Apple Sapphire Partner Accuses Apple of Bait-and-Switch

TECH NEWS:

Wall Street Journal
Apple Accused of 'Bait and Switch'
Wall Street Journal
Apple sapphire partner GT Advanced accuses the iPhone maker of a “bait-and-switch” strategy. Above, the new Apple Watch, which is expected to use ...In a motion seeking to keep Mr. Squiller’s declaration under seal, Apple said the filing was intended to “vilify Apple and portray Apple as a coercive bully.” Apple said Mr. Squiller’s statements were untrue and defamatory...

New York Times
Microsoft, Changing Tack, Makes Office Suite Free on Mobile
New York Times
SEATTLE — Few golden geese in technology have survived as long as Office ...Microsoft's Band contains a display that shows text messages from a cellphone,Facebook alerts and ... A version of Microsoft Excel for the iPad. ... And the company's about-face comes after rivals like Apple and Google and ...
Microsoft Office Offers Free Content Creation And Editing For iOS And Android Apps - Forbes
Microsoft Office gives away apps for iPhone, iPad - CBS News
Microsoft Word mobile app shoots to tops of Apple's charts - CNET


The Fuse Joplin
Apple Pay Vs. Google Wallet: A Digital Wallet Guide
Hartford Courant
What's in your digital wallet, Apple Pay or Google Wallet? ... code readers instead of NFC chip technology favored by Apple Pay and Google Wallet.

CNET
First Microsoft Lumia phone to be revealed next week
CNET
"Microsoft is delivering the power of everyday mobile technology to ... In comparison,Google's Android OS runs on nearly 85 percent of mobile devices ...

TechCrunch (blog)
Unfollow Your Most Annoying Facebook Friends And Pages With “News Feed Settings”
TechCrunch (blog)
Face it. You've accepted friend requests from some weirdos and over-sharers. Luckily, today Facebook's launched a News Feed Settings tool that ...

MIT Technology Review
Google Wants to Store Your Genome
MIT Technology Review
“The opportunity is how to apply breakthroughs in data technology to help with this transition.” ... “Google or Amazon is a back end. They are saying ...

Mashable
Amazon Echo is another step toward commoditizing your personal life
Mashable
The 4-minute video introducing Amazon's Echo seems at first like a parody or a glimpse into some dystopian vision of the near-future. The premise: A ...

more technology news below ( @ web version--link below)
Follow @expricom

FCC Votes to Move Ahead on Fast Lane | Slow Lane Internet, goodbye net neutrality?

A very sad day for internet freedom, net neutrality, and a free and open internet. Without net neutrality, and an open and fast internet for all (with no fast lanes/slow lanes), the US will decline economically and continue to be surpassed by other nations -- already Korea, Japan and most of Europe have surpassed the US in average peak internet connection speeds --

F.C.C. Votes to Move Ahead on Net Neutrality Plan - NYTimes.com: "....As the meeting began and continued, four protesters stood at different times and began speaking in favor of a free and open Internet and saying the F.C.C. was protecting corporate interests. Security officers removed them from the meeting. After allowing a period for public comments and replies, the commission will try to draw up final rules that satisfy a majority of commissioners. Mr. Wheeler has said he hopes to complete the final rules by the end of the year. Even if he meets that goal, the issue will probably be challenged in court. Any new rules that impose restrictions on Internet service providers are all but certain to attract legal challenges from broadband companies or public advocacy groups — or both...."

Comcast could mandate a monthly data cap on all customers...
The Verge
Comcast says it could begin capping monthly data for all its customers within the next five years, a change that could potentially end up costing some heavy internet users additional fees. Speaking at a media summit in New York earlier today, Comcast ...
But the fight is not over, it is just beginning --
FCC considers treating cable firms like utilities in net neutrality debate | Technology | theguardian.com: "The top lawyer at the Federal Communications Commission confirmed on Tuesday that the regulator is considering treating cable companies like utilities as it fights off a wave of protest over the future of the internet."

Xiaomi Aims at Apple, Samsung With a Low-Cost Tablet and TV - Businessweek: "The Chinese technology upstart Xiaomi, known for selling smartphones online at heavily discounted prices, just intensified its attack on some of the biggest companies in technology–Samsung, HTC, and even mighty Apple. At a press conference on Thursday in Beijing, the four-year old company, which has been privately valued by investors at $10 billion, unveiled its first ever tablet and an HDTV using the new 4K screen resolution standard. Both products carry disruptively low prices, a strategy characteristic of Xiaomi...."

Venmo vs. Square Cash vs. PayPal vs. Google Wallet: The Best Apps to Pay People Back - WSJ.com: ".... Comparing Venmo, Square Cash, PayPal and Google Wallet" - Here's what we know: All four companies comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which was created by a coalition that includes Visa, MasterCard and American Express to provide multiple layers of protection for digital financial transactions. All of the companies also have 24-hour fraud-and-risk-protection teams, and Venmo, Google Wallet and PayPal let you PIN-protect the app, in case your phone is stolen. Square Cash doesn't have a PIN, but it prompts you for your credit card's security code before you can send money...."

iPad Sales Slow as Tablet Competitors Rise | Digital Book World: "Despite pumping another 60 million e-reading devices into the market, including 16 million iPads, Apple may be losing its grip on the tablet market. According to a new report from ABI Research, Apple competitors grew their tablet businesses by a combined 79%, while Apple managed only 13% growth. While more Android and other tablets are entering the market than iPads today, Apple still exceeds all of its competitors combined when it comes to revenues it generates from selling tablets, according to the report...."

Will Marshall: European Regulators Take Aim at U.S. Tech Companies - WSJ.com: "....Most pernicious is the proposal to create a "European cloud," a communications network that would prohibit data from traveling to servers outside the continent. Germany's largest telephone company Deutsche Telekom AG is an outspoken advocate of the idea, ostensibly hoping to quell privacy concerns. This would mark the end of an open, global Internet, which has been an incredible engine of economic growth. In an April report, the U.S. Trade Representative called the concept "draconian" and a way to give a "protectionist advantage" to companies based in the European Union...."

Alibaba’s Rivals Merge E-Commerce with Mobile and Social | MIT Technology Review: "The next biggest Chinese e-commerce IPO is likely to be that of JD, a fierce competitor to Alibaba that is targeting smartphone users especially, and may be building a kind of Amazon-Facebook hybrid through which you can, among other things, buy directly from contacts. Both give buyers the option of using an online escrow system where you don’t pay until the product is delivered from a courier who has your cell phone number. Alibaba’s Tmall controls 51 percent of Chinese e-commerce, while JD—formerly called 360Buy—has 17 percent, according to figures from iResearch from the last quarter of 2013. However, while most of Alibaba’s ecommerce is done on desktops, JD may have a mobile advantage in a country that now has 500 million smartphone users (see “China’s Internet Paradox”)."

Why Yahoo Keeps Killing Everything It Buys
Wired
Yahoo has just acquired Meh Labs, the startup behind a self-destruct ... have their own following and uses that to grow Facebook's footprint.

Google, Yahoo warned about malicious online ads
San Jose Mercury News
WASHINGTON -- The Senate warned Google, Yahoo and other leading technology companies Thursday they need to better protect consumers from ...

Google promises to release minority hiring figures, as activists protest outside shareholder meeting
San Jose Mercury News
MOUNTAIN VIEW -- Prodded by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Google said Wednesday that it will reverse a long-held stance and reveal publicly how many ...

Google: Larry & Sergey still making big bets
MarketWatch
But Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin used the annual meeting to ... Google is facing off with Apple and Microsoft in the mobile arena.

Google's Robot Car Can't Explore New Roads, and That's a Big Problem
Wired
The roughly three-mile ride we took around Mountain View in Google's self-driving car was so impressive it was kind of boring. With the exception of a ...

Google to Microsoft Face User Request Burden After EU Ruling (3)
Businessweek
Google said it was reviewing the EU court's decision, with spokeswoman Leslie ... engines, which means it will affect Google, Microsoft's Bing and Yahoo! ... a spokeswoman for Facebook Inc., didn't respond to requests for comment.
more technology news below ( @ web version--link below)

Follow @expricom

Facebook-Oculus deal; Marissa Mayer performance at Yahoo (video)

Active Founder and Managing Director Michael Wolf discusses Facebook’s deal to buy Oculus VR, and comments on Marissa Mayer performance at Yahoo on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.” (March 27, 2014 - source: Bloomberg) 

Amazon Counters Google Cloud Price Cuts
InformationWeek
Amazon's announcement at AWS Summit 2014 came a day after Google made a 32% price cut across all virtual instances on its Compute Engine, ...

Facebook Debuts Web-Scale Variant Of MySQL
InformationWeek
Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Twitter share expertise to launch ... Commercial database vendors including IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle, meanwhile, ...

Microsoft proclaims Azure as first foreign cloud in China
ZDNet
The race for China's cloud market is on and, according to Microsoft, Azure's move to general availability in the country yesterday makes it the first ...

Amazon's Apple TV Competitor Expected to Debut at April 2 Media Event - Mac Rumors
By Eric Slivka
Following rumors of a March launch, it looks like April 2 will be the day Amazon introduces its Apple TV competitor, as Re/code notes that the company ...
MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors...

iDrive Combines Backup and Sync for Twice the Space as Google Drive - Lifehacker
By Melanie Pinola
For roughly the same price as Google Drive, you get double the storage space, split between your ... Microsoft Announces Office on iPad (Finally!) ... The Picture-Perfect,Apple App Developers' Workspace ... for Lifehacker; bHide; EShare to Kinja; jShare toFacebook · iShare to Twitter · rGo to permalink.
Lifehacker

Google Play Music for Chrome delivers browser uploads, finally - Engadget
By Billy Steele
Google has finally enabled uploading tracks to its Play Music service through a browser, but for now, you'll need to flip the switch yourself. In the.
Engadget RSS Feed

Infographic: Guide to Facebook News Feed image sizes - Inside Facebook
By Justin Lafferty
As Facebook rolls out a redesigned News Feed to more and more users, page admins are trying to stay a step ahead in planning visual content that ...
Inside Facebook

Amazon to unveil its Apple TV competitor on April 2nd | 9to5Mac
By Mark Gurman
Amazon has been developing a set-top-box product for several months, and the company appears ... The new product comes amidst work from both Apple and Google on their own new boxes. ... Microsoft announces new Office for iPad apps including Word, PowerPoint, & Excel ... 9to5mac on Facebook ...
9to5Mac

Google’s brilliant plan to get millions to adopt its e-money system: Gmail - Quartz: "In May 2013, Google soft-launched a straightforward scheme for sending money to other people. It lets you connect Gmail with a Google Wallet account and send money to a friend for free (from a linked bank account) or for a small fee (from a credit card). + While the service has been available since last summer to anyone who had a Google Wallet account or had already been sent money via Gmail, Google now seems to be starting to push it out to the broader public...."

Microsoft, Dell seal Android, Chrome royalty pact | Reuters: "...The two companies will license to each other intellectual property related to Android and Chrome devices, such as "Chromebooks" based on Google's Chrome operating system...."

Pew finds embattled newspaper industry still pulls in more than half of all news revenue | Poynter.: "Also, while earlier Pew reports have documented the dominance of giants like Google, Facebook and Yahoo in share of digital advertising, none is considered a news company for purposes of this report. Pew found that nearly 70 percent of all news revenue comes from advertising, just under a quarter from audience, 7 percent from other and only 1 percent from philanthropy and venture capital. "

Keeping Quantum Secrets In An NSA World
Science 2.0
Revelations of the extent of American government surveillance into the private lives of both the American public and foreign leaders worldwide has shone a spotlight on the lack of security in digital communications. Even today's encrypted data is vulnerable ...

more technology news below ( @ web version--link below)

Follow @expricom