Linda Johnson Rice and James Murdoch joins Tesla as New Independent Directors to its Board

Tesla Logo Credit: Tesla

Linda Johnson Rice, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson Publishing Company (JPC), and James Murdoch, Chief Executive Officer of 21st Century Fox (21CF), were recently welcomed to Tesla’s board of directors.

In addition to her role as Chairman and CEO of JPC and Fashion Fair Cosmetics, Linda is CEO of Ebony Media Operations and Chairman Emeritus of EBONY Media Holdings, the parent company for the EBONY and Jet brands.

Tesla To Open Store in Henrico

Tesla Store

Electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc. is moving forward with plans to open a store in western Henrico County by late August.

The California-based company said Tuesday that it is holding a private invitation-only event on Aug. 23 to showcase the store at 9850 W. Broad St. A store opening date has not been set, but a spokesman said it would open in late August.

The company still needs to apply to the Virginia Motor Vehicle Dealer Board to grant Tesla a license to sell its battery-powered cars in the state. 

Netflix shares jump as subscriptions top 100 million

Netflix top 100 million subscribers

Netflix on Monday reported that its number of subscribers climbed more than expected, topping 100 million worldwide and sending shares in the leading on-demand television service soaring. 

Netflix shares leapt more than 10 percent to $178.48 in after-market trades that followed release of earnings figures showing the Silicon Valley-based company added 5.2 million subscribers in the recently ended quarter to raise the total to 103.95 million for its streaming service.

Michael Dell takes long view with 'Dell 2.0'

Michael Dell

Dell computers became the world's largest maker of personal computers. 

Now Michael Dell says he is building a broader technology firm with similar ambitions.

Dell Technologies is the result of the private buyout of the original Dell computer firm, bolstered by the massive $67 billion deal for computer storage firm EMC and other software and services acquisitions.

Qualcomm CEO sees settlement with Apple

Qualcomm chief executive Steve Mollenkopf

Qualcomm chief executive Steve Mollenkopf said on Monday the chipmaker's legal war with Apple is about defending his company's business model, but predicted an eventual out-of-court settlement.

"At its core it's really about the price... what to pay for technology," Mollenkopf told a forum at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colorado.

Embattled Uber CEO Travis Kalanick resigns under investor pressure

Uber said Wednesday that its embattled chief executive Travis Kalanick had agreed to step down from his job, as the company tries to clean up a corporate culture that has sparked charges of harassment and discrimination.

          Uber CEO Travis Kalanick

Kalanick had already been on a leave of absence aimed at restoring confidence in the scandal-plagued ridesharing giant.

The New York Times reported that five of the company's major investors had demanded his departure.

Electronic Signature platform HelloSign raises $16 million

HelloSign, the Electronic Signature platform, is announcing a $16 million financing round led by Foundry Group and Zach Coelius. Greylock Partners, U.S. Venture Partners and Tien Zhuo also participated.

Although the San Francisco-based company has been around since 2010, they are calling it a Series B, since they’ve raised little outside capital. The business is cash flow positive and it’s a “funding round that we did not need to take,” insisted COO Whitney Bouck. But they welcomed the opportunity for Ryan McIntyre from Foundry Group to join their board of directors.

Ericsson leads European 5GCAR project

Ericsson leads European 5GCAR projec

The "5GCAR project" led by Ericsson has been selected as part of phase 2 of the 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership (5G PPP), and is eligible for EU funding.

Project involves 14 partners including PSA group, Orange, and Volvo Cars.

Development of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) network connectivity represents significant step towards connected vehicles.

A consortium of several companies led by Ericsson was awarded the 5GCAR project on June 1, with the aim to develop an overall 5G system architecture that provides optimized end-to-end vehicle-to-everything (V2X) network connectivity for highly reliable and low-latency V2X services.

Google News Lab powers digital journalism training for Africa

Google News Lab powers digital journalism training for Africa

For journalists, recent advances in digital technology present compelling new opportunities to discover, tell and share stories—like this one from the Mail & Guardian that uses Google My Maps to highlight top water wasters in metro areas during the drought.

But learning how to use new digital tools for reporting can be intimidating or even daunting. This is particularly true in Africa, where digital integration in news and storytelling often remains a challenge.

Huawei Digital Railway Solution Supports New Mombasa to Nairobi Railway

Huawei Digital Railway Solution Supports New Mombasa to Nairobi Railway

Huawei, a leading global Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions provider, announced recently that the railway operational communications network it built for Kenya's Mombasa to Nairobi rail project was put into commercial use. 

Huawei's Digital Railway Solution enables multiple communications tasks, including mission-critical train dispatch, emergency communications, section maintenance communications, secure transmission, and ensures stable power supply along the entire line. The solution will meet customer requirements for safe, stable, and efficient railway operations and ensure highly reliable communications for the railway.

Huawei gets Six Awards at Interop Tokyo 2017- New Breakthroughs for Huawei's Leading New ICT

Huawei is exhibiting at Interop Tokyo 2017 with a display themed "Leading New ICT, the Road to Digital Transformation

Huawei is exhibiting at Interop Tokyo 2017 – Japan's largest ICT exhibition – from June 7 to June 9, with a display themed "Leading New ICT, the Road to Digital Transformation”. This year, Huawei won six awards, including the Grand Prize in the Demonstration Category and Grand Prize in the Server & Storage Category.

This year's Interop, with its theme of "The REAL", aims to explore what the Internet is all about and what changes it will bring to our future society. It offers a signpost for the business decision-makers who are leading the digital transformation into a Better Connected World.

VW-JAC Motor electric car venture approved by Chinese regulator

Germany's Volkswagen AG and Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group (JAC Motor) have received approval from Chinese regulators to form a joint venture to make electric vehicles, the two automakers said on Monday.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top state planner, gave a green light to JAC and VW to build 100,000 pure battery electric vehicles annually in a project worth 5.1 billion yuan ($740 million), according to a JAC Motor stock exchange filing.

A VW spokesman confirmed the approval but said certain administrative procedures still needed to be completed for a joint venture contract to be signed with JAC Motor.

Google Is Getting Rid of Those Weird Android Emoji Blobs

Emojis

Google is finally getting rid of those default, blob-like emojis. 

The Verge reports that although Google tried to change the emojis for the Android N, it wasn’t good enough.

Now, the tech giant is completely recreating the emojis, and will feature them for the first time on the Android O.

Cisco Systems announces 1,100 more layoffs

Cisco Systems Inc. said Wednesday that it is laying off 1,100 more workers, deepening job losses at the internet gear maker battling declining revenue.

The new round of layoffs comes on top of the 5,500 jobs Cisco announced it was cutting in August. That amounted to about 7 percent of its workforce at the time.

Cisco sells routers, switches, software and services business and has seen its business hurt as more of its corporate customers rely on remote data centers for their computing needs instead of online networks maintained on their own premises.

What we currently know about the global cyberattack

The danger from a global cyberattack that spread to some 150 nations continues to fade, and that’s only some of the good news.

After two security researchers greatly slowed down that attack , which effectively held people’s documents, photos and other digital files hostage, hard-hit organizations such as the U.K.’s National Health Service seem to be bouncing back. 

While it’s a crude measure of the impact, it also appears that relatively few of those affected were desperate enough to actually pay the ransom demanded by the attackers.

Volkswagen CEO faces first probe over 'Dieselgate'

Volkswagen chief executive Matthias Mueller on Wednesday stood in the focus of an investigation into the world's largest carmaker's 'dieselgate' scandal for the first time, along with other key players at the firm.

Mueller and others "...are suspected of knowingly delaying telling shareholders about the financial consequences for Porsche SE of software manipulation in diesel vehicles by Volkswagen AG," prosecutors in southwestern city Stuttgart said in a statement.

Porsche SE, separate from VW subsidiary Porsche AG, is a holding company with a majority stake in Volkswagen, and is itself owned by the descendants of renowned VW Beetle inventor Ferdinand Porsche.

Top Tech firms makes 25 Highest Paying Companies in America for 2017

It may come as no surprise that tech and physician jobs pay six-figures, but for the average American job hunting, it may be even more important to know where they can work that pays highly. The good news — many companies are offering top dollar for skilled talent.

Glassdoor’s latest report reveals the 25 Highest Paying Companies in America for 2017. In addition to ramping up hiring, all of these companies are offering employees, on average, six-figure paychecks. This report is based on each company’s median total compensation, compiled by looking at salary reports at companies in which employees have anonymously and voluntarily shared both their base pay and other forms of compensation (i.e. commissions, tips, bonuses, etc.) over the past year*.

Microsoft launches Azure Database for MySQL and PostgreSQL

While Microsoft’s big Azure database news today is the launch of Cosmos DB, its new “planet-scale” distributed database service, there is a good chance that many developers will actually be more interested in a slightly smaller update to Azure’s database portfolio. 

At its Build developer conference, Microsoft today announced the launch of Azure Database for MySQL and PostgreSQL.

This, Microsoft says, is meant to ensure that developers can use their favorite databases on Azure. Until now, to use MySQL or PostgreSQL on Azure, they would have had to spin up virtual machines to run and operate those database systems themselves. 

Red Hat Drives Cloud Infrastructure Upgrades with Latest Version of Production-Ready OpenStack Platform

Red Hat the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced Red Hat OpenStack Platform 11, the latest version of Red Hat’s massively-scalable and agile cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). 

Based on the OpenStack “Ocata” release, Red Hat OpenStack Platform 11 delivers enhanced support for upgrades with composable roles, new networking capabilities, and improved integration with Red Hat CloudForms for cloud management.

VMware Unveils IoT Management Solution to Help Customers Take Control of IoT

Photo Credit: VMware blog

VMware today unveiled VMware Pulse IoT Center, a secure, enterprise grade Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure management solution that will enable information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) teams to have complete control of their IoT infrastructure and things. 

The first solution in a new family of VMware IoT offerings, VMware Pulse™ IoT Center™ will help customers to more efficiently manage, operate, scale and protect their IoT projects from the edge to the cloud.

Gartner estimates that through 2020, 90 percent of IoT projects will use some form of IoT gateway. (1) Additionally, the worldwide installed base of IoT endpoints is expected to grow from 12.1 billion at the end of 2015 to more than 30 billion in 2020, according to IDC. (2) As IoT becomes prevalent in the enterprises, organizations need a simplified approach to manage, monitor and secure their infrastructure and data.

5G collaboration in lead up to 2018 Winter Games

Following an MoU that was signed in 2015, KT, Ericsson, and several other technology partners, are cooperating to build, test and optimize a 5G network in preparation for the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang. 

At an April 2017 meeting, KT and its partners agreed on steps to deploy and optimize a trial 5G network during 2017 including plans for joint technology development.

Additionally, Ericsson and KT conducted tests along the Incheon Airport Railway - a new high speed rail line linking the capital of Seoul with Incheon International Airport.

Ericsson and Etisalat conduct 5G trial with outdoor mobility

The trial demonstrated 5G capabilities in a real world environment over a live network, including tests on speed, latency and beam steering. 

The 5G trial system is using 800MHz of spectrum in the 15GHz band, demonstrating over 20 times greater performance than what is currently used in 4G networks. 

The trial also achieved an aggregate site throughput of more than 24Gbps a significant improvement over current 4G networks.

Games on Messenger Go Global with New Features and Games

Facebook has started to roll out Instant Games on Messenger more broadly for the 1.2 billion people who use Messenger every month. 

In addition, we’re also launching the new features that we exclusively previewed to developers at our annual F8 conference.

These include rich gameplay features, which allow developers to create unique and sophisticated experiences and Game bots to help game makers surface exciting features like new levels and rewards.

Huawei and Red Hat Signs Server OEM Agreement

Huawei and  Red Hat Signs Agreement Photo Credit: Huawei

Huawei signed an enterprise Linux OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) agreement with Red Hat, Inc., a provider of open source solutions, at Hannover Messe 2017. 

The agreement focuses on collaboration between Huawei and Red Hat to deliver advanced technology and service collaboration around Huawei servers and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The agreement announces Huawei as a Red Hat OEM partner, enabling customers to purchase a complete solution from Huawei along with services and support. 

The agreement signing continues Huawei’s collaboration with Red Hat. Red Hat plans to offer solutions backed by technical service for Huawei servers, including Huawei's rack, blade, and high-density servers, as well as the KunLun Mission Critical Servers.

Huawei and Simyo Win MVNO Awards at MVNO World Congress 2017

Huawei and Simyo receives MVNO Awards Photo Credit: Huawei

Huawei’s BSS Cloud solution won ‘Best Solution Provider’ award at MVNO World Congress 2017. Simyo, with the help of Huawei BSS Cloud solution for its innovative business transformation, won ‘Most Innovative MVNO’ award as well.

The ‘Best Solution Provider’ award is granted to MVNE who has a significant impact in facilitating the development of the MVNO market by working with MVNOs in order to support MVNO services.
The ‘Most Innovative MVNO’ award is granted to these virtual operators that they have genuinely introduced innovation in the MVNO market.

Winning these two awards indicates the compliment within the industry of this successful cooperation between Huawei BSS Cloud and Simyo. Huawei BSS Cloud provided Simyo a cloud-based digital operation platform.