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Salesforce co-CEO Taylor to leave as Benioff takes sole charge

Salesforce Inc announced on Wednesday that co-CEO Bret Taylor will step down from the position in January and also that co-founder Marc Benioff will take over as sole CEO.

Investors simply brushed off the annual profit increase, sending the company’s shares down the pit by 7 percent in extended trading.

According to Steve Koenig, managing director at SMBC Nikko Securities, investors likely assumed Taylor’s appointment was the start of a long tenure as Salesforce’s operational CEO.

“His departure raises questions about why he’s leaving and how operational leadership will be divided and delegated,” he added.
Source: thestar.com.my

Taylor became the co-CEO in November 2021 and priorly served as a chief operating officer (COO) and chief product officer (CPO) of Salesforce company.

He was a major contributor behind Salesforce’s 27.7 billion USD workspace messaging platform takeover i.e. Slack Technologies.

“After a lot of reflection, I’ve decided to return to my entrepreneurial roots,” Taylor said.
Source: thestar.com.my

Benioff said that it is “bittersweet” that Taylor has decided to step down as his Co-CEO. “Taylor made his mark on Salesforce as an incredible technologist, leader and friend to us all. Bret founded two incredible companies so it’s understandable why he wants to return to his entrepreneurial roots.”
Source: latestly.com

Taylor, a co-creator of Alphabet Inc’s Google Maps, is also credited with developing Meta Platform Inc unit Facebook’s “like” button while serving as the social media giant’s (CTO) chief technology officer.

The firm based in San Francisco expects yearly adjusted profit per share to range between $4.92 and $4.94, up from $4.71 to $4.73 previously forecast.

According to Refinitiv IBES data, earnings for the quarter that ended Oct. 31 was 7.84 billion USD, compared to an average expectation of the analyst of 7.82 billion USD.

Salesforce has attracted customers with a broad portfolio that comprises its Customer 360 platform and messenger app Slack at such a time when digital transformation has become a priority, even as businesses it is said to be prepared for a major economic turndown.

The firm’s income for the current quarter is expected to range somewhere around 7.93 billion USD to 8.03 billion USD.

It earned 1.40 USD per share on an adjusted basis in the third quarter, particularly in comparison to the $1.21 expected.

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

Spotify Wrapped 2022: When it’s coming?

Spotify released its 2022 Wrapped recaps on Wednesday, the yearly digital journey that digs through your tastes in music for the year.

Wrapped this year includes new features such as your Myers-Briggs-style “listening” personality type and a tracker that monitors how your musical mood changes throughout the day. Wrapped, as usual, summarises your top artists, genres, songs, and podcasts, as well as overall minutes, listened on Spotify.

It is a popular feature on the streaming service and the centerpiece of a huge marketing campaign. Spotify is the world’s largest music streaming service by the number of users, so its annual data recap is one way to gauge global listening habits.

Wrapped recaps for this year include:

• Your Listening Personality: Users are classified into one of 16 music personalities, such as the Deep Diver, Replayer, Adventurer, or Fanclubber, based on how they listen.

• Audio Day: A step-by-step look at just how your music habits change during the day, with Spotify identifying your mood for the morning, day, and night. My morning mood is apparently “somber friendly,” whatever that is.

• Your Artist Messages: Following up on a feature introduced last year, Spotify is incorporating video cameos from the biggest artists into recaps. Last year, Spotify asked over 100 artists to record a thank-you notification for their fans. This year, over 40,000 people took part. If one or more of your top artists recorded a cameo, you might see one or more in your Wrapped feed.

Wrapped “creator” perceptions for artists and podcasters on Spotify are individualized microsites that delve into just how their fans listened to their music over the year.

This year, all of the ways of sharing your Wrapped on social networks have returned, as have new social cards to share on WhatsApp and Line. Snapchat also offers a personalized lens based on your Listening Personality.

How to watch your Wrapped recap?

Wrapped experiences are only available in the Spotify mobile app for Android and Apple iPhones and iPads. Just ensure you have the most recent version of the Spotify app, which is 8.7.78.

The app will include banners on the Home, Search, and Library tabs, in addition to a full “Your 2022 in Review” shelf on the Home tab. You can also search for “2022 Wrapped” in the Spotify app.

Once you’re on your Apple or Android device, simply visit this website, which will launch your Wrapped history in the app.

If you’re still unable to locate your Wrapped, it’s possible that you haven’t used Spotify enough just to generate enough data to create a personalized recap. To be eligible for Wrapped, users must stream at least about 30 tracks for a little more than 30 seconds and at least five artists between January 1 and early November.

Suhani Jain

Neuralink brain chip to begin human trials in 6 months

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Sandhya Gupta

After the company missed prior deadlines he had set, Elon Musk said on Wednesday that he anticipates a wireless brain chip developed by his company Neuralink to start human clinical testing in six months.

Elon Musk, a multibillionaire and the CEO of Twitter, stated on Wednesday that a wireless gadget built by Neuralink is set to start human clinical testing in six months. Neuralink is a neurotechnology company. According to Reuters, Musk stated that the restoration of vision is one of its initial intended uses.

The company, which has offices in Texas and the San Francisco Bay Area, has been involved in testing on animals as it waits for US regulatory approval for human clinical trials.

Musk noted, “We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device into a human. The progress at first, particularly as it applies to humans, will seem perhaps agonizingly slow, but we are doing all of the things to bring it to scale in parallel. “So, in theory, progress should be exponential.”

According to Musk, the Neuralink device’s first two human uses would be to restore vision and allow muscle movement in people who are unable to do so. Musk said, “Even if someone has never had a vision, ever, like they were born blind, we believe we can still restore vision.” A tiny device, electrode-laced wires, and a robot that removes a little portion of a person’s skull and inserts it into the brain are the components of the Neuralink product.

The event was initially scheduled for October 31 but Musk canceled it a few days early without providing a reason. More than a year ago, Neuralink gave its last public demonstration, which featured a monkey playing Pong on a computer.

Musk, who also owns the electric vehicle maker Tesla, the rocket company SpaceX, and the social networking site Twitter, is renowned for his aspirational plans to save humanity and colonize Mars. He holds the same lofty goals for Neuralink as well, which he founded in 2016.

He intends to create a chip that would enable the brain to control intricate electronic equipment, eventually restoring motor function to paralyzed persons and treating disorders of the brain including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and dementia. He also discusses combining artificial intelligence with the brain. However, Neuralink is going behind schedule.

In a 2019 presentation, Musk stated that his goal was to win regulatory permission by the end of 2020. Then, in late 2021, he declared at a conference that he wanted to begin human trials this year.

Current and former employees claim that Neuralink has routinely missed internal deadlines for obtaining FDA approval to begin human studies. According to Reuters, Musk approached rival Synchron early this year about a prospective investment after complaining to Neuralink staff members about their sluggish progress.

By successfully implanting its device in a patient in the United States for the first time in July, Synchron achieved a significant milestone. In 2021, it got regulatory approval from the US for use in human trials, and studies involving four Australians have been completed.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Snapchat Finally Comes to Microsoft Store for PC Users

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Sandhya Gupta

Snapchat, an instant messaging and photo-sharing application is now available on Windows via the Microsoft Store. Individuals can now Snap using their PCs.

Snapchat, a picture-sharing and instant-messaging app, has resisted coming to Windows, but it has now made its formal debut as a Progressive Web App on the Microsoft Store. Based on the recently released web version of Snapchat, Snapchat for Windows is a Progressive Web App (PWA) that can only be used with Microsoft’s Edge Browser.

There are no glaring differences or benefits between the mobile and web app. Since Snapchat Web is primarily a web app, its install size is tiny (1.4 MB) and it always stays up to current with any updates.

The user interface is similar to other web applications such as WhatsApp and Instagram. Based on the app store summary, one can install the PWA edition on up to 10 Windows systems as long one is signed into their Microsoft account.

Snap has also intensified its focus in regions like India, where it didn’t initially notice much demand a few years ago. In certain countries, including India, a paid edition of the application called Snapchat+ is now available. The app’s paid edition, Snapchat Plus, gives users greater benefits. In India, a subscription to Snapchat+ costs Rs 49 per month.

The Snap service is intended for “power users,” who must spend a monthly fee in exchange for access to certain premium features not offered to normal app users.

In India, Snapchat has also released the in-app Family Center and parenting settings. The controls enable parents to view contacts that their children have contacted in the past week as well as who their children communicate online.

In addition, Snapchat has teamed up with Amazon to offer users an AR try-on experience. Snapchat users will be able to test out eyewear designs from a variety of well-known brands on the e-commerce platform. According to Amazon, some of these are Persol, Maui Jim, Oakley, Ray-Ban, and Costa Del Mar.

A number of new shopping lenses will be released along with the debut of the eyewear line, and they will fall into three categories: reading glasses, sunglasses, and seasonal eyewear. This partnership between the two businesses comes after Snapchat recently announced a number of brand-friendly updates. This includes building AR shopping lenses, updating product details like pricing, and much more.

Given Snap’s treatment of Microsoft throughout the years, the revelation comes as a bit of a surprise. It may be recalled that the corporation previously declined to develop specific software for Windows phones, restricting its service to a particular demographic utilizing the Microsoft OS.

Despite this, some developers have attempted to introduce the Snap experience to the Windows ecosystem in the past by releasing third-party Snapchat applications on the Windows Phone application store.

One of these was the 6snap app, which was eliminated from the location in 2014 along with other outside apps. Snap even banned the accounts of those who used the “unauthorized programs” in an effort to dissuade Windows phone users from using such apps.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Elon Musk claims Apple has threatened to remove the Twitter app

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

Elon Musk went on a rant against Apple, Twitter’s top advertiser, on Monday after claiming that the company threatened to remove the social media network from its App Store without any clarification and had pretty much-stopped marketing on Twitter.

The rant highlighted the enormous power that Apple, the world’s biggest firm, possesses over the fate of the world’s richest man’s Twitter gamble. The rant also hinted at Apple’s potential role as a check on Musk’s chaotic reign at Facebook; Apple has previously annulled App Store permissions from companies that violated its security protocols or supported violence and other troublesome content.

If Twitter is removed from the App Store, new users will be unable to install the app on their iPhones and iPads, and current users will be unable to access updates. The accused threat tends to add to the marketer pressure, staff departures, and regulatory scrutiny that Musk is facing as he pursues to overhaul years of Twitter guidelines and account expulsions in his quest to promote “free speech.”

Under a document analysed by The Washington Post that was prepared from internal Twitter data, Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter in the first quarter, paying 48 USD million on advertisements on the social network. That quarter, Apple’s spending accounted for much more than 4 per cent of Twitter’s revenue.

Elon Musk attempted to pressurize the firm and CEO Tim Cook in several tweets for halting spending during the holiday shopping season.

Requests for comment were not returned by Apple. Musk’s tweets sought to rekindle long-standing concerns and political scrutiny about Apple’s market dominance. He posted a link to a 2020 parody video made by Apple for Epic Games criticising the App Store as a “monopoly.”

The video is a parody of Apple’s famous “1984” Super Bowl commercial, which Epic, the creator of the Fortnite video game, launched after it was removed from Apple’s store for violating its in-app payment rules. He also asked his and over 119 million followers to vote on whether Apple should publish all censorship acts it has carried out that affect its customers.

“Did you know Apple puts a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through their App Store?,” Musk tweeted, with the caption “Spoiler alert.”
Musk hinted in a tweet that he may go to war with Apple.
Source: washingtonpost.com

“This is a battle for the future of civilization. If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead,” Musk said later.
Source: news18.com

Suhani Jain

Google and Microsoft announce new pacts to use renewable energy in the data center

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Sandhya Gupta

Both Microsoft and Google have made fresh commitments to use renewable sources of energy in their data centers, reducing the carbon impact of their IT operations.

Microsoft and Google have made new commitments to reduce the carbon footprint of their IT operations through the use of renewable sources of energy in their data centers. In order to power its facilities in the UK, Google has entered into a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the French utility company Engie for 100 MW of energy produced by the Moray West offshore wind farm.

According to Google, the new agreements would help the business to nearer to its goal of completely running its cloud regions and UK offices on carbon-free energy by 2030. According to Matt Brittin, president of Google EMEA, consumers in the UK and Europe are growing more concerned about energy sources and climate change.

He stated that Google has similar worries and thinks technology will be crucial in resolving the energy crisis by lowering emissions both internally and externally.

Microsoft, meanwhile, publicly disclosed PPAs in Ireland that encompass more than 900MW of brand-new renewable power capacity to operate its data centers there. Microsoft did not identify the providers for its renewable power contracts, but other media has named two of them as Statkraft of Norway and Energia Group of Ireland.

The energy is derived from a combination of solar and wind projects. The Redmond powerhouse predicted that by 2025, all of the energy used in its Irish data centers would be renewable and sourced from new initiatives backed by PPAs like these. Microsoft already agreed to a 20-year contract with AES Corporation to operate its data centers in California using renewable energy.

The action follows past agreements by both businesses to purchase US renewable energy. While Microsoft signed a 20-year agreement with AES Corporation earlier this year to supply renewable power to its data centers in California from a portfolio of 110MW solar and 55MW four-hour storage projects, Google struck a deal with SoftBank subsidiary SB Energy for 900MW of solar energy for a datacenter in Texas.

Although these initiatives have admirable goals, they won’t necessarily reduce the carbon emissions of these megacorps, particularly if they are growing more quickly than they are acquiring carbon credits or making investments in renewable energy.

For instance, Microsoft acknowledged in its sustainability reports report for 2021 that although its personal CO2 emissions had decreased by around 17% year over year, its carbon emissions had increased due to considerable expansion during the same time. Microsoft stated that in addition to growing its data centers to accommodate customers’ requirements, it has also increased its commitment to decreasing carbon use and assisting in the bigger climate change challenges.

The series of announcements is a boost for the commercial power purchase agreement (PPA) market in Europe, which wind and solar industry organizations claimed last month had experienced a year-over-year decrease during the first three quarters of 2022.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

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