Husain Sumra

In late December, it was reported that Apple was one of three companies, with Google and Microsoft being the others, in talks to acquire home automation firm R2 Studios. The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Microsoft has acquired the firm to beef up its Xbox unit.The company, id8 Group R2 Studios Inc., was created by entrepreneur Blake Krikorian in May 2011. Mr. Krikorian will be joining ...

The Daily Mail is reporting that new NPD research has found that consumers want more access to online video services like HBO Go rather than "smart" features like social networking access on their TVs. The research comes a day after it was reported that Intel was planning to launch a TV service and set top box in 2013 that focused on content. NPD said that a big problem is that TV owners are...

The Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese courts have ordered Apple to pay a group of Chinese writers $165,000 for unlawfully distributing copyrighted works in certain Chinese apps.A Beijing court ordered Apple Inc. to pay 1.03 million yuan, or about $165,000, to a group of local writers who said the U.S. gadget maker sold unlicensed copies of their books online, according to state media. ...

Japanese blog Mac Otakara is reporting that a redesigned fifth-generation iPad could arrive in March 2013. However Chinese news ZOL (CBS Interactive) reported next iPad mini in AppleInsider's article, according to my inside source, iPad(5th) may be released in March, 2013. Source told that, design of this new iPad will be like iPad mini in detail, and be thinner and lightweight.Apple just...

Microsoft has released a game tonight called Wordament for the iPhone. The game has been a popular Windows Phone game, but is now also available on iOS. Wordament was originally a side-project for two Windows Live employees that was later acquired and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Wordament is notably the first Microsoft game to come to iOS with Xbox Achievements. When you sign in...

Jordan Mechner, creator of the classic Prince of Persia game, recently remade his Apple II game Karateka for iOS. To celebrate, he released a video (found by TUAW) comparing the delivery methods for the Apple II version of Karateka and the iOS version.The video highlights how software prices are dropped, how delivery methods have improved and how the actual software has gotten more advanced in...

Nielsen yesterday released its digital "Tops of 2012" statistics, which included the top 10 iOS apps of 2012, based on average unique users. The study took place from Q1 2012 to Q3 2012 and also happened to find that this was the first year where smartphone owners became the majority of mobile phone users with 56% by the end of Q3. Four of the top 10 iPhone apps are stock iOS apps, as YouTube...

The IMDb app is one of the most popular apps on iOS, with the Internet Movie Database yesterday noting in a press release that its iOS app has been downloaded 25 million times. Along with the milestone comes a redesigned Version 3.0 of the IMDb iPad app, with the goal being to focus on discovery features and allow users to see more content. The iPhone version has also received a few more features ...

Although ESPN's popular ScoreCenter app for iPad recently received a refresh including a visual makeover, the iPhone version had remained the same and continued to lack support for the taller iPhone 5 display for nearly three months after the device's debut. That changed today as ESPN released a completely redesigned app that takes cues from the iPad version. ESPN released the following statement ...

A couple of weeks after showing off Pudding Monsters for the first time, Cut the Rope creator ZeptoLab has now released the new title in the App Store. The puzzle game involves sticking blocks of desserts together to create larger and larger dessert monsters. The Pudding Monsters are on a mission to save their friends from the cold-hearted fridge owner! Growing into an ULTIMATE MEGA MONSTER...

The popular blogging service Tumblr has updated its iOS app to work natively on iPad. The popular blogging platform had previously been designed only for the iPhone, only working in 2x-mode on the iPad. iPad support isn't the only addition, as the app now has an "Explore" tab to search other Tumblr blogs as well as landscape support for the iPad version.What's New in Version 3.2.3- Now...

In a pair of court filings tonight, Judge Lucy Koh published a pair of decisions in Samsung v. Apple. The first filing (via The Verge) denied Samsung's motion for a new trial regarding alleged juror misconduct by jury foreman Velvin Hogan. Samsung accused Hogan of withholding the fact that he had been involved in a lawsuit with Seagate, a partner of Samsung's. Judge Koh didn't agree, saying in ...

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is in early discussions with popular location-based app Foursquare for a data-sharing deal. Apple SVP Eddy Cue is reportedly involved with the negotiations as he tries to improve a Maps app that has failed to live up to Apple's expectations.Apple Inc. is in early discussions to integrate local data from Foursquare Labs Inc. into its mapping...

Alfred is a beloved launcher program for Mac OS X that allows users to quickly launch Google searches, launch applications, make quick calculations and more. Now, the developers behind Alfred have revealed in a blog post one of the new features for version 2.0. The feature is called Workflows and allows users to create advanced functions to make Alfred even more useful. Some examples are the ...

Steve Jobs famously purchased Pixar from Lucasfilm for $10 million in 1986, selling the company to Disney 20 years later for $7.4 billion. In 1995, Pixar was ready to unveil its first feature film, Toy Story, which was also the first feature film composed entirely of computer-animated graphics. Before the film was released, Steve Jobs spoke at SIGGRAPH 95, a conference for those in the computer...

Two hit games arrived for Mac today in Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition and are now available in the Mac App Store. After being announced for Mac in October, Feral Interactive has brought Arkham City to Mac a year after its release on consoles and a year after the predecessor Arkham Asylum was released in the Mac App Store. A...

The much-anticipated Google Maps for iOS is finally here. The app offers iOS 6 users who are unhappy with Apple's in-house Maps app an opportunity to switch back to Google's map platform. The new app includes turn-by-turn navigation, public transit directions, Google local search and more. There are a number of features and tidbits that come with Google Maps for iOS as well. Here's a...

Time Warner Cable has updated its TWC TV iOS app [App Store] to allow subscribers to watch on-demand content as well as bringing other minor updates. In a blog post on its website, Time Warner says the update adds the ability to watch 4,000 TV and movie titles from 94 different providers. The catalog is a mix of standard and high-definition content, but the cable company says it will add...

The Federal Communications Commission today announced a proposal that would extend a previous agreement requiring wireless carriers to allow their users to send SMS messages to 911 call centers. The proposal would extend the requirement from simple SMS texting to "over-the-top" messaging services like Apple's iMessage.The four major American carriers, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, have...

In another wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg, Google Executive Chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt says that Google is winning the war against Apple in the mobile space.This is a huge platform change; this is of the scale of 20 years ago -- Microsoft versus Apple. We’re winning that war pretty clearly now. [...] “The core strategy is to make a bigger pie,” he said. “We will end up ...