Top Tech Story of the Day
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Motorola Makes Apple Pull iPads And iPhones In Germany |
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Apple has pulled several iPad and iPhone models from its
German online store after Motorola Mobility enforced a patent injunction against
its rival.
The move follows a December ruling that Apple had failed
to license one of Motorola's wireless intellectual properties.
iPhone users in Germany may also face the loss of their
push email iCloud service after a separate patent victory by Motorola.
Apple has said it will appeal.
The dispute may eventually pit Apple against Google. The
search giant is in the process of taking over the Razr handset-maker. The deal
still needs to clear the competition authorities.
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Latest Tech News Headlines
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 EU Regulators Want
Google To Halt New Privacy Policy |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
A group of European regulators has written to Google Inc
calling on it to halt the introduction of its new privacy policy, saying it
needs to investigate whether the proposals sufficiently protect users' data.
Google said in January it was simplifying its privacy
regulations, consolidating 60 guidelines into a single policy that will function
across all its services, including YouTube, Gmail and Google+, its social
networking site.
Regulators are concerned that Google may share personal
data across all of its platforms without giving users the chance to give their
prior consent.
The Article 29 Working Party, an independent body that
brings together data protection authorities from each of the EU's 27 countries
and the EU's executive European Commission, said it needed to examine Google's
plans more thoroughly before the search group's policy comes into effect on
March 1.
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Facebook Sets Historic IPO |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Facebook Inc. filed for an initial public offering
Wednesday that could value the social network between $75 billion and $100
billion, putting the company on track for one of the biggest U.S. stock-market
debuts of all time.
The company hopes to raise as much as $10 billion when
it begins selling shares this spring, said people familiar with the matter.
Potential buyers got their first look at its financials Wednesday, which showed
the company produced a $1 billion profit last year from $3.71 billion in
revenues. The company derives 85% of those revenues from advertising, with the
rest from social gaming and other fees.
In just eight years, Facebook has become the world's
social bazaar, where friends gossip, play games and swap 250 million photos per
day. It has also emerged as a potent political tool, helping to topple regimes
across the Middle East last year.
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Nokia Still Leads
Global Phone Market |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Nokia led the overall phone market during the fourth quart and all
of 2011. Apple leapt ahead of LG for third place, while number-two Samsung was
on Nokia's heels.
Apple topped the smartphone market during the fourth quarter of
2011, but add in features phones and it's Nokia that, despite falling shares, is
still the global leader, according to market research firm IDC.
Nokia shipped 113.5 million units during the quarter, down from
123.7 million during the same quarter a year ago, IDC analysts said in a Feb. 1
report. Number-two Samsung shipped 97.6 million during the quarter, up from 80.7
a year ago, and third-place Apple also grew aggressively—from 16.2 million to 37
million during the quarter, pushing ahead of LG Electronics, which fell from
30.6 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 17.7 million last quarter.
Fifth place went to ZTE, which inched from 15.7 million to 17.1
million units.
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Facebook Readies IPO Filing |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Facebook Inc. could file papers for its initial public
offering as early as this coming week, people familiar with the matter said, as
anticipation mounts for what is likely to be one of the biggest debuts for a
U.S. company.
The deal, seen as defining moment for the latest Web
investing boom, could raise as much as $10 billion and value the social network
between $75 billion and $100 billion, said people familiar with the matter. A
valuation of $75 billion would be below earlier expectations.
The website, which in less than eight years has
attracted more than 800 million members, has changed the way people across the
globe communicate, from organizing political protests to sharing baby pictures.
The Internet giant is close to picking Morgan Stanley to
lead the deal, these people said. Wall Street banks, many of them struggling
amid a crimp in trading profits, have been jostling for a leading role in the
deal, which could yield them tens of millions of dollars in banker fees,
potential new business and bragging rights.
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Timeline Movie Maker
Brings Your Facebook Profile To Life |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
When Facebook first revealed Timeline in September, it
was accompanied by a video tour of one user's Timeline. Now, you can make your
own such video with Timeline Movie Maker, an app Facebook created in
collaboration with Definition 6.
Creating your mini-movie is easy. Simply go to the Movie
Maker site, click "make your movie," and grant the app access to your basic
information and stories (content from your Facebook profile).
The app takes a couple of minutes to think, evaluating
the items you've posted and shared and defining the most important ones. As
Movie Maker builds your clip, you will see it flipping through photos, videos,
posts, and other events on your Timeline to render a short video.
I gave it a try, and in about a minute I was given a
retrospective of college formals, the births of my nieces, weddings of close
friends, a big move to New York, and a gathering of various events, both
significant and inconsequential, from my life.
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Sony Promotes Hirai
To President |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Sony Corp. said Wednesday it tapped Kazuo Hirai, a
veteran of its PlayStation videogame business, to be the company's next
president and chief executive officer, in a move expected to accelerate a
network strategy to align its consumer electronics with content and services.
The 51-year-old Mr. Hirai, who oversees Sony's consumer
electronics and videogame divisions, has been considered the front-runner to
take over from Howard Stringer, who will remain executive chairman until June,
and then become chairman of the board.
Mr. Hirai's promotion will take effect in April.
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Microsoft Launches
Kinect For Windows SDK |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Microsoft on Wednesday released its Kinect for Windows
1.0 SDK, which is intended to take the Kinect sensor technology beyond
entertainment and use it for things like healthcare.
At this point, the offering is focused more on
businesses than consumers, but the idea is to have these companies or developers
create Kinect-based products that will eventually hit the market or be used in
the service industry.
The Kinect for Windows SDK is available for download now
but it will set you back $249; a $149 academic version is expected later this
year. At this point, it's launching in 12 countries to start (United States,
Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand,
Spain, and the United Kingdom).
Microsoft first discussed the Kinect for Windows
commercial program in November, and the program was one of only two
announcements made during Steve Ballmer's recent (and last) CES keynote.
Microsoft is already working with more than 200 partners, like United Health
Group, Toyota, Telefonica, Mattel, American Express, and more, Ballmer said.
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Apple Loses Bid To
Ban Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Nexus |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Apple Inc. lost a bid in a Munich court for a
preliminary ban on sales of Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy 10.1N and Galaxy
Nexus mobile phone.
The Munich Regional Court rejected the motion today in a
case where Apple invoked a patent granted last year protecting some technology
related to touch screens for tablets and smartphones.
“Samsung has shown that it is more likely than not that
the patent will be revoked because of a technology that was already on the
market before the intellectual property had been filed for protection,”
Presiding Judge Andreas Mueller said when delivering the ruling.
The ruling comes a day after a Dusseldorf appeals court
upheld Apple’s request for sales ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the original model.
Samsung had started to sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, an amended version, in Germany
to get around the ban. A lower Dusseldorf court is scheduled to rule on a
separate case filed by Apple over the Galaxy 10.1N on Feb. 9.
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Facebook Post Seals
Guinness World Record |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Facebook broke a Guinness World Record this week — and
no, this doesn’t have to do with the company’s much-anticipated IPO.
Fans of the Zynga game FrontierVille sought and set a World Record, posting over
1,001,600 comments on a single item. If nothing else gives away the string of
more than 1 million comments, the name of the group — Ffgpioneers/gwr/attempt —
states the purpose of the charade was to land in The Guinness Book of World
Records.
Tracey Hodgson’s Oct. 30, 2011 post received comments from 107 FrontierVille
fans over the last three months, more than doubling the previous record set by
Italy’s Roberto Esposito, according to Guinness World Records.
The record setting post read, “hi all!!! , hope everyone is ok today , this is
‘the one’, please talk about anything you like here, whatever you want to talk
about, change topic whenever you like also, just have fun , . so how are you all
today?( please someone speak quick or i’ll have no nails left!!!) ;-) x x x.”
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Watchdog Group Forms Petition For 'Ethical' iPhone 5 |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
A new petition is demanding Apple make its next
smartphone "the first ethical iPhone," in light of revelations about deadly
working conditions at overseas plants where the devices are manufactured.
Consumer watchdog group SumOfUs has posted a new online
petition calling for Apple to "overhaul the way its suppliers treat their
workers" before the launch of the iPhone 5, rumored to be coming this summer.
More than 35,000 people signed the petition in its first 24 hours, SumOfUs said.
"I use an iPhone myself," Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman,
executive director of SumOfUs, said in a statement. "I love it, but I don't love
having to support sweatshops, and neither do millions of other Apple consumers.
The hip, educated market that Apple aspires to corner is largely composed of
responsible consumers who don't want to be complicit in sweatshop labor."
SumOfUs' campaign follows two reports in The New York
Times which shined the spotlight on deadly working conditions at Apple’s
supplier facilities in China and questioned whether Cupertino was ignoring such
issues in favor of profits. Foxconn, one of Apple's largest suppliers, has come
under fire time and again in recent years for its unsafe, military-like
conditions that have driven workers to despair and suicide.
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Report: Megaupload
Data Safe For Two More Weeks |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
On Monday, federal prosecutors said that data from
Megaupload's 50 million users could be deleted as soon as Thursday. A new
report, however, offers fresh hope to those desperate to save their data — which
includes personal photos and documents.
CNET reports that Carpathia Hosting and Cogent
Communications, the two firms hosting data for Megaupload, have "agreed to
preserve the material [for] a minimum of two weeks, according to Ira Rothken,
Megaupload's U.S. attorney."
This extension offers Megaupload a bit more time to
negotiate with the U.S. government "about finding a permanent solution to the
user-data issue."
As the Associated Press reported on Monday, Megaupload's
assets are frozen by the U.S. government, assets which are necessary to pay
Carpathia Hosting and Cogent Communications to host data. At the time of that
report, Rothken emphasized the importance of finding a solution which is
favorable to Megaupload's customers.
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Report Says, Apple
Now Top PC Maker |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
In the latest sign of how mobile devices like tablets
are reshaping the personal computing landscape, new data shows that Apple has
bested Wintel makers to take the top spot in the PC market if the iPad tablet is
included in the count.
Apple shipped 20 million personal computing devices in
the fourth quarter to claim 17% of the total market, according to analysts at
Canalys. The numbers include about 15 million iPads and 5 million Macs.
That puts Apple ahead of former market leader
Hewlett-Packard, whose efforts to introduce tablets based on its WebOS operating
system last year flopped. HP's market share came in at 12.7%. Rounding out the
top five were Lenovo, Dell, and Acer, with respective market shares of 11.2%%,
9.9%, and 9.3%.
Canalys' numbers show the extent to which tablets like
the iPad, as well as new entries like Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's
Nook, are cannibalizing the traditional client market. The market grew 16%
year-over-year in the fourth quarter when tablets are included in the data.
Without tablets, the market actually contracted .4%, according to Canalys.
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Google Defends New
Privacy Policy To Congress |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Google has been facing a barrage of questions about changes it
plans to make to its privacy policy that affects how it handles the voluminous
data it collects from hundreds of millions of people around the globe.
Some of those questions have come from members of Congress who
question if Google is sacrificing its users to boost its online advertising
business as it pushes into new areas such as social networking and mobile
devices.
The Internet search giant responded Tuesday in a letter, saying
its new privacy policy helps users and is similar to those used by other
Internet companies.
Google said it was just making its privacy policy easier to
understand and said it was already sharing information about its users across
services.
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Microsoft Office 15
Goes Out For Testing |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
The next version of Microsoft Office is being previewed
and tested by some customers selected by the company. Later this summer, a beta
version of what's being called (for now) Office 15 is expected to be available
to the public.
"At this early point in our development cycle, I'm not
able to share too much about Office 15, but I can tell you Office 15 is the most
ambitious undertaking yet for the Office Division," said PJ Hough of the
Microsoft Office Division on a company blog. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of
Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
With Office 15, "for the first time ever, we will
simultaneously update our cloud services, servers, and mobile and PC clients for
Office, Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project, and Visio. Quite
simply, Office 15 will help people work, collaborate, and communicate smarter
and faster than ever before."
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Amazon Kindle Fire
Sales May Reach 6M |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Amazon isn't a company prone to revealing unit sales for
its Kindle line of e-readers and tablets, providing a constant source of
consternation for analysts trying to model the e-commerce giant's financial
results.
That hasn't stopped the analysts from prognosticating
based on word of mouth, and the guessing game is reaching a crescendo as the
company prepares to unveil its fourth-quarter results Jan. 31 after the bell.
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan said he was
increasing Amazon's Kindle Fire sales estimates from 5 million to 6 million,
leading him to raise Amazon's Q4 net revenue estimate to $286 million.
"Amazon's device proliferation strategy has broader
implications than most appreciate," Rohan wrote in a research note Jan. 29.
"Tablets, including iPad and Kindle Fire, are rapidly taking share from PCs and
notebooks.
"Kindle Fire has staked out an important market position
due to its loyal Amazon customer base and attractive (low) device pricing. We
believe the lower hardware price will correlate with high e-book and video
content attach rates."
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