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Last week, Google unveiled their Chromecast adapter, a small media and Internet stick that can be plugged into your TV's HDMI port to sling content via Wi-Fi.

At a cost of just $35, the stick should unlock the Internet for those that do not have Smart TVs, set-top boxes or video game consoles. All new orders also receive three free months of Netflix, even if you are a an existing subscriber, effectively dropping the price to almost nothing (unless you don't care for Netflix). More importantly, the Chromecast lets you sling content from Android and iOS phones and tablets, Chromebooks and on Mac and Windows PCs via the Chrome browser.

You can control your TV via the stick, as well, from your device, including playback and volume. If your TV cannot power directly from the HDMI, there is an adapter included, as well. With the exception of Silverlight and Quicktime video, any other web video or audio source will play on the TV if it plays in your Chrome desktop browser. You'll be able to run Netflix, Pandora, HBO GO, free Hulu and Rdio among others that are not normally easily played without specialized apps.

In May, HP announced it would be releasing Android and a Windows-based PC convertibles.

Those devices are now on sale, slightly earlier than originally anticipated.

The Slate Book X2 and Split x2 are both convertibles with detachable tablet displays and a battery-boasting keyboard dock but that is mostly where the similarities stop.

The SlateBook x2 is a high-end 10.2-inch Android tablet that runs on Android 4.2.2, has a quad-core Tegra 4 processor (yes, the new Tegra 4), 1920 x 1200 resolution, 400 nits of brightness, 2GB RAM, and 16GB internal storage. The dock has two USB ports, an SD card slot, and HDMI port and a battery life of over 8 hours.

According to the latest figures from NetApplications, Windows 8 continues its very slow path to relevance, now controlling 5.4 percent of global market share.

Windows 7 remains king, at 44.49 percent, while Windows XP took 37.19 percent.

The Windows 8.1 developer preview is installed on 0.02 percent of all machines, placing it slightly behind Windows 2000.

Moving away from Windows, Mac OS X is installed on 7.19 percent of machines with Linux in third at 1.25 percent. The latest Mac OS X, 10.8 is found on 3.28 percent, and 10.7 and 10.6 remain on 1.68 and 1.67 percent of machines, respectively. The upcoming 10.9 Mavericks is on 0.04 percent of machines.

Sony has reported an operating profit of $370 million for the quarter ended June 30th, thanks to a weakening yen and stronger sales of its hardware.

Xperia smartphone sales increased strongly during the quarter and after years of a stronger yen, the currency weakened allowing for a cut in costs and a boost from overseas sales.

The company did acknowledge that market conditions for consumer electronics remain tough, and they cut sales targets for TVs, PCs and video cameras. "We were able to achieve adequate (first-quarter) results but I'm not necessarily optimistic about the future," Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato added.

Sony's struggling TV business had the best turnaround due to streamlining of products and cost cutting, moving into a profit for the first time since 2010. The company expects the PlayStation division to fall back into the red this year, as well, due to the high development costs of the upcoming PS4.

According to the WSJ, Apple's suppliers are preparing to begin mass production on a new iPad Mini with a Retina display built by Samsung.

The tablet should be ready for launch for the Q4 holiday season.

Outside of the display, the tablet will be the same size (perhaps slightly thinner) and Apple has also allegedly been mulling over offering multiple color back covers instead of just the regular dark grey.

While Samsung will be one of the main suppliers, LG and Sharp will also provide displays. The report says Apple went to Samsung to ensure there would be adequate supply.

According to Canaccord, Apple took 53 percent of the smartphones industry's profits during the Q2 and Samsung took 50 percent, leaving the rest of the industry to fight for -3 percent.

Samsung has quickly taken share from Apple, which had 69 percent value share as late as 2012.

Rivals Nokia, HTC, LG and Sony saw revenue share of 0 percent for the quarter, while BlackBerry saw -1 percent and Motorola saw -2 percent due to ongoing losses.

Samsung does not detail the exact amount of smartphones sold in any given quarter, so these figures are based on estimates. The company's IT & Mobile division saw a huge $5.64 billion operating profit this quarter, but that includes PC and tablet sales, as well.

Spotify has reported its latest earnings, and despite huge growth across the board, profits remain elusive.

The company doubled its revenue in 2012 to $577 million, as well as almost doubling its userbase as it expanded to multiple new nations.

Despite the 100 percent growth, the company posted a net loss of $78 million, up from $60 million in 2011.

Spotify lists 20 million active users and 5 million paying subscribers. While you can listen to a limited amount of music per month for free with advertisements, there are two tiers for paid subscriptions. For $5 per month you lose the ads and get unlimited desktop access to music. For $10 you get unlimited desktop and mobile access.

The company has royalty deals with all the major labels and royalty costs are so high that the company normally gives about 70 percent of its revenue back to the content creators/rights holders.

Google has announced that it will be providing Wi-Fi for all 7000 Starbucks locations in the U.S. beginning later this year.

The search giant proudly boasted that speeds will improve, as well, compared to AT&T's current Wi-Fi offerings in the coffee chain.

Reads the release: When your local Starbucks WiFi network goes Google, you'll be able to surf the web at speeds up to 10x faster than before. If you're in a Google Fiber city, we're hoping to get you a connection that's up to 100x faster.

Google will begin rolling out the Starbucks network next month, with a full rollout expected by the end of 2014. To make sure you have the network, Google says "you'll know your new network is ready to go when you can log in to the 'Google Starbucks' SSID."

After a UK court ruled that Microsoft's cloud service SkyDrive infringed on a trademark by major British broadcaster BSkyB, the Redmond giant has agreed to change the name of the service.

BSkyB says Microsoft has agreed to not appeal the ruling, and that in return Microsoft will be allowed to use the the branding "for a reasonable period of time to allow for an orderly transition to a new brand."

There are also financial terms involved, but neither company would disclose them.

Microsoft added: "We're glad to have resolution of this naming dispute, and will continue to deliver the great service our hundreds of millions of customers expect, providing the best way to always have your files with you."

This is the second time in recent memory that a European legal case has forced Microsoft to stop using a specific name for their services. In 2012, Microsoft stopped using the term "Metro" for its Windows 8 interface after German company Metro AG took issue with the marketing.

Isis Mobile Wallet, the mobile commerce venture created by carrier heavyweights AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon, is finally set to go nationwide after extended pilots in Austin and Salt Lake City.

"Over the past nine months, we have proven the power of an open platform, creating an ecosystem of literally hundreds of partners dedicated to making mobile commerce a reality," said CEO Michael Abbott. "As part of our commitment to consumers, we are incorporating feedback from our pilots into the next generation of the Isis Mobile Wallet as we prepare for national availability later this year."

Isis uses NFC to let consumers pay, redeem coupons or easily select loyalty cards for retailers with just the tap of their smartphone.

The company says all you need is an NFC-supportive phone, a SIM-based secure element and the Isis Mobile Wallet application.

35 devices currently support Isis, but they are all Android. iPhone, Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10 support are all "expected" later this year.

Samsung has offered a huge premium for OLED specialist Novaled AG.

The group has offered $200 million, a massive premium for the company that had revenue of just $22.5 million in 2011, the last time they released financial data.

It is clear, with the offer, that Samsung has committed to the future of OLED displays, as the market is set to see huge growth in the coming years. The global market for the displays is estimated to jump to to $25.9 billion in revenue by 2018, up from $4.9 billion last year.

Samsung already owns a 10 percent stake in Novaled, as the lighting and display maker mainly makes their OLEDs for Samsung.

Nintendo has reported their quarterly earnings for the fiscal Q1 ended June 30th, finally swinging back to a net profit.

The company posted net revenue of $832.8 million and a net profit of $88 million. Despite being back in the black, the company sold just 160,000 Wii U for the entire quarter, a scary low figure given that Microsoft has been selling around 140,000 of the eight-year-old Xbox 360 every month for the last year.

Wii U units went on sale last November and the company hassoldjust 3.61 million units since launch, well below their prediction of 5.5 million by March.

Making matters worse, Wii U software sales were 1.03 million units, down 51 percent quarter-over-quarter.

Nintendo sold 1.4 million 3DS handhelds, and software was up large due to the release of Tomodachi Collection: New Life and Animal Crossing: New Leaf. The aging Wii reached the 100 million unit plateau during the quarter, as well.

Microsoft has expanded its Office mobile suite to Android smartphones, but not tablets.

As long as you have Android 4.0 or higher and an Office 365 subscription, you will now have basic editing and reading, The company released Office for iPhone recently, as well, and the Android app is almost identical in looks and functionality.

Logging in the first time will require the 365 subscription to view and edit documents and there will be no free version released.

Office for Android includes very basic editing for Word, Excel and Powerpoint which should allow for correction, formatting, and comments.

All documents are stored in the SkyDrive cloud and Gmail and other email options for sharing are integrated.

The app is available in the U.S. Google Play Store but will "gradually" be expanding to 33 other languages and 117 markets.

Earlier this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook met with China Mobile chairman Xi Guohua to discuss a partnership between the two companies.

China Mobile is the world's largest mobile carrier and the only one in China to not offer iPhones and iPads.

The talks could spark a long-awaited deal between the companies, letting Apple truly get into the nation with the world's largest smartphone population.

Greater China (including Taiwan and Hong Kong), accounted for 13 percent of Apple's quarterly sales for the Q2, good for $5 billion.

China Mobile uses its own 3G technology, TD-SCDMA, which is slower and less efficient than the international standards used by rivals China Unicom and China Telecom. China Mobile has the lowest 3G adoption in China, at 18 percent.

A new South Korean government report found that 41 percent of the country's mobile phone owners now use LTE.

The country's first LTE network was just deployed almost two years ago, making the figure more impressive.

Data, via the Science, Creative and Future Planning ministry, estimated 22.9 million LTE subscribers, up 2.19 million from just one month earlier.

South Korea's average broadband Internet speed is the fastest in the world, with an average speed of 14.2Mbps.