Thursday, July 17, 2014

Software : Nissan driving toward self-parking automobiles within 2 years

Software : Nissan driving toward self-parking automobiles within 2 years

Nissan driving toward self-parking automobiles within 2 years

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Nissan driving toward self-parking automobiles within 2 years

Never did manage to master the art of parallel parking? Might as well not even bother now that Nissan plans to introduce automobiles capable of parking themselves by the year 2016.

BloombergBusinessweek today reported that Nissan Motor Co. plans to jump into the automated driving arena, first with automobiles capable of parking without a driver and eventually, vehicles that can hit the open road all by themselves.

Nissan Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn claims the Japanese automaker will hit the pavement with automatic parking capabilities by 2016, technology already being implemented to some degree by rivals Toyota and Ford.

"You need to be first with very significant features. There's always a premium with those who come first," remarked Ghosn during a meeting in Tokyo with reporters Thursday.

Drive, they said

Automated parking is only the beginning of Nissan's plans for driverless automobiles, with plans to introduce vehicles capable of changing lanes automatically by 2018, expanding those abilities to traffic intersections sometime in 2020.

Google has been toying with driver-free vehicles for a number of years, with 100 such prototypes expected to begin trials later this year; General Motors and Daimler have also thrown their hats into the automated ring.

Toyota, the world's largest automaker, is eying an approach where technology instead augments the human driving experience, acting as a sort of "co-pilot," although the Japanese company remains mum on when they might launch such plans.

Traffic accidents are blamed for more than 30,000 deaths each year in the United States alone, a number automakers and federal regulators hope to reduce by making driving easier and more free of distractions.

SAP launches a small business dvision for customers with fewer than 500 employees

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SAP launches a small business dvision for customers with fewer than 500 employees

SAP has created a division focused on developing and selling technology designed for businesses with fewer than 500 employees.

SAP's SMB Solutions Group will create cloud-based business solutions and applications powered by SAP HANA. The SMB Solutions Group will be lead by Dean Mansfield.

Mansfield has been in the software industry for more than 20 years, including six years at NetSuite, where he managed global sales and operations, and most recently at SmartFocus, where he served as President.

The important of IT for SMBs

Information technology is crucial to the success of small and mid-size businesses.

Research commissioned by Symantec found that SMBs that are confident in their use of IT stand are more likely to use it to drive business strategy and outcomes.

The time saved by small businesses that use mobile devices in their day-to-day activities is equivalent to $67.5 billion (about £40.2bn or au$71.8bn) a year, according to a study conducted by AT&T and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.

Mansfield's mission

On SAP's company blog, Mansfield said the goal of the SMB Solutions Group is "to enable smaller businesses to operate locally and globally by providing them with latest technology resources."

He also said cloud and mobile will play a significant role in consolidating business operating systems. The SMB Solutions Group will attempt to help SMBs run "a simpler, more efficient company" by providing "one business system" that can be accessed from any device.

Over the next six months SAP is finalizing its SMB Solutions Group roadmap while "actively hiring to fill out the global team," Mansfield said. "We plan to be in high execution mode by the end of this year. Our goal in 2015 is to redefine the SMB market from a technology perspective."

SAP has more than 210,000 small-to-mid-size enterprise customers. More than half of these customers have fewer than 500 employees.

You can't use Facebook's new Mentions iOS app

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You can't use Facebook's new Mentions iOS app

It's lifestyles of the rich and famous for the digital age.

Facebook's new Mentions app for iOS is only on offer for celebrities and brands (a.k.a verified accounts), letting them "discover and join conversations" happening on the social network.

Actors, athletes, musicians and other influencers can peak what's being said about them and other high-profile peeps, jumping in to defend their honor, give their take on current events, or whatever saying whatever else they want to say.

So fancy

What's more, Mentions acts as a sort of living timeline for their jet-setting ways, letting them upload pics, videos and hold live Q&As with the masses.

Finally, Mentions provides a stream of trending topics so Justin Timberlake and other busy famous types can see what's hot and decide whether they deign it worth a mention, or not.

It's really a way for public figures to manage their interactions, a Facebook product manager told Variety, but also clearly a move to help Facebook court celebrities who prefer Twitter's easy management.

Facebook figures show celebs who tested Mentions posted twice as much contact a day as before using the app, plus interacted with other famous people twice as much as they did previously, but that could be a result of the app's bright-and-shininess and not necessarily because of usefulness. We'll just have to see if Mentions has more lasting power than Rebecca Black.

  • You don't need to be famous to check out our iPhone 6 rumor round up

Microsoft to cut 18,000 jobs

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Microsoft to cut 18,000 jobs

Microsoft will cut approximately 18,000 jobs within the next eleven months, CEO Satya Nadella wrote in an announcement to staff.

This round of layoffs will be the largest in the company's history and the largest since former CEO Steve Ballmer cut 5,800 employees in 2009.

Roughly 12,500 employees brought on as a result of the Nokia acquisition, which occurred in April, will be let go. The deal added 25,000 employees to Microsoft's payroll. At the time of the acquisition, Microsoft said it would cut $600 million (about £350.8 million, au$640 million) per year in costs.

How will this affect Xbox and Nokia products?

Although most of the cuts will be made within the Nokia division, approximately 5,500 jobs will also be cut across other lines of business, including marketing jobs in the Xbox unit, as well as marketing jobs in other divisions, according to Bloomberg sources.

The layoffs are unlikely to impact how consumers experience Xbox and Xbox products. Nadella has insisted Xbox will be a top priority for Microsoft under his tenure. Additionally, Microsoft devices head and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said "there will be limited change" for the Xbox and Surface divisions.

The company-wide changes will dramatically affect Nokia products. In his July 17 memo announcing the cutbacks, Nadella said he is focused on integrating Nokia into the Microsoft business. As a result, select future Nokia X devices will be migrated from Android to the Windows Phone operating system.

This tactic allows Microsoft to continue to compete in the budget smartphone market and ensures that budget smartphones users are running on Microsoft's platform of choice.

Big changes to the enterprise

Nadella is also expected to make changes to the engineering organization, which will likely consolidate the roles of software testers and developers, as cloud building has made it easier for developers to test and fix issues autonomously.

Microsoft has more than 127,000 employees globally. The majority of employees who will be let go are expected to hear from Microsoft within the next six months, Nadella said in his memo.

As a result of the layoffs, Microsoft will have to pay $1.1 billion (about £640 million, au$1.17 billion) to $1.6 billion (about £940 million, au$1.71 billion) in severance and related benefits costs and related charges over the next four quarters.

Rumors of the impending layoffs began circulating earlier this week, shortly after Nadella outlined Microsoft's trajectory in an email to staff.

In the email, Nadella said he is focused on driving Internet of Things, mobility and cloud innovation.

Deezer at a crossroads as it axes fiver a month Premium streaming tier

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Deezer at a crossroads as it axes fiver a month Premium streaming tier

Life must be tough for a music streaming company like Deezer, facing the unenviable task of prizing listeners away from their comfort zone on Spotify.

Nevertheless, the Paris-based start-up continues to plug away and has today announced plans to follow Spotify's lead and do away with its middle-of-the-road £5 Premium tier.

The fiver a month option had given users the opportunity to access unlimited, ad-free music over the web, but Deezer told The Next Web "our listeners needs have changed."

In its absence, Deezer fans can choose between the Free tier with adds and usage caps or the tenner-a-month for Premium+ access with unlimited, ad-free tunes through the web and mobile apps.

BlackBerry's answer to Siri, Cortana will arrive with BB10.3

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BlackBerry's answer to Siri, Cortana will arrive with BB10.3

A leak concerning the next BlackBerry 10 update, BB10.3, suggested way back in March that the Canadian company might be working on its own Siri rival.

Now BlackBerry has revealed that that rumor is true, and the blandly named BlackBerry Assistant will indeed arrive in the BB10.3 update.

Social Media Marketing lead and Editor Donny Halliwell says in an Inside BlackBerry post that he's been using BlackBerry Assistant for weeks on the square-shaped BlackBerry Passport, and he reports "you'll be pleasantly surprised at how accurate" it is.

If that's not a dig at Siri, Cortana and Google Now, then nothing is.

'Would you like some ice for that burn?'

Halliwell uses a number of anecdotes to illuminate some of BlackBerry Assistant's features.

Apparently you can either use voice commands or simply type on the home screen to make requests of the app, from searching through your email and managing your calendar and events to searching the web for lyrics and checking Twitter.

"The more I use it, the more it learns and adapts to me," Halliwell writes. "The more I speak with it, the more tuned-in to my queries it gets."

BlackBerry Assistant is compatible with any Bluetooth device and will remind you of events and appointments and even send BBM messages for you. All of this can reportedly be done hands-free, if desired.

Interestingly BBA also completes "most" requests, whether you're replying to emails, setting reminders, or just turning on the phone's flashlight, without leaving the Assistant app.

Unfortunately the one thing Halliwell neglected to go into detail about is when BlackBerry 10.3 might arrive.
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