Your Tech Story

Tech News

Hewlett Packard Enterprise to Acquire Cray in a $1.3 Billion Deal

News, Tech News / By

The HP’s spin-off company Hewlett Packard Enterprise revealed that it is planning to acquire supercomputer maker brand, Cray. Cary is the company founded by Seymour Cray, the father of ‘supercomputing’, in 1972 and is the leading company developing the supercomputers since then.

hewlett-packerd cray
Image Source:coindesk.com

The data industry is moving at a rapid speed and people want faster solutions. Together HPE and Cray are looking forward to work in the field of in cloud computing, high-performance computing and AI.

“Cray is a global technology leader in supercomputing and shares our deep commitment to innovation. By combining our world-class teams and technology, we will have the opportunity to drive the next generation of high-performance computing and play an important part in advancing the way people live and work,” said Antonio Neri, the President and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Cray has been providing sophisticated machines for computing works to many of the federal agencies. In fact, 80 per cent of its services are for government projects, whereas HPE is one of the leaders in the private sector. So the acquisition will definitely help make the two expand in each others’ field. Recently, Cray even partnered with AMD in order to build a new supercomputer for the Department of Energy. This supercomputer will be able to do quintillion calculations within seconds.

HPE announced on Friday that it will be acquiring Cray, in an all-cash deal worth $1.3 billion. With the acquisition, HPE will be able to experiment with and use the Cray’s knowledge and technology in the field of supercomputing, and with its own powerful position, it will become the leader in the supercomputing industry. In fact, recently, Cray had revealed that it is working on something, which can be the fastest supercomputer in the world. This way the deal between the two tech giants can get HPE great opportunities of benefits in the coming future.

Microsoft and Sony Joins Hands on Cloud-based Streaming for Games and Other Content

News, Tech News / By

Microsoft and Sony have been the biggest rivals with their major consumer interactive entertainment franchises – Xbox and PlayStation. But for the surprise of all, the game lovers and the other rivals and even the partner companies of the two, Microsoft and Sony have partnered with each other for sharing a few of each other’s services to get benefits from them.

sony-microsoft-xbox-playstation
Image Source: techcrunch

The two tech giants announced on Thursday, that they are seeking to join hands such that Sony will be able to use the Microsoft’s Azure cloud to stream games over it and will participate in the research works along with the latter on Azure, in order to explore its scope for the game and other content streaming. Similarly, the two will be working together in order to develop new image sensors.

“Our mission is to seamlessly evolve this platform as one that continues to deliver the best and most immersive entertainment experiences, together with a cloud environment that ensures the best possible experience, anytime, anywhere. I believe that our joint development of future cloud solutions will contribute greatly to the advancement of interactive content.” Kenichiro Yoshida, President and CEO of Sony, said in a statement.

The partnership between the two can be considered as the prevention for the tough competition, that they may face in the coming future, as Google and Apple both have announced their new game streaming platforms, Stadia and Arcade. Both the game streaming services are expected to be threats for both their contemporaries, Sony and Microsoft. In fact, Apple’s Arcade game streaming service is the world’s first game subscription service for both desktop and mobile, which has already attracted the attention of many and are eagerly waiting for the same.

On the other hand, the other biggest gaming company, Nintendo, has also refurbished its Switch consoles giving a tough competition to the other gaming companies and leaving them behind with their outdated gaming services.

The deal between Sony and Microsoft is still at its early stage, and the two companies, along with developing the image sensors is also planning to work together in the field of semiconductors and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Though the plans look pretty promising, seeing the two rival companies work together will be interesting.

Amazon Opens its OnePlus 7 Pro Sale for All Users; Offers No Cost EMI on the Purchases with Credit Card

News, Tech News / By

After making a lot of buzzes, finally, OnePlus 7 Pro is available in India on the official website of OnePlus, its physical stores, the other partner stores including Chroma, as well as at Amazon. Earlier, the company had made the One Plus 7 Pro sale open for only the Amazon prime users on the Early Access Sale and the OnePlus Early Birds Sale. But now the other Amazon users can also take advantage of the sale, and buy this OnePlus ultra-premium flagship smartphone.

oneplus-7-pro
Image Source: bgr.com

The sale of the phone started at 12 am today, and it, currently, is selling the three variants of the smartphone. The three variants of OnePlus 7 Pro includes 6GB RAM/128GB storage variant, which is available at the price range Rs 48,999, a Rs 52,999 variant, having an 8GB RAM/256GB storage as well as the 12GB RAM/256GB storage that costs the buyers a Rs 57,999. There are two other variants to this flagship smartphone, which will be launched in June this year and will cost Rs 32,999 for the base 6GB RAM/128GB option, and Rs 37,999 for the 8GB RAM/256GB version.

The smartphone was launched at an event in Bengaluru, on 15th May, along with the OnePlus Wireless Bullets V2 earphones. All the OnePlus 7 Pro variants are available in Almond, Mirror Grey, and Nebula Blue shades. But for now, the buyers will only get their hands on the smartphones in Mirror Grey colour, as the Almond shade of the phone will be rolled out after May 28 and the third one, i.e. Nebula Blue will be available in the month of June.

The OnePlus 7 Pro is packed with OxygenOS based on Android 9.0 Pie and has got the 6.67-inch Fluid AMOLED display with Quad-HD+ resolution (1440×3120 pixels). After various leaks and rumours, people were excited for its great quality triple cameras and its sleek design. The smartphone has got the motorised selfie camera, hidden inside the screen of the phone, whereas it has three cameras on the back, one of which is a 48MP Sony IMX 586 sensor with OIS, the secondary camera features a 16-megapixel sensor, which is a wide angle camera, and the third one is an 8-megapixel camera.

OnePlus 7 Pro is a bigger phone and has got new features including stereo speakers, new X-haptic vibration motor, noise cancellation support, Dolby Atmos support, native Screen Recording, and a Zen Mode, etc.

As the smartphone is available online, the company is also offering up to Rs 2000 cashback on purchase using SBI debit and credit cards. On the other hand, JIO is also providing benefits of worth Rs 9300 to the buyers, as well as people can buy the smartphone through no-cost EMI of 6 months. The buyers will also get up to 70 per cent Servify Guaranteed Exchange Price and up to 60 per cent Cashify buyback value with a special upgrade bonus for previous OnePlus smartphone owners.

Instagram is Killing its Standalone Messaging App ‘Direct’ Only After Two years of its Inception

Facebook, News, Tech News / By
instagram direct app
Image Source: marketingland.com

Facebook is going forward on the way to integrating most of its apps, and after its announcement of bringing chat back to the Facebook app, the company is now planning to kill the Instagram’s standalone Direct app.

Instagram revealed that by the next month, it will pull off the support for its direct messaging app. But the Instagrammers doesn’t have to worry about their messages, as the platform will migrate all the messages from the Direct app to the Instagram app DMs.

With the launch of Direct app in 2017, Facebook and Instagram both were up to adding new features and making it a standalone messaging app to stand against rivals like Snapchat. Similar to the Snapchat app, the Direct app opens with a camera. In fact, after logging in to the Direct app, the DM feature also disappears from the Instagram app.

But as a step of Facebook in the way of consolidating all its major apps, now Direct will have to face a young death. Instead, all the features it possesses will be merged into the DM feature of Instagram.

The company has already stopped providing updates to both the versions of the app. The latest update that the Android app had received was in April, whereas the iOS app had received the latest update in December last year.

The users have been receiving messages from the company about the closure of the app, upon which, a Direct user Matt Navarra, posted a tweet in a thread, saying, “Confirmed: Instagram is killing its standalone Direct Messaging app.” Upon which Instagram also posted a tweet, “Your conversations will automatically move over to Instagram, so you don’t need to do anything.”

Shutting down the Direct app might not be a big deal for either company as the app has failed in gaining as many users as Instagram has. In fact, the Instagram app’s DM feature has been a source of business promotion for many, and it is way more popular than Direct app despite having lesser features than the Direct app.

Lilium Unveils Five-seater Air Taxi Prototype After it Successfully Completes its First Test Flight

News, Tech News / By

The German aviation startup company, founded in 2016, has been working towards attaining the comfort for the people with its on-demand air taxis, and now, it announced that it has successfully completed the first test for its full-scale air taxi. The taxi is a prototype of the company’s taxi air crafts, that holds the capacity of carrying five passengers at a time, and is all electric.

lilium five-seater air craft
Image Source: techcrunch.com

The new five-seater aircraft is the company’s one of the all-electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) device, the first of which was a two-seater aircraft, successfully tested by the company about two years ago. But in the case of the two-seater aircraft, the prototype test had gone well. But when it came to the full-scale Lilium jet demonstration, after the take-off of the aircraft, the shift from vertical to forward flight was not as smooth as it was expected to be.

The new five-seater Lilium taxi has an egg-shaped cabin, having five passengers’ seats, which is mounted over the landing gear. It has the unique pair of parallel, asymmetrical tilt-rotor wings, that holds the 36 all-electric jet engines. Those electric jet engines enable the aircraft to take off and land in a vertical plane. Though the flight takes off and lands vertically, it renders “remarkably efficient horizontal or cruise flight”.

The company has been carrying out extensive tests with its latest five-seater air taxi, and the results are remarkable in every aspect. The company has released a video that shows how the aircraft takes off vertically, and after hovering for a small time in the air, the aircraft lands smoothly on the ground.

The company claims that after the final product is ready, it will be able to achieve a speed of 300 km/hour (186 mph). According to the Lilium’s chief compliance officer, Remo Gerber, the speed it can achieve is way more than that of the speed attained by its rival air crafts. The reason being, the aircraft uses only 10 per cent of its maximum 2,000 horsepower during the cruise flight.

But on the other hand, the electric air taxi works better with fuel, as the batteries that are available in the market are not powerful enough. For the air taxis, the battery power has to be in a proper ratio with the weight of the aircraft. So when fuel is used in the aircraft, it provides up to 43 per cent better performance.

Since the company is still carrying out tests on its five-seater flying taxi, the possibility of it coming into operation must not be expected before 2025. Also, the company will be launching a full-fledged app for people, so that they will be able to book the taxis through it.

Facebook Launches New Policy ‘One Strike’ to Prevent People from Misusing Live Streaming

Facebook, News, Tech News / By

Live streaming is popular, and Facebook is among those social media platforms, who brought this feature to the common people for the very first time. But in recent times, the company has witnessed how people are missing the very feature and violating Facebook’s live video streaming guidelines. Not taking a very old example, the live broadcast of the inhuman mass shootings at two Christchurch mosques in New Zealand in March took everybody by shock.

facebook live stream
Image Source: marketingland.com

Keeping all this in mind, the company has decided that it will be implementing a ‘one strike’ rule, for the ones, who will be violating its live video streaming guidelines. According to the company, it will take down the accounts for a set time period, if they fail to maintain the live streaming guidelines and violate the rules.

“Starting today, people who have broken certain rules on Facebook, including our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy will be restricted from using Facebook Live,” Facebook wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.

The company confirmed that the ‘one strike’ rule is the result of the live broadcast of the horrifying New Zealand terrorist attack, which people kept on sharing even after Facebook had taken down the video. In fact, people were editing the video so that they could prevent the video from getting identified and will be shared further.

For such matters, the company has announced that it will be investing $7.5 million in new research partnerships, to carry out researches across industry and academia in order to improve the analysing techniques for the images and videos posted on the platform.

Previously, the company did not have much of strict rules for the violation of any of its guidelines. e.g. if there was a post that spread hate or rumours, Facebook would take the post down, and if the offence is done repeatedly by an account, the account was banned for a set period of time. But now, the rules will be stricter, as if Facebook finds someone broadcasting something offensive and violates the Facebook’s live stream guidelines for the very first time, the company will ban the account from live streaming for a certain time limit.

Facebook is also tightening its rules for the other areas that need attention, and for now, it will also be imposing strict rules for the people, who create ads that misguide people and spread hate.

“The overwhelming majority of people use Facebook Live for positive purposes, like sharing a moment with friends or raising awareness for a cause they care about. Still, Live can be abused and we want to take steps to limit that abuse.” the company wrote in the blog post.