Although smartphone cameras have drastically improved in the last few years to a degree able to satisfy the standard of a large number of users, it is highly doubtful they will ever be able to replace the quality and options of a medium format camera like Fujifilm’s GFX 50S. The company has decided to finally unveil the price and release date of their upcoming device.

Fujifilm announced today that its anticipated medium format camera, the GFX 50S, will be available at the end of February for the price of $6,500. The 50-megapixel mirrorless camera will be competing against the Nikon D5 as it has the same price, but it will be $500 more expensive the Canon 1D X Mark II.

The good news for Fujifilm is that the price of its new camera will be much lower than one of its competitors, the $9,000 Hasselblad X1D, which also uses the same sensor. It’s worth remembering that the price previous mentioned only apply to the body of the camera alone.

However, Fujifilm has made sure that the Fujinon GF lenses will be available at the launch of their medium format camera. The lenses come in various formats such as a 63mm f/2.8, the 32-64mm f/4, and 120mm f/4 macro. Each pair of lenses will be the price at $1,500, $2,300, as well as $2,700 respectively. Furthermore, other lenses will be available later this year, but no prices were given regarding the 100mm f/2, the 23mm f/4 or even the 45mm f/2.8.

The company states that the medium format camera will only weigh 2.7 pounds when it is paired with the 63mm lens. This makes it equivalent to that of a full frame DSLR coupled with a similar lens. Furthermore, the camera will come with weather sealing, besides its compact and lightweight design, is sure to satisfy the needs of many travelers and landscape artists.

Other accessories for the camera includes an electronic viewfinder, a vertical battery grip, a tilt adapter, as well as view camera adapter which allows the GFX 50s to turn into a digital back used for large-format systems. Unfortunately, the company has not released any pricing details for the accessories.

The GFX 50s was initially unveiled in September 2016 and it is Fujifilm’s first digital medium format camera, the first one in its G format series.

Image source: Fujifilm

Faraday Future decided to unveil their new FF 92 electric car at the Consumer Electronic Show 2017. By all accounts it was a night to remember for all those present, taking into account both the negatives and positives aspect of the presentation, despite being revealed amidst high expectations and serious hype.

The company hopes to compete with Tesla and its high-end electric cars. However, while the specs of the car were unveiled at CES such as having a range of 378 miles thanks to its 130-kWh lithium-ion battery. The Faraday Future FF 91 has revealed to have 1,050 horsepower allowing it to reach 60 mph in 2.4 seconds.

However, the most notable aspect of the presentation was the lack of any pricing details, which could affect a lot of people’s interest in the supposed Tesla competitor. The selling price of the vehicle, as well as its manufacturing costs, are an important detail for the future of a startup company which seeks to sell a high-end vehicle right off the bat.

In a recent interview, one of the company’s main and public backers, Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, the head of LeEco, an electronics company from China, has stated that he expects the car to cost less than 2 million yuan. When converted to American dollars, this equals around $290,000.

It is unclear if the price only applies in China, considering he mentioned the price in Chinese currency. If this is the case, it’s worth remembering that China does have higher prices due to taxes, increased shipping costs, as well as import duties, if Faraday Future will build the car outside China.

In this regard, LeEco announced last year that one of its Chinese factories will build around 400,000 electric cars per year. However, it is unclear if the factory will be building the FF 91 or vehicles under the LeEco brand itself.

Nonetheless, if price estimated around $300,000 for the Faraday Future FF 91 is the actual international price of the car, this means that it will be vastly more expensive than any of Tesla’s current vehicles, or any of its other competitors. For example, the high-end Model S P100D Tesla starts at $135, 700. Other startup companies like Lucid Motors, estimates that its Air luxury electric sedan will be priced at $100,000 by 2018.

Image credit: Faraday Future

Twitter is looking to get in a better financial situation and for this purpose, it has started to sell some of its non-essential division to other companies. The most recent transaction involves Google who has purchased not only the Fabric developer platform but some of their mobile app tools as well.

After the acquisition of Twitter, last year fell through, the company now has to become profitable on its own. For this purpose, it’s looking to streamline its services and focus on aspects that actually produce revenue. For example, Twitter decided to shut down Vine, the somewhat popular 6-seconds video platform and relaunching as Vine Camera, without the ability to hosts video as it can get quite expensive.

Besides the notable Fabric transaction, Twitter also managed to sell its Answers mobile app analytics, Crashlytics, reporting feature, Fastlane development automation system, and Digits SMS login system. The Fabric developer platform was initially launched in 2014 as modular SKD which allowed devs to choose different options on how to improve the apps. Now, the platform is used for apps with a total of almost 2.5 billion users built by 580,000 developers around the world.

The news of regarding the transaction involving Google was made public by the Fabric on a blog post and was confirmed on Twitter by Jeff Seibert, a senior direct of the product. The post states that the acquisition by Google will lead to a new chapter in the life of the Fabric developer platform. It reveals that the entire team will be joining Google’s own Developer Products Group, working directly with its Firebase team. This make sense since both divisions have the similar goal of helping developers create better apps.

The acquisition by Google was ideal for Twitter, as the company seeks to sell off many of its divisions without upsetting the people which depend on them by shutting them down. The specific terms of the deal were not revealed.

Despite the current and future changes implemented by Twitter, the company is still looking to invest in public APIs, while continuing to retire and sell other divisions like the commerce one. Nonetheless, it will continue to allow users to make donations to various charities.

What do you think about Twitter’s future?

Image source: Fabric

Google Maps is one of the most appreciated services in the world as it has facilitated the travel experiences of many users. But Google is not resting on its laurels and seems to always on the lookout for new features to add which will improve the quality of their app.

The newest feature to come to Google Maps seems to be a parking indicator. As many drivers know, trying to find parking in a crowded location can be frustrating and time-consuming. It seems that the prayers of drivers were finally answered as Google has launched a parking availability alerts to the beta version of the Google Maps app.

The feature was first hinted back in August 2016, when Android Police discovered several code strings in a teardown of the v9.34 beta app. However, only now has Google started to launch the new feature for a limited number of beta users for the 9.44 version.

According to reports from those users, the function of parking indicator feature for Google Maps is quite self-explanatory. It will issue alerts to users regarding how hard it will be to find a parking space in certain locations at a certain time. The app will offer specific details regarding the levels of parking congestion such as severe, hard, medium, and easy. It will also include a description for each level.

Users which were fortunate enough to get access to new parking feature will see a small “P” icon next to the driving duration estimate of the GPS mode of Google Maps. The level of parking congestion will be easily determined by the color of the icon. For example, if parking is limited the P icon will become red.

As useful as the new feature may be for drivers, at this point, it is unclear how and in which location Google will make the determinations regarding parking congestion.  Apps that provide similar functionality like Parker, obtain their information by tapping into smart meters in garages or streets. Other systems use motion sensors, car-tracking cameras, GPS and other technologies to determine the traffic and parking congestion.

Furthermore, it is unclear when the general release of the future will occur, but it should be in the near future provided the beta test irons out all the bugs quickly.

Image source: Pexels

Google designed the Android One Platform as a way to provide low-cost Android smartphones to developing markets. The main benefit of using the platform is that users can avoid the usual issues that come with cheap smartphones such as competing services, bloatware, as well as a lack of security and software updates.

A new report issued by The Information has revealed that Google wants to bring the Android One platform to the United States in order to solve those types of issues which are still common for cheap smartphones even in the US as they are not restricted only developing regions.

For its Android One platform, Google has historically partnered with low key manufacturers of smartphones such as QMobile, Micromax, and Cherry.  This allowed Google to dictate the specific parts and components that would go into the phone that those companies were making. However, after some time since the program initially launched in India, Google became more flexible and even decided to expand its platform in several parts of Africa, in Portugal and Spain.

Unfortunately, despite the many benefits of the Android One platform for low-end consumers, the program did not the reach the success Google was hoping it would. Nonetheless, it remains an important initiative for the company, one which is keen on expanding even in the US it seems.

Google has an important stake in making sure that as many Android smartphones as possible receive security updates besides other new features on a regular basis. However, the company has yet to put some real effort into the platform, with the launch of the platform in the US might be an indication of this. Therefore, some of the company’s plans for the future of Android could become clearer, especially since the launch of Pixel.

At the moment, Google seems to want to develop their own high-end hardware while still allowing their core services into low-end devices. One thing is clear, Google will not be making the Android One platform devices for the US, but it hasn’t revealed which companies will make them instead. The report reveals that the low-end devices are expected to launch before the middle of 2017.

Image source: Android

A great way for a tech giant to quickly improve their research and development capabilities in a certain field of artificial intelligence is to acquire smaller companies who already have a cohesive team of specialists. This is the case with Microsoft’s latest acquisition of Maluuba, an AI startup.

Maluuba is Canadian company based in Montreal and was founded by graduates from the University of Waterloo like Sam Pasupalak and Kaheer Suleman. The Ai startup focused its efforts natural language processing as a way to develop the overall capabilities of artificial intelligence and eventually build computers capable of thinking like people.

More specifically, Maluuba used deep learning and reinforcement learning algorithms to increase the effectiveness and proficiency of AI system which can answer various questions and even make their own decisions. Microsoft has already completed the acquisition process of the company as it hopes to help them with making AI system increasingly accessible and more useful to the public.

Thanks to the focus on natural language processing of the AI startup, Microsoft can improve the capacity of their computer systems to understand what they are reading, as well as comprehend the natural dialog between people. The system can gradually become better at several tasks like common sense reasoning, memory, finding the information which they lack, and more.

Maluuba issued a statement regarding the Microsoft acquisition, emphasizing the importance of AI systems and the daunting task of improving them. As such, it recognized that they are able to make progress only by tapping into the large resources of a partner such as Microsoft. Furthermore, the announcement regarding the acquisition, both companies recognized that their goals align and their resources would be best served if they work together, with Microsoft providing necessary funding as well as access to a large user base, adequate infrastructure, and support.

Maluuba was able to impress industry experts with the reveal of a virtual assistant capable of handling a wide range of domains, as it was able to overcome some of other similar systems from companies like Facebook and Google. This broader domain focus can lead to a new breakthrough in AI research, more so than focusing on narrow domains.

Image source: Wikimedia

Microsoft’s Office suite is probably the popular series of tools for any Windows-enabled office worker. As such, the company is always adding new features and functions which attempt to facilitate the work of users. The latest addition is the Microsoft StaffHub which is aimed at the management of deskless workers who work in shifts and have varying schedules.

The Microsoft StaffHub was initially unveiled as a preview during the fall of last year with the purpose of collecting various user feedback in order to tweak the software before its official launch today. Microsoft’s trial initiative was a success as more than 1,000 business signed up for StaffHub, from a hospitality company to a large winery from California.

According to Bryan Goode, the General Manager for Office 365, there is a large number of shift workers in the US as well as over the entire world who require a better management tool for their schedules and shifts. While most companies still operate with physical or dated apps, business is starting to see the benefit of having these operations in the digital space by making changes online.

However, the new Microsoft StaffHub is more than any just calendar app with a few scheduling options. Managers who are in charge of establishing the schedule and shifts of employees can do so in the desktop app while employees only ever need to access the app on their mobile phones. As such, this provides a lot of relief to deskless workers who can’t keep track of their overall schedule.

Furthermore, the new Microsoft StaffHub allows managers to make use of various features as a way to differentiate between different types of shifts by using custom labels like night, day, or opening or even implement a color coding system. Additionally, the managers can write a few notes regarding a specific work that the employee must do during his shift.

StaffHub doesn’t require that you constantly create new schedules and shifts despite being the same as a previous period. You can use any previously created schedule and copy them to a new period. Managers can, of course, make any changes to the copied schedule as they see fit. The app even supports the sharing of files even to employees who only use the mobile app.

Image credit: Microsoft StaffHub

Tech companies like Google and Facebook owe their success to widespread internet use in the developed parts of the world. As such, it is no surprise that both companies are planning ways to bring reliable and affordable internet to the rest of the world, in hopes of expanding their user base and their revenue streams together with it. Nonetheless, if the projects are successful it would provide an important resource to many people who desperately need it.

However, accomplishing such a task like providing internet to the rest of the world is a more daunting task than what many can imagine, especially since the people who lack internet access leave in areas without the proper infrastructure.

As such, Google thought that having solar-powered drones fly over regions of the world without the service and provide a large area wireless network could a great solution. At least, that’s what the company initially thought. Now, the Titan internet drone project has been terminated.

A statement issued by Alphabet, Google’s official corporate name, reveals that the team of engineers working on Titan was brought into the fold of the X division back in late 2015. The internet drone project was ended shortly after the transition. The statement cites Project Loon’s increased feasibility over Titan in achieving the same goal, as the reason for the termination of the internet drone project. Additionally, many members of the Titan team are already involved in other projects at Google’s X division.

Not many people are surprised by this decision, considering that during its first flight test in 2015, the drone crashed, in addition to problems regarding the transmission of 5G data and other budget issues. Furthermore, since Google’s transformation into Alphabet, it has developed a more financially stern outlook. The company isnt’ as willing as before the hemorrhage a lot of money on moonshot projects with barely any feasibility while teams face greater pressure to turn great and ambitious ideas into practical and profitable concepts.

Another recent transition from a moonshot project to a more pragmatic goal and method of achieving was Google’s plan to develop its own electric car which eventually morphed into Waymo. The company now focuses on only software development while the cars are being provided by various established automakers like Fiat Chrysler.

Image source: YouTube Images

While the FCC might look and act differently in a few weeks in the upcoming administration, currently the watchdog keep guarding the importance of net neutrality in the current market of diverse options and programs like AT&T’s and Verizon’s zero-rating services.

In the last few years, the practice of zero-rating has gained a lot of steam among major internet and other service providers. It consists in the fact that one company does not the count the amount of traffic of certain apps and other services toward general bandwidth caps. This allows a company to stimulate streaming services while offering clients a reduced price on said services.

However, when things seem too good to be true it’s because they usually are. Using zero-rating services leads to the possibility for a company to benefit from it themselves which is a clear violation of net neutrality rules. In the FCC’s latest report, the organization reveals the process of investigating this very matter in regards to the services offered by companies AT&T and its DirecTV Now, as well as Verizon.

Out of the two companies which have been the subject of the FCC’s investigation, Verizon’s situation isn’t that problematic, at least not yet, unless it decides to expand its zero-rating services to more types of content than just short-form video.

However, AT&T seems to be in deep water with the FCC as the report voices serious concerns about the company’s Sponsored Data program which poses many problems for healthy market competition. Furthermore, the company’s response to previous FCC inquiries has not addressed the initial concerns that its practices violate the General Conduct Rule of net neutrality.

The rule allows internet and other types of data providers to mostly do as they want as long as they don’t develop anticompetitive practices. However, this seems to be the case with AT&T’s zero-rating services, more specifically its DirecTV streaming service.

While the company claims that it offers the same terms for all its zero-rating services, besides DirecTV which acts like a subsidiary company. However, they still maintain a strong connection, so much so, that it’s able to benefit from the zero-rating services and thus get the required bandwidth at a lower price than other companies which have to pay a significant cost for every gigabyte of bandwidth.

Image source: Flickr

Big tech companies acquire startups quite often, with some purchases being more publicized than others depending on the stakes of the transaction or the popularity of the companies involve. The newest acquisition in the tech industry comes from Amazon which seeks to increase its protection systems through the Harvest.ai security startup.

Although the acquisition was not publicly revealed, Techcrunch was able to obtain some of the details of the deal.  According to them, Amazon acquired the Harvest.ai security startup for $19 million, which is considerably more than the $2.3 million that the company managed to attract as seed funding.

The startup was initially based in San Diego, and was funded in 2014 by a team which includes even two former NSA employees, and has a total of 12 employees, which will be relocating to Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle. Before the acquisition, Harvest.ai used artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms in order to analyze the behavior of users in correlation with a company’s key IP as a way to identify and stop attacks before manage to steal customer data.

Although neither Amazon nor Harvest.ai issued any statements or comments on the acquisition, refusing to answer any of Techcrunch’s inquiries, there are considerable signs that the deal has been already finalized, such as information posted by employees and third-party companies regarding the status of the startup.

Harvest.ai’s main AI product still has a patent pending and its known as MACIE Analytics. It mainly uses AI system to monitor how a company’s intellectual property is accessed by customers in real-time. The AI is able to determine what every user is accessing, moving, or copying specific documents. It can even determine where and when they are doing this kind of operations. These AI systems are meant to identify suspicious behavior in order to prevent data breaches and leaks.

The MACIE Analytics is able to integrate with both cloud as well as on-premise system, where it starts to examine various patterns of logins, access to documents and overall data, and remote network access to determine any possible sources of attacks. Thus, it is very likely that Harvest.ai will be tasked with increasing the security of Amazon’s cloud platform.

Image source: Wikimedia