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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.

Formally announced earlier this year for launch next year, Nintendo's 'NX' console will really have to step up to the plate if the gaming company wants to remain relevant in the home console market.

Today, we have an interesting rumor about next year's console: The NX will run on Android.

It appears that Nintendo is looking to power the console with a platform that has a large third-party developer base, and Android is the most popular mobile operating system on the planet. If the NX really does run on Android, that would likely mean Nintendo is not positioning the console against titans like the Xbox One and PS4 but rather as a complement to its existing popular devices like the 3DS.

Of course, the gaming giant could be aiming at the desktop console market, preferring to use a forked Android and using resources that may have gone towards building an OS towards making better games.

We will know more as the year goes on, and especially more next year.

Asus has launched the ZenWatch 2 today, a sequel to their first Android Wear smartwatch.

The watch keeps the same rounded design of its predecessor (and from the Apple Watch), while offering two sizes, three stainless steel casing colors and 18 different color/strap material combos allowing you to wear the watch for whatever occasion you may need it.

Updated from the original is a new crown and the addition of a magnetic charger that the company says will improve recharging times. The watch also now has IP67 water-resistance.

The watch runs on Android Wear 5.1.1 although Asus did not reveal which version it will ship with. On top of Android Wear is the company's own ZenUI tweaks which include FoneHelper, activity and fitness tracking, and Enhanced Remote Camera. ERC is easily the coolest feature of the bunch, as it syncs the wearer's smartphone camera viewfinder to your wrist. This could be helpful when taking pictures from harder angles, or even possibly selfies.

Asus also confirmed that the watch offers 3-4 days of battery life per charge, a huge improvement over the Apple Watch and other Android Wear devices that offer in the 18 hour range.

The smartwatch will sell for $199 when it launches later this year.

Earlier this week, NVIDIA launched the SHIELD Android TV set-top box with a base price of $199 and the early reviews are highly favorable.

The SHIELD has 16GB of internal storage, 4K support, is powered by a NVIDIA 64-bit Tegra X1 processor, 3GB RAM and 256-core NVIDIA graphics. In addition, the set-top supports HDMI 2.0, runs on the Android TV platform including Google Cast support, has a microSD slot, 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet and two USB 3.0 ports. The SHIELD bundle also comes with a SHIELD controller and a free HDMI cable, a good deal given the controller's $49.99 price tag.

When Google introduced Android Lollipop and Material Design, the operating system took a turn from dark to light, with the operating system getting more colorful and lighter, moving away from the darker UI of previous iterations like Ice Cream and Jelly Bean.

Earlier this week, the company introduced Android M and released a Developer Preview. If you were a fan of the darker user interface, you are in luck if you have a phone or tablet that can flash the new OS.

Under developer options, there is now a new way to select the theme for your device, choosing between the stock version which is "light," the new dark, or automatic which will likely change your theme based on the time of day or ambient light sensor.

It is unclear whether the option will be standard when the OS launches officially, but there were plenty of Android fans that were peeved when the whole OS went light so we hope it will be a feature when M launches officially in November.

After talks had stalled last month, it appears Intel has resumed negotiations to purchase chip maker Altera.

The new deal could be for as much as $16 billion, 15 percent higher than Altera's current market value.

A deal could be made in the coming days, say the sources although both companies have declined comment.

The deal would follow the largest chipmaker merger ever, a $37 billion acquisition of Broadcom by Avago.

Piriform's CCleaner software has been updated to support Microsoft's new Edge browser (Project Spartan), and all you Windows 10 fans can get it here at AfterDawn.

In addition to normal browsing cleaning improvements to the popular Firefox and Google Chrome browsers, the company says they have also "improved our system restore detection algorithm" for the full app.

Changelist:

According to Jon Peddie Research (JPR), Nvidia continues to take share in the graphics add-in-board (AIB) market, which now has very little competition left.

The report takes into account all AIB boards that carry discrete graphics chips and private RAM including those used in PCs, servers, workstations, and scientific instruments. The report also includes factory installed chips and those sold directly to customers.

Nvidia, thanks to their high-end GeForce GPUs, remains the market leader and continues to take share. There are actually only four GPU suppliers left: Nvidia, AMD, Matrox and S3, although Matrox and S3 only had max 0.10 percent share over the last year, combined, making them rather irrelevant.

AMD and Nvidia have 48 OEM partners, and a dozen PC OEMs offer the GPUs as part of their systems or as an additional option when building the computers.

For the Q1, Nvidia rose their share to 77.5 percent, while AMD struggles along at 22.5 percent.

Read the full report here.

Thanks to Microsoft's own Xbox One support page, we now know that the company is planning to release updated Xbox One controllers that include a standard headphone jack.

The page has since been updated, but it used to read that the refreshed controller will launch at E3, and that the headphone port will be "only available on controllers released after June 2015."

Other than the much-awaited feature, the controller looks to be exactly the same as current models. The headphone jack will be located near the bottom of the controller, as reflected by #16 in the image.

The update should be a welcome relief to gamers who may own expensive headphones but had no way to connect them without Microsoft's stereo headset adapter.

Windows 10 has been largely unveiled by Microsoft in endless test versions on Windows Insider Program and to the masses at Build conference. It has however been unclear how much the operating system will cost.

For Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users the cost is zero. Microsoft has already promised a free upgrade for the newer OS versions. For Windows XP and older the price might have just leaked by electronics retailer Newegg, WindowsCentral reports.

The retailer's website reveals Windows 10 Home and Professional versions with $109.99 and $149.99 price tags respectively. The release date is marked as August 31 which isn't entirely in line with previous information on release. It is believed that Microsoft will release Windows 10 in late July.

Windows 10 comes in seven different versions which cover phones, tablets, schools, companies, homes and more.

At Google I/O the Mountain View search giant revealed a new feature on Android M that will ensure you'll use their search no matter what app you are using. The company calls this feature Now on Tap.

Now on Tap is a more integrated version of Google Now. It allows you to search contextual information with one tap. The feature automatically recognizes searchable elements from the display view whether its a movie title in a text message or a point of interest on Twitter app. The AI behind it can also suggests reminders.

Google says that app developers do not have to do anything special in order to add the functionality. It also suggests reminders.Now on Tap works Android-wide on all apps, although it probably searches only text.

The feature is used by pressing and holding the home button and if relevant information is not found the user can search using the Google Now voice search.

CNET has kindly shared a little video from the Google I/O keynote explaining how the feature works.

Google has been among the very first to get very excited about Internet of Things (IoT). Every day items and devices that include internet connectivity and use it to enhance the experience.

That is what Google's three billion dollar Nest is all about. However, Google hasn't really managed to do anything remarkable with IoT. Is it about to change with their new Brillo platform?

Brillo is a new try to conquer homes with smart devices. It's essentially a lite version of Android that only has the simplest of functions and features, including of course Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The communication between Brillo devices and smartphones or cloud services is done with a protocol named Weave.

The platform is naturally compatible with Nest systems but it remains to be seen if it will actually gain some traction among the developers.