Incredible video shows how Space X plans to land largest rocket in the world

You know what's cooler than a gigantic rocket? A gigantic rocket that can land itself. Elon Musk's Space X released a new video this week demonstrating just what it plans to do with its upcoming Falcon Heavy rocket, which is set to launch for the first time later this year.

In essence, the rocket is three of the company's current Falcon 9 rockets strapped together. The result is a rocket that can carry over 115,000 pounds (53,000 kg) — the equivalent of a fully-loaded Boeing 737 passenger jet — to low-earth orbit. When it flies later this year, the Falcon Heavy will be the world's most powerful rocket. Only the Saturn V rocket, which was retired in 1973 after sending Apollo missions to the moon, was more powerful.

Powerful enough to...

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Gorillaz announces its return with new artwork on Instagram

Drug Dealers Love Old Nokia 8210

Nokia was of course the king of the feature phone era of smartphones. The Finnish company sold the kinds of figures that would even put Apple and Samsung to shame today and Nokia strode atop the mobile market by a long stretch. However, the smartphone changed things and Nokia slipped from its pedestal and feature phones became forgotten gadgets.

There is however one demographic of people who apparently still love Nokia’s classic feature phones, especially the 8210 (main image). Drug dealers are apparently using the aging (the 8210 is 16 years old) as their go to handsets to conduct underworld happenings. That’s because it is harder to track a feature phone than it is a smartphone that has GPS and is connected online.

I've got three Nokia 8210 phones and have been told they can be trusted, unlike these iPhones and new phones, which the police can easily [use to] find out where you've been... the feds can now use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to get information from the phone, and seem to be able to listen to phones a lot easier now than ever before. Every dealer I know uses old phones, and the Nokia 8210 is the one everyone wants because of how small it is and how long the battery lasts. And it was the best phone when it came out. I couldn't afford one in Jamaica back in the day, but now I've got four."-K2, drug dealer

The Weekender: on Kegels, Comcast, and Super Bowl Sunday

Hello fellow weekend-goers, and welcome back to The Weekender. The week's big news sent to Sundance and into space on NASA's nickel — and we'll certainly be catching you up on anything you might've missed — but we'll also be setting you up for a stellar weekend back on this terrestrial plane. So sit back and take a journey with us. We promise you can film the whole thing on an iPhone 5S.

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SolidEnergy Creates Double Life Lithium-ion Battery

Yes, processors, RAM, screens, and other factors are important in deciding a smartphone, but battery life is increasingly becoming the defining factor. With devices getting thinner and packed with top of the line specs the drain on batteries has increased over the years. Oddly though, very little progress has been made in improving battery life, certainly not like the leaps we have seen in other areas.

MIT startup SolidEnergy says it has made that leap though, with the company claiming that it has created a juicer that has double the life of current standards. SoliEnergy has created a lithium-ion juicer that is says doubles the amount of energy density compared to current packs. The battery features an ultra-thin metal anode, "a thin piece of lithium on copper, that's less than a fifth the size of a graphite anode".

"Think of the largest phone makers out there," SolidEnergy founder and CEO Qichao Hu. "They approached us."

Motorola Sells 3 Million Smartphones in India

Motorola has wowed with its budget handsets over the last few years, such as the Moto G and the Moto E. The company has enjoyed a consistent presence in emerging markets, and arguably the biggest of those markets has brought Motorola success. The American brand announced that it shifted 3 million smartphones in India since February 2014.

The Economic Times is reporting that Motorola’s Moto G and Moto E are selling well in India, making the company the fifth largest manufacturer in the country last year. Motorola is still behind Samsung in number one and local companies Micromax, Lava, and Karbonn.

Doctor Who and other BBC shows are vanishing from Prime in Amazon's fight for exclusivity

Amazon's streaming war with Netflix is about to claim a new victim: Doctor Who. The Verge has learned that the program, along with the majority of BBC programming, will be vanishing from Prime Instant Video starting February 15th. According to sources familiar with the matter, the issue is exclusivity. Amazon's licensing deal with the BBC allows other subscription services like Netflix to carry the same shows at the same time. That doesn't align with Amazon's current strategic goals, so we've learned the company is choosing to not renew the agreement.

It's a bit of hardball that could frustrate Amazon's customers in the short term, but demonstrates just how serious the company is about Prime. Amazon has been on a tear over the past two...

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This is what's happening inside your camera at 10,000 frames per second

The "D" in DSLR does not stand for dark magic. In fact, that snap of the shutter you hear when taking a picture is a wonderful symphony of mechanical engineering at work, and happens so fast that you can't really enjoy it all with the naked eye. Luckily, the Slow Mo Guys have painstakingly chronicled what's happening with the mechanical shutter of a Canon 7D using a very fast (and expensive) Phantom Flex camera, recording various shutter speeds at a mind-boggling 10,000 frames per second.

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Google Raises Revenue, but Disappoints Wall Street

Google’s revenue increased through the fourth quarter of 2014, but the company still fell short of Wall Street predictions. The company’s shares wobbled after the results, with the price declining 3% in the wake of the announcement but increasing by 1.44% as the hours passed after the earnings call.

There was a revenue increase of 15% year-on-year to $18.10 billion, but Wall Street was predicting that Google would be making revenues of $18.46 billion. Google’s revenue largely comes from advertising and Android is a big part of that, even if the mobile platform does not directly make any money. Profit raised profits through Q4 to $4.76 billion from $3.38 billion over the same period the year before.

Dropcam CEO leaves Nest; founding VP of technology goes to Twitter

Two high-level employees at Nest have departed the company this week, The Verge has learned. Sources say that Nest's vice president of technology Yoky Matsuoka, as well as Greg Duffy who co-founded Dropcam, are no longer with the company. Matsuoka was previously the head of innovation at Google, as well as a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington. She's leaving to join Twitter. Duffy joined Nest when Dropcam was acquired for $555 million last June, though the product's future has seemed uncertain.

Nest did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Developing...

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Is this the Samsung Galaxy S6?

Spigen is probably not a familiar name to many of our readers, but the company has been making accessories for smartphones for some time. The company has leaked some devices before as it reveals cases for upcoming handsets, and the latest to get the treatment is Samsung’s yet to be released Galaxy S6.

The image above advertising a Spigen S6 case seems to show Samsung’s upcoming flagship. However, is this really the S6? On closer inspection I am inclined to think Spigen merely photoshopped a Galaxy S5, not something that is unheard of. However, there is always that small chance that the company has a mock-up of the S6, but it is unlikely of course.

ZTE Launches Budget Blade L3

A day after launching the mid-range Blade S6, ZTE is back with another device from the same family, although this one is coming with entry level specs. The Chinese company has been padding out its portfolio with a few new devices lately and the Blade L3 is the newest entry.

It is a lower end device compared to the S6, with the Blade L3 getting a 5-inch screen with a resolution of 540 x 960, while the processor is a modest quad-core MediaTek MT6582M processor with a clocking speed of 1.3GHz and 1GB of RAM. The Blade L3 also gets 8GB of on board storage, a 2000 mAh battery, 8 megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front shooter.

ZTE hasn't confirmed any launch dates or regions, but the company did say the Blade L3 will cost around $250 when it rolls out.

The Nexus 6 is Scarce because Google Misjudged Demand

The Nexus 6 is the best smartphone Google has ever released (the handset is built by Motorola), and it is the first true flagship to carry the Nexus name. With its Quad HD and other top line specs, the Nexus 6 is a tour de force, but like other previous Nexus smartphones, it is pretty scarce and is sold out more often than not.

In fact, the Nexus 6 has been sold out with regularity since it launched last November. Google’s CFO, Patrick Pichette has explained why that is the case, and it’s all because the company was not prepared for the sheer demand. He said the Nexus 6 is a “very well received as a new phone,” but “we had real issues and were unable to secure sufficient inventory to meet the demand we had forecasted.

So in other words, Google did not back itself up with enough units. In a bid to shift more Nexus 6 handsets, Motorola has recently started selling it on its official website.

Finding the real Kurt Cobain: a conversation with documentary director Brett Morgen

The Sundance documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is far from a traditional biopic. Directed by Brett Morgen, the filmmaker behind movies like The Kid Stays in the Picture and the Rolling Stones documentary Crossfire Hurricane, it eschews conventional narrative in an attempt to bring audiences inside the mind of Cobain through his paintings, personal recordings, journals, and some disturbing home video footage. I saw a lot of documentaries at Sundance this year, and Montage of Heck was my favorite by far.

I sat down with Morgen during the festival to talk about the origins of the project, the absence of Dave Grohl (he appears only in archival footage), and a striking animated sequence which uses Cobain’s recorded recollection of...

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Watch the trailer for Game of Thrones Season 5

You may have seen this earlier today in much blurrier form, but now HBO is giving it a proper release. The first trailer for Season 5 of Game of Thrones has just been put up to stream on the show's Facebook page, and you can watch it in the embedded box below. The series returns on April 12th.

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Tom Hanks, Edward Norton, and Brad Pitt are bringing a Lewis and Clark miniseries to HBO

HBO has officially greenlit Lewis and Clark, a six-hour miniseries that will chronicle the pair's exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. Starring Casey Affleck as Meriwether Lewis and Matthias Schoenaerts as William Clark, Lewis and Clark has even bigger names serving as executive producers. Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, and Edward Norton are among seven people backing the miniseries. It's based on the book Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, who also wrote Band of Brothers — another project Hanks famously helped bring to HBO in collaboration with Steven Spielberg.

Production is scheduled to start sometime this summer, but there's no word yet on when it will begin airing on the network. Late last year, it was reported that HBO was putting...

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You can now watch Philae's historic descent to comet 67P in GIF form

The Philae lander had quite the exciting end to its 10-year journey to Comet 67P last fall. Now the ESA has just released this GIF of the lander tumbling towards the comet as it left its resting place aboard the Rosetta spacecraft. The 19 images that make up the GIF were taken over the span of four hours on November 12th. Philae disappears from view just hours before the lander's harpoons failed to fire, which sent it skipping across the comet's surface.

Back in November, the ESA released this low-res GIF of Philae's initial impact.

It's unclear why the images are being released now, but the ESA has been slow to release hi-res imagery from the Rosetta mission since the landing. That reticence has stirred a broader debate in the...

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White House unveils $215 million plan to develop patient-specific medical treatments

The White House unveiled a "Precision Medicine Initiative" today — a $215 million investment that will go toward building a database containing genetic information and medical records belonging to millions of Americans, reports Science . The investment, one that’s part of President Obama’s 2016 budget proposal, will also go toward pioneering new models for patient-specific medical research — research that caters to a specific patient’s needs based on their genetics instead of relying on a one-size-fits-all treatment approach.

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The Vergecast 138: Dressed as a pirate

It's a very special episode of The Vergecast. This is David Pierce's final day at The Verge, and as such, we have dressed him as a pirate and forced him to discuss technology, film, and the merits of Snapchat. Nilay Patel wrangles the troops, Sam Sheffer brings the swag, and Emily Yoshida is back from Park City to reflect on Sundance.

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5 Best Free CD/DVD Burning Software for Windows

We may be living in the Smartphone era these days, but CDs and DVDs are still considered to be the best way to store our valuable data. This is the only reason why the companies behind those famous...



Credits: This article is copyrighted to Radha Krishna who actively blogs at Techzene.Com

Vine just released a version of its app made just for kids

Vine's looping videos can be an effective way of keeping kids entertained, but giving young ones unbridled access to the regular app probably isn't a great idea. So with that in mind, the company is today releasing Vine Kids, a version of the Vine experience that's tailored for young children — both in terms of design and content. Instead of greeting users with the regular, scrollable feed of videos, Vine Kids has a cast of "adorable animated characters" to help guide its junior target audience through using the app.

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Verizon will allow users to opt out of its 'permacookie'

There may be a way around Verizon's "permacookie" after all. The New York Times is reporting that the company will soon give users the chance to opt out of the tracking method, as part of the companies larger opt-out features. Users will still have to actively turn off the recently revealed tracking code, and Verizon won't stop using the method entirely, but providing an opt-out gives privacy-conscious users an important way to avoid what many had seen as an unnecessarily intrusive measure. "We listen to our customers and provide them the ability to opt out of our advertising programs," a Verizon representative said in a statement. "We have begun working to expand the opt-out to include the identifier referred to as the UIDH, and expect...

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New trailers: Fantastic Four, Terminator Genisys, Insurgent, and more

This week, there are new trailers out for films big and small — from huge franchises to short pictures, all of which are worth checking out for one reason or another. You can see the biggest and best of this week's releases below.

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Our favorite films from the 2015 Sundance Film Festival

Best dramatic films

Tangerine

Casey Newton: Sean Baker’s buzzy comedy is notable for having been filmed almost entirely on an iPhone 5S. But the film itself sticks in your mind: a shaggy, draggy story about Sin-Dee and Alexandra, two trans women of color working as prostitutes on Christmas Eve and hell-bent on "finding the fish" — the biological female who slept with Sin-Dee’s man. The caper’s resolution is somewhat unsatisfying, but the journey is one to remember: dialogue comes fast and furious, and we expect to hear it quoted on Ru-Paul’s Drag Race for years to come.

The Witch

Bryan Bishop: Writer/director Robert Eggers and his team painstakingly recreate 1600s-era New England in this drama about a family that is slowly...

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AOL is shutting down its Apple blog TUAW

There goes another one. AOL is shutting down The Unofficial Apple Weblog, better known as TUAW , sources familiar with the situation tell The Verge. The company — which is also shutting down its gaming site Joystiq — is in the midst of a major reorganization, and is cutting back on media properties it deems as underperforming. TUAW’s run comes to an end on February 2nd.

TUAW comes to an end on February 2nd

Founded just over 10 years ago in December 2004, TUAW was acquired by AOL in 2005 when it purchased Weblogs, Inc., alongside other influential sites including Autoblog, Joystiq, and Engadget. TUAW currently has 11 editorial staffers, according to its about page. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong forecasted these changes during an earnings call...

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Once again, unvaccinated people experience a measles outbreak

The Disneyland measles outbreak is directly attributable to vaccine-denier movements, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today in a conference call with reporters.

From January 1 to 28, 84 people in 14 states have been reported as having measles, said Anne Schuchat, the head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Most of these cases — 56 people — are linked to the outbreak at Disneyland resort in Anaheim, where five employees are sick as well. The remainder were infected abroad and brought the disease back.

last year, the cdc reported 644 measles cases Measels was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, but they've been creeping back. From 2000 to 2010, there were usually about 60 cases a...

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Spotify reportedly raising another $500 million to expand its streaming music empire

Spotify is reportedly in the process of raising $500 million in funding, a move that could open up new avenues for expansion, though delay its plans to go public. Citing sources, both The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times say that the streaming music company has hired Goldman Sachs to help it raise the funds, which would value it at around $7 billion. The round would be Spotify's biggest yet, following the $250 million it raised in November 2013 led by venture capital firm Technology Crossover Ventures.

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Everyday life can make an awesome video game

More video games should be set in mundane places.

I've spent a lot of time saving the world from monsters and engaging in intergalactic warfare, but there are few games that let me experience the drama and excitement of everyday life. Life is Strange does just that. It stars a high school girl in a small town in the Pacific Northwest, and many of the key moments of the first episode deal with typical teenage dilemmas: drugs, relationships, figuring out who you are as a person. It's incredibly refreshing to play a game that's so fixated on everyday, modern life. And it's even more amazing considering it's also a game about time travel.

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Samsung’s Galaxy E5 and Galaxy E7

Samsung has raised the curtain on two new smartphones, the Galaxy E5 and Galaxy E7, a couple of handsets that sit below the recently announced Galaxy A, giving Samsung some new entry level options. The devices carry Samsung’s brand new design language and aesthetic, although they come without the premium materials of more expensive Galaxy.

The smaller Galaxy E5 gets a 5-inch Super AMOLED screen, a 1.2Ghz quad-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable storage, a 2400 mAh juicer, 8 megapixel rear camera, a 5 megapixel selfie lens, Android 4.4, and of course TouchWiz.

The Galaxy E7 is the daddy of the pair and comes with a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED 720p screen, the same processor, but this time with 2GB of RAM, and an improved 13 megapixel rear camera, a 7.3mm profile, and a 2950 mAh battery. The remaining details are the same as the Galaxy E5.

Both handsets have been confirmed for India, with prices unannounced at this point.

Xiaomi’s New Flagship Listed Online Ahead of Launch

Xiaomi is definitely releasing a new smartphone this month, the Mi5 or Mi4s is likely to land in two week’s time. It has shown up on benchmarks, so the specs are more or less known, while some official looking leaked images have given the design away. However, something much more concrete arrived on my desk today as a Chinese retailer has started listing the device and has confirmed some of the specs.

The listing confirms that the Xiaomi Mi5 will have a 1440 x 2560 5.7-inch Quad HD screen with a blistering PPI of 515. It seems the Chinese company had decided against the new 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 and has decided to stay with this generation’s 805, which features four Krait 450 cores and is clocked at 2.7GHz. It will be paired with 3GB of RAM and will come with either 16GB or 64GB storage options.

Other specs include a micro SD card slot, a 16 megapixel rear camera, an 8 megapixel front facing shooter, and a sizeable 3,600 mAh battery. There are no signs of LTE bands suitable for North America, so it seems Xiaomi will continue to ignore the US, unless another Mi5 variant is in the works (unlikely).

Acer Liquid Z410 Debits Before CES

Acer used a pre-CES show to launch a new smartphone, the budget friendly Liquid Z410, the latest device to land in the ever competitive entry level Android market. The Acer smartphone cuts a nice line between affordable and well spec’d, for the price at least, and it will be landing in emerging markets in the coming weeks.

At just $155, the Liquid Z410 is well equipped, although there are arguably better spec’d device out there for similar money. The Z410 gets a 4.5-inch 520 x 960 resolution qHD screen, 245ppi, a 64-bit MediaTek quad-core processor, an ARM Mali-T760 GPU, LTE (CAT 4 support). Other specs include a 5 megapixel rear snapper (LED flash), front facing DTS speakers, and a 2 megapixel front facing camera.

Xiaomi Launches Redmi 2

Xiaomi has launched the Redmi 2, the Chinese company’s follow up to the 2014 Redmi 1S. With over 60 million in smartphone sales last year, devices like this are what will drive further Xiaomi growth through 2015 and beyond. However, it carries plenty of similarities with the outgoing Redmi 1S.

It has the same 720p screen and is still 4.7-inch, while there is still 1GB of RAM on board and 8GB of native storage that is expandable through a micro SD slot. New specs include a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410, a 2 megapixel front facing snapper, a juicier 2200 mAh battery, and Android 4.4.4 KitKat. Android 5.0 Lollipop should find its way to this handset eventually too, while it is LTE compatible.

The Xiaomi Redmi 2 is available for pre-order right now and costs $112.60. As this is Xiaomi, it is of course exclusive to China at the moment.

LG says Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 is not Overheating

Samsung and Qualcomm are locked in a battle over the Snapdragon 810 processor, with Samsung reportedly ditching the chipset for its upcoming Galaxy S6 smartphone. The 810 chipset apparently overheated constantly and apparantly Samsung had enough and ditched it. However, LG is sticking with the processor and the company is saying that Qualcomm has stopped the overheating issue.

LG will be using the G4 flagship that should be coming sometime in the coming two or three months. However, the company already has a Snapdragon 810 packing device in the shape of the G Flex 2, and LG says that the new curved glass device is not overheating in the slightest.

FTC bans notorious revenge porn operator from posting nude photos without consent

The Federal Trade Commission is banning Craig Brittain, founder of the notorious revenge porn site IsAnybodyDown, from publishing any more nude photos or videos of people without first receiving their explicit consent. As part of a settlement with the commission, Brittain will also have to destroy all images and personal information that he collected during the course of operating IsAnybodyDown.

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Lego made a 2,996-piece set of Avengers' SHIELD Helicarrier

Avengers fans have to wait until May for Age of Ultron to hit theaters, but Lego just announced something that might help pass the time. The Wall Street Journal has an exclusive look at the new set based on the Helicarrier from the first Avengers movie, and it's massive. The main attraction here is the two-foot-long Helicarrier itself, but the full set also includes two Quinjets and various fighter jets and ground vehicles. A few characters are also included — namely Hawkeye, Maria Hill, Captain America (with Cap's vibranium shield!), Nick Fury, and Black Widow, alongside a few generic SHIELD microfigures.

The 2,996-piece set will debut at the Toy Fair in New York City next month and will cost $349 when it hits retail shelves in...

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Facebook Has Huge Growth in Q4 and 2014

Facebook has been clawing its way into mobile and the company said two years ago that it wanted its main revenue to come from mobile advertising. Two years ago that was a long way off because Facebook was very much a web browser social network. However, the company has reached its goal according to its fiscal fourth quarter earnings.

The network revealed that it increased revenue 49% through the quarter and sat at $3.58 billion, with $701 million of that coming though in profit. Through 2014 as a whole, profit increased by 29% through the year, which is actually down from 44% in 2013, but Facebook attributes that to acquisitions. 85% of all Facebook users are now using the network through mobile devices and 33% of those use Facebook solely on mobile devices.

Moto E 2 Shows Up on Render

Motorola's Moto E is getting old in smartphone terms, which of course means that it is due to be replaced with a newer model. The budget handset is still selling well in emerging markets where it is popular, but Motorola has been long rumored to be working on a second generation Moto E. Android Police has now revealed two renders of the Moto E 2, and it looks as though the company has not strayed too far away from the original.

The Moto E 2 is said to have much of the same specs as the older model, except it may have LTE on board. Other specs will include a 4.3-inch screen, a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 with 1GB of RAM, a 5 megapixel rear camera, 4GB of on board storage, and a micro SD card slot to expand the storage space.

Samsung Q4 Continues Decline

Samsung’s fall from grace through last year shows no signs of stopping in 2015 as the company’s decline is predicted to continue. The company’s latest quarterly earnings continue to make uneasy reading for fans of the Korean giant. Samsung suffered its third straight quarterly slip and over those periods the company’s profits have slipped by significant 64%.

It has been a calamitous 12 months for Samsung and the company has struggled for some time, no more so than in China where the company is now third place behind Xiaomi and Apple with 9% of the market. That seems fine on paper, but when one considers this time last year Samsung led the Chinese market with 17%, it puts into perspective the Chinese decline.

Samsung still turned a considerable profit, $4.7 billion through Q4 and a 7.5% profit margin. So, Samsung still makes plenty of money, but it is on the slide. The company confirmed 95 million handsets sold through the fourth quarter, although only said 80% smartphones without a concrete number.

LG Grows Smartphone Sales by 24%

LG has taken full advantage of Samsung’s decline, although it is not the only company that has, alongside the likes of Xiaomi. The Korean company has enjoyed sales growth through quarters in 2014 and the end of year results are equally impressive and show that the company is building off the great success of the G3 flagship.

Through 2014 the company managed to increase smartphone sales by a sizeable by 24% through last year. LG sold 78.2 million handsets through the year, but 59.1 million of them were of the smart variety. That puts LG behind Huawei (75 million), Xiaomi (61 million), and Lenovo in sixth place, with Apple and Samsung out in front. LG may be down in sixth, but the company will think it can build on that 24% growth and catch those slightly above it in the fight for 3rd place.

Fiery star deaths may look different than we thought

Supernovae are the funeral pyres of very massive stars. They forge most of the basic elements we know, including the ones that make up our bodies. But we still don't know exactly how they happen. It's getting a little clearer though, and a new study published today in Science could address part of the mystery.

Researchers looked at supernova remnant Cassiopeia A in a unique way — one that allowed them to map its interior in three dimensions. The story told by that map reveals large-scale structures in the interior of the remnant, a previously undiscovered trait that suggests stars might explode differently than astronomers had imagined, says study author Dan Milisavljevic, a postdoctoral fellow with the Smithsonian Astrophysical...

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Nokia Rakes in Money Post Microsoft

The new Nokia is doing very week it seems. The company is a different animal to what it was even this time last year; it sold its devices and services to Microsoft, stopped making smartphones, and focused on software like the Android Z Launcher and HERE Maps. The results have been very good according to Nokia’s earnings call.

The company raked in $512 million in net income during the last quarter on the back of revenue of $4.3 billion. Profit was up 66% from $309 million in Q4 2013, while revenue climbed from $3.9 billion. Overall profit for the year fell against 2013, but Nokia attributed that to R&D and acquisitions.

The power of the new Nokia could be seen in our fourth quarter results. All of our businesses delivered strong year-on-year net sales growth. Profitability was excellent in Nokia Networks, and we were particularly pleased with our net sales growth in North America and core networks. HERE continued its momentum in the automotive segment, and the early reception to the Nokia N1 tablet has been remarkably favorable, showing the ongoing power of the Nokia brand and the long-term potential of our brand licensing business. Looking ahead, while 2014 was a year of reinvention, we see 2015 as a year of execution."-Rajeev Suri, CEO, Nokia

Huawei’s 2015 Smartphone Roadmap

Huawei is celebrating the best year of its history, with smartphone sales of over 70 million the Chinese company while it managed record revenue through 2014. The Chinese brand has a show pencilled in at the Mobile World Conference (MWC) in Barcelona early in March, but looking forward Huawei has shown its 2015 roadmap, and it includes numerous new products.

There will be at least three new series of smartphones on the way, including new additions to the Mate range and the P series (formerly Ascend P). Those cover Huawei’s flagships, but the company will also launch new devices in the Honor series and new budget devices like the Huawei Y and G. On top of that, the company will also add to the Huawei X tablet series and is promising at least two new wearables (a smartwatch and fitness band) and a Bluetooth headset.

Qualcomm Says Snapdragon 810 will be Missing from One 2015 Flagship

Qualcomm has been in the midst of problems with its Snapdragon 810 processor and the company has now revealed that the chip will not land in one major smartphone flagship this year. During the company’s solid fiscal first quarter 2015 earnings call, the company said the "expectation that our Snapdragon 810 processor will not be in the upcoming design cycle of a large customer's flagship device."

That could possibly mean Samsung has decided to use its own Exynos processors in the upcoming Galaxy S6. There have been reports that the Snapdragon 810 is overheating, prompting Samsung to apparently delay its Galaxy S6. Qualcomm then reportedly said it would give Samsung a bespoke version of the 810, but LG reacted angrily and said it would sue Qualcomm as it had already announced a Snapdragon 810 packing device, the G Flex 2.

Judging by Qualcomm’s words, Samsung has decided to back away and use its Exynos chipsets, at least for the bulk of S6’s.

Facebook Place Tips will try to put useful info about your location right into the News Feed

Facebook is in the middle of an ongoing battle to make sure it always surfaces useful, relevant content in your news feed — which is what makes a new feature the company is piloting a bit of a risk. As of today, Facebook users in New York City will be able to test out a new feature called Place Tips. Assuming you have location services enabled, the Facebook app will try to guess when you’re in a popular or interesting location and surface relevant tips, photos, and posts from the place in question.

"News Feed today is a pretty good tool at connecting you to friends and news," says product manager Mike LeBeau, "but if we’re Facebook and our job is to connect the world, what else do we want to connect you to?" The answer to that question...

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Cloud photo service Picturelife is being acquired, but insists this isn't the end

The options for backing up and preserving your photos outside of Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Dropbox, Flickr, and other big companies are starting to dwindle. Picturelife — one of our previous favorites — has announced it's been acquired by StreamNation. The company is quick to note that it's not going anywhere and says the deal ensures "your photos a safe and secure future." Picturelife says it started thinking about its long-term prospects late last year, concerned about "not being able to keep our customers happy, or making them leave our service because we could no longer support our business."

The company notes that it never managed to reach a profitable state; apparently not enough users were paying for unlimited storage...

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The FCC has changed the definition of broadband

As part of its 2015 Broadband Progress Report, the Federal Communications Commission has voted to change the definition of broadband by raising the minimum download speeds needed from 4Mbps to 25Mbps, and the minimum upload speed from 1Mbps to 3Mbps, which effectively triples the number of US households without broadband access. Currently, 6.3 percent of US households don’t have access to broadband under the previous 4Mpbs/1Mbps threshold, while another 13.1 percent don't have access to broadband under the new 25Mbps downstream threshold.

FCC Commissioner Tom Wheeler was vehement in his support for the new broadband standard. "When 80 percent of Americans can access 25-3, that's a standard. We have a problem that 20 percent can't. We...

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Steam users have earned more than $50 million selling in-game hats and maps

Since Valve launched its community content marketplace Steam Workshop in 2011, creators have earned more than $57 million. According to the company, that money was made by more than 1,500 creators spread out across 75 countries.

That makes for an average of about $38,000 per user, though of course we have no idea how that money is actually spread out — chances are that, much like on YouTube, there are a few creators who have made a lot, and a whole bunch who have earned very little. You probably shouldn't quit your job to make Team Fortress hats, but it's still a nice chunk of change.

"We expected that it would grow, but not that it would grow this much."

Steam Workshop is essentially a market where you can buy user-made items for...

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