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Yashica Vashishtha

Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.

Microsoft Unveils the Addition of New Products in its Surface Series

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Microsoft hosted its annual event, in the New York City, on Tuesday 2 October. In the event, the company launched a pack of four surface gears, including the Surface Pro 6 tablet/laptop hybrid, the Surface Laptop 2, the Surface Studio all-in-one desktop and also a $349 Surface Headphones, while the rumoured Surface Phone is still under the wraps.

Starting with the new Surface Pro 6 laptop/tablet, it consists of Intel’s quad-core 8th Gen processor, with an improved battery life that can last for 13.5 hours, when fully charged. The laptop has a 12.3-inch display, and no USB-C ports, like its predecessor, Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2. It supports up to 16GB of RAM, and it is 1.5 times faster than the other previous laptops of the same series. The laptop is the first of its family to have a matte black finish. The laptop/tablet is available at a starting price of $899.

microsoft-surface
Image Source: idgesg.net

The Surface Laptop 2 is a striking black matte finish laptop, having a 13.5-inch touchscreen. The laptop operates on the quad-core 8th Generation processor. Microsoft has again neglected the USB-C port in the Surface Laptop 2, instead, it has a USB-A. This time Microsoft has introduced a more silent and easier to type on Alcantara fabric-covered keyboard. The laptop costs $999, for its basic model.

The second version, in the Surface Studio range, the Surface Studio 2, is an all in one desktop that converts into a flat drawing panel with the help of its classic Studio hinges. The desktop has a 28-inch display screen, similar to the Surface Studio, but, brighter and with better contrast. The desktop has the 7th generation Intel Core i7 processor, and a speedier SSD storage that can range between 1 TB to 2TB, based on the model. The system has the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 or GTX 1070 chipset, specially designed for the creative professionals. Also, the system has got the inbuilt Xbox Wireless support and a USB-C port. The price of the Studio Pro 2 is $3,499 for the base model and may vary with the higher models.

Microsoft has also announced its first smart Surface Headphones. Having the noise-cancelling feature, the user can adjust the sound of the headphones, using the dial on the left ear cup, to eliminate noise. It supports the hands-free voice commands, with the help of the Hey Cortana technology. The headphones consist of the USB Type C port that is used for the charging purpose. It stops the track or the music as soon the user removes it from the ears. It also consists of the touch controls on the ear cups. The headphones can work for 15 hours after they are fully charged. The Surface Headphones costs approximately $350.

Microsoft has also launched the ‘All Access’ payment plan for the Surface products. This is not a monthly subscription plan, but similar to one, as the buyer will pay a fixed amount every month, till the completion of 2 years, to buy any of those Surface products. The buyer will also avail the access to Office 365. But, in this plan, the buyer cannot upgrade to the newer version of the Surface series.

All the new Surface Series gadgets have been available for pre-orders, starting on Tuesday, in the US, with shipments expected later this month.

Karl Benz : The German Inventor & the Founder of Mercedes Benz

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The founder of the world’s first automobile, powered by an internal combustion engine, and one of the most expensive cars in the world, Karl Benz was a German engineer and entrepreneur. The great inventor who introduced the world with his signature design of the first horse-less carriage has been inspiring the world for years.

Early Life

Karl Benz was born on 25 November 1844, as Karl Friedrich Michael Vaillant, to Johann Georg Benz, a locomotive driver, and Josephine Vaillant, in Mühlburg, Germany. During the time of his birth, his parents were not married, but, tied the knots, only after a few months of his birth. After the wedding, Karl received his father’s surname Benz. But, his father died of pneumonia when Karl was just 2 years old.

Karl Friedrich Benz
Image Source: jarmunaplo.hu

Karl completed his school education from the local Grammar School, and joined the Poly-Technical University, for further education. The founder of the science-based mechanical engineering, Ferdinand Redtenbacher, was one of his professors, at the University. In 1860, he started studying mechanical engineering at the University of Karlsruhe. On 9 July 1864, he graduated from the university as a mechanical engineer, at the age of 19.

Career

As soon Karl graduated, he looked for a job and started working as a mechanical engineer. He switched between many companies for almost 7 years, but could not fit in. He worked as a draftsman in a scales factory, worked for a bridge building company, and even worked in an iron construction company.

In 1872, Karl joined his hands with August Ritter and started an Iron Foundry and Mechanical Workshop, named as Machines for Sheet-metal Working, in Mannheim. Due to his partner’s irresponsible behaviour, the first year of the company went really bad. The company was facing losses, so, Karl’s fiancée Bertha Ringer, acquired the shares of August Ritter, with the money of her dowry.

Karl started working on the various vehicle parts, including ignition, spark plugs, gear, carburettor, water radiator, and clutch. He loved running bicycles and always wanted to make an automotive bicycle. His another dream was to replace the horse carts with the automotive engine carriages. In December 1885, Karl assembled his first two-seater, fully powered gas car. He received the patent for the two-stroke engine in 1879.

Karl was clear about his intentions, and soon he patented the speed regulation system, the ignition using sparks with battery, the spark plug, the carburettor, the clutch, the gear shift, and the water radiator.

Due to the high expenditure on the experiments, Karl and Bertha became weaker, financially, and were forced to sell the shares of their company to photographer Emil Bühler and his brother. The company was renamed to Gasmotoren Fabrik Mannheim, in 1882, and Karl had only 5% of shares left in it. In 1883, Karl resigned from the company.

The Rise of Benz Motors

In 1883, After leaving Gasmotoren Fabrik Mannheim, Karl with Max Rose, the owner of a bicycle repair shop, founded Benz & Companie Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik. The company had 25 employees and became popular with the name Benz & Cie.

With the company, Karl started working on a horse-less carriage, named as Benz Patent Motorwagen, and registered the patent for the same, on 29 January 1886, as DRP-37435. With the four-stroke engine, he developed the carriage, that was pulled by a bicycle and, was based on the similar technology, when he created an automobile.

Karl kept on improving the vehicles and launched the next version of the same, the Motorwagen Model 2, in 1889, followed by the Model 3 in the same year. In 1988, the Motorwagen was open for sale and received a good response from the public.

In 1988, Bertha Karl’s wife along with their two children, went on a drive on the Motorwagen, from their hometown to Bertha’s mother’s house, in Pforzheim. The distance between the two places was 106 km, and it is said to be the first longest trip done on the Motorwagen. The motive behind the drive was to make people aware of the feasibility of the newly invented carriage. Interestingly, Karl was not aware of the trip and Bertha informed him about her success through a telegram.

Karl kept on experimenting, and by 1899, his company had 430 employees, producing 572 units of their product, becoming the largest automobile company in the world.

Soon, with the time, Karl produced a few racing cars and some affordable personal vehicles for people. Karl also gets the credits for building the first truck with an internal combustion engine (1895) and the flat engine (1896).

In 1906, Karl Benz, Bertha Benz, and their son, Eugen, founded the private company, C. Benz Sons, Karl remaining the director of Benz & Cie. The company was established 10 kilometres east of Mannheim, nearby Ladenburg, producing automobiles, gas and petrol engines. The company produced affordable vehicles, becoming most popular in London as taxis.

In 1923, Germany went through a rapid inflation, resulting in a lesser production of vehicles. Benz & Cie signed the “Agreement of Mutual Interest” with the infamous DMG (Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft), that was valid till 2000. Under the agreement, the two brands produced vehicles with mixed technologies, maintaining their own brands. It lifted both the companies shares, and the two managed to fight the economic crisis.

The two companies together launched the diesel trucks line, in 1927, and Karl served as the board member of the newly founded company until he died. Many of the Karl’s first and most important inventions are still preserved in Mannheim.

Personal Life

Karl Benz married his fiancee, Bertha Ringer, on 20 July 1872. The couple had five children. On 25 November 1914, on his seventieth birthday, the Karlsruhe University awarded Karl Benz an honorary doctorate.

On 4 April 1929, Karl Benz died from a bronchial inflammation, at the age of eighty-four. In 2011, a movie named Carl & Bertha was made on the life story of Karl and Bertha.

Flipkart Hosts the Sale for the Latest Nokia 5.1 Plus Today

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In the August month of this year, HMD had announced the launch of the new Nokia 5.1 plus smartphone. But, it did not disclose the date of the launch and the price of the smartphone. Finally, last week HMD launched the smartphone, and the sale is about to start in less than an hour, today, on Flipkart.

Last week, HMD unveiled the Nokia 5.1 plus, having an iPhone X-like 5.86-inch HD+, 2.5D rounded edge glass display screen. The smartphone is a look-alike of the Nokia 6.1 plus, supporting 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage expandable up to 400GB external storage.

nokia
Image Source: gadgets360cdn.com

The Nokia 5.1 Plus runs on the Android 8.1 Oreo and is powered by octa-core MediaTek Helio P60 SoC, having advanced AI features. The smartphone will get regular security updates, and soon it can be updated with the latest Android Pie. The Nokia 5.1 plus has a glass sandwich design providing a great grip and better touch properties for the user. The smartphone will be available in Gloss Black and Gloss Midnight Blue colours.

The new Nokia 5.1 plus like its contemporaries, support the dual camera. It has a 13 MP f/2.0 primary sensor, and a 5 MP depth sensor. The camera is placed vertically on the back of the phone, along with the LED flash, and the fingerprint sensor. Also, it has an 8 MP f/2.2 camera with 80.4-degree wide-angle lens, on the front. The old Nokia phones were known for its battery backup and the Nokia 5.1 plus is backed up with a 3060mAh battery. It is a dual sim 4G smartphone, having a type-C USB port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Nokia 5.1 plus sale will take place on Flipkart, that will start today in the afternoon. The sale will start in less than an hour, and the smartphone will cost 10,999 INR. The buyers must update their address and the payment method on the site. It is expected that, with such a price, the smartphone will lack the availability soon on successful completion of the sale. The buyer will receive multiple offers, like Rs 1800 cashback for the Airtel postpaid users, and other EMI offers on various bank’s cards.

Konosuke Matsushita: The Founder & the Former CEO of Panasonic Corporation

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The story of the industrialist and the famous Japanese God of Management, Konosuke Matsushita, is nothing more than a roller coaster ride. The Japanese entrepreneur went through a lot of struggle and faced all type of conflicts, but, at last, emerged as the greatest leader, with its largest Japanese consumer electronics company Panasonic. The writer of four million sold copies of the Developing A Road To Peace And Happiness Through Prosperity and the inspiration of millions, Konosuke Matsushita was a true entrepreneur.

Early Life

Matsushita was born on November 27, 1894, in a Japanese village of Wasa. He belonged to an affluent family. His father was a landlord, primarily owned huge farmlands. Due to some bad investments, soon, the family went through a huge loss and had to give up all of their property. The family moved to a three bedroom apartment in the city and started working for their living. Matsushita received a standard schooling in the city.

Career

With the bad financial conditions, Matsushita could not continue his schooling and started working at a bicycle shop. The Shop went out of business, and his family sent him to Osaka, to do an apprenticeship at a hibachi store. Unfortunately, the store got shut within a year of his joining, and he had to look for another job. At the age of 15, he started working at Osaka Electric Light Company, an electrical utility company. During his job with Osaka Electric, he was promoted several times. After working for five long years with the company, he decided to take up another job, where he could also complete his education. But his father advised him to continue the same job and gain more experience in the field.

During his work at Osaka Electric Light Company, he had gained enough knowledge and experience, so that he invented a new and improved light socket in his spare time. He also introduced the idea to his boss, but his boss was not sure about the potential of the invention.

Founding Panasonic

At the age of 22, Matsushita got promoted as the electrical inspector of the company. In 1917, he decided to leave Osaka Electric and start his own firm, with the help of his wife and brother-in-law. Under the name of his company, he started producing the samples of his newly invented sockets, and approached various wholesalers, to sell his product. But, the new idea could not impress the wholesalers. This caused him a huge loss, and his employees also left him. With his wife and brother-in-law, he continued working on the samples and received his first huge order of thousand insulator plates for electric fans. Being a better and an inexpensive product it gained popularity and wholesalers started trading the product and eventually, Matsushita launched Matsushita Electric Housewares Manufacturing Works on 7 March 1918, that later became Panasonic in future.

Konosuke Matsushita
Image Source: entrepreneurhalloffame.com

In the mid-1920s, Matsushita came with the idea of battery lamps for bicycles, as at the time, the bicycles used to have oil and wax lamps, that could be lighted only for 3 hours.

With the time, Matsushita became more focused on the marketing of the products, that proved to be a big contribution in raising the sales of his company. By 1929, he managed to establish his company among other Japan’s electrical manufacturing companies and opened a few sales branches in some other places across the country.

In the beginning, he produced the products with brand name National and developed many affordable electric appliances. Those appliances included electric iron, battery lamps, and three-tube model radio, etc. In 1940, during the second world war, Matsushita was forced to sign government military contracts. Those contracts helped him establish Matsushita Shipbuilding Company and the Matsushita Airplane Company. Although with these big achievements, due to the war, Matsushita lost 32 of his manufacturing factories and sales offices situated in the various parts of the country.

In 1951, during his tour to the USA, he realised that in order to help Japan recover from all the losses of the second world war, adoption of advanced Western technology was essential. In 1952, Matsushita signed a contract with Philips of the Netherlands. The company saw huge growth between the time of 1950 to 1973 and introduced new home appliances to the Japanese customers. In 1973, he retired from all of his duties for Panasonic.

Personal Life

Matsushita was married to Mumeno Iue, who was a big support for him during his struggle period. Matsushita was always focussed on economic growth of people and has published 44 books based on his social and commercial philosophies. He received the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers in 1987. At the age of 94, on 27 April 1989, he died from pneumonia.

Microsoft Announced the Office 2019 Setup for Windows & Mac OS

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Microsoft-Office-2019
Image Source: fonearena.com

During the Microsoft’s Ignite conference held in Orlando, Florida, Microsoft announced many new products, and have upgraded many older products, too. Among all those products, Microsoft has announced the new Microsoft Office 2019. The Office 2019 is the successor of the Office 2016 and has been embedded with all the Office 365 ProPlus features, that were added to it, in the past three years. Most importantly, the Office 2019 is built for both Windows and Mac operating systems and is available for volume licensed customers.

The new Ms Office 2019 has got different updates for each of its members, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Project, Visio, Access, and Publisher. With the cinematic presentation included to PowerPoint, Microsoft has also added SVG, 3D model support, and 4k video export to it. The Office 2019 has also added the play in-click sequence feature, and for better presentation, features like Morph and Zoom to Powerpoint. The Word has got a new translator along with the focus mode feature. There have also been upgrades in the security features, usability and accessibility of the Ms Office.

The Office 2019 is focused on lesser network consumption, security, streamlined administration and time efficiency. The setup is going to have a roaming pencil case, ribbon customizations, pressure sensitivity and tilt effects added to it, to help the user to create a document more easily. The Ms Excel is also upgraded with the new data analysis feature along with formulas, charts etc.

By the coming week, Microsoft will also have upgrades to its servers including the Exchange Server 2019, Skype for Business Server 2019, SharePoint Server 2019, and Project Server 2019. The Office 2019 is equipped with all the previous useful updates and according to Microsoft, it is not going to receive any further updates in the future. However, the Office 365 ProPlus will continue receiving regular monthly updates.

Mark Zuckerberg : The Founder & CEO of World’s Biggest Social Network

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The inventive programmer and the youngest billionaire of the world, Mark Zuckerberg needs no introduction. The CEO and the founder of Facebook, the largest social media network, was once the captain of the fencing team of his school. The young entrepreneur was always interested in programming and used to develop games based on the sketches, his artist friends made. Having a few lawsuits in his name and films made on his life story, Zuckerberg is among the few programmers who have established themselves as the smartest entrepreneurs of the world.

Early Life

Mark Zuckerberg aka Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York, and grew up in the suburbs of Dobbs Ferry, New York. His father Edward Zuckerberg, a dentist and mother Karen (née Kempner), a psychiatrist, belonged to a Jewish family. He was a bright student and always topped in the class. He completed his schooling from Ardsley High School and Phillips Exeter Academy, in New Hampshire. He excelled in mathematics, astronomy, physics and won many prizes in quiz competitions of his school. By the end of his school, he became proficient in French, Hebrew, Latin, and ancient Greek.

Mark Zuckerberg
Image Source: articlebio.com

Zuckerberg owned his first PC Quantex 486DX, on the Intel 486, when he was in middle school. He, eventually, grew an interest in programming languages and ended up learning Atari BASIC Programming form his father. He also received a private tuition to learn more about programming. Soon, he started developing small applications and developed a program, that connected the computers of his father’s office, through a messenger named ZuckNet. During his final year, at the high school, he joined a company name Intelligent Media Group, that worked to build a music player Synapse Media Player. The media player was developed using AI technology, that enabled it to create a playlist based on the music choice of the user. The music player even grabbed the attention of Microsoft and AOL.

Founding Facebook

After completing his school, due to his outstanding performance, he managed to get admission in one of the top universities of America, the Harvard University. By creating some useful software and games, he had already made his reputation as a programmer. He adopted Computer Science and Psychology as his major subjects. His first software at his college was the CourseMatch. The software helped the students to choose the right course and help others with their choices.

In the summer of 2003, Zuckerberg created a website for the students of the Harvard, named as Facemash. The project was developed during one his insomniac nights. The website was inspired by the college yearbook Facebook, that included the profiles of the students having their personal details and pictures in it. The concept behind Facemash was to compare two students based on their appearance. Most of the students enjoyed using it and the others complained about Zuckerberg, saying that he was using their personal data, without permission. The site got shut down within two days and Zuckerberg had to apologise to the students.

After the failure of Facemash, he started working on his new project, The Facebook. Zuckerberg launched the website after one month, i.e., on 4 February 2004. The website was basically designed for the students of Harvard, to help them connect with each other, easily. The website became an instant hit, and just after a year, it expanded to other colleges and schools, in the city. In the second year of his college, he left his studies in between, to work full-time on The Facebook. The founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel, became its first angel investor, by investing $500,000. Soon, Facebook had 50 million registered users, and Zuckerberg started receiving offers to sell Facebook, from large companies, like Yahoo. Even receiving offers worth billions, he never accepted one. Although, he himself acquired many major projects like What’s App and Instagram.

The Lawsuit

On the initial launch of Facebook, three of Zuckerberg ‘s seniors at the University, Divya Narendra, and twin brothers Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea. According to them, Facebook was based on their idea, that was to create a platform to connect the students of Harvard. They even claimed that they had hired Zuckerberg to work on their website. Later, they even sued him for the same. In the end, there was a settlement between them, for 1.2 million Facebook shares.

Personal Life

Zuckerberg married his longtime girlfriend and fellow student from Harvard, Priscilla Chan, on 19 May 2012. The couple has two daughters Maxima Chan Zuckerberg and August Chan Zuckerberg.

In July 2018, Zuckerberg became the third richest person in the world $81.6 billion net worth. Although, within a week, his net worth was tumbled nearly $20 billion, eliminating him from the position of the third richest person.