Samsung to cut chip production after profits plunge 96% | BBC News

Samsung Electronics will cut memory chip production after estimating a 96% drop in its quarterly operating profit.

The chip-making giant said sales had dropped sharply due to a slow global economy and less demand after Covid.

Samsung said preliminary numbers showed operating profits fell 600 billion won (£366m) in January-March, from 14 trillion won the previous year.

The firm’s shares rose more than 4% despite the decision to slow chip-making. “We are lowering the production of memory chips by a meaningful level, especially that of products with supply secured,” the South Korean tech giant said.

Read More

FTC orders supplement maker to pay $600K in first case involving hijacked Amazon reviews | TechCrunch

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has approved a final consent order in its first-ever enforcement action over a case involving “review hijacking,” or when a marketer steals consumer reviews of another product to boost the sales of its own. In this case, the FTC has ordered supplements retailer The Bountiful Company, the maker of Nature’s Bounty vitamins and other brands, to pay $600,000 for deceiving customers on Amazon where it used a feature to merge the reviews of different products to make some appear to have better ratings and reviews than they otherwise would have had if marketed under their own listings.

The case exposes how sellers have been exploiting an Amazon feature that allows sellers to request the creation of “variation” relationships between different products and SKUs. The feature is meant to help marketers and consumers alike as it creates a single detail page on Amazon.com that shows similar products that are different only in narrow, specific ways, the FTC explains — like items that come in a different color, size, quantity or flavor. For instance, a t-shirt may have a dozen SKUs associated with one another because the shirt comes in a wide variety of colors. For shoppers, it’s helpful to see all the options on one page so you can pick the item that best matches your needs and budget. In the case of supplements, the feature could be used to combine the same products by merging various SKUs featuring different quantities of the item in question, like bottles with 50, 100 or 200 pills, for example.

Read More

NASA’s Artemis 2 commander Reid Wiseman isn’t perfect | Mashable

The stereotype of an astronaut is apple pie and American exceptionalism — a perfect and fearless adventurer, neatly encapsulated in a bubble helmet. That’s not Reid Wiseman.

He is not some perfect Buzz Lightyear clone. He didn’t make straight-As, he’s occasionally late, and, yes, the idea of dying in space scares him.

There’s a refreshing realness to Wiseman, the commander of the first human mission to the moon in over a half-century, the person NASA chose to lead the Artemis II crew on a test drive of the spanking-new spaceship Orion, 230,000 miles from Earth.

Read More

CFPB Finalizes Rule Aimed to Promote Transparency in Small Business Lending | Small Biz Trends

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has finalized a rule required by Congress that will improve transparency in small business lending, as well as helping to promote economic development while combating unlawful discrimination.

CFPB Finalizes Rule Aimed to Promote Transparency in Small Business Lending

The finalized rule means lenders will need to collect and report information about the small business credit applications they process. This information includes geographic and demographic data, as well as the price of credit and the reasoning behind their lending decisions.

Read More

Donald Trump likely to be arrested in coming days | BBC News

The case against Donald Trump stems from a nearly five-year-long investigation led by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

The probe began under then-DA Cyrus Vance Jr while Trump was still in the White House.It has since been taken over by his predecessor, Alvin Bragg, 49, who is the first person of colour elected to the office.

Bragg, who is black, claims he helped sue the Trump administration more than 100 times during its four-year term.

Read More

Nreal Air AR glasses review: Cool and futuristic, but too many problems to justify the price | Mashable

When I was a kid, I was given a Virtual Boy — Nintendo’s very ‘90s predecessor to the VR headsets we know today — and I loved it. Since then, I’ve been obsessed with adding new technology to my gaming experience including a 3D projector for movies and gaming, saving up for my first HTC Vive headset, and even tiptoeing into the Metaverse.

When I started seeing videos of the Nreal Air glasses on YouTube, marketed as a lightweight and stylish take on augmented reality glasses, I knew I needed to see them in action. Thankfully, the technology shows just as much potential as I thought it would…but while they show a ton of promise, they also come with a lot of problems.

Read More

Twitter will only show verified accounts on its ‘For You’ page | Mashable

Elon Musk says that Twitter will only display the tweets of verified users on its For You page, starting April 15.

This decision comes after the company announced it would be “winding down” its legacy verified program and removing legacy checkmarks by April 1. The now-controversial blue checkmark will only be available to Twitter Blue subscribers paying $8 per month.

Read More

Lyft announces new CEO, says co-founders will step aside from management positions | CNN Business

Lyft announced on Monday that Amazon veteran David Risher will join as chief executive next month, and that co-founders Logan Green and John Zimmer will step down from their management positions at the ride-hailing company.

Green, who is currently the CEO, will be succeeded by Risher effective April 17, the company said in a statement. Zimmer, Lyft’s president, will also step down from his role as of June 30, the company said. Both Green and Zimmer will stay on at Lyft in non-executive roles as chair and vice chair of the Lyft board, respectively. No replacement for Zimmer was named.

Read More

‘Wedge tornado’ in Mississippi is the deadliest in more than 50 years | Live Science

A devastating, nearly mile-wide “wedge tornado” has killed at least 26 people and battered Mississippi with golf ball-size hail and winds up to 200 mph.

A massive tornado that was nearly a mile (1.2 kilometers) long has killed at least 26 people and injured dozens more after devastating parts of western Mississippi on Friday (March 24) night.

Read More

IRS Updates Dirty Dozen Tax Scams List | Small Biz Trends

Beware Phishing and Smishing

Phishing is a term coined over a quarter of a century ago and is a play on the spelling of fishing, and the similarity of using lures to fish for sensitive information that can be used to commit fraud. Such phishing scams usually occur via email, with a typical tactic being to bulk-send spam emails in the hopes of finding an unsuspecting victim.

Smishing is an amalgamation of phishing and SMS, as it relates directly to phishing attacks that happen via text message.

Scammers ‘Pose as the IRS’ During Tax Season

The IRS Commissioner, Danny Werfel, further explained the dangers of phishing and smishing scams, saying: “Email and text scams are relentless, and scammers frequently use tax season as a way of tricking people. With people anxious to receive the latest information about a refund or other tax issue, scammers will regularly pose as the IRS, a state tax agency or others in the tax industry in emails and texts. People should be incredibly wary about unexpected messages like this that can be a trap, especially during filing season.”

Read More