It's no secret that BioWare is working on a new Dragon Age game, but the developer has just made its first official announcement about the title, providing a few vague details about its features. Mark Darrah, executive producer of the Dragon Age franchise, revealed today that the third entry, now known as Dragon Age III: Inquisition, has been in production for about two years (since before the launch of last March's sequel).

Dragon Age II was widely criticized for lacking depth and polish. Many felt that its story and characters were shallow, that the combat had been needlessly simplified from Dragon Age: Origins, and perhaps most damningly, that the quests and environments were repetitive, with a handful of instances being recycled many times throughout the game. Fortunately for Dragon Age fans, it seems BioWare has taken that feedback to heart.

"We've visited message boards, read reviews, and we've gone to events to have direct face to face conversations with some of our most passionate fans. We've been listening, and we will continue to listen," Darrah said. He reassured gamers that Inquisition is in good hands, citing his professional background with Baldur's Gate and Dragon Age: Origins as well as personal interests in D&D and pen and paper games.

Darrah said Inquisition's team consists of many BioWare veterans who worked on Origins as well as some of the company's fresh talent. He said the upcoming entry features a new Frostbite 2-based engine that will facilitate a more expansive world, better visuals, more meaningful player choices, improved tactical combat and greater customization. In other words, it'll expand on everything fans loved about the first Dragon Age.

Unfortunately, Darah didn't elaborate, saying that additional details would have to wait until the time is right. For whatever it's worth, in a Wired interview last December, BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka said the third Dragon Age title would have more of an open world feel, not unlike The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which Muzyka said BioWare had been "checking out aggressively." "We're big admirers of [Bethesda] and the product," he said.

Other employees have also provided a few nuggets over the last year. At PAX 2011, Dragon Age II lead designer Mike Laidlaw said Dragon Age III would once again be set in the world of Ferelden and would focus on a war between the mages and templars, continuing the main plot of last year's sequel. Players will be able to import data from the previous games and will presumably be responsible for saving the world from civil war.

Hawke, Dragon Age II's protagonist is expected to appear in the new title, but to what extent is unclear. Dragon Age III: Inquisition is due at the end of 2013, though a specific date isn't set. BioWare also hasn't confirmed what platforms the title will appear on. PC is a given, but some believe the developer's unwillingness to mention the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 indicates that Inquisition will be a launch title for next-generation consoles.

Acer was prepared to launch a new smartphone earlier today running a modified version of Android known as Aliyun but before anything could materialize, Google stepped in and pulled the plug on those plans. The search giant issued a statement outlining why they elected to stop the launch – perhaps the first time a member of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) has been met with similar adversity.

Google said that compatibility is the heart of the Android ecosystem and that non-compatible versions of their OS like Aliyun would weaken that ecosystem. They point out that all members of the OHA have committed to building one Android platform. That agreement, however, doesn’t prevent manufacturers from participating in competing ecosystems.

But what about others like Amazon that have created their own version of Android to use on Kindle Fire tablets? It’s simple – Amazon isn’t a member of the OHA and therefore isn’t required to abide by those same restrictions.

The Aliyun OS was developed as a cloud-based operating system by Chinese company Alibaba Group and was first released in July 2011. When it launched, the company pointed out that the OS was fully compatible with Android-based applications but now they are saying it isn’t part of Google’s mobile ecosystem and therefore doesn’t have to be compatible with Android.

Andy Rubin might disagree, however, as a recent Google+ posting says the OS incorporates the Android runtime and was apparently derived from Android. Either way, it must be terribly embarrassing for Acer to cancel a media event with members of the press already enroute.

Want an Apple Lightning-to-30-pin adapter but don’t want to drop $29 (£18) on one?

Starting Monday, you don’t have to.

Amazon has put pre-orders for legacy device-enhancing adapters made by third parties on its site, offering them up for $9.99 (about £6) and $17.95 (about £11).

Two companies - Nanotch and iTronz - are schilling the products, with the latter, selling the $10 version, promising to ship it by next week.

Apple’s adapters are “available to ship” in October.

Thanks to an erroneous message, customers thought they'd get a free adapter with the purchase of an iPhone 5, but Apple quickly pulled the message and reminded customers that they would indeed have to fork over some dough for the dock adapter.

New iPod pre-orders available, too

In other Apple/Amazon news, Amazon has begun taking pre-orders for Apple’s new iPod line - the reinvented iPod nano, iPod touch, and cheaper iPod shuffle.

Apple won’t start shipping the new iPods until October, so it’s unlikely Amazon will stray from the launch plan.

There also appears to be no change on the price front, either.

The iPod touch and iPod nano both need the slimmer Lightning cable to charge and connect.

TechRadar has reached out to Apple for comment on its policy towards third-party product manufacturers and will update this story if and when information is available.