By Paul Thomson :: 4:23 PM
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this afternoon that tech giant Microsoft had recently been in talks with Finnish mobile device manufacturer Nokia about a possible purchase of the company.
Reports claim that the two companies were negotiating a deal earlier this month in London, but that talks fell through a few days ago, and are not likely to continue.
It was apparently the Microsoft side that eventually bowed out of the deal, citing both the price tag, as well as Nokia’s lagging position in smartphones behind Apple and Samsung.
Shares of Nokia traded about 3.5 percent higher following the news of the failed purchase, while Microsoft shares dipped just over 1 percent.
By Gilbert Falso :: 10:06 AM
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second largest public school district in the United States, has made a decision to purchase 30,000 Apple iPad tablets at a cost to the district of $30 million.
This purchase approval marks the first phase in a district plan to provide every student with a tablet over the next 14 months. Students at 47 of the district’s 1,124 schools will receive tablets during the first phase of the project, due to be completed by the end of 2013. The rest of the students will receive tablets over the course of 2014.
School board members voted 6-0 to approve the iPad proposal, however one board member, as well as the district superintendent, John Deasy, recused themselves from the vote because they are Apple stockholders.
District officials hope that students will be able to use the tablets for online textbooks as well as state mandated electronic tests.
Each iPad will cost the district $678, including cases and software from Pearson, an education software vendor. Funds are being allocated from a recently passed bond measure.
As part of the $30 million package, training and facilitators for staff and students will also be provided.
By Leslie Spellman :: 9:32 AM
Electric automaker Tesla has issued a voluntary recall on a small number of its Model S electric sedans after issues were found with bracket and latch hardware that attaches the rear seats to the vehicle.
Although no issues or injuries due to the defect have been reported to Tesla, the company warns that the defect in the hardware could allow the seat back to come loose in an accident and harm passengers. A weld point on the latch itself was identified as the possible point of failure.
Tesla is currently contacting customers who are affected by the recall, which covers all Model S sedans made between May 10 and June 8 of this year. The company will pick up the car from the customer, and provide a loaner vehicle during the repair process, which should only take “a few hours,” according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
According to a statement posted on Tesla’s website:
“Given the paramount importance of safety, we would like to reinforce the left striker bracket on cars produced during this period. This work has already been performed on cars that were in the factory, so the recall applies only to cars delivered in mid to late May and early June.”
Tesla apologizes for the inconvenience the recall has caused to its customers.
By Cynthia Herbert :: 10:47 PM
Young pop star Justin Bieber was involved in a minor accident on Monday night, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The singer’s Ferrari, with Bieber at the wheel, pinned a photographer against another vehicle as Bieber was pulling out of a parking space outside of a comedy club on Sunset Boulevard.
Bieber’s car was surrounded by paparazzi as he attempted to leave the club, and some accounts show that Bieber did not realize that the photographer was standing in the way of his car.
A preliminary investigation by officers at the scene concluded that Bieber did not commit a crime. The photographer suffered minor injuries, and was not identified.
Representatives for Bieber have not issued an official comment on the incident.
By Paul Thomson :: 9:11 PM
You’re not alone, Facebook is indeed down right now for many users.
The outage was first reported around 8:55 PM Eastern Time, as many Facebook users took to Twitter to ask, “Is Facebook down?”
Users report a varying range of outage messages. The desktop version of the Facebook website either does not load, or displays a message that reads, “Sorry, something went wrong” on an empty page. The Facebook mobile app displays a message that reads “Network Error.” Some users report being able to load Facebook pages after a wait time of 30 to 45 seconds.
Update: The social network has not yet issued a statement about the outage, but as of 9:45 PM, most people report Facebook is back up for them, although there are still issues with long page load times.
This story is developing, and will be updated as we find out details.