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Chief product officer for Samsung mobile Kevin Packingham has departed the company. Samsung mobile issued a terse statement regarding the departure, saying that "Kevin Packingham has departed Samsung Mobile. We thank Kevin for his contributions and wish him well in his future endeavors." No specific information regarding the reasons for the departure have been made public.
Amazon is reportedly in the process of designing a set-top box, similar in form and function to an Apple TV or Roku media streamer, to be released before the holiday buying season. Divergent from Apple, Amazon is allegedly offering an app ecosystem for the device, allowing gaming or media streaming from sources other than just Amazon purchases.
Nike has sent out invitations to the media for an October 15 event in New York City, where it plans to discuss the future of its digital world experience. Likely, but not confirmed, at the event is a new iteration of the FuelBand monitoring device, which is nearly two years old.
Retailer Best Buy has announced that it is holding a weekend sale (beginning today) that includes a $50 store gift card with any iPhone 5c purchase, effectively reducing the price of the already-discounted iPhone 5 successor to as little as $49 up front with a two-year carrier contract, or $499 off-contract for the 16GB model. The offer requires in-store pickup or walk-in purchase at the company's retail locations, and the gift card can't be used towards the iPhone 5c purchase.
Twitter has opened the curtain on some of its business particulars in its S-1 filing with the SEC, to take the company public. Calling the company "a service shaped by the people, for the people" in its filing, the microblogging service would like to use the stock symbol "TWTR" and is seeking a $1 billion IPO from the sale of 472,613,753 shares of common stock.
Networking company Netgear has launched its newest dual-band 802.11ac wireless router, the Nighthawk AC1900 Smart WiFi Router (R7000). Nighthawk combines a powerful 1GHz dual core processor with a USB 3.0 port for peripheral connectivity and Netgear Beamforming+ to boost speed, reliability of connection, and best possible range for Wi-Fi 802.11ac connectivity in the home.
Adobe has notified users through a post on its company blog that has been hacked, detecting a number of "sophisticated attacks" on its network that accessed Adobe products' source code as well as some user account information for roughly three million users. The company says that credit and debit card numbers stolen in the attack were encrypted, and that it believes any decrypted payment information was not copied or removed.
Citigroup has agreed to a settlement with Apple, where it will pay the Cupertino manufacturer a Massachusetts-leading $30 million fine after analyst Kevin Chang improperly distributed confidential research about an Apple supplier. The unpublished research detailed Hon Hai Precision Industry's iPhone 4, 4S and 5 component orders, to Citadel, GLG Partners, SAC, and T. Rowe Price.
Information has started to surface about Judge James F. Holderman's effective upholding of Judge James Robart's standards-essential patent approach. Patent holding company Innovatio IP Ventures has been awarded a very small fraction of what it was seeking, and is entitled to a per-unit royalty of $0.0956 "for each Wi-Fi chip used or sold by the Manufacturers in the United States, subject to the terms of the patents, the applicable statute of limitations, and a finding of infringement" for a license to use any one of its 19 standards-essential Wi-Fi patents.
Google could be planning to launch an updated Nexus 10 tablet in the coming weeks, according to a leaked store inventory screenshot. The claimed image from a retailer's inventory system arrives at the same time as another rumor suggesting a change of manufacturer for the Nexus 7 tablet could also be on the cards for next year.
The developers of Cue -- a personal assistant app -- have shut down the app's service, according to an official announcement. In a manner similar to Google Now, the app was able to scan a person's email, contacts, and files and pull out important details for a daily agenda. Cue is promising refunds for Premium subscribers, and says it has already deleted any personal data stored on its servers.
Cloud provider Nirvanix has announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company with deep ties to IBM and Dell has given customers with hosted data until October 15 to move data, or face permanent loss. The shutdown affects a large swath of the tech industry, with the company's largest creditors being IT firm Salesforce, CA-owned Nimsoft, analyst firm Gartner, and Dell Marketing.
Classic Dungeons and Dragons adventure game Baldur's Gate II is coming to OS X and Windows. Baldur�s Gate II: Enhanced Edition combines both Baldur�s Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Baldur�s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, and four characters each with their own epic quest and agenda. In addition to the main expansion, the new version of the game features multiplayer options, enhanced graphics, and The Black Pits 2: Gladiators of Thay for high-level adventuring. Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition will be available for OS X and Windows on November 15, and preorders have commenced for $25. An iOS and Android version will be available soon, but without the bundled extra characters.
The iPhone 5s' motion-sensing functions can be substantially inaccurate in some cases, tests reveal. Gyroscope readings, for instance, can be a few degrees off what's reported by an iPhone 5 or a spirit level. The compass in a sample 5s was between 8 and 10 degrees off an iPhone 5, and worse, the iOS Compass app is allegedly prone to freezing or wildly inaccurate readings on a 5s, both problems that may force users to kill the app and restart it. Either device may fail to show the same magnetic north as a real compass. The 5s' accelerometer is meanwhile said to display more latent motion, although that effect is difficulty to quantify.
Archos has fully detailed its latest tablets that will be arriving later this month, including the 80b Platinum, 97b Platinum HD and 101 Platinum. All three Android tablets will be powered by a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor running at 1.6GHz, with up to 2GB of RAM and IPS displays ranging from 8.0 to 10.1 inches.
The first images of the next version of Android may have been revealed. Photographs of a smartphone running what is claimed to be an earlier build of Android 4.4, complete with pre-KitKat images representing the previous Key Lime Pie name, appears to hint at a few of the features that will come in the next version of the mobile operating system.
Google has submitted a patent application for gesture-based controls inside automobiles. The company describes various ways that hand gestures could be used to adjust a car's climate control system, change the seat position, open or close the windows, or control stereo playback and volume.
The updated Kindle Fire HD is a highly repairable tablet, and has received an iFixit repairability score of eight out of ten. Matching the original Kindle Fire in its scoring, the teardown found the new model does not fuse together the front glass and LCD, improving on last year's model by one point, while the majority of the internals is composed of components from the old HD. While the base Kindle Fire HD lacks a camera, there appears to be no obvious space left on the motherboard for one to be added in the future.
Google is reportedly preparing to launch a native iOS app for its Google Music service, unnamed sources have told Engadget. iPhone and iPad users are currently forced to listen via a web-based app, however a native player would presumable enable offline playback and other features.
Encrypted e-mail service Lavabit was pressured by the FBI to provide private SSL keys for all of its traffic, according to unsealed court documents that provide more details about the service's shutdown. The Texas e-mail provider's refusal to provide details about one specific account, believed to be that of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, forced the courts to threaten daily fines and possible imprisonment if it continued to disobey the FBI's order.
Samsung executives obtained illicit access to the terms of licensing agreements between Apple and Nokia, and at least Apple is requesting sanctions, according to an Apple v. Samsung court order from Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal. The licensing terms were contained in a non-redacted document marked for use by outside legal counsel with the phrase "Highly Confidential -- Attorneys' Eyes Only." Nokia's Chief Intellectual Property Officer, Paul Melin, charges however that on June 4th, Samsung executives ended up using the document in a negotiation session with his company.
Intel has announced a partnership with Arduino to build new open-source hardware for the do-it-yourself development platform. As part of the collaboration agreement, the chip maker has introduced a new board, Galileo, that is powered by the company's new Quark SoC and compatible with Arduino shield modules.
Samsung has introduced the Shape M7, a wireless speaker that can be used alone or synced with other M7s placed throughout a home. The system integrates a single subwoofer alongside stereo silk-done tweeters and two midrange speakers, built from a combination of carbon nanotubes and paper.
Apple iOS 7 is the biggest single upgrade to Apple�s storied iOS franchise since it shipped on the original iPhone back in 2007. Rightly, much of the attention has focused on the vibrant new look of the iOS 7 interface, which has been driven by Apple design guru Sir Jony Ive whose design team worked closely with Apple software chief Craig Federighi and his engineers to transform the iPhone experience in the space of less than 12 months. However, there is a lot more to iOS 7 than meets the eye, with ground breaking 64-bit architecture underpinning the entire operating system including a native 64-bit kernel, libraries and drivers. In Part 1 of this short series of deeper looks at iOS 7, we are focusing on the revitalized iOS 7 UI, the Notification and Control Centers as well as Multitasking. In the first instance, we take a look at iOS 7 running on the iPhone 5s and 5c, Apple�s latest premium smartphones.
HP has launched its 24/7 technical support service, HP SmartFriend. Providing one-on-one assistance regarding one's PC or tablet (not exclusive to HP products), users can receive instruction on a variety of troubleshooting needs, be provided with a walk-through of an installation, and more.
More rumors have surfaced concerning two possible Amazon smartphones. Fresh from the launch of refreshed Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD tablet lines late last month, the online retailer is said to be still working on a pair of mobile devices, with one said to have a similar 3D user interface and eye tracking system as reported about earlier this year.
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