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| Olympus says six banks sue for 27.9 billion yen compensation over 2011 scandal Tuesday, Apr 08, 2014 09:01 PM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Olympus Corp said on Wednesday that six trust banks have filed a lawsuit against the medical equipment maker seeking 27.9 billion yen ($273 million) in compensation related to false financial statements on losses from fiscal year 2000 to 2011. The six trust banks include State Street Trust and Banking Co Ltd, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corp and The Nomura Trust and Banking Co Ltd. ... Full Story | Top |
| In smartphone mass-market, Samsung, Apple have margins on their minds Tuesday, Apr 08, 2014 07:52 PM PDT  By Miyoung Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - As the smartphone action shifts to the mass market, leaders Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Apple Inc are under pressure to make their high-end phones more affordable to revive sales. Samsung, which said on Tuesday it would likely post a second straight quarterly profit decline, has knocked around a tenth off the price of its Galaxy S5 in South Korea, in the first such move for a marquee smartphone launch - the S5 rolls out globally on Friday. The mass market - where a smartphone can be had for as little as $25 - is the new mobile device battleground, as high-end growth eases off with sales slowing in mature markets. Japan, for example, may see smartphone shipments shrink this year, according to researcher IDC. Full Story | Top |
| 'Heartbleed' bug in web technology seen as major threat to user data Tuesday, Apr 08, 2014 07:14 PM PDT  A newly discovered bug in widely used Web encryption technology has made data on many of the world's major websites vulnerable to theft by hackers in what experts say is one of the most serious security flaws uncovered in recent years. The finding of the so-called "Heartbleed" vulnerability, by researchers with Google Inc and a small security firm Codenomicon, prompted the U.S. government's Department of Homeland Security to advise businesses on Tuesday to review their servers to see if they were using vulnerable versions a type of software known as OpenSSL. It said updates are already available to address the vulnerability in OpenSSL, which could enable remote attackers to access sensitive data including passwords and secret keys that can decode traffic as it travels across the Internet. "If a website is vulnerable I could see things like your password, banking information and healthcare data, which you were under the impression you were sending securely to your website," said Michael Coates, director of product security for Shape Security. Full Story | Top |
| Rovi loses patent fight with Amazon in U.S. appeals court Tuesday, Apr 08, 2014 01:53 PM PDT  Rovi, which sells television guide programs to cable providers, lost a patent fight with Amazon.com on Tuesday when a federal appeals court upheld a U.S. district judge's ruling in favor of the world's largest online retailer. Rovi had accused Amazon of infringing on two patents, one that creates an electronic program guide on a television screen and another that allows a viewer to select and purchase a pay-per-view program. In both patents, Judge Richard Andrews of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware had narrowly defined what the "claims," or portions of patents, did in such a way that forced Rovi to drop its argument for infringement. Full Story | Top |
| Intel closes Costa Rica operation, cuts 1,500 jobs Tuesday, Apr 08, 2014 01:20 PM PDT  By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Chipmaker Intel, struggling with a shrinking personal computer market, is shutting its assembly and test operation in Costa Rica and eliminating 1,500 jobs, a spokesman said on Tuesday. The closure of the site, which is a significant contributor to Costa Rica's exports, falls within a larger plan announced by the chipmaker earlier this year to cut spending as it attempts to grow beyond PCs into the mobile market. "It's being closed and consolidated into our other operations throughout the world," spokesman Chuck Mulloy said of the assembly and test operations in Costa Rica. During the next two quarters, Intel will move assembly and testing from its site in Heredia, where it has been present since 1997, to existing sites in China, Malaysia and Vietnam, Mulloy said. Full Story | Top |
| Twitter freshens up its user profile pages Tuesday, Apr 08, 2014 10:36 AM PDT  By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter Inc unveiled a redesign of its user profile pages on Tuesday, the latest in a series of steps promised by the company to bring new users to the seven-year-old service. In response to an all-time low in user growth figures during the recent quarter, Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo told worried Wall Street analysts that the company would make a number of changes to freshen up the service. Users can now "pin" a tweet to stay at the top of their feed, a rare instance of Twitter departing from the continuously rolling format that has defined the service. The new layout, which will be available to a small group of users initially, will be widely deployed to Twitter's 241 million users in the coming weeks, the company said. Full Story | Top |
| Microsoft ends Windows XP support, hackers may be lurking Tuesday, Apr 08, 2014 10:14 AM PDT  Microsoft Corp released its final security updates for Windows XP and Office 2003 on Tuesday as security experts warned users that they could soon be prime targets for cyber attacks if they do not abandon the products. Security experts advise consumers and businesses to either replace computers running Windows XP or upgrade to modern versions of Microsoft's software within the next month because they will no longer be protected from newly discovered threats after the middle of May. Microsoft automatically rolls out new security updates on the second Tuesday of each month, which is known as "Patch Tuesday," a day when they also publish technical details on the security bugs they are fixing. Security experts say they believe hackers will study that data and "reverse engineer" the May Patch Tuesday software updates to identify ways to attack computers running Windows XP, along with Office 2003, which will no longer receive patches from Microsoft. Full Story | Top |
| Justice Department wary of Bitcoin, Attorney General says Tuesday, Apr 08, 2014 08:50 AM PDT  By Aruna Viswanatha WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Justice Department will have to be creative in order to make sure criminals do not use virtual currencies such as Bitcoin to secretly move funds, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday. The scrutiny at the highest levels of the Justice Department comes at a time when investors have flocked to the currencies but recent incidents have called into question their long-term viability. The use of electronic currencies has captured the attention of regulators who have been unsure how to react to their growing use instead of government-issued money. Agencies ranging from the New York bank regulator to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have been studying electronic currencies to determine whether and how they should be regulated. Full Story | Top |
| Wearable chip start-up Ineda gets funding from Qualcomm and Samsung Tuesday, Apr 08, 2014 08:48 AM PDT  By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Start-up Ineda Systems said on Tuesday it received $17 million in funding from investors including major semiconductor industry players Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics, as it designs low-power chips for smart watches and other wearable computing gadgets. Ineda, with offices in Hyderabad, India and Santa Clara, California, closed its series B funding with Qualcomm, Samsung and other investors in December. With over 180 employees, it is using the money to develop ultra-low power chips for wearable computing gadgets meant to function for up to a month without needing to recharge. A major criticism of smart watches launched over the past year has been the need to recharge them as frequently as once a day, as is typically required for smartphones. Full Story | Top |
| Energy companies need insurance cover for cyber attack 'time bomb' Tuesday, Apr 08, 2014 08:44 AM PDT By Michael Szabo LONDON (Reuters) - Energy companies have no insurance against major cyber attacks, reinsurance broker Willis said on Tuesday, likening the threat to a "time bomb" that could cost the industry billions of dollars. Willis highlighted the industry's vulnerability to cyber threats in its annual review of the energy sector's insurance market, which called on insurers to find a way to provide cover. "A major energy catastrophe - on the same scale as ... Exxon Valdez or Deepwater Horizon - could be caused by a cyber attack, and, crucially, that cover for such a loss is generally not currently provided by the energy insurance market," the insurance broker said. It said the lack of coverage stemmed from a clause included in most energy sector insurance agreements over the past 10 years that explicitly excludes loss or damage caused by software, viruses or other malicious computer code. Full Story | Top |
| Amazon says its instant video streams jumped Tuesday, Apr 08, 2014 07:41 AM PDT  (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc said on Tuesday that the number of Instant Video streams it offers nearly tripled from a year ago as the world's largest online retailer tries to win a battle for control over people's living rooms. Amazon did not disclose the actual number of video streams nor how many people access Instant Video. "We've invested hundreds of millions of dollars in great TV shows and movies for Prime members, and it's working," Bill Carr, vice president of digital video and music for Amazon, said in a statement. Amazon has focused on producing original content such as the political comedy "Alpha House" and "The After," developed by "The X-Files" creator Chris Carter. Full Story | Top |
| Telekom Austria CFO quits as Slim control bid looms Tuesday, Apr 08, 2014 07:41 AM PDT  Telekom Austria Chief Financial Officer Hans Tschuden will leave the company at the end of May, paving the way for major investor Carlos Slim to help choose a successor. The outspoken Tschuden had a contract until the end of March 2017 with an option to terminate it two years early. "I thank Hans Tschuden for his years-long contribution as finance chief of the Telekom Austria group and especially for his excellent chaperoning of the company's growth phase," Chairman Rudolf Kemler said in the statement. Carlos Slim's America Movil, the second-biggest shareholder in Telekom Austria after the Austrian government, is expected to make a bid for control of the company soon, through a pact with the OIAG. Full Story | Top |
| EU court rejects requirement to keep data of telecom users Tuesday, Apr 08, 2014 07:00 AM PDT  By Jan Strupczewski and Tom Körkemeier BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Union's highest court on Tuesday overthrew a rule that required telecoms companies to store the communications data of EU citizens for up to two years, on the grounds that it infringed on basic rights. But not all countries - including Germany, where privacy is an especially sensitive issue - have implemented the directive. "The Court takes the view that, by requiring the retention of those data and by allowing the competent national authorities to access those data, the directive interferes in a particularly serious manner with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data," it said. In Germany, the directive caused a public debate. Full Story | Top |
| Nokia wins Chinese approval for Microsoft deal Tuesday, Apr 08, 2014 05:34 AM PDT  By Sakari Suoninen HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia has won approval from Chinese competition authorities to sell its mobile phone business to Microsoft Corp without having to change its main technology patent practices, it said on Tuesday. The Finnish company agreed in September to sell its flagship business to Microsoft in a 5.4 billion euro ($7.4 billion) deal. Nokia's announcement on Tuesday sent its shares up 3.1 percent to 5.49 euros as investors had feared Chinese regulators could demand tough future conditions for Nokia's patents business. Nokia said it still expected the Microsoft deal to close this month but would not comment on which approvals were still needed before that. Full Story | Top |
| Big push into gaming brings out Amazon's gentler side Tuesday, Apr 08, 2014 04:06 AM PDT  By Malathi Nayak and Deepa Seetharaman SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc, a company known for its ruthless drive, is courting the free-wheeling coders and dreamers of the gaming industry with a lighter touch as it seeks to break into an arena now dominated by Apple and Google. The online retailer, infamous for undercutting rivals and pressuring suppliers, hopes that making nice with game developers will help it build a vibrant app platform on its new Fire TV and gain ground in an area where it severely lags the competition. For example, Amazon last year contacted London-based developer Ashraf Hegab out of the blue. In contrast to the sink-or-swim style of Apple's and Google's app stores, Amazon promised to promote his game actively if he brought it to its platform, he said. Full Story | Top |
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