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Top Startup and Tech News Today-7 Things You Missed Today

1. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Are Paid Cash by NSA For Your Private Communications

The NSA (National Security Agency) pays AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint hundreds of millions of dollars per year for access to 81% of all international calls in the US, according to a leaked inspector general’s report. The secret report states that “NSA maintains relationships with over 100 U.S. companies”, emphasizing that the United States has the “home-field advantage as the primary hub for worldwide communications.”

According to the report, AT&T charges $325 for each activation fee and then a $10 a day additional fee to monitor the account. Verizon charges $775 for the first month and then $500 for the months that follow after. Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google refuse to say how much they charge the government to tap into their emails and information. The Washington Post states that in a separate report, the NSA has been said to pay the telephone companies roughly $300 million annually in order to access communication information.

2. Ailing BlackBerry Agrees To $4.7 Billion Buyout

Blackberry has agreed to a probable $4.7 billion buyout from Ontario-based Fairfax Financial Holdings. Fairfax, which is headed by billionaire Prem Wasta, is already BlackBerry’s largest shareholder with approximately 50% of BlackBerry’s shares. They plan on taking the smartphone maker private. Wasta says that the sale of BlackBerry “will open an exciting new private chapter for BlackBerry, its customers, carriers and employees… We can deliver immediate value to shareholders while we continue the execution of a long-term strategy in a private company.”

Under the proposed deal, $9 would be offered for each outstanding share, and Fairfax would contribute its own shares in this transaction. BlackBerry’s board supports this plan. A firm and solid deal is expected by November 4th.

 

3. Apple Polishes Forecast After Selling 9 Million New iPhones

 

Apple has sold 9 million new iPhones during their first three days in stores. This record breaking sale period has prompted the company to issue a new and, much rosier, financial forecast. Shares in the company closed up 5% at $490.65 on Monday after the company said that revenue during the fiscal fourth quarter would most likely be between $34 and $37 billion. Apple rarely adjusts its outlook mid-quarter, so this change in numbers comes as a surprise.

“The critics have told you Apple lost its magic,” said Daniel Ernst, a Hudson Square Research analyst.  “Customers are telling you something very different. Clearly, people like the product. That sentiment is almost more important than the number.” Sales of the iPhone 5S and 5C nearly doubled that of the iPhone 5’s 5 million numbers during the first weekend. The 9 million sale surpassed the rough number of 6 million that analysts projected.

4. Google Says Widespread Gmail Outages and Delays Should Be Resolved Soon

 

If you’re a user of Gmail, you may have noticed Gmail failing to load and having a very rocky performance. Google says that the delays should be resolved soon. Gmail has been dealing with disruption and outages for users over the past day, with slow load times and delayed receiving of emails as a result. More than 50% of users have been seeing performance issues. Google hopes to resolve the problem soon – until then, simply wait out the problem while they fix the email service.

5. Is the Race for Smartphone Camera Megapixels Over?

 

Smartphones like to brag about the number of megapixels their phone offers. However, things might be changing, as smartphone makes shift their focus on not the number of megapixels, but the size of each pixel. Apple and HTC both launched new smartphones this year with larger pixels, as opposed to more pixels. HTC actually halved its pixel count, saying that having fewer pixels allowed the now larger pixels to capture more light. CK Lu, a principal research analyst for Gartner, says that “It is not a race of the megapixels anymore… Some phone makers are deciding to make bigger pixels instead, which is a tradeoff, but results in better quality pictures in low light.”

However, analysts say that this isn’t the end of the megapixel competition. Dale Gai, an anlalyst for Barclays says that many companies will continue focusing on just megapixels. However, more established companies with higher-end smartphones will continue focusing on megapixel size, as they look for ways to differentiate their camera from the camera of other smartphones.

6. Tough Times Ahead For LG and Sony

Apple’s announcement of selling a record breaking 9 million iPhones during its debut weekend for the 5s and 5s is a nightmare for Asian vendors who are rolling out huge numbers of Android models. This is particularly harsh for the two vendors trying to stage comebacks in 2013 – namely, LG and Sony. The rapid sell-outs of the gold iPhone 5S might mean smaller early production volumes, as many industry sources are currently anticipating. Also, since Apple’s consumer demand is above Wall Street and industry projections, it can be assumed that Apple’s unaccounted for consumer base is one stolen from possible customers for LG and Sony.

Samsung is currently preparing an aggressive marketing campaign for the Galaxy Note, while smaller brands LG, Sony, and HTC are targeting the $600+ smartphone bracket. It will be likely that some of these brands, or all of these brands, will reconsider their marketing and product plan before the year ends.

7. Flipboard Raises $50 Million in New Funding

 

Flipboard, the app startup that lets users read digital copies of magazines, has raised $50 million new funding, putting them at a valuation of $800 million. This marks the company’s third funding round. Flipboard says that their user base has grown 60% to 80 million users, compared to six months ago. Also, there are now 3.5 million magazines on Flipboard.  “It’s definitely early days for us still but the traction this quarter will be 2x or 3x what last quarter was,” said Mike McCue, CEO of Flipboard. “The combination between the traction we’ve seen on the revenue side with these brand advertisements and brand magazines combined with what we did with 2.0 where anyone can build their own magazine—that really got us moving towards doing another round of fundraising.”

McCue says that most of the late financing will go towards hiring engineers and designers. He sees the staff, currently at a size of 90, growing to a size of 200.

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Top Startup and Tech News Today: 7 Things You Missed Today

1. Apple’s new iOS7 makes bold statement

 

Though two new iPhones come out this week, the more dramatic shift in Apple technology might come from the software and not the hardware. iOS7, the new mobile OS, became available on Wednesday. “It is a major upgrade,” said Gerry Purdy, analyist and consultant with Compass Intelligence.  “This is the first big thing that (Apple chief executive) Tim Cook has implemented, which puts all the software and hardware design under one roof, to have a unified experience across products.”

 

While both new iPhones have both been receiving lukewarm responses, some analysts say that the new OS is the bolder statement from Apple, designed to keep people in the Apple ecosystem. The new OS has a different look and a different feel describes Ramon Llamas, analyst with research firm IDC, who continues by saying that Apple is “asking people to make a leap of faith.”

 

Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch described iOS7 as a “visual shock… The look is bound to be controversial; Apple has opted for bright, bold colors with more clean lines and far fewer textures, shadows and gradients. There is still some depth to the OS, however, with transparency effects giving a sense of background and foreground elements.”

 

Apple claims that the new operating system has over 200 new features, including improved multitasking, sharing, new camera apps, more variation for Siri, and iTunes radio. The new software has drawn much attention, as the iPhone launch itself seems to be less grandiose than ones of the past. The iOS7 might actually hurt Apple because it allows people with the iPhone 4 or 5 to get benefits, as they can also upgrade their OS, and therefore reduces the need for people to upgrade their physical device and get an iPhone 5s or 5c.

 

2. 7 Misses in iOS7

 

  1. The wallpaper. Some wallpapers make legibility nearly impossible. You have to trial-and-error wallpapers on your phone to see if you can still read the text.
  2. Apple Calendar remains awful.
  3. Folders. You can have more than 9 now; the limit no longer exists, but regardless of how many you have, the maximum number of these apps that will be visible is 9.
  4. Photo streams are still backwards.
  5. Control Center. It’s easy to bring up, hard to get rid of. It doesn’t do well in landscape mode, and it has minimal amounts of text. Generally hard to use.
  6. Sharing stuff.
  7. The keyboard. There has been absolutely no change. Auto-correct is still as terrible as it was pre-iOS7.

 

3. Obama Petitions FCC to Legalize Cellphone Unlocking

 

The Obama administration doesn’t think that unlocking your phone and moving to a new carrier should send you to prison. On Tuesday, the administration sent a petition to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) asking it to override a law schedule to take effect on Jan. 26, 2014. This law would make it a crime punishable by up to five years in prison to unlock your cellphone without getting explicit permission from your carrier. Instead, they asked the FCC to make rules that give consumers permission to unlock their phone if they outright own it. This power also extends to tablets and other mobile devices.

 

4. When Will Samsung Go 64-Bit?

 

Apple attracted much attention when it revealed the first 64-bit chip for smartphones on Tuesday. Samsung chimed in shortly after, saying that it too, was going to go 64-bit. “Not in the shortest time. But yes, our next smartphones will have 64-bit processing functionality,” said Samsung’s mobile business chief Shin Jong-kyun.

 

64-bit ARM chips are most likely a 2014 event, according to ARM. Samsung will be hard pressed to get 64-bt chips into Galaxy tablets or phones before next year. When that happens, mobile devices will become competitive with laptops, says ARM. “It will allow tablet-like devices to go from information consuming devices to information creation devices,” ARM’s Bruce said.

 

5. No Internet? No Problem: Youtube Getting Ready To Let You Watch Videos Offline, On Your Phone

 

Youtube streams more than 6 billion hours of video per month; soon, this video giant will be available to people regardless of their web connection. Next month, Youtube will let viewers save clips on their phones and other devices for up to 48 hours; these videos will be able to viewed regardless of internet. The videos will still be free and Google will still run ads on these clips.

 

Youtube announced this via blog post and said it would allow uploaders to opt out of this offline feature. The practical benefit for viewers is that they can now watch videos in places where internet is inaccessible, such as a plane or in a car. This should boost viewing for the site. But, this puts pressure on Youtube’s ads rates because they open up more inventory. Here’s a snippet of Youtube announcing the move:

 

“We’re always exploring ways to bring more viewers to your content. As part of this effort, later this year we’ll launch a new feature on YouTube’s mobile apps that will help you reach fans — even when they’re not connected to the Internet…

 

This is part of our ongoing updates to give people more opportunities to enjoy videos and channels on YouTube mobile. Check out the YouTube blog when this launches in November for more details on how this will work for viewers.”

 

6. Verizon accused of violating FCC rules by blocking Nexus 7 from its 4G LTE network

 

Verizon has been accused of ignoring the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) rules. Jeff Jarvis says that Verizon refused to hook his unlocked Nexus 7 tablet to its LTE network because the device wasn’t “part of [their] lineup and can’t be activated.” This violates the regulations the FCC placed on Verizon in 2008.  (For a quick recap: in 2008, Verizon was slapped with a mandate that made it allow any devices to connect to its LTE network and barred it from blocking any applications on its users’ devices).

 

The notes given by the FCC are very clear and offer little to no leeway. “So this is not a matter of anything Verizon cannot do,” Jarvis writes. “This is a matter of what Verizon will not do. And that is what makes this a violation of FCC regulations and Verizon’s assurances.”

 

Verizon says that the Nexus 7 is not yet “Verizon 4G LTE certified” and that it will let customers know when the device passes through certifications. But, the Nexus 7 was launched two months ago, and it’s hard to believe that Verizon is just getting onto it.

 

7. New Internet Explorer Is 30% Faster Than Other Browsers, Microsoft Says

 

Though the number of browsers available keep rising, and though Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome keep expanding their consumer base, Internet Explorer is still the most popular web browser. On Wednesday, Microsoft released a “preview version” of IE 11 which, they claim, runs 30% faster than all other browsers.

 

IE 11 supports multi-touch gestures for touch PC’s. This will be helpful for those buying new Windows 8 touch PC’s and “downgrading” them. They also feature some new tools for developers, like support for developer tools, and a Web standards called WebGL for 3D graphics.

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