Hiroshi Lockheimer, SVP of Android, is either an expert troll or the name of Android N is going to be Nutella.
The executive has been posting on Twitter, using some not-so-subtle hints as to the name of the upcoming mobile operating system.
Here are some of the least subtle references:
Twitter has invested $70 million in popular streaming music service SoundCloud in an effort by both companies to share users.
"Earlier this year, we made an investment in SoundCloud through Twitter Ventures to help support some of our efforts with creators," said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. "They've been great partners of ours over the years, and their community-supported approach mirrors ours in many ways."
SoundCloud has 175 million users while Twitter has 300 million monthly active users, and over 500 million accounts. The streaming service has struggled in recent years, however, with losses in the tens of millions despite increasing revenues. The investment will certainly help keep the company afloat for some time and "enable SoundCloud to remain focused on building value for creators and listeners alike," adds the company.
Apple will continue its crusade against the ultra-vulnerable Adobe Flash soon, blocking the plugin by default starting with the next version of desktop Safari.
Flash will still be allowed to run, but the user will have to activate it on a site-by-site basis.
Apple is following in the footsteps of Google, who announced last month that upcoming Chrome versions will act similarly although Chrome will give exceptions to major websites.
In addition to Flash, Apple is also blocking other plugins like Silverlight and Java, although neither has been as prone to security issues like Flash has been for the last decade.
Music streaming service Rhapsody will soon begin using the Napster brand name.
The service currently has 3.5 million customers, a respectable number, but well below Spotify, Apple and Google.
"No changes to your playlists, favorites, albums, and artists," says a blog post on Rhapsody's website. "Same music. Same service. Same price. 100% the music you love. Stay tuned!"
Napster, of course, started the music piracy revolution in the late 90s and has been widely credited with being part of the start of the downfall of the music industry. Rhapsody acquired the name Napster and some other IP in 2011.
For now, all we know is "Napster is coming" but there was little else in terms of details.
One of the less reported on pieces of news from Apple's WWDC event yesterday was the fact that you can now delete Apple bloat from your iOS devices.
With the launch of iOS 10, you will be to remove all apps from your iPhone and iPad, including Apple's own pre-installed apps that you never use.
A few of the apps that are expected to see quick deletion are Watch (for non-Watch owners), Compass, Tips, Stocks and Podcasts although there are plenty of others that could go.
As a secondary function, Apple has added the native apps to the App Store, allowing you to download them all again if you ever want them back.
Sony has confirmed the release date for the upcoming PlayStation VR headset, October 13th.
The headset was officially unveiled at GDC this March.
At $399 for the headset, or $499 bundled with a camera and Move controllers (if you don't already own them), the device won't be cheap but so far from everything we've seen it looks truly revolutionary.
Sony says there will be 50 games available before the end of the year, putting in on par with offerings from Oculus and HTC.
At E3, Ubisoft showed off new gameplay footage for Watch Dogs 2, telling gamers that they will be able to "hack everything."
The game is set in San Francisco and you control a hacker while engaging in gun battles, drone snooping, sports car racing and parkour, lots of parkour.
Ubi says the game will be available on November 15th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.
Daetwyler Holding has agreed to purchase the largest Raspberry Pi supplier, Premier Farnell, for 615 million pounds ($871 million).
The company currently supplies for power-systems manufacturers and machinery makers but has been looking to expand into other markets.
Raspberry Pis are tiny computers that cost $35 and can be loaded with different operating systems and are intended to help students learn how to code on a budget.
"The combination represents a strong strategic fit and is highly attractive," Premier Farnell said in the statement, and the deal valued Premier Farnell at a 51 percent premium to yesterday's closing price.
Sony started their E3 keynote yesterday giving the fans exactly what they wanted: a new God of War game.
In the brief gameplay video, we see Kratos training his son to hunt, and the two then take down a few monsters using the games' patented slashing and button mashing action.
For the time being, the game does not look like a God of War 4, but it certainly could be an expansion of the God of War universe.
Legendary game developer Hideo Kojima stole the show yesterday at E3, showing off a new game titled "Death Stranding" featuring The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus.
Not too much was revealed except for a short video featuring a grief-stricken Norman Reedus holding his dead child and a zoom out to a decimated landscape.
The game is the first for Kojima productions since the latest MGS and the first since Kojima's highly-anticipated 'Silent Hills' game fell through following some in-fighting.
We will certainly learn more soon.
Gaming fans rejoice: 'The Last Guardian' will finally make its way to Sony's PlayStation 4 on October 25th.
The company announced the end of the Ico trilogy in 2009, but the game has been killed by delays for years, making it one of the most highly-anticipated games in PlayStation history.
Sony did not reveal much at E3 yesterday but did show off some touching scenes and some gameplay.
As we have known for years, TLG revolves around a boy left in ancient ruins with a giant bird-dog hybrid creature named Trico. The two must escape by solving puzzles.
Some footage of the game:
As expected, Apple used their WWDC event today to officially change the branding of their Mac operating system OS X.
The OS will now go by macOS, a smart move by the company that will simplify its ecosystem which now includes watchOS, tvOS, iOS and macOS.
In addition to the name change, Apple also announced the upcoming macOS will be called Sierra and it will include built-in Siri support. Available for iOS since 2011, Siri for desktop will work similarly. Click on the Siri icon and you'll be able to use the 'personal assistant' to look up whatever you need, or set timers, reminders, calendar items, etc. You will also be able to search your on files using Siri, which could be useful.
Finally, Apple is updating 'Continuity' by adding a universal clipboard for copying between iOS and macOS devices and adding automatic unlock options if you have an Apple Watch. iCloud has also been updated on the file management front, letting users sync between desktop and documents folders on multiple devices.
Expect a Sierra beta soon and a final release in September.
Despite a tepid opening week in the U.S., the Duncan Jones directed 'Warcraft' film has set the record for largest debut in China by a foreign film.
The film brought in an astounding $156 million in its first five days in China, on its way to a $300 million gross worldwide.
In scope, the number is huge. The previous record holder was Avengers: Age of Ultron and the blockbuster film had a lifetime gross of $240 million in the nation. That figure seems to be beatable relatively quickly at its current pace.
The film's distributor, Legendary, used financing partnerships with Chinese companies like Tencent, and sponsorship and promotional partnerships with other Chinese companies to build hype in China, which appears to have worked nicely.
As leaked yesterday, Microsoft has confirmed and launched the new slimmed down Xbox One S console, available for pre-order now.
The new console is 40 percent smaller than the original Xbox One, and now comes in the "robot white" color scheme. On the outside, the Xbox One S has lost the gigantic power brick of its predecessor and will come with the option to buy a vertical stand.
On the inside, Microsoft has upgraded the raw processing power of the console, adding 4K video support (including 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays), HDR support for gaming and video and a built-in IR blaster. Aesthetically, the USB ports have been moved to a more convinient spot up front, along with the controller pairing button.
"The Xbox One S for us was a realization that first, we want to make a smaller Xbox, but there was also some capability that we saw growing out in the market around HDR and 4K video," Xbox head Phil Spencer noted. "So we said, if we're going to do an upgrade to our console, let's go ahead and embrace some of the technologies that are coming and make those part of our core SKU."
In addition, the console comes with a modified controller that has textured grips and the addition of Bluetooth.
Microsoft has announced today that its highly-anticipated 'Halo Wars 2' will be released late February next year, with a beta now live following the company's E3 keynote.
The sequel will follow the events of Halo 5, and will be an RTS game just like its predecessor.
In the new game, humanity is fighting back against a new race of aliens called "the Banished," and we have a nice gameplay trailer for those interested.
The game has been developed by Halo studio 343 Industries in partnership with The Creative Assembly, the team behind the popular Total War games, suggesting Microsoft has really amped up the strategy aspects.
Earlier today, Microsoft agreed to acquire professional social network and job posting site LinkedIn for $26.2 billion.
The companies say LinkedIn will keep its "brand, culture and independence" and current CEO Jeff Weiner will remain at the helm. The executive will now report to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
LinkedIn revealed some membership and financial figures following the acquisition, including 433 million current members worldwide, a jump of 19 percent year-over-year, 49 percent growth in mobile usage and 101 percent growth in active job listings.
"The LinkedIn team has grown a fantastic business centered on connecting the world's professionals," Nadella added. "Together we can accelerate the growth of LinkedIn, as well as Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics as we seek to empower every person and organization on the planet."
Ahead of E3, EA has unveiled the latest trailer for BioWare's upcoming Mass Effect sequel, a title in which BioWare says will give gamers "more freedom" than they've had in past games.
Andromeda uses the Frostbite engine used in recent hits like Battlefront, Battlefield 1 and Mirror's Edge, so the graphics will certainly be stunning.
The game is set for release in March 2017.
Microsoft's oft-rumored slim Xbox One has leaked ahead of an expected launch during E3 next week.
The reported Xbox One S (S for 'Slim') will be 40 percent thinner than the original, and we have some leaked images to back up the claims.
With the pictures, we also have some leaked specs which suggest the slim console will include 4K video playback, HDR support, include a 2TB hard drive, and a new "streamlined controller."
Finally, the power supply appears to built-in to the console, a first for the Xbox One. We will know more for sure tomorrow.
In an effort to diversify their supplier base, Apple's upcoming iPhone 7 will use modems from Intel rather than Qualcomm in some models.
According to sources, the Intel modem chips will be built into the iPhones developed for AT&T, as well as for some overseas carriers. AT&T expects to sell about 25 million iPhones this year, while Apple sells over 200 million a year globally.
Importantly for Qualcomm, their modems will still be in Verizon models as well as all models sold in China.
The news is big for Intel, which currently has under 1 percent share of the smartphone baseband market.
According to a new article, Apple will unveil iMessage for Android next week at WWDC.
While unconfirmed, a move to bring the encrypted messaging service to the world's most-used mobile OS would make good business sense for the tech giant. There are millions of Android users that would prefer to use the emojis and other features of iMessage in a group chat with friends and family with iPhones.
Apple recently launched Apple Music for Android, making it clear the company is willing to expand their ecosystem when the bottom line demands it.
For now, take the report as rumor but we will learn more for sure next week at the company's WWDC keynote.
Twitter has notified over 33 million account holders that their accounts are at risk following a database leak not related to the micro-blogging company.
The data dump was part of a much larger release that included millions of MySpace and LinkedIn usernames and passwords and tens of millions of logins for Russian-language sites.
Twitter, for their part, says there is "no indication that we have been compromised," suggesting the names and passwords were stolen from other sites but users used the same details across multiple sites.
There have been some prominent takeovers in the last few days due to the leak. Attackers took over Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Twitter account, Twitter co-founder Evan William's account and the account of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, among others.
Apple has revealed even more evidence that the longstanding OS X name will soon be MacOS, as the company tries to keep the brand naming in line with the rest of their products.
The tech giant is likely to unveil the change next week at WWDC 2016, alongside updates to iOS, watchOS and tvOS.
Supporting documentation released yesterday show the macOS name (for the third time now in an official doc), this time in relation to the changes in revenue split for subscription-based apps.
Apple quickly replaced macOS with OS X in the docs but not before it had been screened.
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Andrew House has confirmed the rumored "PlayStation 4 UHD" is indeed coming; but not at E3.
The mid-generation upgrade, codenamed "Neo," will be capable of 4K video output as previously rumored, in addition to a more powerful GPU.
Neo won't launch at E3, but it is expected before the end of 2016. House did also say that the console will cost over $350 in the U.S. when it launches.
Even though Sailfish OS creator Jolla has had its fair share of challenges in the past two years (including a failed tablet and a near bankruptcy) it appears that its operating system lives on.
Russian phone maker Plural has released its new Oysters SF phone powered by Sailfish, thanks to a partnership with Jolla.
Here are the full specs:
5-inch 720p display
MediaTek MT6753 ARM Cortex-A53 octa-core processor
2GB of RAM
16GB of storage
13-megapixel rear camera
5-megapixel front-facing camera
microSD slot
3,000 mAh battery
Regardless, the smartphone world has been and will always be a two-horse race.
Microsoft has announced the open beta of Minecraft: Education Edition, which it hopes to get into schools by the end of the third quarter.
The software giant hopes teachers will access the beta to create lesson plans that will engage students using the block world, for example recreating scenarios from books or historical landmarks.
For the most part, Education Edition is identical to the standard game, but it includes an "in-game camera" for screenshots, in-game chalkboards for letting teachers write and place text, and a "Classroom Mode," for teachers that will "grant resources to students, view where everyone is on a map, send chat messages, and teleport people to specific places, which will be useful should students run off or get lost."
The beta is free until September and then licensing will be anywhere from $1 to $5 per year, per student for schools.
Uber has been fined €800,000 ($907,000) in France over its cheap UberPop service, a service that was banned in 2014.
UberPop connected app users with non-professional drivers that did not have taxi/limo requirements, causing an uproar from the taxi unions. Two Uber executives were even arrested for "operating an illegal business" as a court deliberated on the legality of the service.
The unions won in 2014, but an appeals court overturned and the case went to France's highest court which upheld the ban.
Comically, the taxi unions were seeking 100 million euro in damages but will get less than 1 million.
Tinder has discontinued use of the popular dating app for anyone under the age of 18.
Until now, the app had allowed everyone above the age of 13 to use the app, but all minors could only be matched with other minors.
Says Tinder: "On a platform that has facilitated over 11 billion connections, we have the responsibility of constantly assessing our different user experiences. Consistent with this responsibility, we have decided to discontinue service for under 18 users. We believe this is the best policy moving forward. This change will take effect next week."
The company said only 3 percent of users were under 18 years of age.
According to multiple reports, Samsung is looking into releasing two new smartphones that will have bendable screens in 2017.
Using OLED screens, one of the devices could even fold in half (like a clam shell design) and will have a "5-inch screen when used as a handset, that unfurls into a display that's as large as 8 inches, similar to a tablet."
The sources claim that Samsung has resolved any issues with making the bendable screens durable, but is now working on an interface that makes sense for such a device.
Many expect the devices to be unveiled at next year's MWC in Spain, scheduled for the first week of February.
Earlier, we reported that Apple was making major changes to its App Store policies, and it appears that Google is matching and exceeding those changes for the Google Play Store.
Google will also move to a 85/15 split in favor of developers for subscriptions, but developers will not have to wait a year to get paid. Google's new policy has the split working immediately, unlike Apple where the customer must stay subscribed for over a year for the developer to get the better pay structure.
Another change that has been ongoing is the fact that Google lets developers handle payments themselves, while Apple still forces everyone to use the Apple iTunes billing system.
According to Apple's Phil Schiller, major changes are coming to the App Store, including big changes to how subscriptions work for developers.
Schiller says app subscriptions are now open to all product categories, giving developers more options to earn revenue. For example, a productivity company could offer a bundle of their popular apps for $19.99 per year, rather than charging an upfront fee for each app. Apple is also opening up tiered pricing options for app subscriptions.
In addition, Apple is dropping the amount they take on subscription fees, from the current 30 percent to 15 percent, but only if the customer stays subscribed for longer than a year. This has been a huge point of pain for big developers like Netflix, who had to charge more for their services via Apple because Apple was taking a 30 percent cut.
Finally, Apple is adding ads to App Store search results, and Apple is opening the ad space to developers, only. "We've thought about how to carefully do it in a way that, first and foremost, customers will be happy with," Schiller says. The auction system will "fair to developers, and fair for indie developers, too," developers that may not have as much in ad budget as, say, Supercell.
Media conglomerate Vivendi SA has bought out the founding family of Gameloft, increasing their majority stake in the French mobile gaming company.
The Guillemot family owned nearly 22 percent of the company while Vivendi controlled 56 percent of Gameloft's voting rights before the acquisition. Somewhat strangely, the company says they sold their shares "with regret" and the "family maintains that Vivendi's hostile approach goes against the best interest of Gameloft, both for its activity and for its teams."
Vivendi valued the company at about $800 million USD. Gameloft, which has hit games using their own IP and IP of other companies, had sales of about $300 million last year.
The Guillemot family also controls Ubisoft, of which Vivendi now has a 17.7 percent stake, with many in the industry expecting another hostile bid for the large gaming publisher. Ubisoft, however, has a $4.5 billion value, multiple times that of Gameloft's.
Yahoo is set to begin auctioning off a portfolio of 3000 patents that are expected to bring in over a billion dollars for the struggling web pioneer.
A few of the patents date as far back as 1996 (when Yahoo IPOd) and will include original search technology.
The company has set a mid-June deadline for preliminary bids, but it is unclear which companies are interested in the catalog of patents at this time. The patents mainly cover search, e-commerce and online advertising and one patent specifically is expected to be worth a significant amount given the fact that Google licensed it in perpetuity for $300 million.
"This represents a unique opportunity for companies operating in the internet industry to acquire some of the most pioneering and foundational patents related to web search and advertising," said Yahoo.
Yahoo is currently up for sale, with Verizon the top bidder for other core assets at a price of around $3 billion.
Microsoft has announced that they will not be adding a TV DVR feature to the Xbox One, despite announcing it last August.
"After careful consideration, we've decided to put development of DVR for Over-the-Air TV on hold to focus our attention on launching new, higher fan-requested gaming experiences across Xbox One and Windows 10," said Microsoft. "We're always listening to fan feedback and we look forward to bringing more requested experiences on Xbox One, Windows 10 and Xbox Live this year."
The announcement last year had promised a launch of the feature in 2016, including the ability to DVR OTA TV using digital TV tuners that Microsoft released in NA and the EU.
For now, it will be exciting to see what gaming-related features will be announced at E3.
It took 8 months, but Android Marshmallow has finally hit its first adoption milestone, reaching 10 percent share of the operating system.
Android 5.x Lollipop remains the most popular, with 35.4 percent share, followed by the nearly three-year-old Android 4.4 KitKat at 31.6 percent. Perhaps more shockingly is Android 4.1/4.2/4.3 Jelly Bean which still has 18.9 percent share despite originally launching in 2012.
At its current rate, it is expected that Marshmallow will at least overtake Jelly Bean by the end of the year, as more and more smartphone OEMs update their devices to the latest OS.
Less than a month after the company laid off half its staff, it appears that mobile payments company CurrentC could be DOA.
Current beta testers received an email this week titled "An Important Message from CurrentC," noting that the mobile payment system will shut down in its current form on June 28th.
"We will be concluding our beta test and postponing further releases of CurrentC on June 28, 2016," the email said. "Therefore, June 28th will be the last day that transactions will be accepted using CurrentC."
Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), the group behind the system, added that they have "not announced future timelines or plans around the app but we're looking forward to analyzing and learning from the data we gleaned throughout the beta."
There had been high hopes for CurrentC due to its backing by MCX, which included huge retailers like 7-Eleven, Best Buy, CVS Health, Lowe's, Publix, Sears, Target and Walmart but it appears Apple Pay and Android Pay just got too far ahead.
HTC's Vive VR headset is now shipping to 24 countries, and demo headsets will be available in retail locations like GameStop and Microsoft Stores in the coming days.
In total, the demos will be available in 100 retail locations across North America, giving potential buyers a chance to "experience room-scale virtual reality first-hand."
Thanks to Valve's partnership with HTC, there will be a large amount of content available on Stream right from the onset.
"Since beginning preorders at the end of February and shipping in early April, we've seen incredible interest in Vive," said Dan O'Brien, vice president of VR at HTC, in a statement. "Working with our retail partners has only enhanced that momentum because more people are able to try the only truly immersive virtual reality offering on the market today."
The Vive is not cheap. The headset will cost you $800 and will require a higher-end PC, just like the market leading Oculus Rift.
Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi will buy 1500 patents from Microsoft in the coming months, likely a sign that the company wants to finally expand sales outside of Asia.
Xiaomi exploded onto the scene four years ago and quickly become the largest smartphone maker in China, and one of the top smartphone makers on the planet. Since 2014, however, sales have saturated and the company has seen its expenses gradually increase as they acquire patents, invest in R&D, and advertise more.
Along with the patents, Xiaomi also signed a cross-licensing agreement with Microsoft, where Xiaomi will preload Microsoft Office and Skype on a number of devices.
"Both Xiaomi and Microsoft respect intellectual-property rights,"said Xiaomi. "We believe that with this kind of collaboration and also our commitment for the long-term investment in IP, we are going to build a very strong patent portfolio."
Japanese carrier SoftBank has announced it will sell about $8 billion worth of its shares in the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
SoftBank says it will use the money to reduce its leverage and pay down debt that it took on when it acquired the failing U.S. carrier Sprint three years ago.
The company owns about 32 percent of Alibaba shares. Alibaba has a current market value of almost $200 billion. SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son invested $20 million in 2000 for the stake, making it one of the best bets in history.
SoftBank will sell $2.4 billion of its shares to Alibaba itself, $500 million to a sovereign-wealth fund and the last $5 billion to institutional buyers.
Microsoft has announced a price cut on the Xbox One console ahead of next month's E3 event, suggesting the long-rumored "Xbox 1.5" could be on the way.
Every Xbox One bundle now has a $50 discount until June 13th, the start of E3, although there is speculation the price drop will be permanent.
The rumored Xbox 1.5 will be 40 percent lighter than the current model, following the previous generation's model of offering "slim" consoles halfway through the life cycle of the console.
