According to a new study by app analytics firm Distimo, you must gross $47,000 per day to crack the Apple App Store's top 10 paid apps list.
The app that ranked 10th for top paid averaged about 4000 downloads a day, on average, in May 2013, says the report.
To break into the top 50, you have to average revenue of $12,000 per day.
Moving over to free applications, the 10th spot required 72,000 downloads per day and the top 50 required 23,000 or more downloads.
Somewhat strangely, Distimo found that Thursdays were the easiest day of the week to break into the top lists, as less downloads are done on that day. Weekends see major surges and the top lists do not move usually.
According to new comScore data, Apple still tops smartphone market share in the U.S. over other brands, even though Android remains the top operating system.
Apple ended May with 39.2 percent share, up 0.3 percentage points from the quarter before. Rival Samsung saw strong growth from 21.3 percent to 23 percent by the end of May, likely thanks to the launch of the Galaxy S4.
Other smartphone makers continue to fall into irrelevance behind the duopoly, with HTC, Motorola and LG all falling. HTC now has 8.7 percent, Motorola has 7.8 percent and LG has 6.7 percent rounding out the top 5.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple has signed a new deal with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. for component supplies, helping the company somewhat break its dependency on bitter rival Samsung.
The first chips for the joint venture will reach production lines in early 2014.
Apple's agreement will have TSMC building next-generation 20nm A-series SoCs for the iPhone and iPad. Samsung will remain the main supplier of the chip for 2013.
Sources claim the deal was years in the making, but TSMC was "unable to manufacture silicon up to the speed and power standards required by Apple." That hurdle has now been jumped.
In their ongoing effort to move away from Samsung, who for a time was their exclusive A-series processor maker (among other components), the company has signed display deals with LG and Sharp and NAND memory deals with Toshiba.
Apple has begun testing a patch/update for their new mid-2013 MacBook Air and its 802.11ac Wi-Fi issues.
Although the issues have not been widespread, there have been complaints about bugs and connectivity issues relating to the Wi-Fi which has the future-proofed 802.11ac standard.
Apple has been providing select customers the option to test the pre-release version of the "MacBook Air WiFi Update 1.0," asking them to give feedback on bugs or any issues with the installation process.
So far, Apple has not sent the pre-release software, perhaps waiting until more users sign up to test it.
This is not the first time Apple has quickly had to patch their new devices for a Wi-Fi issue. Last year's MacBook Pro with Retina had glitches with connecting 802.11n networks in the 5GHz band.
Google has listened to the significant outcry from its Android users and returned the easy access delete button to their native Gmail app.
The new version, 4.5.2, will allow users to delete emails when long pressing the actual email from the inbox (or other folder).
In the previous version, which was a major overhaul in its own right, Google removed the trash icon, making the default selection "Archive." To delete the file, users had to go to the setting and "Show Delete Only" from the Archive menu. It was annoying.
More info here in the official Gmail updates page: Gmail for Android
The U.S. Department of Justice will probe a retired four-star general of the Marine Corps over the release of confidential information related to the Stuxnet virus.
NBC claims the general, James Cartwright, has been under investigation for allegedly leaking details of the virus to various sources. Cartwright was also a vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
To date, eight people have been prosecuted under the Espionage Act by the Obama administration over the leaks.
Stuxnet was designed to disable Iran's uranium-enriching centrifuges and in 2010 the virus caused over 1000 of the devices to spin at such high rates that they went out of control and became useless temporarily. The centrifuges are crucial to the country's nuclear program, a program which could eventually lead to atomic weapons.
The virus is generally believed to have been created by Israel and the U.S. jointly to avoid having to bomb the facilities.
Cartwright was one of the top military officers involved in the "Olympic Games" cyberwar program started by President GW Bush and continued by President Obama. The origins of the virus were revealed in an award-winning piece in the New York Times.
If you are a Google early adopter and have signed up for their experimental "field trials," a new feature has been added.
Gmail contact info is now added to Google Search results, meaning you can see people you know when making relevant searches.
Google had previously added shipping and flight results from your Gmail allowing you to ask questions like "When does my flight leave?" and receive the right answer.
The search giant promises Google+ information will be added in the near future, as well.
As always, only you can see the results, and you can even use it with voice search.
Appleappears to be keeping to their two-week release cycle for iOS 7 beta launches, with the third version expected to hit on July 8th.
The new software is expected to launch this September alongside the iPhone 5S.
Beta 3 will likely be available for all iOS devices, including iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches. The iPad was unsupported until Beta 2 and Touches are still not supported.
From a design standpoint, Apple has made everything sharper, flatter and slimmer, and frankly it looks much, much better.
The company has added a new control panel that slides up from the bottom of the home screen and gives access to your most frequent settings such as airplane mode, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, brightness and also adds a new flashlight, quick access to AirDrop, AirPlay and a slider for your current music.
According to a new 24/7WS report, the Apple iPhone is now the profitable product in the U.S.
Beating out long-time staples like Coke and Marlboro cigarettes, the iPhone topped the list, thanks to a huge profit margin and tens of millions of sales.
In 2012, $80.5 billion of Apple's revenue came from iPhones, and the company sold 125 million units last year, with that number expected to go up again this year.
Apple's gross margins on the iPhone are between 49% and 58%, depending on the model. The overall profit margin is around 38 to 40%, higher than the company's overall 35.3% margin.
EA has announced it is planning to "re-establish Origin as a service to gamers, not as a means to drive transactions."
Origin, the company's digital game distribution platform, is a rival to Steam and has been available to Windows users since 2011 and Mac users since earlier this year.
"In the near term, quite frankly, our focus is making that download better, making that install better, making that automatic patching better," executive vice president Andrew Wilson said. "Making that friends presence better, making the various game services better. That's what you're going to see from us over the next year, which is really re-establish Origin as a service to gamers, not as a means to drive transactions."
Wilson also confirmed that the company has acknowledged that the service does not necessarily have the greatest of consumer sentiment, following a scandal in which it was discovered that EA's Origin EULA allowed for spying on your personal information, regardless of its relation to the actual program.
"I want to reiterate, it's very important for people to understand that we don't expect that all of a sudden people are going to get up and go 'Oh! Great! We now love Origin!'" Wilson said. "We get it. We understand it," he added. "We have heard, we have made some changes already in terms of how we do things, and we're looking at more changes that we'll talk about over the coming months that really are gamer-focused."
Planning manager for Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Kinect, Albert Penello, has said that focusing on Xbox One and PS4 specs is meaningless to the next generation of gaming.
Instead, he believes consumers make their choice on gaming consoles based on the types of software content that is available on the systems over their lifetimes.
"The problem is that Sony decided to go out and publish a bunch of numbers, which are in some ways meaningless. Because this isn't like 1990, when it was 16-bit versus 32-bit," he told OXM.
"Here's what you care about, you bought a system to play great games and have great experiences. I feel like our games and experiences are going to be every bit as good, if not better, technically--on top of all the magic we're going to add with the instant switching, and the power of the cloud."
He said he would rather not even have a discussion on the differences in the under-the-hood specs of the Xbox One or PS4 because in the long run, it's not going to matter.
Intel's new CEO, Brian Krzanich, said he is focused on pushing out Intel Atom chip technology for smartphones, tablets and wearable technology.
Krzanich took over as Intel boss in May, being promoted from the posts of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer after Paul Otellini stepped down from the CEO post.
His top priority is the roll-out of chips for smartphones, tablets and wearable technology, seeking to push Intel into a space that it overlooked for too long while chip rivals thrived. He also said Intel continues to work on its push into television, but is taking a caution approach.
"We believe we have a great user interface and the compression-decompression technology is fantastic," Krzanich said, according to the Retuers news agency.
"But in the end, if we want to provide that service it comes down to content. We are not big content players."
The priority is to rapidly develop and rollout new Atom chips to be ready for emerging technology, such as wearable tech. "I think you'll start to see stuff with our silicon toward the end of the year and the beginning of next year," Krzanich said.
A U.S. District Judge is to scrutinize a proposed settlement from Facebook resulting from a lawsuit over its advertising practices.
U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco gave preliminary approval to a proposed $20 million settlement from Facebook to settle a case brought against it over its "Sponsored Stories" program. However, on Friday, plaintiffs told the judge that Facebook's settlement did not do enough to keep content created by minors out of the hands of advertisers.
Facebook said it would pay $20 million to settle the proposed class action, to compensate class members and said it would also make changes to its policies to give users more control over how their content is shared. Plaintiffs lawyers estimated changes as worth up to $145 million, a figure which Seeborg found to be highly speculative.
Children's Advocacy Institute attorney Robert Fellmeth told the Judge on Friday that minors' content should not be shared with advertisers. Seebord though, reminded him that his role is only to determine whether Facebook's settlement offer is fair.
A U.S. federal judge in Seattle has dismissed a patent infringement case filed by Triton against Nintendo.
Triton had accused Nintendo of infringing its patented technology (U.S. Patent No. 5,181,181) with the Wii MotionPlus accessory. It initially filed its lawsuit in Texas but Nintendo won a transfer of the case to Seattle.
"We feel vindicated by the court's ruling," said Nintendo of America deputy general counsel Richard Medway.
"Nintendo's track record demonstrates that we vigorously defend patent lawsuits, like the Triton lawsuit, when we believe that we have not infringed another party's patent. Consumers respect Nintendo because we develop unique and innovative products, and because we respect the intellectual property rights of others."
Research conducted by UK-based consumer product testing group 'Which?' found Samsung's Galaxy S4 provided the best performance and battery life.
Which? tested all major smartphone vendors' flagship smartphones using its Geekbench 2 test. The test measures process and memory performance of smartphones and assigns them a speed rating based on the results.
The GeekBench 2 test gave Samsung's Galaxy S4 a score of 3188. In second place was the HTC One, with a score of 2798.
The Galaxy S4 also did well in battery life tests, scoring the highest for average call time on a charge (1,051 minutes) and the highest for average Internet usage with 405 minutes.
Versions of the mega-popular Minecraft have reached over 7 million sales for the Xbox 360 console, according to the developer.
Mojang announced on Twitter that the Xbox 360 version of the game had reached 7 million sales, but did not break down the numbers to indicate whether it was combined sales of the XBLA download and the disc sales. Minecraft on XBLA hit 6 million sales at the end of March.
Combined sales of Minecraft for Windows PCs, Macs and Linux systems have crossed over 11 million.
Minecraft on Xbox has now sold 7 million copies!!! CRAZY! =D
Google is allowing third parties to borrow its Street View Tekker gear in order to capture more hard to reach areas.
If you represent an organization such as a tourism board, non-profit, government agency, university or research group that would like to take photos with the Trekker for future inclusion on Google Maps, then you can apply to borrow Google's gear.
The Street View Trekker allows for people to carry the equipment on their backs while walking, so areas where vehicles or even bicycles can't reach can be covered.
Recently, Street View got imagery from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest building in the world. That was the first time the service had covered a skyscraper.
Nintendo does not believe that it is releasing too many Mario games, saying that keeping old popular franchises fresh with innovation keeps them relevant.
Nintendo senior director of corporate communications Charlie Scibetta said that the Japanese gaming firm releases new Mario titles based on fan freeback, and that so long as every new Mario iteration is innovative in its own way, the brand will stay fresh and relevant.
"We think we're putting out the right number of Mario games based on what fans are asking for, based on what our own developers' creative visions are," Scibetta said.
"The key to that is as long as there's innovation is occurring within the gameplay, as long as there's new features, then marrying the characters and the IPs that people love is the right call from our standpoint."
Nintendo is criticized often for relying too much on old IPs rather than aiming to develop new blockbuster IPs.
"You could call all the games that we're making here new IP in the sense that they're new gameplay experiences,"he said. "They just happen to also have the IP that people associate with."
Earlier this week, BlueStacks announced its new GamePop Mini offer, which provides a free console with a 12 month subscription.
It is the mini version of the GamePop console, which sells for $129. It also will run Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. In order to get a GamePop Mini, you need a 12 month subscription to the GamePop service at $7 per month, which technically means the console will cost you $84.
"We have always planned on having a free console option," said BlueStacks CEO, Rosen Sharma.
"The biggest value of the GamePop service is its content – not the box. Hardware costs have come down so fast that we're able to undercut the rest of the market. With the free promotion we've been doing in June we're already seeing a ton of adoption. That volume then attracts more developers and therefore more and better content. It's building momentum."
BlueStacks touts 500 mobile gaming partners. Recently it announced its "Looking Glass" technology that will allow iOS-only developers to easily launch on GamePop.
"We want to make things as easy as possible for app developers to come on board," said Ben Armstrong of the company's developer relations team.
Microsoft has bolstered its apps for cloud-based services with new SkyDrive Pro apps for Windows 8 and iOS for SharePoint Online users in Office 365.
The apps let you access, view, and upload your documents from anywhere to Microsoft's cloud storage service. You can use the SkyDrive Pro apps to view documents in your SkyDrive Pro folder, select specific content to take offline when you are travelling or have low bandwidth, organize your content by creating new folders, and upload new content and share with others.
Thanks to a leaked roadmap, we now know the release dates for a few major phone launches coming to the T-Mobile USA carrier.
Among the most important devices are the Sony Xperia Z and the Nokia Lumia 925. Additionally, the yet-unknown T-Mobile 768 (likely a ZTE or Huawei device branded by T-Mobile) will launch during the month, as well.
All three devices will launch on July 17th, three days after the company announces a "Major EIT Release," likely to be additions to carrier's "UNcarrier" plans.
The two high-end devices are expected to sell for $99.99 down and $579 total (24 monthly payments of $20).
Although the show's first season will not reach the streaming service until July 11th, Netflix has renewed the upcoming 'Orange is the New Black' for a second season.
The comedy is Netflix's most recent original program, following the launch of House of Cards, Hemlock Grove and a new season of Arrested Development.
OITNB is written by Weeds creator Jenji Kohan and follows the story of a woman sentenced to 15 months in federal prison.
The show will be available in all Netflix regions on July 11th.
Marking one step in our ongoing commitment to provide the best developer environment for creators, this collaboration will make it even easier for developers to bring popular games, entertainment and apps to Microsoft platforms.
Developers who build games published by Microsoft Studios now have access to Unity tools for Xbox 360 and Xbox One free of charge and can create interactive 3D and 2D experiences. Unity will develop tools for Xbox One, including support for features like multiplayer matchmaking, SmartGlass, enhanced Kinect gestures and recognition, and the power of the cloud.
Adobe has announced this week that it will be acquiring major digital marketing software company Neolane for $600 million in cash.
The company operates the platform for managing digital marketing campaigns over multiple platforms.
Adobe says the move will "bring critical cross-channel campaign management capabilities to the Adobe Marketing Cloud." Adobe is best known for building Flash and packaging Photoshop and Acrobat.
The company's Marketing Cloud is a tool set that includes analytics, social, advertising, targeting, and web experience management solutions.
Neolane, which was privately held, has major clients such as Bridgestone Tires and Barnes & Noble among others. Their platform automates and executes digital marketing campaigns across the Web, email, social, mobile, call center, direct mail and point of sale.
Microsoft has confirmed that it will no longer charge devs to update and patch their Xbox 360 titles, a huge update to previous policy.
The software giant has always charged a large fee when developers first submit their games to be certified and approved for release. Microsoft then offered one title update (patch) for free. Any subsequent re-certification, however, could cost tens of thousands of dollars, a figure that most indie developers simply could not afford even if they needed to desperately patch their game.
Confirmed by Xbox boss Larry Hryb, the new policy of making all re-certifications free of charge applies to both Xbox Live Arcade games and full retail games.
There is, of course, some fine print. If developers are deemed to "make an excessive number of re-submissions due to an update failing certification, Microsoft reserves the right to issue a charge."
"Microsoft eliminated fees for Title Updates on Xbox 360 Arcade games in April 2013," a spokesperson concluded. "We're constantly evaluating our policies and implementing feedback. While our development policies are confidential, and will remain so, we're pleased to say that this is just one of many ongoing changes and improvements we've made to ensure Xbox is the best place possible for developers and gamers."
MIT professor Dina Katabi and graduate fellow Fadel Adib have announced today a new tech that could allow you to see through walls, sort of.
Dubbed "WiVi," which is a mix of Wi-Fi and "vision," the tech will allow viewers to "see" any persons moving behind a wall.
As explained by the professor, "the subtle reflections of wireless inter signals bouncing off a human could be used to track that person's movements." In the duo's previous experiments, however, the tech had very limited use since it required a wireless router already be in the room being tracked or a large specialized radio.
The new tech use the same wireless antennas seen in your smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices and technically could be eventually embedded into your devices. The biggest issue is the ability to cancel out all interfering signals. Wi-Fi bouncing off walls, for example, are thousands of times more powerful than a reflection off a human body.
WiVi "sends out two wireless signals, one of which is the inverse of the other. Te two signals cancel each other out unless they hit a moving target – such as a human. To silence the noise, we change the structure of the Wi-Fi signal so all the undesired reflections cancel."
Despite promising to update their PlayBook tablet to the new BB10 operating system in 2013, BlackBerry has decided against the idea, citing performance issues.
CEO Thorstein Heins revealed the information yesterday during the company's fiscal Q1 2014 earnings report. The company's stock cratered 28 percent after the report thanks to an unexpected loss and poor guidance for earnings moving forward.
"Our teams have spent a great deal of time and energy looking at solutions that could move the Blackberry 10 experience to PlayBook. But unfortunately, I am not satisfied with the level of performance and user experience, and I made the difficult decision to stop these efforts and focus on our core hardware portfolio," Heins added.
The PlayBook has been dead for some time. The company was forced to fire sale it just months after launch, dropping the price from $500 to $300 and then $169 just to move inventory. Even at its current price, only 100,000 PlayBooks were sold during the recent quarter, compared to 19.5 million iPads and over 20 million Android tablets.
As of tomorrow, Sprint will officially decommission and tear down the Nextel iDEN network that allowed consumers to speak to others via "push-to-talk" on their mobile phones.
The move will help Sprint free up much needed spectrum and cell towers that will now be used for the company's relevant 4G LTE network.
At midnight tonight, your iDEN device will stop working, even for emergencies (like 911 calls) so you will have a paper weight if nothing else. Sprint has been letting iDEN network users know since 2010 that the network would be shut down for good by June 2013.
Earlier in the century, the network had 6 million subscribers, and Nextel had 20 million subscribers in total. Sprint acquired Nextel for $36 billion in 2005 and 3 years later wrote down almost $30 billion as a loss, a major financial disaster for the companies.
For those who still want push-to-talk, Sprint does still offer it via their CDMADirect Connect network.
The accurate French tech rumor site NowhereElse has reported on alleged leaked blueprints/schematics for the upcoming next-generation iPad.
In their report (translated), the site says the new iPad "should be less bulky than the current iPad 4 or iPad Retina and has a design modeled on that of the iPad Mini."
The iPad Mini has arguably the nicest look of any tablet on the market, and one of the thinnest frames.
Finally, the site compares the schematic to the current generation iPads and you can see more subtle curves, as well. The device is expected to launch in October with a quad-core A6 processor and a 12MP camera.
Twitter has announced the launch of Vine for Kindle Fire, beating out rival Instagram to the platform.
Vine, which allows users to share six second video clips, is now available for iOS, Android and Kindle.
Although Amazon has never revealed exact figures of Kindle sold, the line of devices is generally accepted as one of the top selling Android-based tablets.
Instagram, owned by Facebook, recently updated the application to allow 15 second video clip sharing, along with filter use that has made the application so popular. There is no native Instagram app for Kindle, as of yet.
In the ongoing rivalry, Vine just added front-facing camera support, and the company's founders have teased a major update coming in July.
According to the official Twitter account of Nokia Spain, the much-anticipated "Amber" update for Lumia devices is planned for August.
The tweet (below) translated, says: "The Amber update for the Nokia Lumia WP8 series will arrive in August, giving users the same experience as that of the #Lumia925."
Nokia's Lumia 925, which launched earlier this month, is the company's new flagship device for Windows Phone.
As part of the update, Nokia will add "Glance Screen" to all Windows Phone 8 devices, which shows the clock, battery life and ringer volume all while the device is on standby (as pictured). When in Glance Screen, you can double tap the screen to unlock it.
Additionally, the Smart Camera app will now be added to all WP8 Lumias.
La actualización Amber para la gama Nokia Lumia con WP8 llegará en agosto dando la misma experiencia de usuario que el #Lumia925
Facebook has changed its policies toward advertising practices after BSkyB and Marks & Spencer pulled ads from the social network.
M&S had become aware that a BSkyB ad - offering an M&S voucher - was being displayed on a Facebook page titled "cute and gay boys," which features photographs of teenage boys. In response, M&S asked BSkyB to remove the advert and it suspended some of its own Facebook ads.
Facebook has now announced that its advertising policies are changes so that ads will not be displayed on pages with controversial material, such as violence.
"We recognize we need to do more to prevent situations where ads are displayed alongside controversial Pages and Groups. So we are taking action," the company said in a blog post.
Firms like BSkyB and M&S would feel that their ads appearing on pages with controversial material would do damage.
This is not the first time Facebook has run into problems like this. Only weeks ago, women's groups had led protests against Facebook due to alleged 'misogynist content', which led to some advertisers suspending campaigns.
Nokia has initiated a new Trade Up program in the United Sates, letting Americans trade in their older smartphones to get discounts on newer Lumia devices.
Nokia's Trade-Up program allows consumers in the United States to get a Visa prepaid card up to $300 towards a new Nokia Lumia smartphone. For example, you can get up to $250 for an iPhone 4S, $210 for a Samsung Galaxy SIII or $250 for a HTC One.
"Send us your old phone with proof of purchase for your new Nokia Lumia, and we'll send your prepaid card – it's as simple as that," Nokia's Conversation blog reads.
In a preliminary decision issued on Friday, a judge at the International Trade Commission (ITC) found that Nokia, ZTE and Huawei did not violate patents held by InterDigital Inc.
InterDigital deals in patent acquisition and licensing, and it accused several electronics makers of violating patents it owns relative to 3G wireless technology. It manage to get a settlement out of LG Electronics earlier, but other firms decided to wait for the ITC.
On Friday, a judge issued a preliminary decision finding that neither Nokia, Huawei or ZTE violated any of seven patents related to aspects of 3G wireless communication.
Tech companies in patent disputes turn to the ITC due to its ability to get cases covered in a speedier fashion than federal courts might be able to, while also having the power to block the import and sale of devices found to be infringing.
Symantec's Norton Mobile Security for Android discovered a strange behaviour in Facebook's Android app that leaks the device phone number even without logging in.
The latest version of Norton Mobile Security for Android contains the new Norton Mobile Insight technology, which has analysed over 4 million Android apps and processes tens of thousands of new apps every day. Mobile Insight is able to automatically discover malicious applications, privacy risks, and potentially intrusive behavior.
Symantec notes one surprising flag raised by Mobile Insight. It automatically classed the Facebook app for Android because it leaked the device phone number. This happened when the application was launched, even before attempting to login. You clearly didn't need a Facebook account, it would simply send the device phone number to Facebook.
Symantec contacted Facebook about the problem, and the social network said it will provide a fix in its next app update for Android. It also said that any gathered phone numbers have been deleted and were never used in any way.
Sharp Corp is to form an alliance with China Electronics Corp for the production of LCD panels.
The $2.9 billion alliance between the Japanese and Chinese manufacturers includes an agreement by Sharp to license its IGZO technology. It will create a new venture that will be 92 percent owned by China Electronics, which is a major supplier of equipment to the Chinese military.
Given Sharp's Japanese roots, tying up with a supplier to the Chinese military may seem a surprising move, but the pair had previously discussed such a joint venture but were delayed by geopolitical forces.
The new venture will manufacture LCD panels for televisions, notebooks and tablets. Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO) displays provide for much better power consumption than convention LCDs - up to a tenth of the power consumption in fact - while also supporting high resolution and fast reaction speed.
Sharp also has tenth generation LCD manufacturing technology, which CEC will have coveted.
In a filing with the SEC, Sony revealed that Dubai dealers resold about $12.8 million worth of Sony video equipment and medical instruments to Iranian ministries.
The equipment was specifically sold to Iran's broadcasting unit and health ministry, while some dealers were also seeking to sell equipment to the information technology department of Iranian policy.
Such disclosures must be made as the United States and the European Union had enacted strict sanctions against specific targets in Iran, both governmental and industrial. The goal is to force Iran to halt the enrichment of uranium that Western countries say is ongoing in order to build nuclear weapons, while Iran claims its enrichment process is for peaceful purposes only.
"If the relevant authorities were to impose penalties or sanctions against Sony, the impact of such sanctions could be material,"Sony said in its filing with the SEC.
Companies accused of breaking the sanctions on Iran can have enormous fines and other penalties imposed upon them by authorities in the U.S., Europe and other regions of the world.
Facebook has paid $20,000 to a man in the United Kingdom for discovering and reporting a serious bug with the social network's text messaging system.
Jack Whitton found a flaw that could have allowed an attacker to compromise the account of another user by spoofing Facebook's text message verification system into sending a password reset code for an account that wasn't it.
Facebook has a White Hat system (responsible disclosure) where bug hunters find and report flaws for reward, rather than making them public or selling the information to cybercriminals.
"Facebook's White Hat programme is designed to catch and eradicate bugs before they cause problems,"Facebook told the BBC.
"Once again, the system worked and we thank Jack for his contribution."
Reports suggest that the Drug Enforcement Administration in the United States has seized digital Bitcoins from an alleged drug dealer.
According to Ars, the DEA seized 11.02 Bitcoins worth about $814.22 from a man who allegedly was selling controlled substances on the Silk Road online marketplace, which can only be accessed as a TOR Hidden Service to protect the true location of the server and its users from identification.
The individual in question allegedly traded pharmaceutical drugs like Adderall, Dexedrine, Vyvanse, Klonopin, Clonazepam, and suboxone.
What is not clear yet is how the DEA actually seized the Bitcoin. It could possibly have been a honeytrap where the Bitcoin was transferred from the accused's wallet to one controlled by the DEA, or the DEA could be in possession of a computer with an unencrypted wallet.
It is also unclear whether it was part of an investigation into the Silk Road, which the DEA is reported to be actively investigating, or whether the man's trading on Silk Road was coincidental.
Amazon has expanded its AutoRip service to its UK customers who have purchased CDs and Vinyls.
The AutoRip track matching service provides MP3 copies of music that was previously purchased by Amazon customers either on CD or Vinyl, over the past 14 years of the service.
Microsoft has confirmed that the Kinect bundled with the Xbox One console will not work with Windows PCs.
After the original Kinect was launched in 2010, it didn't take long before developers had managed to get it working with PCs, thanks largely to its standard USB connector.
With Xbox One however, the connector is proprietary and Microsoft has no plans to offer any kind of adapter to allow use with a PC. Instead, Microsoft has referred to its separate Kinect for Windows that will have more or less the same technical abilities as Kinect for Xbox One.
"The Kinect for Xbox One sensor will not have an adapter that allows it to plug into a computer. Instead, the new generation Kinect for Windows sensor will connect to computers using a standard USB3 port [emphasis added],"a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars.
The spokesperson added: "The new generation Kinect for Windows sensor will be a fully tested, licensed, and supported Kinect experience on Windows. Kinect for Xbox One is being built for and tested with the Xbox One."
BlackBerry shares were decimated today after the company reported their fiscal Q1 2014 earnings for the quarter ended May 2013.
The important earnings report, since it included sales of the first BlackBerry 10 device, the Z10, failed to enthuse investors.
BlackBerry shipped 6.8 million smartphones in the quarter, of which only 2.7 million were BB10 devices including the aforementioned Z10 and the QWERTY-packing Q10 that was released in Canada and the UK but did not reach the U.S. in time for this earnings report.
By comparison, Apple shipped over 37 million iPhones in the last quarter, and Samsung shipped over 40 million.
The company reported a loss of $84 million on revenue of $3.1 billion, and cited Venezuelan foreign exchange regulations as the sole reason for the loss.
Microsoft has announced a new deal with Time Warner Cable that will bring 300 live TV channels to the Xbox 360 console as long as you are an Xbox Live Gold member.
Time Warner Cable subscribers can now watch their favorite shows right from the console, "including favorites like AMC, BBC World News, Bravo, Cartoon Network, CNN, Comedy Central, Food Network, HGTV and more."
Making the TV experience different than a standard cable box is the ability to control the channels using your voice thanks to Kinect.
"TWC TV is a significant addition to Xbox 360, bringing our customers their favorite entertainment in one place--enhanced TV experience, games, movies, music, sports and entertainment apps,"said Blair Westlake, corporate vice president, Media & Entertainment Group at Microsoft. "Our partnership with TWC enhances all that is available on Xbox 360 today, which will we continue expand. We're thrilled to offer TWC TV to U.S. Xbox Live members and Time Warner Cable subscribers."
Earlier this month, Facebook introduced video-sharing features to Instagram, allowing over 100 million users to share 15 second clips enhanced by Instagram's famous filters.
Vine, owned by Twitter, and currently the most popular way to share video clips via mobile devices, seems to have taken a severe hit to traffic following the launch.
According to Topsy research, "the number of links to Vine videos on social networks fell by nearly half a million the day after video was added to Instagram."
At the same time, an extra 300,000 Instagram links were shared.
Yesterday, a week after the app was updated, there were "50% more Instagram than Vine links being shared on the net." The numbers are significant, but it remains unclear whether they will stick.
Vine allows for 6 second clips and is deeply integrated into Twitter.
Reminiscing about the "old days" during an interview, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak called the first Macintosh device "lousy."
In 1982, Apple's CEO John Sculley began to have issues with Steve Jobs, who was working on the "Lisa" PC project. Sculley moved Jobs over to the Macintosh project, to work with Woz.
"The Macintosh should've been a whole different product, not a mouse-driven GUI machine like it was, and the Lisa, he should've just waited five years, and then it would've been ready," Woz added. "Steve really took over the [Macintosh] project when I had a plane crash and wasn't there.
Lisa needed more memory than the Macintosh did, and since 1 MB cost the equivalent of $10,000 in today's dollars, Jobs did his best to make the first Mac as cheap as possible.
"What he did was he made a really weak, lousy computer, to tell you truth, in the Macintosh, and still at a fairly high price. He made it by cutting the RAM down, by forcing you to swap disks here and there. It was a lousy product. The Macintosh failed, really hard, and who built the Macintosh into a success later on? It wasn't Steve, he was gone. It was other people like John Sculley who worked and worked to build a Macintosh market when the Apple II went away," Woz added.
T-Mobile USA has announced today that it has purchased 4G spectrum from regional carrier U.S. Cellular.
The wireless spectrum covers the Mississippi Valley and should allow T-Mobile to expand their LTE network to 29 more markets and 32 million more people.
The biggest markets in the valley are St. Louis, Nashville, Kansas City, Memphis, Lexington, Little Rock-North Little Rock, Birmingham, New Orleans and Louisville.
In its press release, the company says the deal will cost them about $308 million in cash.
The deal must still pass FCC approval but is expected to close later this year.
CyberLink Corp. has announced its new Media Suite 11, an all-in-one multimedia suite for media playback, digital content creation and disc burning.
The Media Suite 11 pack integrates the best of CyberLink's products, including PowerDVD, PowerDirector, PhotoDirector, Power2Go, MediaShow and PowerProducer.
"CyberLink Media Suite 11 includes the latest versions of our innovative software and is designed to serve all of the diverse needs of today's digital home. In essence, Media Suite 11 provides a one-stop solution for every member in the family." said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink.
"Media Suite 11 also grants compatibility with Window 8, and further extends the support from traditional desktop software to touch-friendly Windows 8 Modern UI apps, merging media entertainment and creation from PC to mobile."
CyberLink Media Suite 11 provides the following solutions and features:
Easy-to-use – Media Suite 11's unique PowerStarter interface integrates shortcuts to frequently used features in the standalone software, allowing users to easily uncover and access the tasks they want to perform.
Play & Organize - Watch movies and HD videos beyond HD quality with the world's No.1 media player, PowerDVD 13. Users can organize videos and photos with MediaShow 6 and convert videos and watch them on over 100 devices with MediaEspresso 6.7.
Edit & Share – Create HD home videos in ultra fast speed with multi-award-winning video editing software, PowerDirector 11. Edit, adjust and enhance photos with highly praised PhotoDirector 4 and author Hollywood-style Blu-ray and DVD discs with PowerProducer 6. The Media Suite 11 Ultimate version also includes over $100 of premium content designed for video editing purposes. Users can also access more than 350,000 free effects, templates and photo presets from CyberLink's unique DirectorZone service.
Burn & Backup – Burns 256-bit data encrypted BDXL, Blu-ray and DVD discs with Power2Go 8. Users can also esign and print disc labels with LabelPrint 2.5 burning and backup software.
Windows 8 mobile apps – Media Suite 11 Ultimate also includes 3 touch-friendly mobile apps, further extending the entertainment and creativity from PC to mobile devices.
PowerDVD Mobile playback provides versatile HD video performance with subtitle support.
PowerDirector Mobile allows users to instantly create and share videos.
PhotoDirector Mobile, a new solution that provides a wide range of photo editing, enhancement and adjustment tools with the touch-friendly user interface.
Media Suite 11 Ultimate (15-in-1 Blu-ray & HD Multimedia Suite For PC and Windows 8 Mobile) costs $149.95
Turkish authorities are cracking down on social network users who posted insults about officials, or incited riots using popular social networking services.
According to the Associated Press, Turkey's deputy prime minister said on Thursday that authorities were investigating people for allegedly insulting officials or using Twitter, Facebook and other services to fuel riots during the month of June.
Protests over government policies broke out in Turkey in June, unprecedented in size and hard to suppress. While the mainstream media in Turkey appeared unwilling (at least at first) to cover the unrest, possibly due to intimidation, social networks filled the void of information.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had referred to Twitter as a menace among other insults, saying it was being used to spread lies about the government.
Since then, Turkey reportedly asked Twitter to open a representative office in the country, reportedly to make gaining information on users easier. It seemed, at the time, to be condemning Twitter relative to Facebook, which there seemed to be suggestions of cooperation with.
Sony's Shuhei Yoshida has told Japanese daily Famitsu that PS4 gamers will need to pay to play PS3 games online due to the resource investment in the service.
Currently, PS3 owners can play games online for free and smile smugly at Xbox 360 owners who need an Xbox LIVE Gold Membership to do the same. However, when the PS4 was unveiled, it quickly became apparent that the days of free Online Play were coming to an end.
"The main pillar for the PS4 will be online play. We're developing many new ways to play and connect which requires a large investment of resources," Yoshida said, translated by Kotaku.
"Considering the cost, to try to keep such a service free and consequently lower the quality would be absurd. We decided that if that's the case, then it would be better to receive proper payment and continue to offer a good service."
Toshiba has announced a new series of 4K Ultra HD TVs, available in 58-, 65- and 84-inch models.
With 4K TVs, a sobering price tag is to be expected in these early days. The 58-inch model has an MSRP of $4,999, which bumps to $6,999 for 65-inch and $16,999 for 84-inch. Sobering indeed.
The L9300U Series are powered by Toshiba's proprietary CEVO 4K Quad+Dual Core Processor, to deliver the highest quality 4K image processing, including Resolution Restoration to restore clean near 4K image quality from less than 4K content.
"While the content creators work to create more 4K content and figure out how to distribute it, consumers can still enjoy the clearer, more natural and lifelike images on a 4K Ultra HD TV," said Scott Ramirez, vice president of product marketing and development, Visual Products, Toshiba America Information Systems, Digital Products Division.
"This year, consumers can enjoy Blu-ray Discs with near 4K resolution thanks to powerful upscaling technology; however when choosing a brand, they should choose one that has high-quality processing and proven engineering skill to optimize the 4K experience right, like Toshiba."
Vine for Android has been updated to include the ability to use front-facing cameras, and it also has an added Upload Manager for unsubmitted posts.
Vine is a popular mobile app that lets users record and post video footage no longer than 6 seconds and share/embed them into updates posted to social networking services such as Twitter, who bought Vine in October 2012. It was available for iOS when purchased by Twitter, which then released the first version of Vine for Android earlier this month.
Now the Vine for Android app has been updated for performance and to add some new features:
Front-facing camera
New upload manager for unsubmitted posts
Improvements to settings
Improvements to camera loading time and support for more devices
While the Nintendo Wii console once led Microsoft's Xbox 360 console by over nine million in lifetime sales in the U.S, it is likely to lose its American crown this year.
When the Nintendo Wii first launched in 2006, the Xbox 360 had been on the market for a year in the United States. At that point, there were three million Xbox 360s in the home of gamers. However, the cheaper Wii console which had eaten up attention due to its motion control gaming came along and quickly started to eat into Microsoft's lead.
Month after month you simply couldn't stop the Wii from dominating the hardware sales charts. It was simply a given that the Wii would win the month, every month, the Xbox 360 would come second, and for a while, the PS3 would finish way behind.
But as time went on and the novelty of the Wii reduced, and with the cost of both the Xbox 360 and PS3 coming down while the games got more plentiful and better, it was only a matter of time before the tables would turn.
With the launch of the PlayStation 4 console set for the holiday season, Sony is reassuring PS3 owners of potential buyers that the console has years left.
In an interview with Japanese Weekly Famitsu, translated via Kotaku, Sony Japan president Hiroshi Kawano and his counterpart at Sony Worldwide, Shuhei Yoshida, were asked about the continued life of the PS3 console following the launch of the PS4 later this year.
"It's been seven years since the release of the PS3 and the console continues to sell at a constant pace, plus we have many upcoming titles." Kawano said. "We have no intention of immediately shifting from the PS3 to the PS4."
He added: "With the 2014 launch of our cloud service in the US allowing users to play PS3 games on the PS4, some people may switch consoles from the PS3 to the PS4. But that'll be a gradual process, and to say 'we're releasing a new console, so trade in your old ones for it' would be a maker's ego talking, plain and simple."
Sony continued supporting its PS2 console for years following the release of the PS3 also. After the PS3 was launched, the Japanese electronics giant promised ten years of support.
Naughty Dog has apologized for an "honest mistake" that led to real-world phone sex numbers being visible in its mega-popular 'The Last of Us' game.
The developer has pledged to remove the numbers as soon as possible. They were spotted by a reader of gaming news site, Kotaku, from the game's virtual Pittsburgh. They appear on a bulletin board in an ad for pest control.
The problem is, the numbers in the real world are for phone sex services. Oops!
"That was an artist's mistake," creative director Neil Druckmann said. "What happened was, they put some phone numbers in the game and then they thought they could just change the area code to 555, then it's invalid because it's what they do in movies. But I guess that doesn't work when you have a 1-800 in front of it."
Actress Ellen Page also accused Naughty Dog of ripping off her likeness in the game, while an artist attacked Naughty Dog for including a redesigned MBTA map he made without permission.
The European Commission has revealed results of tests that show European broadband Internet speeds run an average of 25 percent slower than advertised.
When you buy broadband Internet services, you are given a theoretical maximum speed that you are going to get with the service. On a cabled broadband network, for example, this limit would be set in the modem/router you are provided via configuration updates from your ISP.
Whatever the method in defining the maximum speed across services, there are many reasons why service could be subpar to your expectations, such as network congestion or the limitations of remote servers.
Still, you rightfully expect a reasonable return for your monthly payments. The European Commission had research conducted on the performance of Internet services offered to consumers throughout the bloc, to see how performance stacks up against advertisements.
The report is based on three billion pieces of data from nearly 100,000 households in Europe, that ran 75 million tests. It showed that the average speed in Europe is 19.7Mbps, with cable providers doing the best to deliver promised service at 91.4 percent the advertised speed.
Foxconn has revealed a smartwatch that will be compatible with Apple's iPhones.
Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry) is the Taiwanese mass manufacturer of electronics goods, typically on contract from large multinational corporations. Apple is one of its largest customers, with Foxconn churning out iDevices to feed a global demand.
With rumors circulating that Apple is developing an iWatch that will wirelessly interface with iPhones, iPads and possibly other Apple gear, Foxconn appears set to beat it to the market.
At a shareholder meeting, Hon Hai executives showed off a prototype watch that works with Apple's iPhone. It can monitor health stats from the wearer - heartbeat and respiration - and feed the data back to the iPhone. It also can be used to view messages and notifications from the iPhone, just like Sony's SmartWatch 2 can pair with NFC-compatible Android devices.
"With such a device, you can keep your phone in your pocket and simply check all kinds of messages on your watch," Hon Hai chairman Terry Goutold shareholders.
Roaming fees in the European Union will be cut by up to a third depending on where you are visiting, under continued EU pressure to scrap the fees altogether.
Citizens of member states of the European Union have broad rights to travel with ease around the EU, with 17 of them even using the same Euro currency. Likewise, trade within the EU is done with ease, due to the single European marketplace.
One area that the EU needs to reign in, however, is the telecommunications industry. The European Commission is seeking creating a single telecoms market across the bloc, which it says will benefit consumers by cutting costs.
One easy target is roaming fees, which the EU has been chipping away at for years. Roaming fees are the premium rates that you pay for use of mobile voice, SMS and data usage when travelling throughout the bloc. Since data usage over mobile networks increased with the rising popularity of smart phones, roaming fees brought about the bill shock phenomenon, where holidaymakers returned home to find they had excessively large phone bills.
The EU moved to impost EU-wide restrictions on data roaming fees, along with voice and messaging.
From Monday, July 1, the fees will drop again. Making calls can cost no more than 24c per minute while roaming within the EU, down from 29c, while receiving calls drops to a maximum of 7c per minute. Sending text messages has been cut to 8c from 9c, while receiving text messages is exempt from roaming fees.
Microsoft has made it clear that Windows Phone is the third-largest smartphone ecosystem in the world, with their sites set on taking more share from Google and Apple.
Senior Windows Phone product manager Larry Lieberman added, "We think we're solidly the third ecosystem right now. That's a huge announcement in some respects."
Windows Phone overtook the share of the dead BlackBerry brand last month. When asked about BlackBerry, which once dominated the market, Lieberman said, "I don't think they can bring to the table some of the things we have. The fact that we're delivering across such a different set of price points to such a large audience."
Microsoft has also decided to take on Google head-on for the low-end emerging markets, announcing the Nokia 521, a device that will sell for $150 off-contract.
Four months ago, Skype unveiled video messaging, a mixture of its instant messaging and video chat services.
While the service was well accepted, it was limited because you needed a premium Skype account to use it on an unlimited basis.
As of today, the feature is now free to all users, no matter what type of account you have. Video messaging options are now available for the desktop versions of Skype, iOS, Android, and BlackBerry.
Somewhat surprisingly, Windows Phone owners cannot send video messages, just receive them for the time being.
According to the WSJ, Google is actively developing an Android-based gaming console and a smartwatch, both of which could potentially launch this year.
The move would be huge expansion for Android, which has remained primarily on smartphones and tablets.
Additionally, the sources claim Google is building a second version of its failed media-streaming orb, the Nexus Q.
As of the last month, Android is now on 75 percent on all smartphones and 57 percent of tablets, beating out rival Apple handily.
If the gaming console comes to fruition, it would likely put the kibosh on Ouya and other cheap Android-based consoles that have recently reached the market.
Microsoft has announced today that there are now over 160,000 apps in the Windows Phone Store.
Additionally, the software giant has temporarily dropped that annual registration fee paid by all developers who publish in the store to $19 from $99.
The offer is only good for the next 60 days for developers wanting to publish to the Store.
As a relatively new platform, the 160,000 apps is quite a large number but it is small compared to the 800,000 seen in both the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store.
Finally, Microsoft says transaction volumes in the Store has reached 200 million per month and daily revenues have grown 250 percent since launch.
Microsoft has made installation ISOs for the Windows 8.1 Preview available to download.
At the BUILD conference, Microsoft showed off some of the changes in Windows 8.1, responding to consumer feedback about the Windows 8 operating system launched last year.
Now you can download an ISO file and install it yourself.
If you are running Windows 8, simply double-click on the ISO file and run Setup.exe. If you are running an older version of Windows, you will need to either burn it to a DVD or create a bootable USB installation.
In a second hit to CEO Charlie Ergen's ego, major satellite provider Dish Network has withdrawn their bid for Clearwire.
Reads the small press release: "DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, DISH Acquisition Holding Corporation, is withdrawing its tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Class A Common Stock of Clearwire Corporation ("Clearwire"), including any shares of Class A Common Stock issued in respect of outstanding shares of Class B Common Stock, for $4.40 per share. DISH's tender offer provided that it could be withdrawn, among other reasons, as a result of the recent change in recommendation by Clearwire."
Sprint had increased their bid for 4G spectrum holder Clearwire to $5 per share, 14 percent higher than Dish's bid, and almost 40 percent higher than their own original bid. The bid would allow Sprint to purchase the 50 percent of the company it does not already own. Additionally, Sprint managed to get major investor and board member support, sticking the final dagger in Dish.
The Australian Classification Board has justified its refusal to classify Saints Row IV for the market, singling out the use of 'anal probes' and narcotics.
The alien anal probes used in Saints Row IV amounts to "implied sexual violence," in the opinion of the Classification Board. It also takes issue with the use of illicit drugs also referred to as being "alien" in nature.
"The game includes a weapon referred to by the applicant as an 'Alien Anal Probe'. The applicant states that this weapon can be 'shoved into enemy's backsides'. When using this weapon, the player approaches a (clothed) victim from behind and thrusts the weapon between the victim's legs and then lifts them off the ground before pulling a trigger which launches the victim into the air," a statement from the Classification Board reads, according to GameSpot.
"A weapon designed to penetrate the anus of enemy characters and civilians constitutes a visual depiction of implied sexual violence that is interactive and not justified by context."
The Board also pointed out an optional mission in the game where the player obtained and smokes "alien narcotics," giving the character superpowers.
Netflix users who test out the Windows 8.1 preview release will be able to use the Microsoft browser to watch high quality movies and TV shows without installing plug-ins.
Netflix had previously pushed for HTML5 video support through Premium Video Extensions. This would allow premium video playback in a browser without requiring the installation of third-party plugins.
Microsoft's implementation of the Media Source Extensions (MSE) using the Media Foundation APIs within Windows provides for GPU hardware acceleration of 1080p video playback, while an implementation of the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) using Microsoft PlayReady DRM provides content protection for the streams.
Internet Explorer 11 also has WebCrypto implemented, allowing Netflix to encrypt and decrypt communication between its JavaScript application and its own servers.
"We expect premium video on the web to continue to shift away from using proprietary plugin technologies to using these new Premium Video Extensions," Netflix' blog reads.
"We are thrilled to work so closely with the Microsoft team on advancing the HTML5 platform, which gets a big boost today with Internet Explorer's cutting edge support for premium video. We look forward to these APIs being available on all browsers."
The Xbox Music app in Windows 8 has been given an overhaul as part of the revamp of Microsoft's Windows 8.
The changes to Xbox Music are based on user feedback, according to Alex Garden, General Manager, Xbox Music. This new Xbox Music experience, set to launch later this year with Windows 8.1, is entirely redesigned from the ground up and will bring music lovers closer to their favourite experiences.
The navigation column on the left side of the screen will enhance usability and performance by offering:
Built-in Search: You'll have faster access to your favorite songs, artists and albums with an in-app "Search" bar.
Improved Collection Management: Simple access to your music starts in the "Collection," where the music that you've saved in the Xbox Music cloud and your local music and will be at the forefront of the app.
Streaming Radio Stations: "Radio" will offer seamless creation of new streaming Internet-radio stations based on artists you like and will give you faster access to your favorite Radio stations that you've already created.
Exploring the Music Store: "Explore" will take you into the Music Store where you can browse millions or songs, artists and albums.
Lists of Playlists: Your custom playlists will be available at a glance to quickly begin playback or make edits, and your playlists will continue to seamlessly sync to your other Xbox Music devices--like Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 8.
British Airways is set to relax rules on the use of electronics after its planes have landed at airports.
Passengers are not allowed to have electronic devices like mobile phones, tablets or laptops switched on during the critical take off and landing periods, where most accidents occur. There are two reasons for the restriction, with the obvious first being possible interference at a critical part of the flight, and the second being concerns about passengers being distracted during take off and landing.
Once over 10,000ft, devices can be generally be switched on, and airlines have been taking in more revenue by offering premium wi-fi services at high altitudes.
BA's rules relaxation will simply allow passengers to power up devices once they are off the runway, rather than waiting until they reach the terminal.
"Customers will no longer have the frustration of having to wait until their plane has arrived at the terminal building before being able to use their mobile phones and other handheld electronic devices," said Ian Pringle, BA flight training manager.
"Now they'll have that extra time to phone ahead for that important business meeting, check their emails, or make sure someone is there to meet them at the airport."
Aereo is on the verge of expanding its online antenna/DVR technology to 19 new U.S. cities by the end of next months.
That's according to Aereo CEO and founder Chet Kanojia, who made the revelation in a fireside-style chat at CE Week conference in New York. Having originally started out in New York City, Aero then expanded to Boston and Atlanta, letting customers rent a remote antenna, which they can use to transmit local OTA television content to their mobile devices, and tans advantage of a remote DVR functionality.
The service did not go unnoticed by broadcasters, who felt Aereo was violating copyrights and should be liable to pay retransmission fees for the service.
To this point, Aereo has managed to shrug off every major challenge in the courts, and is seeking declaratory judgement in New York, which could declare the ruling in that district as applicable to the entire country. Otherwise, Aereo is open to new lawsuits every time it expands into a new district.
"What really is at stake...is your ability to control your own media," Kanojia said, adding that big media companies are telling consumers they must pay a tax every time they store media away from home. He also said the company is prepared to be unprofitable as it fights the battle in court and fine tunes its service to make it more attractive.
Facebook has denied claims made by a Turkish official that implied the social network was handing over user information to authorities in the country.
The Turkish government had blasted Twitter, with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan calling it a "scourge" that is used to spread lies about the government with the goal of terrorizing society in the country. It was requesting that Twitter setup a representative office within Turkey, apparently to make it easier to acquire information on users. For several weeks, Turks have been staging anti-government protests, largely organized through social media.
Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim had made comments that seemed to suggest that Facebook had been cooperating with authorities, while he was blasting Twitter for not doing so. Not true, says Facebook.
"Facebook has not provided user data to Turkish authorities in response to government requests relating to the protests. More generally, we reject all government data requests from Turkish authorities and push them to formal legal channels unless it appears that there is an immediate threat to life or a child, which has been the case in only a small fraction of the requests we have received."
The social network also said it was concerned legislative proposals that might purport to require Internet companies to provide user information to Turkish law enforcement authorities more frequently.
As expected, Samsung has rolled out its curved 55-inch OLED TV in South Korea, jumping into a niche market after rival LG Electronics.
While it is great to see organic light-emitting diode TVs on the market, Samsung has warned that industry forecasts might be a bit optimistic. DisplaySearch had forecast that over 50,000 OLED TVs will be sold this year, rising to 600,000 in 2014 and up to 7 million in 2016.
However, LG has had a 55-inch curved OLED (and an non-curved OLED) on the market since January and is estimated to have only sold a few hundred so far.
OLED screens consist of thousands of self-emitting diodes, providing brighter and better quality pictures while consuming less powered than a comparably sized LCD screen with a backlight. Production is more complex than LCD panels however, meaning that for the moment they must remain toys for high-end consumers.
"We are proud to be able to deliver on our promise of bringing our Curved OLED TV to the market," said Hyunsun Kim, Executive Vice President, Samsung Visual Display, Samsung Electronics.
PS3 System Software v4.46 has been released by Sony today, fixing an issue with v4.45 that led to PS3 consoles becoming unbootable.
Those who didn't install the v4.45 system update can get the new update the same way as ever. For those who did apply v4.45, and ended up being unable to reach the XMB on the console, here are the instructions on how to fix your console.
For these steps you will need a USB Mass Storage device (USB flash drive etc.) with at last 168MB of free space. You will also need to manually download the PS3 System Software v4.46 from the link below.
After you have the Update, there are three stages to go through; Step 1 - Preparing the Manual Update, Step 2 - Activating Safe Mode on your PS3 and Step 3 - Manually Update PS3 Software.
Step 1 - Preparing the Manual Update
You will need a USB Mass Storage device such as a USB flash drive with at least 168 MB of free space. If your PS3 is either CECHA00/CECHB00 series model, you can also use Memory Stick, SD Memory Card, and CompactFlash.
Create a folder named "PS3" on the storage media or USB device. (all letters UPPERCASE)
Within the PS3 folder, create a folder named "UPDATE". (all letters UPPERCASE)
Download the update data from the webpage and save it in the "UPDATE" folder.
Location: Save in the "PS3" folder > "UPDATE" folder
File name: Save as file name "PS3UPDAT.PUP"
Step 2 - Activating Safe Mode on your PS3
With the PS3 off (power light should be red), touch and hold the Power button, you will hear the 1st beep indicating that the PS3 is powering on.
Continue to hold the power button, and after approximately 5 seconds you will hear a 2nd beep.
Continue to hold the power button and after 5 more seconds you'll hear a 3rd beep, and system will power off (Power light goes red).
Release power button.
Touch and hold the Power button, you will hear the 1st beep, again for PS3 power on.
Continue to hold and after approximately 5 seconds you will hear the 2nd beep for video reset.
Continue to hold and after 5 seconds you will hear a quick double beep. At that point release power button.
If you succeeded in activating Safe Mode, you will see a message on screen saying, "Connect the controller using a USB cable and then press the PS button".
Connect a controller to the PS3 with a USB cable.
Step 3 - Manually Update PS3 Software
Connect the storage media to PS3 system.
Select [6 - System Update] and Press X.
Please note: Data and settings may be deleted if you choose any of the first (5) options. Please make sure to only choose option [6 - System Update].
Press Start and Select at the same time.
The PS3 system will restart and recognizes the update file in the storage media.
Press right on the d-pad to scroll through the update description and user agreement.
Press X to confirm the update.
The system will now install the new system software and restart automatically upon completion.
If the PS3 does not recognize an update then you need to be sure you followed Step 1 correctly, as if the data is not saved in the correct way, the PS3 will not recognize it.
According to Strategy Analytics, India has surpassed Japan to become the world's third largest smartphone market, behind China and the U.S.
The news is not too surprising given that India has a population of 1.3 billion, but it is notable as Japan has long held the spot.
Apple, Samsung and Indian AndroidOEM Micromax have been driving higher sales thanks to improved distribution, says the analytics firm.
While the average global growth for smartphone shipments is around 40 percent year-over-year, India is at 163 percent. India's market is growing much quicker than China at 86 percent, Japan at 24 percent and the U.S. at 19 percent.
Although Apple is seeing strong growth in the nation thanks to its price cuts and financing programs, Micromax and other cheap domestic Android OEMs are seeing exponential growth figures, ranging from 200 to 500 percent.
Google's Motorola Mobility has dramatically updated their logo today, as the company continues to re-invent itself.
Moving away from the black, bold and italic "MOTOROLA," the new logo features a softer, skinnier all-lower-case title.
While the "M" design remains the same, it will now be surrounded by a colorful highlight.
Additionally, Google has finally made it clear who is in charge, by adding the tagline "a Google company" below the name.
Moving away from the old bloated Motorola, Google has laid off over 20 percent of the workforce, slimmed down the company's lineup of products, and will soon be releasing the American-made X Phone flagship.
According to a report from IGN, Sony made the decision to unbundle the PlayStation 4 camera (Eye) in order to gain an advantage over Microsoft's Xbox One console.
IGN cites multiple sources in reporting that the original plan for the PlayStation 4 (PS4) was to have it bundled with the camera for a retail price of $500, but the company decided that cutting the camera could give it a significant price advantage.
That prediction turned out to be correct, with the PS4 set to launch for $100 less than Microsoft's Xbox One, which comes bundled with Kinect and requires it to function properly, at a cost of $500.
In order to keep the news quiet until the price was announced, Sony only informed its retail partners that the camera would not be bundled with the system, but not that it was cutting the price.
The move definitely has made the PS4 look more attractive ahead of the holiday season, but it has also relegated the camera to an optional accessory, meaning that game developers will be less likely to work with it than they would be if every PS4 owner had one.
The Turkish authorities want Twitter to setup a representative office inside the country, after it singled out the service for aiding weeks of anti-government protests.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has referred to Twitter as a "scourge" that is used to spread lies about the government with the goal of terrorizing society in the country.
"We have told all social media that ... if you operate in Turkey you must comply with Turkish law," Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim, told reporters.
"When information is requested, we want to see someone in Turkey who can provide this ... there needs to be an interlocutor we can put our grievance to and who can correct an error if there is one."
Reuters cites an unnamed official as saying Twitter had been asked to identify users who posted messages deemed insulting to the government or the Prime Minister.
Facebook voiced concerns about proposals that would see Internet firms being obliged to hand over data more frequently, and denied that it has provided any user data to the Turkish authorities.
Just days after dropping the price of their upcoming handheld console and announcing a June launch, the company has delayed its release for a month.
The console, which was initially priced at $349 to much criticism, will cost $299 now when it launches sometimes towards the end of July.
Nvidia says they discovered a mechanical issue, but they would not specify except to say it was with a third-party component.
In their statement, the company says "We want every Shield to be perfect, so we have elected to shift the launch date to July."
NVIDIA SHIELD's specifications:
Tegra 4 – The world's fastest mobile processor delivers rich graphics and unbeatable performance thanks to 72 GPU cores, four CPU cores and 2GB of RAM
Console-grade controller – Precise control thanks to dual analog joysticks, a full-sized D-Pad, left and right analog triggers, full-sized bumpers and A/B/X/Y buttons
Pure Android – Latest Android Jelly Bean operating system from Google, for access to Android games and apps
There's more – NVIDIA put into SHIELD everything we would want in a premium mobile gaming device: 16 GB memory, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, a mini-HDMI output, micro-USB 2.0, a microSD storage slot, a 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
Google has made vast improvements to its Earth satellite imagery across several of its products, cleaning up previous bad images and wiping even clouds from the skies.
The improvement virtually eliminates clouds, includes refreshed imagery for regions of the world where high-resolution imagery is not yet available, and offers a more comprehensive and accurate view of the texture of our planet's landscape.
Using Google Earth Engine technology, Google's engineers mined hundreds of terabytes of data from the USGS's and NASA's Landsat 7 satellite, resulting in an image of the entire planet with a resolution of 15 meters per pixel.
The resulting 800,000 megapixel global image is so big that if you wanted to print it at a standard resolution of 300 dots per inch you would need a piece of paper the size of a city block.
Sharp has unveiled its new 70-inch AQUOS Ultra HD LED TV, the first television to receive the coveted THX 4K certification.
Capable of displaying content up to 3840x2160, the 70-inch class (69.5-inch diagonal) TV could display breathtaking 4K content. It will cost you though, with a price tag of $7,999.99.
"Sharp has a rich history of leading the electronics industry in innovation. Today we continue that tradition with the introduction of the AQUOS Ultra HD LED TV," said John Herrington, President, Sharp Electronics Marketing Company of America.
"With four times the pixel resolution of HD, the 70 inch class AQUOS Ultra HD LED TV is our finest television ever."
Two of the best Android phones are the market just got a little better today, as Google has made the Nexus editions of the Galaxy S4 and HTC One available through the Google Play Store.
Both versions have been stripped of their third-party user interfaces and will run stock Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Each will get the quickest updates, moving forward, the same as the Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus 4.
Each are unlocked and contract-free, meaning they have hefty price tags. The HTC One is now available for $599 and the Samsung Galaxy S4 for $649.
It is also important to remember that in getting stock Android, you also lose some highly-rated features of the devices, such as the One's camera app and Samsung's suite of premium apps like S-Touch.
Microsoft has announced today a trio of new apps for their Windows Phone platform.
The new apps will allow users to watch full episodes of their favorite shows on Discovery Channel, TLC, and Animal Planet.
Additionally, you'll be able to view thousands of curated clips and special behind-the-scenes material from the programs.
Special to Windows Phone, you can pin your favorite shows to the Start Screen for quicker access and set calendar reminders for your favorite episodes.
In a case that is now 9 years in the making, the First Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled this week that Joel Tenenbaum must pay the $675,000 in damages to the record industry.
The original court decision was in 2009 and has been back and forth through the appeals process ever since.
Tenebaum, a graduate student at the time, was accused of sharing 30 tracks via Kazaa in 2004. The student did not admit to sharing the tracks, but also tried a "fair use" defense that was thrown out. His actions in court also made it clear he knew exactly what he was doing and felt no remorse. After the defense fell apart, the original jury awarded the RIAA $22,500 for each of the 30 songs, due to willful infringement.
After the first case, the damages were reduced by one judge, but the RIAA appealed and won. Tenebaum tried to take the case to the Supreme Court in 2011, but was denied last year.
Reads the final ruling: "Joel Tenenbaum illegally downloaded and distributed music for several years. A group of recording companies sued Tenenbaum, and a jury awarded damages of $675,000, representing $22,500 for each of thirty songs whose copyright Tenenbaum violated. Tenenbaum appeals the award, claiming that it is so large that it violates his constitutional right to due process of law. We hold that the award did not violate Tenenbaum's right to due process, and we affirm."
Massive Spanish wireless carrier Telefonica has announced today that it will be backing Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system.
When asked why, the company responded they hope to end the "current duopoly of Android and iOS." As part of their backing, the companies have signed a 12-month "enhanced marketing agreement" that will see a major increase in advertising for Windows Phone 8 devices in the UK, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile.
Additionally, the company has pledged to "provide customers with a more personal smartphone experience like Windows Phone offers." By backing the number three player in the market, Telefonica hopes to "dilute the polarisation of installed base in operating platforms."
The carrier will be working closely with Nokia, HTC and Samsung to ensure "the availability of high-quality devices," as well.
Motorola's upcoming flagship device, the X Phone, has been leaked again in a new report.
The device, which is expected to launch on August 1st, has now been seen on Sprint, and is likely to be available for all the rest of the major U.S. carriers, as well.
Rumored specs for the device are mid-range: 4.7-inch 720p display, a quad-core 1.7 GHz Snapdragon chipset, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal memory.
The device is going with the code of Motorola XT1056 for Sprint, and XFON for AT&T.
Despite what we know, the phone is expected to have features not yet seen on an Android device, but so far those features are unknown. We should know more later this summer.
The crowd-funded Android-based console, OUYA, was launched yesterday.
Raising over 8 million dollars in funding via Kickstarter, the company called BOXER8 (since renamed to OUYA) has been manufacturing the low-cost ($99) and open home console, and since AfterDawn was a part of the crowd funding, we got the console a bit beforehand. So let's take a look.
OUYA is an Android based gaming console that is packed into a tiny 3-inch cube. Underneath the shiny cover, it is powered by the quad-core 1,7GHz Tegra 3 T33-P-A SoC, and packs 1GB DDR3 SDRAM.
OUYA outputs to a display via HDMI (v1.4), up to full 1080p with stereoscopic 3D support. For connectivity, it sports a USB 2.0 port, and a microUSB port. For network/wireless connectivity, OUYA has a standard Ethernet port, Wi-FI (802.11 b/g/n) and support for Bluetooth 4.0 (which provides controller connectivity).
One controller is bundled with the OUYA, powered by double A batteries. The controller is wireless and uses Bluetooth. You can have four controllers attached to OUYA.
BitTorrent has attempted to clarify the position of the company and the BitTorrent protocol with regard to Internet piracy.
Responding to media reports about the piracy figures for the previous season of Game of Thrones, BitTorrent took to its blog to clarify something important; there is no "BitTorrrent Piracy Record," because that happens outside the BitTorrent ecosystem.
"We don't host infringing content. We don't point to it. It's literally impossible to illegally download something on BitTorrent," wrote BitTorrent's Matt Mason.
"To pirate stuff, you need more than a protocol. You need search, a pirate content site, and a content manager. We offer none of those things. If you're using BitTorrent for piracy, you're doing it wrong."
It's understandable that the company would react this way, given that it is a legitimate business providing legal content. Over two million pieces of licensed, legal content are available to download over the BitTorrent protocol.
While "Game of Thrones" has been touted as something of a champion in the Internet piracy scene, BitTorrent insists that the real Kind is a show called Epic Meal Time, which is legally available and boasts 8,626,987 downloads.
Samsung has made its Galaxy S4 LTE-A smartphone, designed to work with LTE Advanced networks, official.
The world's first LTE Advanced-capable smartphone also comes loaded with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Processor with 2.3GHz Quad Core CPUs, proving a significant performance improvement over the original Galaxy S4, launched only around two months ago.
LTE-Advanced networks promise twice the download rate of LTE networks, and over ten times the rate provided by 3G networks.
The announcement of the new LTE-A capable Galaxy S4 coincides with the launch of South Korea's first LTE-Advanced network, delivering download speeds up to 150Mbps.
SK Telecom Co. is launching an LTE-Advanced network in South Korea this week, claiming it as the world's fastest network.
The LTE-A service will initially be available in Seoul and its suburbs, promises download speeds of up to 150Mbps, twice as fast as possible with an LTE network and over ten times faster than 3G networks can provide.
The network's upload speed has not improved upon LTE however, promising up to 37.5Mbps.
South Korea has witnessed rapid growth in its digital communications infrastructure, with its population more than willing to move to faster standards very quickly. It is estimated that 60 percent of all smartphone users in South Korea are using LTE devices.
The official Twitter account for the Ouya Android console - launched yesterday - has removed a retweet celebrating emulation after Kotaku pointed out its piracy implications.
Being able to use emulators with Ouya is old news. The ambitious project had been asked about whether emulators would be available from the Ouya store, to which is confirmed that it will accept emulators but not Roms, and not any retro games that are not properly licensed.
Yesterday, when the Ouya officially launched and promptly sold out, the official Twitter account was retweeting Ouya owners on their reasons for investing in the console. One of the tweeters commented, "Use current controllers, expand ports, and #retro games," referring to using an Xbox 360 controller with the Ouya to play old games.
In a picture he added to the Tweet, you can clearly see Super Mario Bros on the screen, a game that is not officially available for Ouya.
Not only did the Ouya Twitter account retweet him, but it also added #FreetheGames to the tweet.
Kotaku picked up on the tweet and contacted Ouya, suggesting that its encouragement of playing another console maker's games on emulation is provocative, to which Ouya replied by removing the tweet and restating the company's policies on emulators.
U.S. senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) has responded to questions from GameSpot as part of a Google hangout on the issue of video game violence and their potential role in mass shootings.
Murphy, whose state of Connecticut witnessed a horrific tragedy at the Sandy Hook elementary school in December, had spoken of the effect violent games could have on mentally ill players, or players with a predilection to violence. GameSpot asked him about his comments on video games, made in January.
"Obviously, this is a very sensitive issue in Connecticut. Newtown is still in crisis," Murphy said.
"Not enough healing going on there in the wake of the murder of 26 children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School. And you know, what we know are the facts about that crime. What we know is that this young man, deeply mentally ill walking the school with an assault weapon armed with 30-round magazines. What we know is that he was very, very severely mentally ill; that his mother had been trying to get him help for years. And what we also know, is that he spent a lot of time playing violent video games."
The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has strongly backed Google in a case over whether Google should be obliged to remove some legit search results from its index.
The case stretches back to 2009 when a Spanish man complained about outdated information on his personal finances that could still be found in Google search results. The results pointed to online reports of how his home had been repossessed due to his situatiuon.
He felt that since his situation has now changed, there was no legitimate reason for the link to still be in Google's search index. His first attempt to get the original article removed failed, as it was found to be "in the public interest."
Yesterday, ECJ Advocate General Niilo Jääskinen strongly backed Google in an issued opinion.
"Requesting search engine service providers to suppress legitimate and legal information that has entered the public domain would entail an interference with the freedom of expression," the Advocate General said. "It would amount to censorship."
Google has updated their Transparency Report to include a new section in which they highlight malware.
Says the site: "Google Safe Browsing scans millions of websites to identify those sites that install malware without a user's knowledge. We discover and categorize these sites by autonomous system (AS) numbers, thousands of which exist on the Internet."
Additionally, there is a heat map that allows you to mouse over every country and view the rate of sites infected with malware or attempting to phish personal information.
The U.S. scored very well, with a malware rate of 2 percent. Latin American countries like Mexico and Chile had higher rates, 12 and 11 percent respectively, while India, Bosnia, Hungary and others had massive 15 percent rates.
Google does note that the data is "not comprehensive and is best viewed as an indicator of the global malware problem." Check the heat map here: Google TR
Barnes & Noble reported its most recent quarterly earnings today, and they were not pretty.
The company posted a net loss of $118.6 million on revenue of $1.3 billion.
For the year, the company lost $154.8 million on revenue of $6.8 billion. Quarterly revenue for its retail business (brick and mortar stores and BN.com) was down 10 percent to $948 million, although the company said Fifty Shades of Grey inflated last year's numbers.
Nook Media, the company's failing e-reader and media division, posted a meager $108 million in quarterly revenue, down 34 percent from the same quarter last year.
The company's tablets, including the Nook HD+, have recently been firesaled in an effort to boost sales. The company's high-end $279 HD+ is now selling for $149 with a 9-inch Full HD screen and access to the Google Play Store.
Barnes & Noble has also announced it will open up the Nook brand to OEMs who can build their own tablets and license the Nook platform. The company will no longer offer their own tablets, but will continue to sell e-readers like the Simple Touch Glow.
Today, Sprint shareholders approved SoftBank's updated $21.6 billion deal for a 78 percent controlling stake in the company.
Eight months after their initial bid for the U.S.' third largest carrier, and a slight bidding war with satellite provider Dish Network, it appears that one of Japan's largest wireless carriers will finally get their long wanted presence in the U.S.
SoftBank has already received three out of four regulatory approvals needed and is waiting for final approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Shareholders overwhelmingly voted for the transaction, with 96 percent favoring the deal.
"We are pleased to have the support of Sprint shareholders," SoftBank said in an e-mailed statement. "We look forward to receiving FCC approval and promptly completing the transaction so that we can begin implementing our plans to deploy an advanced Sprint network that supports innovative devices and service packages tailored to the rapidly expanding mobile needs of U.S. consumers."
The large software company Autonomy, now owned by HP, announced today that they have sold off their remaining shares in the oft-forgotten video search engine company Blinkx.
Autonomy sold 45.7 million shares at 120 pence per, giving the deal an $84.48 million value. The sale was actually at a 5 percent discount to the company's current price, but was sold through an accelerated issue to institutional investors.
Last year, Blinkx became the provider of AOL's video search, replacing Truveo.
HP had a small statement: "HP is selling its stake in Blinkx as part of our ongoing efforts to refocus the company on our strategic priorities."
Ouya game consoles are finally available today for anyone who could not pre-order it via Kickstarter.
The box, which runs on Android and a quad-core processor, was one of the highest funded projects on the site, with $8.6 million in funding from over 60,000 backers.
Additionally, the company raised another $15 million from venture capitalists.
So far, the console has been generally panned, due to its sluggish controller and small current selection of games. These reviews, of course, came for the beta edition of the console received by early adopters.
There are currently only 150 games available, all of which are free-to-play models, meaning they are either fully free or are free to download and play but you will need in-game purchases to really move forward or unlock new content.
The Ouya is available for $99 with a controller at places like Amazon and Target.
Saints Row IV has become the first game to be refused classification in Australia, effectively banning the game until develop Volition can change its content.
The Australian Classification Board follows the Guidelines for the Classification of Computer Games in determining a rating for a game. The new guidelines only came into effect in January. Before this point, Australia had no category for games intended for an adult audience only, which lead to many high profile titles running into trouble in the country.
However, it would appear the Classification Board finds Saints Row IV so bad that even adults should be protected from playing it in its current form.
In the Board's opinion, Saints Row IV, includes interactive, visual depictions of implied sexual violence which are not justified by context. In addition, the game includes elements of illicit or proscribed drug use related to incentives or rewards. Such depictions are prohibited by the computer games guidelines.
Volition has confirmed that it will now have to modify the content in Saints Row IV and resubmit it in order to release the title in the territory.
Sony has unveiled the new Xperia Z Ultra, touting a 6.4-inch 1080p display, Qualcomm's quad-core Snapdragon 800 (2.2GHz) and with LTE support.
The ultra-slim (6.5mm) and light (212 grams) device comes with 16GB of internal storage (up to 11GB available for general use) and a microSD slot for expanded storage (up to 64GB SDXC). It runs Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) and can record Full HD video with its 8MP camera, even underwater according to Sony.
It's giant 6.44-inch, 1920x1080 TFT display benefits from Sony's unique TRILUMINOS Display for mobile, creating a wider palette of rich natural colours thanks to Sony's BRAVIA TV expertise. A 3,000 mAh battery provides up to 550 hours standby time (GSM, 530 for UTMS, 510 for LTE) and Sony claims its 120 hours of music listening time is the world's longest on a charge for a smartphone.
Sony has unveiled its SmartWatch 2, referring to it as a second screen for your Android smartphone.
The SW2 features a 1.6-inch, 220x176 colour display supporting touch/swipe gestures that is readable in sunlight. It runs a version of Android (4.0 or later), supports Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity and is charged via microUSB. Battery charge holds for 3-4 days with typical usage, or 5-6 days if on low usage.
The SmartWatch 2 combines with your Android phone to provide a second screen, delivering notifications form your phone, or letting you easily handle calls by a touch of your wrist, or remotely control the camera of your phone. You can also use Presentation Pal to control your presentations remotely, or use an Android mapping app to check a route if you are on the move.
It can download e-mails from your phone and is also very useful for working out. If using your Android device to play music, you can use the SmartWatch 2 to change tracks or control the volume.
It sports a sleek water and dust resistant design,though of course it's not suitable for use in a swimming pool or bath.
Sony has announced that an update for its Music Unlimited app for iOS devices will come with high quality audio streaming and the ability to listen to music offline.
The v1.3 update is currently being vetted by Apple but it should be available soon. The update brings a feature that has been available on the Android version of the app already, the ability to download individual albums and tracks, as well as any playlists they have created to their device and enjoy music even when a cellular or Wi-Fi connection isn't available, or when they want to conserve battery life or curb data usage.
Users of the iOS app will also be able to listen to 320kbps AAC high fidelity audio while streaming.
High quality streaming will have to be switched on in the App settings. A 12-month membership to the Music Unlimited service is $41.99 for PS Plus members, or $59.99 for those without a PS Plus membership.
South Korea has issued a cyber attack alert after an attack on government and private websites in the country.
One of the attacks was against the website of the presidential office, and others included media sites. The attacks appeared to be coordinated. They come on the anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 Korean War, which resulted in the Korean peninsula being divided into two very different countries.
"The government can confirm a cyber attack by unidentified hackers that shut down several sites including the Blue House," the Science Ministry said in a statement.
Messages were placed on the hacked websites praising North Korean leaderKim Jong-un, and claimed that hacktivist group Anonymous was responsible. Anonymous used a Twitter account to deny any involvement.
In March, South Korea was also hit by a cyber attack against six of its banks and broadcasters, with an estimated 32,000 computers affected.
BlackBerry has launched its promised Secure Work Space service, allowing governmental and corporate clients to secure and manage iOS and Android devices on their networks.
Secure Work Space is a new containerization, application-wrapping and secure connectivity option that delivers a higher level of control and security to iOS and Android devices, all managed through the single BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 administration console.
Managed applications are secured and separated from personal apps and data, providing an integrated email, calendar and contacts app, an enterprise-level secure browser and secure attachment viewing and editing with Documents To Go.
While BlackBerry has attempted to step up competition against iOS and Android devices by releasing the Z10, Q10 and Q5 running BB10, it also shifted toward providing services for clients that have large amounts of rival's handsets already in place.
"With an integrated management console, our clients can now see all of the devices they have on their network, manage those devices and connect to them securely,"David Smith, the head of enterprise mobile computing at BlackBerry, said in an interview.
Microsoft's Age of Empires will reportedly soon be available for IOS and Android devices, through a partnership with Japan's KLab Inc.
The move comes as Microsoft seeks to generate more revenue from mobile gaming, which has been emerging as a bigger rival to traditional games consoles and PC gaming in recent years. It has made some of its games available for mobile platforms before, but Age of Empires will be its most popular.
KLab will be tasked with developing the mobile version of Age of Empires, which will be released "before the end of March,"according to a KLab spokesperson.
Nintendo is being urged by industry analysts to do the same thing with its own popular franchises, which it typically reserves for its own hardware.
iPhone5mod's Lightning crack is hardware based, and it claims Apple could not defeat the crack without changing its own Lightning hardware. It now lists Lightning products on its website that are listed as "for iOS 7.0".
iO7 devices will prompt a warning message to users when an uncertified Lightning cable is connected to it.
Sony has scheduled routing maintenance for its PlayStation Network service for the morning of Tuesday, June 25.
This maintenance will start at approximately 9:30AM PT (10:30AM MT / 11:30AM CT / 12:30 PM ET) and will last until around 4:00PM PT (5:00PM MT / 6:00PM CT / 7:00PM ET).
During the maintenance period, you may receive a maintenance notification when attempting to access PSN.
PlayStation Home, the PlayStation Store and Account Management will not the available during the maintenance period but you will be able to access online play and apps provided that you have signed in to the Network at some before the maintenance begins.
"We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your support," the PlayStation Blog reads.
Google feels that it has done enough to ease concerns of European regulators over its Search and other services.
The European Commission first began its Google probe three years ago, after complaints from Microsoft, British price comparison site Foundem, and more. They claimed that Google was using its dominance of the market to squeeze them out.
Subsequently, the Commission outlined areas of concern to Google, and Google responded with proposals to settle the case, which could potentially lead to a fine of up to $5 billion.
Among Google's proposed concessions was a pledge to make switching to alternative advertising platforms easier, as well as clearly labelling its own products and services when they appear in its search results.
EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia has indicated since that Google would need to improve its proposals, but the search giant feels it has done enough.
"As we've always said, we build Google for users, not websites. And we don't want to hamper the very innovations that people like best about Google's services," Kent Walker, Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Google, wrote.
Google's Street View has just covered its first skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, letting you take a look at the world's tallest building.
The Street View Trekker and Trolley were used to cover areas of the iconic building, the first collection made by the service in the Arab world. Described as a "vertical city," the Burj Khalifa is the world's tallest manmade structure, towering over the Dubai skyline at 828 meters (2,717 ft).
In addition to the breathtaking views from the world's tallest observation deck on the 124th floor, you can also see what it feels like to hang off one of the building's maintenance units on the 80th floor, normally used for cleaning windows.
Visit the highest occupied floor in the world on the 163rd floor, experience being in the fastest-moving elevators in the world (at 22 mph) and check out the highest swimming pool in the world on the 76th floor.
Photo-sharing service Snapjoy has announced it is shutting down only six months after the service was bought by cloud storage service Dropbox.
In a blog post on Saturday, the Snapjoy team informed users that no more photos can now be uploaded to the service, and that the Snapjoy iPhone app is no longer available. Photos previously uploaded to the site will be available to download until July 24.
After July 24, all remaining data will be permanently deleted.
"After two years of building Snapjoy, the time has come for us to shut down the service," the post reads. "It's been a journey unlike anything we'd imagined, and we can't thank you enough for your support and input along the way."
Users can easily download all of their content by logging in and downloading it as a ZIP archive.
Sony and Disney are running a test in South Korea, offering on-demand streams of movies that are still in theaters.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the pair started trialing the on-demand service quietly in South Korea some time back, with Django Unchained, Wreck-it Ralph, and Brave all part of the experiment.
Running the test in the South Korean market is a safer bet for the studios, as movie theater groups in the United States or European countries would likely kick up a major fuss if the exclusive theatrical window was effectively reduced to nothing.
In 2010, a plan to reduce the exclusive theatrical release window of Alice in Wonderland almost resulted in Odean cinemas in Ireland, the UK and Italy dropping the movie altogether.
The 21.5-inch tablet has a 1080p touchscreen, runs Android 4.2.2 and is powered by a Nvidia Tegra 4 quad-core processor.
"Customers are looking for technology that simplifies their lives while keeping them connected to the entertainment they enjoy and the content they need," said Jun Kim, vice president and general manager, PC Displays and Accessories, HP. "The HP Slate21 allows families to easily access content through the cloud and enjoy it together on a large, interactive screen."
The company says the HP Slate21 All-in-One is expected to be available in the U.S. in September, with a starting price of $399.
Samsung has denied reports that it is planning to shut down its current PC business.
The report, originally from the Korea Times, said Samsung had decided to shutter its PC division, consolidating their businesses by moving to the OEM side and sticking to mobile devices for the consumer side.
Says Samsung: "The rumor that Samsung is withdrawing from the PC desktop business is groundless. Samsung will continue to offer diverse PC products according to consumer and market needs."
The reports did not make much sense to begin with, especially since Samsung just unveiled new Ativ touch-screen PCs during a full press event and reiterated support for notebooks and ultrabooks.
That being said, the traditional PC market is expected to see another annual decline in shipments, likely in double digits.
A few weeks after announcing the tablets, Samsung has officially priced their Galaxy Tab 3 10.1, 8.0 and 7.0 models.
The tablets will cost $399, $299 and $199, respectively, making them extremely competitively priced.
Each of the devices will be available at retailers such as Best Buy, Fry's and Amazon starting on July 7th, with pre-orders beginning in the next couple of hours.
The 8-inch version runs on a 1.5 GHz Exynos dual-core processor, has a WXGA TFT 1280 x 800 (189 PPI) display, 1.5GB of RAM, 1.3/5MP cameras, a 4,450 mAh battery, and either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage depending on your needs.
Notably, the 10.1-inch model will run on a 1.6GHz Intel Haswell dual-core processor, a major score for the company as it tries to finally make a dent in the mobile markets. The device has a 1280 x 800 (149 PPI) WXGA TFT display, 1GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, and a large 6,800 mAh battery. Strangely, the cameras are 1.3/3MP, a letdown for those that were hoping were decent photo taking.
Major chipmaker Qualcomm has completed its investment in the struggling display maker Sharp.
The company announced it would be investing up to $120 million last December, but the second part of its investment was delayed when Sharp failed to meet certain conditions.
Now with all $120 million invested, Qualcomm is a 3.53% shareholder, one of the largest in the company.
Into the future, Qualcomm will be teaming up with Sharp for high-res IGZO displays mixed with Qualcomm MEM display products for smartphones and tablets.
Research firm Gartner has said today it expects combined PC, tablet and mobile phone shipments to reach 2.35 billion in 2013, a solid 5.9 percent increase from 2012 despite falling PC sales.
Tablet shipments are expected to jump 67.9 percent year-over-year, making up for a steep 10.6 percent decline in traditional PC shipments.
Traditional PCs (desktops and notebooks) will total 305 million units in 2013, with ultrabooks buoying that figure somewhat.
Tablet shipments will reach 202 million units, and mobile phones will grow to 1.8 billion units, a small 4.3 percent jump year-over-year.
"Consumers want anytime-anywhere computing that allows them to consume and create content with ease, but also share and access that content from a different portfolio of products. Mobility is paramount in both mature and emerging markets,"added Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has contacted Google over its $1.1 billion acquisition of Israeli maps firm Waze.
Googleconfirmed it has been contacted by FTC lawyers, but did not provide details of the antitrust review. Previously, Consumer Watchdog had written to the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission urging that it block the deal on antitrust grounds.
The FTC will probe whether the deal will have a significant impact on competition in the space, and whether there was ulterior motives in paying such a large fee for the company, such as buying it just to keep it out of hands of competitors.
Microsoft admitted that it was an investor in Waze but has not revealed whether it made a bid for the firm. Facebook had also been considered in the running to buy the firm, since it now relies on Bing Maps, and Apple.
Google said that it would keep Waze as a separate service, but that Waze' traffic data will be incorporated into its Google Maps service, and likewise some of Google Maps' features will be added to Waze.
The Waze navigation app has been downloaded by 45 million people in 190 countries.
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is considering dropping 3D broadcasts of World Cup 2014, to be hosted by Brazil next summer.
Its unease about 3D broadcasts comes just days after ESPN revealed it will abandon 3D broadcasts altogether. ESPN found that there simply wasn't enough viewers in the United States to make continued investment in 3D broadcasts worthwhile.
"We know that the technology has had a few setbacks in recent days, if you refer to some of the statements by (ESPN),"Niclas Ericson, FIFA's director of television, said on Wednesday.
"It's clear when a big sports broadcaster like ESPN makes an announcement like that it creates a lot of extra tension (for the technology)."
Only an estimated 6 percent of household TVs in the United States can show 3D programming. Consumer demand for 3D has cooled largely due to costs associated with 3D, and the inconvenience of using active shutter glasses.
Nevertheless, FIFA has questioned rights holders about their interest in 3D coverage of the World Cup next year. Ericson said there is still some interest from broadcasters, but that FIFA was still reviewing the cost of it.
Microsoft revealed this week that its actions taken against Citadel botnets freed around 2 million PCs that made up the botnets.
On June 5, Microsoft was aided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in attempting to take down 1,400 malicious computer networks known as the Citadel Botnets by severing the access to infected machines. The operation, according to Microsoft, was a big success.
"We definitely have liberated at least 2 million PCs globally. That is a conservative estimate,"Richard Domingues Boscovich, assistant general counsel with Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit, said in an interview.
"We feel confident that we really got most of the ones that we were after. It was a very, very successful disruptive action."
The ringleaders are still at large, while their identities are being probed. Boscovich said they believe the ringleader, known as "Aquabox," is in Eastern Europe.
As much as $500 million is alleged to have been stolen from bank accounts worldwide due to these malicious networks.
NVIDIA announced this week that it was cutting the price of its SHIELD handheld games device to $299, ahead of its launch on June 27.
That's a drop of $50 off the original $349 price tag. If you've already pre-ordered SHIELD, you'll be charged the new, lower price, NVIDIA assured those who jumped on it early.
The handheld will be available from Newegg, GameStop, Micro Center and Canada Computers on Thursday, June 27.
"We want to get SHIELD into the hands of as many gamers as possible," an NVIDIA press release said.
The unveiling of the SHIELD (then Project SHIELD) at CES, and prior rumours, came as something of a surprise since the SHIELD enters a space already occupied by Nintendo, Sony and now every modern smartphone and tablet PC too.
NVIDIA SHIELD's specifications:
Tegra 4 – The world's fastest mobile processor delivers rich graphics and unbeatable performance thanks to 72 GPU cores, four CPU cores and 2GB of RAM
Console-grade controller – Precise control thanks to dual analog joysticks, a full-sized D-Pad, left and right analog triggers, full-sized bumpers and A/B/X/Y buttons
Pure Android – Latest Android Jelly Bean operating system from Google, for access to Android games and apps
There's more – NVIDIA put into SHIELD everything we would want in a premium mobile gaming device: 16 GB memory, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, a mini-HDMI output, micro-USB 2.0, a microSD storage slot, a 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
Samsung is preparing to roll out its new 55-inch OLED television in its home South Korean market, according to a report by the Yonhap news agency.
This means Samsung is bringing forward its plans slightly, most likely to respond to moves made by LG Electronics, which began taking orders for its own 55-inch organic light-emitting diode TV in January this year.
Samsung is the global leader of flat-panel televisions, and certainly won't want to concede too much group early in the battle over next-generation TVs. OLED TVs promise slimmer designs, much better images and better power consumption than other technologies, such as LCD TVs that require a backlight.
Samsung is also expected to launch an OLED TV with a curved in South Korea, along with its 55-inch TV.
Early adopters however will really have to break the bank, with the estimated cost of a beautiful 55-inch OLED display from Samsung being around 10 million won, or about $8657 at the current exchange rate.
Intel has joined the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Wireless Power - A4WP - a group developing standard for interoperable wireless charging solutions.
Intel joins existing A4WP board member companies including Broadcom, Gill Industries, Integrated Device Technology (IDT), Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics.
A4WP technology, which uses near-field magnetic resonance technology, is uniquely capable of enabling the simultaneous charging of multiple devices and the flexible positioning of devices to be charged in multiple dimensions and at power levels and charging times that meet consumer expectations.
The A4WP organization is composed of more than 40 global, technology industry leaders. For industrial designers, the A4WP specification utilizes a near-field magnetic resonance technology that provides increased flexibility for charging solutions to be installed into all types of products and surfaces (cars, furniture, etc.).
"Intel believes the A4WP specification, particularly the use of near-field magnetic resonance technology, can provide a compelling consumer experience and enable new usage models that make device charging almost automatic," said Navin Shenoy, vice president, PC client group and general manager, mobile client platform division at Intel.
BitTorrent has announced that it has reached a new mobile milestone of 25 million users using its apps.
"We're stoked that 25 million of you are now getting your torrents to go. Guess this smartphone revolution thing that people are talking about is for real," a post on the company blog said.
It also announced updates to the BitTorrent and µTorrent mobile apps for stability, performance and speed. A new central location for uTorrent mobile apps will also be launched soon at utorrent.com/mobile.
"To all our mobile users: thank you times 25 million," the blog post reads.
Of course, 25 million is nothing compared to the numbers of BitTorrent users on PCs. Obviously, limitations with data, storage and the usefulness of downloaded files may hold mobile apps back, but Android versions of BitTorrent clients are likely to get more popular as more low-cost Android devices are sold as alternatives to PCs.
Amazon.com has set the launch date of the Xbox One console for November 27th, despite Microsoft not revealing an official date yet.
On the Product Page of the "Xbox One Console - Day One Edition", Amazon declares that the $500 console will be released on November 27, 2013. Whether that indicates it is privy to official information is unclear though, as it wouldn't be the first time that it was wrong.
The website also has listed the launch date of Forza Motorsport 5, Dead Rising 3 Day One Edition, and Kinect Sports: Rivals Day One Edition at November 27.
Elsewhere, numerous sources claimed that Sony's PlayStation 4 (PS4) console is set to launch on November 13.
If the dates are correct, then it should help somewhat with possible supply shortages before Christmas. Microsoft has already warned that its pre-order sales quotes are selling out around the world. Whatever happens, the launch supply simply could not be as limited as the Xbox 360 was.
Google announced earlier this week that the number of stores selling Chromebooks has tripled worldwide to 6,600, greatly expanding access to the low budget devices.
It announced earlier this week that Walmart has made the newest Acer Chromebook, which has a 16GB Solid State Drive (SSD), available in approximately 2,800 stores across the U.S., selling for $199. Over the weekend, Staples also began selling Chromebooks from Acer, HP and Samsung to every store in the U.S.--more than 1,500 in total.
In the 10 other markets worldwide where Chromebooks are sold, availability in national retailers continues to expand. In addition to Dixons in the UK, now 116 Tesco stores are selling Chromebooks, as well as all Media Markt and Saturn stores in the Netherlands, FNAC stores in France and Elgiganten stores in Sweden.
In Australia, all JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman stores will be carrying Chromebooks for their customers as well.
"We're working hard to bring Chromebooks to even more countries later this year," David Shapiro, Director of Chromebook Marketing, wrote.
Malwarebytes has released a beta of its new Anti-Exploit tool, a result of its acquisition of ZeroVulnerabilityLabs' ExploitShield application.
Anti-Exploit is not an anti-virus or anti-malware tool. Instead, Anti-Exploit runs in the background and monitors some popular applications, preventing vulnerabilities in the software from being exploited. This could be, for example, an attempt to exploit a bug in a web browser that used a maliciously crafted website.
It does not need to download large amounts of definitions every day to work either, it can even be effective at blocking the exploits of vulnerabilities that are not known about by the vendor of the software.
The tool is made with simplicity in mind; simply run the installer and it will then run in the background automatically. If you check the System Tray, you will see an icon that you can double-click to bring up the user interface of Anti-Exploit, allowing you to enable/disable protection, view a list of applications it protects against exploitation, view a log of blocked exploit attempts and set any exceptions that you would like.
While Sony has kept mum on the exact release date, multiple sources reported today that the upcoming PlayStation 4 will be released on November 13th.
So far, Sony has only said the console will launch during the "holiday 2013" but has not revealed an exact date.
One source is retailer Media Markt in Germany, who has already put up posters with the 11/13 date. Additionally, Dutch retailer Bol.com also put up advertisements with the date.
A Sony spokesperson was quick to call the retailer listings "speculative" but there was no official denial.
TorrentFreak has put together their most recent list, the top 10 most pirated TV shows of the last season.
Game of Thrones was the clear champion but there were a few surprises on the list, as well.
Perhaps most notably, the number of downloads for the HBO blockbuster jumped 25 percent from last season.
The below list is an estimate per single episode, for the season that started in March and just ended in June. The data is collected from public torrent trackers, and does not include cyberlockers, online streaming or private torrent trackers, meaning these numbers are likely very low compared to the real figures.
AppleInsider has posted two high quality 3D renders of the alleged upcoming low-cost 'iPhone Lite.'
Shown below, the device is based on blueprint images and schematics that leaked earlier this month.
Accessory companies have led credence to the leak and are currently building cases for the new form factor.
From what we know so far, the device will have a 4-inch screen, have circular speaker and microphone holes just like the 6th generation iPod Touch, include a Lightning port, the volume controls are pill shaped and the back corners are curved. The phone will have a plastic back cover and will be thicker than the iPhone 5.
Although it is considered a "Lite" model it is not expected to be really cheap. The device is expected to take the spot of the iPhone 4S when the 5S is released, since it will be more powerful.
Sony's PlayStation Europe twitter feed is promising another update to the console to address an issue with a recent pulled update that disabled a number of PS3 consoles.
Some unlucky PS3 owners who applied the recent 4.45 update found that their console now just hangs on start-up. When the issue started to get attention, Sony pulled the 4.45 update and began to investigate the issue.
Now, according to the PlayStation Europe twitter feed, Sony has identified the issue related to the 4.45 update, and is planning to release a new software update that resolves the issue on June 27.
Hi guys, we have identified the issue related to PS3 software update (4.45) that impacted a small number of PS3 systems earlier this week.
-- PlayStation Europe (@PlayStationEU) June 21, 2013
A new system software update is planned to be released on June 27 that resolves the issue.
-- PlayStation Europe (@PlayStationEU) June 21, 2013
Thanks again for your patience and understanding and we apologise for the inconvenience.
-- PlayStation Europe (@PlayStationEU) June 21, 2013
Google has once against come under fire in Europe, with France and Spain probing its change to its privacy policies, made in 2012.
The search giant had been warned by the European Union about its move to "simplify privacy," in which it combined its users' data across all of its services such as GMail, YouTube and Google+. At the time, the European Union gave Google four months to rethink its actions, but the deadline came and passed.
Now, individual states within the EU are starting their own actions against Google.
Spain's Data Protection Agency claims to have identified evidence of five serious privacy laws breaches, including a disproportionate use of private data, diverting private data for other uses, storing private data for excessive or undetermined periods, failure to handle private data in a legitimate way and obstructing users in the exercise of their rights.
The French National Commission on Computing and Freedom (CNIL) also wants Google to explain what it is using personal data for, and how long it is held by the company.
These latest actions join similar probes into alleged privacy violations by Google, being carried out in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
Electronic Arts has ruled out a return of its Online Pass program on the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One games consoles.
Both next generation consoles will now support the playing of used games, which had prompted questions about how EA's recent decision to abandon Online Pass would be affected.
Speaking to Polygon, an Electronic Arts representative ruled out a return of the Online Pass system in the next generation.
"There is no change to our decision to discontinue Online Pass,"the rep said. "It is dead."
EA said the decision to kill off Online Pass on both future games, and retrospectively on older titles, was down to customer feedback. Systems like Online Pass - which were also adopted later by other publishers - are widely seen as a way for publishers to get revenue out of the resale of video games.
The English Premier League is to request a court order forcing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to a Sweden-based sports streaming website.
The Premier League wants access to FirstRow1.eu blocked by all the major ISPs in the UK, following the lead of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) trade group which has been successful in forcing ISPs to block access to the Pirate Bay.
Some questions about a possible conflict of interest in this case have been raised by the Open Rights Group. BT, the largest ISP in the UK and the firm that typically challenged blocking demands on behalf of the industry, has recently paid £246 million to buy the rights to show Premier League football online.
"All of the major ISPs now have differing degrees of conflicts of interest,"Jim Killock, of the Open Rights Group, said.
"Sky, BT, Virgin and TalkTalk all supply televisions services now, so we have to expect that there will be more reluctance to be as transparent as they have been in the past."
He also raised concerns that any increase in the pace of granting court orders to block websites will lead to legitimate websites being hit.
A charity in the UK is warning Internet users about a trend of webcam hacking, where hackers switch on webcams on compromised PCs to remotely view victims.
Childnet International is warning that webcams should be disconnected or covered up when not used, and shouldn't be left in bedrooms or other private areas. A BBC Radio 5 investigation found websites where hackers exchanged images and videos of people they had recorded after hacking a PC or a laptop.
Commons Home Affairs Committee chairman Keith Vaz urged teachers to talk to pupils in schools about the dangerous of using webcams, and called on manufacturers to improve security.
The BBC also tells the story of Rachel Hyndman, 20, from Glasgow, who was reportedly watching DVD while in the bath when she noticed that the smell LED light indicating that her laptop's webcam was active had turned on. "I was sitting in the bath, trying to relax, and suddenly someone potentially has access to me in this incredibly private moment and it's horrifying," she said.
"To have it happen to you without your consent is horribly violating."
Horrifying indeed, but is there really anything new to the story? For many years now, trojan horse malware (or now commonly called remote access trojans, or RATs) provided a hacker with considerable control over a victim's PC, including full hard drive access, full control over software that is run, the ability to capture screenshots or even record the screen, turn on a connected webcam or microphone and so on.
A court in Tokyo has sided with Apple in ruling that Samsung Electronics' devices infringed the iPhone maker's so called "bounce back" patent.
The same patent at the center of the dispute was deemed invalid by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office earlier this year, although the office did say that certain aspects of the bounce back feature on Apple's iPhones could be patented.
Apple has long accused Samsung of "slavishly cloning" the iPhone and iPad with its Galaxy-branded line of smartphones and tablet PCs. The two are engaged in court battles all over the world.
The French government is planning to introduce new restrictions that would stop Amazon from being able to offer discounts on books, while also offering free delivery.
French law already forbids discounts of more than 5 percent on books, to prevent smaller sellers from being crushed by huge retail chains. While Amazon doesn't offer more than a 5 percent discount on books - complying with the existing laws - it does offer free delivery services.
"I'm in favor of ending the possibility of offering both free delivery and a five percent discount," Frence culture minister, Aurelie Filippetti, told BFM news television on Friday.
"We need a law, so we're going to find a legislative window to introduce one."
Amazon can afford to take the losses that providing both discounts, and free delivery, can impose, whereas other booksellers cannot. The SLF book retailers' union backs the socialist government's plans, and has already sued Amazon in court.
"Today, the competition is unfair... No other book retailer, whether a small or large book or even a chain, can allow itself to lose that much money,"Guillaume Husson, head of the SLF union, said.
Google has been given 35 days to destroy data it had collected from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in the UK.
The search giant had accidentally grabbed and stored data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in dozens of countries as its Street View vans took pictures for the popular service. Subsequent investigations had ordered Google to delete the data, which it pledged to do.
In the UK, it emerged last year that additional disks had more data accidentally collected from unsecured networks, prompting the UK Information Commissioner's Office to re-open the investigation.
It has ordered Google to destroy the data within 35 days and to report to it if any additional disks should emerge.
"Today's enforcement notice strengthens the action already taken by our office, placing a legal requirement on Google to delete the remaining payload data identified last year within the next 35 days and immediately inform the ICO if any further discs are found," said Stephen Eckersley, the office's head of enforcement.
"Failure to abide by the notice will be considered as contempt of court, which is a criminal offence."
The Office did not impose a fine on Google, however, saying that the breach failed to meet the levels required to justify a monetary penalty.
Facebook has revealed that a bug in its software could have exposed some personal information of more than six million of its users.
The social network giant said it received a report to its White Hat program (collaboration with external security researchers in order to weed out and fix problems) that identified a bug that could put the e-mail address and/or phone numbers of some of its users at risk.
The problem laid with the Download Your Information (DYI) tool and how Facebook uses some data to make friend recommendations. When people upload their contact lists or address books to Facebook, it tries to match that data with the contact information of other people on Facebook in order to generate friend recommendations. In this way, the service won't recommend that people invite certain contacts to Facebook if those contacts already have a Facebook account.
Due to the bug, some of the information used was inadvertently stored in association with people's contact information as part of their account on Facebook. As a result, if a person went to download an archive of their Facebook account through our Download Your Information (DYI) tool, they may have been provided with additional email addresses or telephone numbers for their contacts or people with whom they have some connection.
According to Digitimes, Apple and Samsung have begun developing ultra-thin heat pipes for their upcoming smartphones, with the potential to reveal "heat pipe-adopted models in the fourth quarter."
The companies would not be the first to launch such a model, as NEC just unveiled their Medias X06E, a smartphone with a 4.7-inch 1,280x720 OLED display, a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro 4 processor and heat pipes for improved cooling.
Digi says the "conventional graphite plus foil cooling method is no longer able to dissipate enough heat in modern smartphone models efficiently" mainly thanks to the standardization of LTE chips.
Ultrabooks currently use heat pipes with diameters of 1-1.2mm, but NEC's has a tiny 0.6mm diameter. Due to Apple's tiny screens, that may have to be even smaller for upcoming devices.
According to Sony UK, the upcoming PlayStation 4 launch does not mean the company is dropping the price of the PS3.
UK Managing Director Fergal Gara says the aging console will not get a price cut following the holiday launch of the PS4.
"There's no plans as yet," Gara says. "The PlayStation 3 is a system where it hasn't been particularly easy to get the costs down."
Although the PS3 lost the company money on every console sold at launch, Sony has said the PS4 will be around breakeven right from launch. The PS3 launched at $499 and the PS4 will launch at $399.
As expected, Facebook yesterday announced that its popular photo-sharing application Instagram has been updated to include Video sharing features.
The move was made to rival Vine, Twitter's video sharing app for iOS and Android.
Instagram's updated platform allows for 15 second videos, much longer than Vine's 6 second video restriction.
Says Kevin Systrom, Instagram CEO:
Today, we're thrilled to introduce Video on Instagram and bring you another way to share your stories. When you go to take a photo on Instagram, you'll now see a movie camera icon. Tap it to enter video mode, where you can take up to fifteen seconds of video through the Instagram camera.
You'll also find that we've added thirteen filters built specifically for video so you can keep sharing beautiful content on Instagram. When you post a video, you'll also be able to select your favorite scene from what you've recorded as your cover image so your videos are beautiful even when they're not playing.
Popular cross-platform messaging app WhatsApp has reported 250 million active monthly users, a huge boost from the recently reported 200 million less than two months ago.
The company launched four years ago but did not become mainstream until last year. The company has a $0 marketing budget, making the growth even more impressive.
At 250 million users, the app is now in elite company amongst more established brands like Twitter and Skype.
The app itself costs just $1 per year, and gives access to unlimited messaging across platforms such as iOS, BlackBerry and Android.
According to multiple sources, HTC has signed A-list star Robert Downey Jr. for a new marketing campaign set for the next two years.
The deal is worth $12 million and will include television, print, and billboard advertising all around the world. Additionally, Downey will keep some level of creative control.
HTC recently dropped its long-time "Quietly Brilliant" tagline, claiming that the company now needed to be louder to keep up with rivals. All new campaigns will use the terms "bold," "authentic," and "playful."
Downey Jr. has been busy, coming off major hits like "Sherlock Holmes" and of course, "Iron Man" and "The Avengers." The actor is set to reprise his role as Iron Man in the Avengers sequel, slated for 2015.
Looking to end their long-standing bidding war, Sprint has increased their bid for 4G spectrum holder Clearwire to $5 per share, 14 percent higher than Dish's bid, and almost 40 percent higher than their own original bid.
The bid would allow Sprint to purchase the 50 percent of the company it does not already own. Additionally, Sprint managed to get major investor and board member support, so unless Dish counters with a massive increase this looks like the final purchase price.
Of the Sprint offer, Clearwire's CEO says, "The path that we took has created a fantastic value for shareholders. This deal is going to be simple for us to execute and we expect to close it quickly."
With the latest move, Dish has been rejected in both of its attempts to gain access to the U.S. wireless market. The company bid $25.5 billion for Sprint and was rejected, and $4.40 per share for Clearwire.
The original bid for Clearwire, last December, was $2.97 per share, prompting the bidding war between the companies and forcing Sprint to pay much more than they expected and hoped for.
Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, co-founder of the infamous torrenttracker The Pirate Bay, has been sentenced to prison time for his part in hacking the Swedish outsourcing firm Logica.
Warg had been accused of accessing computers illegally and making illegal money transfers.
The prosecution argued and proved that Warg managed to transfer 24,200 Danish crowns but attempted to transfer 683,000 euros. "The hacking has been very extensive and technically advanced,"added the prosecution. "The attacker has affected very sensitive systems."
Warg is already serving one year in prison for breaching copyright as owner of the torrent tracker, which remains active today.
The site is registered in Sint Maarten, a Dutch territory in the Caribbean.
Samsung Electronics has unveiled two new tablets today; the ATIV Q and ATIV Tab 3.
The new Samsung ATIV Q tablet allows users to experience both Windows 8 and Android (Jellybean 4.2.2) on the same device. Users will not only get access to Android apps via Google Play but also be able to transfer files, or sharing folders and files from Windows 8 to Android.
The ATIV Q features a 13.3-inch, 3200x1800, 275ppi display that sits over a keyboard that can be folded out for typing or set to act as a stand, powered by an Intel Core i5 (Haswell) processor and Intel HD Graphics 4400. It comes with 4GB DDR3L memory and a 128GB solid state drive.
It also features a 720p HD camera, 1 USB 3.0 port, 1 USB 2.0 port, HDMI,RJ45 and a microSD slot. The battery offers up to 9 hours on a full charge. The ATIV Q weights 1.29kg (about 2.8lb).
Microsoft has caved to criticism from gamers and others in the industry, killing plans to require Internet connection for Offline play and limiting the ability to play used games.
The announcement has come from Microsoft just one week after E3, where the new Xbox One system was unveiled by the company, before the PS4 was shown off to the world. Microsoft's policies toward playing used games and a requirement of regularly connecting to the Internet were heavily criticized, handing a huge advantage to Sony's console.
Don Mattrick, President of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, said that company listened to gamers' reactions to the new console, and has decided to make some changes.
HP and Samsung have teamed up to fight Windows OS piracy in China.
The companies will now ensure that all PCs sold in the nation are pre-installed with licensed versions of Windows and Microsoft Office.
Microsoft announced the new agreements as part of an anti-piracy campaign event in the Chinese city of Nanjing. The campaign, dubbed "Keep it Real," is meant to educate the Chinese public "on security risks of using unlicensed Windows software."
Additionally, Microsoft has been warning dozens of Chinese resellers to stop selling pirated versions of Windows in the nation.
The move is similar to the deal Microsoft struck with Lenovo, one of the world's biggest PC makers, two months ago.
China is widely regarded as a country with high rates of Windows piracy, where users are more open to exploits due to outdated versions of the operating system.
Resident crazy person John McAfee has released a video to his YouTube channel, showing off how to uninstall McAfee anti-virus software, the software he founded.
The four-minute video, dubbed "How To Uninstall McAfee Antivirus," includes a lot of green screen action, nudity, drugs and supposedly, humor.
Please be reminded McAfee has been questioned for murder and has admitted to consuming the drug known as bath salts
Dish Network has announced today that they will not be making new bids for Sprint, instead choosing to focus on 4G spectrum company Clearwire.
The news should be a relief for Japanese carrier SoftBank, who had to up their original bid as Dish tried to counter. SoftBank bid $21.6 billion for a 78 percent share of the company.
Although the company says it "continues to see strategic value in a merger with Sprint" but will not offer a new bid before the June 18th deadline set by Sprint's board.
Sprint also bid for Clearwire earlier this year, at $3.40 per share. Dish countered with $4.40 per share, and Clearwire's board recommended that shareholder vote for Dish's superior offer.
Large Chinese network equipment and smartphone maker Huawei has denied it has interest in purchasing struggling phone maker Nokia.
The company responded to multiple reports by stating it has "no plans to acquire Nokia," although a partnership could make sense.
Huawei vice president for external affairs Bill Plummer, added that the company's Windows Phone offerings do not have enough penetration yet around the globe.
The company is one of the top smartphone makers in the world, but has literally no presence in the U.S.
Evleaks, well respected for leaks in the mobile phone industry, has posted the specs for the upcoming Moto X device.
The phone is expected to be the centerpiece of Motorola's new fall 2013 lineup, and it will have significant input from new parent company Google.
If the leaked specs are accurate, the phone will be disappointing a 1.7GHz Snapdragon MSM8960 Pro SoC, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a 720p display, a 10MP camera and stock Android 4.2.2.
The Moto X has been rumored to be a customizable phone, allowing users to pick and choose certain specs, so these could well be base components.
Netflix and DreamWorks Animation have announced today a new exclusive deal that will make the streaming service "the home of new original series from the award-winning creators of global box-office hits including the Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon franchises."
The streaming service says the deal is the largest in its history for first-run content.
DreamWorks has been looking to expand its television production and distribution worldwide and the new deal is for 300 hours of programming. The new shows will include characters well known from their time on the big screen.
The first shows are expected to air in 2014, and the series will be available in all Netflix territories.
"DreamWorks Animation is a valued partner in our global efforts to provide families the most engaging stories delivered however, whenever and wherever they want,"said Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. "This deal represents a major expansion of what's already a phenomenal relationship, allowing us to bring beloved DreamWorks characters to the 40 countries where Netflix operates and setting the stage for us to innovate together as we expand into new markets."
Facebook is holding a press event later this week, in which it is expected to announce something big for its platform.
The most cited rumor is that Facebook will update its popular photo-sharing app Instagram to include short video sharing, just like rival application Vine.
Facebook's event is on June 20th, but the social networking giant has kept details under wraps.
Instagram has been said to be internally testing video and it is unclear whether the update will allow filters for video, as well.
The move would be a direct reaction to the Twitter-owned Vine, which allows users to share six seconds of video footage via iOS and Android and is deeply integrated with Twitter. Despite being much newer, Vine shares have already surpassed Instagram shares on Twitter.
Speaking earlier this week with GamesBeat, Nintendo marketing exec Scott Moffitt says the company has no plans to drop the price of the struggling Wii U console.
Many had expected a price drop at E3, but it never came.
Says the exec: "We have no plans to change the price of Wii U. The Wii U is a great value. With great content coming, that will drive the hardware installed base. We've gone from being the highest-priced console on the market to now being a great value with the announcements from our competitors. The perception of our price has changed, but what's also changed is that people now see what great content is coming. They'll see the value in those games. They'll be able to enjoy a Wii U in their household for a lot less than a competing console."
The games Moffitt is talking about are the upcoming first-party guaranteed hits, Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda and Mario Kart 8.
Last night, during Game 5 of the NBA Finals, Samsung and Jay-Z played a three minute commercial showing off a new partnership between the two brands.
Jay-Z's newly announced album, "Magna Carta Holy Grail," which goes on sale on July 7th, will be available to 1 million lucky Galaxy S3, S4 and Note II owners who download a special app.
The app will be available on June 24th and gives an "unprecedented inside look into the album personal stories and inspiration," besides the actual album itself. App downloaders get the album three days early, on Independence Day, for free.
Reports claim that Samsung paid $5 for each album, meaning Jay-Z and his label have pocketed $5 million weeks before the CD even launches.
On June 13th, Amazon put a poll up on their Video Games division's Facebook page asking consumers one simple question; Do you prefer the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One.
Three days and over 40,000 votes later, the etailing giant has taken down the poll prematurely, as it was set to run until June 20th.
The PS4 absolutely demolished the Xbox One, with 38,984 votes for the Sony console and just 2162 votes for the Microsoft rival.
At this point in the next-gen console wars, it appears Sony has the upper hand, thanks to a more pro-consumer approach.
Sony has no restrictions on used discs being played on any console, does not require online authentication to play single player modes, and costs $399 compared to the Xbox at $499, although that does include the Kinect system, as well.
CinemaBlend has reported that Microsoft did not use a dev kit to demo its Xbox One games at E3, instead using high-end PCs.
The console maker was using an HP built Windows 7 system with a Nvidia 700 series GTX GPU.
Making that more notable, is the fact that the upcoming console will use a mid-range AMD GPU, a far cry away from the Nvidia used. It is also odd that the company did not use a dev kit, like Sony did for their presentation.
Also of note, the company did not use their latest Windows 8 operating system, leading many to believe that the company did not trust its own struggling OS.
Shuhei Yoshida, Sony Computer Entertainment's first-party game boss, said during an interview this week that the company has pledged 10 years of support for the PS4.
The company expects the console will have as long of a lifespan as its predecessors, namely the PS2 and PS3.
"I would say the same or similar," says Yoshida, "because the PS4 has an incredible amount of RAM and I don't think any launch titles need that 8GB of RAM. So there's room for growth in both game content and system features".
One of those features, the oft-requested cross-game voice chat for the PS3, was never made available because system-level limitations made it impossible to launch. The PS4, however, can adapt and evolve. "In the middle of PS3 we really hit the limit with what we could do on the system side. We wanted to add the cross-game voice chat that many people asked us about, but we had no room in the system memory at all to add it. So the PS4's enlarged, very fast memory allows us in the future to improve and add more new features. And at the same time we are continuing to invest and add onto the online services so that, three years from now, the PS4 will be much, much better than PS4 this holiday - and that was the case on PS3 and PS Vita."
Multiple sources have been diligently putting together all of the announced games for the PS4, and we have a full list for the console now.
Starting with the exclusives:
Knack (Sony)
DC Universe Online (Sony Online Entertainment)
Planetside 2 (Sony Online Entertainment)
Hohokum (Sony Santa Monica)
The Order: 1866 (Ready At Dawn)
Killzone: Shadow Fall (Guerrilla Games)
Infamous: Second Son (Sucker Punch)
Drive Club (Evolution Studios)
Unnamed Move Game (Media Molecule)
Moving on to the third-party games:
Abe's Oddysee: New 'n' Tasty (Just Add Water)
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag (Ubisoft)
Watch Dogs (Ubisoft)
Tom Clancy's The Division (Ubisoft Massive)
Final Fantasy XV (Square Enix)
Kingdom Hearts 3 (Square Enix)
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (Square Enix)
Battlefield 4 (DICE)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt RED)
EA Sports UFC (EA Sports)
NBA Live (EA Sports)
Madden 25 (EA Sports)
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain (Konami)
Deep Down (Capcom)
Daylight (Zombie Studios)
Mad Max (Avalance Studios)
Diablo 3 (Blizzard)
Destiny (Bungie)
Warframe (Digital Extremes)
Wolfenstein: The New Order (Machine Games)
The Evil Within (Tango Gameworks)
Sniper Elite 3 (505 Games)
Yager's Unreal Engine 4 game (Yager)
Batman: Arkham Origins (WB Montreal)
Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt)
APB: Vendetta (Reloaded Entertainment)
War Thunder (Gaijin Entertainment)
Carmageddon (Stainless Games)
Primal Carnage: Genesis (Lukewarm Media)
Mirror's Edge 2 (DICE)
The Crew (Reflections)
Star Wars Battlefront (DICE)
Dragon Age: Inquisition (BioWare)
PES 2014 (Konami)
Thief (Eidos Montreal)
Blacklight: Retribution (Zombie Studios)
Call of Duty: Ghosts (Infinity Ward)
Skylanders: Swap Force (Activision)
Need for Speed Rivals (Ghost Games)
Elder Scrolls Online (Bethesda)
Dying Light (Techland)
According to EA Labels president Frank Gibeau, the company will resume developing games for the struggling Wii U console when "it becomes a viable platform" to sell games.
Last month, the company confirmed it would not be bringing popular sports titles like Madden 25 and FIFA 14 to the console, and a spokesperson later confirmed there were no games in development for the system.
Gibeau's comments mirror those of Ubisoft, which earlier this week announced they would not develop any more exclusives for the console until Nintendo sold more hardware. Unlike EA, however, Ubisoft remains committed to the console for non-exclusives.
"Look, the only thing they can do to fix it is to sell more boxes. We're a rational company, we go where the audience is. We publish games where we think we can make a great game and hit a big audience, and make money. That's why we're here, that's why we have an industry,"said Gibeau.
Earlier in the week, Apple announced that it had reached 575 million iTunes accounts, a huge jump from previous announcements.
In 2009, the company revealed that figure as 100 million.
Apple analyst Horace Dediu took a deeper look into the numbers, including gross revenue, and figured out that each iTunes account is worth $40 in iTunes spending to the company.
Then, Dediu took into account that most Apple fans don't just have an iTunes account, but more than likely have multiple Apple devices, as well.
By his calculations, which can be found here, each iTunes account is worth just about $300 per year to Apple, a hefty figure which is perhaps larger than Amazon's Prime member value.
Dediu also believes iTunes Radio, as long as it helps people discover music that they later buy, will significantly boost the figure.
Thanks to a new FCC listing, we may have a complete spec sheet for the second generation of the popular Google Nexus 7 tablet.
A new Asus tab, with model K009, is powered by a Qualcomm APQ-8064 S4 Pro quad-core, 1.5GHz processor with Adreno graphics, front and rear cameras, 4,000 mAh Li-ion battery and LTE radios.
Additionally, the base model will have 32GB internal storage.
For the display, "This tablet features a 7" LED-backlit capacitive multitouch screen for easy carrying and fantastic multi -media experience everywhere. It is enpowered by Qualcomm ® Snapdragon ™ 600 Quad-core CPU with the highest performance. Wireless networking Ensures simple connection to the Internet without wires."
The device is expected to launch towards the end of the summer.
Beginning today, AT&T will be sending an OTA update to iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 owners that includes Wireless Emergency Alerts such as AMBER alerts for missing children.
Other alerts include emergencies such as man-made or natural disasters, and Presidential alerts.
Most of the alerts are not mandated by law and are easily shut off if you do not want them. With the exception of the Presidential alerts, you can head to Settings >Notifications>Turn On/Off.
Additionally, alerts will not go against your data or messaging plans. The update will be sent to users with iOS 6.1 or higher.
According to multiple reports, Microsoft is offering money up front to certain developers for them to write Windows Phone 8 apps.
While the company currently offers anyone who develops up to $2000 ($100 per app), big name developers can make up to $100,000.
Of course, paying to bring popular apps over to the fledgling operating system makes perfect sense, given how far behind they are behind Android and iOS.
For the operating system, Microsoft has had extraordinarily deep pockets. The company pays struggling phone maker up to $1 billion per year to exclusively build Lumia Windows Phone devices.
Ashton Kutcher's Steve Jobs biopic finally has a new release date.
Originally scheduled to reach theaters on April 19th on the anniversary of Apple's founding, distributor Open Road Films decided it needed to be delayed.
The movie covers the years 1971-2000, right before the release of the original iPod and the beginning of Apple as the giant it is today. The film will show off Jobs' founding of the company, his ouster, the founding of NeXT and Pixar, and his return to the company after Apple purchased NeXT in 1996 for $429 million. NeXT's software highly influenced Mac OS X and iOS. Some of the movie was filmed in the original garage in which Apple was founded.
The film is now slated for a wide release on August 16th.
European Commission Vice President Viviane Reding has made it clear that national security does not provide states with an 'anything goes' right to spy on citizens.
VP Reding had met with U.S. attorney general Eric Holder on Friday at the EU-U.S. Ministerial meeting held in Dublin, Ireland. Previously, the commissioner had sent a letter to Holder asking for information on recent revelations of NSA spying, and how it affected citizens of the 27-national European Union bloc who use Internet services from U.S. firms.
At the meeting, the two delegations agreed to quickly convene a meeting of EU-U.S. experts to look into the "PRISM" revelations and the safeguards available for EU citizens. Reding also called for intensified efforts to reach an EU-U.S. data protection agreement that would provide equal protections for citizens of both regions.
"The concept of national security does not mean that "anything goes": States do not enjoy an unlimited right of secret surveillance," Reding said in a statement.
"In Europe, even in cases involving national security, every individual – irrespective of their nationality – can go to a Court, national or European, if they believe that their right to privacy or to data protection has been infringed. I have made my point clearly: this is what I want for European citizens also in the US."
Microsoft has revealed that it received between 6,000 and 7,000 requests for user data from U.S. government sources at the local, state and federal level during the last six months of 2012.
It joins Facebook in reporting these figures following media reports about NSA requests for information. The total number of accounts affected in one way or another from the 6,000-7,000 requests is around 31,000-32,000 accounts.
Microsoft is stressing that it is only allowed to provide information on FISA requests (related to intelligence services) as long as it is included with all other law enforcement requests and only in blocks of 1,000 (hence, the "between 6,000 and 7,000 requests," as opposed to a specific figure).
Microsoft had joined Google and Facebook in pushing the U.S. government to allow it to provide more information on the volume of requests it receives. Facebook revealed earlier that it received between 9,000-10,000 information requests during the same period, also from sources at the local, state and federal level in the United States.
It explained that while some of these requests may involve intelligence related activity (counter-terrorism etc.), it also frequently gets requests for information in missing persons cases, or in the cases of fugitives who are being hunted by law enforcement. It also made it clear that it does not comply with all requests, downright rejecting some of them, while providing much less data than requested for others. Basically, Facebook stressed it only complies to its legal obligation and no more.
Google has introduced Project Loon, an ambitious project that would provide Internet access from high up in the atmosphere to regions of the world where affordable access is too expensive or impossible.
The idea sounds crazy, and Google admits that it is called Project Loon because it is crazy. However, there is solid science behind it, Google asserts.
Google believes that it is possible to build a ring of balloons that would fly around the world on the stratospheric winds, way high up in the atmosphere beyond even commercial airliners. These balloons could beam Internet access to the ground at speeds around those offered by 3G connections, or better.
"As a result, we hope balloons could become an option for connecting rural, remote, and underserved areas, and for helping with communications after natural disasters," Google's Mike Cassidy, Project Loon leader, said.
There are of course many challenges associated with this approach, though Google feels it is finding solutions to them. Using just wind and solar power, Google believes it can actually move the balloons in the sky up or down to catch winds they want them to travel in, allowing Google to control their path in the sky.
The European Commission is asking mobile providers and handset makers about their deals with Google to use Android, which could potentially lead to another antitrust probe into the Internet giant.
It has sent a questionnaire to providers and handset makers, asking 82 questions about the nature of their dealings with Google, seeking to establish whether the search giant is abusing its power in the mobile space. Respondents have until July 26 to reply, at which point the commission will decide whether there is a case or not.
The action follows an April complaint from Microsoft and Nokia, alleging that Google uses its Android operating system to push its Search, and other services, to the detriment of competitors.
The questionnaire asks the firms whether their agreements with Google make it more difficult or impossible to launch devices with rival operating systems installed. It also questions compatibility requirements and whether Android-powered devices can be freely shipped with mobile services like compete with Google services.
"Android is an open platform that fosters competition. Handset makers, carriers and consumers can decide how to use Android, including which applications they want to use," Google spokesman Al Verney said.
Apple executive Eddy Cue has told a federal court that the company did not set e-book prices, defending the iPad maker from prosecutor allegations that it conspired to fix prices of e-books across the industry.
The U.S. government accused Apple of conspiring with 5 publishers in order to raise the prices of e-books across the industry. The likely target of the move was Amazon, which in late 2009 had about 90 percent of the e-books market. The publishers separately reached settlement deals with the government.
"I didn't raise prices," Cue told the federal court. He had acted as the primary negotiator with U.S. publishers ahead of the launch of the iPad in 2010, and has been described by a Justice Department lawyer as the "chief ringleader."
At the time, Cue says that Apple was seeking the same type of deal that Amazon had with publishers, which was to buy in bulk and sell on to customers at their own prices. In the end, Apple agreed with an agency model with the publishers, allowing them to set the prices of the books as long as Apple got its 30 percent cut. Apple had, of course, expressed some upper price caps.
Microsoft has finally unveiled a long-awaited Microsoft Office app for iPhone, which lets Office 365 subscribers create and edit documents and spreadsheet stored in the cloud.
Currently, there is no iPad version of the Microsoft Office app, and it is limited to the United States. It will also only work with iPhones or iPod touch models running iOS 6.1.
After signing in to an Office 365 account, you can access, view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents from anywhere, and Microsoft promises that all formatting will remain intact so documents still look the same when you get back to a PC.
You can access your content from SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro. When you're on your phone, you'll easily find the content you viewed on your computer in the Recent Documents panel.
The European Commission has made a huge leap toward ending mobile roaming charges within the European Union, as it seeks to aid a single telecoms market.
In the European Union single market, one area that has remained strongly fragmented and inconsistent is the telecommunications industry. Services, costs and rules vary widely between EU member states, despite several EU regulations that addressed some concerns.
One aspect of travel familiar to all EU citizens is roaming charges - the charges you must pay when you use your mobile phone in an EU state outside of your own. Earlier this week, the group of 27 commissioners voted on telecoms proposals, one of which paves the way for roaming fees on voice calls, texts and internet access to be scrapped by next year.
"They agreed that this time next year we will have got rid of these charges,"a Brussels source said.
European regulators are targeting the telecommunications market in the EU as it sees its current state as a block to innovation, and detrimental to millions of EU customers.
According to a report in Korean media, Samsung will be the primary supplier for 7.9-inch Retina displays for a new iPad mini that will launch this year.
Korean outlet, ETNews, reported that Apple ran into yield and quality problems with alternative suppliers Sharp and AU Optronics.
That leaves Samsung as the primary source of 7.9-inch displays with a resolution of 2,048 x 1,536, which is the same as the latest iPad. Samsung will ship the displays in Q3 and Q4 this year.
While Apple does also provide quite a bit of business to LG Display, it still must use Samsung as a huge parts supplier for its products. This relationship was shaken in recent years due to a spat of lawsuits around the world over each others' smartphone and tablet PC products.
Microsoft and Best Buy have revealed a partnership to open 600 Windows stores within Best Buy outlets in the United States and North America.
The comprehensive store-within-a-store will open at 500 Best Buy locations in the United States and more than 100 Best Buy and Future Shop locations in Canada.
They will range in size from 1,500 square feet to 2,200 square feet and will be the premier destination for consumers to see, try, compare and purchase a range of products and accessories, including Windows tablets and PCs, Windows Phones, Microsoft Office, Xbox and so on.
Facebook has revealed that it received between 9,000 and 10,000 data requests from U.S. government entities during the second half of 2012.
You may recall that earlier this week, Facebook was one of the major Internet firms to appeal to the U.S. government to allow it to be transparent about how many requests it receives for user data. The social network was joined in its call by Google and Microsoft, who were desperate to counteract media reports that the NSA had "direct access" to their servers; a claim they all denied, and which now seems to have been likely false.
Following negotiations with U.S. national security officials, Facebook can now give details about the FISA and other national security requests it receives from various government sources.
"For the six months ending December 31, 2012, the total number of user-data requests Facebook received from any and all government entities in the U.S. (including local, state, and federal, and including criminal and national security-related requests) – was between 9,000 and 10,000,"Ted Ullyot, Facebook General Counsel, wrote.
Those 9,000-10,000 requests received by Facebook during the six month period involved about 18,000-19,000 accounts. The reason for the claims is not all national security either. While some do relate to terrorism investigations, Facebook is also requested to help in cases of missing children or pursued fugitives. Facebook data in those cases could shed light on where people are.
Microsoft has confirmed that its first-party titles for the upcoming Xbox One will cost $59.99, just as they do on the Xbox 360.
Speaking bluntly, a company representative says "I can confirm that Microsoft Studios games on Xbox One will be $59.99 (MSRP)."
Sony America president Jack Tretton made a similar announcement for his company earlier this year, saying "We're going to welcome free-to-play models, games from $.99 up to those $60 games."
Amazon, Gamestop and other major retailers have been pricing pre-order games at the $59.99 price point.
Less than a week after the company purchased an FM radio station in an effort to get better royalty rates, the BMI has sued Pandora, calling the purchase a "stunt" and a cry for attention.
BMI collects license fees for songwriters and composers.
"Pandora's stunt makes a mockery of the performing rights licenses and the rate court process," BMI said in its suit. It is now asking the court to set "reasonable, market-driven fees for Pandora." The organization claims direct negotiations have completely fallen apart.
Pandora has been alleging that the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) has allowed artists to selectively back out of licensing popular songs to the service, and has even filed a motion claiming "ASCAP has violated the terms of its antitrust consent decree with the Department of Justice."
The company then purchased KXMZ-FM in Rapid City, SD, in an effort to gain access to the alleged preferential treatment ASCAP has given terrestrial stations.
Microsoft, in an ongoing effort to alienate fans, has left confusing messages as to whether the upcoming Xbox One console will function properly outside of the "supported" countries it is being released in.
For example, Microsoft says the Xbox One "requires account on Xbox Live in an Xbox One-supported Xbox Live country" and "Xbox One games are for activation and distribution only in specified geographic regions."
Xbox support has also responded on Twitter to questions about playing imported games, or taking your console on the road, and the answers are not promising (see below). Microsoft has only confirmed 21 countries for the console this year, with more expected next year at unknown times. A few major gaming hubs, like Japan, are not on that list.
The Verge asked Microsoft directly if the console is IP-locked:
At this time, we have announced Xbox One will be available in 21 markets in November this year and additional markets later in 2014. Similar to the movie and music industry, games and other content must meet country-specific regulatory guidelines before they are cleared for sale - which means that games will work in the broad geographic regions for which they have been cleared, much as today with Xbox 360. While the console itself is not geographically restricted, a user's Xbox Live account, content, apps and experiences are all tied to the country of billing and residence.
The European Commission is seeking answers from U.S. attorney general Eric Holder on NSA data requests.
Commission Vice President, Viviane Reding, wrote to Holder expressing concerns that American spying practices could have "adverse consequences for the fundamental rights of EU citizens."
Are they only aimed at gathering the data of US citizens and residents, or are they also - or even primarily - targeting non-US nationals, including EU citizens?
Is the data collection limited to specific and individual cases and, if so, what criteria is applied?
How regularly is the data of individuals collected or processed in bulk?
What is the scope of Prism and other such programmes? Is it limited to national security and foreign intelligence, and if so how are such terms defined?
How might companies in the US and EU challenge the efforts to access and analyse the data?
What ways might EU citizens find out if they have been affected? How is this different to the situation for US citizens and residents?
How might EU citizens and companies challenge any effort to access and process their personal data? How does this compare to the rights offered to US citizens and residents?
Reding expects that she will get the answers she seeks on Friday, when she will meet with Holder at the EU-U.S. Ministerial meeting in Dublin, Ireland.
Officials in the United States are calling on smartphone makers to make changes that will deter the theft of mobile phones.
Handset makers have been criticized in the past for dragging their feet on adding features that could fight against the epidemic of handset theft. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon formed a coalition to address the problem, and to work with vendors to create features, like a "kill switch", that can render a stolen device useless.
Law enforcement authorities have been warning about mobile phone theft, as it becomes increasingly violent and prevalent. In San Francisco, more than half of reported robberies in 2012 involves a mobile phone. One study estimated the cost of phone theft at about $30 billion.
"This nationwide coalition of leaders is committed to doing everything in our power to encourage industry to be good corporate citizens and take responsible steps to ensure the safety of our consumers," Schneiderman said in a statement.
Twitter has been ordered by a French court to reveal the identities of users who posted anti-Semitic tweets on the service.
The Paris High Court ordered the micro-blogging service to reveal the identities to France's Union of Jewish Students (UEJF) and four others, and this week it has rejected an appeal made by Twitter against the order.
"We are disappointed that the court has decided not to hear our appeal. We are considering our options, including resubmitting the appeal,"a Twitter spokeswoman said.
Twitter did block the content in France after it had been reported to the service. The Paris High Court had ordered it to set up and easily accessible and visible method for users to notify the management of content that constituted "apology for crimes against humanity and incitement to racial hatred."
"Twitter has not made any progress in regards to respecting our country's laws," said UEJF's president Jonathan Hayoun. "The first step towards making any kind of progress could be finally listening to the court's decision, and making sure that its social network is not a lawless place."
A Japanese telecommunications company is running a trial in Japan this week, delivering 4K video content over the Internet to set-top boxes connected to 4K TVs.
While 4K televisions are already on the market, 4K content itself is much less prevalent. The new H.265 codec cuts the streaming bandwidth requirements for 4K (and 1080p) roughly in half, compared to common H.264 currently in wide usage.
NTT West in Japan is testing a 4K-STB system to determine the feasibility of streaming 4K content over the Internet straight to the TV, as broadcasts in 4K will take more time to become common. Japan will be the first country to broadcast 4K programming over satellite, aiming to be ready in time for the 2014 World Cup.
The test underway this week will hint at whether online streaming services, like Netflix, can get the jump on everyone else this time by becoming the first services that can deliver premium 4K content to 4K televisions.
A report suggests that Apple is thinking about following Samsung's lead and releasing iPhones with larger screens, as well as cheaper handsets.
According to Reuters sources, Apple is considering releasing two iPhones with larger screens measuring 4.7-inches and 5.7-inches. The intent is to compete with South Korean bitter rival Samsung Electronics in the market for "phablets".
Sources also told Reuters that Apple is planning much cheaper iPhone models that come in 5-6 colours, with a goal of providing a model at just $99.
The new strategy would cater to investor demands who find Apple's pace of innovation and release cycle too slow. Samsung also has put a lot of different devices on the market with a variety of price points, providing consumers with far more smartphone options than Apple is.
This year, Apple is expected to launch two new iPhone models. The "iPhone 5S" is expected to launch with new fingerprint technology, and the cheaper model with a plastic case is also rumoured.
Eight charged in New Jersey with conspiracy to commit cyberattacks on financial institutions and government sites, to commit money laundering and identity theft.
The group are charged with a scheme to use information hacked from customer accounts held at more than a dozen banks, brokerage firms, payroll processing companies and government agencies in an attempt to steal at least $15 million from U.S. customers
Allegedly, Oleksiy Sharapka, 33, of Kiev, Ukraine, directed the conspiracy with the help of Leonid Yanovitsky, 38, also of Kiev.
Oleg Pidtergerya, 49, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Robert Dubuc, 40, of Malden, Mass.; and Andrey Yarmolitskiy, 41, of Atlanta, managed crews in their respective cities. Richard Gundersen, 46, of Brooklyn, and Lamar Taylor, 37, of Salem, Mass, worked for Pidtergerya and Dubuc, respectively. Ilya Ostapyuk, 31, of Brooklyn, allegedly facilitated the movement of fraud proceeds.
"According to the complaint unsealed today, cybercriminals penetrated some of our most trusted financial institutions as part of a global scheme that stole money and identities from people in the United States," said New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.
"Today's charges and arrests take out key members of the organization, including leaders of crews in three states that used those stolen identities to 'cash out' hacked accounts in a series of internationally coordinated modern-day bank robberies. We will continue to pursue our investigation into this scheme and our fight against the rising threat of criminals for whom computers are the weapon of choice."
Facebook has decided to take advantage of the all powerful hashtag to drive larger discussions across the social network.
Every Twitter user knows the importance of hashtags. They link together tweets under one topic, getting a large "conversation" going. You see topics presented with hashtags on all kinds of TV shows during broadcasts, in an effort to get people talking about the content.
Facebook has decided that it needs to embrace the hashtag.
"Starting today, hashtags will be clickable on Facebook. Similar to other services like Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, or Pinterest, hashtags on Facebook allow you to add context to a post or indicate that it is part of a larger discussion,"Greg Lindley wrote on the Facebook blog.
"When you click on a hashtag in Facebook, you'll see a feed of what other people and Pages are saying about that event or topic."
Researchers have detailed a weakness effecting some iPhone that can be exploited to force devices to connect to malicious Wi-Fi networks.
Even if the iPhone had never connected to a Wi-Fi network before, this attack method could still work, Skycure researchers found. The problem actually lies with the configuration settings installed by wireless carriers.
In order to provide customers with more reliable data connections on the move, Wi-Fi hotspots are setup in public places targeted at just their customers. For example, AT&T pre-sets iPhones to connect to networks with an SSID of "attwifi". The problem is simple, this connection can happen automatically with no user interaction.
"Setting up such Wi-Fi networks would initiate an automatic attack on nearby customers of the carrier, even if they are using an out-of-the-box iOS device that never connected to any Wi-Fi network," the researchers wrote.
A test carried out in a restaurant in Tel Aviv resulted in 60 connections to an imposter network within a minute. At the International Cyber Security Conference, Skycure did the same thing and recorded 448 connections within a two and half hour period.
AT&T has finally confirmed the release date for the rugged Samsung Galaxy S4 Active.
The Active is a 5-inch 1080p LCD device powered by a quad-core 1.9GHz Snapdragon 600 CPU that is very similar to the Galaxy S4 except that some of the aesthetics have been changed.
Samsung says the device will be aimed at those with a more active lifestyle that require a more rugged phone. The phone is IP67 certified to be water-resistant and dust-resistant.
The device has an 8MP camera instead of the 13MP camera seen on the S4, to keep prices lower, and the device will be available in grey and teal.
One of its biggest developer partners, Ubisoft, has said today it will not create any more exclusive titles for the Wii U console until the company sells more units.
Bluntly, CEO Yves Guillemot said, "We need more [Wii U] sold."
Earlier this year Ubisoft said they remain committed to the console, even when others like EA took the opposite stance, discontinuing development for the console. The publisher has one of the biggest hits for the Wii U, ZombiU, which was so popular that Nintendo even created hardware bundles around it.
Nintendo recently announced updates for first party smash hits Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., and Donkey Kong Country, all of which are almost guaranteed to be hits. Guillemot says he hopes the new games will help spur hardware sales, as well.
Xbox boss Don Mattrick, during an interview this week, had an interesting response for gamers who may not be fans of needing an always-on Internet connection.
"Fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity, it's called Xbox 360,"said Mattrick. "If you have zero access to the internet, that is an offline device."
Mattrick conveniently ignored the millions of gamers out there that may have slow or unstable Internet. The Xbox One requires authentication (phoning home) every 24 hours, even if you are playing in single player mode.
The company recently unveiled a slimmer, new form-factor Xbox 360 and announced hundreds of new games would still be headed to the console in the coming years, making it a perfectly usable platform.
As any Netflix user that shares their account with family, a spouse or others knows, your recommendations will always be completely out of whack due to the wide variety of viewing habits.
That is set to change.
Netflix Vice President of Product Innovation Todd Yellin has confirmed that the service will soon be adding multiple profiles for those that share accounts, giving each their own personalized recommendations.
The move is a long time coming. Netflix has long said that customers who share accounts has led to "junk data" for them, since recommendations and social-sharing features are often skewed and inaccurate.
Yellin first mentioned the separate profiles at this year's CES in January.
In order to ensure they continue to get access to music licensing rights, Internet radio giant Pandora has announced it is buying a terrestrial FM radio station.
Pandora has been alleging that the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) has allowed artists to selectively back out of licensing popular songs to the service, and has even filed a motion claiming "ASCAP has violated the terms of its antitrust consent decree with the Department of Justice."
The company has now purchased KXMZ-FM in Rapid City, SD, in an effort to gain access to the alleged preferential treatment ASCAP has given terrestrial stations.
In theory, Pandora's general assistant counsel, Christopher Harrison, Pandora should now get the same deals that online competitors get, such as iHeartRadio (which is owned by massive terrestrial radio station provider Clear Channel).
Amazon has noted that sales of George Orwell's '1984' novel have jumped over 4000 percent since news hit of the U.S. government collecting personal data like phone records.
The popular book, written originally in 1948, is Orwell's look into a future where "Big Brother" government monitors and tracks their citizen's every move.
In Amazon's "Classics" section, the book is now up to #2, and overall it remains in top 100 best-sellers, moving from 11,800 last week.
The PRISM computer system, which was revealed to be used by the NSA (National Security Agency), allows access to data from video and audio messages, emails, phone calls and connection logs from companies like Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple and others. Each of the companies has denied that the NSA has server-side access to their information.
Rival book retailer Barnes & Noble also says they have seen a "significant spike in sales recently as government surveillance and Orwell have been paired in the news," even though the book has long been a top seller.
Google's acquisition of Israeli maps and traffic data firm Waze should be blocked on antitrust grounds, according to Consumer Watchdog.
It is calling on regulators in the United States to block the billion dollar acquisition, writing to both the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) and to the Federal Trade Commission. The deal will require regulatory approval to go ahead.
"Google already dominates the online mapping business with Google Maps. The Internet giant was able to muscle its way to dominance by unfairly favoring its own service ahead of such competitors as Mapquest in its online search results," wrote John M. Simpson Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director.
"Now with the proposed Waze acquisition the Internet giant would remove the most viable competitor to Google Maps in the mobile space. Moreover, it will allow Google access to even more data about online activity in a way that will increase its dominant position on the Internet."
The consumer group even quoted Waze chief executive Noam Bardin describing Google as its "only competitor" at the All Thing's Digital conference last May.
"You should take Bardin at his word. Approval of the Waze deal can only allow Google to remove any meaningful competition from the market. It will hurt consumers and hinder technological innovation. If the acquisition comes before the you, I urge you to reject it in the strongest possible terms."
ESPN will shut down its specialized ESPN 3D channel by the end of the year, proving once again that 3D is a gimmick that the general public could not care less about.
The move was confirmed via Twitter by an ESPN PR affiliate, who cited the lack of adoption of 3D TVs and services as the reason.
A second spokesperson added: "Nobody knows more about sports in 3D than ESPN, and we will be ready to provide the service to fans if or when 3D does take off."
The channel launched in June 2010 to broadcast the FIFA World Cup.
ESPN discontinuing its 3D operation by end of year
Samsung has made their camera/smartphone hybrid official.
The device is notable thanks to a large 16MP CMOS sensor and 10x optical zoom lens with dual Xenon flash and optical image stabilization.
Additionally, the phone runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, has a 4.3 inch qHD sAMOLED (960x540) display, 1.5GB RAM, an unspecified 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 8GB internal storage expandable with microSD.
"The Samsung GALAXY S4 zoom represents yet another step forward in the way Samsung is working to enhance the lives of our customers around the world," said JK Shin, President and CEO, Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics. "As communication continues to become increasingly visual in nature, people wish to capture and share their moments in the highest quality possible, but often do not have the space or inclination to carry a dedicated camera for this purpose. The GALAXY S4 zoom changes this forever, combining the industry leading functionality and connectivity of the GALAXY S4 with the high quality photographic experience you'd expect from a compact camera. The result is truly the best of both worlds, without compromise."
Nokia has confirmed that later this summer will see the end of the Symbian line, for good.
An exact date was not given as the company says there are still outstanding inventory in some emerging markets that need to be sold.
Symbian, once the most popular smartphone operating system, by a long shot, was left for dead by Nokia after the introduction of Android and iOS and was mostly discontinued two years ago as the company moved to Windows Phone thanks to a partnership with Microsoft.
At its peak, Nokia was shipping nearly 30 million Symbian devices per quarter, but that figure slipped to 1.2 million in 2013.
The last release was the Nokia 808 Pureview, released a year ago with its 41MP camera. The camera failed to be successful thanks to a high price tag and little marketing.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and Ouya are in an interesting stand-off at E3 this year.
Ouya - the Android games console that resulting from a successful Kickstarter campaign - is "kind of" in attendance at E3 this year. You wont find them in the Los Angeles Convention Center with the bigwigs, but you will find them in the parking lot.
Basically, to avoid the fees associated with getting inside the convention center, and then the costs of setting up booths and wooing attendees, Ouya decided to just show up outside the convention center, renting parking spaces in a nearby lot.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which organizes the E3 event, was not amused and responded at first by parking trucks right in front of Ouya's little booths.
Undeterred, Ouya responded by renting parking spaces in front of the trucks and setting up again.
A judge in the United States has sent a Chinese national to prison for operating a huge software piracy operation.
Xiang Li was arrested in the US Pacific territory of Saipan in June, 2011, and pleaded guilty to accusations he had sold over $100 million worth of pirated software through his website.
Li would get the pirated software from Internet forums, then list it on a website posing as a software dealer. The software included popular names from Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Rockwell Automation. Li sold the pirated software for far lower prices than retail, some for $20 and some for $1,200.
The actual value of some of the software items reached $1 million.
Microsoft and Facebook have followed Google in asking for prohibitions on transparent reporting of government data requests to be lifted.
On Tuesday, Google published an open letter to U.S. attorney general Eric Holder, and FBI director Robert Mueller, pushing to be allowed to provide more information to the public about the National Security requests it receives for data.
Google was specifically referring to FISA requests - Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - which it receives from the U.S. government when it seeks data on particular Google accounts.
Due to a non-disclosure provision, Google is not allowed to even publicly report how many FISA requests it receives, let alone how many it complies with or how many accounts the requests cover. For this reason, Google argued that the government's actions are damaging its reputation and hurting its users' confidence, due to its lack of ability to respond with facts to sensationalized media reports.
Not long after Google released the open letter, Microsoft and Facebook backed the call in a moment of rare unity between the three giants.
"Permitting greater transparency on the aggregate volume and scope of national security requests, including FISA orders, would help the community understand and debate these important issues," Microsoft said in a statement, reports Reuters.
Last night, Sony announced to great applause that there would no restrictions on playing used discs.
Today, Sony America CEO Jack Tretton, confirmed that publishers would still have the ability to dictate DRM for used games online, just like they do with the PS3.
This morning, Tretton said: "Well, I mean, we create the platform, we've certainly stated that our first-party games are not going to be doing that, but we welcome publishers and their business models to our platform. There's gonna be free-to-play, there's gonna be every potential business model on there, and again, that's up to their relationship with the consumer, what do they think is going to put them in the best fit. We're not going to dictate that, we're gonna give them a platform to publish on. The DRM decision is going to have to be answered by the third parties, it's not something we're going to control, or dictate, or mandate, or implement."
His original comments spooked some PlayStation fans but Sony was quick to clear up any confusion: "Similar to PS3, we will not dictate the online used game strategy (the ability to play used games online) of its publishing partners. As announced last night, PS4 will not have any gating restrictions for used disc-based games. When a gamer buys a PS4 disc they have right to use that copy of the game, so they can trade-in the game at retail, sell it to another person, lend it to a friend, or keep it forever."
After weeks of speculation, and bids from Facebook and Apple, Waze has been officially acquired.
Google, an unlikely suitor except for the fact that they are one of the biggest mapping companies on the planet, has pulled the trigger, buying the Israeli startup for over $1 billion.
We've all been there: stuck in traffic, frustrated that you chose the wrong route on the drive to work. But imagine if you could see real-time traffic updates from friends and fellow travelers ahead of you, calling out "fender bender...totally stuck in left lane!" and showing faster routes that others are taking.
To help you outsmart traffic, today we're excited to announce we've closed the acquisition of Waze. This fast-growing community of traffic-obsessed drivers is working together to find the best routes from home to work, every day.
The Waze product development team will remain in Israel and operate separately for now. We're excited about the prospect of enhancing Google Maps with some of the traffic update features provided by Waze and enhancing Waze with Google's search capabilities.
Barnes & Noble has quietly discontinued support for their Nook for PC and Nook for Mac applications.
Reads the company's email to users:
We are no longer supporting NOOK for PC for Windows 2000/XP/Vista. To enjoy the NOOK content on your PC please use the NOOK for Windows 8 App or NOOK for Web. [ link ]
The moves are none too surprising, given that B&N stopped updating the apps in November 2011 and March 2012, respectively.
At the same time, Barnes & Noble has reduced the price of their Nook+ HD to $149, $120 off the regular price as they practically give the tablet away.
According to Bloomberg, Sprint has broken off talks with the Dish Network, who had bid $25.5 billion for full control of the company.
Among the issues was the size of a breakup fee that is awarded if the deal falls apart. Sprint allegedly wanted $3 billion while Dish would not budge past $1 billion.
Japanese carrier SoftBank now seems to have smooth sailing towards the acquisition, following their approval from the US Justice Department and a recent increase in their bid. The company just upped their deal by 7.5 percent, to $21.6 billion.
A vote is scheduled for June 25th for shareholders, and the deal is expected to close by the end of July if approved.
Dish may now take a stab at the U.S.' fourth largest carrier, T-Mobile USA.
BREAKING: Sprint says special committee has now terminated talks with Dish $S
A day after announcing the console would launch in North America and Europe in November, the company confirmed that the Xbox One will not reach Asia until 2014.
The software giant says the rollout is part of a "staged approach" to marketing the new console.
Alan Bowman, Microsoft's regional vice president for sales and marketing in Asia, says the company is working hard on "ensuring a great experience for customers" in the region, including the addition of more localized content and services.
Notably, Bowman says the device will only be released in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and India; leaving China and Japan out. The company says those nations are high-growth for consoles, and have seen decent sales for the Xbox 360.
The console will sell for $500 in the U.S. when it is released.
A group of 86 Internet firms and civil liberties groups have written an open letter to the United States Congress demanding that NSA spying be stopped.
The letter coincides with the launch of StopWatching.us, which can be signed by netziens who oppose the NSA's domestic and foreign data spying programs.
The group is demanding that Congress act to reform the controversial PATRIOT Act, used recently to force Verizon to hand over data on millions of subscribers. It also calls for the FISA Amendment Act to be reformed.
"Now is the time for Congress to act. We don't need a narrow fix to one part of the PATRIOT Act; we need a full public accounting of how the United States is turning sophisticated spying technology on its own citizens, we need accountability from public officials, and we need an overhaul of the laws to ensure these abuses can never happen again," Mark Rumold, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), said.
Here is the full text of the letter, along with the identities of all 86 behind it.
Dear Members of Congress,
We write to express our concern about recent reports published in the Guardian and the Washington Post, and acknowledged by the Obama Administration, which reveal secret spying by the National Security Agency (NSA) on phone records and Internet activity of people in the United States.
Sony's upcoming PlayStation 4 (PS4) will reportedly drop region locking - meaning games bought in any territory should work with any PS4 console.
Region locking is a practice common with forms of digital media intended to lock a movie or game to a specific territory. This is done for a variety of reasons, but the most obvious is to discourage the importing of content from regions where they have lower prices than in richer economies.
Movies on DVD, for example, have often been sold for very low prices in regions of Asia where street piracy is rampant. In order to stop consumers in the Western World from simply buying in bulk from developing countries, region locking was enforced. This led to entire databases of "region hacks" for DVD players being built, and gave another reason to make hardware modifications to games consoles.
Now, according to Shuhei Yoshida, President of Worldwide Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment, the PlayStation 4 will be region free when it launches this holiday season.
Google has written an open letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI director Robert Muller seeking to release more information about National Security requests that it receives.
The letter (full text quoted below) hints that media reports about Google's compliance with National Security requests - specifically Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests - for user data, have been overblown.
However, Google's hands are tied by non-disclosure obligations, meaning it cannot specify in its own transparency reports how many FISA requests it gets, and how many accounts they cover. The letter seeks to end such non-disclosure obligations so that Google can provide real numbers to the public to counteract press assertions.
Dear Attorney General Holder and Director Mueller
Google has worked tremendously hard over the past fifteen years to earn our users' trust. For example, we offer encryption across our services; we have hired some of the best security engineers in the world; and we have consistently pushed back on overly broad government requests for our users' data.
We have always made clear that we comply with valid legal requests. And last week, the Director of National Intelligence acknowledged that service providers have received Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests.
Google has confirmed that it has closed the acquisition of Israeli maps firm, Waze.
Speculation that Google was close to a deal at around $1.3 billion to buy the firm has been around for several weeks now, with Apple and Facebook also thought to have been interested.
Google's Brian McClendon took to the official company blog to announce the acquisition, but didn't elaborate on financial terms.
"We've all been there: stuck in traffic, frustrated that you chose the wrong route on the drive to work. But imagine if you could see real-time traffic updates from friends and fellow travelers ahead of you, calling out "fender bender...totally stuck in left lane!" and showing faster routes that others are taking.
To help you outsmart traffic, today we're excited to announce we've closed the acquisition of Waze. This fast-growing community of traffic-obsessed drivers is working together to find the best routes from home to work, every day.
The Waze product development team will remain in Israel and operate separately for now. We're excited about the prospect of enhancing Google Maps with some of the traffic update features provided by Waze and enhancing Waze with Google's search capabilities.
A U.S. International Trade Commission judge has found that Netflix does not infringe 4 patents held by Rovi Corp, in a preliminary decision dated June 7.
The preliminary decision appeared on the ITC website on Monday, ahead of a planned final decision by the ITC on the patent infringement case in October.
Rovi has already managed to secure settlements with LG Electronics and Mitsubishi for infringing patents related to interactive television program guides. In its complaint against Netflix, Rovi charged that the Internet streaming giant infringed four of its patents.
"We are pleased that the majority of the patents involved were confirmed valid,"Samir Armaly, a Rovi executive vice president of worldwide intellectual property, said in a statement.
"We will continue to seek to license companies to the technologies that we've developed and to protect our intellectual property from unlicensed use."
The finale of the third season of hit TV show Game of Thrones is the most pirated TV show episode so far, according to TorrentFreak.
Within 24 hours of its broadcast, it had already been downloaded a million times. At one point, the episode was being shared by 170,000 peers. The first episode of the same season was being shared by 160,000 people shortly after it aired.
The majority of downloads of the season finale were in Australia, followed by the United States, Canada and then the UK.
Earlier this year, Director David Petrarca seemed to brush aside any concerns over the claims that Game of Thrones is the most pirated TV show.
HBO programming president Michael Lombardo also seemed to downplay the situation in April, when he told Entertainment Weekly that it was a "compliment of sorts" for the show.
"The demand is there. And it certainly didn't negatively impact the DVD sales. Piracy is something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network," Lombardo said.
Sony's upcoming PlayStation 4 (PS4) console will come with an upgradable 500GB hard disk drive, it has been confirmed.
The next generation of PlayStation gaming was shown off at E3 last night, and received a generally positive response from the industry.
Sony today released some more information (through its Japan sites) about the upcoming console, including that it will feature a 500GB HDD as standard, which is the same internal storage that will come with an Xbox One console. Shuhei Yoshida, President of Worldwide Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment, also confirmed that owners can choose to upgrade the internal storage, same as with the PS3 console.
A PlayStation Eye camera has also been priced at $60 (one will not be included with the console), which additional DualShock 4 controllers will retail also for $60.
AMD has unveiled its 'first-ever' 5GHz FX-9590 CPU, available from system integrators globally beginning this summer.
It also unveiled the new 4.7 GHz FX-9370 CPU. Both new processors feature the "Piledriver" architecture, and AMD Turbo Core 3.0 technology to dynamically optimize performance across CPU cores and enable maximum computing for the most intensive workloads.
"At E3 this week, AMD demonstrated why it is at the core of gaming," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Products Division at AMD.
"The new FX 5 GHz processor is an emphatic performance statement to the most demanding gamers seeking ultra-high resolution experiences including AMD Eyefinity technology. This is another proud innovation for AMD in delivering the world's first commercially available 5 GHz processor."
The new AMD FX CPUs will be available from system integrators globally beginning this summer. Two models will be available:
FX-9590: Eight "Piledriver" cores, 5 GHz Max Turbo
FX-9370: Eight "Piledriver" cores, 4.7 GHz Max Turbo
Apple used the stage today to officially unveil iOS 7, the first true rehaul of the dated operating system.
Even CEO Tim Cook admitted the new OS was the biggest change to the platform since iOS was first introduced in 2007 with the iPhone.
From a design standpoint, Apple has made everything sharper, flatter and slimmer, and frankly it looks much, much better.
The company has added a new control panel that slides up from the bottom of the home screen and gives access to your most frequent settings such as airplane mode, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, brightness and also adds a new flashlight, quick access to AirDrop, AirPlay and a slider for your current music.
Here is a look at all the updated icons, redesigned with new a color palette and fonts:
Taking the complete opposite stance from Microsoft, Sony unveiled some details of the PS4 to massive applause.
The PlayStation 4 will not impose any restrictions on used games. Sony says if you own the game, it is your right to trade it in, sell it to a friend, play it on another PS4, whatever you choose.
Additionally, you will not need an Internet connection for authentication, ever, and you can play your single player games without interruption for as long as you want.
Microsoft, on the other hand, requires authentication every 24 hours.
In response to Dish Network's unsolicited bid of $25.5 billion for the carrier, SoftBank has upped their own bid by 7.5 percent, to $21.6 billion.
The original bid had been $20.1 billion for a 70 percent stake. The revised bid will be $16.6 billion to Sprint shareholders and another $5 billion in new capital, leading to a 78 percent stake.
SoftBank is the third biggest carrier in Japan and is actively looking to break into the U.S. market.
Dish, on the other hand, has been looking for ways to offer a bundle of television, Internet and mobile services and CEO Charlie Egan has money to spend.
Yet another year has passed. Hobby-project-gone-mad has evolved to a company with 20+ employees, online presence in four different language areas.
Upcoming year - our 15th - will bring updated, modernized site layout, responsive design and bunch of other improvements to all of our global sites. And yes, forums will get major improvements during the next 12 months, too.
As always, on our birthday, I want to thank all of our employees, moderators and users for all these years. Great times -- and I expect more great years to follow. Thank you, without you guys, this site wouldn't exist.
-Petteri Pyyny
AfterDawn Oy
P.S. For the "this gets asked every year" question: here's the oldest screenshot of our site that we know of, from Summer of 1999:
After a busy WWDC keynote, Apple has finally confirmed the worst kept secret in the world, its iTunes Radio streaming music service.
The service will directly compete with Pandora, Spotify, Google Play All Access and Rdio in offering unlimited music.
iTunes Radio is free with ads, and if you're an iTunes Match subscriber, it's completely free, which should give it leverage against other services that charge a monthly fee. iTunes Match is $25 per year and converts all your existing music to iTunes AAC copies.
The new service is built into iOS 7, iTunes on OS X, and AppleTV, so almost all Apple fans will have access. The service has millions of tracks from Sony Music, Warner Music and Universal Music.
Apple has shown off a prototype of their upcoming refreshed Mac Pro desktop.
The device uses a cylinder design and will include high-end specs and be built in the U.S. Apple exec Phil Schiller also brought a little fury, yelling "Can't innovate anymore, my ass," before showing off the device.
First, the desktop is 1/8th the volume of the previous model of the Pro, hiding 4 USB ports, Gigabitethernet, HDMI out, 6 Lightning 2.0 ports and more in a tiny frame.
Under the hood is a monster 12-core, 256-bit Intel Xeon processor with 1,866MHz DDR3 RAM and a purported 60GBps performance. The Mac Pro also ships with dual AMD FirePro GPUs, which supports three 4K monitors.
Microsoft, to great applause, has announced it will be killing off the Microsoft Points system currently used to purchase games and other content via Xbox Live.
All digital purchases will now use real currency, rather than the points, with exec Marc Whitten adding triumphantly that "We're moving to real money."
Additionally, USD will not be the only currency as users in a few countries will be able to use their own local currency. It is unclear which countries will have that ability.
MS Points had been often critiqued due to the fact that you could only buy certain round numbers, but many games cost odd numbers, leaving you with a small amount of extra points that were unusable.
Apple has used WWDC to unveil updates to their Safari browser.
The company says there is a new sidebar that displays your reading list and also adds shared links from your friends and follows on places like Twitter and LinkedIn.
In terms of performance, Apple says JavaScript has been improved so majorly that the browser now beats Chrome, IE and Firefox (using SunSpider benchmarks).
Using JS bench, Safari also now beats Chrome.
In regards to energy usage, Safari now uses less energy than Chrome and easily demolishes Firefox.
Additonally, Apple has introduced iCloud keychain, which remembers your website logins, credit card numbers and personal details. It's encrypted and requires you to remember a single password/security code.
Apple has unveiled their latest operating system for Macs, OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
The company noted that they named the last nine OSX releases after cats, but have now run out of cat names. The company will now use places in California that inspire them, and the Mavericks surfing area appears to be first.
Apple says the release will have improved features for power users, better battery life and much better responsiveness.
First, the new OS will have "Finder Tabs" with their own location and own view mode. Second, when you save a document you can now tag it, making it much easier to search for in the finder sidebar.
In 10.9, you can also access your menus across multiple displays, a big plus for developers.
After teasing that they would be making Xbox 360 announcements before moving on to the Xbox One, Microsoft has not disappointed.
During their E3 keynote, the company unveiled a smaller and supposedly quieter model of the hardware, available today in the U.S.
The console has a glossy and matte design like the Xbox One and Xbox Gold users can get free games each month and "hundreds of upcoming games" including GTA V and Metal Gear Solid V.
After weeks and weeks of speculation, it seems that Israeli mapping startup Waze will be getting sold.
Google is said to be purchasing the company for $1.3 billion, higher than Facebook's original reported bid of $1.1 billion.
Waze specializes in satellite navigation for mobile devices, and uses members' smartphones to generate maps and traffic data. More importantly, Waze collects user's traveling speed and direction, which is extremely valuable data if monetized correctly. Google Maps and other popular mapping apps do not include such data.
The company currently has 47 million users, with 12 percent coming from the U.S. It also has particularly strong penetration in Brazil and its home country.
Last week we reported on screenshot leaks for the upcoming Windows Phone Blue operating system. The screenshots came via a Lumia 920 that had been purchased on eBay by a young Windows Phone fan in Seattle.
It appears that there is much more to the story, says Verge,as Microsoft has quietly retrieved the phone back.
An employee lost the phone on a bus, and whoever picked it up sold it to Jeremiah Wong, who told his story to the source. "The phone in the pictures looked different. Mainly the Start Screen had the feedback hub, also etching on the back that read MSFT." Wong figured the device was a developer kit due to the special etching on the screen, but it was more than that.
After posting his phone number inadvertently in one of the screenshots, Wong was contacted by Microsoft's legal team who asked him to remove the photos from his Flickr account, which he did. Microsoft then reimbursed him for the phone and sent a replacement Lumia 920. "I was incredibly surprised at the lack of intimidation and even more surprised at their accommodation," says Wong.
Apple has confirmed today that it will be live streaming its WWDC event today, but there is a catch.
To be able to view the stream you must be using an Apple product.
For hardware, you can stream via your Apple TV. On the software side, you must use Safari 4 or 5 on Macs or iOS, or QuickTime 7 or higher if you are on a Windows device.
The company will unveil iOS 7 today, but they may also have some extra surprises. We will have a full report after the show, which begins at 1PM EST.
Microsoft's upcoming update to their Windows Phone mobile operating system, codenamed Blue, has been outed in some very early screenshots.
The OS will soon include a notification center, an updated calendar interface, and better sorting abilities for apps and lists.
Screenshots came via a strange source, a Reddit user who purchased a Lumia 920 on eBay. The phone had some sort of internal build, identified as 12084.WPMAIN(wpbldlab).20130509-1407. The name shows a date of May 9th, 2013, so the build is not too old.
Multitasking improvements are in the build, as well, including the ability to close multiple apps in the multitasking view. Microsoft also has test applications that start with a lower case "z", such as zBattinfo.
The Verge says it has been able to confirm that the screenshots are legit.
Earlier this week, a poster with the name "mistysilver" made a large post on Reddit claiming that "reputation managers" were being paid by the software giant Microsoft to post positively about the upcoming Xbox One console.
The post said Microsoft employees were voting down any negative comments and voting up or adding pro-Xbox One comments across the popular social news site. In the post, (which has since been taken down), Silver introduced himself by saying "I work for a marketing firm in Redmond that has a contract with Microsoft. I can't say specifically which division, but suffice to say we are not involved with the Xbox." While at Microsoft, the poster says he saw an employee "mass-downvoting a ton of posts and comments, and he kept switching to other tabs to make posts and comments of his own. I couldn't make out exactly what he was posting, but I presumed he was doing RM (reputation management) and asked my boss about it later. According to my boss, MS have[sic] just brought in a huge sweep of SMM managers to handle reputation management for the Xbox One."
Intel has intensified their talks to buy content from media companies in an effort to introduce set-top boxes and an Internet TV service.
Apparently, the company is willing to pay a major premium, as much as 75 percent higher than traditional cable rates, in order to secure these deals.
Intel has yet to close any programming deals, however, say the sources, perhaps leading to some desperation on their part. So far, CBS, News Corp. and Viacom have all reached deals in principle over how the content could be used, but no actual licensing deals have been made.
The service is expected to be launched by the end of the year, but will obviously require more work. Intel is still in talks with Comcast for NBCU content, but those talks have not been as successful as the other media companies.
Intel is creating their own set-top box that would deliver content through your Internet connection and give you more flexibility in regards to what channels you want, instead of paying a flat fee for hundreds of bundled channels you may never watch. The service would offer live and on-demand channels. Intel is said to also be looking for access to a cloud-based DVR. Customers could view the content on mobile devices, as well.
Samsung has promised to reveal new products on June 20th at a press event in London.
One of the devices is the Galaxy S4 Zoom, the company's smartphone/digital camera hybrid. Sam was able to get a picture of the device, which should be interesting especially if having a high-end camera with your phone is important to you.
The device has a 4.3" qHD sAMOLED display, runs on Android 4.2.2, a 1.6GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage, a microSD slot, and the standard Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi and A-GPS. It is unclear whether the device will have LTE support.
Amazon has announced the launch of its free online took dubbed "Storyteller," which automatically converts scripts into "dynamic and professional storyboards."
The software is currently in beta, but will automatically identify scenes, locations, characters and more from any script that you have uploaded to Amazon Studios. Afterwards, "it 'casts' these objects from a library of assets that includes 'thousands' of characters, props and backgrounds."
If you believe the automatic conversion does not do justice to the ideas/concepts you have in your mind, Amazon allows you to upload your own images and change positions, facial expressions and more of the characters. You can also add captions for additional dialogue or explanatory actions.
After you are done editing, the storyboard can be published to Amazon Studios, where peers can leave feedback.
"We've found that many writers want to see their story up on its feet in visual form but find it harder than it should be to create a storyboard,"said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. "Storyteller provides a digital backlot, acting troupe, prop department and assistant editor – everything you need to bring your story to life. We want to see great stories turned into movies and television shows and we'll continue to develop new features and tools."
SoftBank has been in talks with Deutsche Telekom AG for a deal for T-Mobile USA in case its long-standing bid for Sprint falls apart.
The Japanese carrier bid $20.1 billion to take a 70 percent share of Sprint, but Sprint recently received a $25.5 billion counterbid from Dish Network, leaving the company's future up in the air.
T-Mobile USA is the fourth biggest carrier in the U.S. and has a market value of about $15 billion.
Telekom has a 74 percent stake. MetroPCS has the rest.
On June 12th, Sprint shareholders will vote on whether to give SoftBank final approval to purchase the company.
Snapchat has raised almost $100 million in new funds, valuing the company at over $500 million.
The service allows Android and iOS users to send and receive photos and videos that disappear after a certain amount of time (under 10 seconds).
Two months ago, the company raised $13.5 million from Benchmark Capital and the new $100 million is from undisclosed investors.
Snapchat has seen huge growth in value since February when it was valued at $70 million. CEO Evan Spiegel says users upload 150 million images per day, up from 20 million last October. The app has 5 million active users.
It is unclear why the valuation is so high, especially since the app has yet to monetize its userbase.
According to multiple reports, Sony Music Entertainment has signed a deal with Apple for the upcoming iRadio service, meaning all of the majors are now signed up.
Universal Music and Warner Music are said to have made deals within the last month.
The service is expected to be advertising-supported and will compete directly with Pandora, allowing users to build custom stations based on tracks, artists and genres.
Sony Music is a joint venture between Sony/ATV Music Publishing and the estate of Michael Jackson. The licensing deal will be for a two-year introductory period and gives Sony a full 10 percent of all advertising revenue generated by their catalog via the service.
10 percent is more than double that standard 4 percent that companies like Pandora pay, and leaves margins much much lower for Apple.
Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, infamous as one of the co-founders of The Pirate Bay torrenttracker, is facing even more hacking charges, this time in Denmark.
Warg had just stood trial in Stockholm over major hacking charges and is awaiting a decision.
The co-founder and an unnamed 20-year-old Danish man have been in arrested and are accused of accessing the country's driver's license database, social security database and stealing the emails and passwords of over 10,000 police officers and tax authorities.
If convicted of all charges, both men could face six years in prison.
Warg had stood trial in Sweden over charges of hacking Logica, an IT firm that works with Swedish tax authorities. That attack eventually led to 9,000 Swedes having their personal identity numbers unveiled.
After months of delays, Amazon has finally put the Kindle Paperwhite and Fire HD up for sale in China.
The Paperwhite with Wi-Fi costs $138 (849 yuan), and the 16GB Kindle Fire HD will sell for $245 (1499 yuan). For the time being, the 3G model of the Paperwhite and all other Kindle Fire are not yet available and it's unclear if they ever will be.
Amazon has always said they are planning a full lineup launch for the nation.
If you are looking to purchase the device, Suning is the exclusive retail channel, adds the company.
Amazon has been actively expanding their presence outside of their high-traffic areas, including opening a store in India that so far only has books and DVDs.
TiVo announced this morning that it finally settled a dispute with Motorola, Time Warner Cable and Cisco over DVR patents.
The company will collect $490 million, which is much less than analysts and industry insiders had estimated, sending TiVo's shares down 20 percent today. Even TiVo had once suggested the amount could be upwards of a billion, so the amount was somewhat shocking.
Cisco and Google will now enter a patent-licensing agreement with TiVo to use the technology. Altogether, TiVo has now collected $1.6 billion in awards and settlements related to use of the patents.
Motorola and Cisco had been providing the DVRs to Time Warner for six years, and the case was set for trial next week. TiVo has already settled with Dish, AT&T, Verizon and others, most of which now license the patents. Cisco says it will pay $294 million of the damages.
Apple is preparing to begin an in-store iPhone trade-in program this month, one that will allow users to turn in their older iPhones to help pay for a new iPhone 5.
The electronics giant has joint up with Brightstar Corp., a major mobile-phone distributor, to create the program.
As with most trade-in programs, Apple benefits in many ways. Fans upgrade to the latest devices, and Apple gets to resell the older phones overseas. Customers who may not be savvy enough to sell their phones themselves on sites like eBay should find the ability to trade-in an added bonus.
Brightstar currently works with AT&T and T-Mobile USA for all types of smartphones, including iPhones. For example, AT&T will pay up to $200 for mint condition iPhone 4S models. With contract, the iPhone 5 costs just $200 so some consumers could pay nothing up front for their new device.
Samsung's stock fell 7 percent today following multiple reports that sales of its new flagship Galaxy S4 have slowed.
The reports also highlighted the fact that Samsung recently introduced two other models of the S4, which should hurt their profit margins due to a lower price tag.
Despite becoming Samsung's fastest selling device right after it launched in April, sales have slowed considerably, say analysts. "Sales of high-end handsets are lagging behind expectations, while low- to mid-end handsets are selling briskly worldwide," noted Kim Young-chan, an analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp. "As the portion of low- to mid-range handsets is expected to increase in Samsung's overall mobile phone business, this has also sparked concerns about thinning margins and lower growth."
Altogether, the drop accounted for a loss of $12 billion in the company's market value.
During the ongoing Computex 2013 show, Intel unveiled their latest generation Atom chipset.
The processor is quad-core, based on the Trail-T SoC, with built-in 4G LTE and 4K support. The chips are designed for Windows 8 and Android tablets.
Just like the new Haswell processors, the Atoms are built on a 22nm process.
Intel is planning octo-core SoCs later this year. The company says the quad-core CPUs deliver twice the performance of current generation chips, when in a single-threaded situation.
Finally, the company promises over "8 hours of battery life on a 30Wh battery while playing a 1080p@30 fps video."
After extreme backlash and outcry over their purported anti-consumer Xbox One, Microsoft has finally come clean, unveiling the official policies for Kinect, used games and online connectivity.
Internet Connectivity
In regards to Internet connectivity, rumored had it that the Xbox One would use "always-on" DRM, meaning an Internet connection is required at all times to play a game, even in single player mode. Microsoft has confirmed the Xbox One will use a restrictive DRM but it is not "always-on." You will be allowed to play on your home console for 24 hours without a connection, but after that you will need to login again to continue playing and get another 24 hours. If you log in with your Xbox account to someone else's console, you will need Internet every hour, even in single player mode. Blu-ray, DVD and TV watching is not affected.
Just days after it began shipping its 4th-generation Core series processors (Haswell), the company has also updated its requirements for Ultrabook devices.
Thanks to the huge power efficiency boost of Haswell processors, the baseline requirements to get certified have been increased.
Ultrabooks must include better graphics performance, battery life of 9 hours while idle, 6 hours of HD video playback and also 7 days of standby.
Additionally, the company has broken down ultrabooks into four different variants; Responsive, Mobile, Stylish and Protected. (Pictured)
Following the unveiling of Nexus editions of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One flagships, the latest rumor has Sony getting in on the action, building a Nexus model of their Xperia Z flagship.
The device is set for launch in July through Google Play just like all other Nexus phones.
Sony has been quietly working on AOSP (Android Open Source Project) versions of Jelly Bean 4.2.2 for some time and an alpha version for the Xperia Z and Xperia Tablet Z is now available. A fully working version of stock Android would need to be available before the phone could launch as a Nexus later this year.
The hardware itself has been very well received by critics and users alike.
Sony Computer Entertainment has promised that it will show off 40 PlayStation titles during E3 next week.
The games will be for the PlayStation Vita, the PS3 and the upcoming PS4.
Besides its keynote on Monday, June 11th, Sony will also broadcast three days of livestreamed demos and other interviews with developers and executives.
Sony notes that the games will be a mix of first-party and third-party games including DriveClub, Destiny, Infamous: Second Sun and Killzone: Shadow Fall for the PS4; Gran Turismo 6 and Beyond: Two Souls for the PS3 and Vita games Tearaway and Killzone Mercenary.
If you plan to watch the livestream, it will be available via Playstation.com, Facebook, the Nico Nico video app on your PS device and Ustream.
According to Topeka Capital analyst Brian White, Apple's next innovation will be fingerprint scanning tech.
The tech will be added to the next iPhone and iPad, says the analyst.
White has been on a "tech tour" of Taiwan, speaking with sources during the Computex tradeshow. The analyst promises that "fingerprint technology will greatly simplify and speed up a customer's interaction with iOS devices."
He believes the iPhone 5S will use the technology, thus making it more than just a marginal update from the current iPhone 5.
"Our research suggests that users will simply place their finger on the home key of the iPhone 5S and this will automatically unlock the device, nullifying the need to enter a four-character Apple ID Password," noted White, "Additionally, we believe this new feature will allow users to more quickly and easily make purchases from iTunes, the iBook Store and the App Store, while also accessing Game Center."
Amazon has announced a new expanded digital video licensing deal with Viacom to add content to its Amazon Prime service.
The new deal will brings thousands of more TV episodes to the service, and some of the new shows will even be exclusive to Prime.
Making the deal more significant is the fact that Netflix's similar deal with Viacom expired last month and was not renewed. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says the company is moving towards exclusive and original content rather than expensive non-exclusive bulk deals like the one it had with Viacom.
Prime members will now have access to popular shows like "Awkward," "Tosh.0" and "Workaholics" and kids will get shows like "Dora the Explorer," "Bubble Guppies," and "The Backyardigans."
"Kids' shows are one of the most watched TV genres on Prime Instant Video," Bill Carr, Amazon's vice president of digital video and music, said in a statement. "And this expanded deal will now bring customers the largest subscription selection of Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. TV shows online, anywhere."
Amazon Prime costs $79 per year and gives buyers free 2-day shipping on items they purchase from the e-tailer and other perks including free books for their Kindles and free access to the streaming movie/TV catalog.
Despite an MSRP by BlackBerry of $249 due to its "premium" appeal for enterprise users, Verizon and AT&T have announced they have priced the Q10 smartphone at $199 with contract.
The price is in-line with the Galaxy S4 and the iPhone 5, and it's clear the carriers did not believe it would sell for more than the two most popular phones on the planet.
When asked about the prices, Kristian Tear, BlackBerry's chief operating officer, said the MSRP "is definitely a good price," for corporate users. "If you want to do a more consumery play, I think they wanted to make it simple and have one price," Tear added.
The Q10 features a full keyboard and runs on the much improved BlackBerry 10 operating system.
Both companies have begun pre-orders for the device.
HTC Chief Operating Officer Matthew Costello has resigned from the company after less than three years at the position following the company's struggles to remain relevant in the market.
Fred Liu, the current president of engineering and operations, has taken on Costello's roles.
Over the last 18 months, HTC has seen four senior executives leave the company. Year-over-year, quarterly earnings fell 98 percent, and the company's stock has fallen over 75 percent in the same time frame.
The company has put most of its eggs in one basket, with the new One smartphone which includes a powerful quad-core processor, a 5-inch 1080p display and UltraPixel camera technology that uses multiple 4MP sensors.
HTC will need the phone to be a hit if it wants to reverse the downtrend its seen on its market share. Once above 10 percent in 2011, share in the global market is down to 4.2 percent.
The new Napster, owned by Rhapsody, has now expanded to 14 more European countries.
Already available in the UK and Germany, the streaming music service is now available in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and The Netherlands.
Rhapsody has priced the service at €9.95 per month for unlimited web and mobile streaming, which includes offline.
The company is betting on the Napster name, once one of the most infamous services for P2P and general music piracy, to help expand in a region where there is no shortage of competition including Spotify, Deezer, Google and soon Apple.
Napster has over 20 million songs and is available for iOS and Android alongside its web versions.
According to leaked photos, HTC appears to be preparing a 4.3-inch One "Mini" similar to how Samsung releases a "Mini" version of their Galaxy devices.
The 4.3-inch display will be 720p compared to the 1080p display of the full-sized HTC One, and the device will include 2GB RAM, a dual-core processor (not quad-core like the One), 16GB internal storage and the same 4MP UltraPixel camera hardware.
Sources claim the device will be released in August for €399.
Microsoft has confirmed today that future Windows 8 tablets in the 7 to 8-inch range will ship with free copies of Office 2013.
Windows CFO Tami Reller says Office Home and Student 2013 will be bundled with the smaller form factor tablets. The software includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote but does not include Outlook 2013.
Reller added that Outlook would be included in upcoming Windows RT 8.1 tablets.
Acer recently announced the first 8-inch Windows 8 tablet, but Microsoft and others are expected to follow suit in the near future.
Microsoft's Windows 8.1 update, set for release later this year, will drastically improve the OS on smaller tablets, so it appears that manufacturers may be waiting.
A Kotaku report suggests that GameStop will be dropping the Wii U Basic 8GB model from its retail stores over the next few weeks.
It cited a trusted retail source in reporting that retail GameStop stores were contacted with the following messages.
"Nintendo Wii U Basic Recall - Two Week Preparation On Tuesday, 6/18, all stories will need to return all new/unopened Wii U Basic (020359). .. Stores that have 10 or more in stock will receive shipping cartons from the [distribution center]. .. All other stores will need to save shipping cartons for this recall."
What's not clear is what the recall is about, whether it be due to a defect (which likely would be a full recall and not just new/unopened units) or if Nintendo has decided to drop it.
The 8GB pack costs about $300, while the better selling 32GB option goes for $350, and has reportedly been more successful from the start.
Nintendo is eyeing the E3 trade show this year to unveil more compelling games and offers, hoping to bring life to the console which has suffered a very poor start.
Saudi Arabia has reportedly banned the use of the Viber communication app in the country.
Such communications services are much more difficult for regimes to monitor, but reports also indicated the block was done to protect the revenue of licenses telecommunications companies in the country.
"The Viber application has been suspended ... and the (regulator) affirms it will take appropriate action against any other applications or services if they fail to comply with regulatory requirements and rules in force in the kingdom," the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) said in a statement.
The regulator in the country issued a warning back in March, saying that services such as Skype, WhatsApp and Viber broke local laws in the country but didn't explain exactly how.
Local media had also reported that the regulator asked telecommunications providers about their abilities to monitor or block such applications.
The Interior Ministry also separately complained that Islamist militants were taking advantage of such social media services to foment unrest.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has reportedly met with Hollywood executives about content opportunities for the Xbox One platform, according to Deadline.
Ballmer was reportedly joined by Nancy Tellem, entertainment and digital media president of Microsoft, as he met with the likes of CBS CEO Leslie Moonves about what they could do with Xbox One in the areas of sports, music, reality TV and regular programming.
He also stated that Microsoft does not"want to be a cable channel."
Microsoft's Xbox One reveal event last month focused heavily on using the next generation console to consume television content. Seeking to get exclusive content from Hollywood is a natural step to push that agenda much further, while the gaming community hopes for more information on the gameplay aspects of the console at E3.
Microsoft has posted a video showing a preview of some of the changes in its upcoming Windows 8.1 update.
The company already put out a lot of details about changes that it has made in Windows 8.1, largely responding to consumer criticism of the user interface and so forth. The update will be available for free later this year for Windows 8 users.
Microsoft has today posted a video showing how some of these changes look. If you are a Windows 8 user then it is definitely worth a watch.
The 7-inch Wikipad tablet will be available in the United States from June 11, at a retain price of $249 with a global launch planned for summer.
The Wikipad aims to bring together the console quality experience with the functionality and portability of a premium tablet.
"The launch of the Wikipad 7 tablet signals a transformative turning point in the direction of the mobile gaming industry. Wikipad's tablet combines the latest range of features found in a premium Android tablet together with the unrivaled console video game experience only available with a gamepad," said Matthew Joynes, Chairman of Wikipad Inc.
Wikipad offers a multi capacitive 7 inch touch screen, 16 GB memory with an additional micro SD slot to support a further 32 GB of storage, together with micro USB, GPS, accelerometer and gyroscope.
The tablets ultra-light and thin chassis is powered by the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core mobile processor that's optimized for cloud gaming with a 12 core Nvidia GPU. With an aspect ratio of 16:10, a 2-mega-pixel front facing camera the Wikipad tablet offers true widescreen HD display and HDMI out. It runs full Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
On the gaming side, customers will have access to over 700,000 apps from Google Play, and more from PlayStation Mobile games and TegraZone.
The NPD Group is reporting that number of viewers watching television shows using SVOD services increased 34 percent compared to the same period of last year, with Netflix still firmly on top.
NPD's VideoWatch Digital tracking puts Netflix at 90 percent share of video-streaming units during Q1 2013. In the TV category, Netflix holds an 89 percent share. Hulu Plus has grown in Q1 2013, with a 10 percent share, while Amazon's Prime accounts for less than 2 percent.
"There's no doubt that Netflix is driving the growth in SVOD, particularly with increased attention to television programming," said Russ Crupnick, senior vice president of industry analysis at NPD.
"We are also seeing good gains in the streaming numbers from Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime, and while neither pose an immediate threat to Netflix it is interesting to see which services later adopters will try."
Apple has denied that it conspired with publishers to fix the price of e-books after the launch of the iPad, as the trial in New York gets under way.
The Justice Department has accused Apple of conspiring with five publishers (who already settled with the government) to fix the price of e-books after the launch of the iPad, claiming that the move was aimed at Amazon's own services.
Apple flatly denies the allegations and has called the Justice Department's case "bizarre." It insists that it acted in its own business interests when it made deals with publishers to supply e-books through its iBooks platform, encouraging them to set the price of their own e-books rather than letting retailers set the price.
Prosecutors argue that Apple aimed to cause problems for Amazon, and noted that after the launch of the first iPad in 2010, the average price for a best seller on Amazon rose from $9.99 to $12.99 or $14.99. This change cost consumers hundreds of millions of dollars, the prosecution has claimed.
Orin Snyder, lawyer representing Apple, said that the government has "reserve engineered a conspiracy" by linking Apple's deal with publishers to the rise in prices at Amazon, arguing that Apple cannot be held responsible for the business decisions of others.
The European Commission has its eye on the issue of Net Neutrality, and the throttling and blocking activities of some European telecoms providers.
In a speech yesterday about the European Union's role in safeguarding the open Internet in the single market, European Commission VP Neelie Kroes outlined the role of regulation in the telecommunications market, with regard broadband services, both wired and wireless.
Kroes targeted four main areas in the market. Firstly, Kroes seemed to point out where regulators should not interfere, and that's in the choice provided by the free market for varying types of broadband services, from home basic packages for the casual browser to high-end expensive services required for businesses, for example. In other words, there would appear to be no EU-wide plan for basic broadband "standards" like you would see in some individual states, dictating basic speeds and other factors.
While Kroes seems to feel the European regulator has no part there, she did however say that EU telecoms providers should be forced into full transparency. That is, if you buy broadband services from any provider within the European market, you must be told what exactly you are paying for including the actual broadband speeds you should expect and not a theoretical maximum, and refereed to other "nasty surprises" that consumers may only realize after signing a contract, which could include data usage limits for example. Just as in the United States, services that claim to be "unlimited" typically have many hidden "fair usage" limits.
Microsoft's Xbox One console is likely to cost around $400 at launch, while the PS4 will have a $350 price tag, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter.
His predictions are based on bill of materials figures, which he reports at $275 for the PS4 and $325 for the Xbox One console. Analysts have expected that the next generation consoles will cost less than previous consoles. When the Xbox 360 launched in 2005, it was available for $300 or $400 depending on the model.
A year later, the PS3 console sold for $500 or $600 based on the model.
While the Xbox One is likely to coat more from the shelf than the PS4, Pachter's note points out the likelihood of a subsidized model too.
"We believe the ability to watch live TV from a cable, telco, or satellite set-top box through Xbox One could entice an MSO to drive subscriptions through a subsidised box in exchange for a multi-year contract,"Pachter said.
"The 'always connected' requirement for the Xbox One likely means that a broadband connection will be required, suggesting to us that ISPs may have an incentive to offer a subsidy as well."
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a bogus charger for Apple's iPhones that can infect it with malicious software within a minute.
The three researchers - Billy Lau, Yeongjin Jang and Chengyu Song - were able to get around all of the built-in defences of the popular smartphones and install whatever code they wanted.
"All users are affected, as our approach requires neither a jailbroken device nor user interaction," they said.
They are due to provide more detailed information on the attack method at the Black Hat USA conference this year.
To create the malicious charger, the researchers used a BeagleBoard barebones system that costs around $45. "This hardware was selected to demonstrate the ease with which innocent-looking, malicious USB chargers can be constructed,"wrote the researchers in their conference summary.
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has found that several of Apple's older iPhone and iPad devices infringed a patent held by arch rival Samsung.
It issued a limited order to halt the importation and sale of AT&T models of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G. The order will now go to U.S. President Barack Obama, who has 60 days to review it and decide whether to veto it or not.
"We are disappointed that the commission has overturned an earlier ruling and we plan to appeal. Today's decision has no impact on the availability of Apple products in the United States," Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said in a statement.
Samsung said that the ruling confirmed Apple's history of "free-riding" on Samsung's technological innovations. The patent in question relates to 3G wireless technology
The decision represents a small win in a global patent war between the two. They have met in court in ten different countries over their smartphone and tablet products.
Police in London have written to the operators of two websites it alleges are profiting by breaking copyright laws.
The City of London Police, working with the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, targeted the sites for sharing links to music, movies and games without permission from the copyright holders. They have until June 14 to contact police or risk facing further actions.
"These websites are able to operate and profit from advertising on their sites without having licenses or paying the creators and owners of the films, TV programmes, music and publications,"a statement reads.
"Intellectual property crime is a serious offence that is costing the UK economy hundreds of millions of pounds each year."
The two websites were not named, but apparently are known to be located and operating beyond the UK's borders.
CyberLink Corp. has announced that it is developing a new next-generation HEVC / H.265 video codec.
The software vendor, which provides solutions for video playback and editing across PC and mobile devices, announced that it is working on its new HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding ) codec. HEVC, or H.265, can sharply reduce the bandwidth requirements for high definition and 4K video streaming.
"For over 15 years, CyberLink has pioneered development of video codecs, and as one of the first Independent Software Vendors to adopt the recently approved HEVC standard, we are excited about the enhanced digital experience it will bring to our customers," said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink.
"Our early investment and development strategy reflects our belief that this is the right technology to take mobile and HD media to the next level."
CyberLink's new codec offers optimized decoding and encoding of H.265 format video. Benefits include faster and smoother downloading and streaming of better quality video content to PCs and mobile devices, and also more economic storage and burning of high definition video.
For the time being, the CyberLink H.265 codec in its current form is only available for demonstration to OEM partners.
Twitter's extremely popular social video sharing Vine is finally available for Android after months of availability on iOS.
The app lets users create 6 second video clips and animation creations that are then easily shared like Instagram. Vine users can turn full stories into 6 second videos due to the apps ability to stop and start recording with just a tap.
Twitter says the app has 13 million active users.
As a bonus for Android users, their version of the app includes a Zoom feature not seen on the iOS version.
Acer has unveiled the world's first 8-inch Windows 8 tablet, the Iconia W3.
Introduced today at Computex, the device has a 1,280 x 800 display, is powered by a dual-core 1.8GHz Atom Z2760 processor, has 32GB internal storage (likely only half of which will be usable due to Windows 8 installation files), weighs 1.1 pounds and is about 0.48-inches thick.
Acer is including a full version of Office 2013 free, and an optional full-sized keyboard will retail for $79-$89 (unclear as of yet), making the device very good for productivity and portability.
Additionally, there are dual camera, Bluetooth 4.0, a microUSB port, microHDMI, and a microSD slot.
The device will sell for $379, and is available for pre-order tomorrow at a number of retailers including Amazon. The device is set for release the last week of June.
Samsung has updated their Galaxy Tab line, introducing 8-inch and 10.1-inch models of the new Galaxy Tab 3.
The 8-inch version runs on a 1.5 GHz Exynos dual-core processor, has a WXGA TFT 1280 x 800 (189 PPI) display, 1.5GB of RAM, 1.3/5MP cameras, a 4,450 mAh battery, and either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage depending on your needs.
Notably, the 10.1-inch model will run on a 1.6GHz Intel Haswell dual-core processor, a major score for the company as it tries to finally make a dent in the mobile markets.
The device has a 1280 x 800 (149 PPI) WXGA TFT display, 1GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, and a large 6,800 mAh battery. Strangely, the cameras are 1.3/3MP, a letdown for those that were hoping were decent photo taking.
Yahoo has discontinued their Mail Classic, requiring all users to upgrade to a new version that allows for your emails to be scanned for targeted ads.
The company's updated ToS says the scans will be to "deliver product features, relevant advertising, and abuse protection". You can opt out of seeing the ads, but you must accept the ToS or dump Yahoo Mail for good.
In case you thought there might be a workaround, Yahoo placed this in a new Help center FAQ:
"Beginning the week of June 3, 2013, older versions of Yahoo! Mail (including Yahoo! Mail Classic) will no longer be available. After that, you can access your Yahoo! Mail only if you upgrade to the new version. When you upgrade, you will be accepting our Communications Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. This includes the acceptance of automated content scanning and analyzing of your communications content."
The move may seem invasive, especially the way Yahoo is doing it, but Gmail has been scanning your emails for quite some time, as well.
For the month of May, Google's Chrome saw a loss in share, while other browsers saw marginal gains.
Internet Explorer share grew from 55.81 percent to 55.99 percent, Firefox jumped from 20.30 percent to 20.63 percent, Safari grew 0.08 percentage points to 5.46 percent and even Opera took an irrelevant hop from 1.73 to 1.77 percent.
Chrome, on the other hand, fell from 16.35 percent to 15.74 percent and seems to be stuck in third place after a very strong run over the past few years.
Internet Explorer 8 still remains the most popular browser in the world, at 22.99 percent share IE10, now available for Windows 7 users, took the biggest jump, to 9.26 percent.
Firefox remains fragmented, as consumers are still slow to upgrade to the latest overnight builds. Chrome is the most notable, as the browser has fallen to share not seen in almost two years, says the report. It is unclear what is causing the downtrend.
According to Bloomberg, Apple will unveil its long-awaited iRadio unlimited music streaming service.
The company has reportedly secured key licensing agreements ahead of their announcement, including Warner Music, who had allegedly been holding out for better rates.
As part of that deal, Apple will pay Warner 10 percent of ad revenue from the service, a figure that is double what Pandora pays for use of the catalog.
The move follows Google's recent entry to the market, "All Access," which offers a similar service to Spotify, Rdio and other existing companies.
It will be interesting if the service could bring something innovative to the table, or act like Google's and simply copy existing services just within their own environments.
According to research firm Kantar, Windows Phone has taken more market share in the U.S. smartphone market than Android, year-over-year.
For the period ended April 2013, Android now accounts for 51.7 percent of all smartphone sales, followed by 41.4 percent for iOS and Windows Phone at 5.6 percent share.
RIM and Symbian kept their marginal shares at 0.7 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
42 percent of Windows Phone buyers came from feature phones, 25 percent from other Windows devices and 23 percent from Android.
"But it's not just about capturing the market that is yet to upgrade. Windows is also seeing success in the younger group. When looking at those who changed device, between 2011 and 2012 Windows was more successful at capturing older consumers aged 50-64. But when looking at those changing now and in the last year, we're seeing Windows now gaining share among those aged 25-34," said a Kantar analyst.
Five years ago I joined a team of four as Tumblr's first designer, creative director, and product engineer. That team has since grown to 182 of the most wonderful and talented people around.
I'm so proud of what we've all created together, and it's been a privilege to contribute to something beloved by so many. I can't wait to see what's next for the product; I'm sure it will be nothing short of incredible.
There's still a lot more I want to accomplish, and I'm really excited about this next chapter. For now, I'm going to take some time off to digest the last few years. I have about a dozen different projects planned, so expect more from me soon!
It has been unofficially leaked for almost a month now but AT&T has finally shown off the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active.
The Active is a 5-inch 1080p device powered by a quad-core 1.9GHz Snapdragon 600 CPU that is very similar to the Galaxy S4 except that some of the aesthetics have been changed.
Samsung says the device will be aimed at those with a more active lifestyle that require a more rugged phone.
The device has an 8MP camera instead of the 13MP camera seen on the S4, to keep prices lower, and the device will be available in grey and teal.
A documentary crew has now received approval to dig up a site in New Mexico where Atari allegedly buried millions of unsold Atari 2600 consoles and games.
The urban legend of the desert site has been around for at least two decades, and gamers (and former gamers) will certainly follow the story.
That year, the video game industry saw a large downtrend due to greater market factors, leaving Atari with millions of unsold and sealed consoles and games, including over 3 million copies of E.T. The company then, according to the myth, dumped the unsold merchandise in an Alamogordo landfill which was later covered by concrete.
If reports from the New York Times are accurate, there could have been as many as 20 dump trucks full of merchandise dumped in the landfill.
The white colorway version of the LGNexus 4 is now available in the U.S., through Google Play or T-Mobile USA.
A global rollout is expected within the month.
As part of the launch, if you purchase through Google Play, the company is adding a free bumper case.
The Nexus 4 has a 4.7-inch 1280-by-768 True HD IPS Plus display (320ppi), runs the latest version of Android and is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and 2GB RAM.
Pricing matches the original at $299 for the base model (8GB).
The long-standing open-source Web browser Camino has been discontinued.
Camino's devs say the browser, which launched for Macs almost 10 years ago had fallen too far behind modern browsers like Chrome and that the current speed of updates would lead to serious security issues for users.
Although Camino's overall browser market share has been around 0.1 percent for years, at one point it was popular as it embraced the services and overall look of older Mac OS X builds.
After a decade-long run, Camino is no longer being developed, and we encourage all users to upgrade to a more modern browser. Camino is increasingly lagging behind the fast pace of changes on the web, and more importantly it is not receiving security updates, making it increasingly unsafe to use.
Fortunately, Mac users have many more browsers to choose from than they did when Camino started ten years ago. Former Camino developers have helped build the three most popular – Chrome, Firefox, and Safari – so while this is the end of Camino itself, the community that helped build it is still making the web better for Mac users.
Although it had been a lock that Sprint would be purchasing the rest of 4G spectrum operator Clearwire, Dish Network recently upped their bid by a significant amount, leading shareholders to reconsider.
Sprint had offered $3.40 per share in April, and a vote was set for this week before Dish countered with $4.40 per share, a huge increase.
One large shareholder, Crest Financial, which currently holds 8 percent of outstanding shares, has said the company should open itself to competitive bidding now given the new offer.
Making the move even more complicated is the fact that Dish has offered $25 billion to buy Sprint as a whole, competing with an offer from Japan's third largest carrier, Softbank.
A special committee from Clearwire will take two weeks to review the new proposal and vote on June 13th.
After launching two weeks ago in NYC and Philadelphia on iOS devices, Disney has expanded its livestreaming ABC app to the Amazon Kindle Fire and Fire HD.
The app brings live broadcast TV to your tablet just as if it was being broadcasted on TV. That includes commercials of course, but will also allow you to go mobile as long as you have a data connection.
Disney says the live feed will be based on your current location and you will need your cable or satellite TV subscription credentials to login and authenticate.
It is important to note the app is not yet available for Android, just the Kindle, but Disney says it is working on a version of the application for Samsung's Galaxy lineup.
According to investment bank Credit Suisse, iPhone sales have jumped over 500 percent in India following the institution of installment payment plans in the nation.
Apple is now selling 400,000 handsets per month there, compared to 80,000 before the new pricing schemes. Besides the monthly installment plans, the company also implemented a discount program.
This is according to analyst Sunil Tirumalai, who added "the 4-9% implicit discount coupled with the option of easy EMIs (equal monthly installment) spread over 6-12 months became popular. Within a few months, our discussions with handset retailers indicated that iPhone sales went up 3-5x, forcing companies to respond."
The EMIs allow would-be buyers to put a down payment on an iPhone 4 or 4S and then pay the rest over 6 to 12 months, interest free.
Last month, the company added an 18 percent cash discount to the iPhone 4, almost erasing the entire down payment and certainly making the device affordable to first time smartphone buyers.
Hulu has upgraded their Hulu Plus "experience for the living room" for multiple devices today, including Samsung Smart TVs, Blu-ray players, Roku set-tops and the Nintendo Wii.
The user interface has been updated to better help viewers find and search for new shows.
Among the improvements are navigation, controls, search and Hulu says even the artwork is "larger and more vivid." Playback should be easier, as displaying the playback menu now just requires you to hit "up" on your remote. Fast forward and rewind use right and left, respectively.
On the search side, the results will appear right under the search in a tray-style format.
Hulu Kids has also been added, a welcome addition for parents.
PS3 owners should be well versed on the updates, since most of them were added to the console app over the past few months.
Microsoft has begun offering a free Touch or Type Cover to all new U.S. and Canadian buyers of the Surface RT tablet.
The move is aimed at attracting buyers to the struggling tablet and is a pretty good deal given that the covers cost between $100 and $129 depending on how you purchase them.
Touch Covers will be available in cyan, red, magenta, white, or black. The Type Cover is only available in black.
It is unclear how long the promotion will last but Microsoft says it is a "limited time offer."
Sales to date of the tablet have been lackluster, to say the least. Since launch in October, the company has only sold slightly above 1 million.
In news that has big repercussions for American citizens, a federal judge has ruled that Google must comply with the FBI's warrantless "National Security Letters" in which they request user details.
The search giant had been trying to get 19 of such letters thrown out, claiming the demands are unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston made the ruling after a high-ranking assistant director at the FBI submitted classified affidavits.
The trial is very important, as the FBI has made 192,499 such demands since 2003, to Google and other companies that hold sensitive personal data for Americans. Illston did not completely shut down Google either, as the company is allowed to bring the case again, but this time they will need arguments "specific to the 19 NSLs at issue." Additionally, two of the 19 NSLs will require more information from the government before they can be ruled on, says the Judge.
NSLs, which remain of questionable constitutionality, allow FBI officials to send secret requests to ISPs, telcos and companies like Google and Facebook requesting the "name, address, length of service" (and some other details) for anyone they choose, without the need for a judge's approval. Additionally, the companies cannot disclose such requests to those they are disclosing info about.
ISP BT will be moving all of its customers from Yahoo! after a decade of service following relentless claims of hacking and account abuse.
Customers have claimed that hackers have repeatedly taken control of their accounts and used them to send mass spam emails.
BT says now the accounts will begin to migrate within weeks and that the new system will "feature in-built anti-virus and anti-spam solutions."
Adds the company: "We will be switching customers' email over to BT Mail, which will include the features and functions they expect from a modern email service. We will be keeping our customers fully informed about what changes to expect and when they will be able to enjoy the new services."
All emails, folders and preferences will move over (as well as your original address), but users will likely be prompted to change their password.
Acer has announced its DA220HQL all-in-one, one of the first AIOs to run on Android and not Windows.
The 21.5-inch multitouch panel has 1080presolution, runs on Android 4.0 and a Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 dual-core ARM Coretex-A9 processor.
Some resellers had incorrectly posted that the AIO would run on the upcoming Intel Haswell 4430, but that does not appear to be accurate.
Under the hood is 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage, front-facing camera, built-in speakers, Wi-Fi, Micro-HDMI, Micro USB 2.0, and wireless keyboard and mouse.
More importantly, the device will be cheap, with retailers currently pricing it at $399 to $425.
CBS has announced its acquisition of TV Guide Digital, including the site TVGuide.com and TV Guide mobile.
The company had already owned 50 percent, and the rest was owned by movie studio Lionsgate. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
With the deal, the online/mobile versions will be separated from the TV Guide Network, the basic cable channel available in almost every American household despite its low ratings. Additionally, the weekly magazine will remain part of the TV Guide Network's assets, not the digital.
The digital guide will be integrated into the rest of CBS' properties, such as TV.com, GameSpot, Metracritic and even possibly Last.fm. TVGuide.com has 16.5 million monthly visitors. "It's a brand that has a nice-size audience, and a highly monetizable category that has a lot of relevance going forward," says CBS. "That's why it fits so well with our strategy."
Asus has unveiled their PQ321 monitor, an extremely high-end 31.5-inch IGZO display with 4K resolution (3840 x 2160).
Additionally, the monitor will be the thinnest 4K (UltraHD) yet, at just 35mm.
The display has dual HDMI ports and DisplayPort, and the company says you can combine two inputs at the same time to offer picture-by-picture support.
4K UHD monitors remain a dream for most, given the prices and the lack of current generation support for such outputs. However, Intel's upcoming HD Graphics 5000 (integrated card) will offer 4K resolution support via DisplayPort 1.2 and should be able to playback 4K video, as well.
Asus says the monitor is aimed at creative users, but should also be popular with gamers with SLI or even larger GPU setups.
Google has added nutritional information to its Knowledge Graph, meaning it has been added to search results.
Says the search giant: "This new nutritional information builds on our work on the Knowledge Graph, which brings together all kinds of information from across the web that wasn't easily accessible."
Perhaps more importantly the information is available through voice search and works on the web and via mobile devices.
The move should be great for those trying to diet.
A New Zealand court has ordered that the FBI and police must return Kim Dotcom's personal data that was seized during the raid of Megaupload last year.
Additionally, they must specify all information that is at the core of their case against the file sharing service that once accounted for a large share of the world's Internet traffic at any given time.
High Court Justice Helen Winkelmann ruled again that the raid of Dotcom's mansion was illegal since they did not have proper warrants. The police and FBI must now return any digital data that is not relevant to the case.
Furthermore, the Justice ordered the FBI to destroy all clones they have of Megaupload's hard drives that contain personal information or other none relevant information to the case.
Dotcom and the rest of the defendants must be given copies of the hard drives and information that will be used in the case against them.
It is unclear if users will get their personal data back, but it seems to be a step in the right direction.
Yesterday, Razer unveiled their "Blade" notebook, a device they claim is the 'world's thinning gaming laptop.'
The notebook is just 0.66-inches thick, and the company says it offers "more power-per-cubic-inch than any other laptop in the world."
Under the hood is a 4th generation Intel Core processor (Haswell), a new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 756M GPU, 8GB of 16000 Mhz DDR3L memory and 128GB SSD storage in its base model. The device runs on 64-bit Windows 8. Despite being thin it is not too light, at 4.135 pounds.
"We've designed and built the thinnest, most powerful 14-inch laptop in the world," Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan noted. "Thinner than a dime and more powerful than other traditional desktop replacements today, we've created an entirely new category of thin and powerful laptops that is generations ahead of other PCs."
According to a new study by app analytics firm Distimo, you must gross $47,000 per day to crack the Apple App Store's top 10 paid apps list.
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