Hasta La Gadget!

Welcome to The After Math, where we attempt to summarize this week’s tech news through numbers, decimal places and percentages.

It was a week where Engadget somehow managed dueling liveblogs. Apple revealed its new mobile operating system, while Microsoft revealed more of its plans for the Xbox One, kicking off a week of gaming news from E3 2013 in LA. Sony soon followed, showing off its console for real, and pricing it a hundred dollars less than Microsoft’s next-gen console. Sure, the war isn’t over yet, but Sony can arguably claim victory at this year’s Los Angeles battle. So let’s talk numbers, right after the break.

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Apple, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo

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Twitter just recently spruced up the Windows version of TweetDeck with the web edition’s simplified, sidebar-driven look; it’s now the Mac app’s turn. TweetDeck 3.0.2 on OS X brings virtually the same interface as its Windows counterpart, including drag-and-drop columns and the ability to filter searches by engagement. If you take your social networking extra seriously, the 3.0.2 update is waiting at the Mac App Store.

Filed under: Internet, Software

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Via: TweetDeck (Twitter)

Source: Mac App Store

It wasn’t a question of whether Microsoft would release Office for iOS, but when. The company just released a free Office Mobile app for the iPhone, and it’s available today in the US, with other regions to follow over the coming days. Before you all go rushing off to the download link, though, there’s something you need to know: an Office 365 subscription is required in order to use the app. That’s a bummer for people who bought a traditional copy of the suite, or who normally use other word processors, but it makes perfect business sense for Microsoft. After all, the company doesn’t want to give folks too many reasons to use iOS, and it also needs to protect the precious revenue stream that is Office sales.

In any event, if you do have a 365 subscription, you’ll be delighted to know that the iOS app does not count toward your limit of five PC / Mac installations. Rather, you get to install the application on up to five iPhones, the same way you can put the full suite on up to five computers. Also, in addition to merely viewing whatever Word, PowerPoint and Excel files you already had stored in SkyDrive, you can also make light edits. Additionally, you can create new documents from your phone, though this only applies to Word and Excel, not PowerPoint (understandably so, we think). Again, the app is available today in the US, and for the iPhone, specifically; for the iPad, Microsoft is steering people toward its Office web apps. As for other platforms, the company won’t comment on whether an Android version is in the works. At any rate, all you iPhone owners with 365 subscriptions can get your download on now. And then you can read on past the break, where we’ve got some screenshots and hands-on impressions at the ready.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Microsoft

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Source: iTunes Store, MS Office News blog, MS Office Technical blog

TweetDeck just updated its desktop app for Windows (XP and later) to bring it up to date with the recently refreshed web and Chrome versions. The changes make for a cleaner look; all your controls now sit in the toolbar on the left side of the screen. From here, you can tweet, view interactions and toggle through columns. You can also expand the bar for more info on each of the columns. Pretty straightforward, but we dig the streamlined experience. Hit up the source link to nab TweetDeck version 3.0.2.

Filed under: Internet, Software

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Via: CNet

Source: Twitter Blog

EA’s DICE studio is the motor that powers several of gaming’s most popular franchises. Need for Speed and Battlefield are just two of the enormous series that DICE’s Frostbite engine is behind, and EA’s pledged the engine’s support to many more of its titles. It’s with these things in mind that we met up with DICE General Manager Karl Magnus-Troedsson at E3 2013, where we discussed Frostbite 3, Frostbite Go, Battlefield 4 and even a little Mirror’s Edge 2 for good measure.

Troedsson had a headline spot during EA’s E3 stage briefing, where he helped to narrate a live demo of a 64-player match. Beyond a showcase for Battlefield 4, the presentation was perhaps the most stunning demonstration to date of the DICE studio’s Frostbite engine and the power it’s able to wield when harnessed by skilled developers. And for the first time ever on next-gen consoles, Battlefield‘s console versions (at least the next-gen ones) are identical with that of the PC one. Massive online battles and incredible in-game events — such as a Shanghai skyscraper being brought toppling down, all while naval scraps and helicopter dogfights are taking place — are possible on both PC and the next-gen boxes from Microsoft and Sony. We discuss all that and more with Troedsson in the video we’ve dropped just below the break.

Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD

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