RadioShack might file for bankruptcy

Posted on January 15, 2015 by - News

1980-radio-shack-catalog The much troubled RadioShack may file for bankruptcy as early as next month.

The outfit, which was the major force behind the birth of the home computer industry, has been slowly heading towards doom since the turn of the century and in November warned that it might need to file for Chapter 11.

According to The Wall Street Journal  Radio Shack is strapped for cash.

It is discussing a deal with a private equity firm to “buy its assets out of bankruptcy”.  If that doesn’t work, the company could go to bankruptcy court, instead. Potential lenders who could fund operations during the bankruptcy proceedings are also in the mix, the Journal states, adding that much is in flux.

In November, the company reported it only had enough money to pay for operations in the very near term. The US has been struggling to keep up with online retailers for some time.

Radio Shack has been going for more than  94-years – starting as an electrical supplier.  It has been combatting the competition by revamping its offerings, closing stores, cutting costs and changing management. Despite the attempt to claw its way back up, the retailer has posted losses for the past 11 quarters.

Earlier this week, Marketwatch reported that Salus Capital offered RadioShack a $500 million loan to fund operations during bankruptcy. The offer was unsolicited and expires Thursday.

Blackberry denies Samsung buy out

Posted on January 15, 2015 by - News

 blackberry-juicerBlackberry has moved to dismiss claims that it is about to be bought by Samsung.

The source of the rumours was Reuters which claimed that a deal was close and Samsung was  ready to make an offer that John Chen and BlackBerry’s board may be reluctant to refuse. Samsung is willing to pay roughly $7.5 billion for BlackBerry’s assets – including its patent portfolio – Reuters claimed.

Apparently Samsung became interested in Blackberry two months after the two companies entered a strategic partnership to bring BlackBerry’s BES12 cross-platform EMM solution to Galaxy smartphones and tablets that feature embedded KNOX technology. At the time, the two companies indicated that they were looking forward to future ventures together.

The move seems all logical, but it is not quite, but completely and utterly untrue claimed Blackberry.

In a statement the company said it was aware of certain press reports published today with respect to a possible offer by Samsung to purchase BlackBerry.

“BlackBerry has not engaged in discussions with Samsung with respect to any possible offer to purchase BlackBerry. BlackBerry’s policy is not to comment on rumours or speculation, and accordingly it does not intend to comment further,” the phone maker said.

Samsung browses Blackberry

Posted on January 15, 2015 by - News

Samsung Browses BlackberryA breaking story  today entails Samsung’s approach to Blackberry Ltd. in talks to buy the embattled smartphone maker for a reported $7.5 billion – Samsung is apparently buffing up their intellectual property portfolio to stave off a continuing onslaught by Apple Inc. The news sent Blackberry’s stock price up 30 percent.

Samsung offered a trading range of $13.25 to $15.49 per share, a premium of 38 percent to 60 percent over Blackberry’s current trading price according to Reuters. What’s not clear is the depth of the deal and what it might entail – there’s speculation that the deal has several versions that are currently under discussion. That the story was leaked and by who leaves one wondering whether this is a negotiation tactic or just business as usual.

BlackBerry announced in November a high-profile security partnership with Samsung. The partnership aims to wed BlackBerry’s security platform with the South Korean company’s own security software for Galaxy devices.

Blackberry has been struggling to regain lost momentum in a competitively crowded market. Samsung’s smartphone business is experiencing losses from lower price Chinese competitors which now are affecting their semiconductor division – reports of bargain prices for NAND-Flash smartphone memory devices are widely circulated.

Techeye Take

Analyzing Samsung’s needs, wants and desires indicate the company is obsessing over security – key to the company’s entry into the electronic wallet market space. Secure communications is and will continue to be a premier element of the continued evolution of the smartphone market – even governments demand it.

The question remains, will this set off a bidding war for Blackberry?..,

Update

Both Samsung and Blackberry have denied that they are in talks for Samsung to takeover the Canadian company.

“BlackBerry has not engaged in discussions with Samsung with respect to any possible offer to purchase BlackBerry,” the company said in a statement Wednesday.

Post Script

Where there’s smoke there’s generally fire – stay tuned…,

Tesco takes Google Glass plunge

Posted on January 14, 2015 by - News

Google's Eric "Google Glass" SchmidtUK megagrocer Tesco said it has developed an application that lets the few people with Google Glasses shop until they drop.
The Tesco Grocery “glassware” allows you to browse groceries, check out their nutritional value and add them to your shopping basket.
How does it work?  According to Tesco, it works alongside customer accounts and adds products to an “online basket” to be later reviewed and ordered using your computer, your tablet or your smartphone.
Pablo Coberly, an engineer at Tesco Labs, said: “We don’t envisage Glass becoming the new platform for shopping as its functionality is different, and more immediate.”
He continued: “Instead, it complements other devices and integrates shopping into everyday life because products can be ordered or added as and when customers realise they need replacing.”
Coberly said that the future of its app will be driven by customer needs and Tesco has kept the functionality “very basic” given the early stages of customer use.

 

Internet of Things promises analytics boom

Posted on January 14, 2015 by - News

Internet of ThingsThe growth of devices with internet protocol (IP) capabilities will generate a boom in big data and analytics revenue.
That’s the prediction from ABI Research which said in a report that integrating, analysing and storing data from the internet of things (IoT) will be worth as much as $5.7 billion this year.
That figure will expand over the next five years and represent a third of all big data and analytics revenues, the research outfit predicts.
Analyst Aapo Markkanen said that trying to make sense of data from machines and sensors has its own challenges, including deep domain expertise in analysis and time series databases held in storage.
That is leading to the birth of many startups aiming to exploit a gap in the market.
Some existing vendors including Datawatch, Informatics, Software AG and Splunk are ready for the IoT world.

 

Tablet Windows faces uncertain future

Posted on January 14, 2015 by - News

windows-10-technical-preview-turquoiseBy 2018, tablet sales will reach 540 million units, despite 2014 being a quiet year for the sector.
CCS Insight introduced its annual look at the marketplace and bullishly predicts the market will grow 28 percent this year to reach 283 million units.
While people in established markets will look to upgrade their existing systems, emerging markets will play an increasing role in buying units.
CCS expects that Android will retain its position as the operating system of choice in tablet sales.  But it also expects Windows to increase share over the next two years.
That’s down to Microsoft spending more on marketing, establishing Surface as a brand, and bundling hardware with its software.
Marina Koytcheva, Director of Forecasting at CCS Insight said: “We expect Android to continue dominating the low end and midrange market, with Apple taking the lion’s share at the high end.  But Windows is gaining a bigger slice of the pie, albeit from a very low level, and should not be overlooked.”
She said that the Microsoft move to scrap charging for licences for Windows devices under nine inches will help Microsoft.
She said that move has encouraged vendors to launch better devices at lower prices.
She warned that Microsoft’s next operating system, Windows 10, will “take time to make its mark”.  It will have little impact on sales before the end of 2016.
Enterprises will help Apple, specifically the deal it forged with IBM late last year.

 

Windows 7 is off life support

Posted on January 14, 2015 by - News

ECGSoftware giant Microsoft killed off “mainstream support” for Windows 7 yesterday.

Leaving mainstream support only means that Windows 7 will not be receiving any new features or product tweaks, such as DirectX 12 gaming technology slated to launch with Windows 10. Free software support from Microsoft is not going to happen either.

Once a Windows desktop operating system leaves mainstream support, it enters the extended support phase. Windows XP was in that state from early 2009.

Users will still get security patches during extended support, which means that Windows 7 will not be cast out completely yet. Hotfixes will still be provided, too, assuming they are security related.

Extended support for Windows 7 lasts until January 14, 2020 so if you are happy with all that, there is no reason to rush to upgrade.

However, it is a sign that Microsoft has given up on the operating system, which is subjectively seen as being better than its successor.

Apple invented Microsoft’s Kinect

Posted on January 14, 2015 by - News

t1larg.kinect.video.gamesAccording to the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) the fruity cargo cult Apple invented Microsoft’s Kinect.

The US PTO granted Apple a patent which is so wide you can drive a bus through it sideways. Patent number 8,933,876  covers a “three dimensional user interface session control.”

When Apple bought PrimeSense last year to get its foot in the door of the gesture-control space. Since then, all of PrimeSense’s patents have been reassigned to Apple.

But before it was bought by Apple, PrimeSense developed the Kinect for Microsoft, which made it a central part of its Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles. While the technology is good, it failed to make much impact. There was never a killer app for the Kinect.

The thought is that Apple could do the same thing with the technology that it did with the Tablet – waive it in front of its fanboys and claim it invented it.

But what is worrying is that not only has the PTO given Apple a patent for technology it did not invent, it is far too broad. The patent can be read so any gesture that can be detected by an optical or infrared controller that does anything to an interface is now owned by Apple.  It is just as well that Apple is not the sort of company to stifle innovation by patent trolling its rivals…

 

Skeleton Key exposes password flaws

Posted on January 14, 2015 by - News

skeletonsSecureWorks, the security arm of Dell, has found malware which it has dubbed “Skeleton Key” which shows up weaknesses in the password system.

The attack consists of installing rogue software within Active Directory, and the malware then allows attackers to login as any user on the domain without the need for further authentication.

It has weaknesses as an attack vector — installation requires administrator access or a flaw on the server that grants such access.

But Skeleton Key has some interesting coding which could point to something even nastier in the future. It does not actually install itself on the filesystem. Instead, it’s an in-memory patch of Active Directory which makes detection even more difficult.

Access is not logged and the malware is completely silent and, as a result, extremely undetectable. Identifying the malware using traditional network monitoring also does not work due to the fact that Skeleton Key does not generate any network traffic.

In its current form, the malware does not survive a system reboot, which means that it has to be a continuous hack, but such things are possible, particularly if you have a disgruntled sysadmin.
Companies can also make the malware useless by having a two-factor authentication to connect to servers, VPN, email and the like. So in otherwords leaning on passwords is pretty much suicide.

Apple takes on Ericsson in phone row

Posted on January 14, 2015 by - News

handsetFruity cargo cult Apple has sued the Swedish phone outfit Ericsson in an attempt to break the patent deadlock between the pair.

Apple said that Ericsson’s LTE wireless technology patents are not essential to industry mobile standards and that it is demanding excessive royalties for them.

Jobs’ Mob insists that it has not infringed on the patents and does not owe Ericsson a cent for them.

Ericcson wants cash for the LTE technology calculated as a percentage of the price of the entire smartphone or tablet. However, Apple said that the royalties should be based on the value of the processor chip that includes the technology.

If Ericsson’s patents are deemed essential and the court rules Apple has infringed on them, Apple said it wants the court to assign a reasonable royalty rate.

Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said that Apple was always willing to pay a fair price to secure the rights to standards essential patents covering technology in its products. However Apple can’t agree with Ericsson on a fair rate for their patents so, as a last resort, we are asking the courts for help.

Apple and Ericsson currently have a license agreement that covers many of Ericsson’s allegedly standard-essential patents. The agreement was signed in 2008 soon after Apple launched the iPhone, according to the court filing.

Semiconductor spending inches up

Posted on January 14, 2015 by - News

nand-chipsCapital spending by semiconductor companies grew by 12.9 percent last year, but will only grow by 0.8 percent this year.
That’s according to market intelligence company Gartner which said capital spending will generate revenues of $65.7 billion this year.
Bob Johnson, a VP at Gartner, said that equipment spending outstripped capital spending last year and will do the same this year. 2016 will be a different kettle of fish. Manufacturers will exercise caution this year.
This year, chip foundries will outspend logic device manufacturers but there’s a danger of the mobile market being saturated and that will dampen the need for new capacity.
Memory manufacturers are likely to switch their manufacturing from NAND to DRAM because the market is more favourable for the latter than the former. But that will switch net year, because DRAM will be in oversupply.
Demand for solid state drives will mean more capacity shifts during the next three years.

 

IBM intros big mainframe

Posted on January 14, 2015 by - News

IBM Z13Big Blue said it has built a mainframe which is the most powerful and secure system ever.
The Z13 can churn 2.5 billion transactions a day,  and includes embedded analytics.
IBM said the system took five years to develop costing $1 billion, includes 500 new patents and is a collaborative venture with over 60 of its customers.
The machine allows real time encryption of mobile transactions that uses some of these patents.
The Z13 embedded analytics allows it to give real time insights on transactions including fraud protection.
IBM said that the Z13 also includes the fastest microprocessor in the world, is twice as fas as Intel microprocessors and 300 percent more memory.
The Z13 also includes native support for Hadoop and includes improvements to the IBM DB2 analytics accelerator.

China steps up internet censorship

Posted on January 13, 2015 by - News

chinaflagIn its continuing move to restrict access to internet content the government doesn’t like, China shut down dozens of websites and social media accounts today.
That’s according to Reuters, which said the prohibited content applies to political news, pornography, and other perceived violations.
The “office of the central leading group for cyberspace affairs” said violations not include pornography or writing political material, but material related to gambling.
The cyberspace censors have closed close to 1.8 million accounts on social networking and messaging sites, and the “office” plans to publish a list of those who have violated its strictures.
China already operates a policy to preclude a number of websites and services including YouTube, Google, and any site which dares to mention Falun Gong.
Other countries also restrict access to the internet for political reasons, but it’s widely recognised that China’s so-called “Great Firewall” is the most effective.

 

12-inch Macbook Air ready to roll

Posted on January 13, 2015 by - News

novità-apple-2013Original development manufacturer (ODMs) have begun to make quantities of the 12-inch Macbook Air.
ODMs make machines to specifications created by brand name firms like Apple – and in this case the manufacturer is Taiwanese giant Quanta Computer.
According to a report in Taiwanese wire Digitimes, the 12-inch Macbook Air will be launched in the first quarter of this year, displacing the current 11-inch model.  The 13-inch model will continue to be made and sold.
And Quanta also appears to have won a chunk of the market for Apple’s iWatch, and has hired a large number of workers to make it.
However, there is a labour shortage in mainland China, where the majority of the factories now are, and that position is exacerbated by the advent of the Chinese new year.
There’s no final word on the pricing of the 12 inch Macbook Air, but the screen will be a Retina screen, the wire suggests.

 

Robots learn from Youtube

Posted on January 13, 2015 by - News


Screen Shot 2015-01-13 at 14.28.53It’s not just people that are addicted to Youtube, according to a group of scientists from the University of Maryland.
They are teaching robots by getting them to watch online cooking videos.
The scientists say they, together with an Australian research institute, are developing robotic systems that can teach themselves.
The online cooking videos help them to learn intricate grasping and manipulation movements.
The researchers said they’ve achieved a milestone in robotic autodidactism by combining artificial intelligence, computer vision; and natural language processing.
Yiannis Alimonos, a professor of computer science said the team selected cooking videos “because everyone has done it and understands it.”
But, he continued, “cooking is complex in terms of manipulation, the steps involved and the tools you use”.
The professor said other researchers had tried to copy movements, but the team is copying the goals, letting robots decide how to combine actions.  The algorithm use deep learning neural networks, which are now practical because of the vast increase in computing power and performance.