Apple’s Memory Markup Puts Margins Ahead of Market Share

Apple’s Memory Markup Puts Margins Ahead of Market Share

Buying memory to store more photos, videos and applications on a smartphone costs most consumers about $50. For Apple Inc. (AAPL) customers, it costs four times more than that. The discrepancy is what consumers will find again in stores starting Sept. 20, when the world’s most-valuable company begins selling its new iPhone 5s and 5c. While a 5s with 16 gigabytes of memory will cost $199 with a wireless contract, that jumps to $399 for 64 gigabytes of memory. The 5c also ranges in price depending on the amount of memory. Read more of this post

A 90-year-old helium reservoir in Texas could shut down next month causing disruptions and raising costs for makers of high-tech products from MRI scanners to semiconductors and threaten medical treatments and research

Tech firms, medical research threatened by helium shortage

5:52am EDT

By Nina Chestney

LONDON (Reuters) – A 90-year-old helium reservoir in Texas could shut down next month causing disruptions and raising costs for makers of high-tech products from MRI scanners to semiconductors and threaten medical treatments and research. More than 100 organisations, universities and companies, including Siemens, Philips, Samsung, and General Electric, wrote to the U.S. Congress last week urging it to keep the reservoir open or risk a disruption to the U.S. economy, putting millions of jobs at risk. Read more of this post

Content Creators Use Piracy to Gauge Consumer Interest

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013, 4:18 PM

Content Creators Use Piracy to Gauge Consumer Interest

By NICK BILTON

You would think that Netflix, HBO and the like don’t think too highly of video piracy Web sites. After all, two of the biggest hits on Netflix — Orange Is the New Black, a show about a women locked up in prison, andHouse of Cards, about a conniving politician — are among the most pirated content online. HBO’s Game of Thrones was the most pirated show of 2012. But last week, a senior Netflix executive said the company itself used pirating Web sites  — to determine the genre of new shows viewers might be interested in, and the type of content Netflix produces or licenses. Read more of this post

As TV world shifts, HBO retains its Emmy swagger

As TV world shifts, HBO retains its Emmy swagger

6:45pm EDT

By Piya Sinha-Roy and Lisa Richwine

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – When fictional columnist Carrie Bradshaw helped HBO grab its first series Emmy award in 2001 for comedy “Sex and the City,” the premium cable network’s main competition came from broadcast networks CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox. Today, the field fighting for Emmy glory includes contenders from the past few years like basic cable channels AMC and FX, but also the much talked-about rookie, the video streaming service Netflix. And then there’s a resurgent PBS, the U.S. public television channel. Read more of this post

Tencent’s worth: A Chinese internet firm finds a better way to make money

Tencent’s worth: A Chinese internet firm finds a better way to make money

Sep 21st 2013 | SHANGHAI |From the print edition

IS TENCENT one of the world’s greatest internet firms? There are grounds for scepticism. The Chinese gaming and social-media firm started in the same way many local internet firms have: by copying Western success. QQ, its instant-messaging service, was a clone of ICQ, an Israeli invention acquired by AOL of America. And unlike global internet giants such as Google and Twitter, Tencent still makes its money in its protected home market. Read more of this post

Sony-Microsoft Battle Broadens to Romance Games at Tokyo Show

Sony-Microsoft Battle Broadens to Romance Games at Tokyo Show

Sony Corp. (6758) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) are battling more than just each other as they showcase new consoles at the Tokyo Game Show. They’re also fighting for the attention of players of romance fantasies like “Kiss of Revenge.” Role-playing games, cloud-based gaming and vendors hawking products for costume-wearing fans are taking up more floor space as the show opens tomorrow in the birthplace of video-game machines. A record 342 exhibitors will attend the last major trade event before the holiday shopping season. Read more of this post

In Arrival of 2 iPhones, 3 Lessons

September 17, 2013

In Arrival of 2 iPhones, 3 Lessons

By DAVID POGUE

We can draw three lessons from the arrival of Apple’s two new iPhone models, the 5C and 5S.

LESSON 1 Apple may have set its own bar for innovation too high. Year after year, Steve Jobs used to blow our minds with products we didn’t know we wanted. Now, two years after his death, we still expect every new iPhone to clean our gutters, cook our popcorn and levitate. So when the hardware revisions are minor each year, we’re disappointed. And sure enough, after Apple showed off its two new iPhone models last week, its stock dropped. Analysts shrugged that they contain nothing “transformative.” The blogger-haters had a field day. The budget model, the new iPhone 5C, comes in five colors ($100 for the 16-gigabyte model with a two-year contract, $550 without). It’s essentially identical to last year’s iPhone 5, except that its back and sides are a single piece of plastic instead of metal and glass. Actually, “plastic” isn’t quite fair. The 5C’s case is polycarbonate, lacquered like a glossy piano. Better yet, its back edges are curved for the first time since the iPhones of 2008. You can tell by touch which way it’s facing in your pocket. It’s a terrific phone. The price is right. It will sell like hot cakes; the new iPhones go on sale Friday. But just sheathing last year’s phone in shiny plastic isn’t a stunning advance. Read more of this post

Freelancer.com’s Matt Barrie turns down $US400m payday

Freelancer.com’s Matt Barrie turns down $US400m payday

PUBLISHED: 1 HOUR 39 MINUTES AGO | UPDATE: 0 HOUR 32 MINUTES AGO

“I don’t think I’m ready to sit by the beach just yet,” says Matt Barrie, chief executive of Freelancer.com. Photo: Fairfax

JESSICA GARDNER

Freelancer.com chief executive Matt Barrie has turned down offers to sell the online job outsourcing marketplace in favour of a domestic public listing before the end of the year. The company was recently linked to a $US400 million ($428 million) bid from Japanese company Recruit Co, which would have given Mr Barrie a $US200 million pay day. Mr Barrie wouldn’t comment on the offer but said he has decided to turn down a number of different deals in favour of a public float. “We had a number of things in front of us including active terms sheets from VC [venture capital], private equity and banks, [as well as] offers, at varying stages of completion from more than one party to sell the company 100 per cent,” he said. “After careful consideration of these options we’ve decided to take the company public on the ASX [Australian Securities Exchange] and will do by end of year.” Mr Barrie said his goal was to build Australia’s “first big global consumer internet company.” “Out of all the options [listing on the ASX] gives us the best opportunity to achieve that while staying masters of our own destiny.” A trade sale of Freelancer.com would have brought Mr Barrie significant wealth, given he owns 50 per cent of the company. But he said that route would have left him unfulfilled. “There are almost 9 million people on Freelancer. eBay has almost 9 million people just in Australia alone. It’s such early days.” “I don’t think I’m ready to sit by the beach just yet.”

No Flight of Fancy, the Jetpack Is Coming—From New Zealand; “Think of it like a motorcycle in the sky,”

September 16, 2013, 10:41 p.m. ET

No Flight of Fancy, the Jetpack Is Coming—From New Zealand

But Figuring Out What It Is and What To Do With It Is Still Up in the Air

REBECCA HOWARD

As New Zealand’s Martin Aircraft Company prepares to launch a jetpack for consumers next year, aviation authorities across the globe are figuring out just how to classify the new aircraft. WSJ’s Rebecca Howard reports from Christchurch. CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand—As standard gear for James Bond and Buzz Lightyear, jetpacks have long captured the public imagination as a way to dodge traffic jams and Cold War villains.

Read more of this post

How Asia’s messaging apps will blossom as mobile platforms

How Asia’s messaging apps will blossom as mobile platforms

September 17, 2013

by Joshua Kevin

Joshua Kevin is a former blogger at Tech in Asia and former community manager at KakaoTalk Indonesia. Now, he’s working on his own startup which he hopes to have fully launched early next year. You can follow him on Twitter, @jshkvn. The views expressed are his own and are not related to KakaoTalk in any way.

There has been a lot of debate about how messaging apps, especially those from Asia. Line, KakaoTalk, and WeChat are going to rule the world, starting from their own region or country, then expanding. While it’s still early days for these apps, I want to talk about something that’s often mis-interpreted: stickers. Yes, those huge, animated stickers/emoticons were started by KakaoTalk and Line, then WeChat followed, and then even western companies such as Path and Facebook followed the trend. This has made tech blogs and the media, in general, go crazy about how stickers are going to set the social media world on fire and make tons of money for these companies. Yes, they’ll bring in some cash, but they won’t be the main source of income. Read more of this post

LG, Samsung Display feel heat from little-known Chinese LCD makers

LG, Samsung Display feel heat from little-known Chinese LCD makers

5:46pm EDT

By Miyoung Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – Chinese flat screen makers, once dismissed as second-class players in the global LCD market, are drawing envious looks from big names such as LG Display Co Ltd and Samsung. While the Korean giants were busy developing next-generation organic light emitting diode (OLED) TVs, little-known Chinese companies have started selling a type of display that are sharper than the standard LCD and cheaper than OLED. Say hello to ultra high-definition (UHD) displays. Read more of this post

Twitter’s Plans May Run Into China’s Attitudes Toward the Internet

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013, 1:12 PM

Twitter’s Plans May Run Into China’s Attitudes Toward the Internet

By BILL BISHOP

Twitter disclosed last week that it had confidentially filed for an initial public offering. The secret filing means outsiders are left guessing about many details of the social media giant’s business. We can be fairly certain, however, that Twitter has no meaningful financial contribution from China. Nor are more than a handful of its reported 240 million active users among the nearly 600 million people on the Chinese Internet. Twitter, like Facebook, YouTube and several other foreign Internet services and news Web sites deemed sensitive, is blocked by China’s “Great Firewall.” Twitter, however, may still have opportunities to generate revenue from China. Read more of this post

Yoox Fashions a Digital Boom in Luxury; Investors With an Eye on Luxury Web Sales Can Look Past Burberry to the Yoox Site

September 16, 2013, 3:38 p.m. ET

Yoox Fashions a Digital Boom in Luxury

Investors With an Eye on Luxury Web Sales Can Look Past Burberry to the Yoox Site

JOHN JANNARONE

When models walked the runway in London on Monday showcasing Burberry‘sBRBY.LN -0.44% new women’s collection, few outside of the fashion elite and some rock stars got invited. But for the next two weeks, looks unveiled at the show will be available exclusively to another group: visitors to Burberry’s website. Investors with an eye for this trend, though, may want to consider looking beyond the usual brand names. Read more of this post

The Top 10 Questions About Twitter’s Real Value

The Top 10 Questions About Twitter’s Real Value

Tyler Durden on 09/16/2013 20:43 -0400

The number whispered on Wall Street is $10 billion (or $14-$15 if you ask The Saudis), but potential investors in the micro-blogger’s IPO will need more to go on than simple valuation math and guided judgment.  As ConvergEx’s Nick Colas notes, Tech firms are particularly dependent on innovation and human capital for their viability. So while Twitter may come out with a double-digit billion dollar IPO, Colas points out the most important question – Is it actually worth buying there? The bottom line to the success of thriving tech companies (historically names such as Amazon, Google and Apple) is that they consistently and reliably build products that people want to purchase and use.  Colas explores multiple avenues to determine whether Twitter has the engine to do this, or whether it could emerge more “Groupon” than “Google” in the public company tech arena – and the answer lies in how you weigh the pros and cons of our top 10 points related to the social network’s IPO.  As for Colas, he’d prefer a clearer picture of Twitter’s vision (i.e. a pipeline of new innovative product ideas) before tossing his dollars in the ring. Via ConvergEx’s Nick Colas, Read more of this post

Premium rush: when old services become new tech companies

Premium rush: when old services become new tech companies

BY CALE GUTHRIE WEISSMAN 
ON SEPTEMBER 16, 2013

Couriers predate the birth of Christ, which means way before that meh bike messenger movie, “Premium Rush.” One account has them rising to prominence in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Even farther back there’s Hermes, the Greek messenger god, who could be considered the first courier sans bike and hip messenger bag. And, of course, there was Greek messenger Pheidippides, who ran from the battle of Marathon to Athens to deliver news about the battle. Read more of this post

Netflix Changed the Way it Describes Itself. But Why?

September 16, 2013, 5:25 PM

Netflix Changed the Way it Describes Itself. But Why?

TOM GARA

An interesting spot by analyst Richard Greenfield at BTIG: As he notes in a blog post today, NetflixNFLX -1.14% recently updated its “Long Term View”, a manifesto-like vision statement on what the company is and what it is becoming. The document was originally released back in April, and began like this (emphasis ours):

Over the coming decades and across the world, Internet TV will replace linear TV.

Apps will replace channels, remote controls will disappear, and screens will proliferate.

As Internet TV grows from millions to billions, Netflix, HBO, and ESPN are leading the way.

After its recent refresh, that last line has been changed in a small but interesting way (emphasis ours, again):

As Internet TV grows from millions to billions, Netflix is leading the way.

Netflix went from pushing the industry forward along with two of cable’s most successful players, to doing the hard work all on its own.

What else has changed? Greenfield runs through the big points over at his blog, butthere are a few notable things he mentions.

– One point previously made was that Netflix is “not a generic video company” doing news, sports, reality TV and so on. “We are movies and TV shows,” it said. After the update, that has got an interesting addition: It now reads “We are a movie and TV series network” (emphasis ours). – A riff on the long-tail nature of internet TV — instead of a tight lineup of mainstream hits, “the Internet allows us to offer a wide selection, and to have our user-interface quickly learn each individual’s taste” — is still there. But the next paragraph, which concluded that “even the highest-demand titles don’t materially swing viewing” was removed. – A projection that about 10% of total spending will go toward developing original shows has been removed. In its place, a less specific plan to “stay efficient in terms of what we spend relative to licensed content.” It’s hard to know what all this means — these kind of documents can be reworded for any number of reasons — but it’s not hard to see a trend: Netflix increasingly sees itself as the HBO network of the internet TV age, it wants to build up its name for exclusive shows you can’t watch anywhere else, and it’s not keen on limiting how much it can spend on producing its own shows to get there.

James Packer’s goCatch stake ‘like investing in Napster’: Australian Taxi Industry Association chief

Michael Bailey Deputy editor

James Packer’s goCatch stake ‘like investing in Napster’: Australian Taxi Industry Association chief

Published 16 September 2013 11:40, Updated 17 September 2013 07:46

James Packer and the other parties which have just poured $3 million into taxi booking smartphone app goCatch are speculating that it won’t be required to meet the safety regulations applying to established booking and dispatch services, says the head of the Australian Taxi Industry Association (ATIA), Blair Davies. Davies, whose body provides representation on national issues to taxi dispatch services and licence owners including the vertically integrated Cabcharge, likens backing goCatch to being an early investor in peer-to-peer file sharing network, Napster. “These things look like they’re going gangbusters and revolutionising the world, and then reality catches up with them,” he says. Read more of this post

Is it crazy to start an e-commerce company in the age of Amazon?

Is it crazy to start an e-commerce company in the age of Amazon?

BY MAURIA FINLEY 
ON SEPTEMBER 16, 2013

People often ask why you’d be crazy enough to start an e-commerce company in the Amazon age. “Won’t Amazon kill you?” they ask. Yes, Amazon is an 800-pound gorilla, but it’s not the only game in town – and it falls short in several ways. If you’re smart and focus on where Amazon fails, an innovative e-commerce startups can grow into a large, successful company. Everyone knows the e-commerce market is huge. In 2013, US retail e-commerce sales will total an estimated $259 billion, a 14.8 percent annual increase over 2012, and e-commerce sales will continue to grow at a 14 percent compound annual growth rate from 2012 to 2017, says eMarketer. Read more of this post

How freewheeling Twitter became a money-spinning juggernaut

How freewheeling Twitter became a money-spinning juggernaut

8:30pm EDT

By Gerry Shih and Alexei Oreskovic

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Around midnight on Christmas Eve of 2009, a handful of employees at Twitter received an unconventional holiday greeting from Dick Costolo, then the chief operating officer. “It was an email that said, ‘We have to move really, really fast. There’s no time to rest because we have a massive opportunity in front of us,” recalled Anamitra Banerji, who headed the team that built Twitter’s first advertising product. “It was kind of crazy because we were all on break, but that attitude was exactly what we needed at Twitter.” Read more of this post

For Twitter, Key to Revenue Is No Longer Ad Simplicity

September 16, 2013

For Twitter, Key to Revenue Is No Longer Ad Simplicity

By VINDU GOEL

SAN FRANCISCO — When it comes to making money, Twitter is all about keeping it simple. There are no banner ads, no dancing animations, no ads inserted between screens that you must click to get past. Virtually all of the company’s revenue, which is projected to be nearly $600 million this year and $950 million next year, comes from three basic advertising formats that blend smoothly into its core microblogging service, whether users are accessing it from a mobile phone or a Web browser. Read more of this post

Feeling tipsy? New apps read blood alcohol levels, hail a taxi

Feeling tipsy? New apps read blood alcohol levels, hail a taxi

3:14pm EDT

By Natasha Baker

TORONTO (Reuters) – Before getting behind the wheel after a night out, a driver can test his blood alcohol level with new apps that not only give a reading but can call a cab. Breathometer, for iPhones and Android smartphones, and BACtrack, for iPhones, display a user’s blood alcohol level within seconds on smartphone-connected breathalyzers. “People think, ‘Oh, I’m driving around the corner,’ but it’s not until they get pulled over that they realize they’re over the limit,” said Charles Michael Yim, chief executive of Breathometer, based in Burlingame, California. More than 1.2 million people were arrested in the United States in 2011 for driving under the influence of alcohol, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation data. Read more of this post

Ex-Soviet Programmers Take On India in $48 Billion Market

Ex-Soviet Programmers Take On India in $48 Billion Market

When Arkadiy Dobkin emigrated to the U.S. two decades ago, his first job was washing dishes. Now he employs 10,000 programmers in his native Belarus and elsewhere in eastern Europe, developing software for clients such as Barclays Plc and Expedia Inc. Dobkin’s Epam Systems Inc. (EPAM) is among a slew of eastern European companies seeking a piece of the $48 billion global outsourcing market. The companies are building on engineering expertise grounded in the Soviet era to challenge Indian programming giants such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) Read more of this post

For TV Shows, It’s a Seller’s Market; Broadcasters No Longer Have First Dibs in Race for Original Series

September 16, 2013, 7:25 p.m. ET

For TV Shows, It’s a Seller’s Market

Broadcasters No Longer Have First Dibs in Race for Original Series

AMOL SHARMA And KEACH HAGEY

Broadcast TV networks used to get first crack at all the best scripts in Hollywood. Nowadays, they are mere participants in a mad scramble. TV-show creators this year are taking their pitches far beyond the networks, says Jennifer Salke, president of NBC Entertainment. “They are taking them to Netflix,NFLX -1.14% they are going to HBO, they are hitting every cable outlet,” she says. “It just puts you in the position of being even more of an underdog.” Read more of this post

Taiwan Chip Industry Powers the Tech World, but Struggles for Status

September 15, 2013

Taiwan Chip Industry Powers the Tech World, but Struggles for Status

By ERIC PFANNER

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Tien Wu, chief operating officer of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, has a problem: the brightest young people in Taiwan do not want to work in the island’s signature business, chip making. “All the college freshmen are asking, ‘Why should I join the industry? I’d rather work for Facebook, Apple or Google,’ ” Mr. Wu said in an interview. Taiwan, an island of 23 million people, is the world’s biggest chip maker. The industry generated about $63 billion in sales here last year — more than one-fifth of the global total, according to the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association. Made-in-Taiwan chips are major components in many of the world’s PCs, smartphones, cameras and other gadgets. Read more of this post

Security tech firms hit jackpot in Asia casino boom

Security tech firms hit jackpot in Asia casino boom

6:52pm EDT

By Stephen Coates and Farah Master

SYDNEY/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asia’s new mega-casinos are driving sales and innovation in advanced surveillance technology, from chips with built-in radio transmitters to high-definition, multi-lens, digital cameras that can scan huge gaming floors and catch the deftest sleight of hand. Security solution providers such as German-Australian joint venture Dallmeier International, California-based Pelco, a unit of Schneider Electric PA, and Samsung Techwin Co Ltd, about 25 percent-owned by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, are among those reaping the benefits of Asia’s casino building boom. Read more of this post

Videoconferencing Options Expand; Falling prices and newer technologies make this tool more accessible—and useful

Updated September 15, 2013, 5:18 p.m. ET

Videoconferencing Options Expand

Falling prices and newer technologies make this tool more accessible—and useful

RACHEL NIELSEN

One would expect scientists with the institution that gave birth to the World Wide Web to be able to speak face-to-face over the Internet. But what scientists do at CERN, an international organization for physics research, defies most people’s expectations. Consider that a single video session can include hundreds of people. Some 300 sessions a day can take place among the 20,000 scientists affiliated with CERN, though they work in institutes scattered around the globe. Read more of this post

Privately-owned software firm MYOB has reported a surge in the number of new customers buying subscriptions to its online services, as the rise of cloud computing shakes up the sector

MYOB transition to all-digital world

September 16, 2013 – 4:00PM

Clancy Yeates

Privately-owned software firm MYOB has reported a surge in the number of new customers buying subscriptions to its online services, as the rise of cloud computing shakes up the sector. MYOB, now owned by Bain Capital, made its name in the 1990s selling accounting software packages for small businesses to install on desktop computers. But in recent years it has faced growing competition from new rivals such as ASX-listed Xero providing similar services over the web. Read more of this post