Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve officially reached the middle of the week, folks – only two more days to go and then the weekend is here once again. Today we didn’t have too many stories about the ongoing trial between Apple and Samsung, but what we did get was huge. A rather damning 132-page report surfaced in court today, which shows Samsung attempting to differentiate the original Galaxy S from the iPhone specifically, and we looked at the difference between competitive analysis and flat out copying as a result of the report. On the lighter side of things, Conan O’ Brien had a bit of fun with the trial on last night’s show, so be sure to give that a look.

It was a pretty big day for NASA’s Curiosity rover, as it lifted its head for the first time and sent back new images of the surface of Mars. It appears that the Galaxy Note II – which is expected to be announced at the end of this month, remember – will come complete with a flexible display that makes it more resilient than typical smartphone displays. Speaking of the Galaxy Note, T-Mobile finally received the phablet today (along with the myTouch and myTouch Q), so if you’re a T-Mobile user, you might want to check that out.

Starbucks made a multi-million dollar investment in Square today, and we tell you all you need to know about using Square to pay for your coffee. Tickets for Microsoft Build 2012 went on sale today, but don’t expect to get any now, as they sold out just one hour later. Between the two of them, Android and iOS now make up 85% of the smartphone market, with Android taking 68.1% market share for itself. Apple did a couple of things to boost security today, temporarily freezing over-the-phone password resets and announcing that it will soon bulk up identity verification measures for iCloud.

Today OUYA announced that it is in talks with Namco Bandai as its Kickstarter winds down, it was revealed that Google voice search will soon land on the iPhone, and we caught wind of a rumor that claims the new iPhone will be 7.6mm thick. RIM’s stock enjoyed a little jump after one analyst claimed that Samsung was considering buying the company, and Valve revealed today that Steam will soon begin offering non-game software, complete with support for Steam Cloud. Finally, Warner is thinking about holding limited showings of The Hobbit at 48 frames per second, which has us excited since we have a tendency to go nuts whenever The Hobbit is mentioned.

That wraps up the news, but be sure to check out our interview with Kate Beckinsale of Total Recall fame, and also spend some time with our review of the HP ENVY 4 Ultrabook. Enjoy the rest of your evening, everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 8, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There’s not long to go until OUYA’s Kickstarter project is finally over, but the company is still announcing new features and partnerships left, right, and center. OUYA has taken to its Kickstarter page once again to announce that Namco Bandai is in discussions to bring its games to the Android-based console. Namco name drops some classics such as Pac-Man, Galaga, and Tekken, but it wasn’t confirmed that those specific titles would make it to the platform.

OUYA is remaining tight lipped about exactly what you can expect from the console at launch too. Although the team says it has some titles lined up, it can’t delve into specifics due to legal obligations. No doubt negotiations are still active behind the scenes, so eager gamers will just have to sit tight until the company is ready to spill the beans.

The team has also said that support for four controllers will be added to the console to allow for some serious multiplayer gaming sessions. The company warns though that supplies may be limited, and urges backers to update their pledge amounts in order to accommodate the extra controllers needed.

Finally, OUYA announced a partnership with XBMC yesterday that would see the popular media center customized to take advantage of the console’s software and hardware. There are those out there who swear by Plex, so the team behind OUYA have pledged that the console will support that media solution on top of XBMC. Plex already has an Android port, and works on Google TV as well, so tweaking it to run on OUYA shouldn’t be too difficult.

OUYA adds Namco Bandai, Plex, and four controller support is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Welcome to Tuesday evening, folks. Apple and Samsung’s patent suit is still going on, but today we didn’t get too much news about it. Samsung said that the high return rates of the Galaxy Tab had to with the devices malfunctioning, and not because customers were confusing it for the iPad like Apple claimed Apple’s expert witness, Peter Bressler, said today that the iPhone brought on a “crisis of design” over at Samsung headquarters, and we found out just how much Mr. Bressler is getting paid to sit on the stand and testify for Apple. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot of money, and now we’re on the lookout for “expert witness” job openings.

Just as Acer told Microsoft that launching Surface was a bad idea, we caught wind of some Microsoft job listings that point to next generation Surface devices. We also received reports that Windows 8 can’t boot directly to the desktop, which is going to be annoying for those who were hoping to bypass the tile-based start screen entirely. More bad news for HTC today, as it reported that July revenues dropped 45%, and Motorola has started teasing a new 4G LTE capable smartphone, so be sure to keep an eye out for that one.

Some developers are thinking that we might be getting an increased screen resolution with the next iPhone, and it looks like Apple is at least somewhat partially stuck in 2008, as it decided to Rickroll developers in the iOS 6 beta 4 changelog. Apple has also opted to pull its Genius ads, so if you liked the exploits of the Apple Genius as he tried to turn consumers into Apple fans, you’re going to have to resort to YouTube to watch. Facebook has rolled out real-money gambling games in the UK, and Amazon has apparently fixed the security hole that led to a massive breach for one unfortunate journalist.

We’ve got quite a bit of gaming news today, as OUYA gave us some new renders of the Android-based console and announced a partnership with the team behind the open source XBMC media player. ArmA 2 mod DayZ is getting a full release soon, and today Activision and Treyarch gave us our first look at Call of Duty: Black Ops II multiplayer. NASA has revealed the Curiosity rover’s landing video and let loose some more pictures from the surface of Mars, and if you’re the mood for a show this weekend, you might want to look to the Northeast sky after the Sun sets on Saturday – it’s there that you’ll see the Perseid meteor shower at its peak.

That does it for the news, but we’ve also got a couple SlashGear originals you should have a peek at. With the Nexus 7 still selling like hotcakes, we ask if Android has it’s first tablet hit in the 7-inch slate, and Chris Burns has a review of the Olympus LS-100 Sound Recorder. Enjoy the rest of your evening!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 7, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Android console OUYA may be catching curious glimpses with the news that well-esteemed media center XMBC will be ported, but as the compact cube nears the end of its Kickstarter campaign it’s gameplay that holds the focus. The funding round will close on Thursday, August 9, comfortably exceeding its target $950,000 by more than $6m, and already the OUYA team is crowing about its roster of titles that includes Final Fantasy III and the Human Element Prequel. Check out the full list after the cut.

The line-up (collated by @bluecollarart)includes some well-known titles as well as others from smaller, independent developers and even from Kickstarter hopefuls in their own right. Of course, since OUYA is basically Android in a standalone box, it should run most apps with no problems.

• AR-K: A Dark Acid Adventure Comedy
• Armored Tank Assault 2
• Aura Tactics
• Auro
• Castle Conflict 2
• Echoes of Eternea
• Final Fantasy III
• Gish (and more!)
• Gravestompers
• Gunblitz
• Heroes Call and Ski Safari
• Ittle Dew
• Kaiju Combat
• Kitaru
• Legends of Aethereus
• MANOS: The Hands of Fate
• Megatroid
• Mutant Mudds
• Orbital Blaster
• Quest for Infamy
• Reincarnation: The Root of All Evil
• Rival Threads
• Rush Bros
• Saturday Morning RPG
• Spinferno
• Super Retro Squad
• Volgarr the Viking
• Xenonauts

There’s also OnLive support along with VEVO and iHeartRadio streaming, while an international barnership with TuneIn will bring on-demand internet radio. First hardware is expected to ship in March 2013, though right now OUYA is working on UI and other software with its prototypes.

If you want to get onboard with an early unit, you’ll need to act fast. There are 37 hours to run, at time of writing, and it’ll take a $99 pledge to secure an OUYA console.

OUYA details games as $7m Kickstarter close nears is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

OUYA, the Android-based gaming console, has secured yet another high-profile app. The team behind the console has courted the XBMC development team, promising that early prototypes will be delivered that should enable XBMC to run on the platform smoothly and without any issues. According to the OUYA Kickstarter page, the team behind OUYA fully support XBMC, with “nearly a third” of the XBMC development team having backed the “open” console.

It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise: the console is running Android after all, so anything that works on Android will work on OUYA without much issue, but it’s good to see that the experience will be customized for the OUYA interface as well as the specific hardware. OUYA has managed to promised backers that they’ll see a wealth of games, with this latest announcement covering the entertainment and media side of the equation.

In addition to the promise of XBMC support, OUYA has added radio support via a partnership with TuneIn. The service allows users to listen in on free radio stations across the world, plus on-demand content. The network is said to cover 70,000 stations and two million on-demand programs across 230 countries.

As of writing, there are 39 hours left until the Kickstarter project has finished. So far 52,173 members have backed the project, with OUYA accumulating over $6.9 million in funding. Backers will receive a small Android-based console with a customized interface and wireless hardware controller, all running on an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor for $99. The streaming game company OnLive will support OUYA at launch, and Square Enix has promised a Final Fantasy III port among other games.

[via The Verge]

OUYA promises XBMC support is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.