BT to hire 1,600 staff amid internet connections criticism

BT has now decided to hire 1,600 engineers, as they have received criticism from regulation over the speed at the new internet connection, which was they have installed in faults repairs. The internet provider which includes Sky and TalkTalk broadband has been talked and discussed about by watchdog, after customers were complaining and discussing about the internet provider being too slow and unable to connect with the internet for a long time.

Installations have picked up and are now within target, but TalkTalk says a third of faults reported by its customers are not fixed on time. Ofcom is expected to propose that by the financial year beginning April 2016, targets will have to be met 80% of the time. If they are not, BT could be fined.

BT's service has in the past been hampered by bad weather, particularly when rain floods its ducts and manholes. During 2012, the wettest year on record, the time it took to install the some fibre lines fell to 18 days on average. During 2011, repairs slowed to an average of six days.

Openreach employs more people than the Navy, with 31,600 staff. As the company has been ramping up the roll out of its fibre-optic network, numbers have grown by 1,200 in the last year. Many recruits will be drawn from the armed forces, with Garner emphasising there will be jobs for wounded personnel. He also wants more female engineers – less than 10% of Openreach staff are women. "There's no reason why that can't change," said Garner. We'll be a better organisation if we better reflect the society we are part of, why would we not be fishing in half the labour pool?

I think that BT is doing the right thing, as they are making sure that their companies is providing everyone with internet, as they have paid for it each month, also, it allow the business to be up to date. It makes sure that the business is operating and providing people with the internet. 

Amazon set to launch its first three original TV shows for children

Amazon have planned to launch its first three original television series for children, the animated show Tumble Leaf and Creative Galaxy will début and will be serviced on the May 23 and the June 27. The show is aimed at preschool age children, aimed at 4-7 year-old, will appear from 25 July. The show is available on all platforms like the Amazon Kindle Fire tablets and Fire TV set-top box, as well as iOS devices, Roku, and all the major games consoles.

"We’re working with some of the most renowned creators in the business to introduce programming that promotes life-long learning through play," said Amazon Studios' head of kids programming Tara Sorensen, in a statement.

All three of the new children's shows had been piloted on Amazon Prime, with users able to rate and review the initial episodes of Tumble Leaf,Creative Galaxy and Annedroids. That feedback was then used to inform Amazon's decision to commission full runs of each show.

I think that Amazon has create a show which can attract millions of children to watch the show, having these show on their website, can allow the children to watch these shows on on-line, instead of watch these programmes on television. Having these shows on-line and on their website, mean that they are promoting their brand on a globally market and stopping people from watching these shows on the traditional platform, television. 

Netflix announces immediate fee increase for new UK subscribers

 Netflix has now decided to increase and raise their online monthly subscription for their services, streaming movies and television shows from 5.99 to 6.99. The price increase will happen as soon as possible for the media streaming business. The business has decided to raise the price of their service not just in the United Kingdom but across the world with the 48 million subscribers they have. They decision to do this and raise prices came amid the commercial and critical success of House of Cards, where Netflix invested 100 million in the drama starring Kevin Spacey and made the entire series available for immediate streaming. It has also enjoyed a ratings hit with Orange is the New Black. But it makes Netflix £1 a month pricier than Amazon Instant Video (the new name for Love film) which charges £5.99 a month.

Netflix will allow subscribers to continue paying £5.99 a month if they opt for a lower-resolution "SD" quality service. It also has a multiple-users service for £8.99 a month which allows four users to view programmes at the same time on a single monthly account.

"In order to continue adding more films and TV programmes, we are increasing our price from £5.99 to £6.99 for new members. As a thank you for being a member of Netflix already, we guarantee that your plan and price will not change for two years."

In April it said that US subscribers would see a potential "one or two dollars increase" in monthly rates for new members, while in Europe prices are also rising, from €7.99 to €8.99 a month or €11.99 for the multiscreen service.

I think that raising the prices for Netflix's service will benefit their business a lot as Netflix has plans of increasing and expanding their business in the future, having shows like House Of Cards will help the business in sales and brand awareness, as shows like these have a huge market and audience, so people will keep on paying and watch these show as this is the only platform they can watch it on, its a huge demand.

Dr Dre-founded Beats Electronics looks set for takeover by Apple

Apple have decide to buy the popular Electronic company Beats by Dr Dre for 3.2 billion. It is the California company's largest ever acquisition. Beats have been developed as rapper Dr Dre and music producer Jimmy lovine lunched a strong brand after it in 2008. Apple said that ‘we don’t have a rule on the price it will pay: "We'll spend what we think is a fair price."

Beats recently launched a streaming music service, which may have proven particularly attractive to Apple, the popularity of whose iTunes service appears to be falling. In contrast, subscription services are growing fast, with revenues increasing 50% to $1.1bn in 2013, according to a report by the the global music industry association IFPI. Downloads, however, fell 2% to $3.93bn.

The Apple deal, news of which was first reported by the FT on Thursday night, would mark a change in the California firm's approach under the leadership of chief executive Tim Cook following the reluctance of Steve Jobs to make large acquisitions. Reporting the company's second-quarter earnings last month, Cook said he was "on the prowl" for companies to buy. He told journalists: "We are not in a race to spend the most or acquire the most. We're in a race to make the best products that enrich people's lives." He added that Apple has purchased 24 companies over the past 18 months.

"In terms of acquisitions, Apple has been very, very light in their activity," Richard Lane, an analyst at Moody's, told the FT. He added: "I don't think they've spent $1bn in any of the last four years."

I think that Beats is a popular company and has done well one it own, I feel that they shouldn't of sold the business to apple because it would of done better on its own and generated a lot of money in the years before but selling the business to apple will be good for the apple business as they'll have a product which is popular and known in the market which is there own. 

Presentation

Nadeem 

• People are using it globally
• Hashtaging feature theme
• Young people use these sites
• Free to access
• Started conflicts through social networking sites 

Harpal 

• Spotify – allow people to stream music
• Launched in 2008
• Takes up less spaces on their device
• Illegally downloading songs
• UGC
• No profit being made 
• Reducing privacy

Navneet 

   Global village - McLuhan 

   Pluralism 

   China blocked Facebook in 2009 

   Al Gore ' the internet is an empowering tool'

LA Clippers owner allegedly says: 'Don't bring black people to my games'

The NBA is investigating a report of an audio recording in  owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Donald Sterling is making  racist remarks while speaking to his girlfriend.Mike Bass, said in a statement on Saturday that the league is in the process of investigating a recording of owner Donald Sterling being racist, the recording was then posted on TMZ's website. Bass called the comments "disturbing and offensive" and said the league would have no further comment at this time.

"I will never go to a Clippers game again as long as Donald Sterling is the owner," Magic Johnson said on Twitter. He also said the alleged comments were "a black eye for the NBA" and said he felt bad that friends such as Rivers and Clippers point guard Chris Paul had to work for Sterling

In the recording posted on TMZ, the man questions his girlfriend's association with minorities. TMZ reported the woman, V Stiviano, who is of black and Mexican descent, posted a picture of herself with Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson on Instagram – which has since been removed.

The man asked that Stiviano not broadcast her association with black people or bring black people to games.

Sterling has been involved in several lawsuits over the years, including ones with discrimination accusations.

I think that this is a serious issues which has affected himself, his girlfriend and this business. Even thought he is the owner of a well known and popular basketball business, he has put himself and his business in the front of it, for the negative reason. Saying this to his girlfriend, 'Don't bring black people to to my games is a racism act which can be taking further by the NBA to the LAPD instead and can affected his business a lot. the reason why is because LA is a diverse area to live in, which has a lot of people with different races and religions. Also, the workers and the players in the business as well, LA Clippers have few members who are black and the coach as well who would like to play for a owner who is racist and doesn't like black people. 

Spotify says it's 'a matter of time' before it overtakes Apple's iTunes in Europe

Streaming music service Spotify has genrated more than 1 million active users in the UK in the last four months, as they plan to and try to overtake American media company, Apple's iTunes as the biggest digital music service in Europe in the years to come. In 2013, Spotify  generated 103 million pounds in Uk, as they said they they streamed 7.4 billions of song that year, doubling the total of last year in 2012. The owner of the music stream company said that "Given that download sales are declining and Spotify is growing rapidly, particularly in the UK, it is only a matter of time before Spotify is bigger than iTunes across Europe as a whole."

"Some of our partners are saying Spotify is now generating more revenue each month across Continental Europe than iTunes," Spotify's head of label relations in Europe, Kevin Brown, told industry site Music Week.

The UK is one of Spotify's biggest markets. The company's UK subsidiary published financial results for 2012 last November, when it generated £92.6m from British customers, including £64.8m from subscriptions and £9.1m from advertising. The UK accounted for just over a quarter of Spotify's global revenues in 2012.

"I don’t see iTunes as our primary competitor - that’s YouTube," said Brown, criticising labels that decide to keep albums off Spotify in favour of exclusive deals with iTunes. "We’re still put in the same bucket as iTunes by some labels, whose music then appears on YouTube. 

I think that Spotify is becoming a popular app to use and many people will feel that its better to use than Apple's iTunes, as people only have to stream this music and its on their phones, tablets and any other device. I think that Mr brown is right of saying that iTunes is not our primary competitor - thats YouTube. I think Youtube is generating millions of people every day and Spotfiy want to be apart of that tend and generate millions of uses every day as well. 

Prince re-signs with 'slave' label Warner Bros Records

The world most famous Prince has re-signed with the Warner Brother Record after he called the record label a slave 20 years ago. Prince decide to produce really bad  album when at the label and didn't receive respect when at the record label. This has affected their his career and made a big part on his career after what they did to him and the actions he didn't leading up to him leaving the label. but now he has decided to resign with the label. 

"Everyone at Warner Bros Records is delighted to be working with Prince once again; he is one of the world's biggest stars and a truly unique talent," said the label's chairman and CEO, Cameron Strang.

When Warners disagreed, on both counts, Prince began appearing in public with the word "Slave" written across his face, and changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol - leading the press to christen him The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.

"People think I'm a crazy fool for writing 'slave' on my face," he told Rolling Stone magazine in 1996. "But if I can't do what I want to do, what am I? When you stop a man from dreaming, he becomes a slave.

"That's where I was. I don't own Prince's music. If you don't own your masters, your master owns you."

I think that after prince dissing  and  doing certain action against doing the label and saying bad and hurtful things toward the label, I don't think he should of signed for the label. However, he was young and vulnerable and didn't know what he was doing , he was new to the industry and didn't really know how the music industry operated and worked, so for this he had time to relax and look at the issues and think about resigning for the label.

WhatsApp now has 500m active users sharing 700m photos a day

Messaging app After Facebook buying the company, WhatsApp for 19 billion, they have  now have 500 million  active users, having added 70 million. WhatsApp reached 25 million active user in the June 2013, then reached 300 million within two month. In the months the company was processing 11 billion inbound and 20 billion outbound messages a day, while users were sharing 325 million photos a day.

By December 2013, WhatsApp had 400 million active users, and now four months later it has 500 million. At the start of April, the company tweeted that it had just processed 20 billion inbound and 44 billion outbound messages in a 24-hour period.

"In the last few months, we’ve grown fastest in countries like Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia, and our users are also sharing more than 700 million photos and 100 million videos every single day," wrote WhatsApp chief executive Jan Koum in a blog post.

In short, WhatsApp has doubled its daily message and photo counts since August 2013, while adding 200m active users in that eight-month period.

Facebook is focused on further growth following its acquisition, though: "WhatsApp is on a path to connect 1bn people," said its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg as he announced the deal in February.

"WhatsApp is the only widely used app we've ever seen that have more engagement in a higher percent of people using it daily than Facebook itself," he added in a subsequent call with analysts. "Internet services that reach a billion people are all incredibly valuable, and we believe WhatsApp will be as well."

I think that Facebook will make lot of money of the uses of the whatsapps generating more people to the apps sites. this will help the business lot, brand image,  reputation  and sales of downloads. both of these companies will make lot of money of the millions of users, the uses of users sending photos and messages to each other can help the businesses.It has now allow them to expand their business and increase sales and reputation for the business. So Facebook can target more people to use their service in the future as their rivals and competition are not near the WhatsApps. 

Amazon strikes deal with HBO to stream The Sopranos and The Wire

Amazon has added The Sopranos and The Wire to its library of TV shows after signing an exclusive deal with HBO, both of these sows are very popular and have huge fan base,this is the first time that Time Warner-owned premium cable channel has struck such a deal with an on-line video provider. Until now, outside of HBO’s own channels, its shows have been available only for purchase or DVD rental. this process start on  May 21, as part of Amazon Prime's instant video service will allow people to stream old HBO shows including Six Feet Under, The Wire, Big Love and True Blood and mini-series including Band of Brothers and John Adams.

The deal is limited to the US at present. In the UK BSkyB owns the rights to much of HBO's back catalogue. An Amazon spokeswoman said there were no immediate plans for a wider rollout. "We are always looking to add content in all our territories," she said.

But the deal will be a major boost for Amazon’s library after it increased the price of its Prime service – which includes free shipping and access to streaming content – to $99 a year in March.

Cable companies have become increasingly concerned about “cable cutters” – people who opt not to pay for an expensive cable TV package and instead rely on the internet for their TV.

As the competition has increased, Netflix, the largest online streaming service, has been building its own library of content with award winning shows including House of Cards and Arrested Development. Last year it signed a deal with Disney’s Marvel to develop show based on its pantheon of comic heroes including Daredevil.

On Monday Amazon Prime rival Netflix announced it would increase the price of its $7.99 streaming subscriptions by $1 or $2 a month for new subscribers.

i think that this is a great deal for the Amazon companies, as they teamed up with a popular and well know news and television companies  to promote their videos and show the main and popular shows the channel has from the past.Shows like the Wire and the Sopranos, these show have a popluar fanbase which they'll siyt down and watch the these shows agin on this platform.it will now allow them to expand their business and increase sales and reputation for the business. Also, they have team up with a popular and well trusted companies with this service and this offer, 

Apple sues Samsung for $2bn as tech rivals head back to court

The smartphone giants Apple and Samsung are beginning another court hearing again this week, again accusing each other once again about designs, features and ideas. This trail will mark the latest round of a long term running between the two companies, and features a series of lawsuit between the two companies. The trail, apple is seeking damages of 2 billion dollars. Apple began the lawsuits when Steve Jobs expressed frustration at what he saw as "copying" by Android of iPhone features, and vowed to go "thermonuclear" in his attempts to stamp them out. Samsung countered that it has broken technological barriers with its own ultra-slim, lightweight phones.

Like the previous trial, held in summer 2012, the new one will be overseen by Judge Lucy Koh in the California district court in San Jose. Samsung is appealing against that verdict, where a jury found in Apple's favour on every count, though reducing its damages claim.

Apple are saying that salmons infringement of five patents by Samsung devices sold in the US between 2010 and 2012, including Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Samsung is claiming infringement of two of its patents by the iPhone and iPad. Jury selection begins on Monday relating to data transmission and the use of video, audio and photos.

If Apple is successful, it could bring similar lawsuits against other Android handset makers, because the patents at issue are part of Google's Android software, rather than being particular to Samsung's TouchWiz software. Apple cannot sue Google directly because it is only when the Android code is implemented in hardware that infringement arises.

Apple filed the suit against the South Korean consumer electronics behemoth in February 2012 in what Koh called "one action in a worldwide constellation of litigation between the two companies".

"Samsung has been a pioneer in the mobile device business sector since the inception of the mobile device industry," Samsung attorneys wrote. "Apple has copied many of Samsung's innovations in its Apple iPhone, iPod, and iPad products."

 I think that both these companies should find a natural agreement between each other, even though apple won last time both these companies, but Samsung and Apple have made products which are very popular and well known to million/billions of people, what both companies are doing is that they are keeping up with their customer’s needs. All the customers want is the next best thing in the markets and both companies are doing what the customers want. The thing is that both companies didn't check if either company has theism features on their service. They should of check before making these products.