Google Introduces Fiber Phone Service Across Internet Channels

Google to launch Fiber Phone to serve households for penetrating into the Internet market

Google Fiber failed to serve some customers when it launched its cable-style television subscription and high-speed internet services without a “triple play” that included phone hookups regularly offered by its rivals.

On March 29, 2016, Google announced including Fiber Phone – phone facility over online channels with some features that come with free Google voice service. For instance, $10 per month phone provides comparatively low charges for international calls and transcribed voice messages sent by e-mail and text.

Also like the company’s Google Voice, calls could be forwarded from the new home phone to a mobile phone. The same number could be dialed to make calls from a computer.

The announcement by the organization indicates the service includes “a Fiber Phone box” but for that, consumers will be required to provide their own phones. Conventional cellular phones will work with the Fiber Phone box. On March 29, 2016, the blog posted by the Mountain View based organization did not clarified when would it start offering phone service for sale or in which market the service would be offered first.

Some consumers told they were hesitant to sign up for Google Fiber as they yet wanted handset anchored in their houses with more reliable connections than those which are usually offered with cellular phones.

For international calling, the service uses the international rates of Google Voice. The real hardware a user receives from the technology organization would not be a handset. The VoIP phone box will connect a user’s new fiber connection to an old-school landline handset.

The service clearly is an offshoot of Project Fi/ Google Voice. It carries a huge part of similar feature set. A user gets a "cloud based" phone number that he/she can forward to every phone with do-not-disturb, call screening and spam filtering features.

There is a voice-mail technology with speech-to-text transcription, which needs an app or some kind of a website. There is also caller ID, call waiting or essentially, 911 access.

Providing phone service indicates that Google now needs to abide by the 911 regulations of the Federal Communications Commission along with many other state tax regulations.

The Kansas City Business Journal claimed that such requirements were sufficient to stop the company from unveiling with a phone service option, but now it is apparently prepared to deal with these additional regulations.

The announcement suggests the new Fiber Phone is being rolled out "in a few areas to start," but finally it will be offered to every residential Fiber city.

Google encourages interested stakeholders to fill out an “Interest Form” so that they could be kept in loop. 

FBI Finally Cracks Into Apple iPhone Used By San Bernardino Shooter

FBI has finally unlocked the San Bernardino shooter, Syed Rizwan Farook's iPhone to help in investigation

The Government of United States stopped court battle with Apple after the Federal Bureau of Investigation successfully extracted data from San Bernardino shooter, Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone.

The development effectively brought a 6-week legal war to its end. A war is poised to shape digital privacy in the coming years. Instead, Washington and Silicon Valley are set to return to a simmering cold battle to find a balance between law enforcement and privacy in the era of applications.

Department of Justice lawyers said in the court on March 28, 2016 that they now didn’t need the smartphone makerto help them around the safety countermeasures on the Farook’s device. The US government had requested the US court to vacate an order given on February 16, 2016 demanding Apple to develop software to crack safety settings of the iPhone to help government investigators.

While addressing the reporters in a conference call organized by the Justice Department, an official of a law enforcement agency refused to provide information regarding the used technique other than to say someone outside the US government provided it. According to the Guardian, the technique used by the authorities has been identified.

The official also refused to tell whether the government would reveal the technique – which probably exploits a safety glitch in the iPhone – with the Cupertino based company. If the technique is disclosed, then it would presumably result in the organization getting rid of the safety flaw. This has left the DOJ with a hard choice: make every iPhone safe from the rest of the governments and hackers who know how iPhones can be cracked, or protect the investigation technique.

On March 28, 2016, the authorities would just confirm the technique works on Farook’s iPhone model – iPhone 5c – but it is possible it could also crack other models of the smartphone running the same software.

The company fought the order given by the court in February 2016 with a huge legal and public relations campaign. Apple claimed that developing such software would compel it to let down its values and betray the privacy and security of every customer.

Apple CEO Tim Cook claimed if the organization is compelled to re-engineer its devices, it would lead to opening Pandora’s Box that could provide the government a lot of control over how technology companies manufacture their products.

The case compelled public leaders from Bill Gates to Barack Obama to share their views regarding the balance between national security and privacy. It also persuaded legislators to craft a law to regulate new messaging services and devices that rely on strong encryption to safeguard user privacy.

Google Search Process Helped Iranian To Hack Computer Controlled Dam

An Iranian citizen used Google search procedure to hack a computer controlled dam, which worries the US government

An Iranian citizen charged with hacking the computer system that controlled New York dam used a readily offered Google search procedure to find out the vulnerable technology. The procedure called “Google dorking” is not as simple as a typical online search. Yet everyone with Internet and computer access can perform it by using some special techniques.

Federal authorities said hackers are increasing using this process to find vulnerabilities in the computer system throughout the United States. Hamid Firoozi, charged on March 24, 2016 by US prosecutors, unexpectedly entered into the system controlling the Bowman Avenue Dam in Rye Brook, New York, three years ago by using the process to find an unsecured computer that controlled the sluice gates of the dam and rest of the functions.

Hamid is alleged of hacking his way by using other methods after he identified the American dam. The search process has been present for around a decade, stated cyber safety experts, and is not neither always malicious nor illegal. White hat hackers and computer experts, who examine the computer system of an organization for vulnerabilities, mainly use it, said Michael Bazzel who used to serve the FBI as a computer crime investigator.

The criminal hackers also use the technique, says John Carlin, who serves as topmost national security lawyer of the US Department of Justice and assistant attorney general for national security while giving an interview. The American search company did not respond to requests for sharing views.

The Department of Justice recently alleged Mr. Hamid and half a dozen other Iranian hackers of launching an attack on the financial system of the United States. This was the first time that the American government has publicly indicted against hackers associated with government of Iran.

The seven defendants used to work for two private computer-safety companies that used to do work for the Government of Iran, including the leading military force of Iran, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The accused are assumed to be inside Iran and could face arrests if they move out of the state. Wall Street Journal was neither able to reach them nor their barristers for comment.

In 2013, the attack faced by the dam startled the authorities of the US, giving rise to concerns that reached the Obama administration, current and former US officials earlier spoke to the Wall Street Journal.

The US dam is located 32 kilometers north of N.Y. City. It is often used for controlling floods. The measure underpinned that hackers were aiming at the American infrastructure.

Tesla To Concentrate Only On Developing 7kWh Daily Powerwall

Tesla will only focus on the development of 7kWh Daily Powerwall due to the lack of demand for its 10kWh Powerwall.

Tesla Motors thought that homeowners needed much power storage than before. It said to focus only on manufacturing its 7 kWh Daily Powerwall battery, which isn’t only equipped with backup energy capabilities but also aimed for daily use.

In April 2015, the carmaker announced that it would manufacture two batteries: the smaller sized, Daily Powerwall offered for $3000 and Tesla Powerwall offered for $3500 to store 10 kWh of backup energy.

The battery systems make more sense for those homeowners who have installed solar panels at their roofs, since extra power produced by their solar systems can be stored for use during cloudy weather or nights. That backup energy option would run computers, connected appliances, or lights during power outages.

The need for more power storage is not much obvious. Under so-called "net energy metering" policies, residents with solar systems can sell energy they do not consume back to the power producing companies.

The company stated it never manufactured the 10 kWh batteries. Greentech Media became the first publication to report this news. The measure towards battery systems for everyday use, especially too much early in the manufacturing process, is good, says Lux Research’s senior analyst, Cosmin Laslau.

Laslau told backup energy is not well established in power grid system where energy outages happen briefly and infrequently. He said the automaker would probably integrate increased backup power abilities into a revised version of the battery system that the organization plans to unveil in late 2016.

Already many huge utility companies and businesses are purchasing battery storage. In April, Tesla said it was test launching the batteries with huge retailers, such as Amazon, Target Corporation and Wal-Mart Stores.

Ubergizmo reported that the 7kWh battery is offered with a decade long guarantee. Consumers can install multiple battery systems if they have greater power needs, one battery is believed to power many houses throughout the evening with power produced by solar systems during the day.

The bigger 10kWh battery system was really meant as a “home backup” technology for just charging weekly and clearly, it is not sufficiently in demand due to which, the organization decided to stop selling the bigger battery to focus on the one that will earn more money.

In other news, Business Insider highlighted that pre-orders of Tesla Model 3 begin on March 31. Everyone who wishes to own the affordable version of Tesla vehicle, and can pay around $1000 to deposit, can sign up.

After that, he/she should wait. If the development of Model 3 completes as per schedule, manufacturing would not start up till late 2017. Sales will begin following that, but priority consumers will get their Tesla vehicles first.

Priority consumers are those who are already Tesla owners. The company will live-stream the worldwide debut of Model 3 on March 31, 2016.

Alibaba Plans To Reach Transaction Volume Of Six Trillion Yuan By 2020

Alibaba plans to double its transaction volume in four years and remove counterfeits from its platforms.

Alibaba would concentrate on sustainable growth and high quality as sales transaction volume on its marketplaces slowed down significantly before the end of financial year, indicating the challenges faced by the company in removing fake goods that adversely affect its platforms.

During an event on March 21, 2016, at the head office of Alibaba in Hangzhou, China, it told its transaction volume had reached $464 billion (3 trillion Yuan) which represents a growth by 23% from 2015, with less than two weeks remaining in the year-end at March 31, 2016. In comparison, in the last fiscal year, the gross merchandise (GMV) of the Chinese e-commerce company grew at a rate of 46%.

GMV refers to the total worth of the third-party merchants’ transactions on the platforms of the company. It differs from the revenue earned by Alibaba but analysts and investors closely track GMV because it demonstrates the pace at which the business increases relative to rivals.

The $464 billion figure represents an increase in the organization’s GMV by three times since 2012 and increasing twice since 2013. On March 21, 2016, Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai told the company achieved “unprecedented scale,” as the transaction in terms of dollars on its marketplaces equals to the sixth-biggest Chinese provincial economy.

He acknowledged that the organization faces crucial challenges in future. The business expects to reach six trillion Yuan in terms of the transaction volume on its platforms by 2020.

Tsai posted on the news site of Alibaba that the organization is recruiting high-quality brands, particularly those abroad to join its marketplaces. Since December 2015, the company has laid emphasis upon “quality” growth of its financial metrics as it is criticized for counterfeit goods on its platform – and questions regarding whether the organization is acting sufficiently to solve these problems.

Previously in March 2016, broadcaster CCTV accused that counterfeit sales continue to be widespread on Alibaba, which raises questions regarding its GMV, according to industry watchdogs.

Alibaba challenged the accusation by claiming that it uses modernized tools to identify counterfeit transactions involving merchants paying people-to-people fake orders and exclude them from its financial results.

The Chinese ecommerce organization has also been in the hot seat for fake items on its platforms, with some Western companies calling for the relisting of the organization’s Taobao shopping website – a virtual market where almost everyone can establish a shop – on the “notorious” market list of the United States Trade Representative for fake goods.

The company responded it would make every effort to remove counterfeit goods from its platforms. The $464 billion landmark is not much for the company, whose co-founder and Chairman, Jack Ma, and other officials pointed to a different landmark: surpassing Wal-Mart to turn into the largest retail network of the world.

Tesla Quietly Stopped Offering 10 KWH Powerwall Battery

Tesla no longer offers 10 kWh Powerwall home battery on its website and press kit as it doesn't economically makes sense.

Tesla Motors has quietly deleted every reference to its 10kWh residential battery from its Powerwall website and press kit. The smaller battery of the American company made for regular cycling is the one that has only remained.

Initially, the change was made without elaboration, which led to speculations by industry insiders. On March 18, 2016, a representative of Tesla confirmed the 10kwh battery would no longer be offered.

The 10kwh battery was promoted as a backup energy supply capable of powering 500 cycles. It was offered at a price of $3500 to installers. The automaker was angling to deliver the battery to consumers interested in uninterrupted power supply when the energy grid stops working, such as experienced during a storm Sandy storm.

The problem is that the lithium-ion backup battery is economically not attractive. Even at the low wholesale price charged by Tesla, the battery does not look comparatively better than its alternatives; especially if the costs of inverter and other systems are included. High-tech backup generators offered by companies such as Cummins and Generac are sold at a price of $5000 or less. These companies also provide financing, which leads to the removal of any advantage the company may claim by financing itself, as pointed by Jeff St John of GTM.

In California, batteries can take advantage of the Self-Generation Incentive Program of the state, but regulatory bodies of California indicated that batteries should be able to cycle five times per week, which excludes the larger battery of Tesla.

Backup energy alone simply does not have a case as strong as using a battery system for the purpose of self-consumption. An analysis by GTM Research for residential storage, only for self-consumption or time-of-use shifting, revealed that economic factor pan out only in certain situations. In Hawaii, for example, under the new self-supply tariff offered by the state seems somewhat more attractive than solar power under the grid supply option.

Tesla seems to be concentrating its efforts on markets and first movers where storing for self-consumption and power arbitrage economically makes sense. Even after the removal of 10kwh option, Powerwall website has kept offering specifications for the 6.4 kwh battery of the company made for daily cycling applications, like load shifting.

The battery is warrantied for a decade, or approximately 5000 cycles, with 100% depth of discharge. It is offered to installers at a wholesale price of $3000. The smaller battery is often promoted as 7kwh, which would seem to be offered at a price of $429 per kwh. Actually, it is 6.4 kWh battery offered a price of $469 per kwh.

A cheaper integrated battery could earlier be included to Tesla lineup. In January 2016, CEO Elon Musk announced new Powerwall option to be launched this summer.

CCTV Criticizes Alibaba For Not Removing Counterfeits From Taobao

Alibaba is criticized by CCTV and Western brands for its failure to remove fakes from its largest shopping platform 'Taobao' where sellers try to get fake orders to improve their ratings.

After criticizing international companies, ranging from McDonald’s Corporation to Apple in the past years, the powerful state broadcaster of China has targeted Alibaba, pressurizing the Chinese e-commerce company to deal with bogus sales on its trading platforms.

In a two-hour long prime-time broadcast on March 15, 2016, China Central Television said “brushing” or faking orders, as it is known in China, continues to be widespread on the biggest trading platform of the online trading company, Taobao. The practice involves merchants paying people to give fake orders and sales figures of past suppliers to improve their position on online markets.

Spokesman of the Hangzhou based company told that the problem is plaguing online trading sites across the globe. Western brands are also criticizing Alibaba by saying that it is not acting sufficiently to launch a crackdown against counterfeit items on its trading platforms.

Previous week, Jack Ma spoke to hundreds of employees that Alibaba would not spare expense in getting rid of fakes. The company counters by claiming that it uses modern tools to exclude and identify bogus dealings from its financial records. The broadcast has turned into an annual custom representing the growing consumer power in a progressively affluent nation.

The show usually focuses on multinationals, a tactic typically used by China to solve widespread problems inside industries. Three years ago, a report by CCTV resulted in an apology by CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, after it alleged the company of dodging warranty period and implementing customer-service policies for its customers in China that are not practiced in other countries.

This year’s show, nevertheless, spared global companies and took a lighter note against them than in past years. It concentrated on cellular phones, second-hand automobile sales, food-delivery services and e-commerce.

On the show, CCTV criticized Ele.me (backed by Alibaba) for working with unregulated restaurants and substandard kitchens. Ele.me posted on its micro blog, Sina Weibo, to review its business operations and remove all such restaurants from its service.

The broadcast also showed a reporter of CCTV, working undercover, establishing a store on Taobao and enlisting the services provided by brushing companies to improve the ratings of the store, with every fake order and rating costing within the range of $0.77 to $1.54.

Meituan-Dianping, was also called by the show as having bogus transactions. Meituan-Dianping responded that it takes the matter seriously and has been trying for many years to battle with companies that provide services to improve ratings.

In Nov 2014, Xinhua Agency reported that Vice President of Alibaba said the e-commerce organization found 1.2 million vendors on Taobao (approximately 17% of all sellers) had faked half a million transactions valued at $1.5 billion (10 billion Yuan) in 2013.

Uber Allowed To Continue In Moscow With Commercial Taxi Licenses

Uber will provide travel data and use proper licensed drivers to provide its cab service to the people living in Moscow

Uber has agreed to the demands of the transport authorities of Moscow, which was interested in keeping the ride hailing company stick to driving partners with proper taxi licenses.

Last month, the Russian capital transport department was thinking to impose a ban on the United States quasi-cab service if it didn’t stop contracting amateur drivers and provide information on its routes to the regulatory bodies.

Currently, a statement posted on the Government of Moscow website revealed that the transporter has agreed on both matters. Maxim Liksutov, who is heading the transport department, said that the steps might make Uber technologies much safer for the people living in Moscow.

Meanwhile, the local chief of the California based company; Dmitry Izmailov said that the company was now a part of the capital’s urban transportation infrastructure. The data circulated with the transport department might not be of type that can play a role in tracking individual trips; rather, its aggregation will be done to let the authorities decide what role the company plays in the city’s traffic. The department has previously signed similar contracts with the ride hailing company’s competitors like Yandex.Taxi

According to Moscow times, Uber is operating in seven cities of Russia and aims to expand its service to 10 new cities by the end of this year.

According to Venture Beat, as far as disseminating travel data with authorities  is concerned, Uber has done that in a number of other cities, including Boston, where it jointly took the big-data measure with the authorities of the city last year. Provided that the organization stores a lot of location-focused details, this data can be harnessed by cities for the better good to solve traffic congestion problem, cut down the levels of pollution, extend public transportation and manage growth in urban areas.

In other news, Wall Street Journal has reported that Ola of  ANI Technologies private limited and Uber have stopped providing their motorbike- booking facilities in the south Indian city Bangalore.

An official of Karnataka, Remogowada state: Both the taxi companies had not sought regulatory permission from the authorities for driving bikes as cabs before launching their services.

On Monday March 14, Ola and the American cab service provider have told state authorities they would file applications for permission, Ramegowda added.Any automobile providing a cab service should bear a number plate colored yellow and a “driver’s badge” issued by the transport department of the state must be held by the driver.

Alibaba Affiliate Ant Financial Invests $30 Million In China Zheshang Bank IPO

Ant Financial Services Group has invested a sum of $30 million in the Chinese bank along with other 4 cornerstone investors to help the Zhejiang based bank.

In Hong Kong, the first huge IPO in 2016 is being launched with Alibaba’s financial partner Ant Financial cornerstone investment amongst those making the way. An IPO was launched by China Zheshang Bank Company with an amount of $984 million in support from 5 cornerstone investors, including $30 million invested by the Chinese e-commerce company’s financial affiliate.  

It is Ant Financial’s first cornerstone investment, which runs the Chinese topmost online service provider in terms of users, Alipay. The Zhejiang based bank looks to receive $1.75 billion, turning its IPO the first one in the region to cross $1 billion figure in 2016. An unstable stock market slightly up from its decline in February and January, but down 6.75% in 2016, has made investors careful of pledging capital to fresh offerings

Investors pledged funds to public offering at the offering price but are bound to hold the stock for a specific period after the stock begins trading. Enlisting funds is a way to provide confidence to the rest of the investors. In case of the bank, the huge commitments raised the bar of IPO from the previously planned sum of $1 billion.

Less than 12 IPOs this year have been hosted in Hong Kong, which have raised a cumulative $853 million, compared to a sum of $1.3 billion and 19 IPOs at this point last year, revealed by Dealogic data. This year’s to-date is smallest since 2011.

The most valued internet finance company of China, Ant Financial is raising $3.1 billion (20 billion Yuan) in this present financing round from a group of existing and new investors, as recently reported by WSJ. The rounds, which pushes its value at a sum of over $50 billion, will probably end up by April 15 2016, revealed by people aware of the situation.

The rest of the cornerstone investors in the IPO of the Chinese bank include state-owned  Zhejiang Provincial Seaport Investment & Operation Group, brokerage service provider ‘Shenwan Hongyuan’ and Chinese investment company ‘Shaoxing Lingyan Equity Investment Fund Partnerships’, the term sheet revealed.

Chinese organizations are continuously seeking cornerstone investments from friendly Chinese investors, which have raised the question that whether Hong Kong has lost the conventional role to connect global investors along with their tighter scrutiny with Chinese companies.

On March 15, 2016, Bank of Tianjin is also launching an HK IPO as it seeks to raise a sum of $1.23b, as revealed by IPO prospectus; Bank of Tianjin secures a total sum of $560m from 7 Chinese cornerstone investors, according to the prospectus.

Ant Financial previously collaborated with the online trading company to purchase a share in AGTech Holdings for $308 million. AGTech is a lottery company listed in Hong Kong.

Amazon To Open New Fulfillment Center In Manchester

Amazon's new fulfillment center in Manchester will create at least 1,000 job opportunities.

According to the Guardian Amazon Inc. is all set to open first ever fulfillment center in the North West side of England; meaning that the move would create as many as 1,000 jobs for the workers in Manchester. As of now, it is believed that the company would open positions of operations manager, engineers, IT, and HR for its new fulfillment center in Manchester. The job openings will be listed on the official ‘career’ page of Amazon later this year.

The Member of Parliament for Wythenshawe and Sale East, Mike Kane, said in a statement that this is a brilliant move from Amazon and fantastic news for his ‘constituents’. He added, “This investment is another big step in the renaissance of Wythenshawe.”

Lately, Amazon is really focused on expanding its business in the United Kingdom. The fulfillment center in Manchester will make it the 11^th center in the whole UK region. The company previously established two centers in Doncaster and one each in Dunstable, Dunfermline, Gourock, Milton Keynes, Hemel Hempstead, Peterborough, Swansea Bay, and Rugeley. Two out of the above 10 centers were launched last year.

Amazon plans to make itself available throughout United Kingdom by the end of this year. This move clearly follows the plan of the firm and further creates nearly 2,500 permanent jobs. Apart from this, the online retailer is currently recruiting people at its London head office as well as the in the R&D centers located in London, Edinburgh, and Cambridge. The hiring process is also running at the customer service center in Edinburgh and its warehouses spread all over the country. Recently, the company is also appointing and recruiting people to support the UK data center as well.

For 2016, it plans to open a new head office in Central London that will create almost 5,000 jobs. The company already showed its power and impact in the UK e-commerce market by signing a deal to allow the UK Prime members to purchase grocery from Wm Morrison. Wm Morrison is UK’s fourth largest supermarket chain. The food made by Morrison will be up for grab for customers who have the Amazon Prime subscription.

Currently, the Prime Now service is available to customers living in Birmingham, Liverpool, London, Manchester, and Newcastle with plans to further expand across the UK. It offers a one-hour delivery program to its members at just £6.99 per month.