Hasta La Gadget!

Samsung’s experiment with a Ghost Recon SSD bundle must have been a hit with gamers, since it’s coming back for a second round the very same year. The upgrade-minded buying 128GB, 256GB or 512GB versions of the SSD 840 Pro can get a free downloadable copy of Assassin’s Creed III for a “limited time” to take advantage of those 540MB/s peak read speeds while they skew the fate of the American Revolutionary War. The bundle comes not-so-coincidentally as Samsung has shipped and priced the wider SSD 840 line itself: while we knew the Pro line’s impact on our wallets, the regular models are now ready to sell at prices between $140 for a 120GB drive to $700 for a 500GB model. That’s a $50 to $190 savings over the Pro models, but we’ll leave it to you to decide whether faster write speeds, slightly more capacity and Connor’s secret fight with the Templars are worth the premium.

Continue reading Samsung bundles Assassin’s Creed III with SSD 840 Pro to spark a sales revolution, ships the 840 line

Filed under: Gaming, Storage, Samsung

Samsung bundles Assassin’s Creed III with SSD 840 Pro to spark a sales revolution, ships the 840 line originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Nov 2012 06:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome to Thursday evening folks. Today was Microsoft’s big Windows 8 launch event, and though we didn’t find out many new details, the company did share a few interesting tidbits of information. For instance, did you know that there are more than 1,000 Windows 8 certified PCs now? How about the fact that Microsoft has sold a whopping 670 million Windows 7 licenses? Microsoft also told us that the Windows Store will be available in 231 markets, and that Windows RT is supported by more than 420 million devices. Impressive numbers to be sure, but it’s important to remember why we were at this show in the first place: Windows 8 launches in just a few hours, so get ready for that.

Today we had two massive companies deliver quarterly reports – Apple is looking pretty good despite a few under-performing sectors, but Amazon posted an operating loss of $28 million. Earlier in the day we heard that the LG Nexus 4 has a release date of October 30, and then more evidence of the rumored Nexus 10 surfaced in the form of a (supposed) quick start guide. iFixit gave the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display the teardown treatment today, while we heard whispers that Apple will launch a new online music service in 2013.

EE confirmed today that it will be offering the iPad mini and the iPad 4, and Nokia was seen touting its NAVTEQ True technology today. Nintendo revealed that it will be selling the Wii U at a loss, and we learned that T-Mobile’s Galaxy Note II has hardware support for LTE. Microsoft has turned Times Square into its own Windows 8 advertising space this evening, just in case you forgot that Windows 8 and Microsoft Surface are launching tomorrow.

Speaking of that launch, Microsoft laid out upgrade options for Windows 8 today, and told us that once we experience the glory of touch, we’ll want it on everything. Today Ubisoft told the world that Assassin’s Creed III is its most pre-ordered game ever (since Assassin’s Creed: Revelations at least), and we caught wind that the rumored Nexus 7 3G cleared the FCC. The Sony Xperia TL will be hitting AT&T on November 2, and finally tonight, the iPad Mini goes up for pre-order tomorrow, so be sure to get those in quickly if you want to get one at launch. That does it for tonight’s evening wrap-up, enjoy the rest of your night everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: October 25, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you follow Assassin’s Creed news, you probably know that it might not be long before we say goodbye to Desmond, one of the main characters in the story, for good. In a new interview with OXM, lead designer Steve Masters seems to suggest that Assassin’s Creed III may be the last game to feature Desmond. At the very least, it sounds like Assassin’s Creed III will be the beginning of the end for our lovable modern-day assassin.

“What we’re trying to do is bring some finality to Desmond’s story,” Masters said. “To actually wrap up what you’ve opened and experienced with him. So we’re trying to make it a little bit more direct with the storyline, but at the same time there are still going to be plenty of little mysterious bits for you to dig into, especially in the side stuff.” It sounds like Masters is trying to say that even though Desmond’s story will begin to wrap-up in Assassin’s Creed III, he’s hesitant to make the claim that the game will be the final chapter in the long-running narrative.

Masters and the rest of Ubisoft are aware, however, that some fans find the cliff hangers in the Assassin’s Creed series annoying, and in Assassin’s Creed III, the studio is looking to change that. Even if this game doesn’t conclude Desmond’s story, it will make some serious strides as far as actually telling the story goes. According to Masters, Assassin’s Creed III will offer a story that players can “sink their teeth in to,” rather than telling a story that leaves players guessing.

Whatever ends up happening in Assassin’s Creed III, it sounds like we can at least expect some major progress in wrapping up Desmond’s story. Ubisoft may need another game to fully close the story of Desmond, but one thing is sure: Desmond won’t be a mainstay in the Assassin’s Creed series for much longer. What do you think?

Assassin’s Creed III to “bring some finality to Desmond’s story” is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Welcome to Thursday evening, folks – just one more work day and the glorious weekend is here once again. This afternoon we heard that both the iPad Mini and the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro – neither of which officially exist yet, remember – have been delayed due to problems with component yields, but not long after, analysts were saying that the MacBook Pro with Retina Display is still on track to launch this year. Apple has managed to delay the ban of the iPhone and iPad in South Korea, and we learned that the company’s new dock connector is nearly impossible to mod in a new teardown.

If you’ve been waiting for either the DROID RAZR HD or the RAZR MAXX HD, good news: you’ll be able to pick them up from Verizon in just one short week. The Samsung Galaxy S III Mini was officially unveiled today, though its specs aren’t much to write home about, and we learned that the sales ban on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus has been lifted. Google boss Eric Schmidt expects Android to hit 1 billion activations within the next year, and today Sprint confirmed that it has been in buyout talks with SoftBank.

Apple has released a new iPod ad called “Bounce,” while Nokia was busy delivering prices for its Lumia 920 and 820 accessories in the UK. Apple was awarded an interesting new patent today, and Verizon says that it will keep its 2G/3G service active until at least 2021. Today Acer revealed both the new M5 and V5 lines of Windows 8 notebooks, and we heard that at one point, Nokia was planning to bring an N9 MeeGo tablet to Verizon.

Facebook is looking to improve its apps with stricter Open Graphs policies, and Gearbox announced a new DLC pack for good ol’ Borderlands 2 today. Ubisoft delivered a new trailer showing off the weapons in Assassin’s Creed III, while a new compilation called the Rockstar Games Collection: Edition 1 was announced. Anonymous has apparently gone to war with Facebook, bringing down the social network across Europe today, but thankfully it seems that things are slowly coming back online. Finally tonight, we go hands-on with both the Huawei Ascend D Quad XL and SHADOWGUN: DEADZONE‘s new multiplayer beta, while Chris Burns tells us why the Galaxy S III Mini represents a missed opportunity for Samsung. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, go out and enjoy the rest of your night everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: October 11, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’ve arrived at another Friday evening, which means that the weekend lies ahead. Today, as many of you probably already know, was the one-year anniversary of the passing of Steve Jobs. Apple paid tribute to Jobs in a new video released today, and it was announced that three modified MacBook Pros will be auctioned off in memory of Jobs. On the lighter side of things, Lenovo is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the ThinkPad with a look back through time, and Samsung’s profits for Q3 2013 managed to break company records (not an easy thing to do, considering how popular Samsung is).

The LG Nexus G has been tipped for a reveal later this month, and it looks like problems with component yields might mean that we’re headed for iPad Mini shortages (assuming the rumored tablet actually exists, of course). The Kindle Paperwhite has officially been jailbroken, and Rovio was spotted teasing a new Star Wars–Angry Birds tie-in earlier today, leaving us to wonder what’s in the pipeline. Sprint might be looking to rain on T-Mobile’s MetroPCS parade, and Anonymous is at it again, this time bringing down government sites in Sweden in the name of The Pirate Bay and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Wii U pre-orders are hard to find these days, but provided you’ve got the cash to burn, you can pick one up on eBay. iPhone cases were popping up left and right today, like this Loop Mummy case for the iPhone 4/4S and these Moshi cases for the iPhone 5. Xi3 has gone to Kickstarter to fund its new X3A and X7A modular computers, and one analyst is saying that HP’s stock should be worth negative $2. Ubisoft gave us a brand new ZombiU development diary, and we heard that increased iPhone 5 quality demands led to a strike at a Foxconn factory in China today.

New algorithms may eventually lead to cell phones that charge twice as fast, while NASA explained why Curiosity is collecting dirt from the surface of Mars. Motorola has managed to fight off Microsoft in a patent dispute over in Germany, while astronomers say they’ve discovered a new star circling a black hole at the center of our galaxy. Pokemon Black and White 2 launch in the US this Sunday (are you ready to be the best?) and we found out today that New Zealand authorities may have been spying on Kim Dotcom much earlier than they’ve admitted.

Finally tonight, we have quite a few original articles to share with you. Don Reisinger asks if Bill Gates will be remembered in the same way as Steve Jobs when he’s gone, Chris Burns explains why the iPad Mini will be free when it launches and what the iPad Mini needs to fix when it comes to Apple tablets, and Chris Davies has a review of the Synology DS213air NAS. That does it for tonight’s evening wrap-up – we hope you have a fun weekend!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: October 5, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.