HBO wants to stop illegal downloads of its hit series by making sure people have legal alternatives. (Credit: HBO) Game of Thrones director David Petrarca raised more than a few eyebrows at the Perth Festival last week, when he revealed a slightly laissez-faire attitude to the illegal downloads of Game of Thrones, suggesting that the …

Roku streaming boxes can now be used as cable boxes for Time Warner Cable subscribers. The feature upgrade comes courtesy of the free TWC TV app, which went live in the Roku Channel Store earlier today. The app was first announced at CES in January. Once installed, the app provides access to hundreds of live channels, including most major broadcast …

If you BYO microSD card, you can get AndroidForNook’s Jelly Bean deployment for as little as $9.99. AndroidForNook I know from response to past posts that there’s a lot of interest in rooting Barnes & Noble’s Nook tablets (specifically the Nook Color, Nook Tablet, Nook HD, and Nook HD+). And why not? The hardware is great, but B&N’s heavily modded …

It is finally happening. Smartphones are finally overtaking feature phones in worldwide sales, thanks to falling prices on smartphones and 4G networks, market researcher IDC said today. For years, analysts have been predicting that smartphones would one day supplant basic feature phones in terms of worldwide sales, and that day is expected to finally come in 2013. According to the …

Verizon Wireless’ shift to voice over LTE may ultimately usher in fundamental changes in the carrier’s handsets and sales strategies. Verizon, which revealed plans late last year to launch voice over LTE services by early 2014, could begin selling LTE-only phones as early as next year, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said today at Deutsche Bank’s Media, Internet, and Telecom conference. …

Samsung has posted a video teasing the upcoming Unpacked event in New York City where the smartphone giant is expected to unveil its Galaxy S4 phone. The video introduces viewers to Jeremy, a boy who Samsung says will be the “secret messenger” for its Unpacked event. In the video, Jeremy is allowed to look inside a box that ostensibly houses …

4G is still only available from one network on these shores, but that hasn’t stopped LG from flogging a fair few 4G phones. The Korean company has sold 10 million LTE handsets, it’s announced, up from 5 million in October. It wants to double the number to 20 million by the end of the year, too. With Vodafone, Three and …

Google has begun testing a new database that would allow unlicensed TV broadcast spectrum to be used for wireless broadband and shared among many users. The new database will keep track of the TV broadcast frequencies in use so that wireless broadband devices can take advantage of the unlicensed space on the spectrum, also called “white space.” Google is one …

Sprint has added nine cities to its burgeoning 4G LTE network. The carrier said today that it launched LTE coverage for Altoona, Pa.; Asheville and Statesville, N.C.; Columbus and Elkhart/Goshen, Ind.; Hammond, La.; La Crosse, Wis.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Temple, Texas. In addition, Sprint expanded its LTE network in four cities in Puerto Rico: San German, Yauco, Salinas, …

HANOVER, Germany–IBM showed off technology today designed to let people use their smartphones to take command of their real-world shopping. Big Blue showed an app idea from IBM Research in Haifa, Israel, that uses image recognition to identify products on store shelves, then lets people sort those products by attributes such as price and nutrition information. A customer could select …