Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 121

All the latest Business, Financial & Legal news as it relates to tech, gaming, and science - Page 121.

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$32 million of Ethereum stolen by hackers

Anthony Garreffa | Jul 20, 2017 11:00 PM CDT

With all of the fluctuations surrounding digital currency and more specifically Ethereum, hackers were able to take a huge $32 million of Ethereum from Parity.

$32 million of Ethereum stolen by hackers

The hackers attacked a vulnerability of Parity, an Ethereum walelet that has implemented multi-sig wallets, securing 153,000 worth of Ether, valued at $32 million at the time of the theft. Parity posted a security alert on July 19, stating that the vulnerability had been fixed, adding "any user with assets in a multi-sig wallet created in Parity Wallet prior to 19/07/17 23:14:56 CEST" was still vulnerable to Ether theft.

Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood also founded Parity, with Parity quickly becoming one of the most trusted wallets available. CyberScoop has reported that a bunch of white hat hackers saved Parity users from even more devastation, taking the remaining multi-sig wallets that were filled with $75 million worth of Ether - a huge 377,000 worth. The hackers have promised to return the $75 million worth of Ethereum once the vulnerability has been fixed.

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Avast acquires CCleaner and Speeccy developer Piriform

Anthony Garreffa | Jul 20, 2017 8:30 PM CDT

Avast has just announced that it has acquired Piriform, the developer behind CCleaner and Speccy. The deal was announced over a year since Avast coughed up $1.3 billion to acquire its rival, AVG Technologies.

Avast acquires CCleaner and Speeccy developer Piriform

Piriform makes various device performance optimization software, but CCleaner is used by a huge 130 million people, and even 15 million users on Android. In November 2016, the developer announced CCleaner had been downloaded over 2 billion times, with a Piriform product installed over 23 million times per month.

Avast CEO Vince Steckler had the following to say about the acquisition of Piriform: "We see many commonalities between CCleaner and Avast, allowing for great new products for our user bases. Avast and CCleaner are the top two downloaded products on popular download sites. They are both known by advanced users as focused on performance, so we believe there will be a great interest from our CCleaner customers in using Avast security products and vice versa".

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Netflix pulls in 5.2 million new subscribers

Derek Strickland | Jul 18, 2017 2:14 PM CDT

Netflix has announced strong second quarter earnings, causing stocks to rally due to strong subscription growth.

Netflix pulls in 5.2 million new subscribers

Streaming juggernaut Netflix continues to grow: the company recently announced that it broke the 100 million subscriber barrier in its second quarter, with 104 million current members. Netflix reports boosts in revenues and subscribers, but weathered a 50% drop in operating income.

The titan raked in $2.78 billion in total revenues in the three month period ending June 30, 2017, up 32.3% year-over-year from Q2'16. Perhaps the most impressive jump is how many new subscribers Netflix earned--the company beat Wall Street's outlandish estimates by pulling in 5.2 million new subscribers during the quarter, or more than 200% more new subscribers year-over-year.

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Xiaomi reports record smartphone shipments

Lana Jelic | Jul 7, 2017 7:06 PM CDT

Xiaomi has had some difficulties in the past, but it seems that's now behind them. The company has announced that the Q2 2017 was the most successful quarter for the company's history, so far.

Xiaomi reports record smartphone shipments

Xiaomi reported that the company sold 23 million phones globally in Q2 this year, which is 70% more than in Q1.

The company recently launched its flagship, the Mi 6, and several other phones. It is also expected that Xiaomi will launch the Mi MIX 2 sometime in the second half of the year.

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Qualcomm unleashes the dragon, wants to ban iPhone sales

Anthony Garreffa | Jul 6, 2017 10:43 PM CDT

Qualcomm is taking its legal battle with Apple to the next level, unleashing its flock of legal dragons and requesting that the US government ban new iPhones from being sold in the United States. Qualcomm is also seeking that a sales ban is placed on iPhones that are in the US right now.

Qualcomm unleashes the dragon, wants to ban iPhone sales

The creator of Snapdragon claims that Apple is violating on six patents that it holds, all to do with extending a smartphone's battery life. Qualcomm adds that none of the patents are essential to a standard, meaning it doesn't need to license them, as it is with other patents that Qualcomm and Apple are fighting over now. Qualcomm's General Counsel, Don Rosenberg, said in a statement: "Qualcomm's inventions are at the heart of every iPhone and extend well beyond modem technologies or cellular standards. Apple continues to use Qualcomm's technology while refusing to pay for it".

Qualcomm has now heightened the dispute with Apple, but there is a fair bit going on between the companies as it is. It all started with the Federal Trade Commission suing Qualcomm for anti-competitive practices in relation to sales of its smartphone modems, and then Apple jumped on filing a lawsuit which was very similar to the FTC. Apple expanded that lawsuit into two other countries, while Qualcomm slapped its own lawsuits onto the table against not just Apple, but it's suppliers.

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Mark Cuban invests in Unikrn's upcoming digital currency

Anthony Garreffa | Jun 29, 2017 9:32 PM CDT

Digital currencies are all the rage right now with global GPU shortages thanks to Ethereum mining, and just as I've reached 1.15GH/s with 46 graphics cards mining away, eSports betting giant Unikrn has landed the eyes of investor Mark Cuban.

Mark Cuban invests in Unikrn's upcoming digital currency

Cuban has announced he is investing in Unikrn, which is in the planning stages of its own token sale, where he said: "I want to learn more about them". He added that he hasn't "signed the paperwork yet. But it's likely it will happen". Unikrn is expected to roll out its initial coin offering (ICO) in September, which will be based on Ethereum. Ethereum mining is one of the hottest trends of digital currency this year, driving a global sell out of AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards.

We will be closely covering Unikrn's moves with its own UnikrnGold, a Unikrn currency based on ERC20, which will trade on all of the main crypto exchanges after the initial token sale.

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Doctor: use sunscreen when using phones or computers

Anthony Garreffa | Jun 29, 2017 8:29 PM CDT

Put your phone down. Turn your computer off. Sorry if you can't read this news, but your LCD is burning you... according to Dr Howard Murad, an American dermatologist to A-list stars like Taylor Swift and Jennifer Lopez.

Doctor: use sunscreen when using phones or computers

Murad claims that spending four days (not all at once) in front of screens that emit harmful blue rays, is equivalent to 20 minutes of sunbathing. Murad gave the remarks during a segment on This Morning, saying that we can better protect ourselves with sunscreen when using our smartphones, tablets, and computers. Certain sunscreens have an ingredient called lutein, while foods like goji berries have lutein, protecting you from these harmful rays.

It just so happens Murad is the owner of a multi-million dollar skincare range, urging viewers to eat foods that contain the sunscreen-like lutein ingredient, and to apply a tablespoon of lotion to your face before going out into the sun, or snapping a selfie, I guess. Murad said: "Look for sunscreen that contains lutein, because that helps protect from the blue rays. It's really important. It's something that you should be using".

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EU fines Google $2.7 billion for breaking antitrust law

Lana Jelic | Jun 27, 2017 12:23 PM CDT

The EU (European Union) has fined Google for a record $2.7 billion for tampering with results on Google Shopping.

EU fines Google $2.7 billion for breaking antitrust law

The decision came after seven years of investigation which concluded that Google abused its market position and fixed search algorithms.

The European Commission said in their ruling that Google has 90 days to "stop favoring its own shopping service or face a further penalty per day of up to 5 percent of Alphabet's average daily global turnover", reports Reuters.

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Samsung is close to the world's most profitable company

Anthony Garreffa | Jun 26, 2017 9:28 PM CDT

Whatever electronics device you own, it probably has something manufactured or made by Samsung in it, which would lead to the company eventually getting to the point where they are tipping towards becoming the most profitable company of Q2 2017.

Samsung is close to the world's most profitable company

According to ET News, Samsung will be showing off some record breaking numbers for Q2 2017 very soon, above the predicted $11.6 billion to $12.3 billion that analysts have Samsung pegged to announce. Samsung's main competitor Apple is poised to be under the South Korean's shadow in the financial fight with just $10.5 billion of earnings, very shy of Samsung's hefty lofts of $12 billion or more. Samsung hitting this amount would put them in the ballpark of the combined operating profits of tech industry giants Facebook, Google, Netflix, and Amazon - all expected to pull $11.1 billion.

Samsung's financial dominance comes from the fact that they have countless successful smartphones, tablets, notebooks, NAND, DRAM, AMOLED displays, and so much more. The likes of Apple and Google can't say that, especially in physical consumer products. Samsung, keep killing it.

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Google eyeing off massive new complex in San Jose

Anthony Garreffa | Jun 22, 2017 2:31 AM CDT

Google might dominate the internet, our smartphones, and everything in between but it seems that the company is looking at shuffling things over and opening up a new facility in San Jose, CA.

Google eyeing off massive new complex in San Jose

The San Jose City Council has agreed to negotiate the sale of 16 parcels of land owned by the city, with San Jose's mayor and vice mayor strongly supporting Google, but the residents of San Jose... not so much. Google's purported new facility would be separate to its campus in Mountain View, and would see the Diridon Station area of San Jose turn into a gigantic transit hub - including a Google village and up to 20,000 jobs.

If Google recices the go-ahead, the search giant would build somewhere between 6-8 million square feet of office space, and up to 3000 units of housing. There would also be a high-speed rail line and BART trains, as there's the Amtrak and Caltrain hub in San Jose. Google has teamed with partners securing land for months, with two property investor groups throwing $130 million onto real estate in the surrounding areas.

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