All is not well at Rovio as it lays off 260 workers
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Rovio has been one of the biggest driving forces of the mobile gaming industry ever since its original hit game, Angry Birds, however it appears the studio has fallen on tough times. Despite the fact its first official sequel, Angry Birds 2, was incredibly well received, it appears that it hasn’t been enough to keep Rovio smoothly. The studio today announced that it is laying off 260 works in an attempt to slim down and get their profits back up.
It’s no real surprise that this has happened as even Rovio CEO, Pekka Rantala, admits that the company dived in the deep end too quickly to “explore new opportunities”. While there has been good coming out of these ventures, it’s clear that they haven’t been as profitable as planned and perhaps a definitive sign that the Angry Birds franchise has well worn out its welcome. We can only hope that these are the last of the layoffs and that Rovio returns to the big leagues sooner rather than later.
What do you think about Rovio cutting 260 jobs? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: engadget
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Facebook Moments updated with video creation tools
Facebook has just released an update to its Moments app, bringing it up to version 2.0. This is the first major revision to the app since its launch back in June. The latest version includes just a small number of new features, but also marks the application’s release outside of the US.
Contained within the update you’ll find a new way to create moments by simply tapping the plus button in the top right. Not listed on the change-log is another new feature, which allows users to create a short video clip from a selection of six or more photographs. The video creation feature also has options for background music and the pictures can be swapped around until you’re happy to upload the creation to your Facebook page.
The application now also supports more than 30 different languages, and version 2.0 has seen its share of bug fixes and performance improvements too. If haven’t tried out Facebook Moments before, it is essentially an app to help you easily share your photos with groups of friends.
Previously, Facebook Moments had been limited to consumers living inside the US, but is now apparently available in many more countries. It hasn’t landed in the UK for me yet, but the app could be gradually rolling out to new regions over the coming days. You can download the app for free from the Google Play Store.
‘Angry Birds’ studio cuts another 260 jobs
The firm behind Angry Birds has announced that it’s laying off a further 260 employees as it attempts to become a smaller and more profitable company. CEO Pekka Rantala admits that Rovio was too eager to “explore new business opportunities,” which it did by doing “too many things.” Unfortunately, with profits tumbling, the outfit is going to have to go back to being a stripped-down games maker. The lay-offs will come from all areas of the business except those working on the Sony-backed Angry Birds Movie in the US and Canada. It’s not much of a surprise since it looked as if the company’s day in the sun had ended a while ago. After all, Angry Birds 2 is the thirteenth title in the series, so it’s clearly been flogging a seriously-injured horse for quite some time.
Filed under:
Cellphones, Gaming
Tags: AngryBirds, Business, Layoffs, PekkaRantala, Rovio
Samsung talks up Note 5 / S6 Edge+ charging features
Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge earlier this year were the world’s first handsets to be compatible with two wireless charging standards and also came with fast charging built in, with the latter letting you charge your phone battery quickly and easily.
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 / S6 Edge+ in video:
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In the new Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+, Samsung sought to improve the experience and at the launch, it revealed that its two new handsets came with faster wireless charging and wired charging. It wasn’t clear just how much faster they were, however and in a blog post today, the Korean manufacturer has revealed more details about the improved charging in its new smartphones.
Both smartphones feature 3000 mAh batteries, which is 450 and 400 mAh larger than the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge respectively. Despite the significant increase, the Galaxy S6 Edge+ can charge to full in just five minutes more than the Galaxy S6 Edge. By way of comparison, if the S6 Edge+ battery was the same size as the S6 Edge, it would take approximately 78 minutes, which is 7 minutes faster than the current S6 Edge charging speeds; it may not seem that much faster but it works out to be 9 percent faster, which is certainly a welcome improvement.
Samsung has achieved these improvements using Adaptive Fast Charging (AFC), which lets the charger communicate with the smartphone and when the charger recognises a device is compatible with AFC, it ramps up the voltage and delivers faster charging. As Samsung wrote in its blog post:
Not only is the charger discharging more power at a faster speed, the device battery receives the power properly and stores it cell by cell, to further accelerate the battery charging.
The charging improvements in the new smartphones are not just limited to the wired charger as Samsung has also introduced a new much faster wireless charging pad. Using the new charging pad, the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ can charge to full in just 2 hours, which is much faster than the S6 Edge, which takes three hours to charge to full with a wireless charging. If the Galaxy S6 Edge+ had the same battery size as the S6 Edge, it would take just 104 minutes to charge to full wirelessly, which is approximately 43 percent faster than the current S6 Edge wireless charging speeds.
What do you think of Samsung’s improvements in the charging speeds and do you use fast charging / wireless charging? Let us know your views in the comments below guys!
Samsung Pay is already proving popular in Korea
Samsung Pay may only have launched in Korea last week, but the mobile payment service is already proving highly popular, according to sources in the South Korean credit card industry. The service apparently logged 10,000 credit and check card registrations on its launch day, which jumped up to around 80,000 cards within the following four days.
According to sources, Samsung Pay is proving particularly popular due to its simplicity and the fact that it can be used with a broad range of existing card readers. While mobile payment methods aren’t new in the country, most rely on NFC-enabled terminals in order to function. Less than 25 percent of affiliated stores work with NFC technology, resulting in stunted adoption. Samsung Pay works with both NFC and existing magnetic strip readers, meaning that almost every payment terminal will work with Samsung’s technology.
“Since Samsung Pay is an MST-enabled service, it can be used in most affiliated stores. I think that it played a decisive role in attracting users.”
Furthermore, customers are apparently happy about the use of a smartphone fingerprint scanner, both for security purposes but also for ease of use. Competing services such as app cards, which use bar and QR codes for payments, have had some success in Korea, but are said to be rather complicated to setup and use.
Samsung Pay is compatible with the Galaxy Note 5, S6, S6 Edge and Edge+ smartphones. The two most recent handsets in the range are said to be off to a strong start in South Korea, partly due to the introduction of Samsung Pay. More than 100,000 handsets had been sold in the country just four days after the products launched.
Read More: Video demo: here’s how Samsung Pay will work in stores
Samsung will be bringing its mobile payment method to other countries in the coming months. The US is next, with a launch date scheduled for September 25th, and Samsung has confirmed that the service will be coming to Europe too, but has not specified a release time frame yet.
Impoverished ‘Star Wars’ company to hold merchandise telethon
Things are clearly tough over at Disney headquarters. Having only grossed $2 billion from Avengers: Age of Ultron and Inside Out, the company needs your help to stay afloat. It has something called Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens coming out this December, and to help raise funds it’s planning an 18-hour marketing marathon to push products related to the little-known movie. This September 3rd, the company will unveil merchandise in “the world’s first-ever global live toy unboxing event,” which will apparently play out like a “New Year’s Eve style celebration” across 12 countries.
Just like New Year’s, Sydney will be the first city to play host to a person opening an action figure in front of a camera, before the show heads on a whirlwind tour of the globe taking in cities including Tokyo, Paris, London, New York and San Francisco. 15 products will be revealed across 15 locales, with popular YouTube unboxers like EvanTubeHD doing the unwrapping. At the end of what Disney describes as “the global fanfare,” toy retailers around the world will open up their doors at midnight to satiate rabid fans’ desires for BB-8 plushes. “Fans are encouraged to document their experiences around the event on social media using the hashtag #ForceFriday,” says Disney, while alerting its bank of a large incoming transfer.
Tags: disney, merchandise, starwars, toy, unboxing
Amazon UK will waive delivery fees if you pick your order up
In order to be eligible for “free” Amazon deliveries, you either need to spend £20 for Super Saver Delivery or jump aboard the £79 Prime train. From today, though, Amazon has another shipment option it’d like to run by you. The company has decided to waive delivery fees for orders sent to one of its Pickup Locations, saving you money while letting you collect your packages at a more convenient time.
The idea isn’t new, but getting it for free is. Plus it’s now available to all customers. If you’re at work or continually miss the post, choosing to have an order delivered to Pickup Location like a rail, tube or petrol station, newsagent or Post Office would normally incur an additional delivery charge based on weight (Prime members get it free). Now, you either have to spend £10 on book or £20 on anything else from Amazon’s store to be eligible for a free pickup.
Amazon says: “For many people, collecting from an Amazon Pickup Location is the delivery option of choice. Our customers were telling us that free delivery to a Pickup Location would be a great value service and we agree.” Makes sense for people who can’t stay home to collect their deliveries, but it also puts less pressure on its Logistics team to make door-to-door dropoffs. With over 13,000 Pickup Locations available, free deliveries might change the way some Amazon customers shop online.
Filed under:
Household, Internet, Amazon
Source:
Amazon UK
Tags: amazon, delivery, pickup location, post office, prime
LG’s non-curved 4K OLED TVs are finally here
LG is finally ready to sell the OLED 4K TVs it revealed in January, including the first ever flat models. The Korean company has invested huge sums in OLED tech, believing that consumers will be drawn in by the improved black levels, better off-axis viewing angles and more saturated colors. We’re pleasantly surprised to learn that the two flat UltraHD models (in 65- and 55-inch sizes) also have HDR capability with improved color range — provided you have content that supports it. If you’re more into curved 4K OLEDs, there’s a new 55-inch model, bringing the total number of LG OLED 4K TVs to nine.
Other features on all the new sets include ultra-thin panels (the 55-inch models are thinner than any smartphone, the company said), minuscule bezels, the webOS 2.0 smart TV platform and Harman/Kardon speakers. There’s no word on pricing yet, but the TVs will be available in Europe and the US by the end of the month. LG will also show off the TVs at IFA 2015 in Berlin, and we expect that they’ll reveal a bunch of new models as well.
Filed under:
Home Entertainment, LG
Source:
LG
Tags: 4K, HDR, IFA2015, lg, OLED, TV, UltraHD
Sony will launch the Xperia C5 Ultra Dual in India later this week
If you’re a selfie addict and you live in India, you may want to listen up as Sony has just announced it will launch its latest selfie-focused smartphone, the Xperia C5 Ultra, in the region later this week. The handset will carry a price tag of Rs. 29,990 ($450) and will be available in black, white and soft mint colorways.
Seeing as this is model of the C5 Ultra is targeted at the Asian market, it will have dual-SIM compatibility on board. All other specifications remain identical to the original model, meaning the handset will pack a 6-inch Full HD display, a 1.7GHz octa-core processor, 2GB of RAM, a 13MP rear-facing camera, a 13MP front-facing shooter and a 2,930mAh battery.
The device will run the latest version of Lollipop straight out of the box, but is expected to receive the Marshmallow upgrade when Sony starts distributing it next year.
If you’re based in India, like the sound of the Xperia C5 Ultra and would like to find out more about bagging one — hit the source link below.
Source: Sony
Come comment on this article: Sony will launch the Xperia C5 Ultra Dual in India later this week
Samsung executive teases Gear S2 smartwatch
We all know that the Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch is on its way, thanks to the official pictures and previous leaks about the device. Today, Samsung mobile executive Dennis Miloseski posted a nice close-up of the smartwatch to Instagram, to fuel our appetite for a new gadget.
The picture treats us to a nice close up of what appears to be a metal frame around the display, which certainly looks rather nice. We can also spot a couple of buttons on the side of the Gear S2, perhaps to assist with navigating through the OS, which I’m assuming will be Tizen rather than Android Wear. Miloseski doesn’t say much else along with the picture, other than that he’s “Giving the new Samsung Gear S2 a test drive”.
In case you missed it, Samsung also posted the following video teaser earlier in the month. The clip gives us a little look at what we can probably expect from the software that will ship with the Gear S2. There are references to health, weather, calls, and plenty of other features.
We don’t know too much else about the smartwatch at this point, but we have also seen the smartwatch appear in a few fashion shots. Fortunately, Samsung will be unveiling the Gear S2 in Berlin at IFA on Thursday, September 3rd. There isn’t very long left to wait for all of the juicy details.
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