Samsung has posted its first fall in quarterly profits for more than two years, fuelling fears that the booming smartphone market may be reaching saturation.
The world’s biggest smartphone and TV maker reported a net profit of 7.30trn (£4bn) won, down from 8.24trn (£4.6bn) won a year earlier.
The company’s was weighed down by falling margins at its IT & Mobile division, where operating profit fell 18 per cent. Mobile sales, the company’s main earnings driver, fell 9 per cent in the quarter.
The South Korean electronics giant warned that it expects sales in key divisions to continue to fall in the first quarter of 2014 with TVs entering an “off-season” and competition intensifying in in the smartphone and tablet markets.
Samsung is under pressure to present a strategy for continued growth. While the firm has a dominant position in the Western smartphone market, the company faces intense competition in the crucial Chinese market from lower-cost homegrown rivals such as Xiaomi.  
Despite the decline in profits in the last quarter Samsung posted record annual earnings, with profits jumping 28 per cent to 30.5 trn won (£17bn).
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Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programmer, Dr Stuart Armstrong from the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford said that there was a risk that computers could take over human jobs “at a faster rate than new jobs could be generated.”
“We have some studies looking at to which jobs are the most vulnerable and there are quite a lot of them in logistics, administration, insurance underwriting,” said Dr Armstrong. “Ultimately, huge swathe of jobs are potentially vulnerable to improved artificial intelligence.”
Dr Murray Shanahan, a professor of cognitive robotics at Imperial College London, agreed that improvements in artificial intelligence were creating “short term issues that we all need to be talking about.”
"It's very difficult to predict," said Dr Shanahan. "That is, of course, a concern. But in the past when we have developed new kinds of technologies then often they have created jobs at the same time as taking them over. But it certainly is something we ought to be discussing."
Both academics did however praise Google for creating an ethics board to look at the “how to deploy artificial intelligence safely and reduce the risks” after its £400 million purchase of London-based start-up DeepMind.
DeepMind has been operating largely unnoticed by the wider UK technology scene, although its advances in artificial intelligence have obviously been of interest to the experts - founded in just 2012, DeepMind is Google's largest European acquisition to date.
Dr Shanahan hailed DeepMind as “a company with some outstanding people working for it,” noting that the company has mainly been working in the areas of machine learning and deep learning, which he described as “all about finding patterns in very large quantities of data.”
Google’s purchase of the company has led to speculation as to how they might implement the technology. Although there had been some talk of using DeepMind’s algorithms to give ‘brains’ toGoogle recent robotic purchases, insiders have said that the acquisition was about improving search functionality, not AI.
Regardless of how DeepMind’s expertise will be used, Google’s purchase of the company underscores increasing fears over the impact of technology on employment.
Academics note that although professions have always been threatened by the forces of ‘progress' (a nebulous concept that can cover anything from speedier computers to more efficient steam engines), current trends suggest jobs are being destroyed faster than they are being created.
A recent paper by Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne of Oxford University suggests that nearly half (47 per cent) of all American jobs are under threat and could be automated in “a decade of two”.
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NEW DELHI: Smart and digital lifestyle innovations provider BenQ has once again rated as the top player in the Indian projector market.


It had over 22% market share for 2015, said a report by market research and consulting firm Futuresource Consulting. In 2014, BenQ's market share was 19%.
BenQ sold more than 50,000 projectors in 2015. The earlier record to sell 44,000 projectors was also from BenQ in 2014.


"BenQ has retained its No.1 position in the projectors category along with growing the market share to over 22%," Rajeev Singh, managing director of the company, said in the statement.


"We have achieved distinctively in education segment conquering two-third of the market in private segment which means in 2015, out of every three private classroom in India, two are equipped with BenQ projectors, he added.
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HANNESBURG: South African telecoms giant MTN said Wednesday it had paid $250 million to the Nigerian government in a dispute over a $3.9-billion fine imposed last year for failing to disconnect unregistered users.

The company also said it had agreed to withdraw its legal challenge over the huge fine in a case that was adjourned in Lagos High Court to enable the two parties to try to negotiate a settlement.

"Pursuant to the ongoing engagement with the Nigerian Authorities, MTN Nigeria has today made a... good faith payment of 50 billion naira ($250 million)," Johannesburg-based MTN said in a statement.

The money was paid "on the basis that this will be applied towards a settlement, where one is eventually, hopefully arrived at," the statement added.

"In an effort to achieve an amicable settlement, MTN has agreed to withdraw the matter from the Federal High Court in Lagos."

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is the MTN group's largest market, where it had more than 62.8 million subscribers by the second quarter of 2015.

MTN was slapped with the penalty in October 2015 after it missed a deadline to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered sim cards.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the country's telecoms regulator, at the time cited security concerns over the inability to trace users in a country plagued by frequent kidnappings and an extremist Islamist insurgency, Boko Haram.

It imposed a $5.2-billion fine that was later reduced to $3.9 billion (3.6 billion euros) following an appeal by MTN.

The company issued a profit warning last week and said the Nigerian dispute was a factor in falling earnings.

The fine also led to the resignation of chief executive Sifiso Dabengwa and some Nigerian executives.

Nigeria's four major phone companies have routinely been fined in the past for regulatory infractions but none has received as big a punishment as MTN.

The initial fine of $5.2 billion was more than MTN's total sales in Nigeria in 2014 and the equivalent of about 37% of the group's total revenue, according to Bloomberg News.

Analysts fear Nigeria's decision to fine MTN will deter investors at a time when the country is reeling from plunging oil prices.

MTN will announce its full-year financial results on March 3
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WSHINGTON: America's top spy said in an interview today that he supports the FBI's high-profile battle to force Apple to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers.

In a conversation with National Public Radio, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan said the public would never accept criminals or terrorists having exclusive access to a physical storage box, and asked why an encrypted phone should be treated any differently.

"What would people say if a bank had a safe-deposit box, or a storage company had a storage bin, that individuals could use and access and store things, but the government was not going to be able to have any access to those environments?" Brennan asked.

"The FBI clearly has a legitimate basis to try to understand what is on a phone that is part of a very active investigation."

Apple is at the heart of a closely watched legal battle after a US judge ordered the tech giant to find a way to unlock the encrypted iPhone in question, which belonged to Syed Farook, a US citizen.

Along with his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik, Farook gunned down 14 people in the Californian city of San Bernardino in December.

Investigators want help hacking the device, and have demanded Apple's technical assistance in at least 10 other cases.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he is "sympathetic" with Apple's quandary and other tech firms have offered guarded support.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has straddled the issue, saying in a BBC interview that there should be a debate over whether governments "should be able to access information at all or should they be blind."
However, he disputed a report by the Financial Times that he "backed" the FBI in the Apple case.


The newspaper later changed its headline to reflect Gates's subsequent comments.


Brennan was also asked more broadly about the general threat of terrorism.


He said that even though Al-Qaida has been "neutered" in many regions, the global terror risk has grown considerably with the rise of the Islamic State group, whose targets seem to know few boundaries.


"It's seen as more of a threat (than Al-Qaeda,) not just to individuals, but also to economic and commercial and other types of interests globally," Brennan said.
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Huawei has launched $699 Matebook windows 10 tablet with a keyboard case and stylus. The company has made waves in the US with the launch of Surface Pro-like 12 inch Windows 10 tablet with its keyboard cover and an optional pressure sensitive dock and stylus.
Matebook pricing with both windows 10 Home and professional will be beginning at $6999/€799 for its M3 processor, 4GB of RAM and 128 GBSSD. The keyboard will click at $129 and then stylus and dock at $69 and $99 respectively.
The company has informed that devices will go on sale in Europe, Asia and North America in next month. The tablet is in golden and grey color and carries 2160×1440 screen with an only slim bezel around it. Windows 10 as its tablet operating system may not be easy for all and number of apps make quality use of
Huawei informs the MateBook’s 33.7Wh high-density Lithium battery will allow for around 10 hours for its standard productivity work including text editing, email, excel, surfing the web and others.
Charging takes place over USB-C cable and tablet will also be featuring charging mode promising to give them 60 percent charge in two hours.
MateBook camera having 5MP resolution, may not be a great camera to take pictures but certainly will work for Skype calls.
The keyboard is powered from tablet and will be available in colors black, orange, brown and beige. The pressure sensitive stylus offers 2048 levels of sensitivity and works according to users expectations. The battery lasts for full one month.
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Although no official announcement, but as per the confirmation post on Vivo’s Weibo account, the leading technology company from China ‘Vivo’ is all set to launch the Xplay 5 on 1st March 2016. The 6GB LPDDR4 RAM is the main highlight for the slim smartphone that runs Snapdragon 820 processor.
The 6 GB RAM factor is not the first time with a smartphone as Samsung in September last year already started producing 6GB LPDDR4 RAM for smartphones and tablets.Some of the previous teasers have also indicated the handset to sport a QHD (1440×2560 pixels) resolution display.
It’ll be interesting  to see how Vivo plans to make complete use of the 6GB RAM inside the Xplay 5 as the company might have found a way to dedicate some of the memory to its graphic unit.
Vivo at CES 2016 unveiled the Vivo 5 smartphone that features a full metal design. It also has a 5.5-inch Super Amoled HD display, octa-core MediaTek (MT6753) processor and more. Vivo 5 features 3GB of RAM and comes with 32GB inbuilt storage.Given that the phone is nearing its announcement, we expect to see other key specs getting confirmed in the coming days.
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An increase in cybercrime has led to a rise in salaries for IT security professionals, according to Robert Walters.
Research by the recruitment firm has found the salaries of IT security specialists has risen by an average of 14%,
Steve Corbett, associate director of IT recruitment for Robert Walters, said: “Over the past year, we’ve seen a massive increase in both permanent and interim cyber security roles due largely to the ongoing threat around IT and cyber crime.
“The challenges facing companies continue to grow in volume and complexity as cyber security threats constantly evolve.”
Leading roles in cyber security, such as cyber security head, will see an increase of 18% in salary, while roles in cyber security analysis will see a pay rise of 7%.
“The impact of high-profile IT security breaches involving attacks on major companies have brought this emerging threat into the public eye,” said Corbett.
“This has increased the pressure from regulators and legislators on companies to have a dedicated cyber security representative and to meet specific standards of security.”
The research emphasised that the need to react appropriately in the face of a cyber attack is particularly important where customer data is involved, and many firms experienced customer data breaches in 2015 and early 2016.
In November 2015, telecoms group TalkTalk suffered a cyber attack, which led to millions of customer details being exposed.
Pub chain JD Whetherspoon was among other high-profile firms to suffer a data breach, after security professionals warned the chain a database containing 657,000 customer records had been hacked.
As a result, the research roles for professionals who can secure firms through firewalls and digital checkpoint systems are well sought after, especially in the financial services and banking sector.
Digital transformation is also playing a role in IT salary rises as firms see an increased need for websites.
Developer’s salaries will increase by an average of 9% and – in some roles – pay has increased even more, with up to a 38% rise in salary for third line infrastructure support roles. An average salary growth of 5% is expected across the entire IT industry in 2016.

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The government has extended the BDUK consumer broadband voucher programme to cover wireless systems in a few locations, in addition to satellite

The government has extended the Broadband Delivery UK(BDUK) supplementary scheme intended to subsidise satellite broadband connections for people receiving speeds of 2Mbps or less to cover wireless systems, in a few selected locations.
East Yorkshire-based wireless altnet Quickline – which operates an expanding network covering the area around Hull, Scunthorpe and Grimsby – revealed it had been approved onto the scheme at the end of January.
In a statement, it said: “This is part of the government’s commitment to give access to 2Mbps download speeds to all premises in the UK. Local authorities in conjunction with BDUK are making available the option of a subsidised basic broadband installation for eligible premises in Lincolnshire, which is notorious for its poor internet connections due to the vast rural area.
“With Quickline’s wireless service, this voucher will make the installation completely free for residential properties in parts of Lincolnshire, in particular West Lindsey.”
Quickline offers a number of broadband packages for both consumers and businesses, starting at 10Mbps and rising to 50Mbps.

Consumer voucher scheme

The move comes after digital economy minister Ed Vaizey was forced to reveal that just £8,400 out of the voucher scheme’s funding pot of £60m had been spent so far.
Based on a maximum value of £350 per installation, this would suggest that only 24 satellite vouchers had been issued, although the true figure is likely to be somewhat higher.
However, a government spokesperson told Computer Weekly that the decision to extend the programme to cover wireless was "not related in any way" to the take-up rate of satellite vouchers.
The consumer voucher scheme was launched in December 2015 – nine months after the idea was put forward in the pre-election Budget – as part of a drive to provide an immediate boost to broadband speeds, ahead of the wider BDUK scheme, for those receiving the very slowest service in the remotest parts of the UK.
Its initial slow take-up mirrors that of the recent small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) Connection Voucher scheme, which struggled to gain much traction when it was first launched. The government ended up extending the programme to boost awareness and interest.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) proclaimed the SME scheme – which was closed in October 2015 after exhausting its funding pot– a resounding success, with more than 55,000 small businesses taking advantage of the special offer.
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Mobile technology, digital mapping and geographical information systems all played a part in ensuring public safety during this winter’s floods in the UK

For hundreds of thousands of people in the UK, Christmas 2015 will be remembered not for mulled wine, carols and chestnuts roasting on an open fire, but for torrential rain, rising rivers, flooded homes, and a bleak and tedious clean-up.
With a warming global climate and an extreme El Niño event combining to hit the country with a succession of severe storms over the Christmas period, communities across the north of England and lowland Scotland were left counting the cost of repeated inundations.
But although it will be scant comfort to those affected, things could have been worse, and thanks to careful network planning and increasingly accurate mobile mapping services, the emergency services were able to perform their functions to the best of their ability in trying circumstances.
Future innovations around theinternet of things (IoT) may well help improve public safety still further, as we shall see.
For John Lewis, chief operating officer at emergency services radio network supplier Airwave, the flooding in Cumbria and Yorkshire was a big test for the company’s infrastructure, but fortunately, one for which it has spent a long time preparing.
“Fundamentally, it is about organisation, how we co-ordinate resources and liaise with our customers, because at the end of the day it is about responding to our customers’ needs so that they can respond to civilian needs,” says Lewis.
To assist in disaster planning, Airwave forms part of the National Emergency Alert for Telecoms (Neat) system, part of the government’s emergency response organisation, which itself reports into the Cabinet Office Briefing Room (Cobra). Neat provides a forum for telecoms operators to come together to provide co-ordinated response and a collective focus on those areas deemed to be at greatest risk.
Airwave operates a number of different types of sites with varying degrees of redundancy built in. For example, about one-third of its sites have their own generators and a week’s worth of fuel.
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