Sony Electronics President Phil Molyneaux Steps Down

Sony Electronics’ president and chief operating officer relinquished his role as president on Monday, AllThingsD said. Sony’s current vice president and U.S. sales chief Michael Fasulo will take over the role as president on January 1 and Molyneaux will stay with the firm, though in a non-executive chairman capacity.

“All of us at Sony are grateful for his dedicated service and passionate commitment to the employees he led for the past three-plus years.” Sony’s CEO Kazuo Hirai told AllThingsD, noting that Molyneaux took over the role as president in 2010 with an effort to cut Sony’s costs while improving operations.

Fasulo said he’s “humbled” by Sony’s confidence in him and that’ he’s “excited to be leading the folks [he's] worked with at Sony Electronics for many years.” Fasulo will work with Toshifumi Okuda, the new deputy president, who said that he’s excited to work with Fasulo in an effort to “regain the leadership position” in the United States.

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BBM Voice Chat and Channels Coming to iPhone and Android in 2014

BBM for Android and iOS has already been downloaded tens of millions of times, though the software isn’t as robust as it is on a BlackBerry 10 smartphone. That’s going to change in 2014 as new features roll out for BBM on both platforms.

In an update posted on BlackBerry’s blog recently, BBM’s product manager, Sean Hungerford confirmed that iOS and Android users will soon be able to place free voice calls anywhere in the world using BBM. That’s probably not enough of a reason to install the software, considering Skype, iMessage, Hangouts and other clients already offer this experience, but it will at least be another free option. Additionally, BlackBerry Channels, which serve as communities on BBM that you can subscribe to based on your interests, will also launch on Android and iOS next year.

Hungerford also promises that BBM will offer faster and easier sharing of voice notes, location, photos and more, in addition to new emoticons. All of the new features should help attract fresh BBM users, though BlackBerry should also see a boost from contracts with phone makers such as LG.

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Target Apologizes for Credit Card Hack with 10 Percent Discount This Weekend

Target CEO Greg Steinhafel recently apologized for the security breach in which more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen. As part of Target’s effort to woo customers back following the security flaw, the company will offer a 10 percent discount this weekend, on Saturday Dec. 21 and Sunday Dec. 22. He also provided more information on the situation.

“We want our guests to understand that just because they shopped at Target during the impacted time frame, it doesn’t mean they are victims of fraud,” Steinhafel explained. “In fact, in other similar situations, there are typically low levels of actual fraud. Most importantly, we want to reassure guests that they will not be held financially responsible for any credit and debit card fraud. And to provide guests with extra assurance, we will be offering free credit monitoring services. We will be in touch with those impacted by this issue soon on how and where to access the service.”

Steinhafel also apologized for the long wait times for customers who are trying to contact Target’s call center and Web site, and blamed delays on “unprecedented call volume.” “We want to emphasize that the issue has been addressed and let guests know they can shop with confidence at their local Target stores,” Steinhafel said.

A 10 percent discount might not be a great apology, and it’s certainly not going to fix the matter, but if you’re looking to save some money this weekend you might want to consider visiting Target. As one commenter said on a recent post, you might just want to use cash instead.

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Snapchat Update Adds Filters and Replay Feature

Snapchat this week got some pretty big features that add new dynamics to the platform, described by CEO Evan Spiegel as nice little gifts heading into the holiday period. For one, you can now lather filters over pictures you snap, which in all honesty takes some of the crudeness out of the service. It’s quite obviously meant to keep parity with other completing platforms—but filters aren’t the only new feature being added. The snaps you’re snapping can now be replayed, and more.

In addition to the simple visual features, Snapchat also includes what are being called “smart filters,” which can overlay the weather on your picture (supplied by the Weather Channel), your speed (sounds like a dangerous enabler) and the current time if something like that is important to you. The various filters can be applied once an image is pulled up by swiping left or right, so the implementation is obviously quite easy and seamless.

The more interesting feature, however, is the addition of Replay, which allows users to replay one snap per day—doesn’t matter if it’s a picture or a video, you can replay once every 24 hours. Spiegel said too many users were partially missing messages friends were sending, and wanted to give folks the opportunity to essentially jump back in time. Photos and videos that can be replayed are still deleted from Snapchat’s servers, Spiegel assured, and after you replay that particular photo or video, it’s gone from your feed like normal.

Other added features include special text, front-facing flash and the ability to add up to seven best friends. Spiegel told The Verge that the company is currently “in between big update cycles,” so more is certainly to come. Each of the new features can be enabled by going into your settings, then to additional services, and then manage.

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Microsoft Hands Out 20GB of Free SkyDrive Storage to Windows Phone Owners

Right in the middle of the busy holiday period, Microsoft has stepped up to offer WindowsPhone owners an extra bit of cheer. No doubt to account for the many photos and videos WP users will be uploading over the next few weeks, the Redmond company sent out emails allowing owners to activate 20GB of free SkyDrive storage. Your device running out of storage? This is the perfect gift to not only mitigate that issue, but also encourage users to start taking advantage of Microsoft’s cloud storage service.

Users will have until the end of January to claim their gift, and get twelve months before the storage expires. They say it’s always better to give than it is to receive, but I’m sure there will be no complaints from users who are suddenly 20GB richer thanks to Microsoft’s generous offer. Microsoft has been pretty gung-ho about handing out free SkyDrive storage; the company incentivized Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 buyers with 200GB of free SkyDrive storage over a two-year period.

Source : Techno Buffalo

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