Google announces Sundar Pichai as the next CEO

Pichai Sundararajan, better known as Sundar Pichai, has just been announced as the next CEO of Google which is now a subsidiary of Alphabet, a conglomerate of companies founded by the same duo of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, companies such as Calico and Life Sciences.

Sundar Pichai's promotion to Google's top job continues the trend of global technology giants' bosses being Indian immigrants, a trend which was started with Satya Nadella becoming the CEO of Microsoft.

Sundar Pichai

An extremely brilliant IIT Kharagpur Metallurgy Engineering passout, who moved to the US and attained a degree of Master of Science from Stanford University as well as a business degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Sundar Pichai formerly worked as an engineer at Applied Materials and later moved to management consulting at McKinsey & Company, before joining Google.

He led the team which created the Google Chrome browser, the most used search engine. In 2013, Larry Page handed over the responsibilities of Android to him. He is a visionary and has great relationships with people, something which Larry Page could see. Pichai also oversaw the development of Google apps like Gmail, Calendar.

Sundar Pichai inherits the top job at a time when Google is facing great competition from Facebook and Amazon. Inspite of Google's varying range of products, it's main source of income comes from advertising, but there are growing concerns over the fact that people are switching from desktop screens to mobiles more, as a result of which the industry has seen a decline in 'costs per click'.

People like Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella proves that meritocracy is still valued in this world where India, inspite of producing tech talents in thousands are not being able to keep them in the country because of internal politics and a clear discrimination. It is high time a sense of mentorship is introduced in the tech companies in the country, just like Larry Page has been mentoring Pichai for so long before making the call.  









   

A day spent with Windows 10

The moment I reserved my free copy of Windows 10 till the moment I got to install it, I have always been in two minds.

On the one hand reverting to Windows 10 would mean a virtual enslavement to Windows and all it's updates from hereon for the next 10 years. Yes !! 10 years. So whether it's a buggy update, you have got to say yes to it. While on the other hand, not reverting to it, would mean the world going forward and me remaining stagnant.

Well, Windows 10 installation was a hassle-free issue. It takes around 10-45 minutes depending on your device configuration. The striking feature I noticed at first is the improved brightness. And then there was this

Laptop Screen

Icons modified, along with a sharper look, the first look can get you drooling and certainly asking for more, and that's when the magic happens once you click on the Windows icon

Start button is back

Woohoo!! Start button is back.

Once you start exploring, it starts getting clear how much Windows 10 has come from it's previous versions. The Notifications Tab, Settings all modified, cumulating in a much sexier look and feel.

Notifications Bar

Settings

Edge

Windows 10 launches a new browser Microsoft Edge which is a huge upgrade over the much-maligned Internet Explorer. It also comes with Cortana but the letdown is the fact it's available only for specific countries and India does not feature in that list. Microsoft brings back Solitaire with Windows 10. 

There is a Task Viewer allowing you to view all the windows currently open and there is a Tablet mode, thus enriching the user experience. 

                          

Task Viewer

 Supposedly, there is a video capture tool(which I am still to find), which can be a great help to gamers who want to share in-game snippets and with Windows 10, you can install Xbox games.

A lot of in-built apps have undergone upgradation and there is something called the 3-D Builder which basically lets you create three-dimensional images and can be great tool for architects, product designers.  

3-D Builder

Performance wise, though it is sleek and pretty sound, it did crash a couple of times which is understandable because Microsoft already announced Windows 10 will have 7 versions, so we can expect it to get better. 

Developers can develop Universal apps which will be compatible on mobiles and Xbox use. Microsoft has made it easy for developers to turn android or iOS apps into a windows apps. It took King two weeks to turn Candy Crush Saga into a Windows game using iOS code.  

Universal Apps

Windows 10 is by far the best version ever launched, Windows 7 users may argue with that but one has to accept Microsoft has taken a huge leap on the right direction with Windows 10. In fact, Windows 10 seems to run faster than OS X on MacBook with 60 FPS as average speed. Animations seems to be smoother with Windows 10 than with OS X on MacBook. Time Apple pulled up their socks.

In conclusion, I would just like to say that with Windows 10, it's worth taking the leap.

             

From the pages of a Tech Neophyte

The title did make your eyes go up a bit, didn't it? Well this isn't a conventional read like the other two posts. 

How many of us has shrunk in a corner as soon as some techy mentioned "Quad- Core Processor"? How many of us judge phones on the basis of front and back cameras megapixels? Guess what, my mind conjured statistics say that almost 70% people suffer through the same "NoTechyKnowledge" Syndrome.

I would like to start by saying that my grasp on technical knowledge is less than satisfactory. But that does not mean I am not willing to learn more about it from the veterans and I speak for all those unfortunate souls who, inspite of having the desire to participate in a tech convo, are too shy to say so.

From a non-technical person's point of view, technological and electrical components are as tough as complex integral maths and sometimes as boring as RGV ki Aag ( I still want my money back). The main purpose of this blog is to bring out the technical stuff to you in such a way that even a person like me finds interest in it and it is well within the threshold of my comprehension. 

Every time my techy friends start a convo 

Lastly, it is okay to not know everything. It is acceptable to give your tech friends a blank stare which might exasperate them to no end. So next time you are sitting amidst such hardcore Tech Geeks, just saythat you do not understand them without any inhibition at all, because c'mon everybody loves to indoctrinate novices. 

Facebook announces Aquila - An aircraft bringing Internet connectivity to remote places

In this world where clicking a selfie and posting it on social media, takes hardly a few seconds, it is amazing to note that only 40% of the world is acually connected. 
    
                        

       Simple reason: Connectivity is costly.


It involves an expensive infrastructure something which operators may not be able to afford, forget about those people whose daily income is around $1.25. With this in mind, Facebook started the Connectivity Lab which came up with a 

    solar powered, unmanned, high-altitude aircraft 

      that can beam data to the ground using lasers.

Aquila

Aquila will operate at heights of 60000-90000 feet above air traffic and weather. 


A few notable features include:

Wing is made of cured carbon fibre stronger
than steel but flexible

• Wingspan size same as Boeing 747.                  
• Lighter than a car.
• Aquila will have a connectivity radius of 50 kms.

The communication equipment sits in the middle of the aircraft.The most amazing milestone reached by the lab is a breakthrough in laser technology where according to Mark Zuckerberg's post

"We've also made a breakthrough in laser communications technology. We've successfully tested a new laser that can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second. That's ten times faster than any previous system, and it can accurately connect with a point the size of a dime from more than 10 miles away."

Aquila will transmit data between aircrafts using lasers

Aquila can stay up in the air for upto 90 days since it only depends on solar energy and the fact that all this was achieved in 14 months along with a breakthrough in laser technology is impressive. Aquila will be tested later this year.

India along with other underdeveloped countries have signed up for Aquila, including Zambia, Ghana, Colombia, Pakistan and others. Let's hope that this ambitious project by Facebook helps connect the world better.

     Take a sneakpeek into the Connectivity Lab

                                

For more news and info, keep watching this space

Microsoft Introduces Hololens in the time frame of Windows 10

             

Ever thought about a virtual reality, to aid your projects giving you a 3-D impression of your product, offering you a whole new set of holograms to blend in with your environment and guess what, all at the expense of   gestures.

Microsoft Hololens

                                             

A headband designed for comfort, integrated with Windows 10 requiring

• no external wires
• no external cameras
• no connections to phones 

giving you the freedom to walk completely untethered.

Hololens comes with an advanced HPU(Holographic ProcessingUnit) that processes data around you per second, sensing where one looks and gestures, thus mapping the world around in real-time.

HPU

Sensors

 Hololens comes with sensors capturing information about your actions and  advanced optics that generate multi-dimensional full-colour images, letting holograms be created around.

            

                                                            

   

                                                            
             

           

Speakers

                                                           

    Hololens has speakers that produce spatial

sound

            

Hololens comes with a HoloStudio, pretty much like Paint only here you can get the various holograms letting you create what you love.

            

         To watch a live demonstration of the Hololens, click here.

                                              

Hololens is probably Microsoft's coolest product in a long time and by the looks of it can make a real difference to the way we work. And what more, you can  

          be a part of this revolutionary technology at Build 2015.

      

Hololens is being used by architects and constructors by bringing 3-D 

models to life.

                                                   

           

   

Live Mars projection in lab

The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

 will soon explore Mars using Mars

 Rover images to have a real life feel 
 of how it is to be there thus helping

 to learn faster.

                                 

Case Western Reserve University using Hololens

                                                                                                            

                                                                                                           

                       Hololens partners:

  For more news and information, keep watching this space.