AT&T Contributes To Support Students

AT&T has contributed to the field of education.

The American telecommunications service provider, AT&T, has contributed to the field of education. AT&T news reported that the company has sponsored a number of educational programs, including Pennsylvania Governor’s School for Sciences (PGSS) at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania Governor’s School for Engineering and Technology (PGSET) at Lehigh University in Bethlehem.

President AT&T Mid Atlantic, J Michael Schweder, has stated that the participants of the two programs are likely to dominate the fields of technology and business. In the current year, the organization has disbursed $25,000 on each of the two programs. PGSET has been designed to sponsor students who are interested in mathematics and technology.

The beneficiaries of the program would try to meet a number of challenges, encompassing personal electronics, three dimensional printing, nanotechnology, and others. The sponsored learners would visit the company’s Global Network Operations Center, where they will be informed about the requirements of the organization.

Provost and Vice president for academic affairs, Patrick Farrell, has stated that Lehigh’s program would attract excellent high school junior students from different commonwealth states and benefit them from a thorough university curriculum. He added that management thinks laboratory experience and a number of grand challenges will fill the gap between college and high school students.

AT&T news today informed that PGSS is known for helping students to participate in sciences. The program also guides personal and mental development of pupils. The CMU hosted educational facility would be provided based on merit. It would promote scholarly cooperation, interpersonal linking, and scientific thinking. This student-friendly initiative would let 60 students study a number of subjects, such as physics, mathematics, computer science, chemistry, and biology.

The Campaign Vice President of PGSS, Benjamin R. Campbell, has stated that the learners would select electives but also work on a team research project on which, an experienced researcher would guide them. The participating students would be fully financed by donations, host universities, and Team PA Foundation. The costs of instructional materials, meals, and accommodation would be covered.

Experts suggest that the contributions would not only add to the knowledge of the learners, but also improve the reputation of the organization.

AT&T breaking news affirmed that in 2013, the company contributed more than $130,000,000 towards different programs. It should now take steps to ensure that its funds are utilized in the best possible manner to appease the community of students. Such initiatives are responsible for growth and prosperity of any nation.

Tesla P85D Could Not Surpass Ferrari Yet Again

Ferrari succeeded in sabotaging Tesla in the drag race

The Internet has been bombarded with videos almost each month showing Tesla Motors Inc.’s upcoming most luxurious and expensive luxury car known as the P85D. The car has been shown testing its muscle power against other super cars that are equipped with internal combustion engine. So this time a drag race was conducted where the P85D with dual motor and all-wheel drive was supposed to combat the 458 Speciale.

This is extremely impressive for an electric powered vehicle. Tesla Motors certainly tops the list when it comes to other ICE cars in terms of initial torque that allow them to gain momentum. The electric car is said to have an impressive looking P85D’s impressive “931 Newton-Meter (687 pound-feet)” coupled with an instant torque that ensures a quick start.

However, once the car gains momentum, due to the fuel guzzling the car cannot keep the same pace. P85D has a relatively strong horsepower when comparing it to its electric car rival, the Ferrari 458. It was observed that Ferrari reached the finish line way earlier than Tesla’s electric car. Moreover, it also had ample time to take two beautifully revealed tire grilling spins to celebrate its victory.

As reported the Ferrari has a horse power of 630 HP whereas the horse power of P85D is 691 HP. Another factor that played an important role in the winning was the weight of these cars. As reported by Jalopnik, the accumulated weight of P85D was 4,936 lbs, where a quarter mile was covered by them in 11.8 seconds. O the other hand, Ferrari 458 has a net weight of 2,745 lbs that gives them a great edge in terms of the ratio for power to weight.

This is actually not the first time in Tesla’s history that Ferrari has been successful in ruining the dream of the electric car giant to be on the top. Earlier, Tesla previously combatted with Ferrari’s F12 and the results were strikingly similar according to latest Tesla news.

Irrespective of the fact that they have been strike of the mile race as potential competitors, it is a big deal for a 7 seater family sedan to be able to stand against the ICE supercars.  P85D might not be the winner in terms of the race but it certainly has the potential to become the industry giant due to its extreme efforts of bolstering innovation.  The company is striving to make a mark and is certainly disrupting the automotive industry on the broader canvas.

Data Privacy Report Is Out By EFF and Has Lauded Dropbox and Apple, Slammed Verizon

The EFF has called out on AT&T and Verizon for their poor performance pertaining to data privacy of users while asking Facebook, LinkedIn and etc. to improve.

There has been a data privacy report published by Electronic Frontier Foundation that is the organization for digital rights. This is the 5^th annual report being published and titles Who has your back?  This report has been made in regard to the transparency and privacy practices of the online service providers pertaining to government requests for data access.

It has been noted by the organization that there is a general transformation among the big Internet players in order to become more transparent with the data requests about the users over these past years. However, for the latest report that it has released, the evaluation criteria had been tightened and argued that “it’s time to expect more from Silicon Valley”.

The companies are being awarded by the report up to the five stars for performance in multiple sectors, being the highest. For instance one of them, as per EFF, evaluates as “industry-accepted best practices”. This practice tells the users regarding the government demands pertaining to data, data retention’s policies being disclosed, content removal requests by the government being disclosed and also taking the “pro-user” position for public policy and specially differing the backdoors mandated by the government in these digital services.

There have been nine companies being awarded the full stars by EFF. Those nine companies are Wikimedia, Wickr, CREDO, Sonic, Wordpress.com, Adobe and Apple, Yahoo and Dropbox. This points out to the improvement needed in the tech industries for the data privacy standards. These nine companies have been commended for completely complementing the transparency and pro-privacy positions, including the public stance being taken for encryption.

Facebook news reports that the companies that are doing well, however need some improvement are LinkedIn, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. These all companies have been given four stars.

There have been two companies that are signaled out with the tag “especially poor results” are Verizon and AT&T. Verizon news reports that it is in process to buy AOL, the parent company of TechCrunch. The EFF expresses that there has been a trend that has been discovered by the previous researches on large providers of telecom to fail to keep up the pace with the fellow tech sector giants.

AT&T has not integrated the 2015 standards in parallel to the EFF and therefore has a poor performance. For Verizon, the verdict stated that it should do better. It is suggested by the EFF that the company should have a better and firmer policy of informing the users regarding the government requests. These might be strong suggestions that could possibly work for all the tech companies.

Verizon Acquires AOL For $4.4B

Verizon has quickly acquired AOL which is the owner of TechCrunch. The company will focus on the future growth of its business.

Verizon acquired AOL and it was quite fast the announcement regarding the completion of acquisition. AOL is the owner of TechCrunch and the tech company has purchased all the outstanding shares for $4.4 billion, $50 per share. The sale had originally been announced only a month ago.

Latest Verizon news suggests that at the time when it had originally announced that it was going to buy AOL, Tim Armstrong shall be continuing to lead the operations at AOL. However, now we have got to know the insights as to how the whole operation will be merged with that of Verizon’s. The Digital Media Services president for Verizon, Bob Toohey, is going to report Armstrong. DMS is the advertising business of the tech company. In turn to this, Armstrong is going to report to Walden who is the EVP and president of new businesses and product innovation.

A lot of rumours have been passed as to whether the company would be choosing to keep the content holdings that are extensive pertaining to AOL along with the internet subscription and the advertising business of it, two areas that consist of a lot of visible synergies with the existing operations of the company.

Verizon news reports that the sites such as Huffington Post has featured rather strongly as the sites that are being rumoured for sale. However till now there are no plans or indications regarding it being offloaded or anything of that sort. Even then we shall report as soon as this changes or anything else happens to it.

It is interesting that the company seems to be changing and chopping other business parts at the time when it has decided to refocus where it invests the resources in order to focus on the future growth for the business. It had also been announced that the tech company has sold the SSL certificates business named CyberTrust to another firm, DigiCert and the sum had not been disclosed for this venture. Verizon will be selling the certificates as the reseller to DigiCert to the enterprises.

The announcement regarding the deal had been a short one by the company. There will be more details provided by the company in a conference call. The AOL employees will be getting the Verizon tablets as the welcoming gesture by the company. It seems that the tech company is all set to approach AOL and utilize it for the future growth of its own business and be competitors to other telecom and tech giants which are on the same path of monetization and globalization.

Instagram Gets Newsy And Adds Search For Exploring Almost Anything

Instagram has enhanced the Explore tab and also the Trending section for more real-time updates for the users.

We all are aware that there is a real time coverage for almost everything on Instagram. Latest Instagram news is regarding the revamp that the photo sharing social app has done to its Explore tab. The tab is now going to feature the Trending Places, Trending Tags, Places Search and also the curated content. The users will be able to see the photos from, for example, Coachella or Father’s Day, also will be able to scope out the spot for next vacation or also see the important topics photos that have been chosen by the team at Instagram.

The real time media is trying to be dominated by Twitter and the most talked about acquisition of it, Periscope, which aims to show the users the exciting stuff across the globe as it happens. But Instagram becomes bigger than the former giant as it has more than 300 million users and also there are 70 million pictures that are being uploaded every day. So with these revamps, it could become bigger than what it is, it could be the users’ window into almost anything, anywhere.

Facebook news reports that the Explore tab shall be introduced in U.S today before it is being rolled out anywhere else however the entire world can now use the new search which provides the ability to the users to look for tags, people and also the places only from one box.

The Popular tab had been started by Instagram back in 2012 before it got merged with search in order to form Explore. Despite it being only a bunch of scenic architecture and sunsets, it felt a little anonymous or distant. In the last year, the company began personalizing the tab with top videos and photos which are liked by the people respective users follow. However, even this time there had been a missing element for the potential of real time photos and videos that are being uploaded by people every day.

The team had been curating the content from specific trending topics already and has used that for things such as nine-photo spread for the New York Times cover on Juno storm. This now provides the ability to U.S users to pull up, immediately, the relevant topics like the Nepal earthquake photos and video or the unrest seen in Baltimore.

The most noticeable fact is the Trending section that has been enhanced and atop Explore. There are multiple trending topics based on hashtags which are being offered in real time, or even places that have been checked in by the users. For instance, the images from the NBA Finals or Bonnaroo music festival. 

Alibaba Has Found New Partners In FoxConn

Alibaba is teaming up with FoxConn in order to invest in two major companies, enhancing the relations and also monetizing.

There have been some headlines making rounds regarding the Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba enhancing the monetization plans. The founder of the e-commerce company, Jack Ma is busy doing one of the things he is best at, forging partnerships and also making new deals. Any of the deals is not a big when it comes to investment, however both of them are providing the insight on the sort of partners that Ma is interested in for Alibaba, New York-listed, and also a separate Ant Financial unit which he is affiliated with.

Latest Alibaba news reports that the first of the two deals is Japanese in its sense and is investing along with Foxconn, from Taiwan, in the robot-creating venture which is backed by Softbank of Japan; it has been the backer for Alibaba quite some time. This might come as a silly investment to people, at least through the pictures in which, Ma and chairmen of Softbank are along with Foxconn, standing behind the robot which is rather quirky named Pepper. However, Terry Gou from Foxconn, Masayoshi Son from Softbank and Jack Ma are considered to be the top tech names of Asia which points out that this tie-up should be taken a little seriously.

The second deal is surrounding the Ant Financial and also has the number of huge domestic funds from China that is giving the valuation of $45 billion to the company. It is yet far below the worth that listed Chinese e-commerce giant has that is of $215 billion but can possibly make Ant the 4^th most valuable company pertaining to Internet after the big 3 giants, Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu respectively.

Alibaba news reports that the robot deal suggests that Alibaba and Foxconn have announced the investment of 14.5 billion yen in SBRH for the 20 percent share in it. SBRH is Son’s brainchild which is manufacturing playful yet practical robots named Pepper.  The rest of 60 percent is going to remain in the venture that is all set to release the consumer-oriented robots’ first batch this month in Japan.

The investment might appear small as for Alibaba since the company has bought stakes worth billions of dollars however the relationship which has been there for quite some time between Softbank and Chinese e-commerce giant could be the driving force of the tie-up.

However, the most interesting part is to see the name of Foxconn with Alibaba in co-investment twice this week. Earlier, it was reported that the pair has been teaming up to invest together in Snapdeal, approximately the investment would be of $500 million.

Facebook Introduces See First

Facebook has taken a step to help users acquire their friend’s details.

The American social network, Facebook, has taken a step to help users to acquire their friend’s details. Facebook news reported that the company is currently testing a new update known as See First. It has been revealed that the new feature would appease marketers, who want to ensure that user’s newsfeed does not affect their content. 

Online media sources stated that the social network has officially confirmed the feature test. Facebook news today informed that the new update would permit its users to choose concerned people or pages and witness them on the top of their newsfeed.

With this test launch, the networking organization has successfully found a way to help its users to control their favorite pages. Industry sources disclosed the means by which the new option has to be exercised. By clicking on the ‘follow’ button on a page or friend, people can opt to See First or unfollow.

Facebook breaking news highlighted that this latest tool would let social networkers choose out posts from their family and friends. The update would ease the difficulties of the users, as they would not need to find out posts lost in a flood of updates offered by contacts, pages, and other groups.

The launch date of the new update has not yet been disclosed. Experts said that if the company succeeds in launching the new update, then it would not only empower its users, but also improve its reputation in the technologically advanced world.

It is expected that this feature would let the social media platform developer determine the degree to which it needs to make its newsfeed restrictive in regards to exposing unrecognized content.

Critics believe that the new tool would also let the social media measure each user’s tolerable level of unidentified content because the user will not follow a person who continuously uploads ‘particular’ type of content. It is probable that it would increase the interest of network’s users, as many people have some favorite friends.

The development of the update might send a threatening message to the Facebook’s competitors, who might be forced to follow the footsteps of the organization. The launch of this facility tends to highlight the customer-friendliness of the networking giant.

Facebook should now take measures to speed up the process of test launching the new update. Failure might result in preventing users from gathering details of their most preferred networking friends. Network’s fans are already keeping an eye out for this feature.

Alibaba and Foxcnn Invest $236M In Pepper Robot By SoftBank

Alibaba and Foxconn have invested in Pepper and also become 20 percent partner each with this investment.

Latest Alibaba news is regarding the investment that the Chinese e-commerce giant has done in SoftBank. We hope you remember Pepper, the robot that had been unveiled by the SoftBank last year. The weekend is going to see the sale of Pepper in Japan. However, before the launch of the robot, the company has revealed that Foxconn, the manufacturer and Alibaba have invested in its robotic division. The investment is stated to be $118 million each. This deal has provided both the companies a 20 percent share each in the SoftBank Robotics Holdings which is also known as SBRH with the dominant 60 percent stake of SoftBank being retained.

The announcement by the company stated that Chinese e-commerce giant and Foxconn are aimed to build the structure that can bring together Pepper and also businesses pertaining to robots and bring them to the global markets, also to cooperate with each other to spread and develop the industry of robots across the globe.

SoftBank obviously does not have shortage of money, since the company has built quite a portfolio regarding e-commerce investments in Asia. However, the two partners that it brings to the board come with the strategy, know-how and also the global networks with them. Therefore, it is safe to assume that Pepper shall dominate the real world, or to be an integral part of helping the way towards international scale.

Alibaba news reports that Pepper is a robot manufactured by Foxconn. It is a household robot initially. There are 1,000 models that have been made available by SoftBank for early consumers that are willing to buy the robot and put it in their home. It shall be of 198,000 JPY which is approximately $1,600. There is a monthly fee to which the customers are subjected to, which is of 24,000 JPY, approximately $200 for the three year contract.

CEO of SoftBank has expressed that this is just the beginning and the business version of robot shall come in the last months of this year. The canned comments coming for Terry Gou, CEO of Foxconn and Jack Ma express that this investment is leading to the one on robotics field and not just Pepper.

Gou has already been known for heavy investments in robotics in order to automate the Foxconn’s huge parts of production processes and also is in partnership with Google. The CEO believes that the company should invest in innovation and also to deliver the cutting edge solutions to the customers.

Initially the world sees Pepper working with the household chores that will assist the elderly in Japan or help in businesses. Nestlé makes use of robot in order to sell the coffee in Tokyo.

Bethesda's Fallout 4 World Premiere at E3 2015

Bethesda had its first appearance at E3 and with that it unveiled Fallout 4 which is going to be out on 10th November of this year, Furthermore, Doom 2 and Dishonored Sequel will be coming out soon too.

Latest E3 2015 conference had Bethesda on their first E3 appearance and announcements. The conference could be referred to as the most expected shocker since we all knew this would be coming from the company. Fallout 4 will be released on November 10, 2015. This is just a few months after the announcement had been done for the game two weeks ago.

Ever since the trailer for the video game had been unveiled, the company made sure to ride the excitement wave everywhere as the people are looking forward to the game. Therefore, in order for the wave of excitement to be carried on and to lift the momentum, such an announcement was needed which rolls into the release.

Fallout 4 had been in the form of production since past 6 years, as soon as the Fallout 3 was released.  The video game is going to be in a post-apocalyptic mode in Boston, with the exploration of the open world which is familiar to the people who are known to the The Elder Scroll 5: Skyrim or Fallout 3. The graphics might have looked janky when displayed in trailer but they look promising in the motion. The graphics have a specific plasticky feeling that falls into the wackiness defining Fallout itself.  There wasn’t much that could be seen but a few of introduction sequences, demos of some gameplay and a few of Dogmeat interactions happened. That being said, it looks promising.

There will be crafting system that is robust and shall be featured in the video game. This feature will allow the players to create armor, weapons and also in the Wasteland, completely customizable settlements. The company has promised that this video game should be smoothly played whether using V.A.T.S or as First Person Shooter, this is something the New Vegas or Fallout 3 have been lacking in. The entire game comes as a smooth one as compared to the previous additions. However these judgments shall be reserved till the final moments.

A slight surprise had also been on the list for Bethesda and they unveiled a game for smartphone where the players can manage and design their Fallout vault which is known as “Fallout Shelter” and comes upfront as a smart way of expanding the world without harming the brand of Bethesda itself. The game shall be out in November and all the gamers out there can be a little more excited about it.

There were some other announcements that had been up the sleeves for the company such as Doom shall be back in the year 2016. This is considered to be the first video game on the idTech 6 engine which also has the old school touches with it. Furthermore, the Dishonored Sequel will be out soon. The exact date has not been revealed yet. 

California's Authority Rules Against Uber

An American authority has ruled against the interests of the high-tech cab service provider, Uber.

 An American authority has ruled against the interests of the modern cab service provider, Uber. Uber news reported that the California Labor Commissioner’s office has stated that the firm’s driver should be recognized as a worker. It has been revealed that the verdict ordered the cab service to pay $4152.20 in costs and other expenses to Barbara Ann Berwick for her two-month long service, while the transporter has claimed that it does not control the worker’s driving hours.

Uber news today informed that the firm has decided to appeal against the decision, to which, the legal experts stated that the verdict could be changed if the firm’s action succeeds. Government sources highlighted that the California’s law forces employers to reimburse workers for business expenses.

The policies of firms, such as Lyft, Uber, and Instacart, have often been questioned as objections are raised against their provided job opportunities. The office’s decision was highlighted by the organization’s decision to challenge the verdict. The authority has stated the worker has been involved in every aspect of the driving operation.

The San Francisco based modern transporter has responded by stating that it cannot be forced to act according to the judgment and the decision can only be applied to a single driver. Company sources responded that similar rulings have been given in a number of other states, such as Texas, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. In May, Florida’s authorities also stated that a former Uber driver should be recognized as an employee, as reported by Uber technologies.

Senator Mark R. Warner has favored the ruling of the authority, as he has stated that the verdict of the California’s labor regulatory body highlights the need for reexamination of the employment classifications and 20^th Century definitions. Industry experts believe that if the cab service provider’s appeal fails, then it might be forced to amend the means by which it benefits from the services of drivers.

Labor rights lawyer, Shannon Liss-Riordan, has stated that the state regulatory body’s decision would help the cause of similar pro driver petitions. It is probable that the regulator’s verdict would attract other drivers towards the labor office.

An official of the National Labor Relations Board, Wilma B. Liebman, has stated that she will not be surprised if a large number of similar suits are filed. The company should now take steps to present its case in the best possible manner or it might fail to continue its operations in an effective manner.