By Catherine Cadell | SHENZHEN, China SHENZHEN, China Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said it racked up more than $5 billion in transactions in the first hour of its annual ‘Singles’ Day’ sales blitz on Friday – a third more than in the first hour of last year’s spree. The 24-hour event held annually on Nov. 11 offers a benchmark for Alibaba’s performance and an […]
By Makiko Yamazaki | TOKYO TOKYO Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp swung to an operating profit in the July-September quarter, driven by strong demand for NAND flash memory chips from Chinese smartphone makers. That boom in demand has been a blessing for Toshiba, which is seeking to recover from a $1.3 billion accounting scandal by turning itself into a company more focused on chips, nuclear energy and social […]
Tech giant Google is aiming to ensure no one is using so-called “fast-charging” technology on Android devices, according to the latest version of the Android Compatibility Definition for Android Nougat. That means that Google doesn’t want original equipment manufacturers producing mobile devices that ship with the Android operating system to offer fast-charging technology. That would include a wide array of charging standards currently on the market, including […]
The reality today is that most enterprise applications are well on their way to being cloud based. We’ve seen it with simple workloads such as HR and payroll, travel and expense management, and in the last decade we’ve seen the cloud as the new normal for customer relationship management (CRM) deployments. In fact, a recent Gartner report predicts that the public cloud services market in the Mena […]
By Jack Kim and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL South Korean prosecutors raided the offices of Samsung Electronics on Tuesday as part of a probe over a political scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her friend who is alleged to have exerted improper influence in state affairs. A prosecution official told Reuters the search is related to the scandal involving the president’s friend, Choi Soon-sil, but declined […]
By Marcin Goettig | WARSAW WARSAW Poland’s digital economy minister accused Facebook FN.O of censorship on Monday after the company suspended some users’ profiles for using a little-known far-right symbol. The Falanga symbol, depicting a stylised hand holding a sword, was used by a banned radical nationalist group in the 1930s but is legal in Poland and other countries. It now serves as the logo of a […]
The next flagship phone from Samsung, the Galaxy S8, is expected to arrive early next year with a major new feature: a built-in intelligent digital assistant. The artificial intelligence will be made possible by Samsung’s acquisition of Viv Labs, which was announced last month. Founded by two of the creators of Siri, Apple’s signature digital assistant, Viv Labs said its technology represents a “new paradigm” for how […]
Samsung discontinued its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, which was prone to catching fire, last month. But the company’s safety problems have not ended: The manufacturer and a product safety regulator on Friday announced a recall for 2.8 million washing machines in the United States. The number of washing machines recalled, which includes 34 models of Samsung’s top-loading washers, exceeds the 1.9 million Galaxy Note smartphones that Samsung […]
MUMBAI Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS) on Friday offered alternative phones to its India customers who had pre-ordered its flagship Galaxy Note 7 devices, in a bid to appease loyal clients in one of its largest smartphone markets. The world’s largest phone maker has been hit by an avalanche of negative publicity, after being forced to recall millions of the fire-prone Note 7 devices and later […]
By Mai Nguyen and My Pham | HANOI HANOI Samsung Vietnam will maintain its current staff numbers and its exports target this year, the firm said on Wednesday, despite the parent company scrapping its flagship Galaxy Note 7 phone following a series of battery fires. Samsung Electronics, which employs around 110,000 people in Vietnam, finally pulled the plug on the new Note 7 phone on Tuesday, less […]
By Se Young Lee | SEOUL SEOUL Samsung Electronics Co slashed its quarterly profit estimate by a third on Wednesday, soaking up a $2.3 billion hit from ditching its flagship smartphone in what could be one of the costliest product safety failures in tech history. Quantifying the financial pain of Tuesday’s move to scrap the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone after a global recall and weeks of mounting […]
By Julia Love and Deborah M. Todd Samsung Electronics’s abandonment of the Galaxy Note 7 due to safety concerns will likely touch off a turf war among Android smartphone makers, analysts said, presenting them a rare opportunity to gain share but with less room for archrival Apple Inc. Consumers tend to commit to their choice between Apple’s iOS operating system for smartphones and Google’s Android, leaving Samsung’s […]
The Supreme Court is raising serious doubts about a $399 million judgment against smartphone maker Samsung for illegally copying parts of the patented design of Apple’s iPhone. Justices hearing arguments Tuesday in the long-running dispute seemed troubled that Samsung was ordered to pay all the profits it earned from 11 phone models even though the features at issue are just a tiny part of the devices. But […]
In just over two months, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 has gone from smartphone star to epic failure, with the South Korean firm confirming today that it is permanently halting production of the device. Linked to numerous battery-related fires, the Galaxy Note 7 could end up costing Samsung many billions of dollars. Launched in early August, the Galaxy Note 7 appears to have had a flaw that caused […]
By Se Young Lee | SEOUL SEOUL Samsung Electronics’ (005930.KS) worst-ever recall could cost the company as much as $17 billion after it halted sales of its flagship Galaxy Note 7 for a second time, spelling an almost certain end for the ill-fated premium model. Samsung announced the recall of 2.5 million Note 7s in early September following numerous reports of the phones catching fire and on […]
By Greg Roumeliotis and Liana B. Baker Salesforce.com Inc (CRM.N) is still deliberating whether it should make an offer for Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) in the face of resistance from Salesforce shareholders over the strategic merits and valuation of such a deal, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. Twitter shares have lost as much as a third of their value since Oct. 5 on concerns the […]
By Noel Randewich | SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) stock on Monday jumped 2.3 percent, reaching a high not seen since December, after rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) suspended production of its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphones following reports of fires in replacement devices. Fires in the smartphones that were meant to replace devices that had been recalled because of their propensity to explode […]
The Interpreter By AMANDA TAUB It is a truth universally acknowledged by every war correspondent, humanitarian aid worker and Western diplomat: Some wars, like Syria’s, receive tremendous public attention, which can translate into pressure for resolution. But many others, like Yemen’s still raging but much ignored conflict, do not. Some of the reasons are obvious; the scale of Syria’s war is catastrophic and much worse than Yemen’s. […]
Apple Inc. is reportedly planning to open its first research and development center in China, allowing the tech giant to extend its reach in a vital market and maintain goodwill with the Chinese government. The Cupertino tech giant will eventually invest 300 million yuan, or $45 million, in the facility, which will have 500 employees, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper. Zhongguancun Science Park, a Beijing […]
When I went to Las Vegas last week I didn’t go to visit clubs, gamble or even take in a show. Those were activities for another trip. This time I attended the Automotive IQ System Safety conference. I met engineers, auto executives, and computer programmers who shared the same concern about autonomous vehicles: how safe is safe enough? Companies like Uber and Tesla are rolling out autonomous technology faster […]
UAE-based telecommunications service provider du has demonstrated e-SIM for the first time in the Middle East, in collaboration with Gemalto, a world leader in digital security. The e-SIM initiative will enable du’s subscribers to activate the e-SIM on any device over the air. This will allow for an enhanced user experience in a new era of technology adoption that supports multi-device usage – such as smart watch, […]
BEIJING Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the world’s biggest smartphone maker, said on Thursday more than 1 million people globally are now using Galaxy Note 7 smartphones with batteries that are not vulnerable to overheating and catching fire. Samsung on September 2 initiated a voluntary global recall of at least 2.5 million Note 7 smartphones due to faulty batteries causing some of the flagship devices to […]
By Edward Taylor and Eric Auchard | PARIS/FRANKFURT PARIS/FRANKFURT Alarmed by the threat posed by Silicon Valley firms to their businesses in developing autonomous driving systems, it was evident at the Paris Motor Show this week that carmakers are seeking to fight back by cooperating in areas of technology development where previously they might have tried to compete. Three big carmakers – BMW (BMWG.DE), Daimler (DAIGn.DE) and […]
UAE. Mobile phones are the most commonly used device among consumers in the UAE and more than half of all consumers (59%) prefer using their smartphones over any other device to make payments, the new Mastercard Impact of Innovation Study reveals. The study surveyed 23,000 consumers in 23 different countries across the Middle East, Africa and Europe about their attitudes to digital technology. It found that while […]
