A round up of some of 2016’s most significant corporate events and news stories. Smartphone sales © EPA A bright start to the year for Samsung Electronicswent up in smoke, after it took the unprecedented decision to axe its Galaxy Note 7 line, following a spate of safety issues that saw the smartphone banned from aircraft, writes Nic Fildes. The 2016 Galaxy Note iteration won substantial praise […]
Ekster’s smart wallet. Photo: Ekster Wallets and their contents – cash, cards, tickets, receipts etc – will eventually be replaced by smartphones that work with electronic payments system. But while those have been available for years in some countries, most men still carry traditional wallets. That being the case, there should be a market for “smart wallets” that connect to smartphones, so you can find your wallet […]
By Brendan O’Brien | MILWAUKEE MILWAUKEE A winter storm was taking aim on Saturday at the U.S. West and Midwest where it was expected to dump heavy snow and freezing rain, causing headaches for millions of holiday travelers who were hitting the road over the weekend, forecasters said. Winter storm and blizzard warnings and watches were in effect from Nevada and Colorado up through the Dakotas and […]
Submitted by Federico Pieraccini via Strategic-Culture.org, Understanding the objectives and logic that accompany the expansion of nations or empires is always of paramount importance in helping one draw lessons for the future In this series of four articles I intend to lay a very detailed but easily understandable foundation for describing the mechanisms that drive great powers. To succeed, one must analyze the geopolitical theories that over […]
It isn’t magic but close. The Prisma app helps turn mere smartphone photographs into high-resolution artistic images with the use of its AI-based neural network servers. To enhance and tweak images on the app, Prisma performs precalculated algorithms. To keep its users, Prisma promises to deliver a continuous flood of new filters, features, and effects. Recently, the app also doubled the photo resolution to deliver high-quality output. […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. Most of us can feel unavoidably like Mongo in Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles,” meaning a self-perception that “Mongo only pawn in game of life.” (YouTube) Yes, we all try to be philosophical but can lapse into merely being dim-witted, like […]
Roy Zipstein | Apple Apple has given app developers more time to turn on App Transport Security (ATS) after originally insisting that software submitted to the App Store utilize the feature by the beginning of 2017. According to a brief note posted on the Apple developer website on Wednesday, ATS, first introduced in iOS 9 and OS X v10.11, will now not become mandatory for apps to […]
By Michael Shields and Arno Schuetze | ZURICH/FRANKFURT ZURICH/FRANKFURT Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank have been hit with a combined penalty of more than $12 billion over the sale of U.S. toxic debt, further hampering two of Europe’s leading investment banks as they grapple with falling profits. The penalty puts them at a further disadvantage to larger U.S. rivals. Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) agreed in principle to pay […]
(Image: file photo) Earlier this year, we were sent a series of large, encrypted files purportedly belonging to a US police department as a result of a leak at a law firm, which was insecurely synchronizing its backup systems across the internet without a password. Among the files was a series of phone dumps created by the police department with specialist equipment, which was created by Cellebrite, […]
US trade policies under Donald Trump will be key to agricultural commodities next year, as the world continues to grapple with high levels of grain production and inventories, according to a leading forecaster. “The area of concern is whether anything is going to happen that is going to affect our trade with China, which is a big agricultural buyer,” said Don Riffe, senior vice-president for agribusiness intelligence […]
As journalists grapple with the rise of fake news, it’s worth examining what happens when policymakers embrace misinformation instead of evidence when it comes to climate change. In September, YourNewsWire breathlessly told its readers that thousands of scientists had declared climate change “a hoax.” This was big news — at least on Facebook — where the YourNewsWire post was shared more than 550,000 times, making it the […]
Now that you have a new internet media streaming device, you’ll need something to watch on it. I cut the cord in 2009 and here are the best services I’ve found since then. Cord-cutting and video-streaming is replacing traditional cable and satellite TV. Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters/Corbis Before launching into it, though, you should know things are changing. Cord cutting is no longer remarkable, it’s normal. The media companies […]
In the wake of reports that Fitbit has dominated the wearables segment and with its acquisition of Pebble, it would seem that the picture for the wearable industry is all rosy. A new report, however, shows that it is not the case. Wearables’ Negative Outlook Research firm eMarketer has downgraded its outlook on the wearable devices market. It estimates a 24.7 percent growth this year for an industry […]
If you pay attention to the narrative following every Apple product announcement, it’s loaded with disappointment and declarations that Apple has lost the innovative touch to create a “magical” experience consumers have come to expect from the company. Some of the complaints are warranted, such as those about the TouchBar on the new MacBook Pro. It’s useful, sure, but it’s nowhere near as profound as the Apple […]
We’ve seen the iPhone 7 and the Google Pixel, and yes, both devices are some of the best smartphones of 2016. They will likely still be some of the best throughout 2017. The thing is, one device is better than the other. In our mind, the better one is the iPhone 7. There are many reasons to love the Google Pixel. It has a good design, and […]
WASHINGTON The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday it is canceling an inactive registry program for visitors from countries where extremist groups are operating, a plan similar to a Muslim registry considered by President-elect Donald Trump. The National Security Entry-Exit Registration Systems program, known as NSEERS, was suspended in 2011, DHS spokesman Neema Hakim said in a statement. He said the program was determined to […]
Google and Apple are the most valuable companies in the world, and undoubted winners from the smartphone boom. In their wake lies Nokia’s handset business, which was sold to Microsoft and later wound down. But, when it comes to defending themselves against the arsenal of patents Nokia built up in its years at the top, the US tech giants want the world to view them as victims […]
Nokia was the world’s leading mobile phone maker from 1998 until 2011 when it bet on Microsoft’s Windows mobile platform, which proved to be a flop Nokia announced Wednesday it is suing Apple in German and US courts for patent infringement, claiming the US tech giant was using Nokia technology in “many” products without paying for it. Finnish Nokia, once the world’s top mobile phone maker, said […]
2016 was fact-checking’s finest year [1]. No it wasn’t, it was the year of “post-truth” [2] — some preferred “post-fact” [3] — and fact-checking is a fool’s errand. The discussion about facts in journalism worldwide has rarely been as fractured and animated as it has been in 2016, so we collected 366 links, one for each day of the year, to try and make sense of what […]
Self-driving cars are rolling out much faster than expected, from Uber testing autonomous taxis in San Francisco to Google spinning off its self-driving car division into Waymo and partnering with Fiat-Chrysler. To Fiat, this likely looked like the fastest and best way to get up to speed, considering that rivals like Ford, Honda, and Toyota have a head start. It wasn’t always like […]
If you are on the lookout for some last-minute gifts but are worried that your gifts will not reach their recipients just in time for Christmas, here are some items that you could buy that will not require shipping at all. Gift Cards Many people are not into giving gift cards because they seem to be impersonal. It may only seem that way if not a lot […]
Short takes and quick hits for the week of December 19-25, 2016. EFF launches “In defense of users” initiative with strong anti-Trump message Posted Dec 20, 2016, 12:30 PST The EFF isn’t pulling any punches in its new campaign The Electronic Frontier Foundation isn’t waiting for the Presidential inauguration on January 20, 2017, to express their opposition to incomping President Donald J. Trump. In a full-page ad […]
Law Blog rounds up the morning’s legal news: Authorities allege $1 billion fraud at Platinum Partners: Top executives at the hedge-fund firm, including founder Mark Nordlicht, were arrested and charged with defrauding investors in one of the biggest such cases since Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. [WSJ, Bloomberg] Judge Persky cleared: A California judicial disciplinary panel found no grounds to sanction Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky over the six-month sentence […]
Facebook faces a potential fine after the European Commission accused the social network of being misleading during the approval process of its $19bn takeover of WhatsApp. In a “statement of objections” on Tuesday, the European Commission charged the Silicon Valley giant with inaccurately claiming during the 2014 takeover that it was technically impossible to combine automatically user information from Facebook and WhatsApp. Facebook surprised its users this […]
