Hasta La Gadget!

Welcome back to Monday, folks. We’re in the final stretch before Apple’s big event kicks off, and with just a couple of days left before everything goes down, the iPhone 5 is making a splash in a big way. The (hopefully) incoming handset was given the title of “biggest upgrade in consumer electronics history” by one enthusiastic analyst today. T-Mobile is offering an “Unlocked and Unlimited” deal for the iPhone even though it doesn’t carry the device itself, and we got word today that Apple suppliers have started shipping new 13.3-inch MacBook Pros with Retina Display and a new line of all-in-one iMacs.

In other news, it turns out that AntiSec may not have stolen all of those Apple UDIDs from the FBI like the group originally claimed, and the LG Escape was leaked shortly before being confirmed by the company. Toys R Us has a new tablet on offer, and it’s aimed directly at your children, while TTP is looking to give Google Glass a run for its money with some new specs of its own. Speaking of Google Glass, the headsets made an appearance at Fashion Week, with designer Diane von Furstenberg sending her models onto the runway while wearing them.

The FBI has rolled out a $1 billion facial tracking initiative, and it seems that GoDaddy’s network of hosted websites has been taken down by a lone hacker associated with Anonymous. Google says that 180 “fiberhoods” qualify for Google Fiber service after a lengthy preliminary sign-up period, and a new Samsung Galaxy Note II leak suggests that the new phablet will be launching at Verizon. The founder of The Pirate Bay has been deported to Cambodia, while Samsung’s hopes for a 13-megapixel camera in the Galaxy Note II were dashed when LG bought up most of the stock from suppliers.

Sony is launching the first installment in its new Wonderbook series in November, and today is the day that the Steam Big Picture Beta comes to televisions everywhere. Bethesda’s Pete Hines doesn’t see the need for a new generation of consoles just yet, some scientists are now thinking that Mars was too hot to support life in the past, and Nielsen has discovered that the number of teenagers who own a smartphone is on the rise, climbing faster than any other age group.

Finally tonight, we have a few original articles for you to check out. Chris Davies examines the LTE situation with the incoming iPhone 5, while Chris Burns makes the distinction between tablets and laptops when it comes to work and play. Finally tonight, we have a hands-on with the upcoming LG Intuition, so if you want a phablet-like device that isn’t the Galaxy Note II, you might want to take a look at that. Enjoy the rest of your evening, everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: September 10, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Mark your calendars down, for today is the day where Valve launches the Big Picture mode beta. Just what is Big Picture mode? Well, this is actually a version of Steam that was specially designed to work within the realms of your TV in the living room. Those who have given it a go have nothing but praises for Big Picture, touting some qualities such as it being sleek, intuitive, and groundbreaking.

Of course, it makes perfect sense for Valve not to position nor market “Steam TV” as a video game console replacement, that would just be suicide for a company like them. What Big Picture does is to enlarge the scope of PC gaming to an even wider audience, making it more convenient and suitable for living rooms than in the past.

When Big Picture goes live, all you need to do is push a button, and check out a whole new Steam interface that is said to resemble the Xbox 360’s dashboard sans advertisements and clutter, letting you do just about anything and everything you want on the standard issue Steam, including purchasing games, surf the Internet, and even rely on Steam’s standard in-game overlay to strike up a conversation with your gaming buddies. Do you think Valve’s Big Picture will take off?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Valve to launch non-gaming apps on Steam next month, Gabe Newell thinks Windows 8 is a “catastrophe”, which might explain Steam for Linux,

Can’t wait to use Steam’s forthcoming Big Picture mode to game from the comfort of your couch? Well, you’re in luck, because it might be ready for a test drive tomorrow. According to The New York Times, the living room-friendly user interface is getting the public beta treatment starting Monday. Gabe Newell let loose last month that both the TV-geared view and Steam for Linux betas would be “out there fairly quickly,” but there’s still no word on when the Ubuntu-bound preview will land. In the meantime, we’ll keep busy by gawking at Valve’s augmented reality headset, which the NYT got a glimpse of during a trip to the firm’s headquarters, at the source link below.

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

NYT: Steam’s Big Picture public beta begins Monday originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 09 Sep 2012 20:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steam has developed a reputation as a haven for indie games like Super Meat Boy, so it’s only fitting that store owner Valve has just launched a section to welcome more of those games into its tent. Greenlight lets small developers submit titles and have gamers vote as to whether or not the candidates should get space on Steam’s virtual shelf. Pickier players don’t have to see every game in contention; they can filter the list down to specific game types and platforms, and collections can narrow the selection to categories hand-picked by fans or publishers. No games have cleared Greenlight just yet, but it won’t be long before the logjam becomes a flood — between this and general apps, Steam is about to get a lot more crowded.

Filed under: Gaming, Software

Valve launches Steam Greenlight to pick cream of indie game crop originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After hearing about it for the past few weeks, Steam Greenlight has finally launched. As many of you already know, Steam Greenlight is a new system that allows developers to submit their game to the community for approval. Should the Steam community welcome the game with open arms (or, in this case, up-votes), then it stands a good chance at being added to the Steam catalog.

This works on multiple levels: first, it rewards developers who truly have something good to offer gamers. Second, it lets Steam members feel like they actually have a say in what becomes available in the Steam store, and third, it lets Valve outsource the work of wading through the piles of submissions it undoubtedly receives each and every week. At the time of this writing, 326 games are awaiting votes on the Steam Greenlight page, and that number is sure to rise in the coming days.

There are a lot of unknown games listed on Steam Greenlight, but some immediately recognizable games include the likes of Mutant Mudds, Project Zomboid, Rekoil, and Kenshi. Valve said in a statement today that the Steam Greenlight we’re seeing now is the product of months of testing with indie partners and beta members, and that the company is planning to grow and improve Greenlight as time goes on, just as it has with Steam’s other features.

Since developers can submit assets from their games at any point in the development process (and there isn’t any approval process before a game shows up on Steam Greenlight), we’re expecting the number of game listings to grow pretty fast from here on out. Therein lies one of the problems with Greenlight, however: if developers are constantly submitting new games for the community’s approval, it seems like there would be a pretty good chance that games worthy of attention end up getting lost in the crowd. We shall see if that’s the case shortly. Have you found any games worthy of your vote in Steam Greenlight yet?

Steam Greenlight launches with hundreds of games to vote for is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.