Apple’s big WWDC 2013 keynote will be starting at 10AM PST tomorrow morning (that’s June 10th, if you did not know), and SlashGear will be bringing a liveblog to you straight from inside the Moscone Center. If the banners we’ve seen tied with the rumors, tips, and suggestions hold true, we’ll be seeing an event
E3 2013 is nearly upon us, and this year’s press briefing lineup is an eensy bit different from past years — most notably, there are four stage presentations on Monday alone, and Nintendo’s sitting this year out. Rather than spreading out the gaming news cavalcade across one and a half days, 2013’s press briefings are all Monday (excepting Nintendo’s live video broadcast on Tuesday morning, of course, which we’ll have available ahead of its 10AM EDT kickoff on Wednesday morning).
The full list for tomorrow’s proceedings follows, including timestamps and links for you to set your alarm clocks and clicking fingers by (respectively):
[Image credit: ‘halo666‘]
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Software, HD, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo
Everyone and their mother knows Skype as a call and chat messenger, but it would’ve been a completely different beast if its founders’ original plans came to fruition.”The initial idea was to develop a WiFi-sharing network, and then provide various ‘telecom-like’ services on top of that, such as TV and telephony,” explained founding engineer Jaan Tallinn in a Reddit AMA.
Tallin compared the project to Fon, but he and his co-founders hit a wall: they couldn’t offer TV services because they were battling copyright lawsuits as developers of P2P file-sharing site Kazaa. The team also had trouble finding a decent VoIP product to attach to the service and wound up concocting their own technology instead. The new VoIP tech, which was supposed to be named Skyper until the team noticed Skyper.net was already taken, eventually became the focus of the service. It’s an interesting look at the birth of the chat messenger we know today. Now if only we could figure out if the government has direct access to Skype’s logs, we’d be set.
Filed under: Software
Via: GigaOM
Source: Reddit
Crytek has a reputation for pushing the limits of hardware with CryEngine — witness the will-it-run-Crysis jokes — so it’s only logical that the company would leap on new consoles with enthusiasm. Sure enough, the company has followed up talk of Xbox One support in CryEngine 3 with word that its extra-pretty engine will also run on the PlayStation 4. Crytek isn’t saying which developers will use the code, although cross-platform games make sense when the PS4, Xbox One and PCs share the same basic x86 architecture. We may hear bit more about early partners next week.
Filed under: Gaming, Software, Sony
Via: Joystiq
Source: Crytek
The Skylanders aren’t just evolving into combinable characters in their next entry, they’re also heading to Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Skylanders Swap Force was given an October 13th release date today, alongside news of its two new platforms (in addition to being on basically every other video game platform in existence).
Like previous entries in the Skylanders series, Swap Force employs a wired power pad where physical Skylanders toys (Swap Force versions seen above), power-ups, and new levels can be placed and then played in-game. This October’s entry allows for toys from both the original Skylanders game and Giants to work with it; that also applies to PS4 and Xbox One versions. As for the launch date of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions … well, that’s a question of when Microsoft and Sony launch their consoles. The game will otherwise launch on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS, Wii and Wii U on October 13th.
Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo
In the old days, when you wanted to double-tap a bad guy with an AR-15, you had to rely on plain-jane scopes or sights… booooring. Good thing we live in a more tactically technological time, the age of the Inteliscope — a mount and app combo that lets you slap an iPhone or iPod touch atop an assault rifle to give the killing fields a little Cupertino flair. Until now, we’d only seen a screenshot of the app, but the company has just released a video of it in action. So, head on down to see for yourself what it’s like swapping reticles, getting range info and recording video of target practice from a sniper’s POV.
Google first implemented face-unlock in ICS, and since then, it’s been hard at work improving the feature and acquiring new IP related to it. Last fall, the search giant patented a way for multiple users to use face-unlock on a single device. This week it obtained a new patent for a method that requires users to make a series of facial expressions to gain access to a system. Essentially, the patent claims a method where a device captures two images of a user, then compares the differences in the images to identify a facial gesture and authenticate the user.
In other words, its a face-unlock method where a device looks at two pictures of your mug to tell if you’re raising an eyebrow, frowning or sticking your tongue out as instructed by a prompt from the device. And, it double checks to ensure that it is, in fact, the same face in both images. Oh, and the patent leaves room for a series of expressions to be used — so at some point in the future, you may have to give your Google-fied phone a wink and a smile before it grants you access. Guess that’s easier than remembering a PIN, right?
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile
Via: BBC News
Source: USPTO
Microsoft wants Bing Desktop to transcend the limits of web-based search, and that’s especially clear with a newly posted app update — it’s all about doing what most browsers can’t. The software brings inline searching that lets users run Bing queries on websites, PDFs and Word files just by selecting text. Newshounds also don’t have to wade into every article now that there’s both at-a-glance previews and a trending stories section. We suspect most users won’t mind the real-time weather forecasts and live Facebook notifications, either. Existing Bing Destkop users should automatically receive the new features in the days ahead, but those who refuse to wait can grab the upgrade straight from the source.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Microsoft, Facebook
Via: Bing Search Blog
Source: Bing
The annual game industry trade show that’s spawned thousands of memes is just around the corner: E3 2013 kicks off on Monday morning with a quartet of press briefings. In another 72 hours, we’ll have a full day of liveblogs for you that’ll no doubt reveal much more about Microsoft’s and Sony’s intentions with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, respectively, along with Nintendo’s press not-so-much-a-conference event the following day addressing the Wii U.
Though the latter is a somewhat known quantity at this point, there’s considerable promise of major game announcements and a first look at the much-anticipated next Smash Bros. entry. Microsoft and Sony, on the other hand, have a lot more blank space to fill in. We’re here to explore what we know about all three, but more importantly, to identify what we expect to find out at the big show. Join us past the break and dive into the next wave of the console wars.
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Software, HD, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo
It’s sure looking like we’ll be getting ourselves a seventh version of iOS come Monday morning, but we’d guess Apple has some other surprises in store for the keynote that will kick off WWDC 2013. New laptops? Probably. An updated desktop operating system? Possibly. A television? Unlikely, but hey, anything can happen. We’ll be there to help you find out, liveblogging the keynote from start to finish and bringing you all the news as it happens. We’ll also be doing a live, streaming broadcast before the keynote to whet your appetite and get you up to speed on what to expect from the day’s Apple news. After the event we’ll be streaming live again, to give you a video rundown of all the news — and maybe an early look at the day’s new products. You can find the link to the liveblog and the time to click it right here:
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