Moto 360 will use sapphire glass, wireless charging -- report

The wireless charging capability falls in line with Motorola's previous tease of a "secret" method, while sapphire glass would give the smartwatch a more scratch-resistant shell.

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Time Warner Cable says 'me too,' issues first transparency report

Not to be outdone by its competitors (or future owner), Time Warner Cable has released a transparency report of its own. From January to June last year, the telco obeyed some 12,000 information requests from the government that break down as such. Of the legal requests, 82 percent were for subpoenas, 12 percent were for court orders and four percent related to search warrants. Seventy-seven percent of the time that data was requested, it was subscriber and transactional info that was disclosed, 20 percent resulted in no data shared at all and three percent of the time, content information was disclosed. Because the report doesn't give exact numbers, though, comparing the precise amount of requests that TWC handled with its competitors isn't exactly easy.

Time-Warner releases first Transparency Report. http://t.co/xeL8x0XiXr Keep 'em coming!

- Kurt Opsahl (

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Demand for Apple iPhone outweighs supply in Q1 according to Morgan Stanley report

The latest data from the AlphaWise Smartphone Tracker survey cited in a new Morgan Stanley report, suggests that the Apple iPhone is seeing better than expected demand for the first quarter. The survey shows that the handset is on pace to sell 42 million units in the current quarter, up from the 38 million units that analysts had been expecting.

Morgan Stanley analyst analyst Katy Huberty said that carrier promotions carried out during the first three months of the year were responsible for the stronger than expected Q1 sales.  Huberty said that she counted nine major promotions put in place by the top four U.S. mobile carriers. Another Morgan Stanley analyst, Jasmine Lu expects Apple to produce 38 to 39 million units for the first quarter which would fall short of the estimated Q1 sales figures. That could make the Apple iPhone 5s harder to find in the upcoming quarter.

According to the Morgan Stanley analyst, the AlphaWise Smartphone Tracker did a good job forecasting iPhone sales each quarter in 2013, which means we should put some faith in the first quarter forecast.

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Comcast's first transparency report reveals over 25,000 government data requests

Comcast must not want to feel left out as telcos begin publishing regular government data request statistics -- the cable giant has just posted its first transparency report. The document reveals that Comcast obeyed more than 25,000 government demands for info during 2013, including 24,698 criminal requests (such as warrants) and 961 emergency requests. There isn't as much detail for national security requests due to federal rules, but the report shows that Comcast isn't under quite as much scrutiny as its peers. The provider received less than 1,000 national security letters last year, while Verizon reported between 1,000 and 1,999; AT&T says it got between 2,000 and 2,999. The differences aren't surprising when Comcast has no cellular customers these days. However, those numbers are bound to grow if Comcast succeeds in buying Time Warner Cable.

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Via: The Verge

Source: Comcast (1), (2, PDF)

Tags: comcast, fisa, hdpostcross, internet, isp, nationalsecurityletter, privacy, security, surveillance, television, transparency, transparencyreport, tv Next: Twitter now shows you video previews inside its mobile apps .fyre .fyre-comment-divider

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Windows Phone passes BlackBerry in latest comScore report

The latest comScore report shows that Windows Phone has surpassed BlackBerry in U.S. smartphone market share. For the three months ended in January, Windows Phone averaged a 3.2% slice of the pie. While that was flat from the 3.2% that Microsoft's mobile OS scored on average for the three months ended in October, BlackBerry's share tumbled .5 percentage points during the same time period to 3.1%.

At the top of the list, Android also lost .5 percentage points to 51.7%, but remains on top. Apple's iOS picked up the market share losses from both Android and BlackBerry, tacking on 1 percentage point to 41.6%. Symbian was flat with .2% of the U.S. smartphone market.

As far as manufacturer's market share is concerned, Apple remains on top with that 41.6% tally. Samsung is still in the number two spot after tacking on 1.3 percentage points to 26.7%. LG's share rose to 6.9% from the 6.6% slice it owned for the three months ended in October. After that, Motorola and HTC had poor quarters. With market shares of 6.4% and 5.4% respectively, Motorola dropped .6 percentage points and HTC dropped 1.3 percentage points from the three months ended in October.

The report also revealed that Google's sites remain the top properties on smartphones reaching 89.4% of the intelligent handsets. Facebook (86.6% reach) and Yahoo (86.2%) both trailed. Looking at mobile apps, Facebook has the widest reach (77.6%) followed by the Google Play Store (52.4%) and YouTube (49.7%).

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Sony looks to shed former Tokyo headquarters -- report

The company has reportedly entered into an agreement to sell the building for $146.5 million. It currently houses its medical business and non-consumer operations.

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Apple looking to build mobile payments service, report says

(Credit:James Martin/CNET ) Apple already lets users buy music, books and apps through an iTunes account. But the tech giant has plans to expand its mobile payment efforts, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Citing anonymous sources, the report says that Apple is exploring moving beyond the realm of digital goods and letting users pay for physical goods and services -- such as clothes or a taxi ride -- with an iTunes account. The Journal says that Eddy Cue, the Apple executive in charge of iTunes and the App Store, has already met with industry executives to discuss the topic.

Related postsApple has the Mac to thank for its next generation of devices Facebook bites backDOJ: Court didn't abuse power by appointing Apple monitorSamsung's smartphone momentum takes a hit People buy iPads, get floor tiles The company has also moved Jennifer Bailey, a long-time executive who is running the company's online store, into a new role building the payments business, the article said.

Expanding into a mobile payments business would leverage the hundreds of millions of credit cards Apple already has on file thanks to iTunes. The move would put the company in direct competition with services like Stripe and eBay's PayPal.

The space especially been heating up of late. Stripe recently raised $80 million in funding, at a valuation of $1.75 billion. And activist investor Carl Icahn has also called for eBay to spin off PayPal. Later, he said Apple would make a good suitor for the mobile payments service.

Apple did not immediately return a request for comment. We'll update this post if we hear back.

Topics: Apple Corporate, iTunes Tags: Apple, Carl Icahn, PayPal, Stripe

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Samsung, Apple in talks to end patent battle, report says

Samsung and Apple are trying again to come together on a possible patent accord, according to a new report.

Despite a two-year legal battle that appeared to have no end in sight, Apple and Samsung have started discussing the possibility of inking a royalties deal and putting an end to all of their litigation, an official at the Korea Fair Trade Commission told the Korea Times in a report published on Sunday.

According to that official, the talks are in their "working-level" stage right now, and the companies are attempting to reduce "differences over royalty payments." The Korean regulator is also working with American and European antitrust watchdogs to aid in arriving at a deal.

Related storiesNokia wins injunction against all HTC devices (in Germany)Apple 12 Days app offers 'Hugo' or 'Home Alone' for freeApple's Siri could one day find your photos via your voiceSamsung chip advance paves way for phones with 4GB memoryHow much would you pay for a 110-inch Ultra HDTV?

Apple and Samsung have been suing each other all over the world over the last few years. Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung Electronics chief Choi Gee-sung tried to hash out an agreement to end their patent dispute, but those 17-hour talks failed. Apple has since won an important patent infringement case in the US, which might have prompted Samsung to make a move on arriving at an agreement. That case alone could see Apple net $890 million.

At this point, Apple and Samsung both believe the other company is being unfair in the dollar values they want to place on the overall settlement. Samsung is willing to enter into a "cross-licensing" deal with Apple, where both companies can get the intellectual property they need for a set price, sources told the Korea Times. Apple is asking Samsung to pay a more than $30 fee for every device found to be in violation of its patents, according to the report.

If the companies can't arrive at a deal, a long, arduous legal process awaits. Early next year, the companies will again wage a patent-infringement battle, followed by several others.

CNET has contacted both Apple and Samsung. We will update this story when we have more information.

Topics: Corporate and legal Tags: Apple, Samsung, patents, mobile

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Hacker tried to sell access to BBC server -- report

A Russian hacker wasn't exactly in the Christmas spirit when he reportedly tried to sell access to a BBC server on December 25.

Apparently first spotted by cybersecurity firm Hold Security, the recent attack hit a BBC FTP server and was conducted by a "notorious Russian hacker" known as "Hash" and "Rev0lver," Reuters reported on Sunday. No evidence has turned up indicating that the hacker stole any actual information.

But "Hash" attempted to make a Christmas Day profit out of his exploits, according to Hold Security founder Alex Holden. The hacker tried to sell access to the server to fellow cybercriminals, Holden told Reuters. "Hash" even showed other hackers certain information that could only be obtained by someone who controlled the server.

Holden confirmed the discovery in an e-mail sent to CNET:

We discovered the situation through our Deep Web Monitoring service. As a part of the service to our customers, we search the Deep Web (hacker forums and other communications) for any evidence of breaches of our customers' data. However, we often see other hacker activities like this one. In short, we saw hacker "Hash" trying to sell access to the BBC server. As a proof, he was offering a screenshot of his access which we found to be credible. To-date we saw no evidence that he was successful in selling this access or if any other data had been taken from BBC.

The server has since been secured, a person familiar with the cleanup effort told Reuters. But the BBC itself has been mum about the matter, telling Reuters that "we do not comment on security issues."

The FTP site was used by BBC reporters to send in stories and by advertisers to upload media files, according to BBC News.

Topics: Cybercrime, Security, Privacy and data protection, Vulnerabilities and attacks, Hacks Tags: BBC, hack, cybercriminal, security, hacker

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Facebook’s Cutesy Annual Report To Partners Reveals First Country-By-Country Mobile Stats

TechCrunch has obtained never before published metrics showing Facebook’s international growth. Facebook sent some partners a playfully illustrated eMagazine called The Annual, but I’ve acquired a copy from a source and the stats inside are serious business. The report divulges user counts for some key international markets like Germany, which now has 25 million users, and 18 million mobile users.

Previously, Facebook had only shared combined web and mobile user counts by multi-country region, and its mobile user counts as global totals. The problem is that hides what parts of the world are driving its mobile growth, which has brought it to a total of 874 million monthly mobile users and 507 million daily mobile users as of September 2013, out of a total 1.19 billion month user across all devices.

So for several quarters I called for Facebook to release more detailed international mobile stats. The company partly acquiesced in August, providing me with specific stats for the US and UK, seen in the graph below.

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New Report Shows That Most Of China’s Gamers Are Still Playing On PCs, Not Mobile

A new report from China’s GPC (link via Google Translate), an industry group for game publishers, shows that China’s video game industry is now worth 83.17 billion RMB (or $13 billion), a 40% increase over the past 12 months (h/t Games In Asia). While the growth is not surprising, the fact that most of that revenue came from PC-based games may be, especially considering the amount of attention that has been focused on the rise of mobile in China.

Most of this year’s revenue, 64.5% or about $8.7 billion, was generated through client-based PC games. Browser games took in a comparatively low $2 billion, while mobile games earned just $1.8 billion. Social games–which many developers depend on to spread the word about their products–earned less than $1 billion. As Games In Asia notes, most browser games can’t be played easily on mobile devices, so these figures mean that PC games made up more than 80% of revenue earned by China’s gaming industry in 2013.

A lot of focus has been placed on the rise of China’s mobile gamers. For example, Tencent gave mobile developers a potentially lucrative outlet when it launched messaging app WeChat’s highly anticipated gaming platform. Several China-focused mobile game companies have also recently picked up significant funding. These include Chukong, one of China’s largest mobile game developers, which recently raised a $50 million Series D led by New Horizon Capital, bringing its total funding to date to an impressive $83 million (its existing investors include GGV Capital, Sequoia Capital’s China fund, Disney’s Steamboat Ventures and Northern light). Another mobile game developer in China that recently received funding is Beijing-based Yodo1, which announced a $11 million round from GGV Capital earlier this month.

Developers are busy figuring out how to cope with the challenges that come with distributing and monetizing mobile games in order to take advantage of China’s rapidly increasing smartphone penetration, and they have good reason to. There are more than 500 million Android and iOS devices in China, according to top analytics firm Umeng, and that number is expected to grow to 800 million next year, and top-grossing Android games can make $5 million to $10 million per month.

Smartphone penetration is growing rapidly in Asia and, as in other markets, most of the time players spend in-app are on games. As a result, many developers have focused on HTML5 to help them develop casual games that can be played on different mobile OSes, as well as figuring out a distribution strategy for China’s highly fragmented app marketplace. Developers shouldn’t ignore PC gamers. But the report from GDC shows that game developers who want to be profitable should consider developing a multi-channel strategy, too.

Another nugget of insight from the report is that even though the list of top developers in China is still dominated by foreign companies like Electronic Arts, Gameloft and Glu, domestic game companies are starting to take a bigger chunk of revenue–$7.8 billion to be exact, or a 30% increase year-over-year.

Image by Kai Hendry on Flickr

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Report: MediaTek to report lower Q1 shipments of integrated circuits for handsets

With most of its customers already loaded up on integrated circuits earmarked for handsets, MediaTek will probably report a 15 to 20% drop in shipments sequentially for the first quarter of 2014. This is the word from "industry sources" who say that the silicon slinger is making comparisons tough because of a strong fourth quarter of 2013. Customers in China have already started ordering enough inventory to cover the first quarter, which incudes the Lunar New Year holiday in the country.

Thanks to its rising share of the 3G market, and the delivery of its new 4G enabled chips, MediaTek is expected to have a good year in 2014. Samples of its 4G chips have been sent off to customers, and shipments of the chips should start in earnest shortly after the end of the second quarter.

After reporting a company record of  $39.01 billion NT ($1.33 billion USD) in third quarter revenues, MediaTek previously said it expected Q4's top-line to be flat or off 5% when compared to the previous quarter. Regardless, it has been a great year for the company, as sales are up 34.1% over last year as of November at $122.97 billion NT ($4.1 billion USD).

In addition to the numbers, MediaTek has become to "go-to" guys for those OEMs producing low-cost and entry-level phones. In addition, the company introduced the world's first true octa-core CPU earlier this year. For the first time, a processor has the ability to have all eight cores active at one time.

source: DigiTimes
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