Monthly Archives: February 2017

Top of the Order:

Here Comes the SunPower:With the way the weather has been around the region lately, and more rain coming down everywhere, the sun shining in the clear blue sky has been as rare as a day without the soul-crushing gridlock along our parking lot-like freeways.

But, all the clouds and the rain couldnt dampen the enthusiasm that greeted San Jose-based SunPower after thesolar-technology company signed a deal to provide solar-panel technology to the Cajon Valley Unified School District near San Diego. SunPower investors liked the thought of the company going back to school so much, so to speak, that they sent SunPower shares up 8.8 percent to close Tuesday at $8.58.

All in all, signing up a school district near San Diego isnt that big of a deal. However, with the solar-panel market seen as being in a bit of a holding pattern for now, SunPowers new deal suggests the company is still able to sign contracts, and that there is growing confidence in its technology. The company is viewed as setting itself up for 2018, when the solar-panel industry is expected to turn around and grow, again.

So, in spite of all the rain right now, SunPower is finding a way to shine.

Middle Innings:

The Old Boss is Back, In a Way: Chances are that late last week, you focused your attention on what you were going to do during the three-day Presidents Day holiday weekend. For me, it was spending the time up at Yosemite celebrating the latest anniversary of my 29th birthday with my family and some friends.

So, no one would blame you for missing that former Cypress Semiconductor Chief Executive T.J. Rodgers decided to sue the company he founded, and led for more than three decades.

Rodgers said he was suing Cypress in order to obtain books and records related to what he called irreconcilable conflicts of interest involving the semiconductor companys executive chairman, Ray Bingham. In a statement, Rodgers cited Binghams ties to Canyon Bridge Equity Partners a private equity firm Rodgers said is backed by the government of the Peoples Republic of China and which is attempting to buy chipmaker Lattice Semiconductor as evidence that Bingham may not be acting in Cypress best interests.

Canyon Bridges pending $1.3 billion acquisition of U.S. programmable logic maker Lattice Semiconductor, a company Cypress has attempted to acquire on two previous occasions, clearly demonstrates that Canyon Bridge competes directly with Cypress, Rodgers said in a statement. As Cypresss Executive Chairman, Ray Bingham has intimate knowledge of the Companys M&A (mergers and acquisition) strategy and Rodgers believes that Bingham can use that knowledge to benefit Canyon Bridge to the detriment of the Company and its stockholders.

Rodgers is more than just an angry ex-boss who is shaking his fist at the place where he used to work. When he retired as CEO last year, Rodgers had been the only chief executive Cypress ever had since Rodgers founded the company in 1982. And with more than 8.6 million shares of Cypress stock, Rodgers remains the companys single-largest individual shareholder, so his opinions are likely to have some impact with Cypress other stock owners.

Rodgers also said he was nominatingDaniel McCranie and Camillo Martino for Cypress board of directors. McCranie is chairman of On Semiconductor, while Martino is on the board of directors of MagnaChip Semiconductor. Rodgers said he would send out McCranies and Martinos names as part of a proxy statement to Cypress shareholders who will be able to vote for the nominees at Cypress next annual meeting.

Bottom of the Lineup:

Heres a look at how some leading Silicon Valley stocks did Tuesday.

Movin on Up:In addition to SunPower, gains came from Coupa Software, Advanced Micro Devices, Finisar and Extreme Networks.

In the Red:Decliners included Quotient Technology, Depomed, Pandora Media, TiVo and Shutterfly.

The tech-focusedNasdaq Composite Indexrose 0.5 percent to 5,865.95.

The blue chipDow Jones Industrial Averageadded 0.6 percent to end the day at 20,743.

And the broad-basedStandard & Poors 500 Indexalso rose 0.6 percent to finish at 2,365.38.

Quote of the Day:I would be wrong to allow my poor choice of words to detract from my colleagues important reporting, so today I am resigning from Breitbart, effective immediately. This decision is mine alone. Conservative provocateur Milo Yiannapoulous, who resigned his editor position at Breitbart amid a controversy over comments he had made related to pedophilia.

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Biz Break: SunPower shines with new solar panel technology deal - The Mercury News

More than two-thirds of the earths surface is covered with water, but most of it is useless for healthy human hydration. Excluding seawater, glaciers and polar ice caps, less than 1 percent of the planets life-sustaining water isin lakes, rivers, streams and underground aquifers. Much of that readily available drinking water requires treatment to eradicate harmful microbes and toxins.

As a result, access to clean drinking water is limited and precarious for many of the worlds people. Water scarcity profoundly affects 1 out of 9people, according to the Water Project, and most illnesses in underdeveloped countries are linked to poor water and sanitary conditions. Natural disasters like the 2010 Haiti earthquake or the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami can lead to emergency situations that affect millions of people who lose access to potable water.

The sheer number of impoverished peoplewho are teetering on the edge of access to clean drinking water prompted a team of researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalos school of engineering and applied sciences to figure out a way to improve solar distillation, a long-established, cost-effectiveyet problematic process of extracting clean drinking water from contaminated sources using simple materials and sunlight.

We have a lot of need for this technology and we hope we can collaborate with people, organizations and agencies to develop this, said Qiaoqiang Gan, associate professor of electrical engineering at the university and a co-author of arecent studydescribing a new method to improve the efficiency of using sunlight to distill clean drinking water.

The idea of using the suns heat to vaporize and recondense water has been known since at least the 4th century B.C. when the Greek philosopher Aristotle first described that salt could be removed from seawater using the suns heat to create water vapor. Suchsolar stills have been used since the industrial revolution, but one major drawback to the technology has beenthe output. Evaporation and condensation arenot fast processes, and most solar stills, especially simple, low-cost ones, are unable to produce enough water to sustain one person in survivalist mode.

But rising awareness of water scarcity issues has led researchers like Gan and his team in Buffalo to apply new techniques to make solar distillation more efficient. Their solar vapor generator and condenser uses porous paper covered with carbon black, a materialthat has a near-zero reflectivity and therefore absorbs a higher amount of solar heat. The carbon-covered paper is then placed over floating white polystyrene foam and a thermal insulator that helps concentrate the solar heat onto the carbon layer. The device is thenplaced on the surface of a dirty water source while the paper acts as a sponge and the carbon as an evaporator. The vapor then condenses on the angled wall of the vaporizer, seeping into a culvert that collects the potable water.

Gan and his teamhave claimed that their prototype produces as much as three times more potable water as comparable solar stills, or about 4.2 cups an hour under sunny conditions. The average healthy adult needs about eight cups of water aday. Crucially, this is all done using cheap materials that can be scaled, meaning arrays of floating stills could be tappedin emergency situations to provide a considerable amount of fresh drinking water to a disaster-struck community, especially in the sunnyparts ofAfrica, Asia and Latin America.

In November, the researchers registered a company called Sunny Clean Water and are hoping to have a production-ready version of their prototype by the end of the year.

Gan, 37, spoke to Salon about his teams work to improve the efficiency of a renewable-energy-using technology thats been around for a very long time.

What attracted you to this project?

Water stress is a global challenge, and its become more and more significant, including in the U.S. The water quality in the U.S. should be the highest in the world, but actually we still have a lot of accidents of contamination which jeopardizes our citizens health. Then there are those resource-limited countries and developing countries, like China and India. Everyone is interested in this issue. We feel that we can do this better.

What does this prototype do that makes it better than other methods of water purification?

Currently, the main technology for water purification is not solar energy based at all. They use reverse osmosis. This technology pushes saltwater or contaminated water through membranes so that clean water can go through. This is the mainstream technology.

But the main disadvantages are, first of all, you have to consume a lot of energy to push the water through these membranes, and secondly the amount of clean water produced is relatively small, leaving a significant amount of water left behind that has a higher concentration of contamination. This wastewater introduces more significant environmental issues. So these are the two major disadvantages.

What are the disadvantages of using solar energy to produce clean water?

A solar water still is a supplementary technology. We cannot compete with the high level of productivity of the mainstream technology [in terms of the output of clean water]. Developed areas of the world would still want to use the high-productivity technology.But our aim is to focus on areas where huge populations suffer from lack of access to clean water.

Think about, for example, Africa. Weve received responses from South African companies that are very interested in this technology. A lot of small areas, for example islands the people there cannot afford those energy-consuming, environmentally unfriendly high-productivity systems. Solar stills are a better option. They can provide the minimum required amount of clean water.

How much water can you theoretically produce with your solar still?

Currently our practical productivity is around 1kilogram per hour per square meter. That means if we have 1 square meter [of contaminated water], after one hour we can produce 1kilogram [or about 4.2 cups] of clean water under full sunlight.

Its totally dependent on solar energy, so if its cloudy or raining, you should not expect as much clean water. Tropical countries have a lot of solar energy therefore I dont think this is a big problem. Currently the practical rate of productivity is around 1kilogram, but the upper limit is about 1.4 to 1.5 kilograms [or 6.3 cups] per hour per square meter.

The basic need for an individual is about 2 kilograms of water [or 8.45 cups] per day under full sunlight. So if we had eight hours of full-sun illumination, then we would be able to generate 5to 8kilograms of water, which could meet survival needs for a small family. We want to improve this performance and have a lot of engineering things yet to do.

Your prototype is about the size of a small refrigerator. A larger solar still would presumably be able to produce more clean water.

Definitely. Weve set up a company to commercialize this technology and we plan to scale it up, much like a solar panel array with many, many solar panels in a given area. We can do a similar thing for solar water stills.

Could you use solar panels to make the solar stills more efficient by adding more heat to the evaporation process?

Its possible. And the water evaporation could also cool down the solar panels, which is good for their performance. If we can find some collaborator in the solar-panel industry, then we can combine the systems. This would be a very good system.

Read the original here:

University's solar-powered still improves ancient water cleaning technology - Salon

Reducing incarceration with technology

Twenty new jurisdictions have joined the Safety and Justice Challenge, an initiative to reduce over-incarceration and address racial and ethnic local justice disparities through innovative criminal justice reforms.

A national $100 million initiative by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the challenge works to tackle such issues as gender-responsive risk and needs assessment, culture-based case management and recidivism reduction approaches, and enhanced services for people with mental illness involved with the justice system, the foundation said in its announcement of the new grant winners.

Many of the solutions involve using technology to drive down jail usage and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in local justice systems.

Durham County, N.C., is developing an automated notification system to prevent failure-to-appear warrants and arrests. People facing criminal court charges would receive text or phone notices regarding their scheduled court dates, in an effort to decrease the number of people who end up in jail because of missing a court date.

People forget things. Its only human, Durham County Clerk of Superior Court Archie L. Smith III said in a statement. Medical providers generate appointment reminder calls to insure that health needs are timely met. We will provide reminder calls such that legal obligations can be timely addressed.

Adams County, Colo., is developing a data linking system to better understand the correlation between mental health crises and crime. It will analyze how many critical incident response calls are related to mental health crises and divert people with mental illness from incarceration to treatment. The county will develop a dashboard and analytical tool to monitor progress onredirecting people with mental illness to treatment to reducethe unnecessary use of emergency services and the jail.

The intent of the system will be to share data between health providers in the jail and community to improve continuity of care, according to minutes from the Data Sharing Task Force Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice. We know people stay in prison/jail longer and return more without continuity of care.

San Francisco is developing a web-based recidivism analysis dashboard, integrating data from multiple justice agencies to support the development of data-driven sentencing and supervision policies that will help the city assess its progress in reducing racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system.

This dashboard will offer an interface that would allow key decision-makers to review information in real time and make decisions about resource allocation for supervision or programming, according to the San Francisco Sentencing Commission City and County of San Francisco. "It would also be a tool to inform the public about how we are collectively reaching our goal to reduce recidivism in the criminal justice system."

The 20 communities will receive short-term support of $50,000 each from the foundations Innovation Fund and expert technical assistance in designing and implementing local reforms. They are also eligible for future funding opportunities, and have access to the resources, peer learning opportunities and expertise of theSafety and Justice Challenge Network.

About the Author

Kathleen Hickey is a freelance writer for GCN.

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Reducing incarceration with technology - GCN.com

Technology is fundamentally altering the investment landscape, and it will continue to have a profound influence on the quality of service that individual investors receive. This change, coupled with a shift in consumer preferences from a younger generation, is crucial for evaluating the controversy currently surrounding the fiduciary rule.

In April 2016, the Department of Labor announced its final rule to amend the definition of fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The rule imposes a broader fiduciary standard on those providing retirement advice to individual retirement account (IRA) holders, and also clarifies and adds to existing standards for advisers to 401(k) and other retirement plans.

In short: Anyone who receives compensation for providing retirement advice must put their clients best interest first, as opposed to recommending products that are deemed to be broadly suitable but that compensate advisers more than competing low-fee investment funds.

While it might seem obvious that investors deserve advice that puts their interests first, the rule has engendered a storm of protest, from inception to more recent Trump administration threats to delay or scrap the implementation of the rule.

The guiding principle of the Labor Departments fiduciary rule is absolutely correct and long overdue. All too often investors in retirement plans pay higher fees than they should, and their accounts contain high-cost funds that reward the provider of advice rather than the client.

Critics of the rule argue the new fiduciary standard would force investors to move from commission-based accounts to costlier, fee-based advisory accounts. The result, they believe, is that investor choice and access to financial education regarding retirement accounts will be limited, and that small investors will be badly harmed.

Currently, a broker may recommend a high-expense mutual fund for a client investing in a 401(k) rollover or a new IRA. The broker is compensated by receiving a commission for selling the fundand is only required to ensure that the fund is a suitable investment.

Many fee-based advisers require minimum investments in the six figures, and they charge fees that would be prohibitively expensive for small and medium-size investors. Large brokerage and insurance firms argue that only a commission-based model can work for the average investor.

Missing in this controversy is that technology has already upended the current brokerage model and millennials, the largest generation in U.S. history, wont settle for anything less than a service that puts their interests ahead of company bottom lines.

Over the past few years, a number of digital investment advisers have been established, and they are growing rapidly. Firms such as Future Advisor, Betterment, Rebalance IRA and our own firm, Wealthfront, now provide low-cost, high-quality alternatives to antiquated investment models. Even large traditional incumbent firms, likeCharles Schwaband Fidelity, are investing heavily in technology to provide high-quality, fiduciary service to more investors.

These automated investment services are able to provide sophisticated portfolio management to small investors at incredibly low cost by leveraging the same type of technology that has helped companies likeFacebookandGooglescale to billions of users.

Some automated advisers will even manage accounts of less than $10,000 without charging any advisory fee. Accounts over $10,000 might pay a management fee of only 25 basis points (one quarter of 1 percent), a fraction of the typical 1 percent that traditional investment managers charge.

Investments are made in portfolios of low-cost, exchange-traded index funds tailored to the needs and risk tolerance of the client. No trading commissions are charged, and conflicts of interest are avoided. Rock-bottom fees are especially important if we are in an era of future low-gross investment returns, which many investment managers believe.

The services offered by the new digital advisers are not second-rate. Clientsreceive daily monitoring and management rather than the quarterly or annual reviews provided by many traditional advisers. Accounts can be automatically rebalanced and moved to somewhat safer asset-class allocations as the investors financial situation evolves. Every trade is automatically vetted against the investment strategy promised to the client.

The securities industry is correct to worry that implementation of the fiduciary rule will result in massive changes to the traditional ways of doing business. Business models that depend on selling high-cost, low-value proprietary products to clients will be threatened, with the result that there may be fewer broker-dealers and investment advisers to choose from.

But the best firms will invest heavily in the technology to better address the change in consumer preferences. Investors will pay less, not more, for the services they receive, and what they get will be better, not worse. Capitalism has always involved a painful process of creative destruction. The financial services industry will be stronger and more effective because of innovation, and the fiduciary standard will accelerate the process of changing outmoded and ineffective financial business models.

Original post:

Policy rollbacks can't counteract technology advances in retirement investing - TechCrunch

Introduction

Nowadays, almost every automaker possesses considerable resources to develop self-driving technology for cars, which is the next big step for the automotive industry. The market for autopilot technology is clearly huge, which is evident by an estimation, that approximately 100 million "connected" cars with the capacity of self-driving will be shipped in 2021.

While most auto manufacturers try to invent their own solutions, they will be forced to collaborate with technology companies in fields of both software and hardware to bring self-driving cars to roads. Therefore, in this article, I provide a list of the most promising publicly traded tech corporations, which should be considered by investors who would like to try to profit from the development of autonomous driving.

Technology overview

First of all, let us very briefly look at the technology. The final solutions of each automaker will be different, but still they will share some common characteristics.

In general, autopilot uses three types of sensors: cameras, ultrasonics/radars and lidars. Each sensor performs its own function and has different abilities. Radars are able to detect moving objects in the surroundings of a vehicle but are unable to detect lines or traffic lights, and they are not very precise at human detection.

Lidars have similar features, but can more easily detect humans but are also more expensive than radars. The primary sensors are cameras, which can detect all objects, including lines, traffic lights and pedestrians. However, cameras fully rely on software to process all the input, therefore, using only cameras is difficult for a self-driving car system.

Then, all the input from the sensors needs to be processed and analyzed, which is made possible by the use of Deep Neural Networks (DNN). DNN is a code, which lies in the basis of every autopilot and it helps recognize objects, distinguish them, and make decisions on what to do. For instance, DNNs are needed to recognize borders on the road, the colors of a traffic light, or discern a sedan from a truck. In the end, the software system inside the car's computer processes all the information and operates the steering wheel and pedals, thus safely driving a car to a destination.

To illustrate how exactly neural network recognizes objects and makes decisions, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) provided a video of autopilot in motion, which can be seen here.

Companies:

Nvidia (NVDA)

Nvidia is considered to be the pioneer of hardware related to autopilot technology. The company has already proven its superiority in terms of automotive infotainment systems (i.e. cars on-board computer systems) with its Visual Computing Module, which uses Tegra chips to provide graphics to a vehicle's interior screens.

Nvidia currently counts such automakers as Audi (OTCPK:AUDVF), Porsche (OTCPK:POAHY), BMW (OTCPK:BMWYY), Tesla, Honda (NYSE:HMC) and Mini as its customers for digital cockpits claiming "more than 10 million cars on the road today" are powered by Nvidia. Through the first 3 quarters of 2016, the corporation derived 7.6% of its revenue from the automotive industry, and I believe that corporation is going to maintain these relationships to develop autopilot technology.

The latest autopilot hardware introduced by Nvidia is its Nvidia Drive PX 2 - a car computer that uses artificial intelligence to support autonomous driving. The system is able to derive and use data from all kinds of sensors like cameras, lidars, radars, and ultrasonic sensors, locating a vehicle in space and on a map, planning a safe path and being aware of all objects around a car.

Nvidia describes the product as follows:

DRIVE PX 2 can understand in real-time what's happening around the vehicle, precisely locate itself on an HD map, and plan a safe path forward. It's the world's most advanced self-driving car platform-combining deep learning, sensor fusion, and surround vision to change the driving experience.

Moreover, the corporation's autopilot technology is powered by another of Nvidia's invention - the Nvidia DGX-1 supercomputer, which enables fast machine learning on the basis of deep neural networks. This means that a car supported by DRIVE PX autopilot is able to continuously develop its ability to detect possible collisions and understand types of objects in its range of vision, thus making autonomous driving even more safe and precise.

Nvidia already provides the autopilot technology hardware for all new Tesla cars, running a Tesla-made software - neural network for vision. I expect that in the near future most carmakers that are interested in autonomous driving will implement the computer made by Nvidia, since it is currently the most powerful and well-developed solution. Therefore, Nvidia corporation will inevitably benefit from future collaborations, and the company's growth will be positively impacted by Nvidia's exposure to the increasing autopilot market.

While Nvidia should definitely be included in a portfolio of autopilot technology companies, I consider the current price level of Nvidia stock to be too high to buy. Its P/E ratio is an astronomical 55.0 and the price increased by more than 400% over the last year. Additionally, preliminary data shows 2.7 times growth of net income from 2016 to 2017 and it will be hard for the corporation to maintain this pace of growth over the long term.

The notable support levels of Nvidia stock are around $100 and $90, and the range between them, representing around a 40 P/E ratio, seems to be reasonable to consider a buying opportunity. However, taking into consideration the market rally we currently see, it is possible the price may not drop to these levels.

Delphi Automotive (DLPH) and Mobileye (MBLY)

Another notable company is Delphi Automotive PLC based in the United Kingdom. The corporation provides vehicle components and is especially interesting due to its safety technology solutions and electrical architectures. Autopilot technology is to some extent based on these very same safety systems, and therefore it is possible for Delphi to develop autonomous driving solutions based on its own existing products, which the company is already doing.

It is also interesting to note that Delphi received 22% of its net sales from the two huge automakers (9 months ended September, 2016) - General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Volkswagen (OTCPK:VLKAY), which are also working on providing autonomous cars in the nearest future. This shows that the existing ties with the automotive industry can enable Delphi to bring to life its autopilot solutions and quickly commercialize products for autonomous driving.

There are many examples of Delphi's efforts in the autopilot market. In 2015, Delphi in collaboration with Audi demonstrated its autonomous vehicle technology with a cross-country trip in the USA. The self-driving Audi car installed with Delphi's solution drove "99% of the time" controlled only by a computer without any human interaction. Moreover, in 2016, Delphi was selected by Singaporean authorities to implement an autonomous mobility concept in the state. The company is expected to provide a fleet of autonomous vehicles and develop cloud-based mobility software.

One of the most important alliances for Delphi in terms of autonomous driving is with another vehicle products supplier - Mobileye, from Israel. In 2016, the two companies revealed their partnership, which was formed in order to provide fully automated cars by 2019, while other automakers were expected to achieve this only by 2020-2021.

In turn, Mobileye, the supplier of vehicle localization and mapping software and machine learning solutions, is another corporation, which should be considered by investors who are willing to gain from autopilot development. Although the corporation lost its one important client, Tesla Inc., in late 2016, Mobileye claims that "13 automakers are working with Mobileye to enable autonomous driving." Moreover, about 27 corporations from the automotive industry use the corporation's solutions in terms of safety on roads.

Both Delphi and Mobileye should be included in a portfolio of autopilot technology companies. I find the financial situation of both companies to be in good shape. For instance, from 2011 to 2015, Mobileye's revenue grew by 80% on average, and I expect that the growth will continue in the near future.

This is primarily because Mobileye's average price for autopilot products (which will consist of cameras, driving policy algorithms and mapping) is expected to be in the range of $400-500, which is "10 times above $45 ASP Mobileye currently records for individual ADAS (safety) solutions." The price of Mobileye's stock rose by around 20% in 2017 and any pullback can be considered as a buying opportunity.

Regarding Delphi Automotive, the company's stock is trading with an 18.0 P/E ratio, which is considerably lower than the industry average. Additionally, despite ongoing restructuring, Delphi managed to have stable net income in 2016 and declared an increase in cash from operations exceeding the Street's 4Q forecast. The stock price of Delphi already increased by 13% in 2017 and now is near a 2-year high showing good performance. I believe the current price level ($75-76 as of February, 15) can be considered by investors as a buying point.

NXP Semiconductors (NXPI), Qualcomm (QCOM) and Cisco (CSCO)

NXP Semiconductors N.V. is a semiconductor company, which has a good portfolio of products including car audio and car vision products for safety. NXP already has 14.4% of the automotive semiconductor market, and the company's chips are already implemented by many carmakers including Tesla, Daimler (OTCPK:DDAIF), BMW and Audi.

I consider the company as a potentially big player in the autopilot market. This is not only because autonomous driving solutions will require some existing products from NXP (like safety car systems, microcontrollers and sensors), but also because the corporation has a high potential for developing new solutions based on existing technologies. For instance, NXP already provides transaction security systems and in-vehicle networking products, which can easily be transformed into new solutions to enhance vehicle networking security and establish connections between cars on roads making a cloud-based communication system.

Thus, NXP with Cisco made the first step to achieve inter-vehicle networking by making an investment in Australian company Cohda Wireless. The company specializes in radio systems and software that will allow vehicles to establish communication networks between them. This will enable vehicles to share information such as current speed, heading, and "whether they are braking or accelerating."

Qualcomm seems to be interesting due to its expertise in data communication, but the main value of the corporation is its Qualcomm Strategic Initiatives segment (QSI) which invests in early-stage companies in various industries, among which are different communication systems. Moreover, the corporation made an offer to buy the aforementioned NXP Semiconductors, in which case, Qualcomm will have direct exposure to the automotive market.

Regarding buying points of NXP, the corporation's stock is consolidating in the range that is 10% lower than the price offered by Qualcomm ($100 against $110). This is because the company has high short-term expenses, and due to that fact, NXP is likely to show negative income in the near future. However, if the corporation will eventually be bought by Qualcomm or will receive a counteroffer, the gain for the investor is inevitable.

Both Qualcomm and Cisco are trading with P/E ratios, which are significantly lower than the industry average (17.2 and 15.7 against 27.7 and 22.5 respectively). At the same time, the corporations show solid operating margins and very strong returns on equity (ROE) that are higher than the industry average. Cisco's stock price has already risen by 10% in 2017 showing a very strong pace and I believe current price levels (around $32) are good moments to buy the stock. Qualcomm shares have dropped by 13.36% in 2017 but have now consolidated near $55 level, which is a good opportunity to invest in the company.

Intel (INTC) and Microsoft (MSFT)

Both tech giants show their mobility in terms of thinking, since they are involved in developing many future technologies. For instance, I already wrote how these blue-chip corporations work on the blockchain, and now I expect they will work closely with automakers to bring autonomous cars to life. Thus, Intel has already revealed at CES 2017 its collaboration with BMW claiming they will start testing autonomous technology on the roads by the second half of 2017.

In turn, Microsoft took another approach saying it will try to integrate its existing products, like Azure cloud, Windows, and Office 365 into vehicles of established auto manufacturers. Therefore, I believe both Intel and Microsoft should be included in a self-driving technology portfolio.

Regarding moments for making investments in Microsoft and Intel, I restate my valuations made in the previous article and consider current price levels for both stocks ($64 and $36 respectively) as good moments for buying. These points represent around a 30 P/E multiple for Microsoft and a 17 P/E multiple for Intel.

Conclusion

Overall, the technology of self-driving requires many separate products to be combined to achieve a comprehensive solution. Clearly, many tech companies will try to become involved in autonomous driving development and gain from this market opportunity. However, I believe that the 8 corporations described in this article are the most promising options for investors who want to profit from the autopilot expansion.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Editor's Note: This article discusses one or more securities that do not trade on a major U.S. exchange. Please be aware of the risks associated with these stocks.

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Self-Driving Technology: 8 Tech Companies For Investment - Seeking Alpha

If theres one word that can describe Viva Technology (or VivaTech for short), its that its a ginormous conference. While it was just the first edition last year, 45,000 people made their way to Paris to talk about all things tech. VivaTech is back again this year, June 15-17.

Last year, Mike and I didnt know what to expect. But I think its fair to say that it was a good conference. As Mike wrote last year, VivaTech is somewhat akin to a TechCrunch Disrupt, but with a broader mix of corporate and government involvement.

VivaTech is co-organized by the advertising company Publicis and major newspaper Les chos. Last year, 5,000 startups, 6,000 CEOs, 250 investors and 5,000 students were there at some point during the three days of the conference. There were a ton of startup booths, as well as eight stages.

And the team behind VivaTech plans to do just that once again. Everything will be refined, as the conference was organized quite quickly last year. So this time, they have more time to prepare and line up their speakers and startups.

Today at the lyse Palace, French president Franois Hollande, French digital minister Axelle Lemaire, Publicis, Les chos and a bunch of other people introduced the event. It was a big splashy event with around 200 people from the tech ecosystem.

The first time I heard about VivaTech, I thought oh no, not yet another big thing, Axelle Lemaire said. But she then said that France needed a major tech event to compete with other countries.

Today, VivaTech is clearly a success. Thats why they want to do it again, but this time, theyll pay attention to details to turn it into a community venture so that it can become a major innovation event in France and across the world, she said.

She then listed many of her initiatives as digital minister. Ive covered many of them on TechCrunch La French Tech, the French Tech Ticket, the French Tech Visa, the Digital Republic bill, the gender diversity initiative and more.

French president Franois Hollande spent most of his speech making jokes he only has a couple of months left as the French president after all. Maurice Lvy is good when it comes to communication, and I should have talked with him more often, he said.

France is the second European country for startup funding rounds, Hollande said. And weve been first for the number of transactions since January.

Five years ago, when I heard about [the CES conference] in Las Vegas, there were very few French startups. Today, were the second biggest country. And we hope that we can become the first one in a few years the president of the U.S. is helping us.

Its weird that French politicians have been fascinated with CES like its the ultimate tech event. There are many tech events out there, but somehow CES is the gold standard for ministers, political candidates and French presidents.

Hollande also listed all the reasons why France has become more favorable for startups. Arguably, it has never been easier to create a startup in France, and he hopes that the next French president is going to follow the same path.

Other speakers included VivaTechs co-directors Julie Ranty-Dchelette and Maxime Baffert. They announced the first partners of Viva Technology. Maurice Lvy announced some of the first speakers, such as Peter Fenton from Benchmark, Eric Schmidt from Alphabet, Daniel Zhang from Alibaba and Dan Schulman from PayPal.

In short, VivaTech 2017 is going to be like VivaTech 2016, but more polished. There will be fewer stages, so the content should be more focused. There will be big companies like AccorHotels, Air France KLM, Carrefour, LVMH, TF1 Group and more. And finally, there will be thousands of entrepreneurs.

Les chos CEO Francis Morel was also on stage to talk about the event. And LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault was also at the event. At first I didnt really understand what Arnault was doing there, but then I remembered that Arnault is the main investor in Les chos.

At least it was a good opportunity for a family photo with Lvy, Hollande and Arnault:

Continued here:

Viva Technology is coming back to Paris with its ginormous tech conference - TechCrunch

Technology is an integral part of cricket now The Hindu Development in any field is closely associated with the growth of technology. Cricket is no exception. Technological advancement is an indispensable part of the game now. Analytics and numbers determine the value of a player and every move is closely ... and more »

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Technology is an integral part of cricket now - The Hindu

Artificial intelligence, natural-language processing, and bots integrated into messaging apps will create new opportunities to interact with users via their mobile devices. (Image: Just East)

Mobile technology like smartphones will be changing in ways many users can't even imagine today, and much of this change will come from trends such as the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR).

The convergence of devices, bots, things, and people means organizations will need to excel at mainstream mobility and prepare for the "post-app" era, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

The future of mobility will offer ubiquitous services provided anywhere, by any person or thing, to any person or thing, said David Willis, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. Alternative approaches to interaction and service delivery will spring up, and code will move from traditional mobile devices and apps to the cloud, he said.

It's clear that mobile has become an integral part of doing business today. Gartner has estimated total shipments of 2.37 billion devices (including laptops, tablets, ultramobiles, and mobile phones) and 293 million wearable products for 2016. It projects shipments of 2.38 billion devices and 342 million wearables in 2017.

The proliferation of devices means they are now omnipresent within the business environment, reinventing the way people interact and work, Willis said.

While users are always looking for new and compelling experiences with apps, the importance of apps in delivering services will diminish, and the emergence of virtual personal assistants (VPAs) and bots will replace some of the functions performed by apps today, he said.

"App mania has created a horrible experience for customers," Willis said. "There are too many of them. Many large brands have multiple apps in the same app store. Consumers are abandoning apps at an alarming rate. App fatigue has set in."

Users are settling on fewer, more trusted apps, Willis says. "The brands that are the most reliable, trustworthy, and are the easiest to deal with will win," he says. "We used to say that if your customers need a manual, you've lost. Now, if your customer has to train and configure their experience, you've lost."

Newer tools and technology developments such as wearables, IoT, VR and AR are changing the parameters of customer experience with mobile, Willis said. "It's going to be a dynamic, immersive, and highly varied world out there," he said.

The growing use of wearables and "bring your own thing" such as smart power sockets and smart light bulbs in the workplace will introduce new ways of interacting and new platforms, Willis said, diluting the need for specific mobile app experiences.

A lot of the innovation in the mobile technology market in the future will not come within the devices themselves, but in the things that communicate with the devices. Gartner predicts that by 2018, 25 percent of new mobile apps will talk to IoT devices.

Advancing technologies such as artificial intelligence, natural-language processing, and bots integrated into messaging apps will create new opportunities to interact with users seamlessly via their mobile devices, the firm said.

VIDEO: Here's how Facebook envisions you being social in VR

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Prepare for a new age of mobile technology - ZDNet