Google Might Just Sabotage Roku

Google is all set to compete with Roku in the smart TV fraternity.

Alphabet Inc. has been successful in signing a deal with television manufacturer Vizio. This will assist them in putting the functionality of its streaming dongle, known as Chromecast, directly into the television sets.

This news which has surfaced now might be appealing for all those who love Google but it is not that pleasing for Roku- a streaming box service. This company’s future solely depends on taking the position of the “TV operating system’ which will connect the television sets via streaming content provided by companies such as Google, Netflix and Amazon.

The company can render its services in the form of a streaming box but other than that, it actually means that Roku technology will feature in a smart TV itself.

Roku has collaborated with various television manufacturers such as TCL: the Chinese electronic giant and Haier. Other than that, the company also offers a blueprint which enables the companies to embed Roku’s technology into their smart televisions. This is done when Roku gets licensing fees for its service.

This venture known as Roku TV has been successful in capturing 8% of the smart TV market in the United States in just a matter of two years. The company has also been successful in bringing one million Roku smart TVs in the houses of people- this figure was calculated in January. According to the company, they are geared up to launch almost 60 Roku TVs in the fiscal year of 2016.

Sadly, the search engine giant has the potential to sabotage Roku. The company has similar plans when it comes to Chromecast. GOOG is not going to stop after Vizio and its speculated that the tech giant is in talks with other TV manufacturers for the same reason.

The question here arises, how the entry of Google is actually bad for Roku?

Google undoubtedly has a lot of cash reserves, thus it does not solely rely on Chromecast to churn in money for sustenance in the industry. A TV powered by Chromecast has a bunch of advantages to Google other than the licensing fee. This includes assisting the company in facilitating content distributing and bolstering its browser called Google Chrome.

If the tech giant says no to the big TV manufacturers that are irresistible to refuse then it will have to face problems while competing.

An initiative of this nature can also encourage other rivals to participate. For instance, Amzon.com Inc. might also be interested in coming up with a service of this nature and soon male the platform crowded.

Roku itself was anticipating the entry of Google in the market. Anthony Woods, the Chief Executive Officer at Roku gave a suggestion to Google to work on settling its market and establish an amazing TV operating system resulting in only a fewer players as competitors.

Facebook Wants To Take Over Twitter And Google Search

Facebook fate lies in modifying searches on its platform.

Mr. Tom Stocky is anxious to tell the world about the things people things. He wants to acknowledge the masses about the global trends and happenings. This seems like the agenda of Twitter Inc. however, this is not case. Mr. Stocky is an employee at Facebook Inc. who wants to deal with a problem that has caused the tech giant to struggle since a long time. Yes, you guessed it right; its searches.

According to an estimate almost 1.5 billion searches are governed on the social media platform, each day. However, in most cases, these searches are to find people. This is the type of search an individual might conduct when they meet a stranger at a bar. The previous year, the company enabled the users to make searches for all public posts on the platform- this spanned beyond the stuff posted by pages or friends. The function was developed under the leadership of Stocky which makes use of an algorithm that allow it to refine and rank thousands of post by the users.

Mr. Stocky stated, “What we really tried to do was make Facebook a place where you could tap into the global conversation of what was happening in the world.” this seems similar to the phrase stated by executives at Twitter since a fairly long time. However, he further explained the goal of the company by adding, "We really want to basically make Facebook the best place to find what people are saying about something right now."

A search tool which is productive on Facebook can change the fate of the social media platform. The masses will rush to modify their privacy settings once they deduce that their posts are visible by the masses. On the other hand, some might just start to roll out posts for the masses and garner the limelight. This is similar to the mechanism of Twitter which works in real time. This is not it, but Google might just be the next sufferer since it can sabotage its online ad business.

An analyst at Axiom Capital Management, Mr. Victor Anthony stated, if the search mechanism of Fcaebook gains traction, then Google is actually in hot water. He further added, "If they get it right and they're able to monetize against searches, it's extremely lucrative for Facebook—billions in revenue."

However, this is not as easy as it may seem since there is a lot that needs to be done before the tech giant can reach that point.

Back in 2004, search was the first thing which was featured on the social media platform when it was designed by Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Mark Zuckerberg during his educational stay at Harvard. The first few users could make a profile and search their friends to increase their network. Over the passage of time, the company has added various features to the search bar located at the top of the page but in most cases it has languished.

"When people actually associate Facebook with answering the questions they have, that's when we'll be successful,” explained Stocky.

Amazon Equips New Minnesota Fulfillment Center With Robotic Workforce

Amazon showed new Shakopee fulfillment facility where both robots and humans will be employed as workforce.

Amazon Inc. has established a massive shipment center in Shakopee, Minnesota, which will be operational in the coming months. According to sources, the massive fulfillment center located in Shakopee will have a huge team of 1,000 human employees along with ‘hundreds and hundreds’ of robots that will further assist humans with the daily tasks. This move is a part of the company’s ongoing operations to build its own shipping network in order to deliver the packages faster to the customers.

Amazon is coming up with a facility that spans over an area of 20 acres (approximately 1 million square feet). This place will become the 14th "robotics fulfillment facility” of the online retailer. The facility will cater to flattened orange machines that are responsible for merely fetching-related activities for the biological overlords.

The Minnesota fulfillment center will be the focal point for smaller items, such as DVDs and books. It further intends to speed up the shipping process of smaller items to the customers in numerous cities across the United States. Brian Urkiel, a supervisor in the facility, said, “The center enables us to deliver a higher amount of items, with faster delivery.”

Reports suggest that the Shakopee fulfillment facility was in construction since late past year. Amazon declined to comment further about the specifications regarding the initiation of operations in the center.

The Shakopee complex is a portion with four levels, which mainly is robot’s kingdom. Around 1,000 ‘human’ employees will assemble and work together. This fulfillment center will be operational on the same business model as others with both robots and humans. The robotic workforce will have a task to grab ‘pods’ which will contain consumer products ready to be shipped. These pods will be transferred to the humanoid workforce. Workers will have a more complex task such as picking, stowing, and counting procedures.

According to the company, each robot weighs nearly 320 pounds and has the ability to lift at least 750 pounds on its own. Robots will read the barcodes installed on the floor of the complex to find their position as they move around the place with their pods. Apart from the operations to begin, Amazon refused to give out the exact number of robots that will be deployed in the Minnesota fulfillment center.

Once the packages are picked and sorted, they will either be transferred to the nearest storing facility of Amazon or will be picked up by the shipping businesses, such as FedEx or UPS, to carry on with the delivery process. Regardless of the option, shipments will be dispatched through the dock doors.

Brian Urkiel added that the complex is “a marriage of the latest and greatest fulfillment technology and robotics technology.” Urkiel already has experience of running and operating a robotics fulfillment center in Kenosha, Wis. 

Alibaba Opens Internship Program For Hong Kong Students

As a part of Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, Alibaba will open internship applications for local students in Hong Kong.

According to the South China Morning Post, it is believed that the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding will allow the Hong Kong students an internship at its ‘exclusive’ headquarters in Hangzhou for one year. The company has come forward to provide more details regarding its internship program in its headquarters, which promises an opportunity for all students in Hong Kong. Last year, the Chinese tech firm announced a special program for the youth generation, which would help them to develop their future.

The internship program is part of Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund. Therefore, students studying at local universities of Hong Kong will have the authority to apply for internships in departments such as engineering, human resources, product development, and website design. The departments are specifically chosen so that the interns get an idea of the e-commerce as well as the Chinese market if they are appointed.

The chief executive director of Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, Cindy Chow, said, “Through this internship program, Hong Kong students will have the chance to learn the latest industrial practices in e-commerce, mobile payment, cloud computing and cross-border logistics in China by working at Alibaba Group or companies in the Alibaba ecosystem.”

The company stated that the program will start in June this year and will be running for six months with an option to double this time duration. Students who will apply for the internship would have the option to choose their work place. They can opt for Alibaba Group head quarter in either Hangzhou or its office in Guangzhou, which is located in southern Guangdong province of China.

Internship applications will be open for the students who are in their third year or last year of their specific bachelor degree courses. Apart from this, students of masters programs and tertiary education institutes in the region will be allowed to apply as well.

Alibaba’s fund will provide accommodation allowance and mentoring to the student during their tenure of internship. The chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of e-commerce, Joseph Yuen, is extremely content with the internship program. The Federation was established in 2015 in order to bolster its online retailing sector hence he believes that this program from one of the biggest online retailers will not only help the students to build their future but will help the country as well, overall.

On one side, Yuen is satisfied with the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund but he says that the students should not limit their vision on the Chinese market. He knows that the e-commerce industry is growing at a fast pace and the younger generation should be familiar with all the skills to assist businesses from all across the globe.

Facebook Wishes To Integrate Advertisements In Messenger

Facebook Messenger might feature advertisements in Q2FY16.

A document which was leaked belonging to Facebook Inc. which was sent to some of the big advertisement giant reveals that the company has plans to come up with ads in Messenger during the second quarter of the fiscal year of 2016.

The document which has been obtained by TechCrunch was kept confidential to keep its sources safe claims that the businesses will now be able to send their advertisements in the form of messages to those who initially contacted the company via messages. To gear up for the service, the social media giant is recommending all the businesses to start chat threads with their clients so that they can send targeted ads once the service is officially launched.

According to the document, the company has also launched a URL that will open a thread instantly with a business. The tech giant has authorized the existence of a URL short link which clearly indicates that the leaked document is credible.

When it comes to the advertisements on Messenger, Facebook acknowledged TechCrunch, “We don’t comment on rumor or speculation. That said, our aim with Messenger is to create a high quality, engaging experience for 800 million people around the world, and that includes ensuring people do not experience unwanted messages of any type.” This message clearly indicates that Facebook users need not be worried since they are coming up with ads but these ads will not in any way be annoying or nagging.

Messenger has become one of the fastest evolving and most renowned services by the company with 800 million individuals on board each month. However, this is the first time; FB has decided to monetize this platform.

The good thing is that the company will not allow the brands to send the ads via messages to just everyone on the basis of likes on the Page. Thus, all those who have communicated with a business voluntarily will be sent the ad. So this will minimize the chances of spam and will not be annoying. As of now, all the messages that come are from friends so the company will try is best to save the high signal to nose ratio with certain restriction while advertising.

This news which has surfaced is a contradiction to what Mr. Zuckerberg initially said to satisfy users on WhatsApp which was acquired in FY14.  During an analyst call, “I don’t personally think ads are the right way to monetize messaging.” Other than that the CEO of WhatsApp, Mr. Jan Koum highlighted through a blog post back in 2012 that, “Advertising isn’t just the disruption of aesthetics, the insults to your intelligence and the interruption of your train of thought,” along with that it is a mere waste of engineering resources.

Hence in a nutshell, Facebook is coming up with another intriguing feature for advertisers that will result in targeted ads that can eventually bolster revenues for them. The idea is appealing however, the company needs to make sure that advertisers don’t spam consumer inboxes.

IBM Acquires Truven Health For $2.6 million

The Big Blue is after every opportunity it sees in the healthcare.

IBM has announced the probable acquisition of Truven Health for a disclosed amount of $2.6 million. Reportedly, the prospective acquisition will bring around “200 million more live” to IBM’s arsenal of data.

General Manager, Deborah DiSanzo, of IBM Watson Health expressed an opinion on the acquisition that for the big data analytics, it is more beneficial and better if the company has more data. Through the acquisition of Truven, the $132 billion organization has strengthened the assembly of data pool of its own and assembled through acquisitions.

DiSanzo explained that through Truven, the North Castle, New York firm has achieved 200 million more records, which will be combined with the already existing 100 million records of the patients. The GM further added that the company could now integrate the sets of data, which may include greater accessibility, with electronic health records of medical health, genetics, and the likes from Truven and Phytel.

Last May, the tech corporation, for an unrevealed amount, bought a health management software business, called Phytel. At present, CEO Ginny Rometty has spent around $4 billion on the acquisition of health care related software companies. Apart from Phytel and Truven, IBM has spent around $1 billion while acquiring a medical imaging organization ‘Merge Healthcare’ last August. It had also previously acquired Cleveland Clinic spinoff, Explorys last April. The past trend of the business indicates that the recent acquisition holds colossal importance for it. The step can be crucial for its cognitive computer product; Watson.

Similarly, having earlier been integrated for years with IBM Cognos business and been, for the past 15 months, in a partnership with IBM’s Watson unit, Truven offers an extensive spectrum of the services of data analytics.

The work of Truven includes, but not limited to, ranking the U.S. hospitals in terms of improvement rate and the current performance. The company is behind the annual survey dubbed as “100 Top Hospitals.”

The deal is likely to bring a substantial number of clients for IBM as the acquired Truven Health has got around 2,500 employees across the country. It also has presence in Cambridge, Mass., sharing the same region where Watson Health is also located.

The acquired business has been reported to make a claim of having 8,500 clients, which include state and federal agencies, hospitals, and insurance companies. Big names like Cigna, CalPERs, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Hospital Corporation of America, and Newton-Wellesley Hospital has been in the list of the Truven’s client. Hence, DiSanzo strong expectations from the company are not unreasonable. She has said, “This combination of data, analysis, and insights will help healthcare providers, payers, and individual consumers.”

The step will ensure boastful returns for the Big Blue. Although it is important to note that not only New York based company is seeking opportunity in health. Rival Google and Microsoft have allegedly invested in healthcare to keep the profit coming from multiple revenue streams.

At the market close on Thursday, International Business Machines Corporation had a price of $132.46. The 52-week range of stock is $116.9 to $176.3.

Delta Awards Employees With $1.5 Billion From Earned Profit

Delta is giving away almost $1.5 billion of its profit shares to its employees right after Southwest announced of giving $620 million of its profits to its workers.

Delta Airlines has won the competition that no one knew was actually going on. Southwest Airlines made an announcement earlier of investing (worth $620 million) from its earned profits in its workforce. Not long after this, the Atlanta Air carrier announced of rewarding its employees with$1.5 billion from its profit shares earned in 2015.

Delta Airlines made this announcement right after Southwest invested in its workforce. The air carrier employees will receive 20% more in comparison to the 2015 earnings. The company has a workforce of approximately 80,000 who will be benefiting from this development. This is the largest sum ever that is being paid to the workforce in the history of profit sharing programs.

According to Business Insider, the CEO of the air traveling company, Richard Anderson, said regarding this development through a memo to the workers, “We are often asked what makes Delta different, the difference is you. Our unique people focused culture is the advantage that none of our computers can match.” For 967 of company’s worker in North Texas, the payments will make a total of $7.4 million, where each employee will get $7,621 if all workers get the amount of profit from the company.

The regional carrier is, in a way, rewarding its workers for the spectacular performance given by them to the business. Another award is a 50-foot tall greeting card at the general offices of the organization, which consist of the names of the workers. Delta has a workforce of 80,000 while Southwest only has 49,000 employees.

Delta employees will be getting almost 10% of the profit shares earned by the business, which is expected to increase to 30% in case if the air carrier earns $2.5 billion annually. CEO Richard Anderson is expected to retire this May and is expected to be succeeded by Bastian.

This is the sixth year in a row when the Atlanta air travel organization is rewarding its workers with its profit shares. In 2015, the employees were reported to receive 16% of profit shares of the company in their yearly pays. The company was known to earn huge profits due to the low jet fuel prices and constant airfares.

Many organizations in the market benefited from the low jet fuel prices and rewarded their workers for it as well. Delta is winning the race. According to reports, its profit share for 2015 is more than Southwest’s three year of profit shares. It surely knows how to run the business successfully and keep its workers happy at the same time.

Facebook Is Not Sensitive To Indian Sentiments

Facebook is being ignorant to the sentiments of the Indian populace.

Facebook Inc. is now being associated to the evil East India Company, where the director of the company, Mr. Marc Andreessen is now being alleged of being a rapist, anti-Indian and some other brutal titles. It will not be astonishing to see any Indian activist coming up with a “Quit India campaign” to eliminate the service from the region in line with the efforts by Mahatma Gandhi to combat Britain back in 1942. Ironically, the reason behind this misery is that the company failed to offer Internet access to the underprivileged.

The intentions of the social media giant were pure but the issue faced was that Mark Zuckerberg and Andreessen were not able to comprehend to the values and culture of the masses they wishes to cater to. India has been suffering for almost two centuries while they were under the colonial rule. And during this time, they had a bounty of treasures, a staggering economy, and were suppressed culturally. So the masses became deprived of their basic rights in their own country. This resulted in a lot of social trauma, sacrifice and humiliation for the nation which is not that easy to recover from.

Andreessen recently tweeted which stated, "Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people for decades. Why stop now?" resulted in a massive uproar. The damage felt by the masses was actually massive which eventually resulted in Mr. Zuckerberg to disregard the comments of the company’s own board member via a public statement.

All those who know Andreessen know for a fact that the intention was not to condone colonialism. He was actually being joyful, indifferent, and critical about the Indian government who has made a decision to put an end to the Free Basics Program in India.

The company might have a pure intention to educate the masses, however they fail to understand that the illiteracy rate in India is quite high and one wrong move can actually cause them harm in the long run. India and Facebook has been in the limelight since a fairly long span of time which has resulted in negative publicity for the company. The social media behemoth not only had to deal with criticism in India but was under scrutiny all over the globe which isn’t actually any good news.

The company now needs to understand the root cause of the conflict which is causing distress for all. The more Facebook is sensitive to the sentiments of the Indians; they are high chances that their products penetrate amongst the audiences more. Moreover, Mr. Andreessen needs to keep hold of his sentiments considering the vulnerability of the situation. Indian is an emerging economy and all big tech based companies understand the potential of this market. It is high time that the company makes its ties better with the local government and masses since a great chunk of their revenue stream flows from this market only. It is a matter of sanity now for Mr. Zuckerberg.

Samsung Adds Smart Shoes To Its Wearables Portfolio

Samsung might make another addition to its wearables portfolio by creating smart shoes for its users now.

Samsung Electronics Corporation Limited might make an unexpected revelation the Mobile World Congress, which is now just a week away; there are speculations that not just smartphones will be demonstrated at the meeting but even some new gadgets. The tech giant might make another innovative addition to its wearables portfolio, this time it is going to be smart shoes which might be developed by Salted Venture from Samsung’s Creative Lab.

The galaxy maker is preparing itself again to surprise its customers with an unexpected wearable that has not even been tested in the market as yet. The annual meeting where the South Korean company is planning to reveal the new gadget is going to be held in Barcelona. These smart shoes will aid athletes and coaches to easily attain and access data digitally and save it regarding ones performance and progress.

The smart shoe is going to be called, ‘lofit’ and will have a sports like feel once worn, developed by the manufactures of the best smartphones in the world. The shoe will have sensors that will help it collect data regarding ones actions. The sole of this shoe will have accelometers and other pressure sensors which will help transfer data to the smartphone via a mobile application.

This new wearable is created by former employees of Samsung, who were working at the creative lab of the company. In many places pressure sensors are installed in the floor which are used for coaching purpose, whoever this process of gathering essential data is going be fairly easy through smart shoes. This device will provide an innovative and high tech support for training center and will make coaching easier than ever.

The smart shoes, lofit, consist of series of various sensors, which will help monitor the data of any individual. The data gathered is going to highly accurate because of these sensors, a video will be shown to the users through the smartphone, showing them how they walk and shift their weight from one foot to another. Who knows? Lofit might just end up replacing coaches at some point, as the users will more aware of what they need to do and how they are doing it.

The CEO of Slated Venture, Jacob Cho made a statement regarding these smart shoes informing how our feet contain so much information we usually miss out on regarding our bodies and movement. These shoes will help users gather this data and make better use of it. The shoes will give users data such as  their balance, movement, weight shifting, ground contact and even as much as the location of the center of gravity. SV is planning to partner up with many other footwear companies who will aid it advertise and develop this product even further and help it grow in emerging markets.

Lofit is expected to cost $199 for the fitness version and $259 for the golf shoes version, and can be expected to go on sale soon. Health and fitness freaks shall keep a close eye on to these beasts as it has not yet been revealed as when these products will be available in the markets.

QUALCOMM Inc Announced Snapdragon X16

The successful semiconductor company wants to keep the legacy of unrivaled company intact.

Qualcomm Inc. is unquestionably the most powerful innovator of semiconductors for the smartphones. To keep its ground firm in the market and to be unrivaled the company announced, on Thursday, a revolutionary cellular chip that can transmit a billion bits of data in a second. The company hopes that the new invention will match the mobile users speed with today’s most advanced wired services.

The modem chip, dubbed as Snapdragon X16, will enable the consumers of smartphones and other mobile devices to download data at rates of up to 1 gigabit; the company claims. Previously, the chip manufacturer’s modem chips were offering a download speed of 600 megabits a second in addition to an upload of 150 megabits a second. Head of Qualcomm’s chip business, Cristiano Amon has labeled the new Snapdragon X16 product “an important step towards 5G.”

The $67 billion organization is authoritatively the biggest maker of processors and modem chips for mobile phones. Centered in the heart of San Diego, the company announced about its technology prior to analysts’ meeting. The organizations’ senior executives will most likely discuss strategies and plans in order to strengthen the company’s growth. The organization business is also affected by the overall decline in the sales of the smartphone along with other economic headwinds.

Over the past decade, LTE technology has been catering to the need of the fastest download speed. The advancement of the technology takes ample time as upgraded transmission equipment and new handsets are required. The new modem technology, Snapdragon X16, is supposed to be successfully ahead of LTE.

The company has claimed that only Australian carrier; Telstra Corp. offers up to 600 megabits a second download speed. According to a test carried out by PC Magazine in the year 2015, most cellular carriers in U.S provided less than 100 megabits a second which accounted for the maximum download speed. In comparison with Qualcomm the carriers have been providing far lower download speed.

An analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, Patrick Moorhead, expressed his view point that the gigabit speed is not likely to hit the smartphone anytime soon however other communications market can be benefitted by the faster technology.  

Moorhead further cited that the wireless offerings can be essential for a number of other non-mobile applications including a distribution of speedy internet to groups of access without having a cable installed. Moorhead based his opinion on the speed premises of advanced fiber-optic networks, he said, wireless offerings. He added: “I think Qualcomm has new ideas about working with telecom companies to beam data wirelessly.”

Later this month, a major trade show is scheduled in Barcelona. “Mobile World Congress” is a platform which showcases the cellular industry’s advancement. However, the San Diego, Calif. firm’s announcement came ahead the event. The expected major topic for discussion is likely to be next-generation 5G technology which, between 2018 and 2020, is likely to replace the LTE technology.

The company has forwarded the samples of the new chip while the commercial distribution of the product is more likely to be in the second half of 2016. The latter half of the year will reveal how much growth has the new technology given to the organization. At the market which closed on Friday, QUALCOMM Inc. stock stood at a price of $44.56. The 52 week range of the stock is $42 to $74.