According to an earlier-this-week report in The Daily, Microsoft is apparently mulling the possibility of allowing OEMs to include its Kinect technology into their Windows 8 laptops; with the Kinect-enabled laptop users seemingly set to get the advantage of interacting with Windows 8 or playing motion-controlled games just like their Xbox 360 Kinect counterparts!

The likelihood of the Kinect technology coming aboard laptops was first highlighted by the Kinect chip manufacturer PrimeSense in 2010, when it said that it would sign a PC partnership with Microsoft by the year-end.

In what apparently is the most recent addition to the much warmed-over rumors about the next iPhone iteration - the `iPhone 5' -, a new 9to5Mac report has revealed that the handset will have a 4-inch display and will boast a fresh body design!

South Korean electronics giant enjoyed an increase of 17 per cent in net earnings in the fourth quarter of last year, thanks to strong sales of its smartphones.

In a regulatory filing on Friday, Samsung said its net profit reached 4 trillion won ($3.5 billion) in the quarter to December 2011. In the corresponding period of previous year, the company pocketed a net profit of 3.4 trillion won.

Operating profit climbed 75.8 per cent to settle at 5.3 trillion won in the final three months of last year.

According to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service, even though gas prices have somewhat stabilized in the New Year’s first three weeks, they still remain at record high levels for the month of January.

With the gas prices all across the US continuing to climb, and having touched their highest levels ever for the month of January, experts are of the opinion that the historic highs in gas prices are apparently a consequence of the tension in the Persian Gulf – a situation which is responsible for the unchanged ‘$100 a barrel’ cost of crude oil for a large part of the month.

According to some recent Twitter posts by a few hackers, the iOS devices powered with Apple’s notably powerful A5 processor have now been ‘liberated’; with a jailbreak having been released for the two new A5-based devices – the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2.

It was in December that the "corona untether" jailbreak was released for the A4-based iOS devices; and, ever since, a “dream team” of hackers – comprising the likes of the iPhone Dev Team, Chronic Dev Team and pod2G – had been working out ways to jailbreak the A5-based devices.

In a recent press release pertaining to Microsoft’s earnings in the October-December 2011 quarter, the software giant revealed that its revenue during the quarter touched $20.89 billion, marking a 5 percent year-on-year increase; thanks to robust growth across the majority of its units.