TechCruuse

Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Google have joined bidding for Toshiba’s NAND flash memory unit, vying with others for the Japanese firm’s prized semiconductor operation, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported on Saturday. Toshiba shareholders on Thursday agreed to split off its NAND flash memory business, paving the way for a sale to raise at least $9 billion to cover U.S. nuclear unit charges that threaten the conglomerate’s future. The Yomiuri newspaper said bidding prices from Apple, Amazon or Google, owned by Alphabet Inc, were not known. The Nikkei business daily reported on Friday that U.S. private equity firm Silver Lake Partners and U.S. chipmaker Broadcom Ltd have offered Toshiba about 2 trillion yen ($18 billion) for the unit. About 10 potential bidders are interested in buying a stake in the microchip operation, a source with knowledge of the planned sale told Reuters earlier. Suitors include Western Digital Corp, which operates a chip plant with Toshiba in Japan, Mi...

We don't know, exactly, what the interior of Tesla's Model 3 will be like, but prototype vehicles we've seen so far had a large center screen instead of a standard instrument cluster facing the driver. If you're still hoping for a traditional, driver-centered instrument cluster or a HUD in Tesla's upcoming Model 3, Elon Musk's got some bad news for you.  Replying to a query on Twitter, the Tesla CEO said "no" to both options, reiterating his previous claims that Model 3 drivers won't care about the speedometer thanks to the car's high level of autonomy.  28 Mar Nick Gilbert   @nickg_uk @ elonmusk  But but but... Can we PLEASE have a central speedometer in the 3 for those of us who don't want autopilot :) /beg  Follow Elon Musk   ✔ @elonmusk @ nickg_uk  No 3:50 PM - 28 Mar 2017     70 70 Retweets     770 770 likes 28 Mar Nick Gilbert   @nickg_uk ...

'Guess we shouldn't be too surprised that the what's going to be world's largest factory...continues to get larger. Tesla's Gigafactory, a gleaming white structure amid the muted browns surrounding Reno, Nevada, seems to be coming along, according to photos snapped by NM Group, a company that describes itself as specializing in "surveying and mapping, asset modeling and management, and engineering." The group was recently mapping the area for potential power lines on behalf of an electricity company, according to Tim Hustwayte, a senior client manager based in the United Kingdom. The route took them close to the Gigafactory, and they got some shots that appear to show the factory having bulked up since Tesla's battery cell began rolling off production lines at the start of the year. The Gigafactory employed nearly 3,000 people at the start of the year, less than half of how many people are expected to be employed there...

More than a decade after Andy Rubin sold his Android mobile operating system to Google, he's back in the mobile phone game.  On Monday he posted a tweet with a sneak peek at the upcoming phone from his new company, Essential. In the super vague post, Rubin, who left Google several years ago, wrote he was "eager to get it in more people's hands." We have to assume he's talking about the phone someone's holding in the picture. All we can see of the phone is the top right corner where it shows the time and a few icons. View image on Twitter  Follow Andy Rubin   ✔ @Arubin I'm really excited about how this is shaping up. Eager to get it in more people's hands... 9:51 PM - 27 Mar 2017     2,612 2,612 Retweets     6,449 6,449 likes In a  Bloomberg   profile of Essential from January, the new smartphone was described as a "high-end smartphone with a large edge-to-edge screen t...

If you've ever waited for a webpage to load, took a lap around the office while your computer rendered 4K video or watched in dismay as your favorite video game stuttered to life, you know that computers are struggling to keep up with all the data. Intel isn't down with that. On Monday, the chip maker announced the ship date for Optane, a memory module that can change the data game. It takes the speed and fluidity of RAM and combines it with the storage capabilities of Flash memory. "Storage needs dramatically increased over the last several years," said Intel Client Computing Group SVP Navin Shenoy who caught up with me to explain why Optane  (unveiled at CES 2017) is a potential game-changer for computer users. Working with system software, Optane can pre-cache frequently-used apps, which means they could load almost instantly. Even with system power turned off, the information remains (like a hard drive), and can be retrieved the moment the system is pow...

Dozens of applications for Apple's mobile devices are vulnerable to WiFi snoopers, a security researcher reported this week. Will Strafach, CEO of the Sudo Security Group, identified 76 popular iOS apps available at Apple's App Store that were vulnerable to wireless eavesdroppers, even though the connections were supposed to be protected by encryption. There have been 18 million downloads of the vulnerable apps, he said. Strafach categorized 33 of the vulnerable apps as "low risk." Potentially intercepted information included partially sensitive analytics data about a device and partially sensitive personal data, such as an email address or login credentials. VivaVideo, Snap Upload for Snapchat, Volify, Loops Live, Private Browser, Aman Bank, FirstBank, VPN One Click Professional, and AutoLotto: Powerball, MegaMillions Lottery Tickets are some of the apps he assigned to the low-risk category. Riskier Apps Strafach categorized another 24 iOS apps as ...