HBO gets it: You want to be able to subscribe to its content without having to pay for a bunch of other channels you don’t want. However, just because HBO understands what you want, that doesn’t mean it care. Re/code’s Peter Kafka has an excellent post explaining why HBO isn’t going to pull a Netflix and offer a standalone online subscription, no matter how much you beg it to do so.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
Samsung’s biggest fear is that it will become just another small-margin smartphone vendor along the lines of LG, HTC, Xiaomi and countless others. This is why it’s invested so many resources into creating its own Tizen mobile platform and why it’s tried unsuccessfully to heavily modify Android with overlays like Magazine UX to move its mobile devices beyond being vehicles for Google’s Android platform.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
Smartphones have effectively replaced a lot of the gadgets that we used to buy, including calculators, compasses, alarm clocks and dedicated GPS trackers. And now The Wall Street Journal reports that smartphones look poised to kill off another antiquated piece of technology — hotel key cards.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
Microsoft reportedly had plans to unveil a new Surface mini tablet alongside the Surface Pro 3 earlier this year, but the company supposedly cancelled those plans when it realized the mini tablet didn’t offer much in the way of compelling differentiation. Some reports suggest the Surface mini is back in the mix and could launch later this summer, while others state that tablet has been shelved indefinitely. Whatever the case may be, it looks like Microsoft has another new Surface tablet in store for us this fall.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
Apple will reportedly offer potential iPhone buyers a new way of acquiring iPhones in its retail stores, in addition to on-contract, prepaid and full price purchases, 9to5Mac has learned. The company will apparently test drive iPhone purchases via carriers’ early upgrade programs, including AT&T Next, T-Mobile Jump and Verizon Edge. It’s not known whether Sprint’s One Up plan will also be supported.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
Although Halo: The Master Chief Collection comprises four games we’ve already played, 343 Industries still hasn’t shown off much in the way of gameplay footage since announcing the project at E3 this year. That changed this week when the team took the stage at Comic-Con to reveal not only the gorgeous new cinematics that would be appearing in Halo 2, but also the graphical differences between Halo 2 remastered on the Xbox One and the original game, which you can swap between with a single button press.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
Microsoft has a new TV commercial for its Windows Phone 8.1 Cortana assistant in which it’s taking new shots at one of its biggest competitors, Apple’s voice-based assistant Siri. The new ad, titled “Happy Anniversary,” shows a smartphone user issuing certain commands to an iPhone 5s (Siri) and a Lumia 635 (Cortana), with only the latter able to recognize them and deliver appropriate responses.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
The HTC One (M8) is definitely a top contender for the title of being 2014’s best Android phone and now it might become 2014’s best Windows Phone as well. Tom Warren’s sources claim that HTC is planning to make a Windows Phone version of the One (M8) that will supposedly release later this year.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
After decades of incredible technological advancements, we now have a greater understanding of which former pipe dreams might be within reach and which are better left to the world of science fiction. Holographic video has been one of the sci-fi concepts slowly transitioning into the real world over the past several years, and this amazing project from Chris Helson and Sarah Jackets is about as close to the Star Wars hologram as we’ve ever seen.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report
Apple is without question Foxconn’s largest and most important client. The China-based electronics manufacturing giant has seen its revenue skyrocket since it began building iPhones and iPads for Apple, and 2014 will seemingly be the biggest year yet for the iPhone, with two new models set to debut and as many as 80 million units on order.
Since the iPhone 6 and “iPhone Air” phablet comprise Foxconn’s most important project ever, the company isn’t taking any chances — the biggest of Foxconn’s big guns has been called upon to ensure that everything goes as planned.
Read more here: Boy Genius Report