Xbox One To Hit China After Console Ban Lifted

Microsoft has announced it will launch the Xbox One in China after a 14-year-old ban on consoles was lifted.

It becomes the first foreign country to announce the sale of a console since the ban was rescinded in January.

Gaming consoles were banned in 2000 amid fears the mental health of young people in the country could be damaged by the devices.

It meant major gaming firms such as Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony have been locked out of one of the world's booming markets.

A message on Microsoft’s website called the news "monumental" for the company.

"The culture of games and entertainment is rapidly growing in China, with nearly half a billion people playing games - roughly a third of the country’s population and more than the entire population of North America."

Microsoft has teamed up with BesTV, a subsidiary of Shanghai Media Group, to distribute the consoles from September.

Sales of the Xbox One have lagged behind those of Playstation 4, partly due to Sony launching its console in more countries than Microsoft.

The move into China may help the Xbox One pick up some momentum in the console sales battle.

Without console gaming, China's games scene is currently dominated by PC, mobile and online games.

In 2013, the gaming industry in China was worth £8bn, a rise of around 40% on the previous year.

AT&T plans better in-flight Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi service on airplanes is mostly terrible. AT&T thinks it can change that with its planned 4G in-flight broadband service.

Planned for a late-2015 launch, AT&T (T, Fortune 500) will team with Honeywell's(HON, Fortune 500) aerospace division to build out an air-to-ground network. AT&T claims the network will "transform airborne connectivity." As of now, however, the network isn't built out and exists in the minds of AT&T's engineers.

The FCC has previously expressed desire to offer a better in-flight Internet experience by freeing up wireless spectrum for telecommunications companies to use. But that process has stalled due to various regulatory processes. Meanwhile, AT&T's planned network will use the same 4G wireless technology and spectrum that it uses for everyday smartphone communications.

Current in-flight broadband services, such as Gogo (GOGO) Inflight Internet, use slower 3G speeds and are inconsistent at best for anything more than basic email. To make matters worse, Gogo has also become increasingly expensive in recent years. Shares of Gogo plummeted 21% Tuesday.

AT&T's stated goal is to improve the speed issue. The price problem is still a mystery, however, as. AT&T has not yet announced any airline partners or pricing plans.

Once completed, AT&T says the network will be available only within the continental United States. 

Tablets Boost 'Silver Surfer' Web Use

The number of older people going online has soared, driven by the uptake of tablet devices and smartphones, according to Ofcom.

Among those over 65, internet use rose by 25% in just a year, mainly because of the popularity of tablet devices among that age group.

The Ofcom report provides a comprehensive overview of the UK population’s media use.

It says young people are spending more than 24 hours a week online.

But 16-24 year olds are also better informed about privacy and security than typical UK adults, who spend an average of nearly 17 hours online per week.

Although laptop and desktop computers remain the most popular way of accessing the internet, two-thirds of adults now use other devices like smartphones and tablets.

Twice as many people now use tablets as they did in 2012.

Smartphones are also getting greyer. Six in 10 adults now use one, mainly driven by increased ownership among 45-54 year olds.

As a result, gamers are getting older: Playing games on a smartphone has more than doubled among 45 to 54-year-olds and 55 to 64-year-olds.

On tablets, the number of gamers in those age groups has tripled since last year. Those older than 45 now spend more than four hours per week playing games.

But on smartphones, more than half the apps installed are never used.

Ofcom found that most people only use 10 apps regularly, out of an average of 23 installed.

Facebook was the most popular social network, followed by Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp.

The average person has 228 friends online - a number that is unchanged since 2012.

Women are slightly more likely to have a Facebook profile than men, but men are significantly more likely to use Twitter, YouTube and MySpace.

eBay to repatriate $9bn in cash to US

E-commerce giant eBay has said it is repatriating almost $9bn (£5.3bn) of its cash held overseas back to the US.

The firm said the move, which will see it paying taxes of $3bn on the cash, would help it access funds for any potential acquisitions in the country.

Many US firms have kept some of their cash overseas, a move widely seen as a way to avoid high US tax rates.

On Tuesday, Apple raised $12bn via a bond sale, rather than bring back some of the $159bn it holds offshore.

However, the chief executive of eBay said the company could utilise its cash in the US as it looks to expand its business.

"If you look at our last 15 acquisitions, my guess is ten have been inside the US, maybe 11," John Donahoe said.

"Just looking at that versus where our cash is located, you just say, alright it would make more sense to have more cash in the US for mergers and acquisitions."

The firm disclosed the move as it reported its earnings for the first quarter of 2014. Its revenues rose 14% compared with same period last year, to $4.3bn.

However, the tax charge over the repatriation of its overseas cash drove the firm into a net loss of $2.3bn.

eBay also issued a weaker-than-expected forecast for the current quarter.

It forecast a profit of between 67 cents and 69 cents per share in the second quarter. Many analysts were expecting a figure of 70 cents.

The weak outlook saw the firm's share fall nearly 4.5% in after-hours trading.

Twitter shares drop 11% on slowdown in user growth

Shares in Twitter dropped to their lowest levels since the company's stock market flotation, as it reported slower than expected user growth.

The number of active users on the social network reached 255 million in the first three months of 2014, up 5.8% on the previous quarter but below analysts' expectations.

Twitter also reported a net loss of $132m (£78m) for the latest quarter.

But it posted revenue of $250m, $226m of which came through advertising.

Despite higher user growth than the previous quarter, when Twitter saw just a 3.8% rise, Twitter's stocks fell by more than 11% in after-hours trading, sending the price below its initial public offering of $38.80 per share.

The rise in Twitter active users comes after four consecutive quarters of declining growth, but the turnaround was not strong enough to convince investors.

Twitter's chief executive Dick Costolo highlighted the company's revenue increase, and said it was "fuelled by increased engagement and user growth".

The integration of advertising management software MoPub had helped Twitter "reach more than 1bn iOS and Android users each month", he added.

Another measure of user engagement, timeline views, increased 15% in the first three months of 2014 to 157 billion.

But the number of Twitter users is still well below its most high-profile competitor, Facebook, which boasts 1.28 billion active users.

WhatsApp, the messaging app Facebook bought for $19bn, recently passed the 500 million user milestone.

Apple rolls out new, cheaper MacBook Airs!

Apple has refreshed its line of MacBook Air notebooks, dropping in more powerful processors and knocking $100 off the price.The 11-inch Air, with 128GB of storage, now sells for $899 and options range up to a 13-inch screen with 256GB of storage for $1,199.

The new versions of the computers, which Apple announced Tuesday, contain fourth-generation Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors.Apple says the new processors work with its OS X Mavericks operating system to provide 12 hours of battery life on the 13-inch models and 9 hours on the 11-inch MacBook Airs.

A more radical overhaul of the popular laptop line is expected later this year. Apple-centric blog 9to5Mac is reporting that Apple is developing a hybrid, 12-inch MacBook Air that would perform like the larger, more powerful model while being almost as portable as the current 11-inch Air.In the meantime, the company appears to be addressing one of the common gripes from the anti-Apple crowd -- that more powerful PCs can be had for a fraction of the cost of Apple's laptop and desktop offerings."With MacBook Air starting at $899, there's no reason to settle for anything less than a Mac," Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of marketing, said in a written statement. "Macs have never been more popular, and today we've boosted the performance and lowered the price of MacBook Air so even more people can experience the perfect everyday notebook."

The new models are now available online, in Apple's retail stores and at select authorized retailers.

Yahoo announces original TV series

Yahoo has announced two original TV series that will be shown on its website and mobile app.

It makes Yahoo the latest technology firm to join the fast-growing market for digital video content.

Companies such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and Microsoft have been looking to compete with traditional TV programming to attract viewers to their platforms.

Some have even been signing deals with internet service providers to stream videos faster and more smoothly.

On Monday, Netflix announced a deal with Verizon - one of the biggest internet service providers in the US - which will see Netflix servers connected directly to Verizon's network, resulting in faster speeds.

"We have reached an interconnect arrangement with Verizon that we hope will improve performance for our joint customers over the coming months," Joris Evers, spokesman for Netflix, said in a statement.

The firm had agreed a similar deal with Comcast earlier this year.

'Continue to build'

AstraZeneca shares soar after Pfizer confirms bid talks!

Shares in pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca rose by more than 14% on Monday, after US giant Pfizer confirmed its interest in a takeover bid.

The firm said it had contacted AstraZeneca over a multi-billion pound bid for the UK-based drug maker.

If successful, the deal would be the biggest ever takeover of a UK firm by a foreign company.

Pfizer said it approached AstraZeneca on Saturday, after an initial offer in January, worth £58.8bn, was rebuffed.

AstraZeneca said the original offer "significantly undervalued" the firm, which employs more than 51,000 staff.

However, AstraZeneca said it was "confident" its strategy would create "significant value" for shareholders on its own.

"The Board remains confident in the ongoing execution of AstraZeneca's strategy as an independent company," it added.

Pfizer said in a statement that AstraZeneca's refusal to engage meant it was currently "considering its options".

LG Electronics posts big jump in Q1 profit (more than 300%)!!!

South Korea's LG Electronics reported a jump in first quarter profit of more than 300%, helped by a rise in sales in its division that makes televisions.

Net profit jumped to 93bn Korean won ($87m; £52m) in Q1, compared to 22bn won in the year ago period.

The home entertainment unit, which makes TVs, had sales of 4.95tn won, up 2.6% on the same quarter last year.

The mobile phones division also performed well, shipping 12.3 million smart-phones in the first quarter.

That's a 19% jump in shipments when compared to the same period last year.

LG is expected to release its G3 smart-phone by the middle of the year.

Wide portfolio

The South Korean consumer electronics giant manufactures and sells a wide range of goods, from washing machines and refrigerators to smart-phones and television screens.

The company plans to expand its range of high-definition TV models with more sizes and price levels to offset tight competition in that industry.

As for the home appliances unit, there are plans to launch new models of washing machines and refrigerators.

UK economy grows by 0.8% in first quarter

The UK economy grew by 0.8% in the first quarter of 2014, according to the latest figures.

It marks the fifth consecutive period of GDP growth - the longest positive run since the financial crisis.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also said the economy is still 0.6% smaller than its 2008 peak.

Chancellor George Osborne said Tuesday's figure showed that "Britain is coming back", but that the recovery could not be taken for granted.

"The impact of the Great Recession is still being felt, but the foundations for a broad based recovery are now in place," he added.

"The biggest risk to economic security would be abandoning the plan that is laying those foundations."

Tuesday's growth figure - the ONS's first estimate for the quarter - is a slight increase on the 0.7% recorded for the final quarter of 2013, and a rise of 3.1% on the same period a year ago.

But many had been expecting the latest figure to be even higher, at 0.9%.

UK manufacturing output grew by 1.3%, the ONS said, its strongest quarter for nearly four years.

And the service sector, which includes everything from hotels and leisure to accountants, grew by 0.9%.

Construction output, which grew by 0.3%, was affected by the storms and high rainfall in January and February, the ONS said.

But it added that the bad weather did not have a significant impact on overall GDP growth.

Agriculture was the only one of the four main industrial sectors to register a fall in output, dropping by 0.7%.

Bank of England to withdraw the Houblon £50 note in fraud crackdown!

                          
The £50 note which features a portrait of Sir John Houblon is to be withdrawn from circulation on Wednesday.

The Bank of England estimates that there are still 53 million of the notes in circulation, amounting to a value of £2.65bn.

Members of the public or business people who use the Houblon £50 notes are being urged to exchange them or deposit them at banks.

Barclays, NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank and the Post Office have all agreed to exchange Houblon £50 notes for members of the public up to the value of £200 until 30 October 2014.

From May onwards, shops are unlikely to accept the older notes as payment. But the £50 banknote featuring Matthew Boulton and James Watt, introduced in 2011, will still be legal.

Victoria Cleland, head of the notes division at the Bank of England, says the 2011 notes have the better security features that the Houblon versions.

“We’d expect a lot to be out there,” she said. "There was an increase in demand for fifties during the financial crisis”.

The withdrawal of the note forms part of the Bank’s crackdown on fraud. The Boulton and Watt notes were the first to feature a green ‘motion thread’, with five windows featuring the pound symbol and the number 50, which moves when titled from side to side.

The First Windows XP Security Problem Microsoft Won't Fix

                                 

Microsoft warned many of its customers that they were on their own earlier this month when it stopped supporting XP, an older but still widespread version of its Windows operating system. The software remains functional, but Microsoft won’t fix its newly discovered security holes, leaving those who haven’t upgraded to a newer version vulnerable to a future hacking attack. It didn’t take long to find one.

Over the weekend, computer security company FireEye said it had noticed a number of attacks on U.S. firms via a vulnerability in various versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. If successful, the attacks can force a computer to run code of the attacker’s choosing, which could extract data or send spam. More than 26 percent of desktop computers used the affected browsers last year, according to NetMarketShare. FireEye gave the attack a name—Operation Clandestine Fox—but wouldn’t say much about the extent or targets of the attacks.

Microsoft is working on fixing the IE problem. The fix, though, will not be sent to machines running XP. As of the beginning of this month, XP was the world’s second-most-popular operating system in terms of Internet usage, according to StatCounter, and was the OS of choice of more than 18 percent of Internet users. In an e-mail to Reuters, the company suggested that people update their systems.

Russia vows 'painful' response to new U.S. sanctions over Ukraine

                                         

The United States expanded its sanctions against Russia on Monday, targeting members of President Vladimir Putin's "inner circle" and technology that could be useful to Russia's military.
President Barack Obama said the "targeted" sanctions are in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine.

"The United States has taken further action today in response to Russia's continued illegal intervention in Ukraine and provocative acts that undermine Ukraine's democracy and threaten its peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity," the White House said in a statement. Since a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on April 17, Russia "has done nothing" to meet its commitments "and in fact has further escalated the crisis," the White House said in a statement.

"The Department of the Treasury is imposing sanctions on seven Russian government officials, including two members of President Putin's inner circle, who will be subject to an asset freeze and a U.S. visa ban, and 17 companies linked to Putin's inner circle, which will be subject to an asset freeze.

"In addition, the Department of Commerce has imposed additional restrictions on 13 of those companies by imposing a license requirement with a presumption of denial for the export, re-export or other foreign transfer of U.S.-origin items to the companies."

Also, the departments of Commerce and State are tightening their "policy to deny export license applications for any high-technology items that could contribute to Russia's military capabilities. Those Departments also will revoke any existing export licenses that meet these conditions," the White House said.

Google: Self-driving cars are mastering city streets!

Long a veteran of the highways of rural California, Google's self-driving car is working on becoming safer in the city.

Over the past year or so, Google has been fine-tuning how the software running its fleet of automated vehicles handles the complexities of stop-and-go driving in heavily populated areas."A mile of city driving is much more complex than a mile of freeway driving, with hundreds of different objects moving according to different rules of the road in a small area," Chris Urmson, the head of Google's self-driving-car project, said Monday in a blog post.

Urmson said engineers have improved the cars' software to recognize situations like pedestrian traffic, buses, stop signs held by crossing guards and hand signals made by cyclists.

And, he says, self-driving cars have the potential to handle all of that even better than we do.

"A self-driving vehicle can pay attention to all of these things in a way that a human physically can't -- and it never gets tired or distracted," Urmson wrote. "As it turns out, what looks chaotic and random on a city street to the human eye is actually fairly predictable to a computer."

Etisalat Borrows $4.4 Billion to Fund Takeover of Maroc Telecom

                                          

UAE based Etisalat has announced that it has secured a multi currency loan worth EUR3.15 billion (USD4.4 billion) with a group of 17 banks.

The company said that the loan is to finance its previously announced acquisition of Vivendi's 52% stake in Maroc Telecom.

Etisalat has previously indicated that it aims to complete the long running purchase of a majority stake in Morocco's Maroc Telecom by the end of May.

Etisalat agreed to buy the 53% stake in the Moroccan mobile network from France's Vivendi last November following a protracted bidding process for EUR4.2 billion (USD5.8 billion), but completion has taken longer than expected.

The loan is made up of a EUR2.1 billion bridging loan that needs to be repaid in 12 months time, and a EUR1.05 billion loan that needs to be repaid in three years.

Vivendi owns 53% of Maroc Telecom, with 17% listed on a local stock market. The remaining 30% is owned by the government which also has a veto over any change in ownership.

Maroc Telecom has operations in Gabon, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Mali.

Angry Birds Creator's Profits Fall By Half!!

Angry Birds led the headlong, catapult-propelled charge into mobile games, but other Scandinavian rivals have overtaken Rovio.

Rovio – the makers of the Angry Birds series of mobile games – has seen its profits fall by more than half.

The Finnish games company had profits of £22m in 2013 on revenues of £128m, compared to £45.6m in 2012 on £125m.

It was Angry Birds that lead the headlong, catapult-propelled charge into mobile games, but other Scandinavian rivals have overtaken Rovio.

Finland's Supercell, which makes Clash of Clans, had annual revenue of £529m last year and Sweden’s King, which is now based in London and recently floated on the New York Stock Exchange, had revenues of £112bn.

Mojang, the independent Stockholm-based independent studio behind Minecraft, had 2013 revenues of £195m.

Rovio has branched out into merchandise and theme parks

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By Tom Cheshire, Technology Correspondent

Rovio – the makers of the Angry Birds series of mobile games – has seen its profits fall by more than half.

The Finnish games company had profits of £22m in 2013 on revenues of £128m, compared to £45.6m in 2012 on £125m.

It was Angry Birds that lead the headlong, catapult-propelled charge into mobile games, but other Scandinavian rivals have overtaken Rovio.

Finland's Supercell, which makes Clash of Clans, had annual revenue of £529m last year and Sweden’s King, which is now based in London and recently floated on the New York Stock Exchange, had revenues of £112bn.

Mojang, the independent Stockholm-based independent studio behind Minecraft, had 2013 revenues of £195m.

Rovio's officers in Espoo, Finland

Rovio is repositioning itself as an entertainment company, rather than a pure games maker and the company has previously said it wants to be bigger than Disney.

Some 47% of its revenues are from consumer products, including an Angry Birds soft drink.

The company also bought an animation studio and has been launching Angry Birds theme parks in Europe and China.

Rovio CFO Herkko Soininen said: "After three years of very strong growth, 2013 was a foundation-building year.

"We invested in new business areas, such as animation and video distribution, ventured into new business models in games, and consolidated our strong market position in consumer products licensing.

"With these investments we have been gearing up for the future growing markets."

Rovio came to prominence as US developer Zynga – the maker of Facebook games like Farmville - started its rise.

Zynga relied heavily on digital goods sold through blockbuster games for its revenues. King and Supercell rely on a similar 'freemium' model.

Rovio is hoping that a more diversified – if less spectacular – revenue stream will help the company stay the long-run.

Whitbread raises its dividend by almost a fifth as its core brands see strong annual growth, particularly in the UK.

Solid sales growth at Whitbread's Premier Inn and Costa coffee brands has helped the company's annual pre-tax profit rise 1.1% to £347m.

The performance over the year to February 27 prompted the company to confirm a 19.9% increase in its dividend to 68.8p-per-share.

The results highlighted a 20% rise in total sales at Costa - with like for like sales at its own stores in the UK going up 5.7% in the period.

This contrasts with figures posted last week by rival Starbucks, which confirmed its first decline in UK sales for 16 years.

Total sales at Premier Inn rose 13.4%.

Whitbread, which is Britain's biggest hotel and coffee shop operator, said it had created 3,000 net new jobs over the period.

Chief executive Andy Harrison said: "We continue to invest in improving our customer propositions and international expansion.

"This includes the rollout of our “best ever bed” in Premier Inn, the launch of “hub by Premier Inn” and rejuvenating our restaurant brands.

"In Costa we are focussed on international growth in China and France and our rebranding in Poland, together with the continuing growth of Costa Express.

We had a strong finish to last year, with all our brands performing well, boosted by good Christmas and New Year campaigns and helpful weather comparatives.

"The first two months of the new financial year have started positively, with good trading again helped by relatively soft comparatives which will become tougher as we move into the second half of this year".

Nokia names Rajeev Suri as new chief executive (Now Microsoft)

Nokia has named Rajeev Suri as its new chief executive officer.

The 46-year old has until now led Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN), the network equipment unit of the firm.

The unit is set to become its key business after Nokia finalised the sale of its mobile phone division to Microsoft last week.

The sale saw Nokia's former chief executive Stephen Elop leave the firm to become executive vice president of the Microsoft devices group.

Risto Siilasmaa, chairman of Nokia, said Mr Suri "has a proven ability to create strategic clarity, drive innovation and growth, ensure disciplined execution, and deliver results".

Indian-born, Mr Suri has been working at Nokia for the past 20 years and has lead the firm's network equipment unit since October 2009, helping to make it profitable.

Samsung's mobile phone sales decline

Samsung Electronics has reported a 4% fall in sales at its mobile phone unit.

Revenues in the sector fell to 33.4 trillion won ($32.3bn; £23.3bn) in the January-to-March period.

But the South Korean company said operating profit for its mobile phone unit rose 18% from the previous three months, in part due to "positive impact from adjustments of one-off expenses".

Samsung is the world's biggest mobile phone maker and handsets account for the bulk of the firm's profits.

The figures came as the electronics giant reported a net profit of 7.57 trillion won (£4.4bn; $7.5bn) for the first quarter, up from 7.3 trillion won (£4.2bn; $7bn) in the previous three months.

Maturing market?

The success of its Galaxy range of smartphones has been one of the biggest drivers of Samsung's growth in recent years.

It helped the company dislodge Nokia as the world's biggest phone maker in 2012.

However, competition in the sector has been increasing, forcing manufacturers to lower their prices and hurting their profitability.

At the same time, demand for smartphones in developed markets - which have been key drivers of growth of the sector so far - has also begun to slow.

"This is further evidence that the global market for smartphones is maturing and as the pace of growth which firms such as Samsung have enjoyed in recent years is slowing," said Andrew Milroy, an analyst with consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.

He added that "the company will have to look at introducing lower cost models in emerging markets to sustain the business."

For its part, Samsung has been looking to tap into the emerging markets by launching low cost handsets there.

However, it has been facing increased competition on that front as well, especially from Chinese firms such as Xiaomi, Huawei and ZTE.