Latest news

According to prolific leaker @Evleaks, Microsoft has almost completed a licensing pact with Nokia in which future Nokia devices will be branded "Nokia by Microsoft."

The popular devices will keep their Lumia names, and Microsoft will even go a step further and replace their current "Surface" tablet name with Lumia.

A recently leaked document showed Microsoft's plan to get rid of the Nokia name as an independent brand within 18 months of the closing of their acquisition, with Nokia X models to lose the name at the end of next year, and Nokia Asha devices to lose the name "ten years after the closing" of the merger.

Microsoft currently does not offer its own smartphone hardware but does have its line of Surface tablets. Despite being powerful and well designed, the tablets have not been popular and Windows has a tiny portion of the global tablet market.

TV streaming startup Aereo has "paused" their service indefinitely, following the Supreme Court decision in which it was ruled that the company violated copyrights of the major TV broadcasters CBS, NBC, Disney and Fox.

The service is shutdown as of 11:30AM today, but it could return at some point in the future.

"You will be able to access your cloud-based antenna and DVR only until 11:30 a.m. ET today," CEO Chet Kanojia wrote in his note to subcribers. "All of our users will be refunded their last paid month."

Here is the full letter:

A little over three years ago, our team embarked on a journey to improve the consumer television experience, using technology to create a smart, cloud-based television antenna consumers could use to access live over the air broadcast television.

On Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court reversed a lower Court decision in favor of Aereo, dealing a massive setback to consumers.

Business Insider put together a very interesting list of the rarest and most valuable video games, with the top five valued at over $10000 if you happen to have them in your possession.

Starting at #5:

1991 Nintendo Campus Challenge (NES): $14,000-$20,100


The campus challenge included "Dr. Mario," "PinBot" and "Super Mario 3" all in one, and the cartridge was used for gaming competitions on the Nintendo campus. Nearly all were said to have been destroyed, but one was found in an ex-employee's garage. The game sold originally for $14,000 in 2006 but was recently resold for over $20,000.


#4:
"Air Raid" (Atari 2600): $14,000-$33,400

The U.S. Marshals Service confirmed this week that it was done auctioning off nearly 30,000 Bitcoins that were seized during a raid on the Silk Road black market.

At a value of $17.7 million, the Bitcoin auction took about 12 hours on Friday. The coins were auctioned in blocks of 3000 with a final block of 2,657 bitcoins. The Marshals Service will notify all winners on Monday.

The Silk Road online black market was shutdown by the FBI in September 2013, with agents arresting alleged mastermind Ross Ulbricht and taking control of the Silk Road's servers. The 29,657 coins were seized in forfeited in January.

There is little chance that the winning bidders will pay market price for the coins, since millions are available through existing exchanges at the ongoing market rate.

Besides the nearly 30,000, the Marshals have 144,342 Bitcoins seized from Ulbricht that are pending a civil forfeiture proceeding.

Amazon's Android Appstore is having a large sale today on paid apps, making 31 apps free compared to the normal single app they offer daily.

Most are not well known or important but there are some winners in there, as well. Among the best available are Plex, Sonic 2, The Room Two, AccuWeather and Splashtop. All are hits, even at the paid price, so free is a great offer.

The deal is valid throughout today and the apps will work on all Android and Amazon Fire devices.

Full list:

Card Wars - Adventure Time
Plex
Notepad+
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
The Room Two
Dr. Panda's Bus Driver
Wedding Dash Deluxe
AccuWeather Platinum
Root Explorer
Ravensword: Shadowlands
Sudoku 10'000 Plus
Pho.to Lab Pro
Informant 3
Business Calendar
Jump Desktop
CrossMe Premium
Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek
EZ Money Manager
MobiLearn Talking Phrasebook
Splashtop Remote Desktop
CLARC
Dungeon Village
aCalendar+
Travel Interpreter
Pinball Deluxe Premium
MyBackup Pro
Loco Motors
PUZZINGO Puzzles
2Do: Todo List
Real Shanghai Mahjong
League of Heroes Premium

Giant retailer Walmart has slashed prices on the iPhone, bringing the smartphone down to as low as $29 with a two-year contract.

If willing to take a contract, a 16GB iPhone 5s will go for $99, while the plastic 16GB 5c will go for the aforementioned $29.

There is one caveat in that you must go to a Walmart store to take advantage, as it cannot be used online.

Of course, the price cut is ahead of the upcoming iPhone 6 launch on September 19th, which should help the retailer clear out inventory.

The iPhone 6 is expected to have a larger 4.7-inch display, higher resolution and a rounder design.

Source:
MyNews13

Adobe has launched Photoshop Express for Windows Phone devices, the first image-editing app available for the platform from the major company.

The freemium app will be very similar to its iOS and Android counterpart, starting with basic editing features and more advanced effects will require an in-app purchase.

For free, you can crop, rotate, remove red eye and adjust brightness, contrast, exposure and clarity. Additionally, the app will come with 22 Instagram-esque filters for free, with another 20 available for $2.99.

All of your saved images can be later shared to Adobe Revel, OneNote, Dropbox and other notable third-party apps.

Photoshop Express will likely quickly become the most popular photo editing app on the platform, as Instagram remains in beta.

Earlier today, CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" anchor Simon Hobbs outed Apple CEO Tim Cook, claiming that he is openly gay.

The segment was an interview with New York Times columnist Jim Stewart speaking about his column on John Browne, the former CEO of BP oil and the author of "The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out Is Good For Business," a memoir detailing his life as a closeted high-ranking employee in a Fortune 500 company.

"I think Tim Cook is fairly open about the fact that he's gay at the head of Apple isn't he?" asked Hobbs. "No," Stewart answered. "I don't want to comment on anybody who might or might not be. I'm not going to out anybody. I called a lot of people and no one at any major company would allowed their names to be used."

Cook has never confirmed his sexual orientation but has recently made a speech at U.N. discussing the discrimination he has experienced since youth. Cook was also named Out's 2013 most powerful LGBT person.

According to new reports from Apple's supply chain insiders, the iPhone 6 will be unveiled on September 19th.

This is not the first time we have heard a similar date, as carrier Deutsche Telekom had told customers to expect the device on the third Friday of September, the same date as the launch of 2013's iPhone 5s.

The company is said to be working on two models of the new device, a 4.7-inch version and a phablet 5.5-inch version.

Mass production of the 4.7-inch model is set for next month, with the phablet likely going into production later due to display supply issues.

Over the past few months, there have been various reports that Google is looking to kill off its own "Nexus" line of Android reference devices. It appears those rumors were not true.

Google says it is still invested in Nexus, and fans should expect a new Nexus device this year alongside the launch of Android L.

The search giant is working on the Android Silver program, in which it will help OEMs build smartphones with base specs and then help them with joint marketing, but that is not expected until next year.

Dave Burke, the head of Android engineering and the Nexus program at Google, confirmed the continued development of Nexus: "People just get excited by concepts and forget why we do things. We are still invested in Nexus." Burke would not comment on Silver. "People have been commenting about Nexus because there is something else and they think that means the end of Nexus. That is the totally wrong conclusion to make," he added.

Read more about Android L here: Android L

Google has announced a plethora of new features for YouTube this week at VidCon.

The video sharing site will soon have support for videos at 48 and 60 frames per second (fps), a much-requested feature from users, especially gamers. The new support will go far for video game footage uploaded directly from your next-gen consoles and also for 1080p60fps trailers that are now very popular.

To take advantage of the higher frame rates, you will have to watch the videos in 1080p.

In addition, new annotation cards are also coming to YouTube, as is the ability to give donations to uploaders so they don't have to rely on just ad revenue into the future.

YouTube will also be adding 7500 royalty-free sound effects and background music tracks to their catalog, giving uploaders more options for their videos without worrying about copyright infringement.

Finally, "foreign-language-fans can submit their own translations based on the captions or subtitles that you've made," and the YouTube Creator Studio is now also available for Android giving mobile access to analytics.

Apple has unveiled a new 16GB fifth-generation iPod Touch starting at $199, the cheapest it has ever offered the media device for.

In addition, the 32GB and 64GB models have seen a price cut to $249 to $299, respectively. The original fifth generation model was originally launched over a year ago, and the special edition 16GB model sold for $229 until recently.

The new iPod lineup include a 5MP iSight camera to go along with the 4-inch Retina Display, A5 processor, and FaceTime camera. The device will come in six new colors: yellow, pink, blue, silver, space gray and (RED).

Launching with iOS 7, the Touches will be upgradeable to iOS 8 when it launches in the fall.

All the models are available through Apple.com.

Earlier this year, IBM announced the sale of its computer servers business to Chinese giant Lenovo for $2.3 billion.

The deal remains in limbo, however, as regulators in the U.S. look to find ways to resolve security concerns. The x86 servers are used in national communications networks and also in data centers that support military and Pentagon networks.

As expected, U.S. security officials and members of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (in charge of possible national security concerns) have worries that the servers could be remotely accessed by Chinese hackers, spies or officials or that the servers could be compromised through maintenance.

Lenovo purchased IBM's hardware PC business in 2005 and saw similar regulatory concerns. The deal was ultimately approved but the U.S. military later notified DoD officials of security breaches involving the PCs, leading the State Department to ban Lenovo computers on classified networks in the U.S. and overseas.

Both companies say the x86 servers are low-end tech, and that most servers are made in China of Chinese components anyway. Lenovo says its only objectives with the servers are commercial in nature.

Major retailer Costco has begun offering iPhones and iPads, each with significant discounts.

The company's Mobile Online Store is already selling the devices and the club warehouses will see the devices tomorrow.

Costco has the AT&T, Sprint and Verizon versions of the iPhone 5s for just $78 on contract, a nice discount off the $199 you will be paying if getting the phone through the carriers.

Additionally, the iPad Air for Verizon is down to $520 and the iPad Mini with Retina is down to $420, $100 discounts for each.

With the significant discounts does come sporadic inventory, however, with T-Mobile devices only available in some kiosks, and just one iPhone 5c available for any carrier. Verizon is also the only carrier for the LTE models of the devices.

Major PC and tablet maker Asus has confirmed that its Android Wear smartwatch, codename 'Robin,' will be available for sale in September.

The device will pack an AMOLED display and be priced between $99 and $149 at launch. Those prices would significantly undercut existing devices, which were just officially announced yesterday during Google's I/O developer's conference.

Currently, the Samsung Gear Live sells for $199 and the LG G Watch sells for $229. Motorola's hotly anticipated Moto 360 is expected to sell for $249.

Asus' sources say the company did not want to "rush" their efforts, and the new smartwatch is expected to be the "thinnest" yet.

We will know more in the coming months.