Latest news

Facebook shares jumped 16 percent following a quarter of strong earnings.

The social networking giant reported higher daily visitor figures, and a large surge in mobile ad revenue. FB said 700 million people now use the platform daily.

While ad prices declined at Yahoo and Google, they increased 13 percent at Facebook for the quarter.

Overall revenue grew 53 percent to $1.813 billion, well above the analyst expectations of $1.618 billion. Total number of ads jumped 43 percent year-over-year, and revenue from e-commerce companies doubled in the same time period.

Facebook has 1.15 billion users, and 61 percent are active users.

According to multiple sources, Sony is in development of a film adaptation of the popular racing series 'Gran Turismo.'

Mike de Luca and Dana Brunetti, producers of The Social Network and Fifty Shades of Grey, have already signed on to the project.

The Playstation-exclusive game has sold over 70 million units to date, making it one of the most popular game series of all-time.

Dreamworks announced earlier this year that they were developing a Need for Speed movie, based off the game series, as well.

David Smith, BlackBerry's VP in charge of the now-defunct tablet division, has resigned.

The executive had been with the company for eight years and took over the PlayBook project right after its release in 2011.

Despite a promising unveiling, delays kept the device out of stores until a year after the iPad launched, and when it launched, it was missing email and calendar apps, completely destroying the company's reputation (or whatever it had left).

Additionally, the tablet launched at $500 with underwhelming specs and an underwhelming OS, leading to its early demise and a $500 million writedown for the company following a fire sale to sell off inventory.

Intel has teased today the existence of a new Haswell-based chip that can fit into ultrathin devices and will not require fans for cooling.

Earlier this year at Computex, the company showed off a fanless tablet that was met with intrigue.

Intel says the new chips run at a "scenario design point" (SDP) of 4.5 watts, allowing it to run comfortably cold if the chassis is designed to cool 4.5 watts of heat.

Verge adds that "the silicon can actually boost speed higher for short periods as the temperature allows, it gives manufacturers flexibility to limit the processor to fit in smaller devices."

Intel managed to bring its Ivy Bridge processors down to the 10-watt thermal range, and Haswell was 6 watts at launch.

PayPal has unceremoniously cut off the popular VPN provider iPredator.

The anonymity service that was started by a Pirate Bay co-founder, can no longer accept payments through PayPal, and the company has had all of its assets frozen for the next 180 days.

Although PayPal did not specify why the service was banned, it follows the recent news that iPredator's credit card processor Payson has stopped doing business with all VPN services.

"It's not a coincidence that we are banned from Payson, and then PayPal a few weeks after," noted Sunde.

PayPal has long taken a hard stance against BitTorrent sites, Usenet providers and cyberlockers but today's news may suggest that VPNs are now on the list.

Perhaps worse for the site is the fact that other credit card processors do not appear to be coming forward to take Payson's place: "One processor we talked with, to replace Payson, told us that we were on a blacklist of services that are prohibited to accept credit cards. This apparently happened shortly after Payson announced it could no longer process MasterCard and Visa payments for VPN providers," Sunde explained (via TF).

After unveiling their updated Nexus 7, Google used today's press event to unveil the Chromecast, 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, Hulu and Rdio among others that are not normally easily played without specialized apps.

Earlier this week we reported that Canonical had launched their Ubuntu Edge smartphone via the crowdfunding site Indiegogo.

The first 5000 pledgers were able to get the device for an intro price of $600, unlocked, along with a shoutout on Canonical's founders page. After that, you had to purchase the phone for $830, but the Linux company seems to have a roadblock at that price and have opened up new pledge tiers.

1250 new buyers can purchase the phone for $675, the next 1250 can get it for $725 and the next 1250 can get it for $775. After that, the next 4500 get the device for $780. Earlier today the $625 tier sold out and the $600 tier sold out on day one.

So far, the company has raised $5.4 million of its $32 million campaign.

Here is the full spec list:

Dual boot Ubuntu mobile OS and Android
Fully integrated Ubuntu desktop PC when docked
Fastest multi-core CPU, 4GB RAM, 128GB storage
4.5in 1,280 x 720 HD sapphire crystal display
8mp low-light rear camera, 2mp front camera
Dual-LTE, dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4, NFC
GPS, accelerometer, gyro, proximity sensor, compass, barometer
Stereo speakers with HD audio, dual-mic recording, Active Noise Cancellation
MHL connector, 3.5mm jack
Silicon-anode Li-Ion battery
64 x 9 x 124mm

Google used their Android and Chrome event this morning to announce the 2013 version of the Nexus 7, a wildly updated version of its popular tablet first released last year.

The new tablet will keep its 7-inch display, run on the latest Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, and include a 1080p resolution, a large upgrade.

Under the hood is a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, 2GB RAM, and Adreno 320 GPU, NFC, dual cameras 1.2/5MP, dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and wireless charging support if you have a Qi-compatible charger. Additionally, the Nexus 7 supports OpenGL ES: 3.0, which supports higher-quality reflections, lens flares and other shading during gameplay.

AT&T has announced their quarterly earnings today, including a record number of Android smartphone sales.

The company reported $3.82 billion in profit on revenue of $32 billion.

"This was a solid quarter for revenue and customer additions across our key growth platforms," noted CEO Randall Stephenson.

The giant telco added 551,000 postpaid subscribers and 632,000 total subscribers for the quarter.

More than 35 percent of customers now use the fast 4G LTE network, and 65 percent use either LTE or HSPA+ (a 4G-esque high-speed 3G network). The company also added that deployment of their 4G network is ahead of schedule, with full nationwide rollout expected before the end of 2014.

Apple reported their latest quarterly earnings this afternoon, beating analyst expectations due to better than expected iPhone sales.

The company reported profit of $6.9 billion on $35.3 billion in sales.

For the quarter, Apple sold 31.2 million iPhones, 14.6 million iPads, 4.5 million iPods and 3.8 million Mac computers. The iPad number was a lot lower than expectations, but iPhones made up for the difference.

"We are especially proud of our record June quarter iPhone sales of over 31 million and the strong growth in revenue from iTunes, Software and Services," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. "We are really excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, and we are laser-focused and working hard on some amazing new products that we will introduce in the fall and across 2014."

Apple's profit margin fell 5.9 percent year-over-year, and the company reported a year-over-year profit decline for just the second time in 10 years.

Last week, Apple purchased the local transit navigation service HopStop, likely to help boost its own iOS mapping app.

Since the acquisition, Apple has reduced the app's platforms, shutting down the recently launched Windows Phone app.

The app is gone from the Windows Phone Marketplace, and all support has been discontinued. If you already had it downloaded, launching the app gets you the error "HopStop no longer supports the Windows platform."

Android users need not fret, as the app is still available and supported.

Apple also recently purchased Locationary, tech that uses "crowd-sourced data to offer accurate and up-to-date listings of local businesses." The company introduced iOS Maps with 6.0 and has been updating it almost weekly since.

Bitcasa has launched its infinite cloud storage solution in Europe.

The offering, unlimited cloud storage space, will cost £7/€8 per month or £55/€60 per year if you sign up before August 31st. Afterwards, the price will permanently be 20 percent higher.

Here is some background on Bitcasa (which is a relatively small company still). Bitcasa is a start-up begun by former execs at Mastercard, VeriSign and Mozy and is the latest entrant to the cloud storage market. What makes Bitcasa different is that the service offers you truly infinite storage. In fact, when you add your first folder, you are told that you have over 500TB of remaining free space, and the start-up says that number is only there because Windows and Mac machines cannot display higher numbers.

The company's CEO says it can offer unlimited storage, "because 60 percent of their data is identical." Simply, when you "cloudify" a music track or movie, the chances are someone else has the same exact track or movie on their computer. Bitcasa uses "patented de-duplication algorithms, compression techniques, and encryption" to identify duplicate files and therefore the company only keeps a couple, (or even one) of of the files in its servers. By doing so, the company can keep its costs significantly down and offer infinite storage to its users.

LG has sent out invites teasing its upcoming G2 flagship.

The event will take place on August 11th at 11 AM with the company expected to devote most of the press event to the smartphone.

Among the features we know are rear volume controls and the new poster seems to confirm a fingerprint scanner.

LG goes on to say "To me, you are perfect" and notes that "we are learning from you" which could mean the company has been actively listening to feedback and critiques on its recent Optimus line.

Check the invite here:

According to the China Daily, China will lift its long-standing ban on foreign video game consoles.

Earlier this year, sources claimed Chinese government officials had confirmed the end of the ban, but it did not appear to be true at the time.

Console makers Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft should be happy with the decision, as they may have a chance to break into a market with over 1.5 billion citizens.

Of course, the ban will not be completely revoked, as manufacturers will need to sign China's new Shanghai free trade zone.

According to a new report, ARM processors will be capable of running at 3GHz in 2014.

The processors will be built by TSMC and GlobalFoundries, utilizing the 20nm manufacturing process for improved power efficiency.

Sources claim the new processors will be necessary to "stave off the recent incursion" of Intel's mobile Bay Trail processors. Intel's rival chips have been clocked at up to 30 percent faster than existing chips.