Toshiba’s Potential Acquisition By CVC Capital Partners Comes To A Halt

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba indicated that a potential acquisition offer from CVC Capital Partners, a private equity and investment advisory firm, has been stymied by a lack of necessary information from the latter. Earlier this month, CVC offered to buy Toshiba for US$20 billion (~RM82.3 billion), Nikkei Asia reported.

Shortly after that, Toshiba was rocked with the sudden resignation of its CEO, Nobuaki Kurumatani, who reportedly had a tumultuous relationship with company shareholders.

Toshiba said the letter it received from CVC on Monday “contained no specific and detailed information capable of detailed evaluation: it merely stated that CVC would step aside to await our guidance as to whether a privatization of Toshiba would suit management’s and the Board of Directors’ strategic objectives.” And since Toshiba hasn’t gotten the information it says it needs from CVC, the Japanese firm claimed that it cannot evaluate the latter’s proposal.

CVC’s buyout offer has been controversial within Toshiba. According to Nikkei Asia, Kurumatani, the former CEO, had led CVC’s Japanese operations before joining Toshiba, raising questions about a potential conflict of interest. He was replaced as CEO by Satoshi Tsunakawa, the company’s board chairman.

Aside from CVC, Bloomberg said that KKR & Co. and Brookfield Asset Management have also explored buying Toshiba.

Law Firm Currently Investigating Potential Lawsuit Over PS5 DualSense Drifting Issues

Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith LLP (CSK&D), the firm that filed a lawsuit against Nintendo and its drifting Joy-Con controller, recently announced that the law firm is looking into a potential class-action lawsuit against Sony. More specifically, the lawsuit is aimed directly at a drifting issue involving the PlayStation 5’s (PS5) DualSense controller.

The firm is currently reaching out to affected PS5 customers who have or are currently experiencing said drifting issues via an online form on its page. Several complaints indicate that the DualSense controller either suffer from joystick drifting issues or just fail prematurely.

In regards to the former issue, some PS5 owners are reporting their DualSense controllers automatically registering movement, even when the joystick is not being controlled. Naturally, this can lead to some form of hindrance and interference in while gaming and as such, it’s unsurprising that these individuals would want to air out their grievances to Sony.

As mentioned earlier, this isn’t the first time CSK&D has handled a case involving faulty controllers. Back in 2019, the firm filed a lawsuit against Nintendo of America over drifting Joy-Con controllers. Ultimately, the court decided to put the case into arbitration, although, at the time of writing, CSK&D says that it is still looking for someone to help them settle the dispute.

Potential Android 12 UI Mockup Leaks; Reveals Cleaner Design And New Privacy Features

Alleged screenshots featuring the Android 12 user interface (UI) mockup has made its way online. These images offer us a good look at what we’ll be expecting from the major Google OS update that is coming later this year, provided that they are the real deal.

First reported by XDA via senior forum member RKBD, this leak has been made available ahead of the planned Android 12 Developer Preview that is expected to be rolling out this month. The site added that the mockup is also accompanied by an alleged early draft of a document summarising the expected changes to be featured in the upcoming upgrade. XDA could not vouch whether the leak is indeed real, but noted the high chance of its authenticity based on procured evidence from a trusted source.

As seen from the mockup, the first noticeable difference found on the alleged Android 12 UI is the new clean and minimalist design. The pull down menu no longer exhibits a transparent background, but instead features a light opaque colour – shown in light beige, a theme that is consistent throughout the provided screenshots. Based on previous iterations of Android, it is believed that the overall theme is fully customisable based on user preference. While it is not shown along with the mockups, a Dark Mode feature is likely available as well which may display the interface differently with colours that are more favourable for low light conditions.

The pull down menu also shows four large Quick Settings icons on top, instead of the usual (and smaller) six tiles that we’re accustomed to from previous Android versions. Besides that, the rounded corners of each notification on the new UI appear more profound than before – a design that reflects Google’s new look that was first shown off in its Search web page update on mobile.

There’s also a new Conversations widget which highlights recent messages, missed calls and activity status as shown in the mockup – all nicely packed in a small bubble when placed on the home screen. Without a doubt, this new addition is the company’s answer to Apple’s new widget feature that was introduced in iOS 14, which XDA argued was significantly better than what Android could offer.

It’s also worth noting that Android 12 has swapped the date and clock positions on top of the interface. A more significant addition to the top display is the new row above the Wi-Fi, signal strength and battery icons, which is exclusively reserved for the system’s new privacy indicators. 

These new icons alert the user if an app is accessing the phone’s camera or microphone. It is said that Google is planning to mandate the inclusion of these privacy indicators, which must be shown whenever these features are accessed, and they must be displayed in the same colour across the ecosystem for user awareness. According to the supplied documentation, tapping these icons will display which apps are using the microphone or camera via a pop-up on top of the screen.

In addition, the Privacy setting on Android 12 has been revamped as well, giving users more control over their smartphones. On top of providing them the ability to disable location access, the menu now contains toggles to disable the camera and mute the microphone entirely. A handy Sensors Off shortcut is also available in Quick Settings within the pull down menu, which – as its name suggests – disables all sensors on the device. XDA noted that this tile is only available when Developer Options is activated, although there is a chance that Google may have this toggle available in the Privacy menu for easy user accessibility in the public release.

On first impression, the supposed new Android 12 UI offers a very eye-pleasing design which arranges widgets and notifications nicely on screen with significant breathing room in between, avoiding any sense of clutter – according to the mockup, at least. The newly introduced privacy features are much welcomed as well, and what better time to debut them especially with all the recent heat Google has been receiving related to user privacy concerns. Also, do keep in mind that smartphone brands such as Samsung and Xiaomi will likely change certain design elements in their custom version of the new Android OS, as seen in previous iterations.

What has been showcased in this alleged mockup may just be the tip of a larger iceberg. Google is expected to introduce and even test more updated and new features for Android 12 in the near future. Based on the previous version’s launch, there’s a chance the company may debut its OS upgrade by fall 2021.