When Computers Get a Right Brain

Watson is kind of a left brain decision engine. It is very strong numerically, but it is kind of an extreme version of Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory. It isn't very empathetic, and it isn't intuitive. Neural networking and cognitive computing will close the gaps, resulting in machines that can do more than suggest the top choices in a decision. They will actually make the decision.

 

IBM is massively increasing its commitment to Watson, which was evident at last week's IBM Think Forum. IBM recognizes that if it can get a product that thinks first, then it can again take absolute control over the technology market, and every other company will be chasing it again.

It is making some impressive headway, and I agree that the firm that succeeds at this will not only massively change the technology market, but also change the world. The very real outcome is that many of us will find our skills have become redundant -- and when I say "many of us," I include analysts, because we are obviously at risk.
I'll close with my product of the week: Gorilla Glass, which is what's keeping us from having far more broken phone screens and likely helping Apple to avoid having to recall the iPhone 6 (though I still think it should).

The Wonder of Watson

Watson is a fascinating system. I'm referring to this class of systems as "decision engines," because they aim to help people make better decisions. What makes them different from any other tool is that they learn about you, rather than you having to learn as much about them.
Granted, with these early versions, it is kind of a shared experience -- but prior to systems like Watson, all of the effort to learn how to interface was on the user side. With Watson, the end goal is to shift virtually all of this burden to the system.
What this means is that in the near-term future, when you need something from Watson, you'll be able to sit down and immediately be productive rather than spend the weeks to months it typically now takes to learn a new system. Because Watson learns from you, the longer you work with it, the better it becomes.
As more and more Watson computers are deployed, they learn from each other creating sort of a digital Gestalt providing a massive acceleration in the learning process.

Near-Term Expectations

There were a number of examples at the Think Forum of working systems and prototypes that showcased what Watson can do today. For instance, a hospital treating a cancer patient can look at the detailed information captured on the patient and then determine the highest-probability path to wellness. Watson already has information on obscure treatments and illnesses, which it can apply to the solution.
The end result is a customized program that is developed from information gathered all over the world -- both preventing mistakes that already have been made and identifying little known successes to reach an optimal solution.
Watson could provide travelers with an experience similar to what travel agents once provided. For instance, if your plane were delayed or grounded, it would automatically find and recommend an alternate route while you were in transit, which you could execute with one Amazon-like click. When called upon to help plan a trip, Watson could apply what it knows about you and about the various airlines and hotels to create the itinerary most likely to make it trip the best you've ever had.
For help desk issues, it would take customers through custom decision trees defined by the system's ability to diagnose the problem remotely and gauge the technical capability of the caller. That would enable it to provide the fastest resolution for the lowest cost, optimizing on a blend of customer satisfaction and cost containment.
It automatically would identify and report bad trends to decision makers, along with optimized recommendations, both to resolve the core issues in a timely way and optimally reduce the related costs.
Company after company testified at the Think Forum that they were seeing massive increases in customer satisfaction and getting a far better handle on costs from Watson-type technology, which is still in its infancy.

Jobs at Risk

Now with the next range of technology advancements, there are a ton of jobs at risk -- and not the obvious ones, either. Specialists are pretty safe for a while, but folks who provide general services -- like accountants, tellers, bankers, stock traders and, well, analysts -- are kind of screwed in the long term.
Fortunately, this won't happen overnight, and in the near term there will be some great jobs training systems like Watson but, once trained, these systems will be able to train each other almost instantly.
It will be even longer before specialists are at risk, because the costs of training a system like Watson to handle a specialty will likely exceed the benefits for some time. If the specialty is unique, that time could be indefinite.

Wrapping Up: The Future

The Think Forum wrapped up with a look into the future, and it was a fascinating discussion. Watson is kind of a left brain decision engine. It is very strong numerically, but it is kind of an extreme version of Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory. It isn't very empathetic, and it isn't intuitive.
Efforts like neural networking and cognitive computing will close the gaps, resulting in machines that can do more than suggest the top choices in a decision. They will actually make the decision, moving to the next stage and doing the whole job. Fortunately, this right brain aspect is still years off, and until it is ready, people will fill that role.
Two clear job growth areas, for now and in the near term, will be trainers for systems like Watson -- people who understand both a particular subject area and how best to present it to Watson. They will be Watson's right brain partners.

Product of the Week: Gorilla Glass

I was on Fox Business News this week covering the pain of a broken smartphone screen. Toward the end of the show, we tried to break a phone on air, but the phones bounced and didn't break. That was largely because the phones used Gorilla Glass, which is broadly used on smartphones today. It isn't invulnerable -- phones that use it still break -- but they break far less frequently, and as we so humorously demonstrated, it often takes a real boneheaded move to break one.
There was a lot of speculation that the iPhone 6 was going to use sapphire glass, and that would have ended badly. That's because for some screwy reason -- likely to save money -- Tim Cook allowed the iPhone 6 to have an aluminum frame rather than the steel or magnesium alloy frame that other large phones use, and that makes the screen the stiffest part of the phone.
Gorilla Glass bends a little, which is why you have a lot of bent iPhone 6s that don't have cracked screens as well.

Corning's Gorilla Glass

Sapphire doesn't bend at all, and though you'd likely have fewer bent phones, you'd have a far higher number of even more expensive cracked screens.
Much like jewels, if you do get a nick in the screen with sapphire, that becomes a flaw -- and the screen will break on that flaw. So sapphire would have cost more and not held up well at all on a large phone.
Now, if phone makers would just work a little harder on protecting the screens, we likely could eliminate most of the breaks that occur when the phone lands on its corner on something as unforgiving as cement or tile. However, Corning's Gorilla Glass is why far more of us don't have smashed phones, and it turned my spot on Fox Business into a comedy sketch, so it is my product of the week.

Hacker Gives Google a Hand With Chrome-Android Compatibility

A hacker working independently appears to have topped Google's own efforts to extend compatibility between its Chrome OS and Android. Google last week unveiled four Android apps for Chrome books based on its ARC API. Vlad Filippov, aka "Vladikoff," went Google several giant steps better, publishing a runtime dubbed "ARChon" that allows users to run any number of Android APKs in the Chrome OS.

An unplanned convergence of Android apps and the Chrome OS may be setting the stage for a wide-open cross-platform architecture that combines Android and Chrome.

Freelance programmer Vlad Filippov, aka "Vladikoff," discovered a way around Google's limitations on its ARC, or App Runtime for Chrome, which is essentially a Chrome extension application programming interface.
Filippov hacked his way into the Google process to allow it to run on the Chrome OS and other platforms that run the Chrome Web browser. He dubbed that modification "ARChon."
He worked independently on most of the hack he developed, driven by a desire to go beyond the initial Google Android runtime program.
"I feel like this quick hack helps us get a small glimpse at the future of Android as a truly cross-platform application platform," Filippov told LinuxInsider.

Hack Overview

The ARChon runtime allows users to run any number of Android APKs in the Chrome OS or other Chrome-browser supporting platforms. Android's installable programs and middleware are distributed in an APK file format that Google developed.
ARChon creates the modifications so they run using Chromeos-apk on Chrome OS and across any desktop platform that supports Chrome. A Google project already was developing a method to use ARC to run certain Android applications on the Google Chrome OS. Google last week released four Android apps for Chromebooks based on the ARC API: Vine, Evernote, Duolingo and Sight Words.

 

Future Impact

"This is a huge development for Android. You do not want a Tower of Babel. Users just want things to work," Laura DiDio, principal at ITIC, told LinuxInsider.
The end game is that you want people to be able to use these APKs. In no way should Google try to rein in a rogue developer, she said, but Google's intellectual property should count for something.
Generally, application platform owners like Google want to control their ecosystem to some level. This is important for a variety of reasons, Al Hilwa, program director for software development research at IDC, told LinuxInsider.
"For Google, Android is monetized by its ability to take users to its back-end services such as Google Search, Maps, etc. Indeed, Google has been shifting the focus of Android to be something more about its back-end services than just open source code to run devices," he said.

Filippov envisions a future when people can enjoy their favorite apps on any device, synchronized and scaled to fit the appropriate screen.
This is a unique opportunity for tablet applications to shine, he said.
"There are not enough good tablet applications for Android, and this might be the key to create experiences that are enjoyable on desktop and tablet form factors," Filippov added.

Google has full control of the Chrome browser and the Chrome OS ecosystems, so it certainly is possible that it will include some sort of a validation component in the future to limit this feature to Chrome OS.
"I really hope they will not lock down this approach in the future versions of the runtime, because it creates a great opportunity for people to experience, develop and test Android apps on their favorite desktop platform," said Filippov.
It's his hope that most of these components will stay open source as part of the Chromium and Android Open Source projects.
"The threat of ARChon is somewhat limited," noted IDC's Hilwa, "in that increasingly more and more Android apps have to effectively leverage Google Services. Additionally, it sounds like it will be a long time before it is possible to run the entire Google Now portfolio on any platform through this technology in a reliable manner." 

VideoSelfie

      A soon-to-launch mobile application called VideoSelfie, whose founders participated in the 500 Startups accelerator last year, has raised $1.2 million for its forthcoming mobile application that lets you edit your videos (of yourself, duh) in real-time. You can add filters, decorations and GIFs, hit record, then share, all at once.
The new app is a pivot from the company’s previous product called Unda, still live here on the App Store, which offered similar technology but was focused more on video messaging.
“Video messaging became a super saturated space and we knew we had to differentiate ourselves, so we started investing a lot of time developing our own technologies for motion tracking and face tracking to enable users fast ‘decoration’ of their video messages,” explains co-founder and CEO Oscar Noriega. “Now we want to focus on recording, decorating, editing and sharing, although we keep some basic messaging and community functions,” he says.
The company is also killing off its Unda Android application and will focus on VideoSelfie on iOS for now. (The app is still in Apple’s review queue at present.)
The main technology the company has built involves face tracking and motion tracking, which makes graphics added to videos interactive by detecting the movement of the camera and the movement of your head. Users tap the GIF button, pick a graphic then configure basic settings like enabling face tracking, making the graphic full size, or changing the animation speed. Then you pick a video filter and start recording, optionally adding music. The app ships with its own standard transparent GIFs, but it supports transparent PNGs if you want to add your own.
The end result are silly, short video clips where you can apply things like kitten whiskers and ears to your head, cover your face with an animated emoji, have some dancing cat GIFs hanging out next to you, and a lot more. You can then share these clips however you choose, including with the built-in community on the app. It’s definitely not serious stuff, but it is kind of fun.

The 7-person company closed on its seed round of $900K from mainly Japanese investors, which makes sense as the team is based in Tokyo and the app has a Japanese vibe to it with GIF categories like Kawaii and Manga, for example. Investors included East Ventures, Klab Ventures, Cyberagent Ventures, and a follow on from the 500 Startups fund. Angel in the round included Takeo Matsuda (the ex-CFO of Groupon Japan) and Masi Oka (the hollywood actor from the TV show Heroes andHawaii Five-0.) The round brings its total raise to date to $1.2 million.
As for why users would try out a dedicated video selfie app instead of just using popular apps for video they already have installed on their phones, Noriega explains: “Instagram and many other apps were never intended to be deeper video editing tools or real-time composition tools.”
The company says its value is in its real-time editing and mixing tools, face-tracking tech and real-time filters. It plans to generate revenue by way of selling additional filters and effects as in-app purchases, but one could imagine that it could also license its technology to bigger companies as another avenue for monetization.

File Sharing Between Android and iOS

            As handy as services like AirDrop or Android Beam may be for shuffling content between nearby devices, they're platform-exclusive. That's not much help if you want to share photos from your Android phone to an iPhone, or vice versa. However, Google may soon overcome that barrier. Android Police,Techaeris and GigaOM all have evidence of Copresence, a service that would let Android and iOS devices swap content over WiFi. Reportedly, it uses location data (including Bluetooth) to set up the connection; after that, you can send directions, photos and other info without having to either bump devices or rely on cloud storage options like Google Drive or Dropbox. The technique shouldn't require a Google account, either.

            It the details are accurate, Copresence should be available within a matter of weeks. Having said this, you shouldn't expect a file sharing Utopia. The feature is most likely to be limited to Google apps at first, and it's probably not going to be a system-wide feature on at least iOS -- you may have to be satisfied with exchanging files through a handful of programs. Still, that's better than the walled-off sharing you likely deal with today...

Source: www.engadget.com

Guess what?!...There Are New Crystal Clear Solar Cells That Could Power Your Smartphones One Day

The idea of a completely transparent solar panel has always been a bit of a dream. Such revolutionary technology would mean that we could turn windows into power generators and build phones with self-charging screens. Well, guess what? That dream is becoming a reality.

A team of researchers from Michigan State University has developed a completely transparent, luminescent solar concentrator. Whereas most traditional solar panels collect light energy from the sun using dark silicon cells and converted into electricity using the photovoltaic effect, solar concentrators actually focus sunlight onto a heat engine that produces electricity. In the case of this new technology, the plastic-like material channels specific wavelengths of sunlight towards the photovoltaic solar cells on the edge of the panel. "Because the materials do not absorb or emit light in the visible spectrum, they look exceptionally transparent to the human eye," Richard Lunt, who led the research, explains in a release.

Scientists have created partially transparent solar cells in the past, but the existence of crystal clear cells opens up some very exciting new possibilities. "It can be used on tall buildings with lots of windows or any kind of mobile device that demands high aesthetic quality like a phone or e-reader," says Lunt. "Ultimately we want to make solar harvesting surfaces that you do not even know are there."

This is clearly exciting. (Pun intended.) Again, a solar-powered smartphone sounds like a dream for anyone who hates charging cords. It also sounds like a once impossible future that's closer than we thought...

source: www.gizmodo.com

Cloudshot Practical Engineering (CPE)

            What is the use of studying engineering? when you are not educated on the practicals that is accompanied with the theory you are being taught. These practicals are actually the entity that engineering is made up of. If this is missed out and you have little or no practical engineering skills, then i ask again, What is the use of studying engineering? 

             Cloudshot Practical Engineering is here now to train you in those engineering skills that you lack. CPE is commencing soon in Obafemi Awolowo University for the first time and is starting with 3 courses; Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering. These are majorly practical courses with little theory to accompany with it. The purpose of this is to help students in engineering get the practical touch for them to be able to develop and create different inventions, work on their ideas and also get access to larger opportunities. 

              A course in CPE will span for 2 semesters; 1 academic session, for 10 weeks in the semester, weekend classes only. Gain practical knowledge in Engineering, I.T. and SIWES recommendations, practical projects and certification in practical engineering. The registration form is N500 and the training fee is N5,000. 

             Interested students should visit our website on www.cloudshot.com.ng and fill the interest form after which they pay the required fees and be able to go to the CS portal, where they can see their courses, see dates and time, venues, download materials and videos, post and ask questions on a course, see messages, view assignments and follow their grades and attendance. 

                 Don't wait to be told. Register now: www.cloudshot.com.ng 

Cloudshot Practical Engineering for OAU students.

In a nation that longs for development as Nigeria, the blame is always on the government but shouldn't there be a time when we come back to the drawing board and fix the problem by ourselves? The problems facing the economy also dwells on the failure of the government but shouldn't we desist from pointing fingers outward and start pointing the fingers towards ourselves.  A time should come when the responsibilities are taken by our youths and the government are left to join in when they are convinced, a time should come when the development of the nation should not be the responsibility of the government but on each and everyone of the nation's people. 

That time is now!!!

The time that youths will stop day dreaming and start developing, The time the youths will stop wasting their time in things that are not worth it, the time the youths will start turning their imaginations into innovations. Cloudshot Academy is here to inspire youths and give them the necessary knowledge in other to create a better world for themselves and together create a better nation. Cloudshot Practical Engineering is a program created for the purpose of creating a better world for ourselves.

Cloudshot Practical Engineering is now on OAU campus and is commencing next session with 3 courses; Mechanical, Computer and Electrical engineering. Theses courses are not restricted to students studying these courses alone but is open for everyone and anyone that is practical oriented, motivated and innovated. The courses runs through the semester and a complete training covers 1 academic session (2 semesters). This is to ensure proper understanding of the courses in the beginner and advance stages. The fee for the first semester is N5,000 and the form is N500. 

These courses are majorly practical courses with little or no theory but to expand your horizon on what is being taught in the higher institutions. A lot of programs and projects are lined up for students that are interested. Some of the benefits include; ability to create and innovate thereby developing your own startup, I.T and SIWES recommendation, Mind blowing projects, preparing you for the world outside the four walls of the academic institution and many more...

Contact our OAU student Ambassador, Kelvin on 08167802094 for more information and to purchase your form. Forms are now available. 

Apple's latest purchase: Beats for $3billion

Apple has indeed purchased Beats, which includes both Beats Audio hardware and Beats Music, the streaming radio service that was founded by rapper Dr. Dre and longtime music industry exec Jimmy Iovine. The deal was reported to be in the works earlier this month, and was said to be worth an estimated $3.2 billion at the time, though a recent New York Post report said it was cut to $3 billion after Apple completed its due diligence. The price is indeed $3 billion, with $2.6 billion in cash and $400 million in stock.

Apple typically makes smaller purchases of startups and companies most people have never heard of, so Beats is a considerable change of course for the company. The last really high-profile acquisition Apple made was NeXT, back when it bought that company to bring Steve Jobs back into the fold.

Much speculation has been made around what the Beats acquisition brings to Apple, which already has an existing streaming radio business and a very healthy third-party ecosystem when it comes to headphones, Bluetooth speakers and other peripherals. Apple doesn’t yet sell on- or over-the-ear style headphones, however, or its own speakers, and these are areas where competitors like Samsung currently operate to support their smartphone devices.

The company also reportedly enjoyed Beats’ ability to convert free trial users of its service to paid subscribers, according to a recent Bloomberg report. And bringing on Beats’ top executive talent, which includes Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, was also said to be an important factor. In an interview with the New York Times, Apple CEO Tim Cook cited Dre and Iovine as important factors and praised the Beats streaming music service.

Given the stature of this acquisition, Apple is being a bit more communicative about the deal than it has about others in the past. Apple indicates Beats Music will continue to be made available and operate as before (even on other platforms). Also as part of the deal, Beats co-founders Iovine and Dre join Apple’s management team.

Meet President Obama’s Look Alike, IIham Anas

IIham Anas is a 40-year old Indonesian photographer who bears a striking resemblance to the US president.

According to reports this has made him a tv star in his country.

Weird similarities between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were shot in the back of the head in the presence of their wives.

Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Lincoln’s secretary was named Kennedy.

Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808. Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

Lincoln was shot in the Ford Theatre. Kennedy was shot in a Lincoln, made by Ford.

Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse. Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran And hid in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

Weird twins share everything, even boyfriend

A pair of Perth twins who pride themselves on sharing everything in their lives are now dating the same man.

Lucy and Anna DeCinque share the same bed, job, car and even Facebook account so they said it was only natural to fall for the same man.

The 28-year-olds met their boyfriend Ben on Facebook last year and as he is a twin himself, he understands their need to be together 24 hours a day.

“He knows the closeness, our bond. He understands us and just gets us. We are a threesome now… and we don’t find it weird at all,” the pair told A Current Affair.

“I think any guy would want double the attention. I mean people come up to him and say ‘dude, wow you’re so lucky’.”

The DeCinque twins have even admitted to spending $200,000 on the same plastic surgeries including breast implants, lip fillers and tattooed eyebrows.

“We are never separated. We got to the bathroom together or we watch TV, we are just always together,” they said.

“We like the same food, like everything has to be the same. If we are at a buffet I will come with her and we will get exactly the same.”

The pair, who work in aged care, say they have learnt to block out the critics.

“Some people are just judgemental and what we’ve always said is don’t judge a book by its cover.”

WhatsApp Founders Make Last-Minute Addition to Forbes’ Billionaires List

Jan Koum and Brian Acton, the cofounders of WhatsApp, made Forbes’ annual billionaires’ list with few moments to spare after Facebook offered a total of $19 billion to buy the company.

The deal, if completed, will give Koum a fortune of $6.8 billion, according to Forbes. Acton will be worth at least $3 billion. The two were the subject of a very well-timed profile that Forbes had planned to coincide with its billionaires’ issue, which was released on Monday.

After Facebook made its stunning offer on Feb. 19, Forbes posted its exclusive on the founders online.

Koum and Acton are two of 26 newcomers to the list from tech. Others include Dropbox CEO Drew Houston and Workday cofounder Aneel Bhusri.

At the top of the list were the usual suspects. Microsoft cofounder and chairman Bill Gates, who once again became the world’s richest man last May, is No. 1 with $76 billion.

Oracle cofounder and CEO Larry Ellison is on the list at No. 5 with $48 billion. Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin placed at 17 and 19, respectively, with $32.3 billion and $31.8 billion. The two flanked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, whose fortune is estimated at $32 billion. Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg came in at No. 21 with $28.5 billion.

Below are the top 10 billionaires on the list:

Bill Gates: $76 billion

Carlos Slim and Helu Family: $72 billion

Amancia Ortega: $64 billion

Warren Buffett: $58.2 billion

Larry Ellison : $48 billion

Charles Koch: $40 billion

David Koch: $40 billion

Sheldon Adelson: $38 billion

Christy Walton and Family: $36.7 billion

Jim Walton: $34.7 billion

Samsung Unveils Mid-Range Galaxy Tabs

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Tab4 series, its latest mid-range tablets, on Tuesday.

The Galaxy Tab4 is expected to go on sale in the second quarter, and will come in three sizes: 7-inch, 8-inch and 10.1-inch. The Tab4 will be available in black and white, as well as in Wi-Fi and LTE varieties.

In terms of specs, these tablets won’t be able to compete with what Samsung is offering on its Galaxy NotePro and TabPro, but are solidly middle-of-the-road.

The Galaxy Tab4 tablets feature:

• Quad-core 1.2Ghz processor
• WXGA screen (1280×800 resolution)
• Android 4.4 KitKat
• 3 megapixel rear camera and 1.3MP front camera
• 802.11n Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 4.0

We’re a little bit confused as to why Samsung is offering both a 7-inch and 8-inch Tab4, given the similarity in specs. The 7-inch model will also be available in 3G, presumably for emerging markets without LTE, but it still seems odd to have two tablets that are virtually the same size and have the same internal hardware.

If Samsung can price these tablets firmly under the $350 range, it could offer some competition to Apple, Amazon and Google’s tablet offerings.

Richest man and woman in Africa from Nigeria.

Who says Nigeria isn't rich???

When we have both the richest man and richest woman in Africa both from Nigeria.

We all know the story of Aliko Dangote, let me brief you a little about the richest woman.

While there are many female billionaires on the Forbes ‘richest woman’ list, until 2013, only two of them were black. Angolan Isabel Dos Santos and American Oprah Winfrey were the two holding up the title with $3.5 billion and $2.5 billion respectively, but now they have been joined by a third, and she has theoretically eclipsed them both by quite some margin.

Nigerian fashion and oil tycoon Folorunsho Alakija has just recently made headlines when a relatively small stakeholder of her oil field was looking to sell. Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company, holds an 8% stake in Alakija’s oil field in the Niger Delta and they were looking to make around $1 billion from the sale.

This estimate put Alakija’s 60% stake at around $7.3 billion and instantly catapulted her to the top of the list. Of course, as with these types of lists, the value is theoretical, but she could conceivably sell her stake and realise the fortune as a cash balance, something many of the worlds other “paper” billionaires could not necessarily do.

Now you know that Nigeria is really rich.

Facebook in a shopping spree this season

Facebook announced Tuesday that it acquired Oculus VR, the company behind the Oculus Rift gaming headset in a cash and stock deal valued at $2 billion.

The terms of the deal include $400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook common stock.

The Oculus Rift project gained prominence on Kickstarter, raising over $2 million in the summer of 2012. The company went on to raise more than $91 million in venture funding in 2013. With this exit, the Oculus Rift is easily the most successful Kickstarter project of all time.

“Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

Although the Oculus team was never committed to bringing a consumer version of its VR headset to the market, more than 75,000 developers had already ordered developer kits for the technology — and the early prototypes we’ve seen look amazing.

Facebook says that Oculus will remain headquartered in Irvine and will continue developing the Oculus Rift platform.

This is Facebook’s second major acquisition in less than two months. Last month, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for a staggering $16 billion.

On an investor conference Tuesday evening, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed why he was so interested in the Oculus team and the Oculus Rift.

For Zuckerberg, it’s all about the future. If mobile is the current computing platform, vision and virtual reality could be platforms of the future. Zuckerberg described buying Oculus as “a longterm bet on the future of computing.”

This is a sentiment echoed by Chris Dixon, an investor at Andresseen Horowitz, the company that led Oculus VR’s $75 million Series B funding round. On his blog, Dixon described his research into virtual reality and Oculus as a company. He writes, “the more we learned, the more we became convinced that virtual reality would become central to the next great wave of computing.”

The idea that Oculus represents the future of computing isn’t relegated to just investors. Shane Hudson, a London-based web developer, says he thinks that Oculus has the ability to offer up a ” fully immersed experience.” Hudson thinks that experience could extend from tasks such as “playing a game, watching a film, reading a book or even chatting your friends ‘face-to-face’ despite being on the other side of the world.”

Hudson works with data visualizations and he sees the Oculus Rift as giving an entire new way of working with that kind of data. “It’s a very interesting technology that could go in any number of directions, much as the web did,” Hudson says.

That’s what Zuckerberg thinks too. He sees Oculus’s current focus around games and entertainment as just the beginning. “Oculus has the potential to be the most social platform ever,” “Oculus has the potential to be the most social platform ever,” he said. “Imagine not just sharing moments with your friends online but entire experiences.”

Zuckerberg also said that buying Oculus was a way of investing in the best and brightest players in computing. He said Oculus is “years ahead in terms of technology” but that “all the best and brightest in the space already work there.”

Over the last two years, the Oculus team has amassed tons of talent, including many of the best minds in virtual reality and in gaming. John Carmack, the co-founder of id Software — and the lead programmer of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake, joined Oculus in Aug. 2012 as its CTO.

Original Oculus Rift founder and designer Palmer Luckey was just 19 when he came up with the first prototype for the Oculus Rift. Luckey worked at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies in the Mixed Reality lab, contributing to research and development of virtual reality systems. A head-mounted display aficionado, Luckey’s original Oculus Rift prototype caught the attention of Carmack, who was doing his own research in VR.

The other Oclulus VR co-founders, Brendan Iribe and Michael Antonov, previously founded Scaleform, a vector 3D rendering engine acquired by Autodesk in 2011. Iribe, Oculus VR’s CEO, almost passed on Oclus, before seeing the technology.

“I said, ‘Virtual reality never works—I’m not interested,” Iribe told Fast Company. After meeting with Luckey and seeing the demonstration, he had a change of heart. “It was probably one of the most powerful moments of my life. Right away, I knew it was gonna change the world, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

After a successful Kickstarter run and a round of funding, the Oculus team quickly amassed talent from across disciplines. The Oculus team is brimming with experience in the game industry and in virtual reality, ranging from commercial applications to flight simulators for the Navy and NASA.

On the call, Iribe said that he and the Oculus team are thrilled to be “building the future with Facebook.”

Moreover, Iribe says that he’s excited about “bringing even greater resources to our work.” Competition in the VR space is just beginning — with Sony’s Morpheus headset already turning heads (pun intended) and other players expected to enter the space in the next year. With Facebook, Oculus now has a parent company with immense resources and a CEO dedicated to helping accelerate its visions for computing of the future.

Of course, not everyone sees a Facebook-owned Oculus VR as an appealing future. Markus Persson, creator of Minecraft and known online as Notch, is disappointed with the development. Persson shares his thoughts on his blog, revealing that the Facebook deal will put an end to plans for an official Minecraft port for the Oculus VR.

Similar sentiment is cropping up from other game developers. Of course, Facebook has faced this kind of backlash before. After Facebook announced it was going to purchase Instagram, users threatened to leave the service en masse. Not only did users not leave, two years later, Instagram is more popular and more successful than ever before.

Zuckerberg is clearly hoping the same situation will take place with Oculus VR. For him, a little backlash is nothing in exchange for, what he describes in his words, as a “longterm bet that immersive VR is the future.”

Zuckerberg earns $1 a year!

Going by salary at least, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg earned just $1 for the year, according to a regulatory filing released on Monday. In Silicon Valley, though, earning a token salary is a sure sign that you’ve made it. Other $1-per-year men have included Apple’s Steve Jobs and the Google guys — Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Like those tech luminaries, Zuckerberg owns a substantial stake in his company, making a salary irrelevant. Nevertheless, Zuckerberg has collected a decent salary before — in 2012, he made $503,205.

Overall, Zuckerberg made $653,165 last year versus $1.99 million in 2012. The money went largely to fund private planes and his security program, according to the filing.

The 29 year-old Zuckerberg’s wealth is estimated at $27 billion. He also owns 61.6% of voting power in the company, giving him carte blanche to forge ahead with deals like the $19 billion pending WhatsApp acquisition and last week’s $2 billion proposed takeover of Oculus.

Meanwhile, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg made $16.2 million last year compared to $26.2 million in 2012. Facebook CFO David Ebersman earned $10.5 million, VP David Fischer made $8 million and CTO Mike Schroepfer earned $12.6 million.

Twitter Acquires Android Lockscreen App Cover

     

A very interesting acquisition announcement from Twitter : it’s buying Cover, an Android lockscreen app that lets you customise what apps you see and when. For now, Cover will remain live in the Play store.

“If that changes down the road, we’ll provide another update here,” the founders Todd Jackson, Gordon Luk and Edward Ho note in a blog post announcing the deal.

You can read Josh’s review of how Cover works here.

Cover is being somewhat cryptic in discussing what it will be working on at Twitter. “Twitter, like Cover, believes in the incredible potential of Android,” they write. “They share our vision that smartphones can be a lot smarter — more useful and more contextual — and together we’re going to make that happen. We’ll be building upon a lot of what makes Cover great, and we’re thrilled to create something even better at Twitter.”

At the same time, when you consider the work that Facebook has done in developing its Home service around the Android lockscreen, it’s clear that on some level, if an app is not owning the SIM that controls the entire phone, or the operating system, this is one very obvious way to remain front of mind for a user and incorporate a series of services that become front and center features for a user.

Apps are an overcrowded game. So owning the lockscreen gives you, effectively, a place to be first in the queue. It also gives Twitter some interesting potential routes for how it might longer-term try to deliver its stream of followers’ new and messages outside of its own app. Widgets featuring Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and other streams are already quite common; Cover could work on ways to formalise and improve that experience.

It’s an area that others are eyeing up, too: Yahoo earlier this year acquired Aviate, which helps users customise their Android homescreens, for reportedly $80 million.

One question that lingers for me is how, when, and if companies like Twitter (and Facebook) will ever be able to think about these problems in the same way on iOS.

More generally, mobile has become a huge business for Twitter. Apart from the fact that Twitter was created as a mobile-first service, Twitter generates more in advertising from mobile than it does from desktop. Cover, meanwhile, says it has picked up “hundreds of thousands” of users since launching in October 2013.

To date, Cover had raised $1.7 million in funding, a seed round from First Round Capital, Harrison Metal, Max Levchin, Scott Banister, Charlie Cheever, Keith Rabois, Dave Girouard and Alex Franz.

Instagram Launches a faster and better android app.

            Instagram has launched version 5.1 of its app on Google Play today, with a redesign that makes for a much speedier, resource-light experience. Your profile should load in half the time, according to an official blog post announcing the news, and the whole app is half as large after the update.


        The app also has a new look, with “simplified visuals” across the experience that makes it easier for users to engage. Overall it looks like a flattened UI, which is more in keeping with what Android in general is doing, as well as with many of the changes made by OEMs to their own software.

        The redesign isn’t only meant to keep things looking good and running better – it’s also meant to make Instagram accessible and pleasant to use on a wider range of hardware, including low-end smartphones and Android-powered “feature phones,” according to Instagram, as well as on larger-screened devices like the phablets every OEM under the sun seems to be making.