Google Inc.’s earnings topped analysts’ estimates amid slower spending, sending the stock up as much as 14 percent in late trading on investor optimism that the Internet search giant can keep costs in check.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-16/google-s-profit-tops-analysts-estimates-as-company-curbs-costs

Advertisers pay Google only if a user clicks on one of their ads. "Cost per click", or the average price of online ads, fell in the quarter, but was more than offset by the increase in ad volumes. Google's ad revenue has been under pressure as consumers access its services on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, whose advertising rates tend to be lower.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33557672

Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition packs the same specs as the Android version we reviewed. They include MediaTek MT6595 chipset with octa-core CPU, 5.36” IPS display with 1920 x 1152 pixels, 2GB of RAM, and 20.7MP main camera. We spent a little quality time with the Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition during MWC in Barcelona.

Meizu began offering the MX4 Ubuntu Edition in China. The Linux-powered high-end smartphone is available in white or gold color scheme for ¥1,799 (about $290).

http://www.gsmarena.com/meizu_mx4_ubuntu_edition_hits_the_shelves_for_1799-news-12305.php

Windows 10 just beat Ubuntu to the smartphone-PC convergence punch

Ubuntu may have beaten Windows to the idea of phone-PC convergence. But it’s something Microsoft is about to launch this year with Windows 10 phones, and in some ways, Microsoft’s vision even outshines Canonical’s.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2916899/windows-10-just-beat-ubuntu-to-the-smartphone-pc-convergence-punch.html

Samsung regains [sic] number one position in smartphone market

[Should read "retains" number one position]

Samsung Electronics regained the number one position in the smartphone market in the first quarter, but its market share dropped to 24 percent from 31 percent a year earlier, according to a research firm.

Overall, smartphone shipments worldwide grew 21 percent annually to 345 million from 285 million phones in the first quarter of last year. On an annualized basis, global smartphone growth slowed to 21 percent from 33 percent, reflecting increased penetration and maturity of key markets like China, U.S., and Europe.

http://www.itworld.com/article/2916335/samsung-regains-number-one-position-in-smartphone-market.html

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/buyersguides/audiovisual/digitalcameras.aspx

How China is screwing over its poisoned factory workers

Wired Magazine, 6th April 2015

THEY CALLED IT “banana oil.” Long Li didn't ask what was in it. All she knew was that she was supposed to use it to clean cell phone screens, hundreds of them every hour. Fumes filled the air in the windowless room where she worked, in a three-story factory outside the southeastern China city of Dongguan....

Long ended up in a hospital in Guangzhou with more than 30 other Fangtai Huawei workers. Doctors found they'd been exposed to n-hexane, presumably in the “banana oil.” It's an industrial solvent that causes neurological damage at just 50 parts per million.

Apple said it found “no evidence of any link to working conditions.” Last summer, reports said that Pegatron would be a supplier of the iPhone 6..

..problems were particularly egregious at some independent suppliers—no safety training, no masks for workers in contact with fumes. Samsung told us that “corrective measures have already been taken”

http://www.wired.com/2015/04/inside-chinese-factories/

Read Apple's reply at http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201503/r1394995_19864551.pdf

European Commission Opens Another Antitrust Case Against Google

This suckers won't do anything anyway. They constantly try to make impression, later they will do few hundreds meetings (financed by working EU people) and will make intermediate proposal. :-)

Canonical Updates Mobile OS A Week After First Ubuntu Phone Launched

• Battery life improvements
• Screenshots no longer show the volume indicator
• Notifications can be dismissed by swiping
• Photos can be edited directly from the Camera photo roll
• Fullscreen and Normal modes are now supported in Gallery photo display
• Improved support for BT devices that require a Pin code for pairing
• Sending/receiving documents – no longer limited to just photos and videos
• Telegram activity on the lock screen – see your Telegram statistics on your lock screen (double tap the infographic to change the information displayed)
• Image previews are now zoomable
• Improved notifications support
• Added support for message forwarding

• Various other UI improvements and fixes

  Canonical promised that there will be another set of updates available for its OS next month.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/canonical-ubuntu-update-aquaris-e4.5,28942.html

BQ’s Ubuntu phone is now available for anyone to buy (in the European Union)

The phone is available from BQ for € 169.90, or about $180.

If you didn't read the [French language] review above, then please be advised about one subtle detail mentioned which turns out to be a deal-breaker for me:

It seems a large part of its famous slick interface just disappears when out of 3G reception!

I'll be watching this space for the next rounds of the spiral development cycle.

http://liliputing.com/2015/04/bqs-ubuntu-phone-is-now-available-for-anyone-to-buy-in-the-european-union.html

OS interface and price does not matter anything.

It is SDK, developers and applications that matter.

Agreed, once you're in an app the OS doesn't really matter at all. Any new OS+phone combo would have to have a few existing apps or it would be a no go (Waze, Instagram, Torque). After that you either like the aesthetics of the OS or not, but it virtually doesn't matter compared with the same considerations on the desktop platform.

Up against giants Android and iOS, a few novices are trying to break through, each bringing its share of innovations and novelties. Ubuntu Touch, developed by Canonical, attemptss to revolutionize the way we use touch devices - a really good idea or just a damp squib? See what we decided after our comprehensive testing.

(In French, use Google translate...)

http://www.tablette-tactile.net/test/ubuntu-touch-os-165872/

One good thing we can look forward to when we have more competing mobile OS-es is they'll all have to finally lift their game.

One example is sorting apps into categories. My android phone has a pile of unsorted apps, some of which I've forgotten what they're supposed to do - and their names and icons alone don't help much. (I've had to invent my own work-around but why should I have had to, when my device should do that for me?)

One thing that Ubuntu (at least, the Desktop version) has always provided has been sorting apps into categories. "What? Automatically? on installation? Oh, heaven forbid, No!" ;-)

Now, other OSes could have done that all along but haven't. My bet is that, as soon as a newer OS comes up with features long on everybody's wish-list, then the Big Two will follow suit and give us consumers what we'd been asking for! We'll be saying, "Now, Google, was that so hard after all?"