Breaking: Philips sells off consumer electronics business for $201 million

A report from the Wall Street Journal reveals that Philips has left consumer electronics after 80 years. The Dutch multinational just sold its entire Lifestyle Entertainment business (encompassing audio, video, multimedia and accessories) to Japanese conglomerate Funai Electric Co. Philips was unable to compete with the low cost Asian manufacturers in the industry and was also impacted by the move from physical media to digital files for audio and video.

"Our consumer lifestyle business was margin dilutive to the group, so it was time to decide to move away from consumer electronics,” said Frans van Houten, Philips’s chief executive.

“Since we have online entertainment, people do not buy Blu-ray and DVD players anymore,” Mr. Van Houten added. Philips will continue its other industrial businesses as well as in lighting products where it is considered one of the leading companies.

Source: WSJ

Apple now offers a 128GB iPad with Retina Display

Apple today released an update to its iPad line with a model that has 128GB of storage costing $799 for the WiFi only version and $929 for the WiFi + 4G version. The ramping up of storage capacity puts the flagship iPad in competition with Microsoft's upcoming Surface Pro tablet which will arrive next month and which has both 64GB and 128GB variants. This opens the window to a 128GB iPhone 5, which will leapfrog current smartphone capacities in the high end right now. Hit jump for the full release.

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Videotron to begin offering Google's Nexus 4 smartphone starting tomorrow

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The Nexus 4, which went on sale for a few hours and was never seen or heard from again, will be carried by Videotron starting tomorrow. The release from Videotron states, "Videotron's handset lineup is expanding again! As of tomorrow, Videotron customers will be able to pick up the eagerly awaited Nexus 4 from Google, powered by the brand-new Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system and featuring cutting-edge specs. It will be offered starting at $149.95 for a 36-month contract. Way to go Videotron!

BlackBerry 10 Primer: 10 Things You Need to Know

By Gadjo Cardena Sevilla

By this time tomorrow the world will have seen its first glimpse of Research In Motion's new BlackBerry 10 OS as well as the long awaited new smartphones. This is a new era for BlackBerry and a grand gesture to prove that they can bring something to the hyper-competitive mobile and smartphone market they helped define. Here's a primer on BlackBerry 10 and what to expect.

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