China lifts sales ban on foreign game consoles...for now

The move opens the door for Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, but they'd face challenges tapping into the Chinese market, according to Reuters.

Microsoft's Xbox One.

(Credit: Microsoft)

China has suspended a 10-year-old ban against sales of foreign video-game consoles.

Pointing to a statement from China's State Council, Reuters reported Tuesday that "foreign-invested enterprises" will now be allowed to make game consoles within Shanghai's free trade zone and sell them to Chinese consumers after inspection by the country's cultural departments. The State Council didn't indicate how long the reprieve may last.

Even if the ban's suspension is permanent, though, console makers would face a range of challenges adapting themselves to the market, Reuters noted.

Chinese gamers are used to getting their video games for free and then paying only for add-ons and extra features. More than 70 percent of Chinese consumers earn around $634 per month, a Hong Kong-based brokerage firm told Reuters. That means most would be hard pressed to afford a $500 Xbox One or a $400 PlayStation 4.

Consoles currently sold in China also can run modified games, which cost around a $1 a piece. How many Chinese gamers would be willing to shell out up to $60 for an Xbox or PlayStation title?

Console makers also seem uncertain about entering the Chinese market. A Nintendo rep told Reuters that the company isn't sure what it will be able to do in Shanghai. A Sony spokesman called China a "promising market" but said the company will "continue to study the possibility

iOS, Android users equally happy with their apps -- analyst

(Credit: Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET)

The top iOS and Android apps are about on par in terms of customer satisfaction, says Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

Surveying user reviews and comments about the top 200 free and paid iOS and Android apps, Munster found a virtual tie between the two environments, though Android had a slight edge. The 112 apps common to both platforms scored an average rating of 4.28 among Android users and 4.16 among iOS users.

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Munster found significantly more reviews for paid apps on iOS -- 6.1 million versus 3.4 million for Android. But Google's mobile OS scored more reviews for free apps -- 61.9 million versus just 26.7 million for iOS. Such a difference could be explained by iOS users simply buying more paid content compared with their Android counterparts, according to the analyst. However, mobile developers are focused on both platforms, Munster added.

With app satisfaction seemingly on par between iOS and Android, what's the next frontier for Apple and Google? Munster thinks the fight will shift to services built into the two platforms, such as the Siri and Google Now voice assistants, but other features may get caught up in the battle.

"We note that in our recent test comparing Siri and Google Now, we felt that the two platforms essentially tied for the ability to comprehend and answer questions," Munster said in a research note released Tuesday. "Beyond personal assistants, we believe features such as Google's voice activation feature (OK Google Now) and Apple's TouchID are examples of where the battle is going. On Apple's side, we believe that a payments platform, which we expect early efforts on in CY14, could be the company's next shot at a game changing service unique to iOS."

Apple's next China move: An official store on Alibaba's Tmall

Tmall is a major shopping Web site in China with more than 70,000 merchants, and now Apple is getting in on the mix.

Apple's Sanlitun store in Beijing

(Credit: Apple)

Apple has already opened 10 brick-and-mortar stores in China, and now it's doubling up on digital.

The iPhone maker has opened an official online store in China on Tmall, a giant online marketplace owned by the country's e-commerce company Alibaba.

Apple has made it increasingly clear over the last couple of years that China is extremely important to its future. Recently, Apple finally inked a deal with China Mobile to get its iPhone in the hands of the carrier's 750 million customers. Apple has also aggressively opened brick-and-mortar stores in the country to try to attract more people to its products.Tmall has become a major entity in online shopping in China. The store currently has over 70,000 digital storefronts, selling everything from sneakers to clothing to electronics. According to the Wall Street Journal, which earlier reported on the news, Tmall has official storefronts from major retailers, like Nike and Gap.

Apple's Tmall store has not replaced its own online store for China. According to the Journal, the Tmall storefront does, however, come with a design similar to that of Apple's online retail site.

Apple scores $10 billion in App Store sales for 2013

iOS device users spent more than $1 billion in December alone

(Credit: Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET)

Apple took home more than $10 billion last year from mobile app sales.

Announcing the news on Tuesday, Apple said that more than $1 billion was generated in December alone. During that time, customers downloaded almost 3 billion apps, making December Apple's most lucrative month since the App Store opened for business.

Developers also have shared in Apple's fortunes, earning a collective $15 billion to date from App Store sales, the company added.

Apple credited the launch of iOS 7 for spurring developers to cook up apps and take advantage of the new interface. In particular, the company pointed to such redesigned apps as Evernote, Yahoo, Airbnb, OpenTable, Tumblr, Pinterest, and American Airlines. Apple also touted some "surprise hits" in 2013, including Ellen DeGeneres' Heads Up, ProtoGeo's Moves, Simon Filip's Afterlight, and Kevin Ng's Impossible Road."We'd like to thank our customers for making 2013 the best year ever for the App Store," Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said in a statement. "The lineup of apps for the holiday season was astonishing, and we look forward to seeing what developers create in 2014."

The App Store is home to more than 1 million apps for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

How I got T-Mobile's CEO kicked out of AT&T's CES party

T-Mobile's attempt to crash AT&T's developer party was foiled by an innocent tweet from this reporter.

CNET's Roger Cheng with T-Mobile CEO John Legere at AT&T's CES party Monday night.

(Credit: CNET)

LAS VEGAS -- Well, that was a surreal series of events.

I was on my way to AT&T's developer party, held as a cap off to its developer conference held in conjunction to the Consumer Electronics Show, when I ran into a familiar face at the Palms taxi line: T-Mobile CEO John Legere.

Legere, wearing a leather jacket over his trademark pink T-Mobile T-shirt, was accompanied by an entourage, including Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter.

Their goal: Crash AT&T's party and watch Macklemore and Ryan Lewis perform.

After getting in without any problems, Legere and I stopped to take a snapshot and I tweeted it out.

About 15 minutes later, several security guards surrounded Legere and escorted him out of the venue.

To say that this is competition getting extremely fierce would be an understatement. Around that time, AT&T's own mobility CEO, Ralph de la Vega, announced that his company had won the rights to provide LTE connection to Audi, snatching away a cellular contract previously struck with T-Mobile.

While Legere claimed he was attending for the music, it's more likely he was looking for the kind of outcome where he was going to be kicked out. AT&T, alerted to his presence at the party, had him removed.

He undoubtedly would have tweeted about it, and indeed did after the incident. But he also had the luck of meeting this reporter, who inadvertently helped expedite the process.

It's the latest stunt by Legere, who has been prone to bold words and action when it comes to needling his competitors -- particularly AT&T.

T-Mobile is expected to make more noise on Wednesday when it holds its press conference to announce "Uncarrier 4.0." Legere teased it would give T-Mobile the edge to "crush the competition," and said it would go further than AT&T's offer of a $200 break to T-Mobile customers switching over. He declined to spill the beans at the party.

If nothing else, Legere has amped up the expectations for Wednesday's press conference.

So was it shrewd marketing or just a genuine love of the artist? One can't really say for sure.

One thing is certain: It made for a memorable night. And all this before Macklemore got on stage.

Legere, however, did actually get in through legitimate means. Legere and his crew got their passes from Macklemore's agent.

Just another night at CES, I guess.

Intel dives into wearables with new smartwatch and headset devices

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker is trying to prove it's no longer just a PC company, introducing new devices and partnerships.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Intel wants to prove that it's not just a PC company anymore.

As the world has shifted to devices for people on the go, the company is trying to make sure it keeps apace with the market. Chief Executive Brian Krzanich on Monday introduced a bevy of wearable related technology at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

One of the new wearables he showed off is a headset nicknamed Jarvis that can integrate with a personal assistant app on a phone without even touching it. Krzanich said it will work with an assistant that Intel is developing but will also work with an existing assistant. (Siri, anyone?) The other is a set of earbuds with biometric capabilities and gets power from a phone's headphone jack.

Oh, and he also mentioned a smart onesie for babies. It transmits the baby's breathing and other information to a connected coffee cup, which reflects the condition on a little digital display. The product line is made possible by the Intel Edison, a newly announced computing system inside an SD card that has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, with an Intel processor and multicontroller core.

The company also introduced a smartwatch that has smart "geo-fencing" which, Krzanich says, has the capability to monitor the person who's wearing it from afar. One use case: in case of an emergency and a person steps out of the geo-fence, the watch can send out an alert. "You can imagine all kinds of applications," said Krzanich. Still, some consumers may have privacy concerns.

And to try to keep the "wear" in wearable, the company has partnered with brands like Barney's New York and the Council of the Fashion Designers of America to collaborate on bringing future wearables to market.

The chipmaker is a Silicon Valley stalwart but hasn't always been on the cutting edge of innovation. Krzanich tried to change some of that perception during his keynote. The company has been working on what it calls "perceptual computing," which aims to help a computer sense what's going on around it by using methods like facial recognition, gestures and voice recognition.

The company has also shown a serious interest in Android, indicating that it wants to turn it into an operating system used more for just mobile screens, but devices like PCs, much like Windows is used. On Monday, Krzanich announced a dual Windows and Android processor. Users will be able to switch between the two operating systems with the switch of a button.

Earlier in the day, the company unveiled its first manifestation of perceptual computing: a 3D camera, part of a product line called Real Sense. The slim camera -- about the size of an index finger -- can do things like replace a subject's background during conference calling like a green screen would, or read gesturing to navigate through screens. At the keynote, Krzanich talked up a scanner that would be able to do a 3D scan of a physical object into a tablet.

Closing the keynote, Krzanich also announced that every Intel device is now "conflict free," no longer sourcing materials from war-torn regions like the Democratic Republic of the Congo to build chips for its processors.

Sony PlayStation Now goes all-in on game, TV streaming

The new streaming game service, unveiled at CES, means instant access to games even from the PS2 and PS3. And you'll also be able to access it on TVs, phones, and tablets

Sony's Andrew House unveils the PlayStation Now streaming gaming and TV services at CES 2014 in Las Vegas.

(Credit: CNET/James Martin)

Sony unveiled its PlayStation Now streaming game service and a new cloud based TV service, during a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Tuesday.

The new streaming game service, called PlayStation Now will provide instant access to games from previous versions of products including the older PS2 and PS3. Even non console owners wil be able to access it on TVs, phones, tablets, Andrew House, group president for Sony promised.

A closed beta will begin in the US at the end of January, with full roll out this summer.

House also unveiled the company's new cloud-based video service that will offer easier access to TV content for customers via its PlayStation consoles. The service will provide the ability for people to watch TV and movies whenever they want and on whatever device they want, including devices such as the iPad and smartphones. The service will also provide the ability to search across video-on-demand content, as well as live TV programming.

Sony will be testing the new service this year in the US.

Updated 10:10 am PT: This story was updated with more information about Sony's PlayStation Now and streaming video service.

PlayStation Now is coming to all kinds of devices.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)