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With 20.5 per cent market share, Samsung led the global smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2018 but suffered a dip in its sales globally from the same quarter last year, Gartner said on Tuesday. Samsung had 20.8 per cent market share in the first quarter of 2017. In Q1 2018, it was followed by Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi and OPPO respectively. According to Gartner, global sales of smartphones to end users returned to growth in the first quarter with a 1.3 per cent increase over the same period last year. Nearly 384 million smartphones were sold in the first quarter of 2018, representing 84 per cent of total mobile phones sold. Xiaomi was the clear winner of the first quarter, achieving a growth of 124 per cent year on year, the report showed. A refreshed portfolio of smartphones and aggressive pricing strategy helped Xiaomi hold the fourth position in the first quarter of 2018.  "This strategy led Xiaomi to achieve 330 percent growth in the Emerging Asia/Pacific region," sai...

Fair Play for Women, a self-described "group of ordinary women" who say they are concerned their voices will not be heard when it comes to transgender laws, have accused Twitter of making a "concerted attack on women's free speech." from News Aggregator - Top News Stories From Your Favourite News Source | News Vally https://ift.tt/2sgwaML

Nvidia launched a monster box yesterday called the HGX-2 , and it’s the stuff that geek dreams are made of. It’s a cloud server that is purported to be so powerful it combines high-performance computing with artificial intelligence requirements in one exceptionally compelling package. You know you want to know the specs, so let’s get to it: It starts with 16x NVIDIA Tesla V100 GPUs. That’s good for 2 petaFLOPS for AI with low precision, 250 teraFLOPS for medium precision and 125 teraFLOPS for those times when you need the highest precision. It comes standard with a 1/2 a terabyte of memory and 12 Nvidia NVSwitches, which enable GPU to GPU communications at 300 GB per second. They have doubled the capacity from the HGX-1 released last year. Chart: Nvidia Paresh Kharya, group product marketing manager for Nvidia’s Tesla data center products, says this communication speed enables them to treat the GPUs essentially as a one giant, single GPU. “And what that allows [deve...

Member Benefit Access Member ID and zip code are needed to login Credit Hawk app is available to be downloaded Support is available though live agent chat It’s not going too far out on a limb to assume that those who are fortunate enough to be Horizon Gold cardholder likely have little to no complaints regarding the ease of which benefits can be accessed online through Member Benefit Access portal.  The simple process for gaining online account access can be completed in just a few seconds by entering a Member ID along with a zip code before clicking the Login (hard to get any easier than that!).  Cardholders who run into problems while attempting to login to an account can click the Contact Us button to be connected to a live representative via chat.  Prior to clicking the Send button to begin the chat session a name, email address, and message can be entered into the chat box.  In additoj to an inclredibly easy account access process, cardholders intereste...

Google is slowing piecing together a strategy for China to ensure that it doesn’t miss out on the growth of technology in the world’s largest country. It’s been months in the making through a series of gradual plays, but further evidence of those plans comes today via a product launch. Files Go — a file manager for Android devices released last year — has made its way to China today . Not a huge launch, for sure, but the mechanisms behind it provide insight into how Google may be thinking about the country, where it has been absent since 2010 after  redirecting its Chinese search service to Hong Kong  in the face of government pressure. For Files Go, Google is taking a partner-led approach to distribution because the Google Play Store does not operate in China. The company is working with Tencent, Huawei, Xiaomi and  Baidu, each of which will stock the app in their independent app stores, which are among the country’s most prominent third-party s...

Coffee Meets Bagel scored a $12 million Series B this week. The round, led by U.K. VC firm Atami Capital, brings the popular dating app’s total up to just under $20 million since launching back in 2012. The San Francisco-based dating app has worked to distinguish itself from competitors like Bumble and Tinder by limiting the number of matches it offers during a 24-hour window. Late last year, it expanded its offering with a video feature , to add an extra dimension to profiles. This month, it introduced additional CMB Experiences to bring users together in the real world. Of course, Coffee Meets Bagel is battling a juggernaut in the form of the billion-dollar Match Group, which currently owns OkCupid, Tinder, PlentyofFish and Match, among others. According to the company, this latest round will drive investments into more CMB Experiences along with international expansion for the service, along with other “product innovation.”  Co-CEO Arum Kang also notes that the Series B bring...

Airbnb brings in billions of dollars of revenue annually and is profitable on an EBITDA basis, so many wonder if and when the home-sharing company will go public. At the Code Conference today, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the company will “be ready to IPO next year, but I don’t know if we will.” He added that he wants to make sure it’s a major benefit to the company when Airbnb does go public. Following some more probing, Chesky said he has “no issues with [going public] at all. It could happen.” Meanwhile, Airbnb has been struggling from a regulatory standpoint since at least 2010. Specifically, San Francisco and New York are two of the most difficult cities from a regulatory standpoint, Chesky said. In New York, for example, there has been a standstill since 2010. At this point, Chesky said he expects it to take a few more years to overcome the challenge in New York . “It doesn’t seem like the end is in sight with that challenge,” Chesky said. That challenge, Chesky said, invol...

Selena Gomez makes about $550,000 for one sponsored Instagram post, according to proprietary and public data analyzed by HopperHQ. Cristiano Ronaldo earns about $400,000 a post. And, depending on the pecking order of the Kardashian in question, they pull in anywhere from $250K to $500K per post. For one Instagram post. (My mom tried to warn me about being an English major, but did I listen? No.) If you don’t have that kind of money to shell out for an influencer marketing campaign, then this post is for you. Influencer marketing works You probably already know that. Promoting your product or service through a blogger, social media user or otherwise influential person who has significant engagement with their following is a good way to get meaningful exposure. Some stats to prove its worth: Influencer marketing content provides a return on investment that is 11 times higher than traditional digital marketing forms, according to a study conducted by Nielsen Catalina Solutions for...

Adoption of Blockchain -- the underlying distrusted technology that powers cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin -- is a bit like teenage sex. To read this article in full, please click here (Insider Story) from Computerworld https://ift.tt/2La18gB

Blockchain is one of the hottest tech trends in the world today. But finding the right talent with the prerequisite skills needed for mastering new tools and blockchain technology is a difficult task. To read this article in full, please click here (Insider Story) from Computerworld https://ift.tt/2JjOxKg

Facebook’s Messenger Kids application, which allows children under 13 to chat with parents’ approval, is today rolling out a small, but notable change – it no longer requires that the children’s parents be Facebook friends with one another, in order for the children to connect. This solves one of the problems with the app’s earlier design, where it operated more like an extension of a parents’ own social circle, instead of one for their child. Of course, parents still have to approve every contact their child adds, as usual. As any parent understands, there are always going to be those friends of your child where you have an acquaintance-type, friendly but casual relationship with the parents that falls short of earning “Facebook friend” status. While you might text them for the occasional play date or nod politely at drop-off, you’re not necessarily “friends.” But your kids are friends with each other. And you’re fine with that. The Messenger Kids update now allows those kids to ...

Earlier this year, Google released an Android app for drawing in AR called Just a Line. Doodling in AR is fun; you can make things objects float in thin air, like an art class at Hogwarts. Problem is, when only you can see what you’re drawing, you look kind of nutso waving around your phone in the air. And I mean, is your masterpiece even real if now one else is able to appreciate it? Fret no more. Google now lets you draw with a friend in Just a Line so you can both look wacky gesticulating in mid-air. Simply… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Google from News Aggregator - Top News Stories From Your Favourite News Source | News Vally https://ift.tt/2H6UcOL

In his new book, Facts and Fears, James Clapper describes the outrage and anxiety that pulled him back into public life and his new role as a Trump dissenter. from News Aggregator - Top News Stories From Your Favourite News Source | News Vally https://ift.tt/2L5JI4D

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety : CEO Daniel Ek talks about Spotify's content policy, its direct-listing IPO, and removing R. Kelly's music from its playlists, at Code Conference   —  Spotify CEO Daniel Ek admitted his company fumbled the deployment of a new content policy that sparked considerable controversy within the music industry. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2H9JaIM

Dieter Bohn / The Verge : Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says that his company is in discussions to have Waymo self-driving cars added to its network   —  “It's up to them.”  —  Speaking today at the Code Conference, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says that his company is in “discussions” to have Waymo self-driving cars added to its network. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2LL36Fd

Jon Russell / TechCrunch : Google has launched its popular Android storage management app Files Go in China via four third-party app stores operated by Tencent, Xiaomi, Huawei, and Baidu   —  Google has continued its slow and steady China strategy after it launched Files Go, a files management service for Android devices. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2LJ2tvO

Shirin Ghaffary / Recode : CEO Brian Chesky says experience economy will be a “massive business” for Airbnb, envisions a global travel community with lines of business beyond home rentals   —  Chesky's vision?  To be a “global travel community.”  —  Most people think of Airbnb as a real estate rental business … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2H4Fqbt

Bloomberg : SenseTime has raised $620M at a valuation of over $4.5B from Fidelity International, Silver Lake, others, after raising $600M in April at around $3B valuation   —  - Fidelity, Tiger lead another round for China's SenseTime  — The outfit says the latest funding values it at $4.5 billion from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2LJnHdb

Diversity and inclusion is a trash fire in Silicon Valley and in the business world at large. But let’s just focus on tech for now. At the Code Conference this evening, All Raise and Cowboy Ventures Partner Aileen Lee, shift7 CEO Megan Smith and Stubhub President Sukhinder Singh Cassidy talked about the state of diversity and inclusion in tech. Lee kicked things off with how the idea and statement that someone is such a “good guy” bothers her. Often times, she said, that’s the qualification for how many of these men get the opportunity to invest in companies or work at certain companies. Meanwhile, if someone suggests a woman or person of color, Lee said, the questions are totally different and focused on qualifications. “Good guys have hired and funded good guys,” Lee said. Moving forward, “we need to systematically map out our industry and business processes and try to take the biases out of them,” Lee said. She added, “people have not been given a fair shot and we need to kin...

This super creepy Tom Waits number pops into my head every time I read about another Apple content acquisition. For a billion-dollar project from one of the world’s biggest companies, the company’s upcoming streaming service is shaping up to be a strange collection of original content.  Of course, I’m not really sure what I expected after Apple unleashed Carpool Karaoke and Planet of the Apps on the world. Neither were the kind of thing that imbues you with confidence in a company’s programming choices. I wrote a review of sorts of the former here , but was willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt that it just wasn’t for me, like cilantro, cats or late-era Radiohead. But clearly I wasn’t alone on this one. And Planet of the Apps — the less said about that one the better, probably. Neither particularly jibe with Eddy Cue’s whole, “We’re not after quantity, we’re after quality” spiel. Announcements have picked up considerably, even in the few months following that appea...

The Office of Management and Budget reports that the federal government is a shambles — cybersecurity-wise, anyway. Finding little situational awareness, few standard processes for reporting or managing attacks and almost no agencies adequately performing even basic encryption, the OMB concluded that “the current situation is untenable.” All told, nearly three quarters of federal agencies have cybersecurity programs that qualified as either “at risk” (significant gaps in security) or “high risk” (fundamental processes not in place). The report, which you can read here , lists four major findings, each of which with its own pitiful statistics and recommendations that occasionally amount to a complete about-face or overhaul of existing policies. 1. “Agencies do not understand and do not have the resources to combat the current threat environment.” The simple truth and perhaps origin of all these problems is that the federal government is a slow-moving beast that can’t keep up with th...

AWS today announced that its Neptune graph database , which made its debut during the platform’s annual re:Invent conference last November, is now generally available. The launch of Neptune was one of the dozens of announcements the company made during its annual developer event, so you can be forgiven if you missed it. Neptune supports graph APIs for both TinkerPop Gremlin and SPARQL , making it compatible with a variety of applications. AWS notes that it built the service to recover from failures within 30 seconds and promises 99.99 percent availability. “As the world has become more connected, applications that navigate large, connected data sets are increasingly more critical for customers,” said Raju Gulabani, vice president, Databases, Analytics, and Machine Learning at AWS. “We are delighted to give customers a high-performance graph database service that enables developers to query billions of relationships in milliseconds using standard APIs...