Four new ways to play Sony’s PlayStation TV game

It’s all happening in the gaming world this week! All of you gamers will be pleased to hear PlayStation TV is on its way to the US and Canada as soon as next month, and don’t worry Europe, you’ll only have to wait one month longer ‘till PS TV wings its way to you. For those of you who are unfamiliar will PS TV, the set-top box will allow you to stream video and movies, play the 700 games available including Metal Gear Solid, Velocity Ultra, OlliOlli (and many more)… and stream your PS4 games to another TV in your home (pretty similar to what we announced recently with PS4 Remote Play on Xperia Z3).

Latest Sony Camera apps for Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact

As well as unveiling a brand new and improved range of Xperia devices we’re also releasing and updating a whole host of new, interactive, fun and user friendly camera apps to help you make the most out of the camera experience on your Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3 Compact and Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact.

Since we launched our Smart Social Camera apps range at last year’s IFA, including AR Effects, Info-eyeTM, Social live and Timeshift Burst, we’ve been working hard to consistently introduce new and exciting camera apps and other ways to edit and share content throughout the year, and the results are now here for all to see:

Apple iPhone 6 review

This is Apple like we've never seen before. Apple like we never thought we'll see. To begin with, there's supposed to be no better iPhone than the iPhone 6. That's the sort of thing you'd expect of Apple. Come September every year, the world grabs a bag of popcorn and gets ready to watch Apple's bestest iPhone yet come on stage in all its glory.

That's what we did too, minus the popcorn, which by the way would've had nothing to do with the bitter aftertaste the presentation left. And no, we don't mean Apple's live streaming blunder.

Things actually started off nicely with the announcement of the long overdue screen size bump, and we didn't get a cheaper option this time - we were treated to possibly a bigger, better iPhone to go with the best iPhone to date. How Apple - it takes another iPhone to beat the iPhone.

  
Apple iPhone 6

It felt though like they're telling the audience, you don't have to go to the competition to do better. We never thought we'd see Apple do that - imply that. We missed the usual arrogance if you will. The kind that preached that screens bigger than 4" are a nonsense. The kind that insists on the retina resolution while the competition is at QHD.

GoPro HERO4 leaks with 4K 30fps video and touch display

Details of the Black and Silver versions of the GoPro HERO4 have now surfaced revealing 4K video recording at 30fps and built-in touch display. However, you’ll have to choose one or the other, as the Black does the 4K @ 30fps recording, while the Silver packs a touch display at the back.

GoPro HERO4 Black

The GoPro HERO4 Black is claimed as the most advanced GoPro camera ever and boasts improved image quality in addition to twice the processing power of its predecessor. It is capable of capturing 4K @ 30fps video, up from the HERO3 Black, which was capped at 15fps. It can also shoot 2.7K @ 50fps, 1440p@80fps, but 240fps options have been dropped.

BenQ T3 Spec

GENERAL 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G Network LTE 1800 / 2600
SIM Micro-SIM
Announced 2014, September
Status Available. Released 2014, September

ZTE Zmax Spec

GENERAL 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
4G Network LTE 700 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600 
(Bands 2, 4, 7, 12)
SIM Micro-SIM
Announced 2014, September
Status Available. Released 2014, September

Alcatel Pop 2 (5) Spec

GENERAL 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G Network LTE 800 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 
(Bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 20)
SIM Yes
Announced 2014, September
Status Coming soon. Exp. release 2015, Q1

Alcatel Pop 2 (4) Spec

GENERAL 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G Network LTE 800 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 
(Bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 20)
SIM Yes
Announced 2014, September
Status Coming soon. Exp. release 2015, Q1

Redditor explains why the aluminum iPhone 6 bends and the plastic Note 3 doesn’t

We have all had our fun with the BendGate jokes. But sometimes it’s important to set the jokes aside and ask why is it that it’s happening and how come some of the other devices don’t share the same problem.

Most people have blamed the aluminum shell on the iPhone 6 for being the culprit here, because aluminum is a soft metal. However, one redditor has explained that it doesn’t really have anything to do with the shell but how the internal geometry of the phone is.

LG makes fun of the iPhone. From an iPhone.

It’s always fun to see other companies trip over themselves trying to come up with a joke on Apple every time the latter is going through some sort of controversy. This time it’s BendGate (yeah they just add -gate to everything now), where some iPhone 6 Plus units were found to be getting bent if enough force was applied to them (we’ll keep aside the fact that few were actual incidences and most were done on purpose on YouTube to get pageviews for now).

Facebook will get unconditional approval from EU on WhatsApp purchase, sources say

Many months ago in February, Facebook made some big news when it announced plans to acquire successful messaging company WhatsApp for a mind-melting $19 billion. But the deal still has to be approved by regulatory agencies across the world, including the EU’s competition authority. That apparently shouldn’t concern Facebook, as the EU is rumored to give it the go-ahead “unconditionally”.

That means the company won’t have to make any concessions and the deal will simply be approved as is, since Facebook reportedly managed to convince the European Commission that it would have no anticompetitive effect. The information allegedly comes from “two people familiar with the matter”.

#bendgate fun continues, HTC and KitKat join

It seems the whole Bendgate affair isn’t over as everyone is keen to strike the iPhone 6 Plus where it hurts yet again. A clever ad of the Galaxy Note 3 has popped up, showing the bent iPhone 6 Plus bowing to the Android phablet.

Update:It turns out the image above was created by an independent marketing agency, rather than Samsung itself.

Samsung’s 3.2TB NVMe SSD goes in mass production, reaches 3GB/s read speed

Today Samsung announced it is pushing its 3.2TB NVMe PCIE solid state drives in mass production. The SSD is based on the 3D V-NAND flash memory technology and will primarily be used in high-end enterprise server systems.

However, this doesn’t take away from the awesomeness of the drive. It reaches sequential read speed of 3,000MB/s and writes sequentially at up to 2,200MB/s. The random read/write IOPS are 75,000/130,000 respectively, which is really, really fast.

‘Asphalt Overdrive’ now available on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone

Gameloft has released its newest game in the Asphalt series, called the Asphalt Overdrive. Overdrive is a spinoff of the successful Asphalt series. This isn’t exactly Asphalt 9 that you may have been waiting for and features a different gameplay mechanic.

Asphalt Overdrive is essentially like an endless runner game but with cars. You drive a car (which runs automatically) and dodge obstacles in your path by swiping left or right. You jump off ramps and pull stunts in the air. You ram traffic on the side and when you earn enough nitro boost by doing all this you use it to evade the cops.

Sony Xperia Z3 review

To say we are eager to get the Xperia Z3 out for a spin would be a massive understatement - with the race track still warm from the Compact. After all, if the Robin in Sony's IFA lineup can do that well, we can only imagine what Batman is capable of. The Z3 is certainly one you wouldn't want to miss.

   
Sony Xperia Z3 official pictures

Sony's shorter update cycle sees the Xperia Z3 clock in just 6 months after its predecessor. At first glance, the next flagship isn't too generous with the upgrades, but anyone who has handled the Xperia Z2 will see most of its key issues addressed.

BenQ F5 Spec

Also known as BenQ F5 4G LTE
GENERAL 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G Network LTE 1800 / 2600
SIM Micro-SIM
Announced 2014, September
Status Available. Released 2014, September

Check out how the new iPhone 6 camera stacks up against the previous seven generations

The iPhone camera has come a long way. From the archaic (even for the time when it was launched) 2 megapixel sensor with fixed focus, no video recording, and no flash on the first two generations to the advanced 8 megapixel shooter with phase detection autofocus and 1080p60 video on the current generation model.

But while we often see the new device’s camera being compared to the previous generation model or with those of the rivals, we rarely see it being pitted against all of its predecessors. Of course, it’s going to be better. But sometimes it’s fun to see just how much something has evolved over the years.

Microsoft’s Chromecast competitor gets official as the Wireless Display Adapter

Today Microsoft has officially unveiled its Wireless Display Adapter, which will serve as its competitor for Google’s very successful Chromecast dongle. Microsoft’s product first got leaked back in August.

The Wireless Display Adapter uses Miracast technology, so any Miracast-enabled device can send stuff to it. The adapter itself comes with two plugs: one goes into an HDMI port on your TV, monitor, or projector, and the other one is a normal USB plug which is used for powering the dongle.

Samsung Power Sharing Cable allows you to charge devices on the go

Samsung is launching a new microUSB to microUSB power cable that lets you charge your gadgets by drawing power from your Galaxy smartphone or tablet. The cable has an arrow indication to show the power flow and officially works with the Galaxy S 5, Galaxy Tab S 10.5, Galaxy Tab S 8.4, Galaxy Alpha, Galaxy Avant and Galaxy Note 4.

As Samsung suggests, the cable is perfect for charging up the Galaxy Gear Live from the Galaxy Note 4′s 3,220mAh battery. That conveniently fixes the problem with smartwatch batteries, which we wished didn’t even exist in the first place, but let’s not digress.

Apple won’t be shutting down Beats Music, may alter the brand in future

There was news recently of Apple shutting down the Beats Music streaming service shortly after it was acquired. One would assume Apple might want to do that since Beats Music competed against Apple’s own iTunes, and was also available on Android.

That doesn’t seem to be the case, however. According to Re/code, who spoke with Apple PR and its sources, Apple isn’t shutting down Beats Music any time soon. However, the Beats Music brand might change over time.This means the Beats Music name could likely go away in future and the service might just get rebranded as iTunes streaming service. But as of now and the foreseeable future, the service will continue to operate, despite the fact that it’s not enormously popular.

Adobe acquires the developer of creative mobile SDKs Aviary

Adobe acquired the developers of creative mobile software development kits Aviary. Details of the transaction were not officially disclosed.

Aviary is known for powering mobile editing apps across various platforms via a free SDK. Adobe’s acquisition of the small New York City-based company will allow it to bring its Creative Cloud services to interested app developers.

Adobe’s latest acquisition shows that the creators of Photoshop are quickly adapting to rapidly changing image-editing landscape. An ever-increasing number of photos are edited on mobile devices every day, so it is hardly a surprise that Adobe wants a bigger piece of the action.

Sapphire screen inside Apple Watch costs $27 to make

The Apple Watch was made official by its maker not long ago, but the company did not go into much details about the wearable's specs. Thankfully, though, we have analysts for that.

NPD DisplaySearch estimates that the version of the watch marketed by Apple as coming with a 42mm height features a 1.5-inch display, while the smaller 38mm Apple Watch sports a 1.3-inch screen. In both cases the resolution is said to be the same: 240x320.

This makes for a pixel density of 299ppi on the smaller model, and 261ppi for the bigger one. The display tech at use is apparently flexible AMOLED (on a plastic substrate), and the panel itself is made by LG. The sapphire glass that sits on top of it is supplied by GT Advanced.

Apple Watch to have 512MB RAM, 4GB storage

A report out of investment research firm Cowen and Company has attempted to ascertain a more detailed look at the specifications of Apple's Watch with an examination of the device's supply chain. At this stage of production, it has been revealed the watch will sport 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage.

The RAM will come by way of Samsung, Micron, and Hynix, while the 4GB of onboard DRAM is expected to be supplied by a number of major NAND manufacturers.

Timothy Arcuri of the Cowen Group believes that Apple could potentially ship a variant of the Apple Watch with 8GB of onboard memory, but it is likely that the 4GB model will be the standard configuration.

Korean Samsung Galaxy S III receives Android 4.4.4 KitKat

Samsung has issued a software update for the Korean version of the Galaxy S III (SHV-E210S), bumping it to Android 4.4.4 KitKat. The latest version of Android comes to the device ten months after it received Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

The update carries a build number E210SKSUKNI3 and is available either via OTA or KIES. In addition to bug fixes and slight boost in performance, Android 4.4.4 KitKat also brings security fixes.

Google’s war on spam and how encryption could finally win it – for the spammers

When you cut the knees out from under a complex society, as Edward Snowden and the NSA have done to the internet over the past year or so, the effects ripple outward unpredictably. Right away, there was a rush on cryptography software, which immediately threatened the online status quo; privacy software might just as accurately be called “anti-analytics” or “anti-big-data” software, and your details and behavioral data (tracking cookies) are the lifeblood of the online economy. That looming problem can only get so big while encryption solutions remain clunky and intimidating to newbies — but pressure is mounting for more aggressive, far-reaching protection of online traffic. In particular, large email providers are looking forward to a future in which they must try to protect a user’s inbox while encryption prevents them from knowing virtually anything about it. By using encryption to protect ourselves from Google, hackers, and the NSA, we could be making ourselves vulnerable to spam.

Microsoft gives additional 15GB OneDrive storage for enabling camera uploads

Microsoft has increased the amount of free space you get if you use OneDrive on your phone. Previously the free space used to be 15GB but now you’ll get 30GB instead.

Falcon Pro developer creates Hacked, world’s first mobile coding game

Developer of the Falcon Pro app for Android, a popular Twitter app that was pulled from the Play Store after it hit Twitter’s token limit, has made a new game called Hacked. Hacked is not your average game though. It’s the world’s first mobile coding game.

Hacked has three gameplay modes. In the story mode, you play as a hacker and solve code problems. You use the game’s custom code keyboard and a new coding language ‘H’ to solve the problems.

Skype 5.5 for iOS comes with interactive notifications

Skype has just released the latest version of its app for iOS in the iTunes App Store. Thanks to enhancements in iOS 8, Skype 5.5 now features support for interactive notifications.

These allow you to quickly and easily manage calls and messages from the lock screen, banner notifications, as well as the notification center in iOS.

‘Goat Simulator’ for iOS and Android game review

Goat Simulator is a third person simulation game featuring, well, a goat. If that sounds silly that’s because it’s supposed to be. The game was made sort of as a parody of all the simulation games that came out in the last couple of years on Steam. Despite the nature of the game, it ended up being quite popular.

Although initially launched on the PC, the game was later ported to Mac and Linux and is now available on iOS and Android. Let’s see how it fares on the smaller screen.

Gameplay

Goat Simulator is a third person game in a physics sandbox world. You play as a goat and you can roam around in the world, wrecking things and causing mayhem.

The Lumia 930 enjoys a lot of purrs in its latest ad

Announced earlier this month, the new Moto G succeeds the most successful smartphone in Motorola’s history. The first generation of the stylish, budget-friendly handset is solely responsible for bringing the manufacturer back in contention in a number of key markets globally

Motorola Moto G (2014) review: Baby steps

As a successor to the most successful smartphone in Motorola's history, the second generation Moto G surely has hefty expectations to meet. A year after the XT1032 redefined the budget smartphone category by combining high-res screen, quality hardware, and up to date Android build, the newcomer aims to build on its success.

  
Moto G (2014) official photos

In line with the trends in the smartphone world, the new Moto G boasts a significantly larger display than the model it replaces, as well as beefed up camera. We also get a microSD card slot for cheap memory expansion and front-facing stereo speakers - their presence is hardly believable considering the unchanged starting price tag of the device.

New features aside, the 2014 Moto G offers similar hardware to the model it replaces. Take a look at it in our traditional list of key features below.

Huawei Honor 4 Play Spec

GENERAL 2G Network GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2
3G Network HSDPA
4G Network LTE
SIM Dual SIM (dual stand-by)
Announced 2014, September
Status Coming soon. Exp. release 2014, September

Xiaomi Redmi 1S review: Stormtrooper

Xiaomi has been a regular around here lately and one of the last times we heard of them was how they sold a boatload of phones in no time. And it wasn't their finest either. A heavily discounted midranger made a splash at the box office, in India no less.

And it wasn't like the company was clearing up old stock - it would've sold fivefold judging by the number of registrations. Yep, the Redmi 1S is a tempting offer but the sub-$100 price in that Indian flash sale made it nearly impossible to resist. Similarities to what Motorola did with their bestseller, the Moto G, are by no means accidental.

   
Xiaomi Redmi 1S official pitures

The Xiaomi Redmi 1S is playing by the book - the midrange chapter to be precise. It has a 4.7" IPS display of 720p resolution, Snapdragon 400 chipset with a quad-core processor, a decent 8MP camera, and 8GB of inbuilt storage. Like we said, Xiaomi's Redmi 1S is trying to beat the Moto G at its own game and is by no means clueless about how to do it.

LG G3 billboard in Saudi Arabia sets a Guinness World Record

LG has decided to take its marketing game to the next level. So much so that it has set a new Guinnes World Record for the largest outdoor advertising structure ever.

The advertising campaign in question is for the LG G3 and the billboard the company has built is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It is 240 meters wide and 12 meters high taking a total space of 3,000 square meters. Unconfirmed information suggests LG has used 1,800 tons of steel to build it.

NVIDIA announces GTX 980 and GTX 970 based on the new Maxwell architecture

NVIDIA has announced two new graphics cards for the PC, the flagship single-GPU GTX 980 and the mid-range GTX 970. Both are based on NVIDIA’s 10th generation Maxwell architecture, which succeeds Kepler.

Other than being more powerful, the two new graphics cards also introduce some new technologies from NVIDIA, including Voxel Global Illumination (VXGI), which enables real-time global illumination. This enables the light to reflect off surfaces more naturally, and the resultant illumination is more realistic and accurate.

Nokia’s UK website gets moved to Microsoft.com

It’s started. The oft-rumored move by Microsoft to get rid of the Nokia brand for mobile devices seems to have begun today. If you go to Nokia.com’s website for the UK, you’re met with the following message: “Nokia devices and services have moved to a new website”.

Unsurprisingly, that new home is under the Microsoft.com domain. This seems to have only happened for the UK regional site, but undoubtedly more will follow.

Samsung slashes KNOX price to $0, $1 a month for 250+ devices

Samsung’s enterprise-oriented security feature, KNOX, got a sizable discount – it costs $0 for the basic Express version. With it your employer can create a password-protected partition on the device where apps and data are kept safe.

This new offering comes from a partnership between Samsung and Centrify, which will handle the management layer.

Apple iPhone 6 Plus gets the iFixit teardown treatment, scores a good 7 for repairability

Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are already on sale in Australia, so the crafty folks from iFixit already went to work on Cupertino’s first phablet. As always, the device’s disassembly reveals quite a few juicy bits, which Apple doesn’t typically talk about.

The most important iPhone 6 Plus questions that the iFixit teardown answers are related to the amount of RAM the handset packs, as well as the size of its battery. As it turns out, Apple iPhone 6 Plus comes with a gig of RAM and a beefy 2,915mAh battery on board.

Toshiba will drastically reduce its consumer PC business

The Japanese manufacturer Toshiba announced that it will drastically reduce its consumer PC business. The move will include withdrawal from certain markets altogether.

Increased focus on the business market is the main reason behind the tech giant’s move. Gong forward, the company will reduce its consumer sales bases from 32 to 13.

The restructuring will result in a lay off of 900 Toshiba PC business employees. The PC division’s Japanese head office will also be scaled back – some of its functions will be moved abroad.

Toshiba aims to increase its sales to business entities to reach over 50% of all transactions in the fiscal year 2014.

Tim Cook writes open letter regarding Apple user security

The fallout of the massive iCloud hacking scandal that leaked numerous private photos of female celebrities is is surely yet to play out.

And although Apple has taken the matter very seriously and is still investigating how their iCloud servers were compromised – if that is what, in fact, happened – Apple CEO Tim Cook has issued an open letter assuring the company’s commitment to user privacy.