Samsung Galaxy S III sales have hit the 10 million mark

Samsung Galaxy S III has reached the 10 million units sold mark. Shin Jong-kyun, Samsung's president of information technology and mobile communication division broke the news about the impressive milestone, which is hardly a surprise, given the 9 million preorders for the device from carriers worldwide.

The mark has been reached earlier than the initial prediction, which pointed at the end of this month as the likely timeframe, at the approximate rate of 190,000 units sold every day. It was also accomplished a lot quicker than the time it took the Galaxy S III's predecessor to find 10 million owners.
Samsung expect strong demand for the Galaxy S III to continue in the coming months, as the launch of Apple's next iPhone is not likely to take place before this Fall. Furthermore, the sales of the Galaxy S III for the entre 2012 could reach 40 million units, thus making the smartphone the most succesfull one to come from the Korean company.

Rick Ross Sued For $2 Million Over Cancelled Concert In Nigeria

 

Rick Ross, his sister and his manager are all listed as defendants in a recent lawsuit filed in New York, which claims Ross has failed to return a deposit of $87,500 after a cancelled performance.

Rick Ross is no stranger to lawsuits at this point in his career, and now he's faced with another. This time it isn't about his name though, it's about a cancelled concert in Nigeria.
Rick Ross, his sister, Tawanda Roberts, and his manager Michael Lighty are all being sued for almost $2 million in damages by a UK promotional company over a cancelled concert in Nigeria from 2011.
The lawsuit was filed on July 3rd according to AllHipHop, in the Supreme Court of New York, by Zons P.R.
The annual event in Nigeria, called the Star Mega Jam, draws around 50,000 people, making it the biggest of its kind in West Africa. Rick Ross was set to headline the 2011 Star Mega Jam, taking place on December 17th.
The lawsuit claims that Zons P.R. began negotiating with Tawanda Robert, who also acts as Ross' manager, on behalf of Ross. Zons P.R. then deposited $87,500 into Ross' account, with the agreement that Ross would do certain tasks, such as promotional drops for the concert, leading up to the concert date, which he did not do.The company also claims that Ross was asking questions about his safety in Nigeria, and ultimately cancelled on the event, claiming "the violent events in Nigeria" was the reason.Ross was supposed to return the 87k to Zons P.R., however failed to do so. When the company realized their money was not being returned, they tried to arrange a different performance for Rick Ross in the future, but the MMG boss would not comply.

Microsoft announces Office 2013, Preview now available for download

Microsoft has announced the newest version of their office suite of application, Office 2013, or as they call it, the new Office. The new Office comes with a host of new improvements, including changes to the UI as well as under the hood.

The most noticeable change is the new set of icons for all the apps within the suite. Just like the Windows 8 icon, Office icons feature a monochrome icon with a tilted perspective. The user interface of the applications has also been slightly modified to fit into the new Metro UI on Windows 8. However, the application isn’t designed entirely with the Metro UI because at the end of the day it will be running within the desktop mode in Windows 8.
What this means is that the new apps show a mish-mash of the old and new UI. In some cases you will see hints of the Metro UI. In others, you will see the same old Office design that you find on the current Office 2010, including the cluttered ribbon on top.
Since it is designed to work with touchscreen displays, the UI has been slightly optimized to accept inputs from your finger. Still, it is disappointing to see how little optimization has been done, as most of the buttons in the UI still look like they are designed for a keyboard and mouse, and the early previews mention the same.
Other new additions include stylus support for scribbling on the screen, integrated SkyDrive, Skype and Yammer support, and a lot more.
The new Office will be released in fall and come in three versions for Windows and OS X. Each version will include the basic apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher and Access. In addition, you get the following:
Office 365 Home Premium that comes with 20GB SkyDrive storage and 60 minutes of Skype world minutes per month
Office 365 Small Business Premium that includes business-grade email, shared calendars, website tools and HD web conferencing
Office 365 ProPlus with advanced business capabilities and the flexibility to deploy and manage in the cloud
The new Office will be available as a cloud-based subscription service. As a subscriber, you will get the aforementioned extras and also multiple installs for multiple users and devices. And of course, devices running Windows RT will have the new Office pre-installed.
The new Office is only supported on Windows 7 and 8, with support for Vista and XP being dropped in this version. If you have a Windows 7 or 8 installed on your machine,

Microsoft announces limited edition Xbox 360 Halo 4 bundle

The Xbox 360 is no stranger to limited edition bundles and the cool thing about it is that not only do you get a copy of the game with it but the entire console goes through a makeover to match the theme of the game.

Another such new limited edition Xbox 360 bundle is now heading our way and it is the Halo 4 bundle. And as you can see above, it will comes with a matching blue Xbox 360 and controllers.

If you look closely you will realize that underneath the jazzy patterns, the case for this Xbox 360 is actually transparent, which means you can see the insides of both the console as well as the controllers. Another feature is that both the console and the controller ditch the traditional green Xbox lights for blue ones. You also get custom sound effects when you switch the console on and off.

The Xbox 360 Halo 4 bundle will set you back by $399.99. For that price you get the console with 320GB hard drive, two controllers, a wired headset and a copy of Halo 4. You also get tokens for exclusive Halo 4 in-game and avatar marketplace downloadable content. There will also be a different looking Halo 4 theme wireless controller for the Xbox that will be sold separately for $59.99. The console is up for pre-order today and will ship on November 6 when Halo 4 is released.

Samsung plans to unveil the Galaxy Note 2 on August 30

According to the Korean Digital Daily website Samsung is planning to have an Unpacked event for the Galaxy Note 2. It should happen on August 30 - a day before the IFA expo kicks off in Berlin, Germany.

According to the information the event will start at 19:00 (local time, CET) and will be all about the Galaxy Note 2. As the latest rumors have it, the Note’s successor will be powered by a quad-core Exynos chipset, will feature a 13MP camera and will actually be narrower despite the larger, 5.5" screen. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean should be powering the whole thing.
With the original Galaxy Note going official at last year's IFA, it was only logical for its successor to arrive at the same event a year later. Yet, Samsung decided not to bring the Galaxy S III to the MWC earlier this year, so there was always the chance that the Koreans will have a separate event for their other key device as well. It's good this isn't the case, though.
Naturally, we'll be onsite covering the Sasmung Galaxy Note 2 announcement live for you, so make sure to keep an eye on our homepage when the time comes.

Purported images of the next generation iPhone leaks

We have seen leaked images of the next generation iPhone before but those were just of the aluminum back shell.

Today, we have what looks like a completely assembled device placed next to the current iPhone 4S. As before, the device is noticeably longer pointing towards a bigger, widescreen display. We can see edge to edge glass on top and the black aluminum body on the side.
The previous pictures also denoted a two tone back, with plastic/glass on the top and bottom and aluminum in the middle. In these, however, the back seems to be of a single color. The bottom has also been redesigned with a completely new, smaller dock connector, large grilles for the speaker and microphone and a headphone jack, which has been relocated to the bottom.

As is often the case, one should take these with a pinch of salt. Still, these are some fairly convincing images. We'll be seeing more of these as the launch of the next generation iPhone draws closer.

Android now powers 51.8% of US smartphones, growth continues

Popular analyst company Nielsen has published its report on the US smartphone market in the second quarter of 2012. The quarter saw smartphone growth continue as two thirds of all new customers picked a smartphone. Android continues to be in lead, powering 51.8% of all US smartphones and 54.6% of the ones purchased over the past three months. And that was the quarter before the Samsung Galaxy S III was launched.

iOS is the other platform on the rise, with Apple's OS accounting for 34.3% of US smartphones and 36.3% of the newly acquired ones. Expectedly iOS is starting to lose pace in the third quarter of iPhone 4S availability, but things are bound to change once the iPhone 5 comes out.
BlackBerry is the only other platform on record by Nielsen and it continues its free fall. While the RIM OS still powers a respectable 8.1% of US smartphones, it only managed a market share of 4% with new subscribers. This means that it might soon join the dreaded "others" category, officially turning the US smartphone market into a two-horse race.

As for the platform that is hoping to escape that category - Windows Phone - only managed a market share of 1.3%. The Nokia Lumia lineup is still struggling to make an impact, covering just 0.3% of the market, despite the heavy promotion of the Lumia 900 by both the Finns and AT&T.