Today’s topics include Mozilla blocking Flash usage in Firefox, a clarification on Nokia’s future smartphone plans, a move from Chinese state-backed company Tsinghua Unigroup to purchase Micron Technology and the announcement of the Cortana Analytics Suite.
With two currently unpatched zero-day vulnerabilities in Adobe’s Flash Player, Mozilla has decided to take unilateral action and block Flash graphics in the Firefox Web browser.
The latest two zero-days in Flash were discovered by security vendors FireEye and Trend Micro by going through materials obtained via the breach of Italian security vendor Hacking Team. Adobe says it plans on patching the flaws this week.
Nokia spokesman, Robert Morlino, recently clarified Nokia’s plans for getting back into the smartphone market. He explained in the Nokia corporate blog that because Nokia sold its manufacturing, marketing and channel distribution capabilities to Microsoft last year, it doesn’t have the infrastructure today to again start building and selling phones on its own.
Currently Nokia is in the business of mobile network infrastructure, location and mapping services, as well as technology development and licensing.
But product design continues to be a big part of the company’s business. Morlino explained that when Nokia again approaches the smartphone market, it will be via a brand-licensing model with a partner company that will be “responsible for all of the manufacturing, sales, marketing and customer support for a product,”
Chinese state-backed company Tsinghua Unigroup reportedly is preparing to make a $23 billion bid for memory chip maker Micron Technology, a move that would bolster that country’s efforts to expand its homegrown technology capabilities and to leverage the consolidation in the chip market.
According to multiple reports, the company is looking to offer a per-share price of $21, which would be about a 19 percent premium, and that the offer could come as early as July 15.
During Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Orlando, Fla., today, the company announced Cortana Analytics Suite, a set of Azure-backed services for businesses seeking to drive smarter decision-making by capitalizing on their big data.
Cortana is an accessible and user-friendly technology that serves Microsoft’s goal of placing advanced, contextually aware data analytics and machine learning technologies and tools in the hands of developers and, ultimately, everyday users, according to Joseph Sirosh, corporate vice president of Microsoft Azure Machine Learning.