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AT&T Will Now Let Its Users Pay Bills Using Cryptocurrency

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The American network provider company, AT&T, has announced that it has partnered with the BitPay payment service to allow people to use their cryptocurrency to pay their AT&T bills. By doing so, AT&T has become the first network company to add cryptocurrency as one of the payment methods for its users. The option has been added to both the AT&T official website as well as the app myAT&T.

at&t
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Though the company does not accept the crypto payments directly, it has integrated the BitPay payment service to its platform to carry out all the crypto transaction. Also as AT&T has not revealed on which cryptocurrencies it will support, it is quite predictable that it may support all the currencies that are supported by BitPay. The currencies that BitPay support, include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Gemini USD, Paxos, and Circle’s US Dollar Coin etc.

“We’re always looking for ways to improve and expand our services. We have customers who use cryptocurrency, and we are happy we can offer them a way to pay their bills with the method they prefer.” the vice president of AT&T Communications Finance Business Operations, Kevin McDorman, said in a statement.

The users who want to pay through their cryptocurrencies just need to go to the BitPay option in the payment method list, and they will be able to easily pay through their cryptos. The app, as well as the website, can take the payment in the form of crypto, or the combination of fiat and crypto. BitPay will be responsible for carrying out the verification and the transaction of the crypto.

Since the company has only provided this facility for the online payments, the other users will need to wait for the payment option to come in stores. Also, for now, there may be only a minority using the payment method as most of the people are still away from using bitcoins or the other digital currencies like the fiat currencies.

Uber Starts Trialing for App-Based e-Bike Service for its London Users

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uber jump electric bike
Image Source: uber.com

The UK is familiar with bicycle hailing services, Lime being the biggest player in the field in the country. After seeing many other bike hailing services run successfully, the UK is now ready to welcome Uber with its new e-bike hiring service. Uber has revealed that it is going to start trialling its electric bike hailing service with 350 of its Jump electric bikes in the London borough of Islington.

Uber also plans to expand into the other part of the London city after successfully completing the trial for a certain period of time. The company will be launching 350 bright red colour Jump bicycles on the streets of London for the trial. The users will be able to find and unlock the bicycle through the Uber app.

The Uber app will show the locations from where the users can get those bikes, charge them with 1 Pound to unlock the bike, guide the users to their destinations through the app’s map, and show them the parking locations after they reach the destination. After the users unlock the bike, they will be charged 12p per minute during the ride, following a five-minute free ride on the e-bike. There are some possibilities that Uber may provide the users with offers and discounts at the beginning, as it has been doing for all its services in the world.

There will be an up 25 pound of penalty for the users who will be parking the bikes away from the provided parking areas, or end the trip at a no parking zone. Though London has already got such bike-hailing services including Mobike and Boris Bikes, it will be interesting to see how Uber emerges midst such a rivalry in the field.

Almost a year ago, the company had almost lost its taxi license to drive on the streets of London, but now the company is all set to revive its services by implanting its Jump e-bikes on the roads of London. The company is already successfully running its Jump e-bike hiring services in the countries, including the US, Canada, Berlin, Brussels, Lisbon, Paris, etc.

The Users Can Now Fund the Open-source Devs With the New Sponsorship Program on GitHub

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Open-source software has been a boon for people, and there is a lot for the developers to learn through it. But still, these open source software have never been so profitable for the developers financially. To resolve that matter, now the biggest web-based hosting service GitHub has come with a new feature in order to provide financial support to the developers, ‘GitHub Sponsors’.

GitHub Sponsor Me
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GitHub Sponsors is a Patreon type of service, that will help the developers raise funds from the people using their codes or the open source software. The feature will allow the developers to create different levels or tiers of services, based on the amount the user will pay. The users will get access to special perks depending upon the tier they choose to support the developers and their work. They would need to pay the amount every month in order to continue to access those special services and the perks from the developers.

The feature will add a ‘Sponsor Me’ button on the developer’s profile, including the different funding options in it. Through the button, users can fund the developers individually, through Patreon, Tidelift, Ko-fi or Open Collective. According to GitHub, there will be no extra charges or any payment processing fees on using the very feature in its debut year, and the company intends to match up to $5,000 in contributions.

“The world runs on open source. None of it would be possible without the global team of maintainers, designers, programmers, researchers, teachers, writers, leaders and more who devote themselves to pushing technology forward. These extraordinary developers can now receive funding from the community that depends on their work, seamlessly through their GitHub profiles.” the product manager Devon Zuegel at GitHub wrote in a blog post.

The company has introduced a social feature, too, that lets the users see who has developed the code they are using, the usage of the code, and who else is using the same code. The feature though is, currently, in private beta and is only open for the open-source developers, the company has already made it open for the users who want to join the sponsorship program.

Though the open source software has been challenging and encouraging enough for the developers, the addition of a sponsorship program can motivate the developers on working even harder. But, there can be a drawback of the same too, as the developers may find their interest in jobs that are paying more.

A Forgotten Tool in Gmail Tracks Your Purchase History Through the Receipts

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According to a piece of recent news from CNBC, “Google has been quietly keeping track of nearly every single online purchase you’ve ever made, thanks to purchase receipts sent to your personal Gmail account.”

CNBC broke the news on Friday afternoon, according to which Google has been saving the purchase history of the people who have used their Gmail account during their purchase on the various e-commerce websites through the receipt they receive on Gmail. Though the company has included privacy settings that can enable the users to stop the tracking, most of the people have got to know about the purchase history tracking only after the revelation from CNBC.

The way CNBC has said about the mentioned matter, it seems like Google had been hiding the fact that it was saving users’ private information and might be using it somewhere else without letting the users know, but Google has come in front to defend itself.

“To help you easily view and keep track of your purchases, bookings and subscriptions in one place, we’ve created a private destination that can only be seen by you. You can delete this information at any time. We don’t use any information from your Gmail messages to serve you ads, and that includes the email receipts and confirmations shown on the Purchase page.” Google told The Verge in a statement.

In the past years, the company used such information to personalise ads for its users, but in 2017, Google had decided that it won’t collect and use any of the users’ information from Gmail for displaying personalised ads.

Google did not mention how long this tool has been there to track the purchase history of its users, but many Gmail users have found their purchase history even older than a decade. According to Google, this history is hard to find, and the users can delete the history or disable the tracking. Also, no one else except the users can see their purchase history on the tool.

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

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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

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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.