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Sony has denied recent reports that it has halted all OLED development.

The reports had claimed that Sony was focusing on 4K rather than OLED into the future, after investing in OLED since at least 2007.

Sony owns 20 percent of the 4K market, and sales are actually increasing, which gives some hope to the company's TV business, which has lost billions over the past five years and is being spun-off later this year.

Says the electronics giant: "Sony has made no announcement in this regard. Sony continues developing and looking into reliable ways to mass produce OLED displays for consumers while continuing to build experience via providing OLED displays for professional, medical and broadcast use."

OLED TVs, which are extremely thin and light and feature the best color reproduction, have not been popular with consumers of yet due to high prices and low supply, with just Sony and LG really offering any devices so far. 4K on the other hand, has already reached consumer price points with offerings from all major OEMs.

We now have some press renders of the upcoming LG G3, the company's latest flagship.

The design of the phone features a great looking brushed metal finish, and nice curved corners with a thin bezel display.

LG's power house will feature a 5.5-inch display with a QHD 1440 x 2560 pixel resolution, 3GB RAM, a 13MP OIS camera and Qualcomm's latest quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor.

The company is expected to officially announce the device on May 27th.

According to new reports, Samsung may be preparing a Google Glass competitor dubbed the Gear Glass, with release set for this year.

The Gear Glass will look almost identical to Google's wearable, which only just went on sale to the general public this week in beta form for $1500.

Samsung's eyewear will run on the open-source Tizen operating system, which Samsung has been improving for a couple of years but has yet to be seen on a consumer device outside of digital cameras and more recently, smart watches.

In the report, Samsung is quoted as saying: "We rolled out the smartwatch first, and have secured a considerable amount of smart glass-related technology and patents. Following the roll out of our smart watch Galaxy Gear in September last year, we are slated to introduce our smart glass Gear Glass this September."

The IFA conference begins September 5th.

Xbox One will soon come without Kinect to compete in pricing with the PS4, but what does the decision mean for the future of Microsoft's console?

On the surface of it, offering a $100 cheaper Xbox One model to consumers is the right move for Microsoft. As it stands, Microsoft has shipped a couple of million less Xbox One units than Sony has confirmed sales for the PS4, which undoubtedly has Microsoft uneasy even at such an early stage.

A lower-cost console without Kinect will likely help Microsoft to claw back some ground on the PS4, but what does it mean for Microsoft's overall vision for Xbox One and the future of the console?

Bundling Kinect with Xbox One may have given Microsoft a $100 disadvantage in cost on the market, but it was the cost of Xbox One having something unique to it, and something that was present wherever there was an Xbox One console rather than an optional peripheral.

You just have to look at the initial reaction from developer Harmonix to Microsoft's announcement on Twitter to see that the news isn't necessarily good for all. Director of Publishing and PR at Harmonix, John Drake, sums it up in a few words.

Oh, great. Super great.

-- johntdrake (@johntdrake) May 13, 2014

Considering Harmonix is already developing Disney title Fantasia: Music Evolved for Xbox One, it has to be very disheartening news that not every Xbox One sold going forward is guaranteed to include Kinect. To be fair to Harmonix, the developer put out statements later that were more positive.

Popular mobile notetaking app Evernote has proudly announced a significant milestone, 101 million users.

Reads the company's post:

"There are two ways to look at this. On the one hand, there are more than 100 million people whose lives have been touched, even a little bit, by something we made. On the other hand, there are still about 7 billion people who've never used any Evernote product.

Both are pretty inspirational!

When we launched the Evernote service in 2008, our intuition was that the world was about to go through a big change in how people worked. There were many note takers and productivity tools around at the time but they all felt out of date; they were becoming less and less relevant to people's lives.

We set out to redefine the meaning of productivity for modern busy people. We want Evernote to become your workspace; the place where you do all of the everyday things that keep your life moving forward.

88 million users downloaded the app directly, with the rest coming from referrals. Downloads were split across the global regions, with 35 million coming from Asia Pacific, 31 million from EMEA, 27 million from North America and 8 million from Latin America.

Yahoo has acquired the self-destructing Blink mobile messaging app and will shut it down soon, following its recent trend of acquiring startups and shutting down their applications or services while integrating to Yahoo's core businesses.

All Blink employees including its founder will now be joining Yahoo.

The product had to compete with giant Snapchat, among others, but still had over 100,000 downloads of its iOS and Android apps before it was acquired.

Blink launched over a year ago on iOS and had features like the ability to text and share voice message and video, some features that only recently came to Snapchat.

The company was popular in the U.S., as well as the Middle East, and was working on more Arabic-catered localization into the future.

Source:
Crunch

Prolific leaker and tweeter Evleaks has shown off a picture of the so-called LG Uni8, the company's first Windows Phone 8 device.

LG was one of the initial OEMs with original Windows Phone devices, but has since stayed away from the world's #3 smartphone OS, instead working exclusively on Android-based devices.

Nokia, which was recently acquired by Windows Phone developer Microsoft, is the operating system's top producer of smartphones, accounting for over 80 percent of sales.

There had been worry that Microsoft would forget about other manufacturers after it concluded purchasing the large hardware maker.

Google has finally made good on their promise to launch Glass, making the beta Explorer models available to anyone in the U.S., as long as they have product on hand.

At the Explorer price of $1,500, you will be getting a beta product in both hardware and software, but previously you had to be accepted by Google to get a device, and there were under 10,000 "Explorers."

Says the search giant: "Last week we told you we'd be trying out new ways to find Explorers. Well, we weren't kidding. We learned a lot when we opened our site a few weeks ago, so we've decided to move to a more open beta. We're still in the Explorer Program while we continue to improve our hardware and software, but starting today anyone in the US can buy the Glass Explorer Edition, as long as we have it on hand.

We're ready to keep meeting new Explorers, and we can't wait to hear all your experiences and feedback to continue to make Glass even better, ahead of our wider consumer release."

You can place on order for Glass here: Google Glass. Google will also include free shades and frames with the purchase.

Sonos has unveiled a huge refresh for their mobile iOS and Android apps, including the addition of universal search.

If you use multiple services with your Sonos, there was the annoyance of having to select a single service to find the streaming music you wanted, but that will no longer be a problem. Searching for an artist will bring up the musician's music across all platforms (Spotify, Pandora, Rdio, Google Play, etc).

Additionally, you can now create playlists from tracks across platforms and even set scheduled play times.

"From the beginning, we've been focused on creating the best possible experience with music in the home. With software at our core, we build products that we can easily adapt, so we can bring you more from Sonos the longer you have it," adds Sonos.

Blizzard has revealed that the new Diablo III: Reaper of Souls expansion will be available as part of a console exclusive Ultimate Evil Edition bundle.

The package will be released on August 19th for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Blizzard is selling the bundle for $59.99 for the PS4 and Xbox One, and just $39.99 for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Diablo III launched for the older consoles last September, and current player can continue to play their characters with the update. PS3 characters can be transferred to the upcoming PS3 and PS4 editions and the same for the Xbox versions.

As part of the new bundle, there are some new features and the addition of four-player multiplayer.

Voltage Pictures, infamous for filing thousands of lawsuits against alleged file sharers, has continued their ways, suing about 70 'John Doe' defendants who have allegedly pirated the Oscar winning film 'Dallas Buyers Club.'

All of accused torrent users are from Michigan, and are customers of just two ISPs: Comcast and Wide Open West.

Voltage filed the motion asking judges for the right to serve subpoenas to the ISPs to find the real identities of the John Does.

The studio says it used forensic software to identify the IP addresses of the John Does, and it now needs the real identities to try to take cash settlements from unlucky downloaders. The firms that Voltage use for such lawsuits are notorious for bullying and intimidating, and have even been sanctioned in the past for such tactics.

Back in February, the companies filed similar suits against Dallas Buyers Club downloaders in Colorado and Ohio.

Motorola has made their Moto E smartphone official, with the device launching in India first.

The cheap yet powerful device will sell for 6,999 rupees (about $115), and will be a great first smartphone for potentially hundreds of millions of feature phone users in the populous nation.

"We have been looking all over the world and obviously also at the Indian market and there are still about 65% to 70% of consumers still using feature phones," added Magnus Ahlqvist, corporate vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa business at Motorola. After India, the phone will rollout to the UK, Mexico, Spain, Brazil and Canada.

The device has a 4.3-inch display with 540 by 960 pixel resolution (256ppi) with Gorilla Glass 3 and an anti-smudge coating. On the design front, the phone looks almost identical to the Moto G, just slightly smaller. The phone is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor and 1GB RAM with 4GB of available internal storage and a microSD slot.

Popcorn Time, the app dubbed the 'Netflix of Piracy,' has been updated to major beta 3.

The developers say the new beta has major improvements to the code, and the list of new features include a brand new interface, updates to bookmarks, user settings, TV series listings, better codec support, keyboard shortcuts and new language support.

Says the app maker, "We're really proud of bringing all these new features for you and we want to thank all the Popcorn Time community for supporting us and helping us with this new release."

Get the app here at AfterDawn at top speeds if interested: Popcorn Time Beta 3

Ever wish you could silence people in your Twitter stream without necessarily having to unfollow them? Soon enough, you will be able to.

The new "Mute" option will let you hide tweets and other activity from people you follow, but they will still be able to interact with you, including replies, favorites, direct messages and retweets.

Mute is great for when someone you follow begins ranting, or live tweeting events that you do not care about and it is filling up your entire timeline. Mutes can be reversed at any time, and you do not have to unfollow them just to re-follow them later (which can be awkward).

The function will be available through the officials iOS, Android apps and Twitter's desktop site. Third-party clients have already added it in most cases, or will be soon.

If you already have access it to it, check the "more" link on an tweet and then click "mute @username."

As previously reported, AT&T is in active negotiations to purchase satellite TV giant DirecTV, in what is expected to be one of the largest mergers in telecom history.

According to new sources, the price could top $50 billion, with an offering to shareholders of $90-95 compared to a recent closing price of $86.

Reports of AT&T's interest first began on May 1st, when the company's stock was in the mid-$70s. There are still many details being worked on, including the size of a break-up fee if the deal falls through, and roles for key DirecTV executives in the new company.

Even if AT&T were to make a formal bid, there are no guarantees the deal will make it past significant regulatory hurdles in the U.S. DirecTV has seen stagnant subscriber growth for its core satellite business, and rival Dish Network has been acquiring huge amounts of wireless spectrum, hinting at expansions into other endeavors. AT&T would make a good partner if DTV were looking for spectrum, and the combined subscriber base would be able to counter the behemoth of a combined Comcast/Time Warner Cable, which is also facing regulator scrutiny.