2012年1月14日星期六

Technology Report: Banks start playing games with your money

Reuters
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01/13/2012
News Good afternoon Bit
Apple revealed its suppliers in response to harsh criticism that it was turning a blind eye to dismal working conditions at partner factories. Apple's audit found six active and 13 historical cases of underage labor at some component suppliers. It also found a number of other violations, among them breaches in pay, benefits and environmental practices in plants in China, which figured prominently throughout the 500-page report Apple issued. Other violations found in the audit included dumping wastewater onto a neighboring farm, using machines without safeguards, testing workers for pregnancy and falsifying pay records.

"I would like to totally eliminate every case of underage employment," Apple CEO Tim Cook told Reuters in an interview. "We have done that in all of our final assembly. As we go deeper into the supply chain, we found that age verification system isn't sophisticated enough. This is something we feel very strongly about and we want to eliminate totally."

Enraged Chinese shoppers pelted Apple's flagship Beijing store with eggs and shoving matches broke out with police when customers were told the store would not begin sales of the iPhone 4S as scheduled. Apple said later after the fracas at its store in Beijing's trendy Sanlitun district that it would halt all retail sales of the latest iPhone in China for the time being, but said the phones would be available online. Sales at Apple's other store in Beijing and three in Shanghai went more smoothly, with stocks quickly selling out.

Apple's next iPad, expected to be released in March, will feature a high-definition screen, run a quad-core chip that allows for faster switching between apps and will work with next-generation LTE wireless networks, Bloomberg reported, citing three people familiar with the product.

Private equity firm TPG Capital is willing to invest about $1 billion in Olympus in a joint deal with Sony or another suitor circling the scandal-hit firm, a person familiar with TPG's thinking said. So far, TPG has not received any indication from these strategic suitors that they would be willing to work with the private equity firm on a transaction, the source said.

Republican Representative Lamar Smith, the lawmaker behind the Stop Online Piracy Act, vowed to press ahead in the face of fierce criticism from Internet giants such as Google and Facebook. "It is amazing to me that the opponents apparently don't want to protect American consumers and businesses," Smith told Reuters in a telephone interview. Smith said Internet counterfeiters cost American consumers, businesses, inventors and workers some $100 billion a year, though critics accuse him of exaggerating. Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt said last month that the bill would "effectively break the Internet" and he compared Smith's efforts to the same type of censorship that Google has experienced in China.

Telecom operators globally are expected to cut spending on their networks this year, hitting equipment makers that were only just beginning to recover from intense price wars and the last economic downturn. European operators are likely to be more cautious as recession looms and consumers are less willing to splash out on high-end smartphones, while carriers in China and the U.S. slow their frenetic pace of mobile investments. The shift will pressure long-struggling mid-sized gear makers like Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks, which are more vulnerable than market leader Ericsson or low-cost Chinese player Huawei. Some smaller equipment vendors such as Juniper Networks and Acme Packet have already issued profit warnings, blaming slower spending at big carriers like Verizon and AT&T.
LATEST NEWS
Banks start playing games with your money
January 13, 2012 03:39 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new video game has gotten its hooks into Brian Kealer, a 26-year-old San Francisco software engineer. He's not killing birds or using his vocabulary to impress his friends. No, Kealer is after real prizes, like the iPad2 he just scored. And he's playing with his bank account. | Full Article
Hacker says will release Symantec source code
January 13, 2012 01:07 PM ET
(Reuters) - A computer hacker said on Friday it would release the source code for Symantec Corp's Norton antivirus software, citing a lawsuit that had been filed against the company. | Full Article
Analysis: Path to connected future clear at crowded show
January 13, 2012 04:35 PM ET
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - From the world's first eye-controlled laptop and a pet-tracking app to a glass-encased ultra-thin notebook, 2012's Consumer Electronics Show produced more than a few gems to point the way forward in technology. | Full Article
GPS dogtags and scared kangaroos: hits and misses at CES
January 13, 2012 11:29 AM ET
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - This year's Consumer Electronics Show turned out to be the largest on record, despite a slow economy and what many industry pundits agree is a dearth of genuine scene-stealers. | Full Article
Anti-virus maker AVG files for $125 million IPO
January 13, 2012 12:48 PM ET
(Reuters) - Anti-virus software maker AVG Technologies NV filed to raise up to $125 million in an initial public offering, looking to cash in on the increased demand for technology IPOs. | Full Article
BUSINESS NEWS
Wall Street slips on reports of euro-zone downgrades
January 13, 2012 04:32 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks dropped on Friday, snapping a four-day winning streak after news reports that Standard & Poor's would downgrade credit ratings on several euro-zone countries. | Full Article
S&P downgrades France, eight other euro zone nations
January 13, 2012 05:12 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's carried out a mass downgrade of euro zone countries on Friday, stripping France and Austria of their top-grade AAA ratings in a move that may complicate efforts to solve a two-year old European debt crisis. | Full Article
Exclusive: Angelides to lead distressed mortgage firm
January 13, 2012 03:33 PM ET
New York (Reuters) - Phil Angelides, formerly the chairman of a federal commission who led investigations into why the financial markets collapsed, is heading an investment group that hopes to "do a good thing" for America while turning a profit from the wreckage of the housing market. | Full Article
Consumer sentiment perks up while trade gap widens
January 13, 2012 04:24 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumer sentiment hit an eight-month high in early January as Americans grew more optimistic about job prospects, a survey released on Friday showed. | Full Article
JPMorgan profit falls, but sees hope in economy
January 13, 2012 03:24 PM ET
(Reuters) - The drag of the European debt crisis on investment banking weighed on JPMorgan Chase & Co's fourth-quarter profit, sending financial stocks tumbling even as the bank provided evidence that the domestic economy is strengthening. | Full Article
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