They’re not naming names, but we can pretty much read between the lines. In its Q1 2015 fiscal report, chip maker Qualcomm is lowering its revenue outlook for the second half of this fiscal year due to a number of huge factors. Aside from a shift in share among OEMs and higthened competition in China, where is actually facing some … Continue reading
The latest Snapchat news is a bit weird, to understate things. The company is apparently on the prowl to attract entertainment entities, as it’ll be shoving a new series of sorts into users’ feeds soon: SnapperHero. This series will be comprised of several short video episodes starring popular users from Vine and YouTube as superheroes; Snapchat won’t actually be involved … Continue reading
With extreme wealth also comes extreme political clout that results in extreme human suffering, said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International, at a panel session this week in Davos.
Byanyima helped set the tone for this year’s World Economic Forum by releasing the comprehensive report that disclosed that the world’s richest 1 percent are on track own more than half of the world’s wealth by next year.
It is fair to say that the report stunned the decision makers and opinion leaders ensconced in this small Swiss ski town. It has been a hot topic at many panel sessions and in informal gatherings.
Byanyima, who is also Co-Chair of Davos, was speaking this morning at a panel session on global economic growth, inequality and the role of technology. She noted that in the United States businesses spent $400 million during 2013 to lobby political decision makers to pass laws and shape the market in their favor. “Extreme wealth takes over the role of public decision making,” she said. And while this is going on, said Byanyima, many thousands in the developing world die of Ebola and malaria.
Other panelists included Martin Sorrell, CEO of the massive advertising and marketing conglomerate WPP; Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund; and Mark J. Carney, Governor of the Bank of England and former Governor of the Bank of Canada.
Martin Sorrell said people like him were critical to growth: “I founded a company with two people which now employs 179,000 people in 111 countries and invests $12 billion in human capital each year. I make no apology for that whatsoever.” But no one was asking him to apologize. It is not wealth creation that is the issue, just the manner in which it is distributed.
“Excessive inequality is not good for sustainable growth,” Lagarde said, adding that inequality had worsened since the financial crisis. “Distribution per se matters,” she said, because “if you increase the income share of the poorest, it has a multiplying effect on growth.”
The amount of money currently tied up unproductively is astounding. More than $18 trillion is stashed in tax havens, and $7 trillion on balance sheets remains uninvested.
“Let the companies stop lobbying, and put the money into medicine,” Byanyima proposed. Calling for global tax reform, she said that the revenues derived from fair taxation could be plowed back into the economy to create jobs and lift people from poverty.
Carney said that technology companies in particular should pay more in taxes out of a “sense of responsibility” to the system. “We should recognize that the firms that take advantage of international tax rules are technology companies,” he said. “The amount of tax that’s paid by technology companies is very small relative to the returns.”
Tax avoidance has been a hot issue in the UK. While he didn’t mention Google by name, everyone in the room knew it was one of companies he had in mind. Google UK had sales to UK customers of USD $5.6 billion, but most of this money was routed through Ireland for tax purposes, a move that saved Google a fortune.
Lagarde said that the plunge of the price of oil created the perfect opportunity to cut $2 trillion worth of energy subsidies across the world and invest it equally in job creation and education, with a special focus on women.
Don Tapscott is with the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and is CEO of The Tapscott Group. His most recent book is The Digital Economy (Anniversary Edition), and he is a senior adviser to the World Economic Forum.
SYDNEY (AP) — A hostage who died during a siege in a downtown Sydney cafe was killed when she was struck by fragments of a bullet fired from a police officer’s gun as authorities stormed in to end the 16-hour standoff, a lawyer told an inquest on Thursday.
Katrina Dawson, a 38-year-old lawyer who was among 18 people taken hostage last month by a gunman, died after being hit by six fragments of a police bullet that had ricocheted off a hard surface, Jeremy Gormly, a lawyer assisting the coroner, told the Glebe Coroner’s Court. One fragment struck a major blood vessel and she quickly lost consciousness, he said. Another hostage, 34-year-old cafe manager Tori Johnson, was killed after gunman Man Horan Monis forced him to kneel on the floor and then fired a bullet into the back of his head with a sawed-off shotgun, Gormly said. He is believed to have died immediately. A police sharpshooter witnessed Johnson’s killing, prompting police to move in, Gormly said.
The details of the deaths of Dawson and Johnson came on the opening day of the inquest into last month’s siege at the Lindt Chocolat Cafe. Monis, a 50-year-old Iranian-born, self-styled cleric with a long criminal history, took the customers and workers captive and forced them to outline his demands in a series of online videos — including that he be permitted to speak to the prime minister and be delivered a flag of the Islamic State group.
The standoff ended when police stormed the cafe in a barrage of gunfire to free the hostages. Monis was killed, along with Dawson and Johnson.
Officials had previously refused to say whether the hostages died at Monis’ hand or were caught in police crossfire. The coronial inquest — a court-like proceeding convened after unusual deaths in Australia — is aimed at determining how they and Monis died, and whether the tragedy could have been prevented.
Gormly cautioned in his opening address that the rundown of events he was giving was preliminary, and based on his interpretation of the evidence he had seen thus far. The coroner will make the final declaration on how the hostages and Monis died.
“Rarely have such horrifying events unfolded so publicly,” Coroner Michael Barnes told the court. “Overlaying the intense personal suffering on display were fearsome themes which called up wider and more far-reaching threats that understandably terrified many, even among those who only saw it from afar.”
The inquest will look into how police managed the crisis, including whether snipers should have taken a shot at Monis through the windows.
“Questions concerning the use of police marksmen, whether to wait or act immediately and other options have been discussed in public; I anticipate evidence on all those matters,” Gormly said.
In his opening address, Gormly gave a detailed account of how the siege unfolded on the morning of Dec. 15:
Around 8:30 a.m., Monis walked into the cafe carrying a hidden pump-action, sawed-off shotgun. He ordered and ate a piece of chocolate cake and drank a cup of tea, before moving to another table near the door. After half an hour, he asked a waitress to bring him the cafe’s manager.
Johnson sat down with him and other workers soon noticed their manager appeared stressed by what Monis was saying. Johnson then told a staffer to get the keys from his office, lock the door and remain calm.
Monis then put on a vest and a bandanna, brandished his shotgun and said he had a bomb in his backpack. He ordered everyone to move to one side of the cafe and forced several hostages to hold up a black Shahada flag with the Islamic declaration of faith written on it.
Under Monis’ instructions, Johnson called the police and said Australia was under attack by the Islamic State group and that several radio-controlled bombs had been placed around the city — a threat that turned out to be false.
Some hostages managed to flee at different points throughout the ordeal. Monis first fired his gun after one group of hostages escaped; the bullet struck the wall above the main entry to the cafe. The second bullet he shot was the one that killed Johnson. He fired his gun three more times as police moved in but none of those bullets hit anyone. He had another 21 cartridges in his pockets.
Two police officers fired 22 shots as they stormed into the cafe. At least two police bullets or fragments hit Monis in the head, and 11 others struck his body.
The inquest will examine Monis’ mental health, his motivations for the attack and what — if any — terrorist associations he had. Gormly said it doesn’t appear Monis had established any contact with the Islamic State group.
John O’Brien, one of the first hostages to escape, attended the hearing, along with supporters of Johnson. Outside court, he said listening to the summary of the horror he had lived through had been difficult.
“It was upsetting — very upsetting — for Tori Johnson’s family,” he said. “We were sitting in there and (it was) very emotional.”
The inquest was adjourned for the day, and the coroner has not yet set future hearing dates.
Separately, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has ordered a sweeping government review of the siege and the events leading up to it. The review, expected to be released in the next week or two, will examine why Monis was out on bail despite facing a string of violent charges, including 40 counts of sexual assault and accessory to murder in the slaying of his ex-wife.
The review will also address how Monis — who didn’t have a gun license — obtained a pump-action shotgun despite Australia’s strict gun laws.
Monis was on the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s watch list in 2008 and 2009, but was later dropped from it. The agency was tracking Monis because he had sent a series of offensive letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers.
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Associated Press writer Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this report.
By James M. Dorsey
Egyptian-general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s efforts to lend legitimacy to parliamentary elections scheduled for this spring have gotten off to a murky start with the appointment of a controversial, reportedly United Arab Emirates-backed human rights NGO as one of five foreign election monitors.
The appointment of Norway-based Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD) alongside four other foreign and 63 local NGOs followed statements by the European Union and The Carter Center that they would not be monitoring the Egyptian parliamentary election in March and April. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said the African Union would be sending 50 monitors. International NGO’s complained that they were given only a week to enter bids for the monitoring of this spring’s election.
GNRD has in the last year taken partisan stands by seeking to thwart Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup, promoting the autocratic UAE as a model of adherence to human rights and backing Mr. Al Sisi despite his poor human rights record and brutal crackdown on his opponents.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said it would only deploy a small expert mission to report on the parliamentary elections scheduled for March and April. It said the reporting would focus “on the political environment and the electoral campaign.” The Carter Center closed its Cairo office in October and justified its decision not to monitor the parliamentary election because “the political environment is deeply polarized and that political space has narrowed for Egyptian political parties, civil society, and the media. As a result, the upcoming elections are unlikely to advance a genuine democratic transition in Egypt.”
By contrast, GNRD, declared after monitoring last year’s election of Mr. Al Sisi as president, that Egypt had embarked on “a unique process toward democratic transition,” ignoring the fact that the president before shedding his uniform had in 2013 toppled Egypt’s first and only democratically elected president; outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, a significant political force; allowed security forces to brutally suppress protests, killing more than a 1,000 people; incarcerated thousands of his opponents; and ensured that Egyptian media excel in self-censorship.
Founded in 2008, GNRD is headed by Loai Mohammed Deeb, a reportedly Palestinian-born international lawyer who has a track record as a human rights activist, owns a UAE-based consultancy, and operated a fake university in Scandinavia, according to veteran Middle East author and journalist Brian Whitaker.
The group is funded by anonymous donors to the tune of €3.5 million a year, much of which is believed to come from the UAE, a major backer of Mr. Al Sisi’s autocratic regime. GNRD says it aims to “”to enhance and support both human rights and development by adopting new strategies and policies for real change.”
Qatar last year briefly detained two GNRD investigators who were in the Gulf state to investigate the working and living conditions of migrant workers. Qatar has been under severe pressure to reform its controversial labour system that puts employees at the mercy of their employers. A FIFA executive committee warned recently that Qatar could lose its 2022 World Cup hosting rights if it failed to move forward with promised labour reforms.
Relations between Qatar and the UAE have long been strained as a result of deep-seated and long-standing resentment by Emirati leaders of Qatar’s support for the Brotherhood. The UAE, alongside Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, returned in December its ambassador to Doha after a nine-month absence in a move that papered over their differences without Qatar conceding any real ground to demands that it cut its ties to Islamist groups.
As a result, GNRD’s credentials for judging Qatar’s labour record or the forthcoming Egyptian election are questionable. The group’s International Human Rights Rank Indicator (IHRRI) last year listed the UAE at number 14 as the Arab country most respectful of human rights as opposed to Qatar that it ranked at number 94.
The ranking contradicts reports by human rights groups, including the United Nations Human Rights Council (OHCHR), which said it had credible evidence of torture of political prisoners in the UAE and questioned the independence of the country’s judiciary. Egypt’s State Information Service reported in December that GNRD had supported the banning of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and called for an anti-Brotherhood campaign in Europe.
An Emirati human rights activist told Middle East Eye: “They are supported by the UAE government for public relations purposes. The GNRD published a fake human rights index last year that wrongly praised the UAE.”
With offices in offices in Norway, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Sudan, Jordan and the UAE, GNRD is part of a network of reportedly Emirati-backed groups in Scandinavia and France that seek to polish the UAE’s image while tarnishing that of Qatar. It fits a larger Emirati effort that involved hiring a US lobbying firm established by former high-ranking US Treasury officials at a cost of millions of dollars to plant anti-Qatari stories in the US media, behind-the-scenes pressure on the Obama administration to revisit its relationship with Qatar and assessment of the Brotherhood; and the creation of religious groups to counter organizations headed by Doha-based Sheikh Yousef Qaradawi, an influential, controversial cleric with close ties to the Brotherhood.
The UAE has taken an increasingly activist role in opposing Islamist and jihadist groups with its participation in the US-led coalition against the Islamic State, the jihadist group that controls a swath of Syria and Iraq, and its military support for anti-Islamist forces in Libya. Nevertheless, its’ apparent effort to fuel calls for depriving Qatar of its World Cup hosting by highlighting the labour controversy backfired with the exposure of the two GNRD investigators and disclosure of its PR campaign in the US. The effort contrasted the UAE’s official backing of Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup.
The backfiring raises questions about GNRD’s credentials to act as an independent monitor of the Egyptian parliamentary election that would offer an unbiased assessment of the polling. Its appointment appears to be a nod to the UAE, which is a major financial contributor to the Al Sisi government and investor in Egypt, which is dependent on massive Gulf funding. UAE funding appears designed in part to strengthen the military’s already significant stake in the Egyptian economy.
Global Risk Advisors, an international consultancy, noted that Gulf states use their financial muscle “to expand their regional soft power. This type of soft power is usually expensive to acquire and often easily lost,” it warned. In the case of GNRD, the risk to the UAE and Egypt is primarily reputational rather than financial.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, a syndicated columnist, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same title.
The songbirds whose drama reaches as high as the notes they hit are back for a third season of TV One’s hit series, R&B Divas: LA. On the last season two of the show’s stars Lil’ Mo and Michel’le dealt with devastating personal blows. Lil’ Mo was trying to put her life and career back together while dealing with a divorce and Michel’le wrestled with depression after revealing a previous suicide attempt. In between they both released new music addressing their issues including Lil’ Mo’s album The Scarlet Letter and Michel’e’s single “It Still Hurts.”
Both divas return to the series along with fellow original cast members Chanté Moore, Chrisette Michele and Leela James plus two new divas, Stacy Francis and Christina “Brave” Williams. Prior to their February 11 premiere Lil’ Mo and Michel’le share with us their thoughts on everything from Michelle quitting the show to living with mental illness.
Lil’ Mo on maximizing the reality TV platform
“The great thing with reality TV is once people see you they buy into whatever you’re selling as long as you keep it real. It afforded me the opportunity to put out more music. This show helped rebirth me and while rebirthing me some are about to be unsung. Reality TV doesn’t automatically mean you will be rich. You got to work this platform and use it as such. I partnered with a water company and a liquor and clothing sponsor. I heard millionaires have seven streams of incomes.”
Lil’ Mo/Credit: TV One
On Chrisette Michelle quitting during filming of season three
“I respect Chrisette and know she is touring and can’t go on. She wasn’t like Dawn [Robinson] quitting. Dawn quit ’cause she ain’t have no mind of her own. Ain’t nobody heard form her since. Those who quit I haven’t heard or seen much from them since.”
On Claudette Ortiz not returning for season three
“A lot of people don’t realize the power of their story and that they can get paid for their pain. If you were in a relationship and it hurt you twist that and let people see your struggle. Band together and start these movements to show women you can make it. I don’t think she wants to do that. Reality TV ain’t for everybody. I haven’t seen or heard from her since. “
On her relationship with Chanté Moore
“A lot of people think we bonded the first season but it was that Kelly Price acted so crazy it superseded anything else going on. It’s a couple of times it got real. We cannot be violent but we keep it real. It was times I had to walk away.”
On the additions of Stacy Francis and Brave
When Stacy first joined I was like what’s your angle. Many were scared when she first came around but I told her you ain’t got to be the loudest one or most turnt up. Choose your battles wisely. And with Brave she came from Baltimore and you will see her story. I’ve heard from some of the execs this is the best season out of all the R&B Divas.”
Michel’le on the state of her mental health
“Right now I am in a good place. I am educating myself and trying to educate others. Once you have suicidal thoughts and try to commit the act and stay here everything comes with it like depression, anxiety, and stress. I don’t have thoughts of suicide anymore and that means I am doing good but I still live with the depression and anxiety. I have things to work on to heal myself. I am still in therapy and it’s back on the show this season.”
Michel’le/Credit: TV One
On why her children with Dr. Dre and Suge Knight won’t appear on the show
“My children are not on the show because of their fathers. I respected that neither one of their fathers wanted them on the show. I think they looked at it like Michel’le you have to feed yourself, our children are fine.”
On her love life after going on a date in season two
“I am not dating. I gave chivalry up last season.”
Next week hear from co-stars Chanté Moore and Stacy Francis.
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The weekly column, On the “A” w/Souleo, covers the intersection of the arts, culture entertainment and philanthropy in Harlem and beyond and is written by Souleo, founder and president of event/media content production company Souleo Enterprises, LLC.
LONGVIEW, Texas (AP) — Authorities say a teenager was fatally shot in an East Texas police station lobby after she lunged at an officer with a butcher knife and a Taser failed to stop her.
Longview Police Chief Don Dingler and spokeswoman Kristie Brian provided new details Wednesday about last week’s shooting of 17-year-old Kristiana Coignard. They also released video. The video shows an officer scuffling with the girl. Officials say he broke away when she reached for the knife. Another officer who had arrived to help fired a Taser. When Coignard didn’t stop, two officers shot multiple times.
The girl’s family has said she had mental health problems and have questioned why police had to shoot her.
The girl’s family could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
The Texas Rangers is investigating.
McALESTER, Okla. — Death row inmate Richard Glossip described Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court order suspending his impending execution as “so unbelievable.”
“I’ve felt amazing today,” Glossip said hours after he heard the news, sounding elated and buoyed by hope.
Glossip laughed easily during a conversation with The Huffington Post, talking excitedly about reconnecting with family and learning just how far news of his case has spread around the world. The Associated Press characterized the Supreme Court’s decision as one that “came as no surprise,” to which Glossip said, “Unless it’s your life on the line, you don’t know how heavy it is.”
Glossip, who has been on Oklahoma’s death row for 17 years, was scheduled to die Thursday by lethal injection. Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to take up a case involving Glossip and two other Oklahoma death row inmates, who claim their state’s lethal injection method is unconstitutional and amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Glossip’s fate remained in limbo until Wednesday’s announcement.
“I’m really happy that the Supreme Court ordered the stay so that the litigation can be carefully considered and Richard has more time,” Kathleen Lord, one of Glossip’s lawyers, told HuffPost. “Anything can happen with time. And Richard is not done telling his story.”
Glossip, 51, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1998 and was sentenced to death based on the testimony of one witness, Justin Sneed. Sneed confessed to beating a hotel owner to death with a baseball bat, claiming that Glossip promised him $10,000 to do it. In exchange for his testimony, Sneed was spared death row himself and instead sentenced to life in prison.
Glossip has staunchly maintained his innocence from the start, and his case has attracted the support of high-profile death penalty opponents. Outside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester on Wednesday, several of those supporters, who had been visiting Glossip under the belief it would be their last time seeing him, celebrated.
“It’s such a surreal situation to be sitting with someone very near to execution,” Sister Helen Prejean, a nun known for her memoir Dead Man Walking and Glossip’s spiritual adviser, told HuffPost. “Then when you get the news — I was ecstatic.”
Prejean added that she “leapt out of her chair” after hearing Glossip’s execution would be stayed. She said the news was not only a relief to Glossip’s supporters, but to prison guards as well. “None of them wanted to be here if this was going to happen to him,” she said Several guards had requested the day of Glossip’s execution off, Prejean said.
Glossip, who was able to visit with his guests Wednesday in the prison’s law library while he sat beside them in a locked cage, said he nearly broke down and cried at the ability to reach out and touch his family. Prior to Wednesday, he said he had not been able to see his eldest daughter, Christina Glossip-Hodge, in person in 25 years. It was also the first time he and Prejean met face to face.
Glossip’s supporters celebrate outside the Oklahoma state penitentiary, where he’s currently being held. From left: Joe Cardona, Mary Rzepski, Kim Van Atta, Sr. Helen Prejean, Crystal Martinez and Jim Liberto.
A day earlier, dozens of Glossip’s supporters hand-delivered a printout of a Change.org petition, which has now collected nearly 35,000 signatures, to the office of Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R). The petition asks Fallin to stop the execution.
While the governor can’t grant Glossip clemency, she has the authority to delay his execution by 60 days, and there’s no limit to the amount of times she can do that. Fallin’s office, however, has indicated that she’s unlikely to do so.
“I disagree with the necessity to grant Glossip yet another round of legal appeals,” Fallin said in a statement emailed to HuffPost following Wednesday’s news. “However, given that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear his case, it is entirely appropriate to delay his execution until after the legal process has run its course.”
Wednesday’s Supreme Court order doesn’t affect Glossip’s death row status, but additional time before his execution may work in his favor. Should his lawyers uncover additional evidence that suggests he’s innocent, the state could grant him an appeal. Moreover, the state’s Pardon and Parole Board could allow Glossip another clemency hearing, which could result in his sentence being commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Glossip’s last clemency hearing was in October, when the state clemency board voted unanimously against him. Before the hearing, Sneed’s daughter penned a letter to the board, claiming her father wished he could recant his testimony pinning the crime on Glossip, but it was submitted too late and couldn’t be used as evidence.
“For a couple of years now, my father has been talking to me about recanting his original testimony. But has been afraid to act upon it, in fear of being charged with the Death Penalty,” the letter read. “His fear of recanting, but guilt about not doing so, makes it obvious that information he is sitting on would exonerate Mr. Glossip.”
Glossip’s loved ones said they hope Wednesday’s news will inspire Sneed to recant. “I have an innate hope that Justin Sneed will by awakened by close of a call we had today,” Crystal Martinez, who authored the Change.org petiton, told HuffPost. “If that doesn’t happen, I hope we can use all the injustices done to him during trial and finally bring him home — alive.”
The Supreme Court’s order left open the possibility of carrying out lethal injections that don’t involve midazolam, the controversial drug at the heart of Glossip’s case, before the justices decide the case. Should they choose to carry out an execution in the meantime, Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections would need to give death row inmates at least 10 days notice and choose an execution method that meets state protocols. It’s unclear whether Oklahoma officials will pursue this option, and the Supreme Court will likely rule on the case by the end of June.
Oklahoma’s execution methods came under scrutiny in April, after death row inmate Clayton Lockett died 45 minutes after being injected with a combination of drugs that had never been used together, including midazolam. Lockett writhed, clenched his teeth and struggled against the restraints holding him to a gurney before prison officials halted the execution, according to witnesses. He then died from a heart attack.
“It was a horrible thing to witness,” Lockett’s attorney, David Autry, told The Associated Press at the time. “This was totally botched.” Fallin, who defended the execution, was attending a basketball game at the time.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court declined to stay the execution of Charles Warner, another Oklahoma death row inmate. “My body is on fire,” Warner, the first to be killed since Lockett, said after he was injected.
Meanwhile, in the wake of Wednesday’s news, Glossip and his supporters said they won’t stop fighting.
“I’m hoping this victory for Richard shows how horribly broken the system is,” Prejean said. “And that it takes death off the table as an option that government can exercise over its citizens.”
Learn more about Glossip’s case here, and hear him discuss his situation in his own words below:
Feeling a bit under the weather? Have some chocolate: the best medical minds of the seventeenth century claim that it’ll cure just about anything. Seriously.
One of the selling points of the OnePlus One handset is the fact that it comes with CyanogenMod preinstalled on the phone. Given that CyanogenMod is one of the bigger and more popular Android ROMs at the moment, safe to say that this move pleased many users who might be proud and happy to see the ROM make it into the big leagues.
Unfortunately it seems that due to an exclusive agreement Cyanogen Inc. made with Micromax in India, OnePlus One handsets in the country would no longer be sold with CyanogenMod nor would it receive further updates, which safe to say soured their relationship pretty quickly. However could it be to that extent where OnePlus is now shipping smartphones without the Cyanogen branding?
According to a photo that recently made its way online, it shows the back of a OnePlus One handset that does not have the Cyanogen branding (the one with the branding is on the right). However given the quality of the photo, there is a chance that it could have been doctored, but like we said with the recent incident in India, we wouldn’t be surprised if both companies aren’t exactly seeing eye to eye at the moment.
In the meantime OnePlus is said to be working on their own ROM in which the alpha build was released earlier this year, but given its alpha status it is far from being ready for mainstream consumption. However the company expects a more stable build to be released in February, although we’re not sure if it will be stable enough to be shipped with their smartphones.
OnePlus One In The US Spotted Without Cyanogen Branding , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
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