It’s that time of the year again, and we’re not talking about the long Independence Day weekend. Microsoft has opened up public beta registration for the 2013 Xbox Live update, and this time around you’ll need to log your interest directly through an Xbox 360 console. Xbox owners in Japan will be missing out, although they’ll have the same opportunity “at a later date.” There should be a tile on the dashboard home screen entitled “Xbox Beta Program,” and with limited spots available, we recommend you sign up immediately if you’d like to participate — last year’s spots were filled pretty quickly. There doesn’t appear to be anything exciting included in the beta; Major Nelson cites “updates to improve overall performance” and the option to purchase content with actual money instead of MS points. There may be more details in the beta FAQ when it goes live later today, but if you get into the program and find anything juicy MS neglected to mention, it hopes you’ll honor the NDA which you’ll agree to as part of the registration process.
Microsoft has thrown open applications for its next Xbox Live beta, giving Xbox 360 gamers the opportunity to have early access to the new Microsoft Points replacement and more. The 2013 Xbox Live Update for Xbox 360 Public Beta will see a trial switch-over to local currency for downloads and purchases, Microsoft’s Major Nelson writes, in addition to performance improvements.
The switch away from Microsoft Points to gamers’ local currencies was announced last month, with the company saying that any existing credit in a player’s account would be converted over to currency “of at least equal value.” The change comes ahead of the new Xbox One, which will go on sale alongside the Xbox 360 rather than directly replacing it.
Membership of the public beta is only open to limited numbers – Microsoft hasn’t said how many will be accommodated – and, for the first time, will be accessed via the Xbox Live dashboard itself. Xbox 360 owners should look out for a new Xbox Beta Program tile on the homescreen.
Initially, any gamer in an Xbox Live market will be able to take part, barring Japan. Those Japanese gamers who want to get involved will have to wait until “a later date”, Major Nelson says. Those in the public beta will also have to sign an NDA, though in previous years those non-disclosure agreements have generally failed to stop details leaking.
Despite the new, next-gen console on the way, Microsoft isn’t giving up on its existing model. The company announced a redesigned version of the Xbox 360 back at E3, and has promised “hundreds of new games” over the next few years.
Nintendo has a history of releasing snazzy special edition hardware outside of the U.S. and two Japan-only Pokemon X & Y3DS XLs have now been added to it. The blue passive-3D dual-screen handheld features a pair of new legendary pocket monsters — Xerneas and Yveltal, if you’re curious — and is out October 12th. The second of the duo is going to be more elusive than a Mew. To snatch a metallic gold 3DS XL (also with Xerneas, plus a slew of others), being in Japan to coincide with X & Y’s release isn’t enough: fighting off the rest of the trainers at Pokemon Center retailers October 12th is on the bill, too. May the best Pokemaster — with 22,800 yen ($227) — win! You didn’t think The Big N was gonna make it easy to catch ’em all, did you?
We’re sure developers get tons of emails every day from their users who might either wish to leave feedback, provide some ideas, or complain about a bug, and with the barrage of emails some developers get, it is understandable that […]
HTC has just put out unaudited results for its Q2, with profits down 83% on last year. The Taiwanese phone maker, which is battling for oxygen in the fiercely competitive Android OEM smartphone space dominated by South Korea’s Samsung, said its total revenues for the quarter reached NT$70.7 billion ($2.35 billion). Profits came in at NT$1.25 billion ($41.63 million), below analyst expectations, with earnings per share after tax standing at NT$1.50.
HTC’s Q2 profits were higher than the NT$85 million it made in the previous quarter but down from NT$7.40 billion it made a year earlier. The WSJ reports that the average expected net profit of seven analysts it polled for HTC’s Q2 was NT$2.0 billion, making for another sizeable miss for HTC.
The latest results put a dampener on some more positives signs last month. HTC’s sales in May surged 48.03% — its best uplift all year — but monthly revenues for June took a considerable dive, down 23.88% month-on-month and 26.43% year-on-year. That’s a worrying sign for the company which has been banking on its flagship HTC One handset keeping the tills ringing as it works to expand its portfolio, reconfigure its senior management team and reboot its marketing strategy.
The problem HTC faces is extremely fierce competition in the smartphone space, with rivals like Samsung wielding a huge portfolio of devices at multiple price-points taking more and more share of the market. HTC has announced a smaller, more affordable version of the HTC One — the HTC One Mini — which it will be hoping can grab share from the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini but the One Mini has yet to hit shelves. Trying to turn around a phone business with just one star handset up for grabs is a huge ask.
While the Samsung Galaxy S4’s battery isn’t too shabby, there are some users out there who probably can burn through the entire phone’s battery supply in less than a day. If you’re one of those users, or perhaps you just […]
So it seems that Apple has been going about trademarking the “iWatch” moniker in regions such as Japan, Mexico, and Taiwan, just to name a few places, hinting that the existence of the device could be real. However given that […]
Google must change its European privacy policy or run the risk of legal censure, with the UK joining Germany, Italy, France, and Spain in demanding the search giant modify its contentious “unified” policy. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office, the independent privacy watchdog, confirmed this week it had contacted Google giving it until September 20 to rewrite its privacy policy, as currently it “raises serious questions about its compliance with the UK Data Protection Act.” If it fails to amend the policy, the ICO warns, Google could find itself the target of “formal enforcement action.”
The UK isn’t the first European country to take issue with Google’s single privacy policy that over-arches the majority of its services. Revealed in 2012, the updated terms & conditions replaced the individual agreements for each product with a single per-account policy; at the time, Google claimed it shaved around 60 different agreements to just one, billing it as a more efficient and understandable approach to data privacy.
However, critics also pointed out that Google was explicitly giving itself permission to share data from different services, and in the process build up a more complete picture of each individual user. For Google, that only led to benefits overall: the company would be able to, for instance, use calendar data, location data, and its own understanding of traffic status to give more accurate directions and suggestions on when to travel, what route to take, and by what method to take it, Google argued.
Google privacy policy changes explanation video:
That wasn’t enough to placate privacy watchdogs, however, and a bitter back-and-forth began as regulators sparred with Google’s own legal advisors. In February this year, the French National Commission for Computing and Liberties announced it was unsatisfied with Google’s explanations, and that it would investigate and potentially level fines at the company.
“Our privacy policy respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services” Google said in a statement on the matter. “We have engaged fully with the authorities involved throughout this process, and we’ll continue to do so going forward.”
Meanwhile, a German watchdog announced this week that it would hold a legal hearing with Google’s policy at its core. Professor Johannes Caspar, who heads the Hamburg-based organization, said that Google’s 2012 policy “violates the company’s commitment to full transparency about the use and handling of the data.”
Data use is a sensitive topic at the moment, especially given the ongoing PRISM revelations that forced Google – among others – to categorically deny that the US NSA or any other security agency had “back door” access to its servers. Google is also the subject of privacy concerns in the US, particularly around its Glass headset, which has led one Congressional caucus to question the potential for abuse of wearables.
UK ICO statement:
“We have today written to Google to confirm our findings relating to the update of the company’s privacy policy. In our letter we confirm that its updated privacy policy raises serious questions about its compliance with the UK Data Protection Act.
In particular, we believe that the updated policy does not provide sufficient information to enable UK users of Google’s services to understand how their data will be used across all of the company’s products.
Google must now amend their privacy policy to make it more informative for individual service users. Failure to take the necessary action to improve the policies compliance with the Data Protection Act by 20 September will leave the company open to the possibility of formal enforcement action” Information Commissioner’s Office, UK
This might seem like some kind of psychedelic artwork—but you’re actually looking a hundreds of individual lava flows, frozen in time on the side of Olympus Mons on Mars.
Henry Jackson failed as a professional football player, but then declared himself a Bishop and started preaching. As far as I can see, he has no theological training.
However, he’s down on the gays and that gives him a following in fundamentalist circles. In a opinion piece at Christian Post he claimed:
“Since legalizing registered partnerships and gay marriage in Scandinavia, an overwhelming number of adults have simply stopped bothering to get married in the first place. Read More… More on Gay Marriage
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