This week the folks at Microsoft opened the stage at their Xbox One event for “one last thing” after letting the world know that the console would be out later this year. That one last thing was the CEO of Activision Publishing, Eric Hirshberg, introducing the next title in the COD series: Call of Duty:
This week Microsoft started their first major next-generation Xbox game console event off with a bang, showing the console and naming it all at once: the Xbox One. Before the event began, it was (once again) revealed that today’s reveal took more than just a weekend to create – Don Mattrick, , noted that “we’ve
Earlier this year NVIDIA announced their all-new quad-core Tegra 4 mobile processor, then followed that up with the Tegra 4i with integrated 4G LTE thanks to their Icera i500 LTE modem. And now today in Las Vegas for CTIA they’re showing its potential by doing a live demo testing Cat 4 LTE-Advanced pulling 150 Mbps
Spotify plans to launch Top 50 lists of the most popular content on the streaming music service today, complete with on-demand preview access so that even those without accounts can listen to the tracks. The new scheme – which will see the most-streamed songs listed in the “Spotify 50″ and the most-shared songs in the
Back in February during Sony’s PS4 reveal, the company didn’t show off the console itself because it’s merely “just a box.” Instead, we were treated with a look at the DualShock 3 controller, as well as a glimpse at some upcoming games that we can look forward to playing once the console is released. Today, however, Sony has teased the console itself, with several close-up angles that really don’t tell us much in the end.
The teaser video, which you can watch below, gives us a very blurry view of the PS4 console box itself, although it doesn’t look like much through an unfocused lens. Throughout the video, we get treated with quick flashes of various close-up angles of the console, including its edges, corners, vents, and logos (which we’re guessing the image above is a new logo of some sort).
At the end of the teaser, we’re treated with a date of June 10 at 6 pm PT, which is during Sony’s press conference at E3, meaning that we’ll get treated with the full PS4 treatment at E3, including more details about the hardware, as well as a release date for the console. Microsoft is also expected to show off its next-gen console at E3 this year.
Speaking of Microsoft, the company is set to announce their next-generation Xbox console tomorrow, so we’re pretty sure that today’s teaser from Sony was strategically timed to attempt to take a bit of day-before excitement away from Microsoft. However, come tomorrow, all eyes will be on the Redmond-based company and their new gaming console.
The PS4 is planned to release in time for the holiday season, and we can only expect Microsoft to do the same with their console. However, it’ll be up in the air on who out-shines who when Santa comes to town. Needless to say, it’ll be nice to have the console wars heated up again after neither company has released a new console in quite some time.
PS4 console teased ahead of full E3 hardware details is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
An Xbox TV, a console piggy-backing on your cable box, DVR functionality, streaming gaming, and augmented reality have all been topics of Microsoft development for the next-gen “Xbox 720“, sources claim, though how much of the prototype tech will make it to the eventual hardware is still unclear. Microsoft has been working on multiple possibilities for embedding the new Xbox further into the living room, multiple insiders whispered to the WSJ, as it attempts to challenge not only Sony’s PlayStation 4 but the rising star of smartphone and tablet gaming. Still, wariness about potentially frustrating gamers with laggy play, or content and entertainment partners, has apparently forced Microsoft to temper its console ambitions.
Some of the strategies for extra console “stickiness” Microsoft considered involved making sure the new Xbox was always involved in whatever the gamer’s TV might be showing at the time. One possibility apparently worked on was an HD input on the Xbox, which could be used to input signals from a cable or satellite box and then overlay Microsoft’s content on top.
That – a similar strategy to what Google used with the early Google TV boxes – could then be used to flash up Xbox-related news and notifications on top of regular TV. So, the sources suggest, gamers could challenge their friends to a multiplayer match, with the alert showing up on top of broadcast television.
The system could also be used to further break down the walls between live content, whether from cable or another source, and on-demand content and gaming served up by the next-gen Xbox, it was claimed. Microsoft even whipped up DVR functionality for one prototype version of the console, but “has been wary of including it” because of concerns that it might negatively impact current partnerships with content owners.
Such fears haven’t, apparently, affected Microsoft’s arch gaming rival, however. Sony has offered a TV tuner, the torne, and a DVR accessory, the nasne, for the PlayStation 3 for some years now, though only in Japan.
In fact, Microsoft supposedly went one stage further than a heavily-integrated console, and developed a full Xbox TV. The likelihood of such an all-in-one reaching the market seems low, however, given the commoditization of TVs, and the fact that – over the typical multi-year life cycle of a console – Microsoft would probably have to more frequently update its screen technology.
Meanwhile, there’s also chatter around streaming gaming, another topic Sony has confirmed will be integrated in some way into the PS4. Microsoft’s strategy on cloud gaming – though still a work-in-progress, the tipsters say – is more cautious, apparently, with concerns that the cost of infrastructure might prove unwieldy, while the potential for underwhelming and frustrating gamers with slower internet connections raised fears about the possibility of a negative backlash.
Any eventual implementation of cloud gaming on the Xbox 720 could start off in more humble ways, ensuring backward-compatibility with existing Xbox 360 titles. According to previous rumors, the new AMD-based architecture of the incoming console won’t be natively compatible with that of the 360, and one possible workaround to that is allowing upgrading gamers to stream their old titles running on a remote server.
Exactly which elements of these features – if any – will make it to the production console is unknown at this stage. However, a more accurate Kinect motion-controller seems more than likely, though talk of 3D glasses that could add augmented reality-style gameplay to titles is perhaps somewhat more shaky. Microsoft is known to be working on IllumiRoom, a projection system which expands gameplay and other home entertainment beyond the confines of the TV for more a immersive experience, but the company has said it won’t be ready in time for the Xbox 720 release.
Microsoft is due to announce the new Xbox on Tuesday, May 21, though the first big games announcement will take place at E3 in June. Previous talk has indicated a November release date, with the possibility of both outright purchase and a subsidized model, similar to those of cellphones, where the console would be cheaper but gamers would be tied into a two-year Xbox LIVE GOLD subscription.
Xbox 720 prototype secrets leak: TV, DVR, streaming, AR and more is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Smartphone startup Jolla has revealed its first device, the Sailfish-powered Jolla, expected to ship by the end of the year. Running the MeeGo-derived OS on a dualcore processor, the Jolla phone packs a 4.5-inch display and heavily gesture-centric UI, as well as 4G connectivity and an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash.
There’s also 16GB of internal storage, along with a microSD card slot. The battery is user-accessible, for speedy switch-overs, and there’s some clever intelligence which can recognize which back-cover you clip back on.
Thanks to that, the Jolla can automatically change the color-scheme – as well as fonts, ringtones, profiles, and more – of its interface to match the color of its casing; a little gimmicky, perhaps, but it’s likely to go down well with those who remember Nokia’s XpressOn covers from the pre-smartphone days. Jolla is calling the system “the Other Half” and will offer multiple different casing finishes.
Any new platform needs apps, and Jolla is putting out the call for developers to jump on board its Sailfish OS. However, the Jolla will also run Android apps, which should open the door to a greater number of titles out of the gate. They’re likely to need some tweaking, however, to suit the gesture-based platform.
Jolla isn’t the only company to take elements of MeeGo and reuse them of late. Nokia, for instance, borrowed elements of the UI and the swiping-gesture system for its Asha Platform, debuting on the Asha 501; although not as flexible or powerful as the MeeGo-powered N9, the 501 does have the advantage of being significantly cheaper.
Jolla’s first phone will arrive by the end of the year, the company says, assuming all goes to plan. It’ll be priced at €399 ($513) SIM-free and unlocked.
Jolla Sailfish phone official with snap-on smart shells and Android support is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Because Google’s most popular operating system – and the most popular operating system on the planet, mind you – is Android, it only makes sense that much of the company’s yearly developers conference would be centered in this multi-device environment. What we expected for this year’s Google I/O was an upgrade to a new version of the mobile OS and a new device (or two) to run it on. Instead what we got was a major upgrade to Google’s social networking connections and services working in and around Android – a turning point, perhaps, for the company in a single three-day series of events.
We began our journey in a bit of a behind-the-scenes tour of the Moscone Center in San Francisco to see what Google had in store. It appeared that the setup was rather similar to what we’d seen the year before – save the massive models hovering above the third floor.
While on the third floor we literally saw the word ANDROID dominating the floor aside Chrome, the second floor retained a set of services for multiple platforms. The second floor also had Google Glass holding its own unique space on the level’s far side. Below you’ll see an on-site preview of the first of three floors through Glass – aka #throughglass – this method of collection acting as a teaser for what would become the dominant subject of the conference – whether Google intended it to or not.
It was announced by Google that they’d at this point counted 900 million Android activations across the planet. This number jumped from just 400 million activations in 2012 and 100 million activations in 2011 – that’s four times the number from one year to the next, then nearly double that number again between last year and here.
Just this past month, Android activations were marked at 1.35 million per day on average back on the 13th of March according to Google – at 750 million activations back then and 900 million now, the company could be seeing over 1.5 billion Android activations by the end of the year.
Google showed of a single new device – a new “Google Edition” or “Nexus Edition” of the Samsung GALAXY S 4. This device would be sold straight from Google the way a Nexus smartphone or tablet would, but would retain the Samsung GALAXY S 4 brand name. While device announcements such as this are normally joined by a giveaway for attendees of the conference, here it was joined by a price tag and availability date: June 25th for a healthy $649 unlocked and without contractual obligations.
We had our own up-close look at this GALAXY S 4 courtesy of Hugo Barra. Google’s Vice President of Android Product Management showed this device as exactly what you’d expect it would be – at least as swift as the Samsung-skinned original and ready to act as a non-Nexus alternative for those wishing to pick up Jelly Bean straight from the source.
NVIDIA came in to take a bit of the hype and excitement of the week with a double-down announcement of their SHIELD device becoming available for pre-sale. NVIDIA’s SHIELD was both announced for pre-sale for early adopters and had its normal retailer pre-sale bumped up due to an apparent rush of requests from normal consumers.
Google Glass was, of course, on a much larger percentage of the center’s population than anywhere else in the world at any time up until this point, with the one possible exception being inside Google and Google X itself. Google Glass runs on its own unique version of Android, the device itself able to be hacked at this point to run Ubuntu (this also proven at a I/O breakout session just this week). Though it wasn’t mentioned but in passing during I/O’s keynote session, Glass and development surrounding it ended up being the star of the week.
Sliding in on the wearable wave as well was a device announced this week by Recon – the Recon Je. This pair of glasses works with a miniature computer that runs Android as well. We had a quick peek at this device here in its near-complete state as well – it’ll be released by the end of the year, well ahead of Google’s own Glass consumer push.
The system known as Google Play game services was launched to tie together gamers on not only Android, but iOS and in-browser as well for desktop machines. This system will allow game saves to the cloud so that users can sign in with their game profile from any device and pick up their game where they left off. It will also support easier connections for multi-player games between users playing on different platforms.
Groups such as Glu Mobile and Gameloft have already begun integrating Google Play game services connectivity and functionality into their games. Developers at Vector Unit announced and demonstrated the ability to connect over the web with speed with their upcoming title Riptide GP 2 – a game also demonstrated this week on NVIDIA SHIELD out on the main floor at Google I/O.
As this is a developers convention, Google chose it for the announcement point of the system that the company says could end Android fragmentation woes forever. This system is called Android Studio and will act as Google’s first all-inclusive developer tool they’ve ever offered – an IDE (integrated developer environment) that offers features such as virtual multi-device display testing and real-time views of multiple language translations in-app.
Android Studio works on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux at the moment. In speaking with multiple developers throughout the week, we found the fact that these three platforms were chosen first to be a common notion. Why give developers a Chromebook Pixel with an operating system based on the web and announce an Android developer system that’s not entirely web-based?
On that note, Google also let it be known that the Chrome OS experience was coming to its Android web browser with several account-sync abilities. One of the more interesting of these was form autocomplete, this allowing users to store their credit card information and contact information as they normally would on the desktop version of the browser and pull it up automatically from the mobile web.
Announced as an upgrade to the buy-and-own system already in place, Google Play Music All Access was revealed as a real competitor to streaming music services like Spotify and Rdio. This system is able to stream music both in a web browser and in-app, costing the user $9.99 a month for access – if they don’t get in on the deal early, that is.
This system is based on a choose-your-own-playlist system that also offers up smart selections from Google’s robots – at the moment, it’s both in-web and on Android, but not ready for iOS. This system is ready to roll for both mobile and in-browser users of Google Music.
Perhaps the most important app announced this week was the cross-platform chat platform expanding what was originally reserved for Google+ in video chat. Here we saw Google+ Hangouts for Android, iOS, in-browser inside Google+, and as a OS X app. Users sign in with their Google+ account and use contacts through Circles to connect.
Google+ Hangouts are able to work with text, stickers and icons, video and photo sharing, and video chat. This system will be expanding to include new types of sharing in the future as Google+ as a social network leads the way. This system is now live in effect for all platforms announced, desktop, Android, and iOS included.
Android has been presented this week as one of several central systems part of the greater ecosystem that is Google, a company that aims to get technology “out of your way”. Google’s CEO Larry Page stepped on stage at the start of this conference to express his wish for an ideal future: “technology should do the hard work, so you can get on and live your life.”
In the end, Android became a power here that was assumed while Google’s ecosystem grew around it. It’s here that Google makes it clear: Android itself doesn’t need to be updated every time the company has a big event. It’s the year of the Context Ecosystem, and Google’s presentation of Android at Google I/O 2013 has once again proven it.
Google I/O 2013 wrap-up: Expanding the Android Ecosystem is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Google’s short-lived Nexus Q has already been left out of the Google Play Music All Access action, but there looks to be a successor in the pipeline, with a new Google media player spotted in FCC testing. The Google H840 (product code H2G2-42, an apparent play on The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) WiFi-testing listing has been pared back thanks to a confidentiality request, but the wireless report does confirm that it “functions as a media player” with 2.4GHz WiFi b/g/n connectivity.
Unfortunately there are no test photos, so we don’t know what the Google H840 looks like. The report suggests it was tested with a USB-connected Dell monitor, though that’s presumably to access either the LCD’s USB hub or its memory card slot, since that particular model doesn’t support video input over USB.
Anything else is, at this stage, speculative, though given the launch of Google Play Music All Access this past week at I/O, some sort of Sonos-style streaming box would seem an obvious guess. That could be hooked up to a set of external speakers or alternatively have onboard speakers and amplification.
Google isn’t the only company tipped to be working on a streaming media device. Earlier this month, it was rumored that Amazon’s hardware lab is developing a wireless audio adapter which could be used with its own cloud music locker service.
The Google H840 would presumably be a more focused device than the Nexus Q, which was unveiled at I/O in 2012 and then swiftly killed off as market feedback proved uncertain. The orb-shaped streamer was intended to funnel YouTube videos, music, and other content direct to a TV, with communal playlist control from multiple Android-powered phones and tablets.
However, a combination of high price – partly because Google intended it to be manufactured in the US – and confusing purpose meant the Nexus Q project was axed. Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Google would not be officially supporting the streamer with the All Access subscription music jukebox service.
The H840 (its H2G2-42 product code a combination of the fan abbreviation for Hitchhiker’s Guide and the “meaning of life”: the number 42) looks to be the second attempt at the market, though when Google will actually unveil it officially remains to be seen.
VIA: TabletGuide
Google H840 media streamer hits FCC to potentially replace Nexus Q is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
It’s turning into a week of wearable computing, with Epson-partnered start-up Meta readying preorders for its true augmented reality headset. First revealed back in January, Meta offers a fully digitally-mediated view of the world – allowing for graphics, video, and text to be superimposed on real people and objects – rather than the Google Glass approach of floating a subdisplay in the corner of your eye. Sales for developers will kick off at 9am Pacific (noon Eastern) on Friday, May 17.
The current developer device, the Meta 1, is admittedly somewhat less aesthetically-pleasing than Google’s Explorer Edition of Glass. Epson has brought its Moverio BT-100 to the party, a headset which projects information onto both lenses rather than just one eye. It also has integrated WiFi, runs Android, and lasts for an estimated six hours on a full charge (it’s worth noting that the battery and processing is housed in an external box, which connects to the headset via a cable).
Onto that, Meta bolts a low-latency 3D camera which is used to track hand movements. Resolution down to individual fingertips is supported, and so complex gestures – like a “thumbs up” movement to “Like” a post on Facebook – can be recognized.
Meta concept video:
Just as per Google’s intentions with the Explorer Edition, Meta is hoping to leverage developer interest in preparation for a far more aesthetically-pleasing consumer version of its headset. That could eventually look like a regular pair of sunglasses, with the twin-camera array neatly slotted into the bridge. Whether that sort of design could also accommodate sufficient battery capacity for any meaningful period of use remains to be seen, however.
Meta is also yet to confirm how much the Meta 1 dev-kit will cost. The unmodified Moverio headset has a list price of $700 (though its street price is down to just $400), though of course that doesn’t take into account the added camera hardware, plus Meta’s external processing box and SDK. The first fifty dev orders will get a $200 discount, however, Meta revealed to pre-interest signups in an email this morning.
Google left its Glass discussion out of the opening I/O keynote, saving it for day two developer sessions where it showed off warranty-voiding Ubuntu installs and native app support with the Mirror API. However, it isn’t the only wearable we’ve been playing with this week. Recon Instruments brought along its Recon Jet headset, a sports-centric take on the concept, which is expected to begin shipping later in 2013.
Meta 1 true augmented-reality headset dev-kit presales inked in for today is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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