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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.

iOS 14.5

iOS 14.5: Apple Brings New iOS Update Along with Enhancements to its Major Features.

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After Apple launched its new iPad Pro models, the AirTag and colorful iMacs, recently at its first event of 2021, the company has now brought a new update to its iOS, i.e., iOS 14.5, on Monday. Reportedly, the company has claimed that there are many exciting features added along with the new update. Though the update is not a very big one, the features that it has brought are the ones that may attract many iOS users. The update has been done for both iPhone and iPad users in terms of iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5.

What the iOS 14.5 has got for the Apple Users?

Apple has made small enhancements to almost all its major features. Starting with unlocking the Apple phone and the iPad, Apple has now added new capabilities to the Apple Watch, such that the users can use it to unlock the smartphone or the iPad. The feature has been added as the face lock won’t work with a mask. So, now the users can use their watch to unlock their devices securely.

The company has also introduced a new feature to control the apps that the users want to share their information with. This way, the users are now capable of changing their preferences on sharing their information with the apps, at any point of time just through the settings.

After the iOS 14.5 update, Siri has also got some enhancements done to it. The updated Siri now has more options of voice, and it has adopted the Neural Text to Speech technology to make the voice sound more human-like. The English language users have got even more options in terms of voice selection.

iOS 14.5
Image Source: macrumors.com

Apple has also worked on making the chats more interesting by adding new emojis to its library. These emojis include couple kissing emoji, couple with heart emoji, face exhaling, face with spiral eyes, face in clouds, hearts on fire, mending heart, etc. The users have the option for selecting different face colors of the emojis. This way, the new update will bring over 200 new emojis for its users.

Apple has also improved its map specifically for its US and Chinese users, as now they can report any incident like an accident, hazard, or speed check on the map. The users can report these incidents to Siri on iPhone or CarPlay, or can directly go to “Report an Issue” in Maps, and the other users going through the same route get notified about the same. The new update also allows the users to share their ETA with their family or friends.

The Apple Podcasts have also got a new look and feel to provide the users with quicker access. They now can easily download the podcasts that directly go to their library. The new update has also got the support for the newly launched AirTag that has been developed to make the users easily track and find their important items of daily use.

Apple has also redesigned its News+ tab for easy access and management of the magazine and newspaper issues for the users. The company has also improved its search experience for the users so that to better the topic search for the users.

Other Added Features

Other than these major enhancements, the Apple update has also brought improvements to the Reminders, Apple Fitness+, and Accessibility. The users now can sort the reminders on a priority basis and also can print them. For Fitness+, the company has made the AirPlay2 enabled to stream the audio and video through the TV and other devices. On the other hand, the Accessibility feature now can work through the users’ voice. Apple has launched English language support for Australian and Canadian users and support for Spanish in Mexico, Spain, and the United States.

With the support for the dual sim in the iPhone 12 models, the company, with its new update, has added the support for 5G connectivity and added Smart Data Mode enhancements for its users.

Fujitsu

Fujitsu: The Makers of World’s Most Powerful Computers.

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Fujitsu is one of the leading IT services providers in the world and also ranked fourth by annual revenue among the largest IT service companies in 2018. The company has been in the business for the past ninety-plus years, and apart from IT services, the company specializes in hardware products manufacturing, like personal and enterprise computing products.

 Fujitsu has been ranked among the Global 500 companies by Fortune, and the latter has also named it as one of the world’s most admired companies. The company has expanded its operations in almost 100 countries, and around 132,138 employees work for the company in its global offices. The company recorded total revenue of $35.492B in the year 2020. The company headquarter is situated at Shiodome City Center, Minato, Tokyo, Japan.

Products and Services

Fujitsu started as a manufacturer and supplier of the automatic switching system, but later, the company tried its hands in products like computers, telecommunication equipment, cloud computing, AI as well as telecommunication IT services. The company is one of the largest computer manufacturers and also specializes in the development of the microprocessor. These microprocessors by Fujitsu include SPARC-compliant CPU (SPARClite), the Venus, Fujitsu FR, FR-V, and ARM architecture, etc.

PRIMERGY is the company’s computer line, and it launched its Windows phones under the ETERNUS series. LifeBook and Amilo are the famous notebook series from Fujitsu. The company is also in the cloud service business and has its data centers established in Japan, Australia, Singapore, the U.S, Germany, and the U.K.

The Establishment of Fujitsu

Fujitsu is a spin-off company that came out of a joint venture named Fuji Electric Company between Furukawa Electric Company and the German conglomerate Siemens, founded in 1923. The company was founded on 20 June 1935 as Fuji Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturing. It started as an automatic switching system manufacturers, and in 1938, established its first manufacturing plant in Kawasaki. The next years, it entered into the radio transmission field and also started the production of the power-line carrier devices.

In 1954, the company launched FACOM 100 mainframe, Japan’s first computer. Only after five years, Fujitsu also started to work on second-generation computers, and in 1961, it came out with FACOM 222 mainframe. The company continued to manufacture mainframe computers till 2002 and experimented with all generation computers.

Fujitsu
Image Source: senseiprojectsolutions.com

Fuji Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturing was rebranded as Fujitsu in 1967. In 1971, the company partnered with CCL, a Canadian company, and started the distribution of the latter’s data entry device, Key-Edit. The company also joined its hands with The Queen’s University of Belfast business incubation unit to form a joint venture named Kaino. In 1990, the company launched the series of the world’s fastest mainframe computers. Fujitsu also came with the world’s first 21-inch full-color plasma display in 1992. During the same time, it made acquisitions like ICL (a British company) and KME-CS (a Russian company).

Fujitsu established a joint venture named Spansion with AMD in 1993 and started to manufacture flash memory devices. By this time, the company had also launched its manufacturing units and R&D centers in countries like Texas, Thailand, Malaysia, and China. In June 1999, Siemens (previously the parent company of Fujitsu) partnered with Fujitsu to form a joint venture for their European computer operations with the name Fujitsu Siemens Computers. The two companies owned equal shares in Fujitsu Siemens Computers.

In 2007, the company partnered with Reuters Group to access its IT services. The same year, the company also established a development center in Noida, India. The company sold its HDD business to Toshiba and acquired the complete operations of Fujitsu Siemens Computers, turning the latter into Fujitsu Technology Solutions in 2009. It also acquired an Australian company named Supply Chain Consulting and the Telstra subsidiary Kaz in the same year.

In 2015, the company partnered with VMware and acquired USharesoft. The company started to manufacture the 5G telecommunication equipment in 2019, NTT Docomo and NEC being its major customers. In June 2020, Fujitsu manufactured the world’s most powerful supercomputer named Fugaku in collaboration with the RIKEN research institute. The company has also started to work on Artificial Intelligence and has built an AI monitor to recognize complex hand movements.

The CEO: Takahito Tokita

Takahito Tokita is the current CEO, President, and Chief DX Officer of Fujitsu Ltd. He has been working with Fujitsu since 1988, and since then, he has been appointed to many leadership posts. Tokita has got a Bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has years of experience as a systems engineer and in the financial services sector.

Micron Technology

Micron Technology: From a Budding Consulting Firm to Largest Semiconductor Producers.

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There have been incidents where except the founder of a company, nobody believes in their idea. But as time passes, people start recognizing the ability of the company and the potential of its back idea. A similar case happened with the American semiconductor and memory device manufacturer Micron Technology, as people mocked the founders for thinking of diving into the huge competition. But later, they realized the worth of the company and the vision of the founders. Micron Technology started as a semiconductor consulting business, and with time, became the largest semiconductor and memory chip producer in the industry.

A Brief Introduction

Micron Technology is an America-based memory device and semiconductor manufacturer, with its headquarter located in Boise, Idaho, U.S. The company specializes in the manufacturing of dynamic random-access memory, flash memory, and USB flash drives. As of 2020, the total recorded revenue of the company was US$21.44 billion, and around 40,000 people are working for the company.

Micron Technology
Image Source: businesskorea.co.kr

The Founding of Micron Technology

Four design engineers Ward Parkinson, Joe Parkinson, Dennis Wilson, and Doug Pitman from Mostek Corporation, left their well-paying job to establish Micron Technology in 1978. The company started its operations as a semiconductor design consulting company from the basement of a dentist’s office in Boise, Idaho. It raised its initial funding from some local investors as not many were interested in investing in a new company.

Eventually, Micron Technology successfully established its first wafer fabrication unit in 1981 and started manufacturing the 64K DRAM chips. Just in one year, the company manufactured and supplied around one million chips in 1982. The idea of starting their own manufacturing unit helped the company go public in just six years of its inception.

At the beginning of the 90s, the chips from Micron Technology made their way into the manufacturing of newly introduced personal computers. The growing demand for Micron chips led the company to establish a new manufacturing unit worth 1.3 billion in Utah. In order to expand its operation, the company acquired Texas Instruments’ memory division in 1998.

Micron Technology
Image Source: events.wsu.edu

At the beginning of the 2000s, Micron Technology started to manufacture atomic layer deposition high-k films for DRAM memory devices as well as the 30-nm class NAND flash memory. The latter has been a popular discovery among manufacturers worldwide. In 2005, the company joined its hands with Intel to establish a joint venture named IM Flash Technologies. The next year, Micron went on to acquire Lexar, and in 2008, the company bought the stakes of Qimonda in Inotera technologies. In the next 5-7 years, the company acquired names like Displaytech, Numonyx, Inotera Memories, Elpida Memory, etc.

Micron Technology partnered with Intel in May 2018 and launched the QLC NAND memory, equipment to enhance the storage density. The same year, Micron Technology was among the top 500 companies on the Fortune 500 USA list. In 2019, the company introduced the first 1TB microSD card, and the next year, the company’s 3.84TB Micron 5210 Ion became the world’s cheapest but large capacity SSD. The same year Micron technology joined its hands with NVIDIA to enter the field of graphics processing unit manufacturing and also introduced its latest 176-layer 3D NAND chip with better read and write latency.

The CEO: Sanjay Mehrotra

Sanjay Mehrotra is the serving CEO of Micron Technology. He is an Indian-born American entrepreneur, who is also known as the co-founder of the flash memory products manufacturer company, SanDisk. Mehrotra completed his high school education from Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Lodhi Road, Delhi, and joined BITS Pilani to pursue his graduation. Later he got transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed a bachelors’ as well as a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences.

In 1988, he co-founded SanDisk and held many important roles at the company. For a period from 2011 to 2016, he served the company as the president and the CEO. He left SanDisk after it was acquired by Western Digital in 2016. In May 2017, he was appointed as the chief executive officer of Micron Technology.

Singtel

Singtel: The Telecom Conglomerate and The Largest Mobile Network Operator in Singapore.

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Telecommunication is the most successful industry in the world, and there are few names that are the biggest contributor to what the telecommunication industry is today. Singtel is one such company, with almost a century-old history in the field. The company is based in Singapore and has a customer base of over 640 million. Singtel is one of the four leading telecom companies of Singapore, and apart from Singapore, it is serving in countries like Australia and India.

A Brief Introduction

Temasek Holdings is the owner company of Singtel, and it trades with the name Singapore Telecommunications Limited. Previously it was branded as SingTel. It is one of the four largest telecom companies in Singapore and is headquartered at 31 Exeter Rd, Singapore 239732. Singtel specializes in fixed-line and mobile telephony, broadband and fixed-line internet services, digital television as well as in IT and network services. As of  2020, the total recorded annual revenue of the company was SGD16.54 billion. Amobee, Dataspark Pte. Ltd., Hooq Digital, Singtel Innov8, NCS Pte Ltd, and Trustwave Holdings are some of its subsidiary companies.

Singtel
Image Source: tranglo.com

The Establishment of Singtel

The history of Singtel dates back to the era of the private telephone exchange in 1883. Singapore got its first telephone network handled by Oriental Telephone and Electric Company (OTEC). OTEC operated the local telephone line for about 25 years, and in 1907 it came under the control of the Central Telephone Exchange in Hill Street. The telephone companies then were under the control of British interests, which changed in the mid of 1950s.

In 1955, the Singapore government incorporated a separate entity to control the telephone networks in the country. The entity was a statutory body and was called the Singapore Telephone Board (STB). After working independently for about 20 years, STB was merged with the Telecommunications Authority of Singapore (TAS), which made the local telecom operations of STB go international. In 1982, the postal services of Singapore were also merged with the telecom services of Singapore.

In 1992, the Singapore telecom merger was again split back into three entities; the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore (TAS), Singapore Telecommunications Private Limited, and Singapore Post Private Limited. This spin-off also formed a subsidiary company named Telecommunications Equipment, which later became Singtel. This subsidiary was formed to make the telecom operations of the company expand to other countries as well. In 1992, the company was renamed Singtel, and a new logo was also introduced for it.

The Growth Years

In 1993, Singtel had the largest IPO of Singapore and was listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange on 1 November 1993. The same year, the company also entered the Philippines. In 1997, Singtel acquired National Computer Systems (NCS), and in 1999, it acquired a stake in Thailand’s Advanced Info Service (AIS). By the beginning of the 2000s, the company had entered countries like India, Australia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Africa, by acquiring shares in companies like Airtel, Optus, and Telkomsel.

Singtel also started its business in the field of enterprise solutions and investment business. In 2010, the company founded Innov8, an investment company to invest in innovative technologies. In 2012, Singtel acquired a digital marketing company named Amobee, and in 2015, the company took over the operations of a leading US cybersecurity firm, Trustwave. The same year,  Singtel came with an instant message app Wavee to compete with the already existing apps like Skype and WhatsApp. The users could make video and audio calls through the app.

Singtel
Image Source: hrmasia.com

The Company joined its hands with companies like Etisalat, SoftBank, and Telefónica for a  Global Telco Security Alliance to offer cybersecurity services to companies in 2018. The same year, Singtel established the FutureNow Innovation Centre to enter into the consulting business. Singtel, along with Ericsson and Singapore Polytechnic, started the first live 5G facility to support the 5G ecosystem in Singapore in 2019.

In 2020, Singtel won a 5G license for the nationwide 5G connectivity by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) Singapore.

The CEO

Singtel announced Yuen Kuan Moon to become Group CEO of Singtel on 1 October 2020. He succeeded Chua Sock Koong as the CEO, who retired in January 2021 from her post. Kuan Moon has been with the company since 1993, and over these years, he has handled some major jobs at the marketing, business development, and sales department of the company. Other than being the CEO of Singtel, he also holds the position of chief digital officer in the company.

Android 12

Google Android 12 Developer Preview Reveals the Features and Release Date of the OS.

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Google has already shared the two versions of the Android 12 developer previews, and its third version is also on the way. The developer preview is nothing but a sneak peek at the new features that a software possesses before its actual release. The previous developer previews and other leaks of Android 12 have already given us much-needed information about the OS. The latest leaks and rumors have disclosed some more features and also the date of Android 12’s final release.

Talking About the Features of Android 12

Since the TVs have also become smarter, with the new updated OS, Google has improved the Android 12 OS features for the smart TVs. Apart from that, the company has also made sure that the OS works better on tablets and foldable phones as well. Google has worked on the video and image quality for the new OS, as now it will be possible for the users to save data through image compression and better copy and paste features.

Google has also better the game on screenshot capturing as earlier all the smartphone could only take the whole screen screenshot, but the new improved screenshot feature on Android 12 allows the user to capture a manually selected area on the screen. According to the reports, the screenshot capture may include a markup menu as well, which may allow the users to add annotations and emojis to the screenshots.

Android 12
Image Source: fonearena.com

The split-screen feature has also been improved in the new Android OS 12, as now the users can run two apps in pair through a double-tap on the screen, simultaneously. This very feature has been improved, most likely for foldable smartphones.

Google had already introduced the double tap on the back feature in the Android 11 beta. The feature was to access the Google Assistant by tapping twice on the back of the phone. But it failed to impress the audience. The same feature has been introduced in the Android 12 OS, but this time, the users are allowed to set the sensitivity level of the tap, so that no other action takes place on the tapping. The double-tap feature will also allow the users to access the notification, take a screenshot, pause/resume media playback, and open recent apps, etc.

The new Android 12 OS will also include the theme option in it. The users will be able to apply a particular color as a theme for their smartphones. The app developers can also take advantage of this feature by allowing their apps to incorporate color themes into their apps. The notification panel will also get a whole new opaque background and the looks for the lock screen media player have also been changed a bit. Another new feature of the Android 12 OS will also let the users adjust or reduce on-screen contrast.

Security Feature

The company has also improved the security features for smartphones in the upcoming Android OS. There will be an option to allow or block the use of a camera and microphone on the various apps. The OS will also alert the users if any app is using the content from the clipboard of the phone. The OS will also include the facility to share the wi-fi passwords with nearby smartphones through QR code scanning.

Android 12
Image Source: xda-developers.com

Devices to Get Android 12 and Release Date

Though most of the latest Android smartphones will get access to the new Android 12, the names given by the company that will come with Android 12 includes Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, Pixel 3a, Pixel 3a XL, Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL, Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G, and Pixel 5, Samsung Galaxy S21 and OnePlus 9, etc.

Google has already released the second developer preview version of Android 12 and is organizing the Google IO 2021 event from May 18 to May 20, where the company is said to release the first public beta version of the OS. Reportedly, the company is going to have the final launch of the OS in September this year.

Lam Research

Lam Research: The Innovative Journey of a Future-oriented Company.

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Innovation is what keeps a company to stay relevant to the changing market trends. This innovation keeps the company going and deal with high-pressure competition. Lam Research is a company that also believes in adapting the change and making use of the technology of the future. This very attitude has kept Lam Research stay on the top in the semiconductor market even after 30 years of its inception, and it has never failed to impress its clients with the innovation it brings for them.

Establishment of Lam Research

Lam Research is a leading semiconductor processing equipment design and manufacturing company. It serves the major semiconductor manufacturing businesses from all around the world. The major areas where the company serves, include the United States, Europe, and Asia. The company products involve the manufacturing of equipment for front-end wafer processing and back-end wafer-level packaging (WLP).

Lam Research company headquarter is located in Fremont in Silicon Valley, California. As of 2019, Lam Research made an annual revenue of US$ 9.65 billion, and around 10,700 employees are working for the company in its various branches in the world. Currently, Timothy M. Archer is serving Lam Research as the president and chief executive officer. Before that, he was working as the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the company.

Products from Lam Research

The company specializes in manufacturing thin film deposition, plasma etch, photoresist strip, etc., for the manufacturing of semiconductors. The company offers smart wafer processing solutions for the tine chips to be used in the transistor, interconnect, patterning, advanced memory, and packaging to sensors and transducers. The products made by the company are essentially used in mobile phones, computing devices, entertainment systems, and also in the new smart cars.

Lam Research
Image Source: twitter.com

The Back Story

David K. Lam founded Lam Research in 1980. Lam was working as an engineer at Hewlett-Packard when he thought of bringing better plasma etching equipment into the market at the time when the semiconductors were reducing in size. He was sceptical about his business plan, but Intel’s founder Bob Noyce helped him in raising the funds for the company.

The Company introduced its first automated polysilicon plasma etcher, AutoEtch 480, in 1981 and sold the first system in the January of the next year. Just four years of its inception, the company had its first IPO on NASDAQ, and it traded as LRCX. Though Lam was the founder of Lam Research, he left the company in 1985 and joined Link Technologies. During the late 80s and the beginning of the 90s, the company had started to expand overseas. The company established its factory units and customer support centers in countries like Taiwan, the U.S., China, Korea, Singapore, and Japan.

Lam Research also did some major acquisitions during the same time. It acquired the chip equipment manufacturing company, OnTrak Systems Inc., in 1997 by paying a sum of $225 Million. This acquisition helped the company grow even faster. In fact, the CEO of OnTrak Jim Bagley was also appointed the CEO of Lam Research in the same year. In the late 2000s, Lam Research made some powerful acquisitions, including Bullen Semiconducto (2005), SEZ (2008), and Novellus Systems (2011). Lam Research also made it to the Fortune 500 list in 2016.

Lam Research in 2017 established an investment firm named Lam Research Capital to enhance its investments in new companies.

The Founder: David K. Lam

Before becoming a famous entrepreneur in the U.S., David K. Lam had to wander around in various countries. He was born in Guangdong, China on 10 February 1943, but he spent most of his childhood in Cholon, South Vietnam. In the mid-50s, he, along with his family, moved to Hong Kong, where he joined Pui Ching Middle School.

To complete his further studies, Lam flew to Canada and attended the University of Toronto, and received a bachelor’s degree in Applied Science in Engineering Physics in 1967. He then completed an M.S. degree and an Sc.D. doctoral degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the 1970 and 1973, respectively. As soon he completed his education, he joined Texas Instruments and Hewlett-Packard. This was the same time when he thought of founding Lam Research. Currently, Lam is serving as the chairman of Multibeam Corporation.