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Microsoft has announced two significant price drops for their Surface 3 tablet, at least for the time being.

The tablet is now available for $100 less if you purchase the 2GB RAM model (with 64GB internal storage) or $150 off if you purchase the pricier 4GB RAM model with 128GB storage.

Both discounts are applicable to Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + LTE models.

Microsoft says the deal is good through April 2nd, but depending on how popular it is, we may see it come back sooner rather than later. Additionally, if you purchase this month, you will get $30 off the $200 Surface 3 Docking station that makes the tablet more of a desktop replacement.

Check it out here: Microsoft Store

Indiegogo backers have begun to receive refunds for the failed Jolla tablet, nearly 16 months after the campaign launched.

Any backer will need to submit an application via the company's refund portal, which at this point appears to be open until at least April 16th.

Due to the financial situation of the company, Jolla will refund 50% now, and 50% later, which could be months into the future.

If you are a backer, please check the official page here to learn how to get a refund: Jolla

After months of delays, select Windows Phone 8.1 devices can now begin upgrading to Windows 10 Mobile.

Reads Microsoft's statement: "Today, we're pleased to begin the roll-out of Windows 10 Mobile to select Windows Phone 8.1 devices.

Consistent with our approach to the Windows 10 PC upgrade, we are focused on delivering a high quality experience for our customers. The Windows 10 Upgrade Advisor app can be downloaded from the Windows Store to see if the upgrade is available for your device. As Windows 10 delivers significant new innovations, many older devices are not able to successfully upgrade without an impact on the customer experience. Our goal is to only offer the Windows 10 upgrade to devices that we are confident can continue to deliver a good customer experience."

The current list of upgradable phones are: Lumia 1520, 930, 640, 640XL, 730, 735, 830, 532, 535, 540, 635 1GB, 636 1GB, 638 1GB, 430, 435, BLU Win HD w510u, BLU Win HD LTE x150q and MCJ Madosma Q501.

If you are interested, there is more information here: Microsoft

Spotify has agreed to pay $21 million in unpaid royalties to the NMPA (National Music Publishers Association) over tracks that were missing copyright owner information.

The settlement is for all "unmatched works" and the agreement will allow owners of tracks to properly identify themselves and their music so they can receive any unpaid royalties.

$16 million will be paid to publishers and songwriters and the remaining $5 million will be a "bonus" fund for artists and publishers that opt-in to the settlement.

Adds NMPA CEO David Israelite: "I am thrilled that through this agreement both independent and major publishers and songwriters will be able to get what is owed to them. We must continue to push digital services to properly pay for the musical works that fuel their businesses and after much work together, we have found a way for Spotify to quickly get royalties to the right people."

Struggling tech giant Toshiba has announced a $5.9 billion asset sale alongside a large investment into its chip businesses.

The company has been marred by an accounting scandal in the past couple of years in Japan, and the U.S. Department of Justice is also investigating potential fraud for the Toshiba-owned Westinghouse Electric, a nuclear power company based in the U.S.

Almost comically, one part of Toshiba's asset sale is already being questioned. The company is selling its medical equipment unit to Canon, but Toshiba has transferred the unit to a special purpose company which will allow them to book any sale proceeds this year, even if the deal takes years to complete (there are expected monopoly issues).

If all their asset sales are completed, the company will invest 360 billion yen ($3.2 billion) over the next three years to build a new semiconductor facility in Japan to focus on flash memory.

WeChat, China's most popular messaging app, now has over 700 million monthly active users.

In the last 12 months, the company added 200 million active users, showing that their growth is not slowing down one bit. By the end of December, the company reported 697 million MAUs, but it is fair to suggest they have added over 3 million in the last three months.

The growth comes as WeChat has expanded their mobile payments in mainland China. The company reported $46.1 million in bank handling fees for the month of January, alone.

Thanks to Dual Pixels, we now have the first alleged photos of the upcoming Nintendo NX's controller.

We had previously seen patent applications from Nintendo and the new picture seems to match up similarly.

Keep in mind there is zero proof this is real and zero proof that Nintendo is making anything remotely like this, but if accurate the controller certainly looks very, very interesting.

Check out what we have so far, here:

According to a new report, Google parent Alphabet is looking to sell its promising robotics division, Boston Dynamics.

The company is apparently looking to focus on more immediate revenues and the robotics division is years if not decades away from bringing in stable cash flow.

Allegedly, there have also been issues between the Boston Dynamics team and the rest of Google's robotics engineers around the world, and Alphabet has begun to see that humans are not necessarily ready for robots to take over the world, making the division a liability across the board.

Some sources speculate that Amazon or Toyota could be interested in buying the division, although there has been no confirmed interest from any potential buyers.

Microsoft has said this week that there are plans to allow developers to build and port Windows 10 apps to the Xbox One later this year.

Exec Jason Ronald said the company will reveal more at BUILD later this month, but did confirm that Windows 10 apps will work on the Xbox One starting this summer.

What remains unclear is exactly how the Xbox One app store will work and whether or not the company will allow all apps to be included, or whether it will be curated (like Amazon does).

Microsoft has made a major commitment to universal apps - apps that are built for PC, tablet, phone, console with the only changes required being the screen size, and this is the logical next step. It will be interesting to see what the company has to add at BUILD on March 30th.

Last week, Google shocked the developer world when it released a very early beta of its upcoming Android N operating system, a full two months before anyone expected it.

Having been able to mess around with the OS for a few days, there is certainly the potential for N to be a great update for Android, although as of writing there aren't too many killer new features, suggesting rather that the operating system will be an incremental update.

This time around, Google has made it very, very easy to get the update, as long as you have a Nexus device, of course. You will have to enroll your device in the Android Developer Program and within minutes, you will have access to the OTA update. No need to set up ADB, no need to download images and no need to load the bootloader. Overall, it's a much easier process. It took me just a matter of minutes to get set up on my Pixel C tablet.

Search giant Google has lost their anti-monopoly appeal in Russia over the bundling of Google apps with all Android phones and tablets.

Manufacturers are allowed to use Android without any of Google's apps installed, but if they want to offer the Google Play Store or any of Google's apps, then they have to offer them all. This includes Gmail, Google Search, Google Play, and Maps, for example.

The original complaint came via Russian search leader Yandex, as Google's bundling directly affects their business in the nation.

Reads the statement from the court: "[During the] course of the case proceedings, the Commission of the FAS Russia found that Google provided mobile devices manufacturers with Google play app store for pre-installation on Android OS mobile devices adopted for the Russian Federation. Conditions of app store provision include obligatory pre-installation of Google apps as well as its searching engine and their obligatory location on the main screen of a mobile device. Google actions led to prohibition of pre-installation of apps of other producers."

If Google loses the case, it could have implications across the EU, where the European Commission is looking into similar complaints filed by other tech giants like Microsoft.

Virtual reality darling Oculus is preparing to start shipping the first consumer Oculus Rift headsets this month, and gamers will have a full portfolio of games to play when they receive it.

These are the 30 games that will be available at launch, followed by an additional 10 or so set to launch next month. Description of games are via Tech Insider:

"Windlands"
Psytec Games Ltd.
Price: $19.99

"Windlands" is a great example of virtual reality enabling you to experience something you're unlikely to ever experience in real life: flying through the air at high speed, using your robot arms to fling yourself from place to place.


"BlazeRush"
Targem Games
Price: Not announced

"BlazeRush" is the video game answer to a the proposition of a mid-'90s Hot Wheels commercial. Watch from above and control the action as tiny, kitted-out race cars go to town on each other in a winner take all race to the finish.


"Vektron Revenge"
Ludovic Texier
Price: $9.99

"Vektron Revenge" is a simple arcade-style game where you control a ship using your gaze. Wherever you look, your ship goes (on a 2D plane) -- it was originally created during a "game jam," which is an event where a theme or objective is given and game developers have a set amount of time to create a game, either individually or in groups, based on those constraints.

Sony and EA have teased that Star Wars Battlefront will be available in virtual reality via the upcoming PlayStation VR headset.

The device is set to launch in October for $399, but gamers are already getting excited about the prospects.

Sony CEO Andrew House gave scant details on the game or its availability except to say that it would be exclusive to the PSVR.

He will have more information when the companies make such details available.

Sony has launched a new PlayStation Video app for Android devices this week.

The app will let consumers stream purchased video content from the PlayStation Store on their phone or tablet, natively.

Additionally, you can use the app to purchase movies and TV shows, including PlayStation original content like Powers.

Sony also noted that there will be promotions on a "constant basis," likely meaning discounts on TV episodes.

The U.S. government has arrested and charged Ryan Collins with stealing hundreds of nude pictures of celebrities taken directly from their iCloud and Gmail accounts.

The pictures, released in 2014 to the public during an event that became known as "The Fappening," revealed private moments for many popular celebrities, most notably Jennifer Lawerence.

Government officials say Collins will plead guilty to a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information. It is unclear what the punishment will be for his crimes.

While there had been rumors that the hackers had used brute-force methods to break into the iCloud accounts, it appears that Collins used a very simple method: phishing. The DOJ says Collins used emails such as "e-mail.protection318@icloud.com," "noreply_helpdesk0118@outlook.com," and "secure.helpdesk0019@gmail.com" and sent hundreds of emails to potential victims asking them to reset their iCloud and Gmail usernames and passwords. From there he would download the entire iCloud backup or would manually go through any email with picture attachments.

Collins is notably not being charged with releasing the photos, suggesting someone else purchased the pictures and then released them later.