Google logged about 50 self-driving cars hit the road in October

Google is steadily making progress with it self-driving car program, which is running in California and Austin, Texas. A recently released report shows that the company had a total of 48 cars running the roads of both areas. There are 23 Lexus RX450h SUVs self-driving in public streets—19 of them are in Mountain View and four are in Austin. There are also 25 prototype cars self-driving public streets—21 of them in Mountain View and four in Austin. The cars can run in Autonomous and Manual modes. Cars driving in Autonomous mode average around 10,000 to 15,000 miles per week these days. It has logged a total of 1,268,108 miles in Autonomous mode since the project began in 2009.

Google has also started testing the self-driving cars around small children. It requires more care due to unpredictability but tests like these do help in the development of truly autonomous vehicles.

Source: Google [PDF] | Via: The Next Web

Report claims BlackBerry Messenger on Android has second highest user retention

Loyalty seems to be at the core of BlackBerry fans. According to data published by Silicon Valley mobile analytics provider Quettra, user retention of BBM on Android is second highest among 22 Android social and messaging apps (including Facebook Messenger WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, etc.).  Facebook Messenger ranks highest while BBM is able to hold onto over 93% of its users after 30 days. This is said to be over 43% more than the average user retention after 30 days. Sixty days later user retention is at 89% and then at 82% after 80 days.

BlackBerry said the report doesn’t come as a surprise. They have passed 100 million Android installations on Google Play after the past 18 months of availability. And they maintain an average of 4.3 rating from its 4.4 million user reviews.

Source: BlackBerry + The Information | Download: Google Play Store (Free)

Sharp tipped to be spinning off smartphone LCD business

Demonstrating just how tough it is to survive in the mobile business, Sharp will reportedly spin off its smartphone LCD division to help keep the company afloat. The move will reportedly be made in the current fiscal year, maybe around next March. The announcement will reportedly be made before Sharp announces its restructuring plans in  May. The company won't give confirmation about the plans just yet but they are saying that they are still considering reorganization options. 

Source: Reuters + Wall Street Journal | Via: Engadget

Adobe reports new online sales records for Thanksgiving, Black Friday; $1.33 Billion and $2.4 Billion respectively

Adobe released its 2014 Digital Index Online Shopping data for the holiday season. Between November 1 and November 28, $32 billion have been spent online, 14 percent more than in 2013. Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday set new sales records with $1.33 billion and $2.4 billion, respectively.

Mobile devices continued to play a dominant role. For the first time smartphones nearly doubled their share of total online sales on both days. November 11 (“Singles’ Day”) set a new sales record with $1.29 billion and is expected to surpass Cyber Monday in growth this year. The average order value for sales coming directly from a social network was led by Facebook with $114.45.

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