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Sony has unveiled two new 4K TVs and also its previously announced 4K video download service.

The service, dubbed 'Video Unlimited 4K,' will be available in the U.S. at launch, and eventually globally. At launch, there will be 70 full-length Ultra HD movies and TV shows, and by the end of the year there will be around 100.

To use the service, you will need one of Sony's 4K Ultra HD Media Players (FMP-X1). Rentals for films start at $7.99 and purchases will lighten your wallet by $29.99.

The FMP-X1 home server costs $700, comes with 2TB of storage and 10 free films. Of course, to take advantage you will need a 4K Ultra HD TV, which will set you back at least $3000 today, as well.

Motorola has confirmed that the Moto X will reach carrier Sprint tomorrow, followed by US Cellular later this month.

The device has been available through AT&T and Verizon for two weeks now.

Just like with rivals, Sprint will offer the phone for $199 with contract, and only in black and white colorways. AT&T allows exclusive access to thousands of different color combinations, including different backplates, front trim, and buttons.

US Cellular is adding a free Motorola Boom Bluetooth headset valued at $59.99 to anyone who pre-orders for them.

The HDMI Forum group has officially unveiled HDMI 2.0, a couple of days after most of its specs were leaked.

Bandwidth capacity has been increased to 18Gbps allowing for 3,840 x 2,160 resolution at up to 60fps.

Additionally, the standard now has support for up to 32 audio channels, "dynamic auto lipsync" and even more CEC extensions.

Furthermore, the standard will accept up to "1536kHz audio sample frequency, dual video streams for multiple users on a single screen, multi-stream audio to as many as 4 users at once and support for 21:9 widescreen displays."

The group says the connector itself will remain unchanged, an added bonus for backwards compatibility since high-speed Category 2 cables will support the new standard.

"We are pleased to continue our work in supporting the HDMI Adopter base as well as the entire HDMI ecosystem," said Steve Venuti, president of HDMI Licensing, LLC. "Adopters can now continue to develop new product functionality over the HDMI interface as well as look to HDMI Licensing, LLC as their single contact for all their licensing and administrative needs."

Earlier this week Microsoft announced that the Xbox One will support up to eight controllers.

Unfortunately, for Sony fans, the PlayStation 4 cannot match that kind of party. The company has confirmed the upcoming console will support four controllers.

The news is somewhat surprising, as even the PS3 supports up to seven controllers.

With the rise and ease of multiplayer online gaming, the news should not be a deal-breaker but may be an annoyance for some.

@RCognition 4

-- Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) September 2, 2013

Panasonic has announced it will be exiting the smartphone market in Japan, instead outsourcing production to emerging markets like India.

The struggling company, which has lost $15 billion in two years, has staked the entire company on turnaround efforts. The company is trying to move from consumer gadget maker to supplier.

As part of the plan, President Kazuhiro Tsuga says he would cut out any division that cannot meet a 5 percent operating margin minimum within three years.

Tsuga says the mobile division was likely to lose $11.02 million this year, following an $80 million loss last fiscal year. In 2001, the company had 19 percent of Japan's mobile market share. That share is now down to 7 percent. "It's not acceptable for the company to be bleeding red ink like this, so we have to think about ways to develop assets that we do have in a more effective direction," Tsuga added.

Despite exiting the consumer smartphone market, Tsuga says the company will develop enterprise smartphones similar to the "Toughbook" laptop PCs.

SoC maker Qualcomm has introduced their own smartwatch this week, the Toq.

The Android-based device uses the company's Mirasol low-energy display tech, which has struggled to catch on with other device makers. The tech will make reading the device in direct sunlight easier, and will make battery life significantly better than rival devices.

Qualcomm says the device will last five days per charge, compared to one day for the Galaxy Gear.

Users can connect to all Android 4.0.3 or higher devices to accept calls, read texts, notifications and reminders, as well as control music playback. Additionally, the device can pull stock quotes, weather and will feature different watch face designs.

For charging, you can "simply set the device down on its case to charge the Toq without the need for plugs or clunky cables" adds the company.

The 'limited edition' watch is listed at $300.

Samsung used their latest Unpacked event to unveil the Galaxy Note 3.

The latest model of the phablet is slimmer, bigger, lighter and more powerful, an impressive feat. On the design side, the bezels are much slimmer, and the edges are sharper, a marginal move from previous devices.

Samsung's latest has a 5.7-inch SuperAMOLED 1080p display with 368 ppi pixel density, 151.2mm x 79.2mm x 8.3mm dimensions, a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, (or 1.9GHz Samsung Exynos Octacore if you are in Europe), Android 4.3 with TouchWiz, a 13 megapixel rear camera, 2 megapixel front camera, 3GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11ac, LTE Category 4, a 3,200 mAh battery and an LED/IR combo making the phone into a controller.

After months of leaks and speculation, Samsung has finally made the Galaxy Gear smartwatch official today at the IFA event.

The device has a 1.68-inch sAMOLED display with 320x320 resolution and a 1.9MP BSI sensor and an auto-focus lens for the camera. The camera is intended for low-resolution shots on-the-go and up to 10 seconds of 720p video. Under the hood is an 800MHz processor and a small 315 mAh non-removable battery.

Additionally, there are two built-in mics (with noise cancellation), a single speaker, Bluetooth 4.0, an accelerometer and gyroscope, 4GB of internal storage and 512MB of RAM.

On the app side, there is third-party support, including access to fitness applications, sharing apps like Evernote and even other notable apps like Line and eBay.

Unfortunately, the device will only be compatible with the upcoming Galaxy Note III and the Note 10.1 tablet. As a companion device, the smartwatch will give you access to S Voice, Find My Device, the pedometer and other features.

Microsoft has finally announced the release date of the Xbox One console.

The system will go on sale on November 22nd, a week after the PlayStation 4 does in the U.S. and Canada.

Gamers in the UK, Ireland, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia and NZ will see the console on the 22nd, at a cost of $499 /€499 / £429. Notably missing is Japan, which the Xbox 360 bombed in, but is a large territory for gamers as a whole.

Microsoft has called the release a "global launch" although the initial rollout was supposed to be larger. "Many more markets" will receive the console next year, adds Microsoft Xbox boss Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb.

The company also confirmed that the console is in full production and that the processor clock speed has been tweaked to 1.75GHz from 1.6GHz. "It means that the processing power to make those games that we've been showing off at Gamescom that already look great will look even better," corporate marketing VP Yusuf Mehdi added.

Just after Nokia has sold its phone business to Microsoft, AfterDawn has learned that Renesas Mobile Europe Oy will be sold to Broadcom. Renesas Mobile Europe was formed after Renesas' acquisition of Nokia's modem business in 2010.

According to the documents we have received, Renesas Electronics has decided to transfer all the shares of Renesas Mobile Europe Oy and Renesas Mobile India Private Limited to Broadcom. Also certain assets related to the LTE Modem technology will transfer to Broadcom.

The expected purchase price will be approximately USD 164 million. Nokia's modem business was sold to Renesas three years ago for 200 million US dollars.

In July, Renesas announced that it will shut down the operations of Renesas Mobile Europe. According to AfterDawn's sources this will mean that previously announced mass terminations have been canceled.

Update: Broadcom's press release is here.

One of the most highly-anticipated new phones of the fall is the Sony Xperia Z1, codenamed 'Honami.'

Besides high-end specs, the phone is getting a lot of attention due to its high-end camera and the ability to snap-on real SLR lenses through one of the phone's port, effectively turning the device into a touchscreen DSLR.

Today, another leak about the phone has hit the Web, the fact that at least some markets will receive a free Sony smartwatch with their Honami purchase. The Sony SmartWatch 2, released in June, works with Android 4.0 (or higher) devices, and has 200 built-in apps.

Full specs (via PA) for the Honami, which will be officially unveiled tomorrow:

After weeks of speculation and leaks, Apple has finally confirmed a special event for September 10th at their headquarters.

The company is widely expected to unveil the iPhone 5S and a lower-cost plastic version of the iPhone 5, called the iPhone 5C.

Apple's event starts at 10 AM Pacific.

The iPhone 5S will come with the same frame as its predecessor, but with updated internals, a new camera, and new colorways.

Last month, Google announced it was dropping the price of the Nexus 4 smartphone by $100.

As of today, the 8GB model of the flagship is sold out in the Google Play Store, and Google says they will not be replenishing the inventory.

The 16GB model is still available, at $249, but that is also as supplies last.

Google is expected to release the Nexus 5 in the coming months, with LTE connectivity and updated internals.

Google made a surprise move today, changing the name of their upcoming operating system from Key Lime Pie to Kit Kat, as part of a marketing deal with Nestle.

The OS, which will be either Android 4.4 or 5.0, had been long confirmed by the media as Key Lime Pie until just this week, when Google added a giant Android mascot statue made of KitKat bars on their campus.

Despite the obvious cross-marketing involved, the company says neither side is paying the other for use of the brands: "This is not a money-changing-hands kind of deal," said John Lagerling, director of Android global partnerships. "We wanted to do something fun and unexpected"."

Lagerling says the decision was made last year to call the OS KitKat, even though developer files and documents continued to use KLP. "We realised that very few people actually know the taste of a key lime pie," he added (via BBC). "One of the snacks that we keep in our kitchen for late-night coding are KitKats. And someone said: 'Hey, why don't we call the release KitKat? We didn't even know which company controlled the name, and we thought that [the choice] would be difficult. But then we thought well why not, and we decided to reach out to the Nestle folks."

In a huge move for both companies, Microsoft has announced they have acquired Nokia's Devices & Services business, will license and use Nokia's patents and will also license and use Nokia's mapping services.

The software giant will pay $5 billion for the mobile phone division, and $2.17 billion for the patent trove. The company says the transaction will close in the Q1 2014, pending approval by shareholders and regulatory approval.

Microsoft is making a large, bold investment in the future of Windows Phone, expanding their partnership with Nokia from early 2011 that saw the start of the Lumia brand of smartphones. Microsoft is looking to "accelerate the growth of its share and profit in mobile devices through faster innovation, increased synergies, and unified branding and marketing."