Twitter Unveils ‘Fabric’ Platform for Developers

The success and popularity of the social networking sites like Twitter or also Facebook depends totally on the achievement of those persons who develop many interesting and ideal apps since apps are the most significant part of these sites.

For example, Facebook has obtained a huge number of users due to the social games created by Zynga Inc. Furthermore, the services on the site of Twitter have achieved usability owing to the thousands of applications. These apps permit the public to shorten the web links, display photos and even utilize the Smartphone to get the service.

There are already more than million of apps all over the world that want technical maintenance to stay up and operate, and long-term business policy of Twitter is to endow developers with the necessary tools to make cash from their apps and prevent them from crashing.

A conference for the App makers to launch tools-

Few years ago, Twitter developed some firm rules and regulations regarding the apps development in social media and as a result, it annoyed many developers. But, recently Twitter has brought out some attractive news for those developers by arranging a conference for them. It is going to declare a new set of tools for the app makers.

The social network was stocking up on the developer-based tools over the previous 18 months, holding the startups such as Crashlytics that helps the makers to debug and check new apps. If app makers utilize Crashlytics to analyze and fix their app, they are more probably to use MoPub to promote on it. And in the future, when Twitter releases the best, pricier versions of those tools, the present customers will probably upgrade.

The new service of the tools will be given though a last platform known as Fabric. Fabric that is free, will provide developers a channel to report troubles in the development procedure by means of Crashlytics The tools will incorporate some things from Crashlytics. It is a crash-reporting tool that is used by different companies to know when their apps would crash on the customer devices and it was acquired by Twitter in the year 2013.

Main Goal of Twitter

But, this meeting with the developers will not be to promote the mobile manufacturers to build on this social networking site. The discussion in the conference will be more like a general conversation. The focus in this conference will be mainly to create a good relationship with the app makers by offering them some free tools so that Twitter will be able to earn some profit in this context.

Ryan Sarver, who is an associate of Redpoint Ventures and an ex- director of Twitter mentioned about the same thing. He also said that a new type of service from this social media sites is pleasing to all of the mobile makers, it can create a good bond with further some more developers in the future. He did not speak clearly enough early on concerning which apps it aimed to make and which it wished developers would create. Twitter must make reliable apps for the sake of the users.

However, the relationship became controversial in August of 2012 while Twitter implemented some severe necessities for third-party apps and basically ordered apps which would be capable to flourish in the future years. The company was attempting to take control over the user experience and starting to build features that had been created by external developers.

Apple Glass Maker Makes Deal To Exit The Arizona Plant

According to the reports published by New Hampshire-based GT Advanced Technologies, Merrimack on 23rd Oct 2014, the company is looking forward to invest and sell furnaces and want to exit from their glass-making business. On 6th Oct, GTAT had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. According to the company they will be using the proceedings to refund $439 million Apple advanced GT to equip the Mesa, Arizona, plant. Currently this agreement needs approval from the bankruptcy court judge.

According to the recent reports, nearly 20000 furnaces are expected to be removed from an Arizona factory which were installed for making synthetic sapphire glass for Apple company. These furnaces will be sold under a deal that has been made between the company and the tech giant.

The company is currently preparing for producing large amounts of products that will be used in various Apple products. Currently Cupertino-based Apple has retained the rights to purchase the furnaces.

Last November, Apple company had announced that they will be purchasing a vacant 1.3 million-square-foot plant and will be contracting GT technologies for operation as well as making the glass which is currently being used on their iPhones camera lenses, and also on the home buttons.

With speculations surrounding the iPads and iPhone screens, the company was still unsure about the use of the massive source of the glass. On the other hand, GT technologies encountered issues to get the plant running successfully and Apple company has to release their latest iPhone 6 with their standard glass screen this September.

Apple is currently in the process of laying off nearly 124 employees of this plant which is expected to be completely closed by the end of 2014. They are also looking towards closing another small plant in Salem, Massachusetts.

Apple was quite surprised by the bankruptcy filing from GTAT. Apple released an official report on 23rd Oct 2014 stating that they have put forth a lot of energy and efforts towards their grand new sapphire manufacturing process along with GT Advanced Technologies but they are currently not ready for any production.

The company is planning to continue assessing the GTAT's progress pertaining to huge sapphire boule development and might consider other options for their facility. According to reports, Apple is quite concerned about the employees that will be laid off and hence they are looking to get new jobs for the GT employees and also want to remain committed towards Mesa city.

Initially, GT technologies were using the furnaces for making huge amounts of synthetic sapphire which was in turn used for making various components, but now they are concentrating to focusing on making the equipments that are used in the sapphire making process.

According to the Governor of Arizona, they are very happy with Apple’s decision to start a new plant in the City of Mesa as it indicates the efforts of Arizona is paying towards providing a pro-business climate. The state has been offering various incentives to Apple in the form of their existing facilities which was meant for manufacturing of Solar panel.

Google Wants Their Inbox to Become the Email System for the Next Decade

The year 2004 saw Google’s signature email program hitting the web for the first time. At that time people considered it as the biggest gift anyone can receive since sending and receiving messages and emails was becoming a daily issue. Nearly 2 years back, Google’s email team designers and engineers formed a team and they were thinking that Gmail was not able to meet all the required expectations. But now emails have started becoming tedious again.

Email is no longer means of just basic communication, it involves complete correspondence, and people are able to receive alerts from different social networking sites, airlines, online shopping stores. It is part of life and performs some of the most important functions on a daily basis. Email not only aids in file sharing, but also helps in storing important documents.

There are people who rely on email for keeping a track of their meeting, calendars’, task planner and even to make it their task manager nearly every day. Apart from performing all these important functions, there are people who might find emails at times very annoying. This is the reason which prompted the Gmail think to rethink about the concept behind email.

According to Gmail's product director, Alex Gawley, they wanted to build something that will be more helpful to people. They wanted to completely rethink about the total concept of emails and build something that will completely change the mind of people and people will rely on things which matters to them all the time.

The team worked on a program currently called as Inbox which the company will be releasing on iOS, Android and the web, but only on invitation-only basis. The Inbox is a long term replacement of Gmail and people shouldn’t be considering it as mere update. Although Gmail will still exist, but the team is looking forward to perform future works on Inbox. User can login to Inbox through the Google account and they will find everything that they had in Gmail. They are expecting people to use Inbox more than Gmail.

The Inbox will replace the Gmail screen with a screen with a similar line of social networking feeds. If a user received photos in the Inbox, they can see the pictures in the main screen and flip through them. The iOS version basically integrates the to-do list and social functionality. Google's data-mining prowess has been used for improving the highlights of this credit Inbox. Users will be able to create reminders and tasks alongside the messages received in the inbox.

The task creation has been made very smartly as it will be able to pull relevant information from the data stored in your phone. On the flip side some of the features are not fully novel. This will require users to use a series of gestures just to navigate and sort out the messages. One might feel this similar to the feature available in DropBox. Inbox can easily categorize your emails in the similar ways like outlook and Gmail. But at the moment apart from the invited people, others will have to wait to get their own app.

Building Telecommunication Infrastructure in Developing Nations

In the United States of America, many successful foreign-born entrepreneurs are proud of their heritage. In fact, such individuals might use their experience, wealth and status to help with efforts in other countries. When the Taliban regime came into power in Afghanistan, many educated citizens fled to other nations, including the United States. Decades later, such Afghanis are returning to Afghanistan with the goal of rebuilding the infrastructure of an entire nation. The backward Taliban has significantly slowed down economic and technological growth in Afghanistan, so some U.S.-based telecommunication entrepreneurs are eager to rebuild their native country.

The telecommunication infrastructure of Afghanistan is being slowly rebuilt thanks to cooperation between the United States military and the nation's government. For example, radio broadcasting towers and other structures that have been used exclusively by the U.S. military are being converted for civil use. For the first time in many years, citizens of Afghanistan get the chance to listen to public radio broadcasts that deliver important information and entertainment.

Telecommunication entrepreneurs also work closely with satellite programs of multiple nations such as the United States. Satellites can be used to establish a wireless network in Afghanistan's mobile phone users. Building cell phone towers and traditional land phone lines might be quite difficult because of the nation's geographical challenges. Therefore, satellite-based wireless service seems like the most viable telecommunication solution in modern Afghanistan.

Private contractors and foreign governments provide much-needed assistance in initiating cell phone service within this country. Afghani telecommunication executives who live in the United States might provide plenty of technical support for the software issues. Additionally, such business people can come up with viable plans for distributing mobile phones to remote parts of Afghanistan that are inhabited by tribes and other groups that are not very familiar with modern technology. A telecommunication service like Afghan Wireless and other mobile phone plans are examples of technology initiatives undertaken by U.S. business people in Afghanistan.

High-ranking officials and other prominent figures in Afghanistan are in desperate need of reliable telecommunication solutions. Such people might be able to afford mobile phone plans that provide the fastest possible connections such as 4G speeds. However, the civilian population in Afghanistan has access to slower 3G connections that are considered quite advanced compared to the poor telecommunication services in third-world countries.

A nation such as Afghanistan allows foreign telecommunication companies to experiment with brand-new technology. The country is perfect for testing innovative infrastructure and other hardware that might not be approved in western countries. In fact, research and development for satellite-based communication can be done in nations such as Afghanistan because there is limited regulation. This country openly welcomes any initiatives that will benefit the development of mobile phone services for masses of people.

Afghanistan is also a great location for testing satellite signals and other wireless transmission that would otherwise be strictly regulated by major agencies in western countries. For example, the FAA would not allow telecommunication companies to conduct large-scale testing operations in areas that receive heavy air traffic. In developing nations, mobile phone companies could also experiment with building new satellite receivers for TV broadcasts and high-speed Internet connections.

Know How Flipkart Snapdeal and Amazon Are Funding Discounts!

Online shopping is a rage of late. Owing to the busy lives of people, most do not have time to go to shops every now and then whenever they need to. In these case, online shopping comes as a very convenient option.

The cash on delivery facility is a huge hit in addition to the popular payment modes through credit or debit card options. People are lured in buying online even more due to the attractive discounts that they give. The most popular online shopping sites are Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal. People have built a trust on these sites and they strive to provide effective and competent services to the customers so that they can keep the much needed trust.

The attractive discounts count for the exponential sales on these sites. Here, we will be looking into how Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal funds the discounts that they frequently give to the customers.

How they Fund the Discounts

Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal essentially work as marketplaces. No FDI is imposed on e-commerce in India and these sites make use of this policy itself. FDI is imposed only on those sites, which engages in linking buyers and sellers.

These sites fund the discounts using strategies which are extremely complex and make use of the fact that FDI is not applicable everywhere. The sites see to it that they incur maximum profit by making proper use of the different financial policies of the Indian law.

Even though these sites do not have the power to completely decide on the price or discount on a product, the sites have established for itself a platform where they can make such decisions, owing to their popularity and strength of their business in the market. Most of these sites do not breach laws because their business greatly depends on the reputation they maintain.

These firms deal with the customers directly in these cases. In these cases, it is seen that the site selling the goods keeps a cut for himself from the discounted price and returns the rest of the proceeds to the actual manufacturer of the item.

In case of e-commerce tax is collected on the actual cost of the product and at the price at which is finally sold to the customer. If the customer pays a lesser amount then the tax collected is lesser than what actually must be received if the discount wasn’t allowed. In such cases, thus sellers become eligible for getting a tax refund from the tax department of that particular state.

Online shopping is highly dependent on the discounts given on the various products. These discounts are a testament to show how these sites invest the large amount of money that has been raised from the investors.

An adverse effect of providing such discounts is that the brick and mortar shops are getting highly affected. They have to maintain their establishment costs and thus cannot provide such huge discounts. Shoppers on the other hand are going for profitable discounts available on the Internet.