Microsoft acquired the developer of Acompli – a popular email client for iOS and Android. The deal is reportedly worth more than $200 million.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft plans to merge the high level of functionality of Acompli with its own Outlook platform. Read more »

A couple of days ago a report surfaced in South Korean media claiming that Samsung was getting ready to shut down its ChatOn messaging service, which has failed to challenge WhatsApp, Viber, and Facebook Messenger in terms of user base.

Now though, the Korean company has officially stated that the aforementioned information is false, and that ChatOn will live on. Read more »

Moving steadily on with its newfound commerce focus, Twitter has today announced a new service called Twitter Offers. This basically means businesses can embed discount coupons into tweets, but redeeming them is easier than if you were to use actual coupons.

Twitter Offers comes after the Twitter Buy button started appearing for certain users, letting them buy stuff directly from tweets. Read more »

Just a few months after Sony’s Playstation network was knocked offline after being hit by a DDoS attack, hackers have compromised Sony Pictures Entertainment’s computer network, stealing sensitive data and forcing the company to shut down its systems. According to a Reddit user, who claims to be a former Sony Pictures worker, the following image appeared on all corporate systems:

The hackers claim to be part of a group called #GOP, which refers to Guardians of Peace apparently, although the request referenced in the image isn’t yet known. According to The Next Web, the ZIP files mentioned in the image contain documents pertaining to financial records along with private keys for access to servers. Read more »

YouTube unveiled its subscription service, dubbed Music Key, a couple of days ago. One of the most interesting bits about it is that it actually includes a subscription to Google Play Music All Access, which means you’ll also be able to stream the more than 30 million songs in that catalogue, and get expert-curated playlists too.

What hasn’t been clear at all so far, however, is what would happen to those people who already subscribe to Google Play Music All Access. Will they get access to YouTube’s Music Key for free? Thankfully, that question now has an answer. Read more »

YouTube’s much anticipated subscription service has been officially announced today. It’s called YouTube Music Key, and it will be in beta for an unspecified amount of time.

It brings you an ad-free YouTube experience, along with support for background playback on mobile, and offline viewing too. Read more »

It all started with US-based Amazon Prime users and now those in the UK and Germany can enjoy unlimited photo storage as well.

The good news is that photos are uploaded in their original resolution, other services with generous storage options often downsize the images or add other restrictions. “No restrictions” says Amazon, as you can upload your entire photo collection from an Android (regular or Fire OS), iOS or Windows PC. Read more »

Not convinced to stop experimenting by its less than stellar Fire phone sales, Amazon has introduced a new product today. It’s called Echo, and it’s a Bluetooth speaker, which also packs Siri, Google Now, or Cortana-like personal assistant functionality.

That’s definitely a combo no one’s ever tried before, though we may soon find out that there might have been a reason for that. Anyway, you can’t say Amazon isn’t trying to come up with new product categories. Read more »

Google Drive added one more feature to its already rich set of utilities. Going forward, users of the search giant’s cloud storage solution will be able to open their files straight into compatible applications installed on their computers.

The new feature will allow users to open and edit their Google Drive files with their desktop apps, and save changes seamlessly to the cloud. Read more »

Amazon increased the price of its Prime service early this year but it keeps adding new features to make it worth the $100 a year. The latest addition is that Prime members get unlimited photo storage for free.

Photos go in the Amazon Cloud Drive where they can be viewed on various smart devices – from smartphones to certain Smart TVs from Samsung and LG and, of course, through Amazon’s Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. Read more »

YouTube is planning on introducing subscription models for music videos and ad-free browsing. The company CEO Susan Wojcicki confirmed in an interview with Re/code that the team is “working on it”.

We had seen traces of a subscription model in a leaked YouTube app earlier but since then haven’t heard much about it. Fortunately, the idea hasn’t been dropped and YouTube will be introducing it at a later date. There could be different price points for the subscriptions, based on what Wojcicki said. Read more »

Microsoft Office 365 subscribers will receive unlimited OneDrive cloud storage going forward. OneDrive subscription plans that include the sweet cloud storage option kick off at $6.99 per month.

The new arrangement will begin rolling out to users with Home, Personal, and University accounts beginning today. Read more »

If the recently unveiled Nexus Player is Google’s answer to Amazon’s Fire TV (among other competitors), then Amazon’s new Fire TV Stick is surely meant to compete head-on with Google’s Chromecast.

The streaming HDMI dongle has enjoyed great success, thanks primarily to how affordable it is. And now Amazon joins the fray with its very own such device, one that it (obviously) touts to be superior to the Chromecast. Read more »

The Amazon Fire TV has become available in the UK today. This comes right on schedule, as October 23 has been the announced release date for the UK ever since the mega retailer started taking pre-orders for the box last month.

To get a Fire TV, you’ll need to agree to part with £79 of your hard earned cash. The game controller for the Fire TV is sold separately, and it’s priced at £34.99. It’s available to order too. Read more »

Google has just unveiled a new service. It’s called Inbox, and it uses the data in your Gmail account. But it presents this to you in some pretty interesting new ways.

It’s designed to “focus on what really matters”, the company says. It does this by surfacing important information from emails, and by letting you add reminders to your new inbox. Read more »