It was at the end of last week when we brought you word that the Sony NEX-7 successor could very well see a delay because of manufacturing issues, with no exact date in sight just yet. All is good and well now that the folks over at SonyAlphaRumors have shared that the very same Sony NEX-7 successor should be shipping out to the masses when the middle of October 2013 rolls around. No hardware specifications have been confirmed just yet, but chances are it will come with the 85mm f/1.4 lens. There are also whispers that a high quality zoom lens is also well on its way in time for the October release, and something on the sidelines, we could very well be looking at a Sony NEX-5 successor to boot – in addition to a bevy of other lenses to go along with it.

Would you be one of the few (or many, it remains to be seen) who are desperately looking forward to see just what Sony is capable of dishing out with the NEX-7 successor?

Boost Mobile announced today that it will be offering the LG Optimus F7 smartphone to its customers from June 27th for $299. Dubbed as a “premium” Android smartphone that’s capable of running on Sprint’s 3G and 4G LTE data networks, the LG Optimus F7 will be available from Boost Mobile for the aforementioned price, without any contractual obligations. While the LG Optimus F7 might not be that much of an Android powerhouse the press release makes it out to be, its certainly an impressive mid-range device.

The LG Optimus F7 has a 1.5GHz dualcore Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus processor, dual mode 3G/4G LTe, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi and GPS, Instant Alert and an LED Home Button. It has a 8 megapixel rear facing camera and a 1.3 megapixel one up front. Its powered by Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The smartphone also comes with QSlide 2.0, which allows users to overlay up to two app windows over an existing open application. Size and transparency can be adjusted, thus providing users with greater multitasking functionality. The battery provides enough power for the 4.7 inch True HD IPS display, while promising up to 17 hours of talk time.

Just yesterday we covered a report from Financial Times in which it was claimed that Huawei is open to the idea of buying Nokia. Reuters is now reporting that Huawei’s Vice President for External Affairs, Bill Plummer, has denied that the Chinese manufacturer has any plans of purchasing this Finnish company. The earlier remarks were reportedly made by Huawei consumer business head Richard Yu at the Ascend P6 launch event in London.

On the back of these rumors, Nokia U.S. shares rose up around 4%, the company itself denied commenting on this acquisition rumor. Richard Yu was quoted as saying that Huawei was “open-minded” to the idea, but it all depended upon Nokia’s willingness. We heard rumors of Nokia being acquired last year as well, at one time it was thought that Microsoft was going to scoop it up. There hasn’t been any indication from the company at any time that its looking to sell. It appears that for now, Nokia is not going to be acquired, and Huawei is certainly not the one with its sights set on this Finnish manufacturer.

Huawei certainly does have some pretty lofty targets when it comes to their recently announced Huawei Ascend P6, especially in the number of units that they expect to ship in this year alone. Do bear in mind that the number of units shipped does not automatically translate to the number of units sold, we could still (theoretically, although it is downright impossible) to have the targeted 10 million shipped units sitting right there on store shelves, without a single unit being sold. The 10 million units to be shipped is a target that was shared by Huawei Device CEO Yu Chengdong.

It is said that the Huawei Ascend P6 would retail for approximately €450 in Europe, and for folks living in China, it would cost approximately €327 after conversion, which would clearly make the Ascend P6 a fierce competitor in pricing terms when one compares it to the likes of the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and the iPhone 5. Do you think that Huawei has what it takes to clear all 10 million shipped units and translate them into sales in this year alone?

Apple provided a lot of details for its upcoming iOS 7 when it was announced early last week during the company’s WWDC keynote. But it looks like Apple didn’t disclose everything it was planning to do with iOS 7 as they seem to be testing to integrate LinkedIn into its upcoming iOS update, similar to how deeply integrated both Facebook and Twitter are into iOS 6.

The report claiming of iOS 7′s deep integration with LinkedIn points to a code in the developer beta of iOS7 containing references to a single sign-on system for LinkedIn, which both Facebook and Twitter currently use in iOS 6. The purpose of the integration with LinkedIn is in order to share content directly to the service from within some iOS applications, such as Safari or Photo Album.

Apple is already planning to integrate LinkedIn into its OS X Mavericks as users will be able to share content to the social network from within the next version of OS X. Having the service integrate with iOS 7 makes complete sense when you factor that in, although we’re not sure just how popular sharing content on LinkedIn is compared to Twitter and Facebook.

AT&T partnered up with Goal Zero to launch a number of solar-powered street charge stations all over New York City, but if you wore a pair of Power Shorts, you’ll never have to worry about charging your phone again.

Vodafone debuted its Power Shorts this past weekend during the U.K.’s Isle of Wight music festival which are able to use your body’s movement in order to boost the battery life of your mobile device. The Power Shorts use a Power Pocket, which was created with the help of scientists at the University of Southampton, that contains foam-like ferroelectret materials. When the material is manipulated through the body’s movement, kinetic energy is produced, which is then used to power up your mobile device.

Vodafone’s Power Shorts are said to provide over four hours of power to your smartphone through a full day’s walking and / or dancing. Those of you who normally dance while walking on your way to or from work can finally have a good reason to do so, that is, as long as you’re wearing the Power Shorts at all times.

Time Warner and Apple have reportedly been in negotiations to add HBO GO to Apple TV some time this year, although some users were able to figure our a workaround to get the service on the set-top-box using AirPlay. It looks like the four months of negotiations got somewhere as HBO GO is now available on Apple TV, along with WatchESPN.

HBO GO and WatchESPN aren’t the only content providers being added to Apple TV as Sky News, Crunchyroll and Qello are also being made available starting today. The new services will be made available to all second and third-generation Apple TV owners once they download an update, which is available starting today. HBO GO is only available to HBO subscribers, while WatchESPN will offer live streaming of five different ESPN networks to those who subscribe through certain cable providers.

The three remaining services offer different content to different regions, such as Sky News being a 24-hour news service which is only available in the U.S., U.K. and Ireland. Crunchyroll specializes in anime and J-Drama programming, while Quello provides recorded concert videos, both of which are available worldwide.

RockMelt, a content aggregation and discovery service is launching its Android app which aims at delivering a user experience that is tailor-made for Android devices which often feature large displays (check our Galaxy Mega 6.3 Review to see what “large display” mean). Instead of simply porting its iOS app to Android, RockMelt has developed a new user-interface (UI) that works very well with a single hand, regardless of the screen-size. The principle is to make the UI appear upon a press & hold command, with all the controls laid out around the user’s finger to speed up the next interaction. I have seen this concept used efficiently to save mouse motion in complex computer assisted design (CAD) programs, and it works beautifully in RockMelt. When you don’t need it, the navigation just fades away.
Read full post →RockMelt For Android Launched

It was this past winter when we learned Facebook was preparing to launch video ads within its News Feeds. The new ads were originally expected to roll out in April, but we’re sure you’ve noticed by now there aren’t any video ads on your Facebook News Feed.

According to a report who is citing sources familiar with the product, Facebook has pushed back the introduction of its video ads being included in News Feeds until later this fall. The video ads were expected to launch this past spring, which was then pushed back to summer, and now, its tentative release is expected to occur in the fall.

The reason for the delay is reportedly due to a number of new features Facebook wants to release in addition to its video ads, which currently require more software development. Facebook sales executives would prefer to release its video ads as it currently stands to then add new features later, but as of now, it looks like the software developers are winning this inevitable tug-of-war.

Over the past couple of months, we’ve seen a number of television channels provide their own dedicated application on mobile devices, but there aren’t many that would offer its content to those without an actual subscription to its channel. The CW offers such a service, although it’s only currently available on the Xbox 360 and Apple TV, but starting today, A&E, The History Channel and Lifetime will be offering their content on Android without the need for a subscription.

A&E, The History Channel and Lifetime’s Android applications are all streaming video apps, meaning you can watch such great shows as Swamp People, Devious Mades and Longmire without being a subscriber to any of these three channels. The content these channels provide to their Android apps are limited, although Comcast and DirecTV customers are able to access more content than those without subscriptions. In fact, some shows don’t even have full episodes available, and instead only allow those without a cable subscription to watch clips.