Panasonic and Siemens signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperating on next-generation equipment assembly plants, the companies said Tuesday. Panasonic brings its Smart Factory automatic assembly systems and the PanaCIM manufacturing execution system application. Siemens’ Digital Enterprise offers industrial software and automation, industrial communication, security and services, said the companies. Integrated automation will lead to improvements in production and quality, they said.

Asus bowed the VivoBook E403SA Wednesday, a 14-inch notebook with an Intel Pentium quad-core processor, Windows 10 operating system and 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi. Memory is 4 GB and storage is a SanDisk-supplied 128 GB embedded MultiMediaCard. Battery life for the 3.3-pound notebook PC is given as 9 hours, and it includes a VGA camera, two legacy USB slots and a USB-C Gen 1 interface. Prices start at $399.

Operations at Sony’s Kumamoto Technology Center in Kikuchi-gun, Japan, remained suspended Monday, after being halted following earthquakes in Kumamoto April 14. Damage to the site’s building and manufacturing lines “is currently being evaluated, and with aftershocks continuing, the timeframe for resuming operations has yet to be determined,” the company said in an emailed statement Monday. The semiconductor plant primarily makes image sensors for digital cameras and security cameras, plus micro-display devices, Sony said. Production has resumed after being temporarily halted at Sony’s Nagasaki Technology Center in Isahaya City, the company’s main facility for production of smartphone image sensors, the company said. And operations resumed April 17 at Oita Technology Center, which began operations April 1 as a wholly owned facility of Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. Sony’s Kagoshima Technology Center in Kirishima City has continued operations since the earthquakes with “no major effects on its operations,” the company said. Sony “confirmed the safety” of its employees in the regions affected by the earthquakes and said the financial impact on the company’s consolidated results is being evaluated.

Netflix added 6.74 million subscribers, surpassing its previous high mark of 5.59 million new additions in Q4, the company said Monday in an earnings letter after the market's close. In the U.S. it added 2.28 million subscribers. Netflix had forecast 1.75 million new U.S. subscribers, which it called low “because we underestimated the positive acquisition impact of our major original content debuts.” Total streaming revenue was $1.8 billion, vs. $1.4 billion in the year-ago quarter. U.S. revenue grew 18 percent year over year, with 14 percent growth in average paid memberships and a 3 percent rise in average revenue per user, it said. Netflix stock was down 10 percent in after-hours trading Monday, to $97.80.

Amazon is refreshing the Kindle again eight years after the launch of the original, in an ongoing effort to make the e-reader more efficient and lighter. The latest model, Kindle Oasis, available for pre-order ($289) with shipment April 27, comes with a leather charging cover said to deliver “months” of battery life. The Oasis measures 0.13 inch at its narrowest depth and weighs 4.6 ounces, making it 20 percent lighter than any other Kindle, said Amazon. Its dual-battery charging system provides the longest battery life of any Kindle, allowing users to read for months “without plugging in,” it said. The battery in the cover uses a custom cell architecture designed to optimize power and energy, and users can charge the device and cover simultaneously while both are snapped together and plugged in. A new hibernation mode minimizes power consumption when the Kindle is inactive, Amazon said. The leather cover -- available in black, merlot or walnut -- wakes the Oasis when it’s opened and puts the device to sleep when closed, with 12 magnets holding the two together. Sixty percent more LEDs produce what Amazon calls the brightest Kindle screen to date. The 300 pixel-per-inch 200-micron display backplane has the thinness of a sheet of aluminum foil and is covered by chemically reinforced glass, Amazon said. Other models in the Kindle line: the basic Kindle ($79), Paperwhite ($119) and Voyage ($199).

Uber said it received 415 state and federal law enforcement requests for information for criminal investigations during the second half of 2015, but it hasn't gotten a national security letter or Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act order request. Uber released its first-ever transparency report Tuesday, showing the scope of information it has released to law enforcement agencies and state and local regulators. Uber said it provided at least some data for 85 percent of the law enforcement requests, of which the majority were from state authorities. "A large number of the law enforcement requests we receive are related to fraud investigations or the use of stolen credit cards," the company said. "Since we move people from A to B, we also respond to requests about rider or driver safety and ensure that law enforcement officers get the information they need through the appropriate legal channels in a timely fashion." Uber also said it responded to 33 requests from state and local regulatory agencies such as in California on information about trips, trip requests, pickup and drop-off areas, fares, vehicles, and drivers in their jurisdictions for a given time period and electronic trip receipts. The requests involved trip data for nearly 12 million riders and nearly 600,000 drivers. Plus, the company responded to 34 requests from airport authorities that regulate transportation services. With limited exceptions, Uber said it requires a "valid and sufficient legal process" from government before disclosing information about customers and asks for"narrowly tailored" requests if they are "overly broad, vague or unreasonable requests."

Best Buy’s Geek Squad fleet is getting a refresh, with more than 1,000 Toyota Prius c hybrids replacing Volkswagen Beetles for house calls, it said Monday. In recent years, Best Buy added 1,200 vans -- Ford Transit and Cutaway models -- to deliver large goods including 55-inch and larger TVs, a spokeswoman told us. The Prius c will produce roughly half the emissions of the Beetles over the life of the vehicle, said Best Buy, which is committed to a 45 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2020. Geek Squad staffers make more than 5 million house calls a year, driving an estimated 12.6 million miles to help customers with technical support, Best Buy said. The switch to the Prius, along with an updated logo, is designed to parallel the Geek Squad’s expansion from a PC-based service to one that supports the latest electronics including AV gear, home networks and smart home products, it said. “Today’s Geek Squad Agents are more likely to help clients with a new home theater experience, improve Wi-Fi performance or install a security solution than they are to fix the family computer,” Geek Squad Chief Inspector Nate Bauer said.

Microsoft sees privacy “as a fundamental human right” and is committed to giving customers “the information and controls they need to make the choices that are right for them about how data is collected and used,” Chief Privacy Officer Brandon Lynch said in a Thursday blog post. A website directed at consumers linked to in the blog post included a statement from CEO Satya Nadella and privacy pledges. They include transparency, security, "strong legal protections," "no content-based targeting" and consumer control. “People today keep more information on their phones than they previously kept in their entire house,” Lynch said. “And most of this, often sensitive information, is connected to the cloud. In an era of rapidly evolving and increasingly personal technology, we know that people won’t use technology they don’t trust. Technology advances, but timeless values, like privacy, must also endure.” Microsoft “in the months ahead” plans to introduce four new privacy “initiatives,” Lynch said. It promises, he said: (1) a “comprehensive repository” of information and training resources “designed to help privacy, legal and compliance professionals understand, achieve and verify the compliance requirements of their organization’s cloud deployments”; (2) “roundtable events” around the world to discuss “the urgent compliance issues,” including data security, and “personal information privacy” for consumers, employees and students; (3) new investments in training programs “that focus on the skills and knowledge compliance professionals need to oversee safe, secure and compliant cloud deployments”; and (4) “regular updates” on Microsoft efforts “to strengthen the privacy, security and compliance protections of the Microsoft cloud.” Lynch didn’t mention the recent Apple-FBI legal battle over access to encrypted data on an iPhone used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino, California, terror attacks (see 1603290059).

Nokia said it will cut thousands of jobs worldwide between now and the end of 2018, tied to its recent buy of Alcatel-Lucent. Nokia said it previously indicated it anticipates cutting just over $1 billion in operating costs in 2018. “Nokia is taking steps to adapt to challenging market conditions and to shift resources to future-oriented technologies such as 5G, the Cloud and the Internet of Things,” it said in a Wednesday news release. “As part of the program, the company also continues to target worldwide savings in real estate, services, procurement, supply chain and manufacturing.” Workforce reductions will come largely in areas where there are overlaps, including R&D and sales, Nokia said. Company representatives met Wednesday with two European Works Councils to discuss the job cuts, with similar meetings planned in almost 30 countries in future weeks, the manufacturer said. The actions are "designed to ensure that Nokia remains a strong industry leader," said Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri. "We also know that our actions will have real human consequences and, given this, we will proceed in a way that is consistent with our company values and provide transition and other support to the impacted employees." Nokia plans to cut 1,300 jobs at its Finnish bases in Espoo, Oulu and Tampere and 1,400 of its 4,800 jobs in Germany, said an article in the Wall Street Journal. Nokia plans to keep 4,200 workers in place in France for at least two years in keeping with promises to the French government to win approval of the Alcatel-Lucent acquisition. Nokia has 104,000 employees worldwide.

National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative affiliates now can resell the Sling TV over-the-top service, NeoNova, an NRTC broadband division, said in a news release Monday. NeoNova CEO Ray Carey said that “our affiliates are the go-to local providers for new technologies in their serving areas" and the new program represents potential additional revenue and an opportunity "to drive awareness with their customers about new services like Sling TV.”