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AfterDawn: News

BlackBerry launches sub-$200 smartphone

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Feb 2014 1:17

BlackBerry launches sub-$200 smartphone BlackBerry has launched a new, sub-$200 smartphone aimed at emerging markets.

The device is the first in the company's partnership with Foxconn in which Foxconn controls inventory and development, thus playing it safe.

Dubbed the "Z3," the phone will go on sale in Indonesia in April.

CEO John Chen says "it's a very attractive phone," and that "we have a plan for expanding that phone in different parts of Southeast Asia, and there's a plan to go global with it sometime in the future, before I die."

Adds the CEO: "We are excited to introduce the new BlackBerry Z3, the first smartphone to emerge from our strategic partnership with Foxconn, which was announced in mid-December, 2013. The BlackBerry Z3 embodies all that BlackBerry 10 offers, with its exceptional productivity features and reliable communications, in a stylish, all-touch design made affordable for customers in Indonesia."

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AfterDawn: News

Seth Rogen developing movie about the Nintendo vs Sega console wars of yesteryear

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Feb 2014 12:59

Seth Rogen developing movie about the Nintendo vs Sega console wars of yesteryear It appears that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg will be writing and directing a new film about the Nintendo vs. Sega console wars from the 90s.

The movie, called "Console Wars," will be based on the new book of the same name. Nintendo and Sega had a highly publicized fight as the latter company was releasing its Genesis/Mega Drive to compete with Nintendo.

Goldberg and Rogen previously directed hits like Superbad and Knocked Up, so the film will certainly have comedic aspects to it.

Additionally, Scott Rudin will help with the development, after working on critical hits 'Moneyball' and 'The Social Network."

The book is set for release in May, so any film will likely be towards end of the year if not next year.




AfterDawn: News

Former Nokia CEO Elop to head major Microsoft division

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Feb 2014 12:40

Former Nokia CEO Elop to head major Microsoft division Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop will return to Microsoft shortly, taking over the company's important Devices and Studios business.

The Devices and Studios division is in charge of gaming (Xbox), Windows Phone and Surface.

Current division boss Julie Larson-Green will become Chief Experience Officer for Microsoft's Applications and Services group, in charge of the interfaces for Bing, Office, and Skype. Larson-Green previously worked on the design for IE and Office, but quickly moved through the ranks over the past few years.

Reads part of Larson-Green's memo to employees:

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AfterDawn: News

Europe, Brazil planning massive undersea cable to avoid U.S. spying

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Feb 2014 11:59

Europe, Brazil planning massive undersea cable to avoid U.S. spying The European Union and Brazil have agreed this week to create a massive undersea communications cable between Lisbon, Portugal and Fortaleza, Brazil that will help the nations avoid spying from the U.S.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff says the cable will "guarantee the neutrality," and Rousseff has been very public with her desires to keep the country's Internet free from U.S. spying. The cable will cost $185 million.

"We have to respect privacy, human rights and the sovereignty of nations. We don't want businesses to be spied upon," Rousseff said during the press conference. "The Internet is one of the best things man has ever invented. So we agreed for the need to guarantee ... the neutrality of the network, a democratic area where we can protect freedom of expression."

It was revealed last year that the NSA had been spying on the Brazilian President's email and phone calls. Brazil uses U.S. undersea cables for its communications to Europe but will now use their own. The current EU to Brazil cable can only support voice transmission.

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AfterDawn: News

Kantar: Android still king but Windows Phone reaches 10 percent share

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Feb 2014 11:41

Kantar: Android still king but Windows Phone reaches 10 percent share Kantar Worldpanel ComTech has released their European smartphone data figures for the Q4 2013, and there were some interesting tidbits.

Android remained king, with 68.5 percent market share, followed by Apple at 19 percent and Windows Phone cracking a milestone barrier at 10.1 percent.

Reads the report: "In Europe Android continues to move towards 70% share, and the real battle now is among the Android manufacturers. Samsung is dominant, with 39.5% of sales, but this is lower compared with last year. Its position is being eroded by the likes of LG (6.9%), Sony (9.4%) Motorola (1.7%) and new brand Wiko (2%) which are all increasing their share of sales. All of these brands will be hoping their new releases at Mobile World Congress will be well received and help boost performance in 2014."

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AfterDawn: News

Daft Punk uploads entire 'Random Access Memories' album to Vevo, YouTube

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Feb 2014 10:50

Daft Punk uploads entire 'Random Access Memories' album to Vevo, YouTube Daft Punk has uploaded the entirety of their Grammy-winning 'Random Access Memories' to YouTube this week.

All of the tracks are available now as HD audio, and three tracks that have music videos: "Get Lucky," "Lose Yourself To Dance," and "Instant Crush" are also available on the channel.

One track is missing, the Japanese edition-only bonus track, "Horizon."

The album won Album of the Year at the recent Grammy awards, and 'Get Lucky' was one of the biggest hits of 2013.

Check all the videos here.




AfterDawn: News

Motorola: Moto G is our most successful smartphone ever

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Feb 2014 10:24

Motorola: Moto G is our most successful smartphone ever Speaking during the company's MWC press event, Motorola's VP of product management noted that their cheap but powerful Moto G is their most successful smartphone, ever.

Rick Osterloh quickly said: "The Moto G has been the most successful, highest-selling smartphone in Motorola's history."

Osterloh added that Motorola makes a profit on every sale of their handsets.

Motorola Mobility was recently sold to Lenovo for $2.9 billion, after being purchased by Google in 2011.

Read our review of the Moto G here: Hands-On Review: Does the Motorola Moto G give you your money's worth for $179?




AfterDawn: News

Apple: Patch your devices now, we have fixed the 'GoToFail' issue

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Feb 2014 9:50

Apple: Patch your devices now, we have fixed the 'GoToFail' issue Apple has released a new update for OS X that should patch the massive security vulnerability now infamously known as 'GoToFail.'

The company had released a patch for iOS, version 7.0.6 to fix the exploit, but millions of OS X users were also at risk.

OS X Mavericks and Mountain Lion are confirmed for the fix, and version 10.9.2 for Mavericks will also include improvements for Mail, Safari and more including the addition of FaceTime audio calls.

Apple recommends getting the update as soon as humanely possible.

Read our original article on GoToFail here: Apple under fire after massive exploits found in iOS, OS X, Safari, Mail, Facetime, iBooks, Apple Update




AfterDawn: News

Video: Xbox One March Update

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Feb 2014 9:26

Video: Xbox One March Update Xbox's Major Nelson has posted a video this week showing off the new Xbox One March update.

The new update adds a lot of multi-player-focused features that Microsoft says "will forever change the way you and your friends interact on Xbox Live."

Microsoft has rehauled the party system and the "Recent Players" list.







AfterDawn: News

New 'South Park' game gets censored in Europe

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Feb 2014 9:12

New 'South Park' game gets censored in Europe The new "South Park: The Stick of Truth" has been censored in Europe, with scenes cut.

For the release in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the cut scenes will be replaced with on-screen text that describes the action happening behind the censors.

Reads the documentation: "Seven scenes of about 20 seconds each are censored in the EMEA console versions of South Park: The Stick of Truth. The decision to cut this content from the game was made by Ubisoft EMEA."

A few of the censored scenes include a "A mini-game where a doctor is performing an abortion on the player," a "mini-game where the player is performing an abortion on the character Randy" and "five 'anal probing' scenes in which characters are 'actively' being probed."

The game is rated 18+ and Mature in all nations.




AfterDawn: News

Video: Netflix unveils 'Drone To Home' service to rival Amazon

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Feb 2014 11:55

Video: Netflix unveils 'Drone To Home' service to rival Amazon Netflix, not wanting to be outdone by Amazon's potentially upcoming drone delivery service, has unveiled their own, the aptly named "Netflix Drone To Home."

Drones will deliver your physical DVDs, anywhere and everywhere.

Watch the hilarious ad here:

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

16GB Samsung Galaxy S5 will only have 8GB available for users

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Feb 2014 11:26

16GB Samsung Galaxy S5 will only have 8GB available for users Although Samsung has notably cut down on their own "bloatware" for the upcoming Galaxy S5, the phone's ROM will still take up a massive amount of space.

Two independent reports claim that the 16GB model of the upcoming flagship device will have half of that storage capacity available for users. One phone tested had 7.86GB available for users, while the other had 8.65GB.

The new device offers even less space than its predecessor, which left a bit over 9GB for users.

Of course, the Galaxy S5 does have a microSD slot, allowing for up to 64GB of extra storage for the price of a cheap card, or you can purchase the 32GB internal storage model from Samsung for a premium.

Samsung has kept up with high-end specs for the new device including a 5.1-inch 1080p display, Android 4.4.2 + TouchWiz. Under the hood is a 2.5GHz Quad core processor, 2GB RAM, 16/32GB internal storage, microSD slot, dual cameras, 16MP (rear) with 4K video support, 2.0MP (front), LTE Cat 4, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac MIMO(2x2) Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 BLE, NFC, a fingerprint scanner, a heart rate monitor and a built-in IR remote to control TV and other devices.




AfterDawn: News

Samsung hits 200 million units sold milestone for Galaxy S smartphones

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Feb 2014 10:53

Samsung hits 200 million units sold milestone for Galaxy S smartphones Samsung has announced today that the company has sold over 200 million Galaxy S smartphones since the series launched in 2010.

The company announced in early 2013 that they had sold over 100 million of the lineup, so it appears sales have ramped up significantly.

Although they did not break down the figures for all the models, the company had said last October that they had sold over 40 million Galaxy S4 to date.

Samsung is the top phone maker in the world, with nearly double the market share of Apple, which offers only one type of phone. The company has said since the launch of iOS in 2008, they have sold 700 million devices with the operating system, but that includes iPads and iPod Touches.




AfterDawn: News

Facebook discontinues its email service

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Feb 2014 10:11

Facebook discontinues its email service Facebook has announced it will be discontinuing its email service, @facebook.com, and that all emails will be forwarded to your primary email on file.

If you do not have a primary email on file, you will no longer receive @facebook emails, and you can also turn off forwarding if you don't want the messages passed on.

Why the retirement? "Most people have not been using their @facebook.com email address," says the company.

Facebook launched the service in 2010, but it lacked basic features like subject lines, CC/BCCs and never caught on with the community.

In 2012, the company was criticized for making only the @facebook email visible, making many believe the social media giant was playing favorites with their own service.




AfterDawn: News

WhatsApp to add voice services next quarter

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 Feb 2014 10:07

WhatsApp to add voice services next quarter WhatsApp has announced today that the multi-platform messaging app will soon add voice services.

The company was just acquired last week by Facebook for $19 billion and the new announcement is almost equally as big for the customer's 465 million customers.

CEO Jan Koum made the announcement at the MWC event in Barcelona. WhatsApp will now better compete with Line, BBM, KakaoTalk and of course Skype, each of which offers some sort of voice services.

WhatsApp voice will hit Android and iOS first, followed by some Lumia devices and some BlackBerry devices, says the executive.

Koum also added that the company will keep growing as planned, even with the massive Facebook purchase. "There are no planned changes and we will continue to do what we set out to do, even after the acquisition closes," Koum said. "Still no marketing."





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