Security Risks to Shopping on Black Friday, Cyber Monday (video)

Security Risks to Shopping on Black Friday, Cyber Monday: Video - Bloomberg:
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Shape Security Director of Product Security Michael Coates discusses the security risks of shopping during the holiday season. He speaks on “Bloomberg West.” (Source: Bloomberg 11/25)


CNET
No more lies, T-Mobile US: Download speed caps magically vanished on speed ...
Register
T-Mobile USA has agreed to stop twiddling with subscribers' mobile broadband speeds to hide the fact they were being capped. The telco was caught switching off download and upload bandwidth limits when people visited internet speed test websites.

Game Informer
New Sony Ad Markets PlayStation With 'Sexy' Female Doctor
Huffington Post
Women may represent nearly half of the gaming market, but video game companies are still catering first and foremost to heterosexual men. A new ad reportedly published to Sony's European YouTube channel on Friday has drawn criticism for its depiction of ...


Reuters
Samsung Electronics wins $3 billion Vietnam project license
Reuters
The company logo is displayed at the Samsung news conference at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas January 7, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking. Stocks. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. 005930.KS. ₩1,197,000.00. -23,000.00-1.89%.


VentureBeat
BlackBerry offers up to $550 to trade your iPhone for a BlackBerry Passport
VentureBeat
BlackBerry today announced a new trade-in program to woo Apple users over to its latest flagship device. In short, the company is offering iPhone owners up to $550 for their device, as long as they purchase a BlackBerry Passport. The BlackBerry Passport ...


USA TODAY
Nexus 9 tablet is a serious contender to iPad's throne
USA TODAY
Unlike in some other product categories, finding the best tablet is often less about having the fastest hardware than about the experience the software provides. It's the reason why Apple has kept churning out iPads that sometimes lose the spec sheet war, but ...


Yahoo Tech
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro Review: A 2-in-1 MacBook Air Killer?
Yahoo Tech
Laptop or tablet? Tablet or laptop? Which should you buy? That's the question a good number of people will likely be asking themselves this holiday season while they sit at their old computers or stand in the electronics aisles of the nearest big-box stores.

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Robots, Artificial Intelligence, To Take Your Job? (video)

Could a Robot or AI Take Your Job?: Video - Bloomberg:
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Draper Fisher Jurvetson Partner Steve Jurvetson discusses the future of robots and artificial intelligence on “Bloomberg West.” (Source: Bloomberg 11/12)

The Difficulties With A BlackBerry Partnership In China - BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ:BBRY) | Seeking Alpha: "....I see little if any value in a Chinese BlackBerry partnership since the company's whole value proposition is security. It would be different if BlackBerry had one million native apps and an army of developers working for the platform. If this were the case, I could see Lenovo and others licensing BB10 for that value alone. But this is not the reality...."


New York Times
Amazon and Hachette Resolve Dispute
New York Times
Books and other items at an Amazon warehouse in Phoenix. ... Amazon and Hachette announced Thursday that they had resolved their differences ...
Amazon, Hachette End Publishing Dispute - Wall Street Journal
Amazon And Hachette End Battle, Settle On E-book Pricing - Forbes
Amazon, Hachette End Monthslong Dispute - ABC News


CNN
Separated at birth, reunited on Facebook
CNN
(CNN) -- Anais Bordier and Samantha Futerman have the same laugh and the same freckled cheeks. They wear their hair the same way and have ...


CNET
Microsoft patches 19-year-old Windows bug
CNET
This reveals basic vulnerabilities in PC technology. For one, it's up to users to apply patches to keep their machines secure. Yet security-conscious ...

How to Switch to Google's New Messenger App for SMS
How to Open Links in Your Mobile Browser Instead of the Facebook App ... How to Switch to Google's New Messenger App for SMS ... The app itself is fully fitted out with Google's new Material Design look and the colors of your ...

VentureBeat
Strap a phablet to your face: Oculus VR releases mobile dev kit
VentureBeat
Facebook's virtual-reality company just unleashed its mobile software-development kit on its website, and you can pick it up now to start building software for mobile VR. While Oculus has made headlines for nearly two years thanks to its powerful Rift headset, ...

Livemint
Samsung chases curved smartphone wave to beat flat-screen crowd
Livemint
Samsung declined to give early sales figures or expected profit margins for the Note Edge, but the specialist screen technology required means the curved display is difficult to make and likely more expensive. Photo: Reuters. Seoul: Samsung Electronics Co.

Pew Study: Americans Fear They've Lost Control of Personal Data
eWeek
A Pew Research study examined how Americans view the privacy of their personal information in the wake of Edward Snowden's revelations about online government snooping. The Pew Research Internet Project published a study on Nov. 12 that reveals ...

USA TODAY
Sony previews upcoming PlayStation Vue cloud TV service
USA TODAY
Sony plans to begin testing its new subscription cloud TV service PlayStation Vue in New York City later this month. After that initial test of the service, which is delivered via the Net to PlayStation 4 and PS3 game systems, Sony expects to launch the service in ...

CNNMoney
People Still Aren't Downloading iOS 8
Huffington Post
... Apple has stopped providing an update to its new iOS 8 mobile operating software, following complaints by some ...

Android Lollipop
Ars Technica
Android's biggest update ever revamps nearly every part of the OS.
Ars Technica
Android updates don't matter anymore—or at least that's what many people think. Back-to-back-to-back Jelly Bean releases and a KitKat release seemed to only polish what already existed. When Google took the wraps off of "Android L" at Google I/O, though, ...

SlashGear
iPad Pro now rumored for late 2015 launch
SlashGear
The iPad Pro has many tablet hounds excited, and those who may want to ditch their laptop for a large-screen tablet even more anticipatory, but we're still not getting our hands on it. After being rumored for release at just about every interval you could think of, ...

Xiaomi Escalating The Great Ecosystem Battle | Seeking Alpha: "In the smartphone space, MIUI's closed ecosystem mimics that of iOS and differentiates from other mobile operating systems with features that are most relevant to Chinese users whereas Apple and Google have avoided localization of their mobile OS, a strategy I believe could be detrimental to their growth in a highly-localized Chinese market."

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Microsoft Layoffs Coming

Microsoft to Announce Job Cuts as Soon as This Week - Bloomberg: "... Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said in an interview last week that he has preparing to make sweeping changes at Microsoft. The reductions will probably be in engineering, marketing and areas of overlap with Nokia, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. The restructuring -- which may be unveiled as soon as this week -- may end up being the biggest in Microsoft history, topping the 5,800 jobs cut in 2009, two of the people said. Some details are still being worked out, two of the people said...."

Microsoft won't let you set Google as default search on some new Lumias | The Verge: ".... Google allows Android users to set Ask, Bing, or Yahoo as the default search engine in Chrome, and Apple also offers a choice between Google, Yahoo, and Bing in its Safari for iOS browser. We’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment, and we’ll update you accordingly."

Internet giants press for net neutrality in FCC filing | PCWorld: "An association of more than two dozen technology companies including Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Netflix urged the Federal Communications Commission on Monday to create strong, enforceable net neutrality rules for wired and mobile networks. The companies want to secure an open Internet for the future, they said in a comment filed by The Internet Association with the FCC. They want to prevent the segregation of the Internet into fast lanes and slow lanes as that will distort the market, discourage innovation and harm Internet users, they said...."

FCC extends net neutrality comment deadline after 'overwhelming' traffic | The Verge: "The Federal Communications Commission has been calling on the public to provide comments on its controversial net neutrality proposal, and it said today that it would actually be extending the length of the comment period by several days to ensure that all interested parties are able to submit their remarks. The initial net neutrality comment period was supposed to end today, but the commission is now extending it until midnight on Friday, July 18th"

blog.reddit -- what's new on reddit: Join us - reddit is filing an FCC comment to fight for an Open Internet: "We are filing an official comment in support of the Open Internet and net neutrality. We want your voice in it as well. It's easy to be cynical about the net neutrality debate, but the gears are turning and politicians & officials are noticing. There are many people in the FCC that believe in net neutrality and the open internet. Now we need your help again. We just need to convince the FCC commissioners that any perceived political cost is far less than the damage it will cost the Internet economy...."

The undersigned civil society organizations, companies, and security experts are writing to urge you speak out against S. 2588, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (“CISA”) of 2014.1 The bill, which was marked up in a secret, closed session last week, focuses on increasing information sharing between the government and private sector... http://images.politico.com/global/2014/07/14/veto-cisa-coalition-ltr.html

Yahoo's Marissa Mayer Says Disappointing Earnings Were Just A “Short-Term Setback ...
By Anthony Ha
After an earnings report that came in below analyst expectations, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer spent a good portion of today's analyst call making the ...
TechCrunch

Google now tells you how much your Bitcoin is worth - Engadget
By Daniel Cooper
Let's assume that you've just spent more than $200,000 on some of Russ Ulbricht's Bitcoin fortune -- but what do you do with it now? If it were us, we'd ...
Engadget RSS Feed

Chrome Releases: Chrome for iOS Update - Google Chrome Releases - Blogger
By Jason Kersey
The Chrome team is excited to announce Chrome 36 for iPhone and iPad. Chrome 36.0.1985.49 contains a number of improvements including:.
Google Chrome Releases

BlackBerry Is Tanking Following Apple's Big Partnership With IBM - Business Insider
By Steve Kovach
The Apple-IBM deal could threaten BlackBerry's plans for the enterprise. ... blackberry tanks ibm and apple news. Yahoo Finance. facebook ... Login With Facebook Login With Twitter Login With Google. Submit the comment for ...
Business Insider

Apple-IBM deal threatens Android's enterprise push
Computerworld
Google is clearly one target of the new Apple-IBM partnership. ... among 14 vendors making client management tools, just behind top-rated Microsoft.

Amazon Finally Tries Out the 'Netflix for Books' Craze
Wired
Amazon is already a go-to place for people who love to binge on shopping, TV shows, and music, thanks to its all-you-can-consume Amazon Prime ...

Yahoo exec lashes out against sexual harassment claims
San Jose Mercury News
A high-level Yahoo female executive struck back with a vengeance Wednesday against a lawsuit alleging she sexually harassed a software engineer, ...

Just Google it - - POLITICO.com: "Google celebrated opening their offices here in D.C. with a party that by all accounts, we've been told, "is the best reception I've ever been to in D.C.," from a guy who knows a thing or two about receptions. "The office space is huge — the reception was in multiple rooms — the main room was set up in a nightclub atmosphere. They also had a game room set up" with our dream game, Guitar Hero! Plus, the top-shelf liquor and waiters with vodka cranberry shooters were a big hit, especially with all the Hill staffers, natch....This is D.C., people, meaning: 1. We're about three years late on every trend and 2. It's the little things."

When we launched Google+ over three years ago, we had a lot of restrictions on…: "...Over the years, as Google+ grew and its community became established, we steadily opened up this policy, from allowing +Page owners to use any name of their choosing to letting YouTube users bring their usernames into Google+. Today, we are taking the last step: there are no more restrictions on what name you can use.... "

USPTO Refuses to Register Apple's "Touch ID" Trademark - Patently Apple: "...The case against Apple's Touch ID being registered seems to be solid and valid. Apple officially has six months to reply to USPTO with a work-around remedy or risk automatic trademark abandonment.... "

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Priceline buys OpenTable (video); Amazon Fire Smartphone

Why Priceline Paid $2.6B for OpenTable: Video - Bloomberg:
(Allow video to load after clicking play)
Priceline is buying OpenTable in a deal valued at $2.6 billion to add restaurant bookings to its travel business as the industry steps up investments in local listings and mobile services. Bloomberg Contributing Editor Paul Kedrosky, Cory Johnson and Jeffrey McCracken comment on Bloomberg Television's “Street Smart.” (Source: Bloomberg June 13)

Amazon.com unveils the Fire Phone, its first smartphone
Los Angeles Times
Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos holds up the Fire Phone at a media ... The silhouette of Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc., ...

Amazon And Samsung Are Locked In A Battle Against Google
Forbes
Amazon's operating system – for the Kindle, and presumably the Fire Phone ... This is, to some extent, the ultimate rebellion by Amazon, using Google's ... and here Amazon might even be able to beat Apple and Google, because it ...

Yahoo, LinkedIn, Google: Not A Diverse Club
InformationWeek
Yahoo joined LinkedIn and Google in releasing workplace diversity statistics. They tell the same tale: Silicon Valley is predominantly white and male....

Facebook announces its open data-center switch
Computerworld
Facebook has taken networking into its own hands, building a switch to link servers inside its data centers, and wants to make the ...

Amazon Appstore heads to BlackBerry 10 phones
CNET
BlackBerry 10 supports apps designed for Google's Android mobile ... Its selection of apps is limited compared to Google's Play store and Apple's App ...

Google Ready to Comply With 'Right to Be Forgotten' Rules in Europe - NYTimes.com
By By MARK SCOTT
Google will start to remove links to online content in Europe by the end of the month to ... Last month, Google created a rudimentary framework, including a new online form for ... BlackBerry to Add Amazon App Store to Phones ... Yahoo Tech | Harvard scientists successfully transferred a smell across ...
NYT Bits

Amazon Fire Phone: An All-Seeing 3D Prime Contender - Gizmodo
By Brent Rose
...Amazon's phone is here, and it's called the Fire Phone. ... Report: Google in Talks to Buy Stake in Virgin Galactic ...
Gizmodo

Yahoo CEO takes heat for stilted presentation in Cannes
USA TODAY
CANNES, France — This is an advertising conference, so some spinning and selling is expected. Yet, a Tuesday presentation from Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer was flagged by some attendees as an excessively hard sell. Audience members took to Twitter to ...

Earth's Most Abundant Mineral is Seen for the First Time and is Given a Name
Chinatopix
Believe it or not but the Earth's most abundant mineral doesn't have a name and hasn't been seen, until now. What on Earth is the Earth's most abundant mineral? If you answered quartz, you'd only be partially correct. Quartz is the commonest mineral in the ...

BC court ruling orders Google to block sites worldwide
The Globe and Mail
In an unprecedented ruling, a B.C. court has ordered Google Inc. to block a group of websites from its worldwide search engine – a decision raising questions over how far one country's courts can exert their power over the borderless Internet. The temporary ...

Agency Aims to Regulate Map Aids in Vehicles - NYTimes.com: "“They don’t have enough software engineers,” said Catherine McCullough, executive director of the Intelligent Car Coalition, an industry group. “They don’t have the budget or the structure to oversee both Silicon Valley and the auto industry.”"

SpaceX's Elon Musk hopes to put humans on Mars in 10 years
CNET
The founder of the private space transport company gives a short timeline for the possibility of firing up a self-sustaining city on the Red Planet. by Dara Kerr...

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Twitter COO Out (video); Xiaomi an Apple Killer

Twitter Is Simply a Bad User Experience: McNamee: Video - Bloomberg:
(Allow video to load after clicking play)
Twitter said Chief Operating Officer Ali Rowghani resigned, in the biggest executive departure since the microblogging company’s initial public offering last year. Elevation Partners Roger McNamee speaks on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg West.” (Source: Bloomberg, June 12th)

Why Twitter's COO Is Out - Business Insider:....According to a person familiar with the situation, Rowghani leaving the company is "really about product, and the speed of the product." All product decisions had been flowing into Rowghani. CEO Dick Costolo wanted those decisions to come to him directly....A different source familiar with the inner workings of Twitter explained the move to us by saying, "I think there was a sense that Ali didn't have product instincts, didn't know how to successfully win at least two problems: messaging and topics."Messaging has exploded in popularity. WhatsApp, for instance, sold to Facebook for $19 billion. Our industry source says, "When you talk to Dick about messaging, he's like, 'Sigh, that should have been us.'..."

Xiaomi Is A Big Threat To Apple - Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) | Seeking Alpha: "...I believe that Xiaomi poses a bigger threat than Amazon's (AMZN) upcoming Android smartphone. Xiaomi, the world's fastest growing phone vendor, has surpassed Apple (AAPL) in China. Canalys Report puts Xiaomi as the third biggest phone vendor in China in Q1 2014. Copycatting the iPhone has made Xiaomi, a four-year old company, the 6th largest global seller of smartphones. The rapid rise of Xiaomi is due in part to Apple's complacent attitude towards it. While Apple took Samsung to court for copying some of the features of the iPhone, Apple allowed Xiaomi to become a $10 billion company by selling iPhone clones using the Android OS. Xiaomi hired Google veteran Hugo Barra last year. Barra is spearheading Xiaomi's expansion in 10 countries this year...."

F.C.C. Begins Investigation Into Quality of Internet Download Speeds - NYTimes.com: ",,,,Tom Wheeler, the F.C.C. chairman, said on Friday that the purpose of the investigation was to see whether consumers were getting the speed and quality of service that Internet service providers had promised. The inquiry resulted in part from more than 19,000 public comments submitted to the F.C.C. in recent weeks urging it to protect Internet freedom, he said...."

Judge calls out LinkedIn over spammy invitations, says emails can harm reputation — Tech News and Analysis: "...The complaint relates to a feature of LinkedIn that invites new users to “Connect with people you know” and existing users to “See who you already know,” and then looks for matches based on their email address books. The users’ email contacts then receive an automated email, and then two follow-up ones...."

Comcast WiFi Hotspot Public - Business Insider: :" . . . if you don't want your Comcast XFINITY WiFi available to anyone with a Comcast password within spitting distance of your home, there is a solution. According to Comcast's website, users can disable XFINITY public WiFi in just a few steps:

• Log into your Comcast account at customer.comcast.com.
• Click on "Users & Preferences."
• Click on “Manage XFINITY WiFi.”
• Users can then choose to disable their WiFi routers from public use and save changes."

BlackBerry Vs. Samsung Android phones: app gap still huge | BGR: "... In particular, Umiastowski says that he absolutely needs to have access to the full suite of Google’s biggest apps such as Google Now, Gmail, Google Maps and Calendar. In fact, Umiastowski says that he loves these apps so much that he’s willing to tolerate what he considers to be an inferior overall user experience with Android just to be able to use them. This means that to win him back, BlackBerry will need to figure out a way to make Google’s apps an integral part of its platform. “I have to wonder what it would take for BlackBerry to just sign a deal with Google to have access to the Play store and all of the awesome Google apps inside it,” he explains. “I can’t imagine that BlackBerry would actually need to run the Android OS instead of their QNX-based OS. Samsung and others skin the UI anyway, so why would it really matter if the OS was actually Android or just capable of running Android apps?”..."

Why Elon Musk is not Henry Ford
Washington Post
Tesla CEO Elon Musk waves during a rally at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California in 2012. (Paul Sakuma/AP). On Thursday, Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, said the company won't sue others that use its patents “in good faith.” That's rare, if not unprecedented ...

Like magic! Tiny particles can pass through long-distance barriers
Fox News
One of the many mystifying consequences of quantum mechanics the rules that govern the behavior of tiny subatomic particles is that individual particles can pass through barriers that would otherwise be impenetrable. ADVERTISEMENT. ADVERTISEMENT.

Galaxy Tab S: Samsung takes on the iPad
Telegraph.co.uk
Samsung unveiled its latest bid to take on Apple's iPad at the Madison Square Gardens in New York this week. The emphasis was on a thin, lightweight design – and a screen that is unmatched anywhere else in the market. Samsung's aim is to provide the ...

NASA's New Smell-O-scope Experiment Sniffs Saturn's Moon Titan
Gizmodo Australia
Good news, everyone! NASA has came up with an interplanetary smell-o-scope experiment, processing data from the Cassini spacecraft and reproducing the smell of another world right here on Earth: Saturn's moon Titan. (Spoiler: It smells like farts mixed ...

Enormous 'Ocean' Discovered Below Earth's Surface (Video)
The Epoch Times
Scientists have discovered vast water reserves near Earth's mantle, a finding that could reshape our understanding of where Earth's water came from. According to a new study by a group of U.S. geophysicists, a reservoir of water three times the volume of all ...

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Native Apps and App Stores Will Soon Be Dinosaurs

Steve Jobs was right -- he was just ahead of his time. With HTML5 and the modern mobile browser, native apps and app stores will soon look like dinosaurs, even worse than brick-and-mortar retail:

The Confusing World of Apps - WSJ.com: "Given the plethora of apps out there, it has become increasingly hard for smartphone users to spot the best ones. Apple's App Store and Google Play each have over a million to choose from. To make things worse, app searches aren't as intuitive as consumers might hope ..."

Audacity | Steve Jobs Looked Beyond Native Apps. And He Was Right.: " . . . The distinctions, as Jobs saw them, were that web apps would be secure, universally available, easy to update and required no dedicated software development kit (SDK). The debate was, and still is, that web app development was a better choice than native app development. While a few years ahead of the technologies of the time, Jobs correctly touted the browser as an important, if not the most important, application platform. Seven years later, huge advancements in browser technology and an incredible resurgence in JavaScript as a matured programming language have narrowed the gap between app development techniques...."

Heard on the Street: Alibaba's Magic Fades on SoftBank - WSJ.com: "SoftBank investors have more to keep in mind than just Alibaba's valuation. The company posted a 28% on-year decline in net profit for the three months ended in March, weighed down by costs from serial acquisitions and a telecom price war in Japan. And SoftBank still appears keen for its Sprint unit to make a bid for T-Mobile, despite regulator skepticism. The deal has strategic logic as it would help consolidate Sprint's position in the U.S., but it would also expand SoftBank's net debt, which already is at six times Ebitda, much higher than telecom peers."

Global Raids Target 'Blackshades' Hacking Ring - WSJ.com: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation and foreign police agencies have launched a series of raids around the world at the homes of people linked to a type of hacking software called Blackshades, according to posts on hacker forums and people familiar with the investigation. The software is what experts call a "rat''—remote access tool—that allows people to control computers from a distance..."

Apple, Google settle smartphone patent litigation | Reuters: "Apple Inc and Google Inc's Motorola Mobility unit have agreed to settle all patent litigation between them over smartphone technology, ending one of the highest profile lawsuits in technology. In a joint statement on Friday, the companies said the settlement does not include a cross license to their respective patents. "Apple and Google have also agreed to work together in some areas of patent reform," the statement said...."

Apple Sued Over Vanishing Texts After IPhones Swapped Out - Bloomberg: "A former iPhone user sued Apple Inc. (AAPL) claiming the company’s messaging system interfered with delivery of texts after she switched to an Android-based smartphone. Apple’s iMessage retains text messages sent from other users of Apple devices and won’t deliver them to her Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) phone running on Google Inc.’s Android operating system, Adrienne Moore said in the complaint filed yesterday in San Jose, California. People who replace their Apple devices with non-Apple wireless phones and tablets are “penalized and unable to obtain the full benefits of their wireless-service contracts,” according to the complaint...."

BlackBerry Director Nordberg to Step Down as Board Shrinks to 6 - Bloomberg: "BlackBerry Ltd. said director Bert Nordberg won’t stand for re-election just a year after he was named, leaving the smartphone maker with six board members. Nordberg, the 58-year-old former chief executive officer of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, is a member of the company’s nominating committee, BlackBerry said yesterday in a filing. It didn’t say why he won’t seek to remain on the board after being appointed last year...."

Windows Phone web usage tops BlackBerry in North America but looks stagnant — Tech News and Analysis: "While Chitika’s graph shows BlackBerry’s decline, more interesting to me is the lack of growth for Windows Phone usage. It suggests that Microsoft is still having a hard time finding a foothold for its handsets in the U.S. and Canada. Chitika’s report notes that iOS and Android are still doing well, accounting for 53.1 and 44.5 percent of North American smartphone web traffic, respectively."

Eric Schmidt: Europe struck wrong balance on right to be forgotten | Technology | theguardian.com: "Google's executive chairman says European court of justice ruling went too far in favour of privacy at cost of right to know...."

CDs, Fax Machines, Japan loves the "old stuff" - Japanese want "artifacts" - read more:   Why the Japanese still love music CDs | The Big Picture

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T-Mobile fastest 4G LTE network, but goodbye BlackBerry

Sprint is the worst -- no wonder Sprint is trying to take over T-Mobile --

T-Mobile ranked fastest 4G LTE network in the US, Sprint the worst: "If you’re lucky to live in an area where T-Mobile has a good 4G LTE coverage, then you’re using the fastest 4G LTE network in the U.S. According to a report conducted in February, T-Mobile has the fastest 4G LTE network in the US, study from OpenSignal concluded...."

BlackBerry Ending US Licensing Deal With T-Mobile - ABC News: "BlackBerry's existing licensing agreement with T-Mobile U.S. Inc. expires on April 25."

Amazon announces $99 Fire TV set-top box, available now | The Verge: "Apple and Roku have a new competitor in the living room. Amazon just announced its own video streaming device: the $99 Amazon Fire TV. It starts shipping today. "We need to invent and simplify on behalf of customers," said Amazon's Peter Larsen. During the presentation, Larsen went over three pain points of current devices: search, performance, and "closed ecosystem." Fire TV promises to avoid the problems that plague other living room hardware, according to Larsen."

Microsoft announces Cortana smartphone voice search
USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft on Wednesday announced new features for ... a widely anticipated Siri- and Google Now-like voice assistant called Cortana. ... e-mail and the like, similar to what you find on Android and Apple devices. Microsoft also announced new features for the Start Screen and a ...

Apple and Samsung Reprise Patent Fight (With Google a Shadow Presence)
New York Times
SAN JOSE, Calif. — As lawyers for Apple and Samsung made their opening statements in their patent trial in a federal courthouse here, they could not ...

Microsoft demos touch-focused Office apps at Build
PCWorld (blog)
Less than a week after introducing Office for iPad, Microsoft showed off the progress of touch-friendly Metro Office apps at its Build conference keynote ...

Microsoft Battles Google, Amazon In Cloud Price War
InformationWeek
Microsoft executives have previously said they planned to match AWS pricing, but that was before both Google and Amazon enacted steep drops in ...

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Now Among Billionaire CEOs Earning $1 Salary
Forbes
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now the company's ... Zuckerberg — worth $27.8 billion mostly in Facebook stock — requested an annual ... Google's Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page, worth roughly $30 billion a ...

Google's 'evil' stock split
Fortune
It's been almost 10 years since Google famously told the world in its filing for an initial public offering that ... Google now is worth more than Microsoft.

Apple patches Safari's Pwn2Own vulnerability, two-dozen other critical bugs
Computerworld
Apple on Tuesday patched the security vulnerability in Safari that was ... Of the others, more than half were reported by the Google Chrome security team, ... 

HP agrees to pay $57 million to settle shareholder lawsuit | Reuters: "...The lawsuit was filed after former Chief Executive Leo Apotheker shocked investors on August 18, 2011 by announcing plans to refocus the company on business services and products. He also revealed plans to scrap WebOS, whose rights HP had obtained when it bought Palm Inc in 2010; pay $11.1 billion for British software company Autonomy Plc; and possibly spin off HP's personal computer business. The company also halted sales of the TouchPad, after just seven weeks on the market....The case is Gammel et al v. Hewlett-Packard Co et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 11-01404."

How Gmail Happened: The Inside Story of Its Launch 10 Years Ago Today | TIME.com: " . . . One remarkable thing about Gmail that wasn’t obvious in 2004: Its creators built it to last. The current incarnations of Outlook.com and Yahoo Mail have nothing to do with the email services Microsoft and Yahoo offered 10 years ago. But Gmail–despite having added features more or less continuously and gone through some significant redesigns–is still Gmail. “I can’t think of another app that has existed so close to its original form for 10 years,” says Fox. “Someone who had only used Gmail in its first iteration and suddenly used it today would still understand Gmail. They’d know how to use it for virtually everything they’d want to do.”..."

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BlackBerry slides, "we were once a $20 billion company"

“We were once a $20 billion company,” Mr. Chen said. “It’s not out of the question that we could go back and recapture old ground. That may sound a little funny to you right now, but you never know.”--BlackBerry CEO in NYTimes.com

BlackBerry revenue falls below a $1 billion - CBS News: "The Canadian company said it lost $423 million, or 80 cents per share, on revenue of $976 million -- down from $2.7 billion in revenue the fourth quarter last year. Analysts expected a loss of 56 cents per share on revenue of $1.1 billion. It's the first time the company has reported less than $1 billion in revenue since late in 2007."

Microsoft unveils Office for iPad, free for reading and presenting | The Verge but read the fine print

Google mandates ‘Powered by Android’ branding on new devices | Android | Geek.com  this mandate is now a part of the Google Mobile Services agreement for new Android phones. This logo placement has its own separate set of guidelines from Google, and must be present in order for manufacturers to gain access to the Google Play Store on new devices.

Microsoft finally unveils Office for the iPad
San Jose Mercury News
SAN FRANCISCO -- In his first news conference since becoming Microsoft's CEO, ... onApple's iPad, a move critics contend should have happened years ago. ... Google's Web browser Chrome has become a popular alternative to ...

Facebook looks to drones, lasers and satellites for Internet access
CNN
Facebook already has more than a billion users on its service, but before it can sign up the ... Google announced plans to tackle the issue last summer with its own ... Microsoftchairman Bill Gates dismissed some of these efforts in an ...

Amazon Considers Streaming Media Service
Wall Street Journal
Facebook; Twitter ... Amazon Considers Streaming Media Service ... like those made by Roku Inc., PCs, videogame consoles such as Microsoft Corp. ... to better compete with Roku, Google's Chromecast and Apple Inc.'s Apple TV.

Google Wins In Amazon Cloud Price Battle
InformationWeek
Let's put this week's cloud price cuts in context. Cash-rich Google has made it harder forAmazon to profit on AWS. Whether or not Google steals a ton ...

Google, Yahoo report government data demands
San Jose Mercury News
Yahoo and Google both saw a decline in demands for users' data from U.S. law ... orgoogle.com/+BrandonBaileyOnline or on Facebook at ...

Apple Transparent Texting: Faceplant Prevention?
InformationWeek
Apple filed a patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office for something called "transparent texting." First spotted by AppleInsider, the idea is quite ...

Facebook, Sony make a play for virtual reality
Fortune
With Facebook purchasing Oculus VR for $2 billion and Sony readying ... "Oculus might be the equivalent of what Glass is for Google (GOOG)," said ...

True Player Gear - Virtual Reality for everyone: Oculus competitor -- probably many more to come

MAP: Here Are the Countries That Block Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube | Mother Jones
By Dana Liebelson
The Twitter and Facebook bans took place after a peaceful protest by Uighurs, ... The block has continued through March 2014, according to Google.
MoJo Articles | Mother Jones

Apple reportedly looking to expand sapphire glass plant — Tech News and Analysis - Gigaom
By Alex Colon
Although construction on the initial plant is still not complete, Apple is already said to be looking at building an expansion.
Mobile

Microsoft Office Mobile is Now Free for iPhone and Android Phones - Lifehacker
By Eric Ravenscraft
In addition to releasing Office for the iPad, Microsoft made one more ... Google Play Music Now Allows Uploads via the Web, Has New Mini Player ...
Lifehacker

Apple To Announce WWDC April 23? -- AppAdvice
By Bryan M. Wolfe
Developers and Apple enthusiasts, take note: Cupertino is likely to announce this year's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in the coming ...
App Advice

ROKU CEO: Apple Is Losing Money On The Apple TV - Business Insider
By Jay Yarow
Apple typically makes money selling hardware. Not with the Apple TV, ...
Business Insider

Google Code-In 2013: RTEMS project report | Google Open Source Blog
By Mary Radomile
Today's post comes from RTEMS, an open source Real Time Operating System that supports a variety of open standard API's. They have participated ...
Google Open Source Blog

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BlackBerry US marketshare now Zero percent

BlackBerry U.S. market share now 0% | BGR: "...Consumer Intelligence Research Partners on Thursday came out with its latest numbers on mobile market share in the United States and found that BlackBerry devices accounted for 0% of all smartphone activations in the fourth quarter of 2013, which isn’t too surprising considering that the company spent a good chunk of the quarter with a “For Sale” sign hung around its neck..."

Nexus line by Google is over in 2015 ;) Yes - this line will be replaced by Play Edition (current name, it will be rebranded)
— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) January 27, 2014

Google Poised to Execute Long-Delayed Stock Split - ABC News: "Google's split will create a new class of "C'' stock that carries no voting power. One share of C stock will be distributed for each share of voting Class A stock owned as of March 27. Initially, the value of the current stock will be divided equally between the two types of shares. But they will then trade separately with different ticker symbols. Class C shares will get the company's existing "GOOG" ticker symbol, while Class A will change to "GOOGL.""

Google Q4 ’13 Beats With $16.86B Revenue, Misses With EPS Of $12.01 Because Of Motorola Weakness | TechCrunch: "Google just published its Q4 earnings report and the results are mostly in line with Wall Street expectations, though it missed on earnings per share due to larger than expected losses at Motorola, which doubled from the year-ago-quarter. Over the last three months, the company reported revenue of $16.86 billion and $3.37 billion in net income. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $12.01 and GAAP EPS was $9.90. “We ended 2013 with another great quarter of momentum and growth.  Google’s standalone revenue was up 22 percent year on year, at $15.7 billion”, said Larry Page, CEO of Google in a statement today."

Amazon Falling Fast After Fourth Quarter Earnings Miss - Forbes: "Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos did not address the earnings miss in his statement about the results Thursday afternoon, instead highlighting how it is “a good time to be an Amazon customer” because of customer service advances like the Mayday button on the Kindle Fire and Sunday delivery for Amazon packages."

Report: Microsoft prepares to go with Satya Nadella as CEO: "...As of Thursday night, Microsoft's board was meeting. An announcement was expected as soon as Friday. The report said that Nadella jumped forward as the front runner in recent weeks as Ballmer's replacement. However, the plans aren't finalized, according to the report. Nadella, who joined Microsoft in 1992, is in charge of the company's enterprise and cloud businesses...."

Google mobile struggles continue
CNN
Advertisers continued to pay less for advertisements on Google sites last quarter, as the company struggles to convince marketers to pay as much for mobile ads as desktop ads. Those marketers paid 11% less per ad in the fourth quarter of 2013 than they ...

Google's Motorola deal shows tech giant is happy to just be the platform
Washington Post
In other words, Google is perfectly happy being the provider of the world's largest mobile operating system, thank you very much. Rather than take a leaf from Apple's end-to-end manufacturing playbook, Google's content to take one from Microsoft's ...

Apple's tax falls to $36m in Australia as sales hit $6bn
The Australian Financial Review
Apple's tax liability fell to $36 million in Australia during its 2013 reporting year despite banking record revenues of $6.1 billion for its local operations, which will spark fresh debate about whether Australia is getting its fair share of tax from ...

Microsoft gives in: Windows 8.1 Update 1 skips hateful Metro UI, says secret ...
Computerworld (blog)
While the software giant originally released Windows 8.1 last year with an option to bypass the "Metro" interface at boot, sources familiar with Microsoft's plans have revealed [that Update 1] will enable this by default...to improve the OS for ...

Amazon Prime Could See $20 To $40 Price Hike | TechCrunch
By Matt Burns
Amazon Prime might be getting more expensive. The retailer revealed during its quarterly earnings conference call that it might jack up the price of the yearly subscription by up to 50%. Prime currently costs $79 a year. It's the best service a ...
TechCrunch

Microsoft will reportedly name enterprise chief Satya Nadella as CEO
By Dana Wollman
Microsoft still hasn't announced who will succeed Steve Ballmer as CEO, but Bloomberg News is reporting that the company is on the verge of naming a. ... Popular topics. Mobile · HD · Alt · Software · Apple ...
Engadget RSS Feed

Apple Hires Chief Medical Officer From Pulse Oximetry Company ...
By Juli Clover
Over the course of the last year, Apple has made several hires from the medical and sensor field, presumably to bolster the team of experts working on its much-rumored smart watch project, and MacRumors today learned of another ...
MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors...

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Blackberry to start free voice calls on BBM

Google could do this, if they wanted (they already have the technology in Google Talk/calling from Gmail, and Hangouts), and wrap it up in the "Google version" of Android as a "killer app" -- will they?

Blackberry to start free voice calls on its instant messenger app by February - The Economic Times: Smartphone maker Blackberry will introduce free voice calls on its instant messenger app over next month through an update which will also allow users to surf and create BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) channels, share content and geographical location on the go...which will put BBM in direct competition with apps like Viber, Line and WhatsApp, that allow users to make free calls and send audio as chats. The Canadian company that had launched BBM voice for BB 10 users last year, will make the free calling feature available across Android, iPhone and BlackBerry OS 5 upwards smartphones. Around 100 million people worldwide use BBM across OS platforms...

Microsoft retains weapon to silently scrub XP
Computerworld - Computerworld - Microsoft will be able to silently reach into Windows XP PCs for more than a year after it stops patching the aged OS to clean ...

Stop Harassing Google Employees
InformationWeek - A protest group calling itself Counterforce on Tuesday demonstrated in front of the Berkeley, Calif., home of Google engineer Anthony Levandowski ...

Google Glass seen as future of porn industry
San Jose Mercury News - The adult film industry will survive and thrive if it can evolve its X-rated content onto wearable devices such as Google Glass, as well as mobile phones ...

Apple to Build Mobile-Payments Service, Report Says
Mashable - Apple sells billions of dollars worth of movies, music, books and apps ...Apple could simply act as a mobile wallet, which is what Google Wallet tried ...

Republic Day Google doodle celebrates Janbaz daredevil ...
NDTV - Sunday is Republic Day in India and Google is celebrating it with a doodle on the Google India homepage. The tricolour Republic Day doodle is a ...

Google ad patent would offer e-shoppers a free taxi to stores
CNET - Brick-and-mortar retailers might one day be able to serve up high-tech Web ads that do the math and potentially offer big-ticket shoppers free rides to ...

Google to give away $2.7 mn at Pwnium hacking contest
Zee News - New Delhi: Search engine giant Google will offer USD 2.7 million to researchers who can hack its browser- based operating system, Chrome OS as ...

Apple iWatch Might Be Health-Focused
ValueWalk - Naturally a company the size of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is always ...Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)'s big rival Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is also ...

Microsoft confirms 'law enforcement inquiries' documents stolen by ...
Tech Times - (Photo : Mikael Altemark) Microsoft said "documents associated with law enforcement inquiries" were stolen and is preempting another attack from the ...

Microsoft considering competitively pricing digital games - Destructoid
destructoid (Wesley Ruscher) - Speaking in a Reddit thread,regarding the state of digital downloads forMicrosoft's Xbox One, Larry....

Distance Card in Google Search - Google Operating System - Blogger
Google Operating System (Alex Chitu) - A few months ago, I wrote about Google's directions card. You can find the distance between two places and the driving directions directly from Google ...

Apple CEO Tim Cook jokes about iRing in interview with ABC ...
Pocket-lint (Jake Smith) - It's not often Apple executives sit down for an interview, but to celebrate the Mac's... Apple said to be working on mobile payment service to rival Google Wallet, others ... Digital Xbox One games may be cheaper than physical copies soon, says Microsoft .... Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2013) review.

With iOS 7, are we seeing a less confident, more malleable Apple?
iDownloadBlog.com (Oliver Haslam) - Time was once when Apple was infamous for not giving its users choice. Steve Jobs himself famously said that consumers didn't know what they ...

Top Gear Track Google Street View - The Awesomer
The Awesomer (Lambert V.) - Google took its Street View cars to the Top Gear test track in the UK. Just head to....

Sacramento Kings become first team to incorporate Google Glass ...
Android News, Rumours, and Updates (Justin Herrick) - The Kings are the first team to utilize Google Glass during a game. Kings Host Scott Freshour used Google's wearable gadget to give TV and web ...

iClarified - Apple News - Why an 11.88-Inch Retina MacBook Air ...
iClarified - Apple News and Tutorials - Recent rumors have Apple releasing a 12-Inch MacBook Air with Retina Display. Here's why that makes sense....

Spike Jonze, Google Glass and the future of search - Castleford Media
Castleford Media (Castleford Staff) - In October 2013, Google celebrated its 15th birthday by announcing the ... and can easily be viewed as a response to Apple's Siri smartphone voice ...

Ex-Formula One boss vows more steps against Google | Capital News
Capital News (AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE) - BERLIN, Jan 26 – Max Mosley, the ex-Formula One boss, on Sunday vowed more legal action against Google after a German court ordered the ...

API Overview - Gadgets API — Google Developers
google.com - Gadgets are mini-applications built using HTML, with JavaScript, Flash or Silverlight for dynamic behaviors. Since gadgets can run on multiple sites ...

Lost in translation, or how I got around Tokyo with Google Translate ...
latimes.com - How well does Google Translate really work? The translation service supports more than 70 languages on Android and iOS (and 80 languages on the ...

Apple's Mac still influences, 30 years after debut | Dallas Morning ...
dallasnews.com - Apple sparked a revolution in computing with the Mac. ... Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs and his team got much of their inspiration from the ... especially as Microsoft's Windows operating system grew to look like Mac's software.

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Motorola Has Best Smartphones and Prompt Android Updates!

Shopping for a new smartphone? Let me make this easy for you -- Go to http://www.motorola.com and design (and buy) your new Moto X or Moto G. Looking for a US carrier with the best deals? T-Mobile (off contract) is the way to go! Order your Motorola phone with the T-Mobile sim card already installed, and when you receive it, one phone call to T-Mobile will open your account, transfer your number and activate the phone (and you can save $$$). (Editor's note: these are unpaid recommendations, and are based on the expri.com editor's personal experience and other reviews and experiences).

Motorola’s Prompt Android Updates Are Making Everyone Else Look Bad | TIME.com: By updating its phones to Android 4.4 already, Motorola is embarrassing its rival phone makers. It’s now clearer than ever that other companies either aren’t dedicating enough resources to updating their phones, or need more time because their modifications to Android require more work. Most major phone makers tweak the Android source code on their handsets, changing the visual aesthetic and modifying core apps ... Motorola proved that a there’s a better way. Aesthetically, its phones are similar to stock Android, but Motorola has added a few useful features on top, such as always-on voice commands and notifications that appear as you’re taking the phone out of your pocket...(read more at link above)

Why regulators are likely to reject a Sprint/T-Mobile deal | Mobile - CNET News: "Reports have surfaced that Sprint is interested in acquiring T-Mobile, but T-Mobile's recent success with its "Uncarrier" strategy is likely to sway regulators to block any deal that takes T-Mobile out of the game..."

BlackBerry Staggers to a Deeper, $4.4 Billion Loss - NYTimes.com: "BlackBerry, the hobbled smartphone maker, reported more dire financial news on Friday, posting a $4.4 billion loss and a 56 percent drop in revenue in its latest quarter. The company also outlined a sharp retreat from its once-core handset business by entering a partnership with the Asian contract manufacturer Foxconn."

BlackBerry CEO details survival strategy | Mobile - CNET News: "For now, BlackBerry will not be building high-end smartphones for the North American consumer smartphone market. Instead, Chen said that the company will focus device development in this market on enterprise customers..."

Google seeks to commercialize humanoid robots
Computerworld
Computerworld - HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- The first sign that Google now owns robotics heavyweight Boston Dynamics was when the Google bus rolled ...

Computerworld

Apple, Samsung Dominate Tablet Market
InformationWeek
A majority of consumers stick with gear made by Apple or Samsung. ... made up of smaller entry-level devices from the likes of Asus, HP, and Amazon.

Android Community

Amazon workers in Germany to continue strikes in 2014
Reuters
Hundreds of workers at Amazon's logistic centers in Bad Hersfeld and Leipzig... Amazon said that, on average, only 900 staff joined the strike and that ...

NDTV

Google celebrates 100 years of crossword puzzles with doodle
Los Angeles Times
Google is celebrating the centennial of crossword puzzles Friday with an interactive doodle on its home page. Users can head to Google.com to play ...

Slate Magazine (blog)

Protesters vandalize Google bus, block Apple shuttle
USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO -- As tech-driven housing costs and evictions soar, anti-gentrification protesters in San Francisco and Oakland on Friday again ...

Bay Area Indymedia

Google announces ban on "multi-purpose" Chrome extensions
ZDNet
Summary: Developers who write extensions for Chrome are on notice. Keep it simple, or risk getting kicked out of the Chrome Web Store. But what's ...

ZDNet

Microsoft: Bing is not a bottomless money pit (any more)
ZDNet (blog)
Summary: Microsoft's Chief Financial Officer for its Applications and Services group tells investors now is the time for Microsoft to put its foot on the gas ...

Google's Top Trending Video Games Of 2013 List Is Full Of Surprises
Forbes
Google has released its annual Zeitgeist, which includes a bunch of top-10 lists of popular and trending searches, including the most talked about and ...

The Vine

Apple's Top Apps of 2013: 10 Insights from the Most Popular ...
eWeek
Apple recently announced its most popular apps of 2013. ... bundled with iOS, but after Apple's falling out with Google, the company nixed that. ... But the popularity of the Amazon Kindle app on the iPad indicates folks are also ...

The Verge

Google gives thumbs-up to first Cyanogen phone
CNET
In a first for the custom Android ROM community, Google signals its approval... Google has approved of Cyanogen's plan to ship CyanogenMod on an ...

SlashGear

5 Things to Know About the Winter Solstice | TIME.com: "Behold! A year has passed since the great Mayan apocalypse of 2012 — newsflash: we’re all still here — and the winter solstice is again upon us. The solstice marks the shortest day of the year for dwellers in the Northern Hemisphere, and the longest day of the year for those south of the equator...The winter solstice occurs at a specific time, not just day. This year, at 12:11 p.m. EST on Saturday, Dec. 21, the sun shone directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, the farthest south the sun reaches, leading to less light and colder temperatures in the north. In the Southern Hemisphere, it was the longest day of the year...."

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