Fields Medal also known as the Nobel Prize in Mathematics is given at International Congress Of Mathematics (ICM) conducted by International Mathematical Union once in 4 years. ICM was first conducted in 1897 in Zurich. The 27th ICM was conducted in last year (2014) in Seoul, South Korea. Next ICM (2018) will be conducted at Rio De Janeiro in Brazil. Fields Medal is given to mathematics geniuses aged below 40.
Microsoft Kills Nokia's Android Experiment, X Series Designs to Become Lumia Products
Microsoft announced its biggest every jobs cuts on Thursday, but that's not the only big announcement the company made. CEO Satya Nadella also announced that the Nokia X series of Android phones will be making the transition to Windows Phone.
Nadella made the announcement via an internal memo sent to employees, made public on the Microsoft website:
Second, we are working to integrate the Nokia Devices and Services teams into Microsoft. We will realize the synergies to which we committed when we announced the acquisition last September. The first-party phone portfolio will align to Microsoft's strategic direction. To win in the higher price tiers, we will focus on breakthrough innovation that expresses and enlivens Microsoft's digital work and digital life experiences. In addition, we plan to shift select Nokia X product designs to become Lumia products running Windows. This builds on our success in the affordable smartphone space and aligns with our focus on Windows Universal Apps.
Stephen Elop, the erstwhile Nokia CEO and now the Executive Vice President of Microsoft's Devices & Services business unit, reiterated the same in his email:
With our focus, we plan to consolidate the former Smart Devices and Mobile Phones business units into one phone business unit that is responsible for all of our phone efforts. Under the plan, the phone business unit will be led by Jo Harlow with key members from both the Smart Devices and Mobile Phones teams in the management team. This team will be responsible for the success of our Lumia products, the transition of select future Nokia X products to Lumia and for the ongoing operation of the first phone business.
Nokia announced the X series of phones running a heavily customised version of Android at MWC this year.
iPhone 6 Clones to Hit the Market Before Apple's Smartphone
Apple may not have confirmed the existence of its iPhone 6, expected in two screen-size variants (4.7-inch and 5.5-inch) later this year, however, this has not stopped GooPhone, the Chinese clone handset maker, to announce its own iPhone 6 version even ahead of Apple. GooPhone is famous for releasing very similar looking clones of flagship smartphones, and its clone handset portfolio already includes GooPhone M8 (clone of the HTC One (M8)), GooPhone S5 (clone of the Samsung Galaxy S5), and GooPhone i5S (knock-off of the iPhone 5s).
Gizchina reports that the popular clone handset maker has announced its next flagship, the GooPhone i6, which will go on sale starting August 1. As of now, GooPhone has only confirmed the launch of a 4.7-inch screen variant and the official site lists some of the specifications of the handset - 4.7-inch IPS qHD display; quad-core MediaTek (MT6582) processor; 1GB of RAM; 13-megapixel rear camera; 5-megapixel front camera; 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of ROM. The GooPhone i6 is quite evidently based on what's been seen so far in numerous iPhone 6 leaks.
Apple’s partnership with IBM to tackle the mobile enterprise could have lasting ramifications for both companies—as well as for rivals Google, Microsoft and BlackBerry. It could also make life a lot easier for IT staff at large enterprises.
Apple and IBM announced an “exclusive” deal on Tuesday in which IBM will build a new line of enterprise-specific apps from the ground up for Apple’s iOS, aimed at companies in retail, health care, transportation and other industries.
IBM will create “unique cloud services” for iOS, including tools for security, analytics and device management. It will also resell iPhones and iPads to its corporate customers, and Apple will roll out new support services for businesses.
In other words, Apple and IBM are putting a full-court press on the mobile business market. And they’re doing so in a tightly wedded fashion: The companies used the word “exclusive” four times in a statement announcing the deal.
That suggests Apple won’t run off and do a similar deal next week with Hewlett-Packard. More significantly, IBM, at least for now, is throwing all its chips in with Apple—apparently at the expense of Google’s Android OS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone.
IBM
Ginni Rometty, IBM’s chairman, president and CEO, walking with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
“We are saying these [apps and services] will be specifically for the iPhone and iPad,” said a spokeswoman for IBM, when asked what’s “exclusive” about the deal. “They are the best mobile devices in the world, from our view,” she said.
The deal is significant for several reasons. Apple devices are widely used by businesspeople, but the company has thus far been a “renegade” in the corporate world that slips in the back door with little regard for the needs of IT staff, said analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies.
“If IBM can come in and say, ‘We’ll make sure this Apple stuff works well with the other stuff you’ve got already,’ it will make the IT guy feel a lot better,” he said.
They had already been partners to an extent, he said, but until now IBM has had the same access to Apple’s APIs (application programming interfaces) and tools as other vendors did. Tuesday’s deal might give IBM greater access to Apple features like Find My Phone and its remote wipe capabilities, allowing IBM to integrate them with its own mobile management tools, for instance, Kay said.
“It helps IBM a lot to have Apple’s blessing, so they’re not standing at the front door like everyone else saying, ‘Please accept our app,’” he said.
It’s also a shift for Apple, which until now has shown little concern for how businesses cope with the influx of its devices. “Apple hasn’t come out and said, ‘We don’t give a [damn] about enterprises,’ but that’s basically how they felt,” Kay said.
It’s now partnering with a company that bends over backwards to understand the needs of its corporate clients. That gives Apple a valuable distribution channel in the enterprise without having to change greatly how it operates.
“What it allows Apple to do is not change its philosophy and lay off to IBM the whole issue of, how do you make iPhones work for IT managers who actually want to be treated like a valued customer,” Kay said.
The deal is also notable because it’s unusual for Apple, which is usually a lone wolf, to align itself so closely and publicly with a major partner. That, in turn, could help IBM shed some of its stuffy corporate image.
“Instead of being the black-and-white guys they throw the hammer at, they become part of the winning team,” Kay said, referring to Apple’s “1984” ad depicting IBM as a corporate villain.
Microsoft is warning customers that the end is soon coming for Windows 7 in much the same way it came for Windows XP earlier this year.
Microsoft is warning customers that the end is soon coming for Windows 7 in much the same way it came for Windows XP earlier this year. The company will end free mainstream support for Windows 7 on January 13, 2015, but users will continue to get security updates till 2020.
The move will mostly affect consumers. Businesses that pay for extended Windows 7 support, as most of them do, will be supported for another five years, until January 14, 2020.
That's important, because many businesses are right now are in the process of upgrading their old Windows XP PCs, but they're moving to Windows 7, not Windows 8.
There's some speculation that, given the popularity of Windows 7, Microsoft might change its mind as the date nears and continue to support it a bit longer, like it did for Windows XP. All told, Microsoft supported XP for about 13 years. That kind of extension doesn't seem likely at this point. Remember, Windows 8 basically includes a full version of Windows 7, called Desktop mode. With Windows 8.1, it's possible to run a Windows 8 machine in Desktop mode and almost avoid the new-and-confusing Windows 8 part of the OS.
And Microsoft really needs to nudge consumers into buying Windows 8 machines. More Windows 8 machines means more developers will want to write software for Windows 8, which will make more people want to buy it.
By the way, Microsoft also set an end-of-life of mainstream support for Windows 8 (including the latest version, Windows 8.1), for January 9, 2018.
This is another hint that Microsoft should have its next version of Windows ready in 2015, code-named "Threshold" (sometimes referred to as Windows 9).
If Microsoft plays its cards right, Windows 9 will be to the unloved Windows 8 what Windows 7 was to Vista, which InfoWorld ranked No. 2 on its list of the 25 biggest tech flops (also PCWorld's Biggest Tech Disappointment of 2007).
