The rumors and speculation started a few hours ago that the French giant telecom Altice had aspirations to acquire US cable company Cablevision (CVC). The speculation is no more, because Cablevision has agreed to sell itself to Altice for a whopping $17.7 billion, and this includes Cablevision debt as well. An announcement was made according […]
If there weren’t enough obstacles already standing between Congress and the results of the special counsel’s multiyear investigation, lawmakers are expecting to need an optical drive to read the document. A Justice Department official told the Associated Press that a CD containing the Mueller report would be delivered to Congress tomorrow between 11 and noon Eastern. At some point after the CDs are delivered, the report is expected to be made available to the public on the special counsel’s website. .@PaulaReidCBS reports the Mueller report will be delivered to the Hill on CDs tomorrow. House Judiciary Committee staff was prepared for this possibility — among many — and checked they still have a computer with a working CD-ROM drive (they do). — Rebecca Kaplan (@RebeccaRKaplan) April 17, 2019 Any Congressional offices running Macs will likely have to huddle up with colleagues who still have a CD-capable drive. Optical drives disappeared from Apple computers years ago. With people increasingly reliant on cloud storage over physical storage, they’re no longer as popular on Windows machines either. Tomorrow’s version of the report is expected to come with a fair amount of detail redacted throughout, though a portion of Congress may receive a more complete version at a later date. The report’s release on Thursday will be preceded by a press conference hosted by Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. If you ask us, there’s little reason to tune into that event rather than waiting for substantive reporting on the actual contents of the report once it’s out in the wild. Better yet, hunker down and read some of the 400 pages yourself while you wait for thoughtful analyses to materialize. Remember: No matter what sound bites start flying tomorrow morning, digesting a dense document like this takes time. Don’t trust anyone who claims to have synthesized the whole thing right off the bat. After all, America has waited this long for the Mueller report to materialize — letting the dust settle won’t do any harm. Apple’s new MacBook Pro kills off most of the ports you probably need ... Read More
Coffee startup Luckin is continuing its fundraising spree as it sets its sight on becoming an alternative to Starbucks in China. The a-year-and-a-half old company announced on Thursday that it closed a Series B-plus raise totaling $150 million. The fresh proceeds valued Luckin at $2.9 billion post-money, up from $2.2 billion just four months ago. While many question Luckin’s cash-fueled expansion, Blackrock, which owns a 6.58 percent stake in Starbucks, shows its confidence in the Chinese startup by pumping $125 million through its private equity fund into Luckin’s new round. With that, the New York-based investment firm has its bet on two contrasting models for China’s coffee consumption. While Starbucks zeroes in on the brick-and-mortar experience, Luckin is a network of last-mile coffee delivery centers plus places for people to pick up orders and sit down targeting busy white-collar workers. In a move that would amp up its battle with Luckin, Starbucks teamed up with Alibaba’s food delivery unit Ele.me last August to put hot and cold drinks in people’s hands. Luckin did not disclose how it will spend the fresh capital infusion, but the pace at which it’s raising suggests the startup is in dire need of cash. The new round arrived less than a year after it secured a $200 million Series A in July and another $200 million from a Series B in December. Indeed, Luckin founder Qian Zhiya, a former executive at auto rental firm Car Inc, confessed the company burned through $150 million within just six months from launching. A big chunk of money had gone to shelling out deep discounts for consumers, while the coffee challenger’s offline expansion was as cash-intensive. As of late, Luckin has opened 2,000 outlets consisting of small prep kitchens, pickup stations and cafes in 22 Chinese cities, up from 1,700 locations reached in December. That gives Luckin less than eight months to fulfill its ambition of becoming the “biggest coffee chain in China by the number of outlets run and cups sold.” The goal is to top 4,500 outlets by the end of 2019. Starbucks, which made its foray into China 20 years ago, has also been aggressively putting up storefronts. It currently runs 3,600 stores across 150 cities in China, up from 3,300 last May. When it comes to actual people using the service, Starbucks still enjoys a huge lead. The Luckin app that allows one to order and pay has 650 thousand unique downloads in March, data from research firm iResearch shows. Starbucks’s app is more than four times its size with 2.81 million unique downloads from the same period. Other investors who joined in on Luckin’s latest round included existing backers such as Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, Chinese government-controlled China International Capital Corporation, Dazheng Capital and Joy Capital, whose founding partner Liu Erhai sits on Luckin’s board. ... Read More
Nintendo’s rumored cheaper version of the Switch is set to be released this fall, according to a report in Japan’s Nikkei newspaper. As previously reported, the device is said to be smaller and geared around portable play, but Nikkei says it will retain the ability to be hooked up to a TV. A more powerful “next-generation” version with a major redesign is further off, according to today’s report, although it’s not clear from the language whether Nikkei is referring to the enhanced Switch model that The Wall Street Journal has reported is likely to be coming this year. Nikkei’s report largely focuses on the internal culture and future challenges faced by Nintendo. Among other anecdotes, it cites that a major parts supplier for the... Continue reading… ... Read More
Samsung has released an official statement addressing reports of display issues with the upcoming Galaxy Fold. There are two parts to the story, and unfortunately only one of those parts offers real answers. First, Samsung notes that it intends to “thoroughly inspect [the review] units in person,” referring to the devices that seemed to have had screens break without a direct, obvious cause. Our review unit developed a bulge that appeared to be the result of something in between the screen and the hinge, ultimately breaking the screen. So we don’t have a clear answer there yet. Separately, Samsung addressed the issue of screens breaking because reviewers had attempted to peel off a protective plastic layer that was adhered to the screen... Continue reading… ... Read More
Will the future of consoles be defined by Sony's SSD, Microsoft's digital focus, or Capcom's corporate branded arcade panel?... Read More
Accessible.Games provides means to connect developers and players with disability to help design more accessible games... Read More
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