Category: What’s On

Apple Says Several Billion Dollars Set Aside for U.S. TaxesApple's chief executive says the company has put aside "several billion dollars" to pay tax liabilities in the United States as it repatriates some of its huge overseas earnings. Tim Cook told Irish state network RTE in an interview broadcast Thursday that the money, part of profits from 2014, should be brought back to the U.S. next year. He did not specify how much would be repatriated. Apple holds nearly $215 billion in

Two new desktop PCs launched by HP today aim to fundamentally change the way users interact with their desktop devices. The Elite Slice is aimed squarely at the enterprise market and seems designed to function primarily as a tool for Skype meetings, while the Pavilion Wave appears to target Amazon’s Echo speaker system. "Today's desktop customers want sleek, innovative and powerful designs that enable new experiences," Mike Nash, vice president, customer experience and portfolio strategy, HP Inc., said in a statememt.

A new speech analytics tool announced yesterday by Verint Systems is designed to help customer service professionals get real-time guidance for better managing calls. The software-based system can alert service reps to caller insights as they happen as well as help companies ensure compliance with important policies and regulations, the company said. The Melville, New York-based Verint said the new real-time speech analytics capabilities are natively embedded in its software-based recording system for call centers, contact centers and other types of

Printers are down, but PCs are up -- for now. That's the scenario presented by Hewlett-Packard when it discussed its third quarter earnings with analysts this week. HP reported a quarterly profit of 49 cents per share, on revenue of $11.9 billion, compared with earnings of 39 cents a share on revenue of $12.4 billion for the same quarter last year. The company said its outlook for the current quarter is weaker than expected because of declining demand in the printer

Two years after being acquired by Facebook, the messaging service WhatsApp said it will coordinate more with its parent company to make it easier for businesses to communicate with its users. However, WhatsApp said it's rolling out those changes in a way that doesn't expose users to third-party banner ads and spam. WhatsApp revealed the coming changes in a blog post today centered around updating its terms and privacy policy for users. It said those updates are needed to begin testing

Set to arrive on September 30, iOS 10, the latest update of Apple's mobile operating system, will offer a number of new features, including a redesigned lock screen, a more intelligent Siri digital assistant and new looks for other apps. One improvement to Siri will be especially welcome for at least one famous iPhone user: Barbra Streisand. In an interview over the weekend, the singer told NPR that she called Apple CEO Tim Cook to request that the next update for

Beginning "as early as next year," Samsung may start selling refurbished smartphones directly to consumers. The new resale program is aimed at strengthening Samsung's earnings as global phone sales slow down, according to report today citing "a person with direct knowledge of the matter." Offering lower-cost refurbished phones could also help Samsung better compete against Chinese manufacturers whose cheap devices have cut into its sales, especially in developing markets.The report from Reuters from comes on the heels of Samsung's latest smartphone

T-Mobile and Sprint began yet another duel yesterday by unveiling rival wireless plans with unlimited data usage. Their announcements came just one day after AT&T unveiled new wireless service plans it said will eliminate data overage charges for customers. Starting at $70 per month for one line, the new T-Mobile One plan comes with several caveats, including slower data speeds after customers exceed 26 GB in a month. The new offering is set to become available for new postpaid customers starting

Are you ready for a smartphone battery that lasts twice as long as your current one? According to researchers, that battery is coming. MIT News reported this week that a new kind of lithium battery is on the way to being commercialized. Called lithium metal batteries, they can reportedly pack the same energy as standard lithium-ion cells in half the size -- or put twice as much energy (and therefore staying power) into a battery the size of a standard lithium

Just months after its public launch, the self-driving truck startup Otto has been purchased by the ride-hailing giant Uber for an undisclosed amount. According to a Bloomberg estimate, the deal could be valued at about $680 million. Uber, whose "anyone-can-be-a-cabbie" business model has already shaken up the taxi industry, is also looking to provide autonomous car services in cities. Later this month, the company plans to begin testing self-driving cars on the streets of Pittsburgh, although a human -- an Uber

Just months after its public launch, the self-driving truck startup Otto has been purchased by the ride-hailing giant Uber for an undisclosed amount. According to a Bloomberg estimate, the deal could be valued at about $680 million. Uber, whose "anyone-can-be-a-cabbie" business model has already shaken up the taxi industry, is also looking to provide autonomous car services in cities. Later this month, the company plans to begin testing self-driving cars on the streets of Pittsburgh, although a human -- an Uber

Just months after its public launch, the self-driving truck startup Otto has been purchased by the ride-hailing giant Uber for an undisclosed amount. According to a Bloomberg estimate, the deal could be valued at about $680 million. Uber, whose "anyone-can-be-a-cabbie" business model has already shaken up the taxi industry, is also looking to provide autonomous car services in cities. Later this month, the company plans to begin testing self-driving cars on the streets of Pittsburgh, although a human -- an Uber

Just months after its public launch, the self-driving truck startup Otto has been purchased by the ride-hailing giant Uber for an undisclosed amount. According to a Bloomberg estimate, the deal could be valued at about $680 million. Uber, whose "anyone-can-be-a-cabbie" business model has already shaken up the taxi industry, is also looking to provide autonomous car services in cities. Later this month, the company plans to begin testing self-driving cars on the streets of Pittsburgh, although a human -- an Uber

Just months after its public launch, the self-driving truck startup Otto has been purchased by the ride-hailing giant Uber for an undisclosed amount. According to a Bloomberg estimate, the deal could be valued at about $680 million. Uber, whose "anyone-can-be-a-cabbie" business model has already shaken up the taxi industry, is also looking to provide autonomous car services in cities. Later this month, the company plans to begin testing self-driving cars on the streets of Pittsburgh, although a human -- an Uber

By better integrating its Inbox software with calendar apps, Salesforce aims to make it easier for sales and marketing professionals to access customer data during meetings and on the go. Coming out in October, Salesforce's new Inbox Calendar boosts the company's existing email support by linking customer relationship management (CRM) data to a user's calendar.Announced earlier this week, Salesforce Inbox Calendar was developed to help sales professionals spend less time opening other apps and searching other data sources for relevant information

By better integrating its Inbox software with calendar apps, Salesforce aims to make it easier for sales and marketing professionals to access customer data during meetings and on the go. Coming out in October, Salesforce's new Inbox Calendar boosts the company's existing email support by linking customer relationship management (CRM) data to a user's calendar.Announced earlier this week, Salesforce Inbox Calendar was developed to help sales professionals spend less time opening other apps and searching other data sources for relevant information

Starting Sunday, AT&T is launching new wireless plans that it said will eliminate data overage charges for customers. Instead of generating extra fees once they exceed their monthly data caps, the network speeds of customers with Mobile Share Advantage plans will be slowed down to limit further data consumption. Verizon, the largest wireless company in the U.S., made similar changes to its mobile plans last month with the addition of a "Safety Mode" app that lets customers slow down their data

A new certification program is aimed at assuring users that USB Type-C chargers won't damage their devices or fail to provide adequate charges. Announced yesterday by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), the program sets compliance standards for original equipment manufacturers of USB-C products. Introduced in 2014, the USB-C standard for universal serial bus connections is a more compact type of connector that's easier to plug in and supports faster charging and data transfers than older model USB cables. When used with

As more and more enterprises give up license-based software in favor of faster, more convenient cloud services, the software industry itself is changing dramatically, according to a recent report from the advisory firm PwC (formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers). Although legacy software companies that have moved into the cloud are reaping the benefits of the growing "as-a-service" ecosystem, they are also facing some risks. The "PwC Global 100 Software Leaders" report, released late last month, finds that the revenues for the top

Has Samsung finally come up with a giant killer of a mobile device that can give it genuine leverage against Apple in that market? If the early reviews of the Galaxy Note 7 are any indication, that just might be the case. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7, set for release this week, has drawn almost unanimously positive reviews from technology media outlets. The Galaxy Note 7 is the large-screen phone that Android users have been eagerly awaiting. The screen size of

While it already offers several ways for users to make video calls over various platforms, Google today launched a new phone-based app called Duo that's designed for simplicity. Available for both Android and iOS smartphones, Google Duo doesn't require anything more than a phone number to launch once the app is downloaded. Unlike Google's Hangouts messaging, voice and video calling tool, people don't even need Google accounts to use Duo.Announced earlier this year at Google's I/O developer conference, Duo offers end-to-end

With the clock ticking toward Apple's scheduled fall release of the iPhone 7, iOS 10, macOS Sierra and more, the rumor mill about new products and changes by the company is switching into high gear. Several outlets are reporting leaked images purporting to show the iPhone 7 Plus in new colors, including black and rose gold. There are also reports that Apple is in talks that could lead to Twitter livestreaming NFL games on Apple TV, and an analyst is predicting

Apparently, Google is working on a new operating system called Fuchsia but not much is known about it. Early evidence indicates that the new operating system might be a catchall OS that can run on computers, mobile devices and even Internet of Things devices. So far, Fuchsia consists of some work on Google’s code repository and on the GitHub code-sharing Web site. News of the new OS emerged from a page that surfaced on GitHub. There has been no official confirmation

Major U.S. Hotels Hit by Payment Card BreachHEI Hotels & Resorts is warning guests who stayed at some of its properties that they might have had their payment card data stolen while making purchases at onsite restaurants, gift shops and spas. The security breach affected 20 properties, including some Marriott, Starwood, Sheraton and Westin hotels, at various times between March 1, 2015 and June 21, 2016 according to the hotel chain. First reported to the chain by its card processor, the

A federal appeals court yesterday ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) overstepped its bounds when it issued an order to preempt state rules limiting the development of municipal broadband networks in Tennessee and North Carolina. The decision was welcomed by the telecom industry, which has in some places fought against city-led efforts to expand broadband services to more people. Supporters of local broadband expressed disappointment and called the ruling a setback for expanding Internet access to underserved areas of the

Users like the convenience of Google’s Drive suite of applications, but the Docs, Sheets and Slides apps haven’t received high ratings from mobile users, especially when it comes to using them to make tables and charts. However, an update to the Docs, Sheets and Slides apps for Android released this week aims to make them easier to use than ever. For instance, when users copy a body of cells in Sheets and paste it into Docs or Slides, the selection will

While Salesforce didn't shout from the rooftops about its recent decision to acquire the "living document" platform provider Quip, it clearly sees big potential in integrating Quip's offerings into its own. Quip, a four-year-old San Francisco-based tech firm with just about 40 employees, is on track to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Salesforce, which is paying an estimated $750 million for the company.Since news of the transaction emerged with Salesforce's August 1 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission,

Despite recently weakening consumer sales for both the iPhone and iPad, Apple devices and software have enjoyed a growing presence in business enterprises. Out of net sales of nearly $234 billion in 2015, some $25 billion came through sales to large business customers, according to Apple's most recent annual report, released in October. While those sales were just a small fraction of the company's overall revenues, they grew by 40 percent over enterprise sales in 2014, significantly more than Apple's overall

The newest smartphones in Samsung’s Galaxy line come with contactless mobile payment capability. That’s good news when it comes to convenience, but it might be bad news when it comes to security. During a presentation given recently at the Def Con security conference in Las Vegas, a computer science student demonstrated a variety of attacks against Samsung Pay, Samsung’s mobile payment service.The attacks Mendoza described were able to intercept or fabricate payment tokens, which are the single-use codes created by users'

A reported data breach affecting retailers using Oracle's Micros point-of-sale systems could be linked to a Russian hacking group that stole up to $1 billion from banks in 2014. The attack on Oracle's computer systems and Micros customer portal first came to light on July 25, according to IT security writer Brian Krebs. That's when a Micros customer contacted the KrebsOnSecurity blog to report "a potentially large breach at Oracle's retail division."We reached out to Oracle for a comment on the

Eyeing the opportunity to grow its e-commerce sales, Walmart today announced it will shell out $3.3 billion to acquire the online retailer Jet. Since launching a year ago, Jet has grown rapidly to reach $1 billion in merchandise sales. While Walmart dominates the brick-and-mortar retail ecosystem in the U.S., its online sales trail that of its greatest e-commerce competitor, Amazon. In 2015, Amazon reported net sales of $107 billion, while Walmart's online sales came to $13.7 billion, compared to its total

Recently uncovered security flaws could mean trouble for owners of devices that run the Android operating system. Researchers at security firm Check Point recently discovered the vulnerabilities, together labeled Quadrooter, which may affect as many as 900 million Android devices. Speaking about the discoveries last week at the Def Con security conference in Las Vegas, Adam Donenfeld, Check Point's lead mobile security researcher, revealed four new privilege escalation exploits that can be used to remotely gain root access to Android handsets.To

Software security firm Symantec has identified a group called Strider that's aiming spying-related malware at individuals and organizations in Belgium, China, Russia and Sweden. Apparently active since at least late 2011, Strider has kept a low profile and could be a nation-state attacker, Symantec said. Strider uses "stealthy," hard-to-detect malware called Remsec that provides backdoor access to infected computers for stealing data, logging keystrokes and other actions, according to Symantec. The organization appears to be highly selective, with only 36 attacks

Nobody likes managing passwords -- remembering, maintaining and regularly changing them is a chore that most computer users avoid. Now, Canadian software developer AgileBits is aiming to make that chore easier -- or at least cheaper. AgileBits' 1Password password manager now has a new subscription plan for individuals. AgileBits' family and team password management platforms have been successful, so now it has introduced a service that’s aimed at individuals for use at work or at home.Simple and Safe The Toronto-based AgileBits is