Latest news

Netflix has become almost synonymous with movie streaming. There are others but it is Netflix that is the Kleenex of streaming services. There are many reasons why this happened but the CEO of the company says piracy was among them, TorrentFreak reports.

The CEO and the face of Netflix, Reed Hastings, spoke to Spanish press preparing the launch in Spain this year. In Spain like in other European countries entertainment industry has been plagued by piracy and Hastings says Netflix has been successful in these type of markets.

Once the consumer has a choice to use a reasonably priced and easy to use legal service they will flock to use that. This is why Hastings told El Mundo that piracy has prepared the internet users for their service.

Online users want ease of use which Hastings says Netflix excels at. He isn't afraid of the competition from free (and illegal) services. "Tap water is free but there is still people buying bottled water," said Hastings.

At first the release in Spain will not be as full fledged version of the service as stateside but the catalog will expand over time, like it does in other newer markets. Exact launch date has not yet been revealed.

Apple's TV revolution has so far been an effort driven only by the small media streaming box. Apple TV has gradually improved little over time but no major updates have been released in three years. Unfortunately for Apple TV fans that is not going to change soon.

Earlier rumors had it that Apple would release a new version of Apple TV as well as developer kits and web TV service next Monday at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. The newest information suggests, however, that this will not be the case.

New York Times reports that Apple indeed did have an intention to release the products but at last minute decided it was not ready for the spotlight. Their guess is that the launch was hindered by the content licensing which has been described as the biggest obstacle for Apple's TV revolution.

It seems that the main focus will be on new versions of iOS and OS X as well as iTunes' new streaming service. Stay tuned for more news from the WWDC.

Apple has recalled nearly 222,000 of its Beats Pill XL speakers in the U.S., after 'rare' reports of batteries overheating.

The company said they received 8 reports of batteries overheating and one of a user who received minor burns.

Apple has asked anyone using the speakers to discontinue using the product and will offer all customers refunds or $325 store credit.

The speakers were first launched in November of 2013, a few months before Apple acquired Beats for $3 billion to expand its accessories and streaming music lines.

For the past year, thousands of you have been satisfying your needs for news content with our HIGH.FI app, and we couldn't be happier to have you!

The app, built by AfterDawn (our first!), was made to simply aggregate news content from all over the web. We wanted to make an app that could drag in news from everywhere and still could be categorized and filtered, without getting too bloated. In a way, we wanted to build a kind of "pre-loaded Feedly".

About a year ago, that app debuted for Windows Phone devices titled HIGH.FI, after the en.high.fi domain that provides a lite-version of the service for Desktops. Surprisingly, people liked it and several months later we dropped an Android app onto Google Play.

With no significant promotion other than our own, HIGH.FI is approaching 10,000 installations on Windows Phone, and 14,000 on Android. It has an aggregate rating of 4.1/5.0 on Google Play, which also surprised us for our first app. It turns out there are plenty of news junkies like us who find this app useful, and thousands of you use it everyday! Thank you for choosing to keep our app and using it so often because it has kept it a priority even as we are on the verge of some major updates and changes at AfterDawn.

According to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers study, consumers are finally spending more money on streaming and digital downloads than they are on buying and renting physical media.

Digital revenue is expected to top $9.5 billion this year, with sales of physical media dropping to $7.8 billion.

Streaming and digital could be a $12 billion industry by 2017, added the company.

Netflix, Hulu and iTunes are the biggest gainers in the industry, but streaming and digital download options are becoming more plentiful on a regular basis.

As we learned earlier this month, Windows 10 is ready for launch on July 29th, a major update to the operating system that will cost most legitimate Windows users nothing to upgrade.

Besides bringing back the Start Menu (thankfully), and adding smaller but important features like quick startup and resume, Windows 10 will introduce some serious updates on the browser and software side. Windows 10 will also be the first of Microsoft's operating systems to be a true ecosystem, one that expands to the Internet of Things, console gaming, tablets, desktops and of course, mobile.



Here's the list, courtesy of Microsoft:

Yahoo has been announced as the exclusive livestream provider for the October 25th Jacksonville Jaguars-Buffalo Bills game.

Even more importantly, the game will be completely free for viewers.

It is believed Yahoo paid over $20 million for the rights to the game, and Yahoo will also have exclusive ad rights for the game, with the potential to make a good return.

There is, of course, downsides. The game is to be played in London, meaning it will air at 6:30am for West Coast Americans. Even diehard Jaguars and Bills fans will have to think hard about waking up that early on a Sunday.

According to CBS, who is producing the Web stream, quality is a priority as is availability and the game will be available on mobile devices, PCs, Chromecast, Xbox 360 and the Apple TV.

Showtime has announced that it will offer a standalone streaming service starting next month with a price that undercuts HBO's Now service.

On July 12th, Apple users will get first crack at the service, which will cost $10.99 per month and give access to new and catalog Showtime shows. The service will be eventually available on more platforms, including Android.

"Going over-the-top means Showtime will be much more accessible to tens of millions of potential new subscribers," said CBS CEO Les Moonves. "Across CBS, we are constantly finding new ways to monetize our programming by capitalizing on opportunities presented by technology. This works best when you have outstanding premium content – like we do at Showtime – and when you have a terrific partner like Apple – which continues to innovate and build upon its loyal customer base."

"We're excited to offer Apple customers SHOWTIME's live channels and extensive on demand library of great TV shows and movies, without a cable or satellite subscription," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple TV customers will now be able to subscribe to SHOWTIME directly and instantly start viewing their favorite programming with the same simplicity as buying an app."

Microsoft has been so far unable to fix issues affecting 'The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" for Xbox One.

According to Microsoft's Xbox status update page (and hundreds of posts to sites like Reddit), it appears that gamers have been unable to access the game due to an unknown Xbox Live issue. The error code is 0x87de2726.

"Are you unable to launch or install The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt? We're working to address this ASAP! Thanks for staying patient. We'll fill you in as soon as we know more," reads the last status from 7PM EST.

The Witcher 3 is one of the highest rated games of the year, even receiving 10/10 from some prominent gaming sites.

Sony has revealed the free games that are now available for PlayStation Plus members on the PS Vita, PS3 and PS4.

There are six games total - two for each platform - and the games will be available throughout the month and until July 7th.

Title list:

PlayStation 4:
•Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
•Skulls of the Shogun: Bone-a-Fide Edition
•Super Exploding Zoo (via cross-platform playing from Vita)
•Futuridium EP Deluxe (via cross-platform playing from Vita)

PlayStation 3:
•Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
•Cloudberry Kingdom

PlayStation Vita:
•Super Exploding Zoo
•Futuridium EP Deluxe

You get to keep the games as long as you are a paying Plus subscriber.

After years of complaints from gamers, Valve's popular online games platform Steam has updated their refund policy.

For the most part, all purchases are part of the refund policy, and refunds can be for "any reason."

Reads the new page: "You can request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam--for any reason. Maybe your PC doesn't meet the hardware requirements; maybe you bought a game by mistake; maybe you played the title for an hour and just didn't like it.

It doesn't matter. Valve will, upon request, issue a refund for any reason, if the request is made within fourteen days of purchase, and the title has been played for less than two hours....You will be issued a full refund of your purchase within a week of approval."

Valve will refund the money to your Steam Wallet or to the card you used to purchase it.

Of note, DLC and in-game purchases have different rules. That content can be refunded within 14 days (for DLC) and 48 hours (for in-game) as long as the content hasn't been "consumed, modified or transferred."

It will be interesting to see if the rules change for games that can be completely played through in under 2 hours, and how Steam will monitor that.

As the company struggles in the mobile handset world, Sony Mobile has laid off another 1000 employees, this time from their Swedish manufacturing and R&D centers.

The move is part of a company wide restructuring that Sony hopes will bring the division to profitability after years of losses.

"As part of its ongoing measures to drive transformation into a profitable and sustainable company, Sony Mobile will change its organizational structure effective April 1st, aiming to increase its operational efficiency and transitioning it to a leaner, more agile organization.

In relation to these changes to its organizational structure, Sony Mobile announced today that approximately 1,000 employees and consultants in Lund will be affected by job closures. This number is included in the approximately 2,100 global headcount reduction announced at Sony's earnings announcement on February 4th, expected to be completed by the end of FY2015," said Sony in a statement.

Sony Mobile continues to struggle and now has less than 5 percent market share in a market dominated by Samsung and Apple.

Following up on reports from yesterday, Nintendo has denied the rumor that it is creating its Nintendo NX console on an Android variant operating system.

Nintendo says there is "no truth" to the reports, according to the WSJ.

"There is no truth to the report saying that we are planning to adopt Android for NX," the Nintendo spokesperson concluded.

The original sources had claimed Nintendo would use Android to have access to a much larger developer base, and to save costs on having to build their own operating system for the console.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has already said we will not have more information about the console until next year so for now we will just have to believe that the NX is not to run on Android.

Following reports that Netflix was preparing to add ads to its streaming service, CEO Reed Hastings shut down the rumors with a simple Facebook post.

"No advertising coming onto Netflix. Period," read the post, followed by "Just adding relevant cool trailers for other Netflix content you are likely to love."

Netflix whipped the media into a frenzy when it began adding promo trailers in front of some of its original content, ads that advertised other Netflix content.

Hasting's comments should hopefully quell the fire, and Netflix fans will just have to get used to some trailers in front of their content, just like you see on HBO Go.

Windows boss Terry Myerson has announced today that Windows 10 will be available on July 29th, right in-line with the date we have heard from multiple sources.

On July 29th, Windows 7 and 8.1 owners can upgrade for free to Windows 10, and new PCs will begin shipping with the operating system.

Making it even easier, Microsoft says you can "reserve" your free Windows 10 by clicking on a system tray icon that will show up and then following a few steps.

Adds Myerson:

We designed Windows 10 to create a new generation of Windows for the 1.5 billion people using Windows today in 190 countries around the world. With Windows 10, we start delivering on our vision of more personal computing, defined by trust in how we protect and respect your personal information, mobility of the experience across your devices, and natural interactions with your Windows devices, including speech, touch, ink, and holograms. We designed Windows 10 to run our broadest device family ever, including Windows PCs, Windows tablets, Windows phones, Windows for the Internet of Things, Microsoft Surface Hub, Xbox One and Microsoft HoloLens--all working together to empower you to do great things.