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Hello Jammu News at 12:59:00 PM 0


San Francisco, Sep 12 (AFP) Apple on Wednesday was expected to unveil new iPhones, playing up eye-grabbing edge-to-edge screens in a bid to strengthen its position in a largely saturated global smartphone market.Apple has remained mum about revelations planned for the event at its spaceship campus in Silicon Valley, but the timing fits its pattern of annually introducing iPhone updates.

In a first for Apple, the event will be streamed live on Twitter.

Speculation includes talk that Apple will introduce three new iPhone models infused with features from a premium iPhone X that debuted last year with a USD 1,000 price tag.

Top among those features will likely be edge-to-edge screens that promise to provide about 30 percent more viewing space without increasing the size of overall handsets.

"I think they are trying to set a new high bar," analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy said of new iPhones expected to offer more display without increasing the size of the handset.

"The big thing is going to be how they fit such a massive screen into such a small device." One new iPhone was likely to be priced slightly lower than the X model to "capture the next wave of buyers" in markets such as China, western Europe and the US, according to Moorhead.

While the iPhone has made Apple the world's most valuable company, worth more than USD 1 trillion, it has slipped to third place among smartphone makers as Chinese-based Huawei has grabbed the number two spot.

Still, analysts say Apple has a formula that works with a loyal customer base and steady sales.

"Apple doesn't have to prove anything, other than that they are willing to segment the market more," Technalysis Research chief analyst Bob O'Donnell said, while pointing out that the company will likely be "offering a wider array of choices."

Two of the iPhone models predicted to debut on Wednesday were expected to have prices higher than the iPhone X, which has been a hot seller.

While iPhone sales have slowed, Apple profits have risen along with the average purchase price of its handsets.

The newest and priciest iPhone "didn't help Apple grow its user base but handsomely contributed with dollars to top line, bottom line and market cap," Counterpoint Research analysts said in a note Tuesday.

Samsung, the world's biggest smartphone maker, last month unveiled its latest flagship handset, the Galaxy Note 9, and next month Apple rival Google will hold an event at which it is likely to showcase new Android-powered top-end Pixel phones.

Google took to making its own smartphones to showcase the capabilities of the Android operating system that it makes available free of charge to handset makers. Android smartphones have come to dominate the market.

Apple's event comes with the global smartphone market largely saturated, without a major catalyst for sales ahead of a likely rollout of 5G, or fifth generation wireless networks, expected in 2019.

Research firm IDC expects worldwide smartphone shipments to decline 0.7 percent in 2018 to 1.455 billion units, with growth likely to resume as 5G devices become available.

"We still believe the smartphone market has some healthy growth in the years to come, although finding and competing in those markets and segments is increasingly more challenging," said IDC analyst Ryan Reith.

Apple has sold more than a billion iPhones since the first model was unveiled by late co-founder Steve Jobs in 2007.

The company is in the unique situation of controlling the hardware and software in its mobile devices, with content for users required to go through its App Store that takes a percentage of revenue.

With the smartphone market showing little room for growth, Apple has been working to diversify its revenue streams with software, services and other devices including its smartwatch.

The event may see the Apple Watch getting its first significant redesign since its launch three years ago.

"I think that in the long run the watch will be a much larger business than people give it credit for; where Apple can iterate and grow," analyst Stephen Baker of NPD said.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has touted fitness and health features of the company's smartwatch, which dominates that market.

The culture-changing company behind the iPod, iPhone and iPad hit a historic milestone last month, becoming the first private-sector company to surpass USD 1 trillion in market value.

The landmark was the latest victory for Tim Cook, who faced skepticism when he took over as chief executive in 2011 from Jobs just before his death. (AFP)
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Hello Jammu News at 1:01:00 PM 0

San Francisco, Sep 8: Alibaba co-founder and chief Jack Ma announced he will leave from the Chinese e-commerce giant Monday to devote his time to philanthropy focused on education.

Ma was an English teacher before starting Alibaba in 1999 and built it into a multibillion-dollar internet colossus.

His own worth has soared along with that of the company, which was valued at USD 420.8 billion based on its share price at the close of trading on Friday.

Ma told The New York Times that he plans to step down from the company, referring to his retirement as "the beginning of an era" rather than an end.

After being knocked back by US venture capitalists in 1999, cash-strapped Chinese entrepreneur Ma persuaded friends to give him USD 60,000 to start an e-commerce firm called Alibaba.

As he prepares to leave the company, Ma is among China's super rich. His net worth was estimated at USD 36.6 billion by Forbes.

Ma will turn 54 years old on Monday, the day he is retiring.

He gave up his university teaching job after discovering the internet.

Seeing an opportunity for small businesses to buy and sell their goods online, he started Alibaba, initially running the company out of his apartment in the eastern city of Hangzhou.

"The first time I used the internet, I touched on the keyboard and I find 'well, this is something I believe, it is something that is going to change the world and change China,'" Ma once told CNN.

Ma has inspired strong devotion among his employees and users, drawing comparisons with late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs -- although he practiced a more open management style.

A devotee of tai chi, he has made references to Chinese martial arts in both business strategy and corporate culture.

Porter Erisman, a former Alibaba employee who made a documentary about the firm, "Crocodile in the Yangtze," said: "What Silicon Valley is known for, he embodies a lot of that with Chinese characteristics -- that spirit of openness, risk-taking, innovation."

Ma graduated from the Hangzhou Teachers College with a major in English-language education, and went on to teach at another university in the city, where Alibaba is still headquartered.

Chinese state media have burnished his rags-to-riches story, saying his parents were poorly educated and his father depended on a monthly retirement allowance of just USD 40 to support the family.

Ma's success was evident after Alibaba's Taobao bested eBay in China, forcing the US auction site to largely withdraw from the country in 2006. (AFP)
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Hello Jammu News at 1:52:00 PM 0

San Francisco, Jun 28: Apple and Samsung have ended a years-long patent battle over copied iPhone design with an undisclosed settlement, according to a US court filing today.

The world's two biggest smartphone makers reached a truce in their seven-year-old court battle a month after a federal court jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple some 539 million for copying patented iPhone features.

That award was seen as a victory for Apple, which had argued in court that design was essential to the iPhone.

Financial terms of the settlement were not revealed and neither company elaborated on the brief court order which dismissed the litigation dating back to 2011.

"Whereas the court has been advised by the parties that the above-entitled action has been settled, all remaining claims and counterclaims in this case are hereby dismissed with prejudice," US District Court Judge Lucy Koh wrote.

When contacted by AFP for comment, Apple referred to a statement released last month after the jury announced the damages award.

"This case has always been about more than money," the statement read.

"It is important that we continue to protect the hard work and innovation of so many people at Apple.

South Korea-based Samsung declined to comment.

Apple's lawsuit claimed Samsung, now the world's biggest handset maker, copied the design and other features of the iPhone as the smartphone market was exploding.

The case was keenly watched as a precedent for whether design is so important that it could actually be considered the "article of design" even in a product as complex as a smartphone.

The case had been sent back to the district court following a Supreme Court decision to revisit an earlier 400 million damage award.

The jury had been asked to determine whether design features at issue in the case are worth all profit made from Samsung smartphones that copied them -- or whether those features are worth just a fraction because they are components.

The three design patents in the case apply to the shape of the iPhone's black screen with rounded edges and a bezel, and the rows of colorful icons displayed.

Two utility patents also involved apply to "bounce-back" and "tap-to-zoom" functions.

An original trial finding that Samsung violated Apple patents preceded a lengthy appellate dueling over whether design features such as rounded edges are worth all the money made from a phone.

The retrial regarding damages was one element of a 548 million penalty -- knocked down from an original 1 billion jury award -- Samsung was ordered to pay for copying iPhone patents. (AFP)
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Hello Jammu News at 2:37:00 PM 0


San Francisco, Apr 7: The US state of Texas is deploying National Guard members to the border with Mexico following a call from President Donald Trump, said a BBC News report on Saturday.
A Guard spokesman said 250 personnel would be sent to patrol the area within the next 72 hours.
Arizona is also planning to deploy 150 troops there next week.
President Trump says he wants to send up to 4,000 National Guard members to secure the border with Mexico, until his proposed border wall is built.
The states of New Mexico and California have been asked to take similar action to Texas and Arizona.
Also on Friday, the US president outlined plans to end a practice dubbed "catch and release" as part of his stricter anti-immigration policies.
Mr Trump wants illegal immigrants to be held in detention while they wait to hear if they will be deported, instead of being freed.
He has asked the US Department of Defense for a detailed list of military and other facilities that could perform that function.
Mr Trump has sent several tweets over the past seven days railing against illegal immigration, and accusing Democrats of allowing "open borders, drugs and crime".
He declared on Twitter that Republicans should "go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws [on illegal migrants] NOW".
Mr Trump also threatened Mexico, saying the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) was at risk unless it stopped the movement of migrants over the border.
Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto has condemned what he called "threatening or disrespectful attitudes" from Mr Trump.
The president has called sending troops to the Mexico border a "big step", but both his predecessors also dispatched the National Guard there.
President Barack Obama sent some 1,200 soldiers to guard the boundary, while President George W Bush deployed about 6,000 troops to help Border Patrol in what was called Operation Jump Start.
Both deployments lasted for around a year.
US Defence Secretary James Mattis has approved funding for up to 4,000 National Guard troops from the Pentagon budget until the end of September, the Associated Press reports.
Constructing a "big, beautiful wall" along the Mexican border was a signature Trump campaign promise, but so far the plan to erect a new physical barrier has been thwarted by lawmakers and appears to have stalled.
And there were strings attached to the funding Congress did approve. Most of it can only be used to repair stretches of the border where there already is a wall, not to build new segments.
Last month the Pentagon confirmed Mr Trump had held "initial" talks with his defence secretary about using some of the Pentagon's budget to build a wall.
But two Democratic senators wrote to the defence secretary on Monday saying his department had "no legal authority" to use its funds for such a purpose.
"Such a controversial move could only be funded by cutting other vital priorities for our service members," wrote Senators Dick Durbin and Jack Reed.
In December, US Border Patrol announced arrests at the southern border had fallen to their lowest level since 1971, apparently indicating that fewer people were attempting the crossing. UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 4:07:00 PM 0



San Francisco, Apr 4: A woman shot and wounded three people at YouTube's headquarters in Northern California before killing herself, police say.
US media have named the suspect as Nasim Aghdam and said the incident is the result of a domestic dispute.
A 36-year-old man left in a critical condition is believed to be her boyfriend, CBS news reports. Two women, 32 and 27, were also shot, the BBC News report said on Wednesday.
But police are yet to comment on the motivation for the shooting.
Such "active shooter" incidents are overwhelmingly carried out by men -- an FBI report found that out of 160 incidents between 2000-2013 only six of the people who opened fire were women.
The suspect is reported to have approached an outdoor patio and dining area at the offices in San Bruno, near San Francisco, at about lunchtime and opened fire with a handgun.
San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberini said officers arrived at the offices at 12:48 (19:48 GMT) local time to find a "chaotic scene", with numerous people fleeing.
Images broadcast on local TV stations showed employees leaving with their hands raised. Other footage showed evacuees forming a queue before being individually frisked by police.
One person with a bullet wound was found at the front of the company headquarters, Mr Barberini said. Minutes later officers found a woman who appeared to have shot herself, he said.
Two further victims were later discovered at an adjacent business.
An employee at a nearby fast food restaurant told Fox station KTVU he had treated a young woman who suffered a bullet wound to the leg.
He said he had fashioned a makeshift tourniquet from a bungee cord as they waited for first responders.
Several YouTube employees tweeted about the attack as it was taking place.
Product manager Todd Sherman said people fled the building in panic as the shooting unfolded.
Another employee, Vadim Lavrusik, tweeted he was barricaded in a room with other staff. He later said he had been evacuated.
The three wounded were taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Officials said the 32-year-old woman's condition was serious and the 27-year-old's condition was fair.
A fourth person was also taken to hospital with an ankle injury sustained while trying to escape, Mr Barberini said.
Some 1,700 people work at the YouTube HQ. The company is owned by Google and is the area's biggest employer.
Several US media outlets identified the suspect as Nasim Aghdam, 39, a Californian resident of Iranian descent.
She appeared often on YouTube and in one of her videos criticised the platform for discriminating against and filtering her posts.
YouTube terminated her account following the shooting. Her Instagram and Facebook accounts have also been removed.
On her personal website she accused YouTube of taking steps to prevent her videos from getting views.
"There is no equal growth opportunity on YouTube or any other video sharing site. Your channel will grow if they want to!" she wrote.
YouTube spokesman Chris Dale praised the police response to the incident.
"Today it feels like the entire community of YouTube and all of the employees were victims of this crime. Our hearts go out to those who suffered in this particular attack," he said.
Another online giant, Twitter, said it was horrified by the shooting and said it was monitoring instances of misinformation.
President Trump said he had been briefed about the incident. UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 12:11:00 PM 0


San Francisco, Jan 10: At least 13 people are dead amid "waist-deep" mudslides in Southern California, where heavy rains triggered flooding, say officials.
Some 163 people have been taken to hospital. Twenty had "storm-related injuries" and four were critically hurt, the BBC News reported on Wednesday.
A group of up to 300 people are reportedly trapped in Romero Canyon, east of Santa Barbara.
Police said the scene "looked like a World War One battlefield". 
The flooding and mudslides, affecting areas scorched by wildfires last month, have shut down more than 30 miles (48km) of the main coastal highway. 
Emergency services said a number of people are unaccounted for and they expect the death toll to rise.
Thousands fled the deluge and more than 50 rescues have been performed.
The hardest hit homes were those that were not in the evacuation zone, officials say.
Heavy rain run-off caused mudflow in the community of Montecito, where some homes were knocked from their foundations, said Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason. 
Boulders the size of small cars were rolling down hillsides and blocking roads, reports BBC News Los Angeles correspondent James Cook.
Among those taken to safety was a 14-year-old girl who had been trapped for hours in the ruins of her home. 
The fire department published a picture of the girl encased in mud as she was led to safety. 
County Fire Captain Dave Zaniboni said that five people were found dead on Tuesday in Montecito and may have been killed as result of the storm. 
The upmarket neighbourhood includes homes owned by celebrities such as actor Rob Lowe and chat show host Ellen DeGeneres.
The US Coast Guard has sent "multiple airships to support rescue operations" and warn the public not to fly drones, otherwise the flights will force to be grounded.
Wildfires in December, including the Thomas Fire, swept through the area burning vegetation that helps prevent flooding and landslides.
Thousands of California residents were asked to evacuate on Monday for the second time in two months.
In Burbank, where waves of mud swept away vehicles, officials issued a mandatory evacuation order.
Several roads are closed due to mudslides and debris, including the major thoroughfare Highway 101. 
After a wildfire, burned vegetation and charred soil create a water repellent layer which blocks water absorption and leads to an increased risk of mudslides and floods.
"Recent burn areas will be especially vulnerable where dangerous mud and debris flows are possible," said the National Weather Service in a statement.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency shared a warning for California homeowners explaining that homes that had never flooded before were now at risk.
The storm over California is expected to produce 4 inches to 7 inches (10 to 18 cm) in the foothills and 9in (23cm) in select areas. Snow is falling at higher elevations, according to the National Weather Service. UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 12:53:00 PM 0


San Francisco, Dec 29: Apple has apologised after facing criticism for admitting it deliberately slows down some ageing iPhone models.
The company now says it will replace batteries for less and will issue software in 2018 so customers can monitor their phone's battery health, according to a BBC News report on Friday.
Some customers had long suspected the company slowed older iPhones to encourage customers to upgrade.
Apple admitted slowing some phones with ageing batteries but said it was to "prolong the life" of the devices.
In a statement posted on its website, the firm said it would reduce the price of an out-of-warranty battery replacement from $79 (£58) to $29 (£21) for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later.
It said it was pushing ahead with measures to "address customers' concerns, to recognise their loyalty and to regain the trust of anyone who may have doubted Apple's intentions".
"At Apple, our customers' trust means everything to us. We will never stop working to earn and maintain it. We are able to do the work we love only because of your faith and support - and we will never forget that or take it for granted," it said.
The firm has had eight separate lawsuits in the US filed against it over the matter, and had also been facing additional legal action in Israel and France.
Apple acknowledged earlier this month that it does deliberately slow down some models of the iPhone as they age.
It said it had made changes to the iOS operating system to manage ageing lithium-ion batteries in some devices, because the batteries' performance diminishes over time.
"Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, [when they] have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components," the company said.
It also emerged on Thursday that the tech giant's chief executive Tim Cook had been ordered by the firm to only use private jets for both business and personal transport for security reasons.
In November, Apple was forced to release an update to fix a security issue with its Mac operating system that made it possible to gain entry to a device and administrative powers without a password. UNI
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