Uber and Lyft have already announced their initial public offering in 2019. After the IPO, the valuation of Uber could hit $120 billion, and Lyft may value over $30 billion. Following the footsteps of the two, now Pinterest is also about to enter the list of the companies which are planning their IPOs in the coming year.
Image Source: wsj.com
Pinterest is a visual search engine and shopping tool, which earns money through ads inserted into its stream of ‘pins’. The evaluated revenue of the company for the year 2018 was evaluated to be $1 billion. In the month of September, the platform tracked 250 million monthly users. With 1.5 million businesses on the platform, the company may value at more than $12 billion after it goes public.
Currently, Pinterest is in talks with various banks and is looking for underwriters for its IPO. Also, according to the reports, Pinterest may hire the former Google and Alibaba exec Jane Penner as its head of investor relations.
Ben Silbermann, the CEO of Pinterest had already talked about the company going public in 2019 but had not confirmed the dates. Now if the reports are to be believed, the company will go public as soon as in April 2019.
Pinterest was founded in 2010 and is growing at its own pace following its own niche, way different to its contemporaries, Facebook and Instagram. The company currently is valued at between $13 billion to $15 billion, having 800+ employees. The year 2019 is going to be the year for the IPOs, as companies like Uber and Lyft have already registered for their IPOs in the early December, followed by Slack and Pinterest in the same queue.
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.
AT&T has been prepping for the launch of its 5G network for a long time, followed by a conference early this month, in which it demoed the speed of its upcoming 5G network. After such a long wait, AT&T has announced that its 5G network will go live on 21 December, in some of the parts of 12 cities in the United States. AT&T has become the first company to launch a mobile network based on the 5G standard, although Verizon had also launched its first 5G network earlier this year, as a home broadband replacement.
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Currently, the network is only available to a specific group of people. It’s not like you can go to a store and directly buy the hotspot from there. The company is mainly targetting to provide the service to the businesses in the area. There may be a strategy behind the idea, as the company might be still testing the network, and would want to assure that the service is working well before it goes out to more consumers. So the company is approaching the targeted clients by itself.
AT&T is offering a free 5G hotspot service to those companies, and won’t charge anything until the official launch. The company is planning to launch the network in the other parts of the world by the coming spring and will sell the hot spot for $499. It is also going to announce the monthly plan for the 5G network starting with $70 per month for 15GB.
The cities which have got the access to this 5G service are New Orleans, Charlotte, Atlanta, Raleigh, Houston, Indianapolis, Dallas, Louisville, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Jacksonville, and Waco and the cities that may get access to the same service in the coming six months may include Nashville, Los Angeles, Orlando, Las Vegas, San Diego, San Johe and San Francisco. Even though AT&T will expand to those cities, here too, only some specific parts of those cities will be able to use the 5G network.
AT&T has also announced that it will launch two Samsung 5G phones in 2019, in the two halves of the year. The company is also offering tempting deals for the early subscribers of the 5G network along with free access to it for at least 90 days.
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.
2018 had been a tough year for tech giants like Facebook and Google, especially due to the raised security concerns. But at the same time, the year had new inventions and launches, too, especially the launches of new smartphones, including the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. Many of the smartphones became the best sellers of the year, and many failed the expectations of its users.
Image Source: newatlas.com
After evaluating the specifications, performance and the selling rate of the smartphones, we are here with the top 5 smartphones that were incredibly good and will remain in the favourite’s list of its users in 2019, too.
Google Pixel 3: The Google Pixel 3 was launched in October 2018. The phone is a real challenge for the new iPhones with its impressive features at such a price. The phone ships with a 12.2-megapixel primary rear camera and with two selfie cameras, one for the normal selfie and the other for a wide-angle selfie. Both the front cameras are of 8 megapixels. With excellent build, the phone is a pure Android device, embedded with all the latest software updates. The smartphone has a 5.8-inch OLED display with a 2,260 x 1,080-pixel resolution. The outstanding camera and the unique A.I. features, of this phone, made Google Pixel 3 top our best 2018 smartphones list.
iPhone XS: An elite phone having not much upgrade to the iPhone X, iPhone XS is the most-awaited device for the iPhone lovers. The excellent camera quality and the top-notch performance of the phone is everything a user demands at such a price. The high range of the price does complete justice with its attractive design, outstanding camera and faster processor.
OnePlus 6T: The OnePlus series has been around for a couple of years now and are continuously surprising its users with its performance. The latest addition to the series was the OnePlus 6T phone, that was also launched in October 2018. As soon as the phone arrived it was in the list of the best sellers. The 6.41-inch display phone provides you with the resolution of 1080×2340 pixels. The phone is known for its excellent dual rear camera (16-megapixel and 20-megapixel ), and a 16-megapixel front camera.
Samsung Galaxy S9: The Samsung Galaxy S9 was released in the early March of this year. The phone is the successor to the Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series. It has a beautiful sleek design (similar to the early phones in this series) and is high on performance, too. The latest features added to the phone are facial recognition and biometric security, wireless charging as well as the water resistance. The phone has a 5.8-inch display with a Super AMOLED panel, providing resolution of 1440×2960. Its high performance makes it one of the most powerful Android phones of 2018.
LG V40: The LG V40. The smartphone is one of the best smartphones built by LG. The smartphone renders the best performance, outstanding camera quality, best display and certainly a beautiful and sleek design. The phone has a 6.4-inch QHD+ OLED Display and offers a resolution of 3120×1440. It is the first phone having the wide angle (16MP) and the telephoto lens (12MP) rear camera, together. It supports the wireless charging for its 3,300 mAh non-removable battery. The phone is already out in the markets outside India, and release date for the phone in India is 26 December. So even being a 2018 phone, it will be the newest for the year 2019.
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.
2018 is about to end, and recalling the year, every person and every company has its own story to tell. For the tech giants like Google and Apple, it’s about their products that worked really well in 2018. At the beginning of December, Google revealed its best android apps of the year and now Apple has also announced its ten best apps of 2018, for iPhone, iPad and Apple watch.
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The Apple’s editors in the different categories have created the list that includes the most-downloaded apps, most-streamed films-music, and the best games of 2018, etc. The editorial list includes both free as well as paid versions and has been selected on the basis of popularity and on the basis of the best content across the App Store and iTunes.
In the category of free iPhone apps, YouTube topped the list, followed by Instagram and Snapchat.
Top 10 Free iPhone Apps:
1. YouTube
2. Instagram
3. Snapchat
4. Messenger
5. Facebook
6. Bitmoji
7. Netflix
8. Google Maps
9. Gmail
10. Spotify Music
The selfie-editor FaceTune won the best app in the Paid iPhone apps category.
Top 10 Paid iPhone Apps:
1. Facetune ($3.99)
2. Kirakira+ ($0.99)
3. Dark Sky Weather ($3.99)
4. HotSchedules ($2.99)
5. PlantSnap ($2.99)
6. AutoSleep Tracker for Watch ($2.99)
7. Sky Guide ($2.99)
8. 1 Second Everyday: Video Diary ($4.99)
9. The Wonder Weeks ($2.99)
10. Afterlight 2 ($2.99)
Fortnite not only won the best game in the free iPhone games category but also topped the iPad free games category.
Top 10 Free iPhone Games:
1. Fortnite
2. Helix Jump
3. Rise Up
4. PUBG Mobile
5. Hole.io
6. Love Balls
7. Snake VS Block
8. Rules of Survival
9. Roblox
10. Dune!
Heads Up won the best paid iPhone Game. It is also on the number 5 in the paid games list on iPad.
Top 10 Paid iPhone Games:
1. Heads Up! ($2.99)
2. Minecraft ($6.99)
3. Plague Inc. ($0.99)
4. Bloons TD 6 ($4.99)
5. Pocket Build ($1.99)
6. Bloons TD 5 ($2.99)
7. Geometry Dash ($1.99)
8. The Game of Life ($2.99)
9. Papa’s Freezeria To Go ($0.99)
10. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas ($6.99)
YouTube again was crowned as the best free app for iPad, Netflix and Messenger came on the second and third positions, respectively.
Top 10 Free iPad Apps:
1. YouTube
2. Netflix
3. Messenger
4. Facebook
5. Amazon Prime Video
6. Google Chrome
7. Gmail
8. YouTube Kids
9. The Calculator
10. Amazon Shopping
The drawing app Procreate became the best of the paid iPad app of 2018.
Top 10 Paid iPad Apps:
1. Procreate ($9.99)
2. Notability ($9.99)
3. GoodNotes 4 ($7.99)
4. Toca Life: Pets ($3.99)
5. Duet Display ($9.99)
6. Toca Life: After School ($3.99)
7. XtraMath ($4.99)
8. Toca Hair Salon 3 ($3.99)
9. MyScript Nebo ($7.99)
10. Toca Kitchen 2 ($3.99)
Fortnite reigns as the top free mobile game for iPad too.
Top 10 Free iPad Games:
1. Fortnite
2. Roblox
3. Kick the Buddy
4. Love Balls
5. Helix Jump
6. Color by Number Coloring Game!
7. Bowmasters – Multiplayer Game
8. Hole.io
9. Rise Up
10. Rules of Survival
Minecraft sits on the top of the paid iPad games list.
Top 10 Paid iPad Games:
1. Minecraft ($6.99)
2. Geometry Dash ($1.99)
3. The Game of Life ($2.99)
4. The Room: Old Sins ($4.99)
5. Heads Up! ($0.99)
6. Bloons TD 6 ($4.99)
7. Goat Simulator ($4.99)
8. Five Nights at Freddy’s ($2.99)
9. Lego Jurassic World ($4.99)
10. Terraria ($4.99)
The year was incredibly good for the self-wellness apps like, Fabulous and Calm, and also for the games like Fortnite and PUBG (Players Unknown Battleground). Apple also chose its own favourite apps and games of the year, among which Procreate Pocket and Donut County, were selected as the app and the game of the year on iPhone. And, Froggipedia and puzzle-game Gorogoa were selected as the app and the game of the year on iPad, respectively.
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.
The tech giant Google has been continuously working towards improving its services for its consumers. Similarly, for its most widely used GPS app, Google map, Google has been adding new features to it to make navigation simpler for its users.
Image Source: pcmag.com
Google has already added Uber to its Google Map app, from where the users can book cabs for them. Now on Thursday, Google announced that it is going to partner with Lime and will show the location of nearby Lime battery-powered scooters, on Google Map. Google is planning to do so, in order to shorten the commute times for its users, as they will be able to rent those ride from the app.
Google, in its blog, said that after getting out of a taxi or a subway, the 15 minutes walk can be reduced to a smaller ride with the help of those scooters. Google will now display the nearby Lime scooters on the Google Map app, as another transport option, and after the users tap on it, they will be redirected to the Lime app. If there is no lime app on their smartphones, they will be redirected to the Apple Store or Play Store, so that they can download the app. And then, the users can book those scooters and bikes, from the app.
For now, the service will be available only in thirteen cities worldwide, i.e., Auckland (NZ), Austin, Baltimore, Brisbane (AU), Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland, San Antonio, San Jose, Scottsdale, and Seattle. And, after the successful testing of the services, Google is planning to expand it into other cities as well.
The app not only will show the distance of the vehicle form users’ location but also will display the total journey time, battery consumption, the total cost for the journey and the number of other Lime vehicles nearby.
Lime, in the time of its 14 months operation, has fulfilled almost 1.5 million bike and scooter rides and has raised $467 million in funding to date, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, being one of the biggest investors in it. The partnership between the two companies is not only beneficial for them business-wise, but will be a great contribution in reducing the congestion and carbon emissions.
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.
There is nothing, which the biggest retailer, Amazon, does not want to try its hands in. After building the largest empire of online business, Amazon has also entered into the bricks-and-mortar world, with its large Amazon Go cashier-less stores, operating successfully in Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle.
Image source: pymnts.com
This time, Amazon has launched the tiny version of its Amazon Go stores in Seattle- the eighth cashier-less store. The store is located on the sixth floor of the Macy’s building in downtown, Seattle. It is this first store of the chain of small stores, Amazon intends to launch for airports, office lobbies, and hospitals. This tiny store is quarter the size of the other big Amazon stores, almost about the size of a 450-square-foot New York City studio apartment.
Unlike the other Amazon Go stores, the small store does not have any checkout lanes. The buyers need to scan an in-app code, through the Amazon Go app, on the entrance of the store, and the cameras will take care of whatever they pick from the shelves. As the store is also a cashier-less one, for the checkouts, the customers will make the payments through their Amazon accounts.
The store is isolated with glass walls and an enclosed ceiling, with all the cameras and sensors attached to it. Amazon has built those stores, especially for its employees. The stores contain a wider variety of pre-made food, grocery, salads and snacks, etc., so that the customers can buy the items on the go.
Gianna Puerini, vice president of Amazon Go, said, “We wanted something from a design perspective that would fit nicely into open spaces. You can bring it in pieces and assemble it on site.”
There were news making rounds, in September this year, that Amazon is planning to build over 3000 such stores across the world. However, there has been no confirmation on the topic from the company.
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.
