Nokia says Lumia 1020 can replace your DSLR 

Nokia’s latest commercial is yet again advertising the awesome 41MP PureView camera of Lumia 1020. This time around Nokia is trying to convince you the Lumia 1020 is a great replacement for your DSLR.

  

 

Recently, with the Lumia Black firmware update, the Lumia 1020 camera algorithm was rewritten to behave like it did on the first PureView phone – the Nokia 808. The result is more natural colors, less noise and more detail.

Nokia offers $20 voucher

Nokia offers $20 voucher for apps if you buy some of its devices 

 

If you’re planning on buying a Windows-running Nokia device (Windows Phone or Windows RT) or just bought one, you should know that Nokia is offering a free $20 voucher for apps you can redeem in the WP or Windows Store.




Note that the deal ends on January 31 and is limited to one voucher per account. 
The deal is available for the following devices: Nokia Lumia 521, Nokia Lumia 925, Nokia Lumia 928, Nokia Lumia 1020, Nokia Lumia 1520 or Nokia Lumia 2520.

It will take up to three days to process the new activation and for you to receive the voucher, the final date for activation is February 15, which gives you some breathing room.
If you’re looking at a Lumia 521, you should know it’s $70 off-contract from the Microsoft store and $35 at Target. It’s out of stock online, but you can try price matching it in store.

LG announces 2013 four quarter and full year financial results 

LG has revealed its fourth quarter and full year financial results for the year of 2013. The company made $53.1 billion in terms of net revenue with $203.65 million net profit in the full year of 2013, an improvement over 2012. Operating profits increased to $1.17 billion in 2013 from $1.08 billion in 2012.

As far as just the fourth quarter is concerned, LG earned $14.03 billion in terms of net revenue and $223.89 million of operating profit. Unfortunately for LG, the company also faced $60.21 million in terms of net loss due to higher non-operating expenses.
The mobile sector of LG's business reported a 29 percent increase in annual revenue to $11.85 billion year-on-year and an 18 percent increase in fourth quarter revenues to $3.38 billion quarter-on-quarter thanks to strong performance by the G2 and Nexus 5. LG shipped 13.2 million smartphone units last quarter, which is a 54 percent increase over last year.

Microsoft acquires Gears of War franchise 

 

Microsoft has acquired the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games (Unreal Engines, Unreal series, Gears of War series, Infinity Blade series) for an undisclosed amount.



Now that the series is owned by Microsoft, the software giant has assigned the young Black Tusk studio to develop the next generation Gears of War game. Naturally it will be an Xbox One exclusive.  
Microsoft has done the very same thing with the Halo series. It bought the franchise from Bungie after the studio was done with its story arc expanded over four FPS games (Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Reach). Microsoft now has its own 343 Industries game studio in charge for the new Halo games (Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 4, Halo 5, Halo: Spartan Assault).

Samsung and Ericsson settle patent quarrel for $650 million  

Swedish company Ecisson announced today that it has reached an agreement with Samsung to end their 2012 patent infringement case. Samsung has accepted to pay up $650 million in addition to years of royalties.
Both companies signed their first licensing deal in 2001 when Samsung approached Ericsson to use its handset and network patents. The deal was then renewed in 2007, but things slowly went south in 2011 when the deal expired. The reason for this was Samsung's accusation of Ericsson higher royalty rates demands.

The details regarding what royalties Samsung has accepted to pay are still unclear. The case started in 2012 on the grounds that Samsung has infringed several Ericsson patents including ones for clearer voice transmission, touchscreen functions and network efficiency.

Over the weekend, Samsung also struck a long term license agreement with Google. The Korean company has also been in ongoing talks with Apple to reach an out-of-court agreement on their never-ending patent war.

Russian carrier Megafon sells the iPhone again 

Russia's second largest cell carrier, Megafon, has ended their ban on offering the iPhone to its customers, and has started selling Apple's smartphone once again.
Megafon originally stopped offering the iPhone due to distribution disputes with Apple. Recent changes in Apple's overseas distribution policies, however, has made Megafon a happy carrier and the two companies were able to work out a deal.

Apple is certainly gaining some traction in the region. They launched a Russian online Apple store just for the country in June of 2013, and now the three largest cell phone carriers in Russia all offer the iPhone.
Still, it has yet to be seen whether or not this will have a large effect on Apple's sales in the area. Their phones command a high price and may not have as much footing, or clout, as the higher-end Android models. Time will tell, as it always does. Do you think Apple will make big waves in Russia?

Microsoft drops SkyDrive brand, renames the service OneDrive 

Microsoft has renamed its cloud storage service from SkyDrive to OneDrive. This was expected after a UK court found Microsoft infringing British Sky Broadcasting Group trademark last summer.

  

Microsoft says it chose the OneDrive name because the cloud storage should be the one place where you store all of your pictures, videos, documents and files.  

There won’t be any other changes besides the name. Microsoft is working hard lately to improve SkyDrive. It has tremendously bettered the iOS app, it now even supports automatic upload, just like Dropbox. What’s great is Microsoft is giving you 7GB of free cloud storage, while Dropbox starts with 2GB. You can buy more SkyDrive storage, of course, or you can get 20GB for free with some of Microsoft’s paid services such as the Office 365 subscription.
Anyway, we expect Microsoft to update all of its SkyDrive apps with the new OneDrive name soon.