Rogers Communications, one of the largest wireless carriers in Canada, said Friday that it has seen "tremendous customer excitement" and strong pre-orders for the iPhone X. Perhaps more importantly, it now says overall demand for the iPhone 8 as "good" after previously characterizing it as anemic.
"We're seeing tremendous customer excitement for iPhone X with strong customer pre-orders," Executive VP Raj Doshi, said in a statement to Axios. "We're also seeing good demand for the iPhone 8. We expect the two together will be very popular with our customers this holiday season with iPhone 8 being a major contributor."
Uber has hired Pepsi executive Tony West as its new chief legal counsel, replacing Salle Yoo, the company said on Friday. In an email to employees, new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi emphasized West's recognition of focus on building diverse teams, an area the company has said is a new emphasis after a string of sexual harassment and discrimination controversies.
Who: West was previously EVP of government affairs, general counsel, and corporate secretary at Pepsi. Before that, West worked at the Department of Justice under President Obama.
Big tech may have a variety of problems these days, but solid profits isn't one of them. Thursday saw strong reports from a bunch of the industry's largest companies, including Intel, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet (parent company of Google). And they all beat expectations. Even Twitter, which disclosed it overstated monthly active users for several quarters, posted earnings ahead of expectations, sending the stock higher Thursday.
The bottom line: The PC market may be struggling, but tech is far more diversified than it once was. Even Intel and Microsoft managed to beat expectations amid flat computer sales.
Baidu shares are down more than 10% in after-hours trading today after the Chinese search-engine titan reported third-quarter earnings that were twice what analysts had projected, but said that the next quarter will fall short of expectations.
The company said that, in the fourth quarter, revenue will rise to $3.52 billion, short of the $3.76 billion that analysts have forecast, Reuters reports. In the third quarter, Baidu said its adjusted earnings were $3.89 a share, compared with analyst exceptions of $1.96.
Baidu is part of the Big Tech circle of global companies that are perceived to be building dominant positions in the technologies of the future, including artificial intelligence.
As was the case with Intel, Microsoft reported earnings Thursday that topped Wall Street expectations even as the PC business remained flat.
The bottom line: Microsoft's strength continues to be its cloud computing area, with its business cloud generating $20 billion in annualized revenue, reaching that milestone ahead of a goal set two years ago.
Waymo and Uber's dispute over alleged theft of trade secrets could potentially spill into a second trial, a federal judge hinted on Thursday, according to The Recorder. The judge postponed ruling on a request from Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car unit, to add two more trade secrets to its lawsuit against Uber, saying he will decide after the trial that is set to begin in December.
Decoded: The case so far has focused on proprietary designs of LiDAR sensors, which self-driving cars use to "see" the road and environment around them. The additional trade secrets Waymo asked to add pertain to "planner software." According to the judge, adding these trade secrets now would complicate the trial, which has already been postponed once.
Twitter said Thursday it would "off-board" ads linked to Russian state outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik over concerns they tried to influence the 2016 election. The move comes less than a week before the company sends a lawyer to testify on Russian election meddling on Capitol Hill, where he'll join colleagues from Google and Facebook.
Why it matters: The implications for tech companies of possible Russian election meddling go far beyond those ads purchased by a notorious "troll farm" that have already been disclosed.
Twitter stock was up over 10% in pre-market trading Thursday after the company announced that it beat revenue and growth expectations. But the success is being overshadowed by the fact that the company admitted to inflating user growth over by approximately 1-2 million users per quarter for four quarters. The company said in a letter to shareholders that the miscalculation occurred from including "certain third-party applications" that should not have been counted in Twitter's monthly active users number.
Why it matters: Twitter has faced criticism in the past for inflating video metrics and for its "inadequate" response (Sen. Mark Warner's words) to the Senate Intelligence Community's inquiry into Russia involvement on its platform. At a time when technology platforms are under increased scrutiny for not being transparent enough, this type of admission only plays into the narrative that tech companies are not properly policing themselves.
Google's Pixelbook is the company's latest effort to show that its Chrome OS can be used for more than just a lower-budget, part-time Web browsing device. The company has made a lot of improvements since the Chromebook Pixel, including support for Android apps, a digital pen and the voice powered Google Assistant. The Pixelbook also folds into a tent or tablet, making it a nice option for watching movies or surfing on a couch.
The bottom line: The Pixelbook is a worthy, if not inexpensive, option for those who always (or nearly always) have an Internet connection.
