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Yashica Vashishtha

Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.

Yahoo groups

Yahoo is Deleting all the Content on Yahoo Groups on 14 December

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Yahoo has been a famous platform for sending and receiving emails, so has been its Yahoo Groups site. There was a large audience on the platform, and it was used like discussion forum, similar to Reddit. But in recent times, as Yahoo has been facing survival issues, its subsidiaries have also been coming near to the end.

In the same regard, Yahoo has just announced that it is going to restrict is services on Yahoo Groups and will remove all its content by 14 December this year. Though people were still active on the platform, and some people have just registered to it, it failed to remain popular among them.

Yahoo revealed the news through a blog post, and it advised the users that they start saving their content as the company will be removing all the content on the discussion board site on 14 December. Another important date in this regard is 21 October, from which people will not be able to upload new content on the site. After the company deletes the content, the users will need to request to be a member of the groups as all the public groups will become private. Though the groups will be visible to them, they will not be able to see the content in them until they become a member of the groups. The users will only be able to interact with the groups via email.

Yahoo groups

“The Yahoo Groups site will continue to exist, however, all public groups will be made private or restricted. Any new group members will need to request an invite or be invited by an admin. Admins will still be able to manage various group settings, though some functionality will be limited,” wrote Yahoo.

The content that Yahoo will be removing includes Files, Polls, Links, Photos, Folders, Calendar, Database, Attachments, Conversations, Email Updates, Message Digest, and Message History. So it would be better for the users that they start saving their content asap.

According to Yahoo, one can simply download the files and other things from the groups they have joined. And, the other way to get all the content is to request their group’s data through their Yahoo account on Yahoo, and Yahoo will prepare the data for download and intimate them through email. The users can also get the content by directly going to the Verizon Media’s Privacy Dashboard.

aws

Amazon Bids Adieu to Oracle; Completes its Consumer Business Data Migration to AWS

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Amazon has got its hands in almost everything. From grocery to space, it wants to take over every field. But it has also been using the services from other companies as a consumer. For the past few years, the company has been keeping its data in the Oracle database. But as it has already developed its cloud web services, AWS, the company had started to migrate its database from Oracle to AWS. Today the company announced that it has migrated the last set of data from the Oracle database to AWS, finally terminating Oracle’s services.

The company shared the news through a blog post. Jeff Barr from AWS wrote on the behalf of Amazon, “I am happy to report that this database migration effort is now complete. Amazon’s Consumer business just turned off its final Oracle database (some third-party applications are tightly bound to Oracle and were not migrated).”

He further wrote, “Over the years we realized that we were spending too much time managing and scaling thousands of legacy Oracle databases. Instead of focusing on high-value differentiated work, our database administrators (DBAs) spent a lot of time simply keeping the lights on while transaction rates climbed and the overall amount of stored data mounted.”

aws
Image Source: techcrunch.com

According to the blog post, the last set of data involved 75 petabytes of data that was stored in 7500 Oracle databases. Since Amazon is a huge company, it took years for it to transfer the enormous data from different databases to its home-grown database. The company had constituted around 100 teams to carry out the task.

As the migration has come to an end, over 100 consumer businesses, including Amazon Prime, Alexa, and Kindle, have been moved to AWS. This has not made Amazon walk a step forward to become an independent company, but also it will now be saving up to 60% on its data maintenance. This will now also reduce the latency rate for consumer applications by 40%. This way, the company will be able to provide better services to its consumers such that the experts will not be spending too much time on maintaining the data.

uber

Uber Lays off Another 350; Ensures it would be the Last Cut

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Despite Uber going public this year, the year has not been a very good one for the company. The IPO did not work out as it was expected to, and the company had to lay off a large number of staff twice this year. And the process of laying off the employees did not stop there. The company has announced that it is again cutting around 350 employees from various departments of the company. These departments include the Eats, performance marketing, Advanced Technologies Group, recruiting, various teams within the global rides, etc.

Around three months (maybe less) ago, the company had laid off around 400 jobs for people from its marketing team, and almost a month ago, 450 jobs were cut from the product and engineering teams. This time, the number of employees is a bit less than earlier, but more departments have been affected by the decision, and the company is claiming that it would be the last time when it will be laying off the staff.

This number is 1.5% of Uber’s total employees, but still, since it is happening third time this year, this is not good for the repo of the company. along with cutting the jobs, it has also made some shuffling of locations for its staff as well.

uber
Image Source: greenwatchbd.com

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi sent emails to the Uber employees, where he wrote, “Days like today are tough for us all, and the ELT and I will do everything we can to make certain that we won’t need or have another day like this ahead of us. We all have to play a part by establishing a new normal in how we work: identifying and eliminating duplicate work, upholding high standards for performance, giving direct feedback and taking action when expectations aren’t being met, and eliminating the bureaucracy that tends to creep as companies grow.”

The company has also cut a small percentage of jobs in its self-driving car unit. The people working in the US and Canada have been most affected by the decision.

Uber has been investing a lot to expand its services and business around the world. But 2019 have surely been the most challenging year for the company. This year in the second quarter Uber reported its biggest loss till date, i.e. $5.2 billion, which is double the loss it had experienced last year. So to cope-up with the changing market and new trends, the company has to take some serious steps.

Google Pixel

Google Pixel Fall Hardware Event 2019: What to Expect

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Tuesday is the day when Google will be hosting its annual fall hardware showcase event, and as all you know, the event will be finally launching the Google Pixel 4 and Google Pixel 4 XL smartphones. But other than that, the big event will also be revealing some of the major updates to the company’s existing products as well as the other new products.

Pixel 4 has already been in news, and the rumours have got us most of the information about the smartphone. According to the rumours, there are two sizes available in the phone, and it will be in three different colours, i.e. ‘just black’, ‘clearly white’, and ‘oh so orange’. One of the new changes to the new smartphone includes a second, 16-megapixel telephoto, camera lens. The camera will also include some of the new photography tricks in it, like an astrophotography mode that makes the night sky pictures even more magical by capturing the stars even clearer. One of the tricks also includes the “Motion Mode” that is specifically designed to take better action shots.

Google had been working on new radar motion sensors called Soli, which according to the rumours, the company will finally be installing in the smartphone. These sensors will make the smartphone do things only by sensing the user’s gestures, like swipes in the air for changing the song on the music application. There will also be a new face recognition feature that will allow the users to unlock the smartphone and in any orientation. Though the rumours have also claimed the Pixel 4 smartphones to be 5G supported, there is no indication from Google of the same, as it is still working on the technology and cannot launch it any sooner.

Google Pixel
Image Source: trustedreviews.com

Other than the smartphones, the company has made some improvements to some of its products. The Google Assistant has received the major updates and is being called as the ‘next-generation Google Assistant’. The new Google Assistant is ten times faster and will also be available on the Google Pixel 4 smartphones. So, the Assistant will be one of the major highlights of the event.

The company had introduced a Pixelbook laptop in 2017, and there had been no news on new Pixelbooks since then. But as the company had revealed at the beginning of this year that it is working on the next Pixelbook, there are high hopes that it will be showing off a new Pixelbook at the event. Believing the rumours, Pixelebook Go is the upcoming laptop, that may have a 13.3-inch touchscreen. According to a blogpost from 9to5Google, like the Pixel 4 smartphone, the Pixelbook may be in two colours ‘just black’, and ‘oh so orange’.

It is also expected that the company may give us some of its new Nest products. There is a possibility that the company may showcase a new mesh router system that will provide wifi connection to the various Google Home devices. There is another device called Nest Mini, that may attract people’s attention during the event, as it is a small smart speaker from Google that they can also hang on your wall.

Last but not least, one of the new products from Google is a pair of new Pixel Buds. There is not much information about the buds, but we expect them to be completely wireless this time. And according to a tweet from Android and Chrome chief Hiroshi Lockheimer, these new buds are incorporated with great sound quality, sweat proof, better battery with USB C charging port, and more.

So only one day left for the event, and we hope Google will bring even better features and products at the event.

klarna

Sebastian Siemiatkowski : The Founder of Swedish Buy-Now-Pay-Later Fintech Klarna

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There have been many rags to riches story, among which, Jack Ma’s rejection story is on the top. In almost every such story, the people who have succeeded once had difficulty in even earning their one time meal. But as time changes, their hard work takes them to new heights, and they only set up new examples for other people. One such story is of the founder of Klarna, a Swedish version of Paypal, which was founded by Sebastian Siemiatkowski in 2005. Siemiatkowski was not rejected, but had a similar humble background and worked at Burger King. And now, like Ma, he has also established himself as one of the successful entrepreneurs in the tech industry.

Early Life

Sebastian Siemiatkowski met his future partner and friend Niklas Adalberth, at Burger King, where both worked as part-timers. Later, the two went on to join the Stockholm School of Economics to pursue a graduate degree in Economics. At the college, they even met the third co-founder of Klarna, Victor Jacobsson.

The two while studying and working together always discussed new startup ideas, but none of them was sure about what they should really do. During their college, they decided to take a year’s off and travel the world without flying. The two went to explore the world through road trips and on ships. This way, they got extra time to think about their career.

Klarna founder
Image Source: businessinsider.com

Founding Klarna

While back from the trip, Siemiatkowski joined sales job and came across the emerging concept of e-Commerce. While working with the sales department, he got to know that it is quite difficult to sell things online, as people do not trust the online payment systems. This problem later became the basis for Klarna.

Siemiatkowski discussed the problem with Niklas and decided to build a new payment system for people to make the purchases. Jacobsson also joined in, and they participated in the Stockholm School of Economics annual entrepreneurship award with the idea. Though Siemiatkowski and his partners had a lot of faith in the idea, it could not make to the finals. In fact, it was one of the lasts. But Jane Walerud, an angel investor, showed interest in the idea and invested in it. He even helped the three co-founders to meet a good development team.

Finally, in the mid of 2005, Siemiatkowski along with his partners founded Klarna and opened its first office in Sweden. They started by offering the option of paying for the goods after receiving them. This led the consumers to trust Klarna faster, as they were hesitant about buying things online. But with Klarna, they could pay after deciding if they wanted to keep the goods.

The Success

The company received another investment from AB Öresund in 2007. In 2010, the company expanded its services to Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands. The same years, Klarna also received investment from Sequoia Capital, and the company’s revenue raised by 80%.

In 2011, the company was named as one of Europe’s 100 most promising young tech companies by The Telegraph. In a round of funding, led by General Atlantic Klarna raised a $155M investment. The company also acquired the Israeli company Analyzd specialising in risk management and online payments. Klarna then expanded its services to the US. This expansion has contributed a lot to the growth of Klarna. In the same year, the company’s revenues made it one of the Unicorns in the country.

By 2018, the company registered around 60M users, and around 90,000 online merchants were using Klarna to carry out their payments. In the latest round of funding held in 2019, Klarna raised $460 million, Dragoneer Investment Group, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, HMI Capital, Merian Chysalis Investment Company Limited being the major investors. This funding round made the company value at $5.5 billion, and it became the largest fintech start-up in Europe.

Through the story of Klarna, we definitely can say that hard work can really change one’s life if it is put in the right direction.

Flying cars

Boeing and Porsche Partners to Target the Urban Air Mobility Market

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We are moving forward towards the future that the sci-fi writers had always imagined. We are exploring the moon and walking on Mars. And on Earth, this is time to start riding the flying cars. From Uber to SeaBubble, many companies have shown their interest in flying cars-taxis and are already working on that. And after these companies, now it is Boeing’s turn to actually bring one, and for that, the company has partnered with the top luxury car brand, Porsche.

The two companies have signed an MoU, under which they together will be working to help reduce the traffic on the road and move it to the airspace, with their new concept for the “premium” eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) air cars.

“Porsche is looking to enhance its scope as a sports car manufacturer by becoming a leading brand for premium mobility. In the longer term, this could mean moving into the third dimension of travel. We are combining the strengths of two leading global companies to address a potential key market segment of the future,” said Detlev von Platen, member of the executive board for sales and marketing at Porsche AG, Germany.

Flying cars
Image source: TechCrunch

The two companies will be working on designing a new aircraft, that will also include its development and the testing. The companies will also be researching the urban air-mobility market for highly populated cities and metropolises.

Even Boeing has already started working on its flying cars and did conduct an inaugural test flight of an aerial car prototype early this year. For now, the companies are looking forward to bring flying cars that would be used for ride-sharing that would contribute to reducing the traffic as well as pollution for the big cities.

The companies will be assembling an international team with the experience and skills in the same field. The team will be analysing the scope and the viability of the electric flying cars in the coming future. Porsche has already been working and researching in the same field for quite some time now, and according to its researches, we can expect the eVTOL market to be active as soon as 2025. The companies like Uber are already up to building flying taxis, so by 2025, we may also see the Porsche air-taxis flying over us.