Thursday, April 18

Tag: Google

Chinese Tech Giant Baidu Planning of Mass-Producion of Driverless Cars
CHINA

Chinese Tech Giant Baidu Planning of Mass-Producion of Driverless Cars

Chinese tech giant Baidu today said it plans to begin mass-production of driverless cars in five years as part of its efforts to get ahead of its US rivals Google and Tesla Motors in the autonomous vehicle technology. President Zhang Yaqin said Baidu will carry out road tests of driverless cars in 10 Chinese cities, with the aim to commercialise the technology in three years and realise mass production in five years. The move is a significant step for the Beijing-based tech company trying to get ahead of Google in building autonomous cars, and is marshalling the resources to advance the effort. During the ongoing Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2016, or Summer Davos, in Tianjin, Zang told state-run Xinhua news agency that the core technology of Baidus driverless cars, was the "B...
Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s Quora  Account Hacked
News

Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s Quora Account Hacked

Google CEO Sundar Pichai's Quora account has been hacked by the same group which previously broke into Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg's Twitter and Pinterest accounts, according to a media report today. The hacker group called OurMine Team has been posting messages on Quora through Pichais account. The breach of his account became apparent when tweets linking to his Quora posts appeared on his official Twitter account yesterday. The Indian-born Google CEOs has 508,000 followers. The hacker group initially wrote, hacked using his account. "Hey its OurMine, we are just testing your security, please visit OurMine to upgrade it," it said in later posts, The Verge reported. Pichai or perhaps his team, however regained control of the Quora account soon, and the tweets were deleted within fe...
Facebook Hires Top Ex-Google Executive For Internet Projects
News

Facebook Hires Top Ex-Google Executive For Internet Projects

IANS- Social media giant Facebook has hired a co-founder of Google's Fibre high-speed Internet project to beef up its Internet connectivity team. According to tech news site Re/Code, the social network has hired Kevin Lo as its Director of Infrastructure Connectivity and Investments to help lead Facebook's partnerships such as Terragraph - a project to bring Wi-Fi to dense urban areas and Facebook's partnership with Microsoft to build a fibre optic cable. Lo later confirmed his appointment on his Facebook Page, saying that he wants to bring onboard over four billion people who lag behind in terms of using high-speed Internet services. "...so I'm excited to let you know I'm joining Facebook this month as Director of Infrastructure Connectivity and Investments. I'll help shape our strateg...
After Ban, Facebook, Microsoft, Google Agree to Work With Bangladesh Government
News

After Ban, Facebook, Microsoft, Google Agree to Work With Bangladesh Government

Facebook, Microsoft and Google have agreed to work with Bangladesh government over "inappropriate contents" on the Internet, the Parliament was told today amidst a series of brutal killings by Islamists of secular bloggers and minorities. Speaking at a question-and-answer session, State Minister for Telecoms Tarana Halim said that not only social media giant Facebook, but Google and Microsoft have also agreed to respond to the governments request within two days. "After intense discussion with Facebook, Google and Microsoft, it has been agreed that they will respond to requests with 48 hours," she said. WHEN THE USE OF FACEBOOK WAS SUSPENDED IN BANGLADESH Last year, the Bangladesh government suspended the use of Facebook, its messenger app, and some other communication apps ...
Nest CEO Tony Fadell Steps Down, to Remain Adviser to Google Co-founder Larry Page
News

Nest CEO Tony Fadell Steps Down, to Remain Adviser to Google Co-founder Larry Page

Tony Fadell, a well-known Silicon Valley executive who was once expected to play a central role in Alphabet's hardware efforts, has stepped down as chief executive of the search giant's Nest unit, the company said. Fadell will remain an adviser to Alphabet and Google co-founder Larry Page. He will be replaced at Nest, which makes smart thermostats and smoke detectors, by Marwan Fawaz, who had prior stints at Motorola Mobility and Charter Communications. Google bought Nest in 2014 for $3.2 billion, one of the company's largest acquisitions ever. In a blog post announcing his departure, Fadell said Nest's revenue is growing 50% a year and boasted that "the connected home went mainstream because of Nest." "We've created a hardware + software + services ecosystem, which is still in...
Chinese Search Engine Baidu to Pay USD 4.9 Lakh For Unfair Competition
CHINA

Chinese Search Engine Baidu to Pay USD 4.9 Lakh For Unfair Competition

A court in Shanghai has ordered Chinese search engine Baidu to pay 3.23 million yuan (USD 490,000) to a Shanghai company for unfair competition. In April, Shanghai Hantao Information Consultancy Co. Ltd, operator of Dianping.com, sued Baidu and another online company Jietusoft, for copying comments and business information from Dianping.com onto Baidu's online applications and Jietusofts online map service, which caused huge losses to Dianping.com. Hantao demanded over 90 million yuan in compensation. The Pudong District Peoples Court yesterday ruled that Baidus action has decreased the number of Dianping.coms users and directed the flow to its apps, which has not only caused losses to Dianping.com, but also violated the principles of business ethics and honesty, state-run Xinhua ...
Nikesh Arora Received $73M Pay Cheque From Softbank in 2016
News

Nikesh Arora Received $73M Pay Cheque From Softbank in 2016

Nikesh Arora, a Ex-Googler and the president and COO of SoftBank Group, received heafty pay check of $73 million (8.04 billion yen) in 2016. Arora's compensation includes $14.2 million (1.56 billion) paid by other SoftBank units. After Google, Arora had joined SoftBank as its vice-chairman and CEO of SB Group US (previously SoftBank Internet and Media Inc) in September 2014. In 2014-15, Arora had received a $135 million pay package including signing bonus during joining the company in September and end of March 2015. Nikesh Arora count among top paid executives in the world. During his tenure, Arora has led SoftBank's investments into Snapdeal, Ola, Housing, Oyo Rooms and Grofers.  He also faces several criticism from a group of SoftBank Group investors, which alleged conflict of ...
After Google & Facebook, LinkedIn Planning Its Own Version of ‘Instant Articles’
News

After Google & Facebook, LinkedIn Planning Its Own Version of ‘Instant Articles’

According to the report, LinkedIn is in the process of discussing a similar product with publishers that will enable the latter to publish their stories on LinkedIn. Facebook's Instant Articles, where publishers post content directly on to Facebook instead of putting links that direct users to their websites, has been a success with both publishers and users. You can then begin publishing them. Currently Facebook and Google has the feature of instant articles that allows users to publish instant articles which means users can publish articles directly on their platform. Google also has the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project, an open source initiative that is created to load content instantaneously for publishers, consumer platforms, creators and users. For Facebook, it's all pa...
Google, Ford, Uber launch coalition to further self-driving cars
News

Google, Ford, Uber launch coalition to further self-driving cars

Alphabet Inc's Google unit, Ford Motor Co, the ride-sharing service Uber and two other companies said on Tuesday they are forming a coalition to push for federal action to help speed self-driving cars to market. Sweden-based Volvo Cars, which is owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co GEELY.UL, and Uber rival Lyft also are part of the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets. The group said in a statement it will "work with lawmakers, regulators and the public to realize the safety and societal benefits of self-driving vehicles." The coalition said David Strickland, the former top official of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the top U.S. auto safety agency that is writing new guidance on self-driving cars, will be the coalition’s counsel and ...
Google Glass-based startup raises $17 million in funding
FUNDING, News

Google Glass-based startup raises $17 million in funding

Augmedix Inc, a startup that uses Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google Glass to provide documentation services to doctors and other healthcare workers, said on Monday it had closed a $17 million (11.7 million pounds) funding round led by investment firm Redmile Group. Augmedix's employees transcribe doctors' notes and update patients' electronic medical record through Google Glass. The San Francisco company, which has raised $40 million so far, also said it had received investments from five U.S. healthcare networks, including Sutter Health and Dignity Health, which together have more than 100,000 healthcare workers. Augmedix, with 400 employees, said it serves doctors in nearly all 50 U.S. states. Funds raised will be used to build up the service to serve more health systems and pr...
Google Pulls Taliban App After It Was on Play For Two Days
News

Google Pulls Taliban App After It Was on Play For Two Days

Internet giant Google has removed a propaganda app created by Taliban militants over hate speech concerns. The App called "Pashto Afghan News- Alemara," that was initially accepted on the Play store, reportedly featured videos and statements from the groups main website. The app, which allowed users to access the groups Pashto website, is part of a growing digital campaign by the Taliban to grow its audience. "We dont allow apps that advocate against groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity," a Google spokesperson said. The company removed an app created by the Taliban from its Play Store on Saturday. The app was reportedly published to Google Play on April 1, 20...
Sundar Pichai Received $100.5 million (Rs. 667 crores) Pay Package in 2015
News

Sundar Pichai Received $100.5 million (Rs. 667 crores) Pay Package in 2015

According to the report in Bloomberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai received a $100.5 million (roughly Rs. 667 crores) pay package in 2015. The salary  mentioned in filing from parent company Alphabet on Tuesday. Pichai received $99.8 million in restricted stock that will vest in full by 2017. He also received a $652,500 salary. The stock award hasn't previously been disclosed in filings. The former co-founder of Google Larry Page awarded restricted shares valued at $199 million (roughly Rs. 1,321 crores), the largest grant ever given to a Google executive officer whose pay has to be reported in filings. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt received $8.04 million (roughly Rs. 53 crores) for 2015, including a $1.25 million salary and $6 million (roughly Rs. 39 crores) cash bonus. Chief Finan...