AT&T has announced that its Aio Wireless no-contract prepaid service is now live nationwide.
As of writing, the service is only available in Florida, Texas, Metro-Atlanta, and Chicago.
The service costs between $40 and $70 a month depending on your minutes and data plan, and if you sign up before September 29th, you get a free month of service.
Aio's service has caught some flack from T-Mobile USA, as it originally had a magenta colored banner.
"We invite customers across the country to switch to Aio and experience our first class service with no annual contracts,"said Jennifer Van Buskirk, president of Aio Wireless. "We want to make it easy for consumers almost anywhere in the US to get great value in their wireless service, with the network coverage and experience they deserve, and devices they can be proud to own."
Microsoft has announced it has doubled its cloud mailbox storage to 50GB.
Users of Exchange Online and Office 365 will see their current 25GB capacity double over the next few weeks, or months, depending on your location.
There is no additional charge for the extra space.
Microsoft notes that customers of Exchange Online Plan 1, Office 365 Small Business, Midsize Business, Enterprise E1, Government G1, and Education A1 will see the increase.
Exchange Online Plan 2, Office 365 Enterprise E3 and E4, Government G3 and G4, Education A3 and A4 will see their primary inboxes increase to 50GB even though they had unlimited storage in their personal archives.
Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia has confirmed that the streaming service will be available on Android devices starting next month.
While an exact date was not confirmed, the exec says the announcement will take place in the coming weeks. The company had originally wanted an Android app earlier in the summer, but delayed the development.
Since launching in NYC and Boston, the service has expanded to over 20 cities now, with more planned.
The startup's service, which costs $8 per month, allows users to watch free, OTA content on any mobile device along with a free remote DVR. Aereo does not pay any re-transmission fees as it uses tiny digital TV antennas for each user in its own facilities and links to the streams.
The company has faced significant backlash since launching in 2011. Last year, CBS, NBC, Fox and other smaller broadcasters filed a copyright suit claiming unauthorized access to their content. So far, two federal courts have sided with Aereo and the company continues to expand and innovate.
The leaks started earlier this week but the floodgates have now been opened.
On the 26th, a Chinese-language version of Windows 8.1 Enterprise RTM leaked online, followed by Windows 8.1 Pro RTM x64, in full English, on the 28th, as a .wim file.
As of this weekend, we now have x86 and x64, both as untouched ISO files, ready for download and install.
The official download goes out on October 18th, so these ISOs are likely the packages Microsoft's OEM partners received.
Both ISOs are for build 6.3.9600.16384.WINBLUE_RTM.130821-1623, made available by Microsoft on August 21st. The files range from 3GB to 4GB.
If you are a frustrated Windows 8 user, it may be time to preview the latest update to your OS.
Apple has confirmed their iPhone trade-in program, following months of leaks and speculation.
The company had previously offered recycling programs, exchanging gift cards for your old Apple devices. The new program will give you credit towards the latest model phones.
Apple spokeswoman Amy Bessette added: "iPhones hold great value. So, Apple Retail Stores are launching a new program to assist customers who wish to bring in their previous-generation iPhone for reuse or recycling. In addition to helping support the environment, customers will be able to receive a credit for their returned phone that they can use toward the purchase of a new iPhone."
There is one caveat, however. Anyone using the program must leave the store with a new contract, but older devices should give you decent credit. For example, one report claims the company will pay $336 for a good condition iPhone 5 (16GB) complete with box and accessories, more than paying for a new iPhone 5S.
BlackBerry Messenger is one step closer to making its way to Android and iOS.
The struggling smartphone maker has set up a landing page to help Android and iPhone users learn about what BBM is and what it offers.
At launch, which is set for next month, BBM will only include messaging, but it is expected to add video and voice chat later in the year.
The move is a necessary one for BlackBerry, which has almost disappeared from the market. However, BBM has 60 million active users and is still generally regarded as one of the best messaging services. WhatsApp and Line, which are available for rival platforms, have quickly amassed hundreds of millions of downloads, and have threatened to make BBM even more irrelevant.
Regardless, the company should have a hard time penetrating the market as Android and iPhone users already have native messaging clients, like iMessage and Hangouts, along with options like WhatsApp.
Just days after rivals Baidu and Qihoo 360 began offering users 1TB of free cloud storage, Chinese tech giant Tencent has one-upped them, offering 10TB of free storage.
You must sign up for a Tencent QQ account and also download the most updated Tencent Cloud (Weiyun) mobile app. From there, you must click through Weiyun's promo site and you will receive 1TB.
As you use up more space, Tencent will continue to add to your storage space, up to the max at 10TB.
By comparison, American-based companies have been offering anywhere between 5GB-25GB for free.
Research firm IDC has reported today that they expect global PC shipments to fall more than previously forecasted.
Total unit sales will fall 9.7 percent this year, a steep drop from the 7.8 percent the firm expected at the end of May. The market will continue to shrink until 2015, when the market is expected to 'bottom' and post a small single digit gain.
Sales will never reach 2011 levels, where they peaked around the world, adds the firm. China and other emerging economies, which had been compensating for declining sales in the U.S. and other developed nations, have now begun contracting, as well.
Altogether, IDC predicts 315.4 million PCs this year, down from 349.2 million last year.
Samsung has announced today that their camera/smartphone hybrid, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, is available in Europe, sporting LTE radios.
"Promising a faster than ever connection, the LTE capabilities allow users to experience the connected features of the Galaxy S4 Zoom with greater speed, so that they are able to connect with their world easily and quickly,"adds the company.
The LTE models are available via Deutsche Telekom, Tele2, Telia Sonera, and Orange.
The device is notable thanks to a large 16MP CMOS sensor and 10x optical zoom lens with dual Xenon flash and optical image stabilization. A feature dubbed Zoom Ring which lets you instantly take pictures and send them while on the phone with someone.
As promised, Verizon and Best Buy have put the Moto X up for sale.
The device will sell for $199 with a two-year contract.
Google's Moto X has a 4.7-inch AMOLED 720p display, Android 4.2.2 (with minor Motorola bloat), a 10MP "ClearPixel" camera, and a new Motorola X8 chipset that includes a powerful 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4, an Adreno 320 GPU, 2GB RAM and built-in specialized processors for natural language processing.
The Moto X has a motion-sensitive Active Display, always-on Google Now voice commands and a camera activation gesture that requires just two wrist twists.
Ahead of its launch next week, we have some more leaked information about Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch.
The smartwatch will have a 2.5-inch, 320x320 OLED display, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage and an integrated 4MP sensor camera which allows for 720p video recording.
Part of the new leaked info, sources claim the Galaxy Gear will have 10 hours of battery life.
Samsung has said the watch will not have a flexible display, nor is it a guarantee the device will ever go to mass production.
Microsoft has made all of their recent Microsoft Surface price cuts permanent.
Beginning on August 29th, Surface Pro, Surface RT and Touch Cover prices will begin rolling out to all markets where the devices are sold.
This means the Surface Pro will start at $799, the Surface RT will start at $399 and the Touch Covers will start at $79.
If you are curious to the pricing in your local market, Microsoft says to check here.
"The customer response to recent Surface pricing and keyboard-cover promotions has been exciting to see, and we are proud to begin rollout of Surface Pro, Touch Cover and Surface RT bundles at even more affordable prices starting August 29,"added the company. The price cuts had original been temporary and set to end today.
Rockstar Games has announced that the Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack will include 240 tracks from a multitude of artists.
The 240 licensed songs will be played on 15 music stations, two dedicated talk radio channels and "somewhere in the proximity of 20 movies' worth of score".
A few of the noted artists are Camilo Lara, DJ Pooh, Jesco White, Pam Grier, Bootsy Collins, Kenny Loggins, Flying Lotus, Alchemist, and Oh No.
"For this game, which is set in our version of modern-day Los Angeles, what was important for us was to capture that feeling of LA and California," Rockstar soundtrack supervisor Ivan Pavlovich said. "We approached the radio stations as the musical soundscape [you experience] as you fly into LA. One of the things we've never done in a GTA game before is a pop station; exploring that made so much sense in the context of LA."
The game will have its own original score, with game audio differing based on the player's distinct actions. "The score plays during missions and the open-world gameplay, and during online play," Pavlovich said. "It's completely dynamic, and engineered very similar to what we've done in the past with our interactive stem system--it responds to what you're doing with your character."
The company is unveiling the flagship device next week on September 4th at the IFA event.
Two weeks later, the Note III will go on sale, shipping on September 27th.
For now, ePrice only confirmed the dates for Taiwan, but there is little chance that the device will not be debuting in plenty of other countries at the same time.
Among the leaked specs are a 5.68" 1080p Super AMOLED screen, 3GB of RAM, 3,200mAh battery and 4K video capture to go along with an Exynos 5 Octa or a Snapdragon 800 processor depending on where you live.
Netflix has taken their original programming to a new frontier, comedy.
Aziz Ansari's new special, Buried Alive, will debut exclusively on Netflix on November 1st. The high-profile comedy special is Netflix's next step in their fight with HBO, who has long premiered standup from popular comedians.
Netflix will also promote the special with the same time and money as they did their other original programs, such as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black.
The company recently told investors that they would be expanding into stand-up and documentaries. The company has said the streaming service "has become a big destination for fans of these much loved and often under-distributed genres."
Ansari has previously sold his specials directly through his website as a digital download and Buried Alive will be available to buy for $5, but after Netflix's premiere.
YouTube has dumped its video response feature after only about four in every million users clicks on a video response.
Video responses on YouTube stretch back very far, but as much as the feature makes sense it simply isn't popular at all with YouTube viewers.
Currently video responses have a click-through rate of .0004% -- in other words, only 4 out of every 1 million users who sees a video response clicks on it.
"So, on September 12 we're going to retire this little-used feature as we work to develop more effective fan engagement tools for creators," YouTube's Creator blog reads.
It tells content creators to encourage fans to upload videos with specific titles, hashtags or descriptions instead, so they can be found via search for a user looking for responses.
Rockstar Games is not planning to release Grand Theft Auto V on the next-gen PlayStation 4 (PS4) console.
A tweet from Sony UK suggested that the hotly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto V was coming to the PlayStation 4, Sony's next generation console due to be released in November.
"GTA V is going to be amazing, especially on the PS4," the Sony UK tweet read. The Twitter account was also used to re-tweet comments from a user about the game on the upcoming platform.
The Department of Homeland Security and FBI sent a memo to U.S. police and emergency services warning about attacks on mobile devices running Android.
According to the memo, over 79 percent of attacks on mobile devices in 2012 were on devices running the Android operating system. Given the popularity of the mobile OS and its open source architecture, it draws more attacks than other operating systems, such as Apple's iOS, which accounted for only 0.7 percent of attacks.
Half of the attacks on Android phones were in the form of so called "text trojans", which are malicious apps that send premium-rate SMS messages in the background. More serious attacks include fake Google Play stores and malware that can steal information and track what a user is doing.
One major issue with Android, according to the memo, is the large portion of devices running unsafe versions of the OS. Roughly 44 percent of Android users were still using Gingerbread, which was released in 2011. The memo notes that a number of serious security vulnerabilities have been fixed in later versions.
"The growing use of mobile devices by federal, state, and local authorities makes it more important than ever to keep mobile OS patched and up-to-date,"it said.
Microsoft has made it clear they have no plans to release an Xbox One without the Kinect motion control system.
Corporate vice president Phil Harrison says the system is an integral part of the console.
"Absolutely no plans at all," Harrison noted when asked if a cheaper non-Kinect bundled model would be available. "We think Kinect is an integral part of our platform. All of the magical experiences that you get, both as a games-player and also the way you navigate the system are made even more amazing because of Kinect."
Because it comes bundled with Kinect, Harrison says developers can design projects for the "widest possible install base."
"Xbox One is Kinect," Harrison concluded. "They are not separate systems. An Xbox One has chips, it has memory, it has Blu-ray, it has Kinect, it has a controller. These are all part of the platform ecosystem."
Vodafone and O2 have begun rolling out 4G mobile services in the United Kingdom, a year after rival EE first launched its own 4G service.
Vodafone will initially provide 4G service to parts of London, while O2 will also launch 4G services in London, Leeds and Bradford. Three, the largest mobile network in the UK, will begin rolling out 4G services from December, starting with London, Birmingham and Manchester.
EE has been offering 4G in the UK for almost a year after communications regulator Ofcom allowed the firm to use licensed spectrum for its service. The other carriers in the region protested the green light for EE because they had to wait for Ofcom to auction off spectrum for 4G services.
However, Vodafone and O2 are being accused of dragging their feet on 4G to sell it as a premium service.
"The UK's mobile networks are hedging their bets with 4G,"Steven Hartley, principal analyst at telecoms consultancy Ovum, told the BBC. "They are trying the same strategy they used when they rolled out 3G, which is to offer 4G as a premium service to consumers, in an effort to move them onto expensive phone tariffs."
A U.S. judge has found that Hotfile is liable on charges of copyright infringement, in a case dating back to 2011.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) touted the finding in an e-mailed statement to the press, but the official written judgement remains sealed for fourteen days for confidential and other information to be redacted.
Nevetheless, the MPAA is jumping for joy that the still-in-business Panama-based cyberlocker service apparently failed to convince the court that it is a legitimate service that is protected from liability for infringing user uploads under the safe harbour provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.
"This decision sends a clear signal that businesses like Hotfile that are built on a foundation of stolen works will be held accountable for the damage they do both to the hardworking people in the creative industries and to a secure, legitimate Internet," said Chris Dodd, chairman and CEO of the MPAA.
"We applaud the court for recognizing that Hotfile was not simply a storage locker but an entire business model built on mass distribution of stolen content. Today's decision is a victory for all of the men and women who work hard to create our favorite movies and TV shows, and it's a victory for audiences who deserve to feel confident that the content they're watching online is high-quality, legitimate, and secure."
Microsoft is in "advanced stage" talks to invest in popular check-in service Foursquare.
Despite the nature of the talks, they may not lead anywhere, as Microsoft is not the only company Foursquare is having discussions with.
The news comes a day after Foursquare released apps for Windows 8 computers and tablets, following a promise to do so in June.
It is unclear what the investment will actually entail, but it would not be surprising if Microsoft wants to integrate Foursquare's data into its Bing search engine and Maps applications.
Microsoft's talks with Foursquare about a strategic investment are said to be at an advanced stage.
Verizon Wireless is in talks with Vodafone Group to buy back the 45 percent of their company that they do not own.
The sale would be in the area of $130 billion, making it one of the largest transactions of all time. Verizon is working with six major banks to raise $60 billion to finance the buyout.
Vodafone and Verizon have been partners in the venture for over a decade, and it has been very lucrative for Vodafone as Verizon pays them a hefty dividend when possible. The deal began in 1999 back when Vodafone outbid Bell Atlantic for Airtouch Communications, at the time, the largest wireless communication company on the planet. Bell and Vodafone then merged assets to create Verizon Communications.
The companies have intensified talks in the last weeks, after reports of the buyout surfaced earlier this year. As part of the deal, Verizon will sell back its 23 percent stake in Vodafone Italia, valued at about $5 billion.
M&A in the industry have been swift this year, starting with T-Mobile USA merging with MetroPCS, and more recently, Softbank acquiring Sprint for $21.6 billion.
Bloomberg is reporting that Verizon Communications Inc is in talks to buy out Vodafone's 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless for $130 billion.
News that Verizon sought to buy out UK-based Vodafone's atake of the Verizon Wireless (Cellco Partnership) joint venture emerged earlier this year, with Reuters reporting that Verizon was mulling a $100 billion bid for the 45 percent stake it does not control.
Bloomberg is now citing sources familiar with the talks in reporting that Verizon is negotiating with several banks to kick in $60 billion in financing toward a $130 billion deal.
Skype has confirmed that it is working on 3D video calls, but has held back developed technology so far due to the limits of consumer webcams.
"We've done work in the labs looking at the capability of 3D-screens and 3D-capture," Microsoft's corporate vice-president for Skype, Mark Gillett, said in an interview with the BBC.
"We've seen a lot of progress in screens and a lot of people now buy TVs and computer monitors that are capable of delivering a 3D image. But the capture devices are not yet there. As we work with that kind of technology you have to add multiple cameras to your computer, precisely calibrate them and point them at the right angle. We have it in the lab, we know how to make it work and we're looking at the ecosystem of devices and their capability to support it in order to make a decision when we might think about bringing something like that to market."
Rumors about Skype working on 3D calls stemmed from an advert posted by the firm in April saying it wanted to find a way to create body doubles for worked unable to travel for meetings.
The hype surrounding 3D entertainment in recent years has cooled off considerably as consumers largely ignore the technology in the living room. This led to questions about whether World Cup 2014 games should be broadcast in 3D at all, and prompted ESPN to drop a 3D channel.
Rockstar Games has released what it is calling the official Grand Theft Auto V trailer, ahead of the anticipated title's September 17th launch.
The trailer (below) is due to be aired this Sunday in the U.S. during the latest episode of AMC's Breaking Bad. The game launches on September 17 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and is tipped to be an immediate success due to the popularity of the Grand Theft Auto series.
Instagram has updated their app to allow for straightening of photos.
Using a hack for the phone's sensor, you will be able to straighten your photos that are being uploaded.
As of writing, the Android and iOS versions allow for the new feature, with the correction being done automatically, unless you don't want it.
Another feature includes auto-correct of the photo, which zooms into the photo until empty space is negated.
Facebook, owner of the photo-sharing service, says: "Most phones have a variety of sensors that allow us to determine the orientation and tilt of the device relative to a specific reference, meaning we can tell the angle of your phone at the time you took the picture. This seemed to us a way of making the feature quick and simple to use, which is something we try to achieve with every feature release..."
Once you enter the straightening mode, you will notice how the photo is auto straightened in an animated way; when you tap the button the photo is rotated and zoomed in before your eyes. This animation turned out to be a very important piece of the puzzle as it helps the user understand what is happening to the photo.Once the animation is done, and in case we got the angle wrong, or in case you are simply feeling creative, you can still manually rotate the photo by dragging the wheel at the bottom of the screen. We added in other gestures for people looking to really fine-tune their pictures: if you tap on the edges of the wheel you can rotate by 0.1 degree increments. There are also two other ways to rotate the photo by using common iOS gestures: two finger rotation, or even one finger rotation, for easy interaction with just one hand."
A new teardown of the Moto X by IHS reveals the smartphone does not cost as much as expected, and that being 'Made in America' does not boost costs significantly, either.
The flagship device, which has been generally well reviewed, is different in that it is built at a plant in Texas and not overseas, allowing for customizations such as the color of the backplate, front trim, and engravings. Under the hood, the device uses chips that allow the phone to be "always-on" and listening for voice commands so the phone can act appropriately when in different situations, such as when you get into a car.
"What Google and Motorola are trying to do is not play the game of 'bigger is better' that everyone else is playing," adds IHS analyst Wayne Lam. "They are looking for ways to differentiate themselves from the pack and push the user experience in a new direction."
IHS says the components used to build the phone cost $209, and manufacturing in the U.S. added another $12 per unit, for a grand total of $221. By comparison, phones made overseas, such as those by Samsung and Apple, have manufacturing costs of around $7.
According to multiple reports, prices of Ultra HD 4K TVs have been falling quicker than expected, and Sony and Samsung will be dropping prices on their recently introduced displays.
For example, Samsung has dropped the price of its F9000-series TVs by $1000 and Samsung's new UN55F9000 55-inch Ultra HD will now drop to $4,499. Moving up, the 65-inch UN65F900 model will now cost $5,999, down $1500 from the current listing.
Sony has made similar moves, dropping their 55-inch models by $1000 and the 65-inch model by $1500.
One dealer had this to say of the move: "Margins will remain the same, as far as percentage."
Last week, Microsoft announced it would be offering free FIFA 14 with Xbox One pre-orders in Europe.
Sony responded to the offer, calling the offer "kind of odd." Sony Computer Entertainment Europe CEO Jim Ryan says Sony has no reason to offer a similar deal, as they do not expect to have any issues with demand.
"Why should we do that?" Ryan added. "Our problem is gonna be matching supply to demand. It's perfectly rational when a platform holder, or indeed a publisher, runs a preorder campaign to engage in promotional behavior to dial it up if you feel it's not where you need it to be. That's a rational thing for any businessman to do. We're perfectly happy with where our preorder are."
"Why would we go out and add something? Giving away stuff on day one of a new platform launch, in my mind it's kind of odd," he concluded.
Microsoft's free FIFA offer is good for all existing and new pre-orders.
According to sources, Apple will also unveil a new iPad on September 10th, alongside their new iPhones.
The sources claim Apple "plans to introduce new versions of its phone and tablet" during the event.
Apple is expected to unveil two new iPhones, a lower-priced plastic version and the new iPhone 5S flagship.
Other reports have claimed the new iPad would come later in the fall, but it would be interesting to see the tech giant unveil three or even four new devices in two weeks.
Apple is planning to open a retail store in Tokyo's Omotesando shopping district, its first new store in the city since 2005.
Construction is expected to be completed by February and the store could open in March. In fact, Apple has already begun advertising jobs for the new store.
"For Apple, the Japanese market is appealing in terms of quantity and price,"said Satoru Kikuchi, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. "There is a room to expand tablet sales and a possibility the Japanese market expands if Apple's mobile carrier partners increase."
Japan's largest carrier, NTT DoCoMo recently announced it would be willing to carry the iPhone if it could limit the handset's share of sales to 30 percent or less of the company's overall sales. DoCoMo offers an online store, the "dmarket," that directly competes with iTunes for music, games, TV and other content.
Such a move would greatly expand Apple's reach in the nation.
Nintendo has made some important announcements today.
The company has unveiled the new "2DS," a tablet-esque version of the 3DS that, as you can imply from the name, does not have 3D capabilities. The handheld is compatible with all DS and 3DS games, however, and will cost just $129.99.
The 2DS is what Nintendo considers to be a gaming tablet as it loses the clamshell design of all the DS before it.
Second, three months ahead of the launch of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the company has dropped the price of the Wii U console by $50 to $299 for the 32GB model. The Xbox One will sell for $499 with Kinect included and the PlayStation 4 will sell for $399.
Seven months after launch, the Wii U continues to sputter. As of June 30th, Nintendo had only sold 3.61 million Wii U. By comparison, in 2007 the original Wii was selling 1.8 million consoles per month.
Nitendo president Satoru Iwata says the handheld console business is doing just fine, especially in Japan.
Speaking at the Capcom event in Tokyo, the exec says the company is expected to sell 5 million 3DS consoles in Japan, alone, this year.
"There are more and more media reports suggesting that things aren't going very well for the dedicated gaming hardware business," Iwata added. "But that's not true, at least for the 3DS in Japan."
Nintendo sold 5.5 million 3DS last year in Japan, thanks to the 3DSXL.
Overall, the company is expecting sales of 18 million, up from 13.95 million last year.
As promised, the new Google Nexus 7 FHD is now available outside of North America.
The tablet is now available in the UK, France, Germany, Japan and Spain. Australia, India, and South Korea will be getting the device in the very near future.
In the UK, pricing starts at £199, €229 for the rest of Europe, and 27,800 yen (about $290) in Japan.
This compares to $229 starting price in the U.S., exclusive of sales tax.
Sony's next flagship is rightfully getting some good press ahead of its launch on September 4th.
The Xperia Honami is said to have a 1080p 5-inch Triluminos display, a quad-core 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB RAM. What makes the phone standout is a 20.7 megapixel camera with a Sony G-lens and BIONZ image processor. LTE, BT 4.0, NFC and Wi-Fi are standard, and the device has a microSD slot.
Additionally, the phone will be IP57 certified, meaning the device can survive in water for 30 minutes and is also dust-proof.
Sony has shown off at least a few of those features with their latest teaser for the smartphone.
According to the WSJ, HTC is working on building a smartphone operating system that will be aimed specifically at the Chinese market.
The struggling phone maker will be making a large bet on China in its efforts to turnaround the company.
Allegedly, the development of the OS is being "closely monitored" by HTC's Chairwoman Cher Wang, who has been in active discussions with the Chinese government.
The OS will deeply integrate Chinese apps such as Weibo (Twitter of China) and will launch before the end of the year. HTC has been speaking about building its own OS for at least two years, but never got past the development stage.
HTC is hoping to jump on the hole left by Google and Android in the nation. Following a headline-grabbing spat in 2010, Google pulled their search engine from the country and their Google Play Store for Android only has limited apps, nowhere near the full 900,000 catalog available elsewhere around the globe.
Facebook has released its first ever Global Government Requests Report covering the first six months of 2013, showing figures of user information requests it receives around the world.
In total, Facebook received requests for information on about 38,000 of its gigantic user base around the world, with the United States by far the largest source of requests numbering between 20,000 and 21,000 for the first six months of the year.
The UK sought information on 2,337 users, France sought information on 1,598 users and Germany sought information on 2,086 users.
The requests for information are all related to official investigations, and they vary widely on their nature. Facebook, for example, receives requests for information of accounts belonging to missing persons, and in criminal cases where Facebook may have been used in some way to facilitate the activity.
The New York Times has revealed that its website was hacked on Tuesday, and pointed the finger of blame at the Syrian Electronic Army.
The website was unreachable from Tuesday at around 3pm local time, though it has been restored since. While NYTimes.com was unreachable, the iconic news outlet continued to post stories to its Facebook page and to a mirror site located at news.nytco.com/global.
"The NYTimes.com domain is pointing at SyrianElectronicArmy.com which maps to an IP address in Russia, so it's clearly a malicious attack,"Ken Westin, a security researcher for Tripwire, an online security company, told the BBC News website.
Earlier this month, a technical glitch had forced the New York Times website down, and the incident was misreported as the result of an attack.
"Media attacks seem to be escalating and moving away from annoying, simple denial of service attacks and toward full domain compromise which, if successful, puts millions of NYT website users at risk," said Mr Westin.
Microsoft has confirmed that it has completed Windows 8.1 and is releasing it to manufacturing (RTM), but MSDN and Technet subscribers must wait in line with everyone else.
There were hopes that Microsoft would provide Windows 8.1 to MSDN and Technet subscribers before the general October 18 release, but Microsoft has poured cold water on those hopes. According to The Verge, Microsoft is using the intervening time to add some finishing touches.
It also plans to address additional bugs and features with quick fix patches over the coming weeks before general release.
Windows 8.1 makes piles of changes to the Windows 8 user interface, largely due to negative feedback from customers who upgraded or bought a new PC/Tablet running the operating system.
Logitech's new G602 wireless gaming mouse boosts battery life, features 11 programmable buttons.
It promises 250 Continuous Hours in "gaming mode", which Logitech claims is eight times the battery life of other wireless gaming mice. In Endurance mode, it claims over 1,400 hours of battery life.
The mouse features Logitech G exclusive 4,000 DPI Delta Zero sensor technology that offers high-accuracy cursor control. Plus, it has an ultra durable build with primary mechanical switches rated to a 20 million-click lifespan.
Because it features eleven programmable G-keys, you can easily master your favorite games by assigning the actions you use most to the buttons you want, using the Logitech Gaming Software.
According to reports, Samsung's Galaxy Note III can record video in 4K resolution and also supports 24-bit/192KHz audio playback.
The rumors come from The Korea Economic Daily (via SamMobile), which reports that the Galaxy Note III can record video at 4K resolution (3840x2160) and also is capable of playing back 24-bit/192KHz audio recordings.
While the prospect of high quality audio support and 4K video recording deserves attention, there are questions that need to be asked. Firstly, why record in 4K when its not likely that the smartphone will be capable of displaying 4K video? Leaked specs claim that the Note III will tout a 5.68-inch Full HD Super AMOLED (1920 x 1080) display.
The second problem is the amount of storage space that 4K videos would require, which may make 4K recording with a smartphone unsuitable for now.
Last but certainly not least is the shortage of 4K displays on the market. Ultra HD 4K televisions do, of course, exist but with high-end price tags, and let's not forget you need a device to be capable of playing 4K too.
Two men have been charged in New York for allegedly stealing source code from a high-frequency trading firm.
Prosecutors allege that the men intended to use the code to start their own firm. Jason Vuu, 26, Simon Lu, 25 and Glen Cressman, 26, were arraigned on the charges earlier this month and are due to go back to court on November 18.
Vuu is a former trader at Flow Traders LLC in Manhattan. Prosecutors allege that he e-mailed himself proprietary code, as well as trading strategies and valuation algorithms from the firm. He then, allegedly, shared the information with Lu.
Cressman - also a former trader at Flow Traders LLC - is alleged to have copied files containing trading strategies and valuation algorithms without permission, though his lawyer Charles Ross maintains his clients' innocence.
"He was a fine employee, and when everything about the case is aired, it will be clear he did nothing wrong,"Ross said.
A glitch affecting an Amazon servers at a data center affected Instagram, Vine, Netflix and others over the weekend.
The problems hit users of the services on Sunday, with Instagram the first to acknowledge on Twitter that access to its services appeared to be intermittent. It was followed by the other affected web services.
The problem was traced to a data center in Northern Virginia that ran into problems keeping up with demand. This affected servers that are part of Amazon's cloud-based network. Users of amazon's services, including Instagram and Netflix, experienced technical problems as a result.
BitCoin Foundation members have met with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to advocate for the digital currency.
FinCEN director, Jennifer Shasky-Calvery, confirmed that the regulator hosted a presentation by the BitCoin foundation. "This is part of our ongoing dialogue aimed at enhancing communication with our regulated financial industries,"she said in a statement.
The job of FinCEN is to analyse information about financial transactions related to money laundering activity, terrorism financing and other financial crimes. BitCoin has been the subject of a lot of controversy in recent years due to its use in underground illegal markets, like the Silk Road drug trading hub. The FBI also reported last year that sophisticated criminal elements were exploiting BitCoin to move money around the world hoping to sidestep groups like FinCEN.
The goal of the BitCoin foundation is to improve and protect the integrity of the BitCoin currency.
However, BitCoin dealers/groups are slowly discovering that they are subject to the same rules and regulations that come with using traditional currency. Mt. Gox, a Tokyo-based group that exchanges U.S. dollars with BitCoins, had two of its accounts held by its U.S. subsidiary seized by agents of the DHS earlier this year because it was operating a money transmitting business with a license.
According to leaked material obtained by Kotaku, Microsoft's Xbox One console may launch on November 8.
The gaming site was in contact with a source at a marketing company that contracts for retail giant Wal-Mart, and was passed along an e-mail for a company conference call that shows the launch date for a number of upcoming games.
It lists the Xbox One as launching at midnight on November 8, 2013. One thing to note is the lack of a "confirmed" note beside it, which could suggest that Microsoft hasn't yet picked a day, or as Kotaku pointed out, only very recently indicated November 8 (perhaps after Sony set November 15 as its launch day for PS4?).
SoundExchange has filed a lawsuit against Sirius XM Radio Inc seeking at least $50 million in damages for allegedly underpaying royalties.
The suit alleges that from 2007 to 2012, Sirius XM underpaid SoundExchange for a statutory license for broadcasting recordings to its subscribers by reducing by 10-15 percent the gross revenues it reports to calculate the royalty payments. It said Sirius XM's change in calculation of revenue was due to performances of recordings from before 1972.
Sirius XM holds that the statutory license established under federal law does not extend to recordings made before that year.
"We cannot sit by and watch this multi-billion dollar company reap record profits from the creative contributions of artists and labels without paying them everything they deserve," SoundExchange Chief Executive Michael Huppe said in a statement.
SoundExchange is a nonprofit organization that deals with performance rights and is designated by the U.S. Copyright Office. Its job is to collect royalties for performance artists and copyright holders for when their music is performed on a digital radio or satellite service. The group represents over 3,000 record labels and 20,000 artists, ranging from major labels to independent labels and from famous signed artists to unsigned performers.
A new update for Google's messaging service, Hangouts, will give AT&T users support for video calling.
Google replaced their Google Talk app in May with Hangouts, which should eventually merge Google Voice with Talk.
Video calls have been free over Wi-Fi and 4G for Android and iOS, but AT&T did not allow calls over cellular.
Google clarified that AT&T did not block the service but just that Hangouts had not cleared certification for the carrier yet. The certification is finally completed.
The company has also confirmed Google Glass and potentially SMS support is coming soon.
According to sources, BlackBerry is considering spinning off its popular Messenger service, giving it its own subsidiary with more independence from the parent company.
The company has been actively looking at new strategies, including selling the company and going private.
BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) is a very popular service but it has recently been surpassed by cross-platform apps like WhatsApp and Line.
The Canadian phone maker has been moving executives over to the BBM team, working on offering more features beyond just messaging. Some of these features include video chatting.
BBM has 60 million active users and will be available for non-BlackBerry users starting this year.
Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy Tab 3 Kids, a colorful model of the company's latest tablet.
The Tab comes with parental controls and pre-loaded content and apps for children.
As can be expected, the 7-inch tablet will not feature high-end specs. The device has 1024 x 600 resolution, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. On the backside there is a 3MP camera and a 1MP camera upfront for video chatting.
There is 8GB of internal storage but a microSD slot if you need more.
Samsung confirms there is no LTE connectivity but of course there is 2.4/5GHz dual band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. The device runs on Android 4.1, but Samsung has nearly made all stock remnants disappear with their own user interface overlay.
Google has quietly dropped the price of their flagship Nexus 4 smartphone to $199 base price, down $100 from current prices.
The 8GB model will sell for $199 (with $10 shipping) and $249 with 16GB storage.
Running stock Android, and selling without contract, the phone offers the best 'bang for the buck' in the Android world but the phone is over 9 months old, which is important to note.
Although it was widely rumored to be launching the device next week, Samsung has officially confirmed its smartwatch, dubbed the Galaxy Gear, will be unveiled at the company's upcoming September 4th press event.
Lee Young-hee, executive vice president of Samsung Mobile, says the device will run on Android with Samsung's own user interface on top, and it will not feature a flexible display like many hoped. Lee did note that the Gear is a "wearable concept device," which means the device we see on the 4th may not necessarily go to mass production.
To add to her first quote, the exec also says she is "confident that the Gear will add meaningful momentum to the mobile industry," suggesting the company is just looking at what kind of market is available for such products.
Additionally, Samsung will unveil the Galaxy Note III at the event, with the device expected to have high-end specs and a release date before November.
NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest carrier, may be getting the iPhone this year.
The company's Chief Financial Officer Kazuto Tsubouchi says there are many "compelling" reasons for DoCoMo and Apple to come to an agreement.
That being said, during his interview the exec did admit that the two companies may not come to terms, even though smaller Japanese carriers have been offering the handset for some time.
Following the interview, DoCoMo stock jumped 2 percent while rivals KDDI and SoftBank fell 2 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.
The exec did say they could "alter their stance on the iPhone if it can limit the smartphone's share of sales to less than 30 percent of the company's total.
A federal judge gave final approval to Facebook's $20 million settlement of a lawsuit that the social networking giant shared user's "likes" with friends without allowing them to opt out.
The class action lawsuit was filed in 2011 by plaintiffs claiming that Facebook's "Sponsored Stories" shared their "likes" of advertisers with their friends without paying them, or letting them opt out of the program.
Sponsored stories are targeted ads that show up on your page and include your friend's name, profile picture and the claim that they like the product or advertisement.
Facebook will pay $20 million to class members and promises to give users better control of how their likes and other content are shared.
As first reported in June, Apple's iPhone trade-in program is almost ready and could be available as soon as next month.
The service will be available in all Apple retail stores and allow iPhone owners to trade in their older versions of the smartphone to get a discounted iPhone 5, and likely the upcoming iPhone 5S, as well.
Apple would be offering a service that major retailers and carriers have been doing for months now. Verizon, AT&T, Best Buy and others each offer their own versions of the trade-in program.
Supposedly, the electronics giant has joined up with Brightstar Corp., a major mobile-phone distributor, to create the program.
Microsoft has begun rolling out the Xbox 360dashboard update today, effectively killing off the much-maligned Microsoft Points digital currency.
The system update, which has been in public beta for the last month, has now converted the digital currency system into the gamer's local currencies.
Microsoft points had been maligned due to the fact that you could only buy certain bundles of points and you almost undoubtedly had leftovers after transactions that were unusable.
Across Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox games and services, the digital currency is gone, replaced by your local currency.
The software giant also notes they will begin selling gift cards in stores later this year.
Two months after launching the device, it appears Samsung's ATIV Q may never see the light of day.
The device, which is a tablet/notebook hybrid that can run Windows 8 and Android, appears to be having some patent issues.
Sources claim that Samsung has embarrassingly run into unexpected patent disputes that may force them to cancel the hybrid, and they are trying to keep it quiet.
The device was certainly interesting, not only for its dual-OS options, but because it packed a 3200 x 1800 resolution into 13.3-inches.
It is unclear who owns the patent, but it is tied to the dual-OS feature that makes the device unique.
More pictures have leaked of the Sony Xperia Z1 'Honami,' which Sony will officially unveil on September 4th.
The press image shows off the flagship phone in three colors; white, black and the formerly leaked purple colorway.
Making the Z1 different than its older cousin, the Xperia Z, is the smooth metal frame protecting the device. It is unclear whether the metal frame also doubles as an antenna, similar to the iPhone.
The Xperia Honami is said to have a 1080p 5-inch Triluminos display, a quad-core 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB RAM. What makes the phone standout is a 20.7 megapixel camera with a Sony G-lens and BIONZ image processor. LTE, BT 4.0, NFC and Wi-Fi are standard, and the device has a microSD slot.
According to sources, Nokia will launch their oft-rumored Windows RT tablet, codenamed "Sirius," in the very near future.
While some prototypes have leaked recently, the source says the final device will look very much like a Lumia Windows Phone.
Although it is the same screen size as the iPad, the tablet will be thinner and lighter than the market leader. The device will be available in multiple colorful models, and will use a 1080p (1920x1080) resolution display. Under the hood is a powerful Qualcomm quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB of RAM.
The tablet will have two cameras, 6MP and 2MP, LTE connectivity, microHDMI, microUSB and microSD ports. Nokia is said to be aiming for 10 hours of battery life even when on LTE.
The Supreme Administrative Court in Finland ruled today that Finnish police didn't break the law when a famous anti-censorship website was added to its censorship list.
Back in 2006 Finland implemented a censorship legislation that targeted websites distributing child pornography. Legislation handed the National Bureau of Investigation rights to add child porn sites to its secret block list which national ISPs would then implement and enforce.
As the process of blocking the sites is done in secret and the list of blocked sites has never been officially made public, an individual, Matti Nikki, decided to create a site called lapsiporno.info(translates as child porn dot info) criticizing the secretive process and the fact that there's no way to make an official complaint about one's site being listed on such block list. He also hosted on his site a list of sites known to be on the list, but didn't contain any child porn material whatsoever.
After his website gained popularity, especially in Finnish tech media, his site, too, was added to the NBI's block list.
Nikki sued the NBI for adding his site to the list. First, the Administrative Court of Helsinki ruled that inclusion of his site was illegal on the grounds that the block list was meant to block only sites hosted outside Finland (whereas Nikki's site was hosted and maintained in Finland). The case proceeded to the highest administrative court in Finland, the Supreme Administrative Court, which today ruled that adding Nikki's site to the censorship list was legal.
A federal judge has denied Marvell Technology's request for a mistrial in patent infringement case with Carnegie Mellon University.
Carnegie was recently awarded $1.17 billion by a jury over patents related to "how accurately hard disk- drive circuits read data from high-speed magnetic disks." Mellon first sued Marvell in March 2009 over the patents issued in 2002.
The University said at least nine different Marvell circuit devices used the patents and Marvell sold billions of chips using the technology without permission.
Marvell has been asking a judge for a mistrial, claiming that Carnegie Mellon's lawyer made "improper, misleading and prejudicial comments" during the closing arguments.
U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer did not agree, stating "Marvell, in throwing old and new grievances at the court under the guise of prejudice, is trying to do what it could not do at trial: convince the court to throw out this case and hope that a second time around will be more successful."
Microsoft and Motorola Mobility (Google) will square off for the second of two trials over patent infringement related to smartphones and other tech.
The jury trial will begin on Monday and will resolve "whether Motorola breached its contract with Microsoft to license on reasonable terms its so-called standard essential patents, covering wireless and video technology used in the Xbox game console."
Last November the two tech giants began the first trial, which decided on the fee that Microsoft would pay for Motorola's patented technology. After five months, U.S. District Judge James Robart ruled in favor of Microsoft, suggesting the rate should be in the ballpark of $1.8 million per year, well below Motorola's demand for $4 billion.
Microsoft, in its filing, says it offered to pay Motorola $6.8 million in royalties but they rejected it.
In the upcoming case, Microsoft will argue that Motorola's initial demands were unreasonable and therefore a breach of the agreement that the fee be "reasonable and non-discriminatory."
Although the company has still not confirmed the iWatch, designer Federico Ciccarese has created some realistic mocks of the smartwatch.
Ciccarese has created many Apple product concepts in the past, and his latest has brought together all kinds of existing rumors for the device including a slap-on wristband and flexible display along with iOS 7.
Apple is said to have assembled a "dream team" to build the watch, which is not expected until next year. (See video)
Rival Samsung will unveil their Galaxy Gear smartwatch next week at a press event on September 4th, but the device will not have a flexible display, at least not in its first generation.
Intel has confirmed that it will demo how to overclock your solid-state drives (SSDs) at next month's Intel Developer Forum.
At the event, the company will show off how to overclock high-end Intel Core gaming processors such as the Core i7-4000-series "Ivy Bridge-E" as well as revealing for the first time how to overclock their Intel SSDs.
A few examples of what can be done to SSDs include increasing the clock-rate of SSD controllers and the data rates of NAND flash memory.
Xbit notes that "modern SSDs are so fast that the bottleneck is not their read, write speeds or IOPS performance, but the Serial ATA-6Gb/s interface itself. Boosting the interface will most likely result in considerably lower reliability."
That being said, overclocking SSDs likely will not make sense until next year's SSD chips come with SATA Express interfaces.
Regrettably, some people who downloaded the digital pre-order of Grand Theft Auto V through the PlayStation Store in Europe were able to access certain GTA V assets. These assets were posted online. We have since removed the digital pre-order file from the PlayStation Store in Europe. We sincerely apologize to Rockstar and GTA fans across the world who were exposed to the spoiler content. GTA V is one of the most highly anticipated games of the year with a very passionate following, and we're looking forward to a historic launch on September 17.
Authorities in Slaughter, Louisiana have confirmed that an 8-year-old boy murdered his 90-year-old grandmother after playing hours of 'Grand Theft Auto IV.'
GTA has been in the news multiple times for similar cases, as the game is often associated with encouraging violence.
Sgt. Kevin Garig says the woman was shot in the head from behind as she watched TV. The child, who can not be charged in Louisiana due to his age, told officers that the shooting was an accident while he played with the firearm. Authorities did not agree.
In the state, the law reads that "Those who have not reached the age of 10 years are exempt from criminal responsibility. However, nothing in this article shall affect the jurisdiction of juvenile courts as established by the constitution and statutes of this state." This means the child will likely spend the next ten years in juvenile facilities.
After making the TV available in the U.S. in June, LG has rolled out its 55-inch OLED TV for Europe.
Starting in Germany, the high-end device will sell for 8,999 euros, with the company unveiling more countries in the Q4.
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.
"LG is fully committed to delivering the most advanced OLED TVs to European customers,"said In-kyu Lee, vice president and head of the TV division at LG Electronics' Home Entertainment Company. "With next generation display technology and an ultra-thin curved design, our CURVED OLED TV represents the beginning of a new era in home entertainment."
While physical keyboards have almost disappeared, it seems at least one company will give you the option.
According to images posted to Weibo, Motorola's eventual Droid 5 smartphone will include a full QWERTY keyboard, just like its predecessors.
The new device will have the same slide-out landscape keyboard, a 4.5-inch display, wireless charging, NFC, water and dust resistance. Additionally, the device will be much thinner than previous models.
In the photo, the Droid is running Android 4.0.3, a very old version of the operating system, so it is unclear how old the photos are, or if the photos show an old prototype.
Just days after Motorola's VP of Product Management Punit Soni confirmed developer editions of the Moto X were "days away," Motorola has updated their "Ways to Buy" page with the new phone.
The developer edition has a black front case along with a white woven rear plate. Additionally, "DEVELOPER EDITION" is engraved on the back.
That two-tone colorway will be different than what is available through carriers, as the page says the dev edition will "have a look all its own." That being said, once the full MotoMaker is up and running, you can likely create something exactly the same.
The dev edition has an unlockable bootloader, and 32GB internal storage.
iFixit has taken apart the new Google Moto X flagship, seeing how easy it is to repair the device if anything were to happen to it.
The company says it was very interested to work on the phone since it is the "first and only smartphone that's "Designed & Assembled in the USA," to our knowledge."
iFixit did not have issue tearing down the smartphone, although they did seem annoyed by extra adhesive in the rear panel.
Overall, the phone received a Repairability Score of 7 out of 10, with 10 being the easiest to repair. On the easy side were the modular components (cameras, buttons, headphone jack and speakers) as is the taped-in battery.
On the less easy side, "the digitizer is fused to the display, increasing repair costs for a cracked screen. But the display midframe can be separated, potentially lowering the cost of the replacement part."
Instagram has made its first major acquisition, purchasing the video sharing app Luma (formerly Midnox).
Luma owns tech for video-capture, stabilization and integrated video sharing. The app will shutdown soon and Luma's stabilization tech is said to already be live in Instagram.
In an update to the company's app page, Luma says existing users will be supported until December 31, 2013.
If you have videos uploaded, you can download them back for safe keeping by clicking here.
Adds the Luma staff (who will all move to Instagram): "Eighteen months ago, we embarked on a mission to make capturing and sharing beautiful videos easy without expensive software or heavy equipment. By joining the exceptionally talented team at Instagram, we're taking another big step towards realizing that mission." obile Final Cut Pro.
The popular video-sharing app has reached 40 million registered users, 200 percent higher than the amount reported in June.
It is important to note that this figure is just registered users and not the "active user" number normally revealed by social networks.
Back in June, Twitter (who purchased the service seven months ago) said there were 13 million registered users. At the time, the app was only available on iOS and has since been released on Android.
Rival Facebook recently updated Instagram to have video-sharing capabilities, including 15-second clips compared to Vine's 6 seconds.
We've said this before and we'll say it again: this community - now more than 40 million of you - is amazing. Thank you for inspiring us.
Lenovohas signed a deal with developer SweetLabs to bring the company's Pokki app platform to Windows 8 devices.
Pokki will be pre-installed on new devices, and the platform will bring back a functional start menu. Poki adds an acorn button where the start button used to be, giving access to the control panel, apps, your documents, music and more.
Of course, it also gives easy access to the Pokki store and game arcade, which allows you to get apps not through Microsoft's Windows Store. Besides web apps, SweetLabs is expanding the store to include desktop programs and Windows 8 "Modern" UI apps.
Microsoft, after plenty of user criticism, will be returning a version of the start menu with October's release of Windows Phone 8.1.
Says SweetLabs: "We started our company five years ago with a plan of building the largest app distribution platform on planet. We think this is a pretty major step in that direction."
Google has released a new software update for the Google Nexus 7 FHD that should help multitouch issues that have plagued users.
Right at launch, there was an annoying GPS glitch, followed by the ongoing multitouch issue. Users who were pressing more than one finger on the display at the same time were being met with a display freeze leaving the device useless temporarily.
The new update, build JSS15Q, is still Android4.3, notes Google.
"As a couple of you have mentioned, there's a new system update that's started rolling out for your Nexus 7s. This update does address the touchscreen issues discussed in this thread. If you're one of the people experiencing touchscreen issues, please let us know how it's going after you've received and installed the update.
Thank you for your patience while we've been working on this. As Justin mentioned, there is a new over-the-air update for Nexus 7 rolling out now that addresses the GPS issue discussed here. We look forward to hearing feedback about your GPS experience after you've received the update."
Microsoft announced earlier this morning that CEO Steve Ballmer will retire within the next year, stepping down after the process of choosing his successor is ultimately completed.
Says Ballmer of the decision: "There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time. We have embarked on a new strategy with a new organization and we have an amazing Senior Leadership Team. My original thoughts on timing would have had my retirement happen in the middle of our company's transformation to a devices and services company. We need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction."
Investors in Microsoft stock seemed to love the decision, as shares jumped 7.5 percent today.
The new CEO will be selected by a special committee led by Bill Gates and John Thompson. Microsoft says internal and external candidates will be considered.
Ballmer took over the role from founder Bill Gates in 2000, after being a senior executive since the 1980s.
The exec's tenure has been marked by major wins and major losses. In the early part of the century, Windows XP dominated the industry, and PC sales skyrocketed. Additionally, the Xbox, despite being a money loser at first, has become dominant in the console market. On the other hand, Microsoft's first attempts at mobile devices failed, and their Windows Vista and Windows 8 operating systems were complete missteps. After rebooting to Windows Phone 8, the operating system is now the third-most popular in the world, but with less than 6 percent global share.
Speaking during their quarterly earnings call, Pandora executives have stated they will end the 40-hour monthly cap imposed on free mobile listeners since February.
Pandora first initiated a cap in September 2011, and then lifted it soon after.
CFO Mike Herring says the cap was a "blunt tool" for limiting costs and halting abusive users, but there have been more "surgical techniques" implemented since, including skip limits that help control costs but do not affect the customer experience as much.
Additionally, he says the business has improved to the point where the company can "monetize those hours from 41 onward at a much higher rate."
Herring noted that when the cap was put in place, usage dropped 10 percent. Despite the drop, revenue jumped 58 percent year-over-year, and the company says they will be profitable for this year.
Apple, who is set to unveil their new iPhone 5S at an event on September 10th, will likely add a new "champagne" colorway, as seen in leaked photos recently posted here.
Ascii has a few pictures of the alleged casing, which includes a slightly thinner "iPhone" inscription font.
While the device will keep the same screen size and resolution, Apple is expected to update the processor to an A7 system-on-chip design with 1GB of LPDDR3 RAM. Due to the ARMv8 architecture, efficiency will be increased 20 percent.
On the camera side, the sensor will remain the same, but the device will have a larger f2.0 aperture lens with dual LED flashes.
One analyst believes a fingerprint sensor is coming, as part of an embedded sapphire glass home button. Furthermore, a 128GB model will be made available, as well. Apple is not expected to introduce NFC with the iPhone 5S.
IDC has released their latest Mobile Phone Tracker report, for the Q2 2013, showing Windows Phone as the second most popular smartphone operating system in the Latin American region.
The research firm says there are over 20 countries in the region that offer Windows Phone devices.
In Mexico, Colombia and Peru, Windows Phone was the second most popular OS, behind Android, with Colombia seeing the highest share at 25.6 percent.
Chile, Argentina and Brazil saw less adoption, with the OS in third place, but still with higher share than the U.S. and the global average.
"Reports show an important increase in the positioning of this operating system in Latin America. The market availability of new devices will be a factor in ensuring this trend endures over the next three months,"said Oliver Flores, regional manager for Mobile Phones at IDC Latin America.
Microsoft was understandably happy with the result. Liliana González, director of the Windows Phone Division for Latin America, noted that "during this year's Mobile World Congress, we set ourselves the goal of being the second most widely used mobile platform in Latin America by the end of 2013, and we are overjoyed to be able to announce that these reports show that we have achieved this five months before the end of the year. We will continue working alongside Nokia to offer more and more people in Latin America the holistic experience which Windows Phone has for them, in order to offer a more personalized smartphone which is the best for the Windows environment and the best hardware for people and companies."
Canonical's Ubuntu Edge crowdfunding campaign has fallen well short of their large $32 million goal.
The company set a crowdfunding record of $12.8 million, but clearly well below the stated goal to put the smartphone into production.
Altogether, there were 5674 backers, most of which paid over $600 for a chance to own the phone in 2014.
Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth thanked backers and added that "the support and publicity has continued to drive our discussions with some major manufacturers," meaning the company continues its discussions with OEMs over building the smartphone.
For more information on the campaign and the phone, check our in-depth article here: Ubuntu Edge
Instagram, one of the most popular mobile apps of all-time, has still not made its way to Windows Phone 8.
A French developer has created a fully featured version of the app, dubbed 6tag, which includes the original filters found in Instagram, the ability to upload videos, and the popular linear/radial blur effects. Additionally, the developer added support for sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, VK, and Foursquare.
While the app is free to download now, it is important to know that Facebook has not signed off on the app, and it will stop working if Facebook updates their APIs. Facebook recently altered their policies and deleted and blocked photos uploaded from third-party apps.
Facebook has said it remains "focused on building the best Instagram experience possible for people using iOS and Android devices," but it does want an app on every platform eventually.
Following a similar move made by Gamestop last week, Amazon has said today that they will have their own trade-in offer for Xbox 360 gamers looking to move up to the Xbox One.
For $10, you will be able to trade-in your 360 version of a few games for the Xbox One version.
A few of these games include the new Call of Duty: Ghosts, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, FIFA 14, Battlefield 4, NBA 2K14, Watch Dogs, Madden NFL 25 and Need for Speed Rivals.
You ship the game back and you receive a $25 bonus credit on top of the game's $25 trade-in value. New Xbox One games cost $60.
Amazon notes, however, that you can only use this promotion just once.
According to a new report, Google has been holding talks with the NFL about buying the rights to "Sunday Ticket," which allows broadcasts of all out-of-town games.
The search giant would then broadcast the games via YouTube, which would be game changing in the industry.
DirecTV is the current owner of the Sunday Ticket package, but their deal with the NFL expires in 2014. That deal costs the satellite provider $1 billion per year and is a big driver of their subscriber growth.
The new deal will cost Google (or another company) a lot more than $1 billion. Recent TV deals with CBS, Fox and NBC were all 50 percent higher than previous deals, suggesting the new Sunday Ticket package could cost as much as $1.5 billion.
Netflix has announced it has signed an exclusive first-run deal with independent studio Weinstein Co. beginning in 2016.
The company had recently signed a similar agreement with blockbuster maker Disney, allowing Netflix to stream Pixar, Marvel and Disney Animation movies before others in the pay TV window.
Netflix's new deal covers Weinstein and Dimension Films movies, and neither company disclosed the financial terms.
Showtime had secured the deal in 2009, but it ends in 2016 when Netflix's deal will immediately go into effect.
Harvey Weinstein, co-founder of the studio, added: "Together, we are discussing ways to reinvent the pay TV experience so that the audience can get even more for their money. Their enthusiasm for movies of all kinds was the big factor in our choosing Netflix. Netflix is the most significant new force in the entertainment industry."
Sony used their Gamescom press conference today to drop the price of their Wi-Fi PlayStation Vita to $199 in the U.S. and €199 in Europe.
The price drop is significant as the current prices are $249/€249. Additionally, the company says there will be "significant reductions in the price of PS Vita memory cards" in the near future.
Gamers (and industry watchers) have been begging for Sony to drop the price, especially as the system has struggled to meet even lowered expectations for sales. Last year, the company said it was still "too early" for a price cut.
Sony reduced the price of the console in Japan by at least 20 percent in February.
It is unclear whether the 3G models will see a similar price drop.
Sony has announced the release date for the PlayStation 4 across the globe.
In the U.S. and Canada, the $399 console will go on sale November 15th, with Latin America and Europe getting the console two weeks later the 29th.
The company will launch in 32 nations before the holiday season, and the company confirmed it already has 1 million pre-orders for the console.
Countries seeing the console on the 29th are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Peru.
Sony says 15 titles will launch with the console (physical and digital), with another 18 to be available by the end of the year. In total, the company says 180 games are in development for the PS4.
Two months ago, Google purchased Israeli startup Waze for over $1 billion.
The service, which offered high-end mapping with social/real-time updates, has now been integrated (in part) with Google's market leading Maps app.
Google says they have added real-time incident reports to Maps, sourced from the Waze community. This includes accidents, construction zones, road closures and more, in the United States, UK, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Switzerland will have access to the data.
No one likes getting stuck in traffic. That's why the Waze and Google Maps teams are working together to harness the power of Google technology and the passion of the Waze community to make it easier to navigate your daily life.
Users of Google Maps for Mobile will now benefit from real time incident reports from Waze users. This means when Wazers report accidents, construction, road closures and more on Waze, the updates will also appear on the Google Maps app for Android and iOS in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Switzerland, UK and the US.
Mozilla is planning to launch a touch-ready version of its Firefox browser for Windows 8 by the end of the year, nearly a year after the operating system launched.
The browser, dubbed "Preview Release," will be part of Firefox 26, set to ship on December 10th.
Updates to the browser will continue until final release, adds Mozilla. In time for Firefox 26, Mozilla will merge their Aurora and Beta channel builds, set for release on September 16th and then October 28th. Each release will allow for consumer feedback and then bug updates.
Mozilla began work on the "Modern" user interface in September of last year, but only ever released a rough preview. The company, at the time, said a final release could be ready as early as January 2013 but then delayed that until "Fall 2013."
Google has had a "Modern" version of Chrome since June of last year, and obviously so has Microsoft. Mozilla says the new app will help them remain competitive.
In 2011, smartphone maker HTC purchased 50 percent of Beats Audio for $300 million. Beats is now looking to get completely out of that deal.
Beats makes headphones and audio software for mobile and desktop devices.
The WSJ reported that Beats is looking to get out of their partnership, which is down to 25 percent since Beats bought back half of what they sold earlier this year for $150 million.
Sources claim Beats is now "looking to bring in a new investor to provide fresh funds for growth."
Beats has seen great success over the last three years, while HTC has floundered. Beats is said to have revenue near $1 billion, and a 59 percent market share in the U.S. premium headphone market. HTC has had nearly two years of falling revenue and profits.
AT&T has announced today that the HTC One Mini will be reaching the carrier on August 23rd, exclusively.
The phone will sell for $100 with two-year contract.
"Our customers loved the HTC One, so we are excited to offer this slimmer, more compact version," said Jeff Bradley, SVP of Devices, AT&T. "We're proud to continue to offer our customers so many choices with a broad smartphone portfolio all on the nation's fastest and most reliable 4G LTE network."
Jason Mackenzie, President of North America, HTC, added: "The HTC One mini is pocket-friendly but packed with large experiences – an HD screen, our breakthrough UltraPixel camera, a home screen with customized feeds from news networks to social networks including Instagram, and huge sound from its front-facing stereo speakers."
Despite looking the same as the HTC One, the device has lower-end specs including a 4.3-inch Super LCD 2 HD 720p display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 dual-core 1.4 GHz processor, and the same UltraPixel camera.
Barnes & Noble has dumped the price of its front-lit e-reader to $99, marking the first time such a reader has dipped under that price point.
By comparison, Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite still sells for $119 (with ads) and the Kobo Glo starts at $129.99.
Most likely, the company is clearing out excess inventory to unveil a second-generation model this fall.
Barnes & Noble recently announced they would be discontinuing their own tablets, instead licensing the Nook operating system, while continuing to manufacture e-readers.
According to Bloomberg, Sony is preparing a new Xperia flagship for launch next month.
The smartphone will feature "imaging technology developed for its cameras and ultra-high definition TVs," says the sources. That tech is the "X-Reality" picture-enhancement chips.
Sony will introduce the handset at the start of the IFA show the first week of September.
Kazuo Hirai, president and CEO, has been using Xperia as a centerpiece for the company's revival in the entertainment hardware world. The company also has new Web-connected TVs and the PlayStation 4 console coming out later this year.
The device is the codenamed "Honami," which was revealed in a teaser here. The Xperia Honami is said to have a 1080p 5-inch Triluminos display, a quad-core 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB RAM. What makes the phone standout is a 20.7 megapixel camera with a Sony G-lens and BIONZ image processor. LTE, BT 4.0, NFC and Wi-Fi are standard, and the device has a microSD slot.
In a new interview, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak discussed his thoughts on the new 'jOBS' film starring Ashton Kutcher.
It is safe to assume that Woz was not the hugest fan of the film.
When asked about Kutcher's portrayal, Woz says "I suspect a lot of what was wrong with the film came from Ashton's own image of Jobs." That being said, however, he also noted that "I thought the acting throughout was good."
Woz also responded to Kutcher's recent criticism that he was not prepared to advise the film because he was financially tied to next year's Aaron Sorkin-written Steve Jobs film. Kutcher was "disingenuous," says Woz.
The co-founder also added that the script was already in place and therefore there was no way for him to take creative control.
"I'm grateful to Steve for his excellence in the i-era, and his contribution to my own life of enjoying great products, but this movie portrays him having had those skills in earlier times," Woz concluded.
Recent reports, citing multiple sources, have claimed Nokia is building a Windows RT tablet for release next month.
One analyst believes, if the reports are true, that the decision would be bizarre and "highly surprising."
Informa Telecoms & Media analyst Malik Saadi says, "first of all the OS has been a flop, there is no doubt about that. So the choice to go with Windows RT is bizarre."
Less than 200,000 Windows RT tablets were sold in the last quarter, compared to over 14 million iPads and over 15 million Android tablets.
Saasi also believes Nokia should be focusing on their Windows Phone efforts, which are still struggling to carve out a place in the duopoly owned by Google and Apple. "At this stage it is really risky for Nokia to enter the tablet market," Saadi added.
The only way it would make sense is if the company already had a large purchaser lined up, adds the analyst.
"Recently, something remarkable happened on Twitter: On Saturday, August 3 in Japan, people watched an airing of Castle in the Sky, and at one moment they took to Twitter so much that we hit a one-second peak of 143,199 Tweets per second. (August 2 at 7:21:50 PDT; August 3 at 11:21:50 JST)"
Twitter says they normally see 500 million tweets per day and 5700 TPS, on average.
More importantly, the company says there was not a "blip" for users. Twitter fans have become accustomed to the "fail whale" over the last few years when the company's servers are overloaded from too many tweets.
WikiLeaks has released a massive 400GB encrypted file that it claims is 'insurance' to 'nullify attempts at prior restraint.'
The group posted the links to Facebook and Twitter and asked fans to download and mirror them wherever they choose.
All of the files remain encrypted with Advanced Encryption Standard-256 bits, and WikiLeaks has not released the key. They may never release the key, either.
It is unclear what is in the files but the speculation is it is the full NSA files partially released by Edward Snowden earlier this year.
Year-over-year the company saw its share jump significantly, to 21.9 percent from 20.6 percent quarter-over-quarter.
Intel also gained, from 61.1 percent up to 62 percent.
Both companies gained at the expense of Nvidia, which took a deep dive from 18.3 percent to 16.1 percent thanks to a weak PC market.
Intel and AMD seem to be boosting their share thanks to integrated graphics chips, which have all but killed off the low-end GPU market. Nearly 100 percent of Intel's non-server processors now have integrated graphics, and two-thirds of AMD's do.
Overall, PC GPU shipments fell 6.8 percent for the quarter.
According to the WSJ, Sony has reached a preliminary agreement to carry Viacom's cable channels on its upcoming Internet-based TV service.
Sony will stream traditional cable channels along with movies and on-demand content over the Web in an effort to rival cable and satellite providers who have long sold subscription services through dishes or cable boxes hooked to your TV.
Many companies are trying to get into the space, with varying degrees of success. Intel and Google are the two largest and Intel is said to have secured some very basic deals but nothing on the scale of Viacom, which owns major channels such as Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV.
Sony has also had talks with Walt Disney, Time Warner and CBS, say the sources, but the status of those negotiations are still not clear.
The company is expected to launch the service by the end of the year through their PS3 and PS4 consoles. It will eventually be available through Xperia tablets and smartphones, as well.
Tech analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI says Apple may have a couple more varieties outside of their standard options when the iPhone 5S hits.
While the device will keep the same screen size and resolution, Apple is expected to update the processor to an A7 system-on-chip design with 1GB of LPDDR3 RAM. Due to the ARMv8 architecture, efficiency will be increased 20 percent.
On the camera side, the sensor will remain the same, but the device will have a larger f2.0 aperture lens with dual LED flashes.
Kuo does believe a fingerprint sensor is coming, as part of an embedded sapphire glass home button. Furthermore, a 128GB model will be made available, as well. Apple will not introduce NFC with the iPhone 5S, says Kuo.
Finally, the analyst believes a gold colorway will be made available alongside the traditional white, silver and black.
Canonical's efforts to develop the Ubuntu Edge smartphone has smashed the record for crowdfunding, beating out the Pebble smartwatch.
The record had been $10,266,844, but with six days to go, the Edge has reached $10.6 million in funding. Unfortunately, that number is way below the $32 million the company had set as a goal.
Jane Silber, Canonical's CEO, added: "When we started this campaign three weeks ago, we hoped it would resonate with our community. So, to break the world record for a crowdfunding campaign is absolutely mind-blowing. We felt that innovation had substantially slowed down in the mobile industry, so wanted to address this. We're still astonished by the generosity of our community and will continue to do all we can to make the Ubuntu Edge a reality."
The phone is selling for $695 to all pledgers.
Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth says there may be a second life for the device, as OEMs have "come out of the woodwork" to discuss moving the device forward.
Microsoft has announced they will be closing down the PC Marketplace, for good.
On August 22nd, the company will shut down the platform and stop selling PC games via Xbox.com.
The company recently announced it would be doing away with its virtual currency, Microsoft Points, finally allowing gamers to use their own local currency. That update is scheduled to hit when the next Dashboard update does.
For those that have purchased games already, your titles will stay available forever. You just will not be able to buy more.
Microsoft says after the 22nd, if you try to purchase or redeem points they will "add to your account an amount of currency equal to or greater than the Marketplace value of your Microsoft Points, and your Microsoft Points will be retired."
If they get retired, they can no longer be used to buy products.
According to the latest July NPD figures, the Xbox 360 topped U.S. sales for the 31st straight month.
The console sold 107,000 units for the month, beating out the PS3, Wii and Wii U. Sales were lower than usual as the PS4 and Xbox One will launch at the end of November.
Additionally, total retail spend on the Xbox 360 (hardware, software and accessories) reached $178 million for the month, beating out rivals, as well.
The Xbox One, even at $500, is said to be sold out of pre-orders in most retailers.
Skype has announced that its Windows 8 app will be bundled with the Windows 8.1 update due to roll out in mid-October.
The app will be added to the revamped Windows 8.1 Start Screen, meaning that not only can you login and reach over 300 million Skype users across many different devices but also everyone with a Windows 8.1 PC.
"As the default communications experience in Windows 8.1, we will continue to focus on delivering the best communications experience for Windows users through Skype," the Skype blog reads.
"With Skype in Windows 8.1 it will be easier than ever to connect and do more with the special people in your life, in any moment."
Rockstar Games has shown off some Grand Theft Auto Online gameplay footage in a video released yesterday.
Grand Theft Auto Online is a dynamic and persistent online world for 16 players that begins by sharing gameplay features, geography and mechanics with Grand Theft Auto V, but will continue to expand and evolve after its launch with new content created by Rockstar Games and the Grand Theft Auto community.
Despite the session limit, you have a permanent stake in the game world. Players can invest in their character through customizing their appearance, improving their stats, owning customized vehicles, purchasing personal property, and taking part in missions, jobs and activities to earn reputation and cash to open up new opportunities to rise through the criminal ranks.
Access to Grand Theft Auto Online is free with every retail copy of Grand Theft Auto V and launches on October 1.
Microsoft has responded angrily to Google's decision to block its re-launched YouTube app, despite the company introducing ads and removing video download features.
The much improved YouTube app relaunched this week for Windows Phone devices, with advertisements added before monetized videos. It also lacked a video download feature that Google objected to in May, while adding a (albeit limited) video upload feature.
Reviews for the app suggested that Windows Phone users found it much better than the outdated YouTube app for the platform. However, it appears that Google has found more reasons to block the app on its fierce rival's platform, and Microsoft has responded angrily to its actions in a long statement posted online.
In the statement, Microsoft claims that while collaborating with Google, the search giant asked them to transition to a new coding language for the app, HTML5. Microsoft points out that neither the Android or iOS YouTube apps are built with HTML5.
Nevertheless, Microsoft "dedicated significant engineering resources" to examine the possibility, but that eventually experts from both companies found that building a new HTML5 YouTube app would be technically difficult and time consuming to complete - which is why it hasn't been done on Google's own Android, Microsoft asserts.
A Canadian man has lost his job after he requested a marijuana delivery on Twitter, which was seen and re-tweeted by the police department.
"Any dealers in Vaughan wanna make a 20sac chop? Come to Keele/Langstaff Mr. Lube, need a spliff," the man tweeted.
York Regional Police noticed the publicly visible request and decided to reply. "Awesome! Can we come too?," they replied on Twitter with an RT of the original request.
Awesome! Can we come too? MT @Sunith_DB8R Any dealers in Vaughan wanna make a 20sac chop? Come to Keele/Langstaff Mr. Lube, need a spliff.
Rockstar's upcoming Grand Theft Auto V pushes the ageing Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 console to their technical limits.
Leslie Benzies, president of Rockstar North, told GameSpot that the developer had sought to push the consoles to their absolute limit with its ambitious new title from the blockbuster Grand Theft Auto franchise.
"We wanted to push these consoles to their limit. I think we've squeezed every single ounce of power out of these boxes that we can," he said.
The game, when released, requires a mandatory 8GB install on both consoles. On the Xbox 360, the game ships with two discs but the developer said there will be no need to swap the discs at any point in play.
Rockstar also sought to make the game appear and feel as real-world as it technically can at this point, with even the placement of trees given all the thought it needs.
"Our goal was to simulate what's outside [in the real world], to make it feel good, and tidy up all the rough edges that we thought GTAIV had," Benzies said.
"It was to get it so the handling feels perfect, the gunplay feels perfect. And also the online side of it--that's been a goal for years. We've started it a few times before, but we've never finished it. That's what we wanted to do, basically."
Research from the University of Michigan suggests that Facebook may negatively effect the well-being of young frequent users.
A study tracked participants for two weeks, finding that checking Facebook regularly tended to make people feel worse about themselves and their lives. The social networking giant boasts a billion members, half of whom log in every day.
"On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection. Rather than enhancing well-being, however, these findings suggest that Facebook may undermine it," said the researchers.
It adds to a body of evidence that Facebook use can have negative consequences, but Graham Jones of the British Psychological Society reminded the BBC website that there is also researching showing it has positive effects too.
Participants in the study were sent several messages per day that linked them to surveys to fill out that asked questions about how they felt, whether they were worried about anything and about whether they felt lonely, and most importantly how much they were on Facebook since filling out the last survey.
Nintendo is on the hook to pay $15.1 million to Seijiro Tomita in a patent infringement case linked to its 3DS handheld.
Tomita was originally awarded $30.2 million in March, and this week was given the option of accepting half of the award or starting a new trial in which he could lose it all.
The case stems from a 2003 meeting between Tomita and seven Nintendo officials, where he allegedly showed a prototype of his technology. Four of the officials went on to assist in the creation of the 3DS handheld console.
Nintendo rejects the accusation that it used his patented technology in the 3DS, saying that the 2003 meeting was just one of many the company had with merchants selling 3D technology. Nintendo attorney Scott Lindvall also argued that key aspects of the patent in question are not used by the 3DS.
The Washington Post has said that its website was hacked by the supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The website of Time and CNN were also reportedly caught up in the hack that targeted a third-party link recommendation service Outbrain,
"We are aware that Outbrain was hacked earlier today and we took down service as soon as it was apparent,"Outbrain revealed on its blog.
"The breach now seems to be secured and the hackers blocked out, but we are keeping the service down for a little longer until we can be sure it's safe to turn it back on securely."
Market research firm Mintel is predicting that online retail sales will double in Europe by 2018, with Amazon in a prime position to benefit.
It conducted a survey of 19 markets in Europe, predicting that online sales will grow to €188 billion in 2013, up from €166 billion in 2012, and will likely hit €233 billion by 2018.
Britain, France and Germany will remain the biggest markets for online retail by 2018, though Norway and Sweden have the highest par-capita spend online. Amazon's marketshare on the continent reached 9.8 percent in 2012, up from 9.2 percent in 2011.
The retail giant could go on to double its European market share over the next 3-4 years, according to Mintel, even though it has been the subject of negative publicity in Britain over its low tax payments and had its German operations hit by strikes.
A team of security researchers has highlighted some popular YouTube video download tools that had been placing unauthorized advertisements on the video service.
Spider.io observed two programs - Best Video Downloader and Easy YouTube Downloader - placing ads on the YouTube site in clear violation of YouTube's rules. Even worse, some of the injected advertisements led users to malicious websites.
Some of the ad slots had been sold on through exchanges to the likes of Amazon, Blackberry, Kellogg's and Toyota, but those firms almost certainly weren't aware of the scheme. Unfortunately, malicious advertisers (malvertisers) had also managed to get their ads displayed.
"When a user who has installed these plug-ins visits youtube.com multiple display ad slots are injected across the YouTube homepage, channel pages, video pages and search results pages," Spider.io said.
"One example shows a fake alert, which suggests to the user that a Java update is required. If the user clicks the OK button, then the user is taken to the disreputable site."
EA is hoping to bump up sales and downloads of its Origin platform by doing a killer Humble Bundle this week.
By donating whatever you feel is right (starting at $1), you get Dead Space, Crysis 2 Maximum Edition, Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Medal of Honor, Mirror's Edge and Dead Space 3.
If you pay above the average, currently at $4.76, you also get The Sims 3 (along with two expansion packs in The Sims 3 Starter Pack) and Battlefield 3.
Additionally, you get Steam keys for Dead Space, Crysis 2 Maximum Edition, Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Medal of Honor, and Mirror's Edge, along with the Origin keys.
Kim Dotcom, the founder of Megaupload (and the new MEGA), is building a super-secure, encrypted email service that is said to be the best available.
The encryption technology will be "cutting-edge," says the report.
News of the service follow's Lavabit's exit from the market, with the claim that there is no longer privacy in the world thanks to the NSA. Lavabit committed what they call "privacy seppuku." The company preferred to go out on their own terms rather than allow the government access to their systems.
According Dotcom, Mega does not keep decryption keys for customer accounts they never will, making it impossible for them to read the emails or give information to the government.
Research firm Gartner has released their latest quarterly mobile phone market report, and smartphone sales have finally overtaken feature phone sales.
For the Q2, smartphone shipments jumped 46.5 percent year-over-year to reach 225 million, beating out feature phones at 210 million following a 21 percent drop year-over-year.
Growth was unsurprisingly largest in the Asia Pacific and Latin American regions, seeing 74.1 percent and 55.7 percent growth, respectively.
Android remains king, as well, taking 79 percent share of the global market. Apple remained in second but share fell to 14.2 percent despite a growth in shipments. Nobody else really mattered although Microsoft saw a nice boost for their Windows Phone devices.
U.S District Court Judge Denise Cote has tentatively scheduled Apple's antitrust damages trial for May 2014.
Last month, the company was found guilty of conspiring with major book publishers to raise the prices of ebooks sold through the newly launched iBookstore.
Besides the US Department of Justice, 33 U.S. states and territories will also be part of the trial, and Apple's damages could be upwards of $500 million.
Earlier this month, the DOJ proposed a settlement which would have forced Apple to terminate all existing contracts and bar them from new agency model deals for the next five years. Additionally, the ban would be extended to music and video. Apple called the settlement "draconian and punitive."
Baidu has agreed to purchase the 91 Wireless app store for $1.85 billion.
The deal will be the biggest ever in China's IT market.
91 Wireless is currently owned by Netdragon Websoft, one of Asia's largest MMO creators, similar to Blizzard here in the States.
The app store is one of the largest in China by monthly users, and Baidu has been looking to diversify out of their standard search engine market. "The acquisition of 91 Wireless significantly strengthens our mobile app distribution capability," added Chief Executive Robin Li.
Earlier this week we reported that BlackBerry had confirmed it would be open to selling itself and going private in order to help its turnaround efforts.
Many scoffed at the idea as the company has very little, on the surface, to offer a potential buyer. Its hardware business has collapsed, its latest operating system cannot compete with Android and iOS and its popular BlackBerry Messenger application has been supplanted by Line and WhatsApp, which already have 300 percent more users.
That being said, the company's patent portfolio is potent.
The company has "5,236 active U.S. patents and about 3,730 active applications in the wireless communications space," says ATD.
Chris Marlett, CEO of MDB Capital Group, says that portfolio is strong: "$2 billion to $3 billion ... is easily justified ... as there are approximately 9,000 patent assets with probably 100,000 claims that someone could take a shot at you with in a lawsuit."
That is a basic figure, says Marlett as there could be a premium placed by competing companies. "If (there's) a bidding war, I think the number can go as high as $4 billion to $5 billion," Marlett added. "This is probably the last big and current [wireless] portfolio available. I don't expect any other wireless-focused portfolio this big will come up for sale again anytime soon, so there will be intense interest in this portfolio."
Facebook has begun releasing monthly data showing global web and mobile monthly and daily user counts.
In the U.S., there are 179 million active monthly users, with 142 million actively using mobile devices to browse the social network.
On a daily basis, the total active userbase is 128 million with 101 million using mobile.
Moving to a global basis, Facebook's mobile daily active userbase jumped 10 percent to 469 million since last quarter.
"We are doing this because we believe brands and businesses should think differently about how people engage with Facebook, especially on mobile. A lot of people focus on monthly active users or even registered users to demonstrate their size and scale. We think this is becoming on old way of looking at the media world. In this world, understanding who comes back at least once a month is only part of the picture. Instead, businesses should focus on people who come back online every single day," said the company in a statement.
Amazon's Silk browser, first introduced with the Kindle Fire, has seen its first major update in a year.
The browser was different because it promised to have faster performance due to letting a good portion of the browsing occur in the cloud.
However, speed was never as advertised and Amazon has only performed minor updates on the browser in the last year. This week's update is mainly an interface refresh including a fully redesigned navigation system.
Controls, new buttons, and a simplified reading view are also updated.
While the updates are a nice step, even the Amazon team admits that "we're in the early days of Amazon Silk, and there's plenty of work still to do."
On the front is a touch screen and when you flip the phone open there is a another touchscreen and the dialpad.
The device has a 3.3-inch touchscreen with 480x320 resolution and the phone is almost strangely powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor. The phone runs on Android 4.1 with Samsung's own TouchWiz.
Additionally, the phone has a small 1500mAh battery, a microSD slot and a 5MP rear camera.
So far, the phone has only been launched for China, but it will work with dual-SIM capability and GSM/CDMA support so it should work almost everywhere.
A new class action suit filed by Robbins, Geller, Rudman, & Dowd has accused Microsoft of hiding major losses related to its Surface RT tablet.
Last month, the company reported its quarterly earnings and had to take a $900 million write-off for inventory adjustments and the recent 30 percent price cut made on the failed tablet.
The complaint accuses the software giant of "materially misrepresenting the true financial effect" that the tablet was having on the company's businesses and that it failed to tell investors about the excess inventory of Surface RT it was hoarding at the time.
By failing to alert shareholders, the company violated "generally accepted accounting principles" and "SEC rules and regulations."
Reads the suit (via AllTD): "What Defendants knew, but failed to disclose to investors, however, was that Microsoft's foray into the tablet market was an unmitigated disaster, which left it with a large accumulation of excess, over-valued Surface RT inventory. Defendants' materially false and misleading conduct enabled Microsoft to forestall Surface RT's day of reckoning and delay what would be tantamount to an admission by the Company that its all-important entry into the tablet market had been a failure."
Netflix has released their July data of the "Netflix ISP Speed Index," showing off which ISPs "provide the best Netflix streaming experience."
Posted below is the U.S. index, but there are maps for other countries, as well, here.
The company compiles the data from all of its 36 million Netflix subscribers. The company says its members stream over 1 billion hours of TV and movies per month, meaning the data has a pretty solid set to reference.
Google Fiber offers the best experience, by a long shot, which is none too surprising given it is far and away the fastest consumer Internet available.
Earlier this week, HTC announced it was beginning its most expensive marketing campaign ever, unveiling the "Change" brand platform.
Actor Robert Downey Jr. is the centerpiece of the campaign and will be featured in all new ads and commercial spots.
The company says the campaign will roll out in three phases, with the first phase "highlighting HTC's brand with a playful take on what it means to different people." The next phase "will feature executions which highlight how HTC innovations--like BlinkFeed, Video Highlights and BoomSound--have changed the face of the mobile industry." Finally, the third phase "will focus on how HTC products empower individuals to drive change in their own lives."
Prosecutors in Brazil allege that Samsung Electronics imposes harsh working conditions on employees at a factory in the Amazon region.
The Manaus prosecutors office reported one worker having to package nearly 3,000 phones in a day. It has accused Samsung of labor law violations for making employees work long shifts without sufficient breaks throughout. The factory employees around 6,000 people.
Prosecutors allege that a worker at the factory has only 32 seconds to assemble a mobile phone and 65 seconds to put together a television set. Employees who gave evidence to the office said that shifts can last up to 15 hours, and that back aches and cramps were common among the workforce.
Samsung said it would fully co-operate with the investigation.
"We are committed to offering our collaborators around the world a work environment that ensures the highest standards when it comes to safety, health and well-being,"a Samsung statement said.
The prosecutors office will seek more than 250 million reais - about $108 million - in damages.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK has told Sky not to air a TV ad featuring Bruce Willis, saying the ad is misleading to consumers.
The ad featured the star walking into the offices of an ISP to complain about the quality of his service (download limits), when he is told to switch to Sky Broadband as its "totally unlimited." A voice-over then reveals that the service is £7.50 per month.
A viewer complained to the advertising watchdog saying that Sky didn't make it clear the extent of the commitment customers have to make in order to receive the unlimited service for £7.50 per month. On screen small print does say that Sky Talk, calls and line rental were required, from £14.50 per month.
At the beginning of the ad, the small print also says "Sky TV from £21.50 a month, box and set up costs may apply." The Advertising Standards Authority found the ad to be misleading, since it was clearly not aimed at existing Sky customers.
Microsoft's Xbox One console is more aware of temperature and power usage than the Xbox 360 was, according to Xbox general manager of console development Leo del Castillo.
The Xbox 360 console was plagued for multiple years after it was released with hardware problems that often had overheating at their core. In later hardware revisions and software updates for the console, it became more sensitive to heat issues and would warn users and shut down if the system got too hot.
With the Xbox One, the console can scale back its power usage to a state that will produce much less heat, which is something the Xbox 360 couldn't do.
"One thing that we have more flexibility with...with the architecture of the Xbox One, is that we can dial back the power of the box considerably," he said. "We had a little less flexibility with the 360. And so basically, if we couldn't dissipate the heat, there wasn't a whole lot of leverage we could pull to keep the heat from being generated, so we had a limited amount of time before it just shut down. Xbox One can actually dial it back to a lower power state, so low in fact that it can [be] in a mode that uses virtually no air flow."
Microsoft has announced the Season Pass Guarantee, which means if you buy a season pass on Xbox 360, you will get a season pass for the same games on Xbox One.
Of course, that means you would need to own the same game on both platforms. The point of the guarantee is to make transitioning from Xbox 360 to Xbox One an easier and smoother process, so you don't have to worry about which console you're playing games on or repurchasing your existing add-ons on Xbox One.
Activision, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft are lined up to take part in the Season Pass Guarantee program so far, and Microsoft said it will announce more participants in the coming months.
Earlier today, Microsoft also announced that it would have to cut the number of markets it launches in from 21 to 13, with the 8 countries that will miss the November launch expected to get the new console in 2014.
The Radio Times website has gotten caught up in the middle of an anti-piracy effort aimed at blocking providers of live streams (or links) of football games.
In a scenario that mirrors exactly what digital rights advocates warned about, the unrelated Radio Times website was partially blocked to UK Internet users because it shared an Internet Protocol address with First Row Sports, which is a website that was ordered blocked in the UK recently.
Users who attempted to reach "radiotimes.com" (without the WWW.) would be unable to reach the site as the anti-piracy block would take effect. Naturally, Radio Times are less than pleased.
"It's outrageous that our website has been suddenly switched off and our users wrongly informed that it's to protect against copyright infringement," said Ben Preston, according to the BBC News website..
"The Premier League seems to be behaving like the worst sort of blundering striker who's forgotten the first rule of football - check you're at the right end before you shoot."
Other sites reportedly affected incorrectly by the block include the websites of the Blackburn Rovers, Reading and Brentford football clubs, and the Notes from Nature science project and Galaxy Zoo space education site. The way the system works means that ISPs have to rely on rights holders to correctly identify offenders, but this system has been criticized exactly because it could snag unrelated sites just as it has in this case.
Microsoft has confirmed that the anticipated Windows 8.1 update will begin to roll-out on October 18.
Windows 8.1 will start rolling out worldwide as a free update from 12:00am on October 18th in New Zealand (4:00am October 17 in Redmond) through the Windows Store. It will also be available at retail and on new devices starting on October 18th by market.
Windows 8.1 improves areas of Microsoft's flagship OS, like personalization features, an improved Windows Store experience, cloud connectivity with SkyDrive and so on. The update is seen as a response by Microsoft to a lot of negative feedback it received since Windows 8 launched last year.
Activision has boasted the success of its Call of Duty franchise with a new infographic that shows the mind-numbing amount of time spent playing the games.
Since the release of Call of Duty 4 (2007), Activision claims that over 100 million people have played a CoD title, which is larger than the populations of many countries, like the United Kingdom, France or Germany. CoD gamers have clocked up an impressive 25 billion hours playing the games, or about 2.85 million years, which the infographic points out is longer than humanity has been around, which it is by more than ten fold.
In all that combat, more than 32.3 quadrillion (32,300,000,000,000,000) shots have been fired, while over 5 billion cars have been destroyed. Players have called in 31 billion Care Packages since the features was introduced in Modern Warfare 2.
Microsoft has restored its YouTube app for Windows Phone devices after seemingly coming to an agreement with Google.
There was a public spat over the YouTube app back in May, due to the fact that the app could download videos for local playback, and didn't display any ads. When Google lashed out at Microsoft, it removed the ability to download videos but still didn't display any ads.
When Google persisted with complaints, Microsoft pulled the YouTube app altogether and replaced it with an older app.
Now the newer app has been restored and displays pre-roll ads on monetized YouTube videos. It also adds a feature to upload videos, but Ars points out a very annoying limitation of the feature. Over cell networks, only short videos - less than 5MB - can be uploaded. Anything bigger requires a Wi-Fi connection, but even at that, any video over 20MB requires external power, and any over 100MB simply won't upload.
This is due to the upload being a background transfer, which has some advantages for app switching, but when Lumia phones can record HD videos, even the 100MB limitation is too much.
Sony seems to be preparing to begin selling a 12GB flash-based PS3 console in North America from the end of this week.
Canadian retailer Future Shop had the 12GB PS3 listed today before it was promptly taken down, though Engagdet did manage to get a screenshot of the listing before it was removed, and then another picture allegedly from a KMart stockroom in the U.S. of the retail packaging of the console.
Sony revealed earlier this year that it was going to be releasing a 12GB flash-based PS3 in parts of Europe and Hong Kong, but denied that it would ship in North America.
The Future Shop listing had the 12GB model "in stock" at $199.99.
Microsoft has revealed that the Xbox One console will launch in 13 markets in November, down from a goal of 21 markets set at E3.
The Xbox One console will launch in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand, in November. However, it has had to delay the launch in several markets originally intended for November, including Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland.
"While we wish we could launch Xbox One simultaneously in these markets, there are many factors that determine the timing of specific market launches," a Microsoft statement reads.
"This includes work to localize the Xbox One dash, incorporate additional voice and languages, and build partnerships to bring apps and meaningful local content to each country."
For users in those right countries who have already pre-ordered an Xbox One console, Microsoft has promised they will receive a pack-in game with your console when it launches.
A Russian man has pleaded not guilty in a U.S. court in New Jersey to charges related to the largest cybercrime case prosecuted in the country.
Prosecutors allege that Dmitriy Smilianets, 29, of Moscow, conspired with a group of hackers from Russia and the Ukraine to steal more than 160 credit card numbers that cost victims over $300 million. Among the targets were NASDAQ and Heartland Payment Systems Inc. Jet Blue Airways and J.C. Penney were also hit by the group.
Smilianets denies the allegations and claims that he is looking into irregularities with the circumstances of his arrest last year in Holland.
He allegedly sold credit card data starting at $10 for a U.S. card and $50 for a European card. He was extradited to the United States in September 2012, and has remained in federal custody ever since.
Samsung has announced the availability of its curved 55-inch KN55S9C OLED television in the United States, selling for a whopping $8,999.
Samsung says its curved tv offers an unprecedented leap forward for picture quality, sharp contrast and a whole new way to experience television. The self-emitting RGB sub-pixels are laid directly on the color display panel, so no color filter is required. Without the need for backlighting, the Samsung Curved OLED TV displays pictures with absolute blacks at a contrast ratio never before seen on conventional TVs, the South Korean giant says.
"As a leader in standout design and television display technology, Samsung's new Curved OLED TV sets the bar for the next generation of televisions coming to market," said Joe Stinziano, Executive Vice President, Samsung Electronics America.
"Customers have come to expect brilliance from Samsung, and our Curved OLED TV is just that. With true-to-life color, ultimate contrast, and superior picture quality, this new TV delivers an astonishing home entertainment experience."
Rockstar Games will spill details on Grand Theft Auto V's online mode this week with the release of a gameplay video and more information.
The developer teased GTA fans with its previous trailer for the game, which ended with dozens of players roaming around the city of Los Santos. This led to a lot of speculation on what Rockstar has in store for GTA V online services.
Rockstar announced that it will provide a new gameplay video and information for the Online Mode on Thursday, August 15. The game is scheduled to be released in about a month, and will no doubt sell in massive numbers from launch day. Analysts are predicting up to 20 million copies sold before the end of March 2014.
It will be released for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles, and a petition to bring the game to PC has reached over 200,000 signatures.
The recently released trailers and videos from the game were rendered with the PlayStation 3 console.
LG has apologized and taken full responsibility for twenty injuries at an event where a promotional stunt went wrong.
The electronics giant released 100 helium balloons at the "G in the Cloud" event in Seoul, Korea, each with a free smartphone voucher. If you got a voucher, then you would receive one of the devices for free.
In order to attempt to get a voucher, event goers showed up with BB guns and knives attached to sticks. What could possibly go wrong?
After the balloons were released, customers charged forward and opened fire (so to speak), resulting in injuries to twenty people. LG has called off further similar events and taken responsibility for what local media dubbed "World War G".
"LG Electronics deeply regrets that a number of Korean participants were injured during an outdoor promotional event in Seoul, Korea," a statement from the firm said.
"We can confirm that seven participants were hospitalised and, although none of the injuries were serious, LG takes full responsibility for the unfortunate situation and has offered to cover all related medical expenses. LG is investigating the incident to ensure that such an occurrence can be avoided in the future."
Microsoft has revealed that its new Xbox One controller will be compatible PC games in 2014.
Penny Arcade Report asked a Microsoft spokesman to comment on whether the Xbox One controller will be able to play games that the Xbox 360 controller works with on PC.
The Microsoft spokesperson said: "There is also some work that we need to do to make sure that existing PC games that support the Xbox 360 controller, will work with the Xbox One controller. While it seems trivial, it's actually quite a bit of dedicated work for all that to be seamless for the user. We know people want to use the Xbox One controller on their PC, and we do too – we expect to have the functionality available in 2014."
Being able to use the controller with existing games would be useful for anyone planning on buying an Xbox One.
The new browser provided by the Pirate Bay to beat censorship and web site blocking has been downloaded over 100,000 times in three days.
The PirateBrowser works by taking advantage of the TOR network, which can be used to get around censorship and web tracking by routing traffic through the network before eventually connecting to the remote location via an exit node. If the exit node is not subject to any such censorship, then it will have no problem downloading and relaying data from the remote website back to the user.
This would come in handy for anyone who finds that their ISP has blocked access to a website. In Ireland, for example, the two main service providers (UPC and Eircom) have been forced by the High Court to block access to the Pirate Bay website, meaning users who attempt to go to the site will get a message explaining the court's decision instead.
By using the TOR network correctly, this block can be easily overcome.
However, you should remember not to confuse the PirateBrowser with the TOR Browser Bundle. The PirateBrowser is not intended to provide anonymity and it should not be used for regular browsing unless its absolutely necessary. Even though both browsers will stop a remote website from seeing your real IP address if configured and working correctly, it is important to know that any unencrypted communication with the remote site could be easily viewed by the operator of an exit node. Therefore, do not use either browser to login to any Internet-based service, unless you are sure that HTTPS is in use at least.
Microsoft has revealed that the Xbox One console will not require the Kinect device to be switched on at all times to function, seemingly going back on another requirement that was very unpopular among gamers.
The news that the Xbox One console would require the Kinect to be switched on and gathering data at all times sparked some cries over privacy fears from gamers. At the same time, limits on the usage of pre-owned games and other details were met with a cold response from the community.
Microsoft eventually backtracked on its pre-owned games limitations, and now appears to have done the same for any requirement for Kinect to be on all the time.
"Like online, the console will still function if Kinect isn't plugged in," Xbox One platform architect Marc Whitten, told IGN. "Although you won't be able to use any feature or experience that explicitly uses the sensor."
"You have the ability to completely turn the sensor off in your settings. When in this mode, the sensor is not collecting any information. Any functionality that relies on voice, video, gesture or more won't work. We still support using it for IR blasting in this mode. You can turn the sensor back on at any time through settings, and if you enter into a required Kinect experience (like Kinect Sports Rivals for instance), you'll get a message asking if you want to turn the sensor back on in order to continue."
The latest version of the Skype app for Apple's iPad and iPhone 5 devices has added support for HD video calling.
A HD front camera was added to the iPad with the released of the fourth generation model of the Apple tablet, but up until now the mega-popular Skype app only included support for standard definition video calls.
ZTE has announced that it will begin selling unlocked versions of its Firefox OS-packing ZTE Open on eBay US and UK, starting soon.
The low-cost device has launched with Telefónica in Spain, Venezuela and Colombia, Soon the ZTE Open will now be available for the first time in Orange priced at $79.99 (£59.99) and will be unlocked to allow use on all mobile networks.
"It is great honor to launch the ZTE Open Firefox OS phone worldwide through eBay. ZTE is devoted to providing more options for customers globally and enabling them to live better lives via advanced technology," said Mr. Dai Wenhong, VP of ZTE Corporation.
"The ZTE Open offers customers a smartphone experience at an incredible price point, making it ideal for cost conscious consumers or those looking to upgrade to a smartphone for the first time."
The ZTE Open offers all the functions expected from a smartphone – calls, messaging, email, camera – plus additional experiences that people really want, such as built-in social integration with Facebook and Twitter, location-based services like Nokia HERE maps which include local transit and traffic information and much-loved features like the Firefox Web browser and the Firefox Marketplace.
A flaw in an Android feature has put Bitcoin wallets at risk, according to security alerts published ahead of vital updates.
The problem lies in a component of Android responsible for generating secure random numbers, which has been found to contain a critical weakness. Given that the problem lies with Android itself, it could affect you if you have a wallet generated by any Android app. Such affected apps include Bitcoin Wallet, blockchain.info wallet, BitcoinSpinner and Mycelium Wallet.
"In order to re-secure existing wallets, key rotation is necessary. This involves generating a new address with a repaired random number generator and then sending all the money in your wallet back to yourself," a Bitcoin security advisory suggests.
According to sources, Microsoft will release the final version of Windows 8.1 to the public in October.
The company is said to be testing near-RTM versions of the operating system and in fact, many of the newer builds have leaked recently. Those builds, however, remain quite buggy.
Partners and OEMs will receive the RTM later this month, and the delay until October will give them enough time to work on drivers and testing compatibility with existing and new systems.
The highly-anticipated update to the operating system is said to also be launching alongside new 7 and 8-inch tablets
LG has unveiled their latest LCD TV, designed after the old-school 70s CRT television sets.
The 32LN630R, aka "Classic TV" is a 32-inch device that includes two rotary dials (volume and channels), three buttons (power, etc) and a retro-styled speaker right on the front.
On the hardware side, the TV has a 1080p IPS display, multiple HDMI, MHL and USB inputs and will work with standard remotes.
Available only in Korea for the time being, the looks of the "Classic TV" will not come cheap. The set costs 840,000 Won, or the equivalent of $750 USD.
BlackBerry's shares jumped over 10 percent today after the company confirmed rumors that it is exploring any possibility to keep itself alive, including selling the company and going private.
The company has now created a special committee to look into "strategic alternatives."
Outside of an outright sale, BlackBerry said it would also be willing to consider a joint venture, partnerships, licensing, and more.
The company hopes a new deal would help them sell more BlackBerry 10 devices. The operating system was unveiled in January after a year of delays, and the flagship Z10 and Q10 phones have not sold well since launch.
Currently, BlackBerry's most important assets are its enterprise contracts and its large patent collection. The patents alone are likely to attract suitors, but there is unlikely any company willing to take the floundering hardware business.
As has been rumored for months now, a leaked roadmap claims Nokia will be launching a Windows tablet in September and then a Lumia phablet in November.
Nokia Tablet for AT&T will be announced in last week of September. He is unsure as it is Win8.1 or WinRT 8.1 tablet but says chances of Win8.1 is more as Nokia is not confident of WinRT success (Old news). Also, somehow contrary to what our sources indicated tipster says, the Phablet may see an announcement in November 1st week only. According to him dual-sim Lumias are scheduled to arrive in October and that From now till Decemeber 2013 every month Nokia will launch something new.
The tablet will be a welcome relief in the Windows 8 tablet market, which has seen flops across the board including Microsoft's own Surface tablet. Our recently reviewed Acer W3, was one of the worst tablets I've had the displeasure of using.
HTC has unveiled their largest marketing campaign to date, showing off the "Change" brand platform and its lead spokesperson, blockbuster actor Robert Downey Jr.
Downey signed a two-year deal with HTC and will appear in all ads for the brand, many of which will first debut on YouTube and then on TV.
Additionally, the actor worked with the company "to shape the creative direction, putting change at the core of HTC's brand by offering a variety of unique interpretations of the HTC acronym."
The company says the campaign will roll out in three phases, with the first phase "highlighting HTC's brand with a playful take on what it means to different people." The next phase "will feature executions which highlight how HTC innovations--like BlinkFeed, Video Highlights and BoomSound--have changed the face of the mobile industry." Finally, the third phase "will focus on how HTC products empower individuals to drive change in their own lives."
Ben Ho, CMO of HTC comments, "HTC's innovation, authenticity and boldness have made us the change-makers in the mobile industry and led us to launch what influencers regard as the best phone in the world, the HTC One. Our original and playful Change platform is different to anything else out there and aligns our brand with the same qualities our phones are already known for. With this campaign, we are affirming what HTC's role is in the mobile market which is to define change and to lead the industry in developing the newest and most innovative technologies."
According to ATD, Apple is planning a media event for September 10th to unveil the new iPhone.
The biggest question remains whether Apple will only unveil the iPhone 5S or if they will also show off the oft-rumored cheaper, plastic model of the iPhone 5, as well.
Apple is not expected to make any major updates to the iPhone, but there has been lots of talk of a fingerprint sensor being added to the home button. Additionally, the phone's main camera could be upgraded to a 12MP sensor.
Additionally, the company will give a final release date for the overhauled iOS 7 operating system.
Sony Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato has made it clear that the upcoming PlayStation 4 will not cause the company severe losses like its predecessor the PS3 did.
The new console features a processor from AMD, which comes a lot cheaper than Sony's own proprietary Cell chip used in the PS3.
"The amount of investment is much, much smaller, [than the PS3]" Kato said. "I cannot give you the absolute amount."
Sony had to writedown over $3.5 billion in losses for 2007-2011 on the PS3. The console finally became profitable late in 2011.
"We will not generate anything like the losses we did for the PlayStation 3," added Andrew House, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment.
The Pirate Bay has taken a stand against censorship, releasing their own "PirateBrowser."
PirateBrowser is a mix of the Tor client (Vidalia), FireFox Portable browser (with foxyproxy addon) "and some custom configs" to allow you to circumvent censorship. Although it has Tor in it, anonymity is not the point of the Pirate Browser.
The torrenttracker says "PirateBrowser is a bundle package...that allows you to circumvent censorship that certain countries such as Iran, North Korea, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Ireland impose onto their citizens."
TPB is one of the most universally banned sites on the Web, as governments try to keep their citizens away.
As an added kick, the browser comes with pre-loaded bookmarks including The Pirate Bay, IsoHunt, Fenopy, EZTV, KickassTorrents, Bitsnoop, H33T and more.
According to one tech researcher using internal sources, the Google Glass headwear is expected to cost $299 when it finally becomes available to all consumers.
Early adopters got access to the glasses earlier this year for the price of $1500.
The device itself is not too expensive to build. The most expensive component is the display, which comes in at about $35. The display is made by Himax Tech, which Google just acquired a majority share in.
Given that Google can sell the 32GB Nexus 7 FHD for $299, the sources speculate a similar price tag should leave the company with a decent margin.
BlackBerry has announced that the U.S. Defense Information System Agency (DISA) has approved BlackBerry 10 for use on Department of Defense networks.
Right now there are two smartphones with BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, the Z10 and the Q10.
The DISA is now building up capacity to support 30,000 BlackBerry 10 smartphones by the end of the year.
As the phone maker says: "BlackBerry 10 smartphones will enable DoD personnel to have the ability to securely connect to networks and access assets from work. The BlackBerry mobile infrastructure provides a highly responsive, intelligent and intuitive mobile computing experience while ensuring the personal and the corporate information on a user's phone are kept separate and safe."
Apple has won their patent dispute against Samsung this week, with the U.S. ITC ruling meaning Samsung's infringing products will see an import ban soon.
The panel ruled that Samsung infringed on two patents, one for a touchscreen control method and the second for headphone I/O tech.
Before any ban, there is a 60-day Presidential review in which the Obama administration can reverse the order. The administration recently vetoed ITC's ruling against Apple, in which Samsung had gotten the iPhone 4 banned from the U.S.
Samsung can also likely get around the import ban by updating the firmware of the phones, or removing the features in their entirety.
The company is obviously not happy with the decision: We are disappointed that the ITC has issued an exclusion order based on two of Apple's patents. However, Apple has been stopped from trying to use its overbroad design patents to achieve a monopoly on rectangles and rounded corners. The proper focus for the smartphone industry is not a global war in the courts, but fair competition in the marketplace. Samsung will continue to launch many innovative products and we have already taken measures to ensure that all of our products will continue to be available in the United States.
The Pirate Bay, despite the best efforts of Hollywood and other content owners to shut it down, has made it to their 10th anniversary.
Sponsored by an energy drink company, the infamous torrenttracker threw a party in Stockholm to celebrate.
TPB was founded on August 9th, 2003 and launched a month later in September. At launch, the founders muse the site was powered by just four Linux servers.
By 2008, The Pirate Bay was in the crosshairs of every content trade group and Swedish prosecutors filed charges against the four founders for facilitating unauthorized downloading of copyrighted material.
The next year, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, and Carl Lundströmwere were found guilty and sentenced to prison time and a large fine, $3.5 million at the time. After appeals, the sentences were reduced but the damages were increased. The Swedish Supreme Court has refused to hear any appeals.
As part of the case, many ISPs around the globe have been ordered by their host governments to block access to the site but it remains one of the most popular destinations on the Web.
Microsoft has announced that it will make good on its promise of dropping Microsoft Points in exchange for real currency.
Starting with the next system update, which has been in public beta for the last month, the hated digital currency system will move to gamer's local currencies. Microsoft points had been maligned due to the fact that you could only buy certain bundles of points and you almost undoubtedly had leftovers after transactions that were unusable.
Microsoft also notes they will begin selling gift cards in stores later this year.
If you have remaining points, they will be converted into cash credit.
Via Google+, the source says "Motorola will release a Nexus smartphone in Q4 (that is not the Moto X)."
There had been speculation that LG or Samsung would be creating the new device, but Motorola would make equal sense given that Google now owns the company.
The source, Wimberly, is well-known for breaking news about Google and Motorola, even recently unveiling many of the features of the Moto X before launch.
Last year's Nexus 4 launched in December so a sequel could conceivably be hitting this December.
Acer has noted this week that it will reduce its exposure to Windows PCs and laptops and instead invest more in "non-Windows business" such as ChromeOS and Android devices.
The company hopes to grow such devices to 12 percent of total revenue by the end of the year.
President Jim Wong notably says he sees a growing market for Chrombooks, based on the ChromeOS operating system. The light devices made up 3 percent of the company's shipments last quarter.
Overall, Acer reported a poor quarter, with PC shipments down 35.5 percent for the quarter and a reported operating loss of $20.5 million.
"For the PC industry, I haven't seen light at the end of the tunnel," Wong said. "First, we have to sustain our market share and protect our bottom line ... and by doing tablets and smartphones right, we can be prepared for the day after tomorrow."
Wong also noted that they expect Android devices to account for up to 40 percent of total revenue by the end of 2014.
PC maker Asus has announced this week that it will no longer build Windows RT tablets.
Windows RT is a version of the operating system that works on ARM-based devices, but does not run legacy Windows apps.
"It's not only our opinion, the industry sentiment is also that Windows RT has not been successful," Asus CEO Jerry Shen added.
Moving forward, the company will only make Windows 8 Pro devices, which run on Intel and AMD chips and have full compatibility with all Windows applications.
Asus says it took a writedown on its Windows RT tablets, but did not disclose a figure. Microsoft took a $900 million loss this last quarter due to excess inventory of its Surface RT.
After years of declines and waning investor support, BlackBerry may finally be considering going private, says Reuters.
CEO Thorsten Heins and the company's board of directors have increasingly moved towards the idea, with the source claiming "there is a change of tone on the board."
Of course, going private would require a sale process and BlackBerry will likely have a very hard time finding a buyer and the necessary funding.
At its peak in 2008, the company's market value was a massive $84 billion. The iPhone's release, in conjunction with a global recession, quickly destroyed that value and the company has been losing customers and profits since. Today, the company has a market value of less than $5 billion.
For years, BlackBerry (formerly RIM), refused to consider going private, making large bets on the new BlackBerry 10 operating system and two new flagship devices.
According to multiple sources, Amazon could be ready to create its own Android-based gaming console.
The sources claim the console could be in consumer's hand by the end of the year, most likely in time for the Black Friday shopping day.
Similar to other similar boxes, the Amazon console would have its own dedicated controller to play digital games already offered by Amazon through their Web site and app store.
Amazon has left some clues in the recent past that a console is a possibility. The e-commerce giant has been hiring game developers and even hired the executive producer for Gears of War 3 and Quantum Break earlier this year.
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has confirmed that the company is working with Microsoft on the next-generation Surface tablet.
Huang recently claimed that Windows RT was a disappointment, but added that Outlook for Surface RT would make his "life complete." Microsoft has announced that Outlook would be available for Windows 8.1. "Now we're going to bring it with the second-generation Surface," says Huang. "We're working really hard on it, and we hope that it's going to be a big success."
Other reports had suggested Microsoft will be using Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 processor for the Surface RT 2, but there is a chance there could be multiple models in the works, including an 8-inch tablet.
The new Surfaces are expected for much later this year.
Just a day after Microsoft revealed that its Xbox One Game DVR will be exclusive to Xbox Live Gold customers, Sony has countered by making its own version free to all PSN users.
You will not need a paid PlayStation Plus subscription to record and share your gameplay clips.
The word comes via Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida:
A leaked official teaser image for Sony's "Honami" smartphone seems to confirm the rumored purple version of the phone.
The Xperia Honami is said to have a 1080p 5-inch Triluminos display with Sony's X-reality engine.
Under the hood is a powerful, quad-core 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB RAM. What makes the phone standout is a 20.7 megapixel camera with a Sony G-lens and BIONZ image processor.
LTE, BT 4.0, NFC and Wi-Fi are standard, and the device has a microSD slot.
Additionally, the phone will be IP57 certified, meaning the device can survive in water for 30 minutes and is also dust-proof.
According to the teaser, the phone will be officially unveiled in Berlin on September 4.
Last week, Google announced the new "Android Device Manager" service, allowing you to easily track a missing/lost device and keep the stored data safe.
The service is now live.
A couple of the features of the free service:
Locate and ring your misplaced device If you ended up dropping your phone between those couch cushions, Android Device Manager lets you quickly ring your phone at maximum volume so you can find it, even if it's been silenced. And in the event that your phone or tablet is out of earshot (say, at that restaurant you left it at last night), you can locate it on a map in real time.
Protecting your personal information and data While losing your phone can be stressful, Android Device Manager can help you keep your data from ending up in the wrong hands. If your phone can't be recovered, or has been stolen, you can quickly and securely erase all of the data on your device.
If you have an Android device, all you have to do is visit this page and get a notification sent to your phone or tablet: Device Manager
Google has expanded their Play Music All Access service to numerous new nations.
The service rivals Spotify, Rdio and others, and should prove to be major competition given Google's deep integration in Android and its hundreds of millions of users. At $9.99 per month, the service offers unlimited streaming music from the major record labels (UMG, Warner and Sony) and indie labels and be available on mobile devices as well as the standard desktop option.
Similar to Spotify, All Access will let users create radio-esque stations from their favorite songs or genres as well as create playlists.
The service will cost €9.99 / £9.99 (UK). Functionality will be the same as the US version.
Yahoo has announced this week that it plans to change its logo for the first time ever.
The company will show off thirty designs for a thirty day period before selecting the new logo.
Says Yahoo:
Over the past year, there's been a renewed sense of purpose and progress at Yahoo!, and we want everything we do to reflect this spirit of innovation. While the company is rapidly evolving, our logo -- the essence of our brand -- should too.
We've introduced beautiful new products that have changed the way you see the weather, read email, share photos, and follow your favorite sports teams. We've partnered with great artists including Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, John Legend, and Imagine Dragons to take Yahoo! On The Road. And of course, we are excited to come together with tumblr, and by extension, its incredible community of creators.
The new logo will be a modern redesign that's more reflective of our reimagined design and new experiences. To get everyone warmed up, we are kicking off 30 days of change. Beginning now, we will display a variation of the logo on our homepage and throughout our network in the U.S. for the next month. It's our way of having some fun while honoring the legacy of our present logo.
The ATIV Book 9 Plus has a 13.3-inch, 275ppi, 3200 x 1800 resolution display, a 1.6GHz Haswell Core i5-4200U dual-core CPU, 4GB DDR3 RAM, a 128GB SSD and IntelHD 4400 graphics. Windows 8 Pro is standard.
Additionally, the device is nice and light at about 3 pounds.
There are different options for the laptop, with more RAM, a larger SSD and a high-end Core i7 CPU, but those prices remain unclear.
LG has finally, officially unveiled their new flagship, the G2.
The device runs on Android 4.2.2, has a 5.2-inch 1080p IPS panel, a 2.26GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 SoC, 3GB RAM, dual cameras 13MP/2.1MP, 16 or 32GB internal storage, 24 bit/192kHz HiFi playback, and a non-removable 3,000mAh battery.
LG has also experimented with the design, placing the volume rocker and power button underneath the rear camera. The company says the design should help make the "handheld experience" a bit less awkward for the larger screen.
The bezels on the device are almost non-existent, at 0.1-inches thick.
Additionally, the company has added some software tweaks such as AnswerMe and SlideAside. AnswerMe automatically answers incoming phone calls when you put the phone up to your ear and SlideAside "lets you do a three-finger gesture to "slide" open apps off the screen for multitasking."
Samsung appears to have high hopes for its Tizen operating system, even though the OS has been delayed a number of times and is still not available on a commercial device.
Co-CEO J.K. Shin says Tizen is much more than just a pet project, and that the company envisions it on Android, vehicles, tablets and other industries.
"There are many convergences not only among IT gadgets, including smartphones, tablets, PCs, and cameras, but also among different industries like cars, bio, or banks," Shin added. "Cross-convergence is the one [area] Samsung can do best since we do have various parts and finished products."
Intel and Samsung have jointly developed the Tizen standard, and developer support has been growing since launch at the MWC event in February.
Tizen is important to Samsung as it represents an alternative to Android and a system that Samsung can control.
Canonical has reached the half-way mark in their campaign to fund the Ubuntu Edge smartphone.
The company hoped to raise $32 million, far and away the most a crowdfunded campaign would have ever raised, and so far they have raised $8.5 million, breaking Indiegogo records.
That being said, there is no chance the company will reach their goal, an unfortunate situation as the phone certainly has potential.
Here is the full spec list:
Dual boot Ubuntu mobile OS and Android Fully integrated Ubuntu desktop PC when docked
Fastest multi-core CPU, 4GB RAM, 128GB storage
4.5in 1,280 x 720 HDsapphire crystal display
8mp low-light rear camera, 2mp front camera
Dual-LTE, dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4, NFC GPS, accelerometer, gyro, proximity sensor, compass, barometer
Stereo speakers with HD audio, dual-mic recording, Active Noise Cancellation
MHL connector, 3.5mm jack
Silicon-anode Li-Ion battery
64 x 9 x 124mm
Yesterday, Time Warner Cable offered a proposal to end their ongoing retransmission fee dispute with CBS and bring the broadcaster's channels back to their subscribers.
CBS has blacked out the channel, along with Showtime and online access to streaming episodes for 5 days in NYC, LA, and other large markets.
Time Warner's proposal was to offer the channels back to customers on an "a la carte" basis, offering CBS as a standalone option for cable subscribers who want it. Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt says the arrangement would "allow customers to decide for themselves how much value they ascribe to CBS programming." The statement clearly shows that Time Warner Cable places little to no value on CBS, at least not at the prices CBS wants for fees.
CBS was not happy with the proposal, calling it a sham. "Today's so-called proposal is a sham, a public relations vehicle designed to distract from the fact that Time Warner Cable is not negotiating in good faith. Anyone familiar with the entertainment business knows that the economics and structure of the cable industry doesn't work that way and isn't likely to for quite some time. In short, this was an empty gesture from a company that is expert at them."
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has agreed to purchase the Washington Post newspaper for $250 million.
The Washington Post Company, which owns the paper, Kaplan education and other smaller businesses, will change its name following the sale.
Bezos is the second billionaire in the last week to purchase up a newspaper. Boston Red Sox owner John Henry just purchased the Boston Globe and its properties for $70 million.
When completed, the Washington Post will switch hands for the first time since 1933, after being stewarded by the Graham family for the last 80 years. The paper has seen almost a decade straight of declining sales as advertisers move almost entirely to the Internet and mobile devices. The company posted a $53.7 million loss last year. Bezos will pay for pension obligations of current employees while Washington Post Co. will pay for those who have already retired.
Besides the Post, Bezos will also get smaller properties such as the Greater Washington Publishing, the Gazette newspapers, Express, El Tiempo Latino and Robinson Terminal.
Bezos offered a long, well-thought out statement for WaPo employees:
We've had a week to toy around with the new 7-inch Google Nexus 7 FHD and the only question that remains is whether it is the best small tablet ever made.
Google has slimmed down the tablet from last year's popular model, significantly upgraded the display and added a camera and wireless charging support.
Specs under the hood have also been upgraded, and the device is one of the first to get the latest Jelly Bean update, version 4.3.
At a price $100 cheaper than the clear market leader for smaller form-factor tablets, the iPad Mini, Google has shown that they have certainly been paying attention. Read on for our review of the 2013 Google Nexus 7 FHD.
Specs and Design
The original Nexus 7 was not a particularly attractive device. The tablet had plastic edges, and the back cover had a strange rubber feel with small dimples. The grip was good, but the look was not. Additionally, the tablet had huge bezels, which unfortunately have not changed.
Earlier this week, 28-year-old Irish resident Eric Eoin Marques was arrested by FBI agents for being "the largest facilitator of child porn on the planet."
Along with the arrest, a large number of hidden services have been removed from the anonymizing, encrypted network Tor.
Marques is being accused of being the founder of Freedom Hosting, one of the largest hidden services hosting providers. Additionally, Marques has been connected to the Tormail anonymized e-mail service and the escrow service Onionbank. All those services have been taken down.
Hidden Services can be used for many purposes, some used for legal (and anonymous) communications and others for criminal purposes including places to buy fake IDs, stolen credit card numbers and more. Even worse, Freedom Hosting became infamous for hosting many child pornography sites, and the "Hidden Wiki" that allowed child porn traffickers to easily distribute their videos and pictures.
Facebook has announced this week that it has paid out $1 million to 329 security researchers through their bug bounty program.
The program was launched two years ago, and the researchers have been widely spread out between 51 different countries.
Facebook notes that 20 percent of the bounties paid have been to U.S.-based researchers. The company has even hired two recipients for full-time jobs on its global security team.
The top five countries with bounty payouts are the US, India, UK, Turkey, and Germany.
"This early progress is really encouraging, in no small part because programs like these can have a significant impact on our ability to keep Facebook secure," Collin Greene, Security Engineer at Facebook, said in a statement. "After all, no matter how much we invest in security -- and we invest a lot -- we'll never have all the world's smartest people on our team and we'll never be able to think of all the different ways a system as complex as ours might be vulnerable. Our Bug Bounty program allows us to harness the talent and perspective of people from all kinds of backgrounds, from all around the world."
Earlier this week, Time Warner Cable, following a month-long dispute with CBS, dropped the top broadcast network from many of its largest markets.
The companies have been fighting over retransmission fees. Retransmission fees are the money that cable companies pay TV station owners just for the right to broadcast their signals. CBS and Time Warner's existing contract ended in June. Time Warner, in ads played across New York City, say CBS was trying to raise the fee 600 percent.
CBS has taken the fight to a new level, blacking out full streaming episodes on CBS.com if you have a Time Warner Cable subscription.
Says the broadcaster: If Time Warner Cable is a customer's internet service provider, then their access to CBS full episode content via online and mobile platforms has been suspended as a result of Time Warner Cable's decision to drop CBS and Showtime from their market. As soon as CBS is restored on Time Warner Cable systems in affected markets, that content will be accessible again.
Locate and ring your misplaced device If you ended up dropping your phone between those couch cushions, Android Device Manager lets you quickly ring your phone at maximum volume so you can find it, even if it's been silenced. And in the event that your phone or tablet is out of earshot (say, at that restaurant you left it at last night), you can locate it on a map in real time.
Protecting your personal information and data While losing your phone can be stressful, Android Device Manager can help you keep your data from ending up in the wrong hands. If your phone can't be recovered, or has been stolen, you can quickly and securely erase all of the data on your device.
You will need Android 2.2 or higher, a Gmail account and the service will be available later this month. Additionally, there will be an Android app, as well.
Following the across the board $150 cuts to its failed Surface RT tablet, Microsoft has announced it will be discounting the more popular Surface Pro by $100, as well.
The cut is good for the 64GB and 128GB models and is valid until August 29th.
So far, the cuts have been confirmed for U.S., Canada, Hong Kong and Taiwan, with all other regions expected to see the cuts at some point.
The 64GB model now sells for $799 and the 128GB sells for $899.
"We've been seeing great worldwide success with Surface RT pricing and keyboard-cover promotions over the past several months and are proud to offer Surface Pro at more affordable prices starting today,"says Microsoft.
The updates are 160MB (SGS4) and 185MB (HTC One) and are build JWR66V.
Coming just a week after the official launch of the Android 4.3 program, Google has come through with their promise of keeping Google Play Edition updates speedy, if not on par with Nexus updates.
As with all 4.3 updates, the OS now includes Bluetooth upgrades, updated widgets and some other minor updates.
Twitter has announced they have updated their rules to curb abuse on the microblogging site.
The move comes after recent headlines that journalists had been threatened on the site, with the tweets going as far to threaten rape and bombings.
Following the news, 120,000 users signed an online petition begging Twitter to add a "report abuse" button.
The new rules add an "in-tweet" report button, and the rules now specifically ban any kind of abusive tweets. Twitter's senior director for trust and safety, Del Harvey says "It comes down to this: people deserve to feel safe on Twitter. We want people to feel safe on Twitter, and we want the Twitter rules to send a clear message to anyone who thought that such behaviour was, or could ever be, acceptable."
Earlier this week, Google unveiled the Moto X flagship, with a $199 price tag on contract.
There is an unlocked model coming, as well, but that price is unclear as of yet. Some consumers may balk at paying that price given that they can purchase the latest iPhone for the same, and Motorola knows this.
Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside says there are more devices coming under the Moto X brand by the end of the year, including cheaper versions of the flagship X built for prepaid customers and emerging market customers.
Woodside says price-sensitivity is more stated outside of the U.S., where carrier subsidies are almost non-existent. "The experience of devices you can get for less than $200 is subpar right now," Woodside said. "We want everyone to have access to affordable smartphones." The CEO says you should not need to buy 2-year-old tech just to get a good (cheaper) smartphone experience.
Other smartphone makers have been making similar moves in the recent past. Nokia has unveiled good sub-$150 Windows Phones, and Samsung and HTC are offering "Mini" versions of their flagships.
According to Strategy Analytics' latest figures, Google has run away with the smartphone market with Android now on 80 percent of all devices.
"Global smartphone shipments grew 47 percent annually from 156.5 million units in Q2 2012 to 229.6 million in Q2 2013. Growth was driven by strong demand for Android models across all price-tiers in developed and developing markets, such as the US, China and Brazil. Android now accounts for an impressive 8 in 10 of all smartphones shipped on the planet," said Scott Bicheno, Senior Analyst.
A year ago, Android was on 70 percent of devices, so growth has been clearly accelerating.
Moving down the line, Apple's iOS remains entrenched in second, although share fell to 13.6 percent. Windows Phone increased slightly to 3.9 percent while all others (including BlackBerry) took the remaining 3 percent.
What can Microsoft do? Linda Sui, Analyst at Strategy Analytics, added, "Microsoft is making steady progress in the smartphone market due to strong support from Nokia. However, we believe Microsoft's WP8 platform still needs to improve in at least two areas before it truly takes off. First, the license fee charged to smartphone makers for WP8 must be more competitive to compete with Android in lower price-bands. And second, Microsoft must dramatically accelerate its support for advanced technologies, such as octo-core chipsets, because WP8 continues to lag behind Android in the premium smartphone category."
Earlier this week, Google unveiled the Moto X flagship, with carrier support from all the majors in the U.S.
AT&T and Sprint were quick to boast about the brick-and-mortar and online availability of the phone, but Verizon and T-Mobile were more muted.
Verizon has now confirmed that it will carry the device in stores and online, but T-Mobile users will not have that luxury.
The carrier has confirmed that the device will only be available online.
"The Moto X optimized for T-Mobile's 4G LTE network will initially be available through Motorola's channels," T-Mobile noted. "We do not plan to stock Moto X devices immediately in our stores but are working closely with Motorola to make the Moto X a great experience for T-Mobile customers. Any news about distribution in our stores would come at a later date."
Last month, Apple was found guilty of price-fixing in the ebook market.
The Department of Justice, along with 33 U.S. states and territories, have proposed "remedies" which are tough restrictions that should mean Apple can never illegally conspire to raise prices ever again.
The department's proposal, if approved by the court, will require Apple to terminate its existing agreements with the five major publishers with which it conspired – Hachette Book Group (USA), HarperCollins Publishers L.L.C., Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC, which does business as Macmillan, Penguin Group (USA) Inc. and Simon & Schuster Inc. – and to refrain for five years from entering new e-book distribution contracts which would restrain Apple from competing on price. Under the department's proposed remedy, Apple will be prohibited from again serving as a conduit of information among the conspiring publishers or from retaliating against publishers for refusing to sell e-books on agency terms. Apple will also be prohibited from entering into agreements with suppliers of e-books, music, movies, television shows or other content that are likely to increase the prices at which Apple's competitor retailers may sell that content. To reset competition to the conditions that existed before the conspiracy, Apple must also for two years allow other e-book retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble to provide links from their e-book apps to their e-bookstores, allowing consumers who purchase and read e-books on their iPads and iPhones easily to compare Apple's prices with those of its competitors.
Additionally, the Department of Justice is asking the court to appoint an external monitor to ensure that Apple's internal antitrust compliance policies are sufficient to catch anticompetitive activities before they result in harm to consumers. The monitor, whose salary and expenses will be paid by Apple, will work with an internal antitrust compliance officer who will be hired by and report exclusively to the outside directors comprising Apple's audit committee. The antitrust compliance officer will be responsible for training Apple's senior executives and other employees about the antitrust laws and ensuring that Apple abides by the relief ordered by the court.
Yahoo has paid over $60 million for the failed social browsing startup Rockmelt.
The company will shut down the app and browser, but use its engineers and technology to boost its media and mobile properties.
Rockmelt, launched in 2010 and backed by Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, was originally a desktop browser that eventually become just an iOS app.
The sources say Yahoo paid mostly in cash, with some stock incentives for existing employees of the startup.
As part of the deal, Rockmelt founders (ex-Netscape engineer Tim Howes and former OpsWare employee Eric Vishria), will become head of engineering for all Yahoo mobile products and VP for media products, respectively.
"The parallels between Yahoo! and Rockmelt are obvious: we share a common goal to help people discover the best personalized content from around the web," said Yahoo product heads Mike Kerns and Adam Cahan.
Time Warner, following a month-long dispute with CBS, has dropped the top broadcast network from many of its largest markets.
The following stations have been dropped from the following markets:
• New York: WCBS and WLNY (Ind)
• Los Angeles: KCBS and KCAL (Ind)
• Dallas: KTVT-CBS and KTXA (Ind)
• Boston: WBZ-CBS and WSBK (Ind)
• Pittsburgh: KDKA-CBS and WPCW-CW
• Chicago: WBBM-CBS
• Detroit: WKBD-CW
• Denver: KCNC-CBS
Additionally, Showtime, TMC and Flix have all gone off the air, as well.
The companies have been fighting over retransmission fees. Retransmission fees are the money that cable companies pay TV station owners just for the right to broadcast their signals. CBS and Time Warner's existing contract ended in June. Time Warner, in ads played across New York City, say CBS was trying to raise the fee 600 percent.
"We deeply regret this ill-advised action, which is injurious not only to our many affected viewers, but also to Time Warner Cable itself," said CBS, in a statement. "What CBS seeks, and what we always have sought from the beginning, is fair compensation for the most-watched television network with the most popular content in the world. We will not accept less."
Last month we reported that AndroidJelly Bean (4.1-4.3.x) had finally surpassed the aged Gingerbread (version 2.3) as the most used version of the OS.
Today, Google's latest figures show that Jelly Bean has now moved above 40 percent share, up from 37.9 percent last month. Gingerbread is still in second, at 33.1 percent share, followed by Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.x) at 22.5 percent.
Breaking down Jelly Bean, 34.0 percent are still on 4.1.x with just 6.5 percent on 4.2.x. Android 4.3, which just launched this week for Nexus devices and the Nexus 7 tablet, did not manage to get on the list.
There are also somehow 3.8 percent of people using Donut, Eclair and Froyo which were all released between 2009 and 2010.
As leaked for the past few months, the device has a 4.7-inch AMOLED 720p display, Android 4.2.2 (with minor Motorola bloat), a 10MP "ClearPixel" camera, and a new Motorola X8 chipset that includes a powerful 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4, an Adreno 320 GPU, 2GB RAM and built-in specialized processors for natural language processing.
Also as leaked, the Moto X is available in over 500 combinations, due to 18 different back plates, two amounts of internal storage, and different front plate colors and volume/power rocker accent colors.
The Moto X has a motion-sensitive Active Display, always-on Google Now voice commands and a camera activation gesture that requires just two wrist twists.
All four major U.S. carriers will be offering the phone for $199.99 with contract (for 16GB), and regional provider U.S. Cellular will also offer the smartphone. AT&T, however, will exclusively allow you to customize the design.
O2 has announced that August 29th is the launch date for their 4G LTE network.
Off the bat, the network will be available in just London, Leeds and Bradford with an extension to 10 more cities by the end of the year.
O2 will compete directly with EE, which has been offering 4G in 95 cities for some time, at a price cheaper than O2's cheapest monthly tariff.
The carrier, which is owned by Telefonica, says its basic 4G tariff will cost £26 a month. EE charges £21 a month for voice and data, or £15 a month for just data.
O2 also admitted that speeds would be slower than EE at launch, but eventually match.
Netflix has rolled out their 'Profiles,' enabling multiple users to create their own profiles within the same account.
Since launch, profiles has been one of the most requested features, as multiple family members (or roommates) often use the same account and have different tastes in movies and TV shows.
Netflix's recommendation engines do not have a chance to make real recommendations when the previously viewed content is coming from a mix of people.
When customers log in now, they will see different colored tiles representing each user on the account. When clicking through, you will be led to your own personal Netflix page and personalized recommendations.
Amazon Studios has announced they will be greenlighting five new original pilots for kids.
The pilots are a mix of cartoons, animated and live-action shows and will come from established producers as well as one newcomer.
As with the other shows they have approved, the pilots will be available for free streaming through Amazon Instant Video in the U.S. and the LoveFilm service in the UK.
Amazon will accept viewer feedback to see which shows will go into full production. "For the first time we are offering live-action and animated programming for older children and continuing with entertaining, educational, programming for preschool-aged children -- it's going to be a lot of fun," Amazon Studios director Roy Price added.
The five shows are (via Variety):
"Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street," live-action adventure show created by David Anaxagoras, a first-time writer discovered through Amazon Studios' open submission process;
"Grid Smasher," show mixing puppetry and CGI created by Dan Clark, whose credits include "Yo Gabba Gabba!" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles";
Last week, Google unveiled their Chromecast adapter, a small media and Internet stick that can be plugged into your TV's HDMI port to sling content via Wi-Fi.
At a cost of just $35, the stick should unlock the Internet for those that do not have Smart TVs, set-top boxes or video game consoles. All new orders also receive three free months of Netflix, even if you are a an existing subscriber, effectively dropping the price to almost nothing (unless you don't care for Netflix). More importantly, the Chromecast lets you sling content from Android and iOS phones and tablets, Chromebooks and on Mac and Windows PCs via the Chrome browser.
You can control your TV via the stick, as well, from your device, including playback and volume. If your TV cannot power directly from the HDMI, there is an adapter included, as well. With the exception of Silverlight and Quicktime video, any other web video or audio source will play on the TV if it plays in your Chrome desktop browser. You'll be able to run Netflix, Pandora, HBO GO, free Hulu and Rdio among others that are not normally easily played without specialized apps.
In May, HP announced it would be releasing Android and a Windows-based PC convertibles.
Those devices are now on sale, slightly earlier than originally anticipated.
The Slate Book X2 and Split x2 are both convertibles with detachable tablet displays and a battery-boasting keyboard dock but that is mostly where the similarities stop.
The SlateBook x2 is a high-end 10.2-inch Android tablet that runs on Android 4.2.2, has a quad-core Tegra 4 processor (yes, the new Tegra 4), 1920 x 1200 resolution, 400 nits of brightness, 2GB RAM, and 16GB internal storage. The dock has two USB ports, an SD card slot, and HDMI port and a battery life of over 8 hours.
According to the latest figures from NetApplications, Windows 8 continues its very slow path to relevance, now controlling 5.4 percent of global market share.
Windows 7 remains king, at 44.49 percent, while Windows XP took 37.19 percent.
The Windows 8.1 developer preview is installed on 0.02 percent of all machines, placing it slightly behind Windows 2000.
Moving away from Windows, Mac OS X is installed on 7.19 percent of machines with Linux in third at 1.25 percent. The latest Mac OS X, 10.8 is found on 3.28 percent, and 10.7 and 10.6 remain on 1.68 and 1.67 percent of machines, respectively. The upcoming 10.9 Mavericks is on 0.04 percent of machines.
Sony has reported an operating profit of $370 million for the quarter ended June 30th, thanks to a weakening yen and stronger sales of its hardware.
Xperia smartphone sales increased strongly during the quarter and after years of a stronger yen, the currency weakened allowing for a cut in costs and a boost from overseas sales.
The company did acknowledge that market conditions for consumer electronics remain tough, and they cut sales targets for TVs, PCs and video cameras. "We were able to achieve adequate (first-quarter) results but I'm not necessarily optimistic about the future," Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato added.
Sony's struggling TV business had the best turnaround due to streamlining of products and cost cutting, moving into a profit for the first time since 2010. The company expects the PlayStation division to fall back into the red this year, as well, due to the high development costs of the upcoming PS4.
According to the WSJ, Apple's suppliers are preparing to begin mass production on a new iPad Mini with a Retina display built by Samsung.
The tablet should be ready for launch for the Q4 holiday season.
Outside of the display, the tablet will be the same size (perhaps slightly thinner) and Apple has also allegedly been mulling over offering multiple color back covers instead of just the regular dark grey.
While Samsung will be one of the main suppliers, LG and Sharp will also provide displays. The report says Apple went to Samsung to ensure there would be adequate supply.
According to Canaccord, Apple took 53 percent of the smartphones industry's profits during the Q2 and Samsung took 50 percent, leaving the rest of the industry to fight for -3 percent.
Samsung has quickly taken share from Apple, which had 69 percent value share as late as 2012.
Rivals Nokia, HTC, LG and Sony saw revenue share of 0 percent for the quarter, while BlackBerry saw -1 percent and Motorola saw -2 percent due to ongoing losses.
Samsung does not detail the exact amount of smartphones sold in any given quarter, so these figures are based on estimates. The company's IT & Mobile division saw a huge $5.64 billion operating profit this quarter, but that includes PC and tablet sales, as well.
Spotify has reported its latest earnings, and despite huge growth across the board, profits remain elusive.
The company doubled its revenue in 2012 to $577 million, as well as almost doubling its userbase as it expanded to multiple new nations.
Despite the 100 percent growth, the company posted a net loss of $78 million, up from $60 million in 2011.
Spotify lists 20 million active users and 5 million paying subscribers. While you can listen to a limited amount of music per month for free with advertisements, there are two tiers for paid subscriptions. For $5 per month you lose the ads and get unlimited desktop access to music. For $10 you get unlimited desktop and mobile access.
The company has royalty deals with all the major labels and royalty costs are so high that the company normally gives about 70 percent of its revenue back to the content creators/rights holders.
Google has announced that it will be providing Wi-Fi for all 7000 Starbucks locations in the U.S. beginning later this year.
The search giant proudly boasted that speeds will improve, as well, compared to AT&T's current Wi-Fi offerings in the coffee chain.
Reads the release: When your local Starbucks WiFi network goes Google, you'll be able to surf the web at speeds up to 10x faster than before. If you're in a Google Fiber city, we're hoping to get you a connection that's up to 100x faster.
Google will begin rolling out the Starbucks network next month, with a full rollout expected by the end of 2014. To make sure you have the network, Google says "you'll know your new network is ready to go when you can log in to the 'Google Starbucks' SSID."
After a UK court ruled that Microsoft's cloud service SkyDrive infringed on a trademark by major British broadcaster BSkyB, the Redmond giant has agreed to change the name of the service.
BSkyB says Microsoft has agreed to not appeal the ruling, and that in return Microsoft will be allowed to use the the branding "for a reasonable period of time to allow for an orderly transition to a new brand."
There are also financial terms involved, but neither company would disclose them.
Microsoft added: "We're glad to have resolution of this naming dispute, and will continue to deliver the great service our hundreds of millions of customers expect, providing the best way to always have your files with you."
This is the second time in recent memory that a European legal case has forced Microsoft to stop using a specific name for their services. In 2012, Microsoft stopped using the term "Metro" for its Windows 8 interface after German company Metro AG took issue with the marketing.
Isis Mobile Wallet, the mobile commerce venture created by carrier heavyweights AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon, is finally set to go nationwide after extended pilots in Austin and Salt Lake City.
"Over the past nine months, we have proven the power of an open platform, creating an ecosystem of literally hundreds of partners dedicated to making mobile commerce a reality,"said CEO Michael Abbott. "As part of our commitment to consumers, we are incorporating feedback from our pilots into the next generation of the Isis Mobile Wallet as we prepare for national availability later this year."
Isis uses NFC to let consumers pay, redeem coupons or easily select loyalty cards for retailers with just the tap of their smartphone.
The company says all you need is an NFC-supportive phone, a SIM-based secure element and the Isis Mobile Wallet application.
35 devices currently support Isis, but they are all Android. iPhone, Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10 support are all "expected" later this year.
Samsung has offered a huge premium for OLED specialist Novaled AG.
The group has offered $200 million, a massive premium for the company that had revenue of just $22.5 million in 2011, the last time they released financial data.
It is clear, with the offer, that Samsung has committed to the future of OLED displays, as the market is set to see huge growth in the coming years. The global market for the displays is estimated to jump to to $25.9 billion in revenue by 2018, up from $4.9 billion last year.
Samsung already owns a 10 percent stake in Novaled, as the lighting and display maker mainly makes their OLEDs for Samsung.
Google has confirmed their purchase of smartwatch maker WIMM Labs in an effort to boost their own wearable device offerings into the future.
AT&T has announced that its Aio Wireless no-contract prepaid service is now live nationwide.
