Google releases fix for Chromecast WiFi bug

Google has started rolling out a patch that will prevent Cast-enabled devices from killing your WiFi connection. Multiple complaints reported over the past few weeks revealed that Android devices’ Cast feature suffers from a WiFi bug. Apparently, they sometimes beam too much data at a very high speed in a very short amount of time, slowing down and even disrupting WiFi connections when you try to Cast to Chromecast, Google Home and Android TVs. Routers from various manufacturers are susceptible to the issue, including those from TP-Link, ASUS, Linksys, Netgear and Synology.

Mountain View figured out the root of the problem a couple of days ago and promised a fix, and now it has released the solution as a Google Play services update. It’ll probably hit your device soon if it hasn’t yet, but its APK is now available for download in case you’re worried that the bug can affect your binge-watching session this weekend.

Source: 9to5Google

Amazon Prime monthly subscriptions now cost $2 more

Amazon has offered a monthly Prime subscription for a good long time now, but today it’s unfortunately getting a bit more expensive. As of today, the price for a monthly Prime subscription is going up $2, from $10.99 to $12.99. Students with a valid .edu email address will continue to save money, but that option is going up as well, from $5.49 to $6.49. Both changes go into effect today for new customers; existing customers will see the increase on their February bill.

This change makes an annual subscription, which is still priced at $99 (or $49 for students) look like a much better deal. Amazon is likely doing this as a way to push more customers to opt in for an annual deal, which saves customers money and also gives Amazon more guaranteed revenue to count on. If you’re currently signed up for a monthly plan, it’s probably worth looking at how much you use Prime every month and see if the more expensive price makes sense for your budget. Amazon will be holding its quarterly earnings call on February 1st, and we’ll tune in to see if the company has anything to say about this new pricing scheme.

Via: Recode

Source: Amazon

Facebook Doubling Down on Stories Format By Testing Ability to Post From Desktop

Facebook is testing a feature that will let users post stories on Mac and PC, in an effort to further make the ephemeral sharing feature stick on the platform. Once the test rolls out wide, Facebook users will be able to click an “Upload Photo” button to share pictures and videos to their story, or “Open Camera” to record a story with a webcam.

Images via TechCrunch
The test also includes “much more prominent placement” for stories on desktop, where they will now sit on top of the News Feed — similar to their location on the iOS app — instead of in the sidebar. TechCrunch reported that all of this amounts to a new effort in “doubling down” on the stories format, despite the fact that most users have responded critically to the addition, and its poor performance last year caused the company to slightly tweak the app’s user interface in an attempt to boost usage.

While some normal users might remain hesitant to use stories, it’s believed Facebook’s introduction of stories onto its desktop website could lead to “brands, event promoters, and group admins” embracing the format more. For users that visit Facebook daily on the web, the company said that the site will remain easy to navigate.

“We are always working to ensure people can easily navigate and enjoy Facebook, regardless of how they connect,” a Facebook spokesperson tells me. “We are testing the option to create and share Stories from Facebook on desktop and are also testing moving the Stories tray from the top right corner to above News Feed, just like on mobile.” Previously you could only consume Stories on web that had to be created on mobile. For now, a small percentage of users will see this new posting ability and design.

Facebook’s push for stories is also centered around the company’s preparation to launch more augmented reality features in the future. With stories launching on the web, Facebook’s 24-hour post sharing format will now be able to sync across its iOS and Android apps, desktop site, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram, making it easier for users to share one story on multiple platforms.

Tag: Facebook
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Apple Tops Fortune’s List of World’s Most Admired Companies for 11th Consecutive Year

Apple has topped Fortune’s annual list of the World’s Most Admired Companies for the 11th consecutive year.

Apple finished ahead of Amazon, the runner-up for a second consecutive year, while Google’s parent Alphabet, Warren Buffett’s holding company Berkshire Hathaway, and coffee chain Starbucks rounded off the top five.

Apple topped the list in every category, such as innovation, quality of management, social responsibility, use of corporate assets, financial soundness, quality of products and services, and global competitiveness.

The rankings were determined by some 3,900 executives, directors, and securities analysts who selected the 10 companies they admired most. More on Fortune’s methodology:

As we have in the past, Fortune collaborated with our partner Korn Ferry on this survey of corporate reputations. We began with a universe of about 1,500 candidates: the 1,000 largest U.S. companies ranked by revenue, along with non-U.S. companies in Fortune’s Global 500 database that have revenues of $10 billion or more. We then winnowed the assortment to the highest-revenue companies in each industry, a total of 680 in 29 countries. The top-rated companies were picked from that pool of 680; the executives who voted work at the companies in that group.

The complete list includes 50 companies, ranging from other tech giants like Microsoft at 7th and Facebook at 12th to iconic brands like Coca-Cola at 18th and McDonald’s at 37th. On the upside, both Adidas and Lockheed Martin made it onto the list for the first time. Meanwhile, GE plummeted from 7th to 30th.

In terms of technology companies, Apple ranked sixth in Thomson Reuters’ first-ever list of the Top 100 Global Technology Leaders.

Tag: fortune.com
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Def Leppard Now Available to Stream on Apple Music

Rock band Def Leppard has added its back catalog of music onto Apple Music and other streaming services today, following a years-long “power struggle” with Universal Records over the band’s digital song rights.

Now, as Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott explained to TeamRock.com, new executives at Universal Records have thought differently about the band’s streaming catalog, leading to the inking of a deal and the band’s music launching today on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music Unlimited, and more.

“We tried to do a deal many years ago, but it didn’t work out, so we just waited and bided our time.

“Record labels, or any kind of institution like this, keep the same name, but every 18 months you can have totally different people.

“We were just very fortunate that the people at Universal at the moment were very onside to doing this deal. We sat down with them and basically just batted the stuff back and forth until we all settled on what we thought was a fair deal.”

With the launch on Apple Music, there is now a wealth of Def Leppard content for subscribers to listen to today. On the main “Browse” tab, the streaming service has a new banner for the band, and within that you’ll find playlists, albums, live albums, deluxe editions, and other collections.

Apple Music also launched an exclusive “The Lost Session” EP today, which includes live versions of songs like “Rock On” and “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak,” all said to be from a recording session in 2006. Similar to other major artists, the service has curated playlists that showcase Def Leppard Essentials, Deep Cuts, Influences, and Inspired tracks, allowing users to browse some of the band’s own songs as well as discover music that is similar.

On Def Leppard’s new page, Apple Music gives a brief history of the band:

“Def Leppard were still teenagers when they joined the late ’70s/early ’80s New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. But while their peers like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest got heavier, Def Leppard forged a pop-friendly hybrid that opened the door for hair metal and elevated them to worldwide acclaim. Anthems like “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” “Photograph,” and “Rock of Ages” retain their fist-pumping brilliance decades later, while “Love Bites” and “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” are some of the most potent power ballads in rock history.

Their enduring spirit is legendary, exemplified by drummer Rick Allen who lost his left arm in a 1984 auto accident but continues to record and tour with the band. Def Leppard’s classic studio albums, playlists, and a lost 2006 session are now available to stream on Apple Music for the first time.”

Following its launch in 2015, Apple Music has had a few major artist holdouts that have eventually come to the platform, including Taylor Swift, Adele, and Kanye West. In the most recent update from September, Apple Music was reported to have 30 million subscribers, up from 27 million last June. Rival Spotify shared its own subscriber count growth earlier this month, stating it now has 70 million paid subscribers.

Tag: Apple Music
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Facebook is testing the ability to create Stories on PC

Unlike its Instagram counterpart, Facebook Stories hasn’t been doing as well. The social network even launched Instagram-to-Facebook crossposting and merged it with one of its other Snapchat clones, Messenger Day, over the past few months in an effort to get more people to use it. But it doesn’t look like Facebook is giving up on it anytime soon — according to TechCrunch, the company has begun testing the ability to post Stories straight from desktop. It’s also testing a new design that puts Stories above the desktop News Feed, similar to the feature’s more prominent placement on mobile. At the moment, you can view Stories on desktop, but you can find them on the side bar instead of in the middle of the page.

A Facebook spokesperson told the publication:

“We are always working to ensure people can easily navigate and enjoy Facebook, regardless of how they connect. We are testing the option to create and share Stories from Facebook on desktop and are also testing moving the Stories tray from the top right corner to above News Feed, just like on mobile.”

By putting Stories front and center on desktop, Facebook is giving vloggers who prefer recording themselves on their webcam a new platform. It’s also making the feature more alluring for advertisers: a Digiday report even says the company is putting an AR team together in London, which will be in charge of pitching sponsored AR filters to advertisers. If the company’s plan pans out, you can expect to see branded overlays in Instagram’s and Facebook’s ephemeral feature in the future.

[Image credit: TechCrunch]

Source: Facebook

Investigations into Apple’s iPhone Battery Slowdowns Spread to Italy and South Korea

Italy and South Korea on Thursday joined a growing list of countries in which class-action lawsuits and government investigations into Apple’s iPhone battery slowdowns are underway.

Italy’s antitrust body revealed it had opened a probe into allegations that Apple used iOS updates to slow older smartphones and push clients into buying new models (via Reuters). The Italian watchdog said Apple had failed to inform customers that the updates might have a negative impact on the performance of their phones, suggesting the company might have infringed four separate articles of the national consumers’ code.

In a first among the recent wave of battery probes, Samsung is also suspected of orchestrating “a general commercial policy taking advantage of the lack of certain components to curb the performance times of their products and induce consumers to buy new versions,” said the Italian watchdog. If found guilty, the two companies risk multi-million euro fines.

Meanwhile, a South Korean consumer group has filed a criminal complaint against Apple CEO Tim Cook, accusing his company of defrauding iPhone users by slowing down devices without warning to compensate for poor battery performance.

In its complaint, filed Thursday, the advocacy group Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty accused Apple of destruction of property and fraud. According to Reuters, the group also represents around 120 plaintiffs in a civil damage suit filed against Apple earlier in January.

Apple has already admitted that it slows down some older iPhones with degraded batteries during times of peak power usage in order to prevent unexpected shutdowns, and accepts that it should have provided a clearer explanation when it introduced the power management feature in iOS 10.2.1.

Following an apology, Apple has implemented a battery replacement program that allows all customers with an iPhone 6, 6s, 7, 6 Plus, 6s Plus, 7 Plus, and SE to replace their batteries for a reduced fee through the end of 2018.

Apple has also said it is introducing better battery monitoring features in a future iOS update, which will include the ability for customers to turn off the power management feature it introduced in iOS 10.2.1. However, despite efforts to rectify the issue, the company is now facing lawsuits, state investigations, or consumer group probes in countries including China, France, and the U.S. over the controversy.

Tags: Italy, South Korea
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KGI: Larger-Sized iPhones Coming This Year Will Offset Weakening Demand for iPhone X in China

Weaker-than-expected demand for iPhone X in China has led market analysts to revise down shipments for the first half of 2018, but larger-sized iPhone models in the pipeline should see Apple grow its overall worldwide shipments year-on-year, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who shared the information in a new research report obtained by MacRumors.

We revise down 1Q18 and 2Q18 shipments of iPhone X to 18mn units and 13mn units, respectively, lower than market consensus of 20-30mn and 15-20mn units. We expect iPhone X will go to end of life (EOL) around mid-2018 and that total life cycle shipments will be around 62mn units, lower than our previous forecast of 80mn units.

Two main reasons are given for the weaker-than-expected demand for iPhone X in China. First, in Q4 2017, consumers were willing to wait on average 10 months longer before replacing their existing phones, compared to shorter replacement cycles in the year-ago quarter. In Q4 2016, smartphone users upgraded after between 14 and 16 months of ownership, compared to between 24 and 26 months in Q4 2017. The numbers are are said to be reflected in lower shipment forecasts by Chinese phone makers for the second half of last year.

The second big factor is said to be Chinese consumers’ penchant for larger displays. According to Kuo, many potential buyers are under the misapprehension that iPhone X’s notched design means it has a smaller screen than 5.5-inch iPhone Plus models. This confusion, coupled with the high price of iPhone X, is thought to have undercut replacement demand.

Despite the downward revisions in shipments for the first half of this year, Kuo believes iPhone shipments will maintain year-on-year growth of 0-5 percent over the first half of 2018, mainly thanks to Apple’s corrected supply chain share for iPhone X. However, Kuo thinks Apple’s next product line-up will significantly improve competitiveness in the second half of the year, when Apple’s “real super cycle” will kick in.

Kuo has previously predicted Apple will introduce three iPhones in 2018: an OLED model that measures in at 5.8 inches like the current iPhone X, an OLED model that measures in at 6.5 inches that will serve as a sort of “iPhone X Plus,” and a 6.1-inch model that features an LCD display. Kuo believes all three models will be equipped with a full-screen notched design and TrueDepth camera system like the iPhone X.

We believe the addition of 6.5-inch OLED and 6.1-inch LCD iPhone models will boost Apple’s market share in China, and that the US$650-750 6.1-inch LCD iPhone will make it easier for users worldwide to own a 3D sensing and full-screen design iPhone which offers an innovative user experience.

For these reasons, Kuo believes iPhone shipments will grow 5-10 percent year on year over 2018. Kuo’s estimate is better than the market consensus of overall smartphone shipment growth worldwide, which is expected to experience between a 5 percent decline and 5 percent growth. As a result, KGI retains a positive outlook for the iPhone supply chain in the second half of 2018.

Related Roundup: iPhone XTags: KGI Securities, Ming-Chi KuoBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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WhatsApp targets small businesses with new app for better communication

WhatsApp, if you didn’t already know it, has a massive user base. Chances are that you’re part of it.

More than a billion people around the world fire up the messaging app every day, with a growing number of people using the service to converse with businesses.

The Facebook-owned startup has decided to lend the smaller outfits a hand, launching a new app called, would you believe, WhatsApp Business. Its main goal is to improve the app’s ease of use for companies dealing with a large number of WhatsApp messages on a daily basis.

Specifically, WhatsApp said the app is aimed at making it easier for businesses to respond to customers, and separate customer and personal messages. Overall, it should help them to create a more official presence on the platform.

One obvious difference to the regular app is the addition of business profiles that let companies include more information about their business, such as a description, address, and website details.

The free app also comes with smart messaging tools designed to offer fast answers to FAQs, as well as greetings messages that introduce a potential customer to the business, and “away” messages so customers know you’re busy. Potentially useful messaging stats are also part of the package.

WhatsApp Business is available now for businesses in the U.S., U.K., Italy, Mexico, and Indonesia, and is coming to the rest of the world in the next few weeks. But take note, at launch the app is an Android-only offering.

WhatsApp edges toward monetization

Perhaps the only surprise about WhatsApp launching the new business-oriented app is that it’s taken it this long to do so. The move will be seen by many as a notable step toward the company monetizing its service, something that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been hinting at doing pretty much ever since he bought the startup for $19 billion in 2014, five years after it launched.

WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum and Zuckerberg have been happy to play the long game when it comes to making money out of the messaging app, which has always been cautious about introducing revenue-generating schemes such as ads.

Instead it’s been trying over the years to get regular users comfortable with interactions with businesses, with a possible view to charging brands for the valuable contact opportunity.

As far back as 2015, Zuckerberg insisted the slow approach could prove lucrative in the long run, telling investors: “The long-term bet is that by enabling people to have good organic interactions with businesses, that will end up being a massive multiplier on the value of the monetization down the road.”

The new WhatsApp Business app is another step toward that goal.

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Xiaomi’s 50-inch Mi TV 4A offers 4K HDR for just $375

Xiaomi’s latest Mi TV packs a punch.

By now, you should be familiar with Xiaomi’s obsessive focus on quality and value for money. That’s what allowed the brand to swiftly rise up the ranks in China and India, and its latest product epitomizes those qualities. Xiaomi has introduced a 50-inch variant in the Mi TV 4A series, which offers a 4K panel with HDR and Dolby audio for just $375.

The 50-inch display features an 8ms dynamic response, contrast ratio of 5000:1, 178-degree viewing angle, HDR10, and the new Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) broadcast standard. Under the hood, it’s running a 64-bit Amlogic L962 chipset with four 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 cores, 2GB of RAM, and 8GB of internal storage.

As for connectivity, you get Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4.2, three HDMI ports, two USB ports, AV in, Ethernet port, and S/PDIF audio output. You also get Xiaomi’s new remote control, which has infrared as well as Bluetooth.

The 50-inch model is the sixth variant in the Mi TV 4A series, following the debut of the 32-inch, 43-inch, 49-inch, 55-inch,and 65-inch models last year. Xiaomi is once again touting PatchWall — an AI-based recommendations engine — as one of the key differentiators. The TV also has speech recognition and voice control, but as the TV is limited to China, it doesn’t work with English.

As is the case with the rest of the Mi TV lineup, the 50-inch Mi TV 4A is exclusive to China, and it doesn’t look like that will change soon. Xiaomi has expressed interest in bringing its TVs to India, but we’re yet to see the manufacturer make any headway on that front.