The world of contraband electronics probably isn't one that you're familiar with, but if you read about smartphones on a regular basis, you're bound to come across stories of black markets all around the world selling devices for hundreds of dollars more than they're worth. This is one of the most interesting we've ever read.
While we're a long way from being able to boldly go explore new galaxies Star Trek-style, a communicator such as the one worn by Enterprise employees to talk to one another is available for preorder right now for just $99, though buying just one won’t be enough to turn it into a Star Trek-like communicator.
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has really taken to owning the Los Angeles Clippers, as he has repeatedly vowed to make the team "hard core, baby!" Now The Financial Times reports that Ballmer has a lot more reasons to love owning the Clippers than we ever imagined — a billion more reasons, to be accurate.
For all its faults, the Galaxy S5 is still a pretty great device, especially if what you prize the most in your smartphone is a big, beautiful display. New data from Chitika indicates that North American Android fans agree, which is why they’re seemingly adopting it an even faster rate than they adopted the Galaxy S4.
According to Chitika’s analysis, the Galaxy S5 accounted for 4.3% of all North American smartphone traffic 25 days after its release, while the Galaxy S4 accounted for just 2% of North American smartphone traffic 25 days after its release last year. This isn’t conclusive evidence that the Galaxy S5 is outselling the Galaxy S4 so far but it does at least indicate that the Galaxy S5 is being used more on the web than the Galaxy S4 so far, which should make Samsung happy from the perspective of having good user engagement.
Chitika speculates that the Galaxy S5 has a few factors going for it that have helped make it a hit: First, it has a bigger display than any flagship Galaxy device released so far, which is drawing in consumers who are increasingly looking to buy phones with big eye-catching screens. Second, its new water-resistant and dust-resistant casing has proven to be genuinely impressive under torture tests and thus might be appealing to people who want to carry their smartphone around without worrying about breaking it.
Either way, it looks as though Samsung has churned out yet another hit despite griping from the tech press about the device’s case being once again made from cheap-feeling plastic.
Apple has long been rumored to be working on an iWatch, and today a report from Reuters appears to confirm many of these rumors. According to one “mobile health executive” who recently met with Apple, the company “has aspirations beyond wearable devices, and is considering a full health and fitness services platform modeled on its apps store.”
Believe it or not, public Wi-Fi hotspots aren't always the most secure way to access the web when you're on the go. This is why security firm Secure Data Recovery has put together a handy infographic that gives you tips and tricks for avoiding some of the most common dangers associated with using public Wi-Fi hotspots.
Evolve is shaping up to be the most captivating cooperative game of the new generation of consoles. Announced earlier this year, Evolve is a successor of sorts to Turtle Rock Studios' last major project, Left 4 Dead. As in Left 4 Dead, players in Evolve will team up to fight a terrifying threat, but this time the threat is much larger than a zombie. Evolve pits a team of four humans players (Hunters) against a single, gigantic monster (Goliath).
Gee, do you think that Netflix publicly coming out against the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger has struck a nerve with Comcast? Within hours of Netflix declaring its opposition to the proposed $45 billion merger, Comcast came out with a statement that accused Netflix of relying on "inaccurate claims and arguments" to make its case.
Scroogled, we hardly knew ye. Or actually, it seems that we knew ye pretty well and just didn't like ye. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley reads the tea leaves surrounding recent Microsoft statements on its little-loved "Scroogled" campaign and concludes that the company has decided to give it the axe.
Some longtime Windows XP users are having a hard time letting go of the operating system that has served them so well over the years, but The Register has discovered a way to keep Windows XP alive even if you've upgraded to Windows 8 or higher.
Hey, remember when HTC went out and snagged Robert Downey, Jr. for what was supposed to be a major $1 billion marketing campaign? And remember how the only thing that came from it were utterly nonsensical ads that barely even made mention of any of HTC's products? If not, we don't blame you: It's something we'd like to forget as well. It's been months since HTC's marketing team unleashed the Downey-led Hipster Troll Carwash ads onto the world and now the company is finally back with a new promotion featuring Downey and it might be the single most depressing spot for a smartphone we've ever seen.
Studying ways to reduce paper and ink use for his school, a 14-year old teenager figured out that by switching from Times New Roman and other fonts to Garamond, organizations and businesses could save a ton of money on printer ink each year, CNN reports.
In-flight entertainment services have made huge strides over the past several years but there has still always been major problem: It's just not much fun to watch a movie on a dinky little screen. Via AppleInsider , United Airlines is looking to change that, which is why it's announced a new streaming service that will eventually let you watch in-flight movies on your own tablet, laptop or smartphone.
If you thought Mozilla importing the Unreal Engine 3 onto Firefox was impressive, just wait until you get a load of what they've done with Unreal Engine 4. Less than a year after Mozilla showed off its successful port of the gaming engine behind the latest Bioshock and Mass Effect games into its web browser, the organization has come back with another video that gives us the first glimpse of its port of Unreal Engine 4. The video gives a brief two-minute tour of areas in the games Epic's Soul and Swing Ninja and they look nothing short of stunning. Of course, this trailer is only one short little demonstration and we still don't know whether Mozilla has solved a lot issues with latency and long load times that it was dealing with at this time last year. The full video is posted below.
You may not notice a lot of ads in your Instagram feed on a regular basis but that might be about to change. Unnamed sources tell Ad Age that Instagram has reached an advertising deal with ad agency Omnicom that will be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million. For anyone keeping track, this deal alone would account for 10% of the $1 billion that Facebook paid to acquire Instagram back in 2012. In other words, it won't take long at all for Facebook to recoup its investment in Instagram if it signs a few more deals like the one Ad Age says it's signed with Omnicom.
Microsoft didn't make a lot of waves at Mobile World Congress this week but TechCrunch has spotted a little-reported detail from its MWC presentation that shows how Microsoft's Windows Store has made some very strong gains over just the past six months. At MWC this week Microsoft said that Windows Store is now serving 4 million app downloads a day, which TechCrunch estimates is a 135% increase from the 1.7 million daily downloads it averaged this past October. This is extremely impressive growth, especially when you consider that Apple's App Store last year was averaging daily download volumes in the 5.5 million to 6 million range. If Windows Store's numbers keep growing like they have been then Microsoft should have much less trouble getting app developers to sign onto its platforms going forward.
Fortune has come out with its annual list of the world's most admired companies and it looks like big tech companies are once again the envy of the world. The survey, which asked corporate execs to name the companies that they admire the most, placed Apple, Amazon and Google in the top 3 spots while companies such as Samsung (No. 21), Microsoft (No. 24) and Facebook (No.38) also found spots on the list.
On Monday, Arizona’s Legislature passed a bill that would let businesses refuse service to gays and lesbians. Governor Jan Brewer has until Friday to sign or veto the bill. Unsurprisingly, this bill has generated a huge storm of controversy. Not even everyone who voted for the bill still supports it, as after hearing the outcry against it, three state senators who voted for it are now urging Brewer to veto the bill. This bill has also attracted the ire of several large businesses that do business in Arizona, most notably Apple.
Even though the Nokia X trio of Android handsets actually runs a forked Android version that looks more like Windows Phone than Google’s famous mobile OS – and their OS are completely stripped off any Google apps including the Play Store – there’s actually hope that users will be able to run Android apps from Google’s app store in addition to Nokia’s store and all the other third-party supported application stores.
Here’s what happens to your iPhone after it gets stolen