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Snapchat has announced that its videos and snaps are being viewed 6 billion times per day, up from 2 billion just six months ago.

While the numbers are certainly large, there is some question as to how the numbers are skewed. Rivals such as Facebook, won't count a video view until it's been played for three seconds and Google's YouTube counts usage in hours, not views. Snapchat counts a view whenever a video is played, even for a few milliseconds. And all videos are just seconds long.

Regardless, Snapchat is definitely being validated for its flurry of new features, including Stories and the ability to replay, rewind and more.

Sony has announced that their Internet TV-powered PlayStation Vue subscription service will be adding Disney products like ESPN, The Disney Channel and local ABC affiliate channels.

In total, the service will get 18 channels which will join local NBC, Fox and CBS affiliates and a number of cable channels from popular media providers totaling 110 total channels.

Vue is available in just a handful of metros, and costs $50 per month to start, but it remains unclear whether Disney's additions will raise the price of the service.

The service is compatible with the PS3 and PS4 as well as on iOS devices that have downloaded the PlayStation Vue mobile app.

Full list of new channels: ABC local affiliate, ABC Family (becoming Freeform in January), Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN College Extra, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Classic, ESPN Goal Line, ESPN Buzzer Beater, ESPN Bases Loaded, Fusion, Longhorn Network, SEC-ESPN Network.

Verizon has confirmed this weekend that they too will carry the BlackBerry Priv slider, joining AT&T among the major U.S. carriers.

Unfortunately for fans, Verizon did not give a time frame for release except to say it's "coming soon." The news is somewhat surprising as BlackBerry had originally said it would be a GSM-only device.

BlackBerry's first Android phone has a curved 5.4-inch QHD display, is powered by a Snapdragon 808 processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB internal storage (expandable to 2TB), dual 2MP/18MP cameras, a large 3410 mAh battery and a full physical keyboard.

According to new data from research firm Slice Intelligence, only men appear to be buying the new Apple TV set-top.

Slice uses email receipts from millions of consumers to gather data, and during the device's first week of availability over 90 percent of Apple TV buyers were males, mostly between the ages of 35 and 44.

Interestingly, sales were high enough to push Apple to the top of the streaming set-top hardware market, beating out Amazon.

Between all four generations, the Apple TV now has 31 percent share, ahead of Amazon at 27.5 percent and Roku at 25.3 percent.

See some more interesting figures here: Slice Intelligence

AMD has been sued for allegedly misleading customers about how many cores were contained in their Bulldozer processors.

The class action suit claims that while the Bulldozer line was advertised widely as having 8 cores, it really only had four functional cores.

At the core of the issue (no pun intended) is how AMD designs their multi-core Bulldozer chips. The company uses "modules" that combine the functions of two discrete cores into a single package. Windows counts each module as separate cores, but they share a single FPU.

The suit claims that since the cores cannot work independently, this results in performance degradation and the average consumer will not understand the difference between modules and independent cores. By advertising 8 cores and not "conveying accurate specifications," thousands of consumers were duped into believing their Bulldozer CPU could perform like a true octa-core processor, added the suit.

AMD is facing damages (statutory and punitive), litigation expenses and possible injunctions on the CPUs.

Tencent, China's largest social network and online gaming company, has announced new deals with Hollywood that will give the company distribution rights for James Bond and Star Trek in the nation.

In the first deal, with Paramount Pictures, Tencent will become the exclusive online distributor in China for the studio's future feature films including 'Star Trek Beyond.'

The second deal, with MGM, will give the company rights in China for the James Bond franchise including the newly released 'Spectre."

Paramount's distribution deal will begin in April, and will be good for 12 months. Another expected blockbuster is the sequel to Tom Cruise's 'Jack Reacher.' It's unclear how long the MGM deal is for, but both agreements include on-demand PPV and subscription video on demand.

E-commerce giant Alibaba will buy Chinese online video provider Youku Tudou, following months of speculation and an initial offer from Baba in October.

Alibaba already owned a fifth of the company, and will pay $27.60 per share in cash for the company.

Youku CEO Victor Koo says he will continue to lead the company and its operations after the deal closes.

"We are confident that we will strengthen our market position and further accelerate our growth through the integration of our advertising and consumer businesses with Alibaba's platform and Alipay services," added Koo.

Google has purchased Fly Labs, the company behind the popular Clips, Fly, Tempo and Crop on the Fly video editing apps for iOS.

The app maker says current employees will be integrated into the Google Photos team, suggesting at the very least that the search giant is considering adding some video editing features to its cloud-based photo service.

Fly Labs say their apps were downloaded over 3 million times and over 20 million videos were created using the tools. At the end of 90 days from the acquisition, Google will be pulling the apps from the Apple App Store.

Fans of Warcraft now have the first trailer for the upcoming live-action Duncan Jones-directed film based on the franchise.

In the trailer we see orcs fleeing their dying world, en route to the human world.

The movie is scheduled for release in June 2016.

Google has released its updated platform numbers for the end of October, with Android Marshmallow making its first appearance following the launch of the Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X.

In addition to the new Nexus phones, the Nexus 6 also got the update to Marshmallow, which is officially 6.0.

KitKat (4.4) and Lollipop (5.0/5.1) remained the big winners, at 37.8 percent and 25.6 percent respectively, but quite a few older versions still have respectable numbers. Google's ultimate goal is to have everyone using the same operating system, but there are too many older phones out there that aren't upgradeable.

Check the full numbers here.

According to new reports, Google has begun thinking about co-developing Android chips from their own designs and the company may begin looking for a partner in the near future.

In doing so, Google will match Apple who uses their own A-series chip set in their iPhones and iPads to ensure a consistent experience across their ecosystem.

For the most part, Android phones are powered by Qualcomm or Samsung chips, so Google would most likely have to develop the new chips with one of them to be able to build at the volume and scale necessary.

The report also speculates that the chips could first be tested with next-generation Nexus flagship devices, before making their way to other OEMs.

The BBC has launched the BBC Store this week, a digital service allowing consumers to buy and download their favorite programs.

Over 30 years of select BBC programming will be available and anything bought from the BBC Store will be playable via the BBC iPlayer.

Additionally, you can search and buy directly through the BBC iPlayer, as well, giving you the option to download a legacy catalog and stream new content too.

"Of course, BBC Store will feature current BBC favourites including Doctor Who, Sherlock, Top Gear and David Attenborough's natural history programmes as well as recent hits like Poldark and The Fall and children's favourites like Sarah & Duck," adds the company.

In relatively shocking news, research firm Strategy Analytics has said today that Samsung's fledgling Tizen OS has surpassed BlackBerry in global market share.

After years of delays, Samsung finally launched Tizen this year on commercial devices, including two smartphones, the Gear S2 smartwatch and some TV.

Says the company: "According to the latest published report from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) services: Global Smartphone OS Market Share by Region : Q3 2015, Android registered a slight year-on-year increase in marketshare, while Apple gained traction, driven by strong demand for new iPhone models. Microsoft, BlackBerry and Firefox drifted down, while Tizen posted tangible growth and overtook BlackBerry being the fourth largest OS platform for the first time ever." The actual figures are behind a paywall, but it's hard to imagine that Tizen has market share above 2 percent, meaning BlackBerry has fallen very, very far.

Source:
Strategy Analytics

The MPAA has confirmed this week that they were responsible for the shutdown of scene release group YIFY and its parent site YTS following lawsuits against Popcorn Time devs.

The studios that back the MPAA sued three Popcorn Time developers in Canada, leading to the shutdown of the service's main fork at popcorntime.io in late October. There had been rumors that internal strife between the founding team over whether or not some features would bring a lawsuit and those rumors were true.

It turns out that the MPAA obtained an injunction on October 16th for the Popcorntime.io site. The lawsuit accuses the devs of copyright infringement and also names the service's VPN provider, VPN.ht. At the same time, the MPAA was threatening a multi-million lawsuit against the alleged operator of YTS, who lives in New Zealand.

"This coordinated legal action is part of a larger comprehensive approach being taken by the MPAA and its international affiliates to combat content theft," MPAA head Chris Dodd touted. "Popcorn Time and YTS are illegal platforms that exist for one clear reason: to distribute stolen copies of the latest motion picture and television shows without compensating the people who worked so hard to make them."

Konami has confirmed the closure of Kojima Productions LA, with 35 people losing their jobs.

The publisher did note that it will still continue to support Metal Gear Online mode for Phantom Pain, which had been the main reason that Kojima LA was still open.

"Konami has made the decision to close its Los Angeles Studio, effective immediately, due to the product development resources being restructured into a more centralized unit. This facility contributed to the recent Metal Gear Solid games. Konami will continue its operations to support all Metal Gear Solid titles, including the recently launched Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and Metal Gear Online. Metal Gear Online is still scheduled to release for PC Steam in January 2016," added the publisher.

The latest move is just the next step in an escalating feud between Konami and legendary developer Hideo Kojima in which the new Silent Hill sequel was canceled and Kojima was allegedly fired during the development of Metal Gear.