HERE COMES THE SMART WATCHES

The battle smart watch has just begun with Samsung and  Sony launching their devices yesterday at IFA. Both are powered by Google Android (Ice Cream Sandwich) and have a 1.6 inch screen.

Sony's smart watch display has been kicked up a bit to a 1.6-incher with 220 x 176 resolution. Of course, that's still a tiny color touchscreen, so you're only going to fit around six icons on there at any one time. The device is also slimmer than its predecessor, which goes a long way for something you're going to wear on your wrist, though we wouldn't exactly call it thin at the moment.

Samsung Galaxy Gear has one glaring problem with it. It only works with one Samsung phone, the soon-to-be-released Galaxy Note III. The Galaxy Gear won't work with other Galaxy phones like the Galaxy S4.

We ll keep updating as things progress

MICROSOFT BUYING NOKIA'S SMARTPHONE BUSINESS FOR $7 BILLION

Microsoft will pay 3.70 billion Euro for Nokia's devices business. That's nearly $5 billion is U.S. dollars. Microsoft will also pay an additional 1.65 billion Euro ($2.2 billion U.S.) for the rights to Nokia's patents.

All together, the deal will cost Microsoft about $7 billion U.S.

Microsoft will also take on about 32,000 Nokia employees. Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop will transfer to Microsoft too. (Elop used to work at Microsoft before becoming the Nokia CEO.)

The joining of Microsoft and Nokia isn't a huge surprise. Nokia is the only manufacturer that exclusively uses Microsoft' Windows Phone 8 operating system for its top-tier smartphones. Meanwhile, Microsoft has struggled to gain significant market share for Windows Phone as Android and the iPhone continue to dominate.

Nokia's flagship Lumia phones are most likely the best-selling Windows Phones today. The company sold 7.4 million last quarter. A lot of those sales are due to the fact that Nokia attacks the low-end of the smartphone market with cheaper devices. It also makes high-end phones like the Lumia 920, 925, and 1020

.

This can also be another sign that Microsoft is taking its transition from a software company to a "devices and services" company much more seriously. Until last year, Microsoft did not make any major products (besides the Xbox) itself. That changed with its line of Surface tablets that run the new Windows 8 operating system. The company announced that it was making the transition to a company that provides both devices and services.

But Microsoft has yet to make a smartphone of its own, despite numerous rumors that it had plans to. By buying Nokia, Microsoft now has its own manufacturer that it can work closely with.

Microsoft's purchase isn't likely to annoy other manufacturers that make Windows Phones either. Most of those manufacturers (Samsung, HTC, etc.) have been able to make more money from Android devices than an alternative operating system like Windows Phone 8. Nokia is the only manufacturer that relies almost entirely on Windows Phone 8.