Joyce Pellino Crane's Post – November 2009 Archive (2)

Google vows to integrate Google Voice into Hangouts

When Google unveiled its new Hangouts service last week, keen observers noted that there was a glaring omission in the company’s effort to cobble together all its messaging services onto one platform: Google Voice. But a new Google+ post from Google director of real-time communications Nikhyl Singhal suggests that Hangouts users won’t have to wait for Voice much longer. Specifically, Singhal says that while “today’s version of Hangouts doesn’t yet support outbound calls on the web and in the Chrome extension,” it will “support inbound calls to your Google Voice number.” He then adds that the company is “working hard on supporting both, and outbound/inbound calls will soon be available.” Singhal also says that Hangouts are “the future of Google Voice,” so it’s

Sprint gets waiver from Softbank, permitting discussions with Dish

(Reuters) - Wireless service provider Sprint Nextel Corp received a waiver from SoftBank Corp on various provisions of their merger agreement permitting it to engage in discussions with Dish Network Corp. Satellite TV service Dish made a $25.5 billion counter bid last month for Sprint against SoftBank's October agreement to pay $20.1 billion for 70 percent of the U.S. company. The waiver will permit Sprint and its representatives to furnish Dish with non-public information and to engage in negotiations with it regarding Dish's April 15 proposal. ...

Britain's Cameron tells Google and others to play fair on tax

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday told Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and other business leaders that he expected their companies to pay their taxes in exchange for benefiting from low tax rates. Cameron's intervention came days after British lawmakers accused Google of using "smoke and mirrors" to avoid paying tax, fuelling a debate over corporate taxation that has angered the public and led to calls for a tougher approach from the government. ...

Samsung may turn to Intel for Galaxy Tab 3

Samsung is rumored to be preparing a new Galaxy Tab tablet to debut in the coming months. Earlier reports claimed the device would be equipped with a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 pixel resolution display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a 3-megapixel camera, a 7,000 mAh battery and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Recently discovered benchmark results, however, suggest Samsung may turn to Intel to power the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1. Results from the GLBenchmark database reveal that the upcoming tablet is equipped with a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 processor with a PowerVR SGX 544 MP2 GPU. Samsung has traditionally relied on ARM-based processors such as its in-house Exynos line or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips to power its devices. A

Panel: Apple uses firms outside US to avoid taxes

WASHINGTON (AP) — Apple Inc. employs a group of affiliate companies located outside the United States to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. income taxes, a Senate investigation has found.

Should we let wunderkinds drop out of high school?

NEW YORK (AP) — It's one thing to say tech geniuses don't need degrees. After all, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg all dropped out of college.

Yahoo reboots Flickr, offers 1 terabyte of storage

NEW YORK (AP) — Fresh on the heels of its $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr, Yahoo says it is rebooting its languishing photo-sharing site Flickr with plans to make it "awesome" again.

Dish eyes LightSquared's Spectrum for $2 billion - Bloomberg

(Reuters) - U.S. satellite company Dish Network Corp has offered to buy bankrupt broadband company LightSquared Inc's radio frequencies for $2 billion, Bloomberg said, quoting people familiar with the bid. Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen made the offer on May 15 and LightSquared has until May 31 to accept or reject it, the news agency said. LightSquared, which declared bankruptcy in May 2012, was bankrolled by one of the hedge fund industry's most powerful figures, Philip Falcone. Falcone's plans to introduce a new wireless network in the United States fell apart when the U.S. ...

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Consumer Reports: The Galaxy S4 is the world’s best smartphone

Is Samsung’s Galaxy S4 really “a precious stone glittering in the dark” or is it just an overrated slab of plastic with a nice display? Consumer Reports weighed in on this important controversy on Monday and declared that the Galaxy S4 really does live up to the hype and should now be considered the best smartphone in the world. Overall Consumer Reports found that “the S4 delivered top-notch performance in the most critical areas of our tests, including the camera,” and was particularly impressed with the device’s display that it said “is sensitive enough to use with gloves on — handy during cold weather.” The publication also praised the device’s multitasking capabilities and said that watching videos while checking email