Hasta La Gadget!

Well folks, the end of Thursday is nearly upon us, which means we’ll be kicking off the weekend soon. Today brought quite a bit more news about the Apple vs. Samsung trial than yesterday did, with Samsung’s lawyer fighting back against allegations made by Apple’s counsel. Things aren’t looking too good for Samsung though, as it appears that Judge Lucy Koh has thrown out quite a bit of the company’s evidence, and now Apple is requesting sanctions that uphold its patents based on yesterday’s evidence leak. The upside to all of this, however, is that we got another peek at an early iPhone prototype today, so be sure to check that one out.

Use of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is on the rise, while some XDA developers have discovered that Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has at least partially implemented support for multiple user accounts. Speaking of Android, the CyanogenMod team announced today that they will be dropping support for the Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 with CyanogenMod 9, so you S1 users may want to start looking for a different custom ROM. Samsung started sending out invites today for its “Pushing Boundaries” press conference at the end of the month, and we have a feeling that a new Galaxy Note device will be revealed there.

Sadly, we’ve got some bad news about Nokia, as new reports say that it has shuttered its Qt offices in Australia and laid off staff. SHIELD, a new bill that has been introduced in the US House of Representatives, looks to stop patent trolls in their tracks, and it turns out that around 83 million of Facebook’s users are fake profiles. With Facebook quickly approaching the 1 billion user mark, this means that about 9% of the profiles on the site are fake. AT&T announced its planned acquisition of NextWave Wireless today, a purchase which should help it boost its 4G LTE service.

Astronomers have taken a very clear picture of a spiral galaxy that has produced two supernovas in the past 30 years, so be sure to have a look at that one. Apparently Prometheus 2 is a thing now (raise your hand if you knew that was coming), and we talk to the director of Total Recall about a certain strange-looking dollar bill that appears in the movie. As far as video games go, today Gameloft began teasing its first game made with the Unreal engine, and we tried our best to guess what it is. Assassin’s Creed III got a new trailer today, but this particular trailer takes a closer look at what players can expect with Ubisoft’s new AnvilNext engine. Needless to say, it looks very… snowy.

That’s about it for the news, but there are also a couple reviews we suggest you check out. First up is Vincent Nguyen with a review of the 2013 Cadillac ATS, and Chris Burns has a review of Total Recall. Is Colin Farrell a good replacement for Arnold Schwarzenegger? You’ll just have to read the review to find out. Enjoy the rest of your Thursday evening everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 2, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Sun may be setting on the final day of July, but it’s also setting on the second day of the patent trial between Apple and Samsung. Today Apple gave its opening arguments while successfully getting a Google employee off the jury. Apple’s lead attorney seemed to think that Samsung would be taking a “devil made me do it” approach to its defense, while the Galaxy S manufacturer (which has a lot at stake in this trial) instead said that the iPhone was “inspiring to everyone.” Though it initially seemed that this trial would be nothing but boring patent talk, it now appears that it will be quite entertaining, so long as Apple and Samsung continue taking swings at one another like they did today.

Next up we’ve got some Apple and Samsung news that isn’t related to the trial, with Hulu Plus landing on Apple TV today (along with our examination of why it took so long), and Samsung reportedly working on a 11.8″ 2560 × 1600 tablet codenamed “P10.” Samsung Music Hub also launched in the US today, and the company is giving Galaxy S III owners a free 30-day trial. Be sure to check it out if you recently picked up Samsung’s latest flagship device.

Microsoft launched Outlook.com earlier today, and we’ve got a hands-on with the new service so you can learn all about it. Meanwhile, we caught wind of Sony’s new Xperia tablet thanks to some leaked presentation slides, and those who pre-ordered the Google Nexus Q found out they are being treated to a free device as the company halts Nexus Q sales in order to take some time to improve it. Unfortunately, today brought more bad news for RIM, which is reportedly gearing up to lay off 3,000 employees on August 13. The bad news doesn’t stop at the reported layoffs, however, as it was also revealed that TAT founder Hampus Jakobsson has left both the company and development on Blackberry 10 behind.

Got $150,000 burning a hole in your pocket? Maybe you should drop it all on this Legend of Zelda prototype cartridge. Today Ubisoft discussed the recent controversy over the security holes discovered in its UPlay launcher, telling gamers that it takes their security very seriously. Finally, by far the biggest piece of gaming news from today is the announcement that Star Wars: The Old Republic will soon be going free-to-play. That’s right: soon you’ll be able to ride Ewoks without paying a monthly subscription fee (you can ride Ewoks in this game, right?).

That’s all for today’s evening wrap-up folks. Now, go off and enjoy your Tuesday night!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: July 31, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Well folks, another Monday is in the bag. We must say that for an otherwise ordinary Monday at the end of July, this one was pretty eventful as far as news stories go. Most importantly, today marked the beginning of the patent trail between Samsung and Apple. This morning we took a closer look at the trial and the arguments being made by both sides, while later on in the day we received word that a key witness in the case won’t be showing up to testify. Apple’s courtroom woes don’t end at its trial with Samsung, however, as the company is also being sued over its Siri technology by a university in Taiwan.

Moving right along with the Apple news, it looks as if the company might be planning to reveal the iPhone 5 during an event taking place on September 12, and there were also a few whispers about the rumored reveal of the iPad mini. Mac OS X Mountain Lion seems to be lining Apple’s pocket with even more cash, as it was announced today that the launch of Mountain Lion has become the most successful OS launch in company history.

In other news, 16GB Nexus 7s are now available at the Google Play Store again! They have an estimated shipping time of 3-5 business days now, but you might want to grab one sooner rather than later if you’re planning on buying – considering the speed at which the last batch sold out, we wouldn’t be surprised if Google ran out again soon. Microsoft announced that Surface will be launching alongside Windows 8 on October 26, and over the weekend an actual Xbox 720 developer kit was spotted in the wild, complete with a $10,000 price tag. Is the next generation Xbox closer to release than Microsoft is letting on?

Do you believe the National Security Agency is spying on American citizens? That’s what one former NSA agent claims. Ubisoft made a pretty big fumble when it was discovered that its UPlay client had some major security vulnerabilities, but thankfully the publisher was able to deliver a patch for the service quickly. The first round of Google Glass Explorer hangouts on Google Plus didn’t quite achieve the desired effect, and today we got our first true introduction to the new Wikipad gaming tablet. Will it replace your gaming desktop? No, it certainly won’t, but that weird-looking controller makes us want one anyway. Finally, the Curiosity rover will be landing on Mars soon, and NASA is planning on livestreaming the entire event. If you’ve ever wanted to watch history in the making, you’ll soon get your chance.

That does it for the news, but we’ve also got a couple original posts for you to check out too, with a new column from Philip Berne and a review of the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note by Chris Burns. Enjoy the rest of your Monday evening, folks!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: July 30, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’ve played Assassin’s Creed 2 (or other Ubisoft games), you may have installed more stealthy infiltration than you bargained for. Some snooping by Tavis Ormandy around Ubisoft’s UPlay looks to have have discovered that the service’s browser plugin, meant to launch locally-stored games from the web, doesn’t have a filter for what websites can use it — in other words, it may well be open season for any maliciously-coded page that wants direct access to the computer. Closing the purported, accidental backdoor exploit is thankfully as easy as disabling the plugin, but it could be another knock against the internet integration from a company that doesn’t have a great reputation for online security with its copy protection system. We’ve reached out to Ubisoft to confirm the flaw and learn what the solution may be, if it’s needed. For now, we’d definitely turn that plugin off and continue the adventures of Ezio Auditore da Firenze through a desktop shortcut instead.

Update: That was fast. As caught by Geek.com, the 2.0.4 update to UPlay limits the plugin to opening UPlay itself. Unless a would-be hacker can find a way to compromise the system just before you launch into Rayman Origins, it should be safe to play.

Filed under: Gaming, Software

Ubisoft UPlay may accidentally contain web plugin exploit, Ezio would not approve (update: fixed) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 10:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The next console generation is technically getting underway with this year’s release of the Wii U, but to many gamers, the next generation won’t truly arrive until the next Xbox and PlayStation are introduced as well. When that will happen is really anyone’s guess – we’ve heard plenty of rumors, but Microsoft and Sony are both remaining tight-lipped on their plans for new consoles. Today, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot told Gamasutra that his company is ready for the next generation to kick off, saying that a new lineup of consoles would do a lot to spark innovation within the industry.

“We have been penalized by the lack of new consoles on the market,” Guillemot said. “I understand the manufacturers don’t want them too often because it’s expensive, but it’s important for the entire industry to have new consoles because it helps creativity.”

Guillemot said that when new consoles arrive on the scene, developers and publishers are more willing to take risks and experiment with new franchises. These days, however, companies are less willing to introduce new IPs and instead stick with franchises that are proven money makers, like Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty.

Likewise, Guillemot points out that gamers are sticking to what they know too, buying the newest titles in those popular franchises because they know those are the games all of their friends will be buying. What results is a circle where neither consumers nor developers are willing to take any risks, and that’s a problem which could potentially be solved by introducing new consoles and getting consumers excited about spending money on what’s new rather than what’s popular.

The Ubisoft executive brings up a pretty good point. One only needs to look at the releases for the latter half of 2011 to see that developers and publishers are clinging to tried-and-true franchises and aren’t letting go: Battlefield 3, Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Saints Row: The Third, and Modern Warfare 3 (to name a few) were all released within months of each other as 2011 was winding down. Looking at it that way, a new console generation might just be what the doctor ordered after all.

Ubisoft CEO calls for next console generation is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.