Last week at Google I/O, Google announced that it would have a pure Google version of the Galaxy S4 from Samsung available next month, so if you want to find out just what this phone can do, now's the time to check it out.  This review is of the bloated Samsung version and it has a lot of software on this device.  In fact, almost half of the usable space is taken up with Samsung Apps.  Maybe they should back off a bit and really compete with the likes of the HTC One.  That's just my opinion though - check out the review for all the details.

A small cut away in the right edge of the back panel allows us to pull it away from the main handset and this reveals the micro-sim slot and MicroSD card slot (up to 64GB). Beneath these is the battery location, home to a 2600mAh model. Elsewhere in the internals we have 1.9GHz quad core Snapdragon 600 chipset (Krait 300) with Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB or RAM. Storage is 32GB and for sensors we have the aforementioned proximity and light sensors along with gyro, accelerometer compass, barometer, temperature, gesture and humidity. Connectivity features 4G/LTE, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP/LE/EDR, A-GPS, DNLA and WiFi-N/ac (dual band). Also worth noting is that a carrier dependant option is NFC compatibility as is wireless charging.

Source: HardwareHeaven

Normally when we talk about EA it's to tell you about how they've come up with a new way to make their customers angry, but not today. EA has announced that they are going to discontinue using their Online Pass program which disabled online features of a game if you borrowed it from a friend or bought it used and if you wanted to play online you had to pay and additional fee. Sony and Microsoft has also discontinued their use of similar programs which is probably why EA is doing the same but in the end this is good news for gamers. The Verge has more details.

Electronic Arts has a reputation to rebuild, and today the video game company is making one important gesture: VentureBeat reports that EA is getting rid of its oft-loathed Online Pass program. Basically, Online Pass was an attempt to allow Electronic Arts to profit even from second-hand game sales using a form of DRM: it would restrict multiplayer and other online functionality only to users who bought a brand-new copy of the game, or specifically paid EA for a code after their used game purchase.

IBM has announced that they are going to be retiring the Lotus brand and their famous product Lotus 1-2-3 (IBM acquired Lotus a few years back now). If you've been around personal computers since the beginning you will remember Lotus 1-2-3 and how it probably blew your mind when it was first released. Products like Excel has rendered Lotus 1-2-3 obsolete and it was just a matter of time until it was retired, but it had a good 30 year run. ZDNet has more on the legacy of Lotus 1-2-3.

This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same.

Fred Armisen from SNL actually uses Google Glass for the first time (not a sketch).  Interview with Tim Sweeney of Engadget.

Source: Engadet