Disruptive Mega Deals As Former Game Changer Yahoo!

Yahoo was once regarded as the “King of the Internet”, worth $125 billion in its time the way Facebook or Google are today. Now it’s being sold to Verizon for comparatively chump change.

This morning, Verizon announced the end of the long process of acquiring Yahoo’s core business for just under $4.8 billion. This transaction ends the independence of one of Silicon Valley’s most iconic pioneering companies. Yahoo’s seventh and final CEO, Marissa Mayer, will reportedly depart with severance pay worth more than $50 million.

The sale will unite Yahoo with AOL, the first web portal Verizon bought last year for $4.4 billion. The United States’ largest wireless provider is betting nearly $10 billion that combining the two formerly dominant websites will give it an edge in mobile content and advertising technology it can leverage across its more than 140 million subscribers.

Canada's biggest tech trend in 2015: Paying with phone

Photo shows the app that links to shopping on Amazon.com on the new Amazon Fire Phone, in Seattle. Getty

Linda Nguyen The Canadian PressMore Canadians will be reaching for their cellphones instead of their wallets to pay for purchases this year, predicts a report by global professional services firm Deloitte.

The report, released Tuesday, sees 2015 as a “tipping point” for retailers, banks and telecom companies to adopt the technology, which allows consumers to make relatively small payments within seconds with their smartphones.

Duncan Stewart, a director at Deloitte Canada, said there now are more phone models with the technology, called near field communication, and more retail locations that can accept the payments.

The familiarity Canadians already have with using credit cards to tap and pay, whether in a coffee shop or at the drugstore, will make it easier for consumers to transition to using the same technology with their smartphone.

Survey shows majority Canadians are willingly give up mobile privacy for free app

Victor Ferreira | The Right Click –

A recent Symantec survey shows that a majority of Canadians often worry about their mobile privacy, but have no problem trading it in for a free smartphone app.

James Nguyen, a Symantec mobile security expert warns Android users to think twice before they download free apps from Google Play because while they may not be paying with their bank accounts, they could be offering up personal information in exchange, instead.

"There are a lot of free apps out there and they rarely come without a cost," Nguyen said. "Your personal data is used as a sense of currency. It's a trade off."

The survey results show that 54 per cent of Canadians are willing to make that trade.

When Android apps are downloaded, users are immediately prompted with a message alerting them of what information the app requires in order to be installed. Some apps require access to features like a user's contacts and emails for synching purposes, but others require access to features like health and fitness data, camera, photos, and text messages.

China Mobile Phone Maker Xiaomi is Now Worth More Than Uber

Laura Lorenzetti / Fortune
Xiaomi, the Chinese maker of affordable smartphones, is now worth more than $45 billion after raising over $1 billion in its latest round of funding. That makes it one of the most valuable tech startups in the world, surpassing Uber’s $41 billion valuation.

The investment round is expected to close as early as Monday and is led by All-Stars Investment, a fund run by former Morgan Stanley analyst Richard Ji, Thee Wall Street Journal reported. Other big name investors are also getting in on the deal, including Alibaba Group Executive Chairman Jack Ma and Singapore sovereign-wealth fund GIC.

Following Xiaomi’s most recent funding round in August 2013, the smartphone maker was valued at $10 billion.

Federal government reveals plans for attracting new mobile carriers to Canada in 2015

James KellerThe Canadian Press
The federal government confirmed Thursday that a forthcoming wireless auction will reserve more than half of the new spectrum for carriers other than the Big Three.

Industry Minister James Moore released the details for the auction of AWS-3 spectrum, or advanced wireless services, which is scheduled to begin March 3. The final technical document largely mirrored what the government had already foreshadowed during consultations.

Most notably, 60 per cent of the available spectrum will be reserved for smaller carriers, while the remaining 40 per cent will be available to all applicants.

Moore lauded Canada’s three major carriers for providing world-class service, but he said consumers need more competition.

“They (Bell, Rogers and Telus) are all some of the best wireless companies that exist anywhere on the globe,” Moore said at an event in Vancouver.

“But while we put more spectrum in the marketplace than ever before, we have a coherent and consistent policy to ensure we reserve more capacity for more competition in the wireless marketplace, which of course will result in lower prices and a better quality of services for Canadian consumers.”

The government has been attempting to use its wireless auctions to foster competition, but new entrants have struggled and the three national carriers continue to represent 90 per cent of Canada’s wireless customer base.

Life Made Easy! Klinic, Manitoba government launches app that helps users cope with stress

The ‘Calm in the Storm’ app promotes resiliency, said Tim Wall of Klinic Community Health Centre. Bernice Pontanilla/Metro 

Bernice Pontanilla Metro
Preventing stress is the goal of a new smartphone app developed in Manitoba just in time for the end-of-year holidays.

Named ‘Calm in the Storm,’ the free mobile app aims to help people cope with stress and prevent suicides, said Nicole Chammartin, executive director of Klinic Community Health Centre.

Tim Wall, Klinic’s director of counseling, said neglecting stress management “can lead to painful and sometimes tragic consequences.

“Using proven de-stressing practices such as those in the new app can improve health, happiness, and promote resiliency each and every day,” added Wall in a press release.

Supreme Court of Canada to rule on mobile phone privacy

The Canadian Press
The Supreme Court of Canada delivers a precedent-setting ruling Thursday that’s expected to dictate how much warrantless access police can have to a person’s cellphone.

The case centres on a 2009 armed robbery at a Toronto jewelry kiosk that saw police seize and search the cellphone of Kevin Fearon.

Police were responding to a call about the robbery when they arrested Fearon. Upon perusing his unlocked cellphone, they found photos of cash and a gun, as well as a text message mentioning jewelry.

A judge convicted Fearon after rejecting his lawyer’s argument that his Charter right to unlawful search and seizure had been breached because police didn’t immediately get a search warrant to look at his phone.