Showing posts with label Google Play. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google Play. Show all posts

2017-04-08

Tech Review: Tech Unicorn Okta IPO Skyrockets, Friday Close $23.51

Domain Mondo's weekly review of technology news:

Features •  1) Tech Unicorn Okta IPO, 2) Google Play games services, 3) Tim Berners-Lee, 4) Twitter Lite, 5) Team Obama Surveillance, 6) Apple $AAPL, 7) Amazon Cash, 8) ICYMI 16 Tech News Quick Takes.

1) Tech Unicorn Okta, Inc. [domain: okta.com] backed by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital, started trading on the NASDAQ with the symbol OKTA Friday, and the shares immediately advanced more than 35% above its IPO share price of $17, closing Friday's trading at $23.51 per share, up 38.29% for the day.

According to its website, Okta products uniquely use identity information to grant people access to applications on any device at any time, while still enforcing strong security protections, and its platform securely connects companies to their customers and partners.

Okta has over 3,100 clients and over two million people using its services daily. Its product offerings are highly rated. Okta is the only company to be named a leader in Identity Access as a Service (IDaaS) by Gartner for 3 years in a row.

Okta was valued at $1.2B at its most recent round of funding in September 2015 and had raised an aggregate of $230M in VC funding. IPO underwriters included Allen & Co., Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Securities, Canaccord Genuity, JMP Securities, and Pacific Crest Securities. Customers include: Workday, ServiceNow, NetSuite, Microsoft, Google Cloud, Box, Amazon Web Services, 20th Century Fox, Adobe, Engie, Flex, Github, LinkedIn, MassMutual, MGM Resorts, Pitney Bowes and Twilio. Okta is the fourth unicorn to make an IPO debut this year.

More info:

Other Tech News:

2) Google Play games services--Android Developers Blog | googleblog.com 5 Apr 2017: "... In December, we announced the end of support for the creation of new iOS accounts given the low usage of GPGS on iOS. Additionally, our latest Native SDK release (2.3) will no longer support integration with iOS and going forward we will not be supporting or updating the iOS SDK ... These changes allow us to focus our efforts on the services developers value most to build high quality, engaging games."

3) Web’s Inventor Tim Berners-Lee Wins the Nobel Prize of Computing | MIT TechnologyReview.com: "Berners-Lee says Web access is a human right—and the technology he created needs a rethink." See also: Tim Berners-Lee: selling private citizens' browsing data is 'disgusting' | Technology | TheGuardian.com.

4) Introducing Twitter Lite | Twitter Blogs: Twitter Lite available globally at mobile.twitter.com on your smartphone or tablet. More information about Twitter Lite at lite.twitter.com and here.

5) Team Obama Surveillance: What Devin Nunes Knows | WSJ.com: "Team Obama was spying broadly on the incoming administration." See also: Bob Woodward says Obama officials possibly facing criminal charges for unmasking scheme--WashingtonExaminer.com.

6)  Apple $AAPL: Apple Is A Drama Queen | Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) | SeekingAlpha.com: "The previous strong earnings trend of Apple was not sustainable ... In the end, at its all-time high, Apple is too expensive for the investors who could really benefit from holding it." See also: The Problem Of Being Long Apple And Not Wanting To Hear Anything Bad About It | SeekingAlpha.com.

7) Amazon Cash: Amazon Cash should appeal to those who get paid in cash, don’t have a bank account, debit card, or credit cards. “Cash customers” (a/k/a the "unbanked" or "underbanked") are about 27 percent of consumers, according to a 2015 report from the FDIC. Amazon Cash participating stores: CVS Pharmacy, Speedway, Sheetz, Kum & Go, D&W Fresh Market, Family Fare Supermarkets, and VG’s Grocery, with more to come. Similar to PayPal's My Cash Card which allows you add cash funds to your online PayPal account using a barcode service powered by Green Dot.

8) ICYMI 16 Tech News Quick Takes:
  1. Amazon scores streaming rights for NFL's Thursday Night Football | Reuters.com.
  2. Hydrogen fuel cell maker Plug Power Inc (PLUG.O) said Wednesday that Amazon.com Inc. acquired the right to buy up to 23 percent of the company that makes powerful batteries used for work in Amazon warehouses.--Reuters.com.
  3. Chinese companies Baidu and Tencent rank low in global accountability index | Hong Kong Free Press | hongkongfp.com.
  4. Imagination Technologies' shares plunge 70 percent after Apple ditches firm | Reuters.com
  5. Oath isn’t just a terrible name — it’s going to be a nightmare ad-tracking machine | TheVerge.com: Verizon is primed to become ad-tracking giant and take full advantage of an impotent FCC, using consumer data without permission, as it's done with supercookies.
  7. Triple your privacy with a Chromebook and two VPNs | Computerworld.com
  8. Digital Ads: Chase Had Ads on 400,000 Sites. Then on Just 5,000. Same Results. | NYTimes.com
  9. As Passive Investing Grows Bloomberg Terminal Takes A Hit | valuewalk.com
  10. Stay Away From Verizon - Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) | SeekingAlpha.com: "The first thing that pops out when looking at Verizon's financials is the revenue growth, or lack of revenue growth"
  11. Microsoft adds new calling features to Skype for Business | ZDNet.com: "Microsoft is adding new features to its high-end Skype for Business service, just as Amazon and Google are trying to get into the enterprise cloud-conferencing game."
  15. Qualcomm wants antitrust case dismissed | TheHill.com: "Qualcomm is asking a federal judge to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission during the last days of the Obama administration."
  16. Whatever you do, don’t say yes when this chatbot asks, 'Can you hear me?' | LATimes.com: a highly sophisticated racket known as the “can you hear me” scam, which involves tricking people into saying yes and using that affirmation to sign people up for stuff they didn’t order.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


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2016-12-10

Tech Review: Internet, Tech and Media Outlook 2017 (slides)

Domain Mondo's weekly review of technology news:

Feature •  Activate.com, a leading strategy and technology consulting firm for media, technology, entertainment and information businesses, released the Activate Tech and Media Outlook 2017, its annual report on the state of the internet, tech, media and entertainment industries. The report was initially delivered by Activate CEO, Michael Wolf, at the Wall Street Journal D Live Conference (Oct. 24-26, 2016) in Laguna Beach, California:

Activate Tech and Media Outlook 2017 from Activate:


Trends noted in the report include:
  • In the next 5 years, tech and media revenues will grow by over $400B, outpacing global GDP growth. 
  • Messaging will be a huge driver of growth in tech and media attention. In less than six months, each of the major tech platforms either launched a bot platform, created a messaging app, or both. Messaging will also monetize, with Apple iMessage and Facebook Messenger growing from an average revenue per user of zero in 2016 to $5-$6 by 2020.
  • eSports is the next big phenomenon, and will have almost 500 million fans globally by 2020.
See also What’s Next for Tech and Media in 2017 | WSJ.com: Digital gatekeepers will fare better than content media, analyst Michael Wolf says at WSJ tech conference.

 Other Tech News:

•   How does that make you feel? Twitter founder Jack Dorsey feels 'complicated' about Donald Trump's tweeting--TheGuardian.com.

•  Trump roundtable with tech leaders December 14th in New York: invites sent by Trump's transition team adviser Peter Thiel, chief of staff Reince Priebus, and Jared Kushner (Trump's son-in-law). Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook and Google’s Sundar Pichai, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins and Oracle Co-CEO Safra Catz are expected to attend--NYTimes.com and  USAtoday.com. See also Silicon Valley makes nice with Trump | TheHill.com and Start-up CEO Sacks resigns; report says Trump team next | USAtoday.com: "Zenefits CEO David Sacks is stepping down amid speculation that he has been tapped by billionaire technology investor Peter Thiel to assist president-elect Donald Trump ..."

•  Shoddy Samsung So Sorry: Samsung confirms it will render the US Note 7 useless with next update | TheVerge.com: "Update will be released December 19th and rolled out within 30 days." But see Verizon statement regarding Samsung Galaxy Note7 | Verizon.com: "We will not push a software upgrade that will eliminate the ability for the Note7 to work as a mobile device in the heart of the holiday travel season." But Samsung catches a break in the Supreme Court: Supreme Court's Text Message in Samsung v. Apple | Bloomberg.com.

•  Keep It Simple: separate branding not needed--Android for Work and Play for Work (for enterprises) now simply part of Android and Google Play: "... going forward we’ll refer to enterprise capabilities simply as part of Android and Google Play. With platform-level support shipping with every GMS compatible device, Android for Work and Play for Work have become a core part of Android and Google Play."--blog.google

•  Alphabetization--Google makes so much money the other parts of Alphabet never had to worry about financial discipline until Ruth Porat came aboard as CFO--"... former top Google executives who spoke on the condition of anonymity ... describe a company having trouble balancing innovation and its core business, search advertising. Over the 12 months ended in September, Google’s ad business accounted for 89 percent of Alphabet’s revenue, or $76.1 billion. As one ex-executive puts it, 'No one wants to face the reality that this is an advertising company with a bunch of hobbies.'"--Bloomberg.com

•  Tencent and Starbucks strategic cooperation: WeChat Pay (pay.weixin.qq.com) now available in about 2,500 Starbucks stores in China via WeChat Wallet--ChinaInternetWatch.com.

•  Silicon Valley Culture in China: “[M]ost Chinese companies have not fully absorbed the [Silicon Valley] culture. Many are still highly top-down and bureaucratic, and open office plans often mask more deeply conservative customs. In place of California’s sunny suburbs, China’s innovation hub sits in the traffic and smog-choked northwestern part of Beijing, crammed into office towers above malls that sell all manner of electronics."--NYTimes.com

•  Apple's iPhone Blues: "Apple has always been about the brand, and since it has lost a lot of its innovative edge over the last six to seven years, it hasn't been able to gain the foothold it had hoped to in China with its iPhone. A lot of its competitors there offer features close enough to Apple's to cause consumers to think the extra cost of an iPhone isn't worth it." --Seeking Alpha.com and  "... iPhone sales consistently underperform the global market as a whole. iPhone may be the most popular single phone but it is cheaper Android phones that are 88% of all phones sold ..."--BusinessInsider.com.

•  Microsoft: Requiem For A Smartphone | SeekingAlpha.com: "Windows Phone (mostly Lumias) will probably be allowed to die, but this isn't the end of Windows on mobile devices. Surface Phone, running an Intel processor and a full version of Windows ... "

 •  ICYMI: Hearing | United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary (video): Examining the Competitive Impact of the AT&T-Time Warner Transaction Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy & Consumer Rights; Date: Wednesday, December 7, 2016; Time: 10:00 AM; Location: Dirksen Senate Office Building 226; Presiding: Chairman Lee. Witnesses included Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman & CEO; Jeffrey Bewkes, Time Warner Chairman & CEO; and  Mark Cuban.

 •  Are You Lying to Yourself? "One would think after the great dot-com crash of April 2000, companies like Cisco, Siebel, and HP would realize that they would soon face a slowdown as many of their customers hit the wall, but despite perhaps the most massive and public early warning system of all time, each CEO reiterated strong guidance right up until the point where they dramatically whiffed their quarters. I asked Andy (Grove) why these great CEOs would lie about their impending fate. He said they were not lying to investors, but rather, they were lying to themselves. Andy explained that humans, particularly those who build things, only listen to leading indicators of good news."--Ben's Blog | bhorowitz.com.

Quick Takes:

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2015-11-19

Has Google Lost China Forever? Google's Biggest Rivals in China (video)



Google's Biggest Rivals in China - Google plans to launch its Android app store, Google Play, in China but it faces tough local rival companies. The WSJ's Eva Tam tells us why the tech giant will have a difficult time making inroads in the country. (Published on Nov 12, 2015)

Google Play's biggest rivals in China:




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2015-05-29

LIVE: Google I/O Day 2 Video from San Francisco Moscone Center

LIVE from San Francisco--Day 2 (May 29, 2015) of Google I/O (Day 1 can be reviewed here).
Current date/time in San Francisco:

Check out the schedules for each of the 3 separate Channels below. Twitter feed further below. Enjoy!

Google I/O 2015 - Day 2 - Channel 1:
9AM PDT: A little badass. Beautiful. Tech and human. Work and love. ATAP.
11AM PDT: Helping Moonshots Survive Contact with the Real World
1PM PDT: Developing for the living room with Google
2PM PDT: Android Wear: Your app and the always-on screen
3PM PDT: Democratizing Education

Google I/O 2015 - Day 2 - Channel 2:
9AM PDT: Smarter user acquisition with App Indexing, AdWords and Google Analytics
10AM PDT: Project Tango - Mobile 3D tracking and perception
11AM PDT: Designing for virtual reality
1PM PDT: Developers connecting the world through Google Play
2PM PDT: Android best practices for data transparency
3PM PDT: Developing with Google on iOS

Google I/O 2015 - Day 2 - Channel 3:
9AM PDT: Polymer and modern web APIs: In production at Google scale
10AM PDT: Tech for a better world, faster: A discussion with Google.org's social innovators
11AM PDT: Firebase: An overview
1PM PDT: Improve your Android app's accessibility
2PM PDT: Ubiquitous Computing with Google
3PM PDT: Engineering for the Stratosphere - Presented by Women Techmakers



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