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Tech Update

Amazon Echo could be getting a VERY important update, as Amazon ‘investigates health tech’

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das
Image result for Amazon Echo could be getting a VERY important update, as Amazon ‘investigates health tech'Amazon purportedly has a secret skunkworks laboratory dedicated to investigating new opportunities with health care technology.

The US online retail company is believed to be looking into areas including electronic medical records and remote diagnosis, also known as telemedicine.

This ties in with previous reports that Amazon is exploring the possibility of selling pharmaceuticals on its website and apps.

Amazon has branded the stealth team 1492 – a reference to the year Christopher Columbus first landed in the Americas.

Some members of the team have publicly acknowledged their affiliation with 1492 on professional social network LinkedIn, CNBC has reported.

Amazon is purportedly working on healthcare technology with a secretive team, dubbed 1492GETTY • AMAZON

Amazon is purportedly working on healthcare technology with a secretive team, dubbed 1492

Amazon Echo – Things you MUST ask Alexa right now

Things to ask Amazon's Alexa

EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS

Things to ask Amazon’s Alexa

Those tied to the skunkworks lab include a number of machine learning experts, a user interface designer and two strategic initiative leads.

The new team is believed to be exploring health applications for existing Amazon hardware, including the Echo smart speaker.

Echo and Echo Dot already boast a number number of health related skills.

Earlier this year, the British Red Cross launched a new Skill which enables Echo owners to quickly get access to step-by-step first aid advice.

The British Red Cross Skill lets Amazon Echo owners quickly access spoken first aid instructionsAMAZON

The British Red Cross Skill lets Amazon Echo owners quickly access spoken first aid instructions

The organisation’s free Amazon Echo Skill uses simple, spoken instructions to teach people a wide range of first-aid treatments, including how to deal with a severe bleed, a burn and a seizure.

It is not clear whether Amazon also plans to build new hardware dedicated to healthcare.

Speaking to CNBC, one source with knowledge of the US company’s plans refused to rule out dedicated health devices from Amazon.

The 1492 team is also believed to be working on a way to pull and push data from legacy electronic medical record systems.

Martin Lewis: Don’t sign up to Amazon Prime just for day of deals

Amazon’s is hoping to make that information instantly available to patients and their doctors.

The shopping firm is far from the only technology company exploring health for future innovation and growth.Google and Microsoft have both launched healthcare products in the past, including Google Health and HealthVault.

Apple already has a health ecosystem thanks to its Watch hardware and Health app on iOS.

[“Source-express”]

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Internet

As Halli Labs Is Acquired by Google, Here Are Other AI Startups That Have Attracted Tech Giants

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

As Halli Labs Is Acquired by Google, Here Are Other AI Startups That Have Attracted Tech Giants

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Google acquired Bengaluru-based Halli Labs this week
  • It’s the latest AI-focused startup to get acquired
  • Here’s the list of all such startups that have been acquired

Whether it’s Microsoft trying to help Indian farmers predict when it’s going to rain, Google improving its multi-lingual translation service, Facebook trying to figure out who you should be friends with next, or IBM’s Watson trying to change the health industry, global giants are increasingly betting on AI (artificial intelligence) to expand and perfect their services.

But even as these companies — and many more — race to be the frontrunner in the nascent AI space, many believe that it will take years of efforts to fully realise the potential and reap benefits of how this growing technology will shape the products of today and tomorrow.

In doing so, companies are aggressively looking at talents and startups to bring them on-board — or put their money in — and incorporate their learnings. In fact, dozens of startups focused on AI solutions have been bagged by Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon among other companies in the past years.

We’ve a run-down on all the popular AI-focused companies that have been acquired by the giant. As you will notice in the list, these acquisitions only go far as back as five-six years, reaffirming how nascent this space is.

Halli Labs
Google took many by surprise this week when the news got out that it has acquired the Bengaluru-based AI startup. Much about the four-month old startup remains unknown, but we know that some of its founding members came from marketplace Stayzilla. Halli Labs is joining Google’s Next Billion team, which aims to solve the last mile problem by serving people from emerging markets.

Tuplejump
Apple confirmed last year that it had acquired the small Indian machine learning company. Back in the day, Tuplejump offered software services to store, process, and visualise data.

Kitt.ai
China’s conglomerate Baidu acquired Kitt.ai, a startup based out of Seattle that works on chatbots and voice-based applications across several platforms.

Lattice Data
Apple acquired Lattice Data, a startup that uses AI to mine “dark data” — the kind of data that is collected by not used normally for broader purposes earlier this year.

MindMeld
Cisco purchased MindMeld, an AI startup that creates “conversational interfaces” through bots and voice-powered assistants. At the time of the acquisition, MindMeld’s API was being used by over 1,200 companies including Samsung, Google, Intel, and Spotify.

Sonalytic
In March this year, Spotify said it was acquiring Sonalytic, a startup that uses machine learning to offer improved music recommendation.

RealFace
Earlier this year, Apple acquired Israel-based startup RealFace, which developers deep-learning based face authentication technology. Before the acquisition, RealFace was betting big on making passwords redundant.

RavenTech
The Chinese startup that is working on similar capabilities as Amazon’s Alexa was acquired by Baidu earlier this year. The company also has an AI-based app called Flow.

Kaggle
Google acquired the online service Kaggle earlier this year. The company hosted data science and machine learning competitions prior to its acquisition.

Maluuba
Microsoft kickstarted the year by announcing it is buying deep-learning startup Maluuba. The Montreal-based company, Microsoft said, offers “one of the world’s most impressive deep learning research labs for natural language understanding.” Before the startup was acquired, it was working on making advancements toward a more general AI by creating “literate machines that can think, reason and communicate like humans — a vision exactly in line with ours.”

Harvest.ai
Amazon quietly acquired the San Diego-based startup earlier this year. The startup uses machine learning to analyse user behavior around a company’s key intellectual property.

Geometric Intelligence
Uber acquired the New York City-based company late last year, as it worked on expanding its AI efforts. Geometric Intelligence was said to work on solutions that could accurately estimate rider locations and travel times, and also help Uber in its self-driving project.

Masquerade Technologies
Facebook acquired Masquerade Technologies after the startup’s app that offered Snapchat-like selfie filters gained popularity among young customers.

msqrd itunes

Zurich Eye
Before it was acquired by Facebook, the startup enabled machines to “independently navigate in any space.” The startup intended to enable “machines to see.” Much about the company remains unknown.

Nervana Systems
Before it was acquired by Intel, Nervana Systems focused on offering AI solutions that could be integrated directly into the silicon.

Wise.io
General Electric acquired Wise.io late last year. The startup offers machine-learning services to help businesses find patterns in their large trove of data stores.

API.AI
Google bagged the two-year-old startup last year after being impressed by its “fast adoption of the technology from people building conversational interfaces for chatbots, connected cars, and smartphone devices among others.”

Genee
Microsoft acquired the AI-powered scheduling tool Genee last year. The company said at the time it would use Genee’s solution directly in its cloud productivity suite Office 365.

Magic Pony
Twitter acquired the London-based machine learning firm last year. Magic Pony offered tech to improve low-quality pictures and videos on the fly by using machine learning.

SwiftKey
Microsoft acquired SwiftKey, an AI-focused startup that makes popular keyboard app for Android and iOS users. Using machine learning, SwiftKey is able to predict the word you’re typing, and the word which will follow it, helping customers with saving time.

swiftkey

Emotient
Apple acquired Emotient, a software company that specialises in reading users’ facial expressions as they worked at a computer. The startup could then break down the expressions and predict how much attention the user paid to certain kind of content.

Whetlab
The five-person Cambridge-based artificial intelligence startup was acquired by Twitter in 2015. The company was working to make it easier for other firms to “tune” their machine learning efforts.

Perceptio
Before Apple acquired the startup in 2015, it was working on developing AI systems on the device itself without requiring access to cloud.

AlchemyAPI
IBM Watson, the artificial intelligence platform acquired the Denver-based company in 2015. This enabled IBMWatson to get access to a community of over 40,000 AlchemyAPI developers, who were working on systems that “learn and interact naturally.”

Equivio
The startup, acquired by Microsoft, offered text analytics service for legal and compliance. It used machine learning to identify documents that needed legal and compliance needs.

Timeful
Google acquired Timeful, a startup that offered smart scheduling using machine learning. The app would analyse your schedule and also encourage you to achieve your specific goals.

Concept.io
Apple acquired Concept.io in mid-2014, and immediately discontinued the startup’s streaming-content app Swell. The app, before it was taken down, offered personalised news feed, and looked at the users’ behavior on how they consumed it.

Vocal IQ
Before getting acquired by the iPhone-maker in 2015, Vocal IQ was building digital assistants using machine learning techniques to recreate the type of talking computers that appear in your favourite Sci-fi movies.

DeepMind Technologies
In one of the largest acquisition of any AI-based startup, Google acquired DeepMind Technologies in 2014. The London-based AI company specialised in advanced algorithms and systems neuroscience.

Face.com
In one of the earliest AI-focused acquisitions, Facebook acquired Face.com in 2012. The Israeli company offered facial recognition technology.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

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Tech Update

Pokémon Go Fest attendees to get refunds as technical issues break the event

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Heading into Niantic’s Pokémon Go Fest — a gathering of roughly 20,000 Pokémon Go players in Chicago’s Grant Park — everyone seemed to have the same concern: the weather reports said a thunder storm was coming.

The weather turned out fine. Most other things, unfortunately, did not.

As a result, Niantic has just announced that they’ll be refunding attendees in addition to crediting them $100 of in-game currency (or Pokécoins). Estimates from Niantic leading into the event pinned the crowd at around 15-20,000 attendees.

(Update: It’s currently unclear if Niantic will be automatically refunding attendees, or just those who ask. Niantic says they will send an email with details to attendees shortly)

First and most notably: the game simply didn’t work. Within minutes of the first attendees filing into Grant Park, the cell networks got shaky. Within 20 minutes of the doors officially opening, every network was down. I’ve done my fair share of liveblogs over the past decade, so I’m used to getting around network congestion and finding some semblance of signal. There was nothing.

If you could get online, Pokémon Go itself was having issues. Tapping a monster to catch it would result in nothing but an error screen — a particular punch in the gut to many a player who traveled far in hopes of completing their Pokedex, as the Park was set to spawn some of the game’s rarest monsters. You’d tap an Unown or a Heracross (usually only available in very specific regions, and certainly not in the middle of Chicago), and the game would crash.

Meanwhile, real-world logistical issues were abound. Hours before the event started, the lines stretched around the block. 3 hours later, much of the line remained outside. Massive displays meant to show which teams were ruling the in-park gyms were instead just turned off.

When Niantic’s John Hanke took the stage, he was greeted by an audience a few thousand deep, many of them chanting “FIX YOUR GAME” or “WE CAN’T PLAY!”. Some more aggressive attendees approached the stage to personally share (read: shout) their discontent.

As of 2pm Central Time, Niantic plans to continue on the with the event’s agenda in hopes that they can get things working.

[Source:-tc]

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Blogging

‘Everyone on their phones waiting for Beyonce’s twin pic like…’ Singer’s fans sends Twitter into overdrive as they share hilarious memes waiting for the first glimpse of her babies

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

It was reported that she welcomed her twins on Monday, June 12 in Los Angeles.

While Beyonce, 35, and her husband Jay Z, 44, settle into life with a brood of there, her fans have gone into an absolute frenzy on social media over the alleged birth of their bundles of joy.

While details are yet to be released about the babies’ births – including their sexes – TMZ yesterday reported the 35-year-old mom and twins are still in the LA hospital where they were born following a ‘minor issue’.

Motherhood: While Beyonce, 35, and her husband Jay Z, 44, settle into life with a brood of there, her fans have gone into an absolute frenzy on social media over the alleged birth of their bundles of joy

Motherhood: While Beyonce, 35, and her husband Jay Z, 44, settle into life with a brood of there, her fans have gone into an absolute frenzy on social media over the alleged birth of their bundles of joy

His post: Taking to Twitter, Mathew posted a picture of a birthday note which read: 'Happy Birthday to the twins! Love, Granddad'

His post: Taking to Twitter, Mathew posted a picture of a birthday note which read: ‘Happy Birthday to the twins! Love, Granddad’

The couple – who are also parents to daughter Blue Ivy Carter, five – have kept decidedly quiet over the arrival of their newborns, despite her father Matthew Knowles confirmed the news on Twitter after reports surfaced in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Writing on the micro-blogging site, he posted a picture of a birthday note which read: ‘Happy Birthday to the twins! Love, Granddad.’

And he captioned the snap: ‘They’re here!#beyonce #twins #jayz #happybirthday.’

With her papa: Beyonce and her father Mathew Knowles in a photo from 2016

With her papa: Beyonce and her father Mathew Knowles in a photo from 2016

Following the flood of reports, loyal fans of the Beyhive have taken to social media with a wealth of hilarious memes and gifs that have captured her fandom’s excitement over twins’ arrival, which multiple sources have confirmed to Us Weekly and People Magazine.

Impatiently waiting for the first glimpse of Beyonce’s new tots, one user wrote alongside a gif of Fresh Prince character Carlton Banks: ‘everyone glued to their phones waiting for Beyonce’s twins pic like’ (sic).

While another shared a snap from her tour preview dressed as a Queen, captioned with: ‘How I imagined #Beyonce walking out of the delivery room right after popping out twins!’.

As a fan used her own lyrics from her 2006 song Irreplaceable to describe the birth of her twins: ‘I could have another you in a minute, matter fact he’ll be here in a minute’.

Excitement: Following the flood of reports, loyal fans of the Beyhive have taken to social media with a wealth of hilarious memes and gifs that have captured her fandom's excitement over twins' arrival

 Excitement: Following the flood of reports, loyal fans of the Beyhive have taken to social media with a wealth of hilarious memes and gifs that have captured her fandom’s excitement over twins’ arrival

Elsewhere, Showbiz 411 first reported on Saturday the power couple welcomed two children on Monday night or Tuesday morning.

A source later told People magazine: ‘Bey and Jay are thrilled and have started sharing the news with their family and closest friends.’ 

The power couple – who got married in 2008 – announced they were adding to their brood in February when the Formation hitmaker posted a photograph of her burgeoning baby bump on her social networking sites.

She wrote at the time: ‘We would like to share our love and happiness.

‘We have been blessed two times over. We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes. – The Carters.’

New chapter: The power couple - who got married in 2008 - announced they were adding to their brood in February when the Formation hitmaker posted a photograph of her burgeoning baby bump on her social networking sites

New chapter: The power couple – who got married in 2008 – announced they were adding to their brood in February when the Formation hitmaker posted a photograph of her burgeoning baby bump on her social networking sites

Happy family: The power couple with Blue Ivy pictured together at the MTV Video Music Awards in August 2014

Happy family: The power couple with Blue Ivy pictured together at the MTV Video Music Awards in August 2014

Pop icon Beyonce gives birth to twins in Los Angeles

The pair have remained relatively silent throughout the pregnancy but Beyonce’s mother Tina Knowles hasn’t been able to contain her excitement.

She said recently: ‘I’m so excited. I can’t wait.’

And 63-year-old Tina – who is also mother to 30-year-old singer Solange Knowles – has also praised her eldest daughter for being an ‘incredible parent.’

She said: ‘[Beyoncé and Jay Z are] incredible parents. She’s a really good mom. Really patient and kind. [My biggest lesson was] teaching them that what is on the inside counts more than what’s on the outside. I see her passing it on, and it makes me really proud because that was my biggest lesson.’

'Can't wait': Meanwhile, the Halo hitmaker’s mother Tina Lawson previously said she 'can’t wait' for the arrival of her new grandchildren (Pictured 2011)

‘Can’t wait’: Meanwhile, the Halo hitmaker’s mother Tina Lawson previously said she ‘can’t wait’ for the arrival of her new grandchildren (Pictured 2011)

On Saturday an unidentified female was pictured delivering a balloon and floral gift on Sunday morning which appeared to give the game away.

There was a pink and blue balloon, with one reading: ‘It’s a boy’ and the other reading: ‘It’s a girl.’

The accompanying envelope had: ‘To B & J’ on the front which appears to be confirmation but could have been sent by an over-zealous fan.

And now it has been reported that a ‘minor issue’ has kept their bundles of joys in hospital, according to TMZ.

'Minor issue': And now it has been reported that a 'minor issue' has kept their bundles of joys in hospital, according to TMZ

‘Minor issue’: And now it has been reported that a ‘minor issue’ has kept their bundles of joys in hospital, according to TMZ

Sources close to the couple told the publication: ‘The twins were born Monday in a Los Angeles hospital. We’re told a “minor issue” surfaced, and as a result … doctors do not feel comfortable releasing them.’

Although the nature of the issue is not clear nor when they’ll be released, an insider added that Beyonce remains at the hospital but ‘is okay. The babies are expected to be okay as well.’

Dailymail.com has reached out to Beyonce and Jay-Z’s reps for comment.

Three become five? Although the nature of the issue is not clear nor when they'll be released, an insider added that Beyonce remains at the hospital but 'is okay. The babies are expected to be okay as well'

Three become five? Although the nature of the issue is not clear nor when they’ll be released, an insider added that Beyonce remains at the hospital but ‘is okay. The babies are expected to be okay as well’

[“Source-ndtv”]

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Internet

Marissa Mayer Fades Out as Yahoo Set to End Its Run

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Marissa Mayer Fades Out as Yahoo Set to End Its Run

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Verizon-Yahoo deal recently got a nod to be completed on June 13
  • Marissa Mayer will be departing the company with $186 million
  • She became the Yahoo CEO in 2012

Marissa Mayer was hailed as Yahoo’s savior when she took charge of the pioneering Internet firm five years ago.

But Mayer was unable to stem the decline of the iconic Silicon Valley company, which is set to close a deal on Tuesday selling its core Internet operations to telecom giant Verizon.

She is likely headed for the exit as Yahoo ends two-decade run as an independent company, getting a departure package worth an estimated $186 million.

Mayer inherited a company in protracted decline, having lost its leadership as an Internet search company to Google and falling behind others like Facebook in serving money-making ads to users.

She is the latest in a line of chief executives who tried to reinvent Yahoo, and her experience at rival Google inspired hope.

“Marissa inherited a mess, in a company that had already lost its leadership role in search,” said Creative Strategies president and analyst Tim Bajarin, who has known Yahoo since its early days.

Mayer, 42, joined Google in 1999 as its 20th employee and led efforts for hit products, including its flagship search product and homepage.

At Yahoo, where she became CEO in 2012, she went on a buying spree that included a $1 billion acquisition of blogging platform Tumblr to reach a younger audience.

She also cut more than a thousand jobs.

“Buying your way out of a problem like this is rarely going to solve your trouble,” analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group said of acquisitions racked up at Yahoo.

Yahoo’s finances have been skewed by its stake in China’s Alibaba. It bought a 40 percent stake in Alibaba in 2005 for $1 billion and its current holding is now worth many times that amount, dwarfing the value of its Internet operations.

It also has a multibillion-dollar stake in Yahoo Japan. These holdings will not be transferred to Verizon but remain in a separate entity named “Altaba.”

Like to dislike
A survey released last month by business insights specialty website Owler ranked Mayer as the second most disliked chief executive, behind the head of United Airlines.

“Career-wise, Marissa is done,” Enderle said.

“She’s rich, so she could certainly fund herself as a venture capitalist but if she doesn’t work on her skill set she is going to lose a lot of money as a VC.”

Enderle put fault on the Yahoo board, saying Mayer was put in a “very bad spot” and failed to provide a mentor for a job she had never done before.
“Like our president, it shows that when you take someone with no idea what they are doing and put them in a job they shouldn’t do, it will end badly,” Enderle said.

Born in a small Wisconsin city, Mayer worked at a grocery store before attending Stanford University, where she studied computer science.

While her intellectual skills qualify her as a nerd, her blond good looks and star quality have put her on the cover of magazines including Fortune, Vanity Fair and Vogue, where pictures of her featured in a fashion spread.

Glamour magazine named her “woman of the year” in 2009 and she has been on several lists of influential tech personalities.

Pioneered search
Yahoo was one of the first companies that enabled users to find their way online, but lost its role as a leader.

It is selling its core Internet operations to telecom giant Verizon for $4.48 billion, capping a long decline from when it had a peak market value of some $125 billion (roughly Rs. 8,05,723 crores) in 2000.

Founded in 1994 by Stanford University students David Filo and Jerry Yang, Yahoo was created as a type of directory for the Internet. It was originally called “Jerry and Dave’s Guide to the World Wide Web.”

Its initial public offering in 1996 was the largest for a tech startup at the time.

Based in Sunnyvale, California, Yahoo became the leading “portal” for the Internet, with a home page that allowed users to click on categories such as sports, finance and movies, or search for information.

“In a way, Yahoo introduced the concept of search,” Bajarin said.

“They started diversifying with all these content layers and in the process didn’t put enough engineering resources in the search engine.”

Google launched in 1998 and usurped Yahoo’s search throne.

While Yahoo will continue to exist under Verizon, it remained to be seen what the telecommunications firm will do with it.

“You’re losing an iconic figure of Silicon Valley,” Bajarin said.

More than 1,000 jobs could be shed as redundant positions get eliminated at combined AOL and Yahoo operations, according to US media reports. Verizon is expected to merge those two operations into a new unit called Oath.

[“Source-ndtv”]

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Blogging

Poldark is back and we’re live blogging the whole darn thing as episode 1 of season 3 begins

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image result for Poldark is back and we're live blogging the whole darn thing as episode 1 of season 3 begins

He’s been gone too long and we’re a little giddy with excitement that our Ross is about to be back on our screens.

So excited, in fact, that we’ve only gone and started a live blog about the return of series 3 so we can all watch it together in some sort of 18th-century-meets-21st-century wormhole.

We’ll be relaxing on the sofas of Cornwall Live HQ, shop-bought popcorn in one hand and a bottle of mead in the other, ready to see what happens with the Captain after the dramatic finale of series 2.

We’ll have to put our snacks and tipple down quite regularly though because we plan on doing quite a lot of typing to give you our thoughts on it during the episode itself.

You can leave comments on the link to this article on our Facebook page (we’ll be sharing a post there at 8.45pm) so we can see what you think too and have some kind of back and forth through the platforms of technology.

While you’re waiting for it all to get going, make sure you’ve caught up with what happened in series one and two.

And we’ve all got a feature about what to expect from the new series.

And if you really need to be put in the mood: Steamy Poldark series three trailer released by the BBC and there is a shirtless scene

[“Source-smallbiztrends”]

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Online Marketing

Alibaba sales forecast tops all estimates as new forays pay off

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Alibaba is spending billions of dollars on new businesses in part to counter Tencent’s increasing dominance of online social media and entertainment through WeChat. Photo: Reuters

Alibaba is spending billions of dollars on new businesses in part to counter Tencent’s increasing dominance of online social media and entertainment through WeChat. Photo: Reuters

Hong Kong: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd forecast sales growth that topped every analyst’s estimate, defying expectations that growth must slow by dint of a decelerating economy and its own sheer scale.

China’s largest e-commerce company forecast 45% to 49% revenue growth in the year ending March, sustaining a near-unbroken run of 40% plus annual rises and underscoring how investments into businesses beyond its bread-and-butter of online shopping are paying off. The company’s German shares rose as much as 5.2%.

Alibaba and Tencent Holdings Ltd—which dominate online shopping and social media, respectively—have ventured deeper into new areas from cloud computing services to streaming music and video as the country’s economy slows. The online shopping giant founded by billionaire Jack Ma is capturing more digital advertising spending by incorporating social elements such as video in its shopping sites.

To reflect an increasingly diverse customer base, Alibaba will start reporting “active consumers” as opposed to just buyers, chief financial officer Maggie Wu said during the company’s annual investor-day conference Thursday. It’ll begin to disclose “customer management revenue” instead of just online marketing, to reflect a broader base of advertising platforms.

“Its market valuation has fallen behind Tencent’s recently, so the forecast could inject some confidence,” said Ray Zhao, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities Co. “This will be good news for its share price, which could rise 6% to 7% based on this forecast,” he added without specifying a timeframe.

The forecast compares with the 35% average of estimates and surpassed the most bullish projection of the 43 analysts tracked by Bloomberg.

Alibaba is spending billions of dollars on new businesses in part to counter Tencent’s increasing dominance of online social media and entertainment through WeChat, a messaging and networking powerhouse.

Considered a barometer of Chinese consumer sentiment, Alibaba has also expanded abroad since buying control of Lazada Group SA to establish a foothold in Southeast Asia, potentially setting up a clash with Amazon.com Inc. Its AliExpress site remains for now the main window through which it targets foreign shoppers.

While Alibaba has outperformed expectations, investors remain concerned about a deceleration in China’s economy and similar efforts by Tencent to capture digital ad spending and muscle in on its turf. In response, Alibaba moved into untapped rural markets and explored new sources of income.

Most of those new businesses are years away from contributing to the bottom line. On Thursday, Wu said Alibaba will continue to sacrifice a small slice of profitability to help bankroll its forays.

Cloud computing services in particular now account for about 5% of overall sales. A service akin to Amazon’s AWS that provides computing power over the Internet, it’s become one of the company’s fastest-growing businesses and underpins other pieces of the Alibaba empire such as streaming and e-commerce. The priority remains expansion for now, she added.

“Profitability is still not the priority for our cloud business,” Wu told investors. Alibaba wants to “quickly expand cloud leadership in coming quarters.” Bloomberg

[“Source-ndtv”]

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Online Marketing

Urban Ladder appoints Jaipal Singal as CFO

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

A chartered accountant with over 14 years’ experience, Jaipal Singal comes to Urban Ladder from Arvind Fashion and has also worked previously with Mahindra Retail. Photo: Mint

A chartered accountant with over 14 years’ experience, Jaipal Singal comes to Urban Ladder from Arvind Fashion and has also worked previously with Mahindra Retail. Photo: Mint

Bengaluru: Online furniture retailer Urban Ladder Home Décor Solutions Pvt. Ltd on Thursday named Jaipal Singal as chief financial officer (CFO).

A chartered accountant with over 14 years’ experience, Singal comes to Urban Ladder from Arvind Fashion Brands Ltd. He also worked previously with Mahindra Retail Pvt. Ltd.

“We are very excited to have Jaipal on board at a time when we have made a strategic shift from being an e-commerce company to a retail brand. His vast experience in the retail sector is a fantastic addition for us. We are sure he will support the organisation in working towards our growth goals, as well as leading the charge to improve our profitability, and setting high standards for corporate governance.” Ashish Goel, co-founder and chief executive at Urban Ladder, said in a statement. Urban Ladder expects to turn a profit in 18 months.

Urban Ladder has recently seen several senior-level exits, including Rushabh Sanghavi, vice-president of category and sourcing, and Nikhil Ramprakash, vice-president of sales and online marketing. Both had joined Urban Ladder in 2012 in its early days.

Parag Shah, vice-president, fitouts, urban interiors and alliances, and chief marketing officer Sanjay Gupta have also quit, Mint reported on 4 April.

Founded in 2012 by Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore alumni Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa, Urban Ladder has raised at least $92 million in equity funding from Kalaari Capital, Sequoia Capital, SAIF Partners, Steadview Capital and TR Capital, and $3 million in venture debt from Trifecta Capital.

It last raised $15 million in February from Kalaari Capital, SAIF Partners, Steadview Capital and Sequoia. In the last round, the value of the company’s shares increased 26.4% from its previous fund raising of $50 million in April 2015. The company clocks monthly sales of about Rs20-25 crore, Mint reported on 29 May.

[“Source-ndtv”]

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Tech Update

Kodi anger as Samsung Galaxy S7 Android update ‘breaks’ popular app

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Samsung Galaxy S7 kodi update

Samsung Galaxy S7 update has broken the Kodi app
After months of waiting, Samsung recently began pushing out its Android Nougat update to its huge range of smartphone and tablets.

This upgrade brings a number of improvements to devices including the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.

However, it also appears this update could cause some issues for users of the popular Kodi player.

Since the upgrade many Galaxy owners have posted messages on forums complaining that they can longer hear audio when using the app.

One Kodi fans added a message on Reddit, saying: “My Kodi worked perfectly on a Samsung Note 5 up until Sprint pushed an Android update yesterday.

“Now, Kodi 17.1 opens fine, looks fine, but as soon as it boots, loud noise is all you get for audio.

“It almost sounds like white noise, but also sounds like it could be some sort of audio file.

Apps we'd love to see make the jump from Apple TV to the Kodi Add-On store

A  number of users have blamed Kodi for the problems but now the popular service has suggested that, “Samsung broke it.”

Kodi posted a message on Twitter feed which reads: “You have a @SamsungMobile phone or tablet with Android Nougat and get static noise with Kodi? Sorry but Samsung broke it with their update.”

It’s currently unclear what is causing the issue or when there will be a fix for it.

Some users say they’ve tried removing the update but have still suffered the same results.

One message on Reddit reads: “I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling Kodi both from the Google Play store and downloading and installing Kodi directly from the Kodi download page, same result.”

Kodi update Samsung

The news of this issue comes as Kodi has just released an upgrade to its popular player.

Kodi users are now being urged to download this latest update after the team behind the popular service deemed it necessary to push out a new release.

The new v17.3 software has been launched just a few days after fans of the service were told to upgrade to v17.2.

Kodi says that it felt it necessary to quickly launch another upgrade to sort some minor bug and security issues.

Along with these fixes the new software includes a patch which stops malicious subtitle zip files that could potentially infect and harm users’ media players.

It was claimed by security company, Check Point, that Hackers could take control of a computer, smartphone, tablet or smart TV by manipulating subtitle text files.

[“Source-ndtv”]

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