News

Facebook Is Working On A Smartwatch With Messaging & Health-Tracking Capabilities

Published

3 years ago

February 16, 2021

As part of its ongoing quest to dominate our lives, Facebook is working on a smartwatch with messaging and health-tracking capabilities, informed The Information on Friday.

The smartwatch will reportedly run on the Android operating system, but it’s unclear whether if Facebook decides to use the established Wear OS platform or release the smartwatch with its own flavor of Android.

In any case, Facebook’s smartwatch will focus heavily on messaging and health-tracking, presumably featuring lightweight versions of the social network’s family of services, including not only Facebook but also Instagram and WhatsApp.

Because the smartwatch will have a built-in eSIM card, it won’t have to be tethered to a smartphone to access the internet, a feature that’s guaranteed to appeal to all fitness users, especially if it delivers integrations with products from companies like Peloton.

The release of the Facebook smartwatch won’t be the company’s first push into other market segments. For example, Facebook’s Oculus VR headsets are among the most popular products of their kind, boasting a thriving ecosystem that’s home to some of the most innovative virtual reality experiences currently available.

As such, the biggest obstacle standing in Facebook’s way to success likely won’t be its ability to create an attractive product but its poor reputation among consumers and regulators, neither of which might not be thrilled by the idea of the company having access to users’ health data 24×7.

Also Read: Apple Likely To Release 8K VR Headset In 2022

Of course, Portal, a standalone video chat device released by Facebook that sparked similar privacy concerns, is still selling well, so it seems that many consumers are still willing to sacrifice their privacy if it means getting their hands on an attractive product.

While the first generation of the Facebook smartwatch will probably play it safe, future generations could benefit from Facebook’s acquisition of the neural interface startup CTRL-Labs in 2019, which specializes in building wireless input mechanisms.

News

Binance Receives Virtual Assets License To Operate In Dubai

As its user base nears 200 million, CEO Richard Teng believes crypto adoption will soar over the next half of the decade.

Published

11 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Nour Nasir

binance receives virtual assets license to operate in dubai

Global crypto exchange Binance has been granted a full operational license in Dubai, in a move that’s expected to accelerate digital asset adoption and strengthen the UAE’s regulatory landscape.

The virtual asset service provider license (VASP) was granted by the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) and will allow Binance to extend its current range of services to retail investors, the company announced yesterday.

The move by Dubai authorities will be critical to Binance’s strategy of growing its user base globally. The crypto exchange expects to pass the 200 million user mark “quite shortly”, according to Richard Teng, the company’s CEO.

Once that milestone is achieved, Binance will have around twice as many users as rival platform Coinbase. Meanwhile, Crypto.com, another popular exchange with 80 million users, received a Dubai VASP license last week.

“We’re seeing much greater institutional adoption and institutional money coming into this space [along with] much greater regulatory clarity and a lot more jurisdictions approving [digital asset] products that bring in new investor classes,” Binance’s Richard Tang explained, adding: “As of now, we stand at about 5% crypto adoption globally, but that will become much faster moving forward”.

Also Read: Microsoft Invests $1.5 Billion In Abu Dhabi AI Tech Firm G42

Dubai and the UAE are extremely supportive of technologies like digital assets, and have already launched initiatives to boost adoption. The UAE has ambitious plans to become a world leader in the crypto economy of the future, with Dubai in particular being noteworthy for passing a new law to regulate virtual assets to support investors and exchanges.

“Global crypto regulation is currently showing diverging signs. Some developed countries have long suffered from crypto-related frauds and illegal exchanges. On the other hand, emerging nations like the UAE and Singapore have enacted crypto laws at faced pace,” said Vijay Valecha, chief investment officer of Dubai-based Century Financial.

As the UAE gears up to become one of the fastest-growing crypto capitals worldwide, investors and talent are flocking to places like Dubai. During 2023, the Emirates as a whole realized $204 million in capital gains from cryptocurrency investments, according to blockchain data analysts Chainalysis.