Apple-Backed Didi Chuxing Under Antitrust Investigation After Uber China Acquisition

China-based ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing is under an antitrust investigation, spearheaded by China’s Ministry of Commerce, following Didi’s acquisition of Uber’s Chinese operations earlier in the summer (via The Wall Street Journal). The Ministry of Commerce said today that it’s opened an investigation “after it received questions over whether the ride-hailing deal complied with the nation’s antitrust law.”

The investigation has reportedly been ongoing for a while now, as the commerce ministry has held two meetings surrounding the deal between Didi and Uber. According to transcripts of the meetings, the focus has been on asking Didi why it didn’t apply for antitrust review before moving forward with the deal. When its acquisition of Uber went public, Didi claimed it didn’t need to apply to antitrust regulators “because UberChina’s revenue didn’t reach the 400 million yuan ($60 million) “turnover” threshold triggering an antitrust review.”

At issue is the vague word “turnover” in China’s antimonopoly law, which could be interpreted as either revenue or transaction volume, China accountants say. UberChina’s transaction volume almost certainly exceeds 400 million yuan, but Uber counts only a fraction of each fare as part of its revenue. That is because the company—like other “platforms” such as Groupon Inc.—says it is only a middleman and that it only passes along fares from riders to drivers, taking a thin cut.

Many professionals looking into the case still believe that the Didi/Uber deal will go through in the end, with one ministry spokesman saying that, right now, they’re just trying “to understand the online ride-hailing business model and the sector’s competitive environment.” According to Lester Ross, a Beijing-based attorney with U.S. law firm WilmerHale, Chinese regulators are simply “flexing their muscles” following public fear that a consolidation of ride-hailing firms would result in higher fares.

Apple’s connection to the investigation lies in its own $1 billion investment into Didi Chuxing earlier in May, which gave it access to data and expertise on electric and autonomous car technology, as well as a foot in the door with the Chinese investment community. Although still a widely-known rumor, the Didi investment got tied into Apple’s car-related Project Titan, which is an “open secret” within Silicon Valley. In July, it was reported that Apple hired a new chief on its Apple Car project, Bob Mansfield, with a shift in focus now on autonomous driving.

Tags: Uber, Didi Chuxing
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Ireland Agrees to Appeal European Commission’s Apple Tax Ruling

Ireland’s coalition government has agreed to appeal the European Commission’s ruling that it must collect 13 billion euros in back taxes from Apple, according to Reuters. A motion will come before the country’s Parliament on Wednesday seeking an endorsement of that decision, a government spokesperson said.

It was always expected that both Apple and Ireland would appeal any adverse decision, as insisted by the country’s finance minister Michael Noonan, but Ireland’s cabinet members became divided on the matter following the ruling. After meeting on Friday, however, the cabinet has seemingly come together and agreed to join Apple’s fight against the European Commission.

Earlier this week, the European Commission ruled that Apple received illegal state aid from Ireland, following a three-year inquiry into the company’s tax arrangements in the country. The investigation’s results showed that Apple allegedly paid between 0.005% and 1% in taxes in Ireland between 2003 and 2014, compared to the the country’s headline 12.5% corporate tax rate.

Apple CEO Tim Cook called the findings “total political crap” and described the lower end 0.005% tax rate as a “false number.” In an open letter, Cook said Apple is confident the decision “will be reversed,” but the appeal process could take several years in European courts. Apple has previously said it fully complies with international tax law and is the largest taxpayer in the world.

Cook also said that Apple has “provisioned several billion dollars for the U.S. for payment,” and he forecasted that it could repatriate that cash next year. Europe’s competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager previously said that Apple could lower its Irish tax bill by paying appropriate taxes in other countries, or by increasing R&D payments to its U.S. operations.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: corporate tax, European Commission, Europe, Ireland
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Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall: Everything you need to know

Here’s what you need to know about Samsung’s Note 7 recall.

Samsung has announced a recall of Note 7s along with a halting of sales after concerns of faulty components causing battery explosions. That’s scary, and product recalls aren’t fun for anyone to deal with. Here’s what you need to know about the recall and how to handle it with your own Note 7.

Note: This is a constantly evolving story with information that is being updated regularly.

Should I keep using my Note 7?

The biggest question to answer from the start is whether or not you should keep using your Note 7 after Samsung has announced that it is recalling the phone. We need to understand that even though Samsung is recalling every phone it has sold that doesn’t mean that every phone is at risk of having a battery failure.

From Samsung’s announcement of the recall, there have been 35 cases of the issue, out of over a million phones sold. Just one case is enough to make people worried, and 35 is a lot more, but that doesn’t mean your phone has the same problem. In light of the new information it is a totally realistic response to want to stop using your Note 7 — but Samsung isn’t saying one way or the other what current Note 7 owners should do.

What’s causing phones to be recalled?

Samsung’s official statement on the recall says that the issue relates to the battery cells used in some Note 7s, which lines up with the earlier reports of phones catching fire and exploding. Given the number of reports that Samsung is investigating, a recall was to be expected.

How do I know if my Note 7 has been recalled?

Rules about how customers with recalled products are notified and handled differs by country, but in general we can expect that all owners will be notified of the recall. A recent example of the Shield Tablet recall over similar issues shows just how this can be handled: customers are notified or can go to a website to check if their phone is being recalled, and can quickly find out what to do with their phone and how to receive a replacement.

Samsung has already announced that U.S. carriers will release details for the recall process as early as today.

In the UK, Samsung halted sales before the Note 7’s street date of September 2. Some British networks were running promotional deals where pre-order customers could get devices early, and so some are already in the wild. Like all other Note 7s, Samsung will replace these in the coming weeks. For more information, Samsung directs UK customers to its customer service line at 0330 7261000.

This process is particularly important for the future where second-hand sales of Note 7s may occur from people who didn’t follow through with the recall now.

What do I do if my Note 7 has been recalled?

As is the case with any other product recall — phones and tablets in particular — you should follow the instructions set out by Samsung, the carrier or retailer you bought it from for the recall as soon as you can. It’s incredibly frustrating to have to give up your phone, but there’s a reason why it’s being recalled and that means you should follow it.

When your phone is recalled, Samsung will replace it — the process is expected to take a few weeks.

How can I trust that my replacement phone is okay?

Then there’s the next question: will the replacement Note 7 phone I get be safe? Well, obviously we never know for sure considering that the first phones were all perceived to be safe and were recalled. The whole reason why the phones are being recalled is that Samsung continued to investigate the quality of its devices even after they were sold, so you can bet that whatever issue was found can be reincorporated to the supply chain and manufacturing to (hopefully) ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

Of course this is all about trust — no matter how safe and secure a company is in its manufacturing processes, quality control standards can never be 100% perfect, and “bad” units of any phone will always get out. The real issue in this case is that the “bad” units aren’t screens with an odd tint or a headphone jack that doesn’t work — they’re phones that could potentially be dangerous.

The recall has happened — either you trust that Samsung has reliably fixed the issues that were causing problems in the first Note 7s, or you move on to a different phone.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7

• Galaxy Note 7 recall: Everything you need to know
• Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review
• The latest Galaxy Note 7 news!
• Here are all four Note 7 colors
• Complete Galaxy Note 7 specs
• Join the Note 7 discussion in the forums!

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Turing promises the moon with the 2017 Cadenza: dual Snapdragon 830, 60MP camera, 12GB RAM

The Sailfish OS-based Turing Phone offers secure software combined with a proprietary liquid-metal alloy chassis that’s touted to be stronger than aluminum and steel. The phone was initially slated to launch last year, but ran into significant delays, with the first wave of pre-orders going out in July. Turing Robotic Industries, the company behind the phone, has detailed plans for its 2017 handset, the Cadenza. The company is looking to integrate artificial intelligence to “dramatically improve our day to day mobile communication,” promising specs that sound far too good to be true.

According to Turing CEO Steve Chao, the Cadenza will feature a 5.8-inch QHD display, two Snapdragon 830 SoCs with a total of 16 Kryo CPU cores, a 60MP “iMAX 6K Quad Rear Camera with Triplet Lens/T1.2”, 20MP front camera, 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM (2 x 6GB modules), four SIM card slots, and a staggering 1TB of storage.

Here’s the spec sheet in its entirety:

The Cadenza will run Swordfish OS, an as-yet-unannounced fork of Sailfish OS that incorporates deep machine learning. This looks more like someone at TRI put out a spec sheet crammed full of all the buzzwords they could think up. In slightly more believable news from this dimension, the folks at Acer have gone utterly mad and put a 21-inch curved screen on a gaming laptop.

How to download and manage apps from the Google Play Store

How do I download and manage apps and games through the Google Play Store? .intro

Whether this is your first smartphone or just your first using Android, there’s a lot to love here, and it all starts with finding some apps to fill that new phone (or tablet) with. Google Play is the app store that Google runs, and it’s also an important piece of Android’s security as it scans apps before and after they’re downloaded and monitors them for unusual activity. It can be a bit overwhelming when you first open up Google Play, but don’t worry, we’re here to help you get started!

• How to search for apps on Google Play
• How to browse apps in Google Play
• How to download free apps
• How to buy paid apps
• How to update apps
• How to toggle auto-update
• How to uninstall apps
• How to remove apps from your app history

How to search for apps on Google Play

If you already know the name of the app you’re looking for, or have a specific app type in mind, you can search for it rather than browsing through app categories.

Tap the Google Play icon on your home screen.
Tap the white search bar at the top of the screen.

Enter the name of the app (or type of app) you’re looking for.
Tap the search icon on your keyboard (should be in the location of the Enter key).

If you’re not quite as sure what you want, or your search results don’t help you (don’t worry, it happens to all of us), there are other ways to find apps on Google Play.

How to browse apps in Google Play

You can browse through Google Play’s Top Charts to try and find a new app you want to install.

Tap the Google Play icon on your home screen.
Tap Apps & games to ensure you’re on the app side of the store.
Below Apps & games, tap Top Charts.

You’re now ready to browse the charts for new apps. Swipe left and right between the charts for Top Free, Top Paid, Top Grossing, Top New Free, Top New Paid, and Trending.

You can also browse through Google Play by category:

Tap the Google Play icon on your home screen.
Tap Apps & games to ensure you’re on the app side of the store.
Below Apps & games, tap Categories.
Tap the category you’d like to browse.

Now, some app categories are just a series of Top Charts narrowed to that category of app, but other categories have featured apps and subcategories in addition to the Top Charts for that category.

Once you’ve found one you like, it’s time to install it.

How to download free apps

Tap on an app in the search results or categories.
Read through the app’s description and reviews to ensure the app seems right for you.
Tap Install.

The app will now download and install itself, usually in a few seconds depending on how large or small the app is. If you’re on a device running an older version of Android, you’ll have to agree to an app’s permissions before it downloads. Read the permissions before clicking Agree. Once it is finished installing, an Open button will appear in the same place the Install button previously occupied.

How to buy paid apps

The process for buying a paid app is just a hair different than downloading a free one, and it goes like this:

Tap on an app in the search results or categories.
Tap the price to bring up the payment options.

Your default payment method will be shown. If you want to change your payment method, tap the down arrow next to your current payment method.

Tap Payment methods.
Tap one of your established payment methods. If you don’t have one, you’ll be prompted to add a credit card, PayPal account, or carrier billing.

Tap Buy.

Confirm your Google Play password.
The payment is processed and the download will begin. Tap Continue to close the window.

How to update apps

Apps need updates from time to time, and if you need to manually update your apps, here’s how you do it.

Tap the Google Play icon on your home screen.
Swipe in from the left edge of the screen OR tap the three line menu icon in the top white bar to open the menu.
Tap My apps & games.
App needing updates will appear at the top of the list. Tap Update All to update all the apps needing updates.

If you want to update a single app rather than all of them, you can do that, too. Follow the same steps above, but instead of tapping Update All:

Tap the app you want to update.
Tap Update.
If there are any new permissions, read them over before tapping Accept.

How to toggle auto-update

Rather than manually updating apps, which is easy to forget, Google Play is set to automatically update apps for you when you’re on Wi-Fi. If you’d prefer that it install updates automatically even when on cellular data — or not auto-update at all — you can change the setting easily.

Tap the Google Play icon on your home screen.
Swipe in from the left edge of the screen OR tap the three line menu icon in the top white bar to open the menu.

Swipe up to scroll down.

Tap Settings.
Tap Auto-update apps.
To turn off auto-update, select Do no auto-update apps. To enable auto-update on cellular data, select Auto-update at any time.

If there are apps you do not want auto-updated, you can opt them out of auto-update while allowing your other apps to stay updated.

Swipe in from the left edge of the screen OR tap the three line menu icon in the top white bar to open the menu.
Scroll down and tap My apps & games.

Scroll down and tap the app you don’t want auto-updating.

Tap the three dot menu icon in the top right corner of the screen (next to the search icon).
Tap to uncheck Auto-update.

How to uninstall apps

Tap the Google Play icon on your home screen.
Swipe in from the left edge of the screen OR tap the three line menu icon in the top white bar to open the menu.

Tap My apps & games.

Scroll down and tap the app you want to uninstall.
Tap Uninstall. Note: if this is a paid app and it’s still within the refund window, you will tap Refund instead.
A window will open confirming you want to uninstall the app. Tap OK.

The app will now uninstall and remove itself from the device.

How to remove apps from your app history

If you install an app, don’t like it, and uninstall it, it’s still attached to your app history in the All section of My apps & games. If you don’t want an app in that list anymore, here’s how you get rid of it.

Swipe in from the left edge of the Google Play store screen OR tap the three line menu icon in the top white bar to open the menu.
Tap My apps & games.

Tap All in the green bar.

Scroll down and find the app you want to remove.
Tap the X in the top right corner of the listing for the app.
The app will disappear.

Your turn!

What do you love about the Google Play Store? Did we miss anyhting

New Beats headphones promised for iPhone 7 launch

Apple is expected to debut new Beats headphones alongside the launch of the iPhone 7, a leaked email has revealed.

The headphones company, bought up Apple in 2014, has been quiet of late on the new product front, and the latest news could suggest why.

According to the email, sent to French Apple fan site, iGeneration, by mistake, the headphone division will use the Apple keynote on the 7 September to also reveal “a selection of new Beats by Dry products”.

The site, which posted the email, has now taken down the screenshot of the email after being asked to remove it by the Apple owned company.

The arrival of new Beats makes perfect sense. Apple is rumoured to be removing the headphone socket from the new iPhone and instead encouraging owners to connect wirelessly.

If that’s the case, users will no doubt be keen to buy a new set of “wireless” headphones alongside the purchase of their new phone.

Apple has long encouraged third-party manufacturers to ditch the cable and go wireless, evidence of which is already apparent at the IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin, Germany. At the show a number of manufacturers have launched wireless headphones as they all try to stay one step ahead of Apple.

Pocket-lint will be covering the iPhone 7 launch event on the 7 September.

We will keep you posted.  

Tesla may have disabled the Model X’s door safety sensors

The latest firmware Tesla rolled out for Model X was supposed to fix its buggy doors, but it seemed to have brought new problems of its own. See, the car’s sweet Falcon doors had been giving owners grief. One common complaint was that their inductive sensors, in charge of preventing those automatic wings from crushing precious fingers, were inclined to detect objects that weren’t really there. Owners would sometimes have to try a few times to get them to close. According to the new firmware’s logs, the update is supposed to improve this behavior. However, based on the tests conducted by MEtv Product Reviews on YouTube, Tesla might have deactivated those sensors altogether instead of issuing a proper fix.

In the first video below (at around the 8 minute mark), you can see a Falcon door closing on a cucumber clearly in its path, slicing it in half. Its sensors would have prevented that from happening. The real problem is, the automaker didn’t specify such an important change on the firmware’s update logs. While it’s true most people wouldn’t place their hands on a car’s door frame, accidents do happen. Jalopnik asked MEtv Product Reviews for specifics, and the person behind the YouTube channel and website said:

“I was told they [the sensors] were deemed no longer necessary. They were turned off in v 7.1 2.32.100. I took it to mean that they couldn’t get the buggy inductive sensor to work properly, and since everyone was having issues with them removed them and didn’t tell anyone until I asked because I noticed the behavior had changed. You can see how they work in my previous videos. I don’t think there is any other video online that shows how the inductive sensors work…

Everyone’s had issues with phantom object detection which is caused by these inductive sensors. Take from this what you will, but it looks like they figured out a way to just remove them and use the motors in the hinges to detect. How it pinches, before with the inductive it stops on contact.”

The company didn’t say whether it truly disabled those specific set of sensors when Jalopnik asked for a statement. Its spokesperson only said:

“We adjusted Model X Falcon Wing doors via a software update in order to improve closure consistency and reduce false detection of obstacles.”

For now, the best thing to do if you own a Model X is to be very careful around those doors. Or, you know, to physically restrain the limbs of restless passengers if necessary.

Source: MEtv Product Reviews

Uber granted court review of TfL’s English language test

Uber is trying everything to overturn stringent new rules proposed by Transport for London (TfL). Last year, the organisation took a long hard look at the capital’s ride-hailing market, and concluded that a few crucial changes were needed. These included a new English language test for all Uber drivers, better customer support and vehicle insurance. Uber supported some, if not all of these proposals at first, but quickly changed its tune once the fine print was revealed. In short, the company thinks the new requirements go too far, and will affect its ability to recruit drivers.

The regulations will now be contested in court. Uber has been granted a judicial review, which will examine TfL’s proposals — which were put out for consultation last year, and approved by the organisation’s board in March — before they come into effect next month. “We’re pleased that the judge has decided this case deserves a hearing,” Tom Elvidge, general manager for Uber London said. “TfL’s plans threaten the livelihoods of thousands of drivers in London, while also stifling tech companies.”

The biggest point of contention is a new English language test, designed to ensure drivers can speak eloquently with their passengers and address any problems on the road. Under the new proposals, all Uber drivers from non-English speaking countries would need to hold a B1-level qualification. The exam looks at proficiency in speaking and listening — something Uber broadly supports — but also reading and writing. To pass the two-hour exam, candidates need to write a few short essays and articles (an example test shows they’re about 150 words each). Uber argues that this proficiency is unnecessary, as it far exceeds the requirements for British citizenship.

The company has also taken issue with a TfL proposal that states “operators must ensure that customers can speak to a real person in the event of a problem with their journey.” Guidance published in June states that the “person” must be working from a licensed London centre — it can’t just be the driver you’ve taken a trip with. Uber believes this is unfair because “there is no similar requirement on black cabs.” Such a building would, of course, require considerable investment, and Uber stresses that you can always contest a fare or inefficient route through the app.

A spokesperson for TfL said the organisation is looking forward to the judicial review, as it will provide closure on the “remaining issues” contested by Uber. “The changes to private-hire regulation were made to enhance public safety and we are determined to create a vibrant taxi and private hire market, with space for all providers to flourish.”

Via: BBC News