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Complaints about depictions of violence against women has prompted Target Australia to remove copies of Grand Theft Auto V from shelves.

In a press release, Target General Manager of Corporate Affairs Jim Cooper said the decision to pull the critically-acclaimed title from its ~300 stores across Australia stemmed from extensive community and customer concerns over its content.

Ironically, just one day before releasing this statement, Cooper had told Australian press that Target was a "retailer for everyone," and cited feedback from customers wishing for the game to remain in Target stores.

The entire affair is linked to a Change.org petition which claimed that GTA V is a "game that encourages players to murder women for entertainment," and that "games like this are grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women."

The petition received over 46,000 signatures. Take-Two has since responded to the decision from Target in a statement from chief executive Strauss Zelnick:

"We are disappointed that an Australian retailer has chosen no longer to sell Grand Theft Auto V--a title that has won extraordinary critical acclaim and has been enjoyed by tens of millions of consumers around the world. Grand Theft Auto V explores mature themes and content similar to those found in many other popular and groundbreaking entertainment properties. Interactive entertainment is today's most compelling art form and shares the same creative freedom as books, television, and movies. I stand behind our products, the people who create them, and the consumers who play them."

According to Google, PSY's 'Gangnam Style' reached a view count so high that it actually broke YouTube's view counter, forcing the company to upgrade its code.

Says the company:

"We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer (=2,147,483,647 views), but that was before we met PSY. "Gangnam Style" has been viewed so many times we had to upgrade to a 64-bit integer (9,223,372,036,854,775,808)!

Hover over the counter in PSY's video to see a little math magic and stay tuned for bigger and bigger numbers on YouTube."

The new updated storage can support 9 quintillion views, even though that never will never be hit.

Sony is taking advantage of the 20 year anniversary of the launch of the original PlayStation console by launching a special edition PlayStation 4 in the gray colorway of its two-decade old predecessor.

Reads the press release:

20 years is a long time! In 1994, many outsiders thought that Sony was slightly crazy to launch the original PlayStation into an incredibly competitive gaming market. Who could blame them? Sony was (and is!) famous for engineering great electronics, audio equipment and many other consumer devices. But game consoles?!

Sony Computer Entertainment, founded by my mentor Ken Kutaragi, was a project borne out of sincere passion and deep admiration for the craft of game development. The mid '90s were an exciting time for game developers, driven by the explosion of powerful but affordable 3D graphics rendering hardware and the birth of many young and adventurous development studios. The original PlayStation was meant to embody that sense of adventure and discovery, that sense that anything was possible.

We sincerely thank you for joining us on our exciting 20-year journey. You have made every bump and scrape we took along the way worthwhile. And there's so much more to come! :D

2014 is undoubtedly the year of the phablet.

Samsung started the trend years ago with its Galaxy Note, which was an experiment but quickly became one of their top sellers. Apple entered the ring this year with their iPhone 6 Plus, confirming that the "mass market" is finally ready for Apple to offer something without a tiny screen.

Most recently, Google released the Nexus 6, its first technical phablet, and the company's showcase for their latest Android operating system.

Each device offers strong performance, a massive screen, and a large price tag.

Check out the specs and key features of the year's most important phablets:

As they do every year, Google has launched a new Nexus device to showcase their latest and greatest Android iteration.

This year, Google decided to go big with the Nexus 6, a device firmly in the phablet category with its six inch display. Google also decided to step away from their low-end pricing for a high-end device model that had served them well with previous Nexus phones, starting the Nexus 6 at $650 unlocked, in-line (albeit cheaper) with unlocked prices for popular devices like the iPhone and Galaxy Note.

Google also decided this was the year that Nexus would become more than just a techie's dream phone, and struck deals with all the major U.S. carriers for retail launches of the device. In the past, only one or two of the majors every received or marketed a Nexus phone.

Today, we review the T-Mobile GSM version of the phone, as the carrier was the first to launch the handset in the U.S., even after a minor delay.

Specs, Performance and Design

According to new reports, LG is preparing a second-generation G Flex smartphone for launch at CES next year, in early January.

The first Flex device was notable because it featured a curved OLED screen and a back panel that has "self-healing coating" meaning scratches disappear over time as long as they aren't majorly deep.

Obviously, the details of the new sequel are unconfirmed, but the device is expected to be a "major upgrade" over the first-generation model. The phone is expected to move to a 1080p display, get thinner and lighter, the self-healing coat is significantly improved, and the main components are also expected to see upgrades.

In addition, the actually flexibility is also supposed to be getting an upgrade, thanks to a new hard rubber chassis.

There will be much more to know at CES next year.

Source:
AndroidAuthority

Chinese smartphone OEM OnePlus has made their popular One device available without the need for an invite as part of a 'Black Friday' sale.

The devices are available while supplies last and are guaranteed to ship before Christmas, making them a nice gift for the potential smartphone owner in your family.

OnePlus has priced the phone at $299 unlocked for the 16GB model and $349 for the 64GB model, a much better value if you have lots of apps, pictures, and music to store.

The OnePlus One has a 5.5 inch, 1080p LTPS IPS with Gorilla Glass 3, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.5GHz an Adreno 330 GPU, 3GB RAM, LTE, and dual 5MP/13MP cameras, and CyanogenMod 11, making it a high-end specced device at a very low price.

Interested parties can check the phone here: OnePlusOne

Earlier this week we reported that Sony Pictures' computer network had been taken down by a team calling themselves GOP (Guardians of Peace), with the attackers claiming that many terabytes of sensitive data had been taken and would be leaked if their demands were not met.

Now, it appears that the first leaks have hit the Internet, with a few Sony Pictures' films, many of which aren't set for release for a couple of months are now widely available on the Internet. Other documents released sadly include passport and visa information for Sony employees, hundreds of thousands of emails and even accounting and research details for Sony Pictures' IT systems.

Among the movies released are four that have not been released in theaters, and one popular film that only had one month in theaters. Among the films leaked are "Fury" with Brad Pitt, "Annie" with Jamie Foxx (release date December 19th), "Mr Turner," (release date December 19th), "Still Alice" with Alec Baldwin (release date January 16th, 2015) and "To Write Love on Her Arms," scheduled for release in March of next year.

It is unclear whether more full leaks of pre-release films will hit the Web in the coming days, but it is clear that someone may have been out to hurt Sony financially.

Spotify saw its revenue grow significantly in 2013, but the large losses remain as the company continues to iron out a business model that will make it profitable.

Overall, revenue grew 74 percent to €746.86 million last year from €430.28 million in 2012. Losses fell but were still large, with a net loss of €57.8 million compared to €86.7 million in 2012.

91 percent of the company's revenue comes from paying subscribers, most of which pay $10 per month for unlimited, ad-free streaming and mobile access. The rest comes from advertising. Spotify cited "substantial investments" into its international expansion, product development and new employees as the main reasons for the large loss.

Indeed, Spotify expanded to 32 more markets in 2013, helping to increase its active users by almost double over 2012.

Also of note, Spotify says it pays a full 70 percent of revenue to music-license holders, paying between $0.006 and $0.0084 per stream.

Source:
WSJ

Nintendo has proudly boasted that Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is the fastest-selling game for the console since its inception.

The game reached 500,000 units sold in three days, including retail and digital copies.

"The Nintendo holiday is off to a great start, but there's a lot of work left to do and a few more surprises in store for our fans," said Nintendo of America's Scott Moffitt. "With great deals coming on Black Friday and Cyber Monday and great content like Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker launching next week, Nintendo will offer shoppers the best combination of fun and value this holiday season."

In addition, the game pumped up Wii U sales 129 percent to 86,014 units for the month, and three million units total in the U.S. to date.

Disney has confirmed that the new teaser trailer for the upcoming "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" will be available to all tomorrow.

The company had initially announced that only 30 specific movie theaters would have the trailer playing tomorrow before other movies, but now everyone can watch it on iTunes.

It is unclear what time the trailer will go up.

Fans are beyond eager to get a look at the new film, even it is just a narration and some scene pieces.

HTC has already slashed the price of its action camera, the Re Camera, pricing the device at $99 for Black Friday.

The price is 50 percent off its retail price, and the camera will be available from Best Buy, Verizon, AT&T and through HTC starting Friday morning at midnight all the way until Monday.

With its tubular ergonamic design and a single wide-angle lens with 16MP sensor, HTC says the device is for consumers that may not be going on as crazy adventures as GoPro users. The device also has built-in Wi-Fi for quick uploading and live streaming to YouTube through a partnership with Google.

Check out the camera here.

Steam has started their Exploration sale, giving gamers six days to get games on the cheap.

The deals will change daily, but today's deal are solid including Watchdogs at 50 percent off.

Here are the rest:

Watchdogs - 50% off
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - 50% off
The Evil Within - 66% off
Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth - 30% off
Lords of the Fallen - 40% off
Goat Simulator - 50% off
The Long Dark - 50% off
Don't Starve - 75% off
Company of Heroes 2 - 75% off

James Cameron, the director behind the highest grossing films of all-time, says that the new Avatar films are 'gonna be b*tchin'.'

In addition, Cameron candidly said "You will sh*t yourself with your mouth wide open."

Cameron has three sequels to Avatar planned, with the first expected to hit theaters in December 2016. Cameron is still working on the scripts, but the films are supposed to be filmed together.

One thing we do know, is that Cameron has decided on 48fps for the film, rather than the rumored and more controversial 60fps. "My thinking at the time was that 60 [FPS] might be a better segue to the video market," he says. "I'll be plugging into a system that's a little more mature, so it makes sense for me to do 48 frames at this point."

Although the details are unconfirmed, we have some reported tidbits about the upcoming OnePlus 2 smartphone.

The original OnePlus One became famous for packing great specs into a slim body with a cheap price tag, and the sequel is set for launch next year from the Chinese OEM.

Sources speaking to BI, say the following are true of the new device:

It will probably be more customizable, since the company is aiming to produce more of its StyleSwap back covers around the time the phone launches, our source said. OnePlus released a Bamboo-style back cover for its One phone, but discontinued it in September due to manufacturing issues. OnePlus sold a few of those covers earlier this month, but since they were so limited you need an invitation to buy them. The company previously said it would release its StyleSwap backs in different materials such as wood, denim, and Kevlar, but we have yet to see any of these launch. There's no guarantee manufacturing issues won't arise this time around, but based on what our source says it sounds like the company is trying to produce more to coincide with the phone's launch.