Samsung is readying the termination of Samsung Wallet’s two-year run. “All of Samsung Wallet’s features will stop functioning by the end of June,” reports Tech Times. “The Samsung partner portal will be shuttered and the Samsung Wallet application programming interface will be unavailable.” As a replacement, the company is expected to introduce LoopPay this summer as the rebranded Samsung Pay. Samsung recently acquired payment service LoopPay for a reported $250 million. “As Apple pushes Apple Pay and Samsung preps Samsung Pay,” notes the article, “Google is cooking up a new API for Google Wallet. With that change, which will open the platform up to third parties, Google is gearing up Android Pay.”

Apple confirmed that it has purchased San Francisco-based GPS startup Coherent Navigation. While Apple declined to provide specific reasons for the purchase, it could be part of the company’s efforts to improve Apple Maps. Coherent Navigation built its reputation developing commercial navigation services with Boeing and satellite network operator Iridium, among others. The company’s high-precision navigation systems are accurate to within three to five meters. Coherent has also worked on autonomous navigation and robotics projects, notes The New York Times. Apple has acquired other location tech services in recent years, including Placebase, Locationary and Hopstop.

In 2008, non-profit think tank The Seasteading Institute received financial backing from venture capitalist Peter Thiel to build a manmade island nation in ocean waters that would allow inventors to work free of government interference. Due to excessive cost and obstacles involved with open ocean engineering, the concept has yet to be realized. Earlier this year Thiel said, “I’m not exactly sure that I’m going to succeed in building a libertarian utopia any time soon.” However, the project is not dead and the group is now looking “for cost-reducing solutions within the territorial waters of a host nation.” Wired takes a compelling look at Silicon Valley’s quest for a protected space for innovation.

While weather kept many consumers away from brick-and-mortar stores last quarter, purchases made via e-commerce sites increased 3.5 percent from the previous quarter, according to seasonally-adjusted figures from the Commerce Department. The numbers point to a record $80 billion worth of purchases. “Meanwhile, total retail sales declined 1.5 percent, the first quarterly drop in almost three years,” reports Bloomberg. “On a year-over-year basis, online purchases soared a whopping 14.5 percent, compared with a 1.6 percent increase for total sales.” According to one Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, apparel stores generate the largest percentage of their sales from online orders.

Paris-based Kering SA filed a lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan against Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Kering owns some of the best-known luxury brands, including Balenciaga, Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. The lawsuit is another challenge to Alibaba’s contention that it combats sales of counterfeit goods on its platforms. Kering argues that the Chinese e-commerce giant and associated companies “knowingly encourage, assist, and profit from the sale of counterfeits on their online platforms.” The Wall Street Journal reports, “Among the lawsuit’s allegations are that Alibaba permits and encourages ‘numerous counterfeiters’ to operate on its various platforms even when the merchants openly state that they are selling fake goods.”

Etsy’s stock price recently took a hit after an analyst report suggested that “as many as two million items on the service — equal to 5 percent in total — may either be counterfeit or constitute trademark infringement,” reports Wired. The online marketplace for vintage and handmade goods is facing a significant setback to its reputation, as Etsy’s forums are filling with concerns regarding illegal products. According to the Wedbush report, “Counterfeit candidates include items infringing on Louis Vuitton, Chaneland Michael Kors, as well as a wide range of Disney and NFL brands. Sample of high risk listings indicates some violations may be 20x more likely on Etsy than eBay and even more likely than Alibaba’s Aliexpress.”

A recently uncovered document indicates Dish Network is looking for a chief marketing officer to steer the company into the competitive wireless industry. The move suggests that the satellite TV provider, which also acquired nearly half of the spectrum licenses offered in a government auction this year, would “become the only provider to offer wireless voice, video and data services,” notes Yahoo Finance. According to the document, the new CMO “will be an integral part of the team that changes entertainment forever as Dish enters the wireless business and becomes the only provider that can offer wireless voice, video and data.”

Following last month’s news that Cablevision would become the first pay TV provider to resell Hulu, the streaming service has announced an expanded deal to reach AT&T’s customers on mobile devices and the Web. “Starting later this year, customers will be able to access Hulu shows through an AT&T app on their mobile phones, as well as through an AT&T website for Internet viewing,” explains TechCrunch. “The two are also exploring the possibility of bringing a Hulu app to TVs.” The previous agreement provided Hulu’s free content to AT&T subscribers; the new deal will expand access to Hulu’s premium tier. The mobile app is still in development.

According to people with knowledge of the matter, CE manufacturer Vizio is reportedly in talk with banks regarding an initial public offering, which could take place this year. The company was founded in 2002 and has become known for its affordable televisions. It has also branched out to computers, smartphones and tablets. “Vizio has more than $1 billion in revenue, one of the people said, a threshold that precludes it from filing confidentially under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act,” reports Bloomberg. “The company is also profitable.” Action cam startup GoPro raised $491 million in its IPO last year. Fitbit Inc. filed for an IPO this month.

Disney and Pixar exec John Lasseter, who introduced the first full-length computer animated film 20 years ago this November, remembers the times he was told a computer-generated film would never work. As we approach the 20th anniversary of “Toy Story,” the visionary imagines a time when future artists create feature-length films with an iPhone or GoPro. “People will tell you, ‘That’s not going to work,’ but yeah, that’s going to work,” Lasseter told an audience at AMPAS this week. “But the reason they say that is because it’s not what they are used to.” According to Variety, Lasseter “said that innovators need to read voraciously, be nimble with their technique and ‘be wrong as fast as they can’ — making and remaking stories rapidly to hone their skills and their stories.”

Mandalay Entertainment CEO Peter Guber — who believes virtual reality is “the secret sauce for live entertainment” — is reportedly investing millions of dollars in NextVR. The startup “films and broadcasts live events that, when viewed in VR, allow the user to look in any direction they like while also having a closer vantage point on the action than they might get on TV,” reports Re/code. Guber, who co-owns the Los Angeles Dodgers and Golden State Warriors, thinks “that it’s technologically feasible to let viewers ‘move’ around a stadium or theater to change their view, possibly through voice commands spoken to smartphones strapped to their heads.”

Ubisoft is one of the few major publishers to make an early commitment to virtual reality. The company announced that it is developing a “number of games” for VR platforms to be released during the first half of next year. During a recent earnings call, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot spoke of new possibilities in immersive entertainment, but referenced concern of the downsides of extended playing time with VR tech. “Despite those worries, Ubisoft seems to see potential value in developing for headsets like the Valve-powered HTC Vive (due later this year), the Oculus Rift, and Sony’s Project Morpheus (both due in early 2016),” explains Ars Technica.

Amazon has introduced a new ad platform for mobile app developers, as part of the company’s effort to take on Google and Facebook in the rapidly growing smartphone advertising market. “The service lets developers promote their apps on Android smartphones and tablets as well as Amazon tablets, paying Amazon each time a user clicks an advertisement displayed through the system,” notes Bloomberg. “Campaigns start at $100.” According to eMarketer, Amazon currently has less than a 1 percent share of the $28.7 billion U.S. mobile ad market, while Google dominates at 35 percent and Facebook maintains 17 percent.

The annual International CES tradeshow broke attendance records in January with an official total of 176,676 attendees. “Other records broken this year, according to the CEA, were more than 3,600 exhibitors, more than 2.23 million net square feet of exhibit space and 6,952 media and analyst attendees,” reports CNET. According to the Computer Electronics Association, which runs CES, next year’s event (January 6-9, 2016) will be capped at 176,000 registrants. This marks the first time CEA has introduced a registration cap for the show. CEA will also establish stricter registration procedures to manage attendance and help ensure a “quality experience.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “The Blu-ray Disc Association has completed an Ultra HD Blu-ray technical specification that will lead to the release of players and discs that support the new format. Manufacturers will be able to license Ultra HD Blu-ray beginning in July and, presumably, consumer products will begin to roll out later in the year.” The new format supports 4K resolution, high dynamic range, high frame rates and object-based immersive sound, explains THR. BDA notes that a “digital bridge” feature will enable content to be played “across the range of in-home and mobile devices.”