Hasta La Gadget!

According to Xbox One representatives this afternoon, it’s not just the PlayStation 4 that’ll be offering the ability to play downloadable games before they’re fully downloaded once the consoles launch later this year. Speaking up after the fact that Sony’s console would offer such a service – and perhaps seeing the high-fives and thumbs up given in response – Microsoft has issued a statement on their machine’s ability to work with downloading games well before they’re fully downloaded.

It’s not that the Xbox One couldn’t always do this, it’s just that Microsoft more than likely wants to make clear that they’re not letting their customers behind. This ability also works with the installation of games from disks. According to Microsoft as well, you’ll find your ability to play the game appearing well before a physical disk is done installing your full fare of data.

“Consumers will be able to sign on to any Xbox One console and have access to all their digital games. Once the required data -– a fraction of the entire game -– is on their hard drive, they can jump into the action while the rest of the game finishes downloading in the background.” – Microsoft Representative

Both the Microsoft-made Xbox One and the Sony-made PlayStation 4 will be launching near the end of this year, well within the bounds of the 2013 holiday season. At the moment we’ve not yet seen final builds from either company, so demonstrations of the abilities described above will not be available for viewing for some time. At the moment we’re left with sly not-quite-real-and-full access, as it were.

The ability to play games well before they’re fully downloaded or installed exists on the Xbox 360 right this minute, and most web-based gaming hubs allow this functionality from gaming PCs here in the summer of 2013 as well. It’s not that we’ve never seen this sort of quick access before, it’s that the public wants to continue to see it happen well through the future.

VIA: Engadget; Polygon

Xbox One joins “play as you download” club is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

When you were a kid, you probably played with action figures, or something like them. They were awesome. You also played video games, which were similarly awesome. Now they’re being brought together in a way that against all odds, isn’t horrible and schticky. It actually makes a load of sense.

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What Time is it? These days, when you ask someone this simple question, they reach for their phone. Now 20 years ago, not many people would have thought to pick up a phone to check the hour. Back then, you just looked at the watch on your wrist, or the clock on the wall. Some people might look at their VCR, but most of those just blinked 12:00 all the time. Well, if you’re one of those people who likes to have a clock on their wall, here is an interesting take on the hanging timepiece.

The Tick Talk Wall Clock works just like any old analog clock. However, instead of a set of Roman numerals or your standard numbers, you’re given a dozen tiny white boards to write on. The white boards are in the shape of speech bubbles, and can be written on and erased (provided you use a dry erase marker, that is), thus the name “Tick Talk.”

What’s interesting is that they’ve chosen to make the writable areas separate from the rest of the clock, which allows you to position them however you like (though you’ll still want to keep them at the hour positions). When you purchase this $32 kit, you’ll get the clock mechanism with minute and hour hands, 12 speech bubbles, a marker, and adhesives for mounting. All you need to supply is the AA battery and a bit of creativity.

 
[ Tick Talk Wall Clock lets you customize your clock face copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

It’s not uncommon for media companies to send in DMCA takedown requests to Google in order to have it removed from search listings and indexing, but sometimes it can get a bit ridiculous. Case in point: HBO is demanding that Google remove a link to a torrent listing of a version of VLC, the popular open-source media player.

Okay, so it’s not rare when media companies request takedowns of torrent listings, because most of them contain copyrighted material. However, VLC is a completely free and open-source piece of software that has no copyrights, and since torrent sites themselves aren’t illegal, we’re not sure what HBO is getting at with this request in particular.

Copyright holders ask Google to remove millions of links every month. Just last month alone, media companies sent in almost 15 million URLs that they demanded be taken out of Google’s search results, proving that copyright holders are a persistent bunch, even to the point where they’re citing copyright infringement for things that don’t even have copyrights in the first place.

However, this could be a simple mistake on HBO’s part. We’re guessing these companies have computer bots that scour the internet for copyrighted material and then sends it into Google, so it wouldn’t be too surprising if these bots made a mistake every now and then, but this one is certainly a laughable mistake.

Unfortunately, we doubt that media companies will crack down on the number of false positives they come up with, seeing as how they seem to work off the notion that the more URLs they send Google’s way, the more chances they have at getting their copyrighted material taken off in search results, no matter how many mistakes they make.

VIA: TorrentFreak

HBO demands Google take down VLC torrent listing is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Two of the most powerful smartphones ever offered by their respective manufacturers are headed to T-Mobile this week for users hoping to pre-order and get in on the action as soon as possible. One runs Android – that’s the Sony Xperia Z, coming in both black and a rather unique purple version. The other works with Windows Phone 8 – that’s the Nokia Lumia 925, the newest in a line of large-display-toting hero phones from the company birthed for Microsoft’s software all the way back in 2012 with the Nokia Lumia 920 – here in 2013 it’s time to get and go metal.

Both of the devices being sent up by T-Mobile this week have had full reviews here on SlashGear, with the Nokia Lumia 925 review we’ve got working internationally. Our T-Mobile Sony Xperia Z review, on the other hand, has the handset set squarely in the corner of the big pink mobile data carrier.

The Nokia Lumia 925 works with a refined look at what’s also delivered to Verizon with the Lumia 928, it, again, being the newest version of the smartphone first offered in the form of the Lumia 920. Here we’ve got a 4.5-inch 1280 x 768 pixel display working above a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor and a 8.7 MP PureView camera on the machine’s back. Inside is the newest edition of Windows Phone 8. This device is coming up for pre-order on the 17th of this month for $99.99 down and 24 months of $20 USD.

The Sony XPERIA Z is one we’ve reviewed more than once – see our original Sony Xperia Z review to see how it adds up to this USA-bound version. It’s essentially the same device, but seeing the two ever-so-slightly different angles on the device, one from Chris Davies, the other from Vincent Nguyen, should give you a fair view of the machine in the end.

This Xperia Z smartphone packs a fully waterproof body working with a 13-megapixel camera on its back and a 5-inch 1920 x 1080 Full HD display on its front. It’s coming with a Sony Wireless Bluetooth Speaker “gift” if it’s picked up this week from T-Mobile, and just like the purple color form of the device, this offer is limited. The black edition will continue to be available well into the future – both are available for a variety of prices which you can see in our original pricing and pre-order rundown.

T-Mobile Xperia Z and Nokia Lumia 925 launching (pre-order) this week is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.