What does it say about Comcast and Time Warner Cable that some of the people most opposed to their merger are those who know them the best: Namely, their customers. Ars Technica’s Jon Brodkin has been digging through some of the public comments that have been filed with the New York Public Service Commission and has found that many TWC customers are absolutely pleading with the government to block the merger because they worry the combined companies will provide even worse customer service and will raise prices even higher.

…

Read more here: Boy Genius Report

Are you still driving a ridiculously large Humvee that gets somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 miles per gallon? If so then you’re going to absolutely hate the new smart parking meters that have been unveiled in Madrid that charge you more money if you drive a big gas guzzler.

…

Read more here: Boy Genius Report

Siri has gotten a lot of competition since its debut in late 2011 in the form of Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana. Now it looks like Apple has started taking some more aggressive steps to make sure Siri keeps up with its other voice-enabled assistant rivals, as Wired reports that the company has been going on a big hiring spree aimed at improving Siri’s overall intelligence and reactivity.

…

Read more here: Boy Genius Report

In recent years, Microsoft has consistently been late to the game when it comes to mobile devices. It’s reentry in the smartphone market following the iPhone’s debut in 2007 was painfully late, and its tablet efforts with Windows RT have been both late and lackluster. According to a recent report, however, Microsoft has no plans to be late again when it comes to the smartwatch market.

…

Read more here: Boy Genius Report

In terms of monthly shipments, Android devices surpassed Apple’s iOS lineup long ago. Apple executives and Apple bloggers repeatedly point to a different stat, however, that paints an interesting picture: Despite Android’s huge lead in terms of shipments, iOS remains the global leader in usage as measured by companies that monitor web traffic.

Unless the current trend is reversed in the next month or two, however, there will soon be a changing of the guard.

…

Read more here: Boy Genius Report

The announcement of Amazon’s Fire Phone was met with a mixed reaction. Many of the innovative features of the device were intriguing, but we questioned whether Amazon was innovating in the right areas. GeekWire has been keeping track of the Fire Phone’s rankings on the Amazon Best Sellers list, and it appears that consumers are also questioning the viability of Amazon’s new hardware.

…

Read more here: Boy Genius Report

The latest Kantar Worldpanel numbers for smartphone market share may not be surprising, but they are grim indeed for Microsoft. In the heart of the Windows empire in the United States, Windows Phone’s market share dropped from 4.7% to 3.6% between May 2013 and May 2014. In Germany, the decline was from 6.2% to 5.9%. In Brazil, the share remained flat at 5.5%. In China, Windows Phone saw a collapse from 3% to o.6%.

…

Read more here: Boy Genius Report

Samsung is clearly the king of phablets. It wasn’t the first smartphone vendor to launch a handset with a larger than normal display, but there is no question that the South Korean giant is single-handedly responsible for popularizing the category. Over the past year or so, however, Samsung has begun to get out-phableted by devices like the HTC One max and Nokia Lumia 1520, which are even more gigantic than Samsung’s Galaxy Note line. Not one to be outdone, Samsung introduced its Galaxy Mega phablet line — and it looks like the company will soon launch a new and improved version of its previous Mega handsets.

…

Read more here: Boy Genius Report

Apple’s annual Back to School promotion has returned for the 2014 school season. As always, students who buy a new Mac, iPad or iPhone will receive a free Apple Store gift card with their purchase. Buying any Mac other than a Mac Mini will net students a $100 gift card while the purchase of an iPad or an iPhone includes a $50 gift card. College students, parents and faculty who qualify for education pricing will receive an additional discount from Apple as well.

…

Read more here: Boy Genius Report

Just weeks after Apple’s surprising acquisition of Beats Music, Google announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Songza, another popular music streaming service. Although Google doesn’t have any immediate plans to change Songza, the company plans to integrate aspects of the service into Google Play Music in the coming months. For now, existing users won’t see any differences.

…

Read more here: Boy Genius Report