Hasta La Gadget!

Welcome back to Monday everyone – we’ve got a heaping helping of news to recap, so let’s dive right in. Today we found out that Apple’s manufacturing partnership with Samsung may not last much longer, and that the Google Nexus 7 might just be the best-selling Android tablet ever (which, given its immense popularity, doesn’t surprise us in the least). One Walmart store has its shelves fully stocked with copies of Windows 8, and this afternoon, we have reason to believe that a new, slimmer iMac may be in the pipeline.

By now, you’ve probably heard plenty of iPad Mini rumors, but today we found out that Apple may reveal a new Mac Mini alongside the bite-sized tablet. Today we saw some pictures that appear to have been snapped by the camera on the yet-unannounced Nexus 4, and Apple has managed to bring former Amazon executive William Stasior on to oversee the continuing development of Siri. Android 4.1.2 was sent out to eager Galaxy Nexus owners today, and just in case you missed Felix Baumgartner’s death-defying jump over the weekend, you can see the highlights again today – complete with terrifying shots from his helmet cam.

LG delivered its Jelly Bean update schedule for a few of its devices today, and speaking of LG, AT&T announced that the Optimus G goes up for pre-order tomorrow with a price tag of $200. We heard that Windows 8 is getting an underwhelming response from vendors today, and Nintendo dropped the price of the original Wii down to just $130 in anticipation of the holiday rush. A new study is claiming that file sharers actually buy more music than people who don’t partake in that rather controversial activity, and Microsoft released a brand new Windows 8 ad today.

Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition players found out that they’re in for a treat tomorrow, while Notch was busy showing off new footage from his upcoming game 0x10c and Microsoft was handing out Xbox Live bans to Halo 4 pirates. Activision announced today that Call of Duty Elite will be free with Black Ops II, and we were told that the Wii U gamepad boasts a latency of only 1/60 of a second. Google is in trouble in Europe over privacy concerns again, and we got to take a look at a new robotic wheelchair that can actually walk up stairs. How cool is that?

Finally tonight, we have quite a few original articles for you to have a look at. Chris Burns puts the Optimus G through its gaming paces with Wild Blood, and we pit Xbox Music, Spotify, iTunes, and Google Music against one another to see the strengths and weaknesses of all four. We’ve got a new review of the Huawei Ascend D1 quad XL by Chris Burns, and a review of the Motorola Electrify 2 by your humble wrapper-upper. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, enjoy the rest of your night folks!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: October 15, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Playing Rock Band with my friends have yielded some pretty amusing results, especially watching them play as the singer and seeing them try to hit certain notes. However if you’ve always enjoyed playing as the singer, you might be interested to learn that Activision has filed for a “Sing Hero” trademark. This is not the first time Activision filed for the trademark (first time back in 2009), so technically this would be a re-application.

Rather interestingly though this particular trademark describes “Sing Hero” as a game for “mobile and cellular phones, personal digital assistants, electronic organizers and electronic notepads, handheld computers, and portable and handheld digital electronic devices,” indicating that it could arrive on mobile devices much like Guitar Hero for iOS. No word on when such a game would materialize, but what do you guys think? Anyone interested in a karaoke game on their mobile device?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Angry Birds Trilogy will be getting DLCs to justify its $40 price tag, Modern Warfare 3 DLC Map images leak online,

One of the biggest talking points about the original Black Ops was Zombies mode. When Activision and Treyarch announced Call of Duty: Black Ops II, footage from the game’s Zombies mode was surprisingly absent, but that all changed today. After teasing the mode last week, Activision has released a new trailer for Zombies, and a new write-up from Polygon gives us an idea of what we can expect to find when we delve into Zombies mode once more.

As it turns out, Zombies mode will be a little deeper than just “shoot all the zombies” this time around. The traditional game mode where players team up to take on wave after wave of zombies is still there, rest assured, but Zombies in Black Ops II will feature two additional modes: Tranzit and Grief. If you’re a Zombies fan, you might want to brace yourself before reading on, because both modes sound excellent.

In Tranzit, players will work cooperatively to make it through a zombie-based story mode. Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia says players will have a “massive world” to explore, and there will be items to collect and defenses to build as well. Did we mention that there’s a bus to use for transportation? There is, and though it provides some degree of shelter, it like like zombies can also board the bus, leading to a potentially sticky situation. Tranzit mode will apparently have ties to the story behind the Moon map that released for the original Black Ops, though Lamia didn’t get into specifics when talking about how the two are related.

Changing gears completely, we come to Grief mode. This is a competitive survival mode that pits two teams of varying sizes against groups of zombies. The teams will compete to be the last team standing, though here’s the twist: you can’t shoot players on the other team. You’ll have plenty of ways to screw them over though, hence the name. It should give us an interesting spin on the played out team deathmatch mode, and that is definitely something to look forward to.

All in all, these new modes sound great, especially Tranzit mode, which immediately reminds us of the Arma II mod DayZ. We’re told to expect more information on Black Ops II‘s multiplayer modes later on this week, so you can bet we’ll be keeping an eye out for those. In the meantime, let us know what you think of Tranzit and Grief modes – have they managed to pique your interest?

Black Ops II Zombies mode debuts in new video is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

With all of the hype surrounding Black Ops II, a collector’s edition was inevitable. Activision has done us one better, though, and announced a total of three collector’s editions for the game. The expected Hardened Edition and PC Digital Deluxe edition are present, along with the Care Package Edition, which comes packed full of goodies for the die-hard Call of Duty fan.

Starting off with the Hardened Edition, you’ll be getting the game (naturally), along with the Nuketown Zombies map and the Nuketown 2025 map. Also included in this package is a 2-sided steel book for your game disc, a copy of the Black Ops II soundtrack, two limited edition challenge coins “that serve as your key to exclusive digital content,” two player card backgrounds, and a multiplayer weapon skin. Those buying the Xbox 360 version will get a CLAW Avatar prop and a Zombie Avatar costume, while those on PS3 will be getting a dynamic multiplayer Turbine theme and a dynamic Zombies theme. The Hardened Edition will set you back $79.99, which isn’t too bad a price considering the bonuses you’re getting.

The Care Package Edition is almost exactly the same as the Hardened Edition, only with this one you’re getting a rather expensive bonus: a remote controlled MQ-27 Dragonfire Drone. The drone is a pretty excellent addition, but be prepared to shell out a significant amount of money for it, as the Care Package Edition comes in at $179.99. Also detailed today was the PC Digital Deluxe Edition, which comes with all of the bonuses featured in the Hardened Edition, but instead of Avatar items or dynamic themes, PC players will get a download code for Call of Duty: World at War. The PC Digitial Deluxe Edition also costs the same as the Hardened Edition – $79.99.

Strangely enough, a subscription to Call of Duty Elite doesn’t appear to be included in these special editions. After including an Elite membership with Modern Warfare 3‘s special editions, we assumed that Activision would do the same with Black Ops II, but that assumption was apparently wrong. Will you be picking up one of these Black Ops II special editions, or is it the standard edition for you?

[via Activision]

Activision details three Black Ops II special editions is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It would seem that Call of Duty: Black Ops II will be getting a release on Wii U, if the LinkedIn profile of one QA tester from Activision is to be believed. Uncovered by IGN, this profile belongs to someone named Randall (though details on the account have been changed since the discovery), and claims that he performed “QA testing on PS3 and Wii U” while working at Treyarch. His profile also said that he did multiplayer testing while working with the team, along with “ad hoc testing, and regression.”

He’s been performing those duties since May, which suggests that the Wii U version of Black Ops II has been in development since at least then. It wouldn’t be much of a surprise to hear that Black Ops II is in development for Wii U, as its predecessor appeared on the original Wii. Indeed, many Call of Duty titles have been featured on Wii too, with the most notable exception being Modern Warfare 2.

Most of those ports were pretty solid too, if not as fully-featured as their Xbox 360 and PS3 counterparts. That should all change with the Wii U though, as it won’t suffer from the same hardware limitations the original Wii did. Still, that’s assuming that Black Ops II is coming to Wii U in the first place, and even though we’ve received some pretty solid evidence that it is, neither Activision nor Nintendo have made any announcements yet.

We have a feeling that it is coming, but Activision may be waiting to announce it until Nintendo unleashes more details about the Wii U. Remember, much to dismay of players, Nintendo still hasn’t talked system specs, pricing or even given us an actual release date yet, despite the fact that we’re supposedly only a couple of months away from launch. Once that information is out there, Activision will probably announce Black Ops II. For now though, it remains confirmed only for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, and it’s hitting those platforms on November 13. Stay tuned for more details.

Black Ops II reportedly in the works for Wii U is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.