Qualcomm increases NXP offer to $44 billion amidst Broadcom drama

Qualcomm’s increasing its original bid by 16%.

Earlier this month, Qualcomm remained resilient against Broadcom by declining the company’s second buyout offer of $121 million. Shortly after this, Qualcomm has increased its offer to NXP by 16% in an attempt to get Broadcom off of its back.

NXP is a Dutch semiconductor business that’s primarily involved with the creation of infotainment systems in automobiles, and this bid increase would see Qualcomm pay $127.50 per each share of NXP — resulting in a total purchase of $44 billion.

With this move, Qualcomm is hoping that the larger offer to NXP will make it easier for shareholders to see the value of Qualcomm as an independent company and reduce their eagerness to sell to Broadcom.

Speaking to Reuters about the revised offer to NXP, Qualcomm’s Board Director Tom Horton said:

It makes Qualcomm stronger and more profitable and diversified if there is no deal with Broadcom, and if we do decide to pursue a sale the same is true, more value would accrue to the Qualcomm shareholders.

Broadcom is reportedly evaluating its next moves following Qualcomm’s revised deal with NXP, so we’ll be sure to keep an eye on things and see what happens from here.

Qualcomm remains open to Broadcom buyout if offered more cash

Samsung Pay’s rewards program just got a lot less awesome

Now it takes twice as long to get the goodies you want.

Along with supporting older MST terminals, another area where Samsung Pay has an advantage over Android Pay (well, now Google Pay) is with its rewards program. Samsung Pay gives its users points they can redeem for gift cards, raffles, and more as they continually use the app, but in an unexpected move, Samsung’s making this rewards system not nearly as fun.

According to multiple users, Samsung Pay is taking the points you earn with its multiple tiers and cutting them in half. Because of this, the rewards system now looks like the following:

• Member users earn 5 points per purchase instead of 10
• Silver users earn 10 points per purchase instead of 20
• Gold users earn 15 points per purchase instead of 30
• Platinum users earn 20 points per purchase instead of 40

This move wouldn’t be so crummy if Samsung adjusted the cost for prizes to go along with the reduction in points that are earned, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. In other words, you’ll now have to make twice as many purchases as you used to in order to accumulate enough points for the things you love. Yay 🙃.

Samsung Pay updated with a cleaner and more traditional UI

Jessica Jones confronts her anger in new season two trailer

The long-awaited second season of Jessica Jones will finally debut next month and today Netflix gave us another look at what we can expect from it. In the first trailer, released earlier this month, we saw Jones grappling with her past and trying to get some answers to the many questions she has about her powers and the car crash that killed her entire family. In the second trailer we see how her anger affects, and often complicates, the life she has now.

The trailer opens with Jones in an anger management session, throwing a ball at a wall with increasing force as she runs down all of the reasons she has to be angry — the death of her family, being experimented on, and the abduction, rape and mind control perpetrated against her by Kilgrave. Throughout the trailer we see Jones trying to resist a life she didn’t ask for while also acknowledging a growing threat that could affect the people she cares about. And ultimately we see her doing what she does best — harnessing that anger and taking down the bad guys.

The new season hits Netflix on March 8th and you can check out the trailer below.

Source: Netflix

Facebook makes it easier to share detailed 3D objects

Facebook has had the option to post 3D objects for a while, and now you’ll have some better reasons to use it. The social site has introduced support for a standard 3D file format (gITF 2.0) that not only allows for richer objects with more realistic rendering like textures and lighting, but easier ways to share those objects. New developer hooks in Graph let any app share 3D content, including things you’ve created on your phone. Xperia XZ1 owners can capture an item in 3D Creator and send it directly to their Facebook feed, for instance. You can also share objects directly from libraries like Oculus Medium or (eventually) Google Poly.

The company has also hinted at “higher quality” 3D models, animations and more augmented reality.

Facebook isn’t shy about why it’s pushing these improvements. It has a vested interest in fostering as much VR-friendly material as it can, and that means encouraging people to share in 3D on a regular basis. The more you see in your News Feed, the more likely it is that you pick up an Oculus Rift to get a more immersive experience.

Source: Facebook for Developers

ASUS’ Windows Mixed Reality headset is now on sale for $429

We liked what we saw of the ASUS’ foray into Windows Mixed Reality hardware at IFA 2017, but we always figured it would likely be pricey. That’s been proven true now as the HC102 headset and two controllers are finally on sale in the US for $429.

While this might be the best mixed reality headset so far, it’s a little late to the party, too. Both Samsung and Acer released their take on the tech last year. They’re also both less expensive, with the former coming in near $300 and the latter for $400 with two controllers. HP has its own model, as well, which retails for $450.

Via: The Verge

Source: B&H Photo

‘Santa Clarita Diet’ returns to Netflix on March 23rd

Netflix’s show about managing suburban life with a zombie wife, Santa Clarita Diet, proved popular enough to secure a second season last spring. A year from that renewal, fans will finally get to watch when it arrives on March 23rd.

We’re fine! pic.twitter.com/MKKvaATZIC

— Santa Clarita Diet (@SCDiet) February 20, 2018

The second season sees husband Joel (Timothy Olyphant) and wife Sheila (Drew Barrymore) Hammond trying to keep things seeming normal while she slakes her zombie hunger on hapless neighbors. They’re joined by rival couple Chris (Joel McHale, Community) and Christa (Maggie Lawson, Psych), along with retired army colonel Ed (Gerald McRaney, This Is Us) and an amateur zombie sleuth (Zachary Knighton, Happy Endings).

Via: Entertainment Weekly

Source: Santa Clarita Diet (Twitter)

Microsoft Mixer lets viewers buy games straight from livestreams

A few weeks ago, Microsoft outlined new plans for its Mixer streaming service, including Direct Purchases. The feature would enable viewers to buy whatever game (or DLC) they’re watching direct from the company’s store, which would then give streamers a cut of the revenue. Today, that goes live, making it easier for players to get content — and ensure they’re buying straight from Microsoft.

Direct Purchases should indeed make it easier to acquire the content users are watching — just click on the stream and a window will pop up to buy the matching game or DLC, no switching to a separate storefront necessary. Nor do you need to fiddle with codes or tokens; Once bought, content sits in a user’s Windows 10 or Xbox library, waiting to be downloaded.

Buying directly from a streamer gives them a 5 percent cut of the purchase price, which is a nice feedback loop for viewers to give back to their favorite channels. And it makes things easier on the broadcaster’s end: Aside from choosing what version (base, collector’s edition, etc) or extra content (DLC, cosmetic packs, etc) they want the in-stream shop window to promote, content creators don’t have to remember to drop the right links in the video description or mention them mid-stream.

Obviously, Microsoft makes out by funneling viewers toward their own shop, but at least it’s a convenience for consumers. Plus, Direct Purchase is available for all 5,000-plus games in the Microsoft Store,including Xbox, Windows 10 & Xbox Play Anywhere games and DLC. Streamers have to activate the feature for each stream, but there are plenty of incentives (including promotional options) that should make it a no-brainer to switch it on.

Source: Microsoft

Mattel and Tynker will use Barbie to teach kids to code

A couple of years back, Mattel and Tynker partnered up to produce programming lessons based on Hot Wheels and Monster High. Now the two companies are expanding their partnership to launch seven new Barbie-themed coding lessons this coming summer. The curriculum, aimed at teaching girls about computer programming, will also expose them to them potential careers like becoming a veterinarian, astronaut or robotics engineer. The larger goal is to introduce coding to 10 million kids by 2020.

The Barbie programming curriculum has been designed for beginners grades K and up. It puts learners in career roles alongside Barbie as it introduces concepts gradually. It’s not all just Barbie, of course, with a few different initiatives coming in 2018, including a Mattel code-a-thon and teacher outreach program as well as involvement in the Hour of Code in December. “For close to 75 years, Mattel has taken a visionary approach to advancing play for kids around the world, most recently promoting computer programming and other STEM skills alongside iconic brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels and Monster High,” said Tynker’s Krishna Vedati in a statement. “We are very excited by this expanded partnership and the ambitious — but achievable — goal of teaching 10 million kids to learn to code by 2020 using Mattel brands.”

Source: Mattel

Judge rejects AT&T request for White House records on Time Warner merger

After the Department of Justice filed suit last November to block AT&T’s intended $85 billion merger with Time Warner, the telecom giant wanted to find out how much the White House was involved. The company had good reason to wonder how much direction the DOJ may or may not have taken from the Trump Administration given how much the President had publicly opposed the merger during his 2016 campaign. But today, a federal judge denied AT&T’s request for any communications records between the DOJ and the White House.

AT&T might have wanted the records to see if there was evidence that President Trump discussed the proposed merger with government lawyers, according to a Reuters report. From there, the telecom may have argued that politics played a role in the DOJ’s decision to block the merger.

The DOJ sued to block the merger out of antitrust concerns. While AT&T planned to dodge regulatory scrutiny by selling off some of Time Warner’s FCC licenses, and eventually plotted more drastic measures to dump other assets like CNN that appeared to jeopardize the merger. But the DOJ went ahead with a suit that argued the combined companies’ media properties would mean higher prices for rival television and online content companies.

Source: Reuters (CNBC)

Robots that pick up and sort objects may improve warehouse efficiency

Sorting and organizing may not always be the most difficult tasks, but they can certainly get tedious. And while they may seem like prime examples of something we might like robots to do for us, picking up, recognizing and sorting objects is actually a pretty difficult thing to teach a machine. But researchers at MIT and Princeton have developed a robot that can do just that and in the future, it could be used for things like warehouse sorting or cleaning up a disaster area.

The team first trained the robot how to determine the best way to grip an object. They showed it bins of various items and then demonstrated which of four main grasping behaviors — suction onto it vertically, suction onto it from the side, grip vertically and grip vertically while also using a flexible tool to coax objects away from a wall — was the best option for a particular object. They did this over and over again, labeling which attempts were successes and which were not and eventually they plugged all of the information in a deep neural network. That allowed the robot to approach new objects with a strategy based on what it learned from its previous attempts.

Once the object is gripped and lifted out of the bin, the robot then has to figure out what it is. In their setup, the researchers have a set of cameras that take pictures of the object from all sorts of angles and those images can then be compared to a library of other images the robot has access to. Once it finds a close match, the robot then moves the object to another bin, based on what the item is.

At the Amazon Robotics Challenge last July, the robot was able to successfully grasp objects 75 percent of the time (though only 54 percent of the time when using its suction grip) and it correctly classified each novel item it was presented with. The team is now working to improve the design and plans to present a paper on their work at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in May.

“This can be applied to warehouse sorting, but also may be used to pick things from your kitchen cabinet or clear debris after an accident,” Alberto Rodriguez, a researcher on the project, said in a statement. “There are many situations where picking technologies could have an impact.” You can see the robot in action in the video below.

Via: MIT