Qualcomm pays up to end investigation in China
The Chinese goverment has fined chip-maker Qualcomm about US$975 billion for abusing its dominant position in the market, including overcharging local mobile device manufacturers. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips go into many smartphones, and its wireless technology is licensed for use in a majority of 3G, 4G and LTE modems; renegotiated deals with Chinese handset makers should allow them to offer even cheaper smartphones to undercut competitors at the low end of that market.
HP buys cloud security company
Hewlett-Packard is adding Voltage Security to the portfolio that makes up its Atalla Solutions group, Venture Beat reports. Voltage sells its encryption technology packaged into products meant to secure email, enterprise data and payments, among other things. It most recently added tools focused on Hadoop. HP didn’t say what it spent on the Cupertino company.
Drones be gone! Now you can set up your own “do-not-fly” zone
If you’re worried about pesky drones buzzing around your house and peeking through the drape, you’ll soon be able to sign up to a registry that supposedly creates a drone no-fly zone around your property. Noflyzone.org is being launched Tuesday by Ben Marcus, a private pilot and drone operator based in Santa Monica, but at launch only three drone makers have agreed to honor the requests, which are not legally binding.
IBM sues Priceline for patent infringement
IBM has given up negotiating and on Monday sued Priceline and three subsidiaries for infringing on its intellectual property. IBM says that the online travel company, as well as Kayak and OpenTable, are infringing on patents related to presenting applications and advertising online, preserving information on users’ previous web interactions, and sign-on.
Samsung sets up new dev team to tackle VR, robots, and more
With its mobile phone business under siege from Apple at the high end and Chinese upstarts like Xiaomi on the low end, Samsung Electronics is looking for growth in new areas. It’s now set up a team to work on virtual reality, robotic telepresence, drones and robots, three-dimensional (3D) printing and unmanned vehicles, Korea Times reports.
Governments step up requests for Twitter data
Twitter was hit with a 40 percent increase in government requests for user information from the first to second half of last year, and it complied with just over half of those, it said Monday. It also saw an 84 percent leap in government demands for content removal, led by the Turkish government (none of whose requests were honored).
Privacy-seekers worry: Are you watching your smart TV or is it watching you?
Reports that new Samsung TVs can capture personal information with their voice recognition feature has sparked concern about digital spying by the devices. Those worries also extend to LG Electronics, which at one point was collecting viewing data even if users turned that feature off: while it stopped the practice, it later made access to all smart TV features contingent upon agreeing to a privacy policy that gave it the right to collect viewing, voice and device usage information and to transfer it overseas. Tech-savvy viewers have more alternatives to TV than ever, so tone-deaf privacy practice may drive yet more a la carte online video consumption.
Watch now
An expert in artificial intelligence who is now director of the Nissan Research Center in Sunnyvale, California, talks to the Wall Street Journal about teaching autonomous cars to think.
One last thing
Convicted Silk Road mastermind Ross Ulbricht relied on technology to build his enterprise and shield his identity, but here’s where that strategy betrayed him.