BlackBerry announced yesterday that it will abandon a sale of the company, following two months of talks with potential buyers including Facebook, Lenovo and private equity firms. Instead, the struggling smartphone maker plans to raise $1 billion by issuing convertible notes to long-term investors including Fairfax Financial Holdings, the company’s largest shareholder. Additionally, BlackBerry said CEO Thorsten Heins will step down. The news resulted in a 16 percent drop in share price. Continue reading BlackBerry Calls Off Company Sale, CEO Heins to Step Down

Google, Samsung, HTC and others are on the hotseat for alleged patent infringement on Rockstar technology — including patents related to messaging, notifications and graphical user interfaces. Rockstar, which is jointly owned by Apple, Blackberry, Ericsson, Microsoft and Sony, owns and manages a portfolio of more than 4,000 patents purchased during the Nortel bankruptcy auction in 2011. The group filed a barrage of lawsuits against phone manufacturers late last week. Continue reading Google Among Many Sued by Rockstar for Patent Infringement

Google’s Android-powered Nexus 5 is now available with many of the features that were leaked prior to its release. The new smartphone includes an upgraded 4.95-inch 1080p display, Corning Gorilla Glass 3, 2.3Ghz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, and 2GB of RAM. It shows off the latest Android 4.4 technology, also known as KitKat, and it can be purchased on the Google Play Store today in 16GB ($349) or 32GB ($399) models. Continue reading Google Nexus 5 Smartphone Now Available for Android Fans

Sony is getting ready to launch its new 65-inch curved screen HDTV. While LG and Samsung introduced curved OLED HDTVs this summer ($10,000 and $9,000 respectively), Sony’s $4,000 display is the first curved LED HDTV featuring contrast-enhancing LED backlighting. According to Sony, the new TV produces richer 3D video and has a wider viewing angle with a curvature designed to make the viewing experience seem more natural. Continue reading Sony to Launch Curved LED HDTV, Promises Immersive Viewing

Magine’s cloud-based TV service currently allows users to scan TV schedules, surf channels, rewind programs and access archived content via their tablets, smartphones or computers. Starting early next year, European users will be able to do the same with their smart TVs when sets from LG, Panasonic and Philips’ venture with TPV Technology will come preloaded with the Swedish company’s cloud TV software. Magine is demonstrating the system this week at MIPCOM in Cannes, France (October 7-10). Continue reading Leading Smart TVs to Include Magine Cloud Service in Europe

Japan has vending machines for a wide array of products — from batteries, beverages and magazines to fresh fruit and vegetables. Google joined the fray this week with the trial introduction of Google Play game-dispensing vending machines. Three different machines will each sell a collection of 18 free-to-play and paid-for titles. Consumers with an NFC-enabled smartphone running Android 4.0 can stop in front of the Parco department store in Tokyo’s Shibuya district to access the games. Continue reading Google Introduces Tokyo to Android Game Vending Machines

Visible World, a New York specialist in interactive advertising, is testing a smart TV app that alerts viewers when a certain program is about to air, even if they are doing something else such as playing a video game or streaming a movie. TV networks are finding it more difficult to get the word out about their shows, but this app may help to solve that issue. The app may also prove helpful for TV networks in determining how effective their promotions are to TV viewers. Continue reading New Smart TV App Will Remind Viewers When Shows Will Air

Roku CEO Anthony Wood announced at the Next TV Summit in San Francisco this week that his company’s devices will soon add support for the DIAL protocol. The update will allow Roku to offer functionality similar to that of Google’s Chromecast, which would include expanded second-screen support for Netflix. Devices from Sony, Vizio, LG, Panasonic and TiVo already support DIAL, a multiscreen protocol jointly developed by Netflix and YouTube. Continue reading Roku to Support DIAL, Offer Functionality Found on Chromecast

M-GO, the movie service launched by Technicolor and DreamWorks, recently announced that it is adding LG TVs to its growing list of supported devices. The company is also launching new personal Cards for its Web app, a personalization feature akin to Pinterest for your movies. As part of its expansion strategy, M-GO has ambitious content plans, which possibly include integrating a locker service for access to personal content, in addition to live television. Continue reading Movie Service M-GO Unveils Personal Cards, Considers Live TV

Premium cable network Showtime has begun syncing interactive elements for its shows directly onto LG’s smart TVs using Web-based technology. This service is unique in that there are no extraneous downloads or devices. Although not all Showtime viewers own the compatible technology for interactive TV, this will likely change in the future as more TV manufacturers adopt the standard HTML5 and JavaScript technologies used by LG’s LivePlus service. Continue reading Showtime Network Syncing Interactive Content on LG Smart TVs

Omate’s TrueSmart is a standalone, water-resistant smartwatch that hit its $100,000 Kickstarter funding target on the first day (at press time, the project had raised $249,722 since August 21). The Android-powered TrueSmart — which will compete with upcoming devices from Samsung, Apple, Microsoft and others — features a TFT by LG display, multi-touch capacitive touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 2G/3G data connectivity abilities. Continue reading Omate SmartWatch Project Reaches Funding Goal On First Day

Netflix has started a quiet effort to address problems with smart TVs. The company is in talks with tech companies and consumer electronics manufacturers in order to find improvements to user interfaces, remote controls and other smart TV components. The idea of Internet content combined with TVs began in the mid 1990s, but some believe progress has been slow. New apps, services and compelling content are needed to engage viewers to purchase and use smart TVs. Continue reading Netflix Hopes to Bring Increased Intelligence to Smart TVs

Juniper Research predicts that wearable computing shipments will grow tenfold in the next five years, eventually reaching 150 million by the end of 2018. The researcher cites health and fitness industries, in addition to tech firms such as Apple and Google, as the primary catalysts in pushing shipments. Juniper forecasts health and fitness industries combined to account for more than half of the devices shipped, while smart watches and glasses are expected to also drive adoption. Continue reading Research Points to Dramatic Increase in Wearable Computing

Sony and Panasonic announced yesterday an agreement to team up on developing standards for a next-generation optical disc that can hold more than 300 gigabytes of data (six times the capacity of Blu-ray discs). The companies are hoping to develop the new storage medium by 2015. Once fierce rivals, the two electronics leaders also recently unveiled plans to work together on mass production technology for organic light-emitting diode displays. Continue reading Sony and Panasonic Join Forces on Optical Discs and OLED

Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox browser, recently announced the debut of the first smartphones powered by the Web-based Firefox OS. These modest smartphones are targeting first time buyers and consumers looking for less expensive alternatives to iPhones and Android phones. Firefox OS may not compete on the same level with Apple and Google, but it does present an opportunity for new Web-based devices that can offer many features. Continue reading New Firefox OS Looks to Power More Affordable Smartphones