Mihăiță Bamburic

Late-yesterday, Microsoft released its latest financial results, for Q4 fiscal year 2013, revealing a whopping $0.9 billion charge that is "related to Surface RT inventory adjustments". The $900 million that the software corporation just wrote off is a telltale sign that its Windows RT-based tablet is not selling as well as the company expected, leaving considerable stock unmoved.

Here are the highlights of the Q4 FY13 financial results: $19.89 billion in revenue, operating income of $6.07 billion and $4.97 billion as net income (or, 59 cents per share). The numbers are below analyst expectations, which placed revenue at $20.73 billion and net income at 75 cents per share. According to Microsoft CFO Amy Hood, Surface RT can be partially blamed for the less-than-stellar financial results.

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On Thursday, South Korean tech giant LG announced that its upcoming Android smartphone flagship will not feature the company's well-known Optimus branding, but is instead set to receive the "G2" name.

According to LG, the new G branding will be used in all of its future "premium phones", with existing devices to retain their current monikers. Similarly, the maker's 4:3 handsets (from the Optimus Vu series) will be renamed as "Vu". Why? Well, this is done in order for new flagships to kick off with a clean slate, and, therefore, establish an undiluted brand going forward.

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After receiving constant criticism for betting its future on Windows Phone, instead of adopting Google's widely-popular Android, Finnish maker Nokia posts record Lumia sales, proving to naysayers that choosing Microsoft's smartphone operating system was not a bad call after all.

Nokia's latest financial results show that the company sold 7.4 million Lumias in Q2 2013. This translates to an 85 percent increase over the 4 million units which the Finnish maker moved in Q2 2012, and is 32 percent higher compared to the numbers -- 5.6 million -- posted by the company in the previous quarter.

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Following rival maker Samsung, HTC continues the smartphone flagship miniaturizing trend by unveiling a smaller iteration of the company's popular One. The new handset, simply called One mini, offers appealing hardware specifications in a package that targets a wider market audience.

The One mini packs a 4.3-inch Super LCD 3 panel with a resolution of 720 by 1280 (341 pixels per inch density). The device is powered by a 1.4 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, backed by an Adreno 305 graphics card, 1 GB of RAM and a non-removable 1,800 mAh battery. The smartphone ships with 16 GB of internal storage and no microSD card slot (therefore, users will be limited to the out-of-the-box capacity).

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Popular social network Twitter just released a refreshed BlackBerry 10 app, which now finally brings support for traditional features, already available to those relying on the Android, iOS or Windows Phone counterpart, like multiple user accounts and the ability to save embedded images.

The latest update is designed to bring the BlackBerry 10 app closer, in terms of functionality, to Twitter's offerings from other platforms. It now "helps you connect more seamlessly to the people and topics you care about", according to the popular social network. Let's take a look at the complete changelog.

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Major app developers are starting to notice Windows Phone 8. The tiled smartphone operating system got Adobe Reader, BBC iPlayer, Pandora, Spotify, Team Viewer, Temple Run, Tumblr, all in the past couple of months, with Flipboard, Oggl Pro, Path and Vine to arrive "soon".

But, amidst all the major launches and announcements, Aviary also released its photo-editing app, which almost flew under the radar.

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Today, US mobile operator AT&T starts taking pre-orders for Nokia's latest Windows Phone -- the Lumia 1020. The Finnish maker's new handset follows in the footsteps of its predecessors, the Lumia 920 and Lumia 900, by being exclusively available at the aforementioned carrier in the local market. It goes for $299.99 on a two-year contract, which is on a par with what AT&T charges for a similarly-specified Apple iPhone 5, and $100 more than the equivalent HTC One.

The Lumia 1020 contract pricing is rather bold considering that, on a two-year agreement at AT&T, the Lumia 920 can be had for $99.99 (which makes it $200 less expensive). Although the cost of the new Windows Phone 8 handset has yet to be revealed in other major markets, it's safe to assume that it will be priced higher than the Lumia 925 or last year's Lumia 920.

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Five days after its official unveiling, the Nokia Lumia 1020 Windows Phone is now available to pre-order at US mobile operator AT&T. The new smartphone runs for $299.99, on a two-year contract, and will ship on July 23. It goes on sale starting July 26.

By contrast, on a two-year agreement, similar devices like the Apple iPhone 5, HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 are available for $199.99, at AT&T. The US mobile operator also offers the Lumia 920, which can be had for $99.99, alongside the same type of contract (24 months).

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Prolific Windows Phone developer Rudy Huyn (known for popular offerings like 9Gag, Fuse and Wikipedia) has finally released the much-awaited, third-party Vine client called 6Sec. The new app arrives in Store after a lengthy development and testing phase and, right from the get-go, is touted to provide complete functionality.

The odds, however, are against Huyn's client -- according to Finnish maker Nokia, an official Vine app will "soon" launch on Windows Phone 8. 6Sec will, therefore, face fierce competition and, in order to gain considerable traction, must offer unquestionable value straight from its first iterations.

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Since Microsoft launched Windows Phone 8 in late-October, last year, the tiled smartphone operating system received two major updates. The first, codenamed "Portico", was revealed nearly seven months ago (and rolled-out in early-2013), introducing a couple of essential features like the option to keep Wi-Fi enabled during sleep or send canned text messages after rejecting calls.

The second, and the latest Windows Phone 8 update, debuted alongside the Nokia Lumia 925 in mid-May (and has yet to roll out to other compatible smartphones). Microsoft has since kept quiet when it comes to the latest slew of improvements, deciding to unveil the new features early this month.

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Today, during its "Zoom. Reinvented" press event, Finnish maker Nokia unveiled a new handset called the Lumia 1020, which is the company's modern, Windows Phone 8 interpretation of the year-old 808 PureView.

Just like the 808 PureView, the Lumia 1020 sports a 41 MP camera with Xenon flash, Zeiss lens and OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), that shoots photos at a massive 7712 by 5360 resolution and is capable of 1080p video recording at 30 FPS. But, that's where the similarities end. The Lumia 1020 packs a larger 4.5-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 768 by 1280, which is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, similar to the Lumia 925 that was unveiled in mid-May. On the front there is a 1.2 MP wide-angle camera that can shoot 720p video.

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At 11 AM EST, Nokia's highly anticipated press event, called "Zoom. Reinvented", kicks off in New York. Despite the previous "41 million reasons to zoom in" innuendo, official details are scarce ahead of the upcoming keynote.

There, the Finnish maker's followers expect the company to unveil a Windows Phone version of the year-old 808 PureView handset, which features a critically acclaimed 41 MP camera. But, speculation aside, we're are certainly looking forward to what will be revealed during the fast-approaching keynote.

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It's no secret that the PC market has slowly taken a turn for the worse. And, if we're to believe what research company IDC said in late-May, it's not going to get any better anytime soon, with shipments predicted to drop even further, by 7.8 percent this year. Furthermore, tablets are expected to out-ship PCs by 2015. Unquestionably, the future appears gloomy but, according to Gartner, the culprit is not the controversial Windows 8, as some pundits believe.

Gartner just released its latest report on the state of the PC market, which shows that Q2 2013 shipments -- which top 76 million units from all vendors, combined -- have declined by 10.9 percent compared to the same period, last year (when shipments exceeded the 85.32 million mark). "The sharp decline in the second quarter of 2013 was partly due to the shift in usage patterns away from notebooks to tablets, and partly because the PC market was exposed to inventory reductions in the channel due to the start of the transition to new Haswell-based products", says Gartner principal research analyst Isabelle Durand.

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US mobile operator T-Mobile just announced that the Nokia Lumia 925 will officially join its Windows Phone 8 portfolio starting July 17. The handset goes for $49.99 down coupled with $20 monthly payments over the course of two years.

US is the third major market where the Lumia 925 will be available, following its introduction in Germany and UK. The Nokia-branded Windows Phone will run on T-Mobile 4G LTE network and is among the least expensive high-end devices in the mobile operator's portfolio.

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On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that it will extend the Windows Phone 8 support lifecycle to three years, effectively doubling the previous 18 month time-frame, which was revealed in mid-March.

"Beginning with Windows Phone 8 we'll make updates, including security updates, available for 36 months", says Microsoft's Tony Mestres. "These updates will be incremental, with each update built on the update that preceded it". So far so good. But now here comes the kicker -- your device may or may not receive the future software upgrades.

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