Samsung already working on Galasy S5 mini version

We already know that Samsung is going to release the mini version of its Galaxy S5 flagship, just like it did for the Galaxy S4 last year. The upcoming Galaxy S5 mini has already been leaked via a case maker, and today Samsung has confirmed one of the features of the device.

Apple to make its iWatch in collaboration with Nike

According to sources close to Apple that got in touch with Techmaniacs.gr the Apple smartwatch (dubbed iWatch) may be conceived in collaboration with long-time fitness band maker Nike.

Apple has a long relationship with Nike involving fitness tracking accessories and iPhones have carried the Nike+ app out of box before. According to said sources Apple and Nike will be making the iWatch with focus on tracking more than just fitness but also the user’s constant movement.

Finally here : Microsoft Officially Completes Acquisition of Nokia Devices and Services Business

Microsoft has announced it's completed its acquisition of the Nokia Devices and Services business. The acquisition has been approved by Nokia shareholders and by governmental regulatory agencies around the world. The completion of the acquisition marks the first step in bringing these two organizations together as one team.

“Today we welcome the Nokia Devices and Services business to our family. The mobile capabilities and assets they bring will advance our transformation,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “Together with our partners, we remain focused on delivering innovation more rapidly in our mobile-first, cloud-first world.”

Google, Apple, and other tech companies make $324m anti-trust settlement

Google, Apple, Intel, and Adobe all found themselves wrapped up in an anti-trust lawsuit that will have them forking over $324m in damages from former employees.

The basis of the lawsuit brought against the aforementioned companies was that they made agreements that they would not hire employees who previously worked from the other companies. For example, an ex Adobe employee wouldn’t be able to secure a job at Google, an ex Apple employee with Intel and so on and so forth.

Popular anti-theft Android app Cerberus is free today

Popular anti-theft service Cerberus has been the guarding angel for Android smartphones for the last three years and that’s exactly what it is celebrating now with a free-for-all frenzy. For the next 30 hours (about 20 hours from the time of writing), Cerberus is free for everybody.

Normally, the app costs €2.99 (about $4) for a lifetime license. Once you get a license, you can install the app on five separate Android devices and be able to locate them in addition to SIM lock, set up device alarms, remote lock and wipe and take pictures.
The latest version of the app released today adds Radar Mode, which in addition to helping you locate your phone via GPS, also turns on hotspot so that you can guide yourself to the lost phone using the signal strength for pinpointing.
We’ve even featured the app (albeit an earlier version of it) in our Set up your Android review article. So, wonder no more and hit the source link below and register your Cerberus account now. The promo ends 6 AM (GMT) on April 26.

Apple Expands Capital Return Program to Over $130 Billion

Apple today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized another significant increase to the Company’s program to return capital to shareholders. The Company expects to utilize a total of over $130 billion of cash under the expanded program by the end of calendar 2015.

As part of the program, the Board has increased its share repurchase authorization to $90 billion from the $60 billion level announced last year. The Company expects to continue to utilize about $1 billion annually to net-share-settle vesting restricted stock units.

Apple Announces Second Quarter Results of $45.6 Billion in Revenue, $10.2 Billion in Net Profit

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2014 second quarter ended March 29, 2014.

The Company posted quarterly revenue of $45.6 billion and quarterly net profit of $10.2 billion, or $11.62 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $43.6 billion and net profit of $9.5 billion, or $10.09 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.3 percent compared to 37.5 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 66 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple Agrees to Settle Lawsuit Over Anti-Poaching Agreements

Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe have reportedly agreed to settle a class action lawsuit over their no-hire agreements in Silicon Valley, reports Reuters.

Tech workers filed a class action lawsuit against Apple Inc , Google Inc, Intel Inc and Adobe Systems Inc in 2011, alleging they conspired not to poach one another's employees in order to avert a salary war. Trial had been scheduled to begin at the end of May on behalf of roughly 60,000 workers in the class.

The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed.

Google Agreed to Take Over Defense of Some Claims in Apple vs. Samsung Case

A lawyer for Google testified yesterday that the company has agreed to take over defense of some of the claims in the Apple vs. Samsung case and compensate Samsung should it lose on those claims, reports Re/code.

Apple played deposition testimony from Google lawyer James Maccoun, who verified emails in which Google agreed to provide partial or full indemnity with regard to four patents as well as to take over defense of those claims. Of the four patents Google over which offered to cover at least some costs, two were dropped from the case before the trial began. The two patents that remain in the case, the ’414 and ’959 patents, cover background synchronization and universal search, respectively.

Galaxy S5 sells twice better than Galaxy S4, UK retailer says

It's customary for manufacturers to try and build up hype for their newly launched smartphone by talking up their sales numbers. Samsung made no exception to this, saying that its new Galaxy S5 flagship sold 30% more units than its predecessor on launch day.
Back then many expressed doubts that this is more due to the far wider launch - 125 vs 63 markets, while demand in developed markets has actually stayed pretty much the same. It's a common assumption that the high-end segment in those has reached saturation point and growth is next to impossible to achieve.

Facebook acquires the mobile fitness app: Moves

The company behind the popular fitness tracking app Moves announced that it got officially acquired by Facebook. Financial details of the transaction have not been revealed.

Like Instagram and Whatsapp, Moves will continue to operate independently. The developers of the application will not share data with Facebook for the time being.
Moves is available for both Android and iOS. Launched in January 2013, the activity tracking app has raked in more than 4 million downloads to date.

Samsung S5 outsells iPhone 5s over launch weekend

The Samsung Galaxy S5 scored more sales in its launch weekend than the iPhone 5s in its respective period. More specifically, the Galaxy S5 snug 25% and 18% of the smartphone market share in the USA and Canada for that period. The iPhone 5s did slightly worse at 18% market share in the US and 13% in Canada.

Nokia - Microsoft deal completes on April 25

Nokia and Microsoft had already received green light for the merger from the European Commission and the US Department of Justice long ago and the Chinese regulatory authorities also gave their approval for the merging of Nokia with Microsoft just a few days ago.

Nokia Oyj will soon be renamed to Microsoft Mobile Oy

The Microsoft acquisition of Nokia Devices and Services is expected to close later this month and to prepare for the transition a letter has been sent out to Nokia's supplier base. The letter, which has leaked online, suggests that Nokia Oyj will get a new name: Microsoft Mobile Oy.

Facebook reports first quarter 2014 financial results

Facebook has reported the financial results for the first quarter of 2014. The company reported revenue of $2.5 billion, up by 72% over the same period last year. Revenue from advertising was $2.27 billion, up by 82% from the same period last year.

Facebook also reported the numbers for the active users using the service. Currently, Facebook is clocking in at 1.28 billion monthly active users, a 15% growth compared to last year, along with 1.01 billion monthly active users from mobile devices, a solid 34% increase over last year.
Facebook also announced that the company’s CFO David Ebersman will be stepping down later this year and will be succeeded by David Wehner, former CFO of Zynga.

Sony FMP-X5 will add 4K HEVC streaming support to older 4K Bravias

4K TVs are slowly growing in popularity but to enjoy them to their fullest potential, you’ll need a good 4K video source. Sony’s 2012 and 2013 4K TVs don’t have native HEVC decoding, but the company is correcting this oversight with the new FMP-X5 player.

Samsung data center fire causes error messages on products

A Samsung data center caught fire today, shutting down Samsung.com.

That wasn’t the only tech casualty from the fire, however, as various Samsung products, including Smartphones and TVs, were adversely affected.

Nike lays off hardware division, abandons FuelBand

Some gloomy news coming out of Nike today as reportedly the company has laid off its hardware division, responsible for wearable devices such as the FuelBand. For those not aware, the FuelBand was a popular fitness device worn around your wrist that tracked your daily activities with Nike’s mobile and desktop software.

According to CNET who broke the news, about 55 of the 70 people hardware team were laid off. Along with the FuelBand, the hardware division was also responsible for products such as the Nike+ SportWatch.

Samsung celebrates 45th anniversary by opening Innovation Museum in Korea

Yesterday Samsung celebrated its 45th anniversary by unveiling a museum dedicated to the history of innovation in Suwon, South Korea.

The museum is dedicated to showing off Samsung products and inventions, as well as those from some of its competitors. Notably absent, however, are Apple and crosstown rival LG.
Samsung CEO Kwon Oh-hyun, who unveiled the museum yesterday, had this to say:

Nvidia SHIELD successor to feature Tegra K1 chipset and 4 GB of RAM

The upcoming successor of the Android-based handheld gaming console SHIELD will feature Nvidia’s premium K1 chipset clocked at 2.5 GHz, according to a leaked AnTuTu benchmark result.

Nvidia SHIELD’s sequel is said to come out with 4 GB of RAM and is rumored to sport a Kepler graphics processing unit with 192 CUDA cores. The upcoming device has managed to score a whopping 44,500 points in the AnTuTu benchmarking.
If the rumors are to be trusted, the next-generation handheld console will sport a 1440 x 810 pixels resolution display, 0.3 megapixel front facing shooter, 16 GB of internal memory and Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system.
Given the fact that the benchmark results can be easily faked, we suggest you to take it all with a pinch of salt.

Apple’s patents are worth pennies per feature

Samsung and Apple have participated in more than their fair share of court battles with one another, and the cases mostly have revolved around Apple’s patents.

However, Yale professor of economics and finance, Judith Chevalier, has deemed the worth of Apple’s patents as negligible, and that the Cupertino based tech giant is greatly overestimating the value of its patents.

WhatsApp reaches 500 million users

Popular IM service WhatsApp has reached the 500 million users milestone. And it’s not just the total number of users the service has but active users who use the service regularly.

This comes shortly after the company was acquired by Facebook, although WhatsApp had a healthy 450 million users at the time of acquisition. The majority of the growth comes from countries like Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia, with India alone having 48 million WhatsApp users.
One of the reason the service is so popular in developing nations is sheer number of platforms the service is available on, which includes iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Symbian and S40, unlike many other services that are only available on iOS and Android.
The service has remained unaltered since the Facebook acquisition and is expected to remain that way.

Facebook introduces ‘Nearby Friends'

Facebook has announced a new feature for users of their mobile apps. Called Nearby Friends, the feature is designed to let you catch up with your friends on Facebook if they are close to your location.

Nearby Friends obviously requires you to share your location with your friends for it to work but you can choose whom to share it with. Your friends also need to enable sharing with you for you to see them. Once enabled, you will get notifications when your friends are nearby. You can also share a precise location so that people can see where exactly you are on a map.
The feature will be available on iOS and Android in the US in the coming weeks and is disabled by default. It’s a little useful but also a little creepy. Just like the rest of Facebook.

By Atelier dresses Samsung Galaxy S5 and Gear Fit in crocodile leather

In case you find that faux leather look on the back of the Samsung Galaxy S5 a tad too cheap, don’t despair, By Atelier has you covered! The young French Luxury brand released a limited edition of Samsung’s latest smartphone and the Gear Fit in orange alligator leather.

Sony Xperia Keyboard is now available on Google Play Store

Sony Mobile has officially released its Xperia Keyboard app on the Google Play Store. However, it appears that the only reason why Sony submitted it is so it can easily update it in the future, without having to release full firmware updates for that.

Microsoft sells 5 million Xbox One units, Sony 7 million PS4s

Both Microsoft and Sony have revealed their sales figures for their respective consoles since they launched and things are looking better for the PlayStation camp. According to Microsoft’s figures, the Xbox One sold 5 million units since launch whereas Sony claims to have sold 7 million PlayStation 4 consoles.

Upcoming PlayStation 4 update to add SHAREfactory video editor

Sony has announced a new feature for the upcoming 1.70 update for the PlayStation 4 console. Called SHAREfactory, it is a video editor that will let you piece together your captured game footage and create a short movie out of it.

Version 3.0 of Group Play by Samsung brings new UI and functionality

Samsung updated its Group Play app which debuted last year on the Galaxy S4. Version 3.0 of the application brings users new features, dressed in new, flat UI.

The most notable new feature brought by the updated app is dubbed Group Camcorder. As its name suggests, it allows users to pair up to four compatible devices and capture video footage from their cameras. The host/director of the exercise can subsequently merge and edit the content from all devices.

For the time being, Group Camcorder appears to be working only on Samsung Galaxy S5 devices. I doubt however, that it will be a long wait before the feature makes its way to the rest of the company’s range of high-end devices.

Samsung Gear Fit flexes silicon muscles in a tear down!!!

The iFixit team has been all over Samsung’s latest offerings in both the smartphone and wearable departments. The latest gadget to pay their tool shop a visit is the Gear Fit.

The Gear Fit is easily removable from its wristband with a simple push and this enables wristband makers to offer a wide variety of options. As you’d expect in a device that’s so small, everything is soldered on the main chip with only the display, battery and shell being stand alone parts.

Facebook app to lose chat funcionality, Messenger to take its place

According to a report by Mashable Facebook will soon disable the Chat function from its main app and push that functionality solely to its Messenger app.

A Facebook spokesperson has allegedly confirmed that the chat function of the Facebook app will soon be taken out from the iOS and Android app. Even now, some users in Europe are receiving a notification of the upcoming change.
Soon, Facebook will push an update for its main app, which will redirect the chat to the Messneger, if you already have it installed. The company will issue a series of alerts and notifications before the change goes through, but the change is going to happen whether you like it or not.
What do you think of needing two separate apps in order to fully make use of Facebook?

Samsung Gear 2 smartwatch gets great repairability score in teardown

How easy are watches to repair? Mechanical watches take years for a watchmaker to learn his skill, but digital smartwatches seem to be a whole lot easier if the Samsung Gear 2 is any indication.

iFixit took it apart quite quickly and gave it a high 8/10 repairability score. That’s very impressive for a IP67-certified watch.

Microsoft pulls support plug on Windows XP and Office 2003

Dating from way back in October of 2001 Windows XP has been Redmond’s most highly regarded OS until Windows 7 hit in October 2009 and for many traditionalists even after that.

And now after 13 years of service the OS is finally getting dropped by Microsoft, which has issued its last security update to the OS yesterday and will not issue more. In its statement Microsoft urges users to either upgrade their current PCs with a more recent Windows install or altogether buy a new machine (the company even has a link to latest Windows 8 machines readily awaiting your click).

Cheaters in Britain use Samsung phones the most

 Suspect that your significant other may be seeing someone behind your back?

Well you may want to check and see if they’re using a Samsung cell phone if you have your doubts about their fidelity.
AshleyMadison.com, for those of who you don’t know, is a site that connects people who are married but want to cheat on their spouses.
54% of all men and 48% of all women who frequented the site used Samsung devices to engage in their unscrupulous ways.

Voice calls could be right around the corner for WhatsApp users

WhatsApp’s highly anticipated voice calling capabilities, which were hinted at by WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum at MWC earlier this year, could be going live any day now.

The latest translation requests for Hindi volunteers on WhatsApp’s official Translation Portal show entries for Hang up, Incoming call, and Outgoing call – indicating that the Facebook-owned company is just about ready to make voice services a reality for its app.

Although far from a sure thing, translation requests usually mark one of the final steps which a developer takes before outing a product, as that typically means the core functionality is finalized.
Furthermore, Jan Koum indicated at MWC would come to Android and iOS WhatsApp users this spring, so we could even see the anticipated release in the coming days. Stay tuned!

SK Hynix develops 128GB DDR4 RAM module

South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix has announced that it has developed the industry’s most advanced double data rate 4 modules with 128 GB of capacity.

The new DDR4 modules are based on Through Silicon Via (TSV) technology and will significantly improve speeds and efficiency. TSV also allows the dynamic random access memory – popularly known as DRAM – to be connected with higher electrical efficiencies.
According to the manufacturer, the 128GB DDR4 module can reach speeds of 2,133 megabits per second as compared to DDR3′s 1,333 Mbps. Furthermore, it consumes less power as it works on 1.2 volts, while its predecessor was designed to run on 1.35 volts.
The mass production of the new 128GB DDR4 RAM model is expected to begin by the first half of 2015.

Samsung’s telephony-enabled smartwatch to be called Gear Solo

Some people are unhappy that smartwatches need the support of smartphones to do anything interesting. Those people would prefer if smartwatches could do at it alone – according to The Korea Herald, Samsung will make just such a watch, dubbed Samsung Gear Solo.

Samsung has filed a patent with the Korean Intellectual Property Office for the Gear Solo name, but that name might change before the smartwatch hits the market.
The Gear Solo will pack a SIM card for independent mobile connectivity – both data and voice. The device will initially be available for SK Telecom, which is developing the watch alongside with Samsung, but a worldwide rollout shouldn’t be ruled out.
Samsung has a watch phone before there was such a thing as “smartwatches” back in 2009. That one used a relatively large miniSIMs (compared to today’s nanoSIMs) and ran an unnamed proprietary OS. Speaking of which, it’s not clear what Samsung will do with the Gear OS now that Android Wear is official – the company just dropped Android in favor of its own Tizen OS.

Windows Phone 8.1 keyboard takes Guinness Record

Windows Phone’s software keyboard is loved by many, and even from the Mobile OS’ debut, was hailed as one of the best features the platform had to offer.

Not content with their current success, Microsoft has managed to one up their previous software keyboard, and nab a Guinness world record in the process with their new ‘Word Flow’ keyboard.
Flow comes with Windows Phone 8.1, and when Microsoft designed the software keyboard, they did so with the intention of shattering text-message typing records. And they did just that. Check out the video below, from MicrosoftResearch, to see how they accomplished it.

12 million iPads now have Office installed

It has only been a week since Microsoft launched its Office suite on the Apple iPad but it has already been downloaded more than 12 million times.

Microsoft seems really pleased by this so it went on Twitter to boast a little. Office offers free viewing Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. In order to edit and create, however, one would need to shell out $10 a month for Office 365 subscription. How many of those has Microsoft secured since the apps became available on the iPad isn’t disclosed.

Samsung launches Galaxy S5 wireless charging covers

Samsung has officially launched the wireless charging cover for its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S5. The new accessory will be available in two options – a standard back plate with Qi charging module and S-View flip cover model.

The wireless charging back covers for Galaxy S5 come with perforated holes and look identical to the stock cover. The company has managed to retain the gaskets from the original design in both models and this means that your Galaxy S5 with an external cover will continue to be water resistant.

 This is not a joke! Nokia X has just arrived the Nigerian market and joined our review queue. The Finns’ first Android-based handset running on the so-called Nokia X Software Platform is quite interesting indeed, so naturally we gave it our traditional hands-on treatment.

Nokia X platform is based on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, with Microsoft services in its core replacing Google’s, plus a proprietary lightweight and Asha-like launcher.

Lenovo announces new A-series tablet line

Lenovo, fresh off the double acquisition of Motorola Mobility and IBM’s low-end server division, is keen on pushing out profit-yielding devices to start off the quarter.

To this end, it has outed its new A-series tablet lineup, which will feature a wide range of competitively priced tablet models including the A7-30, A7-50, A8 and A10.
The A7-30 and A7-50 are both quad-core 7-inch tablets aiming to bring excellent portability. The A7-30 features dual Dolby-enhanced speakers on the front, while the A7-50 model has an HD display. Both are 3G-capable and are available in a variety of colors.

Spanish CaixaBank to deploy 30,000 Nokia Lumia 925 units to its employees

Nokia announced earlier today its partnership with Spanish CaixaBank to deploy 30,000 Lumia smartphones to its employees. The deal includes the Lumia 925, after it was put under various testing programs.

CaixaBank employees will have the option to upgrade their Lumia 925 to newer Nokia devices in the future. The company also says its employees will be given the opportunity to acquire Nokia phones for their personal usage as well as for family and friends.

Marvell hit with $1.54 billion court verdict for willful patent infringement

A District court in Pittsburgh has ruled today that U.S. semiconductor company Marvell has knowingly infringed on two hard disk patents held by Carnegie Mellon University.

Judge Nora Barry Fischer has ruled that the university has proven that the manufacturer has deliberately copied its patents, awarding enhanced damages to the extent of $1.54 billion.
Judge Fischer found the evidence so overwhelming that she has awarded enhanced damages greater 1.23 times greater than that $1.17 billion the jury awarded the University back in December 2012. This also includes another $79.6 million in damages for additional infringements.

BlackBerry Messenger gets support for stickers

BlackBerry’s just released premium stickers in its BBM service. The feature was initially released as part of the limited external beta app but is now available for all users on all the platforms where the service is available.

The stickers need to be downloaded from the official store from within the app and most of them are paid. I’m not sure how interested users will be in paying for stickers, that too on BBM, but BlackBerry clearly thinks it is doing the right thing here.
Other than stickers you can now also share images in group chats and share higher resolution images or files as large as 16MB now.
If you use BBM, you can download the latest update on iOS or Android to get the stickers feature.

Line messenger reaches 400 million registered users

Line, the instant messaging app from Japan, has announced that it reached 400 million registered users, after hitting the 300 million mark in November last year. Note that “registered” is different from “active” users, a number which Line did not unveil.

The instant messenger boasts that it now has over 10 million users in 10 countries (including the US).
Anyway, Line announced that in March it saw a record number of messages – 10 billion – sent in a single day. It also handled over 12 million voice calls in a day and 1.8 billion stickers.

Check out the full Samsung Galaxy S5 manual

Although the Samsung Galaxy S5 flagship is still a ways away from release, Samsung has already provided its full manual online to give you an in-depth look at all of its features without making you buy the device.

Apart from the usual usage instructions, the manual goes into detail about maintaining water protection, using ultra power save mode, selective focus, S Health, finger scanner, and more.
The manual is currently available in English, French and Dutch, but we expect more languages to go online in the days leading to the April 11 global launch.
If you’d like to learn more about the Samsung Galaxy S5, check out our extensive hands-on impressions from its MWC launch event.

2.1 million Chromebooks were shipped last year

Over the span of last year around 2.1 million Chromebooks have been shipped. The majority of those numbers come from North America – exactly 89% – giving the continent the highest demand in the world.

The numbers were calculated by ABI Research and the firm forecasts an increase to 11 million in 2019, but who can really say what can happen in five years (less than five years ago Symbian was top OS).
According to ABI Research the average Chromebook selling price was $338. The firm indi