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Apple has announced the opening of a new office in Hyderabad, India, a move that will create up to 4000 new jobs in the country.

The office will focus on the development of Maps across all iOS products, including expansions of features like 3D views, Flyover and Transit.

"Apple is focused on making the best products and services in the world and we are thrilled to open this new office in Hyderabad which will focus on Maps development," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "The talent here in the local area is incredible and we are looking forward to expanding our relationships and introducing more universities and partners to our platforms as we scale our operations."

"We are honored Apple chose Hyderabad as a home for its Maps development office," added Telangana Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao. "This will create thousands of jobs here and is a testament to our proactive approach, quality infrastructure and the excellent talent base we have in the region."

Google has unveiled Android Instant Apps, a potentially killer project that lets users launch apps without installation required.

The company says Instant Apps is ideal for those who visit a place infrequently or use a service infrequently and don't want to download and waste space with the app for a one-and-done situation.

An app will likely offer a better experience compared to a full or mobile site when on your phone, and when you close an Instant App, it is gone from your phone, although technically it will remain in your web cache until it is cleared out.

If you love the app, you can actually download the full installation by clicking "Install" in the top right-hand side of the Instant App.

For developers, it is a win-win. "It's the same Android APIs, the same source code, the same project," Android Instant Apps product management director Michael Siliski said. "In fact, it's taken some developers as little as a day to get up and running." Of course, the developers will have to work on editing the app so only necessary bits are downloaded for "Instant," but for some apps that will likely not be an issue given their low complexity. There is one restriction, however. All modules for Instant Apps must be 4MB or less, replicating an average web page.

The story for Yahoo gets sadder and sadder.

According to the WSJ, Verizon and other bidders for Yahoo are expected to bid under $3 billion for the core assets of the once tech giant, much lower than Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's initial hopes for up to $10 billion.

Verizon is the front-runner in the bidding process, although a number of private-equity buyers are said to be interested, including Warren Buffet and Dan Gilbert.

Yahoo has set a deadline for the first week of June for the upcoming round of bids, and it could end up being the final round if the deals are sweet enough. Regardless, the buyer of Yahoo is buying a business in decline, with revenue and profits falling quarter after quarter with no end in sight. In fact, quarterly revenue fell below $1 billion for the first time since 2011 in the most recent quarter.

Health and fitness wearables giant Fitbit has announced the acquisition of Coin, the one-time Kickstarter darling that offered smart payment products including a connected card that could hold all of your different credit card information.

Says Fitbit of the acquisition: "This acquisition is indicative of Fitbit's commitment to innovation, which centers on making connected health and fitness devices that are motivating, smart, and stylish."

The company acquired all of Coin's wearables payment platform IP as well as employees but does not include the actual credit card hardware, like the Coin 2.0.

"We are focused on making wearable devices that motivate people to reach their health and fitness goals, and that also make their lives easier with the smart features they need most," said James Park, CEO and co-founder of Fitbit. "Coin has been one of the key innovators in advanced payment solutions. The inclusion of their payment technology into our offerings will further our strategy of making Fitbit products an indispensable part of people's lives."

Philips has unveiled their first 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player, the BDP7501/301.

The player will be available for $400 starting next month in two colors, brushed aluminum and piano black.

Philips' latest has Dolby TrueHD Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio support, HDR video support, a second HDMI-out for audio receivers and the ability to stream 4K from Netflix and YouTube right out of the box.

Right now, the Philips BDP7501/301 is just the second UHD Blu-ray player on the market, joining Samsung's UBD-K8500 which sells for the same price with similar features.

Nokia has confirmed they are laying off another 1032 employees, this time in Finland, and across all business divisions.

Many expect the layoffs are part of a much larger move as Nokia tries to cut $1 billion in expenses by 2018 following their recent merger with Alcatel-Lucent.

Nokia's feature phone business, sold to Microsoft and recently sold again to Foxconn, was once the bread and butter of the company which has now become a networking tech giant.

According to Nomura Securities analysts, Sony has been struggling to meet supply needs for their dual camera systems, forcing Apple to order from LG for at least a portion of the upcoming iPhone 7 order.

Says Nomura: "We think Sony may not be able to deliver its full share of dual cameras to Apple due to: (1) lower-than-expected yield, and (2) damage to its production facility from the April earthquake in Kumamoto. As a result, we think LGI will gain majority share of the initial dual camera orders from Apple."

Sony, for its part, has confirmed the earthquake has left significant damage and delays at some of their facilities including those that build image sensors.

Nomura also expects the iPhone 7 to add optical image stabilization and new dual camera system.

According to sources, Apple is working on allowing you to use your phone's Touch ID fingerprint sensor to unlock your Mac computer.

The update could come as soon as OS X 10.12, and is certainly a nice feature for those that also have an iPhone, although anyone who doesn't will be waiting for a Mac with a hardware sensor or some other fix.

Bluetooth LE will have to be enabled on both devices, and will be similar to the "smart unlock" feature of the Apple Watch.

Many expect that the new unlocking feature will also work "hand-in-hand" with the rumored upcoming web browser support of Apple Pay.

Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi has confirmed it will add a drone to its widening range of products, with the hardware launching next week.

The company has teased a May 25th press event for its new Mi Drone, but there are very scant details otherwise.

Xiaomi has only said there is "something wonderful and cool is flying to us very soon."

The company, known for its powerful yet highly affordable smartphones in China, recently announced a massive 6.44-inch phablet, a 4K-supporting set-top box with Android TV, and a VR phone that will support Google's Daydream tech, suggesting a big year of expansion.

Source:
Engadget

According to IDC, Google's line of Chromebooks outsold Apple Macs for the first time ever, in the U.S.

"Chrome OS overtook Mac OS in the US in terms of shipments for the first time in 1Q16," says IDC analyst Linn Huang. "Chromebooks are still largely a US K-12 story."

What Huang means is that schools and students continue to buy Chromebooks, which are normally a tenth of the price of Macs, given their solid feature set and Google's programs for educators.

IDC estimated U.S. Mac shipments at around 1.76 million in the most recent quarter, and Chromebook shipments at close to 2 million.

Netflix has launched a rival to Speedtest.net, a simple site that shows you fast your Internet connection is.

Head over to Fast.com and the site will calculate your download speeds, the determining factor in how solid your video quality is when streaming from Netflix.

That's it.

Netflix does note that if your Netflix streaming experience is not optimal but your speeds are fast, then your ISP may be throttling your connection.

Google has announced this week that the Google Play Store is headed to Chrome as Android and Chrome continue to merge.

Said the company earlier: "Today we announced that we're adding the best mobile app experiences in the world, Android apps and the Google Play store, to the best browser in the world, Chrome! Come to this session and test your Android apps for Chrome OS. You will get hands-on help from our friendly engineers on how to optimize your Android app for Chromebooks. Oh, and we will also be giving the first 50 developers to show up a free Chromebook so they can get a head start bringing their apps to Chrome!"

For now, it seems like Google will be testing the store with devs before going live but the move is certainly an interesting development in Google's ongoing goals to merge Chrome and Android into one operating system.

Uber has unveiled their first self-driving car, a hybrid Ford Fusion that will drive around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the coming weeks.

The car "will be collecting mapping data as well as testing its self-driving capabilities. When it's in self-driving mode, a trained driver will be in the driver's seat monitoring operations. The Uber ATC car comes outfitted with a variety of sensors including radars, laser scanners, and high resolution cameras to map details of the environment," adds the company.

"Real-world testing is critical to our efforts to develop self-driving technology. Self-driving cars have the potential to save millions of lives and improve quality of life for people around the world. 1.3 million people die every year in car accidents -- 94% of those accidents involve human error," notes Uber. "In the future we believe this technology will mean less congestion, more affordable and accessible transportation, and far fewer lives lost in car accidents. These goals are at the heart of Uber's mission to make transportation as reliable as running water -- everywhere and for everyone."

Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi has unveiled a 4K Android TV-powered set-top box called the Mi Box.

The Mi Box supports 4K UHD content, as well as HDR, and will have standard options like Netflix and Hulu as well as updated native Android TV apps like Watch ESPN, Comedy Central and Spotify.

Xiaomi's latest sports a Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU, a Mali 450 GPU, 2GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, a USB port, HDMI 2.0a, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS Surround Sound support.

Additionally, the set-top will have Google Cast support, allowing you to mirror your phone, tablet and desktop to the big screen.

Finally, Xiaomi will ship the device with a Bluetooth remote that includes voice search capability.

Google used their developer conference to show off some new feature for the upcoming Android N operating system.

The company released a developer preview earlier this year and has been furiously updating since, significantly improving the graphics and runtime. Google says the compiler for Android N is up to 75 percent faster than previous operating systems, and Google also notes that the space required for app installations has been reduced significantly, as well.

In the multitasking menu, Google will cap the visible windows at just 7 (thank you, Google) and there will now be a "Clear All" button to dismiss all your active apps at once rather than sliding manually.

Google has also promised split-screen and picture-in-picture modes, allowing you to slide videos to the corner while you write your emails, for example. This will make your Android tablet more useful certainly, but it probably won't be too effective on your phone.

Most notable, however, is the addition of a VR Mode as part of the larger Google "Daydream" VR project. Google also has content partnerships with HBO, Netflix, Hulu, CNN, the NBA, the Wall Street Journal, IMAX and the New York Times.

Expect Android N "later this summer."