminent personalities in the tech industry around the world are talking about George Floyd’s death and anti-racism. This shows that the tech industry has changed a lot in the past few years. All tech leaders are talking about changing policies in their companies to eliminate racism. They will be implementing stricter policies to eradicate racism.

Over the years, tech companies are making progress, but this is not enough. Today if you see the board of directors of any major tech company, they are all lacking racial diversity. We need more racial diversity in senior management.

Since the death of George Floyd, many leaders from the biggest tech companies have made public statements expressing solidarity with Black communities. Many tech companies have also donated millions of dollars to fight racial injustice.

This is not the first time the tech industry has responded to racism and the brutal killing of a black person. But, this time, more and more tech leaders are coming to the forefront and supporting the fight against racism.

Here we have listed some tweets by big tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, etc. which are being publicized on social media.

TWITTER

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey posted a tweet “police policy reform now” on twitter.

“Amid the already growing fear and uncertainty around the pandemic, this week has again brought attention to something perhaps more pervasive: the long-standing racism and injustices faced by Black and Brown people on a daily basis.” posted by Twitter’s @TwitterTogether account.

On June 13th, @TwitterForGood posted, “We’re committed to continuing our support for #BlackLivesMatter and organizations fighting for racial equality and justice. We’re donating directly to organizations and maximizing the many contributions of our employees in order to more concretely support the movement.”

APPLE

Tim Cook, the Apple CEO, has announced $100 million for Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative. “The unfinished work of racial justice and equality call us all to account. Things must change, and Apple’s committed to being a force for that change. Today, I’m proud to announce Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, with a $100 million commitment.” Tim Cook said on Twitter.

Cook also published an open letter on the Apple website. In this open letter “Speaking upon racism,” published on June 4th, Tim Cook made several promises:

“We commit to continuing our work to bring critical resources and technology to underserved school systems. We commit to continuing to fight the forces of environmental injustice — like climate change — which disproportionately harm Black communities and other communities of color. We commit to looking inward and pushing progress forward on inclusion and diversity so that every great idea can be heard. And we’re donating to organizations including the Equal Justice Initiative, which challenge racial injustice and mass incarceration.”

AMAZON

Amazon published a blog post on June 3rd. In this post, Amazon has also committed to donating “a total of $10 million to organizations that are working to bring about social justice and improve the lives of Black and African Americans.”

“Black lives matter. We stand in solidarity with our Black employees, customers, and partners, and are committed to helping build a country and a world where everyone can live with dignity and free from fear.” reads a blog post published by Amazon on June 3rd.

Here is Amazon’s tweet supporting the Black community.

FACEBOOK

Mark Zuckerberg pledged his support to the Black Lives Matter movement in his note published on his Facebook page. “To members of our Black community: I stand with you. Your lives matter. Black lives matter,” he said.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also committed to giving “additional $10 million to groups working on racial justice,” said Mark Zuckerberg in his Facebook post on May 31st.

He also mentioned in his post that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has invested “$40 million annually for several years in organizations working to overcome racial injustice.”

GOOGLE

Sundar Pichai, the Google CEO, also tweeted on May 31st, “Today on US Google & YouTube homepages we share our support for racial equality in solidarity with the Black community and in memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery & others who don’t have a voice. For those feeling grief, anger, sadness & fear, you are not alone.”

Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent an email to all Google employees titled “Standing with the Black community,”

Quoting from email

“We’ll be giving $12 million in funding to organizations working to address racial inequities. Our first grants of $1 million each will go to our long-term partners at the Center for Policing Equity and the Equal Justice Initiative. And we’ll be providing technical support through our Google.org Fellows program. This builds on the $32 million we have donated to racial justice over the past five years. We’ll also offer $25 million in Ad Grants to help organizations fighting racial injustice provide critical information.”

“As a result of last week’s internal giving campaign, I‘m pleased to share that you all have contributed an additional $2.5 million in donations that we’re matching. This represents the largest Googler giving campaign in our company’s history, with both the largest amount raised by employees and the broadest participation.”

YouTube will also launch a $100 million fund “dedicated to amplifying and developing the voices of Black creators and artists and their stories,” was announced in an official youtube blog on June 11th.

MICROSOFT

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella tweeted for the support of the Black and African American community. He has also retweeted many tweets from Black Microsoft employees shared on Microsoft’s official Twitter account.

Microsoft has also donated $250,000 each to six organizations- Black Lives Matter Foundation, Minnesota Freedom Fund, Equal Justice Initiative, Innocence Project, NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, and The Leadership Conference.

Related Article-Salesforce appoints Tony Prophet as first Chief Equality Officer

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The gaming world is abuzz with the announcement of PS5 by Sony. The internet is exploding with reactions to the new design. The frenzy won’t die out soon, (there are over 4000 retweets on #ps5 every hour – courtesy ritetag.com). At the end of the day, though, the success or failure of the new console will be determined by the availability of games and titles, and whether they can provide a great gaming experience.

Twitter Can’t Get Enough of Sony PS5

The PS4 had some great games, including exclusive titles like Spiderman, Horizon Zero Dawn, and God Of War, along with AAA games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto. Unsurprisingly, the PS4 sold over 110 million units worldwide, more than double the number of X Box One’s 46.9 million units. As with PS4, Sony is betting on a combination of exclusive titles and AAA games to drive sales for PS5. So let us take a look at some of the top games you can expect on Sony PS5 shortly.

Horizon: Forbidden West

Horizon Forbidden West is an upcoming action role-playing game developed by Guerrilla Games and is the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn. The original game, set in a post-apocalyptic world, was praised for its gameplay, graphics, storyline, and diversity of characters.

Horizon Zero Dawn was an exclusive for PS4 and had great reviews. We may see the sequel as one of the flagship launch games, designed to utilize the hardware upgrades and show the true capability of the new PS5.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is an exclusive action-adventure title from Insomniac Games. It is a standalone spinoff to 2018’s massively popular Marvel’s Spider-Man, another exclusive. Expect the fireworks from this as one of the flagship launch titles.

GhostWire: Tokyo

From Shinji Mikami and the team at Tango Gameworks comes Ghostwire: Tokyo, a next-gen action-adventure game coming to consoles exclusively for PlayStation 5 in 2021.

Hitman III

Hitman III is an upcoming stealth game developed and published by IO Interactive. Though not an exclusive, it is a popular AAA title with a huge fan following.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Another exclusive from Insomniac Games is from the classic PlayStation series Ratchet & Clank.

Demon’s Souls

Originally developed exclusively for PS3 in 2009 under the same name, Demon Souls is an action role playing game with dragons and heroes and demons in the kingdom of Boletaria.

Resident Evil 8

Another classic series with a huge fan following. Known traditionally for building games that push the existing hardware, it will be interesting to see what we get.

Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online

Of course there will be GTA. We wouldn’t have it otherwise! The Rockstar Games series is one of those titles that are a must have for any platform.

Returnal

A game based on infinite time loops, Returnal as a concept sounds great. We will have to wait though for a release date for the exclusive offering from Housemarque.

NBA 2K21

Another AAA series with a huge fan following. Though not exclusives, the titles from the NBA series are always well received.

Project Athia

From the makers of Final Fantasy XV comes Project Athia, a gorgeous looking game. Another exclusive game for Sony PS5.

DEATHLOOP

A first person shooter game, with a protagonist stuck in a time loop, will debut on PS5 and Windows. The stylish looking game was initially announced by Bethesda, but is now being developed by Arkane (the folks behind ‘Dishonored’).

Gran Turismo 7

Rounding off this list is another exclusive – Gran Turismo 7. A popular series since 1997, Gran Turismo has sold 85 million units worldwide, making it the biggest-selling franchise under the PlayStation brand.

Wrapping it Up

In addition to the above list, picked by our editorial team, there are other promising titles being announced. While early glitches will be expected (we know how it goes), the roster for Sony PS5 looks promising. Now if we only knew how much it is gonna cost!

The post Sony PS5 – Top Games To Watch Out For In The Brand New Console appeared first on TECHSEEN.

Sony has finally revealed the PlayStation 5 console during the online PS5 announcement event. This gave gaming fans a chance to see Sony’s next-gen console and games.

Game enthusiasts can expect the launch of the PS5 during the holiday season in 2020. Playstation fans everywhere were waiting for this event for a long time. According to the gaming experts, PS5 is huge, and we might be looking at the next-generation consoles that are more vertically inclined than their previous counterparts. Gaming fans are also claiming that the wait was worth it.

SONY PS5 Looks Revealed

In the PS5 event, Sony has unveiled a very stylish new Playstation 5 console that seems inspired by a sci-fi movie. Sony has changed the traditional carbon black color scheme to clean arctic white casing with blue accent lights. Gamers are going ga-ga over the looks of PS5. The pictures are everywhere on the Internet. However, there are few who are not so impressed as well and went to twitter with their views on the design and the colour scheme.

Sony shared in the event that the Playstation 5 console will be available in two versions. They came up with a new digital version along with the standard version with a Blu-ray drive. Gaming fans are still unclear about the pricing for the Playstation 5 as Sony hasn’t revealed the price yet.

Fans are guessing that the digital edition may be slightly cheaper due to the missing Blu-ray drive. For gamers who love using their PS4, the standard version will be with the blue-ray drive.

Everything you need to know about PS5:

• Sony said that they would release PS5 during “Holiday 2020” in the US.
• The PS5 is the next-gen PlayStation console, which will replace the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro version.
• Gamers will be able to play PS4 games on the PS5.
• Yes, PS5 will have VR, and it will be compatible with PSVR hardware.
• Sony has not revealed the cost yet, but we can expect the PS5 will cost more than PS4, but gaming experts have suggested it around $499.
• PS5 has lots of games, which include a new Spider-Man entry, a Horizon Zero Dawn sequel, a Demon’s Souls remake, and Evil 8.

Sony Revealed PS5 Games During The PS5 Event

This is the most exciting part and game enthusiasts have been discussing it for a long time now. Sony shared the titles of third-party games that fans can expect to play on the PlayStation 5. Gameplay footage was not shown during the event. All games were shown off on the PS5 through in-engine trailers to show off the impressive visuals.

Sony unveiled the full list of games below:

• Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced (Release Date: 2021)
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Release Date: 2020)
• Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Release Date: 2020)
• Returnal (Release Date: TBD)
• Gran Turismo 7 (Release Date: TBD)
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Release Date: TBD)
• Project Athia (Release Date: TBD)
• Stray (Release Date: 2021)
• Oddworld: Soulstorm (Release Date: 2020)
• Sackboy: A Big Adventure (Release Date: 2020)
• Solar Ash (Release Date: 2021)
• GhostWire Tokyo (Release Date: 2021)
• Godfall (Release Date: 2020)
• Hitman III (Release Date: 2021)
• Pragmata (Release Date: 2022)
• Astro Bot (Release Date: TBD)
• Little Devil Inside (Release Date: 2020)
• NBA 2K21 (Release Date: 2020)
• Bugsnax (Release Date: 2020)
• Horizon: Forbidden West (Release Date: TBD)
• Deathloop (Release Date: 2020)
• Resident Evil: Village (Release Date: 2021)

The Internet’s Reactions to Playstation5

The Internet has mixed reactions for PS5 some of which are really funny.

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8 companies that are coupling AI with music

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Zoom Video Communications Inc. admitted that on the request of China, it deactivated accounts of pro-democracy Chinese human rights activists based in the US. This proves that China is censoring content globally.

Zoom admitted this incident in their official blog. In the blog post, Zoom mentioned that Chinese officials reached out to Zoom in May and June about four significant videoconference calls, which were trending on Social Media. These videoconferences were to pay tribute to the Tiananmen Square incident.

Zoom quoted – “In May and early June, we were notified by the Chinese government about four large, public June 4th commemoration meetings on Zoom that were being publicized on social media, including meeting details. The Chinese government informed us that this activity is illegal in China and demanded that Zoom terminate the meetings and host accounts.”

Zoom mentioned that China asked Zoom to terminate the videoconference calls and deactivate host accounts because of the activity, which is deemed illegal.

“For the fourth situation, the Chinese Government showed us a social media invitation for an upcoming meeting referencing a June 4 commemoration event and demanded we take action. The Chinese authorities also notified us of a prior meeting under this account that they considered to be illegal. A US-based Zoom team confirmed the attendance of mainland China participants in that prior meeting.”

As per Zoom, the Chinese officials demanded Zoom to take action, but Zoom kept one of the four meetings undisturbed as there were no participants from Mainland China.

“For one of the meetings, even though the Chinese authorities demanded we take action, we chose to keep the meeting undisturbed because it did not have any participants from mainland China.”

Zoom said in the blog that three of the four meetings had participants from mainland China and Zoom terminated three meetings and deactivated host accounts. Two activists belonged to the US and one from Hong Kong.

“Going forward, Zoom will not allow requests from the Chinese government to impact anyone outside of mainland China,” the company said in the blog post.

Zoom announced on Wednesday that it had activated the deactivated activist Zoom accounts. Zoom also mentioned that they are building technology to prevent participants from connecting from specific countries to join video conferencing calls, which were deemed illegal in those countries. The company will release a new policy on June 30.

It is clear now than Zoom shut down the accounts of human rights activists based in the US and in Hong Kong due to the Chinese government pressure.

One of the activist Zhou Fengsuo, a Chinese based in the US, found his zoom account deactivated after he had hosted a memorial for the Tiananmen crackdown.

Another a pro-democracy campaigner, Lee Cheuk-Yan’s account, was also deactivated just before hosting an event. Lee Cheuk-Yan organizes a yearly Tiananmen vigil. He found out that his account was shut down just before hosting an event on an extradition law, which caused mass anti-government protests last year.

Quoting an article from The Guardian,

Lee said Zoom’s response was “shameful” and accused it of “political censorship”. “They have restored my account but Zoom continues to kneel before the Communist party,” he said.

“My purpose on opening Zoom is to reach out to mainland Chinese, breaking the censorship of the Chinese Communist party. With this policy it defeats my original purpose.” He said he had closed his zoom account and requested a refund.

Wang Dan, another activist whose hosted Zoom event on June 3 to pay tribute to Tiananmen crackdown, was shut down twice, said: “The Chinese communist party is actively attacking democracy around the world. They have already started to intervene in the social system and way of life in the US. The whole world should be on alert.”

Wang said Zoom’s statement did not absolve the company from responsibility for infringing on the “rights and interests” of citizens in the US where the company is based. “We will continue to seek the support of the law and public opinion, and ask Zoom to take responsibility for its own wrong behaviour,” he said.

Zoom said that the new measure “will enable us to comply with requests from local authorities when they determine activity on our platform is illegal within their borders”.

“However, we will also be able to protect these conversations for participants outside of those borders where the activity is allowed.”

“We hope that one day, governments who build barriers to disconnect their people from the world and each other will recognize that they are acting against their own interests, as well as the rights of their citizens and all humanity.”

By deactivating and interrupting these calls, Zoom has provoked the world community and forced everyone to think of freedom of speech and censorship by the Chinese Government.

Other U.S.based big tech companies doing business in China have also highlighted this.

Zoom’s actions have forced everyone to think about freedom of thought. Some key officials have also mentioned significant concerns.

US lawmakers and human rights activists have condemned Zoom. US Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, wrote to Zoom CEO Eric Yuan on Thursday.

To Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, Senator Hawley continued, “Trading American values for Beijing profits never ends well. The Chinese Communist Party has a long history of inviting American companies into its borders, only to steal proprietary information and technology and then repurpose that data for its own use. When you censor for the Communist Chinese Party, you may think it benefits you, but the only one who will benefit in the long run is the Chinese Communist Party.” View Full letter here.

Senator Hawkley mentioned in the letter that Zoom is not the first US tech company to censor the content to please China.

“It is time for you to pick a side: American principles and free speech, or short-term global profits and censorship,” he wrote in his letter.

Zoom Chief Executive Officer Eric Yuan was born in China, but he is a US citizen. Zoom has a significant investment in China related to the research-and-development workforce.

Beijing has always employed stringent internet controls. They are censoring content and blocking social media sites to control internet activities even beyond its borders to control its citizens and corporations.

Zoom’s full statement:

We hope that one day, governments who build barriers to disconnect their people from the world and each other will recognize that they are acting against their own interests, as well as the rights of their citizens and all humanity. The reality is Zoom operates in more than 80 countries and continues to expand, which requires compliance with local laws even as Zoom seeks to promote the open exchange of ideas.”

Recent articles in the media about adverse actions we took toward Lee Cheuk-yan, Wang Dan, and Zhou Fengsuo have some calling into question our commitment to being a platform for an open exchange of ideas and conversations. To be clear, their accounts have been reinstated, and going forward, we will have a new process for handling similar situations.

We will do better as we strive to make Zoom the most secure and trusted way to bring people together.

Key Facts

• In May and early June, we were notified by the Chinese Government about four large, public June 4th commemoration meetings on Zoom that were being publicized on social media, including meeting details. The Chinese Government informed us that this activity is illegal in China and demanded that Zoom terminate the meetings and host accounts.
• We did not provide any user information or meeting content to the Chinese Government. We do not have a backdoor that allows someone to enter a meeting without being visible.
• For one of the meetings, even though the Chinese authorities demanded we take action, we chose to keep the meeting undisturbed because it did not have any participants from mainland China.
• For two of the four meetings, a U.S.-based Zoom team reviewed the meeting metadata (such as IP addresses) while the meeting was in progress, and confirmed a significant number of mainland China participants.
• For the fourth situation, the Chinese Government showed us a social media invitation for an upcoming meeting referencing a June 4 commemoration event and demanded we take action. The Chinese authorities also notified us of a prior meeting under this account that they considered to be illegal. A U.S.-based Zoom team confirmed the attendance of mainland China participants in that prior meeting.
• Zoom does not currently have the ability to remove specific participants from a meeting or block participants from a certain country from joining a meeting. As such, we made the decision to end three of the four meetings and suspended or terminated the host accounts associated with the three meetings.

How We Fell Short

We strive to limit actions taken to only those necessary to comply with local laws. Our response should not have impacted users outside of mainland China. We made two mistakes:

• We suspended or terminated the host accounts, one in Hong Kong SAR and two in the US We have reinstated these three host accounts.
• We shut down the meetings instead of blocking the participants by country. We currently do not have the capability to block participants by country. We could have anticipated this need. While there would have been significant repercussions, we also could have kept the meetings running.

Actions We’re Taking

• Going forward Zoom will not allow requests from the Chinese Government to impact anyone outside of mainland China.
• Zoom is developing technology over the next several days that will enable us to remove or block at the participant level based on geography. This will enable us to comply with requests from local authorities when they determine activity on our platform is illegal within their borders; however, we will also be able to protect these conversations for participants outside of those borders where the activity is allowed.
• We are improving our global policy to respond to these types of requests. We will outline this policy as part of our transparency report, to be published by June 30, 2020.

In addition to connecting people for business, education, healthcare, and other professional endeavors, during this global pandemic Zoom has become the platform people all over the world are choosing for human connection. Zoom is proud of the role we are playing globally and fully supports the open exchange of ideas and conversations that bring communities together to meet, organize, collaborate, and celebrate.

Related Article- Zoom sees sales boom amid pandemic

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Notion is an all-in-one workspace productivity app where you can write, plan, collaborate with your teammates. Notion is also a very user-friendly app that allows you to take notes, add tasks, manage projects & more.

With more people working from home now, all productivity tools are in high demand. Employers are buying more applications now to organize and track employee’s work progress.

Notion has become a popular tool recently, and its customer base has increased significantly in recent weeks.

Founded in 2012, Notion now has more than four million users, which is quite an outstanding achievement for a company with about 40 employees. Notion platform allows users to create and schedule tasks, manage files, save documents, and set reminders, etc.

Notion pricing plans are also very competitive. It charges users a monthly subscription. Individual users can also choose to select a free plan and share it with up to 5 guests. Individual users can create unlimited pages & blocks with a free plan.

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The coronavirus pandemic lockdown forced companies to shut down the office and work remotely. This drove millions of new customers to the Zoom Meeting. Zoom has nearly doubled its revenue during this year.

Zoom has released the first-quarter earnings report for the fiscal year 2021. In the report, Zoom has mentioned the revenue growth of 169% from the previous year.

Following are highlights from Zoom’s first-quarter earnings report:

• Zoom’s first-quarter total revenue is $328.2 million, which is up by 169% from the previous year.
• The total number of customers contributing more than $100,000 in TTM revenue up 90% year-over-year
• Approximately 265,400 customers with more than ten employees, up 354% year-over-year

“We were humbled by the accelerated adoption of the Zoom platform around the globe in Q1. The COVID-19 crisis has driven higher demand for distributed, face-to-face interactions and collaboration using Zoom. Use cases have grown rapidly as people integrated Zoom into their work, learning, and personal lives,” said Eric S. Yuan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Zoom. “I am proud of our Zoom employees who dedicated themselves to support customers and the global community during this crisis. With their tremendous efforts, we were able to provide high-quality video services to new and existing customers” said Eric S. Yuan in the press release.

Zoom has ended up being the household application that people are using to keep in touch with their friends and family, but most of these users are on the free subscription plan.

Zoom has also kept a 40 mins limit on the group meetings in the free subscription plan, which made a lot of businesses to purchase the paid plans.

The firm’s primary customers are corporate clients who are paying for subscriptions and enhanced features.

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Dorsey is also the CEO of Square, which is an American financial service and mobile payment company based in San Francisco, California. After announcing that Twitter employees can continue working from home, Dorsey also extended the same opportunity to his Square employees.

“Why pull just from Square and not Twitter? Simply: I own a lot more Square. And I’ll need to pace the sales over some time. The impact this money will have should benefit both companies over the long-term because it’s helping the people we want to serve,” Dorsey wrote in a tweet.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has completely changed the way business operates. Previous to COVID-19, very few companies were supporting Work From Home policy. The COVID-19 lockdown forced the companies to operate remotely to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Employees and management quickly adjusted to the work from home arrangement.

“Twitter was one of the first companies to go to a work from home model in the face of Covid-19, but we don’t anticipate being one of the first to return to offices,” Chief Human Resources Officer at Twitter, Jennifer Christie had written in an official blog post.

“The past few months have proven we can make that work. So if our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home and they want to continue to do so forever, we will make that happen. If not, our offices will be their warm and welcoming selves, with some additional precautions, when we feel it’s safe to return.” she had said in her blog post.

Facebook has also joined this permanent work from home trend along with other tech giants. Facebook may have about 50 percent of its employees working from home in the next five to ten years, CEO, Mark Zuckerberg said in a public video.

Many other major tech companies such as Google, Microsoft have also altered their work from home policies following the Covid-19 crisis.

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This partnership will help small businesses to operate and sell via one of the world’s largest social media platform. Facebook Shops will make it easy for users to find and buy your products in the Facebook app.

“Right now, many small businesses are struggling, and with stores closing, more are looking to bring their business online. Our goal is to make shopping seamless and empower anyone from a small business owner to a global brand to use our apps to connect with customers. That’s why we’re launching Facebook Shops and investing in features across our apps that inspire people to shop and make buying and selling online easier.” reads a briefing from Facebook.

This partnership will combine Facebook, which is one of the largest social media platforms with Shopify, which is one of the best e-commerce tools available in the market.

“Shopify powers more than one million businesses that are transforming the direct-to-consumer landscape and changing the way we shop. With Facebook Shops, we’re bringing the tech industry together to help entrepreneurs succeed at a critical time,” said Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify, in a press release.

Shopify has helped small businesses to sell online for years. Through Facebook Shops, your customers will be able to find and buy products through Facebook.

“Shopify offers tools that entrepreneurs need to start and run their businesses, and they’re helping a lot of companies move online. We’re excited to work with them to help small businesses prepare for the future,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Founder, and CEO of Facebook.

This move will help small businesses to sell online during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Facebook Shops will be a massive lifeline for small businesses during this pandemic.

“This isn’t going to make up for all of the lost business,” said Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook. “But it can help.”

Facebook Shops allows sellers to customize and merchandize for their storefronts inside Facebook. Sellers will be able to manage their products, inventory, orders, and fulfillment from Shopify. The checkout will be powered by Shopify.

Facebook Shops will be available for all the businesses across Facebook and Instagram over the coming months.

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The PAYG Solar business model offers off-grid customers “rent-to-own” plans of energy service subscription, priced at a radically affordable level of $3 to $15 per month. This dramatically lowers the barriers to adoption of solar home systems for the bottom-of-pyramid clients.

“This is the third Forum Capital-built venture to close an oversubscribed funding round in the last few months. SolarHome’s investment proposition lies at the intersection of a few highly exciting trends, such as financial inclusion, renewable energy, digitally-enabled lending, and Southeast Asian economic growth,” said Greg Krasnov, Chairman, SolarHome and Managing Director of Forum Capital.

“We are excited to partner with the lead investor Uberis Capital, who have vast experience supporting impact ventures around Southeast Asia. We look forward to working with them on the Board to grow the company to the next level,” Krasnov added.

The company claims that the market opportunity for solar home systems is substantial in the region, with over 150 million people and close to 27 million households living off-grid in Southeast Asia. While bringing PAYG solar home systems with self-sufficient power generating systems for households, such as solar-powered panels, batteries and electronics, SolarHome systems also offer low upfront cost and low lifecycle cost.

“The PAYG model has emerged as a clear leader in off-grid electrification in Africa, India, and Latin America, having reached millions of homes and attracted over USD500million of investment over the last few years. We see the same tailwinds in Southeast Asia – massive off-grid population, rise of alternative credit scoring and mobile money, and a growing acknowledgement by governments and DFI’s that distributed generation is the answer,” said Nicolas de Boisgrollier, Managing Partner, Uberis Capital.

“Unlike many other renewables businesses, PAYG is very scalable and operates profitably without subsidies, which makes this business model very attractive. We were very impressed by the team’s expertise and achievements to date, and are excited to support SolarHome’s future development into a regional market leader,” de Boisgrollier added.

Under its PAYG scheme, SolarHome’s off-grid customers are able to purchase solar home systems with a small down payment. To activate the power sources, customers will need to purchase energy tokens for daily, weekly or monthly top-up credits, either through scratch cards or mobile money. The ownership of these systems will be automatically “unlocked” and transferred to the customer after two years.

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According to the company, enterprises today are lacking visibility into information proliferation across endpoints, posing a significant risk. The new product that caters to CISOs and IT administrators, states to shorten the time to identify data-breaches to 90 seconds.

ThinAir claims that the new product automatically analyzes every data interaction with real-time information attribution, for example, tracking and recording every single time a person touches information containing credit card numbers. With contextual depth and precision, it can identify suspicious actions in real-time, before threats turn into expensive, and public, breaches.

“ThinAir helps CISOs and security analysts become 10 times faster and more effective, by automating many of the tasks that consume much of their time and effort every day,” said Tony Gauda, Founder and CEO, ThinAir.

“As information becomes the primary asset for today’s organizations, ThinAir’s technology provides visibility and impact assessment. We turn analysts into superheroes by surfacing all user-information interactions, with simplicity and speed.”

New capabilities

• Conversational Interface: ThinAir is comparing its advanced interface with a conversational bot like Apple’s Siri, calling it the “Siri for Security.” According to the company, an analyst can now ask sophisticated search queries in plain English. Asking a question such as, “Who accessed CCN# 12345000001111 in the past week and copied it to USB?” will result in the precise answer, within a few seconds.
• Impact Assessment: The 2.0 includes an “Impact Tab”, a new capability for quick assessment of the full scope of an incident or a breach. Additionally, this feature has the ability to view the financial impact associated with the data, person or device in question.
• 60-Second Onboarding: ThinAir 2.0 also claims to have reduced the time and made it easier to sign-up and start using its product within a minute, omitting the long-drawn proof of concepts or on-premise infrastructure requirement.

The product has been made available in three editions, namely; Express, Professional and Enterprise. Though the company is offering a free trial, ThinAir Professional and Enterprise editions are also available for purchase. At any time, Express users can upgrade to ThinAir Professional or Enterprise plans which will give users access to longer historical visibility and enterprise-level customer support.

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