Microsoft purchase of Nokia's mobile business gets US approval

U.S. antitrust regulators have approved
Microsoft Corp's deal to buy Nokia
Corp's mobile phone business, the
Federal Trade Commission said on
Monday.
The approval, which was expected, was
dated November 29.

Devices & Services business in 5.44
billion euros deal
)
The next step will be for the companies
to win approval in Europe for the
proposed $7.3 billion transaction.
Two people familiar with the matter
told Reuters on November 22 that the
transaction was headed for
unconditional approval in Brussels.
The
EU competition watchdog has set a
December 4 deadline for its decision.
Nokia had in September agreed to sell
its devices and services business and
license its patents to Microsoft after
failing to recover from a late start in
the smartphone sector.

The purchase underscores Microsoft's
push into the competitive consumer
devices market, where it faces fierce
competition from market leader
Samsung Electronics and Apple .

Nokia shareholders in mid-November
gave a thumbs-up to the sale of what
was once Finland's biggest brand, at
one point worth 4 percent of the
national GDP.

© Thomson Reuters 2013

Hangouts 1.3 Will Reportedly Add SMS, Giving Android Its Own iMessage Equivalent

Google is said to be prepping an update
to its Hangouts instant messaging/video
chat Android app that would allow it to
integrate with SMS, making it possible
to get all text and MMS messages right
in the same inbox. That would fulfill a
promise made a long time ago, near
when Hangouts was first announced, by
Hangouts and Chat community manager
Dori Storbeck.

The new info comes from Android Police,
which says it had heard that Google
would be building SMS integration into
Hangouts in a version releasing soon, a
report which was then corroborated by
screenshots from an anonymous tipster.
In the screenshots, Hangouts is depicted
as showing messages clearly sent “via
SMS,” as well as being able to “Send an
SMS message” in the existing compose
screen. There’s also a screenshot of the
settings where SMS can be toggled on
and off.

The update would also offer up video
sharing via Hangouts, the report claims,
but the biggest news for both Google
and for other third-party messaging
platforms would be the SMS integration.
It would consolidate one more service/
app offering into Hangouts for Google,
which has already subsumed Google Talk
and Google+ Messenger. It would be
easy to see it taking the next logical
step from there and offering VoIP
services, too, providing a complete over-
the-top service.
It would also be potentially bad news
for competitors like WhatsApp and
Facebook Messenger. FB’s messaging app
already offers SMS integration, but
Google’s Hangouts version would ship on
devices pre-installed, and could
conceivably replace the Messaging app
altogether, making it the default option
for Android users. It could also eat
away at more carrier business, as
combining the two and favoring Google
+ based messaging first would have a
similar effect to iMessage, where
carriers eventually derive less revenue
from shuttling SMS content back and
forth.
SMS has long been in the cards for
Hangouts, and hopefully it’s arriving
soon. There’s no timeline attached to
the report, apart from some speculation
it could arrive with Android KitKat, but
in all likelihood this functionality will be
generally available to Hangouts users
regardless of their OS version.

Skype overhaul promises improvedcalling, chat sync across devices

Skype has announced a new architectural update with an intent to improve the popular messaging and video call platform in a world with more connected mobile devices. Sharing some details about the changes in a blog post, Skype's Mark Gillet mentions that Skype is now using the cloud to assist clients in delivering chat messages and connecting calls, marking a shift from the p2p nature of the service where a major amount of processing was done on the user's device.

Gillet calls the move to Skype cloud the service's biggest architectural change in 10 years and says that new technologies are helping the company to promote improved battery life and improved connections. "Skype clients continue to evaluate bandwidth, connectivity and firewall settings to select the most appropriate path for the call and continue to connect devices for P2P calls across the Internet so that users get audio and video connections that 'just work'," he states. 

Skype also credits the cloud for enhancing the performance and quality of its core messaging experience. It talks about the ability to receive messages offline and pushing notifications to the Windows Phone 8 mobile client even when the Skype app is not running, and says that the feature will soon be extended to other Skype mobile clients soon. 

However, the major feature that Skype is about to introduce is chat sync, something which has been demanded by a large number of users since the time Skype started focusing on clients for multiple devices. Skype says that it is working to synchronise chat message status across all of the user's devices so the user knows the current status of all of chats on every device that is used to interact with Skype. 

It says the capability will be rolled out across clients over the next few months. Right now if you log-in to Skype's mobile client after being logged in on the desktop one, you receive all messages that you've already read on your desktop on your mobile, which hampers the chat experience in a world where users keep on shuttling between different devices.

Skype also states that it will use its cloud to help preserve the battery of the users' device by enabling the mobile Skype app to stay in "sleep" mode until it's needed by using push notifications. When a user calls another user, the calling app sends the Skype ID and IP address of the parties, as well as the time and date, to the Skype cloud. 

Once a push notification is sent, Skype collects and stores information about the call. It will even sync missed calls information across all the users' devices, The Skype client on Windows 8.1, will offer the ability to answer calls directly from the lock screen with the user's choice of audio, video or a message. Skype also clarified that it uses strong physical, technical and administrative security protections, apart from storing only partial IP addresses, and cryptographically hashing the Skype IDs it stores, to help protect the users' privacy.

LG's curved display smartphoneconfirmed for November launch

LG Electronics Inc's display unit said on Monday it will start mass production of curved smartphone displays as the South Korean phone maker plans to launch a smartphone with the new screens next month to catch bigger rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. 

Samsung said last month it would introduce a smartphone with a curved display in October as the world's top handset maker seeks to set the pace of hardware innovation amid slowing growth in the high-end smartphone market. 

Curved displays are in the early stages of development and allow bendable or foldable designs that could eventually allow mobile and wearable gadgets to take new forms that could radically change the high-end smartphone market.

LG Display Co Ltd said on Monday it has started production of a six-inch display curved top to bottom. LG Electronics plans to launch a smartphone with the curved display in November, a source familiar with the matter said. By contrast, Samsung's phone will have a display curved side to side, another source who has direct knowledge of the matter said. In January Samsung, which has taken over from Apple Inc as the global smartphone leader, showed off prototype products with a flexible screen and a display that extends from the side of a device. 

Technology firms have yet to figure out how to mass produce the parts cheaply and come up with display panels that can be thin and heat resistant. 

Curved displays are already commercially available in large-screen televisions. 
Samsung and LG Electronics started selling curved OLED TV sets this year priced at about $9,000.

iOS 7 experience on Android via iLauncher

Not all Android users give a hoot about
iOS 7, but we know there are a few of
you out there that may be a little
intrigued about Apple’s new operating
system. We have come across an
Android app called ‘iLauncher’, which
gives you the iOS 7 experience on your
Android.
This app is fairly decent, there is one
feature within iLauncher iOS 7 users
would love Apple to add to its next
update, a few iOS 7 users experienced
motion sickness when using the new
operating system, but this Android app
allows users to disable the zooming
function that makes iPhone users a
little sick.
iLauncher provides a similar experience
as iOS 7, same design with a few added
extras. Once you have installed this app
your entire Home screen will look like
Apple’s UI.
Main iLauncher Android app features
include smooth scrolling, the ability to
uninstall apps from the Home screen,
you can edit exit mode by pressing the
back button, support 5 rows mode just
like the iPhone 5, 5S and 5C. The apps
have rounded corners and gloss
effects; it also includes a dock bar
and so much more. The app does cost
just a little over $2, for more
information about iLauncher, please
visit the Google Play Store .
If you do decide to install the app you
must be aware that you may lose the
ability to add widgets to the Android
Home screen, shortcuts can be added
still.
Not sure why Android users would want
to add iOS 7 to their devices, but hey
we are sure someone would like to give
it a go. If you do decide to install
iLauncher please give another app some
thought, this Android app is called
‘Espier Launcher iOS7 ’ and unlike
iLauncher this one is free.
Would you like iOS 7 on your Android
device?

Insanely Popular Game Candy Crush Saga Is Bringing In An Estimated $ 633,000 A Day

Candy Crush Saga, the highly
addictive puzzle game, is
unmistakeably the most popular game
out there today.
It's No. 3 in the Apple App Store and is
the top game on Facebook, with 44
million monthly active users,
according to AppData.
It's played more than 600 million
times a day and is bringing in an
estimated $633,000 every day,
according to mobile gaming
monetization company Think Gaming
.
We first saw the news on Slate .
If King, the makers of Candy Crush
Saga keep this up, it could pull in
roughly $231 million this year.
That figure goes along with an
analyst's estimation earlier this month
, which said the game could generate
hundreds of millions of dollars in
revenue per year for King.