Microsoft is reportedly investing in Cyanogen, hurting Google
It looks like Microsoft will be a minority investor in a new round of funding for Cyanogen, shelling up $70 million for the company that makes its money making custom versions of Google's mobile OS, Android.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that other companies and investors could jump in, throwing their hats into the ring for investment into Cyanogen, something that would take parts of Android's dominance away from Google. But with Microsoft sitting in the corner with its own mobile OS in Windows Phone, this is an interesting turn for the Redmond-based software giant.
With a market share of around 3%, Microsoft needs to claw some of that mobile OS market share away from Android and get people using its Windows Phone platform. Something we could see Microsoft do with an investment into Cyanogen is bake its Bing search engine into it, something that can't be done on an Android-based smartphone.
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Google's $66 billion pull for 2014 was less than Apple's Q4 results
Google has posted both its Q4 and full year 2014 results, where we see the Mountain View-based giant raking in an impressive $66 billion for the year. This is up 19% from 2013, with its Q4 2014 seeing revenues reach $18.1 billion, up 15% year-over-year.
The company said that its Google-owned sites saw $12.43 billion in revenues for Q4 2014 which is up 18%, while its partner sites pulled $3.72 billion in revenue, up 6%. When it came to revenues secured outside of the United States, Google saw 56% of its total revenue made outside the US. The UK for example, made up 9% of its revenues. Google added an additional 2000 employees to its roster in Q4, too.
Comparing this to Apple, which made $74.6 billion for Q4 2014, more than Google's entire full year revenue, these results are great, but don't touch Apple in the slightest.
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Colorful Technology shows off its new line up of GeForce GTX 960 cards
Colorful Technology has announced its latest GeForce GTX 960 video cards, with some truly great models being shown off by NVIDIA's biggest AIB partner in China.
We have four different models being unveiled, with the Colorful GTX960 CH which is a reference like card for entry users. Moving on, we have the Colorful GTX960 i-Cafe for System Integrators, the iGame GTX960Ymir-U for general users and for enthusiasts we have the iGame GTX960 Ymir-X. Starting with the GTX960 i-Cafe which features a longer PCB than the reference design, but features the same clocks as the GTX960 CH. The iCafe version provides consumers with better stability and a longer lifespan thanks to its more efficient cooler and higher quality electronic components.
Moving on to the iGame GTX960 Ymir-U which is targeting gamers and general users, which will have two clock models. The first is a power efficiency model which will have clock speeds of 1127/7010MHz while in performance mode it will crank up to 1203/7010MHz. The iGame GTX960 Ymir is the performance model of the Colorful GTX960 series, with triple fans, a steel back panel, breathing light and a longer PCB. We have two clock speeds on this card, with the default efficient mode coming in at 1127/7010MHz while the performance model cranks things up to an insane 1405MHz.
Continue reading: Colorful Technology shows off its new line up of GeForce GTX 960 cards (full post)
AMD drops the price of the Radeon R9 290X after the GTX 970 RAM issues
NVIDIA has been getting some flak for the VRAM issues on its GeForce GTX 970, quickly altering the official specifications of the Maxwell-powered card. Well now AMD is jumping on the chance to sell some of its Radeon R9 290X inventory, dropping the price to as low as $299 for the Hawaii-powered card.
AMD has hit back with a serious troll, statign "4GB means 4GB" somethign that blew up on our Facebook page yesterday. AMD emphasizes that its Radeon R9 290 and R9 290X video cards come with 4GB of VRAM, where all 4GB can be filled up to the very last megabyte. On top of this, they have a 512-bit memory bus which is spitting out 320GB/sec of memory bandwidth, something that the Maxwell-powered GeForce GTX 900 series can't do.
Continue reading: AMD drops the price of the Radeon R9 290X after the GTX 970 RAM issues (full post)
'Avengers: Age of Ultron' Big Game spot hits the web
Just as with 'Terminator: Genisys', Disney have stumped up a sweet $4 million in cash to expose the follow up to 'The Avengers', the second highest grossing film of all time, to over 110 million viewers tuned in to this years Superbowl.
Whilst the 30 second spot for 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' is a little light on for footage that hasn't been shown in previously released trailers, the rapid fire spot makes for a pretty convincing argument to hand over your cash at your nearest multiplex come release. Promising to shake up the formula for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and follow up to the game-changing events of 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier 'Age of Ultron' comes with very high set of expectations indeed.
'Avengers: Age of Ultron' will be released on April 23rd 2015 in Australia and New Zealand and on the 1st of May in the USA.
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'Terminator: Genisys' Superbowl spot goes SkyNet
With a viewership of over 110 million worldwide, a spot on the Superbowl can be worth its weight in marketing gold, even at the cost of a sweet $4 million USD. Still, by the looks of this impressive 30 second mini-trailer for this summer's 'Terminator: Genisys', they (and we) got their money's worth.
Set parallel to the events of the original 1984 'Terminator', 'Genisys' sees Arnold Schwarzenegger returns for the fourth time as the T-800, joined by 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' star Jason Clarke as mankind's savior John Connor, while 'Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke will portray the young Sarah Connor.
Helmed by 'Thor: The Dark World' director Alan Taylor, 'Terminator: Genisys' hits screens worldwide on July 1st and for the first time in 3D.
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Battlefield Hardline open beta begins on Tuesday, February 3
Ahead of its scheduled release date of March 17, an open beta of Battlefield Hardline will take place from Tuesday, February 3 to Sunday, February 8. The game is powered by the Frostbite 3 game engine and includes both single player and multiplayer modes.
There will be three separate modes for gamers to enjoy: A conquest mode that is similar to traditional team-based death match, supporting up to 64 gamers on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One - and 24 players for the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3. The Hotwire mode focuses on chase scenes, and the Heist mode features bank robbers trying to complete a heist before the police capture them.
Interestingly, a "Hacker" mode is available so one person on each team can hack to operate cameras and better spot enemies, with information relayed back to teammates.
Continue reading: Battlefield Hardline open beta begins on Tuesday, February 3 (full post)
Paid to play - Top CS:GO players earning $3k per month each and more
With the gaming organization known as Team Solo Mid (TSM) picking up a North American CS:GO squad, they have publicly claimed to now be supporting the highest paid CS:GO players on the planet - later being bested by Team Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP), with their CEO Per Lilliefelth claiming an even better salary for his squad.
I'm sure you're wondering exactly what the figure is here - it's $3,000 US per month, per player. Nothing celebrity status that's sure - but pretty amazing given they are playing video games for employment. But wait, there's more. This $3,000 doesn't cover any of the in-game sticker sales alongside any prize money that the players may win at international tournaments, which can include total prize pools of up to $250,000.
Different from other gaming organizations, TSM have promised to take no cut of prize money or sticker sales, meaning that if these players see themselves added into a 'legends sticker pack' they could see up to $400,000 spread between the five-man squad.
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Apple takes top spot in Chinese smartphone market
Apple has taken the top spot in the Chinese smartphone market. China has the largest population in the world, and dwarfs most of the nearest countries, with the exception of India. India isn't nearly as developed, or experiencing the massive growth rate China is, so the China market holds tremendous strategic potential for Apple.
Xiaomi and Huawei are entrenched competitors that are slowly eating away market share, particularly from Samsung. Apple seems to have deflected their rising market share with popular new smartphones. Apple also has the notable accomplishment of unseating their bitter rival Samsung from the top spot. The new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have been big contributors to Apple's rise in the market with a 70% sales increase in Q4'14.
Apple's rise in China comes in spite of the fact their phones cost nearly double that of the competition. Apple devices are coveted in China, even resulting in large smuggling rings that bring them in to avoid taxes.
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Malware infection could cause drones to drop from the sky
Small drones being flown by recreational hobbyists can be hijacked using malware, as a security expert found a backdoor in the Parrot AR drone. The AR quadcopter helicopter drone can be controlled by a smartphone, tablet, NVIDIA Shield and similar devices, but can be hijacked with the Maldrone malware.
Security specialist Rahul Sasi was able to infect the drone and could interfere with its navigation features. Once compromised, he could issue a kill command, or fly the drone under his command - opening the odor to potential invasion of privacy cases, or stealing an onboard camera/video recorder.
"In this we would show infecting a drone with Maldrone and expecting a reverse tcp connection from drone," according to researchers. "Once connection is established we can interact with the software as well as drivers/sensors of the drone directly. There is an existing AR drone piloting program. Our backdoors kills the autopilot and takes control. The backdoor is persistent across resets."
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