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@Evleaks, the now-famous Twitter handle from which many big time leaks for smartphones and tablets have been made, has posted the first press shots of the upcoming Moto X from Google.

The device will launch on August 1st, and Google and Motorola have been teasing the device for months.

Google purchased Motorola Mobility in 2011 for $12.5 billion, mainly for its patent portfolio but also to use its hardware building capabilities. The Moto X will be the first phone to use Google's direction.

The device will have customizable hardware options, be built in the U.S., have mid-range specs and likely a very reasonable price tag.

Microsoft has announced it will be bundling Xbox Live Gold with its subscription Office 365 service.

Between this week and September 28th, any customer who purchases a 12-month Office 365 Home Premium subscription or the student 4-year Office 365 University subscription will get 12 free months of Xbox Live Gold.

So far, the offer is available in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. To make sure you are eligible, check here.

The online subscription includes access to full versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint and has reached over one million subscribers.

Netflix has responded to the outcry caused by a Tumblr page.

The page, dubbed "What Netflix Does" shows how the company crops movies, destroying the original aspect ratio and framing while streaming to your TVs and PCs.

Netflix says: We want to offer the best picture and provide the original aspect ratio of any title on Netflix. However, unfortunately our quality controls sometimes fail and we end up offering the wrong version of a title. When we discover this error, we work to replace that title as soon as possible.

Check out the crops here (I've created some examples below), along with screenshots and where these shots were taken (U.S, Canada, Mexico, etc): What Netflix Does Tumblr

During its quarterly earnings report on Thursday, Microsoft revealed that it is making more money now for its mobile phone division.

In their conference call, the company said that "Windows Phone revenue, reflecting patent licensing revenue and sales of Windows Phone licenses, increased $222 million for the quarter."

While that number seems impressive given the slow sales of Windows Phones, it is important to note that the "patent licensing revenue" cited is royalties that Microsoft makes off of Android sales.

The company has a very powerful patent portfolio and has cut deals with nearly the entire Android industry, minus Google and Motorola. Microsoft is said to make as much as $8 per unit sold from companies like HTC and Huawei, among many others.

So even though Windows Phone sales are improving (up to 12 million or so across Nokia, HTC, Samsung) last quarter, it still appears that most of its profits are coming from rival Android.

VLC, one of the most popular media player applications of all-time, is finally available again in the Apple App Store.

VLC for iOS is now available across the world as long as you have iOS 5.1 or later. The app is supported across the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

The new app, version 2.0, is open-source just as its desktop counterpart is, and the code will be made available online, licensed under the Mozilla Public License Version 2 and the GNU General Public License Version 2.

Apple pulled the first version of the VLC app in January 2011 because of conflicts with parts of the GPL license and the App Store's own rules. Being licensed under the MPLv2 should eliminate all those issues.

"We worked hard with all major copyright holders to not repeat history and we are confident to have achieved this goal," VideoLAN noted, via TNW.

Microsoft has announced this week that their aging Xbox 360 console has kept its position as the top selling console in the U.S. for the 30th straight month.

For June, the company sold 140,000 units, easily beating out the Wii, Wii U and PS3, says the NPD Group.

Additionally, Microsoft added the following:

*Total retail spend on the Xbox 360 platform in June (hardware, software and accessories) reached $197 million, the most for any console in the US.

*During the month of June, Xbox 360 held seven of the top 10 console game titles including: "Minecraft," "NBA 2K13," "Injustice: Gods Among Us," "Deadpool," "Call of Duty: Black Ops II," "Grand Theft Auto IV" and "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim."

According to their recent earnings report, Google slashed 5383 jobs at Motorola Mobility last quarter, streamlining the company that has been a massive money loser over the past few years.

The number is very significant, as Google employed 9,982 Motorola Mobility workers last quarter.

Reads the earnings report: "On a worldwide basis, we employed 44,777 full-time employees (40,178 in Google and 4,599 in Motorola Mobile) as of June 30, 2013, compared to 53,891 full-time employees (38,739 in Google, 9,982 Motorola Mobile, and 5,170 Motorola Home) as of March 31, 2013."

It appears that most of the reduction came due to the closing of a manufacturing deal between Motorola and Flextronics. Flextronics bought two plants, one in Taiwan and one in Brazil, keeping all the employees, as well.

Motorola also confirmed there were additional layoffs besides the Flextronics deal.

Nielsen has released new music industry data today for the first six months of 2013.

Although music sales fell, streaming music continues to rise, helping to stop some of the bleeding.

Overall sales of albums and track equivalents were down 4.6 percent year-over-year to 210 million units while streams jumped 24 percent to 51 billion.

For the six months ended June 30th, the most popular streamed track was Baauer's 'Harlem Shake,' streamed a massive 438 million times. Macklemore's "Thrift Shop" was a distant second at 187 million streams.

Digital sales continued to be strong, but the days of double digit growth in the market seem to be over. Digital album sales were up 6.3 percent to 60.8 million units, while CDs dropped another 14.2 percent to 78.2 million units. Single track downloads fell 2.3 percent to 682 million.

"Overall sales are down slightly in the first half of 2013, but there continues to be encouraging growth in digital album sales," noted David Bakula, SVP Nielsen Entertainment.

Google has officially unveiled the Chrome app launcher for Windows, taking it out of developer preview.

When installing to Windows 7 or Windows 8, the launcher is placed in the taskbar, the desktop, the menu bar and also in the start page.

The launcher allows you to very quickly launch your apps from the desktop, sign into all apps that use your Google identity and also sync your apps, bookmarks, history, passwords, and other settings across multiple devices.

ChromeOS has featured the launcher since version 21, but Windows users have only been able to use it via developer versions of Chrome, until now.

Get the launcher here: Chrome Launcher

Thanks to a few reports, we now appear to have the launch date and specs for the upcoming Nexus 7 successor.

The tablet (according to a leaked memo) will go on sale at Staples on July 31st, after the company's stores are stocked as early July 24th. This likely means the Google Play Store will offer the tablet slightly earlier than retail counterparts.

Google looks to have upped the price a bit, to $269 for 32GB.

Under the hood is a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, and a couple of new additions include dual cameras 1.2MP/5MP, a Slim Port and wireless charging capabilities.

The new Nexus will keep the same 7-inch display and launch with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

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

HopStop has Android and iOS apps, but the Android app may cease to be depending on Apple's thoughts on the matter.

The move makes sense for Apple as it upgrades its iOS Maps software. The company could potentially add bus, train, subway and other transit options, which rival Google has but they do not. Besides having transit info for 300 major cities, HopStop also has routes for driving, cycling and walking.

Apple also purchased Locationary, tech that uses "crowd-sourced data to offer accurate and up-to-date listings of local businesses."

The company first launched its own mapping solutions with iOS 6 in late 2012.

The former head of the CIA says he knows of hard evidence that links Chinese smartphone and equipment maker Huawei to spying for the Chinese government.

Michael Hayden, who was also the former boss of the NSA, says Huawei has "shared with the Chinese state intimate and extensive knowledge of the foreign telecommunications systems it is involved with. I think that goes without saying."

Huawei is also the world's second largest telecoms equipment maker, making the news even more startling. The company has steadfastly denied being linked to the Chinese government or the military.

Global Cyber Security Officer at Huawei, John Suffolk fought back, calling the comments "tired, unsubstantiated defamatory remarks" and challenged Hayden to present to evidence to the public. "Huawei meets the communication needs of more than a third of the planet and our customers have the right to know what these unsubstantiated concerns are. It's time to put up or shut up."

Major retailer Best Buy announced yesterday that it would be cutting the price of select 13-inch MacBook Pro models as part of its "Back-to-School" promotions.

For the sale, that ends on July 27th, Best Buy is offering $300 off for students and $200 off for everyone else.

The promotion is only good for 13-inch non-Retina MacBook Pro models, the entry-level 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD model and the higher-end 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 750GB HDD version.

With the regular discount, the cheaper model will sell for $999 and the beefier model will sell for $1299. Take off an extra $100 if you are a student.

A new report claims LG is the supplier behind millions of Retina displays that are headed to the upcoming iPad Mini 2.

Although Apple has never confirmed its existence, the iPad Mini successor is expected to launch in October, likely alongside the iPhone 5S.

Taiwanese sources say LG is "making new headway" in producing the HD panels, and that they are looking to ship 2 million per month ahead of the expected launch date.

Another 1-2 million are earmarked for the next-generation full-sized iPad. The only real notable difference between current 9.7-inch iPad displays and the next-gen panels is the use of a single LED backlight bar, instead of the current two-module hardware.

The new report contradicts another which stated this year's iPad Mini would just be a minor refresh of last year's model.

It's finally official; the Moto X flagship will be unveiled on August 1st at a press event in NYC.

Over the past months, the sheer amounts of leaks for the Moto X has taken away some of the luster, as we now know what the phone will look like, what customized features it will have, and a good understanding of what is under the hood.

Motorola Mobility's flagship will allow consumers to customize the look of the phone and choose an engraving.

Through a site, buyers can choose from a palette of colors, one for the back case and another for the trim of the phone. Buyers can then engrave a name or a full message on the back cover and also upload a photo through the site to be the phone's wallpaper before you even receive it.

Because the phone is being built in a new factory in Texas, the personalized device can be delivered to U.S. buyers within days.

The unveiling is bound to have some extra goodies in store for would-be buyers, including the price.