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Microsoft will offer consumers an Xbox One console without Kinect for $399 from June 9, as it aims to catch up on Sony's lower priced PlayStation 4.

The Kinect-free Xbox One will sell in all markets where the Xbox One is currently sold from June 9, starting at $399. The decision to bundle Kinect with all Xbox One consoles was criticized from the very beginning, not least because it meant the console would cost $100 more than the PS4.

Since launching last year, Sony has sold more than 7 million PS4 consoles and over 20 million PS4 software sales. Microsoft indicated in its Q2 2014 earnings report that 3.9 million Xbox One consoles have shipped to date.

This is not the first time Microsoft has changed strategy with Xbox One based on negative feedback. Not long after announcing the Xbox One, Microsoft started taking fire or its requirement to check in online at least once every 24 hours, and tying games to an Xbox One user raised questions about the ability to play pre-owned games.

In June last year, Microsoft reversed both policies.

Along with the decision to sell an Xbox One without Kinect, Microsoft is also changing Xbox Live so that you will no longer need an Xbox Live Gold account to use apps like Netflix, YouTube, ESPN and more. That decision was likely prompted by the continuing growth of video streaming services, and the growing number of set-top boxes, hardware devices, smart TVs etc. that support them on the market.

According to a report, Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners may soon be able to use Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services without an Xbox Live Gold account.

Considering that Microsoft's main competitors have not put multimedia streaming apps behind a paywall, Microsoft puts itself at a slight disadvantage and should lift the restriction. According to a report from Ars, citting multiple sources within Microsoft, that's just what the company is planning to do.

The report says that the sources have been briefed on the plans ahead of this year's E3 next month. To compensate, Microsoft is expected to put other services behind the paywall, but its unclear whether this means existing services or upcoming services, such as content delivered from Xbox Entertainment Studios.

Ars does warn that it is not set in stone at this point, and that Microsoft could change its mind before its keynote on June 9, but the policy change reportedly comes from Dom Mattrick's departure from the company.


Source: Ars

Microsoft's Office for iPad is still going strong with 27 million downloads since launching in March.

Microsoft had previously celebrated hitting over 12 million downloads in the first week of Office for iPad availability on the Apple tablet, which put it right up at the top of the charts in its category.

Fast forward a month later and Office for iPad has more than doubled that tally with 27 million downloads, according to Microsoft's Office Division manager, Julia White, announcing it at the TechEd customer conference in Houston, Texas.

Microsoft has said that it has more than 4.4 million paid users of the personal versions of Office for iPad, suggesting that a lot of downloads from business users with corporate Office 365 accounts.

Source: BusinessInsider

EA has revealed a list of 50 games that will have online services suspended by July, including titles from the Battlefield and Medal of Honor series.

The games listed are across several platforms but online services will only be ended for the platform specified. The move stems from GameSpy's announcement this month to end all hosted services for games, which impacts the online capabilities of a number of older titles.

Since then, EA has been evaluation options to keep online services up for some titles, but due to technical challenges and concerns about the player experience, it has not reached a solution, and so online services for EA games on the GameSpy platform will be closed down at the end of June.

"We are still investigating community-supported options to preserve online functionality for these titles, such as multiplayer," EA staff wrote. "Significant technical hurdles remain, and at this time we don't have anything to announce."

The full list of games that will have online services suspended on by June 30 is:

• Battlefield 1942 for PC and Mac (including The Road to Rome and Secret Weapons of WW2 expansions)
• Battlefield 2 for PC (including Special Forces expansion)
• Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for PlayStation 2
• Battlefield 2142 for PC and Mac (including Northern Strike expansion)
• Battlefield Vietnam for PC
• Bejeweled (r) 2 for the Wii
• Bulletstorm for PlayStation 3
• Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars for PC and Mac (including Kane's Wrath expansion)
• Command & Conquer: Generals for PC and Mac (including Zero Hour expansion)
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 for PC and Mac
• Crysis 2 for PC
• Crysis for PC
• Crysis Wars for PC
• Dracula - Undead Awakening for the Wii
• Dragon Sakura for Nintendo DS
• EA Sports 06 for PC
• F1 2002 for PC
• FIFA Soccer 08 (KOR) for the Wii
• FIFA Soccer 08 for Nintendo DS
• FIFA Soccer 09 for Nintendo DS
• FIFA Soccer 10 for Nintendo DS
• FIFA Street 3 for Nintendo DS
• Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers for PlayStation 2
• Global Operations for PC
• GREEN DAY: ROCK BAND for the Wii
• James Bond: Nightfire for PC
• Madden NFL 08 for Nintendo DS
• Madden NFL 09 for Nintendo DS
• Master of Orion III for PC
• Medal of Honor: Allied Assault for PC and Mac (including Breakthrough and Spearhead expansions)
• MySims Party for Wii
• MySims Racing for Nintendo DS
• MySims SkyHeroes for the Wii and DS
• NASCAR Sim Racing for PC
• NASCAR Thunder 2003 for PC
• NASCAR Thunder 2004 for PC
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 for PC
• Need for Speed: ProStreet for Nintendo DS
• Need for Speed: Undercover for Nintendo DS
• Neverwinter Nights 2 for PC and Mac
• Neverwinter Nights for PC, Mac and Linux (including Hordes of the Underdark and Shadows of Undrentide expansions)
• SimCity Creator for Wii
• Skate It for Nintendo DS
• Sneezies for the Wii
• Spore Creatures for Nintendo DS
• Spore Hero Arena for Nintendo DS
• Star Wars: Battlefront for PC and PlayStation 2
• Star Wars: Battlefront II for PC and PlayStation 2
• THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND for the Wii
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 for Nintendo DS

According to a report from South Korea, Samsung's Galaxy S5 has shipped 10 million Galaxy S5 handsets in 25 days, beating the Galaxy S4.

The previously releases Galaxy S4 smartphone reached 10 million shipments in 27 days, and the Galaxy S3 before it hit the milestone after 50 days. Of course, the figures don't represent sales to customers but it shows a considerable demand for the Galaxy S5.

That demand is coming despite some fairly critical reviews of Samsung's latest flagship model, which has been blasted for its "cheap" design characteristics and for lacking hardware innovations.

Shortly after its launch, a shake-up at Samsung saw Chang Dong-hoon step down as head of Samsung's mobile design team, replaced with Lee Min-hyouk. Chang will continue to lead the design center at Samsung though.


Source: www.hankyung.com (Korean)

According to information posted on the official PlayStation website, the hotly-anticipated Watch Dogs will run in 1080p at 60fps, only on the PlayStation 4.

The page for Watch Dogs on the PlayStation website promises the "True Watch_Dogs Experience", with the best graphics on any console and exclusive missions found only on PlayStation.

"Hack everything as you make your way through Chicago's underground as you experience Watch_Dogs in a way that only the PS4 can provide, at 60 Frames Per Second in 1080p."

The page also explained that the four exclusive missions are "timed exclusions" that will be available on PC later.

Watch_Dogs launches on PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC on May 27.

Nintendo has apologized for 'not recognizing' same-sex relationships in Tomodachi Life, after a Social Media campaign sought to force changes to the life-simulation world.

In Tomodachi Life, players are represented by their Mii characters and can carry out plenty of different activities in their virtual world, including going on dates with others, and getting married. Two Miis of the same gender cannot marry, however.

This prompted Tye Marini, a 23-year-old man from Arizona, to launch a social media campaign urging Nintendo to permit same-sex marriages in the game, so that he could virtually marry his real-world fiance.

Nintendo responded to the social media campaign, saying that the game would not be changed to allow for virtual gay marriages, and stressing that Nintendo is not trying to "make any form of social commentary" with Tomodachi Life.

That response is fairly reasonable, but the media reaction to it was less so in some quarters, and Nintendo has decided it would be best to apologize for the situation.

"We apologise for disappointing many people by failing to include same-sex relationships in Tomodachi Life. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to change this game's design, and such a significant development change can't be accomplished with a post-ship patch," a Nintendo statement reads.

Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee is reportedly recovering after suffering a heart attack and undergoing emergency surgery.

The 72 year old was admitted to hospital on Saturday evening whilst suffering from breathing difficulties. Mr Lee had undergone surgery in the 1990s and has reportedly suffered from respiratory problems ever since, even travelling overseas during the Winter to help avoid breathing problems.

The Samsung Medical Center has said that he is now recuperating and in a stable condition following surgery.

Lee has been chairman of Samsung since 1987 after his father died, except for a short spell in 2008-2009 while a tax evasion charge was underway. He has been credited with leading Samsung into a position of leadership in the technology markets.

The Samsung boss has an estimated net worth of around $12.6 billion, ranking among Forbes richest people in the world.

According to a report, Samsung is preparing to launch a new smartphone running the Tizen mobile operating system in India and Russia.

The Wall Street Journal cited sources familiar with Samsung's plans in reporting that the South Korean firm will launch a smartphone in Russia in the coming weeks that runs the Tizen mobile operating system. A launch in India, will reportedly follow later.

This would represent the first proper launch of a smartphone running the OS, after NTT Docomo in Japan cancelled plans to launch a Tizen device earlier this year. It has, however, made an appearance in Samsung's Galaxy Gear devices.

Tizen also ran into trouble in France, when Orange put the brakes on a Tizen phone launch too.

For now, Samsung is looking to grow the operating system in emerging markets and avoid the United States and Europe, but Tizen remains part of its strategy to compete more directly in mobile software and service with Google, and Apple.


Sources and Recommended Reading:
Samsung Electronics to Release Tizen Smartphone in Russia, India: online.wsj.com

Mozilla has re-assured Firefox users that the new tab window in Firefox will not become a mess of logos as it prepares to test sponsored content.

The firm published plans for Directory Tiles tests on new tabs back in February, and it was met with a lot of criticism and questions from users. Nevertheless, Mozilla will go ahead with some testing on its pre-release channels to see whether new tabs pages can be made more useful.

Writing on the Mozilla blog, Johnathan Nightingale re-assured users that the firm is not going to, "turn Firefox into a mess of logos sold to the highest bidder; without user control, without user benefit." He added that the community found a lot of language in the original post "hard to decipher."

The upcoming tests are also not about revenue, and none will be collected. "Sponsorship would be the next stage once we are confident that we can deliver user value," wrote Nightingale.

"We'll experiment on Firefox across platforms, and we'll talk about what we learn before anything ships to our release users. And we'll keep listening for feedback and suggestions to make this work better for you. Because that's who we are at Mozilla."

Twitter has finally added new security features including the ability to reset their passwords via SMS, and the addition of suspicious logins notifications.

Until now, Twitter has only allowed for a standard email password reset mechanism.

Of course, the enable the SMS resets, you will need to register your mobile number to the account. Twitter will send a six digit code that expires within 15 minutes, which you can input to login and create a new pass.

"The new process lets you choose the email address or phone number associated with your account where you'd like us to send your reset information. That way, whether you've recently changed your phone number, or are traveling with limited access to your devices, or had an old email address connected to your Twitter account, you've got options," Twitter said.

More importantly for your security, Twitter will be actively searching the location of the login, the device being used, and comparing it to your login history. If it is suspicious, the company will ask the intruder a secret question about the account and send an email notification to the real email on file.

Apple's iPhone trade-in program for U.S. retail stores is now live.

Older iPhone owners (4 and 4S) will be able to get higher trade-in values if moving to an iPhone 5 or 5S.

"It's a beautiful time for an upgrade. You may be eligible for upgrade pricing on a new iPhone. And if you bring in your old iPhone to be recycled, you could get credit toward a new one. Ask us for details," reads one notice.

An email we received, adds the following: "Apple is getting employees to check customers' eligibility for an upgrade, inform them about the iPhone Reuse and Recycling program and push recently increased trade-in values for iPhone 4s and iPhone 4. Apple is now offering up to $99 for an iPhone 4 and $199 for an iPhone 4s. With that value put toward the purchase of a new iPhone 5s, Apple is promoting the deal as being able to upgrade to an iPhone 5s for as little as $0. iLounge first posted images of the memo about the new prices to Apple Store employees."

Last week, Samsung sent out press invites for a an event on May 28th in which the company will talk about "something" health-care related.

Most assumed a new Gear Fit, or an updated fitness band, but that is not the case. "It is not a product announcement," Samsung VP of Operations Stefan Heuser said.

Heuser is a VP for the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center, the division that invests or partners with companies working on "core" technologies.

The Innovation Center has been quietly working on health care, along with human-computer interfaces and cloud storage.

At this time, there is little else known about the event.

Over the past few months, there have been ongoing rumors that Sprint is looking to bid on T-Mobile US in their ongoing efforts to remain relevant after years of losses and stagnant growth.

If the deal were to go through, which is certainly not a guarantee given the stringent FCC and DOJ, the new merged carrier would be able to compete with AT&T and Verizon in size and scale, breaking the duopoly in the nation. Sprint currently has 54 million subscribers and T-Mobile is quickly catching up, now at 49 million.

T-Mobile, which is majority owned by Deutsche Telekom, is no stranger to proposed acquisitions. AT&T tried to purchase the company in 2011 and the DOJ shut down the merger citing trust issues. For its troubles, T-Mobile received $4 billion in cash as a break-up fee, and additional spectrum. The move helped T-Mobile re-invent itself as the coolest carrier in the nation, and Telekom wants another large break-up fee if Sprint cannot complete the merger, with reports putting the figure at over $1 billion.

In addition, Telekom will not accept a buyout unless key T-Mobile executives keep their titles, and that the brand remains intact, meaning "T-Mobile," "Uncarrier" and other terms are not going away any time soon. CEO John Legere would need to be placed at the helm of the new company or at least have full oversight of the joint companies.

Initially leaked via Twitter and then confirmed by postings on retailer websites, the Motorola Moto E appears to be on the way.

The phone will be familiar to Moto G owners, as the design remains almost identical, with the speaker grille having moved.

Officially, the phone is expected to launch in the next few days, and the device will feature a 4.3-inch 960x540 display, a dual-core 1.2Ghz Snapdragon processor, 1GB RAM, 4GB internal storage (microSD slot included) and a 5MP rear camera.