Zone’s Ross Basham handpicks and shares the five best new stories on digital trends, experiences and technologies…
1. Samsung using fishing nets for phone parts
Samsung has announced a range of new Galaxy smartphones, released next month, that make use of recycled materials such as repurposed fishing nets, used water bottles and CD cases. Its ‘Galaxy for the Planet’ initiative is a five-year plan to eliminate plastics in packaging and stop manufacturing waste going to landfill.
The nylon fishing nets are turned into polyamide resin pellets used in the production of brackets which hold the volume and power keys in place. A CCS Insight analyst said the initiative was encouraging to see, but pointed out the most important thing phone manufacturers can do for the environment is make long-lasting devices.
2. Bumble’s acquisition strategy bears Fruitz
The popular dating app Bumble has completed its first acquisition with the purchase of French dating app Fruitz. Fruitz is a rising star in Europe, particularly among the Gen Z demographic. Its USP is that it allows users to choose one of four fruits, each representing what kind of relationship the user is looking for (committed, casual etc).
Fruitz was founded in 2017 and it will continue to act as an independent app under its new parent company. While Bumble gains a hot new demographic with its purchase of Fruitz, the company says Fruitz will benefit by leveraging Bumble’s machine learning, localisation and safety platforms.
3. Why employee experience must be a priority
To mark the release of our inaugural EX50 report (which you can download here), Zone, Cognizant Digital Experience, People Management Insight and Management Today came together on a collaborative employee experience webinar to discuss the billion dollar question: how do you give your people what they want?
The webinar featured contributions from industry leaders — some of whom were recently acknowledged in the EX50 report, a celebration of champions of EX — trying to shed light on how businesses can effectively nurture EX in the workplace. You can read a summary of the webinar here and watch the entire discussion here.
4. NHS funding for cancer diagnosis technology
An NHS-backed competition has awarded eight late-stage innovation projects a total of £9m in funding to develop cancer diagnosis technologies. The funding was awarded by SBRI Healthcare, an NHS initiative that has supported over 200 companies to develop technologies designed to address unmet health needs.
Technologies that secured the funding include image diagnostic software, AI and cloud-based services. The largest allocation went to Qure.ai, which received £3.2m to test its chest X-ray AI tech. It will conduct a research programme to analyse the detection of long nodules on chest X-rays, which can indicate lung cancer is present.
5. Esports to be part of Commonwealth Games
Esports are to be included as a pilot event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The inaugural Commonwealth Esports Championships will have separate branding, medals and organisation. But the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) says esports could become a part of the full programme by 2026.
The news has traditionalists up in arms, but others believe such moves are needed to engage younger audiences. CGF president Dame Louise Martin said: “”This will allow us to review the long-term relationship between the Commonwealth Games and esports as we continue to evolve and explore future editions of our event.”
