What If Apple Running Their Own Search Engine?

What do you think when Apple started running their own search engine? Yes. I know it will not be easy for Apple to compete with Google Search but with many people around the world are using Apple product (MacBook, iPhone, iPad and others), surely it can capture the market with ease.

Small corners of the internet are ablaze with the news that Apple has significantly ramped up its search bot activity. Search bots typically scan websites in order to rank and index them for search engine results. When you look for something on a search engine, the results that appear are ordered by “ranking”, meaning that the result that is most accurate to what you are looking for appears at the top. 

This increase in activity also appears alongside pressure from the UK competition commission to break up Apple’s multi-billion dollar sweetheart deal with Google. The deal ensures that Google is the default search engine for Apple’s iOS devices. Many are now anticipating that Apple is on track to launch its own search engine soon.

I'm sure this will bring much fanfare to all Apple user who are frustrated with the things running behind when using Google Search. Most people that I know already feel suspicious about Google and their technology. They feel that Google are watching all their track and feed them to the third party.

Apple’s search engine will have a different future if rumors about its business model are true. Apple has been focusing heavily on user privacy recently, including but not limited to, publicly refusing to give secret access to its devices to the FBI. It will be very much in line with this “privacy-first” position that Apple chooses not to make money from advertising, which involves exposing customer usage data to third parties. 

Instead, it could simply sell more of its highly profitable devices and subscriptions to privacy-conscious customers. By not following Google’s footsteps, Apple does not have to engage with the search giant on its terms.

With its latest iOS 14 update, Apple has already started swapping out Google search results in favor of its own. Most iOS users have barely noticed the change for all the reasons given above. But this silent swapping does not come without its own set of challenges. By defaulting to its search engine instead of Google on its devices, Apple will open itself to monopoly criticism from competition commissions in a variety of markets. It is also likely to upset the advertising industry who could lose their reach to Apple customers. The Apple customer base is a coveted one thanks to its better than average buying power, and by making it easier for users to avoid search ads, Apple might just create a tectonic shift in the advertising industry as a whole. 

Google’s dominance on internet search will not come to an end with Apple’s entry into the foray, but it would definitely weaken in the face of increasing consumer preference for privacy. Given that Google’s business model differs dramatically from Apple’s, it is likely that the search giant would have to learn to uncomfortably live with its rival’s search engine instead of pivoting to compete with it head-on.

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Dell, Tesla sued over deaths of child miners

LONDON -- Five of the world's largest tech companies are being sued over the deaths and injuries of Congolese children mining for cobalt, a key component of the batteries used in smartphones, tablets, laptops and electric cars.

Apple, Dell, Google, Microsoft and Tesla were all named in the federal class-action lawsuit filed on Sunday in Washington, D.C. The landmark case was brought forward by human rights lawyers at the Washington-based group International Rights Advocates on behalf of 14 anonymous plaintiffs, who are described as either guardians of children killed in tunnel or wall collapses while mining cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or children who survived such accidents and were injured.

"We will do everything possible to get justice quickly for the children we represent," the plaintiff's lead counsel Terry Collingsworth, who is also executive director of International Rights Advocates, said in a statement. "In my 35 years as a human rights lawyer, I’ve never seen such extreme abuse of innocent children on a large scale. This astounding cruelty and greed needs to stop."

An undated photo shows Daniel, 11, carrying a bag of cobalt on his back in Kolwezi, D.R.C. He works in a mine ferrying sacks of cobalt to a depot."n"nCobalt is a vital mineral needed for the production of rechargeable batteries.

The lawsuit accuses Apple, Dell, Google, Microsoft and Tesla of "knowingly benefiting from and aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal use of young children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to mine cobalt," which is found in every lithium-ion battery used to recharge the electronic devices that these five American companies manufacture. About two-thirds of the world's supply of cobalt is mined from the mineral-rich Congolese provinces of Haut-Katanga and Lualaba.

The complaint states that the children, some as young as 6, "are not merely being forced to work full-time, extremely dangerous mining jobs at the expense of their educations and futures; they are being regularly maimed and killed by tunnel collapses and other known hazards common to cobalt mining."

In addition to the emotional distress, these deaths and injuries "place immense pressure on families requiring additional children to work in cobalt mining to replace the lost earnings," according to the lawsuit.

The court document details a number of alleged instances where children were severely injured or died from working in cobalt mines alleged to be part of the defendants' supply chains. One of the plaintiffs was 15 when he fell down a 20-foot shaft. The teen "is now completely paralyzed from his chest down and he can barely use his arms," according to the complaint.

An undated photo shows a young miner digging for cobalt inside the CDM (Congo DongFang International Mining) Kasulo mine in Kolwezi, D.R.C.

The lawsuit claims that Apple, Dell, Google, Microsoft and Tesla all have "specific knowledge from public reports" that the cobalt they sourced from the African nation "was mined in significant part by young children performing hazardous work" for roughly $2-$3 per day and, in many cases, even less than that. The complaint also alleges that the tech firms failed to perform the required due diligence to regulate their supply chains.

Apple, Dell, Google, Microsoft and Tesla each have certain policies claiming to prohibit child labor in their supply chains, and the lawsuit alleges that "their failure to actually implement these policies to stop forced child labor in cobalt mining is an intentional act to avoid ending their windfall of getting cheap cobalt mined by forced child labor that they are acutely aware of."

The families are seeking compensation for the alleged forced labor, unjust enrichment, negligent supervision and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A research team is continuing to investigate other tech and car companies and expects to add additional firms to the lawsuit.

The plaintiff's research team includes Dr. Roger-Claude Liwanga, a Congolese national who is a professor at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia.

“This is the beginning of the end of impunity for those who have been economically benefiting from child labor in the DRC’s mining industry," Liwanga said in a statement. "DRC children also have an inherent and inalienable right to be protected from economic exploitation.”

When asked for comment Wednesday, a Google spokesperson told ABC News in a statement that "child labor and endangerment is unacceptable and our Supplier Code of Conduct strictly prohibits this activity."

"We are committed to sourcing all materials ethically and eliminating child mining in global supply chains," the spokesperson added. "As an active member of the Responsible Minerals Initiative, we work alongside our suppliers, other companies, and industry groups to drive efforts in and beyond the DRC."

The Responsible Minerals Initiative is comprised of over 380 companies with the goal of supporting "responsible sourcing of minerals from conflict-affected and high-risk areas," according to its website. Apple, Dell, Google, Microsoft and Tesla are all member companies.

A Dell spokesperson told that the company is "currently investigating these allegations, and have informed the Responsible Minerals Initiative."

"Dell Technologies is committed to the responsible sourcing of minerals, which includes upholding the human rights of workers at any tier of our supply chain and treating them with dignity and respect," the spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. "We have never knowingly sourced operations using any form of involuntary labor, fraudulent recruiting practices or child labor. We work with suppliers to manage their sourcing programs responsibly. Any supplier with reports of misconduct is investigated and, if misconduct is found, removed from our supply chain."

The spokesperson also noted: "Dell Technologies annually publishes a list of cobalt refiners identified in our supply chain via the Responsible Minerals Initiative’s Cobalt Reporting Template – last updated in July 2019. To learn more about our responsible sourcing work, view our Responsible Minerals Sourcing Report, FY19 Supply Chain Sustainability Progress Report, and our Responsible Sourcing Policy."

When asked for comment Wednesday, Apple told in a statement that it "is deeply committed to the responsible sourcing of materials that go into our products."

"We’ve led the industry by establishing the strictest standards for our suppliers and are constantly working to raise the bar for ourselves, and the industry," the company continued. "In 2014, we were the first to start mapping our cobalt supply chain to the mine level and since 2016, we have published a full list of our identified cobalt refiners every year, 100% of which are participating in independent third party audits. If a refiner is unable or unwilling to meet our standards, they will be removed from our supply chain. We’ve removed 6 cobalt refiners in 2019.”

Microsoft and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.

Google Nexus 7 Second Generation Is Ready

Next week, search juggernaut Google will officially kick off Google I/O, its annual developer conference where it's expected to show off the latest and greatest Android developments. The event will be held at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco, the same venue where Apple and Microsoft are hosting their own respective developer conferences next month.

On the hardware front, Google may unveil a second-generation Nexus 7 to follow up the success of its first flagship tablet. After Amazon.com demonstrated that there's considerable interest for a $200 7-inch tablet, Google jumped right in.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has made a name for himself by accurately calling Apple moves in advance. Kuo's supply chain sources now reiterate prior rumors that Google has switched from NVIDIA to Qualcomm for the brains of the new tablet. The next Nexus 7 might be powered by a Snapdragon instead of a Tegra this time around, and ship in June or July.

That's entirely reasonable, since NVIDIA made a conscious choice to push out its Tegra 4 schedule in order to pull in the Tegra 4i release. NVIDIA has been anxious to get into the integrated LTE game to challenge Qualcomm, and it was a necessary trade off that would inevitably translate into sacrificing some near-term design wins to accelerate the 4i's time to market. That strategic decision is largely why Tegra revenue dropped 22.2% to $103.1 million last quarter, and Tegra 4 sales aren't expected to ramp until the second half.

Asus is also expected to continue building the tablet. The OEM has benefited greatly from the Nexus partnership, with tablet volumes soaring ever since the Nexus 7 launched last summer.

Google is expected to bolster the display resolution to 1,920 x 1,200 for the 7-inch display. There should be some improvements in thickness and weight, and Google is likely going to stand pat at the $199 price point. That would translate into a loss of $5 to $10 per unit.

The iPad Mini is putting pressure on the low-end, but a Nexus 7 refresh could strengthen Google's defense. Apple isn't expected to release Retina iPad Minis until this fall, giving Google a couple of months. Microsoft is also about to move downmarket with a rumored 7.5-inch Surface, in recognition of the growing consumer preference toward smaller tablets.

@ Global Info Center

Baidu Is Now On Google Backyards

About six miles south of the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif., is the town of Cupertino. And that's where Chinese search company Baidu is opening a new office that will be home to something called The Institute of Deep Learning.

There, Baidu will be trying to build computers that mimic the human brain, thinking and learning like humans do, reports Wired's Daniela Hernandez.

Baidu is certainly not alone in the quest for more human-like computers. Google is obviously working on this too. About five months ago, Google nabbed one of the world's best-known advocates in the area of artificial intelligence when it hired legendary "futurist" Ray Kurzweil as its director of engineering.

Kurzweil is working on a similar project for Google. “We want to give computers the ability to understand the language that they’re reading," Kurzweil explained in an interview with Singularity Hub.

Baidu's research team leader Kai Yu is pretty straightforward about why the Chinese company chose Cupertino: he's trying to keep talented engineers out of Google's grasp.

“In Silicon Valley, you have access to a huge talent pool of really, really top engineers and scientists, and Google is enjoying that kind of advantage,” Yu told Hernandez.

This isn't the only Google-like project Baidu is working on either. Earlier this month, it confirmed rumors that it is developing a Google Glass-like wearable computer code-named ‘Baidu Eye’, the Next Web reported. It also said it has no plans yet to launch it as a consumer product.

@ Global Info Center

How Samsung Tried To Sabotage Google

Do you know that Samsung were running Google Android Operating System as a piggyback to be a very successful global smartphone player. Now after officiate the launching of Samsung Galaxy S4, the real Samsung intention were getting surfaced.

Samsung's goal in life is to sell hardware, and to it, Android is merely a means to an end. On the other hand, Google just wants more people on the Internet using its services and seeing its ads.

Over the years, Samsung has had countless software partners, and Google is just its latest flame. Samsung's rise to power presents a unique threat to Android and Google, one that Google has already taken note of. If the company wrangles even more sway in the Android ecosystem, it could leverage higher ad-sharing agreements or other bargaining chips at Big G's expense. Now-former Android chief Andy Rubin had internally voiced concerns over this distinct possibility.

To be clear, Samsung would greatly benefit from a forked version of Android, because it would be an important point of differentiation from other Android OEMs -- much more potent than the current practice of customized interfaces like TouchWiz.

There's no avoiding the fact that the Galaxy S4 is an Android device. However, what Samsung can and did do last night is highlight all of its new apps, services, and software features, while decidedly not emphasizing Google's popular services.

Instead of talking about Google Play and all the types of content available from the search giant's repository, it showed off Samsung Hub, an integrated storefront for digital content like music, videos, books, games, and more. The new S Translator is exactly what it sounds like, and can potentially replace Google Translate. Forget Google Now and spoken turn-by-turn directions in Google Maps, that's what the new Galaxy S Voice Drive is for.

That's not to say that Google's services are gone, just that Samsung is clearly pushing its own instead. These are just some of many examples where Samsung is actively replicating Google offerings (sound familiar?), and are the first signs that Samsung isn't exactly happy with the status quo and wants more control of the customer relationship and experience than it currently has.

At this rate, Samsung will eventually be able to strip Android to little more than the bare bones for its operating system platform, while it loads up its own features, services, and content on top. Google will always have search, but that's just one aspect of its broader Android strategy; Big G's other services are also crucial to its moat-building goals.

Samsung is also actively targeting enterprise customers with its new Knox security certification. The South Korean company is positioning Galaxy devices with Knox within its broader Samsung For Enterprise, or SAFE, initiative. That puts it in the same enterprise market with Apple and BlackBerry, while leaving the rest of the Android army behind. Samsung now characterizes its own Galaxy Nexus, "all other Google Nexus," and "all other Android tablets and phones" as "not safe for work"