Why is TikTok a threat to the elections and what role do Israeli companies have in Bitcoin's surge?

CTech Daily Roundup: The tech market marches on, despite 2020 setbacks from Covid-19

CTech 22:4203.01.21
Technology may have helped us survive Covid-19, but at what cost? Work from home and remote learning, cyberattacks, and the gig economy, the

Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the already scorching tech development landscape. Some of the changes that defined 2020 will remain in place far beyond 2021 as will some of the mistakes. Read more

 

Child's Play? Edgify’s new kid’s book educates about themes of AI collaboration. The book introduces a group of fish who share information to make better decisions - just like its edge computing AI framework. Read more

 

Scientist. Photo: Reuters Scientist. Photo: Reuters

 

Interview | “Israel must transition from the Startup Nation to the Innovation Nation.” Yizhar Shai, Israel’s Minister of Science and Technology discusses his hopes to see SpaceX open a local branch, joint scientific agreements with the UAE, a homegrown Covid-19 vaccine, and Israel staying out of the U.S.-China trade war. Read more

 

HR Post Covid | ControlUp is ready to recharge its ‘party power’ after Covid-19. Aside from the collaborations and Happy Hours, the employees at the IT operations company are looking forward to continuing their parties that last until dawn. Read more

 

Analysis | “The biggest attack on the elections will come from the TikTok platform.” The next election campaign round is shifting from the streets to digital platforms, and it’s going to be dirty. TikTok provides a space free of censorship, and the combination of voting apps and WhatsApp groups may become conspiracy theories superspreaders. Read more

 

Food For Mood: How myAir blends natural ingredients with artificial intelligence to manage stress. The company tracks your stress levels and provides personalized nutrition bars for your mental and emotional health each month. Read more

 

Interview | The Israeli lab where the cars of the future are being formulated. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Innovation Lab in Tel Aviv aims is to advance state-of-the-art mobility, with a main focus on vision sensors, cybersecurity, data, and AI. Read more  

 

Analysis | Tech Trends: Five reasons why 2021 will be as least as bad as 2020. Tech companies will grow stronger, computer systems will continue to leak private data, and elections are still at risk of manipulation. Read more

 

2020 was not all doom and gloom: 8 positive takeaways from the past year. From peace in the Middle East to the rise of telemedicine, Calcalist reporters highlight the positive aspects of the historic year and technology’s key role in them. Read more

 

Israel-based IMedis receives CE approval for radiology scans in EU. The company operates as part of Teva and Philips’ investment platform, Sanara Ventures. Read more

 

Shareitt raises $2 million in seed for its cashless trading platform. Its social platform allows users to ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ second-hand items without the use of money. Read more

 

The tech market marches on, despite 2020 setbacks from Covid-19. On Wednesday, Fusion LA and Pearl Cohen held their exclusive annual Trends and Forecast for 2020-2021 VCs conference, this year – on Zoom. StageOne’s Tal Slobodkin, S Capital’s Aya Peterburg, and Bessemer Venture Partners’s Amit Karp weighed in. Read more

 

Cryptocurrency tokens are securities not assets, rules Israel Securities Authority. Israeli startup Kirobo unsuccessfully tried to convince the ISA that it will be issuing a utility token rather than a security token and therefore should not be subject to the same regulations. Read more

 

Opinion | Bitcoin is booming and Israel’s blockchain infrastructure and security startups hold a major key to the cryptocurrency revolution. "We are at the beginning of a revolution, with insane amounts of capital flowing from legacy institutions to Bitcoin and alternative coins. Trust and security solutions are critical for this financial revolution." Read more