More trouble for Blackberry

A new report suggests things are only going to get worse. BlackBerry announced earlier this week that it is exploring a sale of the company as it looks for ways to reverse course, and Forbes contributor Ewan Spence believes the news will probably scare developers
away. This would be awful news for BlackBerry and its users, of course, as the company's app store is already so barren compared to rival platforms.
"Third party application support is
already weak on BlackBerry 10, and the
announcement this week from the company will have a chilling effect on
developer support for the platform,"
Spence wrote . "With iOS and Android always likely to top the list of 'supported
platforms', there is arguably only space for one more platform that can be supported with any real sense of purpose."
Spence concludes that Microsoft's
Windows Phone platform is now the go-
to third mobile ecosystem for developers
looking to branch out.

Facebook makes you miserable according to study

A recent study conducted by scientists at the University of Michigan found that the more people log in to Facebook, the less happy they
are.
"On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection," social psychologist Ethan Kross told The Telegraph . "But rather than enhance well-being, we found that Facebook use predicts the opposite result – it undermines it." In other words, the more people used Facebook, the more miserable they grew.
While scientific, the study was not an extensive one — only 82 young adults
were observed by Kross and his team while research was being conducted. A link to the full study can be found below: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0069841

Windows 8.1 launches October 17

Microsoft has announced that Windows
8.1 will be arriving on October 17th
(well, in the US, anyway), confirming an
earlier rumor of a mid-month launch.
For some reason, the company's specified
an exact release time of 12am on October
18th in New Zealand, which is 4am PT or
7am ET on October 17th. At that time,
the free update will begin rolling out
across local Windows Stores, and will be
available "at retail and on new devices"
from the 18th onwards, depending on
your region. Check out our hands-on and
subsequent coverage for an idea of what
to expect from the update.

Samsung announces the Hennessy: A flip android phone

Samsung has officially taken its "try anything" approach to gadgets to a whole new level.The company on Wednesday announced the Hennessy, an Android flip phone that features dual 3.3-inch touch displays with resolutions of 320 x 480 pixels, a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 1500 mAh battery and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. While the idea of bringing back older form factors such as the flip phone may seem silly, remember that many people mocked Samsung for bringing back the stylus with its Galaxy Note series that turned into a surprise hit. Samsung still hasn't announced any release date or pricing for the Hennessy.

Is this the end: Blackberry might go private:

The Globe and Mail notes, private-equity firms such as Fairfax Financial Holdings that specialize in helping take companies private rarely leave those companies in one piece and will often sell them off in pieces to recoup some of their investment.

"Some Canadians are now pinning their hopes on Fairfax, the Toronto holding company that owns close to 10% of BlackBerry shares," The Globe and Mail writes. "A financial consortium is more likely to sell BlackBerry's most valuable assets to other smartphone manufacturers, to industrial groups or to tech companies looking for patents to protect themselves against intellectual property lawsuits. BlackBerry still has a lot to offer besides its patents, such as its valuable enterprise services business. The security of its data network is unrivalled. Its BBM messenger service is still popular. But make no mistake: The company would be broken up."

All the same, taking the company private with a private-equity firm may be the best option BlackBerry has left, since the firm has reportedly been trying unsuccessfully to find a buyer for the past year.

Cheaper iPhone 5C

Details surrounding the new mid-range iPhone have been leaking for months, but two high-quality photo galleries showing off the iPhone 5C shell in white and green gave us our closest look yet at Apple's new iPhone. Now, emerging insider Sonny Dickson is back with a high-definition video that closely examines a yellow iPhone 5C housing.

The video shows the new case next to several older iPhone models and it also provides a side-by-side comparison with the current iPhone 5. The iPhone 5C appears to be slightly taller and thicker than the iPhone 5 — and therefore the iPhone 5S, in all likelihood — and it will also reportedly feature more modest specs.

The new budget iPhone may be unveiled alongside the iPhone 5S on September 10th, and it will reportedly be made available in at least five different colors.

Click this link for the full video leak: Hands-On With the Yellow iPhone 5C Back Housing

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 might come in three sizes

Engadget takes a look at the model number for the Note III and finds that Samsung has developed at least three different sizes for the device: One that's 5.5 inches large, one that's 5.7 inches and one that's 6 inches. All three models were shipped to India "for R&D" purposes, however, so it's not clear whether Samsung really plans to release all of them. The latest rumors on the Note III's specs indicate that it will feature a 5.7-inch display, a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor,  3GB of RAM, Android 4.3 and support for LTE-Advanced.
Source: BGR