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Amazon hits the $1 trillion mark, Mercedes-Benz reveals its first all-electric car and Queen’s University creates a roll-up tablet.
It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Wednesday, September 5th, and I’m your host Meagan Simpson.
First up, from LinkedIn: Amazon has caught up to Apple, reaching the $1 trillion mark, at least for a short time anyway. Yesterday Amazon’s stock surpassed the $1 trillion valuation but slipped below the symbolic mark not soon after. Reaching this milestone makes the e-commerce giant the second ever American company to be worth $1 trillion after Apple which hit the mark last month. According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon’s stock has surged 75 per cent this year, adding more than $435 billion to the company’s market value. Its success is attributed to Amazon Web Services which offers hosting and cloud computing as well as its investments in industries like grocery delivery with Whole Foods and healthcare. Even though it has since fallen below the trillion dollar mark, analysts expect it to join the exclusive trillion dollar club within the next few days.
Next up from LinkedIn: Mercedes-Benz is taking on Tesla with the introduction of its first all-electric car. The luxury car maker announced the EQC in Stockholm on Tuesday. It’s an all all-wheel drive SUV with a range up to 500km. The carmaker says the 80kWh battery pack for the vehicle will be able to charge from 10 per cent to 80 per cent in just 40 minutes. Mercedes-Benz joins BMW, Audi and Porsche, challenging Tesla in the luxury car market. According to an article from the Verge, Mercedes-Benz has put billions of dollars towards making electric cars and this SUV is just the first in an entire line of EQ brand all-electric cars. The German automaker already makes hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of EQ sedans and SUVs. The EQC, electric car will go into production in 2019 and will be available in the U.S. and Canadian markets by 2020.
Finally from Google Trends: Flexible tablet screens are not a thing of the future, Queen’s University in Kingston has unveiled the first ever roll-up tablet. The touch-screen tablet is shaped like a scroll and has a flexible screen that can roll up. It was created by researchers from the university’s Human Media Lab and is dubbed the MagicScroll. The best way to describe it is tech meets ancient writing scroll. Its has a 7.5-inch 2K resolution flexible screen display that rolls around a 3D-printed cylinder. And apparently the cylinder is what contains the inner-workings of the device. The so called tablet can be used while rolled up or extended and can be used as a contacts rolodex, smartphone or for notifications. And while you won’t see it in market just yet, the director of the Canadian university lab says in a press release they hope the project proves that screens don’t have to be flat. The lab hopes to create future projects similar to the MagicScroll that could fit screens on something the size of a pen or even a coffee cup.
