The annual Mobile World Congress trade show has been a bit stale in recent years, since most big smartphone vendors have been hosting their own dedicated press conferences to make key announcements. This year, however, that is most certainly not the case. Three of the biggest smartphones of the year — the Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge and HTC One M9 — will all be unveiled tomorrow, and BGR will be on hand reporting live as news breaks from Barcelona, Spain.
Netflix's critically acclaimed series House of Cards is significant for a number of reasons. The show itself is a fan favorite that has won awards and been touted as the first Netflix show to truly rival productions from top networks like HBO. Beyond that, however, House of Cards was Netflix's first big-budget self-produced show, and it let the world know that the company wasn't just going to be a portal for dusty old movies and stale TV shows — it was going to be a major digital network.
And now, the hotly anticipated third season of House of Cards is finally here.
Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Mac, long-time Apple fan Kurt Merki Jr. has imagined a new Apple computer that would incorporate some of the best features of the iMac, Cinema Display and the Mac Pro. The iPro all-in-one is a concept desktop for professionals that proposes "epic proportions in all ways."
A recent internal Netflix 24-hour Hack Day had employees come up with new creative ways of improving the company’s product, TechCrunch reveals, with one interesting hack connecting a wearable device – the Fitbit band in this case – to Netflix in order to automatically stop video playback when the user falls asleep. By picking up and analyzing movements, the software can tell when the user is falling asleep and stop the show he or she is watching. When the viewer returns to Netflix, he or she can resume the show from the moment the user fell asleep.
LinearFlux on Thursday launched its Indiegogo funding campaign for a very interesting external battery charger project for mobile devices – the LithiumCard, “the world’s only ‘Rechargeable HyperCharger.’” The LithiumCard has about the same size of a credit card, while being slightly thicker, and thus it can be carried around in a regular wallet. The battery can hold a charge of 1200mAh, and, most interestingly, sports a fast charging technology that the company claims can charge devices faster than similar products from competitors.
While Sundar Pichai’s statements regarding Android malware and security have been misinterpreted, Google plans to further increase the security of its mobile operating systems just as the executive said. ComputerWorld reports that the company is soon going to update its “Verify Apps” feature to constantly monitor app behavior in the background and figure out whether an app has any malicious intents.
In Barcelona's Mobile World Conference, there was something that the industry has not seen in three years: Buzz about HTC. In particular, there was speculation that HTC was gearing to launch a 13-megapixel camera phone under $300 in Asia. According to GSMArena , Chinese media has now pegged the launch price of the HTC Desire 816 at 1,800 yuan, which comes out to just a bit under $300. Diving this low just might be the shock therapy that HTC needs. The old strategy of pricing premium models above $650 and "budget" phones around $500 stopped working a long time ago.
The person in the image above is not a professional working a 12.9-inch iPad Pro model with a stylus. And for that matter, Apple did not just leak the 13-inch iPad Pro on its website. The company “doesn’t leak unannounced products,” as iMore succinctly puts it. The image simply shows the lid assembly of a MacBook laptop, and was posted on Apple’s Supplier Responsibility webpage alongside various other images of employees working on existing Apple products. But the image apparently fooled many into believing the company may have inadvertently a rumored iPad model.
It's been an interesting start to 2014 for the mobile platform makers Apple, Google, BlackBerry and Microsoft, with BlackBerry leading the way, leaving the others in the dust. However, as the year goes on, that may not last, depending on Apple's big plans.
There's no telling how long it will be before we finally see a refreshed Apple TV, but until Apple comes forward with an announcement, we'll have to settle for putting together the pieces as they fall. The latest piece of evidence comes courtesy of 9to5Mac's sources, who say that Apple Stores will be giving away $25 iTunes gift cards to anyone who purchases an Apple TV from February 28th to March 5th. If Bloomberg's report of an April release is to be believed, this promotion could be one of the last we see before new hardware begins to hit store shelves. Unless you're desperate to get your hands on an Apple-branded set-top box this very instant, it's probably worth holding out on this offer and waiting for the 4th generation.
Samsung still isn't sure whether or not people actually need 64-bit processors in their smartphones and tablets, but the company plans to build and launch one anyway in 2014. Apple became the first company to make a 64-bit smartphone widely available when it launched the iPhone 5s last year, and a subsequent report claimed that the move set off panic across the industry. Samsung was quick to state that it would follow in Apple's footsteps and launch its own 64-bit mobile devices, but the company seemingly couldn't develop its new chips quickly enough to debut one in the new Galaxy S5. The company is still hard at work on 64-bit chipsets though, and it says its first such effort will debut later this year.
Sony's latest console hasn't had any trouble maintaining its position at the top of the sales charts, but that doesn't mean the PlayStation 4 is without its flaws. The team at GamingBolt has put together a list of 15 improvements they hope to see as the console generation marches forward, many of which we wholeheartedly agree with. To start, let's talk hardware.
At this point, we know with near-certainty that the iPhone 6 will feature a bigger display. What remains to be seen, however, is how much better the display will actually be. A recent report claimed that Apple will put a new spin on quantum dot technology that will have a dramatic impact on the quality of the iPhone 6's screen, but we won't know anything for certain until the new handset is unveiled. In the meantime, information surrounding a recent Apple invention has just surfaced that could give future iPhones and other Apple devices some of the most gorgeous displays in the world.
Apple is reportedly working on a software update that will fix one of the bugs on the iPhone 5s that has been particularly infuriating for users. According to a report from AppleInsider that cites a single unnamed source, an upcoming update to Apple's iOS software will resolve an issue that causes the accuracy of Apple's Touch ID fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5s to degrade over time.
The original BlackBerry PlayBook was certainly not the company's crowning achievement. In fact, the PlayBook was such a notorious dud that BlackBerry never even bothered to upgrade it to BlackBerry 10 and former CEO Thorsten Heins said that BlackBerry was basically done with tablets for the foreseeable future. However, a new management team has taken over and with it has sprung a new sense of optimism about the company and what it can do in the future. And apparently, that even includes taking another shot at the tablet market.
A site quoted Sundar Pichai saying at MWC that Android was designed to be open instead of safe, but that doesn’t appear to be exactly what the Google exec said. TechCrunch secured a transcript in English from Google on the Android malware-related discussion between Pichai and reporters. The executive apparently said the opposite, that Android is designed to be safe and secure, especially its latest versions, hinting that OEMs that ship dated Android versions on their devices may be partly responsible for any malware issues.
In a session at MWC 2014, three Motorola exec including senior vice president of Software Engineering Steve Horowitz, senior vice president of Supply Chain and Operations Mark Randall and product manager Rick Austenwell revealed that Google did not actually have any influence on Motorola products since the Search giant acquired the company, V3 reports. According to them, Google "rarely got involved with its product development or innovation efforts," further reinforcing the idea that Google didn't give Motorola special preference.
A man who was given a ticket two years ago for using a map app on an iPhone 4 while driving had his conviction overturned by a Fresno appellate court on Thursday, which agreed that drivers should be able to use map apps on a smartphone while on the road, FresnoBee reports. “The Fifth District Court of Appeal unanimously concluded that the state Vehicle Code applies to listening and talking and texting on a cellphone while driving – not looking at a map application,” the publication writes.
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.
You’re really going to want to tune in to BGR tomorrow…