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LG exec indicted over damaged Samsung washing machines A senior executive at LG Electronics has reportedly been indicted in South Korea for allegedly vandalizing several Samsung washing machines. Jo Seong-jin, head of LG's Home Appliance and Air Solution Company, has been indicted on charges he and two other employees wilfully sabotaged Samsung-made washing machines at an electronics store in Berlin ahead of a tradeshow in that city last year, according to Reuters. The indictment is the latest skirmish in the long-running feud between the cross-town rival electronics giants. LG and Samsung representatives did not respond to requests for comment, but an LG statement given to the media questioned the strength of the evidence against Jo and the other employees. "It is questionable whether there is sufficient evidence to prove that the president of a global company deliberately destroyed the machines where employees of the competing company were present," Ham Yoon-keun, a lawyer who will be defending Jo in court, said in a statement provided by LG. "The truth will be revealed in the courts."Samsung earlier this year filed a lawsuit for property damages and defamation against Jo and four other LG Electronics executives after the IFA tradeshow in Berlin, claiming that the LG execs intentionally sabotaged the door hinges of one of its washing machines at an electronics store there. Samsung provided as evidence the damaged washing machine and CCTV footage allegedly showing Jo "willfully" damaging the appliance.LG, which has strenuously denied the claims, paid for the damage in an attempt to diffuse the situation. The company then countersued Samsung for defamation and evidence tampering, claiming a Samsung employee damaged the washing machine beforehand.In December, South Korean prosecutors imposed a travel ban on Jo due to his alleged failure to comply with multiple requests to attend investigations. LG had said that Jo would fully comply with investigators if prosecutors will temporarily lift the ban, allowing him to travel to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month. The incident escalated in December when local prosecutors raided LG's headquarters in Seoul, seizing the hard drives and other data of the those that attended the IFA tradeshow along with Jo.

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Senate approves Carter as new defense secretary The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to confirm Ashton Carter as President Barack Obama's next secretary of defense.Carter, 60, who was approved in a 93-5 vote, served as deputy defense secretary, the Pentagon's No. 2 position, from 2011 to 2013. He was also the Defense Department's chief weapons buyer from 2009 to 2011 when he led a major restructuring of the F-35 fighter jet program.At his confirmation hearing on Feb. 4, Carter underscored his determination to boost the U.S. defense budget, drive down the cost of new weapons and make sure new technologies are delivered to troops quicker. He also told lawmakers he was leaning in favor of providing arms to Ukraine but later cautioned that the focus of the international community's efforts to handle the crisis must remain on pressuring Russia economically and politically.Carter will be Obama's fourth defense secretary, succeeding Chuck Hagel, who resigned under pressure last year.

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Our cars are more hackable than we thought, Senate report finds With smarter cars comes improved safety, better performance and all the benefits of a smartphone baked into your dashboard. Yet automakers have been slow to recognize how hackers can take advantage of on-the-road computers or how best to protect our privacy, according to a new report. The report, released Monday by Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), detailed lax cybersecurity that opens vehicles to potential hacking and drivers to privacy breaches as automakers collect more data on our driving habits. Markey's office sent a lengthy questionnaire to 20 automakers more than a year ago to compile the report, and 16 responded. The survey found that a majority of automakers questioned were unaware of or failed to report past hacking incidents. Only two of the companies said they had systems in place to fend off hacking attacks in real-time and only two confirmed they could remotely slow down or stop a vehicle under the control of a hacker. The findings were released following a "60 Minutes" segment on Sunday detailing how the US government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, was able to hack General Motors' OnStar system to remote control a Chevrolet Impala, including its brake and acceleration systems. Almost every new car on the market today has some type of network capacity such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or cellular connectivity that could "pose vulnerabilities to hacking or privacy intrusions," the report warned.Although nearly every automaker is adding sophisticated technology, there are no standards governing how automakers secure vehicles' wireless networks, respond to threats or handle confidential driver data. While security experts have long recognized the vulnerability of these systems, it's now starting to get legislative attention. "These findings reveal that there is a clear lack of appropriate security measures to protect drivers against hackers who may be able to take control of a vehicle or against those who may wish to collect and use personal driver information," the report reads. Markey's report detailed how, as opposed to past hacking demonstrations, hackers no longer need a direct connection to the vehicle to take over its systems. DARPA demonstrated how malware from Bluetooth-connected smartphones and security holes in onboard software, like OnStar, provide numerous avenues to take control remotely. Because examples of hacks happening to everyday drivers remain largely undocumented, the report added, automakers are not taking them seriously. "That stuff is very straightforward to protect against, but until you get hacked, you don't do anything about it," said Scott McGregor, the CEO of chipmaker Broadcom, which is partnered with automakers like Hyundai and BMW to wire their cars with Internet connectivity. Beyond the more malicious threat of a hacker gaining control of your steering wheel or gas pedal, automakers are constantly gathering information about drivers, including locations traveled to and how long the car remains parked. Companies then store that data with little protection, sometimes even in third-party data centers whose own security may not have proper safeguards. The report said automakers rarely inform consumers about the information they've collected.The report also found that automakers collectively have no consistent policy on how long to store data and what exactly it can be used it for. Few companies inform drivers of this data collection or have effective opt-out policies that do not disable key features like navigation. The report concluded: "The alarmingly inconsistent and incomplete state of industry security and privacy practices ... raises a need for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in consultation with the Federal Trade Commission on privacy issues, to promulgate new standards that will protect the data, security and privacy of drivers in the modern age of increasingly connected vehicles."

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​Visa says new app will cut credit-card travel troubles It's a common problem for people who travel: you're try to buy something far from home, but the credit card company won't approve the transaction because it fears your card was stolen. New software running on your smartphone, though, should curtail the problem, according to payments processing giant Visa. Software called Visa Mobile Location Confirmation uses your mobile phone's ability to locate itself and verify that you're near where the card is being used. The idea is that the chances of a fraudulent transaction are a lot higher if the transaction takes place in a different location from the phone. The software, supplied by a company called Finsphere, will be available through banking apps available to US customers starting in April, Visa said Thursday. It'll be an opt-in service, meaning that it won't work until people grant permission. The service reveals how useful it is to have a general-purpose computing device tucked away in your pocket or purse. In addition to all the utility for email, navigation, photos, social networking and of course phone calls, smartphones also help can bolster security. In addition to enabling services like Visa's, smartphones can help supply codes used for login or money transfer through an idea called dual-factor authentication. For example, you can set Gmail to require not just a password but also one of these authentication codes from a phone-based app. Because the codes are short-lived, a thief couldn't just write it down and use it in the future. People can call their banks to tell them where and when they'll be traveling so credit card payment processors needn't reject transactions that seem suspicious but are legitimate. That's a hassle, though, and plenty of people don't bother. Visa has been trying to make the process less difficult. Last year, it began offering an online mechanism for people to discuss their travel plans. It also introduced a service called Visa Travel Authorization Tag that gauges travel plans based on plane, train, and hotel purchases made with the credit card.

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Freeview to fight YouView with Freeview Play online catchup service Freeview is going toe-to-toe with the likes of YouView with a new online service called Freeview Play that will combine live TV with on-demand programming delivered over the Internet. A free-to-receive terrestrial TV service that launched as a joint venture between the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, Arqiva and Sky, Freeview has been providing UK residents with a selection of free channels for over a decade. Now however, it's plotting Freeview Play, a connected TV service that will debut later this year.The new service merges live channels with on-demand shows in the same interface. YouView launched a service very much like this back in 2012, with a listings guide that lets you scroll backwards through time to play shows that have already been broadcast, while Sky's Now TV service and Virgin Media's TiVo box also blend live and on-demand viewing. Freeview Play will feature on-demand programming from the BBC's iPlayer, as well as ITV Player and 4oD (which will imminently be replaced by new service "All 4"). Although there are still plenty of details to be revealed, Freeview says the service will be available in a range of new TVs and set-top boxes. "In the same way that we took the UK from analogue to digital," Guy North, Freeview's managing director said, "Freeview Play is the next step in that vision and it will put the viewer in control, without complexity, commitment or unnecessary cost." Freeview Play will be arriving late to the party, with rival YouView already making headway with the addition of a Netflix app, and worming its way inside a slew of 2015 Sony TVs. As such, we'll be looking for Freeview Play to offer something unique when it launches later this year.

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Lost keys? KeyMe has the app for that I'll never forget the moment I swore I'd never lose my keys again: Heavy snowfall and a freezing cold night in upstate New York, and I'm locked out of my Ford Escort with its the engine running and my house keys dangling from the ignition.I haven't kept my word -- I still lose my keys from time to time. In fact, the average person loses up to nine items a day, with house and car keys in the top three, according to a2012 survey by British insurance firm Esure.Now New York-based KeyMe is trying to ease that annoying and costly mistake by changing how we duplicate our keys. KeyMe has almost two dozen automated locations in the greater New York City area, as well as a few scattered around in states like Florida, Arizona and Arkansas. Its most recent location, which it launched this past week, is in San Francisco, with more coming soon.First, you use KeyMe's app for iOS -- Android is on the way -- to take a photograph of your home, office or car key. The app then uploads that image to the company's system. A press of a button tells the app to deliver the key to you in the mail. Even easier, you can travel to one of KeyMe's bright yellow kiosks and have a new key printed in under a minute. It costs roughly the same as the standard key-making process -- between $3 to $6 -- if you have your key in hand, but $20 to have one made from your cloud-stored image.There are of course low-tech and higher-tech solutions to the problem KeyMe is trying to solve. I now use a a three-key combination lock box from a local hardware store, adding an extra layer of security over the trusty key-under-the-doormat solution. You could also use a $250 August Smart Lock, rated four out of five stars by CNET Reviews, which lets you unlock your front door with a tap on your phone.So why choose Keyme? For starters, it costs less than using a smart lock or paying up to $100 for an emergency visit from a locksmith. KeyMe's service gives you a quick and easy way to get a new key at any hour of the day. KeyMe's catch: you have to think ahead. You can't duplicate a key if it's already lost.Startups like KeyMe are emblematic of a growing trend: Taking everyday processes from a pre-Internet world and using our smartphones to digitize and upload them into the cloud. We store our credit cards in Apple Pay, the iPhone maker's fingerprint-driven mobile-payment service, while many of us have stopped carrying paper boarding passes because they show up as square snippets of code on our smartphone screens.KeyMe isn't eliminating the key. But it is giving us a way to virtually back it up.But I wondered: can thieves abuse this? KeyMe can't stop someone who gets her hands on your keys from copying them without your knowledge. Whereas before, a thief would have to take your key to a local hardware store, KeyMe lets them take a simple picture and use that.I asked KeyMe about this and the company responded that it's always found that kind of incident unlikely. Few traditional key-skimming techniques leave as much of a digital trail as KeyMe, which requires a fingerprint to use its kiosk, an email account to sign up and a credit card and address to print a new key.More reassuring, the scenario hasn't ever happened."We've made hundreds of thousands of keys," said Michael Harbolt, KeyMe's vice president of marketing. "We haven't had one instance of our keys being used in a crime."

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Bitcoin trader MyCoin shutters, taking $387M in investor funds As Bitcoin experiences global growth and more widespread adoption in peer-to-peer payment circles, one Asian Bitcoin trading company has swiftly closed its doors, leaving investors facing massive losses. South China Morning Post reported the closure of Hong Kong-based MyCoin, which is believed to have left as many as 3,000 investors facing a total of HK$3 billion ($387 million) in losses.But while Bitcoin has been hit with its share of issues in the past -- including the bankruptcy of the major Japanese Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox -- this latest problem appears to be less to do with the vagaries and fluctuations of the world's most famous cryptocurrency and more due to classic financial fraud. MyCoin clients were promised massive returns on initial investments -- as much as HK$3 million on a $2 million investment, which bought 7 "Bitcoin contracts". However, the company reportedly changed its terms of service last December, preventing customers from withdrawing their funds. In addition, clients were offered rewards for recruiting new customers to invest in the company -- behaviour consistent with the operation of a pyramid scheme.One client vented frustrations over the loss of a HK$1.3 million ($168,000) investment."No one seems to know who is behind this," she said. "Everyone says they too are victims ... but we were told by those at higher tiers [of the scheme] that we can get our money back if we find more new clients." When it comes to who is behind the collapse, there has been radio silence from MyCoin. However, further reports have emerged from South China Morning Post that MyCoin's sole listed director left the company one month before the non-withdrawal terms came into effect, only to be replaced by a woman who is listed as director for a further 167 companies.MyCoin's information page stipulates that users could "top up" their accounts by transferring money to a company called Rich Might Investment Ltd. The director of this company resigned in November 2014, transferring his shares in the company on the same day to a company called Fascinating Horizon Overseas Ltd, based in the British Virgin Islands.Both MyCoin's Hong Kong and Chinese customer service numbers are playing recorded messages, with the latter abruptly cutting off after a few seconds. The most recent listing for Rich Might Investment Ltd on the Hong Kong Companies Register shows the company submitted a 'Notice of Resignation of Company Secretary and Director' just yesterday.The company's website gives little details of the structure or operations of MyCoin, instead saying it is "the world's first Bitcoin trading, e-commerce, mining machines, leisure games, Bitcoin mall" company. It also helpfully notes in its FAQ that "Bitcoin is also transliterated as 'bit of gold'".While MyCoin was promising to more than double individual investments, the value of Bitcoin itself has plummeted on legitimate markets, declining from highs of more than $1,000 at the end of 2013, to just over $200 this month.

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​Hardware? Software? Flex Logix hopes for best of both worlds In most of the computing industry, there are two ways of getting electronic brains to think: hardware that's fast or software that's flexible. A startup called Flex Logix Technologies, though, hopes to profit by offering the best of both those worlds. In personal computers and smartphones, chip hardware provides a foundation on which software runs. The hardware design is fast but fixed, often years before a product comes to market, while software like operating systems or apps can be easily changed. This division of labor has served the computing industry well, but Flex Logix thinks it's time to ease the distinction a little. In short, Flex Logix hopes to make a little bit of chips themselves programmable. The company doesn't create its own chips, but instead licenses its technology to chipmakers that can embed Flex Logix hardware into their own designs. This isn't something average people will buy, but it is something that could directly help them. For example, wireless networks could get speed upgrades sooner, or Internet services like search engines could be upgraded with new features."This will become over time a mainstream technology," promises Flex Logix Chief Executive Geoff Tate. "This isn't a niche. It's not like we talked to 50 customers and found three that were interested. We talked to 50 customers and two thirds told us this is great." If Flex Logix delivers what it promises, many customers should be interested, said Richard Wawrzyniak, an analyst with Semico Research. "It is interesting to see this technology come on the market because it can solve a lot of problems for a lot of people if done the right way," he said. Flex Logix is small, with just three employees so far, but Tate is a big name in the industry. He founded Rambus in 1990, licensing chip memory technology to big names like Nintendo and later Intel. That memory-licensing business eventually devolved into a series of ugly patent battles, so this time Tate is aiming for competitive technology rather than aggressive lawyers. "As I learned at Rambus, patents aren't a force field that keeps the Klingons out," Tate said. "You only win if you stay better than the other guys."The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has a new take on an old technology called field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). These are chips that can be reprogrammed to do any sort of computing job, making chip hardware as mutable as software, and companies like Altera and Xilinx have built big FPGA businesses. FPGAs' flexibility comes at a cost, though: they're big and expensive for what they do, and typically show up in niche applications like high-end network devices. The Flex Logix engineers -- Cheng Wang, who's vice president of engineering, and Fang-Li Yuan, who'sprincipal hardware designer -- think they came up with a better way to build FPGAs that uses significantly less chip circuitry and thus dramatically lowers costs. But competing directly against the FPGA powers would be tough, so Flex Logix decided instead to license its technology in small, inexpensive doses, Tate said. How much will it cost? Adding a midrange amount of Flex Logix to a chip is only about 15 cents per chip, including both the licensing cost and the extra square millimeter of chip area that must be manufactured. Tate thinks that's cheap enough to be compelling for a lot of customers. And what kinds of customers? Those who need computing processes to run fast in hardware, not slower in software, but won't know until the last minute exactly what those software processes are. For example, a company with network products might want to support a new communication technology, but the chip design must be finalized before the new communication technology is standardized. "Missing a product cycle can mean millions in lost revenue," Tate said. Wawrzyniak, though, is cautious. "Common sense would tell you that if it was deemed to be really important, somebody would have already done it," Wawrzyniak said of Flex Logix's hybrid approach. It seems technological difficulties and performance constraints dampened enthusiasm, he said. "This is not a new concept and has been tried before, but no one has ever really gotten it right."FPGA approaches have the potential to spread to one of the most competitive parts of the computing industry, too: the mammoth data centers packed with servers that power the services of companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple. There, hardware acceleration of a chore that otherwise would run in software can make a huge difference. For example, Microsoft in 2014 disclosed a research project that uses FPGAs to speed up its Bing search service by 95 percent. "We do see the possibility of some microprocessors integrating our technology," Tate said. "The area it could happen soonest is for data center processors." Flex Logix measures its processing technology by tallying elements called lookup tables (LUTs) that define how a particular chunk of logic behaves. It's got two basic designs to start with, one with 100 LUTs and one with 2,500 LUTs. Those elements can be tiled together for more processing capability, though. The biggest size is a seven-by-seven grid with 122,500 LUTs, Tate said. Flex Logix doesn't actually have any customers, but Tate expects that to change soon. Last week, the company got its first prototype chips back from chip foundry TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.), which builds chips for a wide range of customers, including Apple. Once the design is validated to work as advertised, customers will start building in the Flex Logix technology. "The first of them should be in 2016," Tate said. Flex Logix has a tiny team so far and venture-capital funding in the low single-digit millions of dollars. But that's how Tate got started with Rambus, too, and it's a formula he likes. "Most of the money is still in the bank," Tate said. Venture capitalists are willing to sink in tens of millions more, but Tate hopes it won't be needed. Rambus' $7 million in funding was enough to carry it to profitability in six years, Tate said. "If you have the right people you can make a lot of progress on the small amount of money."

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Carphone Warehouse recruits coverage analysts to find the best network for you Carphone Warehouse wants to give you a better idea of which network will suit you by showing customers independent data on local coverage. Getting an accurate idea of mobile coverage in your local area is particularly important right now, because the phone companies are still building their 4G networks, and 4G service may not have reached your neck of the woods yet. The last thing you want to do is commit to a lengthy and expensive contract only to discover that you won't be able to enjoy the service you hoped for simply because you can't get a signal in your neighbourhood. So Carphone Warehouse has partnered up with RootMetrics, an independent company specialising in analysing mobile network performance. One of its major products is the CoverageMap app, which builds up a picture of phone signal across the nation with a combination of scientific tests and crowd-sourced samples from users. Staff in Carphone Warehouse shops will use the app, helping customers see which network might suit them in their local area. Staff will be able to show customers data on the four major networks -- EE, O2, Three and Vodafone -- showing how reliable and speedy they are in a given area.The results are then plotted on a coverage map, which RootMetrics claims gives you accurate information right down to individual streets. Individual networks do provide coverage maps. But because data is gathered independently of the networks, RootMetrics should provide a more accurate picture of network performance than the promises made by the networks themselves. The CoverageMap app is available for Apple iOS devices and Android devices. For more on coverage, including your rights if you're stuck with a sketchy signal, check out this guide by the telecom watchdog Ofcom.

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Apple promises green data centres to power Europe's iTunes, Siri and more Apple has vowed to build two enormous new data centres, which it says will power Europe's access to its most popular online services.Data centres are the lifeblood of tech companies' online services, housing all the equipment necessary to keep everything from email to app stores up and running.The two new centres will be built in County Galway, Ireland, and Jutland in Denmark. Apple is pumping €1.7 billion (roughly £1.25 billion, or $1.93 billion) into the new facilities, which boast some interesting environmental features, according to the California-based company. The centres will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy, Apple claims, and will have the lowest environmental impact of any of Apple's data centres. The Danish facility, for example, will channel excess heat from its running equipment into the local neighbourhood's heating system. "We're excited to spur green industry growth in Ireland and Denmark and develop energy systems that take advantage of their strong wind resources," said Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of environmental initiatives. Apple says the two centres, which will each measure 166,000 square metres (1.8 million square feet), will begin operations in 2017. Once up and running, they'll be powering Apple's online services, including Maps, iMessage, Siri, iTunes and the App Store. Apple has been criticised in the past for using Ireland's tax laws as a way to dodge paying higher taxes in Europe. Last September the European Commission said that Apple gets an unfair advantage in the region, while the Irish government has announced plans to phase out certain tax loopholes used by tech giants like Apple, Google and Facebook by 2020.

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Backstage at the Oscars: Transforming the Dolby Theatre for the show The day I visited the Dolby Theatre was definitely not a normal day. It was less than a week before the 87th Academy Awards and I was there to see what it took to change the theater for Hollywood's biggest, most glamorous night.In the days leading up to Sunday night's Oscars ceremony, the Dolby Theatre's auditorium is one of the hardest places to get into. And don't even think about whipping out your phone to snap a picture.The most closely guarded area is the stage, with its glitzy set.From backstage, I could see it as rehearsals played out, but in no way could I shoot video or photos.Security is so tight you're instructed to wear your media credentials backward, so they can't be photographed and replicated. That's more strict than some White House events I've covered.The Dolby Theatre's transformation for the Oscars started in January, when a crew of about 20 to 30 people began to strip the 3,400-seat venue of some of its movie theater components, including a selection of speakers, trusses, cables, seats and rigging motors.David Gray, vice president of global services and industry relations for Dolby Labs, oversees the theater's conversion. He said one of the most nerve-wracking tasks is packing up the 60x32-foot movie screen."We have to roll it up, which is time consuming because it's really big and we don't want to get it dirty. We don't want to scratch it. We don't want to put anything through it."One type of technology the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does not like to rely on is rigging motors, which help lift and lower things like scenery or scrims or lights. Instead the Academy prefers ropes, pulleys and man power.Gray explained, "The Academy uses very few motors in the Oscars. Motors can fail, and in their case it would be deadly. Not deadly in terms of people, but deadly in terms of the show. They're still using the old pipe and ropes and counterweights. So all the stuff flies in on that."For this Oscars, Dolby added surround speakers and boosted the acoustic absorption in the mezzanine levels. Gray hopes the audience in the theater will get a more immersive experience, especially with the movie clips."The clips in stereo are kind of flat," he explained. "When you're here live, you're watching the clips on little monitors. It's way nicer to have the sound be big and normal, because the picture is on the little monitor."For audiences at home, movie clips and music performances will be in Dolby 5.1 surround sound. Home viewers with a surround sound setup can have a similar sound experience as the celebrities.All the audio and video from the show is piped into broadcast trucks stationed just behind the Dolby Theatre in an area nicknamed the broadcast compound. Hundreds of thousands of miles of cables from the red-carpet area and inside the theater dead-end into those trucks, which serve as mobile control rooms.With hundreds of millions of people watching from more than 200 countries, there are multiple backup plans and redundancies."The signal has multiple fiber feeds, but we also have satellite feeds," said Steve Venezia, Dolby Labs' worldwide senior director for contact services. "So they can cut from one feed to another pretty seamlessly."One of the trickier parts of the broadcast is melding the live orchestra performance with what's happening on stage. That's because, to make room for more seats, the orchestra is not in the auditorium but one mile away at Capitol Records. The live music is piped through fiber optic cables back to the theater. According to Dolby, the entire latency from the Oscar broadcast trucks to Capitol Records and back is about 2.7 milliseconds."We just keep trying to get that latency down as close to zero," audio director Paul Sandweiss explained, "so that performers can hear exactly what the orchestra is doing, and the orchestra can respond with them so they are all seamlessly performing together."The Greenroom, where presenters and honorees can relax, was still being constructed at the back of the stage. Crew members were nailing the door into place and trying to figure out how to drag a 500-pound table into the room without cracking the floor tiles.This is the 13th year Architectural Digest has produced the backstage lounge, and it's become a sort of showcase for show sponsor Samsung, which struck marketing gold last year with Ellen DeGeneres' selfie on a Note 3.When you first enter the Greenroom, there's a wall of 16 Samsung displays designed to mimic a window view of Los Angeles from atop the Hollywood Hills. Architectural Digest says the room also includes Galaxy Tab S tablets and Samsung smart TVs, including a curved UHD TV.New this year, to top last year's Twitter Mirror in the Greenroom, will be a so-called "GIF-Cam " powered by Twitter, to capture celebrities' reactions. According to Twitter, the cam takes a series of four photos and makes a GIF out of them. Celebrities can also put their signatures on them.And when it's all over and the final golden statuette has been handed out and the Governors Ball is closed down, Dolby says its team can convert the theater back to cinema mode in only 14 hours. And then it'll be a wrap, until next year.

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Sony dreams big, targeting $4 billion profit by 2018 Sony has set the bar high as it works to hoist itself out of its deep financial hole.Looking months ahead, the struggling electronics company said Wednesday that forits 2017 fiscal year, ending in March 2018, it believes it can generate an operating profit of over 500 billion yen (about $4.2 billion). That would be a big leap from the 26.5 billion yen operating profit -- and 128.4 billion yen net loss -- the company posted during its last full fiscal year, which wrapped up last March.It's an even heftier haul from the poor showing Sony is expecting for its current fiscal year, which ends next month -- an operating profit of 20 billion yen and a net loss of 170 billion yen. On the positive side, that's up from Sony's earlier forecast of a 40 billion yen operating loss and 230 billion yen net loss.The company now says that it will look for growth by focusing its efforts in four areas: the PlayStation gaming division, Sony Pictures, Sony Music and its devices business, which includes sensors and other components."Sony is positioning Devices, Game & Network Services, Pictures, and Music as the segments that will drive its profit growth over the next three years," the company reported to investors on Wednesday. "It will implement growth measures and engage in aggressive capital investment in these areas with the aim of achieving both sales growth and profit expansion."Wednesday's announcement marks another shift in strategy for Sony as its tries to keep its footing in a rapidly changing technology landscape.Three years ago, in an earlier attempt to return Sony to profitability, newly appointed CEO Kazuo Hirai unveiled an initiative known as One Sonythat would focus on three coredivisions: digital imaging, gaming and mobile. Of that trio, now only gaming has a central place in Sony's grand vision for achieving growth, and Wednesday's note on the new three-year plan made no mention of One Sony.Sony was once one of the dominant forces in the technologyindustry. Many of its products, including televisions, gamingproducts, and devices like the Walkman music player, established Sony as a leader and helped it achieve billions ofdollars in profits in the 1990s and early 2000s. By the start of this decade, however, the company's business had started to falter as thePlayStation 3 initially failed to gain traction, the Walkman was adistant memory, and everything from digital cameras to mobile devices were getting hit hard by competitors.Mobile devices in particular became a pain point and a source of losses. Companies like Samsung,Apple, and countless China-based handset makers are the forces to be reckoned with in that critical market.In a statement Wednesday, Sonyacknowledged the challenges it faces in mobile, describing that market as "characterized by high volatility and challenging competitive landscapes" and adding that it "willplace the highest priority on curtailing risk and securing profits." Thecompany will also only focus its mobile efforts on certain territories andwill create a new "business structure capable of securing profits." Sony alsohasn't ruled out the possibility of selling the mobile division, though so far it is indicating that it wants to return the unit to profitability.Thesame mentality holds true for Sony's television division, which became a separate subsidiary last year. Here, too, the company said it will be careful to target individual markets, butstopped short of saying whether it would sell off the subsidiary afteryears of calls from investors to do so.Sony did say Wednesday that it's planning to spin off more business segments, starting with its video and sound unit, which it said would be split out into a wholly owned subsidiary starting in October.The company sees the video and sound unit, along with imaging products, as "stable profit generators," with sales remaining flat over the next few years and Sony will decrease its capital investment, believing that it's in a solid position in those markets."By capitalizing on its existing technological expertise in these areas rather than engaging in large-scale investments, and by optimizing fixed costs and enhancing inventory control, Sony will aim to maximize profits and return on investment," the company wrote to investors.The areas that will garner increased investment are what Sony now sees as its four "growth drivers"over the next three fiscal years: gaming, devices, music, and films and TV shows.Sony's PlayStation business has been soaring in recent quarters assales of its PlayStation 4 remain strong worldwide. During itslast-reported quarter ended December 31, Sony's gaming divisionincreased sales by 16.8 percent to 531.5 billion yen ($4.4 billion). Thedivision's operating profit hit 27.6 billion yen, jumping 123 percentyear over year.A similar story played out in Music, where Sony's salesand operatingincome rose 13.1 percent and 17 percent, respectively,compared to the same period a year earlier. Sony said Wednesday it has its eyes on the potential in the area of streaming music. Last month, it teamed up with streaming-music leader Spotify for a service called PlayStation Music.On the Devices side, Sony sees a "competitive advantage" in the area of CMOS image sensors. The Devices unit last quarter grewsubstantially, as revenue rose 38.6 percentyear over year to 292.9 billion yen and as a year-agoquarterly operating loss of 23.5 billion yen gave way to 54.5 billion yen profit.Only Sony Pictures was a disappointment in thelast quarter, due in part to massive, destructive and embarrassing hack of the division's computer network in November. Sony also reported earlier this month that thePictures division suffered from lower sales in motion pictures and television production, due to fewer major releases during the period. In general, however, the Pictures business is doing well. Sony said earlierthis month that it expects its Pictures business to post a 54 billionyen profit at the end of this fiscal year.Ultimately, Sony's announcement seems focused on appealing to shareholders who want to see the company (and their investments) continue to grow. In the last year, Sony's shares have risen more than 56 percent, and on Wednesday they closed at $28.02, up 5 percent for the day.Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Alabama official ordered to issue marriage licenses to gay couples A federal judge on Thursday ordered an Alabama official to start issuing marriage licenses to gay couples in compliance with an earlier order, but couples in most counties were still unable to obtain licenses.U.S. District Judge Callie Granade's order clarified that Mobile County Probate Court Judge Don Davis was compelled to adhere to her previous ruling striking down the state's gay marriage ban despite a contravening order from Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore that led many state judges to refrain from issuing licenses to gay couples.Granade's directive marked the latest twist in the controversy over gay marriage in Alabama, where probate judges have faced conflicting orders from federal and state courts. The resulting disarray has allowed same-sex couples to marry in places such as Birmingham, while those applying for marriage licenses in dozens of counties have been turned away. Alabama is the 37th U.S. state where gay marriage has been legalized, and the first in the Deep South, where many voters are socially conservative. The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to grant a request from Alabama's Republican attorney general to keep the weddings on hold until it decides later this year whether laws banning gay matrimony violate the U.S. Constitution.But Moore ordered state judges to defy Granade's ruling and uphold the state's gay marriage ban, an order his office said remained in effect despite the Supreme Court's action. Granade's order on Thursday applied specifically to Mobile County, where, within an hour of the ruling, same-sex couples who had been waiting in line at a county building began to receive licenses. Among those in line was Meredith Miller, 32, who said plans to wed her partner of almost nine years on Valentine's Day would mean an end to fears of being shut out from making decisions on each other's behalf in the event of a medical emergency."The worry that is always in the back of your mind, the worry that a lot of couples don't ever have to experience, that is going to go away now," Miller said.NARROW RULINGAttorneys for four same-sex couples named as plaintiffs in the suit, among them Miller and her partner, had urged Granade to issue a broad ruling to compel all judges in the state to begin granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples.But with the ruling applying narrowly to Davis, none of the judges in the other 43 of Alabama's 67 counties that have refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples changed course in its immediate aftermath, gay rights advocates said.J. Michael Druhan, the lawyer for Davis, whose county is the most populous of those that have refused to issue the licenses, told Granade during a hearing before her order that the probate judge was stuck between the conflicting court directives and simply wanted guidance.Druhan likened Davis, who had kept his office's marriage license operations shuttered since Granade's earlier ruling went into effect on Monday, to a U.S. soldier frozen to the spot after stepping on a mine in a Vietnamese paddy field."If he stands there and does nothing, the snipers are going to shoot him in the head," he said. "If he moves, the mine's going to blow him to pieces."Most legal experts say Alabama's probate judges, who are elected officials in a state that passed a gay marriage ban in 2006 with 81 percent of the vote, will ultimately have little choice but to follow the federal court's ruling.Among those waiting for marriage licenses in Mobile was Mack Douglas, 28, who with his girlfriend was relieved the office was open for the first time this week. Douglas said he was raised to believe homosexuality was wrong and it felt a bit awkward to be waiting in line with so many same-sex couples. "When everyone was walking over here, I kind of stared off the other way," he said. "I kind of blocked it out of my mind."

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To tip or not to tip drivers, that is Uber's question Brian Cole, who drives for the ride-hailing service Uber, got a call to pick up a young woman at 4 a.m. a couple of months ago. Based in Cincinnati, Cole drove about eight miles north to get the woman. When he arrived, she appeared to be sick. "This girl was throwing up like crazy," Cole said. "She was hammered drunk." Cole waited for her to feel better and then drove her across the Ohio River to where her boyfriend was anxiously waiting. "He was so relieved, so happy to see his girlfriend that he handed me two $20 bills," Cole said. "I was really happy to get a cash tip. I thought, 'wow, they value me as a driver.'" Tipping drivers is the norm for taxis, but it's unusual with Uber, a car-hailing service that lets passengers connect with drivers via a smartphone app. The service is completely cashless -- everything is automated through the app -- and the company touts itself as being hassle-free and hyper-convenient. One of the hallmarks of such convenience is letting customers have tip-free rides, says Uber. If a passenger wants to tip an Uber driver, they must do so in cash. While some passengers surely enjoy Uber's mantra that "there is no need to tip," most drivers feel differently. Not only do a few extra dollars help with wages, drivers say, but they also appreciate being rewarded when they provide good service. Uber's top competitor, Lyft, already has a tipping feature in its app, and now thousands of drivers are clamoring for Uber to do the same.Earlier this month, Peter Faris, an Uber driver based in Washington, D.C., launched an online petition asking Uber to add a tipping feature to all of its rides. The petition, aimed at Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, said that drivers appreciate working for Uber and that adding a tipping feature would only boost their earnings and job satisfaction. "Tipping is simply a gesture of appreciation for a job well done," the petition said, "and there's no reason to deny drivers and passengers this option."Wait...tips aren't already included?A scan through blogs, forums and social media sites reveals a common misconception that tips are already included in Uber's fares. A simple Google search for "do I need to tip Uber" produces millions of confused results.One of the reasons for this mix-up is that when all new passengers register with Uber they're asked what percentage of "gratuity for Taxi" they'd like to include with every ride. From a drop-down menu, they can then select any amount between zero percent and 30 percent. Many people likely believe this choice applies to all rides they take with Uber, but a reading of the fine print says it's only for the company's UberTaxi service.UberTaxi is a feature that lets passengers hail a traditional taxi with their Uber app. However, this service is only available in a few cities, like New York and San Francisco. Uber's most popular services are UberX, which lets people drive for Uber using their own cars, and UberBlack, which is similar to a black car or limo service. That initial tip amount that passengers set doesn't go to either UberX or UberBlack drivers. "I cannot tell you how many times my passengers have told me, 'oh yeah, the tip is included in the fare,'" said Cole, who drives for UberX and also has a YouTube channel to give advice to ride-hailing drivers. "I have to kindly explain to them that it's not included and the fare is only calculated on time and distance." The confusion over whether tips are included has gained such momentum that it became the subject of a class action lawsuit last year. Drivers are suing Uber for alleged deceptive marketing, claiming that the company led passengers to believe a tip was included in rides, while not giving drivers any extra income. But why tip anyway?When passengers take an Uber ride, it's meant to be a smooth experience. They hail the car with a smartphone, it usually arrives within minutes, and when they get to their destination, they just hop out of the car -- no credit cards, no signatures, no receipts. The only remnant of the ride is an email with the cost of the trip. Uber says one of the things users like about the app is that they don't have to fumble with cash and worry about the tip. On top of that, Uber says drivers are making fair wages -- the company released a study (PDF) last month that said Uber drivers earn an average of $19 per hour."Uber is creating an unprecedented economic opportunity in the for-hire transportation ecosystem," said Uber spokeswoman Natalia Montalvo. "This is a fundamental and significant change from the status quo, where drivers are mandated to operate in shifts and often earn less than minimum wage per hour."While Uber drivers can earn higher than minimum wage, economist Kenneth Zahringer said that misses the whole point of tipping. Zahringer, who works in the University of Missouri's applied social sciences division, said gratuity in the service industry is more about incentives than income. "There's the simple fact of getting someone from here to there, but then there's a level of service on top of that, being polite, having a clean car, all of that," Zahringer said. "If the driver knows that this particular guy that's sitting in his car right now might give him more money if he's nicer, he's pretty likely to be nicer."So when Cole patiently waited for his passenger to finish throwing up and then delivered her safely to her boyfriend, he was rewarded for doing a good job. Part of Uber's business model is that it provides a service that goes above and beyond traditional taxis. The company encourages drivers to give passengers water and snacks, and to play riders' choice of music. Harry Campbell, who is a Los Angeles-based Uber and Lyft driver and runs a popular blog about his experience, said that as Uber continues to lower rates -- as it's habitually done -- drivers are less motivated to go above and beyond. A year ago, Uber said drivers could make up to $36 per hour but now it's lowered that number to $22, while saying the average per hour is $19. Most drivers say they make quite a bit less per hour. One of the reasons for this wage drop, Campbell said, is a series of price cuts over the last several months. The most recent cut happened in January when Uber slashed fares in 48 cities across the US."When drivers were making more money it made sense to go above and beyond," Campbell said. "It really wasn't a big deal before, but now that rates are lower they're thinking is it worth it." What would an in-app tipping feature look like?While Uber's app is a largely seamless experience, the setup is also slick over at Lyft. The big difference between the two is that at the end of a Lyft ride, the app gives passengers an option to tip their driver. Lyft's app has always let passengers add tips to their rides by adjusting their fare at the end of the trip. But last June the company added a specific in-app tipping feature that made the process easier. It added clickable boxes so riders could choose between certain dollar amounts, a custom amount and no tip."We've always had tipping as an option because we believe it's important for passengers to have the opportunity to give a little extra to drivers who go above and beyond to create a welcoming, enjoyable ride," said Lyft spokeswoman Paige Thelen. "It's also a huge win for drivers who see increased earnings through tips." Thelen said that between January and September 2014, Lyft drivers earned a combined total of more than $6 million in tips. Not all Lyft passengers tip, however. Campbell said that only 20 percent to 40 percent of his Lyft passengers tip, but compared with Uber that's good. He said roughly 5 percent to 10 percent of Uber passengers give him a cash tip. It's unclear whether Faris' online petition will have any effect on Uber's tipping policy, but it's apparent many people want an in-app gratuity feature. In the one week the petition was online, before it closed on Friday, it gathered 13,359 signatures. Zahringer said he believes it would benefit Uber to add the feature because it could give drivers more control. "It makes the service provider, the individual, a little more of an entrepreneur," Zahringer said. "By improving quality, they can directly affect their income. And that's power."

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Android Wear gadgets not a big hit, with only 720,000 shipments in 2014 The first figures are in for devices running Google's Android Wear operating system -- and they're lagging behind the wearable market's less flashy and feature-packed gadgets by a wide margin.Google's OS for smartwatches and other wearables grabbed 15.6 percent of the total "smart wearable bands" market in 2014, according to a report published Wednesday by research firm Canalys, with the six Android Wear devices collectively shipping 720,000 units of the total 4.6 million units sold last year. Canalys defined smart wearable bands as devices that can runthird-party applications. By and large that includes only smartwatchesfrom Android Wear partners such as Motorola; Samsung'sTizen-powered devices; non-Android Wear devices from Sony, Basis andother wearable makers; and startup Pebble's smartwatch. Chris Jones, an analyst and vice president at Canalys, said Android Wear's showing in the market fell below Google's expectations."We think it would be under where they were hoping to be by the end of the year," Jones said in an interview. Because of its heavy focus on notifications that drain battery life, Jones added, Android Wear doesn't appear optimized for wearables until its developers improve how people use the OS and for how long.Motorola's round-faced Moto 360 smartwatch was the clear leader among Android Wear gadgets, the report said, despite supply issues constraining the number of devices the company was able to ship last year. Other gadgets running Android Wear beyond the Moto 360 include LG's G Watch and G Watch R, the Sony SmartWatch 3, Asus' ZenWatch and Samsung's Gear Live.A second category is what Canalys calls "basic wearable bands." Those include products from wristband makers Jawbone, Fitbit, Garmin and Polar, as well as a number of other companies that have entered the fray with new wearables of their own, including gaming-hardware company Razer and Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi. Fitbit remains the leading seller in the basic category with Xiaomi catching up fast, thanks to a successful launch of its Mi Band, Canalys said. Basic wearble bands run only proprietary software and often don't contain screens. Gadgets running Android Wear aren't included in the category.While makers of smart wearable bands shipped 4.6 million units last year, the basic category was approximately triple in size, according to Jones.The lack of breakout success for both Android Wear devices and the overall handful of higher-end, do-everything smartwatches comes as the wearable market is ready for a serious shake-up. Apple's forthcoming Apple Watch is as feature-packed as they come, with a full-color screen. Its battery life, however, is only slightly better than that of gadgets currently on the market. But given Apple's track record, its impact on the market will set the tone going forward for what consumers may reasonably want and expect from a wearable gadget, the report said, and the device will likely prove a challenge for Google if the search giant wants its software to end up on more smartwatches in the future. Google, however, might be up to that challenge."Android Wear will need to improve significantly in the future," Canalys analyst Daniel Matte said, "and we believe it will do so."

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LG posts footage of exec 'testing' Samsung washing machine Following the indictment of one of its senior executives for vandalism of rival Samsung's washing machines, LG has denied all wrongdoing and posted the allegedly damning CCTV footage of the act to YouTube.The footage, LG says, proves that the executive in question was testing, rather than sabotaging, South Korean rival Samsung's washing machines. Samsung claims the footage is "arbitrarily edited."The move follows South Korean prosecutors' indictment of Jo Seong-jin, head of LG's Home Appliance and Air Solution company, and two other LG employees on charges they wilfully damaged rival Samsung's washing machines during the IFA tradeshow in Berlin last year. Samsung instigated the investigations by filing suit against LG for property damages and defamation. LG denied the charges and counter-sued Samsung for defamation and tampering evidence, but the prosecutors have declined to follow this counter-suit, citing lack of evidence.The video, embedded below and entitled "This is LG Electronics' Jo Seong-jin," includes CCTV footage that shows Jo and his employees in three separate encounters with a Samsung Crystal Blue Door front-load washing machine, with accompanying explanations by LG. LG alleges this is the footage turned over to the prosecution by Samsung during the investigation.LG says that Samsung's allegations are based on the second encounter, where Jo is shown to be bending his knees and pushing down on the door of the washing machine with his hands, with what looks like visible force. LG claimed that Jo was performing standard product tests, out of habit as an engineer, and the footage was accompanied and followed by images that showed people from non-LG home appliance and home-shopping companies pushing down on the door in a similar fashion.It also showed images of what looked to be regular consumers -- IFA is open to the public -- using the door roughly, such as hanging a hefty looking blanket on the door, or leaning on the door while taking the laundry out. A child was also seen sitting on the door.LG also pointed out that Jo tested other products besides the washing machine on display at the Samsung store, in full view of Samsung promoters who checked on the condition of the appliances and did not ask Jo to stop. That Jo conducted the "test" in the open, with Samsung employees as witnesses, made Samsung's claim of him "secretly sabotaging" the washing machine preposterous, LG said.Near the end of the video, LG showed images of what it claimed are results from its re-enactment of the testing. LG concluded that the same testing could not cause as much damage as Samsung said had occurred, with a not-so-subtle suggestion that Samsung may have tempered with the washing machine, which was airlifted from Berlin to be turned in as evidence to prosecution.In the latest statement, LG's Jo apologized for the situation itself, which he called "unnecessary controversy," but again proclaimed his innocence.Sources familiar with the matter told CNET's sister site ZDNet Korea that Samsung and LG execs met earlier this year in a meeting that was not made public, under the mediation of the prosecution, to possibly settle the issue. The talks fell through, however, as LG declined to apologize for what it claims it did not do.Samsung in a statement claimed the video was "arbitrarily edited" and distorts the truth. "The prosecution has already sufficiently examined the entire video, not the edited version, and has determined that there is enough suspicion of willfully damaging, so we have decided that just because LG Electronics posted a video it would be inappropriate for us to release the entire video as tit-for-tat," a spokesperson for Samsung said.Samsung also claimed that its employees, not seen in the video, were at a distance and looking in a different direction when Jo was damaging the washing machine, and were therefore unable to protest. It also said Jo's actions shown in the video, when performed by a healthy adult such as himself, "clearly" broke the bounds of conventional testing.An LG spokesman said there was nothing to add to the statement the company released and the video it posted.

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Developer curses at man on subway, meets him again in job interview The London subway isn't the most elegant of places.It reeks of malodor. It's dripping with secondary moisture. And then there's the difficulty of shoving far too many people into a confined space and hoping that, in some very British way, they'll all get on.One man got on the subway train last Monday morning and wasn't in the mood for politeness or pleasantries. As another man stood in his way, he shoved him and, so that there was no doubt as to his intent, told him to "Go f*** yourself."This is morning talk for "Oh, do please get out of the way."Perhaps the curser thought nothing more of it. He went about his day. He even had a job interview later in the afternoon.He walked in and, within seconds, began to curse himself. For his interviewer turned out to be the very man he'd cursed at on the subway. Being a Python developer, and therefore a man of some rational bent, he might have attempted to work out the chances of such a serendipitous event.However, as Matt Buckland told the BBC: "It was totally awkward."Buckland, you see, was the interviewer. He's the head of talent and recruiting for Forward Partners. This is a VC company that offers money to fledgling entities. You'd imagine he might have been tempted, in this job interview, to reciprocate the developer's morning greeting.Instead, he admitted to the BBC: "I approached it by asking him if he'd had a good commute that morning. We laughed it off and in a very British way I somehow ended up apologizing."The story emerged before millions of eyes, because Buckland garlanded his Twitter feed with it.His now-classic post read: "Karma - the guy who pushed past me on the tube and then suggested I go F myself just arrived for his interview...with me..."The developer didn't get the job because he wasn't, according to Buckland, quite right for it. Might his predilection for ill temper have contributed to him not being right for it? Buckland didn't say. The job, though,is still available.One way of preparing for this particular developer interview is surely to ride the London subway all day long, trying to be nice to everyone you meet.I don't suggest, though, too deep a belief in karma. We all remember the rare times when karma seems to bring a delicious justice to an unfair world.But look around and you'll find a remarkably large number of notably unpleasant people in positions of great power.

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Xiaomi to launch Mi store in US -- but no phones for now Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is bringing its products to the US, but perhaps not the ones consumers might clamor for most. The company announced Thursday at a fireside chat with press here that it will be launching its online Mi store in US, but it will not carry any phones in the Mi line, Mi Note or Redmi line of smartphones, nor its Mi Pad tablet. Instead, Xiaomi will sell its lesser-known ancillary products such as headphones and its Mi Band wearable fitness tracker.An online store signifies the first step towards its eagerly anticipated entry into the US market. While not a household name, Xiaomi has steadily built up its reputation among the tech savvy as "the Apple of China" with affordable and slick-designed devices packed with high-end components, all with price tags that are sometimes half that of its competitors' products. Further adding to the hype is its position as the world's most valuable startup with a valuation of more than $45 billion. But the Western markets represent a different beast -- one where consumers gravitate to the biggest names like Apple and Samsung.Hugo Barra, a former Google executive who left the search company to join Xiaomi as vice president of international operations in 2013, said the company wants to be calculated and careful when bringing its flagship products to new markets. It's a now-recurring theme for the start-up that considers itself an Internet services company -- not just a handset maker. "The amount of effort required to bring those products [phones and tablets] to market is significant. We just have to move at the right pace," Barra told the audience. "So we're accelerating our entry in a sense by bringing simpler products." Barra cited factors like manufacturing, packaging, regulations and the software hurdles with a language gap for the slow arrival of Xiaomi phones in Western markets.Xiaomi is growing at an incredible pace, having amassed more than 100 million users of its MIUI operating system, a variant of Google's Android OS, in just four and a half years since its August 2010 founding. Xiaomi is now the leading seller of smartphones in China and accounted for five out of every eight Android phone activations in the last month, the company said, thanks to large followings in developing markets like India, Malaysia and Indonesia. It's the world's sixth largest smartphone manufacturer, according to research firm TrendForce, although its upward trajectory suggest it'll likely move up the ranks throughout the year. The pace of that growth has many wondering when Xiaomi will expand to markets where Apple and Samsung have captured large percentages of the market. Xiaomi prefers to take its time. Xiaomi's strategy of launching an online store echoes similar plays run by fellow Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei and Alcatel. While these companies supply cheaper smartphones to prepaid customers through their carrier relationships, they are attempting to push their higher end flagship smartphones directly to consumers through their own online presence. Xiaomi, however, is moving even more gingerly, holding off on its marquee smartphone products for now.

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Virgin Media plots £3B broadband upgrade, but rural areas could be left out Virgin Media is giving its network a boost, pumping £3 billion into upgrading its existing hardware -- a plan that the network says will bring broadband speeds of 152Mbps to 4 million more UK homes. The provider's strategy, called "Project Lightning", will be enacted with the support of Virgin Media's parent company Liberty Global. Virgin Media says the scheme will add £8 billion of value to the UK's economy, with 6,000 new jobs and 1,000 apprenticeships to be created over the next five years.Virgin Media is asking citizens who'd like faster Internet in their area to register interest in the expansion plans online in a scheme dubbed "Cable my Street". But as Virgin Media says its investment will focus "in areas closest to its existing network and will be planning expansion based on consumer and business demand," experts are warning that rural residents could be left out of the upcoming upgrade. "This could mean rural customers are knocked down the priority list if there aren't enough residents in remote areas to convince Virgin to 'Cable My Street'," Ewan Taylor-Gibson, broadband analyst at uSwitch said. "Virgin Media is in a competitive market.It makes absolute sense that they focus on the areas they feel will generate the best return," Oliver Johnson, broadband analyst at Point Topic said. "Unfortunately in this context that means that those in rural areas are unlikely to be in Virgin Media's footprint, although there are some instances where properties or villages on the route of the cable run get a node just by being in the right place.""This still doesn't address the 'digital divide' as the provider has clearly indicated that investment will focus on areas that are close to its existing infrastructure," Dominic Baliszewski, telecoms analyst at broadbandchoices said. "This means that already well-connected areas will get a wider selection of services to choose from, while rural dwellers are left in the cold again." Another analyst noted that Virgin's plans were in line with its previously-stated plans. "While the roll-out is not going to help those in the rural areas, there is no pressure or commercial benefit to Virgin Media if it was to do so," Andrew Ferguson, analyst at thinkbroadband said. "It has already highlighted that if the return on investment is below expectations during this expansion, they may stop before the completed level of coverage is finished. This expansion fits into the jointly declared vision that both BT and Virgin Media made to the Public Accounts Committee some years ago, when they said their fibre based broadband networks would reach around two thirds of the UK." In a Virgin Media press release, Prime Minister David Cameron said, "This additional private investment will create more opportunities for people and businesses, further boosting our digital economy and helping secure a brighter future for Britain."

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Obama, serious about cybersecurity, also delivers laughs President Barack Obama, alongside a slew of White House officials and corporate executives, descended on Stanford University here Friday for a first-of-its-kind summit on cybersecurity and consumer protection. The president used the opportunity to wax philosophical about the Internet and the need to keep it secure, to exhibit an off-the-cuff style now bubbling back to the surface in the later stages of his second term -- and to surprise the room full of press and tech leaders with a fair bit of humor. It turns out, for example, that: Obama bleeds Cardinal redTo help ease the crowd into a discussion of cyberthreats to US infrastructure, identity theft or corporate financial ruin, Obama opened his address with what can only be described as a mix of envy and educational regret. "I've got to admit, like, I kind of want to go here," Obama said to raucous cheers from the Stanford Memorial Hall's student section. "I was trying to figure out why it is that a really nice place like this is wasted on young people who don't fully appreciate what you got. It's really nice. And everybody here is so friendly and smart, and it's beautiful. And what's there not to like?" Obama received an undergraduate degree from Columbia University, where there are notably far fewer fountains than at Stanford. Even the president chooses poor passwordsObama made history as the first president with a smartphone...well, sort of. When he assumed office in January 2008, the US government engineered a specialized BlackBerry device for Obama -- who was at the time a big fan of the business-savvy cell phone -- to protect it from hackers and external threats. Though his phone was secure, Obama said Friday that his password game was not quite up to snuff. "And more companies are moving to new, stronger technologies to authenticate user identities, like biometrics -- because it's just too easy for hackers to figure out usernames and passwords, like 'password,'" he said. "Or '12345,'" he added with a pause,"'... 7.' "Those are some of my previous passwords. I've changed them since then." Obama took time out of his address to retrace the history of Stanford's contributions to the technology industry -- noting how the university has, in one way or another, helped birth Yahoo, Google, Instagram, Cisco, Sun Microsystems and many others. "According to one study, if all the companies traced back to Stanford graduates formed their own nation, you'd be one of the largest economies in the world," Obama said,"and have a pretty good football team as well." He also turned up the seriousness a notch to make sure to remind us that in the grand scheme of things, GIFs and selfie sticks and Web culture as a whole are but a blip in the history of humankind. "After all, we are just getting started. Think about it. Tim Berners-Lee, from his lab in Switzerland, invented the World Wide Web in 1989, which was only 26 years ago," Obama said."The great epochs in human history -- the Bronze Age, Iron Age, Agricultural Revolution, Industrial Revolution -- they spanned centuries," he added, forgetting that some people will always remember him for being stuck in the BlackBerry Age.

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​Sigfox raises $115M to expand Internet of Things network globally Sigfox has raised $115 million to extend its low-speed but long-range network to the Americas, Asia and parts of Europe where it's not yet available. The French company believes its network will help link thermometers, power monitors, parking meters, vending machines, smoke detectors, location sensors and other devices expected to be a foundation of what's known as the Internet of Things. Sigfox's network technology is inexpensive, consumes little power and works over long distances, but it's only able to transmit very short messages. That's a recipe for success, the company's investors believe. Contributing to the fourth-round funding are carriers Telefonica, SK Telecom and NTT Docomo Ventures, the company announced Wednesday. Industrial companies joining the investment round include GDF Suez, an energy company; Air Liquide, a supplier of gases, health care services, and other technology; and Eutelsat, a satellite communications firm that believes it can help link into Sigfox's network.The investment could help change the balance of power in the wireless networking world, boosting a new player at the expense of mobile network operators that dominate the industry today through smartphone subscription plans. Sigfox doesn't directly challenge traditional mobile network operators. Their networks offer much higher data-transfer speeds so we can watch YouTube videos while walking down the street. But there is some tension: the Internet of Things is a major growth opportunity for traditional wireless players, and they have mature network businesses that already are expanding to new markets like connected cars. Although some Internet of Things applications will need the higher communication speeds that traditional network operators offer, Sigfox still could siphon away customers who otherwise would spend money with traditional carriers. The participation of Telefonica, NTT Docomo and SK Telecom indicates some at least would rather join Sigfox than beat it. Sigfox partners with other companies to build out networks in different countries.So far the company has network coverage in France, Spain and the Netherlands, and it's working on spreading to the United States. A partnership with a company called Arqiva is bringing the Sigfox network technology to the UK, too. Sigfox uses unlicensed radio spectrum for its service, so it doesn't require particular permission from different countries' governments. Earlier investors, who earlier had invested about $34 million into Sigfox, also invested again. That group includes Intel, Elaia Partners, iXO PE, Partech Ventures, Idinvest and Bpifrance. Updated at 1:55 p.m. PT to clarify that Arqiva is a Sigfox partner in the UK.

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Apple most-valued company ever, but that's not enough for Carl Icahn Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn thinks Apple, already the most highly valued company in the world, is still a bargain.Icahn believes Apple's stock should be worth $216 a share, for a jaw-dropping market value of $1.25 trillion, based on today's outstanding shares. Apple shares closed at $122.02 on Tuesday, making it the first company to close a trading day valued above $700 billion. Shares rose another 2 percent Wednesday.Icahn -- who owns $6.5 billion worth of Apple stock --on Wednesday encouraged Apple through a letter posted on his website, Shareholders' Square Table, to use its roughly $178 billion cash pile to boost its share buybacks, saying the repurchases will help boost Apple's"dramatically undervalued shares." He also patted himself on the back for making a similar plea in 2013 -- Apple did increase its shareholder returns around that time, and Apple's shares have surged since then. Icahn said he's so bullish about Apple that he owns 53 million shares in the company and hasn't sold a single share.Icahn has been known to take large positions in companies and agitate for change, whether it's increasing a stock repurchase plan or breaking up a firm. He's successfully called for breakups at well-known companies such as Motorola and eBay.Icahn isn't looking for a dramatic shift like that at Apple. He claims Apple could use its cash to raise its stock value to his target price. For Apple's part, CEO Tim Cook said Tuesday that in April his company will provide an update on its plans for returning cash to shareholders.While the $1.25 trillion figure is sexy, it's only a theoretical number based on today's outstanding shares. It's hard to tell from the letter how many share buybacks Icahn is factoring into his numbers to get to that price target. Repurchases reduce the number of shares outstanding, helping push a company's stock price higher, even while its market value stays the same.Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.Icahn ends his note with something of a love letter to Apple. Granted, he's hardly an objective observer, but here's part of his statement: "It is now plainly obvious to us that there will be no stopping Apple's peerless innovation track record and best-in-class ecosystem of services, software and hardware, and that Apple will continue dominating the premium smartphone market...while at the same time maintaining or growing average selling prices and gross margins."

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Samsung and LG dominate LCD TV shipments for 2014 2014 was a prolific year for Samsung and LG, as the Korean LCD TV makers racked up 22.8 percent and 14.9 percent of the world market share of shipments respectively, according to a report from research firm Witsview.Both companies increased the number of units from the previous year, with Samsung boosting shipments by 14.5 percent, while LG did slightly better at 14.7 percent.LCD TV shipments as a whole grew by 5.4 percent in 2014, with a total of 215 million units moved, thanks in large part to North America's economic recovery and demand for newer sets to replace older TVs and plasma displays.Sony placed third with 14.6 million units shipped (6.8 percent), up from fourth in 2013, while the rest of the top 10 is largely occupied by Chinese manufacturers such as TCL, Hisense, Skyworth and Konka. The only non-Asian company featured in the rankings was Irvine, Calif.-based Vizio, with 3.5 percent market share, enough to take eighth place. Japan's Sharp languishes in 10th with 3.4 percent."The Chinese brands are facing saturation of the domestic market and persistent challenges from major international brands abroad, but their momentums have been overwhelming," noted Witsview's research manager KK Chang in the report.At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, both Samsung and LG announced their customary raft of new TVs, with Samsung betting big on its new SUHD (S doesn't stand for Super, remember) system and Quantum Dot technology as well as full-array local dimming for its flagship JS9500 series. The company has faced controversy in the last week as it emerged its Smart TV voice-recognition software was passing conversations onto third parties, while in Australia it embedded ads for Pepsi in video streaming apps.LG is sticking with 4K OLED, meanwhile, with an emphasis on improving HDR content. This gives better contrast -- dark blacks and bright whites -- for your viewing pleasure. The company even has a TV that can either be flat or curved.To find out more about upcoming TV trends, be sure to check out our forward-looking CES TV roundup over here.

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Top Oregon Democrats, state treasurer ask Governor Kitzhaber to resign Top Oregon Democrats and the state treasurer on Thursday called on Governor John Kitzhaber to resign in response to conflict-of-interest allegations involving his fiancee, and Oregon's secretary of state said she is ready to step into the job.Kitzhaber, a Democrat, faces mounting pressure to resign amid a criminal corruption probe launched last week by the state attorney general over a possible conflict of interest between the role of his fiancee as an unpaid adviser and her consulting contracts."Oregon deserves a governor who is fully focused on the duties of state," Treasurer Ted Wheeler said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the current situation has become untenable, and I cannot imagine any scenario by which things improve." House of Representatives Speaker Tina Kotek and Senate President Peter Courtney, both Democrats, met with Kitzhaber on Thursday and urged him to resign. A Courtney spokesman said the governor, in response, was "upset" and "defiant."Two petition campaigns to recall Kitzhaber have been organized in recent weeks, and the Oregonian, the state's biggest newspaper, called last week for his resignation.Kitzhaber, who was elected to an unprecedented fourth term in November, said Wednesday that he has no intention of resigning.Secretary of State Kate Brown, next in the line of succession to become governor should he resign, said Thursday that she is ready to assume the role even though Kitzhaber told her he has no plans to step down.Brown said in a statement that Kitzhaber summoned her back to Oregon two days early from a conference in Washington, D.C., for a private meeting on Wednesday."It was a brief meeting. ... The governor told me he was not resigning, after which he began a discussion about transition.""This is clearly a bizarre and unprecedented situation," she added. "I informed the governor that I am ready, and my staff will be ready, should he resign."Brown's return to Oregon and Kitzhaber's cancellation of a weekend event had fueled media speculation about the governor's political future.Also on Thursday, the Willamette Week reported that one day before the state's attorney general opened its investigation, the governor had ordered staff to remove all of his personal emails from state servers.The governor's office told Reuters late Thursday that there was no blanket deletion and that his staff was sorting through the emails to determine which are subject to open records laws.

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Cheap LTE phone Trooper leads Kazam's charge in battle to beat rivals Kazam, the phone company formed by British ex-HTC executives, has unleashed its latest salvo in the battle to make a name for itself, lifting the lid on a host of new gadgets, including cheap LTE phones. Heading up the charge is the appropriately named Trooper 445L, a 4.5-inch smartphone with LTE powers, plus a 5MP camera, a quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM. The 445L has a screen resolution of 480x800 pixels, which isn't very high -- but with these middling specs you can expect a very low price. One of Kazam's current-generation Trooper phones is on Amazon for £116 (around $180), so that should be a rough guide to the pricing of this new iteration. Kazam is churning out a range of roughly similar mobiles, with the Trooper 440L, 450, 450L and 455 en route. The company is also making a slew of Windows devices, including three Windows 8.1 tablets (the L10, L8 and L7), and the Thunder 450W and 450WL Windows smartphones.Tiny Kazam, founded in May 2013, has a real challenge ahead if it wants to compete with the likes of Samsung, which uses its sheer size, scale and control of the phone supply chain to keep prices on its own mobiles low. Kazam has said that it hopes customer service offers will help it compete with the big boys. These include replacing cracked screens within the first year of purchase, and remote support for its Android phones that lets a call centre rep take control of your phone to resolve problems. "Yes we're small now, but why not target Samsung? They make smartphones, we make smartphones," Kazam's chief marketing officer told CNET last year. For now the company's phones are only available in Europe, though it has expanded to 15 countries from its original launch territories of the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Poland. Kazam's recent promotional efforts have proved controversial. An ad for one of its recent phones was recently banned by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority, following complaints that the advert was overtly sexual and objectified women, The Guardian reports. We'll get a closer look at Kazam's new hardware at Mobile World Congress next week. Stay tuned.

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Microsoft, Samsung settle suit over Android patent royalties Microsoft filed an Android patent-royalty suit against Samsung on August 1.Microsoft claimed there was a breach of contract by Samsung involving Android patent royalties, following reported "months" of attempts between the two companies to resolve their issues. The contract in question was the September 2011 multi-year IP agreement Samsung signed with Microsoft via which Samsung has been paying Microsoft per-device royalties for its Android phones. Under that 2011 agreement, Samsung and Microsoft agreed to cross-license their intellectual property, with Samsung paying Microsoft an undisclosed amount for each Android-based phone and tablet it sold. In October 2014, it came to light (thanks to an unsealed court filing) that Samsung paid Microsoft $1 billion in 2013 for a single year's worth of patent-licensing royalties. Samsung claimed the Microsoft Nokia handset acquisition breached the business collaboration part of the agreement between the two companies. Samsung is one of about two dozen companies selling Android, Chrome OS and/or Linux devices that are paying patent-royalty licensing fees to Microsoft. This story was first published as "Microsoft, Samsung settle contract dispute over Android patent payments" on ZDNet.

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Tech Retrospect: RadioShack packs up It's been a long, slow decline for RadioShack, a slide that took another sad turn this week. The company has filed for bankruptcy protection and will sell off roughly half of its 4,000 US stores. Those remaining will be rebranded under a partnership with Sprint.Once a niche purveyor of obscure electronics, Radio Shack the company boomed in the 1970s and 1980s under the ownership of Tandy Corporation. Tandy became a well-known brand at the dawn of the PC boom. But that success wouldn't last, and since the 1990s, the company has been slipping into obscurity. These days, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's a store focused on cheap radio controlled toys.The smartphone definitely helped keep the retailer kicking for a few more years, but even having the latest wares from multiple wireless providers under one roof couldn't keep the profits flowing.The company's remaining stores will now pivot into co-branded Sprint locations, nearly doubling that company's retail presence. I'd love to see this new partnership stop the bleeding and keep the brand alive, but Sprint's long-term viability itself is in doubt against ever-increasing competition from the likes of T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon. I'm having a hard time envisioning a great reinvention for the pair.We're but a few weeks away from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where marathon sessions of dueling events on the Sunday before the show will push our laptop batteries to their collective limits. Samsung's could be the biggest, with the company sending out a teaser that says only "what's next" and features a simple, curved line. It looks like little more than a fork, but presumably what we're looking at is a stylized profile view of the next flagship Galaxy. Intriguingly, a recent leak shows that there may not be just one Galaxy S6, but multiples, including an Edge-style version with a curved screen and a more rugged permutations. It certainly wouldn't be the first time Samsung took the "let's see what sticks" approach to product engineering.Unexpectedly, Verizon this week became the first US carrier to deliver the latest flavor of Android to the Galaxy S5. Verizon typically drags its feet in certifying OS updates, hence our collective surprise, but users of that phone on this carrier would be wise to check for an update. From what I've seen, it's quite stable and quick, and of course offers plenty of new functionality.Hackers and tinkerers, rejoice. There's a new $35 Raspberry Pi, and it's fast. Raspberry Pi 2 is built around a 900Mhz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor, the sort found in flagship smartphones not that long ago. It also offers 1GB of RAM and plenty of ports for extra storage, network connectivity and video output. The original Pi, which will stay in production, became the brains behind many a wonderful device. The Pi 2 should spawn even more. Interestingly, a version running Windows 10 will be available later this year, and Microsoft will charge no fees, meaning developing on Linux or Windows will purely be a question of personal preference.Sports apparel powerhouse Under Armour is flexing its corporate muscles this week with a pair of acquisitions that suddenly give it a strong presence on millions of smartphones and tablets. MyFitnessPal is the first, a calorie- and activity-tracking service that flaunts 80 million users and has hooks into many of the world's most popular activity trackers. Among them, Endomondo, was the second acquisition. Interestingly, Under Armour launched its own fitness tracking app recently at CES, so we'll see how well they can play nice. So it turns out that getting hacked isn't so expensive. At least, not asexpensive as you might have thought. Sony pinned the price tag of its(most recent) hack at a mere $15 million.Granted, $15 million is a lot for you and me, but for a corporationthat looks set to lose $1.45 billion this financial year alone, $15million is basically nothing.In related news, co-chairman Amy Pascal is stepping down. Pascal, as you may recall, was the name in the "From" field on some of the most damaging emails leaked as part of that hack, exposing for many the decidedly unsavory side of Hollywood business. It's hard to imagine this step as doing much to change the perception of the studio. But then, it's also hard to imagine the movie-going public remembering what all the fuss was about in 12 months time.

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EE will sell as many tablets, dongles and smart devices as it does phones by 2017 The UK's biggest mobile phone network says it expects to sell as many Web-connected devices as it does smartphones in the next two years. Announcing a £1.5 billion investment in its network over the next three years, EE also says double-speed 4G and 4G voice calls will reach most of the population by 2017.EE was the first network to launch 4G LTE in the UK back in 2012. Although the other major networks have now launched their own rival 4G services, EE has had the longest headstart and so offers the widest coverage. The company, which is being bought by BT in a £12.5 billion deal, today laid out its plans for the next couple of years. The short version is that EE wants to bring faster speeds to more people. The demand is partly driven by the explosion in Web-connected devices: everything from tablets and laptops to dongles and smart home devices-- basically, anything that talks to the Web that isn't a phone. That includes EE's own EE TV set-top box and Buzzard dongle for your car. In London, EE has established even faster double-speed 4G, and plans to offer that 60Mbps maximum speed across the country. That will be followed by 4G+ (aka LTE Advanced) in 20 towns and cities, giving lucky punters a headspinning 150Mbps if they have phones and tablets that can handle it.Good news for city dwellers, but many rural areas are still without decent mobile coverage -- and some remote areas don't have any fixed-line broadband either. The government and various networks and tech companies see 4G as the solution to that problem, including EE. The company plans to build new infrastructure and use its lower-frequency 4G spectrum to expand the network's reach by more than 1,500 square miles. According to EE, that's an area bigger than the Lake District and Peak District national parks combined, geography fans. Part of the plan involves smaller and easier-to-build network sites than traditional mobile phone masts. That means sticking 4G kit on the side of rural shops and homes."The deployment of 800MHz spectrum will be crucial to providing coverage to rural areas because mobile signals travel further at lower frequencies," explained Kester Mann, industry analyst at CCS Insight. "The commitment to focus on rural areas will help satisfy the government's requirement for 90 per cent geographical coverage in the UK by 2017." Currently 4G only handles data, as voice calls are still carried by the 3G network, with obvious implications for call quality and coverage. EE intends to introduce 4G voice calls -- also known as VoLTE -- as part of the network expansion. "Voice is clearly central to EE's strategy given its stated plans for VoWi-Fi, VoLTE and broader coverage. This addresses a major concern among UK mobile consumers to reliably make and receive phone calls," Mann said. "EE's announcement reiterates its strategy to lead on network quality and performance. Despite the intended acquisition by BT, it is clear that it is business as usual for EE."

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Samsung team eyes robots, drones and more Samsung has created a new, independent team that will focus on developing innovative technology.As reported by the Korea Times,the South Korean electronics giant has established a team, workingindependently of the firm's units and departments, to focus theirefforts on the creation of high-tech products.The core mission ofthe team, led by Samsung mobile chief Shin Jong-kyun inside the mobiledivision, is to work on products in the fields of virtual reality,robotics, 3D printing, robotic telepresence, drones and autonomousvehicles.According to an official who spoke to the publication,the team will design products suitable for improving the generalpublic's daily lives."Given the significance of the team, memberswill have more authority and independence because the main purpose ofthe team isn't to develop single devices for any imminent results, butto develop solutions to go with Samsung's manufacturing capabilities,"the unnamed official said.Another official saidSamsung's previous success in the corporate realm came down to productsthat were competitively priced. However, as competition heats up in theface of rivals such as Apple, competitive pricing simply isn't enoughanymore. According to IDC's latest smartphone shipments report,the mobile device market is experiencing a significant slowdown -- butApple "fell just short" of surpassing Samsung for the top spot in theglobal smartphone market in the last quarter.Instead, the techgiant has to explore new ways to improve upon technologies and generatefresh revenue streams, and emerging industries such as the Internet ofThings (IoT) industry, smart vehicles and intelligent appliances couldbe the way forward.Samsung has established itself in the mobiledevice market, but has also produced a line of smart householdappliances. While Samsung's SmartTV recentlycaused snooping and privacy worries, the company is still well-placed to exploit these fields -- which have no clear, defined dominant player.The official commented: "Thisis why Samsung is accelerating efforts to collaborate with governmentsand is putting more focus on developing solutions embedded with ourcomponents and technologies."This story originally appeared at ZDNet under the headline "Samsung launches dedicated innovation team."

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Uber aims to be uber-funded by expanding funding round by $1B Ride-hailing service Uber has experienced ups and downs with public perception, but none of that has seemed to sway investors' enthusiasm for the service. Already flush with $4.9 billion in funding, including debt financing, the company is now expanding its latest round of possible funding from $1.8 billion to $2.8 billion, according to a Wednesday filing with the Delaware Secretary of State. This means investors will now be able to invest millions more in Uber. Over the past year, Uber has raised several hefty rounds of financing. The service, which lets drivers connect with passengers via a smartphone app, is now the second highest valued venture backed company in the world with a valuation of $41.2 billion.Venture capitalists' recent investments in Uber "underscore the confidence investors have in Uber's growth," an Uber spokeswoman said. She said additional funding will be geared toward its car-pool feature, which is dubbed UberPool, and launching its service in more cities around the world. The company is currently in more than 260 cities in 54 countries. Uber is under pressure to introduce new services, such as UberPool, and to do so while continuing its international expansion. "These are all expensive options and Uber can use all the cash it can get," said Parks Associates analyst Tejas Mehta.Investor interest in Uber comes despite waves of bad publicity over the past few months. Critics have said Uber unfairly competes with its rival Lyft. The company has also battled regulators in the US, Asia and several countries in Europe. Additionally, some of its drivers have allegedly attacked passengers, raising concerns about whether driver background checks are strict enough. Despite those pressures, analysts say the continued investment from top venture capital firms -- like Baidu, New Enterprise Associates and Lone Pine Capital -- is a testament to its early success. In fact, the money poured in for Uber in 2014. Over the course of the year, the company raised more than $2.4 billion, including the most recent round of $1.2 billion in December. In January, Uber also received a round of $1.6 billion in convertible debt financing from wealth management clients at Goldman Sachs. The only company with a higher valuation than Uber is Chinese smartphone-maker Xiaomi, which has a valuation of $46 billion. Uber is by far the giant in the ride-hailing app world, but its rival Lyft is looking to catch up. Last week, it was reported that Lyft is supposedly seeking $250 million in funding, which would value the company at roughly $2 billion. Corrected at 10:50 p.m. PT to say Uber is expanding funding from $1.8 billion to $2.8 billion. The article previously stated the expansion was from $600 million to $1 billion.

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Obama signs information-sharing order as privacy question looms Government cannot do this alone. The fact is, the private sector cannot do this alone either, as government has the latest information on threats, Obama said at the White House summit on cybersecurity and protection at Stanford University's Memorial Hall on Friday. "Today I'm once again calling on Congress to come together and get this done."Known as "information sharing and analysis organizations," or ISAOs, these new entities can be not-for-profit community organizations, membership groups or single companies, the administration clarified. The US Department of Homeland Security would then be authorized to approve classified information-sharing arrangements and to ensure that ISAOs can access classified threat information. The order would also fund the creation of a nonprofit organization to develop a set of voluntary standards for ISAOs.Obama, joining many of the officials onstage this morning, called for bipartisanship in helping the order work its way through Capitol Hill. "Everybody's online," he added, "and everybody's vulnerable."The White House summit is Obama's latest attempt to curb the rising tide of cyberbreaches that have become an almost everyday occurrence. The summit aims to promote the idea of info-sharing as a tactic for improving cybersecurity overall, as well as a rapprochement between the US government and the private sector. That relationship has frayed in the last few years -- especially within the tech sector -- after NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden revealed the government's surveillance of people's online messages. Tech companies have countered by making it harder for governments to read their customers' emails and messages.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Google's Larry Page and Eric Schmidt were all invited to the Stanford event, but won't attend, according to the companies. Apple CEOTim Cook made an appearance, talking about people's rights to privacy and security."Cyberthreats against American interests are increasing in their frequency, their scale, their sophistication and the severity of their impact," said Lisa Monaco, Obama's Homeland Security adviser, who spoke earlier this morning. "The actions we take today, or fail to take, will determine whether cyberspace remains a great international realm of opportunity...that facilities progress and bold new ideas or, frankly, whether it becomes a strategic vulnerable."Cyberattacks against US businesses and organizations have forced the Obama administration to grapple with the best way to deal with massive data leaks and thefts. Following his remarks on security in his State of the Union address, Obama is now asking for $14 billion in the 2016 budget proposal to beef up US efforts against such attacks. On Tuesday, the administration announced the creation of a new government agency, the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, that will fuse information from various intelligence-gathering services to thwart cyberattacks in much the same fashion as government counterterrorism task forces.The heightened measures are for good reason. Hacks on businesses and government agencies ran rampant in 2014 --here were more than 1,500 data breaches worldwide, up nearly 50 percent from 2013. Last month, insurance provider Anthem revealed that hackers had broken into its computer systems and potentially accessed the personal data of 80 million people, including their names, emails, passwords and Social Security numbers. Such information makes Anthem's customers vulnerable to identity theft for the rest of their lives. Last year, JP Morgan Chase revealed that more than 76 million US households that had logged in online or through mobile devices had had their accounts compromised.To even greater notoriety, hackers last November breached the computer network at Sony Pictures Entertainment, spilling details of the inner workings of Hollywood studios and leading the way to an international incident over the comedy film "The Interview." The US government pointed the finger at North Korea as the likely culprit behind the attack, stirring up debate around the growing threat of state-sponsored hacking.Four of the top tech companies caught up in the Snowden leaks -- Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Facebook -- declined to send their respective CEOs to the summit, choosing instead to send their top information-security executives. Facebook earlier this week launched its owncollaborative tool in the form of a social-networking site for security professionals to share information, called ThreatExchange.Snowden's leaks have created a divide between many Silicon Valley companies and the government as news of the NSA's activities damaged relations with US consumers and with overseas businesses. Apple and Google have begun encrypting smartphone data by default, protecting it from thieves and hackers, but blocking out and frustrating law enforcement agencies in the process.In a moment of rare acknowledgement, a Homeland Security official referenced the leaks in a call for more collaboration and a repairing of the relationship between tech companies and the government."In this -- dare I say -- post-Snowden environment, it's critical for us to continue the dialogue,"Jeh Johnson, the US secretary of Homeland Security, said during a morning panel with chief executives of finance, energy, health care and security firms.Many officials onstage Friday said privacy is a top priority, without providing details on howthe new cybersecurity initiatives will balance privacy and security. Obama did clarify that his executive order "will call for a common set of standards, including protections for privacy and civil liberties." Meanwhile, Jeff Zients, director of the National Economic Council, who spoke earlier in the morning Friday, said "cybersecurity and consumer protection are two sides of the same coin."Nuala O'Connor, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, was outspoken on easing the perceived tensions between privacy and security. "Wholesale collection of data into the hands of the federal government is not a solution to the problem," she said during a panel with finance and tech chief executives. "I should have the right to engage in a digital world without feeling like I'm being spied on by the government."Apple's Cook took the stage prior to Obama as the highest-level representative of the tech industry. Last year, Apple came under heavy criticism for the security of its iCloud data storage and backup system, following a devastating leak that resulted in a trove of nude images, most prominently of female celebrities, ending up on the Web.Though hackers did not exploit any specific flaw in iCloud, they were able to attack other accounts to glean identical or similar passwords they could try out on Apple's system. The iPhone maker's failure to consistently communicate its available security measures -- like two-factor authentication -- and regularly notify users of account sign-ins and password retrieval requests made it easy for hackers to accessthe affected accounts.Apple enhanced its iCloud security measures following the incident.In his speech, Cook made a strong stand for consumer privacy rights in a sweeping call for protection. He did so notably after taking sharp jabs at search giant Google and social-network Facebook by saying, as Cook has in past speeches, that Apple's business model does not rely on collecting and selling its users' data to advertisers."We still live in a world where all people are not treated equally. Too many people do not feel free to practice their religion or express their opinion or love who they choose," Cook said. "We must get this right. History has shown us that sacrificing our right to privacy can have dire consequences.Obama ended his addressby appealing to the sanctity and power of the Internet itself."Like all those innovators before us, our work will endure -- like a great cathedral for centuries to come," he said, evoking the words of Internet pioneer Paul Baran. "That cathedral will not just be about technoloy. It will be about the values we've embedded in the architecture of the system."It will be about privacy and community and it will be about connection," Obama added. "What a magnificent cathedral that all of you have helped to build."

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New anti-piracy code proposes the 'three strikes' policy for Australia Internet service providers in Australia would be required to help identify repeat copyright infringers under a proposed "three-strikes" policy draft published Friday. The draft code, which was drafted by rights holders and service providers, came in response to an ultimatum from the Australian Government in December last year for an industry-developed approach to combat the ongoing issue of online copyright infringement and piracy in Australia. The Federal Government warned that, unless rights holders and ISPs could work together to devise a code, the Government would "impose binding arrangements" on the industry by April 8, 2015. Australia's attorney-general and the minister for communications announced the move as part of a suite of measures, including new legislation that allows for the blocking of overseas websites found to be facilitating piracy.The Industry Code [PDF] was published by Communications Alliance, a joint body representing telecommunications providers, ISPs and the wider communications industry in Australia. Its stated objectives are to "dissuade Australian internet users from engaging in online copyright infringement," to educate them about what constitutes infringement, and to provide information on how to "readily access lawful available content alternatives." This kind of graduated response to piracy has been on the cards for Australians for some time, with the Attorney-General's Department saying last year that it was "one option" for addressing piracy. The comments were welcomed by rights holders,but some ISPs rejected the three strikes approach as too "heavy-handed." The Government's proposal also faced criticism from one academic who said there was no evidence that three strikes regimes actually stop piracy. The document does not discuss how rights holders will identify copyright infringement, only saying that the processes must be audited and certified to ensure accuracy. Similarly, the issue of who funds the scheme is yet to be addressed. However, the code does stipulate the steps rights holders and ISPs must take once piracy has been identified. Among the measures, which apply to "residential fixed, internet account holders only," is the introduction of a notice scheme."This copyright notice scheme provides that, at the instigation of rights holders, ISPs must, where possible, issue Education, Warning or Final Notices to relevant account holders," the code reads. This graduated response has been designed to give account holders the opportunity to cease activity, or challenge the infringement notices they receive, and if all three notices are not sent within a year, the infringement count "will revert to zero". However, if an account holder receives their final warning within 12 months of the Education first notice, rights holders "will be provided with assistance [from ISPs]...to take direct copyright infringement action against an account holder".The code offers the caveat that the scheme "does not identify alleged infringers of copyright" but rather allows the detection of infringing IP addresses, meaning warning notices will be sent to the "account holder to whose service that IP address was allocated at that time". Once the final notice is sent, the rights holder can elect to apply through the Federal Court for "preliminary discovery" to identify an infringer's personal information in order to pursue further legal action. Rights holders will not have access to any internet user's personal information until this stage.It is expressly stated that ISPs must only disclose customer details through a court order or if permitted by the account holders themselves, meaning content owners will not be able to quietly press ISPs to hand over customer information. However, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network has raised concerns that even though "express sanctions" have been left out of the code, internet users could still face harsh penalties through the courts. "Disconnection from the internet or speed throttling are not proportionate methods to tackle the problem of online copyright infringement," said ACCAN CEO, Teresa Corbin. The code does set up a system to allow internet users to challenge any alleged infringement through an Adjudication Panel. This body is established under the code, along with a Copyright Information Panel made up of representatives of both rights holders and ISPs to oversee implementation of the scheme. The rights holders participating in the drafting of the code include the Australian Recording Industry Association, Australia Screen Association, Copyright Agency, pay-TV provider Foxtel, Free TV Australia, Music Rights Australia, News Corporation Australia, Village Roadshow and World Media. The service providers represented include the major Australian players Telstra, Optus and iiNet. The full code does not go through to the Australian Communications and Media Authority until April, but if finalised, these measures will be in place by September 1, 2015.

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Tech Retrospect: The Apple car approaches? Toward the end of last week, rumblings started about a purported Apple car. We'd heard whisperings before, whispers that gained intensity when a minivan festooned with sensors and scanners was spotted lumbering around Cupertino, Calif.This week, the chatter developed into a proper roar, with reports coming hot and fast. Most telling, perhaps, is a lawsuit from A123 Systems, a US battery maker with a focus on electric vehicles. The company alleges that Apple systematically poached roughly five employees, a major hit to the company that produces batteries for road cars like the Fisker Karma and Chevy Spark EV. Given the company's 2012 bankruptcy filing, you can't exactly blame the employees for looking elsewhere, but that Apple hired them directly rather than simply contracting with A123 is interesting.Another report indicated that Apple's team is hoping to have a car in production by 2020. This seems incredibly aggressive to me for a company to go from zero to full production in roughly six years. (That assumes this project started last year, which is when the lawsuit alleges the hirings began.) That's about the same amount of time it takes a company like Ford or Mercedes-Benz to get a new car from concept to dealer lots.Now, I know you're probably thinking "But Apple isn't Mercedes-Benz, they can be more nimble." You're right. However, Mercedes-Benz has over 100 years of process optimization and, more importantly, component creation. They know how to make a door handle that'll last for decades, have their entire software system already written and have a suite of active and passive safety systems they can simply bolt into any new car. That saves an immense amount of time.For Apple to start from scratch and do all that in six years seems...unlikely. If this is a serious thing and not just an experiment, I still see Apple partnering with someone to make this work. And, as GM's former CEO Dan Akerson says, there's not much benefit for Apple even if it does get it right. But, as ever, we shall see!If you purchased a Lenovo lately, specifically between September 2014 and January 2015, you might have something to worry about. The company made the terrifically unfortunate decision to start preinstalling software called Superfish. This code ostensibly just sits there and inserts banner ads into your browsing, which is bad enough, but the way it does it, by hijacking supposedly secure traffic, has opened the machines to a major vulnerability that could allow anyone to intercept your online activity.We've posted a guide on how to identify and remove Superfish from your machine, and if you're on a Lenovo I recommend you have a gander.Not got enough choices in the smartwatch arena? Pebble is about to raise its game. The company is currently teasing a next-gen product, with a ticker on its site that will hit zero on Tuesday morning. Rumor has it the device will be thinner than before, with a color display and lots of other new tweaks. Stay tuned for more.I remember being very excited a few years ago with the notion that my future wallet would be entirely contained on my smartphone. It'd make my life so much simpler, I thought. Little did I realize that my wallet of the future would actually be even more fragmented than my wallet of the present. That's the impression I'm getting, anyhow, with news this week that Samsung has acquired mobile-payments start-up LoopPay. The intent seems obvious: to create an Apple Pay rival for its Galaxy devices. Of course with Google Wallet already sitting on Android, and wireless carriers in the US pushing Softcard, knowing exactly how to pay for my groceries is seemingly just going to get more confusing.We've heard no shortage of reports over the past few years of organizations like the US National Security Agency watching everything you do online, but a new one this week could make all that look like child's play. According to a report by The Intercept, both the NSA and UK's Government Communications Headquarters have managed to hack into the encryption keys used by digital security and smart-card maker Gemalto. Gemalto is the world's biggest manufacturer of SIMs (subscriber identity modules). If indeed these allegations are true, the NSA and GCHQ have the keys to a ridiculously huge number of phones across Europe and the Americas. Nothing has been confirmed, and given the players involved, it remains to be seen whether anything ever will be.Everyone's favorite image-editing tool turned 25 this week, and while that tool has enabled photographers to do some amazing things, it's also resulted in some terrible mistakes. To celebrate the lows as well as the highs, Crave created this gallery of some of the silliest digitally manipulated images of all time. I hope you enjoy.

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Firefox tiptoes toward a world without Adobe Flash Through a Firefox project called Shumway, Mozilla on Thursday took an important early step toward building a Web that works without Adobe Systems' Flash Player. Flash spread widely more than a decade ago so website developers could embrace games, streaming video, animation, graphics and other features that were hard or impossible with a regular browser. Such browser plugins now are on their way out, with Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs banishing them from the iPhone, YouTube moving to the HTML standard, and Microsoft calling them a relic. But there is still plenty of Flash used in the real world, so Mozilla's Shumway is designed to keep Flash-infused websites from breaking even when Firefox doesn't have Flash. On Thursday, Mozilla programmers enabled Shumway, though only for product tour videos on Amazon, only on Windows and OS X, and only in the cutting-edge Nightly version of Firefox that's not stable enough for regular folks. "The Firefox Nightly channel now uses Shumway to play Flash videos on Amazon.com," said Mozilla programmer Chris Peterson in a mailing list message. "The Shumway team has been improving compatibility with Flash video players and will whitelist more Flash video sites soon." Yes, it's only a baby step, but it's an important one in the history of the Web. Flash was ascendant during the years when Microsoft's Internet Explorer was overwhelmingly dominant but Microsoft wasn't interested in improving it. Now as the Web enters its post-Flash era, it's more powerful, better suited to everything from tiny smartphone screens to start TVs, and increasingly adept at running interactive Web apps, not just static Web pages. This latter category is particularly important since so many programmers are concentrating on mobile apps for Apple's iOS and Google's Android.Plugins expand what Web browsers can do, but they also open up new security holes and crash problems. Despite that,weaning the Web from Flash is a long effort. Microsoft tried to curtail browser plugins in its IE when running in Windows 8 tablet-friendly Metro mode, but had to relent to cope with Flash pervasiveness, for example. Google is gradually shutting out most plugins, but it's keeping Chrome's built-in version of Flash Player. Browser makers have begun pushing hard to leave plugins behind by creating Web standards that can be built directly into the browsers themselves. That's a sound approach for new websites, but not everyone is moving to the new approach fast, and there are countless older sites that likely will never be updated. But the long-term trend is clear: Flash is on its way out. Even though it's still widely used for things like streaming video and advertisements, Flash doesn't work on Android and iOS, and Adobe has shifted its future development work toward Web standards.Shumway itself uses those very standards. For example, it processes Flash programming instructions with its own JavaScript module. Mozilla plans to improve Shumway to take on more Flash duties, including Flash ads. One last question: why is the project named Shumway? According to a tweet by Peterson, it's apparently an obscure reference to an actor: "Flash → Flash Gordon → Gordon Shumway (the actual name of the TV character ALF :)"

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Oklahoma bill would protect clergy who won't perform gay marriages Oklahoma state representatives voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to advance a bill that would provide immunity from lawsuits to clergy who refuse to conduct marriages for same-sex couples.The bill, approved by 88-7 in the state House of Representatives, would protect clergy members from any civil claim or cause of action if they refuse to preside over or recognize a marriage of same-sex couples because of their conscience or religious beliefs. The measure next goes to the state Senate for consideration.The bill's sponsor, Republican Representative David Brumbaugh, said many pastors asked for the legislation after a federal judge overturned Oklahoma's ban on gay marriage in January 2014. The ministers are concerned about being sued under public accommodation laws if they turn away same-sex couples who want to marry, he said."It's not about discrimination or anything like that, it's just that we want to make sure they were protected," Brumbaugh said.Brumbaugh said he was not sure if any states had approved similar bills.The bill is one of several proposals before the Republican-dominated Oklahoma Legislature intended to protect the interests of people who object to the lifting of the gay marriage ban.Gay rights supporters have said they would challenge the proposed measures in court if they become law.

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Apple's Genius Bar to get smarter with 'Concierge' -- report Apple's Genius Bar is about to get a whole lot smarter -- and maybe even faster for some. Starting the week of March 9, Apple will begin to roll out "Concierge," a new way for customers who walk into its stores with product issues to sign up with the in-store service area Genius Bar, 9to5Mac is reporting, citing people who claim to have knowledge of Apple's plans.At the heart of the modification is an end to the first-come, first-served basis for Genius Bar appointments. In its place, Apple employees will field issues from customers and input them into an updated iPad application. That app will then log the information into an algorithm and spit out an estimated wait time based on the other problems that are already at the Genius Bar. The bigger the issue, the higher it will be placed in the Genius Bar's prioritized list. Concierge, according to 9to5Mac, is the brainchild of Apple's senior vice president of retail, Angela Ahrendts, who took over the post last year after serving as CEO at fashion designer Burberry. In the 10 months that Ahrendts has been with Apple, she has made several important changes to the company's retail business, including streamlining management to allow for more input from in-store employees and making a strong push in the Chinese market. In a profile published earlier this month by the New Yorker, Apple's senior vice president of design, Jony Ive, said that he's working with Ahrendts to redesign the Apple Store to make the company's upcoming smartwatch Apple Watch a showpiece in-store. As the head of retail, Anhrendts is in charge of nearly 450 stores and has plans to open dozens more in China and elsewhere. Apple no longer breaks out retail store revenue in its financial reporting, but the company has said that the stores play a major role in helping generate its billions of dollars in profit each quarter. An overhaul of the handling of drop-ins at the Genius Bar could be crucial to Apple maximizing floor space for products and consumers, rather than for those waiting for their iPhone to be fixed. Under the current system, customers who walk in with an issue describe the problem and are given a specific time to return with their hobbled device. In some cases, when the times are close enough, folks willsimply wait inside the store. According to 9to5Mac's sources, the new system will act more like restaurant reservations. After the iPad application spits out where the issue will fall in the queue, customers are asked to provide a phone number. They are then sent an initial text message saying that their request has been received, coupled with an approximate wait time. A second text message requests that users return to the Apple Store, and a third will tell them where to find their technician. While some people may choose to stay in the Apple Store to wait, the company envisions customers in its mall locations walking to other stores while they wait for their next text message, 9to5Mac's sources say. With Concierge, Apple is addressing just a portion of the Genius Bar appointments. According to 9to5Mac's sources, those who log their issues online to set up an appointment at the Genius Bar will not see that system changed for now. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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​More change for Mozilla as top Firefox exec departs Another major management change is coming to Firefox as Johnathan Nightingale, the vice president who oversees the open-source Web browser project, will leave Mozilla on March 31. In a blog post Tuesday, Nightingale said Mozilla made it through a rough patch last year and that he's making the change to tighten ties with his family and with the tech scene in Toronto, where he lives. "No, I haven't been poached by Facebook. I don't actually know what my next thing will be," said Nightingale, who joined Mozilla in 2007. "I want to take some time to catch up on what's happened in the world around me. I want to take some time with my kid before she finishes her too-fast sprint to adulthood. I want to plant deeper roots in Toronto tech, which is incredibly exciting right now and may be a place where I can help."The change comes less than a year after Mozilla endured a traumatic management change. Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Brendan Eich was promoted to chief executive, but lasted less than two weeks because of a firestorm of controversy around his earlier opposition to gay-marriage rights. After he resigned, Mozilla rehired Chris Beard, who earlier had led Firefox marketing work, to fill the CEO post. Replacing Nightingale will be Mark Mayo, who for the last four years has led Mozilla's cloud services group, a responsibility he'll keep with the new title vice president and general manager of Firefox. Nightingale strenuously denied in his resignation note to Mozilla staff that his departure is the "sign of doom" that some will take it to be. "Predictable, and dead wrong; it misunderstands us completely. When things looked really rough, at the beginning of 2014, say, and people wanted to write about rats and sinking ships, that's when I, and all of you, stayed," Nightingale said in the blog post.Regardless, it'll mean more change for Firefox, and that change comes at a hard time for Mozilla. With Firefox and its close cousin, Firefox OS, Mozilla is fighting hard to compete with Chrome and Internet Explorer on personal computers and fighting harder to gain even a small foothold on the faster-growing future of smartphones and tablets. The relevance Mozilla enjoyed a decade ago supplying a nimbler, more secure, more competitive alternative to Internet Explorer is much harder to come by these days. Mayo, who joined Mozilla in 2011 after serving as chief technology officer for Joyent and a leader of the Node.js project, will take over Firefox as part of a Mozilla unification of two groups."Today we combined our group focused on cloud services with the group focused on our Firefox desktop and mobile browsers," Beard said in a statement. "Recently we have been exploring how we can integrate client software on desktops and mobile with cloud service approaches to evolve what Firefox can do for people. In an effort to support this vision, it's a great time to hand over leadership to someone deeply experienced in mobile and cloud services." Those cloud services include the Firefox Marketplace app store, the Hello online chat technology now in Firefox, and the related Firefox Accounts and sync tools to carry a person's identity and preferences across Firefox and Firefox OS. Beard praised Nightingale for "eight years of distinguished service" and thanked him "for his countless contributions to the Mozilla project and leading Firefox through periods of intense competition and change." Beard said Firefox "turned a corner" in the last year. "We achieved positive growth again and dramatically reset our global search strategy -- and we now have a much stronger foundation from which to build, grow and pursue our mission." Nightingale didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. There have been other personnel changes, too, since Beard took over. Tristan Nitot, a 17-year Mozilla employee who founded Mozilla Europe, left earlier this month to write a book. And developer relations staff have seen a lot of turnover. Christian Heilmann, formerly Mozilla's principal developer evangelist, joined Microsoft in January as a senior program manager advocating Web standards. Frédéric Harper, a Mozilla technical evangelist, left in October to lead developer relations at Mashape. And Robert Nyman, another Mozilla technical evangelist, joined Google to run developer relations for Nordic countries. "Mozilla is going through a number of challenges at the moment, and to be honest, it's my belief that the upper management need to acknowledge and address these," Nyman said. Mozilla is a large organization, with more than 900 people in the for-profit entity at the core of the broader non-profit organization. It largely accomplished its original mission with Firefox -- ensuring that people had a choice of browsers to use the Web, not just Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which was dominant a decade ago, and that those browsers delivered Web technology through standards rather than proprietary extensions to the Web. Indeed, with the arrival of Google's Chrome, Microsoft's active engagement with the Web's future, and the spread of the Web to mobile devices, standards have arguably never been more important to the Web. Nightingale said things are looking up for Firefox. From the blog post: Updated at 1:37 p.m. PT with comment from Beard and details about Mark Mayo replacing Nightingale as the top Firefox executive.

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Samsung's warning: Our Smart TVs record your living room chatter Why worry about Big Brother? It's your big Samsung TV that's watching you. Oh, and listening to you. That seems to be the conclusion from reading the privacy small print offered by the company. (Samsung's motto: TV has never been this smart.) It concerns the voice-recognition feature, vital for everyone who finds pressing a few buttons on their remote far too tiresome. The wording, first spotted by the Daily Beast, first informs you that the company may "capture voice commands and associated texts so that we can provide youwith Voice Recognition features and evaluate and improve the features." This is almost understandable. It's a little like every single customer service call, supposedly recorded to make your next customer service call far, far more enjoyable. However, the following words border on the numbing: "Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or othersensitive information, that information will be among the data capturedand transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition." We are NOT having your mother here this weekend, next weekend or ANY weekend! I'm pregnant and it's not yours. The possibilities curdle in the mind. So much so that I have contacted Samsung to ask how broad this policy might be and what third parties might be informed of your personal conversations. (I would have just shouted at my SmartTV to get comment, but it isn't a Samsung.) A Samsung spokeswoman told me: "Samsungtakes consumer privacy very seriously. In all of our Smart TVs weemploy industry-standard security safeguards and practices, includingdata encryption, to secure consumers' personal information and prevent unauthorized collection or use." But what might be authorized and by whom? Samsung's spokeswoman continued: " Should consumers enable the voice recognitioncapability, the voice data consists of TV commands, or search sentences,only. Users can easily recognize if the voice recognition feature isactivated because a microphone icon appears on the screen." Yes, we must now look for little microphone icons to check whether we're being listened to. As for the third parties mentioned in the privacy policy, Samsung explained it to me like this: "Samsung does not retain voice data or sell it to third parties. If a consumerconsents and uses the voice recognition feature, voice data is providedto a third party during a requested voice command search. At that time, the voice data is sent to a server, whichsearches for the requested content then returns the desired content tothe TV." One imagines this is simply one more small step for mankind toward ultimate electronic envelopment, which some see as a very good thing. Your Nest and other devices will, of course, capture so many of your domestic predilections too. This is about making the Internet of Things merely one more thing in making your life easier, lazier and seemingly less private. Clearly, this isn't the only option for those intent on a SmartTV. You can disable the full panoply and stick to a series of already-defined voice commands. However, this still brings with it stipulations such as "While Samsung will not collect your spoken word, Samsung may stillcollect associated texts and other usage data so that we can evaluatethe performance of the feature and improve it." Alright, you cry, I'll switch voice-recognition data off altogether. This will result in "You may disable Voice Recognition data collection at any time byvisiting the 'settings' menu. However, this may prevent you from usingall of the Voice Recognition features." As Samsung's spokesperson explained to me: "Voice recognition, which allows the user to control theTV using voice commands, is a Samsung Smart TV feature, which can beactivated or deactivated by the user. The TV owner can also disconnectthe TV from the Wi-Fi network." You might imagine that other SmartTV manufacturers would have similar controls and stipulations. If a product can listen and record something, it's likely it will. So I went to Philips SmartTVs and could only find a general privacy notice, with no specific information relating to SmartTVs. LG's privacy policy again is general, with no apparent specific information relating to SmartTVs and their potential. I have contacted both companies to ask whether there is a more detailed supplement that makes their TVs capabilities clear. LG was, however, embroiled in a privacy controversy in 2013, when its SmartTVs were accused of knowing too much. The company promised to change its policies.At the heart of all this is, of course, trust. The best and only defense against intrusion from the likes of Google to Samsung is this: "We don't really care about your private life. We just want your data, so that we can make money from it." It's inevitable that the more data that we put out, the more will be recorded and the more will be known about us by machines which are in the charge of people. We have all agreed to this. We click on "I agree" with no thought of consequences, only of our convenience. It isn't just your TV that will listen and record. Soon, it'll be everything that has a digital connection. This is our digital bed. We lie in it willingly. 3:35 p.m PT: Updated with comment from Samsung

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Google taps Yezz as module provider for Project Ara January has been a hectic month for Luis Sosa.In a matter of days, the CEO of Miami-based DDM Brands (and co-founder ofYezz)traveled from his headquarters in Miami to a Google developers' conference in Mountain View, Calif., to yet another one in Singapore, taking some time to visit some business partners in Hong Kong.The reason behind all the hustle? His company, which manufactures contract-free, affordable handsets under the Yezz brand, has been approached by Google to become one of the first manufacturers of modules for its Project Ara, an ambitious program which will let users build a personalized phone from a selection of snap-together elements.The Project Ara modular smartphone originated from Google's Advanced Technology and Projects group,the California-based search engine's research and development braintrust. You'll build your phone from components you choose, each module asquare of varying size that attaches to the phone with electro-permanentmagnets."(Google) approached us, mainly because Yezz has been growing not only in Latin America, but also in the US and Europe," Sosa told CNET en Español, a sister site of CNET.com. "But there is more: Yezz is a product for the masses, and that is what Google is aiming at with Ara."Founded in 2011, DDM Brands has focused mainly in the manufacturing of contract-free, double-SIM phones targeting emerging markets. The company sells several models under the Yezz brand, including the Android-based Andy and a recently launched Windows Phone called Billy (in honor of, ahem, Bill Gates).Few companies are as enthusiastic about Google's Project Ara as Sosa's. "We are talking about a real transformation, here" he says. "I believe modular phones will transform the smartphone business in the same way apps transformed the world of smartphones."While Project Ara is still in its early stages, Google has said it will launch a pilot project in Puerto Rico to test phones that will let people mix and match hardware parts, such as cameras or screens, and snap them together like Legos. Thepilot will begin later this year, and the company will use the data toplan for a global launch. Furthermore, the company has talked about creating a virtual store, similar to Apple's App Store or Google's Play Store to showcase -- and sell -- the different modules designed under this project.It is not yet clear what the modules will cost. In a dedicated FAQ page, Google has said it's much too early to tell. "We have set engineering and manufacturing goals for the bill-of-materials cost of a basic, entry-level Ara device to be in the $50-100 range," writes Google. "It's important to note that this is just the cost of the components and says nothing about how it will be priced -- it could be more or less than that (e.g., with a carrier contract.)"In the end, says Google, it is expected that module developers will be able to set the prices for their modules sold in the Ara Module Marketplace, much like mobile app developers do in app stores today.Google has not released a specific date for the Puerto Rico pilot, but Sosa and his team say they're ready for the challenge. In fact, says Sosa, Yezz has already manufactured "about 100" module prototypes from factories in the US and China, which will be showcasing them during the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Yezz will also launch a dedicated website touting the collaboration, though for the moment it only features a countdown clock showing the time left until MWC.Click here for CNET's full coverage of the 2015 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

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Facebook launches social network for security pros Facebook has launched another social network to help people connect -- but this time it's on a specific topic:cybersecurity. Called ThreatExchange, the website is designed for security experts and companies to collaborate and share information about online threats they're seeing, such as malicious software and computer vulnerabilities, so they can better protect their customers. In the wake of massive cyberattacks against the some of the world's biggest companies, Facebook decided to make it easier for security professionals across industries to alert each other about new threats as they become known. To do that, the world's largest social network created a dedicated service that could give companies the same privacy controls individuals already have on Facebook. With ThreatExchange, security pros can decide what they want to share and with whom, without worrying about disclosing sensitive information. Early partners in a beta version of the site include Bitly, Dropbox, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter and Yahoo. ThreatExchange is the latest attempt to help stave off a plague of cyberattacks hitting corporations and governments worldwide. Following the devastating hack on Sony Pictures Entertainment last fall, US President Barack Obama allocated $14 billion in the 2016 budget to beef up cybersecurity efforts. On Tuesday, the administration announced the creation of the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, which will coordinate cybersecurity efforts across government agencies. The hope is that, by sharing information, governments and corporations have the up-to-date knowledge of emerging threats and attacks from which they need to protect themselves, their employees and their customers.

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Tech Retrospect: Samsung's terrible, horrible, very bad week Today, spare a thought for Samsung's television division. It had what you could call a terrible week of epic proportions, something of a perfect storm of bad PR. And yes, while there are those who would say there is no such thing as bad PR, it's hard for me to see this as anything but.First up were the hugely negative reactions to the company's privacy policy on its Smart TV line, which includes this terrifying warning to those who would make use of the voice recognition functionality: "Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition."Phrasing, as we all know, is everything, and in this case the heavy layer of legalese served to comprehensively bite the company in its posterior -- precisely the piece of anatomy that this legal warning is supposed to protect. What Samsung meant to say, is that the voice recognition is handled by a third party, namely Nuance, which also powers Ford's SYNC and plenty of other systems.The company updated its privacy policy to clarify that the sets are not "always listening." Of course, there are plenty of devices that are always listening, like the Amazon Echo, or your iPhone, or your Lollipop-running Android phone, so if this kind of functionality concerns you, maybe steer clear of those, too.The other black eye for Samsung came a few days later, when their sets suddenly and mysteriously started inserting commercials where they didn't belong. Specifically, a Pepsi commercial that played every 15 minutes while people were watching content streaming directly over their local network. Samsung confirmed it was a glitch and that glitch has been fixed, but the fact that the functionality even exists makes me a bit nervous to say the least.Since the beginning, it's been standard operating procedure for US smartphone carriers to lock you into their services. Moving a phone from one to another has been a huge hassle at best, impossible at worst -- but that changes now. As of Wednesday, all US carriers are required to unlock their subscribers' smartphones upon request. That, of course, assumes that the phones are fully paid for. Once unlocked, you'll be free to bring your device with you from one carrier to the next -- though keep in mind that not all networks are compatible with each other. So, make sure you verify with your new carrier before you tell your old one to go climb a frankentree.If you're in the Americas or Europe, you can finally get your hands on a new version of Nintendo's 3DS XL. The system has been out in Japan since last year, but now it's finally arrived to a place where I can buy one. Well, to be clear, I did pick one up while I was in Japan, but thanks to region locks, it can't play American games and, well, let's just say my Japanese isn't so hot. The system costs $200 here in the US and, if you're a frequent mobile gamer, I'd say it's well worth the upgrade. The new display makes the 3D effect actually usable.Are you sitting while reading this? That's okay, I'm sitting as I write it -- despite the fact that I have a standing desk. Tim Cook would not approve. This week, at a Goldman Sachs conference, the Apple CEO said "sitting is the new cancer" and pledged that the Apple Watch will help. The device will be able to notify you when you're being overly sedentary, which on one hand sounds nice, on the other terribly annoying. It is certainly a little tragic that the watch itself will need to spend so much time sitting still on its charger.The carriers didn't want it and the wireless providers didn't want it, either. But, they've come around and, guess what, it's working. The so-called "kill switch" functionality in many modern smartphones, which disables them remotely, has resulted in a 25 percent decline in smartphone theft in New York City and 40 percent in San Francisco, according to a Reuters report. Thieves beware.Curious what Boston Dynamics has been up to since Google acquired the company in 2013? Well, here's your answer: Spot. Think of Spot as a friendlier, down-sized version of the company's previous four-legged machine Big Dog. You can see the little guy in action in the video above, doing its very best while humans dress it up in stupid costumes and kick it. They kick it a lot. The video does point out that no robots were harmed during the filming of the video, but that's probably only because they can't feel pain. Yet.

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Microsoft's CEO expects pen to be extinct in a decade It used to be mightier than the sword. Now it's just a doddering old thing that will soon be only the stuff of romance novels and legends. We're already poking at our screens so much that soon we'll have nibs, not fingernails. And along comes Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to give the fountain pen another 10 years at best. In an interview with ABC News, he was asked which technology that we rely on today won't be around in 10 years time. He immediately pounced on the fountain pen as a technology -- one that we rely on. Some might think it as more an elegant, old-fashioned romantic way to pen a letter to a long-lost love or to cut one's less beloved ex-spouse out of one's will. World News Videos | ABC World News For Nadella, though, it's clearly the product of a long-gone engineer, an item that will soon only be seen in museums. There is no room for nostalgia in the rampant engineer's brain. Well, other than when he thinks about cricket. Asked whose shoes he would love to spend a little time in, he answered that it would be the old, white cricket boots of Australian batsman Donald Bradman. Take that, Nikola Tesla. Take that, Tim Cook. For me, perhaps the most intriguing element came when he was asked how long he slept. I fancy the majority of CEOs squeeze in four or five hours at best. I imagine such sleep is fitful.But here's the chirpy, dapper engineer at the helm of a vast company who claims he sleeps eight hours a day. He says he slips out of bed at 7 a.m. This can only be cause for admiration. This man is not obsessed. He knows he needs rest in order to help his mind function. This is the very Zen that was missing in the Zune. Naturally, at times he forced himself into corporate answers. The one Web site or app he couldn't live without? "Microsoft Office," he said, with just a tiny hint of corporate exasperation. He sold the Microsoft Band as a fine alternative to a smartwatch. He insisted Windows Phone was here to stay. I, though, cannot help already weeping at the thought of the world's fountain pens drying up. Does it mean we'll all clutch tablet styluses in a pitiful nod to the past? Or will we one day reach again for a slim, ink-dispensing device to express ourselves in a more true, heartfelt manner? Kids will never know what they missed, of course. The only slim, ink-dispensing devices they ever see are in their tattoo parlor.

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Foxconn says no, actually, we're not reducing our workforce Technology device manufacturer Foxconn will not be reducing its workforce, despite a recent report saying that it's planning to do just that. Earlier on Tuesday, news outlet Reuters reported that Foxconn, which has produced a wide range of devices, including Apple's iPhone and Microsoft's game consoles, will reduce its workforce as it deals with shrinking revenue gains and increasing wages across China, where it produces most of its products. Louis Woo, special assistant to chairman Terry Gou, reportedly said "yes" to Reuters when asked if the company will cut employees. In a statement to CNET, however, Foxconn said that the report is "completely inaccurate and totally without foundation," adding that the company is still recruiting employees and will maintain the more than 1 million employees it has worldwide. "As we continue to increase the application of automation in our operations, the magnitude of our employee recruitment is expected to decrease in the years ahead, but we have no plans to reduce our workforce numbers now or anytime in the future," a company spokeswoman said Tuesday. "In addition, our company is confident that we will continue to achieve sustained business growth in the years to come." Foxconn is one of the world's largest employers and produces a wide range of technology goods. At peak times, the company employs about 1.3 million people. While Foxconn has grown over the last several years, due in large part to its partnership with Apple to build iPhones and iPads, its revenue growth has declined from double-digit gains several years ago to single-digit increases in the last two years. In addition, Foxconn's margins are being squeezed by increases to the company's employment costs. After Apple brought in the Fair Labor Association in 2012 to inspect its supplier partners, the organization, which aims to ensure that workers at production facilities around the world are treated fairly, discovered issues in Foxconn facilities, including low wages in some cases and too much overtime in others. Foxconn has since cleaned up many of the problems and increased wages, and also seen its overall expenses rise. In response, Gou has said on numerous occasions over the last couple of years that he believes the use of robotics and other automation techniques could save on labor costs and potentially increase output. The statements have been viewed as a harbinger of people losing jobs to robots. Foxconn acknowledged to CNET that it's "investing in the automation of many of the manufacturing tasks associated with our operations, applying robotic engineering and other innovative manufacturing technologies." However, the spokeswoman said that the addition of automation to its production process will not negatively impact employees and may bolster its employee ranks. The technology, the Foxconn spokeswoman said, will "enable our employees to focus on high value-added elements in the manufacturing process."

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Jay Z splashes out $56 million on Spotify rivals WiMP and Tidal Jay Z might have 99 problems, but a streaming service ain't one. The rapper is splashing out $56 million on Swedish company Aspiro, which runs WiMP and high-quality audio service Tidal. Jay Z's Project Panther has tabled a bid of 464 million Swedish crowns (around $56 million, AU$72.5 million or £37 million) for Aspiro. Buying a music service puts the musician and business mogul in competition with rival Swedish streaming service Spotify and with Beats, the streaming and headphone brand founded by fellow rapper Dr Dre and bought by Apple for $3 billion last year.WiMP is a music streaming service that offers 25 million songs and 75,000 music videos to around half a million subscribers in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Poland. That's a fraction of the 15 million paying subscribers to Spotify, but it's still a significant number. Aspiro also runs Tidal, which launched in the UK and US last year and offers high quality audio in the lossless FLAC format for $19.99 or £19.99 a month. Jay Z, real name Shawn Carter, is the rapper behind "99 Problems" and "Empire State of Mind". One half of a power couple with singer Beyoncé, he's estimated by Forbes to be worth around $520 million dollars thanks to business ventures including the Rocaware clothing range, Armand de Brignac champagne, 9IX fragrances, the Roc Nation sports agency and a stake in NBA basketball team the Brooklyn Nets. Previous dabblings with technology companies include the early release of his album "Magna Carta Holy Grail" to Samsung devices.

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Facebook mobile users hit new highs, revenue jumps Facebook's mobile users are checking in, uploading photos and liking posts at record rates. And that, in turn, is attracting advertisers who pushed up Facebook's revenue and profit.The world's largest social network said nearly 84 percent of the 890 million people who used its service daily did so on a mobile phone. Nearly 86 percent of the 1.39 billion people who accessed Facebook each month did so on a mobile device as well, a new record for the company.Advertisers followed those numbers. Mobile ads accounted for about 69 percent of the company's $3.85 billion in revenue. Overall, the company's sales jumped nearly 49 percent from the same time a year ago.Those numbers underscore the Menlo Park, Calif., company's increasing reliance on mobile devices for its business. Much of the technology industry has become fixated on smartphones and tablets, as people throughout the world switch from desktop computers. Investors are now paying more attention to the mobile aspects of Facebook and its competitors. Few companies have successfully navigated the switch to mobile devices as effectively as social networks, like Facebook and Twitter. As Facebook has shifted its efforts to mobile devices, advertising has followed suit. Last year, Facebook accounted for more than 18 percent of global advertising spent on mobile devices, according to industry researcher eMarketer; when the company went public in 2012, its mobile advertising revenue was negligible. Google still commands the most spending from advertisers, with more than double the amount spent on Facebook. Part of Facebook's success has been its focus on video ads, particularly on mobile devices. So far, Facebook has said response from users and advertisers has been strong. Half of all people who visit Facebook daily watch at least one video per day, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said during a conference call. In addition, over 65 percent of videos are watched on mobile devices. "Marketers have followed this trend and are using video to help people discover and learn about their brands," she said. The company has been spending big in the past couple of years to gain a stronger foothold in the mobile device arena. In the last year alone, it bought the messaging service WhatsApp for more than $19 billion and virtual reality goggles maker Oculus VR for $2 billion. Both companies approach mobile devices in different ways, offering customers an easier way to send missives to one another with WhatsApp, or interact with movies, games and other programs using a mobile device powered by Oculus software. But Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, warned advertising won't be shifting toward its newest efforts anytime soon. To him, WhatsApp and the company's other communication service Messenger are like Facebook was about seven years ago, when the company was seeking the best way to advertise to users. "We're going to have to go through a whole cycle of figuring out how [users interact with businesses] before it really makes sense to start monetizing them in a big way," he said. Facebook warned in October that it will increase its already heavy spending in these and other efforts, spooking investors. The company said costs in the fourth quarter grew to $2.72 billion, up 87 percent from the same time a year earlier. Spending is expected to grow 55 percent to 70 percent from last year, the company said. Spending for the year will be between $2.7 billion and $3.2 billion. Overall revenue hit $3.85 billion for the company's fourth quarter, up nearly 49 percent from the same time a year ago and above the $3.77 billion expected by analysts. Profit jumped to $701 million, up 34 percent from the same time a year ago. After adjustments for items such as stock-based compensation, Facebook said it earned 54 cents per share, above the 49 cents per share analysts had been expecting.

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Corruption probe closes in on Oregon governor Embattled Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, the focus of a criminal corruption probe involving his fiancee's role in his office, repeated on Wednesday that he had no intention of resigning as pressure mounted on him to step down.Kitzhaber, a Democrat re-elected to an unprecedented fourth term in November, has been dogged for months by allegations that fiancee Cylvia Hayes used her role in his office for personal gain, raising questions about his political future.Two recall petition campaigns have been organized in recent weeks, and the Portland Oregonian, the state's biggest and most influential newspaper, called last week for his resignation. Kitzhaber himself canceled a planned weekend appearance to plant trees in a Portland suburb, according to a statement from the city of Tigard.And on Wednesday, Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown, who would take over from Kitzhaber if he did step down, cut short her trip to Washington, D.C., for a conference scheduled through Friday and flew home to the Pacific Northwest. A spokesman, Tony Green, said he could not say why.Images posted by a broadcaster on social media showed reporters camped out at Portland International Airport waiting for Brown to return.Amid a flurry of reports on those developments by the Oregonian and other media outlets, Kitzhaber sought to tamp down speculation that he might leave office. "I have no intention of resigning as Governor of the state of Oregon," Kitzhaber said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon. "I was elected to do a job for the people of this great state and I intend to continue to do so." Kitzhaber previously said he would not step down but would cooperate with a criminal probe launched on Friday by state Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum over a potential conflict of interest between Hayes' role in his office and her private consulting business. An earlier review by the state's ethics commission has been put on hold pending the outcome.Media reports last week revealed that Hayes received $118,000 in previously undisclosed consulting fees in 2011 and 2012 from the Washington-based Clean Economy Development Center while advising the governor on energy policy.Kitzhaber did not disclose those fees in annual disclosure filings. He has said the couple did not see it as a potential conflict of interest and therefore did not feel it had to be reported.He recently announced Hayes will no longer have a policy role in his office.

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Dixons Carphone to start its own mobile network with Three's help Dixons Carphone is starting its own mobile phone network. The newly merged company that owns high street gadget and phone shops Currys, PC World and Carphone Warehouse is joining forces with Three for the network. Although it's yet to be named, the new network is due to launch in spring. It's expected to offer data connection for devices including smart home appliances. The new network will be a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which means it will present itself to customers as a separate network but behind the scenes will use masts and other infrastructure belonging to a major network. In this case it's Three providing the hardware; other MVNOs include Tesco Mobile, which uses O2 masts, and Virgin Media, which uses EE.Carphone Warehouse merged with Dixons in a £3.7 billion deal last summer to form Dixons Carphone. Carphone Warehouse stores have since been left as the main independent high street retailer for mobile devices since Phones 4U folded late last year after the networks pulled out. Meanwhile Currys and PC World have outlasted defunct rival gadget shops such as Comet and Best Buy. 2015 is set to be a year of huge changes in the mobile network landscape. BT is set to create a broadband, landline, TV and mobile behemoth by buying the largest network, EE -- itself formed from a merger of Orange and T-Mobile a few years before. Three's owner Hutchison Whampoa is snapping up O2, while Sky is planning an MVNO to round out its broadband, landline and TV portfolio.A reduction in the number of major networks from five to three could spell less competition -- and therefore higher prices for customers -- but the announcement of new MVNOs could even that out."The launch will further intensify a highly competitive MVNO market in the UK," says industry analyst Kester Mann. All of these manoeuvres are subject to approval by telecoms watchdog Ofcom, but Mann believes this latest tie-up "could help smooth the path of regulatory approval for the Three and O2 deal".

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Microsoft's Nadella is on a mission to make Windows matter again If former Microsft CEO Steve Ballmer saw Windows as a cash cow that just needed to be milked, Satya Nadella seems to view the software as a workhorse straining to pull the company out of its rut.Nadella, who celebrates his one-year anniversary Wednesday as Microsoft's third-ever chief executive, has been working quietly and steadily to convince developers and consumers that the world's biggest software company -- and its Windows operating system for computers, tablets and smartphones -- is once again relevant.He's got a tough sell.Sure, almost 90 percent of all personal computers run some version of Windows. But by 2016, over 2 billion people -- or more than a quarter of the world's population -- will have a smartphone, according to eMarketer. And where does Microsoft stand in one of the fast-growing technology arenas in the world? In the shadows, with its Windows software for mobile devices holding a paltry 2.7 percent share of the market, well behind Google's Android and Apple's iOS offerings.Nadella, who's spent the last 23 years at Microsoft, knows that the company's days as master of the tech industry are long gone. Now he's trying to make it relevant by pushing Microsoft into the age of mobile computing. For Nadella, it's a question of "renew" or die."You renew yourself every day. Sometimes you're successful, sometimes you're not. But it's the average that counts," Nadella said at the LeWeb conference in Paris, one month before being named CEO. "If you deal with scale where you stop innovating, then that's death .... We've had great successes with Windows, we've had great successes with Office. But it's just a question of what we do next."What Microsoft did next was take a page out of Apple's and Google's playbooks -- emphasizing apps, not operating systems. But while those companies focus on making it easy for users to share information across devices, Apple and Google still force app developers to write one set of code for computers and another for mobile devices.With Windows 10, the next version of Microsoft's operating system, due this year, developers are being promised the ability to write to a single code base. That could be the lure Microsoft needs to convince developers who want to write just once and create the apps that look and feel the same across computers, tablets and smartphones, regardless of what software powers the device."The best possible repeat of history for [Microsoft] would...be a place developers go to," said Gartner analyst Merv Adrian. Microsoft also needs to be "a company whose developer tools are perceived as being useful to everyone, not just on their own platforms."The workhorse is plodding steadily forward.To see the plan in action, just look at the pricing shakeups since Nadella took over. Microsoft last month announced that Windows 10, due later this year, will be a free upgrade for a majority of PC users. And Microsoft made its flagship Office software available at no cost to every iOS and Android user while also extending free licensing of its Windows Phone software to any manufacturer of Android devices with a screen smaller than nine inches.If you don't want to use OneDrive, Microsoft's cloud storage service, you can use rival storage service Dropbox. Just last week, Microsoft made its Outlook email application available -- again, for free -- on iOS.It sounds like craziness has taken hold in Redmond, Wash. But there's a method to the madness of offering all that free stuff. Microsoft hopes people will pay the annual subscription fee for Office 365 so they can use the cloud versions of Outlook, Word and PowerPoint on their Macs or PCs. That's become especially attractive as employees shift their activity between corporate and personal devices."The one attribute that characterizes Nadella's first year on the job is a steady hand," said Roger Kay, an analyst and founder of market intelligence firm Endpoint Technologies Associates. Kay believes Nadella has exhibited an ability to strongly communicate Microsoft's roadmap.That includes his take on the video game business. Instead of jettisoning the Xbox division as some investors have demanded for years, Nadella put more weight behind it.One of Nadella's first organization shakeups last year was to make Phil Spencer, former head of Microsoft's game development arm, in charge of the entire Xbox unit. The result has been a huge boon to Xbox sales as Spencer steered the division toward more serious gamers and away from mass-market consumers in what was a botched attempt to take over the living room. Last fall, Microsoft extended its gaming commitment by buying Mojang, maker of the popular Minecraft game, for $2.5 billion.Mobile hardware also is key to Microsoft's turnaround. After acquiring Nokia's handset division in April 2014 for $7.2 billion, Microsoft now takes in around $2 billion in revenue each quarter from sales of Lumia smartphones. Last quarter, Microsoft shipped more than 10 million Nokia units, and 40 million more lower-cost phones running Windows software licensed out for free.And while those numbers don't shine when compared to the 74.5 million iPhones Apple shipped in the last holiday quarter, the relatively stable business does more good than harm for Microsoft as a whole, analysts say."Microsoft is going to stay in the phone business as long they're not cratering," Gartner's Adrian said. "Not because they want to get to No. 1 or No. 2 in the phone business, but because as a market participant they learn a lot that extends to the rest of the company." Microsoft, for instance, can apply what it learns in the consumer market to the enterprise space -- and vice versa.A Microsoft comeback is not a given. Such turnarounds are rare in the tech industry. "Change won't happen overnight" has become a common refrain among both Microsoft fans and skeptics. That's because the company's business has long relied on a small set of core sales drivers -- namely, the software and services it sells to businesses. That enterprise focus earned Microsoft more than half of the company's $86 billion in sales last year. Now it's the buffer Nadella needs for his turnaround efforts."Microsoft has a little bit of time. Yahoo had Alibaba financing all of [CEO Marissa] Mayer's experimentation while she figured out what she wanted to do with the company," Kay said. "Microsoft has their own built-in Alibaba, which is the commercial side."But time is running out. Microsoft stock has dropped 15 percent since the company's not-so-stellar earnings report last week, erasing almost $40 billion in shareholder value. Longtime Microsoft analyst Rick Sherlund, of Nomura Securities, downgraded the company's stock, forecasting tougher times ahead for the company."We reduced estimates to reflect a significantly more challenging transition ahead, with difficult comparisons ahead for traditional Office and Windows," Sherlund told investors on January 27. "Our bigger concern is that with more difficult year-to-year comparison still ahead over the next two to three quarters and the stock near its high, there is little room in the shares for disappointment."Disappointment could become the norm if Nadella can't change a company known for its inability to capitalize on industry-defining trends. Just look at smartphones, tablets, subscription music and TV services, social networking, mobile messaging ... the list goes on."Ballmer didn't have a sense of where Microsoft should go," said Kay. Nadella, with his steadier hand than the famously bombastic Ballmer, might have a better chance of changing the software behemoth's course.Nadella knows the outcome for Microsoft if he can't renew the business.

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Microsoft gets hardware foothold as Surface, Lumia sales jump Microsoft's consumer devices are starting to show signs of life.The company's fiscal second-quarter earnings posted Monday indicate that its consumer businesses are consistently growing. Its Lumia phones are selling better than everand Surface, its tablet line, is officially a billion-dollar business. Though thesedivisions are still nowhere near as large as Microsoft's software,servers and Internet services divisions, the numbers represent a promising start.Though those core software businesses are still the company's bread and butter, Microsoft is very much still in a significant transition period. CEO Satya Nadella, who took over nearly a year ago, now has a twofold mission: to have Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows 10, run across as many devices and screens as possible, and to make consumers love Windows again, not just use it out of necessity. For Nadella, that means pushing Windows as aggressively into the hands of consumers as it has in the corporate realm.Helping the cause, the software giant is positioning its next operating system as the Swiss Army Knife of computing, with executives explaining at a Windows 10 event last week at its Redmond, Wash., headquarters that the company can both evolve its OS while appeasing longtime users who felt put off by the missteps of Windows 8. But Microsoft is still far behind on mobile with its software running on about 3 percent of phones worldwide. Surface, too, has much ground to cover to compete with both Apple's iPad tablet and the scores of low-cost laptops with which it also competes."Each day we're reminded of the enormity of the responsibility we have to move the innovation of Windows forward," Nadella said last week. "Our universal platform is what runs across the phone, the PC and now the TV. Developers can target applications to the largest amount of Windows devices."Microsoft's biggest challenge is not necessarily selling these consumer devices, which it's doing now at a faster clip. Rather, the company needs -- as Nadella points out -- to get developers to care in a world increasingly swallowed up by Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms.For the three months ended December 31, 2014, Microsoft said its profit was $5.86 billion, or 71 cents a share, compared with $6.56 billion, or 78 cents a share, a year ago. Sales were $26.47 billion, up 8 percent from $24.52 billion a year ago.That roughly matches the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, which forecast earnings of 71 cents a share for the period and $26.32 billion in sales.The drop in expectations and in Microsoft's earnings is a result of the company's continued costs from acquiring Nokia's handset division in April 2014 for $7.2 billion. Microsoft brought Nokia's Lumia brand into the Windows Phone fold, hoping to boost its mobile division in the face of a struggling global market share. Its phone division now contributes more than $2 billion in quarterly sales.Microsoft bore a bigger brunt of that financial blow last quarter, swallowing $1.14 billion in restructuring costs like severance packages and other expenses that resulted in a 13 percent drop in year-over-year profit. Executives stressed that Microsoft would incur $500 million more before the end of the year, following a road map outlined in July when the company first announced it would be laying off 18,000 employees, many former Nokia employees.Microsoft ended up spending only $243 million on those restructuring expenses, incurring a 2 cent per share negative impact to the company's profit. The company said it expects to incur $100 million per quarter for the remainder of the fiscal year, keeping its costs in line with its July projection.This quarter, Microsoft sold a record 10.5 million Nokia Lumia smartphones, up 28 percent from a year ago and bringing in $2.3 billion in sales driven by demand in the budget smartphone category. And for the first time ever, the company's Surface tablet division pulled in more than $1 billion in sales, a 24 percent jump from a year ago. Overall, the company's Devices and Consumer division increased 8 percent from a year ago to $12.9 billion. It's worth noting that in swallowing up Nokia's handset division, Microsoft lost its largest licensee, cutting into its Windows Phone revenue figures. A more pressing issue for the company is how it can convince investors that the future of Windows software, both on mobile and across the many other devices that will run Windows 10 -- is a secure financial bet. Terry Myerson, Microsoft's executive vice president of operating systems, announced last week that the next version of Windows will be free to any PC and mobile users running Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8 for the first year of its release.The company has already ditched licensing fees on mobile by letting other handset and tablet makers run its mobile Windows software for free if the device is under 9 inches, as well as allowing iOS users to use Office applications on iPad and iPhone at no extra cost.The play has yet to reflect positively in the company's mobile market share. On a call with investors, Microsoft's Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said the company's OEM model and paid-up-front Windows sales will stay in place, easing some of the tension around how Microsoft will make money off the software.Many of Microsoft's other divisions, which include servers, PC software and video games, continue to do well, as expected. Sales of its Xbox 360 and Xbox One game console totaled 6.6 million units, a 214 percent increase from last quarter attributed to price cuts and bundling of free games with the device.Those maneuvers, along with a general drop off in sales of its older Xbox 360, resulted in a 20 percent year-over-year drop in revenue for the division. Microsoft hopes the sacrifice will help the Xbox One compete against Sony's better-performing PlayStation 4, which the Xbox outsold for the first time all year in the months of November and December.Microsoft's cloud services business, which includes Office 365 and its Azure platform, is still the shining star of the company's enterprise efforts. In its last quarter, Microsoft reported a 128 percent year-over-year growth. This time around, Microsoft notched 114 percent growth in its cloud business, which is now on track to pull in $5.5 billion annually. Overall performance of its Commercial division is up 5 percent to $13.3 billion. Microsoft offered guidance for its next quarter and for the fiscal year. While the company expects growth in its core businesses, it projected drops in revenue for its gaming and phone hardware units -- down to $1.5 billion and $1.4 billion respectively -- due to springtime trends and continued changes in its smartphone business due to Nokia. For the fiscal year, Microsoft expects revenue growth to be around 4 to 5 percent year-over-year. Though the company is showing signs of progress, investors were not pleased with the 10 percent drop in profit. Microsoft stock is down 4.3 percent in after-hours trading. Overall, the company's shares have risen more than 27 percent so far this year. In November, Microsoft stock hit a 14-year-high of $49.58 a share, and has since overcome Exxon Mobil for the title of No. 2 most-valuable company in the world behind Apple. Update at 3:10 p.m. PT: Added further details from Microsoft's call with investors.

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Who's hiring lots of Apple employees? Carmaker Tesla, that's who When Apple employees hit the road for other places of employment, a popular destination is Tesla Motors.The maker of high-profileelectric cars has hired more than 150 people from Apple across arange of expertise, including engineering and legal, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Tesla has hired more Apple employees than workers from any other company, including carmakers, the company's CEO and founder, Elon Musk, told Bloomberg. He said that Apple's design philosophy is "relatively closely aligned" with that of Tesla, which might be why he nabbed Apple Mac hardware executive Doug Field in 2013.Founded in 2003, Tesla quickly became one of the leading electric car makers in the world. Central to the company's success has been its ability to bridge the gap between performance and good looks. The company has also benefited in recent years from bringing its costs down. The upcoming Model 3 will start at $35,000 when it launches in 2017 -- a far sight from the six figures Tesla has fetched with some of its previous models.Tesla employs over 10,000 people, so the number of former Apple employees there is a small fraction.Musk told Bloomberg that Apple has attempted to return the favor and steal some of its workers, but has succeeded in getting "very few." Apple, he said, has gone so far as to offer his employees $250,000 signing bonuses and 60 percent salary increases.Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The employment competition between Tesla and Apple stands in stark contrast to the antipoaching deals the iPhone maker, among several other companies, allegedly engaged in years ago.According to a lawsuit filed in 2011, Apple, Google, Adobe, Intuit, and several other Silicon Valley companies secretly agreed to not steal each other's employees. While Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Intuit agreed to settle the case, Adobe, Apple, and Google are still trying to put it behind them. Last month, the companies offered the plaintiffs -- made up mainly of engineers in Silicon Valley -- $415 million to settle the case. A previous offer of $324.5 million was rejected in August by US District Court Judge Lucy Koh.The face-off between Apple and Tesla may extend even further. Last year, reports surfaced suggesting that Apple had held talks to acquire Tesla. While Musk would not say what was discussed with Apple, he did acknowledge that they held meetings. He also expressed no desire to sell his company.

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Google's Nest loses two key execs, including Dropcam CEO Nest, the unit of Google that makes smart-home fixtures such as the connected thermostat and smoke detector, saw two of its high-level executives depart this week.Nest lost Greg Duffy, the co-founder and CEO of Dropcam, and Yoky Matsuoka, vice president of technology for the company. The news was first reported by The Verge.The two were high-profile figures in the company. Matsuoka was in charge of the user experience and learning aspect of Nest's thermostat, and was one of the public faces of the company. Duffy joined the company in June, when Nest shelled out $555 million to buy Dropcam, which makes Web-connected home-security cameras.A Nest spokeswoman declined to comment.Duffy later confirmed the departure on Twitter. Duffy was part of the team of Dropcam employees that relocated from its San Francisco office to Nest's Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters. The integration of the company's software with cameras that used motion sensors and video recordings to offer a cloud recording service made it attractive to Nest, which was looking to build on its burgeoning smart-home business. Matsuoka, meanwhile, will head to Twitter, according to The Verge. She previously worked at Google and before joining Nest was one of three founding members of Google X, a secretive facility tasked with creating technological breakthroughs. Prior to Google, she most notably built a lifelike robotic hand based on human anatomy, inspired by when her aspiration to become a professional tennis player was cut short by injury. She was also an associate professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington and assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

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Snapchat launches Discover feature, with news stories and ads Snapchat is apparently ready to get serious about making money through advertising.Starting Tuesday, the company behind the popular messaging app of the same name, which lets people send missives that disappear after a set time, will begin serving users of the app editorial and multimedia content from major brands such as CNN, Yahoo News, National Geographic, the Food Network, ESPN, Cosmopolitan and more. Advertising will run alongside the content. Snapchat announced the feature, called Discover, on Tuesday. Snapchat described Discover as an effort to "build a storytelling format that puts the narrativefirst" and emphasized that "this is not social media." "Social media companies tell us what to read based on what's mostrecent or most popular. We see it differently. We count on editors andartists, not clicks and shares, to determine what's important," Snapchat said in its blog post Tuesday. Editions of Discover will be refreshed every 24 hours, the company said, and each edition will include full-screen photos and videos, long-form layouts and "gorgeous advertising." The launch marks an uptick in Snapchat's efforts to generate revenues through ads. In October,he company started showing some ads to usersin their list of recent messages. The first such ad, a link to a20-second trailer for the Universal Pictures' film "Ouija," promptedmillions of Snapchat users to click through and watch the trailer,leaving Universal satisfied with the effort, the Los Angeles Times said at the time.Three-year-old Snapchat has yet to make a significant amount of money, but industry insiders clearly see it as a force to be reckoned with. Facebook offered $3 billion for the company in 2013 but was rebuffed. And last year Snapchat gained a place on the list of the top 10 US venture capital deals, The Wall Street Journal reported -- a $486 million investment in the company brought it in at No. 9. Snapchat has been valued at $10 billion.In August, industry researcher ComScore said that Snapchat was the third most popular social-media app among people between the ages of 18 and 34 -- behind only Facebook and Instagram. Tuesday's announcement of Discover had been foretold Monday by Recode.Reportslast summer had said the service was planned for a November 2014 launch. Editors' note: This story was originally posted January 26 at 9:18 p.m. PT. It has been updated to reflect the official Snapchat announcement.

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Microsoft sees Windows 10 as Swiss Army Knife of computing The Redmond, Wash., software giant offered up some tantalizing details about Windows 10 on Wednesday, the highly anticipated upgrade to its operating system designed for both computers and tablets. Unlike past versions, which have straddled a line between annoying and stale, Windows 10 will power new features and capabilities that could change how people use all their devices. New features span from the mundane to the gee-whiz, beginning with a revamped start button and ranging to a video game social network and holographic headgear that brings the visions of Hollywood science fiction a step closer to reality. And everything delivered a new twist on Microsoft's ongoing strategy to create software that works on all devices, be they laptop, desktop, tablet or smartphone."We want people to love Windows on a daily basis," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during an event held at the company's headquarters. To make Windows 10 too compelling to ignore, Microsoft will offer the upgrade free to anyone using the past two iterations of Windows dating back six years.Microsoft is at the center of one of the technology industry's biggest debates. At stake is the way consumers use devices, what they can expect them to do and how app developers design their programs. What's even harder for the world's largest software maker is that it's largely alone in this pursuit. Nearly every major tech company has focused its energies on silos of technology -- each with unique software and look -- that tie together using Internet services. So far, customers haven't bought in to Microsoft's approach. While Windows is one of the most used computer programs in the world, mobile operating systems from Apple and Google command far more users and apps. The Apple approach, in particular, completely diverges from Microsoft.The iPhone maker mandates separate software for its tablets, smartphones and computers. And though mobile devices have become powerful, with many features similar to a laptop or desktop, the company still draws a sharp distinction between how people use the two devices. It's one thing to quickly cut together a clip for YouTube on a phone, and another when editing a Hollywood movie on a computer. Not at Microsoft.Microsoft said many of its programs have been written using the same code whether for a desktop or a phone; It's just a matter of how they're used or displayed. Even the company's Xbox video game console, one of the most popular products the company sells, is being revamped with new Windows software and programs that can run on a desktop or mobile device. The company said it would release more details in March. Underscoring its commitment to the one-Windows strategy, Microsoft showed a new Web browser called "Spartan." The new browser's most touted feature: Its ability to work across smartphones, tablets and computers.Many of the company's other software programs offered a strikingly similar look and feel to their cousins on other devices. Outlook, the company's widely used email and calendar app, is a mere list of messages on a phone. Tap one of the messages and it fills the screen. Tapping on that list of emails on a tablet or a computer opens a message to the side, exploiting those devices' extra real estate. Microsoft also gave a glimpse of its futuristic efforts, including a touch-enabled TV-like display, called a Surface Hub, intended for videoconferencing and whiteboard brainstorming. It also offered a new spin on virtual reality with its HoloLens headgear.HoloLens marks Microsoft's entry into the 3D virtual reality market, pitting it against Google Glass, which lets people see images and text layered onto their view of the world, and the more immersive Oculus Rift, from Facebook. Whether Microsoft will ultimately succeed with this all-inclusive strategy is still unclear. It will be up to Microsoft to attract customers back into the fold when it releases Windows 10 later this year.

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Watch people lose it over Tesla's 'insane mode' The most super-charged version of Tesla's Model S electric car comes with something called "insane mode" that apparently lives up to its name, if the reactions of several unsuspecting passengers in the below video are any indication.Drag-racing site Drag Times took a bunch of people for rides in the P85D version of the Tesla Model S, which is the high-performance, dual-motor version of the car, capable of pumping out 691 horsepower and accelerating from zero to 60 in just three seconds. Because Tesla is an electric vehicle, it seems to accelerate almost instantly rather than building up speed like a traditional car. Pressing the insane-mode button takes the car from a stopped position to highway speeds in a few seconds -- and takes even the "tweenager" with her head buried in her smartphone completely by surprise. Watch all the way through to see her lose her grip. No word yet on whether Tesla's promised driverless cars will also get insane mode. Note to smart cars of the future: this gag is only funny when humans pull it on other humans, so don't get any ideas. Warning: the version of the video below includes several expletives and is probably not safe for work, but it's also much funnier than the clean version, which can be found here.

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BT confirms details of £12.5 billion EE buy BT has officially confirmed details of its deal to buy EE for £12.5 billion. EE's current owners will take a slice of BT as part of the deal, which will be done and dusted by March next year.Having previously announced the deal was on its way, BT has now officially confirmed the due diligence is done and financing is in place. BT will stump up part of the payment in cash, raised by a combination of new debt financing and the placing of new BT shares. This will happen in due course, raising roughly £1 billion.The deal will see EE's current European owners take a stake in BT: French company Orange will hold 4 percent, while Germany's Deutsche Telekom will hold a 12 percent stake and the right to appoint one non-executive member of the BT board of directors.In response to the deal, BT shares rose more than 2.5 percent on London's FTSE 100 stock exchange.Primarily, BT will offer its broadband, landline and pay-TV services to those EE customers who aren't currently signed up with BT. And if you're a BT customer, whether at home or as part of your business, you'll be offered new mobile services.One change we will see soon is that BT intends to start offering mobile services through EE before the takeover deal is done, through the existing MVNO agreement between the companies. Exactly what form these service will take and how much they will cost remains to be seen. In the long-term, the EE brand might even disappear, just like Orange and T-Mobile have been phased out since they merged to form EE.The merger is due to be finalised by the end of BT's 2015/16 financial year, which falls on 31 March 2016. Like all deals of this type, however, it does need to be given the thumbs-up by shareholders and the green light from the UK Competition and Markets Authority."Things generally look promising and the green light is likely to be given, albeit with concessions needed," says Matthew Howett, practice leader of regulation at industry observer Ovum. "One of those is likely to address the combined entity's spectrum holding. BT was particularly successful in the 2013 4G spectrum auction, acquiring spectrum at 2.6GHz. [T]he inquiry is likely to assess what adding this to EE's already sizeable lot will mean."What potentially complicates things is the planned acquisition of O2 by Three -- it is not yet clear whether issues arising from that will be considered by the CMA separately or as part of this review. Combined, Three and O2 would have a concentration of the lower-frequency spectrum (ideal for providing coverage), but would have no higher-frequency spectrum at 2.6GHz, which is needed to accommodate consumers' insatiable appetite for data. If both transactions are to conclude, there could be a reorganisation of spectrum holdings between the two enlarged operators."BT estimates it will cost around £600 million to integrate the two companies, but even factoring that in the merger will save them both £3 billion. Again, it's not yet clear what that means for current employees of either firm, but it seems likely in situations like this that there will be job losses.With 31 million customers, EE is the biggest mobile network operator in the UK. 24.5 million of those are mobile customers, and another 834,000 are fixed broadband customers. The first network to launch a 4G service in the UK, EE now has the largest 4G customer base of any operator in Europe with 7.7 million customers enjoying superfast speeds on their phones, tablets and dongles.With its broadband, TV and landline business, BT has three of the four pillars of today's telecoms market. Buying EE would add the fourth -- mobile services. Those four pillars make up a so-called "quad-play" company.Industry observer Paolo Pescatore of CCS Insight calls the deal "a major statement of intent regarding its multi-play aspirations [and] serves as a clear warning to UK rivals, notably Vodafone, Sky and Virgin Media." Virgin is a quad-play provider already, while Sky recently announced plans to round out its quad-play offering with a new mobile network.Looking ahead, BT has plans to plough money into a number of main areas, including fibre broadband, TV services and content and UK business markets. BT also plans to do away with any distinction between fixed and mobile networks.

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YouTube's video pick spells doom for Adobe Flash Adobe Systems' Flash software had a good long run as the technology of choice for bringing interactive splash to the Web, but Google is helping to give it the heave-ho by moving YouTube to Web-standard video instead. "We're now defaulting to the HTML5 player on the Web," said YouTube engineering manager Richard Leider in a blog post Tuesday. It took four years for Google to make the HTML5 change, which is a major victory for Web standards fans who've strived to eject proprietary plug-ins from the Web. If you watched a video online 10 years or so, ago, it was almostcertainly delivered with Flash. That's because Flash gave people an easyway to publish and share video in a way everyone could access -- similar to what Adobe did with its PDF file format and Acrobat document creationtool. That was during a period of relatively slow change for the Web,when Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 dominated the market but remainedstatic for years. Adobe acquired Flash's creator, Macromedia, for $3.4 billion in 2005. Many of Flash's detractors, however, didn't want technology that's owned and controlled by a single company. Its most vocal opponent was Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who publicly castigated Flash."We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers," he famously wrote in blog post in April 2010. But while Jobs was the technology's best-known detractor, he wasn't alone. Flash opponents have been active for years,trying to improve the Web's foundation itself rather than proprietarytechnology that rides on top of it. They wanted technology created by industry consensus and built directly intobrowsers themselves. Browser makers Mozilla, Apple and Opera Software banded together to improve Web standards so that fancy Web features no longer required the Flash Player browser plug-in. Google accelerated that effort by launching its Chrome browser, and Microsoft has moved from Web standards laggard to enthusiast. Dozens of standards have emerged from the effort, but a top item is HTML5 video, which makes it as easy to add video to Web pages as adding photos was before. That Web-standards shift, plus Apple's refusal to permit the Flash Player plugin on iPhones and iPads, led Adobe to redirect its resources to Web standards, too. Google's latest move is not a full victory. Even as Web standards like Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) improve, many programmers are shifting attention to mobile operating systems -- chiefly Apple's iOS and Google's Android -- where apps use programming interfaces set solely by the OS creator. In other words, HTML5 furthers browser-centric computing, but many people sidestep the issue altogether by watching YouTube with an YouTube app instead. It hasn't been an easy transition. In 2010, Google listed several reasons why HTML5 video wasn't ready to replace Flash, including lack of support for digital rights management (DRM), which blocks video copying, and for full-screen video. Those features now are possible with the Web standard. Curiously, though, the top complaint Google had about HTML5 video is still there. Google wanted a standard video codec -- the technology used to compress and decompress video and audio for economical storage and distribution over networks. Google has long been pushing for adoption of its own VP8 and now VP9 codec, but the industry has preferred another, H.264/AVC, and seems poised to shift gradually to its successor, H.265/HEVC. Google's Chrome browser and Mozilla's Firefox support both codec families, but Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari support only H.264. So for now, YouTube has to offer its videos in both formats. And although Flash Player remains widely used, that usage increasingly will be only on sites that aren't updated to keep up with current technology.

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Obama asks Congress to authorize U.S. war on Islamic State U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday sent Congress his long-awaited formal request to authorize military force against Islamic State, meeting swift resistance from Republicans as well as his fellow Democrats wary of another war in the Middle East.Republicans, who control Congress and say Obama's foreign policy is too passive, want stronger measures against the militants than outlined in the plan, which bars any large-scale invasion by U.S. ground troops and covers the next three years.Obama acknowledged that the military campaign is difficult and will remain so. "But our coalition is on the offensive. ISIL is on the defensive, and ISIL is going to lose," he said in a televised statement from the White House. With many of Obama's fellow Democrats insisting the plan is too broad because it includes no blanket ban on ground troops, it could be difficult for the authorization to pass, even though six months have passed since the campaign began.Obama consulted with Republicans and Democrats in writing the resolution, and said he would continue to do so. He said the time frame was intended to let Congress revisit the issue when the next president takes office in 2017.The proposal says Islamic State "has committed despicable acts of violence and mass execution." Its militants have killed thousands of civilians while seizing territory in Iraq and Syria in an attempt to establish a hub of jihadism in the heart of the Arab world.They have also generated international outrage by beheading western aid workers and journalists and burning to death a Jordanian pilot.Obama sent his request to Congress a day after his administration confirmed the death of Kayla Mueller, a 26-year-old aid worker who was the last known American hostage held by the group.Both the Senate and House of Representatives must approve Obama's plan. Lawmakers said they would begin hearings quickly as Republicans made clear they thought the plan fell short. The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, told reporters he was sure the plan would change as it moved though Congress. "I'm not sure the strategy that has been outlined will accomplish the mission the president says he wants to accomplish," he added.Obama has defended his authority to lead an international coalition against Islamic State since Aug. 8 when U.S. fighter jets began attacks in Iraq. The formal request eased criticism of Obama's failure to seek the backing of Congress, where some accused him of breaching his constitutional authority.SEEKING A UNITED FRONTWith Republicans in control of Congress after routing Obama's Democrats in November elections, the president also wants lawmakers to share responsibility for the campaign against Islamic State and present a united front.The plan does not authorize "long-term, large-scale ground combat operations" such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan.Obama said those operations would be left to local forces, but lawmakers worried they would not step up. "What is the role, really, that regional partners are playing in this battle against ISIL?" asked Democratic Senator Tim Kaine.The draft allows for certain ground combat operations including hostage rescues and the use of special forces. It permits the use of U.S. forces for intelligence collection, targeting operations for drone strikes and planning and giving other assistance to local forces.Many Democrats, especially liberals in the House, said Obama's proposal was too broad. They want any authorization to place stricter limits on the use of ground troops and expressed concerns Obama set no geographic limits on the campaign."The language ... is very broad, very ambiguous," said Democratic Representative Adam Schiff. "None of us really know what 'enduring offensive combat operations' means."It was the first formal request for authority to conduct a military operation of Obama's six years in office. If passed, it would be Congress' first war authorization since then-President George W. Bush's 2002 authority to wage the Iraq War.Obama's objection as a U.S. senator to that authority helped fuel his successful 2008 campaign for the White House.Obama's text includes a repeal of the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force. But it leaves in place an open-ended authorization, passed days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, for a campaign against al Qaeda and affiliates.Rights groups and many lawmakers said they want the new AUMF to set an end date for the 2001 authorization, which the White House has invoked to carry out drone and missile strikes against suspected al Qaeda militants in Yemen and Somalia.Obama said he remained committed to working with Congress to "refine, and ultimately repeal" it.

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Is this crazy iPhone 6 clone better than the iPhone 6? iPhone clones made from cheap components and a skinned-up version of Android made to look like iOS are nothing new, but one of the latest iPhone 6 knock-offs out of China could be one of the first that's actually a better phone than the one it imitates -- at least where some key specs are concerned.The Dakele 3, also known as "Big Cola 3," claims to have the sapphire screen that the iPhone 6 was rumored to get early on; an eight-core, 1.7GHz MediaTek processor; and awhopping 3GB of RAM. That's compared with a dual-core 1.4GHz A8 processor with 1GB of RAM in the iPhone 6. (About the name: the phrase "ke le" is part of the trademark Coca-Cola uses in China, but can also be translated as "be happy," which might be more what the company is going for.)To be fair, other flagship phones have had better specs on paper than the iPhone for years now, but Apple has always done a notable job designing iOS to squeeze tons of performance out of its hardware.According to the Dakele website (after being run through Google Translate), Big Cola 3 also boasts a 5-inch screen with a resolution of 1,920x1,080 (that's a pixel density of 441 pixels per inch, compared with the iPhone 6's pixel density of 326ppi); a fast-charging 2,500mAh battery; a 13-megapixel main camera; and an 8-megapixel selfie cam. Oh, and it's also worth mentioning that the rear camera lens doesn't protrude from the back as much as the shooter on the iPhone 6 does.Of course, a knock-off is still a knock-off, and specs on paper don't tell us much about how this phone will perform. Not to mention that it's still an Android phone that's going to have a hard time accessing your Apple account, so this is all just an elaborate game of make-believe or projecting a certain consumer image.While the look of both the phone hardware and the Android KitKat skin jobs are clearly meant to be iPhone rip-offs, the price certainly isn't. GizmoChina reports the Big Cola 3 will cost about $240 (about £158, $AU309).Get a taste of the Big Cola in the promotional video below.

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Three owner agrees to buy O2 for £10.25 billion Three's parent company is planning on buying O2, in a deal that could shake the foundations of the UK's mobile industry.Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa, which owns Three, has offered to pay Spanish company Telefonica -- which owns O2 -- a whopping £10.25 billion in cash for the network, which only a few months ago was in talks to be acquired by BT."Telefónica has entered into an exclusivity agreement with Hutchison Whampoa in relation to Hutchison's potential acquisition of O2 UK," Telefonica said in a press release this morning. "The exclusivity period will last several weeks, allowing Telefónica and Hutchison Whampoa Group to negotiate definitive agreements, while the necessary due diligence process on O2 UK is completed."O2 boasts over 23 million customers. Combined with Three's eight million, the two networks would lay claim toa bigger slice of the UK's mobile market than anyone else -- EE would be the next-largest network, with 27 million customers. The deal comes hot on the heels of BT's confirmed intention to buy EE, and as such, has sparked fears of reduced competition and higher prices."Any agreement would provoke heavy scrutiny from competition authorities," said Kester Mann, analyst at CCS Insight. "Unlike the proposed acquisition of EE by BT, this deal would reduce the number of mobile operators from four to three. Ofcom has worked hard to maintain the UK as a four-player market and would have significant reservations."Mann notes that the European Commission would get the final say-so on both the O2 and the EE deals, but told CNET, "Having agreed a similar deal in Germany last year, it may have set a precedent that could see the deal receive the green light, albeit with significant concessions."The deal might not necessarily be good news for consumers," Mann continued. "Evidence in other European markets shows that mobile tariffs tend to rise following in-market consolidation. Regulators will be keen to ensure this is not the case in the UK."A Three-O2 merger would see the UK's four competing mobile networks becoming three, with Vodafone the only network not allying itself with another major provider. Experts say that being able to offer not just phone service but TV and broadband too is becoming increasingly crucial."A lot of people want a bundle," said John Delaney, analyst at IDC, "And if you don't offer one you're effectively not in contention for their business."Vodafone is one firm that currently only offers mobile service, and is now facing owning only a very small slice of the UK market. Is a Vodafone alliance on the cards?"Vodafone will be looking very hard at a transaction," Delaney said. "Of course at the moment it wouldn't be a mobile operator because there are none left, so it'll be looking hard at an Internet service provider (ISP)."The possibilities are TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Sky. TalkTalk would be easiest and cheapest, but also least effective because they've got a weaker pay-TV offering." Virgin is unlikely for several reasons, including that it was recently acquired itself by Liberty Global."There are already some partnerships between Vodafone and Sky. Both parties have an interest in a closer combination -- Sky because it has no direct control over a mobile network."Meanwhile, other experts predict that more deals featuring Three and O2 could be imminent. "Analysts could expect another acquisition from Three and O2 in the future," Imran Choudhary, analyst at Kantar Worldpanel said. "The provider currently has no pay TV or broadband offer where EE offers a full quad play service.Suppliers like TalkTalk and Virgin Media would be a good fit but are also potential targets for Vodafone which is now in greater need of a partnership than anyone else out there."

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Why Apple keeps winning in style The money men took notes and couldn't suppress their smiles. Samsung executives took their Notes and slapped them hard against their foreheads. Apple CEO Tim Cook had just announced that the company had sold 74.5 million iPhones in the last quarter of 2014.It was even better than the money men had estimated. It was even worse than the Samsung executives had feared. While the money men told themselves that Apple's was a brilliantly organized business, at Samsung they muttered expletives and, perhaps, expressions of incomprehension. After all, what had Apple done in that last quarter? Merely released big phones, which Samsung had done years before. A pause, then, just to remind ourselves of what Apple does right and how it might leverage that in the future. There's no accounting for taste. But Apple has turned taste into significant accounting.There's almost a self-parody in Apple design chief Jony Ive talking about every new phone. He perhaps reached his peak parodic pomp with the suggestion in 2013 that the colorful iPhone 5C was "unapologetically plastic." But Apple really does have a superior sense of taste. While Ive can talk about a rounded edge for a round week, what real people see, the minute they set eyes on an Apple product, is something that they might not be able to define. But it's something that their hearts and souls identify with style. It's something they want to be a part of. Words might fail them. They might opt for the catchall "cool." But there's a timelessness, an attention not merely to detail but to the effect of that detail, that makes even old iPhones look good. There's always been the perception that Apple products are reserved for those with more money. Money men like to talk about the margins Apple manages to maintain. But the brand now has a certain longevity and a powerful image-based presence. Its incursion into China shows that it's seen as coveted.More powerfully, though, look at how Apple has managed to span the generations. In a survey in August and September of last year, 73 percent of teens said their next phone would be an iPhone. Can it be that there is one style product that kids don't mind being seen in their dad's hands?The company's style superiority might now be taking on another dimension. Cook, not for the first time, mentioned Android switchers in his earnings presentation. Is it possible that some who had previously been value shoppers are now prepared to sacrifice a little more money in order to buy a more expensive phone? After all, many is the fashion brand that has discovered new markets by understanding that people with less disposable income -- those who were thought never likely to buy Gucci or Burberry -- now want at least one item to show off.I might not make a lot of money, but I can still buy a Burberry scarf. So there. Have phones become so much a fashion item that there's an ever greater shift toward being seen with the right brand?As technology becomes fashionized-- the whole concept of wearable tech, for example, necessarily carries a deep fashion component -- Apple is well placed to take advantage.It isn't just that the company has hired brilliant individuals from the fashion world.(Did we mention that Apple's new retail chief, Angela Ahrendts, had been Burberry's CEO?) It's that its whole ethos from the beginning has centered on looks as much as function.Indeed, an essential component of style is simplicity. So the way Apple's phones work nicely complements what the whole design is trying to achieve.It's not that Apple's phones are without faults. The battery life still causes conniptions. The software isn't exactly perfect. Occasionally boorish and patrician Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson explained in today's British Sunday Times (paywall) that there are times that he wishes Steve Jobs had never been born, "but I will not switch to another brand because I simply cannot be bothered to learn how it all works."Wemight be heading for a Futureworld where phones become more disposable,not less. As they lurch ever more toward fashion, we might be changingour phones every year. Who better, then, than a brand alreadysteeped in taste to take advantage of such a trend? The way in whichfashion brands decide and drive what next year's look will be might,just might, be a template for Apple.If the brand continues tosell more phones, more globally, might it well decide to present anincreased number of versions, of styles, of nuances? That thought process is already present in the new Apple Watch. In describing it last September, Ive said:"We worked extremely hard to make it an object that would, one, bedesirable but to be personal because we don't want to wear the samewatch. One of the reasons it takes us a long time [is] because, I think,people are very discerned. A lot of people don't wear a watch, at themoment." In the end, Apple knows that it has to not merely maintain, but attempt to direct the zeitgeist. It has to foresee whether it can maintain just a few versions of its phone -- keeping them as classics -- or whether it must create more and more variations. Lines, if you like. It isn't about a bunch of ads making people feel that Apple is the coolest thing. The ads merely exist to remind you what products are out there and make you feel good about them. It's the products themselves and the design behind them that are the best ads, the best marketing of all. Apple starts from a position where most people still think it's a cool brand. Annoying at times, but still cool. How would people describe Samsung's brand? For a time, it felt younger. It felt like the anti-Apple, at least in America. Recently, though, it lost its way. It sent out many products, but each with little definition or personality. The style, the impact, just wasn't there. There was no core attitude, no core principle. As the style slipped further down, so did the profits. How interesting that, just two weeks ago, Samsung hired Don-tae Lee as its new head of global design. He used to be co-president at London's Tangerine Studios.Years back, one of Tangerine Studios earliest employees was Jony Ive.

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Yahoo spins off Alibaba holdings as sales sputter CEO Marissa Mayer's attempt to turn around Yahoo continues to stumble, but investors were happy about one thing: The Internet giant has a plan to avoid a giant tax bill related to its investment in e-commerce giant Alibaba. The company on Tuesday said it is spinning off its remaining stake in Alibaba as an independent company called SpinCo. The move will help Yahoo avoid billions of dollars in taxes it would otherwise incur by selling its shares. Alibaba, which is China's largest e-commerce company, held its initial public offering in September. Yahoo currently holds a 15 percent stake in Alibaba, worth nearly $40 billion. The spin off is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. "It makes us really happy to be able to deliver this plan today," Mayer said during a conference call Tuesday to discuss Yahoo's earnings for the fourth quarter of 2014. Yahoo's shares climbed more than 7 percent, to $51.63, in after-hours trading. The spin off could calm shareholders, including activist investor Starboard, which have criticized Mayer's lack of progress returning the Internet pioneer to growth. The move may buy Mayer more time. Questions still remain about Yahoo's future, however. The company's revenue fell short of analysts' estimates, indicating Mayer still hasn't managed to rejuvenate Yahoo's once-mighty advertising business and create compelling new products. Pressure is mounting for Yahoo to revitalize its flagging advertising business and compete more effectively against rivals Google and Facebook. Nearly three years into her tenure as CEO, Mayer still hasn't hit on an answer to turn Yahoo's business around. The company said display advertising, a key financial metric, fell 5 percent from last year. In 2014, Yahoo dropped below Microsoft to become No. 4 in the global digital-advertising market, with 2.3 percent market share. Google and Facebook lead the pack, according to the research firm eMarketer. Fourth-quarter sales, excluding traffic acquisition costs, were $1.18 billion and profit, minus some costs, was 30 cents a share. Analysts had estimated $1.19 billion in revenue and earnings of 29 cents per share. One bright spot for the company was mobile performance. Yahoo said it made $254 million in revenue from mobile ads, up 23 percent from the previous quarter, when the company first started reporting the figure. Mayer said the strategy before she took over the company in 2012 was "confused." Yahoo has made several recent moves to jump-start its advertising. The company in August bought Flurry, a mobile-analytics platform. Earlier this month Yahoo reportedly restructured its ad team to put Prashant Fuloria, Flurry's chief product officer, at the group's helm. In October, Yahoo tapped former Amazon sales executive Lisa Utzschneider to head its Americas sales organization. And in November Yahoo acquired Brightroll for $640 million -- Mayer's second-largest acquisition to date, after her $1.1 billion purchase of blogging platform Tumblr in 2013. With Brightroll, Yahoo's customers can more easily buy video ads.Mayer has bought more than 40 companies since becoming CEO in July 2012. Many investors question the Tumblr acquisition, unconvinced of the value Yahoo gains from the blogging site.The company last week announced a new initiative called Creatrs, which pairs artists and brands on Tumblr to create online advertisements. On Tuesday, the company said Tumblr's audience -- which includes both blog posters and readers -- rose to 460 million, up 9 percent from the quarter before. Yahoo made other big bets during the quarter as well. The company in November announced a major partnership with Mozilla, maker of the popular Firefox browser, to become the default search engine in Firefox. The move helped Yahoo nab almost 2 percentage points of the market share for search in December. Mayer said search would be a major area of growth for the company. "We intend to keep it that way," she said. "This is a significant opportunity."

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Make Apple bring iMessage to BlackBerry, BlackBerry boss says Apple's iMessage platform shouldn't just work on Apple products, but should be available on all kinds of devices, the CEO of BlackBerry has said. BlackBerry, which a decade ago was a smartphone pioneer with its email-capable handsets, has suffered a high-profile decline as phone shoppers opted instead for touchscreen mobiles from the likes of Apple, or those running Google's Android operating system. The ailing firm's troubles came to a head in the second half of 2013 -- a period that saw staggering losses and job cuts, followed by a move away from hardware towards software and services, under the guidance of new boss John Chen. Chen isn't too happy about other companies' approach to software, however. "Unlike BlackBerry," Chen writes in a blog post, "which allows iPhone users to download and use our BBM service, Apple does not allow BlackBerry or Android users to download Apple's iMessage messaging service. Netflix, which has forcefully advocated for carrier neutrality, has discriminated against BlackBerry customers by refusing to make its streaming movie service available to them. Many other application providers similarly offer service only to iPhone and Android users."Chen's argument is tied to the debate over net neutrality, where advocates say that Internet providers shouldn't be allowed to prioritise Internet traffic to certain services. Chen says that laws should go further, suggesting that popular mobile apps shouldn't only be available to owners of certain gadgets, which is the case currently with plenty of apps. "This dynamic," Chen continues, "Has created a two-tiered wireless broadband ecosystem, in which iPhone and Android users are able to access far more content and applications than customers using devices running other operating systems." "Applications/content providers," Chen says, "must be prohibited from discriminating based on the customer's mobile operating system." For Apple, however, its iMessage app, which lets owners of Apple products message each other for free, is one of the many offerings built to tempt shoppers into buying an iPhone, iPad or Mac. As such, Tim Cook and pals are unlikely to embrace the idea of sharing their handiwork with other platforms like BlackBerry. Meanwhile, app-makers often cite fragmentation and development time issues as reasons why apps arrive on -- for instance -- Android before iOS, and would likely baulk at being forced to spend more time and money building versions of their apps for the relatively small number of people using other operating systems, such as BlackBerry or Windows Phone. "Neutrality must be mandated at the application and content layer if we truly want a free, open and non-discriminatory internet," Chen writes.

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Tech Retrospect: Apple listens, reaps rewards Of the things the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs said over the years, "people don't know what they want until you show it to them" is among his most frequently cited quotes, building up an image of a man who ignored customer feedback and did what he thought was right.That is, of course, an incomplete picture of someone who received plenty of feedback from plenty of sources, but Apple certainly has a reputation of doing what it wants, market be damned. Usually that works just fine, but sometimes the market knows what the market wants, and with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, that's exactly what it got. The result? Another mind-blowing financial windfall for Apple.The company long resisted making a larger phone, finally taking a tiny step from 3.5-inches on the iPhone 4 to 4 inches on the iPhone 5. It was another step with the iPhone 6, up to 4.7, and with the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, came the long-awaited acknowledgement that one size no longer fits all.The results are nothing short of amazing.The company sold 74.5 million iPhones last quarter, an incomprehensible number and a figure almost 50 percent higher than the same quarter in 2013. Total revenue for the company in those three months? $74.6 billion. $18 billion in profit, the most profitable quarter for any corporation ever. It's hard to get your head around that much cash, but as a reader very astutely asked me on Twitter this week, what might have happened had Apple gone bigger sooner?When Apple took the wraps off of the Watch last year, many of us hoped it would be in stores by Valentine's Day. No such luck. After blowing the doors off of earnings estimates at the company's quarterly investor call, CEO Tim Cook disappointed some by saying that the thing will actually ship sometime in April. Sorry, Cupid, you're going to have to wait a few months.This week, a DC-based government staffer was playing with his or her new drone when helost control of the thing. It crashed, where else, on the White House lawn. Soon, the "BREAKING NEWS" banners were flying across the nation's news networks, fueling for all sorts of speculative punditry. It was all ultimately a non-event, but the discussions it spawned raise endless implications that will almost surely make owning a drone less fun in the future. DJI, makers of the machine in question, is already pushing changes that will disable its hardware over the White House. More locations will follow.Congratulations to marketing wizards working for major American Internet providers! Your jobs just got a lot more interesting. You, now, must invent a new way to sell your company's "high-speed" offerings that fall below 25 megabits per second. The FCC this week said that anything slower than that cannot be called "broadband." The intent, surely, is to encourage corporations to dial up the speeds. I think we'll instead soon be swimming in a sea of similar-sounding terms like bigspeed, broadpath, wideband and, my favorite, the largely meaningless "fast."One service that won't have to worry about getting creative is Google Fiber. The Big G is bringing its gigabit service to 18 new cities across the southern US, including Atlanta, GA and Nashville, TN. If you live in one of these areas, consider me jealous.While Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and their ilk are making life easier for those who would eschew a traditional cable TV subscription, none replicate the simple joy of channel-flipping. More problematic for many would-be subscribers, they lack live sports. Dish's Sling TV, recently announced at CES, looked to fill the void, offering a (small) handful of channels streaming to any device anywhere. Unfortunately, as our full review this week reveals, it's the missing channels that really define the service, along with the lack of any DVR-like functionality. Still, this is only the beginning, and things can only get better from here.

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HTC's posts tiny profit as revenue jumps 12 percent Taiwan-based mobile company HTC was able to grow its revenue during the fourth quarter, but profits were disappointingly slim. HTC posted revenue of NT$47.9 billion ($1.5 billion) during the fourth quarter, up 12 percent compared to the same period in 2013. HTC's profit was just NT$500 million ($15.9 million). It was, however, the third consecutive profitable quarter. While HTC remains profitable, the company's sequential profits have fallen off a cliff in the last year. During the second quarter of 2014, the company's profit hit NT$2.3 billion. In the third quarter, sequential profits were again down, falling to NT$600 million. HTC offers a wide range of smartphones, including its One M8 flagship, which has proven popular among reviewers. Over the last few years, however, HTC has been on the wrong end of an onslaught by Android handset makers. China-based Xiaomi, along with Lenovo, and Huawei, have all made great strides in the smartphone market by appealing to Chinese consumers. LG, another HTC rival, has offered solid devices that have captured the attention of consumers around the world. Meanwhile, HTC is still far behind the leading Android handset maker Samsung, which continues to control the space. Apple's iPhone line also isn't helping matters. HTC's issues stand in stark contrast to the company's successes not so many years ago. Back in 2011, for instance, the company was the leading Android handset maker and appeared to be on top of its game. But before long, Samsung products soared and HTC has watched its market share tumble. Research firm Trendforce reported earlier this month that in 2013 and 2014 HTC didn't even make the top 10 of smartphone vendors worldwide in terms of shipments, finding itself relegated to the "Others" category. Trendforce expects the same for HTC in 2015. But as HTC looks to the future, the company isn't solely focusing on smartphones. Last month, itannounced a partnership with Under Armour to offer fitness-related wearables. That news came after HTC announced late last year that it will diversify its product portfolio and enter into strategic partnerships to broaden its reach. In a statement Friday, HTC said that its plan to "offer tailored product mixes" has so far worked out well, pointing to its increased revenue. The company made no mention of its slim profit.

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Activision Blizzard delivers profit -- and caution Activision Blizzard had a happy holiday season, but the company advised investors Thursday that it won't be able to repeat history next time around. In its fiscal fourth quarter earnings report, the company said sales rose 11 percent and profit jumped 50 percent in 2014, driven by the strength of its latest release in the Call of Duty military shooter franchise, which was the best-selling game of the year. While Call of Duty is showing signs of age -- the latest installment failed to best 2012's Black Ops 2 -- Activision is moving forward with new franchises like Destiny, an ambitious sci-fi game that became the best-selling new title ever when it launched last September. Despite those successes and its record quarter, Activision's stock dove more than 7 percent in after-hours trading. The company was forced to lower its sales and profit forecasts for fiscal 2015 well below Wall Street estimates, citing harm to overseas sales due to weakened foreign currencies. The company's stock has remained mostly steady this year, though it peaked at an all-time high of $24 a share back in early September ahead of Destiny's release. A bright spot for Activision going forward is its success in selling games and game add-ons over the Internet, now a huge profit driver for game companies that can sell a new title for $60 and continue to sell software packages for as much as $30 well after release. In the holiday quarter, Activision said sales delivered over the Internet rose 94 percent from the same time a year ago, to $685 million or almost a third of total sales. For the full year, Activision's online revenue represented almost a half of all total sales. This shift follows an industry trend with other large game makers, like Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive, which have both seen consistent boosts to sales over the Internet in its latest quarter. These companies are beginning to see success in the games industry as less a matter of selling the most units and more a question of how to get gamers to play a single game for longer -- and spending real money in the virtual worlds as well. Overall, Activision said sales in the quarter ending December 31 were $2.21 billion, down slightly from $2.27 billion in the year-ago period, after adjustments for deferred revenue and other items. The company's profit came in at 94 cents a share, up from 79 cents a share a year ago. Analysts had expected the company to report on average a gain of 88 cents on sales of $2.24 billion, according to surveys by Thomson Reuters. For the first fiscal quarter ending March 31, Activision anticipates profit of 5 cents a share on sales of $640 million, after adjustments. Analysts on average estimate fiscal first-quarter earnings of 18 cents a share on sales of $778 million, according to surveys by Thomson Reuters. For its next upcoming fiscal year, Activision put its sales guidance at $4.4 billion, well under 2014's $4.8 billion due to the upcoming foreign currency issue, and said its annual earnings forecast per share will be $1.18.

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Microsoft's HoloLens explained: How it works and why it's different Microsoft has a vision for the future, and it involves terms and technology straight out of science fiction.But are we actually glimpsing that future? Yes and no.Microsoft's HoloLens, which the company unveiled at its Redmond, Wash., headquarters on Wednesday, is a sleek, flashy headset with transparent lenses. You can see the world around you, but suddenly that world is transformed -- with 3D objects floating in midair, virtual screens on the wall and your living room covered in virtual characters running amok.Technology companies have long promised to bring us the future now, reaching ahead 5 or 10 years to try to amaze consumers with the next big breakthrough. Hollywood, on the other hand, has shown that tech in action (or at least simulations of it).In "Minority Report," for instance, Tom Cruise's character used sweeping, midair hand gestures and transparent screens to do police work. Five years later, Apple unveiled the iPhone, and with it, a touchscreen operated by hand and finger gestures. Microsoft in turn served up its Kinect gesture-control device, which tracks people's movements through space and feeds the data into an interface.Going further, "The Matrix" showed hackers plugging computers into people's brains to transport them to imaginary cities. And in "Star Trek," computers used energy fields and visual tricks to create worlds people could touch and feel.We're not even close to those scenarios yet, but we're taking tiny steps in that direction. Companies like Facebook, Google and Microsoft are now attempting to move that fiction toward reality, and the public is beginning to see those visions of tomorrow take form.So how does the HoloLens measure up against other reality-altering gadgets?Microsoft's HoloLens is not actually producing 3D images that everyone can see; this isn't "Star Trek."Instead of everyone walking into a room made to reproduce 3D images, Microsoft's goggles show images only the wearer can see. Everyone else will just think you're wearing goofy-looking glasses.Another key thing about HoloLens is what Microsoft is trying to accomplish.The company is not trying to transport you to a different world, but rather bring the wonders of a computer directly to the one you're living in. Microsoft is overlaying images and objects onto our living rooms.As a HoloLens wearer, you'll still see the real world in front of you. You can walk around and talk to others without worrying about bumping into walls.The goggles will track your movements, watch your gaze and transform what you see by blasting light at your eyes (it doesn't hurt). Because the device tracks where you are, you can use hand gestures -- right now it's only a midair click by raising and lowering your finger -- to interact with the 3D images.There's a whole bunch of other hardware that's designed to help the HoloLens' effects feel believable. The device has a plethora of sensors to sense your movements in a room and it uses this information along with layers of colored glass to create images you can interact with or investigate from different angles. Want to see the back of a virtual bike in the middle of your kitchen? Just walk to the other side of it.The goggles also have a camera that looks at the room, so the HoloLens knows where tables, chairs and other objects are. It then uses that information to project 3D images on top of and even inside them -- place virtual dynamite on your desk and you might blow a hole to see what's inside.While playing a demonstrationbased on the popular game Minecraft, I tapped my finger on a coffee table in the real world. But what I saw was my finger chipping away at its surface. When I was done, I saw a lava-filled cavern inside.That's just a gimmick, but Microsoft said it indicates potential. HoloLens, Microsoft said, can transform businesses and open up new possibilities for how we interact.I used the HoloLens to video chat with a Microsoft employee who was using Skype on a tablet. Her task? To help me rewire a light switch. She accessed a camera on the HoloLens to see through my eyes, then shedrew diagrams and arrows where I was looking to show me what tools to pick up and how to use them.Imagine how these tricks could be used to train pilots or guide doctors through complex operations.So how about the Oculus Rift? Created by Oculus VR, a startup Facebook purchased for more than $2 billion in March 2014, the headset is considered the poster child of the blossoming virtual reality market.From a distance, Oculus' headset looks a bit like Microsoft's HoloLens in that it's a device worn on your head. But that's where the similarities end. Whereas Microsoft wants to help us interact with the real world in new ways, Oculus wants to immerse us in an entirely new world.To put it simply, the Rift headset is a screen on your face. But when it's turned on, the images it produces trick your brain into thinking you've been teleported to a different world, like a starship out in space, or the the edge of a skyscraper. Oculus could, one day, take a more practical route, transporting you courtside to a live basketball game or to a sun-soaked beach to relax.The goal for Oculus is to trick the user into believing they're actually there -- wherever it's bringing you. That feeling is called "presence," an ambition Microsoft's HoloLens isn't reaching for.Enthusiasts say that moment, where your brain is tricked into believing you're actually somewhere else, is magical."I've seen a handful of technology demos in my life that made me feel like I was glimpsing into the future,"wrote venture capitalist Chris Dixon, who helped lead investment firm Andreessen Horowitz's funding in Oculus VR. "The best ones were: the Apple II, the Macintosh, Netscape, Google, the iPhone, and -- most recently -- the Oculus Rift."Oculus isn't alone in its quest. Sony is attempting something similar with its Project Morpheus headset. Both have outspoken plans to use the technology to transform all manner of industries, starting with video games. But developers say it's hard to get it right. The images need to be carefully connected to your physical movements without any delays. When they aren't, consumers feel a form of motion sickness.Ultimately, these companies are on different roads to the same destination, which is trying to reimagine how we interact with computers. We're all used to the mouse and the keyboard, and we're learning to live with the glass screens of smartphones too. So far, each of these devices has been good enough to convey the information from a book or the scenes of a movie.But Oculus, Microsoft, Google and others believe in a different, potentially more natural way to interact with our technology. These companies and the hardware they're creating imagine a world where hand gestures, 3D images and images superimposed on reality are the next-generation tools for productivity, communication and everything else we use gadgets and the Internet for.It sounds like science fiction, but if these devices work the way tech luminaries hope they can, such dreams may be reality sooner than we think.

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Silicon Valley's big acquisition mantra: Buy it, leave it alone Perhaps nothing illustrates the way Google currently thinks about acquisitions better than 63-year-old Moti Bardugo.He works for Waze, a popular social-navigation app founded in 2008. Bardugo began working as a janitor at the company's office in Israel. Then, unasked, he started preparing simple meals for the team -- fresh fruit, eggs, or tuna fish salad -- and CEO Noam Bardin hired him to work full-time.When Google bought Waze for nearly $1 billion in 2013, Bardugo came on board as well."For us, it was very important," said Bardin. "Keeping these things is really what makes one workplace different from another."For Google, it was a hallmark of the tech giant's evolving management style. The message: If you join us, you can keep things the way they are.It's an approach many big Silicon Valley companies have embraced. Instead of buying small firms and blending them namelessly into the fabric of their plans, these companies are increasingly opting to set up distinct brands that operate largely on their own. At Google, that includes Waze, smart-thermostat maker Nest and satellite company Skybox.Facebook, Apple and Yahoo have recently done this with their blockbuster purchases as well.The moves illustrate the sense of experimentation among Silicon Valley companies as they try to find the best way to grow their business without encountering the typical problems that have doomed large acquisitions in the past. One example is Hewlett-Packard's buyout of Palm in 2010 -- a year later, HP announced that it was discontinuing the products Palm's team was responsible for."It's in both sides' interest to not tamper with something that's working," said Charles Lee, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.It sounds like a commonsense approach, so why is it happening more now? Lee said one reason is that young companies are growing more quickly these days, so there are more firms with established brands available for acquisitions. It's unclear what the genesis of this approach was at Google, but it's become an institution now. In October, CEO Larry Page took a step back from day-to-day management duties, ceding much of his control over the company's most important products -- like maps and search -- to Sundar Pichai, a longtime trusted lieutenant. The reason? Page said he wanted to focus on Google's future, and how the company operates.To Page, Google needs to espouse the practices of Warren Buffet,the famed investor and leader of Berkshire Hathaway. Theinvestment-holdings firm's modus operandi is to acquire strong companiesand leave them to run mostly undisturbed.Aside from Waze, one of Google's best-known acquisitions lately has been Nest, maker of smart-home devices including a Net-connected thermostat and smoke detector. As it did with Waze, Google kept Nest intact after its purchase. The Nest team, led by former Apple hardware guru Tony Fadell, still resides in its multibuilding headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., a few miles from Google's campus.Skybox, a satellite company Google bought in May, has also kept its name and office. Then there's Calico, short for California Life Company. It's not an acquisition, but a subsidiary set up by Page and former Genentech boss Arthur Levinson, who runs Calico as its CEO. The ambitious research and development company's ultimate aim is to increase the length of the average human life span.Elsewhere, other companies have taken the same approach. Facebook, the world's largest social network, has made a number of high-profile acquisitions and has let those brands stand on their own. The photo-sharing site Instagram, chat service WhatsApp and virtual reality goggle maker Oculus all fall under Facebook's portfolio. Even Yahoo, which has become well-known recently for buying companies then killing their products, bought the blogging site Tumblr in 2013 and vowed to let it run independently.While more companies have recently embraced the leave-it-alone approach, it's still the exception and not the rule. For example, Google would not say how many acquisitions it made in 2014, but by CNET's count, the company notched at least 35 buyouts. Only a handful of them have kept their former brands.The strategy also doesn't always work. Consider Motorola. Google bought the company in 2012 and maintained its smartphone handset brand. But it sold off the money-losing unit to Lenovo in 2014. And the disastrous merger of AOL and Time Warner is one of the most cited examples of a big buyout gone wrong. This trend may be popular now, but it's certainly not new. General Motors has kept the Pontiac brand of cars running as a separate subsidiary since purchasing the company a century ago. More recently, examples include soft-drink maker Pepsi, which bought Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut in the 1970s and 1980s. They continue to run as separate brands under an umbrella company called Yum.In technology, eBay has kept PayPal running as a separate payments company since buying it 2002. The marriage ended last year when the companies said PayPal would be spun into a separate entity.The strategy isn't even new to Google. The company bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion and nurtured its brand instead of killing it. That's been a comforting signal to future entrepreneurs. "That was the model," Waze's Bardin said. "YouTube is what we had in mind."Part of the reason tech giants offer independence to companies they're courting is because they know strong founders value it so much, said Steve Tadelis, a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. It's in the big company's interest to hold up its end of the bargain, because it wants to keep a good reputation in the startup community. There are many reasons acquisitions go sour. In the case of Yahoo's $25 million purchase of Flickr a decade ago, the photo site has languished because it hasn't received enough funding. Today, co-founder Stewart Butterfield said he's no longer sure a sale was the right decision for the service. "For the sake of the product, it would have been more interesting if it stayed independent," he said.In Google's case,just because it isn't killing off some acquired companies' brands, doesn't mean it isn't thinking about how those companies fit into its broader plans. Waze has integrated "incident reports," a key feature that lets people report changes in road conditions, into Google Maps. Privacy advocates also worry about Google getting its hands on customer data that companies like Waze and Nest collect.It's also likely that as its interest in outer space deepens Google will tap into the satellite company Skybox. Google is said to be exploring how satellites can help beam Internet connectivity to underserved regions. Just days ago, the company announced a joint $1 billion investment with Fidelity in billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX, which has its own satellite efforts. Before Google bought Skybox, the startup had plans to launch a fleet of 24 satellites into low orbit. Skybox is now trying to figure out if it will remain on its previous schedule for the project, said co-founder Dan Berkenstock.Earlier this month, Google said Nest's Fadell would be taking over the beleaguered Google Glass project -- a power move as the company tries to bring the oft-ridiculed Web-connected headset to market. "That shows he's not just off in a corner somewhere," said Jan Dawson, founder of JackDaw research. "The reality is there is already integration there."While companies like Nest and Skybox have kept their offices, Waze moved its US office from Palo Alto to Google headquarters in Mountain View as part of the deal. But Bardin insists Waze has stayed the same in every way that matters. He said trusting that Google would keep its word about Waze's independence played a major role in the company's decision to join.When it came to autonomy, "it was important for Larry [Page] to come and talk to us before the acquisition," said Bardin. "Specifically to clarify that this was coming from him."

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Judge rules federal interstate handgun transfer ban unconstitutional A U.S. ban on the interstate sales of handguns by federal firearms dealers to buyers from other states violates the U.S. Constitution, a federal judge in Texas ruled on Wednesday.The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor stemmed from a challenge to the ban brought by a Texas firearms dealer and a couple from the District of Columbia in July 2014.The federal law prohibits a dealer from transferring a handgun, but not a rifle or shotgun, to an individual who does not live in the state in which the dealer's business is located."While we expect the government to appeal, we are confident that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will agree with Judge O'Connor's sound ruling," attorney William Mateja, who represented the challengers, said in a statement.Andrew and Tracey Hanson met with licensed firearms dealer Fredric Mance Jr. in Texas about buying two handguns, but did not complete the transaction because they could not take immediate possession of the weapons, according to court papers. Federal law required Mance to transfer the handguns to a federally licensed dealer where the Hansons live, Charles Sykes in the District of Columbia, where they could complete the purchase after paying shipping and transfer fees.The Hansons and Mance, all members of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, argued in their lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas that the ban limits consumer choices and infringes on their rights.O'Connor found that the ban violated the second and fifth amendments to the U.S. Constitution. He also distinguished the ban from other firearms restrictions such as those that target specific people, such as felons or the mentally ill."As law abiding, responsible citizens, the Hansons likely do not pose the threat to public safety that motivated Congress to enact the federal interstate handgun transfer ban," O'Connor wrote in his decision.O'Connor said the government demonstrated a compelling interest in preventing handgun crime, but failed to show how the transfer ban alleviates the problem of prohibited people acquiring handguns by crossing state lines.

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Microsoft takes a shine to hot calendar app Sunrise Satya Nadella celebrated his one-year anniversary as head of Microsoft with yet another app acquisition. This time, the software giant has scooped up popular mobile and desktop calendar app Sunrise for more than $100 million, according to a report from TechCrunch. The purchase comes two months after Microsoft's acquisition of email app Acompli in December for about $200 million. Microsoft rebranded Acompli last week as Outlook, the company's new and modern take on mobile email for Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms. This is yet another step in Nadella's strategy of offering free, cloud-based apps that work across multiple platforms. The goal is to convince customers to pay the annual subscription fee for Office 365 so they can use the cloud versions of programs like Outlook, Word and PowerPoint on their Macs or PCs. That's become especially attractive as employees shift their activity between corporate and personal devices. With Sunrise, Microsoft gains one of the top free calendar apps available on both iOS and Android -- but not yet Windows Phone. CNET Reviews called Sunrise "one of the best free calendar apps that's available on multiple platforms." The startup raised $8.2 million venture capital over the last two years and it had eight employees as of August 2014. Its unclear if Microsoft will rebrand keep Sunrise as it did Acompli. Microsoft declined to comment, and Sunrise was not immediately available to comment.

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Facebook is trying to change the way advertisers look at social Facebook is expanding its latest effort to attract advertisers: A better way to track how an ad on the site influences a customer's purchase in the real world.A year ago, the company unveiled a tool that helped advertisers determine whether someone who bought a product had been shown an ad on Facebook beforehand. The company on Tuesday said it is making the tool available to more advertisers around the globe, and automating many of its functions.The idea is simple: There are customers who are influenced by an ad but wait to purchase a product later on. So Facebook built a tool to measure it by comparing databases of people who purchased products with those who did or didn't see an ad on Facebook.The tool is just the latest effort by the world's largest social network to change how advertisers look at the effectiveness of its service and, ultimately, justify charging higher fees for online ads. Facebook is attempting to draw a more direct line between its ads and when a consumer buys a product, even if the person doesn't necessarily click on the link.Brad Smallwood, who runs marketing science and measurement at Facebook, said his goal is to help advertisers track how ads influence behavior over time."It's not a Facebook challenge, it's an industry challenge," he said.Much of the way advertising works on the Internet is that advertisers pay money either if someone sees an ad, clicks on an ad, or if they purchase a product after clicking on an ad.The problem for Facebook is advertisers typically pay more when a customer clicks. Facebook made 64 cents every time a user clicked on an ad at the end of last year,according to a survey by advertising automation software maker Nanigans. By comparison, it took about 145 people who see but don't click on an ad to make that same 64 cents.The Internet is expected to have accounted for about 25 percent of global advertising last year,according to industry researcher eMarketer, even though US adults spend nearly half their day on Internet-connected devices.The way Facebook's tool works is that advertisers send it a database of customers who bought something. That information is randomized and compared to a list of users who did or did not see an ad. The result is data that could show advertising on Facebook helped encourage users to buy a product."There is a common refrain in the industry that dollars follow where people are spending their time," said Andrew Lipsman, vice president of marketing and insights at industry researcher ComScore. Ultimately, he added, advertisers want to shift dollars toward ads that are most successful.Facebook isn't the only company attempting to connect advertising in the digital and real worlds. Others, including market researchers and Internet behemoths alike, have built services hoping to track similar behaviorThere are limitations to this type of effort. The biggest hurdle is retailers, whose databases of customers rely on convincing them to offer personal information, like an email address, in the first place. As a result, these databases aren't comprehensive.Also, there's a danger advertisers could rely too heavily on the data Facebook is offering. Focusing too much on an ad that generates a sale, as opposed to an ad that helps to do something like promote a brand, could be self-defeating.Consider grocery stores. When the scanner was introduced to store checkout counters 30 years ago, owners learned how well promotions increased sales. So, they focused on them, ComScore's Lipsman said. Today, the industry relies heavily on promotions to draw customers into the store, hurting margins.For now, Facebook said it's content if advertisers change the way they see its business. The information coming from Facebook's tool, Smallwood said, "will be a better assessment of what's working and what's not." "

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​FAA eases barrier to commercial drone use Using drones for business purposes just got a smidgen less illegal in the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration announced on Tuesday new exemptions permitting five companies to operate their unmanned aircraft. The move marks an expansion of the uses the FAA permits and helps to set a pattern for other companies seeking the regulator's permission. Drones, held aloft with multiple helicopter-like rotors and often equipped with a camera, are a hot technology item. Hobbyists have been snapping them up as a new aerial cousin to remote-controlled cars and boats. The FAA prohibits business use of the aircraft for the time being, though there's abundant demand to do everything from monitor construction sites or assist in marine salvage operations. The FAA is gradually loosening up, though. In September, the FAA granted exemptions to drones in the movie and video industry; later came exemptions for real estate photography, agricultural monitoring and aerial surveying. Now another industry has been added to the list with an exemption that lets a company called Total Safety inspect flare stacks, the large towers used in the petrochemical industry sites like oil refineries to burn off undesired gases. Getting humans to the tops of these stacks is expensive, but drones can do it cheaply and even when the stack is operating. The other exemptions were for companies incategories the FAA had already started permitting: surveying and videofor the entertainment industry. The FAA's decisions will help determine how rapidly drones are embraced for business purposes -- and whether the drone industry takes its next, more ambitious steps in the United States at all. Among the more contentious cases is e-commerce giant Amazon, which so far hasn't prevailed in its quest for an exemption and which is threatening to move its drone delivery research to another country. Google's drone delivery research project is taking place in Australia. Later this year, the FAA plans to release draft regulations for comment that would permit broad use of relatively lightweight drones weighing less than 55 pounds. Until those regulations are done -- a September deadline seems improbable in the eyes of many observers -- the only way to get permission is through specific exemptions under a regulation called Section 333. So far, the FAA has granted two dozen exemptions, and this month it also loosened restrictions for two granted last year. As the FAA adds more exemptions, it in effect sets a template for other petitioners who want an exemption by showing requirements like flying altitude limits and pilot licensing for drone operators. More recent exemptions also opened the door for mainstream drones such as drone maker DJI's Phantom models. The floodgates haven't exactly opened, though, and offering broader drone regulations is a tricky task, FAA spokesman Les Dorr said. The agency has been working since 2009 on "writing a rule that's going to maintain today's extremely high level of safety but won't put undue regulatory burden on an evolving industry," he said. The agency had planned to publish its draft regulations in 2014 but missed that deadline. After they are published, the agency plans a 60-day public comment period, then some time to consider those comments and potentially update the regulations in response. As for Amazon -- perhaps the highest-profile drone advocate -- Dorr said it's possible the regulator could come to some kind of accommodation under the current exemption process. "We are working with them to figure out what sort of authorization would work best with them," Dorr said.

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Google Glass just couldn't handle the stress No piece of consumer technology in recent memory was as divisive, hyped up and emblematic of a spooky dystopian future as Google Glass. The search company's wearable eyeglasses only ever left the secretive research labs of Mountain View, Calif., as a grossly overpriced prototype for early adopters. It was killed last month before it ever hit store shelves.The reasons for the wearable's failure are many, but the most significant, says a report from The New York Times on Wednesday, was the oversize image the high-tech specs attracted -- despite the $1,500 prototype being years away from a finished product -- and the endless stream of bad press Glass generated. All the while, Google executives, fashion icons and celebrities were trying to pretend Glass's arrival was simply a matter of when, not if."The team within Google X knew the product wasn't even close to ready for prime time," the Times reported, citing an unnamed former Google employee.Still, to introduce them to the world in June 2012, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who helps run the Google X research lab that developed Glass, hosted a demo at the company's I/O developers confab in which skydivers jumped out of a plane while wearing the glasses. After its celebrated arrival, Glass went on to generate headlines, but not for the tech behind the device. Instead, Glass was called out for being banned from bars, cars and movie theaters, getting wearers into fights with strangers and being lampooned by pop culture staples such as "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart." Soon enough, "Glasshole" entered the industry's lexicon, only to remain relevant for the few months Glass owners dared to wear the headset in public.The product is now a case study in how not to deliver next-generation technology. Google's research labs are responsible for some of the most out-there tech we can imagine today, from self-driving cars and air-balloon Wi-Fi to modular smartphones and glucose-measuring contact lenses. Yet Glass's public and drawn-out implosion shows it takes more than hardware and software to bring a smart idea to market.Even Astro Teller, the current head of Google X, told CNET in November that at $1,500, Google's Glass explorer edition prototype needed to be about 90 percent cheaper if it was going to win over a mass-market consumer audience. Over time, the project began to lose both app developers and dedicated Google members. Not helping the matter was an unpleasantly public executive love triangle between Brin, Glass marketing chief Amanda Rosenberg and Rosenberg's boyfriend, Android VP Hugo Barra, the Times noted. Brin's marriage splintered in the process, and Barra left Rosenberg and Google behind to join Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi. Glass was left with one crack too many, it seems. But though Glass may be broken, it isn't dead -- at least not yet. Google has put the project under the direction of Ivy Ross, a jewelry designer, and Tony Fadell, a former Apple executive known as the father of the iPod and the founder of smart-devices maker Nest, which Google acquired last year.Fadell reportedly plans to rebuild Google's wearable efforts from the ground up, having learned from the mistakes of Glass. "There will be no public experimentation," one adviser to Fadell said, according to the Times. "Tony is a product guy and he's not going to release something until it's perfect."

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Viacom to bring video-streaming subscriptions to Nickelodeon fans SpongeBob Squarepants may soon move from his pineapple under the sea to an app on your smartphone.Nickelodeon is planning a standalone video service with a focus on mobile viewers, Philippe Dauman, chief executive of the entertainment channel's parent company Viacom, said on a call with investors Thursday. Nickelodeon will unveil the service next month, possibly under a separate name, Dauman added. "We believe this innovative service, which will have a distinct brand and will target the fast-growing mobile market, will be very attractive for parents and children," Dauman said, according to Reuters. While older audiences may find themselves nostalgic for 90s-era Nickelodeon programming, like "Hey Arnold" and "Rocko's Modern Life," the channel remains a powerful force in modern children's TV, frequently capturing the top cable spot for kids ages 2 to 11. Yet Viacom's ad revenue has declined steadily due to low ratings. The cause? Habits are shifting -- away from cable and toward streaming services, like Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.In May 2013, Viacom decided not to renew its contract with Netflix, shutting off access to popular children's series like "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Dora the Explorer." Netflix, alongside Amazon and Hulu, have responded by creating kids shows of their own.Wall Street analysts have voiced interest in the growing market for off-cable entertainment for younger audiences. They see a booming business for whichever company can capture kids' attention and potentially spawn the next generation of billion-dollar franchises that can move into film, apparel and toys.Nickelodeon joins other media companies, including HBO parent company Time Warner and CBS (parent company of CNET), with straight-to-consumer video services. A Nickelodeon representative confirmed the plans, but said the company could not elaborate at this time. Executives plan on meeting with advertising and detailing more about the service on February 25. Update at 12:03 p.m. PT: Added comment from Nickelodeon.

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BT plots G.fast 500Mbps broadband for UK BT is plotting a new broadband technology for the UK, with trials due to start within the year. The ultrafast broadband is called G.fast, which is a technology that serves as an upgrade to existing DSL copper phone lines, promising speeds of up to 500Mbps. BT says it's expecting the new tech will be deployed to most of the UK within a decade. That's quite a long time to wait, although BT will start testing G.fast this summer in roughly 4,000 homes and businesses in two locations -- Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire and Gosforth in Newcastle.Speeds customers can expect to achieve using the new tech will depend on how close BT's G.fast network equipment is to their homes. Speeds are expected to hit a "few hundred megabits per second" by 2020, BT said in a press release, and will then increase to 500Mbps as new hardware is developed. "We believe G.fast is the key to unlocking ultrafast speeds and we are prepared to upgrade large parts of our network should the pilots prove successful," BT boss Gavin Peterson said in a statement. Last year broadband watchdog Ofcom said that the UK's average actual broadband download speed in the six months leading up to May 2014 was 18.7Mbps. BT placed second place in that survey in terms of fastest download speed by provider, losing out to Virgin Media. Meanwhile BT is making more immediate waves in the UK mobile scene, having confirmed its intention to buy mobile network EE for a whopping £12.5 billion. In the wake of that deal, Three's owner is plotting to buy O2 from Telefonica, and Sky has said it will launch its own mobile network.

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LG G3 and TVs drive LG to double profits for 2014 LG almost doubled its profit in 2014 thanks to demand for TVs and smartphones. The flagship LG G3 helped the Korean company to a 24 percent increase in phones sales over the previous year, although the last quarter saw an overall loss as LG ditched plasma TVs. LG's total net profit for the year more than doubled to 501.40 billion won (around $475 million, £302 million or AU$586 million) over the total in 2013. In the last three months of the year LG shifted 15.6 million smartphones. Added to previous quarters -- including a record 16.8 million devices shipped in the third quarter, when the G3 was launched -- total sales tipped 59.1 million. LG is one of the rivals creeping up on troubled market leader Samsung, which this week posted its fifth consecutive loss.LG's last quarter of the year saw a net loss of 205.7 billion won (around $189 million). That's due to losses caused by the closure of the plasma television business as LG wrote off plasma in favour of a move towards OLED and Ultra HD. Despite that, overall it was a good year for the home entertainment division; annual operating profit rose nearly a third to 509 billion won (around $482 million). And LG reckons demand for high-end OLED and Ultra HD 4K TVs will drive further growth, despite stiff competition from rivals. LG's appliances business saw small growth in 2014. Looking ahead, the company says it will respond to the "expected sluggish overall demand this year by innovating in energy-efficient products and improving cost-competitiveness".

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Tech Retrospect: Microsoft strikes back Microsoft did something amazing this week: it got people excited about something. That's tough to do as we enter what is a challenging phase of personal computing. The PC itself has long been deemed passe, smartphones have become rather boring, tablets somehow even more so. Wearable devices will be big, but few consumers (myself included) are genuinely excited about the things.So what, then, can raise the eyebrows of an increasingly cynical buying populace? Augmented and virtual reality, as it turns out, and 2015 is an incredibly important year for both. Yes, the largely negative reaction to Google Glass didn't help the AR side of things, and the endless delays of Oculus Rift have caused some to grow impatient about VR. But this week's debut of the HoloLens by Microsoft showed that the people haven't lost hope.Okay, so the thing looks ridiculous, and its name is inappropriate as there isn't any actual holography going on here. Forgive my being picky for a moment, but true holograms are 3D images that appear to float in thin air. Think Princess Leia projected by R2-D2. No glasses required. What Microsoft showed off is full-field augmented reality: 3D glasses that overlay flat images on top of the real world. Demos showed people entering into Minecraft to explore from within, or creating Minecraft-like stages that sprawl across coffee tables. NASA engineers explored Mars from inside their offices and cubicle workers enjoyed Skype calls projected on the wall.It isn't holography, but semantics aside, it was an impressive demo Microsoft showed. People are obviously eager to see more. I'm eager to know more, specifically: how much, and when? Microsoft would only say it will ship within the same timeframe as Windows 10, which is expected this year. Cost? If it's less than $400 I'll eat my smartwatch -- right after I finish ordering a HoloLens for myself, that is.And what about Windows 10? Well, it looks to fill the gap that Windows 8 created, doing a much better job of blending the tablet and desktop user experiences. DirectX 12 is also said to have some significant performance improvements, and overall it seems like a great OS for gaming graphics. It's a shame it's taken us so long to get here. Upgrades from Windows 7 and above will, at least, be free -- for a year, anyway.Oh, and spare a thought for Internet Explorer. It's being put out to pasture in favor of some new browser hotness called Project Spartan. Only Microsoft would attempt a Halo pun such as this, but the name is meant to imply the lean, simple nature of the browser, a far cry from the bloated beast that IE has become. That said, MS is integrating Cortana, the company's voice assistant, right into the thing. No word on when, however.It's hard to over-state the potential for a company like SpaceX, which stands poised to drastically decrease the cost of space travel. It has certainly had its failures, but if the company achieves even half of what founder Elon Musk hopes to do, its valuation could soar even higher than its Dragon space capsules. As an acknowledgement of that, this week Google and Fidelity announced a $1 billion investment in the company, in exchange for 10 percent equity. Yes, a $10 billion valuation -- sadly about one-quarter that of Uber at this point.It's over a day later and I'm still shaking my head at this one. BlackBerry CEO John Chen, this week, proposed that our concept of Net neutrality should be extended to include operating systems. More specifically, companies like Netflix and Apple should be required to make their services available on the BlackBerry platform. Legally. I don't even know where to begin pointing out how ludicrous this is, but BBM's historic exclusivity to BlackBerry's devices is a reasonable place to start. Beyond that, I'd hate to be the guy tasked with figuring out exactly how many versions of Android a given app must run successfully upon to avoid legal action.I always like to leave you with a video, and this week I humbly present the latest check-in with the Google Lunar XPrize, a $30 million purse of prizes for private teams competing to put rovers on the moon. I recently made the journey to Japan to see Team Hakuto run their rovers through their paces, but you, dear reader, won't need a passport to come along. Enjoy.

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Spotify said to be raising half a billion dollars from private investors Word has it that Spotify is about to get a lot richer. The music-streaming service is rumored to be raising between $500 million and $600 million from investors, according to The Wall Street Journal. That amount of cash could boost the company's total funding to more than $1 billion. Spotify is said to be in talks with Goldman Sachs about the new round of funds, sources familiar with the matter told the Journal. If the music service does raise this money, it could delay a possible initial public offering until next year. Since coming on the scene, Spotify has competed neck and neck with similar services, like Pandora, Rdio and Google Play Music. It's risen to become one of the more prevalent services and announced earlier this month that it had reached 15 million paid subscribers and 60 million active users worldwide -- that's a 50 percent increase from last May. This big user base and surge in popularity has likely wowed investors.Spotify reportedly told investors that if they backed the company it would give them a guaranteed return once it has its IPO, according to the Journal. Last year it was rumored that Spotify was marching toward an IPO after it reportedly took out a $200 million line of credit from major banks that could eventually become its underwriters. A key component in Spotify's growth has been its willingness to let users stream music to mobile devices for free. Spotify's paid service costs customers $9.99 per month and allows for offline listening, no ads and improved sound quality. The company pays roughly 70 percent of its revenue for royalties to artists and companies that hold the rights to the music. Spotify is currently valued at more than $5 billion, according to the Journal. So far, it's raised $537.8 million in seven rounds of funding from 17 investors, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Accel Partners and Goldman Sachs. A Spotify spokesperson decline to comment on the possible new round of funding.

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Sky to launch own mobile network and take fight to BT Sky is wading into the mobile market, confirming plans to kick-start its own network in 2016.The news comes at a time of great upheaval for the UK's mobile and TV market, with BT announcing its intention to buy EE -- a deal that would see BT laying claim to a massive mobile network, as well as TV, phone and broadband services. Meanwhile Three owner Hutchison Whampoa has revealed plans to buy O2 for £10.25 billion."Through our partnership with Telefonica UK," Sky's Group Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch said, "we can build on our expertise in content, innovation and service to launch a range of exciting new services and exploit the opportunities for growth in the fast-changing mobile sector."The broadcaster plans to start offering customers a range of mobile voice and data services. When its network launches, Sky will be relying on hardware from Telefonica, which is a Spanish company that -- for now at least -- still owns O2. Telefonica will offer Sky access to its 2G, 3G and 4G services.Increasingly it seems that service providers in the UK are looking for bundled offerings, with shoppers tying themselves into deals that see their broadband, TV and mobile services all offered by the same company."Sky was forced down this route," said Paolo Pescatore, industry observer at CCS Insight. "It can't afford to be left behind in the multi-play market. This deal with O2 underlines the importance of offering a multi-play package."With BT's plans to launch a consumer mobile offering and the acquisition of EE," Pescatore said, "As well as Vodafone's plans to offer broadband and TV, Sky had no choice but to launch its own mobile offer. For now, Sky is the undisputed leader in triple play services."Without mobile, it was vulnerable in the future.However, it is surprising that the first Sky mobile service will not be offered sooner than 2016."The strategy of offering landline, TV, broadband and mobile together has been dubbed "quad-play", and is becoming a major trend, but one analyst warns of the potential for shopper confusion."This is further proof of the UK's inevitable shift towards 'quad-play' services," Dominic Baliszewski, telecoms analyst at Broadbandchoices said. "But it remains to be seen how quickly customers will adopt these new bundles -- at the moment, just understanding the new mobile world order is going to be confusing enough for customers with Sky teaming up with Telefonica, Telefonica selling O2 to Three and BT buying EE outright."One UK network that currently lacks any allies in the new mobile power-shift is Vodafone. "For Vodafone, the deal intensifies competition as it will come up against another quad-play provider," Kester Mann, analyst at CCS Insight told CNET. "It still has a relationship with Sky (Sky Sports on 4G, Now TV), but this is another MVNO deal it has missed out on."Pescatore believes Vodafone could still ally with Sky, saying, "We still believe that Sky is a takeover target for Vodafone, given the mobile operator's need to have a strong broadband and pay TV offering."

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"Draft Biden 2016" group takes a shot at Hillary Clinton A group formed to draft Vice President Biden into the 2016 presidential race took a shot at Hillary Clinton on Tuesday. "Voters are tired of dynasties in American politics, and certainly want an election instead of a coronation. The House of Bush and the House of Clinton have had their run," said Will Pierce, the organizing director of the group in a press release. Earlier this month, Pierce and a host of former campaign staffers founded "Draft Biden 2016," a group formed to urge the vice president to jump into the Democratic primary and raise money in anticipation of his bid."Why Biden?" Asks a petition on the group's website, www.runbidenrun.com. "Quite simply, WHY NOT BIDEN? As one of the calming forces and charming presences in the White House, Vice President Joe Biden has been front and center in playing a significant role in many of the important successful political events of the past few years." A petition on the group's website had garnered just shy of 4,000 signatures by Tuesday morning. Though no Democrat has officially declared a 2016 candidacy, early primary polls have shown Clinton with an enormous lead in the race for the Democratic nomination. Biden and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren are the only other Democrats who break out of single digits. Warren has insisted she's not running, but Biden has kept the door open, saying he won't be discouraged by Clinton or anyone else who launches a bid. "There's talk about how weak the Democratic bench is supposed to be in 2016. We don't have a weak bench. We just need to get the best people into the race and one of the very best is Vice President Biden," said Pierce. "Looking towards the future, Vice President Joe Biden is uniquely suited to tackle the issues America will face over the next decade." Biden would certainly bring some strengths to the table - he's a familiar name, popular among Democrats, with a deep resume and a unique sort of charisma built on a reputation for candor. But he also faces doubts about his age (he'll be 74 in 2016,) and his penchant for off-script moments has occasionally landed him in hot water. Biden's supporters frame his free-wheeling style as a boon. "People know exactly who Joe Biden is. They know where he stands, they know what he thinks," said Pierce. "And if you're not sure, just wait and he'll tell you exactly how he feels. That kind of honesty is missing from our politics, and we think that's something that American voters will appreciate."

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Congress passes Keystone XL bill, Obama expected to veto The Republican-led Congress gave final passage on Wednesday to a bill to approve the long-pending Keystone XL pipeline, a measure that next goes to President Barack Obama, who has vowed to veto it.The bill passed by 270-152 in the House of Representatives, with only one Republican voting against it and 29 Democrats for it. The legislation passed in the Senate in late January.Obama, a Democrat, opposes the bill because it would pluck the approval process from his administration. He wants the State Department to finish its assessment of the pipeline and make his own decision on it afterward.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who made passing the bill a top priority after Republicans gained control of the chamber in November's elections, has framed the measure as a "jobs bill." Even if Obama rejects the bill, "the new Congress won't stop pursuing good ideas," McConnell said.Keystone supporters in the Senate are at least four votes shy of the two-thirds vote needed to override an Obama veto. They have vowed to attach language approving the pipeline in a spending bill or other legislation later in the year that the president would find difficult to reject. TransCanada Corp's pipeline would carry 830,000 barrels a day of mostly Canadian oil sands petroleum to Nebraska en route to refineries and ports along the U.S. Gulf. It has been pending for more than six years.Supporters say it would create thousands of construction jobs. Opponents say the pipeline would increase carbon pollution and could spill into an aquifer that provides much of the freshwater in the Great Plains agricultural states. Obama has said Keystone should not be approved if it significantly raises emissions linked to global warming, and he has downplayed the number of jobs it would create. The State Department is expected soon to issue its recommendation to Obama after it received comments earlier this month from several federal agencies on whether Keystone is in the country's interest.

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Microsoft looks for love, but will there be a happy ending? Redmond looked determined.He stared into Consuma's eyes and kept staring. It was a big moment for him -- he was opening a new window into his soul. He began to speak:"I know I've let you down.I know that, for too long, it's been all about me and my needs.I know that, at times, you've felt like I've made you do things you didn't want to do.I knew you didn't necessarily like it, but I figured you'd just get used to it. Or, at least, that you'd let karma take its course."Redmond knew that the relationship hadn't always been perfect. One of his great works, Windows 8, had become Windows Hate. It caused friction. His karma didn't make things calmer.Still, he wasn't going to let Consuma go so easily. He had to make amends. He didn't bother to dress to the nines. Instead, he went for the double-digit flourish of Windows 10.There were still some admissions to be made, though. With what looked like a tear in his eye, he continued:"And then sometimes I made big promises and didn't keep them. I didn't even make it up to you.I was full of myself then, you see. I felt like I ruled the world and, if I'm totally honest, I didn't always think about you.I had my own battles to fight -- Europe is a weird place to do business -- and I always found another mountain to climb.You felt neglected, I know. You began to think I was dull."Consuma began to poke at her nails. And her iPad."But I want you to know that I've changed.I'm going to be different now. I'm going to think about you. Yes, I'm going to think different.You see, I've never deserved your love before. Not really. At least that's what all the work I've done with my shrink, Dr. Nadella, has taught me."Though Redmond didn't want to admit it, Dr. Nadella had said in his soothing voice only yesterday: "We want to move from people needing Windows, to choosing Windows, to loving Windows."Love, that was a strange concept for Redmond. He'd been brought up to win, not to love. He now realized how short-sighted that had been."I've been far too happy being Mr. Big. In my head, that is.Do you know when you start realizing that being Mr. Big isn't what it's cracked up to be? When you're Mr. Slightly Less Big.At first, you can't believe it. You look for people to blame. You think that all around you are cheats, scoundrels and thieves who are out to get you. You feel -- I made this word up -- Scroogled.You start shouting louder and louder. You tell people you'redeveloping, but soon they see that you're not developing as much as youthink.You start buying really expensive things because you think that's going to make you Mr. Big again."Perhaps no one had ever gone out and spent more money in a single shopping spree in Helsinki. Redmond realized, though, even that hadn't bought him love. He went away. He lost a little weight. Now he explained:"Butyou're looking around and realizing that there are sexier -- andyounger, dammit -- rivals. They've got something you haven't and, forthe life of you, you can't always work out what that is.DidI mention that I've changed? Now I want us to have a differentrelationship. I want you to be at the center of it, not me. I want tounderstand what excites you, how you want to live, what you want tofeel.I want you to be at the heart of us. There's a 'u' in 'us,' you know.I read in the New York Times recently that there are ways to make yourself fall in love with someone. It's about asking questions and staring into each other's eyes. Yes, like I'm doing right now. We've never really done that before, have we?Look, I've brought you a gift. It's a pair of glasses.No, don't laugh."Redmond'seyes finally changed from supplicating to almost confident. He knewthat if he could just get Consuma to look into his HoloLens, she'd realize it wasn't a hollow thing at all. It was a new tomorrow, a new and augmented reality, for them both. But he had to get her to see."They'rereally amazing glasses. They'renot rose-tinted. They're the real thing. They're an otherworldly thing.They're the perfect balance between reality and our magical future. Take one look into them and you'll see that you're not just staring past the windows, waiting for me to make you happy.You'll be excited by the sort of the relationship we've never had before, one where your feelings matter the most, one where you're excited all the time.Look through those glasses and you'll believe we have a future. A big future. Yes, we'll be Mr. and Mrs. Big, if you like. What do you say?"Redmond held out his hand. Consuma looked into his eyes and wondered what she should do.

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EA scores with shift to online play Electronic Arts' focus on selling and delivering products over the Internet is paying off. The video-game maker said Tuesday that half its revenue over the past year has come from selling games and add-ons through online platforms. That's a first for the company, said Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen, who added that EA expects these types of sales to make up a larger percentage of the company's revenue in the future. This change appears in several ways at the company. EA increasingly sells expanded story lines for its games, both in stores and through services for Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation video-game consoles. It has also built services for its sports titles like FIFA soccer and Madden football, encouraging gamers to spend even more as they compete against one another and track week-to-week stats. "We're trying to continue to shift the business model to more and more live services," Jorgensen said. The result, he added, is customers who spend more time, and money, playing a single game.EA's success with Internet-delivered games mirrors the larger industry. In December, purchases of full game downloads and other game content, including in-app purchases on mobile devices, hit an all-time high of $1.2 billion, according to industry watcher SuperData Research."The difference between digital and retail is now no more than a rounding error," wrote SuperData CEO Joost van Dreunen at the time.Still, not all is bright. The company reported that profits fell 2.5 percent and sales dropped 9 percent year over year, due mostly to the delay of one of its most highly anticipated titles, an urban war game called Battlefield Hardline. It had been planned for October 2014 but was delayed until March of this year.Investors seem unfazed, however, and responded favorably to EA's earnings, sending its stock up 4.3 percent in after-hours trading. The company's stock has risen more than 103 percent in the last year, peaking at nearly $50 a share last week. Though sales over the Internet continue to grab more of the pie for companies like EA, the retail end of the game industry has been struggling of late. Games sold on discs at retailers like Amazon, GameStop and others were slumping all last year, according to industry watcher the NPD Group. That's particularly worrisome considering Sony and Microsoft released new versions of their PlayStation and Xbox video-game consoles just before the 2013 holiday. Sales of the new hardware have been breaking records throughout the year, giving EA and other game makers a growing list of potential customers.One new method the company has been using to sell games is called EA Access. The service charges players $5 a month or $30 a year to download and play older titles in the publisher's catalog. The catch: as with Netflix for television or Spotify for music, EA Access gamers don't own those games and can't trade them in for cash.EA has yet to disclose the number of EA Access subscribers, but the company will increase advertising with Microsoft in the coming months. Since its August launch, EA has also made each new title available to subscribers five days prior to release for up to 6 hours, regardless of whether it ends up in EA Access in the future. The company said it plans to continue offering the chance to play every new title before a purchase. Though EA is making the transition to online sales smoothly, it's still not so bullish on the prospects of the industry's more cutting-edge developments, like virtual reality. Companies like Oculus VR, which makes a prototype headset that teleports users to different worlds, have been a hot topic in gaming for years now. Virtual reality promises to take the immersive quality of games to whole new levels, but EA is still not quite convinced the technology is ready for its full attention."When you look at the expansiveness of our games or the speed of our sports games, the likelihood of motion sickness goes up dramatically," Jorgensen said. Of course, he noted, members of the VR community want EA to get involved, but because it's still early, the company has its eyes open but won't be making any commitments.When adjusted for items like stock-based compensation and deferred revenue, EA reported profit of $1.22 a share on sales of $1.43 billion. That beat analysts' estimates of 92 cents a share on sales of $1.29 billion. For the fourth fiscal quarter ending March 31, EA anticipates profit of 22 cents a share on sales of $830 million, after adjusting for items such as deferred revenue. Analysts on average estimate 26 cents a share on $912 million, according to surveys by Thomson Reuters. EA has raised its fiscal year sales guidance by an additional $75 million, to $4.25 billion, and increased its annual earnings forecast per share by 30 cents, to $2.35.

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Microsoft's HoloLens is no joke: My reality augmented with Skype, Minecraft In the bowels of Building 92, hidden underneath the company's public visitor center in a secret series of labs, Microsoft let a few people try out what may be the most ambitious Windows device ever made: a holographic headset that aims to rival the most advanced virtual reality devices out there.Microsoft's HoloLens is expected to run Windows 10 and apps -- holographic ones that will float in front of your line of vision and apps that can be run on phones, tablets, PCs and the Xbox One game console. With the holographic programs, Microsoft is trying to transform how we think about computing, productivity and communication. Just as VR rivals Oculus (owned by Facebook) and Google are trying to reimagine virtual experiences with their head-worn devices, Microsoft wants us to imagine a world without screens, where information merely floats in front of you."We're not talking about putting you into virtual worlds," HoloLens leader Alex Kipman said Wednesday during an event at Microsoft's headquarters here. "We're dreaming beyond virtual worlds, beyond screens, beyond pixels."Kipman started working at Microsoft seven years ago, when he pitched the idea for the Kinect motion camera, a video game device that tracked a player's body movements. The Kinect went on to become one of the fastest-selling devices in history.For the last five years, Kipman has been focused on taking the innovations inside the Kinect -- cheap and powerful motion-sensing cameras, voice control -- and packing them into a pair of transparent goggles.Microsoft appears far along in realizing this augmented reality vision. With HoloLens today, the company has designed a convincing prototype that floats 3D images in front of you and that can change the look of real-world objects all around. But it's unclear how Microsoft expects to deliver on CEO Satya Nadella's commitment that such a device will be for both consumers and businesses. Also unsaid: How much it will cost. Microsoft said it expects to release a finished HoloLens within the same time frame as Windows 10, which should arrive sometime this year. The Oculus Rift's various developer kits, on the other hand, have cost upward of $300 in the past, with its consumer model expected to come in between $200 and $400. Samsung's Gear VR headset runs around $350.Microsoft's glasses are different from Oculus Rift goggles, which promise to transport you to a different world and open up numerous possibilities for film, TV, sports and other entertainment. HoloLens uses a technology called augmented reality, which overlays images onto real life and lets you interact with them. In theory, this is easy, but the biggest struggles competitors have had so far have been to design a headset that can stand alone, untethered from a computer or power source, and travel into various environments. Overcoming those challenges is necessary before mainstream consumers will buy into such a bold vision for next-generation computing.As we're led down the stairs into the basement, we're told that we can't try the more polished, all-in-one prototype Microsoft just showed onstage. Instead, we'll be using an earlier, uglier prototype. The company doesn't allow smartphones or cameras into the room.The device's holographic processing unit, the special processor Microsoft designed to basically help the HoloLens interpret movement and sound, is cased in a separate, chunky box intended to be worn around your neck. The glasses aren't the sleek, space gray model Microsoft unveiled this morning, but a mass of metal. A long chord tethers me to a pair of PCs that are helping feed the goggles their images.Wearing the device is not quite as comfortable as wearing the latest Oculus Rift prototype or Samsung's Gear VR headset. And the image I begin to see onscreen when I strap the lenses over my eyes isn't that much sharper than those offered up by the competing devices.Rather, the biggest departure -- and where Microsoft is truly differentiating its HoloLens -- is how the image I see allows me to interact with my environment instead of escape from it. The first demo, created in partnership with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, takes me to the surface of a near-photorealistic Mars. Using real photography from the Curiosity rover, Microsoft was able to re-create a Martian landscape and overlay a 3D-map around a small, conference-room-size environment. I can walk around, bend down and look at rocks. I can even see NASA's Curiosity rover, which is larger than a standard motor vehicle.With HoloLens, I'm not just able to see what it's like to walk around on Mars, but I'm also able to interact with the contents on the surface. Using a finger gesture called Air Tap, the HoloLens lets me mark certain spots on the surface for investigation and even lets me talk with another floating figure and collaborate on examining the surface. NASA hopes to get the HoloLens up and running as a day-to-day tool at JPL by the summer, allowing researchers for the first time to visualize and map out exactly where Curiosity will drill, traverse and photograph the surface of the planet.Like the Oculus Rift, Microsoft is also pushing the HoloLens as an entirely new way to experience video games. After purchasing Minecraft creator Mojang in September for $2.5 billion, Microsoft now owns the popular pixel building game and decided to create its own holographic demo based on the game's artistic style. The demo turns an entire room into a lively game world, punching holes into tables and through the walls to reveal interactive environments that can be changed with the tap of a finger.Perhaps the most stunning demo, however, was the most practical: Skype's videoconferencing software. Microsoft had us repair a light switch by video chatting with someone using a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet. Their face bobbed in front of my line of vision while I received instructions. To help us maneuver around the various tools, the Microsoft employee was able to draw on our line of sight in real time, using arrows and rudimentary diagrams to describe the best way to position electronics and how to piece everything together.The demo was unique in that it showcased a feasible and realistic use of augmented reality that wasn't bombastic or meant to marvel. I was able to do something I can say I haven't done in quite a long time with help from a total strangerwho was seeing through my eyes and drawing on my reality to direct me through a task.After checking the voltage on the wires, wrapping coils around the respective screws and capping the loose wires, I picked up a remote control and tapped a button. The light came to life. I had only to look up so the person on the other end of my eyes could see the end result of our successful collaboration.

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Can new tech boost safety in Uber cars, and in taxis, too? When you tap open the AsterRide app to hail a taxi, you'll see something a bit different from other ride-hailing apps: a feature called InstaAlert. It's designed to help passengers notify friends or family that they're in a taxi and to send an update once the rider arrives at a destination in one piece. AsterRide is marketing itself as a safe alternative in the ride-hailing industry. Its timing is auspicious -- Uber, taxis and other ride-for-hire rivals have made headlines around the world over some of their drivers allegedly engaging in sexual assaults, kidnappings and beatings. Ride-hailing apps -- like Uber, Lyft and Flywheel -- let passengers use a smartphone to hail a taxi, black-car service or a personal driver using their own car. The companies behind these apps are aiming to convince passengers that the rides they hail are safe. But it's a hard sell. Though these companies say safety is their top priority, nearly every week there's a new story detailing a driver's alleged offense against a passenger.AsterRide and a few others, including Shuddle, are part of a growing reaction to assuage customers' concerns. They're beefing up safety features in their apps, such as adding panic buttons and passenger tracking, and they're also looking to create more-secure services with heightened driver background checks and all-female driver fleets. It's unclear how many of these features will become industry standards, but they do represent a turning point in intensified attention to safety."Rider safety is becoming a paramount concern with users of app-based ride-sharing services," said Tejas Mehta, an analyst with Parks Associates, a market research firm that specializes in emerging consumer technology products. "This has created an opening for competitors such as AsterRide and Flywheel."AsterRide launched in November 2013 by offering a similar service to its competitors: passengers tap on a smartphone app that can hail a taxi or black-car service to take them to their location. But unlike its competitors, AsterRide aims to give customers peace of mind by promising to alert friends and family that they're on their way. So far, its service is only in Phoenix, Ariz., but it will be expanding to cities in Florida, Illinois, California and other locations in a few months, the company says. Flywheel has a similar service in several California cities and in Seattle, Wash. Both AsterRide and Flywheel work only with existing taxi and black-car companies. AsterRide is small potatoes compared with Uber, which is flush with nearly $5 billion in funding and operates its service in more than 250 cities around the world. So AsterRide is aiming to get a competitive edge by focusing on safety. Seth Rudin, AsterRide's CEO, said he chose to focus on safety after he spoke to several women traveling with their children. "Every time they got in a cab they didn't feel comfortable," he said. He'd heard that some people were trying to protect themselves by snapping a photo of the taxi driver's license and sending it to friends. Rudin modeled his InstaAlert feature on this idea.Passengers can set up InstaAlert to notify certain people whenever they request a ride, and then these people will get texts or emails when the ride starts and ends. The app also shows pickup and drop-off locations, along with real-time GPS tracking of the ride, driver name, car type, license plate and taxi registration ID numbers. At the end of the ride, the app asks the passenger to verify that they arrived safely at their destination. If the passenger says no or doesn't respond, AsterRide will contact the passenger's family members or friends and urge them to call for help. Uber has been in the spotlight over the past few months for a string of incidents allegedly perpetrated by its drivers. Various media outlets have reported alleged rape, sexual harassment and groping in Washington D.C., Chicago and Orlando, Fla. In December, an Uber driver in India was accused of beating and raping a passenger, prompting officials to ban the service in the country's capital of New Delhi. A few Uber drivers have also allegedly brandished knives and guns, and punched, choked and beaten passengers, according to several media reports. Uber said it is trying to fix the problem. In December, the company said it was exploring new methods to screen drivers, including biometrics, voice verification and possibly even polygraph exams. The company also said it was looking into ways to let passengers "communicate with us and their loved ones in the event of an emergency." Already, Uber can track every ride with GPS, and its app shows passengers the driver's photo, license plate number and vehicle type. Riders can also share their estimated time of arrival with friends and family, including a map of their trip in progress. On Tuesday, Uber announced a new program in Chicago under which it will have "security specialists," which include off-duty police officers, perform real-time audits of Uber rides. "Putting safety first for each of the 1 million trips we are doing every day means setting strict safety standards, then working hard to improve them every day," Uber's head of global safety, Phillip Cardenas, said. "Uber is committed to developing new technology tools that improve safety; strengthen and increase the number of cities and countries where background checks are conducted; and improve communication with local officials and law enforcement."Uber and AsterRide aren't the only ride-hailing companies that say they're boosting safety -- other startups are also thinking of innovative ways to make rides more secure. After the alleged rape incident in India, one of the country's largest taxi companies, Meru Cabs, launched a female-only ride service called Meru Eve, according to the Wall Street Journal. The taxis, which are driven by women and pick up female passengers, come equipped with pepper spray and panic buttons that alert the company if there's a problem.Another company that has an all-female driver fleet is a San Francisco, Calif.-based ride-hailing app called Shuddle, which focuses on passengers who can't normally drive themselves around, like children and seniors. To ensure the safety of its customers, the company says, it has stringent driver background screenings and ride monitoring systems. Shuddle requires that every driver have child care or caregiver experience and a clean background check that includes no misdemeanors. For every ride, the passenger and driver are given passwords so they can verify each other. Also, all rides are live-monitored by Shuddle and there's a call desk that people can reach out to at any time. Company CEO Nick Allen said this amount of scrutiny makes it safer not only for passengers but for drivers too. "There's no magic bullet," Allen said. "You have to do a number of things well."

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Bill Gates: I feel stupid for only speaking English Having spoken two languages since my earliest years, I can reveal there is one advantage. If someone really annoys you -- especially a referee during a tense soccer match -- you can say the most glorious things to them and watch their blank faces not being able to register what was said. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates must have been on the receiving end, once or twice in his life, of someone saying something about him in a foreign tongue, while he is none the wiser.He's a lot shorter in real life, isn't he Jose? Today, Gates gave his third AMA ("AskMeAnything") to Reddit and perhaps his greatest personal confession was this: "I feel pretty stupid that I don't know any foreign languages. I tookLatin and Greek in high school and got A's and I guess it helps myvocabulary but I wish I knew French or Arabic or Chinese." It's interesting that he has a desire to speak French. It's not as if this language has become in any way universal. Does Gates like how it sounds? Could he think speaking French would add to his sex appeal? All he would say is that of his three target languages, French is "the easiest." In American companies, there's the simple expectation that everyone will speak English. However, the Microsoft co-founder expressed wonder at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's dedication to a foreign tongue. He said: "Mark Zuckerberg amazingly learned Mandarin and did a Q&A with Chinese students -- incredible." The deeply cynical will suggest that Zuckerberg has two vast motivations: a wife of Chinese heritage and the desperate urge to ingratiate himself with the Chinese government, which isn't too keen on Facebook. In the AMA, Gates also expressed his enthusiasm for the pace of technological change. "There will be more progress in the next 30 years than ever," he said. Well, it all depends on your definition of progress. For Gates, it means, for example: "Mechanical robot tasks like picking fruit or moving a hospital patient will be solved." Are those humanity's priorities? Are we all desperate for machines to do these jobs?Gates isn't quite as chipper -- as is VC Peter Thiel -- about living until he's 120.Asked about extending his life and immortality research, he said: "It seems pretty egocentric, while we still have malaria and TB, for richpeople to fund things so they can live longer. It would be nice to livelonger though, I admit." He also admitted that, despite his enthusiasm for robots, he really wants them to stay fairly stupid. He said: "I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence. First themachines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. Thatshould be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after thatthough the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree withElon Musk and some others on this and don't understand why some peopleare not concerned." We'd better not teach those robots French then.

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Nokia makes strong profit in year of 'first steps' after Microsoft sale Nokia had a good year after selling off its phones business, making a better-than-expected net profit of €443 million (roughly $505 million, £330 million, or AU$637 million) in 2014. It's too early to tell how the company's return to hardware with theN1 tabletis going, but one expert believes the tablet is "just a first step" in what is "an exciting time for Nokia" as it transforms its business. Finnish company Nokia has long been best known for its phones, but it also produces network equipment and mapping data, which is licensed to other companies under the Here brand. Having sold the part of the business that makes phones to Microsoft last April, it's those other parts of the business that continue, reporting their annual financial results today. The Nokia Networks unit did well on the back of improved sales in North America, particularly thanks to higher-margin 4G equipment. And it was a strong year for Here, Nokia's navigation and mapping business. This division saw a 15 percent growth in net sales year-on-year, due to increased sales in the automotive space and licensing arrangements with Microsoft. Nokia conceded this was offset by declines in the personal navigation device market -- a category of products that has seen sales fall across the board. But Here is in a good position: it's both a B2B proposition, licensing its data to other companies, and a customer-facing proposition, including an Android app.As part of the device and services sale, Microsoft has the right to use the Nokia brand on phones like the super-cheap Nokia 215, although it has now phased out the Nokia name for its Lumia smartphones. In the meantime Nokia itself has turned to tablets with the affordable Nokia N1 Android tablet, manufactured in China. Nokia President and CEO Rajeev Suri called out the N1 for special attention in the results release, saying the early reception for the device had been "remarkably favourable" and showed "the ongoing power of the Nokia brand and the long-term potential of [Nokia's] brand licensing business". However, industry analyst Ian Fogg of IHS points out that the N1 has only been on sale a few short weeks, so it's too early to know how the tablet is performing.The N1 is "clearly not a one-off product", says Fogg, and "however it does in the market, it's just a first step". Although Nokia can't produce a smartphone in the foreseeable future -- a caveat of the deal with Microsoft -- it still retains patents and intellectual property that Fogg believes could see the company produce more tablets or even devices in the realm of music players, laptop-type devices, imaging and more.While Nokia has been through a period of upheaval, Rajeev Suri was positive about the road ahead. "2014 was a time of significant change for Nokia and we ended the year in a renewed position of strength," the CEO said. "Looking ahead, while 2014 was a year of reinvention, we see 2015 as a year of execution. We are already moving fast, with Here sharpening its strategic focus, Nokia Technologies accelerating its licensing and innovation activities, and Nokia Networks increasing its momentum in growth areas including virtualization and telco cloud. "As we pursue these opportunities, we will not shy away from investing where we need to invest."

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Nobel winner Elie Wiesel lends support to Netanyahu's U.S. speech Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel is lending his support to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's March 3 speech to Congress on the dangers of Iran's nuclear program - an address that has antagonized the White House and divided American Jews.An outspoken New Jersey Orthodox rabbi, Shmuley Boteach, said on Thursday he is placing full-page advertisements in two of the leading U.S. newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post, featuring Wiesel's endorsement of Netanyahu's speech.Blindsided by the invitation that Republicans in Congress extended to Netanyahu, President Barack Obama has declined to meet the Israeli leader, citing what he has said is U.S. protocol not to meet world leaders before national elections, due to take place in Israel on March 17.  The advertisement quotes Wiesel as saying he plans to attend Netanyahu's address "on the catastrophic danger of a nuclear Iran." Awarded the Nobel in 1986, Wiesel asks Obama and others in the ad: "Will you join me in hearing the case for keeping weapons from those who preach death to Israel and America?"Speaking to Reuters by phone, Boteach said: "There's no personality more respected in the global Jewish community and few in the wider world than Elie Wiesel. He is a living prince of the Jewish people.""He is the face of the murdered 6 million (Jews killed in the Holocaust). So I think that his view on the prime minister's speech sounding the alarm as to the Iranian nuclear program carries a unique authority that transcends some of the political circus that has affected the speech," Boteach said.Boteach, the author of books including "Kosher Sex," was the Republican nominee in 2012 for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives but lost to Democratic incumbent Bill Pascrell.DEEP DIVISIONSWiesel, 86, who has written extensively of his imprisonment in Nazi camps, is the latest to join a fray that has exposed deep divisions among American Jews over the policy and propriety behind a speech in which Netanyahu is expected to criticize Obama's effort to forge an international nuclear deal with Iran.The United States boasts the largest Jewish population outside Israel. American Jews, who make up roughly 2 percent of the U.S. population, historically have been a strong pro-Israel force in American politics.John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, invited Netanyahu. Detractors say Netanyahu, who has long warned the West of the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran, is working with Republicans to thumb their noses at Obama, a Democrat. Neither Boehner nor Netanyahu consulted the U.S. president.This week J Street, a Democratic-leaning pro-Israel group, started a petition drive opposed to Netanyahu's speech. Prominent Jewish leader Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League denounced that effort as "inflammatory and repugnant."The Republican Jewish Coalition lobbying group launched a petition countering J Street's campaign, titled "Stand with Bibi," and has promised to publicize which U.S. lawmakers boycott the speech.'BIBI DOES NOT SPEAK FOR ME'J Street said it had gathered more than 20,000 signatures for a petition asking Jews to say "Bibi does NOT speak for me," using Netanyahu's nickname, in response to Netanyahu calling himself not just Israel's prime minister but also "a representative of the entire Jewish people." Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, said American Jews had long been divided, with Republican Jews backing Netanyahu's right-wing government and liberal Jews more in line with the Israeli opposition."Perhaps the biggest mistake the prime minister has made is allowing his speech to be the wedge that has driven that argument more public," Ben-Ami said.He said about 70 percent of Jewish Americans vote Democratic and roughly a quarter identifies as Republican."But today, with a really divided society on both sides of the ocean, both there and here, it isn't possible any longer for there to be a single voice representing the views of all Jewish Americans," Ben-Ami said.Some of Netanyahu's critics accuse him of placing ties to Republicans above Israel's relations with the United States, its most important ally. U.S.-born Ron Dermer, Israel's ambassador to Washington, is a former Republican political operative.Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and the most senior U.S. senator, said this week he would not attend Netanyahu's speech and accused Republicans of orchestrating what he called "a tawdry and high-handed stunt that has embarrassed not only Israel but the Congress itself."Matt Brooks, the Republican Jewish Coalition's executive director, countered: "It's important for the Jewish community to know that members of Congress have a choice ... whether they're going to stand with the prime minister of Israel and the Jewish community in opposition to a nuclear Iran, or whether they're going to put partisan politics ahead of that and stand with President Obama."

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Bill to abolish some mandatory prison sentences gets another shot Several U.S. senators from far-reaching ends of the political spectrum, including some with presidential aspirations, will reintroduce on Thursday a bill to abolish mandatory minimum sentences for certain non-violent drug offenders.The bill would allow federal judges to use their discretion to sentence low-level, non-violent drug offenders instead of having to assign sentences based on the established minimum. Though an identical bill failed to pass the Senate last year, its sponsors hope the continued push for criminal justice reform by those who will likely shape the 2016 presidential debate can get it passed this time.  "We've got another year behind us and with that we've had additional opportunities to message and more people have become aware of it," said Republican Senator Mike Lee, who is sponsoring the bill along with Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, both possible contenders for the U.S. presidential election in 2016.U.S. President Barack Obama laid out criminal justice reforms as one of his priorities in his State of the Union address in January and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder supports the bill.By lowering sentences, the bill, known as the Smarter Sentencing Act, aims to reduce spending on federal prisons, which are consuming one-third of the Justice Department's annual budget while crime rates in the United States are declining. Charles Grassley, Republican chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee where the bill would have to pass first, has opposed the bill, crediting tough incarceration policies for the drop in crime rates. A more modest bill sponsored by Senators John Cornyn and Sheldon Whitehouse to reduce sentences for prisoners who show good behavior while incarcerated may gain more traction. Lee said he is not ruling out the option of combining the bills.

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Seeking bigger budget, Pentagon keeps wary eye on risk of cuts The Pentagon decision to seek a 2016 budget that far exceeds federal spending caps poses the risk of a big across-the-board funding cut like the one that forced the department to put civilian workers on unpaid leave two years ago.But defense officials say the department will not repeat some of the decisions it made in 2013 that exacerbated the problem once the automatic cuts, known as "sequestration," went into effect nearly halfway through the fiscal year."We just kept spending as though sequestration wasn't going to happen," Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work told reporters this week. This year, he said, "if it's not clear that sequestration is done, we will start being defensive and we will start making sure we are better prepared for it."Work and Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord both said the department currently is focused on convincing lawmakers the $534 billion budget, which is nearly $36 billion above federal caps, is necessary to modernize the force after 13 years of war and several years of declining defense spending. "Our plan is to succeed with convincing Congress why the budget we submitted is the budget we need," McCord told reporters on Thursday. "If we get a strong signal from Congress that that's not going to be what they're going to do, then we will ... take action at the appropriate time."McCord said the department would "look at what we did (in 2013) and what we maybe could have done better and draw some lessons from that." A 2011 law aimed at controlling U.S. deficits called for the Pentagon to reduce planned spending by about $1 trillion over a decade. The measure set annual spending caps and approved automatic cuts to enforce them.Officials said the measure was designed to be draconian to force Congress to reach a compromise to reduce spending. Officials initially did not believe the deep cuts would go into effect, but in 2013 they did.Work said the reductions were "very, very destructive" for the Pentagon. They went into effect nearly halfway through the fiscal year, forcing the department to take some $37 billion in cuts from funds still unspent.The Pentagon slashed things like flight training, military exercises and routine maintenance on everything from ships and vehicles to buildings at bases. And they put most civilian workers on unpaid leave."It really hurt us," Work said.

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Nobel winner Elie Wiesel lends support to Netanyahu's U.S. speech Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel is lending his support to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's March 3 speech to Congress on the dangers of Iran's nuclear program - an address that has antagonized the White House and divided American Jews.An outspoken New Jersey Orthodox rabbi, Shmuley Boteach, said on Thursday he is placing full-page advertisements in two of the leading U.S. newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post, featuring Wiesel's endorsement of Netanyahu's speech.Blindsided by the invitation that Republicans in Congress extended to Netanyahu, President Barack Obama has declined to meet the Israeli leader, citing what he has said is U.S. protocol not to meet world leaders before national elections, due to take place in Israel on March 17.  The advertisement quotes Wiesel as saying he plans to attend Netanyahu's address "on the catastrophic danger of a nuclear Iran." Awarded the Nobel in 1986, Wiesel asks Obama and others in the ad: "Will you join me in hearing the case for keeping weapons from those who preach death to Israel and America?"Speaking to Reuters by phone, Boteach said: "There's no personality more respected in the global Jewish community and few in the wider world than Elie Wiesel. He is a living prince of the Jewish people.""He is the face of the murdered 6 million (Jews killed in the Holocaust). So I think that his view on the prime minister's speech sounding the alarm as to the Iranian nuclear program carries a unique authority that transcends some of the political circus that has affected the speech," Boteach said.Boteach, the author of books including "Kosher Sex," was the Republican nominee in 2012 for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives but lost to Democratic incumbent Bill Pascrell.DEEP DIVISIONSWiesel, 86, who has written extensively of his imprisonment in Nazi camps, is the latest to join a fray that has exposed deep divisions among American Jews over the policy and propriety behind a speech in which Netanyahu is expected to criticize Obama's effort to forge an international nuclear deal with Iran.The United States boasts the largest Jewish population outside Israel. American Jews, who make up roughly 2 percent of the U.S. population, historically have been a strong pro-Israel force in American politics.John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, invited Netanyahu. Detractors say Netanyahu, who has long warned the West of the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran, is working with Republicans to thumb their noses at Obama, a Democrat. Neither Boehner nor Netanyahu consulted the U.S. president.This week J Street, a Democratic-leaning pro-Israel group, started a petition drive opposed to Netanyahu's speech. Prominent Jewish leader Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League denounced that effort as "inflammatory and repugnant."The Republican Jewish Coalition lobbying group launched a petition countering J Street's campaign, titled "Stand with Bibi," and has promised to publicize which U.S. lawmakers boycott the speech.'BIBI DOES NOT SPEAK FOR ME'J Street said it had gathered more than 20,000 signatures for a petition asking Jews to say "Bibi does NOT speak for me," using Netanyahu's nickname, in response to Netanyahu calling himself not just Israel's prime minister but also "a representative of the entire Jewish people." Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, said American Jews had long been divided, with Republican Jews backing Netanyahu's right-wing government and liberal Jews more in line with the Israeli opposition."Perhaps the biggest mistake the prime minister has made is allowing his speech to be the wedge that has driven that argument more public," Ben-Ami said.He said about 70 percent of Jewish Americans vote Democratic and roughly a quarter identifies as Republican."But today, with a really divided society on both sides of the ocean, both there and here, it isn't possible any longer for there to be a single voice representing the views of all Jewish Americans," Ben-Ami said.Some of Netanyahu's critics accuse him of placing ties to Republicans above Israel's relations with the United States, its most important ally. U.S.-born Ron Dermer, Israel's ambassador to Washington, is a former Republican political operative.Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and the most senior U.S. senator, said this week he would not attend Netanyahu's speech and accused Republicans of orchestrating what he called "a tawdry and high-handed stunt that has embarrassed not only Israel but the Congress itself."Matt Brooks, the Republican Jewish Coalition's executive director, countered: "It's important for the Jewish community to know that members of Congress have a choice ... whether they're going to stand with the prime minister of Israel and the Jewish community in opposition to a nuclear Iran, or whether they're going to put partisan politics ahead of that and stand with President Obama."

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Senators launch fresh bid for sugar policy overhaul Three senators on Thursday introduced a bill to overhaul the U.S. government's controversial sugar program, aiming to lower price-support levels and change domestic supply restrictions.The sugar program has cost consumers more than $14 billion since 2008, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Republican Senators Mark Kirk of Illinois and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who introduced the legislation, said in a news release.In addition to lowering price supports that U.S. sugar farmers get - which proponents say help growers at times of low market prices - the bill would allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture more flexibility in doling out domestic supply allotments. The lawmakers have repeatedly tried to reforms the U.S. sugar program. Shaheen led a coalition in June 2014 that pushed for similar reforms through an amendment to budget appropriations. The three senators introduced the same reform measure a year ago. They previously pushed for it as an amendment to the farm bill, but their proposal failed to win approval in May 2013. Supporters of the existing sugar support program say that it usually operates at no additional government cost and supports farmers.The bill arrives in a tumultuous time for the sugar industry, as participants await a decision from the U.S. government on whether to maintain duties on imports from Mexico, the country's top foreign supplier.

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California's Gavin Newsom says he will run for governor in 2016 California's Lieutenant Governor said Wednesday he would run for governor in 2018, staking an early claim to fund-raising and endorsements as the most populous U.S. state faces an unprecedented generational shift in political leadership.Gavin Newsom made the announcement four years ahead of the election amid ongoing jostling among fellow California Democrats over the state's top three political jobs, all of which will come open in the next several years. Newsom aims to succeed popular Governor Jerry Brown, who will be 81 when his term ends.  "The reality of running for Governor - even four years from now – in America’s largest, most diverse state demands that I start raising resources now if we’re going to lead a conversation worthy of the 38 million people who live, work, attend school and raise families in the Golden State," Newsom said in a statement emailed to reporters on Wednesday.A former mayor of San Francisco whose support for same-sex marriage kicked off a tidal wave of social and political change, Newsom is one of several California officials expected to run for higher political office as the state's two U.S. senators and Brown approach retirement.Last month, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 74, said she would not run for re-election when her term ends in 2016, leading state Attorney General Kamala Harris to get into the race. Newsom declined to run against Harris, who has much the same political base, choosing instead to go after the governor's job.U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, 81, has not said whether she will run again when her term is up in 2018, but if she retires also, a third top job will be open in the state.Newsom's move may further crowd out former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has been weighing a run against Harris and is also widely believed to be considering seeking the governorship.Many Latino leaders have held off endorsing Harris in the race, even though she has the support of the state's Democratic party kingmakers, to see what Villaraigosa will do.Some in Latino political circles have complained that in the rush to support Harris, Latino candidates including Villaraigosa have been shunted aside. On Wednesday, the union representing Los Angeles police officers endorsed Harris, her campaign said.

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Biden says 2016 should be debate about continuing Obama's policies Vice President Joe Biden was vague on Thursday about whether he would seek to succeed President Barack Obama, but said the 2016 White House campaign should be centered on whether to continue Obama's policies.With Hillary Clinton the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, Biden has made no apparent move toward launching a campaign. On a visit to Iowa, the state that holds the first nominating contest early next year, he said a decision is months away."That's a family personal decision that I'm going to make sometime at the end of the summer," Biden told reporters. Biden, as the sitting vice president, would typically be next in line for the nomination for his party. But the strength and appeal of former Secretary of State Clinton, wife of former President Bill Clinton, has put Biden on the sidelines.In remarks at Drake University, Biden said the next campaign should be about Obama's economic policies, which he said are working.“I call it sticking with what works,” Biden said, “and what we ought to do.” He chastised fellow Democrats who he said have tried to distance themselves from Obama administration policies."In my view those seeking to lead the nation should protect and defend and run, yes, run on what we’ve done, own what we have done, stand for what we have done, acknowledge what we have done and be judged on what (we have) done if we have any chance of a resurgence in 2016,” Biden said.The Republican National Committee quickly picked up on Biden's remarks and said it bolstered their argument that the next Democratic nominee will be campaigning to serve Obama's "third term."

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Top Oregon Democrats, state treasurer ask Governor Kitzhaber to resign Top Oregon Democrats and the state treasurer on Thursday called on Governor John Kitzhaber to resign amid fallout over conflict-of-interest allegations involving his fiancée, and Oregon's secretary of state said she is ready to step into the job.Kitzhaber, a Democrat, is facing mounting pressure to resign amid a criminal corruption probe launched last week by the state attorney general over a possible conflict of interest between his fiancee's consulting contracts and her role in his office."Oregon deserves a Governor who is fully focused on the duties of state," Treasurer Ted Wheeler said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the current situation has become untenable, and I cannot imagine any scenario by which things improve." House of Representatives Speaker Tina Kotek and Senate President Peter Courtney, both Democrats, met with Kitzhaber on Thursday and urged him to resign. A Courtney spokesman said the governor, in response, was "upset" and "defiant."Two petition campaigns to recall Kitzhaber have been organized in recent weeks, and the Oregonian, the state's biggest newspaper, called last week for his resignation.Kitzhaber, who was elected to an unprecedented fourth term in November, issued a statement on Wednesday saying he has no intention of resigning.Also on Thursday, Secretary of State Kate Brown, who is next in the line of succession to become governor should Kitzhaber resign, said she is ready to assume the role even though Kitzhaber told her in a meeting he has no plans to step down.Brown said in a statement that Kitzhaber summoned her back to Oregon two days early from a conference in Washington, D.C., for a private meeting on Wednesday."It was a brief meeting. ... The governor told me he was not resigning, after which, he began a discussion about transition.""This is clearly a bizarre and unprecedented situation," she added. "I informed the Governor that I am ready, and my staff will be ready, should he resign."Brown's return to Oregon and Kitzhaber's cancellation of weekend plans to plant trees in a Portland suburb had fueled media speculation on Wednesday about the governor's political future.

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Senators introduce bill to lift Cuba embargo A group of Democratic and Republican U.S. senators introduced a bill on Thursday seeking to lift the half-century-old trade embargo against Cuba, nearly two months after President Barack Obama announced moves toward normalizing relations with the Communist-ruled island nation.The legislation seeks to repeal provisions of previous laws that prevent Americans from doing business with Cuba, but does not repeal portions of laws addressing human rights or property claims against Cuba's government, the measure's sponsors said.U.S. lawmakers who back more normal relations with Cuba are preparing a series of bills seeking to ease U.S. restrictions on travel and trade with Cuba.A bill aimed at ending legal restrictions on Americans' travel to Cuba was introduced last month. The bills will face some strong opposition in Congress, but supporters said they wanted to at least generate debate on U.S.-Cuba policy. Even if the standalone measures fail in the Senate and House of Representatives, they may be included later this year as provisions of larger appropriations bills. Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar is the lead sponsor of the bill unveiled on Thursday. The bill's co-sponsors include Republican Senators Jeff Flake and Mike Enzi, as well as Democrats Patrick Leahy, Richard Durbin and Debbie Stabenow.

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Does Obama need a new strategy to fight ISIS? As the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) stays in the headlines, claiming responsibility for the massacre of 23 people in the Tunisian capital and releasing an apparent "hit list," that purports to list the personal information of 100 members of the U.S. military, members of Congress from both parties suggest the Obama administration still needs to do more. "I think the president has been consistently wrong with this," House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. "I believe the administration has misinterpreted the entire Arab Spring.That is the concern we have.And then, when you look what the president sends up to Congress, an AUMF, an authorization to use the military's force, he constrains the military even further to combat ISIS." Lawmakers are currently considering the administration's request for authorization for the use of military force. The three-year authorization would not place geographical limits on the fight, but does rule out a large-scale ground combat operations like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."He has more authority today than what he's asking going forward," McCarthy said. "The problems we are having today around the world are because of this administration redirection of our foreign policy.It puts more emphasis on befriending our enemy instead of supporting our allies.And it's creating chaos around the world."As a Republican, McCarthy's criticism of the president's strategy is not that surprising. But one Democrat, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii - herself a veteran of the Iraq War - also expressed concern about the current U.S. strategy. "This is not something that can only be done militarily.Right alongside the military strategy, which must consist of working with our partners in the region, it must consist with working with the Sunnis and the Kurds and really going to the heart of the sectarian conflict," Gabbard said in a separate interview on "Face the Nation," explaining that the sectarian divide in Iraq allows ISIS to strengthen its foothold there. "When we look at the continuation of the failed Bush policy, now in this administration, of propping up this Shia-led government in Baghdad that's heavily influenced by Iran, this is what has caused, essentially, for ISIS to grow in Iraq." Gabbard said she has asked military leaders and members of the administration about how they will tackle the sectarian challenges in Iraq alongside the military challenges of fighting ISIS. "There is no clear plan in place for the Sunni people to take charge of the Sunni-dominated parts of Iraq, which is the only thing that will prevent ISIS from coming back in, even if there is a military victory," she said. Weighing in on the request for military authorization, she said that the administration first needs to reexamine its overall strategy to ensure that either President Obama or the next president can get to the "heart of the problem." She also said there seems to be a lack of urgency to pass the ISIS military authorization, since the administration is still relying on the military authorization from the Iraq war to carry out its current airstrikes against the group. That sends the message, she said, that "this only needs to be passed as a message or a symbol to the American people.So, I think that's where you're seeing a lack of urgency."

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Potential Republican candidates tread carefully on Islamic State Republicans exploring a 2016 White House run are pounding away at President Barack Obama's strategy for stopping Islamic State militants but, wary of Americans' war fatigue, are so far providing few specifics on what they would do differently.The renewed threat posed by Islamic militants is emerging as the top foreign policy issue for the 2016 race, and Obama's submission to Congress on Wednesday of a draft authorization of military force against the extremists intensified the debate.With foreign fighters flocking to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State, known as ISIS or ISIL, the issue has landed in the laps of the dozen or so Republicans who are seriously considering a run for their party's presidential nomination. Many of them are current or former state governors who are just now boning up on foreign policy.So far they are describing what they see as gaps in Obama's strategy, which has relied heavily on air strikes, saying he needs to be more aggressive in challenging "radical Islam.""With regard to ISIS, we have not seen a seriousness of purpose. We have seen instead photo-op foreign policy: a bomb here, a missile there," Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz told the Center for Security Policy, a conservative think tank.But no one has offered a detailed blueprint on how they would take on Islamic State, which over the past year has seized a swathe of Iraq and Syria and overtaken al Qaeda as a magnet for Islamic extremists.With Americans long since weary of U.S. involvement in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Republican candidates-in-waiting have to tread carefully.WAR-WEARY BUT WORRIEDIdeas run from bolstering Iraqi Kurds who have been fighting Islamic State militants, to persuading Arab nations to drop their resistance to putting more troops on the front lines, to sending in more U.S. troops."What the president needs to come up with is a strategy, militarily, to defeat them, which I think involves, for example, an anti-ISIL ground force made up of Arab armies, combined with U.S. Special Forces," Florida Senator Marco Rubio told Fox News.He added that air strikes should also be ramped up to provide tactical support.After a series of videotaped beheadings of U.S. citizens by Islamic State, Americans' concern over the threat posed by the group and other militants has risen.A mid-January poll by the Pew Research Center found that for the first time in five years, defending the United States from terrorism was the top issue for Americans, with 76 percent citing it as the main policy challenge.This makes it fertile ground for the 2016 presidential campaign for both Republicans and Democrats.Only Cruz and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker have raised the possibility of eventually sending U.S. ground troops to the region, however. Others speak far more vaguely, saying the United States needs to be more aggressive.Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said Obama's draft resolution - which bars any large-scale invasion by U.S. ground troops and covers the next three years - is short-sighted for an effort that will require a "sustained military effort." "The president's limitations of a three year commitment and against 'enduring offensive ground combat operations' place counterproductive restraints on our national power, and the military's ability to accomplish the mission," he said.The issue of Islamic State is particularly tricky for potential Republican candidate Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor whose brother, President George W. Bush, started wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.Obama's draft authorization of military force would repeal and replace the 2002 Iraq war resolution crafted by Bush.In Detroit last week Jeb Bush criticized Obama's handling of the threat, calling it a result of a U.S. pullback from the region. But he was careful to say U.S. troops should not be deployed every time there is a global challenge, a position that could be intended to put some space between him and his brother's Iraq war."We have to be engaged. And that doesn't necessarily mean boots on the ground in every occurrence," Bush said.

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Alabama official ordered to issue marriage licenses to gay couples A federal judge on Thursday ordered an Alabama official to start issuing marriage licenses to gay couples in compliance with an earlier order, but couples in most counties were still unable to obtain licenses.U.S. District Judge Callie Granade's order clarified that Mobile County Probate Court Judge Don Davis was compelled to adhere to her previous ruling striking down the state's gay marriage ban despite a contravening order from Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore that led many state judges to refrain from issuing licenses to gay couples.Granade's directive marked the latest twist in the controversy over gay marriage in Alabama, where probate judges have faced conflicting orders from federal and state courts. The resulting disarray has allowed same-sex couples to marry in places such as Birmingham, while those applying for marriage licenses in dozens of counties have been turned away. Alabama is the 37th U.S. state where gay marriage has been legalized, and the first in the Deep South, where many voters are socially conservative. The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to grant a request from Alabama's Republican attorney general to keep the weddings on hold until it decides later this year whether laws banning gay matrimony violate the U.S. Constitution.But Moore ordered state judges to defy Granade's ruling and uphold the state's gay marriage ban, an order his office said remained in effect despite the Supreme Court's action. Granade's order on Thursday applied specifically to Mobile County, where, within an hour of the ruling, same-sex couples who had been waiting in line at a county building began to receive licenses. Among those in line was Meredith Miller, 32, who said plans to wed her partner of almost nine years on Valentine's Day would mean an end to fears of being shut out from making decisions on each other's behalf in the event of a medical emergency."The worry that is always in the back of your mind, the worry that a lot of couples don't ever have to experience, that is going to go away now," Miller said.NARROW RULINGAttorneys for four same-sex couples named as plaintiffs in the suit, among them Miller and her partner, had urged Granade to issue a broad ruling to compel all judges in the state to begin granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples.But with the ruling applying narrowly to Davis, none of the judges in the other 43 of Alabama's 67 counties that have refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples changed course in its immediate aftermath, gay rights advocates said.J. Michael Druhan, the lawyer for Davis, whose county is the most populous of those that have refused to issue the licenses, told Granade during a hearing before her order that the probate judge was stuck between the conflicting court directives and simply wanted guidance.Druhan likened Davis, who had kept his office's marriage license operations shuttered since Granade's earlier ruling went into effect on Monday, to a U.S. soldier frozen to the spot after stepping on a mine in a Vietnamese paddy field."If he stands there and does nothing, the snipers are going to shoot him in the head," he said. "If he moves, the mine's going to blow him to pieces."Most legal experts say Alabama's probate judges, who are elected officials in a state that passed a gay marriage ban in 2006 with 81 percent of the vote, will ultimately have little choice but to follow the federal court's ruling.Among those waiting for marriage licenses in Mobile was Mack Douglas, 28, who with his girlfriend was relieved the office was open for the first time this week. Douglas said he was raised to believe homosexuality was wrong and it felt a bit awkward to be waiting in line with so many same-sex couples. "When everyone was walking over here, I kind of stared off the other way," he said. "I kind of blocked it out of my mind."

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Former top U.S. officials urge lifeline for export credit agency Former top U.S. officials have urged Congress to keep the Export-Import Bank alive to shore up the United States' economic and security interests.In a letter sent to Congressional leaders late on Wednesday, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen and 10 other senior figures said exporters helped spread American values and strengthen its interests overseas and Ex-Im was an important tool to compete and secure business in overseas markets.The export credit agency, which provides support to U.S. exporters and the buyers of U.S. goods, is targeted for closure by some conservative Republicans who say it usurps the role of the private sector and provides "welfare" for big business. "From our prior experience in government, each of us has seen how commercial and economic diplomacy have become critical elements of US national security," said the letter, whose signatories include former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and previous White House chiefs of staff."The involvement of U.S. companies in emerging markets is fundamentally beneficial to the American economy while helping to drive growth, prosperity and political stability abroad."The bank has been criticized for helping to finance purchases from big companies such as Boeing Co (BA.N) and Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N), but supporters contend it also helps many small businesses that cannot get export insurance from private banks.The letter said China was expanding its reach in Africa, particularly through long-term infrastructure projects, and Ex-Im was a valuable tool to counter competitors."Unilateral disarmament has never been considered a viable defense policy, and we cannot think of a reason why it should be considered a rational export policy," the letter said.Other signatories include former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, former U.S. Commerce secretary Carlos Gutierrez, and former Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Stephen Hadley.Ex-Im won a temporary extension late last year but without action from Congress, its charter will expire at the end of June. Republican lawmaker Stephen Fincher has proposed a five-year extension that would trim the bank's lending cap but the chairman of the House committee with jurisdiction over Ex-Im, Republican Jeb Hensarling is one of the bank's strongest critics and helps determine which bills come to the floor of Congress.

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Obama and Pakistan's Sharif agree to meet: White House President Barack Obama and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoke by telephone on Thursday about counterterrorism and other issues, and agreed to meet, the White House National Security Council said on Twitter.The two leaders "expressed the intent to meet at a mutually convenient time," the White House said, and agreed to continue to strengthen the relationship between the two countries.Obama "welcomed the improved relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and noted appreciation for Pakistan's efforts to combat terrorism," the White House said.

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