Miscellanea

1. Economy

6.  Salesforce Is Getting Into Blockchain. Here’s
Why That Matters

Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM)
CEO Marc Benioff often talks about having a beginner’s mind — trying to view
the world like it’s a new place you’ve never experienced before. That thinking
is leading the company toward developing a blockchain and cryptocurrency
solution that Benioff hopes will be ready for the company’s Dreamforce 2018
software conference this September. For investors, that means Salesforce could
be the latest way to take advantage of the cryptocurrency boom … without
having to buy any bitcoin.

7.  Cryptography  and  
blockchain and  cryptocurrency, oh
my!

Cryptocurrencies are
virtual currencies, and there are lots of them — more than 1,500 as of this
writing. In some ways, they are no different than any other form of currency,
like the dollar or the euro. People agree they are worth something and they can
be exchanged for things of value.

Where cryptocurrencies
differ is that they’re completely digital and decentralized — not controlled
by a central bank or backed by a government. Instead, the currency exists in a
type of public ledger called a blockchain, and that ledger can only be altered
if certain conditions are met. Alterations are made using cryptography, the
science of encoding data to keep it safe from theft or other manipulation.

Cryptocurrencies and the
blockchain technology making them possible have garnered lots of interest and
it’s not surprising Salesforce is looking to create a product for this market.
And Salesforce has had great success starting and quickly growing new business
segments over the years, so the thought of Salesforce becoming a major player
in blockchain technology and cryptocurrency isn’t far-fetched

(Source:
International Business Times dated 19.04.2018)

2.  Technology

8.  One plus 6 to launch in Mumbai on May 17

OnePlus has confirmed the
launch of the OnePlus 6 for the Indian market. The company says it will be
hosting the product launch event at the Dome at NSCI, Mumbai on May 17.

OnePlus has confirmed the
launch of the OnePlus 6 for the Indian market. The company says it will be
hosting the product launch event at the Dome at NSCI, Mumbai on May 17. The
launch event will begin at 15:00 and will be live streamed across its official
social channels. OnePlus 6 will start selling in India via Amazon India
starting 12:00 IST on 21 May 2018. However, users should keep in mind that the
sale will be limited to Amazon Prime members.

OnePlus is also giving its
fans a chance to attend the launch event. The entry vouchers to attend the
event will be available via oneplus.in from 10:00 IST on Tuesday, 8 May 2018.
In addition, those who will attend the launch event will get a gift hamper full
of super add-ons and exclusive Marvel Avengers merchandise.

(Source:
The Indian Express dated 26.04.2018)

9.  Why we need to have regulation and
legislation on AI (Artificial Intelligence) and quick

Our laws will eventually
need to be amended or new laws for artificial intelligence technologies and
processes will need to be adopted to fill up existing lacunae.

Artificial Intelligence
(AI) is a global technological wave and there’s no disputing the fact that it
has entered the Indian market. India has not advanced as far as giving
citizenship rights to a robot (case in point –Sophia from Saudi Arabia), but
personalised chatbots have flooded the market, AI has forayed into the medical
stream and it is also being used to protect the cyberspace.

With greater explorations
into the space of AI, the world is moving towards a goal of near-complete
automation of services. The element of end-to-end ‘human involvement’ has been
insisted upon by most AI advanced countries such as Canada, in order to ensure
accountability and security of AI systems. AI is wholly based on data generated
and gathered from various sources. Hence, a biased data set could evidently
lead to a biased decision by the system or an incorrect response by a chatbot.

Pratik Jain, co-founder of
Morph.ai, a Gurgaon-based AI startup, says if the chatbot does not respond
correctly once deployed by the business, a human fallback is provided to
correct the error based on the data generated and provided by the business.

(Source:
The Indian Express dated 26.04.2018)

10.  Amazon Teases Fire TV Cube, A Set-Top Box
Powered By Alexa

Amazon has confirmed the
existence of a new product called “Fire TV Cube.” It’s being speculated that
the upcoming device will be a new high-end Fire TV set-top box that comes with
Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant.

Amazon has set up a new
teaser page that asks visitors “what is Fire TV Cube?” The webpage says that
details about the device will become available soon and visitors will be able
to sign up to receive an update on the upcoming product. Amazon’s new teaser
page was first discovered by AFTVNews, which appears to have already leaked the
device way back in September.

Last fall, AFTVNews posted
a leaked image of a new Fire TV dongle and a cube-shaped Fire TV set-top box.
The dongle turned out to be the 2017 Fire TV, which Amazon officially launched
in October. As for the set-top box, it wasn’t released alongside the new Fire
TV because its release date may have been pushed back to 2018. It’s now being
speculated that the set-top box will be the Fire TV Cube that Amazon is
currently teasing about.

Amazon has not confirmed
anything yet about the Fire TV Cube, but it was previously rumored to arrive
with voice recognition technology, specifically Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant.
The leaked image from last year appears to show the device as having far-field microphones,
a built-in speaker and an LED light indicator. On top, it features buttons for
volume controls, turning off the microphones and a trigger for Alexa. The
device is said to feature an IR (infrared) emitter, which suggests that users
will be able to control it with other IR remote controllers. The device looks a
lot like a cube-shaped Amazon Echo speaker.

It’s being speculated that
the Fire TV Cube will let users have hands-free interaction with Alexa to
search and play video content. Alexa might also be able to provide hands-free
playback control for music and videos. The device is also expected to arrive
with its own voice remote, which features a microphone button to trigger and
interact with Alexa.

One of Engadget’s readers
sent the site scans of a user manual for his Amazon Ethernet adapter. One of
the pages appears to show an illustration of the Fire TV Cube, and it suggests
that the new device will have an HDMI port, a power port and a port simply
marked as “Infrared.” The device also appears to have a microUSB port, which
can only be used for the Amazon Ethernet Adapter.

Amazon didn’t say when
exactly it will unveil the Fire TV Cube. But based on the teaser page and the
device’s appearance in a recent user manual, it seems like the Fire TV Cube
might launch very soon.

(Source: International Business
Times dated 25.04.2018)