Tech News: Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s CEO Visit, Google Inc (GOOG)’s Data Handling & Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)

Editor’s Note: Related tickers: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), China Telecom Corporation Limited (ADR) (NYSE:CHA)

Tim CookCEO tim cook in Beijing? (ChinaDaily)
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Inc’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook was in Beijing again on Tuesday, according to some Chinese websites. Cook paid a visit to the headquarters of China Telecom Corporation Limited (ADR) (NYSE:CHA), the nation’s smallest mobile operator by user numbers, according to China’s biggest news portal sina.com.cn. It did not provide further information. China Daily contacted Effie Wu in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) China’s public relations department, but she said there would be no comment on the Chinese media reports. All Chinese telecom carriers declined on Tuesday to respond to the reports.

A Data Giant Reshaped by Privacy Snafus (WSJ)
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) +0.98% is no stranger to high-profile mistakes in the handling of user data, particularly in recent years. Such episodes have forever reshaped its internal data-handling practices, said people familiar with the changes. In 2010, a Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) software engineer was fired after he spied on personal information of several teenage Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) users. The “creepster” episode, as it is known by some within the company, caused Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) to increase the restrictions on how employees can access accounts of individuals and to keep meticulous logs of individual user accounts that are accessed from within Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG).

Microsoft Sold $853 Million in Surface Tablets Last Fiscal Year (BusinessWeek)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) sold $853 million worth of Surface tablets in its latest fiscal year, as the maker of Windows software struggles to capitalize on a shift by consumers toward handheld devices. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) disclosed Surface sales, which weren’t specified in the company’s latest earnings report, in a regulatory filing today. Earnings in the period that ended in June were hit by a $900 million writedown of inventory related to Surface, a mobile touch-screen computer introduced by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in October to compete with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPad and tablets running Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Android operating system.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) 3rd Quarter Results – Is There Hope? (BasicsMedia)
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has just announced its latest results for 2013 3rd quarter. There is a lot of information contained in these results, which as investors, people can learn from and use these to make right decisions regarding where to go next. Remember that investors need information and financial results contain a large amount of the same which they can glean a lot from. This article is intended to encourage investors by equipping them with detailed information regarding how their investments in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) are performing.

My Life, and Past, as Seen Through Google’s Dashboard (WSJ)
What is Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) +0.98% Dashboard? In short, it is a one-stop shop that links to all the different buckets of your stored data collected by Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s services. From your first Gmail account onward, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has been collecting an amazing amount of information from you, and Dashboard is where you go to find it. Strangely enough, the easiest way to find your Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Dashboard is to go to Google.com and search for “Google Dashboard.” There might be a link to it from somewhere in Gmail, but I have never seen it, and it doesn’t seem to make itself obvious anywhere. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) created the Dashboard in 2009 so its users could manage all their privacy setting in our place.

How Samsung is beating Apple in Asia (Malaya)
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Chief Executive Tim Cook believes that “over the arc of time” China is a huge opportunity for his pathbreaking company. But time looks to be on the side of rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, which has been around far longer and penetrated much deeper into the world’s most populous country. After five years of blistering growth sales of high-end smartphones have hit a plateau and the $2 trillion industry – telecom carriers, handset makers and content providers – is buckling up for a bumpier ride as growth shifts to emerging markets, primarily in Asia.

Can Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Really Take Over The Market Completely? (BasicsMedia)
Someone is bound to find this question quite ridiculous in relation to Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), or Google as it is more commonly known. The assumption appears to be that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is the dominant player in the market and its earnings are nowhere other local and international companies. It would be so easy to assume that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has no equal in the sector and industry in which it operates, but is this really the case? If the answer is yes, the one would be safe and bullish to say that the company has already taken over the market. This article is an attempt at finding out whether Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has actually taken the market over or not.

Microsoft Surfaces at the PBJ (BizJournals)
Since Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is based on the other side of the country, I don’t follow news about it too closely. As a result, when Brian Seitz demonstrated the company’s Surface RT tablet computer for me last Friday, I didn’t know I was looking at a device that had cost Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) $900 million. That was the size of the charge against earnings that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) took due to inventory adjustments related to the tablet for consumers and small businesses it introduced last November.