News written by James Delahunty (May, 2014)

Popular cloud-storage service Dropbox has revealed that it has reached 300,000,000 users, adding 100 million since November 2013.

In a brief post on the firm's blog, Dropbox announced the milestone using a graphic of a door with a dropbox logo on it, with notches on the wall next to it showing the company's userbase growth from 100m, to 200m, and now to 300,000,000.

"Thanks for helping us grow," the post was titled, with the body only including the words: "New notch on the wall."

The growth is very impressive when you consider that Dropbox revealed it had hit 200 million users in November 2013, just around a half a year ago. On April 9, it had revealed the number swelled to 275 million.

Ninemsn offices evacuated and bomb squad called in after a 'suspicious package' was delivered to a journalist.

Ubisoft has admitted that it was a PR stunt that simply went wrong. A courier delivered a safe to Ninemsn offices in Australia square earlier this week, with a letter informing a journalist to check his voicemail. However, the journalist had no voicemail.

When staff entered a pin code into the safe, it began to beep. Unsure of what to do, they called the police and evacuated staff from the area.

The bomb squad arrived and opened the safe in the basement of the building, finding only a copy of Watch Dogs, a beanie and a baseball cap, along with a note saying it was embargoed until 5pm.

Ubisoft admitted that the PR stunt didn't go according to plan, as the publisher was unable to leave a crucial voicemail for the journalist explaining what was going on.

"This is definitely the other side of the line in terms of what it's safe for a PR company to send anonymously to a newsroom. The thing was black, heavy and slightly creepy," Hal Crawford, editor at Ninemsn, told Mumbrella.

"We did check with other newsrooms to see if they had received a similar package as we thought it was a PR stunt, but no-one else had. We weren't panicked at any point, but given there was no note explaining what it was, we had to take sensible precautions."

Spotify has notified its users of unauthorized access detected in its systems and has pushed out an updated Android app in response.

The evidence of the data breached showed that only one single user was affected, and that user has already been contacted by Spotify. Information at risk did not appear to include the users' password, payment or other financial information. There is also no reason to assume that other users are currently at risk.

Nevertheless, Spotify has pushed out a new app for Android devices and disabled older apps, forcing users to upgrade. It also has asked certain Spotify users to re-enter their username and password to log in.

"As always, Spotify does not recommend installing Android applications from anywhere other than Google Play or Amazon Appstore," wrote Oskar Stål, CTO, Spotify.

"At this time there is no action recommended for iOS and Windows Phone users."

The next instalment of the legendary saga of Master Chief will land in Xbox One in the form of Halo 5: Guardians, it has been revealed.

343 Industries General Manager Bonnie Ross revealed Halo 5: Guardians today in a piece she wrote about bringing Halo to Xbox One. In the past, Halo has pushed forward Xbox and 343 has been working to ensure that Halo will return on Xbox One and will showcase its capabilities.

"Making a 'Halo; game that runs at 60 frames per second, on dedicated servers, with the scope, features and scale we've been dreaming of for more than a decade, is non-trivial," wrote Ross.

"It's a task that we, at 343 Industries, are taking very seriously to ensure we deliver the 'Halo' game that fans deserve, and a game that is built from the ground up for Xbox One."

You don't need to rush out and buy an Xbox One now to be prepared however, as Halo 5: Guardians is not slated to launch until the fall of 2015. According to Ross, 343 will work hard to get it right, using everything learning from the development of Halo 4, while admitting that Halo 5 will be a much bigger effort than it.

Next year will also witness the Halo television series that counts Steven Spielberg among its creators.

Xbox One will soon come without Kinect to compete in pricing with the PS4, but what does the decision mean for the future of Microsoft's console?

On the surface of it, offering a $100 cheaper Xbox One model to consumers is the right move for Microsoft. As it stands, Microsoft has shipped a couple of million less Xbox One units than Sony has confirmed sales for the PS4, which undoubtedly has Microsoft uneasy even at such an early stage.

A lower-cost console without Kinect will likely help Microsoft to claw back some ground on the PS4, but what does it mean for Microsoft's overall vision for Xbox One and the future of the console?

Bundling Kinect with Xbox One may have given Microsoft a $100 disadvantage in cost on the market, but it was the cost of Xbox One having something unique to it, and something that was present wherever there was an Xbox One console rather than an optional peripheral.

You just have to look at the initial reaction from developer Harmonix to Microsoft's announcement on Twitter to see that the news isn't necessarily good for all. Director of Publishing and PR at Harmonix, John Drake, sums it up in a few words.

Oh, great. Super great.

-- johntdrake (@johntdrake) May 13, 2014

Take-Two Interactive has revealed that Grand Theft Auto 5 has sold-in a staggering 33 million copies since it was released in September 2013.

The critically-acclaimed Rockstar Games blockbuster reached over $1 billion in sales in just three days on the market, and is now thought to be closing in on $2 billion with its impressive global performance.

"Grand Theft Auto V was the best-selling console video game of 2013 in North America, Latin America and Europe combined. To date, Grand Theft Auto V has sold-in more than 33 million units," Take-Two's latest fiscal year report states.

Rockstar has yet to offer additional downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto 5, and considering how successful it has been at retail, such content has considerable revenue potential.

For its fiscal year, Take-Two generated $2.42 billion in revenue which is double for the previous year. For its most recent quarter though, Take-Two posted $30.8 million in losses.


Sources and Recommended Reading:
'Grand Theft Auto 5' Has Sold Nearly $2 Billion: www.forbes.com

Microsoft will offer consumers an Xbox One console without Kinect for $399 from June 9, as it aims to catch up on Sony's lower priced PlayStation 4.

The Kinect-free Xbox One will sell in all markets where the Xbox One is currently sold from June 9, starting at $399. The decision to bundle Kinect with all Xbox One consoles was criticized from the very beginning, not least because it meant the console would cost $100 more than the PS4.

Since launching last year, Sony has sold more than 7 million PS4 consoles and over 20 million PS4 software sales. Microsoft indicated in its Q2 2014 earnings report that 3.9 million Xbox One consoles have shipped to date.

This is not the first time Microsoft has changed strategy with Xbox One based on negative feedback. Not long after announcing the Xbox One, Microsoft started taking fire or its requirement to check in online at least once every 24 hours, and tying games to an Xbox One user raised questions about the ability to play pre-owned games.

In June last year, Microsoft reversed both policies.

Along with the decision to sell an Xbox One without Kinect, Microsoft is also changing Xbox Live so that you will no longer need an Xbox Live Gold account to use apps like Netflix, YouTube, ESPN and more. That decision was likely prompted by the continuing growth of video streaming services, and the growing number of set-top boxes, hardware devices, smart TVs etc. that support them on the market.

According to a report, Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners may soon be able to use Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services without an Xbox Live Gold account.

Considering that Microsoft's main competitors have not put multimedia streaming apps behind a paywall, Microsoft puts itself at a slight disadvantage and should lift the restriction. According to a report from Ars, citting multiple sources within Microsoft, that's just what the company is planning to do.

The report says that the sources have been briefed on the plans ahead of this year's E3 next month. To compensate, Microsoft is expected to put other services behind the paywall, but its unclear whether this means existing services or upcoming services, such as content delivered from Xbox Entertainment Studios.

Ars does warn that it is not set in stone at this point, and that Microsoft could change its mind before its keynote on June 9, but the policy change reportedly comes from Dom Mattrick's departure from the company.


Source: Ars

Microsoft's Office for iPad is still going strong with 27 million downloads since launching in March.

Microsoft had previously celebrated hitting over 12 million downloads in the first week of Office for iPad availability on the Apple tablet, which put it right up at the top of the charts in its category.

Fast forward a month later and Office for iPad has more than doubled that tally with 27 million downloads, according to Microsoft's Office Division manager, Julia White, announcing it at the TechEd customer conference in Houston, Texas.

Microsoft has said that it has more than 4.4 million paid users of the personal versions of Office for iPad, suggesting that a lot of downloads from business users with corporate Office 365 accounts.

Source: BusinessInsider

EA has revealed a list of 50 games that will have online services suspended by July, including titles from the Battlefield and Medal of Honor series.

The games listed are across several platforms but online services will only be ended for the platform specified. The move stems from GameSpy's announcement this month to end all hosted services for games, which impacts the online capabilities of a number of older titles.

Since then, EA has been evaluation options to keep online services up for some titles, but due to technical challenges and concerns about the player experience, it has not reached a solution, and so online services for EA games on the GameSpy platform will be closed down at the end of June.

"We are still investigating community-supported options to preserve online functionality for these titles, such as multiplayer," EA staff wrote. "Significant technical hurdles remain, and at this time we don't have anything to announce."

The full list of games that will have online services suspended on by June 30 is:

• Battlefield 1942 for PC and Mac (including The Road to Rome and Secret Weapons of WW2 expansions)
• Battlefield 2 for PC (including Special Forces expansion)
• Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for PlayStation 2
• Battlefield 2142 for PC and Mac (including Northern Strike expansion)
• Battlefield Vietnam for PC
• Bejeweled (r) 2 for the Wii
• Bulletstorm for PlayStation 3
• Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars for PC and Mac (including Kane's Wrath expansion)
• Command & Conquer: Generals for PC and Mac (including Zero Hour expansion)
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 for PC and Mac
• Crysis 2 for PC
• Crysis for PC
• Crysis Wars for PC
• Dracula - Undead Awakening for the Wii
• Dragon Sakura for Nintendo DS
• EA Sports 06 for PC
• F1 2002 for PC
• FIFA Soccer 08 (KOR) for the Wii
• FIFA Soccer 08 for Nintendo DS
• FIFA Soccer 09 for Nintendo DS
• FIFA Soccer 10 for Nintendo DS
• FIFA Street 3 for Nintendo DS
• Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers for PlayStation 2
• Global Operations for PC
• GREEN DAY: ROCK BAND for the Wii
• James Bond: Nightfire for PC
• Madden NFL 08 for Nintendo DS
• Madden NFL 09 for Nintendo DS
• Master of Orion III for PC
• Medal of Honor: Allied Assault for PC and Mac (including Breakthrough and Spearhead expansions)
• MySims Party for Wii
• MySims Racing for Nintendo DS
• MySims SkyHeroes for the Wii and DS
• NASCAR Sim Racing for PC
• NASCAR Thunder 2003 for PC
• NASCAR Thunder 2004 for PC
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 for PC
• Need for Speed: ProStreet for Nintendo DS
• Need for Speed: Undercover for Nintendo DS
• Neverwinter Nights 2 for PC and Mac
• Neverwinter Nights for PC, Mac and Linux (including Hordes of the Underdark and Shadows of Undrentide expansions)
• SimCity Creator for Wii
• Skate It for Nintendo DS
• Sneezies for the Wii
• Spore Creatures for Nintendo DS
• Spore Hero Arena for Nintendo DS
• Star Wars: Battlefront for PC and PlayStation 2
• Star Wars: Battlefront II for PC and PlayStation 2
• THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND for the Wii
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 for Nintendo DS

According to a report from South Korea, Samsung's Galaxy S5 has shipped 10 million Galaxy S5 handsets in 25 days, beating the Galaxy S4.

The previously releases Galaxy S4 smartphone reached 10 million shipments in 27 days, and the Galaxy S3 before it hit the milestone after 50 days. Of course, the figures don't represent sales to customers but it shows a considerable demand for the Galaxy S5.

That demand is coming despite some fairly critical reviews of Samsung's latest flagship model, which has been blasted for its "cheap" design characteristics and for lacking hardware innovations.

Shortly after its launch, a shake-up at Samsung saw Chang Dong-hoon step down as head of Samsung's mobile design team, replaced with Lee Min-hyouk. Chang will continue to lead the design center at Samsung though.


Source: www.hankyung.com (Korean)

According to information posted on the official PlayStation website, the hotly-anticipated Watch Dogs will run in 1080p at 60fps, only on the PlayStation 4.

The page for Watch Dogs on the PlayStation website promises the "True Watch_Dogs Experience", with the best graphics on any console and exclusive missions found only on PlayStation.

"Hack everything as you make your way through Chicago's underground as you experience Watch_Dogs in a way that only the PS4 can provide, at 60 Frames Per Second in 1080p."

The page also explained that the four exclusive missions are "timed exclusions" that will be available on PC later.

Watch_Dogs launches on PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC on May 27.

Nintendo has apologized for 'not recognizing' same-sex relationships in Tomodachi Life, after a Social Media campaign sought to force changes to the life-simulation world.

In Tomodachi Life, players are represented by their Mii characters and can carry out plenty of different activities in their virtual world, including going on dates with others, and getting married. Two Miis of the same gender cannot marry, however.

This prompted Tye Marini, a 23-year-old man from Arizona, to launch a social media campaign urging Nintendo to permit same-sex marriages in the game, so that he could virtually marry his real-world fiance.

Nintendo responded to the social media campaign, saying that the game would not be changed to allow for virtual gay marriages, and stressing that Nintendo is not trying to "make any form of social commentary" with Tomodachi Life.

That response is fairly reasonable, but the media reaction to it was less so in some quarters, and Nintendo has decided it would be best to apologize for the situation.

"We apologise for disappointing many people by failing to include same-sex relationships in Tomodachi Life. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to change this game's design, and such a significant development change can't be accomplished with a post-ship patch," a Nintendo statement reads.

Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee is reportedly recovering after suffering a heart attack and undergoing emergency surgery.

The 72 year old was admitted to hospital on Saturday evening whilst suffering from breathing difficulties. Mr Lee had undergone surgery in the 1990s and has reportedly suffered from respiratory problems ever since, even travelling overseas during the Winter to help avoid breathing problems.

The Samsung Medical Center has said that he is now recuperating and in a stable condition following surgery.

Lee has been chairman of Samsung since 1987 after his father died, except for a short spell in 2008-2009 while a tax evasion charge was underway. He has been credited with leading Samsung into a position of leadership in the technology markets.

The Samsung boss has an estimated net worth of around $12.6 billion, ranking among Forbes richest people in the world.

According to a report, Samsung is preparing to launch a new smartphone running the Tizen mobile operating system in India and Russia.

The Wall Street Journal cited sources familiar with Samsung's plans in reporting that the South Korean firm will launch a smartphone in Russia in the coming weeks that runs the Tizen mobile operating system. A launch in India, will reportedly follow later.

This would represent the first proper launch of a smartphone running the OS, after NTT Docomo in Japan cancelled plans to launch a Tizen device earlier this year. It has, however, made an appearance in Samsung's Galaxy Gear devices.

Tizen also ran into trouble in France, when Orange put the brakes on a Tizen phone launch too.

For now, Samsung is looking to grow the operating system in emerging markets and avoid the United States and Europe, but Tizen remains part of its strategy to compete more directly in mobile software and service with Google, and Apple.


Sources and Recommended Reading:
Samsung Electronics to Release Tizen Smartphone in Russia, India: online.wsj.com

Mozilla has re-assured Firefox users that the new tab window in Firefox will not become a mess of logos as it prepares to test sponsored content.

The firm published plans for Directory Tiles tests on new tabs back in February, and it was met with a lot of criticism and questions from users. Nevertheless, Mozilla will go ahead with some testing on its pre-release channels to see whether new tabs pages can be made more useful.

Writing on the Mozilla blog, Johnathan Nightingale re-assured users that the firm is not going to, "turn Firefox into a mess of logos sold to the highest bidder; without user control, without user benefit." He added that the community found a lot of language in the original post "hard to decipher."

The upcoming tests are also not about revenue, and none will be collected. "Sponsorship would be the next stage once we are confident that we can deliver user value," wrote Nightingale.

"We'll experiment on Firefox across platforms, and we'll talk about what we learn before anything ships to our release users. And we'll keep listening for feedback and suggestions to make this work better for you. Because that's who we are at Mozilla."

Nintendo will develop and sell new hardware consoles aimed at emerging markets as it fights to climb out of a global slump it has fallen into in recent years.

Despite having a head start of a year, Nintendo's Wii U sales are actually lower than that of Sony's PlayStation 4 (PS4) consoles, despite the latter only launching in the holiday season in 2013. Consumers in major western markets are overlooking Nintendo's latest hardware and it is showing on the bottom line in big red figures.

In an effort to turn itself around, Nintendo will look for growth through the development and sale of new hardware. This hardware will be aimed at emerging markets and will not simply be cut downs of the Wii U and other items it sells.

"We want to make new things, with new thinking rather than a cheaper version of what we currently have," Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said, reports Bloomberg.

"The product and price balance must be made from scratch."

The timing is good considering that China only recently lifted its decade+ ban on video game console sales in the country, although there are still considerable factors to take into account launching in China.

A large number of Internet and tech firms have signed an open letter to the FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler opposing Net Neutrality proposals that could lead the way to paid prioritization.

Recent reports suggested that internal documents at the FCC proposed to allow Internet Service Providers (ISP) to negotiate a type of paid prioritization for better access to subscribers. Of course, the proposal has been widely condemned, as it is a clear break away from the FCC's position on paid prioritization in recent years.

Stating their objections to the possible rules change, a large number of Internet and tech firms have signed an open letter to Chairman Wheeler and the FCC, in which they argue essentially that the proposal is a major shift from the historical and traditional norm, and that it could seriously hurt innovation on the Internet.

"According to recent news reports, the Commission intends to propose rules that would enable phone and cable Internet service providers to discriminate both technically and financially against Internet companies and to impose new tolls on them. If these reports are correct, this represents a grave threat to the Internet," the letter reads.

"According to recent news reports, the Commission intends to propose rules that would enable phone and cable Internet service providers to discriminate both technically and financially against Internet companies and to impose new tolls on them. If these reports are correct, this represents a grave threat to the Internet."

Samsung has confirmed that Chang Dong-hoon has been replaced as the head of its mobile design team.

Chang had reportedly offered to resign his position as head of Samsung's mobile design team just last week. The Galaxy S5 smartphone launched recently and was met with criticism of its design and lack of hardware innovations. The plastic case design of the handset prompted the most negativity among reviewers.

Lee Min-hyouk, Samsung's vice president for mobile design, will take over Chang's position as head of the mobile design team, while Chang will continue to lead the design center at Samsung.

"The realignment will enable Chang to focus more on his role as head of the Design Strategy Team, the company's corporate design centre which is responsible for long-term design strategy across all of Samsung's businesses, including Mobile Communications," Samsung said in a statement.

Samsung's Galaxy-branded smartphones and tablets have been its flagship brand for several years now, helping it to overtake and surpass bitter mobile rival Apple globally in terms of smartphone sales.


Sources and Recommanded Reading:
Samsung Electronics replaces mobile design head: in.reuters.com

Google has released an update for its Google Maps apps on Android and iOS adding a proper Offline Maps mode that could come in very handy.

Previously versions of the app had the ability to cache offline maps for later use, but it was a more limited functionality that was cut out by Google. This upset some users to the point that they had to revert back to older versions of the apps.

Now with the release of Google Maps v3.0 for iOS and Maps for Android v8.0, Google has introduced a more useful Offline Mode, which could help your tremendously on your travels if you are not guaranteed a consistent data connection.

All you have to do is search for an area and tap on its place info sheet, then when available, you can select "Save map to use offline," and give your map a custom name, like "Toronto Vacation." It will then be available as a Saved Map when you tap the profile icon next to the search box in the top-right corner of the app. It is the same on both platforms.

The new Maps apps also can inform you which lane you should be driving in to make sure you don't take the wrong lane and end up in a jam. There has also been improvements to the search nearby feature, allowing you to apply filters like opening hours, ratings, prices and so on so you can find a bar or restaurant to suit your needs and tastes.

HBO's wildly popular Game of Throne has set yet another record for BitTorrent sharing after the latest episode was spread across the world.

Game of Thrones is already a heavily pirated TV show due to its exceptionally large fan base, and HBO's reluctance to license it to streaming services like Netflix.

It is extremely popular on torrent sites, and has been breaking records during the airing, and subsequent uploading, of episodes of recent seasons. The latest episode of Game of Thrones is estimated to have been downloaded around 1.5 million times within a day.

That's not the big deal however, the big deal is that the Demonii tracker reported that over 200,000 people were sharing one single torrent for it at the same time. 163,496 were sharing a complete copy while 43,558 were still leeching.

207,054 is pretty impressive, but probably won't give HBO much reason to be happy.

Read more: TorrentFreak

Yet another bug with the iOS lock screen has been revealed, and it affects iOS 7.1.1 too.

Apple's iOS operating system has had a few lock screen bugs in its time. One such bug allowed access to a variety of apps on the device which could allow an attacker to steal private information, while another one that hit iOS 7 would allow non-emergency phone calls by simply hammering the button until it got stuck and crashed the screen.

Those flaws have been fixed, but a new one has surfaced. This one was shown off by Egyptian programmer Sherif Hashim, and it allows you to use Siri to get to the Contacts of an iPhone without unlocking the device.

In a demo video, Hashim tries unsuccessful to access to the iPhone's contacts by commanding Siri, while the handset is locked. However, he then goes on to give Siri a "Call" demand instead, and Siri helpfully asks who he would like to call. From here, Hashim can gain access to the full list of contacts on the handset.

So far, no other feature has been found to be accessible by tricking Siri.

Until it is fixed, the simplest way to avoid this flaw being exploited is to disable Siri access when the phone is locked, which you can do under Settings - Passcode.