A TECHNICAL

Quoting from the site techcrunch by:Ahmed Mido Starting Monday, Apple will be unloading a week’s worth of news and resources for software makers at its annual  Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco at the Moscone Center . Apple always kicks things off with a keynote at the beginning of the show, wherein it reveals new and exciting things for both developers and consumers alike. This year will be no exception, but what exactly can we look forward to? There have been a lot of rumors swirling, about iOS 8, OS X 10.10, new hardware and more, so let’s go through each and check out what is and isn’t likely to make an appearance. Hardware Apple has in the past made hardware announcements at WWDC – a few years ago, in fact, it used to debut the new version of the iPhone at the early summer conference annually. Recently, however, it keeps the hardware part of the show pretty low-key; last year, we saw the arrival of new MacBook Airs, and the Mac Pro was previewed, but ...

Quoting from the site techcrunch  by:Ahmed Mido Personal finance software provider  HelloWallet,  a one-time competitor to Intuit’s Mint, has been acquired by investment research provider Morningstar, which was already a minority investor in the company. The acquisition sees HelloWallet sold for $52.5 million. However, Morningstar will pay $39 million because of its previous investment, now valued at $13.5 million, in the company. Founded in 2009 by consumer finance expert Dr. Matt Fellowes (who is also joining Morningstar), HelloWallet was somewhat similar to Mint when it launched, as it allowed consumers to proactively manage their personal finances. But HelloWallet also wanted to become more of a full-service financial adviser, finding savings and other opportunities for its members, and helping users set goals like buying a home or car, saving for college, reducing debt, saving for retirement, and more. The company raised  $3.6 million in Series A...

Quoting from the site techcrunch  by:Ahmed Mido Part of the sales pitch for Motorola Mobility’s (then Google-owned) Moto X smartphone was that it was partly U.S.-made; an assembly plant to put together the Moto X opened in Fort Worth, Texas in May 2013. That plant will close by the end of this year, Motorola confirms to TechCrunch, however, as sales of the smartphone and operational costs have made continuing operations there prohibitively expensive Currently, the plant employs about 700 workers who build the Moto X specifically for U.S. sales, according to a spokesman speaking to the  Wall Street Journal , which first reported the news. Motorola was recently sold to Lenovo from Google, which is the company that spearheaded the Moto X project, but Motorola tells the WSJ that this closure isn’t related to the sale and was tied only to the fact that the “North American market was exceptionally tough” when it comes to device sales. Moto X production won’t stop entirel...

Quoting from the site techcrunch by:Ahmed Mido This afternoon,  Microsoft released Files , a file management tool for  Windows Phone 8.1  that it had previously  promised . The app is simple, but then again so is local file management. Users of Files will be able to access content that is stored locally, as well as on SD cards. Folder creation is supported, along with normal tasks like moving and deleting content. In the Reddit AMA session during which Microsoft Windows Phone guru Joe Belfiore announced the coming Files tool, he  claimed  that it would land by the end of May. So, this thing is right on time: Windows Phone 8.1 users can snag the thing  here . Most Windows Phone users are  still on Windows Phone 8 , as Windows Phone 8.1 was first rolled out to developers. The fresh mobile operating system is in the process of a paced roll-out to the mass market. Files hasn’t yet cropped up...

Quoting from the site techcrunch by:Ahmed Mido Samsung is making its own portable Bluetooth speaker as part of its new Level line of audio accessories, and the product goes on sale today online at its official store for $199. The device is definitely compact, and it’s an all-metal product, which is unusual for a Samsung piece of kit, but can it hold its own with the plethora of existing products on the market, including those just acquired by Apple in the form of the Beats Pill? Basics MSRP: $199 Battery life of 15 hours Bluetooth, NFC Built-in speaker phone Product info page Pros Attractive, compact, high-quality design Speakerphone interrupts line-in Cons Sound is just good, not great Design The Samsung Level Box is a well-designed piece of hardware. It features an all-metal enclosure with a metal grille to protect the speaker components too. Even the buttons are metal, which bets the question: why so much plastic on the phones when you can de...

Quoting from the site techcrunch by:Ahmed Mido Editor’s Note: The author of this essay is Jocelyn Voo, a nomadic  photographer ,  writer  and  social media strategist . Her furniture lives in New York City. All likenesses to people in her real life are coincidence. Unless they’re not – in which case,  Whatsapp her !

Quoting from the site techcrunch by:Ahmed Mido Meet the  5-Tiles Keyboard , (yet) another contender taking aim at disrupting Qwerty — and hoping to increase its chances by first targeting smaller wearable devices, such as smartwatches. The rational being that’s a more realistic way to drive a wedge between Qwerty and its users’ fingers. As challenges go, disrupting Qwerty is akin to attempting to pass Yahweh’s tests in the  Grail temple  at the end of Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade. The alternative keyboard playing field is littered with the carcasses of those that haven’t made it. Yet still startups continue to fling themselves at this impossible chasm. (Ok, it might not be literally  impossible but it’s going to require a near miracle to shift ingrained Qwerty habits in the short term). So many attempts to reinvent the keyboard have failed — or are grinding away without really going anywhere — with g...

Quoting from the site techcrunch by:Ahmed Mido Foursquare co-founder  Naveen Selvadurai  is joining the  Expa  startup studio,  founded in May 2013  by former Uber and StumbleUpon founder  Garrett Camp . Selvadurai joins Expa as a partner focused on New York operations for the organization, which is not to be confused with your standard accelerator, incubator, or investment firm. Instead, Expa runs much more similarly to a betaworks, home-growing companies from within and investing anywhere between $500k and $1 million to get them off the ground. Expa is focused mostly on very early stage products without any set structure as to whose ideas join the program. “It’s a relatively even split between our own ideas, mine and Naveen, as well as smart engineers and entrepreneurs we know who have demonstrated an interesting prototype that we’re excited to build out,” said Camp. Here’s what Selvadurai had to say about it in his own memo: I a...

Quoting from the site techcrunch by:Ahmed Mido Meet  Lighthouse , a bitcoin-powered app to create and manage your own crowdfunding campaign on your computer. Bitcoin core developer Mike Hearn showcased the app at the Bitcoin 2014  conference in Amsterdam. And Lighthouse is a great example of how you can develop a complicated transaction framework on top of the bitcoin protocol. Hearn’s tagline about his own app speaks for itself: “[it] provides you with your own Kickstarter, on your own desktop. It explores one possible vision of how we can build decentralized applications.” If you are skeptical about bitcoin as a currency, there is a whole different aspect that makes it interesting as well — bitcoin is also an  application platform . The bitcoin protocol makes it possible to transfer property rights (whether it is digital money, shares, or any kind of certificate) in an unforgeable, transparent and fast manner. And you don’t need a trusted third party. This...

Quoting from the site techcrunch by:Ahmed Mido While working as an autism specialist for the state of California, behavioral psychologist Sara Gershfeld met hundreds of families and realized they all had the same problem while seeking care for their children. While parents are provided with a list of 10 applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapists, there was little way of telling if any of the specialists would be a good fit for their child. Some asked other families for recommendations. But parents who did not know other people with autistic children were left adrift. To help them, Gershfeld created  Love My Provider , a directory and review site of therapists and other professionals who work with autistic children. “Parents who don’t have that network have to recreate the wheel each time,” Gershfeld told TechCrunch. “I would find kids who came to me at seven years old, but had yet to say their first word. When I started working with them, I was able to put them with t...