Apple has confirmed today that some iPhone 5S handsets were hit by a manufacturing defect that causes the battery to drain much quicker than it should.
"We recently discovered a manufacturing issue affecting a very limited number of iPhone 5S devices that could cause the battery to take longer to charge or result in reduced battery life,"said Teresa Brewer, an Apple spokeswoman. "We are reaching out to customers with affected phones and will provide them with a replacement phone."
The company did not confirm the exact amount of affected customers, but suggested the figure was in the thousands.
Unlike what many customers believed, Apple says the issue is not battery related.
Microsoft has asked for EU antitrust approval of its purchase of Nokia's mobile businesses.
The deal, announced earlier this year, also includes a long-term 10-year licensing agreement of Nokia's patent portfolio.
Microsoft will pay $5 billion for the mobile phone division, and $2.17 billion for the patent trove. The company says the transaction will close in the Q1 2014, pending approval by shareholders and regulatory approval, including the EU antitrust ruling.
The software giant is making a large, bold investment in the future of Windows Phone, expanding their partnership with Nokia from early 2011 that saw the start of the Lumia brand of smartphones. Microsoft is looking to "accelerate the growth of its share and profit in mobile devices through faster innovation, increased synergies, and unified branding and marketing."
Intel, who has long tried to create a Web-based subscription TV service, is reportedly preparing to hand over controls to the project to Verizon.
The sources say the two companies are in end stage negotiations, but it's unclear whether Verizon would take over the entire Intel Media unit, or if Intel would keep some creative control.
In 2011, Intel began its venture into Web TV by hiring Erik Huggers, who previously led web video for the BBC. Huggers was put in charge of creating an Intel-built set-top box and an Intel-branded pay TV service that could be accessed via desktops, the set-top or other Internet-connected devices.
As expected, Intel had issues gaining content for the "OnCue" service due to its lack of connections in the industry, and a mid-July 2013 launch was pushed back indefinitely.
Sprint, the third-largest carrier in the U.S., has said it will gradually offer faster LTE speeds than its rivals; Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.
The company wants to expand its proposed 'Spark' service, which reaches up to 50-60 megabits per second speeds but will first launch in just five cities, LA, Tampa, Miami, Chicago and New York.
LTE speeds from Verizon, for example, reach about 12 megabits/s, but its network already covers most of America.
While the speeds seem good in theory, issues of power consumption, battery life and heat have yet to be seen in real world examples.
Sprint even demonstrated speeds of 1 gigabits per second to reporters, which it said could make online multiplayer gaming or 4K streaming a possibility on mobile.
AT&T dismissed the presentation, but declined to comment on any of their own high-speed offerings: "A demo counts as much as making a touchdown with no other players on the field," said the carrier.
Sprint says that Spark will be available to 100 million people in the U.S. by the end of 2014, and the company is upgrading its antennas and receivers to use 8 transmitters, capable of handling tri-band frequencies and a spectrum range that can handle 180 megabit speeds, theoretically, by the end of 2015.
Nintendo revealed today that they sold just 460,000 Wii U consoles for the 180 day period ending September 30, 2013.
The shocking figure comes as part of the company's latest earnings report.
This most recent quarter was an improvement over the last quarter, with the gaming giant selling 300,000 units compared to 160,000. The console was obviously helped by a price cut and new higher profile releases such as Pikmin 3 and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD.
Nintendo had internal targets of 9 million Wii U sales by the end of the company's 2014 financial year (year ended March 2014). That target seems utterly impossible, as the console has yet to reach 4 million units sold since launch.
The 3DS had a much better quarter, selling 3.89 million units, along with software sales hitting 27.38 million units thanks to new first party titles like Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. Pokemon X and Y are expected to help next quarter's 3DS sales improve even more.
Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation 4 (PS4) console will not support external storage, and is not DLNA-complaint.
In the "Ultimate FAQ" released by Sony ahead of the November 15 launch (North America) of the next generation PlayStation, Sony has revealed that external storage is not supported for the PS4, though you can still swap out the internal HDD as you could with the PS3.
"PS4 is equipped with a 5400 RPM SATA II hard drive. Users can choose to install a new hard drive so long as it complies with these standards, is no thicker than 9.5mm, and is larger than 160GB," the FAQ reads.
The FAQ also revealed that the PS4 is not DLNA complaint, which might upset some users as it has consequences for support for some home network entertainment functionality. The FAQ also detailed the launch line-up.
Nokia wants imports and sales of the HTC One smartphone blocked in the United Kingdom after a patent victory over the Taiwanese firm.
A UK court found that technology used in HTC smartphones infringed a patent filed in 1998 for the design of a modulator. HTC protested the case by pointing out that the disputed technology was used in a chip it acquired from Qualcomm.
Under law in the United States, HTC could be protected by the "exhaustion doctrine" which determines that rights of a patent owner are exhausted once a protected article has been sold. In this case, Qualcomm's chip contains the disputed technology that Nokia claims rights on, and Qualcomm sold them to HTC.
However, a High Court judge in the UK noted that the U.S. situation did not override Nokia's rights from having registered the patent in Europe, and that the sale of the chips to HTC from Qualcomm took place in Taiwan, meaning the exhaustion doctrine under U.S. federal law would not be applicable anyway.
"If the licensee has no right to sell in the UK, then a purchaser from the licensee cannot be in a better position,"wrote the judge.
An Internet Service Provider has been blocked from enforcing speed caps on customers who exceed a monthly data limit.
Deutsche Telekom has been told by a German court that its plans to limit its customers' data speeds after they reached a monthly limit would put them at an "unreasonable disadvantage."
Initially, the provider had hoped to enforce a 384kbps download speed limit on fixed-line customers who exceeded a monthly data cap. After public outcry, it pushed up the speed limitation to 2Mbps. However, some Deutsche Telekom customers in areas covered by fiber have services up to 200Mbbps, meaning the provider would be giving them only 1 percent of what they are paying for.
Verbraucherzentrale NRW, a German consumer lobby group, brought Deutsche Telekom to court to fight the planned speed caps, and now says there is no legal basis upon which the provider can enforce one.
Sony has revealed 22 launch titles for the PS4 console which will be available from November 15.
The game launch details were included in the PS4's "Ultimate FAQ", and Sony cautions that the game list is subject to change before the launch date itself.
The launch titles for PS4's North American launch are:
SCE Worldwide Studios
Flower
Killzone Shadow Fall
Knack
Resogun
Sound Shapes
Third-Party Titles
Angry Birds: Star Wars (Activision)
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag (Ubisoft)
Call of Duty Ghosts (Activison)
DC Universe Online (Sony Online Entertainment)
FIFA 14 (EA Sports)
Battlefield 4 (Electronic Arts)
Just Dance 2014 (Ubisoft)
Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Lego Marvel Super Heroes (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Valve's Steam PC game distribution service has hit a new milestone with 65 million users, up over 15 million in the past 12 months.
The mega-popular Steam now also counts more than 3,000 games. This year also marks the tenth anniversary of the Steam platform.
Steam gamers saw the introduction of several new service features during the year, including Family Sharing, Steam Trading Cards, Early Access, and support for Linux titles. Through Steam Machines, Valve is also preparing an attempted invasion into the living room space dominated by consoles.
"The main goal of Steam has always been to increase the quality of the user's experience by reducing the distance between content creators and their audience," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve.
"As the platform grows, our job is to adapt to the changing needs of both the development and user communities. In the coming year, we plan to make perhaps our most significant collaborations with both communities through the Steam Dev Days and the Steam Machines beta."
One of Dell's Ultrabooks has been hit with complaints that the device reeks of cat pee, which the company is blaming on the manufacturing process.
Customers took to Dell's online support community with a very odd complaint about the Latitude 6430u Ultrabook. Apparently, the keyboard area of the device smells like cat urine, and the problem seems to affect a number of users in different areas.
"The machine is great, but it smells as if it was assembled near a tomcats litter box. It is truly awful!," one owner complained on Dell's support community forum.
"Same experience. I thought for sure one of my cats sprayed it, but there was something faulty with it so I had it replaced. The next one had the same exact issue. It's embarrassing taking it to clients because it smells so bad," another complained.
Dell now claims to have fixed the issue, saying it was related to the manufacturing process. It is not a health hazard and is not in any way related to bio-contamination. New models on the market will not have the stinky issue.
PS3 users in the U.S. can download the new Redbox Instant by Verizon app for their consoles.
The app provides access to thousands of streaming movies. You'll also be able to find and reserve new releases on DVD and Blu-ray at more than 43,000 Redbox kiosks from your PS3.
At a cost of $8 per month, users get access to thousands of movies available to stream, and four DVD rental nights at the Redbox kiosk, every month. If you want Blu-ray, that'll cost $1 more.
You also have the option to purchase or rent new digital releases on-demand, without needing a subscription, making it a one-stop shop for you to find what you want to watch at any given time.
The PS3 app also has "The Playlist", a specially-curated collection of Redbox Instant by Verizon movies from its subscription movie library, just for you. It will update frequently and will feature themes like "Stuff Blowing Up," "Movies With Balls," and "Beards On Film."
Internet Service Providers must block 21 more websites linked to Internet piracy, according to a court order in the UK.
The new group of websites that are to be made unreachable to UK residents follow the Pirate Bay, and seven other piracy-linked websites that have been ordered blocked in the region. The new list includes sites such as FilesTube, Torrentreactor and Abmp3.
"We asked the sites to stop infringing copyright but unfortunately they did not and we were left with little choice but to apply to the court," said Geoff Taylor, BPI chief executive.
The court order mandated that all the sites must be blocked in the UK by today (Wed, Oct 30). The full list of sites to be blocked is as follows:
Abmp3
BeeMP3
Bomb-Mp3
FileCrop
FilesTube
Mp3Juices
eMp3World
Mp3lemon
Mp3Raid
Mp3skull
NewAlbumReleases
Rapidlibrary
1337x
BitSnoop
ExtraTorrent
Monova
TorrentCrazy
TorrentDownloads
TorrentHound
Torrentreactor
The practice of enforcing blocklists on ISPs is the latest tactic in the fight against Internet piracy, though the practice of state-enforced censorship is facing predictable criticism. It has also led to the growth of censorship-sidestepping measures, such as using the portable PirateBrowser (or alternatively the TOR Browser that is it based on) which makes websites blocked in this way reachable in most cases.
Netflix has signed a new deal with Showtime to make all seasons of the popular series 'Dexter' available for streaming.
One of the highest-rated shows of all-time (and also one of the most pirated), Dexter recently saw its series finale.
The streaming giant says the first four seasons will be made available in the U.S. at the end of this month and the final four seasons will be made available on January 1st of next year.
"We're thrilled to have Dexter, one of Showtime's highest-rated shows, on Netflix, and so quickly after it completed its record-breaking run," Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer, added.
Showtime parent CBS used to offer the first couple of seasons of Dexter on Netflix, but removed them in 2011.
Amazon has officially rolled out their Kindle MatchBook program today.
The program allows publishers and authors to bundle their physical books with a discounted ebook edition for those that want a hard copy and better portability.
At launch, 75,000 titles are included and buyers will be able to add the Kindle version of their book for $2.99 or less.
HarperCollins, Macmillan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Amazon Publishing, Wiley, Chronicle Books, and Marvel have made a few titles available, and thousands of self-published authors have joined up.
Of all the majors, HarperCollins was the only to reach deep into the thousands, making 9,000 titles available. However, just nine of the books were published in the last three months so it looks like Harper is using the program to boost its older titles.
Russ Grandinetti, VP of Kindle Content adds that he expects the program to "keep expanding rapidly in the months ahead."
In early October, Adobe confirmed that cyber attackers hit the company hard, with the exploit leading to data on nearly 3 million customers being compromised. Besides 2.9 million Adobe IDs and passwords being stolen, full customer names, encrypted credit/debit card numbers, and expiration dates were also compromised for many of the customers.
Additionally, "source code for numerous Adobe products" was also stolen in the attacks.
It appears now that that original number was just the tip of the iceberg. The data breach has impacted at least 38 million users, the company now confirms, and the source code leak now includes the company's extremely popular Photoshop family of products.
AnonNews posted a 3.8GB file over the weekend including 150 million username and hashed password pairs taken directly from Adobe.
Adobe, for their part says they have not seen any unauthorized activity on any Adobe ID that has been stolen: "So far, our investigation has confirmed that the attackers obtained access to Adobe IDs and (what were at the time valid), encrypted passwords for approximately 38 million active users. We have completed email notification of these users. We also have reset the passwords for all Adobe IDs with valid, encrypted passwords that we believe were involved in the incident--regardless of whether those users are active or not."
According to the WSJ, BlackBerry executives recently met with Facebook to see what kind of interest there was for a potential bid for the company.
The meeting in of itself has renewed speculation that Facebook wants to build its own smartphone. So far, the company has relied on third parties like HTC to show off dedicated Facebook apps and user interfaces.
BlackBerry has been struggling to keep its businesses afloat and recently made themselves available for sale, as a whole or in pieces. The company has also recently announced it will no longer market phones to the general public, instead moving to only enterprise and government customers.
Although values fluctuate depending on what analysis you use, the company does have some marketable assets. A large patent trove is expected to bring in $2 billion, and the company's enterprise and security network is expected to bring in the same amount. The company also has $2.5 billion in cash, but it is burning through it quickly.
Earlier this week, LG announced its hotly anticipated curved G Flex smartphone.
The device goes on sale in Korea in November, with no timetable for a global launch as of yet.
G Flex devices feature a 720p 6-inch curved P-OLED, which LG claims is ultra-light, ultra-thin and flexible. The device runs on Android 4.2.2, is powered by a 2.26GHz Snapdragon 800, an Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB RAM and a 3500mAh battery.
In addition, the device has a 13-megapixel rear camera, and a 2.1-megapixel front camera. The OLED panel is also built with plastic substrates, for better durability. The display also includes Real RGB technology for all three sub-pixels in one pixel, increasing brightness.
After making huge waves by creating popular original series like 'House of Cards' and 'Orange is the New Black," Netflix is reportedly looking to get into the feature full-length film business with a similar model.
Suggested by Netflix's content head Ted Sarandos, the streaming company will back a "big" movie, which would be made available on Netflix on the same day it goes into theaters.
By becoming a first-run distributor like they do for TV and more recently, stand-up comedy, Netflix hopes to attract even more subscribers that may have been off-put by the company's lack of major movies.
"What we're trying to do for TV, the model should extend pretty nicely to movies. Meaning, why not premiere movies on Netflix, the same day they're opening in theaters? And not little movies -- there's a lot of ways, and lot of people to do that [already]. Why not big movies? Why not follow the consumers' desire to watch things when they want?"added Sarandos.
Nvidia has updated its Shield handheld console to Android4.3, giving access to thousands of Android games through its new 'console mode' support.
In order to control the games, Nvidia has made hundreds of profiles available from the cloud for the most popular touch-based Android games. Additionally, you can use the handheld's "Gamepad Mapper" to create your own custom controls, as well.
Another part of console mode is the ability to pair their gaming device to a TV via Bluetooth controller and play the Android games or watch HD movies. GameStream can also be used to stream and play the PC games on your TV.
All-star leaker @evleaks has shown off the upcoming Nexus 5 in a new colorway, white (with black trim), and a release date.
The two-tone device has a black front, white back plate, and black accents including the camera and volume rocker/power button.
Additionally, the post says the device is "coming on 11/1" although it is unclear if it will be available on that day or just announced by Google.
Thanks to a plethora of leaks, we know the 16GB model of the device will sell for $349 unlocked, come with Android 4.4 KitKat, a 5-inch 1080p display, a 2.3+ GHz Snapdragon 800, 2GB RAM, and dual 8/2 MP cameras.
Apple has reported their quarterly financial results this afternoon, having another standard strong quarter.
The company reported $7.5 billion profit on revenue of $37.5 billion, slight growth from the same quarter last year where they reported $36 billion.
Investors were generally satisfied, although gross margins fell from 40 percent to 37 percent, a steep decline that has spooked investors and analysts.
iPhone sales came in at 33.8 million, a large jump year-over-year from 26.9 million. The iPhone 5S and 5C were only on sale for 10 days of the quarter, but Apple sold at least 9 million of the devices, which they confirmed as their launch weekend figures.
iPad sales were flat, at 14.1 million, given that everyone expected the company to unveil new devices this month (which they did). The Mac line of computers reached 4.6 million devices sold, also flat and iPod sales continued their demise, at 3.5 million units sold and a negligible $573 million in revenue.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) has announced a new partnership with Samsung that will bring the company's TVs and tablets courtside during game time.
Samsung will supply all the courtside monitors that referees use to review calls.
The new deal is for three years, and will also include customized video content for all Samsung devices, including TVs, tablets, and smartphones. The NBA previously had deals with Haier and HP.
For Samsung, the deal is another way for the company to offer exclusive software and services to its customers, especially its Galaxy device users. Two years ago, Samsung tied up with NBA star Lebron James for its latest Galaxy smartphone, and then last year announced a major deal with Jay-Z with a long-form commercial during the NBA Finals.
Speaking during the company's quarterly earnings report today, CEO Tim Cook says to expect new products in new categories next year.
Cook did not speak of any specifics, but did give some hope that new products are finally coming from the tech giant.
"If you look at the skills Apple has from hardware and software services...no one has skills like this," Cook said. "We obviously believe we can use our skills to build other great products in areas we do not participate in today."
The company has been rumored to be working on an HDTV, a smartwatch and possibly a 4K UltraHD television set. The rumors have intensified over the last two years, but Apple has never confirmed what products it has been working on.
The popular warez site UploaderTalk is sending shockwaves across the industry as it has been purchased by the anti-piracy company Nuke Piracy.
The site collected data on users, file hosters and other websites for a full year before being sold, being a piracy 'honeypot' that has users terrified. The term honeypot refers to a facility that runs, encourages criminal behavior, and then collects incriminating data under false pretenses.
As an added bonus to rub it in, the operator of UT, who goes by the moniker WDF posted this on the homepage: "That's right – the biggest swerve ever. I, WDF, work for the anti-piracy people! UT was set up for a number of reasons. But mostly to be a sounding board, proof of concept ... and to collect data. I collected info on file hosts, web hosts, websites. I suckered shitloads of you."
WDF was formerly a senior member of the filesharing site WJunction, and UT was designed to attract pirates that upload for profit, using file hosting affiliate programs.
According to researchers at the University of Twente, the ultimate goal is to create a storage disk that will outlast "the human race itself."
The team has a goal of 1 million years, with a stretch goal of 1 billion years for an upcoming disk that will help preserve vital information forever.
"Whether it is music, art, literature, or scientific breakthroughs, people have tried to ensure preservation of information for future generations," reads the research team's published paper. The storage idea has been dubbed "gigayear" by the team. "At some point humanity as we know it will cease to exist and slowly all our achievements will disappear. Given sufficient time, all memory of humanity will be erased."
Of course, it is impossible to try to test the discs for longevity, but the team has used accelerated aging tests. The discs are "fabricated with tungsten and a protective silicon nitride layer." "A disk with data in the form of QR codes has been fabricated and was able to survive the temperature tests, and therefore will survive 1 million years of storage according to theory."
Wikipedia has confirmed they have begun piloting a service that sends articles via SMS (texts), with the service aimed at users in Africa and other nations where data plans are not as abundant.
The encyclopedia has teamed up with carrier Airtel to offer the service for free, with initial testing taking place in Kenya.
Dan Foy, technical partner manager for the Wikimedia Foundation, says the trial run will be active for 90 days: "Throughout most of the developing world, data-enabled smartphones are the exception, not the rule. That means billions of people currently cannot see Wikipedia on their phones."
The service, dubbed Wikipedia Zero, can be activated by dialing *515#. After activating, users will receive a text informing them how to search.
Africa has a large mobile phone population, but data plans are not as popular. Texting services, even those to send money or music, are very popular on the continent, however.
According to leaked documents, the Note 2, Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, and Galaxy S4 Active will all get Gear support, starting with the S4 on Monday and ending with the Active on December 24th.
Each of the phones have to get Android4.3 before support can be added for the Gear.
Any interested buyers in the Google Moto X now have the ability to get it cheaper.
The phone is now just $99 on contract when using AT&T's Moto Maker customization site, or if you are buying from US Cellular or Sprint, as well. If you are moving to US Cellular, the carrier is even adding a $75 gift card, effectively taking the price down to $25.
Verizon has not reduced the price, and AT&T says the standard black and white models still cost the original $199, so it actually pays to customize.
If you need more storage, the 32GB model has dropped to $150, from $250.
It is unclear how well the phone has been selling, as the original price point placed the phone against more powerful competitors, such as the Galaxy S4, HTC One and the iPhone.
Activist investor Carl Icahn wrote an open letter to Apple this week, not-so subtly demanding for the company to complete a $150 billion share buyback to increase shareholder value.
Apple has over $147 billion in cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet and has already approved a three-year $60 billion buyback program.
Icahn has 4.7 million shares in the company, after initially purchasing 3.4 million at $467 per share. The company trades at $525 per share today. At its peak, in September 2012 following the launch of the iPhone 5, Apple traded at $705 per share.
The letter in its entirety:
Dear Tim:
It was a pleasure meeting you for dinner at the end of September. When we met, my affiliates and I owned 3,875,063 shares of Apple. As of this morning, we owned 4,730,739 shares of Apple, an increase of 22% in position size, reflecting our belief the market continues to dramatically undervalue the company, even when taking into account the recent market appreciation, which in turn makes our proposal unchanged with respect to a $150 Billion buyback. We were pleased to hear at our dinner that you appreciated our input and that you would speak to us again in three weeks to continue the dialogue. In anticipation of doing so soon, we aim to reiterate in this letter the point of view already expressed to you directly with the hope of effectively summarizing it for the company's board of directors and our fellow shareholders.
Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation 4 will require an immediate update right of the box, otherwise many features will be useless to you.
The 300MB update will allow you to playback DVDs/Blu-rays, allow you to use Remote Play on the PS Vita and play games as they are being downloaded in the background. Additionally, the update will add the ability to record and upload gameplay.
Even with the update, Sony adds that "some features will not be available at launch, such as "suspend/resume mode" which is a feature that keeps the PS4 system in a low power state and promptly takes users back to their game."
The PS4 launches on November 15th in North America.
Amazon has posted their quarterly results today, showing another loss but seeing growth skyrocket.
The company saw revenue jump 24 percent year-over-year to $17.1 billion, while overall they had a loss of $41 million.
"It's been a busy few months--we launched a new Paperwhite and new Kindle Fires to positive reviews and surprised people with the revolutionary Mayday button--average Mayday response times are just 11 seconds!" Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a press release.
The black hole that is Living Social led to the loss for this quarter, as the company wrote down $132 million in losses on the daily deal site.
Amazon says it expects a net loss next quarter, as well, of $500 million, but revenue will see large growth to over $25 billion.
Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission has fined Samsung today for their efforts to undermine the reputation of local smartphone maker HTC.
The agency says Samsung organized an Internet campaign to praise their own devices on numerous sites, while slandering HTC phones at the same time.
Samsung will have to pay New Taiwan dollars 10 million ($340,000 USD). Much smaller fines were levied on two Taiwanese trading companies that it claimed were responsible for the actual posts.
This is not the first time the FTC has fined Samsung this year, hitting the company with a $100,000 fine for misleading advertising about the features of the Galaxy Y Duos.
A few weeks back, Instagram announced it would be adding advertisements to the popular photo sharing service.
The company has now revealed the first ad, giving U.S. users a 'preview' of what life will be for Instagram moving forward.
There is still no specific date for when the ads will launch in full, but the company did confirm again that 'occasional' in-feed images or even videos are coming soon.
Our focus with every product we build is to make Instagram a place where people come to connect and be inspired. Building Instagram as a business will help us better serve the global--and ever growing--Instagram community, while maintaining the simplicity you know and love.
As always, you own your own photos and videos. The introduction of advertising won't change this.
Multiple sources are reporting that HP is actively looking to sell off their mobile-computing patents, with CEO Meg Whitman looking for ways to add cash to the company's reserves.
Part of those patents and intellectual property is WebOS, the defunct smartphone operating system made popular by Palm before it went under and was acquired by Whitman's predecessor.
HP has been removing "restrictive conditions that made the patents unattractive to buyers" say the sources, which should allow for higher prices.
The company, which remains the world's second-largest PC maker, acquired WebOS (and Palm) for $1.2 billion in 2010, with the expectation they would build phones and tablets and use the well-regarded operating system in printers and other hardware. This never happened and the company wrote down the entire acquisition before shutting down the division entirely and open sourcing the code. The code was then sold to LG this year for an undisclosed amount, while HP retained the patents.
Twitter will IPO with 70 million shares, pricing at $17-$20 as the company hopes to raise $1.4 billion.
The updated numbers come via an amended S-1 filing revealed today.
"Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for the common stock. It is currently estimated that the initial public offering price per share will be between $17.00 and $20.00," the amendment reads. "Our common stock has been approved for listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "TWTR."
Additionally, it was revealed that most of the company's directors and top executives are selling small portions of their stock. For example, chairman Jack Dorsey will sell 0.6 percent of the company, or about $60 million worth, while co-founder Evan Williams will sell 1.6 percent and keep the other 10.4 percent.
The company is expected to IPO the week of November 6th.
A U.S. District Court has found Apple did not violate patents held by WiLAN related to CDMA and HSPA.
In September 2011, WiLAN sued a bunch of tech firms in Texas alleging infringement of U.S Patent No. RE37,802. Since then, it has managed to squeeze settlements and license agreements with six of the seven defendants: Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc., Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, HTC Corporation, Novatel Wireless, Inc. and Sierra Wireless Inc.
Apple was not in the mood to settle the case however, and trial proceedings began October 15, 2013. The outcome of the jury trial determined that Apple did not infringe the patent in question, and found that two of WiLAN's claims were invalid.
WiLAN does not expect the decision to impact on the license agreements already struck with other firms over the patents, adding it was disappointed with the Jury's decision and is currently reviewing its options with trial counsel, McKool Smith.
Ebay is seeking to expand its one-hour delivery services with the acquisition of Shutl.
The auction giant provides a similar service in San Francisco and New York, and now with the acquisition of Shutl is preparing to expand it across more than twenty other U.S. cities, while also bringing the service to the United Kingdom.
Basically, if the Ebay seller and buyer are located in the same area, the rapid delivery service can be used.
Shutl already operates in the UK, with clients such as Argos, Warehouse and Schuh. Customers can choose between a delivery as soon as possible, or select a one-hour window within which to receive the goods. It touts a record delivery time of under 14 minutes.
There is a cost to convenience of course, with Shutl charging up to £6.99 for the rapid delivery.
Facebook has changed its policies regarding violent video content again in a row over a video showing a woman being decapitated.
Facebook had ignited a storm when it refused to remove a video showing a masked individual decapitating a live woman, despite multiple complaints over the nature of the content. One of the complainants was the Australian police force.
As the story became more widespread, Facebook made changes so that a content warning was shown on the video, and said it would move to make users more aware of the nature of questionable violent content.
However, that wasn't enough to satisfy critics, including British Prime Minister David Cameron.
"It's irresponsible of Facebook to post beheading videos, especially without a warning. They must explain their actions to worried parents," Cameron tweeted. Of course, Facebook didn't "post" the content itself as the tweet suggests, but when made aware of it being available on its site, it certainly was Facebook's problem then.
Other critics questioned why its OK to post an extreme video showing a vile act of murder in the real world, and yet a picture of a woman with fully exposed breasts - non-violent imagery of body parts possessed by roughly half the human race - would be removed upon receipt of a complaint.
Microsoft has confirmed that a back-end change made by Twitter is causing Windows Phone devices to use excessive amounts of data downloading profile images.
In an attempt to provide a temporary solution for the problem, Microsoft has made changes to only sync Twitter accounts once per day, but has admitted its options are limited until Twitter resolves the back-end problem itself.
Removing a Twitter account from a Windows Phone device will stop the drain completely if you are concerned about data usage, until Twitter implements a permanent fix for the issue.
Users of TiVo's Roamio Plus and Roamio Pro boxes can now stream recorded content remotely to their iPhones or iPads, as long as there is a Wi-Fi connection available,
Apps for Android will be coming later on, while the iOS apps will also have to be tweaked to allow streaming over LTE networks.
For now, if Wi-Fi is available remotely then the updated TiVo app can stream live or recorded content from the Roamio Plus or Roamio Pro boxes. Content can also be downloaded locally to the device, though this is probably subject to content owner restrictions.
"Until now, your shows have been locked up in your set top box at home," said Jim Denney, Vice President of Product Marketing at TiVo.
"Now with a TiVo Roamio DVR, whether it's a hotel in Denmark, the waiting room at the dentist office, when you're stuck at the airport, or at the gym, out-of-home streaming gives you the level of choice, control and freedom that consumers have come to expect from TiVo."
A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center has found that around a third of all U.S. adults get news through Facebook.
Around two thirds of all U.S. adults use Facebook. Just under 80 percent of those surveyed by Pew said they find news when checking up on their friends on the social network.
"People go to Facebook to share personal moments - and they discover the news almost incidentally,"Amy Mitchell, director of journalism research at Pew, said.
Still, only 4 percent of Facebook "news consumers" described the social network as the most important way they get their news.
Younger Americans look more to social media, like Twitter, to keep up to date with news than with traditional media sources like television and print media.
Xbox LIVE Gold users will now be able to access PBS content on their Xbox 360 consoles.
The PBS app for Xbox 360 will feature hundreds of videos from PBS stations, including full-length episodes from new primetime programs as well as the PBS archives, with new national and local content updated daily. Content from programs such as NOVA, Frontline, American Experience and Austin City Limits will be available.
Xbox 360 users will access and personalize their PBS experiences by identifying their local PBS station, which will provide them access to locally produced content along with signature PBS programs.
"This launch is an important next step in our strategy to make PBS content available through a variety of platforms, while maintaining the connection between the viewer and their local PBS station," said Jon Brendsel, Vice President of Product Development, PBS Digital.
"While PBS member stations will always be the first place to find high-quality PBS programming, the launch of our Xbox 360 offering recognizes that viewers are looking to engage with their local station in the time and manner they choose."
Samsung has sold over 40 million Galaxy S4 units since the smartphone was launched six months ago, according to the company.
In the first two months of availability, the Galaxy S4 sold 20 million units and reached 30 million after four months on the market. Since then, sales of the Samsung flagship smartphone slowed down but have still crossed the 40 million milestone.
That's according to Samsung chief executive JK Shin, and the company has gone on to release the curved Galaxy Round, the Galaxy Note 3 and the Galaxy Gear.
The Galaxy S4 has a 5-inch, 1080p Super AMOLED display, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 APQ8064T processor (upgraded to 800 in limited LTE-A model), 2GB of RAM and with 16GB internal storage (upgradable to 64GB via microSDXC).
Microsoft has confirmed that 8 users can use Party Chat on Xbox One at launch.
Allowing 8 users to join a Party Chat matches the limit of the Xbox 360 and that of the PlayStation 4 (PS4) for voice chat, announced earlier this week by Sony.
"At launch, up to eight people will be able to join a Party Chat at a time on Xbox One," a Microsoft representative told Game Informer.
Xbox One launches in selected markets around the world from November 22, priced at $499 in the United States and €499 in the European Union (£429 in the UK).
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has announced that its iPlayer apps for Android and iOS have been downloaded over 20 million times.
In September 2013, a record 70 million TV requests came from mobiles and tablets, compared to just 5 million in September 2010, and TV requests from mobile devices now make up 41 per cent of all iPlayer requests, compared with just 6 per cent three years ago.
Christmas Day 2011 and 2012 were the most popular days so far for downloads of the iPlayer apps, with 229,200 and 385,600 downloads respectively, driven by lucky owners of new phones or tablets who go on an app binge.
iPlayer usage spikes at night time, around 10pm as people catch up with their favorite programmes in bed. It then rises again in the morning during commuting hours.
"With over 20 million downloads of the app and record-breaking BBC iPlayer requests on handheld devices, we are thrilled that viewers are increasingly taking their favourite BBC shows with them to watch whenever and wherever they are. And with tablets the top of many people's Christmas list for 2013, we expect this to continue to grow even further," Dan Taylor, Head of BBC iPlayer for BBC Future Media said.
Ouya will also roll out demo kiosks to Target stores, while the retailer will promote the microconsole with in-store video ads and a $10 game card with the purchase of the $99 console.
Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman also said that the company is in talks with Wal-Mart about selling the console, and will expand the availability of the console across Western Europe.
Ouya has been available since June, the end result of a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Microsoft has dropped the cost of a Surface Pro tablet by a further $100, following the release of the Surface Pro 2.
The price cut is only applicable to the United States and Canada up until December 31. It follows Microsoft's decision to cut the product by $100 back in August, and is clearly aimed at reducing remaining stock of the first generation Surface Pro now that the second is here.
The price cut applies to both the 64GB and 128GB models, pricing them at $699 and $799 respectively.
The Surface Pro 2 upgrades to an Intel Core i5-4200U 1.6Ghz, with Microsoft saying it is 20 percent faster, has 50 percent better graphics performance and operates quieter than the first generation Pro. Up to 512GB of internal storage is available, and with either 4GB or 8GB or RAM. It runs Windows 8.1.
Samsung has been fined $340,000 after an investigation found it was behind an astroturfing campaign aimed at praising its products and attacking competitors.
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) in Taiwan announced in April this year that it was investigating claims that Samsung was using an army of paid commenters to market its products and bash those of a competitor in Taiwanese Internet forums.
At the time, the media identified the victim as HTC Corp.
The FTC found that Samsung was indeed behind such a campaign, using a large number of hired writers through third-party firms. Two firms were fined over $100,000 for their part.
Google is providing parental controls through a new 'supervised users' feature that is now in beta.
This means that kids could use their parents' chromebooks (or browser) as a supervised user, allowing the parent to visit chrome.com/manage to review a history of web pages visited, and to manage a block list of sites and other permissions.
Chrome beta for Windows, Mac and Linux has the feature built in now.
Samsung Electronics has apologized to Chinese consumers following a state TV programme about problems with its devices.
A programme broadcast on China Central Television (CCTV) highlighted issues with the Galaxy S3 and Note2 models available in the Chinese market. According the report, software crashes were being caused by internal multimedia cards in the devices.
"As far as management problems caused inconvenience to our customers, we offer our sincere apologies," Samsung Electronics said in a statement on its Chinese website.
It also said it would fix the devices free of charge and refund any customers who had previously paid to have their devices fixed by an authorized service center.
Earlier this year, CCTV also criticized Apple for using different warranty and customer service policies in China than in other countries.
The BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) apps for Android phones and iPhones was downloaded more than 10 million times in just 24 hours.
The app quickly shot to the number 1 spot in the Apple App Store free app rankings in the first 24 hours in more than 75 different countries, including the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. On Google Play, it received more than 60,000 five star reviews in its first day.
Over six million people had opted to be alerted when BBM became available for the platforms before launch, and one million had installed an unreleased leaked version for Android several weeks ago.
"We committed to delivering a BBM experience on iPhone and Android that was equal to that on BlackBerry 10. That means bringing BBM Video, BBM Voice and BBM Channels to Android and iPhone customers too," BlackBerry's official blog reads.
According to Billboard, YouTube is developing its own premium subscription on-demand music service, one that should rival Spotify in scope.
Just like rivals, YouTube's service will be built around mobile listening and will include a free tier and an unlimited premium tier.
Google, YouTube's parent, already offers a subscription service, its Play All Access, with music from the major labels and indies. Premium features would include unlimited streaming without ads, and the ability to cache music for offline periods.
Making the free option different than rivals is the fact that it is expected to include mobile access. Spotify charges $10 for that luxury.
The service is expected to launch before the end of the year.
LG has announced today that it will be releasing its first Firefox OS-based smartphone, the Fireweb.
The low-end 4-inch device has a 480x320 resolution, is powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm processor and 4GB internal storage. The 5MP camera has autofocus and LED flash, unlike previous Firefox phones.
LG has made the device available in Brazil, and it costs $449 BRL ($207 US) off-contract and $129 BRL ($59 US) on-contract, perhaps too expensive given the specs and fledgling operating system.
The Firefox OS is now available on phones in Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay.
HP CEO Meg Whitman has confirmed that the company will be entering the 3D printer market starting in the Q3 2014.
"We are excited about 3D printing," Whitman added. "We want to lead this business. HP labs is looking at it."
Whitman noted that it was natural to get into the business given the company's long history with printers.
There are, of course, issues with 3D printing in its current state, but HP wants to get in early: "To print a bottle can take eight to ten hours. That's all very interesting, but it is like watching ice melt. 3D printing is in its infancy. It is a big opportunity and we are all over it. We will have something by the middle of next year."
The exec adds that their printer will be aimed at service providers. "How do we commercialize to print faster, at lower price points? To enable service providers?" asked Whitman.
According to the Verge, Amazon has been trying to finalize their oft-rumored set-top box in time for the holidays but they have run into more delays.
The box, which would compete directly with WD Live, Roku, Apple TV and others, is expected to run on a modified Fire OS, and would have allowed for third party apps in addition to all standard Amazon apps such as shopping, Amazon MP3 and Amazon Prime Instant Video.
Development of the box has been reported on since at least April, with the work being done at Amazon's R&D division better known as Lab126.
The sources claim the delay will push the hardware into next year, missing out on the lucrative holiday season in the U.S. (and possibly abroad).
As promised, Aereo has arrived for Android devices.
For the time being, only Android smartphones and tablets with 4.2 or higher can use the service.
Currently, it is available in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Salt Lake City, Houston, and Dallas and a planned Chicago launch has been delayed. Additionally, the company says it will expand to Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and San Antonio, but without a timetable.
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.
Microsoft has finally confirmed that Instagram will be making its way to Windows Phone handsets.
In addition, the video sharing tool Vine and the popular news reading app Flipboard will also be made available for the platform in the next few weeks.
Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has 150 million users and is the most popular photo and video sharing app on the Web. Many have cited the lack of the app as proof that developers do not care for the Windows Phone environment, which lacks in quality apps when compared to Android or iPhone.
Windows Phone sales have increased over the year, and the biggest seller, Nokia, is said to have sold 8 million Lumia units during their most recent quarter, the seasonally slow Q3. Perhaps more big-name apps will be headed to Windows in the near future.
During their annual iPad event, Apple took time to mention some milestones the company has hit.
The iOS App Store has reached 1 million apps, up from 900,000 in June, as almost exponential growth continues. Over 60 billion total apps have been downloaded, as well, up 10 billion from a similar announcement in May.
By comparison, Google's Android Play Store also has 1 million apps and reached the 60 billion plateau a few short months ago.
CEO Tim Cook says these downloads have led to $13 billion being paid out to developers since launch.
Finally, the exec noted that the new iTunes Radio has been a hit, with over 20 million users trying it out and playing over 1 billion song.
Nintendo has confirmed that it has ended production of the Wii console for the Japanese market.
The console debuted in late 2006 and quickly became a runaway hit, with demand far exceeding supply for the entire first year of its availability.
Global sales of the console reached 100 million this June, making it one of the best selling consoles of all-time and placed sales far ahead of rivals by Sony and Microsoft.
Nintendo says production will continue on a limited basis for markets outside of Japan, but really it looks like the company is just trying to liquidate any remaining inventory and some smaller spot orders.
The company will now devote all of its production in the console market to the Wii U, which has been a huge failure, falling way short of the gaming company's own internal expectations. The Wii U has been so bad that major developers have even stopped producing titles for it.
Apple has unveiled their iPad Mini with Retina display today, a huge update to their popular tablet.
The new device will have a 2048 x 1536 resolution, matching that of the iPad Air, and under the hood is the new 64-bit A7 processor.
Apple would not say when the tablet will be available except to say "in November," starting at $399 for Wi-fi/16GB model and in white/silver or gray/black.
The company has been rumored to be seeing manufacturing delays for the Mini Retina display.
In addition, last year's iPad Mini will see a small price drop to $299. If you want 128GB model of the iPad Mini 2, that will cost you $699 to start.
Apple unveiled their latest full-sized iPad today, the newly branded iPad Air.
The design is very similar to the iPad Mini and the new device is much lighter and thinner than any of its predecessors. In order to keep the display size the same, the bezel has been shrunk again, as well.
iPad Air tablets are just 7.5mm thin and weigh 1 pound, 20 and 28 percent reductions, respectively.
Under the hood is the 64-bit A7 processor and M7 motion coprocessor, a 5MP iSight camera, MIMO 802.11n support and 10 hours of battery life. The Retina 9.7-inch 2048 x 1536 resolution display remains the same.
The new iPad Air will be available starting November 1st for $499 (16GB/Wi-Fi) in space gray and black r silver and white.
Apple announced today that there latest operating system update, OS X 10.9 Mavericks will be available starting today.
Best of all, the update is free through the Mac App Store.
As with all OS updates, Apple promises increased speed and battery life efficiency and the update will overhaul the aesthetics to better match that of iOS 7 and its cleaner design.
In addition, the OS will have an improved notification system, including inline replies, support for multiple monitor and full screen applications, a complete refresh of Finder and a new "iCloud Keychain" to better save your passwords.
Many of the apps have been updated, as well, some adding new functionality.
The update is available to everyone running OS X 10.6 or higher and now leaves Microsoft as the only company that charges for their operating system.
After teasing it earlier this year, Apple has launched the new desktop powerhouse Mac Pro, set for release in December.
The new Pro is built in the U.S. and can support 4K video editing.
Apple's latest is 10 inches high, 6.6 inches in diameter (it's a cylinder), and weighs 11 pounds.
The base model starts at $2999 and features a 3.7GHz Intel Xeon E5 with 10MB L3 cache and Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz, 12GB (three 4GB) of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC memory, Dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs with 2GB of GDDR5 VRAM each. Flash storage shockingly starts at just 256GB, but can be configured up to 1TB.
For connectivity there are four USB 3.0 ports, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, dual gigabitethernet, and HDMI 1.4 UltraHD.
Apple has significantly updated their MacBook Pro with Retina display line of notebooks.
Starting with the 13-inch model, the new laptop is 0.71 inches thick and 3.46 pounds, will be powered by a latest-generation Haswell core 15 processor at 2.4GHz, include 4GB RAM, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, a 128GB SSD and an incredible 9 hours of battery life.
The 15-inch base model will add a Haswell 2.0GHz Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD along with new Intel Iris Pro integrated graphics. Additionally, the device has 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Thunderbolt 2 ports. The notebook will have a very impressive 8 hours of battery life, as well.
With the refresh specs also come some price cuts, as the 13-inch model will start at $1299 and its larger brother will start at $1999.
According to a new report, HTC is planning an Android smartwatch.
The device will have a camera, but other specifics are unclear including price.
HTC has struggled mightily this year, and just posted their first every quarterly loss. The company, which once controlled over 15 percent of the smartphone market, now has around 3 percent.
Samsung and Sony have already unveiled smartwatches and Apple is expected to do so next year.
Soon to be overshadowed by Apple's new tablets, Microsoft has made their Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 tablets available.
The tablets are on sale at Microsoft retail stores, www.MicrosoftStore.com, and a handful of retailers in 21 initial markets.
Microsoft says if you pre-ordered, you should be receiving your tablet within 24 hours.
Surface Pro 2
The Pro 2, which comes with the full version of Windows including legacy app support for hundreds of thousands of your favorite applications, has seen its share of hardware updates, as well.
For the display, it remains a 10.6-inch panel with 1080presolution, but Microsoft says the tablet has 50 percent better color accuracy and better graphics performance.
Under the hood is a 1.6GHz Core i5 Haswell processor which will give users 75 percent better battery life than the previous model, a huge boost. When added to the Power Cover (check our other post), the tablet will have over 300 percent better battery life than the first-generation model. For connectivity, the device has three USB 2 ports, a single USB 3 port, mini DisplayPort and Ethernet. There is an included stylus, as well.
Although it is certainly not a unique call, Tokyo-based analyst firm Advanced Research Japan says Apple will begin selling UltraHD TVs in 2014.
Analyst Masahiko Ishino says the company will begin selling 55-inch and 65-inch models starting in the Q4 next year.
Apple has been rumored to be building HDTVs since at least 2010, and in 2011, Apple founder Steve Jobs told his biographer that the company had "finally cracked" how to build the TV with a user interface that could wirelessly sync with all of Apple's other devices, including Macs and iOS. CEO Tim Cook said earlier this year that TVs remained an "area of intense focus" for Apple but so far they have only released the Apple TV set-top box, which the company had admitted is more of a hobby.
The TVs are expected to be priced at $1500 to $2500, which would place them in the highest price range for current model TVs, but on the low end of 4K TVs. LG Display will supply over 70 percent of the LCDs, Samsung will supply the GPUs and Corning will supply Gorilla Glass 3 screen protection, says the analyst.
Earlier this month we reported on Full Screen Mario, a browser-based HTML5 version of the original Super Mario game.
As expected, Nintendo and its copyright lawyers are not fans of the game.
Full Screen Mario is an open-source effort started by college student Josh Goldberg. It recreates Super Mario using just HTML5, letting you play the game in your browser as opposed to on a console. The site has seen lots of traffic since its launch, at some points even being overwhelmed.
Nintendo says the content infringes on their "intellectual property rights," and has asked the student to take the site down. Goldberg admits he never got permission from Nintendo, and also admits he "didn't care" about copyright because he started the project as a programming exercise.
Netflix reported their quarterly earnings yesterday, smashing analyst expectations.
The company saw revenue grow to $1.11 billion and earnings of 52 cents per share. It also managed to hit the high end of its guidance adding 1.3 million domestic subscribers.
As of September 30th, the streaming company now has 31.1 million U.S. subscribers, surpassing rival HBO.
Moving internationally, the company added 9.19 million subscribers, also better than expected. The company has invested significantly in international expansion and it appears to be paying off.
Netflix has also been rumored to be on the verge of some more major deals. Marvel is creating five new original series for streaming providers, and Netflix is of course in the running. Additionally, the company has reportedly been in talks to be added as a standalone app or channel for cable company's set-top boxes.
AT&T has announced today that it will sell or lease 9700 cell towers to Crown Castle International, one of the largest wireless tower operators in the world.
Under the terms of the deal, Crown Castle will buy 600 towers outright and will have the rights to run another 9100 for an average lease of 28 years for $4.85 billion in cash.
Additionally, the operator has the right to acquire the towers outright for $4.2 billion into the future.
AT&T will lease the network capacity of the towers for the next decade, paying $1900 per month per tower, with rent going up 2 percent per year to account for inflation.
"This deal is good for AT&T and our shareholders," Bill Hogg, an AT&T senior vice president for network planning and engineering, said in a statement. "This deal will let us monetize our towers while giving us the ability to add capacity as we need it. And we'll get additional financial flexibility to continue to invest in our business, maintain a strong balance sheet and return value to our shareholders."
Crown Castle runs towers in the U.S.' top 100 markets and all over Australia.
SoftBank, the new owner of wireless carrier Sprint, has taken a large 57 percent stake in U.S. wireless device distributor Brightstar.
The Japanese co. will pay $1.26 billion for the stake, valuing the privately held distributor at $2.2 billion.
SoftBank will increase its ownership to 70 percent "over the next five years, or upon certain events," although it is unclear what those events may be.
As part of the deal, Brightstar will "become the exclusive provider of handsets, accessories, and services to certain SoftBank telecommunications affiliates," with the company prepared to buy $20 billion in handsets, accessories, and services through these connections.
In addition, Brightstar will also "have a preferential right to provide services including distribution, supply chain, handset insurance, buy-back and trade-in, multi-channel retail, and financial services to certain SoftBank telecommunications affiliates."
The distributor purchases handsets from over 100 manufacturers and then supplies them to carriers. The company also handles many trade-in and buy-back programs for larger retailers and carriers.
Aereo has confirmed that the service will launch in Detroit on October 28th.
Currently, it is available in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Salt Lake City, Houston, and Dallas and a planned Chicago launch has been delayed.
Additionally, the company says it will expand to Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and San Antonio, but without a timetable.
If you live in Detroit, the counties covered are Lapeer, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, Sanilac, Saint Clair, Washtenaw and Wayne.
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.
Earlier this year, Google added voice calling to their desktop version of the Hangouts messaging platform, and has now expanded that capability to iOS.
iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch owners can now make free calls within the US and Canada, and you can also use your existing Google Voice number.
The company says there is no current voicemail support, so it is clearly not a Google Voice equivalent as of yet.
Additionally, the update adds the ability to send and receive animated GIFs that will play in your thread without needing to click through to the browser.
Although it had been leaked last month, Lenovo has now officially announced the A10 Android-based laptop.
The notebook runs on Android 4.2, has a 10.1-inch HD display, a 1.6GHz quad-core Cortex A9 processor, 32GB internal storage and 2GB RAM.
Lenovo uses a customized Android user interface when in 'laptop mode' including an app launcher, task bar, a status bar "for quick, intuitive access to the app library and desktop," and a built-in file manager that supposedly works like Windows search.
In addition, the device can be flipped to "stand mode," which is optimized for touch-enabled apps and entertainment and may not necessarily utilize the full-sized keyboard.
The convertible will go on sale in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific starting at $250 USD (equivalent).
According to new research from Northeastern University, the U.S. took down nearly 11 million legal, legitimate files when it raided and shut down cyber locker Megaupload last year.
For their research, the school looked into the percentage of legal and copyright-infringing content on six file-hosting services. They found that infringing content did outnumber legit content on all of the file hosting sites, but the volume of legal files was much higher than the government would have you believe.
The school (along with colleagues around the globe), examined tens of millions of files that were uploaded to FileFactory, Easy-share, Filesonic, Wupload, Megaupload and Undeadlink. Each of the sites, except for FileFactory, went down after Megaupload, most by their own accord.
In order to see if files were infringing or not, the researchers extracted metadata from the site's uploads using a link checker. The researchers "controlled for several factors including split archives, and then manually determined the legitimacy of the files based on random samples of 1,000 uploads per site," says TorrentFreak.
Google has finally made the Chromecast Android app available to international users of the device.
The app should be available in the Google Play Store of your respective country but the search giant has not released a full list.
Chromecast hardware itself is also still not available outside of North America but Amazon and some other retailers have reportedly shipped the device (possibly by accident) and others have simply had American counterparts ship them the dongle.
Now with the restrictions lifted on the app, it is quite possible that the hardware's availability is set to increase, as well.
An unemployed Chinese couple has been accused of selling their newborn baby for 50,000 yuan (about $8000 USD) and then using the money to buy an iPhone, among other items.
Mr. Teng and Ms. Zhang, as they are been referred to in the Chinese media, are set to stand trial in Shanghai for auctioning off their child to the highest bidder.
Making matters worse, prosecutors say the couple hid the woman's pregnancy for all nine months, even going as far as to tell neighbors that she had a stomach tumor when the bump became visible. Almost immediately after birth (at home), the couple handed the baby over to the buyer who then deposited the funds into their bank account.
For their defense, the couple says due to their lack of jobs, they were selling the baby in its own best interest. They hoped the child would be placed in a "good, stable home and receive a good education. We did not give the baby away for money but in order to give it more security."
Despite that claim, the couple used thousands of dollars within days of the birth on the iPhone, expensive sneakers and more.
Microsoft removed the Windows RT 8.1 update from its Windows Store earlier this morning, as they investigated a 'situation.'
Read the post: "Windows RT 8.1. Microsoft is investigating a situation affecting a limited number of users updating their Windows RT devices to Windows RT 8.1. As a result, we have temporarily removed the Windows RT 8.1 update from the Windows Store. We are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience. We will provide updates as they become available."
It remains unknown what the real "situation" is that is keeping Microsoft from returning the download, but it follows reports that Windows 8.1 users were also having issues updating from Windows 8.
Reportedly, although unconfirmed by Microsoft, the update has been failing due to a boot configuration error.
The Pirate Bay's browser attempt at anti-censorship, PirateBrowser, has surpassed 1 million downloads.
About a half of a percent of Pirate Bay users are accessing the site using the browser, says TorrentFreak.
When asked about the success of the browser, TPB added, "I guess that a lot of people want to see the websites their governments and courts are trying to hide from them."
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.
As an added kick, the browser comes with pre-loaded bookmarks including The Pirate Bay, IsoHunt, Fenopy, EZTV, KickassTorrents, Bitsnoop, H33T and more.
More and more users are accessing YouTube via their mobile devices.
Google says mobile devices now account for 40 percent of all traffic to YouTube, jumping from 25 percent in 2012 and just 6 percent in 2011.
The search giant has been investing heavily in mobile, and not just on Android. The company recently took back control of its YouTube app on iOS from Apple, and has been significantly improving the experience.
Hunter Walk, a former director of product management tweeted the figure this week. Walk adds that YouTube formed the mobile team in 2007, a full year before Android and iOS got into the mix and before mobile data was even a real feature for phones. The company made sure to transcode video to be played on mobiles and made sure to get the app pre-installed on the iPhone.
Who is the YouTube of mobile & tablets? YOUTUBE! We made early bet & now accts for 40% of traffic. Great job @dobry2000 & team!
Apple has begun recalling flash storage drives that were used in previous generation MacBook Air ultrabooks.
The 64GB and 128GB drives were used in systems sold between June 2012 and June 2013, and Apple says all those affected can get a free replacement at an Apple retail store or an Apple authorized service provider.
Apple "also recommends backing up your data on a regular basis until you receive a replacement drive."
In addition, if your drive has failed and you had to pay for a replacement, Apple will refund you.
If you think you may be affected, check Apple's support page here.
Lorain Wong, HTC's head of global public relations, corporate and internal communications, has left the company just four months after joining.
The exec had previously worked for AT&T and CBS Evening News, as well as leading cable provider Asia Global Crossing's marketing communications team for a decade.
HTC says Wong has resigned for personal reasons but will remain as a consultant for another four months.
There has been an exodus from the struggling smartphone maker, with six senior executives leaving in the past two years including the previous marketing boss John Wang and even Chief Financial Officer Winston Yung.
The news is somewhat surprising as HTC recently rebranded the entire company and began an expensive marketing campaign with Robert Downey Jr. as the spokesperson.
Regional American carrier U.S. Celluar has announced that it will be getting the new iPhones starting next month.
After promising in May that it would get all iPhones moving forward, the carrier had not given a concrete release date for the new iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S flagships.
Pricing has not been revealed yet, but the carrier will announce that next week.
The iPhone 5C features the same specs of last year's iPhone but includes new colorways and a plastic back. The iPhone 5S features a 64-bit processor, a fingerprint scanner and completely rehauled internals.
PC giant Lenovo has signed an NDA to examine BlackBerry's books, as it looks to purchase parts of the company.
Reuters says any bid for the entire company would be met with extensive regulatory huddles and is likely not worth the attempt for the Chinese company.
BlackBerry has been exploring a sale or other strategic 'alternatives' since August and has seen significant interest for different parts of the company, including its patent trove valued at over $2 billion.
The company received a $9 per share bid for the entire company from its largest shareholder, but investors do not appear to believe that deal will ever take place as the stock has traded down to $8.20 since the offer was made.
BlackBerry's most marketable assets are its secure network, which still handles millions of confidential messages and emails daily, its patents, and its messenger application. Its consumer and enterprise hardware business is considered a blackhole, and does not appear to have any interest but could mark an easier entry point to the North American market for Lenovo if they so chose to look into that division.
Sony has unveiled the price for their upcoming PlayStation 4 console today for Brazilian gamers, and the price is outrageous.
The electronics giant says the console will sell for Brazilian Real 3,999 in the country, the equivalent of about $1830 in US Dollars.
Games will be no better, selling for Real 179, or about $82 in USD. The increased costs are due to import fees, taxes and tariffs, and South America generally has a smaller gaming audience for next-gen consoles as markets saturate for previous generations.
The rival Xbox One will also sell at a premium, selling for Real 2199, about $1010, but clearly a huge discount to the Sony system.
Ubuntu 13.10 aka Saucy Salamander, is now available and with it comes the first truly mobile version of the Linux distribution.
While the distro does support smartphones and tablets, there are no Ubuntu mobile devices available just yet, with parent company Canonical stating that early 2014 could be a possibility. There are a few Nexus devices that can run the software currently, however.
As with all new operating systems, there are a few glaring issues right out of the gate. There are practically no native mobile apps, and as of yet Ubuntu Touch cannot be run as a full desktop version using HDMI as promised.
Canonical says this is because the mobile-friendly display server, Mir, is not ready for a full desktop version, yet. The company says "outstanding technical difficulties" means the feature will launch with April's 14.04 release.
"The desktop at this stage doesn't fully support the new graphics architecture that is now enabled on the phone OS," Richard Collins, Canonical's product manager for mobile, added (via Om). "It's something we are working very rapidly towards."
Google, which has still not confirmed the device despite pictures, specs, manuals and now an official listing being leaked, has revealed the price for their upcoming Nexus 5.
The device, which is likely to be unveiled at the end of the month, will start at $349 for the 16GB model, likely meaning the 32GB internal storage model will launch at $399.
From what we know of the specs, the Nexus 5 will have a 5-inch 1080p display, be powered by a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB RAM, dual cameras 8MP/2MP and the new Android 4.4 KitKat right out of the box.
Check the leaked pics here (via Google Play Store):
The update has begun rolling out today, starting in Germany but will eventually get to all carriers across the globe, even the notoriously slow U.S. wireless industry.
This week, Acer has unveiled the second-generation model, the W4, which runs on the newly launched Windows 8.1.
Acer's latest has the same 8-inch display, but this time with a 1,280 x 800, optically bonded IPS display for improved anti-glare and daylight use.
Under the hood is a new Bay Trail processor at 1.8GHz which should improve performance significantly, and the tablet has 32GB internal storage, dual 2MP/5MP cameras, a microSD slot, a microHDMI port and a standard micro-USB port for charging.
Acer is also including a full copy of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 edition for productivity.
The tablet will go on sale later this month starting at $330.
Microsoft has gleefully reminded consumers that its Windows 8.1 operating system is now available across the globe as a digital download and upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users.
Starting tomorrow, the OS will be available as a packaged DVD product and on new computers, adds the software giant.
As part of the launch, the customer is also giving away $10 promotional Windows Store gift cards to 810 people everyday that Tweet their new Start screen along with the hashtag #Mystart on Twitter.
Windows 8.1 brings a lot of features that should improve the experience of Windows 8 including improved multitasking, the return of the Start button (in a basic respect), the introduction of a better universal search, improved native Windows 8 apps and the ability to make the desktop your default when you open the computer rather than the Live Tile page.
The once-popular torrent index site isoHunt will shut down for good following a settlement with the MPAA and Hollywood studios.
In addition to shutting down, the settlement terms include a $110 million penalty against the site and its owner, Gary Fung.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian says shes has canceled a planned hearing due to the new settlement. Despite winning the original case against them (which began in 2006), the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in March ruled against isoHunt, claiming "there is more than enough unrebutted evidence in the summary judgment record to prove Fung offered his services with the object of promoting their use to infringe copyrighted material."
Finally, the settlement will prohibit Fung from "further profiting from the infringement of MPAA member studio content."
Reads the MPAA's statement: The news "sends a strong message that those who build businesses around encouraging, enabling and helping others to commit copyright infringement are themselves infringers, and will be held accoutbale for their actions."
T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere has strongly suggested today that the carrier will be receiving data-enabled iPads following Apple's upcoming October 22nd event.
The carrier first began offering iPhones back in April and has never carried iPads.
Consumers have long been able to insert T-Mobile SIM cards into their iPhones and iPads, but an official deal with Apple would allow users to walk into retail stores and purchase the tablets pre-loaded with a T-Mobile SIM card and optimizations for the company's fledgling LTE service.
On October 22nd, Apple is expected to introduce the iPad Mini 2 with Retina display and Touch ID, and a fifth-generation iPad with the new A7 64-bit processor.
According to a new report from ATD, Twitter is looking to release a standalone app for messaging, alongside an overhaul of its current private messaging features.
Sources say the updates are coming in "the near future" and the company has been working on such features for some time.
The move comes at a time where global cross-platform messaging apps have seen huge jumps in popularity, with services like WhatsApp and Line seeing over 200 million users. Social networking giant Facebook has its own messaging app, and BlackBerry has been working on its own BlackBerry Messenger.
Among the evidence that Twitter has been working on the service update is the fact that it recently began testing allowing users you are not following to send direct messages.
It appears that Amazon may have let the cat out of the bag on the Google Nexus 5, with the retailer listing a launch date for the smartphone alongside a Nexus 5 case.
The Ringke Fusion for Nexus 5 is available on the e-tailer's site, with a ship date of October 31st, teasing that the phone will made available on that same day.
Included with the listing is a render of the Nexus 5, just like the ones we have seen over the past month, but one that has not been confirmed by LG or Google yet.
The device is expected to feature a 5-inch 1080p display, a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB RAM, dual 8MP/2MP cameras and the new Android 4.4 KitKat.
UK music retailer HMV has finally begun selling digital music, just months after emerging from bankruptcy after being purchased by Hilco, a retail restructuring firm.
HMV digital MD James Couglan said of the new store: "I'm excited to say that we're putting music ownership back into focus with the launch of our new digital music products. For the first time, music lovers have the ability to experience the traditional feel of HMV on the high street and have the option to discover and build a digital music collection, delivered and managed across devices, from HMV, the Home of Entertainment."
"An exciting vision is unfolding and I look forward to announcing further developments regarding our plans for 2014 in the coming weeks - this is just the beginning!"
As with other rival stores, you can download content directly from the app or the web store, and the music can be saved directly into your iTunes or WMP libraries.
LG has announced that their G Pad 8.3 tablet is now available in the U.S.
Among the powerful specs are an 8.3-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200 pixels / 273 ppi) display, a 1.7GHz Quad-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 Processor, 16GB eMMC internal storage, 2GB RAM, dual 5MP/1.3MP cameras, Android 4.2.2 and a large 4,600mAh battery,
The device will sell for $350 and is now available online and will be available in-store at Best Buy starting on November 3rd.
"From its light weight to its sleek design, LG G Pad 8.3 is the ultimate complement to the Android smartphone experience," said James Fishler, senior vice president, marketing, LG Electronics USA. "LG G Pad 8.3 delivers top-notch viewing and entertainment for Android users with its impressive Full HD screen and useful, intuitive multitasking tools like those found in LG G2."
Amazon has announced that its new Kindle Fire HDX is now up for pre-order in the UK and Canada.
The flagship tablet will begin shipping on November 14th in the UK and November 26th in Canada, and both will sell at a premium to the U.S. model.
For the 7-inch model, the pre-order price is $254 CDN/£199 and the 8.9-inch model, with more internal storage, starts at $284 CDN/£229.
The displays feature very nice resolutions, 1920x1200 at 323 ppi for 7" and 2560x1600 at 339 ppi for the 8.9" and under the hood are quad-core Snapdragon 800 processors running at 2.2GHz. Amazon boasts that they are the only company offering clock speeds above 2GHz.
In addition, the company has dropped the weight of the larger tablet to 13.2 ounces, 34 percent lighter than the second-generation Kindle Fires. The tablets will launch with Fire OS 3.0, which upgrades and improves on many of Amazon's popular features such as X-Ray, Cloud Collections and Goodreads. The company says battery life is much improved, as well, with up to 11 hours of mixed use, and 17 hours of reading.
Amazon has added dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus audio and virtual 5.1 multi-channel surround sound, and dual cameras, 2MP/8MP with 1080p video recording capability.
Vizo has unveiled the sequel to its Co-Star set-top box, dubbed the Co-Star LT.
The $80 box offers 1080pstreaming, 3D, advanced HTML5 support and Vizio's Internet Apps Plus platform.
An interesting feature of the Internet Apps Platform is that it allows you to watch live TV while you browse through streaming apps like Netflix, Hulu Plus and YouTube allowing you to never not have something running.
Vizio says you can sync up your smartphone with select content, and the mobile device can then be used as a second screen, allowing you to switch between your TV and phone/tablet seamlessly.
"The latest generation of VIZIO Internet Apps Plus represents years of forward-looking development and design. Delivering more power through a new full-screen mode and enhanced multi-screen viewing features, the platform offers an incredibly intuitive and seamless entertainment experience," said Matt McRae, VIZIO Chief Technology Officer. "The Co-Star LT stream player's unique ability to integrate live TV and streaming apps, offers standard HDTV owners a simple upgrade option. One of the most advanced smart TV experiences on the market, the new VIZIO Internet Apps Plus platform also gives users access to the added convenience of second-screen interactivity."
Microsoft has unveiled its new GDR3 (General Distribution Release) for Windows Phone 8, showing off the features of the operating system.
The update will begin rolling out to Windows Phone owners later this month and continue until the end of the year, including a number of enhancements for future hardware.
GDR3 will offer Start screen support for screens between 5-7 inches, and can now support resolutions up to 1080p.
Additionally, the operating system will now support Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 quad-core SoC, meaning future devices will be much more powerful.
On the software side, Driving Mode is now available, you can close individual apps within the multitasking menu, you can assign custom ringtones for texts and the "other" category within settings has been broken down into more specific categories.
Lenovo has unveiled their first 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet, the Miix 2.
The device has a 1200x800 resolution, has up to 128GB internal storage, and more importantly runs on the new efficient quad-core Intel Bay Trail processor.
On the front there is a 2MP camera and a 5MP camera, on par with other rival devices. Additionally, a full version of Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 is pre-installed.
"Many users want the convenience of a smaller screen tablet, but do not want to lose the performance and convenience of a powerful, quad core Windows 8.1 device. With the Lenovo Miix2 8-inch, users can take advantage of a small, light form factor without sacrificing performance," said Bai Peng, vice president and general manager, notebook business unit, Lenovo Business Group. "The Lenovo Miix2 8-inch is a great example of how thoughtful design can deliver the best of both worlds."
Bloomberg has reported today that the rumored HTC Amazon smartphone could be made available only to Amazon Prime subscribers.
It was reported earlier this week that HTC would be the manufacturer to build the rumored Amazon devices, and that at least one of the three devices is close to completion.
Amazon has yet to confirm the existence of the devices or even their development and sources say the final decision on moving the project to mass production has not even been decided yet.
The company's Prime service costs $79 per year and gives members free 2-day shipping on millions of items as well as free access to the company's large streaming library.
Tim Cook took to Twitter to celebrate the approval of Apple's new 'spaceship' campus.
The Cupertino City Council unanimously approved the development plans, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2015. Employees will start moving into the new campus by mid-2016.
Construction had been slated to start last year, but was delayed by budget concerns and the required approval by the council.
Cook's tweet:
Our home for innovation and creativity for decades to come. Cupertino City Council Gives Unanimous Approval for Apple's New Campus
After a recent controversy in which Google was asked to explain why their Google Fiber Internet connection banned servers, the company has updated their terms of service to explicitly allow home servers.
The original ToS had banned business servers and a Fiber FAQ stated that the "use of applications such as multi-player gaming, video-conferencing, home security and others which may include server capabilities but are being used for legal and non-commercial purposes are acceptable and encouraged." The issue was that Google's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) specifically said all servers were banned.
This has now been updated.
Reads the updated AUP: Customers can not "operate servers for commercial purposes. However, personal, non-commercial use of servers that complies with this AUP is acceptable, including using virtual private networks (VPN) to access services in your home and using hardware or applications that include server capabilities for uses like multi-player gaming, video-conferencing, and home security."
Despite reports that Microsoft was considering killing off the standard 'back' button in Windows Phone with the upcoming release of 8.1, the rumors are not entirely true.
The hardware requirement for the button is likely to disappear, but Microsoft will still replace that with an on-screen equivalent.
In addition, Microsoft is experimenting with removing the hardware requirement for Start and search, as well, as it will help OEMs save slightly on hardware costs. Those buttons will be replaced with virtual ones, as well.
The move will be well known to Android device owners, as they went through a similar transition starting in 2010.
Microsoft continues to test apps that use the back button to ensure functionality still works, before making a decision, say the sources.
Despite Microsoft ending support for its old Windows XP operating system, Google will not give up on their Chrome browser, issuing updates until at least April 2015 for XP users.
Google rightly notes that browsers are one of the major points of attack for malware, and keeping Chrome up-to-date might help XP users stay safe after Microsoft ends their security updates for the operating system.
Users with XP can only use up to Internet Explorer 8 if you want to stick with Microsoft, which is a heavily outdated browser in terms of functionality. Microsoft recently released IE11 for Windows 8.1.
Many business customers are still making the transition from Windows XP to Windows 7 (or in some rare cases, Windows 8), and Google's move may be a play on stealing away some Internet Explorer users while these transitions occur.
By most accounts, Windows XP is still the second most popular OS in the world, at around 30 percent share.
T-Mobile has confirmed that it will be retiring all grandfathered service plans and moving customers to its new Uncarrier/Simple Choice plans, along with new rates.
The carrier's statement:
"Maintaining thousands of rate plans is the norm in the industry, but we think it creates unnecessary complexity. Simple is better, which is why we're reducing the number of older plans in our systems. We're giving customers on these plans the opportunity to choose a plan that best meets their needs. For the vast majority, their plan will provide similar or better features at a comparable price."
Angry customers using plans from over five years ago have taken to forums to vent about the move, but the vast majority of customers will see little change to their current plans. In fact, T-Mobile has even discounted some plans for existing users, including one who posted the letter he received. (Below)
T-Mobile offers their Simple Choice Plan starting at $50 per month with unlimited voice, texting, international roaming and 500MB of 4G data (and throttled speeds after that).
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich says consumers should expect new lows in prices for their favorite electronics this holiday season.
The exec says he expects $99 tablets, $299 Haswell-based laptops, and $349 convertible hybrid tablets and laptops.
Bay Trail chips, the codename for the latest and most efficient processors, offer twice the built-in graphics capability and up to 50 percent better battery life than previous generation models and will be available by this holiday season.
"We continue to see touch adoption come along," Krzanich added, noting there will be 10 models available at $299 using the ultra-efficient chips.
According to the WSJ, Apple has slashed orders for the less popular iPhone 5C for the Q4.
Sources say Apple has told its two manufacturers to reduce orders, as it appears demand is not what was expected for the smartphone.
Apple released the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S last month in 11 markets, with a global expansion expected for this month and next. The flagship 5S features a 64-bit processor and a fingerprint scanner and sells for $100 more the iPhone 5C, which has last year's specs but new colorful backplates.
Pegatron and Hon Hai (the parent of Foxconn) will cut orders by 20 and 30 percent, respectively.
In addition, a component supplier was reportedly told that iPhone 5C part orders would be cut by 50 percent, suggesting that shipments will likely slow well into the new year.
On the other hand, Apple has been quickly increasing iPhone 5S orders ahead of the holiday.
Marvel is reportedly looking to extend their programming significantly, creating original shows for streaming services.
The report claims that Marvel has four different original TV shows and a miniseries totaling 60 episodes, that it will shop to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and others.
At this point, the initiative is still in its first stages, and there is no word on which characters the shows are based on or who will play said characters.
There is little doubt that original programming from Marvel will sell for a premium given the returns Marvel's movies and shows have brought in the past five years.
One of the most prolific software pirating scene groups, LineZer0 (Lz0), has retired from the scene this week.
First launched in 1999, the group says a four-year old leak has compromised their security and sent the group to an early retirement after over 30,000 releases. The group stuck mainly to software and games for handhelds like the iPad.
TorrentFreak reports that over the weekend, somebody in the scene released information "that was obtained as part of a security breach against Lz0 in 2009." Most of the data was related to long since closed sites and pirates that have left the scene, says the group, but they decided still to shut it down. "We've shared a long and fun road, and we're sad that this is how it ends," Lz0 noted.
Although the scene will miss the crew, another 10 groups will likely show up in its place.
Ubisoft has announced that it is delaying the launch of its highly anticipated 'Watch Dogs' game until next spring.
The game had originally been set for release on current-gen consoles on November 19th and on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One during their launch periods.
"We know a lot of you are probably wondering: Why now?" Ubi notes. "We struggled with whether we would delay the game. But from the beginning, we have adopted the attitude that we will not compromise on quality. As we got closer to release, as all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in our last push before completion, it became clear to us that we needed to take the extra time to polish and fine tune each detail so we can deliver a truly memorable and exceptional experience."
In addition, Ubisoft says it is delaying their racing game 'The Crew' until next spring, as well.
Ubisoft did not respond to questions as to what would happen to Sony and Microsoft pre-order bundles with the game. It appears that those customers will likely be offered a plain console instead.
Nintendo has another certified hit on their hands, the latest in the blockbuster Pokemon franchise; Pokemon X and Pokemon Y.
The company says they have sold over four million copies in just 48 hours of availability around the world.
Says the gaming giant: "...when combining and comparing regional data for previous launches, Pokémon X and Pokémon Y would be the fastest-selling Nintendo 3DS games of all time and are tracking ahead of the last Pokémon RPG titles, Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2, by more than 70 percent."
The previous fastest-selling Pokemon titles were Diamond and Pearl, which hit 1.75 million units sold during its launch week in 2006.
There have been 34 million Nintendo 3DS handhelds sold to date, so the 4 million number is certainly significant given the small time frame. Nintendo has sold 245 million copies of Pokemon, starting with the original in 1996. The best selling is Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl, at 17.63 million for the DS followed by Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire at 16.22 million for the Game Boy Advanced.
A new Financial Times report claims that struggling smartphone maker HTC will build the oft-rumored Amazon phones.
Three devices are supposedly in development, with one "in the advanced stages" and near completion.
None of the devices are expected for this year, but 2014 seems like a strong possibility, says the report. One of the devices is expected to use a 3D interface, although little is known about what features it will employ.
HTC would not comment but did say, "We have been very focused on building our own brand, but we have also been very open to co-branding and collaborating with carriers and other technology brands."
The company could certainly use a victory, just weeks after it reported its first ever quarterly loss.
Apple has confirmed they will be holding an iPad press event on October 22nd, two weeks after the date was leaked by multiple online sources.
The company is expected to have a busy day planned, unveiling the Retina iPad Mini, the fifth-gen iPad, new Macbook Pros, and the release date and price of the powerful desktop Mac Pro.
In the invitation, Apple has left the tagline "We still have a lot to cover," giving credence to the fact they are expected to have lots of the aforementioned announcements.
The iPad Mini with Retina will likely be the biggest announcement, as the tablet is also expected to include the new Touch ID fingerprint scanner. The iPad Mini, a thinner, lighter 7.9-inch version of its flagship tablet, has become a huge hit since its launch last October.
As with most Apple launches, the tablets will likely go on sale on October 30th, a week after their unveil.
According to new a Juniper Research whitepaper, mobile device users continue to leave their phones and tablets unprotected from malware.
In fact, as much as 80 percent of smartphones remain unprotected, says the report.
This year, 325 million phones will have mobile malware protection installed, but Juniper believes that number will jump to 1.3 billion by 2018.
Android has become a major target for malware makers, due to its more open nature when compared to iOS and Windows Phone. Fortunately for the criminals, Android is the most popular operating system in the world, by a long shot.
After months of leaks, HTC has finally officially unveiled the HTC One Max.
The device boasts a 5.9-inch 1080p LCD display and HTC has kept the same aluminum look and feel of the smaller One smartphone.
Under the hood is an older 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600, 2GB RAM, 32GB internal storage (with a microSD slot for expansion) along with free 50GB Google Drive storage and a 3300mAh battery. The device also includes the UltraPixel camera from the One.
Making the device different is a fingerprint scanner on the back, which will allow you to log in using your own touch. So far, reviews have panned the scanner, claiming it does not work on par with Apple's Touch ID scanner.
The device runs on Android4.3 with HTC's own Sense 5.5 user interface.
Apple has announced today that Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts will be joining the company as a senior vice president and member of the executive team, reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook.
Ahrendts will be in charge of "strategic direction, expansion and operation of both Apple retail and online stores," says the press release.
"I am thrilled that Angela will be joining our team," said Cook. "She shares our values and our focus on innovation, and she places the same strong emphasis as we do on the customer experience. She has shown herself to be an extraordinary leader throughout her career and has a proven track record."
"I am profoundly honored to join Apple in this newly created position next year, and very much look forward to working with the global teams to further enrich the consumer experience on and offline," said Ahrendts. "I have always admired the innovation and impact Apple products and services have on people's lives and hope in some small way I can help contribute to the company's continued success and leadership in changing the world."
Sony has announced today that it will produce Netflix's latest original program, a one-hour psychological thriller.
The news is huge for Netflix as Sony is the first major Hollywood studio to produce original content for the streaming giant.
"We're willing to do different things and bet on the future,"adds Steve Mosko, president of Sony Pictures Television. "We're pumped up--it's a challenge to show a major studio can be in business with one of these services."
There are little details known about the show, but the creators say it will explore "the complex bonds between parents and children, brothers and sisters, and the rivalries, jealousies, and betrayals at the core of every family."
Other studios are also said to be in talks to produce new content for the streaming service, including Fox and WB.
Although we have the letter available online, BlackBerry will post a message to its loyal users in 30 major news publications tomorrow spanning 9 countries.
The company hopes to calm down frazzled consumers and investors who literally have no idea whether the company will even exist when they wake up tomorrow.
BlackBerry is quick to back their security, productivity, EMM and social networking potential.
The letter in its entirety:
To our valued customers, partners and fans,
You've no doubt seen the headlines about BlackBerry. You're probably wondering what they mean for you as one of the tens of millions of users who count on BlackBerry every single day.
We have one important message for you:
You can continue to count on BlackBerry.
How do we know? We have substantial cash on hand and a balance sheet that is debt free.
We are restructuring with a goal to cut our expenses by 50 percent in order to run a very efficient, customer-oriented organization.
These are no doubt challenging times for us and we don't underestimate the situation or ignore the challenges. We are making the difficult changes necessary to strengthen BlackBerry.
One thing we will never change is our commitment to those of you who helped build BlackBerry into the most trusted tool for the world's business professional.
Nokia is looking to boost Lumia sales in the UK by offering freebies including a subscription to Netflix.
One British retailer, 4u, is offering six months of free Netflix to Lumia buyers while major carrier Vodafone is offering up to 12 months of free Netflix depending on which Lumia you purchase.
"Nokia's Free Netflix Subscription promotion in conjunction with Vodafone and Phones 4u in the U.K. is just one example of a sustained program of marketing activities for the rest of year," a Nokia representative noted. "Nokia will continue to invest significantly in promoting its Lumia 1020 flagship devices in all media channels as well as working closely with our operator and retailer partners to deliver campaigns and propositions across our entire portfolio."
The company did not reveal what other promotions they would be offering with Lumia sales.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has announced this week that the government is working on a new secure email system that will shield official emails from spying by the NSA and other countries.
"We need more security on our messages to prevent possible espionage," Rousseff added.
The president has ordered the Brazilian Federal Data Processing Service, (SERPRO) to implement the system throughout the federal government. The agency has already created secure systems for online tax returns and is also in charge of new passports.
"This is the first step toward extending the privacy and inviolability of official posts," Rousseff noted. Rousseff recently filed official complaints against the NSA and other intelligence agencies at the United Nations General Assembly. The president's official communications were revealed in the media following leaks by Edward Snowden.
Cable television operators in the US find themselves in an increasingly difficult position with respect to Netflix streaming video. On one hand it is the chief competition for their legacy pay TV business. On the other hand it arguably the biggest driver of increasingly higher speed Internet subscriptions, accounting for around a third of US Internet traffic.
Netflix has already established partnerships with Virgin Media in the UK and Com Hem in Sweden. Among the terms of these deals each company provides a Netflix TiVo app for their customers. At a Goldman Sachs conference last month Netflix CFO David Wells also expressed interest in forming similar partnerships with US pay TV providers.
Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting negotiations with multiple cable companies (paywalled content) including Comcast and Suddenlink Communications to establish those partnerships. According to their sources there are still significant issues to be resolved in negotiations between the parties. Perhaps the most important, at least for consumers, is the Netflix demand to integrate technology to improve streaming quality into broadband provider networks. Presumably this would involve some kind of caching on ISP networks which would allow both higher bitrate streams and lower bandwidth utilization by Netflix servers.
Rapper Daz Dillinger has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Rockstar Games, accusing the studio of using his tracks in Grand Theft Auto V without his permission.
The game features the tracks "C-Walk" and "Nothin' but the Cavi Hit."
Dillinger claims that the company offered him an "offensively" low $4,271 for use of the songs, which he declined.
The rapper says the C&D letter is about "respecting an artist's work. Rockstar didn't do that here and I can't let them get away with it." Dillinger demands that Rockstar pay him more for the songs or destroy all unsold copies of GTA V.
Cable pioneer and Liberty Media chairman John Malone has said today that the industry should join together to create a Netflix rival.
The companies could bundle the service with broadband, and lower programming costs, says Malone.
For example, Malone says Comcast's Xfinity video streaming product could one day be shared amongst the major cable companies and become a national brand. He also used HBO as an example, saying the network "has made us all rich."
Another possibility would be for Hulu to be "bought and syndicated" by cable companies. Hulu was up for sale this year before its owners decided to instead invest more and pull the auction.
Malone praised Netflix Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings, saying the service is now big enough to purchase exclusive national content at good prices. Cable has struggled to do the same. "The cable industry has been very slow (which has) created a window of opportunity to the over the top guys," he added.
Activision Blizzard has completed purchasing itself back from majority owner Vivendi after federal officials allowed the transaction to be completed.
The deal had been announced in July but was suspended in September after shareholders sued the company. Activision has purchased back 429 million shares for $5.83 billion.
In a separate transaction, an investment group led by Activision CEO Bobby Kotick and chairman Brian Kelly purchased 172 million shares for $2.34 billion.
With the purchase, the group now owns about 25 percent of the company. Vivendi will keep 83 million shares and a large 12 percent stake.
"With the completion of this transaction we open a new chapter in the history of Activision Blizzard," Kotick said in a statement. "We expect immediate shareholder benefits in the form of earnings-per-share accretion and strategic and operational independence. Our audiences and our incredibly talented employees around the world will benefit from a focused commitment to the creation of great games. Our shareholders and debt holders will have the benefit of an energized, invested, deeply committed management team focused on generating long-term, superior returns, and effectively managing our capital structure."
AT&T has confirmed that all new customers will only be able to buy Mobile Share data plans, which cost more but allow you to share data between multiple devices including tablets.
The new move will begin on October 25th with the elimination of all older plans. The company says it making such a move because its data-share plans are now its most popular, by far.
AT&T has faced increased competition from major rival Verizon and smaller rival T-Mobile, which has better prices and keeps increasing its phone selection and features.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has been great with Apple predictions and leaks, states that next year's sixth-generation iPad will have 40 percent higher pixel density than that of current models (including the yet-to-be released 2013 version), a huge boost.
There had been speculation that the next iPad could move away from the 9.7-inch form factor and get larger (such as 11.6-inches), but Kuo dismisses those rumors, at least for this year.
Kuo also discusses next year's iPad Mini successor (third-generation), and says that since this year's model will introduce a Retina display, there will be no resolution updates next year.
Apple will introduce its fifth-generation iPad and second-generation iPad Mini later this month on October 22nd.
Although Google has kept mum on the AndroidJelly Bean update to its Google TV platform, it appears at least one team is working on it.
GTV Hacker team member CJ Heres has posted the open sourced code for LG's Google TV devices and a hacked ROM for the upcoming "Android TV" update (Jelly Bean).
The new ROM uses Linux 3.4.5, the same version as Jelly Bean, and is shown working on a Sony Google TV set-top. The ROM comes complete with NDK support and the ability to run a barebones XBMC (minus video streaming). Supposedly, the software was pulled from a Chinese Android device.
Google has confirmed that it will "bring the latest experience of Android and Chrome to devices," including Chromecast-esque features. There is still not timetable for this update.
Yahoo has acquired the young startup Bread, shutting down the service but integrating the tech and its employees.
Bread is a URL shortener that allowed users to make money through interstitial ads that promoted causes or products and was shown to people who clicked through links using Bread's URL shortener.
Both companies announced that Bread has shut down its service, and all links will go dead in the next 30 days. Yahoo recommends that if you still require shortening, use bit.ly.
Bread had raised $3.5 million since launching in 2011, and investors included Marc Ecko and Troy Carter.
CEO Alan Chan added: "When we launched Bread in 2011, our goal was to help social media influencers and publishers better monetize their online content. In Yahoo, we found a company that shares our vision. We are thrilled to join Yahoo's advertising team in Sunnyvale where we will be working on developing next-generation solutions for social and mobile publishers and advertisers."
Yahoo wrote in a statement: "We have acquired Bread, a company that created a simple way for social media influencers and publishers to monetize their content. The team's focus on delivering creative and targeted advertising across social media, desktop and mobile devices aligns perfectly with our mission to delight and inspire users."
Magnolia Pictures, an indie movie distributor in the U.S. has sent strange DMCA takedown requests to Google, asking the search giant to remove links to a few of their movie's IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes pages.
Thankfully, it appears that Google has refused to do so and has whitelisted many of the bigger sites.
Among the takedown requests are for URLs linking to a trailer and the IMDb listing of "Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie," the RT pages for "I Give It a Year" and "Mr. Nobody" and also a few news/blurb articles in Salon.
TorrentFreak says this not the first time Magnolia has done this, either. The distributor previously sent notices to remove Hollywood Reporter articles and other non-infringing links.
DMCA takedowns have become big business for Hollywood, with Google now removing up to 8 links per second.
Adam Boyes, Sony Computer Entertainment's VP of publisher and developer relations, has been quoted as saying video game exclusives serve little benefit.
"Right now exclusives are just a way for [console makers] to brag louder,"said Boyes. "Nobody gains from exclusivity in perpetuity."
While exclusives certainly help to boost hardware sales, especially during new launches, Boyes says locking down games serve no benefit over the long run.
Sony has been big on exclusives, and now owns thirteen first-party studios including Naughty Dog, the maker of Uncharted, Last of Us, (and for some nostalgia, Crash Bandicoot). Additionally, it has paid a premium to indie studios to bring games to the PS4 before the Xbox One. That being said, Sony has also been encouraging multiplatform publishing, as they know having developers be successful is a win for everyone. "Developers now have the option to deliver on a huge number of platforms," Boyes noted. "We want developers to be successful."
As they do every year, Microsoft has unveiled new Xbox 360 holiday bundles for the U.S.
Microsoft has confirmed it will support the Xbox 360 for three more years, and there will be at least 100 new games released for the console in that time period.
The Xbox 360 250GB Holiday Value Bundle features two great games, Halo 4 and Tomb Raider, and 1 Month of Xbox Live Gold for a limited time this Holiday. Price: $299.99
The Xbox 360 4GB Kinect Holiday Value Bundle features two great games, Kinect Sports 2 and Kinect Adventures. It also includes 1 Month of Xbox Live Gold. Price: $299.99
250GB Kinect Holiday Bundle
The Xbox 360 250GB Kinect Holiday Value Bundle features three great games, Kinect Sports 2, Kinect Adventures, and Forza Horizon. It also includes 1 Month of Xbox Live Gold. Price: $399.99
Early this morning, a press release was distributed announcing Samsung's acquisition of Swedish fingerprint biometrics company Fingerprint Cards.
Both companies have since denied the report, but official news outlets like Business Wire are still hosting the release.
Fingerprint Card's Swedish customer operative, Helén Rigamonti responded to inquiries, stating that "we are looking into our procedures, but we followed all of our security procedures and we can't exactly tell you what happened as of now."
The acquisition would have made sense for Samsung, as its only real rival, Apple, recently unveiled the Touch ID fingerprint sensor for the iPhone 5S.
The Mercury News has posted some pictures of a model of Apple's upcoming 'spaceship' campus.
Apple has dubbed the building "Campus 2," and it is almost one mile in circumference with 3.1 million square feet.
The location will house an Office, Research and Development Building, a 1,000 seat Corporate Auditorium, a Corporate Fitness Center, 300,000 feet of Research Facilities, a Central Plant, a 150-acre interior courtyard and be home to 12,000 employees.
Located on a 175-acre plot of land bounded by North Wolfe Road and East Homestead Road, the structure will be completed in 2015 if the Cupertino City Council accepts the proposal on Oct. 15.
Multiple sources have reported that Nokia's oft-rumored 'Sirius' tablet is on its way, with a launch date set for the third week of November.
Sirius will officially be known as the Lumia 2520, and will be the rumored 10.1-inch Windows RT 8.1 device that has been spoken about for months now.
As is now standard, Nokia will price itself out of the market at $499, as there will be very little excitement for a Windows RT device that is priced the same as the latest iPad.
Although unconfirmed, it appears the device will have a 1080p display with ClearBlack polarizer technology, a quad-core Qualcomm 8974 (ARM) chipset, 32GB internal storage and 2GB RAM. On the software side, Nokia has had included some unique features such as "StoryTeller," allowing you to create full stories from your photos.
Dead Rising 3 will not be available at launch for the Xbox One console in Germany because the game has been refused an age-rating in the country.
The Bundeprüfstelle für Jugendgefährende Medien (BPJM) refused an age-rating to the game but did not clarify the reasoning. The likely reason is for the violent content of Dead Rising 3, as the BPJM can be very strict on age ratings for games depicting acts of violence.
"Dead Rising 3 will not be released in Germany as part of the Xbox One launch line-up on November 22, having been unable to attain an age-rating upon review by BPJM (Bundeprüfstelle für Jugendgefährende Medien), the country's entertainment software self-regulation body," a Microsoft representative said.
"While Microsoft is disappointed with this decision, we respect the views of the review panel and have withdrawn Dead Rising 3 from Germany's Xbox One launch line-up."
The head of the UK's National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU), Andy Archibald, has said that the Dark web will evolve in attempt to evade authorities.
The UK's National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) is a branch of the National Crime Agency, and it just secured its first conviction of a 27-year old Croydon man for carrying out phishing attacks while attempting to defraud institutions.
A main focus for the NCCU will be services like the Silk Road, which was shut down by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States at the start of of the month. The Silk Road allowed users to buy and sell drugs and other items. It was masked as a TOR Hidden Service for years before FBI agents managed to unmask its alleged operator from clues he had left on the Internet.
While the Silk Road was a major boost for law enforcement against the Dark web, Archibald warns that such busts will force it to evolve.
"[Online anonymity service] Tor evolves, and will resecure itself," he said, reported by the BBC.
"The success we've had may not necessarily mean that by the same routes and same approaches we can get into other criminal forums. We have to continually probe and identify those forums and then seek to infiltrate them and use other tools. It's not simply a case of because we were able to infiltrate Tor on this occasion that we'll be able to do it next time around as well."
According to analytics firm Chitika, Chrome browser usage for iOS devices in North America has doubled since launch in June 2012, although the numbers are still tiny.
The Google browser has now jumped to 3 percent of iOS Web traffic, up from 1.5 percent when it launched.
Google should probably be excited by the growth as Apple has locked down its browser defaults, making Safari the go-to for any link you may click within an app.
Adds the firm: "While Chrome usage share on iOS devices rose only about 0.3 percentage points following September 22, keep in mind that iOS has an incredibly large existing user base meaning that usage changes need to be exceptionally great to cause a significant impact. In this realm, Google still has work to do, but the recent growth is a likely indicator that Chrome is regaining some traction in the iOS browsing space."
Valve has clarified that its Steam Machines will use graphics chips from AMD and Intel too, despite its own prototype models using NVIDIA chips exclusively.
The prototype units all use NVIDIA cards for graphics, and will ship to testers ahead of the launch of commercial Steam Machines next year. Intel and AMD are also invited to the Steam Machines party, it has been confirmed.
"Although the graphics hardware that we've selected for the first wave of prototypes is a variety of Nvidia cards, that is not an indication that Steam Machines are Nvidia-only," Valve marketing director, Doug Lombardi, said in an interview with Maximum PC.
"In 2014, there will be Steam Machines commercially available with graphics hardware made by AMD, Nvidia, and Intel. Valve has worked closely together with all three of these companies on optimising their hardware for SteamOS, and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future."
A fraud investigation is underway in Sweden after a press release falsely claimed that Samsung was going to buy Fingerprint Cards for $650 million.
The press release was issued by Cision, and shares in the Swedish company soared 50 percent. The Swedish Economic Crime Authority has launched a fraud probe into the incident after both Samsung and Fingerprint Cards said there was no truth to the acquisition report, and that they had never been in talks.
Fingerprint Cards makes fingerprint scanners to lock access to computers and mobile phones, and so following the release of the iPhone 5S with its Touch ID fingerprint lock, the move seemed genuine on Samsung's part.
Cision says that it was the subject of a sophisticated fraud, but Fingerprint Cards' CEO Johan Carlstrom believes the fake press release could have easily been detected.
"With a bigger press release, they should call to make sure," he said.
"There are only two people authorised to send press releases and that is the CEO and financial officer. In those cases they are sent from our e-mail addresses, and this one was not."
Missing episodes of Doctor Who from the 1960s have been discovered and are available from iTunes.
The missing episodes were found by Philip Morris, director of Television International Enterprises Archive. Eleven episodes in total were found, nine of which that had not been seen in 46 years. The episodes are from two Doctor Who 6-episode stories; The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear.
All six episodes of The Enemy of the World have been rediscovered, while five of the six episodes of The Web of Fear are also now available. Episode three of The Web of Fear is still missing but the BBC Worldwide restoration team has reconstructed this part of the story using a selection of the 37 images that were still available from the episode along with the original audio, which has been restored.
Morris discovered the lost episodes by tracking records of tape shipments made by the BBC to Africa for transmission. His investigation led him to a television relay station in Nigeria.
"The tapes had been left gathering dust in a store room at a television relay station in Nigeria. I remember wiping the dust off the masking tape on the canisters and my heart missed a beat as I saw the words 'Doctor Who'. When I read the story code I realized I'd found something pretty special," Morris said.
Amazon has removed several "abuse-themed" ebooks from its Kindle Store after they were pointed out in media reports.
The ebooks on question reportedly depicted rape, incest and bestiality, in clear violation of Amazon's policies. The titles are all self-published material, and Amazon and other retailers get a cut of the sale.
Barnes & Noble are also removing similar themed ebooks after they were brought to its attention.
"When there are violations to the content policy that are brought to our attention, either through our internal process or from a customer or external source, we have a rapid response team in place to appropriately categorize or remove the content in accordance with our policy,"Barnes & Noble said in a statement.
The BBC News website also found that yhe search function automatically suggested explicit topics to users typing seemingly innocuous keywords, without age verification or other restrictions.
U.S. broadcasters have petitioned the highest court in the land to review legal cases surrounding Aereo, a service that retransmits broadcast signals over the Internet.
Aereo is a premium service that allows subscribers to view broadcast TV content. It literally assigns subscribers to miniature antennas that pick up the publicly accessible signals and broadcast them to play on a variety of devices. The company believes that this setup complies with laws and regulations in the United States.
Broadcasters on the other hand are diametrically opposed to Aereo. They argue that Aereo's retransmission of content amounts to a "public performance" which has not been authorized by copyright holders.
So far, Broadcasters have failed in the courts to stop Aereo. A New York federal judge refused to grant a sought injunction because each Aereo subscriber was receiving a private, transmission stream. Broadcasters then failed to get the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the decision of the lower court. Aereo also won a case in which a Boston TV station challenged the service in court.
Broadcasters filed a petition for writ of certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to have the ultimate say on this. While the broadcasters have had no joy stepping on Aereo, they have had success in similar cases against Film On X in L.A. and Washington district courts. Film On X also uses antennas and provides digital streams to users. This, Broadcasters feel, amounts to evidence that different courts were delivering conflicting ruling on the legality of such services.
Google will start to use the names of some users, along with photos and comments in advertising.
The new ads will use personal information of some Google+ users, though there will be a way to opt out entirely and users under the age of 18 will be excluded automatically. It will be part of new "shared endorsement" ads that will resemble social ads used by Facebook.
If a user has publicly endorsed a product or service by clicking +1, or used rating or wrote reviews on products or services shared on other Google services, like the Play Store, then that information could be used too.
Even though Google+ users will be able to opt out, the changes to Google's terms of service policy has some privacy and digital rights activists speaking out.
"It's a huge privacy problem," said Marc Rotenberg, of privacy group EPIC, adding that Google users "shouldn't have to go back and restore their privacy defaults every time Google makes a change."
Rotenberg is suggesting that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) review the policy change by Google, in case it violates a consent order Google entered into in 2011, barring it from retroactively changing the privacy settings of users.
Users of Apple's iPhone 5S smartphone are reporting crashes that are accompanied by a blue screen on the device.
Most people can remember the good old Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) that happened now and then with Windows. In newer versions of Windows it is not blue, but essentially the same thing.
Now it appears Apple has gotten its own blue screen of death with the new iPhone 5S, only it contains no information at all on the crash, it just pre-empts a reboot.
The problem seems to occur when using Apple's iWork apps, particularly when multitasking. One apparent workaround, according to The Verge, is to disable iCloud syncing for Apple's Pages, Keynote, and Numbers apps. The problem persists even on iOS 7.0.2 which was released to fix lockscreen bugs.
Here is a video demonstration of the blue screen crash on an iPhone 5S.
Brazil's competition watchdog will investigate potential anticompetitive practices by the Google, following complaints form Microsoft and domestic businesses.
The complaints are very similar to those that prompted an EU anti-trust probe into Google's business practices that is just now approaching resolution. Among those who complained to Brazil's antitrust group, Cade, are Microsoft and some domestic Brazilian companies.
Microsoft accuses Google of obstructing advertising campaigns across multiple search engines, giving an unfair advantage to its own Adwords business.
Buscapé and Bondfardo, two Brazilian price comparison outfits, is accusing Google of reproducing reviews from their users without allowing competing services to reuse information on the Google Shopping website. They also accuse Google of giving unfair prominence to Google Shopping in search results by displaying photos and other information alongside the search results.
It is this favouritism to its own non-Search service that convinced the European Commission to initiate its case against Google.
Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai has revealed part of the company's plan to remain profitable into the future; smartphones.
For the immediate future, however, Sony has dropped out of the U.S. and Chinese smartphone markets, choosing to focus on Europe and Japan instead.
Currently, Japan and Europe account for 60 percent of the company's smartphone sales, and the company is the seventh largest smartphone maker in the world.
"Those two are the most important areas for us and we'll put substantial resources there. But not yet for the U.S. and China," Hirai noted. "It's not realistic to try to do everything at once. In the U.S. we'll start gradually."
Sony, despite building well-received devices, has practically no share in the U.S. Only T-Mobile USA even offers Sony devices in the States, and in China, it has priced itself out against competitors like ZTE.
For the fiscal year ended March 2014, Sony has set modest expectations for 42 million smartphone sales. The market leaders, Samsung and Sony, sold 218.2 million and 135.9 million phones respectively in their last fiscal year.
According to multiple reports, Apple will bring its iTunes Radio streaming service to Canada and the UK next year.
The service launched on September 18th alongside iOS 7.
Besides the aforementioned nations, New Zealand, Australia and some Nordic countries are expected to receive the platform, as well.
Canada would certainly be excited to receive the service, as Pandora, Spotify and Google Play All Access have never crossed the border due to licensing and royalty issues.
Apple reached 11 million unique iTunes Radio users after 5 days but has not revealed figures since.
Rockstar Games, which has been faced with server, gameplay and connection issues for its Grand Theft Auto V online multiplayer, will reward gamers with a $500,000 in-game cash "stimulus package."
While the GTA Online situation is now "much smoother (touch wood!)," the developer wants a way to start fresh with "players who experienced cloud server errors, connection issues, and lost game progress and characters."
Any gamer who has played the online mode since the game's launch will see the in-game cash deposited to their accounts in two separate $250,000 installments. The first will hit by the end of next week and the second will hit at the end of the month.
If you want to receive the cash, the developer notes that you will have to have to install a new update, one that will 'fix any remaining problems with game-progress and vehicle-purchase loss.'
Just hours after user manuals leaked online, Lenovo has confirmed it will soon be launching an Android-based notebook.
Dubbed the IdeaPad A10, the notebook will have a small 10.1-inch touchscreen display and run on the latest Android operating system.
The manuals say the device can be opened up to 300 degrees, and the keyboard will include the signature Android buttons for "home screen" and "back."
Given the leaked specs, the device is expected to be cheap. It runs on an ARM-based Rockchip quad-core processor clocked at 1.6GHz, has 2GB RAM, 16GB or 32GB internal flash storage and a 0.3MP front-side camera. For connectivity, the device will include an HDMI port, USB ports and a microSD slot.
Despite Windows 8's growth over the past year, the operating system has not made a dent in the business market, at least not according to one major player.
Toshiba says 99 percent of its enterprise sales are for Windows 7 devices. The electronics maker, which has a 5.7 percent share of the global PC market, sold about 850,000 desktops and notebooks last quarter.
B2B product marketing manager at Toshiba, Cindy Zwerling, was asked about what their enterprise customers were doing ahead of the official April 2014 retirement of Windows XP.
"Windows 7 is clearly the enterprise operating system at this time,"she added. "But there are pockets of the corporate population that use [detachable] tablets, and might be running Windows 8. But for your standard clamshell notebook? It's Windows 7."
"From a business perspective, I would say 99 percent of our sales are Windows 7," she concluded. "At this point, there are few exceptions in corporate America in the enterprise space for Windows 8."
One of the world's most addictive and iconic games has been born yet again, and this time its in pure HTML5.
Full Screen Mario is an open-source effort started by Josh Goldberg. It recreates Super Mario using just HTML5, letting you play the game in your browser.
In addition to the Super Mario we all know and love (admit it!), you can also play randomly generated levels which can result in some surprising and very difficult situations. If you are the creative type, you can build your own level, or you can just stick to recreated Super Mario levels.
Vonage has purchased VoIP company Vocalocity for $130 million.
The company will look to improve its position in the small-to-mid size enterprise business with the new acquisition.
Chief Executive Marc Lefar says the company will pay $105 million in cash and $25 million in stock and calls the move "transformative."
Vonage has 2.3 million VoIP/communications customers, but has a tiny presence in the lucrative business market. Vocalocity has 21,000 business customers, with the average customer paying $230 per month, well above what the average Vonage customer pays.
Istagram for Android is catching up to the iPhone app with photo straightening.
The feature has been available to fix crooked pics on iPhones for a while now, but it took until today for Instagram to push out an update for Android that included photo straightening.
For those who use it to capture video, the update also adds sound and data usage controls.
Today's Android update includes photo straightening and new sound and data usage controls for Instagram videos: http://t.co/nH3gArR2Fy
A class-action lawsuit against Google over the secret storing of cookies in Safari despite users' settings has been dismissed.
Delaware Judge Sue Robinson dismissed the case, finding that the plaintiffs had failed to prove any real harm had been done, and failed to convincingly argue that Google violated their rights. At issue is Google's storing of cookies in the Safari and Safari mobile browser even when users had privacy settings that should prevent it.
Google had been using a flaw in the Safari browser to do so, and when it was caught the company claimed it was a mistake. However, it was later revealed that Google was doing something similar with Internet Explorer.
The company found itself on the end of a $22.5 million fine from the FTC for its actions in August 2012.
However, in the class-action lawsuit, Judge Robsinon foudn no evidence that the cookies themselves caused tangible harm to users, and the information the cookies provided to Google (URLs) fell short of the criteria demanded by the Wiretap Act.
Google now faces another lawsuit over GMail keyword scanning.
BlackBerry co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin might be considering a bid for the seriously troubles company.
A securities filing made on Thursday opened up the possibility that the pair may be assessing their options, perhaps providing an alternative to the Fairfax $4.7 billion deal. Some analysts have questioned whether even the Fairfax proposal can secure the financing required.
Lazaridis and Fregin could then face the exact same problem. Between them, they own about 8 percent of BlackBerry's shares. It could also be possible that they are considering joining the Fairfax bid.
BlackBerry wouldn't comment on the reports, just repeating that it is looking at alternatives for the time being.
John Lewis, a UK department store chain, is expecting the Xbox One console to outsell the PS4 out of the gate.
The person responsible for tech buying at John Lewis is Jonathan Marsh, who said that while the chain is stocking both consoles, the expectation is that the Xbox One will outsell the PS4 after launch. Marsh cites the game line-up and Xbox Live as a major factor for that belief.
"We are expecting more interest in the Xbox One,"Marsh said.
"We are stocking both the PS4 and the Xbox One but if we were to back one, we are thinking that Xbox One will appeal a bit more to our customers in terms of the experience it creates."
Back in July, analyst Colin Sebastian also predicted the Xbox One would outsell the PS4 this year due to supply constraints, but at the same time, the mood from the public leans toward the PS4 in polls.
EE has said it will provide mobile services for fixed-line operator BT, replacing Vodafone.
Vodafone had a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) partnership with BT for the past nine years but withdrew from talks about continuing the partnership earlier this year.
Now Britain's largest mobile provider, EE, said it will take Vodafone's place and provide service to BT, the country's largest fixed-line operator.
BT has a limited number of mobile customers across the public service, and to private businesses.
Mobile operators in Britain have been stunned by proposed increases in the license fees they must pay to use spectrum in the country.
If they were to go through, Britain's major mobile service providers could see their license fees rise more than 400 percent. Vodafone, for example, would see its fee rise from £15.6 million, to £83.1 million, while EE would jump from £24.9 million to £107.1 million. Three would see its rates rise from £8.3 million to £35.7 million.
Ofcom justifies the proposal based on the rates paid by operators in equivalent European markets, arguing that by comparison the rates in the UK are very low.
But operators told the BBC that the hike was excessive, with Vodafone saying it was disappointed. Others fear that the cost increase may pass on to consumers.
"The size of these figures may come as bad news to the mobile networks, but more worryingly could sound alarm bells for consumers," said Adam Kirby, telecoms expert at uSwitch.com.
"The proposed new costs reflect a huge leap in the amount networks will have to pay the regulator for using the spectrum - our concern is that it will be consumers who are left to foot the bill."
Best Buy is running a trade-in scheme on Microsoft's first-generation Surface tablets, guaranteeing at least a $200 gift card for your tablet.
Still, even if you do get a $350 card for a high quality Surface Pro, that's still quite a cut down. To qualify, the device must not have a damaged screen, or have any liquid damage of any kind.
Best Buy will run the Surface promo throughout the month, until October 21, just a day shy of the release of Microsoft's upgraded Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2.
The Surface Pro 2 upgrades to an Intel Core i5-4200U 1.6Ghz, with Microsoft saying it is 20 percent faster, has 50 percent better graphics performance and operates quieter than the first generation Pro. Up to 512GB of internal storage is available, and with either 4GB or 8GB or RAM. It runs Windows 8.1.
According to an in-depth report by Quartz, Foxconn forced almost 1000 engineering students to accept internship positions to build the upcoming Sony PlayStation 4.
The students, from the Xi'an Institute of Technology, were allegedly told that they would not graduate if they did not participate in the internship. The students were then forced to work night shifts and overtime in violation of company practices.
"Immediate actions have been taken to bring that campus into full compliance with our code and policies," Foxconn responded after an internal investigation. The company is also "reinforcing the policies of no overtime and no night shifts for student interns, even though such work is voluntary, and reminding all interns of their rights to terminate their participation in the program at any time."
This is not the first time Foxconn has been accused of forcing students to work under the threat of not graduating.
According to a report, Google is set to drop the, 'Google TV' brand and switch to 'Android TV' instead.
The report comes from GigaOm, citing a source that said Google intends to phase out Google TV but a re-branded Android TV will follow. Of course, Google TV is already based on Android anyway.
Google seems to be experimenting with its living room efforts, having launched the Chromecast dongle to beam content from a variety of compatible devices and services directly to TV over a network.
Google TV has been waiting for an update for some time now, so its likely that the re-branding will come with it.
The alleged operator of the recently-shut Silk Road online drug market has been sent to New York to face charges.
Authorities in New York charged Ross Ulbricht with operating the drug market, which let users buy and sell drugs using BitCoin. US magistrate judge Joseph Spero ordered Ulbricht to New York to face the charges, which Ulbricht's attorney denies.
He was arrested on October 1 at a public library in San Franciso. Court documents claim that he was talking with a co-operating witness at the time.
Ulbricht was also charged in a Baltimore court with soliciting the murder of a former worker. According to the FBI, he unknowingly hired an undercover agent to commit the murder.
Since the shut down of the Silk Road, several arrests have been made in different areas of the world, including four in the United Kingdom, and one of the allegedly most prolific dealers in Seattle.
SimplyGames, the popular UK retailer, has been accused of profiteering over forcing customers to pay for an unofficial (and expensive) PS4 bundle if they want to keep their pre-orders.
Trading Standards, the group that enforces consumer related legislation in the UK, has said the practice is illegal and akin to profiteering. The group added that "swift injunctive action is needed" to block the retailer.
Earlier this week, SimplyGames shocked consumers by stating that anyone who pre-ordered a PS4 would need to pay £470 to stay in queue, being offered a number of bundles that are not affiliated with official Sony bundles.
"You can have a contract where the price agreed is the price at the time of delivery, such as a new car on a long waiting list. Here the seller cannot control the product price months down the line,"says Trading Standards Institute (via CVG). "This appears to be profiteering. The seller is raising the price hoping people either drop out or pay more. If they drop out the seller can resell at a higher price to another customer. It is illegal and up to the Home Authority to intervene if the seller is UK based. This is one of those occasions when swift injunctive action is needed to prevent consumers being ripped off."
According to multiple reports, Apple is preparing to slash production on its iPhone 5C, moving down to 150,000 units per day from as much as 300,000 per day before launch.
By one measure, (China's gray market), the iPhone 5C has already been priced way down to $500, much lower than Apple's $725 retail price in the nation.
Apple said opening weekend they had sold 9 million new iPhones, but did not break down how many were iPhone 5S and how many were iPhone 5C.
Most reports claim at least 6 million of the devices sold were the higher-end 5S models.
Last week we reported that Microsoft had approached HTC in an effort to get the company to begin offering Android phones that can also dual-boot Windows Phone 8.
Microsoft is said to be dropping the licensing fee for Windows Phone significantly, if not outright removing it, if the OEMs will agree to such a situation.
New reports state that the software giant has now approached Samsung and Huawei, as well, with similar propositions.
Samsung, the report states, is actually working on such a device, a dual-boot tablet that will offer Android and Windows RT, and interesting development.
In addition, the new reports states that along with dropping the licensing fee, Microsoft will compensate companies for any "necessary adaptation costs."
Sony planned to release the PlayStation 4 (PS4) console bundled with the PlayStation camera, and may yet still offer such a bundle.
President of Sony Computer Entrainment, Andrew House, said that the original consideration was to bundle a camera with the PS4 by default, but that the company just couldn't reach the magic price point of $400 and made a marketing decision to axe it.
"Certainly for the earlier part of the lifecycle, the vast majority of the audience that we speak to tells us that their primary wish is for the full controller interface and there's not necessarily a huge emphasis being placed on camera interaction," he told Business Spectator.
The magic price touted by Sony was always to be $200 less than the PlayStation 3 (PS3) was at launch in 2006, when it debuted for $600.
Microsoft made the decision to bundle Kinect with every Xbox One console, which added $100 to the price at launch.
House did indicate however that Sony may bundle the camera as standard at a later date.
Microsoft is working hard to have Steve Ballmer's successor as Microsoft chief executive officer in place by the end of the year.
According to Bloomberg, the board is probing options it has for Microsoft's third CEO in its entire history, after co-founder and chairman Bill Gates and current CEO Steve Ballmer.
Bloomberg sources say the board is being advised in its head hunt by former Cisco exec and current managing director of private equity firm Silver lake, Charles Giancarlo.
Among names being thrown around as a potential successor to Ballmer are former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, Ford Motor Co CEO Alan Mulally, EBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe, former Microsoft exec Paul Maritz and Microsoft executive VP responsible for Business Development, Tony Bates.
Whoever the successor is, they will have to continue Ballmer's strategy of focusing Microsoft on providing devices and services to pull back ground dominated by rivals like Apple and Google. The new CEO will also have to integrate the acquired Nokia phone business into Microsoft.
According to an exclusive report by Variety, U.S. broadcasters are preparing to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to examines their legal dispute with Aereo.
Aereo is a premium service that allows subscribers to view (and record) broadcast TV content. It literally assigns subscribers to miniature antennas that pick up the publicly accessible signals and broadcast them to play on a variety of devices. The company believes that this setup complies with laws and regulations in the United States.
Broadcasters on the other hand disagree, and have sued Aereo to stop the service form proliferating any further. So far, they have been unsuccessful in their efforts, with district courts backing Aereo and the refusal by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the case.
While the broadcasters have had no joy stepping on Aereo, they have had success in similar cases against Film On X in L.A. and Washington district courts. Film On X also uses antennas and provides digital streams to users.
Broadcasters consider the rulings in favor of Aero and against Film On X as evidence that circuit courts are issuing conflicting opinions, which is grounds for the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and examine the issues.
Microsoft's Major Nelson (Larry Hryb) has said that the next Xbox Console may support a keyboard and mouse if developers ask for it.
The Xbox 360 console has limited keyboard support for text input, but has never supported mice. In a Newegg TV interview, Hryb said that if developers would like support built in for the use of a keyboard and mouse, that is something Microsoft would be willing to do.
"We'll certainly have this great SDK for developers to do what they like. If that's something they're interested in doing, we'll certainly help them do that,"he said.
Hryb did acknowledge however that PC and console gaming styles don't match up and that won't change even if you can use a keyboard and mouse for input.
"We kind of have this concept of when you're playing a PC game you're leaning forward," Hryb said.
"With an Xbox game, sometimes you lean back. You're just kinda having fun. And I don't want to incite the religious debate that will ensue, because I'm very aware. We want to provide a gaming experience that people enjoy, certainly with Windows--that's our other large gaming platform at Microsoft. So there's something there, but right now we're really focused on really the console space."
Microsoft continues to support the development of a Do Not Track standard across browsers, it has said in a public statement to the W3C.
The Redmond-giant has implemented Do Not Track (DNT) in its Internet Explorer 10 and Internet Explorer 11 browsers, but admits that DNT relies on stakeholders collectively agreeing on what DNT means and how websites should respond to the DNT signal.
The W3C's Tracking Protection Working Group aims to define a DNT standard to work across the entire industry.
As part of the ongoing process, the W3C asked members of the working group to respond to a public online poll by October 9. The Public Online poll offers five options for members to choose (they can pick more than one), which you can get more details on at: w3.org
Here is Microsoft's public comments on the poll and its support for the DNT standard:
Telecom firms in the European Union are asking the European Commission to reconsider plans to reform the sector across the 28-nation bloc.
Neelie Kros, European Commission for digital agenda, is championing reforms aimed at bringing the level of cellular and broadband services in the EU up to that of global competitors, like the United States. As things stand, in the single European market there are more or less 28 separate telecommunications markets.
The reforms are a mixed bag for telecoms operators. On one hand, they seek to end potentially lucrative charges in the European Union, such as roaming fees charges to EU citizens travelling across borders. On the other hand, the reforms will remove regulatory red tape making cross-border business in the EU easier, as well as harmonising the sales of mobile spectrum throughout the entire bloc.
However, telecoms operators believe that killing off roaming fees - while extremely popular with citizens of EU member states - will deprive operators of revenue that they need to modernise networks.
Additionally, they favor more consolidation in the European market as a way to return to growth. Neelie Kroes is probably not opposed to consolidation in the sector, but EU competition regulators are concerned that less carriers in the EU will reduce competition and result in higher costs to the consumer.
Despite a Microsoft rep indicating that the Xbox One console will record all achievements automatically, that won't be the case.
An Xbox Australia representative had said that the new generation Xbox console would automatically record the moment a player unlocks all achievements, but that has been denied by Microsoft director of product planning Albert Penello.
"It won't be automatic for every Achievement. It's a feature that developers can unlock for achievements, OR, for instance, have hidden in the game for doing something cool or discovering something hidden," Penello said on NeoGaf. "Basically, we allow developers access to Game DVR and they can put conditions on an automatic recording. But not every Achievement will automatically be recorded."
The Xbox One Game DVR feature will record footage of the game in the background, which players can later share Online. At launch, sharing will be limited to uploading to Xbox Live, but support for social services like Facebook will come after.
Mad Catz has announced that its M.O.J.O. micro-console running Android will ship December 10, and is available to pre-order for $249.99.
It also revealed some technical specifications of the console it previewed in January at E3. The M.O.J.O is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 4 T4OS 1.8GHz processor, with 2GB of RAM and 16GB internal storage. Storage is upgradable through support for SDXC, up to 128GB.
For connectivity, the M.O.J.O outputs via HDMI in 1080p, has a USB 3.0 slot, USB 2.0 slot, supports Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi.
On the software side, the M.O.J.O runs Android 4.2.2 and is compatible with games from Google Play, NVIDIA's Tegra Zone and the Amazon Appstore.
The M.O.J.O micro-console and its GameSmart C.T.R.L.R Wireless Gamepad (compatible with some other Android devices) ship on December 10, but will be available only in limited quantities.
Nintendo has launched its own online store in the United Kingdom, shipping out orders from its own stock rather than re-directing to third parties.
In the United States, Nintendo's online store lists its products but redirects users to third party retailers to make a purchase. In the newly launched UK store, Nintendo takes and processes orders from its own stock, provides free shipping with orders over £200 qualifying for next day delivery.
In addition to selling its home and handheld consoles; the Wii, Wii U, 3DS and DS, Nintendo will also sell exclusive bundles through its own UK store, and offer extended warranty.
There is no indication that Nintendo plans to bring similar in-house online stores to any other region at this time.
PayPal is to introduce a new feature that enables customers to pay for goods and services using a QR code or a PIN.
It works by using your smartphone with the PayPal app which allows you to enter a PIN or shows a QR code that a merchant can scan.
For the consumer, the benefits beyond the payment convenience include the ability to automatically redeem any special offers, gift cards, merchant rewards programs or other forms of payment that might be saved in their PayPal wallet in one quick transaction.
For merchants, the benefit is the ability to accept the digital transactions without the need to switch to new technology. Utilizing the millions of 2D barcode scanners already sitting on store counters and 40+ million payment terminals available around the world, this offers an easy way to give customers the benefits without investing in new technology.
If the merchant already has a mobile app, they can also integrate PayPal's new 'payment code' into the app for full support.
More details will be made available on this new system before its roll-out in Q1, 2014.
T-Mobile, which continues to be far-and-away the most consumer-friendly wireless carrier in the U.S., has unveiled its latest service, free unlimited international data and text services starting at the end of this month.
For customers with the new T-Mobile Simple Choice plans, the international roaming is free in over 100 countries, including countries that cover "pretty much everywhere people travel, about 95 percent of where people go."
Besides free data and texting, you can also make voice calls at 20 cents per minute. International roaming has historically been one of the bigger scams in the wireless industry with other carriers charging up to $18.99 per megabyte, and 15 cents per text sent or received.
T-Mobile does admit that the data will be very slow 2G speeds, just 128KB/s on average, good enough for emails, quick social networking, GPS mapping and basic music streaming but not too much else. You can upgrade to 3G roaming for a price, with daily, weekly, and two-week packages available.
Supported OS: Windows Vista SP2 64bit, Windows 7 SP1 64bit, Windows 8 64bit
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66Ghz or AMD Phenom II X4 940 @ 3.0Ghz
RAM: 6 GB Video Card: 1024 VRAM DirectX 11 with Shader Model 5.0
Sound Card: DirectX 9 compatible Sound Card
This product supports 64-bit operating systems ONLY.
Recommended requirements:
Processor: Core i7 3770 @ 3.5Ghz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0Ghz
RAM: 8 GB
Video Card: 2048 VRAM DirectX 11 with Shader Model 5.0 or higher
Sound Card: Surround Sound 5.1 capable sound card
Supported video cards at time of release:
nVidia GeForce GTX460 or better, GT500, GT600, GT700 series
AMD Radeon HD5850 or better, HD6000, HD7000, R7 and R9 series
Intel Iris Pro HD 5200.
Apple has announced global launch dates for the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S.
The devices will hit 35 new countries in the next month.
Here is the full list for October 25th:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, French West Indies, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion Island, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and Thailand.
Full list for November 1st:
Albania, Armenia, Bahrain, Colombia, El Salvador, Guam, Guatemala, India, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and United Arab Emirates.
Apple has promised availability in over 100 nations by the end of the year and these latest launches will take that number to 62.
The Anonymous-affiliated pro-Palestinian group KDMS has attacked the websites of WhatsApp, AVG, Avira and Alexa over the last 24 hours.
While claiming responsibility for the attacks, the group defaced the sites with messages that ended with "long live Palestine."
All the sites were hosting by Network Solutions, who is also a domain name registrar.
Avira, the Internet security group, was quick to respond: "It appears that our account used to manage the DNS records registered at Network Solutions has received a fake password-reset request not being initiated by anyone at Avira. Network Solutions appears to have honored this request and allowed a third party to assume control of our DNS."
Later in the day, KDMS also claimed responsibility for an attack on the massive hosting company Leaseweb.
While the DNS redirections and cyber vandalism are relatively harmless, there is the bigger issue of whether there was an data leaked, including emails. So far, there is no indication as to whether any data has been leaked.
In a very brief period of time, Rockstar's latest blockbuster, 'Grand Theft Auto V' has shattered entertainment records and made its way into the Guinness World Records book.
The hit game sold 11 million copies in its first 24 hours of availability, leading to $1 billion in sales within 3 days.
Among the records it has smashed are highest revenue generated by an entertainment product in 24 hours, the fastest entertainment property to gross $1 billion, the best-selling video game in 24 hours, the best-selling action adventure game in 24 hours, the fastest video game to gross $1 billion, and highest grossing video game in 24 hours.
"GTA totally deserves to be recognised as an icon of modern British culture,"noted Guiness World Records editor-in-chief, Craig Glenday. "Gaming is no longer a niche hobby, as GTA 5 has proved, and how exciting that it's taken on the might of Hollywood and won. I'm also doubly proud as a Dundonian to welcome this home-grown series back into the Guinness World Records book."
According to multiple reports, Apple will unveil their new iPads at a press event on October 22nd, just a month after unveiling the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C.
Additionally, the company is expected to unveil more details of the Mac Pro and the latest operating system, Mac OS X Mavericks.
The fifth-generation iPad will be thinner and lighter and run on the new Apple A7 chip with 64-bit processing.
Perhaps more importantly for the company, the second-generation iPad Mini is expected to upgrade to a Retina display, use a variant of the A7 and add the new Touch ID fingerprint sensor, making it a heavyweight in the industry.
More news when the date is confirmed by the company.
Skype for Android 4.4 improves the quality of video calls and brings a new UI experience to the Android application.
The update will also be available for Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HDX tablets. Tablet users will now see a new interface that puts conversations first, displaying your most recent calls and chats.
With good network conditions, users will experience up to four times the video resolution of previous versions with better clarity and frame rates. There are also some other bug fixes and improvements:
Accessibility improvements with full support for TalkBack screen reader
Updates that address incoming call issues, including one that was causing phones to reboot
Additional changes to audio routing
Display and UX enhancements when switching orientation
Russian police have reportedly arrested a man alleged to be behind two infamous exploit kits used by cybercriminals to spread malware.
According to reports, the man arrested used the alias Paunch and is responsible for the distribution of the Blackhole and Cool exploit kits. While the Russian authorities did not confirm the arrest, Kaspersky Labs expert Alexander Gostev said anonymous sources had confirmed it to him.
Blackhole dominated the so called "crimeware" market, sold for an annual license fee of up to $1,500. It targeted vulnerabilities in very popular software, such as JRE, Flash, PDF readers and so on. It could be used as part of the creation of malicious websites, for example, that could target visitors running vulnerable software.
Combined with a successful hack of a popular website, these tools could yield strong results for their operators.
"If it's true that the brains behind the Blackhole has been apprehended it's a very big deal - a real coup for the cybercrime-fighting authorities, and hopefully cause disruption to the development of one of the most notorious exploit kits the web has ever seen," said Graham Cluley of Sophos.
Comcast and Twitter have announced a deal that will allow you to get more control over some content directly from tweets.
The deal will result in a "See It" button becoming visible on some tweets that are linked to NBCUniversal programming. By tapping the See It button, Twitter users (and Xfinity TV customers) will be able to tune-in to those programs in several ways.
A See It menu will provide options including the ability to tune to live TV or start a show On Demand on their set-top box, tune in to a show online or on their mobile device, set DVRs, set reminders or even buy theater tickets through Fandango.
"See It is a simple yet powerful feature that creates an instant online remote control," said Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO, Comcast Corporation.
"Comcast is taking a leap forward in social TV by enabling Twitter users to more easily find and view the shows they want to watch and discover new shows. Twitter complements the live viewing experience and is an ideal partner for Comcast and NBCUniversal."
Panasonic will reportedly get out of the plasma TV panel production business by the end of March next year, according to a report.
Sources familiar with Panasonic's plans told the Reuters news agency that the company seeks to end its production of plasma TV panels by the end of its financial year, which ends March 2014.
The move is no surprise given that Panasonic's losses in its TV business have contributed to monstrous losses in recent years. A strong yen has also given it a major disadvantage over flat panel television rivals, such as South Korea's Samsung and its domestic rival LG Electronics.
On top of that, plasma televisions have declined in a market dominated by LCD, which has witnessed considerable improvements and innovation over recent year. According to DisplaySearch, only 6 percent of TV shipments in 2012 were plasma, compared to 87 percent for LCD.
According to Reuters sources, Panasonic will book an impairment loss of more than 40 billion yen with the closure of its plasma factory in Western Japan.
Microsoft has paid a security researcher a reward of $100,000 for detailing a bug and attack method on Windows 8.1.
James Forshaw, a security researcher at Context Information Security, got the $100,000 bounty from Microsoft by showing how to work around protective measures in the preview version of Windows 8.1. He also previously got a cash reward for finding an Internet Explorer 11 bug.
"The reason we pay so much more for a new attack technique versus for an individual bug is that learning about new mitigation bypass techniques helps us develop defenses against entire classes of attack," said Microsoft's Katie Moussouris.
Microsoft has paid out $28,000 for bugs found affecting Internet Explorer 11 - the browser at the core of Windows 8.1 - as part of a reward program that was initiated in June and is set to run for a year.
Samsung has unveiled its new Galaxy Round smartphone, confirming rumors about an upcoming Samsung device with a curved display.
The device will be launched in South Korea over the coming days through carrier SK Telecom. It features a 5.7-inch curved OLED display (1080p), and weighs 154g.
As a result of its unique curved design, users can take advantage of round integration experiences like the Roll Effect that enables the user to check information such as the date, time, missed calls and battery easily when home screen is off, and the Gravity Effect for creating visual interaction with the screen by tilting the device.
Further technical details and information about available outside South Korea are unavailable at this time. It will launch in South Korea beginning tomorrow in "luxury brown" for the equivalent of around $1,000.
Some of Samsung's older smartphones and tablets will be banned from import and sale in the United States.
Apple filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in 2011, accusing Samsung of infringing its patents in some of its smartphones and tablet products. In August, the ITC found that some of the products did infringe Apple's patents and banned their importation into the country.
The ban could have been overturned within a 60 day period by U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, but he declined to do so.
"After carefully weighing policy considerations, including the impact on consumers and competition, advice from agencies, and information from interested parties, I have decided to allow the commission's determination," Froman said in a statement.
He recently overturned a ban imposed on Apple products for patent infringement. Needless to say, Samsung is less than pleased.
"We are disappointed by the US Trade Representative's decision to allow the exclusion order issued by the US International Trade Commission. It will serve only to reduce competition and limit choice for the American consumer,"a spokesperson said.
The new HP Chromebook 11 has been shown off this week, available for just $279.
The new 11-inch HP Chromebook 11 weighs just 2.3lb. It is powered with a Sasmung Exynos 5250 CPU, 2GB of RAM and 16GB SSD storage. It support 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. It charged via microUSB for more convenient travel.
Its magnesium frame has no sharp edges with a completely screw-free design, and no air vents or fans. The new Chromebook's screen has a 176-degree viewing angles so you can see even when looking at it almost completely sideways.
The speakers are located under the keyboard rather than on the bottom of the chromebook for better sound.
Google also throws in 100GB of Google Drive cloud storage for free for two years, and a 60-day free trial of Google Play Music All Access.
It is available now for just $279 from all the usual suspects.
Amazon appears to be shipping Chromecast outside of the United States, despite Google not yet expanding the product beyond the territory.
Android Central noticed that Amazon had added new shipment options for territories outside of the U.S., including full shipping and import costs. Orders have been placed for the device to the UK and as far as Australia by some customers.
Chromecast provides a way to stream content to a television from a variety of devices over a home WiFi network, as long as your TV has a spare HDMI input it can plug into. Priced at just $35, it may be worth placing an order.
British police have arrested four men as part of an ongoing investigation into the Silk Road, a dark web drug market that was shut by the FBI this month.
Three of the arrests were made in Manchester, and the fourth in Devon. They were arrested on suspicion of drug offenses by the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA).
"These arrests send a clear message to criminals; the hidden internet isn't hidden and your anonymous activity isn't anonymous. We know where you are, what you are doing and we will catch you," said Keith Bristow, director general of the NCA.
"It is impossible for criminals to completely erase their digital footprint. No matter how technology-savvy the offender, they will always make mistakes."
Indeed, alleged Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht appeared to unmask himself through a number of mistakes that led the FBI to him, rather than a failure of the TOR network that protected the source of the Silk Road server.
Executive chairman and former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, has claimed that Android is more secure than the iPhone.
Gartner analyst David Willis asked a question of Eric Schmidt during the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo where he touched on Android's security reputation.
"If you polled many people in this audience they would say Google Android is not their principal platform... When you say Android, people say, wait a minute, Android is not secure,"Willis commented.
Schmidt was having none of it. "Not secure? It's more secure than the iPhone,"he declared, drawing laughter from the audience.
Schmidt went on to tout Android 1 billion+ device activations and the stringent security testing it undergoes.
Recently, a U.S. government report highlighted the lack of a upgrade path for many devices running Android, which can leave them vulnerable to malware attacks.
Microsoft has paid bug hunters a total of $28,000 for finding and reporting security vulnerabilities in the preview version of Internet Explorer 11.
As the primary browser app in Windows 8.1, Internet Explorer 11 is likely to be probed by malware authors the world round, and Microsoft sought to minimize the risk that serious bugs will be found after launch, with a bounty program announced in June.
As part of the program, Microsoft is paying up to $11,000 per vulnerability discovered, depending on how serious it is. The reward program is set to run for a year.
Voice actors for Grand Theft Auto V have dismissed criticisms that the game encourages violence in children as hypocritical.
Since the game was launched last month, it has enjoyed overwhelming success on the market with over $1 billion in sales in three days. Criticism of the games content was entirely expected though, as it comes around with every release of a new GTA.
"Anyone who has any conception at all about the games and hasn't played them should go play the games before they open their mouths," Ned Lukes, who voices Michael in GTA V, told PC Advisor.
"As an actor, I got to go out and do all these crazy things and then go back home to my wife and my son and go out in the back yard and throw a baseball around like a normal all-American dad. I think that's what these games are. People who take them too seriously and go, 'Oh, this is life.' No, this isn't life. This is imagination. It's just fun. You definitely don't want GTA raising your children. But it's not a bad release from them, when you need to get away."
The BBC is to update iPlayer to cater more to the personal tastes of each user.
Tony Hall, director general of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), is to outline the changes today in a keynote speech.
The new iPlayer will be aimed at giving BBC viewers/listeners the power to more easily personalize the content they get from the publicly-funded group. For example, BBC Radio 1 has already revealed it will have its own iPlayer channel that will have exclusive performances and interviews that are not broadcast elsewhere, in a bid to appeal to younger audiences.
The changes are likely to spark an old debate however. If this is the direction the BBC is taking, then the continued requirement to pay the fixed licence fee will be called into question. If you can personalize the type of content that you want to see from the BBC, then why pay a blanket fee toward the BBC's entire content production?
A launch is planned in 2014, with content available both in the UK and internationally. Mobile apps are also expected to be announced for BBC radio programmes with exclusive content.
According to leaked documents, the National Security Agency (NSA) targeted flaws in the Firefox web browser to attempt to descramble communications over TOR.
The Onion Router - or TOR - is a network that seeks to provide anonymity to users communications either within the network, or with servers based on the Internet. When visiting a website through a browser configured to use TOR, the traffic back and forth bounces through several servers that could be anywhere worldwide in order to make it difficult for both ends of the communication to know the location/identity of the other.
Only the Exit Node - the last TOR node before accessing a web server - could potentially have access to unencrypted data but still would not be aware of the other end of the communication.
From leaked documents published by the Guardian, it appears the NSA was unsuccessful in breaking TOR, and so decided another route; attack the browser and even infect the computer of a potential target in an effort to unmask them and their communications.
Browser flaws could open up the possibility of being unmasked as they could force an unencrypted, un-tunnelled connection between the target computer and a third party server. It also leaves browsers open to the delivery of a malware payload.
According to Bloomberg, Apple's iTunes Radio will become available in several more countries beyond the United States in 2014.
The report cites sources familiar with Apple's plans for iTunes Radio, which became available with the release of iOS 7 in the United States. It became the primary competitor to Pandora over night, and now Apple seeks to 1-up its rival by expanding to territories beyond its current reach.
It intends to launch iTunes Radio in the United Kingdom and Canada at some point in 2014, while it also expects to expand into Australia, New Zealand and Nordic countries during the year.
Apple is able to expand so quickly because it negotiated rights agreements with major record companies, while Pandora relies on rights granted by the state for Internet radio services in order to operate. Unless Pandora can strike similar deals, it may be quickly outpaced on the International stage by Apple.
Microsoft has updated its YouTube app for Windows Phone, but don't be fooled as it has turned into nothing more than a shortcut to the YouTube mobile site.
If you have been following the Windows Phone YouTube App saga, you know that Microsoft and Google got into a public fight over apps developed and made available for the Microsoft platform. At one point, Microsoft's YouTube app featured no advertisements at all, and allowed users to download videos from the service, both in violation of YouTube policies.
Google eventually blocked out the app and made demands of Microsoft to remedy the situation, but so far they have failed to reach a point of agreement over an app.
Microsoft accuses Google of double standards by demanding that it make a HTML5 app, but not requiring the same of apps made for its own Android OS, or Apple's iOS.
Microsoft's latest YouTube app update suggests that Microsoft has given up, as it does little more than redirect to the YouTube mobile site. Tapping the YouTube icom will literally just redirect you to m.youtube.com.
Some of the biggest names in tech have formed a new group that aims to make Internet access more affordable in developing countries.
Among the group are Microsoft, Intel, Google, Yahoo, Facebook and more, and their goal is to reduce the high cost of Internet access in developing regions of the world. In some places, entry level Internet access could cost easily as much as 30 percent of monthly income.
While new technologies have the power to make Internet access more available than ever before, there is still considerable issues with the cost in some regions. The newly formed Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) aims to fight this problem through policy change.
"Policy change can help new innovation take hold and flourish; outdated policies can stifle progress," Google's blog reads.
Initiated by the World Wide Web Foundation, A4AI includes members from the technology, government, and nonprofit worlds, from developed and developing countries. A4AI has a specific goal in mind: to reach the UN Broadband Commission target of entry-level broadband access priced at less than 5% of monthly income worldwide.
Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation App will be included in the next update for the PlayStation Vita handheld.
The update was revealed through Twitter by Shuhei Yoshida, head of Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studios, while responding to questions from other users.
He also referred to the new PlaySation app as "PS4 Link".
Ouya now has 25,000 registered developers, according to the company.
As it stands, owners of the $100 Android console can download around 465 games or apps from the Ouya store. The company announced the milestone of 25,000 registered developers, but did not elaborate on the number of active developers for the platform.
The Ouya console was released four months ago as the result of a successful Kickstarter campaign. Since then, it has received a mixed response from gamers at best.
According to Julie Uhrman, chief exec at Ouya, around 27 percent of Ouya owners have purchased games. The company expects this figure to rise.
Sony has confirmed that the upcoming Sony PlayStation 4 DualShock 4 controller will work with Windows PCs and Windows games right out of the box.
Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida confirmed the news via his Twitter stream. (Embedded below)
The exec says that basic functions such as the analog sticks and buttons will work without issue. The more advanced features of the controller, such as the touch pad and motion sensors, were not mentioned, but will likely not work at launch as Sony really has no reason to invest in such functionality.
Sony has not used Xinput in the past, like Microsoft does for their Xbox controllers, so it is unclear whether Windows PCs will recognize the DS4 as a DS4 or as a generic controller.
Multiple Korean sources are reporting that Samsung will be first to market with a flexible, curved display smartphone.
The tech giant could launch the phone as early as this week, with the tentative name "Galaxy Round."
By using a plastic panel, the display will be more durable and cheaper to produce. The device could also feature the thinnest bezel of any smartphone, due to its flexibility.
It is unclear how much the Round will cost, but it is expected to specs similar to the recently unveiled Galaxy Note 3.
LG today announced they would be building a 6-inch curved display for launch in November. The race is on.
Despite skipping cameras with optical image stabilization (OIS) for their current generation of devices, Samsung appears to be working on new modules for next year's flagship devices.
The company has revealed a new 13MP camera with OIS and improved low-light performance.
GSMA says the new "module can correct up to 1.5°," beating out the HTC One's camera at 1°.
In addition, the low-light performance for video and stills are up to eight times better than current models.
The module will go into mass production in the early months of next year.
Valve has unveiled the specs for its upcoming Linux-based Steam Machine console.
The company is only releasing 300 prototype consoles this year, with the intent of getting PC-based gaming into the living room.
Ranging from low-end to extremely high-end, the prototypes will run on either an Intel Core i7-4770 (4x3.5-3.9GHz, 8MB L3, 22nm, 84W), and Intel Core i5-4570 (4x3.2-3.6GHz, 6MB L3, 22nm, 84W) or an Intel Core i3 (unspecified).
The boxes will come with 16GB of DDR3-1600 RAM and internal storage of 1TB/8GB hybrid drives.
For graphics the cards will range from the high-end GeForce GTX Titan (2688 CUDA cores, 837-876MHz, 6GHz GDDR5), the mid-range GeForce GTX 780 (2304 CUDA cores, 863-900MHz, 6GHz GDDR5) and GeForce GTX 760 (1152 CUDA cores, 980-1033MHz, 6GHz GDDR5) to the lower-end GeForce GTX 660 (960 CUDA cores, 980-1033MHz, 6GHz GDDR5).
Future versions of the console will be user upgradeable, a major differentiation from the PlayStation and Xbox, which only allow storage upgrades, at most.
For the first time in a decade, sales of digital single lens reflex cameras (DSLRs) have fallen, following the trend of other standalone point-and-shoot cameras, which have long fallen prey to improving smartphone cameras.
"You're talking about a 10-15% decline [in DSLR shipments] all over the world. Which is kind of shocking because that market's been growing double digits for almost ten years,"says Christopher Chute, market intelligence firm IDC's research director of worldwide digital imaging.
Chute adds that the global digital camera sales declines are accelerating every quarter, with shipments in the Q2 falling 36 percent to 19.2 million. DSLR shipments fell 10.9 percent in the quarter to just 4 million.
Broken down by brand, Fujifilm and Sony are down 35 percent year-over-year, Canon is down 23 percent and Nikon is down 18.2 percent.
An angry shareholder has filed a class action lawsuit against BlackBerry, claiming that the company misled its investors about the future.
The suit will represent all shareholders who purchased BlackBerry stock between September 27th, 2012 and September 20th, 2013.
In the suit, shareholder Marvin Pearlstein alleges that 'executives misrepresented the state of BlackBerry's operations, including how well the BlackBerry 10 line of smartphones would fare against Android and iPhone.
Pearlstein says the company misled its investors last year by saying they were "progressing on its financial and operational commitments," and that BlackBerry 10 was being well-received by developers and carriers. "In reality, the BlackBerry 10 was not well received by the market, and the company was forced to ... lay off approximately 4,500 employees, totaling approximately 40% of its total workforce," the complaint reads.
Last September, BlackBerry shares reached lows at under $6 per share, but rebounded by February to over $17 per shares. They have since collapsed to $8 per share.
Clearly not seeing the backlash that was brought upon Yahoo when they began doing the same, Microsoft has begun recycling older, inactive Live, Outlook and Hotmail email accounts.
Perhaps worse, the company has not mentioned such practices in their service agreements although it does read that you must log in "periodically, at a minimum of every 270 days, to keep the Microsoft branded services portion of the services active" otherwise your "access may be canceled."
Following reports that it has begun recycling emails, Microsoft confirmed that is the new policy. "The email account is automatically queued for deletion from our servers. Then, after a total of 360 days, the email account name is made available again,"says the software giant.
Yahoo was criticized for a similar move, as many new users still received emails that were addressed to the old user of the account, including sensitive information from Web services.
Google, owner of the second most popular email service on the Web, Gmail, says they will never recycle inactive or deleted accounts: "Once you delete your Gmail address, you won't be able to use that same username (username@gmail.com) in the future."
According to a longer form NYT article, the original iPhone cost Apple at least $150 million to develop and would have seriously hurt the company had it not been successful.
In the report, a senior Apple exec is quoted as saying the company spent over $150 million to develop the device, which was released in 2008.
Besides just the monetary investment, there was also a huge time and opportunity cost, as the company placed its best engineers on the project. Reads the article, "Many top engineers in the company were being sucked into the project, forcing slowdowns in the timetables of other work."
By moving the top engineers to the iPhone project, it caused rifts in other divisions. Says one hardware engineer who was in charge of the radios in the iPhone, "It was a big '[expletive] you' to the people who couldn't get in [to work on the iPhone]. Everyone knows who the rock stars are in a company, and when you start to see them all slowly get plucked out of your area and put in a big room behind glass doors that you don't have access to, it feels bad."
BlackBerry, which recently received a $4.7 billion offer sheet, has also been in talks with Cisco, Google and SAP about bids for either the entire company or parts.
The first offer, by Fairfax Financial Holdings, is dependent on whether they can get the partners and financing to take the company private. So far, shareholders have met that bid with skepticism, but Fairfax seems confident and has put a large breakup fee in place should it not be able to pull through.
In addition, Intel, LG and Samsung are said to have fleeting interest in pieces of the company.
It appears that most of the interested parties are looking to BlackBerry's secure server network and patent portfolio, although the value of the divisions are still in a wide range. The value of the licensing agreements are expected to be cut in half in the next 18 months, and half of BlackBerry's $3 billion in cash is expected to be used through in the next 18 months, as well, meaning any buyer should just bide their time.
Microsoft, which for years has touted its Security Essentials anti-virus package, has now said users should use third-party applications on top of MSE, as it will never be the best option.
In an interview, the company admits it has turned its AV app into a "baseline program," and that the app will "always be on the bottom" of the AV software rankings, where it has languished in the last two years after a few years on top.
Microsoft also adds that "the company is just sharing its virus tracking findings with the security industry so they can develop better antivirus programs."
MSE (or Windows Defender in Windows 8) has always been an extremely light-weight app, and it was popular for not being annoying like more commercial programs like McAfee and Norton.
A few great free options if you want to move away from MSE are Avira, Avast and AVG.
-For PlayStation 3 users, a PlayStation Network server issue was detected that was limiting the amount of possible concurrent users. This was preventing most players from accessing GTA Online altogether and as of this morning, that problem was resolved.
-There is an issue that is preventing some players from getting through the first tutorial mission across both platforms. Many players have been able to get through this with repeated retries, and we are working on unblocking this for everyone as soon as possible.
-This morning, we experienced some instability across the GTA Online services which is affecting even people who have progressed beyond the tutorial mission. We are identifying these issues now and are working to restore stability for users as soon as possible.
According to Bloomberg, Microsoft has approached struggling smartphone maker HTC, asking them about adding Windows Phone to their Android devices.
Supposedly, Terry Myerson, head of Microsoft's operating systems unit, is asking to have Windows Phone loaded as a dual-boot option on HTC's Android smartphones, with Microsoft even going as fat as to eliminate the licensing fee for the operating system.
The talks are preliminary, and could go nowhere, say the sources. HTC, which was the first company to make a Windows Phone, has not released one since June and there are no current plans for any into the future.
Microsoft owns around 4 percent of the global smartphone market, and some of its NokiaLumia phones have become hits in their own right. It is clear, however, that the company will need to make drastic concessions (like making Windows Phone a second option) if it wants to control more share.
Just two weeks after the phone launched, Best Buy has already dumped the price of the Apple iPhone 5C.
Until October 7th, the device will sell for $50 with contract after using a gift card, a 50 percent discount from its MSRP.
With all new purchases, customers will get a $50 gift card that can be applied to the same purchase. The gift card deal is also extended to Samsung Galaxy smartphones.
"We view ourselves as a company that offers consumers something they can't get anywhere else -- all the phones, all the plans, all the carriers -- and look for any opportunity to delight our customers,"says Sandra Tollefson, a Best Buy official.
Walmart and Target have already dropped the price of the devices, to $79 with contract.
The Cupertino giant has accused Samsung of 'unlawfully obtaining sensitive information about the terms and conditions of its 2011 patent license agreement with Nokia' and is now seeking sanctions.
In the motion, Apple claims that Dr. Seungho Ahn, a Samsung executive, knew the terms of the settlement and leveraged that knowledge to 'negotiate other potential patent settlements in Samsung's favor.' In the complaint, Apple says the licensing terms were given to Samsung's lawyers clearly marked "Highly Confidential -- Attorneys' Eyes Only", but the files were shared anyways.
During a meeting between Samsung and Nokia on June 4, 2013 to discuss a patent license deal, Dr. Ahn "informed Nokia that the terms of the Apple-Nokia license were known to him" and then stated that "Apple had produced the Apple-Nokia license in its litigation with Samsung, and that Samsung's outside counsel had provided his team with the terms of the Apple-Nokia license."
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer received $1.26 million in pay and incentives for fiscal 2013, despite taking a dock in pay for the Surface's failures.
The exec's base salary was $697,500, and the bonus was $550,000. The incentive bonus was only 79 percent of the total for which he was eligible. Last year, Ballmer received 91 percent of his eligible bonus.
The companyfaced challenges due to weakness in the consumer PC market. While the launch of Windows 8 in October 2012 resulted in over 100 million licenses sold, the challenging PC market coupled with the significant product launch costs for Windows 8 and Surface resulted in an 18% decline in Windows Division operating income. Slower than anticipated sales of Surface RT devices and the decision to reduce prices to accelerate sales resulted in a $900 million inventory charge.
Many other execs received their full incentive awards, including the COO, CFO and Office president.
Netflix for iOS has been updated this week, adding a couple of notable new features.
If you are running iOS 7, you will now have access to HD streams and AirPlay support.
Earlier this year, Netflix added 1080pstreaming support to Android devices and now your iPad and iPhone will have the same.
Adds the streaming giant: "With our latest app, you can now also start streaming over AirPlay. This new feature is very simple and works on all iOS 7 devices. You can choose a title to watch on your iPhone or iPad and start playback. If there is an Apple TV device connected to the same Wifi network, an AirPlay icon appears. Press the AirPlay icon and playback will move to your Apple TV."
Additionally, you can use you iOS device as a remote control for the Apple TV during Airplay.
Adobe has confirmed that cyber attackers got the best them, with an exploit leading to data on nearly 3 million customers being compromised.
Besides 2.9 million Adobe IDs and passwords being stolen, full customer names, encrypted credit/debit card numbers, and expiration dates were also compromised for many of the customers.
Additionally, "source code for numerous Adobe products" was also stolen in the attacks.
Our investigation currently indicates that the attackers accessed Adobe customer IDs and encrypted passwords on our systems. We also believe the attackers removed from our systems certain information relating to 2.9 million Adobe customers, including customer names, encrypted credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates, and other information relating to customer orders. At this time, we do not believe the attackers removed decrypted credit or debit card numbers from our systems. We deeply regret that this incident occurred. We're working diligently internally, as well as with external partners and law enforcement, to address the incident. We're taking the following steps:
According to sources, Google is planning on releasing a native Google Music app for iOS as soon as this month.
Google Music, along with its new Music All Access streaming service, have been noticeably absent from iOS since launch. Google Play allows you to save all your music in the cloud, and stream it from Android devices or on the web. It also allows you to download your music back whenever you log in to your Google account. All Access is similar to Spotify in which you get access to millions of songs to stream, at home and on mobile devices.
The sources say Google is still internally testing the app, but it should launch by the end of the month.
For the time being, there are a couple of unofficial apps in the App Store, and you can always use the limited Web application if desperate. Both options are not great at this point, however.
After hinting at an IPO filing via Twitter last month, the company has made their filing public and in turn revealed key statistics about their operations.
The company will trade with the ticker TWTR, and the filing reveals hope that the company can raise $1 billion in its initial offering, with stock valuing the company at around $15 billion.
Filed as an S-1 thanks to the recently signed JOBS Act, companies with less than $1 billion in annual revenue can file confidentially and they only need two years of audited financial statements and historical financial data. Without the Act, the company would have needed three years and five years of the documentation, respectively.
In its IPO, Twitter states it has over 200 million monthly active users, and 500 million tweets per day. Revenue jumped from 2011 to 2012 by nearly 200 percent, up to $315.9 million. The companies losses decreased by 38 percent, to $79.4 million. Since inception, the company has lost slightly over $400 million but still has $375 million in cash on hand.
Evan Williams, one of the company's founders, will be the big winner in the IPO. Owning 12 percent of outstanding shares, Williams is expected to become a billionaire overnight. A few other firms and individuals will net $300 million or more in profits on the IPO.
Thirteen alleged members of Anonymous have been indicted this week due to their part in "Operation Payback," a series of attacks in which the group avenged The Pirate Bay and Wikileaks.
The thirteen are charged with attacks between September 2010 and January 2011 on the MPAA, RIAA, Bank of America, Visa and Mastercard. The defendants are charged with organizing the DDoS attacks on the websites of the major corporations.
Anonymous attacked the MPAA and RIAA for their parts in getting The Pirate Bay banned in numerous countries, and the financial institutions were attacked because they began blocking funds to Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange.
Reads the indictment: "The defendants planned and executed a coordinated series of cyber-attacks against victim websites by flooding those websites with a huge volume of irrelevant Internet traffic with the intent to make the resources on the websites unavailable to customers and users of those websites."
Kevin Packingham, the chief product officer for Samsung Mobile, has abruptly left the company.
Packingham was directly involved in introducing the Galaxy S and Note lines. The company did not provide any details on whether the exec left voluntarily or not.
All the company would say is: "Kevin Packingham has departed Samsung Mobile. We thank Kevin for his contributions and wish him well in his future endeavors."
During his two years with the company, Packingham was involved in the negotiations that brought the Galaxy S3 to all the major carriers. He was able to do so by telling the carriers that Samsung would do all the marketing investment for their device, guaranteeing the devices would be hits.
"The change that happened was it took a lot of burden off the carriers," Mr. Packingham said earlier this year. "People were coming into their stores and they didn't have to pay for that demand."
In February, Google announced the PixelChromebook, a touchscreen notebook with the 'highest resolution screen, ever."
Consumers may have been impressed by the specs, but not by the price, as the Pixel retails with a $1300 price tag, simply too much for a computer that becomes a lot less useful when you don't have an Internet connection.
Caesar Sengupta, vice president of product management for Chromebooks, has confirmed that high sales were never in the cards for the Pixel. "Big sales were never the broad goal for the Pixel," he added. Google really intended the device to be a high-end touchscreen reference device to inspire developers to build touch-enabled Chrome apps.
When the device first launched, Google even noted that it was aimed at "power users who have fully embraced the cloud."
Chromecast, Google's recent launched $35 Wi-Fi HDMI dongle, has added Hulu Plus support, a huge boost for the platform.
Hulu Plus, which costs $8 per month, gives access to thousands of episodes from Fox, ABC and NBC including the latest episodes aired during the week.
The new move does come with one condition, however; you must be using an Android or iPad tablet or an Android smartphone app to Chromecast. Unlike Netflix, where you can cast from within the Chrome browser, as well, you cannot do so with Hulu.
Late last month, Apple unveiled two new iPhones for their loyal consumers, the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S.
The 5S would be the new flagship device while the iPhone 5C would take the place of the iPhone 5 at a lower price point. The "C" in 5C stands for "communication" but it might as well stand for color as the device was made to stand out with a new lineup of colorful models.
Apple has used their marketing muscle (and let's face it, genius) in creating the iPhone 5C, which is not a new device at all, but it is certainly made to look and feel like one. When launched with the updated iOS 7, which in itself is more colorful and refined, Apple does a fine job of making a repackaged iPhone 5 seem like a brand new phone.
On to the phone itself, continue with our review to see if the device is worth your $99 (on contract), or $550 (off contract).
Symantec has managed to shrink the ZeroAccess botnet by around a quarter, cutting off over 500,000 computers from the yet-unidentified operators of the notorious network.
The botnet hit as many as 1.9 million infected "zombie" PCs. Unlike other botnets that have been dismantled by targeting centralized command and control services, ZeroAccess uses a decentralized system where groups of infected computers communication new instructions from the operators of the networks.
Symantec managed to cut off a huge chunk of zombie PCs from the botnet by poisoning the communications between infected computers. It started its operation when it noticed an updated ZeroAccess malware was going through the network which would make it much more difficult to disrupt communications.
ISPs have been informed about computers that have been axed from the botnet by Symantec, so that their customers can be told they are running infected machines.
The European Commission has indicated that it is closer to a settlement with search giant Google in a three-year old anti-trust probe.
After being told by the European regulatory body that it needs to go back and come up with more concessions, Google has reportedly provided more offers to Commissioners that could end the case.
"We have reached a key moment in this case. Now with significant improvements on the table, I think we have the possibility to work again," competition commissioner Joaquin Almuniatold the European Parliament.
Specifics of Google's concessions were not revealed but they are expected to make Google's search results more clear. For example, Google's own services will be clearly identified as such in search results, while its rivals may also be able to attach their own corporate logos to results.
Website will also be able to control better what content from their site is shown on Google's results.
In 2010, a group of rivals in search and e-commerce complained to the European authorities that Google was abusing its dominant position in search to push its own other services ahead of those that compete with it.
The FBI has arrested the alleged operator of the Silk Road marketplace and has taken the hidden service offline.
The Silk Road was a marketplace for buying and selling narcotics, existing as a Hidden Service on The Onion Router (TOR) network. It enabled users to buy and sell narcotics - both illegal and prescription drugs - using the BitCoin digital currency.
For years the site operated without being located by law enforcement agencies, who instead had to rely on sting operations to attempt to disrupt the trade of drugs.
If you attempt to visit the Silk Road now, you will get the following notice.
According to a report, a small group of Microsoft investors are lobbying the Microsoft board to push Bill Gates out as chairman of the Redmond-based software giant.
Gates co-founded Microsoft 38 years ago and has been one of the biggest names in technology ever since. The success of Microsoft's products has made him one of the wealthiest individuals in the world, allowing him to focus primarily on philanthropic efforts after stepping down as Microsoft chief executive.
While he is still a popular figure at Microsoft, Reuters is citing sources familiar with a move at Microsoft by three of its top investors to have him step down as chairman. The investors, and the sources, remain unnamed.
Their argument is that the presence of Bill Gates as chairman will make it extremely difficult for a new chief executive to take the company in a new direction. Steve Ballmer is set to leave Microsoft very soon, though the board has insisted that his strategy will remain on course.
Gates owns roughly 4.5 percent of Microsoft, making him still the largest individual shareholder. He has been selling around 80 million shares of Microsoft per year under a pre-set plan, which if left continue will deplete his stake in Microsoft by 2018.
There have been a fair share of Apple iWatch rumors over the years, but only a few have really ever stuck.
One of those is that the company will almost certainly use a flexible OLED screen for the wearable device, and today we have another report claiming the same.
Chosun Ilbo reports that Apple has been prototyping the flexible displays, and that "a prototype of the 1.5-inch has already been made."
Additionally, 1.3 and 1.4 inch devices are being tested, as well.
As always, Apple has never confirmed the existence of the watch, which means it is definitely in the works, potentially with a 2014 release date.
According to Quartz, Twitter will make its IPO filing public this week.
The social network filed with regulators on September 12th to go public, but it did so confidentially and with no timetable. The "S1" it filed is available for companies with under $1 billion in revenue.
Twitter is expected to be valued as high as $15 billion.
Sources say Twitter will pick the NYSE over the Nasdaq for its IPO, following Nasdaq's disastrous handling of the Facebook IPO last year.
If all goes well, Twitter will be a publicly traded company before the week of November 28th.
As the company continues to prove that it can do nothing right, BlackBerry has announced that it is still committed to releasing BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) for Android and iOS despite a failed launch a week ago.
The company had planned to launch the app last week, but it only made its way to the Australian iOS App Store before being pulled. A leaked Android .APK also broke the company's servers. Since then, the company has stayed mum on details of the app, leaving fans in the dark.
Today, BlackBerry gave a little update on the app:
Toshiba has announced today that it will layoff 3000 from its struggling TV division, a full 50 percent of the employees in that division.
In addition, the company will end production at two of its three overseas factories. It was unclear whether its factories in China, Indonesia or Poland would be the ones being closed.
Outsourced production would be increased by 100 percent, and 400 staff members that are being moved to other business units.
Toshiba's TV division has been losing money for two years straight due to weak sales for new devices in Europe and also at home, in Japan. The company recently announced it would cut back over $100 million in costs between its PC and TV divisions in 2013, and then double that figure next year.
According to TorrentFreak, the 'Breaking Bad' finale set a record for most pirated downloads in its first 12 hours of availability online.
Over 500,000 downloaded and shared the episode via just a few popular torrent sites, with most of the downloaders coming from Australia, the U.S. and UK.
"Data gathered by TorrentFreak shows that 12 hours after the first copy of the episode appeared online, more than half a million people has grabbed a copy through one of many torrent sites. Never before have so many people downloaded a Breaking Bad episode, making it a strong contender for a top spot in our most-pirated TV-shows of the year chart," the site wrote.
Despite being available live on TV in the U.S., TF believes most still find downloads more convenient: "One of the explanations for this defiant behavior is that these downloaders simply prefer to torrent the show out of habit. As reported earlier, even among those who have a Netflix subscription, many prefer to grab a copy via torrent sites as they find it more convenient."
Alleged internal documents from Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo appear to reference the oft-rumored Sony Xperia Z1 Mini.
The company recently launched the 'Honami' Xperia Z1, but following in the footsteps of other manufacturers, there will be a 'mini' version of the device.
In the documents, the phone is referenced to as the 'Sony Xperia Z1 f.'
The phone will be powered by a quad-core 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 800 and include the difference making 20.7 MP camera. The display will be much smaller, at 4.3" (720p) compared to the full-sized 5" 1080p display of the Z1. The phone will also be 127 x 64.9 x 9.4 mm vs 144 x 74 x 8.5 mm and the battery will be significantly smaller at 2300 mAh vs 3000 mAh.
Reports are coming in this week that Microsoft's Internet Explorer zero-day (CVE-2013-3893), which remains unpatched, has been exploited for at least three months now.
Microsoft first acknowledged the vulnerability earlier this month, and has issued one of their "Fix It" tools to help contain the dangers until a full patch is released.
Researchers at FireEye say the attacks can be tied to a Chinese hacking group and the attacks have been aimed at Japanese organizations.
Says researcher Alex Watson of Websense: "Our ThreatSeeker Intelligence Cloud reported a potential victim organization in Taiwan attempting to communicate with the associated malicious command and control server as far back as July 1, 2013. These C&C communications predate the widely-reported first use of this attack infrastructure by more than six weeks, and indicates that the attacks from this threat actor are not just limited to Japan."
"Websense Threat Intelligence indicates that the threat actor's attacks were not limited only to Japan as previously reported. The use of separate IP addresses, domain registrations, and permutations to dropper locations indicates a high degree of segmentation between attacks and different teams using the same tool sets, exploits and C&C infrastructure."
According to Korean daily Hankyung, Apple is going to cut down Samsung's share of building the upcoming A8 chip used in the future iPhone 6 and future iPads.
Supposedly, most of the manufacturing will now be done by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), with the company to be responsible for up to 70 percent, with the rest covered by Samsung.
Despite years of rumors that Apple is looking to take away share from its biggest rival, that so far has not come to fruition.
Samsung was the main manufacturer of the new A7 64-bit processor, and is the only company that can easily fulfill full Apple orders.
Apple has confirmed today that some iPhone 5S handsets were hit by a manufacturing defect that causes the battery to drain much quicker than it should.
