AMD has announced that it has significantly improved hardware acceleration for Adobe's Photoshop Creative Cloud and Premiere Pro Creative Cloud services. The company says that the collaboration between Adobe and AMD to provide high-quality, impressive performance to creative professionals everywhere has been achieved by fully tapping into AMD compute and graphics processing leadership through cross-platform open standards like OpenCL and OpenGL.

"AMD and Adobe are working together to help provide powerful solutions that enable creative professionals to speed workflows and increase throughput, boost productivity and creativity, and fully realize their creative vision," said Neal Robison, senior director, Software Alliances at AMD. "AMD APUs and graphics coupled with Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Premiere Pro CC push the boundaries of what's possible and help artists of virtually all talents and disciplines make the imagined real."

At the moment, the biggest improvements can be seen in an all new "Smart Sharpen" feature and updated Blur Gallery. There is no word if the CS6 versions of Photoshop and Premiere Pro will get these updates, but I am willing to bet that they will not be seen on any version of any Creative Suite products.

This morning Google launched a new feature on YouTube called Trends Map, which displays the top trending videos across the US. The YouTube Trends Map is updated in real-time and the data can be broken down by gender or age of the viewer.

The map shows a mass of small thumbnails which represent the trending video for that particular region. While the accuracy of the overlay may not be that good, I would say that the actual data is very precise and could be used as a solid resource in reports. To the right is a list of the top trending videos in the US at the moment, and when hovering over a thumbnail, some quick info about the video is displayed, including some country wide popularity statistics.

The user interface is very basic at the moment, and it is unclear if Google plans on continuing to improve it or not, but the data sets that are presented are sure to capture the interest of marketers and video makers. As of this posting the trailer for True Blood Season 6 is holding the #1 trending spot in the country with a teaser of The Clood's upcoming EP coming in second place. Interestingly enough, True Blood sweeps the board across the age ranges, the 13-17 age bracket is topped by a Family Guy trailer.

The day is finally here, when Seagate enter the solid state drive arena, in a big way. Seagate have just announced their first client SSD and their next-generation enterprise SSD's.

The first SSD is the Seagate 600 SSD, which includes the usual SATA 6Gbps standard. The Seagate 600 SSD is available in multiple z-heights which includes an industry-first, diminutive 5mm-high drive which makes it perfect for ultra-slim devices. The Seagate 600 SSD is available at up to 480GB.

The second SSD in Seagate's announcement is the Seagate 600 Pro SSD is a low-power server and storage solution, perfect for cloud system builders, hyperscale datacenters, cloud service providers, content delivery networks, and virtualized environments. The Seagate 600 Pro SSD features the industry's highest IOPS/watt to improve system performance, as well as reduce power consumption.

The Seagate 600 Pro SSD uses 2.8w of power in typical use, and can reduce energy consumption by automatically adjusting the power consumption to workload I/O levels, using less power for lighter workloads. The Seagate 600 Pro SSD is available at up to 480GB, on the SATA 6Gbps standard.

Apple have had a tough last six months, but it was somewhat predicted by some - well, myself mainly - but now they need to come back, and they need to do it in a huge way.

The Cupertino-based company haven't had much buzz from consumers and the media after the launch of the iPhone 5, or the iPad mini, and according to a Barclays analyst, Apple's future might just change once they release a slew of new products over the next few months.

Ben Reitzes, an analyst with Barclays, has said that "Apple is about to change the narrative and get investors, analysts, customers and the media finally talking about new products again - starting with a software/services/Mac event on June 10th and a likely iPhone/iPad event in September".

I don't think we'll see a huge change from their buzz, unless iOS 7 is drastically different, and unless the next iPhone is a huge departure from what the iPhone 5 was. We'll see, and I have confidence Apple can do this, but it'll be a big change for them to change themselves.

Apple are having problems getting wireless carriers to agree to their terms on selling iPhones, with Bloomberg reporting that Apple "is missing out on a chance to court as many as 2.8 billion new smartphone customers, many of them in Asia, as wireless-service providers balk at conditions imposed by the iPhone maker and drag their heels in signing on as partners".

Bloomberg has estimated that Apple have agreements with around 240 carriers across the world, but main competitor Samsung has agreements with over 800 carriers. Big carriers such as China Mobile and Japan's NTT DoCoMo have objected the "high costs of subsidies needed to make the device affordable or other terms they find unacceptable".

This will mean that Apple will have to make the deal more appealing, or risk losing out on countless customers in emerging markets. This is where a cheaper iPhone would help, or if Apple decide to change their ways. Up until now they've not had to worry about this, but with their stock prices absolutely tanking, and sales sputtering to a stop, this is the time when Apple needs to change.

Google are reportedly close to rolling out their paid subscription service for a bunch of channels within YouTube. The Financial Times' report with people familiar with the plans have said that this will apply to around 50 existing channels, with subscriptions costing as little as $1.99 for each channel.

Google will be able to do some great things by adding paid subscription content to YouTube, which will include TV shows and movies. YouTube is the biggest source on the Internet for video, so why not go full steam ahead on this? YouTube have reportedly spent around $200 million on advances to dozens of start-up channels.

Grand Theft Auto V has been announced for consoles, but PC gamers have been left to the side with this game, or have they? We've heard the rumors before, but now there's a German retail that is listing the PC version of GTA V.

This could be a simple error, but both Amazon Germany and GamesOnly.at have listed the PC version of GTA V, with the latter actually displaying the Games for Windows box art for GTA V. GamesOnly.at has also listed the Special Edition of GTA V, but has been removed, someone on NeoGaf pulled the details, which should see the GTA V: Special Edition include:

• SteelBook with exclusive artwork
• World map
• Stunt planes challenges
• Online store concessions
• Bonus outfits
• Bonus tattoos
• Special abilities booster
• Exclusive weapons

Futuremark have updated their benchmarking software, 3DMark, to version 1.1.0 which includes a bunch of fixes. The biggest fix is to multi-GPU setups, which had issues with three- and four-way GPU's.

Previously, 3DMark wasn't returning the right scores to those multi-GPU setups, but Futuremark has said that while they thought it was a minor issue, it "turned out to be far more complicated and we are truly sorry that it has taken so long to fix". The updated benchmark also includes Ice Storm Extreme, which is a more intense version of Ice Storm which is designed for mobile devices.

This test now allows you to compare Ice Storm and Ice Storm Extreme scores between Android and Windows devices.

Consumers might not be bragging about Windows 8, but Microsoft now has something bragworthy about their touch-friendly OS: it has passed 100 million licenses sold, and has no signs of stopping, for now.

These sales figures are pretty much identical to that of its predecessor, Windows 7, which reached 100 million sales on April 27, 2010. While the traditional PC industry is on a downward slope, Microsoft are still somehow moving significant amounts of Windows 8 licenses.

HTC's sales in February weren't too flash, dropping 44% year-over-year when compared to 2012, but things are starting to actually look up for the Taiwanese company.

The HTC One is the savior here, but there is still going to be a battle against the Galaxy S4, but sales of the HTC One have been good in March. Moving into April, HTC sales grew again, by a decent 26% giving the company sales of around $642 million. Two months of continuous growth isn't much, but if HTC can use this current state of growth to continue pushing, they could dig themselves out of this hole.

HTC have an internal target of around $2.3 billion, so we have a long way to go yet.

I remember loading up Plants vs. Zombies on my first-gen iPad and dumping countless hours into it, never seeing a sequel for years to come. Well, those years have passed, and now PopCap have announced that Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time will launch in July.

PopCap hasn't announced which platforms Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time will launch on, but I'm expecting it to hit all major platforms simultaneously - Windows, OS X, iOS, Android and more. There's not much information available on PvZ 2 just yet, but at least we know when to prepare ourselves for the sequel.

CPU-Z validations is great for a few things, first and foremost for validating your extreme overclock, but sometimes there are some leaks through the cracks and we find out some juicy goss on the upcoming next-gen GPU.

As you can see above, there's a tease of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 780 GPU, and while that should be enough to satisfy those GPU urges you feel, there's something else that is intriguing. Under the 'GPU Type' is 'DirectX Version', which states '12.0', or DirectX 12. Currently even Windows 8 is still in DirectX 11, and we have no news of a next-gen DirectX right now.

This is where we tumble down the rabbit hole, let's fantasize that this is real - DirectX 12 is coming. Why are AMD saying DirectX 12 isn't coming, considering they're working with all three big consoles makers - Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony - with Radeon GPU's in their consoles. AMD are working on the next-gen Xbox, which could feature DirectX 12, and Microsoft and AMD don't want to talk about it.

We've followed the Aereo legal battles for several weeks now, mainly because we feel it's an interesting new service that can bridge the gap between Hulu and Netflix and TV. CBS alleges that Aereo is infringing on their copyright by illegally rebroadcasting their signal. Courts in New York have ruled that this isn't the case.

Ahead of Aereo's launch in Boston, the company has filed a complaint against CBS to keep it from filing lawsuit in the new market. CBS has vowed to file another lawsuit in Boston, saying "we will sue, and stealing our signal will be found to be illegal in Boston, just as it will be everywhere else." Unfortunately for CBS, this hasn't been the case.

Aereo's spokeswoman Virginia Lam:

In response to the CBS companies' repeated threats to sue Aereo in every market that it enters, Aereo today filed a declaratory judgment action in New York naming CBS, its Boston affiliates, and its wholly owned and operated companies located in Aereo's initial expansion markets. The fact that CBS did not prevail in their efforts to enjoin Aereo in their existing federal lawsuit does not entitle them to a do-over in another jurisdiction. We are hopeful that any such efforts to commence duplicative lawsuits to try to seek a different outcome will be rejected by the courts.

Microsoft has announced that over 250 million people are using its cloud storage service, SkyDrive. SkyDrive has received heavy integration into the latest Office, so it's no wonder that usage numbers are up. But just how quickly are they increasing? Microsoft says that 50 million new users have joined since Windows 8 launched in October.

It's been a very busy year for SkyDrive and we'd like to thank all of you for helping us improve the service through your feedback, tweets, Facebook posts, and comments. The service continues to grow: since October 2012 when Windows 8 launched, 50 million more people have started using SkyDrive, helping us reach an important milestone - over 250 million people are now using SkyDrive as the new place to save their files.

Microsoft released the above infographic detailing a brief history of SkyDrive. If you haven't already signed up, Microsoft is still offering 7GB of free storage, which is more than competitors Google Drive and Dropbox.

BlackBerry is doing its best to bring the company back from the brink of irrelevance. Pictures of a reported R10 device have leaked out alongside supposed specs. The device could make its debut as early as the annual BlackBerry Live conference and might be just the thing consumers have been waiting for.

The R10 features a QWERTY keyboard, something BlackBerry users are known to love. The R10 is also said to be a more budget-minded smartphone, which is likely what BlackBerry needs right now. It features a 3.1-inch screen pumping a 720p resolution, 5MP camera, 8GB of internal storage, and 2GB of RAM.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 16GB version only has about 8GB of usable space. Normally this wouldn't be problem, however, Samsung doesn't allow users to install apps to the micro SD card. Thankfully, Samsung has a 32GB version of the device that will be coming to AT&T users on May 10.

AT&T confirmed that they will be getting the 32GB Galaxy S4 as of May 10 earlier today. This will provide users with an extra 16GB of storage to use for apps, pictures, and any other uses they deem worthy of the space. The upgraded version will cost $249.99 with a new two-year contract and qualifying plans.

Windows Phone 8 users finally have access to Hulu Plus thanks to a new app released today. Now available in the Windows Phone Store, the official Hulu Plus app provides access to your favorite TV shows and movies next-day. The app, like on competing platforms, will require a Hulu Plus subscription for $8 per month.

The Hulu Plus app fits right in with the Windows Phone modern styling, as you can see in the picture above. It can be pinned to Start for Live tile updates regarding new shows and films and is capable of updating your Lock screen wallpaper for updates. Like you would expect, the app features seamless transition between it and other devices. Start on one device and pick up where you were on another.

You can download Hulu Plus from the Windows Phone Store at source #2 below.

BitTorrent Sync is proving both popular and speedy. BitTorrent, the company behind the new syncing software that relies on the BitTorrent protocol, has announced that Sync has surpassed one petabyte of data synchronized between machines. This is an impressive feat considering that the software was only released publicly on April 23.

BitTorrent says that each day Sync sees over 70 terabytes of data. To put some of these numbers on context, BitTorrent says that the Internet Archive houses around 10 petabytes of data. This means Sync should surpass the Internet Archive in less than a year, provided the sync rate stays the same. However, it's likely the rate will increase as more people adopt the software..

In most ways, Sync is just like Dropbox except for the lack of central storage. However, one could easily set up Sync with a central repository on a remote server and basically have a Dropbox clone. Sync is turning into a great tool and I can't wait to see where it goes when it becomes a stable release.

In a move that will likely upset numerous Star Wars fans, Disney has entered into an exclusive, multi-year deal with Elextronic Arts. The deal provides EA exclusive rights to develop future Star Wars games based upon the franchise Disney acquired from LucasFilms for over $4 billion.

According to EA's Frank Gibeau, all of EA's future games will be "entirely original." They will feature new stories and gameplay, though they may occasionally borrow from the films Disney is working on. DICE, Visceral, and BioWare will be the game developers behind these new games.

Gibeau said that all future Star Wars games would be based upon the Frostbtie 3 engine, which will be powering Battlefield 4. Disney has retained the rights to publish titles in the "mobile, social, tablet, and online game categories."

Google's stock is sure doing well, especially in light of Apple's recent stock values. Today's closing of $861.55 sets an all-time high for Google's stock and ushers in the question as to whether or not Google is going to be the next Apple. After hours trading has brought the stock price up to $863.50.

These recent gains have resulted in Google's market capitalization eclipsing that of Microsoft, placing the company in second place behind Apple. Analysts have put a price target of $1,000 for the company's stock. But, will it make it that high? Or will Google's stock go the way of Apple's?

We'll have to wait and see. However, Google seems to be spending more money on the innovation side of things, creating new markets and products such as Glass. These should ultimately help keep the company on top.