Corporate and legal

AT&T sold 4.8M iPhones in the first quarter

AT&T sold 4.8 million iPhones in the first quarter.

The company sold 6 million smartphones in total.

The number almost certainly means that AT&T continues to be the largest retailer of iPhones in the U.S. Verizon Wireless sold 4 million units in the same period. Sprint Nextel reports its results tomorrow, but it's unlikely to top AT&T's number.

AT&T added 296,000 net contract customers in the first quarter.

AT&T Q1 profit edges up as it adds 291,000 net customers

AT&T on Tuesday reported a slight gain in profit amid growth powered by its tablet business.

The Dallas telecommunications provider posted a first-quarter net profit of $3.7 billion, or 67 cents a share. In the year-earlier period, it posted a profit of $3.6 billion, or 60 cents a share. Excluding the impact of the sale of its advertising business and a tax settlement, the carrier reported earnings of 64 cents a share, up from 59 cents a share from a year ago.

Revenue, meanwhile, fell 1.5 percent to $31.4 billion, also affected by loss … Read more

Cry for Verizon to kill contracts grows louder

The calls for Verizon Wireless to drop the contract are getting louder.

The petition posted on Change.org calling for Verizon to kill off its contract model has garnered nearly 120,000 signatures, with 25,000 signatures added over the weekend alone.

The petition was created by Verizon customer Mike Beauchamp on April 7 after Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam told CNET on the sidelines of an event held earlier this month that he would consider moving to a no-contract model if consumers demanded it, and said the process to shift to no-contracts wouldn't be difficult.

The comments came shortly … Read more

Google execs' 'New Digital Age' resists cyber-siren song

When two executives at the world's most optimistic technology company write about humanity's digital future, you might expect a book brimming with excitement about the wonders to come.

Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen offer plenty of that, but what makes "The New Digital Age" worth reading is the correspondingly healthy dose of pessimism. The book, released today, ultimately is persuasive in making the case that people can steer technology so it helps us more than it harms us.

The book, with straightforward writing and compelling details, seeks to predict what happens as today's online population … Read more

Cyberattacks triple in 2012, Akamai says

Cyberwarfare incidences jumped sharply in 2012, Akamai said, with the number of distributed denial of service attacks more than tripling from the previous year.

Akamai, one of the world's largest globally distributed networks, said its customers reported being targeted by 768 DDoS attacks last year, more than three times as many as in 2011. The company's State of the Internet report released Tuesday also found that more than a third of those attacks targeted the commerce sector, while another 20 percent targeted enterprise customers.

"In many ways, DDoS has become the weapon of choice for multiple types … Read more

ARM's Q1 revenue jumps on mobile strength

It pays to be in mobile, especially if Apple and Samsung are licensing your technology, as evidenced by ARM Holdings' first-quarter results.

The U.K.-based chip architecture designer, whose technology powers the vast majority of smartphones and tablets, on Tuesday reported its sales jumped 26 percent to 28 percent, depending on the currency, to 170.3 million pounds, or $263.9 million. And its profit also soared, up 39 percent to 51.9 million pounds, or $79.4 million.

ARM also projected its full-year revenue would be "at least in line with current market expectations." Analysts pegged … Read more

Reuters fires social media editor after Anonymous hacking probe

News agency Thomson Reuters has fired Matthew Keys a month after federal prosecutors accused the social media editor of conspiring with the hacktivist group Anonymous to break into the Los Angeles Times Web site.

Keys announced the development Monday morning on his Twitter account, saying he had just learned of his dismissal and that his union would file a grievance:

Just got off the phone. Reuters has fired me, effective today. Our union will be filing a grievance. More soon.

— Matthew Keys (@TheMatthewKeys) April 22, 2013

Prosecutors alleged last month that Keys, a former Web producer for a TV station … Read more

Netflix plans to change up its family streaming service

Netflix is taking a closer look at how to cater its video-streaming service to families.

In a letter to shareholders (PDF) on Monday, the company said it plans to introduce a family streaming plan in the U.S. that would let up to four people stream at the same time. However, this also means that Netflix may be looking for a way to minimize several people sharing one account.

The plan would cost $11.99 per month and let subscribers stream as many as four devices simultaneously. Netflix's current plan, which costs $8 a month, allows two streams at … Read more

Securities regulators balk at employee social-media privacy

Securities regulators are advocating for special exemptions to new and pending state laws that prevent employers from snooping on employee Twitter or Facebook accounts.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an independent U.S. securities regulator that seeks to protect investors, is asking lawmakers in around 10 states to amend their legislation to allow financial firms to peak at social media accounts when employee misuse is suspected, a spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal.

The fear seems to be that brokers could use their social media accounts to spread information that would influence stocks, and that misdeeds would go unchecked without … Read more