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Latest collection of news from a number of reliable sources.The Fast & Furious movie franchise has gathered a cult-like following of fans who enjoy the intense action and tricked-out vehicles, with the sixth entry expected to dominate the box office once more this weekend. Fast & Furious 6: The Game is true to the elements that made the film series such a smash, with beautiful graphics and plenty of extras relating to the films – though the actual racing in this free-to-play affair can get a bit dull and repetitive after a while.
You start the game as an up-and-coming driver who has caught the attention of the major players from the film. They recruit you to perform a number of jobs, which run parallel to the story in the movie. Fast & Furious 6: The Game isn’t traditionally what you might expect for a racing game. Rather than steering the car and controlling acceleration and braking, Fast & Furious 6 is all about simply tapping the screen at the right time. Luckily, the game does a better job at this style of control than others in the genre, like CSR Racing.
There are two types of races in the game: Drag and drift. Drag races require you to launch at the beginning of the race, and then tap multiple times to shift. Drift events, meanwhile, include all of the elements of drag races, but add in a drift mode where you must tap and hold to complete the wild whip around a turn. Your timeliness in executing these commands can earn you some in-game cash, even if you don’t win the race.
And speaking of cash, you will need a lot of it to progress in the game. Buying new cars and upgrading them is a vital component, and even if your timing is perfect, you will almost certainly lose if you’re up against a more powerful opponent. Upgrades can be purchased with the free in-game money or with a separate premium currency. Sadly, premium currency is really the only option if you want to progress through the game with any amount of speed. Earning the cash on your own simply takes a very long time.
The bottom line. While stunning to look at, Fast & Furious 6: The Game loses its luster after a short time.
Opera's browser.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)Opera's new and improved Android browser has officially gone gold.
The company announced the news on Tuesday, saying that its browser, which was previously available in the Google Play marketplace as beta software, is now an official launch. Getting it out of beta means that Opera believes most of the software's bugs are gone, and is ready for wide use.
Opera announced the browser overhaul in February at Mobile World Congress. Rather than base the software on its own Presto engine, it decided to scrap that entirely for the open-source WebKit engine used in Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome.
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's $1.1 billion acquisition of blogging service Tumblr will be a test of her ability to revive the aging Web portal. Luckily for her, her performance may be graded generously.
REDMOND, Washington (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp gave the world the first look at its new game console on Tuesday, hoping the newly named Xbox One will build on a solid core of gamer fans and become a hub for living room entertainment.
Are you as happy with your iPhone than you were last year? If not, you may not be alone, according to a recent survey which reveals Apple has dropped two percent from its position in 2012.
CNET reported Monday that a new American Customer Satisfaction Index report shows that Apple's iPhone has slipped two positions from last year, a phenomenon also experienced by Android handset makers HTC and LG.
In 2012, the iPhone enjoyed a customer satisfaction score of 83 (out of 100), ranking it the highest of all competitors. That's still the case this year, although the two percent drop to 81 coupled with a five percent jump for second-place Motorola appears to be closing the gap (from 73 to 77).
Strangely, goliath Samsung only ranks fifth on the ACSI chart, but the Korean manufacturer is clearly on the rise, jumping seven percent from 71 in 2012 to 76 this year. BlackBerry ranks dead last with a score of 69, which remains unchanged from a year ago.
As usual, we wouldn't read too much into these kind of surveys, unless you're the type who already looks at Apple and thinks the sky is falling. After all, overall satisfaction with cellular phones increased 2.7 percent over the last year, which should be good news for everyone…
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
(Image courtesy of CNET and ACSI)
The acquisition of Tumblr wasn't the only big news Yahoo! had to share with the tech world on Monday, unveiling an all-new Flickr experience at an event in New York City that definitely got everyone's attention.
The Flickr Blog announced Monday that the cloud photo service would be making a big change, effective immediately, combining 1TB of free storage with a beautiful new look and feel for the web app.
"At Flickr, we believe you should share all your images in full resolution, so life’s moments can be relived in their original quality," the blog post reads. "No limited pixels, no cramped formats, no memories that fall flat. We’re giving your photos room to breathe, and you the space to upload a dizzying number of photos and videos, for free. Just how big is a terabyte? Well, you could take a photo every hour for forty years without filling one."
Most amazingly, the massive storage bump is absolutely free for everyone -- in fact, Flickr has done away with its Flickr Pro upgrades entirely in favor of only two paid options: $49.99 per year to remove all ads, or $499.99 per year to double the storage space to 2TB.
While that alone would have been an impressive change, Flickr now features a completely new look for web browsers, which places the emphasis on photos with a minimum of white space around them. So what about videos? Flickr now supports full 1080p HD videos up to three minutes long, and users can fill their entire 1TB of storage with them, should they choose to do so.
Finally, Flickr pushed out an overhaul to its existing Android app, which brings a similar look and feel from the web app to mobile. While the company hasn't confirmed whether or not the iPhone will receive the same treatment, it's a good bet that it will -- and here's hoping it will arrive alongside a native iPad app as well, which is long overdue.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
BOSTON (Reuters) - Several U.S. power utilities say they face constant cyber attacks on critical systems, according to a report by two Democratic lawmakers amid warnings from the Obama administration that foreign hackers are seeking to attack the electric grid.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp's new chief executive, Brian Krzanich, has launched a sweeping reorganization of the world's top chipmaker and created a unit aiming to retake the top chipmaker's lead in mobile and semiconductor innovation.
Locate 4G with Mosaik's new app.
(Credit: Brian Bennett/CNET)LAS VEGAS--Tapping into high-speed 4G networks is a real treat but sometimes a signal is hard to find. The new CellMaps Mobile Coverage app for Android is here to help.
Announced today at CTIA 2013, the Mosaik application lets U.S. Android phone owners see 4G footprints for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon in real time. Users can also drill down to see cellular network services in their neck of the woods or scan the overall 4G picture nationally.
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Even more exciting is the application's ability to filter 4G coverage in granular details such as 2G, 3G, 4G, and that special golden unicorn of 4G LTE. The app lets you mix and match these filters too to get a more tailored view.
The application is available now for a free download via the Google Play market and an iOS version is expected to happen within the "coming months" according to Mosaik... [Read more]
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Apple executives are expected to testify on Capitol Hill today to defend the iPhone maker's offshore profits, but Cupertino has attempted to head off any surprises by posting Cook's responses for all to see.
Politico reported Monday that U.S. Senate investigators plan to grill Apple CEO Tim Cook, CFO Peter Oppenheimer and Head of Tax Operations Phillip A. Bullock on Capitol Hill today over claims that the tech giant has used "numerous U.S. tax loopholes" to avoid upwards of $44 billion in taxable income from 2009 through last year.
The problem for the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is that Apple's foreign-earned income is funneled through a corporation in Ireland, where the company has long enjoyed lower tax rates. But even the Senate has stopped short of painting Apple's so-called "tax gimmicks" as illegal.
“What we intend to do is to highlight that gimmick and other Apple offshore avoidance tactics so that American working families, who pay their share of taxes, understand how offshore tax loopholes raise their tax burden and how those loopholes add to the federal deficit,” explained Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the subcommittee.
To head things off at the pass, Apple published an 18-page document on Monday (PDF link) which lays out its full testimony in advance, as well as detail the company's history and full details of how much it pays in taxes -- including sales and use tax payments from its retail operations, state income tax and employer payroll taxes.
"Apple wants to make clear to the Subcommittee that the Company does not use its Irish subsidiaries or any other entities to engage in the following tax practices that were the focus of the Subcommittee’s September 20, 2012 hearing, entitled Offshore Profit Shifting and the US Tax Code," the document reads.
"Specifically, Apple does not move its intellectual property into offshore tax havens and use it to sell products back into the US to avoid US tax, nor does it use revolving loans from CFCs to fund its domestic operations. Apple does not hold money on a Caribbean island, does not have a bank account in the Cayman Islands, and does not move any taxable revenue from sales to US customers to other jurisdictions in order to avoid US taxation."
The hearing, entitled "Offshore Profit Shifting and the U.S. Tax Code - Part 2 (Apple Inc.)," kicks off at 9:30am EST on Tuesday in Room 106 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Apple Inc's chief executive officer defended the company's tax record at a Tuesday Senate hearing where lawmakers said the maker of iPads, iPods and Mac computers kept billions of dollars in profits in Irish subsidiaries to avoid U.S. taxes.
TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry no longer owns the fast-paced, innovative smartphone world but the company, whose email-on-your-hip devices once revolutionized the industry, now aims to run it.
CORK/DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland said on Tuesday it was not to blame for Apple Inc's low global tax payments and had no special rate deal with the company after the U.S. Senate said it paid little or no tax on tens of billions of dollars in profits stashed in Irish subsidiaries.
CORK/DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland said on Tuesday it was not to blame for Apple Inc's low global tax payments and had no special rate deal with the company after the U.S. Senate said it paid little or no tax on tens of billions of dollars in profits stashed in Irish subsidiaries.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp's new chief executive, Brian Krzanich, has reorganized key business groups and created a "new devices" unit, according to a source who has seen an internal email, shaking up the world's top chipmaker days after formally assuming control.
(Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp raised its buyout offer for wireless service provider Clearwire Corp to $3.40 per share, but the new bid was not high enough to impress some investors.
Yahoo! certainly kicked off the week in grand style Monday with news of its Tumblr acquisition, but it had one more trick up its sleeve that we'll get to in a moment, along with Apple going on the offensive over government accusations that the company isn't paying its full share of taxes on income generated overseas. But first, there's a whole batch of updates, tweaks and elaborations to enjoy, which includes some analysis on how T-Mobile US could one day leapfrog Sprint for third place!
Scanner Pro 4.5 Update Adds Automatic Border Detection
Readdle is back with another update to its universal Scanner Pro for iOS, and while Tuesday's version 4.5 release only adds a single feature, it's a pretty slick one: The app now detects page borders in real time. As you can see from the embedded YouTube video, the result is a neat visual trick, but it's a practical addition as well, cutting down on the time users spend on cropping and manually adjusting page borders. Real-time border detection will help users fly through a stack of documents in no time at all thanks to batch mode. The Scanner Pro 4.5 update is now available from the App Store.
AT&T Carrier Update Hacked for Faster Data Speeds
Cult of Mac reported Monday that the two developers who hacked T-Mobile's carrier update earlier this month are back with another tweak which promises to improve LTE and HSPA+ speeds on AT&T as well. The hack does not require a jailbroken device, and it works on the iPhone 5 as well as AT&T cellular-equipped third and fourth-generation iPads or iPad mini. This trick, which is done via iTunes, simply overrides built-in limits on certain bands, allowing devices to pull in the strongest signal available. The good news is that users can revert back to normal, but non-jailbroken users will need to do a full wipe and restore to do so.
Google Product Manager Elaborates on Google Voice Support in Hangouts
Google appears to be feeling the heat on current limitations with its new Hangouts product, so product manager Nikhyl Singhal has taken to Google+ in an effort to sort out any confusion. Singhal confirms our report Monday that Hangouts does not yet support outbound calls from a web browser, but inbound Google Voice calls are indeed possible. Google promises to get outbound calls working soon, and Singhal closes his post by noting "future versions of Hangouts will integrate Google Voice more seamlessly," which sounds promising.
VUDU Updates iOS App with Offline Playback, Closed Captioning
Back in January, Walmart-owned VUDU promised an update to their existing iOS app by mid-February. Flash-forward to yesterday, and the app is finally available, with no explanation of what took so long. The big news with VUDU Player 2.0 is its ability to download movies and TV shows for offline playback and overall better playback, while the iPhone version adds closed captioning support as well as now taking advantage of the larger iPhone 5 display. Unfortunately, you'll still need to use a web browser to rent or buy any content, and playback is still limited to standard-definition quality -- but hey, at least now VUDU users can watch video without an internet connection.
Analyst Predicts T-Mobile US Could Soon Claim Third Place from Sprint
TMoNews reported Monday that at least one analyst is forecasting a bright future for fourth-placed carrier T-Mobile US. How bright? Deutsche Bank's Brett Feldman predicts that T-Mobile's rapid 4G LTE expansion plans could help the company pass third-placed rival Sprint, especially now that it's empowered with both the iPhone as well as a successful merger with MetroPCS. That last part is expected to gain T-Mobile US an additional five million new customers over the next two or three years, which could help the carrier truly shake up the industry if that prediction should come to pass.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
MUMBAI/BANGALORE (Reuters) - IT outsourcing company iGate Corp sacked Chief Executive Phaneesh Murthy after a company sexual harassment investigation revealed that he had not disclosed a relationship with a subordinate.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Apple Inc came under fire on Tuesday at a Senate hearing over an investigation that alleged the U.S. high technology icon has kept billions of dollars in profits in Irish subsidiaries and paid little or no taxes to any government.
CORK/DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland said on Tuesday it was not to blame for Apple Inc's low global tax payments and had no special rate deal with the company after the U.S. Senate said it paid little or no tax on tens of billions of dollars in profits stashed in Irish subsidiaries.
