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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.

Facebook Unveils the Latest Standalone VR Headset Oculus Quest

Facebook, News, Product, Product Management, Tech News / By
Oculus Quest
Image Source: businessinsider.com

Oculus Connect conference took place in San Jose, California, on Wednesday. The Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s latest VR headset, during the event. The VR headset is called the Oculus Quest. Facebook had already unveiled its prototype two years ago that gave a hint of its being similar to the Gear VR pro or the Rift lite.

Now, when it has been showcased, in the yesterday’s event, we found it most similar to the Rift, but without having a PC base. The new Quest is a wireless, independent VR box that lets you move across 4,000 square feet of space. The Oculus Quest is embedded with the inside-out tracking technology, i.e., the headset has its inbuilt movement detection sensors, rather having it on the external bases.

The Quest supports the 6DOF (Six Degrees of Freedom), i.e., the headset can measure the user’s position in 6 different directions, in the virtual environment, with accuracy. It has a 1600×1440 resolution display that makes the experience more realistic.

Along with the Quest headset, Facebook also unveiled the Touch Controllers, a set of controllers. The controllers are similar to the Rift’s handheld motion Touch Controllers and are made compatible with 50 existing Oculus applications.

Facebook also previewed new and more realistic Avatars for the VR developers. The Avatars will be more expressive with their eye movements and lip sync properties. The Oculus Quest is Facebook’s first all-in-one standalone VR system, that doesn’t need any computer-based setup and gives you the freedom to walk around freely. This amazing product will cost around $399 (Rs. 28000) and will come in the market by the spring of next year.

Anthony Levandowski : The Controversial Ex-Engineer of Google

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Anthony Levandowski, the former engineer at Google, does not need any introduction, thanks to all the controversies, he faced in the past one year. The irony is that the man who was the originator of the idea of driverless vehicles, is at the centre of a lawsuit between two major companies, for stealing the same. However, the lawsuit is against him, he must be credited for the introduction to such a technology.

Early Life

Anthony Levandowski was born on 15 March 1980. At the age of 18, he joined the University of California, Berkeley. He received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, in Industrial Engineering and Operation Research. He was always into machines and loved working on them. In 2004, he participated in the DARPA Grand Challenge with his autonomous motorcycle, named as the Ghostrider, that he built with the help of other fellow engineers. The motorcycle was first of its kind as it was a driver-less bike that rode in the challenge.

Career

Anthony took a job at Google and started working on the Google’s Street View project, in 2007. Already being in love with machines and automobiles, he kept on experimenting with the driver-less cars and started his own company 510 Systems in the same year, he joined Google. He started another company with the name Anthony’s Robots that produced self-driving cars. Under Anthony’s Robots, he built a self-driving Toyota Prius, Pribot, having one of the first spinning Lidar laser ranging units that rode on the public roads.

Anthony
Image Source: businessinsider.com

After recognising the potential of Anthony’s autonomous car production projects, Google acquired the both, transforming it into a single venture, Waymo. Anthony continued making self-driving cars under Waymo, for Google, until January 2016.

Founding Otto

In 2016, Anthony left the job at Google and co-founded Otto, self-driving technology company, along with his former colleague from Google, Lior Ron. In the same year, Uber acquired Otto by paying $680 million. Levandowski held the leadership of Uber’s driverless car operation and continued working with Otto. In October 2016, Otto manufactured an autonomous semi-truck, that completed the 132-mile route, achieving the longest continuous journey by a driverless vehicle.

The Controversy

In February 2017, his former company, Waymo, filed a lawsuit against him, accusing him of stealing 9.7 GB of Waymon’s highly confidential files, trading the secrets and using the blueprints and design files to manufacture autonomous vehicles for Uber. Waymo claimed that the files were stolen, back in 2009, while Levandowski was still working with Google. Levandowski was refrained from working with Otto and later, in the same year, Uber fired him for not co-operating in the investigation.

Levandowski started his own self-driving car company named Kache.ai in July 2018.

Ernest Harrison : A British Entrepreneur & the Co-Founder of Vodafone

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From starting a career as a clerk to becoming the chairman of a multinational company is not a piece of cake. The recipient of the Mountbatten Medal and the most successful businessman of UK, Sir Ernest Harrison, was the first chairman of Vodafone, who started his journey as the head clerk at the parent company of Vodafone. His decision making and business skills led him and his company at the top of the telecom business.

Early Life

Sir Ernest Harrison was born in Hackney, north-east London, on 11 May 1926. His father was a docker, working under the Casual Labour Scheme, and his mother was a dressmaker, in an East End garment factory. He moved to Holloway with his family and attended Trinity Grammar School, Wood Green. During his school, he became a die-hard fan of the Arsenal Football Club and played in his school football team. He got his education interrupted when the world war 2 broke out, and he was evacuated. In 1944, joined the Fleet Air Arm, in Canada.

Career

During his service at the Fleet Air Arm, he received a training in accountancy. In 1951, after his release, he joined the newly formed Racal Telecom, as the chief accountant, and the 13th employee, at a monthly salary of £650. Soon, he became the chief buyer, following by the role of personnel director, and contract negotiator, of the company. He held many important positions while working in Racal, in his 50-year career with Racal. He was appointed the deputy managing director in 1961 and eventually, became the chairman of the company, in 1966.

Ernest Harrison
Image Source: amazonaws.com

With Harrison, Racal won many crucial deals, like negotiation of a British Army battlefield radio contract, a merger between Racal and British Communications Corporation, acquiring Decca, and buying the British Rail Telecommunications network, etc.

Creation of Vodafone

In July 1982, Harrison, as the chairman of Racal, along with Jan Stenbeck, from the Millicom, Inc., jointly bid for the UK’s second cellular radio licence, forming a company, named Racal-Millicom, Ltd. In the bid, the company won the second UK mobile phone network license. With the final ownership of Racal-Millicom, Ltd, Racal holding 80% and Millicom holding 15% shares, on 1 January 1985, Racal-Millicom launched Racal-Vodafone Ltd. in Newbury, Berkshire. In December 1986, by paying a total sum of GB£110 million, to the smaller shareholders, Racal Electronics transformed Vodafone into a fully owned brand of Racal Telecom.

By the end of 1996, Vodafone had acquired the major shares of many other telecom companies, like Talkland, Peoples Phone, Astec Communications, etc. In September 1991, Racal Telecom demerged into Vodafone. It expanded to other neighbouring countries and after 2005, it established its network in other continents too.

Vodafone became the first telecom company to provide roaming call. Currently, Vodafone serves 400 million customers all over the world.

Personal Life

Harrison’s first marriage was with Beryl Cole and had twin sons with her. The two got divorced in 1959. Harrison, in 1960, got married to Janie Knight, with whom he had three children. He loved watching Arsenal football matches and also, enjoyed horse races. He had a hobby of collecting medals. Harrison died on 16 February 2009, at the age of 82.

Garrett Camp : The Co-founder of the Online Discovery Platform StumbleUpon

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If you are skilled enough you are destined to achieve the goals you set even before you are a graduate. Garrett Camp, a Canadian entrepreneur, was still a student when he started his own business along with three of his college mates. The company gained popularity and within a year, bringing him into the spotlight and making him one of the Top Innovators under the age of 35.

Early Life

Garrett was born on October 4, 1978, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to an economist father and an artist mother. Later, his parents started a business of architecture. Garrett completed his high schooling from a local government school. Later, he joined the University of Calgary and received a degree in electrical engineering, in 1996. During his junior year, at the college, he went through an internship, in speech recognition technology from Nortel Networks, Montreal. After graduating from the University of Calgary, he enrolled in the Masters in Software Engineering, in the same University and researched on the collaborative systems, evolutionary algorithms and information retrieval.

Garrett Camp
Image Source: designerfund.com

Founding StumbleUpon

Garrett was still in College when he came up with the idea of StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon was the first discovery engine, that was used to find web content for the users. Garrett founded StumbleUpon, with his friends at the University and established its office in San Francisco. The company received its first funding from the Silicon Valley’s Angels Investors. In 2007, eBay acquired StumbleUpon for $75 million. The company expanded its service to 25 million registered users in the next year. Camp re-acquired the company in 2015, as it went under debt, and helped the company recover its original status, once again. The company is still running its website successfully.

Other Ventures

In 2009, with Travis Kalanick, Garrett co-founded Uber, a transportation network company as UberCab. He made the initial funding for the project of $250K, himself. The idea behind Uber was to make the black taxis affordable for the people. Till mid-2012, Uber launched UberX and Uber SUV, making its way in the list of Forbes Top 10 Companies of 2012. Uber has become popular among the people as an affordable medium for travelling and is running its business in 500 cities across the globe.

In 2013, Garett started another venture named Expa that helps other startups financially, by raising funds from the major investors of Silicon Valley.

In 2007, Garrett was listed among the Top Innovators under the age of 35, at Technology Review’s Emerging Technologies Conference, at MIT and Bloomberg Businessweek named him one of Tech’s Best Young Entrepreneurs in 2008. He spoke at the Wireless Influencers and South by Southwest, many a time and attended the DEMO Mobile 2013, as the judge and the panel member. In 2015, his total wealth was estimated to be US$5.3 billion by Forbes.

Amazon Added New Product to its Echo Speaker Series

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Amazon hosted its hardware event in Seattle, Washington, in the Amazon’s Spheres biodome, located next to its corporate office. In the one hour of the hardware event, senior vice president of devices and services, Dave Limp claimed to showcase 70 products, including 13 new devices and new software updates. The event was a sign that Amazon is trying really hard to expand in every field.

In the new launch, Amazon has focussed on its Echo-branded speakers as its priority. It has updated its Echo Dot, Echo Plus, and Echo Show speakers, enhancing the sound and look up to 70 per cent.

amazon
Image Source: techhive.com

The exterior of those speakers has also been changed to a better version increasing the size of the speakers. Even the addition o new features to the speakers, these are still available at the same price. The Echo Dot is available for $69.64 (Rs 4,499) and the Echo Plus, with a larger 3-inch Neodymium woofer is available for $208 (Rs 14,999). The Echo Show, on the other hand, is out with improved sound, 10-inch HD display and even support for Microsoft’s Skype for video calling. The Echo Show with its new update, have got a web browser access for the users, on which the user can play music or search any recipe. The cost of Echo Show’s new updated version is $228 (Rs 16,407).

The major new products that Amazon has launched, comprises the series of the Echo Companion speakers. The Echo Companion series covers the Echo Sub, Echo Link, Echo Link Amp, and the Echo Input. The cost of the Echo Sub is $130 (Rs. 9334) and can be used by plugging into one or two Echos. The Echo Link and Echo Link Amp are the Sub Bwoofer, that can be paired with a stereo, making the stereo an Alexa-powered sound station. The latter product is having an additional amplifier, as well. The Echo Link is $200 (Rs 14360) box and the Echo Link Amp costs around $300 (RS 21540). The Echo Input has a four-microphone array, that is built for receiving commands from any of the rooms in a house, and is designed to support multiroom audio, so, that you can play the same song in multiple rooms.

Amazon is not only providing you with the home speakers but, also has entered into your car. It has launched an in-car speaker, powered by Alexa: Echo Auto. The Echo Auto uses the Amazon Smart Plug, worth $24.99 (Rs 24.99), and the price of the former is $49 (Rs 3518), and $25 (Rs 1795) for special invites.

Along with the speakers and the subwoofers, a wall clock with a ring of LEDs around the clock face, compatible with all of the Amazon Echo devices, costing $29.99 (Rs 2153), the Fire TV Recast DVR box providing 500GB storage, costing $229 (Rs 16442) and a microwave oven enabled by Alexa, costing $59.99 (Rs 4307), were also launched during the event. The products are ready for pre-order and will be available by the end of October 2018.

Soichiro Honda : The Founder of the Honda Motor Company

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Some achievers are not only achievers but are also the trendsetters. Those trendsetters bring a revolution in their field and get their name registered in the history for their contribution to the world. One such trendsetter is the Japnese Engineer, Soichiro Honda. It would be difficult to find even a single person who is not aware of Honda Motors or hasn’t seen a Honda vehicle. The owner of the company of 100,000 people, did not have an easy ride, but without struggles, there can’t be any progress.

Early Life

Honda was born to a blacksmith, Gihei and a weaver, Mika, on November 17, 1906. His father ran a bicycle repair business. Honda was never interested in the traditional education and used to forge his family’s stamp on the school grade reports, using a rubber bicycle pedal cover. Honda once went to see a demonstration of an aeroplane, that made him fascinated about machines and grew a love for them.

Soichiro Honda
Image Source: youberelentless.com

Career

Honda’s career did not start very smooth. He was just 15, when he moved to Tokyo, and joined a motor garage, as a mechanic. He worked there for over six years. In 1928, he moved back to his hometown and started his own repair business, at the age of 22. He became more interested in automobiles and motor machines, becoming engaged among new experiments with the engines.

Building Honda Motor Co. Ltd.

In 1937, he started producing piston rings for the major car manufacturing Toyota, under his newly founded company, T?kai Seiki. After two years, the second world war occurred and two of his factory plants, of T?kai Seiki, got destroyed in a US B-29 bomber attack (1944) and in an earthquake (1945). After selling the salvageable remains of the company to Toyota, for ¥450,000, in October 1946, he founded the Honda Technical Research Institute. He became the president of the company and stayed the one until he retired in 1973.

Honda designed a mass-produced engine, that he used in the Type A motorised bicycles, that his company sold till 1951. In 1949, he manufactured the first model in the Dream series of motorcycles, that became a landmark of Japanese Automotive Technology. Just in a few years, his company’s turnover was in billions, and it became an MNC, producing the bestselling bikes, in the world. Soon, his company motorcycles were competing with the sales of Triumph and Harley-Davidson. Honda Motors opened its first abroad plant in the US, in 1959.

Even after he retired from his post of President in 1973, he remained as the director of the company and became the supreme advisor of the company, in 1983.

Personal Life & Death

Honda was married to Sachi Honda till his death. His only son, Hirotoshi Honda, followed his lead and became an entrepreneur. He was the CEO of Mugen Motorsports, that produced original racing vehicles.

Honda was very active as a sports person even at the age of 77. He and his wife loved outdoor activities like golf, hang-gliding, ballooning and skiing. On August 5, 1991, Soichiro Honda died, due to liver failure.

Honda has made an impact on the industry of personal motor vehicles and was listed, among the 25 most intriguing of People magazine, in 1980. He was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, in 1991, and even got established Soichiro Honda Medal by ASME, in his name. The medal is given for the outstanding achievements or significant engineering contributions, in the field of personal transport motor manufacturing.