The anniversary of Steve Jobs passing, TomTom goes Android, Snapseed does too, Elon Musk on the state of Tesla and better batteries for all.
Apple, One Year on from Steve Jobs
It’s been a year since Steve Jobs passed away from pancreatic cancer. The company he built has gone from strength to strength with the share price of Apple having breached the $700 mark. But the question of whether the company can continue to succeed the way it has is beginning to be questioned. Key staff like Bob Mansfield had to be retained at a (rumoured) insane salary of $2mil a month to stop a revolt from the senior engineers, many of the technology pundits that have driven the sales of Apple products over the years have begun to feel that the Apple keynote events have lot their appeal without the magic of Steve Jobs. Will Apple’s future generations of hardware that haven’t been overseen by the meticulous Steve Jobs be as fantastic as the current generation of products? Only time will tell.
TomTom Android app in SA
The highly popular TomTom navigation app for iOS has found its way into the Android marketplace. With aweseome features like:
- Off-line maps
- Free lifetime maps – Users will receive four free map updates per year for the life of the app;
- IQ Routes
- HD Traffic (in-app purchase)
- Speed Cameras (in-app purchase)
- TomTom Places
- Integrated Android smartphone contacts
- Advanced Lane Guidance
- Spoken Street Names
It’s available in the Google Play store for an introductory price and is only available on certain devices for now.
Snapseed for Android shows up in Google Exec’s Google Plus
Snapseed creators Nik Software were recently acquired by Google and have fallen into the fold at the Google+ team. Senior VP of Engineering at Google Vic Gundotra posted a pic to his G+ account via Snapseed sparking the debate that the app for Android was almost complete or that he was using a build of G+ with built in integration not yet seen.
Elon Musk says Tesla will be ‘cash flow positive’ soon
Tesla Motors is one of the hottest names in the technology world today, combined with the star power of it’s owner Elon Musk (notable for his other company SpaceX) it is definitely on the watch list for many tech pundits.Musk was vocal today saying that Tesla would soon be profitable enough to repay their loan from the US Department of Energy earlier than required.
Researchers create algorithms that help lithium-ion batteries charge two times faster
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have been busy playing with the algorithms that govern the way we measure and run devices using Lithium ion batteries. Apparently the new algos can can more accurately gauge battery longevity and control charging efficiency, The group was awarded $460 000 in funding and says that they will be able to put this tech into consumer technology soon.