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SpaceX Completes Last Mission of 2018, Launch a Military GPS Satellite

24Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments

USA

SpaceX Completes Last Mission of 2018, Launch a Military GPS Satellite

SpaceX has successfully launched the United States Air Force’s first Global Positioning System (GPS) III satellite, nicknamed Vespucci, from Cape Canaveral, Florida this morning in what was the aerospace company’s first U.S. national security mission to date. The company had planned to complete the launch, its last of the year, earlier this week but heavy winds imposed delays. SpaceX won the National Security Space (NSS) contract with the Air Force in 2016 and intends to launch an additional four GPS III missions on Falcon 9, a two-stage rocket manufactured by the company. The GPS is owned by the U.S. military and operated by the Air Force. Built during the Cold War, it’s been used for commercial purposes since the m...

Microsoft’s HoloLens will now be Used by the US Army on Battlefields

30Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

USA

Microsoft’s HoloLens will now be Used by the US Army on Battlefields

The US Army is looking forward to making use of Microsoft’s HoloLens on the battlefield. The Army has reportedly awarded Microsoft a $480 million contract to supply its HoloLens headsets to the soldiers. Virtual- and augmented-reality headsets haven't been much success in the consumer market, however, they're finding an important place on the battlefield. The head-mounted displays make use of augmented reality. With this, the viewers can see virtual imagery superimposed over the real-world scenery in front of them. The technology company says the technology will provide troops with better information to make decisions. The Redmond, Washington, company stated that the new work extends its longstanding relationship with the Department of Defense. Military bidding documents say th...

Ohio Becomes the First State to Accept Bitcoin for Tax Payment

26Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

USA

Ohio Becomes the First State to Accept Bitcoin for Tax Payment

Ohio, a Midwestern state in the United States has become the first stated that would accept bitcoin for tax payments. With this, now, the businesses in Ohio will be able to pay their taxes in bitcoin — making the state that’s high in the middle and round on both ends the first in the nation to accept cryptocurrency officially. The companies that want to become a part of it simply need to go to OhioCrypto.com and register to pay whatever taxes their corporate hearts desire in crypto. The bitcoin program id the brainchild of current Ohio state treasurer, Josh Mandel and it is intended to be a signal of the state’s broader ambitions to remake itself in a more tech-friendly image. Already, Ohio has something of a technology hub forming in Columbus, Ohio, home to one of the largest ventur...

General Motor’s Cruise is Pumped up to Expand in Seattle

20Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

USA

General Motor’s Cruise is Pumped up to Expand in Seattle

The self driving company Cruise that was acquired by General Motors in 2016 is reportedly expanding and growing to Seattle as the company seeks more engineering talent to develop its technology. However, Cruise does not have any plans right now to test its autonomous vehicles in the city. The company is planning to set up offices in Seattle to attract and hire between 100 to 200 engineers by the end of 2019. “To continue growing a team that is diverse and rich in talent, we feel that it’s important to explore talent pools outside of the Bay Area, and Seattle’s vibrant tech community and proximity to our headquarters in San Francisco make it a logical choice,” CEO Kyle Vogt said. Cruise is looking towards and considering a number of locations in the Seattle area. There are no plans to ...

Walmart Outshines Apple, Becomes No. 3 Online Retailer in the US

17Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

USA

Walmart Outshines Apple, Becomes No. 3 Online Retailer in the US

Walmart has reportedly became the No. 3 online retailer in the U.S. overtaking the technology giant Apple. Walmart has been recently making various efforts and it seems that the company got the reward. Amazon still leads by a wide margin, accounting for 48 percent of e-commerce sales in 2018. On the other hand, Walmart (including also Sam’s Club and Jet.com) is supposed to capture 4 percent of all online retail spending in the U.S. by year-end, totaling $20.91 billion. This move has come up following Walmart’s strong earnings which saw the retailer reporting a 43 percent increase in online sales. Also, the company’s year-end forecast for both earnings and sales increased to a great extent. Apart from this, Walmart beat Wall St.’s expectations in its fiscal third quarter, with $1.0...

San Francisco based Pinterest Appoints its First-ever CMO

8Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

USA

San Francisco based Pinterest Appoints its First-ever CMO

San Francisco based web and mobile application Pinterest has appointed its first-ever CMO. The company has taken on board Andréa Mallard, the former chief marketing officer of the Gap-owned line of athleisure clothing Athleta. Following the appointment, Mallard will report to the visual search company’s chief operating officer Francoise Brougher, who joined in February. Prior to this, he worked for payments company Square. Talking about Mallard, she previously spent four years as CMO of digital health company Omada Health and eight years with IDEO, where she led the company’s global brand strategy practice. Here, at Pinterest, she will be responsible to oversee Pinterest’s global marketing and creative teams. “I am very excited that Andrea has joined our team,” said Francoise Brough...

Streaming Radio App iHeartRadio Coming to Mexico

30Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

USA

Streaming Radio App iHeartRadio Coming to Mexico

Streaming radio app iHeartRadio is reportedly launching in Mexico, in fact, a beta version of the app is already live, with plans for an official launch on November 3. Following the launch, the media company is collaborating with Mexican broadcaster Grupo ACIR, which owns the Amor, Mix and La Comadre radio brands. iHeartMedia owned iHeartRadio will include all 56 Grupo ACIR and 850 iHeartMedia broadcast radio stations in Mexico. Along with this, the app will offer digital-only stations from both companies, as well as English- and Spanish-language podcasts. The launch will take place along with iHeartRadio Fiesta Latina in Miami. “This partnership will allow us to better connect with our audience by delivering an incredible free music listening experience and providing amazing techno...

Microsoft Surpasses Amazon to Take the Spot of Second Most Valuable US Company

27Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

USA

Microsoft Surpasses Amazon to Take the Spot of Second Most Valuable US Company

The software giant Microsoft has reportedly reacquired its position as the second most valuable US company on Friday. This happened after Amazon showed a disappointing quarterly report as the company wiped $65 billion off the online retailer's market capitalization. The company that tops the list is Apple with over $1 trillion after crossing that threshold in September. Microsoft's market capitalization was Wall Street's highest in late 1998 through early 2000 before the dot-com bubble burst. The shares of Amazon reduced 7%, the most in nearly three years after its holiday season sales outlook missed targets. Microsoft fell a more modest 2% in a broad technology sell-off that was also driven by a weaker-than-expected report from Google-parent Alphabet, leaving the Nasdaq down 2.1% at...

Ford Expands Self-driving Vehicle Program to Washington, D.C.

23Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

Automobile, USA

Ford Expands Self-driving Vehicle Program to Washington, D.C.

The automobile major Ford is reportedly coming up with its autonomous vehicles in Washington, D.C. which would become the fourth city to join the automaker’s testing program. The company is preparing to roll out a self-driving taxi and delivery service in 2021. It will start testing its self-driving vehicles in the district in the first quarter of 2019 which it is already testing in Detroit, Pittsburgh and Miami. Ford is a bit different from other companies that have launched autonomous vehicle pilots in the U.S. The company invested $1 billion in Argo AI which would be developing the virtual driver system and high-definition maps designed for Ford’s self-driving vehicles. In the meantime, the automobile maker is testing its go-to-market strategy through pilot programs with partne...

Apple Updated Its Privacy Website for the US Users

18Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

USA

Apple Updated Its Privacy Website for the US Users

The iPhone maker Apple has launched its online tool for the users in the United States and some other countries with the help of which the users can download, change or delete all the data that the iPhone maker has collected on them. Apple has updated its privacy website with the tool, which was rolled out earlier this year for users in the European Union. With this, the iPhone maker will now let users in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand see and download all information that Apple has collected on them. It also plans to roll out the same tool for all users aosscr the globe by the end of the year. Apple devices such as the iPhone or Apple Watch collect detailed data about users, such as whom they email, call or text message and even biometric data such as heart rat...

Google’s Waze Expands Carpooling Service in the US

11Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

USA

Google’s Waze Expands Carpooling Service in the US

With the community-based GPS Navigation App called Waze, Google will start to offer its pay-to-carpool service throughout the US. This is a step towards reducing the commute-time congestion for which the app has been basically designed. This expansion is built upon a carpooling system that Waze began testing two years ago. Initially, it began in northern California and Israel before gradually extending it into Brazil and parts of 12 other states. Now, the service will be made available to all the users in the US. "We don't want to be a professional driving network," Waze founder and CEO Noam Bardi said. "We see ride-sharing as something that needs to become part of the daily commute. If we can't get people out of their cars, it won't be solving anything.” For the purpose of giving som...

Amazon to Increase Minimum Wages of US Employees to $15

3Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

USA

Amazon to Increase Minimum Wages of US Employees to $15

Amazon has announced that the company is reportedly raising the minimum wage for all its United States employees to $15 which will be effective from next month. The raise is applicable for part-time workers and those hired through temporary agencies. The company mentioned that it would also persuade Washington to raise the federal minimum wage which has been around $7.25 for almost a decade. The rise in the wages will apply to more than 250,000 Amazon employees, including those at the grocery chain Whole Foods. Also, it will apply to more than 100,000 seasonal employees that the company plans to appoint for the holiday season. However, the change in wages will not apply to contract workers. “We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to ...