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After Second Straight Quarterly Profit, Tesla to Start the Production of Y Model By 2020

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There have been many talks about Tesla’s SUV electric vehicle, Model Y. Even the Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been talking about this SUV model since 2015. But the wait might get over soon, as according to some reports, Tesla has sent letters to its shareholders regarding starting the production of the Y model as soon as 2020 ends.

tesla
Image Source: fortune.com

The Model Y is going to be a mid-sized SUV vehicle, whose design is yet to be revealed. Allegedly, the Model Y will be based on the Model 3 sedan, and it will obtain 75 per cent of its parts from the most affordable Tesla model. Hence the production cost of the Model Y may be a bit lesser than the Model 3.

Tesla, basically, has its production line for its other models including S, X and 3, based in Fremont, but the Model Y may get its own dedicated production line at Gigafactory in Nevada, since there may not be much space for the production at Fremont for the Model Y.

The company came up with the plan of starting the production of the Model Y, as a result of a profitable fourth quarter of 2018, reported last year. Tesla said on Wednesday that it made a profit of $139.5 million in the fourth quarter, after recovering a loss of $675.4 million from a year earlier.

Tesla went public in 2010, and this is the first time that the automaker has revealed its profits, in consecutive quarters. According to Musk, the company is ready to invest in new projects and bring improvements to the older ones. The company has claimed that it will cut the cost on various Tesla models, will improve its service operations, launch at least three sedan models for its Chinese and European customers, and also will start working on its Model Y.

The Model Y is expected to be a crossover, and that may lead to an increased demand for Nidel Y over Model 3, resulting in an uptick in sales, and profit. If we consider the letter Tesla sent to its shareholders, the year is going to, certainly, be a profitable one for Tesla.

Pinterest Hires Goldman & JPMorgan Chase as the Lead Underwriters for its Anticipated IPO

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Pinterest is all set for its IPO, and reportedly, this San Francisco based photo sharing website owner has hired Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase as its lead underwriters for the same. The company has been in the business, since almost 11 years, and has become a well known visual search site where people post and share pictures related to different sorts including fashion, beauty, lifestyle, wedding etc.

pinterest
Image Source: appobzor.com

According to Reuters, the company has indicated that the company may raise $1.5 billion in the IP0, and it may go public in the first half of the year. According to the people with the awareness on the subject, said that in 2017, Pinterest raised $150 million in secret funding round and was valued at $12.3 billion, at the same share prices.

Pinterest, a social media website, with a unique concept, has grown very well since its inception, and currently, has more than a 250 million monthly active users. Last year, the company valued between $12 billion and $13 billion and reported annual revenue of $700 million, which was 50 per cent more than the revenue it gained in 2017. The main reason behind the success of this platform, according to one of its investor is that “there are no Russian trolls” on Pinterest, and also, there have been no cases in which Pinterest have ever sold its users’ data.

Pinterest is like a bulletin board and used to bookmark and pin things the users want to track onto it. The boards are categorized based on different topics. But the site is just not a photo sharing website, as it also allows people to sell goods on the platforms. The user can also shop for things through their mobiles, by holding and clicking on the desired product.

Although the timing for the IPO is not the best as its contemporary companies, including Facebook and Twitter, are going through serious user privacy breach allegations, put by the politicians. But as Pinterest has always been away from such matters it may not affect its IPO.

Notably, along with Goldman Sachs, Pinterest’s IPO is backed by many other investment firms, including Valiant Capital Partners, Wellington Management, Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Google is Working on Apple-Inspired Face ID Authentication & Privacy Protections

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Android Pie is still not available on all the Android Smartphones, and Google is all set to launch its another mobile operating system, i.e. Android Q. There have been various guesses about the release date and the features of this new Android OS, and last week the XDA Developers, also, published its findings through the leaked AOSP build of Android Q.

Android Q
Image Source: YouTube

The code obtained by the XDA developers includes various methods, classes and strings that reveals that the new OS may have the facial recognition. Even being late for the fingerprint technology on the iPhones, Apple was the first who introduced the face recognition technology on them. Now, along with the other guesses, this piece of code clearly shows that Google is all set to catch up with its rival company on the face recognition technique.

Although Android already has got a 2D-based “Trusted Face” face scanning-based authentication support, Android doesn’t offer any native hardware support. The new feature will be a secure biometric authentication feature similar to Apple’s Face ID.

Apple uses a depth sensing system, that projects a structured light from a dot project in order to recognise the user’s face. An array of 30,000 dots projected through True Depth, in a known pattern using a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) module, is processed and compared with the resulting image against secure reference data.

Mishaal Rahman, specially indicated towards the code it found related to facial identification on the XDA-Developers Portal site, writing, “dozens of strings and multiple methods, classes and fields related to facial recognition in the framework, SystemUI and Settings APKs”.

The Smartphone companies including Huawei and Xiaomi, already have incorporated the suitable hardware for such technology, but as they are using the Android OS on them, they were not able to make use of the hardware, until now.

The findings also indicated towards the new Android Q having better privacy for users, especially, involving the clipboard permissions. Usually, the apps can access a user’s clipboard, even having the most sensitive information on them, but now, the OEM may prevent the apps to access the information on the clipboard without permission.

Google Reveals its 2019 I/O Conference Dates Through a Fun Puzzle

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Image Source: indianexpress.com

Google has admitted that it is going to organise its upcoming I/O 2019 Developer’s conference at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California from May 7 to May 9. Like every other year, the company is all set to showcase its new products and innovations at the conference.

On January 25, the company twitted a puzzle, an cryptic, 12-line block of a tweet along with a URL and an enigmatic video, having the narration for the tweet in it, from Google’s Google Developers Twitter account. The tweet hid the date and the venue of the event for the Twitterati, such that the netizens would decode it, like every other year.

Google, every year, put up such fun, puzzle tweets so that the netizens will do some brainstorming and find out the details about the I/O events.

Although a Twitter user, named Till Kottman, took only a few hours to solve the puzzle after the tweet was uploaded. Kottman spotted an early tweet from a now-deleted account, @internaltest189, that had posted a JSON code and had hidden Google I/O event dates in it.

After Kottman tweeted the right dates, the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, also tweeted regarding the same confirming the dates and the venue of the event.

Although, the date and the place for the event are not much of surprise for people, as last year too, the conference held at the same place and during the first two weeks of the same month. Most of the times, the conference’s dates have been ensuring the same time of the month.

Last year, the company came across with its new OS, Android P, in beta, improved Google News, and even revealed its Duplex AI project, in the event. Google has not given any hints on what it may unveil on the conference, but we already have got an idea about a few things including the Android’s next emphasis, the Android Q, an updated Google Assistant, Google Lens, Maps, and News, etc.

The company is also anticipated to reveal the Pixel devices including, Pixel 3 Lite and Pixel 3 XL Lite. Google might also discuss its controversial Duplex project in the event.

Wattpad, the Online Storytelling App to Launch its Own Publishing Imprint Wattpad Books

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Wattpad, the Toronto-based Digital publishing company, has just announced that it is going to launch a new publishing division, Wattpad Books. Wattpad Books will be a digital imprint, that will publish selected stories from the Wattpad site.

The online community was founded in 2006, as a global storytelling social platform. The company has got a huge collection of original stories and fanfiction, from millions of users from around the world, few of which have become the basis for many streaming hits. The Netflix’s ‘Kissing Booth’ and Hulu’s ‘Light as a Feather’ are ones of those fiction stories that have been taken from Wattpad and was a huge hit among the youngsters.

wattpad
Image Source: theodysseyonline.com

Noticeably, Wattpad is quite popular among young adults, and the headcount of the member of this community is estimated to be 70 million, with an average screen timing of 22 billion minutes per month.

The company has aimed at publishing six titles under the new publication, Wattpad Books, by the fall of this year. The six titles include:

1. ‘The QB Bad Boy & Me’ by Tay Marley (having over 26.3 million reads),

2. ‘Trapeze’ by Leigh Ansell (having 2.5 million reads),

3. ‘What Happened That Night’ by Deanna Cameron (having over 1 million reads),

4. ‘Cupid’s Match’ by Lauren Palphreyman (having 46.4 million reads),

5. ‘Saving Everest by Sky Chase’ (having 17.2 million reads),

6. ‘I’m a Gay Wizard by V.S. Santoni’ (having 404,000 reads).

The first book and the most popular one, The QB Bad Boy & Me, will be out soon after August 20, 2019, followed by other five publishes within September and October, at retailers across North America, with Macmillan (U.S. distributor), and Raincoast Books (Canadian distributor).

The company stated in its press release, “Readers will find new genres, category-bending spins on traditional genres, narratives that tackle the experiences and struggles of marginalized communities, and stories that speak to the diversity of Wattpad’s global community online.”

The company has already worked with various publications and entertainment companies, before, who have adopted many of the Wattpad stories and turned them into books and movies. But, this time launching its own publication, Wattpad has taken an initiative, which might bring a revolution in the publishing and media industries.

Hulu Updates Per Month Subscription Prices Soon After Netflix’s Price Hikes

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The American entertainment company, Hulu, has announced that it is going to cut down the prices for the base subscription plan of its monthly streaming service. The announcement has just come after a week of its rival company Netflix increased the prices for all of its subscription plans.

hulu
Image Source: engadget.com

Hulu, which is an ad-supported streaming service, has reduced the cost of its base plan, to $5.99 per month, down from the current cost, i.e. $7.99. Previously, for the purpose of promotion of its internet streaming service, the company was offering the same plan for this same price, and we must say that it was a brilliant strategy to drag more consumers towards. Now again, when one of the top streaming services, Netflix, has increased its prices, Hulu might take the advantage from it, by reducing the prices.

Netflix last week escalated the prices of all its subscription plans, starting with its most popular HD streaming plan, which is now $13 per month. Even having owned one of the prime streaming services worldwide, the company shared a fell just under 1 per cent, soon after the price increase on Wednesday.

Though Hulu is an ad-based service, having subscribers half of the Netflix’s, the prices it is offering to its customers is making them abandon cable and satellite services in favour of streaming.

Last year, the company reported that it had over 25 million subscribers, and it was a good number as, the number of subscribers had increased by 48 per cent, as compared to the number of users it had in 2017.

Although the company is lowering the prices of the base plan of the streaming service, it at the same time, is also hiking prices across its other subscription tiers. It has announced to is boost the prices of Hulu Live TV, a cable-TV-like a package, by $5 more per month at $44.99. Why such wide gap between the two? Hulu explained that the Hulu Live TV is offering more channels and services, including the full on-demand product, as compared to its internet streaming service.

Still, to overcome the gap, Hulu is lowering its fees for the live TV service’s optional add-ons, including the DVR and expanded multiscreen viewing packages. Now the company will offer the two at a price $9.99 per month.

For the new subscribers the new prices will take effect from February 26, and the older consumers will automatically be shifted to the new subscription prices in their next billing cycle after February 26.