Facebook Messenger App Unveils Voice Calling Facility

Facebook unveils voice calling feature through Messenger app

Facebook Inc. is one of those platforms that offer numerous services apart from its social media platform that have intrigued the masses. The company has launched several app and desktop based sites that are extremely popular amongst the masses. WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger are few successful endeavors of the company. Facebook constantly modifies its app by adding new features. Thus, now the company is offering its Messenger app users with free voice calling facility.

Earlier people had to login at several other voice and video calling platforms to connect with their loved ones. But now the vigorous task has become fairly easier since now Messenger users can voice or video call their friends anywhere anytime by just one tap.

As reported by latest Facebook news, the layout is fairly simple and intriguing. An icon is present on the top right of the screen that will allow users to call their family and friends who are already present on Messenger. The front camera will initially be in use. However, users will have the liberty to switch to the back camera according to their needs. The window shown on Messenger during the call actually denotes where the camera is currently pointing at which can be dragged around according to the users preference. Moreover, the company understands that at times the Internet quality does not support video calling. Therefore, users can always switch to simple audio call on case they experience distortion.

Before FB actually launched its voice calling feature, users already enjoyed this facility on Facebook Messenger to come in contact with family and friends. Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive officer of Facebook announced that almost 10 per cent VoIP calls that are made across the globally are done through Messenger.

The ability to make calls in real time makes connectivity so much easier. The company is enthralled by the response they have received from users even before the official launch which makes them optimistic about the future of this feature.

Before FB actually launched its voice calling feature, users already enjoyed this facility on Facebook Messenger to come in contact with family and friends. Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive officer of Facebook announced that almost 10 per cent VoIP calls that are made across the globally are sone through Messenger.

The ability to make calls in real time makes connectivity so much easier. The company is enthralled by the response they have received from users even before the official launch which makes them optimistic about the future of this feature.

This is certainly not the first time when Facebook has come up with video calling facility. However in 2011, it came up with a similar facility in collaboration with Skype. But now it does not need the support of third party apps since it had its own "video communication infrastructure". This makes Facebook a staunch competitor to Apple owned FaceTime, Google owned Hangout and Skype.

Facebook stocks are likely to benefit from this new feature since more users will be inclined to Messenger now for VoIP calls

AT&T Provides Free Communications Service To Earthquake Victims In Nepal.

The telecommunications firm has decided to help its American users and their relatives in the calamity-struck Nepal by providing free calling and messaging service for communicating.

AT&T has decided to help the earthquake victims, as it offers free calling and messaging to Nepal. The South Asian country has recently suffered from one of the most dangerous earthquakes in recent times. AT&T news informed that the service would provide relief to the calamity-stricken residents of the Hindu state. This information indicates about the humanitarian intentions of the modern digital company.

The facility provided by the corporate giant would only help the customers residing in the territories of the United States of America and their beloved ones in the Asian region, as the free-of-charge communication service would not cater to others. The limited nature of this relief operation informs about the level of importance that company gives to its local customers.

AT&T breaking news affirmed that this service would be provided for three weeks, starting from 25^th April 2015. The management of the telecom believes that this free facility would not only connect the family members with their beloved ones but also ensure that the affected people are supported in the best possible manner. 

AT&T news today reported that this pricing policy would apply to all messages and calls placed by GoPhone prepaid wireless and AT&T postpaid customers. Experts stated their view that this relief effort would improve the reputation and brand image of the organization. This strategy might also prove to be beneficial in adding more customers to its base.

The North Palm based representative of the telecommunications service, Kelly Starling, hopes that family members are able to communicate with their relatives and friends in the earthquake hit region as soon as possible. This statement suggests the concern of the management about the affected people.

The telecom giant is not the only firm who has provided free service at the time of need. A number of other institutions have also tried to build communication links between the ‘affected’ and their American users. These include Sprint, Skype, T-Mobile, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon Communications.

Relief experts believe that these companies should extend their services to the customers residing in other areas as well, as others also have relatives and friends in Nepal. Furthermore, AT&T should increase the duration of the communication facility to ensure maximum facilitation to the victims.

Market analysts, experts, and public, have appreciated the social responsibility of the corporation. Now it is yet to be seen that to what extent these free communication services are able to benefit the calamity ‘sufferers’ and their loved ones residing in the American territories.

Alibaba Teams up With China's Largest Telcom, Aims To Sell Smartphones To Rural Customers

Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, aims to cater rural areas of China instead of markets in overseas in its near term expansion.

Latest ALIBABA news is about the e-commerce giant being partnered with China’s largest telecom operator in order to sell smartphones that are low-cost, these smartphones are aimed to be sold to the people belonging to and residing in rural areas. The prices shall be as low as $48 which is approximately 299 RMB.

China Telecom is considered to be one of the pioneers in telecommunications industry in the country and has 186 million users. The deal that has been signed with this giant is a part of a two branched strategy for e-commerce giant. The deal visions the small cities of the country as the key to growth plans for Alibaba’s business and also YunOS, which is its operating system.

There is a series of eight smartphone models that have been developed by obscure brands such as Kingsun, Uniscope and Ctyon will consist of YunOS, Alibaba’s operating system that has been built to be competed with Android. The smartphones of this series are going to be inexpensive and will be affordable. Other a little pricier models, which are six in total, will have Taobao pre-installed in the phones. Taobao is a shopping app by Alibaba. These pricier phones shall be coming from better known manufacturers such as TCL, Hisense and Coolpad.

Alibaba news reports that these smartphones shall be sold in the stores belonging to China Telecom. There had been 15,000 retail outlets for the Chinese telecom giant in rural area in 2014 as per the reports. However the company is planning to grow its number of outlets there for further business.

According to the reports by Kantar, the company wishes to position YunOS as a trustworthy alternative to Android which is currently holding a market share of 80.4 percent in the cities of China.

Despite the moves such as that of partnership to make YunOS more powerful with Quixey or the $590 million investment in Meizu which is a smartphone maker and also uses YunOS on some of the handsets, however the OS is yet to become more reliable or popular among the natives. As of October 2014, the operating system had 10 million users only.

The e-commerce giant may have a better opportunity to expand and grow its business by targeting the rural areas. The Alibaba research unit reported that rural e-commerce market in China shall hit $75 million which is approximately $460 billion RMB by the year 2016. In this case, the residents of these rural areas are seen as spending $80 - $300 for the online shopping every year.

Alibaba Claims Aliyun Is Bigger Than Anyone, Even Amazon

Alibaba claims that it offers cloud services to more than 1.4 million users in "China", only with plans to expand globally.

The information technology sector is also constantly expanding, as the world is becoming more reliant and dependent on technology and its products and services. The recent platform that has certainly made a great impact in the sector is cloud-computing platform. Tech giants are competing against each other to build one of the biggest and most prominent cloud-computing platform, thus this is an ongoing ‘battlefield’ for the tech companies. Therefore, according to latest Alibaba news, the company is also planning a global expansion of its cloud-computing business, named as ‘Aliyun’.

Apart from the tech giants, including Microsoft, Google, and Facebook etc., Alibaba Group and Amazon, are two of the dominant forces of the cloud computing sector. Both companies are competing against each other in the market. For the first time in nine years, the latter unveiled the earnings of Amazon Web Services (AWS), where it claimed to have sales worth clocking in at more than $1.57 billion for the quarter. These numbers suggest that it is leading the competition against its peers and rivals. However, the global expansion of Amazon Web Services might slow down the growth of the business due to tough competition from Alibaba.

The American electronic commerce company aims to rule over the cloud-computing sector, as its technology demonstrates its approach to be almost seven years or more ahead of other tech giants, such as IBM or Oracle. There is no doubt that the company is a leader in the domestic market; however, it will have to make its name in the international market. The e-commerce retailer is already accountable for 28% of the worldwide market for cloud business with plans to expand further. The company recently expanded in Brazil, Singapore, and Ireland, and managed to sustain in the new regions. However, expansion plans for China might be a hurdle in its growth.

In contrast, the Chinese e-commerce giant currently dominates in China only. As reported by current Alibaba updates,  Aliyun, cloud computing platform, is operating in the region since 2009 and has a huge customer database of more than 1.4 million customers. The company also seeks to expand its cloud-computing business throughout the world in order to offer Chinese businesses across the globe. This depicts the size of Alibaba’s cloud; whereas, Amazon claims to provide cloud services to more than a million across the globe.

It is a win-win situation for the Chinese giant in both situations, either Aliyun expands globally, or Amazon Web Services extends its parameters, because ambitious plans of Chinese cloud-computing platform will gradually affect America’s cloud business in the global market.

Is Facebook's Oculus Rift VR expected to be delayed?

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg says VR headsets to be next computing platform after mobiles

According to recent reports released providing latest Facebook updates, it was notified that the acquiring social media giant doesn't seem to be shipping Oculus Rift this year any soon. On providing updates in that matter, the chief financial officer David Wehner said, "Oculus is very much in the development stage, so it's very early to be talking about large shipment volumes." 

Howeever, previously founder of Oculus and inventor of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, Mr. Palmer Luckey has previously reportedly said that something would have to go "horribly wrong" to prevent the device from an official launch in 2015.

Following suit, Google Inc. is working to build a virtual reality version of Android headsets, as companies such as HTC and Facebook, which have come up with their VR headsets, Google also has its team of engineers working on its own Android version of VR headsets, which will power the applications that will power VR apps.

Google has indulged itself into a few experiments, such as the driver-less car on which the company is working: therefore, this news is no surprise as the company wants to ensure that its mobile operating systems are lucrative.

VR headsets have been the latest trend nowadays, with companies making heavy investment in them. Facebook spent $2 billion to acquire Oculus Rift. Every big company is busy in making their own VR headsets. A recent example  is Sony Corp.'s (NYSE:SNE) Morpheus, which was launched at the Game Developers  Conference recently.

There hasn’t been a news on an operating system for these wearable gadgets, and this is the gap that Google has identified.

In its last years' developers conference, the company showed several applications that were exclusively made for VR headsets. Moreover, a short film, which was drawn by former Disney animator Glen Keane, was also there along with the apps. Google's technology and project teams converted the drawings into a 360 degree film, which could be viewed on the phones.

Although Google will not be getting any results in the short to medium term as the VR headsets haven’t been shipped, but in next two to three years, it will surely get good gains from it. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has regarded VR headsets to be the next mobile platform after mobiles.

Android is already a very popular platform that accounts for around 80% of the market. If Google is able to make it an operating system for VR headsets, the popularity of this platform will further rise.

Alibaba Group Holdings Opens A New Office

Alibaba Group Holding would soon open a new office to generate and manage wealth, with expectations to achieve objectives.

The Chinese ecommerce company, Alibaba Group Holdings, would soon inaugurate a multibillion-dollar office in the territory of Hong Kong. The Executive Vice Chairman, Joseph Tsai, has played an important role in introducing the idea of expansion. This newly developed business center would be sponsored by the wealth generated from the New York initial public offering (IPO). 

Alibaba news claimed that the management is interested in diversifying wealth. The opening of the new office would not only provide job opportunities to the people of the People’s Republic of China, but also promote the image of the wealthy Chinese executives. Market sources have revealed that a number of new entrepreneurs are making efforts to develop appropriate and suitable strategies for wealth consumption.

Oliver Weisberg and Alexander West would manage the newly founded office. They are not new to the corporate world as Mr. Weisberg has headed the Hong Kong office of Citadel LLC, and Mr. Alexander has founded the Blue Pool Capital Ltd, as reported by Alibaba news today. It is quite evident that the newly appointed managers are experienced and capable of running the office. The new business center is being based on the investment programs of the American endowments, such as grants from Yale University, where Mr. Tsai has studied.

It is most likely that the business center would achieve its objectives as Yale’s investments have succeeded the desired pre-requisites. Alibaba breaking news highlighted that the company’s Executive Chairman, Jack Ma, may also contribute in the investments. This information indicates that the whole management is interested in the new project. Mr. Tsai is not new to the investment sector, as he has worked for the Swedish firm, Investor AB.

Investor AB is well known for holding stakes in a number of large organizations, which include telecommunications giants, such as Ericsson, and the drug manufacturer, AstraZeneca PLC. The corporation’s profile tells that the newly founded office would soon achieve its goals, as its founder has worked with a well-known investment firm.

It is most likely that the shareholders of the Chinese company would welcome the new initiative, as its founder has previously contributed to the financial resources. Mr. Tsai has invested $650,000,000 in the commercial company, which confirms that he would try his best to ensure the success of the project.

Alibaba Group Holding has previously maintained a record of earning huge amount of money. Its history indicates that the office would not only add to the wealth of its executives, but also improve the brand image of the company. It is likely that the office would contribute to the economy of Hong Kong. Now it is yet to be seen that to what extent the newly opened center is able to benefit its founding members.

Uber Ride-sharing Service Still Going Through Troubles

Irrespective of the closure the company continues Uber Black services, many competitors in sight.

Uber has halted its ride-sharing services in South Korea earlier this year after a series of obstacles the peer-to-peer ride-sharing service has been facing. 

The company is known for aggressive business strategies however this decision by the authorities is extremely conciliatory in nature. It has a long history of clashing with governmental institutions, even had been charged within the region for violating the country’s transportation laws in December.

The company explained, “Largely due to the leadership and courage of transport division, many divergent views have been refocused and united into a singular path forward. This has resulted in the proposals being discussed with the Taxi industry.”

However, Uber still seeks to compromise and draw up to conclusion so that its service gets back on the roads. Previously the company offered free rides through UberX - a tactic the company believed could help attract some loyal customers. However, this resulted in the aggression of Korean legislative body.

The company has been stumbling since a while where they have not been able to keep with governmental policies disrupting governmental ethics. Last year the CEO of company stated Uber will turn into “a smarter and more humble company” in 2015. The company has had a tumultuous year irrespective of its growth in 200 countries across the globe.

Uber’s list of calamities includes an allegation of rape, spying on various journalists, and dwindling user privacy through mismanagement of data. Despite this, the cab sharing service has plans to build an autonomous car along with Google’s expertise. In the corporate world, Uber and Google relate to each other. Google has continued to work for Uber in one way or the other. Google’s service, Google Ventures has kept investing in Uber on previous occasions as well. Google’s recent contribution in Uber’s business to roll out an app which will be a direct competition to what Uber does actually. To cover up this, Uber is now working to make autonomous cars to directly compete with Google in the market. The development and research center is reportedly named as Uber Advanced Technologies Center.

As the company already specializes in the business revolving around cars and vehicles, which has also proved to be beneficial for people in terms of job basis, it has the expertise to carry this forward. However, the new plans of Uber will bring a decline in job vacancies as the company visions to develop a self-driving taxi. Hence the company seeks to enhance and expand its business to new dimensions where it sees it can flourish.

IBM is working to introduce car connected services

International Business Machines Corporation has decided to establish a link between cars and shops with the help of Peugeot. A number of industries would benefit from the introduced technologies.

International Business Machines Corporation is about to develop new car connected services, in which the internet would be employed to connect vehicles to urban transport networks, service grids, and shops. The company would not achieve its objective alone, as it would collaborate with the French vehicle manufacturer, Peugeot. 

IBM news reported that the financial terms of the partnership have not yet been disclosed. The agreement to introduce new types of high-tech services for automobiles has strengthened the partnership between the computer service provider and the vehicle manufacturer.

The managements of both companies have stated that they would not only introduce new services for drivers and passengers but also pioneer applications that would manage traffic and maintain cars. It is likely that the newly developed services would go beyond the existing services. IBM breaking news highlighted that Apple and Google currently offer a number of modern car services, including roadside guidance, driver navigation, and infotainment services. 

IBM news today informed that the newly pioneered technology would not only manage traffic congestion but also reduce the levels of pollution. This information suggests that the businesses would take an environment-friendly initiative.

The Chief of IBM’s automotive consulting practice in Europe, Axel Rogaichus, stated that the collaboration between the two organizations represents one of the biggest partnerships in the automobile industry. European corporations are not new to IBM, as it had previously collaborated with the German auto supplier, Continental AG. The aim of that coordination was to develop an electronic horizon platform that allows cars to expect obstructions. Both companies have stated that they would jointly develop, sell, promote, and implement connected services with its new and current clients. An area of the French Capital, Paris, would be used to pioneer the various different services.

Company sources have informed that the latest association between the two would connect passenger automobiles to various networks of connected systems. Experts presented the view that several firms would benefit from the jointly developed technology, including retailers and car dealers. The services would introduce new business opportunities in the retail distribution and automotive sector.

The German automobile manufacturer, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, has not welcomed the deal, as it has stated that it would not sell its users’ vehicle data to ‘third parties’ to which the two companies have confidently stated that they can jointly push the limits of mobility. Now it is yet to be seen that to what extent the two corporate giants are successful in introducing the communication technologies.

Tesla Motors Awarded By Automobile Club of Southern California

Tesla's Model S P85D stole the limelight as it is ranked first in the test carried out by the research center of the club.

The American electric automobile manufacturer, Tesla Motors, has received good news, as one of its pioneered vehicles, Model S P85D, has been ranked first by the Automobile Club of Southern California. Tesla news reported that a test was carried out by the research center of the club. 88 vehicles were tested and rated in a number of categories. These encompassed comfort ability of the ride, levels of emissions, fuel costs, handling and braking. These features might add to the selling proposition of the product.

Industry sources have informed that the automaker scored 94.87 points, almost 10 points greater than the scored points of the rivals. The club has stated in its report that the vehicle is spacious, enjoyable, and quiet. This statement is sufficient to indicate that it is capable of satisfying all the needs of its users by providing superior quality.

Tesla news today affirmed that this electric ‘automotive’ has a number of excellent features. These include an approximate range of 253 miles between charges and 691 horsepower from a double motor set up. Company sources have informed that the high-tech car is capable of reaching 60 miles per hour in three seconds. This information indicates the accelerating ability of the car.

The price of the car was higher than other high ranked cars. Some of them also belonged to luxury brands. The German companies, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Audi, manufactured two of the tested cars. Tesla Motors news highlighted that the majority of the appreciated cars were powered by electricity. This information indicates that the popularity of electric vehicles is rising day by day, as fuel-consuming cars are being blamed for polluting the environment.

Volkswagen’s e-Golf SEL Premium was also appreciated as it ranked second in the test. The report said that the car could not match the standard of Tesla-pioneered product as it lacked range. BMW i3 ranked third, which was appreciated for its highly advanced electronics and lightweight materials. Fourth rank was awarded to Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium. It was the only gasoline vehicle in the top ten. The Volkswagen Golf TDI SE was given the fifth rank, which was appreciated for its lower price. Other vehicles in the top ten included Audi A7 TDI Quattro Tiptronic, Nissan leaf, BMW 328d M Sport, Toyota Highlander Hybrid Limited, and the Audi A8 LTDI Quattro Tiptronic. The report also discusses details about green technologies, such as diesel engines, battery electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, and plugin hybrids.

It is most probable that the scoring done by the club would promote the use of electric cars. Now it is yet to be seen that to what extent the ranking list is able to increase the sales of Tesla.