According to report, shares in software firm Twilio have soared almost 88% on their first day of trading in New York. The IPO is the first this year by a so-called technology “unicorn” start-ups valued at more than $1bn (£700m). Twilio’s platform that enables developers to incorporate phone calls and text messages into their apps. Shares were priced at $15 but closed at $28.19, valuing the company at more than $2bn. Its software is used by companies including OpenTable, WhatsApp and Uber, which uses the technology to withhold the actual mobile numbers of drivers when they call passengers. The appetite…
Author: Adelaja
Online reports suggest Apple plans to omit the 3.5mm socket to make the iPhone 7 thinner and more waterproof, with more room for the battery. In view of this report, more than 300,000 people have signed a petition urging Apple not to ditch the headphone socket from the version of the iPhone due for release this autumn. The Fast Company reported it would rely on the Lightning cable port, currently used for charging, for sound output. Others suggest Apple will ship the iPhone 7 with wireless headphones. The Sum of us, a website “fighting for people over profits”, which organised…
The world’s top smartphone maker, Samsung, said yesterday it plans to invest about $1.2 billion in the United States over the next four years on so-called Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. In a statement, Samsung said it will make the investments through its Silicon Valley arms such as the Samsung Global Innovation Center in order to develop relevant technologies and strengthen cooperation with startup companies. The firm did not elaborate on its plans. Tech companies around the world are looking to IoT technologies, which enables everyday objects such as mobile phones and vehicles to communicate with each other, as a new…
Dell Inc’s software division is set be acquired for more than $2 billion, three people familiar with the matter said. The acquisition is said by taken up by the buyout firm Francisco Partners and the private equity arm of activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. Divesting the software assets will help Dell refocus its technology portfolio and bolster its balance sheet after it agreed in October to buy data storage company EMC Corp (EMC.N) for $67 billion. EMC owns a controlling stake in VMware Inc (VMW.N), a cloud-based virtualization software company. Dell is seeking to sell almost all of its…
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has announced the new Bluetooth 5 specification, currently slated for delivery in late 2016 or early 2017. While it won’t appear in devices until sometime after that, the BT 5 protocol should be a significant improvement over Bluetooth 4.2, which mostly focused on improving compatibility with the Internet of Things (IoT) and associated devices. Bluetooth 5 is expected to deliver four times the range of Bluetooth 4.2, twice the speed, and eight times the data broadcasting capability. The IoT capabilities baked into BT 4.2 will be expanded as well; the Bluetooth SIG is claiming…
Owners of the Asus Chromebook Flip can from today begin testing the new feature before its official launch later this year. Google revealed last month that Android apps would soon begin working on Chromebooks. This addition will transform Chromebook from a device with a sparse app offering, to one with access to virtually any app you can use on your Android device. If you own an Chromebook Flip, you will need to enable developer mode before the Play Store will show up on your device. You can do so by opening Settings > tap on About Chrome OS at the…
It’s tough for foreign companies to do business in China, so much that even Apple is having a hard time. After the iTunes Movies and iBooks Store ban back in April, the previous generation of iPhones have recently been accused of infringing the design patent of some random Chinese firm’s “100C” smartphone under the “100+” brand. Don’t laugh, because the Beijing Intellectual Property Office has since ordered Apple to stop selling its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in Beijing, with the reason being the general consumers won’t be able to tell the “minute differences” between Apple’s design and the…
Something extra-ordinary related to the next version of the Samsung Galaxy Note Phablet have apparently been cleared up, thanks to an alleged teaser for the Phablet. The image was sent by a source who wishes to remain anonymous. According to his story, he was able to obtain a picture of the teaser. If the image is legit, it confirms that Samsung is dong the smart thing and is calling this year’s iteration of the Galaxy Note the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. By skipping the Note 6 name and going straight to Note 7, Samsung would be aligning the Galaxy Note…
Microsoft today announced plans to acquire professional social network LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, an eye-popping fee that’s second in value in tech acquisitions only to Dell’s $67 billion purchase of EMC last year. But where does LinkedIn lie in Microsoft’s circa 200 known acquisitions? It’s the company’s most valuable acquisition for sure, at more than three times as much as it paid for its previous biggest acquisition, Skype, back in 2011. Here’s a quick look back at Microsoft’s 5 biggest acquisitions before today’s news emerged. 1. Skype (2011): $8.5 billion Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion in 2011, not an…
The idea behind the program is to recognize agencies that “have undergone the required training and have demonstrated excellence in building Android applications,” a Google spokesperson tells us. In total, 13 agencies in India, Russia, U.K. and U.S. have already been certified since Google first announced its plans for this program last December. These agencies work with both large enterprise clients and startups. While Google notes that it does “not endorse, or offer any warranty, regarding the certified agencies,” the idea here is obviously to highlight some of the agencies that Google itself considers among the best in the ecosystem…
A new study from analyst house VisionMobile has looked into the global developer landscape and found Java to be the most popular language while devs are increasingly working across multiple sectors, including mobile, IoT, and cloud. The latter makes sense as tools and languages work across sectors, the developers using them do as well yet the research, which polls more than 30,000 developers each year, found some other interesting findings. The figures, which are presented in an infographic which assesses the landscape ‘if there were 100 developers in the world’, confirmed that software development is distinctly unequal; only 6% of…
The Linux Foundation on Wednesday announced that it has taken the OpenSwitch Project under its wing. OpenSwitch last year began as a joint project of Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Broadcom, VMware, Accton, Intel and Arista. OpenSwitch is an open source, Linux-based network operating system, or NOS, that works with enterprise-grade switches from multiple vendors. Apart from the founders, members and participating organizations in the OpenSwitch Project include Extreme Networks, Edgecore Networks, Barefoot Networks, LinkedIn, Marvell and SnapRoute. OpenSwitch removes interoperability issues and complex licensing structures that are inherent in proprietary systems. “OpenSwitch is “designed to be incredibly modular,” said Dominic Wilde, VP…
Cisco and IBM have begun a global collaboration to generate instant Internet of Things (IoT) insight at the network edge using Cisco’s edge analytics tools and IBM’s Watson IoT and business analytics technology. Although billions of IoT devices and sensors are already generating huge amounts of data in real time, those businesses without easy access to high bandwidth connectivity to support access to the cloud have struggled to realise insight from this data, the two firms said. Cisco and IBM believe that by joining forces, they can offer a new way of producing immediate and actionable insight at the point…
IBM on Tuesday said it signed a $300 million, ten-year technology services agreement with Dubai’s Emirates Airline. IBM will provide information technology services, allowing the airline to improve efficiency on its passenger support systems and functions, a statement from IBM said. Under the managed services agreement, this will include assistance in encrypting the airline’s data in near real-time and systems which allow different software components to communicate more effectively, the statement said. In October 2015, IBM signed a $700 million deal with Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways for a range of IT services and infrastructure. Emirates, the world’s fourth-largest carrier of…
IT monitoring software probes various parts of the infrastructure servers, networks and applications and alerts IT about problems before they can cause an outage that affects the business. According to IT managers in the IT Central Station community, the most important criteria to consider when choosing infrastructure monitoring software include compatibility with existing infrastructure and customizable views. Four of the leading IT infrastructure monitoring solutions are CA Unified Infrastructure Management, SevOne, Nagios and Opsview Enterprise, according to ratings by IT Central Station members. But what do enterprise users really think about these tools? Here, users give a shout out for…
HP Inc. on Thursday unveiled a new line of thin and light notebooks that will herald “office of the future” by fulfilling business and personal requirements of the customers. The new products launched include HP EliteBook Folio and HP Elite X2 1012 notebooks. “At HP, we are pushing the envelope in design, productivity, security and entertainment to build innovative products for ‘One Life’,” Ketan Patel, Director (personal systems) HP Inc. India, told reporters here. At 12.4 mm and under 1 kg, the Rs 128,000 (starting price) HP EliteBook Folio is the thinnest and lightest business notebook from HP offering…
It’s a smartphone aimed at “the international business person” that promises to deliver “tomorrow’s technology today,” and it will set customers back a cool $17,000. But the Solarin smartphone from Israeli startup Sirin Labs is using a processor that was introduced over two years ago, and one that is known to overheat to the point of shutting down. The Solarin smartphone was unveiled at an event in central London on Tuesday, with Sirin Labs saying it is the world’s first “truly smart phone.” Its biggest selling points are its security features, which include military-grade encryption and state-of-the-art mobile threat protection…
At this year’s Computex, taking place this week in Taipei, Dell is launching a new range of Inspiron PCs including what it claims is the world’s first 17-inch 2-in-1 laptop. The Inspiron 17 7000 2-in-1, to give it its full name, boasts an aluminum exterior shell, a sixth-generation Intel Core processor and a full HD display with a wide viewing angle. Standard features include a backlit keyboard, an infra-red front-facing camera that’s compatible with Windows Hello (i.e., using facial recognition instead of passwords and logins), Waves MaxxAudio Pro audio software to make the most of multimedia content consumption and creation.…
The first Ara phone will still be customizable, but users won’t be able to swap its core components Google’s Project Ara modular smartphone is coming to developers soon, but it’s lost a key part of its customization vision along the way. Developers will be able to get their hands on an early release version of Ara by the end of this year, to begin building custom hardware modules for the device, Google announced at its I/O conference Friday. The modules will allow users to customize their phones with hardware like cameras, speakers and even a rear-facing display. Ara’s initial philosophy…
Pebble unveiled two new smartwatches yesterday, Pebble 2 and Pebble Time 2, on Kickstarter. The company also announced a new device outside of the wearable category, called Core. Pebble 2 is the successor to the original Pebble, which has been around for almost three years. Pebble 2’s design is more or less similar to its predecessor but the company has embedded a heart rate monitor in the wearable device. The smartwatch’s display screen size (diagonal) is 1.26 inches; it also features Gorilla Glass. Similar to the original Pebble, the battery life spans to almost seven days. Currently only available on…