Category: Biz Tech

An Apple iphone 6 with Apple Pay is shown in this photo illustration in Encinitas , California June 3, 2015. Reuters/Mike Blake SAN FRANCISCO Apple Inc's first-ever drop in quarterly iPhone sales has spurred Chief Executive Tim Cook to turn the spotlight on prospects for its services business, but the field is rife with competition and may prove challenging for a brand based on gadgets. Second-quarter earnings saw services emerge as Apple's second-largest business after the iPhone for the first time, topping

A man is seen near cyber code and the U.S. National Security Agency logo in this photo illustration taken in Sarajevo March 11, 2015. Reuters/Dado Ruvic SAN FRANCISCO Internet traffic to Wikipedia pages summarizing knowledge about terror groups and their tools plunged nearly 30 percent after revelations of widespread Web monitoring by the U.S. National Security Agency, suggesting that concerns about government snooping are hurting the ordinary pursuit of information. A forthcoming paper in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal analyzes the fall

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) on Tuesday posted its first-ever decline in iPhone sales and its first revenue drop in 13 years as the company credited with inventing the smartphone struggles with an increasingly saturated market. The company's sales dropped by more than a quarter in China, its most important market after the United States, and it also forecast another disappointing quarter for global revenues. Its shares fell about 8 percent, dropping below $100 for the first time since February. A hike in

A 3D plastic representation of the Facebook logo is seen in this illustration in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 13, 2015. Reuters/Dado Ruvic Facebook Inc (FB.O) is developing a stand-alone camera app, similar to disappearing photo app Snapchat, to increase user engagement, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The app, being developed by Facebook's "friend-sharing" team in London, is in its early stages and may never come to fruition, according to the report. (on.wsj.com/24fDRxN) The company is also planning a

A generic picture of a Xerox logo on a photocopier. TECOM Reuters/Catherine Benson/Files Xerox Corp reported a 4.2 percent fall in quarterly revenue, hurt by a strong dollar and lower sales of printers and copiers, sending its shares down 12 percent in morning trade. The company is focusing on its services business, which offers business process outsourcing and document outsourcing, as sales of printers and copiers, its mainstay for over half a century, have fallen for more than four years. Rival printer maker

A Toshiba Corp logo displayed on one of its television sets is seen through a vehicle in Tokyo, Japan, November 26, 2015. Reuters/Toru Hanai/Files TOKYO Toshiba Corp, in a hurry to raise cash before closing its books for the business year that ended at the end of last month, was able to structure the sale of its medical equipment business to Canon Inc in an unorthodox way so that it could book the 665.5 billion yen ($5.95 billion) proceeds before the

BANGKOK After more than two years of riding high on growing demand for cloud data storage, Thailand's hard disk drive exporters are bracing for a fall from grace. Data due later on Monday will likely show Thai exports of hard disk drives (HDDs) in March extended a run of double-digit growth after jumping 45 percent in the first two months of 2016 to $1.1 billion. The rise has been a rare bright spot in Thai tech manufacturing, beset by cheaper

A Volkswagen logo is pictured at Volkswagen's headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, April 22, 2016. Reuters/Hannibal Hanschke BEIJING Volkswagen AG is optimistic that its positive sales trend from the two previous quarters will continue in China, the world's biggest auto market, its China chief Jochem Heizmann said on Sunday. Volkswagen also plans to invest 4 billion euros ($4.49 billion) with its joint venture partners in China this year, and is prepared for any recalls in China on any diesel-related issues, Heizmann told reporters ahead

TORONTO Canada's Liberal government is prepared to overhaul the country's laws governing broadcasting, media and cultural industries to support local content, Heritage Minister Melanie Joly told the Globe and Mail in a report on Saturday, announcing a new policy direction in what she called a broken system. Canada's broadcast regulator has long had requirements for networks to carry certain amounts of local content. But it cut that quota drastically last year under the Conservative government, after the industry was shaken up

Details are pictured on the backside of an Apple Iphone 6 on a table in a restaurant in Hanau, Germany, April 10, 2016. Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach NEW YORK The U.S. Justice Department on Friday dropped its effort to force Apple Inc (AAPL.O) to help unlock an iPhone in a drug case in New York after someone provided authorities the passcode to access the device. In a letter filed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, prosecutors said that investigators late on Thursday used

NEW YORK The hashtag #RIPTwitter became the top trending U.S. item on Twitter on Saturday, after a report from BuzzFeed said the company is planning to change how it displays users’ tweets. The BuzzFeed report, which went live on Friday night and did not disclose the source of its information, said the social media platform will reorder tweets to prioritize those it believes more users will want to see. Currently, Twitter (TWTR.N) arranges tweets in chronological order. The response to the

A general view shows the building 'Gorod Stolits' (Capital City) (C), which houses an office of 25 Floor Film Company, at the Moscow International Business Center also known as ''Moskva-City'', in Moscow, Russia, February 3, 2016. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev WASHINGTON Russian authorities in November raided offices associated with a Moscow film distribution and production company as part of a crackdown on one of the world’s most notorious financial hacking operations, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter. Cybersecurity experts said a

A 3D printed Twitter logo is seen in this illustration picture made in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, February 3, 2016. Reuters/Dado Ruvic WASHINGTON Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) has shut down more than 125,000 terrorism-related accounts since the middle of 2015, most of them linked to the Islamic State group, the company said in a blog post on Friday. Twitter has said it only takes down accounts when they are reported by other users, but said that it has increased the size of teams

Amit Singhal, senior vice president of search at Google, speaks at the garage where the company was founded on Google's 15th anniversary in Menlo Park, California September 26, 2013. Reuters/Stephen Lam As one of Google's earliest search pioneers steps down and the company's leader in artificial intelligence takes his place, analysts say the move signals the company's desire to make its search engine more sophisticated. Google parent Alphabet Inc said Wednesday that Amit Singhal, the longtime chief of its Internet search business,

An Apple logo hangs above the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City, July 21, 2015. Reuters/Mike Segar NEW YORK Apple Inc (AAPL.O) must pay VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC.A) more than $625 million for using the patent licensing company's Internet security technology without permission in its FaceTime and iMessage features, a federal jury in Texas said on Wednesday. The award was more than the $532 million VirnetX had sought before the trial began

A GoPro Hero 3+ camera is seen at the Nasdaq Market Site before before GoPro Inc's IPO in New York City, June 26, 2014. Reuters/Mike Segar GoPro Inc (GPRO.O) forecast current-quarter revenue well below analysts' estimates on weak demand for its wearable cameras and the company named Brian McGee as its new chief financial officer. GoPro said McGee, who joined the company from Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) in 2015, would succeed Jack Lazar as CFO on March 11. The camera maker's shares fell 10 percent

Reuters/ DEBORAH M. TODD AND ANYA GEORGE THARAKAN/Alphabet Inc easily beat Wall Street's quarterly profit forecasts on Monday, helped by strong mobile advertising sales, sending the shares of Google's parent higher in after-hours trading to surpass Apple Inc as the most valuable U.S. company. For the first time, the company disclosed the profitability of Google's search engine and its other online services, and how much it is spending on ambitious technology projects such as self-driving cars. The numbers were lapped up by

The Nokia headquarters is seen in Espoo, Finland, July 28, 2015. Nokia Corporation published the interim report for Q2 2015 and January-June 2015 on July 30, 2015. Reuters/Mikko Stig/Lethikuva/Files HELSINKI Finland's Nokia on Monday settled its patent dispute with Korea's Samsung, saying the arbitration verdict will boost its patent sales by hundreds of millions of euros. Nokia said including the verdict, the sales of its patent unit Nokia Technologies increased to around 1,02 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in 2015 from 578 million euros

Letters spell the word ''Alpahbet'' as they are seen on a computer screen with a Google search page in this photo illustration taken in Paris, France, August 11, 2015. Reuters/Pascal Rossignol How much is Google-parent Alphabet Inc spending on "moonshots" – self-driving cars, glucose-monitoring contact lenses, Internet balloons and other ambitious projects? Investors will get their long-awaited answer when Alphabet reports fourth-quarter results after markets close on Monday. The report will be the first time Alphabet will break out results for what it

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waits to speak at a campaign town hall in Davenport, Iowa January 30, 2016. Reuters/Rick Wilking NEW YORK The millions of Twitter users following Donald Trump shouldn't expect a "follow back" from the Republican presidential front-runner anytime soon. Trump's campaign account @realDonaldTrump has nearly 6 million Twitter followers, the most of any candidate running for president. But he is picky about who he follows, with just 49 accounts listed as of Friday. That means he has

A Samsung Electronics laptop computer is displayed at a shop in Samsung's main office building in central Seoul in this July 23, 2013 file phboto. Reuters/Lee Jae-Won/Files SEOUL Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Thursday warned of possible weaker earnings this year due to softer sales of gadgets such as smartphones, a trend that is also hurting rival Apple Inc and major chipmakers. The South Korean firm's warning came a day after Apple shares fell more than 6.5 percent, the biggest

A 3D plastic cut-out of the Facebook logo is seen in this illustration in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 13, 2015. Reuters/Dado Ruvic Facebook Inc (FB.O) smashed investors' expectations with a 52-percent jump in quarterly revenue as it sold more ads targeted at a fast-growing number of mobile users, sending its shares sharply higher after hours. The world's biggest online social network bucked the trend of underwhelming tech results from Apple Inc and eBay Inc, in the face of economic uncertainty around

An Apple logo is seen at the Apple store in Munich, Germany, January 27, 2016. Reuters/Michaela Rehle Apple Inc (AAPL.O) shares fell more than 6.5 percent on Wednesday, the biggest percentage drop in two years, after the company reported its slowest-ever rise in iPhone shipments and forecast that quarterly sales for the current period would post the first drop in 13 years. At least 16 analysts cut their price targets on the stock. The median price target is $135, according to Reuters

Lei Jun, founder and chief executive officer of Xiaomi, attends a session of the second annual World Internet Conference in Wuzhen town of Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, China, December 16, 2015. Reuters/Aly Song HONG KONG/ BEIJING Xiaomi Inc, China's second-biggest smartphone vendor, more than doubled Internet services revenue in 2015 to about $564 million, an internal document reviewed by Reuters showed, but still fell well short of an internal target of $1 billion. Lei Jun, founder and chief executive of China's most valuable

SAN FRANCISCO/MUMBAI As China sales show signs of cooling, Apple Inc(AAPL.O) is touting India's appetite for iPhones, betting that rising wages and an expanding middle class will pull consumers away from the cheap alternatives that currently dominate the market. In an earnings call in which the company reported meagre iPhone growth and forecast its first revenue drop in 13 years, the Indian market stood out as a rare bright spot for Apple. Sales of the company's flagship smartphone climbed 76 percent

A remote-controlled Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 Quadricopter is seen during a flight demonstration at the Google I/O Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California June 28, 2012. Reuters/Stephen Lam/Files SAN FRANCISCO Google's secretive drone delivery project could include a component designed to store packages securely. A patent filed Tuesday in the United States by the company, a unit of Alphabet Inc, describes a "delivery receptacle" designed to take packages from an "aerial delivery device" for deposit to a secure location. The receptacle would

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken in Warsaw September 27, 2013. Reuters/Kacper Pempel/Files An exodus of top Twitter Inc executives has raised concerns about the company's plans to win more users. Media head Katie Jacobs Stanton, product head Kevin Weil, the head of the engineering division, Alex Roetter and HR head Brian "Skip" Schipper will all leave the company, Chief Executive Jack Dorsey tweeted on Sunday night. At least one of

A logo is pictured at Google's European Engineering Center in Zurich April16, 2015. Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann/Files LONDON A British parliamentary committee will ask Google to testify about a back tax deal under which it will pay 130 million pounds ($185 million) to settle claims covering a 10-year period -- an amount the opposition Labour party has described as derisory. Meg Hillier, the Labour party chairwoman of parliament's Public Accounts Committee, tweeted at the weekend she would call Google, now part of holding company

A man opens the shutter of a shop painted with an advertisement of Reliance Communications in Mumbai, India, November 3, 2015. Reuters/Shailesh Andrade/Files MUMBAI India's Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) expects to reach a deal to sell its mobile phone masts business to a group of companies led by buyout firm TPG Capital Management LP in the next two weeks, its chief executive said on Monday. RCom last month signed a non-binding pact to sell the business to TPG and Tillman Global Holdings LLC,

Reuters/Daniel Munoz/Files   BEIJING China will maintain plans to gradually phase out subsidies for green energy vehicles until they are fully eliminated in 2021 and allow the market to determine the direction of green car development, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said on Saturday.   But auto executives speaking alongside Lou at an industry conference in Beijing laid out differing visions as to which technology the market will favor: Tesla-style pure electrics or plug-in hybrid cars currently favored by Volkswagen AG and others.   Green car sales

Reuters/Stephen Lam   (Corrects spelling of Prem Sikka)   By Tom Bergin   LONDON Google has agreed to pay 130 million pounds ($185 million) in back taxes to Britain, prompting criticism from opposition lawmakers and campaigners who said the "derisory" figure smacked of a "sweetheart deal".   Google, now part of Alphabet Inc, has been under pressure in recent years over its practice of channelling most profits from European clients through Ireland to Bermuda, where it pays no tax on them.   In 2013, the company faced a UK parliamentary

BEIJING Chinese authorities are planning to tighten regulation of its fast-growing internet finance industry and crack down on illicit transactions, state media reported on Saturday, as the country works to rein in fraud on its online lending platforms. China's unregulated online peer-to-peer (P2P) industry has been dogged by reports of fraud in recent years, underscoring growing financial risks and increasing the potential for social unrest. More than 1,200 P2P firms operating in the sector are in trouble, either running away with investors'

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asks a question during the II CEO Summit of the Americas on the sidelines of the VII Summit of the Americas in Panama City April 10, 2015. Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Files NEW YORK Mark Zuckerberg wants to build an artificially intelligent assistant in 2016 to help run his home and assist him at work, the Facebook Inc founder and chief executive said on Sunday. Zuckerberg, who commits to a new personal challenge every year, revealed his plan in a

A Samsung logo is seen at Samsung Electronics' headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, December 18, 2015. Picture taken on December 18, 2015. Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji SEOUL South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said it expects a difficult business environment in 2016 due to weak global economic conditions and heightened competition in key businesses including memory chips and smartphones. In a statement on Monday, Samsung said Chief Executive Kwon Oh-hyun told employees in a New Year's address that low global growth will persist