Sleeping Dogs DLCs get detailed

Sleeping Dogs was released not too long ago by United Front, and for those unfamiliar the game is essentially the reboot of the True Crime franchise. It is without doubt one of the most action packed games around and if you’ve managed to blaze your way through the content and were looking for more, you might be interested to learn that DLCs for the game are available for download. There are five DLCs that gamers can choose from, and we have to agree with the folks at Kotaku Australia in saying that out of the five, only one of these DLCs actually provides new content. The rest feel more like they’re giving you items that you could probably get yourself in the game if you had the time and patience, but then again we guess there are players out there who wouldn’t mind dropping a couple of bucks for them anyway. In any case according to their official description, the DLCs offered are: (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Sleeping Dogs to feature Georges St-Pierre’s high-flying moves and bone-crunching combos, Square Enix announces Sleeping Dogs,

PayPal and Discover team for PayPal payments in retail stores

PayPal has announced that it is expanding its off-line payment capabilities by teaming up with Discover. By teaming with Discover PayPal will be able to get its service into over 7 million merchant locations across the United States. PayPal is also looking forward to the opportunity to expand to millions of international locations in the future.

Starting in 2013, Discover will work with PayPal to enable participating merchant locations to accept PayPal via the merchants PayPal payments via an existing relationship with Discover. What this means is that consumers will be able to use their PayPal account at retail merchant locations just as they do online for online destinations.

Discover says that merchants wanting to accept PayPal won’t have to install or upgrade any of their existing point-of-sale hardware or software. Consumers will be alerted that they can use PayPal in the retail locations with signage in the stores. Many people out there use PayPal for shopping online, and receive money via PayPal from auctions and other things.

Being able to walk into a retail store and use their PayPal account, just as they would a normal credit card is a big win for PayPal users. PayPal claims that using your account off-line in a retail store will offer the same speed, simplicity, and security that users enjoy online. I wonder whether buyers and sellers will run into the same issues on physical purchases as online buyers and sellers have with PayPal from time to time. I think many eBay sellers have had PayPal take money from their account based on bogus accusations from buyers. I wonder whether this will be an issue with retail transactions.


PayPal and Discover team for PayPal payments in retail stores is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria in-game cinematics revealed

About a week ago, Blizzard officially released the cinematic trailer for the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria. While the trailer was pretty epic in its own right, it did not feature any gameplay footage of some of the new areas which we’re sure many players are curious about. Well you’re in luck as it seems that in-game cinematics of the new Pandaren area have been released (courtesy of MMO-Champion). This includes the prologue videos for the Horde and Alliance, as well as the starting area and the cinematic when the player finally completes the area and moves into other parts of Azeroth. Safe to say these trailers are spoilers so if you’d rather not spoil the game for yourself and want to play it through, we suggest you give these videos a miss. However if you don’t really care and just want to check it out anyway, check them out after the break. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: World of Warcraft patch 5.0.4 will give players access to all races in the game regardless of what expansion they own, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria cinematic trailer released,

This Fiery frying pan concept lets chefs flambé their food safely

While becoming a chef did cross my mind at some point in time, the thought of having my eyebrows burnt off or having hot oil splashed on my hand was a bit off putting. However for those who’d like to be able to display their culinary skills without any burnt eyebrows, this concept called Fiery might be able to let you do that. As part of the 2012 Electrolux Design Lab entry, designer Karen I Man Cheong came up with the Fiery concept which basically allows chefs (or would-be chefs) to flambé food without worry of the fire getting out of control.

This is thanks to an igniter button being placed into the handle of the frying pan, and with an aluminum mesh shaped like a funnel, all the person would have to do is pour in the liquor, press the button and voila! Inspired by the Davy lamp, this would be a quick and easy way to impress friends, family and that hot date! Unfortunately it does not appear to be a real product yet, but as a question to chefs out there, would you love to have this gadget in your kitchen?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Onda Microwave Oven is a clever concept, Electrolux Powermix Silent blender works great for librarians,

The Instacube is a gadget that will let you stream Instagram photos

While creating hipster-like photos with Instagram might not be for everyone, there are some people out there who follow Instagram feeds as some would with Facebook or Twitter feeds. If you’re such a person or if you know someone like that, then the Instacube could make the perfect gift. Boiling it down to its essence, the Instacube is basically a digital photo frame, although the main difference is that instead of streaming photos from a plugged in memory card, it will instead display photos from Instagram, allowing users to view a stream of photos from any feed on Instagram or follow a particular hashtag.

Instacube will also sport a touchscreen display that lets users swipe between photos. If this sounds like a gadget you’ve got to have, you will be interested to learn that the Instacube Kickstarter project is still seeking funding. However at $175k with 29 days to go, it is very likely that this project will be meeting its goal. A pledge of $149 will net you the device once it has been successfully funded and goes into production, although it seems like delivery will only be taking place in March of 2013. So, any takers?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: The Bloombox is an iOS speaker dock that lets you grow a plant in the middle of it, CruxSKUNK keyboard case for the iPad turns it into a MacBook lookalike,

TV Guide Mobile relaunches for iOS with a new look, links to streaming video and social networks

TV Guide Mobile relaunches for iOS with a new look, links to streaming video and social networks

We’ve already seen many companion apps on mobile, but now TV Guide is diving in wholeheartedly with the next generation of its app for iOS devices. While the previous versions of TV Guide Mobile on iOS and Android let users create watchlists and get reminders, version 3.0 for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch is completely redesigned to make TV watching simpler with filtering for HD-only and favorite channels, links to streaming videos from sources like Hulu Plus, HBO Go, Crackle and iTunes — Netflix and Amazon are not on the list, although additional video sources are promised in the coming weeks. Like any good companion app in 2012 it also brings social networking features with check-ins and Twitter / Facebook integration and a trending social hot list based on what other users search for.

The downside compared to many of the apps from cable providers like Comcast or Time Warner, hardware manufacturers like TiVo or even other third parties like Dijit is the inability to use it to directly change the channel, but perhaps that’s in the next version. There’s more details in the press release after the break, and screens in the gallery below, if you’re willing to give another contender a shot at assisting your TV watching habits, the free app is available in iTunes at the source link.

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TV Guide Mobile relaunches for iOS with a new look, links to streaming video and social networks originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 07:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget Mobile Podcast 150 – 08.23.2012

The Engadget Mobile Podcasters, including sleepy-yet-fully-functional overseas correspondent Richard Lai, gather one last time around the global omni mic to form a final dispatch before Myriam heads off to the Playa. Oh, and we hope you like cowbells.

Hosts: Myriam Joire (tnkgrl), Brad Molen
Guest: Richard Lai
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: TychoCoastal Brake (Ghostly International)

00:04:20 – Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE review: the best full QWERTY phone on Sprint’s network
00:55:46 – Nokia and Microsoft announce September 5th Windows Phone event
01:02:30 – Motorola Droid RAZR HD guides slip out to the web, pop the hype balloon (video)
01:03:18 – Motorola schedules press event for September 5th, dubs it the ‘day’s main event’
01:07:25 – Xiaomi Phone 2 now official: 4.3-inch 720p IPS, quad core and Jelly Bean for just $310
01:14:00 – Xiaomi Phones may enter Europe next year, because China ain’t big enough
01:19:45 – Samsung Galaxy S Blaze Q may be renamed to equally awkward Galaxy S Relay 4G (update: image)
01:22:26 – LG Optimus Vu goes global, trades Snapdragon processor for NVIDIA Tegra 3
01:33:39 – Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 review
01:57:00 – AT&T: FaceTime over cellular feature to be included in Mobile Share plans at no extra charge, not available for other data plans
02:00:05 – AT&T may discontinue subsidized tablet sales, will still offer slates at full price
02:03:30 – RIM confirms BB10 standard screen resolutions for touch and keyboard devices

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Engadget Mobile Podcast 150 – 08.23.2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 06:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Diablo 3 hotfixes (August Edition)

Another month, and we have another round of hotfixes introduced into the world of Diablo 3, thanks to the development team over at Blizzard Entertainment, where they hope to enhance your gaming experience as much as possible, as well as fix any potential loopholes that could be used to exploit the game and spoil the experience for everyone else. Well, after installing patch 1.0.4 for Diablo 3, what are some of the applied hotfixes? Let us take a closer look at several squashed bugs, among them additional improvements made to help reduce the occurrence of rubberbanding and desync issues when using movement-based abilities such as Furious Charge, Whirlwind, Tempest Rush, and Vault. Not only that, a crash which sometimes happens when interacting with guards or fighting guards that turn into monsters has also been vanquished, so you need not fret any more about approaching those two-faced guards. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: David Brevik reveals how Diablo 2 almost gained some MMO-like features, Diablo 3 patch 1.0.4 could be released on Tuesday,

Pentax X-5 digital camera

Now, the Pentax X-5 is not a four wheel drive that is meant to compete against the likes of BMW’s similar namesake, but rather, this is a digital camera that harks back to the good old days of Pentax’s design schematics, and yet packs in the modern technology that you would have expected. Sporting a versatile 16-megapixel backside illuminated CMOS sensor, it will also be accompanied by a powerful 26X super-telephoto zoom lens in addition to the convenience of a tiltable LCD monitor. Shutterbugs will be able to play around with a focal length of 4mm-104mm (22.3mm ultra-wide angle to 580mm super telephoto 35mm equivalent), and when you have that work in tandem with the camera’s Macro mode, you are able to snap dramatic close-up images of subjects as near to the lens as 0.4 inches. I know, neat right?

There is also a triple Shake Reduction (SR) system in the X-5 that works alongside the Pentax-developed mechanical sensor-shift-type SR mechanism with a digital SR mode, effectively compensating for camera shake whether you are shooting stills or a video. It will play nice with Eye-Fi wireless LAN SD memory cards in case you were wondering for painless file transfer sans wires. The Pentax X-5 will arrive in the US next month for $279.95 a pop. [Press Release]

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: PENTAX introduces new K-30 Digital SLR Camera, Pentax K-30 leaked in French catalog,

Gameloft releases Wild Blood gameplay footage

Earlier this month, Gameloft teased Android gamers with a teaser trailer of its upcoming game, Wild Blood. What makes this game rather unique and anticipated was its use of the Unreal Engine which gave the game some pretty spectacular visuals, although whether the gameplay is as impressive as the graphics remains to be seen. While a release date for the game has yet to be set (“soon” is what the description says), Gameloft has released a gameplay trailer of Wild Blood, giving players an idea of what they might be able to expect from the game. Based on the comments left on its Y ouTube video, many players have pointed out that the game resembles titles such as Kingdoms of Amalur and Devil May Cry, but what do you guys think? In any case Wild Blood is also expected to make its way onto iOS, so remember to check back with us often as we’ll keep you updated when the game has finally be released.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Gameloft unveils its first Unreal Engine game called Wild Blood, Gameloft unveils its first game built with Unreal Engine,