Bump Update for iOS and Android Lets Users Share Files Between Their Phone and Computer

Bump on Thursday introduced an update to its iOS and Android apps, allowing users to easily send content from their phone to a computer. Everything on Bump’s end seems good to go—you’ll need to go to the company’s website for this to work, where you’ll be able to send just about any file imaginable up to 20MB in size.

Bump previously allowed users to hock files from phone to phone, and this is obviously a natural extension in functionality. Additionally, files from a computer can also be shared to a phone, meaning it’s a two-way highway; files you do wind up sending from your computer to Bump are stored in the app itself.

If you’ve been frustrated with getting files from your device to your computer, Bump might be a nice option. Of course, you can always just use something like Dropbox, which is just as easy.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Blockbuster to close 164 stores, 800 jobs under threat

Another 164 Blockbuster stores are to close, threatening 800 jobs and leaving the DVD and game rental chain with less than half its stores surviving.

The latest round of closures is on top of 160 closures already announced. That takes the number of doomed Blockbuster stores to 324, leaving just 204 branches remaining of the 528 open when Blockbuster first went into administration.

The branches earmarked for closure will stay open for the time being, but there's no word on how long for. Fear not though -- stores will inform customers ahead of time to give you opportunity to return rented items. Returning items to a company that's about to go under, that'll definitely be at the top of the to-do list.

In the meantime, the Blockbuster website has a clearance sale, including a deal to get you 6 pre-owned DVDs for £10 -- and we're talking proper recent movies like True Grit, Star Trek andBridesmaids.

The administrators were called in in mid-January and are currently searching for a buyer to see if Blockbuster can continue trading.  

Blockbuster's administration is handled by Deloitte, which ushered Comet to the great high street in the sky last year and is also currently administering to ailing music and movie shop HMV. HMV is closing 66 stores in the UK, threatening nearly 1,000 jobs, and abandoning Ireland completely at the cost of 300 jobs.

Meanwhile camera emporium Jessops, which has disappeared from the high street, is to reopen online after buyers -- including Dragons' Den tellypreneur Peter Jones -- snapped up bits of the brand.

[Source: CNET]

NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan leaks, could cost a grand

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 690 currently wears the world's-fastest-graphics crown, unless you count the limited edition Ares II, by cramming two Kepler GPUs onto one mainstream board. When it comes to improving on that, some leaked European retailer listings suggest NVIDIA might not wait on a completely next-gen architecture, but may instead try to deliver similar performance through a less power-hungry single GPU design. The listings, gathered together by TechPowerUpand VideoCardz, point towards a pricey new flagship, the GeForce GTX Titan, that would be a graphics-focused adaptation of the beefy Tesla K20 computing card. It'd pack 2,688 shader units, a 384-bit memory bus and 6GB of RAM, all with one chip -- for reference, the GTX 690 needs two GPUs to offer 3,072 shader units and has 4GB of RAM. There's no confirmed unveiling date, and the primary leak on a Danish site has actually been pulled, but ASUS and EVGA are rumored to be launching their own GTX Titan variants as soon as next week, possibly in the $1,000 to $1,200 ball park. That's a short wait for what could deliver a serious boost to game performance, not to mention bragging rights.

[Source: Engadget]

Apple Has Team of 100 Product Designers Working on a Smart Watch

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple has a team of about 100 product designers working on a wristwatch computer, according to "two people familiar with the company's plans." The New York Times previously reported that Apple had been "experimenting" with a curved glass smart watch, but Bloomberg believes that Apple's smart watch plans have moved beyond the experimental phase.

The team, which has grown in the past year, includes managers, members of the marketing group and software and hardware engineers who previously worked on the iPhone and iPad, said the people, who asked not to be named because the plans are private. The team’s size suggests Apple is beyond the experimentation phase in its development, said the people.

Apple's senior director of engineering, James Foster, is said to be one of the managers working on the project, which happens to involve challenges like creating a smart watch that doesn't have to be charged every day. The smart watch, known colloquially by some as the "iWatch," would be able to do some of the same tasks as the iPad and iPhone. 

Bloomberg also mentions that Apple had been planning a wearable fitness tracking device, much like Nike FuelBand or Jawbone Up, but that Apple had decided not to bring them to market. Apple CEO Tim Cook is a Nike board member and spoke about his own Nike FuelBand at the D10 Conference last year, also saying that wearable devices were an "interesting area" but that "the book hasn't been written on that one yet."

[Source: MacRumors]

Motorola RAZR HD now in stock SIM-free in the UK from Expansys

The Motorola RAZR HD may of been rocking the U.S. for some time now, but it's only today that the Android device has become available SIM-free in the UK.

If you are after a high-end Android handset with a meaty battery then the RAZR HD is well worth considering. The 4G (pentaband) ready device sports a glorious 4.7 inch Super AMOLED HD display,1.5 GHz Dual-core chip and 1GB of RAM, and ships with Android Ice Cream Sandwich (v4.0.4) although upgradeable to Jelly Bean (4.1).

In addition, Expansys are offering the chance to win a Virgin Experiance Day if you order in February. They have five pairs of tickets to give away each worth £125 - not to be sniffed at.

The Motorola RAZR HD will set you back £419.99 SIM free. You can order it here.

[Source: AndroidCentral]

Apple releases MacBook Pro firmware update to fix battery issues

Apple has released the MacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.7. The update addresses a very specific issue owners of the MacBook Pro (15- and 17-inch models, Early 2011) and MacBook Pro (15- and 17-inch models, Mid 2010) were having. Though rare, the issue would cause the laptops to unexpectedly shut down or stop functioning after more than 1,000 battery charge cycles.

The firmware update can be downloaded through Software Update on the select models, or users can download it directly here. Last month Apple released the MacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.6, which addressed asimilar issue on other models.

[Source: TUAW]

LEGO Lord of the Rings brings Middle-earth to Mac on Feb. 21

There's a new Lord of the Rings game on the block and it's coming to Mac later this month. Oh, and it features characters and a world that are literallymade out of blocks. Feral Interactive is preparing a port of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment's LEGO Lord of the Rings, released last fall on other platforms, and will be launching it on the Mac App Store and via its own site on February 21 for US$29.99.

The game adheres to the formula employed by

[other LEGO titles from developer Traveler's Tales, such as LEGO Batman and Star Wars, and sees the Fellowship of the Ring battling orcs and other baddies from Tolkien's tomes while assembling things out of LEGO bricks to help them on their quest. Two players will be able to collaborate on the adventure which will offer the opportunity to unlock more than 80 playable characters. (Let us just suggest that you keep plastic Frodo and the gang away from the fires of Mt. Doom.)

If this sounds like the sort of adventure you'd like to embark on, you'll need a Mac running OS X 10.7.5 with 4 GB of RAM and 256 MB of video memory to play.

[Source: TUAW]

Skype introduces eGifting for Mac and PC with version 6.2

On the mobile front, BlackBerry 10 is still waiting to get in on the Skype action, but the same can definitely not be said about the calling / messaging services on the more desktop-oriented platforms that are OS X and Windows. On this occasion, the application's new revision brings, most notably, an eGifting feature that's set to allow Mac and PC users to send Skype credits to anyone they deem worthy of receiving them -- so long as they have an account set up, of course. Skype's also slightly redesigned the top toolbar on the Windows edition to make it more of an all-around hub for accessing "Home," "Creating Groups," and "Adding Contacts," while, in version 6.2, the OS X app gets the ability to send one-way SMS without the need for number verification. Both updates are available now, so hit that source link if you're interested in checking out the novel features.

[Source: Engadget]

Apple Updates Retina MacBook Pro, Lowers Price – Drops Price of MacBook Air, Too

Apple announced on Wednesday that it has dropped the price of its 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display to $1,499 for the 128GB model and $1,699 for a newer model with 256GB of storage and a faster 2.6GHz processor.

Meanwhile, it also updated its entry-level MacBook Pro with a Retina display with a faster 2.4GHz quad-core processor and updated its high-end version with a 2.7GHz processor and 16GB of RAM.

The company also dropped the price of its 13-inch MacBook Air with 256GB of storage to $1,399, which by our calculations should be a savings of about $100.

The new devices and prices don’t seem to be appearing in Apple’s online store at the time of publication, although we imagine they will be added very soon.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

LG confirms 5.5-inch 1080p display for Korean Optimus G Pro

As has been rumored recently, the LG Optimus G Pro is indeed heading to South Korea, with a 5.5-inch display in tow. The device, which first appeared in Japan with a 5.0-inch screen, was reported to be heading to LG's home market with a refreshed spec sheet in the past week -- and we'd even seen some leaked photos to back up these claims.

LG's promotional site for the G Pro doesn't reveal much beyond the screen size and resolution, so we'll have to wait on confirmation of other changes like the larger battery and microSD support. However, the device in the image above certainly looks a lot like what we saw in last week's spy shots.

As for whether the Optimus G Pro will eventually extend its reach outside of Asia, that's something we'll likely find out at Mobile World Congress in a couple of weeks.

[Source: AndroidCentral]

Cheap iPhone 4 demand 'surprised' Apple, Tim Cook says

Apple boss Tim Cook today admitted that the firm was caught off-guard by the popularity of its cut-price iPhone 4, but remained elusive about possible plans for a new, cheaper mobile.

Speaking at Goldman Sachs' Technology and Internet conference, Cook spoke of Apple's "surprise" at demand for the iPhone 4, which saw its price cut to £319 following the release of the iPhone 5, the Wall Street Journal reports.

"We lowered the price for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, and in the December quarter, we didn't have enough supply of iPhone 4, so it surprised us as to the level of demand we had for it," Apple's head honcho is quoted as saying.

Cook's comments follow continued speculation that Apple is plotting a cheaper version of theiPhone 5 to be released this year -- a device that recent rumours peg as ditching pricey materials in favour of wallet-friendly plastic.

During the talk Cook gave little away however, offering, "Our North Star is a great product. When everyone comes to work every day, they're thinking about that front and centre. We wouldn't do anything we wouldn't consider a great product.

"There are other companies that do that," Cook said -- possibly a sly dig at Samsung's galaxy of cheaper smart phones -- "and that's just not who we are."

Cook also reportedly commented that when Apple tried to make a cheaper Mac, it wound up making the iPad instead. So you never know, perhaps we'll see the company crafting something completely new for the budget-conscious crowd -- maybe that rumoured wristwatch?

[Source: CNET]

Microsoft Offers Workarounds for iOS 6.1 Exchange Bug

iOS 6.1, which was released two weeks ago, brought with it a handful of serious bugs. The first bug, which affected 3G performance on the iPhone 4S was fixed yesterday, followingApple's release of 6.1.1 for the iPhone 4S. 

The second bug involved an error that caused iOS devices running 6.1 to continuously loop when synchronizing a recurring calendar meeting invitation on Microsoft Exchange. This error, which causes excessive memory consumption, was not fixed with yesterday's 6.1.1 update. 

As noted by 9to5Mac Microsoft has published an official support document offering workarounds for the error. 

Microsoft offers up several fixes, including the recommendation not to process Calendar items like meeting requests on iOS 6.1 devices. The company also recommends immediately restarting the devices and renewing the device partnership to halt the continuous looping access. 

Devices using iOS 6.1 should be blocked or throttled, says Microsoft, in order to reduce the effect on server resources. 

While none of these options are true fixes, Microsoft mentions that it is working with Apple to investigate the issue and suggests customers open an Enterprise Support case with Apple, via Enterprise agreement or a pay-per-incident case report.

[Source: MacRumors]