Business, Financial & Legal - Page 112

To counter package theft, and make e-commerce shopping and delivery easier, San Francisco Bay Area startup Doorman will deliver packages to customers. The service costs $4 per package, or frequent ecommerce buyers can pay $19 or $29 per month for the silver and gold packages. Deliveries are made from 6:00PM until midnight, currently available only in San Francisco.

"Once it arrives, we notify you on your phone and then you use the Doorman app to schedule a delivery on your phone until midnight, seven days a week," said Zander Adell, Doorman founder.

Doorman is designed to make it more convenient for residents to receive their packages, while also helping prevent against theft. Throughout some parts in the Bay Area, package theft - taken off house porches and from apartment doorsteps - as thieves tend to take packages while people are away from their house in the afternoon.

Apple has become the first company to jump over the $700 billion milestone, thanks to a rise in shares pushing them to this evaluation earlier today.

Apple shares experienced an almost-one percent rise this morning in the US market, seeing them now valued at $119.75 and meaning their market capitalization was made equal to around $701.7 billion.

This marks a massive 48% rise in 2014, with constant improvement seen since April. Reportedly due to Apple claiming they will go to extra measures to boost their share price, they announced its first stock split in nine years - claiming it would buy back another $30 billion in stock. This coupled with a quarterly dividend raise has shown massive success for the tech giant.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) wants Visa and Mastercard to "recommit their efforts" in the evolving fight against illegal activity online. And the focus isn't on counterfeiting or gambling - it's dedicated to online copyright infringement.

Following the demise of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the RIAA and MPAA have gone back to the drawing board in their continued fight against Internet piracy. Political lobbying remains an active objective that won't go away, with the group's calling upon politicians to continue pressuring companies.

Here is what Leahy said (via press statement):

Sometimes as a boss, you've got to be sitting there in your executive chair wondering what your staff are doing at that exact moment. Are they planning world domination, are they doing hard work or are they on Reddit?

Well, if they're discussing that "ludicrous display last night" (See: IT Crowd) over instant messaging app 'Slack' - they could now be in some hot water. Slack's upcoming paid Plus plan includes a handy new feature named "Compliance Exports".

Announced to the public on Monday, Compliance Exports will make you feel like more of a vicious dictator than ever before, allowing management to peak into their employee's private communications - public and private. They've also included the ability to edit your workers messages or mark them for deletion - helping manage any conversation as you see fit.

Popular image board Reddit has made their "Ask Me Anything" platform an extremely popular way for celebrities, politicians and persons of interest to talk to members of the public through an 'ask and tell' type scenario. However, there are times when this simple instance of self-promotion can go extremely wrong, or very right. The last time we saw such a blowout in /r/IAmA was that of Woody Harrelson's PR agent pretending to be him, which was a massive contrast to hilarious offerings like lil Jon's "sleep or police".

As described in a wrap-up Reddit post by Reddit user Fluffy017, "it goes about as well as you'd expect". The general population of Reddit can be seen as 'internet activists', with many instances being reported of them achieving things such as financing Kickstarter campaigns all the way to getting a NASCAR car sponsored by their popular 'Doge' meme.

Net Neutrality is a hot topic among this online board and defined as defined as "the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication." Basically meaning, certain companies could receive an unfavorable advantage simply due to their positioning. market share or who's income they decide to supplement.

30 years later, Susan Kare has listed reproductions of the famous Apple Mac Pirate Flag on her website for sale. Originally flying back in 1983, these hand painted copies will be sold at a price of up to $2,500 US.

Kare was originally assigned the painting of this flag near the beginning of Apples existence, the design said to be inspired by a slogan of the late Steve Jobs to inspire his team. It was an amalgamation of three sayings tied into one and read: "Real artists ship. It's better to be a pirate than join the navy. Mac in a book by 1986."

Steve Capps, a Macintosh programmer suggested that Jobs convert this into a symbol - a flag. The birth of this object has been described as: "LA few days before we moved into the new building, Capps bought some black cloth and sewed it into a flag. He asked Susan Kare to paint a big skull and crossbones in white at the center. The final touch was the requisite eye-patch, rendered by a large, rainbow-colored Apple logo decal."

The legal battle between NVIDIA and Samsung is really heating up now, with Samsung firing back at NVIDIA with a lawsuit, complaining to the US International Trade Commission to block sales of NVIDIA's GeForce and Tegra products.

We don't know which parts Samsung took under consideration, but the dispute does name many third-party device makers that sell GeForce-powered goods. Video card designers would be hit first, with companies like EVGA now in hot water. Tegra-based devices would be affected too, which isn't as big as the GPU side of things, but it's still going to affect NVIDIA if it happens.

Bloomberg spoke with NVIDIA, which said that it hadn't looked at the complaint just yet, but the company "look[s] forward" to going to the ITC with its own dispute.

Activision has announced that Call of Duty has generated over $10 billion in sales worldwide, with the company saying that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the "biggest entertainment launch of the year".

It had been previously reported by analysts that the Call of Duty franchise was in decline, but Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg has said that "Preorders are a good barometer for day one, but I don't think they reflect the overall demand for the product". During the announcement earlier today, Hirshberg said: "Sales and engagement are up through the first week compared to last year. Season Pass sales are up, as well. The game has been very positively reviewed and the response from fans has been tremendous".

Activision also added that the new Call of Duty is the highest-selling digital launch in console history, too.

It looks like Apple has requested Foxconn, which is the largest device manufacturer in the world, to build a new $2.6 billion facility just for the production of displays for its various iDevices.

Apple reportedly wants to have its hands-on an Innolux factory, the display portion of Foxconn, to only make displays for its iPhone, iPad and other popular-selling products. Innolux has been a company that Apple has reportedly been tapping to make the 4.7-inch displays for the iPhone 6. Sophia Cheng, a Public Relations representative for Foxconn's Display Unit, Innolux Corp., said: "Equipment installation will commence next month with mass production of panels to start by the end of 2015 after an urgent request for exclusive capacity".

Cheng wasn't aware if the deal had been signed or not, and Apple is keeping its mouth firmly shut about the deal. Considering Foxconn already has a couple of Apple-dedicated facilities in China, this would still be a first for the company; to have a factory making components exclusively for products for a single company.

Intel may be struggling in the mobile market, but things could change with the news that the chipmaker will soon combine its mobile divisions with its CPU-making division.

Bloomberg is reporting the news, after speaking with Intel's spokesman, Chuck Malloy, who said: "The lines are blurring between PCs, tablets, phablets and phones. The idea is to accelerate the implementation and create some efficiency so that we can move even faster". With Intel close to its goal of shipping 40 million tablet processors in 2014, the company still isn't hitting its stride when it comes to profitability in the mobile market, mainly because of its big subsidies to have them on-board in the first place.

Electronics company Sony is desperate to find ways to restructure and revamp its business offerings, as the company struggles to keep up with industry rivals. The company's PlayStation 4 continues to sell extremely well, but its high-definition TV (HDTV) sector and other units have greatly struggled. Meanwhile, Sony wants to prove it can turn its entertainment business around, so it is able to contribute to financial revenue.

Sony Music and Sony Pictures total 18 percent of the company's overall sales, which is ahead of Sony's mobile business unit. However, the company still strives for $4.8 billion to $5.2 billion from the music division, at a time when the music industry is still trying to adapt to digital music.

"I understand that everyone expects me to show how Sony can be changed into a highly profitable company... and to unveil a roadmap toward growth for the overall company," said Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai.

The US Marshals plan to auction another lot of 50,000 bitcoins, worth around $19 million, which were seized when the federal government shuttered the original Silk Road. The second auction is scheduled to run for two weeks, and a winner will be announced on Dec. 5. The second auction takes place five months after a lot of 30,000 bitcoins were sold off by the US Marshals.

The first auction was won by venture capitalist Tim Draper, and the value of bitcoins have dropped from $647 down to $384 - but should still draw fierce competition from bidders able to pay the required $100,000 deposit to the US Marshals.

The bitcoin cryptocurrency is becoming more appealing for businesses looking to accept additional payment methods from customers. However, widespread adoption by consumers and financial investors remains unknown, as bitcoins have a high volatility mixed with problematic acceptance of state and federal regulators.

Even so, a growing number of bitcoin-focused startups and businesses indicate a growing legitimacy that cannot be simply overlooked. The current value of a single bitcoin is $391.74, a fraction of the all-time $1,130 value it reached in December 2013, but investors urge potential investors to not lose faith.

"In terms of purchasing bitcoin for investment, we need to remember that bitcoin is still early in its adoption cycle," said Trevor Murphy, CTO of the BitStash bitcoin storage solution company, in a statement to TweakTown. "So, a portion of the current price of bitcoin reflects the future value and potential of bitcoin, and as such that value can and will fluctuate with sentiment, regulatory changes, and investor demand."

This is my third Ubisoft article for the day, and I'm only just beginning it - the developer has spoken with the BBC, telling the UK news outfit that it will be changing the way it works with game reviews, and gamers themselves.

A spokesperson for Ubisoft told the BBC: "We are working to adapt our services and communications with consumers accordingly, both by changing the way we work with reviewers and by offering customers open betas or other early access to some games, all so that they have the information they need and want". The spokesperson said that the issues are coming from the launch of Assassin's Creed: Unity, where we saw late embargoes for the reviews - most likely to stop the negative press from getting out and affecting the launch, but as my 3-year-old daughter says: "too late".

The spokesperson added: "Having the online elements available and having populated world's is essential to creating a representative and complete experience for reviewers. Achieving this prior to launch is incredibly complex, which is why some games are being reviewed much closer - or as was the case with Destiny, even after - the game launches".

It seems that my week has been busy with bashing at my keyboard writing up various articles about Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed: Unity, but it's for a good reason: the world needs to know what's going on, and this sh*t needs to stop. Gamers are able to walk away with their hard-earned money, and not purchased the game, but the company's just blame piracy when this happens.

Well, Ubisoft might wake up when their stockholders start to notice sharp drops in their stock prices - with a massive 9% drop in Ubisoft stock after the launch of Assassin's Creed: Unity was met with a truck load of negative reactions and feedback across the world. We can see that the stock was alright up until the morning of Wednesday, 12th of November - and then it dropped harshly, just like the frame rate in Assassin's Creed: Unity.

Now we need to see if this will continue, or stabilize and return to norm. Gamers are pissed, and so are people like me, where I don't think Ubisoft should be able to get away with this. Promising something so grand, building Assassin's Creed: Unity from "the ground up" on next-gen consoles, and then launching the game - which was obviously not ready by any means - to gamers, at a very decent premium.

NVIDIA has just posted its Q3 fiscal year 2015 results, which ended on October 26, with some impressive results. The chipmaker has posted a Q3 revenue of $1.23 billion, which is up 16% year-over-year, while revenues are at $3.43 billion, up 15% year-over-year.

The company launched their second-generation Maxwell GPUs in the quarter, with the GeForce GTX 900 series performing, and selling well. NVIDIA's GeForce division also did well, which shouldn't be surprising, with their GPUs being the biggest revenue generator for the company. GPU sales were up 13% year-over-year, and quarter-over-quarter, with GeForce-branded GPU revenue up 36%. Gaming notebook sales are also up, more than double what they were last year. Tesla GPUs and GRID sales were also high, but no exact numbers were released.

NVIDIA's Tegra processor sold well over the three-month period, with a 51% increase year-over-year, with Tegra in vehicles being big business for NVIDIA. The company noted that over six million vehicles on the road right now have Tegra-powered infotainment systems. When it comes to mobiles, NVIDIA had quite a few products on the market with their chips: Shield, Google's Nexus 9 and some Chromebooks are powered by the company's Tegra K1 chip.

There will be quite a few of you shocked by this news, but Zalman are finished. The company has filed for bankruptcy in Seoul, after years of its owner, Moneual, bleeding billions of dollars out of the company. But this isn't the only part of the story, it is a full-blown conspiracy with layers of details.

Futurelooks is reporting that former Moneual employees are now dishing out the goss, with these insiders saying that CEO Harold Park, VP Scott Park, and VP Won Duck-yeok working out a deal between them that would see Zalman "produce inflated sales and fabricated export data, allowing the company to qualify for increasingly large bank loans". This worked well for the trio, as over five years, the company were able to secure $2.98 billion in loans under false pretences.

The documentation, which was fraudulent, showed that parts were exported to the US "since the finished product is larger and more expensive" than the parts themselves. This trick allowed the company to false quality for bigger loans, but the ride is obviously over. Zalman Tech Co. Ltd has halted trading of its shares, with the company filing for bankruptcy protection in the Seoul Central District Court.

You might remember Rahul Sood as the founder of VoodooPC, especially when he cut his birthday cake with that first-gen MacBook Air all that time ago. Well, Sood has left his post at Microsoft, to form his own gaming company known as Unikrn.

Sood took to his LinkedIn page where he said that he's leaving a dream job, but adds that "this is the kind of crazy shit entrepreneurs do (or at least I keep telling myself that!". Sood started VoodooPC, something that was purchased by HP in 2008, and has been a part of the gaming community since, even joining Microsoft as the GM of Xbox, but moved over to helping early stage startups.

In his blog post, Sood said that his "gaming past continues to drive unrest inside me, starting with Voodoo, and then advising various companies including Razer and Vrvana, and now...".

3DMark has been a staple of PC enthusiasts all across the world for over a decade, but the company behind it, Futuremark, has just been acquired by Underwriters Laboratories. Underwriters Laboratories is a safety testing organization, based in the US with offices in 46 countries, which analyzes the safety of technological products and their components.

General Manager of UL's Consumer Technology Division, Stephen Kirk, talked about the acquisition: "Embedded software is now an important part of product design. With an increased focus on mobility, we see more and more products being connected, making the Internet of Things a reality. Consequently, software quality is a significant driver of product safety and performance; and we believe that benchmarking is an important way to help our customers to improve the performance of their products". He continued: "This acquisition provides us with an opportunity to build a new business line in testing a wide variety of technological devices so they offer the performance, safety and privacy that consumers expect".

What does UL have planned for future Futuremark products? We should see more professionally-orientated packages, similar to what PCMark's suite offers. Futuremark's Chief Executive, Jukka Mäkinen, said: "In recent years, we've expanded on to new platforms, our software has been adopted by the European Commission and national governments, and we've welcomed more of the world's leading technology companies into our Benchmark Development Program. We've accomplished a lot on our own, but with UL, we're in an even better position to achieve our goals".

Comcast will pay $50 million to end an 11-year-old class-action overcharging lawsuit that was filed by angry Philadelphia customers. The lawsuit was filed on December 8, 2003, and originally wanted $875 million from the cable giant.

The payments, credits and free upgrades will be issued to subscribers in Philadelphia and four other local counties - and will help out current and former subscribers from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2008, according to legal documents.

Plaintiffs will receive a measly $15 payout, as just $16.67 million will be paid out in cash or customer credit - including four months of free Internet service upgrades, six free pay-per-view movies two free months of The Movie Channel, or one free month upgrade to Extreme 105 service.