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Apple Acquires the best Automation app for iOS: Workflow

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Workflow is a name familiar to most if not all the iPhone users. It is a very useful iOS app which allows you to combine functionality of various apps as well as different steps required to achieve an action. In simpler words, it makes a button which does all the things for you in the background, you just have to press it once and your job is done. With Workflow, one can create GIFs out of camera photos, convert websites into PDF and what not by a single touch. Workflow, a kind of automation tool got so popular that Apple decided to acquire.

The acquisition of Workflow by Apple was in rumors for a while and finally on Tuesday, all the rumors were set to rest when TechCrunch confirmed the acquisition news for the first time. No financial details were revealed though. Complete team of founders- Weinstein, Conrad Kramer, Ayaka Nonaka and Nick Frey will be now part of Apple team and we might see inclusion of some of Workflow’s automation and productivity tools in upcoming versions of iOS starting with iOS 11.

“We are thrilled to be joining Apple. We’ve worked closely with Apple from the very beginning, from kickstarting our company as students attending WWDC to developing and launching Workflow and seeing its amazing success on the App Store. We can’t wait to take our work to the next level at Apple and contribute to products that touch people across the world. ” TechCrunch quoted Ari Weinstein, Co-Founder, Workflow.

Strangely, Apple did not remove the app from the App store, but made it available free of cost for everyone’s use. This sounds much merrier than it actually is. Although the app is free now, but several awesome automation features, which competed with Apple’s product, are removed from the latest update. Release notes inside the app show that only Apple Maps is supported in maps actions. Now, the Translate Text workflow is powered by Microsoft Translate, and workflows that involve Uber, Telegram, Pocket, Google Chrome or Google Street View are no longer supported.

“The Workflow app was selected for an Apple Design Award in 2015 because of its outstanding use of iOS accessibility features, in particular an outstanding implementation for VoiceOver with clearly labeled items, thoughtful hints, and drag/drop announcements, making the app usable and quickly accessible to those who are blind or low-vision.” Apple added while speaking about Workflow.

What engineers at Apple were unable to do it better than a 3-membered team of smart technicians, so they decided to acquire the company and hired the whole team.

 

India Makes It Big: ISRO Sets World Record By Launching 104 Satellites On A Single Rocket

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Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) today made history by creating a world record of setting 104 satellites into the orbit. PSLV-C37, the heaviest PSLV launched Earth-mapping Cartosat 2 series satellite weighing 700 Kg. along with 103 nano satellites belonging to UAE, US, Israel, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Switzerland etc. With this successful launch India becomes world’s first country to set more than 100 satellites with a single rocket. Last record was held by Russia when in 2014 it launched 37 satellites in single go.

The PSLV rocket was launched from Srihsarikota space centre in east India. The Cartosat 2 series satellite is capable of taking high resolution pictures and India may use it to keep a watch on neighboring countries like China and Pakistan. For last two decades India has been focusing more on its space research program. ISRO is already working on mission to moon (Chanderyaan) and mission to Mars (Mangalyaan). Mangalyaan, a $74 million mission made India the first country in the world to have successfully launched its mission to Mars on the very first attempt.

For the first time India has used Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) and whole process was completed in 26 minutes. A reusable launch system is capable of launching satellites into space more than once which means it can be used again and again to set satellites in the orbit. In 2016 India successfully launched its own space shuttle and joined the league of few countries in the world to have this capability.

With this feather in cap India seems to take the commercial rocket & space industry by storm.

Video Credit: Doordarshan

Team Indus: An Indian space technology startup in the race to land on moon

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Team Indus a Bangalore, India based technology startup is one of few companies in the world and only company from India that have ventured into highly costly and research intensive aerospace industry. Team Indus (Axiom Research Labs) founded by Rahul Narayan, Dilip Chabria, Indranil Chakraborty, Sameer Joshi and Julius Amrit has plans to land on moon. ISRO a Govt. of India organization is the only agency in India that works in aerospace field and has been working on a mission to mars called Chandrayaan since 2003.  There are only three countries in world that have soft-landed on moon (China, USSR & US). Soft landing means lading with controlled speed without any damage to spacecraft and surface.

rover on moon Image Credit: Wikipedia

This Indian space startup is participating in Google Lunar XPRIZE competition and working on a spacecraft that will be capable of landing on the moon along with a rover that will explore moon. Google will be offering $30 million as  prize money to the winners of this competition (cost of this kind of project is way hire than prize money offered by Google). Team Indus was one of five teams selected to compete in the Milestone prizes and they won $1M as a Milestone prize for their landing technology. To win the contest participating team has to land a robot on the moon, cover 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send data and pictures back to the earth.

Team Indus started working in 2010. The team which had no experience in space technology worked hard for three years and came up with first design in 2013. Adimurthy, a retired  ISRO scientist rejected their design after first review in 2013. Indus team worked hard and was ready with a new propulsion system in a year.

Propulsion technology innovation

Since propulsion technology used by other countries is highly confidential and inaccessible, Team Indus decided to design their own propulsion system. Team Indus is going to use a propulsion systems that  has never been used before for such critical space mission. They are using a combination of small fixed thrust engines and produce the variable thrust effect using control algorithms. So what other space organizations have been doing with hardware, Team Indus is trying to do with software algorithms.

Team Indus is being led by Rahul Narayana along with more than 20 ISRO scientist. Team Indus with more than 100 employees has secured funding to the tune of $35 M from Pallav Nadhani (Fusion Charts), Subrata Mitra & Shekhar Kirani (Accel Partners), Sharad Sharma (former Yahoo India R&D head), Vivek Raghavan (chief product manager of UIDAI), Pallaw Sharma (director of analytics at Microsoft),  Bala Parthasarthy(AngelPrime angel investors), Sunil Kalra(entrepreneur & investor) and Paras Chopra.

Team Indus has acquired a launch vehicle (PSLV) from ISRO on commercial rates for sending their spacecraft and rover to moon from Sriharikota in 2017. It would be interesting to see who lands on moon first, ISRO, Team Indus or Elon Musk‘s SpaceX which has already started booking for earth to moon flight.

Online movie ticket company Alibaba Pictures secures $260M funding

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Alibaba pictures a subsidiary of Jack Ma’s Alibaba group has secured series A funding to the tune of $260M. Alibaba pictures run an online movie ticket platform Taobao Movie. After this funding Taobao Movie’s valuation stands at $2.1 billion. Taobao Movie was brought by Alibaba pictures from its parent company in November 2015.

taobao

Taobao Movie lets Chinese movie lovers book movie tickets for around 5,000 movie theaters in China. Alibaba Pictures Group last year also bought Yueke Software engineering, a movie ticketing software company for $134M. Online movie ticketing is a crowded space all over the world. There are already a number of players in online movie ticketing business in China.

Zhang Qiang, CEO of Alibaba Pictures, said:

“The completion of this Series A Financing demonstrates that the business strategy, market prospects and operational capability of Taobao Movie has been well recognised by the industry. With the support of more abundant resources and capital, we will continue to create greater value for our partners, investors and the market.”

This round of funding was led by CDH Investments, Ant Financial Services Group, and Sina.com.

Hyperloop to cut 6 hours journey to 30 minutes by 2019

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Hyperloop is a futuristic transportation technology, proposed by tech billionaire Elon Musk that will use reduced pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on an air cushion. Known as the fifth mode of transportation, Hyperloop showed its mettle in the north of Las Vegas in the Nevada desert.

The first public open air test in the Nevada desert on Wednesday lasted for only about two seconds but gave a spine chilling experience to the audiences. Fifteen hundred pounds of aluminum reached 120 mph in just 1.5 seconds, accelerating to 300 mph before it hitting the sand. Now transportation of people and goods inexpensively and safely at lightning speed is no more a dream.

The company which is vying to turn the idea into reality was established in 2014 as Hyperloop Technologies, Inc. and re-branded in 2016 as Hyperloop One. Hyperloop One got $37 million in funding to build the test track. A recent round of $80 million included France’s railway system SNCF.

If things go in the right direction then, Hyperloop would be able to work by propelling pods at high speeds through a tube, which in theory would be able to make the journey from San Francisco to Los Angeles in just 30 minutes.

The Hyperloop is essentially a futuristic train that Musk calls “a cross between a Concorde, a rail-gun and an air hockey table”. This speed was never thought to be possible but soon it would be.

Rob Lloyd, CEO of Hyperloop One, said in a statement:

“We will work alongside these world-class partners to redefine the future of transportation, providing a more immediate, safe, efficient and sustainable high-speed backbone for the movement of people and things.”

Hyperloop recently announced partnerships with governments and investors. Hyperloop one is trying to master the above ground routes first and then underwater routes. Hyperloop would be able to solve the most complex transportation issues faced nowadays. Though critics have reservation related to the travel experience of humans being packed in tubes, Hyperloop is surely the future of transportation.

From the successful Nevada test, one message is loud and clear that the age of Hyperloop has arrived!