64% of Gamers Will Not Buy Next-Gen Consoles

According to Reuters 64% of gamers won't buy next generation consoles this Christmas. However this poll is very limited, only 1,297 people participated in the poll. This includes Nintendo 2DS, Steam Machines, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. With all the consoles that are already out on the market, there is definitely a lot of choice for the gamers these holidays.

In the poll people would rather buy PlayStation 4 (26%)  then the Xbox One (15%). Microsoft had a lot of complaints from gamers after they announced the console, because of their decision that you always have to be online and you can't sell your own games. Later they reversed this decision. Sony's console is also cheaper $399. Xbox One is $499 but it includes Kinect while Sony does not include PlayStation Move, witch will cost $60.

Sony announced in Germany that they received more then 1 million pre-orders for the PlayStation 4. Microsoft didn't go into numbers but they did say that pre-orders for the Xbox One are better then of it's predecessor Xbox 360.

Another problem for Sony and Microsoft is that their consoles are on almost 10 year cycle.While many of the new Android consoles will be on the one year cycle. Plus there is a lot of tablets that support game controllers, and it's very easy to connect tablets to the TV. Tablets are already very powerful and with the competitive market they are getting stronger every year. So it's going to be very interesting to see ow long can these next-gen consoles rule the market. Right now even 5 years seems like a stretch.

More on the poll right here.

Garter Recomending Aginst BlackBerry

More bad news for BlackBerry. You didn't think it was possible, well guess again. IT analysis firm Gartner is suggesting all businesses to move away from BlackBerry and find an alternative in the next six months. Their recommendation is based on all the recent news surrounding the Canadian company.

BlackBerry lose in the second quarter were $965 million, they are firing half of their work force and the sales of their new smartphones are terrible. On top of all that, last week they announce they are selling the company for 4.7 billion dollars. Lot less then they were hopping for.

Official report from BlackBerry about Gartner recommendation is

"We recognise and respect external parties' opinions on Blackberry's recent news. However, many of the conclusions by Gartner about the potential impact of a sale or other strategic alternatives, are purely speculative."

Business users are recommended to move to another operating system like iOS, Android or Windows. Because hard times for BlackBerry are not ending any time soon, if they end at all. Most likely solution for the Canadian company is that it's going to be sold in pieces, but that's just rumors for now.

Nokia Lumia 520 Most Sold Windows Device

Smartphone from Nokia is the most sold device worldwide that's running Windows. This includes other smartphones, tablets and PC. This is important information for Microsoft because it shows the change in the market. Number of laptops and PC sales is decreasing, but smarphone and tablet market is on the rise. So it's no wonder that Microsoft is turning to mobile market and this is why their purchase of Nokia was important.

There was no information on how many Nokia Lumia 520 smartphones was sold. Only thing is that Lumia 520 isn't a flagship phone, it's a budget phone. Even whit this still good news for Redmond. Each year more then 3 billion Windows devices are sold, but this includes a lot of different companies.

Nokia is holding their last press event on October 22 in which they plan to announce 6 devices and accessories. One of those devices is their first phablet Lumia 1520. Another device is their tablet Lumia 2520 running WindowsRT. What's interesting about this is that Microsoft has just announced their tablet Surface2, also running Windows RT. So don't be surprised to see that Lumia 2520 gets pulled from the market once Microsoft ownership of Nokia is official. Considering the work and resources that htey put in the making of Surface 2 it's not very likely that they want to compete against their own device.

More will be known once Surface 2 hits the stores and Nokia holds it's event.

Apple Most Valuable Brand

According to statistics coming from Interbrand company Apple is the mos valuable brand in 2013. We all know that technology with the brand of a bitten apple is highly valued by customers worldwide and this report just confirmed that. Putting Apple on top of the list. Until now Coca Cola company was number one, for an amazing 13 years. They are now number 3 behind Google who is number two on the list.

“Every so often, a company changes our lives, not just with its products, but with its ethos. This is why, following Coca-Cola’s 13-year run at the top of Best Global Brands, Interbrand has a new No. 1 — Apple,” official Interbrand report.

Apple brand is worth $98.3 billion, which is an increase of 28% from last year. Google's value increased by 34%. Following them in the top 10 are Coca Cola (+2%), IBM (+4%), Microsoft (+3%), General Electric (+7%), McDonald's (+5%), Samsung (+20%), Intel (-5%) i Toyota (+17%).

Biggest reason for this Apple success is the iPhone lineup witch continues to break records in sales and is known worldwide. But there are other Apple products that cant be ignored like iPad, iTunes witch has more than 50 billion downloads and iMac who's sales results are increasing year by year.

The official report at right here.

Google Glass On Tour

Google Glass is not in sales yet but you just might be able to see it and use it in your town. The company has announced that they are taking the device on tour across United States. Google wants to promote this device and see what regular people think about it. That's right the IT giant is interested in your opinion. The tour starts in Durham, North Carolina on October 5th.

We still don't know how long will the tour last and what cities will the Google team visit. There been rumors that after this tour there is going to be a European tour, but nothing has yet been confirmed.

Nothing has been said about when will Google Glass be released. Hopefully they will talk about release date after this tour.When they get the first impressions from people all around the US.

You can fallow the tour right here

Beats Audio is Buying Shares Back From HTC

Beats Audio witch is owned by Dr. Dre the famous raper and producer is buying back their shares from HTC. In 2010 the Taiwan company bought 51% of shares from Beats Audio, witch aloud them to use their technology in smartphones. Many of the flagship HTC smartphones are equipped with Beats Audio, such as their new flagship phone HTC ONE.

Last year HTC ownership reduced to 25% and now according to the Wall Street Journal, Beats Audio is buying their shares back so they can have full ownership of the company. To buy 25% of shares will cost them $150 million.

What Beast Audio plans for the future is still not known. Will they stop implementing their technology in HTC smartphones. It's no secret that HTC is in some serious financial trouble and the new flagship smartphones didn't help much. Maybe they will continue to work with HTC but they also want to work with other companies.

MicroUSB for EU

The European Union is going to make it mandatory for all mobile devices to be charged with microUSB. Until now EU wanted a voluntary agreement with the companies to make products that are charged with microUSB. While this isn't a problem for most of the companies there are still some that haven't adopted this practice. Looking at you Apple. With this decision EU wants to help consumers who are tired of different cables coming with each different device. Another reason is to reduce down the amount of waste that is coming  from electronic industry.

The ruling still isn't official because the law needs to be voted in the EU Parliament first. But there is a big chance this law is going to be accepted and microUSB is going to be the only charger in the EU for mobile devices.

How will the IT giant Apple react to this decision. They not really known for listening to others, even governments, they like to do things their own way. But hey, EU is a huge market and Apple certainly doesn't want to loose million of costumers. So will they make iPhone with microUSB just for EU or will they include this in iPhones worldwide. Maybe they will do something else, you never know with Apple.

China Game Console Ban Lifted

In China game consoles from foreign companies have been baned for 13 years. It has been a long 13 years for gamers in China. So far the details are not known but the State Council will release months to come.

After this decision it didn't take long for gaming companies to react on this opportunity. According to the rumors Microsoft is already planing ti invest $237 million together with streaming company BestTV. Still waiting to see on what will Sonny and Nintendo reaction be. Maybe the new announced Steam Machines or different Android consoles will see this as an opportunity for a market that's not already being dominated by another console.

The State Council has announced that this decision will be implemented in the next three years. So we still don't have an exact date when will game consoles be sold in China.

Surface 2 and Windows 8.1 Update

Microsoft announced their Surface 2 tablets last week and now it's time to advertise them. One thing the IT giant from Redmond isn't very god at is marketing. At least that's been the case so far with Windows tablets. The company has put much effort in the new tablet lineup so it's  going to be important to them that the sales results are god once tablets hit the market. In the new Surface commercial Microsoft is showing the best of Surface 2 and not attacking iPad like they did before. Witch is definitely a step in the right direction.

Other commercial is for Windows 8.1 which is arriving October 17. In this ad they are showing what upgrades the new operating system is bringing to it's users.Some of the new updates are customizability of the Start Screen, ability to run more than two apps at once, allusive Start button and more. We are happy to see that the Start button is coming back. Who says Microsoft isn't listening to their customers. If you already have a Windows 8 then this upgrade is free.

And if this isn't enough there's more news about Surface 2. Delta company is replacing their manuals and other outdated equipment with Surface 2 tablets. The previous decision from Delta was to equip their staff and pilots with 19.000 Nokia Lumia samrtphones, and there were planing to get the new Nokia Serious tablets, but after Microsoft bought Nokia they decided on Surface 2. This is what Delta company had to say on this decision

“In less than two years, Delta cockpits will be paperless as we roll-out the Microsoft Surface 2 tablet running Windows 8.1 RT as our company-issued device,”

Windows 8.1 and Surface 2 tablets are not even released yet and they are already selling. Looks like Microsoft is serious about taking some market share away from Apple and Android in the market that they are dominating so far.

Netflix HD Streaming

The online streaming service Netflix is now offering HD streaming for all members. Their service Super HD streaming in which you get 1080 HD format is now available for all Netflix subscribers. Until now it was limited to members witch Internet provider was part of Netflix’s Open Connect. The company gave a statement

“Based on the performance data we’ve seen, and in response to member requests, we are now expanding availability to give all our members the ability to enjoy Netflix in the best possible quality,”

They also have a Super HD option witch is available only if you have devices like PlayStation 3, Apple TV and Roku. Netflix is also working on making this services open to all members.

Netfix didn't say anything about bringing their online streaming to other countries. So far they are available in North and South America and just a few European countries. The rest of the world still can't subscribe to Netflix. Another problem is that outside of US number of TV shows that you can stream is very limited. These are definitely some of the problems Netflix has to fix if they are going to be number one online streaming service worldwide.

Valve Announced Steam Controller

On Monday Valve announced SteamOS and on Wednesday they announced Steam Machines and today they announced the final thing remaining the Steam Controller. It really wasn't hard to guess what was coming.

Official statement from Valve

Openness  

 The Steam Controller was designed from the ground up to be hackable. Just as the Steam Community and Workshop contributors currently deliver tremendous value via additions to software products on Steam, we believe that they will meaningfully contribute to the design of the Steam Controller. We plan to make tools available that will enable users to participate in all aspects of the experience, from industrial design to electrical engineering. We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Steam Controller can be use by any device that is running a Steam client, that means you can use it on your Steam Machines and PC.

This was the third and final announcement from Valve, the end of so called Valve week. It still feels like they could of done this with just one event, but hey more pres time is more pres time. Will Valve succeed in their attempt of invading your living room, will see when the devices start selling early next year.

Xbox One Gets a 10 Year Support

Xbox One hasn't been released yet and Microsoft is already promising 10 year support for their new console. Xbox 360 is still selling at the market. The console is eight years old and will still get another three years support from Microsoft, which is a total of eleven years. This is good news for everyone that is thinking of buying the new Xbox One console.

Microsoft Corporate VP Phil Harrison said

“For us, it’s not just about the launch date. It is about the start of the journey where the console will be improved and will be adapted and changed.”

Xbox One is coming to the stores in November, with the price of $499, Kinect is included in the price. According to the rumors preorders from all of the major retailers have been sold out, so we guess this good news for Microsoft. No official numbers have been released yet.

Valve Phase Two: Steam Machines

Valve has just announced Steam Machines. This is their second of the planed three events this week. If you don't remember on Monday they introduced their operating system SteamOS, and you guessed it Steam Machines will be running SteamOS.

However Valve will not be making these Steam machines themselves, they will be made by third party partners. There will be many different hardware developers that will be making different consoles. According to Valve this is the best way of making consoles because there is many different profiles of gamers.

Steam Machine will be in beta phase this year and Valve is offering 300 of them for free. If you are interested go on this link and maybe you will be among the lucky ones that get the free console. We can expect Steam Machines to hit the stores early next year.

The third and final Valve event is on Friday.

Oculus Rift Attack on the Death Star

Still didn't hear about Oculus Rift project, don't worry you will definitely hear something about this gadget in months to come. Oculus Rift is a new technology that's trying to bring virtual reality to people everywhere. It's not released yet but you can order a developer edition that's going to start selling in November. The price is $300.


Boone Calhoun made a demo Star Wars: Trench Run in witch you fly X-wing and try to destroy the Death Star. The X-wing isn't 100% as in the movie but it still looks pretty good. Playing  a game in virtual reality is something the gamers have wanted for many years and Oculus Rift is bringing that to gamers worldwide. Could this project be the revolution in gaming that we are waiting for, time will tell. But we certainly hope so.

Oculus Rift project collected 16 million dollars of investments, 2.4 million was collected on Kickstarter. The second version of Oculus Rift is in the making. It's suppose to be smaller, lighter, wireless, bring 1080p resolution and better motion sensors then the developer edition.

Check out this YouTube video and see how the project works.

 

Curved Smartphone from Samsung

Curved screens for smartphones, you know that technology that almost every company is talking about but no one has yet released a phone with a curved screen. Well Samsung is planing to change that. D. J. Lee form Samsung has announced that the company is launching their first curved smartphone next month.

“We plan to introduce a smartphone with a curved display in South Korea in October,”

This isn't the first curved screen from Samsung, because they are already selling OLED TVs with a curved screen. Curved OLED TVs are still pretty expensive so will have to wait and see what price will the curved smartphone have. South Korean company didn't say anything else about this smartphone so we are still in the dark about specifications and just how flexible will the smarphone be.

People from Samsung also announce that they are launching a new series of smartphones the F series, maybe the F series will be the curved screens lineup.

Smaller Surface from Microsoft

Microsoft announced it's new Surface lineup at the event this Monday, and accourding to the rummors they are already working on the new smaller Surface tablet. Witch is not surprising becouse of their competiton. The iPad Mini and many other Android 7-inch tablets such as Nexus 7 are selling very good and Microsoft can't ignore this.

The new rummored Surface should have a 7.5-inch(4:3) screen whit a display resolution of 1,400x1,050. Will it be called Surface Mini and when is the realese date is still unknown. Probably early next year. Cost of the tablet is another issue, Surface 2 starts at $449 so the smaller version should be cheaper then that if it's going to sell.

Windows 8.1 is going to be released in October, maybe then we will hear more about this smaller Surface.

Apple Paid EA to Postpone Plants Vs Zombies 2

Plants Vs Zombies was a big hit on all platforms. In this game you play the role of the Gardner whose house is invaded by zombies and he uses plants to defend the house. You have to use defensive strategies to kill wave after wave of zombies. The game is addicted and fun.

Plants Vs Zombies 2 was announced some time ago and so far it has only launched on iOS. No Android or Windows version of the game yet. Everyone thought that Apple paid EA for this decision but it was never any evidence, until now. The head of EA Frank Gibbeau made a comment saying

“Apple gave us a truckload of money to delay the Android version [of Plants vs Zombies 2].”

In the past EA has done exclusives with Sony and Microsoft, so why should we be surprised they are doing similar things with Apple. EA doesn't have a great reputation as a company, in the United States EA was voted the worst company two years in a row. They even had more votes than the banks, and we all know how much people hate the banks.

The game should be released on Android next month. In China it was already released on Android and it's selling better than the iOS version. Worldwide the game is a big hit on the iOS with more then 25 million downloads.

PopCap refused to comment on this situation saying

“We can’t comment on internal meetings.”

SteamOS from Valve

Valve is planing to announce three things during this week. First thing they announced was the operating system called SteamOS. This OS is based on Linux architecture. Basically it's free and can be used by anyone.
The new SteamOS want be just for games, Valve is planing to invade your living room. Well this is what is written on their site.

 In-home Streaming

 You can play all your Windows and Mac games on your SteamOS machine, too. Just turn on your existing computer and run Steam as you always have – then your SteamOS machine can stream those games over your home network straight to your TV!

 Music, TV, Movies

 We’re working with many of the media services you know and love. Soon we will begin bringing them online, allowing you to access your favorite music and video with Steam and SteamOS.

 Family Sharing

 In the past, sharing Steam games with your family members was hard. Now you can share the games you love with the people you love. Family Sharing allows you to take turns playing one another’s games while earning your own Steam achievements and saving your individual game progress to the Steam cloud.

 Family Options

 The living-room is family territory. That’s great, but you don’t want to see your parents’ games in your library. Soon, families will have more control over what titles get seen by whom, and more features to allow everyone in the house to get the most out of their Steam libraries.



On the next event we expect they will introduce some hardware that's going to be running SteamOS.

Women 40% of All Gamers

If you think gaming is just for nerdy guys, well let's just say you couldn't be more wrong. Microsoft just announced that 40% of the online service Xbox Live population are women. So if you are looking to meet women Xbox Live isn't a bad place to start.


"That's a giant change from when we launched our platform," said COO Kevin Turner.

These 40% women gamer results are only for the United States. Although they were proud to say that Xbox Live has 48 million members in 41 different countries. They also talked about how consoles are not only for games anymore. Because 42% of Xbox Live members watch over 30 hours of movies or TV each month.

Maybe that's one of the reasons that Microsoft announced it's on TV show Hallo, that is produced by Steven Speilberg.

9 Million iPhones in Three Days

Nothing new here, another Apple product successfully launched. People all over the world waiting in line for the new iPhone. In just three days they sold 9 million of them. So far we don't know how many of those were iPhone 5s and haw many of them were the plastic version iPhone 5c. Last year the iPhone 5 sold 5 million in it's opening weekend .

Because off all this demand right now there is a shortage of the new iPhones, but Tim Cook assures us that they are working hard to make more phones for the customers. This isn't the only record for Apple this weekend, there new iOS 7 is already spinning on over 200 million Apple devices.

The competition is stunned by this results from Apple, some rumors say that Samsung even send spies into the lines in front of Apple stores, so they can find out why are they looking to buy the new iPhone. Yeah good luck with that Samsung.

BlackBerry gets a $4.7 Billion Buyout

Guess this is the month that the former mobile giants are getting sold. Microsoft boutgh Nokia a few weeks ago and now BlackBery is getting sold as well. BlackBerry was in financial trouble for some time, just a few days ago they announced layoffs at the company. Today they agreed to a buyout offered by Fairfax Financial Holding Limited. Fairfax already owns 10% of BlackBerry and they have offerd to buy the rest of the shares for $9 a share and make the company private.


Prem Watsa the CEO of Fairfax said “We believe this transaction will open an exciting new private chapter for BlackBerry, its customers, carriers and employees. We can deliver immediate value to shareholders, while we continue the execution of a long-term strategy in a private company with a focus on delivering superior and secure enterprise solutions to BlackBerry customers around the world.”

However nothing is being said about there plans for the future of this Canadian company. Will they still make phones, will they sell the company in pieces, will they move to another OS like Android? Guess will just have to wait and see what the plans for BlackBerry are.

New Tablets from Microsoft

Big day for Microsoft. Today they announced the new Surface tablet lineup the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2. The event was held by MS Vice President Panos Panay.

Surface 2 Pro

Also known as the tablet for the professional use. Compared to it's predecessor it brings 50% better graphics and color accuracy thanks to Intel Haswell(core i5). Overall performances is 20% increased. Screen is ClearType HD(1080p). Battery life is 75% better then it was with the last Surface Pro. This was the biggest complaint on the last tablet, short battery life. Panos Panay said that Surface Pro 2 is faster then 95% laptops that are currently on the market. It brings 3 USB 2.0 ports and one USB 3.0 port. Screen size is 10.6 inches with the resolution 1920x1080 Full HD. Surface 2 Pro runs the full version Windows 8.

Surface 2 Pro will cost you $899, you can preorder it from 24 September and becomes available at October 22.

Surface 2

There is no more RT in the title of the tablet. Good call on that one. Design is very similar to the Surface RT, except it's easier and thinner. The screen is now Full HD same as the Pro version. The operating system is RT version of the Windows 8.1. Battery life is increased by 25% and it's 4 to 5 times faster then Surface RT.

This isn't surprising considering it comes equipped with Nvidia Tegra 4 chip. Two cameras are included, the front one for Skype calls and the back one for taking photos and videos.

If you buy the Surface 2 you will get a year of Best of Skype service, witch includes free international calls and ability to make calls over wifi. Buyers will also get a 200GB SkyDrive  free for two years. Microsoft is going all out on this one. It looks like they don't want the Surface 2 to have the same fate as the Surface RT.

Price of the Surface 2 is $449.

What would the Surface tablets be without Type Cover. During this event Panos Panay introduced the new Type Cover 2. Witch is 1 mm thinner then the last version, backlit, silent keyboard and comes on multiple of colors. It's going to be available during next year.

Sony Will Loose Money on PlayStation 4

When PlayStation 4 hits the stores Sony will not be making any money from selling the console. In fact they will be loosing money each time they sell a PlayStation 4. This will be minimal loss, somewhere about 60 USD, witch they will get back once a buyer buys a game and gets a PlayStation Plus membership.

Sony is hopping that PlayStation 4 will become profitable much faster then it's predecessor. PlayStation 3 had a high production cost because of the Cell processor, so it only become profitable after a few years of selling.

Microsoft has announced that they will be selling the Xbox One console whithout losses. Xbox One is a 100 USD more expensive but Kinect is included in the price, while with the PlayStation 4 you have to buy PlayStation Move separately.

Both companies Sony and Microsoft have invested a lot of money in their next generation consoles, so we guess these console wars should be interesting. Witch will be the best thing for the gamers worldwide.

Tim Cook joins Twitter

The CEO of Apple Tim Cook become active on twitter. He wrote his fist tweet on Friday, it was a promotional tweet about the just introduced iPhone 5 lineup.


"Visited Retail Stores in Palo Alto today. Seeing so many happy costumers reminds us why we do what we do"


So far Tim has over 185.00 followers and he is following twenty other users, among those are Bill Clinton and the Catholic Pope. Last week at the Apple event where they introduced the iPhone 5s and the plastic iPhone 5c, Tim Cook said that the iPhone is environmentally friendly because

"It's arsenic free, mercury free and Android free"

If Tim can make tweets like this he is definitely the guy you want to follow on this social network. Doesn't really matter if you are an Apple fan or not.

You can follow Tim Cook at @tim_cook

Microsoft Office for iPad and Android

Earlier this year Microsoft has released  their Microsoft Office app for the iPhone. However they did not release this app for iPad or any other Android based tablet. According to Steve Ballmer they are already working on bringing MS Office to iPad and Android tablets. The only tablet that supports MS Office at this time is Surface RT.

This is not the first time that Microsoft is bringing their programs to other operating systems. The company has already released SkyDrive, Skype and OneNote for Android and iOS. This is definitely a positive example by Microsoft and something that other companies should do in the future.

Maybe we will here more about this on Microsoft event this Monday, where they plan to introduce the new Surface tablet lineup.

Apple and Samsung Working Together

Almost everybody knows about rivalry between Samsung and Apple. They been publicly accusing each other of different things, they have been a few law suits and much more.  It's easy to say that these companies are not in best of terms. But what most people don't know is that these two companies are working together.

Apple has been looking for someone to take production of A7 chips away from Samsung but they just can't find anyone at this time. The new iPhone 5s has an A7 chip that is being manufactured by Samsung. So I guess it's gone be some time before Apple finds somebody good enough that can take the manufacturing of their A series chips away from the South Korean company.

However Apple is not totally relying on Samsung to manufacture components for their devices. They had better luck finding someone for the M7 chip that is also in their new iPhone 5s. M7 is being produced NXP semiconductors a company from Netherlands.

NASA Needs Workers

Need a job but you're not all that crazy about working. Well NASA has a solution for you. They are hiring people just lay down in bed and do nothing. First you have to go through a trial period that last about a week and then you get the job. The job last for 70 days and it pays 5000 dollars a month.

The goal of this study is to collect data about effects of microgravity on your body. Because laying in bed resembles the conditions that astronaut will encounter in space when they are not in earth gravity field. NASA wants to know what happens to humans bones, muscles, blood and digestion during this period.

During this 70 day period everything you do will have to be while laying in bed. Eating, drinking and even showering will be in bed, plus you will be allowed to watch TV, play video games and anything else you want to do while laying in bed.

NASA has been doing studies like this since 2005. So if you are from USA you can send your application for this job right here.

New Layoffs at BlackBerry

BlackBerry just can't get things going in the right direction. Evan with the release of the new operating system and same new smartphone thins are still looking pretty bad for the company. Guess putting Alicia Keys as the creating director didn't have much effect.

After BlackBerry stock's dropped another 20% the company has announced that they will be firing 40% of their work force, witch means somewhere around 4500 people will loose their jobs. It is expected that their revenue loss will be somewhere around 950 million dollars. I wonder will the creative director aka Alicia Keys be among those 40% workers that get fired.

Canadian company has hinted several times that they are interested in selling but it seems that there is nobody interested in buying. Microsoft has been rumored as a potential buyer but after their purchase of Nokia this is very unlikely.

iOS 7 at 18%

One day after Apple released iOS 7, the operating system is already on 18% of Apple devices. Of course this statistic isn't worldwide, this is only for North America, USA and Canada. Compared to the iOS 6 this is   a new record for Apple, iOS 6 within the first day made it to 16% of the devices. This is just a great example that's showing how control of both hardware and software is the best way to go.

At Apple they are expecting more god news with their new iPhones 5s and 5c hit the stores in the next few days. They expect about 5 or 6 million devices sold in just a few days. Witch is an increase in sales compered to the last iPhone 5.

Microsoft Trade Program

Microsoft started a trade program last week for Ipad users who want to switch to the Surface tablet, and now the trade program is getting even bigger. Last week you could switch to Surface only from iPad and from today you can switch from Samsung and Blackbery, you can also switch to the WindowsPhone device, so it doesn't have to be just a Surface tablet.

This system is backed by Clover Wireless that is offering private label trade-in program. It works that you select what you want to buy, a phone or a tablet and then you send your old device. In return you will get a prepaid debit Visa card.

Microsoft is holding an event on Monday in witch we expect they will announce the new Surface tablet. Si if you are looking to switch to Windows device, it's been made a lot easier by Microsoft.

iOS 7 Now Available for Download

After last weeks announcement of iOS 7, Apple has officially made it possible for you to download the new software. New upgrade is available for iPad mini, iPad 2 and above, iPhone 4 and above, iPod touch(5th generation). While upgrading your data and apps will not be deleted but you should make backup just in case.


With the new design iOS 7 is bringing more then 200 new features compered to the last iOS 6. The new operating system is bringing advanced multitasking, redesigned apps of Camera and Photo, new control center, more advanced Siri that is no longer in beta phase, AirDrop and full screen surfing while in Safari browser.

Google Looking to Cure Death

Can Google cure death? The IT giant Google has announced that they are starting a new project named Calico. The mission of this project is to cure illnesses and stop the aging process. If this was any other company people would just laugh and think this was a joke but with the company like Google investing big money into this project you have to take them seriously.

The CEO of Google Larry page said "Illness and ageing affect all of our families. With some longer term, moonshot thinking around healthcare and biotechnology, I believe we can improve millions of lives." He then added that it will take up to 10 or 20 years to see the results of this project.

The CEO of Calico will be Arthur D. Levinson, the chairman of Apple, and even Tim Cook agreed with this decision saying Levinson is the perfect candidate for this job.

Samsung Alredy Working on Galaxy Gear 2

The first smartwatch from Samsung, the Galaxy Gear  was announced just a few weeks ago and Samsung is already talking about Galaxy Gear 2. Galaxy Gear was announced together with Galaxy Note 3 and for now  it is the only smartphone capable of connecting with the Galaxy Gear smartwatch. We still don't know the sales result for the Galaxy Gear, but it's obvious that Samsung feels they have done something right with this gadget.


According to reports Galaxy Gear 2 is already in development and it's bringing many improvements like longer battery life, integrated gps, and support for many other phones running Android. Galaxy Gear 2 should be announced in early 2014 at Consumers Electronic Show (CES) in January or at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February.

Grand Theft Auto V Sales Record

Grand Theft Auto V has made 800 million dollars worldwide on it's first day. Beating Call of Duty: Black Ops witch was the previous record holder on first day sales. Call of Duty: Black Ops made 500 million on the first day. GTA V wasn't realised in all countries today so that 800 million dollars number could go up.

First reviews of GTA V are great, it's getting top scores almost everywhere and some are considering this could be the greatest game of this generation. The game is r rated and contains a lot of drug use, violence, nudity and sex. GTA V is an open world game and Rockstar studios are very good in creating games of such type.

Grand Theft Auto V is also the most expensive game ever made, the game budget was 265 million dollars.

Nokia New Event

Save the date: 22 October 2013 is the only thing that is said on the new tweet from Nokia. We see a few guys skiing in the desert, a few hashtags and that's pretty much it. It's still not known where this event is going to be held.

What is expected is that Nokia will introduce their new flagship phone the 6-inch Lumia 1520. It's going to be the first Nokia phone with Full HD, and also the first phablet from Nokia. The other thing Nokia may introduce is their first tablet that's running Windows RT. But since Microsoft bought Nokia the fate of this tablet is unknown. Microsoft Surface tablets that are running Windows RT are not selling very vell, so it's very unlikely that Microsoft is interested in creating competition for the Surface RT.

For more news on this event follow the #innovationreinvented

Diablo 3 Auction House Shutdown

On many occasions Blizzard admitted that they regret the auction house in Diablo 3, both the real money and the gold money auction house. With this in mind Blizzard has been recently developing the new loot 2.0 system that should solve this problem.

They have just announced that they will be shutting down the auction house on March 18, 2014. Shutdown will include the real money and gold auction house. The company has posted a video on youtube in which they explain this new auction house update.

It's very rare that big companies like Blizzard admit there mistakes, and especially in such an open way, so Blizzard definitely deserves big respect for this decision. With the auction house out of the way Blizzard can focus on their recently announced expansion for the Diablo 3 the Reaper Of Souls, witch should bring better gameplay, new quests and the new loot 2.0 system.

Pebble is not for sale

Smartwatch Pebble become world famous before it was launched. During the kickstarter campaign they raised over 10 million dollars, witch is still a record for kickstarter. So far they have sold over 85.000 smarwatches.

The founder of Pebble Eric Migicovsky isn't too concerned with the competition from Sonny, Samsung and Apple. According to Magicovsky smartwatches should "flow into the background" so that people can use them without difficulty and not force people to make changes in their lives because of the smartwatch.

When asked about the company future Eric Migicovsky said that they are working on building an ecosystem for Pebble witch will allow developers to make new applications. According to Magicovsky Pebble is a young company and is not interested in selling, they still haven't had any offers but even if such offer arrives they wouldn' be interested in selling.

Nokia Lumia 1520

New Nokia smartphone Lumia 1520 hasn't been announced yet but we pretty much know everything there is to know about this device. Lumia 1520 will be the first phablet from Nokia and the first phablet running WindowsPhone operating system. It has a 6 inch screen cable of full HD. It comes with 20-MP pureview camera, quad core snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM and 3400 mah battery.

The estimated price is 699$ (524€), so it's going to be the most expensive WindowsPhone so far. We expect the Lumia 1520 will hit the stores later this fall. Maybe Nokia will announce the  phablet together with their new Windows RT tablet later this month.

Apple next event

Apple last event was held last tuesday where they announced the new iphone 5s and budget iphone 5c. According to the french website Macgeneration, the new Apple event is to be held on Oct. 15. We expect they will use this event to introduce the new ipad and ipad mini, and maybe talk about OS X Maveric.

The big question is will ipad mini get the retina display and will they introduce the fingerprint scan like they did on the new iphone 5s. Who knows maybe Apple will surprise us all and talk about iwatch and itv, but don't hold your breath on that one.