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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.

iPhone models

Apple Confirms that all Three iPhone Models Releasing in 2020 will be 5G

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Most of the network providing companies have got their hands on the 5G technology, and so, the least we can expect from Apple is to incorporate the next iPhone models with the 5G compatibility. The rumours were already making rounds that the latest iPhone models will have support for 5G, and now, a note sent by Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo to the Apple investors has confirmed that three of Apple’s latest iPhone will render support for 5G.

Though in the past the company had suggested that it would be including the support for 5G in the two models of the three, it is going to launch in 2020. But since the competition is increasing and most of the Android phone developers have opted for 5G, the company has decided to get 5G to all three models it is going to release in 2020.

The previous reports also gave a hint on the sizes of the iPhones, i.e. 5.4, 6.7-inch and a 6.1-inch. All the three iPhones will have an OLED display, the first two models being the high-end iPhones. Previously, it was decided that except the 6.1-inch iPhone model, the other two would be supporting 5G, and it being the cheaper one, will have support for 3G/LTE network.

iPhone models
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Reportedly, Apple will be including a smaller TrueDepth camera with all the three iPhones, that will be able to shrink the notch on OLED screens. Also, the company will be adding a seven-piece lens system for their rear cameras.

All the three iPhones will also be including support for mmWave and Sub-6GHz spectrum. Though rising competition is one of the main reasons for adding the 5G support in all its new iPhones coming in 2020, having acquired Intel’s 5G business, the company, now, has more resources for bringing the 5G technology to its new phones. But the company will still be using the Qualcomm chips to make the 5G technology work on the upcoming iPhone models.

“Apple may have the intention to launch the 5G iPhone, which only supports Sub-6GHz, to gain market share by lowering the cost/price for markets which only support Sub-6GHz (e.g., Chinese market). However, 5G iPhone, which only supports Sub-6GHz and the version which supports mmWave & Sub-6GHz are regarded as different projects even though they share the same form factor design,” said Kuo.

Apple currently is working on the launch of its next range of iPhones in coming September. These iPhones are said to be the revision of the iPhone models the company released in 2018. There will be successors to all the three previously launched models, i.e. iPhone XR, XS and XS Max. The iPhone XR will have an LCD display, whereas the other two iPhones will be incorporated with Sport OLED displays. The all three iPhone models will be the premium version of their ancestors and will also have dual cameras.

Unity Technologies

Unity Technologies Co-founder, David Helgason, Teaches Us ‘Never Give Up’

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In the past fifty years, the video game industry has evolved tremendously, and an infinite number of video game developers are currently contributing to the very field in their own way. David Helgason is one such developer, who along with Nicholas Francis and Joachim Ante, created a gaming engine that is used by half of the active game developers in the world, under the name of their company Unity Technologies. Unity Technologies is one of the biggest video game software development companies which are responsible for the development of most popular video games running today.

Early Life

David Helgason was born and brought up in Iceland. After spending the first ten years of his life in Iceland, he moved to Denmark with his mother. He was a little kid when his mother brought him a computer. As soon he got his hands on the computer, he grew an interest in learning more about it. Once after breaking the computer, he tried to fix it and got some video games to play on it. He even started learning programming languages, so that he could build games on the computer.

He spent a whole 22 years in Denmark, and from education to his first job, he did all there. Though he never got a degree from the university, as he dropped out of university at least four times, and studied different subjects every single time, including psychology, physics, computer science, Arabic, and middle eastern studies.

Unity Technologies founders
Image Source: globenewswire.com

Founding Unity Technologies & Initial Struggling Years

Helgason was never sure of what he wanted to do in future, except becoming a scholar. But studies did not interest him, and after dropping out for four times from the university, he finally thought of starting a software development company.

In the year 2000, he started Over the Edge Entertainment (later rebranded as Unity Technologies) with his friends Nicholas Francis and Joachim Ante, inside a basement. To pay the rent and the taxes, all three were working part-time in restaurants and coffees shops.

The three friends had started the business but without a business plan. So they had nothing to do better than sticking along. So for a long time, they were doing some consulting projects and other non-technical jobs to support their company. The three finally launched their first game, GooBall, in 2005, and the bizarre thing about the game was that it only supported Mac. This way, the first project of the company failed badly.

The Rise of Unity Technologies

But this failure brought the three into the light, and they started working on another project. This time, they added support for Windows PCs and Web browsers. They also shifted their focus from developing games to developing a gaming engine. They aimed at creating a gaming engine that could ease out the process of development of 2D and 3D interactive content.

In 2006, the co-inventors participated in the Apple Design Awards and were the runner-up for Best Use of Mac OS X Graphics. In the next year, with the release of the iPhone, the company started working on adding the support for the iPhone in the engine. In 2008, they released the new version of the engine that supported iPhone games, becoming the first gaming engine to do so. This made the engine popular among the people. The company started developing support for mobile games and began to grow at a faster rate.

In 2008, Cartoon Network used the Unity engine to create FusionFall. FusionFall is an MMORPG for kids and has been played by 8 million people. In the following years, other big names like Electronic Arts, Microsoft and Ubisoft, also used the same engine for their projects.

In 2010, the company launched the Unity Asset Store, and in 2012, Unity Technologies acquired the animation company Mecanim. The next year, the company recorded 1 million registered developers, the 50 per cent of the total game developers of the world. Facebook also added Unity engine to its platform, in 2013,

The Fundraiser

By 2016, Unity Technologies had earned more than 5.5 million registered users. The same year the company raised a $181 million round of funding making the company valued at approximately $1.5 billion, and in another round of funding in the next year, the company raised $400 million that valued the company at $2.8 billion. In 2018, with $145 million raised in another funding valued the company at $3 billion.

In the year 2017, the company released the Unity 2017 version and partnered with Google to develop augmented reality tools for Android devices and apps on ARCore. The two companies also joined their hands to offer online game development on Google Cloud. Unity Technologies also started working with DeepMind, an Alphabet subsidiary, to develop a virtual world artificial intelligence.

Unity Technologies Expansion

Today, the Unity engine is also used in various other fields other than game development, including film, television and automotive. Since its inception, the company has acquired much other game development and media companies, including Digital Monarch Media (2018), Vivox (2019), Applifier (2014) and Multiplay (2017).

As of 2018, the company has hired more than 2000 employees and has established its offices in various parts of North America, Europe and Asia. John Riccitiello replaced Helgason as the CEO of the company in 2014. Since then, Helgason has been working as a member of the board of the company and has moved to Copenhagen. He has also spoken as a motivational speaker at many events, such as TechBBQ, Copenhagen Tech Festival, Techfestival.se, Tech Open Air Berlin, Slush, etc.

Apple and Intel

Apple and Intel Agrees on Apple Acquiring the Intel’s Smartphone Modem Business for $1B

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Apple, through a blog post, announced on Thursday that it is going to acquire the majority of Intel’s smartphone modem business. According to the post, over 2200 Intel employees will switch to Apple. The agreement between Apple and Intel also includes the acquisition of IP and equipment from Intel and the payable amount for Apple is set to be $1 billion.

The deal between Apple and Intel is no surprise for most of the people, as there have been rumours making rounds that Apple will be taking over the Intel’s modem business so that it will not have to rely on other companies for the modems for its smartphones.

After the deal is closed, Apple will be independently building its own 5G modems for iPhones. Recently the company settled its dispute with its longtime modem supplier Qualcomm. But it seems Apple is no more interested in taking the help of a third party supplier for the equipment. The company will also be taking over the right on Intel’s 17,000 wireless technology patents.

Apple and Intel
Image Source: appleworld

“We’ve worked with Intel for many years and know this team shares Apple’s passion for designing technologies that deliver the world’s best experiences for our users. Apple is excited to have so many excellent engineers join our growing cellular technologies group, and know they’ll thrive in Apple’s creative and dynamic environment. They, together with our significant acquisition of innovative IP, will help expedite our development on future products and allow Apple to further differentiate moving forward.” said Johny Srouji SVP Apple.

Apple leads towards in-house production

Apple and Intel broke the news two months after the former made a settlement with Qualcomm in April. In fact, Intel had also announced that it plans to stop all its operations of producing smartphone modems after the two companies had ended their years’ long-running dispute. However, Intel will still be developing the modems for PCs, laptops, Internet of Things, etc.

According to Apple, the two companies will close the deal by the end of 2019, after going through all the legalities. Beliving the rumours, Apple may start 5G modem production as soon as the mid of 2020. The deal will lead Apple towards in-house production, and this way, it can focus better on the quality of its products as well as save a lot of money.

Revolut

Nikolay Storonsky : Founder of Revolut, the Amazon of Banking

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No one better than a traveller would know the worth of every single cent as he/she has to pay an extra fee on the exchange of currency when crossing borders. This is not only the problem of a traveller but many others, who need to get their currencies exchanged, and that too, over different exchange fees. Would it not be better if we get a personalised and accurate platform that would help us with the foreign spendings and the currency exchanges, so that the whole process remains transparent, and we always pay the right amount?

Nikolay Storonsky, a British-Russian entrepreneur, went through the same problem, every time he planned vacations out of the country. But, in the end, he came up with Revolut. Revolut is a banking app that helps you with your finances and spendings across the globe.

Early Life

Nikolay Storonsky was born on 21 July 1984 in Moscow, USSR, to Nikolay Mironovich Storonsky. His father is the Deputy General Director of Science for Gazprom Promgaz, Russia.

Nikolay Storonsky
Image SOurce: vixc.com

Storonsky, after completing his school education from a public school, joined the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, where he completed a master’s degree in Physics. During his time at the university, he also participated in various swimming competitions and became a state-level swimming champion. Later, he went to the New Economic School in Moscow, where he completed another master’s degree in economics.

Storonsky started his career as a trader and worked for Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers.

Founding Revolut

Storonsky loved travelling and even went abroad for small trips. But every time he went out of the country, he faced issues with the currency exchange and their hiked fees. This annoyed Storonsky a lot and wanted to find a better solution for the same.

After a lot of searching and brainstorming, Storonsky reached to a conclusion that he should develop a system that could help people with their finances. So, along with Vlad Yatsenko, and with the help of former Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank developer, he started working on Revolut.

In the beginning, he raised a $3.5 million for the startup and launched Revolut as an exchange platform on 1 July 2015. The new and convenient concept of Revolut helped it reach more people and make other investors interested in it. In the next two years, the company raised $71 and valued at $350 million. The company also added some other financial services to the platform like cryptocurrency exchange, peer-to-peer payments and pre-paid debit card, etc.

In 2018, the Revolut raised a $250 million in another round of funding, led by Hong Kong-based DST Global. The company became a unicorn and valued $1.7 billion after the round of funding. The same year, the company was able to get the Specialised Bank licence from European Central Bank and an Electronic Money Institution licence, both facilitated by the Bank of Lithuania.

This way, the company is allowed to accept deposits from the consumers and offer them credits. But since it has the Specialised License, it cannot process the investments from the consumers.

Further Expansion

Revolut is one of the fastest-growing fintech, and as of February 2019, it has earned over 4 million users out of which half of them uses the Revolut debit card. The Revolut app offers withdrawal of around 120 currencies through ATMs, and around 29 currencies can be sent to people directly using the app. The app also supports the exchange of cryptocurrency with 20 different fiat currencies. The cryptocurrencies that the app support includes Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and XRP, etc. The app has its own wallet that can be used to make online payments.

The app had been developed to help people cut the extra fees they pay on exchanges, so the app provides a minimal or no fee for all of its services.

The company headquarters is based in London, United Kingdom, and Nikolay Storonsky is serving the company as the CEO. Currently, 600+ people are working for Revolut. The net worth of Storonsky is estimated to be $510 million.

Awards and Recognition

Revolut has been ranked number three in the LinkedIn Top Companies (UK Startups) list in 2018. It has been also awarded the Top 10 Employed Brand (UK) by Hired in the same year. Revolut won the award of Hottest Fintech Startup 2018 by Europa Awards and Innovator of the Year 2018 by Amazon Growing Business Awards. It was also named the Fintech Company of the Year 2018 by CityAM Awards.

For now, Storonsky is working hard and wants to extend the scope of Revolut services to other countries as well.

Samsung Galaxy fold

Galaxy Fold : Samsung to Finally Launch its ‘Improved’ Foldable in September

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Though not required, many of the smartphone development companies have announced their own foldable smartphones Samsung being one of the first to do so. Samsung had revealed that it is working on a foldable smartphone, Galaxy Fold, earlier this year, and even got to launch one. But the foldable from Samsung had numerous problems. This led to many controversies, and it became a fail.

But now the company has again come up with its foldable smartphone Galaxy Fold, and that, according to an announcement made by Samsung, will be launched in September. The company said that it has made all the required improvements to its Galaxy Fold, and it is ready for the launch.

“Earlier this year, we announced Galaxy Fold-Samsung’s first foldable device and the beginning of an entirely new mobile category. Since then, we’ve made improvements to the Galaxy Fold to ensure consumers have the best possible experience.” said one of the spokespersons from Galaxy Fold development division.

Samsung Galaxy fold
Image Source: trustedreviews.com

The main issue with the previous version of the foldable was the cracking of the screen when folded. But now the company has made some good changes to the smartphone that, according to the company claims, will protect the screen.

What are the New Improvements?

The foldable has a protective layer over the Infinity Flex Display. Samsung has extended this very protective layer beyond the bezel of the phone, making it attached to the phone. Thus the user cannot remove it by mere scratching.

The company has added the protection caps to the top and bottom of the hinge area of the smartphone. This way, it becomes even stronger. The company also took time to reduce the space between the body of the phone and the hinge.

To provide extra protection to the screen, Samsung has added an extra metal layer under the Infinity Flex Display.

“Samsung has taken the time to fully evaluate the product design, make necessary improvements and run rigorous tests to validate the changes we made,” said Samsung.

Reportedly, the company is aiming to improve the user experience and has even made some changes to the UX/UI of the smartphone. The company has not specified a particular date for the launch, but before September, it will be undertaking all sort of tests over the new Galaxy Fold.

roblox

David Baszucki : Founder of Roblox, the Biggest Video Game Building Platform

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Video games are the best way to pass time and also good for some brain exercises. But it takes a lot of efforts to create a video game as it is quite a complex task. But what if there be a platform that helps the keen developers to create those video games in some simpler steps? It would be great, Right? Roblox is such a platform that allows its users to design their games, and even play games created by other developers. The platform not only is helping people create their own games, but also establish themselves as tech entrepreneurs. Roblox was founded by American internet entrepreneur David Baszucki in 2006.

Early Life

Baszucki was born on 20 January 1963 in Canada. He completed his high school education from Eden Prairie High School in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. He was an active participant in the extracurriculars of his school and was the head of the quiz team of the school. Later, he joined Stanford University, where he studied engineering and computer science. He then graduated as the General Motors Scholar in electrical engineering in 1985.

Career

Baszucki was always into starting up his own business, so only after four years from his graduation, along with his brother, he founded ‘Knowledge Revolution’ in 1989. Knowledge Revolution produced educational applications for Macintosh users. The first product of the Knowledge Revolution was Interactive Physics, an application that helped users learn Physics. The platform simulated a 2D environment where the users could carry out Physics experiments.

Roblox founder David Baszucki
Image Source: bizjournals.com

The next year, the company released ‘Working Model’, another application that helped users learn mechanical physics. After building various educational applications, MSC Software, a California based company acquired Knowledge Revolution in 1998.

After the acquisition, Baszucki joined MSC Software as Vice President and the General Manager in 2000. After working for two years in the company, he left the job to start an investment firm named Baszucki & Associates. He even hosted a radio show named KSCO Radio Santa Cruz from February to July 2003.

Founding Roblox

Baszucki was inspired by the success of the Knowledge Revolution, and how popular Interactive Physics had become among the young kids. This led him to start working on a new project in 2004 that would also involve its users in the development work. Baszucki started working on a new project and founded DynaBlocks with Erik Cassel.

Later in 2005, the company was rebranded as Roblox. The official launch of the company and its website took place in 2006. The company produced a creation engine named Roblox Studio that allowed people to create their games and experiences on the platform. The users could also play games created by other developers on the platform. In 2007, the company released a premium membership, i.e. Builders Club, that offered extra features to the subscribers.

The platform became a place to learn and create codes for the teenagers, and it received maximum engagement form the children under the age of 13. In 2009, the company raised a $2.2 million in crowdfunding, and it raised a $4 million in the second round of funding in 2011. In the same year, the company hosted Hack Week, an event for the developers where these developers could present some out-of-the-box ideas.

The company has launched its own virtual currency named Robux, that players use to buy games on the platform.

In December 2012, Roblox released an iOS version of the platform, and in the next year, the company developed a currency exchanging platform, Developer Exchange system, using which the developers could exchange their Robux virtual currency with real-time currency.

In 2015, Roblox then released a new and revamped feature for the game development, ‘Smooth Terrain’, that offered, even smoother game development. The next year, the company also introduced Roblox VR for Oculus Rift that could be used for playing over ten million 3D games available on the platform. Roblox also released a Windows 10 compatible version of Roblox in the same year.

The company even raised a huge sum of $92 million in another funding round led by Meritech Capital Partners and Index Ventures in March 2017.

In 2017, there was a total of 2 million Roblox developers on the platform, and it had over 56 million monthly active players. The collective earning of this year was calculated to be $30 million. The platform has helped many teenagers to make some money for their expenses, many of which have also paid for their college fee with the same money. Developers are even making $50,000 a month through Roblox.

Roblox is one of America’s fastest-growing companies, and it also received the same title from Inc. 5000 in 2016 and 2017. It was also awarded the ‘Economic Development Association (SAMCEDA) Award of Excellence’ in 2017.

Baszucki also received various awards and accolades for his invention, including the ‘San Mateo Visionary Hero Award’ for Roblox’s contributions to education and encouraging kids to code (2015). He was also named as one of ‘100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs’ by Goldman Sachs (2017-18). He has over 15 patents in his name.