The fourth expansion for Battlefield 3 introduces four new maps, a new crossbow, three modified vehicles, a new game mode, and one devastated Iran.

More than a year after the release of Battlefield 3, EA and DICE are still putting in work, son. Aftermath, the fourth of five promised DLCs, has been released for premium players on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC, and all BF3 owners will soon get the chance to purchase it for $9.99.

If you are a Premium member, the question of whether or not you’ll get Aftermath is a non-issue. You’ve already paid for it as part of the Premium fee, so unless you have some weird moral objection to the DLC, then there is no reason not to download the whopping 1.7 GB expansion. For those looking to purchase a la carte, the Aftermath DLC offers a lot of great content, but nothing that will blow you away.

The DLC contains four new maps, all set within the Battlefield 3 campaign framework. Each of the new areas is located in parts of Iran immediately following an Earthquake, and all four maps are built around the concept of urban ruin. That gives the maps a lot of areas to move, hide, and stab your friends in the neck while they are hunting you, but it also gives the visual flair a distinctively drab look. When mixed with the previous maps, it should look fine, but playing all four on a loop gives you a bland sense in terms of color.

The devastated locales all offer plenty of room to maneuver, and a lot to look at, but the torn and mauled streets are more than decorative, they are functional. Fissures in the ground lead to slightly covered paths, while once secure buildings now offer multi-level combat options. As always, the maps will take time to learn, and not just the pathways, but the limitations. Go easy on the first person you see futility trying to jump up what looks like a ramp of granite, but in truth is an impassible collection of rock that acts like a Siren, there to lure gamers to their deaths by leaving them frustrated and defenseless, jumping against what looks like a stairway, but is essentially a wall.  

The same is true of the rubble. With no smooth surfaces, you’ll need to learn through experimentation what you can exploit, and where you can go. It is simply a technical limitation. This is more of an issue in some maps than others. 

Epicentre is a traditional Battlefield 3 level, with sprawling cityscapes, and plenty of opportunities to get into ranged combat while capturing points or hunting enemies. It is nowhere close to being the largest BF3 level, but it feels right at home with the previously released maps – to a fault. There is very little to make this map stand out. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing when you include this map in a rotation, but it doesn’t exactly feel fresh either.

Where it succeeds though, is the way it funnels you into combat without your realizing that you are being herded. It is a big map, but the design is such that you’ll quickly find your way to enemies. This is credit to the design.

Markaz Monolith feels the least like a traditional Battlefield board, and more like a traditional shooter map. It offers a more confined zone with plenty of obviously placed cover to protect you from the vehicles – especially the helicopters, which can get you anywhere.

Of course, the narrow streets and multi-tier structures mean that the helicopter pilot will need to be very good to chase you around the map, but it is more than possible, which makes this feel more frantic, like a Call of Duty game with kill streaks that are out of control. Of the four, this map feels the least necessary, and will probably be the least liked of the bunch.

Talah Market is the most urban of the maps, with several multi-storied structures and commercial buildings that allow you to take the fight in a vertical direction. The vehicles have a tough time here because of that, and the rubble fools you into thinking you have plenty of cover, when in reality this might be the map you will need to move the most on to avoid being caught from the side.

The map is huge, but also well contained. You may run into enemies every time you spawn, or you may take a different path and wonder where everyone is. This one feels like the most traditional map of the four, which means it will be a great addition to playlists, but it doesn’t really stand out.

Azadi Palace may be the best of the bunch, with a massive map that pulls players into the center to battle in and around a two story building with multiple means of reaching the upper level. Smaller vehicles can also wreak havoc here, but a decent sniper can find a dark corner and end the threat by popping the driver before the vehicle finds the stairs and all hell breaks loose.

The map also features massive amounts of rubble and broken buildings, which give you plenty of places to fight it out, as long as you are willing to constantly be moving. This map has personality, and feels like the most unique of the bunch.

Scavenger is a fun new game mode, but it is a fleeting one as well. You begin with only a handgun – no primary weapons, gadgets, or explosives. Scattered throughout the maps are weapons you can snag that are randomly placed and ranked by levels, the higher the level the more powerful the weapon. Your goal – beyond the constant goal of widow making – is to wrest control of flags scattered about the map. Unlike conquest, these flags take only a few seconds to release from enemy control and take for your team, allowing them to constantly change hands while scoring you big points. All four of the maps work well enough on the standard conquest and rush games, and deathmatch is fine anywhere.  All four are also designed for play with the scavenger mode, which makes its debut in Aftermath.

This is the most chaotic and frantic mode Battlefield offers. The urge to rush into the field and find a weapon or take a flag will constantly lead to massive firefights with most players using only a handgun, forcing them to get up close and personal. It’s also a good equalizer, as higher ranked players won’t be able to benefit from their unlocked weapons and perks.

The round ends when one team’s tickets are exhausted, and that generally happens very quickly. Matches that last more than five minutes are rare. Battlefield purists may dismiss this mode as an anomaly compared to the other modes, and they won’t be wrong. Scavenger is, however, a nice change of pace, even if it isn’t a mode that will be much more than an occasional palette clenser. With the quick kills and balanced teams, plus plenty of easy to capture flags, it also makes for an excellent mode to level up in, especially if there is a class where you don’t like the early weapons but want to play it to unlock the later tiers. You may not like sniping with the recon class, for example, but you can quickly level the class up without having to snipe at all. Of course, it won’t help you unlock weapon attachments.

Premium members will no doubt happily include the new maps and scavenger game mode into their rotation, even though the new areas will probably be lost among the other, superior map offerings previously released. For everyone else, the choice is simply down to how much you like BF3. Gamers on the fence won’t miss out on anything amazing by skipping Aftermath, but they probably won’t regret it either. All-in-all it’s forgettable content, but it isn’t bad for $9.99. The new vehicles are fine, but best suited for the new maps and not necessarily the previous boards, and the crossbow is a fun gimmick, but not a serious replacement weapon.

Battlefield 3’s most recent DLC won’t change anyone’s mind about the game, but it should be enough content to keep things fresh until the final promised DLC, End Game, is released in March of next year. Non-Premium PS3 fans will be able to decide for themselves on December 11, while Xbox 360 users will receive the option to buy Aftermath on December 18.

Santa Claus is coming to town, but while you wait you might want to check out some useful, fun, and just plain crazy Christmas apps for iOS and Android. Here’s our roundup of Christmas-themed apps to get you in the holiday spirit.

The season of family get-togethers, drinking and eating too much, and sacks full of presents, is upon us. Are you feeling jolly yet? Some of you will be dreading the inevitable arguments as the whole family is stuffed into one house; some of you will be focused on the new gadgets heading your way; and some of you will be counting down the days until vacation starts and you can put your feet up in front of the TV. Whether you’re going to be donning a Christmas jumper and singing carols or just playing up the Santa visit for your kids, we’ve got a bunch of ridiculous Christmas apps for you. If these don’t get you in the spirit then nothing will. They’re so full of holiday spirit they’d make little 8-pound, 6-ounce baby Jesus cry.

Sleeps to Christmas 2 (Free)

How many more sleeps before Christmas rolls round? This app will tell you exactly how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds remain before you hear those sleigh bells ringing. If that isn’t enough for you, the countdown is accompanied by some animated characters and a smattering of classic Christmas carols including Jingle Bells and Joy to the World. This one is only on the iPhone.

Christmas Countdown FULL 2012 ($1)

Here’s an Android app that will keep your kids amused and get them excited as the big day approaches. It’s a supercharged advent calendar that challenges you to help the elves save Christmas. There’s a new game every day with puzzles and riddles to solve and you’ll also be rewarded with a comedy Elven Advent poem and a funny animation when you complete each one.

Christmas HD ($2)

This animated Christmas scene is super-detailed, it’s live wallpaper for your Android smartphone and it’s guaranteed to fill you with the Christmas spirit. There’s a decorated tree, stockings hanging in front of a roasting fire, a countdown calendar, and snow outside. You can even customize the lights, ornaments, text, and lots of other little details.

Talking Santa (Android, iOS, $1)

Your kids can talk to Santa every day with this app and he will repeat whatever they say. You can also play around to discover some comical animations. The app includes options to create videos, Christmas messages, or cards and send them via text, email or Facebook. The developers have added another character from their talking menagerie into this app – Ginger the cat. It’s daft, but kids generally find it funny. Make sure you turn off Wi-Fi or keep an eye on them as they play because it’s very easy to download more content from within the app if they tap the wrong button or hit an ad.

A Charlie Brown Christmas ($5)

Who can resist the Peanuts classic from 1965? It appears here as an interactive story book with narration, animations and music to enjoy. You or your kids will feel that warm Christmas glow as you play Schroeder’s piano and decorate Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. This is seasonal nostalgia for adults and proves just as entertaining for a new generation. It’s only available on iOS.

Christmas Photo Frames (Free)

You know those horribly twee Christmas cards with shiny baubles, snowflakes, and holly? Have you ever wanted to make your own? With this free Android app you can take your own photos and choose from over 100 different Christmas themed frames to decorate them with. This app is perfect for making your own batch of Christmas cards.

The Christmas List ($1)

If you’re anything like me, Christmas shopping is one night on the Internet and everything arrives by mail, but some people like to plan, shop around, and find truly thoughtful gifts. If you want to stay organized then The Christmas List app on iPhone is pretty unbeatable. You can set budgets, sync lists via email, track gift status, add people directly from your contacts list, and even password protect the app. This is perfect for Christmas shoppers who crave military precision.

If you want an Android alternative try Christmas List Pro, it’s not as feature-rich or polished, but it basically does the same thing.

Super Dance Elf Christmas with Friends ($1)

Everyone harbors a secret desire to see their friends and loved ones’ heads pasted onto dancing bodies in elf suits right? This iPhone app lets you put a face from one of your photos onto a male or female elf, Miss Merry Christmas or Reggae Reindeer body and watch them dance to seasonal tunes. Sadly, you can only share with other people who have the app so it’s best employed when you’re going to pass your iPhone round so everyone can have a laugh.

Christmas Carolizer (Free)

How about a spot of Christmas karaoke complete with auto-tune? This app comes with two free seasonal songs (extras are $1 each) and you can sing along karaoke style. You can also create cards with your own photos, add Santa hats and other bits and pieces, and then share them via Facebook, Twitter, or email. This one is only available on iOS.

Holiday Time Machine (Free)

Travel back to Christmas past with this Video Time Machine offshoot that focuses on the holiday season. Simply set your year and you can enjoy TV, adverts and music from Christmases gone by. You can also share what you find on Facebook and Twitter. This might just rekindle your childhood wonder and it should have something everyone because it goes all the way back to 1898. It’s only available for iOS.

Toca Hair Salon – Christmas Gift (Free)

Easily claiming the prize for the weirdest Christmas app on the market, Toca Hair Salon – Christmas Gift challenges you to cut, color, and style Santa’s hair and beard. There are lots of colors to choose from and various accessories, so if you want to know what Santa looks like with a red Mohican then this is your chance. There’s also a tree to trim and decorate. This is actually a good app for kids and there are no ads or in-app purchases in sight. It’s only on iOS.

Have you found any other useful, fun, or over-the-top Christmas apps? Post a comment and share.

In an attempt to save the institution of marriage, a village in eastern India has banned women from using cell phones, believing that that will reduce the number of extra-marital affairs in the community.

For those who tend to get upset about patriarchal over-reach and misogyny as it appears on the Internet, prepare to have your minds blown in the worst way possible by the recent decision of a village council in Suderbari, a town in eastern India. In an effort to prevent what is being described as pollution of “the social atmosphere,” women in the town have been prohibited from using cell phones.

The decision was announced earlier this week following a formal meeting of the village council held on Sunday, with the president of the council’s social advisory committee, Manuwar Alam, explaining that “unrestricted use of mobile phones is promoting premarital and extramarital affairs and destroying the great institution of marriage.” Characterizing the council’s attitude towards this attack on the institution of marriage to be “extremely worried” (“We had to hide our faces out of shame,” he explained), the village council announced the ban on women being able to have unrestricted use of cell phones in the future, with Alam describing the action as a choice “to do something that could firmly curb such cases [of cheating and marital disrespect], which were earning a bad name for all of us.”

Because, you know, trying to prevent half of your population from having access to technology widely available throughout the world and, in the process, removing any right to free speech while also seeming to place the blame for societal downfall squarely on their shoulders by reason of their gender alone is the kind of thing that gives a society a far better name. Obviously.

It isn’t a complete ban on women using cell phones, however; women will be allowed to use a phone in the presence of a male family member, according to the council. Women who are caught breaking the ban will be fined, with the amount of financial penalty on a sliding scale depending on social status; unmarried women will have to pay 10,000 Indian rupees ($184 US) if caught using a cell phone, while married women will only have to pay 2,000 rupees ($37 US).

Thankfully, this decision has not gone unnoticed by human rights groups who have been rightfully appalled by the idea. Pointing out that cell phones can be almost immeasurably important for women in terms of personal security in certain rural areas of India, especially with the danger of sexual assault, campaigners have started to mobilize in response to the Suderbari council’s decision. One campaigner, Farzana Begum, described the announcement as an attempt to “infringe on rights of women,” adding that “such things cannot be allowed in a democratic society.”

The Suderbari council is apparently standing by its choice, refusing to back down or even address criticisms of its announcement.

It's that time of the year, folks. No, not the holidays – cybersecurity prediction time! Renowned cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Labs has released its predictions for the state of digital security over the coming 12 months. Here's what they're expecting.

As digital life and offline life continue to mix, blend, and become evermore inseparable, the risk associated with such an existence will naturally persevere, change, expand, and morph with each passing years. And while every cyber security company out there keeps tracks of the bad stuff that has and will happen to Internet users, few have the clout and expertise of Kaspersky Labs, which released today its list of predictions for cyber (in)security in 2013.

Mac Malware on the rise

Among the trends for next year, there will be an increase in malware that targets Apple’s Mac OS X operating system, say Kaspersky Global Research & Analysis Director Costin Raiu and Senior Regional Researcher David Emm. Hackers traditionally ignored OS X because it made more sense to spend time developing viruses and other malware that would potentially reach a larger number of victims through Microsoft Windows machines. But all that changed this year with the Mac OS X Trojan virus “Flashback” (aka Flashfake).

“Based on our statistics, we estimate that Flashback infected over 700,000 Macs, easily the biggest known MacOS X infection to date,” write Raiu and Emm.

“Flashback continues to be relevant because it demolished the myth of invulnerability surrounding the Mac and because it confirmed that massive outbreaks can indeed affect non-Windows platforms. Back in 2011, we predicted that we would see more Mac malware attacks. We just never expected it would be this dramatic.”

Kaspersky researchers say they have also seen “targeted attacks on specific groups, or individuals, known to use Macs,” in addition to broad attacks like those waged using Flashback. “The threat to Macs is real and is likely keep growing,” they say.

Spying and privacy

Government surveillance and increased threats to individual privacy will also become major trends during the next 12 months, say Raiu and Emm.

The use of “legal” surveillance tools by world governments will become a necessary evil in the fight against cyber-crime, which has law enforcement scrambling to get a step ahead of the bad guys. These spying tools include things like the ‘Bundestrojan‘ malware allegedly used by the German government to spy on its citizens, or a software that allows law enforcements to monitor our mobile phone usage.

“Clearly, the use of legal surveillance tools has wider implications for privacy and civil liberties,” write Raiu and Emm. “And as law enforcement agencies, and governments, try to get one step ahead of the criminals, it’s likely that the use of such tools – and the debate surrounding their use – will continue.”

In addition to threats to privacy from our governments, criminals will be increasingly enticed by the valuable user data that we continue to funnel onto the servers of every online service that we use. “The value of personal data – to cybercriminals and legitimate businesses – will only grow in the future, and with it the potential threat to our privacy increases,” writes the researchers. Furthermore, our data will continue to be used for the purposes of serving advertising, sometimes without our knowledge or consent, say Raiu and Emm, “and it’s not always clear how to opt out of this process.”

Other issues

These are only a smattering of the cyber security issues that Kaspersky estimates will rise in prominence in 2013. Here is a quick rundown of the rest of the researchers’ list:

• Continued rise of targeted attacks
• Ongoing march of “hacktivism”
• More nation-state sponsored cyber-attacks
• Attacks on cloud-based infrastructure
• Continued problems with online trust and digital authorities
• Continued rise of mobile malware
• Vulnerabilities and exploits continue to be key attack methods for cybercriminals
• Wide deployment of Ransomware and cryptoextortion malware

To get the full predictions, read Raiu and Emm’s thoughtful blog post here.

In an attempt to break into the mobile industry, Dish Network may begin selling smartphones at its Blockbuster brick and mortar locations.

With the prominence of services such as Netflix and Hulu, renting movies from a local Blockbuster has become a staple of the past. The dated rental company, however, may begin to change with the times. Dish Network is reportedly planning to start selling mobile phones at Blockbuster’s remaining brick and mortar locations.

Blockbuster recently began selling phones on its website under the moniker “Blockbuster Mobile,” and has been working with carriers such as Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile. This movement will expand to Blockbuster’s 850 retail locations, according to Bloomberg who spoke with sources familiar with the matter.

Dish, which acquired Blockbuster last year, could be using this venture to launch its very own mobile phone service. The company now owns a batch of wireless airwaves and is waiting for approval from the FCC before makings its next move.

The satellite TV service provider had planned on utilizing Blockbuster to sell mobile phones ever since it purchased the chain in 2011, Dish chairman and co-founder Charlie Ergen said according to Bloomberg. The company plans to bring on a partner to facilitate the launch of its mobile services, but all talks are on hold until Dish gains permission from the FCC.

“Wireless will compliment all of our technologies and allow us to be in more places and offer more of our services on one bill,” Joe Clayton, Dish’s Chief Executive Officer, said to Bloomberg yesterday.

This could introduce Dish into a whole new sector of the mobile market, giving the company an opportunity to excel in more than one area. Competing companies Verizon and AT&T currently control more than half of the U.S. market. Dish might be able to team up with an existing carrier, but further plans have been detailed at this time.

However, Blockbuster will have a sizeable hurdle to overcome: its lack of retail locations. Dish closed down half of the 1,700 Blockbuster stores when it bought the company out of bankruptcy in 2011, Bloomberg reports. AT&T and Verizon have more than 4,000 retail locations combined. When the movie rental company was owned by Viacom in 2004, it spanned about 9,000 brick and mortar stores. 

Brokerage firm Detwiler Fenton has estimated that sales of Microsoft's Surface tablet will turn out to be lower than expected for this quarter.

Although Microsoft has implemented some creative advertising strategies when it comes to its Surface tablet, such as the guerrilla-style wall art found in New York City, sales of the device are off to a slow start. On Wednesday morning, Boston-based brokerage firm Detwiler Fenton said in a research note that Microsoft is projected to sell less than one million Surface tablets for the December quarter. Detwiler referred to the Windows-maker’s strategy as “in disarray,” according to Forbes.

The firm does, however, expect that Surface sales should improve in the second half of 2013 as Microsoft improves its hardware and distribution. According to Detwiler, a lack of distribution is the largest hurdle standing in the product’s way. In fact, the firm referred to poor exposure at major electronics retailers such as Best Buy as “severely depressing sales.” The only way to purchase the Surface is through Microsoft’s website or through its small chain of retail locations.

Combined with mixed reviews and a somewhat hefty price tag this lack of exposure has held Microsoft back from reaching projected estimates of between 1 million and 2 million Surface sales. The long-time PC software maker is hitting about half of that number, as Detwiler estimates that sales are dipping into the 500,000 – 600,000 range. The upcoming Surface Pro, which will be released in early 2013, is expected to reach between 2 and 3 million in sales.

While sales of Microsoft’s first ever self-branded tablet may be looking slim, the company is succeeding in other sectors of its re-branded Windows devices. Windows 8 laptops are far outselling the Surface RT, Detwiler acknowledges. Windows Phone 8 devices are also off to a “relatively strong start” on AT&T’s network, according to the firm.

Still, Microsoft and its OEM partners are “struggling to gain traction” at Verizon. This could be attributed to a lack of interest in Nokia’s Lumia 822 and HTC’s Windows Phone 8X. Nokia’s Lumia 920 appears to be the flagship product of that brand, but it’s currently exclusive to AT&T and could remain that way for a while. As for HTC, the firm noted that its Android-based DNA has proved to be an easier sell than its Windows-based device.

Detwiler also noted that Microsoft might have to push its Surface brand into the mobile market to achieve more success, hinting that a Surface phone could be what Microsoft needs.

“MSFT needs to go into 2013 with some momentum,” Detwiler said. “And while sales are obviously headed in the right direction, we’re skeptical they are going to have much of an impact.”

We go hands on with Zite 2.0, a retooled, redesigned news app focused on content discovery and a robust recommendation algorithm.

If you’ve been a long time user, you could been in for a shock when you open up the new Zite. Calling the new update 2.0, Zite is ushering in a new generation for the platform with a complete redesign and new search functions to discover content. As a long time Zite user who enjoyed its simplicity, the new design was hair raising at first. It’s scary to think that everything about the app that I loved could be gone. But after spending some time with the new app, I found this to be far from the truth.

In lieu of Zite’s text-based logo, an owl greets you on the fleeting splash page. Why an owl? Zite says that it’s “curious, intelligent, and approachable” – all the attributes that Zite claims to embody, but we’ll be the judge of that.

First impressions

On the front end, Zite’s redesigned app has put a heavy emphasis on images. The images that accompany stories take up more retail space than they used to take. On one hand, you might be more inclined to select or engage with a larger picture, but it also means that fewer stories can be packed into the screen. Stepping back and looking at the redesign as a whole, the new design looks a lot like Feedly’s user interface.

The article pages themselves have few changes and improvements. Among the changes is a topic tagged to each story. Topic tags, which you’ll find added to each article, provide a secondary channel for users to explore deeper into a topic related to the story. You can click through tag and open up a new topic page and its relevant stories.

When you open up an article, the sharing and up/down vote icons are still there. But at the bottom left is a gear icon that pops open the option to increase or decrease text sizes or to block the publication from surfacing again in the future.

A new way to navigate Zite

There are a few dramatic changes to the way users navigate the app, and here is where the redesign could be divisive among existing users. To browse through stories you can swipe vertically, which is the same motion that we familiarized ourselves with in version 1.0, but the horizontal motion for browsing topics has been removed altogether (unless you’re returning to the previous page). Normally, you’d swipe left and right to scroll through your choice topics. I may have had to swipe through five different topics before I could find the technology section, but it forced me to at the least catch a glimpse of the latest news happening not only in tech. So should a story pique my interest I would end up clicking on it. The new design opts to list topics in a “Quicklist.” So now you can navigate to the top left button and open up your favorite topics. This move, Zite CEO Mark Johnson tells me, is to satisfy two types of users – user that might have a couple dozen categories and users with just a few categories. The list was the best way to keep all users happy.

Search and ‘Explore’

A new search section, which Zite calls “Explore” encourages the discovery of new topics in the app, which wasn’t supported in Zite 1.0. Now with 40,000 different topics, users can find something that fits their interests thanks to a new search bar. If you select the magnifying glass icon on the upper right corner of the home screen, it opens up the “Explorer” page. Here, there’s four social buttons, and below that there are recommendations for new topics that you might want to select.

Johnson says that the discovery of new categories was really what motivated the company to redesign the app. With 40,000 categories, Zite had the challenge of convincing users that these categories exist, which was impossible on Zite 1.0, but now a reality on Zite 2.0.

Profile page

One major but non-assuming feature on Zite that’s hidden away is personal profile pages. If you access your Quicklist, there’s a button in the bottom left corner of the page labeled “More.” If you click on this, you’ll see your name, email address, the number of topics on your Quicklist, and the number of times you’ve liked and disliked stories. There’s also a button to change users. You don’t have to think much of this right now, but it’s a clear indication of Zite’s interest in developing personal profiles users. Johnson confirmed with me that this was in fact the direction Zite was taking.

“Another good reason for the changes is that we wanted a base on which we could build a lot of cool features,” said Johnson. “A common request from users is a history page. In terms of users and personalization, there’s a lot of ways users can give us a lot more data to make Zite smarter, so we’re also thinking about that.”

Behind the scenes

User interface changes are nice, but Zite 2.0 is also packing a superior recommendation engine. These changes are most obvious if you you’re on the topic, “Your Top Stories.” This topic recommends you a veritable cornucopia of stories depending on your engagement and other variables on Zite including social, views, and likes.

If you connected your Twitter and Facebook accounts (through the “Explore” tab), Zite is also able to surface articles based on the stories you’ve shared in the past on each network. Johnson encourages users to upvote and downvote each story they read to better improve their recommendation services. You’ll also recognize a heart icon next to each category, which fuels the recommendations. By pressing this icon you can add that topic directly into your Quicklist and, at the same time, tell Zite that it’s a topic that you’re interested in. Finally, the articles that you read in Zite contribute to surfacing the articles that Zite thinks matters to you the most.

Why the changes

As discussed above, the changes revolve around the discovery of new topics and categories. This design just happened to best fit Zite’s needs. But also Johnson says that Zite always wanted to go native on the iPhone and make the user experience feel “snappier.” “It was always our intention to rebuild Zite from the ground up once it became popular.”

When we first heard about the Oppo Find 5 Android smartphone, we weren’t sure if it was going to make it out of China. It has now been confirmed that it’s coming to the States as an unlocked smartphone, compatible with T-Mobile, AT&T and Simple Mobile. The unsubsidized price has been set at $499.

The specs are roughly on par with the Droid DNA (HTC J Butterfly), giving you a Qualcomm APQ8064 quad-core 1.5GHz processor and 2GB of RAM. There’s the impressive 5-inch 1080×1920 full HD display (441PPI), 16GB of internal storage, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a beefy 2500mAh battery for extended life. It’s quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900) and quad-band UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA/HSPA+ (850/1700/1900/2100), so it should be pretty world-friendly too. Rounding out the wireless radios are dual-band WiFi-N, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth, and NFC. And all this will be found in a remarkably slim package.

The official event for the Oppo Find 5 is scheduled to happen in Beijing on December 12, though it’s not yet clear when they are going to launch the phone in the United States. They are set up as Oppo USA, so their American ambitions are pretty clear. At $499 unsubsidized, this is one of the better spec’d unlocked smartphones for sure, though some people may be wary of the Oppo brand and would prefer to get the Nexus 4. It should be noted that the Oppo Find 5 appears to lack US-friendly LTE, though.

Disappointing battery life continues to plague smartphones even as they improve in every way. When will new batteries finally save us from the nightly recharging routine?

In the last decade, we’ve seen laptops shrink to cardboard thickness, ubiquitous Internet connectivity allow us to carry all the world’s knowledge in a pocket, and touch-based tablets make computing intuitive enough for two-year-olds. Everything seems to be improving. Well, everything with one big exception: batteries. As the rest of the tech world rips forward, battery technology remains stagnant. Smartphone clock speeds are measured in GHz and screens are so dense we can’t even see pixels anymore, yet battery life is still measured in hours, not days.

We’ve been putting up with crappy battery life for our entire lives, but our dependence on batteries is growing. More and more of us look at the battery specs of new devices to judge their overall competence, even before they’ve gone on sale, in the same way we check the screen resolution and the clock speed of the chip. The new Verizon Droid DNA is an excellent example. The 1080p, 5-inch screen may have grabbed the headlines, but the seemingly weedy 2020mAh battery had many complaining that it wouldn’t be up to the job of powering such a pixel-dense screen.

A recent J.D. Power survey found battery performance was the least satisfying aspect of smartphone ownership, and it was one of just two areas that showed a significant decline between 2011 and 2012. Owners of 4G devices are particularly frustrated by poor performance. Bottom line: Batteries need to get better, but will they? Is a single day of battery life really the best we can hope for? Fortunately, no. A number of promising developments on the horizon promise to bring batteries out of the dark ages and potentially last for weeks.

Sprucing up the lithium-ion battery

Lithium-ion batteries were developed in the 1970s and reached the market in the early 1990s. Since then, they’ve made their way into almost every battery-powered gadget. But they’re ready for retirement, right? Not according to Professor Harold Kung of Northwestern University. He led a project which redesigned standard li-ion batteries using a graphene-silicon anode so they could hold up to 10 times as great a charge as before, while decreasing the time it takes to charge them by the same amount.

Researchers at Rice University have used a similar-sounding technique to make another type of cell, this time with a porous silicon-powder anode, which again boosted performance 10 times over. While a standard graphite anode li-ion battery has a capacity of 350 to 400mAh per gram, Rice’s battery hits 1,000mAh per gram, so it can store more charge without adding bulk.

Silicon has proven popular in next-gen batteries because it’s cheap, plentiful, and can hold more power than carbon; but it has proven difficult to master the longevity of cells built using it. Battery expert Yi Cui, working at Stanford University, has developed a “double-walled silicon nanotube anode” which can provide a capacity of 4,000mAh per gram and more importantly, achieve the long-term goals always thought possible using silicon. His research states the battery will still operate at 85-percent capacity even after 6,000 cycles.

While all these new technologies can theoretically be used in small batteries powering our gadgets, much of the research is currently aimed at electric vehicles.

New types of batteries

Though there are some promising new techniques that may squeeze more juice out of them, improved li-ion batteries only represent one avenue of innovation. So what else is out there?

Li-imide technology, developed by Leyden Energy, is also vying for a shot at powering your gadgets. Although the batteries are based on a different chemistry, they cost the same to produce as li-ion, and return as much as 25 percent more energy. They’re also more resistant to varying heat levels (li-ion cells don’t react well to hot and cold) and will last three times as long as existing cells too, even with a daily charging cycle.

Lithium-air, or li-air, batteries are another contender, but they’re still in development. Like much of the research into new battery tech, li-air cells will most likely find their way into cars, but could be adapted for use in consumer electronics, too. According to Professor Peter Bruce from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, it’s currently a challenge to make li-air batteries that are stable enough to only create reactions that supply power. “The science is promising but we can’t yet guarantee it will end in a workable technology,” he told the BBC earlier this year.

One challenge of developing a new battery is the sheer variety of  potential chemical cocktails to examine. To speed up the process of deciding which could offer the best results, a computer algorithm developed by the Materials Genome Project at MIT simulates possible reactions so scientists can focus on the best candidates. A startup named Pellion Technologies is a spin-off of the project, and is currently developing a magnesium battery which could power cars, consumer electronics, and handheld devices in the future.

There have been advances in bio batteries too. Wile the idea of a Coca-Cola powered phone is good for a laugh, Toshiba and Sony have experimented with enzyme-powered fuel cells using everything from waste paper to vodka in the quest for an environmentally friendly source of power.

New ways to conserve energy

New batteries present one obvious way to improve how long a gadget can run without a recharge, but conserving the charge of an existing battery can accomplish the same feat. A team at the University of Michigan examined how phones use the most power, and found them to be particularly wasteful at idle. Constantly monitoring wireless networks for signal and incoming data uses as much energy as sending out messages. To fix this, the researchers came up with E-MiLi, which is short for Energy Minimizing Idle Listening. It’s like an ultra-power-saving mode, slowing down the connectivity processes, then giving them a kickstart when the phone detects an incoming signal. The result is a smartphone that’s 44 percent more efficient.

The downside of E-MiLi is that for it to work, the tech not only has to be built into every gadget, but all Wi-Fi and cellular hardware, as well. Kang Shin is a professor of Computing Science at U of M who works on the E-MiLi team. He revealed that the team is about to “sign a licensing agreement with a major cellphone manufacturer,” but won’t be able to provide any solid details for a couple of weeks. This could be one of the few emerging power technologies that we’ll get to see in use quite soon.

Companies are also exploring totally different ways of charging batteries, which can help negate the pain of it running out of power at an inopportune moment. Piezoelectric films can now be built into clothing, where vibration from ambient sound can supply power to a phone. Personal solar panels can store energy during the day to power hardware in an emergency as well. The U.S. military has even demonstrated clothing that stores kinetic energy and can power devices.

The future

These next-gen batteries could provide more energy, last longer, and in some cases even cost less than current batteries. It all sounds wonderful, so why aren’t any of them in our phones and laptops?

Sadly, none of them are ready for prime time yet. While Leyden has licensed its li-imide batteries to Nvidia, it will only be used in development platforms. Meanwhile, Professor Bruce from the University of St Andrews says he believes lithium-ion batteries are “here to stay” for at least another few years.

Here’s hoping those alternatives can offer us a power boost in the meantime. It’s going to be a while before any phone battery lasts as long as a Kindle.

The game that was too odd and inappropriate for the Apple App Store has rebounded and started a new relationship with Android users. Boyfriend Maker, a dating simulation style game with an off-the-wall artificial intelligence, has a new home after being banished by Apple.

If you’ve ever attempted to chat with Cleverbot, you know the hilarity conversation with artificial intelligence can produce. That is the entire basis of Boyfriend Maker, a game from 36 You that was recently ditched by the Apple App Store for being a bit too risque for the 4+ rating it received. Not one to wallow over the breakup, Boyfriend Maker rebounded quickly and is now available to download for Android devices.

The game allows users to essentially do what the title insinuates: make your perfect boyfriend. You can buy him new clothes to dress up in, go to various locales, and enjoy dates with your virtual lover. The real fun comes from the conversations, though. Sitting down and talking to the AI of  your portable partner provides some hilarious and occasionally inappropriate dialogue. As with any artificial intelligence, the fun is trying to get it to respond to things and respond this game does. There is a Tumblr that contains some of the best chats that people have had. It’s almost as fun reading them as it is trying to create your own memorable moment. It’s less like the early months of a relationship where you’re always trying to impress your partner and more like a couple years in when you’re just trying to throw one another curveballs to get a response.

You can try out Boyfriend Maker and see just how much you have in common with your digital date. Download it from the Google Play Store for free. For iOS users, you’ll have to wait until a toned down version is submitted to the App Store.

Star Wars: The Old Republic was reimagined as a free-to-play game on Nov. 15, but following poor reviews and fan dissatisfaction, developer BioWare has already what paying and non-paying customers get.

Not even three weeks after Star Wars: The Old Republic was reopened as a fully free-to-play online role-playing game, developer BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts are already altering the game to try and address community complaints and encourage new players to try the game out.

“One of the most important thing to us is to hear player feedback on the game experience,” reads a message from producer Jeff Hickman on the official developer’s blog for the game, “Our community team truly has an ear to the ground with community concerns and discussions and we often make changes based on player feedback.”

“We want you to know that this is an ongoing dialogue.”

To that end, the post goes on to detail a number of significant changes made to the new free-to-play version of the game, particularly in regards to perks for “Preferred Players,” or anyone who purchases a physical copy of the game or purchases goods from the in game store. These players can now have a total of six characters in the game.

Actual subscribers to the game still handing over a monthly fee can now create as many characters as they want, as BioWare has removed the 50 character limit.

With fans grumbling about the story content in Mass Effect 3: Omega, BioWare is committing major resources to its follow up. Main Mass Effect studio BioWare Edmonton is handling writing duties and recording new voice work with actos like Seth Green.

 

BioWare Montreal hasn’t acquitted itself well in the eyes of Mass Effect fans so far. The studio is responsible Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer as well as the recent downloadable story expansion Mass Effect 3: Omega, which disappointed particularly because it was billed as story centric but was ultimately more focused on combat. BioWare Edmonton, the company’s flagship studio and masterminds of the core Mass Effect games, are aiming to make the next major single player expansion to Mass Effect 3 the story-centric content Omega was advertised as.

Designer Jos Hendriks confirmed that BioWare’s full writing staff is working on the next downloadbale expansion. “It’s all hands on deck for this one,” said Handriks on BioWare’s foums, “Pretty much ever Mass Effect DLC writer here in Edmonton is involved. If my math skills are corrent [that’s] eight.”

The writers of previous Mass Effect entries aren’t the only alumni making new content for the game. New voice work is being recorded as well, with Kaidan Alenko actor Raphael Sbarge back and Seth Green returning as Normandy pilot Joker. “@SethGreen Thank you for yet another fantastic session,” said BioWare producer Caroline Livingstone on Twitter.

Composer Sascha Dikiciyan also confirmed to Eurogamer that she and composer Chris Velasko are making “more” new music than usual for new DLC. Lead composer Sam Hulick also discussed his work on the new expansion on Twitter this week. “What I’m up to lately: working on an unannounced Mass Effect 3 DLC!” said the composer on Tuesday, “More details on this coming later on. Tossing in piano and muted strings for this one particular piece. High potential for tears.”

It’s hard to judge what shape the new content will take. While BioWare has released content like Mass Effect 3: The Extended Cut to try and mollify fans dissatisfied with the game’s controversial ending, they did not record new voice work to flesh out that content at the time, meaning what was released had already been prepared. New voice work is a promising sign, but it doesn’t appear now that there will be new voice work from Commander Shepherd, meaning that even if the new content is substantial, it won’t expand players’ existing characters.

BioWare Montreal may not be working on the next single player expansion to Mass Effect 3 but it is working on the next sequel, Mass Effect 4. It’s unknown if that game will be a prequel or a proper sequel to the series.

Source: Eurogamer

Early next year, RIM will officially launch BB10 and help catapult Blackberry devices into a fresh and new future. There has been quite a bit of hype and positive talk surrounding the upcoming release, and RIM’s stock prices have went up recently as a direct result.

Things might be rough right now, but the future is at least starting to look at least a little bit brighter for RIM and the Blackberry brand. Not everyone feels this way though.

Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley says that he firmly believes BB10 will not return RIM to sustained profitability.

“Our checks do not indicate the consumer pull, carrier push or developer excitement necessary for BlackBerry 10 to reverse the challenging trends faced by RIM,” he argues. Keep in mind that Blackberry 10 hasn’t been publicly demonstrated yet and few everyday consumers probably even know of its existence yet so it’s hard to say what “checks” they went through to figure out that there isn’t going to be excitement for BB10 once it is officially announced.

That said, most analysts seem to be a bit more optimistic, even if cautiously so. Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski says there is about a 30% chance of Blackberry 10 will be a true success. 30 percent isn’t that high, but at least is a more positive outlook than Canaccord Genuity and T. Michael Walkley are suggesting.

Blackberry 10 – Will it Succeed?

So is there any chance that Walkley is correct? And if it flops, is RIM pretty much done for? Honestly, it’s hard to say for sure, though we doubt it will be flat out failure like Walkley seems to suggest.

RIM still has plenty of Blackberry fans across the globe that will gladly make the switch to BB10. Even if Blackberry devices aren’t as popular in the United States, there are many other markets where RIM is still very popular, such as in parts of Africa and Asia.

It’s also worth mentioning that for those that like the idea of a physical keyboard, there are still few devices that manage to compete with the Blackberry’s keyboard design.

The hard work ahead of RIM will be convincing developers to fully support the new platform. The key for RIM will likely be to focus on quality, not quantity. You don’t need to have 700,000+ apps to be a success, you just need to have the apps that your target audience wants and needs.

To be honest, Blackberry handsets are niche devices. They aren’t for everyone at this point, and probably will never be mainstream again. Remember though, you don’t have to be mainstream to be a success. RIM’s operating system might have fallen behind the times in certain ways, but they aren’t completely out for the count just yet.

Competition is hot with the emergence of Windows Phone 8 and the current strong positions that Android and iOS enjoy, but it is really way to early to judge BB10 for sure. Blackberry 10 seems like an interesting OS, though it still remains unseen whether it has the power to return RIM to profitability or not.

What do you think of RIM’s Blackberry 10 are you excited or do you think it is a case of too little, too late?

Think that the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is already pretty massive with its 5.5-inch display? The Note 2 is quite tiny, at least when compared to the rumored Huawei Ascend Mate, which is said to be a massive 6.1-inches.

Rumors are all well and good, but how do we know that such a device is in the works? While we can’t definitively say that Huawei is preparing a 6.1-inch device, we now have confirmation that they are in fact working on a “phablet” type device that will directly compete against devices like the Galaxy Note 2.

The confirmation comes from Hauwei’s SVP, Yu Chengdong, who took to his Weibo account to announce that the company will release a large-screen smartphone in early 2013. The Weibo update was actually sent from a Galaxy Note 2. Chengdong says he wanted to try out the competition in order to compare his experience to that of the upcoming rival device.

We don’t really know much officially, but Yu does tell us that the device will offer a “cooler” industrial design, a thinner bezel, and a stunning display. Basically Hauwei is supposedly going to beat out the Note 2′s specs in every way, or so it sounds. If Hauwei is in fact going for a very thin bezel, they might be able to pack a 6.1-inch screen into a body that isn’t much bigger than the Note 2.

If the Huawei giant smartphone can actually match or exceed the specs of the Note 2 while offering a bigger screen and possibly their own stylus, Samsung might actually have some real competition at hand. This device certainly seems to be more of a threat than the LG Intuition has been thus far.

Being such a large and premium device, it could also very likely find its way to many of the world’s major markets, including Europe and the United States.

Would you consider such a device if it can in fact deliver similar or better performance to the Note 2 without adding much extra bulk or size?

Apple's new movie section on iTunes Russia is plastered with ads and banners that aren't safe for young, curious eyes.

A not-safe-for-work (NSFW) surprise awaits anyone who wanders into the virtual doors of Russia’s newly launched iTunes Store, specifically in the music and movies sections. According to social media reports by numerous users in Russia, a huge porn and escort bug is impacting the country’s iTunes Store; so big, in fact, that NSFW banners and ads are plastered all over the interface. 

If you’re in Russia, you better tell your kids not to aimlessly click around on iTunes, lest they end up in the “more films in different languages” tab where all the triple-x content is. Russian blog iPhones.ru suggests that the hilariously cringeworthy mistake – made doubly cringeworthy by the fact that the late Steve Jobs was known for squashing any attempt at selling porn at the App Store – was due to Apple using “.xxx” placeholder links. The thing is, it’s not exactly wise to use “.xxx” as a placeholder when .xxx websites actually exist.

We reached out to ICM Registry (where you can register .xxx websites), and Chief Executive Stuart Lawley gave us a better understanding of  how this snafu happened. “At first blush it appears simply to be an error on the site designer’s part that lists the URL “xxx.xxx” somewhere in the iTunes site,” Lawley said. “That of course takes surfers through to our “showcase” www.xxx.xxx, portal that highlights some of our developed sites.”

Although this certainly is the more visual of the two instances, this isn’t Apple’s first brush with porn. In Germany, Apple’s partner carrier, Deutsche Telekom, gave out a number for iPhone 5 preorders that connected callers to an adult dating hotline. 

In July 2011, Nintendo promised it would keep a steady stream of games coming to Nintendo 3DS and it's sticking to that plan in 2013 with Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Fire Emblem Awakening and Brain Age: Concentration Training out by March.

Nintendo announced plenty of material for the Wii U for the first few months, including casual fare like Wii Fit U to hook lapsed Wii owners on the new machine as well as Game & Wario, a game chock full of the weirdness Nintendo’s diehard fans adore. Anyone worried that Nintendo’s wayward handheld the Nintendo 3DS would be left out in 2013’s early cold will be happy to know that, as is common, Nintendo’s most promising software is portable. Nintendo even committed to a release date for a Nintendo 3DS title originally announced back at E3 2011.

The game in question is Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon. Originally announced in June of last year as Luigi’s Mansion 2, Nintendo has repeatedly delayed the title, first into early 2012, then late 2012, and finally into 2013. We got an extended play session with Dark Moon back in June and it was, even at that stage, one of the best looking and playing games yet made for Nintendo 3DS. We won’t know if the entire game maintains that level of quality until it releases some time in the spring of 2013, as Nintendo again didn’t announce a firm release date.

That wasn’t true of the other big Nintendo 3DS games announced. Nintendo confirmed that strategy RPG Fire Emblem Awakening will be out in the US on Feb. 4. Fire Emblem is actually one of Nintendo’s longest running series, but the games have only sporadically been translated into English since the 1990s. It’s also the first brand new entry in the series since 2007’s Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn on Wii.

The third retail Nintendo 3DS game due out in the spring is Brain Age: Concentration Training, a sequel to the Nintendo DS Brain Age games that helped Nintendo create a hugely profitable fad of intelligence building games in the mid-‘00s. Concentration Training is billed as a way to build up your “working memory,” helping you to focus on individual tasks. The game faces an uphill battle in finding an audience, as similar games are available for much cheaper on devices like Apple’s iPhone and iPad, devices which that audience likely already owns. It’s out on Feb. 11.

Nintendo also announced two excellent looking downloadable titles for Nintendo 3DS. Hamoknight by Game Freak, the studio behind Pokémon, is a platformer that looks like a strange mix of Canabalt and Elite Beat Agents. There’s also Tokyo Crash Mobs, where you play as live actors superimposed on digital backgrounds where they have to throw hipsters at ninjas. That is really what it is. Let it not be said that Nintendo isn’t willing to embrace the surreal.