Google search will soon rank mobile sites higher than desktop ones; experiments underway

By tech2 News Staff /  07 Nov 2016 , 12:36

Google, the king of search, has announced plans to shake up its indexing and ranking algorithm to prioritise the mobile site over the desktop one.

The company argues that most people use Google search on mobile anyway and that such users will obviously prefer results that link to mobile sites. Google’s current algorithm indexes the desktop version of a website and ranks that sites pages for content in desktop mode.

Google says that today, this is the wrong approach to take. Mobile sites can sometimes offer less information than their desktop counterparts, which is bad for a mobile-first world. Keeping this in mind, Google is now conducting experiments with its search algorithm to determine the best way to rank websites in the future.

“Although our search index will continue to be a single index of websites and apps, our algorithms will eventually primarily use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank pages from that site, to understand structured data, and to show snippets from those pages in our results.”

Currently, Google’s live indexing algorithm is still looking at Desktop pages first, so you have some breathing space to transition your site to mobile (if you haven’t already).

The company says that if you have a responsive, dynamic website, you shouldn’t be worried. If you don’t have that and instead use different structures for desktop and mobile, Google has some suggestions for you here.

Google adds that if you’re building a new site, it will be better to have a functional desktop site than an incomplete mobile site.

Galaxy Note 7 fiasco: Samsung exchanged ‘nearly 85 percent’ units, but what about the other 15 percent?

Image: Hui Renjie

By Naina Khedekar /  07 Nov 2016 , 10:01

Imagine owning a ticking time bomb? Well, that’s exactly how Samsung Galaxy Note 7owners must feel. But, the good news is, Samsung has confirmed that ‘nearly 85 percent’ have already exchanged their units via the Note 7 Refund and Exchange Program. And, it also claims that most of these users have opted for another Samsung device. The other devices could most likely be the Galaxy S7 models, but this goes against what analyst had claimed about Note 7 users opting for iPhone instead.

All in all, it is good to know that majority of the Note 7 units have been returned. But, what about the 15 percent units that have been lurking in the dark. While these users haven’t reached out to Samsung yet, the company is trying to make amendments to put a hold to its scarring reputation.

So, the company has begun issuing the software update that will limit the device battery to 60 percent. While we have been hearing about the update for sometime now, we wonder what took the company so long to push it out. Meanwhile, there are already other problems burgeoning for the South Korean firm. After the premium handset, the company is said to have recalled 2.8 million washing machines after reports said that some of the units were exploding.

Read the complete statement from Samsung about the Note 7 recall numbers below:

As of today, nearly 85 percent of all recalled Galaxy Note 7 devices have been replaced through the U.S. Note7 Refund and Exchange Program, with the majority of the participants opting to receive another Samsung smartphone.

We remain focused on collecting the outstanding Galaxy Note 7 phones in the market. To further drive participation, we will be releasing a software update in the coming days that will limit the phone’s ability to charge beyond 60 percent, as well as issue a reminder pop-up notification every time a consumer charges, reboots or turns on the screen of their Note 7 device.

Any Galaxy Note7 owner who has not yet participated in the U.S. Note 7 Refund and Exchange Program should immediately power down their phone and contact their carrier or retailer today.

Its been a while since the Note 7 fiasco started, and getting its devices off people’s hand should have been (and we believe it is) the company’s top priority. However, a considerable amount of units are still out there somewhere. Whether its lack of awareness or other problems (like we saw with the Note 7 ‘available’ in India, which is actually a market that didn’t see the device go on sale officially) that have become a roadblock, but it is essential for users to get rid of the Note 7 as soon as possible. If you still own a Note 7 or know someone who owns it, get in touch with Samsung. And if you don’t want to, just bury the device!

China launches the first satellite communication smartphone to work with Tiantong-1

Tiangong, Representational Image

  07 Nov 2016 , 09:46

China’s aerospace technology company has unveiled the first satellite smartphone designed for use with the country’s first mobile communications satellite, Tiantong-1 (TT-1), media reports said. The new smartphone, developed by the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), is scheduled to go on sale in two-to-three months, South China Morning Post reported on Sunday.

CASC launched TT-1 into an equator-hugging, geostationary orbit about 35,000km above the earth on August 6, this year. Satellite experts said the new satellite smartphone was a product of the ‘space-based Silk Road’, a long-term strategy proposed by Chinese aerospace companies, institutions and scholars to support the country’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative.

“The TT-1 smartphone is so far capable of covering the territory of China and the whole of South China Sea. We are going to expand our coverage to the whole world by launching a network of TT satellites in the next five years,” said an engineer from CASC. According to the report, the smartphone was specially designed for emergency communication by field geologists or relief workers in remote areas, or when ground telecommunication networks were interrupted by natural disaster or accidents.

Besides satellite coverage, the smartphone is compatible with multiple ground-based cellular networks, including 4G LTE and 3G, supports SMS, WeChat, video and data transmission, and allows free switching between satellite and ground communication. The smartphone will retail from around 10,000 yuan ($1,480), with communication fees starting from around 1 yuan a minute — a tenth of the price charged by Inmarsat.

IANS

CapitalG, former Google Capital discloses investment in Snapchat

Image Credits: REUTERS

  07 Nov 2016 , 09:34

Alphabet Inc’s venture capital arm CapitalG, earlier known as Google Capital, disclosed an investment in Snapchat by adding the social networking firm’s logo to a page on its investment portfolio website. CapitalG has not made a formal announcement and it was not clear when Google made the investment. The company was not immediately available to comment.

Snap Inc, which operates the popular messaging app Snapchat, has hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc as lead underwriters for an initial public offering. The banks were notified last month that they had been awarded one of most coveted and potentially lucrative IPO mandates in recent years, as the Venice, California-based company vies for a $25 billion valuation in the stock market.

Snapchat, which lets users send smartphone photos which automatically disappear after a few seconds, has proven popular among teenage users. The company had reportedly rejected an acquisition offer from Facebook Inc that would have valued the company at $3 billion or more in 2013. This comes right after Facebook is trying to integrate the ‘Snaps’ like feature in its products including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. WhatsApp was the latest to get the ‘Status’ updates which mirror the functionality of Snapchat ‘Snaps’ and Instagram ‘Stories.’

With inputs from Reuters

General Motors decides to increase the production of Chevrolet Bolt electric cars

Image Credit: REUTERS

  07 Nov 2016 , 09:06

General Motors Co is ramping up production of Chevrolet Bolt electric cars at a factory north of Detroit and is on track to start delivering vehicles as promised by the end of the year, company officials said on Friday.

Barring a last-minute stumble, GM will be first to offer an electric car with more than 200 miles of driving range at a starting price of less than $40,000 before tax credits. Silicon Valley electric car maker Tesla has said its entry in this new market segment, the Model 3, will launch next year. The Bolt and the Model 3 represent contrasting strategies to push electric vehicles into the mainstream of the U.S. auto market.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has said the company will overhaul its Fremont, California, factory to build as many as 500,000 Model 3 sedans and related models a year. Tesla’s Model 3 design prototypes show a car aimed at German luxury sedans such as the Audi A3 or A4. Musk has said nearly 400,000 people have put down deposits on the Model 3.

GM, however, is taking a more cautious approach. The $37,495 Bolt, with a 238-mile range, is a compact, utilitarian hatchback with design features such as a thin front seat to increase rear-seat legroom, aimed at making the car attractive to drivers for ride-hailing services.

GM’s Maven car-sharing operation will receive Bolts to offer drivers who want to work for GM’s ride-hailing partner, Lyft. Company officials will not say how many customers have tried to order Bolts from dealers. GM is also hedging its bets on production targets after getting burned in the past by over-estimating demand for electric or hybrid cars. Sales of electric and plug-in hybrid cars represent just 1 percent of the U.S. light-vehicle market, despite government efforts to promote cleaner cars.

At GM’s Orion assembly plant, Bolts are rolling off the same final assembly line as gasoline-fueled Chevrolet Sonic sedans and hatchbacks. During a tour on Friday, every fourth or fifth car on the line was a Bolt. The Orion plant is working on one shift, building at a pace of about 90,000 cars a year.

GM redesigned the Orion assembly operation to allow workers to build either Bolts or Sonics and can shift production depending on demand, said Yves Dontigny, launch manager for the Bolt. At one assembly station, after a Sonic body is mated to its gasoline engine and axles, a carrier wheels the battery pack for a Bolt into place. The same workers secure it to a Bolt body hanging on a carrier overhead.

Reuters

Steve Ballmer says his relationship with Bill Gates was strained over Microsoft smartphone business

  07 Nov 2016 , 08:24

Differences over the smartphone and tablet business strained his relationship with Bill Gates, Microsoft’s former CEO Steve Ballmer recounted in an interview to Bloomberg this week. If he could do it all again, Ballmer said he would have entered the mobile device market even earlier. When he finally did, Microsoft co-founder Gates and other members of the board disagreed, he said.

Ballmer, now owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, revealed that “there was a fundamental disagreement” about his decision to push Microsoft into the hardware business and that he “drifted apart” from Gates partly due to a disagreement over whether Microsoft should make its own handsets and tablets.

“I had pushed Surface. The board had been a little — little reluctant in supporting it. And then things came to a climax around what to do about the phone business,” he said noting that it was a mistake to get into handsets and tablets too late.

Microsoft entered the market in 2012 with the Surface RT, a tablet that sold poorly and required Microsoft to take a $900 million charge to write down the value of inventory. Now, the rejigged Surface business is profitable and generated more than $4 billion in sales for the most recent year, Bloomberg reported.

“I would have moved into the hardware business faster,” he said.

Responding to the famous quote where he said iPhones would never sell because it cost too much, Ballmer said,”You know, people like to point to this quote where I said iPhones will never sell, because the price at $600 or $700 was too high. And there was business model innovation by Apple to get it essentially built into the monthly cell phone bill.”

IANS

New Zealand seeks international team-ups in online government services

Representational Image : Reuters

  07 Nov 2016 , 15:21

New Zealand is looking to boost international cooperation in providing government services online, Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne said on Monday. Dunne will represent New Zealand at the third meeting of the D5 Digital Leaders Summit in South Korea, from November 10 to 12, Xinhua news agency reported. The D5 is a group of five nations — New Zealand, Britain, South Korea, Estonia and Israel — considered among the most advanced in the provision of online government services.

“New Zealand is well placed in playing its part in this grouping — it is already government policy here to be achieving 70 per cent of New Zealands’ most common interactions with government online by 2017, and we are keen both to share our experiences and learn from others,” Dunne said in a statement.

“While all this will be routine for those directly involved in the ICT (information and communications technology) world, the challenge of digital transformation is to ensure it resonates with the average citizen. It cannot just be about system upgrades; it has to demonstrate a positive, specific and noticeable benefit to the individual to be sustainable,” he said.

New Zealand authorities had renewed almost 706,000 adult passports online since November 2012, Dunne said, citing an example of how ordinary citizens could interact with government over the Internet.

At the conclusion of the summit, Dunne will sign on behalf of New Zealand the Busan Declaration, reaffirming the efforts of the D5 member countries to strengthen cooperation in the field of digital government among members and with the international community.

IANS