Hasta La Gadget!

Just yesterday Ubisoft officially announced the next installment in the Assassin’s Creed series, but details were quite scarce; we merely got a look at the box art and that was it. However, a screen capture of a landing page on Ubisoft’s website (which has since been taken down), says that Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will be launching on October 29 on “next-gen consoles.”

The game has already been confirmed for the PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Wii U, so we should now see it arrive for the PlayStation 4 and the rumored Xbox 720. Of course, this isn’t too surprising, as the release date for the game will hit around the same time that the next-gen consoles should launch. However, the screen capture suggest that the game will be releasing on October 29 for next-gen consoles, suggesting that the PS4 and Xbox 720 will be out by then.

The landing page where the release date was leaked is now replaced by a countdown for the Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag “world premiere trailer,” which is set to launch in four days and 12 hours from the time of this writing. At that point, we should know more details about the upcoming installment.

The leaked screenshot also means that pre-orders will be available for the game, and those who pre-order the title will receive a collectible Todd McFarlane poster, a cartoonist who used to draw Spider-Man comics for Marvel. Since the release date was pulled and replaced with the trailer, it seems like Ubisoft will announce the release date for the game early next week when the trailer launches. Stay tuned!

[via Gaming Everything]

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag reportedly launching October 29 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We haven’t been hearing much hearsay on the second-generation iPad mini. Of course, we know it’s coming at some point, but today’s leak seems to be the first out of many that we’ll see in the coming months. Unconfirmed photos of what appear to be the rear shell of the second-gen iPad mini have leaked out onto the interwebs.

A member of Chinese site WeiPhone has posted photos of the rear shell in a forum thread, which shows all angles of the piece of aluminum that is said to be a part of the second-gen iPad mini. Of course, the shell looks very similar to the current iPad mini, but it does look a tad bit thicker. That could just be the angles of the photos giving us that effect, but a thicker iPad mini wouldn’t be unheard of.

For instance, the full-size iPad gained a bit of thickness after the iPad 2. Granted, it’s only a bit thicker, but the thinnest iPad that we’ve seen came out over two years ago. Apple may be stuffing a Retina display in the iPad mini, as well as some faster hardware, which would understandably make the device just a tad thicker than before.

The photos also show a bright blue Apple logo, as well as the word “iPad” towards the bottom. We’re guessing this just a part of the manufacturing process, or it could mean that Apple is planning to offer colored logos with this next-gen device, although that seems highly unlikely. Obviously, we don’t know much about this leak, so we’re keeping a good amount of salt nearby until we hear something a bit more official.

[via MacRumors]

iPad mini 2nd-generation rear shell leaks is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s time for the mother of all casting calls in the next Star Wars movie: Han Solo – and wouldn’t you know it? It appears that none other than Harrison Ford will be reprising the roll. That is, according to Latino Review – a source that (later in this post) you’ll find has been a surprisingly well-informed source in the past! It’s not every day that we get to report on a new Star Wars movie (even though that may change in a few years time) so it’s all excitement from our end!

The details are not known at the moment on what Harrison Ford will be doing as Han Solo at this point. The amount of movies he will be in is not known. What is known is that Harrison Ford has signed a contract to reprise his role as Han Solo in an upcoming Star Wars film – so says El Mayimbe. This writer has made it clear that he only knows that Ford has signed on to do a film or films in the future, all that’s left is for the studio – Disney or Lucasfilm – to do a formal announcement.

Sound like an awesome deal to you? It’s now possible that they’ll either be doing flash-forwards to when Han Solo was the age Ford is now, or that they’ll have the first (or subsequent) films set in an amount of time relative to our actual timeline. There’s also been rumors of break-away films with character-centric storylines, Han Solo being one of the possibilities too. How about some Tron: Legacy action with The Dude’s face being retro-ized with many virtual markers for a much younger Han?

The possibilities are endless in this extremely advanced virtual effects-driven universe of ours. And we know good and well that the Star Wars franchise is no stranger with the VFX universe – a universe right here and now, up close and personal!

Also note: Our own Philip Berne called it three years ago in a column called How Lucas ruined Star Wars and how to save it.

And as far as this leak goes from Latino Review: If you’ll have a look back at the post Marvel Reporting from the writer named Da7e on their website, you’ll see that they’ve literally been contacted by Marvel Comics in an attempt to bribe them out of their inside sources in the film industry. And this isn’t the first time they’ve had a major scoop either. The scoop we’re having a look at here was so important that writer El Mayimbe went to Fox News Latino to let it be known. Have a peek at this video to see him make it public:

Be sure to stick with SlashGear in our Star Wars tag hub for all the information leading up to, during, over, and past the release of Star Wars VII. We’ll be pumped up and jumping in every single day with the biggest tips, leaks, and final news releases all the way!

Report: Harrison Ford signed for Star Wars VII as Han Solo is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Previously known as the HTC M7 that we’ve heard so much about, some more details about the HTC One have leaked out, specifically a new rendering and a sample image from the new device, courtesy of EVLeaks. The render claims to show off a full frontal of the rumored smartphone, while the sample image gives us a potential glimpse of what to expect from the camera when HTC’s new flagship arrives, presumably a little over a week away.

What’s most interesting about this render is that it looks to be the exact same image that we saw last month, except this time we see the navigation buttons at the bottom, as well as the display and latest iteration of HTC Sense. So, technically, we’re not learning too much new information at this point, but it is curious to note that this render only sports two buttons at the bottom: Back and Home, with the HTC logo in the middle.

Other than that, you have your front-facing camera, earpiece, sensors, and the microphone at the bottom, which could possibly double as a front-facing speaker considering the size of the vent. As for the sample image, it’s nothing special, and it isn’t at a particularly high resolution.

Previous rumors have suggested that the phone will sport “ultrapixel” technology and even indicated a 13-megapixel sensor, so this particular sample may have not been shot at full res. Alternatively, it could just be a fake image altogether.

In any case, it’ll be interesting to see what else we find out in the coming days. HTC will be hosting an event that’s just right around the corner on February 19, so we may end up seeing the new HTC One for the first time, but in the meantime, we’re keeping sensibly skeptical and will let you know about any further developments. Stay tuned!

HTC One render and sample image leak is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google Chromebooks are aplenty at the moment, with Acer, Samsung, Lenovo, and HP all offering Chromebooks at different shapes and sizes. However, it looks like Google may take matters into their own hands, because a video has leaked today that features a touchscreen Chromebook laptop that has a Retina-quality 2560×1700 resolution.

The video was originally uploaded to YouTube, but has since been taken down, and the company responsible for uploading the video, SlinkyMe, says that the video made its way to YouTube after its servers were compromised by hackers. Of course, we don’t know if that was actually the case, since it’s also possible that the video was just accidentally set to “public.”

The Google-designed Chromebook is supposedly called the Pixel, most likely named after the high-resolution display. It’s not said whether the device is both designed and manufactured by Google, or if they’re partnering with a manufacturer to put it together for them, similar to how the Nexus series of mobile devices operates.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that a Google-designed Chromebook has been made. The company released the CR-48 Chromebook, which only made its way to a handful of people and actually never went on sale. Of course, just like with the CR-48, the Pixel looks to be simply designed and takes a few queues from the MacBook, including the aluminum shell and the chiclet keyboard. We’ll be on standby if more details emerge of the Google Pixel.

[via Liliputing]

Google-designed Chromebook Pixel leaks, features Retina-quality touchscreen is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.