Snapchat's CEO, Evan Spiegel, addresses students

The Chief Executive Officer of the messaging service delivered a speech to the graduates of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.

The Chief Executive Officer of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, delivered a speech to the graduates of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. Snapchat news reported that Mr. Spiegel asked the class of 2015 to speak of their dissent.

Mr. Spiegel stated, “The things that make us human are those times we listen to the whispers of our soul and allow ourselves to be pulled in another direction.” He appeared wearing a black gown before 1000 graduates neatly arranged on the basketball court of USC. The CEO smiled when the school’s Dean, James Ellis, told students that when they began studying at USC, at about the same time when the service was introduced in 2011, their favorite was Facebook, and now they are leaving the institution with Snapchat as the service they are interested in using.

The video messaging service’s main feature allows its users to disseminate text, videos, and photos that disappear in a few seconds after viewed. The customers of the company are also able to access stories from media organizations and user-generated stories from different parts of the world.

In 2013, the CEO rejected offers worth billions of dollars from Facebook to purchase Snapchat, which has grown rapidly by serving more than 100,000,000 users and reaping values of $15,000,000,000. Critics presented their view that Evan’s decision represents his arrogance.

The company’s founder informed students that his non-selling decision determines the meaningfulness of his product. He added, “Best thing we can do is build the best possible foundation for those who come after us.”

In poor times, one may trust the cynic, who says that one person cannot make a difference. He exclaimed to share dissent and find the passion and motivation. Spiegel, who reaches 25, next month, left Stanford University with a few courses before graduation in 2012. He reached the stage at his own ceremony, but only to grab an empty folder. He also told that he suffered from the feelings of embarrassment and was not interested in leaving out.

SnapChat news today informed that Stanford University’s studies has contributed to the introduction of the high-tech service, as Mr. Evan was working on a class project during the early years when he came up with this idea. He initially named it ‘Picaboo’. Snapchat breaking news affirmed that he and his two colleagues left the educational institution to pioneer the messaging service.

It is expected that students would learn from his words.

IBM Introduces Silicon Photonic Technology

International Business Machines Corporation has demonstrated its latest achievement in the field of silicon photonic technology.

International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation has demonstrated its latest achievement in the field of silicon photonic technology. IBM news informed that the company has introduced a new chip, which is equipped to speed up the process of information transferring, as it would employ light pulses.

The experts of the company have successfully launched a fully integrated wavelength multiplexed silicon photonics chip. Experts stated their view that the new technology would download at a speed of 100 gigabytes per second. IBM news today reported that the new chip offers greater bandwidth.

The senior vice president and director of IBM research, Arvind Krishna, has stated that the commercial use of the newly developed high-tech feature would ensure that the processor industry is able to satisfy the growing demands of the computing industry. He added that this innovation would not only help users capture insights from information but also efficiently use energy.

Company sources have affirmed that the success-driven feature of the product is its capability to employ electricity and light side by side on a chip, underwriting each other. IBM breaking news informed that it uses four different colors of light, which help avoid congestion of conventional networks.

Furthermore, it is capable of downloading an estimated 63,000,000 tweets, 6,000,000 images, or a full high definition movie, in two seconds. The corporation’s engineers in United States of America and Switzerland have developed a design, which uses four colors to cover a distance of 2 kilometers. Each color is capable of supporting a 25-gigabyte per second data stream.

Industry sources have highlighted that the company is currently targeting its new technical system at information center and HPC settings, where bandwidth creates problems. Experts speculated that if the corporation can successfully pioneer nanophotonic devices capable of operating at a speed of 800 gigabyte per second and significantly reduce energy consumption from the movement of photonics then it could progress rapidly in the competitive field of technology. 

One of the most impressive aspects of the new product is that it has been invented using the 90nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor process. It is probable that a large number of users would be attracted towards the new devices, as they serve better than their copper rivals do. The company’s new development is capable of revolutionizing the world of data transfer. This is not the first chip-related innovation of the organization, as it has previously developed quantum-computing chips for appeasing its customers.

Android M To Be Unveiled On Google I/O?

As the dates for Google I/O conference are coming near, we are anticipated what will be introduced to us, Android M and Nearby is next?

There has been no particularly official word regarding the Android M being officially unveiled, but latest Google news hints that the 2015 conference for Google I/O might be hinting at some features from the newest Android operating system iteration.

The Google I/O conference is all set for May 28^th and 29^th and shall be held in San Francisco. The search engine giant will bring the developers together in order to unveil the platform innovations and also the product innovations that the company had been creating, which most likely includes Android M.

So what exactly can be expected when it comes to Android M?

Firstly, this one includes Voice Access. As the name implies, this feature will be having the voice component added in order to access the apps. This is a support likely for the services of Android M which offers convenience of hands-free. Any detailed discussion on the talks that might happen on the conference have not been posted yet but the description that it has goes like "Your app, now available hands-free," which is making it visible that the voice actions will be used many android users soon. Furthermore, Google news reports the rumours regarding “Nearby” include the ability that android devices will be able to communicate with the devices and people that are nearby. This has been witnessed already in the guest mode of Chromecast and also Play Services has been spotted with Nearby functionality a few times as well. However nothing concrete was mentioned regarding the feature. The I/O schedule confirms one thing at least that Nearby is definitely confirmed as we see Akshay Kannan and Andrew Bunner on the speakers list to discuss proximity based communication and the efforts.

Google’s favourite and hot topic has always included the Material Design, therefore there are numerous sessions at I/O conference which are dedicated entirely for this one. Furthermore, one of the talks at the conference have been named aptly as "Bringing Material Design to Life on Android," which takes away the confusions of people, if there are left any, regarding what will be discussed when it comes to Material Design.

In order to address the concerns pertaining to privacy, the search engine giant is reportedly providing users more control as to what kind of apps have access to the user’s contacts, location and photos. If, after Google notifies the users regarding the information app would require access to, the user does not feel right to give so many permissions for one app, they can stop the installation and cancel it. However, with the new settings being introduced, users are not going to deal with the situations which are like “all or nothing” as they are able to choose the separate permissions.

Samsung Launches "ARTIK", Platform For Connected Devices

Samsung introduces ARKTIK to people, wishes to speed the development of products and apps faster with the platform's help.

Latest Samsung news is regarding the tech giant’s introduction of ARKTIK. The company has launched a platform which is open, the company claims it shall make the development of smart devices easier and also faster. The platform, named ARKTIK consists of three circuit boards, developer tools, software support and security related embedded encryption.

Along with ARKTIK, the SmartThings chief executive, Alex Hawkinson announced that Open Cloud by SmartThings will also be made available for the developers to create the apps for own devices. SmartThings was acquired by Samsung in August, last year.

The tiniest module in the entire series named ARKTIK 1, is merely 12mm x 12mm. It includes motion sensor which is about 9-axis and is intended for the usage in end nodes and wearables, furthermore it also consists of Bluetooth connectivity of low energy. Samsung news claims that this shall go on for an entire week only on single charge. ARKTIK 10 is the largest board among the series and it consists of eight processor chip, storage of 32 gigabytes and is capable of handling the playback and video encoding. The current users for ARKTIK include Boogio and Weenat. Boogio makes the sensors for shoes and Weenat is famous for helping the farmers monitoring their respective fields.

The platform, ARKTIK is now entering the playing field which has seen the presence of platforms similar to it, contributed by its rivals such as QUALCOMM and Intel.

It is suggested that if the new platform introduced by Samsung, ARKTIK manages to make a different impact as compared to its competitors then it can make a significant mark and importance for the company and its business regarding semiconductors, upon which the company has been counting heavily so the earnings don’t slip further as the business of smartphone has been eroded by the competition it is seeing from other companies such as Micromax and Xiaomi.

In the report of 1Q2015 earnings, which was released last month, the company expressed that second quarter earnings will be boosted according to their belief which will be coming from the sales of the company’s memory chips to other manufacturers of smartphones. The semiconductor unit of the company also was capable to increment to 28.5 percent as compared to that of 20.8 percent which was last year.

The company however is not planning to sell ARKTIK like that to other companies. It has plans to utilize the platform to make the development of its smartphones faster and speedy, other products which it wants to make faster are the home appliances and the televisions.

Apple In Talks With Alibaba Regarding Apple Pay

Apple is in talks with Alibaba in order to introduce Apple Pay in China for NFC Transactions via Apple Pay.

Latest Alibaba news is that it has been chatting with the tech giant, Apple. The US-based tech giant is very eager to introduce its Apple Pay to the Chinese consumers, for that it has approached Alibaba.

The talks were acknowledged by the CEO of Apple Inc., Tim Cook while giving interview to Xinhua news agency of China, as of last week. The CEO did not mention the details regarding these conversations but expressed that "we very much want to get Apple Pay in China".

Apple Pay was launched in October 2014 and has been the tech giant’s first step into the mobile payments market, precisely the contactless one. The users can use their iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus or the latest addition into Apple gadgets, the Apple Watch to pay for the items via the NFC (near field communication) on the go at the retailers that support this feature.

The tech giant had been reportedly drumming about this feature and has tried at its fullest to make it accessible and usable to the end-users in U.S in majority. However, in order for the feature to take off, its introduction to the global market is necessary and notably, Chinese market is the largest smartphone market in the world. In China, the Apple’s share has jumped to first position this year and the tech giant is taking advantage of that fully.

Cook might be saying that he is “very bullish” regarding the Apple Pay in China but the road to this adoption in Asian market is not that easy.

Alibaba news reports that the tech giant’s talks with the Chinese banks are not going further in a successful way. Conventionally, Apple gets the 0.15 percent share of the 2% fee that is paid by the retail merchants on each payment via credit card using Apple Pay. The banks in China are balking at the company for taking a large amount of section for each transaction.

The discussion between the Chinese e-commerce giant and Apple would be an alternative way for the US based tech giant to enter the Chinese market and introduce Apple Pay. In 2014, the Chinese e-commerce had been looking into the talks with Apple for the partnership on Apple Pay as the Wall Street stated. On the other side, Alibaba also owns Alipay which has a huge amount of 300 million users. UnionPay, the only NFC transactions channel running in China sets the rates for the merchants to pay of the system. The market control by Alipay could be larger than what Alipay could possibly handle.

Verizon Communication looking to acquire AOL

Verizon entered into a deal to acquire AOL for $4.4 billion. The deal is expected to close this summer.

Verizon Communication is acquiring AOL Inc. in a deal worth of $4.4 billion in order to advance its growth targets in advertising and video on mobile, according to recent Verizon news.

The deal is valued at $50 per share, a premium of 23% over the company’s 3 month volume weighted average price. Shares of AOL grew 18% during pre-market session and reached $50.27. while Verizon shares decline by 1.49% and reached $49.

CEO and chairman of Verizon, Lowell McAdam said, "Verizon's vision is to provide customers with a premium digital experience based on a global multiscreen network platform. This acquisition supports our strategy to provide a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers to deliver that premium customer experience."

The deal will be finalized this summer and will receive a tender form offer followed by a merger, after that AOL will be completely owned by Verizon. The company said that is has planned to carry out the transaction with commercial paper and cash on hand, as reported by latest Verizon updates,

The United States wireless business has developed recently, leaving carriers such as AT&T , Verizon, and sprint Corp. continuously fighting to acquire market share from each other. Offering videos on wireless connections shows a growth in upcoming years for Verizon, which brought almost $127 billion in revenue and $12 billion in profit last year.

Verizon said, it is planning to introduce a video service emphasized on mobile phones this summer. The company has provided few details; however Fran Shammo, Chief Financial Officer of the company said the new video service will offer a blend of paid, free and ad- supported services and will not try to imitate conventional TV.

For AOL, the acquisition is the newest chapter for a firm that has reestablished itself in years recently as an important player in digital media & marketing, after originating as an inventor in Web access dial up business and being involved in the biggest devastating merger ever.

AOL ultimately grew to over 20 million dial up users and completed a $183 billion merger with Time Warner in the year 2000. The value of the company debauched rapidly followed by the global financial crisis and eventually Time Warner rolled out AOL in 2009.

CEO and chairman of AOL, Tim Armstrong will still be operating AOL after closing. He said, “Verizon is a leader in mobile and OTT connected platforms, and the combination of Verizon and AOL creates a unique and scaled mobile and OTT media platform for creators, consumers and advertisers.

Verizon stock stood at $49.80 at market close on Tuesday.

Shares in Alibaba-Backed Film Studio In China Rises And Zulily Jumps On Huge Stake By E-Commerce Giant

Alibaba is making its presence felt in US market, the company has recently bought shares for Zulily as well.

Latest Alibaba news is regarding the shares in e-commerce giant-backed Beijing Enlight Media which is an entertainment business, the company saw rise in their shares for the third day, yesterday on plans of the investment firm’s decision to increase the stake.

The entertainment company unveiled that Shanghai Enlight, its parent company has bought 678,500 shares which is the 0.06% stake. In next 12 months, the parent company plans to add almost 11.3 million shares in this company which is Shenzhan-listed. As of last week, Shanghai Enlight Investment Holding owns half of Beijing Enlight.

The 95 percent of Shanghai Enlight is owned by Wang and is ranked at number 801 on the Forbes Billionaires List of 2015 and has a fortune which is worth of $2.3 billion.

The shares from Enlight have gain 60% and climbed 1.7 % yesterday. The Alibaba Group which is Chinese e-commerce giant has paid almost $384 million for the 8.8 percentage stake as of March. Lately, the Chinese e-commerce giant has been showing great interest in entertainment industry and investing.

Apart from that, the Chinese e-commerce giant is not only increasing shares in prospective companies but recently bought a share for Zulily. The online retailer’s shares have jumped yesterday since the e-commerce giant begins marking its presence in U.S by buying shares of Zulily. Alibaba news reports that the online retailer has the products for the mothers and has daily deals. The US based online retailer closed 5.2 percent more at the Nasdaq Stock with $13.98. However, Alibaba fell to $86.72 at 0.4 percent on the NYSE.

Alibaba who operates Taobao which is most popular retailer in China has incremented the stake in US based online retailer to more than 9 percent. This can bring both the companies together on board in order to discuss further ventures that can be possible for consumers in US and China. The company expressed that Class A shares of Zulily had been bought by the company which was 4.8 million in total. This had cost the company around $56 million.

The target market that Zulily caters is for mothers, the company is based in Seattle and an array of toys, and clothing and other household products are being sold daily on the online retailer website. It also includes the daily deals that it offers which attract customers. The growth had slowed for the company lately but the fiscal quarter report that the company reported to fell 14.7% as of for the previous year. Taobao is approximated to hold major market of China, which is almost 90% of it.