Latest news

It's no secret that Apple, among other tech giants, is very interested about virtual and augmented reality. Their ARKit, which stands for Augmented Reality Kit, is a development platform for iOS AR application that was unveiled at WWDC this June.

ARKit and apps created with it had a part in this year's iPhone unveiling and the company showed off iPhone's AR prowess on stage. Now rumors have it that the Cupertino company might be introducing soon even a dedicated AR headset.

There's still ways to go, but, according to Bloomberg, the AR headset project has been running within Apple for years and could become reality in a few years time. A final product is expected to be revealed 2019, or as soon as all the required technologies have been fully developed. According to Bloomberg's timeline the headset would hit the stores in 2020.

Next year Apple will further upgrade the ARKit to ease the use of AR apps on the iPhone but we'll have to wait a bit for a bigger update. However, the ecosystem, alongside the technology, will need to develop further before Apple joins the ranks of AR/VR headset manufacturer.

Apple has released a new feature with its latest iOS version. The new feature is called Apple Pay Cash and can be found it the OS 11.2 beta 2.

As you might imagine from the name, Apple Pay Cash is a function that allows iOS users to send cash to each other. It was yet quite ready for a stable release but considering that beta users are now able to send cash to each other it should be available to all fairly shortly.

To transfer cash from one to another you just open up your iMessage app and add the cash essentially as a attachment to the message. If another iOS users sends you a message asking for a payment with a dollar amount your device also shows the Apple Pay Cash as a quick reply option.

There are, however, few limitations, TechCrunch notes. You need a iOS device with 11.2 or later to get the beta, and you'll need two-factor authentication on your Apple ID.

Any credit or debit card added to your Apple Pay will suffice but note that credit card transfers will have a fee that Apple hasn't quantified but calls "industy standard." With debit cards there is no fee.

Google has added a new feature to its iconic search engine. Google does small, incremental changes to its search engine fairly frequently, and most of them are probably not immediately visible or easily noticeable to the wider public.

The newest addition is the ability to easily compare two smartphones and their specifications. The feature, added without much fuss, was spotted by Android Police, and seems to be currently online in at least to some demographics in the U.S., confirmed by AfterDawn as shown in the pictures.

It allows the comparing of two, and only two, devices against each other with a simple search of the two device names split by the word versus, or, as it's perhaps more commonly used, with abbreviation "vs." The Google search returns a form with pictures of the devices as well as a short list of features on the top of the search page.

You can then expand the list further and reveal approximately 15 fields worth of comparison, the amount of details depending on the devices.

We did notice a few issues with the new feature in addition to only limiting it to two devices. The search doesn't seem to require very specific names (i.e. Samsung Galaxy S8) to pull up devices but instead you can just type "s8 vs iphone 8" and you'll end up with an appropriate comparison between Samsung's Galaxy S8 as well as Apple's iPhone 8.

A leak from Appleby, a company offering tax haven services, has revealed tons of information about tax evasion practices from companies to rich individuals. The so-called Paradise Papers have also unveiled how the world's richest company has been moving money around.

The tax agreement signed between Apple and Ireland was proven hugely important for Apple's profits. After years of avoiding most of the taxes in Europe, thanks to the deal with Ireland, EU started to crack down this special relationship.

According to EU the deal is illegal and Ireland is being forced to collect the $15 billion from Apple after the fact. Obviously Ireland has wanted to retain the warm relationship with Apple and keep the business but it's becoming increasingly difficult.

The Paradise Papers now reveal that Apple has indeed been fleeing Ireland and moving much of its off-shore assets from the subsidiary in Ireland to a tax haven in the island of Jersey, off the shore of France in the English Channel.

According to the leaks around $252 billion worth of monetary assets have been relocated, and while this doesn't in itself avoid taxes, except for the fact that they aren't brought to the U.S. to be taxed, it has reassured the lowest possible rate now that Ireland became too hostile due to pressure from EU.

Broadcom, a U.S. chip manufacturer, has offered a whopping $105 million for another semiconductor company, the world's largest mobile chip makes Qualcomm. If the deal is to come to fruition this would make Broadcom the third largest chip maker in the world.

This also would be, as Bloomberg calls it, the largest takeover ever in the industry, and would fuse together the fourth and eighth largest semiconductor companies (according to 2015 revenue).

With $25 billion of net debt the acquisition would be considered to have a total value of $130 million. That is roughly twice the value of the previously largest deal made in 2015 between Dell and EMC.

The $70 a share price was nearly 30 percent above market value at the time of the first reports of the deal. The stock quickly jumped above $60 raising Qualcomm's market cap to over $90 million. After the deal Broadcom's stock had also small gains and market cap is now just above $110 million.

According to Bloomberg, the deal is far from clear-cut. Broadcom has struck the deal in a moment when Qualcomm is struggling with one of their major partners, Apple, who happens to be one of Broadcom's largest buyers. While the deal might help with the relationship with Apple, Qualcomm's execs are expected to make a case for shareholders of an opportunistic move that wouldn't benefit the shareholder in the long-term.

Intel has revealed that its developing a new type of processor, called the Core H, for ultrabooks. According to Intel with the new technology ultra-portable laptops are going to get a significant boost in perfomance that will bode well especially to gaming and VR applications.

However, the Core H itself isn't the big news here, even though it will be nice to get some dearly needed improvement to ultrabook performance. Instead its the company Intel is partnering with to produce this new chipset.

You might ask how is a partnering company news in any form? Well, in this case the partner is also a long time rival, and one could call it the archnemesis of Intel.

Yes, Intel is partnering with AMD to provide graphics knowhow, and the chipset will thus include an Intel processor and an AMD GPU for the first time ever. This might be a win-win-win. Not only does Intel get superior graphics performance in their products but AMD gets finally a proper introduction to ultraportables and, best of all, the public gets a speedy ultraportable chipset.

In addition to improved performance, Intel says that the a new technology allows them to package CPU, GPU and graphics memory (HBM2) closer together to save precious space. That obviously means slimmer products that have more room for battery among other things.

Sony has revealed a new Reward Pass program that allows PlayStation players to earn PlayStation Network (PSN) credit by playing games and achieving Trophies. The program was revealed on Sony Rewards website.

The Rewards program has been available previously but only now are you able to get PSN credit with your PlayStation Trophies, DualShockers.com notes. When you link your PlayStation Network and Sony Rewards accounts you'll be able to get credit also by renting and buying movies as well as subscribing to PSN services.

The new Trophy rewards are called Silver, Gold, and Platinum Trophy. They reward you with 100, 250, and 1000 points respectively, and they require 100 Silver Trophies, 25 Gold Trophies, and 10 Platinum Trophies.

1000 Reward points translates to $10 that can be used to any PSN Store items including games and movies. The rewards program is exclusive to the United States.

Like many other smartphone manufacturers, Apple released their quarterly earnings earlier this week. With massive gains on almost all fronts Apple posted more than $10 billion in net income.

However, it wasn't iPhone's that were leading the pack this time around, actually the opposite. Because iPhone 8 sales has been slow and iPhone X, released only this Friday, wasn't included at all in the numbers, the iPhone growth was the slowest of any division within Apple.

However, the investor call focus a lot on, at the time, upcoming iPhone X. CNBC noted, that according to CEO Tim Cook the $999 starting price tag was easily justified with just a cup of coffee.

Cook answered a question about the iPhone X price explaining that Apple doesn't try to charge as high a price as possible "or anything like that", insinuating perhaps that Apple customers would be willing to pay more to get their hands on a revolutionary iPhone X. According to Cook Apple prices the products based on the value they provide.

To further explain this he reminded that people often pay their devices on a monthly basis which is around $33/mo. According to Cook that's just a few cups of coffee a week at "one of these nice coffee places" or under a cup a day.

After rumors of Sprint and T-Mobile ending the merger talks we have finally an official statement. T-Mobile has released a statement clarifying the situation and saying the companies were unable to get an agreement in merging their operations.

T-Mobile Newsroom states: "T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) today announced that it has ceased talks to merge with Sprint, as the companies were unable to find mutually agreeable terms."

The premise for the merger was to create a larger carrier that could challenge the two largest mobile operators, AT&T and Verizon, more effectively. T-Mobile remains the third largest and Sprint the fourth largest carrier in the United States.

It remains unclear why the negotiations were ended but T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in the statement that in the end it's all about making a deal that would benefit the shareholders in the long term.

It seems fairly clear that one of the companies couldn't find the benefits with any proposed deals but nonetheless it might be a better result for the customers. Now there are still four nationwide carriers that are challenging each other.

T-Mobile has been the fastest growing carrier for years and passed Sprint for the third place in 2015. Now it has a lead of over 15 million subscribers over Sprint. Without the merge, however AT&T and Verizon stay in a league of their own with nearly 140 and 150 million subscribers respectively.

Apple finally started officially selling the iPhone X yesterday, and some elements of the device are coming to light for the first time. Some of the more important features of the phone have been reviewed over and over again in the past few days but some aren't going to unveil themselves for long time.

Face ID has been one of the more closely inspected features, and it seems that excluding a few problems with the face detection most impressions have been positive. Another important feature is of course the new 5.8 inch display, a first OLED panel in an iPhone.

Now Apple has released a document that details some of the features of an OLED display. This includes explaining the many pros of the first ever iPhone OLED but also a few cons that might affect your viewing pleasures.

According to the document you may experience shifts in colors when viewed off-angle. This is of course normal for an OLED display, and according to reports nowhere near as bad as with the Pixel 2 displays, which have been criticized heavily.

The second one is another one of OLED's typical shortcomings, "burn-in". The burn-in, or "image persistence", is a phenomenon where a static image may burn a ghost image in the display that will be permanent.

Apple released the earnings report of the last quarter of fiscal year of 2017 yesterday, and if you've seen how the stock market responded you might already have an inkling to what kind of results Apple unveiled.

The revenue increased 12% year-over-year to $52.6 billion and the Cupertino giant racked in a whopping over $10 billion in net profits, an increase of nearly 20% from fall last year.

All this after a rather slow start for the new iPhones as the iPhone X hit the stores officially only today. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus haven't been flying off the shelves quite like its predecessors but seems like that hasn't made much of a difference. Apple still increased the iPhone numbers over last year albeit a small bump.

Apple's Mac sales improved surprisingly well. A 25% increase in Mac revenue was only topped by 34% and 36% revenue growth in services and "Other Products" respectively. Other products includes the likes of Apple TV and Apple Watch.

Also iPhone's 2% YoY growth was bested by iPad's growth numbers, 14%, but you can expect better iPhone results in the first quarter of the next fiscal year with iPhone X first sales numbers.

Expectations for the holiday quarter are high as iPhone X joins the already impressive repertoire. According to the company the revenue should be somewhere between $84 billion and $87 billion. That would be first time in Apple's history over $80 billion.

Bitcoin peaked at an all-time high of over $7000 on Thursday, following an exciting week for the cryptocurrency.

CME Group, the largest derivatives exchange operator in the world, announced that it would launch a Bitcoin futures product before the end of 2017. This news drove the surging cryptocurrency to an all time high of $6,450 on Wednesday. Today, Bitcoin soared again, jumping over $7000 on the Bitstamp exchange. Bitcoin has seen seven-fold price increase this year, doubling since September.

Back in August, the BitCoin Cash spin-off had prompted fears that it would disrupt the persistent rise of the cryptocurrency, but instead its price had risen sharply compared to the USD.

Bitcoin is growing in popularity around the world too. Coinbase, which can be used to trade BitCoin, gets between 35,000 and 50,000 new users per day. It is also in the news more often, most recently due to the interest in Bitcoin on the Korean peninsula as tensions mount.

Source: >Reuters

Xbox One owners can now install an Amazon Prime Video app on the Xbox One family of consoles, including the upcoming Xbox One X.

Amazon Prime Video provides exclusive access to popular content including The Grand Tour, American Gods, Mozart in the Jungle and Transparent. Prime Video also has content available in 4K UHD resolution, which is supported by the Xbox One S and Xbox One X.

Amazon Prime Video is available in more than 200 countries around the world. Existing subscribers only need to visit the Microsoft Store to download the Prime Video app.

For others, visit PrimeVideo.com for more information.

The world's largest social network sees profits soaring in the third quarter driven by a large increase in ad revenue.

In the three months to the end of September, Facebook brought in more than $10.1 billion in advertising revenue. Overall, revenue was up year-on-year by 47 percent to $10.3 billion. Profits jumped 80 percent compared to the same period of last year, reaching $4.7 billion.

However, an increasing focus on security and integrity of the platform will impact future profits, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He told investors that Facebook is attempting to eradicate "false news", hate speech and bullying on its platform, which will be a considerable investment.

The social network has more than 2.07 billion users as of the end of September.

It is currently facing the scrutiny of lawmakers in the United States who are eyeing more regulation in the area to prevent propaganda from being used as a tool to influence elections. Facebook has reported that over 150 million people may seen some Russian propaganda efforts on its platform.

Zuckerbeg had previously described the hypothesis that fake news on Facebook had influenced the result of the U.S. Presidential electon as "pretty crazy".

Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond return to Amazon Prime Video in The Grand Tour Season 2 next month.

The Amazon Prime Video exclusive comes back to screens on December 8. The first episode of The Grand Tour broke Amazon Prime Video's previous records in the days after it landed on the platform beginning November 18, 2016.

Earlier this year, a short teaser trailer for Season 2 was released. However, both Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson had some difficult times in 2017, with the former being involved in a vehicle accident and latter being hospitalized for a life-threating case of pneumonia.

Another trailer was released by Amazon today giving us a taste of what is to come with Season 2.