Machines Gauging Your Star Potential Automate HR Hiring

Machines Gauging Your Star Potential Automate HR Hiring

They can drive cars, win Jeopardy and find your soon-to-be favorite song. Machines are also learning to decipher the most human qualities about you — and help businesses predict your potential to be their next star employee. A handful of technology companies from Knack.it Corp. to Evolv Inc. are doing just that, developing video games and online questionnaires that measure personality attributes in a job applicant. Based on patterns of how a company’s best performers responded in these assessments, the software estimates a candidate’s suitability to be everything from a warehouse worker to an investment bank analyst. Read more of this post

Swedish fingerprint tech company caught in hoax Samsung bid

Swedish tech company caught in hoax Samsung bid

1:23pm EDT

By Johannes Hellstrom and Daniel Dickson

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A fake press release claiming electronics firm Samsung (005930.KS: Quote, Profile,Research, Stock Buzz) was buying Sweden’s Fingerprint Cards (FINGb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) sent shares in the biometrics company soaring on Friday, prompting an investigation into suspected market manipulation. The Swedish Economic Crime Authority said it would launch a preliminary fraud probe after company news distributor Cision (CISI.ST: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) published a statement saying Samsung Electronics Co Ltd was buying Fingerprint Cards for $650 million in cash. Read more of this post

World’s first curved smartphone hits S. Korea market at retail price US$1,000

World’s first curved smartphone hits S. Korea market

2013-10-11 00:31:03 GMT2013-10-11 08:31:03(Beijing Time)  SINA.com

A model displays Samsung’s first “curved” smartphones Galaxy Round at the Electronics and IT Industry Fair in Goyang, north of Seoul, Oct. 10, 2013. The world’s first curved display smartphone Galaxy Round featuring a 5.7-inch full HD Super AMOLED display was launched here on Thursday. It would be sold with a retail price of 1.08 million won (1,000 U.S. dollars). (Xinhua/Park Jin-Hee)

Samsung launched the world’s first smartphone with a curved display screen on Thursday, as the electronics giant seeks to maintain its lead in the increasingly saturated market. Galaxy Round — a 5.7-inch concave handset that fits the curve of a user’s palm — has hit stores in South Korea but Samsung did not say when the new phone will be available globally. Curved screens — billed as lighter and thinner than current display panels — are at a nascent stage in display technology, which is shifting towards flexible panels that are bendable or can even be rolled or folded. Read more of this post

Cable pioneer John Malone said that cable companies should team up to create a rival to Netflix

U.S. cable companies should create Netflix rival: Malone

5:10pm EDT

By Liana B. Baker

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Cable pioneer John Malone said on Thursday that cable companies should team up to create a rival to Netflix Inc (NFLX.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) that would deliver programming over the Internet on a national basis. Cable companies could “solve the problem” of high programming costs by acquiring content for an Internet-based service under one brand that they would sell in a bundle with broadband, Malone said at Liberty Media Corp’s (LMCA.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) annual investor conference. Read more of this post

In Latest IPOs, Profits Aren’t the Point; Two-Thirds of U.S.-Listed Tech Debuts in 2013 Lost Money

In Latest IPOs, Profits Aren’t the Point

Two-Thirds of U.S.-Listed Tech Debuts in 2013 Lost Money

TELIS DEMOS

Oct. 10, 2013 7:07 p.m. ET

No profits? No problem. Investors are showing increasing hunger for initial public offerings of unprofitable technology companies and the potential for big gains that they bring. Sixty-eight percent of U.S.-listed technology debuts this year, or 19 out of 28 deals, have been companies that lost money in the prior fiscal year or past 12 months, according to Jay Ritter , professor of finance at the University of Florida. That is the highest percentage since 2007, and 2001 before that. Read more of this post

Russia’s Web Payment Czar Looks West

Russia’s Web Payment Czar Looks West

By Ilya Khrennikov October 10, 2013

In Russia, cash is still king—even online. That’s thanks in large part to Qiwi (QIWI), a business that lets security-conscious Russians shop and pay bills electronically without having to transmit sensitive bank account or credit card numbers over the Internet. Qiwi customers deposit cash in the company’s ATM-style machines and use that money to pay their rent or phone bill—or leave it in PayPal-like online accounts for later. Read more of this post

Smule, A Social Network for Making Music

A Social Network for Making Music

By Brad Stone October 10, 2013

Maria Limperos is a closet chanteuse. Several nights a week, after her kids and husband nod off, the pharmacist from Columbus, Ohio, takes her iPhone into her bedroom closet and opens an application called Sing! Karaoke. Under the user name Maria66, she has recorded about 1,000 songs over the past two years—some covers of hits such as Killing Me Softly and Total Eclipse of the Heart, some original songs. She’s recorded duets with strangers as far away as Australia. Read more of this post

The Big Hole in Twitter’s IPO Filing; Plenty of Numbers, but No Real Insight Into Its Advertising Business; Twitter remains inscrutable, a “black box.” It’s beautifully-lacquered, with a bow on top. But still a black box

The Big Hole in Twitter’s IPO Filing

Plenty of Numbers, but No Real Insight Into Its Advertising Business

DENNIS K. BERMAN

Oct. 10, 2013 12:13 p.m. ET

Have no fear, Twitter Inc. should be worth piles of money when it sells shares to the public. Back in February, my back-of-the-envelope guess was that it could be valued at more than $12 billion, a level it will probably easily beat. Having spent a week with its 120,000-word IPO document, I’m left with a nagging feeling. The document is full of numbers and charts and graphs that show how the service is growing. But if you look hard enough—heck, if you look at all—you’ll see it has virtually no details about the most important aspects of its business. Read more of this post

Alibaba Leads $206 Million Investment in Amazon’s Rival ShopRunner

Alibaba Leads $206 Million Investment in ShopRunner

Chinese E-Commerce Giant Continues U.S. Push Ahead of Planned IPO

GREG BENSINGER

Oct. 10, 2013 4:59 p.m. ET

Scott Thompson is CEO of ShopRunner, which just raised $206 million, mostly from Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba. Reuters

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has led a $206 million investment in a rival to Amazon.comInc., AMZN +2.33% one of its biggest U.S. moves as the Chinese e-commerce giant considers an initial public offering here. Alibaba invested in ShopRunner Inc., which offers unlimited two-day shipping from retailers including Toys “R” Us Inc. andRadioShack Corp. RSH +5.63% for a $79 annual fee. American Express Co.AXP +3.38% has also taken a small stake in ShopRunner.

Read more of this post

Toyota Introduces System That Uses Radio to Avoid Car Collisions

Toyota Introduces System That Uses Radio to Avoid Car Collisions

Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), the world’s largest automaker, will introduce systems in about two years enabling cars to communicate with each other to avoid collision. The system will use radio waves to gather data on the speed of other vehicles to keep a safe distance, the Toyota City, Japan-based company said in a statement. It showed another system, consisting of cameras, radar and control software, that helps a car maintain position in a lane on its own. Read more of this post

Huawei Trains Its Gaze Inward; Chinese Telecom-Gear Supplier Won’t Seek Big Acquisitions in Near Term

Huawei Trains Its Gaze Inward

Chinese Telecom-Gear Supplier Won’t Seek Big Acquisitions in Near Term

JURO OSAWA

Oct. 10, 2013 10:15 a.m. ET

SHENZHEN, China—Huawei Technologies Co. of China won’t consider any major acquisitions at least for the next five years, as the world’s second-largest supplier of telecommunications-network equipment focuses on ways to improve management efficiency and sustain growth, a board director said. “For the next five to 10 years, we will stay focused on internal management improvement,” said Chen Lifang , a Huawei senior vice president in charge of the company’s external relations and one of its 13 board directors. She added that as Huawei is already a sizable company with 150,000 employees, more effort needs to be spent on making its decision-making faster and management leaner. Read more of this post

Google to Bring Chromebook to India in co-branding with Acer for 22,999 rupees ($371), and with HP for 26,990 rupees

October 10, 2013, 4:57 PM

Google to Bring Chromebook to India

R. JAI KRISHNA

In India, the Chromebook will be sold under a co-branding with Acer Inc.2353.TW -0.50% and Hewlett-Packard Co. Google Inc. is bringing its low-priced Chromebook laptops to the Indian market next week, escalating competition with Microsoft Corp.MSFT +0.89% in the market. Google’s laptop is a tad cheaper than most, because consumers don’t have to pay for software that typically comes preloaded. Google already leads with its Android mobile software both within and outside India.

Read more of this post

BlackBerry Breakup Looms as Investors Lose Faith in Buyout

BlackBerry (BBRY) Ltd. is more open to a breakup of the company amid concerns that Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. (FFH) may be unable to line up funding or partners for a $4.7 billion buyout, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Companies such as SAP AG (SAP), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930), which were approached last week by BlackBerry advisers, have indicated they’re only interested in parts of the company, people familiar with the discussions said. A breakup would let parties bid for BlackBerry’s most valuable pieces, such as its patents or enterprise network, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Read more of this post

Google Earth Saves Kenyan Elephants With Drones in Maasai Mara

Google Earth Saves Kenyan Elephants With Drones in Maasai Mara

Standing in his flatbed truck, Marc Goss touches “take off” on his iPad 3 and a $300 AR Drone whirs into the air as his latest weapon to fight elephant poachers around Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve. “It’s an arms race,” said Goss, whose green khaki clothing shields him from thorny acacia branches in the 30,000 hectares (74,132 acres) of savanna he protects. “We’re seeing larger numbers of poachers.” Read more of this post

Password or fingerprint? 53 percent of Americans said they would be willing to replace their passwords with fingerprint scans

PayPal study finds consumers okay with biometrics

By Hayley Tsukayama, Published: October 9

Apple’s newest iPhone may have spurred some debate over whether it’s a good idea to unlock your phone with your fingerprint, but a new study from PayPal finds that a majority of Americans are comfortable with the idea of using their biometric information instead of the pesky passwords that are currently the norm. The survey, sponsored by PayPal and the National Cyber Security Alliance, found that 53 percent of Americans are “comfortable” replacing passwords with fingerprints, 45 percent would opt for a retinal scan, and 41 percent are comfortable with photo identification. Read more of this post

Unless your company is Chinese, it’s a tough time to be a telecoms engineer

Unless your company is Chinese, it’s a tough time to be a telecoms engineer

By Jason Karaian @jkaraian October 9, 2013

Alcatel-Lucent’s announcement of 10,000 job cuts caught many by surprise, not least the French government, which vows to fight the layoffs alongside unions. Those familiar with trends in the telecoms equipment industry are not as surprised by the cuts; they are only the latest in a string of layoffs at network suppliers, driven by stiff competition from Chinese challengers. Read more of this post

In a growing Asian trend, Samsung wants to acquire Valley companies

In a growing Asian trend, Samsung wants to acquire Valley companies

October 9, 2013

by Anh-Minh Do

There is one current paradigm that rules over Asia these days. It’s that Asians are obsessed with Silicon Valley. Asian founders, startup community organizers, and wantrapreneurs get all googly eyed when the likes of Google and Facebook fly all the way out to Asia to network and give talks. It’s the power of the Silicon Valley brand. But there’s a quiet movement brewing that’s unbeknownst to the fanboys. It’s a slow shift in the other direction. Read more of this post

Global PC sales tank to lowest level since 2008

Global PC sales tank to lowest level since 2008

TABLET MARKET SLOWDOWN, ANDY HARGREAVES, GARTNER INC, LENOVO GROUP LTD, HEWLETT-PACKARD CO, ACER INC, BUSINESS NEWS

CNBC.com | Wednesday, 9 Oct 2013 | 11:19 PM ET

Global personal computer (PC) shipments tanked almost 9 percent on-year during the third quarter – a period of historically strong demand – to the lowest level in five years, according to a new report by Gartner. “The third quarter is often referred to as the ‘back-to-school’ quarter for PC sales, and sales this quarter dropped to their lowest volume since 2008,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at technology research firm Gartner. Read more of this post

Book critics are divided over the quality of Dave Eggers’s highly anticipated novel “The Circle,” which has started a debate on whether technology is invading our lives

October 9, 2013

A Novel Prompts a Conversation About How We Use Technology

By JULIE BOSMAN and CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

Has Dave Eggers written a parable of our time, an eviscerating takedown of Silicon Valley and its privacy-invading technology companies? Or has he missed his target, producing a sanctimonious screed that fails to humanize its characters and understand its subject? Book critics are divided over the quality of Mr. Eggers’s highly anticipated novel “The Circle,” which went on sale Tuesday. But in Silicon Valley and beyond, the book’s theme promises to spark an even bigger debate over the 21st-century hyperconnected world that Mr. Eggers describes. Read more of this post

Weibo Can’t Retweet Twitter IPO; Twitter’s Plans May Run Into China’s Attitudes Toward the Internet

October 9, 2013, 11:02 a.m. ET

Weibo Can’t Retweet Twitter IPO

Investors in Sina, Which Owns Chinese Twitter Rival Weibo, May Be Putting Too Much Faith in the U.S. Company’s Looming Stock-Market Debut

AARON BACK

Sina SINA +3.28% has been sharing in the excitement over Twitter’s planned initial public offering. But investors may be getting ahead of themselves. Sina’s Weibo is the dominant microblog platform in China, where Twitter is blocked by Beijing’s firewall. The hope is that a handsome valuation for Twitter would imply even greater riches for Sina. Yet the two services may not be all that comparable. Twitter says it had 218 million monthly active users at the end of June. Weibo releases a different metric of 54 million daily active users, but Credit Suisse CSGN.VX -0.65% estimates in a note that its monthly number is 81 million. Read more of this post

Dating app Paktor chats up Southeast Asia

Dating app Paktor chats up Southeast Asia

October 9, 2013

by Phoebe Magdirila

Dating apps are gaining ground in Asia, but not many of them are homegrown. Singapore-based startupPaktor has arrived to fill the gap. Only a month after launching in Thailand, it now lands in Vietnam, Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea and India. Paktor aims to be Asians’ go-to app when they want to make new friends – or better yet, find a date. Read more of this post

General Electric has announced partnerships with AT&T, Cisco and Intel to expand its industrial internet service that allows its customers to analyse data and predict outcomes

Corporate giants expand industrial internet

October 10, 2013 – 9:47AM

General Electric has announced partnerships with AT&T, Cisco and Intel to expand its industrial internet service that allows its customers to analyse data and predict outcomes. The service helps customers analyse industrial “big data” – data so large that it is difficult to process using traditional database and software. This would help customers minimise downtime, increase productivity, lower fuel costs and reduce emissions. By connecting machines to the network and the cloud, workers can track, monitor, and operate GE’s machinery wirelessly from anywhere through secure and machine-to-machine communications, GE Software’s corporate officer Bill Ruh said. GE has existing partnerships with Amazon Web Services, Accenture and Pivotal to support the service. GE said the ten “predictivity” products it launched last year have contributed revenue of $US290 million ($307 million) so far this year. The company said it has 14 new customers for the 14 products launched on Wednesday. According to technology research group Wikibon, industrial data is expected to grow at two times the rate of any other big data segment over the next decade.

How Going Free Can Bring Profits

October 9, 2013, 4:15 p.m. ET

How Going Free Can Bring Profits

BEN ROONEY

Here is a paradox. The most popular app in the Apple store, Candy Crush Saga, is free. The game’s maker, London-based King, hasn’t disclosed revenue numbers, but its holding company, Midasplayer International Holding Co., is widely reported to be planning an IPO soon—suggesting it thinks it can make money, or at least convince investors that it can. But if free can be so lucrative, why has the newspaper industry, large parts of which have been giving away content for years, been ravaged? Likewise, the music industry, which didn’t so much give its content away free as have it stolen, saw revenues more than halve in the decade from 1999, from $14.6 billion to just $6.3 billion, according to a Forrester Research Inc. report. Read more of this post

New Rules Break Down the Walls for New Angel Investors

New Rules Break Down the Walls for New Angel Investors

Easing of Government Restrictions Allows Funding Syndicates Such as AngelList to Flourish

SPENCER E. ANTE and EVELYN M. RUSLI

Oct. 8, 2013 8:45 p.m. ET

When entrepreneur Jakub Krzych raised seed funding for his first technology startup in 2009, it took him around six months to scrounge together $20,000. A few weeks ago, Mr. Krzych rounded up $250,000 in just three days for his second startup, called Estimote. What changed? An easing on some of the U.S. government’s long-standing restrictions on fundraising has given life to a new type of venture-financing vehicle called an online syndicate, that allows so-called “angel” or early-stage investors to quickly assemble a group of investors over the Internet. Read more of this post

Mobile Advertising Begins to Take Off

Mobile Advertising Begins to Take Off

Spending More Than Doubled in the First Half

SUZANNE VRANICA and CHRISTOPHER S. STEWART

Updated Oct. 9, 2013 9:11 p.m. ET

Marketers are finally convinced that there’s money to be made peddling everything from soap to salad dressing to the legions of consumers glued to their smartphones and tablets: Spending on mobile advertising more than doubled in the first half of the year. Mobile-ad spending in the U.S. totaled $3 billion in the first half, up from $1.2 billion a year earlier, the Interactive Advertising Bureau estimates. Read more of this post

Asian Messaging Apps Challenge Silicon Valley; China’s WeChat and Korea’s Line Are Threatening the Global Growth of WhatsApp and Facebook

October 9, 2013, 2:51 p.m. ET

Asian Messaging Apps Challenge Silicon Valley

China’s WeChat and Japan’s Line Are Threatening the Global Growth of WhatsApp and Facebook

JURO OSAWA And PAUL MOZUR

In the fiercely competitive market for smartphone applications, two Asian contenders are starting a trend from the Far East—and sending a message to Silicon Valley. China’s WeChat and Japan’s Line may be unfamiliar to most U.S. smartphone users. But the apps, which combine instant messaging with social networks, are well-known to hundreds of millions in Asia and other parts of the globe, challenging the global dominance of U.S.-based WhatsApp Inc. and even posing a potential threat to Facebook Inc. FB -0.78%and Twitter Inc. Line and WeChat’s prospects are far from assured in the fast-evolving world of mobile services, and how well they can prosper outside Asia is largely unknown. But their expansion is a marked change from the pattern of most social networks being born and gaining critical mass in the U.S. before spreading to other countries. Read more of this post

Yoox Looking at Acquisitions to Boost Business, CEO Says; Richemont acquired the two-thirds of Net-a-Porter it didn’t own in 2010 in a deal valuing the retailer at $558m. Net-a-Porter reported latest full-year loss of $25.7m

Yoox Looking at Acquisitions to Boost Business, CEO Says

Yoox SpA (YOOX) Chief Executive Officer Federico Marchetti said the online retailer is looking at acquisitions to bolster its business, though it isn’t in talks currently to buy Cie. Financiere Richemont SA (CFR)’s Net-a-Porter. “There are no talks underway with Richemont,” Marchetti said today in a phone interview. Asked if there had been talks between the companies about Net-a-Porter, he said: “We wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t look at certain acquisitions in a selective manner and we will continue to do so.” Read more of this post

Samsung’s First Curved Smartphone Moves Toward Bendable Display

Samsung’s First Curved Smartphone Moves Toward Bendable Display

Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) will sell what it called the world’s first smartphone with a curved display as the largest handset maker moves toward devices with bendable screens in its competition with Apple Inc. (AAPL) The Galaxy Round, with a 5.7-inch (14-centimeter) display, will go on sale in South Korea today for 1,089,000 won ($1,011), Samsung said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The 7.9-millimeter thick device will only be available in the Suwon, South Korea-based company’s home market and in one color: brown. Read more of this post