Your Tech Story

Suhani Jain

I am a student pursuing my bachelor's in information technology. I have a interest in writing so, I am working a freelance content writer because I enjoy writing. I also write poetries. I believe in the quote by anne frank "paper has more patience than person

youtube

YouTube tests free ad-based service streaming TV channels

As per reports, YouTube is in discussions with media corporations to include their TV films and television shows in a hub of advertisement-supported channels. It is already trialing the concept of weighing viewer interest. As per The Wall Street Journal, the platform may make the hub available to many more consumers later this year.

Youtube
Image Source: gizmochina.com

If the strategy is implemented, YouTube will enter a sector referred to as Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television, or simply FAST, in the industry.

Roku, Fox’s Tubi, as well as Pluto TV, which is operated by Paramount Global, are among the players in this space. Based on the content it provides and how the proposed channels are set up, YouTube may end up drawing so much focus away from such services.

YouTube clarified to the Journal that it is currently testing ad-supported channels for a small group of users.

We’re always looking for new ways to provide viewers a central destination to more easily find, watch and share the content that matters most to them,” a spokeswoman said.

Source: engadget.com

For the test, the facility is said to have collaborated with A+E Networks, Lionsgate, and FilmRise. Such channels provide a way for media organizations to bring in revenue from material that would otherwise languish.

YouTube already has ad-supported films, but this hub can provide users with a larger selection of free shows and movies to stream. Its channels could function similarly to Pluto TV. That platform has channels for old episodes of certain shows, like Doctor Who, CSI, South Park, and Frasier, as well as reality shows, live news, or even sports.

The speculated move into FAST is consistent with YouTube’s strategy of diversifying further than the content that has traditionally been involved with the platform. It moved premium streaming channels from YouTube TV to its main app in November.

One of the first Primetime Channels was Paramount+, Showtime, Starz, and AMC+. A while back, YouTube secured promotional rights to the NFL’s Sunday Ticket kit in a multibillion-dollar deal of seven years.

As per Nielsen, YouTube already holds the largest proportion of Television watching time among many streaming services available in the United States.

In November, it outperformed Netflix for the third time in a row having 8.8 percent of watch time. Initiatives such as the FAST channels as well as the Sunday Ticket might help it gain so much more mindshare and also the attention of viewers.

Google

Google Cloud’s top U.S. sales executive departs

Alphabet Inc’s Google appointed Adaire Fox-Martin who was the head of its global cloud industries to a top sales position as part of an operating model shakeup, a representative stated on Thursday.

Kirsten Kliphouse, the lead of Google Cloud in the United States, has left the firm, according to a spokesperson.

Google
Image Source: techcrunch.com

Fox-Martin’s appointment aims at “unifying global go-to-market organization,” the company said and the role will focus on all global sales as well as service and support.

Source: finance.yahoo.com

Kliphouse’s resignation had already been reported previously by The Information.

The upheaval comes as the cloud services and software industry’s growth has slowed down as clients seek to cut costs and optimize their spending on cloud services.

Over the last decade, software on the cloud has flown off servers, with Indian companies such as Zoho, Browserstack, Freshworks, and many others, as well as pandemic-born high-fliers such as Rocketlane, Spendflo, and Everstage, posting high growth numbers.

Nonetheless, the expected slowdown may be the first-ever test for most Indian SaaS inventors in 2023 who are accustomed to controlling their organizations through 30-40 percent topline growth.

There is going to be some impact on business growth. For example, already, the marketing and sales spends are lower; we see companies like Google and Facebook adjusting to that [layoffs in Big Tech]. Retail buying is going to be slower, and we see Amazon making changes,” said Manav Garg, a SaaS company CEO who founded SaaSBOOMi, a community of over 800 cloud software companies.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

The firm is also under stress due to unsatisfactory ad sales, which have resulted from advertising companies cutting back on expenses in the name of an economic downturn.

Alphabet’s health science division known as Verily Life Sciences, publicly stated the layoff of above 200 employees, or approximately 15 percent of its workforce earlier on Wednesday, making this the first time in about six years that Alphabet or an affiliate has declared job cuts.

Since the beginning of the covid-19 global epidemic, the cloud computing tech sector has seen tremendous growth as individuals and companies embraced digital.

However, the industry which includes infrastructure, platforms, as well as software companies providing it as a service over the internet, has displayed signs of slowing in the last two quarters. This is causing concern, particularly in India.

Its slowdown means that businesses across all industries are cutting funding and searching for ways to save in the face of near-record rising prices, increasing interest rates, as well as economic downturn fears. Those reductions are attacking Big Tech hard.

Apple

Apple to ditch Samsung and start making in-house screens in 2024

Apple Inc. intends to use its personalized screens in smartphones as sooner as 2024, in an attempt to decrease dependence on technology partners such as Samsung and LG, and introduce many more constituents in-house.

According to people familiar with the matter, the firm intends to start by replacing the screen in the most expensive Apple smartwatches by the finish of next year.

Apple
Image Source: cnbctv18.com

The displays are an upgrade from the existing OLED, organic light-emitting diode, benchmark to a technology known as microLED, as well as Apple plans to introduce the screens to all other gadgets, such as the iPhone, in the future.

The modifications are part of a larger plan to substitute Apple supplies with in-house components, which will give the firm more influence over the style as well as the functionality of its products.

The tech behemoth has abandoned Intel Corp. chips in favor of in-house designs in its Mac computers but also intends to do so with the vital wireless elements in its iPhones.

Apple’s Cupertino who is a representative based in California declined to comment.

Apple’s display switch has been in the works for several years. According to a report by Bloomberg in 2018, Apple intended to design its displays, beginning with the Apple Watch. The move will be a setback for Samsung Display Co. as well as LG Display Co., the watch’s primary screen suppliers.

Wei Chen, who leads Apple’s display technology team within Johny Srouji’s Hardware Technologies division, is in charge of the project. The firm has started assessing the microLED screens on an upgrade to its current high sports watch, the Apple Watch Ultra.

In contrast to existing Apple Watches, the next-generation screens are intended to provide brighter, more vibrant colors as well as the capacity to be seen from an angle. As per the people who have seen the displays and asked to remain anonymous because the task is still under wraps, the material appears to be painted on top of the glass.

The microLED screens will be Apple’s first entirely in-house designed as well as developed screens. In addition to Samsung and LG, the firm mainly sources displays from a wide range of manufacturers which includes Japan Display Inc., Sharp Corp., and BOE Technology Group Co.

microsoft

Microsoft Considers $10 Billion Investment in ChatGPT Creator

As per a report from Semafor, Microsoft intends to invest 10 billion USD in OpenAI, the venture behind the prevalent artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT.

According to Semafor, who cited individuals with knowledge of the matter, the contract is the portion of a funding round with some other investors which would appreciate OpenAI at a hefty $29 billion.

Microsoft
Image Source: marketwatch.com

Although it is unclear if the deal has been set in stone, term sheets sent out to potential investors demonstrated that the proposal seemed to be to seal the deal by the finish of 2022, according to Semafor.

Microsoft will supposedly receive 75 percent of OpenAI profits until it recoups its investment, at which point the firm will own 49 percent of OpenAI.

When CNBC got in touch with Microsoft and OpenAI, neither company responded immediately.

ChatGPT has become the talk of the tech sector for several weeks. The software is a natural-language processing model, which means it is designed to produce content that looks like it was written by a human.

The AI model, which is a modified version of the GPT-3 group of large language models, was utilized for including everything from code development to university essay writing.

A hope on ChatGPT could aid Microsoft’s attempts in web search, which is ruled by Google. Although the firm’s Bing browser has a comparatively tiny share of the worldwide search engine market, it is hoped that the deal will assist the business chip away at Google’s supremacy by providing more innovative search capabilities.

Morgan Stanley issued a report in December analyzing whether ChatGPT could pose a threat to Google. Language models, according to Brian Nowak who is the bank’s lead Alphabet analyst, might capture market share and destabilize Google’s stance as the entrance for individuals who use the Internet.

OpenAI, founded in 2015 by Sam Altman who is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, made its ChatGPT available to the general public in late November. Despite its prospects, the project is losing money because of the massive amount of stress on its servers as a result of its virality. Altman announced that ChatGPT had reached 1 million users five days after it was released by OpenAI.

Jack Ma

Jack Ma to give up control of Chinese fintech company Ant Group

Alongside a Communist Party clampdown on the country’s software industry which attacked the visionary billionaire, Jack Ma will relinquish control of Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group, the firm told.

Ma who is one of the most well-known entrepreneurs in china once embodied a generation of Chinese technology tycoons with his inspirational personal story as well as a knack for public flamboyance.

Jack Ma
Image Source: primebusiness.africa

However, the former English teacher has withdrawn from the view of the public seeing as Beijing sabotaged Ant’s scheduled IPO in Hong Kong in response to his scornful remarks regarding government regulators in 2020.

His company said in a statement on Saturday it was adjusting its ownership structure so that “no shareholder, alone or jointly with other parties, will have control over Ant Group”.

Source: theguardian.com

Establishing the previous complex structure of the firm, the official statement had shown Ma implicitly handled 53.46 percent of Ant’s shares as well as regarded the firm’s “control person”.

As stated in the statement, he will receive only 6.2 percent of the political rights after the adjustment.

“The adjustment is being implemented to further enhance the stability of our corporate structure and sustainability of our long-term development,” the Ant statement said.

Ten individuals – including the founder, management, and staff – would “exercise their voting rights independently”, it said.

Source: theguardian.com

The modification would have no impact on the financial expectations of any stockholders.

Ant’s anticipated IPO was expected to be a world-record ranking at the moment, as well as its destructive withdrawal occurred as Ma’s other corporate interests were being scrutinized by the government.

Beijing also struck a record 2.75 billion USD fine on Alibaba which is the internet titan co-founded by Jack Ma which functions famous Chinese e-commerce platforms Taobao and Tmall.

Authorities announced last month that Ant had received approval to raise 10.5 billion yuan which is approximately $1.5 billion for its consumer finance arm, indicating that the formal grip may be weakening.

As per a notice given on December 30, a China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission bureau in the southwestern city of Chongqing will enable the company to increase its registered capital from 8 billion yuan to 18.5 billion yuan.

The permission sent Alibaba shares up nearly 9 percent in Hong Kong trading, whereas other tech companies were also ramped up in hopes that the sector backlash would be loosened.

In November, Alibaba reported a loss of 20.6 billion yuan for the 3rd quarter. For the very first time, the firm did not provide full sales numbers for its Singles Day purchasing extravaganza in 2022.

The e-commerce festival, which had once seen Ma with important Chinese as well as Western celebrities, has grown more subdued in recent times.

Ma has kept a low profile as of Ant’s failed IPO, with only a few outings at fundraising events as well as trips abroad. Bloomberg stated on Saturday that he had been in Thailand this week.

YogaBook 9i

CES 2023: Lenovo unveils YogaBook 9i hands-on dual-screen laptop

Dual monitor installations are awesome, but have you ever thought about having dual screens in an unusually tall laptop? Lenovo is responding by introducing the YogaBook 9i laptop at CES which is the first-ever laptop with dual Screens.

This gadget is an integration of a laptop and tablet which is unique. It includes a removable keyboard that can be connected to the front side of the laptop having the two displays stacked in the vertical position, connected to the front with the two displays spread open similar to a book, or positioned on top of the lower display for use as a slightly more traditional laptop.

YogaBook 9i
Image Source: windowscentral.com

The word slightly is used here because using the keyboard in this manner implies either a keyboard at front arrangement just like Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED and perhaps moving it forward to have a virtual trackpad in front which reminds of another artsy Lenovo laptop with a lot of modifications.

If that still isn’t enough, you can simply say no to that keyboard out of those setups and start using it wirelessly detached from the device. Lenovo may claim this as a laptop, but it’s just a tablet having a handful of choices for converting it into various laptop-like shapes.

Aside from the various keyboard or virtual trackpad configurations, the highlight of the experience here is the dual-stacked screens. These two OLED panels enable 2.8K resolution, HDR, as well as multitouch gestures, and thus are 13.3 inches wide and come with a 16:10 aspect ratio allowing for a bit more vertical space. There are four Bowers & Wilkins-branded speakers between them, each with two tweeters and Dolby Atmos assistance.

Whilst the YogaBook 9i appears massive and, to be honest like it could effortlessly demolish, the laptop as well as its kickstand scrunch down to a relatively compact bundle, similar to carrying a usual 13-inch laptop as well as a compact portfolio with a pen.

Lenovo perceives the whole laptop as perfect for hybrid and on-the-go performance, allowing you to appear as the smartest guy in the cafe while operating on certain remarkably tall spreadsheets. Unless, of course, an absolute device like this walks in.

When it launches in June, the YogaBook 9i will be available at 2,099.99 USD and include a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-U15 processor as well as an Intel Iris Xe graphics with 16GB of RAM, as well as a 512GB or 1TB SSD. It also includes a pen for taking notes or doodling on either screen.