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Apple, who has allegedly had hundreds of engineers working on a car, would like to begin production on their electric vehicle by 2020, reads a new Bloomberg report.

If accurate, Apple's car could be ready to compete with Tesla and GM, both of which are fighting to bring the first electric car that can go over 200 miles per charge and cost less than $40,000, a major price point for consumers.

While Tesla has the leg up in the technology of the electric car world, Apple could very quickly catch up with the $178 billion in cash it is sitting on. The company has been hiring battery, car and robotics experts, and there are an expected 200 engineers working on the project now.

In fact, Apple has been so aggressive in hiring, that has been accused of "poaching" employees from battery maker A123 Systems and others like LG Chem, Samsung, Panasonic and Johnson Controls. Experienced car makers take about 5 to 7 years to bring a new concept and vehicle to market, says industry experts, but Apple has no experience in the space and is still trying to keep the same time frame.

Research firm Strategy Analytics has predicted today that the Sony PlayStation 4 will end up outselling the Microsoft Xbox One by over 30 million units during their respective lifetimes.

Over the next four years, the PS4 "is on path to reproduce the success of the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii." To replicate either of those consoles would be impressive given that they sold over 100 million systems during their time.

By 2019, Sony will have a global install base of 80 million PS4, says Strategy Analytics, crushing the Xbox One at 57 million.

The Wii U is already nearing its peak and will reach a 17 million install base by 2018 before reaching saturation.

"Despite reports to the contrary, the game console market is not dead," concluded Strategy Analytics senior analyst Eric Smith. "Core gamers have moved faster to this current generation than in any previous generation. The main difference in this generation is that casual gamers who bought a Wii are remaining largely on the side lines as free-to-play casual games and midcore games on tablets and smartphones have captured this segment of consumers."

Say what you will about their products or the company itself, but Apple's architectural designers do have a flair for the aesthetic.

Their latest store, in Hangzhou, China, takes minimalist to the next level.

The ceilings of the store are 50 feet high but there are no columns. The glass panels reach all the way from the floor to the ceiling and the entire second floor is free floating without suspension.

"Every aspect of the store has been optimized, minimized, and de-cluttered," say the architects at Foster + Partners.

See some pics here:

Microsoft is offering 100GB of free OneDrive storage to all Bing Rewards members with valid Microsoft email addresses.

The software giant offers 15GB of free storage just to start, similar to, if not more than services like Google, Amazon, Apple and Dropbox. OneDrive is built-in to Windows 8 and promises to automatically sync all your files without any hassle.

In an effort to get more consumers to try out OneDrive over rivals, Microsoft is offering 100GB of free storage for the next two years, as long as you sign up for Bing Rewards.

Whether or not you care to use OneDrive or not, the offer is hard to beat. 100GB free with no strings.

Head here to claim your free storage: Bing Rewards Dashboard. If you aren't a Bing Rewards member, it takes one click to do so once you are logged in.

Samsung announced yesterday that it would be acquiring LoopPay, the mobile payments service.

More specifically, LoopPay is a "mobile wallet solutions provider that turns existing magnetic stripe readers into secure, contactless receivers." Because it can do so, LoopPay's tech works in nearly all existing point-of-sale terminals meaning no added investment on the side of the merchants.

"This acquisition accelerates our vision to drive and lead innovation in the world of mobile commerce. Our goal has always been to build the smartest, most secure, user-friendly mobile wallet experience, and we are delighted to welcome LoopPay to take us closer to this goal," said JK Shin, President and Head of IT and Mobile Division at Samsung Electronics.

Samsung previously had an investment relationship with LoopPay, and those funds helped to build the tech.

"LoopPay is focused on delivering a digital wallet solution that is dependable for consumers around the world, one that provides more value from card issuers and the merchants that serve them," said Will Graylin, CEO of LoopPay. "We are excited to join the Samsung family to continue our goal of making smartphones trusted, secure smart wallets and unlock the limitless possibilities of mobile enabled commerce."

Rovio has announced the latest game from its third-party publishing division: Jolly Jam.

Jolly Jam is out for Android and iOS, and the game is a basic puzzle game with matching, similar to the ever popular Candy Crush. Players take on different levels and beat bosses by matching fruit. "Draw a box around jellies jam 'em and help Prince Jam save Jelly Kingdom in this fresh and fruity puzzler!" says the developer.

Rovio Stars is the publisher of the game, and Jolly Jam is their fourth release after Tiny Thief, Juice Cubes and Plunder Pirates. Parent Rovio helps the studios develop their games and then helps with distribution while taking a large cut of the revenue.

The Finnish casual gaming company has nearly 200 million monthly active players, so the ability to cross-sell is strong. Let's see if Jolly Jam can catch on like Angry Birds did.

Starting this weekend, ISP AT&T has announced it will match Google Fiber's speed and price in Kansas City.

Google Fiber costs just $70 a month and offers 1Gb/s download speeds, far and away the fastest operator in the nation that averages about 10Mb/s downloads.

AT&T is not the only ISP feeling Google's squeeze. Time Warner has quietly tripled their speeds in Kansas City without raising the price a cent. Small regional ISP Consolidated Communications has also begun offering a gigabit fiber service for $69.95.

Google Fiber is available in 3 regions now, with 4 more coming in the very near future and 5 other regions already announced.

Dear Google, New York desperately awaits your arrival.

Videolan has posted a changelog for the upcoming 3.0 version of the popular media playback software and among the changes is the addition of Chromecast support.

If the support stays when the final version is released, users will be able to play nearly all media files from VLC on the big screen through the $35 HDMI dongle.

The company has also said Chromecast support is headed to their VLC iOS and Android apps in the future but the iOS app remains on hiatus from the App Store as the company works out whatever conditions are keeping Apple from blocking it.

Read the full changelog here: Videolan Git

Sony CEO Kaz Hirai has said today that the company will look to boost its profits by 2500 percent by 2018 by focusing solely on their PlayStation and camera sensor divisions.

The new strategy will likely see Sony exit the TV and smartphone markets, where it has been effectively squeezed out of any profits by Samsung, Apple and smaller Chinese OEMs with razor thin margins.

"The strategy starting from the next business year will be about generating profit and investing for growth," Hirai said. For the failed TV and smartphone divisions, the company "will not rule out considering an exit strategy."

Over the past few years, Sony has tried to narrow its focus, but the profits have been slow to come. The company already spun off the TV business to its own separate entity and sold off its once popular PC division.

Additionally, entertainment will remain a focus for the company including streaming music.

Hunter Moore, once dubbed 'the most hated man on the Internet,' has plead guilty to ID theft and hacking charges and will face up to 10 years in prison.

Moore founded and operated the 'revenge porn' site IsAnyoneUp.com, which in its heyday had nearly 30 million views per month. Moore was arrested last January and has now plead guilty to unauthorized access to a computer, aiding and abetting unauthorized access of a computer, and identity theft.

IAU allowed anyone to post nude and other explicit images of people without their express permission and Moore then posted their Facebook page, full name and usually city of residence next to the pictures to ensure that everyone knew exactly who they were viewing.

At the time the site started, posting the photos was not explicitly illegal (but highly immoral), but there are now 16 states with laws against posting nude photos without permission. However, Moore was also paying another person, Charles Evens, to steal nude photos from victim's email accounts, which is unquestionably illegal. Evens apparently was able to compromise the accounts using social engineering. "Basically, he was impersonating these victims' friends and was able to get confidential information that would allow him to access their accounts," said assistant US attorney Wendy Wu in 2014.

The U.S. Marshals service has announced they will be auctioning off another 50,000 bitcoins seized during the takedown of the original Silk Road underground marketplace.

As of writing, the coins will be worth $11 million, but of course they may not reach market value in an auction setting.

The next auction will take place on March 5th, from 8:00 EST to 14:00 EST, and all bids must come from serious pre-registered participants. To bid, you must be registered by March 2nd, and all winners will be notified on March 6th.

Because very large bidders are hard to come by, the auction will be split into 20 blocks: 10 for 2000 bitcoin and 10 for 3000 bitcoin. The current market value for one bitcoin is $235.

The agency has auctioned off over 100,000 bitcoins seized from the Silk Road and its operator Ross Ulbricht. Ulbricht was recently convicted of a plethora of federal crimes and will serve at least 20 years in prison.

Hulu has unveiled 'Watchlist,' a new feature that will replace the current 'Shows you watch,' 'favorites' and 'queue' lists which are never quite as effective as you need them to be.

Watchlist is a new favorites list that will smartly rearrange your content so that shows you like the most are given priority, especially above something you may have queued and then forgotten about.

Reads the blog post: "Watchlist makes it easy to save any episode, clip, movie or show that you'd like to watch later. Simply add it to your Watchlist by clicking the "+" button on PCs, iPhones, and iPads or the "add to Watchlist" button on gaming consoles, connected TVs and set-top boxes and Android devices. When you start watching a new show, future episodes will automatically be added to your Watchlist.

Watchlist dynamically tailors the order of your content to match how you watch TV. Shows that have new episodes or shows you're binging on will be prioritized in the Watchlist order over shows or movies you haven't started yet. Watchlist even learns from you, and gets smarter over time. The more content you watch on Hulu – the more personalized Watchlist will become. For example, if you always watch the latest episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine the moment it's available each week, Watchlist will make sure it's the first thing you see. When you get caught up on that, the next show you're watching will make its way to the front."

In what may be a bizarro world, a new report shows that flip phone shipments rose in Japan in 2014 while smartphone sales fell for the second year in a row.

Market research firm MM Research Institue reported that flip phone shipments rose 5.7 percent year-over-year in 2014 to 10.58 million while smartphone shipments fell 5.3 percent to 27.70 million in the same time period.

There could be a very simple answer as to why the old school devices are making a comeback. Japanese consumers pay extremely high smartphone fees and rates, especially compared to other developed nations, while flip phone rates and fees are among the lowest on the planet.

Of course, a flip phone will still allow you to text, make phone calls, access email and most have at least a basic browser, which appears to be good enough for some consumers. Big companies like Panasonic and NEC have pulled out of the smartphone market (which is dominated by Apple and Samsung there also) but continue to make flip phones to stay relevant in the market with 130 million mobile customers.

BlackBerry has finally found U.S. carrier support for its latest devices, the strange 'Passport' and the 'Classic.'

AT&T will begin selling the two devices starting this week, on February 20th, both with contract and without. Both can also be financed through the AT&T Next program. The carrier says the Passport will sell for $200 with contract or $650 without, guaranteeing no one will purchase it, while the Classic will sell for $50 on contract and $420 without.

Interestingly, the carrier model of the Passport has rounded edges compared to the sharp edged model that is currently sold direct from BlackBerry and on Amazon. The Classic is exactly the same inside and out as current models being sold.

The Passport will be an AT&T exclusive, while the Classic will be temporarily an exclusive before it heads to Verizon later this year.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has confirmed their latest milestone: 5 million Raspberry Pi units sold.

With the new milestone hit, the bare bones do-it-yourself mini computer has made the Foundation the best-selling UK computer maker ever.

Aimed originally at schools and students who were learning to program, the board has clearly become a minor hit outside of the educational world.

The mini computer sells for just $35 and there are plenty of operating systems around that can be easily run on the computer with just an SD card. The company also just announced a second-generation model with more RAM and a better processor that will be able to run a variant of Windows 10.