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Microsoft has announced the acquisition of the rights to the blockbuster franchise 'Gears of War' series, guaranteeing it remains an Xbox exclusive.

The company purchased the rights from Epic Games, known best for GoW and other game development software. Former director of production Rod Fergusson will join Microsoft to help with future editions of the franchise.

"This franchise, and these fans, are part of the soul of Xbox," said Phil Spencer, Microsoft's head of videogame development for the Xbox, in a statement. "By acquiring this franchise, Microsoft Studios will continue to offer them more of their favorite games and entertainment experiences from the 'Gears of War' universe."

Gears of War, first released in 2006 for the Xbox 360, has sold 22 million units and grossed over $1 billion.

Moving forward, Microsoft's Black Tusk studio will lead GoW development, with a new title expected to be announced during the year.

Microsoft has announced that its SkyDrive cloud storage service is now named "OneDrive."

The name change is official but the services will keep SkyDrive for a short transitional period. Microsoft says the service "will continue to operate as you expect and all of your content will be available on OneDrive and OneDrive for Business respectively as the new name is rolled out across the portfolio."

Microsoft lost a trademark dispute with BSkyB last year, and was told to rename the service or face consequences. It took the Redmond giant over six months to come up with the new name and to begin the transition.

"Changing the name of a product as loved as SkyDrive wasn't easy," notes Microsoft's Ryan Gavin. "We believe the new OneDrive name conveys the value we can deliver for you and best represents our vision for the future. We are excited about what is to come, and can't wait to share more."

According to blogger Eldar Murtazin, Google is preparing to drop their popular Nexus line starting next year.

Murtazin, who has leaked some big news in the past but in recent times has been mostly full of misinformation, says the devices will be dropped in 2015 and replaced by Play Edition versions of more devices from Android OEMs like Samsung, LG, HTC and Sony.

Additionally, "Play Edition" itself will be rebranded, to a more consumer-friendly name.

There are currently a handful of Play Edition devices, including the popular HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Z Ultra.

After announcing a cross-licensing deal with Google over the weekend, Samsung has also settled with Ericsson over their long-standing patent dispute.

Although the full details were not disclosed, Ericsson did say the settlement would boost their quarterly net income by $512.5 million. Besides the upfront payment, Samsung will also pay ongoing royalties to Ericsson.

The agreement will end all current global patent disputes between the tech giants, including complaints that are already being investigated by the U.S. International Trade Commission.

"We are pleased that we could reach a mutually fair and reasonable agreement with Samsung. We always viewed litigation as a last resort," Ericsson Chief Intellectual Property Officer Kasim Alfalahi said in a statement. "This agreement allows us to continue to focus on bringing new technology to the global market and provides an incentive to other innovators to share their own ideas."

A new Chrome extension, Streamus, will allow you to turn your Chrome browser into a Spotify alternative using YouTube's massive music library.

When added to the browser, the extension allows you to search for a song and then begin playing it, without leaving your current tab.

Crunch put together a nice .GIF of how it works, which you can see after the jump.

Type "Streamus" into the URL bar, hit "Tab" and then search for the song/artist and you will see a dropdown with plenty of YouTube results. Click on it and the Streamus will begin playing the song in the background of what you are currently doing.

While the extension has little functionality besides that (so far), there is the ability to create playlists, which can be saved for later and the ability to shuffle new songs based on previously played artists, like the radio function of Pandora or Spotify.

Try it here: Streamus

Last night, Korean giant LG released its quarterly earnings report, showing a huge boost in smartphone sales.

For the Q4, the company grew smartphone sales to 13.2 million units, up 54 percent year-over-year, thanks to strong sales of the flagship G2 and the Nexus 5, built for Google.

LTE-capable phones jumped 110 percent for the company, mainly again thanks to the Nexus and G2.

Total revenue for the LG mobile division was $11.85 billion, up 29 percent year-over-year. Despite the strong quarter, pricing and higher advertising costs did lead to a negative operating margin for the business, down from a positive 2 percent during the same quarter in 2012.

Samsung and Google have reached a broad ranging deal that will entitle both companies to cross-license each other's patents.

The deal will cover both existing patents and those that may be filed in the next ten years. The deal also extends beyond just Android and mobile and will cover other product categories.

While Samsung and Google have been "friends" for the most part in the global patent wars, the deal will likely help Samsung in its ongoing battles against Apple.

"This agreement with Google is highly significant for the technology industry," said Dr. Seungho Ahn, the Head of Samsung's Intellectual Property Center. "Samsung and Google are showing the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes."

Google deputy general counsel Allen Lo also added: "By working together on agreements like this, companies can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation."

The search giant Google likes to buy companies – Wikipedia lists a total of 143 acquisitions during 14 years. The most recent acquisition is now an artificial intelligence company DeepMind.

According to website Re/code, Google has bought the London AI company DeepMind for $400 million. The Information however says that Google had to shell out $500 million. Neither of them is a lot when you compare to Nest, a locations company bought for 2.3 billion just a couple of weeks ago (or a billion dollar Waze), but for a more niche segment and not being a household name it's quite a price tag.

DeepMind website describes what it does as "building learning algorithms for simulations, e-commerce and games". Re/code's sources say that in the AI community DeepMind is considered a "formidable player" and competed against the likes of Google for talent. They also said that it has secured more than $50 million in funding.

Designer Todd Hamilton has released the latest in a long line of mocks and concepts for the possibly upcoming Apple iWatch smartwatch.

The iWatch has been rumored for years but Apple has never even confirmed that the device exists.

Hamilton posted a video of his concept, including the homescreen, lock screen and how the watch could work for Siri or making calls.

Check the photos and video:

Thanks to new industry guidelines beginning in April, South Korean smartphone users will be able to delete all the bloatware pre-installed on their new phones.

"The move aims to rectify an abnormal practice that causes inconvenience to smartphone users and causes unfair competition among industry players," said the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.

By having the ability to delete apps, users will have more storage space and improved battery life, says the Ministry.

With the exception of a few "necessary items" related to Wi-Fi, NFC and App Store connectivity, carriers and OEMs will have to make all other pre-installed apps deletable.

One example noted by the Ministry is the Galaxy S4 released by Korean carrier SK Telecom. The device has 80 pre-installed apps, 39 by Samsung, 25 by SK and 16 by Google. When the guidelines hit, at least 50 percent of those 80 will be deletable.

Mojang, the makers of blockbuster hit Minecraft, has proudly boasted that the game has reached 1 million sales for their PlayStation 3 edition.

Says the company: "Hope you are enjoying the picking and placing of blocks! Just wanted to let you know that Minecraft on PS3 recently sold over 1 million copies (that has to be some kind of record on PSN, no?). It is crazy considering the game was released just before Christmas last year. We are super grateful for the support and we are very thankful for your dedication and I hope you will like the future updates we have planned for you."

The hit game has sold tens of million of copies, on PC, mobile, Xbox and other platforms allowing fans to build and re-create their favorite environments.

Additionally, Minecraft is expected to eventually make the jump to Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One, which should lead to millions of more sales.

According to the WSJ, Apple is looking into creating a platform to allow users to purchase goods at physical stores through their iTunes accounts.

Eddy Cue, Apple's App Store boss, has been meeting with industry executives to discuss the company's interest in a payments platform for goods and services.

The industry for mobile payments is getting somewhat crowded with PayPal, Google, Square, Stripe and others fighting for your business. Forrester Research estimates that $90 billion in mobile transactions will be processed in the US by 2017, up from $12.8 billion in 2012.

Currently, Apple controls payments for digital books, movies, music and TV purchased through iTunes, as well as paid apps. Customers in Apple retails stores can also buy some products by scanning the item and using their connected credit card, as well. So far, however, buying physical goods and services is not an option using your linked iTunes account, meaning you must re-type your credit card information manually.

Just a couple of weeks after Nintendo slashed its forecasts drastically following a rough year for console sales, analysts believe that Sony will be the next to slash guidance, as well.

The industry analysts believe that net income for the fiscal year will be 23.1 billion yen ($221 million), 20 percent lower than Sony's previous forecasts.

Falling demand for TVs and PCs will lead to another rough quarter for the company and new CEO Kazuo Hirai, who has been trying to focus the company better after years of losses.

According to recent research, TV, camera and notebooks all had a weak holiday season, and those electronics are the bread and butter of Sony's lineup (not including smartphones and consoles). Estimates have global TV shipments falling 11 percent year-over-year and Sony recently slashed their internal Bravia TV forecasts by nearly 7 percent. Sony's TV unit has had losses for the last nine years.

PC sales saw a similar slowdown, down 10 percent year-over-year globally.

Earlier this week, a CVG report claimed that an EA source had called Nintendo "dead to us," an unsurprising fact given that games for the Wii U from EA have been few and far between as the platform struggles.

The source had also said Nintendo was in the "kids game" business, and EA wasn't. "It became a kids IP platform and we don't really make games for kids. That was pretty true across the other labels too. Even the Mass Effect title on Wii U, which was a solid effort, could never do big business, and EA like Activision is only focused on games that can be big franchises," read the report.

EA COO Peter Moore, however, feels differently, at least from a PR standpoint. Tweeting back at the original author of the report and in general, Moore says: "Don't trust "anonymous sources". Nintendo's a great partner. They never have been, and never will be, 'dead' to EA..."

Of course, an employee or off-the-record source will talk more candidly than a high-level executive, so it just depends on who you believe at this point. That being said, nearly all major EA titles have conveniently skipped the Wii U console.

Leaked screenshots of the upcoming Windows 8.1 Update 1 seems to suggest the updated operating system will be available starting in March.

One source claims that Microsoft is aiming for a March 11th release date, the date of its normal monthly security patches.

Microsoft's BUILD conference is in April, so that timeframe had been expected for 8.1 U1, but it appears it may be a smaller update.

The new update is set to improve the OS for mouse/keyboard users and low-cost tablet owners alike. Search and Shut Down/Power options will now be more easily accessible, pinned taskbar apps will get previews, Metro apps will get close and minimize options just like regular apps, and right clicking on Metro apps will give you a full mouse-friendly context bar if you are not using a touch interface.

If these updates are accurate, Microsoft may finally win back the users it has alienated since launching Windows 8.