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UrbanGeekz CEO Kunbi Tinuoye Joins TechLifeSteph To Discuss AI And Entrepreneurship

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PHILADELPHIA, July 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — UrbanGeekz founder and CEO Kunbi Tinuoye recently joined WURD’s TechLifeSteph host Stephanie Humphrey for a wide-ranging conversation exploring artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, the future of digital media, and several recent stories published on UrbanGeekz.

During the interview, Humphrey invited Tinuoye to discuss the inspiration behind UrbanGeekz. The conversation also explored recent UrbanGeekz reporting on media entrepreneur Byron Allen’s proposed BuzzFeed deal, Calendly founder Tope Awotona’s path to building a billion-dollar company, and the growing wave of AI-first startups attracting investor attention.

Founded in 2015, UrbanGeekz was launched to address a gap in the media landscape. Drawing on her experience as a journalist at the BBC and later at theGrio, which at the time was part of NBC News, Tinuoye spotted a clear issue: media outlets often overlooked or underrepresented premium stories about technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation centered on Black and Latinx communities.

“While there was strong coverage of entertainment and lifestyle, there was very little focus on the innovators, entrepreneurs, founders, and technology leaders shaping the future,” said Tinuoye during the interview on Life and Tech With TechLifeSteph. “UrbanGeekz was built to inspire through representation,” she added. Its mission is to show what’s possible for underserved communities by highlighting success in technology, entrepreneurship, and the innovation economy.

More than a decade later, UrbanGeekz has established itself as a leading voice in multicultural technology journalism, spotlighting founders, investors, executives, and innovators who are often absent from mainstream coverage.

Navigating the Future of Media

A key focus of the discussion was the rapidly changing digital media landscape and the role of innovation in ensuring long-term sustainability.

Tinuoye pointed to media entrepreneur Byron Allen’s recent acquisition of a majority stake in BuzzFeed as an example of how media organizations are adapting to evolving audience behavior, artificial intelligence, and shifting monetization models.

The conversation explored how publishers are increasingly embracing video-first strategies, AI-powered content tools, and new distribution channels to remain competitive as algorithms and audience preferences continue to evolve.

“Media companies must continue innovating if they want to remain relevant,” Tinuoye noted. The industry is changing quickly, and organizations that embrace new technologies while maintaining quality journalism will be best positioned for success.

Lessons from Black Billionaire Founders

The interview also examined lessons from successful Black and Latinx entrepreneurs featured on UrbanGeekz.

Among those highlighted was Calendly founder Tope Awotona, whose journey illustrates an alternative path to startup success. Rather than pursuing rapid growth fueled by early venture capital, Awotona built a profitable business before raising significant outside investment, allowing him to maintain substantial ownership and control.

Tinuoye emphasized that many founders from underrepresented backgrounds often focus on long-term sustainability, wealth creation, and legacy-building rather than prioritizing short-term valuations.

“Many entrepreneurs are thinking beyond simply becoming the next unicorn,” she explained. They’re focused on creating generational wealth, maintaining ownership, and building businesses that can endure for decades.

AI’s Growing Impact on Entrepreneurship

Artificial intelligence was another major theme throughout the discussion.

Referencing a recent UrbanGeekz story about Yale students who secured $5.1 million in funding for the AI-powered social networking platform Series, Tinuoye highlighted the increasing importance of AI-first business models in attracting investor interest. The conversation explored how venture capital firms are actively seeking startups that integrate artificial intelligence into their core products and operations, rather than treating AI as an add-on feature.

Tinuoye also highlighted how transparency, building in public, and community engagement have helped Series build momentum and attract investor interest.

“The startup is gaining attention today and building in public,” she said.

Looking Ahead: UrbanGeekz 50 2026

The interview also provided insight into initiatives currently underway at UrbanGeekz. Among them is the upcoming UrbanGeekz 50, an annual flagship list that celebrates the most influential multicultural innovators in technology. Verticals include venture capital, entrepreneurship, and business leadership.

Inspired by prominent industry recognition listicles, the list spotlights individuals making significant contributions to innovation while helping increase visibility for underrepresented leaders across the global technology ecosystem. UrbanGeekz is also expanding its coverage of Pan-African markets, reflecting growing investor interest and entrepreneurial activity across the continent.

Inspiring the Next Generation

Throughout the conversation, one message remained constant: representation matters.

At its core, UrbanGeekz remains committed to its founding mission of inspiring innovators through storytelling. Through its website, newsletter, social media channels, and original reporting, the platform continues to showcase diverse leaders breaking barriers in technology, business, science, and entrepreneurship.

As the conversation concluded, Tinuoye and Humphrey emphasized the importance of representation and visibility in inspiring young people to pursue careers in technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation. The segment was facilitated by a partnership with URL Media, a national network of multicultural publishers.

About UrbanGeekz

UrbanGeekz is an African American, Latinx, and multicultural digital news platform focused on technology, business, science, and entrepreneurship. The groundbreaking video-centric multimedia platform covers tech, startups, and business. Its mission is to make tech ‘cool’ and accessible while highlighting innovative careers and STEM-related fields as exciting and rewarding paths, especially for women and underrepresented groups.

About Life and Tech with TechLifeSteph

“Life and Tech with TechLifeSteph” is a weekly one-hour show on WURD Radio, broadcasting in the Philadelphia region on 900 AM and 96.1 FM, and streaming online, through radio apps, and on social platforms, including Facebook. The show explores technology topics designed to help audiences feel more empowered as they incorporate tech into their daily lives.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/urbangeekz-ceo-kunbi-tinuoye-joins-techlifesteph-to-discuss-ai-and-entrepreneurship-302817119.html

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He Sold Everything and Moved to Colombia for Her. Then Built the Translator They Needed and Named It After Her.

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Nayerly, a patent-pending iPhone app, is the first translator both people can talk over at once. Fully offline, 22 languages.

EDMONDS, Wash., Aug. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Michael Wilson sold everything he owned and left the US for Colombia to be with the woman he loved. They did not share a language.

Every translator they tried forced them to take turns: one speaks, stops, waits for playback, and only then can the other answer. It worked. It also turned every conversation into a transaction.

So he built his own, alone, and named it after her. Nayerly is now on the App Store.

Nayerly is full duplex, meaning it listens and speaks at the same time instead of taking turns. The app keeps listening while it is speaking, so you can talk over the translation, and it keeps listening when more than one person talks, so two people can talk over each other and it still works. No phone passed back and forth. It works like a personal interpreter sitting between you.

“Every other translator is a walkie-talkie. You talk, you stop, you wait,” Wilson said. “I built this so I could speak better with someone I love. That is the only way you make a real connection. It works so well you forget you are using it and start talking over each other.”

Everything runs on the device. All 22 language models download during setup, so it works with no Wi-Fi and no signal – on a plane, abroad, off the grid – and no audio ever leaves the phone. Hands-free works with any AirPods, not just the premium ones.

Key features:

– Full duplex: listens and speaks at the same time, so you can talk over the translation and over each other
– 100% offline in 22 languages, including Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Ukrainian
– Hands-free with any AirPods
– Private by design: audio is never recorded or stored
– Free to download, 10 minutes of translation daily

Unlimited use is $1.99 per month during launch, billed annually. A one-time lifetime option includes Apple Family Sharing. New languages will be added in future updates at no additional cost to existing users.

Videos of Wilson and his girlfriend using Nayerly in Colombia, both speaking at once in English and Spanish, are on Instagram at instagram.com/nayerlyapp and TikTok at tiktok.com/@nayerlyapp.

Availability

On the App Store for iPhone now: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6762064110
More: https://nayerly.com 

About Nayerly
Nayerly is an independent iPhone app built alone by Michael Wilson and named for the woman he built it for. It exists so two people without a shared language can just talk.

Media Contact
Michael Wilson
Founder, Nayerly
421311@email4pr.com
425-220-5237

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/he-sold-everything-and-moved-to-colombia-for-her-then-built-the-translator-they-needed-and-named-it-after-her-302859030.html

SOURCE Nayerly

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Eleven GovTech Startups Named to Pitch at State of GovTech 2026

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Companies from across the country will pitch live to government and investor judges in Montgomery County, Maryland, September 9–10. Registration is free for government employees.

SILVER SPRING, Md., Aug. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — CivStart today announced the eleven startups selected to pitch at State of GovTech 2026, the organization’s seventh annual national govtech summit, taking place September 9–10 at the Silver Spring Civic Building in Montgomery County, Maryland.

The selected companies span permitting, public safety, emergency management, grant administration, constituent services, and civic infrastructure finance. They will pitch live on the main stage to a judging panel drawn from local government, county technology leadership, and the govtech investment community.

The 2026 Startup Cohort

Appellate  (Bentonville, AR) — system of record for police towing and vehicle custodyAyla  (Washington, D.C.) — public-sector recruiting on a live government labor-market data engineCODICE  (Washington, D.C.) — no-code permitting, licensing, and inspections platformGostly  (Westminster, MD) — real-time command center for urban infrastructureGrantwell  (Los Angeles, CA) — AI grant management across the full lifecycleGreen Stream Technologies (Wake Forest, NC) — flood and weather early warning systemsGovstream  (Seattle, WA) — AI-driven permitting intakeLabrynth  (US, Australia, EU, UK) — AI-native regulatory intelligence for permittingManyBond — crowdfinancing for community-supported local investmentReadyly  (Connecticut) — agentic AI resolving resident inquiries across every channelSamora AI  (Bellevue, WA) — multilingual voice AI for citizen information lines

The Judging Panel

Hillary Orr, Deputy Director of Transportation, City of Alexandria, Virginia Rita Reynolds, Director of Public Sector, CAI Thao Hill, Co-Founder and CEO, Govinity Tom Spenger, CEO, SOVRA Eyal Feder-Levy, CEO, Zencity

The pitch competition is one part of a two-day agenda built around working sessions rather than passive programming. Attendees draft AI use policies, run live cybersecurity breach simulations, and bring unresolved problems from their own jurisdictions to work through with peers.

State of GovTech 2026 is expected to draw more than 200 attendees, split roughly evenly between public sector leaders and the entrepreneurs, investors, and industry practitioners who serve them. The venue sits directly on the Washington Metro, and registration is free for government employees. Full agenda and registration at civstart.com/sogt26.

About CivStart

CivStart is a govtech organization connecting government leaders with the technology solutions and entrepreneurs solving public sector challenges. Through its accelerator programs, industry events, and products including Clarity and GovFit, CivStart helps state and local governments define their challenges and find partners equipped to solve them. State of GovTech is CivStart’s flagship annual summit, now in its seventh year. Learn more at civstart.com.

Media Contact:

Nick Lyell

Co-Founder & COO

421351@email4pr.com | 608.234.2166

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/eleven-govtech-startups-named-to-pitch-at-state-of-govtech-2026-302859026.html

SOURCE CivStart

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Goodix Unveils New Generation Touch Screen Controllers for Medium and Large Displays

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SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Goodix has launched its new-generation GT9976 series of high-performance touch screen controllers for medium and large displays, targeting premium flexible OLED tablets, foldable smartphone main screens, and other smart devices. Delivering major upgrades in gaming control, touch performance in challenging environments, and active stylus support, the series enables device makers to create differentiated large-screen products for gaming, work, and learning.

As an early commercial deployment of the series, Lenovo’s latest Legion Y700 Wuji gaming flagship tablet and Tab Pen Pro 2 integrate Goodix’s innovative portfolio, including the GT9976N touch screen controller, an active stylus driver chip, and an ultra-narrow side-key capacitive fingerprint sensor, to deliver a more responsive and immersive user experience.

Faster Response for Smoother Large-Screen Interaction

High-refresh-rate displays used in competitive gaming place greater demands on touch response and data processing. The GT9976 series features Goodix’s proprietary full-screen parallel sensing architecture, which achieves a higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) within a shorter scan time — significantly accelerating finger-signal capture and processing efficiency.

Supporting 7- to 9.5-inch flexible OLED displays, the new series delivers industry-leading touch report rates and instant sampling rates. From everyday browsing and app switching to sudden stops, sharp turns and rapid multi-taps in high-frame-rate games, the GT9976 series ensures smooth, precise, and highly responsive touch interaction.

Reliable, High-Precision Touch Performance in Demanding Conditions

To address the noise interference from flexible OLED panels under heavy system loads, the GT9976 series adopts an industry-leading high-noise-suppression analog front end (AFE) sampling architecture that doubles SNR over the previous generation. Combined with Goodix’s proprietary gaming algorithms, the controllers accurately identify valid touch signals even in complex noise environments, delivering stable, precise coordinate data at all times.

In demanding scenarios such as FPS, MOBA and rhythm games, the GT9976 series combines a higher SNR, high-speed scanning and sampling, and enhanced real-time noise monitoring with frequency-hopping technology to enable faster tap response and stable multi-finger control without jitter or drift. This improves responsiveness and tracking accuracy for pixel-level actions such as flick aiming, recoil control, combo execution and movement.

The series also integrates advanced dual-mode self- and mutual-capacitance sensing with complementary algorithms to improve palm rejection, effectively reducing false touches caused by grip and edge contact. Dedicated optimization for sweaty hands, wet fingers and gaming finger sleeves helps maintain sensitive and stable touch performance under challenging real-world conditions.

Enhanced Active Stylus Support for Productivity and Creativity

For mobile productivity, education and professional drawing, the GT9976 series also delivers significantly enhanced active stylus performance. When paired with Goodix active stylus driver chip, the solution supports a 360Hz pen report rate. Together with Goodix’s proprietary stylus anti-interference algorithm, it achieves outstanding linearity and precision — accurately reproducing every stroke for tasks such as note-taking, fine annotation, sketching, and handwriting practice.

For flagship OLED tablets with large screens, Goodix also offers the GT7A series, which supports display sizes ranging from 10 to 14 inches while delivering the same high overall performance, further strengthening its portfolio for mid- to large-size touch applications. Both the GT9976 and GT7A series have been validated by leading device brands and display panel manufacturers, and are set to be adopted in foldable smartphones, gaming tablets, and slim flagship tablets — enabling smoother, more precise, and more reliable large-screen interaction.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/goodix-unveils-new-generation-touch-screen-controllers-for-medium-and-large-displays-302859395.html

SOURCE Goodix

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