Activision Blizzard to buy 'Candy Crush' maker King for $5.9 billion

Video game maker Activision Blizzard Inc said it will buy "Candy Crush Saga" creator c for $5.9 billion to strengthen its mobile games portfolio.

ABS Partners CV, a unit of Activision Blizzard, will acquire King shares for $18 each in cash, representing a premium of 16 percent to King's closing price.

The addition of King's mobile games will position Activision as a global leader in interactive entertainment across mobile, console and PC platforms, Activision said in a statement.

Video game publishers are shifting to the lucrative digital business from physical sales of games as consumers shift from consoles to playing on smartphones and tablets.

The fast-growing mobile gaming segment is expected to generate more than $36 billion in revenue by the end of 2015, according to Activision.

Activision Blizzard chief executive Bobby Kotick told Reuters that buying King will help broaden the reach of its games and expand into new demographics, adding that 60 percent of King's players are female and that no gaming consoles or hardware, besides a phone, is needed to play King's games.

"You have such broad reach. This is a fantastic opportunity for us to create compelling content for new demographics," Kotick said.

Activision, which owns popular game franchises such as "World of Warcraft," "Call of Duty," and "Diablo," said the deal gives the combined company more than 500 million monthly active users across the world and would add to Activision's estimated 2016 adjusted revenue and earnings by about 30 percent.

Dublin, Ireland-based King will continue to operate as an independent operating unit led by Chief Executive Riccardo Zacconi. Zacconi told Reuters that Activision appealed to him because of the company's expertise in building long-lasting franchises.

King, which went public last March, has been struggling to boost bookings - an indicator of future revenue.

BlackBerry's Android phone Priv officially launches in US

 BlackBerry has launched its first Android-based device, with the future of the company's hardware business riding on a slick smartphone called Priv that boasts an impressive array of features and a hefty price tag.

The company is betting the Priv's large curved screen, full array of Android apps from the Google Play store and blend of productivity and security features will help it rebuild its share of the smartphone market, which has slid to under one percent.

With hacking and data theft issues becoming a bigger concern these days, BlackBerry expects keen interest in its pre-loaded DTEK feature that alerts users every time any app attempts to access data, or turn on the phone's microphone or camera.

"You will be blown away by some of the apps you use and how much data they actually access of yours," said BlackBerry's head of devices, Ron Louks.

The smartphone's "wow" factor, as Louks dubs it, is actually a throwback - a slide out physical keyboard. While the small number of such Android 'slider' phones that do exist have had little success in the market, most are dated and clunky, say analysts.

BlackBerry is hoping its sleek design and touch-sensitive keys that allows users to swipe, scroll and set up shortcuts will woo former loyalists back to using the Priv.

Initial reviews of the device were mixed, with many lauding its security offerings, long battery life, camera, dual-keyboard design and other features, but panning the Priv's high price tag -- $699 without a contract in the United States and C$899 without a contract in Canada.

Still, if the Priv does well, analysts note the device could be a game changer for the Waterloo, Ontario-based company.

"If the Priv -- with its premium price of about $700 -- is a hit, it could drive meaningful growth for the company. Moreover, the smartphone industry tends to be largely perception-driven, and a single hit flagship product can bolster a company's brand image and create a halo effect around its entire product line," said research firm Trefis, in a note on Thursday.

Apple Watch in India

US technology giant Apple has launched its much-awaited Watch in the India market. The company is selling Apple Watch variants at price starting from Rs 30,990 to Rs 14 lakh per unit through its over 100 Apple Premium stores in the country.

Early Earth forecast calls for periodically hazy skies

Groundbreaking scientific work led by researchers at the University of St Andrews is redefining the trajectory of planetary evolution.

It is widely accepted that the juvenile Earth's atmosphere was devoid of oxygen until around 2.4 billion years ago, when oxygen concentrations rose abruptly during what is known as the 'Great Oxidation Event' (GOE). This event fundamentally altered the chemistry and the ecological structure of our planet, ultimately paving the way for the emergence of complex life.

Researchers from the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at St Andrews, in collaboration with the University of Leeds (UK), the University of Maryland (USA), and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (USA), have revolutionised this narrative of atmospheric history, based on chemical analysis of sedimentary rocks deposited immediately prior to the GOE.

These rocks – from South Africa and Western Australia – suggest that Earth's early oxygen-free atmosphere was far more fascinating than previously thought. Namely, these new geochemical analyses reveal widespread periodic occurrences of a hydrocarbon-rich "haze", similar to the atmosphere on Saturn's Moon, Titan.

The findings are published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, a leading journal for researchers across the Earth and planetary sciences community.

Dr Gareth Izon, who led the research, said: "These data are really exciting because we now see evidence for a hazy atmosphere in multiple spatially separated sedimentary successions spanning nearly 200 million years of Earth history."

The researchers speculate that episodic bursts of methane production from specialised microorganisms ("methanogens") could explain this phenomenon.

Dr Aubrey Zerkle, principal investigator of the project, said: "These events provide a spectacular example of the role of biology in modulating our planetary atmosphere, particularly on the early Earth when microbes ruled the planet."

"Importantly, these new records emphasise the need to understand the mechanisms and feedbacks controlling both biogenic oxygen and methane fluxes in the prelude to the GOE," Izon continued.

Dr Mark Claire, a co-author on the study, added: "This biologically-produced methane haze scatters sunlight, so could have had dramatic consequences on the climate. Examining the early Earth has once again revealed a complicated and fascinating interplay between Earth and the life it supports."

Lenovo launches Ideapad Y700-17ISK gaming laptop and the price would be Rs 1,25,000

Lenovo has launched a new portable gaming laptop - the Ideapad Y700-17ISK at Rs 1,25,000. The laptop will be open for pre-booking exclusively on Lenovo's official online store thedostore starting October 1, 2015 and will include free accessories such as gaming surround sound headset, gaming precision mouse and gaming mouse mat worth Rs 9,555.

The Y700-17ISK laptop sports a 17-inch full-HD (1080x1920p) anti-glare display.

The particular model is powered by a 6th generation Intel Core i7 processor and GTX-960M graphics with 16GB DDR4 RAM. Users can also choose other AMD and Intel chip configurations. It runs Windows 10 operating system.

The model comes with 128GB SSD and 1TB hard disk drive along with a backlit keyboard. It has a 4 cell 60WH battery and a 720p camera. 

It is equipped with JBL speakers (2x2W), subwoofer(3W) and optimized thermal cooling. 

 

The laptop has 2 USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port, an HDMI port and a built-in memory card reader.

Sony launches Xperia Z5, Z5 Premium at Rs 52,990 and Rs 62,990, respectively

Electronics giant Sony has launched Xperia Z5, Z5 Premium at Rs 52,990 and Rs 62,990, respectively. The Xperia Z5 will be available starting October 23 while the Premium variant will be available starting November 7.
The company had launched the two phones along with the Xperia Z5 Compact during IFA 2015, Berlin in September. Sony will not launch the Xperia Z5 Compact in the Indian market.
Both Xperia Z5 and Z5 Premium, come with a Sony Quick Charger (UCH10) which enables 5.5 hours usage with 10 minutes of charging at no extra cost. Customers can also redeem Smart Cover for their Xperia Z5 and Z5 Premium worth Rs 3,500 from Xperia Lounge for free.
The Xperia Z5 Premium can be pre-booked at leading stores across India from 25 October 2015 to 4 November 2015. Customers who pre-book will get an MDR-EX31BN Sony wireless headset worth Rs 5,490.
Xperia Z5 and Z5 Premium customers also get content worth over Rs. 4000 along with their devices. It includes 3 months subscription to Sony Music and unlimited download to own content worth Rs 1500, 3 months subscription to Sony LIV worth Rs 299, Amazon Kindle e-books worth Rs 1000, 3 months subscription to Hungama Play worth Rs 750 and a preinstalled Full-HD Game (Modern Combat) with free in game credits worth Rs 780.
Xperia Z5 and Xperia Z5 Premium will be available in dual-sim variants. All the devices are water-resistant (IP 65/68). These are also the first Sony smartphones to feature a fingerprint sensor for security integrated with the power button which is located at the right edge of the phone.
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium is the company's flagship offering and the first smartphone to come with a 4K resolution display. The Z5 Premium sports a 5.5-inch 4K ​Triluminos display (3840 x 2160p). It upscales content to 4K, enhancing any native or third party videos or photos so users can view Netflix, YouTube or their own videos in 4K.

The Sony Xperia Z5, on the other hand, comes with a 5.2-inch full-HD (1080x1920p) display. Xperia Z5 series phones feature Sony's new 1/2.3 Exmor RS for mobile 23MP sensor and F2.0 G Lens with a 5MP front camera.

The phones are powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core processor and come with 3GB of RAM and 32GB in-built storage expandable up to 200GB via microSD card. The phones support Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 that enables users to get 5.5 hours usage with just 10 minutes of charging with a certified Quick Charge 2.0 charger.

Why Google is ‘re-thinking’ all of its products

Machine learning and artificial intelligence got a lot of love on Google's Q3 earnings call.
During CEO Sundar Pichai's prepared remarks, he went out of his way to point out that investments in machine learning and artificial intelligence were a continued priority for the company moving forward.

Pichai even went as far as to say that Google was "re-thinking" all of its products to include more AI and machine learning.

In the words of Stanford University's Rob Schapire, the goal of machine learning is "to devise learning algorithms that do the learning automatically without human intervention or assistance."

Those smart algorithms already power Google's voice search and translation, its Photos product, and the new service Now On Tap which anticipates what information you might need before you ask for it. When Google showed off the product at its developers' conference earlier this year, it was apparent that the smart assistant was miles ahead of Apple's Siri or Microsoft's Cortana.

"Machine learning is a core, transformative way by which we're re-thinking how we're doing everything," Pichai said on the call, in response to an analyst question about Google's vision. "We are thoughtfully applying it across all our products, be it search, ads, YouTube, or Play. And we're in early days, but you will see us -- in a systematic way -- apply machine learning in all these areas."

As Google was reporting earnings, Google's head of research Jeff Dean announced a new Brain Residency Program. The 12-month role will be similar to a Master's or PhD program in deep learning, a branch of machine learning that aims to mimic the brain.

Apple going to launck watch in India

Apple Watch is finally coming to India.
Though the company has not made any announcement in this regard, the Apple India website mentions that the smartwatch will become available in the country starting November 6.
However, there is no mention of the Apple Watch's price on the official website. It is expected that the smartwatch will start at approximately Rs 30,000 in the country. In the US, the Apple smartwatch, which is compatible only with iPhones, costs $349 for the base model.

9,999 रुपये की कीमत पर आया डुअल सिम "GIONEE F103" स्‍मार्टफोन

चीन की फर्म Gionee ने नया F103 स्मार्टफोन लांच किया है। इसकी कीमत 9,999 रुपये रखी गयी है। इस फोन में 5 इंच का HD ISP डिस्प्ले है और यह एंड्रायड 5.0 लॉलीपॉप पर चलता है।

इसमें 1.3-GHz क्वाड-कोर, 64 बिट प्रोसेसर, 2GB रैम और 16GB ROM डाला गया है। 4G सर्विसेज को सपोर्ट करने वाले इस डिवाइस में LED फ्लैश के साथ 8.0 MP का प्राइमरी व 5 MP का सेकेंडरी कैमरा है। फोन में HD वीडियो रिकार्डिंग है। इसके अलावा फोन में फेस ब्यूटी, पैनोरमा, जियो टैगिंग, टच फोकस, एक क्लिक में 20 स्नैप, पिक नोट, टेक एनी टाइम, फिल्टर्स, HDR मोड है।

यह डुअल सिम फोन 2400 mAh की बैटरी से लैस है।

United Kingdom looking for traces of ancient tribes on North Sea bed

In a unique and ground-breaking operation, scientists plan to search for evidence of Stone Age human activity on Britain's very own 'Atlantis' — a vast prehistoric land, once located between England and southern Scandinavia, which was engulfed by rising sea levels some 7500 years ago. 

The archaeologists hope to find evidence of flint tool manufacture, plant pollen and the DNA of plant and animal species used by the long-lost land's ancient inhabitants. Due to be launched later this month, the multi-million pound project is the largest of its kind ever attempted anywhere in the world and will lead to the development by British scientists of an entire range of new scientific techniques and capabilities. 

They plan to recover ancient pollen, insects and plant and animal DNA and to use high definition survey techniques to accurately rediscover what the lost Stone Age landscape looked like, what vegetation flourished there and how humans impacted on and used the environment. 

The project will reveal, for the very first time, the culture and lifestyle of the dozens of generations of prehistoric Brits who flourished there for 6000 years until it finally disappeared beneath the waves in the mid sixth millennium BC. This real British Atlantis originally covered some 100,000 square miles of what is now the North Sea . However, following the end of the Ice Age, sub-Arctic ice started to melt and sea levels began to rise worldwide. 

The major period of ice melt and consequent sea level rise, that specifically affected the southern part of the North Sea region, occurred between 8000 BC and 6000BC. The research is expected to reveal where the inhabitants lived, what they ate and what their environment looked like. 

Birds circle and stick together to help them fly in dense fog

FOG can ground birds – but not always. One November morning in the Horicon wildlife refuge in Wisconsin, heavy fog settled. A group of sandhill cranes still set off from their roost to reach foraging areas despite the fog, providing a rare opportunity to study how the birds fly when visibility is very low.

Eileen Kirsch of the US Geological Survey’s Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center in La Crosse and her team recorded the event and saw the cranes flying cautiously, staying close to the roost. The birds went in circles rather than straight lines. “They were going every which direction, which we’ve never seen before,” says Kirsch. She thinks they were reluctant to fly further than they could see and were also trying to keep the flock together (The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, doi.org/65g).

The cranes also called more frequently and loudly than normal. This is common among birds flying in low-visibility conditions, says Graham Martin at the University of Birmingham, UK. It probably allows them to stay in touch. Usually, though, when there is fog, mist or heavy rain, large birds such as cranes, duck and geese stay put until conditions improve. “They can afford not to venture to foraging grounds for a couple of days,” says Martin.

Candy Crush Saga sued for deleting 'donated lives'

Mobile gaming sensation Candy Crush is being accused of denying lives donated to players by their friends on Facebook, according to a federal class action lawsuit filed in March. 

Alina Renert, the main plaintiff, has been playing the game, created by King Digital, since 2014. 

Upon joining the craze, she connected Candy Crush to her Facebook. When players run out of lives, they can wait 30 minutes for new ones to appear. Or they can purchase a set of five lives for 99 cents. 

A third option exists, too: using an in-app option to ask Facebook friends to donate lives. Like many others players, Renert appealed to the masses. 

On multiple occasions, Renert's friends answered her pleas. If she exited the app and returned, however, she found her donated lives missing, according to the complaint. As a result, she immediately purchased new lives to continue playing. 

And Renert isn't alone. The complaint lists comments from many other players left on messages boards: 

Had 3 lives on my phone a couple hours ago sent from friends but now they are gone. Why does this keep happening? I want my lives back!!!! - apcolter

Keep loosing lives. Just lost 50. A few days ago, lost 22. Several times lost 5 to 10. Feel cheated. Please fix this. - vlr. 15

I concur. They take them away on purpose so they have easier access to your wallet. They make a million a day w/ this game but they are greedy and want more. My 42 lives I had from FB friends just vanished into thin air. Guess what, the app will be deleted if they aren't returned. King does not give a crap about anything other than getting your money. - johnthegreen

Why in the [] (double hockey sticks) don't you work with Facebook so that we can use the lives we get from friends. As it is right now why even bother to send friends life and xtra moves if they just go bye bye!!!!!!! - bjwalter

Due to the addictive nature of the game, King knew players would buy replacement lives, the complaint alleges. Therefore, King allegedly violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (ICFA).

Now, King owes the players damages on two levels: the value of lost donated lives, and the cost of purchasing new lives.

"This case challenges such intentional profiteering at the expense of customers," the complaint reads. 

Because an additional set of lives cost 99 cents, every life is worth about 20 cents. If King's practices injured at least 25 million people, as the complaint alleges, the total damages would total above $5 million, the amount necessary to elevate a class action lawsuit to the federal level.

"If we don't settle at some point, there will be a day of reckoning," lead attorney on the case Joseph Siprut told us.

Renert isn't the first to claim that Candy Crush is psychologically addictive. One woman admitted she spent 10 consecutive hours playing the game.

"My back became strained because I'd been hunched for so long over my iPad. I couldn't help it, it was so addictive. The extraordinary thing was that almost everyone else in the room admitted they too were addicted. Now we're all competing," she told a UK-based daily.

These players, the ones who can't help but continue playing, undoubtedly helped catapult Candy Crush to near cult-status. In 2013, the game was the most-downloaded app as well as the highest grossing in the app store. In December of the same year, it had an average of 93 million active users, which helped to generate $1.9 billion in revenue for King.

King declined to comment on the lawsuit. 

Apple recently settled a similar lawsuit concerning in-app purchases for $100 million. Now, the company warns people before they make purchases within apps.

======================================================SOURCE : TOI

ePaisa to offer multi-lingual PoS app to New India Co-operative Bank customers

ePaisa, a multilingual mobile based point of sale (PoS) application will now be available to customers of New India Co-operative Bank.

The service will be offered to merchants who hold an account with the bank. They will be able to accept card payments and use the built-in billing application without incurring any additional cost.

According to ePaisa, the mobile based card acceptance service will benefit merchants involved in home delivery services, restaurant and hotel business, and taxi drivers/ radio cabs, among others, as they will be able to accept card payments on their smart phones and mobile devices with little or zero investment on their part.

The Point of Sale (PoS) also lets the registered merchant use the ePaisa app as a cash register, card processing terminal, to pay bills, buy a ticket, do a mobile recharge and run a loyalty program.

The ePaisa POS works on any iOS or Android phone or tablet.

The company says it also aims to cater to SMEs who are currently unable to accept card payments and do not fall under the purview of the established POS service providers and/or are unwilling to invest into large equipment.  =====================================source : TOI==========================

Samsung running out of options?

SEOUL: With a bid for Blackberry Ltd, South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics may be signaling that it has run out of internal options to reverse its sliding profits and protect its shrinking lead in the global smartphone market.

Earnings from its mobile division, once a reliable cash cow, shrank rapidly last year, outsold by Apple Inc's iPhones in the premium segment and squeezed by the likes of Xiaomi Inc at the low end. Samsung tipped its 2014 profit to decline for the first time in three years.

Despite speculation that JK Shin, head of the mobile business, might have lost his job in December, Samsung gave Shin a vote of confidence, but analysts say he remains vulnerable if there is no meaningful recovery.

Shin, who has led the mobile business since 2009, oversaw the launch of the flagship Galaxy handsets that propelled Samsung to unseat Apple as the top smartphone maker and earn record profits in 2013. Three of his key lieutenants were relieved of their positions in December, which puts the focus ever more tightly on Shin.

Samsung's offer to buy BlackBerry could be an attempt to engineer such a recovery. Both companies have publicly denied such talks, but a person familiar with the matter and documents seen by Reuters indicate that the Korean firm offered up to $7.5 billion, in a bid to boost its presence in the corporate market, which is BlackBerry's chief strength.

While the Waterloo, Ontario-based company is no longer a top five smartphone maker, BlackBerry still holds considerable sway among enterprise clients for its strong security features - with U.S. President Barack Obama still using one of the company's devices after taking office.

Its patent portfolio also includes advanced encryption technologies that are highly valued, according to analysts, ever more so as tales of security breaches spook even regular phone users.

Though a deal of this magnitude would be a major departure from its conservative history, Samsung certainly has the firepower for big deals; at the end of the third quarter, it had 67 trillion won ($62 billion) worth of cash and equivalents.

Organic limits Analysts say it may have no choice but to take big bets on acquisitions because it has no promising homegrown options to generate significant earnings momentum.

"Samsung recognizes that it has reached its limit on organic growth, and the company is going to turn to acquisitions abroad to achieve a breakthrough," said Kim Sang-jo, an economics professor at Hansung University.

Though analysts expect healthy demand for memory chips and improvements in other components businesses to help stabilize earnings, those businesses can't make up for the sliding mobile profits.

The average forecast from a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S survey of 52 analysts tips 2015 annual operating profit to fall for a second year to 24.2 trillion won.

Samsung's market share, according to Gartner research, slipped to 24.4% in the third quarter of 2014 from 32% a year earlier, and the launch of a range of new mid-to-low-end smartphones is unlikely to have arrested that decline in the final three months of the year.

Buying BlackBerry would create a new revenue stream and breathing room for Samsung's handset business. Access to its advanced technology would also help Samsung get a leg up on arch rival Apple, which is also trying to make inroads in the corporate market.

"If they can leverage the Samsung brand name and leverage BlackBerry's technology, that would be a very good combo," said Gene Cao, an analyst at Forrester Research.

Making a success of such a combination could prove more difficult than pulling off a deal. Samsung has never made an acquisition of this magnitude, and its hierarchical culture, typical for Korean companies, could sit uneasily with overseas staff.

Samsung's acquisition of US-based computer maker AST Research in the mid-1990s ended in closure after a series of losses and a failure to retain research staff.

"Samsung does need to take these kinds of risks at some point, but the question is whether the company has the ability to successfully integrate the companies," said Chang Sea-jin, a business professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and author of "Sony Vs Samsung".

====================================Source : TOI