Report: AT&T looking to buy Vodafone for as much as $82 billion

Vodafone and Verizon stockholders will be voting next Tuesday, on whether or not to approve the $130 billion USD deal between the two companies. Verizon Communications is buying the 45% stake in Verizon Wireless owned by the European telecom giant. Yes, it will go down as the biggest M&A deal of 2013 and will result in Vodafone shareholders receiving a special £54.3 billion ($84 billion USD) payout consisting of $24 billion in cash and the remainder in Verizon stock.

But there is some speculation again, that AT&T is about to plunk down as much as £60 billion ($82 billion USD) to buy what is left of Vodafone following the sale of its stake in Verizon Wireless. This was a deal that was tipped to take place this year, all the way back in November. AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson met with EU telecom commissioner Neelie Kroes during the World Economic Summit in Davos and expressed AT&T's desire to be a major European player.

While AT&T has yet to approach Vodafone about a deal, sources from London's financial district say that the American carrier has been advised to hold off until Vodafone has completed its deal with Verizon. That is expected to happen on February 21st. Meanwhile, Stephenson and Vittorio Colao, Vodafone's Italian CEO, are scheduled to talk during MWC in Barcelona next month.

Sources say that AT&T has been working on the regulatory, financial and legal issues surrounding a bid and the company's investment bankers are waiting for the green light from AT&T's board. After the deal with Verizon closes, analysts expect a deal for Vodafone to come in between £50 billion and £70billion ($68 billion USD and $96 billion USD, respectively). Even after closing the deal with Verizon, Vodafone will be one of the top ten largest public companies in the U.K.

source: SkyNews via AndroidCentral

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Apple CEO Tim Cook jokes about iRing in interview with ABC

It's not often Apple executives sit down for an interview, but to celebrate the Mac's thirtieth anniversary on Friday, Apple CEO Tim Cook talked candidly with ABC News. It's a rare look inside such a secret company.

Cook, along with Apple executives Craig Federighi and Bud Tribble, discussed the culture at Apple where secrecy is their hallmark. Cook told interviewer David Muir there are locked rooms at Apple, products are under black drapes, and executives can't tell their families what type of projects are being worked on.

Manufacturing Apple products in the US was also discussed, including the company's Mac Pro factory in Austin, Texas, and its new sapphire glass factory in Arizona. When pressed on whether the sapphire glass could be used for a larger iPhone or iWatch, Cook chuckled saying he couldn't answer. He jokingly added Apple is making a ring, however.

The spying program in the US that's made headlines since summer 2013 was discussed. Cook said Apple isn't providing governments with a backdoor to its servers and called the US government for more transparency.

Cook's daily routine consists of him waking up at 4:35AM and receiving between 700 and 800 emails daily from customers alone, Muir said.

Apple executives gave the rare interview to ABC following an interview with Macworld a day prior. Apple'smarketing boss Phil Schiller revealed the company won't be merging iOS and OS X, and the Mac is still an important component of Apple's product line.

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EverQuest Next could be the first MMORPG to support the Oculus Rift

Since the release of the Oculus Rift development kit, many major game developers have been experimenting with virtual reality in their labs. Now, another one of them has come forward in support of the technology: Sony Online Entertainment, the company behindEverQuest. Now, it sounds like the upcoming EverQuest Next will offer some kind of support for the technology.

Last August, the company teased possible support for the virtual reality headset in a behind-the-scenes video for EverQuest Next. Without saying a word about VR, a developer donned an Oculus Rift while the camera knowingly lingered for a few moments. It wasn't just a visual gag: In a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) yesterday, SOE president John Smedley confirmed that the company would indeed support the Oculus Rift "in some way shape or form."

"Probably for no other reason then it's really damn cool and programmers love that stuff," added Smedley.

"I'M THINKING THIS IS REAL AND WE MAY HAVE OUR SNOWCRASH AFTER ALL."

While that doesn't sound like much of a committment, another Redditor asked about supporting other virtual reality systems besides the Oculus Rift, and Smedley responded in promising fashion: "hearing good things about 2 competitors... one of which actually comes from Sony. so I'm thinking this is real and we may have our Snowcrash after all," wrote the executive.

While a number of other MMOs have proclaimed support for the Rift — primarily space sims like Vendetta Online and the upcoming Star Citizen, but also Second Life — SOE's EverQuest Next could be the first to offer a virtual reality fantasy role-playing experience.

Smedley also told Redditors that his company has another unannounced MMO in the works which he hopes will appease Star Wars Galaxies players.

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Is HTC trying to go after Apple's iPhone 5C with this alleged octa-core Desire?

The unannounced mid-range HTC Desire smartphone that we first saw a few days ago may not be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor (as initially rumored), but by an octa-core chip manufactured by MediaTek. What’s more, it appears that the handset has several cheerful color versions, including blue, yellow, red and orange. Paired with the phone’s thin, plastic construction, these colors make us think about Apple’s iPhone 5C.

According to ePrice, apart from possibly featuring an 8-core MediaTek CPU, the new Desire could come with a 5-inch 720p display, 1.5GB of RAM, 8MP rear camera with LED flash (no UltraPixel nonsense here), Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, and Sense 5.5 UI. The smartphone may be sold for no more than $330 in China. Unfortunately, nothing is confirmed at this point. However, if this Desire is real and HTC intends to launch it internationally, we might see it at MWC 2014 in Barcelona at the end of next month.

It’s not the first time we are hearing about a possible HTC-MediaTek collaboration. The Taiwanese company could certainly benefit from choosing MediaTek’s affordable chipsets - which are used by many companies that commercialize smartphones in China (and South East Asia in general).

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Microsoft finally makes it easier to shutdown your PC in Windows 8.1 Update 1

Microsoft is readying a number of improvements to win over desktop PC users with Windows 8.1 Update 1. In the latest round of screenshots from Russian leaker WZor, it appears some of those changes will make it easier for PC users to shut their machines down. The shutdown and restart options are clearly repositioned on the Windows 8.1 Start Screen in the latest Update 1 screenshots, alongside a new search button. It also appears you can right click on Live Tiles and get a context menu for options to resize, pin, and uninstall. It’s a subtle change from having to right click and then move to the app bar at the bottom of the display to manage the options.


While the position of shutdown options seems like a minor point, one criticism with Windows 8 is the way the shutdown and restart options have been hidden away under the new settings options on the Charms Bar. You can also access them by right clicking on the new Start button in Windows 8.1, but for consumers it’s frustrating to have to learn where the shutdown options have vanished to. For businesses it’s also an additional training point that employees need to learn. Windows 8 does support the option to shutdown a machine by pressing the physical button, but that’s not ideal if a desktop PC is located under or a desk or you simply want to restart it.




It’s encouraging to see Microsoft finally address some more of the frustrating points of Windows 8 for desktop PC users. Original feedback over the unusual shutdown positioning was disregarded as the "same number of clicks now and similar mouse travel" by Microsoft’s official Windows 8 engineering Twitter account — run by former Windows chief Steven Sinofsky. Since Sinofsky’s abrupt departure, shortly after the Windows 8 release, Microsoft has made a number of changes in Windows 8.1 and appears to be reversing and fixing some of Sinofsky’s decisions on the product.

Windows 8.1 Update 1 is largely focused at making the operating system easier to use for business users. Microsoft is taking the first steps towards a "Metro" and desktop merge, with the ability to pin and interact with Metro apps from the desktop taskbar, and new Media Center-like close and minimize options for Metro apps. Windows 8.1 Update 1 is expected to be released on March 11th, ahead of Microsoft’s Build conference in April where the company will likely detail further improvements for the upcoming Windows 9 release.

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HP Explains Why It Is Selling Windows 7 Again

It's all about choice. There's no doubt that Microsoft caused quite a commotion when it launched Windows 8 in October 2012. Many opinions in the press have made the change seem somewhat apocalyptic, especially where desktops are concerned. Sure, Windows 8.1 cleaned up the place a bit, but there are a vast number of people still clinging to Windows 7 and even the decaying Windows XP like a life preserver. So enter Hewlett-Packard, or HP for short, who has decided that, thanks to popular demand, it should sell a number of PCs with Windows 7 installed. Although Microsoft pulled the plug on retail sales back on October 30, 2013, OEMs can still sell machines with Windows 7 pre-installed until a date that's yet to be determined. So the next question is: Why sell Windows 7 PCs at all? The answer, according to HP, is dead simple -- choice. "We like giving our customers the option to get the computer that's right for them," reads the company's blog . "For some folks, that's Android. We've got everything from 2-in-1 detachables like the SlateBook x2 to the giant- sized Slate21 All-in-One." "And, yes, some people still want to run Windows 7 on their computers," continues the blog. "We want people to be happy with our computers – whichever option they choose – BUT WE ARE NOT DROPPING WINDOWS 8." Point made. The blog also points out that HP has five machines with Windows 7 installed with a Windows 8 option, whereas the company has several dozen machines that only offer Windows 8. So there you go; it wasn't much of an explanation other than HP wants to provide a choice. And perhaps Microsoft gave the green light, knowing that OEMs are struggling in a declining PC market. For that matter, it wouldn't be surprising to see other OEMs like Dell and Acer give in to "consumer demand" and launch a number of Windows 7 products. Given the choice, which OS would you pick, and why?

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