Apple has just hired former senior Nokia Lumia engineer Ari Partinen, whom Nokia has in the past described as its “own camera expert.”
One of Partinen’s biggest achievements during his time at Nokia was working on the PureView technology that the company debuted in 2012 and that has helped Nokia smartphone cameras deliver best-in-the-industry low-light photography, so it seems that future iPhone cameras stand to get a big boost when it comes to snapping pictures in the dark.
Apple is close to acquiring Beats Electronics, the Dr. Dre-associated company most well-known for its premium headphones, for $3.2 billion, according to multiple reports. If the acquisition goes through, it would be Apple’s largest purchase of all time.
Beats Electronics was founded by rapper Dr. Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine in 2008, and is currently the largest maker of high-end headphones in America. Beats is most famous for its “Beats by Dre” over-the-ear headphones worn over the ear, which are popular with rappers and celebrities, and which start at around $300 per pair. Beats also makes in-ear headphones and a Bluetooth speaker, Beats Pill.
It’s not clear which part of Beats that Apple might envy. Recently, Beats introduced a streaming music service, Beats Music, to compete with Spotify, Rdio, and iTunes, after acquiring the MOG streaming service in 2012.
Facebook is buying mobile messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock, by far the company's largest acquisition and bigger than any that Google, Microsoft or Apple have ever done.
The world's biggest social networking company said Wednesday that it is paying $12 billion in Facebook stock and $4 billion in cash for WhatsApp. In addition, the app's founders and employees — 55 in all — will be granted restricted stock worth $3 billion that will vest over four years after the deal closes.
The deal translates to roughly 11 percent of Facebook's market value. In comparison, Google's biggest deal was its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility, while Microsoft's largest was Skype at $8.5 billion. Apple, meanwhile, has never done a deal above $1 billion.
