News written by Andre Yoskowitz (January, 2013)

On the same day the company slashed its sales forecasts across the board, president Satoru Iwata made it clear that the company will not be slashing Wii U prices to boost demand.

The company already sells the console at a small loss, one that it makes up with a single purchase of software. It is clear the company can not risk having a bigger loss per unit.

"With Wii U, we have taken a rather resolute stance in pricing it below its manufacturing cost, so we are not planning to perform a markdown. I would like to make this point absolutely clear. We are putting our lessons from Nintendo 3DS to good use, as I have already publicly stated," says Iwata.

Nintendo launched the 3DS at $249.99, making a hefty profit per unit, but extremely poor sales caused the company to drop the price within 3 months to $170.

After months of rumor and speculation, we finally have a set launch date for the highly anticipated video game.

GTA V will launch globally for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 on September 17, 2013.

"Grand Theft Auto V continues to push the series forward in new ways; Rockstar North are creating our deepest, most beautiful and most immersive world yet," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "We are very excited for people to learn more about the game in the coming months."

The game had originally been slated for "the Spring," but Rockstar says they needed more time for development.

Check the trailers here: Grand Theft Auto V at AfterDawn

Video sharing site Vimeo has announced today that it will be adding content ratings to its videos.

Each video will have a small badge next to the title now that reads either "All Audiences," "Mature," or "Not Yet Rated."

The move is intended to make sure that Vimeo does not get blocked by schools or other businesses that ban sites that can lead to offensive videos or pictures.

Eventually, Vimeo will add "an option to filter out mature content." Additionally, there will be filters within the Mature rating. Vimeo will now ask content creators if there if there is nudity, violence, profanity, or illegal substances in their videos.

Creators therefore manually label their own videos, but Vimeo moderators can change misrated videos.

A Chinese Ministry of Culture official has denied the rumor that the country is looking to overturn a long standing ban on video game consoles in the nation.

Earlier in the week, a China Daily article reported that the Chinese government was reviewing the ban with the possibility of reversing it. The ban was put in place in 2000, effectively keeping Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft out of the nation of 1.3 billion citizens, officially.

In order to lift the ban, all seven ministries that originally issued it must approve the reversal. The ban was first placed to protect youths from violent and sexual games.

Of course, the gray market for consoles in China is huge, and Chinese officials have only loosely enforced the ban for the last few years. PC gaming remains huge in the nation, as does mobile gaming.

Nintendo has slashed its sales forecasts for most of its devices, including the new Wii U system.

The gaming company says it expects to sell just 4 million Wii Us in the current fiscal year, down from their original estimate of 5.5 million. The fiscal year ends at the end of March, and the company stated it sold 3 million Wii Us as of January 1st.

On the software side, Nintendo downgraded sales for games to 16 million, down from 24 million expected.

Moving on to the next piece of hardware, Nintendo says it expects to sell 4 million Wii's, compared to previous estimates of 5 million. The Wii, launched in 2006, recently reached 100 million units sold, making it one of the most popular consoles of all-time.

Sales of the 3DS handheld will be 15 million, compared to 17.5 million estimated, and the DS series (DSi, etc) will come in light at 2.3 million compared to Nintendo's previous 2.5 million prediction.

Amazon has noted this week that its daily deal site, Living Social, continues to lose significant amounts of money.

The company lost $650 million in 2012, after losing $499 million in 2011.

Additionally, the deals site also reported an impairment charge of $579 million for 2012, writing down some failed overseas acquisitions.

The company also had to lay off 400 employees in November.

Revenue for the company doubled to $536 million in 2012, but clearly it did not help.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer dismissed Dropbox today, while pumping the company's own SkyDrive cloud service.

The exec called Dropbox a "fine little startup" but claimed that its 100 million users are really "a pretty small number" compared to the amount of Office, SkyDrive and Hotmail/Live users.

Ballmer says the company's next goal is to move past 1 billion Office users despite the big time push from rivals like Google Apps.

Microsoft recently launched Office 365, a subscription version of Office, allowing customers to pay annual or monthly fees and not have to buy the software upfront.

The CEO also took a shot at the iPad (at least for time being), saying the company is not worried about any tablet that does not offer Office. Office for iPad and Android is expected later this year.

Judge Lucy Koh has ruled this week that Samsung did not willfully infringe Apple patents, closing out one of the remaining issues in the case.

In August, when a jury found Samsung guilty of infringing seven patents, they ruled that five of the instances had been willful. The jury also awarded Apple $1.049 billion, although if Judge Koh agreed the infringement was willful, the number would eventually have become much higher.

Samsung's argument throughout the case had been that they believed Apple's patents were invalid, and Judge Koh ruled that this was enough to show the company had not infringed willfully. Apple would have had to prove with "objectively high likelihood that its [Samsung's] actions constituted infringement of a valid patent." They did not.

Judge Koh could reduce the original $1.049 billion verdict, but she has not even suggested she will at this time. Apple will not receive any additional damages, however.

It is becoming abundantly clear the direction that Netflix is heading.

Netflix's first original series, "House of Cards," is just days away from debuting, and the show is the second of the streaming company's foray into original programming and its inevitable head-to-head battle with HBO and Showtime.

In an interview with GQ, CCO Ted Sarandos says the company has $300 million per year budget for original programming, and that he hopes to bring five original shows to subscribers every year moving forward.

The company certainly has the potential to do so. Netflix has so far committed to entire seasons upfront (without a pilot), and offers larger budgets than rivals (especially in broadcast) do. As Sarandos says, "The goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us."

Continued: "I really think we have the chance to radically change the depth of character connectivity. I mean, a meaningful shift. It's going to further blur the line between television and movies."

Sony has announced that Music Unlimited subscribers are about to get a nice quality boost.

As of today, all 18 million tracks will be available in 320kbps AAC audio.

PlayStation 3, Android and PC users will be able to take advantage.

While 320k is not a huge upgrade over other services which offer 256kbps, Sony had previously utilized just 48kbps, so the boost should be highly noticeable for users.

Just like other services, Sony's Unlimited costs $4.99 for unlimited play and $9.99 for unlimited play and Android and PS3 access.

RIM used their much-hyped press event today to unveil BlackBerry 10, the operating system that the company hopes will help turn around its half decade of malaise.

The company also rebranded itself as BlackBerry, losing the Research In Motion name that was not necessarily synonymous with its brand.

In showing off the operating system, the company also unveiled two new phones, the Z10 and the Q10. The Z10 is the flagship touchscreen device, and the Q10 will feature a QWERTY keypad reminiscent of the BlackBerry's of the past.

"We have been on a journey of transformation, to transform our business and our brand, but also one that will transform mobile communications to true mobile computing," CEO Thorsten Heins said on stage. "Saying we have reinvented this company is simply not enough. Today is a new day in the history of BlackBerry."

BlackBerry 10 was built from scratch and does not even share a single line of code with its predecessor, BlackBerry 7. Its main features are a "Hub" which brings together all your messages into a universal inbox (including social networking) and gesture swiping that replaces home/back buttons seen on rival operating systems.

Apple has shown off a larger capacity iPad today.

The new tablet will be exactly the same as the current 4th-generation models, except with more internal storage and a higher price tag.

128GB models are the largest yet available from Apple.

Starting on February 5th, the tablet will be available for $799 for Wi-Fi-only and $929 for Wi-Fi + 4G.

"With more than 120 million iPads sold, it's clear that customers around the world love their iPads, and everyday they are finding more great reasons to work, learn and play on their iPads rather than their old PCs," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "With twice the storage capacity and an unparalleled selection of over 300,000 native iPad apps, enterprises, educators and artists have even more reasons to use iPad for all their business and personal needs."

Incarcerated Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svarholm will likely face charges over hacking in the coming month.

Svarholm was deported from his hiding place in Cambodia in August and brought back to Sweden to serve a year in prison for his involvement with the infamous torrent tracker.

After returning to the country, however, Svartholm was accused of hacking Logica, a Swedish IT company.
Gottfrid has been incarcerated since.

Prosecutor Henrik Olin says he will make his decision by the end of February on whether to pursue charges: "Our ambition is to be able to prosecute. But I am of course open to any new information that may come in."

Svarholm says he remains bored, as all access to the Internet has been blocked to him.

Rdio has announced today that they will offer free streaming music for a promotional period in 14 new countries.

For 6 months, the streaming service will now be available in the UK, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.

Rdio has a library of 18 million songs and works through a desktop app or through your browser. As with other streaming services, Rdio has "creation and collaboration on playlists, a music discovery engine and the ability to share your music-listening habits in real time on Facebook and Twitter."

After the free listening period, the Rdio subscription service costs $5 per month for unlimited webs streaming or $10 for unlimited streaming, mobile streaming and offline listening.

According to sources, Google and Asus are preparing a sequel to the Nexus 7 for May.

Google's 2013 I/O conference is set for May 15th, which would make a great time to unveil the tablet.

Most notably, the new Nexus 7 will have a Full HD (1920 x 1080 resolution) display along with a thinner bezel.

Everything else will be the same, say the sources, and the tablet will run on the latest iteration of Android Jelly Bean.

In keeping with their competitive pricing, the tablet should sell for the same prices as the current model Nexus 7, $199 or $249 for 16 or 32GB, respectively. This could drop the price of the current Nexus 7 to $150, which will likely lead to at least a short term boost in sales for the popular Android series.

The T-Mobile model of the Nexus 4 smartphone is now available via Wirefly and Best Buy.

Wirefly has the phone for $150 with 2-year contract and Best Buy has the device for $200 with contract.

While buying on-contract may save you a little bit of money up front, the deal is infinitely worse than buying the device straight from Google, unlocked. While it is currently sold out in the Google Play Store, the company offers it for $300 or $350 (depending on storage) with all the same specs, and no contract.

If buying from a retailer, the device has a 3-5 shipping delay and its unclear how many are in stock.

HTC has announced this week that it will be holding a press event on February 19th.

The event will showcase "what is next" for the struggling smartphone company.

Taking place in New York, the event will be a couple of days before the Mobile World Congress, a move that shows the company would prefer to go solo this year rather than be part of the crowd.

HTC is expected to unveil (officially) the M7, a new flagship.

The device will have a quad-core Qualcomm APQ8064, a 4.7-inch 1920x1080 display with 468 ppi, 32GB of internal storage (no microSD slot), LTE and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Sprint has expanded its 4G LTE network, a promising sign for the carrier which has lagged behind rivals AT&T and Sprint.

Reads the carrier's press release:

Add Boston, Austin, Fort Wayne, Ind., and western Puerto Rico to the expanding list of areas receiving Sprint 4G LTE service. We are starting 2013 by building on the progress we made last year to introduce an all-new 4G LTE network.

The full list of new areas:

Boston, Mass.
Austin, Texas
College Station/Bryan, Texas
Columbia, Tenn.
Emporia, Kan.
Fort Wayne, Ind.
Gettysburg, Pa.
Western Puerto Rico (including Aguadilla, Isabela, Cabo Rojo, Mayagüez).

Sprint plans to have its entire 4G network rolled out by the end of 2013.

Although it has since been taken down, a PDF found on HP's website showed off the specs for an upcoming Chromebook, the company's first entry into the market.

The Pavilion Chromebook will include a 1.1GHz Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM, a 16GB SSD and a 14-inch, 1366 x 768 display.

At 14.6-inches, the new Pavilion will have a much larger screen than the average Chromebook, most of which have 11.6-inch screens. More notably, the smaller displays each have the same resolution as HPs, making the decision even stranger.

Even more unfortunately, the device has a claimed battery life time of just 4 hours and 15 minutes. The top Chromebook, built by Samsung, has stated battery life of 7 hours.

The official launch of the device is expected for mid-February.

Apple has released their next major update for iOS today, version 6.1.

The update is available to iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Apple TV users and is available OTA.

Apple states that the following have been updated, added or improved (via 9to5):

LTE support for more carriers (Apple previously announced that it would add more LTE carriers this week). 36 additional iPhone carriers. 23 additional iPad carriers.

Purchase movie tickets through Fandango via Siri (US only)

iTunes Match subscribers can now download individual songs from iCloud

Read more...

Barnes & Noble has announced today that it will begin shuttering stores as it moves away from retail.

"In 10 years we'll have 450 to 500 stores," added Mitchell Klipper, CEO of Barnes & Noble's retail group. As of today, the company operates 689 retail stores and 674 college stores, which operate separately.

Klipper notes that the retailer will close up to 20 stores per year for the next decade to achieve the goal.

Until 2009, the company was opening up to 30 new stores per year, even if it closed underperforming stores. By last year though, the company had only opened 2 stores. In 2008, there were 728 retail stores.

"Even with 450 to 500 stores, it's a good business model," says Mr. Klipper (via WSJ). "You have to adjust your overhead, and get smart with smart systems. Is it what it used to be when you were opening 80 stores a year and dropping stores everywhere? Probably not. It's different. But every business evolves."

The company has tried, with varying success, to take share of the ebook/ereader market dominated by Amazon and Apple. Its Nook products have been critically acclaimed, but sales have stalled. Klipper says retail is not dead, however, as only 18 of their stores lose money, less than 3 percent of the total. While the company's Nook division continues to lose money, the retail side brought in $317 million in earnings in 2012.

Research firm Screen Digest has implied this week that Nintendo is 'behind the curve' with its Wii U in the next-gen console market.

Senior principal analyst Piers Harding-Rolls had this to say: "We believe Nintendo looks increasingly isolated in the market. It does not have the luxury of a wider device ecosystem play such as Sony, Apple or Microsoft and it is behind the curve in its online and cloud content strategies.

"We would like to see Nintendo be more aggressive in 'hinging' off its devices using its online platform - Nintendo Network - onto third-party devices as Microsoft is starting to do with Xbox Smartglass and Sony is doing with PlayStation Mobile. Read more...

RIM has shown off their new BlackBerry World catalogs today.

The storefront, which was re-branded for BlackBerry 10, will offer music and video catalogs to smartphone (and tablet) users.

"Music and video content is an integral part of a rich mobile experience. People want easy and convenient access to their favorite music, movies and TV shows wherever they are," said Frank Boulben, CMO at Research In Motion. "RIM is committed to working with content providers to bring the best, most up-to-date content to our customers with BlackBerry 10, and to make it easy for them to get what they want."

The video rental and purchase section will be available to the US, UK and Canada. Content will come from 20th Century Fox, Entertainment One (eOne), Lionsgate, MGM, National Film Board of Canada, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (US), Starz Digital Media, STUDIOCANAL, The Walt Disney Studios, Universal Pictures (UK), Warner Bros.

According to a China Daily report, the Chinese government is reviewing the country's long-standing ban on video game consoles with the possibility of reversing it.

The ban was put in place in 2000, effectively keeping Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft out of the nation of 1.3 billion citizens, officially.

Ministry of Culture sources added: "We are reviewing the policy and have conducted some surveys and held discussions with other ministries on the possibility of opening up the game console market."

In order to lift the ban, all seven ministries that originally issued it must approve the reversal. The ban was first placed to protect youths from violent and sexual games.

Of course, the gray market for consoles in China is huge, and Chinese officials have only loosely enforced the ban for the last few years. PC gaming remains huge in the nation, as does mobile gaming.

Nvidia has announced today that its PC gaming optimization service, GeForce Experience, is now in open beta.

The tool had been in closed beta for a month.

40,000 gamers tested the app during its closed beta, with many of the bugs being worked out before hitting today's version 1.0.1 release.

With the release comes support for new games like FarCry 3, Mechwarrior Online, and Hawken for a total of 41 supported games.

CPU support is now extended to Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad CPU and 2560 x 1440 resolution support was added, as well.

The tool uses its own proprietary cloud database "to find and set the ideal drivers and graphics settings" for the game you are trying to play after scanning your hardware.

Check it here: GeForce Experience

RIM has noted this week that it has purchased a Super Bowl ad slot to promote BlackBerry 10, the first time the company has ever done so.

The 30-second ad, which cost $3.8 million to secure the space, will promote the company's new OS and upcoming flagship smartphone.

Additionally, "a social-media campaign is slated to run alongside the commercial and will include promoted posts on Twitter and sponsored stories on Facebook running through the game," says AdAge.

"A Super Bowl commercial is a great opportunity to show the redesigned, re-engineered and reinvented BlackBerry to tens of millions of consumers on the largest advertising stage of the year," RIM CMO Frank Boulben said in a statement.

The 2012 Super Bowl averaged 110 million viewers, making it easily the best way to advertise on television (at a price).

The Consumer Electronics Association has voted in support of Dish Network's "AutoHop" commercial-skipping technology.

Dish Network is currently in multiple lawsuits against CBS and other major broadcasters over a number of different issues.

The issue at hand is Dish's DVR, The Hopper, and its ability to skip commercials automatically during recording. Quite obviously, the broadcast world is up in arms as the entire industry relies on advertising revenue to cover the cost of its shows.

Says the CEA (via Cnet): "In sum and substance, the Hopper merely enables the consumer to perform the same actions as the old VCRs or other DVRs, just more efficiently." CEA, in their brief, cite Sony v. Universal City Studios, which ruled it was legal to record TV programming for personal use and that recordings are not liable for copyright infringement. The group adds, "making television easier to watch is not against the law. It is simply pro-innovation and pro-consumer."

Earlier this week, Steve Jobs biopic 'jOBS' made its debut at Sundance, showcasing Ashton Kutcher as the late Apple co-founder.

According to one report, Apple's other co-founder, Steve Wozniak was asked for input on the early original screenplay, but decided against it.

"I was approached early on [for jOBS]," Woz says. "I read a script as far as I could stomach it and felt it was crap. The Sony people got in contact with me too and in the end I went with them. You can't do both [films] and be paid."

Sony Pictures is creating another biopic, with Aaron Sorkin producing, set for release later in the year. The Sony film will have just three scenes, all filmed in real-time, showcasing the birth of the Mac, the birth of NeXT, and the birth of the iPod in 2001.

Woz continues: "The early script did things like promote drugs in ways that were as foreign as the clip I saw. For example, it would have Jobs offering me drugs. I never saw Jobs do drugs nor had any offers from him. If we ever discussed drugs, he would have known that I didn't do them but that I basically approved of them and hung around with friends who did them (in college) so he wouldn't have felt awkward talking about them with me. Frankly, we talked about our jobs and technology and things." However, "I still told everyone that I thought the Jobs movie would be a big hit and I looked forward to it. I felt they did a very good job of casting, looking for good actors who could play the roles."

Following a campaign by anti-piracy group "StopFileLockers," 40 percent of Mega's account resellers have pulled support for PayPal processing.

The number is significant especially because there are only 10 current resellers.

SFL boss Robert King noted today that the resellers that pulled support are Pay.mobi, GratisAntivirus, VoucherReseller and Hosting.co.uk. King alerted PayPal to what was going on, and the payment processor applied their own ToS, which is very strict in regard to file sharing sites.

"It's been widely publicized that file sharing sites need to obtain pre-approval in order to process payments with PayPal," said King (via TF). "Whilst we cannot speak for PayPal, we would expect that PayPal would simply be applying their standards fairly to all file sharing sites and that includes Mega and its resellers."

Mega launched to much fanfare earlier this month.

Nokia has announced a new music subscription service for users of their Lumia Windows Phone devices.

The service will add on to the current free "Mix Radio" service while bringing a number of extras.

Adds Jyrki Rosenberg, VP Entertainment at Nokia: "People love Nokia Mix Radio – in fact, many people are amazed that we can offer it for free. It's the only smartphone music service out there offering access to millions of songs out of the box without the need to sign up, sign in, or suffer adverts in between enjoying the music. When you add in the ability to skip songs and save playlists for offline uses like the tube, you have something unique.

We spend a lot of time listening to how people use the service and have even managed to half the amount of skips per songs played, which is a combination of our systems and musicologists understanding and shaping Nokia Music around the users. Nokia Music is great for discovering new music, and we've found that there's a core of users that want even more of it."

Here is a list of the new features:

France's Commission Générale de Terminologie et de Néologie has announced that they do not appreciate the term "hashtag" on Twitter and will instead use a local term, "mot-dièse."

The term hashtag relates to words and phrases that follow the # symbol and can help others find causes or more easily find posts.

Mot-diese means "sharp word" and the group has coined the term to mean "a series of characters preceded by the # symbol."

The move is not the first time French officials have move to remove English terms from the French language and daily dialect.

The Japanese government will be the first to launch a 4K TV broadcast.

By July 2014, the broadcast should be live, two years ahead of the country's own accelerated schedule.

The government says the broadcast will help to build demand for Ultra HD televisions in the nation. The "service will begin from communications satellites, followed by satellite broadcasting and ground digital broadcasting," reports Reuters.

Sony, Sharp, LG and Samsung offer 4K TVs, however the prices are high and they are somewhat useless since there is minuscule amounts of 4K content available.

As of this morning, it is now illegal to unlock your phone in the U.S., unless your carrier authorizes it.

The rule was put in place last year by the Library of Congress, which can amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Reads the rule (via CNet):

...with respect to new wireless handsets, there are ample alternatives to circumvention. That is, the marketplace has evolved such that there is now a wide array of unlocked phone options available to consumers. While it is true that not every wireless device is available unlocked, and wireless carriers' unlocking polices are not free from all restrictions, the record clearly demonstrates that there is a wide range of alternatives from which consumers may choose in order to obtain an unlocked wireless phone.

"WindowsAndroid" has ported Android 4.0 to Windows PCs and tablets, giving fans a chance to use the mobile operating system on their devices.

The full "Android experience" is available, including the browser, gallery, all Google software and even third-party apps. There is also graphics acceleration, a Dalvik VM and the standard Android user interface well known to Android users.

WindowsAndroid works with touch, as well as keyboard and mouse so it should not matter where you install it.

On the third-party app side, even though the Google Play Store is available, most apps show up as incompatible. You can side load the files, but most cause WindowsAndroid to crash, at least at this early stage in its development.

Try out the app here: Socketeq WindowsAndroid

(Screengrab via TGD)

The Antiguan government looks to be planning to launch a site that will sell movies, music and software without giving a dime back to the copyright holders.

The U.S. has a trade blockade with the island due to its offering of Internet gambling services, even though the WTO had ruled in Antigua's favor multiple times.

Antiguan officials now hope to make some income back through the new warez site.

Gambling was a major business for Antigua, up until a couple of years ago when the U.S. took the unprecedented step of shutting down all American access to gambling sites, most notably sports betting and poker.

"What was once a multi-billion dollar industry in our country, employing almost 5 percent of our population has now shrunk to virtually nothing," said Antigua's High Commissioner to London Carl Roberts.

The WTO previously ruled that the U.S. block of Antiguan gambling companies violated free-trade. The group then ruled that Antigua can "suspend U.S. copyrights up to $21 million annually." The government now plans to use this option, selling U.S. media to customers worldwide (up to $21 million worth), without giving a penny to the copyright holders.

According to reports, the upcoming rumored Nokia EOS will be the first Windows Phone 8 device to feature the company's PureView camera tech.

The company's previous PureView phone, the 808, featured a 41MP camera.

Reports suggest that the new device will have something similar if not somewhat smaller, possibly a 36MP sensor or so.

Nokia will also plate the phone with aluminum instead of the polycarbonate material it has chosen for most of its Lumia phones.

The company has announced 6 new phones for its keynote at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Spain next month.

According to IDC's latest figures, Chinese companies have begun to take significant share in the smartphone market.

For the Q4, smartphone shipments were dominated by Apple and Samsung, as expected, but Huawei and ZTE jumped into the top 5.

Huawei shipped 10.8 million units, good for 4.9 percent share and almost 90 percent growth year-over-year. ZTE shipped 9.5 million units, good for 4.3 percent share with 48.4 percent growth.

Samsung was far and away the leader, at 63.7 million units, good for 29 percent market share. Year-over-year growth was a very solid 76 percent, as well. Apple, which sells its iPhone 4, 4S and 5 devices, shipped 47.8 million units, taking 21.8 percent market share. Growth YoY for Apple was muted, at 29.2 percent and Apple was the only in the top 5 to lose market share.

"The fact that Huawei and ZTE now find themselves among the Top 5 smartphone vendors marks a significant shift for the global market," said IDC research manager Ramon Llamas. "Both companies have grown volumes by focusing on the mass market, but in recent quarters they have turned their attention toward higher-end devices. In addition, both companies have pushed the envelope in terms of industrial design with larger displays and smaller form factors, as well as innovative applications and experiences."

The ITU has approved the H.265 video format, meaning 4K and streaming HD video could be available to bandwidth-capped users, like those on mobile devices.

H.265, otherwise known as High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), will provide the highest quality streaming with the lowest bandwidth.

The format will succeed the H.264 codec, which has become a standard adopted by most devices and device manufacturers.

If all goes to plan, HEVC will allow publishers to stream 1080p content (and eventually 4K) with just half the bits required today. For example, a 4K stream will be use just 20-30 Mbps of bandwidth. The average American has bandwidth of 10 Mbps or less, usually, and unless you have LTE, you are not getting 10 Mbps on your mobile device, either.

After weeks of rumor, Lucasfilm has confirmed that J.J. Abrams will direct 2015's "Star Wars: Episode VII."

Reads Lucas' blog post:

After a bevy of emails and phone calls, the formalities have been wrapped up, and at long last everyone can exhale and properly share the word with an excited Internet. Yes, J.J. Abrams will direct Star Wars: Episode VII, the first of a new series of Star Wars films to come from Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy. Abrams will be directing and Academy Award-winning writer Michael Arndt will write the screenplay.

"It's very exciting to have J.J. aboard leading the charge as we set off to make a new Star Wars movie," said Kennedy. "J.J. is the perfect director to helm this. Beyond having such great instincts as a filmmaker, he has an intuitive understanding of this franchise. He understands the essence of the Star Wars experience, and will bring that talent to create an unforgettable motion picture."

George Lucas went on to say "I've consistently been impressed with J.J. as a filmmaker and storyteller." He's an ideal choice to direct the new Star Wars film and the legacy couldn't be in better hands."

Read more...

Apple has announced the iPhone 5 will be available to 36 more carriers that support 4G LTE.

The current lineup includes 24 carriers, but Apple has made a concentrated effort to expand.

Says Apple CEO Tim Cook: "Today we have 24 carriers around the world that provide LTE support for iPhone 5. Those are in countries like the US, Korea, the UK, Germany, Canada Japan, Australia and a few others. Next week we're adding 36 more carriers for LTE support. These carriers will be in countries that we are not currently supporting LTE."

There are also new carriers "in Italy, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Philippines, and also several middle eastern countries. If you look at the total of all of these, the incremental subscribers in those countries it's over 300 million."

Cook also added that if LTE is not available in your area, the iPhone 5 also works with HSPA+, which has download speeds that can match low-end LTE in most areas.

German music rights group GEMA was behind the misdeed.

Earlier this month, Kim Dotcom launched his new file sharing cloud storage service, Mega, throwing a bash at his mansion.

The video was made available on YouTube and had many hits until GEMA decided to throw a takedown request, which led to YouTube taking the video down, at least temporarily.

There was zero reason for the video to be taken down as it featured local artists who had given explicit consent and featured Dotcom speaking along with his more of his content.

Dotcom angrily tweeted: "Incredible: The GEMA in Germany took down our #Mega launch press conference video from Youtube for copyright claims. Dear GEMA, all songs in the #Mega press conference are my content. And the artist who performed LIVE gave us permission. WTF?"

The infamous Mega founder says he has filed a counter-claim with the video sharing site and the video is back online. He adds: "GEMA can expect mail from our legal team. Copyright madness."

BitTorrent Inc. has announced that it is working on a file syncing app similar to Dropbox called "Sync."

The application will use P2P tech to sync files between all your devices, including phones and PCs.

Today, the company announced a very early pre-Alpha test of the app, which is guaranteed to crash but should have functionality.

Sync will be different than other services because it promises "direct synchronization between your machines without any cloud caching. File transfers will be protected via 256 bit AES encryption," says OM.

There are native apps for Mac OSX, Windows and Linux.

Check the pre-alpha here: Sign Up

According to the latest figures from Strategy Analytics, global mobile phone shipments reached 1.6 billion in 2012.

Smartphones accounted for 700 million of those devices.

Samsung led the charge, with 213 million smartphones sold. Apple came in second at 135 million iPhones sold.

In overall mobile phone sales, Samsung topped the list at 396.5 million devices, followed by Nokia at 335.6 million units shipped. Apple was in third (with that 135 million iPhones) followed by Chinese star ZTE at 71.7 million. All others, including RIM, Sony, Motorola, HTC, Huawei and more totaled the remaining 635.4 million devices shipped.

Neil Shah, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, added: "Ongoing macroeconomic challenges in mature markets like North America and Western Europe, tighter operator upgrade policies, and shifting consumer tastes were among the key reasons why global mobile phone shipments grew just 2 percent annually to reach 1.6 billion units in 2012. Fuelled by robust demand for its popular Galaxy models, Samsung was the star performer, shipping a record 396.5 million mobile phones worldwide and capturing 25 percent marketshare to solidify its first-place lead. However, Samsung's total volumes for the year fell just short of the 400-million threshold."

Verizon has announced that AT&T will buy $1.9 billion worth of spectrum from its larger rival.

The airwaves should help the carrier boost its coverage for regions in the U.S. that cover up to 40 million people. The spectrum is the 700MHz range and will include major states like Texas, California, New York and Florida.

AT&T says it expects the deal to close in the Q3 of this year. The carrier will use the spectrum to improve its LTE network, which should reach nearly all of the U.S. by the end of 2014.

Verizon recently secured a separate spectrum deal with cable companies like Time Warner and Comcast, spending $3.6 billion last year to do so.

The deal will still need regulator approval.

Samsung has unveiled its Galaxy Xcover 2, an IP67-certified smartphone.

The device has a 4-inch WVGA TFT screen, runs on a dual-core 1GHz processor, has 1GB of RAM and runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean along with Samsung's own premiere suite of apps and the TouchWiz UX overlay. There are dual 5/1.3 MP cameras.

Additionally, the phone has a 3G radio with 14.4Mbps HSDPA and 5.76Mbps HSUPA, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS + GLONASS, 4GB internal memory and a microSD slot for more storage.

Amazon announced earlier today the acquisition of IVONA Software, the company that provides the text-to-speech technology in its Kindle Fire tablets.

Outside the TTS, the tech also powers the "Voice Guide" and "Explore by Touch" features.

IVONA also offers separate TTS products to thousands of developers and business customers.

"IVONA's exceptional text-to-speech technology leads the industry in natural voice quality, accuracy and ease of use. IVONA is already instrumental in helping us deliver excellent accessibility features on Kindle Fire, including Text-to-Speech, Voice Guide and Explore by Touch," added Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. "The IVONA team shares our passion for innovation and customer obsession, and we look forward to building great products to deliver world-class voice solutions to customers around the world."

"For more than ten years, the IVONA team has been focused on creating innovative text-to-speech technologies," said Lukasz Osowski, CEO and co-founder of IVONA. "We are all thrilled that Amazon is supporting our growth so that we can continue to innovate and deliver exceptional voice and language support for our customers."

Nokia has confirmed today that the Symbian operating system is officially dead.

The operating system, which was once the most popular smartphone OS by a long shot, has now seen its share fall to under 5 percent of the total market, and Nokia has officially killed it.

Nokia's 808 PureView is the last Symbian device, ever: "During our transition to Windows Phone through 2012, we continued to ship devices based on Symbian. The Nokia 808 PureView, a device which showcases our imaging capabilities and which came to market in mid-2012, was the last Symbian device from Nokia."

There is a chance that the PureView tech will make it to Lumia Windows Phone devices this year, which could help the phones differentiate from rivals.

Nokia sold 2.2 million Symbian phones in the Q4 2012, and 4.4 million Lumias. By comparison, Apple sold 48 million iPhones during the quarter.

A day before its limited premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, the filmmakers of 'jOBS' have released the first clip showing off Ashton Kutcher as the late Apple founder.

The clip shows Jobs and co-founder Steve Wozniak speaking in an HP parking garage and it does appear that Kutcher has learned the mannerisms and the voice of Jobs.

jOBS will see wide release on April 19, the 37th anniversary of the founding of the company.

The movie covers the years 1971-2000, right before the release of the original iPod and the beginning of Apple as the giant it is today. The film will show off Jobs' founding of the company, his ouster, the founding of NeXT and Pixar, and his return to the company after Apple purchased NeXT in 1996 for $429 million. NeXT's software highly influenced Mac OS X and iOS. Some of the movie was filmed in the original garage in which Apple was founded.

According to multiple sources, Verizon is planning a new flagship Windows Phone device codenamed the "Laser."

The new Nokia Lumia phone will have specs similar to the recently launched Lumia 920.

Microsoft will allegedly back the device heavily, providing marketing support.

It will be considered a flagship for the carrier, meaning it will be given equal floorspace to its iOS and Android brethren.

Nokia and Verizon declined comment.

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has fined Sony for the massive data breach in 2011 of its PlayStation Network.

In 2011, the attack led to the leak of personal details of over 100 million users.

ICO has fined the company $400,000 for the breach, calling it "a serious breach of the [U.K.'s] Data Protection Act (DPA)." Section 4(4) of the DPA reads: (4)Subject to section 27(1), it shall be the duty of a data controller to comply with the data protection principles in relation to all personal data with respect to which he is the data controller.

Personal details that were stolen included names, addresses, DOBs, emails and account passwords. User credit card details could have also been at risk.

Adds David Smith, Deputy Commissioner and Director of Data Protection: "If you are responsible for so many payment card details and log-in details then keeping that personal data secure has to be your priority. In this case that just didn't happen, and when the database was targeted – albeit in a determined criminal attack – the security measures in place were simply not good enough. There's no disguising that this is a business that should have known better. It is a company that trades on its technical expertise, and there's no doubt in my mind that they had access to both the technical knowledge and the resources to keep this information safe."

Amazon has announced that its latest e-reader is now available to 175 countries.

The Kindle Paperwhite, which includes a backlit-screen for dim light reading, and the Paperwhite 3G, can now be ordered from Amazon.com and shipped to the exotic locales.

For the time being, however, only the ad-free versions are eligible.

Until recently, there had been large delays in Paperwhite, but it seems that supply has finally caught up to demand enough so that international sales can begin.

The devices also have multiple languages including Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.

Networking giant Cisco has sold its Linksys home router division to Belkin.

The move will give Belkin a healthy 30 percent of the home router market share.

Major competitors in the market, which includes small businesses, are Netgear, Apple and D-Link.

"We're very excited about this announcement," said Chet Pipkin, CEO of Belkin. "Our two organizations share many core beliefs – we have similar beginnings and share a passion for meeting the real needs of our customers through the strengths of an entrepreneurial culture. Belkin's ultimate goal is to be the global leader in the connected home and wireless networking space and this acquisition is an important step to realizing that vision."

"At Belkin, we're committed to enabling great experiences for users of today's mobile and connected home technologies," Pipkin concluded. "The acquisition of Linksys and the combination of Belkin's and Linksys' expertise and innovation will position us to meet the demands of today's rapidly evolving advances in technology. We look forward to honoring the heritage of the Linksys brand and investing in the continuing evolution of its product portfolio. Together, we will provide a powerful, simple to use, and reliable wireless and networking platform for the markets we serve."

Samsung posted another strong quarterly earnings report today, right on the heels of Apple's strong (but market disappointing) report last night.

For the Q4, the company posted an operating profit of $8.27 billion on revenue of $52.45 billion, a record for the company.

The company had expected slightly lower of each, beating estimates that they themselves had supplied the market last year.

Year-over-year, the profit was an 89 percent increase.

Overall operating profit for 2012 was $27.18 billion on revenue of $188.14 billion.

Samsung says their mobile business grew significantly year-over-year, thanks to strong sales of the Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S III. The company's semiconductor division also posted massive gains, bringing in $1.33 billion operating profit, alone.

Apple reported its quarterly earnings today, and shareholders took a beating for it.

The company beat analyst estimates for earnings per share, but fell short on revenue and in other notable areas.

In after hours trading, the stock fell $50 per share, erasing almost $50 billion in company value in just 4 hours.

While the company did have a record quarter, including record revenue and iOS device sales, the market had been expecting better growth from the world's biggest public company. Revenues came in at $54.5 billion against an expected $54.58 billion, and iOS device overall sales came in at over 75 million for the quarter.

On the miss side, Apple's gross margin was 38.6 percent compared to an expected 39.5 percent, iPhone sales came in at 47.8 million versus the 50 million expected, iPad sales came in low at 22.9 million versus expected 23 million and Mac sales came in low, as well, at 4.1 million versus and expected 5 million.

CEO Tim Cook added, "We're thrilled with record revenue of over $54 billion and sales of over 75 million iOS devices in a single quarter. We're very confident in our product pipeline as we continue to focus on innovation and making the best products in the world."

'jOBS,' the Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher as the Apple founder will premiere in theaters on Apple's anniversary.

Making a limited premiere this week at the Sundance Film Festival, the movie will see wide release on April 19, the 37th anniversary of the founding of the company.

The movie covers the years 1971-2000, right before the release of the original iPod and the beginning of Apple as the giant it is today. The film will show off Jobs' founding of the company, his ouster, the founding of NeXT and Pixar, and his return to the company after Apple purchased NeXT in 1996 for $429 million.

NeXT's software highly influenced Mac OS X and iOS.

In a move to improve its coverage in rural areas around the nation, wireless giant AT&T has acquired Alltel's retail operations for $780 million.

Alltel, owned by Atlantic Tele-Network has about 585,000 paying wireless subscribers.

AT&T's purchase includes all wireless properties, including licenses, network assets and retail stores, along with the subscribers.

The acquired network will cover about 5 million people in rural areas in Georgia, Idaho, North Carolina, Ohio and South Carolina.

Because the purchased spectrum is is in 700 MHz, 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands, there should be no switchover issues for customers.

According to a new survey from Famitsu, the PS VIta is the most desired console for gamers in Japan.

64 percent of all respondents said they were looking to buy a Vita in 2013, beating out the Nintendo 3DS handheld.

Vita sales have been lackluster, to say the least, around the globe. In Japan, the console has the smallest install base of all consoles.

It is unclear if there were any stipulations with the survey question.

Full list (via CVG):

PS Vita - 64%
3DS - 48%
Wii U - 34%
PS3 - 25%
PC - 14%
Xbox 360 - 11%
Smartphone - 10%
PSP - 10%
Wii - 9%
iPad - 7%
DSi / DSiXL - 5%
iPhone - 5%
iPod Touch - 4%
Other - 2%

Google has noted today that Psy's blockbuster 'Gangnam Style' made over $8 million in revenue from the video sharing site.

Gangnam is the most-watched YouTube video of all-time, reaching 1.2 billion views since its launch in the summer of last year.

CBO Nikesh Arora boasted the figure during the company's quarterly earnings report.

Originators of videos normally keep 50 percent of the revenue after a certain point, which implies that Psy and his label have made $4 million just from YouTube in the last 7 months.

This figure does not include iTunes, streaming or other forms of revenue generation but it seems that Psy had a very good year.

Demand for the Google Nexus 4 is way higher than the company had expected or hoped.

As we have written multiple times here at AfterDawn, the process of getting a Nexus 4 through the Google Play Hardware Store was a nightmare.

Both Google and LG have thrown some blame at each other for the lack of available devices, but it appears that it may really be Google's fault for the delays and lack of supply.

LG France mobile head Cathy Robin says demand in the UK is 10 times the orders placed by Google, and it is most likely a similar figure in the U.S., as well.

Reads the translation: "Google has presented forecasts calculated according to their previous sales history of Nexus. But they had seen less demand. Current deliveries of LG Google correspond to what had been pre-ordered on Google Play. We continue to deliver regularly. But it is lean. This is why the Nexus 4 is always shown as exhausted and the potential buyers feel they can not buy it."

According to multiple reports, the second-generation Google Nexus 10 is already in the works and will offer a nice performance upgrade from the current model.

The new device would feature a quad-core processor and an 8-core Mali T678 GPU. The upgrades would help the tablet render all of the pixels with less lag, which has been an issue of some users of the first-generation model. Google's Nexus 10 features a 2,560 x 1,600 resolution.

Nothing else will really change for the next tablet, say the sources, with the exception of some minor cosmetic changes and some movement under the hood.

Despite being a dual-core, the current model uses ARM's Cortex-A15 architecture, meaning performance gaps between the dual-core processor and quad-core processors at the time were negligible.

There was no word on a release date or even quarter.

Mozilla has revealed two new developer phones today for its upcoming Firefox OS.

The phones are part of a partnership with Spanish startup Geeksphone, and the devices are dubbed Keon and Peak.

Firefox OS is aimed at emerging markets, and the phones will be low-end devices.

The Keon has a single-core 1GHz Snapdragon S1, a 3.5-inch 480x320 HVGA display, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of internal storage. The phone only has a 3MP rear camera and has the standard radios with the exception of LTE.

Mozilla's Peak is much more powerful, but can still be classified as low-end. The device is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4, has a 4.3-inch qHD (960 x 540) display and dual 8MP/2MP cameras. Under the hood is 512MB of RAM and 4GB internal storage.

The phones will launch next month with "prices you could have never imagined." Most likely this means less than $99 without contract.

Verizon announced this morning that it activated 6.2 million iPhones in the Q4 2012.

About half of the devices activated were iPhone 5s, meaning sales seem to be pretty decent for Apple, although likely not spectacular.

Altogether, the company activated 9.8 million smartphones in the quarter, a record for them.

Despite a gain in subscribers and the huge activation figure, the carrier was still forced to record a $1.93 billion loss, thanks mainly to Hurricane Sandy and one-time pension adjustments.

Rival AT&T recently noted it had 10 million smartphone activations for the quarter but did not reveal their exact iPhone figures.

Apple's quarterly earnings report, which many have pegged as its most important since at least 2008, will be released tomorrow afternoon.

Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S IV flagship device has been confirmed by SamMobile, with the new codename Altius and a release date for the second week of April.

The site also confirmed some of the less important features of the device, including its colorways (black and white), its support of wireless charging, and its 2600 mAh battery.

Samsung will not reveal the phone at Mobile World Congress, but will instead hold their own "Unpacked" event in March, either in Korea or in NYC.

The rumored specs of the device are a 4.99-inch Super AMOLED Full 1080p HD display, an Exynos 5 Octa (8-Core) CPU, Mali-T658 (8-Core) GPU, 2GB of RAM, a 13MP camera that can shoot 1080p at 30FPS and a 2MP front shooter. The phone will run on Android 4.2 right out of the box along with Samsung's own suite of premium apps and its UX interface.

Microsoft has announced today that its much-anticipated Surface Pro tablet will reach the U.S. and Canada on February 9th, a little bit later than its late January slated date.

The base model will start at $900 for 64GB internal storage and reach $1000 for 128GB.

Each of the stated models will come with a stylus but will not include a Touch or Type cover, which cost $100-$130 and are what make the Surface a truly productive device.

From a design standpoint, the devices will look the same as the existing Windows RT tablets, but under the hood they are very different. The tablet has a full 1920x1080 resolution, a third-generation Core i5 processor and a full Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU. Additionally, there are 4GB of RAM, a Mini DisplayPort, a USB 3.0 port and Windows 8 Pro, which gives access to all existing Windows applications, making it infinitely more usable than RT.

Samsung has confirmed that they will be unveiling an iPad Mini challenger at next month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The device has been rumored, and will be a smaller version of the popular 10.1-inch Galaxy Note tab offered by the company.

Samsung mobile head JK Shin did not offer any other details on the tablet, but there have been previous leaks.

If accurate, the tablet will have its 8-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution, run on Android 4.2, have a quad-core processor and dual cameras.

The tablet will include the stylus seen in the larger Note tablets and the Note smartphones. Perhaps more importantly, the device is rumored to be cheap, perhaps hitting a price point as low as $199 compared to Apple's iPad Mini at $329 for the base model.

Samsung, known recently for their ads aimed directly at other companies, most notably Apple, has now taken a shot at RIM BlackBerry.

The company is trying to bust the myth that enterprise users need two phones, one for business and one for pleasure.

Samsung's Approved for Enterprise program, according to the ad, can do everything RIM's popular service can.

Check the ad here, which strangely includes a unicorn meme.

In what looks to be the most official leaks yet, Android Police has pictures of the upcoming HTC M7 with Sense 5.0.

The site has a real picture (unlike previous renders), and the pics show a few things that have been touched upon by previous reports, including the home/multitask button placement.

On the reverse side, the HTC logo looks familiar, with glossy black and the Beats logo underneath.

The device will have a quad-core Qualcomm APQ8064, a 4.7-inch 1920x1080 display with 468 ppi, 32GB of internal storage (no microSD slot), LTE and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Check all the pics at the source.

The U.S. operations division of video game pioneer Atari has filed for bankruptcy in an effort to break away from their French parent company Atari S.A.

Chapter 11 reorganization will allow the company to reemerge eventually, most likely as a private company with a new buyer.

From there, the company will grow again as a business focused on digital and mobile, say sources.

Atari pioneered gaming with hits like "Pong" and "Asteroids" but has had little success in two decades. Atari S.A. (formerly Infogrames) aquired all of its assets in 2008. Profits have been small for the U.S. operations, which brings most of the company's revenue. 2012 profits were $4 million with revenue falling 34 percent year-over-year.

The company has had a revolving credit line with BlueBay Asset Management which just lapsed, leaving the company without the proper assets to release in-development games.

According to new reports, foreigners visiting North Korea can now bring their own mobile phones into the country.

The news comes via Koryolink, the company that operates the 3G phone network in the nation.

"We have tried hard to negotiate with the Korean security side, and got the approval recently," said the source. "It has nothing to do with the Google trip."

The Google trip in reference is chairman Eric Schmidt's recent visit to the nation in which he told officials they needed to embrace Internet freedom before they could truly develop. As he said at the time: "Once the Internet starts, citizens in a country can certainly build on top of it. The government has to do something. It has to make it possible for people to use the Internet which the government in North Korea has not yet done."

North Korea has a restrictive Intranet that only allows a few hundred people access.

To use your phone (if you are a foreigner) you must provide your IMEI with North Korea's customs agency.

After months of rumors and here-say, it appears that Windows Phone 7.8 finally has an official rollout date.

Microsoft has confirmed that beginning on January 31st, users will begin receiving the updated operating system for their dated WP 7.5 devices.

The company had previously promised a Q1 2013 release and they have delivered on the earlier side.

Check the post here: Windows Phone Facebook (Spanish)

Full list of updates (via GSM):

Resizable Live Tiles
Bluetooth File transfer
Bing Picture for Lockscreen wallpaper
New theme colors
Wi-Fi tethering
You can set Google as default search provider in Internet Explorer
New boot screen
Office 14.5
Updated system and Nokia exclusive apps
Ringtone maker (also available in the Marketplace)
Counters app (also available in the Marketplace)

Sony has unveiled the thinnest tablet in the world.

The new Xperia Tablet Z is a full-sized 10.1-inch tablet that is just 6.9mm thick, even thinner than the iPad Mini.

Under the hood, the tablet runs on Android 4.1, features a 1920x1200 resolution, a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, LTE, NFC and an 8MP "backside-illuminated sensor" camera. It is all powered by a large 6000mAh battery.

Sony also says the device is waterproof and dustproof, but there is little other details on that front, so far.

Finally, the company is promoting a new feature it calls "S-Force Front Surround 3D," which supposedly helps convey a feeling of surround sound and spacial movement.

There was no word on pricing or an exact date for release, but unless Sony has changed their policy, this device will likely be $500 or higher.

According to a new China Times report, Apple is working on a new iPhone, codenamed "Math" to launch along side the upcoming iPhone 5S in June.

The new phone will feature a 4.8-inch screen, making it competitive with most Android devices, especially the Galaxy S III (and likely IV).

Component makers will begin production in March with mass production starting in mid-April. Foxconn will handle over 90 percent of the build, excluding the cameras.

The iPhone 5S, as with past Apple updates, will feature the same display size as its predecessor (4-inches) and include some upgraded internals and a new iOS variant.

A June release would mean that Apple has finally learned that a full one-year product cycle may be too long when the company only has one device.

In 2010, Sony began a new marketing campaign that included comedic actor Jerry Lambert as Kevin Butler, an alleged Sony VP of whatever the company was marketing in that ad.

The character and the ads were an instant hit, and Sony has stuck with them ever since, letting Butler introduce most new features and items for the PlayStation 3. In September of last year, Lambert took a job with Bridgestone for their "Game On" promotion. In the commercial, Lambert is portrayed playing a Nintendo Wii console. Sony was not happy and filed suit against Bridgestone Tires and Wildcat Creek, the ad agency behind the commercials. The company said Kevin Butler is their intellectual property and seeing Lambert playing a Wii will confuse consumers and hurt the brand.

As of this week, Lambert (Wildcat Creek) has settled while Bridgestone and Sony continue to battle it out in District Court.

LG has announced today that their flagship device has reached a new milestone.

The Optimus G has reached one million units shipped, a couple of weeks after the company announced their L-series phones have reached 10 million units shipped.

Of course, the figure pales in comparison to the iPhone and Samsung's latest offerings, but LG has quietly been trying to build their market share in the smartphone industry.

The company sold 55 million mobile phones (smart and dumb) in 2012, but is said to be looking to increase that figure to 75 million this year.

Microsoft has announced today the end of its introductory pricing for Windows 8 upgrades.

As of February 1st, the following are the new prices (via BI):

The Windows 8 Pro upgrade edition will be available online and at retail for $199.99 MSRP (U.S.).
The Windows 8 upgrade edition will be available online and at retail for $119.99 MSRP (U.S.).
The Windows 8 Pro Pack will cost $99.99 MSRP (U.S.).
The Windows 8 Media Center Pack will cost $9.99 MSRP (U.S.).

Current prices are significantly cheaper, as Microsoft is hoping to get upgraders. If you purchased a new PC with Windows 7 between June 2nd and the end of this month, the upgrade costs $15. Windows 8 Pro upgrade discs cost $70 otherwise.

According to a new report citing unnamed developers, the PS4 will be significantly more powerful for raw computing than the upcoming Xbox 8/Next/720/Durango.

The devs say they were briefed at CES on the final hardware specs of the consoles, which are widely expected to launch this holiday season.

On the other end, the Xbox will have 8GB of RAM, compared to 4GB of system RAM for the PS4.

Both machines will be able to read up to 100GB Blu-ray discs, meaning capacity for games on a single disc should not be an issue for many years to come.

Of course, some out of context specs cannot compare to real life system performance. Adds Richard Leadbetter of Digital Foundry: "The rumours are certainly plausible, but we're essentially looking at singular components in isolation and not in context of the system as a whole. The PlayStation 3 has a graphics core that is basically an entire generation behind that in the Xbox 360, yet no one can deny that it's Sony's first party games that have led the way in the visual arts."

Major manufacturer Sharp has slashed its full-sized iPad panel production, as demand is predicating a sales shift towards the iPad Mini (and its successors).

Production of the 9.7-inch LCDs have "fallen to a minimal level" in Japan, says the sources, following a trend that began after the iPad Mini was launched at the beginning of November last year.

The slowdown may just be for seasonality reasons, say the sources, but they believe it to be a demand shift towards the 7.9-inch iPad Mini.

By many accounts, the iPad Mini is on the verge of outselling its full-sized brother, already, just two months after launch. Apple will report their earnings next week.

The company is also expected to launch a new iPad (and possibly a new iPad Mini) in March.

Thanks to a new leak, we can see that LG is working on a new sequel to its popular Optimus G.

The Optimus G Pro will feature a 5-inch 1080p screen, keeping up with new offerings from Motorola and HTC.

Additionally, the phone will be powered by a quad-core Krait CPU at 1.7GHz and the phone will include a larger 3000mAh battery. The smartphone may also include an IR port.

The rest of the phone is none too shabby, either. The device will run on Android Jelly Bean, include 2GB of RAM, a 13MP rear camera, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, NFC and LTE.

After 15 years, it appears that Sony will move away from the classic DualShock controller design seen in past PlayStation consoles.

The upcoming PS4 will see the new controller, which has already gone through "numerous iterations" in its prototypes, say CVG sources.

Some of the experiments have included controllers with biometric sensors and LCD touch screens although it is still unclear how the final model will look or feel.

A second source says Sony is "trying to emulate the same user interface philosophies as the PS Vita" which most likely means touch interfaces of some sort.

Sony unveiled the DualShock design with the original PlayStation, and has evolved to include wireless capabilities, rumble, and some motion control.

After rumors of Instagram's demise were posted across the Internet last month, parent Facebook has decided to reveal some user base figures.

The social networking giant says Instagram now has 90 million monthly active users, a large 10 percent increase over last month.

Reports had claimed that following a ToS (terms of service) fiasco, that Instagram had lost up to 40 million of its active users. Clearly, this was incorrect.

"Instagram continues to see very strong growth around the world," added Kevin Systrom, the service's founder.

According to at least one survey, the Google Nexus 7 is outselling the Apple iPad in Japan, huge news if accurate.

Market research firm BCN conducted the survey last month, surveying 2400 consumer electronics stores in the nation.

The Nexus 7 had market share of 44.4 percent compared to Apple's 40.1 percent.

BCN did note that there was a large shortage of iPad Minis in stores, which likely led to the market share decline. However, the firm concluded that price was the biggest factor, as the Nexus 7 retails for over $100 less than the iPad Mini and $300 less than full-sized iPads.

Tablet sales grew to 3.6 million in 2012, with that number expected to grow another 50 percent in 2013.

According to a new report, Google will take a minority stake in major music video distributor Vevo.

The stake could cost the company up to $67 million and makes sense as it is becoming apparent the company is looking to move more into distribution through its YouTube brand.

Vevo is the top traffic driver to YouTube with its music videos, many of which receive over 100 million hits depending on the artist.

The music video distributor is a joint venture between Universal Music, Sony Music and Abu Dhabi Media.

Both companies have had a rocky relationship over the past few years, mainly over fees.

Fortune has unveiled their annual "100 Best Companies to Work For in 2013," and Google topped the list.

There were numerous tech companies on the list, but there are some extremely surprising omissions from the list. Apple and Facebook were notably absent, for starters.

Here is a list of some major tech firms (via TNW):

1: Google
2: SAS
11: Qualcomm
19: Salesforce.com
22: Intuit
34: Rackspace Hosting
42: Cisco
63: Hitachi
68: Intel
75: Microsoft

In crowning Google, Fortune writes: "The Internet juggernaut takes the Best Companies crown for the fourth time, and not just for the 100,000 hours of free massages it doled out in 2012. New this year are three wellness centers and a seven-acre sports complex, which includes a roller hockey rink; courts for basketball, bocce, and shuffle ball; and horseshoe pits."

Asus is currently in talks with Microsoft in an effort to begin offering Windows Phone 8 devices.

The company, known for its PCs and tablets, has offered phones in the past but all were met with mediocre sales.

Smartphones, as an industry, are booming. Shipments rose 45 percent year-over-year, compared to a horrible 3.2 percent contraction in PCs, where the market has nowhere to go but down.

Asus has had discussions with Microsoft on introducing its next "Padfone" with Windows Phone 8. The padfone is a smartphone that docks into a tablet.

Says Benson Lin, Asus's corporate vice president of mobile-communication products: "With our Padfone concept, the phone plus tablet, I think it makes sense for Windows 8. There is no target timeline...but we are interested in making Windows phones."

Additionally, Asus, which has practically no U.S. presence except for its Google Nexus 7, is speaking with carriers in the nation to bring its phones to market this year.

According to new reports, Samsung will unveil its challenger to the popular iPad Mini next month at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona.

The tablet will be an 8-inch version of the Galaxy Note. The iPad Mini is 7.9-inches, larger than rivals in the market like the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 which are just 7 inches.

More importantly, the Note 8.0 will be "cheap," most likely featuring a $199 price tag. Apple's tablet has a $329 price tag in its base model.

The Note 8.0 will run Jelly Bean and include the stylus seen in the larger Note tablets and the Note smartphones.

According to Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, Apple is preparing to announce a massive fourth quarter.

The analyst says the company shipped 52 million iPhones during the quarter, 41 percent growth year-over-year.

iPhone 5 models are the bulk of the shipments, accounting for 35 million. The iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 still had strong sales, at 9.5 million and 7.3 million. Kuo cited supply chain checks for his figures.

On the tablet side, Kuo forecasted 23 million units shipped, a large 49 percent year-over-year increase. The new fourth-gen iPad will account for 9.3 million shipped units and the iPad mini will account for 8.2 million shipments.

Apple has been in the headlines recently after the WSJ reported that Apple was seeing weak iPhone 5 demand and was cutting shipments by 50 percent.

Leap Motion, which first demoed its awesome gesture control system for PCs over the summer, will be available for purchase at Best Buy in the coming months.

While the Leap has been available for pre-order for some time, there has never been a specific date for release except for the company saying "early 2013." Additionally, the tech will be built into certain Asus all-in-ones and laptops, as well.

The retail partnership with Best Buy will be exclusive, at the same selling price of $69.99.

Leap has shipped 12,000 units to devs, so far, and has raised over $70 million from investors. By the time of final production, CEO Michael Buckwald says he expects the number of devices shipped to be in the hundreds of thousands.

"Finding a major retail partner for our North American launch was a critical component to our strategy, and Best Buy was the obvious choice," added Leap Motion President and COO Andy Miller. "Best Buy's market leadership and extensive store distribution network, combined with the product floor space and dedicated marketing promotional plans, represents an incredible opportunity to bring the Leap Motion controller to a massive consumer audience."

Somewhat ridiculously, the Internet was ablaze this week after a report surfaced that Google had killed a donkey with one of their Street View cars.

This is one of the images in question:



Google has settled the story, claiming that the sequence was taken in reverse, and the donkey is just fine.

Check the real sequence of images:

T-Mobile has announced that it will be expanding distribution of the Google Nexus 4 to its entire retail chain.

Despite having little to no supply, the carrier says all of its stores should have a small amount of stock "in the coming weeks."

Additionally, you'll be able to buy the device from T-Mobile online starting on January 23rd, although the prices are significantly more expensive than if you buy the unlocked model from Google directly.

With contract, the phone will cost $199, or $499 without for the 16GB model. If you can get it through Google's Play Store, the same phone costs $349 and works with a T-Mobile microSIM with no issues.

Check our review of the excellent device, here: Review: The Google Nexus 4

Samsung's Galaxy S series, some of the most popular phones in the world, have hit a major milestone.

The company has announced this week that total shipments of the series have reached 100 million. The original Galaxy S launched in March 2010.

While the original had strong sales at the time, its sequels have been the real hits.

The Galaxy S II has shipped 40 million units in 20 months and the new Galaxy S III has reached 40 million shipments in just 7 months. Samsung says the phone is shipping 190,000 units daily.

There are already rumors of the Galaxy S IV, which is expected to launch in March with a quad-core processor, a 5-inch screen and other unknown features.

Thanks to mobile, China's Internet population has grown significantly, again.

According to a new report from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China's Internet population grew by 10 percent, to 564 million (since the end of 2011), reaching 42.1 percent penetration.

The report says those connecting via tablets, smartphones and wireless networks increased by 18.1 percent in the same period, bringing total wireless population up to 420 million.

Overall, mobile tech use jumped while laptop and desktop usage fell (albeit slightly).

Earlier in the month, a different Chinese agency said the country's Internet population would hit 800 million by 2015.

In an effort to push customers into a contract, AT&T is offering a special deal on the Google Nexus 7 tablet.

Reads AT&T's note:

Special Offer from AT&T:
Through February 14, 2013, receive a $100 AT&T bill credit by signing a 2 year service agreement on qualified postpaid standalone or Mobile Share plans. Activate on-device, visit an AT&T store or call 1-800-908-9859 to take advantage of this offer (3).

United Airlines has announced the introduction of satellite-based Wi-Fi for international flights.

The move is the first for a U.S.-based international carrier.

Boeing 747-400s that serve both trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific routes will be the first with the technology. Each will be equipped with Panasonic Avionics Corporation's Ku-band satellite technology.

"Satellite-based Wi-Fi service enables us to better serve our customers and offer them more of what they want in a global airline," added Jim Compton, our vice chairman and chief revenue officer. "With this new service, we continue to build the airline that customers want to fly."

Depending on how long the flight is, costs will vary. For "Standard" speeds, the prices are between $3.99 and $14.99 and "Accelerated" speeds will cost between $5.99 and $19.99.

Apple has begun allowing users to buy iPhones and Macbook laptops in China while paying in installments.

The payments can be made over a two year period with a purchase price limited to 30000 yuan ($4800) or less. To take advantage of the installment plan, you will need to get a credit card from China Merchants Bank Co.

Apple will allow buyers to split payments in 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 installments and if you choose 12 installments or less there is no interest. If you split it to 18, the interest is 6.5 percent and the interest jumps to 8.5 percent for 24 installments.

CEO Tim Cook has said China will soon overcome the U.S. to become the company's largest market.

However, unlike in the U.S., purchasing an iPhone in China is a very expensive proposition for most. The average urban worker in China makes enough to purchase an iPhone in 6 weeks. The iPhone costs above 5000 yuan, compared to an 800-1000 yuan price tag for locally-built Android devices.

Samsung has confirmed their 5-inch 1080p SuperAMOLED display.

The screen will have 440 PPI, and will keep the company current with other manufacturers that have released similar displays, including Motorola and HTC.

Compared to previous models, the new sAMOLED has 25 percent power savings, and can see up to 47 percent power savings in "low power mode."

The display has long been rumored for the upcoming Galaxy S IV, which is expected to be unveiled in March.

Mass production on the 5-inch display is expected by the end of this quarter, reads a CES slide.

Oracle has quickly patched the Java vulnerability that was bad it forced Apple and others to block Java from their browsers.

Says Oracle: This Security Alert addresses security issues CVE-2013-0422 (US-CERT Alert TA13-010A - Oracle Java 7 Security Manager Bypass Vulnerability) and another vulnerability affecting Java running in web browsers. These vulnerabilities are not applicable to Java running on servers, standalone Java desktop applications or embedded Java applications. They also do not affect Oracle server-based software.

The fixes in this Alert include a change to the default Java Security Level setting from "Medium" to "High". With the "High" setting, the user is always prompted before any unsigned Java applet or Java Web Start application is run.

These vulnerabilities may be remotely exploitable without authentication, i.e., they may be exploited over a network without the need for a username and password. To be successfully exploited, an unsuspecting user running an affected release in a browser will need to visit a malicious web page that leverages these vulnerabilities. Successful exploits can impact the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of the user's system. Read more...

According to a new Forbes report, the worst thing possible has happened to the iPhone; it's no longer 'cool' with teens.

"There was quite some negative buzz about the iPhone 5 and the lack of a real incremental innovation, except for the screen size and weight, when compared to the 4S. So this has an effect on the originality component of coolness," says Insites-Consulting's Joeri Van den Bergh, via Forbes.

Samsung and other Android phone makers have been working hard to innovate, and there has been significant marketing on having customers move on to the "next big thing." Apple has been branded as the phone that even your grandmother uses, and for the most part, it is true.

"Teens are telling us Apple is done," says Tina Wells of youth marketing agency Buzz Marketing Group. "Apple has done a great job of embracing Gen X and older [Millennials], but I don't think they are connecting with Millennial kids. [They're] all about Surface tablets/laptops and Galaxy."

If you are one of the many millions of Wii owners, don't worry, the world has not forgotten about you despite the launch of the Wii U.

Amazon has announced today that it will be bringing its streaming library to the aging console, just a couple of weeks after the Wii U got the same treatment.

The Instant Video library has 145,000 titles and 33,000 are free to you if you are a Prime member. Prime costs $79 per year and gives you access to streaming and free 2-day shipping on most items.

Nearly all existing features are also available including Whispersync, which let's you continue watching no matter what device you are on.

If you are a parent, Parental Controls and Amazon Kid Zone are available, as well.

The service is available today through the Wii Shop Channel.

LG has dodged blame for the serious supply issues Google has been having for its Nexus 4 flagship.

As I have written in depth on this site, trying to buy the Nexus 4 has been a disaster for most. At launch, the company had less than 100,000 available and the devices sold out within 20 minutes with Google's own hardware Play Store site practically unusable during the time.

The company made a few hundred thousand more devices available at the end of November, but there were serious technical errors again, and shipping times quickly ballooned from 1 week to 9 weeks before the device sold out again. It remains sold out.

Google even went as far as to say that supply from LG were "scarce and erratic" last month.

LG, however, says that production is going as planned at its Pyeongtaek plant in South Korea, with no known supply issues.

According to Baird Equity Research industry analyst Colin Sebastian, the upcoming consoles from Sony and Microsoft will retail for $400, or possibly even less.

The analyst cites meetings he had with developers and "a number of companies" during CES.

If accurate, the prices would be lower than expected and would put the consoles in fighting range of the Wii U, which sells for $300 as a base model and $350 for a deluxe model. The original PS3 retailed for $600 when it was released in 2006.

Most likely, at $400, Microsoft and Sony would have to endure losses on the hardware, which both have done in the past to take share.

"Given the fragile state of the console game market, we expect the E3 trade show in June will take on added significance, most likely providing the industry with the first public opportunity to examine next-generation hardware," Sebastian added. Read more...

Nvidia's upcoming Tegra 4 processor has been clocked by Fudzilla.

The processor will feature the same quad-core setup as the Tegra 3 plus the fifth ninja 'battery saver' core.

In terms of architecture, the processor will use a Cortex-A15, and the GPU will be "72-core," with 6 times the power of the current chips.

Furthermore, and most importantly, the Tegra 4 uses the 28nm manufacturing process, meaning battery life will be improved significantly. Additionally, the processor has support for USB 3.0, 4K video and resolutions up to 2,560 x 1,600.

Zilla says the final version of the chip is on the way, as Nvidia has already shipped out the revision before retail.

The Tegra 4 is expected for mass production soon and to be seen in tablets in the Q2.

According to a quote from Sony Home Entertainment VP Hiroshi Sakamoto, the upcoming PlayStation 4 could be revealed before the E3 event in June.

Speaking during CES, Sakamoto had this to say: "That's still a big secret [the release date]. But our friends are preparing PlayStation. I can only say that we are focused on the E3 gaming event, scheduled for June. Announcement may be in that minute or even earlier in May.

In that time we expect to deliver great news, but we must wait until May at least."

Sony declined any other comment after the quote was reported.

A federal court has ruled this week that Netflix has been receiving an unfair advantage from the US Postal Service (USPS) thanks to special handling of its DVD business.

The court also ordered regulators to offer a good explanation as to why, or remedy the discrimination immediately.

GameFly, the video game rental company, is the big winner in the case, as they originally claimed that Netflix's DVDs were receiving the preferential treatment over their own discs.

The ball is now in the Postal Regulatory Commission's court, as they will either have to come up with the explanation or "remedy all discrimination."

Adds GameFly: "We trust that the commission will take the court's decision to heart, and require the postal service to be compliant with the law by offering the same price and quality of service to all DVD rental companies."

Netflix is the USPS's biggest DVD mailer by a long shot, and the company added after the ruling that "the different treatment that we provided to our customers was fully justified and reasonable, and consistent with the law."

A group led by Google and Apple have been approved to purchase Kodak's patent portfolio for $527 million.

The photography pioneer is looking to exit bankruptcy, and the patent sale was one of the final remaining hurdles to do so.

While the figure may seem significant, Kodak's advisory firm had estimated the patents could bring in $2 billion when accounting for future licensing. No one bid higher than $527 million and Kodak had zero leverage.

The group also includes RIM, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Shutterfly, HTC and Samsung, each of which will license the patents equally to help avoid patent litigation into the future.

Kodak's portfolio includes 1,000 patents each related to the capture, manipulation and sharing of digital images.

According to the WSJ, Apple has begun cutting component orders for the iPhone 5 due to weak demand.

For example, Apple has cut its orders for iPhone 5 displays by 50 percent for the January-to-March quarter, say the sources.

Additionally, the company is slashing orders for other components, as well, letting their suppliers know over the last month.

If accurate, the news is a massive blow for Apple, who was banking on strong iPhone 5 sales to better compete with Samsung in the race for global smartphone dominance.

During the fourth quarter of 2011, Apple had a 23 percent market share of global smartphone shipments. That number fell to 14.6 percent by the Q3 2012. Samsung, on the other hand, rose to 31.3 percent in the quarter thanks to the popularity of their Android workhorses, the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II.

Microsoft has announced this week that their latest, Windows 8, has reached 60 million licenses sold.

Windows Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Financial Officer Tami Reller made the announcement, explaining that the figure includes both upgrades and sales to OEMs for new purchases.

Perhaps more importantly, the company adds: "This is a similar sales trajectory that we saw with Windows 7."

Additionally, Reller noted: "We have seen a significant increase in the number of Windows 8 certified systems since general availability at the end of October. There are now more than 1,700 certified systems for Windows 8 and Windows RT."

On the Windows 8 app side, the company says the amount of available apps is up 400 percent since launch and there have been 100 million apps downloaded, to date.

Although it is not too surprising, the new Wii U has outperformed its predecessor in terms of revenue.

Nintendo has sold 890,000 since launch in November, bringing in $300 million in revenue.

The original Wii brought in $270 million in its similar launch period, but of course there is a major caveat with the comparison. The Wii U sells for $300 or $350 while the original Wii launched at $250 in 2006.

Despite this fact, Nintendo of America's EVP of Sales and Marketing Scott Moffitt added (via ATD): "While the Wii launch established new benchmarks in the United States, Wii U has surpassed its predecessor in perhaps the most important category: revenue generation."

Nintendo, which has said they are happy with Wii U sales, to date, sells two editions of the Wii U with the second including premium features and more internal storage.

In the age of 4K resolution and OLED super displays, some people seem to just not care.

The UK's television licensing authority has announced that just over 13,000 households in the region are still using black and white TVs, even though color broadcasts began on BBC in 1967.

While the display is certainly not current, users may have other motives for keeping them. A b&w TV license costs £49 compared to £145.50 for a color TV. However, if you own a computer, tablet, smartphone or DVR, you still have to pay the full color TV license fee.

In the year 2000, there were 212,000 households using the old school TVs, with a steady decline until today.

Overall, there are 25 million licensed viewers in the UK.

R.I.P Aaron Swartz.

Swartz, the celebrated Internet activist took his own life earlier today. He was 26.

The programmer was also one of the original developers of Reddit and authored the RSS specification when he was just 14 years old.

Swartz was set to begin a federal trial next month over charges of computer fraud, for which he had plead not guilty. The charges related to 5 million academic papers that Swartz allegedly downloaded from the academic online archive JSTOR, which costs money to access if you are not affiliated with a college/University. Prosecutors claimed he intended to share the files, for free, online after having stole them through illegal access on M.I.T's campus.

The programmer was facing 35 years in prison, and a $1 million fine if convicted.

Last year, Swartz also co-founded Demand Progress, a group to promote social justice issues online. The group helped take down last year's SOPA and PIPA Internet censorship bills.

Over the past week, the rumor mill has been in full swing that Apple is preparing a cheaper iPhone for the emerging markets.

On Thursday, a Chinese paper posted an interview with Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller, with the report stating that Apple would not develop a cheaper smartphone just for the sake of expanding its market share.

That report has now been retracted, as the content has changed drastically. Instead of the original quotes, Schiller is now quoted as saying "the company wants to provide the best products but will not blindly pursue market share."

While that quote could still mean the company will not create the rumored device, it is certainly not a flat out denial as was posted before.

For those keeping score at home, Apple denied the iPad Mini for a year before it was released even though the media had all specs and even the name right.

A huge security exploit was discovered for Java versions 4 through 7 earlier this week, prompting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to recommend users block the browser plug-in until Oracle can patch it.

Instead of giving users the choice, Apple has gone the safe route, blocking the plug-in from within Mac OS X.

The vulnerability allows remote installation of malware such as keyloggers and software that could turn your PC into a zombie for a botnet.

"We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem," said Homeland Security's Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT). "This vulnerability is being attacked in the wild, and is reported to be incorporated into exploit kits. Exploit code for this vulnerability is also publicly available."

Apple was able to block the plug-in by updating its "Xprotect.plist" blacklist "to require a minimum of 1.7.0_10-b19 version of Java 7," which is set for release in a few weeks. All other versions fail the anti-malware checks of the OS.

Raspberry Pi, the mini $35 computer boards released last year, have reached their first major milestone.

One of their retailers says over 500,000 have been sold, with growth actually accelerating.

Element 14/Premier Farnell, one of the two companies selling the device, says they just reached the milestone, suggesting there have likely been one million sold when calculating the figures from the second retailers, RS Components.

Recent reports detailed that Pis, which are built in the UK, were being produced one every 7.5 seconds.

The developers behind the hardware created the boards to ensure that anyone who wants to learn programming or basic computing will not have to shell out an arm and a leg. It seems they are succeeding.

Samsung has confirmed it will not release a Windows RT tablet in the U.S.

The company's RT-based tablet, the Ativ Tab, will stay on the sidelines as the company confirmed that its retail partners did not have viable demand for it.

Mike Abary, head of Samsung's PC and tablet business in the U.S, also cited the confusion of Windows RT versus Windows 8 Pro as a major deterrent to releasing the product. As stated to Cnet:

There wasn't really a very clear positioning of what Windows RT meant in the marketplace, what it stood for relative to Windows 8, that was being done in an effective manner to the consumer. When we did some tests and studies on how we could go to market with a Windows RT device, we determined there was a lot of heavy lifting we still needed to do to educate the customer on what Windows RT was. And that heavy lifting was going to require pretty heavy investment. When we added those two things up, the investments necessary to educate the consumer on the difference between RT and Windows 8, plus the modest feedback that we got regarding how successful could this be at retail from our retail partners, we decided maybe we ought to wait.

Polaroid has introduced a new tablet at CES this week.

The tablets main selling point is its price, which is just $129, undercutting all existing 7-inch devices from known brands.

Polaroid's new M7 has a 7-inch, 1,280 x 800 pixel display with 216ppi, an unspecified dual-core processor, a 2MP front camera and 8GB internal storage that can be expanded via microSD cards.

Additionally, the tablet will run on Android 4.1.

More info here: Brochure

Amazon has launched "AutoRip" today, to much praise.

The new feature allows customers to receive free digital copies of their purchased CDs for up to 50,000 albums. The program will also give MP3s for CDs purchased any time in the last 15 years.

All CDs, if they are eligible, will be added to your Cloud Player where it can be downloaded or streamed at 256kbps.

Your storage space is not affected, either, as the space taken will not count towards your current limit.

The deal is certainly great if you have been purchasing CDs for a long time, especially via Amazon.

Netflix has confirmed the date for the upcoming episodes of 'Arrested Development,' which was cancelled by Fox in 2006 but has a huge cult following.

Fourteen new episodes of the show will be made available for streaming starting in May although there was no exact date given.

Creator Mitch Hurwitz was quick to say that the new episodes should not be considered "Season 4," and that they will be in "order to create the maximum number of surprises," but that you could watch out of order without missing too much.

Each episode will be variable length, like Showtime and HBO shows, moving away from the 21-22 minute format necessary for TV with commercial breaks.

Hurwitz is ecstatic for the new episodes. The show had low ratings for three years on Fox, but is considered by some to be the funniest show of all-time: "One of the reasons Arrested wasn't embraced at the time was it wasn't easy to get your head around it. It was a point of pride with me; I wanted to create a show that had surprises. But that's what they want to do (at Netflix). They want to take risks. They encouraged the complexity that had been discouraged before."

ZTE has announced that is working on a Firefox phone to be released in Europe this year.

The company, which is China's second largest maker of phone equipment says there is a chance that they will release a similar phone in the U.S. this year, as well.

Looking to break some of its dependence on Google's Android, ZTE will try the device on Mozilla's recently announced mobile operating system.

"We closely monitor the ecosystem and how it evolves," says the company. "If that is ready and if consumer studies support that data, then we may launch one in U.S. also this year."

The OS is backed by Deutsche Telekom, Sprint Nextel and Telefonica SA, each of who are looking to build cheaper devices not running on Android.

Verizon, in its recent 8-K regulatory filing, announced it had record smartphone activations in the Q4 2012.

The carrier saw 9.8 million smartphones activated during the period, mainly thanks to a "higher mix of Apple smartphones."

Impressively, the company said it "expects to see 2.1 million retail post-paid net additions during the fourth quarter."

Just one day before, rival AT&T announced it had activated 10 million smartphones during the quarter, citing Apple and Android devices as the sole factor.

Verizon and AT&T are fighting for the top spot in the U.S., with Verizon having a couple million subscriber lead and a wider LTE 4G network.

According to a new Bloomberg report, Apple has plans to sell a low-end iPhone by the end of the year.

The smaller and cheaper device will be aimed at developing nations where Apple has practically zero presence.

Sources say the company has been working on the phone since February 2011 and is aiming for a retail price of $99-$149 depending on storage.

Recent IDC numbers had Android running away with global market share, as 75 percent of smartphone shipments in the last quarter were Android compared to just 15 percent for iOS.

The new device would use cheaper internal components and would also be "smaller" although its hard to imagine how much smaller the device can get as even budget Android devices have 4-inch screens.

Dropbox and Samsung have announced tighter integration into the future.

As part of the new deal, Dropbox will be pre-installed and integrated to new Samsung devices, including the Grand smartphone and all of Samsung's smart cameras.

The cameras will automatically upload the photos to the cloud service when using.

Any new user will be offered free 50GB of capacity when they activate Dropbox, although it is unclear if that storage will be permanent or just temporary after the purchase.

"Dropbox's new file-sharing capabilities leave a thumbnail of the original photo or video content on secondary device that are also Dropbox enabled. The actual content will not download until a user clicks on the thumbnail," says the source.

In doing so, the company says it will save users much-needed data bandwidth.

Hasbro has announced that one of its iconic 'Monopoly' game tokens will be replaced, via Facebook vote.

Through the new "Save Your Token" campaign, interested parties can choose to retire the race car, battleship, the iron, the dog, the wheelbarrow, the shoe, the top hat or the thimble, many of which have been around since the 1930s.

You have until February 5th to vote, here, for which token you want to see saved from retirement and which one you want added.

The replacements are a robot, a helicopter, a cat, a guitar or a diamond ring.

There have been almost 300 million copies produced since the game launched in 1935 during the midst of the Great Depression. The dog and wheelbarrow were added in the 1950s while two pieces, the horse and cannon were removed in the late 1990s.

Comically, oddsmakers have the wheelbarrow at the highest odds of being outed.

Yesterday, Samsung showed off its impressive new flexible OLED phone prototype at CES to much attention.

The displays can be rolled up into a circle without cracking or losing any details.

Although Samsung's prototype could not be fully rolled, the phone had a 5-inch, 16:9 resolution screen that curved around the edge of the phone without any loss of image.

Of course, there is no real practical reason for a curved phone design at this time, but the tech is still extremely impressive and shows that Samsung remains on the forefront of mobile innovation.

Check some pictures via Verge's hands-on:

Verizon's streaming movie service, Redbox Instant, will go out of beta in March.

The service, which directly competes with Netflix and Amazon, has one distinct advantage. Redbox has 42,600 kiosks around the nation, and subscribers to the streaming service get codes for 4 free rentals every month including brand new releases.

At $8, the service is the same price as Netflix, which charges an additional $8 if you want access to DVDs by mail.

Says Redbox Instant by Verizon CEO Shawn Strickland: "We're doing the invitation-based beta now...but we will launch sometime later this quarter. Movies are the core of the Redbox brand, and movies are underserved in this space."

Currently, the service has 7500 streaming titles, less than a third of Netflix and Amazon's catalogs.

Deutsche Telekom CEO John Legere says its T-Mobile USA unit will start selling the iPhone in the next three months.

Additionally, the carrier will be eliminating handset subsidies in 2013, and will plan to do so right at the same time it begins selling the popular Apple device.

In eliminating subsidies, the carrier says it can give customers lower monthly service prices and much more flexibility.

Outside of those two major developments, the company also hopes to close its merger with MetroPCS at the same time and will also look to partner with Dish Network and Leap Wireless for spectrum and network sharing.

The BBK BitTorrent Box is finally here.

The set-top runs on Android and will allow users to stream files downloaded through uTorrent right to their TV.

Additionally, the box can download torrents itself, and can playback all types of video formats including MKV, AVI and WMV.


The device supports DLNA, meaning it can access your other media libraries, as well.

Perhaps most importantly, because the device is Android, users can install VPN apps before beginning to download.

The box sells for 89 euros and will ship only to European nations.

ZTE has used CES to unveil their new flagship.

The 5-inch 1080p 'Grand S' dispaly will feature 440ppi and be protected by Gorilla Glass 2.

Grand S flagships will run on Android Jelly Bean, be powered by a 1.7GHz quad-core processor and include 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage and an LTE radio. The unibody design clocks in at a thin 6.9mm.

Additionally, the phone has dual cameras 2MP/13MP, with facial recognition, panorama and dual LED flash.

The phone has a smaller 1,780 mAh non-removable battery, a microSD card slot and Dolby Digital surround sound.

As for colorways, you can get black and white "matte", or pink, yellow, red and mint green "glossy."

Pebble, the smartwatch that is Kickstarter's highest funded project of all-time, now has an official ship date.

Reads the email I received this morning:

Dear Pebblers,

Without any further ado, the moment you have all been waiting for has arrived – we're thrilled to announce that we'll begin shipping Pebble on January 23rd. We've been working very hard for the past year to deliver something that we're truly proud of...and we know that we would not have been able to do it without the support of our Backers. So thank you!

We just wrapped up our live video demo of Pebble. You can review the video here: http://new.livestream.com/accounts/2432013/CES2013/videos/8991209. Please excuse the discolouring in the video; we will get that fixed up and reposted as soon as possible.

In addition to previously mentioned features, your Pebble will include the following sensors that we'll enable with future updates:

· Magnetometer - we've added this in so you'll have compass-like functionality

· Ambient light sensors - your Pebble watch will be able to understand how much light is available in its current environment

Read more...

Today at CES, Samsung announced their latest mobile processor, the Exyos 5 Octa.

The Octa has 8 cores and uses ARM's new big.LITTLE processor technology.

Big.LITTLE "switches between two clusters of four cores each: ARM Cortex-A15 for performance, and Cortex-A7 to handle common workloads while providing better battery life," says Verge.

Samsung says it can slash power consumption by 70 percent compared to its own Exynos 5 Dual by using the A7 cores for some tasks.

Thanks to the four Cortex-A15, the processor will also outgun the Samsung Nexus 10's dual-core A15.

LinkedIn has reached 200 million users.

The professional social network reached the milestone this week, with members in 205 nations in 19 different languages.

"I'd like to thank each of you for helping build the LinkedIn network into what it is today," LinkedIn senior vice president of products and user experience, Deep Nishar, added. "It's been amazing to see how our members have been able to transform their professional lives through LinkedIn. You truly grasp the power of LinkedIn when you start to focus on these individual success stories."

The company reached its first major milestone of 100 million in March 2011, 8 years after launch. Clearly, growth has accelerated significantly.

LinkedIn says Turkey, Colombia, and Indonesia are its fastest-growing markets with mobile growth highest in China, Brazil, and Portugal. The U.S. is of course the most important, accounting for 74 million members.

Netflix has added 3D movies to its streaming catalog, but only if your ISP uses Netflix's own Open Connect CDN.

Additionally, the company has added "Super HD," a higher quality 1080p stream with better picture than current streams.

You can check whether your ISP is using Open Connect here, and Netflix suggests that if they are not you should send them an email or call and request it.

On the 3D side, most customers will not be missing much. There were just over 30 titles added this week, including some nature and Red Bull extreme sports films. Super HD is available to PS3, Roku, Wii U, Windows 8 and some Samsung or Sony Blu-ray players and Smart TVs. Netflix is aiming to have its entire catalog available in Super HD in the next month or two.

Google has announced it will be offering free Wi-Fi in Chelsea, an affluent neighborhood in Manhattan.

The company's local headquarters is located in Chelsea, and the 13-block neighborhood is very populous.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in attendance for the joint press conference, along with NY Senator Chuck Schumer.

The Wi-Fi will be available to anyone outdoors, and Google says public housing units in the area will receive indoor coverage, as well.

Google says average down speeds for its free Wi-Fi will be 5-10 Mbits/s. The infrastructure needed for the project cost Google just $115,000 and will require $45,000 in annual maintenance. The company makes that kind of profit in just a matter of minutes.

"It's not very expensive at all -- just a smidgeon of what Sandy cost," added Senator Schumer. "The mayor and I said maybe we could get this done for all of New York. We look forward to the day when all of New York has free Wi-Fi."

Unofficially revealed last month, Huawei has officially unveiled their 6.1-inch 720p beast, the Ascend Mate.

The device has the largest screen yet of any smartphone, and the company claims it takes up 73 percent of the front of the phone.

Huawei added "Magic Touch" to the screen, as well, which will allow users to type and utilize their phone with gloves on. Powering the massive screen is a 4050 mAh battery and a Hi-Silicon 1.5 GHz quad-core processor.

Android 4.1 is the operating system, with an expected update to 4.2 in the future.

There are dual cameras, including a standard 8MP rear camera. More importantly, the company says the phone can last two days on a charge thanks to power management tech and its giant size.

Alcatel has used their CES showcase to launch the "world's thinnest smartphone," the One Touch Idol Ultra.

Additionally, the company unveiled what it claims to be the lightest smartphone in the world, the One Touch Idol.

At 6.45mm thick, the company claims the Ultra is the thinnest in the world, and while its only marginally thinner than others, the claim is likely true. The phone boasts a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a 4.7-inch HD OLED screen, Android 4.2 and an 8MP camera.

The world's lightest smartphone, the Idol, clocked in at 110g. That phone features a 4.7-inch IPS LCD screen, Android 4.2, 'premium brushed metallic finishes,' and an 8MP camera.

Alcatel did not reveal the pricing or launch date for either phone.

Idol:

LG has announced that its 55-inch OLED HDTV will hit the U.S. in March, a slight delay from its original expected release date.

U.S. marketing chief James Fishler says the TV will cost $12,000 retail, in-line with expectations from other existing OLED models.

LG first announced the set at last CES, winning awards, but ultimately it was delayed due to manufacturing hiccups.

OLED TVs offer frames 50 percent thinner than even the thinnest LED TVs and also offer the blackest blacks and sharpest colors. OLED are used in most smartphones but manufacturing large displays have proven difficult.

A Chinese man has plead guilty this week to selling $100 million worth of pirated software.

Making this case different, however, is the nature of the software. The pirated tech was used for defense, space technology and engineering, and many cost $100,000 or higher for a license.

Between the years of 2008 and 2011, Xiang Li stole software from 200 American companies including Microsoft, Oracle, Rockwell Automation,, Agilent Technologies, Siemens, Delcam, Altera Corp and SAP. The software was then sold to 325 black market buyers across 61 nations.

U.S. officials, performing an undercover sting, arrested Li on the Pacific island of Saipan, an American territory near Guam. Originally charged with 46 different offenses, Li plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright violations and wire fraud.

At its peak, Li was offering over 2000 pirated titles, selling some for as little as $20 and some for as much as $1200, says Reuters.

Earlier today, pirates were saddened when they tried to reach their haven, The Pirate Bay.

For a couple of hours, The Pirate Bay went offline, globally, including proxy sites linked to it.

The site is back up now, and there was little word on the downtime, so it can most likely be attributed to technical difficulties.

There had been a rumor that ISPs were blocking the site again, but they proved to be untrue.

In early November, Google announced their latest Nexus phone, simply called the Nexus 4. The device is built by LG and packs high-end specs along with a price tag that is unbeatable.

Google decided to skip the carriers with the new device, instead selling it through their own Google Play Store starting at $299.

Unfortunately, the company was met with launch day hangups that caused the Play Store to crash and for a small number of would-be buyers to actually be able to purchase the device. In early December, the company began offering another lot of their inventory, and was once again met with server crashes and errors. However, many more people were able to purchase, with shipping times of 4 weeks, or more. Those devices are being received by Google fans, now.

Despite being an excellent vanilla Android phone (especially at the price), there are some downsides. Let's get into the review.

Specs and Design

After a rough year for sales, HTC seems to be fighting back with some new, powerful flagships.

One of the most rumored devices is the upcoming M7, which should be the first with a new "simple and clean" UI, most likely HTC Sense 5.0.

The device will have a quad-core Qualcomm APQ8064, a 4.7-inch 1920x1080 display with 468 ppi, 32GB of internal storage (no microSD slot), LTE and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

In cleaning up the normally bulky HTC Sense, the company has supposedly given "the lock screen and HTC apps a huge facelift and HTC has tweaked the software to make it easier to use. One example of these new tweaks is the on-screen volume controls which features a shortcut that jumps directly into the phone's volume settings page," according to HTC Source.

Earlier this week, Android engineer Dan Morrill showed off Android's original (but temporary) mascots before the now famous green robot was signed off on.

Dubbed the "Dandroids," the ugly creatures were the original but unofficial mascots for the operating system during its development.

Before its public launch, the company was looking for a "funny" graphic to add to internal presentations and came up with the Dandroids after a few hours of Inkscape doodling.

You can read the full story here: Dan Morrill Google+

Microsoft has signed its largest ever contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.

At $617 million, the contract will give the Air Force, Army, and Defense Information Systems Agency complete access to Microsoft products including Windows 8 and Office.

The agreement is good for just about 75 percent of the Defense Department's active employees.

1.5 million DoD computers will have access to the products for three years. Although they have not been fully released yet, the licensing agreement includes Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013 Enterprise.

There were 7 bids for the contract, but it was ultimately won by Insight Public Sector, a Microsoft reseller.

Microsoft's Department of Defense Business GM Tim Solms added: "Microsoft has longstanding relationships with the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force and DISA, and we are honored to expand our support of ongoing technology modernization efforts across all three organizations. This agreement enables us to provide the best technology tools to an incredibly broad range of servicemen and servicewomen across the DoD, and we are looking forward to implementing to support their mission goals."

Hulu has announced that its longtime CEO and CTO will be leaving the company in the next couple of months.

CEO Jason Kilar and CTO Rich Tom will leave during the first quarter, as expected since last August when an internal memo was leaked revealing the company's plans for "transitioning to a new CEO."

Says Kilar in the email: "I've been so fortunate to play a role in this amazing, ongoing journey. My decision to depart has been one of the toughest I've ever made. Though the words will fall short of the intended mark, please know how much this team means to me and how very thankful I am to be able to innovate and build alongside you each day."

Hulu was announced in April 2007, and Kilar was named CEO in June.

In 2012, Hulu brought in $700 million in revenue, a 65 percent increase from 2011. The service has 3 million paying subscribers and over 60,000 TV episodes, 2,300 TV series, and 50,000 hours of video.

According to a new report from The Sociable, it looks like the Google Play Store will hit the one million app mark by the summer, maybe as early as June.

The site "used a process of polynomial regression" to estimate the dates.

Google announced 700,000 apps in October, typing Apple and their App Store. As of today, the Play Store is estimated to have 800,000 with growth slightly faster than that of Apple.

Revenues are also growing at double the speed of Apple's store, however, Apple's Store is ultimately way for profitable for developers.

Check the graphic here:

MPAA CEO Chris Dodd has announced today the hiring on Diane Strahan as COO of the Hollywood trade group.

Strahan comes from Neustar, a provider of real-time information and analysis to the Internet, telecommunications, entertainment, advertising and marketing industries.

During her time as exec at Neustar, Strahan's expertise was in anti-piracy DRM. The exec also negotiated deals for UltraViolet, the new digital movie cloud catalog since she helped develop the mobile barcodes and the Ultraviolet domain registration system.

Dodd says the new COO will "lead the industry in technology, innovation and industry alliances."

By hiring Strahan it appears that Hollywood will remain committed to DRM, which has been shown to be ineffective and expensive for over a decade now.

Jeramiah Perkins, leader of the once extremely popular IMAGiNE movie piracy group, has been sentenced to five years of jailtime, the harshest sentence yet seen for a copyright crime.

In 2011, the P2P top group stopped distributing new CAM and TS releases, and the P2P world began speculating that maybe they had been caught. This proved true as rumor has it a rival P2P group sold them out to the MPAA which then turned to the authorities. The group had released hundreds of films, many of which were recorded in movie theaters by members of the group.

Other members of the group have already received sentences ranging from 23 months to 48 months, alongside fines.

Perkins, the sysop for the group, got it worse. After his jailtime, which will undoubtedly be nowhere near 5 years being he is a non-violent offender, Perkins will have three years of supervised release including a ban of "any electronic device with the capability or reproducing and distributing copies of copyrighted materials." Yes, this means no computer access for three years after his jail sentence.

'jOBS,' the biopic starring Ashton Kutcher as a young Steve Jobs, will reach theaters in April.

Open Road Films and Five Star Feature Films released a statement today boasting they had reached a distribution deal for the movie.

The movie covers the years 1971-2000, right before the release of the original iPod and the beginning of Apple as the giant it is today. The film will show off Jobs' founding of the company, his ouster, the founding of NeXT and Pixar, and his return to the company after Apple purchased NeXT in 1996 for $429 million.

NeXT's software highly influenced Mac OS X and iOS.

'jOBS' will premiere this month at Sundance.

Corning has announced it will reveal its updated Gorilla Glass 3 tech at the upcoming CES event.

The company says the Glass has been improved significantly, using a new proprietary feature called Native Damage Resistance (NDR). NDR "reduces the propagation of flaws" as well as the appearance of scratches. Additionally, the glass does a better job of maintaining retained strength of the glass.

Because of NDR, Corning claims 300 percent improvement in scratch resistance over its predecessor, Gorilla Glass 2, as well as a 40 percent reduction in the number of visible scratches.

"This year at CES, Corning will demonstrate its industry leadership in specialty glass and fiber optic technologies with the introduction of two products designed to enhance and extend the capabilities of consumers' favorite devices," said Wendell P. Weeks, chairman, chief executive officer, and president. "These new innovations build on the increasingly important and continually evolving role of highly engineered glass technologies in delivering improved product performance and functionality through touch capabilities, protective cover glass, and device connectivity."

Although the Nexus 4 has only been available for purchase for about 8 hours total in the last two months due to going sold out, the XDA devs say the sales figures may not be as impressive as expected.

The community used serial numbers on the devices to figure out when and where their phones were produced, also giving an estimate on how many were sold, to date.

How the serials work is as follows: There are three numbers followed by a letter. The numbers reveal the manufacturing month and year, and letter implies the country. For example, all Nexus 4s being shipped this week will have something like 212K, meaning December, 2012 and built in Korea. Further down in the serial is a subsequent three-digit number which implies the amount sold.

Using the serials, XDA says only 70,000 devices were produced in October, followed by 90,000 in November and 210,000 in December. Many of the phones being made are being built after being ordered, usually with a 10 day turn-around time.

While it is clear that there is high demand for the Nexus 4, it appears LG is lackluster on the production side for the phone.

Google has settled their 19-month FTC antitrust case today, with the Commission finding that Google did not violate any antitrust laws.

The original investigation had focused on the way Google treated rivals in the Internet search business, where it makes most of its revenue and utterly dominates the competition. Rivals have long claimed that Google highlights its own services above those of rivals, even if theirs are less relevant.

Google, in its defense, says it recommends the websites that it finds to be most relevant, using its industry-leading algorithms.

The FTC has closed out the investigation, finding no evidence that Google violated the laws. Google did make concessions, however.

"Although some evidence suggested that Google was trying to eliminate competition, Google's primary reason for changing the look and feel of its search results to highlight its own products was to improve the user experience," FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz added.

As part of the settlement, the FTC will close out another case into abusing patent protection. Google will now license patents that are "deemed" essential to rivals like Apple.

Microsoft has stirred the pot a little bit today, throwing up a countdown to a major announcement at this year's E3 trade show in June.

Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, Microsoft's director of programming for Xbox Live, posted the countdown to his very popular blog and Twitter feed earlier today.

There was little to accompany the countdown except for the words "Countdown to E3 2013" and "And it's on..."

Microsoft will have its E3 presentation on June 11th, in which the big announcement will be revealed.

While of course there is a chance that there is no new Xbox coming, the timing is right as the console has long been expected to be made available for the holiday season.

The rumored device will have a Blu-ray drive, Kinect 2, 3D sound, "always on" standby mode like ultrabooks and eventually augmented reality glasses.

Sony has patented new technology that can block the use of used games on consoles.

The patent is for tech that will match individual game discs to user accounts, blocking gameplay for games that have already been played on another user's account.

Each disc will have a contactless tag that can be read by the console, similar to NFC/RFID.

Reads the patent (via EuroGamer): "When the game is to be played, the reproduction device conveys the disc ID and a player ID to the use permission tag. The use permission tag stores the terms of use of the game and determines whether a combination of the disc ID and the player ID conveyed from the reproduction device fulfills the terms of use or not."

It is clear that Sony wants to eliminate the used game market, where it doesn't see a cent.

"As a result [of the patented idea], the dealing of electronic content in second-hand markets is suppressed, which in turn supports the redistribution of part of proceeds from sales of the electronic content to the developers."

Leap Motion, which first demoed its awesome gesture control system for PCs over the summer, has partnered with Asus to have the tech built into upcoming computers.

The partnership calls for the tech to be bundled with select notebooks and desktops including All-in-Ones.

While the Leap has been available for pre-order for some time, there has never been a specific date for release except for the company saying "early 2013." Now, instead of having to buy the standalone (which costs $70) you can buy it with some new PCs, if you were in the market anyways.

Additionally, this marks the first time Leap Motion has made the device available to international buyers, as the standalone is not.

Leap has shipped 12,000 units to devs, so far, and has raised over $70 million from investors. By the time of final production, CEO Michael Buckwald says he expects the number of devices shipped to be in the hundreds of thousands.

Samsung has confirmed that it will release multiple phones with the Tizen mobile OS this year.

The company has had an on-an-off love affair with Tizen since early last year, when it was first announced. The OS is notable because it is backed by Intel, as well and has support from Japanese major carrier DoCoMo and global powerhouse Vodafone.

Says the company: "We plan to release new, competitive Tizen devices within this year and will keep expanding the lineup depending on market conditions."

There was no word on any specific dates nor any specs.

Sources have reported that the phones will be released for DoCoMo in Japan first.

According to end of year figures from analytics firm Flurry, Android and iOS saw massive record activations during the end of 2012.

On Christmas Day, alone, there were 17.4 million of the devices activated, leading to about 50 million activations for the full week.

To show how massive the number is, just last year there were 20 million activations for Christmas/New Year's week.

In their own words, Flurry says they "leverage its data-set from over 260,000 apps running on the significant majority of iOS and Android devices. With its application penetration, Flurry can detect over 90% of all new devices activated each day. Additionally, with its analytics service in more than 25% of all applications downloaded on a given day from the App Store and Google Play, Flurry can reliably estimate total iOS and Android downloads. To benchmark against the market, Flurry regularly triangulates its device and download figures with data released publicly by Google and Apple."

As expected, Canonical has unveiled some more details about their upcoming Ubuntu mobile OS, even showing off some features running on a Galaxy Nexus handset.

The OS is built on the existing Android kernel and its drivers but will be able to use the "full power of the phone" by not using a Java Virtual Machine.

Canonical says the OS supports ARM and x86 architectures, so phone makers should have little issue adopting it.

The OS maker says Ubuntu will differentiate itself firstly with thumb gestures. Swiping in from the edges of the screen will let users switch apps or use universal search. A quick swipe from the left will bring up a small dock of your most used/favorite apps, while a full swipe from left to right opens a dock showing all your open apps. There will be more gestures added, of course.

The home page interface looks to be very different from existing mobile OSs, as well, focusing on our favorites and recently used/added content including music, contacts and apps.

Two days ago, Canonical posted a teaser countdown timer on the Ubuntu homepage.

The time is almost here, as the counter expires on 1PM EST today. The post had a "So close, you can almost touch it" tagline, suggesting the update will be the long-awaited touch-based Ubuntu update, making the OS plenty more useful for users who may want it on tablets or other touch devices.

Canonical boss Mark Shuttleworth announced last year that a cross-device OS was coming, and let it be known that Ubuntu 14.04 with full mobile and tablet support was already slated for April 2014.

Most recently, the company updated Ubuntu to 12.04, adding a new "HUD" interface and major improvements to the OS' built-in app store.

We will have an update after 1PM.

While police were otherwise occupied at more crowded areas, masked men robbed an Apple Store in Paris, France on New Year's Eve.

The thieves managed to steal over 1 million euros worth of iOS products.

300,000 people were celebrating the new year in the area around the Champs-Elysees, justifiably leaving authorities short.

The report says "masked men forced their way into a back entrance around 9pm, three hours after the store closed, as a janitor was leaving. The janitor was "lightly injured" in the process."

Stocked materials were taken leaving all display devices alone, and the group packed the boxes into a truck parked nearby.

Review aggregator site Metacritic says 2012 was a bad year for games, with the lowest number of high rated games since they started in 2009.

Only 18 total games reached a score of 90 or higher during the year, down from 23 in 2011.

14 of the games were console hits, while the other four were available for PCs and handheld.

Says MetaCritic: "Not even the late arrival of a great new installment in Ubisoft's Far Cry series could make up for the fact that the past 12 months paled in comparison to recent years, at least at the high end of the scale."

Game of the year was awarded to TellTale Games' The Walking Dead with a Metascore of 95. 'Persona 4 Golden' for the PSV came in at a close second, with a score of 94.

On the console side, Mass Effect 3 (for PS3/Xbox) came in at 93 followed by 'Journey' for PS3 at 92.

PS3 gamers had a slightly better year as average Metascores were 70.3 on 204 games. Xbox 360 games scored 69.5 on 243 games and Wii/Wii U games clocked in at 68.3 with 53 games.

Samsung is looking to finally pull itself away from Apple in the world battle for smartphone supremacy.

According to the KT, Samsung is planning to ship 510 million total phones this year, up from 420 million in 2012 when it was far and away the world's top seller.

On the smartphone side, the company expects to ship 390 million, leaving the rest as feature phones. The phones will mainly be Android but there are Windows Phone 8 and even Tizen phones in there, as well.

Of course, these are just estimates and there is the possibility of some slow down in demand: "There are some possibilities that smartphone demand will slow in general. But we are seeing new demand for devices using Long Term Evolution (LTE)," said Kim Hyun-joon, an executive at Samsung's telecommunications division.

Reddit announced last night that its 2012 traffic numbers are impressive.

The site saw 400 million unique visitors and 37 billion page views, two numbers that place it easily in the world's most trafficked sites.

Additionally, the site says there were 30 million posts made to the site, and 4 billion up and down votes were made to said posts.

Reddit began hitting 1 billion monthly page views in February 2011 and then 2 billion in December of the same year. By October 2012, that number hit 4 billion.

President Barack Obama's AMA (ask me anything) post had 5.5 million page views by itself, setting a record for the site.

Check the rest of the numbers here: Reddit Blog

One of the world's most famous cracked app communities has shut down for good.

Hackulous, along with Apptrackr and Installous have all been disabled, with the community's operators claiming there was a lack of activity.

Installous was used by jailbroken iOS users to transfer cracked apps to their devices while Apptrackr was the index of all the apps.

Reads the official announcement: "We are very sad to announce that Hackulous is shutting down. After many years, our community has become stagnant and our forums are a bit of a ghost town. It has become difficult to keep them online and well-moderated, despite the devotion of our staff. We're incredibly thankful for the support we've had over the years and hope that new, greater communities blossom out of our absence."

Installous had been installed over 3 million times on iOS devices like the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad but the software has now been remotely disabled.

Samsung has teased a new TV that will be unveiled at the upcoming CES event.

CES runs from January 8th to the 11th in Las Vegas and will showcase keynotes from many big name companies.

The new teaser post is vague but says: "A true innovation of TV design is coming up with a unprecedented new TV shape and timeless design."

There was one picture added, but it really does not give much detail either except to potentially show a TV in portrait design rather than the landscape mode every other TV is built.

We will see on January 8th.

On Christmas Eve, Netflix fans were met with bad news; their streaming service was not available to them.

The issue was thanks to Amazon Web Services, which is the massive cloud hosting service that has had a rough year.

This week, Amazon issued a technical explanation and a lengthy apology for the downtime, although they did not mention their rival by name at any point.

What started the issues was a human error; basically an employee accidentally deleted vital data: "We want to apologize. We know how critical our services are to our customers' businesses, and we know this disruption came at an inopportune time for some of our customers. We will do everything we can to learn from this event and use it to drive further improvement in the ELB service."

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has said the company will be fully hosted by Amazon Web Services by the end of 2013, making them the biggest customers for Amazon. Not sure this is too great of a start.

Even though HP killed the official project last year, fans of the webOS mobile operating system have been continuing on through the Open webOS project.

Earlier this year the OS was ported to the Galaxy Nexus and now the webOS Ports team has made it available on the popular Nexus 7 tablet.

Of course, the port is an alpha version and missing key features, Wi-Fi and the browser work fine, which is mainly what consumers use their tablets for anyway.

The team says the port took minimal effort, as the dev got it to run in a week over his winter break from college.

Microsoft announced this morning that any user affected by the Cloud Saved Games outage will receive a free month extension to their Xbox Live Gold subscription.

Late last week, the cloud feature stopped working for most subscribers, leading to a 48-hour outage.

Company engineers had "been working around the clock to get the issues resolved," said the company at the time.

Microsoft's Xbox Live general manager Alex Garden noted the feature returned to all users today, with the company still investigating the underlying cause: "We can assure you we'll also be doing a thorough post mortem to help prevent this from happening again."