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Twitter Wants You Follow Your Interest With its New Feature

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The tech industry is evolving every day, and every big tech company, as well as the startups, are coming up with new service, products and updates every sing day. So there has to be something that the other existing companies have to do to sustain through the increased competition. Despite being one of the biggest social media networks, Twitter also knows that it has to experiment with new things so that it can maintain its position in the market.

Taking a step in the same direction, Twitter announced that is working on a new feature to be included into the platform, that would allow the users to see tweets based on their chosen interest on their timeline. For now, the company is still testing the feature and will be launching soon after the successful tests take place.

With the new feature, the users will be able to follow their interests as they do for any individual’s account, and this way, Twitter will curate a relevant feed for the users. The platform is going to take the help of machine learning to bring the tweets based on the user’s interest together and show it up in their feed.

twitter new feature
Image Source: sciencemag.org

The company is calling the new feature “dedicated interest experiences”, which it has already talked about in recent years and finally it is conducting tests with them. The topic of interest for the users can be any of the sports teams, celebrities, or the television shows, but according to the product manager at Twitter, Rob Bishop, for now, the interest will only be based on sports. The initial tests are being carried out on the android devices only.

With the feature, Twitter will also bring up topic suggestions for the users, so that they can find their interest among the suggestions and follow them. Also, there will be an option to mute a particular topic you do not want to see the tweets about.

Twitter is also testing another feature, through which the users will make a list of their interests they follow and want to follow. The company even demonstrated the feature, where a product manager mixed hashtags and a few individual accounts to make a list. The list was accessed by swiping the app’s home screen.

The company is also looking forward to testing the other features like search option in DM, reordering a certain photo in a posted tweet, customizable timeline and support for Apple’s Live Photos.

tumblr

Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic the WordPress.com Owner

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Verizon Media, who last year acquired the microblogging site Tumblr has agreed to sell it off to Automattic Inc. According to The Wall Street Journal reports, the WordPress owner company, Automattic, will be acquiring Tumblr for an undisclosed amount soon.

Verizon bought Tumblr after it had acquired Yahoo, last year. Tumblr was the Yashoo’s subsidiary, and for the last year, Verizon Media was taking care of its operations and actions. The company had also imposed a ban on the adult content sharing over the platform, which got the platform to lose most of its user base.

Tumblr was one of the first and the most popular social media platform, but for the past couple of years, it has been struggling with its position in the market. Though before Verizon bought the company, many preferred Tumblr over any other social media platform. The ban that Verizon had put on the company has made many of its users boycott the platform. Since then, the companies, including Instagram and Snapchat, that came after Tumblr into the field of social media, are taking over the whole business game.

tumblr
Image Source: forbes.com

Even though the ban has led to the fall in the number of users for Tumblr, Automattic Inc. has no plans to remove the ban and continue with the Tumblr operations as it is.

“Adult content is not our forte either, and it creates a huge number of potential issues with app stores, payment providers, trust and safety,” said Automattic’s CEO Matt Mullenweg on Monday. “It’s a problem area best suited for companies fully dedicated to creating a great experience there. I have very liberal views on these things, but supporting adult content as a business is very different,” he added further.

Mullenweg also said that the company would be using Tumblr as complementary to its current platforms, and it won’t receive any changes shortly. Since Tumblr also has its app, Automattic may use its app for the expansion for its other products and services.

“Today’s announcement is the culmination of a thoughtful, thorough and strategic process,” Verizon Media CEO Guru Gowrappan said. “Tumblr is a marquee brand that has started movements, allowed for true identities to blossom and become home to many creative communities and fandoms. We are proud of what the team has accomplished and are happy to have found the perfect partner in Automattic.”

But for everyone’s surprise, according to a report from Axios, the acquisition will take place for a sum of 3 million, which is way less than the amount that Yahoo paid for to buy it in 2013, i.e. $1.1 billion.

Adora-bots

Amazon Starts Testing its New Delivery Robots ‘Adora-bots’ in California

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Maybe it is an attempt to eliminate the need for more manpower or maybe to increase the work efficiency, but Amazon is trying to get robots to its work field. The company has been testing its new blue coloured robots for a few months now. After making its new little delivery scouts stroll in the streets of Seattle (Amazon’s headquarter city), the company has started the tests for the same on the roads of California, now.

The little robots have been named the “Adora-bots”, which has got “Prime” imprinted over them. The robots will be roaming around the city and deliver the packages to Amazon customers.

The little delivery robots from Amazon are blue and have got six wheels. It uses batteries for power and moves at walking speed. In the past few months, the robots have been trained in a way that they get to know the maps of the city better, and for that, Amazon has used the 3D maps. It includes cameras and the ultrasonic sensors, which makes this robot capable of identifying any sort of obstacles on its way.

Adora-bots
Image Source: hindustantimes.com

The company will be randomly choosing on who gets the delivery by these new robots, depending on the size and cost of the package as well as the place where it has to be delivered. The timings for the delivery for these robots will be only in the day time, and that too, between Monday to Friday.

Also, the robots will be under the surveillance of human scouts during the delivery, which the company has named as the “Amazon Scout Ambassadors”. They will accompany the robots to get it out of any kind of trouble and will also be answering the questions of the customers during the delivery.

The company has been bringing the robotics technology to its almost every operation to automate all the processes and increase the efficiency of its employees. Earlier, Amazon had introduced a collection of sorting robots in its warehouse, and before that, it tested delivering items using drones.

Amazon started the working on the Adora-bots in January 2019, and since then it has tested a bunch of six robots in the Seattle and Washington’s Snohomish County. The company undertook the tests in the daylight and in a different type of weather conditions to check its capabilities. Soon, the company may test the robots in other parts of the country as well.

Video Credit : Amazon YouTube Channel
Uber IPO

Uber Suffers a slow Growth and a $5.2 Billion Loss as it Closed Q2 2019

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Uber just had its IPO, and it does not seem that the company is earning the expected profits. The company on Thursday revealed its second quarterly earnings after the IPO and has reported a loss of worth $5.2 billion. Though the earned revenue for the second quarter earned is $3.17 billion, it is still less than the expected revenues, i.e. $3.36 billion.

The price of Uber’s every share had gone down to $42.98 per share from its IPO price, i.e. $45, and the company closed the quarter at 9%. The reported net loss is the biggest loss that the company has ever gone through.

Recently Lyft also came out with its revenue for the Q2 2019 and also reported a loss of $644 million. Being smaller in size, this loss for the company is equally also huge. If we took out the various expenses, like Uber mentioned, “stock-based compensation expenses for employees”, the two are still at loss, as Uber has lost around a $1.3 billion, which is 30% more than last year. And, the total loss for Lyft is around $197 million.

Uber IPO
Image Source: pymnts.com

Uber has just earned a 14% growth up from its last year’s growth, whereas, Lyft has reported a 72% more growth compared to its last year’s growth, i.e. an $867 million.

“While we will continue to invest aggressively in growth, we also want it to be healthy growth, and this quarter we made good progress in that direction,” said the Uber chief financial officer Nelson Chai.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also made a similar statement and said, “We’re very confident that this company, at maturity, can be cash-flow positive.” Dara also said while talking to reporters, “We think that 2019 will be our peak investment year and we think that 2020, 2021, you’ll see losses come down. I think our break-even is something that we can push the company to break even if we really wanted to frankly.”

But is the company really experiencing any growth? In recent years, the pace of growth for the company has quite slowed down. Also, it had fired over 400 employees during the IPO as well. There have been more losses than profits in the entire journey of Uber, and it makes its position questionable in front of the investors.

Note 10 series

Galaxy Note 10 Series to Get Major Microsoft Apps, as a Result of New Samsung-Microsoft Partnership

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Microsoft is one of the biggest tech company in the world, but it could not make a mark in the smartphone industry with its Windows phones. But now, the company has taken a step forward and has partnered with the biggest Android smartphone manufacturer company, Samsung.

Samsung just hosted its Unpacked event in the New York City, where it launched its Galaxy Note 10, Note 10 Plus, Note 10 5G, Galaxy Book S, and a few other Samsung devices. The Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also attended the event and went on stage to announce the new partnership between the two companies.

The partnership will help Microsoft bundle a few of its apps to the Samsung Note 10 series smartphones. Through one of the features that the companies are combinedly getting to the phone is the mirroring of Androids apps to the Windows 10 systems using Microsoft’s Your Phone app. The users will be able to see their text messages, notifications, and even, the whole screen on their desktop or laptops’ screen by simply connecting the smartphone with a USB-C or USB-A cable. The users then can run all the apps of the phone on the PCs as well as make calls using the Your Phone app.

Note 10 series
Image Source: eftm.com

Other than the Your Phone app, the new Samsung Note 10 series smartphones will also render support for Microsoft’s OneDrive, Outlook, Microsoft Office, etc. With OneDrive the users will have an option other than Google Drive to store their data on the cloud. Also, the support for Outlook and Microsoft office will provide the users with a better way to process their documents over their smartphones.

“From calls and text messages to emails and photos, we’re making these everyday experiences great and the interactions between all the devices seamless,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said while on stage, “the combination of Microsoft intelligent experiences and Samsung’s powerful, innovative new devices, like the Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Book S, make this possible.”

Most likely, the new partnership is entirely targetting on the rival company Apple, that already has got awesome built-in products on its iPhones. The main reason why iPhone users have always been afraid of switching to an Android phone. iPhone has already provided its users with the ability to send and receive text messages and e-mails through their Mac devices, and its productivity suite, iWork, is everything, a corporate user would want for all of their document related works.

But as Samsung has just joined its hands with Microsoft, to bring similar flexible features to its series of smartphones, it may be able to encourage the iPhone users to get Android smartphones.

Though the partnership between the two companies was big news, the event was solely to boast about the new Galaxy Note 10 series. The company talked about all the features that the new smartphones will possess. The company also revealed the price of the devices and when these will be available in the market.

The cost of the Galaxy Note 10 in India starts at Rs 69,999, while the starting price for Note 10+ will be Rs 79,999. The smartphones have already made available for pre-orders in the U.S. on selected online retail outlets, including Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm Mall, Tata Cliq and Samsung’s online store. The pre-orders in India will start on August 23. The company has also imposed offers like cash backs on the pre-orders.

Samsung Galaxy

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10 Plus will be the Main Highlight of the Unpacked Event 2019

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Like every year, Samsung is all set to host its Unpacked event, tonight, technically on 7th August for New York time and 8th August for India. The company as always will be showcasing its new products at the event, the launch of Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+, being the biggest highlight. There is still confusion on the name of Note 10+, that whether it would be Note Plus or Note 10+. But still, we have got some of the information already leaked about the features of Samsung’s flagship smartphones.

Thanks to the tweets from Evan Blass, and the Droid Life’s full-page snippets, that have talked about the features of the new Galaxy smartphones. According to the rumours, most likely form the leaks, the Note 10 will have a 6.3 inches Dynamic AMOLED display, whereas the Note 10+ (or simply Plus) will render similar 6.8 inches display. The rumours also suggest that the two smartphones will be powered with the Exynos 9825 processor or Snapdragon 855 Plus processor, accordingly and will run on Android Pie OS.

The leaked pictures showcase a set of three cameras on the rear of the smartphones. If believed the rumours, the camera setup will include a 12-megapixel dual-pixel sensor primary camera, a 16-megapixel sensor with an ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 12-megapixel sensor with a telephoto lens, that too, with enhanced capabilities. The smartphones will also include a hole-punch selfie camera of 10-megapixel. For the first time, the new smartphones will also include the Audio Zoom microphones.

Samsung Galaxy
Image Source: gadgets360cdn.com

Both the smartphones will have a storage of 356 GB. The Galaxy Note will include an 8 GB RAM and a 3,500mAh battery, whereas Galaxy Note+ will have a 12 GB Ram and a 4,300mAh battery. The smartphones will come with the ‘supercharge’ feature, such that the phones will be able to get fully charged in a few minutes.

Reportedly, the price of Galaxy Note 10 may be around $949, and the Note 10 Plus may cost $1,099 to start. The company has also included a stylus with each model. The stylus will be capable of switching between the three cameras, and it will also offer support for a new air gesture feature.

Samsung had said earlier that a Samsung smartphone is more than a phone that only makes calls. According to a statement from the company, Samsung smartphones have been used for various purposes, including content creation. So the company may be including some features for the creators as well.

The event will go live at 1 PM in the New York time, and the launch of the smartphones will take place at 4 pm. You can check out the following link to watch the live stream:

https://news.samsung.com/global/how-to-watch-samsung-galaxy-unpacked-2019