Xbox One owners will be able to access shows like Sleepy Hollow, New Girl, and Almost Human as of today, as the Fox Now app lands on the next-gen console. The service will give Xbox One users access to new episodes of shows the day after they air on broadcast TV, Fox says, with select […]
Telltale Games announced this week that it was working in conjunction with developer Gearbox Software and publisher 2K on a new episodic game series. The new game series is called Tales from the Borderlands: A Telltale Games Series. The new game series will premiere in 2014. The game will be coming to game consoles, mobile […]
Portable gaming consoles remain within the domain of Nintendo and Sony, with their Nintendo 3DS as well as PS Vita, respectively, but their territory have been encroached upon by other forms of mobile gaming, no thanks to the huge popularity of tablets as well as smartphones. Well, here is another player that intends to bite off a chunk of this lucrative market – the $149.99 GCW-ZERO, which happens to be an open source gaming console. With the GCW-ZERO, you know for sure that you have something good going on here, especially when it has been built by gamers for gamers.
Specially designed with open source games in mind, it will be able to handle a plethora of games that used to run on the NES, SNES, GBA, Sega, PlayStation, PC and plenty more, being basically too many to mention. Powered by Linux, it already comes with a slew of open source software that is ready to rock and roll. Alternatively, you can also opt to change the operating system if you so desire. As for the hardware specifications, you might be pleased to hear that there will not be any pesky thumbs blocking your view, since it comes with a responsive D-pad, an analog nub, two shoulder buttons and tilt controls. Underneath the hood, a 1GHz processor accompanied by 512MB RAM gets the job done, while its 16GB of internal memory can be augmented by another microSD card to hit an additional 64GB.
[ GCW-ZERO, the open source gaming console copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Remember that rumored PlayStation 4 and PS Vita bundle that was due to reach the UK in time for the holidays? It’s now official — if not the discount that some were hoping for. Sony UK head Fergal Gara tells Eurogamer that some stores are carrying the device combo starting today, but it will cost only slightly less than the £500 ($816) you’d pay to get the systems one at a time. Appropriately, a few shops will offer a “soft bundle” that involves regular PS4 and Vita boxes. The kit doesn’t make much financial sense, then, but Gara describes this as a philosophical move that highlights the PS4’s Remote Play feature. To us, the real problem will be supply; when the PS4 is flying off shelves, there may not be many bundles to sell in the first place.
Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds, HD, Sony
Source: Eurogamer
Sony’s PSN woes aren’t over just yet. The company has temporarily stopped taking PlayStation promo codes following a surge in traffic on the gaming service; for the moment, money cards and game vouchers won’t work. There’s no estimate for when code redemption will return. It’s easy to see the potential causes, however. Between the weekend, the PlayStation 4’s European launch and a big discount on PlayStation Plus subscriptions at Amazon, there’s guaranteed to be a deluge of PSN activity — Sony may have unintentionally created a perfect storm.
Update (12/1/13): According to the PlayStation Europe Blog, Sony is “continually increasing the availability of the voucher redemption functionality,” so you should see it soon if it’s not on your system already. The next step, which we should hear more about tomorrow, is to switch on the What’s New activity feed and Live Item in the Content Information Screen for users outside North America.
Sony has been rather successful in selling the PlayStation 4, to the point where the PlayStation Network has strained under the load. To avoid making things worse, the company will be delaying some PSN features in Australia, Europe and New Zealand. For the first few days after the PS4 launch in these areas, friend activity will be disabled in both the What’s New and content info sections. Activity will come back once the initial frenzy is over, Sony says. The decision won’t make a big impact on gameplay when multiplayer and other core features will be available on day one, but it may catch a few players off-guard.
Source: PlayStation Blog Europe
We hope you weren’t bent on using the Xbox 360 as a U-Verse TV receiver. AT&T is now telling customers that it will drop IPTV support for Microsoft’s older console after December 31st, leaving viewers with little choice but to use a conventional set-top box. Subscribers will get a $99 credit in return for their troubles, the provider says. We’ve reached out to AT&T for more details regarding the move, but there are no signs of an official Xbox One substitute on the horizon.
[Thanks, Chuck]
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Mobile, Microsoft, AT&T
Source: AT&T
Everyone’s in a tizzy about the “new” console generation, conveniently forgetting that, market-wise, it was already here a year ago with the release of Nintendo’s Wii U. It isn’t as advanced technologically as the new Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox One, but the Wii U’s like the kid who still likes Ninja Turtles when everyone’s moved on to Power Rangers: They might not be as cool, but they’re still your classmate, and they’re still going to graduate with everyone else. Nintendo might seem a little square compared to Sony and Microsoft right now, but it still has the skills to succeed in school.
At launch, Nintendo sold out its entire initial allotment of 400,000 Wii U’s — which looked promising — but after the holidays, sales softened significantly and continued to slide. By E3, the situation wasn’t looking so good. Just a few months later, Nintendo announced a price cut of $50 for the console, reducing its profit on each unit sold. However, the price reduction also moved a lot of units, with the Wii U experiencing a 200 percent uptick in sales for the month of September.
OUYA owners who’ve been eager for the console’s big interface upgrade can relax, as it’s reaching systems today. Now known as “Abominable Snowman,” the update gives the Android device a much more visual control scheme that simplifies finding new games. The beauty is more than just skin-deep, though: there’s also beta support for USB storage, the ability to queue downloads from the web and quicker access to the system menu. Gamers just have to check for an update to give their OUYA its much-appreciated makeover.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: OUYA
It’s always fun to tear gadgets apart. I remember being a kid and taking stuff apart to learn how it works. Somehow this never gets old. We all love a good gadget teardown, And so the folks over at iFixit flew to New Zealand to get a launch day console and have now posted their teardown of the Microsoft Xbox One.
So what did they find inside? Well, the Xbox One is easy to disassemble, which is always good news for those of us who like to tinker, and most of the parts are easy to access and repair.
However, it’s not as easy to swap out the hard drive as in the PS4, and it voids your warranty. Overall, it’s not all that different from the PS4 since they’re both glorified HTPCs – although you can really see that Microsoft could have trimmed their console down in size a bit – or at least have integrated the power supply like Sony did.
One other interesting discovery is the tiny speaker inside the case. I presume this is used to make sounds when the system powers up or discs are ejected, but maybe it could be programmed to make other sounds. Perhaps Microsoft will start to sell disc eject sounds – like ringtones for your console.
For tons of photos, component listings, and info on repairability, check out the full teardown at iFixit. Now you will know what’s inside your shiny new black box.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
