Angry Birds 2

Angry Birds 2, the first official follow-up to the immensely popular 2009 game, has been released on iOS and Android.

Since the first Angry Birds was released in 2009, its makers have released a huge range of updates, including Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Space and Angry Birds Epic, as well as tie-ins with other franchises like Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Star Wars. But Angry Birds 2 is the first update with  a number — despite not necessarily bringing as many changes as other updates.

Rovio Entertainment, which makes the games, said that the new game adds the option to let players choose which bird they fling and when, adding an element of strategy. The pigs that serve as the game’s enemies also have been updated, bringing with them new constructions that are harder to knock down.

LG Phone Sales Falter

Korea’s LG shipped a (then) record 14.5 million smartphones in the second quarter of 2014, but now, a year later, it’s a different story. The firm just revealed its Q2 2015 financials and, while not as disastrous as HTC’s, the company itself describes them as “modest.”

The firm, which enjoyed a pretty stellar 2014 during which it doubled profits and shipped 59 million phones, shipped 14.1 million in the last quarter of business which translated to sales of KRW 3.65 trillion ($3.33 billion), a meagre 1 percent increase year-on-year. (It shipped 15.5 million in Q4 2014, and 15.4 million in Q1 2015.)

Calling the last quarter “extremely challenging” across all segments of its business, LG admitted that the market for premium smartphones suffered from lower demand. That said, it claimed to have increased revenue in North America by more than one-third — thanks to its mid-range phones and tablets — while it sold a record 8.1 million LTE smartphones in the quarter.

The company has outed a number of new phones designed to complement its flagship G4, including the G4 Beat, G4 Stylus and G4c — not to mention a mid-range phone for emerging markets. Along that line, the company said it will “more aggressively implement its dual strategy focusing on both premium devices, as well as mid-range smartphones.”

Win 10 is Finally Here

Microsoft’s new Windows 10 operating system debuts Wednesday, as the longtime leader in PC software hopes that giving the upgrade away for free will help it carve out a new role in a world where people increasingly rely on smartphones, tablets and information stored online.

The company is counting on tens or even hundreds of millions of people to download its latest release in the coming months. Many people will also get Windows 10 as part of new PCs. The launch will be accompanied by a global marketing campaign for an event the company hopes will be pivotal – both for its own future and for a vast audience of computer users around the world.

Windows 10 is coming to PCs and tablets first, but it’s also designed to run phones, game consoles and even holographic headsets. It has new features, a streamlined Web browser called Edge and a desktop version of Cortana, the online assistant that is Microsoft’s answer to Google Now and Apple’s Siri.

What will Win 10 Do?

The next version of Windows, which will start arriving tomorrow, won't do a couple of the things that you'd normally expect a new operating system to do as standard.

   

It won't immediately make Microsoft a lot of money from licences because it's going to be a free download for the majority of consumers. And it won't provide a much-needed shot in the arm for PC sales either, because many existing PCs will be able to run it, sparing consumers the need to buy a new machine to use the new OS. Windows 10 is the clearest illustration yet of how much the business model around Windows has changed in just a few years.

   

What Windows 10 will do, however, is fix many of the perceived problems that made Windows 8 so hard to sell: even now, three years after launch, it only has scraped together a 13 percent share of the PC market; Windows 7 (51 percent) and Windows XP (24 percent) still outrank it, according to NetMarketShare.

New Samsung Monitor

Ladies and gentlemen, we finally have a monitor that isn’t just about more screen, more pixels, and more visuals. Samsung today unveiled the SE370, claiming it’s the first monitor with an integrated wireless charging function for mobile devices.

In other words, the poorly named SE370 actually serves more than one purpose. The monitor, which comes in 23.6-inch and 27-inch flavors, has two functions: displaying content and charging your smartphone.

Here’s Samsung’s pitch: The SE370 “declutters work areas by doing away with unnecessary cables and ports needed to charge mobile devices.” More specifically, the monitor works with all mobile devices that use the Qi wireless charging standard.

Windows 10 Build 10240

If you have Windows 10 Build 10240, congratulations. You have the “final” Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build of Windows 10.

In as much as there is a final build, of course. In fact, when I received an official, Microsoft-approved, Lenovo Yoga 12 laptop with Windows 10 on it last night, I thought there would be some sort of official stamp of completion. A new wallpaper. A sticker, perhaps? But when I powered it on...I was taken aback. Because there was nothing more than Windows 10 Build 10240 on it.

I asked Microsoft for clarification. ““This build is the latest Windows 10 build, and we’ll continue to update Windows 10 code as we head toward launch and beyond,” a Microsoft spokeswoman said in a statement. “We are embracing a new way to deliver Windows.”

A few days ago, Microsoft stopped making ISO copies of Windows 10 available. If your Windows 10 PC has updated itself to Windows 10 Build 10240, then you basically have what PC makers have as well. On July 29, those that haven’t caught up will receive Windows 10 Build 10240—or whatever Microsoft is calling it then—and possibly even an entirely new build (or patch). We simply don’t know yet.  

What those of us with Windows 10 Build 10240 have seen, however, have been post-build updates for Windows Defender and other security fixes. More importantly, Microsoft has updated many of the Windows 10 apps separately, much like Google does for its Android operating system, or what Microsoft itself does for Windows Phone. Those fixes have produced notable improvements—for example, the Windows 10 Mail app used to be unable to dig up an old email that it would have to search the server for. Now, it does so in a reasonable amount of time.

Streaming Video is Killing Home WiFi

Findings from the Consumer Entertainment Index (CEI) produced by IP, video and broadband technology specialist ARRIS, suggest that binge-viewing has ‘gone solo’ in 2015. According to ARRIS, this gives service providers an opportunity to personalise content and services to the individual, for a more tailored customer experience.

In addition, nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of global consumers have issues with WiFi at home – a likely consequence of the growing number of connected video devices and a tremendous opportunity for service providers to improve connectivity issues, says ARRIS.

The CEI tracks the evolution of entertainment through the lens of consumer engagement with content, connected devices, and each other.

Worldwide, the average home now has six video devices connected to its WiFi network, and the average household spends almost 6.5 hours each week streaming a subscription service. Moreover, four out of five (81 per cent) of those who stream now do so at least weekly, up from 72 per cent just last year. There is a clear connection between WiFi and mobile TV too, with nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) of people who watch mobile TV at least once a week, using WiFi to do so.

These trends are a likely culprit of the Internet issues that nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of global consumers experience, as well as their renewed interest in high-speed Internet in every room of the house – a service that 72 per cent indicated was either very important or vitally important.