Latest news

Major publisher Ubisoft has said today that it expects the upcoming "Watch Dogs" game to sell 6 million units, making it one of the biggest releases of the year.

The company says all of its expectations are for the game to match the original Assassin's Creed, which moved 6.2 million.

"What is true is that three months ago when we announced our results, we were kind of referencing that we, in our plan, we had built up Watch Dogs with expectation slightly below what Assassin's Creed 1 did when it was first released--and it was 6.2 million," added Ubisoft. "So after E3, what we said today was that we do feel that we can expect...slightly above the 6.2 million that Assassin's Creed did."

Watch Dogs will be released for the Xbox 360, Wii U, PS3, PC, PS4 and the Xbox One in November and December.

Just days after announcing their shows had received 14 Emmy nominations, Netflix has announced it will be creating even more original content, producing documentaries and standup comedy specials.

Reads their letter to shareholders: "Beyond series, we will be expanding our Originals initiative to include broadly appealing feature documentaries and stand-up comedy specials. Netflix has become a big destination for fans of these much loved and often under-distributed genres."

COO Ted Sarandos had hinted at the company's interest in comedy during an interview earlier this year.

Netflix has proved to be a hit-maker with its own original content, thanks to Arrested Development, House of Cards and the new Orange is the New Black.

Verizon has added a new, faster tier to its FiOS Internet service.

The new high-end connection will top out at 500 Mbps downstream and 100 Mbps upstream, but it will certainly not come cheap.

To purchase the connection as a stand-alone product will set you back $299.99 per month. The cable provider is also offering numerous bundles:

$310 per month when paired with Select HD, FiOS TV's sports-free video service;
$320 per month with FiOS TV Prime;
$335 per month with FiOS TV Extreme; and,
$355 per month with FiOS TV Ultimate.
The pricing on the above tiers is reduced by $5 per month when customers agree to a two-year contract.

If you are willing to go with a triple-play, Verizon has even more bundled offerings:

$330 per month with FiOS Select HD and FiOS Digital Voice;
$340 per month with FiOS TV Prime and FiOS Digital Voice;
$355 per month with FiOS TV Extreme and FiOS Digital Voice; and,
$375 per month with FiOS TV Ultimate and FiOS Digital Voice.

If you are a a business customer, the tier will cost $380 per month with a dynamic IP address or $400 per month with a static IP.

Netflix reported their quarterly earnings today, missing analyst estimates for a stronger quarter.

The streaming service added 630,000 U.S. subscribers for the fiscal Q2, thanks in part to 'Arrested Development,' which provided a measurable boost.

Analysts and investors had expected better than the posted revenue of $1.07 billion and net income of $29 million, although the growth in subscribers was in-line for this quarter.

Netflix says it expects to add anywhere between 690,000 and 1.4 million new U.S. subscribers in the coming quarter. Total subscribers are now up to 29.81 million in the U.S.

"Arrested Development already had a strong brand and fan base, generating a small but noticeable bump in membership when we released it," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings added. "Other great shows don't have that noticeable effect in their first season because they are less established."

The popular Ubuntu Forums have been hit by a security breach, exposing the user names, passwords and email addresses for 1.82 million registered users.

So far, it does not appear the data has been published online.

On Saturday night, unknown assailants defaced the Ubuntu homepage (see picture) and someone was able to gain access to servers. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, quickly issued an advisory letting all users know to safeguard other accounts and change their passwords.

The forums remained offline throughout the weekend.

"While the passwords were not stored in plain text, good practice dictates that users should assume the passwords have been accessed and change them," Ubuntu CEO Jane Silber wrote. "If users used the same password on other services, they should immediately change that password."

The passwords were "cryptographically scrambled using the MD5 hashing algorithm, along with a per-user cryptographic salt," added Silber, although many security experts find that to be insufficient to really protect data.

EA has confirmed that its oft-rumored 'Dead Space' film adaptation is in the works.

The publisher made the announcement during a Comic-Con panel discussing franchises moving from the small screen to the big screen.

Justin Marks, the writer behind the awful Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, has been signed on for the script. While he confirmed that the movie could not be 100 percent faithful to the game in execution, he would prioritize the main character's story in a way that is proper for a full-length film.

The first Dead Space game was released in 2008, followed by sequels in 2011 and 2013. Each have been well received by critics and gamers. The games follow protagonist Isaac Clarke who battles reanimated human corpses among other monsters.

Industry watchers expect the film to be released in late 2014.

Canonical has unveiled their upcoming Ubuntu Edge smartphone.

The company has put the device up via crowdfunding site Indiegogo and is looking to raise $32 million in the next month, a huge task.

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

For those outside of its coverage area it may not be a big deal, but Time Warner Cable and CBS are in an ongoing battle over licensing fees to re-transmit the network's channels and programs.

If the dispute is not settled, CBS is expected to pull all of its programming from the major cable operator. Time Warner has argued that CBS is trying to renegotiate the fees at a rate 600 percent higher than the last contract, a massive jump especially for programming that is free with a digital antenna.

TWC has also threatened to recommend that all of its NYC customers (many millions) try Aereo if CBS does pull the content. Aereo allows users to watch free, OTA content on any mobile device along with a free remote DVR. Aereo does not pay any re-transmission fees as it uses tiny digital TV antennas for each user in its own facilities and links to the streams.

Although consumers have ignored it and Microsoft was forced to take a $900 million loss due to it, at least one company remains bullish on the long-term prospects of the Windows RT operating system.

Rene Haas, VP of computing at Nvidia, says the company's commitment to the OS "remains at a high level and hasn't changed."

Nvidia makes the Tegra 3 processor that powers the Surface RT and Lenovo's Yoga 11 RT tablet. The powerful quad-core Tegra 4 will be available for upcoming RT devices, as well.

"Surface RT is the very beginning of a long process and it's the first shot in a changing landscape," Haas added. "Microsoft is moving the entire Windows platform to something really mobile."

Microsoft recently took a $900 million loss due to excess Surface RT inventory and dropped the prices across the board by $150.

Overall, Haas seemed very encouraged by Microsoft and the platform, in general, adding that Nvidia employees all use Surface RT with Windows 8.1.

Weeks ahead of its official launch on August 1st, we now have more pictures and a full spec sheet for the flagship device.

Specs via source:

A dual-core Qualcomm S4 Pro MSM8960DT 1.7GHz CPU, Adreno 320 GPU. I'm still not sure what the "d" stands for in the processor model number, but it's likely the same as MSM8960T - confirmed by our photos
2GB of RAM - confirmed by our photos
720x1184 4.7" (about 4.5" without on-screen buttons) display - confirmed by our photos
2.1MP front-facing camera / 10.5MP rear camera with flash - confirmed by our photos
802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi (ac made it in, nice!) - confirmed by FCC docs
Android 4.2.2 on the unit being tested - confirmed by our photos
16GB internal memory, 12GB of which is user-accessible (on the unit being tested) - confirmed by our photos
NFC - confirmed by our photos
2,200 mAh non-removable battery - confirmed by FCC docs and first tipped off by @evleaks
XT1058 / "ghost" (this is the AT&T variant) - as shown in photos
128.5mm x 65mm - confirmed by FCC docs

The ever resourceful @Evleaks has revealed the press image for another upcoming device, this time the second-generation Google Nexus 7.

On July 24th, Android boss Sundar Pichai is expected to officially launch the tablet, which should be quite similar to the first-generation device but with updated specs.

From the image, we can see that the device will add a second camera (on the rear side) and the leaked specs are a large improvement, as well.

The 7-inch display is expected to now have a 1920x1200 resolution, a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 2GB RAM and dual rear-facing speakers for improved sound. Additionally, the device should be the first with Android 4.3.

Besides being available through the Google Play Store, the device will be available at Best Buy, Staples and other retailers, as well.

Endorse, the mobile coupon startup that shut down last month, has been acquired by Dropbox.

Launched in 2010, Endorse started with a web version before adding an iPhone app in 2012. In June, Endorse announced to its users that they had to begin transferring cash they had accrued over to their bank accounts.

Financial terms were not revealed, but it is hard to imagine the purchase price was too high given the fact the company was shutting down. Endorse raised $4.5 million from venture capitalists during an initial funding run.

Endorse's dozen employees are set to join Dropbox, say sources.

Nvidia has announced today that its Shield handheld gaming system will ship on July 31st, about a month after it was supposed to.

The company had delayed its launch after a "mechanical issue" with a "third-party component" was found in June.

Reads Nvidia's email:

We want to thank you for your patience and for sticking with us through the shipment delay of your SHIELD. We have great news to share with you - your SHIELD will ship on July 31st.

Our goal has always been to ship the perfect product, so we made sure we submitted SHIELD to the most rigorous mechanical testing and quality assurance standards in the industry. We built SHIELD because we love playing games, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

The console, which was initially priced at $349 to much criticism, will cost $299 when it launches. The Shield has a 5-inch 720p display, runs on the new quad-core Tegra 4 SoC, has 16 GB memory, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, a mini-HDMI output, micro-USB 2.0, a microSD storage slot, a 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack, 802.11n 2X2 MIMO game-speed Wi-Fi and runs on stock Android 4.2.

Panasonic will plead guilty to U.S. government charges that it conspired to fix prices of laptop battery packs and auto parts for 15 years.

The Japanese electronics maker will pay $56.5 million in fines and 15 executives from multiple companies will serve jail time, ranging from one year to two years for their part in the scheme.

Starting in 1998, Panasonic was accused of working with other companies to "fix, stabilize, and maintain the prices of lighting equipment (HID ballasts)" that were later sold to Honda, Mazda and Nissan. Additionally, they fixed the prices of switches and sensors for auto steering wheels, doors, wipers, turn signals and the system's control system that were later sold to Toyota. This portion of the price fixing only lasted from 2003 to 2010, however.

On the laptop battery side, it wasn't Panasonic that conspired to fix prices, but instead Sanyo, which the company acquired four years ago for $4.5 billion. Sanyo and LG Chem fixed the prices of cylindrical lithium ion battery packs for laptop computers sold around the globe. The conspiracy lasted for all of 2007 and 2008 .

Google has sent out invitations to "a breakfast" with Android and ChromeOS boss Sundar Pichai.

While it is unclear what will be discussed, the assumption is Pichai will introduce more about the upcoming Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update and the next version of ChromeOS.

The event is on July 24th at 9AM Pacific.

From recent leaks, we know some of the 4.3 updates. A welcome update (as all Nexus users can attest too) is the update to the dialer. The phone will now automatically suggest your contacts as you dial numbers, like it used to before 4.2. You currently have to type out the full number or head to contacts to search. It is important to note that the new dialer autofill will not be turned on by default.

Additionally, the camera application will come with new minor updates. Another cool update is a setting that you can allow your Wi-Fi to be turned on to get a lock on your location before it is automatically turned off again. Apps will not send you push notifications asking you to try to hop on a Wi-Fi network anymore if you have that setting enabled. In a move that was likely spurred by the launch of Google Glass, 4.3 devices can now utilize Bluetooth Low Energy to save battery when linked to Glass or smartwatches (for example).