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Two Samsung CEOs step down from operations

Written by Matti Robinson @ 01 Dec 2015 2:26

Two Samsung CEOs step down from operations Samsung Electronics has decided to switch things up a little bit. The mobile devices have been on the decline since 2013 and consumer electronics is struggling as well. That means two of the CEOs are stepping out of their respective development positions, reports Bloomberg.

The mobile chief J.K. Shin will leave the position for Koh Dong Jin who has been influential in the current generation of Galaxy S and Galaxy Note products. Koh Dong Jin has lead the development of Samsung Pay as well as Samsung's own mobile operating system Tizen.

The consumer electronics CEO B.K. Yoon will leave his daily duties. Like Shin, Yoon will retain the CEO title but will focus on future long-term strategies. The third and last of the CEOs, Kwon Oh-hyun, will continue to oversee semiconductor operations that have been performing better.




AfterDawn: News

LG invests $1.5 billion in OLED

Written by Matti Robinson @ 28 Nov 2015 12:01

LG invests $1.5 billion in OLED While OLED displays are still in the minority and LCD is far from obsolete, new press release from LG reveals that the surge into new display technology is well on its way.

LG tells us that it has decided to invest 1.84 trillion Korean won (over $1.5 billion) to develop and manufacture OLED displays. The company says that the displays will come in different sizes from smartwatches and automotive displays to TVs.

LG doesn't even mention smartphones but as BGR notes there's a chance that such huge investments come in the wake of an equally huge deal with the like of Apple. Rumors have it that Apple will rely on LCD panels on its next iPhone models but this manufacturing plant, called the P10, wouldn't even be ready for the iPhone 7.

The manufacturing of the next generation OLED panels start in the first half of 2018 which would be in time for the iPhone 8 and its possible siblings. Currently Apple's only OLED panels are in the Apple Watch and they're manufactured by LG.

LG's biggest competitor in the OLED space is Samsung, which not only produces them but utilizes the panels in most of its flagship phones.




AfterDawn: News

The UK has banned making personal copies of your own music and videos, again

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 28 Nov 2015 11:31

The UK has banned making personal copies of your own music and videos, again The UK has withdrawn a law that allowed residents to make personal copies of their own music or videos.

In June, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, the Musicians' Union, and UK Music asked for a judicial review of the 'private copying exception' law and the judge ruled in favor of the groups.

It is now once again illegal to make personal backups of your music, movies or e-books and it is also illegal to rip CDs and DVDs to digital files. It is also illegal to upload your own music to the cloud unless it is through a service like Apple or Amazon that you pay for.

As with most UK copyright rulings of the past few years, there was no point except for the music industry to claim they have "fought piracy" in some way. There have been no cases in recent memory of music or movie trade groups suing anyone for personal format shifting and it would be nearly impossible to even find out if someone had done so. In other words -what a waste of time.

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AfterDawn: News

Lenovo, Razer working on new gaming desktop PCs

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 28 Nov 2015 10:59

Lenovo, Razer working on new gaming desktop PCs Lenovo, the world's biggest PC maker, has partnered up with Razer to build new gaming desktop PCs.

The co-branded PCs, to be known as Razer Edition Lenovo PCs, are being shown off as prototypes this weekend at the Dreamhack Winter event in Sweden and the looks are certainly nice.

Lenovo has promised that beyond just looks, the computers will integrate popular Razer software like Razer Comms, Synapse, and Cortex, tools that help gamers manage and optimize the settings for their various games. Notably, the companies say there will be no added bloat to the operating system, which is a nice relief.

"Gaming is one area of the PC market that's actually growing," Lenovo's Victor Rios added. "For us, what's also been exciting, is that it's relatively stable."

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AfterDawn: News

Cortana for iOS now available in beta

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 28 Nov 2015 10:46

Cortana for iOS now available in beta Microsoft has begun rolling out the beta version of their Cortana digital assistant to iOS device owners.

A few lucky users who signed up to learn more about the app have received emails to test out the service.

Cortana is Microsoft's version of Apple's Siri and Google's Google Now, although there are plenty of users out there that find Cortana to be far superior to its rivals. The voice-activated digital assistant can help you with your alarms, calendar, texting, phone calls and tracking your shipments, your favorite team's scores, your flights, and more.

Because the app is being distributed through TestFlight, there can be a maximum of just 2000 testers at any given time but if the beta is available now, there is hope the app could go live for all in a few months.




AfterDawn: News

Sony confirms Remote Play app is coming for Windows and Mac

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 28 Nov 2015 10:36

Sony confirms Remote Play app is coming for Windows and Mac Sony's Shuhei Yoshida has confirmed this week that the company is working on a Remote Play app to stream PlayStation 4 gaming to the PC.

The President of Sony's Worldwide Studios for Sony Computer Entertainment says the upcoming app will work on both Windows and Mac OS X.

Microsoft's Xbox One introduced its own remote play over the summer, but it only works for Windows 10 devices, which will make Sony's offering more accessible for those 10 percent of you out there with Macs.

Unfortunately, there is no timetable for the release of the PS4 Remote Play app.

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AfterDawn: News

Kids toy co. VTech gets breached, details on 5 million stolen

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 28 Nov 2015 10:16

Kids toy co. VTech gets breached, details on 5 million stolen Motherboard has revealed this week that Chinese kids toy maker VTech was recently breached, losing personal information on 5 million parents and over 200,000 kids.

Among the data stolen were names, email addresses, passwords and home addresses for the parents and names, genders and birthdays for the kids. Sadly, the kids' information can be linked to their parents meaning their addresses and identities are completely exposed.

The breach is one of the largest of all-time, and shockingly VTech didn't know about it until Motherboard reached out to them. "On November 14 [Hong Kong Time] an unauthorized party accessed VTech customer data on our Learning Lodge app store customer database," Grace Pang, a VTech spokesperson, told the site at the time. "We were not aware of this unauthorized access until you alerted us."

Data from the breach has not showed up online, and the hacker behind the attack said they had no plans to use the data. They did explain that the attack was simple - an SQL injection - and they were quickly able to gain root access to database servers. The passwords were stored with a basic MD5 hash but plenty more of the data had been stored in plaintext including answers to "secret questions" and recovery email addresses, suggesting that your other accounts could be in trouble if someone malicious had accessed the data.




AfterDawn: News

OnePlus selling latest devices this weekend without invites

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 27 Nov 2015 10:49

OnePlus selling latest devices this weekend without invites OnePlus has begun its Black Friday sale today, allowing you to purchase the new OnePlus X and OnePlus 2 all weekend without needing an invite.

The "unlimited sale" is available now until the 30th.

Additionally, OnePlus is discounting quite a few of their accessories up to 90 percent off, and everything accessory is at least 10 percent off. For example, screen protectors are just 50 cents and their own USB cables (including USB-C) are $5 or cheaper.

Check out the deal here.




AfterDawn: News

Sony PlayStation 4 hits 30 million units sold

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 27 Nov 2015 9:04

Sony PlayStation 4 hits 30 million units sold After two years, Sony's latest console has hit a new milestone - 30 million units sold.

The PlayStation 4 remains the most popular of the next-gen consoles, and Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales are expected to keep the sales growing.

Sony says the company has sold 30.2 million units worldwide as of November 22nd, claiming the PS4 has "the fastest and strongest growth in PlayStation hardware history."

By comparison, Microsoft has reportedly sold 16 million Xbox One consoles, beating the PS4 in monthly sales only twice since the consoles launched.

"We are sincerely grateful that gamers across the globe have continued to choose PS4 as the best place to play since launch two years ago," said Andrew House, President and Global CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "We are committed to bringing engaging games and entertainment services to users worldwide. Thanks to the support of our partners, PS4 continues to be the premier platform for game and interactive entertainment innovation."

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AfterDawn: News

Apple's new patent suggests a waterproof iPhone?

Written by Matti Robinson @ 27 Nov 2015 4:07

Apple's new patent suggests a waterproof iPhone? While most of the US was concentrating yesterday on turkey and pumpkin pie the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a patent by Apple, Apple Insider reports. This patent appears to be a way to protect devices from external liquids and dirt.

In the patent Apple explains how devices could prevent water and other things from getting to vulnerable parts such as microphone or the speaker. A electronically controlled set of shutters or louvers would close the openings automatically when not in use.

The patent included several pictures (above) of proposed applications that feature different kinds of means of shutting a variety of openings. The patent suggests that this could be even used to protect the headphone jack and the card readers which usually require a clumsy hatch of some kind.

Will the patent make its way to the next generation of Apple products, that we'll have to see. But even if it doesn't Apple clearly wants to make their products more durable – which certainly hasn't been their strong suit in the past.




AfterDawn: News

Raspberry Pi introduces the cheapest and tiniest computer, Zero

Written by Matti Robinson @ 26 Nov 2015 5:14

Raspberry Pi introduces the cheapest and tiniest computer, Zero A company that has brought the ultra cheap and small computer to the masses is pushing the pricing down even more. Raspberry Pi's latest creation is called Zero and indeed closes up on the free computer.

As Raspberry Pi has told over the three years they have sold the computer-on-a-chip solutions, it is all about bringing computing to everyone. The newest computer, Raspberry Pi Zero, is available to even the poorest amateur programmers or computer or electronics hobbyist, and in sense is the ultimate Raspberry Pi.

The new model includes the same Broadcom processor as the first model but has been clocked a bit higher and therefore gives 40% more oomph. You'll find also 512 MB of RAM on the chip as well as microSD slot and two microUSB slots that allow both power and networking. There's also the 40 pin general purpose I/O connector that you would find from other RaspPi models as well.

The chip computer is 65mm x 30mm x 5mm in size and only costs $5 to the resellers. The price should not be a problem even after the retailer takes its piece of the cake. You'll also find the computer for free with the newest edition of MagPi magazine.




AfterDawn: News

Microsoft: Original Xbox games on Xbox One 'not impossible'

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Nov 2015 12:53

Microsoft: Original Xbox games on Xbox One 'not impossible' Now that the Xbox One can play Xbox 360 games using emulation, there has been a call to bring older generation Xbox games to the console.

Xbox engineering boss Mike Ybarra says "nothing's impossible" in regards to bringing first-generation Xbox games to the new console, although he did say the team is focused on making more and more 360 games work rather than looking back.

Phil Spencer also said emulation for the original console was a possibility but agreed that the team "[needs] to finish 360 backwards compatibility for now."

Looking forward, we can expect to hear more about Xbox emulation, but there is little chance of seeing such a feature this year or next.

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AfterDawn: News

Fossil debuts Android Wear-powered Q Founder smartwatch

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Nov 2015 12:37

Fossil debuts Android Wear-powered Q Founder smartwatch Fossil has launched their Android Wear-powered Fossil Q Founder this week, a $275 smartwatch that is more fashionable than the average smartwatch.

"Technology is a major disruptor in many industries right now – even fashion. But to successfully merge the two, you need to have the fashion design expertise and focus on it first," said Jill Elliott-Sones, chief creative officer at Fossil. "What's most exciting about Q Founder is not only how it looks, but the true flexibility it offers our customers. Thanks to its ability to pair with both iOS and Android devices, and the personalization opportunities it brings, we're more accessible to more people, and able to complement even the most unique personal styles."

The Fossil Q Founder is also the second Android Wear device to use Intel guts, while nearly all other watches have Qualcomm and Texas Instruments under the hood.

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AfterDawn: News

Report: UnionPay and Apple make deal for Apple Pay in China

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Nov 2015 12:15

Report: UnionPay and Apple make deal for Apple Pay in China According to a new report, China UnionPay and Apple have reached an agreement to bring Apple Pay to China through UnionPay's POS network.

The agreement will be finalized if card-issuing banks agree to the deal.

UnionPay is the nation's largest clearing network and payment processor, and they reportedly hope to introduce Apple Pay next year.

China is a massive market. Mobile-payment transactions jumped 134 percent last year to 22.6 trillion yuan ($3.5 trillion).

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Is Amazon Prime Instant Video turning into a cable alternative?

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Nov 2015 11:58

Is Amazon Prime Instant Video turning into a cable alternative? According to a new report, Amazon Prime Instant Video subscribers will soon be able to add TV and movie channels to their existing catalog of content, making the service into a cable rival.

The new features could go live before Christmas, say the sources, and each service available will be available from separate pages within Amazon Prime Video, so they can easily be distinguished.

It is unclear which services have partnered with Amazon but we will likely know a lot more in the near future.

Read more...



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