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Google's latest feature warns you if search results may not be reliable
Google is testing a new feature that will warn users when a search may yield unreliable results.
Sony's PlayStation business is slowing faster than expected
Back in 2018 Sony made it clear that its games department would be slowing down as it prepared for the next generation PlayStation. Now it's released its quarterly results which go beyond a "slowing down" to illustrate a much more significant drop in revenue for the business.
Huawei reports increased sales despite US sanctions
Huawei's latest quarterly results show that the Chinese company is doing just fine, despite ongoing trade issues with America. Third-quarter revenue is up 24.4 percent on the same period last year, while the company says it has shipped more than 185 million smartphones in the first three quarters of 2019, up 26 percent year-on-year.
Google removes news previews in France to avoid paying publishers
Google has announced that it will not pay publishers in France for search results, and will instead show stripped back results for News. That will happen next month when France enforces new rules base on Europe's controversial copyright law. "We will no longer display an overview of the content in France for European press publishers, unless the publisher tells us that it's okay," said Google in a blog. It added that publishers will get new webmaster settings that will allow them to specify how much information they want to preview in News results.
Google added a share button to search results
How many times have you been asked something so incredibly straightforward that the effort of asking the question likely far surpasses the effort involved in just Googling it in the first place? Probably at least once or twice, hence the existence of LMGTFY. Until now there was no particularly easy way of directly sharing search results, but Google's working on that.
Google's 'Game of the Year' reminds you 2018 wasn't complete trash
It's safe to say that 2018 has been... a year, and while there's no end of untold horrors to reflect upon, Google has softened the blow with a look-back game that's altogether more pleasant. In its Game of the Year 2018 you can test your knowledge of the year's search trends in a simple click-to-choose format. Who appeared in search results more frequently, Justin Trudeau or Justin Bieber? Were craft cocktails searched more or less than last year? What do the people want more of, puppies or kittens? This is the first time Google's gamified its search results like this, and while it's not mind-blowing gaming, it's an interesting way to pass the time. You'll almost certainly come away with a few bits of curious trivia, and maybe even a deep-seated sense of vindication that "Laurel" was searched for more frequently than "Yanny." A reassuring reminder, then, that this year's not been all bad.
Google drops Instant Search to unify mobile and desktop queries
Google introduced the by-now familiar Instant Search back in 2010. The idea was to make searching faster by updating the results of your search in real time while you typed. Now the company is dropping the feature, according to SearchEngineLand, to bring it more in line with mobile search. The change is effective today.
Report: Samsung's Note 7 probe points blame at batteries
Samsung has concluded that the Galaxy Note 7's fires and explosions were caused by battery problems, not the phone's hardware or software, Reuters reports. The information comes from "a person familiar with the matter," rather than an official source, but Samsung will reportedly release the full results from its investigation on January 23rd. To assuage nervous buyers, Samsung mobile chief Koh Dong-jin will likely also detail steps it's taking to prevent similar problems with the Galaxy S8 and other future devices.
Google Search will show election results as they come in
The US election has been good business for Google, thanks in part to its localized ballot data and state voting guides. The search giant wrote that it will soon show election results directly in search after polls close, including "Presidential, Senatorial, Congressional, Gubernatorial races as well as state-level referenda and ballot propositions." It also revealed counties with the highest voter interest in key battleground states, based on the search query "where to vote."
Runtastic Results wants to be the P90X of mobile apps
There are currently a total of 15 Runtastic apps available across iOS, Android and Windows Phone. But the Austrian startup, recently acquired by sportswear giant Adidas, doesn't want to stop there. Today, it is introducing Results, an application that focuses solely on body training. This is Runtastic's version of the popular P90X fitness program, designed for the mobile era and to complement its other fitness-friendly software. Even though the app's available at no cost on iOS and Android, a premium, $50-per-year membership is going to unlock a dynamic 12-week workout plan. Here, you will get support from the Runtastic community, a personal nutrition guide and more than 120 exercise videos -- those, by the way, have been shot at 6K resolution, making them easier on the eye.
Google starts removing 'forgotten' search results
It was only a matter of time until it happened, but Google has now started removing search results from its listings as part of the European Commission's "Right to be forgotten" ruling. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company started implementing the blocks earlier today, weeks after it first started allowing individuals to request that the search giant remove listings that turned up against searches for their own names. Google says it has begun notifying successful applicants that their requests have been accepted.
BlackBerry steadies the ship but smartphone sales continue to evaporate
BlackBerry's plan to cut costs and shift to services is starting to pay dividends. While the company's latest financial earnings report shows it's still suffering losses, they aren't as bad as expected. It certainly wasn't thanks to its smartphones, which were once BlackBerry's main source of revenue, as they fell to just 2.6 million units from 3.4 million in the last quarter. This time around, the Canadian smartphone maker didn't divulge how many BB7 and BB10 handsets it sold, suggesting the newer OS just isn't tempting consumers and businesses to part with their iPhones and Android devices. For reference: BB7 smartphone sales more than doubled those of BlackBerry 10 last quarter.
Crowdfund Bookie, January 2014: 63 percent nosedive
The Crowdfund Bookie crunches data from select successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns that ended during the month and produces pretty charts for you to look at. Any momentum maintained in the video game crowdfunding space in December 2013 was dashed just one month later. Gaming projects for the month totaled only $845,876, a 63.71 percent decrease from December's $2,331,061. Just 20 projects were funded during a five-week January period, half the amount that were successful in December. The number of backers for projects also saw a 79.58 percent downturn, plummeting to 12,712 funders. Unlike previous months, there wasn't a marquee project to prop the crowdfunding arena's totals up, as the top earner was Taitale Studios' 4X strategy game Novus Aeterno, which hauled in $268,875. Another game stole our attention for the month: MMA Federation. Much like the infamously suspicious funding patterns of Gridiron Thunder, the MMA-focused mobile social game managed to earn $163,924 thanks to only 159 backers, an outlandish average of $1,030.97 per funder. As expected, the odd funding averages of MMA Federation significantly impacted the end results for January, as removing the game's data for the month drops the mean average pledge per backer amount from $66.54 to $54.33. Without MMA Federation's sales data, January's projects also added up to 281.3 percent of their funding goals. Both impacted data points show that January's projects still stayed consistent with the funding trends seen in our past Bookies; pledges average out to roughly $50 and backers tend to push projects well past their goal amounts. Head past the break to see the month's top five projects and a breakdown by genre.
Verizon celebrates Vodafone split with a million new subscribers
Verizon's third quarter results are out, and it's not suffering any malaise after its break-up with Vodafone. In fact, it landed 1.1 million new mobile customers and over 300,000 new subscribers to its FiOS internet and video services during the three-month period. More than 67% of people on the carrier's books are now rocking smartphones, some of which will be handsets that joined the LTE line-up this quarter, including the HTC One, Motorola's new Droids, the iPhone 5s and 5c, and most recently, the Galaxy Note 3. In its wired business, the number of FiOS video customers grew to 5.2 million, up 12.6 percent from last year as the company also promised more live channels on the way for its mobile app. In total, Verizon took $5.6 billion in profit (a whopping 30 percent more than in Q3 2012) from $30.3 billion in revenue. It's not a huge increase over last quarter's success, but we doubt the head honchos care too much about growth when looking at that many zeros.
Lenovo posts Q1 earnings, reveals that its mobile sales have overtaken PCs
Don't look now, but Lenovo just became an industry bellwether. While reporting strong first quarter results that include a record $8.8 billion in revenue and $170 million in profit, the tech giant revealed that its combined smartphone and tablet sales have overtaken those of its PCs. Yes, you read that correctly -- the world's largest PC vendor is now a mobile-first company, unlike previous title holders such as HP. It's not hard to explain the shift, however. About 42 percent of Lenovo's total sales come from its native China, where the company's predominantly Android-based phones and tablets fare very well. The firm's Windows PCs and tablets are also performing above industry averages, but CEO Yang Yuanqing makes it clear that Lenovo is quickly becoming a "PC Plus" brand -- IdeaPads and ThinkPads are just parts of a larger puzzle.
HTC: the One is selling better than last year's hero products, but next quarter may see a loss
HTC's unaudited results for Q2 2013 showed a sign of hope, but in today's call for the Q3 guidance, the Taiwanese company expects next quarter's revenue to be in the range of $1.67 billion to $2 billion, with an operating profit of anything from $0 down to... well, a margin of -minus 8 percent, which would equate to a horrible loss. This is also a notable drop from last year's $2.4 billion revenue and $168 million operating profit. CEO Peter Chou blames this decline on the higher cost structure (bill of materials and operating costs) and the clearance of aged inventory in the channel, but he hopes that Q3 will be the bottom in terms of HTC's profitability. CFO Chialin Chang added that his team has a few actions in place to help restore the company to profitability very soon.
Sprint reports 'highest-ever' revenue of $7.2 billion for Q2 2013, loses $1.6 billion on Nextel shutdown
Sprint has just announced its second quarter 2013 financial results, and while it's pay as you go plans are paying off in terms of income, shutdowns and charges caused a huge loss. The company posted $7.2 billion in earnings, its "highest ever" total and an eight percent increase over last year, but also took a net loss of $1.6 billion for the quarter. It's chalking that up to a huge depreciation charge of $430 million and another non-cash hit of $623 million due to the Nextel platform shutdown, which is finally complete. However, the company added that over 4 million Nextel subscribers were "recaptured" to the Sprint platform since the transition commenced in early 2011. The shutdown and loss were anticipated, though and apart from that, Sprint said it's in good place, having achieved "record levels of... postpaid subscribers, service revenue and postpaid ARPU." It also completed its acquisition of Clearwire (at last) and US Cellular's spectrum and customers, while itself being captured into Japanese carrier Softbank's orbit. (For its part, Softbank managed a whopping 238 billion yen ($2.4 billion) in net income during the quarter.) The operator now has 4G-LTE coverage in 151 markets, including 41 that are new as of today, including Philadelphia, the Bronx , Brooklyn, Jacksonville, Nashville and Oakland. As for subscribers, post post-paid customers are up from last year, but pre-paid clients are down due to "planned deactivations related to regulatory changes." All of that resulted in an increase in churn (turnover) year-over-year to 1.83 percent. Eighty-six percent of its postpaid handset sales were smartphones, including about 1.4 million iPhones sold during the quarter. Going forward, the company just launched a raft of new data plans, including an Unlimited offering that guarantees customers who sign up will get to keep it for life. We'll have to wait and see whether that and all the other machinations this quarter will finally push the company into the black.
Xiaomi announces $2.16 billion revenue in 1H 2013, beating the entire 2012
In a Chinese press release we just received, phone maker Xiaomi has just announced that it generated a revenue of CN¥13.27 billion or about $2.16 billion in the first half of 2013. This easily exceeds the company's CN¥12.6 billion or $2.05 billion revenue from the entirety of 2012, so things are already looking good ahead of the annual event on August 16th, when multiple products are expected to be launched -- including a TV that got leaked last month. CEO Lei Jun said that this is partly thanks to the 7.03 million Xiaomi Phones his company sold within the same period, and the release also praised the popularity of the Xiaomi Box plus various other accessories, such as the new in-ear headphones launched recently. In addition to that, Xiaomi now has 20 million users from around the world as of end of June, 14.22 million of which come from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The latter two became part of Xiaomi's larger scope in April this year, with Hong Kong using the classic online retail model, and Taiwan doing the same but also selling devices through a partnership with local carrier Far Eastone. Despite the surprising good announcements, Lei reminds his team at today's celebration party to "forget about the results, they're not the most important," and that "only making products that make users scream can bring in long-term value." The real challenge now is to tap into the more exotic markets, and Xiaomi has previously expressed great interest in Europe. Good luck with that, Lei!
Qualcomm Q2 2013 earnings: revenue up to $6.12 billion, profit reaches $2.07 billion
Qualcomm is having an easy time riding the growing wave of mobile devices. Case in point: its very healthy second quarter earnings. Revenue at the San Diego outfit climbed 24 percent year-over-year to $6.12 billion, while the chip designer's net profit grew a similarly brisk 17 percent, to $2.07 billion. The figures were respectively up a modest 2 percent and down 6 percent versus last quarter, but that's to be expected given the usual post-holiday lull. Qualcomm still shipped a more than ample 173 million units of its MSM chips, and it expects to return $431 million to shareholders for their trust. The company also has a rosy-cheeked vision of the future -- it expects its third quarter revenues and profits to climb by at least 25 percent and 14 percent each, even with shipments down to as little as 163 million. When Qualcomm is at the heart of the HTC One, many Galaxy S 4 models and the Optimus G Pro, there's a good chance the company is being realistic about its prospects.
Drama Mamas: More results from the letter writers
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. We had three letters ready to go this week, but one of the letter writers has since requested not to be featured here, so we're respecting the request. This often happens, when someone writes a letter to us and then soon after asks that we not answer it. Sometimes it's because the situation resolved itself, and sometimes it's more due to not wanting to be identified. We recommend letting your letter sit overnight before sending it -- and that goes for any emotionally charged email under any circumstances. What you want to get out in the heat of the moment is often not the same as what you really want to say the next day. Regardless, here are more results. First, we have a happy ending for the situation where the GM wouldn't give up control of his guild. Hi, im the concerned guild officer from the 'GM who wont give up control' article from june last year, i thought i would post a update on what happened. So i linked your article to the officers and we had a talk with the GM explaining what he was doing and that the other 200 actual people in the guild didn't need it and he basically cut it out and went almost silent. He didn't give up the GM control, but he basically took care of the guild bank and recruiting whilst i took charge of organising raiding and another officer took charge of guild events and all in all things greatly improved. We got the good atmosphere back and he was happily away counting his inks and glyphs horde and didn't bother anyone or cause those awkward vent silences anymore.
