A Google executive has admitted the search giant lost out on buying GitHub. Speaking at a Fortune Magazine event yesterday, Diane Greene Google’s head of cloud made an interesting admission. “I wouldn’t have minded buying them, but it’s OK,” said Greene, Bloomberg reports.
Previousrumors suggestGoogle was also trying to acquire GitHub, alongsideMicrosoft’s bids. GitHub founder Chris Wanstrath reportedly chose Microsoft because of his relationship with CEO Satya Nadella. GitHub is a large code repository that has become very popular with developers and companies to host projects, documentation, and code. Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and many other big tech companies use GitHub. There are 85 million repositories hosted on GitHub, and 28 million developers contribute to them.
The Verge asked Google earlier this month to comment on whether it will still continue to use GitHub, but a company spokesperson said at the time “We do not comment on ongoing acquisitions across the industry.” Facebook has committed to GitHub, and a spokesperson revealed: “as long as GitHub remains a great place to share our projects and collaborate with the open source community, we’ll continue to use it.”
Greene also echoed similar concerns from developers about Microsoft buying GitHub and its future. “I really hope Microsoft can keep them totally neutral,” said Greene. Most developers seem to be waiting to see what will happen with Microsoft’s acquisition. The Verge interviewed several prominent developers on GitHub, and some would have had concerns even if Google had acquired the service. Microsoft has been trying to calm initial nerves, and the company is expected to close its deal later this year.
It has been years since you have brought about any major modifications to your website design. Well, as
the days are passing, a number of tools and resources have come forth
to get your hands on. Also, there are various reasons why you should
consider Website Redesigning for several advantages.
To provide a fresh look and feel to your website
To optimize the loading time and enhance the user experience
To increase the web traffic and page views etc.
Also,
to maintain high search engine rankings and to get new visitors, you
have to keep pace with the latest in web design trends
So, let’s explore the secrets of how simple redesign tweaks can revamp your website’s functionality and the user experience.
Boost Speed
The
speed of a website is a major influential factor that search engines
look at as a part of their ranking yardsticks. It is also what agitate
users while signing up for the websites if it is a slow one. Users tend
to lose their patience when a website consumes more time. Some of the
measures to boost the loading time are:
Avoid placing too much of flash or video content on your web pages.
If
required, lower the density of the graphics wherever possible. You may
opt for some compression tools as well for optimizing the images and
video content loading time.
Avoid error in coding at the back end.
Make sure your HTML is validated correctly.
Employ CSS and HTML
You should be employing CSS and HTML for so many reasons. Being a part of cutting-edge technology andhaving
multiple browsers support can have many productive advantages. There
are probabilities that your current website might be devoid of these
features. Make use of advanced styling, type kits and fonts that are
easily available online.
Focus on Mobile Friendly Design
It
is always anticipated to consider the mobile users while rebuilding
your website. This is crucial as we see a large number of website’s
traffic being generated from the mobile users worldwide. The idea of
having your website in the form of an app is very promising if you can
manage to do so.
Keep Your Website Updated Through Content Management System(CMS)
Frequent updating of content through CMS
is what you need to carry on in Website Redesigning for a number of
reasons including SEO benefits. Even though your website is not a
dynamic one, consider the freshness and the quality of information that
is being reflected on your website.
Videos Are Now A Lot More Accessible
Most
of the internet users nowadays are able to seamlessly stream videos on
their devices. Since video content is by far considered as the most
engaging content of the website, it must be an essential component of
describing information. However, you must be able to ensure lag free
streaming and allow efficient video transmission while Website
Redesigning.
Compare Between “Nice To Have” and “Must Have”
Although
a number of web design attributes may seem to be an indispensable part
of your design. However, you should perform an analysis of what you
really want to have and what if something is just effective. You can
discard less important features and include the one that is timeless and
justifies your specialization.
The world’s first passenger drone capable of autonomously carrying a person in the air for 23 minutes has been given clearance for testing in Nevada.
Chinese firm Ehang, which unveiled the electric Ehang 184 passenger drone at CES in Las Vegas in January, has partnered with the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS) and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (Goed) to put the drone through testing and regulatory approval.
Tom Wilczek, Goed’s aerospace and defence specialist said: “The State of Nevada, through NIAS, will help guide Ehang through the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) regulatory process with the ultimate goal of achieving safe flight.”
The founder and chief executive of Ehang, Huazhi Hu, said the move would lay the foundation for the 184’s commercialisation and kickstart the autonomous aerial transportation industry.
Ehang hopes to begin testing later this year and will have to prove airworthiness to
There’s no manual for being a good human, but greeting strangers as
you walk by in the morning, saying thank you and opening doors for
people are probably among the top things we know we should do, even if
we sometimes forget.
But where on earth do you learn stuff like that? Well, some researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology reckon
a lot of it is down to the stories we’re read as kids and now they’re
using that idea to teach robots how to be ‘good people’ too.
Using a previous project
that saw a computer automatically gather ‘correct’ story narratives
from the Web, researchers Mark Riedl and Brent Harrison are now teaching
them how to take the role of the “protagonist” so that they make the
right choices.
Blogger VS Wordpress - Every Blogger dilemma. When I entered the world of blogging, I was confused with lot of platforms to choose from including tumblr. But I did not want to jump from one platform to another or waste my time switching and in the end be of nowhere so after doing a lot of research for couple of years (I had already started blogging on Blogger from the start) and testing both platforms. I am ready to give you the easiest answer to this question :)
I’ve had my own self-hosted WordPress sites in the past so I’m not completely against one or the other. The thing is, however, there seems to be this idea that if you want to be taken seriously, you need a WordPress blog. This simply is not true, and I’ll tell you why sometimes WordPress isn’t a good idea for some.
Please note that in this post I am particularly talking about the self-hosted version of WordPress, not the “yourname.wordpress.com” shared hosting version, as that doesn’t even compare to either and offers only a fraction of the abilities.
Blogger usually allows you to add "Contact from" to the sidebar. But if you want to make a specific page for "Contact Form" then follow this tutorial. There are many links online which guides you through the same but I am going to teach you How to set up "Contact Form" Page in ONE single step.
Amazon has announced the launch of a free, cloud-based program that makes it easier for budding writers to create movie and TV screenplays. Amazon Storywriter
will let users submit work directly to Amazon Studios and the company
says it will store an unlimited number of scripts imported into and
written on the platform.
In addition it will now be accepting
drama submissions and will no longer take a free option on scripts
submitted directly to the Amazonstudios.com site.
Previously, Amazon
only accepted submissions for feature films, primetime comedy series for
adults, and series for children aged 2 to 14.
Amazon Storywriter will automatically format and save scripts as
they’re written and Chrome users will have the option to install an app
that makes the software available offline. Additionally, the app lets
writers import scripts they’re already working on. It supports PDF and
RTF file formats, as well as FDX (Final Draft filetype) and Fountain (a
screenwriting markup language). The program can also export work in
these formats.
Google has developed a prototype wearable device based on the
communicator in Star Trek . It uses a microphone to listen to a user's
voice and can use Bluetooth to send those commands to another device.
In
the Star Trek universe, the captain and the crew used their lapel pins
to talk to the artificial intelligence and crew onboard the Starship
Enterprise. Similarly Google's prototype circular device connects to a
smartphone through Bluetooth.
The concept was intended to test out how users might
interact with voice search in new ways. Worn on the chest, the Google
pin is activated with a light tap. The prototype might output
sound through an onboard speaker or by connecting to headphones . The idea was to make it easier for people to query to Google
without having to go through messy instructions.
Fallout 4 is an open world action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game is the fifth major installment in the Fallout series, and was released worldwide on November 10, 2015 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
In addition to its high reviews, Fallout 4 also encountered dramatic popularity, breaking the Steam record for most players concurrently online with almost 470,000 concurrent players, beating out the previous record holder Grand Theft Auto V
Sales
Fallout 4 sold 1.2 million copies on Steam in its first 24 hours of release.
Fallout 4 's story begins on the day the bombs dropped: October 23, 2077. The player's character takes shelter in Vault 111, emerging 200 years after a nuclear war, Fallout 4 is set in a post-apocalyptic Boston.
Google believes it is on
course to have enough internet-beaming balloons in the stratosphere to
form a ring over part of the world next year.
It told the BBC the move would let it trial a continuous data service to people living below the balloons' path.
The
declaration coincides with the announcement that three of Indonesia's
mobile networks intend to start testing Project Loon's transmissions
next year.
The advantage of a balloon-based system over satellites
is that it should ultimately be cheaper to maintain - at least, if all
the technological challenges can be overcome.
"What may initially
seem like a complex delivery method could end up being a very innovative
solution to a very difficult problem to solve at ground level," Mr
Green added.
Google is, however, considering other options,
It
is also pursuing a separate effort codenamed Titan, which aims to use
solar-panelled drones to provide the internet to unconnected parts of
the world.
Facebook is also developing a similar drone-based scheme.
One expert said the plan had benefits over other solutions.
Sri
Lanka previously signed a separate agreement signalling its wish to be
another participant in the giant helium balloon-based scheme.
4G-like speeds
Google
first revealed its superpressure balloon plan in June 2013, when about
30 of the inflatable plastic "envelopes" were launched from New Zealand.
Beneath each lighter-than-air balloon are hung:
two radio transceivers to receive and send data streams, plus a third back-up radio
a flight computer and GPS location tracker
an
altitude control system, which is used to move the balloon up and down
to find winds that will take it in the desired direction
Google has announced a device that lets old hi-fis and speaker systems stream music and podcasts over wi-fi.
Owners
can use it to listen to Spotify, iPlayer Radio and other selected apps
on Android and iOS devices, and audio streamed via the Chrome browser on
PCs.
The Chromecast Audio dongle costs £30, making it cheaper than many other similar streaming add-ons.
It also poses a challenge to speakers with built-in wi-fi, whose makers often charge a premium for their products.
At an event in San Francisco, Google said it had sold more than 20
million units of the original Chromecast, which streams media to TVs.
"The original Chromecast did really well because of Google's brand,
which meant people trusted it would do what it said on the tin," said
Stuart Miles, founder of the Pocket-lint tech website.
"We have seen similar devices to this before.
"But
it will probably be quite successful because it will encourage people
to upgrade their old hi-fis - which are still very good from an audio
perspective."
The launch coincides with the release of a flagship "smart speaker" from Sonos, one of the bestselling brands in the sector.
Free energy from the air. It sounds
like a fantasy but that is what the entrepreneur and former science
minister Lord Drayson has just unveiled at London's Royal Institution.
He
claims that a technology called Freevolt can be the power source for
the "internet of things", allowing low energy devices from wearables to
sensors to operate without being plugged in.
The technology
involves harvesting radio frequency energy from existing wireless and
broadcast networks, from 4G to digital television. Lord Drayson says
it's a world first: "It doesn't require any extra infrastructure, it
doesn't require us to transmit any extra energy, it's recycling the
energy which isn't being used at the moment."
The technology was demonstrated in the lecture
theatre at the Royal Institution, where Michael Faraday worked on
electromagnetism in the 19th Century. Lord Drayson first showed how much
radio frequency energy was in the room, and then used his Freevolt
system to power a loudspeaker.
He also demonstrated the first
product to use the energy system, a personal air pollution monitor
called the CleanSpace tag. It has been created by Drayson Technologies
as part of a drive to improve air quality in cities and give individuals
some insights into the extent of pollution. A battery in the device is
continually recharged by a Freevolt energy harvester.
The
technology, which has been patented, could now be used by organisations
such as supermarkets which are preparing for the next phase of the
internet, where billions of small cheap sensors are online providing
data about their operations.
HAVING redefined the personal-computer and mobile-phone industries,
Apple has set its sights on a new, moving target. The darling of the
tech industry is aiming to debut an electric car in 2019, according to a
report by the Wall Street Journal. For years
there had been speculation that Apple had auto ambitions. It has been
hiring swarms of engineers to work on the project, code-named Titan,
which now employs around 600.
With around $200 billion stored up, Apple certainly has enough cash
to spend on a new venture. Its legions of fans are always eager to see
it launch a new offering that makes a splash. Its most recent product,
the Apple Watch, has not been the massive hit some analysts expected,
and Apple’s launch event earlier this month was rather dull, showcasing
mainly tweaks to existing products. Launching a car would be far more
daring and, in theory, highly lucrative. Global car sales were worth
around $2 trillion last year.
However, there are
many things about the car business that make it quite unlike peddling
phones. The replacement cycle for an iPhone is a mere two years.
Consumers hold on to their cars for far longer. To make business sense,
Apple’s cars would need to earn returns comparable to those of its
existing products. But gross profit margins like Apple’s current 40% or
so are something most large-scale carmakers can only dream of. At BMW,
one of the most profitable of these, such margins are around 20%.
Microsoft had news to share about the upcoming Surface Pro 4. Microsoft highlighted that the Surface Pro 4 is 50% faster than the MacBook Air. The best Part is it comes with Surface Pen which actually has an eraser on the end and magnetically attaches to back of tablet :) Easy peasy :p Its more like a pencil and comes in different shades.
The Surface Pro 4 features -
1) Fingerprint reader, it’s thinner and lighter.
2) 12.3-inch screen.
3) “The thinnest, most powerful (Intel) Core PC shipped.”
4) The Surface Pro 4 has the thinnest cover screen on a tablet, featuring Gorilla Glass 4(0.4mm thick)
5) 1TB storage, 16GB RAM.
6) New Docking station which also works with Surface Pro 3.
7) Two 4K Display Port connector, Ethernet and 3.0 USB Ports (Four)
The Surface Pro 4 will retail on October 26th
To watch the full Mircrosoft live event watch here --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft introduced its newest version of the Microsoft Band wearable at the company's Windows 10 press event in New York City today. In addition to revealing the HoloLens developer price and release window, the new Band—not called Band 2, as was previously rumored— brings barometer features to enable elevation tracking and a curved screen.
The Band also carries many of the same features that was included in like the built-in GPS and support for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. Along with tracking fitness, the new Band will continue to support apps.
Externally the new Microsoft Band supports a rounded Gorilla Glass. With a strengthened screen, added durability should protect the screen during workout mishaps.
The new Microsoft Band will arrive on October 30 for $249. Fitness fans can pre-order starting today.
Source: popsci.com To watch the full Mircrosoft live event watch here
Managing hectic life? Ease unnecessary trouble by following these DIY simple life hacks (Tech) also saving some bucks can be bonus ;)
1) Headphones/ Earphones wire
Accept it. we all have issues with our dangled earphones. I'm sure I didn't leave them dangled but it surprises me everytime. There are two ways- (a) Roll over your earphones and tie it around with manufactured set or simply a rubber band. (b) Wrap the wire around a pen and blow dry for 5 mins. (Don't over turn or over heat. It may break away in internal wire or melt the insulator respectively) TADA!!
2) Phone holder
Use your old cassette cases to hold your phone. Easy pesy....
3) DIY Speakers (Amplifier)
Having issue with sound quality? Grab a paper roller cut it so that it holds your phone properly. Take two plastic glasses make a hole on one side such that it fits in roller. There you go,brand new DIY speakers. To be honest you don't even need the glasses but better the idea better the quality. OR you can even place your phone while playing music at corner of your room as it throws backs waves and amplifies the sound. Try it now
4) Wire bender
Haven't we all changed our earphones/headphones and other wires just because it gets bent at ends and loses internal connections. Pull out the spring from your ballpen (Used onces) then straighten it out and roll it over both ends of the wire you want to protect. Infact you can use tags too,just roll it out and zip it.
5) Pendrive cases
Pull out a building block, cut out the side portion to fit the USB port and there you go. Customized Pendrive cover. Don't spend it up on fancy things when you can make yourself an adorable one :)
Bonus hack Perhaps the most important hack for you haha :D
If you’ve braved a line (or just waited impatiently for your mail or a
delivery from your local courier) and finally have your hands on an
iPhone 6s or 6s Plus of your very own, you may be wondering what do do
with your new precious. Sure, you could call all your friends and tell
them you’re speaking to them through your shiny new gadget, like I did
with my Apple Watch.
And I’m here to tell you that everyone loves that.
But
you’re probably looking for some cool apps to play around with, and it
may be hard to know where to start — especially if this is your first
iPhone. So here are a bunch of apps that should be at the top of your
list.
Move to iOS
This first essential app isn’t even for iOS, but if you’re making the switch from Android, it’ll help get you started.
Move to iOS is Apple’s very own content-migration tool to get all of the data off
your old phone and onto your new one. I would have appreciated having
this some years ago when I spent an afternoon with an HTC in one hand
and my inaugural iPhone in the other, transferring my contacts by
manually punching them in. It was not a good time, and you should not
let that happen to you.
Dark Sky
Forget this outdated “Is it going to rain?” business. We live in the future now, and our apps can now tell us when it will rain. Apps like Dark sky,
which bills itself as “hyperlocal weather, radar and storm alerts,”
will tell you when — and for how long — you can expect precipitation.
If
you picked up an Apple Watch to go with your iPhone, the app has a
complication for the wearable that provides you all that information and
more at a glance.
Waze
Crowd-sourced traffic and navigation app Waze
brings all the cooperation and community of long-haul CB conversations
to everyone, without that dizzying lingo (which I assume is still around
because almost everything I know about trucking comes from the horrible
1975 novelty song “Convoy”).
Waze takes its users’ GPS information to determine drive times, and
you can also report accidents and delays to help make it more accurate
and useful for everyone.
1Password
If your password on every single site you visit is “Password123,” you could use some help. And that’s what 1Password
is here for. Not only does it generate long, complex and unique
sign-ins for every site, but it also stores them securely and remembers
them so you don’t have to.
TunnelBear
While we’re talking about security, how about your Internet browsing? TunnelBear VPN
is a powerful tool that not only protects you from the risks associated
with public Wi-Fi networks, but will also cover for you and tell the
Internet that you aren’t in your current country in case the site you
want to visit is blocked locally.
But the best claim at all is its promise to “Secure your data and hide your IP address behind a bear.” Because nobody’s getting past a bear.
Vainglory
Vainglory by Super Evil Megacorp. Photo: Super Evil Megacorp
I’m not into the multiplayer online battle arena genre, and apparently I’m the only one because games like League of Legends and Dota 2 are ridiculously popular. So I haven’t checked out Vainglory,
a mobile MOBA. But a lot of people here at Cult of Mac love it with an
enthusiasm I can’t deny, even if I can’t quite understand it.
I
asked writer Rob LeFebvre to quickly tell me why he’s into it, and he
rattled off almost a dozen reasons in the space of a minute, including
“It’s incredibly balanced” and “You can get better at it fairly easily
and quickly.”
Yelp
“What do you want to have for dinner?”
is a conversation topic that has led to many a strained evening that
ended in awkwardly eating a peanut butter sandwich over the kitchen
sink.
Not for me, but, like. For other people.
Anyway, Yelp
can not only tell you what’s around, which is especially useful if
you’re in an unfamiliar city, but its comprehensive catalog of user
reviews might help you decide what’s good. It’ll at least tell you
what’s open nearby, and that alone is worth the download.
Genius Notepad
I reviewed Genius Notepad all the way back when it was still called Upword Notes,
and I still use it almost every day. It’s a simple, intuitive notes app
that lets you highlight items, cross them off, and rearrange them
entirely through gestures. When everything is done, you get the deeply
satisfying experience of pulling down on the screen to instantly clear
everything with a cheerful noise that just screams “free time.”
Carrot Fit
Imagine having a personal trainer who is an evil, unsympathetic robot, and that is Carrot Fit.
The app centers on a single, intense, full-body workout appropriately
titled “7 Minutes in Hell” that recommends you bring along a chair, a
towel and a bucket to throw up in. It also awards you points for
exercising either in the app or out (it talks to your iPhone’s Health
app), and as you level up, you gain new abilities like longer — or
shorter — rest times and remixed exercise orders.
Plus, all the individual tasks have dorky names like “Invisible Iron Throne” for wall sits, and I dare you not to love that.
Deliveries
Getting mail is fun, and finally receiving that much-anticipated new device is even better. But before that happens, Deliveries
will help you keep track of everything you have coming to you. It lists
everything individually and even shows where it all is on a map so you
know exactly how much anticipation you should be feeling.
Square Cash
This one could go both ways. Square Cash
lets you quickly and easily send money to friends (for free), so that’s
good. But it also removes, “Sorry, I don’t have anything on me” from
your list of excuses when your cash-strapped buddy needs you to spot
them for gas or something. Again.
So Square Cash may actually end
that friendship by leaving you with no recourse but to tell the truth:
That this friend is a deadbeat who only calls you when they need
something and treats people like walking wallets.
Basically, this app could end up saving you some money if this is your situation. Not that I know anything about that.
Ever since Amazon unveiled
the first Kindle Fire tablet, its devices have broken price barriers and
offered a compelling alternative to more-expensive iOS devices. While
the exact attractiveness of these tablets has always depended on whether
or not you were plugged into Amazon’s ecosystem, they’ve been a popular
alternative, particularly if you don’t want Google hoovering up every
scrap of your personal information. Unfortunately, that may be about to
change.
When the $50 Fire tablet debuted a few weeks ago, its many
shortcomings and problems were balanced by its $50 price tag. When a
tablet costs about as much as dinner and a movie date night, you can
expect that it’s going to compromise. The Fire HD 10, on the other hand,
has a number of problems of its own — only this time, it’s debuting at
$229, not $50. There are already multiple reviews of the tablet online,
and all of them bring up a common series of problems: It’s slow:
Everyone mentions this. The Fire HD 10 is based on MediaTek’s MT8135
SoC, which packs two Cortex-A15 cores and a pair of Cortex-A7 cores in a
big.Little configuration. Amazon calls this a quad-core, which verges
on false advertising (but one that’s scarcely unique to Amazon or
MediaTek). It’s clocked at 1.5GHz (A15) and 1.2GHz on the A7 cores,
which means it doesn’t bring much in the way of clock speed to the
table, either. The chip is comparatively old, lacks 64-bit support, and
is underpowered for a tablet. The Tegra 4, for example, packed four
Cortex-A15 cores at 1.9GHz. Smartphones like the Galaxy S4 used arrays
of four Cortex-A15 chips, not just two. In short, this is not enough for
a 2015 tablet, and the bottom-end Series 6 GPU (G6200) helps nothing,
either.
Amazon may be able to fix
some issues with patches, but I doubt they can change the nature of the
problem. This is what happens when you use 2012 tech from a low-end SoC
manufacturer in a 2015 device. The screen is second-rate:
Historically, Amazon has offered tablets with a good mixture of
resolution and screen size. Its very first Kindle Fire, released in
2011, had a 169 PPI. The Kindle HD family (or Fire HD) have always
bounced between 216 and 254 PPI, up until now. The Kindle HD 8 has a 189
PPI screen and the Kindle HD 10 has a 149 PPI screen. No, it’s not
illegible, but every review written thus far points out that content is
fuzzy at the edges. Amazon’s response to large-screen tablets from
Microsoft, Apple, and other vendors has been to release its
lowest-quality (in terms of pixel visibility) display ever. It exists to sell you things:
Every version of the Kindle Fire / Fire family has existed to sell you
things, at least to some extent. Amazon has always been up-front that
the point of these devices is to hook you deeper into the Amazon
ecosystem. Mashable reports that the new FireOS 5 devotes much more
screen space to trying to sell you content, including pop-over ads that
appear while you’re reading existing content. The general consensus
seems to be that while FireOS 5 organizes your existing libraries more
effectively and is pleasant to use, it also spends a lot of energy
tossing ads and “You might also like..” at readers. Laptop noted that
Amazon tried to sell him different versions of a book he already owns,
three separate times.
Flameout
Thus far, no one is seriously recommending the HD Fire 10. Laptop notes “A chintzy design, low-resolution display, lackluster cameras, and sluggish performance make the Amazon Fire 10 feel less than the sum of its parts.” Fortune writes “the Fire HD 10’s middling performance and low-resolution screen serve as stark reminders that you get what you pay for.” Mashable is the only review site to draw even a tenuously positive conclusion. When Amazon blew the Fire Phone
launch, most industry analysts wrote it off as a once-off mistake from a
company that had served up years of hits. This is the third mediocre
hardware platform Amazon has launched in the past 12 months, and the
second to set a price point that’s completely unattractive given its
feature set. We don’t know who’s making these calls, but it looks like
Amazon is trying to coast on past achievements rather than continue to
offer a midrange Android platform worth buying. Source: Extreme Tech
