Where to buy the Moto G4 Plus in Canada
Looking to buy the Moto G4 Plus in Canada? Here’s where you can obtain it.
The Moto G4 Plus (also known as the Moto G Plus) is one of the best phones in its price range, and is widely available in Canada. Here’s where to buy it.
Get the Moto G4 Plus from Virgin Mobile
The Moto G4 Plus is available from Virgin for:
- $0 on a Platinum plan
- $0 on a Gold plan
- $249.99 on a Silver plan
- $399.99 on a Month to Month plan
It is only available in black.
See at Virgin Mobile
Get the Moto G4 Plus from Telus
Telus will be selling the Moto G4 Plus. There is currently no price or availability.
Get the Moto G4 Plus from Koodo
The Moto G4 Plus is available from Koodo for:
- $0 up front and $21/month for 19 months on Tab Plus
- $0 up front and $15/month for 24 months on Tab
- $410 outright
It is only available in black.
See at Koodo
Get the Moto G4 Plus from Wind Mobile
The Moto G4 Plus is available at Wind Mobile for:
- $0 up front and $15/month for 24 months on WindTab Boost
- $199 up front and $5/month for 24 months on WindTab Boost
- $349 up front on WindTab
- $449 outright
It is only available in black.
See at Wind Mobile
Get the Moto G4 Plus from SaskTel
SaskTel will be selling the Moto G4 Plus. There is currently no price or availability.
PlayStation Neo (PS4K) vs Project Scorpio: What’s the rumoured difference?
During this year’s E3, Microsoft announced its smaller, more capable refresh for the Xbox One, the Xbox One S, which is coming this August. However, it also tantalisingly teased Project Scorpio for 2017, a device Xbox boss Phil Spencer called “the most powerful games console ever”.
Before the show even started, Sony Computer Entertainment head Andrew House also confirmed the presence of an upgraded PlayStation 4, codenamed – according to leaked documents – PlayStation Neo (or PS4K, as the press called it originally).
He didn’t reveal much, but from the rumours and leaks we’ve seen elsewhere, it’ll certainly rival the Microsoft machine for that “most powerful” tag.
That’s why, even at this early stage, we thought it useful to look at what we know about both consoles, mainly through the gossip and speculation over the last couple of months, to start to paint a picture about how the next phase of the gaming wars might shape up.
READ: What is Project Scorpio? The future of Xbox explained
Microsoft
PlayStation Neo vs Project Scorpio: Graphics
While a lot of the spec of both consoles comes down to pure speculation and the occasional leak, one thing we know for sure is that they will both offer 4K HDR gaming.
Xbox promised as much during its press conference at E3 2016. What’s more, it claims that the graphics chip in the new console will be not only capable of 4K resolutions, but at 60 frames per second to boot.
Its system on chip (SoC) will have 6 teraflops of computing power just to render 4K graphics – that’s high end PC graphics card stuff.
We haven’t been told the exact specifications of Neo yet, but Andrew House did confirmed in an interview with the Financial Times in the UK that the PS4K, or whatever it is finally called, will indeed be capable of 4K video output.
In alleged leaked documents, the Sony machine will be lighter in spec, with a purported 4.14 teraflops of GPU power and GDDR5 memory running at 218GB/s.
However, regardless of the slight drop in spec, we doubt you’ll be able to notice the difference on screen.
READ: Sony PlayStation 4K: What is PS4.5/Neo, when is it coming and what will it offer?
PlayStation Neo vs Project Scorpio: CPU and memory
During its E3 reveal, Microsoft confirmed that Project Scorpio will have an octa-core processor, although it didn’t mention the clock speed.
The Neo is also rumoured to have an octa-core processor, with speculation adding that each core will run at 2.1GHz.
Microsoft
Both consoles will be mega powerful though, if these are to be believed.
It is thought that the Scorpio and Neo will both have 8GB of RAM on board, but that’s not confirmed by either company.
We do know though that the memory sported by the Project Scorpio will have a bandwidth of 320GB/s. The Neo is rumoured to be restricted to 218GB/s.
Again, this might not make much difference in general 4K gaming, at least in a conventional sense. The higher the spec though, the more developers will be able to eek out of it in the future.
PlayStation Neo vs Project Scorpio: Virtual reality
One of the aimed digs Xbox sent PlayStation’s way during its E3 press event was about virtual reality.
While Sony was focusing a lot on the imminent PS VR headset during its own event and at the show, the Microsoft team delighted in revealing that Scorpio will be capable of running better, higher-res VR devices, backed up by Bethesda that said Fallout 4 is likely to be available through it.
One train of thought is that Microsoft will ally with Oculus for Rift support, which even today is a better spec’ed headset than PS VR. The PlayStation VR uses a single 1920 x 1080 OLED panel to serve 960 x 1080 to each eye, while the Oculus Rift (and HTC Vive) has an overall resolution of 2160 x 1200, so 1080 x 1200 for each eye.
To be honest, from our experiences with all three headsets, that doesn’t matter much when a game is good enough.
READ: E3 2016: All the launches, games and consoles at the show
Maybe the Xbox team suggests an even higher resolution headset for the future, one with a 4K screen. That’d provide 1920 x 2160 to each eye and would be significantly sharper. But for that, the console would need to serve 4K at higher than 60fps, as previously stated. The Rift and Vive are both capable at running at 90Hz (90fps), while the PS VR can output up to 120Hz.
In terms of the Neo, it has been suggested for a while that one of the reasons for the upgrade is to better serve virtual reality. And even if there’s no update to the PS VR next year, we would imagine it would be able to work with the current model more effectively than the standard PS4 – perhaps output at the full 120Hz rather than use frame doubling technology.
Either way, if things go to plan, VR will be a significant battleground for both manufacturers come the holiday season 2017.
PlayStation Neo vs Project Scorpio: Price and release date
At present we have no idea of the release date for PlayStation Neo, only a suggestion from House that Sony will announce it when it feels the market is ready.
The Project Scorpio will be coming “Holiday 2017”, so anytime between October and December next year, we feel. What’s the betting on them both hitting the same launch window, like the Xbox One and PS4 did in November 2013?
As for price, we honestly have no idea at present. Neither will come cheap though, considering the confirmed or rumoured specifications. The smart money is on £500 apiece or even more. Some murmurings in the halls at E3 even put them at £600 a pop. That would be ludicrous though, and you’re treading onto PC gaming ground at that level.
Microsoft
PlayStation Neo vs Project Scorpio: Backwards compatibility
One of the things current-gen console owners will be most worried about is what will the launch of two new consoles mean for their machines.
Thankfully, both manufacturers have already stated that while they plan to release better, higher spec’ed hardware, all games released will be compatible with the standard consoles too.
Think of it like a PC. Some people have the ability to play games at 4K, others in Full HD, and others still are capped at lower resolutions depending on their graphics card. They can still all buy the same games though, which scale at a software level to offer the best experience possible per computer.
The new consoles will do the same, it is said. This is the official message coming from both the Xbox and PlayStation camps.
Conclusion
To be honest, at this stage it is impossible to judge which of the two consoles will be “the most powerful ever”. It is early days and while they have both been confirmed, one even announced, we will see neither hit the streets until late next year – almost 18 months away.
We will likely find out more before then – after all, both Microsoft and Sony held proper announcement events in the spring before their respective current-gen consoles went on sale – but until that happens, we will be left to speculate.
That’s why, although we feel confident in what we discuss here, we cannot be 100 per cent sure. In addition, Xbox has shown its hand early, giving PlayStation time to adjust its plans to suit.
One thing’s for sure; it’s an exciting time to be a gamer.
CRISPR gene-editing approved for first human trials
A federal ethics and biosafety panel has approved the first ever human trials of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania aim to modify the immune system “T cells” in patients, helping them better fight off several kinds of cancer. The work will be funded by the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, founded earlier this year by tech billionaire Sean Parker. While the federal ethics panel nod was a big hurdle, researchers still need approval from the FDA and the hospitals conducting the studies before they can start.
CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing has never been tried on humans, so early studies will focus on the safety and efficacy of the tech. Scientists will remove T cells from up to 15 patients with three types of cancer: multiple melanoma, melanoma and sarcoma. The cells will be modified with CRISPR so that they can fight the malignant cells normally, then reinserted back into the patient. The trial will take place at MD Anderson Cance Center in Texas, USC San Francisco and Penn.
Sean Parker with human genome pioneer Craig Venter
The technology holds a vast amount of promise in medicine — if a patient lacks a gene that makes them more susceptible to cancer or other diseases, it can simply be edited back in. Scientists also believe that it could be used to permanently eliminate diseases like Down syndrome or Sickle-Cell Anemia. If embryonic cells are “repaired,” the recipient can never pass on a genetic disease to his offspring.
However, the technique is controversial, and scientists fear it could cause unintended side effects. Scientists in China used CRISPR on human embryos to repair a gene that causes a fatal blood disorder. The technique worked on half the embryos, but failed on the other half. As a result, the team called off the study, calling it “too immature.”
Nevertheless, scientists on the federal panel that gave the go-ahead for the Penn State trials were enthused, calling the study “exciting.” The decision means that CRISPR-Cas9 tech will be used even earlier on humans than expected — a company called Editas Medicine said it would hold the first trials to treat blindness in 2017.
Via: Techcrunch
Source: Stat News
FIFA vs PES: The battle to make the best soccer game rages on
FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer? It’s a debate that’s been around almost as long as I’ve been playing soccer (or football, to me and the rest of the world) games. Since their introductions in 1993 and 1996, respectively, EA and Konami’s series have been trying to outdo each other, adding various new features, tweaking their gameplay styles and snapping up licenses to appeal to fans. This year is no different, and the question is once again a hard one to answer.
What’s new in FIFA?
There are three flagship features for FIFA 17: a new story mode, a revamped set piece system and a switch to DICE’s Frostbite game engine. First built for Battlefield, Frostbite now powers a vast number of EA titles, including Star Wars Battlefront, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, and the upcoming Mass Effect: Andromeda.
The switch in engine has been hotly anticipated by FIFA fans, who have been playing the same basic game since FIFA 14. But Frostbite makes less of a difference than you’d expect. Sure, the graphics — particularly faces and animations — look sharper, but rather than rebuilding FIFA from the ground up, EA Sports has integrated large swathes of its Ignite engine (which powers all its current team sports games) into Frostbite. Physics, animations, A.I. and the like are for the most part as they were in Ignite, although with future iterations that may change.
In terms of pure gameplay, the revamped free kick and corner system makes the biggest difference. You’ll now see much more gamified set pieces that have you choosing not only the power of kick but the starting position of your player and speed of their run up. Elsewhere there’s a little more hustle and bustle, with an increased importance on shielding the ball and turning away from players to gain a yard, and the AI has also seen an upgrade, especially in attack, with teammates making more runs to create space.
While the switch to Frostbite hasn’t rewritten the rulebook, it has allowed for a broad expansion of the game off the pitch. Where building the game’s many authentic stadiums once took a great deal of time and money to build, artists can create them much faster using Frostbite. It’s also easier for the developers to create new skill moves, facial animations and the like, and EA is promising more variety than ever before. It’s the extra flexibility of an engine that’s not purely tailored to render a pitch and players that’s allowed EA Sports to add a new story mode called “The Journey” to the game.
In The Journey, you’ll play as a fictional soccer player named Alex Hunter, fighting your way from squad player to Premier League star, and dealing with your in-club rival and meeting famous players along the way. Unlike the career modes of the past, though, it’s not only through playing that you’ll advance. EA Sports has taken a page from BioWare (another EA company) to an RPG of sorts, complete with off-pitch locations like locker rooms, apartments and press events, and a branching storyline right out of Mass Effect.
I played through the first 15 minutes or so of the mode, and it’s looking promising. Proceedings start in a locker room before the game, where you’re introduced to Hunter’s rival. With half an hour to go in the game, you’re brought on as a substitute to try and change the balance of play. Gameplay was straight from FIFA 16’s player career mode — you control a single character rather than the whole team — but there’s custom commentary that helps to advance the story. Before and after the match, I had a few dialog options to choose from, and they all felt meaningful. Depending on the decisions you make, stats like your popularity with your manager or fans change, which in turn shapes the story you’ll be told. EA says it consulted with young Premier League stars — namely Marcus Rashford, Dele Alli and Reece Oxford — to ensure the mode felt authentic.
What’s new in Pro Evolution Soccer?
The developers of Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) find themselves in a difficult place. After a lull in the late 2000s, the past two years have seen PES games rated higher (by critics) than their FIFA counterparts. But those ratings are not reflected in sales figures. Worldwide, VGChartz’ figures had EA selling 15 million FIFA 16 games across PlayStation, Xbox and PC last year, while Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 is listed as selling around 1.4 million copies. Faced with, as a PES spokesperson put it, a rival with “never-ending pockets” in EA, the game’s developers are sticking to the task of refining the core game to try and compete.
This year, that means subtle changes to the pacing of the game. The tagline is “Control Reality,” and more than ever it feels like every decision matters. When you mess up a first touch or the speed of a pass there’s no way to quickly recover. Like in previous iterations, the gameplay favors a slow build up, probing for an opening before playing a decisive ball, and there’s a fresh set of tactics (and a much clearer set of menus to access those options) to help you guide your team to victory. PES 2016 was slow, and 2017 is slower still. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing is really a matter of preference.
There’s also a leap forward in AI, with defenders looking to mark tighter and make more interceptions. This new intelligence is also adaptive, so if you, like many, often pass to a star player, you’ll find your opposition will mark him more tightly, or even double up on coverage. The idea behind that is not just to make the game more challenging, but also to force you into being more creative with your attack.
Women’s soccer
The big ticket item for FIFA 16 was the addition of women’s football. At the EA Play event this year, there was no mention of the women’s game in the fifteen minutes FIFA was showcased. The official gameplay trailer for FIFA 17 has no women, and at the preview event I attended there was no way to field a women’s team. It was hard not to walk away from the event seeing last year’s mode — a bolted-on competition that let you play as one of 12 international teams — as a PR move; last year’s flavor.
EA Sports completely disagreed with that characterization when I asked, with a spokesperson saying that “women’s football is totally a part of FIFA 17,” adding “it’s an important piece” of the game and that more details on it will be announced further down the line. It’s nonetheless disappointing to see EA, which rightly won many plaudits for its inclusive move last year, completely ignoring that side of the game for the FIFA 17 launch. Especially since if there was ever a mode fit for gender equality in the FIFA series, it’s The Journey — an aspirational story that I’m sure will appeal to the next generation of real soccer stars, both male and female.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 continues the series’ focus on the men’s game. Adam Bhatti, PES’ Global Product and Brand Manager, told me that Konami is fully focused on improving the gameplay of the core game, rather than adding new modes. “It’s not that we don’t want to do it, it’s more that we have a list of things that fans want us to do and we’re focused on those things. Putting in women’s football before focusing on things like [master league, roster improvements and gameplay issues] would upset our fans.”
As much as I’d love to see a women’s mode in PES, it’s easy to understand why a developer with a smaller budget and a giant competitor takes this viewpoint. Bhatti also added that, although no serious talks have been had about adding it to the game, Konami does own the license to the women’s Champions League, so there would be “a natural fit there” down the line.
PES vs. FIFA
Having played around 45 minutes of each game, it’s impossible to make a call on which is better. FIFA’s general gameplay is definitely shifting closer towards PES’s. It’s harder than ever to gain a yard on an opponent or run past them on the flanks, and I had the most success when mirroring Barcelona’s (or, more appropriate for my skill level, Arsenal’s) way of passing the ball laterally and waiting for an opening.
Make no mistake, though: FIFA games are still fast-paced, and it’s way easier to score than in PES, which is striving further for realism. The developers have implemented a revamped formation and tactics system, with on the fly changes (first introduced, confusingly, by FIFA) now just a button away. It’s inarguably a harder game to pick up than EA’s fluid simulation, but like recent iterations it’s incredibly rewarding when you get it right.
As I touched on, a key difference between the two franchises is the amount of licenses they have the rights to. It’s fairly easy to divide the two: FIFA has thirty leagues or so — including the all-important English Premier League (EPL) — and lots of international teams, but no UEFA (i.e. European international) competitions. Konami has the Champions League and other UEFA-sanctioned competitions, the top French and Spanish leagues, some South American competitions, and a handful of club licenses, where you’ll get the right player names and shirts but unofficial league titles.
The EPL is the most popular national league in the world by viewing figures, and its absence from PES remains a real problem. Konami gets around this by allowing players to modify any team, and this year it’ll make it easier to import and export “your creations” via USB. Read that statement as “you’ll be able to download the proper teams from a forum somewhere and load them onto your PlayStation or Xbox after a couple of days.” I was fine doing swapping memory cards between friends in 2004 when PES was by far the better game, but it’s a lot to ask players to fake official teams in 2016.
The question over which soccer game you should buy remains an entirely personal one. For the past two years I’ve actually bought both. I recognized that PES offered better gameplay, especially in multiplayer, but the licensing and general presentation of FIFA always kept me coming back for single-player sessions. The addition of The Journey makes FiFA 17 a must-buy for me, while the further refinement to mechanics and pacing will probably make Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 my multiplayer go-to. So… my answer to FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer? Buy FIFA if you love licensing, PES if you love realism and, if you can, buy both. Just like last year.
Formula E will pit drivers against gamers in virtual race
The joys of motorsport are in watching the perfect fusion of mechanical engineering and human ingenuity, right? Apparently not, as Formula E’s leaders have decided that the competition will now expand to include virtual races. In an interview with Reuters, Formula E chief Alejandro Agag says that the competition’s first battle will take place at CES 2017 in Las Vegas. The event will put professional race drivers against pro gamers, duking it out on simulators with a track that won’t be disclosed until the day. The action may be imagined, but the stakes are high, with the victorious driver in line to win a $1 million payoff.
It’s a one-off, but the move opens the door to ever closer union between sports and its electronic counterpart. Agag believes that esports is a “huge opportunity” that his organization wants to be “immersed in.” It’s also a chance to determine who is better: professional drivers or the gamers who maybe haven’t had the same opportunities. Formula E is also investigating the potential for virtual drivers to compete in real-world races as they’re going on. While the technology to implement that is still far away, it seems like being a mere spectator won’t be an option in the future.
Source: Reuters
Microsoft updates Windows Maps as Here set to expire
Microsoft’s mobile ecosystem is in rough shape, so it didn’t help when Nokia sold its Here mapping software to a German auto consortium. That group promptly pulled Windows support, leaving users with few navigation options. However, the software giant is working to improve Windows Maps, the native app for Windows 10 users, and has just issued a big update. It says the improvements go “far beyond directions,” but perhaps the biggest one is for guided navigation.
The company made turn-by-turn instructions easier to see at a glance, whether you’re in landscape or portrait mode. To make it easier to use the app with one hand, navigation has also been positioned at the bottom of the screen. Transit users get some love too, as the app will notify you to get off the bus or train, even if you don’t have the app active.
For planning, you now get multiple searches on a single map view. That means you can find one restaurant, view it on the map, and then search another without losing the first results. It also shows a label for each location, rather than making you cross-index a number to a list of results. Once you’ve settled on a spot, you’ll get improved detail cards that show walking, driving and transit directions.
Like Here, Windows Apps has offered offline map support for a while now. However, the new release lets you save favorite spots offline, making it easier to plan a vacation. When you travel, Cortana will even remind you to download maps before you leave.
Finally, to help users migrate from Here to Windows maps, Microsoft is letting users import up to 300 favorite Here locations to Windows Maps automatically. As a reminder, Here apps (including Here Drive, Drive+, Maps, Transit and City Lens) will completely stop working on Windows 10 devices on June 30th, and while they’ll still work on Windows Phone 8 or Windows Phone 8.1, they won’t be updated. The apps will continue to work on Android and iOS.
Source: Microsoft
Brexit: where UK tech companies stand on the EU referendum
The political mud-slinging that has defined Britain’s EU referendum has almost come to a close. At 7am tomorrow morning, polling stations will open and UK citizens will be allowed to vote on whether to leave or stay in the European Union. Arguments have been drawn up on either side, contesting how the economy, jobs and immigration would be affected by a hypothetical split. In truth, nobody knows what would happen if Britain left the EU — there are too many factors and decisions to consider.
On the eve of such an important vote, Engadget contacted 50 technology companies that are either based in the UK or wield significant influence there, be it through sales, users or general operations. We posed a simple question: should Britain leave or remain in the EU? While many declined to pick a side, the majority that did were in the “remain” camp. Only one, in fact, thought it was best for Britain to cut its ties with the European Union.
The companies backing “Remain”
Credit: REUTERS/Luke MacGregor
Among the “remain” supporters are BT, Vodafone and O2, three of the UK’s biggest mobile network operators. A spokesperson for BT said the company’s reasoning was financial: “The UK economy faces risks if we exit the EU, and that would impact the company. We earn about a fifth of our revenue outside the UK — so we value the way the EU opens markets.”
In a post on LinkedIn, Ronan Funne, CEO of O2’s owner Telefonica UK, expressed similar views: “Britain needs unrestricted access to the European market in order to compete effectively. Without this, we risk serious harm to our economy in the short, medium and long term. The very real threat to jobs, house prices and welfare cannot be overlooked.”
Some, such as Vodafone’s CEO Vittorio Colao, have taken a more philosophical stance. In an interview with the BBC’s Today programme, he said Britain “is particularly strong in digital” and that it would be a “missed opportunity if it tried to sit on the outside.” Later, he added: “There is a difference between being a neighbour and being a co-owner.”
Vittorio Colao, CEO of the Vodafone Group. Credit: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
Other supporters of the remain campaign include Virgin Media, Microsoft and Ford. These corporate behemoths are joined by a tapestry of smaller companies and startups that similarly feel Britain and its European neighbours are better together. Jessica Curry, co-founder of the UK video game developer The Chinese Room (known for Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, among other titles) said:
“I can’t speak for The Chinese Room team as a whole but as a Company Director here at TCR I absolutely support staying in the European Union. It’s not just about business, it’s an ethos that Dan and I share very strongly: travel, inclusivity, culture, diversity, education and the concept of open borders are so important to us. I look at who is supporting the out campaign and I know deep in my heart that I don’t ever want to stand shoulder to shoulder with them — their politics of fear, division and the promotion of hatred is against everything we believe in.
“Recent events have made me even more determined to promote tolerance and acceptance. It seems fitting to end with the words of Jo Cox: “We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.”
“I say, remain and reform!”
Her views are echoed by usTwo, the company behind the stylish mobile video game Monument Valley, as well as the VR experience Land’s End and Sky TV’s new kid-centric app. Kano, the startup behind the colorful and educational build-it-yourself computer, and Open Bionics, a team making open-source prosthetics for amputees, feel the same way. “Kano’s got Swedish, German and Irish design,” Alex Klein, co-founder and CEO of Kano said. “Czech, Spanish and Romanian code. Belgium marketing. Thousands of EU customers and an abiding faith in connection over nativisim. We represent 20 nationalities — I say, remain and reform!”
The companies backing “Leave”
Credit: REUTERS/Toby Melville
Dyson was the only company in our survey to back the leave campaign. That’s not to say other businesses, large and small, don’t feel the same way, however. Some companies will have declined from expressing their preference, or simply felt uncomfortable knowing their staff share a diverse, complicated range of opinions. But in an interview with the Telegraph, Sir James Dyson has expressed a clear, unwavering desire for Britain to break off from the European Union. He believes the island nation would be better off, both from an economic and cultural perspective.
“We will create more wealth and more jobs by being outside the EU than we will within it,” he argues, “and we will be in control of our destiny. And control, I think, is the most important think in life and business.”
“The plugs are different. The laws are different. It’s not a single market.”
In particular, Dyson disagrees with the argument that leaving the European Union would make it difficult for Britain to negotiate and ultimately export goods to other EU members. “When the remain campaign tells us no one will trade with us if we leave the EU, sorry, it’s absolutely cobblers,” he says. “Our trade imbalance with Europe is running at nine billion a month and rising. If this trend continues, that is £100 billion a year.”
Dyson has criticised the very concept and advantages associated with the “single market” too. “They have different languages which, for an exporter, means that everything from the box to the instruction manual has to be in a different language. The plugs are different. The laws are different. It’s not a single market. The only communality is that there’s no tariff, but the pound going up against the Euro is far more damaging than any tariff. If the pound rises, £100 million is quickly wiped off.”
The companies on the fence
Most of the companies we contacted either declined to comment or said they held no position. A number of reasons were given; the BBC, for instance, pointed to guidelines which state it must remain independent and distanced from government initiatives, campaigners and charities. Others, such as Skyscanner, which runs a travel comparison and booking site, simply said: “We’re apolitical as an organisation and our focus is on growing our business and producing a world-class product.”
The results
Below, we’ve published a full list of the companies contacted for this piece. Any changes in position will be updated here accordingly.
| Amazon | No comment. |
| BBC | No comment. |
| Blaze | Did not respond. |
| BT | Remain. |
| Channel 4 | Did not respond. |
| Citymapper | Did not respond. |
| Codemasters | Did not respond. |
| Deliveroo | Remain. |
| Dyson | Leave. |
| No position. | |
| Fanduel | No comment. |
| Ford | Remain. |
| Funding Circle | Remain. |
| Hailo | No comment. |
| Hello Games | Did not respond. |
| Hive (British Gas) | Did not respond. |
| Huddle | Did not respond. |
| ITV | Did not respond. |
| Just Eat | Remain. |
| Kano | Remain. |
| LG | Did not respond. |
| Media Molecule | No comment. |
| Microsoft | Remain. |
| Mind Candy | No comment. |
| Netflix | No position. |
| O2 | Remain. |
| Open Bionics | Remain. |
| Raspberry Pi Foundation | No position. |
| Rockstar North | Did not respond. |
| Samsung | No comment. |
| Secret Escapes | No comment. |
| Shazam | No comment. |
| Sky | No position. |
| Skyscanner | No position. |
| Sony | Did not respond. |
| Spotify | Remain. |
| TalkTalk | No comment. |
| Three UK | No comment. |
| Touchnote | No position. |
| TransferWise | Remain. |
| No comment. | |
| Team17 | Remain. |
| Uber | No position. |
| Uniwheel | Remain. |
| UsTwo | Remain. |
| Virgin Media | Remain. |
| Vodafone | Remain. |
| Wileyfox | Did not respond. |
| World Remit | No comment. |
| YPlan | Did not respond. |
Company That Sued Apple for iPhone 6 Patent Infringement ‘Barely Exists’
Shenzhen Baili, the Chinese company that claimed the iPhone 6 violated the patent of its 100c smartphone, is reported to “barely exist” following its victory in the Beijing Intellectual Property Office against Apple.
In response to Shenzhen Baili’s patent lawsuit, The Wall Street Journal investigated the company, along with its parent Digione, and found that the latter company had collapsed, “brought down by buggy products, mismanagement and fierce competition, according to former employees and investors.” Digione has apparently been absent from China’s mobile phone market for nearly a year.
iPhone 6 (left) and Shenzhen Baili’s 100c (right)
Phone calls to the company, Shenzhen Baili Marketing Services Co., ring unanswered. Its websites have been deleted. Visits to its three registered addresses found no company offices.
Baili and its parent, Digione, are part of a rapid boom and bust in China’s new wave of smartphone makers. When Baili took on Apple in December 2014, telling Chinese regulators that the Cupertino, Calif., company’s new models infringed on its smartphone design patents, it had bold aspirations, a big-name investor in Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc. and a team of experienced executives.
All the same, Shenzhen Baili is claiming to continue to battle Apple through its pending appeal process, and the company “is still operational in its necessary functions,” according to Digione lawyer Andy Yang. The company originally filed the patent infringement claim in December 2014, shortly after the launch of the iPhone 6, but the case only recently reached the court system in Beijing.
Despite its assertion to continue going after Apple in court, the financial records of Baili and its parent company reveal that both are insolvent, with debts that greatly exceed their total assets. Former employees of the company even said that the suit against Apple was “always more a marketing ploy than a serious court case.”
Despite the setback, Apple has confirmed that both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have stayed on sale in China thanks to an administrative order appeal from a regional patent tribunal in Beijing last month.
Tag: China
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New Amazon Kindle 2016: Double memory, thinner, lighter and more
Amazon has just announced a new Kindle that upgrades the previous generation but still keeps that same £60 price.
The new Kindle for 2016 is thinner and lighter than its predecessor yet manages to cram in double the memory for greater storage capacity.
The Kindle is available in white or black and comes with a more rounded edge for comfortable holding over long periods of time. Despite the size change the battery will still last for weeks on a charge.
New reading features have been introduced with the new Kindle. Export Notes allows you to export highlights and notes from your kindle to your email that will be sent as a PDF. This feature will be free and arrive as an over the air update in the coming weeks.
Bluetooth audio is now built-in allowing for support for the visually impaired thanks to VoiceView which can read books and other Kindle content over a Bluetooth speakers or headphones.
The home screen has also had an update with easier navigation aimed at helping you find favourites, manage Wish Lists and more.
The new Amazon Kindle is available for pre-order now for £60 and will begin shipping in the coming weeks.
READ: Amazon Kindle Oasis review: First class reader, first class price
The new entry-level Kindle is thinner, lighter and still $80
The luxurious Kindle Oasis is no longer the new kid on the block. Amazon just unveiled its new entry-level Kindle device, which is more portable and packs in twice as much storage as the last model. And yes, it’s still $80 (with Amazon’s “Special Offers” ads). Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the resolution for its 6-inch E Ink screen has been improved at all — you’ll have to bump up to the $120 Paperwhite for sharper text (that model is now available in white, as well).
At least the new Kindle has a few features to make up for that: it’s the first model to ship with Bluetooth audio support for blind readers (for connecting to wireless headsets and speakers). And you’ll also be able to easily email yourself notes and highlights in PDF and spreadsheet form. That note exporting feature will eventually roll out to other Kindle models, but Amazon isn’t saying if it can bring the Bluetooth feature to any others (like the pricey Oasis, for example).
Amazon says it also sports a “more rounded design,” which should make it easier to hold. Otherwise, it looks unmistakably like a Kindle. Tough luck if you were hoping for the return of physical page flipping buttons, though.
Ultimately, the revamped Kindle is an iterative update for Amazon, one that aims to make it tempting as tablets get ever cheaper. It would have been nice to see the company aim for an even lower price, as it’s often had previous models on sale for $60. At this point though, the $120 Paperwhite, which has both a backlit screen and a much better display, remains the best overall Kindle value.
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