CBS CEO talks PlayStation Vue and standalone Showtime

CBS just announced its earnings for 2014, including $3.68 billion in revenue for Q4 (all those episodes of NCIS pay off, apparently), but its always-talkative CEO Les Moonves provided most of the interesting information. He confirmed that CBS has a deal with Sony to be on its new internet TV service PlayStation Vue, saying “they’re paying more than everyone else” for the privilege. That probably explains why the $20 per month Sling TV is missing the network channels — for now, “there’s a path to negotiation” according to Moonves — and why Vue will probably end up being more expensive.

As far as a Showtime internet service for cord cutters to match what HBO is launching soon, the CEO said it’s under consideration but “we’ll share as many details with you as HBO did, which is none at all.” Meanwhile, the CBS All Access and CBSN streaming services are said to be “exceeding expectations”, while CBS also noted it’s making more selling its shows internationally than it does from the top two US streaming services combined (we’ll assume that means Netflix and Amazon).

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: CBS

Get 37 apps worth $140 with Amazon’s latest free bundle

Amazon has this nice little tradition where it gives away bundles of free apps every now and then. Sometimes these bundles are themed around productivity applications or games, and sometimes they include a little something for everyone.

Today’s bundle would cost you $140 if you bought each app by its own, and includes games, music apps, fitness apps, productivity apps, utilities and more. It’s definitely worth a look.

Here’s what’s inside the goodie bag.

• 80 Days
• A Scientific and Financial RPN Calculator
• Back to Bed
• Bag It! (Ad-Free)
• Battery HD Pro
• Buy Me a Pie! Grocery List Pro
• Caveman Feast
• Cut the Rope: Experiments
• Delicious – Emily’s True Love
• DoggCatcher Podcast Player
• Doodle Jump
• Food Substitutes
• Glow Hockey 2 Pro
• Guitar Pro
• Hidden Object – Be My Valentine
• Listure
• Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5 – Audio Edition
• MeteoEarth
• Monsters Ate My Condo
• mSecure
• OfficeSuite Professional 8
• Pocket Yoga
• Relax Melodies Premium
• Runtastic PRO
• Shazam Encore
• Simple Camera
• Ski Safari: Adventure Time
• Sleep as Android
• Smart RAM Booster Pro
• SmoothSync for Cloud Calendar
• Sorcery! 2
• Speed Reading Trainer Full
• Stellarium Mobile Sky Map
• Sworkit Pro
• Travel Interpreter
• Trivia Crack (Ad Free)
• Tunable

While some of these apps are recurring in Amazon’s free bundles, there are some new faces as well. Check out the bundle page on Amazon to get your fill.

Amazon giving away $140 in apps and games

We’re heading into a holiday weekend here in the United States so you know what that typically means. That’s right, Amazon is giving away a bunch of free apps and games. For the next couple of days (Feb 12-14) you can grab up to $140 worth of stuff.  Among the titles being offered up at no cost are Trivia Crack, Shazam Encore, OfficeSuite Professional 8, Cut the Rope: Experiments and more. There’s 37 available but you can pick and choose what you get!

In addition to the limited time promotion, Amazon is dangling a few other deals.

• Customers who buy gold bars or boosters in Candy Crush Saga, Farm Heroes Saga and Pet Rescue Saga will get Unlimited Lives, along with 20% Amazon Coins back on select in-app purchases.
• When playing select Casino games, customers can get up to 2x the value, along with 20% Amazon Coins back on select in-app purchases. Key titles include, BINGO Blitz, Slotomania, GSN Casino, Bingo Bash, Jackpot Party Casino – Slots HD, among others.
• The Princess Bride – The Official Game is available exclusively for Android in the Amazon Appstore. Get it today before it’s available on Google Play.

Amazon

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BLU announces the Studio Energy, a smartphone that lasts 4 days on a single charge

BLU has announced the Studio Energy smartphone with one killer selling feature: a whopping 5,000 mAh battery. That’s the biggest we’ve ever seen in a smartphone, and it supposedly features 45 days of standby time or 4 days of usage on a single charge. That’s something most other manufacturers can only dream of achieving with their flagship phones.

The other specs aren’t anything to write home about, but the device is priced at just $149.99 on Amazon, which is a fantastic price. The Studio Energy packs a 1.3 ghz quad-core processor with a Mali-400 GPU, a 720p screen, 8 GB of internal storage with expandable memory, and an 8 megapixel camera. It’ll be available in Ceramic White, Midnight Black, or Luxury Gold. It won’t compete with a Galaxy S 6 or LG G4, but hey, for $150, that’s not bad, especially if you value battery life.

Hit the break for the full press release from BLU.

MIAMI, Feb. 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ – BLU Products, the market leader in unlocked devices in the United States, announced today that the new BLU Studio Energy is now available for just $149.00 unlocked exclusively at Amazon.com. The Studio Energy was a hit at the CES Las Vegas showcasing its industry leading 5,000mAh battery resulting in an incredible 45 days stand-by, or up to 4 days of standard usage on a single charge. 

To purchase the Studio Energy you can visit:

http://www.amazon.com/BLU-Studio-Energy-Battery-Unlocked-Packaging/dp/B00T6J3USK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1423612818&sr=8-2&keywords=BLU+Studio+Energy

Studio Energy

The Studio Energy is the latest device in BLU’s Studio series delivering premium build quality and materials while using technological advancements to pack a 5,000mAh battery – the largest of any smartphone today – while still maintaining a thin 10mm design.

“The Studio Energy with its insanely long lasting battery is the perfect solution for users suffering from the anxiety of constantly looking for a place to charge.” said Samuel Ohev-Zion, CEO of BLU Products.

Great for active users to bring on weekend hiking trip or road trip, as a backup phone in case of an emergency, movie watchers and gamers, the Studio Energy ensures that you will have power when you need it most. Perfect as a business device, international travelers rejoice from the freedom of having to carry multiple country wall adaptors, plus international roaming capability with support for Dual SIM cards.

Along with the powerful battery, the Studio Energy also supports Reverse Charge to enable consumers to use their smartphone as a power bank to charge other devices, with a USB OTG Cable included. 

Not stopping short on battery performance, the Studio Energy delivers on beautiful design and features including a retina quality 5.0-inch HD display with 294ppi, utilizing full lamination, IPS, and OGS technologies with an incredible color reproduction, brightness and quality for a perfect viewing experience, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Dual Cameras include an 8.0 mega pixel main camera plus 2 mega pixel front facing camera. The Studio Energy’s memory configuration includes 8GB built in storage plus 1GB RAM, with an expandable Micro SD slot of up to 64GB. Additional features include Dual SIM Dual Active technology for multiple SIM card support including nationwide coverage throughout all US GSM Networks with 4G HSPA+ Speeds. The Studio Energy will be available in Midnight Black, Ceramic White and Luxury Gold.

Learn more: http://www.bluproducts.com/index.php/studio-energy

Here are what some of the top tech sites are saying about the new BLU Studio Energy:

You might not need to swap batteries (or lean on an external battery pack) again.” –Engadget 

“BLU has come up with something far more useful in our opinion – not a massive screen, but a massive battery” –IT Pro Portal 

“BLU’s Long-Lasting Phone Will Solve Your Battery Problems… For a phone with such a monster battery, it’s surprisingly slim and portable”. –PC Mag 

“If you need to make a lot of calls and can’t stay long near a wall socket, the Studio Energy is the one to have.” – GSMArena 

“Talk time is rated at 52 hours, and since its dual-SIM it might be the perfect phone for a weekend getaway”. –Phandroid 

Studio Energy

• Network: (GSM/GPRS/EDGE) 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, (4G HSPA+ 21Mbps) 850/1700/1900, 850/1900/2100
• Display: IPS 5.0-inch 720 x 1280 HD, with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
• Processor: Mediatek 6582, 1.3 GHz Quad-Core with MALI-400 graphics GPU
• OS: Android 4.4 Kit Kat (upgradeable to Lollipop in June)
• Camera: Rear – 8.0 megapixel, autofocus with LED Flash, (1.4mm pixel size, 1/3.2 inch sensor, 2.2mm aperture), HD 1080p@30fps video recording Front – 2.0 megapixel
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n/, GPS, Bluetooth v4.0, Hotspot, micro-USB, FM Radio, OTG Reverse Charge
• Memory: 1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory + microSD slot expandable up to 64GB
• Dimensions: 144.5 x 71.45 x 10.4 mm
• Battery: Li-Ion 5000mAh
• Available Colors: Ceramic White, Midnight Black and Luxury Gold

About BLU Products
BLU Products, founded in 2009, designs and manufacturers affordable, attractive and innovative mobile devices to suit a wide variety of consumer needs. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, BLU is pioneering the advancement of the prepaid and no-contract revolution by providing a vast portfolio of advanced unlocked mobile phones to thousands of dealer agents, MVNO’s, and large retailers throughout the United States and Latin America. For more information, visit: www.bluproducts.com

BLU Products Contact:  
Carmen Gonzalez, Channel Marketing Manager, USA  
cgonzalez@bluproducts.com 
+1-305-715-7171

Come comment on this article: BLU announces the Studio Energy, a smartphone that lasts 4 days on a single charge

Amazon Valentine’s sale: Fire HD 6 for just $84, Kindles starting at $59, and more

As Valentine’s Day nears, you can expect plenty of awesome sales when it comes to mobile technology. Just last week, Motorola kicked off a sale of their own, and now it’s Amazon’s turn. Amazon is offering up its Kindle tablets and e-readers at pretty stiff discounts. For those just looking for an e-reader, the basic Kindle can be yours for only $59, down from $79. The Kindle Paperwhite is $99, down for $119.

On the tablet front, Amazon’s forked Android tablets continue to push down pricing, with the Fire HD 6 slashed down to just $84, over its already pretty impressive original price tag of $99. Buying with a kid in mind? The Fire HD 6 Kids Edition is pretty much the same as the standard Fire HD 6, though it has access to extra kid’s content, a bumper case, some changes to the UI and an impressive warranty that protects against accidental damage. Last but not least, the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is $299, down from its normal price tag of $479.

To grab any of the Fire tablets, you’ll want to head on over to Amazon’s Fire tablet sales page. You can find the on-sale e-readers from their Kindle E-Reader sales page.

Amazon Fire Tablet Sales Underwhelming over Holidays; Amazon Disagrees

Amazon is a force to be reckoned with in the tablet industry, with some of the best-valued devices on the market coming from the online shopping company, but this past holiday season has shown some weakness in its hold on the budget tablet niche. Formerly the 3rd-highest in the area of units shipped and market share, Amazon and its Fire tablet dropped down to number 5 this year in Q4, following ASUS, Lenovo, Samsung, and Apple. The Fire went from shipping out 5.8 million units to only 1.7, which is a drop of almost 70%.

Why the huge drop? Well, everyone is experiencing a lower demand for tablets: Apple and Samsung both saw drops of just shy of 20%, and ASUS saw a drop of nearly 25%, but none of those examples even come close to the amount of lost market share Amazon experienced this year. ASUS’ losses can be attributed to a lack of a Nexus device made by the manufacturer this year, and Apple and Samsung didn’t break any new ground as far as tablet innovation goes in 2014 (both the iPad Air 2 and Galaxy Tab 4′s did not improve drastically over their predecessors), but why did Amazon’s improved Fire tablet do so poorly?

Amazon claims that the 6″ tablet wasn’t included in the data, which made the numbers seem artificially low, however, even if the 6″ tablet is included with its 1.2 million units sold, there would still be a 50% drop in units shipped—still more than double ASUS’ hard losses. Another possible explanation could be the free tablet giveaways we’ve seen carriers run this past year, offering free Samsung tablets or Apple tablets, but never and Amazon Fire Tablet. Either way, after the Fire Phone’s dismal outing, and the Fire Tablets’ subpar 2014, Amazon is looking a little bruised and battered on the hardware front.

What’s your take on this? Why can’t Amazon sell more tablets? Are the Fire devices the most underrated pieces of technology of the year? Leave a comment below and start a rousing discussion!

Source: Re/code

Come comment on this article: Amazon Fire Tablet Sales Underwhelming over Holidays; Amazon Disagrees

RadioShack looks to sell stores to Sprint and Amazon

Yesterday, RaidoShack filed for bankruptcy and announced that it is planning to sell half of its 4,000 stores.

This comes after it shares fell 13 percent to 24 cents on Monday. In the past year, the company has lost 90 percent of its value. It has also been suspended from the New York Stock Exchange for failing to submit a business plan in order to comply with the Exchange’s rules.

Bloomberg reported that one of the companies RadioShack is in talks with is Sprint. A deal between the two would give Sprint half of it stores while the rest would be closed. The stores would function under just Sprint’s name, effectively ending RadioShack. They have also discussed possibly co-branding the stores. It’s also possible another bidder could come forth to keep the chain operating.

In a separate article, Bloomberg revealed that Amazon is also in talks of buying some stores from RadioShack in order to increase its brick-and-mortar operations. Amazon has considered using the stores for showcases or pickup and drop-off centers for online customers. As the article speculates, it could be possible that the acquisition could be what Amazon needs to challenge Apple more directly since it invested in the smartphone and tablet rivalry with its Fire series.

Another potential bidder is the investment group behind Brookstone.

CEO Joe Magnacca hopes to keep the chain alive by remodeling stores, changing the product lineup, and using a store-within-a-store partnership with the wireless carriers.

It should not be long until we hear definitive plans from the 94-year-old struggling retailer. Will you miss RadioShack if it goes out of business?

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