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The U.S. FTC has begun an initial investigation into Apple's treatment of rival music streaming apps and whether the practices are illegal under current antitrust law.

Apple takes a 30 percent cut on every in-app purchase for digital goods, including streaming subscriptions, causing a big issue for companies like Spotify, Deezer and Rdio.

Each streaming service charges $9.99 a month for a premium subscription but with Apple taking a 30 percent cut, many of the services have complained that they have to raise their rates, which then in turn makes them non-competitive in the marketplace. If they do not raise the price, most of their margins are gone after Apple takes their cut.

The FTC has had multiple meetings with "concerned parties" and will likely start a formal investigation in time.

The team over at OnePlus has revealed yet another detail about the upcoming OnePlus 2 flagship this weekend during an AMA on reddit.

Confirmed is the fact that the company will use a 3300mAh battery for their upcoming smartphone, larger than its predecessor's 3100mAh battery.

The company also confirmed that the camera is a high priority and that there will be a fingerprint sensor, which has also been rumored for some time.

Sadly, in order to get the new phone you will have to go through the arcane invite system, but OnePlus says the system has been improved. Additionally, OnePlus One buyers will get priority.

Finally, the company is adding more band support and will ship three separate models - one for NA, one for China and one for Europe. The NA model will work on GSM 850, 900, 1800, and 1900MHz, WCDMA bands 1/2/4/5/8, and FDD-LTE bands 1/2/4/5/7/8/12/17. The other models will work on GSM 850, 900, 1800, and 1900MHz, WCDMA bands 1/2/5/8, and FDD-LTE bands 1/3/5/7/8/20 giving plenty of options for the unlocked device.

The OnePlus 2 becomes official on July 27th via a virtual reality launch.

Update: I have been in contact with the project's founder, Ashok, since I wrote this review. Despite the harsh words for the EzeeCube, Ashok has been gracious enough to provide assistance and updates to me on a weekly basis. I was recently sent an updated media center with the latest firmware to test, and I will be doing so this week.

Original Review

The EzeeCube, a crowdfunded Indiegogo darling, started shipping out to backers three weeks ago, a year after its campaign began.

So far, the experience has been a disaster.

As with all horror stories, it pays to start at the beginning. The campaign (and the set-top itself) started with a lot of promise. The Ezee Cube is a media center set-top box that allows you to sync to your mobile device and therefore keep all your pictures, music and movies stored safely on the device's 1 or 2TB HDD. The built-in software, based on Kodi (formerly XBMC), promised to keep everything tidy in your own media library. The campaign also promised the ability to add 100s of apps, from Hulu to YouTube.

Perhaps most notably, the Cube offers the ability to stack units to your set-top, such as a Blu-ray player, added HDDs and even a classic console emulator. Having a set-top box that could store 1TB worth of content in an XMBC media library, act as a home cloud for your family, DLNA support, and devices and possibly allow you to play Blu-rays and video games sounded like an incredible deal, and I was quick to back the campaign for $199 and the promise of a "Thanksgiving Day delivery." Yes, Thanksgiving 2014.

As of this weekend, Google's popular Chrome browser is now blocking a few popular torrent sites if you try to access them directly.

At one point, KickassTorrents, ExtraTorrent, Torrentz and RARBG were all blocked if you tried to go to them directly from your URL bar, with each marked as a site that contains "harmful programs."

A few of the sites were able to solve the problems directly through Google's webmaster tools but some like Torrentz are still blocked.

"The site ahead contains harmful programs," reads the page. "Attackers on torrentz.eu might attempt to trick you into installing programs that harm your browsing experience (for example, by changing your homepage or showing extra ads on sites you visit)."

All the sites have denied hosting malicious software and are expected to be back and available by the end of the weekend.

Yesterday, the saga of Ellen Pao took a somewhat unexpected turn as the executive resigned as CEO of reddit.

She is being replaced by reddit's founder Steve Huffman, who was also the company's original CEO.

Pao was heavily criticized in her 9 months as interim CEO for reddit, with users calling for her resignation for some time. All hell broke loose earlier this month when a popular staff member was let go, and moderators shut down some of the most popular areas of reddit. A change.org petition for Pao to resign saw over 200,000 signatures.

Here is the full statement from Reddit:

Ellen Pao resigned from reddit today by mutual agreement. I'm delighted to announce that Steve Huffman, founder and the original reddit CEO, is returning as CEO.

We are thankful for Ellen's many contributions to reddit and the technology industry generally. She brought focus to chaos, recruited a world-class team of executives, and drove growth. She brought a face to reddit that changed perceptions, and is a pioneer for women in the tech industry. She will remain as an advisor to the board through the end of 2015. I look forward to seeing the great things she does beyond that.

We're very happy to have Steve back. Product and community are the two legs of reddit, and the board was very focused on finding a candidate who excels at both (truthfully, community is harder), which Steve does. He has the added bonus of being a founder with ten years of reddit history in his head. Steve is rejoining Alexis, who will work alongside Steve with the new title of "cofounder".

Microsoft has created an interesting new app this week, 'Tossup,' an app that promises to help you organize plans with friends and family easier than even Facebook.

"Aiming to advance Microsoft's mission of helping people achieve more in life and work, Tossup is a lightweight and fast mobile experience that helps groups plan and make decisions by giving them the ability to vote and suggest choices. It's an ideal tool to make decisions about timing, availability, what to do, nearby venues and spending limits. Information for restaurants is pulled from Bing – opening hours, reviews, addresses, etc. – to help make decisions. To get answers quickly, groups can add a countdown clock, then save the event to their calendars, turning those plans into reality," says Microsoft.

The software giant notes that Tossup extends beyond planning and allows you to ask just about anything.

"We're creating apps that make it easy and even fun to get more done, both at work and in your personal life," says Ashok Kuppusamy, a group program manager whose team is focused on building mobile apps. "Take Tossup, for example. Everyone has been through the tedious experience of planning a get-together which results in long email threads or text messages that go on and on without any resolution. We've built an app that helps people in these everyday scenarios."

The BBC has unveiled the final design for their mini PC, the "Micro Bit," which will be given out to one million UK students in October to help them learn to program from an early age.

"We all know there's a critical and growing digital skills gap in this country and that's why it's so important that we come together and do something about it," said BBC's director general Tony Hall.

Of note, the final design has removed the slot for a thin battery, thus killing the device for wearables, but it has added two buttons and a built-in motion sensor along with its 25 LED array. To use the Micro Bit as a standalone product you will need to try the AA battery-powered add-on power pack.

Children given the device will be encouraged and taught to code on the Micro Bit website. The code can be saved and tested and then transferred to the device via Bluetooth or USB.

The Micro Bit can be coded to make its 25 LEDs flash in different patterns and if the child would like to code more complex tasks the Micro Bit can be connected to the Raspberry Pi or Arduino, mini PCs that sell for $30-$50 and are remarkably tiny and powerful.

Scheduled for release on March 25, 2016, we finally have a true trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and it looks incredible.

We finally get a look into the story and a close look at Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Lex Luthor.

I have nothing else to say. Just check out the trailer:

The founders of infamous torrent tracker Pirate Bay have been acquitted in a Belgian court of criminal copyright infringement and abusing electronic communications.

Gottfrid Svartholm, Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström have spent the last decade in legal issues across the planet but at least they can breath easy now on one case.

The alleged crimes were committed between September 2011 and November 2013, and this appears to be the most important note of the case as the founders have staunchly denied having anything to do with the site since its sale to Reservella in 2006.

In fact, Svartholm was in prison for most of the period in question and Lundstrom has not been connected to the site since he helped finance it in 2003. The judge was unable to connect the four to the operation of the site during the time frame and rejected the case outright.

Microsoft has confirmed it will be shutting down a number of MSN-branded apps (also once known as Bing apps) over the next few weeks and months.

Windows, iOS and Android users will soon receive notices that their MSN Health & Fitness, MSN Travel and MSN Food & Drink apps will be shutting down in the very near future.

Microsoft recently sold off its display ad business and sold its Bing map-data collection division to Uber, so it's clear that Microsoft is doing a bit of a cleanup of their non-essential businesses.

The company did confirm that its more popular MSN apps - News, Weather, Sports and Money - will continue to run and will actually be built for the upcoming Windows 10, as well.

J.J. Abrams and the cast of the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens absolutely took over Comic-Con yesterday, unveiling a behind-the-scenes video and even inviting all the attendees to a surprise concert behind the convention center, giving everyone a lightsaber in the process.

The new cast appeared for a panel, as did stars of the original films including Harrison Ford, Carrie Fischer and Mark Hamill.

Oh, and btw, Simon Pegg will play an alien.

Check out the video here:

According to research firm Gartner, global PC shipments totaled 68.4 million in the Q2 2015, a 9.5 percent decline year-over-year (YoY).

For the year, the firm expects an overall decline of 4.4 percent.

Gartner pinpointed three reasons for the decline, and all appear to be more temporary than permanent issues for the market: "The price hike of PCs became more apparent in some regions due to a sharp appreciation of the U.S. dollar against local currencies," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "The price hike could hinder PC demand in these regions. Secondly, the worldwide PC market experienced unusually positive desk-based growth last year due to the end of Windows XP support. After the XP impact was phased out, there have not been any major growth drivers to stimulate a PC refresh. Lastly, the Windows 10 launch scheduled for 3Q15 has created self-regulated inventory control. PC vendors and the channels tried clearing inventory as much as possible before the Windows 10 launch."

Lenovo remained the world's top PC maker, shipping 13.46 million units, good for 19.7 percent share. HP was close behind at 11.92 million units (17.4 percent share) followed by Dell at 9.6 million units (14 percent). The only brig loser for the quarter was Acer, who saw a 20.2 percent drop quarter-over-quarter.

For the second time this year, we have a viable rumor that Huawei will be building Google's upcoming Nexus flagship device.

The Information reports that the Chinese company will produce the device, although it's expected to be smaller than the current 6-inch Nexus 6.

Previous rumors had claimed that Huawei would build a 5.7-inch device and LG would build a 5.2-inch device, meaning Google would offer two models similar to how Apple created the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Besides the phone, a partnership would also help Google to get their mobile app store and ecosystem into China, says the report, a massive development if true.

(Mock pictured)

With the OnePlus 2 scheduled to launch on July 27th, we have yet another major reveal thanks to the OnePlus team.

The company has announced that the smartphone will feature the fastest mobile RAM on the market, LPDDR4, and the flagship device will have 4GB RAM.

"Why did we choose LPDDR4 for the OnePlus 2? Another notable benefit is lower power consumption for better battery efficiency. That means you'll be able to use your favorite apps (and more) without draining the battery. With LPDDR4, you get twice the bandwidth performance as the LPDDR3 at the same power consumption profile. The RAM of the OnePlus 2 uses a lower operating voltage than its predecessor, decreasing from 1.2V to 1.1V. And with speeds up to 32 GB/s, it is also twice as fast as the LPDDR3. It offers optimal support for power-saving low frequency mode that brings clock speeds down when performing those everyday and necessary tasks," noted OnePlus.

Among the specs that have already been revealed include a custom 64-bit Snapdragon 810 processor and a fingerprint reader.

Treyarch's latest, 'Call of Duty: Black Ops III,' will have its own zombie game mode, entitled 'Shadows of Evil.'

The developer introduced the mode today at Comic-Con, and also released some info on the voice cast and the story line. Shadows of Evil will be set in a 1940s noir realm and feature four characters: The Magician, The Femme-Fatale, The Cop and The Boxer. The characters will face situations "masterminded by the mysterious Shadow Man."

Added studio head Mark Lamia: "Treyarch has crafted a totally unique and face-melting gameplay experience for our loyal Zombies community, with Call of Duty: Black Ops III: Zombies – Shadows of Evil. The development team has packed Shadows of Evil with more gameplay and fun than any other experience before it, and has an appropriately twisted and deep narrative, performed by fantastic acting talent, that will keep our fans spinning."

COD: Black Ops III is scheduled for release on November 6th.

Check out the first trailer here: