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AfterDawn: News

Nobody is buying Twitter

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Oct 2016 8:42

Nobody is buying Twitter In a span of just two weeks, Twitter went from the hottest commodity in the tech space to a company that nobody wants to buy.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was the most recent executive to drop his company out of the Twitter acquisition pool, leaving nobody left. Other suitors, including Google, Apple and Disney all declined to move past the due diligence stage in the last week.

"In this case we've walked away. It wasn't the right fit for us," said Benioff.

Twitter's board and advisors are still looking for potential bidders, but investors don't appear to see anything on the horizon; Twitter's stock has fallen 34 percent in the last week.

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AfterDawn: News

The Coen bros are writing a new 'Silk Road' movie

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Oct 2016 8:22

The Coen bros are writing a new 'Silk Road' movie The Oscar-winning Coen brothers have been tasked with writing a new movie called "Dark Web" based on Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.

Ulbricht, operating under the handle "Dread Pirate Roberts," created the Silk Road darknet marketplace in 2010 and it became the premier destination for drug dealers (or worse) looking to break the law online anonymously. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent in the marketplace and Ulbricht became a millionaire, as well.

After his arrest, millions in Bitcoins were seized and eventually Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison for drug trafficking, money laundering and even for paying assassins (although nobody got killed).

No doubt, with the Coens writing a screenplay based on a story that has so much intrigue, we could have a great movie coming next year.

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AfterDawn: News

Samsung will lose up to $3 billion on Note7 recall

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Oct 2016 7:48

Samsung will lose up to $3 billion on Note7 recall Samsung has announced this week that they expect a $3 billion loss due to the Galaxy Note7 recall, a huge monetary damage in addition to the company's ongoing reputational damage.

In the past month, the company has been mired in the scandal of the exploding Note7's, and the devices have even been banned on planes by the US Department of Transportation.

Here is the Samsung statement:

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AfterDawn: News

Steam to soon allow use of DualShock 4

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Oct 2016 7:31

Steam to soon allow use of DualShock 4 Valve has confirmed that you will soon be able to use DualShock 4 controllers to play games on Steam.

An upcoming Steam update will "add full configurability to controllers other than the Steam controller," starting with the popular PlayStation controller.

Using the controller is "exactly the same as a Steam Controller. You make the exact same API calls, you only get actions, not inputs, and the Steam API takes care of everything."

"It's also got a gyro and a touchpad, so it's got a lot of overlapping functionality with the Steam Controller," adds Jeff Bellinghausen of Valve "Also, existing native support for the PS4 controller on the PC is a bit weak; in this case Steam itself is communicating directly with the device so everything [is] nice and reliable."

Support for other controllers is on the way, as well, adds the company.

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AfterDawn: News

BitTorrent denies shutting down streaming service

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Oct 2016 4:33

BitTorrent denies shutting down streaming service Following a high-profile report published last week detailing a struggling BitTorrent, the company has come out swinging to deny some of the tales.

In their report, Variety claimed that the company's BitTorrent Now streaming project was dead in the water and the company's co-CEOs had been fired.

BitTorrent has corrected much of the report this weekend, saying that just CEO Robert Delamar has left the company, leaving Jeremy Johnson alone as CEO for the time being. The company also denied that BitTorrent Now was shutting down, saying instead that they "remain focused on the media space."

"There have been no changes to our platforms" at this time, added the company. The company also confirmed that their music initiatives have been bleeding money for some time.

The picture certainly isn't rosy over at BitTorrent, but it does not appear to be as bad as last week's report suggests.

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AfterDawn: News

Yahoo's acquisition by Verizon is in trouble

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Oct 2016 4:18

Yahoo's acquisition by Verizon is in trouble Almost a month after Yahoo disclosed a massive breach of their email data, it appears that the company's would-be buyer Verizon is now on the fence about the acquisition.

The company agreed to buy Yahoo's core assets for $4.8 billion earlier this year, a hefty price for the declining business. Yahoo disclosed the data breach, which took place in 2014, last month and announced that over 500 million accounts were affected.

"I think we have a reasonable basis to believe right now that the impact is material," said Verizon General Counsel Craig Silliman of the breach. "Material impact" suggests that Verizon believes the breach has affected Yahoo's financial value.

This is the first time Verizon has publicly shown doubt about the acquisition and those that have seen the agreement believe the scandal could trigger an escape clause and allow Verizon to walk away. If the telecom giant is allowed to walk away, there is literally zero chance Yahoo gets anywhere near $4.8 billion from another buyer.

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AfterDawn: News

Next major Windows 10 update coming in March?

Written by Matti Robinson @ 15 Oct 2016 3:59

Next major Windows 10 update coming in March? Windows 10 has definitely been one of the more successful OS launches for Microsoft and even the growth after the initial launch has been decent thanks to free upgrade for a full year. Development however continues, and some clues have been found that we might see a major update in early 2017.

A twitter user has found clues of upcoming major update in a test version of Windows 10. The update is called Windows 10 Version 1703 which would suggest March 2017 launch as Microsoft names the version after year and month of targeted launch (Anniversary Update this July was 1607).

What can we expect to see in March? Well, at this point it is unknown what kind of features Microsoft is bringing to Windows in the so called Redstone 2 (RS2) update but according to The Verge we might see HomeHub software which enables remote control over smart home technology. We will keep you posted of any reliable sounding rumors which we'll most probably get during the upcoming months.

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AfterDawn: News

ICYMI: The final "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" trailer is here

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Oct 2016 3:55

ICYMI: The final "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" trailer is here As a fan of the Star Wars saga, this writer is excited to see the latest in the series and the first spin-off related to the main story.

Per Disney: "Watch the official second trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, in which Jyn Erso leads a group of unlikely heroes to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire's ultimate weapon of destruction. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story arrives in theaters December 16, 2016."

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AfterDawn: News

Bed Bath and Beyond acquired an online retailer for a fraction of what it used to be valued

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Oct 2016 3:48

Bed Bath and Beyond acquired an online retailer for a fraction of what it used to be valued According to new regulatory documents, Bed Bath and Beyond paid just $11.78 million for the once popular online retailer One Kings Lane, just a fraction of what the company was previously valued.

The retailer was launched in 2009 and was one of the popular "flash sale" sites of the time. The company raised over $200 million in venture capital and was valued as high as $800 million in 2014.

After the fall of the flash sale culture, One King Lane's sales collapsed and it appears that Bed Bath and Beyond used a few days of profit to swoop up the site and its employees, likely in an effort to bolster their own website.

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AfterDawn: News

Samsung customers are abandoning their preferred smartphone brand

Written by Matti Robinson @ 15 Oct 2016 2:23

Samsung customers are abandoning their preferred smartphone brand Samsung's battery catastrophe with the Galaxy Note7 smartphone is going to cost billions of dollars. The company has not only had to issue recall two times but had to stop the production and the selling of the model altogether. Now it seems that even this is not the entire extent of the damage.

Recently a survey asked current Samsung customers about their feelings towards Galaxy phones after the battery issues. Majority were still willing to stick with Samsung but a huge portion, nearly 40 percent, are going to look into competitors' devices when the time comes to replace their phone. Not surprisingly there's been an increase as a survey found after the first recall 34 percent were looking to change their smartphone brand.

Of these 40 percent nearly a third were thinking of switching to Apple's iPhones and the rest were going to look at other Android manufacturers.

Clearly this is not a good sign for Samsung which is trying to do some damage control with $100 vouchers for the people that stick with them. Hopefully, for Samsung, the people will see the problems as a one off and move on. As time goes by people will surely forget.




AfterDawn: News

Pandora unveils new logo, new paid tier called Plus

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Oct 2016 10:54

Pandora unveils new logo, new paid tier called Plus Internet radio giant Pandora has unveiled a new logo and a new paid tier, Pandora Plus.

Pandora Plus allows listeners to pay $5 per month and go ad-free, in addition to adding offline listening, the ability to replay more tracks, and significantly more skips. Plus will also replace Pandora One, which removed ads but did not add the other features.

The company is also expected to announce a $10 tier later this year that will offer unlimited streaming similar to that of Apple, Google, Spotify and now Amazon.

Pandora has 78.1 million users, the most of any online music service, but nearly all were on the company's free ad-supported tier. Spotify, on the other hand, has 40 million paid subscribers at $5 or $10 per month and Apple is up to 17 million users in less than 18 months.

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AfterDawn: News

Google, Verizon confirm that Verizon model Pixel will receive all new Android updates on release date

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Oct 2016 10:13

Google, Verizon confirm that Verizon model Pixel will receive all new Android updates on release date After Google launched their Pixel smartphone last week exclusively to Verizon (for U.S. carriers) there were worries that the carrier would not update the Pixel to the latest version of Android in a timely matter, but it appears that is not the case.

Said Verizon: "First and foremost, all operating system and security updates to the Pixel devices will happen in partnership with Google. In other words, when Google releases an update, Verizon phones will receive the same update at the same time (much like iOS updates). Verizon will not stand in the way of any major updates and users will get all updates at the same time as Google."

Google seconded the notion: "OS updates and monthly security patches will be updated on all Pixel devices (Verizon and non-Verizon versions) simultaneously."

Pixel fans can relax now.

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AfterDawn: News

Amazon's unlimited streaming service is now live

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Oct 2016 9:54

Amazon's unlimited streaming service is now live Amazon's oft-rumored Music Unlimited service has gone live, available to Prime members for $79 per year, or $7.99 per month if you choose that route.

The on-demand streaming service will rival Spotify, Apple Music, Google Music and others, including tens of millions of tracks from the majors and "hundreds of indies." The service also has curated playlists, recommendation engines, lyric integration, offline downloading and apps for iOS, Amazon, Android, PC and Sonos.

As an all-in for their ecosystem, if you own the voice-powered Echo, you can get the service for $3.99 a month, a steal compared to rivals.

In addition, owners of one of Amazon's voice-controlled Echo devices will be able to get the service for just $3.99 per month.




AfterDawn: News

Samsung halts all sales and exchanges of exploding Galaxy Note7

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 10 Oct 2016 10:21

Samsung halts all sales and exchanges of exploding Galaxy Note7 Samsung has frozen all sales of their much-maligned Galaxy Note7 smartphone as reports of the device exploding continue despite a recall and replacements.

U.S. carriers had begun allowing immediate no-questions-asked exchanges for any phone, and airlines had banned the device while on passenger planes. All of this happened after Samsung had already recalled earlier versions of the phone but the fires kept on coming.

"Consumers with either an original Galaxy Note7 or replacement Galaxy Note7 device should power down and stop using the device," said Samsung, effectively closing the books on the handset. Samsung had already recalled 2.5 million faulty Note7 devices.

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AfterDawn: News

Chrome to be less memory-intensive with new update

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 10 Oct 2016 9:02

Chrome to be less memory-intensive with new update Google has said that its popular Chrome browser will be less memory-intensive following a new update in early December.

The search giant has been actively working on reducing Chrome's severe need for all your RAM, but as fans know, it still takes a significant amount. The upcoming Chrome 55 update will include a new, upgraded JavaScript engine that will reduce memory, at least on JavaScript-heavy sites.

Google says in testing, popular sites like NYT, Reddit and YouTube all used 50 percent less RAM on average than the current Chrome 53.

If the test results have similar real-world results starting on December 6th, Google will have at least one happy web user: me.

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