Ken Garen, CPA, Co-Founder and President, UBCC

Samsung Unveils New Galaxy S7 in Latest Phase of Apple Battle By Jungah Lee, Selina Wang and Nate Lanxon February 21, 2016 — 10:00 AM PST The S7 sports a 5.1-inch screen using its own Exynos or Qualcomm Inc. processors, with a larger 5.5-inch Edge model equipped with the same kind of wraparound display the company debuted last year. While the new phones look almost identical to the S6 line, Samsung is bringing back a memory-card slot and adding a longer-life battery after the absence of a removable power unit alienated fans last year. Samsung’s efforts to win back customers from Apple and Chinese vendors saw it keep the form and shape of last year’s models while fixing its shortcomings amid a weakening global market for smartphones. With earnings sliding and the shares battered by three straight annual declines, South Korea’s biggest company needs a hit product after the S6 failed to set the records that had been predicted. "The market for the smartphone is obvi...

Secret Memo Details U.S.’s Broader Strategy to Crack Phones By Michael Riley and Jordan Robertson February 19, 2016 — 2:00 AM PST Silicon Valley celebrated last fall when the White House revealed it would not seek legislation forcing technology makers to install “backdoors” in their software -- secret listening posts where investigators could pierce the veil of secrecy on users’ encrypted data, from text messages to video chats. But while the companies may have thought that was the final word, in fact the government was working on a Plan B. In a secret meeting convened by the White House around Thanksgiving, senior national security officials ordered agencies across the U.S. government to find ways to counter encryption software and gain access to the most heavily protected user data on the most secure consumer devices, including Apple Inc.’s iPhone, the marquee product of one of America’s most valuable companies, according to two people familiar with the decision. The...

Apple plays digital privacy hardball with FBI, 'but not China'        Text by Sébastian SEIBT Latest update : 2016-02-19 Apple was hailed as a champion of digital privacy this week after refusing to help the FBI hack into an iPhone belonging to a suspect in the San Bernardino shooting. But the firm hasn’t always been so scrupulous about user data, especially in China. The standoff between the FBI and Apple over the investigation into the San Bernardino shooting, which claimed the lives of 14 people in early December, has divided the United States. While some have argued that the company should, in this particular case, help investigators by bypassing the phone’s security system, others have insisted that doing so will set a dangerous precedent. The controversy began on Tuesday after a judge ordered Apple to help the FBI “hack” an iPhone linked to the tragic shooting. The next day, the White House gave the investigation its full support, des...

Mobile giant Three to block online advertising Exclusive: Publishers' mobile growth threatened as operator signs deal with controversial Israeli tech developer Shine             Shine claims its technology will make the mobile internet better for consumers By Christopher Williams 8:00PM GMT 18 Feb 2016 Three is poised to become the first major European mobile operator to block online advertising on its network, signalling a clash with digital publishers and advertising companies. It is understood that Three, which runs operators in half a dozen European countries including the UK, will next week announce a deal with Shine, a controversial Israeli technology company that specialises in blocking mobile advertising. They offer to lift their toll gates for those wealthy enough to pay them off, or who submit to their demands that they constrict their freedom of speech to fit the shackles of their revenue schemes. ...

Major Swedish Newspaper Demands Facebook Censor ‘Offensive’ Posts by CHRIS TOMLINSON 18 Feb 20161,184 Sweden’s second largest newspaper – Dagens Nyheter – has claimed that Facebook must address concerns about sexist, homophobic and xenophobic content, and that the social media site must actively work to censor comments from users that fall under the broad rubric of “hate speech”. According to the paper’s cultural affairs journalist Bjorn Wiman: “The large network company’s refusal to publicly respond to questions about these guidelines – and our acceptance of this silence – is one of the greatest scandals,” he wrote in an editorial for the newspapers website DN.se. “Facebook and other big network companies still have the ability to clean up in this quagmire of sexism, racism and serious threats of violence. That they do not is incomprehensible,”  he continues while simultaneously talking about how Sweden has had freedom of the press for 250 years enshrined into law...

This Japanese Robot Calls the Market Better Than a Human By Tom Redmond & Toshiro Hasegawa February 17, 2016 — 7:00 AM PST Updated on February 17, 2016 — 6:43 PM PST Model has been right 68 percent of time over almost four years Former BOJ official holds a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence On the 10th day of every month, Junsuke Senoguchi has just one thing on his mind -- the closing level of the Nikkei 225 Stock Average. That’s because Senoguchi, an unassuming man in his late 40s, has built a machine that’s been predicting the direction of Japanese shares, and once a month he gets a progress report on its success. The model makes a simple call -- whether the equity index will be higher or lower after 30 days -- and over almost four years it’s been right 68 percent of the time. “I’m so happy” when it works, said Senoguchi, a senior equity strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. in Tokyo. “It’s because I feel I can predict the future.” Al...

Apple’s Tim Cook doubles down, won’t comply with order to help FBI hack into iPhone By Levi Sumagaysay      / February 17, 2016 at 8:11 AM Apple CEO Tim Cook has been a high-profile champion of encryption — now his company is embroiled in what could be a defining case in the battle over privacy vs. national security. In a letter published on the company website Tuesday night, Cook said Apple is opposing a magistrate court judge’s Tuesday order to help the government hack into the encrypted iPhone of Syed Farook, one of the killers in a December attack in San Bernardino that killed 14 people. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik — who reportedly had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State — later died in a shootout with the police. Farook’s phone reportedly was running the newest version of Apple’s iOS, which can’t be unlocked without a passcode. Now the FBI wants Apple to provide it with software that will keep the agency from getting locked out of...