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New iPhone 8 making Apple world's first trillion dollar tech company

2017-08-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

It's wondering! Latest iPhone 8 making Apple world's first trillion dollar tech company. It's gonna be world record.

#Apple #iPhone8

The upcoming flagship device iPhone 8 could make the Cupertino-based giant the first company to reach and sustain a $1 trillion market cap, analysts have predicted.

According to a report in MarketWatch late on Wednesday, since the announcement of its third quarter results, the stock momentum has added $56 billion to the company's market cap.

Analysts from investment service company RBC Capital predicted that the stock momentum will continue as Apple will launch its flagship device iPhone 8 in mid-September.

RBC analysts said the iPhone 8 launch will create a 'super cycle' for the company.

"Apple has potential to achieve a $1 trillion dollar market cap and even surpass that over the next 12 to 18 months. We see upside occurring from multiple levers," Amit Daryanani, lead analyst on the note, was quoted as saying.

Those "levers" to get to $12 per share in profit are revenue increasing from new iPhone models, including a higher-priced premium model, growing services revenue helping to expand profit margins, tighter cost control and strong stock buybacks, the analyst said.

PayPal steps up partnership strategy with new Apple, Google and Samsung

2017-08-10T14:10:00.003-07:00

#PayPal #Apple #Google #Samsung

PayPal partnership with three big tech giant. PayPal signed three new major partners to expand its payments services:

PayPal partnered with Apple in July 2017 to allow Apple users to make payments from the App Store, iTunes Store, iBookstore and Apple Music in the US, UK, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.
PayPal integrated with Samsung’s mobile payments service, Samsung Pay, in July 2017 to provide Samsung Pay users the option to make payments in-app, in-store and online through their PayPal account. The service will initially be available in the US.
PayPal integrated with Google’s Android Pay in April 2017 to allow Android Pay users in the US to select their PayPal balance as a payment option for in-app, in-store and online purchases.

Apple, Samsung and #Google all launched device-based mobile payments services during 2014 to 2015, which allows their users to make in-store, in-app and online payments. This initially positioned the three companies as potential competitors for PayPal. Apple will also compete with #PayPal’s Venmo in P2P payments with launch of iMessage P2P payments in the latest version of iOS. However, developing partnerships with Apple, Samsung and Google has brought benefits to both sides.

#Apple is relatively exclusive for its mobile payments services, as highlighted when Australian banks failed to convince Apple to share NFC access on Apple devices. This explains why PayPal’s partnership with Apple is for the App Store, iTunes Store, iBookstore and Apple Music, rather than Apple Pay. However, the expansion into Apple’s digital content is a breakthrough for PayPal to enter into Apple’s ecosystem and strengthen its payments offerings. Meanwhile, Apple can leverage PayPal’s payments infrastructure and offer its users more flexibility to purchase its digital content. Apple has been expanding payment options for iTunes and App Store sales since 2015 when it launched its first mobile operator billing deals.

#Samsung’s partnership with PayPal follows a similar path to the Google and PayPal collaboration in April 2017. Adding PayPal for Samsung Pay and Android Pay will increase user adoption and create a better user experience. PayPal is backed by broad financial networks, so the partnerships could also reduce Samsung’s and Google’s friction in developing partnerships with banks and accelerate their global expansion. As Android Pay is also available for Samsung devices, it was important for Samsung to match Google and partner with PayPal, thereby reducing the risk of losing market share to Android Pay.

Top Ten (#10) Telecommunications Companies around the World

2017-08-10T13:55:00.002-07:00

1) China Mobile Ltd.

Serving China as the leading provider of telecommunications services by number of subscribers with approximately 849 million customers, #China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE: CHL) is the top telecommunications company in the world. It has a market value of $215.3 billion as of April 2017, and between January and December 2016 its customer base grew by 2.5%.

2) Verizon Communications Inc.

#Verizon Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VZ) is the largest telecommunications company in the United States. Its market value is estimated at $191.72 billion as of April 2017, and its sales weigh in at $131.8 billion (according to Forbes). Formed in 2000 with headquarters in New York City, Verizon came about as a result of the merger between Bell Atlantic Corp and GTE Corp. In 2015, Verizon completed its acquisition of AOL. The sale came after a 2014 purchase by Verizon of Vodafone’s 45% interest stake in Verizon stock. Verizon currently operates in 150 countries.

3) AT&T Inc.

#AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is the second-largest telecommunications company in the United States with a market value of $245.58 billion. AT&T provides voice services in more than 200 countries and operates more than 34,000 Wi-Fi hotspots. According to its website, AT&T covers more than 355 million people. It expanded its AT&T GigaPower, an ultra-fast Internet service, to 56 metropolitan locations in the United States, with plans for further expansion. In 2006, AT&T acquired BellSouth. It purchased DirecTV in May 2014 for $48.5 billion, which allowed the company to offer customers the option to bundle more services into the same package.

4) Vodafone Group plc

#Vodafone Group plc’s (NASDAQ: VOD) headquarters are in the United Kingdom, and the company services around 444 million mobile customers. Vodafone’s market value is $68.41 billion as of April 2016. From 2012 to 2014, Vodafone acquired three companies: Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Kabel Deutschland, and Ono. The company’s Standard & Poor's long-term credit rating is A-. Mobile in-bundle sales account for 42% of Vodafone’s group service revenue, while 27% of revenue comes from mobile out-of-bundle sales. Vodafone is the most valuable brand in the United Kingdom and hosts mobile operations in 26 countries.

5) Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corporation

Founded in Japan where fast Internet connections are plentiful, #Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corporation (NYSE: NTT) has a market value of $86.13 billion as of April 2017. Fiber connections are highly valued in Japan, and Japanese companies are known to spend heavily to attain the newest Internet technology. This environment has helped boost Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corporation’s prevalence. Unlike other telecommunications companies, Nippon derives much of its business from fiber Internet connections rather than bundle packages. Increasingly, the company is looking to sales of its cloud computing services to expand its customer base.

6) Softbank Group Corp.

#Softbank Group Corp. started in 1981 as a packaged software distributor and has since created a domestic telecommunications segment that services Japan’s mobile communication, device, and broadband needs. The company’s market value is $81,459.54 million. Softbank owns an 80% stake in U.S. phone services provider Sprint in addition to managing Yahoo! Japan. In 2015, Softbank purchased IBM’s licensing for its robot "Watson" to create a Japanese Android called "Pepper," with plans to sell the robot to retail customers. Softbank announced the robot could read human emotions. The first 1,000 units of Pepper robots sold out in November 2015. In April 2017 rumors surfaced again of Softbank merging with T-Mobile, Inc. (T).

7) Deutsche Telekom AG

#Deutsche Telekom AG services more than 100 million mobile customers with a presence in over 50 countries and 218,341 employees. The German company has a market value of $76.11 billion, and more than half of its revenue is generated outside of Germany. Telekom seeks to build efficient networks that meet future broadband needs.In 2013, Telekom became the first telecommunications company to present a smartphone with the Firefox OS. In 2015, the company launched a standardized European network, implementing three of 10 countries in a cross-border infrastructure development.

8) Telefonica S.A.

#Telefonica S.A. (NYSE: TEF) originates from Spain. It serves 21 countries with its customer base largely concentrated in Latin America. Telefonica’s market value is $52.84 billion, its products and services include cloud computing, mobility services, data centers, enterprise voice and security services. Telefonica markets its three primary brands with different target audiences. Movistar serves Spain and Latin America; O2 serves the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia; and VIVO serves Brazil. Over the past two years, Telefonica has focused on investment as a means of expanding the business. The company also runs several smaller specialist brands, including Wayra, a startup accelerator.

9) America Movil

Mexican company #America #Movil (NASDAQ: AMOV) serves 363.5 million access lines, including 280.6 million mobile subscribers worldwide. Total coverage of America Movil’s mobile, fixed lines, broadband and television services is expansive. The company has a market value of $49.385 billion; however, this is a much lower value than seen in previous years as the company battles a series of anti-conglomerate rules aimed at dismantling the company's telecommunications monopoly. Most recently, in April 2017 Mexico's telecommunications regulator said America Movil had 65 days to legally separate its Telmex fixed-line infrastructures division from its cellular division.

10) China Telecom

#China #Telecom is a state-owned company that provides fixed-line telephone services to 194 million customers. According to it its website, by the end of 2016, its mobile services reached 62.36 million customers, and broadband reached 113 million. The company’s market value is $309.16 billion, and company headquarters are located in Beijing. Holding company China Telecom Corporation Limited (NYSE: CHA) experienced a public offering in 2002 in Hong Kong and New York City. China Telecom’s second holding company, China Communications Services Corporation Limited, launched its Hong Kong IPO in 2006. China Telecom’s commercial brands include E-surfing, E-surfing Navigator, E-surfing E Home and E-surfing Flying Young.

Motorola's Moto Z2 Force Smart Phone Review

2017-08-10T13:23:00.001-07:00

#Motorola #MotoZ2Force #MotorolaMotoZ2Force

Motorola's step-up sequel to the #Moto Z2 has great features and solid design, but the competition in this price range is about to get fierce. The #MotoZ2 Force is really thin, with a fast processor and great battery life. It can survive drops without shattering. The new dual rear cameras have some cool features we haven't seen before.

About the Price:

Forget about the mods, just focus on the phone. The Moto Z2 Force is great. But it's no bargain. Starting at a whopping $730, it's a premium-priced phone, and it will get a lot of competition very soon. Motorola's newest premium phone, the Moto Z2 Force, arrives at a strange time. The biggest and best phones of the year are right around the corner, most likely: Samsung's Galaxy Note 8, the next iPhone (or, iPhones) and an expected Google Pixel 2.

Where does that leave the Z2 Force? The sequel to last year's Z and Z Force phones is thin with a sharp design and very good specs. In several significant ways -- processor, camera and display -- it's a step up from the excellent midrange Moto Z2 Play. And, it adds Motorola's shatter-resistant ShatterShield, a feature that used to be a Verizon exclusive on the older Z Force.

Dual cameras means new Features

Two 12-megapixel cameras on the back are Motorola's first foray into dual cameras, joining the iPhone 7 Plus, LG G6, OnePlus 5 and others. A few new features come aboard with them. One of the two cameras is monochrome, one color. A truer black-and-white mode claims better black-and-white photos. Shots did look great, but I never had problems shooting black-and-white before with a filter. More impressive is the camera's mixing of black-and-white and color shots, but again, honestly, you could just use an app to the same effect.

It's also compatible with Motorola's snap-on MotoMods, an idea that seemed bold last year but now feels like it's treading water, as the idea of modular phones has migrated to niche status on such specialty handsets as Essential and Red's Hydrogen.

Asus ZenFone AR Review

2017-08-10T12:47:00.002-07:00

#AsusZenFoneAR #Asus #ZenFoneAR
In January at CES in Las Vegas, we got our first look at the Asus ZenFone AR. It's the first phone that lets you use Google Tango AR and Google Daydream VR, and on Wednesday we were finally able to get our hands on it to review.

We'll need some time to test the phone, along with all its AR and VR goodies, but it's exciting to see it's available to buy. The ZenFone AR comes in two different unlocked models, one with 64GB of storage and 6GB of RAM for $599 (which converts to £455 or AU$755) and another with 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM for $699, which converts to about £530 or AU$880.

Asus ZenFone AR Specifications and Features:

5.7-inch Super AMOLED display (2,560x1,440 pixels)
Android 7.0 Nougat
Storage: 64GB or 128GB
RAM: 6GB or 8GB
Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor
23-megapixel rear camera (Sony IMX318 image sensor)
Four-axis OIS and three-axis video stabilization
4K video recording
8-megapixel front-facing camera
3,300mAh battery

In the US, Verizon will sell an exclusive model with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM for $648 which converts to £490, AU$815.

The ZenFone AR, however, has a little more going on under the hood. It has a faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor and 6 or 8GB of RAM compared to the 4GB of RAM on the Phab 2 Pro.

It's also smaller than Lenovo's Tango phone, with a 5.7-inch screen inside a body that's just a bit taller than the iPhone 7 Plus. The ZenFone AR's normal size is due to a trimmed-down Tango camera design. The "Tri-Cam" system combines motion, depth-sensing and a 23-megapixel camera into a smaller housing on the back. It makes a difference.

Oppo R11 Review - Smart Camera Phone 2017

2017-08-10T12:43:00.000-07:00

#OppoR11 #Oppo #R11 #CameraPhone

Oppo R11 Review - Smart Camera Phone 2017. It's Affordable phones are getting better and better, so there's never been a better time not to pony up for a pricey iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S. The Oppo R11 has terrific rear cameras, long-lasting battery and an affordable price. The latest budget phone to impress me is the Oppo R11, a solid 5.5-inch device with a great camera and impressive battery life. The Oppo R11 is worth your money -- though it lags slightly behind the even-more-worth-your-money OnePlus 5 ($624.94 at Amazon.com).

You may not have heard of Oppo, but it's currently the world's fourth biggest phone manufacturer, thanks mainly to its popularity in China. And it's been making affordable Android phones for years. It's not the easiest phone to get hold of, but Oppo's R11 is another feasible, affordable alternative to Apple and Samsung.

The company makes a big deal over the new R11's selfie camera, which clocks in at 20 megapixels. Those extra pixels didn't seem to make that much of a difference in selfie quality, though my colleague Claire Reilly loved the beautifying software. Instead, the real stars of the show are the dual 20- and 16-megapixel cameras at the back.

Sharp's Aquos S2 Review

2017-08-10T12:37:00.000-07:00

#SharpAquosS2 #AquosS2 #Phone #Mobile
The Aquos S2 will retail online from 2,499 yuan, which converts to roughly $370, AU$470 and £185. That's much cheaper than the $750, £689 or AU$1,199 Samsung Galaxy S8, which is the easiest way for you to get your hands on a futuristic, all-screen (almost) no-bezel design. Before #Samsung and #Xiaomi dropped phones with tiny bezels, Sharp introduced the world to edge-to-edge phone displays in 2014 with the Aquos Crystal. The Aquos S2, which is the latest device in the line, pushes the concept further, packing a 5.5-inch display into a tiny frame.

Announced in Beijing on Tuesday, the phone has a small chunk of bezel on the bottom, where its fingerprint scanner lives. It's all screen above that, except for a small circular space for the 8MP front camera. The design is similar to the fabled Essential phone. Of course, it's not a completely fair comparison, with the Aquos S2 not packing the same premium specs as Samsung's flagship. But for the midrange price, you'll get a strong processor, plenty of RAM and a dual camera. If you're willing to fork out an extra $150, AU$190 or £110 for the premium edition, you'll get a better CPU and 2GB more RAM. (The cameras and battery are identical, though.)
Key specs

Qualcomm Snapdragon 630/660 processor
5.5 inch, 2,040x1,080-pixel display
4 or 6GB of RAM
64 or 128GB on-board storage
12 or 8MP rear cameras
8MP front camera
140g, 141.8x72.04x7.9mm (5.5x2.8x0.31 inches)
3,020 mAh battery

Samsung Galaxy S8 Active is coming tomorrow (News and Review)

2017-08-10T12:28:00.000-07:00

#SamsungGalaxyS8Active #Samsung #Galaxy #S8Active
The Galaxy Note ($265.00 at Buy.com) 8 is expected to be unveiled on August 23 at an event in New York City. In the meantime, though, fans of Samsung phones can feast their eyes on the all-new Galaxy S8 Active, a more ruggedized version of the Galaxy S8 released earlier this year.

To say the official announcement of the S8 Active was expected would be an understatement. In addition to being widely leaked in the past few weeks, the Active-branded spinoff of Samsung's mainstream flagship offering has been a mainstay for the past several years (see the previous S5, S6, and S7 Active phones).

As with those past Active models, the S8 Active largely has the identical features of its baseline model -- a 5.8-inch AMOLED screen, the Bixby personal assistant and a single 12-megapixel rear camera -- but is housed in a more rugged metal body that's compliant with the MIL-STD-810G specification for water, dust and shock resistance. It also features a more capacious 4,000mAh battery, compared with the standard S8's 3,000mAh version. (Exact dimensions and weight aren't yet available.)

Alcatel Idol 5S Review

2017-08-10T12:19:00.002-07:00

Just when you think the world of budget phones has settled, Alcatel comes along with the Idol 5S. At first, this looked to be the best phone you can buy under $300: It has a top-notch look and build, runs Android Nougat 7.1 and has similar hardware to one of our favorite budget phones the Moto G5 Plus (not to mention price). But the battery on the Idol 5S doesn't last long at all. And that's a big bummer.

The Idol 5S sells for $280 which converts to £215 and AU$355. In the US, an Amazon Prime version with lock screen ads pushes that price down to $200.

With its glass front and back, the Idol 5S looks downright fancy. In my hand, it feels like a slick and svelte iPhone 4. The top and bottom of the phone house the Idol's dual speakers which are better than most budget and mid-tier phones. They're excellent for listening to music and videos.

Read More@ https://alcatelonetouch.us/