Nuance, the folks behind the Samsung’s and Apple’s in-house voice assistant programs S Voice and Siri, as well as other commercial speech recognition applications like Dragon Naturally Speaking, are set to potentially get bought out by the Korean company.

In anticipation of the potential deal, Nuance’s market cap jumped from a valuation of $5.5 billion to almost $6 billion yesterday. Read more »

Group Program Manager for Microsoft’s Cortana virtual assistant Marcus Ash confirmed over Twitter today that the popular feature will be coming to users in China and the UK in the coming weeks.

In general, mobile virtual assistants are severely limited by the Chinese government in terms of what they can do, but if Cortana is able to get an unfiltered release there, it could spell a significant advantage for Windows Phone in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market. Read more »

The LG G3 is the first mainstream smartphone to out a smartphone with a QHD display, and as such is the first major manufacturer to have to deal with the extra battery load required to power such a robust screen.

LG has thrown in a 3000mAh battery to power the device, and while that sounds pretty great it’s unclear if it will be enough to make the G3 a battery life king. Read more »

Ever since Apple announced the latest iteration of its mobile OS at WWDC last week, developers are busy perusing all the new features introduced with the iOS 8 beta build – and one that wasn’t.

One clever developer, Steve Troughton-Smith, has discovered that Apple has included code that will enable you to run apps in split-screen mode – and has just demoed the partially-working feature on video. Read more »

Intel announced its upcoming Braswell SoC at the IDF conference earlier this year, set to run Windows or Android, among others, on a 14nm 64-bit architecture. We now learn that those will finally be available at the start of 2015, over 6 months from now.

Meanwhile, its Broadwell K desktop architecture, the successor of its current Haswell lineup, will also reportedly be delayed until 2015. Read more »

The Samsung Galaxy S5 saw some criticism from Indian customers due to its high initial retail price. After a healthy price drop, Samsung is hoping to make the Galaxy S5 even more enticing by offering free in-house pick-up for any repair work, as well as a one-time screen replacement for Galaxy S5 devices for just INR 990 ($17).

The new deal also includes the option of trading in and old smartphone for at least INR 10,000 ($169) credit towards the purchase of a Galaxy S5. Read more »

LG has really gone the extra step in making sure the G3 flagship is its most full-featured yet, and it wants to make sure everyone knows about it.

The new Smart Tips ads aim to highlight both new and updated features found in the G3, including Smart Notice, Dual window, Guest Mode, Smart Keyboard, and even goes into the new QuickCircle case accessory. Read more »

VLC Player, the popular multimedia player app for iOS and Android, is set to get support for Google’s new media streaming platform Chromecast.

Paradoxically, native streaming support for Chromecast is set to hit the iOS version of VLC before the Android version, likely due to the latter still being in the beta stages of its development. Read more »

We’ve got the live coverage from Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference, where Apple has just announced the latest version of its desktop operating system, Mac OS X Yosemite.

Continuing the naming scheme of famous California landmarks introduced with OS X Mavericks, Yosemite introduces translucent windows menus, redesigned dock icons, an updated Spotlight search feature, iCloud Drive cloud storage integration, and a new widget bar. Read more »

We’re hard at work on our full review of the LG G3, but in the meantime we’ve taken the 13MP shooter out for a spin.

The LG G3 features a proprietary phase/detection laser autofocus sensor, image stabilization, and dual tone flash. But is it all its hyped up to be? Take a look and decide for yourself. Read more »

LG touts the camera on its just-announced G3 flagship as its best yet, thanks to its optical image stabilization, 2160p video recording, and even slow motion video recording.

We’ve got our own samples taken with our in-house LG G3, so you can get a firsthand look at just how capable the camera is. Read more »

The Huawei Ascend P7‘s 6.5mm waistline is a site to behold, and the Chinese manufacturer has released a new ad to make sure you know about it.

The “Supermodel thin, Superhero tough” spot looks at Huawei’s flagship with a touch of humor, and does a good job of showcasing its elegant design. Read more »

The LG G Pad 7.0, the smallest in the new series of tablets announced by the Korean company at the MedPi trade show earlier this month, has been pictured in France.

The new hands-on images highlight some odd design choices for LG’s tablet lineup, including a relatively thick waistline and an oddly placed microSD slot on the top of the device. Read more »

Several major Silicon Valley companies have reached a settlement with some 64,000 workers for allegedly colluding not to hire each other’s employees.

Apple, after adamantly denying that former CEO Steve Jobs made an agreement with Intel, Google, and Adobe brass not to poach employees, has agreed to settle out of court. Read more »

Apple’s “Your Verse” iPad campaign continues in full force, as the tech company has unveiled several new videos focusing on unique uses for its latest iPad Air tablet.

The two new ads focus on how the iPad helps hearing-impaired writer and traveler Cherie King navigate foreign countries, as well as Finnish composer Esa-Pekka Salonen’s new The Orchestra app that helps demystify the process of creating orchestral scores. Read more »