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Einstein’s Gravitational Waves Have Been Detected For The First Time

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 07:54:00 +0000

Today, scientists announced that, for the first time in history, gravitational waves have been detected.

Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime throughout the universe. What’s truly remarkable about this discovery is that Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves 100 years ago, but scientists have never been able to detect them, until now.

The discovery came out of the U.S. based Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO). The mission of LIGO was to directly measure gravitational waves. In order to do that, LIGO scientists needed to construct the most precise measuring device the world had ever seen.

The LIGO project, which began in 1992, was the largest scientific investment the National Science Foundation (NSF) has ever made.

At an NSF press conference this morning, LIGO Laboratory Executive Director, David Reitze, said “This was a scientific moon shot. And we did it – we landed on the moon.”

Facebook Ordered To Stop Tracking Non-Users In France

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 12:23:00 +0000

Yet more privacy problems for Facebook in Europe. Now the French data protection authority, the CNIL, has issued the company with a formal notice to get its house in order and comply with European data protection law or face possible referral to the CNIL’s select committee which could then choose to pursue a sanction against the company.

Facebook has been given three months to make the changes deemed necessary by the CNIL. If it does so to the DPA’s satisfaction it will not face any sanctions, the DPA said yesterday.

TechCrunch understands Facebook is in the process of reviewing the order from the CNIL. A spokesperson provided the following statement regarding the action: “We are confident that we comply with European Data Protection law and look forward to engaging with the CNIL to respond to their concerns.”

Those concerns are multiple, and were unearthed by an investigation triggered afterFacebook amended its privacy policy in fall 2014. Specifically, the CNIL is unhappy that Facebook collects the browsing activity of Internet users who do not have a Facebook account.

“Indeed,” the CNIL notice reads, “the company does not inform Internet users that it sets a cookie on their terminal when they visit a Facebook public page (e.g. page of a public event or of a friend). This cookie transmits to Facebook information relating to third-party websites offering Facebook plug-ins (e.g. Like button) that are visited by Internet users.”

It also notes that Facebook collects user data concerning sexual orientation, religious and political views “without the explicit consent of account holders”. Nor does it inform users on the sign up form “with regard to their rights and the processing of their personal data”.

Advertising cookies are also set by Facebook “without properly informing and obtaining the consent of Internet users”, the CNIL asserts, noting that users are not offered any tools to prevent the compilation of info for targeted advertising — which it says “thereby violates their fundamental rights and interests, including their right to respect for private life”.

Perhaps most surprisingly, Facebook also stands accused of continuing to use the now illegal Safe Harbor data transfer mechanism, which was invalidated by the European Court of Justice last October — so a full four months ago.

And although Europe and the US have apparently agreed a new deal (called the EU-US Privacy Shield), this has yet to come into force, so cannot yet be relied up on by companies wanting to legalize data transfers across the Atlantic. And, last week the head of the CNIL, who also heads up the WP29 group of European DPAs, reiterated that Safe Harbor is not an option — stressing that companies continuing to use the invalidated framework are “in an illegal situation” and could face sanctions from DPAs.

Alternative data transfer methods were detailed by the European Commission last fall, after the Safe Harbor strikedown, so it’s rather surprising that Facebook has apparently not switched to using one of these alternatives to govern its Europe to US data transfers. We’ve asked Facebook about this point and will update this story with any response.

Update: Facebook claims it is not in fact using Safe Harbor to transfer data — pointing to prior comments it made last year, in which it said: “Facebook, like many thousands of European companies, relies on a number of the methods prescribed by EU law to legally transfer data to the US from Europe, aside from Safe Harbor.”

The CNIL goes on to add that it has made its formal notice against Facebook public due to “the seriousness of the violations and the number of individuals concerned by the Facebook service” — noting the site has more than 30 million users in France.

Its action follows a lawsuit brought against Facebook by the Belgian data protection authoritylast summer, which was also concerned with how it tracks non-users. The Belgian legal action led to the threat of daily fines for Facebook if it did not amend the operation of its tracking cookies — which it subsequently did, switching to requiring users to log in to view pages on the site.

As well as investigations by the French and Belgian DPAs, Facebook is also being probed by Spanish, Dutch and German (Hamburg) data protection authorities. This working group of five DPAs was set up in March 2015 explicitly to investigate its new privacy policy.

The CNIL notes that investigations by all the respective DPAs are “ongoing at the national level and within an international administrative cooperation framework”. So Facebook’s problems in Europe associated with its amended privacy policy look to be far from over.

The new EU-US Privacy Shield is also at least two months out from being approved by the WP29, so there’s no quick fix for companies needing to legalize transatlantic data transfers (although there are a range of alternative mechanisms that can be used, such as standard contractual clauses and model contracts).

Facebook Climbs To 1.59 Billion Users And Crushes Q4 Estimates With $5.8B Revenue

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 06:35:00 +0000

By courting users and ad dollars in the developing world, Facebook continued its growth streak. It hit 1.59 billion users today and crushed the street’s estimates in its Q4 2015 earnings with $5.841 billion in revenue and $0.79 earnings per share. That’s up from 1.55 billion users and $4.5 billion in revenue last quarter. Even with Q4 being the holidays, that 29.8% QoQ revenue growth is stunning, and it’s up 51% vs Q4 last year.

Facebook’s monthly user count grew a bit slower at 2.58% quarter over quarter fromQ3’s extremely strong 4.02% growth. It shows Facebook is hitting saturation in some markets but still has room to grow in many developing countries.

Though not as flashy as the big monthly number, daily user count is a better way to chart Facebook’s progress. Facebook’s DAU hit 1.04 billion compared to 1.01 billion in Q3, up 2.97%. Facebook’s DAU to MAU ratio, or stickyness, held firm at 65%. That means users aren’t visiting less even as the service ages.

Mobile now makes up a massive 80% of Facebook’s advertising revenue, up from 78% in Q3. $5.63 billion of its total revenue came from advertising, overshadowing Facebook’s old payments business. Mobile-only users now number 827 million, up a swift 13.2% from 723 million last quarter. That’s a testament to Facebook growth in the developing world that largely skipped the full-sized computer age.

Microsoft To Launch “Minecraft Education Edition” For Classrooms This Summer, Following Acquisition Of Learning Game

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 06:52:00 +0000

Microsoft is further expanding on its investment in Minecraft, bought in 2014 for $2.5 billion, by acquiring a learning game called MinecraftEdu for an undisclosed sum. The game, produced by a company called Teacher Gaming LLC, allows teachers to use Minecraft in the classroom, and includes a library of lessons and activities used to teach subjects including STEM, history, language, and art. Microsoft says it will use this acquisition to build out its own “Minecraft Education Edition,” which will launch into free trials as of this summer.

Minecraft is already known for being a tool that encourages kids to learn more about game design and programming, among other things, but MinecraftEdu was specifically designed with the goals of educators in mind. Teachers could adapt the product to their own curriculum needs, while also eliminating the need to set up or manage their own hardware, thanks to the tool’s hosted environment.

Plus, the learning game offered a range of activities created by other teachers, as well as hands-on workshops and courses, and technical support.

Already, notes Microsoft when detailing the acquisition, over 7,000 classrooms in more than 40 countries worldwide use Minecraft as part of their curriculum today. The launch of its own supported Education Edition could easily increase those numbers.

The company says that by having students create virtual worlds in Minecraft, they can learn a range of skills, like digital citizenship, empathy, social skills, and can even improve their literacy, while also getting real-time feedback from their teacher. Some examples of Minecraft in the classroom today include elementary school students learning about city planning and engineering; middle schoolers learning the building blocks of computer science in a Minecraft coding camp; or college students learning the history of the New Zealand and its people by re-creating historic landscape and events in the program.

Microsoft notes that following this deal’s close, it will roll out a new version of this game that will include an expanded feature set focused on empowering educators to “foster deeper student engagement and collaboration,” says Anthony Salcito, vice president of Microsoft Education in a blog post.

Uber Makes First Big Expansion In China As It Aims To Reach 100 Cities In 2016

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 06:08:00 +0000

Fresh from raising new funding, Uber China — Uber’s dedicated business in the world’s largest country — is embarking on its largest expansion to date which will increase its coverage to 37 cities, up from 22.

Uber China has slowly expanded its coverage of China with launches in large cities thus far. In a change of approach, it said today that it will launch in 15 new cities in Sichuan, China’s fourth most populous province, before Chinese New Year on February 8.

Sichuan, a 485,000 km square region with a cumulative population of over 80 million people, is already a hotspot for the company. Provincial capital Chengdu is Uber’s top city worldwide, based on weekly completed trips, and it reached the number one spot just nine months after Uber launched there. And there’s apparently promise of more: Uber said its volume in second city Mianyang, where it launched in November, is forty-times higher than Chengdu was at that stage of launch. (Uber didn’t give raw figures for either city, though.)

Now, it is zoning in on the region and expanding its coverage into tier-two and tier-three cities in Sichuan. Uber told TechCrunch it already ‘soft-launched’ in five cities, but it is targeting an additional ten in order to fully cover the main cities in Sichuan ahead of Chinese New Year, which is the largest annual migration on the planet as urban-based Chinese return en masse to their hometowns for the holidays.

More broadly though, this expansion is a sign of things to come for Uber in China this year.

The company declined to disclose specific expansion plans for the year when we asked — citing the need to keep information confidential and away from competitors — but last year it revealed it would take its coverage to more than 100 cities in 2015. This move in Sichuan looks like phase one.

“2015 was Uber China’s ‘Year of Localization’ and 2016 will be our ‘Year of Growth’,” Zhen Liu, who is Uber China’s Head of Strategy, said in a statement.

“We have built a strong foundation across the country and have put in place an excellent local team that will drive our growth in the year ahead… our goal is to be in 100 cities across China by the end of the year,” Liu added.

Reaching 100 new cities inside twelve months is a huge task, but even if Uber is able to pull it off, the company will still trail local leader Didi Kuaidi on total national coverage. Didi Kuaidi, which is valued at $16.5 billion versus Uber China’s $8 billion tag, is present in over 360 cities and towns — and is reportedly at break-even in more than 100 of them.

That’s not quite all from Uber China in Chengdu. The company also said it is opening up ride-stations in “well-known” landmarks across the city. The idea is to create designated areas where drivers can meet passengers — similar to ‘suggested pickup points’ it is testing in the U.S. — because it can be surprisingly hard to rendezvous, particularly if a passenger is new to, or visiting, the city and not familiar with its road system.

The stations have been added to Baidu maps, the service that is China’s top mapping app andrun by Uber investor Baidu.

Tesla Model S Can Now Drive Without You

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 08:06:00 +0000

Well, authorities in Hong Kong aren’t going to like this one bit. Back in November, they told Tesla to remotely disable its semiautonomous driving technology until they can confirm that the features, released in mid October, are safe. They were concerned (sort of understandably) by widely reported hijinks by drivers who were using Tesla’s new Autopilot software to shave and sit in the backseat of the car, among other things.

Tesla complied. That doesn’t mean the company isn’t moving forward at full speed, though. Today, it released version 7.1 of its software for the Model S and X that includes a “Summon” feature that enables the car to drive itself without anyone inside.

More specifically, using their key fob, Tesla owners can now direct their cars to park themselves in a spot within 39 feet, and to drive themselves into and out of their parking garages.

In a nod to safety concerns, the company has also now restricted its Autosteer technology on residential roads and roads without a center divider. When Autosteer is engaged on a restricted road, Model S’s speed will be limited to the speed limit of the road, plus an additional 5 mph.

The site Electrek was first to publish the news. Tesla says the following in its release notes for v7.1:

Tesla says that Autosteer’s lane keeping has been improved near highway exits and when the lane markings are faded.

Autopark features in the Tesla Model S have been updated with a ‘beta’ version of its Summon feature as well. Here’s how it works:

You can cancel the procedure by tapping the center button on the key fob. If you’ve set up your Model S with Homelink, it will open and close garage doors for you as well.

Back at an October press briefing, when Tesla’s last software update enabled cars to steer, change lanes, and park on their own, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had said he envisioned fully driverless cars.

He said then that while its still “important to exercise great caution at this early stage,” in the long term, he added, “people will not need hands on the wheel — and eventually there won’t be wheels and pedals.”

For now, the wheels and pedals remain. For the beginning and end of the drive, however, the humans are now optional.

Lenovo Is Making The First Google Project Tango Phone

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 06:13:00 +0000

Lenovo announced at CES that the company would be producing the first Project Tangophone. As a reminder, Project Tango is an ambitious project that adds depth as well as a bunch of sensors to your device’s camera.

Now the conference was a little short on details. All we know is that Lenovo is going to release a phone that is going to cost less than $500. The device is going to be released this Summer and the company doesn’t have a final design just yet. The picture you can see above is just one out of the five designs they are currently working on.

Also new today, Google announced an app incubator program to motivate developers. The best apps will be pre-loaded on Lenovo’s phone.

The only remaining question is whether Lenovo is an exclusive partner or Google is going to announce more phones with other OEMs in the coming months. Project Tango is still a brand new thing and Google is probably not going to roll out Tango to millions of Android phones just yet.

In case you need a refresher, we played with the development kit that was released last year and are going to show you a video tomorrow.

Ford Is Adding Support For Apple CarPlay And Android Auto To Its Vehicles

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 06:46:00 +0000

At last, at last, at last. Ford is finally adopting Apple’s CarPlay and Android Auto for its in-car infotainment system, so the carmaker announced ahead of the CES event in Las Vegas this week.

We reviewed Ford Sync 3, the third iteration of the company’s connected car technology, last year, and that system will soon include support for both Google and Apple’s in-car platforms. Ford revealed that all 2017 vehicles equipped will Sync 3 will gain the support, while its 2016 Sync 3 vehicles will get an upgrade option later this year. That means iPhone owners can access Siri, Apple Maps and more, while those with Android Auto compatible devices get the Google services suit.

The move has long been anticipated. Ford expressed an interest in working with Apple back when CarPlay was first unveiled in March 2014, and this announcement is sure to boost its appeal given that iOS and Android pretty much account for the entire North American consumer mobile market.

That’s not quite all from Ford today, however. The auto giant has also added a slew of new apps to its AppLink platform — including AAA member services, Concur expense tracking and location-based service Eventseeker — and new 4G-powered Sync Connect feature that enable customers to remote start their vehicle, unlock doors, check fuel level and locate their car via their phone.

Ford said it has 15 million vehicles with its Sync technology (that includes earlier versions, too) on the road.

We expect to see and hear a lot more auto-related news from CES — you can follow all of our coverage from the event here.

And, one final plug, check out our Ford Sync 3 hands-on review for more details of what the company is up to in the connected car space.

Samsung Pay Will Launch Online Payments In the U.S.

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 07:21:00 +0000

Samsung Pay plans a major expansion in the United States next year. Users will be able to make purchases on websites with Samsung Pay, which puts it into more direct competition with services like Paypal, Reuters reports. The mobile wallet platform will be also available on lower-end Samsung smartphones, not just flagship models like the Galaxy S6 Edge.

In an interview with Reuters, Samsung global co-general manager Thomas Ko said Samsung Pay will roll out to more smartphone models next year. The payment platform launched in the U.S. in September and has an advantage over competitors because it can emulate magnetic stripe cards thanks to Samsung’s acquisition of LoopPay, in addition to using NFC technology like Apple Pay and Android Pay.

This means Samsung Pay works with a wider assortment of existing point-of-sale equipment than Apple Pay or Android Pay does.

Ko claims that Samsung Pay is already the most widely accepted mobile payments system in the U.S. because it is compatible with most credit card terminals. Mobile wallets haven’t quite taken off in the U.S. yet, but getting people accustomed to using their stored financial information in Samsung Pay for online purchases may convince them to pull out their smartphones at cashier stands, too.

LinkedIn Rival Viadeo Exits China

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 05:54:00 +0000

Viadeo, the French rival to LinkedIn, is to exit China in order to focus on becoming a profitable business. In a further cost-cutting move, it will also shutter its data center in California and migrate to the cloud.

The company moved into China eight years when it acquired local professional social network Tianji.com, but that site will cease to exist once it is closed down on December 31. Viadeo claims that Tianji has 25 million users, but it has struggled to attract the “very considerable development resources” necessary to drive it forward in “China’s fiercely competitive market”.Viadeo had planned to use one-third of the proceeds from its 2014 IPO to develop Tianji.com, but the listing didn’t raise enough capital and the firm wasn’t able to pull in money from private investors.

“In the first half of 2015 the company went looking for an investor, buyer or local partner, who could guarantee stability and commitment to support it in this market,” Viadeo said in a statement. “However, China’s changing economic conditions marked by a historical slowdown in growth, a major financial crisis in the summer of 2015 and repeated devaluations of the nation’s currency dashed hopes of identifying such a partner.”

Post-China, Viadeo said it will refocus on its home market of France and other French-speaking countries, while putting great emphasis on its B2B sales model.

Viadeo’s foray into China was a fascinating one, since it doubled down on the country in 2011, a time when Twitter and Facebook were heavily linked with opening local operations there. The company two-sided play — having a global site (Viadeo.com) and a China-only one (Tianji.com) — was a model that both of the U.S. social networks had reportedly shown interest in.

In contrast to Viadeo’s troubles in China, LinkedIn seems to be finding some success there. The U.S. social network opened a joint-venture with Sequoia China last year. LinkedIn China isn’t a totally separate site, but it does block some content from China based on the country’s web censorship regulations.

The perfect son

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 08:18:00 +0000

A: I have the perfect son.
B: Does he smoke?
A: No, he doesn't.
B: Does he drink whiskey?
A: No, he doesn't.
B: Does he ever come home late?
A: No, he doesn't.
B: I guess you really do have the perfect son. How old is he?
A: He will be six months old next Wednesday.

Why Business Leaders Need To Take On The Education Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 06:59:00 +0000

Have you hired someone straight out of college in the last decade? If you have, it comes as no shock that today’s education system simply isn’t creating job-ready employees. Far from the differentiator it once was, the college diploma has become an expensive check box in the HR process.

Let’s cut to the chase: You need experience to be relevant in today’s demanding job market. Period.

Most graduates, regardless of their progression within higher education, are simply not presented with the opportunity to learn and exercise skills employers really need. According to a study by McKinsey and Company, 72 percent of educational institutions believe recent graduates are ready for work. Here’s the kicker: only 42 percent of employers agree. The overwhelming majority of these employees will need to learn on their own to close the skills gap.

So what can we, as business leaders, do to make sure the workforce of the future is getting what they need? It’s a matter of acknowledging the problem, realizing what this means for businesses and actually doing something about it.

The Problem: Workers Aren’t Coming To Interviews Equipped With The Skills They Need

I’ve been in the tech industry for well over a decade, and in the business world for twice that. When hiring, we often find ourselves looking for candidates with a particular set of both hard and soft skills. Many of these skills revolve around problem solving, time management and creativity — on top of a ton of real-world experience. We’re looking for a business-side Liam Neeson in the Taken movies: a very particular set of skills.

The problem is that these types of skills simply aren’t the ones you’d get in school. As Harvard Professor David Edwards wrote for Wired Magazine, in today’s system “we ‘learn,’ and after this we ‘do.’ We go to school and then we go to work. This approach does not map very well to personal and professional success in business today. Learning and doing have become inseparable in the face of conditions that invite us to discover.”

When candidates don’t have the skills we want, we don’t hire them — so they don’t pick up any new skills. It’s a vicious cycle we need to break.

Why Should Today’s Business Leaders Care?

You want skilled candidates filling your open positions, right? Then this should matter to you. We can’t rely on the systems currently in place to solve this problem on their own. Universities move at a glacial pace. The most common tools in the workplace (like Google, database systems or analytics software) are seldom seen in the classroom.

When a new employee encounters them in the workplace, they have no manual, context or past experience for learning how to thrive with these tools they’ve never seen. Teaching to test, rather than to skills, extinguishes desirable traits like creativity and innovative thinking in that student. Over the years, these traits disappear. The result is an education system that stifles the minds of today’s youth, destroying the creativity students need for success.

Employers need to hop the fence and help educators build programs that encourage creative thinking. We’ve made failure a positive thing in business settings. Now, let’s figure out how to nurture that skill in the classroom.As successful leaders, we need to make ourselves the solution. We are the teachers our students truly need, the successful practitioners who excel at the positions those students want to obtain. Rather than generalization, we must push for specialization by inclination. If a student is naturally inclined to create awareness and understanding, why aren’t we pairing him or her with a successful individual who will foster those skill sets, rather than muting such a coveted trait?

I recently participated in a standards validation committee for the Arizona Department of Education to make sure learning requirements for students in sales and marketing were up to date and correct. I was blown away and, to be honest, a little embarrassed by what was currently being taught. Even if a student earned an A+ on all the current skills, I wouldn’t hire them. They just aren’t the right skills.

That’s why I’ve devoted much time and experience to creating a curriculum that actually teaches what I need my best people to know. Sure, it took billable hours away from my day. But I’m invested in making sure experience and innovation become skills required of each student at graduation. I want graduates to be people I’d hire.

So I’m making sure creativity, a mostly suppressed trait in today’s system, is squarely at the root of most of what these students will learn. Whether it’s solving a problem or completely changing the perspective that understood the problem, creativity is key.

It’s Up To Us As Business Leaders To Make A Change

It’s clear at this point that we, as leaders, can’t simply wait around for the tide of education to change on its own. We have the experiences, expertise and resources to make a shift — and as such, we have to do something besides whine about how no skilled candidates are coming our way.

A lot of this can start before a student ever graduates. We’ve all heard it before: We need to get involved. Hire high school students for projects in your office. Let them use real tools. If you want an intern to learn more than how to get coffee, you have to let them do more than make coffee runs.

These days, nearly every office has some sort of database that needs to be reviewed. Have them start there. Yes, it’s boring work. But it’s also essential to gain familiarity with technology and working with data — and it’s something they’d never do in school. These are your future employees, after all.

Educators and employers alike also need to stop looking at single mistakes as catastrophic failures. This is a big one. Mistakes happen. Every day, multiple times per day. Today’s top companies view them as critical learning experiences. Facebook’s now famous “move fast and break things” motto still isn’t welcome in academia. Trying to insulate students from failure makes them afraid to take risks. As anyone in modern-day learning and business will agree, failure is the best recipe for success.You’re also going to need to make this skill shift a priority within your existing workforce. Many companies say they have mentorship programs, but don’t invest time or money into it. Encourage your highest achievers to become teachers. It’s not beneath them to work with the newest hires or interns, and you as a leader shouldn’t force them to cram this in around client work. Be willing to invest in training for your existing employees, too. Learning is something that should never cease.

We must fail if we are going to learn and grow — a branch gets stronger at the broken parts, as the motivational speakers say. Make sure your workplace welcomes failure, on resumes and in day-to-day innovation.

Whether you’re a company leader, hiring manager, expert or a job candidate, you have a stake in addressing this issue. The education revolution is upon us. The only problem is that it should have kicked off two decades ago. We’re overdue for change, and change is hard. We need the creativity we’ve been stifling for more than a century to destroy the system, before it finally destroys us.

Mist Of Waterfall, A Sunny Day Waterfall

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 06:42:00 +0000

On a sunny, hot, windy day
chirping birds come my way
Comfortable, beautiful, smashing
When water comes down and crashing
Relaxing, misty air
When people come they will stare
Sweet, pine, wet
People will never forget

Slack Launches App Directory And Joins Top VCs For $80M Fund Backing Developers

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Wed, 16 Dec 2015 06:43:00 +0000

Slack just hatched a master plan to ensure it becomes the social and collaboration hub of the enterprise. It’s harnessing all its Silicon Valley hype to create rocket fuel for its growing app platform.

Slack wants to lock in the 2 million daily active users and 570,000 paid seats it now has. That means getting developers to build Slack apps beyond the 150 like Dropbox and Twilio that it’s now showing off in its new App Directory, which we reported on Monday was coming.

So tonight Slack announced it’s teamed up with its investors, who happen to be the Bay Area A-list of VCs — Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, KPCB, Spark, and Social+Capital. Together they’ve thrown in $80 million for a Slack-first fund.

It will back enterprise software developers making Slack integrations part of their core product. Slack and its VCs want these developers to make Slack more useful and convenient with apps for doing all sorts of things in the workplace.

The Slack Fund has already made three investments: Howdy, Awesome and Small Wins.

The $80 million basically guarantees there will continue to be a healthy Slack platform. Competitors who copy its core messaging features can’t copy the developer ecosystem. That could give Slack an edge on HipChat and other competitors.

The fact that Slack was able to raise this fund shows just how much VCs believe in it. If they can’t buy more Slack equity, they’ll ensure their existing investment by pledging to back its platform. Even if the Slack Fund investments don’t turn into huge exits themselves, they’ll increase the likelihood that Slack wins big.

Alibaba Confirms It Is Buying The South China Morning Post For $262M

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 06:23:00 +0000

Alibaba has jumped into the news business after the Chinese company confirmed on Friday that it has agreed to acquire the South China Morning Post (SCMP) following weeks of rumors. The Hong Kong-based newspaper and SCMP Group’s other assets, which includes local editions of Esquire and Elle, will cost Alibaba a little over HK$2 billion — around US$262 million — according to a regulatory filing.

Alibaba didn’t disclose the cost of the deal when it was announced late on Friday — at nearly 9pm China time to be precise. That’s an awfully suspicious time, and it suggests that the e-commerce giant was trying to avoid creating headlines with this deal.

Why would Alibaba want to bury this news, or at least minimize the coverage? Many reasons, most of which are fairly obvious. Corporate companies owning media is a dicey topic at best — case in point: Amazon’s purchase of the Washington Post — but when you throw China into the mix, the waters are further muddied.

For its part, Alibaba tried to make its intentions clear.

In a letter to SCMP readers, Alibaba executive chairman Joe Tsai said that the company would not exert pressure on the paper’s work, but instead intends to use its resources and digital savvy ” to take the SCMP to the next level.”

In particular, Tsai argued, there’s a need for stronger coverage of China:

Some have suggested that ownership by Alibaba will compromise the SCMP’s editorial independence. This criticism reflects a bias of its own, as if to say newspaper owners must espouse certain views, while those that hold opposing views are “unfit.”

In fact, that is exactly why we think the world needs a plurality of views when it comes to China coverage. China’s rise as an economic power and its importance to world stability is too important for there to be a singular thesis.

In reporting the news, the SCMP will be objective, accurate and fair. This means having the courage to go against conventional wisdom, and taking care to verify stories, check sources and seek all viewpoints. These day-to-day editorial decisions will be driven by editors in the newsroom, not in the corporate boardroom.

The problem here is that SCMP, which is over 100 years old and often viewed as an indicator of press freedom levels in Hong Kong, already faces criticism for shaping its coverage of China with a more positive stance than other outlets.

Once believed to be the most profitable newspaper in the world, SCMP has been accused of burying news that it is sensitive to authorities in Beijing. An Al Jazeera report last August suggested that “the paper’s editorial line on China is looking more and more as if it was crafted in Beijing.”

It is not uncommon for media to be accused of bias, every human on earth has opinions and, as journalists, they can shape the nature of storytelling. But the accusations levied against SCMP are most substantial than that. They are claims that the newspaper is distorting coverage of China so that it is more favorable.

So, enter Alibaba. A corporate company that would clearly like the world to know more about China — and, if possible, think better about the country.

Tsai put it best himself in a New York Times interview.

“What’s good for China is also good for Alibaba,” he is quoted as saying.

That — as Tech In Asia pointed out — puts Alibaba in a troubling and seemingly no-win situation. Last year, readers could complain that apparent bias in a story was down to SCMP’s editorial position. But now, under its new ownership, Alibaba will bare the brunt of criticism. Irrespective of whether it is influencing editorial decisions, that situation would reflect poorly on the company which would be seen to be currying favor and distorting realities. Very unattractive qualities for a company that is listed in the U.S..

Alibaba has been in the media business a while with Alibaba Pictures, a sports group, an investment in Chinese media firm CBN, a pending deal to buy Youku Tudou — China’s largest video streaming site — and a Netflix-like streaming service, but this is its most controversial venture yet.

As for immediate actions, Alibaba has said it will lift the paper’s digital paywall — which set a limit to the number of stories a non-paying reader could view each month — while it has also cancelled SCMP’s proposed acquisition of e-commerce startup MyDress. That deal, which waspreviously announced in October, was to be a pivot to help make money from commerce services but, thanks to Alibaba’s deep pockets, it has been deemed unnecessary now.

Yahoo Scraps Plan To Spin Off Alibaba Stake, But Will Split Into Two

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 06:50:00 +0000

Yahoo has today confirmed rumors it is scrapping a plan to spin off its stake in Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba. Its shares are up in pre-market trading on the news.

The Yahoo board had been reported to be considering its options on this front this month. An earlier rumor of this plan caused Yahoo shares to spike 7 per cent.

CEO Marissa Mayer said in June the company would move forward with the spinoff of its stake in e-commerce giant Alibaba, having revealed a plan to do this at the start of this year.

However in recent weeks there has been uncertainty about whether or not a spin-off of the stake, worth some $32 billion, would be taxed — with investors fearing a high tax bill and activist Yahoo shareholders threatening a fight.

Today, after what the company said was “careful review and consideration of how to best drive long-term value for shareholders”, the Yahoo board has unanimously voted to suspend the plan to spin off the Alibaba stake.

It said it will instead work on the reverse option for separating the stake — which means it’s planning to transfer all Yahoo’s assets and liabilities other than the Alibaba stake (i.e. its core Internet business) to a newly formed company, thereby creating two separate, publicly-traded companies.

The thinking being this reverse spin off route is less likely to spook investors and the markets with fears of Yahoo incurring a big tax bill.

The bifurcation will still require various third party consents — including shareholder approval and SEC filings and clearance. And even with all that, Yahoo said it may take more than a year for the transaction to be completed.

Commenting in a statement, Mayer reiterated her view that the “ultimate separation of our Alibaba stake will be important to our continued business transformation” — pushing the perception that it’s not the overall strategy that’s being rethought here, just the route to get there.

“In 2016, we will tighten our focus and prioritize investments to drive profitability and long-term growth. A separation from our Alibaba stake, via the reverse spin, will provide more transparency into the value of Yahoo’s business,” she said.

However, a Yahoo separated from its high value Alibaba stake could be a target for acquisition, given how little worth is attached to the rest of the company’s assets and business.

According to the FT, several private equity firms and media/Internet advertising firms are interesting in looking at an acquisition of Yahoo. While on Monday telco Verizon* said the group would explore a possible acquisition of the company if it were up for sale.

Without its core Internet business Yahoo would be a very different business: a company with a 15 per cent stake in another ecommerce giant, but no longer an active web player itself — unless Mayer’s plan for Yahoo’s transformation really is a much tighter focus. So more a total reboot than a turnaround of a struggling, veteran web company.

Mayer was hired from Google to be Yahoo’s CEO back in July 2012 with the company saying at the time that she would lead “a renewed focus on product innovation to drive user experience and advertising revenue”.

Three years later the company’s products still struggle to stand out and keep pace, especially with app innovation in the mobile industry. While it faces continued stiff competition on the ad revenue front from the likes of Google and Facebook, although Mayer did ink a new three-year search ad deal with Google this fall.

Commenting on Yahoo’s plans, Andrew Frank, research VP analyst Gartner, told TechCrunch: “I think there’s still a possibility that Yahoo’s core business could continue to evolve independently into a successful diversified digital media company, but it seems clear there will be a lot of investor pressure if it takes this road.”

“I take Marissa Mayer at her word when she says the separation will provide more transparency into the value of Yahoo’s business. Optimistically, this could give Yahoo more maneuverability in M&A activities beyond a fire sale scenario.”

Frank added: “I’ve long held the view that Yahoo is better positioned as a media company than a technology innovator, and that success in media requires overseeing a portfolio of content brands. If Yahoo can’t do this itself then it will be better off joining an organization that allows it to focus on delivering content and advertising and cultivating audiences.”

American Express Backs Mexican Fintech Startup Clip As Emerging Markets Warm To Financial Startups

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 12:33:00 +0000

Investment in new financial technologies is exploding globally, and as traditional players look for opportunities they’re increasingly turning their attention to technology companies in emerging markets.

The latest company to benefit from the newfound attention on technologies to facilitate payments and credit and debit card adoption in emerging markets is the Mexican startup, Clip, which raised $8 million in a Series A round (one of the largest in the country’s largest early-stage investments).

Launched in 2013 by two former PayPal employees, Adolfo Babatz and Vilash Poovala, Clip is aiming to be the Mexican equivalent of Square, with a mobile payment service that allows small merchants to accept credit and debit cards — and online payments.

The company has its roots in work that the two co-founders were doing at PayPal. “We were very bad at selling this internally about how big this could become,” Adolfo says. “Nine months later Square came out.”

Based in Mexico City, but with developers and engineers in Menlo Park, Calif., Clip is trying to stay true to its California roots while it explores what Adolfo says is a massive opportunity in the Mexican market.

The company estimates that there are 11 million businesses that could potentially use Clip’s payment services, and unlike the U.S. where penetration rates for card payment systems is at roughly 50%, in Mexico that number looks more like 9%.

So there’s nothing but room to grow, according to Babatz, in a market where the only competitors are the Stockholm-based payment technology company iZettle, and cold, hard cash.

Clip’s launch comes as interest in financial technology companies has reached a fever pitch. Last year, investment in financial technologies reached $12.21 billion globally, and international investors began spending some of that money outside of their home countries.

The Nigerian mobile money company, Paga, raised funds from a syndicate including Adlevo Capital and the Capricorn Investment Group; and last year Union Square Ventures invested $1.1 million in the seed round for Sr. Pago, a Mexico City-based mobile payment platform.

Clip’s first partner is American Express, which represents 30% of the total payment volume in Mexico, but only has 3 million of the roughly 30 million credit and debit cards in use in the country.

Now, there are contracts with American Express, Banorte, Banamex and Bancomed, says Babatz.

Samsung’s Struggling Mobile Business Has A New Leader

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 06:34:00 +0000

As its smartphone sales continue to lag behind competitors, Samsung Electronics announced today that it will reshuffle the leadership of its mobile division. J.K. Shin will no longer be in control of its day-to-day operations and instead hand that responsibility over to Dongjin Koh.

Before the change, Shin held the double-barreled title of head and president of Samsung Electronic’s mobile business. The president title has been handed over to Koh, who helmed the development of the well-received Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5 series while serving as the head of Samsung Electronics’ mobile research and development department. Shin will stay on as head of mobile, which means he will focus on long-term strategy and potential growth opportunities, says Reuters.

Samsung has lost its edge in worldwide smartphone sales over the last two years. In China, an important growth market for manufacturers, sales of Samsung handsets have fallen behind Apple, Xiaomi, and Huawei.

Koh’s new appointment is part of a larger management change that started after Lee Jae Yong, the vice chairman of Samsung Group, began to assume more responsibilities after his father, Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun Hee, had a heart attack last year. In July, the younger Lee won a shareholder vote approving the $8 billion merger of two Samsung affiliate companies, Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T, which in turn gave him more power over Samsung Electronics.

Samsung usually moves executives around to new positions once a year, based on their performance, but this is the first time Lee Jae Yong has made significant changes since taking the helms from his father.

Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates Join Forces To Invest in Clean Energy Technology

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 07:00:00 +0000

The founders of Facebook and Microsoft are teaming up to solve climate change. Mark Zuckerberg announced today that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have launched the Breakthrough Energy Coalition with Bill Gates to invest in zero-carbon energy technology around the world. The organization’s membership roster includes some of the most prolific names in technology, including Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, and Masayoshi Son.

The news was timed to coincide with the U.N. Climate Control Conference, which will take place in Paris this week. During the event, Gates and U.S. President Barack Obama are expected to unveil a significant new initiative called Mission Innovation, which will work with governments to double public investments in energy research over the next five years.

According to the Washington Post, the 19 countries that have already joined Mission Innovation will increase their annual spending on clean-energy research and development to $20 billion by 2020.

Mission Innovation and the Breakthrough Energy Coalition are separate programs, but will work closely together in countries that have committed to reducing carbon emissions.

On its website, the Breakthrough Energy Coalition explains that its goal is to cover gaps in government funding in countries by commercializing the most promising and scalable ideas to come out of public research institutions. It will take a flexible attitude toward investments, providing early-stage to Series A funding in several sectors, including electricity generation and storage, transportation, industrial use, agriculture, and energy system efficiency.

Machine Intelligence In The Real World

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 12:15:00 +0000

I’ve been laser-focused on machine intelligence in the past few years. I’ve talked to hundreds of entrepreneurs, researchers and investors about helping machines make us smarter.

In the months since I shared my landscape of machine intelligence companies, folks keep asking me what I think of them — as if they’re all doing more or less the same thing. (I’m guessing this is how people talked about “dot coms” in 1997.)

On average, people seem most concerned about how to interact with these technologies once they are out in the wild. This post will focus on how these companies go to market, not on the methods they use.

In an attempt to explain the differences between how these companies go to market, I found myself using (admittedly colorful) nicknames. It ended up being useful, so I took a moment to spell them out in more detail so, in case you run into one or need a handy way to describe yours, you have the vernacular.

The categories aren’t airtight — this is a complex space — but this framework helps our fund (which invests in companies that make work better) be more thoughtful about how we think about and interact with machine intelligence companies.

Facebook’s Internet.org Now Available Throughout India

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 11:22:00 +0000

Internet.org, Facebook’s initiative to provide free Internet services in developing countries, is now available to all Indians through the Free Basics app on Reliance Communication’s network. The project is meant to give people in emerging economies easy access to the Internet, but has been hit by a slew of criticism.

Reliance Communications is India’s fourth-largest telecom operator, with about 110 million subscribers as of June. According to its site, Free Basics will enable users to use Facebook and Facebook Messenger and access sites like Wikipedia, BBC News, Bing Search, Dictionary.com, and local news services.

Detractors say that by making a handful of services available on its platform, Internet.org gives preferential treatment to its partners, therefore violating the tenets of net neutrality.

In response, Facebook founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said Internet.orgwill focus on offering basic services for free (hence the branding of its app) and is not meant to limit access to other providers. The company has also taken steps to make joining Free Basics easier to join for developers and other potential partners.

This has done little to ameliorate critics who are concerned about the potential drawbacks of having a company as large and powerful as Facebook control what millions of new Internet users see.

In addition to India, Free Basics is available in 30 countries throughout Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America.

Friendship Poems

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 06:15:00 +0000

And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship."

Your friend is your needs answered.

He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.

And he is your board and your fireside.

For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."

And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.

For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

Seek him always with hours to live.

For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

Microsoft Dynamics Corporate VP Bob Stutz Steps Down

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 06:39:00 +0000

In a stunner today, Microsoft Corporate VP Bob Stutz stepped down from his job running Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

MSDynamicsWorld broke the story, and Microsoft has confirmed the news in a statement.

Bob Stutz will be leaving Microsoft and will take a well-deserved break. Over the past 3.5 years, Bob and his team have transformed Dynamics CRM from an industry challenger to a clear leader. We thank Bob for his contributions and wish him the best in his next adventure

A memo with the news went out to employees today at 4 pm, and Jujhar Singh, who has been a key player on the team, will be taking over for Stutz. As for Singh, Microsoft had this to say in a statement:

Jujhar has been a key driver of innovation in our CRM business and was responsible for the product strategy and direction of the Dynamics CRM product line and incubating newly acquired companies.

Chris Kanaracus, who is managing editor and principal analyst at Constellation Research, says it’s too soon to say how the change will affect the overall direction of the program.

“I think it is difficult for anyone to predict just what Jujhar Singh will do, but the Dynamics Convergence conference is coming up in 3-4 months. Any major strategic plans and messaging changes are going to start happening right now,” he said.

According to his online bio, Stutz was “responsible for defining the long-term strategy and technology direction as well as the development and delivery of on-premises and cloud versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM worldwide.”

The move is a big blow to Microsoft as Stutz has been a key player in building the Dynamics CRM tool, R Ray Wang is who is founder at Constellation Research told TechCrunch.

“He’s been building a team that has kept Salesforce on its toes. They turned Dynamics CRM into a worthy competitor for SFDC,” Wang said.

Over the last couple of years, Microsoft has been making a concerted effort to build up the CRM tool and try to compete more strongly with Salesforce, SAP and Oracle in the CRM market. To that end, it has built a cloud and on-premises version of the software and has a major update coming out at the end of this quarter (soon).

In an move to give upgrade the update some sex appeal, the company is integrating it with Microsoft Delve, a tool designed to help surface information, a key feature for busy sales people. It’s also integrating with the voice command module, Cortana, to enable users to interact with the program using voice commands, and it’s designed to work with the Cortana Analytics suite announced earlier this year.

All of this is designed to push the CRM tool, where Microsoft has lagged in marketshare behind Salesforce, SAP and Oracle.

There is speculation about where Stutz will land next, with some people suggesting it could be at one of Microsoft’s CRM rivals, but we will have to wait and see on that point.

Tesla Hires Google VP Of Finance Jason Wheeler As New CFO

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 12:26:00 +0000

After earnings today, Tesla has made a couple of executive announcements. First, it has named a new CFO, Jason Wheeler.

Wheeler spent 13 years at Google as its VP of Finance and let its global finance function. He replaces Deepak Ahuja who announced his retirement early this year. Ahuja will stay on for a few months to help transition to Wheeler on November 30th.

Here’s what Wheeler had to say on joining:

Tesla has also hired Jon McNeill as President of Global Sales and Service. McNeill is the former CEO of Enservio. His arrival is a double-punch for finance, sales and service at the company.

It’s more than a notable hire, especially given all of the financial gymnastics that Google, and now Alphabet, has gone through this past year. It’s been an impressive, seemingly seamless, exercise. Moving parts? Tesla has them, so Wheeler will be plenty busy.

Rocket Internet-Backed Nestpick Raises $11M To Move Entire Rental Process Online

noreply@blogger.com (preeti) — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 12:08:00 +0000

For years you’ve been able to find a room to rent online via classified sites such as Craigslist or more vertical offerings. But once you’ve found your prospective rental, the process quickly moves off-line. Nestpick — backed, though not founded, by Rocket Internet — wants to change this.

The Berlin-based startup is aiming to ‘digitise’ the entire rental process, including eliminating the need for in-person viewings. And to aid that mission, the company has raised $11 million in Series A funding. Investors is this round include Mangrove Capital Partners, Enern and, of course, Rocket Internet.

Nestpick says the new capital will be used to create a better experience for the landlords and tenants that used the site, which since launch has broadened its target market from international students and expats to just about anybody looking for a rental. It now counts local tenants as making up over 30 per cent of its customer base.

“Our typical customer books accommodation with us for 7 months and treats Nestpick as his preferred way of moving from then on because it’s convenient, and at least four times cheaper,” Nestpick founder Fabian Dudek tells TechCrunch. “Tenants can book with us and receive confirmation in less than 48 hours with one click instead of hundreds of e-mails, calls, and scheduling conflicts.”

In addition, Dudek says the startup is attracting landlords who are already renting to tenants for between three months and three years via classifieds, but know that the process could be made more efficient.

“Landlords are tired of spending 20-40 hours each time they rent out their properties despite receiving so many enquiries, and they hate losing months of rent from the transition between tenants,” he says.

“Our challenge is to seamlessly connect these two worlds – the old fashioned real estate market made up of landlords who are uncertain about new technology and the current generation of tenants that are all mobile-first, and use apps like Instagram, Tinder, and Spotify every day.”

Fraud is another problem Nestpick is aiming to solve. Dudek claims that 1 out of 3 home seekers encounter a scammer online and that renters typically contact an average of 15 agents or 50 landlords on multiple platforms in order to secure a single viewing.

“Instead of that process, imagine walking through a new neighborhood that you love in any country, and being able to book your next home straight from your phone entirely online,” he says.

That imaginative leap may still be a stretch too far for some — given landlord horror stories, would you really want to rent a room without seeing it in person first? — but early Nestpick data suggests the timing is right. True to Rocket Internet form, the site is already active in 35 cities across eight European countries and recently launched in Australia. The company says it has listed more than 21,000 homes and transacted over €16 million in rental income for landlords in the last year.