Business, Financial & Legal - Page 89

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.

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".

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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".

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Uber is stumbling out of control, with CEO Travis Kalanick stepping down from the company. The New York Times is reporting that a group of major Uber investors demanded Kalanick's resignation on Tuesday.

Kalanich eventually bowed to the demands after "hours of discussions", and will continue to stay on Uber's board and still has his hands-on a majority of voting shares. Kalanick said in a statement to the NYT: "I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors' request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight".

The Uber board said: "Travis has always put Uber first. This is a bold decision and a sign of his devotion and love for Uber. By stepping away, he's taking the time to heal from his personal tragedy while giving the company room to fully embrace this new chapter in Uber's history. We look forward to continuing to serve with him on the board".

For the hardcore Apple fans out there, you might be surprised to see that Heritage Auctions is planning to list a pair of prototype Apple sneakers that never made it to market, with the listing to hit eBay on June 11 starting at $15,000.

The sneakers feature the old school rainbow Apple logo, and were only handed out to employees at the time. The near-mint condition sneakers make them a near one-of-a-kind, which explains their $15,000 starting price. For those who collect Apple hardware, software, and well - clothes and shoes, this could be quite the steal.

Chinese smartphone manufacturer LeEco has announced that they will cut over 300 jobs at its US business, which is around 70% of its local force.

The cuts are being made to increase the company's investments in its home market. Last year, Jia Yueting said that the expansion to the US market had been too quick and costly.

The company made a bold entry into America, but they failed to market itself appropriately, which resulted in this situation. Additionally, they failed to secure additional funds to continue growing the US operations at their current capacity which led to the layoffs.

Uber has just unveiled its new spin-off to its ride-sharing service, something it is offering long-haul truckers: Uber Freight.

Uber Freight looks like it'll be very similar to Uber, but a truck driver can select a load to pick up in the app, work out the payment method, destination, and deadline. Within seconds, the truck driver receives the confirmation, and away they go. Uber explains: "We take the guesswork out of finding and booking freight, which is often the most stressful part of a driver's day. What used to take several hours and multiple phone calls can now be achieved with the touch of a button".

Truck drivers are protected with Uber promising payment within 7 days, and unlike normal Uber, the company won't be charging Freight drivers their normal commission. Uber Freight is available to both iOS and Android devices, with truck drivers requiring the right insurance, license, and equipment - of course.

If there was something that I'm excited for at Computex 2017 beyond my addiction to GPU technology with AMD showcasing their Radeon RX Vega graphics card at the show, it would be the curious party invitation from Qualcomm.

The invitation I received is to a joint Qualcomm + Microsoft shindig, where they're asking the press to "join us under the stars at Computex 2017". The rest of the invite reads: "munch, mingle, and raise a glass to celebrate the growing ecosystem that will bring an out-of-this-world mobile PC experience to the masses".

Interesting. Very, very interesting.

Qualcomm is hitting Apple in a totally new way starting today, with the mobile giant suing four of Apple's Taiwan-based contract manufacturers: Foxconn, Compal, Wistron, and Pegatron.

Forbes reports that Qualcomm is suing these four manufacturers for not paying royalities to Qualcomm for the patents on its smartphone tech, including IP on cellular modems - you know, 3G/4G are a big thing. Don Rosenberg, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Qualcomm said: "It is unfortunate that we must take this action against these long-time licensees to enforce our agreements, but we cannot allow these manufacturers and Apple to use our valuable intellectual property without paying the fair and reasonable royalties to which they have agreed".

Qualcomm has accused Apple of "strong arming" the contract manufacturers to stop paying the licensing fees they legally owe Qualcomm, which is a breach of the contract between Qualcomm and the manufacturers. Qualcomm adds that Apple has promised to contribute towards any damages that the contract manufacturers are hit with, as a result of them not paying Qualcomm's royalty fees.

We recently reported that Chinese smartphone manufacturers are growing, especially Huawei, OPPO, and vivo. One of those companies has another reason to celebrate.

If asked "what was the best selling Android smartphone in Q1 2017", many would think of Samsung's smartphones, but they would be wrong. The clear winner, when it comes to Android phones, is OPPO with its R9s device.

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, OPPO R9s was the star performer in the first three months of this year with 8.9 million shipped units.

HTC has reported their monthly revenue for April 2017, and it doesn't look good. The company marked a 9.29% decline in revenue compared to March and 18.03% decline compared to the same month last year.

HTC's revenue for April 2017 was NT$(Taiwan New Dollar)4.71 billion or $155 million. The total of revenue for this year is NT$19.24 billion or $625 million, which means that the revenue dropped 6.45% compared to the first four months of 2016.

It seems that the HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play sales aren't that great, and they aren't helping the company to get back on track. The two phones were launched in January, but many were left disappointed with the last year's processor and a steep price that can be compared to the price of Snapdragon 835 powered Galaxy S8.

Apple has acquired a sleep tracking app and hardware maker Beddit. The Finnish startup posted this news to their website adding that users personal data will be collected, used and disclosed under the Apple Privacy Policy.

The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The Finland-based company was founded in 2007 and in late 2015 they launched their products in Apple stores. Their latest product, Beddit 3 Sleep Monitor, automatically tracks your sleep and works with the Beddit app on your iPhone or iPad to help you achieve better sleep.

Deutsche Bank has published its annual "Mapping of the World's Prices" report in which strategist Jim Reid compares prices of common items in global cities.

The iPhone 7, launched in September last year, also made its way onto this list. Reid compared the prices of the iPhone 7 with 128GB of internal storage in 33 countries around the world. The prices are sourced from official Apple store websites, or online retailers and news websites if the official prices via Apple store weren't available.

According to the report, Turkey is the worst place from the surveyed countries to buy an iPhone since its price there is $1,200. Turkey has replaced Brazil on top of the list of the most expensive places to buy an iPhone.

GTC 2017 - NVIDIA has been constructing its new headquarters for a while now, and we're still 5 months away from completion so that their 2500 employees can have a new home to work.

The company has spent $370 million on the new HQ, which spans 46,500 square meters, and is split into two floors. The entire building is centralized, which has all of the underground garage through to the toilets being accessible from the center of the building. NVIDIA did this, so that they could "capture the energy and the buzz of the company".

NVIDIA has watercooled the entire building, where they're using recycled water that will be piped into a tower sunk under the roof of the building, and will cool the building through "an evaporation system with three giant fans". NVIDIA CEO and founder Jensen Huang will not have an office, and will work across different buildings in various places instead.