BlackBerry 10 getting Whatsapp app by next week: Report

Whatsapp is all set to make its debut on BlackBerry 10 smartphones and the rumours doing the rounds is that it may hit the BlackBerry World as early as next week. This prediction has been made on the micro-blogging website Twitter by Alex Kinsella, who works with BlackBerry developer relations team. The tweet has now been deleted.

As per earlier reports too it was expected that BlackBerry will be getting a native app for Whatsapp by March.

Whatsapp is a popular messaging app. It is also an alternative to BlackBerry's most popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) App. BBM as an app can only work between BlackBerry devices irrespective of which version of operating system they are running on. Prior to BlackBerry 10 launch, the consumers had to subscribe to a BlackBerry plan from their respective operators to use BBM. In the new operating system, BBM will work on Wi-Fi as well.

Recently Whatsapp had also announced that this app will now also work with its dual-SIM Asha phones. This app has a record of exchanging 10 billion total messages in a single day in August 2012. This record consisted of 4 billion inbound messages and 6 billion outbound messages.

Currently, the only BlackBerry smartphone running on BlackBerry 10 is their flagship device Z10. This smartphone was recently launched in India for Rs. 43, 990. The company is expected to launch QWERTY smartphone, dubbed Q10 pretty soon.

BlackBerry had been initially been criticised for not having a robust app ecosystem with its BlackBerry 7 smartphones. The company will be looking at changing the same with the recently launched BlackBerry 10 operating system. At the time of launch, BlackBerry had announced that it has 70,000 apps. However, most of these apps were ported from other leading platforms and the company will have to keep adding new apps to make sure that it is able to play catch with other established platforms such as Android and iOS.

Image Credit: Berry Reivew

Leading proxy firms seek ouster of HP chairman, directors

Two leading proxy advisers on Tuesday urged Hewlett-Packard Co shareholders to oust several directors for their role in the ill-fated 2011 acquisition of British software company Autonomy, with No. 1 proxy firm ISS issuing a rare call to reject Chairman Ray Lane.

ISS, closely followed by investors seeking guidance on controversial issues, has suggested voting against Lane, a managing partner at high-powered Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. They also gave fellow board members John Hammergren and G. Kennedy Thompson the thumbs-down.

The recommendation against Lane marked one of the few "special cases" in which ISS has advised shareholders against re-electing the chairman of the board.

In 2012, it recommended against Wal-Mart Stores Inc Chairman Robson Walton and other directors for failing to fully investigate allegations of widespread bribery by company officials in Mexico.

And in 2009, ISS advised shareholders to vote against re-electing Bank of America Chairman Ken Lewis, following its costly acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

"It doesn't happen that often," said Charles Elson, a University of Delaware professor specializing in corporate governance. But Elson said the recommendations at HP seem to reflect specific problems, such as the Autonomy deal, rather than a fundamental shift in approach by the firm.

Also on Tuesday, Glass Lewis recommended shareholders vote to remove four directors - including venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and Rajiv Gupta, along with Hammergren and Thompson.

Both firms blamed the directors for inadequate due diligence relating to the acquisition of Autonomy. HP, which acquired the British firm for $11.1 billion, took a massive writedown on its value last year and accused former Autonomy executives, including then-Chief Executive Mike Lynch, of accounting fraud.

Lynch has denied the allegations. A HP spokesman said the "board fully supports the election of each of the director nominees named in the proxy statement."

The recommendations, which could help sway undecided shareholders ahead of HP's annual meeting on March 20 in Mountain View, California, came days after a strongly worded declaration from union pension adviser and shareholder CtW Investment Group.

CtW also urged shareholders to reject board members Hammergren and Thompson, though CtW and Glass Lewis are not opposing Lane's re-election.

Despite the recommendation to vote against the directors, it is fairly rare for directors to not get elected, said David Eaton, vice president of research at Glass Lewis.

"This raises some issues for HP that they would want to get ahead of," Eaton said, adding that it is fairly common for companies to reach out to shareholders in such cases to get a sense of how they would be voting.

'Oversight failure'
Glass Lewis had also recommended against the re-election of Andreessen, Gupta, Hammergren and Thompson last year for their role in the hiring of former HP CEO Leo Apotheker. Now, both proxy firms say directors should be held accountable for Autonomy - a deal many on Wall Street say was sharply over-priced and has so far borne little fruit for HP's software division. Current CEO Meg Whitman also voted for the deal, but was not mentioned in Tuesday's filings.

"While developments surrounding the 2011 Autonomy deal may continue in the coming months, it is clear that the due diligence process that occurred at that time was not robust," ISS said in a report.

It said Lane, Hammergren and Thompson "bear the most responsibility for a very costly oversight failure."

Thompson was formerly chairman and CEO of Wachovia Corp, the North Carolina bank bought by Wells Fargo & Co in 2008.

Hammergren is chairman and CEO of U.S. drug wholesaler McKesson Corp. Thompson chairs the HP board's audit committee, while Hammergren chairs its finance and investment committee, according to HP's proxy.

On Tuesday, CtW welcomed ISS' recommendation, saying it would help finish an overhaul of the board that had begun a year or two ago, after a series of missteps starting with a wiretapping scandal in which it gave the go-ahead to monitor journalists' conversations, up to the ouster of former CEO Mark Hurd over his relationship with a female contractor.

"The ISS recommendation adds enormous weight to the case for removing long-tenured Hewlett-Packard directors and finish the Board renewal," said Dieter Waizenegger, recently appointed executive director of CtW.

"Despite having unanimously approved the Autonomy deal, the board continues to try to sweep the debacle under the rug by blaming the mess on a previous CEO it appointed. The Board must hold itself accountable, especially those directors who most clearly failed investors."

HP shares rose 2 percent to finish at $20.37 as the Dow Jones Industrial Index surged to a new high.

© Thomson Reuters 2013

Samsung to launch 5.9-inch phablet later this year: Report

Samsung will be unveiling its latest Galaxy S IV flagship in a week's time. But fresh reports coming from The Korea Times claim that the Korean manufacturer is already gearing up for a 5.9-inch device to be introduce in the "latter half of this year".

"Samsung is working on introducing a new phablet using a 5.9-inch organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen", an official told The Korea Times on condition of anonymity.

The official also mentioned that the new device will be powered by the proprietary Exynos Octa processor. Citing "an inside source from Samsung", the report mentions that the company expects to sell larger number of phablets in the near future, which should help it maintain its leading position in the smartphone sales rankings.

Whether or not this is a separate device from the 6.3-inch Galaxy Note III currently in the making, remains to be seen. Earlier reports from The Korea Times indicated that the Samsung Galaxy Note III will sport a 6.3-inch screen and will perhaps come with the recently announced Exynos 5 Octa processor.

A December report also mentioned that in 2013, Samsung will be cutting down its investment in the Liquid Crystal display (LCD) units and concentrating more on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and plastic-based flexible displays.

The current report, however, states that it is unlikely the company will use flexible display technology considering its display-making Samsung Display is having difficulty coping with demand.

The report notes that Chinese manufacturers like ZTE and Huawei have taken the phablet category seriously by unveiling devices such as the 5.7-inch Grand Memo and the 6.1-inch Ascend Materespectively. ZTE is also rumoured to be working on the Nubia Z7 which boasts a 6.3-inch display and an 8-core CPU.

Quoting a top-ranked executive at one of Samsung's parts suppliers, the report mentions, "Even if these kinds of sizes ― from 5-inch to 6-inch ― are stretching the limits of traditional pockets, well-made phablets using bezel-less technology have been warmly received. Users prefer bigger phones and they use them more often. Samsung will be more focused on larger phones".

Samsung pioneered the phablet category with the 5.3-inch Galaxy Note introduced in October 2011 and its subsequent successor the Note II unveiled at its Unpacked event in Berlin on August 2012. Both these devices have been quite successful and Samsung has already announced that it has managed to sell 5 million units of Samsung Galaxy Note II just two months since the phablet started shipping.

Consumers will spend USD 22 billion on checking malware attacks this year, while companies will invest a whopping USD 114 billion in dealing with such malicious softwares, a study has said. According to the study conducted by market research group IDC and commissioned by Microsoft Corporation, the chances of infection by unexpected malware are one in three for consumers and three in 10 for businesses. Malwares or malicious softwares are intended to damage or disable computers and computer systems. "Consumers will spend 1.5 billion hours and USD 22 billion identifying, repairing and recovering from the impact of malware, while global enterprises will spend USD 114 billion to deal with the impact of a malware induced cyber attack," Microsoft India said in a release. Although some computer users may actively seek pirated software in hopes of saving money, the chances of infection by unexpected malware are one in three for consumers and three in 10 for businesses, it added. "Software is pirated in order to save money, however, the reality is that with pirated and counterfeit software, the user ends up paying for malware, Trojan, adware and other harmful viruses," Microsoft India Director (Genuine Software Initiative) Sumeet Khanna said. The survey, which was done in 10 countries, covered 1,104 consumer respondents, 973 business user respondents and 268 CIO/IT manager respondents. The survey respondents said 32 percent of their PCs come without operating systems and 12 per cent did not install security updates. 30 per cent of consumer respondents did not install security updates and nearly 70 per cent of consumers who use pirated software had problems with it. That apart, 64 percent of the respondents who had used counterfeit software experienced security issues, while, 45 per cent said counterfeit software slowed their PCs and software had to be uninstalled. Also 48 per cent of respondents said that their greatest concern with using counterfeit software was data loss and 29 per cent were most concerned with identity theft. The study also found that a very high percentage of corporate users download software unauthorised as per their corporate policy, exposing another risk to the workplace. Embedding malware with counterfeit software is a new method for criminals to prey on computer users who are unaware of the potential danger, Khanna said.

Facebook Inc appointed a former Genentech executive to its board of directors on Wednesday, the social networking company's latest move to expand its boardroom following its initial public offering last May.

Susan Desmond-Hellmann, the Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco, becomes Facebook's ninth director and the second woman on its board.

A former president of product development at Roche Group-owned biotechnology company Genentech, Desmond-Hellmann also sits on the board of directors of Procter & Gamble Co.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg cited Desmond-Hellmann's experience shaping public policy and operating public companies.

Desmond-Hellmann will serve on the board effective immediately, but will have to be elected by shareholders, along with the other Facebook directors, at the company's annual meeting in June.

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg joined Facebook's board in June 2012, a month after the company's rocky initial public offering.

The world's No. 1 online social network became the only U.S. company to debut with a market value of more than $100 billion. But its shares plunged more than 50 percent in the months after the IPO on concerns about its long-term money making prospects.

Facebook shares have rebounded roughly 56 percent from their 52-week low, finishing Wednesday's regular trading session at $27.45.

© Thomson Reuters 2013

Consumers to spend $22 billion fighting malware attacks in 2013: Study

Consumers will spend USD 22 billion on checking malware attacks this year, while companies will invest a whopping USD 114 billion in dealing with such malicious softwares, a study has said.

According to the study conducted by market research group IDC and commissioned by Microsoft Corporation, the chances of infection by unexpected malware are one in three for consumers and three in 10 for businesses.

Malwares or malicious softwares are intended to damage or disable computers and computer systems.

"Consumers will spend 1.5 billion hours and USD 22 billion identifying, repairing and recovering from the impact of malware, while global enterprises will spend USD 114 billion to deal with the impact of a malware induced cyber attack," Microsoft India said in a release.

Although some computer users may actively seek pirated software in hopes of saving money, the chances of infection by unexpected malware are one in three for consumers and three in 10 for businesses, it added.

"Software is pirated in order to save money, however, the reality is that with pirated and counterfeit software, the user ends up paying for malware, Trojan, adware and other harmful viruses," Microsoft India Director (Genuine Software Initiative) Sumeet Khanna said.

The survey, which was done in 10 countries, covered 1,104 consumer respondents, 973 business user respondents and 268 CIO/IT manager respondents.

The survey respondents said 32 percent of their PCs come without operating systems and 12 per cent did not install security updates. 30 per cent of consumer respondents did not install security updates and nearly 70 per cent of consumers who use pirated software had problems with it.

That apart, 64 percent of the respondents who had used counterfeit software experienced security issues, while, 45 per cent said counterfeit software slowed their PCs and software had to be uninstalled.

Also 48 per cent of respondents said that their greatest concern with using counterfeit software was data loss and 29 per cent were most concerned with identity theft.

The study also found that a very high percentage of corporate users download software unauthorised as per their corporate policy, exposing another risk to the workplace.

Embedding malware with counterfeit software is a new method for criminals to prey on computer users who are unaware of the potential danger, Khanna said.