Google Glass May Soon Look More Like Ray-Bans

Morning Money Memo…

Geeky-looking Google Glass may soon be much more stylish. Luxottica Group, the Italian firm that makes Ray-Ban and Oakley sun glasses, has signed a partnership with Google to design frames for Internet-connected eyewear. The announcement comes just days after news that Fossil will have a hand in a forthcoming wristwatch set to run on Google’s revamped Android mobile operating system. Shares in Luxottica soared nearly 5% today in Rome. CEO Andrea Guerra told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that the push to market will be in 2015 and that the Google partnership should help guarantee the eyewear maker annual growth of 5 to 10%. Google Glass is a computing device that includes a thumbnail-sized screen above the wearer’s right eye to view Internet content.

Many low-income Americans who take out payday loans end up paying more in fees than the original amount they borrow. The finding comes from a report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which also shows that four of five payday loans are extended, or “rolled over,” within 14 days. Additional fees are charged when loans are rolled over. Payday loans, also known as cash advances or check loans, are short-term loans at high interest rates, usually for $500 or less. They often are made to borrowers with weak credit or low incomes.

A change of direction for the stock market? Some of the year’s hottest stocks tripped up the latest round of trading. Netflix plunged 7% yesterday, Facebook fell 5%, and Google and Amazon.com each fell more than 2%. Biotech firms also took it on the chin. Over the past 12 months, the high-technology Nasdaq gained more 30%.

Five former employees of imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff have been convicted at the end of a six-month trial. Prosecutors argued that the defendants had spun an elaborate web of lies to hide a fraud that enriched them and cheated investors out of billions of dollars. The trial was one of the longest in the history of Manhattan federal court.

The U.S. Coast Guard is hoping it will be able to open the Houston Ship Channel three days after a barge collision dumped as many as 170,000 gallons of heavy oil into the water. Crews have been working to clean up the oil, scouring the sand for quarter-sized tar balls that have washed ashore and using cannon booms to scare away birds. The channel is one of the nation’s busiest seaports. Officials believe most of the oil that spilled Saturday is drifting out of the channel into the Gulf of Mexico. That should limit the impact on bird habitats around Galveston Bay as well as beaches and fisheries important to tourists.

BCE Inc. (BCE) Now Offering Samsung Galaxy Gear for Less than $100

BCE Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE), the largest communications company in Canada is now selling the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch for only $99.97, down from $349.99 through Bell Canada,  its core business composed of Bell Wireline, Bell Wireless and Bell Media segments.

This is the best opportunity for Canadian consumers who owns a Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy S3, or Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition to pair their devices with a Galaxy Gear at a very affordable price. Take note that Bell Canada is offering a $150 discount.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (LON:BC94) (KRX:005935) introduced the Samsung Galaxy Gear together with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition during the 2013 IFA in Berlin.

The Samsung Galaxy Gear is powered by the Android operating system with a 1.6-inch OLED screen, integrated with a camera, microphone and it has a battery life of 10 hours. It supports more than 70 apps and comes with pedometer and fitness apps such as RunKeeper that tracks running and other workout activities and MyFitnessPal, a calorie counter and activity tracker.

Samsung sold substantial units of Galaxy Gear

Although the sales performance of the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch cannot be considered a blockbuster, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (LON:BC94) (KRX:005935) sold a significant number—800,000 units in November last, two months after its availability in the market. It is reasonable to assume that the company sold additional units during the following months, which inspired the company to develop new versions of the device.

New Tizen-based Gear smartwatches

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (LON:BC94) (KRX:005935) officially unveiled its Gear 2 Neo and Gear 2 smartwatches powered by the Tizen operating system Mobile World Congress at Barcelona, Spain last February 22. The devices will be available in the market next month.

The Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo smartwatcges sports a 1.63”Super Amoled display, integrated with 1GHz dual-core process, 512 MB RAM, Bluetooth, accelerometer, gyroscope, and heart rate sensors. Both devices comes with 4GB internal memory, Li-ion 300mAh battery lasts within 2 to 3 days on a typical usage and up to 6 days on low usage, and IP67 certified dust and water resistant and noise cancellation.

Bell Canada is probably offering a great discount on the Galaxy Gear smartwatch to sell all remaining inventory in time for the arrival of the Tizen-based Gear 2 Neo and Gear 2 smartwatches.

Apple brings iPhone trade-in program to Canada

TORONTO – Starting this week, iPhone users in Canada will be able to trade in old phones under Apple’s in-store recycling program.

As of Monday, Canadian consumers can trade in old handsets at an Apple store and receive a gift card up to $275 (depending on the condition of the old iPhone) toward a new model.

Old phones that aren’t working or can’t be refurbished will be recycled.

The in-store trade-in program expands on Apple’s online recycling program which has been operating for the past three years.

Apple first launched its iPhone Reuse and Recycling Program in the United States last August with the goal of reducing consumer electronic waste. It has since expanded to include the United Kingdom and France.

According to the company, recycled Apple devices are taken apart and components that can be used again are removed. Materials like glass, metal and plastic are reprocessed for use in new products.

Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry also offers a trade-in program where consumers can mail back used devices and receive a credit toward the purchase of a new BlackBerry phone.

The Waterloo-based company said that mobile devices still in good condition are then refurbished and any devices not suitable for resale are recycled.

BlackBerry users suffer email and messaging service outage

Some BlackBerry users across Canada and the Asia Pacific region have been unable to use their email and messaging services since Tuesday morning.

BlackBerry confirmed shortly after noon ET —  about three hours after the problems began — that the service issue was affecting users in those two regions.

"Our technical team has identified the potential cause of the issue and has reduced its impact on customers’ service," Lisette Kwong, senior manager of corporate communications, write in an email to CBC News.

"The team will continue to work towards a full resolution as quickly as possible.  We apologize to any customers who may be affected by this issue."

According to the website Canadianoutages.com, where smartphone users can report problems, the issues began around 9 a.m. ET today. The outage appears not to be affecting users of BlackBerry 10.

Customers of different carriers in several provinces, including Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, B.C. and Nova Scotia have reported the problems.

One user, Sameer Hasham, said he had reached BlackBerry tech support, which confirmed that the outage was affecting all BB Services except for BlackBerry 10.

A BlackBerry 10 user confirmed that he was not having problems.

Donate your smartphone to science, but only when you sleep

Donate your smartphone to science, 

but only when you sleep

A new app puts users' smartphones and their processors to good use when they're charging at night.

Called PowerSleep, the app is a collaboration between Samsung and the University of Vienna, and it uses devices' processing power for crunching through scientific research.

It does this via an alarm clock. When it is set and the phone is plugged in for charging and connected to a Wi-Fi network, the university's Faculty of Life Sciences can harness its power for the good of furthering our understanding of genetics, biochemistry and cancer, among other areas.

With the app running, each phone becomes a part of the existing Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, which already draws on the idle processing power of some 60,000 PCs worldwide.

PowerSleep is a great way for cash-strapped academic institutions to build improvised supercomputers, and people who install the app will be able to see how their devices are being used and the nature of the research their processors have been crunching through.

Earlier this month, Cancer Research UK launched a smartphone game called Genes in Space that also aims to harness mobile devices' power in order to further scientific research. However, instead of using idle processor capacity, the game uses players' human ability to spot patterns.

The worlds that players must navigate are actually data points and by plotting a course through each field of what appear to be asteroids they are actually highlighting patterns in research related to breast cancer.

Canadian tykes now better at computers than bike-riding, name-writing or shoe-tying

A global study of how young kids are using the Internet found Canadians were spending less time online and were less likely to have an email address.

Still, more of the three-to five-year-old Canadian children in the study knew how to use a mouse and play computer games than ride a bike or write their name.

The survey of more than 6,000 mothers in 10 countries was conducted by security software company AVG Technologies, which researched how kids between the ages of three to five, and six to nine were engaged with the Internet.

About 89 per cent of the kids in the older group were already Internet users, while the figure was one percentage point higher in Canada. A whopping 97 per cent of the Brazilian kids were familiar with the Internet.

When the parents of the six-to nine-year-old kids were asked how long they allowed their children to go online the most common reply was between two to five hours a week (42 per cent), followed by less than two hours weekly (36 per cent).

About 40 per cent of the Canadian parents said they limited Internet time to less than two hours a week and 48 per cent allowed two to five hours of web time weekly.

Just eight per cent of the parents said they reserved an email address with their child’s name, while six per cent of the Canadian moms did so. Sixteen per cent of Brazilian moms had.

As for what the younger three-to five-year-old kids were doing themselves, 76 per cent of the Canadians could play a basic computer game, 54 per cent knew how to turn a computer on and off, 40 per cent could navigate a tablet or smartphone and 19 per cent could competently browse the web.

Meanwhile, 56 per cent could write their name, 65 per cent could ride a bike, 47 per cent knew their address and 28 per cent could tie their laces.

Credit-cards hacked in Longueuil: IntelCrawler

MONTREAL — Private data were recently pirated from 280 magnetic-stripe credit cards used at a single location in Longueuil, as part of a wide-scope attack that struck several continents, according to a California company that tracks computer malware.

The tracking firm, IntelCrawler LLC of Los Angeles, didn’t specify the type of business struck in Longueuil. It said typical targets include restaurants, stores, gas stations and hotels.

The firm attributed the attack to “a new strain of point-of-sale malware, named JackPOS,” that appears to be based on earlier malware code, dubbed Alina.

“The malware samples are pretty fresh and were created close to the beginning of February,” IntelCrawler added in a detailed summary on its website, suggesting the “bad actors” used sophisticated techniques to break into merchant systems.

IntelCrawler pinpointed a broad swath of breaches. It said 400 cards were compromised in Vancouver; 3,000 in Sao Paulo, Brazil; and others in similar fresh incidents reported in the U.S., Spain, France, India, Argentina and South Korea.

Given the widespread nature of the attack, the Longueuil police force isn’t investigating, Constable Mark David said.

“Normally,” he added, “the cards are cancelled, and the clients are advised and provided with a replacement card. Then, there’s an internal investigation,” usually by banks.

The Longueuil force hadn’t been advised of the local breach, he said, “not on this specific case.”