US-Iran nuclear talks might be less complex than this arbitration
The idea of Apple and Google's Motorola Mobility coming together to resolve their never-ending patent disputes seems more likely today now that both companies are expressing interest.
"Apple is also interested in resolving its dispute with Motorola completely," Apple said in a filing picked up by Bloomberg. "Arbitration may be the best vehicle to resolve the parties' dispute."
This conciliatory tone matches Motorola Mobility's arbitration suggestion floated on Nov. 5.
The terms, though undisclosed officially, are said to have HTC paying Apple up to $8 (UK£5.03, AUD$7.67) for every device it sells.
Even though this is a lower figured than Apple had originally proposed, according to analyst Shaw Wu, it's a lot more economical than paying for drawn out lawsuits.
Wu estimated that the deal could make Apple anywhere from $180 million (UK£113, AUD$176) up to $280 million (UK£176, AUD$268) a year.
That's $323,529 per patent
The proposed arbitration between Apple and Google would be much more complicated, as the search giant has 17,000 of Motorola's patents to bring to the table.
Google says it spent $5.5 billion (around £3.5 billion) of its $12.4 billion (around £8 billion) bid on Motorola's catalog of patents alone. That comes out to $323,529 (£203,708) per patent.
Global framework preferred
The idea arbitration is seen as a positive step forward for both companies, but Google also expressed interest in a global framework for patents down the line.
"We have long sought a path to resolving patent issues and we welcome the chance to build on the constructive dialogue between our companies," said Google General Counsel Kent Walker in a Nov. 13 letter to Apple that was filed with the court.
"While we prefer to seek a framework for a global (rather than piecemeal) resolution that addresses all of our patent disputes, we are committed to reaching agreement on a license for our respective standard-essential patents."
To this point, United Nations got involved last month, hosting Apple, Google and Microsoft at a Geneva summit to discuss the global problem.
However it comes about, settling patent disputes may be a boon for innovation.
The decline of the video game retail industry and the rise of the digital distribution business are not taking place in tandem according to the NPD Group. The industry is still in decline. What does this mean for the next generation of consoles?
In the past two months, we’ve looked at how the business of selling video games on discs and cartridges it fading fast. The digital revolution is picking up steam and quickly. In August alone, video game sales were down 20 percent from last year, and that’s on top of declines across the first half of the year. That’s just retail, though. How is the industry doing in full? If everyone’s downloading their games, are they still paying the same amounts? Data from the NPD Group says that there’s good news and there’s bad news.
First, the bad news: The video game industry in the US was down in the third quarter of 2012. Overall, Americans spent nearly $3.8 billion on video games, accessories, and hardware between July and September of this year, down 9 percent from the more than $4 billion spent during that period in 2011. This is primarily due to those aforementioned declines in retail sales.
Now the good news: Digital sales are indeed on the rise, to the tune of 22 percent year-on-year. Digital game sales totaled $1.4 billion for the period, down from the previous quarter, but still a sign of growth. Just not enough growth to bring the games industry back to the exorbitant earning potential of the pre-crash boom years like 2008.
The state of the industry in 2012 demonstrates one thing about the immediate future: People are going to spend less on making games. Astronomically expensive games like Star Wars: The Old Republic, which cost in excess of $150 million to develop, will fade into the background for some time.
Realistically speaking, game development costs have to come down if the industry is going to start growing again. If retail is going to survive, those new consoles will have to be affordable and easy to make games for. It follows that development costs will have to be modest as well.
Samsung might be pulling out all the stops at CES 2013, at least according to a rumor coming out of Korea.
The firm might unveil a phone loaded with a 4.99-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display at the Vegas show, one that rivals devices coming out of HTC, LG, Sharp and Sony.
According to a Samsung official speaking to a Korean newspaper, the company will pull out a handset featuring the ultra-thin AMOLED material and a screen with a 441 pixel per inch density.
Such blockbuster screen specs are likely to only show up on a blockbuster handset, pointing to the possibility that the main attraction Samsung offers the CES crowd is the Galaxy S4.
S4 time
According to the paper's source, Samsung is using its current mass production method mixed with advanced LITI technology to bring the phone to life.
It should feature a resolution of 1920 X 1080 and if kinks in mass production scaling can get ironed out, the S4 should arrive during the second quarter of 2013.
The source also reportedly said that the head of Samsung Electronics demanded the SIV feature a Full HD AMOLED display and not (yawn) LCD, giving it a unique selling point over new arrivals like the Droid DNA, the rumored Sony Yuga and Odin and Sharp's Aquos SH903W.
TechRadar will be in the lion's den that is the CES show floor come January, so stay tuned for word on what Samsung brings forth.
The Human Rights Campaign named Electronic Arts one of the best places to work in the United States this week, thanks to the video game publishers efforts to create an equal work environment for LGBT game professionals.
Electronic Arts isn’t what you would call a creative powerhouse. The publisher’s got a stable of studios like BioWare and Criterion that are incredibly talented, but those creators are increasingly tasked with making games that are so broad in their appeal as to not have much personality left. So games like Mass Effect 3 and Need For Speed: Most Wanted are the video game equivalent of white bread? They’re still good for making a proverbial entertainment sandwich. Originality and risk taking are not Electronic Arts’ forte. At the very least, the company is a bastion of equality for LGBT game makers.
The Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group working on behalf of LGBT community, gave Electronic Arts a 100 percent rating for LGBT equality this week, naming it one of the best places to work in the US in its Corporate Equality Index in 2012. EA received the same award from the HRC in 2010 and 2008.
EA was naturally proud of its policies. “I am very pleased that EA has scored a 100 percent rating and been recognized by the Human Rights Campaign in a year where the company has taken significant steps to remain inclusive,” said EA’s CTO Gabrielle Toledano, “EA has made changes to our medical benefits, been involved in LGBT events in our community and taken a public stance against the Defense of Marriage Act. EA champions diversity with a work environment where everyone feels welcome and can be themselves.”
What’s particularly impressive about this rating is how it demonstrates how far EA has come as an employer. In 2004, EA came under major fire after the wife of a developer chronicled the horrible working conditions at the company. Today EA has a modest reputation with games industry professionals, with a 3-out-of-5 star rating on company tracking service Glassdoor.
America’s a swiftly improving country for the LGBT community. While gay couples can’t legally get married in every state in the union, more and more states are letting same-sex couples tie the knot. Voters in Maine, Maryland, and Washington state chose to legalize same sex marriage in this month’s election, while the state of Minnesota saw an amendment to define marriage as union between man and woman only got voted down. It’s good to see companies like Electronic Arts doing their part in the effort.
Windows Phone 7 will start to look a lot like the WP8
The internet got some official looking confirmation for the new features supposedly coming to Windows Phone 7.8 Friday.
The source of the info is reportedly a slide from Nokia training material. And, even though it's in Chinese, a translation outlines the features that should come with the update.
There have been all sorts of rumors surrounding what Windows Phone 7.8 owners will see once their phones upgrade, but this is the first sighting of anything official with talk of the new features.
Microsoft, by the way, has promised those with older Windows OSes (and not the most recent Windows Phone 8 OS) to keep their phones current with updates, so this could be a sign the Softies weren't just blowing hot air.
You can teach an old phone new tricks
The slide lays out a new start screen for Windows Phone 7.8, while three live tiles sizes are available to let owners give their phones a unique, personalized feel.
The update brings 20 more themes to match what's available in WP8. Users can also plaster their lock screens with Bing wallpapers instead of single photos.
The new WP7 should also let users edit MP3 files to make ringtones, which is a pretty nifty feature. It will include a new patch and security upgrade for Internet Explorer, as well.
We knew most of these additions would likely appear in the update, but now this slide seems to back up those earlier assertions.
Those are all the goodies we could glean from the slide, but much more are rumored to be in the works.
Though WP7 appears to be getting a new bag of tricks, it's still missing out on a lot of features coming to WP8. Those include true multi-tasking, NFC support, over-the-air updates, multi-core processor support and IE 10.
But Microsoft has to save some stuff for its new OS.
Though the leak gave us confirmation of the features coming down the pipes, there was no mention of a release date, though we've heard plenty of rumors about that as well.
A Chinese tech blog clocked the 7.8 update to arrive four to six weeks after WP8 launches. Since the HTC 8X was the first WP8 released on Nov. 2, the update could roll out at the end of November or middle of December.
Verizon Wireless and AT&T have confirmed that cell service is back to normal for the first time since Hurricane Sandy struck on Oct. 29.
As America’s East Coast continues to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, Verizon Wireless and AT&T shared some positive news on Friday: their wireless networks are back in full swing.
“As of today, we’re pretty much back to normal,” AT&T said to the Associated Press. T-Mobile announced on Thursday that its cell network is essentially restored as well, and Verizon said that its network is functioning just as it did before the storm hit on Oct. 29.
Other carriers, however, are still experiencing difficulties. Some of Sprint’s towers are still dysfunctional because the companies that connect its cell towers to switching centers have not finished their restoration efforts. Verizon Wireless’ parent company Verizon Communications Inc. serves many local cell towers in the New York City area and is also still recovering from the storm. During Hurricane Sandy, a crucial switching station in downtown Manhattan was severely flooded.
About 25 percent of cell towers belonging to all carriers in a coastal area that spanned across 10 states were knocked out during Sandy, federal regulators said. Verizon did manage to fare better than most, the AP reports, as only six percent of its towers were knocked out immediately following the storm. AT&T and T-Mobile both claim to have given their subscribers an “unprecedented” break, as both networks let customers roam for free to compensate for gaps in coverage.
Hurricane Sandy was projected to be the worst storm in 100 years when it swept across the East Coast. The so-called “Frankenstorm” has claimed 121 lives in total, 43 being from New York City, according to Reuters.
When the storm hit on Oct. 29, more than 7.9 million East Coast habitants were left without power. About 120,000 residents in New York and New Jersey remained without power as of this weekend.
Despite lower expectations for Wii U, production is unlikely to meet demand at launch.
Nintendo’s Wii U will likely be missing some of the features promised for this weekend’s launch, but that won’t turn away buyers. In fact, many analysts are predicting shortages as the holiday rush for the company’s next-gen console kicks off in the U.S.
Michael Pachter, a Los Angeles-based analyst at Wedbush Securities Inc., told Bloomberg Business News that he expects the Wii U to sell out during its first six months, with demand dropping to 10 million units for the following year.
While these numbers are promising, they’re still well below the standard set by the Wii U’s predecessor, the Wii. The Wii sold almost six million units in its first four months on the market, then another 18 million the following year. While Nintendo has declined to provide any information related to its initial forecast for the system’s launch, a spokesman for the company did say they expect to move 5.5 million units by March 31, 2013.
“It has now become more likely that it is our production capacity, rather than consumer demand, that will place limits on our Wii U prospects for this calendar year,” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told investors last month.
According to GameStop President Tony Bartel, more than 500,000 people are currently on a waiting list for the Wii U at the company’s retail locations, and there have been more than 1.2 million orders placed for Wii U titles worldwide — a number that’s twice as large as that of the early orders for Nintendo Wii titles ahead of the system’s launch.
Windows Phone 7 will start to look a lot like the WP8
The internet got some official looking confirmation for the new features supposedly coming to Windows Phone 7.8 Friday.
The source of the info is reportedly a slide from a Nokia training material, and though it's in Chinese, a translation outlines the features that should come with the update.
There have been all sorts of rumors surrounding what Windows Phone 7.8 owners will see once their phones upgrade, but this is the first sighting of anything official with talk of the new features.
Microsoft, by the way, has promised those with older phone OSes (and not the most recent Windows Phone 8 OS) to keep their phones current with updates, so this could be a sign the Softies weren't just blowing hot air.
You can teach an old phone new tricks
The slide lays out a new start screen for Windows Phone 7.8, while three live tiles sizes are available to let owners give their phones a unique, personalized feel.
The update brings 20 more themes to match what's available in WP8. Users can also plaster their lock screens with Bing wallpapers instead of single photos.
The new WP7 should also let users edit MP3 files to make ringtones, which is a pretty nifty feature. It will include a new patch and security upgrade for Internet Explorer as well.
We knew most of these additions would likely appear in the update, but now this slide seems to back up those earlier assertions.
Those are all the goodies we could glean from the slide, but much more are rumored to be in the works.
Though WP7 appears to be getting a new bag of tricks, it's still missing out on a lot of features coming to WP8. Those include true multi-tasking, NFC support, over-the-air updates, multi-core processor support and IE 10.
But Microsoft has to save some stuff for its new OS.
Though the leak gave us confirmation of the features coming down the pipes, there was no mention of a release date, though we've heard plenty of rumors about that as well.
A Chinese tech blog clocked the 7.8 update to arrive four to six weeks after WP8 launches. Since the HTC 8X was the first WP8 released on Nov. 2, the update could roll out at the end of November or middle of December.
"Deus Ex is a phenomenal cyberpunk game with soul and intelligence,” said Scott Derrickson.
Following up on July’s announcement that CBS Films had picked up the rights for a Deus Ex: Human Revolution movie, the adaptation of 2011 game about a special agent who uses cybernetic implants to fight villains, the studio now reports that it’s found a director for the upcoming film.
Scott Derrickson, who directed the recent horror films Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose will get behind the camera for Deus Ex, according to an official statement made today by CBS Films.
“Deus Ex is a phenomenal cyberpunk game with soul and intelligence,” said Derrickson. “By combining amazing action and tension with big, philosophical ideas, Deus Ex is smart, ballsy, and will make one hell of a movie. Cargill and I can’t wait to bring it to the big screen.”
While there have been three games released so far in the Deus Ex franchise, the studio has indicated that the new film will be based on the most recent, critically praised installment, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. This makes sense, since Human Revolution game is set in the year 2027 and serves as a prequel to the first installment of the series.
Human Revolution follows a security agent for a biotechnology firm who is forced to undergo a series of operations that give him cybernetic implants, and is later caught up in a global conspiracy involving the body-modification industry. The game was celebrated for its exploration of real-world political and economic issues in a sci-fi setting and the wide-reaching effect of ethical decisions the player makes during the game.
As reported back in July, Roy Lee and Adrian Askarieh are attached to produce the Human Revolution movie, with John P. Middleton serving as Executive Producer. There’s no release date set or start of production scheduled for the film at this point.
Microsoft offers up long list of impressive player stats for Halo 4's debut.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II may be breaking all sorts of records, but that doesn’t mean Halo 4 is being ignored by its fans. More than four million people played Halo 4 during its first five days, with over a million of them completing the Campaign mode, reports Microsoft.
Released just a few weeks ago, Halo 4 has been overshadowed a bit by the Black Ops II frenzy, but a new post on Microsoft’s Halo-focused blog Halo Waypoint lists some of the impressive stats from the game’s first five days on the market. And as one might expect from one of the most popular gaming franchises, the latest installment has people spending a lot of time with their consoles.
According to Microsoft, people have logged more than 31.4 million hours playing Halo 4 in each of its gameplay modes between November 6-11. Within that impressive timeframe, six percent of players completed the game’s Campaign on “Legendary” and unlocked more than 43,335,060 achievements. During that time, players notched more than 4.5 billion kills across the various gameplay modes.
Halo 4 hit shelves November 6, and earned more than $200 million in its first 24 hours on the market.
When I first heard about the HTC J Butterfly getting launched in Japan, I started drooling all over my keyboard. Here was a smartphone with a quad core processor, a 5-inch display, and a jaw-dropping 1080p display. I hoped that it would one day make it to our shores and it sort of did when it was announced as the HTC Droid DNA for Verizon, but what about the rest of the world? Apparently, we don’t have to wait much longer.
After the HTC J Butterfly emerged from Japan and arrived in the US as the Droid DNA, it is once again getting reborn as the HTC Deluxe for the international market. The core specs inside this “new” superphone will be the same as its Japanese and American counterparts. That means you still get a 1080p 5-inch full HD display (440ppi) and a quad-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor. Other features include Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean out of the box, HTC Sense 4+, 2GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage (no card slot), Bluetooth, NFC, a front-facing 2.1MP ultra wide camera, and a rear 8MP f/2.0 camera. What’s unclear is whether or not this phone will have LTE, especially seeing how the international-friendly Nexus 4 doesn’t do the 4G LTE thing either.
Since this is just a leak, we don’t have any information on pricing or availability yet, so it is unclear which international markets (and carriers) will pick up the HTC Deluxe. I sure hope it comes to Canada.
With their wallet-wrenching holiday promotions just around the corner, digital distributors seem to be playing it stingy this weekend, serving up relatively few eye-catching deals and many repeats. Of note, you'll find a pack of both Prototype titles and Saints Row: The Third for $10 each at Amazon, Grand Theft Auto IV Complete Edition for $7.49 at GameStop, Orcs Must Die! 2 for $7.48 at GamersGate, Binary Domain for $9.99 and Space Marine for $7.49 at Get Games, and 50-80% off assorted indie titles at GameFly. Oh, and The Humble Bundle has added five more games to its latest pay-what-you-will event.
Vodafone has come to the rescue of dedicated early adopters who struggle to keep up with the latest smartphone releases. It has announced a plan named Red Hot, where the latest and greatest phone is yours, every year.
Every one of us has experienced that desire to own the latest smartphone to be announced, even if our existing phone is the model it replaces, and is therefore is almost certainly still capable of performing its duties. However, thanks to the joy of 24-month contracts, it’s not always possible to fulfill that desire. Vodafone UK feels our pain, and has come up with an intriguing solution, a new tariff named Red Hot. It turns the traditional mobile contract on its head and removes the need to plan for a yearly upgrade. Instead, for one monthly fee, you’ll get unlimited texts, voice, and cellular data on top of a brand new phone every 12 months.
Sound too good to be true? Well, it’s not without its drawbacks, so let’s take a closer look at how Red Hot works. Unlike regular plans, you sign two contracts with Red Hot: one for the network and one to lease your phone. Currently, you get to choose between the Samsung Galaxy S3, the Galaxy Note 2, and the Apple iPhone 5, and the monthly plan is the same for all of them: Unlimited calls, unlimited texts and 2GB of data.
If you go for the 16GB Galaxy S3, the Galaxy Note 2 or the 16GB iPhone 5, you won’t pay anything for the device, although if you want an S3 or iPhone 5 with more memory, there will be an extra charge. Your monthly line rental will be £47 ($74), £52 ($82), or £59 ($93) respectively on a 12-month agreement, and the phone will be insured against loss or damage.
After 12-months has passed, you pop back to see Vodafone and they’ll provide you with the very latest device to be released – be that the iPhone 6, the Galaxy S4 or the Note 3 – as you hand back your old phone, provided you sign a new 12-month Red Hot contract.
Boiled down, Red Hot is a phone leasing scheme for early adopters who don’t care about long-term ownership, but still want the latest hardware on release.
Say that again, £50-plus per month?
Totaled up, a 16GB iPhone 5 on the Red Hot plan will cost £708 ($1124) for a year, at the end of which you’ll have nothing to show for it. Unless you count the new phone Vodafone will give you, of course. Using the iPhone 5 as a guide, let’s compare Red Hot with a regular Vodafone tariff.
Vodafone offer 12-month contracts, where 1GB of data, unlimited texts and 900 minutes costs £46 per month, and the phone a hefty £229 ($363). Purchased this way, the annual total is £781 ($1240), but selling the iPhone 5 at that point could recoup at least a third of that figure.
Sign on the dotted line of a 24-month contract, and you can get yourself 2GB of data, unlimited calls and texts, plus a free 16GB iPhone 5, all for £47 per month. That’s a frightening £1,128 ($1789), and though your phone will probably fetch a couple of hundred pounds on the used market.
The Red Hot tariff slots somewhere in-between the normalcy of a 12-month contract, and the hideousness of a 24-month plan. Although the thought of paying more than £50 ($80) per month will sting – it’s right at the top-end of the scale in the UK, with many expecting to pay half that per month – it’s not ridiculously over-priced.
The first rule of Red Hot is, don’t jailbreak your phone
Dig around in the small print and you’ll find a few restrictions and rules related to the Red Hot tariff. Because the phone isn’t really yours, it’ll need to be looked after, and if you try to return a damaged device you’ll get charged – up to £150 ($240) if you’ve really abused it. However, as the phone is insured, provided you make a few calls before it’s time to upgrade, this shouldn’t be a problem.
If you’re a fan of jailbreaking iPhones or installing custom ROMs on Android devices, and don’t return it to stock before heading back for an upgrade, Vodafone charges at least £300 to £400 ($475 to $635) for a “non-approved operating system.” Swapping the SIM for one from a different provider breaches the contract too.
Ultimately though, all this is to be expected and provided you follow the rules, Vodafone Red Hot comes out looking like good value for money. After all, how many of us sell or pass on our old phones when upgrading anyway; why not cut that part out and ensure we’ve always got the latest, must-have smartphone in our hands, at a reasonable price with a decent tariff attached, every year?
One year after investors called on Nintendo to give up its policy of only releasing games on its hardware, the company releases its very first paid app on Apple's App Store. Pokedex 3D may be the small start of a very big change.
Nintendo’s career in the video game industry has been largely a solo affair over the past thirty years. Nintendo makes Nintendo video games for Nintendo consoles, and with a few very rare exceptions where it licensed its characters to third parties, that’s the way it’s been through good time and bad alike. This week, as Nintendo embarks on the sixth generation of its home game console business, it’s also quietly stepping out of its comfort zone. Nintendo is releasing a Pokémon app for iOS devices.
On Friday morning, the Pokédex 3D app already available on the Nintendo 3DS was released on Japan’s iTunes, making the 170 yen ($2) app the very first paid Nintendo content on Apple’s handhelds, or any non-Nintendo handheld for that matter. There are four downloadable expansions to the Pokédex available for 500 yen ($6) a piece.
There are qualifying factors to consider. Like all Pokémon products, the app isn’t a pure Nintendo product. It was developed by Creatures Inc. who, alongside Game Freak, develop the mainline Pokémon games like the recently release Pokémon Black 2 and White 2. Both of those studios are part of The Pokémon Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nintendo, but a separate corporate entity all the same. That means that the Nintendo brand itself isn’t associated with Apple’s device, even if it is in name only. It’s also not the first time this brand has been on iOS machines. It is the second Pokémon app to hit iOS. Pokémon Say Tap came out in 2011, but that app was offered for free, whereas this new one costs cash.
Even if Mario and Link aren’t on the iPhone 5 yet, this is still a significant development for Nintendo going forward. Back in July 2011, after Nintendo reported terrible earnings and had to drop the price of the recently released Nintendo 3DS handheld, the company’s shareholders began to demand that Nintendo stop isolating itself in the tech market. It’s profitability lay in its brands, so it was time to leave behind its stagnating hardware business and leverage those brands on Apple’s booming portables. Bloomberg reported that a number of shareholders were calling on Nintendo to get its games on the App Store. That report also claimed that Nintendo was making a Pokémon game for Android handhelds. Pokémon Say Tap and this new app are the realization of that rumor.
Will Nintendo go full third-party publisher? Not any time soon. The Wii U and growing Nintendo 3DS sales demonstrate that the company is committed to the hardware business for the foreseeable future. Whether they will remain a market leader is unclear.
Love it or hate it, the Call of Duty franchise is one hell of a money-making machine. Black Ops II, the latest release in the series, launched earlier this week on a number of different platforms. Some wondered if the title would be able to eclipse last year’s record-setting Modern Warfare 3 in terms of first day sales.
The numbers are now in and according to Treyarch and Activision, there’s a new record holder among us. Black Ops II generated $500 million in worldwide sales during the first day. For comparison, Halo 4 raked in $220 million in the first 24 hours earlier this month.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said he believes Call of Duty is the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth year in a row.
If you recall, Modern Warfare 3 brought in $400 million in sales on launch day which equated to 6.5 million copies. The companies have yet to release an exact number count for Black Ops II but it’s surely higher than last year’s mark.
GameStop announced they sold more than a million copies of the game on launch day while Amazon said the game became their most pre-ordered title of all time.
There were more than 16,000 midnight launches at retail stores around the globe, attended by millions of gamers anxious to get their hands on the new title. It was even a trending topic in 23 cities on Twitter according to Activision. Five day sales figures for Black Ops II are expected in the near future.
A new rumor suggests that Samsung will be showing off a new 4.99-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels at CES in January 2013. This is the same time that the company is expected to show off its new “global look”. Connecting the dots, it seems possible the new display could be meant for the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Months ago, rumors claimed that the Galaxy S4 would emerge at MWC, though Samsung denied the rumors as baseless at the time. With a new 4.99-inch 1080p screen coming, several online publications are now suggesting that Samsung might be planning to arm its Galaxy S4 flagship phone with the new 1080p display.
Keep in mind this doesn’t necessarily mean the overall dimensions of the phone would have to be much bigger. Honestly, if they make the bezel thin, it’s possible the display could fit into a chassis that isn’t much larger than the S3. Will the Samsung Galaxy S4 will actually be shown at CES? While its possible, don’t be surprised if we only hear about the display first. We might also learn that there was no truth to these claims at all. Until we have more definitive information, I’d take this rumor with a grain of salt.
What do you think about the idea of a 5-inch Samsung Galaxy S4?
New details about the PlayStation 3's successor: First, Orbis isn't the final name, but PlayStation 4 is out. Second, games will look like Lucasarts' Star Wars: 1313. Finally, no backwards compatibility in the new console but classics will be in the cloud.
While the PlayStation 3 celebrates a major milestone even as its sun starts to fade, rumors about the heir to the PlayStation throne continue to leak out of the game development world. The latest details about the fourth generation machine come from Europe, shedding new light on how the PlayStation 4 or Orbis will support 4K resolution output, how used games will be handled by the console, and just how Sony will leverage the recently purchased Gaikai cloud-gaming service in its machine.
British magazine PSM3 (the details of which were reprinted by German website The G Net) provides a wealth of new information to supplement a recent story about the console that confirmed Sony will not call its console PlayStation 4. The reason: The Japanese word for 4 is “shi,” which also happens to mean death. While it might seem silly to break from nearly two decades of successful branding because a two words sound alike, it’s important to remember how branding has negatively affected the Xbox and Xbox 360 in Japan. Where “X” marks the spot in the US, it’s a negative sign in Japanese culture. (Hence why the circle button on PlayStation controllers is used to confirm most actions in Japanese games, not the X button like in the US.)
PSM3’s source claims that the device, which Sony refers to by the codename Orbis, will play games that look similar to recent tech demos for games like Star Wars 1313 and Square-Enix’s Agni’s Philosophy demo. These games, however, will not run in 4K resolution as has been hinted at in the past. If 4K playback support does make it into the final version of the fourth generation PlayStation, it will be for video.
Sony will be taking more severe measures against piracy. Previous rumors about the Orbis suggested that Sony might try to block used, disc-based games from working on the console. This new report claims that it will do so by linking each individual game to a specific PlayStation Network account.
Unlike past Sony consoles, Orbis will not have backwards compatibility with PlayStation 3, at least not with Blu-ray disc games. Sony will instead offer classic games through a cloud-based streaming service run through Gaikai’s infrastructure.
Of all the rumors surrounding the next PlayStation, its lack of backwards compatibility is the most disappointing. PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi was insistent that every PlayStation made be able to play the previous consoles’ discs at a hardware level. Obviously Sony started moving away from this philosophy swiftly with the very first hardware revisions of the PlayStation 3, but it’s still sad.
The PlayStation 4, Orbis, or whatever Sony decides to name it, is expected to debut at E3 2013.
It took Microsoft's Xbox 360 seven years to hit 70 million consoles sold, but Sony's PlayStation 3 managed it in six years according to a new press release. Impressive numbers, but both companies' console businesses are in decline.
Sony began its current fiscal year but announcing a historic $5.7 billion loss, a blow dealt in part by the declining PlayStation division of its sprawling electronics and entertainment business. Things haven’t gotten better as the year’s gone on, as Sony’s recent quarterly earnings report saw its home console sales drop by 30 percent year-on-year. Even though revenues from the PlayStation business are dropping, Sony does have at least one thing to crow about. After six years on shelves, the PlayStation 3 has officially caught up with the Xbox 360 in terms of worldwide sales with 70 million consoles sold worldwide.
Sony made the announcement in a press release on Friday morning that it had crested the 70 million PlayStation 3s sold mark, just after the console celebrated its sixth anniversary on Nov. 11. What’s particularly impressive is that Microsoft announced just this fall that the Xbox 360 had reached 70 million units sold, but that machine hit the public a full year before the PlayStation 3, in November 2005. The Xbox 360 has been the best-selling console in the United States for 22 months running, a streak that’s been maintained thanks to the 2010 redesign and release of the Kinect motion controller. On the worldwide stage, though, Sony’s console is on track to overtake Microsoft’s. Will it catch up with its big brother, PlayStation 2? Likely not as that machine’s sold approximately 160 million units over the past decade, but for a device that was deemed a catastrophic failure at launch, the PlayStation 3 has done okay for itself.
Truth is, both Microsoft and Sony’s console businesses aren’t doing as well as their mutual stockholders might like. Last quarter, Sony’s PlayStation division brought in just $1.85 billion in revenue, down from $2.2 billion over the same period. Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division that includes the Xbox business as well as others like Skype, saw revenue stay static during that period compared with 2011, but the Xbox 360 itself was hit hard. Xbox 360 revenue fell by 24 percent last quarter, down by $418 million.
The long and short of it: The PlayStation 3 has caught up with the Xbox 360, but both consoles are running out of steam in the market. What’s the mean for we players out in the wild? It means that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720, or Orbis and Durango, will be out sooner rather than later.
Nintendo has revealed that the Wii U’s companion app, known as TVii, won’t be launching alongside the console this weekend. Instead, the Japanese electronics company has said the service will be available starting in December. The service will be available to residents in Canada and the US free of charge.
TVii was announced in September alongside details about the Wii U’s release date and pricing. The service is described as the most different non-gaming initiative they have ever introduced. It combines a television programming guide from your cable or satellite provider with remote control functionality and also allows users to watch streaming content directly from the web.
Nintendo says that within the coming weeks, Wii U owners will have access to Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus and Netflix. YouTube content will be available as well, likely before the aforementioned services debut.
TVii will also include social network functionality. Users will be able to comment on and share things on Facebook, Twitter and Miiverse right from the system’s wireless gamepad. There are several other smaller things to point out like individual user profiles, integrated Wikipedia functionality and even live sports scores.
The Wii U Basic Set will be available on November 18 for $299 which includes 8GB of internal storage and one gamepad. The Deluxe Set bumps storage capacity up to 32GB and includes a number of other accessories like a console and gamepad stand.
Are any of you planning to pick up with Wii U this weekend? If so, what games are you most interested in?
TVii, Netflix, and other video services coming later for Nintendo's next-gen console.
With mere days before the launch of Nintendo’s Wii U, reports are surfacing that many of the promised features for the company’s next-gen console will not be available when the system hits shelves.
According to CNet, the Wii U will ship with limited functionality, missing many of the video services the company assured the public would be up and running at launch. Among the missing elements is the eagerly anticipated TVii, a live TV, DVR, and streaming video service that was intended to make the Wii U a comprehensive media center. Nintendo has now indicated that TVii won’t be available until December.
Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Instant Video, and Hulu Plus integration will also be missing at launch, with Nintendo promising that these video services will be available in the near future.
In the absence of many of the video features promised by Nintendo, the Wii U will likely be limited to just its gaming applications for anyone who buys it this weekend — though that probably won’t turn many people away. It’s worth noting that the Nintendo 3DS also shipped without many of its video services available at launch, and with limited functionality beyond basic gaming.
The Nintendo Wii U goes on sale this Sunday, November 18.
Microsoft signed off on the release to manufacturing build of Office 2013 last month, meaning the coding and testing phase ahead of the productivity suite’s launch is over. Although general availability is slated for the first quarter of 2013, those who want an early taste can now download a full copy of the Professional Plus edition -- containing Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, and Lync -- as a 60-day trial.
The download is available in 32- and 64-bit flavors from Microsoft's TechNet Evaluation Center. You’ll need to login with your Microsoft credentials, fill in a form with your name and country of residence, and choose the desired version and language, before being served with a download link and a product key to activate the trial.
Instead of an installer, Microsoft decided to release the software as a disc image. Windows 8 offers native support for .img files, so users already running the latest version of the operating system will be able to access the installer with a simple double-click. Everyone else will need third-party software like ImgBurn or Daemon Tools, both available for free, to either burn it into a disc or mount it as a virtual drive.
Microsoft Office 2013 requires Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2012 to run -- Windows XP holdouts are out of luck. Standalone versions will be available at $139.99 for the Home & Student Edition, $219.99 for Home & Business and $399.99 for Office 2013 Professional. The suite will also be available as part of an Office 365 subscription package for either $99.99 or $149.99 per year.
It's been a year today that the first Windows Phone bearing the Nokia brand landed in the UK – so are there any signs that Nokia's made the right move?
In that time Nokia has created the Lumia brand, re-thought its design strategy and, apparently, had a big influence on the direction Windows Phone is taking – a big move away from the brand than spammed high street phone retailers with every style of handsets imaginable.
'Last year we didn't have the Lumia brand, Nokia was [essentially] a new player in the smartphone space, especially in the UK,' Conor Pierce, Nokia's Western Europe general manager, told TechRadar. 'We were resurrecting Windows Phone in its own right, which is a big challenge for any company – especially one that's in the turnaround we're in. We have to think differently.'
Pierce: "We have to think differently"
There's no doubt that Nokia led the charge in the Windows Phone space over the last 12 months. In the relatively short amount of time since the likes of Stephen Fry took to the stage to proclaim Microsoft's rebooted phone platform was a worthy contender to the likes of Android or iOS, the sales of HTC, Samsung and others' Windows Phone handsets were mediocre to say the least, with around 8 million handsets sold worldwide before Nokia jumped in.
It was also good to hear Pierce talking about Nokia 'thinking differently'. From an industry point of view, one of the biggest problems the Finnish had pre-Windows Phone was promising amazing handsets that didn't deliver.
Memories of sitting through a 30 minute 'lecture' in 2010 by Nokia executives on how important it was for consumers to be able to hook your N8 up to a big screen TV and play 5.1 surround sound still rankle – cries from those assembled that this was pointless without content (as well as not addressing the fact the UI was so poor) fell on deaf ears.
It was this thinking, this stubborn refusal to notice that handsets running Symbian paled in comparison to the likes of the technically-inferior iPhone 3GS in the eyes of consumers that caused CEO Stephen Elop to send that memo, talking of Nokia's 'burning platform'.
While Nokia's stance may not have changed completely in Elop's reign (Nokia World 2012 was far too heavily skewed towards extolling the unlimited virtues of the Lumia 920 without revealing the key details on price and release date) the last year has clearly been a worthwhile learning experience for the brand.
"The likes of the Lumia 800, 610 and 900 have been great starts and given us good momentum in the UK,' said Pierce. "We're proud of what we've achieved. Would we like to be somewhere else in terms of growth? Of course we would. Have we learnt a lot? Yes we have. Are we a different company? We now have this start-up mentality whereby where we are hungry to add value, to listen to people and become a leaner organisation that makes sure the feedback lands in the right place."
But let's not forget the task Nokia was faced with this time last year: essentially giving up on its mature-yet-flawed Symbian OS and starting from scratch with the Windows Phone brand, with only its strong retail channels and brand awareness for company.
And while Nokia was responsible for increasing the share of Windows Phone worldwide, around 10 million Lumia handsets sold in those 12 months isn't a strong number at all, considering Apple sold over double that amount of iPhones in the last quarter alone.
While you can't expect a company even of Nokia's magnitude to come in and start selling phones at a frantic enough pace to start troubling the big players, it still showed the magnitude of the journey ahead.
And to compound that, the launch of Windows Phone 8 didn't help things in terms of timing; consumer awareness of a new range of handsets coming in November contributed to slow sales of the current Lumia brand in Q3.
Pierce was quick to jump on that point, suggesting that the Windows Phone 7-powered range of Nokia handsets had become another retail choice:
"The Nokia Lumia 610 and 800 have never been selling better than they are now; they're positioned very competitively and [retail staff] are more happy selling it now as they can enhance the messages that it all the benefits in terms of SkyDrive, Office, Xbox [that Windows Phone 8] has. Early signs, in terms of sales, show there's strong interest in that.'
It's been widely reported that Nokia was forced to slash the price of its Windows Phone 7 handsets in the lead-up to the next iteration of the OS in order to clear the surplus stocks – cuts of up to 15% on handsets now mean it has strong propositions in the PAYG space with the aforementioned phones.
Windows Phone 7.8 could present a headache a few months down the line
But these handsets could present a headache a few months down the line, when they're stuck on Windows Phone 7.8 (which has still yet to launch – Pierce tells us that isn't stifling sales 'And when it comes, a huge base will be able to upgrade') and the flagship phones will be running Windows Phone 8, with many apps that will only run on the newer platform.
With Windows Phone being such a nascent platform though, this kind of division is necessary to propel it forward – every OS has a history of abandoning the early adopters when it attempts to become more mainstream, and Nokia was forced to ride the same current.
But how is this once-great brand attempting to offer something unique in the face of the merciless competition? Ideas like polycarbonate shells, innovate camera optics and inbuilt music services help give it an edge over the Windows Phone competition, and give consumers something different to consider when browsing at their local phone emporium.
It's a strategy to be commended; aside from the obvious benefit of not being accused of copying the designs of another firm, which can be costly even when innocent, Nokia is working to prove that not everyone clamours for the shiny aluminium phone, that there are millions looking to differentiate themselves more.
However, therein lies the company's biggest failure since its rebirth. While alternative and colourful designs will attract many, there are far more consumers out there swayed by the super-svelte, the impossibly thin, the brushed aluminium designs that can still house all of Nokia's impressive technology.
By stubbornly refusing to go down this path, Nokia is creating a rod for its own back – instead of consumers being attracted to a design then asking for reasons to buy it, Nokia is being forced to spend many hours educating retail staff in the benefits of Windows Phone and its technology, especially when the weighty 920 is compared to the lighter-than-air iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S3 by the uncaring customers.
If you have to tell people why your product is brilliant, you're already at a disadvantage in these hyper-competitive smarpthone wars.
With its strong feature phone market share being eroded quickly by super-cheap Android phones, and net cash shrinking with each round of financial results, Nokia (obviously) needs to make sure its Windows Phone strategy is a success
So how to sum up the last 12 months? Pierce himself stated that the brand would have liked to have seen better sales and more market share by now, and while early sales of the Lumia 920 have been promising, it's still locked as an exclusive to the EE network at a high tariff thanks to the 4G connection.
So 2013 will be a critical year for Nokia if it's going to start cutting swathes in the smartphone market, and Pierce believes the current focus is precisely geared for that: "Nokia is in a new position; we're driving towards a new goal and you'll see lots more coming with some very exciting things in the pipeline. But the most important thing is that we focus now."
That focus needs to be laser pointed on delivering what the consumer wants, not what the Finnish firm thinks it needs. The next phone needs to be something that compares with the Samsung Galaxy S4 on price, specs and design, not just one of those. It needs to say 'Nokia is back' in a way that doesn't rely on the benefits of Xbox integration or Skype to make the sale.
In short, Nokia has quietly impressed over the last year, getting itself in a position to really make a strong play for consumers' affections. Now it needs to deliver a phone that can capture that.
Evernote has been helping people harness every idea that crosses their mind since 2008. Now its iOS app has reached version 5.0 and it's getting a visual upgrade. Along with it comes some new navigation for iPhone and iPad and a nice perk or two that utilizes the iPad's size.
We all have silly little fleeting thoughts that might not have much value, but at the time they seem to be a good idea. It’s hard to judge the actual worth of those concepts right then and there, and it’s a battle to remember them long enough to look back at. This is a problem that Evernote has been solving since 2008. An idea archiver and note taking app, Evernote lets users hold on to every last thought that crosses their mind – even the ones that have little to no merit. The iOS version, Evernote 5.0, just got an overhaul that aims to make it even easier to store things that you will look at later and shamefully delete before anyone else can see it.
The previous layout of Evernote clearly served its owners well as the app amassed 34 million users over the years. That said, even the best options out there need a little refresher to stay on top. Evernote’s navigation has be flipped and now features a home screen that resembles a filing cabinet. Not the kind of filing cabinet that I have, with mislabeled manilla files falling off the hanger and papers bent and crumbled as they lie misplaced throughout, but like an actual functioning file cabinet. The folders contain all of the notes you’ve created and are accessible in four different ways: Places, Tags, Notebooks, or All Notes. This puts everything right at your fingertips and no less than two taps away. It’s definitely an improvement on the previous approach that worked but was less direct. This system will feel quite natural to most people.
The display of notes also takes on a new new notecard style, showing off more information and content than previous iterations. It’s handy when scrolling through notebooks where notes may contain similar content or when there’s just a very quick bit of info that you need and don’t want to dig for. It may be right there on the title card. That said, it would be nice to have some color-coding functionality. That may bring back nightmares of writing out notecards and playing the matching game to study for tests, but it could still serve a purpose in this instance.
Notebooks have a new look as well, and now include all of your own notes and any note that has been shared with you. This is great for switching between notes that have been shared for a multi-person project and content you’ve kept to yourself. If you’d only like to view one set of notebooks, there’s a filtered view that changes to your preferred viewing. The notebooks have a moleskine look to them and are shown in neat looking stacks on the iPhone or spread out on the iPad. It doesn’t really serve any benefit, but it’s easy on the eyes. That may make it sound sexier than it is, but you get the idea.
A feature lost on the iPhone version but now available on the iPad is Recent Notes. If you’re using Evernote on the iPhone, this may be a sorely missed section. It makes it easy to continue working on a project that you’ve been editing continuously. Without it, you can’t just glace at where you last left off. It’s likely little more than a mild inconvenience, but it’s still a casualty of the redesign. If you’re an iPad user, though, turn all of the negatives of that paragraph into positives because you’ve got the extra screen space to afford a feature like Recent Notes.
While some sacrifices were made for the sake of navigation and visual appeal, plenty more have been added in the name of organization and ease of use. The pros of Evernote 5.0 outweigh the cons, and when you combine it when the new version of Evernote for Mac, it makes for one lethal and uniform combination. With it, you can keep tabs on every idea that crosses your mind. Finally, you might remember that great idea for a new . On second thought, use Evernote with discretion.
Evernote 5.0 for iOS is available for free in the iTunes App Store.
Sony might be known for reasonably high-quality hardware, but it certainly isn’t one of top-sellers in the smartphone market. According to Sony’s CVP of sales and marketing, the company is planning to release a flagship device in the near future that could finally push them forward competitively.
The Sony CVP, Dennis van Schie, says, “We will create in the near future a flagship model that can compete with Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy S III,”, which basically is their way of admitting that they have had quality devices but nothing that has been able to blow their rivals away. What’s this new flagship device he is speaking of? It certainly could be the long-rumored Song Yuga. Based on what we’ve heard so far, the Yuga is said to feature a quad-core Snapdragon S4, 2GB of RAM and a 12MP camera. Even better, the phone is supposed to be dust and water resistant with IP57 certification.
Another major problem that Sony has had is that they are often behind in the game when it comes to Android updates, though the Yuga is said to run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. If Sony can actually stick to Jelly Bean and offer a timely upgrade to Android 4.2 shortly after launch, they might certainly have something here.
The gaming industry has certainly seen better days and according to a new report from research firm NPD Group, the trend continued in the third quarter. Americans spent roughly $2.87 billion on gaming products and services in the quarter, down a single percentage point year-over-year.
Specifically, sales of physical goods like PC and console game discs accounted for $1.07 billion, a full 16 percent less than the same time last year. Consumers spent $399 million on used software and game rentals during the same period but it was digital content that had the biggest impact on the industry for Q3.
Full games, add-on content downloads, subscriptions, mobile games and social network games combined to generate $1.40 billion in revenue from July through September. Digital content sales increased 22 percent year-to-year.
As CNET points out, the industry as a whole has been going through some tough times as of late due to a number of factors including but not limited to sluggishness in the hardware and software market. Today’s consoles are nearing the end of their lifecycle. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 launched in North America exactly seven years ago today while Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii console both hit store shelves roughly six years ago.
Things are expected to pick up in the fourth quarter as always thanks to the holiday buying season. This is the time of year that we typically see the most anticipated games launch and for Nintendo, we’re just a couple of days away from the release of their next generation console, the Wii U.
The Nokia Lumia 820 isn't meant as the Finnish firm's flagship handset - that accolade belongs to the Lumia 920 - but this colourful Windows Phone 8 smartphone is impressive nonetheless.
The Nokia Lumia 820 carries plenty of unique features and costs less than the Lumia 920, making it a tempting offer for anyone considering making the move to Microsoft's OS.
It goes without saying Nokia is pinning a lot of hope on this phone. Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S3 are kicking up dust both in terms of sales and as standard bearers for their respective operating systems.
You can pick the Lumia 820 up free from £25 per month on Vodafone, albeit with only 300 minutes and 250MB of data, on a 24 month contract. Alternatively the SIM-free version of the phone will set you back an entirely reasonable £380.
There's a reasonable amount of power on offer at that price thanks to the dual core 1.5Ghz Snapdragon processor and Adreno 225 GPU. Windows OS is a typically smooth operating system the Lumia 820 runs off 1GB of RAM which keeps things nice and slick.
Outwardly though, this is a different-looking phone from the Lumia 920. The unibody is gone, replaced with a removable plastic back that lets you change the colour of the handset. Our review model came with a bright yellow rear cover, although red, black, magenta, blue, white and grey are also available.
Hopefully over time third-party designs will become available allowing you to customise your handset just like the Nokia's of old.
Unfortunately, the back cover is also where we run into our first problem with the Lumia 820. Basically you'll need fingernails like Wolverine to claw the cover back from the body of the phone. It took the TechRadar team several amusing minutes trying to remove the casing in order to insert our SIM to begin using the phone.
Once you're happy with the casing, and you've spent the required ten minutes struggling to get your Micro SIM installed, you'll be able to sit back and notice that at 160g, the Lumia 820 isn't as heavy as its bigger brother.
It's also got slightly smaller dimensions - but at 124 x 69 x 10mm with a 4.3-inch AMOLED screen we wouldn't go so far as to call it tiny.
The curved sides and rounded corners of the handset make it comfortable to hold and certainly give it a friendly appearance. We could easily wrap our hand around the Lumia 820 and access the physical buttons, which are all located along the right hand side of the phone.
You get a volume rocker at the top, followed by the power on/off button in the centre and then a physical camera shutter button - something we're always happy to see on a smartphone. All the buttons can be easily flicked with either the thumb of your right hand or the fingers of your left, depending on which you use to hold the phone.
One point though, the plastic backing on the Lumia 820 is completely smooth which looks nice but doesn't offer any great amount of grip.
The front of the phone is minimal in terms of design, with just the Nokia lettering at the top and the three standard Windows phone soft touch keys at the bottom. While the 4.3-inch AMOLED, 800 x 480 screen is up to Nokia's usual high standard, there's definitely a noticeable black bezel around the display.
Usually this doesn't cause too much concern, but given the near edge-to-edge displays of handsets like the Motorola Razr i and the iPhone 5, it's becoming more of an issue.
The display isn't as large as other smartphones out there. It won't compete with the 4.7-inch HTC One X+, the 4.8-inch Galaxy S3 or the 4.5-inch Lumia 920, for screen real estate but compromises with portability.
Screen size itself is becoming far more of a subjective issue anyway with a device on offer at pretty much every stage from pocket-friendly smartphone to sofa-surfing tablet.
The top and bottom of the Lumia 820 are given over to the 3.5mm headphone jack and the micro-USB charging and connection port respectively. There's also a small speaker to the right of the micro-USB port which we felt didn't look as nicely uniform as the dual speaker vents on the Lumia 920.
Overall build quality is as good as you would expect given Nokia's long history of mobile phone craftsmanship. While we would expect the casing to scratch fairly easily if this phone took a tumble, there's a reassuring heft to the handset that suggests the internal workings would stay protected.
Importantly then, first impressions are quite good. It's a good looking, feature-packed phone from a pair of companies that really have something to prove this time around. So, how does it fare when we dip below the surface?
