Latest news

Samsung has confirmed rumors that it is building an Iron Man-themed edition of its new flagship, the Galaxy S6 Edge.

The company has not revealed the device itself but instead teased the release box although we have seen mocks in the past weeks (see below).

Thanks to the premium metal design, the new phone makes an ideal showcase for an "Iron Man" device, building upon his own gold and red suit made of titanium and other metals.

Samsung and Marvel signed up for a cross-promotional deal last June.

Check out the mock here:

Microsoft has taken the reins in regards to future Windows Phone updates, promising that carriers will no longer be a hindrance in getting the latest update for your operating system.

Starting with the launch of Windows 10 Mobile later this year, all personal and business devices running the OS will get updates directly through Microsoft, meaning you won't have to wait weeks (or even months or years) for your carrier to approve and manipulate the update before it gets to you.

Says the company: "Here at Microsoft, we take our responsibility to keep Windows secure seriously. We ... proactively update supported devices with necessary updates to address issues. And today, we're announcing this continuous update process applies to all Windows 10 devices, including phones."

The carriers will not be left out completely, of course, as they will be part of the Insider group of testers that have input in new builds before Microsoft rolls them out.

Apple has operated their updates this way for years, which keeps fragmentation to a minimum. Android has been dogged by huge fragmentation issues since its launch, with nearly 25 percent of users still running versions of Android released in 2012 or earlier.

After a year-long hiatus, LG has returned to the Windows Phone market.

The new LG Lancet is a low-end device for Verizon at a retail price of $120, marking a cautious return for the electronics giant.

Running on Windows 8.1 (should be upgradable to Windows 10), the device has a 4.5-inch LCD, a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, dual cameras 0.3MP/8MP and 8GB internal storage expandable to 128GB with microSD.

More importantly is the fact that the Lancet is XLTE-ready and is the first Windows phone to have HD Voice Calling for clearer calls.

Mozilla has announced that the first Panasonic VIERA TVs running on the Firefox OS are now available for sale.

The TVs are available in Europe and will launch worldwide in the coming months.

"Through our partnership with Mozilla and the openness and flexibility of Firefox OS, we have been able to create a more user friendly and customizable TV UI. This allows us to provide a better user experience for our consumers providing a differentiator in the Smart TV market," said Masahiro Shinada, Director of the TV Business Division at Panasonic Corporation.

"We're happy to partner with Panasonic to bring the first Smart TVs powered by Firefox OS to the world," said Andreas Gal, Mozilla CTO. "With Firefox and Firefox OS powered devices, users can enjoy a custom and connected Web experience and take their favorite content (apps, videos, photos, websites) across devices without being locked into one proprietary ecosystem or brand."

There are six models running the operating system, the CR850, CR730, CX800, CX750, CX700 and CX680.

Mozilla's Smart TV operating system has a customizable UI that allows for quicker access to favorites including streaming channels, apps, websites, bookmarks and more.

Korean electronics giant Samsung has announced that its Samsung Wallet service will be shutting down on June 30th as the company migrates to the upcoming Samsung Pay service.

Any reservations or ticket purchase you may have made through the app will still be available after June 30th but all other features will be discontinued.

The Wallet service was created to let Samsung phone and tablet users place all their coupons, membership cards, boarding passes and mobile payment services in one place. By all accounts, the app was moderately successful and Samsung had deals with American Express, Expedia, United Airlines and other large companies.

Samsung Pay, the company's rival to Apple Pay, is expected to launch in the Q3.

For a couple of alleged pirates, ignoring those ISP copyright notices could be potentially disastrous.

Anti-piracy firm Rightscorp, on behalf of Rotten Records, has sued two Comcast customers who allegedly downloaded a 1994 album from Acid Bath and a 1995 album from D.R.I.

According to the suit, both of the alleged pirates shared the albums via the BitTorrent P2P network. Rightscorp was able to connect to their IP addresses and download the albums, later verifying that the downloaded copies were identical to the original and copywritten work.

Now, it is important to note that Rightscorp didn't just send one warning notice via Comcast demanding for the defendants to stop sharing. For the Acid Bath album, the pirate received 11 separate notices. For the D.R.I. album, the pirate received a shocking 288 notices between December 14, 2014 and May 12, 2015.

The lawsuit is seeking an injunction on further online infringement and of course, the deletion of the stolen works. In addition, Rotten Records wants attorney's fees and statutory damages as high as $150,000.

Microsoft has backtracked on previous announcements today, telling pirates that they will not be getting a free upgrade to Windows 10.

Earlier this year, Windows boss Terry Myerson said everyone with Windows 7 and 8.1 would get a free upgrade to Windows 10, including those without genuine copies. The statement made a lot of waves, but it seems it was for naught.

Myerson explained:

Streaming music player Rdio has launched a new $3.99 per month subscription tier, cheaper than the competition.

At the low-end tier, consumers get ad-free streaming at 320 kbps, unlimited track skipping and daily download access to 25 songs from Rdio's extensive catalog.

Most competitors offer an all-or-nothing package at $9.99 per month including unlimited ad-free streaming, track skipping, mobile access and unlimited downloads.

Rdio CEO Anthony Bay compared the new offer to flying: "We've all been flying airplanes that had business class only. There is no coach."

The service is available now on iOS and Android in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa.

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has announced completed work on the new Ultra HD Blu-ray specification that will support 4K resolution video.

"For years, Blu-ray Disc has set the standard for high definition picture and audio quality in the home. Ultra HD Blu-ray will do the same for UHD home entertainment," said Victor Matsuda, chair, BDA Promotions Committee. "The technical capabilities of Blu-ray Disc, in particular its significant storage capacity and high data transfer rates, will enable the delivery of an unparalleled, consistent and repeatable UHD experience."

In addition to offering content with resolutions up to 3840x2160, the new format also "enables delivery of a significantly expanded color range and allows for the delivery of high dynamic range (HDR) and high frame rate content. Next-generation immersive, object-based sound formats will also be delivered via the Ultra HD Blu-ray specification." Ultra HD Blu-ray will have space for 66GB on dual-layer discs and 100GB on triple-layer discs.

Also of note, there will be a "digital bridge" feature that allows consumers to view their content on numerous devices around the home.

All Ultra HD Blu-ray players will also be backwards compatible with Blu-ray discs, so you don't have to re-buy your whole collection for the 20th time. Expect more availability news throughout the summer, says the BDA.

Microsoft has revealed all of the editions of Windows 10 today, giving names to the operating system that will power mobile devices, desktops, business servers, the Xbox and even ATMs and other Internet of Things devices.

The operating system will launch in late July in 111 languages in 190 different countries.

Here is the full list:

Windows 10 Home is the consumer-focused desktop edition. It offers a familiar and personal experience for PCs, tablets and 2-in-1s. Windows 10 Home will help people do great things, both big and small. With it, they will be more productive and have more fun thanks to a long list of new innovations: Cortana, the world's most personal digital assistant; the new Microsoft Edge web browser; Continuum tablet mode for touch-capable devices; Windows Hello face-recognition, iris and fingerprint login; and right out of the box, a broad range of universal Windows apps like Photos, Maps, Mail, Calendar, Music and Video*.

We are also bringing the Xbox gaming experience to Windows 10, giving games and gamers access to the Xbox Live gaming community, enabling the capture and share of gameplay and giving Xbox One owners the ability to play their Xbox One games from any Windows 10 PC in their home.

Windows 10 Mobile is designed to deliver the best user experience on smaller, mobile, touch-centric devices like smartphones and small tablets. It boasts the same, new universal Windows apps that are included in Windows 10 Home, as well as the new touch-optimized version of Office. Windows 10 Mobile offers great productivity, security and management capabilities for customers who use their personal devices at work. In addition, Windows 10 Mobile will enable some new devices to take advantage of Continuum for phone, so people can use their phone like a PC when connected to a larger screen.

Google and Nestlé have announced their new "YouTube My Break" campaign this week, turning 600,000 packs of KitKat candy bars into 'YouTube Break' bars.

Says Nestlé: "This forms one of 72 different types of 'breaks' to feature on more than 400 limited edition designs across 2 and 4 finger and Chunky bars as part of the campaign. More than 100 million of these specially designed packs will be produced in total over the course of the campaign."

Apparently, KitKat fans are also YouTube fans and the companies are using the campaign and "Google's voice search technology to deliver the world's most entertaining videos straight to its customers' mobiles. Searching for "KitKat YouTube my break" on their phone, users will be introduced to a KITKAT video followed by a playlist of the latest top four trending YouTube videos anytime, anywhere worldwide."

The deal follows 2013's launch of Android 4.4 KitKat, which was originally set to be codenamed Key Lime Pie before the product deal was struck.

Google has announced the debut of an Android One device in Turkey, the first of the line to land in Europe.

The goal of Android One is to bring cheap smartphones to the developing world with stock Android and made by a number of local OEMs.

Since its launch last September, Android One devices have launched in seven nations (including the latest in Turkey) but with the cheap price tag came super low-end devices and sales have been mediocre.

The new launch is in partnership with General Mobile and the device is the strongest we've seen yet from the Android One program. The 'General Mobile 4G' has a 5-inch 720p display with Gorilla Glass 4, 2GB RAM and dual 5MP/13MP cameras. The device is also the first to support LTE.

Google says the phone will sell for $250, higher than other Android One devices.

Mozilla has launched Firefox 38 this week for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Android, featuring a few notable updates in addition to the normal performance and stability fixes.

Firefox 38 has integrated Adobe Content Decryption Module (CDM) to add the ability to play DRM-wrapped content on Windows devices, and Mozilla explained the move to DRM: "We are enabling DRM in order to provide our users with the features they require in a browser and allow them to continue accessing premium video content. We don't believe DRM is a desirable market solution, but it's currently the only way to watch a sought-after segment of content."

In addition, all the releases are getting Ruby annotation support,, often requested in Japan where publications need the extra text to indicate a pronunciation or meaning of the sentence or characters. There were add-ons previously, but now the support is built-in natively.

The full rundown:

The Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission are both near ending their review of the proposed AT&T acquisition of DirecTV, and are unlikely to block such a deal.

AT&T proposed a $49 billion acquisition of the satellite TV giant.

Although the deal is likely to pass, regulators are expected to propose numerous conditions on the deal, some of which will require either one or the other company to sell off certain subscribers, assets or spectrum.

AT&T has already committed to expand access to broadband in rural areas, and will likely have to commit to concessions on streaming video. Companies like Netflix have complained that a combined company could squeeze out other online services and raise prices on streaming providers.

Verizon and Sprint have settled with the FCC and will pay out $158 million over charges of 'cramming,' a practice in which the carrier allowed third-parties to charge customers for services without their knowledge and then hid the charges deep in the billing statement.

AT&T settled last year for $105 million and T-Mobile settled for $90 million. Verizon will pay $90 million and Sprint will kick in the remaining $68 million.

Many of the unwanted charges were as expensive as $9.99 per month, and included services that provided daily horoscope text messages or 30 second ringtones. The charges would then show up on your bill under a non-descript banner. Verizon and Sprint "were unable to prove that these services were ever requested" when asked by the FCC.

None of the carriers will be allowed to 'cram' in the future.

"Consumers rightfully expect their monthly phone bills will reflect only those services that they've purchased," Travis LeBlanc, the FCC Enforcement Bureau chief, said in a statement. "Today's settlements put in place strong protections that will prevent consumers from being victimized by these kinds of practices in the future."

Check out the refund process here for Verizon and Sprint.