Facebook's internet beaming drones aren't coming to India

Facebook is committed at bringing internet access to much of India, but the social giant won’t be using its Aquila drone to achieve it in the country. The high-altitude, solar-powered unmanned drone, designed to beam internet to remote parts of the world, isn’t headed to India, Umang Bedi, Managing Director, for Facebook in India and South Asia noted at a round table discussion on Wednesday. 

Aquila is one of our connectivity efforts, which I think, is an experiment for the US only. It’s got nothing to do with India; there was some speculation, but that was speculation only,” Bedi told FactorDaily, refuting claims made in a recent media report. 

The Economic Times, citing a Facebook executive, reported earlier this month that the company had been in talks with the Indian government and telecom companies for potential programs to bring Aquila in India. Aquila weighs less than a car, consumes just 5,000 Watts of energy, and is intended to fly for months on a stretch. "Our goal is to have a fleet of Aquilas flying together at 60,000 feet, communicating with each other with lasers and staying aloft for months at a time — something that’s never been done before," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in July, shortly after the announcing the first "successful" flight of Aquila in Yuma, Arizona. 

Many people were expecting Facebook to bring Aquila in India, especially in the wake of ban on Free Basics in India. The initiative, which is aimed at offering select internet services to people, was banned by the Indian government earlier this year on the grounds of violation of net neutrality. The company has since begun looking at alternatives to get India's untapped market to the internet. 

One such alternative is Express WiFi, which aims at collaborating with internet service providers and local entrepreneurs to set up public Wi-Fi networks in places with poor internet connectivity.  

“We have existing partnerships with operators and other entities, and we're always in conversation with them," a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable India. "But it's early days and we need to make sure the technology works first." 

Earlier this week, the American National Transportation Safety opened an investigation into an accident during the drone’s first "successful" test flight, where it suffered structural damage.

Uber eyes UberCommute expansion in India

Uber plans to expand its UberCommute service across India, but the path it is hoping to travel is likely more complicated than it is anticipating.

Early this year, Uber quietly began testing UberCommute in New Delhi and Bengaluru cities in India. The program allows anyone with a car to join its platform and share ride with fellow commuters for a fee.

Shortly after its launch, the Karnataka government accused Uber of violating transport department rules by facilitating unregulated use of private vehicles for commercial usage. The company has been tight lipped on UberCommute's performance so far, but it is now eyeing a nation-wide expansion of UberCommute.  Uber's India policy head, Shweta Rajpal Kohli, says the company is "keen to support the government in every way possible and help use carpooling and ride-sharing as solutions to address the rising pollution and congestion in the city." 

Speaking to Economic Times, she added, "services like Uber can instantly match passengers headed in the same direction at the same time, thereby reducing the number of duplicate journeys." Uber's efforts could help reduce carbon footprint, but what's holding the company back is domestic regulations. The country's current Motor Vehicles Act requires private vehicle owners to pay annual taxes and possess a badge to ferry passengers, and the cars are also required to be annually inspected. Because other taxis are required to pay taxes, if Uber gets its way, there could be a lot of friction from taxi unions. It will be interesting how the government approaches the issue. 

The move comes as both Uber and Ola have been aggressively attempting to lure drivers to their respective platforms. Both the companies have partnered with car makers to offer training and enticing leasing programs to make it easier for those drivers to afford a car.Because of the local economy, it is more difficult for Uber and Ola to currently get a driver on their platform. With their ongoing efforts with leasing programs, Uber helps drivers who otherwise wouldn't have access to finance and ability to purchase vehicles, according to analysts. But if the government allowed private vehicles on the platform for commercial usage, it could draw the interest of many. 

NHTSA adds safety sound requirement for new electric and hybrid vehicles

Electric cars and hybrid vehicles can be incredibly quiet – so quiet that a populace used to cars that make noise can be hurt when sharing space with them. New NHTSA standards for automakers aim to help fix that with audible alerts hat are required on all new hybrid and electric going forward beginning September 1, 2019.

The new sound requirements applies across the U.S., and should help prevent as many as 2,400 pedestrian injuries each year once they span the range of EVs and hybrids on the road. The new rule specifically states than all-electric and hybrid cars that have four wheels and weigh under 10,000 pounds must make an audible noise when traveling either backwards or forwards at speeds up of to 19 miles per hour. Beyond that, NHTSA says a nose isn’t required, because tires and wind provide enough.

The rule comes fully into effect at the beginning of September 2019, as mentioned, but half of all new electric and hybrids made must comply a year prior to that, by September 1, 2018. This could impact a significantly larger portion of vehicles by then, given the current vehicle roadmaps of the various automakers, which are looking forward to adding many more electric cars to their lineups.

Zugata raises $7 million to make annual performance reviews obsolete

                                   

Even before they began to graduate from college, millennials drove changes at work, from management and recruiting practices to the design of office interiors. But companies are still adapting and figuring out what matters most to this large demographic and employee base.

Now, a tech startup called Zugata has raised $7 million in Series A venture funding to replace the crusty old performance review with something more motivating to this group than a twice-a-year, managerial write-up.

Investors in Zugata’s new round included Canaan Partners, General Catalyst andRedpoint Ventures.

Founded in 2014, Palo Alto-based Zugata developed software as a service that automatically figures out who employees work with most, and then helps them gather feedback from each other, directly, without managers or HR departments eavesdropping.

Companies that use Zugata can set a policy so that employees may exchange feedback either anonymously, or with their names attached.

Zugata shows users a set of skills that a colleague should have mastered, based on their functional role. For each skill, a user marks it as strength or not yet a strength.

The employer cannot access messages exchanged, not through their HR department, IT or any other division. If court orders (or some other situation) required messages between employees to be disclosed such requests would be handled by Zugata.

Zugata CEO and cofounder Srinivas Krishnamurti explained that providing employees with a private, but official, means of exchanging feedback decouples professional development and performance goal-setting from salary and promotion decisions.

Leak: Nintendo Switch to cost less than Wii U at launch

We now know a lot more about the Nintendo’s new Switch console/handheld hybrid than we did a few months ago, but one thing Nintendo has yet to reveal is the price. New leaks suggest we might see something pretty affordable though: The console could come in for $249.

Lets Play Video Games suggests that UK outlet Game is planning to sell the switch for £199.99, which translates to $250 in the US. A leak from Toys ‘R’ Us Canada shows corroborates teh report, showing the console selling for $329.99 CAD, or about $245.

A higher end version of the console with additional storage will sell for £249.99, which is about $311, and Pro controllers will cost £39.99 (around $50).

With the PS4 and Xbox One S starting at $300, Nintendo is clearly aiming to undercut the competition. You could get an original Xbox One or used console for cheaper, of course, but those won’t have the newness factor.

Nintendo has long kept its prices a notch lower than its competitors, particularly given its consoles haven’t matched the graphical prowess of its competitors since way back with the GameCube. In fact, one of the issues that kept the Wii U from succeeding was its relatively high launch price of $300. Despite its unique features, there wasn’t enough reason for people to choose it over the competition.

And though Nintendo still calls the Switch a home console foremost, the lower price also makes sense given its handheld form-factor, putting it more in line with portable consoles like the Nintendo 3DS.

With the Switch due to be released in March, it won’t be long until we find out more.

A hidden trailer in Watch Dogs 2 proves to be more interesting than Ubisoft’s entire catalogue

Watch Dogs 2, the game where you play Marcus Holloway, hacker extraordinaire, has revealed an a mission where you steal a game trailer for an in-game version of Ubisoft.

Ubisoft is the company that is developing Watch Dogs 2 in the first place, but that’s not the interesting part. The trailer, reproduced below, shows off a game that actually looks rather nice. It’s so good, in fact, that many are hoping that this is a teaser for a game that Ubisoft is already working on.

As you can see, the trailer features a game with a vivid colour palette and what looks like a reasonably fleshed out space game. If I’m honest, I’d go so far as to say that the trailer actually looks far more interesting to me than the bulk of Ubisoft’s games.

If Ubisoft is indeed developing the game, I’m in two minds about the outcome. On one hand, I’m excited, on the other hand, I’m terrified; this is Ubisoft we’re talking about after all. If nothing else, the company has a reputation for dumbing down games and it has no pedigree when it comes to multiplayer gaming.

Watch Dogs 2 will be available tonight for PS4 and Xbox One and on PC by 28 November. The PC version is obviously the cheaper one, but given how badly Ubisoft ported the last game, the console version may be the one you’d want to play.

Siemens agrees to buy Mentor Graphics in $4.5 billion cash deal

Siemens agreed to buy U.S.-based Mentor Graphics in a $4.5 billion cash deal that will further enhance the German engineering group’s industrial software capabilities. Siemens said on Monday it would pay $37.25 per share for Mentor Graphics, which makes software for designing semiconductors, a 21 percent premium to Friday’s closing price. Siemens Chief Executive Joe Kaeser has set out to reshape the group, a household name in Germany, to make it more profitable and more agile by selling off non-core businesses and investing in areas promising faster growth and fatter margins.

One such area is software where Siemens increasingly competes with firms that can develop technology faster because that is their sole focus. Earlier this year, Siemens bought CD-adapco, a privately held U.S. engineering software firm, for close to $1 billion. Siemens said last week that it planned a public listing of its $15 billion healthcare business, which pushed its shares to a 16-year high as investors hoped for an injection of capital to boost its valuation while funding new investments.

Wilsonville, Oregon-based Mentor Graphics “will complement our strong offering in mechanics and software with design, test and simulation of electrical and electronic systems,” Siemens management board member Klaus Helmrich said in a statement. People familiar with the matter had flagged the planned deal to Reuters, saying Siemens would pay $4.5 billion to $4.6 billion for Mentor.

Benefits Expected

Siemens said it expected the acquisition to add to its earnings per share within three years and to lift earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) by more than 100 million euros ($108 million) within four years. Siemens shares traded 1.3 percent higher at 0900 GMT. The U.S. firm generated revenues of around $1.2 billion in its fiscal year through the end of January, with an adjusted operating margin of 20.2 percent.

Mentor has been under pressure since activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp reported an 8.1 percent stake in the company in September and said its shares were deeply undervalued. It had been no stranger to activist investors or takeover offers over previous years. Billionaire activist Carl Icahn won a proxy fight in 2011 that secured him three board seats, although he quit his investment in the company in April after six years. Mentor Graphics also fended off a hostile takeover by rival Cadence Design Systems Inc CDNS.N in 2008.