Welcome to the winter edition of the Mobile Jazz bulletin. We hope you’ve had a wonderful holiday and are ready for a, hopefully, revitalizing 2021!

2020 was a challenging year as we faced the biggest 21st-century pandemic seen so far. Nevertheless, despite COVID-19, or maybe because of COVID-19, some really great things were happening as well. Luminostics, a company based in California (USA), reached out to us last year. They have been working on a technology capable of diagnosing viruses quickly and efficiently using a simple camera lens in combination with the effect of luminescence. It was proven to be very successful in diagnosing COVID-19 cases with a +90% efficiency. In June last year, we partnered up, helping Luminostics to build the mobile application embedding their core technology to perform the analysis, and delivering the test results.

Only a few months later, together with the engineers and scientists at Luminostics, we managed to deliver an application capable of running COVID-19 tests and improved it up to a point where it became FDA authorized. It’s now being used actively in some clinical laboratories to diagnose COVID-19 cases with a high success rate. We are thrilled to see our code actively involved in playing a significant role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and can’t wait to share more details with you soon with an in-depth blog post.

There were more highlights to our 2020, and as every quarter, we want to share some positive vibes with you. We hope you enjoy this quarter’s picks!

Did You Know?

Our Santa Cause project continues to be a success with over €12,000 donated!

Back in 2017, we decided to do something different for Christmas. We tried the classic “Secret Santa” game in previous years, where teammates purchased a gift for another person randomly assigned to them. But by being remote, it became harder to continue with this “tradition”, plus, not everyone in the team was keen on participating.

We found one thing most of us liked to do, though, which is helping others in any way possible. Some of our team have been participating in events for charity, be it by actively running a marathon, by giving a hand in the organization of events voluntarily, or traveling to developing countries and help in building schools and necessary basic infrastructure.

Our team decided to try something different. What if we, as a company, gave our team economic support for their charitable donations? We all strive for a better world, and Christmas is the perfect time to share. We introduced Santa Cause, a project where a team member could donate any amount to any organization they liked to support, and we would double that amount!

In our first year, we raised €3,670 donated to 7 different charities and organizations. It was a complete success! And the team was pleased with the initiative. It naturally became another company tradition. The following years were as successful as the first one until we raised a whopping amount of €12,000 in four years for more than 30 different organizations.

We can’t be more proud of this little project we started four years ago and of our team keeping the interest in it, proactively participating, expanding those numbers year after year.

The Inside Scoop at Mobile Jazz

What to Expect From Apple’s Biggest Innovation in Computer Technology

In November Apple announced one of its most significant innovations: the Apple Silicon. What powers your iPhone or iPad will be powering your future Mac. But don’t just think of it as a mobile processor within a laptop or desktop enclosure.

It goes way beyond that, and the possibilities are endless in terms of efficiency, performance, and optimization. It’s just a matter of time, and the countdown has just begun.

Learn more about Apple’s new hardware strategy

More Social, Less Distance: Our Virtual Water-Cooler Helps Teammates Stay Together From Home

Since the world went into lockdown, we’ve all searched for ways to stay in touch with our colleagues, while everyone is working from home. With this in mind, we thought it’d be a great opportunity to share our very own Watercooler Bot (now Open Source) with the rest of the world, which pairs up teammates at random to have a conversation and keep the company spirit going.

How we keep healthy personal relationships while working from home

Things That Excite Us

As always, we’ve been chewing over a whole stack of cool topics in our weekly team meetings. Here are just some of the nuggets that have emerged from our virtual gatherings.

Marketing Examples
Impressive marketing campaigns, plus exciting tips & tricks!

Understanding Human Behavior
A YouTube Originals series revealing some of the most mind-blowing aspects of human psychology.

GatesNotes Podcast
Bill Gates teamed up with Rashida Jones to create a podcast series tackling some of the biggest questions facing us today.

The First Fully Automated Influencer
Matthias Winckelmann created Rachel, a bot posting nice pictures designed by herself!

Last but Not Least

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That’s all, folks. Join us again in April, with a ton of exciting new stories to share with you.