Your Tech Story

Roshni Ankola

I am a second-year student pursuing Liberal Arts from Nmims. I am a painter, I love reading and have a great interest in cooking. I am also a trained kickboxer. I've always had a passion for writing and hence in my free time, I work as a freelance writer.

Blackboard

Blackboard Inc: Leading Web-Based Educational Software And Services Supplier.

Blackboard Inc. is the primary provider of web-based educational software and services to American postsecondary schools. The Blackboard Academic Suite and the Blackboard Commerce Suite, the company’s two primary products, enable students, professors, and administrators to connect to the Internet for a range of academic tasks, extracurricular activities, and commercial transactions. Blackboard’s core customers are colleges and universities, but it also serves K–12 schools and other education providers and student-focused merchants and publishers of textbooks. Blackboard’s products are utilized by millions of people at academic institutions in more than 60 countries worldwide, and the company is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in Boston, Phoenix, Vancouver, Amsterdam, Australia, China, and Japan.

About The Company

Matthew Pittinsky and Michael Chasen had previously worked together on a software program that assisted high school students in selecting a college. KPMG saw that schools, particularly colleges and universities, were developing Internet-based learning initiatives. They recognized a lot of potential in the online education industry and decided to start a company that would let colleges offer their classes online. Pittinsky, 24, and Chasen, 25, abandoned their jobs at KPMG and formed Blackboard Inc. in the basement of a Dupont Circle townhouse in June 1997.

Blackboard Learn, the company’s main product, is a full-featured LMS that brings together students, educators, and administrators in a comprehensive digital learning environment. Moodlerooms, Blackboard Collaborate, Bb Student, Bb Grader, Bb Planner, Blackboard Open Content, Blackboard Mass Notifications, Blackboard Transact, and Blackboard Analytics are some other tools available. In addition, Blackboard offers managed hosting, platform consulting, enterprise consulting, online program management, training, and student services. Their job is to enhance the educational experience through the use of Internet-enabled technology that unites students, teachers, researchers, and the community in a developing network of educational environments dedicated to better communication, commerce, collaboration, and content. Every day, all throughout the world, Blackboard’s huge and diverse community of practice supports enhances, and extends services. The Internet has enormous potential for education and educational experiences. While platforms play a vital role, communities of practice produce the finest solutions. The network’s worth is its connectivity. As a result of the link, each Blackboard client makes the solution of every other Blackboard client more valuable.

Blackboard
Image source: www.thesoftwarereport.com

Global Expansion

In May 2002, Blackboard established an association with LearningMate, a branch of Delhi-based Educomp Datamatics Ltd, to offer goods and services in India’s e-learning sector. In July, Company announced another long-term strategic agreement with Bell & Howell Company’s XanEdu. Blackboard Learning System ML, the company’s multilanguage course management system and the industry’s first multilanguage enterprise-class learning system, was released in August. Learning System ML enabled the user interface to show a variety of languages, including Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and English. With a distribution collaboration with Australia-based Harvest Road, Blackboard maintained its push into the worldwide market and connection building in September. The company launched a strategic agreement with Learn-ingMate and World Links, an international non-profit organization, in December to enhance e-learning possibilities for instructors in rural and underserved schools across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. According to Inc. magazine’s annual top 500 rankings, Blackboard’s revenue growth from 1998 to 2002 was 11,047 percent, making it the fastest-growing private education company and the nation’s sixth fastest-growing corporation.

William L. Ballhaus – CEO

Bill serves as the chairman, president, and CEO of Blackboard. Bill is deeply committed to developing an industry-leading suite of solutions and products serving students and educators, as well as innovating on their behalf to expand student reach and improve learning outcomes within the education community, based on his experience leading global technology businesses.

Prior to joining Blackboard, he was President and CEO of SRA International, where he developed an innovative culture that focused on anticipating client demands and expanded the company’s portfolio in agile system development, mobilization, cloud computing, cyber security, and data analytics, and ERP.

Moto E32s

Moto E32s Launched With MediaTek Helio G37 SoC, 5000 mAh Battery In India: Check Out Price and Specifications.

Motorola has announced the addition of a new smartphone to its Moto E line-up. Moto E32s is the company’s most recent offering. The new Motorola phone features a triple camera configuration, a 5000 mAh battery, and a MediaTek Helio processor. The device is a slightly modified version of the original Moto E32, with features such as a 90Hz display. In India, it is a new affordable smartphone from the E series. It’s a new device from the firm that costs less than Rs 10,000. The Moto E32s were released globally last week, made their European debut earlier this month, and have already arrived in India.

The Moto E32s will compete against the Redmi 10A on the cheap end and the Realme C31 and Redmi 10 on the high end. Here are the key specifications and availability:

Specifications and Features

The Moto E32s runs Android 12 and has a 6.5-inch HD+ (720×1,600 pixels) display with a 90Hz refresh rate and a 20:9 aspect ratio, as well as a 90Hz refresh rate and a 20:9 aspect ratio. The MediaTek Helio G37 SoC is at the heart of the phone, together with a 680MHz IMG PowerVR GE8320 GPU and up to 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM.

The Moto E32s has a triple back camera configuration for images and movies, featuring a 16-megapixel primary sensor with an f/2.2 lens, a 2-megapixel macro shooter, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The phone features an 8-megapixel selfie camera sensor with an f/2.0 lens on the front. Portrait, Panorama, Pro, and Night Vision are among the camera’s functions.

Moto E32s
Image source: hindustantimes.com

The back camera has an LED flash and can shoot full-HD video at a frame rate of 30 frames per second.
The Moto E32s has up to 64GB of internal storage that can be increased through a microSD card (up to 1TB) with a given slot.

4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS/ A-GPS, USB Type-C, and a 3.5mm headphone socket are among the Moto E32s’ connectivity choices. Ambient light, an accelerometer, and a proximity sensor are among the sensors on board. It also includes a fingerprint sensor on the side. The Moto E32s is powered by a 5,000mAh battery and comes with a 10W charger. A fingerprint scanner on the side, face unlock capability, IP52 water-repellent construction, Android 12 OS, Type-C port, 3.5 mm headset jack, Bluetooth 5.0, and dual-band Wi-Fi are among the other features. The phone is 163.9574.948.94mm in length and weighs 185 grams.

Price and Availability

The Moto E32s are priced at Rs 9,299 for the 3GB+32GB model and Rs 9,999 for the 4GB+64GB model. Starting June 6, the phone will be available on Flipkart, Reliance Digital, and Jio Mart. It’s available in two colours: Slate Grey and Misty Silver. The phone will be priced at Rs 8,999 at its initial launch.

About The Company

Motorola Mobility was founded in 2011 after Motorola was split into two firms, with Motorola Solutions focusing on the enterprise market. Pioneer in electronic communications. Motorola, Inc. is a significant provider of cellular phones, cordless phones, two-way radios, pagers, cable modems, broadband set-top boxes, and other communications devices and systems. The corporation is the world’s second-largest mobile phone manufacturer. Motorola is also the world’s biggest manufacturer of embedded processors, with a focus on high-growth markets such as wireless communications, transportation, and Internet networking. Motorola has earned a reputation for quality over the years. Motorola debuted its first Android smartphone in 2009, followed by its first Android tablet in 2011. Moto E23 is Motorola’s newest smartphone.

Udayy

Edtech Startup Udayy Shuts Shop In India, Fires All The Employees.

New businesses over the nation over are finding it hard to stay aware of the inflation. After Unacademy, Vedantu, another ed-tech startup, Udayy, fails horrendously. While Vedantu and Unacademy have just laid off a specific level of their labour force, Udayy has totally closed its business in India. The ed-tech organization experienced colossal misfortunes when the schools returned following a break of two years.

Udayy, which offered a web-based learning stage for grades 1 to 8, has laid off the entirety of its 100 workers as the firm couldn’t oversee supportable development in a hyper-cutthroat ed-tech competition.

Udayy
Image source: amazonaws.com

Udayy’s prime supporter and CEO Saumya Yadav affirmed the improvement. To date, the company has raised more than $10 million in financing, including conspicuous financial backers like AlphaWave, InfoEdge, and Better Capital.

Established in 2019 by Karan Varshney, Mahak Garg, and Yadav, the ed-tech stage offered maths and English preparation to youngsters in the age groups of 6-11 years involving an intuitive web-based study hall of 3-5 kids in each cluster. It likewise sent off a free application giving day-to-day worksheets to understudies.

As indicated by the organization’s site which is presently outdated, it has directed in excess of 130,000 classes with north of 200 qualified educators and 50,000 children have learned from them as of 2022.

Yadav let people know that after the organization shut down activities in April, it proceeded to give outplacement administrations to every one of the impacted workers. Udayy likewise offered a severance bundle to workers, and a medical coverage bundle, as per Yadav.

It was a very difficult decision but we did it in the best way possible so everyone finds a good place. We started during the pandemic and were doing very well during the pandemic. But, after the pandemic when offline schools opened up, growth stalled and it became very expensive to get new customers and service the old ones,” she mentions.

Source: www.financialexpress.com

Saumya Yadav, a fellow benefactor of the organization, said that Udayy was confronting obstructions in growing the model of online school when the schools started reopening.

Udayy was witnessing the post-pandemic world for the first time. As the kids went back to school, we faced roadblocks in growing the original model of online, live learning. We evaluated multiple strategies and adjacent pivots. However, none of them were promising enough,” she said.

Source: entrackr.com

Udayy was established by IIT Delhi and Stanford University graduates, Yadav, Mahak Garg, and Karan Varshney. Uday joins the rundown of new companies that had terminated representatives in the primary quarter of 2022. Up until this point, the Indian start-ups have terminated in excess of 5600 workers.

Numerous tech new companies have either closed down or rebuilt tasks.

In February, ed-tech start-up Lido Learning likewise reported that it was closing down, due to comparable reasons. Last week, edtech stage FrontRow reported cutbacks as the organization went into rebuilding mode to increment efficiencies and protract its runway.

Following quite a while of hypergrowth, ed-tech firms are presently preparing for a stoppage in subsidizing, and a couple, including Unacademy and Vedantu, have conserved workers to reduce expenses.

Until now in ed-tech, Unacademy has laid off around 1,000 representatives, while Lido has closed shop in the wake of relinquishing around 150 workers. Most of late, Vedantu terminated 624 workers, referring to an intense macroeconomic scenery and difficulties from disconnected training places recovering unmistakable quality. On Monday, people group learning start-up FrontRow laid off 150 representatives of its all-out labour force of 500, due to an apparent money crunch. Aside from this, the much-advertised metaverse-based edtech fire up, Metaversity, established by previous Twitter India boss Manish Maheshwari laid off another 20 representatives last week as the organization failed to take off. Last week, the founder of Unacademy, Gaurav Munjal, whose organization let go north of 1,000 on-roll and authoritative staff as of late, informed the workers in an email that “winter is here” and that cost-cutting would be the organization’s vital concentration as subsidizing would stay scant for essentially the following 12-year and a half.

A few ed-tech firms are by and by wandering into hybrid learning models that include both on the web and disconnected learning. Nonetheless, Udayy couldn’t take advantage of that portion.

PeopleSoft

PeopleSoft – Company Fulfilling The Evolving Corporate Expectations.

PeopleSoft is a package of programs used by mid-sized to large businesses as a workforce management solution. PeopleSoft is a piece of software in the Oracle product range. It was originally meant to support finance and human resources, but it has since expanded to incorporate more tools and applications for broad business processes. Many different management components, such as materials, communications, and payroll management, are some of the uses that enterprises and corporations have for implementing software.

About The Company

Dave Duffield and Ken Morris launched PeopleSoft in 1987 to debut the application of their human resources. Their objective was to provide software to fulfill the evolving corporate expectations.

The corporation turned its focus to the internet in 1999. In addition, in 2000, the business developed PeopleSoft8, a web-based version of its software, as well as PeopleSoft e-centre, an in-house application service provider (ASP). Its web-based apps are designed to make system integration simple, allowing a company to link consumers, employees, and suppliers more cost-effectively. An organization can streamline processes since information is easily available by a wide range of personnel at any time and from any location, including mobile devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones.

Oracle owns the People Soft e-business software product line. The company began by providing human resources and financial applications. It has grown throughout time to include tools and applications for broad business operations like materials management, as well as solutions for specific industries such as automotive, communications, and higher education.

PeopleSoft currently offers users an integrated ERP software solution to help with the day-to-day execution of various business operations. Human resource departments in large corporations use PeopleSoft systems. Human resource management systems (HRMS), customer relationship management (CRM), finance and supply chain management (FSCM), and enterprise performance management are examples of these applications (EPM).

PeopleSoft
Image source: clubutilisateursoracle.org

Oracle Cloud and PeopleSoft

Oracle Cloud provides access to PeopleSoft products. Users can access and deploy HCM, FSCM, and other business apps using Oracle’s Compute Cloud and the Oracle Cloud Marketplace.

Users can transfer data to virtual machines in the Oracle Compute Cloud using Deployment Framework and PeopleTools 8.55. PeopleSoft Development and Testing instances can also be migrated to the Oracle Compute Cloud. Users can also use custom data with PeopleSoft and build multinode PeopleSoft clusters on the Oracle Cloud.

The Merger

PeopleSoft and competitor JD Edwards combined in 2003. Prior to its merger with PeopleSoft, JD Edwards’ product lines, World and OneWorld, were aimed at midsize businesses that were too small to benefit fully from PeopleSoft’s applications. It was able to appropriately offer for these enterprises by merging with JD Edwards, thus expanding its customer base. PeopleSoft rebranded OneWorld as PeopleSoft Enterprise One later on.

Oracle paid $10.3 billion and acquired PeopleSoft in 2005, adding CRM software to its product range. Oracle cut off 5,000 employees shortly after acquiring the firm. People Soft Enterprise One became JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, and PeopleSoft World became JD Edwards World, as Oracle rebranded the previous JD Edwards product line.

David Duffield – Founder

David is a successful executive and visionary in the company management, government, and higher education software industries. David launched PeopleSoft in 1987 and served as its CEO and board chairman prior to joining Workday. Before being bought in 2005, The company had grown to become the world’s second-largest ERP application software firm. David also founded Integral Systems, Business Software, and Information Associates. The company went public in 1992 and was purchased by Larry Ellison’s Oracle for $10.3 billion in 2005. He started Workday in 2005, which offered cloud-based management software and other solutions. In 2012, the company went public and raised $637 million. Duffield stepped aside as CEO of Workday in 2014, but he remains chairman. He currently controls approximately 25% of Workday.

Twitter Circle

What is Twitter Circle? Here’s all you need to know:

In the next months, Twitter users may have something new to look forward to the Twitter Circle. Twitter Circle is a Twitter feature that allows you to create a small group of people with whom you can then exchange your opinions.

According to a Twitter blog article, “you pick who’s in your Twitter Circle, and only the persons you’ve added may react to and interact with the Tweets you share in the Circle.” 

Source: newsable.asianetnews.com

Twitter Circle, the microblogging platform’s iOS and Android apps are now available to more individuals. This feature is similar to Instagram stories in that it allows you to select people and express your opinions with a limited group of people. You can add up to 150 people to your Circle to share your tweets. Furthermore, these 150 people do not have to be followers of yours. Non-followers can also be added to your Circle. They will be notified when you add or remove people from your Twitter Circle. It’s worth noting that Circle is still in its early stages, with only a limited number of people in the world able to send out Circle tweets.

How to use it:

It’s easy to use the Twitter Circle. Both the Android and iOS versions of the app allow you to do so. Start tweeting your thoughts by opening your Twitter app and selecting ‘Tweet.’ Select ‘Twitter Circle’ from the ‘Everyone’ menu at the top. You can then choose who you want to add to your Circle and who you want to delete. The people who have been added to your Circle will be notified after you publish. They would receive a notice informing them that they have been chosen to view the tweet.

People who have been added to your Circle will not be able to retweet your ideas. They can, however, download the tweet or snap a screenshot of it.

Compose a tweet to see if you can join the Circle. You’ll know you can utilize the feature if there’s a new drop-down menu with the option ‘Everyone.’ You may check out, add, or remove persons you want to share the tweet with by tapping on ‘Everyone.’

Twitter Circle
Image source: www.deccanherald.com

Here are some frequently asked questions:

  • What’s the difference between Twitter Circle and having a password-protected account?

When you set your account to protected mode, only your followers will be able to see the Tweets you share each time you compose and send one. This is a one-time update that stays in effect until you turn it off. Each time you compose a Tweet, you can choose your audience with Circle. You’ll be able to send one Tweet to your Circle and another to all of your followers.

  • Who has access to your list?

Only you have access to the whole list of persons in your Twitter Circle. Although no one can access a list of Circle members, members can see your engagement when someone likes or reacts to a Twitter Circle Tweet you share, unless your account is protected. If someone in your Circle maintains a private account, only their followers who are also in your Twitter Circles will be able to observe their conversation.

  • Who has access to your Tweets?

Anyone in your Twitter Circle can see any Twitter Circles Tweets you’ve shared, as well as any unprotected responses to those Tweets. If a Circle member maintains a protected account, only their followers in your Circle will be able to see their replies. Unless your Circles share similar members, your friend’s Circle will not be able to see any portion of the chat.

The feature is currently being tested, according to Twitter’s Joseph Nunez. The feature will be rolled out to everyone whenever Twitter receives enough input from the test group.

Meta

Indian Users Can Choose To Not Accept Meta Privacy Policy.

Even as it faces regulatory scrutiny in different parts of the world, including India, Meta said on May 26 that it will be revising and re-designing its privacy policy after four years to make it easier for consumers to comprehend and provide more transparency about how they utilize their information.

The new policy will take effect on July 26, 2022, and will apply to Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and other Meta products. WhatsApp, Workplace, Free Basics, Messenger Kids, and the use of Quest gadgets are not covered without a Facebook account because they have their own privacy policies.

“The last three years have brought a number of changes to the privacy landscape as a whole, including to peoples’ desire to better understand how their data is being used,” said the company.

Source: www.ndtv.com

Indeed, this comes at a time when there is a global discussion about people’s rights to privacy or the human right to privacy. The human right to privacy refers to a person’s ability to choose when, how, and why others, including businesses, handle their personal information.

Meta
Image source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

To maintain dignity, safety, and confidence, privacy must be protected. Individuals can select how their data is utilized and develop their personalities freely without fear of data misuse. Its revising its data policy for Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram to give consumers greater control over how the business uses their data and the material they publish.

Meta will also outline more clearly how it processes the information it collects from users under the updated privacy policy, including how it processes location-related information such as internet protocol addresses, check-in at locations, and other information such as current city, according to the company. The social media titan claims that the new privacy policy does not grant it greater access rights to user data, but rather allows Meta more control over customizing adverts based on consumer choices and sharing data, with all controls in one place.

These expectations include the rights and obligations described in our Community Standards, for example when we may disable or terminate accounts that violate our Terms or Community Standards or others’ intellectual property rights or other laws,” the company said.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Despite the fact that Meta has released the new policy and plans to implement it by July 26, users in India will have the option of accepting the terms and moving to the new regime or continuing to use Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram under the terms of the old data policy, according to the company.

“Our Privacy Policy is informative in most countries, so we’re publishing a prominent notice to alert people to the change, but they’re not invited to, say, click to consent to the modification to our Privacy Policy.” Users in India have the option of accepting or rejecting the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, with no effect on their access to our products,” said Meta.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Meta’s stance on allowing Indians to opt out of Facebook’s, Messenger’s, and Instagram’s new privacy policies is similar to what it did with WhatsApp.

It changed its terms of service in late January of last year, stating that users who did not accept the terms by February 8 would be prohibited from utilizing some of the app’s fundamental features. Following user protests, the deadline was pushed back to May 15, and WhatsApp stated that individuals who had not accepted the revised conditions of the policy will be reminded on a regular basis.

WhatsApp’s stance drew criticism from a number of countries around the world, prompting the firm to backtrack and say that it would not impede functionality for individuals who refused to accept the new terms, nor would it send reminders to people who refused to accept the new terms.

WhatsApp, Workplace, Free Basics, Messenger Kids, and a few more services that have their own privacy policies are not affected by the modifications announced on Thursday.