Satya Nadella coming to Australia
Nadella’s exact itinerary is not yet known, however, the trip is expected to be a flying one, during which he hopes to
address a developer event in Sydney, meet with several Microsoft clients and pay Melbourne a visit.
inspire developers working on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.
Has Tim Cook ever been to Aus?
Microsoft employees now happier than Apple’s
Microsoft has overtaken Apple in employee happiness for the first time since 2012.
Microsoft’s approval rating so far for 2016 was 10 percent above the industry average, beating out Apple for the first time since UBS began tracking employee sentiment in 2012.
Business Insider reported that Microsoft had seen a massive improvement in chief executive approval since Satya Nadella took over in 2014. By the end of 2013, former chief executive Steve Ballmer had just 51 percent approval, compared to 88 percent for Nadella by the end of 2015.
Microsoft threw out its controversial “stack ranking” system, which forced managers to rank each of their employees from top to bottom. Microsoft’s new performance review system allows managers to allocate rewards based on teamwork and engagement.
Samsung puts booths in Aussie airports to swap exploding Note 7s
1blished “customer service points” in the Qantas, Virgin, and Jetstar domestic terminals, as well as the international terminal, at Sydney Airport.
Similar booths have been set up inside the international terminal and Qantas and Virgin domestic terminals at Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport, the same at Perth Airport, and at both the domestic and international terminals at Brisbane Airport.
Canberra, Adelaide, and Gold Coast travellers can find a customer service point at their airports’ respective domestic terminals.
Samsung expecting $3bn loss over Note 7 woes
Vic Privacy Commissioner warns against profiling job candidates online
Victoria’s Privacy Commissioner David Watts has warned public service bosses to steer clear of the legal risks associated with profiling job candidates via their social media accounts.
without explicit upfront notification of their intention to suss out job hunters’ online profiles, government recruiters could find themselves on the wrong side of the state’s Privacy Act.
scooping up troves of data about a prospective employee from the web puts recruitment officers at risk of inadvertently handling false or inaccurate content that could be out of date or posted by third parties.
Storing this sort of information would place an agency at risk of breaching section three of the state’s privacy rules, which demands data on an individual must be kept “accurate, complete and up to date”
If an employer chooses to conduct a social media search, employers should be upfront by providing notice about this and allow candidates to clarify any contentious results,” it has been advised
Should this be legal or illegal practice?
Apple patents its new big design: an oversized pot plant that has no hidden technology
it’s an oversized container for filling with dirt and shoving a plant inside. And it took 17 of Apple’s designers to create it.
When Apple set out to revamp its flagship San Francisco store in Union Square, the brief was to include some small trees both inside and outside the store.
17 Apple designers in London, San Francisco and Cupterino got together and designed an oversized pot with the materials and curves of the planter inspired by Apple’s range of products.
Apple applied to patent the design in February last year and on Monday Patent number D769,148 was approved.
The planter that is patented in its design is now in other flagship Apple stores including Regent St, London.
It’s Goodbye QWERTY, Hello Emojis as Apple Rethinks the Keyboard
Apple Inc. has teamed up with an Australian startup to turn the standard QWERTY keyboard into a blank slate.1
The new keyboards will be a standard feature on MacBook laptops, and will be able to display any alphabet, along with an unlimited number of special commands and emojis, people familiar with the plans said.
Apple is aiming for a 2018 launch, these people said.
The keyboard technology has been developed by Sonder Design Pty Ltd., an Australian startup backed by Foxconn Technology Group. The keyboards will use so-called E Ink displays much like those seen on Amazon Inc.’s Kindle devices.
Although the Apple keyboard would be a standard feature, it is likely to hold added appeal to those who frequently type in more than one language, including people in international business and students. People who use software with specialized commands, such as graphic designers and gamers, are also expected to welcome the versatility of the device.
For everyday users, the new keyboard would also make it easy for people to spice up their communications with emojis and other symbolic substitutes for words, which have gained widespread popularity through the spread of smartphones and social networking apps.
Sonder’s stand-alone smart keyboards will be launched later this year. The preorder price is US$199.
EBF
Apple to Introduce New Macs at October 27 Event
Tuesday October 18, 2016 2:14 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple will introduce new Macs at an event that’s set to take place on Thursday, October 27, reports Re/code. The event will be held “at or near” Apple’s Cupertino campus instead of in San Francisco, suggesting it will perhaps be at the company’s Town Hall conference center.
Re/code does not detail which Macs will receive a refresh at the event, but Apple’s entire Mac lineup, aside from the Retina MacBook, is in need of a refresh.
New MacBook Pro models will likely headline the event, as rumors suggest a major update is in the works.
The new MacBook Pro is said to include a redesigned, thinner body with a flatter MacBook-style keyboard, an OLED touch panel that replaces the physical function keys at the top of the keyboard, and Touch ID support.
It is expected to do away with the USB-A port, HDMI port, and SD card slot, featuring just four USB-C ports based on part leaks, and it is said to include support for USB 3.1 and Thunderbolt 3.
A recent rumor from Japanese site Mac Otakara suggests Apple will also be introducing a new 13-inch MacBook Air, also featuring USB-C and Thunderbolt 3. Other products that could potentially see refreshes include the iMac, the Mac Pro, and the Mac mini.
With an event set to take place on October 27, media invites should be going out later this week.
http://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/18/apple-to-introduce-new-macs-at-october-27-event/
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NO SURPRISES HERE
Tim Cook Was Named to Hillary Clinton’s List of Vice Presidential Candidates
Tuesday October 18, 2016 6:32 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
In August, Cook hosted a fundraising event for the Hillary
TALK ABOUT LEARNING TO RUN BEFORE YOU CAN WALK ( IDIOTS)
Apple Abandons Car Plans ‘For Now,’ Sets Late 2017 Deadline to Decide Fate of Self-Driving System
Monday October 17, 2016 6:17 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple has given its
Apple’s ambitions no longer include building its own car “for now,” but it could return to developing its own vehicle in the future, or partner with existing carmakers, the report claims.
The project’s shift has allegedly resulted in hundreds of employees being reassigned, let go, or leaving on their own terms since August, including more than 120 software engineers.
The remaining members of Apple’s car team, which comprises about 1,000 people, are said to be working on “autonomous programs, vision sensors, and simulators for testing the platform in real-world environments.” Apple is said to have kept staff numbers in the team steady by hiring people to help with the new focus.
The report follows months of internal struggles as Apple’s so-called “Project Titan” team is believed to have faced delays and internal strife.
“Apple Car” lead Steve Zadesky reportedly stepped down from the project earlier this year, with his responsibilities shifting to Apple’s hardware engineering chief Dan Riccio until longtime Apple executive Bob Mansfield took over the team in April and shifted the project’s direction.
About a month later, Mansfield took the stage in a Silicon Valley auditorium packed with hundreds of Titan employees to announce the strategy shift, according to people who attended the meeting. Mansfield explained that he had examined the project and determined that Apple should move from building an outright competitor to Tesla Motors Inc. to an underlying self-driving platform.
While plans for an Apple-designed vehicle by the early 2020s are seemingly in flux, the company’s research and development plans could change over the coming months and years. Nevertheless, Tesla CEO Elon Musk believes Apple will not have its own vehicle ready by 2020, calling it a “missed opportunity.”
http://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/17/apple-late-2017-deadline-self-driving-system/
Vodafone conducts live 5G trial with nokia and University of Technology, Sydney
MOBILE service provider Vodafone Australia conducted a live public 5G demonstration Wednesday in conjunction with Nokia and the University of Technology, Sydney.
The next generation technology is not expected to be rolled out for years to come but it holds the promise of supporting a dramatically more digital dependent world. The future of 5G was described as a fundamental leap forward by Vodafone Chief Technology Officer Kevin Millroy.
The trial was carried out in front of media, students and staff at UTS who witnessed a speed test and potential applications of 5G including the use of virtual reality and robotics. The trial comes hot on the heels of rival Telstra which showcased its first 5G trials last month.
Using 200 MHz of spectrum, the Vodafone test produced speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second (Gbps), the company said in a statement, pointing out you could download an entire TV series in less than 10 seconds.
The telco also expects latency on the 5G network to be as low as a single millisecond (ms) compared to 30ms or more over 4G technologies.
Despite initial rollouts expected to begin in high-density, urban areas in a few years time, global standards for the metrics that will define the 5G network are yet to be determined.
Regardless of the specifics, the 5G network will offer significantly faster speeds and lower latency — a shorter time interval between sending and receiving data — than its predecessor.
The introduction of the fifth generation network is predicted to offer speeds as high as 10 gigabits per second, which is 100 times faster than the current 4G network. It could even provide speeds as high as 20 gigabits per second
This speed will offer a whole new plethora of opportunities in regards to online streaming and the “internet of things” (IoT) which will be crucial for things like self driving cars.
“5G will to propel a technological revolution,” Mr Millroy said. “With IoT promising to change all of our lives, it calls for a technology which can handle an immense amount of simultaneous connections, far greater than the capabilities of 4G networks.”
Vodafone’s 4G network will still be around for a long time but the company is keen to show that it is readying its infrastructure for the future.
“We see compounding annual data growth rates of around 40 per cent, which we expect will skyrocket as more everyday things become connected to the internet,” Mr Millroy said.
“While our 4G network is better than ever, and is continually improving, at these growth rates, the industry is searching for a solution to support higher volumes of data traffic.
“5G will enable our customers to use more data in more ways, at faster speeds than ever before.”
Nokia’s Managing Director Oceania, Ray Owen, stressed the significance the advent of 5G will have on industry by opening up new capabilities and opportunities.
“5G is the next generation of radio systems and network architecture that will enable significant new use cases, new business opportunities and new ways for people to benefit from communications,” Mr Owen said.
“It won’t happen overnight, but 5G is a change that will ultimately impact every industry.”
Earlier in the year, Telstra unveiled its 5G plans before Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Telstra networks group managing director Mike Wright said the telco aimed to deliver its 5G network by 2020 and said the company would use the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast to test it.
The trials may not necessarily involve finished smartphones, however, as manufacturers might not yet be ready for the technology.
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