Hasta La Gadget!

Some new sources have reinforced previous rumors that Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox 720 will require a constant connection to the internet in order for you to play your games. The news comes from Microsoft Blogger Paul Thurrott in a discussion with Andrew Zarian on What The Tech. His sources say that there is a note for the Xbox 720 saying, “must be internet-connected to use”.

Thurrott notes that this may not exactly be a terrible thing because he sees the Xbox 360 as an always-on device anyways. He says that most of the games he plays are multiplayer, and most of the time people use the Xbox 360 as a media player to stream movies off of services like Netflix. However, we can’t forget that a good amount of Xbox gamers have single-player games in their libraries as well, and shouldn’t be restricted from playing them if they aren’t connected to the internet.

He also says the Xbox 720, codenamed Durango, will be a pretty expensive system. It will most likely retail around $500, and that’s without the reportedly required Xbox Live subscription fee. There have been reports that if a player is disconnected from the internet for more than 3 minutes, their entire game session is terminated, and their progress (if unsaved or auto-saved) will all disappear.

There have also been suggestions that the next Xbox will not have backwards compatibility. It may also require you to install games onto your hard drive, and not allow you to play games via the optical disc. Microsoft is also reportedly planning on releasing a new version of the Xbox 360 for $99. The new Xbox 360 is codenamed “Stingray”, and Thurrott states that you can look at it as Microsoft’s solution to “Backwards compatibility”.

Things are already looking pretty bad for the Xbox 720, however, we should wait until Microsoft’s announcement for the gaming system before we make our final decisions on it. Microsoft originally planned on making the announcement on April 24th, but has pushed the date back to May 21st. You can check out Thurrott’s segment about the Xbox 720 on What The Tech here. Also be sure to check out our timeline below for more related Xbox news.

[via Forbes]

Sources reinforce rumors that Microsoft’s next Xbox requires constant internet connection is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Quick: what’s the difference between a broadcast TV network (Fox, CBS, ABC and NBC) and a cable channel (TBS, TNT, ESPN, etc.)? Oh, only millions and millions of viewers. Nevertheless, Fox’s COO Chase Carey is perturbed enough by the mere thought of Aereo getting its way, that he’s already claiming that the network will go dark in favor of becoming a cable channel — if and when OTA network streaming over the internet is completely legalized, that is. Causticism aside, Carey’s remarks are certainly indicative of how the networks feel about the potential disruption of their revenue stream, and moreover, showcases just how far we are from living in a world that isn’t dominated by the same old processes when it comes to entertainment.

Carey stated: “We need to be able to be fairly compensated for our content. This is not an ideal path we look to pursue, but we can’t sit idly by and let an entity steal our signal. We will move to a subscription model if that’s our only recourse.“

Is it possible that Fox would suddenly vanish from over-the-air antennas everywhere, screwing up countless programming agreements with a near-endless amount of partners? Sure… but it’s also possible that the ninth circle of Hades will be converted into an NHL arena. We’re calling your bluff, Carey.

Update: According to the New York Times, Univision chairman Haim Saban joined the saber rattling, stating that his network is ready to consider all options, including converting to pay-tv.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

Comments

Source: Bloomberg

Unless you’re a Virgin Media, EE or Vodafone customer, you’ve either been shelling out for subterranean internet, or bid the London Underground’s WiFi network a solemn farewell when free access ended in January. If you’re with O2, however, your free pass has now been reinstated, as the bubble-loving carrier has become the latest passenger riding on Virgin Media’s tube hotspots — O2 WiFi users will even find themselves automatically registered. Also, the underground network will shortly be meeting its 120-station target, as Virgin will be flipping switches at the final 12 locations throughout this week (the station list is available at the source link). So, should you start seeing more people in more places frantically hammering their smartphones during those 30-second pauses on the platform, you’ll know why.

Filed under: Wireless, Internet, Mobile

Comments

Source: Virgin Media

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.

Just a few short years ago, 3D printing seemed like science fiction; we could grasp its value, but we didn’t yet have the ability to harness its power and put it to good use. Now, we’re seeing the technology advance every day — and it’s opening up new possibilities in medical science and other fields. This week, we shared the story of one British man who received a new 3D-printed face that gave him a second chance at life. In an equally amazing story, scientists at the University of Notre Dame successfully 3D printed the entire skeleton of a living rat. California-based Signal Snowboards unveiled the world’s first 3D-printed snowboard this week. And desktop 3D printing and scanning is getting cheaper every day — Canadian company Matterform is developing a lightweight 3D scanner called the Photon that’s cheaper than a tablet.

Filed under: Misc, Internet

Comments

Now that Chromium has pledged its allegiance to Google’s new Blink rendering engine, Webkit is set to have the now-unnecessary Chrome-specific code stripped from it. Apple Webkit developer Geoffrey Garen kicked off a conversation on the project’s mailing list about removing the Mountain View-centric cruft, saying that it would streamline things and hopefully “make development easier and more coherent for everyone.” Garen adds that Googlers Adam Barth and Eric Seidel have already offered to pitch in with the clean up, but he asks that devs who will continue using the engine tidy things up as well. Over the next few weeks, code in Webkit related to the search giant’s browser, such as the V8 JavaScript engine, will be put up on the chopping block. With a Blink-infused Chrome slated to arrive in roughly 10 weeks, these changes shouldn’t mean much for the average web surfer, save for Webkit being a bit trimmer under the hood.

Filed under: Misc, Internet, Software, Apple, Google

Comments

Via: Slashdot

Source: Webkit Developer Mailing List