By Alistair MacDonald
Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney crossed the U.S. border Friday on a raiding mission: to steal foreign-born tech entrepreneurs from the U.S.
Mr. Kenney is slated to arrive in the San Francisco area to attend a trade fair at which he intends to personally pitch Canada to foreign-born entrepreneurs looking to start tech businesses. The idea is to steal them away from the U.S.
“Our message to them is if you want to do your start up in North America… you are more than welcome to come up here,” Mr. Kenney told Canada Real Time.
Last month Canada launched a “Startup Visa” that, Mr. Kenney says, is partly aimed at poaching foreign talent from the U.S. The visa makes it easier for foreign entrepreneurs to stay in Canada by, for instance, giving foreigner entrepreneurs automatic permanent residence status.
Some U.S. businesses and law makers have complained that Washington makes it too hard for foreign entrepreneurs to get visas that would allow them to stay and start businesses in the U.S.
Mr. Kenney aims to capitalize on that in his four-day trip, pitching tech experts in the Bay area, an “obvious market upon which to draw.”
“We are being shameless about this,” he said, adding that he should perhaps walk around this weekend’s TiCON trade show in Santa Clara with a Canadian flag. The two-day conference is run by a group of Silicon Valley-based executives and is aimed at tech start-ups among others. While in California, Mr. Kenney will also be meeting with executives from major tech companies and speaking to students from Stanford University.
Mr. Kenney said that Canadians are known for being modest and reserved, characteristics he intends to “throw to the wind” while in the U.S. The Canadian government has also erected a large billboard on a local highway making its pitch.
In recent months Canada has overhauled its immigration system as it looks to beat down huge backlog of applications and address an increasing pay gap between native born Canadians and new waves of immigrants.
Bangalore/Kolkata/Mumbai, Oct.17 (ANI): Apple Inc unveiled its eagerly awaited new iPhone series in India on Friday, drawing an amazing response, as Apple fans gathered outside retails stores across the country to buy the new smartphones.
Apple began the sale of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus at midnight for the first time in India, in line with the practice it follows elsewhere.
The launch in India came nearly a month after the global launch of the latest version of the iconic phones.
Both iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are available in 16GB, 64GB and 128GB variants. While iPhone 6 has 4.7-inch screen, the iPhone 6 Plus comes for 5.5-inch screen.
Industry watchers have said increasing the iPhone’s screen size from 4 inches would help Apple regain market share from competitors such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, who they say have responded to consumer desire for more screen size.
Apple says with the new smartphones, it is not just a bigger display but a better display.
The 16GB iPhone 6 model is priced at rupees 53,500 (USD 868), with the 64GB version priced at rupees 62,500 (USD 1014)) and the 128GB variant available at rupees 71,500 (USD 1160). Whereas iPhone 6 Plus is priced at rupees 62,500 for the 16GB model, the 64GB is priced at rupees 71,500 and 128GB variant is
available for rupees 80,500 (USD 1306).
Washington, Oct 17 (ANI): Tech giant Google has said that it can create an artificial personal assistant for users, if they agree to give up more and more of your personal information
Google’s Chairman, Eric Schmidt said that technology like Google will guide people to better, smarter decisions.
He added that the evolution of Google is to go from you asking Google what to search for, to Google helping you anticipate, to make you smarter, and
Like any good personal assistant, Google needs to know everything about you. The search giant keeps track of what sites you visit, what you search, and who you email.
Schmidt points out that you can change your Google privacy settings to share less information, and anything you do share remains between you and Google.
However, the company doesn’t sell specific information about you to third party advertisers, though Google does anonymously share some more general information about you that allows companies to tailor ads, the report said.
Washington, Oct 17 (ANI): Apple senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi said that introducing Macbooks with touch screens is something Apple has no plans to do.
Federighi said that they don’t think it’s the right interface, honestly, Mac is sort of a sit-down experience.
He added that it’s awkward and uncomfortable to sit at a desk and continuously reach forward to touch a computer screen. It’s not like an iPad or iPhone that you hold in your hands and use in a very relaxed position, CNET reported.
He further added that they’ve really focused on building the best track pads we can, something where it feels your posture’s relaxed, it’s a comfortable machine to use, and of course, over the years we’ve experimented with all the technology, but we found it just wasn’t good. We’re not all that interested in building one.
