If Dr. Dre is going to fit in at Apple, he should probably learn to say something along the lines of, “We get bought up by larger technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” Instead, however, the legendary hip-hop producer has shown up on a new video posted by actor Tyrese Gibson where he boasts about being “the first billionaire in hip-hop.” On his Facebook page, Gibson said in a now-deleted post that he shot the video in a studio with Dre “on the night his deal went public” to be acquired by Apple for $3.2 billion. Gibson prefaced Dre’s boast by saying that Dre was “drunk off of Heinekens,” so it seems the good Dr. was in a celebratory mood following the deal. You can watch Gibson’s full very-not-safe-for-work video below, which has thankfully been preserved on YouTube after being deleted on Facebook.

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Category: Business, Apple, beats

We know that Netflix is raising subscription prices for new subscribers, but the company said this year that current subscribers will be able to keep their current lower prices for an undefined amount of time. Now thanks to CNBC, we know just how much more time longtime Netflix subscribers have to enjoy their lower subscription fees: Two more years.

Developing…

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Category: TV, netflix

After Myce discovered in the Chromium issue tracker a fish-based codename (Flounder) for a Google device running an early-May Android version, speculating that Flounder may be the Nexus 8/9 tablet tipped to be made by HTC, xda-developers has dug deeper and found more evidence that HTC is the maker of Flounder. Additionally, what could also be a Nexus device codenamed “Molly” has also been spotted.

Digging through the Android 4.4.3 KitKat MR2 changelist, the publication found lines of code that associate Flounder to HTC, as seen below:

project device/htc/flounder/
f6f0fe7 flounder: fix KGDB port
d9a03bc flounder: take out conservative cpufreq governor a.o. extraneous stuff
091c1c1 flounder: add Power HAL
project device/htc/flounder-kernel/
6090a06 flounder: update kernel prebuilt

Interestingly, Molly was also spotted in the same KitKat MR2 build, although it’s not clear who will make the device – those lines of code follow below:

project device/google/molly/
60f0dd6 molly: keystore: add keystore hal
1dcb7b7 molly: correcting too wide permissions for certain devnodes
eadd23b molly: set permissions for nvhost-msenc
c554447 [molly][drm] Implement rules for Discretix module
787e5e7 Fix the file permission for mbtchar0
fe0c51a Update releasetools.py to support separate prod and test key bootloaders
e610c57 Set BT minor code to SET_TOP_BOX instead of HIFI.
5d64459 molly: Do not init p2p for wlan0 interface
c0626ba Disable throughput hinting for gpu frequency scaler.
project device/google/molly-kernel/
81386aa Update kernel
11ab4e9 Update kernel
9d7bca3 Update kernel
bea8097 Update kernel
55591db Update kernel
342aa11 Update kernel
481e0a6 Update kernel:
b904ad3 Update kernel
4d2f31f Update kernel
dc305ba Update kernel
d508d83 Update kernel
5668370 Update kernel

Google is expected to unveil an HTC-made Nexus 8 or Nexus 9 tablet this summer, possibly alongside a new Android 4.5 OS version, and a Nexus 6 smartphone in fall based on the LG G3.

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Category: Tablets, HTC, Nexus 8, Nexus 9

Whether intentionally or by accident, Motorola has been rather careless with its website for a few days now, confirming many details about its upcoming Android devices on its official site. After listing the name and the price of the Moto X+1 flagship smartphone, Motorola has now apparently mentioned on its site a completely new Moto G Cinema handset that could also be released soon. Similarly, a Moto 4G Global and a Moto 3G have also been spotted. These signs seem to suggest the company is getting ready to soon sell many new Android phones.

@evleaks scored a screenshot of Motorola’s website that mentions the product, although an actual image of the new handset, or details about it are not available at this time – somehow Motorola managed not to leak those. The price of the handset is not known yet either, although it’ll likely be a rather affordable device, considering that’ it’s included in the Moto G family.

The “Cinema” portion of the name seems to indicate the phone would offer a better cinematic experience to users that enjoy watching videos on smartphones, although it’s not clear whether the phone would have a bigger display in order to achieve that. Motorola has been rumored to work on its own phablet, although the company has focused on smartphones that can be easily operated with one hand, at least while under Google.

Mobiltelefon.ru has discovered a Moto 4G Global page, which lists the price for the device at $189 and a Moto 3G 4GB that could cost up to $199. It’s unclear whether these are also Moto G versions.

The company may soon unveil more details about these devices, as it has scheduled a May 13 event in London where it’s likely to announce the various devices that have been detailed in several recent reports, including the Moto X+1 high-end handsets, but also the cheaper Moto G Cinema, the Moto 4G and 3G, and Moto E.

The screenshots showing the Moto G Cinema and Moto 4G Global mentions follow below.

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Early approval ratings from Glassdoor.com show that new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is already much more popular than his predecessor Steve Ballmer and now Forbes is out with a new report explaining why: In terms of management style, Nadella has been the “anti-Ballmer” so far and it’s winning him fans.

What does it mean to be “the anti-Ballmer?” Well, by Ballmer’s own admission he was “big, bald and loud” and often gave off the impression of being a bull in a $330 billion china shop. By contrast, Forbes says that Nadella is building a reputation as someone who is calm, quiet and deliberate.

“Table-pounding bravado is out; good-natured curiosity is in,” Forbes writes. “The floorboards of old business models are being pried apart. There’s less talk about seizing billion-dollar opportunities or hitting financial targets — and more emphasis on investing profits to win hordes of new users.”

Judging by the early moves that Microsoft has made ever since Nadella took over as CEO, we can definitely see that there’s been a change in business strategy. The company is much less interested in protecting Windows than it traditionally has been and it’s much more interested in getting its software onto more devices no matter what platform they use. He’s also shown that Microsoft will be willing to sacrifice profit in the short-term to pick up users, as evidenced by his decision to make Windows Phone a free-to-use mobile platform.

Forbes‘ entire report on how Nadella operates is worth reading and can be found by clicking the source link below.

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For all its faults, the Galaxy S5 is still a pretty great device, especially if what you prize the most in your smartphone is a big, beautiful display. New data from Chitika indicates that North American Android fans agree, which is why they’re seemingly adopting it an even faster rate than they adopted the Galaxy S4.

According to Chitika’s analysis, the Galaxy S5 accounted for 4.3% of all North American smartphone traffic 25 days after its release, while the Galaxy S4 accounted for just 2% of North American smartphone traffic 25 days after its release last year. This isn’t conclusive evidence that the Galaxy S5 is outselling the Galaxy S4 so far but it does at least indicate that the Galaxy S5 is being used more on the web than the Galaxy S4 so far, which should make Samsung happy from the perspective of having good user engagement.

Chitika speculates that the Galaxy S5 has a few factors going for it that have helped make it a hit: First, it has a bigger display than any flagship Galaxy device released so far, which is drawing in consumers who are increasingly looking to buy phones with big eye-catching screens. Second, its new water-resistant and dust-resistant casing has proven to be genuinely impressive under torture tests and thus might be appealing to people who want to carry their smartphone around without worrying about breaking it.

Either way, it looks as though Samsung has churned out yet another hit despite griping from the tech press about the device’s case being once again made from cheap-feeling plastic.

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Amazon pleasantly surprised its customers late last year when the company announced it would begin delivering packages on Sundays. Partnering with the United States Postal Service, Amazon brought Sunday deliveries to New York and Los Angeles last November, but on Thursday the biggest online retailer in the world revealed that the service would be expanding to 15 more cities.

The cities that are now eligible for Sunday deliveries include Austin, College Station, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, TX; Cincinnati and Columbus, OH; Indianapolis, IN; Lexington and Louisville, KY; New Orleans and Shreveport, LA; Oklahoma City, OK and Philadelphia, PA.

Amazon has been keeping track of Sunday deliveries as well to see which items consumers are most likely to have delivered over the weekend.

“So far, the most common items delivered on Sunday include baby supplies such as newborn apparel, books and toys,” said Amazon VP Mike Roth. “We know our Amazon customers love the convenience of everyday delivery, and we’re excited to be offering Sunday delivery in more cities across the U.S.”

Combine this expansion with Amazon’s recent additions to its same-day delivery program and it’s easy to see why consumers will subscribe to Amazon Prime, even at a slightly higher price.

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Is AT&T feeling the heat from the “Uncarrier?” Not if AT&T CFO John Stephens is to be believed. CNET reports that Stephens told an investor conference on Thursday that all of the talk about AT&T being in a “price war” with T-Mobile is just media hype and that the company isn’t under pressure to react to moves being made by the scrappy carrier that has shook up the wireless industry over the last year.

“The competition is more noisy than disruptive,” Stephens said, in a veiled shot at the often loud-mouthed T-Mobile CEO John Legere. He also said that T-Mobile’s decision to pay off new customers’ early termination fees hasn’t hurt AT&T so far and added that he doesn’t think such a scheme is sustainable over the long term.

“It’s not something that a company with a best-in-class balance sheet would jump into,” Stephens said of the T-Mobile ETF initiative.

While Stephens is right that AT&T has held up better than expected under T-Mobile’s attacks, it’s also true that AT&T took the extraordinary step of preemptive T-Mobile’s ETF announcement by saying that it would pay any T-Mobile subscribers switching to AT&T up to $450 per line. What’s more, T-Mobile’s subscriber growth over the past couple of quarters really has been off the charts and it added a stunning 2.4 million net customers last quarter alone, including 1.8 million total postpaid additions. Even if AT&T isn’t taking the brunt of T-Mobile’s assault, the company is definitely taking notice.

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A new set of specifications for the Galaxy S5 mini appear to have leaked this week. GFXBench recently posted a performance sheet for an unannounced Samsung device with the code name “SM-G800H,” and based on the specs, the device is likely the Galaxy S5 mini, or Galaxy S5 Dx if recent leaks are to be believed. Based on the performance sheet, the phone will feature a 1.4GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, 1.3GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and most surprisingly of all, a 4.8-inch 720p display.

To put the display size into perspective, the S4 mini featured a 4.3-inch screen and the full-sized Galaxy S5 display only stretches 5.1 inches. If the performance sheet is legitimate, the S5 mini will be a monstrous smartphone, but it might explain the name change. Galaxy S5 Dx doesn’t carry the same connotation as the S5 mini would, clearing the way for an affordable alternative to the flagship without compromising the size of the device.

That said, there’s also the distinct possibility that these specs are off base and the screen will retain a more reasonably “mini” size when it launches later this year. Other specs listed line up fairly closely with previous leaks: 7-megapixel rear camera with 1080p video capability, 2-megapixel front camera, Adreno 305 GPU and Android 4.4.2 Jelly Bean. Whatever the true specs turn out to be, the smaller Galaxy S5 is shaping up to be a much beefier phone than its predecessor.

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Beats By Dr. Dre, the audio specialist that was at one point in time partially owned by HTC, may soon be acquired by Apple. The news comes from Financial Times, which reports that the deal could be Apple’s largest ever acquisition at $3.2 billion. Senior management at Beats will reportedly be retained and will report directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Also part of the acquisition in addition to the company’s consumer electronics line will be Beats’ digital music on demand service, of course. Unnamed sources told FT that the deal could be announced as soon as next week.

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