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After making an ill-received tablet last year and a better-received gaming handheld, Nvidia has come back with a vengeance combining the two with the new Shield Tablet.

The device, which is a full Android tablet at its core, can double as a gaming console, adding much more functionality than standalone devices can offer. Nvidia, which rules the PC video card market, knows gaming and has emphasized that expertise.

Under the hood, the company has also packed in high-end specs to a premium-feeling device with a price tag that is certainly competitive, but the company will have a battle against more well known consumer names like Samsung and Apple and Google.

Read ahead to learn about the powerful multi-function Nvidia Shield Tablet.

Specs, Display, Performance and Design

The Shield Tablet is powerful, plain and simple. The company has used their own brand new Tegra K1 processor clocked at 2.2GHz with a 192-core Kepler GPU. In every benchmark test, the processor destroys the competition and it shows when playing games or even just watching any kind of content. The processor is backed by 2GB of RAM, and the display is a nice 8-inch 1920x1200 IPS LCD.

Just hours after it was reported that French carrier Iliad is looking to increase their bid for the U.S.' fourth largest carrier, T-Mobile US, it appears their main suitor Sprint is ending their pursuit.

Sprint, now owned by Japanese carrier Softbank, is said to be dropping their bid due to the insurmountable regulatory hurdles that such a merger would have caused in the U.S. Anti-trust agencies in the U.S. have long said they do not want more consolidation in the U.S. wireless market and are content with four big players although Verizon and AT&T each have over double the customers and spectrum of Sprint and T-Mobile and operate as a duopoly in some areas.

Softbank had been in advanced negotiations with T-Mobile parent Deutsch Telekom for over three months. Financing concerns are also said to have caused the end of discussions.

T-Mobile has been gaining subscribers at the fastest pace in the industry for the last two years, thanks to customer friendly new plans and features, while Sprint continues to lose customers and lose hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter.

Microsoft has confirmed that the expected Windows 8.1 update is coming on August 12th.

The company did not call the update pack "Update 2" as expected, meaning it should be on a much smaller scale than Update 1 from earlier this year.

Among the updates are trackpad stability improvements, enhanced SharePoint Online integration and a reduction in login prompts, and a large Wi-Fi API update (Miracast Receive) for third party devs. Update 1, on the other hand, improved external device support and rehauled the user interface, making the update a huge deal for the operating system.

Moving forward, there may not be an "Update 2" as Microsoft plans to make smaller but more frequent updates. "Rather than waiting for months and bundling together a bunch of improvements into a larger update [...] customers can expect that we'll use our already existing monthly update process to deliver more frequent improvements[.]"

You can read more about the updates here.

Earlier this month, French carrier Iliad made a surprise bid for rising star T-Mobile U.S., offering $15 billion for a 56.5 percent stake.

Many believe that bid was completely dead on arrival, but it now appears that Iliad is speaking with investors and other companies in order to improve their bid, including speaking to cable and satellite giants Cox, Dish and Charter.

T-Mobile majority owner Deutsche Telekom has been in negotiations with the U.S.' third largest carrier, Sprint, for a $32 billion merger, but that deal has so many regulatory hurdles that an official bid has not even been made.

Besides the cable and satellite companies, Iliad is also talking to pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, seeking investors to help increase their bid. Sources claim investment banks can secure $13 billion in debt, and Iliad founder and billionaire Xavier Niel is planning to put up 1 billion euro of his own wealth. Additionally, the company will raise 2 billion via a stock sale, diluting current shareholders.

Iliad shook up the French market since launch in 2012, and has plans that start as low as 2 euro a month. T-Mobile has done similar in the U.S., offering innovative "Uncarrier" features and "Simple Choice" plans that start as low as $50 for individuals and $100 for families of 4.

21st Century Fox and its chairman Rupert Murdoch have withdrawn their massive $80 billion bid for rival Time Warner.

The media giant says Time Warner was unwilling to negotiate and Fox's share price continued to fall since the bid was revealed last month, causing worry.

Time Warner owns some highly coveted properties including Warner Bros. Entertainment, HBO, TNT and TBS and the acquisition would have been the largest since AOL's $160 billion acquisition of Time Warner at the height of the tech bubble in 2000. That purchase was an unmitigated disaster, and led to write-offs in excess of $100 billion.

Murdoch, infamous for overpaying for what he wants and being aggressive, says the original bid was friendly, "However, Time Warner management and its board refused to engage with us to explore an offer which was highly compelling. The reaction in our share price since our proposal was made undervalues our stock and makes the transaction unattractive to Fox shareholders." The chairman says this should end any further exploration of a deal.

Time Warner's shares fell 11 percent on the news, making the shares much more attractive than they were even seconds before the news. Fox shares rose over 5 percent.

U.S.-based security firm Hold Security has claimed today that a group of Russian cybercriminals have been quietly stealing and accumulating the most Internet login credentials in the history of the world.

In total, 1.2 billion username and password combinations have been stolen, in addition to 500 million email addresses.

Hold Security founder Alex Holden says the data was stolen from 42,000 sites across the Web, with no specific agenda. "Hackers did not just target US companies, they targeted any website they could get, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to very small websites," Holden noted. "And most of these sites are still vulnerable."

If accurate, the thefts would make last year's Target security breach look like child's play, where about 60 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen over the course of a few months.

Holden says the Russian outfit is about a dozen young hackers who first bought stolen data off underground markets and then began working with another group to aim bigger. "There is a division of labor within the gang," Holden added. "Some are writing the programming, some are stealing the data. It's like you would imagine a small company; everyone is trying to make a living."

After asking for a restraining order against sites that were sharing the leaked DVD quality copy of 'Expendables 3' last week, Lionsgate has won temporary injunctions against the anonymous operators of the torrent and cyberlockers including popular Billionuploads.

Lionsgate had claimed that a high-quality copy of the film had been stolen and uploaded to the Internet on July 24th, and that it had been downloaded over 2.1 million times.

In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow says that "Lions Gate has established that it will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of immediate relief. Among other things, Defendants' likely infringement has stripped Lions Gate of the critical right of first publication, is interfering with Lions Gate's contractual relationships with third parties, is damaging Lions Gate's goodwill among consumers, and is depriving Lions Gate of revenue that will be difficult or impossible to calculate, but is likely far in excess of any amount that Defendants could repay to Lions Gate in damages even if the amount could be calculated."

Major smartphone OEM LG has apparently leaked their own upcoming device, dubbed the G3 Stylus, in an ad for another device.

In the ad, which features the 5-inch G3 Beat, the Stylus model is visible, clearly larger than its brothers but including a pop-out stylus for better writing and drawing capabilities.

The model seems to be a direct rival to the popular Galaxy Note given its phablet screen and stylus but prior leaks have the display at a measly 540 x 960 resolution, almost guaranteeing the device will not be priced at the high-end like the G3.

Check the full ad for the Beat here:

According to a new trusted report, Apple will unveil their next iPhone on September 9th.

John Paczkowski, who has correctly reported the launch date of new iPhones for the last few years, made the post today.

While nothing has been confirmed, the new iPhone is expected to have a 4.7-inch screen and be even thinner than last year's 5S models.

In addition, Apple is also expected to launch a 5.5-inch model of the phone, which would be far and away the largest screen smartphone Apple has ever released.

According to the latest figures from research firm Strategy Analytics, 84.6 percent of all smartphones shipped for the Q2 were running Android, a new record high for the mobile OS.

Overall, there were 295.2 million smartphones shipped for the quarter, and Android took share at the expense of Apple, Microsoft and BlackBerry.

"Global smartphone growth in the current quarter is at its lowest level for five years, and there are wide variations by region," noted Linda Sui, a director at StratAn. "Africa and Asia are booming, while North America and Europe are maturing."

249.6 million Android units shipped for the quarter, 35.2 million Apple iPhones were shipped, 8 million Windows Phones were sold and BlackBerry managed to somehow ship 1.9 million units, down over 60 percent year-over-year.

Samsung kept its commanding OEM market share lead, at 25.2 percent, but that figure was significantly lower than last year during the same quarter. Apple had 11.9 percent share, Chinese giant Huawei had 6.8 percent and Lenovo, Xiaomi and LG rounded out the rest of the top list, all at around 5 percent.

Earlier this month, HP unveiled that it was working on a luxury designer smartwatch with luxury flash sale site Gilt and designer Michael Bastian.

Details were very scarce at the time, but we seem to have a little more today, thanks to a statement from Gilt and reports from other "sources."

The smartwatch will push your texts, emails and calendar notifications and also give you information about the weather, stocks, sports and more like normal smartwatches, but this device will not be touchscreen instead letting users rely on buttons on the side of the watch face for interactivity.

Another source says the watch will be more than just standard watch that can give you notifications, stating that apps and widgets will be available right from the home screen. In these regards, the watch should match the functionality of the Pebble Steel, which may be a turn off for anyone who has used an Android Wear device.

What is also confirmed is that the Bastian Smartwatch runs a proprietary operating system that syncs with both iOS and Android. The device has a 44mm stainless steel and water-resistant design and will include three interchangeable bands (sleek black rubber, perforated brown leather, and olive green nylon.)

Amazon has announced today that their Fire TV streaming set-top box has received a whole new set of apps although the one everyone is waiting for - HBO Go, is still not available.

Among the new services are WATCH Disney Channel, WATCH Disney Jr., MLB.TV, Animal Planet L!ve, and the WWE Network. Expected in the coming months are WATCH ABC, WATCH ABC Family, NFL Now, A&E, Lifetime, Outside TV, Young Hollywood, North Face TV, Fashion TV, Green TV and Dailymotion (and of course, HBO Go).

"Customers are loving the selection on their Fire TV, telling us how easy it is to watch their favorite movies and TV shows, listen to music, and play games in their living room. And because of that, developers continue to bring great apps to the platform, with app selection more than doubling since launch," said Steve Rabuchin, Vice President, Amazon Appstore. "And it's still day 1--we have a great pipeline of new services and games coming soon."

In the gaming section, Amazon inked an exclusive deal for developer Dong Nguyen for the re-invented Flappy Birds Family, and also recently added Dungeon Quest, Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse, The Wolf Among Us, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and The Bard's Tale.

The team behind the popular media center XBMC have rebranded the software as Kodi moving forward, just as the v14 of the media center moves into alpha.

Originally launched in 2002, XBMC launched first as Xbox Media Player (for the original Xbox console), followed by Xbox Media Center and finally XMBC. Despite its roots, the software has never been officially launched for the Xbox 360 nor the Xbox One, making its name quite silly and confusing.

So why the change finally? Reads the blog post: "Six years have passed since the Xbox Media Center became XBMC, and simply put, "XBMC" fits less now than it did even in 2008. The software only barely runs on the original Xbox, and then only because some clever developers are still hacking on that platform. It has never run on the Xbox 360 or Xbox One.

Furthermore, while the software still acts as a media center, it also hosts addons, loads games, streams content to and from numerous devices, and can ultimately act as a complete replacement for whatever platform it is hosted on. Indeed, XBMC today is far more an Entertainment Center than a simple Media Center.

Microsoft insider Mary Jo Foley says Windows 9 (aka Threshold) is on the way to a spring 2015 release, and some older Windows users could even be getting it for free.

Because of how soon Windows 9 is to release, Windows 8.1 users will likely only get smaller update packs in the future, and that some may not even be mandatory like Windows 8.1 was.

There was even talk that Windows 8.1 update 3 could be scrapped altogether, especially if Windows 9 stays in its anticipated time frame for launch.

Most interestingly from Foley's report was the rumor that older edition Windows users (namely XP, Vista and 7) could be given Windows 9 for free if their PCs can run it, as a way to quickly boost adoption of the updated OS.

Windows 8 adoption has slowed of late, and the boost in the PC industry experienced in the last year could already be on its last legs.

Last week we reported that a DVD-quality version of the upcoming 'Expendables 3' action movie had made its way online in one of the highest profile leaks of the last five years.

Lionsgate, the production company behind the film, sued six sites last week arguing that they did not respond to take down notices quickly enough including the popular cyberlocker, Billionuploads. Now, the company has asked for a restraining order on the sites that would shut the sites down and freeze their assets, no small task.

In addition, Lionsgate (with help from piracy monitors IP Echelon, MarkMonitor and Entura) has sent over ten thousand takedown notices to hundreds of web services trying to get all copies of the film wiped away.

As always happens, many of the takedown notices are for legitimate URLs, including news articles or blurbs from many major news outlets. Allegedly, the official Expendables 3 website was even among the sites targeted, showing how many darts the companies are throwing blindly.

Lionsgate's EVP for Content Protection Robert Wenokur also noted that the company is likely to face serious losses at the box office thanks to the leak, although past leaks have proven this false time and time again: "Individuals who view the Film in this manner may not pay for tickets at the box office when the Film is released later this month. Similarly, such individuals may not purchase or rent copies of the Film when it is released to the home entertainment market after its theatrical run."