1. Global server revenue increased 25.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2017 while shipments grew 8.8 per cent Year-over-Year, with Dell EMC leading the market. Based on revenue, Dell EMC and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) were neck-and-neck with 19.4 per cent and 19.3 per cent market share respectively in the fourth quarter of 2017.
2. Facebook has introduced video chat in Messenger Lite, a slimmed down version of Messenger for Android intended for people with older devices and/or slower Internet connections.
3. BlackBerry on Wednesday signed a technology and brand licencing deal with Swiss consumer electronics maker Punkt Tronics AG for BlackBerry Secure that will be installed in phones and other smart devices.
4. Facebook-owned WhatsApp has rolled out yet another update for its Android beta testers. The app has introduced the adaptive launcher icon in Android beta version 2.18.74.
5. It’s International Women’s Day today and brands are going all guns blazing to woo customers. Be it special offers, discounts, eye-catching deals, almost every marketing trick is being deployed. Fashion e-commerce portal Myntra, however, has gone a step ahead and flipped its logo. The logo which is the alphabet M has been turned into a W.
6. Leading global IT services organisation, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), on Thursday was named as the fastest growing IT services brand in the world in an assessment done by leading brand valuation firm, Brand Finance.
7. Samsung Galaxy On Max price has been reduced in India. The smartphone, which was launched in July last year at Rs. 16,900 (MOP), is now available at Rs. 13,900. The revised price is already live on Flipkart and Samsung's online store.
8. Artificial intelligence (AI) isn't something all new for Microsoft. But now, the Redmond giant has chosen to bring an AI platform right within the next major Windows 10 update to let developers offer various advancements on their apps using pre-trained machine learning (ML) models. The platform, which is called Windows ML, is based on Open Neural Network Exchange Format (ONNX) that is already empowering ML systems designed by Amazon Web Services and Facebook.
9. Uber Founder and former chief executive officer Travis Kalanick is all set for his second innings. Kalanick has launched a new fund for his personal investments in startups, for-profit and not-for-profit work.
10. Asus has announced what it calls the industry's first gaming laptop powered by AMD's eight-core Ryzen 1700 processor, in India. The Asus ROG Strix GL702ZC is currently available at e-commerce platform Flipkart for pre-order. The laptop, to be available from March 20, has been priced at Rs. 1,34,990.
11. HMD Global, the company that holds the license to manufacture Nokia-branded smartphones, launched the Nokia 6 smartphone with 3GB RAM last year in June. The company has now slashed the price of the smartphone. Launched at Rs 14,999, the smartphone has got a price drop of Rs 1,500 and is now selling at Rs 13,499.
12. The cabinet approved on Wednesday an increase to the cap on airwaves that a mobile operator can hold to 35 percent from 25 percent. Based on recommendations of India's telecoms regulator and the Telecom Commission, the cabinet also removed the intra-band cap but said mobile carriers would have to adhere to a 50 percent cap on combined airwaves holdings below 1GHz bands.
13. LG Electronics on Thursday announced the launch of its latest V30S ThinQ and V30S+ ThinQ in South Korea. Unveiled ahead of Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona, LG's latest smartphones come with AI-focused capabilities. Pricing for the South Korean market has been revealed - LG V30S ThinQ will sport a price tag of KRW 1,048,300 (roughly Rs. 63,600) and the LG V30S+ ThinQ has a price of KRW 1,097,800 (roughly Rs. 66,600).
14. Google Duo is adding a useful tool which lets you reach out to your contacts even when they are not available. The video calling app has been updated with a new video messages feature that enables users to leave video voicemails whenever someone fails to pick up a call.
15. US-based immigration expert Cyrus Mehta says the new policy memorandum on the H-1B visa issued by the US immigration authority on February 22 places onerous responsibilities on IT companies seeking these visas, as also on their clients, and that the latter may be unwilling to take on those responsibilities.
16. Launch of new services like payments over whatsapp may have resulted in regulatory arbitrage, but it will eventually converge with the rest of the industry, a senior HDFC Bank official said today.
17. Xiaomi's Mi Power Bank 2i range is now available via Amazon as well as Flipkart. To recall, the 10000mAh Mi Power Bank 2i and 20000mAh Mi Power Bank 2i were launched by the Chinese company in November last year.
18. A second Nor'easter that hit the storm-weary US East Coast in less than a week with heavy snowfall, power outages and crippled transportation on Wednesday did not deter Samsung Electronics from unveiling its next-generation 4K QLED TVs that are set to redefine our living rooms. The new line-up of flagship QLED (Quantum dot Light Emitting Diode) TVs - including the 85-inch, 8K Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered TV - houses an "Ambient Mode" feature that mimics the pattern on the wall behind the TV to create a visual effect, in which the TV blends seamlessly into the wall like a chameleon.
19. Weeks after releasing the anticipated Android Oreo update, HMD Global has now pushed another software update for the Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 that brings the Android March security patch.
20. Amazon.com said on Wednesday it was expanding its discounted Prime membership offer to Medicaid members, the US government's health insurance program for the poor.
21. Swipe Elite Dual has been launched in India with a dual rear camera setup at a price of Rs. 3,999. The new smartphone will go on sale exclusively through Shopclues starting March 8, Thursday.
22. Amazon Echo devices’ owners can be pardoned if they turned to Alexa and asked, “what’s so funny”? That’s because the virtual assistant bizarrely got into random laughing fits. The ‘problem’ was reported by a host of users on social media and it has even prompted Amazon to comment on it. The e-commerce giant told The Verge, “We are aware of this and working to fix it.”
23. Snapchat parent Snap Inc is laying off nearly 10% of its engineering team, or about 100 people. The layoffs would be Snap's largest yet and the first to affect its engineers.
24. Netflix has released a full-length trailer for A Series of Unfortunate Events season 2, which charts the continued misfortunes of the Baudelaire children as Count Olaf (Neil Patrick Harris) attempts to steal the fortune their parents left for them. The new season is based on books five through nine of the novel series by Lemony Snicket.
25. Developers with a Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL devices can now download the Android P (Android 9.0) developer preview 1. Unfortunately, support has been dropped for the Google Pixel C, Google Nexus 5X and Google Nexus 6P.
26. Farmville creator Mark Skaggs has left Bengaluru-based Moonfrog Labs. He had joined the studio as a game designer and board member.
27. The Infinix Note 4 and the Infinix Zero 5 have received a price drop. The Infinix Note 4 which was launched at Rs 8,999 is now selling at Rs 7,999 after the price cut of Rs 1,000. On the other hand, the Infinix Zero 5 which came with a price tag of Rs 17,999 has got a price drop of Rs 2,000 and is now available at Rs 15,999.
28. Netflix on Wednesday revealed a new feature that it will be rolling out to mobile app users in the next couple of weeks, starting with the iPhone app and then moving on to Android. Todd Yellin, Vice President Product at Netflix revealed "previews", a kind of video trailer that will give mobile users a preview of shows on the streaming service. The videos are pre-buffered using predictive analysis, so they should load almost instantly even on a mobile data connection, says Yellin. Interestingly, the videos have been edited to play in portrait mode, since that's how people are holding the device while browsing Netflix, he adds.
29. Amazon.com Inc met in Brazil last week with an array of manufacturers to discuss plans to stock and sell products from consumer electronics to perfume in the country, according to two people that took part in the meetings. The move would take the U.S. e-commerce giant beyond its current role in Brazil as a marketplace for third-party sellers, representing a major advance into the biggest retail market in Latin America.
30. Broadcom sought again to soothe US security concerns around its bid for chipmaker Qualcomm on Wednesday, saying it would stick with investments aimed at maintaining the United States' leadership in 5G technology.
31. Businesses can now describe themselves in Google Maps listings as being owned, led or founded by women, the Alphabet Inc unit announced Wednesday. Users would see the new descriptor alongside details in business listings that say whether shops have offerings such as kosher food, outdoor seating and Wi-Fi.
32. The Japanese government is slapping penalties on several crypotocurrency exchanges in the country, after 58 billion yen ($530 million) of virtual coins were lost earlier this year from hacking.
33. Apple supplier Wistron’s facility in Bengaluru has achieved zero waste to landfill certification in a little over a year, much faster than its assembly units in China.
34. The National Company Law Tribunal stayed till March 13 the sale of assets of Reliance Infratel, the tower unit of Reliance Communications, the second setback this week for the Anil Ambani-owned telco that is rushing to pare debt by half by March end.
35. Targetting cardiac diseases, Microsoft has partnered with Apollo Hospitals to expand its healthcare artificial intelligence (AI) offering.
36. After recently launching a mobile app for small businesses, WhatsApp is preparing to add several new features for large enterprises, including customer support and possibly merchant payments as well.
37. Chinese handset maker Vivo is all set to refresh its smartphone line-up in India with V9 that will be launched on March 27.
38. Microsoft has confirmed it will discontinue Windows "10 S" -- the latest version of its flagship Operating System (OS), released in mid-2017 in favour of a special "S Mode" that is the new version of Windows designed to compete with Google Chrome OS.
39. It's International Women’s Day today. On the occasion, the search giant has dedicated its Doodle to some of the extraordinary women throughout history. The list includes prominent inventors, scientists, writers, artists, activists, philanthropists and more.
40. Social media platforms have made it easy to record, share, and access instructional videos, but merely watching them without practicing the demonstrated skills may not actually improve our ability to perform them, according to the findings published in the journal Psychological Science.
41. A sequel to Ubisoft's always-online shared world shooter The Division is in the works. The Division 2 is being developed by Massive Entertainment, creators of the first game. It will be supported by a host of Ubisoft studios.
42. Humans are addicted to continuous social interaction, and not to their smartphone devices, a study of dysfunctional use of smart technology has found.
43. Chinese smartphone companies Oppo and Vivo are scaling down the distributors and retailers selling their phones in a turnaround of their strategy of reaching even the smallest towns and cities as both cut spending and focus on generating returns.
44. The overall India consumer storage flash memory market witnessed 17 per cent decline in the fourth quarter of 2017 as against the third quarter in terms of units shipped. However, on year-on-year (YoY) comparison, the market recorded seven per cent growth.
45. President Donald Trump is set to pit the video game industry against some of its harshest critics at a White House meeting on Thursday that's designed to explore the link between violent games, guns and tragedies like last month's shooting in Parkland, Florida.
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