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benq corporation

BenQ Corporation: One of the Leading IT and Electronics Company in Taiwan.

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BenQ Corporation is a Taiwan-based electronics and IT company offering solutions to its customers globally. The company has been in the field of computing and technology for the past 37 years. Basically, it started as a part of Acer Communication & Multimedia, but in 2001, the company spun off from the latter to form a separate brand. BenQ Corporation deals in developing and selling technology products, electronics, computing, and communications devices. It uses BenQ as its trading name. It is a subsidiary company of Qisda Corporation and has its headquarter based in Taipei, Taiwan.

The Formation of BenQ Corporation

The name BenQ has a meaningful abbreviation which is also the company slogan, i.e., Bringing Enjoyment and Quality to Life. The company tries to fulfill all its operations based on the said slogan. The company was founded in 1984 as a part of Acer Peripherals Inc. In 1991, the latter had a name change to Acer & Multimedia. This was the same time when Acer began to expand its operations in different fields, and as a result, the company established Acer Display Technologies Inc. in 1996. Acer also built its manufacturing units in Taiwan and China at the same time.
Acer established BenQGuru (Guru Systems), another subsidiary company, an e-business solutions provider, to enter the Asian market in 1998, employing about 350 people. But in 2001, BenQ was spun off from Acer to form a separate company, with its headquarters established in Taiwan.
Though the company was built to serve the Asian consumers, after the separation from Acer, it started to expand overseas and has now established offices in Europe and America as well.

BenQ Corporation
Image Source: www.dptechgroup.com

The Growth

BenQ started its journey as an independent company in 2001, and since then, it has been only growing. Started with 350 people, it now employs over 4000 people globally. It has also established multiple sales offices in the Asia Pacific, Latin America and North America, Europe, and China. As a brand, BenQ is operational in over 100 countries. Though the company started as a consultancy and management service provider, it has now grown to become an IT and electronics company, and today is one of the leading suppliers of TFT LCD monitors, digital projectors, digital cameras, and mobile computing devices, etc.
BenQ has also brought a series of smartphones under its name, M775C being the first smartphone that the company launched in the year 2003. The interest of BenQ in the smartphone business made it acquire the mobile devices division of Germany’s Siemens AG in 2005, forming a separate division for smartphone development named BenQ Mobile trading with the name, BenQ-Siemens. BenQ also separated its contract manufacturing and own-brand divisions in 2006.
BenQ mobile had to shut down due to the losses in 2007. But the parent company of BenQ, Qisda Corporation, still manufactured mobiles for Dell. The company launched a few of the first Windows smartphones for Dell in 2012. The next year, BenQ restarted the manufacturing of smartphones under its brand name. In 2015, the company partnered with UK mobile telecoms provider EE to launch another series of smartphones. The same year, it also acquired ZOWIE GEAR and established a new gaming division, developing mice, mousepads, sound cards, monitors, and other gaming accessories.

Products and Services

BenQ manufactures and distributes its products in three main divisions; computing (TV-sets, joy books, keyboards, storage, monitors, etc.), consumer electronics (camera, projectors, displays), and communications (mobile and smartphones). Currently, the company is focused on being ready for the future and is working on Human Technology, Design Technology, and Entertainment Technology. BenQ also develops products for the healthcare industry. It has also developed software and energy management solutions for its customers.

The CEO at BenQ

Conway Lee is the current President and the CEO of BenQ Corporation. He has got an MBA degree from the University of Southern Mississippi, USA. Lee has been working with BenQ before it was even formed. He joined the Acer group in 1989 and worked with the company for over ten years. When BenQ spun off from Acer, Lee joined the company as the General Manager of the Digital Media Business Group of the company. He was also the in-charge of BenQ Europe for some time.

Nokia BH-805

Nokia BH-805 Noise Cancelling TWS Earbuds with a 20-Hour Battery Life have been released.

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Nokia has released the BH-805 true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds. The new noise-canceling earbuds are rated for up to 20 hours of playback time. There are 13mm audio drivers that are marketed as having “studio-quality sound.” The earbuds also have gesture controls and Google Assistant support. The Nokia BH-805 also has up to 25dB noise cancellation. Nokia released the Nokia Lite Earbuds TWS in two color options, with a battery life of up to 36 hours.

Nokia BH-805 Specifications

The audio driver in the Nokia BH-805 TWS earbuds is 13mm. Nokia claims that the earbuds have “studio sound quality.” The earbuds are designed to be worn in the ear. It includes gesture control support.
The device supports active noise cancellation (ANC). It also has a separate Ambient mode that allows users to hear the sounds around them. Each earbud has a 45mAh battery that is said to provide up to 5 hours of playback time. The earbuds come with a charging case that can provide up to 20 hours of battery life.
Bluetooth v5.0 is included in BH-805 for connectivity and earbuds are IPX5-rated for water and dust resistance.

Nokia BH-805
Image source: nokiamob.net

Nokia BH-805 Cost

According to GizmoChina, the Nokia BH-805 is priced at EUR 99.99 (approximately Rs. 8,800). The earbuds are listed as the ‘Nokia Noise Canceling Earbuds’ in Charcoal and Polar Sea on the global Nokia website. However, the Finnish company is said to be selling the earbuds in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland right now. The earbuds pricing and availability in India have yet to be revealed. The Nokia Lite Earbuds were released in April for EUR 39.

Environmental Profile


Materials And Substances
As defined by Nokia Technologies, free of brominated and chlorinated compounds, as well as antimony trioxide. It is PVC-free. The product’s surface is nickel-free.
Packaging
The packaging is made from a renewable resource. It contains up to 85% recycled material. The packaging is completely recyclable and has been reduced in size.
Materials Used
Nokia aims to reduce the environmental impact of our products through careful material selection.
● Metal: 16%
● Battery: 28%
● Plastics: 20%
● Ceramic materials: 26%
● Other: 10%
Metals include iron, copper, zinc, and aluminum. Glass is a ceramic material. Assylcm PC, PET, and epoxy are examples of plastics. ABS battery materials include lithium cobalt compound, graphite, aluminum, and copper.

Restricted substances
They manage and track all of the substances in our products, not just those that cause concern. They have stringent guidelines for substances that are not permitted in our products.
This product complies fully with all relevant global regulations, such as:
● The EU RoHS Directive 2011/65/EU
● European REACH Regulation 1907/2006/EC
● The Montreal Protocol on Substances which will Deplete the Ozone Layer
Furthermore, Nokia has voluntarily limited the use of many other harmful substances and drawn attention to substances such as skin sensitizers and substances that may cause harm to the environment or the user during the product’s lifecycle. The following are some examples of such substances for this product:
● This product does not contain any Brominated compounds or Antimony trioxide as specified in Nokia Substance List 2017
● Polyvinylchloride (PVC) is not used in this product.

Energy consumption
The supplied battery complies with the EU Battery Directive 2013/56/EU and contains no cadmium, lead, or mercury in concentrations greater than those specified in the directive. The supplied charger complies with the EU ErP directive and regulation 278/2009, as well as the EU Code of Conduct for External Power Supply Energy Efficiency.
● Call (GSM): 548 mW
● Idle mode: 32.9 mW
● Charger no-load power consumption: < 0.1 W
● Charger weight: 48.2 grams
● Battery capacity: 4470 mAh
● Battery weight: 58 gram

SanDisk

Sanjay Mehrotra: Never-Ending Journey For A Better Digital World of SanDisk Founder

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There are many persons who believe in innovations. Although, very few of them are responsible to make that happen. But the persons, who dare to transfer those inventions from lab to daily use, make the world a better place. So, they set their name in the list of influencing entrepreneurs. Sanjay Mehrotra is one of them, who not only believes in innovation but also devoted himself to deliver a better one. He is the co-founder and former CEO of SanDisk that replaces hard disk drives with flash memory in the 19th century.

Image Source – Google

At present, he is the CEO of Micron Technology, which is one of the leading memory storage devices manufacturers. It has been never easy to climb the ladder of success. Yet, it is inspiring to know the untold journey of Sanjay Mehrotra.

Early life

He was born on 27th June 1958 in Kanpur, India. Sanjay spent his childhood days in the same city. Thereafter, the Mehrotra family shifted to Delhi due to his father’s work. He went to Delhi school for primary education. Also, at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya he completed secondary schooling.

UG course at the University of California

When the students were dreaming of post-graduation in foreign. At that time, Sanjay’s father inspired him for UG in a foreign country. BITS Pilani was well known for collaboration with international Universities. So, he took admission for UG program, in the hope of future chance to go abroad. He completed two years of Electrical engineering in Bits Pilani, and then the day came.

He grabbed the opportunity to study the remaining UG course at the University of California, Berkeley. Reaching there was not a cakewalk. At first, his visa got denied three times. But his father’s support and his ambitions do not let him stop. They had to request multiple times and countless meetings to the Indian US embassy. Finally, he got the passport and flight landed at the destination.

Earlier achievements

He applied for a master’s degree, at the same University as a UG program. During his master’s program, he worked on Integrated circuits. But his interest was more towards designing. Hence, he could not stop himself from discovering non-volatile memory design.

Sanjay named more than 70 patents. Also, he presented research papers on the Flash memory system and non-volatile memory design.

He joined Intel Corporation as a Non-Volatile design engineer in 1980. It was the opportunity to explore his area of interest in non-volatile memory design more.

What happens when one Indian, one Chinese, and one person from Israel meet? No idea. Well, when these three persons met, they founded SanDisk; that too in one different country.

Boom of SanDisk

In 1988, Sanjay Mehrotra, Eli Harari, and Jack Yuan started a small company in Silicon Valley. Initially, they wanted to replace hard disk drives with their flash solid-state drives (SSD). To achieve this, they designed the first flash-based SSD mounted in a 2.5inch hard drive for IBM. Though it was of only 20MB capacity, it was a great move to install the technology which was at the experimental state at that time.

The first product of SanDisk traded out for $1000. After that, they changed their products according to market needs. SanDisk boomed the digital industry with its first mega-market sale of open standard digital films.

The Journey Continues

In the year 2011, Sanjay Mehrotra acquired the position as CEO. Under his policies, the company gained most of the electronics market. In fact, in 2012 SanDisk was the third-highest among other consumer electronics companies.

In recent years, SanDisk working on SSD for cloud computing. Also, they produce more than 2 million USB flash drivers per day. In 2017, Sanjay Mehrotra assigned as the new Chief executive officer of Micron Inc. Also, he is the onboard member of SanDisk.

product hunt

Launch and Scavenge Every Day: Success Story of Product Hunt

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Product Hunt entered the internet space in 2013 and is a website that allows users to share and discover new products, virtually every day. Founded by Ryan Hoover, and backed by Y Combinator, it allows users to submit products, and then issue polls much like Reddit. So, how did this innovative idea come to be, and what is the future of Product Hunt?

About the Founder

Ryan Hoover comes from an entrepreneurial household, wherein his parents ran their businesses. This gave him an early start in life as they encouraged him to start new projects and generate new ideas. He held several jobs before founding Product Hunt. This even includes running a gumball machine in his parent’s video game store when he was eleven. It was through such experiences that he learned to manage expenses and save money. He has also worked for a website that makes banner ads, done freelance yard work, and worked at a home improvement store.

After graduating from the University of Oregon, Hoover an internship at a startup which became a full-time job as a product manager in Portland. In 2010, he moved to San Francisco and joined the start-up PlayHaven as their tenth employee. Afterwards, he helped Nir Eyal write his book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. Soon after, he founded Product Hunt, and the rest is history.

How it Works

Every day, the product which has the most votes becomes the daily winner and ends the day on the top of the list. Products usually fall under four main categories- hardware and software products, games, books and podcasts. All members of the community can submit products, and all it takes is a title, URL, and tagline. The website also sends out a daily newsletter highlighting the best product of the previous day.

Starting Strong

The website began as a simple mailing list utilising Linkydink. The idea took off, and a week later, the email list had over 100 participants. Two weeks, they had more than 170 subscribers and 30 contributors. A year later, they had Y Combinator backing them, thanks to the uniqueness of their idea. Nathan Bashaw and Ryan Hoover built the website over their Thanksgiving break in 2013. Meanwhile, Hoover was working on a community strategy to build Product Hunt’s online presence.

A year after launching, they went in for a funding round. Andreessen Horowitz helped them raise over $6.1 million. A year later, they won a Crunchie award for being the best new start-up on the block. The same year, the website started their podcast. However, they ended it soon as it was distracting users from the website’s main objective of introducing products.

A Resounding Success

By 2016, Product Hunt was so popular, that it had helped in discovering over 100 million products made by more than 50,000 companies. The same year, AngelList acquired the company for more than $20 million. A couple of months later, they redesigned their homepage and even launched an app for iOS users. In 2017, they launched Ship, which was a set of tools for creating demand for products. A year later, they launched a news aggregator called Sip. Recently, they launched a Launch Day initiative to help makers monitor their product on the website with ease.

Product Hunt has been so successful that the team even published a book, titled How to Build a Career in Tech. Ryan is behind one of the most unique and popular websites in the world, and the future looks bright for him, and his wacky idea. While the initial inspiration was to explore new technology, Product Hunt now helps entrepreneurs around the world launch their products with ease. With over 1 million registered users and more than 20,000 products launched on, it is safe to say that Product Hunt is here to stay!

fitbit

SUCCESS STORY OF FITBIT, LIVE YOUR LIFE IN A HEALTHIER WAY

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When maintaining a proper diet or leading healthier lifestyle bumps into our way, we often tend to master the postponing game. Do you know why? Somewhere we are not encouraged enough to wake up every morning and have a good workout and wait till it turns into a serious health issue.

There is a minor part of the population who consciously tracks their fitness metrics and follows a healthy lifestyle. Honestly, many of us think that it’s an extravagant lifestyle to keep track of your health records and especially the Indians show minimal efforts henceforth. So, to keep your health records in track in an interesting way and give some push to yourself, Eric Friedman and James Park launched Fitbit in 2007, a company that produces smart wearable devices to track your health. It is interesting how Fitbit rose from just an idea twelve years ago given that it almost hit dead end several times and now competes with business tycoons like Apple and Xiaomi.

James Park

After passing out from University School at Cleveland, Ohio, Park went to Harvard for studying Computer Science but eventually dropped out. He joined Morgan Stanley as a Peon in 1998 and continued for a year. In October 1999, Park co-founded Epesi Technologies, a B2B integration software followed by co-founding Wind-Up Labs in 2002. Park’s life story is something that catches the attention of today’s generation, isn’t it? Dropping out of college and creating such a massive empire for himself.
Park along with Friedman thought of doing something incredible with the small sensors and hence came up with the idea of Fitbit to digitalize even the fitness and health of normal people.

Eric Friedman

Friedman is a Computer Science engineer who completed both his Bachelor’s and Masters from Yale University. After passing out in 2000, Friedman joined Epesi Technologies as a Software Engineer and then co-founded Wind-Up Labs with Park in August 2002. Friedman also worked for Microsoft in his early career and before co-founding Fitbit he worked at CNET Networks and Engineer Manager. Currently, he is serving as the CTO of Fitbit.

The beginning and the Turmoil

Already after founding Wind-Up Labs, both Park and Friedman didn’t have any intention to stop. They wanted to do something unique with small sensors and discovered a huge potential in the sphere of health. If small devices can be made out to track personal fitness data, they thought they might have a really good audience. At first, they created just a small circuit board within a wooden box as a prototype which helped them raise $400,000 and eventually more once they started furnishing their experimental gadgets.

In 9th September 2008, both of them attended the TechCrunch 50 Conference and received 2,000 pre-orders for their product in a single day. They accepted the order and realized later that it was a not-so-good move as they didn’t have a manufacturing unit at all. After a few months of the constant search for an appropriate supplier, the product started showing some flaws. The fate of Fitbit turned upside down and the co-founders thought of giving up. But after the topsy-turvy, they were finally able to launch the fitness tracker in 2009. They shipped around 5,000 units of this tracker and received another 2,000 pre-booking. Since there was no third party in the business, Fitbit made a robust profit out of it.

The Success

In 2011, Fitbit introduced another new tracker much better than the previous one as this one came with an altimeter and many other modifications. At the end of 2014, the company’s annual revenue summed up to $745.4 million and in the next year the company filed for its first IPO and the amount was $358 million. This year turned out to be one of the best for the company as more than 18 million fitness trackers were sold given that no new products were launched in this year.

The company also has a pretty impressive list of acquisitions starting from March 2015. Fitbit acquired Firstar in 5th March 2015 for $17.8 million followed by acquiring Coin, a credit card company in 2016. In 2017, the company acquired a smartwatch based start-up, Vector Watch SRL and in the next year a software company called Twine Health.

The company currently manufactures fitness trackers mainly for heart rate, sleep quality and number of steps. Though the company has faced a few shady plots for revealing too much information about Fitbit’s users to each other through its feature, still the company has managed to stay on the top in terms of wearable technology.

Google Maps

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

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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.