Microsoft gives away Surface RT tablets, Windows Phone 8 devices and Windows PCs to employees

Microsoft just decided to go Santa Claus on all its full-time employees. At the annual Microsoft employee event, CEO Steve Ballmer announced that each of the 90,000 or so full-time employees will be getting a host of freebies, including a Surface RT tablet, Windows Phone 8 device and a Windows PC.

This is not the first time Microsoft decided to lavishly appraise its employees. The last time they did this was when Windows Phone 7 was announced and each employee received a free device.

Regarding the Windows Phone 8 device, it’s not clear which one it would be but it’s not hard to guess that it mostly like be the Lumia 920. As for the Window PC, it could be a desktop PC, a notebook or a tablet. Engadget even has a picture sent by a Microsoft employee who received a Lenovo tablet running Windows 8.

Giving away your devices to such a large number of people has its advantages. For starters the employees are up to speed with the offerings of the company and are in a better position to show off their advantages to other people. This is an easy way to let a lot of people try out your device and thus increase your prospective buyers. Of course, it also increases the goodwill among the employees.

Of course the regular folks will have to wait till October to get their hands on any of these devices.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

ArmA III developers arrested in Greece for spying on military base

Two Bohemia Interactive employees were accused of espionage on Sunday, but the Greek government has other issues with the ArmA III studio.

Czech developer Bohemia Interactive has had a solid 2012 so far. The runaway success of DayZ, the zombie apocalypse themed mod for its military simulators, brought massive mainstream attention to a line of games that has catered to a supportive but small audience. The company is hard at work on both the full version of that game as well as ArmA III, but the company’s smooth seas have grown choppy. Two developers from Bohemia’s ArmA team were arrested for “spying” in Greece.

The two unnamed employees, aged 28- and 33-years-old, were scouting locations for use in the next game on Lemnos, a small island in the Greek archipelago with a small population, some tourist trade, and one military air base. ArmA III’s primary setting, in addition to the Ai Stratis, is Lemnos and the developers were photographing that military base when they were arrested on Sunday under suspicion of espionage.

“We can confirm that two Bohemia Interactive employees, our colleagues and friends, were arrested during their holiday trip to Lemnos,” said Bohemia CEO Marek Spanel in a message on the developer’s forum, “They visited the island with the sole purpose of experiencing the island’s beautiful surroundings.”

“Since its establishment in 1999, Bohemia Interactive has created games based only upon publicly available information. We always respect the law and we’ve never instructed anybody to violate the laws of any country. The same is true for ArmA III. Currently, all our effort goes towards supporting the guys over there, as well as their friends and families affected by this difficult situation. We sincerely hope that this is an unfortunate misunderstanding of their passion as artists and creators of virtual worlds.”

The arrests may be more than just a misunderstanding. In 2011, the Greek government protested Bohemia’s use of Lemnos in ArmA III, claiming that its appearance in a war game might interest the tourist trade that keeps the island’s miniscule economy running. The game could also pose a security threat by realistically recreating the terrain.

 ArmA III definitely has the potential to reach a wider audience than past entries in the series. The popularity of DayZ drove sales of ArmA II, necessary for playing the mod version of the zombie game, up a purported 500 percent in May.

CTK reported on Tuesday that the men have been transported to the island of Lesbos where they will be interrogated by a Greek prosecutor. The Czech government’s Greek consul Blanka Kovacsova is working to help the developers.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Can Yahoo retain the talent for a turnaround?

Yahoo finally has an ace in the CEO chair, but filling the rest of its ranks with top-notch employees may be tough in Silicon Valley’s notoriously competitive job market.

Savvy as she may be, Marissa Mayer cannot return Yahoo to glory on her own. She will need top talent at every level of her company.

A recent late-night email to employees suggests Mayer knows this, and is doing everything she can to boost morale, from ripping out turnstiles to giving away free food.

There are a lot of good reasons to go work for Yahoo, especially with Mayer as its CEO. But there may be equally good reasons to stay away. Here’s why Yahoo might and might not attract the talent it needs.

Pro: Yahoo has valuable assets

It’s easy to forget, given the Yahoo’s recent history, what a formidable force the company remains. At a glance, Yahoo has:

• the world’s second most-used email service,
• the second most-visited homepage in the US (according to Compete),
• the fourth most-trafficked website worldwide, overall (according to Alexa),
• the #1 sports website (according to Alexa and the Open Directory Project), and
• the #1 finance website (ditto previous).

That’s to say nothing of the dozens of other brands Yahoo maintains. These brands bring Yahoo a massive audience. As many as 700 million people use Yahoo websites each month. This audience hungers for quality products — if only Yahoo’s staff can deliver them.

Con: Yahoo’s assets are boring

Unfortunately, there is a reason the technology press doesn’t talk about Yahoo’s products very much. The products aren’t very interesting, are they?

When is the last time a Yahoo product was featured in these virtual pages? It’s been a while. To get to it you have to wade through many stories about mismanagement and decline.

Look at it another way: would you rather work for Yahoo Sports, or The Bleacher Report? What about Grantland? Would you rather work for Yahoo Games, or Zynga? Wait, let me take it again, “…for Yahoo Games, or for Kixeye?”

Yahoo may be the site where your drinking buddies run their fantasy football league, but it’s likely that you only use your Yahoo email account to catch spam. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for those considering employment there.

Pro: Yahoo has resources

Yahoo’s assets, though they aren’t sexy, still bring the company massive income each year. Yahoo had revenues of nearly $5 billion in 2011 with profits of slightly more than $1 billion. That isn’t exactly pocket change. Further lining Yahoo’s coffers is the reported $7 billion it will net from the sale of its stake in Alibaba.com.

Surely Yahoo’s best and brightest can do something brilliant with that stack of cash?

Con: Yahoo has starved good brands of resources

Even solid ideas die without a nourishing flow of money. Yahoo has an unfortunate history of letting important, techie-loved Web brands wither on the vine.

Flickr has been owned by Yahoo for more than seven years, and seems to have changed little since that acquisition. Most of the recent reporting about Flickr has portrayed the photo site as floundering, and rumors have persisted that Flickr would be shuttered or sold. It seems that Yahoo hasn’t shown Flickr much love. Ironic, considering that Flickr is one of Yahoo’s best-loved brands.

If Yahoo had better supported Flickr, could it have produced something like Instagram? It’s not inconceivable, given Flickr’s earlier lead in the space. (I appropriated this argument from one of the smart people on This Week in Tech. I believe it was Fr. Robert Ballecer. Please excuse my lack of a quote.)

Delicious was treated even more poorly. After years of neglect, news that the service would be “sunset” leaked to the web in late 2010. Delicious would later be purchased by YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen via their company AVOS. No price was reported. Though Delicious still exists today, it is now just another player in the social tagging space. An ignominious decline for a once great web company.

If Yahoo had better supported Delicious, could it have produced something like Pinterest? Again, a long shot, but not impossible considering how far ahead of the game Delicious once was.

Pro: Yahoo’s top-level talent

Marissa Mayer herself may be the best reason to join Yahoo.

Surpassed in fame at Google only by the search giant’s co-founders and long-time CEO, Mayer is celebrated as much for her engineering and product prowess as her charisma and sense of style. Her appointment as CEO increased Yahoo’s relevance and credibility as few other hires could.

Perhaps realizing her need for talent, Mayer has made morale a focus. There have been rumors of giving employees iPhones, announcements about free food, and even a powwow with Flickr’s engineering staff. Most important, Mayer has raised expectations for Yahoo and its employees.

Under Mayer, Yahoo has become a very different company. Those joining the company today may be doing so based largely on the promise of her leadership.

Con: Yahoo’s talent in the trenches

It is extremely unlikely, though, that any new hire would be working closely with Mayer. Those they will be working alongside … well, they won’t be Marissa Mayer.

During one of his exiles from Digg, Kevin Rose laid blame for the site’s problems on its engineering staff.

We got in a lot of some B and C grade talents. You get some B and C grade developers and they bring their C and D grade friends in and then all of a sudden you have a big challenge….

 As it turned out, Digg had problems beyond its coders. However, if Kevin’s assessment was true for Digg, what does that mean about the engineering staff at Yahoo?

Once again, consider the opportunities available elsewhere. If you were a talented developer, would you rather work at Yahoo or Facebook? What about one of the myriad startups out there? Much of Yahoo’s best engineering staff may have been drawn away by the lure of more exciting products and more lucrative compensation.

Why stay at Yahoo? Perhaps you like the sense of stability. Well, too bad Now is not time for stability at Yahoo It’s time for risk-taking. That’s what it will take to make great new things.

Craving stability leads to too much thought about covering your butt. Making great things means thinking exclusively about kicking butt. Focus on the former makes the latter impossible.

Unfortunately for Mayer and Yahoo, this trend and Yahoo’s many years of decline may mean the company doesn’t have the on-the-ground talent to power the turnaround it needs.

Conclusion

The Mayer Factor and Yahoo’s assets will still draw many enterprising employees to Sunnyvale. But her success and that of her company could hinge on her ability reinvigorate a corporate culture that has been on the wrong track for too long. Time will tell if she’s able to do so.

At least she makes Yahoo more interesting in the meantime.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Tim Cook issues memo to employees saying Friday’s court ruling sends ‘a loud and clear message’

Tim Cook issued a memo to all Apple employees on Friday following the conclusion of a patent trial in the US in which the jury ruled that rival Samsung had violated a number of Apple patents. He said the court's decision sent a clear message that "stealing isn't right."

Following Apple’s monumental billion-dollar victory over Samsung in a US patent infringement trial lasting almost a month, Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a memo to all employees telling them the jury’s decision sent a “loud and clear message that stealing isn’t right.”

He also said the lawsuit had been about “values” more than anything else. “We value originality and innovation and pour our lives into making the best products on earth,” Cook wrote in the memo. “And we do this to delight our customers, not for competitors to flagrantly copy.”

He added that he was “thrilled” Apple had finally had the chance to tell its story and thanked the jurors for giving their time.

The Apple boss will be doubly delighted today, as August 24 marks his first anniversary at the helm of the tech giant.

Cook’s memo to Apple employees is shown in full below:

Today was an important day for Apple and for innovators everywhere.

Many of you have been closely following the trial against Samsung in San Jose for the past few weeks. We chose legal action very reluctantly and only after repeatedly asking Samsung to stop copying our work. For us this lawsuit has always been about something much more important than patents or money. It’s about values. We value originality and innovation and pour our lives into making the best products on earth. And we do this to delight our customers, not for competitors to flagrantly copy.

We owe a debt of gratitude to the jury who invested their time in listening to our story. We were thrilled to finally have the opportunity to tell it. The mountain of evidence presented during the trial showed that Samsung’s copying went far deeper than we knew.

The jury has now spoken. We applaud them for finding Samsung’s behavior willful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn’t right.

I am very proud of the work that each of you do. Today, values have won and I hope the whole world listens.

Tim

[via 9to5Mac]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Sony Mobile to Lay Off 1,000 Employees

By Tina Trinh (@TinaTrinhNYC)

Sony Mobile Communications announced today that it plans to lay off 15 percent of its workforce, approximately 1,000 employees, by 2014.  The decision will mainly affect employees stationed at Sony Mobile’s headquarters in Lund, Sweden.

In October, the division’s headquarters will also relocate from Sweden to Toyko.  The Lund offices will remain, with a focus on mobile software and application development.

In a statement, the president and CEO of Sony Mobile, Kunimasa Suzuki, said, “We are accelerating the integration and convergence with the wider Sony group to continue enhancing our offerings, and a more focused and efficient operational structure will help to reduce Sony Mobile’s costs, enhance time to market efficiency and bring the business back to a place of strength.”

Last February, Sony acquired full ownership of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and renamed the company Sony Mobile.  Today’s announcement signals an effort to streamline operations at the struggling mobile division, which has lagged behind such competitors as Apple and Samsung.  Sony Mobile Communications’ flagship product is the Xperia line of smartphones.  In the rough-and-tumble smartphone marketplace, Sony’s products face an uphill battle, but Sony said it anticipates that uniting the mobile division with the broader company will make it better positioned to compete.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Apple supplier Foxconn improving working conditions, says FLA report

The Fair Labor Association has reported that Apple supplier Foxconn is making good progress with improving the working conditions of its employees, though added that some of the biggest challenges lie ahead.

It was back in February that the Fair Labor Association (FLA), at Apple’s request, began to investigate working conditions at factories in China operated by Foxconn, one of the Cupertino company’s biggest suppliers.

 The move came in the wake of a long list of disturbing reports surrounding the treatment of Foxconn employees, with stories about unreasonably long working hours, dangerous working environments where some employees were being exposed to toxic substances, and cramped on-site living conditions. Suicides were reported among the workforce, and worker revolts were not uncommon.

 The situation threatened to get out of control for Apple, pushing them to ask the FLA to help with improving conditions for Foxconn employees, of which there are thought to be more than a million in various locations across China.

 According to a progress report published this week by the FLA, it seems that, at long last, things are moving in the right direction for those working at Foxconn.

 The report states that the Taiwan-based company has, so far, carried out improvements in 284 areas, with 89 of these completed ahead of schedule. Improvements in an additional 76 areas are set to be carried out over the next 12 months.

 As part of Foxconn’s efforts to address workers’ issues, the company has increased pay, cut working hours, introduced more breaks and improved safety on the factory floor.

 However, according to FLA president Auret van Heerden, the next round of improvements will be the trickiest for Foxconn. These involve getting working hours down to China’s legal limit of 40 hours a week, something which “will inevitably cause uncertainty and anxiety among workers,” van Heerden believes.

 Marketplace reporter Rob Schmitz gained exclusive access to a Foxconn factory back in April, giving an interesting insight into life there. Schmitz described the facility, located in the southern Chinese city of Shenzen, as being more like a city, with its on-site fast-food restaurants, banks, cafes, grocery stores, a wedding photo shop and an automated library.

 ”After you enter the gates and walk around, you quickly realize that it’s also a city – 240,000 people work here,” he wrote. “Nearly 50,000 of them live on campus in shared dorm rooms.”

 Despite the work being, as Schmitz put it, “tedious and boring,” around 500 people turn up at the gates each day looking for work.

 With Apple’s iPhone 5 and rumored iPad Mini now rolling off the assembly line, it’s a safe bet to assume workers at Foxconn’s factories are currently busier than ever. No doubt the FLA is watching closely.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Google axes 4,000 Motorola jobs, closes a third of offices

Google announced on Sunday that it will cut 20 percent of Motorola employees in addition to closing 33 percent of offices worldwide.

Monday morning did not arrive with pleasant news for the Motorola Mobility work force. Google, which bought Motorola in May, told staff Sunday that it will begin cutting 20 percent of its employees and closing 33 percent of its offices worldwide.

The move is inevitable, seeing as how Motorola has been struggling to be profitable, losing money in fourteen of the last sixteen quarters, reports The Wall Street Journal. This 20 percent cut will account for approximately 4,000 jobs from its 20,000 employees along with 30 out of its 90 offices slated for closure. A third of the layoffs will come after United States-based employees though it has not been specified which facilities will be affected.

In reducing its work force, Google said in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that this change will “shift its emphasis from feature phones to more innovative and profitable devices.” Which makes sense, since Motorola will have a long way to catch up with Android giants Samsung and HTC.

According to The New York Times, Motorola aims to “stop making low-end devices and focus on a few cellphones instead of dozens.” This means a cut of 27 phone models to select, higher end editions — ones that are packed with unique features no other phones have such as the ability to recognize who is in the room based on voice or batteries that can last for days. Still, an analyst even described Motorola as being “left in the dust by the competition and kind of missed the smartphone transition,” so these ambitions are purely hopeful, to say the least.

The cuts are slated to cost Google no more than $275 million which will be recognized in the third quarter, with continuing charges to incur within the next few quarters. Google told investors that they should anticipate “significant revenue variability” as part of an overall restructuring to make Motorola a viable company again.

“While lower expenses are likely to lag the immediate negative impact to revenue, Google sees these actions as a key step for Motorola to achieve sustainable profitability,” Google stated in the SEC filing.

With Motorola in the hands of the search engine giant, do you think it has a chance to coming back with innovative mobile devices? Or is it true that it has truly been left behind by the likes of Samsung and Apple?

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com