If you're rooting for Sony to pull through recent tough times, it's still a cliffhanger, according to its latest earnings report. On the plus side, PS4 sales have been stellar, up 83 percent over last year at 310 billion yen ($2.8 billion). The good news drops off sharply from there, however, especially with mobile. Though sales in that division were up slightly from last year, it managed to lose 172 billion yen ($1.5 billion). Since most of Sony's other divisions fared okay, that means its 86 billion yen ($770 million) operating loss can be directly chalked up to its mobile division. Though it warned investors that smartphone sales would be dismal, Sony decided nevertheless decided to fire its mobile division's CEO, Kunimasa Suzuki, and replace him with VP Hiroki Totoki.

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Tickets for Sony's PlayStation Experience in December go on sale today, but aside from a few coy teases, what you'll do there hasn't been clear. Well, now that's changing. For starters, Project Morpheus -- the catch-up king's VR headset -- is making its consumer show debut (as opposed to, say, appearing at E3). As far as games go, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, The Order: 1866 and Bloodborne are making appearances too. And what would PlayStation be without indies? The Journey and Grim Fandango remasters for PS4, Helldivers, The Witness will be there, and something "super special" is planed for No Man's Sky come the show's Saturday night. There's too much to list here, and more still to come apparently, so head over to the PlayStation Blog for the full line-up that'll be in Las Vegas a little over a month from now.

[Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]

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You can't exactly use Google Wallet everywhere you go just yet, but if you do use it often enough to warrant semi-regular transfers from your bank, then you'll love its latest update. Now, you can activate recurring bank transfers, even pick the amount and the schedule (say, once a month or so) you want, to automatically replenish your digital dollars. That's especially useful if you depend on the physical Wallet card, which spends that balance every time it's charged. But in case Wallet balance doesn't matter as much -- say, you have an NFC-enabled Android phone and prefer to tap and pay mostly using credit -- then, you can also just program the app to let you know if it's almost out of cash. These features are available for both iOS and Android, as you can see after the break, but you can only use the tap-and-pay option if your NFC phone runs KitKat or higher.

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Google has been making it easier for more and more third-party companies to take advantage of its products' features recently. For instance, it's now taking airlines, restos and event venues (among others) by the hand, showing them how to use the new Inbox app's Highlights feature to their advantage. Like its name implies, "Highlights" finds pertinent info or actionable items within an email and shows them right within the email list. So, if you're eating out or prepping for a flight, you can confirm your reservation or check in without having to access the email itself. Devs simply need to mark up the parts they want to surface to make that happen -- we doubt they'll have a tough time doing so, since Google even offers full sets of instructions and sample codes they can look at. Just recently, the tech giant also made it simpler for devs to add the "OK Google" voice command to their creations, letting you do queries within an app without lifting a finger.

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A unibody metal body, 5-inch AMOLED display, 13-megapixel camera, a claim as Samsung's "thinnest smartphone to date" and yet, this isn't a flagship smartphone. Especially for Halloween - or not related at all - the Galaxy A5 and A3 yet more smartphones from Samsung, measuring at 6.7mm and 6.9mm thickness. (So, er, just as thin as the Galaxy Alpha?) They may not be close to the thinnest smartphone but with a metallic body, it's still quite an interesting proposition. They're both apparently geared at the youth, with Samsung's own press release praising its social network skills (extending to a GIF maker and 4G connectivity...) and the five-megapixel front-facing camera, because selfies, but given the notion of a metal-framed Galaxy phone, other crankier demographics might also be tempted.

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It wasn't a huge mistake, but the structure that Arrested Development's fourth season used was a bit off-putting for some viewers. Each episode followed the foibles of single members of the Bluth family in a few different timelines, and the early setup for many jokes didn't pay off until much later in the run. To address that, creator Mitch Hurwitz (above left) told Pretentious Film Majors that he's putting together a cut of the Netflix-exclusive episodes that runs in chronological order. A bunch of the laughs came from those punchline-reveals, so how this version shakes out should be pretty interesting to see. Maeby when this hits it'll coincide with the army's next half-day, or, as AV Club guesses, possibly with the upcoming season four box-set. Regardless, don't forget to leave a note with where you'll be watching once it happens.

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For companies like Google, facing problems with the law across Europe has become a common thing. The most recent example of this is now taking place in Spain, where the country's parliament just gave the go-ahead to what's being known as the "Google Tax," a set of intellectual property laws that lets news publishers get paid every time their content is linked within search results. Last year, something very similar happened in Germany, and that fight ended recently with Google having to strip down its news service to accommodate the requests of German publishers.

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"When so many other features of the site have changed, why is Poking still a thing?" That's the question I'd ask Mark Zuckerberg if I ever had the chance. And next week, I might get an answer. Just about anyone could get a query answered by the Facebook CEO, actually, when he holds the first community question and answer session on the site. Writing on his profile (naturally), he says that this is an extension of weekly Q&As that let employees pick his brain about everything from current events to the company's direction. Zuck says he'll try to get through as many questions as possible in an hour, and the whole shebang will even be livestreamed on its Event page sometime next Thursday.

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Just about a year ago we learned Andy Rubin had shifted his focus at Google from Android ("the definition of open") to working with robots, like the ones from its acquisition Boston Dynamics, but tonight reports indicate he is leaving the company entirely. The Information and the Wall Street Journal reported the departure initially, which Google has confirmed. In a statement, CEO Larry Page said "I want to wish Andy all the best with what's next. With Android he created something truly remarkable-with a billion plus happy users. Thank you." The Information reports his departure is the result of some issue with the structure of his team, and that Google research scientist James Kuffner will take over his role directing robotics projects.

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Technology can be pretty wonderful sometimes. Case in point: Warblr, an app that uses sound recognition tech and your phone's GPS signal to identify birdsongs. The application first pinpoints where you are (it'll debut in the United Kingdom), and narrows the results by what types of fowl are common to the area, according to its Kickstarter page. Then, after making the ID, it presents the most likely suspects. Pretty simple, yeah? The folks behind the app say that one of the intentions is to add geo-tracking to, well, track what species are being found where -- useful for the likes of zoologists and ecologists to monitor migration patterns, for one.

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