Sony said they are selling their U.S. headquarters building in Manhattan. The sale will net the corporation $1.1 billion. AFP reported that the Japanese electronics maker has sold the 37 storey building to a consortium led by New York based commerical property firm Chetrit Group in a deal expected to …
Read More »Exclusive interview with Biostar’s Head of European Sales
It's hard to know why a young chap who grew up near the German border with Holland would end up speaking Mandarin Chinese and running European sales for a major motherboard manufacturer, but that's exactly what Martin Thyssen has ended up doing. KitGuru was fortunate enough to catch up with …
Read More »Making the shopping experience of the future
While we've seen a lot of high street businesses fold in recent times thanks to a huge upsurge in online sales, Intel has come up with a way to improve the retail shopping experience in the real world that could mean for a much nicer experience when out looking for …
Read More »Paypal withholds funds to improve its bottom line
New information has come to light about the dodgy business practices of online payment platform Paypal, suggesting that it deliberately delays payments to banks in order to gain interest from the money deposited by its users. According to documents shown to Wirenews, one user found that any balance withdrawal requests …
Read More »Canada won’t ship Megaupload servers to US
Even with a heavily worded request from US authorities for 32 Megaupload servers, a Canadian court has rejected the proposal, suggesting that since personal information could be part of the data, that it must first ascertain what is stored on them before the hand over. Despite having lost almost every …
Read More »Blockbuster will enter administration
As if anyone didn't see this coming. If GAME, HMV, Comet, Jessops and more could go under – the former admittedly only temporarily – then Blockbuster was surely not far behind. As parodied in the South Park episode A Nightmare on Facetime, nobody rents DVDs any more – at very …
Read More »US power plant infected with malware
A USB drive which had malware installed on it was responsible for infecting a U.S. power plant turbine control system in early October. The malicious software managed to delay the restart by three weeks, according to the Homeland Security Department. Another plant was checked and found to have ‘common and …
Read More »Notebook shipments to drop further in Q1
Sources in the Taipei channel spoke to me last night and the consensus is that notebook shipments will drop in Q1 2013. The figures should drop around 11% sequentially with a global market share around 89%. Digitimes have more detailed research on the matter than they claim “Of the first-quarter …
Read More »1,600 businesses sign up for Blackberry 10 ‘ready’ training
The Blackberry 10 operating system in due for release at the end of the month, alongside a new range of smartphones which Research In Motion will help reverse their steady market decline. In anticipation for the launch, more than 1,600 businesses are registered to join a training program. The BlackBerry …
Read More »American man outsources himself – authorities upset
If there was going to be a fatal car crash – with a 4 door saloon plunging over a cliff and exploding into a million pieces – wouldn't it be cool if the driver wasn't you, but you got to claim on the insurance anyway? Outsourcing stuff can be fun, …
Read More »HMV.com is taken down by administrators
You know it's the end where the simple to maintain website is taken down. Administrators for HMV, Deloitte, have now killed off the HMV.com website, leading it with a simple message explaining that until further notice, the website would no longer be in operation. HMV staff have said in the …
Read More »Facebook graph search offers new way to find people
Facebook has announced the implementation of a new search feature that will help you find people if you don't know their names, or want to look them up via certain criteria. Putting in a query like “People named Andrew who are friends with Jacquie,” would help find that person you …
Read More »Lenovo could be working on Chromebooks for enterprise
Lenovo has been the something of the company to watch recently as their revenues have more than tripled to $33 billion in 2012 in just a few years. Reports are suggesting that some enterprises are looking to trial Chromebooks and they want Lenovo to supply them on the back on their high …
Read More »Sony announce world’s first OLED 4k 56 inch TV
Sony can now dismiss previous reports that they were abandoning the OLED TV market with the announcement of their new 56 inch OLED High Definition television set. The new prototype has been announced as the “world’s first and largest 56-inch 4K OLED TV.” OLED technology will be a fantastic next …
Read More »Intelligent ‘ice cubes’ tell when you have drunk too much
For those of us who have a problem controlling our drinking, MIT student Dhairya Dand may have a cure. He has developed a new intelligent ‘ice cube' which will track how much you drink and flash red when you have had enough. The solution was developed when Dand experienced a …
Read More »‘Infinity’ cross platform launched by Disney
Capt. Jack Sparrow driving Cinderella's carriage? Sulley from “Monsters Inc.” galloping on Bullseye from “Toy Story”? Those are some silly scenarios that could become a virtual reality with “Disney Infinity,” a Disney endeavor combining a video game with a toy line. The Walt Disney Co. revealed plans Tuesday to launch …
Read More »Apple Retail VP Jerry McDougal leaves
Last year Apple fired John Browett, the ex Dixons executive who joined as Vice President of retail. Browett joined Apple as a replacement for Ron Johnson who left Apple in 2011. The latest reports indicate that Jerry McDougal has just resigned as Apple's Retail VP. ifoAppleStore says that McDougal's responsibilities …
Read More »ARMA III devs finally released from Greek jail
The two Bohemia developers that were arrested for suspected espionage and photographing a military base on the island of Lemnos, have finally been set free after over four months of being held captive – despite the fact that they were merely doing research for upcoming games ARMA III and DayZ. …
Read More »Is this the new MySpace or a Justin Timberlake song?
Update: I've just tried signing up for an account with a bit of fake information, but I've yet to be able to make one. I can't tell if it's because I put in an age that's under 18 (note: I'm 25) but it appears my IPs are now blocked from …
Read More »Labels, not musicians make money from record sales
While this might be something a lot of people have known about for a long time, it's not what you'd hear trumpeted by most big music labels. The claims often made by these corporations is that without album sales, musicians starve – it's why they go after pirates so much. …
Read More »US refutes Dotcom entrapment claims
Kim Dotcom has been very vocal about his opinions of the US government and the way it treated him during his investigation, arrest and the shuttering of his file locker website, Megaupload – often suggesting that he was used to entrap himself through cooperation. US authorities are of course keen …
Read More »NASA spend $17.8 million on inflatable home for astronauts
NASA and Bigelow Aerospace recently announced their latest addition to the International Space Station (ISS). They have signed a partnership worth $17.8 million to allow Bigelow to expand on previous projects to create a new section for the ISS. According to the Space Reporter “The New section of the ISS, …
Read More »HMV’s slow digital response to blame – Musicmetric chief
HMV confirmed the end of its three-year nose-dive into administration last night with the appointment of accountancy giant Deloitte. But its fate was sealed long ago by its slow response to the digital revolution, according to a leading digital expert. The firm, which employs more than 4,000 people, ceased trading …
Read More »Apple share price drops to lowest in a year
Apple are the world's most valuable company but even they have little ups and downs. As we reported yesterday, they halved their orders for component parts for their iPhone 5. Apple had originally ordered 65 million screens from LG Display and Sharp Corp for the 2013 Q1 period. Due to …
Read More »Britain loses ground in graphene patents race
Created by the University of Manchester in 2004, this Graphene substance has huge potential – but it seems that its country of birth might not have that large a role in its future development. KitGuru checked on how long the British government takes to make decisions – and what cost …
Read More »Is Huddlebuy the most annoying spammer ever?
Adverts are a way of life. Indeed, we're constantly surrounded by messages to buy products. That said, in the right context/environment it's something that we roll with. Indeed, the right advert at the right time can be really useful. But spammers are in a different class. KitGuru hears about a …
Read More »Michael Jackson catalog hackers avoid jail
James Marks and James McCormick, two British men that hacked into Sony records and downloaded hundreds of unreleased songs from artists like Michael Jackson, have managed to avoid jail time and will instead receive suspended sentences and community service. As with other hackers we've reported on before like Gary McKinnon, …
Read More »Freecycle for the street with Dutch plastic bags
There are probably a few younger Kitguru readers that have found themselves in a new abode without much in the way of appliances or seating options, and some that simply don't have enough funds to replace an ageing piece of furniture. Those people will likely be familiar with Freecycle – the community …
Read More »Nanolight – world’s most efficient light bulb
Three people from the University of Toronto have designed a product to match the 100W lightbulb while reducing electricity consumption. Their NanoLight LED light bulbs could replace the 100W incandescent bulb, over time. Christian Yan, Tom Rodinger and Gimmy Chu of Nanolight met during a university solar car project back …
Read More »Samsung Galaxy S series claim over 100m channel sales
Samsung have announced that their Galaxy S series has achieved over 100 million channel sales since their launch in May 2010. The Korean company announced the incredible milestone via their Flickr stream. The excellent sales figures were driven by the popular Galaxy S3. “Samsung Electronics’ flagship Galaxy S series surpassed …
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