Latest news

Yesterday, news broke that Twitter was preparing to launch a new 'algorithmic timeline' which would reorder your timeline in levels of popularity and importance based on their algorithm.

For example, a popular post from 5 hours ago might show up on top of a brand new tweet from 1 minute ago based on the algo.

Fans of the service went into an uproar, even getting #RIPTwitter trending for most of the day. CEO Jack Dorsey tried to stop the all-out revolt by posting this morning but he did not deny the report. In fact, other media outlets have posted evidence that the new timeline is coming, and as rumored, as soon as this month.

Here were Dorsey's tweets, which basically tell users to relax:

Fans that have been waiting a decade for the next 'Doom' now have a set date to get their hands on the new game.

Bethesda and id Software announced this week that the game will be available for PC, PS4 and Xbox One on Friday, May 13th. The companies also dropped a new trailer, albeit a short one, showing off the campaign mode.

Pre-orders are available now at $60 for standard and $120 for Collector's Edition (pictured) which includes a 12-inch, LED-lit statue of a Revenant demon.

Twitter made an important post this week, explaining how they are taking actions against accounts that promote terrorism.

The microblogging giant says they have taken down 125,000 accounts since June, 2015, with more being suspended daily.

Here is the site's post on the matter:

According to multiple reports, BlackBerry is laying off more employees, this time from their Waterloo offices.

Most estimates place BlackBerry employing nearly 3000 in Waterloo, and reports claim up to the 35 percent of those are being laid off over time. The company's BlackBerry 10 and Devices teams saw 150 employees laid off, by themselves.

Additionally, BlackBerry is said to be laying off 75 employees from their Florida office.

Essentially, BlackBerry as an operating system is dead (a move that is five years too late), as the company made clear when it launched the Android-powered Priv smartphone late last year. The company shut down its "Built for BlackBerry" certification program for BlackBerry apps last month, pushing developers to Android.

"As BlackBerry continues to execute its turnaround plan, we remain focused on driving efficiencies across our global work force. As a result, approximately 200 employees have been impacted in Canada and Florida. For those employees that have recently left the company, we know that they have worked hard on behalf of our company and we are grateful for their commitment and contributions," noted the company.

Amit Singhal, Google's head of search, is retiring after 15 years at the position.

Singhal has led the technical development of the search engine since 2000, supervising the tool that over 60 percent of the world uses every day for their search needs.

"When I started, who would have imagined that in a short period of fifteen years, we would tap a button, ask Google anything and get the answer," Singhal wrote. "My dream Star Trek computer is becoming a reality, and it is far better than what I ever imagined."

John Giannandrea, who has been overseeing Google's recent forays into artificial intelligence, will move into the role when Singhal officially leaves. Giannandrea had started a company that was acquired in 2010 by Google and eventually became the foundation of Google's knowledge graph.

Google's efforts into AI include the addition of a neural network to boost the accuracy of search results, a "Smart Reply" option in Gmail for auto-responses and better results using image recognition.

A court has ruled that Apple must pay $625 million to VirnetX, a publicly traded patent troll, over infringement of multiple intellectual properties.

The jury ruled unanimously against Apple, agreeing on all counts that Apple had infringed communications protocol patents in its FaceTime, VPN on Demand, and iMessage services.

VirnetX had sued Apple back in 2012 over the same patents, winning $368 million before the decision was overturned by an appellate court. Apple redesigned FaceTime but VirnetX sued again last year, increasing the damages figures because Apple continues to use the protocols.

As with all cases of this magnitude, Apple is likely to appeal the most recent ruling.

Source:
AI

Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn is looking to close a proposed deal for struggling display maker Sharp before the end of the month.

Foxconn says that they have received preferred negotiating rights and any remaining issues are regulatory and legal, which attorneys are working on.

The company offered 659 billion yen ($5.6 billion) in Sharp, nearly double the next highest offer for the company, which came from a Japanese government-backed consortium.

"We have a consensus," noted Foxconn CEO Terry Gou. "The rest is a process ... I don't see a problem completing this process."

If the deal is completed it will show how desperate Gou is to acquire Sharp's technology. Before the bid, Sharp had a market capitalization of just $2 billion, has lost money for years, and has tons of debt, some of which comes due this year.

Steam has announced that their latest sale has begun, this time celebrating the Lunar New Year.

The sale is on until February 12th at 10 PST and includes thousands of games.

A quick glance at the sale shows quite a few franchise packages, including Fallout, Lego, Trine, Game of Thrones and more.

If you have been waiting to get your favorite games, check out the sale here: Steam Lunar Year Sale

LG Mobile has confirmed this week that their upcoming G5 flagship will be officially unveiled on February 21st.

There had been much speculation as to whether LG would announce the device at the upcoming Mobile World Congress event, but it appears the company had decided to unveil a day before, likely to be able to demo its features throughout the show.

LG will have some heavy hitters to face off against, especially the Galaxy S7, which will be unveiled the same day.

Just days after it was launched, Samsung's Android ad blocking app Adblock Fast has been removed from the Google Play Store.

The plug-in came from startup developer Rocketship Apps, and worked within Samsung's pre-installed mobile browser.

Google shut out the app for violations of the Developer Distribution Agreement, namely section 4.4. 4.4 states that apps and plugins cannot "interfere or disrupt devices, networks, or services of third parties."

Reads the email the company received:

Microsoft has announced it will be recalling 2 million Surface chargers after it received 56 complaints of overheating or fire and an additional 5 complaints of electric shocks.

The recall was initially announced last month but the amount of complaints and the scope of the recall were unknown.

Affected chargers were sold before March 2015 in North America and before July 2015 for everywhere else.

"As a result of damage caused by AC power cords being wound too tightly, twisted or pinched over an extended period of time, a very small proportion of Surface Pro customers have reported issues with their AC power cord," said Microsoft in a statement. If you own a Surface Pro, Pro 2 or Pro 3 please check here to see if you are affected.

Yahoo has written down the value of Tumblr by $230 million, yet another misfire by CEO Marissa Mayer.

The company purchased Tumblr for about $1 billion in cash in 2013, despite the fact that it made no money and usership had grown relatively stagnant.

Overall, Yahoo took a $4.5 billion goodwill impairment, writing down nearly every division in the company,

When Mayer acquired the company, she projected Yahoo's user base would jump to 1 billion within weeks, but it actually ended up taking around 18 months until Yahoo announced they had hit the milestone. That number, however, is questionable. Yahoo began using a new "undisclosed metric" to calculate its user base. Traditional research firms, like comScore, still have Yahoo well below the billion mark.

Mayer also estimated that Tumblr would bring in $100 million in revenue for 2015, but that didn't happen either. "In 2015, we experienced a slower ramp in monetization than we initially expected, and coupled with the sales realignment, the business didn't deliver that $100 million revenue goal for the year," Mayer noted.

Google's latest operating system is still being used by an insignificant amount of users.

Android 6.0 Marshmallow is installed on just 1.2 percent of devices, placing it well behind all other Android versions including Android 2.3, an operating system launched in 2011.

Google reveals the figures every month, hashing out the market share by checking which devices visited the Google Play Store during a seven-day period.

The low numbers are not completely unsurprising. As of writing, the OS is only available on the Nexus 5, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P and LG G4, although a number of other manufacturers including Samsung have announced roadmaps to upgrade early this year.

Android 5.x Lollipop is up to 34.1 percent share, right behind the aging Android 4.4 KitKat at 35.5 percent, which is an encouraging sign, at least.

Xiaomi has denied reports that it will finally bring its popular phones to the U.S.

US Mobile had begun selling the Xiaomi Redmi 2, Mi 3, Note 2 and Mi 4, but the phones are not optimized for the U.S. and don't even support LTE for US Mobile (T-Mobile network).

Says the Chinese startup giant: "Recent reports have indicated that Xiaomi products will be available in the US. Xiaomi only offers a small selection of accessories for sale in the US through Mi.com. There are no plans to sell smartphones through any authorised distributors in the US. US Mobile is not authorised to sell Xiaomi products in the US."

Despite this lack of support from Xiaomi, US Mobile will still sell the devices and provide full services and support for the phones.

Seemingly overnight, Uber has changed their entire branding, including their logo.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick made the announcement today with a large blog post, which I have posted here: