Editorial: Latest Reports from The Wall Street Journals 'Digits'

Here are the latest reports from The Wall Street Journals ‘Digits’.

Amazon’s Twitch Loads “Vainglory” for Its First Mobile E-Sport League
In the latest sign of just how big mobile is becoming in so-called e-sports, Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch Internet live streaming video channel on Thursday said it is forming a league with the maker of “Vainglory” centered on the touchscreen title – its first involving a mobile game.

Disney, Saban Invest in Content-Platform Maker Playbuzz
Walt Disney has invested in Playbuzz, a creator of an online platform for quizzes, games and other content, the latest move by the entertainment giant to increase its presence in online media.

Behind the Sharp Deal, Apple-Samsung Rivalry Looms
Neither Apple nor Samsung has played a visible role in the Sharp takeover battle. But their technological rivalry – and the future of the iPhone – likely has fueled this fight.

Will Cord Cutting Come to the Cellphone?
How much could you save if you dropped voice calling from your smartphone plan? At T-Mobile, it looks like $30 a month. It quietly offers a plan that includes unlimited data and texting without the ability to make cellular calls (except for dialing 911). It costs as little as $20 a month, $30 less than the equivalent smartphone plan.

What’s on Our ‘Doomsday List’ of Passwords
Although protecting passwords from cybercriminals is important, your family needs that information

Xiaomi Goes Against the Grain With New Smartphone-Controlled Rice Cooker
Xiaomi Corp. expects serious sales from its ever-broadening range of offerings, which includes offbeat items like power strips, Segways and now – rice cookers.

Infosys Software Engineer Was Among Brussels Victims
Raghavendran Ganesan, a software engineer with Indian outsourcing firm Infosys Ltd. who had been missing since last week’s terrorist attacks in Belgium, has been confirmed dead, the company said.

Bromium’s Post-Money Valuation Is Sliced in Half in Down Round
Bromium’s $40 million Series D round was priced at $1.22 per share, compared with $2.95 per share in its previous financing round, according to data provider Pitchbook.

Oculus Rift Is Built for Gamers, But Needs Better Games
Facebook Inc.’s virtual reality headset launches with more than 30 games, but no must-play titles yet

Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund Bags $1.3B
Founders Fund, the venture-capital firm known for prescient bets on some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, has closed on a $1.3 billion fund. San Francisco-based Founders Fund said Friday the new fund, Founders Fund VI, brings its capital under management to more than $3 billion. The commitments to Founders Fund’s sixth fund, which the firm didn’t disclose whether it was oversubscribed, come as marquee Valley firms have been reloading on capital. This month, Accel raised $2 billion in two new funds. Others that raised hefty funds of late include Norwest Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Battery Ventures.

Mind the Gender Pay Gap: Female Computer Programmers Earn 72 Cents on the Dollar, Study Says
Computer programmers, some of the oldest workers in the tech industry, have the largest gender pay gap compared to all other professions across all industries, according to a new study.

Why Apple’s New iPhone SE Might Not Be Good Enough For Indians
Apple Inc. is hoping to grab a bigger share of the booming Indian smartphone market with its cheapest-ever iPhone, the SE, but it may not be cheap enough.

Crowd Control? Baidu Has an Algorithm for That
A unit of Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc. has developed an algorithm that can predict crowd formation, which it says could be used to help warn authorities and individuals of unusually large crowds that could lead to public-safety threats.

DoorDash Raises $127 Million in “Down” Round
DoorDash said Tuesday it raised $127 million in its latest funding round primarily from existing investors, the latest sign of the delivery startup’s struggle to secure a slug of capital.

Will Apple’s ‘Cheapest iPhone in History’ Satisfy Chinese Consumers?
The topic “cheapest iPhone in history” is trending today on Chinese social network Weibo. But that doesn’t necessarily mean Apple’s new 4-inch iPhone SE is what most Chinese consumers want.

Microsoft Apologizes After Xbox Party Includes Scantily Clad Women
Microsoft Corp. apologized after a party it hosted on the sidelines of a major videogame-industry conference last week included women in sexualized outfits who danced and mingled with attendees.

iPhone SE: Apple’s Smaller $399 iPhone Has Latest Chip and Camera
Apple’s newly announced iPhone SE is smaller than its iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus siblings. But on the inside, it’s just as powerful. It mostly resembles the older iPhone 5s it’s replacing, with the same 4-inch screen, chamfered edges and flat back.

Apple’s Smaller iPad Pro Starts at $599, a Step Up From iPad Air 2
Six months after releasing its physically largest iPad ever in the iPad Pro, Apple is offering a new iPad Pro in a smaller, more familiar size. The new iPad Pro has a 9.7-inch display, and dimension-wise is nearly identical to the iPad Air 2, but nearly every under-the-hood spec is an improvement.

Mutual Admiration Society: Facebook’s Zuckerberg and Alibaba’s Ma
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Alibaba founder Jack Ma share a stage in China to discuss the Internet’s role in the economy, and exchange compliments for the other country’s business culture.

Nokia Returns to Hardware With $60,000 Virtual-Reality Camera
Former cellphone giant Nokia is making a hardware comeback—with a $60,000 virtual-reality camera that shoots video few people can watch today.

Mark Zuckerberg Went on a ‘Smog Jog’ in Beijing
Mark Zuckerberg took his wooing of China to a different level on Friday when he jovially ran through Tiananmen Square, sans a pollution mask, when the city’s air quality index was above 300, or “hazardous.”

Endless Mini Review: Just How Good Is a $79 Computer?
Computers are officially dirt cheap. This one costs $79.

Nokia Returns to Consumer Hardware With $60,000 Virtual-Reality Camera
Former cellphone giant Nokia is making a consumer-hardware comeback—with a $60,000 virtual-reality camera that shoots video few people can watch today.

What Slowdown? San Francisco Execs Plan More New Hiring
More companies in San Francisco plan to add new jobs in the next six months than in the last half year, according to a new report, bucking concerns about a tech slowdown and its impact on the region’s economy.

Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups
A new non-partisan study on entrepreneurship gives some credence to the tech industry’s stance that American innovation benefits from robust immigration.

Nintendo’s Free Smartphone App Miitomo Comes to Japan
With its first smartphone app releasing Thursday in Japan, Nintendo Co. begins competing with the likes of Facebook and Snapchat — for consumers’ free time, at least.

Facebook Hate Speech Probe Dropped in Germany
German prosecutors dropped an investigation of Facebook Inc. managers on allegations the social network failed to remove hate speech from its platform, a spokeswoman for the prosecutors’ office in Hamburg said Wednesday.

Tencent Earnings: What to Watch
Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter earnings results on Thursday. The social networks and online games company is expected to report that its net profit grew more than 30% from a year earlier for the three months ended Dec. 31 thanks to its solid online games business and a surge in advertising revenue.

Instagram Testing New Algorithm-Driven Feed
Photo-sharing app Instagram is testing software, rather than the clock, to order the images in a user’s feed, following in the footsteps of its parent Facebook Inc.

Couchbase Raises $30 Million for Promise of NoSQL Databases Growth
A new category of databases developed to handle problems first seen at early Internet companies like Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. have attracted well over $500 million in funding and continue to report growth, despite the current pressure on public tech stocks. Couchbase Inc., one of the three largest of these database companies, called NoSQL companies, has raised another $30 million in what the company says is its last private funding round before a potential IPO, according to Chief Executive Bob Wiederhold.

Transit Study Calls for Uber and Cities to Come Together
A study published on Tuesday calls for greater cooperation between ride-hailing companies like Uber and public-transit agencies.

SpoonRocket Shuts Down Meal Delivery Service
SpoonRocket on Tuesday said its meal delivery business would be shut down immediately, the latest casualty in on-demand services startups.

Facebook Sees Big Growth in Asia Despite Free Basics Controversy
Facebook Inc. is adding users in Asia at a much faster rate than other parts of the world, an executive said, showing the recent controversy over the firm’s free Internet service in India is not deterring the social networking giant’s expansion in this part of the world.

Oracle Earnings: What to Watch
Oracle is set to report financial results for its third fiscal quarter, ended in February, after the stock market closes Tuesday. Here’s what you need to know.

President Obama Has a Message for Tech Workers: We Need You
President Barack Obama has a message for technology workers: The government needs you.

Marissa Mayer Wants Three More Years to Turn Around Yahoo
Yahoo may be gearing up for an auction process and a proxy battle. Yet its chief executive is calling for three more years.

Apple’s March 21 Event Comes a Day Before iPhone Court Hearing
Apple sent out invitations for a media event to be held March 21, a day before a federal-court hearing in the company’s fight with the U.S. government over a locked iPhone.

Slovakia Wants Its Own Hyperloop
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies agreed with the Slovakian government to explore building a hyperloop there.

House Leaders Prepare Effort to Ease Regulation on Tech Start-Ups
[wsj-responsive-image P=”http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-IR655_KevinM_G_20150601130331.jpg” J=”http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-IR655_KevinM_G_20150601130331.jpg” M=”http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-IR655_KevinM_G_20150601130331.jpg” caption=”Republican House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California, shown in a file photo.” credit=”Reuters” placement=”Inline” ignorerespwidth=”553″ ignorerespheight=”369″ ] House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) and Chief Deputy Whip Patrick McHenry (R., N.C.) are meeting with a trio of Silicon Valley companies Wednesday as part of a new House push to […]

Macs and Malware: What You Can Do to Stay Safe
Apple’s ransomware scare raises serious security concerns for many Mac users who believed they were immune to malware. Here are some specific to-dos for playing it safe.

Silicon Valley’s 500 Startups Sets Sights on Vietnam
Silicon Valley’s 500 Startups is starting a fund to pump money into Vietnam, a sign that some foreign investors believe the communist state’s technology scene is set to blossom.

How to Set Up Shell Companies to Sell to Iran, ZTE Edition
A company memo prepared by ZTE’s legal department is a step-by-step guide for setting up shell companies to circumvent U.S. export controls.

Why BlackBerry Is a Hit in Indonesia
BlackBerry Ltd. may be struggling to regain relevance in the global smartphone market, but its instant messaging is still a hit in Indonesia.

Bites from the Apple Order, in Plain English
Excerpts from Magistrate Judge’s Order Siding with Apple Inc. over access to a locked iPhone.

McDonald’s Serves Up Happy Meal With a Side of Virtual Reality
The best part of a McDonald’s Corp. Happy Meal used to come in the box. Now it is the box.

Report Warns U.K. Businesses to ‘Get Real’ on Cyberattacks
British businesses are showing a worrying reluctance to report cyberattacks and need to “get real” about the dangers, a new report from the Institute of Directors corporate-governance group warns.

Uber Launches Motorcycle-Booking Service in Bangalore
Uber Technologies Inc. launched its motorbike-hailing service in the southern Indian city of Bangalore Thursday, a week after the San Francisco-based company first made the offering in Bangkok.

Uber Launches in Pakistan
Uber Technologies Inc. launched its ride-hailing app in Pakistan on Thursday, as part of the company’s $250 million investment push that also includes expanding into the Middle East and North Africa.

Amazon Expands Alexa AI With New Tap and Dot Voice-Controlled Speakers
On Thursday, Amazon.com Inc. unveiled two little devices, Tap and Echo Dot, which contain speakers and microphones to connect to its Alexa voice-controlled artificial intelligence. They follow the Echo, an Internet-connected shelf speaker that’s become a cult hit in the past year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Earnings: What to Watch
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is scheduled Thursday to issue its first separate quarterly results since the former Hewlett-Packard unit was split off from the entity dubbed HP Inc. Here is what you need to know.

Silicon Valley Residents Leave for Greener Grass, Cheaper Housing
Not everyone wants to live in Silicon Valley. Americans are starting to leave the techie hub faster than they’re arriving, a new study says.

San Francisco Startup Brings Moneyball to Soccer
AS Roma is thrilling fans lately, and the Italian soccer club’s relationship with an analytics startup might have something to do with it.

San Francisco Startup Brings Moneyball to Soccer
The Italian soccer club AS Roma has won six out of its last seven games, a result that has thrilled fans. One reason for the winning streak, according to Chris Pallotta, an investment officer at Raptor Capital Management, is the club’s relationship with a San Francisco-based analytics startup called Tag.bio.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Earnings: What to Watch
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is scheduled Thursday to issue its first separate quarterly results since the former Hewlett-Packard Co. unit was split off from the entity dubbed HP Inc., which is mainly known for personal computers and printers. Here is what you need to know.

McDonald’s Serves Up Happy Meal With a Side of Virtual Reality
The best part of a McDonald’s Corp. Happy Meal used to come in the box. Now it is the box.

Bites from the Apple Order, in Plain English
Excerpts from Magistrate Judge’s Order Siding with Apple Inc. over access to a locked iPhone.

Why BlackBerry Is a Hit in Indonesia
BlackBerry Ltd. may be struggling to regain relevance in the global smartphone market, but its instant messaging is still a hit in Indonesia.

Google’s Computers Paint Like van Gogh, and the Art Sells for Thousands
Google is trying to make art freaks out of computer geeks.

German Court Fines Facebook
A German court fined Facebook $109,330 for failing to make changes to its terms regarding user content.

Microsoft HoloLens Is Available to Software Developers
Microsoft’s HoloLens is taking the next big step toward putting the augmented reality headgear in consumer hands.

Billionaire Vinod Khosla Seeks $30 Million to Let Beachgoers Cross His Property
After years of litigation, Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla put a price on reopening a road on his property surfers used for decades: $30 million.

India’s E-Commerce Kings Break Into the Billionaires Club
The founders of Flipkart Internet Pvt., India’s largest e-commerce company, are among the latest to enter the billionaires club, according to a recent report.

HTC Says Vive Partnership With Valve Gives It an Edge
HTC raised eyebrows when it priced its Vive virtual-reality headset several hundred dollars above rival devices. But the company believes it has an edge.

Mark Zuckerberg Rips Facebook Employees for Defacing ‘Black Lives Matter’
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is taking on Facebook employees who have crossed out the phrase “black lives matter” on the company’s walls and replaced it with “all lives matter.”

How Snapdeal Employees Reacted to ‘Performance Improvement Plan’
There was trouble at one of India’s biggest e-commerce companies this week as Snapdeal.com employees held a protest Wednesday, fearful that they would lose their jobs after executives raised the bar on performance at a call center prompting some workers to quit.

Oscar Insurance Valued at $2.7B After $400 Million Stake Led by Fidelity
Oscar co-founders Mario Schlosser, Kevin Nazemi, and Joshua Kushner Oscar Health Insurance Corp With investors funding startups that help consumers and health-care providers adapt to changes in the federal health-care law, Oscar Health Insurance Corp. has closed a $400 million financing that values the medical insurer at $2.7 billion. Oscar aims to sign up customers […]

5 Reasons Why Foxconn Wants Sharp
Five reasons why Apple Inc. assembler Foxconn bought Sharp.

Nicira Co-Founder Martin Casado Joins Andreessen Horowitz as General Partner
Martin Casado , a co-founder of network virtualization platform Nicira Inc., is joining Andreessen Horowitz as a general partner to invest in enterprise software.

Forget Keyboards: We Dictated This Story on Google Docs
Google on Wednesday unveiled a new voice-dictation tool on its Google Docs app, the latest move by Silicon Valley to make keyboards obsolete.

Google Fiber Is Coming to San Francisco
Google parent Alphabet Inc. is using dormant fiber-optic cables beneath San Francisco to expand its high-speed Internet service, signaling how the company may expand its Fiber service across the U.S.

U.S. vs. Apple: Where They Disagree – At A Glance
A judge ordered Apple to help the Justice Department circumvent security measures on an iPhone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino attackers. The dispute raises questions about privacy, security and the role of encryption. Here’s a guide to the key issues.

Alphabet Unleashes New Humanoid Robot
The Boston Dynamics unit of Alphabet Inc. released a video showing a new version of its humanoid robot Atlas walking out of its offices, trudging through a snow-covered forest — and withstanding abuse from its developers.

Innovation in the U.S. Relies on Foreigners, New Study Shows
Popular culture portrays innovators in the U.S. as young college dropouts. A more accurate description is older, well-educated immigrants, according to a new study.

Watch Out, Your Fingerprint Can Be Spoofed, Too
People trust their fingers when using smartphones–for typing, sure, but also to unlock phones protected by fingerprint-recognition security measures. Some online banking transactions and mobile payments these days also rely on fingerprint recognition. Is that all as safe as it sounds?

HP Earnings: What to Watch
HP Inc. is scheduled Wednesday to issue its first separate quarterly results since the former Hewlett-Packard Co. personal computer and printing operations broke away from an entity called Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. Here is what you need to know.

J.P. Morgan Lays Out Its Technology Plans
The largest U.S. bank by assets is expected to detail its technology spending strategy Tuesday throughout different presentations from Chief Executive James Dimon and his top lieutenants. Actions range from new spending on fintech to cutting costs on technology that keeps the bank running.

After Home Market Rout, Lenovo Hopes for Brighter 2016
In the past year and a half, few smartphone markets have shifted as quickly as China’s—and few smartphone makers were caught as flat-footed by those changes as Lenovo Group Ltd., a technology pioneer in the world’s most populous nation.

Toshiba Scraps Wearable Device a Week Before Launch
Now you see it, now you don’t. Toshiba Corp. has scrapped the sale of a glasses-type wearable device just six weeks after announcing it, and a week before the products were scheduled for shipment.

Deutsche Telekom Teams Up With will.i.am on New Smartwatch
Struggling to differentiate themselves from competitors, European telecom firms unveil sometimes odd plans. Deutsche Telekom AG is the latest example. The German company has teamed with U.S. musician will.i.am’s company i.am+ to market a new smartwatch across several European countries.

Venture Capital Firm to Pay Unpaid Interns Back Wages
Investigators found Fenox Venture Capital had used the unpaid workers to screen startups for potential investments, send reports to Japanese investors and recruit potential employees. These interns displaced regular employees at the San Jose, Calif., firm.

Most Americans Say Apple Should Help Unlock Terror Suspect’s iPhone
A slim majority of Americans supports the U.S. government’s effort to get Apple to help unlock a terrorist’s iPhone, according to a new report by Pew Research Center.

Amazon Boosts Free-Shipping Minimum to $49, Elevating Prime Service
Amazon.com Inc. really wants its customers to sign up for a Prime membership.

At Mobile World Congress, LG Makes an Ambitious Bid for Attention
LG is accustomed to playing second fiddle to its flashier crosstown rival, Samsung. At this year’s Mobile World Congress, LG appears to be striking back.

China’s ZTE Pairs Lower-Profile Approach With Global Ambitions
Last year, China’s object of great smartphone hype was Xiaomi Corp. This year, it’s Huawei Technologies Co. And all of that is just fine with ZTE Corp., the Shenzhen, China-based handset manufacturer that has outsold both of those companies in the U.S., and is setting its sights on the No. 3 position behind Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. in the lucrative market. While lower-profile than its better-known domestic rivals, ZTE has carved out a steady, quiet niche in the crowded and competitive smartphone market—and it says that a coming global economic slowdown could boost its fortunes even further.

At Samsung Smartphone Launch, Virtual Reality Steals the Show
At Samsung’s Unpacked event, all the attention was fixed on the South Korean technology giant’s plunge into virtual reality.

Huawei Sets Its Sites on Apple, Samsung
Huawei Technologies Co. mobile chief Richard Yu isn’t one to boast, but he is talking about overtaking industry leaders Samsung and Apple in the cutthroat smartphone market over the next five years.

It’s a Phone, It’s a PC, It’s HP’s New Elite X3 Phablet
HP Inc. unveiled its newest desktop and laptop Sunday. Turns out, it’s a phablet.

HTC’s Vive VR Headset Arrives in April, Costs More Than Oculus Rift
On Sunday, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, HTC announced that the Vive will be available for pre-order at a price of $799. The pre-orders will begin on Feb. 29 at 10a.m. ET on HTC’s website.

Galaxy S7 First Look: Samsung’s Greatest Hits In One Phone
After shaking up its Galaxy smartphone design last year, Samsung is keeping much of that sleek glass and metal look for 2016. But for the reunion tour, the S7 brings back a number of gone-too-soon Galaxy S4 and S5 features that were actually useful, including expandable storage and waterproofing.

First Look: LG’s Modular G5 Phone, VR Headset and Tons More
LG is matching its chief rival by introducing a VR headset and a 360-degree camera. But it also made key changes to its flagship phone to address customer concerns, and threw in some crazy future-looking features, too.

In Apple Vs. the FBI, Americans Want the Phone Unlocked
A narrow majority of Americans sides with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its fight to get Apple Inc. to help unlock the iPhone used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist attack, according to a new survey.

At Nintendo’s Revamped New York Store: the Voice of Mario
At Nintendo’s flagship New York store reopening Friday, people dressed as the Italian brothers Mario and Luigi roamed the floor. While they looked the part of the plumbers, only one person in the room truly sounded it.

Privacy Advocates Plan Demonstrations at Apple Stores
Privacy advocates are planning rallies at Apple Inc. stores across the U.S., hoping to convert a social media outcry over a battle for security and individual rights into actual action.

Apple Admits Mistake for ‘Error 53’ iPhone Bricking, Offers Fix
Apple Inc. is fixing “Error 53”, the controversial automatic bricking of some iPhones whose screens and fingerprint sensors were installed outside of Apple stores.