Spotify is introducing new features and adding the Metallica catalogue to its already extensive music library.

Passing one million U.S. paying subscribers and its one-year anniversary, Spotify is celebrating with updates. The music streaming service is changing the way users find music by adding two new features: brand new Follow and Discover tabs. Spotify is implementing these changes to help users find new music and discover new artists. According to Daniel Ek, CEO and founder at Spotify, users continually express the need for help in finding music to listen to, and apparently artists have told the company that they want to connect more with fans.

The Follow tab will allow users to follow friends and artists to see what they’re listening to in real-time. According to Spotify, users can follow dozens of celebrities, artists, and media outlets, including President Barack Obama, Katy Perry, and People Magazine. Spotify continues to utilize it’s deep Facebook integration, allowing listeners to use the Follow feature to follow Facebook friends and see what they’re listening to whenever they’re using the Spotify app. 

The Discover tab helps users find new music from recommendations straight from Spotify. According to a press release, the new Discover tab “provides a feed that continually seeks out the most relevant content using technology and social tools, bringing recommendations right to the user.”

Trying to find new music can be a huge hassle, but Spotify has made that a lot easier. Users can send playlists to each other, and subscribe to playlists by popular sources like Digster. Now, the Discover feature will transform that process again. Using sources like Pitchfork, Songkick, and Tunigo, Spotify will recommend new music to you. According to the press release, the Discover tab will let users find “new single and album releases from the artists you follow,” sift through “music and playlists shared by influencers you follow,” and feature “intelligent recommendations based on your listening history including music, reviews, and concerts.” 

Spotify has also added a “preview” feature, which allows users to preview music without moving away from the song they’re currently listening to. Using the preview function, you can save the song for later, or play it immediately. In addition, a new “Collection” feature allows you to store songs without creating a new playlist, and mobile push notifications are available for album releases you are waiting for. Now, you won’t ever miss when one of your favorite artists releases a new album. 

In addition to these changes, Spotify announced today that it finally reached an agreement with Metallica. Now, the entire 30-year catalogue of the rock band will be available on Spotify. 

Spotify’s changes are geared towards users who are hoping to find new music using the music streaming service. As Spotify users, we’re excited; and it seems like the folks at Spotify are as well. “Our music influences are as individual as we are,” Ek said. “Maybe you discover new songs or artists by reading reviews, listening to the radio, or sharing with friends. Maybe you go to a lot of concerts, love making cool playlists, or want to know what the people you care about are getting in to. Spotify now brings all of this together.”

The changes will be implemented in the coming weeks, but we’re still waiting to hear about the browser-based version the company promised back in November.

As 2012 comes to a close, Apple CEO Tim Cook has sat down with the media to discuss what's at the company's core.

Apple has never been a company to talk at length to the public. The Silicon Valley-based computer design firm has always prided itself on keeping projects under wraps, ensuring that any upcoming product launch would be met with a certain element on mystery and surprise. While it may seem as if some tidbits about Apple’s recent iPhone 5 and iPad Mini devices had leaked out prematurely, one this is for sure: When Apple wants you to know something, not guess or speculate, Apple will tell you.

This is the mantra Apple CEO Tim Cook has taken on recently, as the 52-year-old chief divulged in a whopping 11-page interview with Bloomberg Businessweek. If that wasn’t enough, Cook will also appear in his first on-air interview tonight via NBC News’ Rock Center With Brian Williams.  The end of 2012 marks the closure of Cook’s first full calendar year as CEO of Apple, making him what some have called the most powerful man in business.

Here’s a snapshot of interesting quotes from Cook’s recent conversations and what they tell us about Apple.

On why working at Apple is great (Bloomberg)

In the interview with Bloomberg, Cook couldn’t stress his love for Apple enough. What makes it so intriguing and special to him, he said, is that people care about the company just as much as they care about the product.

“It’s not a letter like you might think is written to a CEO,” said Cook. “It’s not this formal kind of stuff. It’s like you and I are having a discussion, and we’ve known each other for 20 years, and I want to tell you what I really think. I love it. I don’t know if there’s another company on earth this happens with. It’s just not people from the U.S. These are people from all over the world. I look at it, and I go, ‘This is a privilege.’”

The CEO also reminisced about his first day at Apple, which began with him pushing through a swarm of protesters picketing outside of Apple’s offices after Jobs had decided to axe the Newton device back in the early 90s.

On what drives the company (Bloomberg)

Cook has made it clear that he plans to uphold the principles and standards established by Steve Jobs.

“In creating these great products we focus on enriching people’s lives – a higher cause for the product,” Cook told Bloomberg. “These are the macro things that drive the company. They haven’t changed. They’re not changing. I will not witness or permit those changes because that’s what makes the company so special.”

On transparency (Bloomberg)

Ironically enough, while stuck amidst ongoing patent debacles with Samsung, Cook has outwardly admitted that he wants others to copy Apple. Apple commercialized the tablet trend when it launched its first-generation iPad back in 2010, and has remained dominant in that industry ever since. It’s safe to assume this is the type of “copying” Cook is referring to – sparking a trend that catches like wildfire throughout the tech industry.

“We decided being more transparent about some things is great – not that we were not transparent at all before, but we’ve stepped it up in places where we think we can make a bigger difference, where we want people to copy us,” said Cook. “So there are things that are different, but the most important thing by far is, the fiber of the place is the same.”

On Apple TV (NBC)

The idea of an Apple TV set has been highly-rumored for quite some time, and on NBC Cook acknowledged that it’s a venture Apple is looking into. 

“When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years. It’s an area of intense interest. I can’t say more than that.”

On Apple Maps (Bloomberg)

“We set on a course some years ago and began to do that,” he said. “So it wasn’t a matter of saying, ‘Strategically it’s important that we not work with company X.’ We set out to give the customer something to provide a better experience. And the truth is it didn’t live up to our expectations. We screwed up.”

We mentioned earlier that public addresses and quotes from Apple are a rare occurrence, but even more rare is a public apology. When Apple Maps launched with iOS 6 back in September, its was received with such criticism that Tim Cook issued an apology to users on Apple’s official website. Users complained that Apple’s first self-branded navigation app lacked thorough public transportation directions and labeled locations inaccurately. The company recently fired Richard Williamson, who was in charge of spearheading the troubled app. 

Nearly six months after the release of its first expansion, Bethesda is still struggling to get Skyrim DLC onto the PlayStation 3. While the new Dragonborn DLC is promised for early 2013, the studio says Dawnguard will follow.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim players on PlayStation 3 received good news on Monday when Bethesda announced that latest expansion, Dragonborn, would arrive on PC and Sony’s console in early 2013. It will be the first Skyrim DLC to hit the PlayStation 3. While Bethesda’s released multiple expansions for Xbox 360 at this point, including Dawnguard and Hearthfire, technical problems have prevented this content from releasing on PlayStation 3. Bethesda says that Dragonborn won’t be the end of Skyrim DLC on Sony’s console.

“We’re hard at work to make [Dragnborn] available early next year on PS3 and PC,” reads a new update at Bethesda’s official blog, “On PS3 in particular, we turned our attention to Dragonborn, as we thought it was the best content to release first, and we didn’t want folks to wait longer. Once it’s ready to go for everyone, we’ll continue our previous work on Hearthfire and Dawnguard for PS3. Each one takes a lot of time and attention to work well in all circumstances and all combinations of DLC. Once we have a better idea of release timing and pricing, we’ll let you know.”

It’s those expansions’ compatibility with all variations of the game on Sony’s platform that has apparently been causing problems. Following the release of Hearthfire at the beginning of October, Bethesda’s Pete Hines said that the studio was working diligently on the content but couldn’t get it to work consistently. “Performance isn’t good enough in all cases,” said Hines, “For most folks, it’d be fine. For some, it wouldn’t be.”

The standalone version of Skyrim released on PlayStation 3 in 2011 had a host of technical problems as well, with many players reporting crippling slow performances caused by the way the game saved information on Sony’s machine. To date, not all of the content introduced through basic patches on PC and Xbox 360 are implemented in the PlayStation 3 version of the game. Sony itself has worked alongside Bethesda to try and remedy the problem.

“The PS3 is a powerful system, and we’re working hard to deliver the content you guys want,” read a statement released in August, “Dawnguard is obviously not the only DLC we’ve been working on either, so this issue of adding content gets even more complicated. This is not a problem we’re positive we can solve, but we are working together with Sony to try to bring you this content.”

Capcom’s financial ups and downs over the past few years have been dramatic to say the least. The Street Fighter company has watched major HD console games like Dark Void bomb with critics and fans, while tiny mobile games have picked up the slack. Back in 2011, the company saw income from big releases crash but mobile/social games grew exponentially thanks to the popularity of The Smurfs’ Village on Facebook, success that carried on into 2012. Capcom is tapping another ‘80s pop culture icon in a bid to replicate The Smurfs’ success. Who you gonna call?

Beeline Interactive, the studio behind The Smurfs’ Village and Smurf Life, is making a Ghostbusters game for Capcom. The game has some of the spirit of the classic PC Ghostbusters game from the 1980s, since your goal is to build up a Ghostbusters business rather than recreate the adventures of Egon, Winston, Ray, and Peter Venkman. “Ghostbusters is more about building out your Ghostbusters franchise and taking your squad on missions,” a Beeline representative told Joystiq, “Snoopy and Smurfs are really ‘city’ builders by comparison.”

Smurfs’ Village and Beeline’s other games have been downloaded more than 74 million times over the past two years, so why move onto a different brand and style? To hook men. The primary audience for Beeline’s games to date has been women, and the popularity of the Ghostbusters series with men should help Capcom lure in the audience enjoying similar games like Marvel: Avengers Alliance. Capcom has also announced that Beeline is officially its core casual game brand going forward.

Beeline’s Ghostbusters will be out in early 2013

It’s not entirely clear what this means for the future of Ghostbusters games. As of 2011, Atari still held the rights to the Ghostbusters license. The diminished publisher and developer’s last major console game was actually 2009’s Ghostbusters: The Video Game, a sequel to Ghostbusters 2 featuring the original cast and written by Dan Ackroyd. The game sold moderately well, but failed to connect with many gamers. Atari released a downloadable multiplayer title called Ghostbusters: The Sanctum of Slime in late 2011, but the game was met with bad reviews and limited sales on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.

Rhapsody unveiled SongMatch, its first standalone mobile app that competes directly with Shazam but offers music playbacks.

Finally after weeks of bug fixes, Rhapsody has launched its answer to Shazam and Soundhound, called SongMatch for U.S. users. Except unlike the competitors, Rhapsody SongMatch guarantees that it treats its users better.

Shazam is arguably the most recognizable song matching service. It started out as a music discovery tool to tag the artist to a track playing that you either can’t remember or don’t know at all. But music playback is limited to 30 second excerpts. With the way Shazam works, it encourages users to make purchases for the full track through iTunes instead (though you can play them back via YouTube video).

Rhapsody is solving this pain point with SongMatch. SongMatch users, granted that they’ve subscribed to Rhapsody and own an Android phone, can tag the songs playing in the background, find new music by the same artist, find similar artists, and play the tagged song. If you haven’t subscribed to Rhapsody, SongMatch is still free to download and free to use, but the only feature disabled is playback. 

Streaming tracks using SongMatch would use less data and battery than via YouTube videos, like in Shazam. That for starters is a plus, but an additional perk is that once users tag a song, the tracks are stored in a Rhapsody playlist with you can access as you wish on any supported devices including your tablet, smartphone, or TV.

I talked to Rhapsody’s Head of Product Paul Springer prior to the launch of the standalone SongMatch app, and the impression that I was getting from him was that Rhapsody is venturing into building out mobile-driven products to increase user engagement with its services. “Mobile is so important for customers, and increasingly an important part of their lives. And our mission is to create a daily habit with customers around music and around listening. That necessitates that we help solve some of the problems they have in mobile in a better fashion,” says Springer.

For those of you that are curious SongMatch’s music recognition tech is powered by Gracenote, which only needs the first few seconds of the song to recognize the track.

There really isn’t much of a monetization strategy behind releasing SongMatch. SongMatch is 100 percent ad-free. For now Rhapsody is primarily concerned with two types of users with the music discovery feature (which, ultimately, is about engaging consumers with Rhapsody’s music streaming service of 16 million songs). First it’s the existing subscribers that can play more music and stay engaged with Rhapsody longer. If users aren’t finding value in the subscription, no matter the cost, Springer found, they’ll click the unsubscribe button right away. “My goal is to create a daily habit, so I’m not going to stop until every customer is using Rhapsody every single day, and ingrained as part of their daily habits. And we’re seeing very good trends in that direction,” says Springer. SongMatch is the first mobile “purpose-built” apps to boost engagement and there are more auxiliary apps in the works. Second, by offering a robust songmatching product, Rhapsody hopes that it can acquire new subscribers that might be fed up with not being able to play back songs. New users can sign up for a trial without entering in their credit card, which fuels new customer acquisitions.

Rhapsody’s SongMatch app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and Amazon App Store. The app for iOS and other devices is in the works, but Springer declined to provide a timeline.

Crysis 3 arrives on February 19, and to promote the game EA has hired Menace II Society writer/director Albert Hughes to film a series of videos detailing the game's gorgeous new world.

Excited for Crysis 3? As of this morning, it looks like you’ll only have to wait until February of 2013 to own the game. Specifically, EA claims that Crysis 3 will hit North American retail shelves on February 19, with European retailers following suit on February 21.

With the game’s release now officially less than three months away, it is time for EA to start rolling out the PR machine to get prospective players properly hyped about this new shooter. To that end the company has commissioned a series of short films “inspired by the upcoming sandbox shooter, Crysis 3.” Dubbed “The 7 Wonders of Crysis 3,” the series will serve as something of an introduction to the fiction behind Crysis 3, as well as some of its new weapons and inventory items. Think of it as equal parts backstory and promotional effort. Of course, thanks to that latter aspect, the videos will also heavily feature imagery from the game designed to highlight the impressive aesthetics and level design created by Crysis developer Crytek and its cutting edge CryEngine technology.

None of that is all that noteworthy, but we’re reporting on this story because it continues a trend of gaming publishers tapping successful Hollywood directors to promote their latest big-budget game releases. You may recall that immediately prior to the release of Halo 4 on November 6, Microsoft hired The Social Network director David Fincher to produce an ad spot for the game that, while far shorter than EA’s Crysis-themed video series, served nearly the exact same purpose: It established a conflict, depicted beautiful environments and offered players something thrilling to gawk at. In the case of Crysis 3 however, EA has tapped Menace II Society writer/director Albert Hughes to helm the 7 Wonders of Crysis 3 video series. 

Does this mean we’re going to see Crysis promos that double as ahead-of-their-time commentaries on the plight of young men in predominantly African American, lower-class communities? Probably not, but Hughes does seem quite excited about this opportunity. “When EA and Crytek approached me about being involved in creating The 7 Wonders of Crysis 3 video series, I liked the idea of creating emotional stories using only computer generated images,” Hughes stated. “The challenge of producing something intensely human without ever seeing a human on screen was incredibly compelling, and the technology of the CryEngine that Crytek developed enabled me to do that and venture into a completely unique medium of storytelling.”

For developer Crytek however, this series is all about showing off its shiny new game world. “The goal with The 7 Wonders of Crysis 3 video series is to reveal the incredible world we have been building for Crysis 3 and to let CryEngine take center stage to highlight the power of our state-of-the-art game engine,” said Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli. “We’ve worked closely with Albert on this project and think that the 7 Wonders series will show the leaps and bounds that Crysis 3 is making over its predecessors.”

Whether you’re interested in the 7 Wonders of Crysis 3 series as a fan of Albert Hughes or as a fan of fancy rendering techniques and huge explosions, the first episode, entitled Hell of a Town, will debut on December 12, 2012. The video embedded below serves as a teaser.

Have you encountered any problems with Samsung’s flagship Android smartphone? We take a look at some of the most vexing Galaxy S3 issues and see if we can find solutions or workarounds for you.

Some people felt it was too big, but the Samsung Galaxy S3 has been selling steadily since it first hit the market back in May. Samsung sold 20 million Galaxy S3 handsets in its first 100 days and it has become the poster child for Google’s Android operating system. Several months down the line, the Galaxy S3 continues to surpass expectations in terms of sales, but no device is flawless.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the biggest Galaxy S3 problems. These are the most commonly seen complaints from people around the world, and in each case we’ll try to offer up a useful workaround or solution.

Battery drain

Problem: Disappointing battery life is the Achilles heel of all smartphones, but some people have encountered a surprising battery drain on the Galaxy S3, even when the phone is not in use.

The international version of the Galaxy S3 has a flaw. The battery drain on standby issue is complicated by a miscalculation in the power profile which shows Cell standby eating a lot more power than it actually is. This doesn’t account for the drain it just means that the stats are wrong.

Some people with the U.S. and international versions have also reported an actual excessive battery drain on the Galaxy S3 when in standby. Having apps running in the background and features such as Wi-Fi, mobile data, Bluetooth, and push email turned on is obviously going to have an impact. If your Galaxy S3 is draining fast when not in use, then it can be tricky to find the culprit. It could be down your carrier or that you get poor service in your home; it could be Chrome; it could be email or LTE. Luckily there are some solutions you can try.

Solutions: If you have Chrome installed, fire it up and choose Settings > Developer tools and then uncheck Enable Tilt Scrolling.

Some people have reported huge battery savings by turning off LTE in Settings > More settings > Mobile networks > Network mode. There’s a theory that if you don’t have LTE in your area, the battery drains faster because the phone keeps searching for it. Having Wi-Fi turned on all the time can actually help because it uses a lot less power than connecting to a mobile network, but you have to be in range of a Wi-Fi network or the search for a connection will have a similar draining effect.

Some people believe that Samsung’s preinstalled apps could eat a lot of battery life even if you’re not using them. Some users reported success after disabling their Samsung account and various Samsung apps. Go to Settings > Applications manager and choose the All tab then disable Samsung Account, Samsung Backup, Samsung Apps, Samsung Cloud Data Relay along with anything else on the list you don’t use. The disabled apps drop to the bottom of the All list so you can always enable them again if you encounter any problems.

Audio and microphone issues

Problem: It’s difficult to have a phone conversation when the other person can’t hear you clearly or you can’t hear them. Some early adopters reported issues with the Galaxy S3 microphone and found that signal strength was dropping immediately after calls. The speakerphone function hasn’t worked smoothly for some and a complete loss of audio has been reported in extreme cases. A firmware update was rolled out to fix this, so you shouldn’t be experiencing these issues anymore. If you are, then it may be down to a blockage, a setting, or even the noise reduction feature.

Solutions: Restarting the phone should temporarily resolve the issue, but that’s obviously not ideal so let’s try and find a permanent fix. Go to Settings > Accessibility and make sure Turn off all sounds is not checked to begin with. Now go to Settings > Sound and make sure your volume levels are correct and sound is turned on.

Hit Phone > Menu > Call settings > Additional settings and then uncheck Noise reduction. Some people have reported less echo and clearer calls with this turned off.

Take a look at the microphone hole on the bottom edge of your Galaxy S3. If it looks like there’s something stuck in there then that could be your issue. Be very careful when cleaning this. Try compressed air to blow it out first.

Overheating

Problem: Many users have reported problems with their Galaxy S3 overheating and sometimes even freezing or crashing as a result. The S3 is very thin with a big screen, a big battery, and a powerful set of internal components, so the more you use it, the hotter it will get. This generally only rears its head as an issue after prolonged gaming or if you do something else that’s graphically intensive. If your Galaxy S3 is getting very hot and crashing without intensive use, then you might have a hardware problem.

Solution: The obvious solution is to take a break for a few minutes and let the phone cool down. If you’ve been running something for hours, then it will inevitably heat up. If it is heating up on standby or with low levels of usage, then you should contact the seller or carrier and check if the hardware is faulty. You should be able to get a replacement handset if they confirm the problem.

Wi-Fi dropping or not detecting

Problem: Are you having trouble connecting to Wi-Fi networks? Maybe your S3 is connecting fine, but then dropping the connection later? There have been plenty of reports of troublesome Wi-Fi and for some people this is a wider Android issue, while for others it could be related to the router. Fear not, there are some things you can try on your S3.

Solution: Turn your phone off and then back on. The mantra of the IT professional does work, but it’s obviously not a permanent fix. You should also go to Settings > Wi-Fi and hit the menu button again to choose Advanced and make sure that Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep is set to Always. Most people with this issue are reporting that an over-the-air update fixed it, so if you are still having problems it is likely to do with your router. You could try an app like Wifi Analyzer and see if you can identify the problem.

Lag

Problem: When you buy a powerhouse like the Galaxy S3 you don’t expect any lag when you are navigating around. If you’re experiencing a slight delay when you hit the Home button or when you exit an app then it might be down to your settings. You should avoid using task killer apps and reboot your phone fairly regularly to clear memory.

Solution: Drag down the notifications bar at the top and switch off Power saving. It’s a useful feature for saving power, but it does introduce some slight lag. If your problem is related to the Home button, then S-Voice might be the culprit. Samsung has it set up so that a double tap on the Home button launches S-Voice, which can cause lag when you press the Home button. To get rid of it simply double tap the Home button to launch S-Voice and hit menu to access Settings and then uncheck Open via the home key.

The animations slow things down so you can always go into Settings > Developer options and change Window animation scale and Transition animation scale to .5x or even off.

Vibrating to music or audio

Problem: If you find that your Galaxy S3 is vibrating when you play music or when you use specific audio apps then you may well wonder why. Thankfully it’s an easy fix.

Solution: Go to Settings > Sound and make sure Auto haptic at the bottom is toggled off.

Copy and paste isn’t working

Problem: There have been quite a few reports of problems with the copy/paste feature on the S3. Some people are copying and then finding they have no option to paste and others are experiencing crashes when they try to paste copied text.

Solution: The solutions for this one are not ideal. You can factory reset the phone or you can root the device and clear the data from your clipboard. Sadly there’s no guarantee that the problem won’t return if you factory reset. Samsung is definitely aware of this issue, but it has not come up with a fix yet.

Smart stay doesn’t work

Problem: The Smart stay feature is designed to ensure that the screen does not turn off when you are looking at it. You’ll find it in Settings > Display and you can tick to turn it on. You’ll see an eye icon pop up in the notification bar occasionally and the S3 will use the front-facing camera to check that you’re still looking at the screen. If you are looking at the screen, it stays on, if you aren’t then it dims and turns off. How often it checks depends on your Screen timeout setting. A lot of people find that this feature doesn’t work for them at all.

Solution: Your face has to be well lit so the camera can see it. If you are in the dark or in shadow it simply won’t detect you and the screen will turn off. This feature is neat, but it doesn’t work well yet.

Workaround: Change your Screen timeout so that it doesn’t turn off so quickly.

More S3 problems

If you are irritated by unwanted notifications, then check out our guide on how to turn off Android notifications. If you’re sick of waiting for the Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) update, then check with your carrier. The majority will push it out over the air, but some require you to physically connect your phone to your computer.

There are various other little Galaxy S3 issues and annoyances you might come across as you use the phone so please post a comment to share issues and any fixes you know of.

Fans wanted Wasteland 2 so badly they helped InXile Entertainment raise nearly $3 million through Kickstarter to make the game. Now InXile is asking fans if they want to help join the team and build parts of the game's world.

Amongst the many video game projects that found enormous fundraising success on Kickstarter this year, InXile Entertainment’s Wasteland 2 was one of the biggest. Designer Brian Fargo announced in February that he was planning to build a new sequel to the seminal post-apocalyptic role-playing game, and the fan community responded with rabid enthusiasm.

Within seven days of opening the Kickstarter campaign, InXile had raised $1.7 million. That number swelled to nearly $3 million by the end of April. The crowd wanted Wasteland 2 and it was willing to fund it. With the knowledge in hand, now InXile is asking: Is the crowd willing to help make Wasteland 2?

InXile announced this week that it has partnered with Unity to build Wasteland 2’s polygonal world. The studio will post concept art for the game’s assets on its homepage, and users interested in contributing will vie to make 3D models of those objects and have them placed in the game. After submitting them to the Unity Asset Store, InXile will review the submissions and choose which ones, if any, they’d like to use. Creators who get their goods picked up will be paid an amount of their choosing (InXile asks that pricing be kept in line with other goods in the asset store) and they’ll also receive a badge for their profile on the Unity store that reads, “As seen in Wasteland 2.” They’ll also appear in the game’s credits. Even if a submission isn’t selected, the creator is free to sell it to other developers.

This sort of collaboration with fans on a game is nothing new. Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, publishers would run contests for character designs to drum up interest in games as well as get cheap new ideas. Capcom, for example, ran contests for fans to design Mega Man characters. Today Valve is famous for fostering mod communities in games like Team Fortress 2 where players can sell their original content.

Few games are as far reaching in collaborative spirit as Wasteland 2 is. Fans began submitting original art for the game that was used as promotional tools within days of the Kickstarter campaign opening. Now InXile is asking fans to help make the game and to be compensated in the process. What better way to get people invested in a series that’s been dormant for more than twenty years?

Ubisoft Motion Pictures has found a partner to help it develop the upcoming Splinter Cell film, and to the surprise of few it's New Regency.

It’s difficult to create a movie. Even low-budget thrillers require a level of competency that is way beyond the average person, and big-budget action movies usually feature hundreds of skilled hands working together to create a single feature-length film. Thus, it should come as no surprise that Ubisoft’s newly-formed film wing (appropriately dubbed “Ubisoft Motion Pictures”) will not be going it alone as it starts churning out movies.

This morning Ubisoft and New Regency announced that they have solidified a deal for the two studios to work side by side on the upcoming film adaptation of Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell video game franchise. The project already has Tom Hardy attached to star as protagonist Sam Fisher, so what more could Ubisoft possibly require? Apparently, a partner that is willing to do some of the heavy production lifting without impugning on Ubisoft’s creative vision.

“With actor Tom Hardy attached and screenwriter Eric Warren Singer to write the script, Ubisoft Motion Pictures will lead the development with the support of New Regency to bring the franchise to the big screen in a dynamic way,” said Ubisoft Motion Pictures CEO Jean-Julien Baronnet. “For Ubisoft Motion Pictures, creative control is key and New Regency shares our commitment to respecting the creative freedom of our team. Their ability to produce both blockbusters and intriguing indie hits is an ideal fit for the Splinter Cell franchise.” Plus, though Baronnet fails to mention it, Ubisoft’s deal with New Regency gives the former company access to the latter’s distribution network. This level of access would be otherwise unattainable for the video game company, thus New Regency’s help is a huge boon for this project.

If this all sounds intensely familiar, you aren’t imagining things: This deal is almost identical to the agreement New Regency and Ubisoft Motion Pictures have struck up for the imminent Assassin’s Creed movie. We brought you word of that deal in October, and while it is quite similar to today’s arrangement — Baronnet uses almost the exact same words to praise New Regency in that story as he does in this one — the two are legally distinct and have nothing to do with one another. Obviously the assumption is that Ubisoft and New Regency will continue to strike up deals like this for each new game-to-film adaptation the two firms can devise, either because there is an overarching agreement between the two companies that we aren’t yet aware of, or because they simply enjoy working with one another. Either way, it’s nice to see Ubisoft both retain control of its own characters and enlist the aid of an experienced Hollywood player. Perhaps this agreement might spawn the first legitimately good, source-accurate video game movie to date (though we won’t be held responsible for anyone who feels disappointed by the Splinter Cell feature film once it hits theaters — that’s up to Ubisoft … and now New Regency).

Though neither Tron film was an earth-shattering fiscal success, Disney is committed to the franchise and is reportedly working toward pushing a third Tron movie into development.

When Tron: Legacy was released in 2010, most assumed Disney would finally use the film to build a proper franchise for the series. 1982′s Tron, while not a massive hit, attracted a devoted cult following who still regularly quote the film to this day. Likewise, it makes sense that a Tron franchise should emerge in our modern era, given how much more prevalent video games and computers in general have become since the debut of the original film. Unfortunately, Tron: Legacy wasn’t the blockbuster hit Disney had hoped, only earning a “mere” $400 million worldwide on a $170 million production budget. Technically this is a success, but it doesn’t compare to the cash pulled in by competing big-budget films like the Harry Potter series or Marvel’s recent superhero movies.

Still, Disney desperately wants Tron to become another tent-pole property that regularly generates hundreds of millions of dollars for the studio, and is thus moving ahead with the creation of a third Tron film. Though we’re very early in the production process, The Hollywood Reporter claims that Disney is currently in negotiations to hire Jesse Wigutow to write the latest version of the film’s script. Don’t recognize the name? Neither did we, and a quick IMDB search shows that Wigutow has done almost nothing of note to date. THR claims Wigutow is currently working on a number of projects at Disney however, which likely gave him the clout to land this writing gig. THR also notes that Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski will return to helm Tron 3 (or whatever Disney ends up titling this movie).

Though the above is great news for optimistic Tron fans, it does little to explain why exactly Disney would want to return to this well. This is a company that now owns both Lucasfilm and Marvel. The intellectual property values for those firms alone should bring in billions of dollars each year. Yet, a Hollywood studio can never have enough big-name movie franchises to rely on, thus Disney hopes that with this latest Tron movie it can finally create a sequel that appeals not just to extant Tron fans and computer geeks, but also mainstream audiences. What exactly this means for Wigutow’s script remains to be seen, though we predict two distinct possibilities for this film’s plot. Either Disney opts to embrace Tron’s geeky leanings and makes the movie specifically geared toward this niche audience (with the hopes that the rising appeal of all things “geek” in our modern world will drive average, normal people to the film also), or it dumps the heavily geeky stuff in favor of a more action-focused or aesthetics-focused film. The Tron franchise has always been gorgeously envisioned and its action scenes are fan-favorites, so this latter possibility seems as likely as it is depressing for those original, old-school fans of the property.

We’ll have more information just as soon as it starts to trickle out of Disney at a regular rate. Given that this project is still being rewritten, that’s likely to be a bit of a wait.

Yesterday in Rome, Italy, Huawei presented an arsenal of Android products to journalists and bloggers.  After some further investigation from Windows Phone Italy, it was discovered that the Huawei Ascend W1 will also be released in Italy as well as Asia, after it’s officially announced at CES 2013.

If company sources are accurate, the company plans to have the Huawei Windows Phone 8 handset available to Italian consumers by March 2013. While we have not heard anything on price points or carriers which it will be made available, we expect more information to be released at CES 2013.

The Ascend W1 is also believed to eventually hit other parts of Europe, and perhaps even eventually touch down in the United States. As far as hardware is concerned, it is expected to have a Dual-core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, 4GB of storage and 512MB of RAM. This makes it more of a mid-range phone like the HTC 8s and Nokia Lumia 820. A more premium Ascend W2 is also expected to eventually release to potentially compete against the HTC 8X and Nokia Lumia 920.

What are your thoughts on this phone?  Is it something you would be interested in?

In an effort to prove its dedication to fair play in the newly released Planetside 2, Sony Online Entertainment has vowed to aggressively pursue cheaters, to the point where the head of the company is calling them out by name on Twitter.

As with any massively multiplayer online game, Planetside 2 features two distinct groups of players: those who simply want to enjoy the entertainment value of Sony Online Entertainment’s latest massively multiplayer online first-person shooter, and those who want to win, no matter what the cost. While we respect the dedication of that latter group, occasionally this single-minded determination drives a player to explore various ways to cheat the game, whether they be software hacks or unlawful exploitation of the in-game world. Whatever method they prefer, cheaters are a big problem in online games, and Sony Online Entertainment wants absolutely everyone to know that it will not tolerate such behavior in Planetside 2.

Taking to Twitter, SOE president John Smedley offered a stern warning to cheaters. “I want to make some very clear statements about hacking in PlanetSide 2. We are aggressively banning people,” Smedley said. “We play the game — we see the people using aim bots. We are banning them. We see people attempting other stuff. We are banning them. As they develop hacks, we will break the hacks. We have time and great people. Trust that this is a top priority. Hackers will not win,” he adds moments later.

Oh, but John Smedley wasn’t done with his candid Twittering. Instead of leaving the above, succinct yet firm warning to stand on its own, Smedley later returns for what appears to be a modern reenactment of The Scarlet Letter. Instead of simply banning cheaters, he’s opted to publicly shame them, before dispensing straight-up insults. “Haruhi at http://artificialaiming.com was just banned. all 3 of his accounts. Goodbye you scumbag. Find a new hobby or get good at the game,” Smedley wrote.

Perhaps realizing what a shock it is for the world to witness a normally diplomatic executive verbally attack some random Internet stranger for cheating at a video game, Smedley later reconsiders his statement, and while he doesn’t outright withdraw the remarks, he does attempt to offer an explanation for his strong tone. “People are asking why I publicly named Haruhi. Ordinarily our policy is not to do that. Since he’s pushing the Aimbot site I thought an exception has to be made for the guy pimping the tools hackers are using. It’s not to shame him. It’s to make an example and say ‘the stuff this guy is selling or giving you will get you banned… just like him.”

Whether you find Smedley’s words to be overly aggressive and appalling or think Sony Online Entertainment should flay any suspected cheaters to death, it does seem as if the company is taking no prisoners in its anti-cheating efforts. Whether they will have any notable effect on the Planetside 2 playerbase remains to be seen — cheaters, like cockroaches, are intensely hard to wipe out completely — but at least SOE was able to properly bare its fangs (which was likely the point all along).

NVIDIA is currently beta-testing GeForce Experience, a cloud-based service that helps optimize in-game settings.

PC gamers could soon have a new tool in their arsenal that could eliminate the need to tweak graphics settings. NVIDIA is testing out a product called GeForce Experience that’s designed to automate all of your settings and resolution while playing a video game. The tool is a cloud-based service that will analyze the hardware you’re playing on and make adjustments accordingly, from anti-aliasing to shadow options, for the best gaming experience on any given machine.

The company has said that GeForce Experience will require minimal technical expertise for the gamers who use it, claiming that the goal of the tool is to offer as simple an experience as possible. After retrieving optimal settings from the cloud, GeForce Experience applies the changes and saves them directly to your game’s config file. It will also automatically deliver driver updates. 

While the ability to tinker and perfect graphics settings is a point of pride for many PC gamers, the more casual players will probably find this tool a huge help once it goes public. Getting your graphics exactly right can involve a lot of guesswork, but playing under less than ideal conditions can really hinder the enjoyment of a game. NVIDIA certainly has the cred to make GeForce Experience a powerful and useful tool; after all, its graphics cards are often contenders for gamers looking to upgrade their computer performance.  

Source: SlashGear 

BitTorrent has announced its collection of Android mobile applications have been downloaded 10 million times, with its uTorrent and Remote apps making up a large portion of that figure.

Keen BitTorrent users have really embraced the company’s Android applications, as they have been downloaded 10 million times since they first started to appear in November last year.

BitTorrent offers four official apps through Google Play: uTorrent Beta, BitTorrent Beta, and a remote app for both. The remote apps provide the opportunity to remotely control your BitTorrent or uTorrent client on your desktop machine or server. All the information you could want is there – from file sizes to seeding numbers – and torrents can even be activated from the app too.

The 10 million download figure is broken down like this: The BitTorrent Remote apps have been downloaded 4.7 million times, while the BitTorrent client app has racked up 1.5 million downloads. Finally, the uTorrent Beta app, which was released in September, has a download total of 3.8 million already on the books.

According to BitTorrent’s figures, 75 percent of its uTorrent users have no problem recommending it to others, 45 percent claim to use it a couple of times per week, and a truly dedicated 25 percent use the app each day.

While BitTorrent says its apps are available across all major platforms – iOS, Windows Phone and Android – this isn’t strictly true, as it’s only Google Play and the Windows Phone Store which have let in its dedicated mobile apps, while iOS users must make do with accessing the remote platform through a browser. BitTorrent released uTorrent and BitTorrent Remote apps for Windows Phone in October, both of which are still available in the store and are compatible with Windows Phone 7.5 and Windows Phone 8.

Apple on the other hand, has had a long-standing ban on apps related to BitTorrent in its App Store, and although some have been accidentally approved in the past, they’ve quickly been removed. The party line is “this category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing third-party rights.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said in an interview that a line of Mac computers will be produced in the U.S. next year, although he hasn't stated whether this will be an existing model, or an entirely new one.

In an interview with NBC, Apple CEO Tim Cook has said next year, one of its Mac computer lines will be manufactured in the U.S. The news comes on the back of Apple’s new iMac computers bearing the words “Assembled in the USA” on the rear, and after many calls for the company to move its manufacturing away from China.

Before revealing the future plans, Cook made a point to say several iPhone 5 components, including the screen, are already produced in America. NBC’s Brian Williams, who was interviewing Cook, asked him how moving manufacturing away from China would affect the cost of the device. Cook countered this by saying it wasn’t about price, but about skills, and that the education system wasn’t geared up to provide people with the skills needed for modern manufacturing.

While Cook may bemoan the lack of education in this sector, he does hope Apple’s decision to produce a computer on home soil will persuade other companies to do so too. Although a Mac computer line will be made in the U.S. next year, exactly which one wasn’t stated, leaving us to consider whether it will be an existing product — the iMac perhaps — or an entirely new line that will start its life being produced outside of China.

In an equally revealing interview with Bloomberg, Cook was also probed about Apple’s manufacturing plans. There he says “we are going to bring some production to the U.S. on the Mac” next year, and that the company has been “working on this for a long time.” Apple expects to “invest over $100 million” but says “that doesn’t mean that Apple will do it ourselves, but we’ll be working with people, and we’ll be investing our money.”

In addition to the jobs that could be created by bringing the manufacturing of Mac computers into America, Cook says Apple has “created 600,000 jobs” in the U.S. already — although some are indirectly, such as app development — and is currently building three new data centers in the country too.

Frequency, an app that curates online videos, is rounding out its cross platform support with the debut of its new iPhone app.

Video curation app, Frequency, has been a popular iPad app for discovering new videos from around the Web. Now that same experience is heading to the iPhone, and the experience has been rebuilt from the ground up.

Frequency is similar to apps like Flipboard or Pulse, but scrap the text format and replace it with videos. It syndicates videos that best fits your taste from all around the Web. Like Pulse, Frequency takes a channel-by-channel approach to viewing content, meaning that to get the full experience users have to manually add individual publishers that they’d like to follow. Frequency’s founder Blair Harrison tells me that Frequency indexes hundreds of thousands of online videos on a daily basis, so there’s endless content that you can find on the app.

For users like myself that enjoy recommended videos, Frequency provides an alternative default channel for discovering content that’s not specific to one publication. For example, “Your Highlights” algorithmically recommends, based on your viewing habits, the videos that might best suit your tastes regardless of the topics. “Top Picks” lists the most popular videos across the Frequency network.

We were able to get an early look at the app and were impressed by how easy it was to use considering the many features it offers. The top of your screen on the iPhone in the black row is the main navigation, where you can find new channels. The far left icon labeled “Add Channel” opens up a “Channel Guide” where users can select the publications that they want to add that are categorized into topics. Some of these channels include Featured, Trending, Tech, Animals, and Sports. To delete publications that you no longer want to follow, you’ll have to press the publication’s icon for a good two seconds and drag it to a red box, representing a trash bin, which slides open below.

In the United States, Jelly Bean is just starting to arrive to the Samsung Galaxy S3, and Verizon is still left in the dark with no official date for its upcoming Jelly Bean upgrade. Things are moving much faster for the international 3G version of the Samsung Galaxy S3, though. It seems that Android 4.1.2 is now starting to rollout to a very select few Galaxy S3 users. The latest version is also said to bring multi-window support to the S3.

It is also believed that the Galaxy Note 2′s gallery app, Smart Rotation and other apps and features may also arrive on the Galaxy S3. Interestingly enough, right now the upgrade seems to only have rolled out to users in Poland.

Are you a user of the Galaxy S3 in Poland? If so, has the upgrade managed to reach you yet?

Total War creator Creative Assembly continues to expand, partnering with tabletop RPG maker Games Workshop to make new Warhammer video games. What does this mean for Sega's future release schedule and what about Warhammer 40K game maker THQ?

There are plenty of independently made strategy games on iOS and Android, but the era of big budget console and PC strategy game making is long over. The release of XCOM: Enemy Unknown back at the beginning of October wasn’t just the surprising rebirth of a long dormant franchise, but an entire genre. Creative Assembly, makers of the Sega-published Total War strategy series, sit alongside Firaxis as the keepers of a faded art: The big budget strategy game. The studio is doing well for itself in the current game industry, though, so well in fact that it’s branching out into a new series. Creative Assembly is making a Warhammer game.

Sega and Creative Assembly announced on Thursday morning that they had acquired the license for Warhammer from Games Workshop. For those unfamiliar with the name, Warhammer is a role-playing game series of the pen, paper, and tabletop variety. The thirty-year-old series is set in a Lord of the Rings-style fantasy universe full of wizards, elves, and monsters and it’s spawned a number of video game offshoots over the years, including Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning by Mythic Entertainment.

It’s not clear what type of Warhammer game Creative Assembly is making. The studio is actually hiring for a brand new development team to work on the franchise. “We’ll be doing the Warhammer universe justice in a way that has never been attempted before,” said studio director Tim Heaton, “We’re bringing those twenty-five years of experience and expertise in high-scoring games to bear, delivering a Warhammer experience that video gamers will absolutely love.”

Translation: We’re making a game and it will be good since our other games are good.

2012 was an unstable year for Creative Assembly. After a miserable financial performance in 2011, Sega greatly scaled back its development operations going as far as shutting down most of Sega Europe. The company did commit to keeping the Total War franchise going so Creative Assembly seemed secure. The studio even expanded, opening another new team to develop a new Aliens game for Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4. Despite the tumult throughout Sega, the publisher isn’t backing away from investing in Creative Assembly or its brand of strategy game.

The Warhammer license is tied to another financially unstable publisher. One of the few licenses THQ still holds onto is Warhammer 40,000, the science fiction offshoot of the series. Unlike the UFC license, which THQ lost to EA earlier this year, it will continue to hold the Warhammer 40,000 license despite the new deal with Sega.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 managed to earn $1 billion in retail sales one day faster than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, an undeniable business success, but a potentially worrying sign about the series' future growth.

Activision Blizzard investors nonplussed by the consistently low share price and mealy dividend yield of the world’s biggest video game publisher are likely both exhausted and enthused by Call of Duty’s popularity. Ever since Infinity Ward propelled the shooter series to superstardom in 2007 with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Activision has released a new game in the series every November with increasing success. 2011’s Modern Warfare 3 outsold 2010’s Black Ops which in turn outsold Modern Warfare 2, etc.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is no different, at least from a revenue point of view. Activision announced on Wednesday morning that its latest military shooter earned $1 billion in retail sales in just 15 days. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 made $1 billion in 16 days, and Activision was quick to point out that the fastest earning movie of all time, James Cameron’s Avatar, took 17 days to earn the same.

“In order for Call of Duty to remain the entertainment juggernaut that it is, and keep out fans coming back for more, we need to continue to bring fresh ideas and new innovations to the table every time, while always staying true to what people fell in love with in the first place,” said Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hiirshberg, “That’s what we did with Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and that’s what we intend to keep on doing.”

How times change. Activision’s Guitar Hero III was the first individual video game in history to break $1 billion in sales back in 2009, almost fifteen months after it was first released. That Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 could do the same in a fraction of the time speaks volumes about the continuing strength of big budget gaming, but there are a couple of factors that need to be considered when assessing the game’s success.

First, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 wasn’t the only major source of Call of Duty-related revenue in 2011. Last November, Activision sold 1 million paid subscriptions to the now free Call of Duty Elite service, approximately $50 million in additional revenue on top of Modern Warfare 3 sales. That revenue is gone from the Black Ops 2 sales landscape. Additionally, Activision had to spend more on Black Ops 2’s development, considering it needed to invest in resources to port that game over to Nintendo’s Wii U, another source of lost revenue mitigating the $1 billion milestone.

Finally, a difference of 24 hours in hitting a sales milestone is nothing to crow about. It means that retail sales are essentially flat with last year’s model. Black Ops 2’s performance to date certainly supports Stern Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia’s claim that the series is showing signs of decline. Will sales be down 15 percent year-on-year? We’ll see when Activision closes its fiscal year in March.

Sony has announced the upcoming release of the Xperia E, a “no-nonsense Android smartphone”.  There is nothing stellar about the specs of this phone but it does have one feature that would never be expected on a phone of this type — Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. 

It’s a rarity to find Jelly Bean on a phone of this level as they tend to have older operating systems.  The Xperia E will also be released with a dual-SIM version as well already loaded with Android 4.0, with a 4.1 update in the near future.

The Xperia E has a 3.5 inch touch screen with 320 x 480 resolution, powered by a single-core 1GHz Snapdragon MSM7227a processor.  The Snapdragon has been used in other phones such as the HTC Desire V and the LG Optimus L7.  The Xperia also sports 512MB of Ram and a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera which doubles as a video recorder.

The Xperia E is a lightweight device weighing in at only 115 grams and measuring 11mm thick.  In that small package is a 1530mAh battery working in symphony with some revolutionary power management tools to bring us 6.3 hours of talk time and 530 hours of standby time.  Included is also a data usage app that monitors apps to minimize hidden data usage, which helps avoid surprise overage charges.

The Xperia E also has the Sony Walkman music player, xLoud enhancements and access to Music Unlimited.  Also featured are HD Voice, DLNA connectivity and an up to 4GB expandable microSD card slot.  The Xperia E will be available in black, white and pink.

The phone is expected to be released for sale sometime in the first quarter of 2013.  We do not yet know what markets will receive it or what it will cost. 

We're sure you've heard talk of dirt-cheap Google computers within the last year. Chromebooks, as they're called, are in a league of their own. So what's a Chromebook anyway?

It’s been a year since the first Chromebooks shipped. While one might argue that it hasn’t been that long since then, and that Google has yet to release the devices’ official sales figures, we wondered whether a time might come when we could utter the word “Chromebook” in the presence of a not-so-tech-savvy consumer and not be looked at like we’re speaking in Klingon. We talked to a handful of tech analysts, as well as a consumer tech expert, to find out what exactly is a Chromebook and if it’ll ever gain traction with the general public.

Chromebook 101

You can think of a Chromebook as Internet-dependent laptop that starts up super fast (roughly 7 seconds, or a fraction of the time it takes to boot an old Windows computer). They’re relatively lightweight and powered by Google’s Chrome operating system. The device’s name gives you a clue of what kind of OS it uses, and the only app natively stored that runs on the device is a browser. Everything else is composed of Web apps (email, photos, documents), or apps that run while you’re connected to a network. Of course, this means there’s very little you can do on the Chromebook without Internet access. The high point about everything being saved on the Web is that you’ll have access to it from any computer. Plus, if your Chromebook ever bites the dust, you won’t have to worry about losing all your apps, documents, and settings.

The Chromebox, the Chromebook’s desktop computer counterpart, also requires an Internet connection to work. Clearly, a desktop computer is more likely to be connected to the Internet at all times than its mobile Chromebook cousin. 

Hindered by the need for Internet access

Most Chromebooks can connect to the Internet via both Wi-Fi and 3G, but until there’s 24/7 worldwide Internet connection with zero downtime, the fact that the Chromebook needs to be connected to fully function remains a real hindrance to its more widespread use. Unlike smartphones and tablets with apps that you can use well enough without Internet access, most of the apps on Chrome OS become useless in the absence of a connection. “I don’t see [Chromebooks conquering 50 percent or so of the desktop and laptop market] within the next five years,” said Gartner Distinguished Analyst, Ken Dulaney. “Networks are not high speed everywhere and [are] sometimes non-existent.” 

You can still use a Chromebook in the absence of an Internet connection as long as you download offline versions of Web apps, such as Gmail Offline. The offline Web apps selection, however, is pretty limited, and at this point in time, not robust enough for you to ditch your main computer for a Chromebook.

Lowered prices might not help

The first Chromebooks were priced in the $300 to $400 range. Considering there are many similarly priced Windows laptops that aren’t limited by Internet access, this sounds quite expensive. In October this year, Google released a $249 Samsung Chromebook powered by an ARM chip instead of the usual Intel processor that lives inside other Chromebook models. According to Ross Rubin, Principal Analyst at Reticle Research, “the adoption of ARM has numerous benefits, and that’s why that processor architecture has been embraced by Apple and Microsoft as well as Google for its platforms.” Rubin said other benefits include “longer battery life, slimmer form factors, and lower prices.” 

The use of ARM processors, however, doesn’t impress ABI Research Sr. Practice Director, Jeff Orr. “The addition of Intel-based Chromebooks alongside the ARM-powered Chromebooks available now will not inherently make the user experience better,” he said. “Since Chromebooks require Internet connectivity for basic operation, the performance of Web connectivity will really be the determining factor.”

More recently, Google announced an Acer Chromebook, which, in spite of being powered by an Intel processor instead of ARM, costs only $199. While already very reasonably priced, it still failed to win the hearts of our interviewees. “[The] starting price of  $200 is a boon for the budget-minded, but I tell folks to keep their expectations low along with that price,” said consumer tech expert, Jenn Jolly. Aside from pointing out the obvious limitations of Chromebooks, Jolly adds that the lowest-priced Chromebook she has handled “feels very plastic, the screen is low-quality, and the sound is subpar.” The more expensive Chromebooks, she says, are better, but their prices make them hard to sell.

Chromebook as a second computing device

With all the limitations mentioned, it’s hard to imagine people choosing a Chromebook as their primary computing device. ”I would consider getting an inexpensive Chromebook as a secondary device to throw in my gym bag, or use while I’m on the road,” Jolly told us. But ultimately, she considers the $200 Google Nexus 7 and the similarly priced Amazon Kindle HD better gadgets overall.

What can Google do?

What can Google do to entice more people to spend their hard-earned money on a Chromebook instead of on a tablet or on a full-featured laptop? Rubin believes that for this class of devices to become more popular, “more Web apps, richer Web apps, and better offline functionality” are needed.

We agree. How about you? Now that you know what a Chromebook is, what feature will make you want to snatch one up?