Apple announces record-breaking Holiday season for its App Store

Apple's App Store had a record-breaking period this past holiday season. In the two weeks ending January 3, customers spent over $1.1 billion (USD) on apps and in-app purchases, setting back-to-back weekly records for traffic and purchases. January 1, 2016 marked the biggest day in App Store history with customers spending over $144 million (USD). It broke the previous single-day record set just a week earlier on Christmas Day.

Possibly an indicator of new iPhones and iPads sold over the holidays with new owners downloading apps (we'll know more on Apple's earnings call on January 26), this latest news reflects Apple's lead in developer communities and app ecosystems.

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CES 2016: Samsung pivots its tablet game to Windows 10 with the TabPro S

Samsung unveiled a new tablet at CES but this one is running Windows 10. The TabPro S is the South Korean giant's dog in the exciting 2-in-1 fight, and answer to Microsoft's Surface line of devices.

Saying that this is "the best of a tablet and a laptop," Samsung has outfitted the TabPro S with a 12-inch AMOLED display, Intel Core M processor, 10-hour battery, 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM.

This tablet sports a USB Type-C port for charging and connectivity. Unlike most 2-in-1 tablet makers Samsung will gracefully include the skinny magnetic keyboard case in the package. There's a 4G-LTE variant as well. Pricing and availability are still unknown.

CES 2016: Samsung's new Gear S2 smartwatch will finally work with iPhones

Samsung unveiled yet another generation of its Galaxy Gear S2 smartwatches as part of its CES event in Las Vegas. Showing off two new editions including an 18K rose gold version and another in platinum, the wearables will have NFC for Samsung Pay contactless payments. While the Tizen powered Gear S2 will work with Samsung phones and certain Android-powered phones, Samsung has also made their latest wearable compatible with iPhones.

The extent of the compatibility is still unknown but at least Samsung has made it possible for more uses to consider their Gear S2 devices.

CES 2016: VW's Budd-e concept is a futuristic EV minivan

Volkswagen just unveiled its BUDD-e concept vehicle which holds the promise of many future technologies including a hypothetical 373 miles of range and ability to charge to 80 percent of battery capacity in about 15 minutes, this doesn't represent any technology currently available to VW but is more a marker for what's to come in the future.

With a fully reconfigurable interior reminiscent of older camper microbuses, the Budd-e concept also features 12.3-inch curved screen in front of the driver that blends into a 13.3-inch display in the center console. It's good to see VW aspiring for an all-electric future in a vehicle that, while purely conceptual, could generate interest in pursuing and developing more widespread technology, safety and energy efficient solutions.

Source: VW