Smartphone giant Samsung Electronics said on Wednesday its operating profit for the three months that ended in December likely fell about 34% from a year ago. Operating profit for the fourth quarter is expected at 7.1 trillion Korean won ($6.02 billion), down from the 10.80 trillion won Samsung posted a year earlier. That projection was better than the 6.5 trillion won predicted by Refinitiv SmartEstimate. Samsung expects consolidated sales for the quarter to be around 59 trillion won, which mis

Facebook and eBay have removed hundreds of groups and accounts engaged in trading fake reviews, after the U.K. antitrust regulator flagged concerns over them in June. The regulator said it found over 100 listings on eBay offering to sell fake write-ups between November 2018 and June 2019, and 26 Facebook groups with users offering to write fake reviews. “Fake reviews are really damaging to shoppers and businesses alike,” Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA, said in a statement. But the C

Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg revealed the final details of their streaming service Quibi Wednesday. The service will launch on April 6 for $4.99 per month with ads or $7.99 per month for an ad-free version. Whitman, Quibi’s CEO, unveiled the service during a keynote speech at CES in Las Vegas. Instead of full-length shows, Quibi plans to set itself apart by targeting mobile users who can stream short episodes of programming that will run under 10 minutes. Quibi has signed on ten advertisin

I recently found out a way to stop my iPhone from sending me constant alerts asking me to review apps. You’ve probably seen this yourself: You open an app and, every once in a while, it asks you to give it a review. It’s one way developers can get feedback on apps and boost their ranking in the App Store. You can easily turn this option off so that developers won’t ask for product feedback when you’re using the app. You can always just go to the App Store and search for the app again if you want

Shares of Grubhub surged 12.5% on Wednesday after The Wall Street Journal reported that the company has hired financial advisors to explore strategic options, including a possible sale. At $54 per share, Grubhub’s stock is closing in on the price it traded at before its disappointing third-quarter earnings report in October. A Grubhub spokesperson told CNBC that the company doesn’t “comment on market rumors or speculation.” Uber shares also spiked on the news, as investors bet consolidation in t

With the presidential election coming up later this year, researchers have raised alarms about the urgency of addressing deepfakes and other forms of digital deception. The experts and lawmakers disagreed on the level of involvement needed from Congress to ensure tech companies responsibly patrol deceptive content on their platforms. In her opening remarks, Chairwoman Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., lamented Congress’ “laissez-faire” approach over the past decade toward digital platform moderation. The

Building another subscription video streaming service doesn’t solve a clear problem. There are dozens and dozens of streaming services. Verizon already attempted to create a mobile-first video service for millennials back in 2015. The bull case for Quibi is the shift away from cable TV and toward streaming services is a rising tide that lifts all boats. But that’s the same challenge every single streaming service has, and Quibi is competing against deep-pocketed challengers including Amazon, App

There’s also a privacy benefit to using Apple Pay. Plus, you can use Apple Pay on other Apple devices like your Mac or iPad to buy stuff on websites if you use Safari. By the way, don’t confuse Apple Pay with the Apple Card, which is a separate credit card you can apply for and use. Apple Pay is a system that lets you buy stuff with cards you already have, while the Apple Card is just a separate credit card option. The two work together, but you don’t need the Apple Card to use Apple Pay.

The company plans to add Vin Gupta as a principal scientist to its growing Amazon Care team later this month, the person said. Gupta, a self-described “lung doc” with a background in pulmonary medicine, previously worked as a consultant to Apple, according to his LinkedIn profile. Amazon acknowledged in September that it is piloting Amazon Care, a virtual medical clinic for Amazon employees based near its Seattle offices. Its focus on delivering medical care virtually isn’t new — lots of employ

Accolade, a start-up that helps workers navigate their health benefits and dealings with insurance companies, has hired banks including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to advise ahead of a possible initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter. Should Accolade go public, it will join a growing number of health-technology companies that are testing the public markets. Like Accolade, these companies sell their health services to a mix of self-insured employers and health p

He says that SoftBank, and Zume’s other investors, are aligned with the changes being made today. Zume was founded on a clear mission to engineer a more sustainable food system. How Zume is doing this:In Zume Source Packaging we are doubling down on our market-leading innovations in compostable molded-fiber packaging. In Zume Forward Mobile we will continue to provide food production and delivery systems, which help restaurants and food brands improve the delivery process and bring food closer t

At CES 2020, Google announced a series of features it plans on adding to Google Assistant. There are some meant to specifically help out families, new privacy options and new ways to interact with language. And Google showed off these capabilities in a mammoth temporary building outfitted with slides and a ball pit. CNBC was there to check it out — watch the video to learn more.

Besides the iPhone, AirPods appear to be Apple’s smash hit of the holiday shopping season. It’s that optimism around Apple’s wearables that has helped push the stock to new all-time highs in the new year. There’s still plenty of room for Apple’s wearables business to grow. Apple’s latest batch of subscription services — Apple News+, Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade — all had relatively lukewarm launches compared with the gadgets that came out during the same period. But AirPods and the Apple Watch are

Google on Wednesday updated its travel site with features that will provide more information about where you’re planning to take your next trip. It will show you, for example, the cheapest and most expensive times of year at your destination, as well as the typical weather in that place. If you’re thinking about a vacation during the summer and want to travel somewhere sunny but not too hot, and also want to see the months when it’s cheapest to do so, you can do that using Google’s new travel si

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Wednesday it was launching an investigation into the Dec. 29 crash of a Tesla Model 3 that left a passenger dead after the vehicle collided with a parked fire truck in Indiana. The crash is the 14th involving Tesla that NHTSA’s special crash investigation program has taken up in which it suspects the company’s so-called Autopilot or other advanced driver assistance system was in use. It is the third Tesla crash NHTSA has sai

In the fiscal third quarter, Macy’s posted its first same-store sales decline in two years, and slashed its profit outlook for the year. The new wave of closures follows holiday sales that were not quite as bad as some have feared . Macy’s said Wednesday it will shutter nearly 30 stores , in an effort to boost its profitability and focus on its most profitable stores. As the map shows, the planned closures of 28 Macy’s stores and 1 Bloomingdale’s location are largely concentrated the eastern hal

SALEM, New Hampshire — Walmart thinks it has a technological weapon that will enable it to pick, pack and deliver shoppers’ online grocery orders faster as the company tries to strengthen its foothold as America’s largest grocer. Walmart’s grocery business has been on fire, especially online. That’s good for the retailer: Grocery sales account for 56% of Walmart’s total U.S. revenue. Today, it has nearly 3,100 pickup locations for online grocery orders across the U.S., with more than 1,400 store

Iraqi counter-terrorism forces stand guard in front of the US embassy in the capital Baghdad on January 2, 2020. Two rockets hit the Green Zone in Iraq’s capital of Baghdad, a day after Iran launched missiles at bases housing U.S. and other coalition forces in Iraq, according to a report Wednesday. Iraq’s military said two Katyusha rockets fell inside the Green Zone, the section that contains the U.S. Embassy, other embassies of Western nations and foreign businesses, according to Reuters. There

Rescue workers on Wednesday combed through wreckage of Kyiv-bound Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 on Tuesday. Because the crash occurred during heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. information about the flight may remain scarce. It can sometimes take investigators more than a year to determine the cause of a plane crash and getting information about the deadly incident has become more complicated. Under international law, the country where the crash occurred controls the inves

It was unlike anything I had ever experienced, and it encouraged me to slow down and make some lifestyle improvements — specifically, in my frivolous and impulsive spending habits. …our spending habits are deeply cemented into our daily routine, and the act of spending also includes an emotional aspect that is difficult to detach from. As a result, I got better at making faster, smarter and more logical decisions about whether to spend money on a particular item. But that often meant spending