Senate Approves Renewal Of Export Bank

Samsung’s new Galaxy S4 handset is on track to become the company’s “bestselling” smartphone. As long as you define “bestselling” as “bestselling to carriers.” Samsung Electronics co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun said at an industry forum in Seoul this week that S4 shipments will top 10 million in a few days. This, less than a month after the device’s debut in some 60 countries. “We are confident that we will pass more than 10 million sales of the S4 next week,” Shin said, according to the Korea Times. “It is selling much faster than the previous model S3.” Great news for Samsung, but news that comes with an important caveat: The company here isn’t talking about retail sales to consumers, but sales to carriers. Reached for comment, Samsung confirmed to AllThingsD that Shin was indeed referring to shipments into the channel when he offered that 10 million unit number. Ten million handsets shipped into the channel in such a short time is still a hell of a milestone. But there’s a big difference between that and consumer sales of 10 million. The S4 may well be selling much faster than its predecessor, but not so much faster that there will be 10 million units in consumer hands next week. Some will still be sitting on carrier shelves awaiting purchase. It’s worth noting that Samsung is not alone in reporting smartphone “sales” this way. Many companies do — including Apple. When the company posts quarterly earnings, it reports iPhone “sell in” numbers — numbers that include product it has shipped to retail partners like AT&T, Best Buy and Walmart, but not necessarily sold to end consumers. From Apple’s latest earnings statement: The Company recognizes revenue when persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, delivery has occurred, the sales price is fixed or determinable, and collection is probable. Product is considered delivered to the customer once it has been shipped and title and risk of loss have been transferred. For most of the Company’s product sales, these criteria are met at the time the product is shipped. For online sales to individuals, for some sales to education customers in the U.S., and for certain other sales, the Company defers revenue until the customer receives the product because the Company retains a portion of the risk of loss on these sales during transit. Now, Apple has some 400 retail stores worldwide, and they — along with the company’s Web sites — sell a lot of iPhones directly into the hands of consumers. But they didn’t do that for every one of the 37.4 million the company sold in its recent quarter. Indeed, during Apple’s last earnings call the company said it had 11.6 million iPhones in channel inventory during the period. Those were devices “shipped” to retail partners. But for Apple’s purposes, they were “sold.” Same story for Samsung.

Satellite TV provider DirecTV reportedly is considering buying streaming video service Hulu, which would strip away some or all ownership from Comcast Corporation, News Corporation and Walt Disney Company. A similar scenario took place two years ago when DirecTV initially wanted to own Hulu Mashable has reached out to DirecTV. Hulu declined to comment. A source close to the matter told The Wall Street Journal that DirecTV is mulling an agreement that could expand its TV Everywhere service, which lets subscribers access programming from the web and on mobile devices. Meanhwile, Bloomberg Businessweek reports, via two unnamed sources, the discussions between DirecTV and Hulu are "at an early stage." Read moreMore about Entertainment, Hulu, Streaming Video, Directv, and Tv

Hello, just a bit more than a week ago I have moved to the United Kingdom. Why ? Well, to put this simply, for some reason it seemed like a good idea. I've left my University, took my last savings and traveled here. My goal was rather simple - finding some temporary job to keep myself up while setting up a software development business of mine. At the moment I'm employed as an order picker on an 4-8 week testing period. What this means is that for the next 4-8 weeks I'll be working a physically demanding job for minimum wage in order to survive. Not exactly going that well. I'm considering writing a daily/weekly blog, explaining my experiences inside-out and I wonder whether anyone would be interested in actually reading one. PS.: If you're somewhere in the UK, and have a better job or cheap accomodation to offer, PM me! submitted by Mistakn [link] [comment]

It’s been a tumultuous several weeks for Twitter, Reddit and the social web, during which we’ve seen both its great potential and confounding dark side. There was the recent AP account hacking – which instantly (but temporarily) drained some $200 billion from the stock market – the mass confusion of the Boston Bombings (and tragic repurcussions), and, well, insert-specious-news-rumor-of-the-day here. It calls to mind a famous arachnid-movie quote (by way of Voltaire): “With great power comes great responsibility.” It’s important to note that Twitter  is a platform, not a news service, and also that regardless, no one outlet can control the internet anyway: That’s the beauty and curse of the beast. So when news breaks it’s about two things: accuracy and distribution.  Right now we’re stuck with a drunk leaf blower in a flour factory. I’ll be the first to champion these tools as platforms for change, opportunity and knowledge sharing, but it has become clear we – and especially the reeling news media – are in need of a system that helps Twitter et al sort through the haze of breaking news and get the facts straight, faster. The current model and tools are not clearing things up – they are adding to the mess. A centralized, collaborative evidence table Sifting through the mountains of analysis on the bombings alone, I couldn’t help but think of the customized Twitter Nascar hashtag page that was put together in 2011, and how it tied in nicely with the New Yorker digital “evidence table” it describes for Reddit users. So one first step I propose is a one-stop place or system in times of important news or mass emergency. Literally just a single agreed upon place to gather the facts, or a system of checks and balances free from speculation. Like a central hub for help to be channeled and extra information provided – a bit like an active Storify stream. This feels like a simple fix to a complicated problem at the source. Clearly there are huge questions about who administers it, but one thing is clear: It must be solitary and held to a strict code that is pre-agreed upon, possibly among a cross-collaboration of the major newspapers. For instance, each might host the same page so traffic stays where the trust is with the user.  There is no speculation: Simple fact dissemination and information being released – only after  it is verified – so that the news-consuming public has a go-to source that is consistent. The ability to deal with errors Imagine if Twitter or Facebook could lower the relevancy of an incorrect tweet or post in real-time so that bad information was less likely to be seen. Reddit and pals is a more difficult kettle of fish because of their very nature.  We will need to help them help themselves by providing clear information in order for them to do what they do best – engage with it. The Atlantic wrote recently about the need to undo things on Twitter because it is currently a one-way system that, while capable of self-correcting over time, is pretty flawed when it comes to doing so in the moment. And so we need a system that enables users to revoke or modify what has been said so that it is instantly identifiable. Internet fundamentalists find this idea uncomfortable but many I suspect would cherish the ability to be alerted to incorrect information so the continued dissemination of knowingly false info can be minimized.  A technical nightmare sure, but something to work towards. A need for innovation and cooperation Right now big data is not being used or harnessed by news organization beyond visualization or longer-form pieces but I imagine a time (and not too far in the future either) when we see news outlets using Twitter and company in a much smarter fashion than simply looking at volume spikes and “first-grabs.”  So for instance, outlets might soon use data to predict, locate and activate “sleeper-unit” journalists (and trained citizen journalists) who are armed with Facetime technology – or simply volunteer individuals streaming through a phone that a news outlet is able to instantly locate via GPS. It’s interesting to note that Twitter has just appointed its first Data Editor who is charged with “explain[ing] how this phenomenon works.” We have two options when it comes to “fixing” truly crucial news and real-time mass events: 1) Assume that what we’re doing now works but will need a few tweaks, or;  2) Realize that our current system is no longer tenable and so needs a complete overhaul. Any honest appraisal will quickly come to the brutal truth that the current system is failing, and so needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. In the short term, we will need to move toward something like a system of “Flash tweets:” site-wide notifications, that simultaneously tweet, post, alert, offer a donation system, etc to news sites when major events transpire. I’d like to see a system like this fleshed out by the social juggernauts as they further flex their news muscles. Paul Armstrong is founder of  Digital Orange Consulting. Contact him via paularmstrong.net, or on Twitter @paul__armstrong or @TheMediaIsDying. Have an idea for a post you’d like to contribute to GigaOm? Click here for our guidelines and contact info. Photo courtesy Edward Meyer. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.The 2013 task management tools marketHow consumer media will change in 2013Examining the rise of crowd labor platforms in 2012    

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is far from being an activist investor, but it is starting to ask more questions about companies in which it has stakes.