Microsoft has seen a boost in phone sales thanks to Windows Phone 8.
CEO Steve Ballmer, speaking at the company's shareholder meeting, says the company sold four times as many Windows Phones as during the same period in 2011.
As usual, Ballmer did not reveal actual figures, but there has been some positive news from manufacturers in relation to sales.
Additionally, Ballmer noted that the number of Windows 8 PCs grew to 1500, with at least 200 more becoming available in the next few weeks.
Finally, the Windows Phone Store has reached 120,000 apps.
According to an ad on LinkedIn, Nokia is searching for an experienced senior software engineer with Linux experience.
Additionally, the ad claims the new employee will be working in a "startup environment" working on "exciting new products" for "future mobile phone technology."
Some sites have taken that to mean that Nokia may be looking to complement its Windows Phone lineup with Android devices, or some other Linux-based OS.
Nokia had been working on the Linux-based MeeGo before its deal with Microsoft, and was also working on "Meltemi" but the industry expected that OS was killed off, as well.
Although the company continues to struggle, there was some positive news, with Windows Phone 8 devices leading to a recent boost in sales.
AT&T has once again placed last in Consumer Report's ranking of the major American carriers.
The report surveyed 63,253 mobile phone subscribers and published their annual report earlier today.
Verizon topped the rankings, followed by Sprint and then T-Mobile USA. Verizon received top marks for customer service, voice quality and data quality. Verizon was first last year, as well.
T-Mobile and Sprint saw average ratings across the board.
On the bright side for AT&T, the carrier received the top ratings for its 4G LTE network, meaning it received less complaints on the service than Verizon or Sprint did. T-Mobile has not begun rolling out their LTE network yet. AT&T also has the fastest LTE, at an average of 9Mbit/s compared to Verizon's 7.5Mbit/s.
Investment bank Merrill Lynch has fueled the rumor fire today, claiming T-Mobile USA will get the iPhone next week during analysts day on Friday.
In his note to clients, analyst Scott Craig says "speculation is heightening" that parent company Deutsche Telecom (DT) will make the announcement sooner rather than later.
The news would come as a surprise, especially just two weeks after T-Mobile's COO claimed the "economies had to be right" before the carrier could ever have the Apple flagship.
T-Mobile USA has been working diligently to expand its iPhone-compatible HSPA+ network to new markets and it is now available in 10 metro areas covering under half of the carrier's 33 million customers. The company has said 1.5 million users are currently running unlocked iPhones on their networks.
If it were to happen, iPhones would be available to 75 percent of all American mobile users, and 98 percent of post-paid subscribers.
For those that have never tried them, Humble Bundle is a fantastic deal made available for games of different platforms, with the price being whatever you want to donate.
The company gives most of the proceeds to charity and they have had multiple successful Android deals.
Today's latest Humble THQ Bundle offers 6 classic PC games, along with the potential for a seventh if you donate above what the average consumer is donating.
The games are Darksiders, Metro 2033, Red Faction Armageddon, Company of Heroes and their stand alone expansions Opposing Fronts and Tales of Valor. If you beat the average ($5.30 as of writing), you will also get Saints Row: The Third.
Additionally, you get the soundtracks (in MP3 or FLAC) for Saints Row The Third, Darksiders, Red Faction Armageddon and Company of Heroes.
The once popular Usenet indexer has shuttered for good.
Fifteen months ago, a UK court ordered ISPs to block access to the site, citing concerns from copyright holders over widespread piracy.
The owners of the site noted that they could no longer pay their bills since "payment providers had understandably lost their nerve." Furthermore, the owners wrote "Newzbin2 was always hoped to be a viable underground commercial venture. The figures just don't stack up."
As expected, anti-piracy groups such as the BPI and MPA were ecstatic with the news. The Creative Coalition Campaign, which represents the aforementioned groups, had this to say: "This is great news. Pirate websites should not be allowed to trade as this undermines the ability of legitimate businesses to recoup their considerable investment and threatens jobs in the creative sector."
According to sources, the upcoming Xbox 8/Xbox Next/Xbox 720/Xbox will be ready in time for the holidays next year.
The device will be ready for the Black Friday shopping period but it is unclear whether the company will unveil the product at E3 or at a separate event devoted to its unveiling.
Rival Nintendo just released their Wii U on November 18th, and Sony has been rumored to be planning the PS Orbis (PS4) for next year, as well.
Despite being seven years old, Microsoft managed to sell 750,000 Xbox 360 consoles this month thanks to Black Friday promotions.
The upcoming console is rumored to introduce Kinect 2.0, Blu-ray support, directional audio, a TV output and input, a new 'innovative controller' and finally, augmented reality glasses (to be released in 2014/15). Current dev kits "boast a CPU with four hardware cores, each divided into four logical cores" and 8GB of RAM, as well, allegedly.
The tablet, which runs on Windows 8 Pro as opposed to the current Windows RT-based versions, will start at $899 for a 64GB model and reach a cool $1000 for the 128GB model.
Each of the stated models will come with a stylus but will not include a Touch or Type cover, which cost $100-$130 and are what make the Surface a truly productive device.
Both will be available mid-January but there was no timeline for when pre-orders will begin.
From a design standpoint, the devices will look the same as the existing Windows RT tablets, but under the hood they are very different. The tablet has a full 1920x1080 resolution, a third-generation Core i5 processor and a full IntelHD Graphics 4000 GPU. Additionally, there are 4GB of RAM, a Mini DisplayPort, a USB 3.0 port and Windows 8 Pro, which gives access to all existing Windows applications, making it infinitely more usable than RT.
In March, we reported that 23-year-old British student Richard O'Dwyer was set to be extradited to the U.S. to face multiple copyright infringement charges, despite never having been to the country.
O'Dwyer was the former owner and creator of TVShack, and his plight will have set an unfortunate precedence in the UK, as others in the future could likely have faced similar charges. O'Dwyer, according to UK law, is completely innocent, but he is not so in the U.S.
TVShack was a streaming link aggregator site that hosted no content itself but linked to third-party sites, (like Megavideo), where users could stream unauthorized TV and movies for free.
This week, the student has struck a deal to avoid extradition that will only require him to pay a nomial fine. O'Dwyer will now voluntarily travel to the U.S. to sign the agreement.
In their original claim, the U.S. ICE claimed TVShack had made over $200,000 in advertising revenue from the site.
If Zdnet is to be believed, Microsoft may be moving away from their current 3-year Windows release cycle, moving instead to yearly updates.
Codenamed "Blue," the new Windows will work similar to Mac OS X, which updates yearly and is offered for a cheap price to existing and new users.
The site speculates that Blue will be a feature/service pack, adding some new features along with a rollup of all fixes from the previous months or years.
If accurate, Windows Blue will begin in 2013 and may turn Windows into incremental updates, such as Windows 8.1, etc.
According to the latest figures from ABI Research, the iPad remained the market leader in the tablet market, but by the thinnest margin yet.
55 percent of all tablets shipped in the last quarter were iPads, down from 67 percent in the same quarter last year. Android controlled 44 percent with all other operating systems residing on the remaining 1 percent.
At the current rate, Android will overtake Apple's flagship sometime in the new year, much quicker than predicted by analysts who had anticipated Apple dominance until 2015.
Reads the report: "As the OS of choice for the majority of device OEMs, we expect the Android ecosystem to continue growing in numbers – new manufacturers, better device choices for reaching more markets, and more developers finding value from apps and content."
ABI cites the new 7-inch tablets by Google and Amazon as catalysts.
Microsoft has confirmed today that Windows Phone 7.8 will reach handsets early next year.
The operating system is a bridge between WP 7.5 and the new Windows Phone 8, allowing some features of the new OS to work on older hardware with single core processors and lower resolution screens.
New phones with WP 7.8 pre-installed, as well as the downloadable update for phones with older firmware will hit sometime in the Q1 2013, added the company.
Microsoft did note that the release will have to be tested by individual carriers, and approved, so the exact timing is unknown.
RIM has lost a patent case against Nokia and will have to reach a new royalties deal or potentially have the sale of their devices halted.
The ruling states RIM can not create or sell any device that connects to Wi-Fi using WLAN (wireless local access network systems) until they have reached a licensing agreement with Nokia.
"RIM is liable to pay royalties and damages to Nokia for its...sales of any subscriber terminals (handsets or tablets)...compatible with the WLAN standard," read the ruling, from a Swedish arbitrator. "RIM has not contested that it manufactures and sells products using WLAN in accordance with Nokia's WLAN patents." The ruling is huge, for both companies. All BlackBerry phones support WLAN, and RIM can certainly not afford to have an injunction on any of their devices, even for a short period of time. Nokia, on the other hand, has been looking to increase their patent licensing revenue as their smartphone sales remain sluggish.
Notes Alexander Poltorak, chief executive of patent consultancy General Patent Corp: "The arbitration decision is not appealable and the U.S. Court can be expected to enforce the judgment by issuing an injunction against RIM, which would effectively put RIM out of business.
Would-be Facebook scammer Paul Ceglia has pleaded not guilty to charges that he faked a contract that stated he was entitled to a share of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's stake in the $57 billion company.
In 2010, the 39-year-old sued Zuckerberg, claiming that the exec had signed a contract in 2003 that promised him up to 84 percent of the company.
Earlier this year, a federal jury indicted Ceglia on multiple charges of mail and wire fraud, alleging that he faked the contract, created phony emails and destroyed evidence related to the case.
While there was a legitimate contract signed by Zuckerberg, to perform coding work for Ceglia's website, there was no mention of Facebook or any stake in the social network. Prosecutors claim Ceglia doctored the contract while keeping Zuckerberg's original signature.
The accused faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted.
The device will be exactly the same as other variants of the device, except that the home button will have Verizon's branding.
Pre-orderers may have already received their devices, as the carrier began shipping them earlier this week.
The Note has a massive 5.5-inch screen, a new 16:9aspect ratio with 1280x720, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, a quad-core 1.6GHz processor and 2GB RAM. The device has an 8MP LED rear camera and a 1.9MP front-side camera, a microSD slot, MHL, NFC, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and Glonass, Wi-Fi Direct, 21 Mbps HSPA+ or 4G LTE support. The real kicker is a massive 3100 mAh battery.
Ericsson has filed a patent suit against Samsung this week.
The world's largest mobile phone networking equipment maker says Samsung has infringed on 24 of their software and hardware patents.
Ericsson previously sued Samsung in 2006 over patents. Kasim Alfalahi, Ericsson's chief intellectual property officer, noted the lawsuit covered patents related to GSM, GPRS, 3G and LTE mobile phone standards.
The initial agreement struck between the companies expired in 2011, added the exec, and they have not successfully negotiated a new deal yet.
"We have more than 100 agreements with all of the major handset makers," Alfalahi said. "Our way is usually to try to avoid filing lawsuits. We are doing this only as a last resort."
Samsung's response: "This time Ericsson has demanded significantly higher royalty rates for the same patent portfolio. As we cannot accept such extreme demands, we will take all necessary legal measures to protect against Ericsson's excessive claims."
Google has announced today that Gmail Drive has been integrated into Gmail, allowing for larger attachments.
The new integration allows for 10GB files to be sent through email, a massive upgrade over the current 25MB limitations.
When you attach a file, Google will first check if the recipient has permission to view the files. If they do not, Google will prompt you to change the sharing settings right from within the email body.
Microsoft introduced the same feature with their new Outlook.com and Skydrive a few months ago and it has been very popular with users.
According to IDC, Sony has seen a strong comeback in the smartphone market.
In global sales, Sony moved into third place for the Q3 2012, jumping from sixth in the same quarter in 2011.
Despite the jump, the company's market share actually fell, from 5 percent to 4.8 percent as Samsung and Apple continued to crush the competition.
Samsung grew to 31.3 percent share, Apple increased to 14.6 percent and everyone else collapsed. Nokia fell from 13.6 percent to 3.4 percent, HTC fell to 4.6 percent from 10.3 percent and RIM dropped from 9.6 percent to 4.2 percent.
Sony has seen some success with its Xperia line of smartphones, mainly outside of the U.S., however, where it has received very little attention.
Since October 26th, Microsoft has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses.
The word comes via CFO Tam Reller who was discussing the operating system at the Credit Suisse Annual Tech Conference today.
In comparison to Windows 7, the new OS appears to be selling better. The previous OS moved 60 million copies in two months, compared to the 40 million in just one month for Win8.
Reller did not note sales figures for the Surface RT tablet.
What remains unclear, however, is what Microsoft considers as "sold." Some companies report direct sales to consumers (like Apple does) but others just report "sold" or "shipped" as the amount of units shipped to retailers or pre-installed on new computers.
Large discounts on bundles led to a huge day for the company.
Microsoft has announced today that they sold 750,000 Xbox 360 units in the U.S. on Black Friday and the following weekend.
The numbers are certainly impressive given that the Xbox is 7 years old and its sequel is expected to be released next year. However, the company sold 960,000 units last Black Friday weekend so year-over-year returns were obviously down.
Sony did not reveal PS3 sales, but Nintendo announced it had sold 400,000 Wii U during the week, along with 300,000 Wiis and 500,000 3DS/DS handhelds.
Google, who has committed to the Chrome OS operating system, is planning to release its own Nexus Chromebook, says the China Times.
The search giant currently has its own line of Nexus products, the Nexus 4 smartphone and Nexus 7 and 10 tablets. Adding a full notebook does not seem too far fetched and would likely help the OS gain some much-needed traction.
A Nexus Chromebook would also be touchscreen, and be built by Google itself, rather than built by a manufacturer like LG or Samsung.
Allegedly, internal components are already shipping, with the product expected to go to mass production later this year.
For the second time in as many weeks, Google has failed miserably while trying to sell their latest smartphone, the Nexus 4.
Early this morning, I received an email from Google letting me know that the Nexus 4 would be back in stock beginning at 3PM eastern time.
Having lost out on the phone the first time around as Google's servers crashed and burned, I figured they must have prepared better for the second round. I was wrong.
At 3PM on the dot, I headed to the Google Play Store and attempted to purchase an 8GB Nexus 4. First, I received a "sold out" notice. After refreshing, I was able to add the device to the cart. Hitting "Proceed" gave me a new error, "Due to high demand, your order could not be processed. Please try again later." On a third attempt, I was met with a generic error.
Now, the Store offers this warning: "Google Play is currently experiencing very high traffic. Nexus 4 is not sold out and will still be available for purchase. Please try again shortly. Thank you for your patience"
This has been going on for 3 hours now, and I can't imagine Google has actually sold one device yet. All this, and the company still expects the phones to ship in 5 weeks. Yes, 5 weeks. I have been an Android user since 1.1 on the T-Mobile G1, and this experience is no way to treat loyal fans of the OS.
Of course, the figure pales in comparison to sales of the Galaxy S III, which have topped 30 million, but the Note II features a massive 5.5-inch screen that critics were afraid would scare away consumers.
Despite launch earlier this year, the phablet only recently made it to most of the major American carriers late last month, leading to the spike in sales.
According to a leaked roadmap, it appears that Intel's tiny, low-power Atom processors will remain 32-bit-only until at least 2015.
"Bay Trail" SOCs (system-on-a-chip) will launch in 2014, following next year's Clover Trail. Bay Trail will offer 50 percent less power consumption than Clover, which will already feature over 30 percent less consumption than current SOCs.
Until 2015, the Atom chips will remain 32-bit only, limiting tablets (and phones) to 4GB RAM until then. Furthermore, Microsoft will likely have to develop a 32-bit version of Windows 9, even though it is trying to move to exclusively 64-bit operating systems.
Intel is looking to compete against ARM-based chips like the powerful and efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro.
A reliable Korean paper has reported on the alleged specs of next year's LG Optimus G2 flagship.
The device will supposedly be released in May, the same time as the Samsung Galaxy S IV.
On the spec side, the G2 will be incredible. It will feature a 1080p 5-inch LCD display with 440ppi and a powerful 2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon Prime processor along with 2GB RAM.
Additionally, the device will run on the next iteration of Android and include a 13MP camera and LTE support.
For its first week of availability, there were 400,000 new Wii U consoles sold, a solid debut. Additionally, the company sold 800,000 other devices during the week, including Wii, 3DS and DS handhelds.
Perhaps more impressively, the Wii sold 300,000 units despite being launched 6 years ago. 250,000 3DS and 275,000 DS handhelds were sold, mainly thanks to large Black Friday deals.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime says the Wii U would have had larger sales but the company was capped by supply: "Wii U is essentially sold out of retail and we are doing our best to continually replenish stock. Retailers are also doing their best to get the product to store shelves. But as soon as product hits retail, they're selling out immediately."
The exec says the company learned from its mistakes with the Wii (in regards to supply/retail), and is diligently stocking retailers this holiday season: "Wii was a unique phenomenon. You couldn't walk into a retailer and buy a Wii until spring of 2009. We've certainly learned many lessons from that and we are replenishing retailers more quickly this time around. We are looking to have as much product into retail as possible. It's driven by consumer response."
Thanks to a new deal with Warner Bros. International, Netflix Canada will be adding to its catalog.
The new deal includes film and TV episodes from the media company's significant library.
For example, the exclusive licensing agreement will add back episodes for shows like Vampire Diaries, Fringe and Pretty Little Liars, all of which are currently on TV.
Currently, all the shows air on Bell Media channels, which has its own TV deal with Warner Bros for first run.
On the movie side, a few notable titles headed to Netflix Canada are Hangover Part II, The Dark Knight Rises, Horrible Bosses and more.
"We are thrilled to be the exclusive online subscription home for The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, Fringe and great Warner Bros. feature films in Canada,"added Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix.
Samsung has announced that the extremely impressive Galaxy Camera will reach Canada on December 7th, with carrier-independent 3G.
The device has been available in the U.S. via AT&T since last week.
Galaxy Cameras offer Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, a 4.8-inch HD Super Clear LCD panel, a 1.4GHz quad-core processor and 16MP BSI CMOS sensor with 21x optical zoom. There is an HSPA+ chip for 3G, as well as the standard Wi-Fi.
Because the camera ships with Android, users have access to all 650,000 apps in the Google Play Store, as well.
Additionally, the Galaxy Camera "includes powerful manual controls with its Expert Mode, which allows for manual setting of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Smart Mode gives amateurs the tools of the pros, with Rich Tone HDR mode, Light Trace for 'light painting' photos and features like Best Face and Best Photo, which help users pick the best shot."
Earlier this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Global Security Risk requested that HP answer for its products being sold to Syria, where it would have faced sanctions.
The PC giant has admitted now that its products may have made it to the country through third-party distributors or resellers, but that they did not directly sell to the nation.
In their original request, the SEC wrote: "We are aware of November 2011 news reports that your equipment was installed by the Italian company, Area SpA, in Syria as part of a nationwide surveillance and tracking system designed to monitor people in that country.
Please describe to us the nature, duration, and extent of your past, current, and anticipated contacts with Syria and Iran, whether through subsidiaries, distributors, resellers, vendors, retailers, or other direct or indirect arrangements."
HP says it has not authorized any products to be sold to Syria and that the Italian company likely purchased the products from an HP partner that assumed they would remain in Italy. HP also ended its contract with Area SpA in April following the news.
Seven members of Congress have asked the FBI to shutter the the Twitter accounts of terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and al Shabaab.
The demand was originally made in September and was brought forth again this month after violence erupted in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
Seven House Republicans, led by Ted Poe of Texas, made the request: "Allowing foreign terrorist organizations like Hamas to operate on Twitter is enabling the enemy,. Failure to block access arms them with the ability to freely spread their violent propaganda and mobilize in their War on Israel.
Anti-American foreign terrorist groups around the world are doing the same thing every day. The FBI and Twitter must recognize sooner rather than later that social media is a tool for the terrorists."
The FBI responded by saying they "will respond to members of Congress directly. Our response is being considered internally."
'Gangnam Style,' the blockbuster hit by long-time Korean artist Psy, is now the most viewed YouTube video of all-time.
The track has beat out Justin Bieber's "Baby," which had held the spot for years but has since plateaued.
Psy's track has reached 810 million views, beating out Bieber at 804 million. The video is expected to hit over 1 billion in the future as it still seeing 2 million hits per day despite being released in July.
Additionally, the track is the most "liked" video of all-time, with over 5 million likes.
If you have never seen it (don't lie to yourself, you have), here it is:
According to the latest figures from NPD DisplaySearch, tablet shipments overtook laptops for the month of October.
There has long been talk of the milestone coming, but it came sooner than many industry analysts expected. "In a milestone for the global industry, in October tablet PC panel shipments exceeded those of notebook PC panels," reads NPD DisplaySearch's research note. Overall, it can be seen that tablet PCs are threatening to overtake notebooks."
That being said, the month could possibly be a fluke due to a few certain situations.
DisplaySearch explains that there was a large inventory build up, leading to a large decline in shipments. Additionally, laptop buyers held off on purchases as they awaited the late October launch of Windows 8. Furthermore, tablet shipments surged due to retailers hoping to build inventory for the holiday season.
Smaller, cheaper tablets including the $199 Google Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD also helped the tablet surge:
As Nintendo has confirmed themselves, they are losing money on every Wii U unit sold.
However, there is more to the story than that.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has said this week that just one game turns the hardware loss into a profit for the company.
Fils-Aime says the company had to make the decision to sell the hardware at a loss in order to make sure the price tag was in the range of the casual gaming consumer. The Wii U itself could have sold for $200, most likely (if not cheaper), but the GamePad tablet controller added significantly to the retail price.
Notes the exec: "As soon as [they] get the consumer to buy one piece of software, then that entire transaction becomes profit positive. In the end, the business model is still to drive the install base of hardware, and then to drive a strong tie ratio with all of the other software and experiences for the consumer. And if we're able to do that, then we will create significant profit for the company."
LG has finally explained why its Nexus 4 smartphone has a dormant LTE chip that only works on certain bands.
Says the manufacturer: "In order to provide the best possible specification for Nexus 4, LG utilised the same powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset as can be found in its 4G LTE product, namely LG Optimus G.
"This powerful chipset is only available with a combined processor and modem and cannot be implemented separately. The modem contains 4G LTE capabilities but is only effective when combined with other essential hardware parts such as a signal amplifier and filter in order for it to work. It therefore cannot be upgraded to 4G LTE capability through software."
LG's statement seems to put to rest any hopes that a firmware update could give users access to 4G LTE speeds.
Apple has been ordered by a federal judge to disclose the terms of its patent settlement with HTC.
The ruling was part of Samsung's ongoing war with Apple over hardware and software patents relating to the Galaxy line of smartphones and the iPhone and iPad.
Judge Paul Grewal ruled a copy of the agreement must be released to Samsung under an "attorneys-eyes-only" designation, keeping it out of the public's eye: "HTC is not entitled to special treatment, especially when it has recognized the general sufficiency of the protective order and the integrity of Samsung's outside counsel."
HTC and Apple recently agreed to a 10-year licensing deal. Reports stated HTC now owes Apple between $6-$8 per smartphone sold but HTC CEO Peter Chou denied the reports, calling them "outrageous."
Samsung shipped 58 million units in the third quarter.
UBS says shipments will reach 61.5 million for the quarter, and could reach as high as 63 million depending on sell-through.
Reads the report: "The Galaxy Note 2 has shipped 3 million units in its first five weeks of sales, with sell-through strong in Asia and Europe, and the U.S. gathering pace post-launch. We hence forecast 7 million Galaxy Note 2, compared to our initial expectation of 5 million for the fourth quarter."
Instagram has announced that Thanksgiving helped the service smash its previous records for most photos shared.
Over the holiday, fans shared 10 million photos at a rate of 226 per second at its peak.
The total number of photos shared were double that of the average, which fluctuates between 4 and 6 million daily.
Adds Instagram: "We're thrilled to see people use Instagram to share their holidays. Whether celebrating with friends and family or sharing photos with them halfway across the globe, we're excited to see the intimacy and immediacy of the Instagram experience bring us all closer together over this holiday season."
Instagram has over 120 million users and was purchased in April by Facebook.
Last week, we reported that the Nexus 4 had a dormant LTE chip built-in alongside its HSPA+ radio.
Last night, videos began showing up on YouTube of Nexus 4 owners in Canada running the phone with LTE enabled. It turns out it was a very simple "hack" to enable it, as well.
By dialing *#*4636#*#*, users are able to select their preferred network type option, whether it be LTE, LTE and GSM or LTE and CDMA.
The videos show that LTE will then work if "Band 4 is available." Telus, Rogers and Bell in Canada use AWS 2100 / 1700MHz LTE bands. AT&T in the U.S. does not use the band, but T-Mobile USA is building their LTE network with Band 4 for next year.
Nokia, which is trying to return to relevancy in the smartphone market, has lost one of its top executives.
Head of camera and imaging Damian Dinning has left the company, reveals Amateur Photographer. Dinning was the man behind PureView and other Nokia innovations relating to the camera.
Noted Nokia of the exec's decision: "Following the relocation of key strategic roles to Finland, and with great reluctance, Damian Dinning has made a personal decision to leave the company effective 30 November 2012.
During the past nine years, [Damian] has made many innovative and valuable contributions to Nokia, most recently as a lead program manager in our Smart Devices business.We thank him for his service to the company and certainly wish him the best."
According to the hit-or-miss Taiwan-based Digitimes, manufacturers are increasing their demand for Apple chips for an early launch of the fifth-generation iPad and also the iPhone 5S.
The sources, which are supposedly Apple suppliers, are preparing for launches of the new devices by May of next year.
Reads the report: "Apple is expected to introduce its next-generation iPad and iPhone series around the middle of 2013, which will boost demand for ICs in particular communications related chips during the latter half of the first quarter, according to the observers."
Component orders will rise significantly between March and April of next year, adds the site.
As has been the rumor, Samsung will no longer supply all of the A-series chips seen in iOS devices, with Apple moving production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).
According to a new report, Fujifilm will have 1TB optical discs by 2015.
The company has developed a new recording method that can reach 25GB per layer, with double sided discs between up to 20 layers.
Current Blu-rays offer the same capacity per layer (25GB) but only go as high as 100GB for special Blu-rayXL discs.
Fujifilm will look to commercialize the technology by 2015. The new method involves "two-photon absorption technology to increase the number of layers and it employs a 405nm Ti/S laser."
If allowed to evolve, the tech can eventually offer a capacity of 15TB.
Just weeks after they began banning file-sharing hosts, Paypal has extended the bans to major Usenet services, citing piracy concerns.
Outside of banning the providers, the company has also frozen the assets in the accounts.
A few of the Usenet providers banned are XSUsenet, EasyUsenet and Usenet4U with smaller services being banned, as well.
The providers can now no longer accept Paypal payments and their funds have been frozen for the next 180 days.
Paypal recently banned major file sharing sites like Putlocker and Mediafire, for not adhering to their new rules regarding file sharing. Putlocker even explained to TF that Paypal demanded that they be given full access to the backend of the site, to see all files that are being uploaded, regardless of the privacy settings of the user.
Mozilla has killed the 64-bit version of Firefox before it ever became widely available.
Engineering Manager Benjamin Smedberg posted the decision in a discussion thread titled "Turning off win64 builds."
Smedberg did post the reasons, with most making sense (via TNW):
Many plugins are not available in 64-bit versions.
The plugins that are available don't work correctly in Firefox because we haven't implemented things like windowproc hooking, which means that hangs are more common.
Crashes submitted by 64-bit users are currently not high priority because we are working on other things.
This is frustrating for users because they feel (and are!) second-class.
It is also frustrating for stability team triage because crash-stats does not easily distinguish between 32-bit and 64-bit builds in the topcrash lists and other reports. We basically ignore a set of nightly "topcrashes" because they are 64-bit only. (See bug 811051).
According to Win App Update, the Windows 8 Store has reached 20,000 apps, with most being free.
The company says about 18,000 of the apps are free, and also notes that not every country's store will have that number. In fact, the U.S. only has 13,000, Canada has 14,000 and the UK has 11,000 apps available.
Previous reported from earlier this month had the entire Store at 13,000 apps, so it appears growth has been increasing.
If the current rate continues, the store will hit about 35,000 by the end of the year.
Today's totals: 20,610 apps worldwide in the Windows Store (broke 20,000 on Tuesday, I believe). 17,958 of those are free (87%).
Amazon has announced this week that Instant Video is now available to Wii U owners.
The console launched on the 18th, and Netflix and Hulu Plus released apps for the system over the last couple of days.
Interested parties can download the free app from the console's home screen or through the eShop.
Amazon Instant Video offers access to 140,000 movies and TV episodes for purchase or rental. Additionally, if you are an Amazon Prime subscriber, you also have streaming access to 30,000 movies and shows for free.
As with other streaming services for Wii U, you can use the 6.2-inch GamePad to browse for titles or even playback the titles on the tablet screen.
The French cyber-warfare agency has accused the U.S. of hacking into former president Nicolas Sarkozy's PCs.
Computers of the president and close advisers including the Chief of Staff Musca were compromised in May by a virus that the agency claims is similar to the "Flame" virus that took down Iran's nuclear centrifuges.
Supposedly, the hacking took place just days before the presidential elections in which Sarkozy lost to socialist newcomer Francois Hollande.
President Obama's administration denied the allegations: "We categorically deny the allegations by unnamed sources that the U.S. government participated in a cyberattack against the French government. France is one of our strongest allies.
"Our outstanding cooperation in intelligence sharing, law enforcement and cyber defense has never been stronger, and remains essential in successfully combating the common threat of extremism."
HTC's new DROID DNA flagship is now available via Verizon Wireless.
The biggest selling point of the phone is its 1920x1080 resolution Super LCD 3 display with 440 ppi, easily the highest pixel density available on a smartphone. The screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 2.
HTC has packed the phone with a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro at 1.5GHz, 2GB RAM and a "high-end GPU."
Additionally, the phone runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with HTC Sense 4 on top. The hardware includes dual cameras, 2.1/8MP and camera features like HTC ImageSense and the HTC ImageChip. The front-side camera is "f/2.0, 88-degree, ultra-wide angle that allows more to be captured in self-portraits, and up to four people for group shots." NFC and LTE support are built-in. As with all HTC devices, Beats Audio is built in, promising better bass, midrange and highs.
Grand Theft Auto V, set for release during the Spring of next year, is a PS3 and Xbox 360 exclusive, at least at launch.
Today, a Rockstar Games exec has stated that the developer is at least considering Wii U and PC versions of the game, much to the delight of fans of the different platforms.
Added Rockstar Vice President Dan Houser: "We are a third-party publisher. We're not Nintendo, we're not Sony, we're not Microsoft. We love all of them in different ways. But we can do what we want wherever there's the appropriate business opportunity and chance to find a market.
Some other people talk about the limitations of the [current] hardware. We don't feel there are that many limitations. We feel we can do some very impressive stuff and do it for a large audience. This felt like the way."
Adding the iPhone to their device portfolio would force the carrier to make major sacrifices, says a T-Mobile executive.
Having the iPhone would likely lead to a decent boost in customers for the struggling carrier, which offers the best prices on monthly plans.
"Make no mistake about it: We would love to carry the iPhone. However, we want the economies to be right for us," added Jim Alling, COO of T-Mobile USA (via FW).
MetroPCS, the carrier T-Mobile USA is merging with, had similar comments on the smartphone, with COO Tom Keys saying: "It would be harmful to MetroPCS to have to cut out part of our handset portfolio to accommodate one phone from one provider that the economics could be at risk."
Alling also noted that T-Mobile certainly did not want to make a deal like rival Sprint recently made. The company signed a four-year, $15.5 billion deal last year to sell iPhones. Having that contract has put a massive burden on Sprint, who does not expect to see any profit from the Apple device until at least 2015.
According to new court documents, Megaupload helped the U.S. in its investigation into NinjaVideo, which was later shut down for good.
This was all 18 months before Kim Dotcom and the company's other operators were indicted, with the popular file hosting site being taken down for good, as well.
In June 2010, the U.S. issued a warrant to search Megaupload's servers in Virginia as part of an investigation into NinjaVideo, a piracy streaming site that used Megaupload's own "Megavideo" service. The government kept it secret, telling Megaupload to do the same.
Kim Dotcom lawyer Ira Rothken said the service "responded as good corporate citizens," turning over information about the five alleged NinjaVideo operators, "as well as database information on the 39 pirated movies detailed in the warrant." The information helped lead to indictments of all five top NinjaVideo administrators.
Adds Rothken: "Megaupload complied with the warrant and cooperated with the government's request. Megaupload had gotten a number of such warrant and subpoena type requests a year and still have an expectation that as classic 'online service providers' they are immune from liability for the acts of users who are the target of such warrants and subpoenas."
Since the release of the Galaxy S III, rumors for next year's Galaxy S IV have been trickling in and today we have some more.
Allegedly, the phone will have a 5-inch, 1080p display. Additionally, the device will run on a quad-core Cortex A15 chip, the Exynos 5450.
The Exynos is built by Samsung itself, moving away from Qualcomm-made chips like the Snapdragon. The new Nexus 10 and the latest Chromebook already use similar chips.
Furthermore, the camera will be 13MP and include some more new and improved Samsung software.
Regardless, we will not know for sure about the new device until MWC next February.
Last week, we reported about an unfortunate bug with the new Android 4.2 operating system found on the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, and new Nexus tablets.
In the stock People/Contacts app, the month of December is completely missing, making it impossible to add events or birthdays for any contacts if that occasion is in December.
The bug was added to the bug tracker but Google has finally widely acknowledged the issue:
"We discovered a bug in the Android 4.2 update, which makes it impossible to enter December events in optional fields of the People app (this bug did not affect Calendar). Rest assured, this will be fixed soon so that those of you with December birthdays and anniversaries won't be forgotten by your friends and family."
Two weeks ago, Apple and HTC announced an end to their global patent war, agreeing to a 10-year licensing agreement.
Last week, Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said industry sources told him Apple will get between $6-$8 for every HTC phone sold. Today, HTC has slammed that report, calling it outrageous.
"I think that these estimates are baseless and very, very wrong. It is a outrageous number, but I'm not going to comment anything on a specific number. I believe we have a very, very happy settlement and a good ending,"said HTC CEO Peter Chou at a KDDI Corp product launch in Tokyo.
Neither company has disclosed the terms of the agreement which will have HTC pay royalties to license certain Apple patents related to smartphones for the next ten years.
In a slap to the face of privacy, a new Senate proposal will let government agencies read your emails without warrant.
A vote on the bill, which was recently re-written by Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, is set for next week.
Cnet has pinpointed all the new changes to the bill:
* Grants warrantless access to Americans' electronic correspondence to over 22 federal agencies. Only a subpoena is required, not a search warrant signed by a judge based on probable cause.
*Permits state and local law enforcement to warrantlessly access Americans' correspondence stored on systems not offered "to the public," including university networks.
* Authorizes any law enforcement agency to access accounts without a warrant -- or subsequent court review -- if they claim "emergency" situations exist.
* Says providers "shall notify" law enforcement in advance of any plans to tell their customers that they've been the target of a warrant, order, or subpoena.
* Delays notification of customers whose accounts have been accessed from 3 days to "10 business days." This notification can be postponed by up to 360 days.
John McAfee, anti-virus software pioneer and potential bath salts junkie, has written this week on his blog that he is offering $25,000 to anyone who helps capture the murderer of expat Gregory Faull.
Faull was murdered last week near his home in Belize and the story was broken that McAfee was the lead suspect in the case.
Since then, McAfee has been in hiding but also blogging about his adventure, including how he dresses in disguises daily. One such disguise is a Guatemalan street vendor with a limp. He has said the charges against him are a vendetta for his refusal to donate money to Belize's ruling United Democratic Party.
For now, McAfee says he wants to find justice for Faull's murder and is willing to do so monetarily.
The developer told interviewers two years ago that his once $100 million fortune had dwindled to $4 million due to the financial crisis in 2008.
Xbox World, which is set to cease publication after their December issue, has published a large 8-page feature showing off "everything" they know about the upcoming Xbox 8/Xbox 720/Xbox Next/Xbox/Durango.
The magazine has a good track record for Microsoft Xbox leaks, but with no official confirmation until next year, at least, take everything written with a grain of salt.
Says editor-in-chief Dan Dawkins (via CVG): "Xbox World has been at the cutting edge of Durango coverage for over 12 months. Unless something really dramatic changes, everything we reveal in our penultimate issue will be revealed long before E3 in June."
The mag speculates Microsoft will name the upcoming console simply "Xbox," similar to how Apple has stopped numbering their iPad tablets.
With its release, the new Xbox will introduce Kinect 2.0, Blu-ray support, directional audio, a TV output and input, a new 'innovative controller' and finally, augmented reality glasses (to be released in 2014/15).
One of the remaining major holdouts has made their music available via iTunes.
Rock band AC/DC has made all 25 albums available through the online digital download store, and you can also buy the tracks individually.
In 2011, the band said they would not make their music available unless it was sold only as full albums, not a la carte. Back in 2008, the company said iTunes would likely 'kill music,' taking a hardline stance.
Since then, it appears the band has had a change of heart and will now sell the tracks, albums, LP versions, live versions and two "digital box-sets,' a Studio Collection and a more expensive Complete Collection. Additionally, the band has "sold out" completely and will offer ringtones, as well.
Recently, another major holdout, Kid Rock, finally made his music available on iTunes, as well.
According to Appsfire, Apple has now seen 1 million apps submitted to the marketplace since launch in July 2008.
The count includes all iOS apps (iPad and iPhone) and does not include Mac App Store applications.
736,247 are currently live in the App Store, with 336,270 being paid. Of the total, 120,065 are games says the report.
The store has seen 35 billion downloads in four years and is accessed by nearly all of Apple's 400 million users.
It may be some time until Apple sees 1 million live apps, since many have been removed by Apple or the developers themselves, and others have been taken down by copyright notices. Some have also been rejected right from the get go.
Rival Android has reached 25 billion downloads and has over 650,000 live apps.
Just a week ago, Microsoft announced that DirectX 11.1 will be a Windows 8 exclusive. The company said there were no plans to make it available for Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, either.
Today, however, it seems the company has given in to critics, and will make some features available to those with Windows 7.
Microsoft says the following features will be added to W7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, as well:
ID3D11Device1, ID2D1Factory1, IDWriteFactory1, IDXGIFactory2, IWICImagingFactory2, ID3DUserDefinedAnnotation and related APIs are available
Improved Direct3D 11 device interoperability via ID3DDeviceContextState, including the improved interop with Direct2D/DirectWrite
D3D11_FEATURE_DATA_D3D9_OPTIONS feature detection
In addition to the new Windows 8 WIC features, this update also fixes decoding of 96bpp floating-point TIFF images.
According to sources, the upcoming Mac OS X 10.9 will integrate Siri and Apple Maps from its iOS counterpart.
So far, these sources have tested early builds of the operating system, and say the Siri voice command software works very similar to iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad.
Currently, Macs with Mountain Lion have access to "Dictation," which uses the same hardware and software infrastructure as Siri.
Furthermore, Apple will look to integrate the oft-criticized Apple Maps into the OS X framework for developers. Devs will then be able to embed a map into their applications for the Mac App Store.
More official word on OS X 10.9 is expected by February.
According to Business Insider, MySpace is trying to raise $50 million in funding so it can re-invent itself as a rival to Pandora and Spotify.
An ad company called Specific Media purchased MySpace from News Corp. for $35 million. In 2005, News Corp and its CEO Rupert Murdoch purchased the social network for $580 million. With the launch of Facebook, MySpace largely disappeared, outside of its music streaming capabilities.
After changing their name to Interactive Media Holdings and taking new funding from venture capitalists and even Justin Timberlake, MySpace's traffic has grown 36 percent since December 2011. Despite the traffic boost, revenues are still low and the company expects MySpace to lose $25 million next year.
According to their new plans, however, Interactive has some big plans, looking to become a music alternative to Spotify and Pandora. The company will need $50 million in new funding, with $10 million going to marketing and $25 million going to licensing deals with the labels. The rest is slated for "general working capital," as can be expected.
Intel CEO Paul Otellini has announced today that he will be retiring from the company next year.
Otellini will step down in May, giving enough time for the company to forge a succession plan.
After 8 years as CEO and almost 40 years with the company itself, the executive says it was time to move on. He wil end all day-to-day duties but will be available in an "advisor" capacity into the future.
Intel board of directors chairman Andy Bryant added: "Paul Otellini has been a very strong leader, only the fifth CEO in the company's great 45-year history, and one who has managed the company through challenging times and market transitions."
The company has yet to select a new CEO.
Concludes Otellini:
I've been privileged to lead one of the world's greatest companies. After almost four decades with the company and eight years as CEO, it's time to move on and transfer Intel's helm to a new generation of leadership. I look forward to working with Andy, the board and the management team during the six-month transition period, and to being available as an advisor to management after retiring as CEO.
Windows Phone 8 users have been reporting that their new devices are being hit with random reboots and freezing issues, certainly not something Microsoft or the phone manufacturers want to hear.
While the numbers are not great given the amount of phones that have supposedly been sold, they are large enough that at least Nokia has responded. A thread in their support forum over Lumia 920 freezing has run to 4 pages.
Most of the problems have been reported for the HTC 8X and Lumia 920, which are the two most popular WP8 devices. Blame has been slung everywhere for the issue, with some blaming the Facebook app, others blaming HTC hub and others blaming NFC applications.
Nokia had this response: "There have been reports of a small number of people experiencing this unusual performance on their Nokia Lumia 920. We are investigating but suspect some apps may be at the root of the issue when left running in the background. While we learn more, we advise people when finished with an application to navigate away using the back button to ensure it is no longer active."
Earlier this week, AndroidPolice discovered an unfortunate bug with the new Android 4.2 operating system found on the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, and new Nexus tablets.
In the stock People/Contacts app, the month of December is completely missing, making it impossible to add events or birthdays for any contacts if that occasion is in December.
The site says the bug has been reported to the Android bug tracker as bug #39692 with Google acknowledging it over the weekend:
Adds the site: "After digging through the AOSP source, I think the bug can be likely found in one of these commits, probably in the packages/apps/Contacts/src/com/android/contacts/datepicker/DatePicker.java file - if you spot it, definitely drop a note in the comments. I think it has to do with adjusting for indexes that start with 0 - "off by 1" bugs are quite common."
First off, the site says the hardware seems repair-friendly, with an easy to open chassis. That being said, there are a few delicate connections that are soldered together, however.
Under the hood, the Wii U has 2GB of DDR3-1600 RAM, doubling the peak bandwidth of its predecessor, at 12.8GB/s.
The Wii U optical drive, as reported earlier this year, is a proprietary format for game storage, but matching low-end Blu-ray storage at 25GB per disc. The site says "max sequential read speeds are pretty high compared to the current gen consoles at 22MB/s."
There is a multicore PowerPC processor and a large GPU with supposedly high amounts of eDRAM.
For the third quarter, Android powered ahead in its smartphone market share dominance, says research firm Gartner.
Android accounted for 72.4 percent of all smartphones sold during the quarter, up from 52.2 percent during the same period in 2011.
Samsung led the way, selling 55 million smartphones of a total of 136 million sold. Apple saw strong growth, as well, selling 23.5 million iPhones, however overall share fell from 15 percent in 2011 to 13.9 percent for this quarter.
"The pace of innovation in Android is faster than Apple,"said Gartner vice president of mobile computing Ken Dulaney. "They are just trying harder; Apple is way behind in that area. What you get with Android is this incredible feedback loop with developers, equipment makers, customers, and designers.
"At Apple, as long as they have a great vision internally it is fine but they don't have the feedback Android does."
AT&T has announced that their 4G LTE network deployment is moving well ahead of schedule.
The network is available in 24 new markets as of this weekend, now covering 152 million people.
By the end of 2013, the carrier says it wants to reach 250 million people and then 300 million by the end of 2014. At the end of 2011, AT&T covered just 75 million Americans.
Rival Verizon currently covers more people and has plans to reach over 300 million by the end of next year.
However, AT&T has HSPA+ for those in non-LTE coverage areas, which offers 4G-esque speeds for those with 3G-capable devices, including all iPhones before this year's iPhone 5.
According to Paul Thurrott, sales of Windows 8 PCs are well below the company's internal projections.
Perhaps more notably, the well-known Microsoft insider says the company has been blaming PC makers for their lackluster designs and availability.
More specifically, the source blames PC makers' "inability to deliver," extremely strong words that completely justifies Microsoft's move into building their own hardware, the Surface.
Additionally, the software giant has been looking to expand their Microsoft retail stores, which could put them in even bigger competition with their hardware partners.
Another potential reason for the slow sales is the confusing different versions of Windows, most notably the Windows RT seen on the Surface tablet. There has been widespread confusion on the differences between RT and the upcoming Windows 8 Pro. RT can only use apps built for RT, unlike Pro which can run on AMD or Intel chips and has access to the hundreds of thousands of Windows legacy applications.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has said Amazon will one day be a real competitor to them, but they will need to keep spending to do so.
The executive says Amazon has been losing up to $1 billion a year as it looks to acquire streaming video content rights.
Hastings based his numbers on content deals that Amazon won over Netflix when they competed head to head earlier this year and last year.
Netflix says it will spend $2.1 billion next year on content.
According to recent figures, Amazon Prime only controls 1.8 percent of Internet traffic compared to Netflix's 33 percent. Netflix has over 27 million subscribers, paying $8 per month for the service. Amazon has not revealed how many Prime members they have. Prime costs $79 per year and includes unlimited streaming and free 2-day shipping on all Amazon-sold products.
Earlier this week, Google began selling its new LG Nexus 4, the latest in the vanilla Android Nexus line.
While the phone has been met with good critical success, the main deterrent for the device is its lack of LTE support. While LTE may not be everywhere in the U.S., the major carriers all plan to blanket the nation by the end of next year.
iFixit has completed their teardown of the device, and strangely found an LTE radio chip.
The chip is the Qualcomm WTR1605L, which supports all known LTE networks around the world, but remains dormant as the phone uses a pentaband HSPA+ chip instead.
While the dormant chip is certainly interesting, there is very little devs can do with it. iFixit says there is no LTE power amplifier on board, and they believe the chip may be permanently disabled.
With high demand and seemingly tight supply, the Nintendo Wii U has gone on sale today in the U.S.
The console is the first of the next generation of systems, and is notable for its use of a tablet-esque controller, dubbed the GamePad. Additionally, the company will add a new TV-viewing service next month, called TVii.
"The value of Wii U goes well beyond day one,"says Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo's North America president. "Nintendo will be enhancing the Wii U experience with continuous updates and new services for Wii U owners."
While analysts have suggested that Nintendo should move away from hardware and concentrate on making games based on their extremely popular characters (Pokemon, Mario, Link, etc) for smartphones and tablets, executives will not even consider it. Instead, the company continues to innovate on the hardware side, looking to create a "ground breaking experience," notes Fils-Aime.
In addition to the significant milestone, Microsoft has announced that the timing coincides with a new record for the service, as well.
"I'm proud to announce that during the week of Nov. 6 through Nov. 13, our members spent more time on Xbox LIVE (gaming and watching entertainment) than any other week in the history of our service: a total of 442 million hours," added Major Nelson.
Xbox Live will live into the future with the Xbox 360 sequel expected next year.
The online service has become an integral part of Microsoft's console ecosystem since its launch with the original Xbox in 2002.
Less than a week after two thieves drove out of JFK airport with two pallets of iPad Mini valued at above $1.5 million, a suspect has been charged.
Agents said they arrested Renel Rene Richardson after co-workers said he made "suspicious" inquiries about the shipment before it came in and where to find forklifts in the warehouse.
The tablets were stolen from the same cargo building that was featured in the hit movie "GoodFellas," better known as the Lufthansa heist.
At around midnight last Monday, the thieves used forklifts to load two massive pallets onto a truck before driving off. The original plan had been to take 5 pallets, but they had to leave three after being confronted by an airport worker who was returning from a late dinner.
Richardson has been accused of being the lookout and the man who let the thieves in and out that night.
Time Warner says they will warn subscribers through popup notifications and eventually restrict browsing by in-browser redirects. Verizon will notify alleged pirates via email and even voice mail, and will eventually throttle speeds.
For Verizon, the process will be in three stages. The first two alerts will be via email/voice mail informing the alleged pirates that someone on their connection has been flagged for copyright infringements. In the second stage, a pop up is delivered to users who must read and confirm it before it goes away. After that, actual punishments are a possibility, with throttling of Internet speeds occurring. The throttling is temporary, says the ISP, being lifted after 3 days.
Over the last 8 weeks, the once invincible Apple has seen its stock fall almost 30 percent, while the broader stock market fell 9 percent in the same period.
While many stocks see extreme declines over the course of their lifetime, Apple's is most notable given its current valuation.
After a nice 5 percent rebound on Friday, the company is valued at $496 billion, $100 billion more than the second-largest public company in the world and more than Google and Microsoft combined.
Before the drop, the company was valued as high as $660 billion, meaning in just two months the company lost a value of $164 billion, more than the entire worth of Amazon, eBay and Netflix combined. In other words, the drop was significant.
Apple has seen some slowing growth for their products in recent quarters and have been accused of becoming less innovative, especially when compared to Google and Samsung.
Nintendo has announced that the highly-anticipated "TVii" feature will launch next month, and not at launch.
The service, which is for U.S. and Canadian Wii U owners only, places a full TV program guide on the Wii U's touch GamePad, allowing users to view or control programming from cable or satellite.
Additionally, TViii lets users control YouTube and other video on demand services. You can also comment on Twitter, Facebook and Miiverse.
Unfortunately, some of the most popular video-on-demand services will not be available for a few weeks, including Hulu Plus, Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.
The Wii U Basic and Deluxe bundles are set for release tomorrow, with the base model costing $300 and the deluxe edition selling for $350. The base model will include the Wii U console with 8GB memory and the Wii U GamePad in all white. The deluxe edition comes with 32GB and a GamePad charging cradle. Additionally, it will come bundled with the game NintendoLand.
T-Mobile USA, the U.S.' fourth-largest carrier, has said today that it expects only three of the major carriers to make it into the future.
The carrier recently just announced a merger with MetroPCS that should be completed early next year.
Even with the merger, however, the company still trails the big 3 significantly. Verizon and AT&T have over 110 million subscribers each while Sprint has 56 million. T-Mobile with MetroPCS has about 39 million.
"A major part of our strategy is to drive some shift in share amongst the big four, and that's going to be the richest area we see with the greatest return," added CEO John Legere. "There is a near- and medium-term opportunity for us to aggressively grow and take on share."
Legere also specifically named AT&T and Sprint when saying rival carriers have some "challenges with a limited LTE capacity."
More notably, T-Mobile Chief Operating Officer Jim Alling said an industry deal to consolidate the major carriers is likely into the future, but not during the tenure of President Obama. "Is it possible that four major players could go down to three?"Alling added. "I think that is possible, and likely in the longer term. I don't know how likely that is, based on the current regulatory environment."
According to a survey from anti-virus company Avast, most Windows users in the U.S. know what Windows 8 is, but only a few are looking to upgrade to it.
Worse for Microsoft, is the fact that almost one third of those surveyed said they would look to Apple when it came time to upgrade from their Windows XP, Vista or 7 machine.
The survey comes on the heels of Microsoft firing Steve Sinofsky, the longtime head of the Windows division. It remains unclear whether the move was a personality clash between Sinofsky and Ballmer or because of the lukewarm reception to Windows 8.
Avast polled 1.6 million users of its software and received 135,329 responses from U.S. Windows users.
65 percent used Windows 7, 22 percent still used Windows XP and 8 percent used Vista. 60 percent were aware of Windows 8 but just 9 percent "said they would accelerate a decision to buy a new computer just to have Windows 8, while more than 70 percent said they planned to stick with what they have."
According to the WSJ, Google has been in talks with Dish Network to potentially begin offering a new wireless service that would rival major carriers like AT&T and Verizon.
For now, the talks are preliminary and could lead nowhere, say the sources.
Dish has supposedly spoken with multiple companies in recent times, with all discussions remaining in the exploratory stage.
The satellite TV company has been acquiring spectrum since 2008 and it appears they finally want to use it. The wireless network would include cellular service and mobile broadband.
Google would make a great partner, as they also have plans for connecting customers to the Internet, laying fiber networks in Kansas City as a pilot. The fiber network is faster than all existing cable and fiber networks offered by cable companies, and also has no restrictions on bandwidth. Additionally, Google has $45 billion in cash, which could certainly help in acquiring spectrum or building infrastructure.
According to multiple reports, Google has been distributing a test version of Google Maps for iOS to some beta testers outside of the company.
When completed, Apple will have to accept it into the App Store before iOS users can download it.
A Google spokesman added: "We believe Google Maps are the most comprehensive, accurate and easy-to-use maps in the world. Our goal is to make Google Maps available to everyone who wants to use it, regardless of device, browser, or operating system."
The software should come as a relief to iOS 6 users who may not be happy with the still-buggy Apple Maps released last month. Apple Maps comes pre-installed with all new iOS devices including the iPhone 5, iPad and iPad Mini.
Google Maps remains the golden standard for mobile, and the upcoming app is expected to contain Navigation as it does with Android.
Handily beating out Halo 4 as the biggest entertainment launch of the year.
Activision has announced today that their blockbuster hit Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has brought in $500 million in sales in the first 24 hours, according to retail customer sell-through estimates from Chart-Track.
That figure makes it easily the biggest launch of the year, beating out Halo 4's $220 million sell-through in the first 24 hours just last week.
"With first day sales of over half a billion dollars worldwide, we believe Call of Duty is the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth year in a row,"added Bobby Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard, Inc. "Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for "Harry Potter" and "Star Wars," the two most successful movie franchises of all time. Given the challenged macro-economic environment, we remain cautious about the balance of 2012 and 2013."
Sony has announced today that the PS3 has now reached 70 million global sales as of the beginning of November.
Additionally, the company has sold 15 million PlayStation Move motion controllers.
Says Sony: "The PS3 system has delivered high quality, award-winning entertainment experiences since its launch. Throughout its lifecycle, the PS3 system has continued to evolve with more streamlined design, larger Hard Disk Drive (HDD) capacity, and new features through software updates. In September 2012, SCE launched the new PS3 system, which has a reduced volume and weight of more than 50 percent compared to the original PS3 model, and of 25 percent and 20 percent respectively compared to the slim PS3 model launched in 2009. The new PS3 has been well received by consumers around the world."
The company launched the PS3 in 2006, a year after Microsoft revealed their Xbox 360.
As they do annually, the RIAA has released their latest list of "notorious" piracy sites.
The list is sent to the Office of the United States Trade Representative and includes large piracy sites and also "accomplice" sites that help users access unauthorized content more easily.
"We want to take a moment to reflect on the fact that thanks in large part to the efforts of the U.S. government in highlighting illicit practices, some of the notorious markets that we identified in last year's submission no longer feature in this filing," added Neil Turkewitz of the RIAA. Some of those names included Megaupload and Demonoid, which is struggling to re-open after being taken down over 3 months ago.
Many fan favorites remained on the list, most notably The Pirate Bay, Iso Hunt, Kickass Torrents, Torrentz, BitSnoop, SumoTorrent, Torrenthound, BTMon, ExtraTorrent, Fenopy, LimeTorrents and TorrentReactor.
Additionally, the RIAA is looking into The Pirate Bay's VPN: "In August 2012, it was reported that The Pirate Bay had launched a new ad-supported VPN service, PrivitizeVPN, the purpose of which is to enable users to 'cloak' their IP address when using file-sharing services to make enforcement more difficult. This service is in its early stage and usage is being monitored."
Not one to make friends, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has attacked both Android and iOS today.
When speaking about Android, Ballmer called the mobile OS' ecosystem "wild and uncontrolled" and very susceptible to malware.
For iOS, Ballmer called Apple's ecosystem "high-priced" and "highly controlled." He then noted that internationally, iPhones can cost up to $1000, a ridiculous price.
The CEO says he believes Microsoft can be successful with Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8, mixing the good of both superstar operating systems but working closely with developers and "doing it right."
Testing one of the company's phones, he exclaimed "Wow, it just works!" and then took a jab at Apple's iOS 6 Maps debacle.
Android has now left Apple and others to fight for the scraps in China.
According to the latest figures from Analysis International, Android now has 90.1 percent of the smartphone market share in China. In early 2011, the mobile OS had just 46.8 percent, making the latest number even more impressive.
The firm even speculates the number may be higher, as they do not include knock-off "white box" phones, most of which run on variants of Android anyways.
Apple dropped to 4.2 percent, remaining in second. This number may also be skewed, as well, since the company does not include grey market imports including the new iPhone 5 which has not made it to China yet "officially."
In the same period, Nokia's Symbian fell from 31.8 percent share to an irrelevant 2.4 percent, as the company leaves the OS for dead.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has noted today that the company is looking into building more of its own devices, which could imply a Surface phone coming in the future.
When asked if such a move would interrupt working relationships with longtime hardware partners, Ballmer said no: "Do I anticipate that partners of ours will build the lion's share of all Windows devices over the next five years? The answer is, absolutely.
"With that said, it is absolutely clear that there is an innovation opportunity on the scene between hardware and software and that is a scene that must not go unexploited at all by Microsoft."
The company currently offers the Xbox game console and the new Surface tablet, which runs on Windows RT, so expanding their hardware lineup does make sense given the ecosystem they are trying to build.
By building a phone, for example, would pit the company against its long-time partners such as Samsung and Lenovo, each of which have plans for Windows Phone 8 devices.
The university says anyone with a $650 radio jammer and some background knowledge can temporarily disable entire LTE networks for their area.
Apparently, LTE networks are much more susceptible than existing GSM or CDMA networks to said radio jamming attacks. As the researchers say: "The vulnerability stems from the fact that LTE depends on control instructions that make up less than one percent of the overall signal."
The frequencies that the control set operate are publicly available, you just have to look for them.
VTech's director of wireless research Jeff Reed says hackers could also add an "inexpensive power amplifier" to the jammer they could take down LTE networks for miles. This would be an extremely dire situation for carriers who are looking to eventually move to LTE-only networks, not backed by current 3G.
A pair of thieves managed to steal $1.5 million worth of iPads from JFK airport, in a move many are calling an inside job.
The tablets were stolen from the same cargo building that was featured in the hit movie "GoodFellas," better known as the Lufthansa heist.
At around midnight on Monday, the thieves used forklifts to load two massive pallets onto a truck before driving off. The original plan had been to take 5 pallets, but they had to leave three after being confronted by an airport worker who was returning from a late dinner.
All airport workers are being investigated, and a few have already been given polygraph tests. Law enforcement officials believe a worker let the thieves into the area and helped them to leave afterwards.
The two pallets contained 3600 iPad Minis which had just been shipped from China and were headed to Apple Stores around the U.S.
Jefferies & Co. analyst James Kisner has noted today that he believes an AppleHDTV announcement is 'imminent.'
Citing talks with cable industry sources, the analyst claims that at least one "is working to estimate how much additional capacity may be needed for a new Apple device on their broadband data network."
Here is the full note (speaking about the prospects for company he is following, Arris):
Our discussions with industry contacts suggest that at least one major N. American MSO is working to estimate how much additional capacity may be needed for a new Apple device on their broadband data network. We believe this potentially suggests an imminent launch of the Apple TV, a positive development for ARRIS, who is directly exposed to data traffic growth from incremental IP video streams on cable networks.
In Chart 10 below we examine the potential impact of an Apple TV launch at Arris' biggest customer, Comcast (CMCSA, $35.40, Hold) (Here we're talking about an unannounced product, not the Apple TV product that is currently available). It's important to understand that network capacity is largely engineered to peak traffic levels – thus we've based our analysis on what peak data consumption might be based on 50% of Apple TV users watching an HD video stream all at once (this might realistically happen on a Friday or Saturday night). We then translate the incremental data usage to incremental port requirements (each port maps to roughly 40mbps of capacity). Our conversations with industry contacts have suggested in the past that Arris has over 50% of Comcast's CMTS footprint – thus we assume 55% of the port shipments go to ARRIS. Finally, we assume that these port shipments come at 45% contribution margin; given the relatively high gross margins and software content on the CMTS business, we believe this is realistic. Depending on the unit assumptions, we arrive at an EPS impact of $0.07 – $0.40 for Arris from an Apple TV launch at Comcast. We note that Jefferies analyst Peter Misek is forecasting Apple TV unit sales of 4.9 million units in CY13 and 11.6 million units in CY14. These estimates assume an actual Television product (not a "puck" like the current Apple TV).
Samsung has said it will not settle or reach an agreement on outstanding patent cases with Apple.
The companies have been fighting over design and software patents in four continents since early last year.
"It may be true that HTC may have agreed to pay 300 billion won (US$276 million) to Apple, but we don't intend to (negotiate) at all,"said Shin Jong-kyun, Samsung's mobile and IT division boss.
HTC recently settled with Apple over their existing patent arguments, agreeing to a 10-year licensing deal which will pay Apple around $8 per HTC handset sold.
Samsung currently has a large 35.2 percent market share in the global smartphone market, beating out Apple at 16.6 percent stake and well ahead of all other rivals.
A Los Angeles man has sued Microsoft this week, claiming the new Surface tablet doesn't have all the internal storage it is supposed to have.
The irate customer, Andrew Sokolowski, does have a point.
For a 32GB tablet, there is only 17GB of free space, since Windows RT and pre-loaded apps take up the rest. For a 64GB model, there is just 46GB of free space at initial boot.
Microsoft has posted the free-space capacity on its Surface website, and has also acknowledged the capacity to major media outlets.
Regardless, Sokolowski filed the suit, and is seeking class-action status: "Mr. Sokolowski's lawsuit is about protecting consumers as we head into the holiday shopping season," Rhett Francisco, an attorney representing Sokolowski, added. "Microsoft is misrepresenting the storage capacity and capabilities of the Surface tablet, and consumers should know about it."
Microsoft was quick to respond: "Customers understand the operating system and pre-installed applications reside on the device's internal storage thereby reducing the total free space. Surface with Windows RT customers benefit from the ability to attach additional storage via the integrated microSD slot or full-size USB port."
Spotify has completed their most recent funding round.
The new round of financing will bring the company $100 million and give it a value of $3 billion.
Of the $100 million, $50 million is coming from Goldman Sachs, Fidelity is investing 15 percent and Coca-Cola accounted for 10 percent. The remaining 25 percent will come from existing investors.
Coca-Cola has been a longtime ad partner with Spotify, and was also in a separate partnership to help the streaming service reach new global markets.
Spotify has now reached 17 nations, including Ireland just this week. The company has 15 million users, with 4 million paying for premium subscriptions. The company is still expected to post a loss this year, although revenue is likely to grow over 90 percent.
Samsung has announced today that it will unveil the world's largest Ultra HD television set at the upcoming CES event in January.
Ultra HD, the recently coined term for 4K resolution, offers 3840 x 2160 pixels, four times that of current "Full HD" 1080p sets.
The company says the LED TV will be "the world's largest commercialized UHD LED TV" and offer "lifelike" picture to viewers.
Samsung will be amongst a growing number of manufacturers including Sony, LG and Toshiba who are vying for very early status as a leader in the 4K market. In fact, LG launched an 84-inch 4K-supported TV released just two months ago.
The Google developer says that neither device will be officially updated past their current Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean operating system.
In all, the news should not be too shocking to owners of the devices, since both are nearing two years old and are on antiquated hardware. Many Nexus S owners have complained about some lag even with 4.1, so moving forward would most likely affect performance.
As promised, Rockstar Games has released the new GTA V trailer today, including some intense action sequences.
The game, which follows the story line of three main protagonists, is said to have a world two times bigger than Liberty City and San Andreas combined.
In the trailer you get a small look into the story as well as the new vehicles including dirtbike races and fighter jets dogfights. Additionally, you see train crashes, highway chases and Lamborghinis.
The game is set for release in the spring of next year in the U.S.
Although Windows Phone 8 devices have been confirmed for T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon, major carrier Sprint has been notably left out.
The carrier has today noted on the mobile operating system, promising devices for next year: "Sprint and Microsoft are partnering to bring Windows Phone 8 to Sprint's customers - operating on its 4G LTE network - next year."
Sprint is the U.S.' third largest carrier, with over 56 million subscribers. The company was recently acquired by Japan's Softbank, and also recently made a deal with U.S. Cellular for subscribers and spectrum.
This year, the company offered a single Windows Phone 7 handset, the HTC Arrive, which was low-end and sold poorly.
AT&T remains the premier carrier partner, with the new high-end Lumia 920 and HTC 8X getting there first.
Earlier today, Google began selling its highly anticipated Nexus 10 tablet and Nexus 4 smartphone.
Unfortunately, as I can attest, it seems Google was not as prepared as they should have been for such a major launch.
Within minutes of the U.S. launch earlier this morning, would-be buyers were met with site errors, checkout errors, Google Wallet errors and timeouts, all before learning that their smartphone of choice was sold out. I myself tried unsuccessfully to checkout for an 8GB model for 15 minutes before learning it had sold out without me.
The 16GB model sold out within 20 minutes of Google opening the virtual doors, while the 8GB lasted a little bit longer.
Google's new powerful device features a a 4.7-inch 1280 x 768 320 ppi IPS+ LCD display, runs on a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, has 2GB RAM, an 8 megapixel camera and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, NFC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and Wireless Charging. Google has also made the back of etched glass that sparkles as if it is different layers. The phone also includes a large 2100mAh and the screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 2 tech.
Today, HTC has introduced the oft-leaked and rumored DROID DNA, their new 5-inch, 1080p flagship.
The biggest selling point of the phone is its 1920x1080 resolution Super LCD 3 display with 440 ppi, easily the highest pixel density available on a smartphone. The screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 2.
HTC has packed the phone with a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro at 1.5GHz, 2GB RAM and a "high-end GPU."
Additionally, the phone runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with HTC Sense 4 on top. The hardware includes dual cameras, 2.1/8MP and camera features like HTC ImageSense and the HTC ImageChip. The front-side camera is "f/2.0, 88-degree, ultra-wide angle that allows more to be captured in self-portraits, and up to four people for group shots." NFC and LTE support are built-in.
We received the latest, greatest, and most hyped Nokia phone for a review and decided to take the camera for a spin. In addition to the super sensitive HD+ touch screen and wireless charging, the most important selling point of Lumia 920 must be the camera. Nokia has branded it PureView like the 41 megapixel monster on Nokia 808 PureView but does it deliver like a PureView camera should?
We took quite a few photos and videos in different situations but decided to have emphasis on the most noted feature of Lumia 920's camera, the optical image stabilization. This feature faced controversy after Nokia admitted to have faked the OIS video footage on their promotional video. We wanted to see if the low light pictures and shaky video really benefit from the floating lens technology.
We tried to use identical settings for each batch of photos but due to resolution and technology variance there might be slight differences. Most of the photos were shot by hand and the proportions of objects may differ as well. The flash settings were identical in each comparison and no zoom of any kind was used. The videos were recorded with each device held in a simple homemade stand to maintain a consistent amount of movement from one to the next.
Rockstar Games has revealed a plethora of in-game screenshots of its upcoming 'Grand Theft Auto 5,' showing off an extremely elaborate game.
The game will have three main protagonists and Rockstar used last week to unveil the mission structures, gameplay traits, and the open world of Los Santos.
In the screenshots you can see all sorts of features and vehicles, including a fighter jet.
The game is set for release in the Spring 2013 on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Microsoft has boasted today over their franchise game's first day stats.
The new 'Halo 4' brought in $220 million in just 24 hours, with the software giant calling it the "biggest entertainment launch of the year."
Altogether, the company says it expects first week sales to top $300 million.
With the new revenue, lifetime sales of the franchise have now reached $3.38 billion. Halo 4 is the first game to not be created by Bungie, but it appears the fans are okay with the new developer, as well.
"We're thrilled that 'Halo 4' has emerged as the biggest U.S. entertainment launch of the year,"said Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios. "Thanks to the millions of fans worldwide who helped make this another record-breaking launch for the 'Halo' franchise, 'Halo 4' is kicking off a strong holiday season and has become the must-have blockbuster experience of the year."
Hilarious comedian Louis C.K. has announced today that he will sell his upcoming HBO special for $5 and free of DRM.
As part of the deal with HBO, the comedian will sell the show "a few months" after it originally airs on the premium network.
The standup, who has his own show on FX, recently sold a professionally-produced copy of his standup "Live at the Beacon Theater" for $5, without DRM as well, raking in millions in the process.
C.K.'s latest decision shows the clout he now commands for his comedy.
I am doing a standup special for HBO.It will be avail on louisck.com a few months after HBO, globally,5$ no dmr
After being taken down three months ago, in a raid that many thought would be the last nail in the coffin for the semi-private torrent tracker, thousands of torrents have returned.
The site's index and forum remain down, however, as the team works to bring the entire site back online.
Over the summer, Demonoid was hit by a massive DDoS attack, taking it down temporarily. Afterwards, following pressure from Interpol, the site's webhost in the Ukraine pulled the plug, leaving Demonoid and its users in the dark.
The new site appears to be running from Hong Kong.
After a minor setback last week, Kim Dotcom's new MegaUpload successor finally has a home.
The site, which was to originally have the URL "me.ga," got shut down by the Gabon government due to intellectual property concerns. The country controls the .ga domain.
For now, the site is now live at mega.co.nz, meaning it is New Zealand based. Dotcom noted that the service will "powered by legality and protected by the law."
The service itself is not available yet, but it appears January 19th is the official launch date.
Dotcom is looking for investors, API partners and hosting partners.
UPDATE:Microsoft has responded, and it appears the original quote was taken out of context:
"When asked about Surface, Steve's use of the term "modest" was in relation to the company's approach in ramping up supply and distribution of Surface with Windows RT, which has only been available via our online store and certain Microsoft retail stores in the U.S. While our approach has been modest, Steve notes the reception to the device has been "fantastic" which is why he also stated that "soon, it will be available in more countries and in more stores."
Original story:
While the company has not disclosed any sales figures, it appears Microsoft Surface RT sales have just been "modest."
In October, when Microsoft began pre-orders of the device, they quickly sold out, leading many to believe that the company had a hit on their hands. Since launch, however, there have been no supply constraints and no delays on shipping.
According to Gizmodo, estranged antivirus pioneer John McAfee is wanted on murder charges in Belize.
McAfee, who built the software giant with his own name, is accused of murdering American expatriate Gregory Paul, who was a popular builder in the nation.
Paul was killed on Saturday night, says the site, adding: "The two men had been at odds for some time. Last Wednesday, Paul filed a formal complaint against McAfee with the mayor's office, asserting that McAfee had fired off guns and exhibited 'roguish behavior.' Their final disagreement apparently involved dogs."
Additionally, McAfee is said to have begun associating with "notorious gangsters" and also begun taking "bath salts," the drug that leads to psychoactive episodes including extreme violence in some cases.
Posting on a Russian message board, McAfee spoke about his love of the drug, says the report: "Writing under the name 'stuffmonger,' a handle [McAfee] used on other online message boards, [he] posted more than 200 times over the next nine months about his ongoing quest to purify psychoactive drugs from compounds commercially available over the Internet. 'I'm a huge fan of MDPV,' he wrote. 'I think it's the finest drug ever conceived, not just for the indescribable hypersexuality, but also for the smooth euphoria and mild comedown.'"
After weeks of rumors, we may have some definitive proof of Sony's new flagship.
The company's upcoming 'Yuga,' will feature a 5-inch screen and compete with Samsung's market leading Galaxy Note and Note II and HTC's new Droid DNA.
If accurate, the alleged specs of the Yuga are a 5-inch display with 1794 x 1080 resolution "due to the on-screen Android 4.1 Jelly Bean navigation buttons." The phone will be powered by a quad-core Snapdragon S4 at 1.5GHz, include 2GB RAM and have a 12MP rear camera.
On the looks side, the device appears to be thinner than Sony's usual Xperia devices, and may also include a nice brushed aluminum design.
RIM has announced an official BlackBerry 10 event for January 30th.
The company will launch the long-delayed mobile operating system on that day, says CEO Thorsten Heins, with the launch being a global one.
Heins will introduce the OS and finally announce release dates for their new hardware, as well.
Says the CEO: "In building BlackBerry 10, we set out to create a truly unique mobile computing experience that constantly adapts to your needs. Our team has been working tirelessly to bring our customers innovative features combined with a best in class browser, a rich application ecosystem, and cutting-edge multimedia capabilities. All of this will be integrated into a user experience – the BlackBerry Flow – that is unlike any smartphone on the market today.
Thanks to our strong partnerships with global carriers and a growing ecosystem of developers, we believe our customers will have the best experience possible with BlackBerry 10. We are looking forward to getting BlackBerry 10 in the hands of our customers around the world."
Microsoft has announced that DirectX 11.1 will be a Windows 8 exclusive.
The company says there are no plans to make it available for Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, either.
Employee Daniel Moth added: "DirectX 11.1 is part of Windows 8, just like DirectX 11 was part of Windows 7. DirectX 11 was made available for Vista...but at this point there is no plan for DirectX 11.1 to be made available on Windows 7."
That being said, 11.1 does not add any killer features, with the exception of stereoscopic 3D, which has yet to be widely adopted.
The full update list:
Shader tracing and compiler enhancements
Direct3D device sharing
Check support of new Direct3D 11.1 features and formats
Use HLSL minimum precision
Specify user clip planes in HLSL on feature level 9 and higher
Create larger constant buffers than a shader can access
Use logical operations in a render target
Force the sample count to create a rasterizer state
Process video resources with shaders
Extended support for shared Texture2D resources
Change subresources with new copy options
Discard resources and resource views
Support a larger number of UAVs
Bind a subrange of a constant buffer to a shader
Retrieve the subrange of a constant buffer that is bound to a shader
Clear all or part of a resource view
Map SRVs of dynamic buffers with NO_OVERWRITE
Use UAVs at every pipeline stage
Extended support for WARP devices
Use Direct3D in Session 0 processes
According to Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu, Apple will get between $6-$8 for every HTC phone sold.
Last week, Apple and HTC announced an end to their global patent war, agreeing to a 10-year licensing agreement.
Although Apple did not release any terms of the settlement, Wu says he has been in contact with "industry sources" who gave him the figure.
HTC sells around 30 million Android smartphones every year, and also pays $5 to Microsoft for every phone sold after the two companies settled in 2011 over similar patent issues.
The extra revenue will be drop in the bucket for Apple, which made $41 billion net income in the last year.
Microsoft has released a Skype 'preview' for Windows Phone 8 devices.
The app is available now in the Windows Store, and there is also a demo.
Skype for WP8 runs in the background, leaving users logged in and online without sacrificing any precious battery life. WPCentral says "that trick is done through Microsoft hosting your presence in the cloud on their servers instead of you using your phone."
Full video chat is supported, thanks to hardware acceleration and WP8's ability to use dual-core processors and better GPUs. Additionally, users can chat while talking, switch to speakerphone or the earpiece if necessary, and minimize calls to open other apps.
The processors; the A-series seen in iOS devices, are designed by Apple but built by Samsung overseas and here in the U.S.
"Samsung Electronics recently asked Apple for a significant price raise in (the mobile processor known as) application processor," reads the report. "Apple first disapproved it, but finding no replacement supplier, it accepted the (increase.)"
Apple currently buys all of its A-series processors from Samsung, and purchased 130 million units last year. That number is expected to jump to almost 200 million this year meaning the price hike will see significant money change hands.
Samsung has a long-standing contract to supply the processors until 2014.
Gottfrid Svartholm, one of the founders of infamous torrent site The Pirate Bay, has been in prison in Sweden for over a month, after hiding out in Cambodia to avoid his trial.
Svartholm is allegedly in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, and every two weeks there is a court hearing to discuss his imprisonment and whether he should be released before trial. On Friday, the court decided to keep him imprisoned for two more weeks, while adding new charges including "suspicion of being involved in a second hacking case along with accusations of four instances of serious fraud and four attempted frauds," says Freak.
The original charges for which he is being held are related to an attack on IT company Logica.
There has been very little evidence presented in the Logica case or the new charges, either, at least for any outside of the judge and the prosecution.
According to TC, Spotify's revenue could jump to $500 million this year thanks to strong growth all around.
Last year, the company lost $60 million on revenue of $244 million thanks to the expenses of expanding to new nations and renewing some streaming music licenses.
If accurate, sources claim revenue will grow to half a billion, but the company is expected to post a small net loss again.
Spotify, in its licensing deal with the labels, will have to pay either $200 million annually or 75 percent of revenue, which will be above the standard payment for the first time ever for the company. $100 million is spent on engineering, marketing, sales and all other operating costs, leaving the company with the anticipated loss of $40 million.
The company did not comment on the figures, which are lower than their own $900 million revenue forecast.
Mozilla has unpacked the new Firefox OS, giving potential users an in-depth look at the mobile operating system first unveiled over the summer last year.
Andreas Gal. Mozilla's Director of research and Philipp von Weitershausen, the Firefox OS lead engineer, have put together a number of presentations on different features of the OS, starting with the Web browser and getting as far as the WebAPI and UI hacking.
The OS will be available to South American consumers with low-end smartphones next year.
Two months ago, the Swiss national railway (SBB) accused Apple of using their iconic clock design without permission in iOS 6.
Within weeks, Apple agreed to license the design, settling without court and without reporting financial terms.
Today, the Swiss Daily is reporting that Apple will pay the company 20 million Swiss francs ($21 million, 17 million euros) for the agreement, which includes compensation for using the design without permission for a few weeks before the agreement.
"We're rather proud that a brand as important as Apple is using our design," said the SBB last month. The iconic design was created in 1944 by Swiss engineer Hans Hilfiker and has been used in Swiss stations ever since.
Struggling smartphone maker HTC has settled with Apple today, bringing a close to their global patent war.
The agreement comes with a 10-year licensing agreement for the two companies.
Both CEOs were excited with the news: "HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation," added CEO Peter Chou. Apple CEO Tim Cook said: "We are glad to have reached a settlement with HTC. We will continue to stay laser focused on product innovation." The companies were embroiled in 20 lawsuits across the globe, including some heavier ones with the U.S. International Trade Commission, which would have eventually led to injunctions on Apple and HTC devices.
Apple had accused HTC (and other Android phone makers) of infringing on patents relating to software. HTC had accused Apple of infringing on their own patents with the iPhone and also with Mac devices like the Macbook Air.
Rovio has announced this week that the new 'Angry Birds Star Wars' soared to the top of the iOS App Store in just 2.5 hours, breaking Rovio's own previous records.
The game launched on the 8th after a brief teaser period in which the company showed off gameplay demos.
Making it more impressive is the fact that the game is not free for iOS, like it is for Android. For iPhone it costs 99 cents and for iPad it costs $2.99 for the HD version, which is perfectly scaled for whatever sized iPad you own.
Rovio has kept the same foundation that has made Angry Birds a hit but added Luke and Leia in action, special attacks like lightsabers and laser shots and given the enemies some extra powers, (the pigs have weapons), with their areas being able to shoot projectiles. Of course, besides the characters, there are popular Star Wars locations, including Hoth and Tatooine.
So you've decided to use Windows 8. Maybe you wanted to take advantage of the unusually low upgrade price, maybe you just bought a new computer, or perhaps you're just trying it out to see if you like it. Whatever your reasons there's a very good chance either you have already added a Start menu of some kind, are considering adding a Start menu, or are in the process of evaluating your options for adding a Start menu.
Strictly speaking a Start menu isn't necessary in Windows 8. Everything that was available on the Start menu in Windows 7 can be found elsewhere in Windows 8. Sometimes it's even much more convenient aside from a moderate learning curve. On the other hand even people (like me) who already saw the Start menu as dated & in need of an overhaul may find Microsoft's alternatives unacceptably weak & poorly designed. In fact while Microsoft changes the Start menu with each new version of Windows if anything it seems to have gone downhill in Windows 7 before disappearing entirely in Windows 8.
For whatever weaknesses it may have, the Start menu has been arguably one of just three or four elements which have defined the Windows desktop interface since 1995. In fact you can usually identify the exact version of Windows a computer is running by simply examining the Start menu's appearance. For more than a decade it expanded both figuratively and literally to the point where you could access nearly every setting or feature in Windows from its confines. That expansion had all but stopped in Windows 7, and in fact some people would argue that Start menu was a step backwards.
Thanks to Tuesday's elections, Hollywood will have lost six if not more House Representatives that all formerly backed SOPA, the controversial and rejected anti-piracy act.
Three co-sponsors of the Act lost their seats while the fourth retired, says Ars. The other two had withdrawn their support.
Altogether, there were 31 co-sponsors, with 8 withdrawing their support after the backlash. Three that are to be booted from Congress were all from Southern California districts. In some places, due to a redrawing, some incumbents actually had face each other.
After details of the bills (SOPA and ACTA) came to light last year, the Internet was instrumental in their demise. Major tech companies/sites like Google, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, eBay and Wikipedia all panned the bills and began campaigns to educate their users on the perils of SOPA. Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon said lawmakers collected 14 million names from citizens who wanted to protest the vote.
MasterCard has unveiled its latest piece of plastic, dubbed the "Display Card."
The Display Card adds special authentication and smart features to your standard credit card, including an LCD display and keypad.
You will need to authenticate usage of the card with a one-time password. Many banks and other services such as PayPal, offer separate authentication devices, which can get burdensome if you have to carry around multiple tokens just to be able to login, or make changes to your account.
Outside of the password, the Display Card has room for updates into the future, says the company. The card may be able to show you available credit balance, reward points, or even recent transactions at some point.
For the time being, the Display Card will only be available via certain banks in Europe and in Singapore.
As part of the deal struck between the companies earlier this year, Starbucks is now accepting Square's mobile payment application at almost 7000 stores around the nation.
Starbucks customers are already quite familiar with app payments, having been able to use Starbuck's own app for the better part of two years on their iPhones or Android devices.
The Starbucks app requires you to have a Starbucks card, with pre-loaded money on there, whether done online or with an actual card. Square's service allows you to pay with a linked debit card or credit card. The Square Wallet can also obviously be used at places other than Starbucks.
Square is available for free on Android and iOS devices.
In the Q3, Apple fell out of China's top five smartphone market, thanks mainly to local handset makers.
According to the figures from Canalys, Apple was 5th last quarter and 2nd in the quarter before it.
Samsung remained in first with 14 percent of total smartphone shipments, followed by Lenovo with 13 percent. Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific took third with the popularity of their "Coolpad" smartphones in the nation. Most of the company's phones sell for under $100 unlocked, making them huge bargains.
ZTE and Huawei practically tied for fourth, with both seeing 10 percent share. Apple fell to sixth with 8 percent share.
Says one Chinese analyst: "(The Chinese vendors) are selling their devices at a very low price that can attract first-time smartphone users. Apple's iPhone is still very expensive and it kind of limits their expansion in the country, when the target audience of where the growth is coming from is at the low-end."
That being said, however, Samsung's device is much newer than the 4S, and Apple was on the verge of releasing the iPhone 5, leading to smaller sales than usual. The iPhone 5 already reached 6 million sales before the end of the quarter.
Samsung has sold 33 million of the flagship, including 10 million in the last two months.
Apple is expected to reclaim the title in the fourth quarter thanks to its global iPhone 5 launch.
Four years ago, thanks to a rift over Internet censorship, Google decided to leave the Chinese search market.
However, there still appears to be some users over there, with Google keeping 4.72 percent share, good for fourth place in October. In September, the company controlled 5.1 percent share, as it continues to trend down.
Baidu has 73 percent share and newcomer Qihoo 360 jumped to over 9 percent after launching in August. Qihoo CEO Zhou Yongyi has said he wants to "destroy Baidu's monopoly" and is aiming for 15 to 20 percent share.
Furthermore, Google Maps usage in the nation fell substantially, as well, down to just 9 percent share, good for 6th place. Apple's iOS 6 Maps was to blame for the drop, as it uses Autonavi data. Autonavi is the most popular mapping software in the nation, with 25.9 percent share.
For the first time since early 2007, Google's share of search in the UK has fallen below 90 percent.
As of the end of October, Google's share fell to 89.33 percent in the region, losing the share to Microsoft.
According to Hitwise, Bing saw the biggest benefit, moving to 4.71 percent, a 2012 peak.
Yahoo jumped to 3.33 percent, and Ask jumped to 2.13 percent.
Hitwise attributed the shift to the launch of Windows 8 and the Surface tablet. Because Bing is the default search engine for both, the company saw a boost which may continue as more purchase the OS.
Of course, all that being said, Google is the clear winner in the UK, and it's not even close.
Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette has noted to his clients that RIM's upcoming BlackBerry 10 operating system is already DOA (dead on arrival), killing any chance of the company making a comeback.
Faucette's note caused the stock to fall 10 percent in daily trading yesterday. Reads the note: "We believe BB10 is likely to be DOA. We expect the new OS to be met with a lukewarm response at best and ultimately likely to fail."
RIM, which has lost nearly all of its once massive market share to Apple and Android, needs BB10 to be a hit to remain relevant in the smartphone market. The company has previewed the operating system with an alpha, showing off the "Peek" and "Flow" features that allow gesture multitasking.
The devices were supposed to be launched in 2012 but delays have sent them back to a Q1 2013 release, after the popular holiday time.
RIM has also touted strong developer and carrier support for the upcoming devices, although that remains to be see.
Verizon has announced that it plans to complete its 4G LTE network rollout by the Q2 2013.
This is great news for customers, as the carrier had initially noted that the rollout would be completed by the end of 2013.
Even more notably, Verizon added that the 4G network will match its nationwide 3G CDMA coverage, giving all current 3G customers access to the faster network. Communications CFO Fran Shammo says the network will cover 260 million residents by the end of this year, with the rest of the population being covered by June.
Rival AT&T says its 4G LTE network will cover 300 million competitors by the end of 2014, giving Verizon an obvious time advantage.
Additionally, Shammo says the company plans to acquire more spectrum, helping the rollout and improving stability.
According to a new report from Sandvine, Netflix is where America spends most of its time.
On any given night, between the hours of 9PM and 12AM, 65 percent of all Internet traffic goes to streaming services, and Netflix is the winner.
For North America, Netflix accounts for 50 percent of all the streaming traffic during the period, followed by YouTube at 20 percent, Amazon at 1.8 percent, Hulu at 1.4 percent and HBO Go at just 0.5 percent.
Says the report: "Audio and video streaming account for 65% of all downstream traffic from 9pm-12am and half of that is Netflix traffic [on North America fixed networks]. Prioritizing real-time applications like live audio and video is critical to maintaining a high quality of experience. Sandvine's video quality metrics, including display and transport quality, will be key to understanding the impact of major events like the 2014 World Cup which will likely be the most streamed event in Internet history."
Perhaps most notably, the mean monthly data usage in North America increased by 120 percent from 23GB to 51GB, meaning the average consumer (or household) in the U.S. uses 51GB of data per month.
After a busy month of press events from Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft, there has been a bit of a quiet period for new flagship tech devices.
It appears that HTC is intent on changing that, announcing a press event for November 13th in New York City.
The invite is brief, stating "We invite you to experience our latest collaboration," a joint collaboration between HTC and Verizon.
Most likely, the phone will be some iteration of the 5-inch superphone the company has been planning for months. If the specs match those of the HTC J Butterfly, the device will have the 5-inch HD Super LCD 3 screen with 440 ppi, 2GB RAM and the ultra-speedy quad-core S4 Snapdragon Pro.
After years of making their content available only through their own site, CBS has finally signed a licensing agreement to stream their catalog of shows via Hulu Plus.
The deal is multi-year and non-exclusive, meaning there could be similar deals headed to Amazon and Netflix into the future. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Hulu Plus customers will begin seeing the content in January and over the following months will get access to episodes from the 2600 show-strong library. Additionally, some library shows will be available on Hulu.com, the free version of the service.
There is one large caveat, however. The Hulu deal is limited to past CBS shows that no longer air new episodes. While that includes popular shows like "Medium" and "Numb3rs," it will not include current shows like "Two and a Half Men" and "2 Broke Girls."
"We're excited to deliver CBS library programming to Hulu Plus subscribers,"said Scott Koondel, Senior Vice President of Corporate Licensing, CBS Corporation. "This marks another agreement that meets the growing demand for our content on new platforms while establishing other incremental ways to get paid for our library."
A federal jury in Texas has ordered Apple to pay $368 million to software patent company VirnetX.
The patent in question is related to VPN, more specifically U.S. Patent No. 8,05,181 for a "Method for Establishing Secure Communication Link Between Computers of Virtual Private Network."
In 2011, VX filed the original complaint, alleging their patent was being used in the iPhone 4S.
In addition to the victory, VirtnetX has also filed a complaint with the U.S. ITC alleging that Apple's entire range of mobile products violate their wireless patents.
The ITC threw out a similar complaint in August, due to a technicality. At the time, VirnetX promised to file a new complaint.
Sprint has announced today the acquisition of some PCS spectrum from regional carrier U.S. Cellular.
Additionally, the company purchased some of the smaller carrier's subscribers, and will take over "certain liabilities."
The final price is $480 million in cash, with no stock involved.
Sprint will use the spectrum to boost its new LTE network and the 585,000 subscribers (from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Missouri) will all become Sprint subscribers in the coming year. U.S. Cellular currently has 5.8 million subscribers while Sprint has 55 million, making it the third largest carrier in the U.S.
For its cash, Sprint gets "20 MHz of PCS spectrum in the 1900 MHz band in a number of locales, and 10 MHz of PCS spectrum in the St. Louis market," reads the announcement.
As with all telecom deals, the move requires regulatory sign off, but the DOJ and FCC should likely see no issues.
The rumor shows up once every year or so, and it is back again.
Sources are claiming that Apple is looking to move Macs away from their current Intel chips to be replaced with proprietary ARM processor designs just like those used in iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad.
The report claims that engineers within Apple are confident that A-series designs will power future Macs, including the popular Macbook Pro and Macbook Air models. The most recent design is the A6X, seen in the fourth-generation iPad and featuring an efficient and powerful dual-core processor.
That being said, the sources claim the move will not be made in the "next few years" due to contracts with Intel, but the shift is "inevitable" as devices like the iPad "blur" the lines between mobile and desktop computing.
Starting with the 920, which goes on sale in three days, the price is just $99.99 with contract, and comes with a free wireless charging plate.
The other high-end device, the HTC 8X, will sell for the same price, but only with 8GB of internal storage. A 16GB model will sell for $199.99 and be available in blue.
On the lower end, the Lumia 820 will cost $50 with contract.
The Verge has reported today that Microsoft is creating a 7-inch gaming tablet called the Xbox Surface.
Sources supposedly confirmed the plans, with the company already in development of the tablet.
The tablet will run a version of Windows 8, but not Windows 8 Pro since the tablet will be based on an ARMSoC. It is unclear whether the tablet will pack Windows RT, however.
Specifications of the alleged tablet are an ARM-based Texas Instruments processor with 288MB of RLDRAM 2 and a resolution of 1280 x 720. The rest of the supposed specs are posted below.
Adds Tom Warren of the Verge:
Microsoft has developed a secret hardware production process for its Surface tablets that is separated from partners that traditionally manufacturer the company's Xbox console. We're told that the Xbox Surface will likely be manufactured in the same factory, but that any future "Xbox 720" console will be manufactured in mass quantities by companies like Pegatron or Foxconn.
According to the latest IDC figures, Apple's share of the tablet market fell to just 50.4 percent in the Q3 of this year.
For the quarter, there were 27.8 million total tablets shipped, with Apple selling 14.01 million of those.
Samsung came in second at 18.4 percent and Amazon jumped up to 9 percent with their new Kindle Fire line. Asus jumped to 8.6 percent thanks to the Nexus 7 and its Transformers and Lenovo rounded out the top 5 with 1.4 percent share.
Year-over-year, the market grew a healthy 49.5 percent, and the market grew 6.7 percent from last quarter.
Despite selling more tablets, Apple fell 15 percentage points from the same period last year, as Android tablets finally began to gain some traction. Samsung took most of that share, thanks to its popular Note 10.1 tab.
Apple has announced that they sold 3 million new fourth generation iPad and iPad Mini in the first weekend of availability.
That figure is double the company's previous record of 1.5 million third-generation iPads sold in March.
The company did not differentiate sales between the two tablets, but the rumor is the Mini sold better than its expensive older brother.
"Customers around the world love the new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad,"said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis. We're working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand."
Apple sold out of its pre-order iPad Mini units in under a day, with shipping times now over two weeks for delivery. Apple does not count an online sale until it actually ships, meaning the 3 million figure could be a lot higher.
Gmail has finally surpassed Hotmail to become the most popular email service in the world.
According to ComScore, Gmail just took the lead, despite the email provider self-reporting the leader spot over the summer.
ComScore does not track mobile, however, sticking with only home and work usage.
For the month of October, Gmail saw 287.9 million unique worldwide visitors, barely beating out Hotmail/Live at 286.2 million uniques. Yahoo finished in third at 281.7 million.
In the U.S., Yahoo holds the lead at 76.7 million, beating out Gmail at 69.1 million and Hotmail/Live, a distant third at 35.5 million.
LG Electronics has said today that they have reached an agreement with Siemens over an LED patent lawsuit.
More specifically, LG's component unit Innotek settled with Siemen's light bulb unit Osram.
Besides the LED suits, the two companies also agreed to "cross-license each other's LED patents and drop all litigation related to lighting product technology that they filed last year against each other in South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Germany," says Reuters.
Other financial terms were not disclosed.
Osram made a similar deal two months ago with Samsung.
Earlier today, NBC was hit by a broad attack online, with many of its sites being defaced.
The company's mobile landing, its main Saturday Night Live site and its Rotoworld forums all temporarily had deface notices claiming they were hacked "by pyknic."
Additionally, there was a scrolling text that read ""REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER, THE GUNPOWDER TREASON AND PLOT. I KNOW OF NO REASON WHY THE GUNPOWDER TREASON SHOULD EVER BE FORGOT," an homage to Guy Fawkes.
Furthermore, the hacker wrote that user info and passwords had been stolen, as well.
On the same day that Sharp announced 'ongoing concerns' for its ability to keep running, Panasonic made a similarly horrible announcement, stating it expects to lose $10 billion for the fiscal year.
The company will write off billions of dollars as it clears out its mobile and energy divisions completely. Shares of the company fell to 30 year lows.
Last year, the company lost $9.8 billion and the new forecast has the company losing $9.6 billion this fiscal year, which ends on March 30th. Over the last five year (including this forecast), the company has lost a staggering $25 billion.
Panasonic's own new president, Kazuhiro Tsuga, had this to say: "It's unfortunate, but we are among the losers in consumer electronics."
The company has fired 36,000 employees over last two years and will very quickly need to find a way to unwind its dying TV business.
Kywan Fisher has been fined $1.5 million for pirating and sharing 10 gay porn films via torrent networks.
Flava Works, the creator of the films, was awarded $150,000 per movie by a federal court in Illinois. The award is the largest in history for a file-sharing case.
In court, Flava Works presented sufficient evidence again Fisher, and the defendant did not actually defend himself against the claims. Flava embeds unique codes into its films that customers pay to view and the company easily found the codes and connected it back to Fisher, who is a paying customer of the movies.
Once they were uploaded to torrent networks, the films were then downloaded 3449 times.
In their argument, Flava says Fisher exhibited "willful copyright infringement" and completely violated the terms and conditions of the pay-to-view video service. Because Mr. Fisher did not defend himself, or even object, US Judge John Lee issued a default judgement, along with the large fine.
Flava originally sued 15 file sharers but dropped all the rest of the cases citing lack of evidence.
Long-struggling Japanese electronics maker Sharp has warned this week that they may not make it barring a large turnaround or alliances with other companies.
The company posted a full-year net loss forecast of $5.6 billion, almost double what they expected months ago.
With a press statement, the company noted they are seeing "serious negative operating cash flow. This raises serious doubts about (our ability) to continue as a going concern." A going concern notice is usually the kiss of death for a company unless they can find some sort of funding.
Hon Hai Precision has been in talks to become the biggest shareholder for Sharp for months, but a deal is not expected until March.
Sharp, just like other Japanese TV makers, has seen its fortunes turn in recent years as other Asian companies, like Samsung, use lower costs and lower margins to squeeze them out of the industry. Sony, Panasonic and Sharp have lost $20 billion combined over the last two years, and been forced to fire 60,000 employees.
French security firm has announced they are selling a Windows 8 zero-day exploit to the highest bidder.
Vupen writes: "Our first 0day for Win8+IE10 with HiASLR/AntiROP/DEP & Prot Mode sandbox bypass (Flash not needed)."
The firm specializes in finding vulnerabilities in software, most notably from companies like Microsoft, Apple and Adobe.
However, Vupen is no saint. The company sells its research to third-parties, normally in governments and companies, without sharing the details with the affected software makers. The software makers can also purchase the research, and many do.
The new exploit is for the new Windows 8 OS, and also includes the Internet Explorer 10 browser. Vupen has not yet shared the details with Microsoft.
Our first 0day for Win8+IE10 with HiASLR/AntiROP/DEP & Prot Mode sandbox bypass (Flash not needed) is ready for customers. Welcome #Windows8
Harvey Anderson, Mozilla on business and legal affairs, has claimed today that a Microsoft 'glitch' has cost the company between 6 and 9 million downloads of their Firefox browser.
Earlier in the year, the European Commission began an investigation into whether Microsoft had failed to properly distribute the "browser ballot" to new Windows users in Europe. The ballot gives new Windows buyers a chance to choose which browser they want when they startup the OS for the first time, instead of being stuck with Microsoft's own Internet Explorer.
Microsoft claimed that a technical glitch affected 10 percent of PCs for over 18 months, making the ballot disappear completely.
Anderson says daily downloads of the browser dropped 63 percent, to just under 20,000 per day, before Microsoft fixed the issue. Afterwards, downloads skyrocketed to 50,000 per day.
In its investigation, the European Commission was certainly not happy with Microsoft's reasoning for the glitch and a fine is likely upcoming.
Samsung has announced this week that it has sold 3 million Galaxy Note 2 in just 30 days.
For comparison, the original oversized phone sold 1 million units in its first month of availability and hit 3 million after 90 days.
Furthermore, the company said it reached 30 million Galaxy S III smartphone sales, an impressive record.
More impressively for Samsung is the fact that the Galaxy Note II only just reached the American market, meaning all three million sales were from overseas.
The note has a massive 5.5-inch screen, a new 16:9aspect ratio with 1280x720, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, a quad-core 1.6GHz processor and 2GB RAM. The device has an 8MP LED rear camera and a 1.9MP front-side camera, a microSD slot, MHL, NFC, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and Glonass, Wi-Fi Direct, 21 Mbps HSPA+ or 4G LTE support. The real kicker is a massive 3100 mAh battery.
According to VG247, Sony has already sent out development kits for the upcoming Sony PlayStation 4.
There are supposedly four versions of the dev kit, and the one being sent out currently is based on the AMD A10 APU (combining CPU and GPU in one chip), 16GB RAM, 256GB internal storage, a Blu-ray drive and all the same inputs/outputs of the PS3.
Of course, because dev kits are modified PCs, the RAM will most likely be lower in the final product, but even half of the stated RAM would be a huge upgrade from the current generation of consoles.
Earlier this year, when Sony launched its new PlayStation Vita handheld, the company claimed the Vita and its older brother, the PlayStation Portable (PSP) would sell 16 million units for the fiscal year that ends March 31st of next year.
After three months and a failed launch for the Vita of just 1.8 million units sold, Sony reduced that forecast to 12 million. This week, after yet another quarter of poor sales, the company has once again been forced to drop their fiscal year expectations, this time to 10 million units.
Overall, in the latest quarter, both handhelds combined for just 1.6 million sales.
Main rival Nintendo made a similar announcement last week, dropping its forecast for the 3DS handheld by 1 million units. However, the 3DS has been easily outselling the Vita and PSP since launch.
Android has now convincingly destroyed its rivals in global smartphone market share.
According to IDC's figures for the Q3 2012, Android now controls a full 75 percent market share, beating out iOS which is in second at 14.9 percent. BlackBerry remained in third, but a distant so, at 4.3 percent.
Windows Phone accounted for 2 percent (including the old Windows Mobile) with Symbian and all others taking the remaining scraps.
In total, smartphone shipments totaled 181.1 million, with Google's OS reaching a quarterly record of 136 million.
Perhaps most notably, Android shipments saw 91.5 percent growth from the same period last year, where the OS had 57.5 percent share. The trend was strong for iOS, as well, with Apple's OS shipments 57.3 percent year-over-year.
BlackBerry and Symbian collapsed, as expected, as both OS continue their trend of heading to 0.
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Nintendo has released their first commercial showing off the Wii U's touch controllers.
The GamePad, which features a 6.2-inch touchscreen, is the main selling point of the console, but there has been little in the way of gameplay demos outside of this year's E3.
Nintendo will sell the Wii U Basic and Deluxe bundles on November 18th, with the base model costing $300 and the deluxe edition selling for $350. The base model will include the Wii U console with 8GB memory and the Wii U GamePad in all white. The deluxe edition comes with 32GB and a GamePad charging cradle. Additionally, it will come bundled with the game NintendoLand and offer digital benefits.
After months of rumors and leaks, Apple took the wrapping paper off its iPad Mini tablet, a smaller variant of its popular market leading tablet.
In an effort to compete better with smaller, cheaper (yet powerful) tablets, such as the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD, the iPad Mini has a 7.9-inch display and features specs mixed between 2011's iPad 2 and early 2012's third-generation iPad.
The tablet is more expensive than its rivals by a long shot, but it also features Apple's extensive ecosystem and the iPad design, which has been second-to-none since the first generation's launch in 2010.
In this review, we will discover if Apple's latest is worth the hefty price tag.
Specs and Design
I will start this off bluntly. The iPad Mini has easily the best design of any tablet in its size class, and it's not even close.
The build quality is fantastic. There is no part of the tablet that feels cheap, and the device is extremely sleek and attractive. While I liked the design of the Nexus 7, this is no competition. Best of all, the tablet feels solid enough that you get a sense of where your hard earned money went. Most rivals in the class feature boring black slabs with usually too much bezel. There is no plastic or rubber here, just a great looking silver metal casing.
You may not realize that Microsoft has actually been a proponent of the tablet PC for more than a decade. In fact as early as 2002 they were releasing a tablet PC version of Windows. For numerous reasons previous generations of the Windows tablet PC simply didn't work for most people. The interface wasn't particularly tablet friendly, the operating system was too power hungry, and PC hardware really wasn't suitable in a variety of ways.
The new Windows 8 tablets and hybrids really do address almost every problem with those previous attempts. A large part of that is the new modern UI (aka the UI previously known as Metro) which uses tiles which roughly combine the functionality of both regular icon shortcuts and widgets found in the Android interface. But because Windows 8 is still a PC operating system it still has all the features you typically associate with Windows, most of which were typically accessed through the Start menu.
There again Microsoft has done a pretty good job of making those features and settings accessible via a tablet's touch interface. Some of them, like program shortcuts, are simply added to the Start screen which is the modern UI equivalent to the desktop. Others are accessed using gestures which basically means swiping from the right side of the screen toward the middle to bring up the Charms bar.
Samsung has made its Galaxy Premier smartphone official, after weeks of rumors.
The phone is a modified version of the flagship Galaxy S III, aimed at a global audience that may not necessarily be able to afford the S III.
In order to keep prices reasonable, the phone has a slightly smaller 4.65-inch Super AMOLED screen, although it keeps the same 1280x720 resolution.
Under the hood is a dual-core 1.5 GHz TI OMAP 4470 processor, 1GB of RAM and the phone runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The cameras are also the same, 8MP and 1.9MP for rear and front.
Additionally, the phone has Bluetooth 4.0, LTE and NFC.
The Galaxy Premier includes most of the unique software of the S III, including S Beam, Smart Stay, Direct Call, Pop-up Play, and Best Photo.
The new Mega service will give users complete control, as well as full responsibility, for the files they upload to the service. While Mega is seeking partners around the world, it will not use U.S. Hosting companies as partners in order to avoid a shut down by U.S. authorities.
"The new Mega will not be threatened by U.S. prosecutors," Kim Dotcom told Reuters. "The new Mega avoids any dealings with U.S. hosters, U.S. domains and U.S. backbone providers and has changed the way it operates to avoid another takedown."
The new Mega service will encrypt and decrypt your data on the fly, and only the user will have the keys. Not even the site operators will have keys for files.
Fighting pirate content on the network will be the job of content providers, Kim Dotcom argues, while adding that it will still be possible for files to be removed.
"Content owners can still remove infringing material and they will even get direct delete access if they agree not to make us responsible for actions of users," he said.
He is facing extradition to the United States on copyright-related charges, despite the fact that a New Zealand court found the January raid on his home to be illegal.
Google Earth for mobile features come to Desktops.
Google Earth for mobile enables users to view some cities and locations in 3D in excellent detail, while also providing a tour guide feature that acted as a local expert for a covered location.
Now, Google has announced Google Earth 7 for Desktops, which brings both previously mobile-only features to your PC screens. The tour guide feature now covers 11,000 popular sites around the world, and the list of cities with 3D imagery is growing.
For whichever area you're viewing in Google Earth, thumbnails highlighting pre-created tours in the same area will dynamically update at the bottom of the screen. Simply click on one of the tours, and you'll embark on a virtual flyover of famous, historical and cultural sites close by.
Educational and fun facts from Wikipedia will also appear on the screen as you fly in and around locations like the Great Wall of China, Stonehenge, and more.
The update fixes a problem with the display, where users reported seeing horizontal lines on their iPhones. Another bug was causing trouble with software updates over-the-air on the iPhone 5, while another affected the smartphones camera flash.
Users had also reported problems staying connected on some Wi-Fi networks, and Apple's release notes for iOS 6.0.1 do mention improved reliability on WPA2 networks for iPhone 5 and fifth generation iPod touch models. This update contains the following fixes, improvements:
Fixes a bug that prevents iPhone 5 from installing software updates wirelessly over the air
Fixes a bug where horizontal lines may be displayed across the keyboard
Fixes an issue that could cause camera flash to not go off
Improves reliability of iPhone 5 and iPod touch (5th generation) when connected to encrypted WPA2 Wi-Fi networks
Resolves an issue that prevents iPhone from using the cellular network in some instances
Consolidated the Use Cellular Data switch for iTunes Match
Fixes a Passcode Lock bug which sometimes allowed access to Passbook pass details from lock screen
The BBC's Watchdog program and website report on instances where consumers have complained about a product or service. Watchdog turned its eyes on EA Sports, after receiving a flurry of complaints from gamers who were having very bad experiences trying to play FIFA 13.
The title has already sold four million copies since it launched in September, and Watchdog had reported on some complaints about glitches and freezing that popped up within days.
Some complaints spoke of invisible players on the field of play, and crashes that result in a system freezing up - both claims I have personally witnessed, incidentally.
Watchdog reported on FIFA 13 again after it felt EA had not responded adequately to the problems. Its report told the story of one 14 year old kid, Semir from Suffolk, who spent £20 on FIFA points to acquire gold packs in the game, in order to obtain better players in "Ultimate Team." One day after he spent his money on them, they disappeared.
EA has responded to Watchdog with a letter, which is pasted in its entirety below.
Sprint to offer first 4G LTE tablet on its network.
It has announced that it will offer the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 from Sunday, November 11, for $549.99, excluding taxes and any surcharges. It will be available at Sprint stores, at sprint.com or by calling 1-900-SPRINT1.
"Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 brings Sprint 4G LTE to a new category of device and expands a portfolio already recognized as one of the industry's best," said David Owens, vice president – Product Development, Sprint.
"This new tablet combined with the Sprint 4G LTE network and our aggressively priced tablet rate plan options offer consumers and business users an exciting new way to stay connected and productive with a large workspace in an easily portable device."
Monthly plans start at $14.99 for 300MB of 3G/4G LTE data, $34.99 for 3GB of data, $49.99 for 6GB of data and $79.99 for 12GB of data. Sprint smartphone customers can add Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 to their account with a discounted rate plan that includes 1GB of data for $15 per month, or $10 per month for 100MB of data on the Sprint network.
Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 comes with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and a beautiful 10.1-inch touchscreen display.
Apple's non-apology was not compliant with court order.
The iPad-maker did add a page explaining that a UK court had ruled that Samsung did not infringe on the design of Apple's tablet PC, with the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
However, reading the message that Apple posted, you would get an impression of mockery rather than an apology. Apple also went as far as to mention court orders in other countries had gone in its favor.
Samsung complained that the statement made by Apple on its website did not comply with the court order, and UK judges have agreed with the South Korean firm. They ordered Apple to remove the statement within 24 hours, and re-write and publish another within 48 hours.
Michael Beloff QC, representing Apple, told the Judges that Apple felt it complied with the order, and also commented that Apple was being made grovel. He requested that the company be allowed 14 days to post the replacement statement, but the judges rejected the request.
"We are just amazed that you cannot put the right notice up at the same time as you take the other one down," Lord Justice Longmore told Mr Beloff.
SurfCast, a software firm, has sued Microsoft in Maine over the Live Tiles that appear on the Start Screen of Windows 8 - as well as Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8.
Its case comes down to a patent filed in the year 2000, and granted in 2004, describes a "system and method for simultaneous display of multiple information sources". Microsoft's Live Tiles are one of the points it keeps bringing up about how Windows Phone 8 differs from iOS and Android, which have static icons on their screens.
"A Tile is different from an icon because it can be both selectable and live - containing refreshed content that provides a real-time or near-real-time view of the underlying information," SurfCast's website states.
It has complained that Microsoft has infringed its tile patent, and that it is actively encouraging other developers to do so by asking them to design Live Tiles for their Apps.
"We developed the concept of Tiles in the 1990s, which was ahead of its time,"Ovid Santoro, CEO of SurfCast, said on the website. "Microsoft's Live Tiles are the centrepiece of its new operation systems and are covered by our patent."
Internet radio firms pay up to 50 percent of revenue in royalties.
At the same time, traditional AM/FM stations pay nothing at all, and satellite radio pays only about 10 percent of revenues to record labels and artists. This huge disparity comes from how the three judge Copyright Royalty Board decides in a trial-like examination every three years.
Internet radio, satellite radio and cable radio firms are on one side, while SoundExchange (an RIAA spin-off) represents music labels and musicians on the other. The judges hear witnesses and evidence about the value of recorded music and the technology for delivering it to people's ears. The three judges then decide what royalties each kind of music service will have to pay for the next five years.
For satellite and cable radio, the judges set prices to give the labels and artists a "fair return" and the music service a "fair income." In practice, the judges tell these services to pay about 10% of their revenues to the artists and labels.
For Internet radio, though, the judges are supposed to set rates based on what a "willing buyer and a willing seller" would do in an open market.
That little detail is the difference between forking out 10 percent of your revenue, and 50 percent of your revenue. Sound fair?
It has been a few weeks but there is a new rumor regarding the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S IV.
According to reports, Samsung will pack next year's flagship device with its "Adonis" Exynos processor, a quad-core ARM 15 beast that uses efficient 28nm tech.
Samsung is supposedly still testing the application processor, but mass production is scheduled for the Q1 2013 barring any delays.
The new phone is expected to be unveiled next May for immediate release in Europe and potentially for the U.S., as well.
Microsoft has seen a boost in phone sales thanks to Windows Phone 8.
According to an ad on LinkedIn, 
AT&T has once again placed last in Consumer Report's ranking of the major American carriers.
