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Maria Gurova

Developed world plays waiting game with mobile payments - FT.com - 0 views

  • High-profile mobile money launches by Apple and Samsung may have caught the headlines
  • But it is the developments in payments systems in supposedly less developed nations in Africa and Asia that point the way to the probable future for wider mobile banking.
  • the reality remains that the mobile phone as a means of payment remains relatively niche even in developed markets.
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  • But analysts anticipate a further shift as more financial services and greater interactivity are added, which is when mobile payments will become mobile banking.
  • In the UK, for example, just 1 per cent
  • the mobile phone is taking on extra roles as a place to keep money safe and move it around, as well as to acquire other financial services from trusted providers.
  • services are quickly expanding to include loan disbursement, bill payment and micro insurance.
  • In the next few years mobile banking apps will become the predominant means to access all routine banking services, from applying for a loan or overdraft increase to letting the bank know you are moving house
  • So while we are working closely with digital giants such as Apple, Samsung and Google to roll out their payment services, we’re also working with the banks to create their own payment functionality embedded within their existing hugely popular banking apps
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    The article is about a shifting consumer behaviour in mobile payments and that it's not driven by developed economies with the established finical systems but rather by the emerging regions, like Africa and Asia 
Maria Gurova

8 Unexpected Ways Technology Will Change The World By 2020 | Co.Exist | ideas + impact - 3 views

  • NEW EDUCATION MODELS
  • education will become an "on-demand service" where people "pull down a module of learning" when they need it.
  • "School kids will learn from short bite-sized modules, and gamification practices will be incorporated in schools
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  • Making will go mainstream
  • not just with the creative class, but with people who would never consider themselves to be traditionally 'creative'--opening up a whole population of pragmatists who now make extremely useful 'artwork'
  • In the past, innovative products flowed from rich countries to poor countries. By 2020, the pipeline may start flipping
  • Africa embraces technology to solve health and education challenges, it may start exporting its models elsewhere
  • By 2020, mobile money will have spread throughout Africa, enabling some of the 2 billion people without access to financial services to come into the formal system.
  • dark imaginings: The end of privacy and the continued rise of surveillance. The personalization of everything and the end of serendipity. Dependence on devices. Loss of human autonomy in the face of artificial intelligence.
  • Machines
  • running our lives to a very large degree...
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    Many of things we've already discussed
Ekaterina Movchan

Huge reserves of freshwater lie beneath the ocean floor - 0 views

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    Scientists in Australia have reported the discovery of huge freshwater reserves preserved in aquifers under the world's oceans. The water has remained shielded from seawater thanks to the accumulation of a protective layer of sediment and clay. And it's not a local phenomenon. Such reserves are to be found under continental shelves off Australia, China, North America and South Africa.Scientists in Australia have reported the discovery of huge freshwater reserves preserved in aquifers under the world's oceans. The water has remained shielded from seawater thanks to the accumulation of a protective layer of sediment and clay. And it's not a local phenomenon. Such reserves are to be found under continental shelves off Australia, China, North America and South Africa.
Maria Gurova

The Climate Change Real Estate Boom Is Coming | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and inno... - 0 views

  • whole countries such as Mauritius and Tuvalu will need to evacuate due to rising sea levels. But while coastlines in much of the world may suffer, climate change will be a positive development in some areas. Specifically, Canada; northern Europe; Russia; Alaska; Patagonia, Argentina; and southern Africa may all experience real estate booms.
  • Continuing with the New York example, Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently proposed a $20 billion climate change plan for the city.
  • new cities, which would cater to the “well-heeled,” would be built in places where rising sea levels would actually improve local climates. Rising temperatures and an increase in arable land as a result of climate change is expected to occur in Russia, Canada, Scandinavia, Chile, Argentina, southern Africa, the Great Lakes region
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  • The plan is designed to mitigate damage from another Sandy-sized storm and would drastically change everyday life for New Yorkers, with sharply increased taxes and large construction projects in most seaside neighborhoods.
  • cities would also make use of newer technologies. Self-driving cars, for example, will transform living patterns due to convoy features that sharply reduce both commute times and greenhouse gas consumption
Maria Gurova

The first around-the-world flight in a solar airplane will launch this March | The Verge - 0 views

  • In around two months, the team behind the solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse 2 will attempt the first ever around-the-world flight powered only by sunlight.
  • After taking off in Abu Dhabi, the Solar Impulse 2 will make stops in Oman, India, Myanmar, China, the US, and Southern Europe or North Africa before landing back in Abu Dhabi sometime in August.
  • The Solar Impulse 2's across-the-world flight should clock 500 hours total flight time and around 21,748 miles
Maria Gurova

BBC - Future - Is e-waste an untapped treasure? - 0 views

  • Electronic waste, or e-waste, is a rapidly growing global problem
  • Yet many are realising that the gadgets we chuck away can be ripped apart and transformed into something new – brand new technology, or even art.
  • In 2012, we discarded 48.9 million tonnes of electrical and electronic products. If current trends continue, by 2017, the annual amount of e-waste produced globally will reach 65.4 million tonnes – that’s roughly 20% of the weight of all the people living on Earth.
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  • Using parts and wires from old computers, scanners and photocopiers (some of it for free, but most bought), and an Arduino electronics card as the brain, they managed to put together a working prototype for a few hundred euros (see below).
  • “In Togo, there are many people who can’t have access to computers, because they don’t have money to buy a new computer,” says Allahare. “But we have many computers that are broken and not working. It’s sometimes just a little piece that is spoiled in it. W.Jies can help people get connected, get information, and help kids learn ICT from low-cost computers.”
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    in 2012 china alone produced 11.1 mlm tones of e-waste, what can be considered trash in one part of the world, can indeed become a treasure in the other part of the world
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