SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: April 3, 2013
Welcome to Wednesday evening everyone. Perhaps the biggest story to hit the Internet today was Disney's statement that it has shut down LucasArts, instead shifting to a license-based model, opening the series up to a wider range of game developers. Speaking of games, Rovio announced its 2012 revenue, pulling in a profit of approximately $71 million, while EA's All Play senior vice president told Games Industry that the majority of gamers prefer its freemium model.
It has been one year to the date since Instagram became available on Android, with about 50-percent of its users running the mobile operating system. Google has rolled out an update to Chrome for Android to include autofill/password syncing, as well as updating Gmail with better auto-complete predictions. Twitter has started rolling out an update to its Android and iOS apps (and mobile web) with a wider variety of content, and Skype hit a new record with 2 billion minutes being used daily.
It has been a fairly busy news day for Apple, which is celebrating the 3-year anniversary of the iPad and had its "Bounce-back" patent invalidated by the USPTO. A crazy rumor has it an Apple TV with a motion controller will be launched this year, and if you're up for some reading, we've got a piece on the iPhones expected to launch this summer. AT&T has rolled out its LTE network to 14 additional markets, and will be offering the 16GB GALAXY S 4 for $199.99, while T-Mobile has been tipped as preparing to bring LTE to unlocked iPhone 5s.
Hyundai and Kia have recalled over 1.9 million vehicles, Veyron has lost its top-speed designation to the Hennessey Venom GT, and Jimmy Fallon is slated to replace Leno as host of The Tonight Show next year. Facebook's Home software has been leaked ahead of its unveiling, and CyanogenMod has added back in the opt-out feature to appease users. And last but not least, if you're looking for something to celebrate, today is the cell phone's 40th birthday. That does it for tonight's Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of the night folks!