Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 121

For those who still use BlackBerry's Messenger app there has been an update that most will enjoy, Uber has become a in-built service within the app making for fast Uber calls and easier access.

It may seem strange as to why Uber and BlackBerry want to collaborate on what seems like a not so popular app let alone phone brand but for those wondering it is because currently there are 60 million users using the app in Indonesia alone, making it the most used app in the country.

Also, this update compliments the current surge in self driving vehicle services that India is going through right now, according to a report from Google and Temasek, 40 percent of the industry in South East Asia will become a ride-hailing business.

Obsidian has taken to their developers forums to address the question of whether micro-transactions will or will not be featured in the new Fallout Developers game, the simple answer which Obsidian them self gave is "no."

Obsidian has posted a short and sharp answer concerning the use of micro-transactions throughout their new game, they said that "No micro-transactions, of any kind, in our game" and continued by saying that their new found partnership with Take-Two Interactives Private Division has not influenced their creativity and vision of the game at all but instead benefited it greatly.

"We also wanted to say a word about our partnership with Private Division, our publisher on this title. Far from "pushing" us to put anything -- microtransactions or otherwise -- into our game, Private Division has been incredibly supportive of our vision, our creative freedom, and the process by which we work to make RPGs. They have been fantastic partners, and we are extremely excited to work with them through release, to put what we know is going to be an amazing game into as many hands as possible."

Google started a trade-in programing leading up to the launch of the Pixel 2 with a goal in mind of lowering the initial cost of their flagship phone. This new program is a great idea but complaints across the Pixel sub-reddit surfaced as people were not happy with the packaging Google was sending out for customers to send their phone back to receive the discount.

Until Google addressed this issue, plastic bubble wrap sleeves were sent out to customers that desired to trade-in their phone to acquire the discount but now Google has upgraded their packaging to new cardboard boxes lined with padded foam.

Feedback from the Pixel sub-reddit has generally be very good for this new change, with many people worried their phone would become damaged throughout the shipping process now can rest assured that they will receive their discount.

Titan companies such as Gooogle and Amazon don't always agree about their products and where they shall be sold but compromise is never out of the question as it usually benefits both parties. An example of this is Google pulling the YouTube application from all Amazon Fire TVs for punishment of not selling Chromecast on Amazon.

Google pulling YouTube from Amazon Fire TV seems like a ransom kind of move but when titan companies are playing on the levels they are playing on big moves have to be made. YouTubes ransom seemed to work effectively as Amazon has decided to re-list Chromecast on the Amazon market.

Here is what a Google spokesperson had to say:

A man named Noah Dinkin has taken to Twitter after coming across a piece of code installed on his laptop once connected to the Buenos Aires Starbucks. Dinkin tweeted Starbucks but before doing that noticed that there is a 10 second delay before your laptop is connected, this window of time would be the installation and starting process of mining.

In Dinkins tweet he addressed that this kind of free Wi-Fi service is a "little off-brand" and also that the store in Buenos Aires was not the only store doing this and in-fact that there was three separate stores which Dinkins went to that all did the same thing.

This may seem suspicious but Starbucks claims that this is not their fault and blame should be turned to their internet providing companies, this is what they told Motherboard "Last week, we were alerted to the issue and we reached out to our internet service provider - the wi-fi is not run by Starbucks, it's not something we own or control,"

Julio Casal is the co-founder of a identity intelligence provider called 4iQ, this company recently said in a blog post on December 8th that they have come across a database of 1.4 billion accounts details.

Casal has said that his company has identified the "largest aggregate database found in the dark web to date." This data base is two times bigger than the previously largest credential exposure which came in at 797 million usernames and passwords. Casal has called this file "an aggregated, interactive database that allows for fast (one second response) searches and new breach imports."

According to 4iQ's blog post, a simple search of 'admin', 'administrator' and 'root' returned a total of 226,631 cleartext passwords in just a matter of seconds. Verified by 4iQ through testing of the data base and the billions of passwords found was the unfortunate conclusion that these passwords are in fact true records.

Last month Lyft announced that their company was taking their service international, marking their very first expansion to another country other than the United States. Lyft is expanding their service to Canada, more specifically the capital city of the country Toronto.

Lyft will be brining their full service to Canada which includes Lyft Plus, Lyft Premiere, Lyft Lux and Lyft Lux SUV. Users of this service will be able to hail rides to and from Toronto's Pearson Airport which in turn will directly compete with the already taxi service there as well as Uber. Lyft might just be able to squeeze into the market though, as the company has racked up a whopping 100 million rides within three months, compared to taking four years to get to that figure the first time.

It will be no surprise if Lyft decide to lower ride fares and surcharge fees for the first couple of months that they are getting set up in Toronto, this would encourage the immediate use of the Lyft service rather than users turning to their typical Uber or legacy taxi.

Nintendo has said in a press release that the Nintendo Switch since the release of the console on the third of March this year has finally surpassed 10 million units. That number is quite an achievement as the time frame from those sales is not a large one, in comparison Sony's PlayStation 4 which needed around 10 months to reach that milestone back in 2014.

Not to long ago Nintendo said that it expected Switch sales to surpass the sales of the Wii U and now the company has said that this December they are planning to release more consoles to consumers for them to enjoy over the Christmas holidays. What contributes to the sales of the Nintendo Switch is their win at the Games Awards with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild and also the success of Super Mario Odyssey.

With this success it can be assumed that the Switch sales are not going to be slowing down over the festive season, what will be interesting though is if the sale percentage will stay strong heading into next year.

The transportation market has been overrun by Uber in Australia as cabs are beginning to slowly phase out of peoples first choice for a ride home. This of course is due to the convenience of Uber, but now Uber might have a challenge on their hands, Taxify is attempting to crack into the market by launching in Sydney, Australia with 4,000 drivers signed up already.

Markus Villig, the founder and CEO of Taxify has said in a statement"Sydney is a huge and vibrant city, and we are eixcited to launch in the Australian market. We are confident that locals are looking for an alternative ride hailing option, and Taxify is committed to providing both riders and drivers with what they want"

He continued by saying "We have based our business model on fairness and transparency, and it is because of this that we have had so many drivers sign up to Taxify in such a short space of time."

Boss Key Productions co-founder Arjan Brussee has left his studio to join Epic Games to collaborate on a new "Secret Project." This was confirmed in a tweet by the other co-founder at Boss Key, Cliff Bleszinski, who said that Brussee is "not only a brilliant person but also a dear friend and I wish him well in his future endeavors. Onward and upward--still makin' games here!"

Earlier in his career Brussee actually worked for Epic Games then left the company to make Guerrilla Games and establish titles such as the Killzone series and the game of the year nominee Horizon: Zero Dawn.

It is unclear whether the departure of Brussee has anything to do with the current player-base of LawBreakers, since the release back in July the game might not of been as big as the studio would of liked which then in turn would of influenced Brussee to move onto something with larger potential - the "secret project" Epic Games is working on.