Latest news

Netflix has signed new streaming distribution deals with Warner Bros. and CBS today, allowing subscribers to watch shows from The CW.

The deal is good for four years and includes access to the station's most popular programs like "The Vampire Diaries," "Gossip Girl," "One Tree Hill," and "Nikita," "Supernatural," "Ringer," "Hart of Dixie," and "The Secret Circle."

Episodes of previous seasons will be available on October 15th with the exception of Supernatural and 90210 which will start in January.

The deal is worth $1 billion over its life.

Says CBS CEO Les Moonves:

This is a forward-thinking agreement for a network whose programming occupies a unique space in the content marketplace. It is a model that opens a new door for The CW programming to expand its audience reach through the terrific Netflix service, and creates a brand-new window for CBS and Warner Bros. to be paid for the content we supply the network. It also further illustrates how new distribution systems are providing premium content suppliers with additive revenue streams while still preserving traditional monetization windows.

Apple has released iOS 5.0 officially today.

The new software update adds 200 new features and can be downloaded for the iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S and iPod Touch 3G, 4G.

A few of the most notable updates are Newsstand, iMessage, Notification Center, Wi-Fi Sync, Twitter and iCloud.

Newsstand updates the iBooks app to include magazine and newspaper subscriptions.

iMessage, similar to Google Talk will allow users with iOS devices to send unlimited instant messages without the need for a texting plan.

The Notification Center, similar to rival Android, will let you swipe down from the top of the screen to see all of your notifications.

For Twitter, iOS has added its own integrated client so you don't have to download third-party app if you don't want.

By far the most important update is the addition of iCloud. iCloud integration gives all users 5GB of free cloud storage to backup your files.

Western Digital has announced today that production on hard drives will be slowed down in the next quarter due to severe flooding in Bangkok, Thailand.

The HDD maker has a few facilities in the region.

Floods have caused problems in the region, including transportation and utilities and has even flooded worker's homes.

The company did note that all of its 37,000 employees are currently safe.

Last quarter, WD shipped 32 million HDD from its Thai facilities.

Spotify has announced today their expansion into Denmark, the ninth nation to get access to the unlimited streaming music service.

The streaming company says there will be three versions available, just like in other regions:

Spotify Free. With an invite, you can enjoy on-demand, buffer-free access to millions of songs on your computer, and great social features. Manage your own music files through Spotify, and sync with your mobile phone or iPod. Features occasional advertising.

Spotify Unlimited. All the special features of our free service, but with uninterrupted, ad-free access to Spotify on your computer. All for only 49kr a month.

Spotify Premium. The top-of-the-range Spotify experience. Premium gives you access to all the music, all the time. Listen online or offline, on your computer, your mobile phone and a whole heap of other devices. Enjoy enhanced sound quality and access to exclusive content, competitions and special offers. Premium costs just 99kr a month and is also available in all 7-Eleven stores in Denmark.

According to the Yonhap news agency, Samsung will replace a feature of their Galaxy smartphones in order to get around a sales ban in the Netherlands.

The feature, which relates to a patent for browsing pictures, will be replaced.

Apple and Samsung have been battling over the past year over smartphone patents, with both companies looking to get sales of the rival's devices banned.

The Dutch injunction on the Galaxy mobile smartphones will start on Thursday so Samsung needs to be quick with their software update.

After being hit with outages in Europe, Asia and Africa over the past few days, the BlackBerry outages have now hit home, with Canadian and U.S. users losing access to their email and messaging, as well.

RIM confirmed the outages:

BlackBerry subscribers in the Americas may be experiencing intermittent service delays this [Wednesday] morning. We are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and we apologize to our customers for any inconvenience. We will provide a further update as soon as more information is available.

Smartphone maker HTC has announced today the launch of their first Windows Phone 7 Mango devices.

The devices, the "Titan" and "Radar," will launch in Taiwan this month and elsewhere in the near future.

Titan has a massive 4.7-inch screen, dual cameras (8MP/1.3MP) and a 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor.

Radar has a 3.8-inch touch screen with 480 x 800 resolution and a 5.0 megapixel camera.

Mango devices integrate Zune music and Xbox Live gaming among many other features.

The latest rumor circulating today is that Apple will begin developing an 'iPad Mini' for release next year.

Apple's new tablet will compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire and its $200 price tag.

The report comes from Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White (via AI) who says during his tour of China and Taiwan and meeting with component suppliers there have been discussions of Apple's upcoming lower-priced entry to the tablet market.

White says the device will launch in the first months of 2012, a few months after Amazon's November launch date for the Kindle Fire.

Says the analyst:

We believe this lower priced iPad could be priced in the mid-to-high-$200 range. We expect this will be followed by a much more powerful, feature rich standard-priced iPad 3 in (the second quarter of 2012).

Sony has recalled 1.6 million Bravia HDTVs this week after it was revealed that faulty components could lead to fires.

The TVs were sold in the last 4 years and there have been 11 reported incidents in Japan since 2008. While there have been no injuries, a recent report of a "small fire and smoke" coming from a customer's TV prompted the recall.

Spokesperson Yuki Shima says the faulty components are in the backlight systems. These can lead to overheating, melting of the top of the LCD set, or even a small fire.

Sony has been hit with a number of recalls in the past years including one just last month with 2 million batteries in Sony mobile phones needing to be replaced due to overheating.

While there haven't been any reports outside of Japan, the recall is global.

The models affected are KDL-40D3400, KLD-40D3500, KDL-40D3550, KDL-40D3660, KDL-40V3000, KDL-40W3000, KDL-40X3000 and KDL-40X3500.

Sony has noted tonight that they have locked down 93,000 user accounts after a new security breach.

Hackers "using very large sets of sign-in IDs and passwords" gained access to 60,000 PSN accounts and 33,000 Sony Online Entertainment accounts.

The attacks occurred throughout the weekend, notes Sony, and affected "less than one-tenth of 1 percent" of all PSN and SOE accounts.

While the hackers did manage to verify sign-in IDs and passwords, credit card info and other personal data were never at risk.

Says Sony Chief Information Security Officer Philip Reitinger (via Cnet):

In this case, given that the data tested against our network consisted of sign-in ID-password pairs, and that the overwhelming majority of the pairs resulted in failed matching attempts, it is likely the data came from another source and not from our Networks.

Zynga, the social gaming giant, has launched 10 new products today, their biggest push ever as the company competes to control the market.

The company is behind behemoths like CityVille, MafiaWars on Facebook and Live Hold'Em on iOS and Android.

Zynga has now placed "the world's biggest macro bet on social gaming," says CEO Mark Pincus.

Despite being wildly profitable in 2010, net profit fell to just $1.4 million in the Q2 2011, down 90 percent year-over-year.

Five of the new products are for mobiles and some are HTML5 Facebook titles.

The new games are (via Guardian):

- CastleVille, the latest in the popular "Ville" franchise after FarmVille and CityVille

- Hidden Chronicles, a new genre based on finding hidden objects with friends

- Zynga Bingo joins Zynga Poker as the latest in the new Zynga Casino franchise

- Dream Zoo, the compay's first zoo-themed game

- Mafia Wars 2 launched on Monday, but on Tuesday launched on Facebook rival, Google+

Roku has unveiled a new $50 set-top box, the LT, which adds HBO Go support.

The device is the cheapest the company offers, with their most expensive (and popular) device, the XL, selling for $100.

As with other set-tops in their line, the LT offers access to 300 channels including Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant, Hulu Plus, Epix, MLB and NHL packages.

Because of its low price, the LT will not have SD card or Bluetooth support.

All of the current Roku boxes will also receive HBO Go support, when the LT hits stores this month. HBO Go gives HBO subscribers a chance to play back all their favorite shows on their computers, tablets, smartphones and set-top boxes.

Sling Media has announced the launch of a SlingPlayer that is optimized for Android tablets running Honeycomb.

SlingPlayer lets SlingBox hardware owners "extend" their TV to their tablets.

The new software will take advantage of the larger resolutions of tablets alongside performance boosts.

Sling Media says that "new to this release of SlingPlayer is a revamped program guide that makes it easy to browse content choices while continuing to watch TV." On-screen controls are almost exactly as they are on the big-screen.

Adds the company:

A Slingbox is the perfect accessory to an Android tablet. When combined with SlingPlayer, now anyone with an Android device can enjoy a beautiful, personalized TV experience anywhere in the world.

T-Mobile has announced today that they are bringing the Bobsled VoIP service to Android and iOS devices.

The service, which is currently for desktop only, was developed by Vivox for the carrier.

Bobsled lets users call Facebook friends for free from your devices, which include tablets and smartphones now.

Instead of having to type a number, Bobsled lets you hit a Facebook friend and call/leave voice message with the other user.

Additionally, on the desktop version, users can now make free calls to any mobile or landline device in the U.S. or Canada.

Last week, Google and Samsung shocked the world by postponing the launch of the Nexus Prime.

The device was expected to be "unpacked" today at CTIA.

There was speculation that the postponing was due to the recent death of Apple founder Steve Jobs but there is new speculation that there could be patent issues relating to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which will be officially launched with the device.

Despite the delay, Phandroid, citing a Verizon insider, says the new launch party will be on November 3rd.

The source is said to be confirmed, although Phandroid cannot explain how they did so.