Pirates who pay: do illegal downloads actually help the box office?

A new study suggests that shutting down Megaupload actually hurt the film industry, while a UK report has found that pirates spend more on digital entertainment. (Pirates of the Caribbean, Desert Operations image by A47, CC BY-SA 3.0) When Kim Dotcom’s infamous Megaupload service was shut down (with prejudice), much was made of the service …

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Nokia’s soon

How does one switch from developing smartphone cameras to working on cars? Maybe it’s that they both have to do with going mobile? Damian Dinning, head of imaging and photography for Nokia for almost a decade, told mobile-photography blog PureView Club (which is, of course, focused on Nokia’s PureView technology) that he’s leaving the phone maker and heading to Jaguar …

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Apple targets Galaxy Note 2, S3 Mini in latest court request

Apple and Samsung continue to hurl gadgets at each other in their seemingly never-ending patent battle. Midweek, Samsung filed a request that the iPad Mini, the fourth-generation iPad, and the fifth-generation iPod Touch be included in a California case set to go to trial in 2014. Not to be outdone, Apple responded last night by asking that several more Samsung …

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Tablet display shipments jump, top laptops in October

Only days after a report anticipating a surge in tablet shipments, it’s official: Tablet display shipments topped laptops in October, said NPD DisplaySearch today. “In a milestone for the global industry, in October tablet PC panel shipments exceeded those of notebook PC panels,” NPD DisplaySearch said today in a research note. Because display panel shipments are always the leading indicator …

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Google Nexus 4 headed to Three as hidden 4G is unlocked

Numerical network Three has confirmed it will be flogging the desirable Google Nexus 4 in December, though some will find the price unpalatable. Three will start selling the 4.7-inch mobile from 13 December, charging customers £35 per month with an upfront cost of £29 to get their mitts on the quad-core gadget on the operator’s The One Plan. Pay As …

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Huawei Ascend G330 promises £10pm Android next month

Huawei’s latest smart phone, the cheap Ascend G330 is weeks away from hitting the UK, with TalkTalk confirming it will be flogging the 4-inch mobile from as little as £10 per month from December. That gets you the phone for free. Huawei told me that TalkTalk has exclusivity on the phone for now, but other operators may get involved in …

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Will.i.am kicks off tech line with clip

Pop heavyweight Will.i.am has turned his piercing gaze toward technology, reportedly cooking up a snap-on camera for the iPhone that plays host to its own 14-megapixel sensor. The asymmetrically-haired producer and The Voice judge says his upcoming accessory has its “own sensor and a better flash”, in an interview with the Telegraph. “You dock your phone into our device and …

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Back to cell phone basics: Buying a non

For some people, smartphones and their always-on Internet connections and apps is a waste of money. If you don’t need apps or games and you can live without fast, robust access to the Net from your cell phone, then a smartphone might be expensive overkill. All four of the major U.S. wireless carriers still offer basic feature phones, which don’t …

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Nexus 4 getting wireless charging accessories ‘soon’

Wires — they’re a right pain in the proverbial, aren’t they? Wi-Fi has freed the Internet from the tyranny of cables, but the fact we still have to tie our phones to the wall to juice them up remains a shocking liberty. Which is why Google promises wireless charging accessories for the Google Nexus 4 “as soon as possible”. Google …

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HTC Deluxe 5

HTC’s rumoured 5-inch smart phone for Europe has cropped up in new snaps, giving us a clearer glimpse at what the Taiwanese giganto-phone will look like, as well as colour options. The images, which surfaced at GSMArena, show a slender smart phone with a design that’s similar to the HTC One X. It looks to have a curved glossy back …

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Google Nexus 4 has secret 4G, teardown reveals

The Google Nexus 4 is a powerful phone with a great screen — but it has even more up its sleeve. A teardown by iFixit reveals that LG’s Nexus phone contains an LTE chip — the gubbins required to get 4G super-fast web connection speeds on your phone. Unfortunately, it’s turned off. That’s because the Qualcomm chipset that powers the …

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Free Tube Wi

Wi-Fi is coming to a bunch more Tube stations this year, and Virgin Media has revealed how much you’ll have to pay to surf the Web when the current run of free connection ends. Yesterday Virgin Media and EE anounced they’d teamed up to give free Web access on London Underground to anyone on EE, Orange or T-Mobile. Virgin Media …

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Pocket Filmmaker: moving pictures

Now playing: Watch this: Pocket Filmmaker: moving pictures 4:04 Welcome back to CNET Australia‘s guide to pocket film-making. The Pocket Filmmaker will be showing you how to turn the smartphone in your pocket into a camera capable of shooting video projects that are worthy of sharing with family and friends, online and even with the judges of some of Australia’s …

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Leaked press shots give better look at HTC Deluxe

If there was any lingering doubt about what HTC would be doing next, it has evaporated with the latest round of photos leaked on the internet showing its 5-inch HD monster, the HTC Deluxe. (Credit: GSMArena) Ee may need to add a few letters to that moniker, though, according to a source for GSMArena, who believes that the name we …

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Sony Xperia TX film shoot: behind the scenes

This week on CNET Australia, we’ve kicked off an exciting partnership with award-winning film-maker Jason Van Genderen to create a brand new video project using the Sony Xperia TX. Jason will be working over the next few weeks to put his new film together, and will be taking us behind the scenes as he gets to know the new smartphone …

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