Latest news

Popular actor Tom Hanks has released a typewriter app for iOS, dubbing the application "Hanx Writer."

The app "recreates the experience of a manual typewriter, but with the ease and speed of an iPad," reads its bio, and iPhone and iPad users appear to love it.

As of writing, the app has 1137 ratings, at 4.5 stars out of 5.

Hanks, who is well known to love writing on old-school typewriters, explains why he built the app, which is really just a cool gimmicky word processor: "I wanted the sound of typing if nothing else... cause I find it's like music that spurs along the creative urge. Bang bang clack-clack-clack puckapuckapuckapucka..."

Try the app here.

Erafone, a large Indonesian retailer, has leaked the specs of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

The company's next phablet will include high-end specs but there was little released about the software or any new features.

Spec sheet (as leaked):

According to a leaked memo, it appears that T-Mobile will be cracking down on unlimited data users who are "abusing" the system and download torrents, warez and from P2P sites.

The carrier currently offers unlimited text, talk and 4G/LTE data (with free tethering/mobile hotspot) for $80 per month. All other data plans already throttle your speed down to 2G/EDGE after you have reached your cap (generally 2.5-5.5GB).

Reads the memo:

"T-mobile has identified customers who are heavy data users and are engaged in peer-to-peer file sharing, and tethering outside of T-Mobile's Terms and Conditions (T&C). This results in a negative data network experience for T-Mobile customers. Beginning August 17, T-Mobile will begin to address customers who are conducting activities outside of T-Mobile's T&Cs."

Among the "abuses" in the T&C are "using the Service in connection with server devices or host computer applications, including continuous Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, automated machine-to-machine connections or peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing applications that are broadcast to multiple servers or recipients, "bots" or similar routines that could disrupt net user groups or email use by others or other applications that denigrate network capacity or functionality."

Lenovo, the world's biggest PC maker, has announced that they now ship more smartphones than PCs, a major milestone for the company.

Additionally, the company claimed it was the top Chinese phone maker during the quarter, although research firms have disputed that data point, instead claiming Xiaomi was the leader in the market.

For the quarter, Lenovo shipped 15.8 million smartphones (up 39 percent year-over-year), versus 14.5 million PCs during the same time frame.

Although on a smaller scale, tablet sales jumped 67 percent to 2.3 million, officially making Lenovo third in that market, well behind Apple and Samsung.

Overall, Lenovo has 19.8 percent of the PC market, ahead of giants like HP and Dell, and saw notebook growth this quarter while the overall market saw a decline.

Samsung has made their highly-anticipated Galaxy Alpha smartphone official, following weeks of rumors and leaks.

The new metal phone has a design similar to the iPhone, and weighs just 4.05 ounces with only 6.7mm thickness.

As leaked, the Galaxy Alpha has a 4.7-inch 720p Super AMOLED display, is powered by a Samsung Exynos octacore processor (Quad 1.8GHz + Quad 1.3GHz) and 2GB RAM. The phone has 32GB of internal storage (with sadly, no microSD slot), a fingerprint sensor, dual 2.1/12MP cameras, and LTE-A support for faster download and upload speeds if your carrier supports it.

At launch the device will run Android 4.4.4 with the company's own TouchWiz UI. Other standard sensors and connectivity options are Wi-Fi 802.11ac, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0, gyro, geomagnetic, hall, light, proximity, gesture, an accelerometer and HR.

Samsung is launching the device in five colors starting in September rolling out to over 150 countries.

Twitter has announced in a regulatory filing that "up to approximately 8.5%" of its active accounts are completely automated "without any discernible additional user-initiated action."

The social media giant has 271 million active monthly users, so automated accounts are up to 23 million of those.

Among the automatically updated accounts are handles that post directly from third-party apps like dlvr.it, or that post pictures that were shared on Facebook or Instagram, for example, without the user having to go to Twitter at any point.

Unfortunately included in the group are spam accounts, which account for less than 5% of monthly active users, says Twitter.

Real, human-backed active accounts are what advertisers are looking into when judging Twitter's potential, and 8.5 percent of accounts never seeing an ad is a large figure.

According to new reports, a vast majority of the Apple Stores in the U.S. will begin offering iPhones with carrier financing programs later this month.

The iPhones will be available with AT&T Next, Verizon Edge and T-Mobile Jump all of which allow buyers to get the latest device at $0 down (or sometimes more) and then pay a monthly finance charge until the device is paid off or until you move on to the next device.

If accurate, the reports claim Apple will roll out the pilot program on August 20th.

Check the leaked internal slide below, via 9to5Mac:

Microsoft has used Gamescom to confirm details about the previously announced 'Cirrus' white console.

The white color Xbox One will be bundled with the exclusive Sunset Overdrive game for $399.99.

Included with the game are some special "Day One" edition in-game items.

Besides the color and the game, the internals of the machine match the current black color model, and will begin shipping on October 28th.

Following a major update earlier this month, the team behind Popcorn Time has now released beta 0.2.2 for Android (version 2.2), with some minor fixes.

The last update made headlines as it added the ability to watch movies and TV shows with free VPN, improved Chromecast support and made the software available to many more Android devices.

Stability and bug fixes were key to new update:

What changed?

Wrong subtitle bug is fixed- no more trying to watch Portuguese subtitles and getting Hebrew lol ;-)
Some stability issues were solved
We managed to achieve even faster download speed on this one...

The company also noted that an iOS app is on the way.

Popcorn Time is affectionately known as the "Netflix of Piracy" due to its ability of letting users quickly search and find any film they want and watch it in up to 1080p quality.

Try the Android app here.

CBS CEO Les Moonves has announced this week that the company's CBS Studios division is actively working on original TV series that will be eventually be made available on streaming video services like Amazon Prime and Netflix.

The studio currently sells mainly to CBS' own channels, but it does not have any restrictions on where it can sell programming. Best known for "NCIS," CBS Studios even recently sold the new show "The Club" to rival network ABC.

Moonves did not reveal which companies they were developing for, just to say that "shortly, you're going to hear us being in business with some of the [streaming video services] with original program[s]. We will be producing more and more shows for more and more outlets, including major streaming companies and other emerging distributors."

Demand remains very high for high-quality programming, especially after Netflix paid big money for the now Emmy-winning 'House of Cards' and the extremely popular 'Orange is the New Black.'

CBS Studios has significant capital to invest in original programming, and CBS does not have enough channels or enough prime time slots for all of them. Streaming services have no such limitations.

Today at Gamescom 2014, Sony has announced a new milestone for the PlayStation 4 console: 10 million units sold.

Sony last revealed the amount of units sold back in February, and the figure was an impressive 5.3 million so it appears that demand for the console has not slowed down in the least.

The console has outsold its rivals ever since launch, although Microsoft has made somewhat of a comeback after launching a Kinect-less version of the Xbox One at the same price as the PS4.

Sony's PlayStation 4 is available around the world, starting at $399 USD.

Electronic Arts has taken their EA Access gaming subscription service out of beta and officially launched the product for the Xbox One.

To start, the service is available in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, UK, and the US.

The new service will cost $5 per month or $30 per year and give access to downloadable games through "The Vault," a small but growing collection of EA games. At launch, EA Access will have just four games: FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, Peggle 2, and Battlefield 4, with the promise of more being added in the near future.

In addition to the cheap gaming on older games, EA Access members also get 10 percent off EA games and other content including DLC and free trials of new EA games up to five days before their retail dates.

You can buy passes to EA Access on Amazon and at GameStop.

Microsoft has sent out press invites for an event in which the company will launch a new Lumia Windows Phone.

Expected to be launched is the Lumia 730, described by Microsoft devices head Stephen Elop as the company's new "selfie phone" during an internal meeting.

In the invite, there is a picture of the camera in the lettering and the invite asks press members to "Join us for more face time," once again suggesting the front-facing camera will be key.

So far, if leaked Lumia 730 pictures are to be believed, the phone will have a 5-megapixel front camera, notably larger than most current high-end phones including the Galaxy S5, iPhone 5S and HTC One.

The event is scheduled for September 4th.

Microsoft, through its newly acquired Nokia, is looking to expand their presence to the emerging markets of Asia and Africa, unveiling the new $25 Nokia 130.

The company says the 130 is "an ideal handset for first-time mobile phone buyers, or for people seeking a reliable backup phone to complement their existing smartphones." The device runs on Nokia's own Series 30 OS, not Windows Phone, so the strategy is a bit different for Microsoft than usual.

Available in China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Vietnam starting in the Q3, Microsoft says it wants a bigger piece of the "estimated" 1 billion people around the globe that do not have a mobile phone, at all. The company also says that over 300 million phones priced under $35 are sold every year.

The phone is available in single or dual-SIM models, has a microSD slot for 32GB of extra video or music, and has a 1.8-inch display (non-touch of course) with a full 9-digit keyboard and a trackpad. Most notably, the phone has 36 days of standby time, at least 10 times higher than most smartphones.

Acer has announced their latest Chrome OS notebook, the Chomebook 13, featuring some killer specs for that type of device.

The device has a 1080p display, one of just three Chromebooks to ever feature Full HD, is powered by a Nvidia Tegra K1 processor, and starts with 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage. There is also a 4GB, 32GB model available if you are willing to shell out a little more cash.

Acer has moved to an all new design, as well, which is relatively light and thin, at 3.31 pounds at 0.71 inches thick. The notebook is fanless and there are two full sized USB 3.0 ports and a full HDMI port.

Perhaps most notably is the addition of the new quad-core K1 processor, which easily beats up on other Chromebook processors in nearly all benchmark tests. The K1 also includes a fifth "ninja" core to help throttle other cores when not in use, and supports 3D rendering and improved multitasking.

The promised battery life is 11 hours, which would be the best for a Chromebook yet.

Acer's latest is $299 for base and $379 with the increased space and RAM.