Fifa to stop selling in-game currency in Belgium

The move comes after the Belgian Gambling Commission threatened legal action over in-game loot boxes.

from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2MFq3uk

Children 'afterthought' for social media companies

England's children's commissioner writes to social media companies, urging them to tackle disturbing content.

from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2TlA6Hr

Facebook: Dissident republicans Saoradh take legal action

Saoradh claims the social media giant removed a number of its pages from its platform.

from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2FYq7oy

Mario Kart Tour for Android and iOS Delayed to Summer 2019

Mario Kart Tour release date delayed and Nintendo explains why.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2G0c4Ph

LG G8, LG V50 ThinQ 5G to Be Launched Together on February 24 Ahead of MWC 2019: Report

LG’s upcoming 5G smartphone will reportedly be launched as the LG V50 ThinQ 5G at MWC 2019 alongside the LG G8 ThinQ.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2Gc839J

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Won’t Be in Fast and Furious 9

Dwayne Johnson won’t be part of Fast and Furious 9, the next mainline entry in the franchise, The Rock has revealed in a new interview. Jason Statham as well, possibly.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2WwxDvK

Vodafone Launches Rs. 1,699 Recharge Plan, Starts Discontinuing Rs. 1,499 Option to Be In-Line With Airtel, Jio

Vodafone launched the Rs. 1,499 option earlier this month, but it has now been replaced with the Rs. 1,699 recharge plan.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2Wvcxhg

Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram Unified Messaging Platform Won’t Arrive Until at Least 2020: Zuckberberg

Facebook said one of the major reasons why it wants to move forward with the integration is making end-to-end encryption default in more its services.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2CZFPvt

Apple's Response to Group FaceTime Bug Being Probed by New York AG, Governor

The Group FaceTime bug allows an iPhone user placing a call using FaceTime to hear audio from the recipient's phone even if the call has not gone through.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2WqQI2B

Samsung Display Patent Hints at an Innovative Foldable Gaming Smartphone

The phone seems to have a foldable display and a flip-up physical game controller

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2RVVHtr

PayPal Adds Record 13.8 Million New Active Accounts in Q4 2018

Comparably, PayPal had added just 8.7 million new active accounts a year earlier. Around 2.9 million of new accounts were added through acquisitions.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2RveIhg

OnePlus 6, OnePlus 6T Users Complain of Distorted Audio in Select Third-Party Apps

OnePlus 6, OnePlus 6T users are experiencing distorted, low-quality, and tinny audio while using third-party apps like Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2Usa99l

Spider-Man Star Zendaya in Talks to Play Love Interest in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Report

Zendaya — best known for Spider-Man: Homecoming — is in early talks to play Chani, the love interest of the protagonist Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) in the Dune reboot from director Denis Villeneuve.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2WyBAjR

Qualcomm Signs New Interim Patent Agreement With Huawei

Qualcomm has revealed that it has negotiated a new and slightly better interim patent contract with Huawei Technologies.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2SbSipN

Apple Said to Plan 3D Cameras for New iPhone Models in Augmented Reality Push

Apple is said to plan to launch iPhones with a more-powerful 3-D camera as soon as next year, stepping up the company's push into augmented reality.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2UxlsgC

Sony Increases PlayStation Plus Cloud Storage From 10GB to 100GB

PS Plus members will have more space to store their game saves now.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2DK1rxA

Samsung Galaxy A50 Leak Tips Triple Rear Cameras, Infinity-V Display; Galaxy A10 Spotted on Geekbench Again

As per leaked images of the Galaxy A50’s internal design, it will feature triple rear cameras and will sport an Infinity-V Display.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2MLWQOA

Ben Affleck-Less The Batman, Suicide Squad Reboot, DC Super Pets Get 2021 Release Dates

DC Super Pets will release on May 21, 2021, followed by The Batman — minus Ben Affleck, and focusing on a younger Bruce Wayne — on June 25, 2021, and James Gunn’s soft reboot The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2TrZJGQ

Google Chrome 72 Rolled Out for Desktop, Android, iOS Users: Here's What's New

Chrome 72 for Android brings along upgrades for the media player notifications while using Incognito tab, and more.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2S1nDfq

Google+ to Shut Down April 2, Some Features Will Be Taken Offline Starting Next Week

Google says it will shut down Google+ completely on April 2, 2019, but some essential features will be taken offline as early as next week.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2G2IbxM

OnePlus Pulls Latest OxygenOS Open Beta Updates for Four Phones After Some Units Get Bricked

OxygenOS Open Beta 26 was released for the OnePlus 5 and Open Beta 24 for the OnePlus 5T, while the OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T received OxygenOS Open Beta 12 and Open Beta 4, respectively.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2HDOV6V

Samsung Galaxy M20, Galaxy M10 Get Their First Software Update

Samsung Galaxy M20, Galaxy M10 are now receiving firmware version M105FDDU1ASA7 and M205FDDU1ASA9 respectively.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2ShlED3

SBI Left Banking Data of Millions of Users Unprotected Online: Report

The alleged unprotected server of SBI was housed in a Mumbai data centre and included two months of data from SBI Quick service.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2sYmtSW

Samsung Profits Slump Along With Drop in Demand for Its Key Products

Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest smartphone and memory chip maker, reported a slump in fourth-quarter net profits on Thursday.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2Tnd3w5

Google Follows Facebook, Disables iPhone App That Studied User Habits

For now, the app Screenwise Meter is still available for Android phones via Google Play.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2Rps8v3

Windows 10 October 2018 Update Adoption Far Lower Than April Update: AdDuplex

Out of more than 100,000 PCs surveyed, only 12.4 percent run the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, AdDuplex said in its latest report.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2HP7vJw

Microsoft Posts Profit on Ongoing Cloud Businesses Growth

Chief executive Satya Nadella said Microsoft continues to see gains from its cloud services after having shifted away from many of its consumer offerings

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2MIbrKD

Tesla CFO Leaves as Automaker Promises Profits and Cheaper Cars

The departure of Deepak Ahuja as well as missing Wall Street profit targets for the end of 2018, sent Tesla shares down nearly 6 percent after hours.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2G9Llim

Facebook Now Has 2.32 Billion Monthly Active Users, 1.52 Billion Daily Active Users

Facebook on Wednesday easily beat Wall Street's profit estimates, soothing investor concerns that increased spending on the privacy of its users would blunt growth.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2Tnm9ZH

Apple Busts Facebook for Distributing App That Tracked Teen User Data

Apple says Facebook can no longer distribute an app that paid users, including teenagers, to extensively track their phone and web use.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2DKogRP

Xbox One Black Screen Crash Caused by Xbox Live 'Deployment Error': Microsoft

Xbox One black screen crash at startup? Blame Xbox Live.

from RSS Feeds : RSS NEWS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2Tik8Ol

Samsung posts fourth-quarter profit drop, warns of weak demand until the second half of 2019

Samsung Electronics reported its largest quarterly profit decline in two years during its earnings report today. As the Galaxy maker warned in its earnings guidance earlier this month, its results were hurt by slower-than-expected demand for semiconductors, which had bolstered its earnings in previous quarters even when smartphone sales were slow.

Samsung’s forecast was also dour, at least for the first half of the year. It said annual earnings will decline thanks to continuing weak demand for chips, but expects demand for memory products and OLED panels to improve during the second half.

The company’s fourth-quarter operating profit was 10.8 trillion won (about $9.7 billion), a 28.7 percent decrease from the 15.15 trillion won it recorded in the same period one year ago. Revenue was 59.27 trillion won, a 10.2 percent drop year over year.

Broken out by business, Samsung’s semiconductor unit recorded quarterly operating profit of 7.8 trillion won, down from 10.8 trillion won a year ago. Its mobile unit’s operating profit was 1.5 trillion won, compared to 2.4 trillion won a year ago.

Smartphone makers, including Samsung rival Apple, have been hit hard by slowing smartphone sales around the world, especially in China. Upgrade cycles are also becoming longer as customers wait to buy newer models.

This hurt both Samsung’s smartphone and chip sales, as “overall market demand for NAND and DRAM drop[ped] due to macroeconomic uncertainties and adjustments in inventory levels by customers including datacenter companies and smartphone makers,” said the company’s earnings report.

Samsung expects chip sales to be sluggish during the first quarter because of weak seasonality and inventory adjustments by its biggest customers. The company was optimistic about the last two quarters of 2019, when it expects demand for chips and OLED panels to pick up thanks seasonal demand and customers finishing their inventory adjustments.

from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2Ts5sMQ

Grab raises $200M from Thailand-based retail conglomerate Central Group

Grab’s fundraising push continues unabated after the Southeast Asian ride-hailing firm announced that it has raised $200 million from Central Group, a retail conglomerate based in Thailand.

Central’s business covers restaurants, hotels and more than 30 malls in Thailand, while it has operations in markets that include Vietnam and Indonesia. Its public-listed holding companies alone are worth more than $15 billion.

Singapore-based Grab confirmed that this deal is not part of its ongoing Series H fundraising, but is instead an investment into its Thailand-based business. Rumors of the deal were first reported by Reuters last year.

Following this investment, Central said it will work with Grab in a number of areas in Thailand, including bringing its restaurants into the Grab Food service, adding Grab transportation to its physical outlets and bringing Grab’s logistics service into its businesses.

The investment represents the first time an investor has bought into a local Grab country unit, and the goal is to strengthen Grab’s position in Thailand — a market with 70 million consumers and Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy. Grab is under threat from Go-Jek, which expanded to Thailand at the end of 2018. While Go-Jek’s ‘Get’ service is currently limited to motorbikes on-demand in Thailand, its ambition is to recreate its Indonesia-based business that covers four-wheeled cars, mobile payments, on-demand services and more.

Central is a huge presence in the country, and in recent years it has raised its efforts to translate that offline retail presence into the digital space. Past deals have included the acquisition of Rocket Internet’s Zalora fashion business in 2016, and — more recently — a $500 million joint venture with Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com to create online retail and fintech businesses in Thailand.

Grab, meanwhile, is pushing on with its $3 billion Series H funding round. That deal is anchored by a $1 billion investment from Toyota but it also includes contributions from the likes of Microsoft, Booking Holdings and Yamaha Motors. More capital is waiting in the wings, however, with existing investor SoftBank in the process of transferring its investment to its Vision Fund with a view to investing a further $1.5 billion. The total fundraising effort is targeted at a lofty goal of $5 billion, sources told TechCrunch.

To date, Grab has raised $6.8 billion from investors, according to data from Crunchbase. That makes it Southeast Asia’s most capitalized tech startup and it was most recently valued at $11 billion. The company recently announced it has completed three billion rides; it claims 130 million downloads across its eight markets.

Go-Jek, meanwhile, closed the first portion of a $2 billion funding round last week, sources told TechCrunch. The new financing is aimed at growing out its presence in new market expansions which, beyond Thailand, include Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines.

from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2HHJEvf

New York cracks down on companies that sell fake followers

On Wednesday New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that her office had reached a settlement with Devumi, a company that made millions selling fake followers to unsuspecting customers. The state of New York found that Devumi had engaged in illegal deception and illegal impersonation in the course of fluffing up social media profiles with its automated accounts.

First reported by CNN, the settlement follows a New York state probe into the company after reports of suspicious activity and potentially deceptive business practices first surfaced. Almost exactly a year ago, The New York Times reported a big feature on the company that prompted the state’s probe.

In that piece, the Times describes Devumi as “an obscure American company… that has collected millions of dollars in a shadowy global marketplace for social media fraud.” The reported detailed how the company used a stable of 3.5 million bots to fuel a business that boiled down to making people look important on platforms including Twitter. Like any bot worth its sticker price, those accounts often came with names and profile images culled from real people to help them blend in and appear legitimate.

Devumi shut down operations mid-last year in the face of the state probe and slack sales. While some customers of the company and its affiliates were aware they were buying fake followers, many others were not. That deception is central to the state’s case.

The AG’s actions set an interesting precedent for a newly defined category of potential cyber crime — one that may strike fear into the hearts of sketchy social media companies the web over.

“Bots and other fake accounts have been running rampant on social media platforms, often stealing real people’s identities to carry out fraud,” James said of the settlement. “As people and companies like Devumi continue to make a quick buck by lying to honest Americans, my office will continue to find and stop anyone who sells online deception.”

from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2TiVE7A

Tesla says the Model Y is coming in 2020

The Tesla Model Y — the SUV electric vehicle that CEO Elon Musk has been teasing and talking about since 2015 — will begin volume production by the end of 2020, the company said Wednesday in a letter to shareholders.

The automaker, which has yet to show a prototype of the vehicle, said it will begin tooling for the Model Y this year. And unlike Tesla’s other electric vehicles, the Model Y will most likely be produced at the company’s massive “gigafactory” in Nevada, Musk said during an earnings call.

Musk struck a bullish tone for the Model Y, predicting sales volume for the vehicle will be higher than its new Model 3.

Tesla also forecast that the cost of the Model Y production line should be substantially lower than the Model 3 line in Fremont, California because it will be built on the same platform and share about 75 percent of its components with Model 3.

The production ramp for the Model Y should also be faster, the company predicted.

Producing the Model Y at the gigafactory should reduce the company’s risk of execution as well as the cost of transferring parts from Nevada to California, where the Model 3 is assembled, Musk said.

“This year should be a truly exciting one for Tesla,” the company said in the shareholder letter. “Model 3 will become a global product, the profitability of our business should become sustainably positive, our new Gigafactory Shanghai should start producing cars, and we will start tooling for Model Y production.”

from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2FZUKdj

With its Greenlots acquisition, Shell is moving from gas stations to charging stations

In a bid to show that it’s getting ready for the electrification of American roads, Royal Dutch Shell is buying Greenlots, a Los Angeles-based developer of electric vehicle charging and energy management technologies.

Shell, which is making the acquisition through its Shell New Energies US subsidiary, snatched the company from Energy Impact Partners, a cleantech-focused investment firm.

“As our customers’ needs evolve, we will increasingly offer a range of alternative energy sources, supported by digital technologies, to give people choice and the flexibility, wherever they need to go and whatever they drive,” said Mark Gainsborough, Executive Vice President, New Energies for Shell, in a statement. “This latest investment in meeting the low-carbon energy needs of US drivers today is part of our wider efforts to make a better tomorrow. It is a step towards making EV charging more accessible and more attractive to utilities, businesses and communities.”

Courtesy of Ed Robinson/Shell

Since Greenlots raised its cash from Energy Impact Partners, the company has become the partner of choice for utilities for electric vehicle charging, according to the firm. Greenlots was selected as the sole software provider for VolksWagen’s “Electrify America” charging program  last January.

“Utilities are playing a pivotal role in accelerating the transition to a future electric mobility system that is safer, cleaner and more efficient,” said Greenlots CEO Brett Hauser, adding, “We look forward to now working with the resources, scale and reach of Shell to further accelerate this transition.”

“Greenlots is on an incredible trajectory and, in the hands of a company with the resources such as Shell, will be able to advance the important electrification of transportation even faster,” said EIP managing partner Hans Kobler in a statement.

For Shell, the deal adds to a portfolio of electric charging assets including the Dutch-based company, NewMotion.

Across the board energy companies are spending more time and money backing and deploying electric charging technology companies. ChargePoint, a Greenlots competitor, raised $240 million in a November financing that included Chevron Technology Ventures, while BP bought the UK-based public charging network Chargemaster last year.

Despite pushback in some corners of America to the increasing electrification of U.S. highways and byways, the future of mobility needs to be electric if there’s any hope of slowing (and ideally halting and reversing) climate change globally.

Some signs of hope can be found in the latest earnings statement from Tesla, which points to increased uptake of its electric vehicles.  The teased release of an electric truck could potentially even help win converts among those drivers who like to “roll coal” in the presence of hybrids or electric cars.

Elon says Tesla might unveil its pickup truck “this summer”

 

States are already investing heavily in electric infrastructure themselves to promote the adoption of vehicles. California, New York, and New Jersey announced last June a total of $1.3 billion in new infrastructure projects focused on electric vehicle charging.

That’s still not enough to meet the goals necessary to reduce greenhouse gases significantly enough. In all, the U.S. needs to put roughly 13 million electric vehicles on the road in order to meet the targets put forward in the Paris Accords climate treaty (which the U.S. walked away from last year).

According to estimates from the Center for American Progress, the U.S. needs to spend $4.7 billion through 2025 to buy and install the 330,000 public charging outlets the nation will need to meet that electric demand.

“As power and mobility converge, there will be a seismic shift in how people and goods are transported,” said Brett Hauser, Chief Executive Officer of Greenlots. “Electrification will enable a more connected, autonomous and personalized experience. Our technology, backed by the resources, scale and reach of Shell, will accelerate this transition to a future mobility ecosystem that is safer, cleaner and more accessible.”

from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2Wu6MR8

Tesla CFO Deepak Ahuja is retiring

At the tail end of Tesla’s earnings call today, Elon Musk dropped a surprise bit of news: the company’s CFO, Deepak Ahuja, will be retiring.

“There is no good time to make this change,” said Ahuja, but noted that after two back-to-back profitable quarters, now might be the best time.

Ahuja first served as Tesla’s CFO from 2008 to 2015, then again from February 2017 on. Zach Kirkhorn, currently Tesla’s VP of Finance, will take over the role moving forward.

Elon notes that Ahuja’s retirement “won’t be immediate,” but didn’t give a specific timeline. He also says that he plans for Ahuja to stay on as a senior advisor “for probably years to come.”

from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2SflQmf

Elon Musk wants Teslas to automatically call a tow truck when something breaks

As Tesla ramps up production and gets more cars on the road, the company is still working out a few speed bumps when it comes to service. When something goes wrong, getting it fixed tends to take longer than many owners are willing to wait.

In September of last year, Elon Musk promised to make fixing service times a priority. On an earnings call today, he outlined two ways they’re working on it: more spare parts at service centers, and giving Tesla cars the ability to automatically get the process started by calling a tow truck as soon as it detects an issue.

Said Elon on the call:

The next thing we want to add is if a car detects something wrong — like a flat tire or a drive unit failure — that before the car has even come to a halt, there’s a tow truck and service loaner on the way.

False alarm? Don’t want a tow truck to show up? You’ll be able to cancel it through the in-dash display.

If they can get it to work, it sounds great — but it’s not an easy challenge. Pulling it off in one or two major cities? Simple enough. But nationwide, or worldwide? That’s a much bigger logistical problem.

Elon didn’t give a time frame for when such a feature might roll out.

Regarding spare parts, Musk said that some of the existing processes for getting parts to service centers are “quite boneheaded,” and that they’ve “just been like … super dumb on some of the things [they’ve] done.” As an example, he mentioned a service center in China that, when ordering parts that are made in China, must first wait for those parts to be shipped from China to a warehouse in the U.S. and then back.

from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2SbISdX