Hasta La Gadget!

After months of speculation and rumors about the next generation Xbox release date, Microsoft has finally confirmed when it will be making the official announcement. As we had reported a fortnight ago, the new Xbox will be announced on May 21st. Microsoft will be making this announcement at its Redmond headquarters. If you can’t personally attend the event at Redmond but would like to watch it, you can tune in to the event livestream on Xbox.com, Xbox Live or on Spike TV.

Microsoft says that the announcement of next generation Xbox will mark the beginning of a new generation of games, TV and entertainment. The May 21st event is said to be an intimate affair, the full unveil is expected for E3 conference which takes place in June. Microsoft says that at the conference in June, they will continue the conversation and showcase their full lineup of “blockbuster” games. There have been many rumors recently that perhaps Xbox 720 will require an always-on internet connection and that it won’t be backwards compatible. Some of these questions will definitely be answered on the 21st of May. Who’s excited?

[Thanks for the tip, Chris!]

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: SimCity 2.0 Patch Introduces New Bugs, Nintendo 3DS Sells 13.95M Globally In 2013 Fiscal Year,

Many avid PC gamers usually opt for building their own computer, citing lower costs of components over pre-built machines. However, custom PC maker Digital Storm has something to say about that, with the introduction of the new Vanquish gaming PC line. The new computers look to settle the DIY debate once and for all.

Gaming rigs from boutique computer makers usually cost a couple thousand dollars, but Digital Storm is aiming to put that fact to rest with their Vanquish lineup of gaming PCs that start at $699. The entry level rig comes packing with an AMD FX-4300, 8GB of RAM, 1TB HDD, Radeon HD 7750 graphics, and Windows 7.

Digital Storm says that this only $38 more than what you would pay for these same parts on Newegg, with the company’s most-expensive Vanquish rig only costing $58 more than the same build from parts on Newegg. Of course, this isn’t a huge difference and you’re obviously still paying a bit more if you bought from Digital Storm.

However, this isn’t the cheapest gaming rig we’ve seen from a boutique computer maker, iBUYPOWER’s newer Revolt gaming rig lineup starts at just $499. We ended up reviewing one of their high-end Revolt builds, and we liked it a lot. However, there’s simply nothing more satisfying than building your own PC. No matter which way you go, it seems Digital Storm is at the ready for when you decide purchase a pre-built machine.

Digital Storm Vanquish fights back against DIY gaming rigs is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Today invitations have been issued to an event for the press that will reveal what Microsoft is suggesting will be “a new generation revealed” for the Xbox. This invitation notes that Don Mattrick will be present with the whole Xbox team and that a “special unveiling” will be taking place. This timeline and recent reports combined suggest this event will be the home of the official unveiling of the rumored Xbox 720.

This generation’s console will be going to battle directly with the already announced PlayStation 4 and will be bringing with it Microsoft’s next generation of gaming software. It’s highly likely that the event will contain more than just details about the console itself, bringing with it a collection of developers and game producers from top-name brands and legacy affiliates.

“On that day, we’ll share our vision for Xbox, and give you a real taste of the future. Then, 19-days later at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, we’ll continue the conversation and showcase our full lineup of blockbuster games.

We are thrilled to pull back the curtain and reveal what we’ve been working on.” – Major Nelson

This event will be happening on the 21st of May, less than a month away. This is well ahead of the gaming convention E3, this allowing game developers to ready their wares for the convention while the Microsoft-made machine has its own day in the sun.

have a peek at the brief timeline below of recent tips and suggestions from the SlashGear archive of Xbox 720 articles. As this event takes place at the real-deal Xbox campus, we can expect nothing less than a significant showing by the creators of this machine prepared for the future.

[via Major Nelson]

Xbox 720 event invite suggests first device reveal is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The iTunes Music Store was launched back in 2003 and it has grown substantially since that day. A decade later iTunes Store is the go to place for millions who want to download music, movies, TV shows and apps.  It ended up selling 1 million songs in the first week, approximately 25 million songs were downloaded in 2003 alone. Fast forward to February 26, 2013 and on this day the iTunes Store set a new record of selling its 25 billionth song. Earlier this year the 40 billionth app was downloaded from iTunes App Store. The Store celebrates its tenth anniversary on April 28th and to celebrate that Apple has launched an interactive timeline which details all of the achievements made over the past decade.

The timeline lists iTunes Store milestones year by year, these include hardware announcements, musical touchstones and song downloads. Top selling albums and songs of a particular year are also listed. The list of achievements in 2013 is obviously not that long, but the iTunes Store has reached some significant milestones this year, such as the 25 billionth song and 40 billionth app download. This interactive timeline can be viewed by clicking here.

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When Barnes & Noble first announced the NOOK Color, that was all the way back in October of 2010, which frankly, is a pretty long way back to the past via the time machine – at least in terms of technology, 3 years is a pretty long time ago. The NOOK Color held the distinction of being the first popular 7” Android-powered tablet that was specially priced to move without breaking the $250 price point, where it ran on a highly customized version of the Android operating system that was specially designed to play nice with B&N’s app and book stores.

Needless to say, it did not take too long before hackers managed to figure out just how to load custom ROMs on the NOOK Color, and three years down the road, NOOK Color hacking still remains strong. In fact, you are now able to download nightly builds of CyanogenMod 10.1 for the NOOK Color, which lets you enjoy a custom version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean complete with full access to the Google Play Store. That’s saying a whole lot you know, considering how other some handsets that were released even as late as last year will never see Android 4.1 Jelly Bean for that matter in its life cycle.

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