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Dell really came to play this CES, unveiling their new XPS 13 notebook with an edge-to-edge display and other great ultrabook specs.

Starting at $800, the new XPS 13 has the 13.3-inch 1080p display, a 5th-gen Core i3 processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, two USB 3.0 ports, a Mini DisplayPort, an SD slot, Windows 8.1 and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The battery life is stated at 11 hours. Adding $150 gets you Windows 8.1 Pro and a Core i5, while another $100 gets you a Core i7 and 8GB RAM. The notebooks have a backlit keyboard and weigh just 2.6 pounds.

In addition, you can upgrade the display to 3200x1800 and the SSD to 512 GB, but that will take your price above $1400, no longer in the value category.

According to new reports, the Apple Watch is expected to hit stores and start shipping by the end of March, with employees beginning training in mid-February.

Employees will head out to Cupertino, California and Austin, Texas from February 9th to February 16th and then return to train other employees at local stores.

Apple unveiled the long-awaited smartwatch back in September, but could not give an exact timeframe for its release.

There will be three models of the Watch released, "Standard," "Sport" and "Edition." The sport edition is said to be the cheapest, at $349 while the "Edition" model is rumored to be stainless steel and include a sapphire crystal watch face for $499.

Read more about the Apple Watch here at Afterdawn.

Legendary developer Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed that the highly awaited 'Star Fox Wii U' will be playable at E3 in June.

"We'll have a version of it ready at E3 that everyone can play," he said, which is exciting for fans.

Miyamoto added a few other small tidbits about the title, which was first unveiled at last year's E3 event. "One of the questions that we often get is 'How is the GamePad being used in any particular game?'" Miyamoto added. "Star Fox is a game where having two screens is really important and it works really well."

At last E3's demo, the developers showed off flight and combat, with the GamePad being used to display the cockpit of the ship while you fly and the TV screen giving the first person view of the combat.

Can't wait to see what else is revealed in June.

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Popular mobile messaging service WhatsApp has reached 700 million monthly active users, continuing its extremely strong growth.

Co-founder Jan Koum made the announcement via Facebook, the company that acquired WhatsApp last year for $21 billion.

The latest figure is certainly impressive given that WhatsApp hit 500 million in April. Users are now sending 30 billion messages per day, added Koum.

"As humbled and excited as we are by these numbers and our continued growth, we're even more excited to keep building a great product in 2015," Koum concluded.

After teasing the device last week, one-time camera and film giant Kodak has used CES to introduce their first smartphone.

The mid-range IM5 is a basic smartphone with some special camera features but it is unclear who the device will appeal to.

Kodak's device has a 5-inch 720p touchscreen, a low-end 1.7 GHz octa-core processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage (with microSD expansion), Android 4.4 and dual 5MP/13MP cameras.

The company's "unique image management software" will have built-in social media sharing, editing (including filters) and the ability to print right from the app, since it will be compatible with many home printers.

Kodak is putting the IM5 up for sale in Europe for €229 off-contract starting in March and later in the U.S. for $249.

Source:
Kodak

Microsoft has made its Office for Android tablets app available to all via Google Play.

The software was only available as invite-only previously, but the beta is now available to all (as long as you have KitKat and Lollipop).

Says the Redmond giant: "Over the last two months, we have heard from people all over the world who want the power of Office on their Android tablet. The feedback we've received through this initial phase of preview has helped us shape and optimize the Office experience for Android tablet users. Your feedback also helps us plan and prioritize future feature updates.

Today, we are excited to announce that we are further expanding the preview. We want more feedback from more users to ensure that Office apps work well on a range of different Android tablets before launching the official apps. To participate in the preview, you can use an ARM-based Android tablet running KitKat or Lollipop, with a screen size between 7″ and 10.1″. Starting today, anyone can go to Google Play and download the Word, Excel and PowerPoint preview apps. No waitlist. No requesting access. Just go and download the apps!"

Try it out here.

Blake Jareds, a 24-year old New Yorker, was able to abuse Uber's promotional codes to get over $50,000 in free rides before the company canceled his account.

The company offers credits when you refer friends, and Jareds used some pretty ingenious ways to get thousands of people to sign up under his referral link.

BusinessInsider explains how he pulled it off:

Step 1: Jareds changed his Uber promo code from a random string of letters code to "uber$20FreeRide."
Step 2: He sent out a mass email via MailChimp to about 700 people from his email contact lists. It had a 40% open rate and about 5% click rate, the former finance student tells us.
Step 3: Jareds posted a link to a subreddit where users submit deals for free stuff. "This is where I believe Uber claims I breached their guidelines," Jareds tells us.
Step 4: The combination of the "uber$20freeride" promo code and Reddit earned Jareds' link a high level of search-engine optimization. It "propelled my referral link to one of the top links on Google if a person searched for 'Uber promotion code' or a variant of such. This is where I would say 90% of the 2,000+ people who signed up came from."
His credit was canceled, but Uber later reinstated his account and credited him $500.

Google received 345 million DMCA takedown notices last year, up 75 percent from the record amount it saw in 2013.

Surprising no one, Rapidgator, Uploaded and 4shared were the sites that were hosting the most alleged copyrighted material and Google received the most takedowns for links from those sites.

Also unsurprisingly, UK music trade group BPI requested 60 million links be taken down, easily the most of any company or group.

Google has actively tried to appease copyright owners and recently made significant tweaks to their search engine algorithms to downgrade known piracy sites and services.

Fitbit has launched two new fitness trackers today, the Charge HR and Surge, both of which reflect your activity stats right from their enlarged displays.

Both trackers also tell the time, monitor your sleep better than past models and have caller ID linked to your synced phone. The Charge HR takes your heart rate continuously all day and the Surge also includes GPS, text notifications and music control making it a free full-featured smartphone.

Fitbit showed off the devices at an event in October but did not have a time frame before they went on sale. That day is today.

"With Fitbit Charge HR and Fitbit Surge, features like heart rate tracking are made simpler by being continuous and automatic so the technology works no matter what you're doing," said CEO James Park.

Due to their added features and tech, the Charge HR costs $149.95 while the Surge will set you back $249.95.

Sony's controversial 'The Interview' is now the company's "#1 online film of all time."

The comedy featuring Seth Rogen and James Franco has brought in $31 million from 4.3 million rentals and purchases online from December 24th through January 4th. From 300 independent theaters, the film also brought in $5 million.

After the major movie theaters pulled the film before release following terrorist threats, Sony Pictures released the film online via Google Play, Xbox Video, YouTube Movies and proprietary sites for $6 as a rental or $15 to purchase.

On New Year's Day, major telecoms, cable and satellite providers also added the film on-demand, adding to the revenue. The movie has a leg-up on other online-only releases given the fact that it was scheduled to be a major Hollywood release. The movie had a $44 million budget with an extra print and advertising (P&A) budget expected to be around $20 million.

Sony Computer Entertainment says they have sold 18.5 million PS4 units since launch in late 2013, meaning the console remains the top current-gen system.

The Japanese giant noted that 4.1 million units were sold worldwide during the holiday season, which was extremely fruitful for all the major consoles.

At its current pace, PS4 sales "represent the fastest and strongest growth" of any PlayStation console in the history of the company, adds Sony. Additionally, Sony now has 11 million PlayStation Plus subscribers paying around $50 per year for online multiplayer and other features.

The PS4 is currently available in 123 countries and territories.

Former smartphone heavyweight HTC has announced their first quarterly revenue growth since late 2011 thanks to stronger than expected mid-range phone sales.

For the Q4, sales grew to NT$47.9 billion ($1.5 billion), up from NT$42.9 billion ($1.34 billion) year-over-year (YoY).

In addition, the company had net income of NT$470 million ($14.7 million), much higher than the expected NT$210 million.

Overall, the company still had a full-year revenue decline, for the third year in a row, but HTC seems to be settling in with a new strategy of mid-range devices to compliment their higher end offerings like the M8, which is critical lauded but has to compete directly with the iPhone.

Samsung has announced a new portable SSD that is the size of a credit card and almost just as light.

The new T1 supports storage up to 1TB, has built-in security software and supports AES 256-bit data encryption giving it a leg up over other drives especially in regards to privacy.

At 2.1 x 2.8 x 0.36 inches and 0.9 ounces, the drive is tiny and can be carried around easily. Due to being an SSD, the T1 has a (sequential) transfer rate at 450 MB/s - impressive speeds.

Of course, speed, style and security in one package don't come cheap. The 250GB model will set you back $179, the 500GB model costs $299 and the 1TB model will lighten your wallet by $599. The drives start shipping on January 20th.

Source:
Mashable

Major satellite provider Dish is planting the seeds to end conventional TV as we know it.

The new 'Sling TV'service will cost $20 per month, be available online, and include 10 popular channels: TNT, TBS, CNN, Food Network, HGTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, the Disney Channel, ESPN, and ESPN2.

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.

At $20, the service is still expensive especially since most cord cutters will be paying $7.99 for Hulu, $7.99 for Netflix and whatever price the standalone HBO Go will cost, but the Sling TV is a right first step to unbundling expensive TV packages with hundreds of channels you don't care about.

Sony has unveiled monthly PlayStation Now subscriptions, a move that should help consumers get more bang for their buck.

Previously, 3 month rentals cost as much as $50, and some one-day rentals were as high as $5, huge sums considering many older games can be purchased to own, used, for under $20.

The new offerings are all-you-can-eat for 30 days or 90 days for just $20 or $45, respectively.

"I'm pleased to announce that starting January 13th, we'll launch a subscription service for PlayStation Now that will provide instant and unlimited access to a catalog of more than 100 PS3 games," PlayStation Now's director of marketing, Peter Jamshidi, in a blog post. "And since you're using PlayStation Now, you can enjoy the freedom to quickly discover and play a wide range of full games without downloads, installs, or patches (not to mention trips to the store)."

The subscriptions will be first available for PS4 in North America, and later in the year for other devices including PlayStation TV.