Author: kenmay

iOS and Android Combined For Record 99% of Smartphone Sales Last Quarter

An anonymous reader writes: The research firm Gartner has crunched some numbers and found that Android and iOS accounted for a record 99.1% worldwide market share in the second calendar quarter of 2016, which is compared to 96.8% in the year-ago period. What some may view as even more shocking is that Android accounted for 86.2% of the market share in the second quarter, up from 82.2% a year ago. Meanwhile, iOS lost some ground as it dropped to 12.9% market share from 14.6% in the year-ago period. It’s no surprise that Windows and BlackBerry have been losing market share. They dropped to 0.6% and 0.1% market share worldwide respectively. Just six years ago, BlackBerry and Symbian operating systems were industry leaders. Now, they’re industry losers. Which third-party operating system has what it takes to take on the establishment? Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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iOS and Android Combined For Record 99% of Smartphone Sales Last Quarter

There May Be an Earth-Like Exoplanet Less Than Five Light Years Away

Rumors are flying that astronomers at the European Southern Observatory have discovered an Earth-like exoplanet in the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri, our nearest neighboring star. If confirmed, this is undeniably one of the biggest astronomical discoveries of the century. Read more…

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There May Be an Earth-Like Exoplanet Less Than Five Light Years Away

As promised, Aetna is pulling out of Obamacare after DOJ blocked its merger

Enlarge (credit: Getty | Bloomberg ) Aetna announced Monday that due to grave financial losses, it will dramatically slash its participation in public insurance marketplaces set up by the Affordable Care Act. In 2017, Aetna will only offer insurance policies in 242 counties scattered across four states—that’s a nearly 70-percent decrease from its 2016 offerings in 778 counties across 15 states. The deep cuts have largely been seen as a blow to the sustainability of the healthcare law, which has seen other big insurers also pull out, namely UnitedHealth group and Humana. But the explanation that Aetna was forced to scale back due to heavy profit cuts doesn’t square with previous statements by the company. In April, Mark Bertolini, the chairman and chief executive of Aetna, told investors that the insurance giant anticipated losses and could weather them, even calling participation in the marketplaces during the rocky first years “a good investment.” And in a July 5 letter (PDF) to the Department of Justice, obtained by the Huffington Post by a Freedom of Information Act request, Bertolini explicitly threatened that Aetna would back out of the marketplace if the department tried to block its planned $37 billion merger with Humana. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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As promised, Aetna is pulling out of Obamacare after DOJ blocked its merger

World’s Largest Aircraft Completes Its First Flight

The world’s largest aircraft has finally completed its first flight after months of preparation and years of searching for funding. The Airlander 10 as it’s called spent 20 minutes in the air on Wednesday, landing safely at Cardington Airfield north of London. CNNMoney reports: “Part airship, part helicopter, part plane, the 300-foot long aircraft is about 50 feet longer than the world’s biggest passenger planes. The Airlander, made by British company Hybrid Air Vehicles, has four engines and no internal structure. It maintains its shape thanks to the pressure of the 38, 000 cubic meters of helium inside its hull, which is made from ultralight carbon fiber. The aircraft was originally designed for U.S. military surveillance. But the project was grounded in 2013 because of defense spending cuts. [The team behind the giant blimp-like aircraft] said the aircraft could carry communications equipment or other cargo, undertake search and rescue operations, or do military and commercial survey work. The Airlander can stay airborne for up to five days at a time if manned, and for more than two weeks if unmanned. It can carry up to 10 tons of cargo at a maximum speed of 91 miles per hour. The aircraft doesn’t need a runway to take off, meaning it can operate from land, snow, ice, desert and even open water.” You can view the historic flight for yourself here (Warning: headphone users beware of loud sound). Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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World’s Largest Aircraft Completes Its First Flight

Shipwreck Hunters Bag an Amazing Discovery At the Bottom of Lake Ontario

A group of retirees-turned-shipwreck hunters have discovered the remains of the Washington , an 18th century trading vessel that sank to the bottom of Lake Ontario in 1803. The 53-foot sloop is the second largest shipwreck to ever be found in the Great Lakes. Read more…

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Shipwreck Hunters Bag an Amazing Discovery At the Bottom of Lake Ontario

Uber will offer free rides in its self-driving cars this month

After months of testing , Uber’s self-driving cars are ready to pick up their first passengers. Bloomberg reports that the ride-hailing company will allow customers in Pittsburgh to request one of its autonomous Volvo XC90 sport-utility vehicles via their smartphone in the coming weeks, pushing it into territory that other major developers of self-driving cars have yet to fully explore. According to the report, Uber won’t be sending its cars out alone. A human supervisor will sit in the driving seat, as required by law, “with their fingertips on the wheel.” A second person will be sat in the front passenger seat, taking notes on a laptop while cameras inside and outside the vehicle record everything that happens during the ride. Customers won’t be expected to pay for their journey in Uber’s XC90s, at least to begin with, which may help put nervous riders at ease. Pittsburgh serves as the ideal environment for Uber’s autonomous trials. The city is home to its Advanced Technologies Center (ATC) and local authorities have already approved the testing of its self-driving fleet. When the do hit the road, only a handful of cars will be available right away, but Uber has struck a deal with Volvo to take delivery of 100 vehicles by the end of the year. With Ford announcing yesterday that it intends to have fully autonomous cars on the road within five years , Uber is moving swiftly. It wants to be out ahead of its rivals with its own tried-and-tested solution, not a ready-made one from a car manufacturer that could one day eat its lunch. Source: Bloomberg

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Uber will offer free rides in its self-driving cars this month

Automatic’s new car adapter uses 3G without a subscription

Automatic makes devices that track your driving style and trips, quantifying that information for you in a companion app. These gadgets also do thing like tell you why your check engine light is on before you pay a few hundred dollars to a mechanic. Today the company announced its latest-gen adapter, the Automatic Pro . The $130 dongle has an unlimited, no subscription 3G connection — a departure from previous models that used your phone’s Bluetooth connection to talk to the company’s servers. The new always-connected adapter also comes with a new companion app. In addition to fancy new animations while a car is driving, it also has customizable notifications, deeper integration with online scripting service IFTTT (If This Then That). The new application only works with the Automatic Pro. Owners of the first and second generation adapters will continue to use the legacy app. Getting the company’s adapters on a cellular network without charging customers a subscription has been part of Automatic’s plan since day one. “People don’t want another subscription, ” Automatic Co-Founder Ljuba Miljkovic said. “We knew we always wanted to go cellular because of all the benefits of cellular. Now it’s an exciting time because we’re finally able to do that.” So whether you want to track your trips, quantify your driving style, or just be able to figure out why your check engine light is on, the new Automatic Pro now does it even when you’re not in the car. Source: Automatic

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Automatic’s new car adapter uses 3G without a subscription

Cisco Systems To Lay Off About 14,000 Employees, Representing 20% of Global Workforce

schwit1 writes from a report via CRN: Cisco Systems is laying off about 14, 000 employees, representing nearly 20 percent of the network equipment maker’s global workforce. San Jose, California-based Cisco is expected to announce the cuts within the next few weeks, the report said, as the company transitions from its hardware roots into a software-centric organization. Cisco increasingly requires “different skill sets” for the “software-defined future” than it did in the past, as it pushes to capture a higher share of the addressable market and aims to boost its margins, the CRN report said citing a source familiar with the situation. “The company’s headcount as of April 20, 2016, was 73, 104, ” reports CRN. “Cutting 14, 000 employees would be the single largest layoff in Cisco’s 32-year history.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Cisco Systems To Lay Off About 14,000 Employees, Representing 20% of Global Workforce