Latest News - Page 3007

The on-going anti-trust investigation into Google has finally been completed with a 4-1 ruling that Google must stop excluding competitors from using standards essential patents owned by subsidiary Motorola. These patents are what the FTC call the "cornerstone of the interoperability standards that we have taken for granted."

Google is also making two voluntary changes to the way some of its products work:

"The changes Google has agreed to make will ensure that consumers continue to reap the benefits of competition in the online marketplace and in the market for innovative wireless devices they enjoy," said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. "This was an incredibly thorough and careful investigation by the Commission, and the outcome is a strong and enforceable set of agreements."

With the Kindle Fire being based on Android, it can get the same viruses that are now beginning to creep into mobile devices world wide. Lookout Mobile, a company that builds anti-virus apps for Android just released its first app for Amazon's flagship tablet.

The app is the same as the standard Android version, but being that the Amazon does not allow the Google Play Store on the Kindle Fire, the company had to submit the app for approval before it became available in the Amazon App Store.

Once installed, the app will alert you to hidden viruses, and track the location of your phone remotely in the event your phone gets stolen, lost or otherwise indisposed. The app will also let you activate a "Scream" ringtone to help you locate the lost or stolen device.

The tiny Raspberry Pi has been a popular system among hackers and educators alike. For $35, you get a fully functional PC to mess around with, program, and do what you like. If you own one and don't know where to start, you're in luck, as the system has gotten a free educational manual courtesy of a team of UK teachers from Computing at School.

The manual is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 unported licence, which in non-legal speak means you can use, redistribute, change and copy. There's only one limitation: you can't sell it. There's lots of information in the manual, such as information of Scratch, Python, and the command line.

You can grab it from the Pi Store, or from this link if you don't have a Pi yet. Raspberry Pi would also like to issue a thanks to those who helped in the creation:

AMD has picked a new CFO. The internal and external search turned up Devinder Kumar, who will now be a senior vice president and chief financial officer, effective today. Kumar is 57 and will report to AMD CEO Rory Reed. Kumar has served as the interim CFO since September 2012 and as senior vice president since 2006.

"Devinder has been with AMD for more than 28 years and is a talented finance veteran with deep industry knowledge," said Read. "As we accelerate our strategic growth initiatives, Devinder will play an integral role driving the new business model in the near term and strengthening AMD's long-term financial foundation."

Kumar is well equipped for the job: He holds a bachelor's degree from University of Malaya, Malaysia, a master's degree from University of California, Santa Barbara, and a master's degree in business administration from University of California, Los Angeles.

Microsoft has brought up an issue last dealt with over a year ago. Back in a March, 2011 post regarding Microsoft's concerns about Google's anti-trust investigations, the company said that Google is preventing Microsoft from accessing data that would allow a full-featured YouTube app on Windows Phone.

What they wrote at the time:

The Nintendo 3DS has proved a tough nut to crack, but hackers have finally managed to get the system to run homebrew code. Back on December 16, hacker Yellows8 posted images of the 3DS with the screen displaying the text "We hacked it!" At the time, the 3DS was only capable of displaying text, but that has changed.

In the few weeks between initially cracking the device and today, hackers have successfully managed to produce images on both of the screens using homebrew code. While we're still a ways from running full homebrew games and pirated games, progress seems to be progressing quickly.

The original DS suffered from rampant piracy in the form of the R4 card. The piracy was so bad it led to many developers abandoning the platform completely. Fears from several developers regarding this on the 3DS have already been voiced, and many more are likely to join them.

In the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut shooting, one small town in Connecticut is holding a drive to collect and destroy violent video games. The voluntary drive hopes people in the community will at least talk with their kids and better understand the games that they are playing. If parents would like, they can bring in a violent video game and exchange it for a $25 gift certificate at their local drive-in movies.

The town of Southington will collect, destroy, and later incinerate the disks of violent movies, games, and music. The drive, which takes place on January 12, is organized by SouthingtonSOS, a group that formed after Katrina to quickly organize the community after a national or local tragedy.

"There are youngsters who appear to be consumed with violent video games," Southington School superintendent Joe Erardi said. "I'm not certain if that's a good thing. If this encourages one courageous conversation with a parent and their child, then it's a success.

Apple sued Amazon over its use of the term "app store" to describe its online marketplace for Android apps. In a ruling today, a judge has dismissed part of the case, the part alleging that Amazon committed false advertising by using the term.

Judge Phyllis Hamilton said there was "no support for the proposition that Amazon has expressly or impliedly communicated that its Appstore for Android possesses the characteristics and qualities that the public has come to expect from the Apple App Store and/or Apple products."

Apple has also sued for trademark infringement, though Apple does not yet own the trademark to "App Store." It has applied for the trademark, though several companies have moved to block the trademark. Microsoft has said in a motion for summary judgement that "Any secondary meaning or fame Apple has in 'App Store' is de facto secondary meaning that cannot convert the generic term 'app store' into a protectable trademark."

A picture of a GameStop Black Ops 2 DLC poster has leaked to the internet and provided precious details about the upcoming DLC. In the picture, you can see that there will be four new multiplayer maps, a new zombies map, and a new SMG. As far as the details go, we really only have names, so it's time to let your imagination go wild as to what the maps will look like.

"Hydro", "Grind", "Downhill", and "Mirage" are the new multiplayer maps, with "Die Rise" being the new Zombies map. Downhill appears to be a ski resort, which would make sense, while Mirage appears to be in the desert. The other two pictures aren't as clear and the names could align the maps in many different settings.

The SMG is named the Peacekeeper and there are no details as to which game modes it will be available in. The DLC is set to come to the Xbox 360 on January 29 and will likely cost $15, if it stays in line with the pricing of Black Ops DLC. If you have the Season Pass, you'll get the DLC for free when it releases.

Polaroid will be opening up 10 retails stores in 2013 that will be called FotoBars. These locations will allow you to edit and print pictures, applying filters if your picture isn't from Instagram. The pictures can then be printed on a variety of materials, framed if you want, and be shipped to you within a couple of days.

From the image, it looks like editing will be done on Apple computers, which are probably used to make the whole experience "hip." Material options will include wood, bamboo, metal, acrylic, and canvas. Users will also have the option to print out a normal photo. According to Polaroid, a "critical aspect of the customer experience" is the ability to see and feel examples of the materials, which sounds very Appleish.

The first location will be Delray Beach in Florida, which opens in February. Further locations will open throughout the year, including New York and Las Vegas.

Rumors have a way of starting using data that could mean next to nothing. For instance, a rumor is now saying that the countdown to E3 posted by Microsoft today is proof positive that they will be announcing the next Xbox at E3 in June. While there have been rumors saying this is the case, this timer does not have any shred of definite proof.

While it is pretty likely that the next Xbox will make its first appearance at E3 this year in June, a simple timer does not give any hard evidence. The text "And it's on..." only adds fuel to the fire, but still does not prove that this is Microsoft's plan. While it certainly is time for Microsoft to update the Xbox 360, they will likely try to milk it for every dollar its worth.

It's also important to consider that Microsoft still has some major Xbox 360 game releases to get through, including Gears of War Judgement in March. Would Microsoft really release the next-gen console so quickly after a major game release? It's hard to say. If the console includes backwards compatibility, then it is possible.

Sony has sent out an invite to members of the press for an event in February. Destination PlayStation will be held February 25-28 in Scottsdale, Arizona and will show off games, with attendees being "treated to food, drink, play, and a first look at all the amazing new releases coming from Sony Computer Entertainment America Entertainment in 2013."

SlashGear suspects that the PlayStation 4 will be announced here and released in 2014, if it follows past release trends from Sony. Couple this with the rumor that Sony has ended production of the PS2 to focus on the next-gen console, and it's starting to look really good for console gamers.

The PlayStation 4 will be competing against Microsoft's next-gen console, rumored to be called the Xbox 720, whenever it does eventually decide to launch. Some rumors have placed the announcements as E3 this year, but others say that it won't be until 2014. One thing is certain, they can't be too far in the future.

An era has come to an end. Sony has finally stopped production of the PlayStation 2 for Japan. The console, which was first released in March of 2000, has been sold consistently since then, and managed to rack up 150 million sales. The device proved so popular that it actually outsold the PS3 for the first three years of the latter's availability.

By ending production of the PlayStation 2, Sony has caused some to speculate that they are putting the manufacturing resources towards the yet unannounced PlayStation 4, a next-gen console rumored to be announced at this year's E3 in June. Incredibly, it's believed that about 11,000 games have been produced for the console.

Sony has not announced plans to end production for other regions, though a 12-year lifespan is longer than most consoles enjoy and is a likely announcement to be made in the future.

Reddit has certainly been a smash hit since its inception, but just how big was it in 2012? Well, according to the numbers released by the site, they received a massive 37 billion page views. An incredible number that is even more impressive when you add that those page view numbers were generated by 400 million unique users.

The site also saw 30 million posts, which gained 4 billion votes. Averaged out, it works out to be roughly 133 votes per post. Reddit's AMA with Obama is the record post, bringing in 5.5 million page views.

Reddit has released a post with the top posts of 2012 and the Best of 2012 Awards.

Some Xbox Live Gold users have experienced an outage for the cloud saving feature present in some games. Microsoft has now fixed the patch and automatically credited one month of free Xbox Live Gold to the users who were affected. Some were without their saves for mere hours, others for days.

Again, this outage proves that the cloud is not a perfect solution. Local backups are important, and in this case, would have been easy to do. It is nice to see Microsoft being proactive in applying the Xbox Live Gold credit, rather than requiring users to ask for it. That still doesn't help if you were left without your game saves this weekend.

The patent wars continue to move forward with the latest move being LG trying to ban the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 in South Korea. LG alleges that the Galaxy Note infringes upon three of LG's patents on LCD technology used by the display panel. "Through this action, LG Display seeks to completely stop the sale, manufacture and importation of the infringing Samsung product," LG Display said in a press release.

LG has said that they would request compensation of $933,000 per day of continued non-compliance. This patent dispute started back in September when LG Display sued Samsung for infringing upon seven organic light-emitting diode patents. LG alleges five of Samsung's devices infringe, including Samsung's Galaxy S-series of smartphones.

Samsung counter-sued LG alleging that the latter company lured senior Samsung OLED researchers away from the former company, even though they had contracts preventing the working for a rival firm.

Windows 8 users are gaining access to more and more apps, according to stats by MetroStore Scanner. The Windows Store now has more than 35,000 Windows 8 apps and that number is increasing by an average rate of 415 apps per day. Back in November, that number was only increasing by 362 per day, showing developer interest has picked up.

This information is just data, so use it how you will. It doesn't say anything to the quality of the apps, usefulness, or other things regarding the apps, just the quantity. October 30, when Windows 8 launched, it had 10,000 apps. November 6 saw 13,000, November 14, 16,000, and November 22, 20,000.

Some OEMs are saying their poor PC sales are due to poor Windows 8 demand. However, there have been more than 40 million licenses sold so far, and developer interest seems to be increasing, a sign that Windows 8 is a viable platform with plenty of demand.

I've got to admit, this is the first version of Windows that has come out that I have just not had any interest in. Usually I have the beta of the latest version, then the RC, and then the RTM at the first second I can get them from TechNet. Windows 8? Not so much.

It looks like most consumers are having the same apprehensions, as the next-gen, touch-optimized OS from Microsoft has had a bad uptake when compared to Windows Vista. Windows 8's uptake has now fallen behind Vista's in the same point in it's release according to Net Applications' data.

Windows 8's online usage share is around 1.6% of all Windows PCs, which is less than the 2.2% share that Windows Vista sported at the same two-month mark after its release. The data was collected up until December 22, so there's still just over a week of data until the end of the year to collect. But I'm sure that by then it won't make a difference.

Plenty of people I know love their iPhone, but when pressed for what they love most, it's from a cracked feature coming from something like Installous and AppSync - well, those days are over, folks.

The Hackulous team have announced that they're shutting down, which will take down their most popular apps - the above-mentioned Installous and AppSync. This is the message the team left:

If the current rumors are correct, it looks like chipmaker Intel will soon roll out their own virtual cable TV service and set-top box, with their only block left to achieve this is licensing hurdles.

Intel won't just blast out across the US instantly, instead they'll go city-by-city which will give the company more flexibility in working out licensing with content providers who aren't so open to a new player on the market. TechCrunch are reporting the news from a "video industry source".

This source is "directly familiar with Intel's plans and content dealings" has told TC that the chipmaker is very serious about jumping into the living room with consumers. The chipmaker are also tried to convince smart TV manufacturers to use their chips in the initial launch of Google TV a few years ago, but failed and are now trying to do it alone.