T-Mobile for sale

Financial troubles for T-Mobile are far from over, the fact that there are not doing well is no secret. So far no one was able to buy them, but that doesn't mean they are not for sale.

AT&T was unsuccessfully in purchase of T-Mobile a few years ago, the price was to high for them at the time. Another US carrier tried to buy them earlier this month, this time it was Sprint. They teamed up with Soft bank and wanted to buy T-Mobile. Their reason of backing out of the acquisition was the fact that there is to many regulatory hurdles in the way.

FCC has expressed their concern about the sale of T-Mobile, they feel that the acquisition of this company by another US carrier company will have a devastating impact on the market. They could be right in their statement, joining of the two carriers could be the end for the competition. However Deutsche Telekom, the owner of T-Mobile is not concern with the FCC and is still adamant in their decision to sell.

So are there any other potential buyers? Well none that really matter or that can actually afford to buy this company. Current selling price is $35 per share, this is $5 more then the official current trading price. With this price the total amount goes up to $24.19 billion. Not an easy offer to make by any company. So what's the alternative, if Deutsche Telekom is still insisting on sale, the company could be sold in pieces and that seems like a bad idea all together.

Of course the ones that will suffer the most from the sale will be the costumers. Why? Because ever since T-Mobile got on the US market they are trying to shake things up. Probably the only company with the original approach at this moment, their prices and offers are pretty great. It will be sad to see them go, hope there is a chance they can still turn things around.

Source bloomberg.

Google drones for delivery

Google has a secret lab Google X, probably not that secret since the hole Internet knows about it and they are working on the project Wing. The plan here is to bring drones for delivery.

That's right drones will soon be everywhere, even delivering packages to your front door. First they where science fiction, then they were used by the military and now tested for commercial use. Well in today's world, that's the current order of things. Military always gets the cool stuff first. Google is of course not the only company testing and developing drones, Amazon was the one we heard most about recently regarding drones.

Google's drone, will call it that because it doesn't have an official name just yet, is 5 foot-wide and 2 feet high. It has four electric propellers which can move into different positions during flight. Right now they are testing these drones down under in Australia where they successfully transported supplies to two farms. Supplies were candy bars, radios, cattle vaccine, water and dog treats. So no heavy lifting just yet for the drones.

Officials from Google stated that the primary use for the drones will be to bring supplies in to disaster areas. Couple of drones could do a big difference in scenarios of crisis, they could offer continues shipment of food, water and medicine. But will just see if this is actually their plan or just a marketing trick by Google.

In the United  States drones can only be used by the military, FAA doesn't allow any commercial use for the drones. So it looks like Amazon and Google are grounded for now. Amazon spokesmen said that they are trying to change FAA's view on the matter but it could take up to several years for them to change their policy.

Some people are excited about implementing drones for commercial use, some are terrified, you don't really have to be a conspiracy theorist to see how things could possibly go wrong with this type of technology. But honestly speaking isn't that the case with every ground breaking technology. Don't get me wrong, technology like this definitely needs rules and regulations, just not paranoia.

Source theverge.

Mobile operating systems World wide

Smartphones are everywhere, probably everyone has one. There are a lot of different manufacturers, whole bunch of different hardware specifications. But only three operating systems that really matter. So how do they stand on the global market.

First one is Android, the absolute king. Leader in all the countries the research was done in and not only that, there market share is increasing. This operating system is getting a lot of criticism lately but according to the statistics it's on almost every phone.

Second on the list is iOS from Apple. There market share is on the opposite trajectory then Android from Google. Platform is loosing ground almost in every country. Some say this is expected, they only have one smartphone per year, they can't hold that much of the market with only that.

And of course third on the list is Windows Phone from Microsoft. This has been a hit and miss quarter for them. In some countries they are improving in some they are falling, globally there just about the same as they where.

Three IT giants battling over the smartphone market, probably the most importante one there is at the moment. Lot of innovations and new devices are coming for all platforms, so it's needless to say that things will remain very interesting in the years to come.

Source kantarworldpanel.

Apple event September 9.

Everything Apple related makes a lot of fuss on the Internet, more rumors than you can fit on one page, so thank you God that they finally announce the date of their event. One rumor less to discuss about is not a bad thing. The event will be held on September 9.

Apple's event is going to be held at Flint Center Cupertino, no surprise there that's their home base. What is strange is that the company is building something, some sort of a new structure at the collage. No one is telling us anything about this project, nobody really knows what it is for. Little mystery before the big day of new projects isa good thing. One thing is sure Apple is nervous about this date and they expect it to be a turning point.

So what will happen at this event. Well that's not an easy question to answer. There are so many rumors and leaks one doesn't even know where to start, let's start with the big dog, the iPhone 6. How many iPhone's we will see on Sept. 9. is still not known, one thing is sure, there will be more then one and in different display sizes. It even looks like they will implement NFC for mobile payment, finally this was a flow that needed to be dealt ed with.

Will there be iPads there or will that be a separate event? Maybe, it is possible that they are looking to push different devices on the same date to create a big euphoria. Tablets from Apple are not doing well as one would expect on the market, some say this is a natural thing, things will get better soon, some say it's because of the Surface Pro lineup. Can we expect a 12.5 inch iPad for business use, probably not on this event but you could see it soon.

And of course what about the elephant in the room, the most anticipated gadget of 2014, the iWatch. Well what about it, it's been rumored for so long with so many different features no one can say for sure anymore what it will look like or what features it will have. Don't get me wrong, definitely hope we see the iWatch at this event, but don't get your hopes up.

Anyway enough with the rumors, on September 9 we will finally see what Apple has been cooking for so long, and then after the event a new round of rumors can begin. Never to soon to start.

Source technobuffalo.

Amazon, Twitch and Fire phone

Amazon, everybody has heard about this company, you can buy anything from a to z on their sites, at least that's what their logo says. Their profits are increasing over time so they are looking to expand their business to other areas. Seems logical but lets just see about that.

One of the things Amazon is looking to expand is smartphones and tablets. Sure, this is a growing market, lots of money to be made her but also a lot of competition. They have the money so why not go for it. Amazon smarthone named Fire went on sale in June this year. Company made a hole lot of buzz about this phone, calling it even the "iPhone killer", why do people always use Apple gadgets for comparison.

Anyway since launch not much has been heard from Amazon about their smartphone, tho company will not give any sale results but there are other ways to find out those numbers. Apparently you can find out how many phones are getting ad impressions, and in those figures things look bad for Amazon. According to Chitaka there are only 35 thousand Fire phones in use in North America. This makes 0,015% of the American market.

No wonder Amazon refuses to give any official numbers, this is definitely not something a huge company like them wants to brag about. Sure this is their first phone and things might get better, but right now the "iPhone Killer" is taking a beating on the market.

Another news from Amazon is that recently they bought Twitch.TV for $970 million. We told you they have money but what the hell is Twitch and why is it worth that much money.

Twitch was founded in 2011 and it allows people to watch other people play video games. Yes that is a thing these days and a very popular thing. There have been rumors that YouTube was looking to buy this company but the deal was never finalized. This is what Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos had to say about this: "Broadcasting and watching gameplay is a global phenomenon and Twitch has built a platform that brings together tens of millions of people who watch billions of minutes of games each month. We look forward to learning from them and helping them move even faster to build new services for the gaming community,"

So whats next for Amazon, well your guess is as good as any, because it looks like they are spending money and looking to expand into just about anything. What will stick and what will fail, let's just wait and see.

Source bbc.

New smartphone from BlackBerry

Canadian smartphone manufacturer BlackBerry is getting ready to release a new smartphone on the market, they are calling it Passport. It should be announced sometimes next month.

If someone told me last year that BalckBerry would still be alive and not only alive but also getting ready to release a new smartphone, I wouldn't believed it. Let's face it almost nobody would believe it. Even after all that financial trouble they are still here. Don't get me wrong financial troubles are still there but the company didn't sell into pieces as analyst expected, so give the Canadians some credit for that.

New smartphone isn't officially announced, these are still just leaks and rumors. Design you see on the photo could be the final design but it could get some changes before the launch. Smartphone will have 4.5 inches display with Gorilla Glass 3 protection. Procesor will be Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Quad-core 2.26 GHz with 3 GB RAM. Internal storage will be 32 GB and microSD card slot up to 64 GB. Camera on the back will be 13 MP and on the front 2 MP. Operating system is BlackBerry OS 10.3.

Looks like Canadians still have faith in their BlackBerry OS, they haven't switched to Android or Windows Phone for their operating systems, who knows they may even surprise us all. As far as the specifications this isn't a bad phone, actually its a pretty good one and the design is also nice. Of course this doesn't mean that the smarphone will have market success, there were a lot of smartphones out there with great hardware and design that failed to become popular on the market.

Could this smartphone be a turning point for the company, well that isn't likely. But hey the fact that they are still alive and in business is a miracle on it's own so don't rule them out just yet.

Source gsmarena.

Sony and hackers

Sony just can't get it going, first a lot of financial problems and now even the hackers giving them a hard time.  This time the target was the PlayStation Network.

Sony had previously announced that the network will be shut down on Monday due to routine server maintenance, but what they didn't expect was that the hackers will fallow. Huge DDoS  attack has hit the PlayStation Network, engineers are doing what they can but the network will be shut down for some time. Only good news is that no personal information was accessed by hackers, at least that's what they claim at Sony.

It wasn't long before some group claimed responsibility, this time it was Lizard Squad hackers. PlayStation Network wasn't the only thing they hacked, Blizzard, Riot Games and Grinding Gear were also under DDoS attacks. Looks like Sony got the most of it, and not only that, hackers diverted the flight of Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley to San Diego by stating there is an explosives on-board.

Sony issued a statement regarding these events saying: "Like other major networks around the world, the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network have been impacted by an attempt to overwhelm our network with artificially high traffic. Although this has impacted your ability to access our network and enjoy our services, no personal information has been accessed. We will continue to work towards fixing this issue and hope to have our services up and running as soon as possible. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused."

Sony is just out of luck, the only thing that was selling, and making record sales, was the PlayStation 4. Single handed delivering the company into a fiscal plus in the last financial quarter, and now the PlayStation Network has been hacked. Who knows will this have any impact on sales and will the attacks fallow or is this just the one time thing.

Source shacknews.

New selfie phone by Sony

Selfie smartphones are the new trend, well not yet but big companies are making them. Sony is getting ready to release the new selfie phone named Cyber-shot DSC-KW11 . That probably want be the name on the market, just something it's called at the moment.

Everybody is doing selfies, almost everybody, but hey you have to admit you keep seeing them everywhere. Some of them are OK and some of them are just annoying as hell, people cant go to the bathroom or grab a snack to eat without doing a few selfies. Hate it or love it, they are here and probably here to stay.

Of course companies want to cash in on this madness, because you know big companies are all about giving people what they want and right now people want selfies. So Sony is preparing to launch a new smartphone with a huge front facing camera. t has a 19.2-megapixel swivel camera with f/2.0 wide-angle lens, 1/2.3-inch Exmor RS CMOS sensor and a focal length of 21mm and LED flash on the top. This can rotate 180-degrees.

Phone even looks like a perfume bottle, really don't know if this is good or bad, same say it's great, some hate it, sale results as always will be the ultimate judge. This means it will probably be marketed for women, it should be in stores by October in certain markets. Price is still not known.

Sony isn't the only company that's bringing the selfie smartphone, the king of smartphone cameras Nokia is also planing a selfie phone. Lumia 730 should have a great front facing camera. Looks like this could be the new specification frontier in smartphone wars. Who knows, pretty soon the front facing camera will be better then the one on the back.

Source hardwarezone.

More about Lumia 830

Nokia, the part of Nokia that was bought by Microsoft, the part that is developing smartphones. They are getting ready to release a new device, Lumia 830, and more leaks are on tech websites every day.

Lumia 830 will be the mid-range Windows Phone device, so far low-end and mid-range devices are top sellers from Nokia, high-end devices like Lumia Icon, or 930 for other markets don't get great sale results, no matter that the reviews and the hardware is great.

Whats the most important aspect of almost all Lumia devices, well the camera of course. Lumia 830 is no different, Nokia is often bragging about their camera quality, and honestly they have every right to be proud of them, right now there are at least one step in front of the competition. Camera looks similar to the one on the Lumia 1020, but it's not likely to be 41MP, according to rumors it might be something like 20MP. Still great for a mid-range phone.

Other specifications are not known, display will probably be 4.5 or 4.7 inches in size, with the resolution of 720p or maybe even 1080p. Of course you can expect Windows Phone 8.1 version on this smartphone and running all that will be Snapdragon 800 or 801.

Now that all of these things are put into one device and if Microsoft can make the price be affordable, people could get exited about Lumia 830. Still no official news about when this smartphone will be announced, probably at IFA but will just wait and see about that.

Source wpcentral.

PayPal will seperate from eBay?

If you are shopping or selling something online, you probably know a thing or two about eBay, and whats the best way to move money online, well PayPal of course.

Nothing has been confirmed so far but it looks like PayPal will become it's own firm, separated from eBay. News broke out in the hunt for potential new employees, where the candidates where informed that the company will spin off by 2015. David Marcus left PayPal for Facebook and the company is now looking for the replacement.

This rumor isn't without its foundations. Currently eBay is in competition with Amazon, and this is a war they are not wining. Amazon's profit are increaseing year after year, much faster then profit from eBay. But PayPal is a different animal, so to speak. PayPal has enormous potential, online payments are becoming more popular by the day, not just in some countries but world wide. Take in to consideration that mobile payments are soon to explode. NFC is on almost every new phone, smartphones are set to become your new wallet, so Paypal could expand very fast and very soon.

Evan today most of the money isn't paper and metal coins, it's those numbers you see on cash machines and digital screens. Very soon there want be any money on paper, at this point this isn't just science fiction talk, this is definitely a reality. PayPal and eBay would be crazy not to take advantage of this opportunity, competition might be coming sooner then they think.

Source theinformation.

Steve Ballmer leaves Microsoft completely

Steve Ballmer is no longer CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella is, OK we already know that for some time now. But Steve Ballmer was still a member of the companies board and now he is leaving that position as well.

Recently Steve Ballmer was all over the news, but not on the technology websites, it wasn't anything like that, it was related to basketball. Former CEO of Microsoft become a new owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, after the previous owner had to step back do to racism charges. So it looks like NBA is the new frontier for Steve Ballmer, 34 years in the technology business was enough.

Satya Nadella was quick to respond, this is what he said: “I am sure that you will bring the same boldness, passion and impact to your new endeavors that you brought to Microsoft”.

According to the latest news it looks like Ballmer want be satisfied just with running one NBA team he is also set to become a teacher. Yes that is true, he is about to tech business courses at Stanford. Everybody that watched any of his interviews or live performances so to speak, knows that the guy is full of energy and passion. So don't be surprised if you hear that Ballmer is planing anything else, you never know what to expect from him:

Source businessinsider.

New swimer from Sony

Sony has another smartphone that is not afraid of water. New Xperia M2 Aqua is not only water-resistant but is also has nice hardware specifications.

Lets just sum up what this phone has to offer first. Display is 4.8 inches, with the resolution of 540 x 960 pixels, that's 230 ppi. It has quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 procesor which will allow you to run thing pretty smoothly. System memory is 1024 MB RAM with 8 GB of build-in storage, 5 GB is user storage, you can expand that with micro SD up to 32 GB. Battery is 2300 mAh, nothing major but it will get you trow the day. Back camera is 8 megapixels and front camera is 1.1 megapixel.

Among other things it supports NFC, so you can connect this smartphone with a lot of other Sony devices or any other devices that also support NFC technology. Operating system is Android 4.4 Kitkat and you get all of the Sony available apps on the phone. All of these things combined make this a great mid-range smartphone that's going to be on the market in a few weeks. It will be available in Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

First of all, nice job Sony in bringing us another water proof smartphone, we are glad to see that you didn't give up on this technology and continuing to improve it. Secondly, why aren't other smartphone manufacturers fallowing this example. Everyone wants their smartphone to be water resistant, and almost no other company is developing smartphones that can resist water. People want this to happen, technology is here, so whats the hold up. Sony show them how it's done.

Source cnet.

Robin Williams fan petition for Nintendo

Robin Williams passing and under such a circumstances was a great tragedy. The actor, comedian was loved all over the world by many different people and generations, he will surly be missed.

If you didn't know, Robin Williams was a Nintendo fan and especially a fan of the Legend of Zelda series. He even named his daughter Zelda after the game. Both of them did a commercial for Nintendo some years ago. The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time is one of the best games ever on any console.

After Robin Williams passing, fans started a petition where they want Nintendo to make a non-playable character named Robin, that will be included in the next Zelda game. Fan petition become viral very soon and a lot of fans singed it already so Nintendo decided to address the fans.

Nintendo spokesperson said: “Robin Williams was loved at Nintendo,Our hearts go out to his entire family, and especially to Zelda Williams who we've worked with multiple times. We appreciate the outpouring of support from the gaming community, and hear the request of fans to honor him in a future game. We will not be discussing what might be possible for future games during this difficult time, but we will hold our memories of Robin close.”

So they are not saying anything conclusive just yet, we certainly hope there will be a character named Robin in their new Zelda game, the fans would definitely love it.

Petition was started by Nick Shaedel and this is what he had to say about that: “Robin was an avid player of video games, with a love for all things Nintendo, and a particular love of all things Legend of Zelda, It is well-known that he named his daughter after the series' titular princess. Nintendo of America itself only recently hired him and his daughter to promote the franchise in a series of ads.”

Source screwattack.

Another smartphone chart

People at statista made a new smartphone chart that contains three IT giants, Apple, Microsoft and Google. This is a chart about smartphones and their prices across different platforms. According to this chart Apple and Google are happy with their results, while Microsoft has something to look forward to in the future.

This chart represents second quarter of 2014, where Android manufacturers have shipped 249.6 million smartphones, majority of those phones are still low-end 58.66%. Apple and their iOS platform have a reason to be happy, considering they don't make low-end iOS devices and have only made one mid-range device so far. Their market share is 84.6% of high-end smartphones, keep in mind that these type of devices bring in the biggest profit.

Microsoft is still struggling, but they could have a bright future for their Windows Phone platform. So far most of their smartphones are low-end devices, Android wasn't any different when it got started. Also Windows Phone is faster and better at using limited hardware then Android is, it still doesn't have as many apps but that could change very soon. Also there are many new manufacturers that are planing or already developing smartphones with this operating system, so thing could get interesting really soon.

Of course these chart looks simple, but it isn't, it only tries to simplify things. Smartphone market is huge, spread all across the globe and has to much variables that it could fit in to one small chart. Almost everyone that takes a look will interpret this data differently and that's OK, because there really isn't any clear winner here. As far as the consumers are concern the more competition the better the products, the more innovation there will be and that is all that matters.

Source statista.

Lenovo on the rise

Lenovo is on the rise, at least for their business results. PC market is going down, they don't care they are selling more PC's then ever and smartphone sales are also going up.

Last year Lenovo passed HP and became the biggest PC distributor in the world. This is a title they don't plan to give up, as their sale results are increasing. Whats interesting in their report is that they have actually sold more smartphones then PC's. Lenovo has shipped 15.8 million smartphones and 14.5 million PC's in their last quarter. This is a 39% increase in shipment, compered to the same quarter last year.

Smartphone shipments puts Lenovo at number four smartphone-seller in the world. Keep in mind most of their sales are still in China. This doesn't necessarily needs to be a bad thing, Because China is a growing market and their economy is also on the rise.

In previous months there have much talk about Lenovo, not about heir sale results so much, but rather their accusation of Motorola. China based company bought Motorola from Google for $2.9 billion. So far the plan is to keep the Motorola logo on their smartphones, maybe this is their attempt of making an impact in the western markets. So far they haven't been able to compete against Apple and Samsung outside of China, they are hopping Motorola name will give them that chance.

Motorola name or not, they will still need quality products if they want to succeed on the western markets like USA and EU. This is not something they have been able to pull of so far, but if they want that number one spot in the smartphone sale results this is one area they will have succeed at.

Source lenovo.

Windows "Treshold" preview next month

Windows 8.1 was released just some time ago and it looks like Microsoft is already talking about Windows 9. Of course not the full version but rather the preview version of the brand new operating system.

The current working title is "Treshold", or at least the preview edition will be called by that name and it will be arriving next month or early October. It will be available for anyone to download so it's not just developers this time. Something similar like Apple has been doing with OS X Yosemite. Of course this want be the full version but hopefully we will see some innovations.

Full version of Windows 9 isn't expected until the second quarter of 2015. We will probably see some updates for Windows 8.1 in the meantime and possibly an 8.2 version or higher.

Some of the new innovations that are expected or have been leaked in the meantime are the new Start Menu, people like their Start Menu, this was one of the reasons Windows 8 got a lot of hate at the early stages. Others are Metro-Style applications you can run on your desktop, elimination of Charms bar and virtual desktop. Of course one of the most expected innovations is Cortana integration with Windows 9. Cortana is one of Microsoft's projects that is definite win, almost everyone is loving this application right now and much more is expected int the future.

Another thing that has been rumored in the past is too much Windows from Microsoft. Of course this is about operating systems. There are already three major Windows OS on the market. Windows Phone for smartphones, Windows RT for tablets and the full version of Windows that is also running on some tablets like the Surface Pro lineup. During this year or in the next year we will see some new smart devices like smartwach and VR devices like Oculus Rift. So that means some more operating systems and that is definitely too much. The rumor was that Windows RT and Windows Phone will merge into one OS and that at the moment seems like a good idea, especially considering tablets with RT version haven't really taken off.

Interesting time for Microsoft, the market is changing, new devices are coming out, so they will have to change as well. Windows "Treshold" will be the first step in that direction.

Source zdnet.

Good year for Chromebook

According to the IT analysts at Gartner this will be good year for Cromebook. Sales will increase and so will the profits, looks like Google and partners have a hit product on their hands.

In Gartner report Cromebook sales will reach 5.2 million devices sold by the end of this year. This will be a 79% increase from the last year, huge increase in only one year. However Chromebook sales are not distributed equally around the globe. Almost 82% of their sales are in North America and 85% of that is to education sector. Seems like Google Chromebook is primary an education device, will see if that changes in 2014.

As the biggest reason for their increase in sale, is the low price for Chromebook. PC market is down and tablets are not that cheap, at least not the good ones, all of this makes Chromebook a very competitive device. As you now Google is not a hardware company so you have to look at the manufacturers. Samsung is still the leader with 64%, fallowed by Acer 21%, Lenovo and HP have 6% each.

This year want be the only good year for Cromebook. Sales are expected to increase in the fallowing years as well. By 2017 their sale results will triple as the total number of sold units will reach 14.4 million.

There are still many complaints abot these devices, like the one when your Internet is down Cromebook becomes useless. But regardless to the complaints, sometimes well justified, Google has another operating system that is becoming more and more popular. That is if you can say that Chromebook has an operating system.

Android is ruling the smartphone market with the increase in sale year after year, and now when the PC market is going down, Chromebook sales are going up. People at Google must be feeling pretty good about this report.

Source gartner.

No tablet or laptops at Manchester United games

So far the Manchester United fans were only thinking about the opening game of the season and the much expected arrival of Louis Van Gaal. Now, there are other things to consider when one is going to the football mach at Old Trafford.

Probably the most famous English football club, Manchester United, has baned tablets and other large electronic devices from their home games. So if you are thinking about bringing your iPad to the game, think again, because you will not be allowed to enter the stadium with that device. Even iPad Mini is baned. Only thing that is allowed are smartphones, guess that should be more then enough.

Well, what could possibly be the reason for this decision, maybe the people that are running Manchester United don't want to see the fans of the club clicking on their laptops and tablets. Maybe they just want to see people enjoy the game. No it's not that at all. According to them tablets and laptops are a security risk, apparently a lot of things can be smuggled inside these tiny devices.

At the airport the security checks each device, but that would be impossible on football stadiums. Especially on such as Old Trafford, this stadium holds 75 thousand fans, it would take a long time to search that many people. So instead Manchester United officials just decided to go with the ban on these electronic devices.

Another popular sport club, New York Yankees baned iPads in 2010, but two years later they canceled that decision. People do like their iPads and tablets. Wander will Old Trafford be a tougher nut to crack, and how long will this ban be in place.

Seriously, this doesn't seam like such a though break for the fans of Manchester United. Do we really need to take our tablets to the sporting events, can't we hold on for 90 minutes without this device. And if we really need to take a photo or tweet about something, smartphones are allowed. They should be more then enough for one sports game.

Source bbc.

PlayStation 4 reaches 10 million units sold

Recently Sony reported they where finally making some profit after a long time ant it's mostly thanks to their new generation console PlayStation 4. Just last quarter their profit was up by 757 percent.

No official results were given on PlayStation 4 sale results back then but now during Gamescom Sony has announce that they have reached 10 million sold devices in just nine months. Great results for Sony as the company isn't doing that well in other areas. Nice to see that there is at least one department that's kicking ass.

Console wars are always an interesting topic, lots of people fallow these numbers regardless do they have a next generation console or not. During the previous console wars Xbox 360 was the first to reach the number of 10 million sold and Microsoft beat Sony and went to become the winner in that console war. Wander will 10 million milestone be the key this time, Sony definitely hopes it will.

SCE CEO Andrew House said: "The responses we have received for the PS4 system's unique gameplay experiences powered by the network, along with its vast game portfolio has been phenomenal, and I am absolutely delighted that PS4 was able to reach this commemorative milestone in less than 9 months. We're so grateful for the enormous support from PlayStation gamers worldwide, and we look forward to bringing even more exciting content and services in the months ahead."

He wasn't wrong people that bought the PlayStation 4 are very happy with the gaming console so far. Sure things are not perfect, there will always be some issues and the games that use the power of the new console haven't arrived yet, but the general experience is great.

Console wars have just started, only nine months has passed and already so many developments. Remember these next generation consoles will be on the market for years so it will definitely be interesting to see how things continue to develop.

Source wsj.

California with the kill switch for smartphones

The government is talking about the kill switch, they took the vote and now it's going to become law. When you say like that it doesn't sound very good for anyone. But relax the kill switch in this law is about smartphones.

The state of California has proposed a bill of the smartphone kill switch and the measure has passed the senate with 27 against 8. Overwhelming victory for the kill switch bill. Only thing left now is for the Governor to sign the bill and it becomes state law.

Smartphones are big business these days, practically everyone has one and a lot of them are not cheap, some of them are very expensive. Number of stolen smartphones is on the rise year after year, they are not that hard to steal and once it's gone, there is no chance your going to find it.

Considering phones today are much more then just a list of your contacts. They have a number of apps that hold valuable information about you and about your business. Once smartphone is stolen or lost this kind of information is worth more money then the actual phone, so the kill switch in these circumstances makes sense.

Huge smartphone manufacturers like Apple, Samsung, HTC and others have already agreed to implement kill switch in your smartphone. Guess this technology is ready for the market, only thing left is to see what kind of an impact it will have for ordinary people and will tho number of stolen smartphones finally go down.

Source cnet.

Microsoft vs Samsung Court Battle

If this title said something like Apple vs Samsung there wouldn't be much surprise there, those two companies have been going at it in court and outside of court for years. But this time is not Apple that is having problems with Samsung, another IT giant has decided to sue them, this time it's Microsoft.

In case you didn't know Android is not free, well it is for the user but not for the company that wants to build smartphones with that operating system. Android is using a number of Microsoft patents, so if you want Android on your smartphones you have to pay royalties per-device to Microsoft. Redmond based company has been making a lot of money in the past years from these royalties.

Sumsung however stopped paying royalties ever since Microsoft bought Nokia's hardware department, according to them this was a break of their IP agreement. Of course Microsoft doesn't share this opinion so it looks like another patent war in court is about to happen.

David Howard from Microsoft had this to say : “After spending months trying to resolve our disagreement, Samsung has made clear in a series of letters and discussions that we have a fundamental disagreement as to the meaning of our contract.” and he added “We are simply asking the Court to settle our disagreement, and we are confident the contract will be enforced,”

Considering Samsung is the world biggest manufacturer of Android based smartphones, this would mean a big loss for Microsoft if they just stop paying royalties. Who knows maybe this is just Microsoft's way of saying, hey if you are going to build Android smartphones it's going to cost you. But if you want to build Windows Phone smartphones you can do that for free. Guess if you are a huge company and you want to build millions of smartphones, this kinda makes sense.

According to various analysts and the speed of the courts, this is one lawsuit that could take years to end. Guess by now Samsung is use to being sued.

Source Microsoft.

Netflix Better Then HBO

Netflix is better then HBO, well not better at everything, just in subcriber revenue. This is a very important milestone for Netflix as they a relatively young company.

HBO has been around for decades, ever since 1972, and there is probably no one that hasn't heard about this TV giant and especially about their great TV series. The Sopranos, The Wire, Game of thrones are just some of the series made by HBO. Netflix is becoming more popular by the day and it's nice to see they sett their sight pretty high as they compare them self with HBO.

This news was posted on Facebook by Reed Hastings, this was his post: "Minor milestone: last quarter we passed HBO is subscriber revenue ($1.146B vs $1.141B). They still kick our ass in profits and Emmy's, but we are making progress. HBO rocks, and we are honored to be in the same league. (yes, I loved Silicon Valley and yes it hit a little close to home.)"

Netflix is no longer just a streaming service, they have their own original series. Orange is the new black(12 Emmy nominations) and House of cards(9 Emmy nominations). Great results for such a beginner like Netflix.

Nice to see Netflix having some good result to show us, they definitely deserve it. Just wish they start being available in more countries around the world. List of countries that are not supported by Netflix is still pretty big.

Source facebook.

Facebook and Hollywood

Facebook is going after Hollywood, no it's not another movie about how Facebook got started or it's sequel or something like that. This time they are planing launch movies on Oculus Rift.

Oculus Rift was advertised as just a gaming device, but anyone could see that it has the potential to be much more then that. Ever since Facebook bought the company it become obvious that isn't not going to be a gadget just for games. Social media being the obvious expansion at first, but they also hinted a potential use for education and communication. Looks like right now you can add full-length Hollywood movies to that list.

So far this is just been a rumor, like basically everything surrounding Oculus Rift. According to tech blog The Information Facebook has been meeting with major studio Hollywood executives. What kind of movies are they interested in or when will this even be realized wasn't mentioned.

Movie theaters have been looking to expand the movie experience in these last few years, 3D is almost in every movie but that doesn't mean people actually enjoy this kind of movie experience. Oculus Rift can offer a much different experience as you can move your head and see different parts of the scenery. Something like a mix between movies and games.

This technology offers great potential but it's still a long way from realization. We dont even know when we are going to see Oculus Rift on the market yet, so patience is definitely required.

Source theinformation.

White Xbox One on the way

Microsoft is feeling pretty good about their console sales, New generation console Xbox One has been selling like crazy ever since the release date. Sony has sold more PlayStation's 4 but that's not a reason to complain when your own results are great.

French game retail website put out on sale a new white Xbox One that is coming in package with the game Sunset Overdrive. Both console and the game were available for 399€. Only a few hours after the offer went online it was taken down, apparently Microsoft is still not ready to begin selling their white Xbox One. But hey, this was only a rumor so far, now it has practically been confirmed.

So far the white version of Xbox One was only offered to employs that contributed to the production of the gaming console. Now it looks like it may soon be available for anyone that is willing to buy it. That is if you are in the countries that Xbox One is launched in, there are still may countries that are not on this list.

Nothing has been officially confirmed by Microsoft. This year's Gamescon is being held on 14-17. August maybe we can expect to see the console there.

Source polygon.

Surface Pro 3 in 25 more countries

Latest tablet or hybrid or water you want to call it, Microsoft calls it Surface Pro3, is going to be on sale in 25 more countries by August 28. Device has been in pre-order for same time in these countries that include China, UK and most of Europe. Still to slow for the company that wants to sell hardware world wide, devices should be on the market sooner, and in a lot more countries.

Surface Pro 3 has been for sale in just a few countries, but it did receive all around god reviews. And what's more important people that bought the device are happy and usually have only positive things to say about the experience of using Surface Pro 3.  OK, they been some keyboard issues but nothing major that would ruin the experience. Even the sales are better then with the previous models but that hasn't been officially confirmed.

However there is also a lot of bad news for the Surface department. Poor Microsoft just can't get it going as far as making profit goes. So far since Surface launched in 2012, the companies losses mount up to 1.7 billion dollars. Sure Microsoft had to invest a lot of money in production cost, they just started making hardware so you cant expect immediate results.

People at Microsoft understend that the market is very competitive and you have to sacrifice if you want to make it. Microsoft is no stranger to initial loss of money on their new project, Bing has been losing money for years and even Xbox was in losses all until Xbox 360 started to make actual profit in the gaming department.

How Steve Nadella will react to these numbers is still unknown, as he said the company will focus on services not so much on hardware. We hope that the Surface line doesn't get canceled or soled, because it is really a great product.

Source computerworld.

The Legend of Zelda Monopoly

If you are a big fan of Monopoly and also a fan of Zelda games, you are in luck. The Legend of Zelda Monopoly game is being released on Sept. 15.

Legend of Zelda is very popular Nintendo game that goes back years and has many different titles on many different consoles. Most popular and probably the best ranked is still the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. Who hasn't played this gaming masterpiece really doesn't know what he is missing.

Monoply version of Zelda game will be featuring classic Ocarina of Time troops, The Bow, Hookshot, Boomerang, the Hylian Shield and the Triforce, who you will be moving around the board.  There are no dollars, only Rupees, hotels are Deku Trees, houses are Deku Sprouts and chance cards are empty bottles.

Sounds interesting enough, especially for fans of the game. Pre-oders are available on Gamespot and the game will cost you $39.99.

Source GameStop.

Oculus Rift With a Smartphone Display

Oculus Rift, probably the most anticipated gadget of the year, or is it maybe next year, we still don't know the release date. People all around the world can't wait for this device to hit the stores, but it looks like they will have to wait a little bit longer. So far only developer versions of Oculus Rift are available.

Company got famous after they gathered 2.4 million dollars via Kickstarter, then to the disappointment of many they were bought by Facebook for 2 billion dollars. Of course people are not delighted that Facebook will have accesses to their VR and nobody definitely wants to see adds right in front of their face. Still 2 billion dollars of founds, probably more considering Facebook isn't bad with money, is great to have when your technology is still in development.

Lately there have been a lot of rumors around Oculus Rift and Samsung, something about those two companies working together. People at iFixit tear down the lattes developer version of Oculus and confirmed those rumors to be true. Samsung's OLED display is located in the VR device.

According to iFixit, Oculus Rift is using Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 display for the screen. So what is Samsugn' angle, what are they getting in return. Possibly they are getting paid for the hardware the are sending out, but there are also rumors that the South Korean company might be getting accesses to software developer kit that is used to create virtual reality.

This doesn't mean that the Oculust Rift market version will have the same screen as the developer version. Will just have to wait and see.

Source ifixit.

NASA Building a Gas Station in Space

Age of space exploration has finally came, well that's what one might think just by reading this title. Maybe it's to soon for any serious trips to space but it looks like the technology to build space stations is finally here.

NASA is planing a project where they will launch several space stations into orbit. These space stations will be run by robots, so there probably want be any human crew on board, according to their current plans. Robots that run a space station orbiting Earth, conspiracy theorist will go mad with this news.

Primary purpose of the space station will be to give gas to satellites that are already orbiting around Earth. Satellites in orbit have no way of getting gas, so when they run out of fuel they just crash, which is a big problem because they aren't cheap. Space station will also serve as a mechanic shop to fix other satellites, space is a harsh place and satellites often need fixing.


Bob Granath at NASA had this to say “NASA hopes to add precious years of functional life to satellites and expand options for operators who face unexpected emergencies, tougher economic demand and aging fleets,”

When or will this project ever happen is still not known, no dates or official announcements have been made yet. Just one thing, what happens when the space station runs out of gas?

Source SPACE.

Potato Salad on Kicktarter

Technology blogs have been recently writing about potato salad. Not just any potato salad, but the one that made $55,492 on Kickstarter, bet nobody sow that one coming.

Potato Salad was put on Kickstarter as a joke by Brown and the goal was to make $10, by the end of the Kickstarter project it was at $55,492. Guess people didn't have anything smarter to invest in. Even Brown is laughing at this result, and by the look of things he isn't done, there are others ventures planed for the future. Hey when you can make $55,492 on potato salad you would be crazy not to have new Kicktarter projects.

If you are thinking that Brown is going to Las Vegas with his new earned money, think again. Most of the Kickstarter money will go towards feeding the hungry, and there is also planed a PotatoStock event in Columbus, Ohio on Sept. 27, where all the money gathered from the event will go to fighting poverty and feeding the hungry.

Guess Brown turned up to be a decent guy after all and we can't wait to see any new projects that he has for the future no matter how parodic in nature they will be.

Source POLYGON.

Sony Making Profit Thanks to PlayStation 4

Recent quarters haven't been a financial success for the Japanese company, but it looks like that all could possibly change and it has much to do with the Playstation 4.

Playstation 4 has been selling like crazy in the U.S. and Europe and it's definitely the best selling console of the new generation, not that Microsoft has anything to complain about with their Xbox One sales results. Great success of the gaming console will not be enough for Sony, other parts of the company will have to start making profit if they intend to remain in profit.

This quarter Sony had a net profit of 26.8 billion yen which is a 757 percent better then the same quarter lat year. Amazing, who can even remember when some company had a 757 percent increase in profit. No matter how great these results are Sony is still expecting a yearly net loss of 50 billion yen.

Company is still in reconstruction that is the cause of layoffs and their decision to sell their Viao computer department. Smartphone sales are also not something that the company is happy with so they still have a lot of things to improve on, but hey 757 percent increase in profit is definitely a step in the right direction.

Source JOYSTIQ.

HTC One with Windows Phone

Lately there have been many rumors that HTC will bring us a smartphone that's running Windows Phone operating system. Looks like HTC One(M8) will be that smartphone. What better way is there then to use your flagship smartphone for this opportunity.

Leaked image from PCMag supports this rumor to be true. According to them this phone will be only available on Verizon. Only one photo was leaked s  we can't see the back of the phone but it's probably an Ultrapixel camera that HTC loves to promote.

On this photo you can also se a TV title that is not on any other Windows Phone device, so this smartphone will probably have an IR blaster. Front facing camera is of a wide-angle, which is understandable, because selfies are becoming more popular with each passing day. BoomSound speakers are also visible on the front of the device.

HTC is holding their event on Aug. 19 in New York City where is expected that this smartphone will be officially announced.

Source PCMag.