Latest on Tech: Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s Expansion on Phones, Google Inc (GOOG) HD Video Call, Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)’s Silence on Release

Crytek’s Warface coming to Xbox 360 in 2014 (Joystiq)
Crytek’s online first-person shooter, Warface, will launch on Xbox 360 in early 2014. The game will retain its free-to-play model in the move to the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) console, though the online play will require an Xbox Live Gold subscription. The PC version of Warface recently entered its final closed beta phase, which players can still apply for on the GFace site. The game will launch later this year in North America, Europe and Turkey.

Apple’s Cheaper iPhone: How Low Will They Go? (Yahoo! Finance)
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is expanding its iPhone line next month with a new low-end, lower-priced device, according to numerous well-sourced reports. But no one outside Apple seems to know just how much lower the price will go. Initially, most analysts thought the new lower priced iPhone, rumored to be called the iPhone 5C, would undercut the iPhone 4 and be priced at $300 to $350. But lately, Wall Street analysts have been raising their predicted priced for the 5C. Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty and UBS analyst Steve Milunovich expect a $399 phone. And Citi’s Glen Yeung has pegged $450.

Google opens Play Store to Iran after US lifts sanctions (The Verge)
Thanks to recently lightened technology sanctions, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced this week apps in the Google Play will now be available to users in Iran. Developers still can’t collect money from Iranian users, but free apps can unlocked for Iranian users through a checkbox on the developer console. Google’s announcement stayed mum on the reasons for the shift, but it’s consistent with many of their recent efforts to promote web freedom in underserved nations, including their recent outreach to Burma.

Microsoft’s SkyDrive Adds Bing-Powered OCR Features (TechCrunch)
At its Build conference earlier this year, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) launched its developer services for Bing, including the Bing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Control. Today, the company announced that it is now using Bing’s OCR tools to extract text from photos uploaded to its SkyDrive cloud storage service. This, of course, is similar to what companies like Evernote do with images you store on its service and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), too, uses OCR to make images on Drive searchable. Now that the SkyDrive team has partnered with the Bing team to add OCR to its feature line-up, its users, too, will reap similar benefits.