Title: Only Close Family History Needed for Cancer Risk Assessment
Category: Health News
Created: 2/4/2014 12:35:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 2/5/2014 12:00:00 AM
Sony has announced that it is laying off 5,000 staff as part of major restructuring plans that will see the Japanese firm sell its Vaio PC business and spin its TV division into its own company.
The layoffs will affect 1,500 staff in Japan and a further 3,500 overseas. A mixture of redundancies, early retirement and potential transfers to new companies will be offered to those selected within manufacturing, sales and administration in its TV and PC businesses. Sony believes it can trim its costs by one third over the next 15 months before the start of its 2015 financial year.
There has been much speculation about the future of Sony’s Vaio business, so it comes as little surprise that the unit is being sold. The loss-making division is being bought by Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), the Japanese fund that was strongly linked with a deal this weekend (it was also suggested that Lenovo had been interested.) Under JIP’s leadership, the new company will focus on the local Japanese market, “while evaluating possible further geographic expansion.”
Sony has long made it clear that it was reviewing the future of its PC business, and it singled out a number of factors — including “the drastic changes in the global PC industry” — behind its decision. The company anticipates that the JIT deal will be completed by March 2014 — which means the products it launches this Spring will be its last Vaio devices, though it will continue to offer assistance to customers beyond the completion of the sale.
As for its TV brand, Sony says it intends to spin it into a wholly-owned subsidiary by July 2014. Sony has cut the division’s losses significantly — a 147.5 billion yen loss for financial year 2011 was cut to a 69.6 billion loss one year later — and it expects that to continue, with the spun out firm forecast to reach profitability for its 2014 financial year.
In addition to cutting costs to reach its target, the TV business is adopting a different approach that will see it focus on high-end products — in particular its 4K range — while enhancing its 2K range with new features. In emerging markets, the company will release TV sets that are “tailored to specific local needs.”
Headline image via YOSHIKAZU TSUNO / Getty Images / AFP
Dilbert readers – Please visit Dilbert.com to read this feature. Due to changes with our feeds, we are now making this RSS feed a link to Dilbert.com.
Bitcoin has been dealt another blow again, as Apple has pulled what is allegedly the last remaining Bitcoin wallet app on its App Store, Blockchain, the company behind the app reveals (hat/tip Wired).
This essentially means that access to the crypto-currency is now no longer available to users via iOS apps, as Apple has rejected or pulled most other Bitcoin-related apps as well. Though Blockchain also has a HTML5 Wallet and there’s another open-source HTML5 Bitcoin wallet, Coinpunk.com, which users can access via Safari on the iPhone, access to these HTML5 apps may be limited as they aren’t native to the iPhone.
Blockchain shared the email that it received from Apple, which cites an “unresolved issue” around Bitcoin. The Blockchain team disputes this as it says there was no communication before the app was removed, no indication of any problems, and in turn no opportunity to redress any issues.
The Blockchain team believes Apple is removing Bitcoin wallets because it sees them as a threat to its efforts to monopolize the payment systems on its platform.
The Blockchain application is the same one that has been on the App Store for 2 years, with more than 120,000 downloads, no customer complaints, and a broad user base.
The only thing that has changed is that Bitcoin has become competitive to Apple’s own payment system. By removing the Blockchain app, the only Bitcoin wallet application on the App Store, Apple has eliminated competition using their monopolistic position in the market in a heavy handed manner.
It could also be argued that Apple may have concerns about Bitcoin’s international regulations. Though it’s not actually illegal anywhere, governments all over the world have either been rejecting Bitcoin as a legitimate currency or issuing warnings about the use of it — including India, Norway and South Korea just last month, following in the footsteps of statements from the central bank in China and Thailand in July.
However, in comparison, the Blockchain team says that unlike Apple, Google has accepted “hundreds” of Bitcoin-related apps. Google has said it has no current plans regarding Bitcoin, though a rumor suggested it was seeking to incorporate the virtual currency into its payments system.
“The response of users to the restrictions placed on Bitcoin applications have led thousands to flee to Google’s Android mobile OS, which offers a much more open environment for innovation,” the Blockchain post says.
In response to Blockchain being pulled from Apple’s App Store, Kyle Drake from Coinpunk has spoken up to ask users to take a stand against Apple and sign a petition to allow Bitcoin wallets on the iPhone.
Headline image via George Frey/Getty Images