After 8 years, Microsoft's Xbox announced it’s newest gaming console—Xbox One. The new console has taken the initiative to bring gaming back to the living room—a feat that faces some steep challenges in the name of smartphones and tablets. 

However, the most significant reveal ties into a top-of-mind trend that is impacting television broadcasters and mobile carriers across the board: second-screen. At the reveal, General Manager, Phil Spencer stated, “We believe that the television screen remains the most relevant screen in the home.” Microsoft understands that users are sitting in front of the television with tablets and mobile phones and has used this fact to bring back the focus to the television screen, allowing users to seamlessly toggle between surfing the web, watching television and playing a game in a feature called 'instant switching' on the Xbox One.Continue reading...

When England takes the pitch at Wembley Stadium on May 29 against the Republic of Ireland for a friendly match as they both work toward qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the Three Lions will be sporting a brand new logo on their brand new home uniforms: the Nike Swoosh.

England used to wear Umbro gear, but Nike sold off that brand along with Cole Haan for $225 million to Iconix last year. Now the Nike swoosh is on the England jersey and it gets plenty of close-ups a the promotional video just released to show off the new Home Kit.Continue reading...

In a brilliant move by PETA, aided and abetted by BBDO, a new ad depicts the strain of animal use for entertainment, and demonstrates quite literally the ideal way to combat the trend. 

The ad depicts an ape—so tortured and confined that he’s considering suicide—being 98 percent human. He picks up a gun, places it under his chin and prepares to shoot, as the ad cuts to black with the PETA logo and web address for GreatApePledge.org, followed by a line of white type: "No real apes were used in this commercial."Continue reading...

One of Kellogg's oldest brands, Special K, is also turning out to be one of its "newest" brands. That's because the cereal maker has continued to expand and actually reinvent the brand for a decade now—including some major just-announced wrinkles.

For one thing, Kellogg will use the Special K sub-brand to go more aggressively after foodies who are fans of "ancient grains" with a new product called Special K Nourish hot cereal. It will be made with quinoa and other grains that are unfamiliar to most Americans who've grown up on cold cereals made out of staples like corn, rice and wheat. Nourish will promote a satiety benefit, filling up consumers with 8g of protein and 5g of fiber per serving but yielding only fewer than 200 calories.

What's more, when it hits US stores in July, Special K Nourish will come in individual serving cups; consumers add water and toppings that arrive in separate compartments on the lids, according to CBSNews.com. Toppings flavors will include Mable Brown Sugar, Cranberry Almond and Cinnamon Raisin Pecan. Kellogg also will be marketing a separate line of Nourish bars in Dark Chocolate Nut, Cranberry Bliss and Lemon Twist flavors.Continue reading...

Cell phone batteries always seemingly go dead at the most inopportune times, but no matter what brand you’ve got in your pocket, that may change soon enough thanks to the work of one 18-year-old whiz kid.

In fact, millions of whiz kids from around the globe showed up with similar innovations to Intel's Young Scientist Awards. Whether it was earth-friendly biofuel, a possible vaccination for colon cancer, the “effect of essential oils on viral load” in honeybees, a test strip to determine if fruit had been naturally or artificially ripened, a better gunlock, or a remedy to fight cystic fibrosis, these kids weren’t fooling around. They were out to change the world.Continue reading...

In what was quite an eventful day for the aging internet company, Yahoo announced significant changes to Flickr at a media event in New York City on Monday—a perfectly timed distraction from concerns buzzing over its same-day Tumblr acquisition.

As announced at the press conference and on its blog, Flickr is back after a rough ride with a new design, photo-centric layout and one full terabyte of storage—way more than most users could ever use. “Given the odd nature of most photo sharing services, you are either limited to a few dozen gigabytes or, in the case of Instagram and other mobile services, an unstated upper limit that is not part of the marketing collateral. While I don’t doubt that Google or Facebook could make the terabyte claim in the near future, being first to market with this particular feature is an important milestone," TechCrunch notes.

Acquired by Yahoo in 2005, the service has since spoiled under Yahoo's rule, however CEO Marissa Mayer said she received an abundance of requests to improve the serice when she took the helm last year. “Flickr was once awesome, and it languished... now we want it to be awesome again," Mayer said in a press announcement. The service reaches 89 million people who have contributed over 8 billion photos, and with the new improvements, the service is bound to attract many more.Continue reading...

Apple CEO Tim Cook was in Washington, D.C. Tuesday to go before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, which is accusing the huge corporation of avoiding paying US taxes.

Sure, Apple paid about $6 billion in taxes to the US government last year and, according to iMore.com, “already pays $1 out of every 40 tax dollars the U.S. collects,” but according to the committee, Apple has been stashing billions in offshore accounts in Ireland, where the company had reportedly negotiated a tax rate below 2 percent. One of the Irish subsidiaries is known as Apple Operations International, which has no employees but posted $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, the Committee reports. 

"We are proud to be an American company, and we are equally proud of our contributions to the U.S. economy," Cook told the panel. While the company was lauded for its technilogical and economic contributions to the US, Sen. Carl Levin told the panel that "Apple executives want the public to focus on the U.S. taxes the company has paid, but the real issue is the billions in taxes it has not paid, thanks to offshore tax strategies whose purpose is tax avoidance, pure and simple," the L.A. Times reports.Continue reading...

It turns out the smartphone heir apparent is Samsung, as the global leading smartphone maker received quite the blessing from Consumer Reports:

“The Samsung Galaxy S 4, one of the most advanced Android smart phones ever, is our new top-rated smart phone. The S4 delivered top-notch performance in the most critical areas of our tests, including the camera. It dethrones the LG Optimus G, which occupied the top spot in our Ratings for several months.” 

The Optimus G is now ranked No. 2, followed by the HTC One, the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Apple iPhone 5. The ranking is yet another blow to Apple's diminishing confidence and a boost to Samsung, as the two smartphone providers have been at each other's throats for a while. Samsung's latest ad was only the most recent in a long line of mud-slinging spots targeting the once dominant company.Continue reading...