Business, Financial & Legal - Page 111

Steve Bellone jumped quickly to his own defense after his Twitter account was seen 'following' pornstar Belle Knox - claiming the account was hacked. This County Executive claimed that Mrs. Knox made his shortlist of only 267 people 'followed' through a hijack of his professional account, not by his own means.

Possibly worried about his election campaign Bellone, a father of three, is up for re-election in 2015 and has made clear that this news is solely due to a Twitter hijack of the controversial Knox - who has been seen in headlines recently due to being exposed thanks to a fellow Duke University student shedding some light some extra-curricular activities relating to her employment.

Bellone's spokeswoman, Vanessa Baird-Streeter, publicly stated that "County Executive Bellone's Twitter account, which is operated by his staff, has been hacked and an obscene Twitter account was subsequently followed," further mentioning that "a formal complaint has been filed with Twitter and to the third-party software used to assist in managing the account. His staff has instituted stricter security protocols to ensure an incident like this does not happen in the future."

"Your genetic code is the correspondence between the 20 types of amino acids and the 61 types of messenger RNA triplets (codons, representing DNA) that specify them," explains Gizmodo in a recently published article.

If you're not sure what to set for your next password and your general spiel of letters, numbers and symbols aren't doing it for you - maybe it's time you tried genetic code. These codes are said to give you nearly infinite password outputs, helping ensure hackers steer clear from your precious Farmville and Candy Crush trophies.

These genetic condons spell the same amino acids to all organisms. "The RNAs of humans, hydras, hippos, hydrangeas,Haemophilus influenzae, and even viruses follow the same rules," explains Gizmodo, further mentioning that the reason human proteins are manufactured in bacterial cells is because everything follows the same rules.

Sony is currently removing any trace of The Interview from social networks, with The Interview's Facebook page gone, and the Twitter account isn't far behind that. There were 1800+ tweets on The Interview Twitter account, all of which have been deleted.

This comes after North Korea being blamed as the source of the hack by the US government, but not long after the country asked if the US government would join a joint operation to find out who exactly did this. The FBI and the Obama administration have yet to have replied to North Korea's offer, but I'm sure that can't be too far away now.

BlackBerry's revenue dropped 34 percent during its fiscal third quarter, posting a net loss of $148 million, ending Q3 with $3.1 billion in cash. It may seem like a major financial loss, but the Canadian smartphone maker lost $4.4 billion during Q3 last year, and was a slightly smaller loss than reported during Q2.

The company expects it to take a "couple of quarters" before sales begin to increase, as BlackBerry still struggles to compete against the Apple iPhone - and smartphones from Samsung and other manufacturers using Google Android.

Here is what Chen said during the financial call: "Things are happening. I'm encouraged that they are happening, but I wouldn't say that all things are well. I mean we still need a lot of work and a lot of attention and working well together and that's what I'm spending most of my time on."

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has just implemented a ruling that transactions completed in the digital crypto-currency Bitcoin are liable for the Goods and Services Tax (GST), however it's still not classified as 'real money'.

This ruling reads "a transfer of Bitcoin from one entity to another is a 'supply' for GST purposes" with further research into the release commenting that anything involving Bitcoin "will be treated as a barter transaction," still rendering it as not 'real' money. This follows previous reports of this Australian organization claiming Bitcoin to be used for 'barter' only and not classified as a legitimate currency.

Firthermore in the ATO's release, they stated that "Bitcoin is not a legally recognised universal means of exchange and form of payment by the laws of Australia or the laws of any other country. Therefore, it is not 'currency (whether of Australia or of any other country)' under paragraph (a) of the definition of 'money'."

Markus "Notch" Persson is spending some of those billions that Microsoft paid for Mojang, buying a $70 million mansion, which just so happened to be the most expensive house in Beverly Hills.

The John Aaroe Group announced the sale, a record $70 million, with the following press release: "Persson's purchase included everything in the house from luxury furnishings to exotic electronics such as the automated 54-foot curved glass door in the living room that opens onto an infinity pool with iPad-controlled fountains and spectacular views. Cases of Dom Perignon were part of the deal."

Notch's new digs are pretty damn nice, with the house taking up a massive 23,000 square feet. The $70 million mansion features "vodka and tequila bars, a candy room, an 18-seat tiered screening room, a state-of-the-art kitchen and an exquisite 18-foot onyx dining room table for 24 that includes place settings by Roberto Cavalli at a cost of $3,700 each. Three high-definition 90-inch television screens bring panoramic views of Los Angeles from the roof into the down stairs lounge - especially breathtaking at night, says De Los Reyes. Art pieces include a replica of James Dean's motorcycle and a chromed Ma Deuce machine gun. On a conventional note, the home has eight bedrooms and 15 bathrooms all equipped with Toto Neorest toilets at a price of $5,600 each."

An undercover BBC investigation revealed ongoing poor working conditions of employees inside of factories manufacturing Apple products. At a Pegatron factory manufacturing iPhone 6 smartphones, there were routinely broken guidelines, with workers' hours, dormitories, work meetings, juvenile workers and ID cars being breached in day-to-day operations.

Not surprisingly, Apple "strongly disagreed" with conclusions from the investigations - despite video showing employees falling asleep during 12-hour shifts. One employee worked 18 consecutive days, despite previously asking for a day off. A different worker had to work a 16-hour shift and said that he or she wouldn't want to move, and just wanted to lie down and rest: "I was unable to sleep at night because of the stress."

Here is what Apple noted in a statement: "Worker safety and well-being are our top priorities. We set very high standards, conduct rigorous training for managers and workers, and have external auditors regularly visiting our facilities to find areas for improvement."

Major retailers, banks and start-ups are reportedly jumping on the Apple Pay mobile payment bandwagon, according to recent media reports. TD Bank, USAA, Commerce Bank, Barclaycard and SunTrust are financial institutions willing to test Apple Pay, while Staples, Albertsons and Winn-Dixie are retailers also interested.

"Retailers and payment companies see Apple Pay as the implementation that has the best chance at mass consumer adoption, which has eluded prior attempts," said Patrick Moorhead, president f Moor Insights & Strategies, in a statement to the New York Times. "They believe it will solve many of the problems they had before with electronic payments."

Apple keeps its numbers confidential, but it appears there is growing adoption among iPhone owners - Whole Foods says there have been more than 150,000 Apple Pay transactions in the past three months. Meanwhile, Apple Pay has accounted for 50 percent of McDonald's mobile payment transactions last month.

Purch, a "leading content and commerce company" has announced it has acquired AnandTech for an undisclosed sum of money. Purch is the company that acquired Tom's Hardware all those years ago. AnandTech will reportedly remain "editorially independent" from the deal.

AnandTech's current editor-in-chief, Ryan Smith, said "AnandTech has grown by leaps and bounds over the past several years, but we were nearing what's possible as an independent company. The challenge has always been that there are very few players in the publishing space these days who value deep, high-quality content. We wanted a partner that understood our values, had a sound business model to ensure AnandTech's legacy would continue for years to come, and would allow us to grow and expand our readership without compromising the quality that made us who were are today. Purch provides all of these things. I am beyond excited about what we'll be able to do with their support."

Anand Shimpi, who now works for Apple and was the founder of AnandTech in 1997 when he was just 14 years old, said "AnandTech represents much of my life's work over the past 18 years. I am happy to see it end up with a partner committed to taking good care of the brand and its readers. I wouldn't have had it any other way."

Time has partnered with Coinbase to begin accepting bitcoin payments for digital and print subscriptions of Fortune, Health, Travel + Leisure and This Old House. This is a major victory for Coinbase and the bitcoin community, as Time's online and print media reaches 130 million consumers every month - and surely some of them own bitcoins.

"We are always looking for ways to make it easier for consumers to engage with our brands and this pilot program will give bitcoin users a seamless and simple way to purchase subscriptions," said Lynne Biggar, executive vice president of consumer marketing and revenue at Time, in a press statement. "We hope to expand our partnership with Coinbase in the coming months to create more opportunities to provide greater value to our customers."

Bitcoins continue to be extremely volatile, with value fluctuating as many investors question its long-term financial stability. However, that doesn't mean retailers and other businesses have shied away, as they want to accept whatever payment methods its shoppers use.

The Australian government have proposed curriculum changes to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority - making computer coding and computational thinking a mandatory part of the countries Year 10 curriculum.

This news is well received by the Australian Computer Society as this positive information comes to light after the ACS and StartupAus joined forces with either other industry bodies fighting against a the proposed recommendation to only allow a dedicated technology subject in Year 9 Australian Schools - now it looks like the children may be learning more and over a longer period of time.

As we've recently reported on President Obama writing his own little bit of code, it helps signify the global 'new-age' of technology that we're currently experiencing. This is where basic and intermediate computer skills are becoming a necessity in this day and age with many professional and unskilled 'real-world' jobs and workplaces requiring you to have some form of computer knowledge - this bill helps solidify the improvement in education working toward preparing the children for the workforce.

There was a very brief error on Amazon UK's site that saw thousands of sales of third-party goods that were sold for just $0.01, with the glitch originating from Amazon Marketplace's Repricer Express between 7-8PM GMT on December 12.

Amazon issued a statement about the problem to Sky News shortly after the error took place, saying "we are aware that a number of Marketplace sellers listed incorrect prices for a short period of time as a result of the third party software they use to price their items on Amazon.co.uk". The retail giant has announced that most of the orders that were placed, have since been cancelled.

The piece of software in question is a subscription service that monitors Amazon pricing continuously for the lowest price, and then sets sale prices on items that a user sets as something they're after. Up to 60,000 item prices can be changed per hour, with the constant re-pricing there to maintain the lowest prices to give a seller the best change of being in Amazon's prized "More Buying Choices" box.

Sweden may have finally dropped The Pirate Bay off the map earlier this week, but Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) wondered why the Obama Administration wasn't able to remove the "illegal enterprise operating out of Sweden" even sooner.

Sen. Whitehouse Googled "pirate movies" and quickly found a link to The Pirate Bay via Google, apparently leaving him frustrated.

"There are ways in which these companies could go to court and try to knock this stuff down," Sen. Whitehouse recently said. "There are ways in which prosecutors can have discussions with companies about aiding and abetting offenses, and being accessories to offense. There's a lot that can be done in this area, it seems to me."

Qualcomm is reportedly letting go of a decent chunk of its worldwide staff, with 158 jobs in San Diego being cut, and up to 100 elsewhere around California. On top of that, we have around 600 jobs in total being let go from Qualcomm's global workforce.

Then, a nice source pointed us in the direction of a thread on Reddit by "lgotlaidoff" who said "Just got fired today. Upto 1500 people to be fired in coming weeks. The "600" number that they are talking in media is pure BS".

A spokesperson from Qualcomm said in a statement: "We regularly evaluate our businesses to determine where efficiencies can be obtained and priorities addressed. On occasion, that requires we adjust the size or skill mix of our work teams in order to shrink or eliminate some projects and start and grow new projects". The layoffs will begin on February 11, 2015 according to a filing by the company with the California Employment Development Department.

Steve Jobs was said to begin his Apple enterprise in his parents garage, located in Los Altos, California. This 'birthplace' of Apple was conducted throughout the spring of 1976. However, Apple's original co-founder Steve Wozniak has just let slip a little more truth to this claim, stating that it's not exactly 100% correct that this dingy garage location was where the Apple I and Apple II products were designed, developed and eventually presented to the world.

In a chat with Bloomberg Businessweek, he told Brandon Lisy that "The garage is a bit of a myth", further commenting that "We did no designs there, no bread boarding, no prototyping, no planning of products" and "We did no manufacturing there. The garage didn't serve much purpose, except it was something for us to feel was our home".

Commenting on why garage start-ups are legendary in Silicon Valley and why they were such a necessity in the 70's and onward, he stated "We had no money. You have to work out of your home when you have no money".

Foxtel and Channel Seven (Seven West Media) are teaming up to support a Netflix-competitor option, Presto. We've recently broken the news that Netflix is looking to launch down under early in 2015, set to provide competitively-priced online streaming of popular movies and TV shows - this news comes to light as local offerings show a desperate need to 'keep up with the times', continue generating profit and maintain their market share.

In response to Netflix's coming, popular Australian cable company Foxtel have teamed up with 'Free TV' Channel Seven to provide their content on top of the library already offered by Presto. There haven't been any TV shows officially announced for this new service yet, however according to their release they will provide a "broad range of locally commissioned and internationally acquired content including drama, comedy, factual and entertainment programming."

Presto will currently set users back $9.99 per month, with speculation hinting that this pricing will not fluctuate once this partnership is underway. Also set for a launch around March 2015, which service are you more likely to operate with?

Sony is not having a good week, with the hacking scandal reaching Sony Pictures Entertainment employees, and their families. Employees of the company have received e-mails from these hackers, directly threatening their families. Sony has reportedly told these employees to turn off their smartphones after receiving the e-mail.

It has been two weeks since the company was hacked, with hackers releasing passwords, e-mails, details on cast and crew members of Sony's productions, business documents that included salaries, and media files from employees' computers, and much more. A poorly-written e-mail was sent to Sony Pictures Entertainment employees, saying: "Please sign your name to object the false of the company at the email address below. If you don't, not only you but your family will be in danger".

The "Guardians of the Peace", or GOP, are the hackers behind the scandal, but we don't know their identities yet. North Korea has been a suspect for a while now, with the malware that broke into Sony's network looking like malware used in an attack in Seoul last year, as well as the Shamoon "wiper" malware.

The latest reports from Nikkei is that Sony will not be renewing its large contract with FIFA for sponsorship, with the Japanese electronics giant to spend the money on structural reforms.

Sony started sponsoring FIFA back in 2005, with the company signing an eight-year contract worth $277 million. Nikkei is reporting that Sony was involved with sales and marketing in over 40 soccer tournaments during that time, something that included the bigger 2010 and 2014 World Cup matches.

Sony has been experiencing some massive hurdles lately, with an operating loss of $766 million in October, riding on the back of the 13.5 million PlayStation 4 consoles being shipped from its Games and Network division. Not only that, but the company has increased its loss forecast to $2.15 billion in September, after it downgraded its mobile and smartphone business by a large $1.68 billion. The company has also restructured its TV division, and sold off its VAIO PC brand back in February, too, which saw 5000 jobs cut from the company.

We still live in a world controlled by mostly 28nm technology, but 20nm is popping its head over the horizon, and 16nm is floating in over that same mountain. Samsung has reportedly moved into volume production of its 14nm FinFET technology, which is a big deal.

Samsung will be building its next-gen Exynos processor on its own 14nm process, but both Apple and AMD will be benefiting from Samsung's super-small process. Intel is moving toward the mass production of 14nm 3D transistor technology, with its Broadwell-based Core M processors already shipping, but Samsung is right behind them ready to go for AMD, Apple and of course, itself.

Comparing 14nm against 20nm, we can expect the core area to be reduced by 15%, reduced power consumption by up to 35%, or an increase in processor frequency of 20%. Samsung will be the first to use its 14nm process, but I'm sure Apple will be right behind it with its upcoming A9 processor, which Samsung will build for its arch rival. So we can expect Apple's next-gen iPhone to have Samsung's technology at the heart of it, again.

The Internet of Things market is growing rapidly, and is attracting more attention from US technology and telecoms buyers, according to the Hampleton Partners' report. More than $9.4 billion has been spent since 2011 to help acquire IoT suppliers, with a whopping $5 billion of that spent during 2014 so far.

Expect to see Intel, Texas Instruments, Juniper Networks, Johnson Controls and AT&T become more active in acquiring - and creating partnerships - that will help bolster their IoT product lines. There will be an estimated 28 billion Internet-connected devices by 2020, and a global market valued at more than $7.1 trillion - and that figure will only grow as reliable Internet continues to be expanded worldwide.

Meanwhile, IoT will be one of the fastest growing market segments, and spending to support the blossoming market is expected to be $59 billion by 2020. Such wide market growth presents excellent opportunities for manufacturers, especially by releasing consumer technology solutions.