News archive (3 / 2015)

Redbox has announced a new two-year deal with Warner Bros. to release top Blu-ray and DVD discs in Redbox kiosks after the standard 28-day delay window.

"As America's destination for new-release home entertainment, Redbox is pleased to establish a new deal with Warner Bros. that allows us to continue to add value to our customers and content creators," said Mark Horak, president of Redbox. "Redbox remains committed to driving substantial industry revenue and providing consumers with affordable access to new-release movies."

"Redbox is an important partner," said Ron Sanders, president, Warner Bros. World Wide Home Entertainment Distribution. "And I am very pleased that we have finalized a new two year agreement."

Redbox has 35,000 locations around the world.

LG has sent out press invites for events on April 28th and 29th around the globe in NY, London, Seoul, Paris, Singapore and Istanbul in which the tech giant is expected to announce the LG G4 flagship.

The invite says "See the Great. Feel the Great," and includes the G series logo.

Last year, LG launched its G3 in the same cities and the invite was eerily similar, as well.

As usual, the upcoming G flagship is expected to include a large screen and top specs.

A few months after announcing the service, Sony has launched PlayStation Music on the PS3, PS4 and Xperia devices in 41 markets.

PlayStation Music is powered by Spotify and has over 30 million tracks and 1.5 billion playlists.

Reads the post: "PS4 users can soundtrack their gaming sessions with their favorite songs. To make controlling your music even easier PS4 and PS3 users will be able to take advantage of the Spotify Connect feature on the official Spotify app for Android/iOS. You can select a playlist, skip songs, adjust the volume, and more."

PSN users can link their existing accounts to Spotify but you will need to pay $9.99 per month for the premium subscription that offers unlimited music.

We now have some alleged details about the upcoming OnePlus Two smartphone that is set for release later this year.

OnePlus, a Chinese startup, became pretty popular for its high-end specs and low price. The device was also hard to get since OnePlus had a ridiculous invite system that has only since changed to a more open system.

According to the new reports, the new device will have "laser focus fingerprint identification embedded in the home button." In addition, the phone is said to look like the Oppo Find 7, which is another device with top specs and a low price, especially when compared to the iPhone and Samsung line of devices.

The new OnePlus Two is expected to launch in the Q3, and there will be more details likely in short order.

Microsoft has announced that Halo 5: Guardians will be released for the Xbox One on October 27th.

343 Industries studio head Bonnie Ross also added a little background about the game, noting it deliver "epic scope and scale and drama," while expanding and changing the existing Halo universe.

"We wanted Halo 5: Guardians to be the game that pays off the epic promise of the Halo universe in scope and scale and drama," Ross said. "We want to amaze players with the sheer size of the worlds and battles they'll experience, even as they question everything they thought they knew about its heroes, marvels, and mysteries."

Check the latest trailer here:

According to a new Vice report, darkweb sellers claim to have thousands of active Uber login credentials for sale, for as low as $1 a piece.

With a username and password, you have access to a user's trip history, as well as the last four digits and expiration date of the attached credit or debit card and their telephone number.

Of course, you can also get a cab with the information and travel anywhere you want on someone else's dime.

Uber says they have not seen any security breaches, but the report verified that quite a few of the accounts were active by calling the users and reading back the info. "We investigated and found no evidence of a breach. Attempting to fraudulently access or sell accounts is illegal and we notified the authorities about this report. This is a good opportunity to remind people to use strong and unique usernames and passwords and to avoid reusing the same credentials across multiple sites and services."

While Uber may not have been directly breached, if Uber user's info was taken from any other breach and they used the same password and user combo on Uber, the info could have been compromised that way.

First started five years ago after Microsoft failed to acquire its smaller rival, the two companies have extended negotiations on a search partnership between their Bing and Yahoo search engines.

The deal is a ten-year deal, but the contract allowed for a termination or re-negotiation after five years.

That point hit on February 23rd, but they have agreed to extend the negotiations to 60 days from 30.

"We value our partnership with Microsoft and continue discussions about plans for the future. We have nothing further to announce at this time," Yahoo said in a statement.

The two tech giants teamed up to take on Google but Google's share has not dipped in the last five years.

Pebble easily crushed crowdfunding records with its latest campaign, which just closed on Friday.

The Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel watches were the fastest to reach $1 million, taking just 49 minutes to do so. Additionally, by the time the campaign was done, the company had raised $20.3 million, crushing the previous record set by the "smart" cooler 'Coolest Cooler.'

Altogether, 78,463 people pledged, each paying at least $159 for the upcoming watch, which will retail for $199. The Pebble Time Steel will retail for $299.

"We cannot thank the Pebble community enough for their monumental support," Eric Migicovsky, Pebble CEO, said in a statement. "We continue to listen to and be inspired by the backers who believed in us and supported our vision from day one."

Differentiating the watch from its predecessors is the color e-paper display, which is the first time Pebble has gone a route other than black and white. The device also has 7 day battery life for the Time and 10 days for the Steel, a big jump from Android Wear and the Apple Watch which normally require a charge in under 24 hours.

Vine has announced this week that their popular video sharing app will now support higher quality video, jumping from the current 480p max to 720p.

The feature is rolling out now and you should already see existing videos showing up in HD.

In regards to uploads, Vines will upload in HD for iOS starting now but in the coming weeks for Android.

Check out one example here:

Members of the Science for the Masses collective have created eye drops that allow you to see in the dark without the need for specialized goggles.

Using a chemical called Chlorin e6 (Ce6), which has been used safely in cancer treatments and to cure night blindness, the drops gave the biohackers the ability to see in the dark for short periods of time. The chemical compound is extracted from deep sea fish that hunt in the pitch black.

"There are a fair amount of papers talking about having it injected in models like rats, and it's been used intravenously since the '60s as a treatment for different cancers," Science for the Masses medical officer Jeffrey Tibbetts said. "After doing the research, you have to take the next step."

The human experiment received 50 microliters of Ce6 into his conjunctiva sacs, which gave him the ability to see in the dark at up to 50 meters.

Fair disclosure: Do not try this at home.

There had been rumors that Samsung had finally listened to complaints and reduced the insane amount of bloatware on its flagship devices, but that does not appear to be true.

Those with early access to the S6 and S6 Edge have counted 56 pre-installed apps, although Samsung of course is not completely to blame. Android owners know that Google has a decent amount of Google-related bloat and carriers add their own, as well, but Samsung has decided to include all their S suite of apps (Voice, Health, etc) and additional apps like Microsoft OneDrive, Facebook, Instagram and more.

By comparison, stock Nexus devices - even those from carriers, have 35 or less apps.

Not all is lost, however, as Samsung will allow you to "disable" the apps, thus removing them from the app drawer and the homescreen, although they remain taking up precious internal storage space, and in cases like Facebook, mining all your personal data and then some.

Nearly 20 years after its console release, Super Mario 64 is back.

Roystan Ross developed a desktop version of the game (well, the first level so far at least), which can be played for Windows, Mac and Linux, and there is a demo of the playback after the jump. The game has been remastered with more modern HD graphics and includes gamepad support including DS3, 4 and Xbox One and 360 controllers.

The developer has put a lot more technical know-how in his blog post, which can be found here.

At the same link, you can download the files, since the browser version does not seem to be working at the moment.

By Godwin's law it was inevitable that Apple was to be called nazis and/or Hitler on heated internet discussions but for it to come up in a smartphone platform war between the companies themselves was a little unexpected.

Jia Yueting, the CEO of a Chinese online video service LeTV, has just compared the offerings of Apple to the National Socialists lead by the Führer himself.

As LeTV is looking to enter the smartphone market with an upcoming X600, it wants to depict Apple's platform as if controlled by an evil dictator that doesn't allow anything fun. Android on the other hand is depicted as the young people who do what they want.

Of course the X600 comes equipped with the latter and according to The Verge it might feature 4GB of RAM and a 5.5-inch display.

The fellow Chinese manufacturers, like Xiaomi, offer more obvious competition to LeTV in their home market and although an easier target, Apple and how its perceived will probably not be determining the success of LeTV.

Yahoo has been using Microsoft's Bing since 2010 when the company decided to scrap its own search engine. The continuation of the collaboration is currently under scrutiny and it seems that there are some problems finding a solution, Reuters reports.

The ongoing negotiations between Yahoo and Microsoft have been extended by another month after the original deadline was set to February 23. Obviously a solution that satisfies both parties is yet to be found, even after not one but two extensions.

The original contract is valid for 10 years but included was an agreement for possible reconsideration after half way point – where we are at now in 2015. The partnership has not managed to sway search engine usage much to their favor as Google still dominates.

Both Microsoft and Yahoo CEOs have changed in the past five years. Especially under the leadership of the new CEO Marissa Mayer, Yahoo has been said to be investing in areas that would allow it to separate from the Microsoft partnership

Amazon has made huge efforts to offering a more competitive cloud storage to compete the likes of Google, Apple, and Microsoft. The new unlimited services provide the market leading value without a doubt.

The $12 a year Unlimited Photos package provides exactly that; storage for unlimited amount of photos plus another five gigabytes for other files. The more comprehensive $60 a year Unlimited Everything allows you to store all kinds of files without a cap.

The service is now four times cheaper than Apple's and twice as cheap as Google's offerings. Both of which offer a terabyte of storage. It even tops Microsoft's $7/month package, although Microsoft currently offers compellingly Office 365 along with it.

Where Amazon might go wrong is that – at least as far as we've noticed &;ndash; in the new scheme it does not offer a free service at all – unless you count the three month trial period. Microsoft and Google give you 15 gigabytes and Apple 5 gigabytes just for registering an account.

If you are a fan of the Fast and Furious series, the Forza series, or just a fan of free things, Microsoft has made your day.

Via the Xbox Live Marketplace, the standalone game "Forza Horizon 2: Presents Fast & Furious" is available for free from now until April 10th, even if you don't have a gold subscription.

Reads the bio: "This standalone expansion will be available at no additional cost until April 10, 2015. The next great automotive adventure begins with the Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious standalone expansion for Xbox One! For the first time ever, the Forza experience of thrilling driving and amazing cars is combining with the unstoppable Fast & Furious movie franchise to create an original adventure filled with adrenaline-fueled automotive action."

Even after the free download period, the game will be available to play forever without restrictions. I cannot speak for the 360 version but the Xbox One version was about 15GB when I downloaded it.

Yet another one of HTC's head designers has left the company, confirming his departure via Twitter.

HTC's VP of Industrial Design, Jonah Becker, had the position for less than a year. Becker originally joined the company when his design firm One & Co was acquired in 2008.

One & Co.'s other principal Claude Zellweger remains at HTC, but Becker is being replaced by Creative Director Daniel Hundt. Zellweger will remain in charge of design for 'connected products' like the RE Camera.

HTC seems to always be in transition, with top executives leaving or being transferred regularly as the company tries to refocus on profitability.

HTC One fans can get the next flagship earlier than the global release on April 10th.

Beginning right now at midnight, customers can head over to the HTC website and purchase the One M9 unlocked for $649 in silver/gold and gunmetal gray.

HTC also offers 'Uh Oh' warranty protection, meaning they will replaced damaged devices for one year after purchase including "cracked screens, water damage" and they will also send you a new phone if you need a "different carrier variant for customers wanting or needing to switch networks." That's pretty awesome.

The HTC One M9 has a 5-inch 1080p display, runs Android 5.1, has a Snapdragon 810 octa-core processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB internal storage (expandable to 2TB through microSD), BoomSound speakers with Dolby tech, an UltraPixel selfie camera with flash and a 20MP rear camera.

Get it here: HTC One M9

Facebook has announced this week the launch of Messenger Platform, a devoted effort to have third-party devs build content and services for Facebook's popular Messenger instant messaging app.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said there are a few projects already in the works, like the ability to have Messenger track purchases you've made and then being able to message a retailer directly to change or cancel orders.

In addition, Facebook wants to adds GIF and meme support to the app, which other similar apps like GroupMe have used for years. Facebook says you may be able to connect to services like Bitmoji soon to send content other than just text and emojis.

Last week, Facebook added P2P payments to Messenger, the first expansion of the service with plenty more to come.

T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere has confirmed today that the carrier is offering a full free year of Netflix if you purchase a new Samsung Galaxy S6.

Normally, a Netflix account costs $8.99 per month so a year free is a pretty nice deal.

The upcoming Galaxy S6 will sell for over $600 unlocked and T-Mobile does not have contracts but does offering monthly financing.

After years of using Beats audio technology for its PCs and tablets, HP has dropped its old partner and teamed up with Bang & Olufsen.

The move makes sense since Beats was recently acquired by Apple, a rival in the tablet and notebook space.

HP says the companies will "custom tune" audio for each PC model, depending on hardware and software specs.

Omen, Spectre and Envy models will get the Bang & Olufsen brand right on the computer, while lower-end Pavilion PCs and tablets will see the 'B&O Play' brand label. Additionally, HP will sell B&O accessories.

OpenTable has added a mobile payments option to its popular restaurant booking app for Android users, a few months after iOS users.

Because of OpenTable's integration into the house software of the restaurant, including reservation and seating assignments, the new update will also let the host know when a user wants to pay via app so that the server can also be advised.

There are over 30,000 restaurants that use OpenTable, currently.

For app users, you simply open the app, click on the image of their check and swipe to pay with an attacked card. For the time being, splitting is not yet supported.

The world's most popular productivity suite will now be free for all devices under 10 inches in size.

Kirk Koenigsbauer, Microsoft CVP for Office 365 Client Apps and Services, said that editing and viewing docs on smaller screen devices will remain free as those devices are personal compared to anything above 10.1-inches, which it considers 'professional.'

"Currently, we are also using screen size to delineate between professional and personal use," Koenigsbauer wrote. "Based on our research, we are classifying anything with a screen size of 10.1 inches or less as a true mobile device: You're probably using it on the go, when it's not practical to use a larger computing device such as a PC or a Mac. You probably aren't using a mouse or a keyboard, instead navigating via touch interface. It's probably not a "pro" category tablet that is used for design or presentations."

Update: Microsoft reached out to inform us that the Office 365 subscription will allow you to create, edit and view documents from your mobile device.

After a long wait, Sony PlayStation 4 owners will get their system update to version 2.50, bringing a plethora of new and highly awaited features.

The update is codenamed 'Yukimura' and Sony says it will streamline the PS4 experience.

Here is a full list of the updates:

•Suspend/Resume -- Supported by nearly all of your PS4 games, you can jump in and out of your games with just the press of the PS button. Quickly switch from Rest Mode to powered-up so you can pick up where you left off.
•Back-Up and Restore HDD to USB -- Back-up and restore your hard disc drive data associated with users on your PS4, including settings, saved data, screenshots and video clips as well as games, patches and download data, to and from an external USB drive.
•Find and Connect with Friends -- "Yukimura" adds to an already robust set of social tools, bringing several updates to continue making PS4 the best place to play with your friends, including: •Facebook Friend Finder -- Using your linked account, you can expand your network by searching and connecting with your Facebook friends.
•Improved Friend requests -- Friend requests and Real Name requests can be sent together in one step when adding a friend on PS4.
•Streamlined Party process -- The process to create a Party has been streamlined with a reduction in the number of steps required.
•Find Friends who play your games -- Easily view what friends are playing on each game detail page with a real-time "Friends Who Play This" section, which also highlights which friends are currently online and playing it, and if you own the game, allows you to jump directly into the game.
•Join Friends directly from news feed -- A new tile will be added on your What's New feed where you can see what your friends are currently playing, enabling you to join in the game if you own it.

TomTom has unveiled their new Android navigation app, GO Mobile, a "free" app that includes high-end features seen in TomTom's GPS devices.

The app allows drivers to navigate up to 75km per month for free, with 'premium' navigation and real-time traffic info.

"The TomTom GO Mobile app for Android is made for drivers who want to experience the best of TomTom on their smartphone," says Corinne Vigreux, Managing Director, TomTom Consumer. "We entirely rethought our Mobile solution so every driver has the chance to try navigation with TomTom Traffic. Now all Android owners can avoid the traffic jams and get to their destinations faster, every day."

Most notably, TomTom GO does add the ability for offline maps, which is great if you reach a deadzone data area and speed camera warnings.

To upgrade to unlimited navigation, the in-app purchase will set you back €19.99 for a one year subscription or €44.99 for three years.

According to multiple sources, YouTube is planning to relaunch its livestreaming service in an effort to take on Twitch, with the platform focusing on live gaming video and esports.

"Gaming and esports in particular are going to be a big driving force for the new-look YouTube Live," one source said. "There'll be huge opportunities for established streamers and organizations soon and I would say that the record numbers of esports viewers are only going to grow when Google start promoting and partnering with these events."

Google first used YouTube to livestream events in 2010, including Indian Premier League cricket matches, but popularity waned after an initial spike. By the end of last year, there were no more live streaming events on YouTube.

Twitch, which is the undisputed leader in the live gaming industry, was a target for Google last year but Amazon ending up purchasing the company for $1 billion.

Reportedly, Google has already hired 50 engineers with streaming backgrounds and the company is expected to officially launch the service at E3 in June.

Google has announced that Salt Lake City, Utah is the next lucky city to get access to Google Fiber Internet and TV.

The Internet service, which offers 1 gigabit download speeds that are on average 40 times faster than average cable connections, is currently only available in 7 regions.

Google says the city is now being fitted for fiber-optic cables and the build out is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Earlier this year, Google began rolling out cable in Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham. Google Fiber is already live in Kansas City, Austin and Provo.

Read more here.

Google is reportedly working on 'Pony Express,' a new feature for Gmail that will allow users to receive and pay their bills without leaving their email inbox.

Internally, the company is calling the service "the future of paper mail" and it could roll out before the Q4 this year.

How does the service work? Reports say users will need to provide lots of personal information about themselves, including full social security numbers, and their identities will be verified by a third-party. Once that is completed, you will be able to receive bills right to your inbox (Gmail or Inbox), and pay them, as well.

It appears you will be able to pay via credit/debit card and also link up a bank account.

Finally, Pony Express allows you to forward bills to others to split the balance, for example if you live with roommates and they help split that electricity or cable bill.

Earlier this year, RadioShack declared bankruptcy after years of declining sales and failed attempts to rebound.

Besides selling physical locations, trademarks and other inventory, the company is also selling off 65 million names and physical addresses in addition to 13 million email addresses - personal data that could be greatly valuable to a top bidder.

Reportedly, RadioShack's largest creditor, Standard General, has won the bid for the assets including the personal data but a judge still has to approve the purchase and there is a chance that the data could be a problem in trying to close the auction.

Among those challenging the purchase are the Texas and Tennessee attorney generals and major carrier AT&T, who previously partnered with RadioShack to market phones and does not want data of its customers getting into the hands of a rival carrier.

Popular game video streaming service Twitch reached out to its users yesterday to inform them of a minor breach in which some user accounts were accessed by unauthorized parties.

Reads the blog post:

Supercell, the private Finnish gaming startup, has revealed their 2014 earnings today.

The gaming company saw its revenue grow to $1.7 billion in 2014, up from $850 million in 2013 (when considering the euro currency was stronger), and profits are an incredible $565 million, up from $267 million in 2013.

Supercell has had a string of hits including Clash of Clans, Boom Beach and the more family-friendly Hay Day. Clash of Clans, for example, has been the top grossing game for iOS and Android for over two years now.

Clash and Boom Beach are so important to the studio and so successful that Supercell has been releasing commercial ads for the games, including one for the Super Bowl that is estimated to have cost up to $10 million.

Supercell is so efficient, that they only have three active games right now and just 150 employees. Other gaming companies like Rovio have more employees and Candy Crush hitmaker King Digital has 1200 employees.

Cyanogen, the mobile operating system startup looking to take down Google has raised another $80 million from venture capitalists.

The company says it will use the funds to hire developers and to "accelerate the development" of its open OS platform.

"We're committed to creating an open computing platform that fundamentally empowers the entire mobile ecosystem from developers to hardware makers, and most importantly, consumers around the world," said Kirt McMaster, CEO of Cyanogen Inc. "We're excited to have the backing of an amazingly diverse group of strategic investors who are supporting us in building a truly open Android."

"We invested in Cyanogen because we're big proponents of what they're doing in opening up Android and supporting global and local ecosystem players," said Sandesh Patnam, Technology Sector Lead of Premji Invest. "Cyanogen is well positioned to become the 3rd leading mobile OS, and we're excited to back them in growing their business on a global scale."

With the new funding, Cyanogen has now raised $110 million.

While many cool tech projects have appeared on crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter, there are only some that reach beyond the niche and appeal to a wide range of consumers.

One such project is the new WonderCube, a tiny piece of hardware that promises "8 mobile essentials in One Cubic Inch."

The WonderCube combines a built-in Lightning or microUSB cable, a stand, a microSD slot and an LED torch all-in one, which allows for emergency charging, syncing to PCs, and more, all from a tiny cube that fits on your keychain.

Take a look at the WonderCube here, as it campaigns at $49 ($20 off expected retail):

Last week, HTC broke the news that their old HTC One M7 phone would not get the update to Android 5.1 unless you had the Google Play Edition.

The decision was not too surprising since HTC guarantees Android updates for just the first two years of a device's life, but there were still a large amount of M7 owners who were saddened at the news.

When the phone launched in 2013, it started with Android 4.1.2 and currently runs Lollipop 5.0, which is a lot more than can be said for other devices released in the last two years.

HTC's Mo Versi did change his tune a bit after the backlash, explaining "I heard you all on M7 5.1 for Carrier versions. Many of the fixes are already in our current SW, but understand your concerns. Stay tuned."

That's not a guarantee the phone will get the update, but it's better than nothing.

According to a new poll, Iceland has a new top political party - the Pirate Party.

24 percent of citizens would vote for a Pirate candidate today, read the poll, and founder Rick Falkvinge called the result an "extraordinary accomplishment."

First established in 2006 in Sweden, the Pirate Party has been at the forefront of discussions on copyright reform, privacy and freedom of speech.

In Iceland, the party launched about 30 months ago, and in the previous poll, only 13 percent of respondendts would have voted for a Pirate candidate. Independence party candidates were nearly as popular, at 23.4 percent, down from 25.5 percent previously. The Social Democratic Alliance polled at 15.5 percent followed by the Progressive Party at 11 percent.

"People are sick of traditional politics and the revolving doors. They are hopefully ready for more responsibility for that is one of our main aims, to create platforms for people to be more engaged via direct democracy. People seem to like that we speak like other people and behave like ordinary people," added Pirate MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir.

According to reports, Universal Music Group - the world's largest label, is pressuring Spotify to limit its free streaming service that is used by over 50 million people.

The label is starting to rethink the popular 'freemium' model of streaming services like Spotify, which offers access to tens of millions of songs for free, with limited ads.

UMG CEO Lucian Grainge even stated last month that "Ad-funded on-demand is not going to sustain the entire ecosystem of the creators as well as the investors." Grainge hopes that more restrictions on the free streaming will push consumers to purchase a premium subscription that costs $10 per month and gives unlimited ad-free music and mobile access.

New reports claim that it isn't just UMG who is pushing for some change. Sony and Warner are both said to be souring on freemium, but may not be pressuring Spotify currently.

Streaming brings billions in revenue, but it seems the labels want a better conversion rate to premium subscriptions.

Sony is offering another flash sale on PlayStation titles, including PSOne, PS3, PSP and PS Vita titles.

Some games are discounted as low as $0.80, down from prices ranging from $4.99 to $19.99.

The Deals Under $1 Flash Sale ends at 9:00 a.m. Pacific on Monday, March 23.

The full list of games (Game, Console, Sale Price, Retail Price):

Babel Rising PS3 $0.90 $9.99
Back to the Future : The Game – Full Series PS3 $0.80 $19.99
BEJEWELED 3 PS3 $0.95 $4.99
Beta Bloc PSP/PS Vita $0.95 $4.99
BREATH OF FIRE IV PS3/PSP/PS Vita $0.96 $5.99
CHAMPIONSHIP BASS PS3 $0.96 $5.99
Cloudberry Kingdom PS3 $0.90 $9.99
Dead Head Fred PSP/PS Vita $0.90 $9.99
Dead Nation PS3 $0.88 $7.99
Dead Nation Apocalypse Edition PS4 $0.90 $14.99
Despicable Me: The Game PSP/PS Vita $0.90 $9.99
Dino Crisis PS3/PSP/PS Vita $0.96 $5.99
Dino Crisis 2 PS3/PSP/PS Vita $0.96 $5.99
Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazzard PS3 $0.90 $9.99
echochrome PS3 $0.90 $9.99
EXTREME PINBALL PS3 $0.96 $5.99
FEEDING FRENZY 2 PS3 $0.95 $4.99
Ferrari: The Race Experience PS3 $0.90 $14.99
Fighting Force PS3/PSP/PS Vita $0.96 $5.99
Flashback PS3 $0.90 $9.99
Galaga Legions DX PS3 $0.90 $9.99
Game of Thrones PS3 $0.80 $19.99
Gravity Rush PS Vita $0.81 $13.49
Heavy Fire Afghanistan PS3 $0.90 $14.99
Heavy Fire Shattered Spear PS3 $0.90 $9.99
HI-OCTANE PS3 $0.96 $5.99
Home – A Unique Horror Adventure PS4 $0.95 $4.99
ibb & obb PS3 $0.90 $9.99
Jurassic Park : The Game – Full Season PS3 $0.80 $19.99
Katamari Damacy PS3 $0.90 $9.99
Klonoa : Door to Phantomile PS1 $0.96 $5.99
Kurulin Fusion PSP $0.95 $4.99
Mad Riders PS3 $0.90 $9.99
MAGIC CARPET PS3 $0.96 $5.99
Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond PS3 $0.90 $9.99
Mega Man X4 (PSOne Classic) PS3/PSP/PS Vita $0.96 $5.99
Mega Man X5 PS3/PSP/PS Vita $0.96 $5.99
Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection PS3 $0.90 $9.99
Myst PSP/PS Vita $0.84 $11.99
Narco Terror PS3 $0.90 $9.99
NOBY NOBY BOY PS3 $0.95 $4.99
NUCLEAR STRIKE PS1 CLASSIC PSX $0.96 $5.99
PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ Full Version PS3 $0.90 $9.99
PAYDAY The Heist PS3 $0.90 $14.99
Poker Night 2 PS3 $0.90 $9.99
POPULOUS THE BEGINNING PS3 $0.96 $5.99
Puzzle Agent PS3 $0.90 $9.99
RIPD PS3 $0.90 $9.99
Rock of Ages PS3 $0.90 $9.99
Sacred Citadel PS3 $0.90 $9.99
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space – Full Season PS3 $0.80 $19.99
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse PS3 $0.80 $19.99
Shoot Many Robots PS3 $0.90 $9.99
SOVIET STRIKE PS3 $0.96 $5.99
Star Wars : Battlefront II PSP $0.90 $9.99
Streetkix PSP/PS Vita $0.84 $11.99
Super Pocket Tennis PSP/PS Vita $0.95 $4.99
Surgeon Simulator: A&E Anniversary Edition PS4 $0.91 $12.99
Syphon Filter PS3/PSP/PS Vita $0.96 $5.99
Syphon Filter 3 PS3/PSP/PS Vita $0.96 $5.99
TAC Heroes PSP/PS Vita $0.84 $11.99
Tales from Space PS3/PS Vita $0.96 $7.99
Tales of Monkey Island PS3 $0.80 $19.99
Tekken 2 PS3/PSP/PS Vita $0.96 $5.99
Tennis in the Face PS4 $0.95 $4.99
Texas Cheat'em PS3 $0.90 $9.99
The Expendables 2 PS3 $0.90 $14.99
THEME PARK PS3 $0.96 $5.99
Tokyo Jungle PS3 $0.90 $14.99
Twisted Metal: Black PS3 $0.90 $9.99
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Special Editions US PS3 $0.90 $9.99
Who Wants To Be A Movie Millionaire PS3 $0.99 $2.99
Wild Arms PS3/PSP/PS Vita $0.96 $5.99
Zeno Clash 2 PS3 $0.90 $14.99
ZUMA PS3 $0.95 $4.99

According to the WSJ, high level Federal Trade Commission officials recommended a lawsuit against Google back in 2012 over anti-competitive practices, but eventually dropped the request in 2013.

The FTC went as far as to say that the search giant had a monopoly on the Internet, and was abusing its power.

Staff members blasted the company in a 160-page critique, concluding that Google's "conduct has resulted--and will result--in real harm to consumers and to innovation in the online search and advertising markets."

In 2013, however, FTC commissioners voted unanimously to end any investigation after Google made voluntary changes to its practices. It also appears that the FTC's economic bureau did not favor legal action against Google, so the commissioners had multiple conflicting reports to deal with.

See more here: Inside the U.S. Antitrust Probe of Google

In a Swiss luxury watch conference the company called Vector introduced an interesting timepiece. Unlike the traditional smartwatches that last a day or two without a charge this one lasts a whole month.

Vector is bringing two different versions of their smartwatch to the market. The more expensive and round Luna starts at $349 while the more affordable and rectangular Meridian will start from as low as $199.

What gives an edge over Apple Watch – if the 40 times better battery life isn't enough for you – is that Luna and Meridian will be supported on iOS, Android as well as Windows devices.

Vector did not disclose what type of operating system their smartwatches run and other details are scarce as well. You'll also have to wait until late summer to get your hands on one.

Engadget reports that Vertex – company lead by a former Timex CEO Joe Santana – will be bringing more premier models to the market later on. Maybe there's a version to compete against the golden Apple Watch selling for over 10 000 dollars.

According to a new report, Apple is preparing to launch a new Apple TV at this year's WWDC in June.

If accurate, Apple will also unveil a full App Store and a software development kit specifically for the Apple TV, giving developers a chance to truly develop for the platform.

While there is little known about what the new box will do, the report claims that Apple is aiming not just at the TV but at the living room in general. "Think TV, music, apps and a little bit of home automation as well," says the report.

To be expected is an upgrade to the Apple A8 chipset, a huge increase in internal storage, Siri voice control and Homekit-enabled home automation support.

Rumors of a new Apple TV have increased significantly in the last few weeks after Apple announced a price drop on its current (2012) model, to $69 from $99.

Music streaming service Deezer has launched its 'Elite' HD offering globally, following a beta period in the U.S.

Deezer normally costs $9.99 per month for unlimited streaming of 35 million tracks in standard 256kbps quality, and the Elite package costs $14.99 per month and gives access to all tracks as FLAC encoded at 1,411kbps or better.

The tracks can also be streamed to your mobile device, if they can handle FLAC.

Deezer is relatively small compared to Spotify and Rdio, but still has 16 million monthly users and 6 million premium subscribers.

Source:
TechCrunch

Last year, Sony was hit by one of the more vicious cyber attacks in corporate history, with terabytes of data stolen and splashed across the Web, including tens of thousands of private emails.

The attack will end up costing the company about $15 million this quarter, but the Sony Pictures division still managed to post a profit for the quarter.

Importantly, the company says the impact of the attack for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015, "will not be material."

Overall sales fell 20 percent year-over-year to $1.79 billion and operating profit fell 79 percent year-over-year to $53 million as there were no huge hits with the exception of 'Fury.'

Yesterday, Windows VP Terry Myerson shocked the world when it announced that even Chinese pirates of the operating system would get a free upgrade to Windows 10 when it launches over the summer.

Since the initial announcement, Microsoft's PR team has kicked into high gear, adding some caveats to the news.

First, the offer is actually good for everyone around the world, not just China, so every market of pirates can get on the upgrade to Windows 10. Secondly, and admittedly a bit more confusingly, Microsoft just said this, as well:

Microsoft has just taken smartphone price points down another notch, offering the low-end Lumia 430 for just $70 unlocked.

The company says the device is the "most affordable Lumia to-date," which is most likely true even though the specs are really not great.

Lumia 430 buyers get a 4-inch WVGA display powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 200, 8GB internal storage, 1GB RAM, dual 2MP/0.3MP cameras and a small 1500maH battery. You also get an additional 30GB free OneDrive storage and dual-SIM capabilities.

Available starting next month, Microsoft is bringing the phone to APAC, IMEA, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus.

Source:
Microsoft

After its high-profile introduction of the Apple Watch earlier this month, Apple had one last surprise up its sleeve, the lower-profile Apple Pocketwatch.

At a starting price of $349 and with higher-end models commanding up to $17,000, the Apple Watch is a luxury watch with full smart features aimed at the hundreds of millions of iPhone users.

The Pocketwatch is a little less luxurious, but it does come with a smaller price tag: $259.

Check out the teaser release here:

High-end luxury watch maker Breitling has unveiled its first smartwatch, the B55 Connected, although the watch will not work like Android Wear devices or the Apple Watch.

The B55 Connected does not have a touchscreen nor does it have a catalog of apps and it certainly can't display any synced notifications.

What makes the device 'smart,' is the fact that it does sync with your phone via the Breitling app, which allows you to set alarms, the date, time and adjust the time with an easy phone touch interface rather than using the crown on the actual watch.

Breitling's latest looks similar to the also new B50 Chronograph, which is aimed at pilots looking for the most accurate time. If pricing is similar, as well, expect to drop $7500 for the new smartwatch.

Google has announced changes to its app review process this week, moves that should 'better protect the community and improve the app catalog.'

According to the search giant, Google Play now has a "team of experts who are responsible for identifying violations of our developer policies earlier in the app lifecycle."

On the other end, if apps are approved they can be brought to the market within hours compared to days previously when it may have sat in a queue.

Additionally, Google adds that "to assist in this effort and provide more transparency to developers, we've also rolled out improvements to the way we handle publishing status. Developers now have more insight into why apps are rejected or suspended, and they can easily fix and resubmit their apps for minor policy violations.

Over the past year, we've paid more than $7 billion to developers and are excited to see the ecosystem grow and innovate. We'll continue to build tools and services that foster this growth and help the developer community build successful businesses."

Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 is getting biometric authentication, including the ability to unlock your tablet, PC and smartphone with a finger, iris or face scan.

Dubbed 'Windows Hello,' the authentication of course will require the specialized hardware necessary for such scans "including a fingerprint reader, illuminated IR sensor or other biometric sensors." For the iris or facial recognition, Microsoft says software will accurately verify your identity and the company promises that using a picture or other image won't work. Infrared tech also ensures that even if it is dark out, you can be recognized.

Reads the press release: "Windows Hello introduces system support for biometric authentication – using your face, iris, or fingerprint to unlock your devices – with technology that is much safer than traditional passwords. You– uniquely you– plus your device are the keys to your Windows experience, apps, data and even websites and services – not a random assortment of letters and numbers that are easily forgotten, hacked, or written down and pinned to a bulletin board. Modern sensors recognize your unique personal characteristics to sign-you-in on a supporting Windows 10 device.

It's finally here, but it won't come cheap.

Sony has officially launched its live streaming TV service, PlayStation Vue, in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.

The live streaming TV service also has on-demand content and will launch with major content partners like CBS, Discovery, Animal Planet, Syfy, Food Network, Fox News and many, many more.

Available for the PS3 and PS4, the service also offers personalization options, cloud-based DVR recording without storage limits for up to 28 days after airing and discovery tools to help you find new programs you may like.

Starting at $50 for a 'core' package of CBS, Fox, NBC and 25 other channels, the service is more expensive than recently launched Sling TV but does offer more bang for the buck. For $60, you get Core plus regional sports and some movie channels and for $70 you get the "Elite" package of everything and an additional 25 "lifestyle, music and family channels." At $70, however, are you really saving much off your cable subscription?

Full list of channels:

After being rumored for months, Facebook has officially added the ability to send and receive money through its Messenger application.

The service is completely free and all you have to do is hit the "$" icon in Messenger to get started. The funds are sent immediately but depending on your bank, could take 1-3 business days to show up. You will need to use a Visa or MasterCard debit card for the service, as it does not accept credit cards as of writing.

"We use secure systems that encrypt the connection between you and Facebook as well as your card information when you ask us to store it for you," and users can add an additional PIN or iOS Touch ID for added protection.

Facebook is so transparent about the security that it has even created teams separate from its normal employees for the new system. "These payment systems are kept in a secured environment that is separate from other parts of the Facebook network and that receive additional monitoring and control. A team of anti-fraud specialists monitor for suspicious purchase activity to help keep accounts safe," added the company.

Among other big news revealed this week, Microsoft has also announced that it is trying out Windows 10 software that can effectively turn an Android device into a Windows device.

The company is testing the ROM with Xiaomi Mi 4 users and sources says "that it effectively overrides Android, turning the Xiaomi phone into a Windows 10 device complete with Microsoft services."

Of course, the overall goal is to have the new software impress users so that they might move away from Google and towards Microsoft, which may be a hard task. Microsoft was quick to note that the software is not a dual-boot option, but a full ROM, similar to Cyanogen and other developers have used to push their operating system to existing devices.

Says Microsoft: "As part of the Windows Insider Program, Microsoft will partner with Xiaomi to offer Windows 10 free downloads to a select group of Xiaomi Mi4 users. Xiaomi Mi4 users will get the ability to flash their phones with the new Windows 10 OS and provide feedback to Xiaomi and Microsoft on their experience. This partnership will allow Xiaomi and Microsoft to get direct user feedback and continue to improve the experience for China. Microsoft is thrilled to see Xiaomi embracing Windows 10 and offering this great value to their customers. We're excited to see the feedback we receive from this audience.

Microsoft has confirmed that its upcoming browser, codenamed Project Spartan, will not keep the Internet Explorer name used for the last 20 years.

Marketing head Chris Capossela says the company is working on a new brand and name for the browser, and is actively testing with focus groups. "We're now researching what the new brand, or the new name, for our browser should be in Windows 10," said Capossela. "We'll continue to have Internet Explorer, but we'll also have a new browser called Project Spartan, which is codenamed Project Spartan. We have to name the thing."

Internet Explorer will not be completely dead, as it will remain around for enterprise compatibility, but Project Spartan is the future. The new browser will also likely use Microsoft in the title, as just having the name Microsoft has shown to increase appeal, added Capossela.

While the name may not be 'appealing,' Internet Explorer still controls over 40 percent of global market share.

Source:
Verge

Microsoft has made an unprecedented move today, announcing that all Chinese Windows users will be able to upgrade to Windows 10, for free - even if you are running a pirated version.

Over the past decade, studies have found that between 60-75 percent of Chinese users run pirated versions of Windows, with most of those users running Windows XP, which is over a decade old and vulnerable to security exploits.

Terry Myerson, head of Microsoft's Windows division, announced the move this week: "We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10." He did not say much else except to note that the company is looking to "re-engage" with hundreds of millions of Chinese Windows users.

Besides the desktop OS, Microsoft is working with Qihoo, Tencent and Lenovo in China to bring Windows to the mainstream, and the companies are actively working on Windows Phone devices, or Windows 10 apps for their software.

Outside of China, Microsoft is offering Windows 10 for free to licensed Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 owners, the first time it has offered an operating system upgrade for free.

Alongside its announcement that it would be creating mobile games, Nintendo also confirmed it's already working on a next-gen console, codenamed 'NX.'

CEO Satoru Iwata says the NX is "a dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept" although he did not elaborate.

Iwata noted that more information would be revealed 'next year,' either at E3 or at a dedicated press event.

"As proof that Nintendo maintains strong enthusiasm for the dedicated game system business, let me confirm that Nintendo is currently developing a dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept under the development codename 'NX,'" Iwata said.

Check the video here:

After years of rejecting the notion, Nintendo has announced that it will begin making games for mobile devices thanks to a partnership with large Japanese mobile gaming company DeNA.

Investors were extremely happy with the news, taking the company's stock up over 30 percent following the announcement.

DeNA is set to begin developing new smartphone and tablet games featuring Nintendo characters this year. Each company also invested $181 million in each other, giving Nintendo a 10 percent stake in DeNA and giving DeNA a near 1 percent stake in Nintendo.

There are not expected to be any first-party titles headed to iOS and Android (including no ports), but instead games that are designed for smartphones including characters like Mario, Donkey Kong and Link, for example.

Google has begun offering $50 in free Play Store Credit with any new purchase of a Nexus 6, Nexus 9 or any Android Wear device.

Valid through March 31st, you must purchase directly through Google to take advantage of the promotion.

In addition, Google has dropped the price of the Sony SmartWatch 3 to $150 from its normal $200 and you still get the credit. Anyone who was on the fence before for the Sony watch, this may be the ideal time.

Check the terms here: Google Play Store

Over the past couple of months, there has been a persistent rumor that Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 processor has a horrible overheating problem.

No company has openly confirmed the rumor, but Samsung did come pretty close when it ditched the processor for its upcoming Galaxy S6 flagship.

Tweakers.net put a few devices to the test with a thermal camera while they were running the intensive GFXBench benchmark application, and the HTC One M9, which is powered by the 810, saw temperatures as high as 55.4 degrees Celsius, a scorching 132 degrees Fahrenheit.

The other phones tested were all significantly cooler, all of which were around 40 degrees Celsius (about 104 degrees F).

At 132 degrees, the phone is certainly uncomfortable to hold, and could be dangerous if, for example, a battery catches on fire. By comparison, the site says a desktop GPU could run at 132 degrees when playing a high-end game, but those cards have better ways to dissipate heat.

Source:
Tweakers

Yahoo has confirmed what most of us already know, that the password system is antiquated and does not protect you from anything.

The tech giant has taken the first step to eliminate passwords, creating an "on-demand" password system that allows you to login with just your username and a unique code that is sent to your registered linked phone.

Basically, the system is like two-step authentication, although without the password portion of it, so in essence it seems just as secure as normal two-step but with the added luxury of not needing to remember a password.

If you live in the U.S., you can activate the new on-demand system now through the account info page and then "security."

Gaming company Valve has received the lowest possible rating for customer service from the Better Business Bureau, an F on a scale that ranges from F to A+.

Reads the BBB's page: "On June 25, 2013, BBB recognized a pattern of complaints from consumers regarding product, service and customer service issues. Consumers allege the games they purchase from Valve Corporation or Steam malfunction, do not work or have an invalid CD key. Consumers also claim the company blocks users from accessing their library of games. Consumers further allege they attempt to contact the company for assistance, but Valve Corporation fails to correct the gaming issues, does not correct credit card charges or issue a refund, or does not respond at all."

Overall, there were 718 complaints filed against Valve and Valve did not respond to 503 of them, a shockingly high figure. Another 17 received a response but were not resolved.

Valve was quick to respond to the low rating, although they didn't seem to care too much about the BBB but did admit that customer support needed some work. "We don't use them for much. They don't provide us as useful of data as customers emailing us, posting on Reddit, posting on Twitter, and so on," said Valve's Erik Johnson. "The more important thing is that we don't feel like our customer service support is where it needs to be right now. We think customers are right."

"When they say our support's bad, our initial reaction isn't to say, 'No, it's actually good. Look at all of this.' It's to say that, no, they're probably right, because they usually are when it comes to this kind of thing. We hear those complaints, and that's gonna be a big focus for us throughout the year. We have a lot of work to do there. We have to do better."

According to a new report, YouTube may be considering a subscription VOD service for its most popular original content.

Most likely, this means ad-free videos from 'YouTube Originals' content makers.

If accurate, the service would be similar to the new YouTube Music Key, which gives users free unlimited streaming from Google Play Music in addition to access to select ad-free music videos on YouTube for $9.99 per month.

The move would make sense in the ongoing content wars as rivals continue to offer lucrative deals to poach hitmakers.

In a new partnership with IBM and Samsung, BlackBerry has announced a new secure tablet aimed at enterprises and governments.

The SecuTABLET is based on the Galaxy Tab S 10.5.

"Security is ingrained in every part of BlackBerry's portfolio, which includes voice and data encryption solutions," said Dr. Hans-Christoph Quelle, CEO of Secusmart GmbH, a BlackBerry company. "National and international government customers have entrusted their voice and data communications with the Secusmart Security Card for years. This same technology is what secures the new SecuTABLET. Working alongside IBM and Samsung, we have added the last link in the chain of the Federal Security Network. Subject to certification of the SecuTABLET, German government agencies will have a new way to access BlackBerry's most secure and complete communications network in the world."

For more on the tablet and its security certifications, check the release: Cebit 2105 News

Cyanogen, the company trying to disrupt the mobile operating system space, is close to raising $110 million in new funding.

Notably absent from the funding round is Microsoft, who had been negotiating but decided not to invest. The software giant is expected to continue negotiating a commercial deal, however, one that would get some of its software on Cyanogen devices.

Leading the investment round is PremjiInvest, the investment company of the chairman of massive Indian IT firm Wipro. The reports suggest Cyanogen could be giving up significant equity for the funds, which could value the company at $500 million.

Cyanogen builds an operating system built on Android that allows users more customization and offers speed and efficiency.

In what appears to be the arrest of the oldest illegal file sharer to date, Romanian authorities have arrested a 63-year-old charged with uploading and sharing tons of unauthorized content via torrents.

According to the police report, the woman was arrested in Cluj, the second largest city in the nation behind the capital of Bucharest.

"Following investigations by the economic crime investigation, police in Cluj...prosecuted a 63-year-old woman," read the statement. "This investigation was about the offense of making content available to the public, including via the Internet or other computer networks so that the public can access it anywhere and at any time individually chosen."

Sources in Romania say the arrest was far out of the norm, as the country has a very small track record for piracy related arrests so it begs the question of how much content this woman was sharing.

Source:
TF
Pic by Summerwine6

With the latest update to WhatsApp, anybody with the Android app can use the voice calling feature - albeit with a little bit of 'hacking.'

If you install version 2.11.561 from the Google Play Store, the code to be able to make phone calls is built in but you need a little help. You have to find a friend or family member (or random user) who actually has voice calling enabled to call you.

Once they have called you, you have to shut down the app and re-open it. From there you will now see a screen with a new column added for voice calls.

You will then be able to call your WhatsApp contacts using VoIP right from the app, as long as they have the latest update, as well. For now, the feature is free, but there may be charges in the future.

Google has said goodbye to its Google Code project hosting service.

The search giant says there are better hosting services out there, and that even Google has moved thousands of their projects from Google Code to GitHub. Also, when the good projects migrated, the bad started coming in.

Reads the post: "As developers migrated away from Google Code, a growing share of the remaining projects were spam or abuse. Lately, the administrative load has consisted almost exclusively of abuse management. After profiling non-abusive activity on Google Code, it has become clear to us that the service simply isn't needed anymore."

As of writing, all new projection creation has been disabled and the service will go read-only on August 24th. Google Code will shut down permanently on January 25th, 2016.

Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey has suggested that the consumer version of the virtual reality sensation will not launch this year.

So far, the company has only released developer prototypes and has continuously delayed the release date for the consumer version. Last year, Luckey said something would have to go 'horribly wrong' for the Rift to not come out this year, but he changed his tune at the recent SXSW: "I did say that, before we made a lot of changes to our roadmap," which included setting a higher target quality level for the consumer device.

VP of Product Nate Mitchell added that with "the Rift, our team wants to launch this as soon as we possibly can, but with no compromises."

For consumers who cannot wait, the Gear VR will be out this year - a VR headset built as part of a partnership with Samsung.

After nearly a year of running on Windows Phone, Microsoft's digital personal assistant 'Cortana' is about ready to launch for Windows 10, Android and iOS.

Besides being built-in to Windows 10, there will be standalone apps for the top mobile operating systems. The apps are expected to be available this fall.

Most importantly, the updated software will be more advanced and use research from the AI projected codenamed 'Einstein.'

"This kind of technology, which can read and understand email, will play a central role in the next roll out of Cortana, which we are working on now for the fall time frame," said Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research and a member of the Einstein project. Horvitz did not confirm the Android and iOS plans.

"We're defining the competitive landscape... of who can provide the most supportive services that make life easier, keep track of things, that complement human memory in a way that helps us get things done," added Horvitz.

Earlier this week, Apple expanded their public beta program to encompass iOS, beginning with iOS 8.3.

The beta will allow developers and fans to submit feedback on bugs in the operating system before it launches for the public.

"For the first time ever, we are broadening the program to include the all-new iOS Beta. The feedback you have provided on the OS X Yosemite Beta continues to help us shape OS X, and we would like to offer you an invitation to the iOS 8.3 Beta," read the email sent to Apple fans who were testers of Mac OS X Yosemite.

An iOS beta makes perfect sense for Apple as they look to avoid a launch as disastrous as iOS 8 was last year. The initial launch required fixes for Wi-Fi and other key features, and version 8.0.1 was so bad it even bricked some phones.

What's coming in iOS 8.3? "The iOS 8.3 Beta includes improved performance, increased stability, bug fixes, and a redesigned Emoji keyboard. This release also provides additional language and country support for Siri: English (India, New Zealand), Danish (Denmark), Dutch (Netherlands), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian (Russia), Swedish (Sweden), Thai (Thailand), and Turkish (Turkey)."

You can try to get in on the beta here: Apple Appleseed

Google has taken all of its Android, Chrome OS and Android Wear hardware and moved the devices to their own dedicated page, the aptly named 'Google Store.'

The search giant will sell their Nexus smartphones and tablets, Chromebooks, Android Wear watches, Nest thermostat, the Nexus Player and much more through the new store. The devices had previously been part of the general Google Play Store, which will remain the hub for apps, music and video content.

"You can shop Nexus phones and tablets, Chromecast and Chromebooks, learn more about newer technology like Android Wear, Nexus Player and Nest, and stock up on accessories like cases, keyboards and chargers," the company said.

Finally, the company also announced the discontinuation of the old Nexus 5 smartphone.

UK police have taken down 'Karaoke World,' one of the premier torrent sites for those looking to illegally download karaoke tracks.

Additionally, a 46-year-old man was arrested in Dewsbury, suspected of being site admin 'DJ Mikey L.'

Karaoke World had thousands of links to karaoke files, which let downloaders see the lyrics of their favorite tracks on screen while they sing along to the background music with the artist's singing removed. None of the files were hosted on the site directly.

"The unlicensed BitTorrent site directed users to a catalogue of tens of thousands of copyrighted music files, in particular the latest chart music and karaoke hits," the UK's Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) said in a statement.

The URL for the site currently leads nowhere.

According to Nielsen, a large percent of American households are subscribed to at least one video streaming service.

Netflix remains the king, with a full 36 percent of American households subscribed to the $7.99/$8.99 per month service. Amazon Prime Instant Video was next at 13 percent, followed by Hulu Plus at 6.5 percent.

33 percent of all households with a streaming service subscribed to just one, 10 percent subscribed to two and 2.6 percent subscribed to 3.

Homes with at least one streaming subscription spent an average of 2 hours 45 minutes per day watching through consoles, Blu-ray/DVD players and set-top boxes.

Over the last year, total TV viewing declined by 10 percent, although those figures do not include streaming video, which has yet to be reliably counted with traditional figures. Adults still watch nearly 5 hours per day, however, even with the declines.

A federal judge has ruled that Facebook will face a class action lawsuit that contends the social media giant must pay refunds if children spend their parent's money on the website without permission.

The suit will likely have hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs asking Facebook to change the way online transactions by minors are handled. Refunds would be reviewed on a case to case basis.

Begun in 2012, the lawsuit said Facebook let children user their parent's credit cards to buy Facebook Credits and then refused refunds after complaints citing their "all sales are final" policy.

Two kids and their parents originally filed the suit. The first child said he was allowed to spend $20 to play the game 'Ninja Saga,' but he eventually spend hundreds of dollars confusing real money with in-game currency. The second child took his mother's debit card and spent $1059 without permission. Both were younger than 13 years old, the minimum age to have a Facebook account.

"We're very pleased with the decision," said J.R. Parker, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. "The difference between Facebook and other businesses is that the company is on actual notice of a user's age, but treats children the same as adult users when it comes to taking their money."

Both taxi apps Uber and Lyft were denied in their bids to have their driver's status as independent contractors rather than employees.

In both separate cases, the judges ruled that juries will determine whether the drivers are employees or independent contractors.

Drivers for both companies are seeking class action lawsuits contending that they are employees and therefore should be reimbursed for expenses (such as gas and vehicle repairs) which they now pay out of pocket.

If the juries rule that they are indeed employees, the cost to Uber and Lyft would be huge. The companies would have to pay Social Security, worker's comp and other local and state insurance costs.

Uber is the most valuable private startup in the U.S. at $40 billion and rival Lyft has also raised hundreds of millions of dollars at a valuation in the billions.

Source:
Reuters

Google's plans to bring Internet to the world via balloons has hit a new milestone.

According to the search giant, a "Project Loon" balloon can now stay afloat for six months at a time and provide 4G LTE Internet to an area as big as the size of Rhode Island, the U.S.' smallest state at about 1200 square miles.

Project Loon is not likely to launch in the U.S. first, where Internet is relatively abundant, but rather in places where it is nearly impossible to find affordable service. Google's service piggybacks on existing carrier's towers, which send signals to the balloons that can then relay the signals to Web-connected devices.

Says Google: "The main cost gain comes from the fact that you can cover a much bigger region with existing infrastructure. Telcos take their preexisting infrastructure, point them to the sky, and they get a much broader coverage. For instance, if you already have towers to cover a city, you can point part of it to the sky, and you will be able to cover the whole region through the loon balloon network."

From its humble beginnings in 2013, the Project Loon balloons have upgraded from 3G to LTE and from staying in the air for 5 days to now over 100 days on average, and 180 days in ideal conditions. The balloons can also now fly kilometers in the air compared to just 800 meters previously.

Mobile operating system maker Cyanogen has announced that Cyanogen OS 12 will use Boxer as its default email app, moving away from Google's own Gmail and its own Email app.

CEO Kirt McMaster has made it clear the company wants the operating system, which is based on stock Android, to move away from Google applications and services. In fact, McMaster has even bluntly said they want to "take away Android from Google."

Boxer will provide the foundation of the standard "Email" app that ships with Cyanogen, and the version included will have al the premium features available to the $14.99 buyers of the Boxer premium app. You can have unlimited accounts, customized quick replies, Exchange support, third-party app integration and much more. The UI will match Cyanogen 12, which is based on Lollipop.

All new devices with Cyanogen OS will shop with the Boxer email app, and existing devices like the OnePlus One will get the update in the coming weeks.

Get a taste for Boxer here:

In the wake of the announcement of their Apple Watch smartwatch and fitness tracker, Apple has removed competing fitness devices from its stores.

Apple had previously offered the Jawbone Up, Nike+ FuelBand and The Mio.

The new Apple Watch goes on pre-order April 10th, to ship on April 24th. The Apple Watch has a plethora of fitness features, and can track your steps, distance, heart rate and much more.

Liz Dickinson, CEO and founder of Mio, said Apple notified them the Mio would be removed from stores a few months ago: "They said they brought in a new executive in the marketing area who wanted to rework branding for the stores, and to make the Apple brand more front and center and clean up and minimize the number of accessories," Dickinson said. There was no mention of the Apple Watch.

It makes sense that Apple would remove other devices as it needs room for its $17,000 Apple Watch Edition.

Source:
Recode

The BBC has unveiled a new microcomputer as part of its 'Make It Digital' campaign to help students learn to code.

The Micro Bit will be available to secondary schools in the UK, and the BBC says enough will be available for every Year 7 student to have one.

Similar to the Raspberry Pi, the computer is about the size of the credit card and can handle Linux operating systems.

BBC says the "Micro Bit will allow kids to learn the basics of coding as a fundamental part of their education, placing it on par with other "basics" such as math and literacy."

Sony has confirmed that is PlayStation Vue streaming TV service will launch by the end of the month in three cities.

New York, Chicago and Philadelphia will be the first places to get the service, followed by a nationwide rollout by the end of the year.

Initially, the service will only be available through the PS3 and PS4, but later on iOS devices.

PlayStation Vue was announced last year and launched in beta in November with 75 channels including majors from Fox, NBC, Viacom and more. Besides the large catalog of channels, there are also DVR capabilities, giving a leg up on rival services.

According to a new report, Apple will begin using Intel chips in 2016 for its iPhones sold in Asia and Latin America.

Reportedly, the iPhone 7 will use an Intel 7360 LTE modem, moving from the current Qualcomm chips.

Intel's spec sheet says the chip supports 29 LTE bands and up to 450Mbps downstream.

Earlier this year, notable KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the same thing about the switch, predicting it would happen globally in 2015.

Rovio, who for years was the golden standard of casual mobile gaming, has a new game today as it looks to get back to the top of the iOS and Google Play charts.

Read the description: "Angry Birds meets bubble shooter in an all-new and super-addictive puzzler! Use your slingshot to match and burst colorful bubbles, save exotic critters, and topple the piggies. Strategic and intuitive gameplay make for a challenging and satisfying bubble popping experience!"

Take a look at the gameplay here:

At the Mobile World Congress event, there was a surprise hit: The Huawei Watch powered by Android Wear.

Huawei unveiled the watches, which comes in three luxury models, each with over 40 watch faces to choose from that compliment the bands.

The stainless steel watch has a 42mm circular AMOLED display at 400x400 pixels and a nice 10,000:1 contrast ratio. Under the hood is a Snapdragon 400 processor, 512MB RAM, Bluetooth 4.1, 4GB internal storage, a heart rate monitor, a six-axis motion sensor, a barometer and other sensors that can help user to count their calories burned, climbing height, steps and distance travelled.

If the leak is accurate, the smartwatch will be expensive, but in line with the low-end Apple Watch which retails for $349 in the U.S. The retailer leak has the silver model at 350 euro with the gold model at 400 euro. As always there is a chance the prices could be significantly different than one retailer's leak, but we will keep these prices as a baseline.

See more about the watches here, including high-res photos: Huawei Watch

Sony has ended PlayStation Mobile, their failed experiment to build a web store for PS classics and indie games that can played on mobile devices.

There will be no further content published past July 15th, and you will not have access to previous purchases for re-download after September 10th, either.

The service had allowed for playback on the PS Vita handheld and on PlayStation-certified Android phones but the Android side has been losing support for some time.

If you already use PlayStation Mobile, see what your next steps are here: Sony Blog

A full four months after all the other major U.S. carriers starting selling the phone, Verizon has begun selling the Nexus 6 today.

The Google flagship device will launch with Android 5.1 and will also include Verizon's HD Voice for increased clarity.

With a two-year contract, you can get the phone for $249.99.

Read our review of the GSM model, here: Nexus 6 Review on AfterDawn

Google has unveiled the second-generation model of their Chromebook Pixel, a new reference device for the Chrome OS operating system.

Starting at $999, the new base Pixel has a Core i5 processor (2.2 GHz Broadwell-U), 8GB RAM, 32GB SSD and Intel HD Graphics 5500 GPU and a near 13-inch touchscreen display with 2560x1700 resolution. the $1300 model has a Core i7 "LS" version (2.4 GHz Broadwell-U), 16GB RAM and a 64GB SSD. Battery life is rated at 12 hours.

Both weigh 3.3 pounds, significantly heavier than most high-end ultras especially the new Macbooks announced yesterday, but still relatively light compared to comparatively specced Windows machines and the MacBook Pro line.

Interestingly, Google has gotten rid of most of the ports, replacing everything with two reversible USB-C ports. The new standard was revealed for the new Macbooks this week, but the Pixel will be the first to actually have it. Charging is done through the USB-C port, which is becoming a standard and will save you from needing to carry a different cord for all your devices in the future.

Google is selling a USB-C to USB A plug for $12.99, and the accessories should be coming for other outputs, as well.

We have a small blurb today that comes with an astounding figure.

Jan Koum, founder and CEO of WhatsApp has announced today that the messaging service has reached 1 billion installs on Android, joining elite company. Other members of the club are Facebook and Google, that's it, with Google own Maps, Play Services, Google+ and Google Search each hitting the milestone individually.

Koum also noted that the team has just 5 members; "very small team, very big impact," says the executive.

Check the tweet here:

Budget mobile chipmaker MediaTek is now working with AMD to license mobile SoC graphics, a move that should provide significant synergies for both companies.

MediaTek has used ARM Mali GPUs in the past, but benchmarks confirm that Qualcomm Adreno and Nvidia Maxwell GPUs are just on another level.

The deal is unconfirmed, notes Fudzilla but the first chip from the two is expected later this year.

AMD has been out of the market since 2009 when it sold its Imageon graphics division to Qualcomm for $65 million. Imageon became the foundation of the Adreno line which is now valued in the billions.

iPhone fans rejoice! Google has released their native Google Calendar app for the iPhone this week.

Similar to its Android counterpart, the app allows for easy sharing, event creation and scheduling.

Events from your Gmail inbox are added to the calendar (think flights, hotel bookings, dinner reservations) and it can suggest events and places like Google Now or Inbox would.

Google says the app will work with Exchange and iCloud and most other calendar apps you are already using on your phone.

Apple is really pressing its unreleased Watch on its massive ecosystem of users.

When you download iOS 8.2 you will be greeted by the new Apple Watch application, which at this point only offers some promo videos for the smartwatch and a link to the website so you can conceivably pre-order in the coming weeks. When the watch actually launches, the app will house all the Apple Watch apps you can download.

Unfortunately for those that have no plans to ever purchase the Watch, the app cannot be deleted, so you will just have to hide it in a folder with the rest of the Apple apps you can't delete like Passbook, Tips, Stocks, Weather, Calendar, Clock, FaceTime, Contacts, iBooks, Compass, Maps, Health, Newsstand, Photos, Camera, Notes, Messages, Voice Memos, the iTunes Store, and the App Store.

Samsung has announced record pre-orders for their upcoming Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge phones, with figures that could potentially rival the iPhone.

"Samsung received some 20 million pre-orders for the S6 and S6 Edge _ 15 million of S6 and five million of the S6 Edge from mobile carriers, worldwide. This is the record," said an executive at the company.

That executive remained off the record but Samsung mobile boss Shin Jong-kyun seemingly confirmed the reports. "To be honest, pre-orders of the two Galaxy variants from our major clients are really huge," Shin said.

Besides the increase in sales, Samsung will be making more money per device, as well, having moved the processor from Qualcomm to their own in-house Exynos line. Industry watchers say the move could give the company over $20 more in profits per device.

The new devices are powerful, and feature metal and glass designs compared to the plastic of previous models that many were starting to consider 'cheap' especially when compared to the latest iPhones. The S6 has a 5.1-inch OLED QHD display, up to 128GB internal memory, 3GB RAM, 16/5 MP cameras, a fingerprint scanner, curved glass on the fron and will launch with Android 5.0 with Samsung's own UI on top.

Earlier today, Apple unveiled their best notebook yet, the simply named 'MacBook.'

The new MacBook is the thinnest and lightest version yet and just 2 pounds (even lighter than the MacBook Air), and it comes with a 12-inch Retina display.

Outside of just looks, Apple has completely rehauled the notebook. The trackpad now supports 'Force Click,' a gesture that lets you automatically perform actions. Apple used the example of 'Force Clicking' on an address and have it open in Maps. The keyboard is also now more precise and accurate and better ergonomically thanks to a new 'butterfly' design built by Apple.

The logic board is 67 percent smaller than previous MacBooks, and the new notebook is Apple's first fanless version. Powered by a brand new Intel Core M processor, Apple claims the notebook is so efficient the battery can last all day, potentially up to 16 hours.

Don't care for excessive ports? Apple's latest has just one reversible USB-C port, which is incredibly powerful but will require an adapter/hub to be useful. Just like a Lightning port, the USB-C port can fit either way, so no more unnecessary fiddling around trying to plug in your devices.

Apple will sell the notebook in silver, space gray and gold like the iPhone and iPad, starting at $1299 and reaching $1599 with more RAM, more storage, etc.

Apple made an interesting note today during their Apple Watch keynote event, flexing some muscle while announcing exclusive access to HBO's new standalone streaming service for set-top boxes.

The new service, HBO Now, will be available only for Apple TV owners for the first three months of its release, however, anyone can still view the library of films from a Web browser so the term 'exclusive' can be considered a stretch. There will also be an iPhone and iPad app available at launch, if you prefer to view on the go.

"All you need to get HBO Now is a broadband connection and an Apple device," said HBO CEO Richard Plepler.

Just like HBO Go, the service will offer HBO's entire library or original shows and a large list of feature films. The service will cost $14.99 and you will not need a cable HBO subscription. The service launches just in time for the next season of 'Game of Thrones' which begins on April 12th (trailer below)

In addition, Apple also revealed it is slashing the price of the Apple TV to $69, putting it in-line with pricing from rival devices like the Roku.

As part of their broad 'Spring Forward' event today, Apple revealed the release date and pricing for their hotly anticipated Apple Watch.

As expected, the Watch starts at $349, and as predicted by John Gruber, the high-end models will retail for over $10,000.

Beginning with the aluminum Apple Watch Sport, you can get a 38mm face version for $349 and the 42mm model for $399. Jumping to the stainless steel Apple Watch will cost you $549 for 38mm and $599 for the 42mm model. If you want a different band, the Apple Watch could cost you as much as $1099, suggesting that some bands will cost upwards of $500 by themselves.

Finally, available at select flagship stores, the 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition will begin at $10,000 and go higher from there.

The watches will be available in stores starting on April 24th, with pre-orders beginning on April 10th in the US, UK, China, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and Hong Kong.

After a year of delays, it appears that the Sony PlayStation 4 will be finally getting the highly anticipated suspend/resume feature.

Such a move will put the console in line with rival Microsoft's Xbox One, which allows players to shut down their system and then turn it back on at any point and have (nearly) everything pick up where they left off.

Sony promised the feature before the console launched in November 2013, but there has been little word about it until very recently.

New screenshots posted to Neogaf show that firmware update 2.5 will add the ability "enter rest mode without closing any applications," which suggests the suspend/resume feature.

Additionally, there is expected to be a button remapping screen, allowing gamers to change the controller button layouts for their games.

Pandora has announced today that it will offer a 'one-day pass' for non-subscribers, giving them 24 hours of ad-free music for just $0.99.

Chief Product Officer Chris Phillips says the new offering will make Pandora ideal for parties where hosts don't want their guests to hear ad breaks that come quite often in the free version of the software.

Despite the revealed $0.99 price point, Phillips says the 24-hour duration and the price are still up for review: "Pandora is committed to delivering an effortless, personalized experience and we recognize some consumers may want an ad-free experience but don't necessarily want to commit to a subscription. This offering will allow consumers to choose and explore what is right for them or suits a particular event or experience. Pricing and exact timing are yet to be determined but we expect it to be available later this year."

If you are a Pandora fan, the company does offer a monthly ad-free experience called Pandora One for $4.99 per month. The premium subscription allows for more skips and ups the quality to 192kbps, as well.

'Serena,' the new film starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, is available now via legal streaming services, a full three weeks before its theatrical debut in the U.S.

The move is just the latest in a series of strange events related to the film. Despite the star power of its two leads, the film wrapped in 2012 and had no distributors until 2014, when it was released internationally. The film will debut in a limited theater run starting on March 27th, but the movie has been almost universally panned by critics.

If you are daring, rentals are available now on Google Play, iTunes and Amazon Instant Video at $10.99 for HD and $9.99 for SD. This is far above the average $2.99-$5.99 that digital rentals for new films cost, but it comes with the territory of being a pre-release.

Microsoft has sued Japanese phone maker Kyocera over patent infringement this week, claiming that the company's Duraforce, Hydro and Brigadier line of phones violate up to seven of the Redmond giant's patents.

Filed in the U.S., the suit is demanding a U.S. sales injunction against the products, which would be most of Kyocera's Android devices sold in the country.

"We respect Kyocera but we believe they need to license the patented technology they are using. We're hopeful this case can be resolved amicably," said Microsoft deputy general counsel David Howard in a statement.

A few of the patented technologies include location services and text messaging and plenty more of other crucial cell phone features.

WhatsApp has taken the next step in tightening their policies, basically banning the use of third-party clients or even their installation.

Earlier this year, the popular messaging service told users and developers that because they could not guarantee third-party apps are safe and secure, they would begin to crack down on them.

Third-party devs have been receiving cease and desist notices and users also saw their accounts temporarily banned but there was widespread panic this week when a WhatsApp developer posted on Google+ that the company would be begin to use a "Permanent Account Disable" for anyone using a third-party app.

For now, the company has clarified the reports, explaining that the bans are still placed on the accounts for only as long as the user continues to use non-official applications. Previously, users received 24-hour bans as warnings. There will be no permanent bans although the ban will essentially be permanent if you do not remove the third-party apps from your device.

According to sources, Japan Display is building a new plant that would supply millions of smartphone displays for Apple iPhones.

The new $1.4 billion LCD manufacturing plant would help the company become a primary supplier to Apple, which sells upwards of 150 million iPhones per year.

Apple will also reportedly invest in the plant, which will be built in Ishikawa, Japan.

If accurate, the agreement would be a massive deal for Japan Display; a company that was built off the floundering display units of Hitachi, Sony and Toshiba in 2012 and is currently supported by the Japanese government.

Time Warner Cable has released their TV app to Microsoft latest and greatest gaming console – the Xbox One. The app as you might guess allows you to watch TV on your Xbox if you have the cable company's subscription.

Engadget notes that unfortunately unlike the Xbox 360 the Xbox One version is still limited to video-on-demand content but will eventually support live TV as well. There is however already support for both Kinect voice controls and Snap multitasking.

You'll find both free and paid content just like on other platforms that include iOS, Android, Roku and Samsung Smart TVs.

The users of the uTorrent have found that the new version of the popular BitTorrent client comes with an additional piece of software unseen before. What makes it even worse is that it is installed without consent.

The program is called EpicScale and is a bitcoin mining software. Mining cryptocurrencies uses a lot of your processing power and therefore is extremely power hungry.

BitTorrent has replied and assured that EpicScale is not installed without users consent. Several users seem to disagree and have found the mining software on their computer without agreeing on installing it.

Have you had problems with this program? If you have installed the new update and your CPU is running hot you may want to check your installed programs (via Control Panel) and remove the possible EpicShare.

Mobile payment system Softcard is officially dead following its recent acquisition by Google.

The company has sent out emails to current users acknowledging that the app and all accounts will shut down on March 31st.

Softcard was created by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile but even hundreds of millions in investment could not buy any regular users for the service. Google acquired most of the tech that was powering Softcard last month, and has rolled it into their Wallet mobile payment app and used the tech for the upcoming Android Pay API.

Google is expected to pull the Softcard app from Google Play next week.

Check out a copy of the email here:

According to a new report, Google will begin their new experimental MVNO later this month, but with one massive caveat.

The search giant is preparing to get into the carrier business, with a network that can instantly switch between Wi-Fi, Sprint and T-Mobile depending on what network is strongest.

Given the fact that T-Mobile is GSM and Sprint is CDMA, Google needs specific hardware and software tweaks to make it all work and for the time being the only device that is completely open for them to toy with is their own Nexus 6.

With the Nexus 6 as the only phone available for the new network, the company is obviously shortening the list of potential consumers, as the device sells for $650 unlocked.

As part of a broader report on Apple today, the WSJ has suggested that Apple's rumored 12-inch MacBook Air could be launched as early as Monday.

Apple has scheduled a press event for Monday in which they are widely expected to reveal a firm launch date for the Apple Watch including pricing. However, Apple could have more than one announcement scheduled.

Says the report: "While suppliers are gearing up to ship the new 12-inch MacBook Air in large quantities in the second quarter, Apple's launch schedule remains unclear, the people said."

The new Air will be thinner and lighter, and the 12-inch display will take the same space as the current 11-inch Airs, suggesting smaller bezels. The new laptop will also have minimal ports, with some reports suggesting there will be a single USB C port.

Nvidia has unveiled the new Titan X GPU - the most powerful video card ever created.

CEO Jen-Hsun Huang says the GPU has 8 billion transistors, uses the new Nvidia Maxwell architecture and has a ridiculous 12 gigabytes of VRAM.

More will be revealed on the spec side in the coming weeks, but Nvidia demoed the power of the Titan X by showing off 'Thief in the Shadows,' a VR experience that lets gamers "wade through acres of coins, pass between stacks of gold ingots and explore subterranean crevices all guarded by an enormous dragon that has no intention of giving up any of his hoard" (Smaug from The Hobbit). The game plays at 90fps.

Last month, Chinese smartphone giant announced that they were opening an online store for U.S. customers and the company has confirmed now that it will be doing the same for Europe.

Unfortunately, just like in the U.S., the European store will not include phone or tablet sales, just accessories and smaller devices like the Mi Band fitness tracker and Mi speakers and headphones.

"It's going to be a different Mi.com experience from what we have in our markets in Asia, because we're not selling phones," said Hugo Barra, former Android exec and now Xiaomi's global vice president. "We're only going to sell a small number of our hero accessories, things like the Mi Band, studio-grade headphones, in-ear headphones and the world's most popular power banks."

The lack of phone sales is notable as the company has quickly risen to the world's third largest smartphone maker in just 4 years of existence, thanks to brisk sales in Asia. The company has massive revenues but short profits as the margins are tight on all devices they sell in an effort to get their ecosystem into the hands of millions where they can sell software and services at nearly 100 percent margins.

First thing this morning, Marvel's The Avengers Twitter page tweeted out a simple request: Tweet #AvengersAssemble to 'unlock' a new trailer for the hotly anticipated film.

Thousands of fans quickly tweeted the message and Marvel rewarded them with a brand new trailer that includes new footage and a good luck at Vision.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is set for release on May 1st.

Check the tweet followed by the trailer:

Although the date was leaked last month, Konami has confirmed that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will be released on September 1st.

Notably, Metal Gear Online will also go live the same day, giving gamers the chance to get into the competitive multiplayer mode right out of the gate.

The game will sell for $60 for PS4 and Xbox One and $10 less for PS3 and Xbox 360. PC gamers will have to wait two weeks to get the title via Steam.

Dish has confirmed today that Sling TV subscribers will now have access to AMC and IFC - without any increase to their subscription price.

The service will cost $20 per month and includes the following channels: TNT, TBS, CNN, Food Network, HGTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, the Disney Channel, Galavision, El Rey Network, a Maker Studios channel and ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN 3.

For $5 extra, there are add-on packages, the latest of which is called 'Hollwood Extra' and includes EPIX, EPIX 2, EPIX3, EPIX Drive In, and Sundance TV.

AMC is a big deal given the hit status of Better Call Saul, the last season of Mad Men and the ongoing Walking Dead series.

Nvidia has announced the latest generation of their SHIELD series, introducing the "world's first 4K Android TV console."

The design of the console is pretty cool compared to the ugly black boxes we have become accustomed to with Apple TV, Roku and Amazon, with Nvidia's green accents (and LEDs) and a triangular shape.

Launching in May, the console will cost just $199 and include a controller. Nvidia's Grid cloud service will be pre-installed. The console supports 4K video at 60fps, the first piece of hardware to do so. Under the hood is a new Tegra X1 superchip, making it multiple times more powerful than existing set-top boxes.

In their demo, Nvidia promised 50 curated Android games that were ported specifically to work with the X1 including Crysis 3.

Here's the full spec breakdown:

•NVIDIA Tegra X1 Processor with 256-core Maxwell GPU
•3GB RAM
•4K Ultra-HD Ready with 4K playback and capture up to 60fps (VP9, H265, H264)
•Audio Features: 7.1 and 5.1 surround sound pass through over HDMI, High-resolution audio playback up to 24-bit/192kHz over HDMI and USB, High-resolution audio upsample to 24-bit/192hHz over USB
•16GB on board storage, MicroSD slot supporting 128GB
•Wireless: 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi
•Bluetooth: 4.1/BLE
•Interfaces: Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.0, Two USB 3.0 (Type A), Micro-USB 2.0
•IR Receiver (compatible with Logitech Harmony)

Nvidia has confirmed that its 'Grid' cloud gaming service will indeed be a subscription service that allows gamers to stream new and older catalog titles at up to 1080p and 60fps.

The service will launch in May and will have over 50 games at launch. You can purchase additional titles, normally at full price, from Nvidia's store. Most new high-end games will be available on Grid the same day as their physical and digital releases.

There will be two tiers of the service, free and premium, although it is unclear how much the premium tier will cost.

CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said the lag time is almost non-existent, as the service is backed by Amazon Web Services and Nvidia's own Grid supercomputers. "If you have a fairly good internet connection, I can get a response from a computer based in Oregon in 150 milliseconds. That's half the blink of an eye," added the exec.

You will need at least a 25Mbps downstream connection to be able to stream at 1080p.

In their demo, the company showed off streaming of new games like Resident Evil: Revelations 2 and Witcher 3 and there seemed to be no visual lag. Quality did appear a bit lower than playing on a $2000 gaming rig or the PS4, for example, but that was to be expected.

Google has announced today that starting with the release of Chrome 42, the browser will no longer support Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Currently in stable Chrome 40, Chrome 42 is expected to launch in April. If you are one of the 6 percent of Android users that still uses the old version of the mobile operating system, after the new release you will no longer be able to update your Chrome browser, leaving it potentially vulnerable but certainly without whatever new features and performance tweaks newer versions may offer.

Ice Cream Sandwiched launched in late 2011, and the OS has been substantially upgraded by the newer Jelly Bean, KitKat and Android 5.0 Lollipop.

So why the new move? Google answered: "While the number of Ice Cream Sandwich devices is shrinking, supporting them in terms of engineering effort and technical complexity is increasingly difficult over time. Each new feature or web capability that's added to Chrome must be built and tested for ICS. Often workarounds and special cases have to be added specifically for ICS, and that adds code complexity, slows performance, and increases development time. The number of ICS devices is now sufficiently small that we can better serve our users by phasing out support for earlier devices and focusing on making Chrome better for the vast majority of users on more modern devices."

Netflix has announced that fans in Australia and New Zealand will finally get access to the company's streaming catalog.

Many Aussies and Kiwis have heard a lot about Netflix over the years, and we're excited they'll get to experience our unique blend of Netflix original content, local series and films, and popular movies and TV shows from around the world, all for a low monthly price," said Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and chief executive officer.

Starting on March 24th, consumers can choose between three service plans: single stream SD, two-stream HD and a four-stream 4K 'family plan.' Pricing is not official yet, but it is expected to be in line with global prices, which are $7.99 for the base plan, $1 more for the HD plan and $3 more for the family plan.

Most notably, Australian customers of ISP iiNet, which has a bandwidth cap, will not see Netflix counted towards their monthly quota, a relief as Netflix and other streaming services can quickly and quietly eat up your monthly data cap in no time.

Sony has boasted today that global PlayStation 4 sales have reached a new milestone: 20 million units.

"We are so grateful for the enormous support from PlayStation fans worldwide, and we are truly humbled that gamers around the globe have continued to select PS4 as the best place to play," added Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House. "We remain steadfast in our commitment to deliver unique and interactive entertainment experiences powered by the network and the PS4 system's deep social capabilities."

The company expects sales to continue to be strong with an upcoming lineup of games including Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Bloodborne, Until Dawn, Tearaway Unfolded, and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.

Major rival Microsoft has not had any new milestones to share since November when they reached 10 million units sold, but undoubtedly the Redmond giant has sold millions since given the exceptionally strong holiday season the company had thanks to a price cut across the board on its console and bundles.

Source:
Sony

Netflix's first original sci-fi program 'Sense8' will launch on June 5th via the streaming service.

The drama follows the story of eight 'sensates' - people that are linked to each other technologically following an accident.

Sense8 was created by the Wachowskis (The Matrix), and written by J. Michael Straczynski (most recently Thor, World War Z).

"We're excited to work with Netflix and Georgeville Television on this project, and we've wanted to work with Joe Straczynski for years, chiefly due to the fact his name is harder to pronounce than ours, but also because we share a love of genre and all things nerdy," added Andy and Lana Wachowski when the show was first announced. "Several years ago, we had a late night conversation about the ways technology simultaneously unites and divides us, and out of that paradox Sense8 was born."

Netflix has acquired the worldwide rights to African war drama 'Beasts of No Nation' as the streaming giant sets on a path to win an Oscar.

The movie, which stars Idris Elba, will be available for a limited theatrical run and then available around the globe on Netflix later the same day.

Netflix paid $11.9 million for the rights, and industry sources say the company will make a strong Oscar push for the film, hence the reason it is going to theaters at all. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rules states "films that in any version, receive their first public exhibition or distribution in any manner other than as a theatrical motion picture release will not be eligible for Academy Awards in any category."

The film is the story of an African child forced to join a group of soldiers.

Outside of their own exclusive original TV programming, Netflix has made a strong move into feature films. The streaming service will host 4 original Adam Sandler films, a sequel to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," 4 original films from comedy and drama writers Jay and Mark Duplass and 'Jodatville,' starring Jamie Dorman of recent Fifty Shades of Grey fame.

Samsung has released eight sample photos that the company claims they have taken with the freshly announced Galaxy S6 (or the Galaxy S6 edge).

Obviously the settings have been optimized for the best result whether it is the lighting or stationary objects or the camera but the photos should give you a sense of what kind of quality you can expect in a perfect situation.

The first five of the pictures have been taken with Galaxy S6's 16 megapixel camera in the back and the last three with the five megapixel selfie shooter. The size of the selfie photos are around 2,5 megabytes but the size of the 16 megapixel ones range from just over three to nearly seven megabytes depending on the quality and amount of detail.

HTC's this years flagship reveal was as expected the One M9. A new versio of last year's One was just that – a new version.

Starting with the five inch Full HD display everything seems to be pretty much as it is with the company's offering. They have made a change in the camera department and switched the UltraPixel camera in the back for a 20 megapixel one that will improve the detail but that seems to be it.

The aluminum shelled One M9 features a Snapdragon 810, outperformed by the Samsung's own Exynos chip, 3 gigabytes of RAM, 32 gigabytes of microSD expandable storage and a UltraPixel selfie camera that claims to provide low light performance to the facial shots that you desire.

The phone has a 2840 mAh battery and an improved front facing duo BoomSound speakers that support Dolby Surround.

HTC One M9 is expected to land on all major carriers "early spring" with a $199 on two year contract price tag.

Sony has revealed a new tablet device at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The Xperia Z4 Tablet is super lightweight Android-tablet that is water and dust proof.

Xperia Z4 Tablet is the successor to the last year's slim Xperia Z2 Tablet and carries the same design pedigree. The new offering however is even slimmer and lighter. In fact it is as slim as Apple's iPad Air 2 and weighs considerably less.

Inside you get a 10,1 inch 2K resolution display (2560 x 1600), three gigabytes of RAM, 32 gigabytes of microSD expandable storage and the octa-core Snapdragon 810 SoC. Sony tells us that the device will hits the stores this spring but has not yet revealed the pricing.

As suggested last week by Google SVP Sundar Pichai, Google has confirmed it will be breaking its Google+ social network into two different entities.

Google exec Bradley Horowitz confirmed the news, noting that Google+ would be broken into 'Photos' and 'Streams.'

Noted the exec: "Just wanted to confirm that the rumors are true -- I'm excited to be running Google's Photos and Streams products! It's important to me that these changes are properly understood to be positive improvements to both our products and how they reach users."

Google Photos has been popular among users as it stores all your photos in the cloud and actually organizes it using Google's algos.

Now that Apple Pay is a hit and Samsung just announced their entry to market, Google is not far behind in the blossoming mobile payments world.

Google's SVP Sundar Pichai has confirmed today that the rumored Android Pay is real, and it has an API that will allow developers to build payments right into their apps.

The effort follows Google's recent announcement that its Wallet mobile payment app would be pre-installed on AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile phones following the company's acquisition of SoftCard.

Besides allowing for purchasing in stores using NFC, Android Pay will also work with retailers for online checkout options similar to Apple Pay. Android Pay will also support tokenized card numbers, meaning every transaction will use a one-time number via Visa, MasterCard or American Express.

Source:
Engadget

Jolla, the Finnish smartphone startup, has announced Sailfish Secure, a 'security hardened' version of its operating system.

The company says it will work directly with Finland's SSH Communications to enhance its Sailfish operating system with better security credentials. SSH says it will provide communication encryption and key management.

Says Jolla: "The Sailfish Secure approach will allow solution concept adaptation to e.g. local needs, and also collaboration with other security partners. End customers like governments or large corporations are able to adapt the solution to their preferred hardware platform, i.e. the solution is not tied to a specific hardware configuration."

Who are potential customers for Sailfish Secure? "Customers for the solution can include government officials, and corporations needing a secure mobile solution. The aim is also to make the solution affordable for consumers."

Jolla's secure OS should be available 'during 2016,' notes the company.

Cyanogen, the brand that is trying to break into the mobile operating system wars and is actually succeeding, has announced a new major partnership with Qualcomm alongside a new logo and branding.

Qualcomm, the world's largest chipmaker, has confirmed it will install the Cyanogen OS on its upcoming Reference Design products starting next month. The Reference Design program lets Qualcomm create "templates" for smartphones that smaller OEMs can easy take and release under their own names.

These won't be high-end devices, Qualcomm notes, with the devices being powered by the company's mid-range 200, 400 and 600 processors but no matter it should help Cyanogen reach millions of new consumers for its fast, efficient open-source operating system.

In addition, Cyanogen has rebranded again and created a new logo that they hope gives "a sense of motion and a feeling of inherent energy" and one that "captures our commitment to openness."

Read some more from Cyanogen's MWC blog post here.

According to Technalysis Research, Microsoft's Windows will fall under 90 percent share in the PC market.

The firm has predicted that 88.7 percent of units shipped this year will run Windows, down from 90.4 percent in 2014. Apple will take a portion of that pie, extending their Mac share to 6.9 percent from 6.2 percent.

Google's cloud-based Chrome OS operating system will take 2.9 percent share, up from 2.2 percent in 2014. Linux and all other operating systems make up the rest of the share.

Although it is certainly near impossible to forecast far out, Technalysis predicted out to 2020, where Windows is expected to still have 86.7 percent share, with Mac at 8.6 percent and Chrome OS at 3.6 percent.

While the move in Macs is not unprecedented given Apple's brand, Google's share has taken many by surprise. The company's cheap devices have been extremely popular in schools and in the education market, taking as much as 39 percent share by some reports last year.

Overall, PC shipments have peaked, and are likely to stay around 300 million per year for the foreseeable future until a future innovation makes everything we own obsolete.

As anticipated Samsung unveiled new flagship smartphones to start off the Mobile World Congress for the Korean company. The new Galaxy takes a page from Apple's book and tries to lure customers with high end design and materials.

Both new models share a metal and Gorilla Glass design which was first introduces in Samsung devices with the Alpha series. The main difference between the two models is of course the world's first two way curved display on the S6 edge (below).

The Galaxy S6 comes with a 5,1 inch AMOLED display with QHD resolution (2650 x 1440). Back facing camera is 16 megapixel shooter that is said to beat even the likes of iPhone 6 Plus in low light. Selfie camera boasts 5 megapixels.

As per usual Samsung has packed the phone full of technical gimmicks but this time has listened to the customer to remove software clutter and disorder.

The prices of Samsung Galaxy S6 have yet to be released but the euro prices have already leaked. Prepare to shell out some serious cash, prices start at 699 euros ($784) for the regular Galaxy S6 and 849 euros ($953) for the Galaxy S6 edge. The top of the line edge is said to sell for 1099 euros ($1234).

Alcatel, known for their extremely low-priced smartphones, has unveiled a new phablet today at MWC that has nice specs and will sell for $249 unlocked, undercutting every other OEM in the space.

The new Idol 3 has a 5.5-inch 1080p display, an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, dual front-facing speakers powered by JBL, two microphones (meaning you can pick up a phone call from any direction), dual cameras 8MP/13MP (which is great) and both have wide-aperture lenses and LED flash.

Perhaps most importantly, the device packs a relatively large 2,910mAh battery into a thin 7.7mm thick body. The device has LTE support on GSM bands in the U.S.

The Idol 3 will launch with Android 5.0.2 and Alcatel's own UI, which is a slight variant of stock Android.

At $249 unlocked, Alcatel, despite not being a household name by any stretch, should be able to break into the phablet market with a strong showing at such a cheap price. By comparison, Google's Nexus 6 retails for $649 and Apple's iPhone 6 Plus retails for at least $749 when unlocked.

Source:
GSMA

Acer has used MWC to announce their first Windows Phone, the budget Liquid M220.

Available in Europe for just 79 euros, the device should be able to rival Microsoft's budget Lumia devices, if at least on price.

The phone has a 4-inch display, 512MB RAM, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 4GB internal storage (microSD expandable), 3G radios and dual 2MP/5MP cameras.

Outside of low price and low-end specs, Acer has looked to differentiate themselves with an interesting design. The back has a hashed look which also makes it the device easier to hold, and the sides have a metallic dotted look that breaks up the monotony.

At launch, the device will run Windows 8.1, but will be upgradeable to Windows 10 later this year when the operating system launches.

HTC has taken the wrapping off their first wearable device today, a fitness tracker called 'Grip' built as part of the company's partnership with Under Armour.

The GPS-enabled device will use Under Armour's 'UA Record' interface to track workouts, runs, pace and steps. There are five total sensors, excluding a heart-rate monitor. With the GPS enabled, battery life is just 5 hours, but without it should last a few days.

From the images we've seen so far, the Grip has a curved display similar to Nike's FuelBand 2 and a black exterior with a colorful (neon green in one case) interior.

"Simply put, Grip will train you as if you have a team of professional experts coaching you the entire time," said HTC CEO Peter Chou. "And it is very fun."

Compatible with both iOS and Android, the device will sell for $199 starting in April.

Microsoft has accidentally revealed that two new Lumia devices are coming at Mobile World Congress.

The software giant let the headline slip before pulling the release, stating: "Microsoft Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL: keeping you prepared for anything."

It will be interesting to see how large the XL is, as there have not been any true "phablets" for Windows Phone fans.

Microsoft is expected to give us more details tomorrow about the devices and the launch of Windows 10.

IKEA, the world's largest furniture retailer, has announced a new line of furniture that integrates wireless charging.

Consumers can purchase floor, table and work lamps that each have wireless charging spots, and two night tables that have similar charging areas. If you don't want a new piece of furniture, you can get a standalone wireless charging pad.

The new furniture supports Qi, so your device may support it right out of the box but if it doesn't, IKEA is also selling wireless charging covers for the latest devices.

Starting in mid-April, the line of furniture starts at $30 in the UK and U.S.

WhatsApp has announced this weekend that its Web client is now available for Firefox and Opera users, a month after it launched for Google Chrome.

The Web client is an extension of the popular messaging app, showing the threads you are having yet keeping all the messages stored on your mobile device. You have to scan a QR code with your phone/tablet to sync up, and then you can reply from your computer and get desktop notifications.

WhatsApp also confirmed again that it is close to rolling out voice calls, catching up to rivals in the space.

The service recently claimed 700 million users.

Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN has taken down six sites that were set up as 'fan pages' to the Popcorn Time software, despite the fact that they did not host the apps themselves.

Each of the sites now shows a notice from BREIN that using Popcorn Time is illegal and that the sites all reached financial settlements before being shut down.

BREIN named four of the six of the sites -- PopcornTime.nl, Popcorn-Time.eu, Popcorn-Time.info and PopcornTimeFilms.nl, all of which are now non-operational.

Reads the message (translated):

This site has been removed by the BREIN foundation for propagating Popcorn Time Software.

Popcorn Time encourages illegal use and uses an illegal online supply of films and television series.

WARNING: Popcorn Time software uses peer-to-peer (P2P) technology allowing users to both up – and download. Streaming, uploading and downloading of illegal content is prohibited by law and will therefore result in liability for the damages caused.

NOTE: Uploading is illegal and causes greater damage than a single download.

SUPPORT CREATIVITY: Go to Thecontentmap.nl and see where you can legally download and stream.

Ahead of an official unveiling tomorrow, Chinese tech OEM Huawei has shown off their new Huawei Watch, an incredibly sleek and appealing Android Wear powered device.

The trailer video does not reveal any specs, but that should be settled tomorrow at Mobile World Congress.

From the video we can see the watch has a 42mm circular face with sapphire display and a stainless steel unibody case.

There are three finishes; silver, black and gold and a host of bands. There are quite a few watch faces designed for launch, and some look quite beautiful.

Finally, the watch has a heart-rate monitor and pedometer for fitness tracking.

Check out some photos and the video here:

Earlier this week, producer Adi Shankar and director Joseph Kahn released a dark and gritty fan film for the classic kids TV series 'Power Rangers,' dubbing the short Power/Rangers.

The film quickly reached nearly 12 million views on YouTube alone before rightsholder Haim Saban took the videos offline across the Web.

Back online now thanks to a deal with Saban, the videos have lengthy disclaimers that the movie is 100% fan film and with no affiliation to the real deal.

On Vimeo, Kahn wrote: "Deboot of the Power Rangers. My take on the FAN FILM. Not a pilot, not a series, not for profit, strictly for exhibition. This is a bootleg experiment not affiliated or endorsed by Saban Entertainment or Lionsgate nor is it selling any product. I claim no rights to any of the characters (don't send me any money, not kickstarted, this film is free). This is the NSFW version. An alternate safe version is on youtube."

The U.S. DOJ has indicted 28-year-old Dutchman Joey Vogelaar, accusing the man of stealing digital copies of "How Do You Know," "Rango" and "Megamind" back in 2010 before they were released in theaters.

Vogelaar, who went by the nicknames 'TyPeR' and 'neXus,' accessed the computers of the production company behind the films by using an employee's login credentials although it is unclear how he gained access to said credentials.

The alleged thief has been charged with computer hacking and identity theft, but not with copyright infringement which is curious given that Hollywood is involved. The charges, if he is extradited to the U.S., have a max sentence of seven years total.

Source:
Ernesto

Succumbing to political pressures, PayPal has shut down the account of Kim Dotcom's Mega file sharing service.

Reportedly, the pressure came from U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, who was a proponent of SOPA and went directly to Visa and MasterCard who then pressured PayPal.

The move is a huge blow to Mega's business, as PayPal was handling payment processing for the site and its users.

"It is very disappointing to say the least. PayPal has been under huge pressure," Mega CEO Graham Gaylard said in an interview. "MEGA provided extensive statistics and other evidence showing that MEGA's business is legitimate and legally compliant. After discussions that appeared to satisfy PayPal's queries, MEGA authorised PayPal to share that material with Visa and MasterCard. Eventually PayPal made a non-negotiable decision to immediately terminate services to MEGA."

Shockingly, Mega's top-of-the-line encryption seems to have been the tipping point. "MEGA has demonstrated that it is as compliant with its legal obligations as USA cloud storage services operated by Google, Microsoft, Apple, Dropbox, Box, Spideroak etc, but PayPal has advised that MEGA's 'unique encryption model' presents an insurmountable difficulty," Mega added.

Some of China's largest companies have already begun taking down accounts that do not conform to the new standards set forth by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).

Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu and Weibo have taken down 60,000 accounts that had inappropriate, vulgar or sexual usernames and avatars. Some were misleading and others were considered 'harmful.'

Weibo reportedly kicked 5500 accounts for promoting terrorism and Tencent deleted accounts that promoted gambling and firearms.

Most likely, some of the accounts were deleted because they did not have the user's real name attacked, a new rule from the Chinese government for all accounts.