BlackBerry manufactures 'self-destructing' phone

<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdXDzjaY5rv9DbColMwKVxZMZb-CVXlykXVYtz9rpcBYNg26Hu2GPA1kZdkVkneJMPtpbQJKMk8Gh074rnFNfTbvrCIbL0xvoGrZAgpvnBhLEf1DX7rxgGTn2oOTztXt6_SsnwGpUUY7zG/s1600/bbclassic_3140575b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdXDzjaY5rv9DbColMwKVxZMZb-CVXlykXVYtz9rpcBYNg26Hu2GPA1kZdkVkneJMPtpbQJKMk8Gh074rnFNfTbvrCIbL0xvoGrZAgpvnBhLEf1DX7rxgGTn2oOTztXt6_SsnwGpUUY7zG/s1600/bbclassic_3140575b.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry will help Boeing with its self-destructing “Black” phone, designed for government agencies with a need for secrecy.<o:p></o:p></span></div> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The device has been in planning since 2012 and is thought to include biometric scanners for security and a special tamper-proof case which will wipe all data if anyone tries to open it and access the components inside.<o:p></o:p></span></div> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">It will also encrypt all phone calls to prevent – ironically –the sort of digital eavesdropping practiced by the same government agencies which will ultimately be customers.<o:p></o:p></span></div> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">BlackBerry has also created BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES 12) which will allow large companies to keep devices from other manufacturers such as Apple or Samsung secure, regardless of what operating system they use.<o:p></o:p></span></div> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">"We're pleased to announce that Boeing is collaborating with BlackBerry to provide a secure mobile solution for Android devices utilising our BES 12 platform," said BlackBerry chief executive John Chen in a conference call.<o:p></o:p></span></div> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">"That, by the way, is all they allow me to say."<o:p></o:p></span></div> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">It is not known what role Boeing will play in the creation of the phone, but it is used to working on sensitive government contracts because of its history in aviation.<o:p></o:p></span></div> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">It was revealed last year that the President of the United States,</span><b><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></b><b><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://www.infotechnews.org/2013/12/barack-obama-banned-from-having-iphone.html" target="_blank">Barack Obama, uses a BlackBerry</a></span></span></b><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">and is banned from using Apple's iPhone for "security reasons".<o:p></o:p></span></div> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Because the iPhone does not have the appropriate level of security clearance, the President reportedly uses older BlackBerry models. In December 2012 he was pictured using a BlackBerry Bold 9900.<o:p></o:p></span></div> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> </div>

Nexus 6: bigger than brilliant

<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpbeZ9g4jTFmE0k9o_7BMT8v7OdNdhH6NX9KEGn9F0zaiCL8fIRzhCFIQjemXVj_QLDaZIlm-KGT4r76zPvPxyKicI2W-vZPj_8YD_6wKJihMlyXB1ZKCQe9J_hZCjdlPk6Hcskn7Noriw/s1600/Google-Nexus-6-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpbeZ9g4jTFmE0k9o_7BMT8v7OdNdhH6NX9KEGn9F0zaiCL8fIRzhCFIQjemXVj_QLDaZIlm-KGT4r76zPvPxyKicI2W-vZPj_8YD_6wKJihMlyXB1ZKCQe9J_hZCjdlPk6Hcskn7Noriw/s1600/Google-Nexus-6-3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">When Google launched its latest Nexus mobile phone, staff encouraged journalists to think of its biggest handset yet not as a mobile, but as a device through which to access the internet. The shift in mindset is reasonable as fewer and fewer of us use phones primarily for making calls: does it matter so much if a phone looks ridiculous held up to your head when it’s so seldom in that position? And isn’t it more important the screen is bigger and better for the increasingly commonplace activities of watching films and using apps?<o:p></o:p></span></div> <br /> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <strong><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Design</span></strong><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /> So far, so plausible. But we can’t always use two hands for our phones. With a 5.96” display and at 83mm wide, the Nexus 6 is firmly in phablet territory. Made by Motorola, it draws on the lovely design of the Moto X, with its curved back and premium feel. At the larger size, however, the curve only slightly helps users to keep hold of the phone. A dimple for the ‘M’ logo provides extra stability, but there’s no getting away from the fact this is an enormous device. Whether you like it will come down to personal preference and the size of your pockets or handbag. At 186g, its weight is significant but not excessive.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-at1DHRMTDZzG6BH9X2bAGIcsvbaRgQt_7inpYa7esgW0m0xghWVrdN8lsPa-jL5b8wtFmlMDjf6v-pebG2T_WwYOMQX3HUGSdV0rhhgyQiKZlECNvC3lBg7IYTDWJAj7edr6kxF_LMyq/s1600/Nexus6-Press-01-580-90.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-at1DHRMTDZzG6BH9X2bAGIcsvbaRgQt_7inpYa7esgW0m0xghWVrdN8lsPa-jL5b8wtFmlMDjf6v-pebG2T_WwYOMQX3HUGSdV0rhhgyQiKZlECNvC3lBg7IYTDWJAj7edr6kxF_LMyq/s1600/Nexus6-Press-01-580-90.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <strong><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Display and sound</span></strong><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /> Where that enormous screen comes into its own however, is with its AMOLED display at a resolution of 2560 x 1440 (493ppi). That’s the same as the Galaxy Note 4 and the LG G3, but here at a fractionally lower density because of the larger screen size. All in all, however, it means that the blacks are deep and the whites are white enough; watching a film, even with auto-brightness on, is compelling. If you’re one of those awful people who prefers to blast music through a phone's speakers rather than using headphones, the Nexus 6 won’t disappoint you. If you want to use it discretely as a speakerphone, it’s more than adequate.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <strong><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Performance and software</span></strong><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /> Like its predecessors, this Nexus doesn’t bother with a MicroSD slot, but it does include a battery that lasts the day in typical use (finally), wireless charging and a ‘turbo charger’ that will get you to 60 per cent in just half an hour. All of this adds up to hardware that matches design for excellence.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">A blazingly fast Qualcomm chip – seen in just a few phones before – makes the new Android Lollipop software feel faster than any previous version of Android. And when it comes to software, the Nexus 6 is the first handset to officially offer Lollipop. That means massively improved design, with big solid flat colours, neat animations and easy access to settings such as the torch and wifi connections. Offering none of the clutter from Samsung or HTC, it’s a neat experience. In an act of insanity, however, Google has killed the total silent mode, offering only a rather noisy vibrate option if you turn the volume down. Coupled with bugs that precipitate unprompted rebooting, albeit only occasionally, Lollipop is an upgrade rather than a revelation.</span><strong style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></strong></div> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <strong><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Camera</span></strong><b><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /> </span></b><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">A 13MP camera with optical image stabilisation and 4K video is rather let down by Google’s own camera app, which lacks the bells and whistles of Sony or HTC. But it does offer HDR and good performance in good light; anything away from that, however, and this is the weakest area for a phone that is aiming to rival the 6 Plus or the Z3. On the front, 2MP is selfies-only territory.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <strong><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Conclusion</span></strong><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /> Nexus handsets were conceived as great, cheap devices, and Motorola too has talked about ‘democratising’ technology by making it cheaper. It’s surprising, then, that the Nexus 6 is a full-priced handset, which might justify its price by its size and swanky features. To a degree it does, but its hard to escape the feeling that, in essence, if you want a big phone you’ll like this one – and if you don’t there’s little extra here to win you over.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> </div>

The biggest technology flops in history

<div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;"> <b><span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Apple Newton <o:p></o:p></span></b></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIPI-ZrS1J1ocwfgUaDWufo6YSxUYscWsjZP8o1BhH5RzzS-O8xAgeVb2CAcC_l4SAdxiP99Na3mABbjlWoPdGwuBcxD_pxLaNFXjq5H1dtPnVrqg3DsLFYJiozYNEP1HQYRvVT5a_2t0X/s1600/ZREE.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIPI-ZrS1J1ocwfgUaDWufo6YSxUYscWsjZP8o1BhH5RzzS-O8xAgeVb2CAcC_l4SAdxiP99Na3mABbjlWoPdGwuBcxD_pxLaNFXjq5H1dtPnVrqg3DsLFYJiozYNEP1HQYRvVT5a_2t0X/s1600/ZREE.PNG" /></a></div> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Bad products, good products that had bad luck and everything in between. Matthew Sparkes looks at the biggest technology flops of all time. First up is Apple's earliest foray into mobile computing.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"> <span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Long before the iPhone or the iPad were on the scene, in the late 80s, Apple launched the Newton PDA. In total the project cost Apple $100m but this was never rewarded with strong sales. In the end the project was cut, to be revived in spirit - if not hardware or software - when the iPhone and iPad emerged many years later.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <h1 style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Dreamcast<o:p></o:p></span></h1> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaY7o-Dd82IQT4PtaHD4EoeCNZ4lrLYqtnoq_VsJnnj1ysLBYfLf0eBQAhtZx7hzhuIqCyHaR85jtMdS-zmLSVau2BbyDY5qbUr3cq1IpHmI_KRo0FutkKmT5mQ7uHW5ghGk9Up2iLHWBG/s1600/cg.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaY7o-Dd82IQT4PtaHD4EoeCNZ4lrLYqtnoq_VsJnnj1ysLBYfLf0eBQAhtZx7hzhuIqCyHaR85jtMdS-zmLSVau2BbyDY5qbUr3cq1IpHmI_KRo0FutkKmT5mQ7uHW5ghGk9Up2iLHWBG/s1600/cg.PNG" width="400" /></a></div> <div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <span style="background: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Sega's Dreamcast was released in Europe in 1999, ahead of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox that it was going head-to-head with. But the might of Sony's marketing machine meant that it never made much headway. Even several price cuts didn't help. It was eventually cancelled and Sega has never made another console to this day.</span><o:p></o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <span style="background: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span></div> <h1 style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Segway<o:p></o:p></span></h1> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg38x30YCSkcY8QPwlr_I4qfsB9NK_YYrZpODFsGCPoPe-2GTae_AB3n8sM9viGnmV3-Ap2FcuiFmRIbJtW2BK0_dxw1skU2HHJmVrhHO488wxS2niN-atFjZUU8GntmcHpJsHPW3eCyPmb/s1600/segway.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg38x30YCSkcY8QPwlr_I4qfsB9NK_YYrZpODFsGCPoPe-2GTae_AB3n8sM9viGnmV3-Ap2FcuiFmRIbJtW2BK0_dxw1skU2HHJmVrhHO488wxS2niN-atFjZUU8GntmcHpJsHPW3eCyPmb/s1600/segway.PNG" width="640" /></a></div> <div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <span style="background: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Prior to the launch of the Segway all that the public knew was the codename, Ginger, and that Steve Jobs thought it was "as big a deal as the PC". When a self- balancing, two-wheeled vehicle was released it was met with curious interest, until people realised how expensive they were. Regulatory issues proved to be another nail in the coffin. In the UK they're unlawful to use anywhere except private property: you can't take them on the pavements or the roads. Today they're used for sightseeing tours and little else.</span><o:p></o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <span style="background: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span></div> <h1 style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Sinclair C5<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></h1> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAX3ubBie6dC0eNSeZf6MSN1ACkez4mmZ5GLdoL_t1yFi2pLW-RoXeNi97xf-JVZe8wyrnbp6Oxd-zkO65SnyT69F0n9yxhqY8jxUp1yfg3IXtqCSIHtzX524F4OvfVXQUEU0OA8AxKNhS/s1600/JYJ.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAX3ubBie6dC0eNSeZf6MSN1ACkez4mmZ5GLdoL_t1yFi2pLW-RoXeNi97xf-JVZe8wyrnbp6Oxd-zkO65SnyT69F0n9yxhqY8jxUp1yfg3IXtqCSIHtzX524F4OvfVXQUEU0OA8AxKNhS/s1600/JYJ.PNG" width="400" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="background: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Long before the Segway came the Sinclair C5, designed as a revolutionary new vehicle for a congested island. However, it's low top speed, short range, lack of weather protection and low height which proved intimidating in traffic, meant that it was received rather poorly when it launched in 1985.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="background: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="background: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span><br /> <h1 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"> <span style="background: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> <span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Apple Maps<o:p></o:p></span></span></h1> <span style="background: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifarjTXyhBo2T7rPTGru222IbUwUlyXkTrDkq7KBD8FMZTbO5J8Nod23Te9mFrcsVoMJ0ybYBjbWU9x6zvaIwwgjbb-TiKG5Q36JArqT3q5K6xm0X2rGQ378M0jsuaqUXj3dq-9uYAa2WT/s1600/appp.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifarjTXyhBo2T7rPTGru222IbUwUlyXkTrDkq7KBD8FMZTbO5J8Nod23Te9mFrcsVoMJ0ybYBjbWU9x6zvaIwwgjbb-TiKG5Q36JArqT3q5K6xm0X2rGQ378M0jsuaqUXj3dq-9uYAa2WT/s1600/appp.PNG" /></a></div> </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="background: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"> <span style="background: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Apple developed its own map service to rival Google Maps, and tightly bound it into iOS. If you click on an address on your iPhone it's now Apple Maps which opens up. But it was<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #ffc000; text-decoration: none;">plagued with problems at launch</span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="text-align: start;">. There were unmarked roads and buildings were incorrectly labelled. Tim Cook took the drastic step in 2012 of suggesting on the Apple website that customers use another product while the software was improved. The manager in charge of the project was eventually removed from his position by the company.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div> <span style="background: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></div> <h1 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"> <span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Windows Vista<o:p></o:p></span></h1> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD8KDo09gJ-XaHpCtKGjeAZDbqlcT9cXXA15YBSB1di53BnwsPnViqSmpHqspOcalbjkTUMW1qdyDEYh0dcqWOJUDg5oouLPFyjgzVKD3ZkVj_pNDZcBiq5mGA2pbmCVxXiZNLIXeNupZb/s1600/windows-vista-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD8KDo09gJ-XaHpCtKGjeAZDbqlcT9cXXA15YBSB1di53BnwsPnViqSmpHqspOcalbjkTUMW1qdyDEYh0dcqWOJUDg5oouLPFyjgzVKD3ZkVj_pNDZcBiq5mGA2pbmCVxXiZNLIXeNupZb/s1600/windows-vista-logo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <div> <span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"> <b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Vista was Microsoft's attempt to give Windows a total facelift. It wasn't received well. PC World rated it as the biggest disappointment of 2007. There were problems with privacy, performance and security. It was also criticised for being too expensive, costing around £100 in the UK</span></div> </span><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"> <o:p></o:p></div> </div> </div>

Thousands' of Wordpress websites infected

<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge8hWHQoLld_k6i2e-ZnVfYpw_qx7MYnraeqO_VNv9bMQfYxb7W_ZkfJQRHNOpW3yIKhVIl5XWa5w3fNdKZ6VMgKgDmVUjczUZ92PDqJxett5uicc3mpKtR9LblQWP7jOcnHzogWQ_RzuH/s1600/cyber-attack-hacker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge8hWHQoLld_k6i2e-ZnVfYpw_qx7MYnraeqO_VNv9bMQfYxb7W_ZkfJQRHNOpW3yIKhVIl5XWa5w3fNdKZ6VMgKgDmVUjczUZ92PDqJxett5uicc3mpKtR9LblQWP7jOcnHzogWQ_RzuH/s1600/cyber-attack-hacker.jpg" /></a></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Hundreds of thousands of websites running Wordpress have been infected by a piece of malware called SoakSoak via a third-party plug-in, even though developers knew about the vulnerability at the beginning of the year.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The attack has prompted Google to flag more than 11,000 domains hosting a Wordpress website as malicious. The software is an open source tool for managing content which is used by a huge number of websites. As of August 2013 it was behind 23.2 per cent of the top ten million websites around the world. It is thought that more than 60m websites use Wordpress.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Now it seems that websites running a third-party plug-in called Slider Revolution are being hacked, and malicious code is being installed that will in turn infect those who visit the website. The developers of the plug-in, ThemePunch, have admitted that they knew about the vulnerability in February this year but kept quiet about it.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Instead of making a public announcement it quietly developed 29 security fixes from February to September, resisting a public call for action because of a “fear that an instant public announcement would spark a mass exploitation of the issue”.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The company had hoped that most users would install these updates, solving the problem, but it now admits that this was “sadly not the case”.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“We as a team would like to apologise officially to our clients for the problems that arised [sic] due to the security exploit in Revolution Slider Plugin versions older than 4.2</span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">,″ <b><a href="http://www.themepunch.com/home/plugin-update-information/"><span style="color: #ffc000; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">it says on its website</span></a></b></span><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Security firm Sucuri said in a </span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://blog.sucuri.net/2014/12/soaksoak-malware-compromises-100000-wordpress-websites.html"><b><span style="color: #ffc000; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">blog post</span></b></a></span><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> that the attack was having an impact on “hundreds of thousands” of Wordpress websites.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“We cannot confirm the exact vector, but preliminary analysis is showing correlation with the Revslider vulnerability we reported a few months back,” it said.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Slider Revolution is an $18 Wordpress plug-in which offers advanced image display options.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The malware looks set to hang around for some time as the plug-in will not automatically update in all situations, such as when installed as part of a custom theme package.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Some have already taken steps to remove the malicious code, such as Kristina Hunter who runs dulfy.net. She tweeted: “There was a malware inject affecting multiple Wordpress sites. We have removed the bad files but it may take a bit for warnings to go away”.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Only self-hosted Wordpress installations are at risk. Anyone using<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">Wordpress.com</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>will be safe and no further action is necessary. The developers of the website were not available for comment at the time of writing.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <br /> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> </div>

Instagram dusts Twitter with over 300m active users

<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4tbBgsHBk8VsjDxEVknb1kEF7HBKmJx55fAH5Vw_OQ_YoQdnQvcqENSZPF9oHhpIqBPcKDCuf_ULEtqgDp1R2lTUcXgQt_XDUmvE7pah-p3FZraCwo6DArkYr2LxvYzpt4CtCfu2eAwGs/s1600/instagram_twitter.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4tbBgsHBk8VsjDxEVknb1kEF7HBKmJx55fAH5Vw_OQ_YoQdnQvcqENSZPF9oHhpIqBPcKDCuf_ULEtqgDp1R2lTUcXgQt_XDUmvE7pah-p3FZraCwo6DArkYr2LxvYzpt4CtCfu2eAwGs/s1600/instagram_twitter.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 17.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Instagram now has a bigger active user base than Twitter, according to a blog post written by CEO Kevin Systrom. The photo and video sharing platform has over 300 million active users, more than Twitter’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.theverge.com/web/2012/12/18/3780130/twitter-now-has-more-than-200-million-active-users-every-month" target="new"><span style="color: #ffc000;">284 million</span></a></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">but a far cry behind parent company Facebook’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/23/5930743/facebooks-new-stats-1-32-billion-users-per-month-30-percent-only-use-it-on-their-phones" target="new"><span style="color: #ffc000;">1.3 billion</span></a>.</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> Systrom also says that those users are uploading more than 70 million photos and</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.techcityng.com/videos/" title="videos"><span style="color: #ffc000;">videos</span></a></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">per day.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 17.25pt;"> <span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Not only does Instagram now have more users, it’s also growing at a faster rate than Twitter. Instagram has doubled the amount of its active monthly users since last fall, when the service passed the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/8/4708738/advertisements-are-coming-to-instagram" target="new"><span style="color: #ffc000;">150 million mark</span></a>.</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> Twitter reached 200 million active monthly users in December of 2012, but it has seen its growth slow since then while also being passed by services like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger — both of which have over 500 million.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 17.25pt;"> <span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Aside from the numbers, Systrom also talks about renewing Instagram’s focus on authenticity in the face of spam accounts — something the service </span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">has<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/3/6097891/its-your-face-its-your-photos-meet-the-new-creepy-breed-of-instagram-spambot" target="new"><span style="color: #ffc000;">had problems with</span></a> </span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">recently. “Keeping Instagram authentic is critical—it’s a place where real people share real moments,” he writes. To curb these problems, he announced that Instagram will soon be rolling out verified badges for celebrities, athletes, and brands. It’s a logical step after the company added a “People” search tab to the Explore section of the app<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://blog.instagram.com/post/102294612077/discovery-and-caption-editing" target="new"><span style="color: #ffc000;">last month</span></a></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div> <div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 17.25pt;"> <em><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Source: theverge via</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></i></span><em><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.appy-geek.com/Web/ArticleWeb.aspx?regionid=3&articleid=33082559" target="_blank"><span style="color: #ffc000;">AppyGeek</span></a></span></em><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div> <br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> </div>

Sony PlayStation Network Hacked Again

<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvm_aTScSB7XshZLGnXgMLW5cGwK9CQCAecxICXs_Is8CYZRrSGMsGqVaILZiiclIgijetc7bxtxuftkp3PlkdcZ2vqtHtSGA2dSgMVjPu6zz31ybLYuukgnPYa00_c-PAOCbmcniralMO/s1600/jkdf,dk.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvm_aTScSB7XshZLGnXgMLW5cGwK9CQCAecxICXs_Is8CYZRrSGMsGqVaILZiiclIgijetc7bxtxuftkp3PlkdcZ2vqtHtSGA2dSgMVjPu6zz31ybLYuukgnPYa00_c-PAOCbmcniralMO/s1600/jkdf,dk.PNG" width="400" /></a></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sony has been hit by another hack -- the PlayStation Network and store has been targeted and taken offline.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Although the online store for games, films and TV shows seems to be back up and running once again, visitors to the site were brought to a halt on Sunday night with a message reading, "Page Not Found! It's not you. It's the Internet's fault." Gamers have also reported difficulties while trying to play online games.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sony says only, "We are currently investigating the root cause for the issue."<o:p></o:p></span></div> <br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">An anonymous individual or group calling itself </span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="https://twitter.com/LizardPatrol/status/541751366297743360" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #ffc000; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Lizard Squad has claimed responsibility</span></b></a></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> with a tweet late on Sunday reading "PSN Login #offline #LizardSquad".<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHCHYfAibxha6ZJCb8g5TciBXUPzTpJGAYQj_a1XySPy-EPyaM53FWpG7u8j9jA5fk-1ZPfekSm3SfviA2rls76xi2C5oC10TTJDsQij8EuLLW1TyYX5UM6rRXgW6OD5GXyVI5Xr9_dtIR/s1600/xad.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHCHYfAibxha6ZJCb8g5TciBXUPzTpJGAYQj_a1XySPy-EPyaM53FWpG7u8j9jA5fk-1ZPfekSm3SfviA2rls76xi2C5oC10TTJDsQij8EuLLW1TyYX5UM6rRXgW6OD5GXyVI5Xr9_dtIR/s1600/xad.PNG" /></a></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">The latest hack comes less than a week after Sony celebrated the </span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><b><span style="color: #ffc000; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">20th birthday of the PlayStation games console</span></b></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">. As well as building games consoles and selling games, Sony has a movie studio, which fell prey to hackers last month. A cache totalling more than 100 terabytes of </span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><b><span style="color: #ffc000; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">internal Sony files and films was stolen</span></b></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> in that attack.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">The information included customer passwords, Sony employee's Social Security numbers, and contracts with celebrities. A number of forthcoming Sony movies including "Annie", "Mr. Turner" and "To Write Love On Her Arms" were also leaked.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Some had speculated that the North Korean government may have been motivated to hack Sony in retaliation for the forthcoming comedy film "The Interview", about a plot to assassinate the country's leader, Kim Jong-Un. The North Korean government on Sunday <b><span style="color: #ff8b00; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">denied responsibility for the attack</span></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">However in the early hours of today Sony confirmed via its twitter account that the issue has being fully resolved  <o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicAQxdLfiVfeKq26ZAB5k5wxoJ5b8o9m2_pKDgLbpV9b7AJ9mkWIXmKZMmG4CvYkuhz4ROrSrwB0SRyRMZ-1E6rBdxtvHD56tjsePW5ZjOzCkA825cir9OgBlvCY1jWxSv7pmJ74OBQBsO/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicAQxdLfiVfeKq26ZAB5k5wxoJ5b8o9m2_pKDgLbpV9b7AJ9mkWIXmKZMmG4CvYkuhz4ROrSrwB0SRyRMZ-1E6rBdxtvHD56tjsePW5ZjOzCkA825cir9OgBlvCY1jWxSv7pmJ74OBQBsO/s1600/Capture.PNG" /></a></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div> </div>

Angry Birds developer Rovio lays off 110 staff

<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5kgMjkk29BkRDQwMcw0OE6FQfiOEsMTo7L3jc8Pg6AOXvxxvF32TlXa0Ag4UE8oDdYYBoxyfbKdnRju3tYcS0-NTcK9QiLE_QQMQsvppisI_kTc4oAYi1lTs50R2K7AswepBeepsn2JpT/s1600/angry-birds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5kgMjkk29BkRDQwMcw0OE6FQfiOEsMTo7L3jc8Pg6AOXvxxvF32TlXa0Ag4UE8oDdYYBoxyfbKdnRju3tYcS0-NTcK9QiLE_QQMQsvppisI_kTc4oAYi1lTs50R2K7AswepBeepsn2JpT/s1600/angry-birds.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rovio has announced that it will be making 110 staff -- of a global workforce of around 800 -- redundant in a company "reorganisation", as well as closing up its game development studio in Tampere, Finland.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">The cuts, which were initially announced in early October, were fewer than anticipated, Rovio said.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Rovio Entertainment Ltd has concluded employee negotiations announced on October 2nd this year. As a result, Rovio will reduce its workforce by less than the previously planned 130 employees," the company wrote in a</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.rovio.com/en/news/press-releases/587/rovio-employee-negotiations-concluded" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #ffc000; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">statement</span></b></a>.</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Rovio estimates that its workforce will be reduced by approximately 110 employees. As part of its reorganisation, several positions have been opened for internal applicants. The final number of employees impacted depends on how many of these new positions are filled. Rovio will consolidate all its Finland operations in Espoo, resulting in discontinuing the Tampere studio operations under Rovio."<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">The move follows the company's</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.rovio.com/en/news/press-releases/495/rovio-entertainment-reports-2013-financial-results/" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #ffc000; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">financial report</span></b></a></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">earlier in the year, where it announced that its net profits for 2013 -- €26.9 million ($33 million)-- had more than halved from the net profits for 2012, which came in at €55.5 million. At the time, CFO Herkko Soininen attributed the drop to investments outside mobile gaming.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">The company shot to prominence in 2009 with the release of Angry Birds for mobile, although it had previously developed a variety of games for other platforms. After the release of Angry Birds, however, the company concentrated most of its efforts around that franchise. It followed up with Angry Birds Seasons in 2010; Angry Birds Rio in 2011; Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Star Wars and Bad Piggies in 2012; Angry Birds Friends, Angry Birds Star Wars II and Angry Birds Go in 2013; and Angry Birds Epic, Angry Birds Stella and Angry Birds Transformers in 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">In addition, it launched its own cartoon channel, which hosts its own Angry Birds cartoons: Angry Birds Toons, Piggy Tales and Angry Birds; as well as physical toys, a board game and other merchandise such as</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="https://www.angrybirds.com/drinks" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #ffc000; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">soft drinks</span></b></a></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">and</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.fazer.com/our-brands/fazer-angry-birds/" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #ffc000; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">candy</span></b></a>.</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">"After three years of very strong growth, 2013 was a foundation-building year. We invested in new business areas, such as animation and video distribution, ventured into new business models in games, and consolidated our strong market position in consumer products licensing. With these investments we have been gearing up for the future growing markets," Soininen said.<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Angry Birds developer will retain its game development studio in Stockholm, Sweden, as well as its headquarters in Espoo, Finland, and its branch offices in Shanghai, China, Santa Monica, Calif., Seoul, South Korea, Tokyo, Japan and London.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">Source:<a href="http://www.cnet.com/news/angry-birds-developer-rovio-lays-off-110-staff/" target="_blank">Cnet</a></span></div> </div>

Apple Buys Beats by Dre

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mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <br /> <div style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><strong><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Apple</span></strong> is not a business known for buying the success of others: while <strong><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Google</span></strong> has bought companies such as Nest, which makes smart smoke alarms and thermostats, and <strong><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Facebook</span></strong> has bought photo-sharing service Instagram, Apple has confined itself to developing its world-beating products in house and buying only rather little firms. </span></div> <div style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">That all changed late on Thursday night when reports <strong><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">emerged that Apple had rekindled 2013 discussions about buying Beats</span></strong>, the headphone and music streaming company, for more than $3bn. A <strong><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">video later emerged</span></strong> on Instagram and Facebook – and was quickly deleted – of co-founder, rapper and producer Dr Dre and fellow musician Tyrese Gibson: “The Forbes List just changed”, they said, talking about the American list of the super rich which currently places Dre as the second-richest rapper, worth a mere $550m. As the pair put it, “Billionaire boys club for real”. </span></div> <div style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">There are several reasons why Apple might be interested in Beats: since the advent of the iPod and subsequently the <strong><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">iPhone</span></strong>, sales in headphones and accessories such as Bluetooth speakers have boomed. Beats can cost more than £300, and the value of the headphone market as a whole reached more than £5bn last year, spent on 284m units according to Futuresource. Beats is the brand that has captured a huge part of the market with its simple but conspicuous style; an emphasis on bass from Dre himself has suited the rise in urban music too, while also attracting a certain audiophile snobbery. The market overall will grow by 5pc or more over each of the next five years, and Beats is currently more than a quarter of it. </span></div> <div style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2dJbbAZdRN_7CCnnpdAS6R8dP_bdpKLCMvvalQrSh8FKAJ1YUha_WpJEfIcLh12gTMAcfjwR1icj08aWpothycXM17WeUaQI03vZpcQoP2ULXx2TsnqxD42XOTJ646ckTzlDIa-by7TLP/s1600/APPLE.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2dJbbAZdRN_7CCnnpdAS6R8dP_bdpKLCMvvalQrSh8FKAJ1YUha_WpJEfIcLh12gTMAcfjwR1icj08aWpothycXM17WeUaQI03vZpcQoP2ULXx2TsnqxD42XOTJ646ckTzlDIa-by7TLP/s1600/APPLE.jpeg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">But it’s not just hardware: much of Beats $1bn income now comes from its 200,000 music subscribers, many of them garnered through a lucrative deal with American phone network AT&T. With Apple’s revenue from iTunes music downloads now in decline, it would be advantageous to have a vehicle through which to challenge Spotify and other services that charge users annual subscriptions to rent access to vast, global collections of music. </span></div> <div style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">There is, however, a third factor: Apple has $150bn in cash available to spend. Although it’s not likely to go on an acquisition spree, spending 2pc on a new company with the urban cool some fear analysts could be losing would not do it any harm. With Beats expertise in designing wearable technology, it might even help Apple with future products such as the long-awaited iWatch </span></div> <div style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">SOURCE: <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/10820432/Apple-takes-a-bite-out-of-Beats.html" target="_blank">Telegraph </a></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> </div>

Samsung ordered to pay Apple £70m in patent lawsuit

<div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8UKHH52p9V6ifF4PsM_8fUqVwlS0aO8bXzRqQAI5i8ExNtlSPC568J2tB0cwdqXDVhoS0AVJBJLKRc5WdcLGqLzXCnOlQ9uuP5_qkA7wL35LzxRsFPA9N8hENDw66qOFf05QSHuL1D0YV/s1600/apple_2319707b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8UKHH52p9V6ifF4PsM_8fUqVwlS0aO8bXzRqQAI5i8ExNtlSPC568J2tB0cwdqXDVhoS0AVJBJLKRc5WdcLGqLzXCnOlQ9uuP5_qkA7wL35LzxRsFPA9N8hENDw66qOFf05QSHuL1D0YV/s1600/apple_2319707b.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #404040; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial; 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gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">A California jury awarded Apple $119 million (£70 million) - far less than it demanded - in a patent battle with Samsung over alleged copying of smart phone features.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The verdict Friday was a far cry from the $2.2 billion Apple sought and the $930 million it won in a separate 2012 trial making similar patent infringement claims against older Samsung products, most of which are no longer for sale in the United States.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The jury found that <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/"><b><span style="color: #234b7b; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Apple</span></b></a> had infringed one of Samsung's patents in creating the iPhone 4 and 5. Jurors awarded Samsung $158,400, trimming that amount from the original $119.62 million verdict. Samsung had sought $6 million.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">"Though this verdict is large by normal standards, it is hard to view this outcome as much of a victory for Apple," Santa Clara University law professor Brian Love said. "This amount is less than 10 percent of the amount Apple requested and probably doesn't surpass by too much the amount Apple spent litigating this case."</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The award may be adjusted slightly in favor of Apple. Jurors were ordered to return to court Monday to continue deliberations on a minor matter that could result in a higher award for Apple. Because the jury was still empaneled, jurors were prevented from talking publicly about the case.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Samsung spokesman Lauren Restuccia declined comment, citing the ongoing deliberations.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Apple declared the verdict a victory.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">"Samsung willfully stole our ideas and copied our products," Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said. "We are fighting to defend the hard work that goes into beloved products like the iPhone, which our employees devote their lives to designing and delivering for our customers."</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Unlike the first trial in San Jose federal court in 2012, Samsung lawyers made Google a central focus of their defense. Google makes the Android software that Samsung and other smartphone manufacturers use as their operating systems. Samsung argued that Google was Apple's real target.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">More than 70 percent of smartphones run on Android, a mobile operating system that Google Inc. has given out for free to Samsung and other phone makers</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Both companies will now try to urge the judge to remove the others products from store shelves in the United State. Love and other experts say that neither company is expected to succeed with those demands.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">"So far Apple has been unsuccessful at doing so and, without a sales ban, this case is unlikely to move the needle on the larger battle between Apple and Android," Love said.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The verdict marked the latest intellectual property battle between the world's top two smartphone makers. Apple and Samsung have sued each other in courts and trade offices around the world.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Apple and Samsung are locked in a bitter struggle for dominance of the $330 billion worldwide smartphone market. Samsung has become the leader of the sector with a 31 percent share after being an also-ran with just 5 percent in 2007. Apple, meanwhile, has seen its market share slip to about 15 percent from a high of 27 percent three years ago.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The jury of four men and four women delivered its verdict in the latest case after beginning deliberations on April 29.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">During the monthlong trial, Apple argued that many of the key functions and vital features of Samsung phones were invented by Apple. Samsung countered that its phones operate on the Google Android software system and that any legal complaint Apple has is with the search giant.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Google entered the smartphone market while its then-CEO Eric Schmidt was on Apple's board. The move infuriated Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who considered Android to be a blatant rip-off of iPhone innovations.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">After removing Schmidt from Apple's board, Jobs vowed that Apple would resort to "thermonuclear war" to destroy Android and its allies. At the recent trial, Samsung attorneys produced an email Jobs sent to executives in 2010 urging them to wage a "holy war" against Android in 2011.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Early in deliberations, the jury wanted to know if Jobs had mentioned Google when considering the lawsuit that was eventually filed in 2012, several months after the Apple founder died of cancer.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">US District Judge Lucy Koh told jurors no additional evidence was available to them beyond what was presented during the trial.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Koh answered similarly to questions about Samsung's chief executive officer's reaction when informed that Apple executives had complained to executives at the South Korean company about alleged patent infringement.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Source: <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10805830/Samsung-ordered-to-pay-Apple-70m-in-patent-lawsuit.html" target="_blank">Telegraph </a></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> </div>