Yahoo-Dailymotion affair : Montebourg he was right to block the sale of Dailymotion?

The intervention of Arnaud Montebourg to block a takeover of Yahoo by Dailymotion is widely commented on by the press, politicians and business leaders. With considerable disagreement. Including within the government itself ...

Dailymotion The case has almost become an affair of state. The intervention of the French government stopped the sale of the video platform Yahoo opposes political, media, entrepreneurs and divided even within the government.

Sometimes on the bottom, but also on the shape of the intervention once again brings to light the role of Arnaud Montebourg. Yahoo wanted to buy France Telecom 75% stake in its subsidiary, Dailymotion, but the state, which still holds 27% stake in the incumbent, would not go beyond 50%. The invitation to Bercy protagonists of this operation, the virulence of the Minister on this occasion and the way to set conditions for an agreement have deterred Yahoo to pursue any discussion.

The Minister of Productive Recovery assured have blocked the takeover not to "abandon Dailymotion hands of a company whose health is sometimes flickering and moreover may devour Dailymotion," speaking of a "reflex economic and strategic intelligence. " Defending his new perspective on France 2 Thursday night, he argued that the industry "is developing will create jobs, I prefer them to be created in France." "We have a special nugget, we wish to promote (...) and develop other markets," he continued, saying that his decision was "respond positively many French (who) want the government to intervene when he can. "

Problem everyone is not on the same wavelength at Bercy, at least on the method. Starting with the Minister of Economy, Pierre Moscovici, who has denied really involved in this decision, contradicting what his colleague held a few hours before. For his part, the Minister digital Fleur Pellerin had found "staggering" in the forms, the action of Arnaud Montebourg, she would described as "unmanageable" by France Info.

Still, the decision does not cause discussions the government. The debate is actually everywhere. Overview.

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Facebook: a device to help friend to find his password

While Instagram adds an identification with his photo service feature, Facebook it offers from Thursday to recover the password of his account with his friends "trusted" on the social network.

Facebook has begun to develop a device for its members who have forgotten their password to regain access to their profile with the help of their "friends", the contacts they have forged over the network.

Facebook users can now designate among their friends, in a dedicated menu, a list of "trusted contacts", the closest they can reach outside the network, by telephone or in person, for example. Each of them will get the appropriate security code. Three of these codes will be needed to access the account.

"With the trusted contacts, we no longer need to remember the answer to the security question, or fill out lengthy forms online to prove who you are," said Facebook in one of his blogs. "We just call her trusted contacts and tell them we need help to regain access to his account," he added.

Facebook claims a little over one billion monthly active members.

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LinkedIn Has it reached its limits in Exchange?

Despite an increase of 72% of its turnover in the first quarter and a further increase in its profits, LinkedIn 10% drop on the gray market.

LinkedIn's shares fell 10% Thursday in after-hours trading on Wall Street after the announcement of a forecast figure below analysts' expectations, it is true that business, had set the bar very high for professional social network growing rapidly.

The group sees this quarter revenue of between 342 and 347 million, while analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I / B / E / S on average expected $ 359 million.

LinkedIn raised its forecast for the full year of $ 20 million to $ 1.46 billion, but this is still below the consensus was $ 1.49 billion. "The title is a victim of its own success," says Kerry Rice, an analyst at Needham & Co. "They had a very strong acceleration in the fourth quarter, suddenly the market was expecting a similar performance in the first quarter and throughout 2013."

The LinkedIn share jumped about 74% last year, after a successful IPO in contrast to that of its biggest competitor Facebook. In the first quarter, net income rose to $ 22.6 million, or 20 cents per share, against five million (4 cents / share) a year earlier. Excluding items, earnings per share were 45 cents, well above the 31 cents anticipated by analysts. Sales rose 72% to $ 325 million, against 188 million in the first quarter of 2012.

In the post-exchange transactions, as retrograde 10% to $ 181 after closing up 3.52% to $ 201.67 on the New York Stock Exchange. During the meeting, the action had reached a new high at $ 202.88.

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Vivendi and Xavier Niel would be willing to buy Dailymotion

Vivendi and entrepreneur Xavier Niel group each filed a bid on Dailymotion, the online video site owned by France Telecom-Orange, reported Friday Wansquare

Vivendi and entrepreneur Xavier Niel group each filed a bid on Dailymotion, the online video site owned by France Telecom-Orange, reported Friday, May 3 Wansquare.

According to the website, which does not specify its sources, the leaders of Vivendi Thursday expressed their counterparts in France Telecom's interest in Dailymotion to increase the content part and the diversified media group. Wansquare added that holding the Free World, which brings together the interests of Matthew Pigasse, Xavier Niel, founder of Iliad and Pierre Bergé in Le Monde, also formalized an offer the same day.

New candidates

No comments could be obtained immediately from Xavier Niel while Vivendi declined to comment on the information. The Arnaud Montebourg intervention that has scuppered a proposed merger of Dailymotion with giant Yahoo, Thursday caused a stir in France and tensions in the Ministry of Economy.

In Le Figaro on Friday, Stéphane Richard, CEO of France Telecom believes that this intervention has not deterred all contenders. "Instead, I even received new proposals from the European media giants," he said, without elaborating.

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The iPad falls below 40% of the tablet market

The iPad falls below the 40% market tablettesLes tablet sales soared more than 142% year on year in the first quarter, 56% for Android products. Still No. 1 manufacturer, Apple lost another 4 points of market share in three months.

The Apple iPad has yet to lose a bit of its lead in the first quarter on the market for tablet computers, which continues the boom but where competition is intensifying, according to Wednesday estimates research firm IDC.

An increase of 142.2% of sales in the first quarter of 2013 In total 49.2 million tablets were sold worldwide in the first three months of 2013, an increase of 142.4% compared to the same period in 2012, according to the firm.

"With sustained by increased demand for devices with smaller screen growth, the tablet market shows no signs of slowing down," says IDC.

The iPad suffers from competition increasingly fierce in the tablet market, where Android weighs heavier and heavier.

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Google invests in loans between individuals on the Internet

In a constant search to diversify its services, Google may have come to a new step in acquiring a small part of The Lending Club, a site that allows Personal loans at advantageous rates.

The internet giant Google has acquired a minority stake in the platform of loans between individuals The Lending Club as part of a transaction involving a total of $ 125 million made ​​with other investors, announced platform.

"Few companies have such a thorough knowledge of the internet that Google," said Renaud Laplanche, CEO of The Lending Club, quoted in a statement Thursday. "We believe that our relationship with Google will be very useful to provide better service to our customers." For his part, the Director of Development David Lawee Google noted that "The Lending Club uses the internet to reshape the financial system and profoundly changing the way people look at credit and investment." "We are very excited to be part of that, "said David Lawee, who will sit as an observer on the Board of Directors of the start-up founded in 2007.

According to the release, Google has taken a "minority interest" not specified in a transaction conducted with new and existing investors as Foundation Capital, who bought for $ 125 million an unspecified stake in the platform loan. The New York Times argues that the Internet giant has a share of less than 7%, and that the company could make its IPO next year.

The Lending Club has made more than $ 1.65 billion of loans since its inception, more than 350 million in the last quarter.

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A mini Galaxy S4 planned this summer

This is not really a surprise, there's a mini Galaxy S4. After the first information and a picture published by SamMobile, a formal reference to the product has been sighted on part SAV of the Samsung site.

There are in all four versions including a double model SIM card, another with a SoC quad-core, dual-core, and a model 4 G/LTE. This mini S4 will be equipped with a screen 4.3-inch Super amoled display, offering a density of 256 points per inch with Android as an OS 4.2.2, surmounted by the TouchWiz 2.0 interface. Marketing would be scheduled between June and July. (Eureka press)

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BlackBerry could take over the concept of the Padfone

Will BlackBerry follow in the footsteps of Motorola with its Lapdock and Asus with the Padfone? This may well believe the allusions made by Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of the Canadian firm. In an interview with the ABC string on the occasion of the launch of the Z10 to the United States, it revealed that tests are currently underway to turn notebook PCs and tablets with a smartphone BB10 as engine.

Instead of having several terminals that synchronize their content via the cloud, Heins envisages the smartphone like the heart of a platform uniting all devices. Questioned on whether if the concept is akin to a laptop or a tablet which would shelter the smartphone, he said that BlackBerry is working on several options.

«We will talk about some of these concepts in the BlackBerry World» added Thorstens Heins; the annual conference will be held next May. (Eureka press)

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Aptina unleashes 1080p and 4K mobile sensors, entire point-and-shoot segment cringes

Hear that? That's the sound of the entire point-and-shoot camera industry bracing for yet another blow. As smartphone cameras mature, it's becoming ever more difficult to convince consumers to use anything other than their phone outside of special occasions where ILCs or DSLRs are necessary. Aptina has a lot to do with that. Here at Mobile World Congress, the sensor outfit has announced its 12 megapixel and 13 megapixel mobile image sensors, aimed squarely at next-gen flagship phones that ought to be coming out in Q2 or Q3 this year. The smaller 1.1-micron pixel construction is the standout feature, with the AR1230 capable of capturing 4K video at 30fps as well as 1080p video at up to 96fps. The AR1330 throws in electronic image stabilization support at 1080p, while snagging 4K UHD and 4K Cinema formats at 30fps.

Over on the tablet PC / TV front, the AR0261 is a new 1080p-capable sensor that's destined to redefine what a front-facing camera can accomplish. It relies on a 1.4-micron pixel, and should have no issues capturing faces at up to 60fps when using its 720p mode. Furthermore, Aptina promises that this guy can work with applications involving gesture recognition and 3D video capture, but sadly, no OEMs are coming forward just yet with concrete plans to include it.

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Sailfish SDK released

With the beginning of MWC 2013, Jolla released their Salfish SDK along with a revamped sailfish.org website. Currently those developer tools are available to Linux users - Mac and Windows users need to have some more patience. The new website contains a lot of information about Jolla's mobile system, it's design & navigation principles and vision behind the project.

"We believe there is a clear need for a modern and independent mobile OS that enables free competition and innovation, without predominant control by a single player." - sailfish.org

Sailfish OS will be a system which focuses on the interaction between user and device. Instead of many small buttons, Jolla's main focus is on gestures and feedback in form of vibrations, pictures and sound. Fans of MeeGo Harmattan multitasking won't miss out: Sailfish OS comes with true multitasking allowing the user to interact with running applications even when they aren't in the foreground. Similar to the N9, Jolla phones will have a system with many inbuilt services. Therefore developers can create plugins instead of independent applications for every single service as known on iOS.

A difference to MeeGo Harmattan is the arrangement of Lockscreen, Application-launcher and Multitasking view. Those are arranged vertically instead of horizontally. Swiping the screen upwards displays Events screen, a swipe down closes applications.

A great innovation by Jolla is the so called "Pully Menu". Within an application you have a visual glow on top of the screen which indicated that you can pull down a menu list. Option are selected by releasing your finger from the screen once the desired option is chosen.

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Apple airs a new TV ad

Apple aired a new TV ad called “Hollywood,” which debuted during The Oscars, but just recently was uploaded to its YouTube channel. It follows the same theme of its previous iPad TV ads, focusing on the App Store’s 300,000+ apps.

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