Hasta La Gadget!

We all know that a game changes very frequently during the development process – some features get fully implemented and make it to the finished product, while others are only partially developed and ultimately get left on the cutting room floor. It’s no different with Halo 4, and today we’re finding out that there were a couple particularly cool armor abilities 343 Industries had to do away with before shipping the game. They were discovered by the folks at TheHaloCouncil, who did a little bit of digging in Halo 4‘s code and filmed a video showing off these armor abilities that almost were.

Say hello to the Hacker and Teleport armor abilities, which you can see in action with the video posted below. Teleport is pretty self-explanatory, as it lets you jump a short distance almost instantly. As you can imagine, having an armor ability like that would be great for closing the gap quickly so you can get in and perform an assassination before the other player has a chance to react.

The Hacker ability is definitely the coolest of the two, as it allows you to disable the armor abilities of other players. See someone sneaking around with active camouflage on? Use the Hacker to disable their cloak and expose them to the world. The Hacker ability seems like it would go a long way in evening the odds against nearly every other armor ability out there, which might just be why we didn’t see it in the final game.

While the host of the video speculates that these armor abilities might be released in future Halo 4 DLC, a Microsoft representative told Kotaku that these are merely “legacy items” and the studio doesn’t have any plans to implement more armor abilities in the future. While that’s a bummer, it was nice to catch a glimpse of canned features despite the fact that we’ll probably never get to use them in regular gameplay.

Leftover Halo 4 features found lurking in game code is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

As regular Happy Hour readers know, there’s nothing we like more than finding new, innovative, and fun approaches to drinking. But there’s a darker side that must be acknowledged. Specifically, you can poison yourself and die. More »

With the holiday season behind us, you may not be planning on traveling for another year, unless you’re currently counting down the hours left in your work day until you get away for a New Years trip. If you’d like to experience more from the airports you’ll be making your way through this weekend, you might want to give Airport Chatter a download.

Airport Chatter is an application for the iPhone that makes your experiences at the airport more social. You can view your airport within the app to check out profiles for the various shops and services, their hours of operation, location and even check into them and post or read reviews. Think Yelp, but specifically for airports.

As helpful as finding and learning more of venues inside of an airport is, especially when you absolutely need a Cinnabon at 3 a.m., the application has big ambitions as it would like to be your go-to app for airline travel to include the ability to track flights, booking transportation to and from the airport and even chatting with fellow travelers who you would otherwise ignore.

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We’re used to hearing about Apple devices selling out here in the US, and it appears that in China things aren’t much different. Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White is saying today that iPad minis are flying off shelves there, after its launch in Hong Kong on back in November and China earlier this month. According to White, many stores in China and Hong Kong are out of stock, while the fourth-generation iPad, which launched at the same time, is still relatively easy to get.

So, it would appear that the iPad mini is quite a bit more popular than the fourth-gen iPad, something that White attributes to the smaller size and price tag. “Prior to the China launch, we indicated that the iPad Mini would be the ‘next big thing in China’ and we believe this phenomenon is starting to develop,” he said in a note to CNET. “In our view, the smaller form factor and lower price point will allow Apple to sell the iPad Mini in more meaningful volumes versus the regular-size iPad.”

The iPhone 5 has been selling well too, though unlike the iPad Mini, it remains readily available. Apple has experienced some issues with yields when it comes to iPad mini components, which means that the company hasn’t been able to keep up with demand. A recent rumor said yields are improving though, and that Apple should be able to sell as many as 13 million iPad minis in quarter 1, 2013.

Achieving that figure relies heavily on Apple getting these yield issues sorted out, which we hear are mainly affecting iPad mini screens. Whatever the issue, you can bet that it’s a top priority for Apple to get more iPad minis shipping out to stores. We’ll see if Apple can hit that 13 million mark soon enough, as quarter 1 2013 is right around the corner. Stay tuned.

iPad mini tipped to make a massive splash in China is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.