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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

windows 7

Windows 7 Users will Need to Upgrade to Windows 10 by the End of this Year

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Last month, Microsoft officially announced that it is going to end providing support for Windows 7 and asked its users to upgrade their PCs with Windows 10. The company took it to their blog post to announce the news and even provided with details on how the users can upgrade to Windows 10 and other things as well.

The company has said that the users will still be able to use Windows 7 on their laptops and PCs, but they won’t be getting any support like security upgrades from the company starting from January 2020. This way, the PCs with Windows 7 won’t be secure from the malicious malware and virus attacks.

Microsoft has also recommended that the users skip installing Windows 10 on their old laptops and PCs. Instead, they should go for new systems that are faster and are better working with Windows 10.

windows 7
Image Source: howtogeek.com

It has been over five years after Windows 10 was launched, even then the company has been offering support for Windows 7. But now, it seems that it wants to focus better on Windows 10 and wants the users to get some new laptops and PCs. Alongside the announcement, the company also flaunted the various features that the new Windows 10 laptops and PCs will offer the users.

For upgrading to Windows 10, one has to back up their data on an external hard drive so that they don’t lose it. Microsoft has given a detailed description on how to backup data from Windows 7. The company has also mentioned a few of the main reasons why one should go for new laptops and PCs, inbuilt security being the prime reason.

The company has started sending reminders to most of its Windows 7 users about the upgrade. The company has said that it will be sending those notifications for a few times. But the users can easily turn off these notifications. The notification leads the users to the same blog post that Microsoft has posted on its website regarding the upgrade.

The upgrade can cost the users a good amount, but the apps and security Windows 10 offers, are worth it. The Windows 10 comes in three different versions, Windows 10 Home (costs INR 9,299.00), Windows 10 Pro (costs INR 14,799.00) and Windows 10 Pro for Workstations (costs INR 22,799.00).

Windows 7 is now ten years old, and yet it is as popular as it was a decade ago. Even the launch of a revamped Windows 10, in 2015, could not convince most of the people to upgrade to Windows 10. But now, the company has found a way to make Windows 10 its prime product.

LightSail 2

LightSail 2 Successfully Sailing in Space through Sunlight

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This is true that all the living things get energy from the sunlight, and now, with the latest experiment carried out by The Planetary Society through its LightSail 2 spacecraft, it is confirmed again. Bill Nye, CEO of the non-profit organisation, announced today that the organisation’s experimental bread-loaf-sized, solar-powered spacecraft has successfully raised its orbit with the help of sunlight.

“Today, we declare mission success. We’re going to a higher orbital altitude without rocket fuel, just with the push of sunlight,” Nye said in a press conference.

The spacecraft was launched on 25th June from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, along with the other payloads, with the help of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and was deployed in its solar sail on 23rd July. The solar sail is made of four triangular sails of shiny Mylar. Since the deployment of the craft, the team LightSail have been observing and supervising every movement of the spacecraft.

LightSail 2
Image Source: pressfrom.info

According to the team, LightSail 2 was moving slowly upward in the Earth’s orbit, and it has raised its apogee about 2 kilometres in the past four days. The 5 kilograms CubeSat had been keeping the records about the progress of the craft, and on July 2, it sent the information about its successful propelling to the Earth’s orbit.

The solar sail is 344 square foot in area. The light particle from the sun bounce from the shiny sails and generate a small amount of force. With the continues bouncing of the light, particles make this force even stronger and push the craft forward, raising the craft in its orbit, that too, without the use of fuel.

It has been over a decade since The Planetary Society has been working on the LightSail program, and the previous experiment with the LightSail was a fail. The current mission is crowdfunded through about 40,000 donations, raising $7 million.

LightSail 2 has become the first spacecraft of this size to rise its orbit with solar sailing, and the first to be propelled by solar sailing in the Earth orbit. Usually, the spacecraft make use of fuel engine to a propeller in the space, but the success of LightSail 2 is indicating that in future there can be big spacecraft that will consume the photons for propelling.

The orbit raised by LightSail 2 is slowly forming an elliptical shape, and since the orbit is more towards the Earth’s atmosphere, the LightSail team has estimated that it will be dying within a year. But the success of this experiment has raised new hopes for people.