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iphone 5C official video

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iPhone 5S official video

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Microsoft buys most of Nokia for $7.2 billion

Microsoft is to acquire Nokia's Devices & Services business, which includes the smartphone and mobile phones businesses, for Euro 3.79 billion (US$5 billion), Microsoft said Monday.

The Redmond, Washington, software company will also pay Euro 1.65 billion to license Nokia's patents, for a total transaction cost of Euro 5.44 billion ($7.18 billion) in cash.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop will be coming back to Microsoft and lead an expanded devices team, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in an email to employees. He will step in over Julie Larson-Green, who was recently named head of Devices & Services in a major Microsoft reorganization last month. Elop has been considered aleading candidate to replace Ballmer, who announced that he was retiring at some point in the next 12 months from the post of CEO of Microsoft last week.

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Django 1.6 alpha 1 released

https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2013/may/26/django-16-alpha-1/

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Panasonic reveals 20-inch, 4K resolution Windows 8 tablet

Wow. Panasonic has just dropped a bomb in the form of a 20-inch Windows 8 tablet sporting a whopping 4k resolution. Our man on the scene liveblogging, Mat Smith, said it "looks like a photo" in person, with great viewing angles, and it sports a touchscreen display and stylus, to boot -- with super-detailed stylus manipulation of images also possible according to Panasonic. The company hasn't revealed any more details, but we saw a similar screen from the company last year, and the beast is already parked at Panasonic's booth here at CES 2013, so we're planning to get our mitts on it and give a full report. Stay tuned!

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CES2013: Tegra 4 Will Change Mobile Photography

At NVIDIA’s CES 2013 press conference, Nvidia's CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, agreed that the “best camera you can have is the one that’s readily available.” It’s no secret that photography on smartphones and mobile devices has become more advanced and popular over the past three years. Tegra 4 will usher in a platform so powerful that capturing and processing your images will become practically instantaneous.

One of the most popular processing techniques in mobile photography is using HDR, or high-dynamic range. This is currently a native feature on many of the latest smartphones and captures two images of different exposures, then its CPU superimposes them, calculating the best overall exposure before drawing the newly combined image.  For example, on the iPhone’s HDR setting, both images need to be captured and stored to memory individually before they are sent to the CPU for processing and drawing. With the A6 processor, this takes about 2 seconds/frame. Tegra 4’s “Computational Photography Engine” effectively combines the processing power between the GPU, CPU, and image-signal processor, resulting in an HDR image that is processed in 0.2 seconds before reaching the memory.

That’s 10 times faster than any mobile SoC to date.

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Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones, we go hands-on (video)

This is no ordinary Galaxy Nexus. Instead of Android, it's running a very different Linux-based OS -- the long-awaited mobile version of Ubuntu -- which comes with a new UI adapted for smaller screens. We've played with the phone briefly and we'll have a proper hands-on video for you shortly, but in the meantime there are a few salient features to report. First and foremost, the UI relies heavily on edge swipes instead of buttons -- much like Windows 8 on a tablet or indeed other mobile OS's like MeeGo, although here each swipe has its own Ubuntu-esque functions. Beyond that, the icons along the top have some interesting features, which will be explained after the break. We're also told that voice control is in attendance, and that an app store is in the works, with a mix of both web apps and native apps -- with the latter type being able to make better use of the hardware.

Speaking of hardware, here's where you might get a twinge of disappointment: there are no immediate plans for actual Ubuntu phones, and no carriers have been signed up yet. Any new phone built for Android with at least a dual Cortex-A9 cores, a gig of RAM and 800 x 400 resolution could run this OS, should a manufacturer see merit in installing Ubuntu instead, and high spec 720p, quad-core phones should do wonders with it. Meanwhile, rather likeUbuntu for Android, this is still an idea looking for a device -- but as ideas go, our initial impression is that it looks like a bright one, especially if you dig Linux and open source. We're told the Galaxy Nexus-compatible build will be available for download within the next few weeks, and Mark Shuttleworth is optimistic that actual devices will ship sometime in early 2014 -- which is quite a ways away

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RIM's BlackBerry 10 to launch Jan. 30

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Research In Motion announced Monday that BlackBerry 10 will finally debut on Jan. 30, a year after the company's next-generation smartphones and software were slated to go on sale.

At launch events held across the world, RIM will unveil the first two BlackBerry 10 smartphones. It will also announce the devices' pricing, availability and other details about the software.

Shares of RIM (RIMM) rose more than 4% in early trading, because keeping to the latest schedule counts as good news for the Canadian smartphone maker these days.

RIM initially said its new BlackBerry 10 software and devices would be available at the beginning of 2012. The company first delayed that to the end of this year, and then again to the beginning of next year.

CEO Thorsten Heins said Monday that BlackBerry 10 will be worth the wait.

"Our team has been working tirelessly to bring our customers innovative features," said Heins in a statement. "We believe our customers will have the best experience possible with BlackBerry 10."

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Microsoft Office app coming to iOS and Android by early 2013

Microsoft Office might finally be making its way to iOS and Android devices, by early 2013, if sources at The Verge are to be believed.

Office Mobile will debut in the form of free apps that allow Android and iOS users to view Microsoft Office documents on the move. Like the existing SkyDrive and OneNote apps, Office Mobile will require a Microsoft account. On first launch, a Microsoft account will provide access to the basic viewing functionality in the apps. Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents will all be supported, and edit functionality can be enabled with an Office 365 subscription.

Microsoft will allow iOS users to purchase an Office 365 subscription within the app, or let organizations distribute codes to enable Office Mobile editing for users. The apps will allow for basic editing, but we're told this won't go very far in attempting to replace regular full use of a desktop Office version.

In the past too, there have been romours that Microsoft is busy working on an iOS and Android version of Microsoft Office, but the company has never shared any specific details about the launch. All that Redmond based company has shared so far is that "Office will work across Windows Phone, iOS and Android."

Microsoft is already offering an Office Mobile app on its newly launched Windows Phone 8 devices.

Currently there are quite a few third party Android and iOS applications that help users access and edit their Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Some of the popular apps include Documents to go, Office Suite Pro, Quickoffice Pro and CloudOn. Even Google is now offering its Office Application - Google Drive for Android and iOS users.

The biggest advantage that Microsoft Office app has on its side is that people are already familiar with Office for the desktops and might be keen to try the mobile version as well. However, on the downside, Microsoft seems to be a bit late is launching its Android and iOS apps and most users may already have one of the above office apps. To reach out to them, Microsoft will have to make sure that their Office app comes with some compelling features.

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Apple to sell Philips' Hue smart bulbs that can be controlled by mobiles

Forget the burglar alarm, a light bulb can come to your aid!

Researchers have developed a new light bulb that you can switch on and off with your mobile from anywhere in the world to deter burglars.

The 'Hue' light-bulb connects to broadband networks and then lets smart-phone users change the colour and brightness with an app sitting anywhere in the world, the 'Telegraph' reported.

The bulbs, which cost 179 pounds for a starter pack that includes broadband connection equipment and three bulbs, screw into existing sockets and manufacturers claim it uses just 20 per cent of the energy of conventional bulbs.

The manufacturer claims that the new 50 Watts LED bulbs will give property owners the chance to deter burglars by remotely turning on lights, and will also allow them to save and adjust settings so that lights come on automatically, giving the impression that somebody is at home.

Settings can be saved so that users can recreate "scenes" instantly, and also be adapted to form a backdrop to photographs.

Light themes, called 'LightRecipes' will also help users to adjust lights to complement the body's biological response to light, the company claims.

The bulbs will be exclusive to Apple Stores and the manufacturer Philips says users can "tune shades of white light or create any colour".

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NFC sharing between Android and Windows Phone 8

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Microsoft looking at 3D tiles

Live Cube looks and functions exactly like a Live Tile, but in reality is a cube which can be interacted by rotating it in its equatorial axis. Since a cube has 4 equatorial sides, a Live Cube would then have 4 square faces that can be accessed by swiping the Live Cube left or right. These additional three faces would then have optional application-specific extra content or functions. The sweeping gestures of up and down would still be dedicated to scrolling through the homescreen and would not be used in Live Cubes.

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Microsoft's Xbox Music coming to Android

With the Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 launch just around the corner, Microsoft is once again making a big push into the world of digital music with its new Xbox Music service. Launching across Windows 8 PCs and tablets, Windows Phone 8 handsets and Xbox 360, Xbox Music won't be limited to Microsoft's own platforms, though, as the company has today confirmed that it'll "eventually" be heading to Android and iOS, too

In addition to the standard music streaming service, Xbox Music will reportedly comprise a digital download service, a cloud music storage offering and an iTunes Match-like service for importing tracks from CDs or other sources.

But in order to access the service on these other platforms, though, you'll need a $10-per-month subscription, as the free, ad-supported Xbox Music experience will only be available on Windows 8 PCs. With regards to Android, Xbox Music will compete with Google Play Music, a service that's well established in the U.S., but unavailable internationally. If Microsoft can offer wide availability in enough countries, it'd could have the chance convert Android users over to Xbox Music before Google has the chance to launch its own service.

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LG Optimus 4X HD price slashed to Rs. 27,990

This is not just the season for new devices, but also price cuts. Soon after HTC's One S and Desire V saw reduced prices, LG is now following suit by slashing the price of the Optimus 4X HD to Rs. 27,990, retailing on Flipkart.  Initially announced at the Mobile World Congress this year, the LG Optimus 4X HD debuted in India for Rs. 34,490 in July. The LG Optimus 4X HD has a 4.7-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) True HD IPS display with 331 pip and is powered by a 1.5 GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor. It runs on Android 4.0 and has an 8MP auto focus camera with LED Flash and a 1.3MP front-facing camera. It has 16GB internal memory, 1GB RAM and a 2,150 mAh battery. The Samsung Galaxy S III also received a price cut just last month, coming down to Rs. 34,900 fromRs. 43,180 when it was first launched. The HTC One X is also in a similar price range.

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Microsoft buys PhoneFactor, adds smartphone authentication to its cloud services

With a hand-in-glove relationship with the world of business, it's key that Microsoft ensures it can keep companies data safe. That's what prompted Steve Ballmer to whip out his checkbook to snap up PhoneFactor, a multi-factor authentication company that uses smartphones instead of code-generating security tokens. With its new toy, Redmond plans to integrate the feature into its services like SharePoint, Azure and Office 365, letting users sign on with their own device as a key element of the signing in process.

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Google buying facial recognition firm - Viewdle

The rumors have been confirmed, Google's Motorola Mobility is indeed acquiring the facial recognition technology company Viewdle.

"Motorola Mobility today announced that it has acquired Viewdle, a leading imaging & gesture recognition company," a Motorola spokesperson told CNET today. "Motorola and Viewdle have an existing commercial agreement and have been collaborating for some time. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed."

CNET reported on Monday that Google was about to close a deal to buy Viewdle, which is a Ukrainian maker of facial recognition technology that automatically tags photos. Apparently the acquisition had been in the works for more than a year. According to a source, Motorola was already in talks with Viewdle when Google acquired it last year.

It makes sense that Google was looking to get its hands on Viewdle -- its technology provides a way for users of Google+, Android, Picasa, and other services on a range of devices to easily (even, automatically) tag photos of friends.

Facebook also has made a play in this space, earlier this year buying Face.com along with its Photo Tagger auto-tagging app.

The final purchase price is not yet known, but some estimates say it is toward the high end of a $30 million to $45 million range.