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Motorola sends out invites for new product launch

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 08 Jan 2014 10:14

Motorola sends out invites for new product launch Motorola has sent out press invites for an event on January 14th where the company will launch a new "addition to the European Motorola family of products."

It is unclear what the next product will be, but it will most likely be the next in the Moto X family that launched last year.

At the time, the company said, "essentially, the Moto X is the first device in a new product portfolio, basically a new family of devices. Because it is the first one, the Moto X has had a real buzz around it, but the US launch is not about the US being Motorola's priority at all, there are devices coming to Europe. We can't share what they are as of yet, but they are from the same family. They are cool and they are exciting and there is a lot in Europe coming up."

The event takes place in London.




AfterDawn: News

CES 2014: Dell unveils 4K monitor with $699 price tag

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 08 Jan 2014 9:03

CES 2014: Dell unveils 4K monitor with $699 price tag Dell promised to unveil a 4K PC monitor for "sub-$1000" at CES and they have certainly followed through on that promise.

The company has revealed their 28-inch P2815Q UltraHD monitor for just $699, going on sale later this month. The monitor has 3840x2160 resolution.

Dell did not reveal other specs. Even Dell's other UltraSharp 4K models are priced at double or triple the P2815Q so the specs are likely lower everywhere except for the screen.

The monitor will likely lose some of the ports seen in previous models, such as DisplayPort, mini-DisplayPort, and 6-in-1 media card readers, but that remains unclear.

Both Lenovo and Asus also used CES to unveil cheaper 4K monitors at the 28-inch size, but theirs will sell for $799.




AfterDawn: News

T-Mobile CEO calls Sprint 'a pile of spectrum waiting to be turned into a capability' but will not deny possible merger

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 08 Jan 2014 8:38

T-Mobile CEO calls Sprint 'a pile of spectrum waiting to be turned into a capability' but will not deny possible merger T-Mobile CEO John Legere, infamous for his tirades and pointed attacks on rival carriers (including cursing), got his fill again today during the company's Uncarrier 4.0 event.

The exec began the press conference with tirades against Sprint, Verizon and AT&T: "I give Verizon huge credit for admitting their network is overloaded. But in this industry you should be able to leave if the network doesn't live up," he began. He then mocked Sprint for CEO Dan Hesse's comments to "pardon our dust" as they upgrade their slow networks. "Sprint is a pile of spectrum waiting to be turned into a capability," he said, followed by T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray adding: "My goodness, 'Pardon our dust?' It's a shitstorm!"

AT&T, the company's only GSM-based rival, got the brunt of the tirade. Both companies have been at each other's throats all year, including commercials attacking one another. "AT&T is a total source of amusement for me," he said. "They are the ones that take my bullshit. Dumb move. They take the bait. Why don't you have the balls to answer the question: is this targeted at T-Mobile because they are taking a piece out of you?"

Legere then added, "We are either going to take over this whole industry, or these bastards will change and we'll still be wildly successful. I'm going to love watching the peckers scream." The exec then took a pot shot at AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega before concluding.

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AfterDawn: News

T-Mobile has best quarter in nearly a decade, adds 1.6 million subscribers

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 08 Jan 2014 8:21

T-Mobile has best quarter in nearly a decade, adds 1.6 million subscribers T-Mobile's "Uncarrier" initiative appears to have paid off handsomely in 2013, with the carrier adding 4.4 million customers for the year.

For the most recent quarter, net customer additions totaled 1.645 million, up from 1.023 million in the third quarter of 2013 and a stark difference from the 32,000 subscribers lost in the Q4 2012.

Prepaid customers saw growth, as well, up to 112,000 for the quarter, compared to 24,000 in the third quarter.

"Our Un-carrier moves have clearly upended this industry," said John Legere, President and CEO of T-Mobile. "Over the past 12 months, 4.4 million customers have come to T-Mobile in response to greater flexibility and choice. We have clearly struck a chord with customers and will continue to look for ways to expand on that in 2014."

Perhaps most importantly for the carrier, churn fell to 1.7 percent, down from 2.5 percent the previous quarter as more and more users are staying put.




AfterDawn: News

T-Mobile will pay your early termination fee if you switch over

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 08 Jan 2014 8:00

T-Mobile will pay your early termination fee if you switch over T-Mobile has announced that it will pay your early termination fee if you switch from rivals Sprint, AT&T or Verizon, another huge step in the carrier's efforts to grow their subscriber base.

The company will pay up to $350 per line to cover early termination fees, as long as you port your number, trade in your existing phone and buy a new T-Mobile phone.

Whatever you pay to get out of your contract, T-Mobile will cover, as long as you send proof in via mail or through a dedicated website. T-Mobile will also pay up to $300 for your existing phone, which will likely net you money if you have a new iPhone or Galaxy Note, for example. Switching to a new T-Mobile phone is also not bad since nearly all the devices are $0 down.

"We're giving families a 'Get Out of Jail Free Card,'" said John Legere, president and chief executive officer of T-Mobile. "Carriers have counted on staggered contract end dates and hefty early termination fees to keep people bound to them forever. But now families can switch to T-Mobile without paying a single red cent to leave them behind."




AfterDawn: News

PlayStation 4 game sales near 10 million

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 08 Jan 2014 7:46

PlayStation 4 game sales near 10 million Sony has announced today that nearly 10 million PlayStation 4 games have been sold since launch.

Included in the totals (9.7 million) are physical copies and games purchased through the PlayStation Store.

The company recently announced they had sold 4.2 million PS4 consoles, to date, meaning the system's attach rate is a solid but not outstanding, 2.3.

As expected, topping the list of best-selling games were Call of Duty: Ghosts, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Battlefield 4, FIFA 14, and Killzone: Shadow Fall.

In addition, global PlayStation Plus subscriptions have jumped 90 percent since the launch of the PS4 in mid-November. The PS4 is available in 53 countries but has not yet reached the company's home territory of Japan.




AfterDawn: News

Sprint expands 'Spark' to six new markets

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 08 Jan 2014 9:16

Sprint expands 'Spark' to six new markets Sprint has expanded its higher speed, higher bandwidth "Spark" LTE network to six new markets.

The network is now available in 11 major markets, and Sprint noted that they plan to make the service available to its Virgin Mobile prepaid customers, as well.

Having initially launched last year in NY, LA, Chicago, Miami and Tampa, the network is now also available in Austin, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio.

The network promises "wireless peak data speeds of up to 50 – 60 Mbps" although the speeds are likely to be reduced the more people access the network.

"Sprint Spark is all about performance," said Stephen Bye, chief technology officer for Sprint. "When we bring Sprint Spark into a market, it is like trading up to the fastest sports car on the showroom floor. I am excited to see where we will take this technology in 2014 because I know we are bringing our customers an unprecedented network experience."




AfterDawn: News

ISP tweaks porn block to unblock TorrentFreak

Written by James Delahunty @ 08 Jan 2014 6:57

ISP tweaks porn block to unblock TorrentFreak Sky, an Internet provider in the UK, has tweaked its pornography filter to allow access to the TorrentFreak news website.

It emerged that TorrentFreak was blocked from subscribers of Sky Internet services if the ISP's pornography filter was enabled. By default, all new Sky customers have to opt out, rather than opt in to the pornography censorship program.

While these blocks - mandated by the UK government - are intended to protect children from stumbling across pornographic content, they also have the side effect of blocking file sharing websites. TorrentFreak presents a lot of news around the legal and technical issues of file sharing services, and in the past has published content objecting to censorship. Somehow, this non-erotic source was included in Sky's porn filter.

That's not much of a surprise however, as past examples of unintended blocking included sites that offer sex education content, and even rape victim support sources.

"The categorisation of torrentfreak.com has now been updated so that the site will no longer be filtered by Sky Broadband Shield," the firm told the BBC.

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AfterDawn: News

Virtual Coinye currency launches despite Kanye West' legal threat

Written by James Delahunty @ 08 Jan 2014 6:27

Virtual Coinye currency launches despite Kanye West' legal threat A virtual currency has launched early despite a legal threat sent from a representative of the artist Kanye West.

Originally called Coinye West, the new virtual currency decided to change its name to CoinyeCoin after a lawyer of Kanye West sent a cease and desist letter. In the letter, Kanye's lawyer claimed that consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Mr West is the source of the service.

It was due to launch on Saturday, but has instead begun operations now and from a domain name registered in India after switching from a US-Based domain provider.

The virtual currency can now be mined using software that can be downloaded from the website at coinyeco.in.

"We want to release this to the public before the man can try to crush it," the Wall Street Journal reported one of the developers as saying. "They'll still come after us, but that's OK."




AfterDawn: News

MPAA joins W3C, giving it a voice on the future of the web

Written by James Delahunty @ 08 Jan 2014 6:05

MPAA joins W3C, giving it a voice on the future of the web The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has joined the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), it has been announced.

As a member, the MPAA will be represented on the advisory committee and be a part of the standards review process, gaining access to W3C materials before public release. Needless to say this announcement - made via Twitter - raises more than a few eyebrows.

The W3C is one of the most respected organizations in the tech universe, and for good reason. It is considered - and behaves as - the international standards organization for the World Wide Web. It counts not far from 400 members, and is led by founder Tim Berners-Lee, who is often described as the inventor of the World Wide Web which are you using now.

W3C standards are vitally important because they are adhered to by browser/application developers and acknowledged in the design of most of the world's web services. If you think about the most problematic elements of your WWW experience, they typically are associated with web sources that stray from W3C standards to add additional functionality or usability, such as sites that use Adobe's proprietary Flash plug-in to operator correctly.

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AfterDawn: News

CES 2014: Vizio unveils $1,000 4K 50-inch LED TV

Written by James Delahunty @ 08 Jan 2014 5:22

CES 2014: Vizio unveils $1,000 4K 50-inch LED TV Vizio has unveiled its first P-Series Ultra HD TVs, starting at just $1,000 for a 50-inch LED-backlit set.

Vizio has unveiled its beautiful new range of Ultra HD TVs. The new P-Series Ultra HD Full-Array LED Smart TV collection starts at $999.99 for a 50-inch set, and ranges to $2,5999.99 for a 70-inch set.

All P-Series TVs features a backlight that consists of 64 Active LED Zones, fine-tuned to the smallest detail with Active Pixel Tuning technology. The result is Dynamic Contrast Ratios up to 50,000,000:1. For Ultra HD (4K) video content, P-Series TVs pack a dedicated VM50 motion and picture-processing engine that renders every image with incredible detail and the latest HDMI standard for display of Ultra HD content up to 60fps.

The P-Series are Smart TVs with a wide range of apps and features, powered by a new V6 processor which combines a quad-core GPU and a dual-core CPU. For connection to the web, all of the models features 802.11ac Wi-Fi support.

Since 4K content is likely to be delivered primarily from web streaming sources, each P-Series model has a HEVC (H.265) codec built-in, which can be used by Ultra HD-enabled apps like Netflix.

Controlling the Smart TV can be done using a backlit QWERTY keyboard remote, or some apps can be controlled using Android and Apple iOS smartphones and tablets when the TV and device are on the same WiFi network. YouTube and Netflix provide initial support for this "second screen" control, where you can use your mobile device to select content to play on screen.

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AfterDawn: News

CES 2014: Intel, Nuance bring speech commands to PCs

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 07 Jan 2014 9:54

CES 2014: Intel, Nuance bring speech commands to PCs Intel and Nuance Communications have teamed up to ensure that Nuance's Dragon Assistant speech command technology is included in the latest PCs from Acer, Dell, Lenovo and HP.

The technology allows computer users to tweet, play music, write documents and more using voice commands.

PCs and tablets running on Intel Core and Atom processors will have the software included. Dragon Assistant will be constantly running in the background, adds Nuance.

"Our objective working with Intel was to bring the PC into the era that tablets have been enjoying with the launch of [Apple's] Siri over the past few years," Matt Revis, the vice president and general manager of Dragon Devices for Nuance Communications said.

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AfterDawn: News

CES 2014: Sony officially launches 'PlayStation Now' cloud gaming, DVR, VOD service for mobile, TV

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 07 Jan 2014 9:26

CES 2014: Sony officially launches 'PlayStation Now' cloud gaming, DVR, VOD service for mobile, TV Sony has used CES to unveil the highly-anticipated 'PlayStation Now' cloud gaming service for TVs and mobile devices.

The service will allow gamers to stream PlayStation games on the PS4, PS3, PlayStation Vita, tablets, smartphones and TVs.

Sony purchased cloud gaming technology co. Gaikai in June 2012, so Sony's service has been widely expected for some time. The service allows for rentals of games, or if you have a subscription you can "explore a range of titles."

A closed beta will launch in the U.S. later this month, with a full rollout expected by the end of the summer, although Europe seems to have some hurdles: "When it comes to broadband provision, Europe is a considerably more complex region, with a huge number of different providers and varying connection speeds from country to country. In short, we need a little more time to ensure a smooth and successful roll-out."

Somehow, Sony has figured out a way to have their server farms emulate PlayStation 3 games, but latency (lag) will likely still be an issue depending on your Internet connection. Online multiplayer, trophies and messages are also supported. Besides games, the cloud service will include VOD and DVR functionality.




AfterDawn: News

CES 2014: Panasonic, Mozilla working on Firefox OS TVs

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 07 Jan 2014 8:42

CES 2014: Panasonic, Mozilla working on Firefox OS TVs Mozilla will work with Panasonic to take a shot at the living room.

The two companies have begun working on Smart TVs that will run on the Firefox OS that has so far only been seen on a few low-end smartphones. The eventual goal is to center future "Smart Homes" around the operating system.

Mozilla says the partnership will allow developers "to build apps and cloud services into future televisions based on the same APIs that underpin Mozilla's web and mobile offerings." It remains unclear how the interface will work and how it will be improvised for the big screen.

Smart TVs have been the centerpieces of CES this year, with LG showing their webOS revival for the big screen, and Vizio, Samsung and others all showing new 4K devices with fully enabled Smart TV controls.

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AfterDawn: News

Sony sold 4.2 million PS4s by December 28

Written by James Delahunty @ 07 Jan 2014 2:26

Sony sold 4.2 million PS4s by December 28 Sony has revealed that as of December 28, 2013, it had sold 4.2 million PlayStation 4 (PS4) consoles.

That represents a very encouraging early result for Sony, which has a long-stated goal of selling five million PS4s by the end of its current financial year, ending March.

By contrast, Microsoft sold 3 million Xbox One consoles before the end of December. The PlayStation 4 (PS4) launched two weeks before the Xbox One in North America though.

Sony sold over a million PS4s on day one, and saw that figure rise to 2.1 million by early December. Strong holiday demand doubled the tally by December 28.

The figures were revealed by Andrew House, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.





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