Wireless Wednesday for 11/4/15: - Tech News of the Week

With the holiday shopping season and the end of the year upon us, Rick and Mitch take a look at some of the hot topics and the tech news of the week.

Have a listen to both parts this week:

1.  Activision Blizzard Buys 'Candy Crush' Maker King for $5.9 Billion

There must be a lot of people still addicted to Candy Crush. With the mobile device revolution, the video game industry is alive and well.

Who makes more money: Hollywood or the video game industry?

The video game industry made twice as much money in 2013 than did the film industry.
Worldwide box-office revenue for the film industry in 2013 was $35.9 billion (source Theatrical Market Statistics 2013).

Worldwide revenue for the video game industry in 2013 was $70.4 billion (source: 2013 Global Games Market Report).

Video game maker Activision Blizzard has acquired Candy Crush creator King in a $5.9 billion deal.

The combined company will reach more than half a billion monthly active users in 196 countries. Activision CEO

Bobby Kotick says he has "long admired King for consistently creating incredibly fun, deeply engaging free-to-play games that capture the imaginations of players across ages and demographics."

Together, Activision Blizzard and King will have a portfolio with top-grossing mobile games (Candy Crush Saga), as well as successful console (Call of Duty) and PC (World of Warcraft) titles.
 


2.  Samsung Sells More Phones than Apple

Samsung Electronics Co. is selling more smartphones than it was this time last year. But under the hood, there are fewer reasons to celebrate.
Last week, the South Korean smartphone giant celebrated its first quarter of year-on-year mobile profit growth since 2013.

Samsung has been selling more cheaper smartphones, and fewer high-end premium devices, than it did even compared to Samsung’s rocky 2014, according to numbers from data firm Counterpoint Technology Market Research.

Samsung doesn’t separately disclose smartphone sales numbers.

Samsung shipped 84 million smartphones in the third quarter of 2015, 6.3% more than during the same stretch last year and more than the No. 2 and No. 3 players, Apple Inc. and Huawei Technologies Co., combined, according to Counterpoint.

But while 55% of its smartphones were priced at $301 per unit or more at this time last year, that high-end segment has fallen to just 40% of Samsung’s overall smartphone sales, Counterpoint said.

Phones priced $200 or below now account for 38% of total units shipped at Samsung, versus 30% this time last year.

So while Samsung is indeed shipping more smartphones, it isn’t charging as much for them — or making as much money from them.
 

3. HP Is Now Two Companies

Hewlett-Packard. The tech giant starts trading Monday as two separate companies: HP Inc., and Hewlett-Packard Enterprises. HP Inc. (HPQ) is responsible for the PC and printer businesses, while HP Enterprises (HPE) will sell hardware like servers to businesses. Hopefully customers get better PCs, better printers and more innovation.

 


4.  NASA Study Shows Net Gains For Antarctic Ice

Apparently, now that we don't send things into space anymore, NASA has time to look at glaciers.

A widely circulated NASA study published in the Journal of Glaciology, and reported by UPI, says that Antarctic ice has measurably thickened in recent decades, a conclusion at odds with earlier findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, "which in 2013 suggested gains were not keeping up with losses."
The new tallies reveal an annual net gain of 112 billion tons between 1992 and 2001.
 

5. T-Mobile is Giving Customers a Free Cell Tower

Yea, really.

The cellphone carrier announced Monday that all T-Mobile customers with a "Simple Choice" plan can now receive a free mini cell tower for their home. The 8.5-inch square gadget blasts out T-Mobile's 4G-LTE network to a 3,000-square-foot radius.

T-Mobile has done this kind of thing before. It previously gave out free Wi-Fi routers that allowed customers to make calls and texts over their home Wi-Fi networks.

What T-Mobile announced Monday is different: The mini tower (T-Mobile is calling it a CellSpot), lets customers connect to T-Mobile's cellular network -- not Wi-Fi. That means in places where they received one or no "bars" of service, they'll now get a full, speedy connection.

 
6.  Technology Making Waves in the Sport of Curling

Somewhat like Major League Baseball never allowing metal bats due to fears that advanced equipment could trump human ability, the World Curling Federation, the sport’s governing body, is now being forced to actually address similar concerns about a new broom head.

The Winter Olympic sport where players vigorously sweep brooms to guide heavy stones down the ice – may be having its aluminum bat moment.

At the center of the controversy is the swatch of fabric affixed to the outside of the curling broom. In place of a smooth fabric head that has become the norm in the past two decades, the new technology uses a fabric that feels rough to the touch. Known as “directional fabric,” curlers claim these broom heads are making curling stones do things on the ice that seem so unnatural they could sweep athleticism and other currently necessary skills right out of the game. These new broomheads are very forgiving.
 

App of the Week:

Google Maps - new feature for Android - it gives you advice

Reviews and ratings speak volumes about an establishment, but to help you make quicker decisions, Google Maps for Android now displays at-a-glance details about best times to go, atmosphere, and more.

To gather this information for our community, you might have seen questions like “Is this place family friendly”— now, they’ll appear as notifications on your Android device based on your location history.
Search for any type of business and give it a try