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Sprint is staying competitive by debuting a brand new service ahead of Verizon, AT&T or T Mobile. This new service, known as “StarStar Me”, allows users to essentially do away with conventional phone numbers. In addition to letting users replace their number with a handle, it allows for easy auto-reply text messages. Through the Apple/Android app that can be downloaded, users can also screen or block incoming calls, or edit the auto-reply text messages. The only downside? This feature only works from Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, or T-Mobile phones.

Sprint has been purchased by the Japanese firm Softbank, as announced in a joint press meeting with the CEOs of both companies. Softbank will be purchasing 70% of the shares of Sprint for the staggering sum of $20.1 Billion dollars. This large chunk of change will directly revitalize Sprint, the underdog, when compared to Verizon or AT&T. Softbank, one of the larger mobile communication firms in Japan will gain access to the American market, which is less mature than the Japanese mobile market.

Microsoft has fallen from the position of the biggest technology company on the block. That title now belongs to Apple. As such, they have had to adjust their market strategy. As the PC market has matured, and aged, new technologies have come to replace the desktop, and even the laptop. Tablets, phablets, and smart phones are all the rage, and are good at what they do. To make a bad situation worse (for Microsoft), Apple now has a 12% share of the PC market, up from 3% 10 years ago.

Even though Advanced Micro Devices announced last year that they will cut 10% of their workers by the end of 2012's first quarter, things are even worse now. After they announced that expected sales will decrease approximately 10% from the last quarter, they are expected to announce in increase to the number of workers cut to go up to 30% because of weak sales. Rumors are that AMD plans  to announce the workforce cuts between 20% and 30% next week, and it will focus on jobs involving sales and engineering.