Ireland will eliminate Apple’s sweet tax deal within four years
Apple and other tech giants had better not lean too heavily on Ireland’s super-favorable tax environment; at least one big perk is going away. Finance minister Michael Noonan has detailed a new budget that, among other things, will phase out the “double Irish” system that let companies operating in Ireland (including Apple) move their revenue to an Ireland-registered offshore tax haven. As of 2015, companies incorporated in the country will have four years to make sure that they’re also tax resident — that is, they’ll pay the same as any other corporation operating on the Emerald Isle.
Not that foreign firms will necessarily be dying to leave. Noonan is keeping Ireland’s lower-than-average 12.5 percent corporate tax, and there will be big tax breaks for companies that conduct research and development on its soil. In essence, the minister is trying to strike a very careful balance. He wants to appease European Union investigators who say that Apple and its peers are flouting the law, but he also doesn’t want to raise taxes so much that these companies bolt toward other nations that offer considerably better deals. However well this strategy works, it’s safe to say that the move won’t have American companies repatriating their cash any time soon.
[Image credit: Anthony Sigalas, Flickr]
Filed under: Misc, Apple, Google, Facebook
Via: The Guardian
Source: Department of Finance
Apple and Facebook will cover the cost of freezing employees’ eggs
Apparently, Facebook has been offering to cover the costs of egg freezing for female employees since January 1st this year, and you know who’s following in its footsteps? Apple. The iPhone-maker plans to offer the same service to its employees starting in January 2015. According to NBCNews, these two might just be the first employers willing to pay for the entire cost of egg freezing for non-medical reasons, which means everyone qualifies for the benefit, not just cancer patients for whom the procedure was originally intended. Most likely, employers hope to encourage female staff members to stay with them even during the last few years most women can conceive (late 30’s to early 40’s), as those are also the years one typically takes on senior positions. They’re probably also betting on the move to save them recruiting and hiring costs in the long run, while keeping top talent around and promoting gender diversity at the same time.
Egg freezing, as you might have guessed, allows women to store their egg cells until they’re ready to get pregnant. These eggs taken during a woman’s younger years have better chances of being fertilized later on, though the procedure doesn’t guarantee a 100 percent success rate. Harvesting around 10 eggs cost around $10,000, with storage adding $500 per year to that amount — both Facebook and Apple are willing to cover up to 20 grand.
While we’re sure there are many women who’d love to take advantage of the opportunity, this move will surely face a lot of criticisms. Some might view it as a ploy to make women sacrifice their childbearing years all for the sake of climbing up the corporate ladder. Others might be worried that having this option readily available places additional pressure on women to put having children on hold. Harvard Law School professor Glenn Cohen also raised a valid point in a blog post last year, where he asked: “…would [female employees] take this as a signal that the firm thinks that working there as an associate and pregnancy are incompatible?”
Still, egg freezing advocates believe it’s the right time to offer the procedure as a perk at work, as more and more people become open to the possibility of going through it. According to the founder of Extend Fertility, which promotes egg freezing in the US, more women now also view it as a means of empowerment and not just their last chance to have a child.
[Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]
Filed under: Science, Apple, Facebook
Source: NBCNews
The Foo Fighters are streaming a live concert on Facebook
Still a hardcore Foo Fighters fan? You’ll want to swing by Facebook in a couple of days, then. The band is premiering both new music and a new documentary series by streaming a live Chicago concert through HBO’s Facebook page on October 17th. You’ll see the first episode of the Fighters’ TV show (Sonic Highways) at 11PM Eastern, and the rock group will take to the stage about an hour later. Just don’t expect to have unfettered access, especially if you’re late to the party — this is HBO, after all. Only American fans can watch live, and access to the replay will be limited to “certain HBO platforms.” If you have the lyrics to “Everlong” permanently etched in your brain, however, you now have a good excuse to stay on your computer well past your bedtime.
[Image credit: Kr3st0, Flickr]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Facebook
Source: HBO (Facebook), HBO
Samsung and Facebook strengthening relationship, but what’s in store?
Officials from Samsung and Facebook have met for the third time this year. It is not that much of a surprise considering the Gear VR is made with the Facebook-owned Oculus VR. By now, meetings should have moved on to other projects because the Gear VR is approaching a release. Apparently this latest meeting was a big success for both companies.
At the latest meetig, the two met at Samsung’s Open Innovation Center in Silicon Valley to discuss “futuristic” projects. Samsung and Facebook are working together to assist one another with their core strengths. If there is one area Facebook can help Samsung, it is user interaction. On the other side, Samsung could help Facebook gain success when it comes to hardware.
What is to come from these meetings? No one really knows. It could be hardware or it could be software. Maybe even both. Another Facebook phone seems highly unlikely due to the social network’s failed products. It could actually be something as simple as Facebook be pre-installed on select Samsung devices. However, that just does not sound like a futuristic project. It probably has something to do with hardware because Samsung is present; therefore, keep an eye out for something like a social smartwatch powered by Facebook.
Source: The Korea Times, The Korea Herald
Via: G 4 Games
Come comment on this article: Samsung and Facebook strengthening relationship, but what’s in store?
Facebook slaps its stickers into comments for all users
Facebook is about to get a lot stickier starting today. The social media network is unpackaging its stickers for the comments of a post. If you have never seen or even heard of Facebook’s stickers, just think of them as massive emojis with much more personality. Some stickers are fun and creative while others are absolutely bizarre.
This is the third major addition to the comments section since mid-2013. In May of that year, Facebook launched emoji support. Then, the comments section was covered in photographs the following month. Now there are stickers. All users will have access to stickers in comments within the next day.
Do you plan on using stickers often? Let us know in the comments (without stickers, please).
Source: Bob Baldwin (Facebook)
Come comment on this article: Facebook slaps its stickers into comments for all users
Brace yourselves: Facebook stickers are coming to comments
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, but even when it’s not, you can still use ‘em. After popping up in chat and Messenger windows in the past, Facebook is employing stickers in comments for both mobile and the web. Use the small pictures to visualize your reaction to Timeline, Group and Event posts when you’d rather keep things succinct. Unfortunately, if you want to express your feelings with an image for a regular post, you’ll still have to upload one the old fashioned way.
Facebook isn’t planning to monetize Whatsapp just yet
Whatsapp has always had a pretty low-key business model: your first year on the service is free, and every year beyond that’ll cost you a whopping $1. Now that the ink is dry on its $22ish billion buyout deal with Facebook, is the social juggernaut planning to change things up? Maybe, but according to a new report from Reuters, CEO/chief hacker Mark Zuckerberg isn’t planning to try and make more money off the incredibly popular app in the short term. Makes sense: after all, Whatsapp currently has well over half a billion people using it each month, thanks in part to the company’s no-nonsense way of making money. There are no obnoxious ads to be found, no sponsored deals — just a simple, functional way to communicate that runs on nearly any device with a processor and a screen. An attempt to shoehorn in-app purchases or paid services into the mix might only serve to alienate some of Whatsapp’s most devoted users… not to mention trigger weeks and weeks worth of meandering opinion pieces. Ugh.
Source: Reuters
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Facebook, Box and Pinterest want to mentor young women in tech
You won’t see as many women as there are men when you walk down the halls of tech company HQs — not even eBay’s, which has one of the most diverse workplaces in the industry. In an effort to change that and promote gender diversity, Facebook, Box and Pinterest have launched a mentorship program called Women Entering and Staying in Tech or WEST, for short. It puts interns and up-and-coming professionals in several one-on-one and group meetings with women holding technical roles in the three companies over the course of a year. These meet-ups will happen both in person and online, but for now, the program will focus on engineering, operations, product, design and web development roles, in particular.
Sadly, though, the pilot run slated to begin in early 2015 will only be available to folks in the Bay Area, so everyone else will just have to cross their fingers and hope WEST opens its doors to the rest of the country in the future. If you do know Bay Area women just starting out or are making their way up in tech, send them over to WEST’s website where they can sign up to be notified when applications begin
[Image credit: World Economic Forum/Flickr]
Source: Facebook
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The DEA impersonated a woman on Facebook to catch criminals
Law enforcement is no stranger to going undercover to bust unsuspecting crooks, but the Drug Enforcement Administration may have taken an online sting operation one step too far. A woman arrested in a drug case, Sondra Arquiett, sued the government after a DEA agent impersonated her on Facebook to trick at least one fugitive into sharing information. While Arquiett had consented to a search of her phone for the sake of investigations, she didn’t give permission to the agent to post photos from that phone for the world to see. Her suit accuses the agent of not only violating her privacy, but of putting her in danger by making it look like she was cooperating with officials.
The Department of Justice initially defended the DEA’s actions, but it now says it’s reviewing the case. The lawsuit is expected to go to mediation that could result in a settlement, and Facebook has already taken down the fake account for violating its terms of service. If Arquiett wins, she could establish clearer limits for what police are allowed to do with confiscated data — they’d have to get a suspect’s approval to use non-evidential content, especially if it’s going to be exposed to the public.
[Image credit: Shutterstock]
Filed under: Internet, Facebook
Via: AP (Huffington Post)
Source: BuzzFeed News, DocumentCloud
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Engadget Daily: Facebook tackles anonymity, Vaio post-Sony, and more!
Zuckerberg and Co. are in hot water regarding the social giant’s real-name policy, but it looks like all the outcry may have paid off. Well, sort of. Read on for Engadget’s news highlights from the last 24 hours, including Facebook’s purported anonymity app, Vaio’s new hybrid tablet, a magical product called Carrot, and more!
Filed under: Misc
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AIVAnet 