Your Tech Story

Product

OnePlus 7T Pro

The OnePlus 7 Pro Gets Small Updates with New One Plus 7T Pro

OnePlus is one of the brands that have got to a top position among its rivals in a very small period. And with time, the company has been becoming more and more popular and promising with its products. This time, the company has launched its another premium product, i.e. OnePlus 7T Pro.

Early this year, the company had launched the OnePlus 7 Pro smartphone, and surprisingly, within a few months of its launch, OnePlus came up with another version of the same series, i.e. One Plus 7 Pro. And now after a month, it has released the new OnePlus 7T Pro. The 7T Pro is on the higher end with a price of £699 and can be called the improved version of the 7 Pro and 7T.

Since in one year there has been the launch of two similar smartphones from the same series, for the company too, it was difficult to get new features. This implies that the smartphone though has got a few improvements, but it won’t be able to impress the public at the level 7 Pro did. Maybe, this is the reason that OnePlus is releasing the smartphone only in the European and the Asian market.

OnePlus 7T Pro
Image Source: proandroid.com

With most of the similarities, the smartphone has got improved features in terms of the camera, battery as well as the processor. With a similar super-smooth 90Hz refresh rate the new 7T Pro has got an even more awesome OLED screen.

Though the 7 Pro has been declared the fastest Android smartphone, the new 7T Pro has got the latest Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset, making it even faster at the performance. Along with the latest OxygenOS-version of Android 10 incorporated to it and the faster performance, makes the smartphone most suitable for the gaming people.

Unlike its predecessor, for now, the company has only revealed a single colour in the smartphone, i.e. a stunning ‘Haze Blue’. With the launch of another series of the 7T Pro smartphone. i.e. McLaren Edition, the company has also introduced an orange colour in it.

The 7T Pro has got a similar size and weight as of the 7 Pro smartphone, and there have been no changes to the 16-megapixel pop-up selfie camera and the in-display fingerprint sensor as well. With buttons and ports, design-wise too, the two smartphones are completely identical.

Where the new 7T Pro renders support for 8GB RAM, the McLaren edition smartphone has got a whopping 12GB RAM, which is more than enough. There has been an improvement in the battery as well, as the new OnePlus 7T Pro comes with a 4085mAh battery along with a faster charging rate. So within 20-25 minutes, you will get a 100% charging, and that will run a whole day despite extensive usage.

Despite the company has invested a lot on the new OnePlus 7T Pro, it is just a refresh to the 7 Pro and is more expensive. So it won’t be a good buy unless you want faster charging or the smartphone for gaming.

peopleperhour

Peopleperhour : Strengthening the Freelancers Community in the UK Since 2007

With the emergence of companies like Fiverr, Freelancer.com, Superside and definitely PeoplePerHour, the table has seemed to turn for the freelancer community around the globe. Previously, the majority of the working class didn’t support the idea of freelancing because there wasn’t any job security, no fixed earning and definitely not a long-term job assurance. But, with an increasing number of start-ups and SMEs, the demand for freelancers is escalating very fast. Clients prefer hiring freelancers over hiring an entire agency because the workflow is better, assured delivery of work within time and other factors combined it is pretty amazing for both the clients and the freelancers.

Xenios Thrasyvoulou and Simos Kitiris founded PeoplePerHour in 2007 as an online marketplace for the freelances. The company can hire the talents for a minimum of an hour which stretches up as per the need. PeoplePerHour has really increased employment among the students and senior citizens as well.

Xenios Thrasyvoulou

Xenios graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2002 with a degree in engineering, following the conventional way of pursuing business studies at Harvard Business School. Right after he graduated from Harvard, it was the time when dot com boom was becoming history and businesses again started rising. The era of the internet already hit the UK, and Xenios realized that most of the people tend to do their jobs sitting at home and not preferring the daily 9to5. The offline scheduled job was somewhere starting to lose its value. It hit him hard that why not create an entire marketplace for these people. This was like the ultimate turning point in Xenios’s life, and in 2007, he co-founded PeoplePerHour along with Simos Kitiris.

peopleperhour founders
Image Source: thegoodwebguide.co

Xenios has also founded another start-up called TalentDesk.io in January 2017.

Simos Kitiris

Simos also completed his engineering from the University of Cambridge in the same year as Xenios. He joined Amadeus as a Software Engineer, immediately after graduating, followed by working for Accenture as an IT Consultant. He left Accenture in 2006 and started working with Xenios on the PeoplePerHour project. He is the CTO of PeoplePerHour, and apart from that, he worked as an Advisor for SIP-The Tech Investment Club, Hellas Direct and BetaAngels Management LLC. In October 2013, Simos Kitiris founded another UK based start-up, Yumbles.

Founding PeoplePerHour

Dealing with the crisis of freelancers, Xenios realized that there is a huge gap between the service providers, and the clients, which led him to co-found PeoplePerHour with Simos. Founding the company in 2007, it has its office in Athens, with its headquarters based in London, UK. The most unique feature of PeoplePerHour is job or project allotted to the freelancers is hour wise. Unlike other freelancer company, when the project is uploaded along with the deadline, in PeoplePerHour the working hours might extend as long as it needs to complete the work, and the freelancers are paid accordingly.

The Success

The launch of PeoplePerHour turned out to be a great success as the employment of senior citizens in the UK increased by a great number. After retirement, many people still have the zeal to work but maybe not a 9to5. PeoplePerHour worked wonder for them, and according to the report from the UK Office for National Statistics, 358,000 people aged above 65 started working after the launch of this online platform. The mostly the retirees showed a keen interest, and by 2012, the percentage of senior citizens searching for a job increased by 137%. In this journey of 12 years almost, PeoplePerHour has served more than 1million clients and paid over £100 million to its freelancers.

Investors and Fundraising

After the opening of the beta version in 2007, the company kept expanding, and within a year, PeoplePerHour announced that their freelance community comprises of 40,000 freelancers. One of the biggest investors of PeoplePerHour is Index Ventures, and the amount of fundraising in the interim funding round was undisclosed. In 2010, the company raised funding of £425,000 from its founders and Michael van Swaaij. The company secured a fund of £2million from Index Ventures, and along with that, also launched its new iPhone app in October 2012. In the same year, PeoplePerHour was featured in the magazine, Wired UK as one of Europe’s 100 Hottest Startups of 2012.

The company today comprises of around 100 employees, with Xenios as the CEO and Simos as CTO. Even though Simos has recently opened his own start-up, he still keeps serving the community of PeoplePerHour.

Revel Systems

Revel Systems : A Point of Sale Platform Transforming the Way People Do Business

Whether it is to manage a small store or a big inventory, keeping the records, the money, and the inventory properly is the most difficult task. To solve these problems, the POS (Point of Sale) systems have been the saviours for the business owners. And one of the most popular POS software is developed by Revel Systems, a company that was founded by Lisa Falzone and Chris Ciabarra in 2010.

Lisa Falzone

Falzone was a Stanford alumnus and graduated in 2007. While in college, she participated in swimming competitions for Stanford, and won two conference title in 2004 and 2005, as the Cardinal swimming program member.

Her participation in swimming landed her, her first job as a swimming instructor. Along with that, she even completed different internships in various fields, including finance, public relations, marketing, human resources, and venture capital.

Revel Systems Founders
Image Source: fortune.com

Despite good scope in swimming, she was always interested in entrepreneurship and starting her business. Her first venture was a bathing suit distribution company. She had also started a business to sell kids’ toys which became quite popular. And before starting Revel, she even built a website, where people could sell their expertise, meaning, they could teach people their skills online.

Meanwhile, when life was going really smooth, she, while moving a couch, injured her backbone, and was bedridden for a long time. Being a workaholic, she started a new blog, where she used to put inspirational quotes and stories.

Chris Ciabarra

Ciabarra, on the other hand, was another serial entrepreneur. He is an Italian-American, who had been building and selling websites since he was in high school. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Kutztown University of Pennsylvania in 2000. In 2004, he joined the Alvernia University, where he finished a master’s degree in Business Administration.

With an entrepreneurial soul, Ciabarra started his first successful business, a security software firm, Network Intercept. Other than that, he even built Interceptor.net, Scan-on-the-Go Secure, Adrenaline cell phone app, and Nano-stealth. He is a member of the Forbes Technology Council, and the International Frozen Yogurt Association.

Founding Revel Systems

While Falzone was running her blog, Ciabarra came into her contact through the same blog. Ciabarra was a regular visitor of the blog and used to comment on the blogs regularly. Soon, the two became good friends, and the two eventually ended up launching an iPhone ordering app.

The users could easily see the iPhones, select one, and order it through the app. Later in 2010, this partnership among the two led to founding Revel Systems, a company that makes iPad point of sale systems. The company integrates with third-party vendors, and has an open API, allowing others to customize the POS system.

Revel Systems develops Point of sale systems that can be operated from both mobile devices (Apple) as well as via Web browser, connecting devices like a receipt printer, cash drawer, and card swipe. Revel Systems have further extended its service to the retail, restaurant and kitchen services like Retail POS, Grocery POS, Drive-through POS, Food Truck POS, and Restaurant POS, etc. These systems are customizable such that the users can change the settings according to their needs. The end users can easily make online orders through Facebook and Twitter integration on the platform.

The Success

The company’s idea had a great impact on the investors, such that in just one year, the company received $3.7 million in funding from DCM. In 2014, Revel partnered with Intuit Inc., and the latter also led the Series C-2 round for the company. The partnership was to together create Quickbooks Point for Intuit Inc.

In 2015, the company hosted its Series C round of funding receiving $110 Million in funding with a $13.5 Million from Roth Capital Partners. Revel Systems partnered with Apple Computers and became a member of the Apple Enterprise Mobility Program in the same year. The next year, Revel partnered with Shell Global.

The company has also partnered with major payment service providers, including PayPal, FirstData, Mercury Payments, LevelUp, etc. The company has also started reward programs for users by partnering with LevelUp, Punchh, LoyalTree, and Synergy.

The company’s major clients include Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen, Forever Yogurt, Little Caesars Pizza, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Twistee Treat, etc.

Awards and Recognition

Revel Systems was #1 in the “Best iPad POS Systems” in the Business News Daily list. In 2013, the Revel Systems’ app was named Best Retail app by the Tabby Awards.

Falzone, for her contribution to the tech world, got recognized as one of the 30 Most Important Women Under 30 in Tech by Business Insider. Forbes Magazine also named her in the 30 under 30 list. Falzone was ranked #19 on the 40 Under 40 list by Fortune Magazine. She was also among the Eight Rising Stars in the Forbes list.

CashKaro Logo

Cashkaro : India’s first cashback based company

Anyone who buys things online, and does enough research regarding sales will know about Cashkaro, as it is one of India’s most prominent coupons website. If you aren’t an online buying aficionado, Cashkaro allows you to use rebates, coupons and cashback to shop more efficiently and frugally.

Started in 2013, Cashkaro which was founded by couple turned entrepreneurs, Rohan and Swati Bhargava, after graduation from the London School of Economics. Here’s a look at how Swati built up such an empire, in such a short time.

The Founders

Swati Bhargava is an Investment Banker, turned business visionary from the quaint town of Ambala. She was born and brought up in Ambala, till she left for Singapore after securing a scholarship for herself. At the young age of 16, Swati won the jackpot when she got selected for the Singapore Airlines scholarship. As the small-town girl secured more than 85% in her12th grade and ended up impressing the judges and getting selected. It was Singapore that inspired the young Swati to dream bigger.

Cashkaro founders
Image Source: businessworld.in

After finishing her schooling, she joined the London School of Economics and earned an Honour’s degree in Mathematics and Economics in 2005. She then began her banking career at Goldman Sachs, where she worked both in the Investment Banking and Executive Office divisions for five years.

While as a young girl Swati dreamt of joining the Indian Foreign Services, she instead opted to turn entrepreneur due to her love for marketing and business. Swati also had plans of joining Oxford as a youngster, but later, decided to go ahead with the London School of Economics as they gave her a higher scholarship.

Meanwhile, after graduating from the London School of Economics, Rohan worked with reputed companies like Washington Square and Aladdin Capital where he oversaw acquisitions worth more than $1 billion. He then went on to start his own venture, in 2011 called Pouring Pounds, in the UK, which too, focused on coupons and cashback. Once he got back to India, he and his wife, established Cashkaro, which quickly turned successful.

Founding Cashkaro

Leaving behind a safe and secure life as Investment bankers in the UK, the Bhargavas switched their focus to Pouring Pounds, which was a coupon based business, they had in the UK in 2011. It was the resounding success of such cashback companies in the US and UK, that prompted Swati to start such a venture.

The rebate business is a multi-billion-dollar business both in the US and China. This inspired Swati and Rohan to try out something of their own, through Pouring Pounds. While Swati never felt she would move back to India while working in London, the success of their venture, convinced the couple to shift their focus to India.

The couple gained enough confidence from the success of Pouring Pounds and so decided to extend their business to India in April 2013. The company started out with a small team in India, the co-founders staying in London. The two realised that they needed funding, so the couple wrote to a few friends about raising US$250K for the business, but by the end of the day, got replies from over 20 interested parties. Within 48 hours, the duo raised US$750K as investors knew that the e-commerce market in India had unlimited potential. Swati was able to successfully convince over 500 e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Myntra, and Jabong to join their venture, and this helped spearhead the company’s impressive growth.

Cash Positive Cashkaro

Cashkaro quickly grew to become one of India’s leading coupons website, with transactions exceeding Rs 10 crores. The company successfully offers and fulfils over 5,500 exchanges daily and since its inception has helped users save a whopping Rs 200 crores.

CashKaro.com has grown to become a preeminent player in the Indian market and is the only coupons website that is venture-capitalist supported. The company has raised over $4 million through a Series A funding managed by Kalaari Capital. The business model which allowed retailers that enlisted in Cashkaro to pay them a commission, which would then pass on to the customers as cashback, found immediate success in India. This unique model ensured that their business was not impaired by GST directly.

Cashkaro Today

Today, the site has got over 150,000 registered members who save an average of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 per year, thanks to Cashkaro. The company has over 1,500 associates including Koovs, Pepperfry, MakeMyTrip and Zoomcar to name a few.

While the idea was novel and was started from scratch, the company now has more than 80 employees. Swati’s guiding philosophy comes from the Gita, which says,” Karm karo, phal ki chinta mat karo!”, and this is something that the female entrepreneur has followed from day one to grow her business to its present glory. Currently, Swati heads Cashkaro’s marketing team and is working on plans for the company’s expansion into diverse verticals.

It wasn’t easy becoming India’s first cashback based company to raise more than $ 750,000. It took a lot of courage, knowledge, research and hard work, but it was all worth it for Swati, as she marches on a proud female entrepreneur, a flagbearer for several small-town girls with big dreams!

Google Maps

Google Maps for iPhone will Now Let You Report Incidents Like Traffic Jams and Crashes

Despite being the biggest player in the smartphone industry, the iPhone users still rely on Google Maps when it comes to finding direction to a location or see for the traffic on the way, instead Apple having its own map app. This is only because of the high tech methods, Google has been using to provide the mapping services to the users. Now, the company has brought another set of updates to improve its services on Google Maps for the iPhone.

Among the new updates, the company has announced a new feature that will allow the iPhone users to report the incidents from the road to Google Maps, like any road blockage, construction, accident, traffic or any other driving hazards, which will reflect on the screens of other people when commuting on the same route.

The feature is inspired by Google’s navigation app Waze, which the company bought five years ago paying 1.1 billion. On Waze, people are already able to track and report the mentioned incidents, and we can see that Google is trying to slowly migrate those features to its Google Maps app. In fact, Google has already added similar features to its Android Google Maps App and people has received it quite well.

Google Maps

In recent months, the company has been making new changes to the app to improve its functionalities. Also, in May this year, 40 countries received the speed limits and speed trap alerts feature on the Android Google Maps app. The company even introduced features that would allow the users to add stoppage in between their route while using the navigation on the map.

To use the latest feature on the iPhone’s Google Maps app, one while following the navigations on the map can tap on a button under the compass on the map. The app will list various options, like Crash, Speed Trap, Slowdown, Construction, Lane Closure, Disabled vehicle and Object on Road, and the user will need to select one of the options to report the incident.

The new feature though will help the other users to track the traffic or blockage on the road due to any of the reasons, and change their route, but it will be more beneficial for Google in terms of collecting data and improving its services.

Yahoo groups

Yahoo is Deleting all the Content on Yahoo Groups on 14 December

Yahoo has been a famous platform for sending and receiving emails, so has been its Yahoo Groups site. There was a large audience on the platform, and it was used like discussion forum, similar to Reddit. But in recent times, as Yahoo has been facing survival issues, its subsidiaries have also been coming near to the end.

In the same regard, Yahoo has just announced that it is going to restrict is services on Yahoo Groups and will remove all its content by 14 December this year. Though people were still active on the platform, and some people have just registered to it, it failed to remain popular among them.

Yahoo revealed the news through a blog post, and it advised the users that they start saving their content as the company will be removing all the content on the discussion board site on 14 December. Another important date in this regard is 21 October, from which people will not be able to upload new content on the site. After the company deletes the content, the users will need to request to be a member of the groups as all the public groups will become private. Though the groups will be visible to them, they will not be able to see the content in them until they become a member of the groups. The users will only be able to interact with the groups via email.

Yahoo groups

“The Yahoo Groups site will continue to exist, however, all public groups will be made private or restricted. Any new group members will need to request an invite or be invited by an admin. Admins will still be able to manage various group settings, though some functionality will be limited,” wrote Yahoo.

The content that Yahoo will be removing includes Files, Polls, Links, Photos, Folders, Calendar, Database, Attachments, Conversations, Email Updates, Message Digest, and Message History. So it would be better for the users that they start saving their content asap.

According to Yahoo, one can simply download the files and other things from the groups they have joined. And, the other way to get all the content is to request their group’s data through their Yahoo account on Yahoo, and Yahoo will prepare the data for download and intimate them through email. The users can also get the content by directly going to the Verizon Media’s Privacy Dashboard.