It looks like Microsoft's Nokia acquisition didn't entirely go to plan. Windows Phone's market share is still in decline and since absorbing Nokia's former employees, Microsoft has had a fair few rounds of job cuts. Following on from last year's cut of 7,800 jobs to refocus the Microsoft Mobile division, the …
Read More »Huawei is suing Samsung over LTE patent infringements
At this point, smartphone companies suing each other over what often seems like trivial, pointless reasons is no surprise. This week, Huawei has stepped into the legal ring with Samsung over infringement on 11 different patents, which are filed in both the US and China. In this specific case, Huawei is …
Read More »EU Commission continues push for single digital market
The European Commission is keen to continue improving the ability for online shoppers to buy from wherever they want without facing additional hurdles. Its latest proposals would see retailers banned from treating customers differently and would have to sell to foreign buyers, thought they wouldn't be required to handle international …
Read More »FACT UK anti-piracy group loses major hollywood funding
The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), a British run organisation that lobbies and sues to combat piracy, has been dealt a major blow by its biggest contributor. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has cut its funding to the group, reducing its financial support by as much as 50 …
Read More »Investigators raid Google’s Paris HQ over €1.6 billion in unpaid taxes
It looks like Google has caught the attention of the authorities over in France as the search giant's Paris headquarters were raided this morning. Over 100 investigators entered the campus in search of evidence of €1.6 billion in unpaid taxes. The probe at Google's offices has been under way since …
Read More »G.Skill to host OC World Record stage at Computex 2016
Today, G.Skill announced that it would be hosting the two largest annual extreme overclocking events at Computex this year, the first being the 5th Annual OC World Record Stage and the second being the 3rd Annual OC World Cup 2016. There will be an all-star line up of professional overclockers …
Read More »Drone-powered industrial re-forestation to combat climate change
One of the big issues facing the natural world is human deforestation on an industrial scale. Illegal logging, land clearance and habitat destruction are causing all sorts of issues that seem near impossible to stop. One solution though, could be utilising drone power to plant trees on a previously unheard …
Read More »Vice met with Edward Snowden to discuss surveillance states
Vice might get a bit of flak for its hipster approach to journalism at times, but it's also produced some pretty hard hitting documentaries and provided real insight into some of the stranger parts of the world. Its latest target in an upcoming episode is government surveillance, so company founder …
Read More »Netflix secures exclusive Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm contract
If you want to watch Disney, Marvel, Pixar or Lucasfilm movies in the U.S. in the future, there's going to be one major destination for them all: Netflix. The streaming giant has secured the monstrous contract for purportedly hundreds of millions of dollars, though no word on how it affects …
Read More »Star Trek owners settle with Axanar fan-film makers
It was merely a month ago that we first heard how Paramount Pictures, owner of the Star Trek trademark and franchise, was looking to halt production on fan-film Star Trek: Axanar, claiming ownership of the Klingon language in the process. Now though we've learned that it's halting that legal action, having …
Read More »Take a 360 degree drive with Bill Gates is in his Tesla Model X
Bill Gates has been running his GatesNotes site for a while now, letting people know what he's reading, his personal thoughts on things and some of the people in his life. In his latest post, we get to take a tour with the Microsoft founder in his Tesla Model X, …
Read More »Google has an AI processor and it already works well
The development of ever smarter artificial intelligences is going to be a major component of high-tier tech firms over the next few years, but Google looks to have the jump on most of them. It's developed its own AI processor, specifically designed for high-operational tasks and it's been testing its …
Read More »Manchester police to be fitted with 3,000 bodycams
As surveillance increases across the world for civilians, perhaps it's a good thing that those enforcing the laws are also being scrutinised. 3,000 Police in Manchester are set to be fitted with body cameras, though much of when and how they are used, will be left up to the officers …
Read More »Rightscorp revenue slip shows threatening pirates isn’t working
Rightscorp is one of the world's most prolific letter senders when it comes to chasing after pirates. Over the past few years it's sent out thousands of demands for money to alleged illegal downloaders, but that model may no longer be viable, as the organisation has reported a quarterly loss …
Read More »Meta data can reveal more about you than you thought
One of the big arguments for more government surveillance, is that they're only ever after metadata. While that is rarely true, in the cases that it is, it's cited as being just a record of your calls, not the content of them. But it turns out that knowing who was …
Read More »Shaq is the star of ELEAGUE’s new CS:GO advert
Considering all of the celebrity cameos in videogames over recent years, it's perhaps no surprise that Turner Broadcasting run Esports organisation, ELEAGUE, is doing the same to promote this year's Counter Strike tournament. Instead of going with a classical actor though, it went with Shaq Fu and Kazaam star Shaquille O' …
Read More »Assassin’s Creed movie infects industry with pre-order bonuses
As much as videogames might have evolved its system of reserving copies of games into a pushy pre-order one, that hasn't happened with other forms of media. Perhaps it's apt then, that a movie inspired by a pre-order heavy franchise, Assassin's Creed, has introduced more-pre-ordering to the world. Yes, as …
Read More »Germany busts major darknet drug seller
German police have scooped up five men said to be responsible for the darknet drug seller, Chemical Love. Caught with upwards of 60kg of various illegal substances, the group are said to have completed sales of more than 1.3 million euros from 1,500 transactions, making this the biggest online drug seller …
Read More »Links, photos will not longer take up Twitter characters
One of the reasons link shorteners became so popular was because Twitter has always restricted everything you put in a Tweet to those 140 characters, but not any more. Moving forward, Twitter is set to eliminate links and photos from user's character counts, meaning we can all say a little …
Read More »The EU said to hit Google with huge €3 billion fine
The European Commission currently has several anti-trust cases out against Google, one of which focuses on the company's monopoly on Search Engines. Some companies have accused Google of favouring its own services in search results and while Google has made its defence, reports this week are saying that the EU …
Read More »Amazon may soon have its own branded groceries
Think Amazon selling other companies' food was weird? It's about to get a whole lot stranger, as you could be buying Amazon own-brand food before the year is out. Already the undisputed king of online retail, it's continuing its expansion into other fields by offering perishable and unperishable goods like …
Read More »$100 3D printer kickstarter set back by massive theft
A couple of years ago, the Peachy Printer hit Kickstarter, promising backers the world's first $100 3D printer. The team behind the product wanted just $50,000 Canadian dollars to get the project off of the ground but the project caught on with the wider web and they ended up with well …
Read More »Courts order Mega to hand over U.S. user data
Kim Dotcom's second file locker project (now disowned), Mega, has been hit with a court order in the U.S. demanding that the site hand over the user information for certain accounts. This comes after sensitive, foreign government documents were found on the site after a hack. This court action could be …
Read More »Samsung launches 256GB EVO micro SD card
Several companies have been pushing for larger storage options on micro SD cards recently. SanDisk launched a massive 200GB micro SD card earlier this year and now Samsung is pushing the tiny storage option even further with a 256GB EVO model of its own. The EVO Plus 256GB offers the …
Read More »Three and O2 merger denied by European anti-trust head
Europe's antitrust commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, has rejected the bid by British mobile operators O2 and Three, to merge together into one giant entity. Citing “significant competition concerns,” with regards to the move, Vestager was also backed by British regulator OfCom, which agreed that it would be bad for consumers. Although …
Read More »Hyperloop transport is becoming a more likely reality
Hyperloop transport is a very futuristic sounding method of traversing large distances in exceedingly short time-spans, but it's looking more and more like a feasible technology. On top of one firm pursuing it achieving a licensing deal for its technology, another, Hyperloop One, has secured another $80 million in funding. …
Read More »Report suggests VPN use would skyrocket under Snooper’s Charter
Theresa May has been pushing the agenda for her “Snooper's Charter,” or to give it it's proper name, the Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB), for years now. Although she has claimed tracking everyone's browser history would aid in the fight against terrorism, research suggests that a lot of people would simply use …
Read More »HBO uses copyright to take down Game of Thrones predictions
Be careful with how clever your predictions of upcoming Game of Thrones episodes are, as if you're spot on, HBO might use copyright law to take your content down, even if you don't use official show footage or audio. With episodes of the show being pirated as much as ever, …
Read More »Twitter blocks sale of mass user data to FBI, CIA
Most companies strictly control the data that they put out there into the world and that includes what goes to intelligence and law enforcement agencies, especially if they don't have a warrant. Twitter has just entrenched that ideal, by blocking a loophole that the FBI and CIA had been using …
Read More »This smart plug will reset your router for you if your internet dies
It can be a frustrating experience when your internet connection dies, particularly if you have to mess around turning your router on and off again until it works. However, the ResetPlug may be able to help out with that, by checking that everything is connected and then resetting the router …
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