In 2015, the Australian Federal Court ordered Visa to pay a pecuniary penalty of $20 million (including legal fees) for engaging in anti-competitive conduct against Dynamic Currency Conversion operators, in proceedings brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
In January 2015, Huawei discontinued the "Ascend" brand for its flagship phones, and launched the new P series with the Huawei P8.
Cameron supported Britain's close relationship with Saudi Arabia. In January 2015, Cameron travelled to the Saudi capital Riyadh to pay his respects following the death of the nation's King Abdullah.
In January 2015, it was reported that Harry would take a new role in supporting wounded service personnel by working alongside members of the London District's Personal Recovery Unit for the MOD's Defence Recovery Capability scheme to ensure that wounded personnel have adequate recovery plans. The palace confirmed weeks later that the scheme was established in partnership with Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion.
In January 2015, Halimah was co-opted into the PAP's Central Executive Committee, the party's highest decision-making body.
In 2015, he was appointed as Director of the State Personnel Service.
In 2015, the company had signed Ranveer Singh a prominent Bollywood actor as a brand ambassador to the company's products.
In January 2015, Adidas launched the footwear industry's first reservation mobile app. The Adidas Confirmed app allows consumers to get access to and reserve the brand's limited edition sneakers by using geo targeting technology
On January 1, 2015, Sony announced that users would be compensated for the downtime with a 5-day extension to PlayStation Plus memberships.
In 2015, a new self-lacing shoe was introduced. Called the Nike Mag, which are replicas of the shoes featured in Back to the Future Part II, it had a preliminary limited release, only available by auction with all proceeds going to the Michael J. Fox Foundation. This was done again in 2016.
Kenin built on that success in 2015 by winning the USTA International Spring Championships, a Grade 1 tournament.
In 2015, Ars Technica wrote that "Earlier this week, the last of the Google Play edition Android phones in Google's online storefront were listed as "no longer available for sale" and that "Now they're all gone, and it looks a whole lot like the program has wrapped up".
Various developments had brought the Millennium Development Goals targets for 2015 within reach in some cases. For the goals to be realized, six criteria must be met: stronger and more inclusive growth in Africa and fragile states, more effort in health and education, integration of the development and environment agendas, more as well as better aid, movement on trade negotiations, and stronger and more focused support from multilateral institutions like the World Bank.
Kaka joined future MLS franchise Orlando City as their first Designated Player.
Markle had some difficulty getting roles early in her career. In 2015, she wrote: "Being 'ethnically ambiguous', as I was pegged in the industry, meant I could audition for virtually any role ... Sadly, it didn't matter: I wasn't black enough for the black roles and I wasn't white enough for the white ones, leaving me somewhere in the middle as the ethnic chameleon who couldn't book a job."
Phil Knight announced in mid-2015 that he would step down as chairman of Nike in 2016.
HTC and Valve announced the virtual reality headset HTC Vive and controllers in 2015. The set included tracking technology called Lighthouse, which utilized wall-mounted "base stations" for positional tracking using infrared light.
In 2015, Google announced Cardboard, a do-it-yourself stereoscopic viewer: the user places their smartphone in the cardboard holder, which they wear on their head. Michael Naimark was appointed Google's first-ever 'resident artist' in their new VR division. The Kickstarter campaign for Gloveone, a pair of gloves providing motion tracking and haptic feedback, was successfully funded, with over $150,000 in contributions.
Also in 2015, Razer unveiled its open-source project OSVR.
Amazon unveils Amazon Echo, a wireless speaker and voice command device that can take commands and queries, and be used to add items to the Amazon.com shopping cart, among other things. The Alexa Voice Service that is built into Amazon Echo can also be added to other Amazon devices.
In January 2015, Dollar Tree announced plans to divest 300 stores in order to appease US regulators scrutinizing its proposed takeover of Family Dollar stores.
Real Madrid and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo won the FIFA Ballon d'Or as the World Player of the Year for a second consecutive time, having won it previously last year.
In January 2015, Nintendo announced its exit from the Brazilian market after four years of distributing products in the country. Nintendo cited high import duties and a lack of local manufacturing operation as reasons for leaving. Nintendo continues its partnership with Juegos de Video Latinoamérica to distribute products to the rest of Latin America.
In 2015, Soleimani began gathering support from various sources to combat the newly resurgent ISIL and rebel groups which had both successfully taken large swaths of territory from Assad's forces. He was reportedly the main architect of the joint intervention involving Russia as a new partner with Assad and Hezbollah.
In January 2015, Google announced that 360-degree video would be natively supported on YouTube.
On January 16, 2015, Republicans presented legislation, in the form of a U.S. Congress HR discussion draft bill, that makes concessions to net neutrality but prohibits the FCC from accomplishing the goal or enacting any further regulation affecting Internet service providers (ISPs).
Slim's stake in the Times increased again to 16.8% of the company's Class A shares on January 20, 2015 when he exercised stock options to purchase 15.9 million shares, making him the largest shareholder in the company.
On January 21, 2015, Microsoft announced the release of their first Interactive whiteboard, Microsoft Surface Hub.
As of January 21, 2015, Facebook's algorithm was revised in an attempt to filter out false or misleading content, such as fake news stories and hoaxes.
Uber gets $1.6 billion from Goldman Sachs in debt financing.
Uber launches its first product in East Africa, in Nairobi, Kenya.
OnePlus made its products available in Southeast Asia for the first time, partnering with Lazada Indonesia on 23 January 2015 and was expected to expand during that year throughout the region.
In 2015 Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen threatened Fordham University and the New York Military Academy with legal action if they released Trump's academic records.
Trump said in 2015 that the medical deferment was due to a bone spur in a foot, though he could not remember which foot had been afflicted.
The Rock appeared at the 2015 Royal Rumble event during the main event match, where he helped his relative Roman Reigns fend off Big Show and Kane after Reigns eliminated them from the match. Reigns then won the match and The Rock endorsed him in the ring.
As of January 2015, the Oculus headquarters has been moved from Irvine, California to Menlo Park, where Facebook's Headquarters is also located. Oculus has stated that this move is for their employees to be closer to Silicon Valley.
In 2015, Hart starred in the film "The Wedding Ringer" with Will Ferrell.
In 2015, Trump said he "makes a lot of money with" the Saudis and that "they pay me millions and hundreds of millions." And at a political rally, Trump said about Saudi Arabia: "They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much."
Before retiring in 2015, after 28 years of service, Billington had come "under pressure" as librarian of Congress. This followed a Government Accountability Office report which revealed a "work environment lacking central oversight" and faulted Billington for "ignoring repeated calls to hire a chief information officer, as required by law".
On January 27, 2015, YouTube announced that HTML5 would be the default playback method on supported browsers. YouTube used to employ Adobe Dynamic Streaming for Flash, but with the switch to HTML5 video now streams video using Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH), an adaptive bit-rate HTTP-based streaming solution optimizing the bitrate and quality for the available network.
In 2015, Robert Gordon University revoked the honorary Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) they had granted him in 2010, stating that "Mr. Trump has made a number of statements that are wholly incompatible with the ethos and values of the university."
In a visit to the Lebanese capital Beirut on 29 January 2015, Soleimani laid wreaths at the graves of the slain Hezbollah members, including Jihad Mughniyah, which strengthened suspicions about a collaboration between Hezbollah and the Quds Force.
In January 2015 Grupo Carso publicly launched Claro Musica, an online music service that is a Latin American equivalent of iTunes and Spotify.
On January 31, 2015, AP News reported that the FCC will present the notion of applying ("with some caveats") Title II (common carrier) of the Communications Act of 1934 to the internet in a vote expected on February 26, 2015.
On 1 February 2015, Chan was awarded the honour of Knight Commander of the Order of the Territorial Crown by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia Tuanku Abdul Halim in conjunction with the country's Federal Territory Day.
On transfer deadline, 2 February 2015, Chelsea confirmed that Salah would play for the Italian club Fiorentina on an 18-month loan until the end of the 2015–16 season, as part of a transfer deal which saw Juan Cuadrado moving in the opposite direction, Salah chose the number 74 shirt in honor of the victims of the Port Said Stadium riot. Six days after signing, he made his Fiorentina debut coming off the bench in the 65th minute as a replacement for Joaquín in a 3–2 Serie A victory against Atalanta at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.
Uber opens robotics research facility In Pittsburgh to build self-driving cars. In May, Uber poaches 50 employees from Carnegie Mellon's National Robotics Engineering Center.
On February 4, 2015, the company received US$30 million in Series C funding from investors including Emergence Capital, Horizons Ventures (Li Ka-shing), Qualcomm Ventures, Jerry Yang, and Patrick Soon-Shiong. At that time, Zoom had 40 million users, with 65,000 organizations subscribed and a total of 1 billion meeting minutes since it was established.
Between February and May 2015, government forces launched a series of military operations in Kokang, in northern Shan State, after the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) attempted to retake territory it had lost in 2009.
In 2015, he became the world's first reigning monarch to visit Antarctica, specifically the Norwegian dependency Queen Maud Land.
On 14 February 2015, Kanye West collaborated with Adidas to create the first pair of Yeezys, eventually leading to his own clothing line which would transform the lifestyle and streetwear industry.
Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, the two biggest players in the low-cost app-based taxi hailing market in China, announce a merger into Didi Kuaidi. The merged company would be significantly larger than Uber in China.
In February 2015, YouTube released a secondary mobile app known as YouTube Kids. The app is designed to provide an experience optimized for children. It features a simplified user interface, curated selections of channels featuring age-appropriate content, and parental control features.
Release 0.10 of the software was made public on 16 February 2015. It introduced a consensus library which gave programmers easy access to the rules governing consensus on the network. In version, 0.11.2 developers added a new feature that allowed transactions to be made unspendable until a specific time in the future.
As Minister of the Economy, Macron was at the forefront of pushing through business-friendly reforms. On 17 February 2015, Prime Minister Manuel Valls pushed Macron's signature law package through a reluctant parliament using the special 49.3 procedure.
On 18 February 2015, Samsung acquired U.S.-based mobile payments firm "LoopPay" - This allows Samsung in smartphone transactions.
Uber raises an additional $1 billion in its $40 billion pre-money valuation Series E, increasing the total Series E money raised to $2.8 billion (after adding the first $1.2 billion and the next $600 million raised from Baidu). The additional investors are Times Internet, Foundation Capital, and Accelerated IT Ventures.
In February 2015, Trump said he was not ready to sign on for another season of the show (The Apprentice) because he considered running for president. Despite this, NBC planned a fifteenth season, but in June distanced itself from Trump, citing "derogatory statements regarding immigrants" in his campaign announcement.
In 2015, Prince William visited the Chinese cities Beijing, Shanghai, and Yunnan from 1 to 4 March. Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed him as he began the first visit to mainland China by a member of the British royal family in almost three decades.
On 1 March 2015, HTC unveiled Vive, a virtual reality head-mounted display in collaboration with Valve.
In March 2015, FARC stated that it would begin humanitarian demining in selected parts of Colombia.
In March 2015 Slim began to set his sights on Spain, purchasing Spanish real estate at rock-bottom prices within the ailing Spanish economy.
On 8 March 2015, Kaká scored a free kick for the equaliser in a 1–1 draw on his MLS debut against New York City FC at the Citrus Bowl, the first in Orlando City's competitive history.
On March 9, 2015, the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Tokyo unveiled a bronze statue depicting Ueno returning to meet Hachikō at the University of Tokyo, Japan to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Hachikō's death. The statue was sculpted by Tsutomu Ueda from Nagoya and depicts a very excited Hachikō jumping up to greet his master at the end of a workday. Ueno is dressed in a hat, suit, and trench coat, with his briefcase placed on the ground. Hachikō wears a studded harness as seen in his last photos.
In March 2015, Virgin Trains East Coast commenced operating the InterCity East Coast franchise; the company was a joint venture between Stagecoach (90%) and Virgin Group (10%).
The Official Eminem Box Set, a career-spanning, 10-disc vinyl box set, was released on March 12, 2015. The set includes seven of Eminem's eight studio albums (excluding Infinite), the 8 Mile soundtrack, the compilation Eminem Presents: The Re-Up, and the greatest hits collection Curtain Call: The Hits.
On March 13, 2015, YouTube enabled 360° videos which can be viewed from Google Cardboard, a virtual reality system. YouTube 360 can also be viewed from all other virtual reality headsets. Live streaming of 360° video at up to 4K resolution is also supported.
Formerly the gaming provision of the much broader Sony Entertainment Network, the PlayStation Network became Sony's premier entertainment service in 2015, unifying games, music, television and video. While synonymous with gaming, Sony said the PlayStation Network had evolved to become a "comprehensive digital entertainment brand".
In March 2015, support for 4K resolution was added, with the videos playing at 3840 × 2160 pixels.
On 17 March 2015, Nintendo announced a new "dedicated games platform with a brand new concept" with the codename "NX" that would be further revealed in 2016. Reggie Fils-Aimé, president of Nintendo of America, referred to NX as "our next home console" in a June 2015 interview with The Wall Street Journal. In a later article from October 2015, The Wall Street Journal relayed speculation from unnamed inside sources that the NX was intended to feature "industry-leading" hardware specifications and be usable as both a home and portable console. It was also reported that Nintendo had begun distributing software development kits (SDKs) for it to third-party developers, with the unnamed source further speculating that these moves suggested that the company was on track to introduce it as early as 2016.
On 17 March 2015, Nintendo announced a partnership with Japanese mobile developer DeNA to produce games for smart devices. The first of these, Miitomo, was released in March 2016.
In 2015, Hart starred in the film "Get Hard" with Will Ferrell.
On 17 March 2015, Kensington Palace announced that Harry would leave the Armed Forces in June. Before then, he would spend four weeks throughout April and May at army barracks in Darwin, Perth and Sydney whilst seconded to the Australian Defence Force (ADF). After leaving the Army, while considering his future, he would return to work in a voluntary capacity with the Ministry of Defence, supporting Case Officers in the Ministry's Recovery Capability Programme. He would be working with both those who administer and receive physical and mental care within the London District area.
Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina has a large Irish expatriate community. The community established the Sarajevo Irish Festival in 2015, which is held for three days around and including St. Patrick's Day. The festival organizes an annual parade, hosts Irish theatre companies, screens Irish films and organizes concerts of Irish folk musicians. The festival has hosted numerous Irish artists, filmmakers, theatre directors and musicians such as Conor Horgan, Ailis Ni Riain, Dermot Dunne, Mick Moloney, Chloë Agnew, and others.
On 19 March 2015, the Consumers Union of Korea published a report comparing the prices of 49 IKEA products in South Korea and other countries.
In 2015, Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell invited Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress without notifying the Obama administration. This defiance of protocol led Biden and more than 50 congressional Democrats to skip Netanyahu's speech.
On 24 March 2015, Adidas and McDonald's unveiled the 2015 McDonald's All-American uniforms. For the third year in a row, players will be wearing short-sleeved jerseys, made with the same lightweight and breathable material as the ones used in the NBA.
In March 2015, after annual test results indicated possible signs of early ovarian cancer, Jolie underwent a preventive salpingo-oophorectomy, as she had a 50% risk of developing ovarian cancer due to the same genetic anomaly. Despite hormone replacement therapy, the surgery brought on premature menopause.
On March 28, 2015, Best Buy announced the shutdown of the Future Shop chain in Canada; 65 of its 131 former locations were converted into Best Buy locations, while the rest (primarily those in close proximity to an existing Best Buy) were closed permanently.
The Rock appeared at WrestleMania 31 alongside Ronda Rousey, getting into an in-ring altercation with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. Rock and Rousey prevailed after he attacked Triple H and she overpowered McMahon.
In April 2015 Xiaomi announced it would make its Mi devices available through two of India's major e-commerce sites and through offline retailers for the first time.
In April 2015, the Public Ministry of Brazil opened an investigation into allegations of influence peddling by Lula, which claimed that between 2011 and 2014 he had lobbied for government contracts in foreign countries for the Odebrecht company and had also persuaded the Brazilian Development Bank to finance the projects in Ghana, Angola, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.
DC Entertainment announced its first franchise, the DC Super Hero Girls universe, in April 2015 with multi-platform content, toys and apparel to start appearing in 2016.
In 2014, DC announced an eight-issue miniseries titled "Convergence" which began in April 2015.
In April 2015, the company unveiled its Powerwall home and Powerpack industrial battery packs, and quickly received orders valued at US$800 million.
In April 2015, Google announced Project Fi, a mobile virtual network operator, that combines Wi-Fi and cellular networks from different telecommunication providers in an effort to enable seamless connectivity and fast Internet signal.
In April 2015, Slim bought the Marquette Building in Detroit and purchased PepsiCo Americas Beverages headquarters in Somers, New York for US$87 million.
Following the launch of Daredevil in April 2015, Netflix director of content operations Tracy Wright announced that Netflix had added support for audio description (a narration track that contains aural descriptions of key visual elements for the blind or visually impaired), and had begun to work with its partners to add descriptions to its other original series over time.
In September 2015 whilst promoting sportswear giant Reebok in South Korea, O'Neal joined the cast in the South Korean variety television show Off to School where he went to Seo Incheon High School. The show features various celebrities attending a selected high school as students for three days.
On 6 April 2015, Harry reported for duty to Australia's Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin at the Royal Military College, Duntroon in Canberra, Australia. Harry flew to Darwin later that day to begin his month-long secondment to the ADF's 1st Brigade. His visit included detachments to NORFORCE as well as to an aviation unit.
In 2015, Amazon.com held a "Prime Day" event in July and promised better deals than on Black Friday, with repeat Prime Days taking place in 2016 and 2017. Other companies followed with "Black Friday in July" deals which were as good as, or better than, those in November.
In 2015, 11 million Romanians say they have heard about Black Friday which is 73% of the 15 million people target segment. 6.7 million plan on buying something on biggest shopping event of the year in Romania.
In 2015, Swiss retailer Manor was the first to launch a special Black Friday promotion. The year after, most Swiss retailers launched special offers during the Black Friday Week. It is estimated that customers spent around 400 million Swiss Francs on Black Friday 2018.
Asda announced that it would not take part in the 2015 Black Friday.
In 2015, Black Friday was predicted to become the biggest day of shopping in Britain, with as much as £2bn spent in shops and online in 24 hours.
On 14 April 2015, Nokia confirmed that it was in talks with the French telecommunications equipment company Alcatel-Lucent regarding a potential merger. The next day, Nokia announced that it had agreed to purchase Alcatel-Lucent for €15.6 billion in an all-stock deal.
On April 13, 2015, the FCC published the final rule on its new "Net Neutrality" regulations.
On April 15, 2015, Slim formed his own oil company called Carso Oil & Gas.
Former IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato was arrested on 16 April 2015 for alleged fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering. On 23 February 2017, the Audiencia Nacional found Rato guilty of embezzlement and sentenced him to 4 1⁄2 years' imprisonment. In September 2018, the sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Spain.
On 23 April 2015, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun and VP Hugo Barra came together to announce a new smartphone named Mi 1s in India, the first phone to be launched in India before any other country. The Xiaomi Mi Band was also launched in the same event.
In 2015, the Australian Federal Court ordered Visa to pay a pecuniary penalty of $20 million (including legal fees) for engaging in anti-competitive conduct against Dynamic Currency Conversion operators, in proceedings brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
In January 2015, Huawei discontinued the "Ascend" brand for its flagship phones, and launched the new P series with the Huawei P8.
Cameron supported Britain's close relationship with Saudi Arabia. In January 2015, Cameron travelled to the Saudi capital Riyadh to pay his respects following the death of the nation's King Abdullah.
In January 2015, it was reported that Harry would take a new role in supporting wounded service personnel by working alongside members of the London District's Personal Recovery Unit for the MOD's Defence Recovery Capability scheme to ensure that wounded personnel have adequate recovery plans. The palace confirmed weeks later that the scheme was established in partnership with Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion.
In January 2015, Halimah was co-opted into the PAP's Central Executive Committee, the party's highest decision-making body.
In 2015, he was appointed as Director of the State Personnel Service.
In 2015, the company had signed Ranveer Singh a prominent Bollywood actor as a brand ambassador to the company's products.
In January 2015, Adidas launched the footwear industry's first reservation mobile app. The Adidas Confirmed app allows consumers to get access to and reserve the brand's limited edition sneakers by using geo targeting technology
On January 1, 2015, Sony announced that users would be compensated for the downtime with a 5-day extension to PlayStation Plus memberships.
In 2015, a new self-lacing shoe was introduced. Called the Nike Mag, which are replicas of the shoes featured in Back to the Future Part II, it had a preliminary limited release, only available by auction with all proceeds going to the Michael J. Fox Foundation. This was done again in 2016.
Kenin built on that success in 2015 by winning the USTA International Spring Championships, a Grade 1 tournament.
In 2015, Ars Technica wrote that "Earlier this week, the last of the Google Play edition Android phones in Google's online storefront were listed as "no longer available for sale" and that "Now they're all gone, and it looks a whole lot like the program has wrapped up".
Various developments had brought the Millennium Development Goals targets for 2015 within reach in some cases. For the goals to be realized, six criteria must be met: stronger and more inclusive growth in Africa and fragile states, more effort in health and education, integration of the development and environment agendas, more as well as better aid, movement on trade negotiations, and stronger and more focused support from multilateral institutions like the World Bank.
Kaka joined future MLS franchise Orlando City as their first Designated Player.
Markle had some difficulty getting roles early in her career. In 2015, she wrote: "Being 'ethnically ambiguous', as I was pegged in the industry, meant I could audition for virtually any role ... Sadly, it didn't matter: I wasn't black enough for the black roles and I wasn't white enough for the white ones, leaving me somewhere in the middle as the ethnic chameleon who couldn't book a job."
Phil Knight announced in mid-2015 that he would step down as chairman of Nike in 2016.
HTC and Valve announced the virtual reality headset HTC Vive and controllers in 2015. The set included tracking technology called Lighthouse, which utilized wall-mounted "base stations" for positional tracking using infrared light.
In 2015, Google announced Cardboard, a do-it-yourself stereoscopic viewer: the user places their smartphone in the cardboard holder, which they wear on their head. Michael Naimark was appointed Google's first-ever 'resident artist' in their new VR division. The Kickstarter campaign for Gloveone, a pair of gloves providing motion tracking and haptic feedback, was successfully funded, with over $150,000 in contributions.
Also in 2015, Razer unveiled its open-source project OSVR.
Amazon unveils Amazon Echo, a wireless speaker and voice command device that can take commands and queries, and be used to add items to the Amazon.com shopping cart, among other things. The Alexa Voice Service that is built into Amazon Echo can also be added to other Amazon devices.
In January 2015, Dollar Tree announced plans to divest 300 stores in order to appease US regulators scrutinizing its proposed takeover of Family Dollar stores.
Real Madrid and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo won the FIFA Ballon d'Or as the World Player of the Year for a second consecutive time, having won it previously last year.
In January 2015, Nintendo announced its exit from the Brazilian market after four years of distributing products in the country. Nintendo cited high import duties and a lack of local manufacturing operation as reasons for leaving. Nintendo continues its partnership with Juegos de Video Latinoamérica to distribute products to the rest of Latin America.
In 2015, Soleimani began gathering support from various sources to combat the newly resurgent ISIL and rebel groups which had both successfully taken large swaths of territory from Assad's forces. He was reportedly the main architect of the joint intervention involving Russia as a new partner with Assad and Hezbollah.
In January 2015, Google announced that 360-degree video would be natively supported on YouTube.
On January 16, 2015, Republicans presented legislation, in the form of a U.S. Congress HR discussion draft bill, that makes concessions to net neutrality but prohibits the FCC from accomplishing the goal or enacting any further regulation affecting Internet service providers (ISPs).
Slim's stake in the Times increased again to 16.8% of the company's Class A shares on January 20, 2015 when he exercised stock options to purchase 15.9 million shares, making him the largest shareholder in the company.
On January 21, 2015, Microsoft announced the release of their first Interactive whiteboard, Microsoft Surface Hub.
As of January 21, 2015, Facebook's algorithm was revised in an attempt to filter out false or misleading content, such as fake news stories and hoaxes.
Uber gets $1.6 billion from Goldman Sachs in debt financing.
Uber launches its first product in East Africa, in Nairobi, Kenya.
OnePlus made its products available in Southeast Asia for the first time, partnering with Lazada Indonesia on 23 January 2015 and was expected to expand during that year throughout the region.
In 2015 Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen threatened Fordham University and the New York Military Academy with legal action if they released Trump's academic records.
Trump said in 2015 that the medical deferment was due to a bone spur in a foot, though he could not remember which foot had been afflicted.
The Rock appeared at the 2015 Royal Rumble event during the main event match, where he helped his relative Roman Reigns fend off Big Show and Kane after Reigns eliminated them from the match. Reigns then won the match and The Rock endorsed him in the ring.
As of January 2015, the Oculus headquarters has been moved from Irvine, California to Menlo Park, where Facebook's Headquarters is also located. Oculus has stated that this move is for their employees to be closer to Silicon Valley.
In 2015, Hart starred in the film "The Wedding Ringer" with Will Ferrell.
In 2015, Trump said he "makes a lot of money with" the Saudis and that "they pay me millions and hundreds of millions." And at a political rally, Trump said about Saudi Arabia: "They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much."
Before retiring in 2015, after 28 years of service, Billington had come "under pressure" as librarian of Congress. This followed a Government Accountability Office report which revealed a "work environment lacking central oversight" and faulted Billington for "ignoring repeated calls to hire a chief information officer, as required by law".
On January 27, 2015, YouTube announced that HTML5 would be the default playback method on supported browsers. YouTube used to employ Adobe Dynamic Streaming for Flash, but with the switch to HTML5 video now streams video using Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH), an adaptive bit-rate HTTP-based streaming solution optimizing the bitrate and quality for the available network.
In 2015, Robert Gordon University revoked the honorary Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) they had granted him in 2010, stating that "Mr. Trump has made a number of statements that are wholly incompatible with the ethos and values of the university."
In a visit to the Lebanese capital Beirut on 29 January 2015, Soleimani laid wreaths at the graves of the slain Hezbollah members, including Jihad Mughniyah, which strengthened suspicions about a collaboration between Hezbollah and the Quds Force.
In January 2015 Grupo Carso publicly launched Claro Musica, an online music service that is a Latin American equivalent of iTunes and Spotify.
On January 31, 2015, AP News reported that the FCC will present the notion of applying ("with some caveats") Title II (common carrier) of the Communications Act of 1934 to the internet in a vote expected on February 26, 2015.
On 1 February 2015, Chan was awarded the honour of Knight Commander of the Order of the Territorial Crown by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia Tuanku Abdul Halim in conjunction with the country's Federal Territory Day.
On transfer deadline, 2 February 2015, Chelsea confirmed that Salah would play for the Italian club Fiorentina on an 18-month loan until the end of the 2015–16 season, as part of a transfer deal which saw Juan Cuadrado moving in the opposite direction, Salah chose the number 74 shirt in honor of the victims of the Port Said Stadium riot. Six days after signing, he made his Fiorentina debut coming off the bench in the 65th minute as a replacement for Joaquín in a 3–2 Serie A victory against Atalanta at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.
Uber opens robotics research facility In Pittsburgh to build self-driving cars. In May, Uber poaches 50 employees from Carnegie Mellon's National Robotics Engineering Center.
On February 4, 2015, the company received US$30 million in Series C funding from investors including Emergence Capital, Horizons Ventures (Li Ka-shing), Qualcomm Ventures, Jerry Yang, and Patrick Soon-Shiong. At that time, Zoom had 40 million users, with 65,000 organizations subscribed and a total of 1 billion meeting minutes since it was established.
Between February and May 2015, government forces launched a series of military operations in Kokang, in northern Shan State, after the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) attempted to retake territory it had lost in 2009.
In 2015, he became the world's first reigning monarch to visit Antarctica, specifically the Norwegian dependency Queen Maud Land.
On 14 February 2015, Kanye West collaborated with Adidas to create the first pair of Yeezys, eventually leading to his own clothing line which would transform the lifestyle and streetwear industry.
Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, the two biggest players in the low-cost app-based taxi hailing market in China, announce a merger into Didi Kuaidi. The merged company would be significantly larger than Uber in China.
In February 2015, YouTube released a secondary mobile app known as YouTube Kids. The app is designed to provide an experience optimized for children. It features a simplified user interface, curated selections of channels featuring age-appropriate content, and parental control features.
Release 0.10 of the software was made public on 16 February 2015. It introduced a consensus library which gave programmers easy access to the rules governing consensus on the network. In version, 0.11.2 developers added a new feature that allowed transactions to be made unspendable until a specific time in the future.
As Minister of the Economy, Macron was at the forefront of pushing through business-friendly reforms. On 17 February 2015, Prime Minister Manuel Valls pushed Macron's signature law package through a reluctant parliament using the special 49.3 procedure.
On 18 February 2015, Samsung acquired U.S.-based mobile payments firm "LoopPay" - This allows Samsung in smartphone transactions.
Uber raises an additional $1 billion in its $40 billion pre-money valuation Series E, increasing the total Series E money raised to $2.8 billion (after adding the first $1.2 billion and the next $600 million raised from Baidu). The additional investors are Times Internet, Foundation Capital, and Accelerated IT Ventures.
In February 2015, Trump said he was not ready to sign on for another season of the show (The Apprentice) because he considered running for president. Despite this, NBC planned a fifteenth season, but in June distanced itself from Trump, citing "derogatory statements regarding immigrants" in his campaign announcement.
In 2015, Prince William visited the Chinese cities Beijing, Shanghai, and Yunnan from 1 to 4 March. Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed him as he began the first visit to mainland China by a member of the British royal family in almost three decades.
On 1 March 2015, HTC unveiled Vive, a virtual reality head-mounted display in collaboration with Valve.
In March 2015, FARC stated that it would begin humanitarian demining in selected parts of Colombia.
In March 2015 Slim began to set his sights on Spain, purchasing Spanish real estate at rock-bottom prices within the ailing Spanish economy.
On 8 March 2015, Kaká scored a free kick for the equaliser in a 1–1 draw on his MLS debut against New York City FC at the Citrus Bowl, the first in Orlando City's competitive history.
On March 9, 2015, the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Tokyo unveiled a bronze statue depicting Ueno returning to meet Hachikō at the University of Tokyo, Japan to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Hachikō's death. The statue was sculpted by Tsutomu Ueda from Nagoya and depicts a very excited Hachikō jumping up to greet his master at the end of a workday. Ueno is dressed in a hat, suit, and trench coat, with his briefcase placed on the ground. Hachikō wears a studded harness as seen in his last photos.
In March 2015, Virgin Trains East Coast commenced operating the InterCity East Coast franchise; the company was a joint venture between Stagecoach (90%) and Virgin Group (10%).
The Official Eminem Box Set, a career-spanning, 10-disc vinyl box set, was released on March 12, 2015. The set includes seven of Eminem's eight studio albums (excluding Infinite), the 8 Mile soundtrack, the compilation Eminem Presents: The Re-Up, and the greatest hits collection Curtain Call: The Hits.
On March 13, 2015, YouTube enabled 360° videos which can be viewed from Google Cardboard, a virtual reality system. YouTube 360 can also be viewed from all other virtual reality headsets. Live streaming of 360° video at up to 4K resolution is also supported.
Formerly the gaming provision of the much broader Sony Entertainment Network, the PlayStation Network became Sony's premier entertainment service in 2015, unifying games, music, television and video. While synonymous with gaming, Sony said the PlayStation Network had evolved to become a "comprehensive digital entertainment brand".
In March 2015, support for 4K resolution was added, with the videos playing at 3840 × 2160 pixels.
On 17 March 2015, Nintendo announced a new "dedicated games platform with a brand new concept" with the codename "NX" that would be further revealed in 2016. Reggie Fils-Aimé, president of Nintendo of America, referred to NX as "our next home console" in a June 2015 interview with The Wall Street Journal. In a later article from October 2015, The Wall Street Journal relayed speculation from unnamed inside sources that the NX was intended to feature "industry-leading" hardware specifications and be usable as both a home and portable console. It was also reported that Nintendo had begun distributing software development kits (SDKs) for it to third-party developers, with the unnamed source further speculating that these moves suggested that the company was on track to introduce it as early as 2016.
On 17 March 2015, Nintendo announced a partnership with Japanese mobile developer DeNA to produce games for smart devices. The first of these, Miitomo, was released in March 2016.
In 2015, Hart starred in the film "Get Hard" with Will Ferrell.
On 17 March 2015, Kensington Palace announced that Harry would leave the Armed Forces in June. Before then, he would spend four weeks throughout April and May at army barracks in Darwin, Perth and Sydney whilst seconded to the Australian Defence Force (ADF). After leaving the Army, while considering his future, he would return to work in a voluntary capacity with the Ministry of Defence, supporting Case Officers in the Ministry's Recovery Capability Programme. He would be working with both those who administer and receive physical and mental care within the London District area.
Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina has a large Irish expatriate community. The community established the Sarajevo Irish Festival in 2015, which is held for three days around and including St. Patrick's Day. The festival organizes an annual parade, hosts Irish theatre companies, screens Irish films and organizes concerts of Irish folk musicians. The festival has hosted numerous Irish artists, filmmakers, theatre directors and musicians such as Conor Horgan, Ailis Ni Riain, Dermot Dunne, Mick Moloney, Chloë Agnew, and others.
On 19 March 2015, the Consumers Union of Korea published a report comparing the prices of 49 IKEA products in South Korea and other countries.
In 2015, Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell invited Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress without notifying the Obama administration. This defiance of protocol led Biden and more than 50 congressional Democrats to skip Netanyahu's speech.
On 24 March 2015, Adidas and McDonald's unveiled the 2015 McDonald's All-American uniforms. For the third year in a row, players will be wearing short-sleeved jerseys, made with the same lightweight and breathable material as the ones used in the NBA.
In March 2015, after annual test results indicated possible signs of early ovarian cancer, Jolie underwent a preventive salpingo-oophorectomy, as she had a 50% risk of developing ovarian cancer due to the same genetic anomaly. Despite hormone replacement therapy, the surgery brought on premature menopause.
On March 28, 2015, Best Buy announced the shutdown of the Future Shop chain in Canada; 65 of its 131 former locations were converted into Best Buy locations, while the rest (primarily those in close proximity to an existing Best Buy) were closed permanently.
The Rock appeared at WrestleMania 31 alongside Ronda Rousey, getting into an in-ring altercation with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. Rock and Rousey prevailed after he attacked Triple H and she overpowered McMahon.
In April 2015 Xiaomi announced it would make its Mi devices available through two of India's major e-commerce sites and through offline retailers for the first time.
In April 2015, the Public Ministry of Brazil opened an investigation into allegations of influence peddling by Lula, which claimed that between 2011 and 2014 he had lobbied for government contracts in foreign countries for the Odebrecht company and had also persuaded the Brazilian Development Bank to finance the projects in Ghana, Angola, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.
DC Entertainment announced its first franchise, the DC Super Hero Girls universe, in April 2015 with multi-platform content, toys and apparel to start appearing in 2016.
In 2014, DC announced an eight-issue miniseries titled "Convergence" which began in April 2015.
In April 2015, the company unveiled its Powerwall home and Powerpack industrial battery packs, and quickly received orders valued at US$800 million.
In April 2015, Google announced Project Fi, a mobile virtual network operator, that combines Wi-Fi and cellular networks from different telecommunication providers in an effort to enable seamless connectivity and fast Internet signal.
In April 2015, Slim bought the Marquette Building in Detroit and purchased PepsiCo Americas Beverages headquarters in Somers, New York for US$87 million.
Following the launch of Daredevil in April 2015, Netflix director of content operations Tracy Wright announced that Netflix had added support for audio description (a narration track that contains aural descriptions of key visual elements for the blind or visually impaired), and had begun to work with its partners to add descriptions to its other original series over time.
In September 2015 whilst promoting sportswear giant Reebok in South Korea, O'Neal joined the cast in the South Korean variety television show Off to School where he went to Seo Incheon High School. The show features various celebrities attending a selected high school as students for three days.
On 6 April 2015, Harry reported for duty to Australia's Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin at the Royal Military College, Duntroon in Canberra, Australia. Harry flew to Darwin later that day to begin his month-long secondment to the ADF's 1st Brigade. His visit included detachments to NORFORCE as well as to an aviation unit.
In 2015, Amazon.com held a "Prime Day" event in July and promised better deals than on Black Friday, with repeat Prime Days taking place in 2016 and 2017. Other companies followed with "Black Friday in July" deals which were as good as, or better than, those in November.
In 2015, 11 million Romanians say they have heard about Black Friday which is 73% of the 15 million people target segment. 6.7 million plan on buying something on biggest shopping event of the year in Romania.
In 2015, Swiss retailer Manor was the first to launch a special Black Friday promotion. The year after, most Swiss retailers launched special offers during the Black Friday Week. It is estimated that customers spent around 400 million Swiss Francs on Black Friday 2018.
Asda announced that it would not take part in the 2015 Black Friday.
In 2015, Black Friday was predicted to become the biggest day of shopping in Britain, with as much as £2bn spent in shops and online in 24 hours.
On 14 April 2015, Nokia confirmed that it was in talks with the French telecommunications equipment company Alcatel-Lucent regarding a potential merger. The next day, Nokia announced that it had agreed to purchase Alcatel-Lucent for €15.6 billion in an all-stock deal.
On April 13, 2015, the FCC published the final rule on its new "Net Neutrality" regulations.
On April 15, 2015, Slim formed his own oil company called Carso Oil & Gas.
Former IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato was arrested on 16 April 2015 for alleged fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering. On 23 February 2017, the Audiencia Nacional found Rato guilty of embezzlement and sentenced him to 4 1⁄2 years' imprisonment. In September 2018, the sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Spain.
On 23 April 2015, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun and VP Hugo Barra came together to announce a new smartphone named Mi 1s in India, the first phone to be launched in India before any other country. The Xiaomi Mi Band was also launched in the same event.
