Venture capital firms raise less capital and face a slowdown in tech funding for 2015. However, the number is still above annual average since 2006.
Industry
Uber Offers Job of Drivers to Nonviolent Criminal Offenders in California
Uber has changed its driver recruitment policy and advised the previously rejected applicant seeking for drivers’ job to take the benefit of proposition 47. This law allows nonviolent criminal offenders to downgrade their offence level to misdemeanor through submitting applications. Uber’s effort is believed to benefit the released inmates who aim to rebuild their lives.
GoPro Cuts Workforce Following Poor Sales Revenue Outlook in Fourth Quarter
GoPro Inc., Sun Mateo, California based company is going to cut 7% people out of its 1500 employees following poor sales revenue in Q4. Some technical issues have been blamed for sluggish sales during the fourth quarter from the action camera maker’s behalf. But the company axes over the employees to restructure expenses. However, analysts presume, the fall in sales revenue may not be up to that magnitude.
Shape Round Raises $25 Million Fund Series D, Eyes Chinese Ecommerce Market
Like other tech giants, Shape Security Inc., ‘Botnets’ security service provider has been eyeing to enter into Chinese ecommerce market since long. Inclusion of Beijing based investor, Northern Light and raising sufficient funds for spreading elsewhere- appear as two contributing factors. These factors have led Shape to penetrate the world’s largest ecommerce zone.
Amazon's Echo Smart Speakers Play Jeopardy Over Voice Commands
Amazon has recently updated its Echo Smart speaker. The added features include playing Jeopardy through voice commands. This trigger word makes the artificially intelligent in built smart speaker to respond and get engaged with question- answer phrases. The updated Echo smart speaker will be charged through docked stations instead of traditional plugging in system round the clock.
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Venture capital fund in the U.S. dropped by 9% in 2015, but a strong fundraising pace from 2014 continued. Investor become more selective to put the capital in startup companies.
John Legere has been witnessing a social media riot centering his F bomb blasting during a question- answer session in Twitter on Monday. One of T Mobile’s ‘Binge On’ has reportedly withdrawn itself from the platform. The embattled CEO has been compelled to seek apology but tries to make it conditional. T Mobile is accused of violating net neutrality through throttling by EFF and net neutrality advocates.
Google has assigned Cardboard famous Clay Bavor as the head of its virtual reality projects. Facebook has also assigned Instagram’s director of product as Head of Product management in its VR subsidiary, Oculus. The concurrent moves have been analyzed as their keenness for reigning over VR market.
Toyota Mirai has been represented with a flat antenna at this week’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Tuesday. The flat antenna technology is capable of widening the coverage area and shares the same communication standard across national borders. The Mirai trial still appears in the early testing stages and Toyota commits to install data communication modules in a wider range of vehicles.
Gartner, a technology research firm has represented Apple through a study report as the lone PC vendor to post positive sales growth during 2015. The tech giant currently enjoys a market chunk of 7.5%. Apple’s performance appears to be shining since the worldwide PC market is passing through a negative sales trend for the fourth straight year.
Google wants to involve many automobile manufacturers and suppliers in developing its ambitious self-driving cars. Contrary to market rumors, Google didn't announce its plans for partnership with Ford. Google believes that its self-driving project would be beneficial to senior citizens. Google involved Roush Enterprises to assemble self-driving cars, which are being road tested.
On Wednesday, China revealed its export in December 2015 showed a 2.3% raise from November. Data from China's General Administration of Customs shows the nation's trade surplus, and the report has lifted the market a bit.
Shanghai Disney Resort prefers using smartphones over Magic Bands for entrance, buying merchandise, and accessing rides.
Megabots’ Mk. II showcases capabilities at Zappos and Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2016 to hopefully win the Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) grand prize to further enhance their robot and fight Japan’s Kuratas, by Suidobashi Heavy Industry.
