Latest news

Google Senior VP of Search Amit Singhal has revealed some interesting facts about the world's leading search engine. According to Singhai now more than half of Google searches are done on mobile devices.

Ever since it's inception around the turn of the millenium Google's search has been used predominantly on PCs. Desktop computers have been losing their grip to mobile computing for years now and now they've finally overtaken all other forms of searching combined.

Speaking at the Recode's Code Mobile conference Singhal said that mobile devices with a smaller than six inch screen account for more than 50 percent of the 100 billion montly searches. In many of the developed countries the scale had already tipped on mobile devices favor earlier but now it did so internationally as well.

It's worth to note that most of the devices one would call tablets (and mobile as well) aren't calculated in the mobile devices here since they rarely have small enough screen.

Sony has dropped the price of their popular PlayStation 4 console today, down to $349.99 in the U.S. and to $429.99 CAD in Canada.

"Our goal at PlayStation has always been to provide the best gameplay experiences at the best value, and we feel this new compelling price will open the doors to even more gamers that have yet to purchase a system," added Sony.

In addition to the console being marked down, some bundles also saw a price cut.

The UNCHARTED: The Nathan Drake Collection PS4 Bundle is down to $349.99 USD / $429.99 CAD; the Limited Edition Call of Duty: Black Ops III 1TB PS4 Bundle (set for release 11/6) is reduced to $429.99 USD / $499.99 CAD; the limited Edition Disney Infinity 3.0: Star Wars PS4 Bundle (release 11/13) is down to $399.99 USD / $469.99 CAD, the limited Edition Star Wars Battlefront PS4 Bundle (release 11/17) is priced down to $399.99 USD / $469.99 CAD; the Star Wars Battlefront PS4 Bundle (release 11/17) is down to $349.99 USD / $429.99 CAD; and the NHL 16 PS4 Bundle is reduced in Canada to $429.99 CAD.

Netflix will be raising the price of their standard streaming subscription plan from the current $8.99 to $9.99 as the company continues to add original content.

The change is effective in the U.S., Canada and some countries in Latin America for new customers and will be effective in a year for existing customers.

Netflix offers a few tiers but the standard plan is the most popular since it allows two simultaneous HD streams at a time.

"To continue adding more TV shows and movies including many Netflix original titles, we are modestly raising the price for some new members in the U.S., Canada and Latin America. As a thank you to existing Netflix members -- who aren't already benefiting from a previous price guarantee -- we will maintain their current price for a year," said the company.

The move is unsurprising given the fact that Europe already saw a similar price increase two months ago from €8.99 to €9.99.

The fitness tracker is now smarter, sleeker and slimmer.

Microsoft announced the second-generation Microsoft Band fitness tracker this week, a wearable with a curved, touchscreen OLED display that also includes Cortana integration.

The tracker offers GPS, heart rate tracking, calorie tracking, sleep tracking, has a barometer for hiking/stairs, and it will even guide you through workouts. Cortana will yell at you if you forget to workout, as well.

Additionally, the Band records serious athletic metrics like VO2 max, has shot detection for golfers and supports popular apps like Uber, RunKeeper, Starbucks, Subway and Twitter which makes it pretty versatile.

Band works with iOS, Android and Windows Phone and will cost $249, more expensive than last year's model, which is generally considered a flop.

Yesterday, during Microsoft's big event, one smaller piece of news hit that went generally unnoticed but also means big things for Microsoft.

The company has a long stated goal of having developers create universal apps that can run seamlessly across phones, PCs and tablets, but so far there have been very, very few built.

Now, Microsoft has a big developer backing their push for universal apps, with Facebook having created universal apps for Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. "Facebook is all in on Windows 10," read the quote by Mark Zuckerberg.

Instagram is a big deal since there has been only minor updates to the app for Windows Phone over the last two years and the app still doesn't have the ability to upload video.

Microsoft surprised nearly everyone yesterday with the announcement of a new laptop, the Surface Book.

The high-end device appears to be taking on the MacBook Pro and the Google Pixel C, in looks and in its ability to showcase its parent's operating system.

To get started, the Surface Book has a 13.5" PixelSense display with 3000 x 2000 resolution and 10 point multi-touch and the whole case is magnesium for a nice metallic look.

The laptop is powered by a 6th-Gen Skylake Intel Core i5 or i7 and either Intel HD graphics 520 or a NVIDIA GeForce Graphics Processor and 8GB or 16GB of RAM. The Surface Book comes with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB or SSD storage. Since the laptop is a 2-in-1 it also has dual cameras, 8MP/5MP, dual speakers and dual mics.

Extremely interesting is the hinge the laptop uses, which allows for the keyboard to be bent completely backwards if need be, for drawing, for example, or completely detached.

The laptop is 3.34 lbs and starts at $1499, giving it a premium price in-line with the Macbook Pro.

Microsoft has introduced their latest Surface Pro reference tablet, a bigger tablet than its predecessor with high-end guts.

Starting at $899, the Surface Pro 4 is powered by a 6th-generation Skylake Intel Core m3, i5 or i7, 4B, 8GB or 16GB of RAM and Windows 10 Pro.

If you are into gaming, the lower-end device has Intel HD graphics 515, the mid-range tablet has Intel HD graphics 520 and the i7 version has Intel Iris graphics.

The screen is larger than its predecessor, at 12.3-inches, and the Surface Pro 4 has a 2736 x 1824 (267 PPI) PixelTouch display with 10 point multi-touch.

There are stereo mics and speakers with Dolby audio, dual cameras 8MP/5MP and a minimum of 128GB of SSD storage topping out at 1TB, almost unheard of for a tablet. The tablet also has a next-generation Surface Pen, a mini Display Port, a full-sized USB 3.0 port and a microSD slot.

With its decked out specs, the tablet is also relatively light, at 1.69lbs or 1.73lbs.

Microsoft announced its long-rumored Lumia 950 and 950 XL yesterday, and with the new phones came the Display Dock, a hardware adapter that allows you to convert your phone into a PC.

The adapter lets you connect a monitor, keyboard and PC, and has three ports including a USB Type-C, HDMI and DisplayPort.

You must install the Continuum app on your phone to be able to use it, and the phone will power a Windows 10-esque operating system that runs universal Windows 10 apps rather than a full desktop experience.

Microsoft has confirmed another milestone for its Windows 10 operating system: 110 million installs since launch in July.

A couple of other numbers the company threw out were the amount of webpages served through the new Microsoft Edge browser, 650 billion, and the amount of questions that have been asked to the voice activated digital assistant Cortana, at one billion.

In its first month of release, Windows 10 saw 75 million installs, so an extra 35 million in the second month is a figure we are sure Microsoft is proud of.

Of course, a significant amount of the installs are likely those with Windows 7 and 8 upgrading for free to the new operating system, so the next few months will be telling as real sales trickle in.

In addition to their Lumia 950 and 950 XL flagships, Microsoft also unveiled a new budget device: The Lumia 550.

The new device will replace Microsoft's aging Lumia 640, and the phone will be the company's main seller in developing markets and will compete against the Android-powered Moto G and Moto E in the U.S.

Lumia 550s will have a 4.7-inch 720p display, 1GB RAM, a quad-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon 210 and shockingly, a 5MP camera. The 2100 mAh battery should hopefully get you through the day.

Microsoft says the device will launch in December for just $139, although U.S. availability will not be until 2016.

Two years after Nokia released their Lumia 1520 phablet for Windows Phone, we finally have another flagship phablet for the operating system.

Microsoft unveiled the Lumia 950 and its larger brother the Lumia 950 XL, with similar high-end specs.

The new flagship device will feature Windows 10 Mobile, a 5.7-inch WQHD (1440 x 2560) AMOLED screen with Gorilla Glass 3, 3GB RAM, a 2.0GHz octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor, liquid cooling and a 3340 mAh battery with USB Type-C fast charging support.

As with its smaller brother, the Lumia 950 XL will also have a great camera featuring a 20MP PureView lens, triple LED flash, 4K capture, and "Rich Capture" for intelligent auto pictures.

Just like the 950, the XL also supports Windows Hello biometric scanning and Windows Continuum, which lets you connect the phone to a monitor through a special adapter and also by letting you attach a wireless keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth.

It's been leaked for months, but now it's official: Microsoft has unveiled the Lumia 950 scheduled for release in November.

The new flagship device will feature Windows 10 Mobile and will pack hardware specs that match any other flagship out there.

Microsoft's latest has a 5.2-inch WQHD (1440 x 2560) OLED screen with Gorilla Glass 3, 3GB RAM, a 1.8GHz hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor, and Microsoft says it includes liquid cooling, as well, even though it is a bit unclear how that exactly works.

In an effort to compete with the latest Samsung, Apple and Nexus devices, the Lumia 950 will also have a great camera featuring a 20MP PureView lens, triple LED flash, 4K capture, and "Rich Capture" for intelligent auto pictures.

Finally, the phone has 32GB internal storage, USB Type-C fast charging support, and a 3000mAh battery. On the software side, the Lumia 950 also supports Windows Hello biometric scanning and Windows Continuum, which lets you connect the phone to a monitor through a special adapter and also by letting you attach a wireless keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth.

Dimitry Belorossov has been sentenced to four and a half years in U.S. prison for his part in using the Citadel banking Trojan and for running a botnet.

The accused Russian cyber criminal, who went by the name Rainerfox, plead guilty to conspiring to commit computer fraud.

Belorossov ran a Citadel command and control server and controlled over 7000 victim computers. According to the court docs, the "botnet contained personal information from the infected victim computers, including online banking credentials for US-based financial institutions, credit card information, and other personally identifying information."

While Rainerfox was not accused of building the Trojan, he "provided online assistance with the goal of developing suggested improvements to Citadel, including posting comments on criminal forums on the internet and electronically communicating with other cyber-criminals via email and instant messaging."

Belorossov, who lives in Russia, was picked up while vacationing in Spain and was extradited to the U.S. The young developer/hacker will also have to pay $320,000 in restitution.

Adblock, the popular ad blocking software for Chrome and Safari has been sold this week, although it is unclear to who.

The extension has over 40 million users, so clearly there was some value there although it is a bit strange that we don't know the amount of the sale, or to whom. When asked, Adblock says the buyer asked to not be named and therefore they could not disclose.

Creator Michael Gundlach will also be leaving the company, with previous director Gabriel Cubbage now taking over under the new owner.

Users are understandably worried about the future of the software given the fact that the buyer could be an advertising company (we have no idea) who will look to cut deals with companies to although their ads through, for example. Most likely, however, the buyer was Adblock Plus.

A data breach at a credit agency has exposed personal data of over 15 million T-Mobile customers, or potential customers, the carrier has warned.

Experian, which processes credit applications on behalf of T-Mobile, has publicly disclosed a security breach detected on Sept 15th, which may affect millions of T-Mobile's customers. The data breach affected a server that contained personal information for consumers who applied for T-Mobile USA postpaid services between Sept. 1, 2013 and Sept. 16, 2015.

While no payment card information or banking information was exposed during the breach, the information that was accessible may put millions of individuals at increased risk of identity theft. The server stored records containing names, addresses, social security number, date of birth, ID information (drivers license, passport numbers etc.) and other information used for T-Mobile's credit assessment.

While the social security numbers and I.D. information was encrypted on the server, Experian has determined that the encryption may have been compromised.

Experian has notified federal and international law enforcement agencies of the hack and is cooperating with the investigation. It is also notifying the individuals who may have been affected and is offering free credit monitoring and identity resolution services for two years through ProtectMyID.