112638052
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
At numerous points during my career in the tech industry, my workplaces have been affected by the suicide of an employee. Usually beginning with the receipt of a vague email that management has been 'saddened' that someone had 'passed away' recently, the truth soon becomes known and the questions begin circulating again. Why does suicide seem to be more common among tech workers? Is it due to lifestyle choices commonly associated with tech workers that lead to isolation? Are the personality types that choose tech work more prone to mental illnesses?
87005197
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
A Nashville family whose $1 million home was destroyed earlier this year in a fire caused by a hoverboard toy is suing Amazon saying the retail giant knowingly sold a dangerous product.
The lawsuit says the seller of the hoverboard listed online, "W-Deals," is a sham organization that is registered to an apartment in New York City that has not responded to requests from lawyers in the case. It alleges the family was sold a counterfeit product from China instead of a brand with a Samsung lithium ion battery they believed they were buying from Amazon.
86570251
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Theranos Inc. said it will shut down its blood-testing facilities and shrink its workforce by more than 40%. The company said it had 790 full-time employees as of August 1.
The moves mark a dramatic retreat by the Palo Alto, Calif., company and founder Elizabeth Holmes from their core strategy of offering a long menu of low-price blood tests directly to consumers. Those ambitions already were endangered by crippling regulatory sanctions that followed revelations by The Wall Street Journal of shortcomings in Theranos’s technology and operations. Theranos later voided all results from its proprietary device for 2014 and 2015
85796553
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Google’s newest smartphones won’t be Nexus devices after all. According to Android Central, Google is dropping the Nexus branding with its two upcoming, HTC-made smartphones. Instead, the company is expected to market the devices under a different name and to lean heavily on the Google brand in the process.
This shift is more than just symbolic. The report states Google will load the devices with a special version of Android Nougat, as opposed to the standard "vanilla" version of the operating system that’s shipped on past and current Nexus devices.
84447593
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
The ability to respond to text messages received on your phone with the same app on your PC. It’s a dream that’s been a reality for Mac users since 2014, and Windows 10 Mobile users were supposed to get the feature, called Messaging Everywhere, with the Anniversary Update rolling out August 2.
But that’s not happening anymore.
Instead, Microsoft thinks it has a better idea: add Messaging Everywhere to an upcoming version of Skype for Windows 10 PCs.
82912749
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Microsoft sold a minuscule 2.3 million Lumia phones last quarter, down from 8.6 million a year ago. Phone revenue declines will only “steepen” during the current quarter, chief financial officer Amy Hood warned during a conference call. That’s dragged down Microsoft’s results as a company, too. As the company's mobile device strategy continues to disintegrate, Microsoft may feel compelled to push harder on Windows 10 adoption and paid services to prove it can survive without a viable smartphone. CEO Satya Nadella’s strategy is simple enough: grow Microsoft’s revenues by convincing customers to adopt its paid subscription services.
82298199
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Pebble is laying off 25% of its employees — that's 40 pink slips — taking it down to just 80 people. It seems indicative of the smartwatch market's terrible state. Previously the darling of the crowdfunding fraternity — it raised over $30 million on Kickstarter — Pebble is finding it hard to keep the plates spinning in 2016.
47854319
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
The last nationwide book retailer may be writing its final chapter. Barnes & Noble's latest quarterly results show a 7.4% drop in revenues and a $122 million loss for the fourth-quarter of its fiscal year.
B&N's disastrous focus on making Nook e-Readers is weighing heavily on the chain's operations. A 17% drop in Nook revenues and stunning $475 million loss for the device division in 2013 are hobbling the company's ability to keep its stores afloat. B&N appears to be cannibalizing itself with branded tablets and cross-platform e-reader applications, which render the stores increasingly irrelevant.
36206817
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that Minneapolis police used automated scanning technology to log location data for over 800,000 license plates in June alone, with 4.9 million scans having taken place this year. The data includes the date, time, and location where the plate was seen.
Worse, it appears this data is compiled and stored for up to a year and is disclosed to anyone who asks for it.
34987009
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Best Buy has cut approximately 650 jobs from its Geek Squad division, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The cut represents about 4% of Geek Squad's total work force. The former consumer electronics giant said the workers primarily service televisions and appliances in consumers' homes.
Best Buy's performance has struggled to keep up with changes in consumer electronics, as the weight of its big-box format inhibits it from fending off competitive pressure of online retailers.
27851148
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Starting with Android 4.0, support for the "Holo" theme will be mandatory for phones and tablets that have the Android Market installed. Holo is the stock Android theme, known for its sharp angles, thin lines and blue hue. Third-party developers can now create apps and widgets using the default Android aesthetic, knowing that's how it'll look on every major Ice Cream Sandwich device that has the Android Market.
A blog post by Google's Tim Bray announcing the changes illustrates the trouble Google faces in fighting fragmentation. As in this case, Google can use Android Market access as a bargaining chip with device makers and wireless carriers, but Google also has to keep these parties happy by letting them futz with the stock Android experience. As we've seen with Android phones that use Bing instead of Google search, phone makers and wireless carriers have bargaining chips of their own.
26554904
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
The days of watching movies on the cheap via the Web may soon be over. Time Warner Cable and U.S. pay-TV companies are on the verge of instituting new fees on Web-access customers who use the most data. Cable's best option is to find ways to profit from the online shift, said Moffett. If the companies were to lose all of their video customers, the revenue decline would be more than offset by a lower programming fees and set-top box spending.
"In the end, it will be the best thing that ever happened to the cable industry," Moffett said.
22462356
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Jarrod McKinney's iPhone 4 — a notoriously fragile device — cracked when his 2-year-old knocked it off a bathroom shelf. So it's easy to see why McKinney, a 37-year-old in Minnesota, would be "just absolutely shocked" when that same phone survived a fall from his pocket — while he was skydiving from 13,500 feet.
21988472
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Ad-targeting firm Specific Media has agreed to buy News Corp.'s struggling social-media site Myspace.
The deal, expected to be announced today, values Myspace at between $30 million and $40 million, well below the $100 million News Corp. was seeking for the troubled social-media site. The deal involves considerably more equity for News Corp. than cash, according to a person familiar with the matter. News Corp will retain a small stake in the site, the people familiar with the matter said.
21707480
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Clayton Morris reviews the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and finds it lacking, especially at the $400 price point, saying "I can't in good conscience tell you to go out and spend $400 on this half-baked experience when the fully baked iPad experience can be had for just a few dollars more."
