UBERPOOL

At the Dreamforce 2015, I was fortunate to listen to billionaire Travis Kalanic, as he talked to another billionaire Mark Benioff. The former is the co-founder of Uber, a mobile application that connects passengers with drivers of vehicles for hire and ridesharing services. The latter is the Chairman & CEO of Salesforce, Inc. – organizer of the annual Dreamforce conferences.

Uber operates in 58 countries and in more than 300 cities around the world. Most recently, it launched the UberPool which Kalanic discussed with Benioff.

I got interested on the topic because of the traffic problems that the Metro Manila area is now experiencing.

Here is a brief write-up on UberPool when it was first launched.

Since the early days of Uber, we’ve been excited about the idea of providing transportation so inexpensive and reliable, people can actually sell their cars.

Today, we’re announcing a bold experiment straight from the Uber Garage that we believe will be another important step toward that vision, and we’re calling it UberPool.

UberPool – The Idea

 />The idea is simple. With UberPool, you share a ride—and split the cost—with another person who just happens to be requesting a ride along a similar route. The beauty, though, is that you still get Uber-style on-demand convenience and reliability: just push the button like before and get a car in five minutes. When we find a match, we notify you of your co-rider’s first name.

Why We’re So Excited

While the UberPool idea is simple, the implications are profound. On average, uberX already costs 40% less than taxi. Imagine reducing that cost by up to another 50%! In San Francisco, how about $6 to Uber from the Castro to the Financial District? Or $10 from Sunset to SOMA? At these price points, Uber really is cost-competitive with owning a car, which is a game-changer for consumers.

This is also a bold social experiment. There’s the interaction between riders in an UberPool—should they talk to each other? When is that cool and when is it, well, annoying? We’re going to find out how this brave new world of UberPooling works—we’ll iterate on this beta product and get it right, because the larger social implications of reducing the number of cars on the road, congestion in cities, pollution, parking challenges… are truly inspiring.

When Do We Launch?

This is rolling out immediately in private beta. Because UberPool is an early beta product, there will undoubtedly be kinks and surprises to work through. Throughout the beta, we’ll be training more drivers and getting feedback from initial riders and drivers doing UberPool rides.

Our friends at Google will also be joining us in the beta. They share our vision of a more energy-efficient world with less traffic congestion and pollution in our cities and are excited to be early adopters of UberPool. The beta has been expanded more broadly on August 15, 2015.

Hillary Clinton and the Email Controversy: An Update

For the benefit of my barber, his friends and customers at the barbershop, I gave my personal take and update on the email controversy involving former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Although her critics and political opponents are trying to show that there was something wrong with what Clinton did with her email when she was Secretary of State, I have no doubt that the real motive is political. This is especially because she is now the leading presidential candidate of the Democratic Party.

It is reported that Hillary Clinton exclusively used a personal email account during her time as Secretary of State.

This means that she skipped a State Department email account and used a private email server registered to her and her husband, former President Bill Clinton home address.

What makes an email a State Department or private email? Is it the email server, the email account, the contents of the email, the source of the email, or the recipient of the email?

At the start of her tenure as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was given the choice of using both a State Department and a private email account.  Having the two meant deciding before hand when to use the State Department account and when to use the private account. In short, the decision to segregate was still within her power except that the decision must be made prior to using her email account.

She decided to have only one email account but used it for both – State Department or official government business and private ones.  In this case, the decision to segregate was still hers except that it was done prior AND after the receiving, replying, or the sending of emails.

According to Hillary Clinton, having only one email account seemed to be more convenient and appropriate at the time.  There was no outright ban at the State Department on using personal email address to conduct official government business. Her critics still have to present evidence that she violated any law or State Department rule and/or policy.

In fact, her predecessors Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice both had personal email accounts during their time as Secretaries of State. Powell also used personal email to communicate with his own State Department staff, foreign ministers and ambassadors.

Hillary Clinton had and continuous to have an email server that she shares with former President Bill Clinton at home. Such a server has experienced no security breaches since its installation. She is not banned from having a Gmail or Yahoo account using their respective servers.

On the other hand, security breaches had been experienced by Federal agencies including the State Department and the White House. 

There are questions on whether she used her email to send or receive classified information. After reviewing a sampling of the 55,000 pages of emails, the Inspectors General have proffered that a small number of emails which did not contain any classified markings and/or dissemination controls, should have been classified at the time they were sent. The State Department has said it disagrees with this assessment. Disagreement between agencies as to classification of documents is obviously not the fault of Hillary Clinton.

Besides, making her liable today for acts committed that were not illegal when she committed them as Secretary of State is what we call in legal parlance, ex post facto.

There are efforts on the part of her political enemies and some in the media to press for investigation. Unfortunately, the investigations are beginning to look like “fishing expeditions” or worse, "witch hunting".

There is no law violated. The regulations and the State Department policy in place during her tenure permitted her to use a non-government email for work. In fact, most recently, the Department of Justice ruled that Hillary Clinton followed the law when she deleted her personal emails.

Meanwhile because of the impression that she is in trouble due to the email controversy, some are tempted to challenge her formidable candidacy. Although they are free to challenge and the more the merrier, they are wrong about their impression involving the email controversy.

For me, she is clean and on the clear. She should move on to reach her destiny – be the first woman president of the United States.

The Ben MACnigo Clan: Biting the APPLE

My barber jokingly calls my immediate family the Ben MACnigo clan. This is because every member possesses and owns an APPLE device with all the most popular and useful apps.

My daughters Dr. Traci and Craft Kombucha CEO Tanya always manage to get the latest gadgets. Not only do they have either the iPhone 6 or the iPhone 6 Plus, but they and their respective spouses are also owners and users of the APPLE Watch. In fact, Dr. Traci woke up in the middle of the night just to register as one of the first to order the watch for her and her hubby Jason.

My only son Raul who is an Information and Systems Engineer working for the Department of Justice, is not far behind but a little more practical. He is currently contented with his iPhone 5s and waiting for the next and more useful iPhone. He probably knows something we don’t.

All have iPAD and the MacBook Pro.

Tina (my loving wife) has an iPAD Mini, a MacBook Air, and the iPhone 5s. She still has an unused APPLE gift certificate from our kids for Mother’s Day. The truth is, she has never spent a single cent for her APPLE gadgets. They are either gifted or hand me down.

I currently have an iPhone 6 Plus, an iPAD, and a MacBook Pro which has both Mac OS and Windows OS. I was one of the first users of Quadra, which had DOS, Microsoft OS, and Mac OS at the same time.

Most importantly, Tina and I are owners of APPLE stocks. We are happy that the members of our family support the APPLE products and reflect the sentiments of the buying public.

We monitor the stocks daily and its performance quarterly and yearly. I also check out the latest and most popular apps registered at the APPLE Store.

“Apple posted quarterly revenue of $49.6 billion and quarterly profit of $10.7 billion at $1.85 per diluted share. Gross margin was 39.7% compared to 39.4% in the year ago quarter. Apple reported that its operating expenses were between $5.85 billion and $5.95 billion. A $0.52 per share cash dividend of Apple’s common stock has been declared, which is payable on August 13th.

The “Other” category — which includes the Apple Watch, Apple TV and Beats headphones — hit $2.6 billion in revenue. That figure is up from $1.7 billion last quarter. Apple sold 10.9 million iPads, 4.7 million Macs and 47 million iPhones in the third quarter compared to 12.6 million iPads, 4.5 million Macs and 61.1 million iPhones in the last quarter.”

According to Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, “We had an amazing quarter, with iPhone revenue up 59 percent over last year, strong sales of Mac, all-time record revenue from services, driven by the App Store, and a great start for Apple Watch,”

I am particularly impressed by the Cash Reserve of APPLE as I write this column - $203 Billion. As commented by a financial news anchor, “APPLE could single-handedly bailout a whole nation like Greece.”

Worth mentioning are the Top Apps. Let me list them as registered by the App Store Official Charts for the week ending July 20, 2015:

Top Paid iPhone Apps:

1. Minecraft: Pocket Edition, Mojang

2. Goat Simulator, Coffee Stain Studios

3. Heads Up!, Warner Bros.

4. Facetune, Lightricks Ltd.

5. The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Gameloft

6. Pixelmator, Pixelmator Team

7. Akinator the Genie, Elokence

8. THE GAME OF LIFE Classic Edition, Electronic Arts

9. Trivia Crack (Ad Free), Etermax

10. Geometry Dash, RobTop Games AB

Top Free iPhone Apps:

1. Agar.io, Miniclip.com

2. Messenger, Facebook, Inc.

3. Facebook, Facebook, Inc.

4. YouTube, Google, Inc.

5. Instagram, Instagram, Inc.

6. Snapchat, Snapchat, Inc.

7. musical.ly - make music videos for instagram and for facebook messenger, Jun Zhu

8. Layout from Instagram, Instagram, Inc.

9. Pandora Radio, Pandora Media, Inc.

10. Google Maps, Google, Inc.

Top Paid iPad Apps:

1. Minecraft: Pocket Edition. Mojang

2. Goat Simulator, Coffee Stain Studios

3. Don't Starve: Pocket Edition, Klei Entertainment

4. This War of Mine, 11 bit studios s.a

5. Mods for Minecraft, JK2Designs LL

6. Plague Inc., Ndemic Creations

7. Red Ball 4, FDG Entertainment

8. Terraria, 505 Games (US), Inc.

9. Mods for Minecraft Pocket Edition, JK2Designs LLC

10. Heads Up!, Warner Bros.

Top Free iPad Apps:

1. Agar.io, Miniclip.com

2. YouTube, Google, Inc

3. Despicable Me: Minion Rush, Gameloft

4. Colorfy: Coloring Book for Adults - Free, Fun Games For Free

5. Cartoon Network App - Watch Videos, Clips and Full Episodes of Your Favorite Shows, Cartoon Network

6. Hungry Shark Evolution, Future Games of London

7. Skype for iPad, Skype Communications S.a.r.l

8. Pinterest, Pinterest, Inc.

9. Messenger, Facebook, Inc.

10. Netflix, Netflix, Inc.

DREAMFORCE 2015: Inspiration, Imagination, Innovation

I am getting ready to attend the Dreamforce 2015 being held in San Francisco, California on September 15-18, 2015. Sponsored by Salesforce, the event is where Inspiration, Imagination, and Innovation meet.

It would be my second as a credentialed member of the Press representing ASIAN JOURNAL USA. I thought that I would recycle excerpts of my report on the event for the benefit and appreciation of our readers especially those who might be interested in attending.

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Hillary Clinton and Bruno Mars in One Day!

Salesforce is homegrown – founded in San Francisco. So is Dreamforce. It is not surprising that many of its charitable projects are in the city involving the community and the government.

Fighting hunger is a focus, for example. A million meals have been distributed and expect a million more after the conference.

Fighting for the future is another focus. Educating the children is a great weapon in this battle. After all, they are our future.

The choice of Hillary Clinton as a Keynote Speaker signifies that Dreamforce 2014 is very serious in fighting for the future. A known strong advocate for the education and healthcare of children either as a lawyer, a former First Lady of Arkansas, a former First Lady of the United States, a former U.S. Senator, and former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was the right leader and partner of the Salesforce Foundation in a battle affecting the future.

With Clinton, the focus of the war for the future would not only be citywide, countrywide, but also worldwide.

It would be even be better if she becomes the first woman President of the United States.

In her Keynote, Clinton talked about educating the children by reading and singing to them. She says, “The word gap leads to an achievement gap & has lifelong consequences.” Increasing the vocabulary of children by reading to them also leads to creativity and increases achievement motivation among them.

She described how she and her husband, former US President Bill Clinton, used to read to Chelsea. She also sang to her until Chelsea was old enough to complain and stop her from singing.

After her speech, she distributed bags full of children’s books donated by Scholastics and other learning materials for parents to read to their children.

She actually spoke about various topics that also interested me – Net Neutrality, Philanthropy in Technology, Corporate Responsibility or Ethics, among others. She is a firm believer of “open Internet” and Ethics being as important as electronics.

Those topics are obviously relevant in winning the future as well.

The Keynote Speech of Salesforce President Marc Benioff was as interesting. Expectedly, he talked about the new products and technologies of his company. I find the “Wave” and “Lightning” app and operating platform, respectively, very interesting and useful to customers and businesses.

All of us in the audience were amazed by the demo on “Lightning” through the speed of delivery of 3 bottles of Coke from a San Francisco warehouse to Moscone Center, Halls A & B within minutes and in our eyes. How? DRONE!

Of course, his Keynote also highlighted Salesforce Foundation’s partnership with the San Francisco City Government and the SF Unified School District System. His guests included, Mayor Ed Lee of San Francisco, Superintendent Richard Carranza and Principal Lee of the Unified School District. They all talked about how the SF-SF (Salesforce and  San Francisco) partnership proved to be very successful. The $5M donation, the installation of Wi-Fi in all the schools, the computers, and the training of teachers were instruments to a winning battle for the future especially for the 90% socially and economically disadvantaged kids.

The Keynotes of Clinton and Marc Benioff as you can see were not only “talk the talk”, they were also “walk the walk.”

Will.I.Am was also there. His life story is quite interesting as a successful Musician, Entrepreneur, and Philanthropist. He is in fact launching at the conference a new wearable technology product. He merits a separate and longer article later.

In between presentations, we were being entertained by the Beach Boys. After that they continued playing at Moscone Center’s Plaza where Dreamforce 2014 attendees just relaxed, ate free food and drinks, and listened.

 

Dreamforce 2014 registered more than 146,000 attendees. Most of them went to the Bruno Mars Concert at the Civic Center. Part Filipino, he makes me proud. Everybody was rocking and shaking! It was too packed to roll!

The event was dubbed as a UCSF (University of California San Francisco) Children’s Hospital Benefits Concert - also health and education oriented tool for the future.

Bruno Mars played the greatest of KEYS and sang the best of NOTES!

This KEYNOTE of the evening made my day!