AC/DC, one of the most notable bands to not be available on streaming services, is finally signing up.
The rock band - which has sold over 72 million albums in the U.S. - has long been against digital in general and just had their catalog added to iTunes in 2012, nine years after the store launched.
This week, the band's catalog will be available via streaming services like Spotify and Rdio and the new Apple Music.
AC/DC remained a holdout well after other bands bit the bullet, including Metallica, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, each of which joined in 2012 after years of rejecting the format.
Although OnePlus has been slowly releasing important tidbits about its upcoming OnePlus 2 flagship, there is still little known about the actual design. That is, until today.
Thanks to a new report, we have two alleged leaked photos of the device, which should look pretty familiar to OnePlus One owners.
The front of the phone looks almost exactly the same as its predecessor with straight edges and the bottom/top having curved sides but the back is where the more significant differences appear to lie. The rear side has a lining around the camera that appears to connect to a fingerprint reader, which would be interesting since OnePlus has not even mentioned such a feature as of yet.
So far, the company has confirmed a customized Snapdragon 810 processor and USB C connectors, the first smartphone to include the future standard.
Since its launch in 2011, Apple's iTunes Match service has allowed users to store 25,000 songs in their iCloud but it appears that that figure is set to increase significantly.
Among the yet unannounced features of iOS 9 is the fact that subscribers to iTunes Match will now be able to store 100,000 tracks, a number that should satisfy even the biggest music fans on the planet.
Apple's Eddy Cue also confirmed again that Apple Music subscriptions will include iTunes Match, so there is no need to pay for two subscriptions. iTunes Match costs $25 per year as a standalone and allows you to upload and store all your physical music in the cloud for playback anywhere.
Sonos users who were considering Apple Music based solely on what their speakers support should be happy as Apple has confirmed that the service will be available on Sonos speakers by the end of the year.
John Paczkowski of Buzzfeed says Apple confirmed the two companies are working together to ensure the connected speaker system will support the new streaming music service.
Unfortunately, that also confirms that Apple Music will not launch with Sonos support, which could put it at a disadvantage against Spotify, Google Play and others, at least for a little bit.
Apple Music will launch on June 30th in conjunction with iOS 8.4 and the launch of the Beats 1 Internet radio service.
Earlier this week, Samsung outraged Microsoft and consumers by patching its Window PCs and disabling Window's automatic updates.
The update made it so users had to manually check for updates and then choose to install them. Outside of the obvious convenience issues, not having automatic updates is also a major security concern. Samsung, at least at first, did not see it that way. "As part of our commitment to consumer satisfaction, we are providing our users with the option to choose if and when they want to update the Windows software on their products," said the company's first statement.
As of writing, Samsung has backtracked on their original stance, and will be "issuing a patch through the Samsung Software Update notification process to revert back to the recommended automatic Windows Update settings within a few days."
Satellite radio giant Sirius XM has settled with the major record labels, ending a lawsuit in which the labels accused the company of playing songs that were written before 1972 without paying royalties for them.
Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Capitol Records, and ABKCO Music & Records all brought the lawsuit against Sirius in 2013, claiming that the company was not paying royalties for songs recorded before 1972 including tracks from popular artists like The Four Tops.
The year 1972 is important because that is when the federal copyright law went into effect. However, California did have a state copyright law before that year, which seems to have been enough to make sure the labels won this suit.
As part of the settlement, Sirius XM will be allowed to continue playing the tracks in question through 2017.
Google-owned company Sidewalk Labs has announced acquisition of Control Group and Titan, two companies that are building a free city wide WiFi. The project will launch in September in New York City, Bloomberg reports.
The project aims to bring free and "superfast" WiFi to the city of New York and especially for tourists to exploit. It will use old phone booths – which there are thousands of – to provide WiFi hotspots as well as free phone charging, phone calling, and internet browsing.
It's been estimated that over $500 million can be made from the advertisements over the next 12 years.
Google has been interested in global free WiFi for quite some time and this is the first big push into that area. We will certainly hear more about similar plans in new cities in the future.
Just like every time the company releases a new operating system, users will be treated to a new special desktop wallpaper.
The new Windows 10 logo will feature the classic Windows logo but the logo will be made out of light as Microsoft used lasers, projectors and some camera mapping to create the effect.
Microsoft's Windows 10 will be available on July 29th.
Chinese smartphone startup OnePlus has announced that their long-awaited flagship sequel will be unveiled on July 27th.
The company will livestream the launch in virtual reality starting at 7pm PDT on the 27th, and you can use a custom "cardboard" VR headset like those Google has created.
"A VR launch lets you stand right next to our team and our fans as we unveil our new flagship," company co-founder Carl Pei said in the announcement. "You'll be able to look around as you check out the phone in a new way and maybe even find a few hidden Easter eggs. It's a new way of thinking about a product launch. We aren't talking at you; we are talking with you."
The OnePlus Cardboard VR set will be available soon ahead of the launch: "We didn't cut any corners on production, and we're definitely losing money on this. But we want to share them with everyone."
Although we don't yet know all the details of the new phone, the company has been blogging bits and pieces. We do know the device will have a custom Snapdragon 810 processor and will also be the first smartphone with a USB-C port. We also know the device will run OnePlus' own OxygenOS operating system, based on Android Lollipop.
Apple Music has done it. Convincing Taylor Swift that streaming music is a good thing. Well, good enough even for her newest baby, 1989.
Last year Taylor Swift removed all her music from the world's most popular music streaming service Spotify. Other streaming services that did not have an ad-supported free model got to keep her music. However, the new album, titled 1989, was never added to any music streaming service.
Some, including yours truly, thought the pop princess wanted to keep it strictly off streaming and reap profit solely from traditional album sales. After saying no to Rhapsody, Tidal, and Apple Music it seemed the only possible outcome. But after over five million albums sold, it has come time to give a streaming service 1989.
Quick backstory to Apple vs Swift: Taylor Swift wrote an open letter to Apple stating that she didn't like that they wouldn't pay artists from listens during the Apple Music three months trial. That, in fact, she said was the reason 1989 was not going to be on Apple Music. She gave Apple an opportunity to make it all better, though, by simply paying the artists.
Netflix's rate of expansion and popularity in the US and beyond has been impressive the past few years. It has challenged cable channels like HBO but new analysis suggests that network channels are the next target.
FBR Capital analyst Barton Crockett said that according to the first quarter numbers Netflix is on par with ABC and NBC. The streaming giant which is not included in the Nielsen ratings would score an average of 2.6 with its three month 10 billion hours streamed, says Crockett.
Disney's ABC and Comcast's NBC are at same 2.6 but their ratings are declining unlike Netflix's viewership. Netflix recently announced it will be expanding to Spain and Portugal in October which will increase the impressive "40%-plus compound annual rate" Crockett told investors about.
Apple Music has signed deals with major independent label Beggars and indie digital rights organization Merlin.
The streaming music service that will launch at the end of this month has added over 20,000 independent labels and distributors with the new deals.
Merlin CEO Charles Caldas noted: "I am pleased to say that Apple has made a decision to pay for all usage of Apple Music under the free trials on a per-play basis, as well as to modify a number of other terms that members had been communicating directly with Apple about. With these changes, we are happy to support the deal."
Apple recently did an about-face following a tirade from top artist Taylor Swift and had decided to pay the record labels even during the three month free trial they are offering all consumers of the service. It certainly seems that the decision has led to the indies signing up.
Hulu has announced this week that they are partnering with Showtime to offer the company's new standalone streaming service at a discount as long as you are a Hulu monthly subscriber.
Hulu Plus costs $7.99 per month and Showtime will cost you just $8.99, an 18 percent discount off the $10.99 it will cost as a standalone product.
Showtime offers some popular original content like Homeland, Ray Donovan, Masters of Sex and older library hits like Dexter and Nurse Jackie, and subscribers will not be inundated with ads.
It is unclear when the partnership will officially start, but you can get more info right from the source here.
Thanks to another series of confusing blog posts from the software giant, Microsoft has had to backtrack again and explain who will get Windows 10 for free.
Last week, the company posted that Windows 10 testers (preview users) would also get a free upgrade to the full operating system when it drops on July 29th. It turns out the real policy is a bit more convoluted.
It is true that Windows 10 preview users will get a free copy, but your copy will only remain activated if you opt-in for all future preview updates. "Since we're continuing the Windows Insider Program you'll be able to continue receiving builds and those builds will continue to be activated under the terms of the Windows Insider Program," explained Microsoft's Gabe Aul.
If you decide to opt-out, then your genuine Windows 10 goes poof the next time it connects back to Microsoft for authentication.
Of course, genuine Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users get a free upgrade on release day, unless Microsoft decides to 'clarify' the rules for that in the coming weeks.
Reddit proudly posted long awaited user stats in advance of their 10 year anniversary, as the site continues to grow to new heights.
Here are the stats:
10 years, 0 months, 0 days
(ok, fine, technically it's 9 years, 11 months, 30 days, 22 hours, and 16 minutes at time of posting this at 10 am PDT)
(also 5,258,776 minutes, 87,646 hours, 3651 days, or 521 weeks)
1,715,454,785 comments
(.36% of which mention cats)
334,626,161 monthly page views per Reddit engineer
(also 7,637,686 unique monthly visitors per engineer, at 30 engineers--we're hiring more!)
190,227,552 posts
(36% self posts vs link)
36,136,190 user accounts
(26,222 of which include some variation of "pm me" or "don't pm me" requests)
$29,559,467.54 spent on 877,218 presents for RedditGifts exchanges
(in 201 gift exchanges)
1,867,184 months of Reddit Gold purchased
(804,952 of which you've gifted to someone)
853,824 subreddits created
(9,601 of which were active yesterday)
213,078 lines of code total
(1,081,873 lines of code added and 868,795 removed in 10,128 commits since Jan. 23, 2007, the second complete rewrite of Reddit)
iOS 9 beta users were greeted with a highly-requested feature when they updated to beta 2 yesterday.
It appears that Apple is testing a feature that will allow the operating system to delete applications when you do not have enough free space to update to the latest iOS and when the update is complete it will reinstall your app with all the data still intact.
Additionally, Apple is also including a feature called "app thinning" to iOS 9 "which allows developers to distribute only the necessary portions of their apps to users, and Swift libraries built-in so developers don't have to include them with every app," says 9to5M.
If the features make it to the final release of iOS 9, it will be to the relief of iOS fans who always have the harrowing task of deciding what pictures, games and apps they need to delete in order to make room for the updated operating system.
Uber is preparing to raise an additional $1 billion thanks to an investment from Chinese fund manager Hillhouse Capital Group.
If completed, Hillhouse will purchase bonds that then convert in shares at a discount to Uber's eventual IPO price.
The move is very similar to a deal completed by Goldman Sachs in January in which the investment bank invested $1.6 billion in exchange for convertible bonds.
Uber is the most highly capitalized private startup in the world, and when it does IPO it is expected to have a market value in excess of $40 billion, making it one of the largest tech companies on the planet, as well.
The ride-hailing app is now available in 300 cities and is aggressively expanding in places like China, where it has already committed $1 billion for 2015.
Amazon's smart speaker, the Echo, is now available to all without an invite.
The etailer launched the device last November, and it was generally met with favorable reviews, but available only by invite meant the average consumer was not getting their hands on it.
As of yesterday, however, everyone can now buy the Echo directly from Amazon for $180, with an estimated shipping date of July 14th.
The Echo is more than just a speaker, as it is also a "personal assistant" that can answer questions for you about traffic, your favorite sports teams, and today's weather, among many other things. You can also use it to power a smart home, or ask it to add an item to your Amazon shopping list.
Your notifications are also sent to your Android smartphone via the Echo app, meaning you can take Echo with you.
As a speaker, it is cheaper than a Sonos Play 1 (although the Sonos offers better features for music), but with all the rest of its smart features, the Echo may warrant a purchase.
Google has announced this week the launch of an ad-supported version of Google Play Music that is free and will include free curated playlists.
The playlists are built using Songza technology, the popular streaming app acquired by Google last year.
Each station is crafted towards your mood or your activity, and if you aren't doing anything, Google has included a top 10 list to help you out. The top 10 (currently) are Brand New Music, Driving, Working Out, Boosting Your Energy, Having Friends Over, Having Fun at Work, Entering Beast Mode, Waking Up Happy, Unwinding and Bedtime.
Available now in the U.S., the free Google Play Music is available via the desktop/browser now and later this week for both Android and iOS.
The new free, ad-supported version of Google Play Music is launching first in the U.S. It's available on the web today, and is rolling out this week to Android and iOS.
While its console counterpart is flooded with great reviews, 'Batman: Arkham Knight' has seen a steady stream of negative reports for the PC version.
Users across stream, Reddit and other media have complained about lag, stuttering, frame rate fluctuations, bugs, crashes and even memory leaks.
AMD GPU card users seen to be having the most issues, but even Nvidia GTX 980 ($500 card) users have complained, showing the problems are widespread. Developer Rocksteady did note that "there are some known issues with the performance of Batman: Arkham Knight for PC owners using AMD graphics cards," and that it is "working closely with AMD to rectify these issues as quickly as possible."
Shockingly, some users reported FPS falling to 5 during gameplay using AMD cards. For the time being, it appears that Rocksteady is working on it, but it will be a bumpy ride for PC owners.
The Popcorn Time team has revealed this week that they have seen over 1 million downloads for non-jailbroken iOS devices.
Popcorn Time, which allows you to stream pirated material and has an interface that makes everything easy to find (think Netflix), launched for iOS two months ago. The developers found a way to load the app to iOS devices through a special installer, thus avoiding Apple's stringent security.
The team was very proud of the milestone, writing: "Popcorn Time, so it seems, is the most downloaded mobile app outside the Google and Apple stores. And we take huge pride in this. This is us, this is what we've created and it's f***ing breaking records. But the silver lining of this whole thing, what's even bigger in our perspective, is the fact that Popcorn Time is the only app in the *world* that can be installed on non-jailbroken iOS devices outside [Apple's] app store."
That in of itself is quite a feat, as Apple makes it very hard to surpass the Apple App Store unless you are willing to take the plunge of jailbreaking your device.
It's also not just Americans downloading the app to their iPhones, as the Popcorn Time also revealed the top downloaders of the app by country. The Netherlands led the way with a full 19.14 percent of downloaders coming from the nation followed by the U.S. at 17.62 percent and Brazil at 7.21 percent.
Google has introduced 17 new watchfaces for Android Wear users, including character faces like Hello Kitty and Angry Birds.
Reads the release: "Ever wish you could change your look throughout the day? With Android Wear, fashion is equal parts physical and digital. Now, in addition to our growing collection of watches, you can also pick from 1500+ downloadable watch faces to match any outfit, mood, or occasion.
Today, we're showcasing 17 new watch faces from all over the globe--from the adorable characters of Angry Birds, Hello Kitty, and Moomin, to the elegant accessories of Cynthia Rowley, Lulu Frost, and Triwa, to eye-catching brands and artists like Bang & Olufsen, Muji, and Kevin Tong."
Sony has surprisingly released an Android M Developer Preview for a dozen Xperia devices, a move that should delight fans that have grown used to waiting months if not years for the latest Google operating system on their phones and tablets.
The devices getting the M Dev Preview are the Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3 Compact, Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact, Xperia Z2, Xperia Z2 Tablet, Xperia Z1 Compact, Xperia Z1, Xperia Z Ultra, Xperia E3, Xperia M2, Xperia T2 Ultra and Xperia T3.
Sony also explains how to install the Developer Preview ROM, and you will need an unlocked bootloader.
It is pretty clear the preview is not made for everyday use or for the casual user, but developers will likely get to work as soon as possible.
According to Polish airline LOT, nearly 1400 passengers were grounded on Sunday after hackers attacked the airline's ground computer systems.
The systems took about five hours to get back online, meaning 10 flights were canceled and another 12 were delayed.
LOT provided hotel accommodations for anyone who was delayed overnight, and helped passengers to board flights throughout the night.
The airline did say that flight safety was never compromised and the Warsaw airport and other airlines were not affected. The company did have a warning, however, stating, "We're using state-of-the-art computer systems, so this could potentially be a threat to others in the industry."
Sony has introduced a 1TB 'Ultimate Player' edition console today, launching in Europe on July 15th.
"Offering twice the storage of the existing PS4, you'll be able to download more of the games you love to your PS4, extend your play with more great add-on content and save and share even more of your best gaming highlights," says Sony.
In addition to the larger capacity PS4, the company also noted that its 500GB design will now be 10 percent lighter and 8 percent more power efficient. Finally, the console will replace the glossy top with a matte finish, which will likely show less scratches and fingerprints.
Apple introduced it's new music streaming service with a three month trial period. For customers a three month free of pay trial period seems like a great deal. However, for artists the news wasn't that good. In fact, Apple said that it won't be paying artists for the listens during the three month period at all.
Taylor Swift argued that it was a shocking and disappointing in an open letter released on Tumblr. Only hours after it was released Apple took another look at the policy and decided to change it.
Apple boss Eddy Cue announced on Twitter that Apple will be paying artists for the listens during the three month trial period as well. At this point it is unknown though how the pay compares to pay from a normal listen. Also it is unclear if Taylor Swift will indeed now bring the hugely successful album 1989 to Apple Music That would make Apple Music the first music streaming service to feature the album in question.
Earlier this week, during E3, Sony made a great announcement for fans, but one that may slipped under the radar due to all the big games announcements.
Sony has added a new Media Player app to the PlayStation 4, one that allows you to play home media (or those videos you downloaded online) directly through a USB stick or home server.
Most importantly, the Media Player finally brings MKV support, a feature I have personally been asking Sony for since the launch of the PlayStation 3.
According to a new report, Apple is making huge margins on the bands for the Apple smartwatch.
Citing data from Slice Intelligence, a research firm that mines data from your email receipts, it is estimated that 2.79 million watches have been sold as of mid-June. The figure is significant compared to other smartwatches, but won't even make a mark compared to Apple's other cash cows.
Besides buyers buying the watch, it also appears there are strong sales of additional bands. The entry-level sports band retails for $49 at 38mm, but only costs $2 to make (as per IHS). Even if you take into account R&D, shipping and other costs, Apple is looking at 70 percent margins on the bands.
Slice estimates about 17-20 percent of shoppers have purchased multiple bands and the $149 Milanese loop is the second-most popular behind the cheaper Sports option. The most expensive band will set you back $449, which can double the price of your device.
As we reported earlier this week Taylor Swift has denied Apple Music her latest masterpiece called 1989. Now the pop princess explains herself in an open letter to Apple.
This open letter, dubbed "To Apple, Love Taylor", starts off by explaining what a great relationship she has had with one of the most influential companies in history – both technologically and in the music industry. The letter, however, quickly turns for the worse for Apple.
Swift says she's been shocked and disappointed by Apple Music's three-month trial period during which it doesn't pay the artists for the songs listened to. According to Swift this is not what "historically progressive and generous companies" should do.
She continues to explain that this is not about her – even though it is just her one album – but instead the starting and struggling artists that are rid of one quarter of a year's pay. Swift makes sure to say multiple times how much she respects Apple as a company and what they've done but says this particular thing is wrong.
The letter closes saying that it's not too late for Apple to change its policy and that Apple shouldn't ask for this because "we don't ask you for free iPhones".
EFF has conducted another annual Who Has Your Back? survey and the results are in. The survey which researched the practices relevant to user data handling suggests that the likes of Yahoo and Apple are amongst the best.
The categories were: "Follows industry-accepted best practices", "Tells users about government data demands", "Discloses policies on data retention", "Discloses government content removal requests", and "has a Pro-user public policy: opposes backdoors". A total of eight companies scored a star in all five categories. The companies were Adobe, Apple, Credo Mobile, Dropbox, Sonic, Wikimedia, WordPress, and Yahoo.
Social networks Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin all scored four stars and the tech conglomerates Microsoft and Google joined e-commerce giant Amazon with three stars. The bottom of list were AT&T and alarmingly the massively popular messaging platform Whatsapp.
The whole list of companies and their stars can be found here.
Taylor Swift doesn't like streaming music services. I depends on their business model how much she dislikes them but there has yet been a good enough streaming service for her newest and most precious baby called 1989. At Apple Jimmy Iovine and Tim Cook have tried to convince otherwise her but to no avail.
BuzzFeed reports that like any other streaming service Apple Music will not get the album 1989. However, like other streaming services entirely based on paid subscription the Apple Music will have her older repertoire.
Last year, after the release of her newest album, Swift broke up with the most popular music streaming service in the world, Spotify. Spotify offers a free, ad-supported subscription model unlike Apple Music. According to Taylor Swift that is not how you pay the artists as much as they deserve.
According to reports Taylor Swift has sold over 5 million copies of 1989. Her other albums are currently available to stream, for example, on Rhapsody and Tidal.
Microsoft announced at E3 this week that its current generation gaming console will be backwards compatible with selected Xbox 360 games later this year.
Microsoft says at first (this year) the target is at hundred games after which it'll expand to hundreds.
The announcement surely was a positive surprise to a lot of gamers but also might have caught Sony off guard. In an interview with Eurogamer Sony boss Shuhei Yoshida told that they had the impression that it wasn't technically possible.
According to Yoshida it would certainly require a lot of work from Sony to implement such compatibility with the PS4 and that is not currently in the works. Yoshida doesn't, however, say that it is not a possibility in the future.
Typing in www.thepiratebay.la and you are faced with a failed DNS lookup? Remove the www prefix and you are good to go.
Considering the nature of the site and its problems with the legal system it was not a surprise that reports suggested that it had gone offline once again. However, according to TorrentFreak the changes in The Pirate Bay's domain earlier this week were responsible for the mishap.
A month ago Swedish court ordered the seizure of .se domain but as TorrentFreak reports that is currently the one domain that works with the www prefix. The moderators of the site who spoke with TorrentFreak didn't know why the redirects are not working.
It has been only a couple of months since the original Apple Watch entered the shelves of Apple retail stores but already we have rumors about the successor. The release will likely be some time next year but already Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac claims to have some information.
Source can be considered fairly reliable but remember that a lot can still change before the actual launch. However, Gurman says that one of the key features added to the second gen device is a Facetime camera. The camera would be likely positioned unlike Samsung's Galaxy Gear, which had it directing forward to take pictures. Apple's would be mainly used for videocalls, and maybe selfies.
A new software feature Find my Watch would be also introduced thanks to a new WiFi chip enabling WiFi triangulation. This however would seem to prove that there is no GPS chip for positionin, a feature many would like to see especially for iPhone free fitness tracking.
The research Apple has done about the battery life of the watch seem to suggest that customers are happy with it – or enough so – that there won't be any major upgrades to the 18 hour battery.
Microsoft has announced that former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and head of mobile phones Jo Harlow will be leaving the company. The two were considered the last standing ex-Nokia executives at Microsoft.
Stephen Elop took the job as Nokia CEO during a devastating decline and became known for the burning platform memo. Eventually his stay in the company lead to Nokia selling its mobile phone business to Microsoft.
Harlow's and Elop's departures are based on a new organizational structures that combine the devices (including Lumia smartphones) and operating systems under one Windows and Devices Group. The new division will be led by Terry Myerson who previously led the Windows division.
In addition to former Nokia execs Mark Penn, the man behind Scroogled campaign, will be leaving the company but his departure is not the result of the organization shake-up.
Amazon has revealed a new addition to their line of e-readers. The new Kindle Paperwhite features a high-resolution screen that is said to improve the reading experience significantly.
The display of the new version has a 300 PPI (pixels per inch) resolution which is on par with the more expensive Kindle Voyage. The new Paperwhite will not have as bright and as high-contrast display but it is being sold for $119 – $80 less than Voyage.
Amazon says the user experience of the most popular Kindle device has been revamped as well. The new typesetting engine will feature proper hyphenation in addition to more advanced letter spacing among other changes.
OnePlus has announced this week that their upcoming OnePlus 2 flagship will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 v2.1 processor that has actually been designed for the phone itself.
"Just like we did with the OnePlus One, our engineers debated endlessly over which CPU would be the perfect fit for the 2. While we played around with other options, we always came back to the 810. Its speed and ability to multitask while maintaining optimal battery performance remain unmatched amongst others in the industry," said Pete from One Plus.
The 810 v2.1 is a 64-bit chip with eight CPU cores and the device will have an Adreno 430 GPU allowing for streaming 4K.
Pete was also quick to discuss the overheating issues of the 810, which caused Samsung to ditch the CPU for its Galaxy S6 series.
"Although there have been reports that the 810 runs warmer than its predecessors, we assure you that we have taken all the necessary precautions and beyond to prevent this from occurring in the 2. We worked very closely with Qualcomm's engineers to integrate an improved version of the chipset (v2.1) in the OnePlus 2, and fine-tuned both hardware and software. The 2 will be 'cooler than ever,'" he added.
BioWare has unveiled the first teaser for their upcoming Mass Effect: Andromeda.
There is little known so far about the game, except that it will launch for the holiday season 2016 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
"A new adventure awaits in the Mass Effect universe. With stunning visuals and a new galaxy to discover, BioWare delivers the next generation of space exploration," added the publisher.
It's been a long time coming, and now we have some footage of the upcoming franchise Gears of War 4.
During the Microsoft E3 keynote, developer The Coalition showed off the first gameplay preview of Gears of War 4, which is now scheduled for the holiday season 2016.
The trailer suggests two-player co-op and features JD with an unknown woman.
Check out the trailer here including some new monsters firing projectiles:
The boys are back in Ubisoft's sequel to 'South Park: The Stick of Truth.'
While the predecessor parodied blockbuster fantasies like Lord of the Rings, the new game will be a parody of the whole superhero genre, and feature Cartman as "The Coon" and Butters as "Professor Chaos," characters they have played in multiple TV episodes.
"Players will delve into the crime-ridden underbelly of South Park with Coon and Friends. This dedicated group of crime fighters was formed by Eric Cartman whose superhero alter-ego, The Coon, is half man, half raccoon. As the New Kid, players will join Mysterion, Toolshed, Human Kite, Mosquito, Mint Berry Crunch and a host of others to battle the forces of evil while Coon strives to make his team the most beloved superheroes in history," reads the press release.
Square Enix and IO Interactive announced the release date for the upcoming Hitman game, as well as some additional details.
The series will re-launch on December 8th and the game will get new content over time, similar to how episodic games are now released.
IO says gamers will get new assassination contracts and new locations but many will only be made available for a very limited time and you will only get one chance to complete the contract.
The entire storyline will "conclude in 2016" which means you can expect to be playing the game for a while.
The game almost requires no introduction, as any PlayStation fan knows Naughty Dog's flagship.
This week during E3 we got a nice preview look of the upcoming game.
"Several years after his last adventure, retired fortune hunter, Nathan Drake, is forced back into the world of thieves. With the stakes much more personal, Drake embarks on a globe-trotting journey in pursuit of a historical conspiracy behind a fabled pirate treasure. His greatest adventure will test his physical limits, his resolve, and ultimately what he's willing to sacrifice to save the ones he loves," reads the press release.
Sony made some gamers very happy this week, unveiling The Last Guardian (again), this time for PS4.
The title is the long-awaited sequel to Shadow of the Colossus, one of the higher rated games for the PS2, and one of my personal favorites.
Colossus came out in 2005, and there was a debut for The Last Guardian at E3 in 2009. Since then, there has been nothing but silence on the game, and most assumed it was dead on arrival.
Last December, however, creator Fumito Ueda said that development was proceeding under "completely new conditions," and now we have some more answers. The Last Guardian will launch next year for the PS4.
Legendary Yu Suzuki has unveiled that the long awaited third installment in the Shenmue series is in the works, via crowdfunding giant Kickstarter.
Reads the page: "Shenmue 3 is the true sequel to the classic open world action RPG games, Shenmue and Shenmue 2. Created for modern platforms (PC and PlayStation 4) and built in Unreal 4, Shenmue 3 will continue the legacy of Shenmue.
•Shenmue 3 will have familiar elements from its predecessors and new fight mechanics to achieve a new level of interactive storytelling.
•If this project reaches its funding goal, Shenmue 3 will be available on the PS4 and PC.
•Our ambition is to deliver a Shenmue experience that will draw in newcomers to the series and reward diehard fans with its deep story and rich gameplay.
Where we left off... Ryo Hazuki has made his way to China in search of his father's killer. There he meets a new travelling companion, Shenhua, and learns of a legend from her village that has foretold their path together.
The story continues as Ryo and Shenhua start off on a new journey that will take them farther into enemy territory, deeper into mystery, and ever closer to their destiny.
Will the mystery of the mirrors be revealed? How is Ryo's father connected to all of this? Will Ryo track down the Chi You Men cartel and face Lan Di in a final showdown?"
Nintendo presented Star Fox Zero today during E3, giving a gift to fans that had no idea the game was coming so soon.
At the end of the trailer, Nintendo promises a release this holiday season, far sooner than what most expected.
Among the new features showcased is the ability to transform your Arwing fighter to a walking mech robot where you can use the GamePad controller to move to cockpit view.
Ubisoft has unveiled a new game, For Honor, a new kind of "melee combat experience."
The game allows you to start war as a knight, Viking or Samurai.
"Carve a path of destruction through the battlefield in For Honor! Enter the chaos of a raging war as a bold Knight, brutal Viking, or mysterious Samurai, three of the greatest legendary warriors. For Honor is a fast-paced, competitive experience mixing skill, strategy, and team play with visceral melee combat.
The Art of Battle, For Honor's innovative control system, puts you in total control of your heroes, each with distinct skills and weapons, as you fight for land, glory, and honor. As a skilled warrior on a believable battleground, you annihilate all soldiers, archers, and opposing heroes who stand in your way," reads the company's press.
For Honor will launch next year for XBO, PS4 and PC.
Two years after they first debuted the game, Square Enix finally has new footage of the highly-anticipated "Kingdom Hearts 3."
The series, critically acclaimed and beloved by fans, last saw a release in 2005.
As expected, the title features popular Disney characters and allows you to travel to different worlds from different films Your browser does not support the video tag.
During Microsoft's E3 keynote yesterday, developer Bethesda came out to show off gameplay footage for their upcoming Fallout 4 blockbuster.
When Bethesda first announced the game two days ago, we get some nice cinematic trailers, but now we have full gameplay.
At the time, Bethesda called it "the most ambitious game world [they] have ever created," and the company showed off a really immersive crafting experience .
Fallout 4 will launch for PS4, Xbox One and PC in November.
Yesterday at E3, the world was introduced to a new trailer for Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition Star Wars, adding to Disney's collection of Marvel, Disney and Pixar toys that can be used in video game form.
"Together new heroes can join forces with characters from previous editions and embark on adventures as big as your imagination in the 3.0 Toy Box! Disney Infinity encourages you to play your way, whether you explore open-world creation in the Toy Box or story-driven gameplay inside Play Sets!" reads the bio.
In addition, there will be a couple of bundles for sale, including a Clone Wars TV series and one based on the original trilogy.
The Star Wars Saga Starter Pack featuring Boba Fett is coming exclusively to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3, announced Sony, giving PlayStation gamers a leg up on rivals.
Microsoft has announced a new wireless controller for the Xbox One and Windows 10 aimed at the hardcore gamer.
The new Elite wireless controller costs $150 and the controller has swappable components meaning you can switch the D-pad for a joystick, and more.
Among the new features are four interchangeable paddles on the back side, Hair Trigger Locks for precise control in shooters and a textured rolling pad. The four paddles are customizable allowing you to remap as you choose
Microsoft will also release a new app to help gamers remap their controllers.
Password manager LastPass has sent out a security notice to all users confirming that some user data was stolen but most data should be secure.
Here is the full statement from LastPass, which includes the recommendation to change your master pass:
We want to notify our community that on Friday, our team discovered and blocked suspicious activity on our network. In our investigation, we have found no evidence that encrypted user vault data was taken, nor that LastPass user accounts were accessed. The investigation has shown, however, that LastPass account email addresses, password reminders, server per user salts, and authentication hashes were compromised.
We are confident that our encryption measures are sufficient to protect the vast majority of users. LastPass strengthens the authentication hash with a random salt and 100,000 rounds of server-side PBKDF2-SHA256, in addition to the rounds performed client-side. This additional strengthening makes it difficult to attack the stolen hashes with any significant speed.
Nonetheless, we are taking additional measures to ensure that your data remains secure. We are requiring that all users who are logging in from a new device or IP address first verify their account by email, unless you have multifactor authentication enabled. As an added precaution, we will also be prompting users to update their master password.
Bethesda got E3 off to a roaring start with a nearly 8-minute long gameplay video of the upcoming DOOM sequel.
The gameplay trailer showed off a lot of weapons you can use to kill some demons, including the Shotgun, Super Shotgun, a Plasma Rifle, a Heavy Assault Rifle, a Chainsaw and finally a Rocket Launcher. There's also a lot of arms getting torn out of their sockets and brutal finishing moves.
Bethesda also confirmed the game is coming to Xbox One, PS4 and PC in Spring of next year.
Don't wait, watch the video (and make sure to watch in 720p/60fps):
Alibaba will launch a Netflix clone for China in the coming two months, as the online video streaming industry begins to pickup significantly in the world's most populous nation.
The service will be called Tmall Box Office (TBO), and will include original programming as well as content from China and other nations.
Alibaba will compete against Tencent, Baidu, iQiyi, Sohu and Leshia, each of which has been investing millions to bring content to their respective platforms.
"Our mission, the mission of all of Alibaba, is to redefine home entertainment," said head of digital entertainment Patrick Liu. "Our goal is to become like HBO in the United States, to become like Netflix in the United States."
Most of the streaming services in China offer most of their content for free but TBO will be different. Liu says 90 percent of the content will be paid for, either by subscriptions or on a "show-by-show basis."
Earlier this week, after weeks of rumors, Microsoft unveiled an updated Xbox One console that has a 1TB hard drive.
Additionally, the company also unveiled a new wireless controller with a 3.5mm headphone jack, as expected.
The console goes on sale starting this Tuesday in the U.S. for $399 bundled with Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
Microsoft also announced that the standard 500GB model will have its price cut to $349, even though it has been selling at that price point for over 6 months.
Google has quietly launched a new "Free App of the Week" program, and the first app is available now in the Family section.
The first title is Daniel Tiger Grr-ific Feelings from PBS Kids, normally priced at $2.99 but now free.
It is unclear whether the free apps will always come from the Family section or will be extended to the rest of Google Play, but we will know next week.
Earlier this week, Valve took the wrapping off their latest summer sale, dubbed the "Monster Summer Sale" for 2015.
The sale runs through June 21st, and includes hundreds of top titles discounted up to 95 percent.
In addition, there is a community game that everyone can play that helps unlock more sales and as of writing 5/9 of the unlockable milestones have been hit.
Good Old Games (GOG) started their annual DRM-free summer sale earlier this week, and it is by far their biggest (and best) ever.
The company promises to have over 600 games over the summer and new deals daily including bundles that have up to 8 games together at an even bigger discount than they would be individually.
Of note, GOG is offering The Witcher III: Wild Hunt for 10 percent off, and the new Game of Thrones games, as well. Otherwise, most of the titles are much older titles that you likely grew up with and had great times with and can now get for practically pennies.
Additionally, if you spend $1 you will get SimCity 2000 for free, $20 gets you S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear Sky, and $50 will get you Xenonauts for free.
Google has announced a new section for YouTube called YouTube Gaming. YouTube Gaming is – as the name suggests – designed for gaming content in mind.
YouTube Gaming aims to be the social platform for gamers and game streamers much like Twitch.tv already is. YouTube says it offers over 25 000 individual games' pages that feature videos and/or streams.
The news didn't come totally out of blue since Google has been rumored to have a game streaming focused YouTube section in the works. It was also reported to be interested in buying Twitch but Amazon was the one to close the deal last year.
According to the website YouTube Gaming will debut in the US and UK this summer.
An acclaimed music critic and analyst Bob Lefsetz has published his (strong) opinions about Apple's new music service. The former record label consultant and now a blogging analyst Lefsetz says the service doesn't bring anything new to table.
"It's toast," starts the rant and continues to describe how the new Apple Music is as good as dead before it has even been released to the public. In his Lefsetz Letter blog he says Jimmy Iovine, the former record label mogul recruited by Apple, is not the innovator Apple needs to revolutionize music business.
He believes it's the likes of Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek do the innovating and revolutionizing. "Daniel Ek's story is more interesting than Iovine's. Ek slayed piracy, Iovine sold crappy headphones as fashion items," says Lefsetz. According to the critic in modern era the "faceless techies" are the winners, not the corporate bullies.
The 24/7 radio station Beats 1 isn't what people want, if it were the original Beats would have succeeded. All in all Apple hasn't realized what people want. He acknowledges that Apple Music probably won't completely fail though, but says it won't kill YouTube or even dominate the streaming space.
Every company in the mobile space seems to now have it, a smartwatch. You have the Motorola 360, the Samsung Galaxy Gear, the LG Watch Urbane, and of course the Apple Watch. There was also in the works a device that could have been called the Nokia Watch – or even the Microsoft Watch.
New information leaked by a Microsoft employee suggests that Nokia had been working on a smartwatch resembling Lumia smartphones before the Microsoft acquisition. Codenamed Moonraker, the smartwatch was destined to launch alongside Lumia 930, which was released in last year's April.
We never saw Moonraker but Microsoft did release a wearable they call Microsoft Band.
According to The Verge the leaked pictures are not concept pictures but actual marketing material that was never used. As the pictures show the watch was able to make calls, show emails and play music.
In its golden days RIM was a force to be reckoned with. Since it has changed its name to reflect their line of smartphones, BlackBerry. It went all in with BlackBerry 10, the operating system released in 2013 – delayed time after time.
Now it seems that soon there might be one less reason to call the company BlackBerry. According to sources cited by Reuters
BlackBerry might be switching to Android. It is not revealed whether the company would abandon BlackBerry operating system though. Reuters says that the four sources are close to the matter and need to stay anonymous.
The company's BlackBerry brand became synonymous with messaging oriented and QWERTY keyboard equipped smartphones. BlackBerry 10 was meant to fight for the touchscreen interested masses but flopped and was never a contender against Apple and Google.
Rovio has teamed up with Sega to try to revive two series, mashing up Angry Birds and Sonic for 'Angry Birds Sonic Dash Epic.'
Characters from the game Angry Birds Epic will now appear in the mobile game Sonic Dash and Sonic Dash players will earn coins that will allow them to unlock the characters Red, Chuck and Bomb from Angry Birds Epic.
The promotion is for a limited time, but whatever characters you unlock will stay in your games forever.
Sonic Dash has ben available for two years, but had generally mediocre reviews while Angry Birds Epic has been one of the least played games from the Angry Birds series.
It will be interesting to see if the promotion gives both games the boost they need.
LEGO has unveiled the first trailer for their upcoming "LEGO Marvel's Avengers" game, which looks to give Marvel and LEGO fans the best of both worlds.
Reads the brief bio: "Play as Earth's Mightiest Heroes in their quest to save the world while reliving some of the most amazing moments from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the famed Battle of New York between the Avengers and Super Villain Loki as seen in "Marvel's The Avengers."
The game promises some good comedy (Hulk taking selfies), and of course, a lot of action.
You can get the latest LEGO game for PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Vita and even Wii U later this year.
Finnish casual gaming company Rovio has unveiled "Angry Birds Fight," a new game that mixes elements of an RPG with a matching puzzle game akin to hit games like Candy Crush.
The game soft-launched out in Asia three months ago and was successful enough to warrant a global rollout following three million downloads.
Fight lets gamers play a match-three puzzler but it also adds a leveling system that is much more reminiscent of an RPG-style game and includes power up like new weapons that can boost your "attack" stats ahead of a "battle."
Netflix has announced that the base price for their streaming service has been raised for the UK market.
Previously priced at £6.99 per month, the standard HD service will now set you back £7.49 per month.
Current subscribers will get to keep their current rate until May 2016, but new subscribers will see the higher price immediately.
With all the new original content including Sense8, new seasons of Orange is the New Black and plenty more, it is hard to see subscribers canceling for just an extra 50 pence a month.
Apple has confirmed that Apple Music will stream at 256kbps, lower than the industry standard 320kbps for premium subscribers.
Spotify, Google, Tidal and even Beats Music before it was acquired all streamed at 320kbps but Apple has long offered their tracks via iTunes in AAC format at 256k.
That being said, the difference between the two bitrates is usually not noticeable unless you are using professional audio equipment, but let's face it, most Apple Music subscribers will be using an iPhone and a set of Apple headphones.
Of course, the lower bitrate will also lead to somewhat lower data consumption, which is always a positive with tiny carrier data plans.
Apple has announced the latest beta of their Xcode software will allow anyone to sideload apps to their iOS device, at no charge, without approval from Apple.
Says Apple: "Xcode 7 and Swift now make it easier for everyone to build apps and run them directly on their Apple devices. Simply sign in with your Apple ID, and turn your idea into an app that you can touch on your iPad, iPhone, or Apple Watch. Download Xcode 7 beta and try it yourself today. Program membership is not required."
While Apple has highlighted its legitimate uses, developers have quickly found that banned apps, games and even emulators and torrent clients can now be added to your device. For example, one developer was able to successfully send the Game Boy emulator app GBA4iOS to their iPhone by importing the source code in Xcode and sending it to the iPhone. You will need the original source code to be able to use other people's apps, so piracy will be minimal even with the relaxed rules.
If you are interesting in testing your own apps (or something else), try out Xcode here: Xcode 7 Beta
A few days before the company was expected to unveil full details and press shots of their upcoming consumer Rift headset, Oculus VR appears to have accidentally leaked a few images.
The company revamped their website and posted a pre-order page image that appears to show the final consumer version of the Rift.
Oculus was quick to deny that the leaked images show the final hardware, but what we see is quite different from anything we have seen in the past. "Everything in it is ancient, certainly nowhere close to final," founder Palmer Luckey wrote on Reddit. "Enjoy checking it out, at this point, but don't expect everything to carry through to" to the final release.
Among the details we now know from the leaked image are that the position imaging camera is mounted to a pole, and that the headset will also have a forward-facing camera. Additionally, a gamepad will be included in the box.
Wow. Another year has passed and we're celebrating our site's 16th birthday today. I still remember our first years: a site strictly focused on digital multimedia, i.e. MP3 technology and DVD tech. As technologies have evolved, so has our site and its content.
I would like to simply thank all of our staff members, moderators and users for keeping this site alive for all these years. I expect more equally great years to follow.
Apple has announced today that Safari will soon be able to find what tab is playing audio so they can mute it, close it or just get back to it quicker.
Apple's Craig Federighi made the announcement during the company's introduction to OS X El Capitan.
The tab with audio will have a little speaker icon, just like Chrome users have had for the past few months. Additionally, you'll be able to pin tabs, another feature that has been available on Chrome for a long time.
During today's keynote, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the App Store had surpassed 100 billion app downloads since the store launched in 2008.
In that same time, the company has paid out $30 billion to developers, a number significantly higher than figures Android, Amazon or Microsoft can boast.
Last year, the company announced it had shipped over 1 billion iOS devices to customers, shipping nearly 200 million devices from the time of WWDC 2014.
Casual gaming company Rovio has signed a deal with giant toymaker Lego to launch a line of 'Angry Birds' blocks.
The company, which was once wildly popular, has seen revenue and profits slip as its licensing business has stalled and the Angry Birds games have taken a back seat to other games like Candy Crush and Clash of Clans.
Lego's line of Angry Birds toys will launch in spring 2016, lining up with the premiere of the feature-length Angry Birds movie.
The company recently laid off 14 percent of its workforce after earnings fell 73 percent last year.
Today at the WWDC event, Apple announced a significant update to their Apple Pay mobile payments system.
The service will now support rewards programs and store credit cards in addition to major processor-backed credit and debit cards.In addition, Apple has renamed their Passbook app to Wallet, which does seem like a more apt name.
Beginning later this year with the launch of iOS 9, Apple Pay will begin supporting Walgreens Balance Rewards, Kohl's, Coca-Cola, Dunkin' Donuts, Panera Bread, and Wegmans rewards cards. The cards will be stored like your everyday use cards and Apple Pay will supposedly select your rewards card automatically when you place the phone to the reader.
Finally, the new updated Apple Maps in iOS 9 will show you when a merchant supports Apple Pay (a number that is slowly by surely growing) and Discover card support will also be added this fall.
Apple currently owns the market for digital payments but will have some big time competition in the coming months with the launch of Android Pay by Google and Samsung Pay by Samsung.
Apple has announced their upcoming operating system update, called OS X El Capitan. El Capitan means "The Captain" in English so Apple may not be so great at being subtle.
The operating system will serve to improve system performance and "the Mac experience" by better adding Apple Metal, the company's own graphics technology. Apple says Metal will allow games and pro apps to "tap into the full power of Mac graphics processors."
Additionally, Apple has updated windows management, made improvements to the pre-installed apps and Spotlight search, and improved the startup speed of apps, emails and music.
"OS X delivers unparalleled integration between Mac hardware, iOS devices, apps and online services, and has helped Mac sales outpace the PC industry every year for the last decade," said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. "Customers loved last year's landmark OS X Yosemite release and made it the fastest-adopted PC operating system ever. With El Capitan, we're further refining the Mac experience with enhancements to window management, Spotlight and built-in apps, and improving performance so everyday activities -- from launching apps to accessing email -- are faster and more responsive."
Among a plethora of announcements today at Apple's WWDC event, came the most awaited of them all: Apple Music.
The tech giant has been planning to get into the streaming music business since their $3 billion acquisition of Beats last year, and with it the transition of bringing music industry legend Jimmy Iovine on-board.
"We've had a long relationship with music," said Apple CEO Tim Cook during the keynote. "And music has had a rich history of change, some of which we've played a part in."
The app itself will combine a standard streaming service with an Internet radio platform. iTunes Radio will have celebrity DJs like Drake, Dr. Dre, Pharrell and will.i.am and Apple's new Beats1 station will play music 24/7 and be handled by DJs Zane Lowe, Ebro Darden, and Julie Adenuga. You have unlimited skips, as well, if you aren't feeling the vibe of the current track. Tracks that are recommended to you are curated by "a team of experts," says Apple, just like Beats Music was, rather than algorithms used by rival services like Google.
Apple also showed off a feature called "Connect" that allows artists to interact directly with fans by uploading tracks, pictures, blog posts and more that can be commented on by users and responded to by the musician. Finally, Apple has updated Siri to integrate the personal assistant software to Apple Music. For example, you can ask Siri to "play the top track of last year" and she should begin playing Happy by Pharrell.
"Apple Music is really going to move the needle for fans and artists," added Jimmy Iovine. "Online music has become a complicated mess of apps, services, and websites. Apple Music brings the best features together for an experience every music lover will appreciate."
The streaming service will cost $9.99 (shocker) or $14.99 for a family plan that can include up to six individuals. Everyone will also get a free three-month trial to get started. The family plan gives it a slight leg up on Spotify, which offers a two-person family for the same price, but otherwise the content and pricing is almost identical to Rdio, Spotify and others. One exception, however, is Apple managed to get Taylor Swift on team Apple, meaning she likely sold out her own beliefs for a fatter paycheck. You can get started with Apple Music on June 30th and later this year on Android.
Apple's long-awaited streaming music service is scheduled to be unveiled tomorrow.
The news comes via Sony Music CEO Doug Morris, who confirmed Apple will announce the service officially tomorrow at their annual WWDC event.
"It's happening tomorrow," Morris said simply during an interview at the Midem Music Industry Festival.
Expected to be priced at $9.99 like rival services from Google, Spotify and others, the service will be headed by industry heavyweight Jimmy Iovine who came along when Apple acquired Beats last year for $3 billion specifically to get into the streaming business.
Morris believes Apple's entry to the industry will be the "tipping point" for streaming in general: "What does Apple bring to this? Well, they've got $178 billion dollars in the bank. And they have 800 million credit cards in iTunes. Spotify has never really advertised because it's never been profitable. My guess is that Apple will promote this like crazy and I think that will have a halo effect on the streaming business."
"A rising tide will lift all boats," he added. "It's the beginning of an amazing moment for our industry."
Valve has announced that consumers who pre-order a Steam Machine will receive their hardware on October 16th.
What is a Steam Machine? The machines are pre-built gaming PCs that run on either Windows with the Steam client pre-installed or on Valve's own SteamOS - a Linux-based operating system based on Steam - and are aimed at the pure gamer types that want to game on the big screen.
The first Steam Machines will come from OEM partners Alienware and Cyberpower and if you are not interested in pre-ordering, you can get the PCs at retailers starting on November 10th starting at $450.
While the systems may only appeal to a niche group, especially since the gaming catalogs for Linux are not great, there are some interesting features, most notably the controller. The Steam Controller is built for standard console gaming but also for games that have traditionally used a keyboard and mouse. There are two clickable trackpads and sixteen buttons total. The trackpads also include haptic feedback.
Facebook has launched 'Facebook Lite,' an Android app that promises to "use less data and work well across all network conditions."
The app itself is just 1MB and will include the basic core functions of the social network such as the News Feed, photos, notifications and status updates.
Says Vijay Shankar, Product Manager for Facebook Lite: "More than a billion people around the world access Facebook from a range of mobile devices on varying networks. In many areas, networks can be slow and not able to support all the functionality found in Facebook for Android. Facebook Lite was built for these situations, giving people a reliable Facebook experience when bandwidth is at a minimum."
Facebook says the app is available now across Asia and will be rolled out to countries in Africa, Europe and Latin America in the coming weeks.
Smmartphone maker HTC is forecasting a really bad quarter.
The Taiwanese company has slashed their revenue projections for the Q2 drastically, claiming poor sales of their "high-end Android devices," namely the HTC One M9 and increased competition from the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6.
HTC had a previous forecast for between $1.48 billion and $1.56 billion USD in revenue for the quarter, but that has now been slashed dramatically to $1.06 billion to $1.16 billion.
Besides the slowing sales in the U.S., HTC also noted that sales in China were slow due to competition from Xiaomi, Apple, Samsung and even LG.
"In recognition of prevailing market conditions, HTC has embarked on a comprehensive review on our assets based on current business conditions and future operational needs," the company noted in their filing. The company will have an uphill battle moving forward.
In two separate announcements this week, Netflix has announced that its popular streaming service will reach Italy, Portugal and Spain this October.
The company currently services 50 countries but wants to eventually expand to 200. Netflix currently has 62 million subscribers, each paying at least $7.99 a month for access to thousands of movies, TV episodes and original content like the critically acclaimed "House of Cards" and "Orange is the New Black."
Netflix says new users will have access to 4K content, as well, if their TV can support it.
In other Netflix news, the new Sci-Fi thriller 'Sense8' just launched, one of a few new original programs scheduled for the next twelve months.
Amazon has begun a new service dubbed "Fulfillment by Amazon Small and Light" in which the company will ship any item that weighs 8 ounces or less for free.
Previously, to get free shipping from the giant etailer, you needed a Prime subscription or your order had to total over $35.
Customer will receive the orders between four and eight business days from their order date.
The service was tested in select markets for the past few months, and Amazon quickly found that the items selling with free shipping sold quicker than rival items. Some of the items affected include headphones, phone cases and makeup.
Netflix has become almost synonymous with movie streaming. There are others but it is Netflix that is the Kleenex of streaming services. There are many reasons why this happened but the CEO of the company says piracy was among them, TorrentFreak reports.
The CEO and the face of Netflix, Reed Hastings, spoke to Spanish press preparing the launch in Spain this year. In Spain like in other European countries entertainment industry has been plagued by piracy and Hastings says Netflix has been successful in these type of markets.
Once the consumer has a choice to use a reasonably priced and easy to use legal service they will flock to use that. This is why Hastings told El Mundo that piracy has prepared the internet users for their service.
Online users want ease of use which Hastings says Netflix excels at. He isn't afraid of the competition from free (and illegal) services. "Tap water is free but there is still people buying bottled water," said Hastings.
At first the release in Spain will not be as full fledged version of the service as stateside but the catalog will expand over time, like it does in other newer markets. Exact launch date has not yet been revealed.
Apple's TV revolution has so far been an effort driven only by the small media streaming box. Apple TV has gradually improved little over time but no major updates have been released in three years. Unfortunately for Apple TV fans that is not going to change soon.
Earlier rumors had it that Apple would release a new version of Apple TV as well as developer kits and web TV service next Monday at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. The newest information suggests, however, that this will not be the case.
New York Times reports that Apple indeed did have an intention to release the products but at last minute decided it was not ready for the spotlight. Their guess is that the launch was hindered by the content licensing which has been described as the biggest obstacle for Apple's TV revolution.
It seems that the main focus will be on new versions of iOS and OS X as well as iTunes' new streaming service. Stay tuned for more news from the WWDC.
Apple has recalled nearly 222,000 of its Beats Pill XL speakers in the U.S., after 'rare' reports of batteries overheating.
The company said they received 8 reports of batteries overheating and one of a user who received minor burns.
Apple has asked anyone using the speakers to discontinue using the product and will offer all customers refunds or $325 store credit.
The speakers were first launched in November of 2013, a few months before Apple acquired Beats for $3 billion to expand its accessories and streaming music lines.
For the past year, thousands of you have been satisfying your needs for news content with our HIGH.FI app, and we couldn't be happier to have you!
The app, built by AfterDawn (our first!), was made to simply aggregate news content from all over the web. We wanted to make an app that could drag in news from everywhere and still could be categorized and filtered, without getting too bloated. In a way, we wanted to build a kind of "pre-loaded Feedly".
About a year ago, that app debuted for Windows Phone devices titled HIGH.FI, after the en.high.fi domain that provides a lite-version of the service for Desktops. Surprisingly, people liked it and several months later we dropped an Android app onto Google Play.
With no significant promotion other than our own, HIGH.FI is approaching 10,000 installations on Windows Phone, and 14,000 on Android. It has an aggregate rating of 4.1/5.0 on Google Play, which also surprised us for our first app. It turns out there are plenty of news junkies like us who find this app useful, and thousands of you use it everyday! Thank you for choosing to keep our app and using it so often because it has kept it a priority even as we are on the verge of some major updates and changes at AfterDawn.
According to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers study, consumers are finally spending more money on streaming and digital downloads than they are on buying and renting physical media.
Digital revenue is expected to top $9.5 billion this year, with sales of physical media dropping to $7.8 billion.
Streaming and digital could be a $12 billion industry by 2017, added the company.
Netflix, Hulu and iTunes are the biggest gainers in the industry, but streaming and digital download options are becoming more plentiful on a regular basis.
As we learned earlier this month, Windows 10 is ready for launch on July 29th, a major update to the operating system that will cost most legitimate Windows users nothing to upgrade.
Besides bringing back the Start Menu (thankfully), and adding smaller but important features like quick startup and resume, Windows 10 will introduce some serious updates on the browser and software side. Windows 10 will also be the first of Microsoft's operating systems to be a true ecosystem, one that expands to the Internet of Things, console gaming, tablets, desktops and of course, mobile.
Yahoo has been announced as the exclusive livestream provider for the October 25th Jacksonville Jaguars-Buffalo Bills game.
Even more importantly, the game will be completely free for viewers.
It is believed Yahoo paid over $20 million for the rights to the game, and Yahoo will also have exclusive ad rights for the game, with the potential to make a good return.
There is, of course, downsides. The game is to be played in London, meaning it will air at 6:30am for West Coast Americans. Even diehard Jaguars and Bills fans will have to think hard about waking up that early on a Sunday.
According to CBS, who is producing the Web stream, quality is a priority as is availability and the game will be available on mobile devices, PCs, Chromecast, Xbox 360 and the Apple TV.
Showtime has announced that it will offer a standalone streaming service starting next month with a price that undercuts HBO's Now service.
On July 12th, Apple users will get first crack at the service, which will cost $10.99 per month and give access to new and catalog Showtime shows. The service will be eventually available on more platforms, including Android.
"Going over-the-top means Showtime will be much more accessible to tens of millions of potential new subscribers," said CBS CEO Les Moonves. "Across CBS, we are constantly finding new ways to monetize our programming by capitalizing on opportunities presented by technology. This works best when you have outstanding premium content – like we do at Showtime – and when you have a terrific partner like Apple – which continues to innovate and build upon its loyal customer base."
"We're excited to offer Apple customers SHOWTIME's live channels and extensive on demand library of great TV shows and movies, without a cable or satellite subscription," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple TV customers will now be able to subscribe to SHOWTIME directly and instantly start viewing their favorite programming with the same simplicity as buying an app."
Microsoft has been so far unable to fix issues affecting 'The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" for Xbox One.
According to Microsoft's Xbox status update page (and hundreds of posts to sites like Reddit), it appears that gamers have been unable to access the game due to an unknown Xbox Live issue. The error code is 0x87de2726.
"Are you unable to launch or install The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt? We're working to address this ASAP! Thanks for staying patient. We'll fill you in as soon as we know more," reads the last status from 7PM EST.
The Witcher 3 is one of the highest rated games of the year, even receiving 10/10 from some prominent gaming sites.
Sony has revealed the free games that are now available for PlayStation Plus members on the PS Vita, PS3 and PS4.
There are six games total - two for each platform - and the games will be available throughout the month and until July 7th.
Title list:
PlayStation 4: •Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
•Skulls of the Shogun: Bone-a-Fide Edition
•Super Exploding Zoo (via cross-platform playing from Vita)
•Futuridium EP Deluxe (via cross-platform playing from Vita)
PlayStation 3: •Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
•Cloudberry Kingdom
PlayStation Vita: •Super Exploding Zoo
•Futuridium EP Deluxe
You get to keep the games as long as you are a paying Plus subscriber.
After years of complaints from gamers, Valve's popular online games platform Steam has updated their refund policy.
For the most part, all purchases are part of the refund policy, and refunds can be for "any reason."
Reads the new page: "You can request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam--for any reason. Maybe your PC doesn't meet the hardware requirements; maybe you bought a game by mistake; maybe you played the title for an hour and just didn't like it.
It doesn't matter. Valve will, upon request, issue a refund for any reason, if the request is made within fourteen days of purchase, and the title has been played for less than two hours....You will be issued a full refund of your purchase within a week of approval."
Valve will refund the money to your Steam Wallet or to the card you used to purchase it.
Of note, DLC and in-game purchases have different rules. That content can be refunded within 14 days (for DLC) and 48 hours (for in-game) as long as the content hasn't been "consumed, modified or transferred."
It will be interesting to see if the rules change for games that can be completely played through in under 2 hours, and how Steam will monitor that.
As the company struggles in the mobile handset world, Sony Mobile has laid off another 1000 employees, this time from their Swedish manufacturing and R&D centers.
The move is part of a company wide restructuring that Sony hopes will bring the division to profitability after years of losses.
"As part of its ongoing measures to drive transformation into a profitable and sustainable company, Sony Mobile will change its organizational structure effective April 1st, aiming to increase its operational efficiency and transitioning it to a leaner, more agile organization.
In relation to these changes to its organizational structure, Sony Mobile announced today that approximately 1,000 employees and consultants in Lund will be affected by job closures. This number is included in the approximately 2,100 global headcount reduction announced at Sony's earnings announcement on February 4th, expected to be completed by the end of FY2015," said Sony in a statement.
Sony Mobile continues to struggle and now has less than 5 percent market share in a market dominated by Samsung and Apple.
Following up on reports from yesterday, Nintendo has denied the rumor that it is creating its Nintendo NX console on an Android variant operating system.
Nintendo says there is "no truth" to the reports, according to the WSJ.
"There is no truth to the report saying that we are planning to adopt Android for NX," the Nintendo spokesperson concluded.
The original sources had claimed Nintendo would use Android to have access to a much larger developer base, and to save costs on having to build their own operating system for the console.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has already said we will not have more information about the console until next year so for now we will just have to believe that the NX is not to run on Android.
Following reports that Netflix was preparing to add ads to its streaming service, CEO Reed Hastings shut down the rumors with a simple Facebook post.
"No advertising coming onto Netflix. Period," read the post, followed by "Just adding relevant cool trailers for other Netflix content you are likely to love."
Netflix whipped the media into a frenzy when it began adding promo trailers in front of some of its original content, ads that advertised other Netflix content.
Hasting's comments should hopefully quell the fire, and Netflix fans will just have to get used to some trailers in front of their content, just like you see on HBO Go.
Windows boss Terry Myerson has announced today that Windows 10 will be available on July 29th, right in-line with the date we have heard from multiple sources.
On July 29th, Windows 7 and 8.1 owners can upgrade for free to Windows 10, and new PCs will begin shipping with the operating system.
Making it even easier, Microsoft says you can "reserve" your free Windows 10 by clicking on a system tray icon that will show up and then following a few steps.
Adds Myerson:
We designed Windows 10 to create a new generation of Windows for the 1.5 billion people using Windows today in 190 countries around the world. With Windows 10, we start delivering on our vision of more personal computing, defined by trust in how we protect and respect your personal information, mobility of the experience across your devices, and natural interactions with your Windows devices, including speech, touch, ink, and holograms. We designed Windows 10 to run our broadest device family ever, including Windows PCs, Windows tablets, Windows phones, Windows for the Internet of Things, Microsoft Surface Hub, Xbox One and Microsoft HoloLens--all working together to empower you to do great things.
Formally announced earlier this year for launch next year, Nintendo's 'NX' console will really have to step up to the plate if the gaming company wants to remain relevant in the home console market.
Today, we have an interesting rumor about next year's console: The NX will run on Android.
It appears that Nintendo is looking to power the console with a platform that has a large third-party developer base, and Android is the most popular mobile operating system on the planet. If the NX really does run on Android, that would likely mean Nintendo is not positioning the console against titans like the Xbox One and PS4 but rather as a complement to its existing popular devices like the 3DS.
Of course, the gaming giant could be aiming at the desktop console market, preferring to use a forked Android and using resources that may have gone towards building an OS towards making better games.
We will know more as the year goes on, and especially more next year.
Asus has launched the ZenWatch 2 today, a sequel to their first Android Wear smartwatch.
The watch keeps the same rounded design of its predecessor (and from the Apple Watch), while offering two sizes, three stainless steel casing colors and 18 different color/strap material combos allowing you to wear the watch for whatever occasion you may need it.
Updated from the original is a new crown and the addition of a magnetic charger that the company says will improve recharging times. The watch also now has IP67 water-resistance.
The watch runs on Android Wear 5.1.1 although Asus did not reveal which version it will ship with. On top of Android Wear is the company's own ZenUI tweaks which include FoneHelper, activity and fitness tracking, and Enhanced Remote Camera. ERC is easily the coolest feature of the bunch, as it syncs the wearer's smartphone camera viewfinder to your wrist. This could be helpful when taking pictures from harder angles, or even possibly selfies.
Asus also confirmed that the watch offers 3-4 days of battery life per charge, a huge improvement over the Apple Watch and other Android Wear devices that offer in the 18 hour range.
The smartwatch will sell for $199 when it launches later this year.
Earlier this week, NVIDIA launched the SHIELD Android TV set-top box with a base price of $199 and the early reviews are highly favorable.
The SHIELD has 16GB of internal storage, 4K support, is powered by a NVIDIA 64-bit Tegra X1 processor, 3GB RAM and 256-core NVIDIA graphics. In addition, the set-top supports HDMI 2.0, runs on the Android TV platform including Google Cast support, has a microSD slot, 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi, GigabitEthernet and two USB 3.0 ports. The SHIELD bundle also comes with a SHIELD controller and a free HDMI cable, a good deal given the controller's $49.99 price tag.
When Google introduced Android Lollipop and Material Design, the operating system took a turn from dark to light, with the operating system getting more colorful and lighter, moving away from the darker UI of previous iterations like Ice Cream and Jelly Bean.
Earlier this week, the company introduced Android M and released a Developer Preview. If you were a fan of the darker user interface, you are in luck if you have a phone or tablet that can flash the new OS.
Under developer options, there is now a new way to select the theme for your device, choosing between the stock version which is "light," the new dark, or automatic which will likely change your theme based on the time of day or ambient light sensor.
It is unclear whether the option will be standard when the OS launches officially, but there were plenty of Android fans that were peeved when the whole OS went light so we hope it will be a feature when M launches officially in November.
AC/DC, one of the most notable bands to not be available on streaming services, is finally signing up.
Samsung has confirmed plans to build more handsets running its own Tizen operating system, with launch scheduled for this year.
Although OnePlus has been slowly releasing important tidbits about its upcoming OnePlus 2 flagship, there is still little known about the actual design. That is, until today.
