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According to a new report, Samsung is looking to integrate its high-end security features like KNOX and fingerprint sensors into their budget smartphones moving forward.

Additionally, the phones could get access to Samsung Pay, Samsung's new mobile payments service that is only available on the latest Galaxy devices.

While component costs were a big reason only high-end devices included fingerprint scanners in the past, it is clear that those prices are more than reasonable now. Chinese smartphone OEM Coolpad recently released their Coolpad Note 3 flagship with a fingerprint sensor in India for $135.

Samsung does not market their budget phones in the U.S. and other developed nations, for the most part, but the company has over majority market share in quite a few emerging markets like Turkey, Egypt, India and Portugal and continues to target those markets for growth.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden made some interesting comments during a recent interview, suggesting that everybody should be running an ad blocker, if not for the ads but just for security's sake.

Says Snowden: "We've seen internet providers like Comcast, AT&T, or whoever it is, insert their own ads into your plaintext http connections. ... As long as service providers are serving ads with active content that require the use of Javascript to display, that have some kind of active content like Flash embedded in it, anything that can be a vector for attack in your web browser -- you should be actively trying to block these. Because if the service provider is not working to protect the sanctity of the relationship between reader and publisher, you have not just a right but a duty to take every effort to protect yourself in response."

His point adds to recent headlines for these "malvertising" attacks where ad networks host files that are disguised as advertisements, and unwittingly put their viewers at risk.

Snowden is not the only person using ad blockers and their popularity has surged tremendously over the past few years. In fact, some reports have users jumping 41 percent year over year to over 200 million.

The operator of the defunct RockDizMusic music piracy site has been sentenced to three years in prison.

U.S. authorities had accused 23-year-old Rocky Ouprasith of running the site that allegedly infringed thousands of copyrighted tracks. Ouprasith will also have to pay near $100,000 in fines and restitution.

Ouprasith pleaded guilty to infringing the copyrighted music that had a total value of $7 million between 2011 and 2014 when authorities shut down the site. The site owner was making about $4000 a month in advertising, and in a Skype chat message he wrote that the site brought in about $80,000 revenue in 2013, alone.

In an effort avoid getting caught, Ouprasith used servers in Russia and The Netherlands. At the time the site was shut down, the RIAA claimed it was the second largest music piracy site in the U.S. The site offered thousands of singles, albums and mixtapes for download.

Swiss watchmaker Movado has unveiled new smartwatches today, both of which have classic Movado style and some basic smart features.

What's interesting about the devices is that they both have analog displays (meaning no touchscreens), and can connect via Bluetooth to Android 4.4 or newer or iOS 8 or newer devices.

The Movado Museum Sport Motion "is a fine Swiss watch of simple, modern design. Inside it uses patented MotionX® smartwatch technology to track your daily steps and sleep patterns, and deliver "get active" alerts. Movado Motion is easy to set-up and sync with your paired smartphone or tablet, Android 4.4.3 or later, or iOS 8 or later, when you download and install the MotionX-365 app. It features automatic local time/date sync, and the battery has a 2-year life and never needs recharging."

Movado's BOLD Motion "has Bluetooth connectivity, engineered by HP, Android and iOS compatible, 44 mm stainless steel case with black PVD-finished bezel, round black dial with teal LED indicators; haptic phone call, appointment, email, text message, social media alerts; recharger for smart module; black silicone strap with stainless steel buckle."

From a design standpoint, this author is a fan of Movado and likes these watches, but it's hard to really see a huge need for the "smart" features of the watches.

Microsoft and Code.org have announced a partnership in which Minecraft will be used to teach kids the basics of programming.

The 14-level tutorial is available for free and it will look like the classic Minecraft game except that you will need to use programming principles to play and move ahead.

Code.org's co-founder Hadi Partovi explained that the tutorial is part of the site's 'Hour of Code' event that tries to get as many kids as possible to try coding for one hour at least once per year. "The goal of one hour is to teach you that this is something that you can do and it's more fun than you thought. Frankly, it's to hook you to want to learn more," Partovi said. "The stereotypes you hear in pop culture make people think this is just for one group. We want to break those stereotypes, demystify the field and break the barrier of intimidation and show this is fun."

Over 60 million students tried it out last year, and this year's event is on December 7th.

The hacktivist collective better known as 'Anonymous' has declared war on ISIS following the Paris terrorist attacks.

Posting on YouTube, the collective says the terrorist attacks will not "go unpunished" and that anyone who supports the extremist group can expect cyber attacks.

"That's why Anonymous activists from all over the world will hunt you down. Yes, you, the vermin who kill innocent victims, we will hunt you down like we did to those who carried out the attacks on Charlie Hebdo," says the video. "War is declared. Prepare yourselves. Know this, the French people are stronger than you and will come out of this atrocity even stronger."

After the Charlie Hebdo attack, Anonymous was key in getting 25,000 ISIS-supporting Twitter accounts kicked off the service and the group also took down a French site that was full of extremists.

It has been suggested today, although unconfirmed, that the ISIS terrorists could have used game consoles to hide their messages and plan the Paris attacks that have killed 132 innocent people.

According to sources, police seized at least one PlayStation 4 following their raids in Belgium yesterday.

Both French and American officials say the terrorists used encryption and other sophisticated methods to plan the coordinated bombings and shootings.

While it is unfair to lump popular consoles in with terrorists, reports have brought up some interesting and scary methods in which people could have communicated secretly. Besides the PlayStation's online chat messaging and voice call capabilities, "it has been suggested for example terrorists could spell out an attack plan in Super Mario Maker's coins and share it privately with a friend, or two Call of Duty players could write messages to each other on a wall in a disappearing spray of bullets."

This is not the first time it has been implied that video game communities could be used by criminals to communicate secretly. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden showed documents that the NSA and the UK equivalent, GCHQ, were both infiltrating communities like 'Second Life' and 'World of Warcraft' to monitor messages.

Rdio, the music streaming service that was once valued as high as $500 million, has filed for bankruptcy and will be shutting down soon.

Internet radio giant Pandora has picked up the pieces of the company, acquiring "key" assets for $75 million. Pandora says many of Rdio's employees will be offered a position at Pandora and the company "expects to offer an expanded Pandora listening experience by late 2016, pending its ability to obtain proper licenses."

The deal is pending Rdio's ability to get bankruptcy protection from creditors, and if so, then Rdio will begin to "wind down" all Rdio-branded services. In fact, Pandora is not buying the Rdio name or its operating business but just its talent and technology so once this deal clears Rdio will be gone for good.

"The Rdio team built an acclaimed product and technology platform that has consistently led innovation in the young streaming industry. I'm pleased that many members of the Rdio team will continue to shape the future of streaming music, applying our tradition of great design and innovative engineering on an even larger stage with Pandora," added Anthony Bay, chief executive officer of Rdio.

Just months after Nintendo announced that the game would be delayed, we have an official release date for Star Fox Zero for Wii U.

Nintendo says the game will be available April 22nd, 2016 but there was no word as to why it was delayed in the first place. The initial release date was said to be this month, but it appears the company needed an extra six months for development.

The company released a new trailer, as well, and the graphics still look pretty sub-par, even for Wii U, but there is hope that that can be improved by the time the game launches.

Additionally, the company showed off the Gamepad support, allowing gamers to use the accessory for aiming while the TV shows off a more "cinematic experience." It seems strange to make the large screen cinematic while you are stuck staring down at a tablet to aim.

Thanks to 'Halo 5: Guardians,' the Microsoft Xbox One was able to overtake the Sony PlayStation 4 in sales last month.

According to The NPD Group, Halo 5 was the best selling video game of the month, as well.

Microsoft marketing head Mike Nichols proudly boasted the numbers, as well: "The strength of the greatest games lineup in Xbox history drove record Xbox Live usage for October and made Xbox One the best-selling console in the U.S. with 81 percent growth compared to October 2014. We saw amazing fan excitement, commercial success and critical acclaim in October for Halo 5: Guardians, which was the best-selling game in the U.S., and other Xbox One titles launching earlier this fall, including Forza Motorsport 6, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Harmonix's Rock Band 4, and Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Syndicate."

This is only the second time this year that Microsoft outsold Sony (they did it in April) and overall the company is pretty far behind in total sales since launch but it's not inconceivable to see Microsoft start winning more months especially if more exclusives are upcoming.

According to developer Bethesda and retailers, 'Fallout 4' a global smash hit, selling 12 million units around the world in just 72 hours.

The post-apocalyptic RPG series has always been popular but it has never seen sales like this, which some retailers have called "record sales" for a game. The game has brought in $750 million in revenue since its launch on the 10th.

It's unclear if Fallout 4 Pip-Boy Edition and Fallout 4 bundles have been included in the figures, but we will assume that they were.

With the strong sales, Fallout 4 beat Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Halo 5, and it also set the record for most concurrent players on Steam beating out the aforementioned hits.

Vizio's smart TVs are tracking your viewing habits and sharing it with advertisers - and you probably don't even know it's happening.

Dubbed "Smart Interactivity," the tracking method is turned on by default for over 10 million smart TVs the company has sold in the past few years.

Vizio confirms this is true, saying in a statement that "customers'non-personal identifiable information may be shared with select partners ... to permit these companies to make, for example, better-informed decisions regarding content production, programming and advertising."

That's just the beginning, however. After the company tracks what you view, it records your IP address and then works with data brokers to connect the IP address to other personal information such as age and gender and even income. This profile is then passed on to advertisers who may target ads to your PC or smartphone.

During a recent earnings conference call, Vizio specifically noted its ability to provide "highly specific viewing behavior data on a massive scale with great accuracy." Luckily, not all is lost as users can choose to opt-out of the tracking but if you are buying a Vizio smart TV you may want to think about who's watching.

Mozilla has announced the launch of Firefox OS 2.5 Developer Preview for Android, an experimental build aimed at devs.

The open-source giant says there are a couple of interesting features integrated into the alpha build:

Add-ons: Just like the add-ons we've come to love in desktop browsers, Firefox OS add-ons can extend just one app, several, or all of them, including the system app itself.
Private Browsing with Tracking Protection: A new Firefox privacy feature, Tracking Protection allows users to control how their browsing activity is tracked across many sites.
Pin the Web: Pin the Web removes the artificial distinction between web apps and websites and lets you pin any website or webpage to your home screen for later usage.

The Developer Preview is an app that lets you run and test out the Firefox OS as a home screen on your Android device without needing to flash the operating system over your existing Android OS.

Google has announced offline support for the popular Google Maps navigation app on Android.

The new update will allow users to cache their trips or entire areas while connected to Wi-Fi and users can later pull up their routes using a basic version of navigations that does not include live traffic.

"You can download an area by searching for a city, county or country, for instance, and tapping "Download" on the resulting place sheet, or by going to "Offline Areas" in the Google Maps menu and tapping on the "+" button. Once downloaded, Google Maps will move into offline mode automatically when it recognizes you're in a location with spotty service or no connectivity at all. When a connection is found, it will switch back online so you can easily access the full version of Maps, including live traffic conditions for your current route. By default, we'll only download areas to your device when you are on a Wi-Fi connection to prevent large data fees," reads Google's post.

Available now for Android, Google says an iOS release is coming soon, as well.

Earlier this week, Swiss watchmaker Fossil announced the acquisition of fitness wearable startup Misfit for $260 million.

The deal is expected to close by year's end, and co-founder and CEO Sonny Vu will remain with the company to serve as president and CTO of connected services for Fossil Group.

Fossil says it plans to incorporate the Misfit tech into traditional looking watches, and that it will continue to produce Misfit products into the future with the Misfit brand name.

Misfit had raised over $64 million from venture capitalists over the past two years before its acquisition.