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Just months after Nokia launched the X smartphone running on Android with a user interface that mimics Windows Phone, new parent Microsoft has unveiled the sequel: the X2.

The device will be an upgrade from its predecessor and features a 4.3-inch display, a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 1GB RAM, dual-SIM capabilities, 16GB internal storage and 5MP/1.3MP dual cameras. Nokia will offer the phone in green, orange, black, yellow and grey.

Nokia has smartly added a home key, which had been a criticism of the original X, along with the back key.

Besides the Windows Phone-esque tile interface, Microsoft has also added their own suite of apps including "some Xbox games," the cloud storage service OneDrive and Outlook. Nokia's HERE maps is of course included, as well, and Nokia's other featured apps are included too, making the phone packed with Microsoft/Nokia services to the point where the device looks nothing like a standard Android device.

Jimmy Lin, the Taiwanese pop star and actor, recently took to Weibo to show off a prototype of the upcoming Apple iPhone 6 that he had somehow procured.

This week, multiple sources have independently confirmed that validity of the iPhone, including sources claiming to be Apple employees who had seen test samples.

The pop star actually leaked the iPhone 5 two years ago, so the photos could certainly be revealing the rumored 4.7-inch device. The sources also claim Apple will boost a 960 x 1704 resolution, with the same ppi as the iPhone 5S.

Check the photos here:

Microsoft really wants to bring consumers over from the dark side.

The software giant has begun offering up to $650 in trade-in credit if you are willing to part with your MacBook Air to buy a new Surface 3 between now and July 31st. Microsoft had previously offered up to $200 for iPhones, as well.

Of course, condition and model matter, with older Airs eligible for a less amount than a 2013 or 2014. The laptops must be brought in to a Microsoft Store in the U.S. or Canada and a tech will check to see if it's working.

When unveiling the Surface Pro 3, the company spent a good amount of slides comparing the device to the Air, especially in regards to weight (of course the Surface is lighter) and thinness (which of course, the Surface is thinner, as well). Microsoft believes their latest can be the first tablet to be a real laptop replacement, although that remains to be seen despite the impressive specs of the new Surface.

Source:
Microsoft

Nostalgic fans will be able to play their favorite Nintendo 64 games via the Wii U's Virtual Console in the near future.

The games had been available for the Wii's Virtual Console, but the games did not make the migration to the new console.

Nintendo did a small confirmation via the Virtual Console site, stating "Check back regularly for the latest releases, including the future addition of titles from the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo 64 systems."

There are a plethora of legendary games for the N64 including Goldeneye, Super Mario 64 and Super Smash Bros. but it is unclear what games will reach the Wii U at launch.

More info here: Virtual Console

The final chapter of the popular Batman: Arkham trilogy is set for release in February of next year, if Microsoft's own store is to be believed.

Developer Rocksteady showed off some incredibly impressive footage at this year's E3 event, while confirming that the game would need a few extra months for development.

Microsoft's U.S. Store has the release date leaked as February 24th, 2015, although that is certainly up for change in the next half of a year.

The timeframe matches what Batman voice actor, Kevin Conroy recently said: "I have a massive game you may have heard of called Arkham Knight... It was supposed to come out in January, we've been working on it for a year and a half, it's still not done. So it's going to come out next January, but I know everyone is frustrated. The reason it's been delayed is because it's so awesome."

Check the insane E3 footage here:

Google has expanded their Glass headset outside of the U.S. for the first time, making the device available to UK residents.

The beta Explorer program has priced the device at £1,000 (about $1,700 USD), slightly more expensive than the $1500 it costs in the U.S.

Reads the blog post:

iFixit has completed their teardown of the Microsoft Surface Pro 3, and it scored just as poorly as its predecessors in terms of repairability.

On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being easiest to repair or upgrade), the tablet scored a 1, meaning you better not break it or try to change any components. In fact, the only upgradeable part is the SSD, but getting to it will most likely destroy the device.

The site says that everything is held together by strong adhesives and non-traditional connectors that make it impossible to do anything.

Among the other conclusions made by iFixit, are that "the display assembly consists of a fused glass panel and LCD, and is extremely difficult to remove and replace" and "the delicate and arduous opening procedure leaves no room for mistakes: one slip-up, and you'll be out a screen."

Even though Intel's new X99 chipset with DDR4 support will not be available until later this year, it appears some retailers in Japan are already selling the new RAM sticks.

Early adopters can pay $350 for a 16GB module made by SanMax, with SKHynix supplying the underlying tech.

DDR4 will support a transfer rate of 2133–4266 MT/s compared 800-2133 MT/s for its predecessor. Additionally, DDR4 will have 288 pins compared to DDR3's 240. The modules will have a power draw of 1.2V.

Source:
Akiba

According to a new report, HTC is potentially building the next Nexus tablet, an impressive device that could be the last in Google's line of reference devices.

If accurate the HTC "Volantis" (codename) could have an 8.9-inch display with 2,048 x 1,440 resolution, 2GB of RAM and run on a Tegra K1 processor, which has four Cortex A15 processors at 2.3GHz and includes a third-generation battery-saver core as the fifth chip.

The device could be the last Nexus tablet ever made, if earlier reports are accurate. Google is said to be ending the Nexus line of reference devices and instead focusing on Android Silver, a program for OEMs that will build their own devices running a pure Android experience, just like the current "Google Play Editions" of popular devices like the Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8.

In January, MEGA founder Kim Dotcom unveiled his music streaming platform Baboom in a very early beta.

The platform is preparing for its international public release, and Dotcom has unveiled some more details. The service will offer higher revenue share for the artists themselves, and will also offer free streaming in the high-quality FLAC lossless format.

With noble intentions, Dotcom first discussed Baboom in 2011. Differentiating itself from other services, Dotcom will allow users to install an advertising plugin to their current browser and be rewarded with ongoing free music which also helps the artists receive more money for their work. The goal is to decrease music piracy.

"Baboom is the first music streaming platform to support FLAC streaming, which delivers lossless audio. What this means, is that fans get to listen to music exactly how the artist intended. No degraded audio experience, you get an exact replica of what the artist recorded," Baboom Chief Technology Officer Marco Oliveira noted. Most streaming services offer 256kbps MP3 or AAC files, at best.

Gigaom has reported on Mozilla's latest project, a media streaming HDMI dongle based on their Firefox OS.

The device would rival Google's popular Chromecast device and Mozilla has been working on prototypes with an unknown hardware partner for the past few months.

Mostly everything remains unknown about the new device including price, availability, specs and even name.

Besides working just like Chromecast, the report states that it can actually run some Chromecast apps, as well, although it is unclear how. It looks now like Mozilla will add casting to Firefox and will also release a device that is more open to hacking and developers than Google's dongle is. Mozilla will allow developers to build casting into apps for all operating systems, not just Android and iOS, meaning BlackBerry, Amazon and Windows Phone users could get access.

Thanks to new cloud-based tech, cable set-top box users are starting to get access to YouTube around the globe, even on legacy SD boxes.

For example, local cable provider UPC Hungary (in Hungary) added a YouTube app to its boxes earlier this month, marking the first time the video service has been available on TVs via a legacy cable box.

At the heart of the new app is a tech called CloudTV, which has very basic hardware requirements, allowing all UPC Hungary customers to get access to YouTube no matter how old their box. The app itself isn't even downloaded on the actual box but is rendered in the cloud and delivered to each box. Controls (like pause and switching to next video) are sent to the cloud and changed on the fly, with a promised latency of under 500 milliseconds.

Netflix, on the other hand, has been signing deals with cable providers, but that process is much, much slower. The app is available only via TiVo DVRs, and not everyone wants to upgrade. In the UK, Netflix has a deal with Virgin but only 50 percent of users have an upgraded TiVo DVR. There are currently no big cable operators that offer the streaming movie and TV service but four smaller ones do.

Skype has said this week that it will be retiring all older versions of its desktop application, including versions for Mac and Windows that were released as recently as February 2014.

"We are going to retire older versions of Skype for Windows desktop (6.13 and below) as well as Skype for Mac (6.14 and below) over the next few months," Skype said. This makes upgrading to the latest versions mandatory if you want to keep using Skype.

While it is not out of the ordinary for companies to retire older versions and force updates, it is not normal to see versions released just four months prior being added to the list. If you are up to date, you would have 6.16 on Windows and 6.18 on Mac OS X.

What will happen once the retirement occurs? "Once a version is retired, users will no longer be able to sign into the retired version until they upgrade to the latest version of Skype," a Microsoft rep noted. Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion.

Source:
CW

Earlier this month, at Apple's annual WWDC, the company made a low-profile announcement that The Weather Channel would be replacing Yahoo Weather as the default weather application for iOS 8.

Yahoo had long held the spot, and the partnership led to a ton of traffic coming back to Yahoo and its portal so the loss will certainly have repercussions. In fact, a recent update of the app was highly touted by CEO Marissa Mayer and has seen strong reviews.

Quite ironically, the Yahoo Weather app has always been powered by Weather Channel data. Yahoo polished the user interface but the technical and important data came directly from Weather Channel servers. The new deal was engineered by Weather Channel CEO David Kenny, who was also a former Yahoo board of directors member and who clearly saw a large opportunity.

In their updated app, The Weather Channel has added more technology and information including better weather related to current locations, a full nine-day forecast, a weather-conditions summary and even more details. The move should prove to be a huge gain for TWC.

In 2012, Philips sued Nintendo for patent infringement in the UK, alleging that the Wii and Wii U infringed on its remote control patents.

This week, the England and Wales High Court has ruled that Nintendo did in fact infringe on three patents, all of which are related to a "user interface system based on a pointing device." One was found to be invalid, but did rule that Nintendo infringed amended versions of the other two patents.

Each of the patents describe computer systems with handheld pointing devices that have a camera and physical motion sensor. In addition, the "device is used for hand-gesture commands to a fixed unit with the gesture analysis based on motion trajectory of the device." Those systems use room localization beacons, and Philips claims that the tech can be used and has been used for gaming.

While there have of course been similar products on the market, the court ruled that nobody has used the combination of sensors and gesture analysis. Other companies, like Wacom and Sony, have used some aspects but not others. "The Nintendo Wii system set up with Wii Tennis is an example of that combination and therefore infringes the claim," Philips said in its initial claim.