Chinese Laid Their Eyes on Viber?

The recent several years in the contemporary IT industry are very replete in terms of numerous multi-billion merger deals and IPOs. According to some insider sources, it has become known that a brand new significant deal may take place soon. This time, it is about one of the most prominent and widely used messaging applications, called Viber.  The service was initially launched in 2010, as a direct rival for the omnipresent Skype, and was available for iPhone users only. The main figure behind this application is an Israeli entrepreneur, Talmon Marco; furthermore, Viber is also owned by one of the largest file-sharing services/companies in Israel, called iMesh. Viber is officially registered on Cyprus, but the company has a Research & Development department in Israel. As for today, Viber has more than 200 million users worldwide (May 7, 2013 statistics), and is available on most of the major platforms, including Windows, OS X, Android, iOS and even on some of the desolate (less popular) ones, e.g. Symbian (Series 40), BlackBerry OS and Windows Mobile.

The rumors, which spread throughout the Web with enormous speed, inform that Viber may be sold to some Chinese (or another Asia-based) company for approximately $200-300 million. It is know that about six months ago, Viber turned to the investment company, Goldman Sachs, in order to assist them for finding a potential buyer.

Even though Viber implements an advanced VoIP technology that significantly improves the quality of sound, and is still very popular amongst a great variety of similar free messaging services, it has however not been funded by any venture capital organizations this far. In addition, the company is constantly moving forward in order to be in pace with time. Hence, it has recently released a feature called Viber Out, which allows making calls even to non-Viber users all around the globe (it’s not a secret that Skype has been using such technology for years).

Nonetheless, according to other official source in the name of Reuters, Viber’s CEO and founder, Talmon Marco has officially announced that he had no idea about the speculations regarding his creation’s selling to the Asian partners.

It should also be mentioned that Asian market already has in possession pretty popular free messaging solutions, including WeChat (China), Line (Japan) and South Korean messenger, KakaoTalk.

Snapchat’s Vulnerability To Threat iPhone

        

Nowadays, when there is a huge variety of all types of messengers and related services, there is one specific application that still stands out from the rest. It is called Snapchat, which has initially become available in 2011 and immediately grew into extremely popular application among adolescents and teenagers. Just in case you don’t know what Snapchat is all about and what’s its key difference form all other similar products on the market, here are some details. The main zest of this tiny messenger is that it not only allows its users sending each other text, photo and video content, but also gives permission to a sender to ‘auto-destroy’ the sent item both from a recipient’s device and the application servers.

However, an independent developer named Jamie Sanchez has recently discovered a significant flaw in the famous messenger, which can be considered as a potential threat to all the iOS users. Sanchez claims that due to a breach in the application’s security framework, malefactors can easily organize DDoS-attacks, which will result either in iPhone’s malfunction (up to shutting down) or will allow carrying out a massive spam mail-out from the hacked device.

Technically, the vulnerability itself lies in the so-called authorization tokens (authToken), which are used for account’s authorization. According to Sanchez, these tokens have no validity restrictions, and each time when a user performs an action, Snapchat creates new ones. And since the tokens do not expire, the can be used and re-used from any other device simultaneously.

It is reported that in order to prove the truth of his words, Sanchez has demonstrated the flaw to the LA Times journalist, by sending him about thousand messages within only 5 seconds. It is needless to say that reporter’s iPhone could not manage such a load, and performed reboot. Sanchez has also confessed that Snapchat blocked his test accounts, through which he had discovered the vulnerability. The developer claims that the Snapchat administration does not respect efforts by independent security researchers. Sanchez also reminded about the previously presented report carried out by the Australia specialists (Gibson Security), saying that one can easily pull out any information from Snapchat’s API, which may include such sensitive data as user names, personal information, and more, regardless of user’s privacy settings. It is known that Gibson Security has officially informed Snapchat about this flaw; yet, the popular messenger’s administration ignored the researchers statement.

         

PayPal Introduces Its Remote Cashbox Technology

PayPal has started to geographically expand its brand new payment terminal, called Beacon. In fact, the technology with such a mysterious name is a Bluetooth antenna, which is a connection between the given store network and the end user, who has been using the device. It is an offline-mode system, actually considered as a long-range NFC module. Thus, it is very similar to a remote cashbox. A buyer can register the purchase on his own, and there is no need to proceed with payment immediately. PayPal only provides an invoice for this particular purchase, and the buyer will be able to pay as soon as he is connected to his account online.

However, the main idea of this concept is to allow users with Beacon bypass the queues in supermarkets, and simply leave the shop after picking the wanted goods. What is more, Beacon will provide the user with all the necessary information about any product, e.g. its availability in the given store, availability of a needed size (if it is a piece of clothing), or how many items are left in stock.

Currently, this technology is quite successfully implemented around in the United States, and in the first half of this year, Beacon will be introduced in Australia, Britain, Canada, France and Germany. 

Nonetheless, there a lot of open questions: for instance, PayPal does not comment on how it would be possible to know if a user has paid for the particular item he has picked in a store, or guarantee that the user would not grasp anything else with him. It is known that Beacon recommends sending a photo of the shopper together with the goods he has “bought” to the store administration. Also, despite the additional costs, it would be possible to install a special Bluetooth marker on each item, so in case if paid, the item will not beep while leaving the shop. Yet, it is still unclear what to do with those unfair buyers, who can simply register the purchase in the system, but never pay for it. Since PayPal is responsible for the security of purchase on all sides, it still in question if it can manage such a tremendous load.

Therefore, Beacon seems to have more downsides than advantages, especially when it comes to shopping in huge malls with a corresponding buyers stream.   

Motorola Goes China

Two and a half years after the well known $12,5 billion Google and Motorola Mobility deal, the alliance between the two has eventually cracked. Currently, numerous IT experts call it the biggest mistake ever omitted by the Internet giant. 

By the end of January 2014, it became known that Google has sold the Motorola to the Chinese Lenovo for “only” $2.9 billions. Everything has happened very unexpectedly and was a shock for many, since they thought that Google and Motorola union would remain untouched for years. At least, the Google top managers have highlighted it numerous times back then, stating that the deal would lead to Google’s domination on the world’s smartphone market, as they had access to thousands of technologies patented by Motorola. All these statements were also supported by the intensively promoted Moto X smartphone, and the factory built in Texas.    

Now, the entire IT industry can do nothing but wondering what could went wrong within this deal, and what has actually led Google to sell Motorola about four times cheaper than it was purchased. It is interesting that after the official announcement of the deal, the Google shares went up immediately, while the company reps still remain silent about the new deal with Lenovo.

Anyway, it should be noted that the recent deal is no so unprofitable as it may seem. First of all, Google has got rid of the useless Motorola Mobility subdivision, specialized in top-box manufacturing (the latter was acquired by Arris for about $2.5 billion). Moreover, two and a half years ago, Google has obtained about $3 billions of Motorola, which went to the Internet giant as a bonus. In a rough calculation, it is obvious that in the current scenario, Google has only lost about $3 billion. What is more, even Lenovo has purchased the entire Motorola division, almost all of the company’s patents remain under Goggle’s authority, and Lenovo will be allowed to used only a limited amount of the patents, strictly per license agreement. Another interesting fact is that only the patent package by Motorola is estimated at five and a half billion dollars.

Therefore, it is obvious that Google has achieved its main goal; even though both Moto X and Moto G have not become kind of sensational devices, the company has set up the customized manufacturing of the Motorola smartphones using Android OS, which can be considered as another huge leap in invading the mobile OS market.       

Sony to Say Goodbye to VAIO

Now this is official; it has recently been announced that the Japanese technological giant in the name of Sony Corporation is going to get rid of its famous VAIO division, mostly responsible for computer (laptop) production. The main reason behind this step is simple: VAIO has become unprofitable, and although Sony does not provide official statistics regarding this segment, the company is shutting down this business only because of the mentioned factor. Divestment of Sony’s PC manufacturing division is one of the major steps that the company is undertaking for the overall framework and strategic transformations.

 However, it is know about the new owner of Sony’s PC business. It is the Japanese investment fund, Japan Industrial Partners. Neither of parties have officially announced about the amount of the deal, which should be closed during this March. Yet, according to some independent experts, it will be around $400 – 500M. Just by that time (March 2014), Sony will cease the PC production, and will fire about 5000 of its employees.

 Some competent sources (e.g. Recode.net) claim that Japan Industrial Partners will only sell VAIO in the internal Japanese market, and VAIO’s return to the worldwide market is still in question. At the same time, Sony has already guaranteed to provide corresponding support to the customers using VAIO devices.

It should be mentioned that Sony VAIO was considered as the premium segment of the PC (laptop) market. It’s not a secret that even the legendary Steve Jobs had a pretty flattering attitude towards VAIO. As per Apple Insider, after Jobs’ return to Apple in the mid-90s, he could feel the threat coming from the quality PC machines, and he managed to stop supporting Mac Clone (an application that allowed running Mac OS on the third party platforms).

Nonetheless, in the year 2001, Steve Jobs, who was an outstanding technological “fortune-teller”, has officially proposed a deal with Sony, which considered running Mac OS on all the VAIO machines. Currently it is hard to judge Sony’s reply, but by that time, the Japanese corporation refused to join Mac OS family, since their laptops used to be very popular without any external factors.

Currently, the Japanese corporation mostly relies on manufacturing of high-end Ultra-HD 4K TVs, which is going to be the core of Sony’s business in the nearest future. Sony has announced that investors should not expect the operating profit in the current fiscal year; they promise to provide financial reports by the late March 2015.