Google Self Driven Cars Finally Seen On Roads Reports The Verge

Google's autonomous car prototypes seen in California.

Google Inc. the search engine giant recently announced that it is working on a prototype of its self-driven cars. These prototypes were expected to hit the Californian roads soon. In accordance to a report published by the tech based website The Verge such prototypes have now been spotted at the Grand State.

Ironically, things are not as they were shown the previous year. Previously, these cars were said to be completely self-driven. However, the cars that have been seen on the roads come up with a professional driver along with override controls that can be sued for manual use. The reason why the company has come up with these features is to make sure that the vehicle does not lose control and accidents do not occur. So this actually means that these vehicles are similar to the Lexus SUVs that are autonomously governed through the “Google’s Mountain View Campus”.

As reported, the self-driven cars by Google are extremely safe and do not boast of any problem whatsoever. But this is actually very weird, since it has been reported earlier that these self-driven cars of Google earlier caused 11 accidents in total. As a response to this allegation, Google Products and services went into the details of the incident to actually give a clearer picture.

According to the tech behemoth, the incidents termed as accidents which actually took place were extremely minor and did not post of big vulnerabilities. They also argued that the behavior of individuals which is extremely prone to errors can actually lead to a better algorithm. This actually results in more safety for the consumer.

Other than that, the company has also come up with a website that will allow drivers to gauge their experiences while experiencing the self-driven vehicle. This will allow other people to know more about the project through firsthand experience. Moreover, it will also allow Google to know what the audiences think about its product. As mentioned by the company earlier, Google is keen to conduct self-driven pilot projects in the coming few years before it actually officially launches these cars to the consumers across the globe.

Hence in a nutshell, Google has come up with something relatively different than what it promised earlier. Initially, the concept behind this car was completely autonomous but now it has a human touch to it. The idea to give manual power is actually a good decision as it curbs the chances of mayhem but kills the feeling of an autonomous car.

Google Faces Competition From Facebook In The Video Market

Facebook is all set to challenge Google in the online video market.

Google Inc. and Facebook are two of the giant companies in the information technology sector. Furthermore, both of these companies are the leaders in their own market and have been the dominant force for quite a long time now. Google is expanding at a very fast pace to keep up with the fast pace technology world and Facebook is doing the same as well to sustain its market position and status. The recent news regarding both companies is that they are set to take on each other but in a very different market than usual.

According to The New York Post, Google and Facebook will be battling each other in a very different market of online videos. Previously, these both tech giants used to take on each other in the advertisement market where the competition was very tough. However, Facebook leads the market of advertisements by a major chunk followed by Google, Twitter, and Yahoo right behind it. The New York Post writes “Google and Facebook were facing off for ad dollars here this week, with both companies operating out of huge beachside booths to pitch marketers on their offerings.”

As it stands now, Google dominates the online video market. Undoubtedly, Google is the uncrowned king of the industry and all credit goes to its ownership of YouTube. However, reportedly Facebook is working on a strategy to take on Google. Furthermore, sources familiar to the matter suggest that the social media giant has ‘much more diverse set of assets’.

An executive at one agency stated “You look at Facebook and see Instagram, Whatsapp and Oculus Rift, and you’re starting to see how they all come together. It must be very scary for Google to see that.” It is right that not only Facebook is beefing up its online videos segment but all other social media companies are turning their focus to this thing. Hence, Google and YouTube will have to take certain actions in order to sustain their market status and position in the coming time.

As mentioned above, it is possible that Instaram and WhatsApp must not be working on it on the same level as Facebook is. But YouTube is still here to reign over all other online video platforms.

It would be exciting to see how Facebook bring its A game to dethrone the market leader in the coming times. Mark Zuckerberg realizes the importance and significance of online videos hence he is all set to capitalize on it.

Apple iPhone Sales To Reach 53 Million In Third Quarter

As reported by Morgan Stanley, Apple iPhone sales likely to hit 53 million units in Q3.

Apple Inc., the tech behemoth is all set to schedule a time where they will reveal their earnings for the third trimestral when July FY15 ends. The company has been extremely successful with the rampant popularity of Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. This has resulted in the tech giant to grow considerably in each trimestral. However, analyst at The Street believe that the popularity of iPhones is likely to experience a downfall since the refresh cycle issue is becoming an issue for users.

An AlphaWise survey was conducted by Morgan Staley that will help them to track the demand for iPhone for the three month tenure ending in June. According to the survey, Apple is back in the game where it might sell around 53 million iPhone units during the current trimestral. This forecast, however, remains unchanged to what they predicted in May.

Katy Huberty, an analyst at Morgan Stanley believes that the growing markets have immense potential where China is likely to drive growth for them. The Chinese market has demands that are relatively late in the production cycle. Huberty highlights that the results of AlphaWise survey seem to be on par with the supply chain checks that took place recently for Apple.

According to Jasmine Lu, the tech analyst for Morgan Stanley believes that the company will be able to sell almost 54 million units of its flagship smartphone.

Huberty further believes that if all other aspects are monitored and remain constant, the three million devices according to the survey along with the 50 million other units estimations made for the iPhone would result in an increase in revenues by $.8 billion for the company. This would actually result in an 11 percent increase considering “Morgan Stanley’s EPS estimate of $1.82.”

Apart from that, the tracker by the Morgan Stanley for Apple Watch clearky highlights that the need for Apple iPhones has now stabilized at a 20 percent higher if considering that the first iPhone took almost six weeks to its launch. According to Huberty, “"Watch interest in the week of launch was about half that for the first iPhone, but the Watch has seen a much smaller deceleration since the initial spike.”

Hence, in a nutshell, Morgan Stanley has made an estimate which will not be so difficult for Apple to achieve considering the immense popularity of their products and services with the masses. The company has established itself as a reputable brand and this will help to sale swiftly in the long run.

Microsoft Xbox Head Advocates Right To Choose Own Gaming Platform

Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft gaming division talks about Microsoft Xbox One.


Microsoft Corporation has reportedly won over several games after the company completed a successful round of Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Previously, the rival of Microsoft, Sony Corp. was successful in pulling off such activities over the past couple of years. The company now is determined to bolster its gaming division. On the other hand, HoloLens will also be launched in the coming fall. This is likely to comprise of backward compatibility along with an engaging integration between personal computers and Microsoft Xbox along with Windows 10.

The tech behemoth believes that the best thing to do now is integrate personal computers with Microsoft Xbox One that will allow gamers to choose their preferred platform to play games. There is good news for typical personal computers gamers since many popular video gaming companies with top notch games like Killer Instinct, Fable etc. will now be able to entertain them. The chances to have these games on personal computers were initially negligible but the paradigms might change now.

Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft Studios and Microsoft Xbox division mentioned how he really wants to establish Xbox as the best gaming console present in the market. The idea he wishes to implement is that gamers get the opportunity to play on various platforms like PC and TV. According to him, "As a gamer I play games on PC… I want to be able to play the games where I want to play them…” The idea is to provide consumers with alternates.

He further highlighted the aforementioned statement by saying, that there is a back channel present which he does not really wish to subscribe. It is a requirement to keep users intrigued and giving them various platforms which has now become the answer. So keeping this in mind, Mr. Spencer wishes to give Microsoft users various choices and make gaming on Xbox the best possible user experience. He states, “I’m not on my TV and I’m on my laptop, and want to play killer instinct, I want to play gear, I want to play fable, I should be able to do that and to try force people to buy something by excluding their choice.”

Mr. Spencer currently believes that the company is currently off track now particularly when it comes to PC gaming. However, at this point such comments by the head of Microsoft gaming division clearly indicates that the company is now focused towards making its gaming platform better and will also open it to various platforms.

Google's Psychedelic Picture Quest Resolved

Google and Facebook coming up with a futuristic image learning algorithm.

Google Inc. the search engine giant and Facebook Inc. the social media giant have collaborated to work on a system that will be designed to function as an artificial neural network. It is extremely interesting to learn that both the companies have not only become successful in reaching their objective that will allow them to identify images but will also assist them in automatically generating pictures through what the machine learns on its own.

Currently, the machine has the capability to recognize buildings, faces, cars and other objects of similar nature. Moreover, it also has the ability to create such images on its own. The machine follows a set pattern which makes it able to comprehend to the trends and patterns. This bears striking resemblance with the human cognition that takes use of cognitive reasoning to function.

It is said that the first algorithm is assigned to make the picture on an arbitrary vector whereas the second is responsible to match it with real looking objects. Moreover, it can also nullify bogus images so that a more definite result can be obtained.

Both the companies recently tested the images where they asked people to choose the real image from the bogus images. Ironically, 40 percent of the population was actually fooled by the fake images. According to a researcher working on the artificial intelligence platform of Facebook believes that the technology has the potential to decipher the abstract form of images. This can be done through the white noise pictures found on TV sets. Apart from that, it has the ability to locate images that are governed from someone’s camera that will be under the influence and structure of the imagery pattern.

Apart from this, Google products and services are also working on another project where an image taken by any user has the ability to detect any type of birds present in the sky. Although the results greatly depend on the quality and resolution of the image, howver, a trial and error mechanism needs to be used to come up with more accurate results.

Both the companies now wish to make the mechanism better so that it can develop the imagery along with adding more test trials so that it can assist further in machine learning.

Facebook and Google have taken a great step that is not only different but will also change the fate of augmented reality. It is extremely enchanting to know that whether other firms will actually be interested to work with this technology that has an image learning algorithm to facilitate virtual reality in the times to come.

Apple Music Likely To Face Competition And Criticism

Apple Music has to deal with rivalry, criticism and competition before its launch.

Apple Inc.’s annual World Wide Developers Conference for the year 2015 took place earlier this month. The highlight of the show were the launch of its much awaited online music streaming service Apple Music along with the launch of their upcoming operating system for Apple products.

The WWDC broadcasted Apple Music to a great extent. The idea behind this service is to bring users and music streaming under one consolidated umbrella. It is said that this service will be a direct competitor to Tidal and Spotify where the former holds almost 49 percent of the total market share. The Swedish platform has a strong position and it will be relatively difficult for Apple Music to overthrow them so easily. Spotify is not really a major threat. The service has 60 million active users among which only one-fourth of them actually pay for the service.

Apple’s entry into the online music industry is not something astonishing. The company previously acquired Beats Electronics the previous year for $3.2 billion which is said to be a record-breaking deal. Apart from that, the company has immense success with its music downloading platform iTunes.

Apple faced its first setback in FY13 since its launch which occurred 10 years back since the online music subscription trend rose by 50 percent in that tenure. So now when Apple is actually coming up with its own online music streaming service, then the impact will be observed on iTunes as the trend of digital downloads will further decline. This is quite similar to how initially Apple iPhones took over the iPods because of their mass storage capacity.

Apple Music is the first initiative by the company to enter the music streaming market so at this point users will not be comfortable in shelving out $10 monthly if they don’t know what the service actually holds for them. So the company has announced a three-month free trial to its customers so that they get the heck of it.

Recently, the company dealt with criticism when one of the renowned pop icons, Taylor Swift decided to remove her popular alum from Apple Music since the company decided not to pay artists during the free three month trial period. So Apple had to deal with criticism and eventually decided to pay artists during the free three month trial period.

Thus Apple Music does have its pros and cons but the response can only be governed once it is officially launched by the company.

Apple and IBM Collaborate To Develop Education App

Apple and IBM work on an education app dubbed as Student Achievement App.

According to a recent report by Coppell Gazette, International Business Machines Corp. and Apple Inc. are collaborately working on an education app that is aimed towards providing teachers a platform that will allow them to do data analytics of students in real time.

The executives belonging to Apple and IBM have called this education suite as “Student Achievement App” submitting the concept to the trustees of Coppell ISD Board. The global head of IB’s business service division Mr. Alex Kaplan who specializes in customized learning and education through cloud solutions has associated the concept of this application to the excitement that individuals shows when a Game of Thrones season finale is about to get released.

“The idea here is we want to stimulate adoption,” Mr. Kaplan mentioned while sharing insights through a presentation about this project to the trustees of Coppell ISD Board. The idea behind this app is to make teaching efficient and more exciting than it is currently. Moreover, it will provide new ways for teachers to work. Both the companies at this point have not revealed many details, but it is certain that through this application, the teachers will get assistance in making decisions. Many also believe that this app might completely change the current evaluation concept for students.

The application is likely to make use of data analytics in real time and technology to come up with a predictive model for the student and teacher success. The app can be customized according to the student’s level, incurred subjects, and the accessibility. He further stated that the main goal of this app is to allow teachers to make a decision in real time for the students considering their grades and data.

IBM and Apple have decided to launch a pilot program for the Student Achievement App in almost four districts in the United States that includes New Tech High School, Lee Elementary, and Coppell Middle School North.

Both the companies understand the potential of this application thus they are working aggressively to make it all happen. Mr. Jeff Douglas, the Business leader for IBM’s education analytics claims that a prototype will be ready in the coming two or three months.

Hence, IBM and Apple have come up with a major breakthrough in the field of education that will not only make teaching efficient but will also make the life easier of teachers who spend a good amount of time on students grade evaluation. This is an innovative venture with immense growth potential.

Apple Might Launch Apple Watch 2 In FY16

Apple Watch likely to roll out the coming fall, 2016.

As reported by Macrumors.com, Apple Inc. got an extremely positive response for their first wearable device the Apple Watch. As reports claim the company has started to work on the next version of Apple Watch in the fiscal year of 2016 which will be named as the Apple Watch 2.

The reports suggest that the upcoming watch will comprise of various new features that includes a secondary camera to be used with FaceTime video calling feature, Wi-Fi enabled features along with new material built models. The Apple watch 2 will b e revealed once the tech behemoth launches its watchOS 2 along with other native watch application in 2016. However, all these are mere speculations since the company has not revealed anything officially to date.

The World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) that took place in 2015 catered to several revelations where Apple announced that it wishes to device a new feature for the audio FaceTime calls that will use the Wi-Fi through the watchOS 2 in the times to come. They further mentioned that this feature will allow users to receive or decline calls through an iPhone that is paired with the device. Rumors also suggest that the new camera will be placed on the top bezel of the smart wearable technology, Apple Watch so that the calls are decent without any inconvenience.

Apple at this point has made it clear that they will not work on the battery life of Apple Watch. The company conducted various surveys and most of the users who own an Apple Watch were satisfied with its battery life. So the company will not spend time on that but will focus on other spheres that require their attention. Many analysts believe that this means, Apple users can now expect several exciting and engaging changes that will overall breathe a new dimension in the upcoming Apple Watch.

Apart from this, the Apple Watch 2 is also said to have a Wi-Fi chip embedded in it that will be another add-on. Furthermore, the company is also working on “Find my Watch” feature which will comprise of “Wi-Fi router triangulation technology” allowing users to track their device in case it gets lost or stolen.

Apple has not commented on this matter so far but reports also suggest that the upcoming Apple Watch will be available in various materials that include tungsten, platinum, titanium and palladium.

Apple Watch has become an instant favorite and many Apple lovers are looking forward to this upgrade.

How Apple ResearchKit Can Make A Difference?

The iPhone app not only benefits users, it’s designed to help people world over and contribute to medical research and studies.

The introduction of Apple’s Research Kit this year got tons of people to sign up for medical research, the initiative got thousands of volunteers to sign up within a day of the launch. According to the research studies that have been carried out lately, a large amount of data collection and information have been carried out recently covering many aspects of the research studies that are carried out in patients.

Dr. Eric Schadt, from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY, explained, "Traditional research has been constrained to informing potential participants about a study, the risks, the benefits and so on, by sitting directly with the participant (or on the phone) to step them through the paperwork and other material to complete the informed consent."

Dr. Eric has been involved with the app related to Asthma, which previews that symptoms in areas that could trigger the effect reports that on the first day only of the launch of the iPhone app, around 2,500 downloads of the Asthma app were received. This, however, would generally take researchers around 1-2 years, but within a month the app claimed over 7,500 sign-ups.

Moreover, previously Apple employees, Senior Vice president Operations, Jeff Williams and Bud Tribble covered various aspects of the app, according to latest Apple news.

According to Williams, developing the HealthKit in turn, lead to the idea of ResearchKit. In order to develop the health app, Apple met up with a number of health professionals, constant contact with the medical industry was vital for the development of a fully functional and useful app. According to Williams’s constant exposure to the health industry provided important insight about the concerns of medical professionals; medical professionals themselves were fascinated by the app and claimed that the app could prove to be an important tool for research.

Williams laid increased emphasis on the importance of the ResearchKit for the medical industry as well as the patients; the ResearchKit is designed to keep the patients engaged in bringing about improvements in their health. He added that Apple foresees, “huge opportunities with hundreds of millions of iPhones users,”

Apple is fully devoted to the cause, which is why they’ve kept ResearchKit open source unlike other Apple products; this way researchers can continue contributing towards the improvement of the product, thus ensuring a superior impact.

The open source platform that was released in April was made available on the app store; the applications cover Parkinson’s disease, Asthma, Breast Cancer, Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes. Given the gigantic army of iPhone users spread out the world over, Researchkit will be a game changer when it comes to medical research and the number of people participating in research studies. According to Stanford University.

Stephen Elop Bids Farewell To Microsoft

Microsoft bids farewell to its former employees as part of a restructuring program.

Microsoft Corporation is restructuring itself with an aim to provide efficient business process and better rate of production. The company being par on with its core ambitions has thus decided to shuffle its top most leadership.

Mr. Satya Nadella, the chief executive officer of Microsoft recent sent an email to employees which stated, “We are aligning our engineering efforts and capabilities to deliver on our strategy and, in particular, our three core ambitions...This change will enable us to deliver better products and services that our customers love at a more rapid pace.”

This measure will actually result in the departure of Nokia Corporation’s former CEO, Mr. Stephen Elop who joined the company in 2013 when they acquired Nokia. This is not it but along with Mr. Elop, Eric Rudder and Kirill Tatarinov will also bid farewell to the company. Mark Penn who is the Chief Insights Officer of the firm will also depart in September. However, Mr. Penn’s departure is not due to the changes made in the internal structure of the company but he wishes to pursue an equity fund.

Terry Myerson, the Executive VP will be heading the new team that will be known “Windows and Devices Group”. The new division is bound to enhance the personal computing experience that will be driven the Windows ecosystem.

Scott Guthrie, the executive vice president will have to take up on several other responsibilities apart from his duty to manage the Cloud and Enterprise team. As reported by BidnessETC, “the new structure, the Dynamics development teams will also come under the fold of the Cloud and Enterprise team. This would aid in ramping up the ERP and CRM business, and would make it a part of the Cloud and Engineering platform, as well as the company’s innovation efforts.”

Apart from this Mr. Qi Lu, the executive vice president of Microsoft will resume his position as the Applications and Services Group (ASG) head with an aim to increase the productivity service for their digital ecosystem. Apart from this, he will also be responsible to market the education solutions.

Hence Microsoft products and services are all set to pave its way to redemption. The reason why the company is embracing structural changes accounts for their efforts to breathe in life to the company again. The efforts of Mr. Satya Nadella are targeted towards revamping the image of the company and help them in making way to innovating without which and tech related firm cannot really survive.

Google Launches Android Security Rewards

Google plans to offer rewards to programmers and researchers for fixing Android bugs.

Recently Google Inc. the search engine giant at the Black Hat Mobile Security Summit, has announced that a Security Rewards program will be launched on Android operating system. The reason behind this program is to incentivize and motivate researchers so that they can research and resolve the threats and vulnerabilities associated with the tech behemoths operating system.

According to sources, the Reward program caters to the recent operating system for the upcoming Google Nexus smartphone. To date the reward program only encompasses Nexus 9 tablet and Nexus 6 smartphone. The researchers and programmers can almost make around $8,000 on the basis of the severity of the threat. The head of security affairs at Android, Adrian Ludwig, has made an announcement at the conference mentioned that Google Nexus is the only product line that is offering major reward programs at this time.

The program tailored by the company offers massive rewards along with recognition as well as public admiration for revealing various vulnerabilities to the Android team. The company will honor the programmer and researcher rewards on the severity of the issue along with the quality of the report provided by the programmer or researcher.

However, it is pretty obvious that only the first report regarding specific bug will be rewarded by the company. Moreover, if someone reports these vulnerabilities without resolving them to third parties then the company will not entertain such programmers or researchers.

According to BidnessETC, “Researchers will not be rewarded for every bug found and solved on the Android platform, but there is a criteria set for the bugs which will be recognized by Android’s security team. Bugs which are considered eligible are those included in the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code, the TrustZone operating system and modules, the kernel, and the OEM code.” So now it is said that the bug might have an impact on the overall security of the operating system. Also, it is not essential that they exist in the Android code to be eligible.

Google at this point has made it relatively clear in conveying the message regarding the reward program turns out to be a booster for Nexus then it will be expanded to several other devices and platforms. The researchers that have narrowed their focus to patches and tests “that revolve around security features like NX, sandboxing, and ASLR, will receive larger rewards.”

Hence Google has come up with an innovative venture that will encourage the researchers and programmers to invest their time in overcoming bugs for Nexus.

Google Pulls Out Bookmark Manager From Chrome Browser

Launched last year, the feature did not prove to be too popular amongst users.

After several months of silence, Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has come out in the open, albeit quietly by confirming that it has ripped out the new bookmark manager, and will revert back to the old one.

Apparently, users found the new application, which launched late last year, to be too complicated to understand, let alone know how to operate – and it did not prove to be popular amongst its users.

It did not happened after a long span of experimentation, when Google launched the new bookmark manager last year, complaints started to quickly flow into the Google Product Forums, pointing to the difficulty in using the software, as well as confusing enough to understand it’s working.

Despite the U-Turn, the company has still committed to improving the bookmark experiences of its customer, whereas for those who enjoyed it can install an extension for the application.

While many users have expressed their dismay of how they have been stuck up with the application, for the same reason though, there have been some who are helpful enough to understand what should be corrected.

For starters, most of those who comment on the forum said that the bookmarks manager was slow in operation; it was useless when there are several different layers of bookmarks or folders, more like a tree structure. It seems that some of the “screen grab” images give no idea about what page it is representing.

Some also compared the working of the previous bookmark manager to the new one. As mentioned, speed in the previous one was almost at an instantaneous rate, many things could be seen at once. When bookmarks are listed, the whole URL can be seen, many folders can be seen in the dropdown (in contrast to the folders and sub folders in the new one), and last but not the least, files can be easily shared, as well as exported and imported.

The endnote from consumers is that the search engine giant is requested to not throw half-baked products into the market. From a customer point of view, try to experiment with the products themselves before they roll it out in the market. They should understand that everyone is a tech savvy and do not want to be boggled down with complex products, which can totally throw the product into a disarray.

Google’s stock price ended the previous day at $543, a decline of 0.80% from the previous day.

Intel Hires New Manager For Global Funds

Intel has hired a new manager to achieve target date series for global diversified funds.


Intel Corporation is the powerhouse of the information technology sector. Intel Corp. has decided to opt for external management that will be for two big investments that is likely to cater to all alternative investments through their $14.85 billion contribution plans. The officials at Intel have now hired Mr. Aliance Bernstein who will be the investment manager for Intel’s target date series. The company currently has $3.63 billion in terms of assets along with a $5.82 billion worth of diversified fund.

It is known that the company is not only the largest but the highest valued semi conductor chip manufacturer as well. And it has made its position stable in the market. The company recently hired a manager for target date and global funds and it is now focusing on its latest target date series which is also said to be the largest component of the company’s new plan. Reportedly, Intel’s new plan is worth at $8.19 billion. Furthermore, $6.66 billion profit sharing plan basically comes from the global diversified funds.

It is known that the semiconductor chip manufacturer is the most aggressive users of ‘alternatives among DC plans’. So far, the company has managed both of these options internally. According to a source, the company is “setting the target-date glidepath and hiring various firms to manage assets in the target-date funds and the global diversified fund. DC consultants say Intel's switching to third-party management — a so-called 3(38) fiduciary — from its internal management for the custom target-date series is part of a growing strategy among large DC plans.”

Furthermore, the alternate investment percentage is also in the target date option which will vary according to the glidepath. Analysts believed that the target allocated to it in the global diversified fund in 50 percent.

The options of target date and global diversified fund include real assets, hedge funds, and treasury inflation which are protected securities into the investment mix. Also, the alternative of this fund is private equity.

According to Stuart Odell who is an assistant treasurer and retirement investment stated “Hiring Alliance Bernstein represents an opportunity to enhance our investment strategy. Alliance Bernstein is a large asset manager with a lot of experience. We want them to bring their investment ideas to our portfolio.”

It is believed that the company will continue to choose the managers for five core asset classes such as domestic large and small cap equity, stable value, global bonds, and international equity. And all of these classes will be the building blocks of the company’s target date series in the coming times.

Google To Start A New Venture In Africa

The search engine giant is looking for ways to invest in more energy projects and analysts believe it could be considering investing in a project based in Africa.

Google Inc has lately been thinking about starting a project in Africa which involves the wind powering, as reported by a news article published by CNBC on May 12, 2015. Africa, being a continent that has been witnessing exponential growth over the period of time, is still reportedly facing issues where electricity is concerned. The search engine giant is planning to expand the already working projects working in the region in order to produce more electricity.

On the other hand, Lake Turkana Wind Power project is being worked upon a massive 40,000 acres and is valued up to around $700 million and the electricity power that it has been designed to create has come around 310 megawatts. If everything goes according to plan, the electricity capacity of Kenya is predicted to grow by a massive 20 percent.

However, sources to have proper knowledge of the activities and plans of Google are of the opinion that the tech giant taking part in the project has not been confirmed yet. If it plans to involve itself in the energy production, the stakes that it is expected to have are not too much anyway. CNBC, on the other hand, was seen to try get in contact with the search engine in answer to which they were told by the representatives of the firm that the company is yet not involved in any such project and no deal has been signed in LTWP. It was also recorded that the firm has not agreed on anything yet with the other party.

Analysts, however, believe that keeping in mind the previous activities of Google business where it has been seen to get itself associated with different energy projects shows that this is another project that the firm could be thinking. The Silicon Valley-based company has been working towards eradicating energy issues for quite some time now and by getting involved in the African project, it could help in solving electricity problems even in the region.

Google has reportedly been looking for new significant projects to invest in, and these projects have not been limited to only in the United States as the firm is ready to accept new ventures in other countries as well. In South Africa, the tech giant signed up for Jasper Power Project two years back in a deal worth $12 million. The software company has also said in a press release that is working towards providing more and more energy to the people which will help the energy to become easily available for the customers as well as for the firm as well.

Bidness Tech - Pebble Time Is Not Content With Apple

Apple faces criticism by Pebble Time for not approving its app review.

Recently Pebble Time started the shipment of is the wearable device. However, the company is dealing with several issues whilst connecting with Apple iPhones. The company is concerned about this issue and to add more value to this, the company has approached Twitter Inc. to make the issue viral on social media.

Pebble Time has asked customers to help it out and has asked consumer to promote ““#FreeOurPebbleTime” since Apple Inc. is making it relatively difficult for them. App store submission is the core problem, which the company is dealing with currently.

According to the company, the developers have sent an app review to Apple on May 18 before the Pebble Time was actually launched. Moreover, Pebble also believes that the company is responsible for the obstruction. Ironically, many customers consider Pebble’s device to be “paper weight” for Apple users since it is not much compatible.

Apple is not the one to be blamed since Pebble submitted the app review and less than 10 days had passed. However, for any app review to publish, minimum 10 days are required. Pebble should have taken this factor into consideration before submission because this is certainly not Apple’s fault if they were not considerate about Apple’s policies.

For the time being, Pebble has asked its clients to access the watch facilities by borrowing an Android phone. The idea is to down load the Watch Faces so that they can enjoy the features of this wearable technology.

Pebble has also acknowledged that they submitted bug fixes for its product, but that also has been pending since 43 days. According to them the issue is the Apple Watch is the reason why Apple has been skeptical about their products. The company wishes to only develop, market, sale and promote its own wearable technology. According to BidnessEtc, “The official statement by the company remains that they have not faced any faults with the Pebble app, with the previous statement of applications not being denied access, on the grounds that they are working with Pebble.”

It is normal for Pebble to react in such a manner, but now they are just trying to create controversy, everybody knows that the Apple Watch is relatively better than Pebble Time in terms of quality, finish, features etc. but the biggest benefit for Apple watch is that it is an Apple product. The company should settle the dispute with authorities in a subtle manner rather than making the entire social media talk about it.

Bidness Tech - Google Unveils A Website That Will Keep Track Of Its Autonomous Car Project

Google self-driven cars to soon hit the roads.

Google Inc., the search engine giant has recently launched its website that provides information on the monthly basis regarding any accident that was encountered by the autonomous cars. This is followed by the second accident that happened over the past few days. The new website showcases that the company has now developed a change of feelings. The decision was put forward during a meeting with stakeholders and co-founder Mr. Sergey Brin who believed the accidental details should not be revealed.

According to Mr. Brin, “We don't claim that the cars are going to be perfect. Our goal is to beat human drivers.” He further added, “Nothing can be a perfect vehicle. I just wanted to set that expectation." However, the reports will not comprise of information regarding human drivers as part of the rides in their vehicles.

Google mentioned that since the time the company launched its self-driving venture in FY09, these self-driving cars have dealt with 12 minor accidents that were not because of the vehicles. Google has actively answered all queries regarding its self-driven cars since there have been concerns regarding its performance.

After the reports, the stakeholders have now become a staunch advocate of covering car accidents at a stable pace. The decision to make the process effective was put forward during the annual meeting that took place in Mountain View, CA. along with these reports, the company also wishes to a draft how their autonomous cars react under certain scenarios such as controlled situation, number of vehicles on the streets and how many miles have been covered by the vehicle. The website will also feature the advantages of this futuristic technology and will likely talk about how these cars can minimize the number of deaths on roads caused by regular vehicles.

Acoording to a recent report by the company published in May, Google talked about how their cars react under various circumstances. The report showed that the car has the potential to locate various objects at the same time. Moreover, it stops when any ambulance or cyclist pass by. The company’s agenda at this point of time is to I have a tough time to human drivers and prove that autonomous cars are better.

Along with several other details in the reports, the company has around 23 cars on streets near it headquarter. Among these 9 are being tested on closed tracks. These vehicles are expected to be launched soon but will only travel at a speed of 25 mph.

Bidness Tech - Verizon Set To Offer Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Starting From $199

The wireless company has decided to sign a deal with Samsung and offer the new Galaxy Note 4 in a deal starting from $199.

Verizon Communications has always been ahead in the league of trying to lure more and more customers towards its wireless business. The attempts of the wireless carrier have never been in vain and the increasing number of a user base that it has been enjoying does not seem to cease. Since the time smartphones have gained momentum, telecom wireless carrier companies have been in the race to sell the most cell phones through their network and for the purpose, they have been offering packages through which customers can buy new smartphones in low affordable prices, and also avail a considerable amount of discount in the process.

The increasing competition in the telecom industry has driven all the giants to carry out all possible actions which will maximize profit. Similarly, according to the most recent Verizon news, it has become evident that the wireless giant has signed a deal with Samsung along with Sprint Corporation to sell the new Samsung Galaxy Note 4 phablet in an incredible deal worth $199, for a written period of two years. In the deal, it has been discussed that the customers who will be acquiring the phablet will be signing up for telecom wireless services provided by either the largest wireless company of America or by Sprint.

The plus point that the customers will be receiving from the deal is that they will be able to save a massive amount of money if they buy Note 4 through Best Buy. According to Bidness ETC, it has been declared that the customers will be able to save around $100 if they make a purchase using the offered deal. On the other hand, both the wireless giants have decided to offer the Note 4 in the retail stores owned by them with a price tag of $299. For the time being, only two colors will be available in the stores, and that will be of ‘frosted’ white and ‘charcoal’ black.

In a recent survey carried out by American Consumer Satisfaction Index, it was seen that Samsung Galaxy Note 4 was stated as the best smartphone so far which surprisingly even beat the massive sales and demand of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Along with that, the firm managed to rank higher than phablets made by companies like Motorola, LG and HTC Corp.

Verizon wireless company along with Sprint have successfully upgraded Samsung Note 4 to Android 5.0 Lollipop which the analysts believe is going to attract quite a lot of new customers to the gadget. However, some analysts believe that this might not be pleased with the update due to some issues faced in the new software.

Bidness Tech - GoPro Stocks Do Well After An Increase In IPO

GoPro stock has risen more than 9.42 percent over the few days after its initial public offering (IPO).

GoPro Inc.’s stocks have experienced a tremendous surge where its stock has risen more than 9.42 percent over the few days. Since the time, the action camera giant has announced its plans to manufacture drones as well as make its debut in the world of virtual reality; GoPro has embraced a massive surge. Moreover, the company is not stopping its growth trajectory and has vowed to come up with HERO+ LCD, the second camera from the HERO series with a touch screen.

Oppenheimer analysts are keeping a close watch on the company stocks since they have announced to launch new products and have also given a “Market Perform” rating to GPRO. According to Mr. Andrew Uerkwitz, an analyst at Oppenheimer believes that the company has experienced a great tenure since the past couple of days after it unveiled its IPO- initial public offering. According to Oppenheimer analysts, the stocks of GoPro are a good bargain and pose no vulnerability in the times to come.

With the launch of HERO+ LCD is likely to cater to the persisting price gaps in its product range. So now the company is actually coming up with a mid-ranged action camera priced at $300. Previously, the HERO Silver was being retailed for $400 and HERO HD retailed for $130. Thus, there was not a mid-ranged product that was high quality and relatively cheaper. Analysts at Stifel believe that with the launch of HERO+ LCD a mid-ranged touchscreen camera, the company has provided a cheaper alternate to GoPro HERO 4.

The chief executive officer of GoPro, Mr. Nick Woodman mentioned during the Re/Code Conference that the company also wishes to launch a quadcopter by the end of last year. This created further disruption in the market since now they now only wish to launch drones, enter virtual reality but also come up with their own quadcopters.

Analysts at Doughtery & Co. have reiterated a “BUY” rating on GPRO stocks where they have estimated a price target of $65. The analysts further claim that the company’s brand equity will play a major role and will also act as a multiplier in the drone fraternity.

GoPro is thus on the right track where its growth has been exemplary in a relatively short span of time. The company’s IPO turned out to be a game changer for the company adding positively to their growth. If the company continues to grow on the same pace then there future will be extremely secure.

Bidness Tech - Huffington Post's Future At Stake With AOL and Verizon's merger

Verizon's acquisition of AOL has blurred the future of Huffington Post.

Since the time, Verizon Communications Inc. has announced that the company is acquiring AOL Inc. the future of the Huffington Post owned by AOL is now at stake. AOL was actually acquired by Verizon so that they could boost their advertisement platform by using the advertisement technology of AOL. So now one is merely worried about Huffington post as it does not really benefit Verizon and its work equation.

Huffington Post is a new website that was founded and governed by Arianna Huffington actually got several acquisition offers by various investors, media organization and venture capitalist. According to sources familiar with the issue who discussed this matter with the New York Times, the valuation of the platform denotes a worth of $1 billion.

According to sources, the list of buyers who are willing to acquire the company comprise of media firms that are operational in Europe, this includes Axel Springer, Sean Parker, Le Monde along with the founder of a private equity company General Atlantic and Napster.

Ms. Huffington is an independent lady having the expertise to govern the company on her own. So the question here arises whether she will actually be comfortable to work under a completely new management. The New York Times has been successful in acquiring a memo that Ms. Huffington wrote to the management expressing her futuristic and ambitious plans for the news platform. She wishes to work on the video operations unit of the website along with bolstering the unpaid blogger platform, focus on original content and modify the lifestyle and comic offerings.

However, the contract Ms. Huffingto n signed recently has expired and so far no renewal has been done. This also indicates that Ms. Huffington will no longer play her part in Huffington post under the new management.

On May 12 a major revelation was made by Verizon Communication where it said that the company will be acquiring AOL for $50 per stock that resulted in a total worth of the company compounding to $4.4 billion. The company claimed that the reason behind acquiring AOL was to push in growth via investments in its video and digital segment. The company is expected to use the top video strategy that will boost the company’s LTE wireless video.

AOL was successful in acquiring Huffington Post in FY11 for $315 million. The web-based platform lost some big names in the world of journalism since they thought that they were being demoralized. Along with this several big names that managed the platform have bid farewell to the company.