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Nintendo has unveiled some details about its first smartphone game, Miitomo.

It's unclear what the gameplay will be but Nintendo says everyone will be able to customize their own Miis and then communicate with other players. The game is free-to-play but you can buy character accessories and add-ons as in-app purchases.

Originally planned for release before the end of the year, Nintendo says it wants to begin promoting the game this November with release now scheduled for March.

Nintendo is also planning three more games before the end of 2017, and some will be traditional paid downloads rather than FTP.

Samsung missed analyst estimates again this quarter, even with marketing boosts and price cuts for their latest lineup of Galaxy phones.

Net income for the quarter was 5.31 trillion won ($4.7 billion) and Samsung says it expects profits to fall again for the current quarter. "In the fourth quarter, the company expects earnings to decline from the earlier quarter, as it does not expect the foreign exchange rate to have a positive effect in the fourth quarter," the company added.

Margins were compressed in the quarter, as sales of the company's cheaper smartphones increased but sales of the Galaxy S6 Edge and other high-end, higher-margin devices were not up to expectations. Additionally, marketing and capital expenditures increased significantly, also hitting margins.

Google has unveiled their second OnHub router today, a $219.99 device built by ASUS.

The first OnHub router was launched earlier this year, and reviews were generally very good. OnHub has 4GB of internal storage and also comes with its own app where you can see what devices are using bandwidth and change settings easier.

In addition to the new router, the company will also be rolling out a software update that introduces such smart features like "Wave Control" that allows you to boost speeds for a specific device by just waving your hand.

Adds Google: "OnHub routers are designed to stay fresh and get better over time. So in addition to the new ASUS router, in the coming week we're rolling out our first software update with several performance improvements, including a new smart antenna algorithm. Phone in the kitchen? Laptop in the living room? OnHub will intelligently select the best combination of antennas to direct Wi-Fi to your devices, based on their location and orientation. The best part is, if you already have an OnHub, your router will automatically update when your network is quiet so it won't interrupt your connection."

The router is already available for pre-order in the U.S. and Canada.

Google is preparing to add a home for podcasts via its Google Play Music service, marking the first time Android users will have a native app for listening to their favorite popular shows.

The search giant is not just looking to have Android users begin listening to existing podcasts, however, it also wants to reach out to users who have never heard one before. Elias Roman, co-founder of the streaming service Songza that was acquired by Google, says, "our goal is to serve content that makes what you do every day better," including podcasts that fit your mood at the time, or what you may have liked in the past. "Podcasts allow us to do everything for our users," Roman added. "It makes us a more complete concierge."

Google and Android have a ways to go. By most counts, podcast listening is dominated by iOS users, which is unsurprising given the focus Apple has put on them in the past.

Podcasting will be available via the free Google Play service and the subscription Google Play Music All-Access although even with the $9.99 service you will still hear ads within the podcasts unlike with music playback.

Fans of the Apple TV set-top media center no longer have to wait for their orders to ship as Apple has announced limited supply will be available in stores starting on Friday.

The device went on sale earlier this week online, but you had to pay for expedited shipping to get it before next Monday.

Both models of the device will be available with the 32GB version selling for $149 and the 64GB model selling for $199.

For a more in-depth look at Apple's first update to the Apple TV since 2012, check here.

Microsoft has announced today the rollout of new versions of Outlook for iOS and Outlook for Android, integrating their newly acquired Sunrise technology.

The upgraded apps tweak the UI and add some bug fixes, with an overall focus on improving navigation and saving time and taps. Android, specifically, will be getting a Material Design UI overhaul.

Microsoft recently acquired Sunrise, the mobile calendar app, for over $100 million, and will be integrating the technology to Outlook before shutting down the standalone app itself.

The software giant says there are currently about 30 million users of Outlook between the two operating systems.

Facebook has announced this week the start of "2G Tuesdays," an initiative that will slow down employee's Internet speed so they can "close the empathy gap" between the heart of the tech world and emerging markets like India and parts of Africa.

2G speeds are incredibly slow but are still used in many parts of the world. Compared to an LTE connection, loading a simple page or app like Facebook could take what feels like an eternity.

Now, the slow speeds will not be mandatory, but every Tuesday when employees log in to the Facebook app, there will be a prompt in their News Feed to try out the connection for an hour.

"For that next hour, their experience on Facebook will be very much like the experience that millions of people around the world have on Facebook on a 2G connection," engineering director Tom Alison says. "They're going to see the places that we need to improve our product, but they're also going to see the places where we have made a lot of progress."

Facebook continues to optimize the app, as well, to perform better on slower connections.

Samsung has teased us earlier with a new Galaxy tablet and finally couple days ago we got some leaked good quality pictures of what is a massive slate. It was leaked by the leakster like none other, Evan Blass, but now shortly after Samsung has made it official.

Galaxy View is a tablet that is not meant for travel. You would be hard-pressed to call it mobile really, and it comes with a kickstand for a reason. The reason being its humongous 18,4 inch display that has a Full HD resolution. The display dwarfs that of the iPad Pro which "only" has a 12,9 inch touchscreen.

The measurements are 275.8 x 451.8 x 11.9 mm (iPad Pro: 305.7 x 220.6 x 6.9 mm) and it weighs 2.65kg (nearly six pounds) – that's closing on four times more than iPad Pro. Obviously this device is meant to be used in an all-in-one PC way.

The other details include a 2,1 megapixel front-facing camera, octacore chipset, 2 gigs of RAM and 32 or 64 gigs of storage expandable with a microSD card. There's both a WiFi and an LTE version but Samsung hasn't yet revealed the pricing or the availability. Leaks have previously suggested that the cheapest 32 GB version would retail for $599.

IBM is set to acquire the digital and data assets of the Weather Channel in a deal that could top $2 billion.

While the deal will include the website, apps and intellectual property it will not include the legacy TV channel business.

Weather Co., the parent company of The Weather Channel, was acquired by private equity firms in 2008 for $3.5 billion and has built its digital assets significantly since then.

The deal is not completely surprising since IBM has stated interest in Weather Co.'s forecasting unit, WSI, for some time. Additionally, the two companies already have a partnership that involves IBM's AI service Watson and selling weather data and business solutions to different industries.

The French-based music streaming company Deezer has canceled its IPO indefinitely citing "market conditions."

Deezer had planned to raise €300 million on the French stock exchange, but will now wait to go public. The company says it "is well funded and well positioned as it continues to pursue its growth strategy" even without the public funding.

The streaming service was expected to use the funds to build its customer base through partnerships, marketing and free introductory services.

Deezer, founded in 2007, has 6.3 million customers across the globe, with 1.5 million of those as monthly paying subscribers. The rest are subscribers through bundles with carriers or other services, and Deezer only gets a small cut of that revenue stream. The company reported a loss of €27 million last year on revenue of €142 million.

Source:
TC

Apple reported their quarterly earnings today, with all metrics basically in-line.

The company reported $51.5 billion in revenue, and $11.1 billion in net profits, setting a 12-month corporate record for profits at $53.4 billion.

Apple sold 48.05 million iPhones, a bit under expectations, but still good for a 22 percent increase year-over-year. The company says it expects to sell between 74-76 million iPhones for the holiday quarter, growth of under 5 percent year-over-year at best.

Macs continued to see low single-digit growth, and margins increased to 39.9 percent compared to expectations of 39.3 percent. Apple also now has $206 billion in cash, a number that is hard to fathom.

On the other side, the iPad seems to be in serious trouble, with shipments down 20 percent year-over-year to 9.88 million units; the lowest number since 2011. It is becoming increasingly clear that the tablet market has peaked, and that owners are not upgrading on a yearly cycle but rather every two or three years, if at all.

Apple is launching its newest addition to the iPad lineup next month. The all-new iPad Pro is technically above all other models but it might be the price that scares customers.

According to the industry sources DigiTimes cites, Apple has made orders for a measly 2,5 million units of it's top of the line iPad. Of course it's just one of the iPad models but nonetheless the suppliers were expecting higher number of orders.

It is undeniable that price of the device in this economy has an effect. Comparing to the other iPads the iPad Pro is in a price league of its own, starting at a whopping $799 and depending on the options rising well above thousand dollars. The iPad Mini 4 costs only $399 and iPad Air 2 $499, and Apple still sells older versions that are even cheaper: iPad Air starting at $399 and iPad mini 2 at $269.

Even despite pricing and after all this, there's still one hugely important obstacle. Apple's iPad sales figures have been going downward for more than a year. There simply wasn't – or isn't – enough customer to keep up the growth. Surely iPad Pro will bring in the profits (per device) but even Apple is cautious about the unit amounts.

The UK Metropolitan Police have arrested a 15-year-old today in connection with the major cyberattack on TalkTalk.

Earlier this week, TalkTalk's website was hacked and names, addresses, account information and credit card/bank information were stolen from possibly 4 million customers. It appears that TalkTalk was hit by a DDoS attack that gave the attackers time to use SQL injection hacks. It also seems that many of the passwords stored via the website were in plain text, a huge letdown for customers and privacy in general.

The Metro Police, working with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the National Crime Agency executed the search warrant and arrested a 15 year old boy in County Antrim on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act violations.

TalkTalk's CEO also received a ransom note demanding money, and police are investigating that, as well.

Netflix content boss Ted Sarandos has said today that the original drama 'Beasts of No Nation' has been streamed over 3 million times in 10 days since it was released, a huge number for an independent film.

The streaming giant purchased the rights to the film earlier this year for $12 million.

"We are just thrilled with the total audience reach of this film, not just in North America, but the world," Sarandos said. "In the first week of release, Beasts of No Nation was the most watched movie on Netflix, in every country we operate in."

More importantly for the company, Sarandos says the film has been popular in places like Japan and Brazil, where U.S. developed indie films are normally not popular in the slightest.

Microsoft's VP of devices Panos Panay has confirmed that the oft-rumored Surface Mini tablet was a real thing.

Panay says he kept a prototype version of the 7-inch tablet near his bed so he could draft emails in the night or jot down any ideas or notes he may of had. "It was like a Moleskine," he added.

The executive did suggest that he no longer uses his prototype and that Microsoft has moved away from the idea of the smaller tablet, although that is unsurprising given that the tech is likely over two years old at this point.

Microsoft did note in the Q4 last year that it had decided "to not ship a new form factor" for the Surface but never mentioned the Mini by name.