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The world's largest chipmaker is preparing to end an anti-trust investigation brought by the Chinese government against it over a year go following 'significant' progress made between the two parties.

Qualcomm is preparing to pay $1 billion to end the dispute, which had claimed uncompetitive practices in the nation, and will likely reduce their royalty rates by a third on patents used in China.

The fine would be the largest ever paid by a company in China.

China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said "The NDRC will soon release a new antitrust settlement. Qualcomm will be fined several times the total amount the NDRC fined last year."

Qualcomm gets half of its revenue from China, and a lot of its profits from high margin royalties from licensing. The NDRC had been telling firms to delay signing new licensing agreements while the dispute was still open.

Dish's new online TV streaming service is no longer invite-only, meaning any would-be consumer can sign up today.

Sling TV gives live access to over 10 channels that can be watched online, at a price cheaper than any standard cable or satellite package.

The new service will cost $20 per month and includes the following channels: TNT, TBS, CNN, Food Network, HGTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, the Disney Channel, Galavision, El Rey Network, a Maker Studios channel and ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN 3. AMC will be added soon. For $5 extra, there are add-on packages for additional sports channels, or additional news channels, or a family package aimed at kids.

While in theory, the practically ala carte service is great for cord cutters, especially given the access to ESPN and big-time sports programming, but under the hood there are quite a few caveats, as well. Only one person can watch Sling TV at any given time. You will need a streaming device and the Sling TV app to get the TV on your big screen. Roku will support it out of the box, Apple TV will not. Local broadcasting is missing such as NBC, CBS, FOX, and ABC. DVR features like fast forward and rewind are available on a channel-to-channel basis.

Research firm Canaccord Genuity's Mike Walkley posted a note to clients today in which he reveals some interesting and possibly shocking facts about Apple and their place in the mobile industry.

In the Q4 2014, Apple captured a shocking 93 percent of all the profits in the industry, thanks to a strong upgrade cycle to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Samsung had the rest of the share as Microsoft, Lenovo, BlackBerry, LG, HTC and Sony all combined for a dud.

For the entire year, Apple brought in 79 percent of the industry's profits, with Samsung taking 25 percent and LG taking 1 percent. The numbers add up to above 100 because Microsoft and Lenovo both lost money for the year.

Additionally, Walkley expects there to be 650 million iPhone users by the end of 2018, nearing a third of the world's estimated total at that time: "We believe the strong iPhone 6 replacement sales should continue during C'15, as we estimate only 15% of the current estimated 404M iPhone installed base has upgraded to the new devices. We also anticipate continued strong share gains for the larger screen iPhones from high-tier Android smartphones during C'15 driving strong growth in the iPhone installed base and model the iPhone installed base growing to 487M subscribers exiting C'15 up 20% Y/Y. Longer term, we anticipate a gradually moderating rate of growth for the installed base from C'16 through C'18 and estimate 650M iPhone users exiting C'18. We note this base would only represent 1/3rd of an estimated 1.82B global premium smartphone subscribers anticipated by C'18. Finally, we anticipate steady long-term iPhone replacement sales within this growing iPhone installed base, and we believe this combined with our modest installed base growth expectations position Apple for steady sales of roughly 210M-215M iPhone units annually between C2015 to C2018."

As they have done in previous generations, Microsoft and Sony are very likely to be designing second-generation models of their Xbox One and PS4 consoles, ones that will be likely slimmer and potentially cheaper.

One feature that we can definitely expect, at least according to Netflix, is 4K resolution support.

Netflix CPO Neil Hunt says that Sony has "promised" 4K support for the upcoming hardware revision and Forbes independently confirmed the Xbox One.

Says Forbes' John Archer, speaking of an elaboration on Hunt's blurb: "Namely that he believes that when both the PS4 and Xbox One consoles do their traditional two-year hardware refresh (which would be due around October or November) they will add the necessary components to deliver 4K video playback."

If accurate, the consoles would most likely have to see some particular hardware and software revisions. HDMI 1.4 ports would likely have to be upgraded to 2.0 (which allows for 4K at 60fps) and HDCP 2.2 protection would have to be included as well.

Popular streaming video service Netflix will be available in Cuba starting today, at the same rate of $7.99 that Americans have enjoyed for years.

"We are delighted to finally be able to offer Netflix to the people of Cuba, connecting them with stories they will love from all over the world," said Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings. "Cuba has great filmmakers and a robust arts culture and one day we hope to be able to bring their work to our global audience of over 57 million members."

With the announcement, Netflix has become on of the first companies to take advantage of the relaxation of U.S. government's embargo on trade with Cuba for the first time since the 1960s.

The U.S. goverment is aiming to have U.S. telecoms provide better Internet and other communications services in Cuba, where it has been severely lacking for decades.

Google Nexus 9 tablet owners rejoice; if you wanted CyanogenMod 12, you now have access.

As part of the new nightlies release, there is support for the Nexus 9 (codename flounder in the code), and it is available for download.

CyanogenMod 12 is based on stock Android 5.0 Lollipop, which is also what the Nexus 9 runs on. You will get the Material Design goodness and Cyanogen's speed and other tweaks.

Keep in mind, the nightlies are normally alpha or if you're lucky, beta versions of the software so they cannot be expected to run perfectly.

Try it out here.

OnePlus has announced that its flagship One smartphone will finally have set sales dates following a year of invite-only and flash sales.

Every Tuesday, for a full 24 hours, the device will go on sale in 16GB Silk White and 64GB Sandstone Black. If you want different storage or color options, you will still have to go through the invite system, although there seem to be plenty of invites going around today.

Says the company: "Over the past few months, we've been exploring new ways of making the OnePlus One easier to purchase. The overall amount of available invites has increased significantly, but we've also held pre-order and open sales events, allowing for purchases without the need for an invite. During these events, we have been collecting data and fine-tuning our production schedules.
Today, we're glad to announce that we're making it even easier to buy the One.

Every Tuesday, we will open up sales for 24 hours, starting at 8 am London time (midnight in Los Angeles; 4 pm in Hong Kong). The OnePlus One will be available without an invite in both 16GB Silk White and 64GB Sandstone Black."

Check out the device and more info here.

Thanks to 9to5Mac, we have some details about how Apple finally plans to use Beats Music, which they acquired last year.

According to the report, Apple plans to release their new service later the year, integrating the existing Beats foundation into iOS, Apple TV and iTunes. Apple will update their existing Music app for iOS devices, and is currently doing so.

Cloud streaming will be very important to the service, and there will be a search feature that allows users to search the iTunes/Beats catalog and their own store music. You will be able to create playlists, save songs to your personal library and even dictate where specific tracks get saved (iOS, PC, cloud-only).

Beats Music featured human-curated playlists from DJs, music producers and others, and it seems that Apple will keep those, and add new ones. Existing Beats subscribers can easily merge their accounts with their Apple ID or iTunes profiles and merge all existing libraries to the new service.

Apple is also said to be creating their first Android app developed in-house.

Notably, Apple is looking to charge just $7.99 per month, two dollars less than nearly all streaming services including Google, Spotify, Rdio and even Beats Music.

Corning has announced this weekend a new type of protective display glass that can potentially rival the more expensive scratch-resistant sapphire crystal.

'Project Phire' will combine the strengths of Gorilla Glass (used currently in most high-end smartphones) with scratch-resistance on par with sapphire crystal.

James Clappin, Corning's president of Glass tech, says the company will sell the material later in the year. "We told you last year that sapphire was great for scratch performance but didn't fare well when dropped. So, we created a product that offers the same superior damage resistance and drop performance of Gorilla Glass 4 with scratch resistance that approaches sapphire."

Gorilla Glass is used in over 3 billion devices, including the latest iPhones, but there had been worries within Corning that Apple would move to sapphire through its partnership with GT Advanced. GT Advanced filed for bankruptcy late last year and had a public falling out with Apple, killing that notion, at least for the latest iPhones.

While Gorilla Glass is hard to break, it scratches easier than sapphire and vice versa. Project Phire shows just how important scratch resistance is going to become in the industry moving forward.

According to the latest IFPI report out of Norway, music piracy has been eliminated in the nation in just 5 short years.

In the countrywide survey, only 4 percent of Norwegians under the age of 30 said they use illegal file-sharing platforms to get their music, down from 80 percent in 2009. Only 1 percent of Norwegians admitted that unauthorized file sharing was their main or only source of acquiring music.

So what changed? Legal options. 75 percent of Norway's music industry income comes from streaming, including Spotify and Tidal, and 80 percent of those surveyed claim streaming is their main source of music now.

IFPI Norge MD Marte Thorsby noted: "We are now offering services that are both better and more user-friendly than illegal platforms... In [the past] five years, we have virtually eliminated illegal file sharing in the music industry."

"We have managed to reintroduce a healthy economy in music industry. We must simultaneously not forget that we are only in streaming's infancy, and that we will probably see major changes in the coming years. Younger audiences are using streaming services to the greatest extent. When older audiences [start] embracing these services we will probably see a somewhat different distribution of revenues. Hopefully this will also involve a better economy for several Norwegian artists and record companies."

Tidal, the high-quality music streaming service recently acquired by rapper Jay Z, is already planning a major expansion.

The service will expand to 22 new countries in the Q1 2015, including Austria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, South Africa and Turkey.

Currently, Tidal is only available in the US, UK, Scandinavia, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands yet still parent company Aspiro says Tidal and their other streaming service Wimp have 500,000 paying subscribers.

Tidal CEO Andy Chen added: "We continue to accelerate our expansion, as demand for our product keeps rising. Besides directly from consumers, we are also seeing a very strong growth from new home audio partners. We now have 37 confirmed partners to offer Tidal across the broadest selection of home audio systems."

"After just three months live with Tidal in the US, we are already seeing 18% of streams coming from home audio systems, increasing steadily month by month, as new integrations get up and running. Experiencing Tidal on high-quality home audio systems and headphones proves just how good high-quality music streaming can sound. 2015 will be the year a lot of people discover that."

Amazon has unveiled "Kindle Convert" today, a tool that will allow you to turn your physical books into e-books.

The app, for Windows 7 and 8, costs $19 and and let's the books move into the digital age including adjustable fonts, dictionary lookup and Amazon's own Whispersync.

You will need to scan the pages of the books with a home scanner "capable of producing .jpeg, .tiff or .pdf files with 300-600 DPI, 24-bit depth for color and 8-bit depth for greyscale or black and white."

So far, reviews for the tool are pretty brutal, with many claiming that the quality is just not there yet, but for the price it might be worth a shot for those with rare books or books from their children, etc. that need to be preserved.

On Friday, the WSJ had a very interesting piece for gamers, claiming that Netflix is working on a live-action television show based on the hit "Legend of Zelda' series.

The show would be about a young boy named Link who must rescue a princess named Zelda in the fantasy word of Hyrule. Netflix even allegedly suggested the show was "Game of Thrones" but for a family audience.

Netflix is actively working with Nintendo but is still seeking writers for the show. The first 'Zelda' game was released by Nintendo in 1987 for the NES and there have been nearly 20 other since. It remains one of Nintendo's most popular franchises.

Neither company would confirm or deny the rumor, but it has certainly gotten the gamer community excited.

Thanks to a new report from Ernst & Young in conjunction with French record label trade group SNEP, we can see that artists and songwriters continue to get screwed by the major record labels.

The report broke down where the money that consumers are paying towards Deezer and Spotify really goes; and it's not going into the artist's pockets.

Of the 9.99 euros that are paid for a premium subscription to either service, 46 percent goes to the labels, 21 percent goes to the actual platform (making sure Spotify stays up and running for example), 17 percent goes to tax, 10 percent goes to the songwriters and publishers and just 7 percent goes to the artists. For those keeping track, that's 70 cents going to the artists for every $10 that is brought in.

If you do not include taxes or platform costs, the chart looks even more embarrassing, with the labels taking 73 percent, songwriters taking 16 percent and artists getting 11. Pretty stark. These figures are not including the other fees and import royalties that many artists have built into their contracts even though digital music does not have returns or breakages.

Judging from this report it is very clear why artists like Taylor Swift have pulled their music from streaming services: it's just not worth it when the label is taking all of their money.

After nearly two years of development, Canonical has confirmed that the first Ubuntu smartphone is scheduled to go on sale in Europe starting next week.

In conjunction with OEM partner BQ, the BQ Aquarius E4.5 Ubuntu Edition (yikes) will sell via flash sale for €169 (near $190 USD). The time and date will be revealed via the BQ and Ubuntu Twitter and Facebook accounts, meaning if you are interested you better start following.

The device has a 4.5-inch display, a quad-core 1.36GHz MediaTek processor, 1GB RAM, dual-SIM suport and a microSD slot to expand on the 8GB of internal storage.

Twitter, eBay, Amazon and Yelp among others will have Ubuntu native apps at launch, and Spotify and Dropbox are supported via third-party apps. Despite the long development time, the first version of Ubuntu is expected to need some polish and refinement.

Source:
TNW