gdgt’s best deals for July 3: RCA 55-inch LED HDTV, Canon EOS 60D

Ready to save some cash on your tech buys? Then you’ve come to the right place. Our sister site gdgt tracks price drops on thousands of products every day, and twice a week they feature some of the best deals they’ve found right here. But act fast! Many of these are limited-time offers, and won’t last long.

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Today’s hottest deals include a 55-inch LED HDTV and Canon DSLR available at prices worthy of fireworks-like oohs and ahs. Want the latest deals delivered to your inbox? Join gdgt and add the gadgets you’re shopping for to your “Want” list. Every time there’s a price cut, you’ll get an email alert!

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Assassin’s Creed 2 Available For Free For Xbox 360 Gold Members July 16

Microsoft announced Assassin’s Creed 2 will be made available for free for its Xbox Live Gold subscribers on July 16.

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Halo 4 Global Championships kick off as “biggest ever”

The Halo series for the Xbox is seen as one of the most popular video game series on the planet, so it makes sense that a global championship tournament would be based entirely on the newest game in the lineup. 343 Industries and Virgin Gaming are partnering up to bring the tournament to gamers, and it’s said to be the “biggest Halo 4 tournament ever.”

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There will be a total of $500,000 in prizes throughout the tournament, including a $200,000 grand prize for the gamers who can win it all. The tournament will span over five weeks with multiple live events over Xbox Live. It will all kick off this Friday, July 5, with Xbox Live head-to-heads starting on July 15.

The matches will be free-for-all and will consist of a series of qualifying rounds that will be based on average scores and elimination matches. Unlike a lot of the big competitions around the world, this tournament will take place over Xbox Live, and anyone can sign up for the chance to compete and win some big cash prizes.

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Each week, gamers will be challenged to complete at least 20 matches against 7 random players, and the game type will be changed weekly. The top four players from each week of competitions will be flown in to compete in the finals in Seattle, Washington from August 31 to September 1.

26 gamers total will be picked to compete in the finals. Of course, there will most likely be millions of gamers competing for prizes in the tournament, but that shouldn’t stop you from joining in on the fun if you think you’re decent with a controller. There’s no word on when registration will close, but the tournament starts in just a couple of days, so be sure to get your name in the hat before time’s up.


Halo 4 Global Championships kick off as “biggest ever” is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Xbox One Japan launch tipped for early 2014: Begs leniency in the meantime

Japan is a “tier 2 country” for Microsoft’s Xbox One launch, the company has admitted, though Japanese gamers may not have to wait quite as long as their Asia neighbors to get the next-gen console, with an early 2014 release hinted. Questions around when the Japanese Xbox One launch would take place began last month, when Microsoft revealed that several Asian countries would not get the console until the end of next year, but declined to comment on Japan specifically.

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Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and India are all in line to get the new console, Microsoft said, but its launch won’t be until the end of 2014. Ironically, Microsoft conceded at the time, the Xbox 360 is currently the best-selling console in Asia, with sales actually increasing – by around 20-percent per year – despite its age.

Now, though, Microsoft Japan President Yasuyuki Higuchi has thrown some more light on the Japan situation. Speaking to 4Gamer (and translated by DualShockers) the exec confirmed that Japan was being treated as a tier two launch location, but that the release will only be “delayed a little bit” in comparison to the first countries to get the Xbox One.

“For the launch of Xbox One Japan is a Tier 2 country and not a Tier 1 country, so it’ll come with the second wave, that will be delayed a little bit [compared to North America]” the Microsoft Japan President said. When pressed, he would only clarify that “it won’t be delayed too much from the North American release.”

Although unconfirmed, it seems Japan’s launch will come somewhere in-between the initial wave of sales and the full roll-out in Asia.

Ironically, some of Microsoft’s design decisions around the Xbox One were made with Asian players specifically in mind. The new Kinect sensor bar, for instance, handles smaller gaming environments more accurately, after complaints that the original hardware struggled when players were in more compact rooms than their North American counterparts.

Perhaps recognizing that the staggered release wouldn’t go down well, Microsoft’s Vice President and Executive Officer of the Consumer & Partner Group in Japan, Haruaki Kayama, even asked for leniency on how the news was reported. “Please don’t report too negatively” Kayama said in the interview, laughing.

VIA Ars Technica


Xbox One Japan launch tipped for early 2014: Begs leniency in the meantime is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Mattrick’s exit from Microsoft reportedly due to impending executive shuffle

Microsoft

So what’s next for Microsoft after the sudden departure of former Xbox chief Don Mattrick to lead Zynga? The move is reportedly related to an executive restructuring that will be announced soon, directed by CEO Steve Ballmer as part of a shift in strategy towards devices and services. Bloomberg sources suggest detailed plans of at least one possible version of the future, putting current Windows leader Julie Larson-Green at the head of hardware engineering for the company. That shift would also give Windows Phone corporate VP Terry Myerson more control over the Windows OS across platforms, and Skype president Tony Bates the lead in acquisitions and developer relations.

The report claims Mattrick was a contender for the hardware post before he left, while an earlier Fast Company article tied his exit directly to not receiving an expanded role once all the new seats are filled. The Wall Street Journal has its own speculation over who may take over all things Xbox — Marc Whitten,Yusuf Mehdi and Nancy Whitten are all name dropped — but if the rumors are true we could find out who is leading this new direction for Microsoft as soon as next week.

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Source: Bloomberg, Fast Company, Wall Street Journal

Microsoft’s Nokia Music Mix Party Let’s Your Friends Become Virtual DJs [Video]

Microsoft is launching its Nokia Music Mix Party service, which allows you and your friends to become virtual DJs.

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GTA V requirements include 8GB install

Those of you out there in gaming land looking to play the next chapter in the open-sandbox free-for-all adventure Grand Theft Auto will be needing to take another look at the amount of space left in your harddrives. The game Grand Theft Auto V has been revealed this week to require a whopping 8GB of space all on it’s own. That’s no small commitment.

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For Xbox 360 users, this game will be appearing on two separate DVDs and will require that the first unload the full 8GB of data to your machine’s drive. The second of two disks exists as a play disk, here required for you to run the game (and yes, the 8GB of data is required on the Xbox while the second disk runs).

You can, on the other hand, use a USB stick to keep some of that action off-loaded. According to RockStar, this stick must be “USB 2.0 with a minimum 15mb/s read speed and formatted for Xbox 360 use.” Simple enough, yes? Go ahead and grab a few the next time you’re running through a major gaming convention.

Meanwhile the PlayStation 3 iteration of the game will be coming in on a single disk and will also require a full 8GB install. One Blu-ray disk will be in the package you pick up in September and you’ll be seeing essentially the same game on either system.

Sound good for a wait until the 17th of that month? Might you have an Xbox One or PlayStation 4 waiting in the wings by then?

You may want to keep this fact as a lesson for future gaming console purchases as well – working with an Xbox with just 8GB of space on it might seem like a good idea when you see the initial price tag, but down the road you’ll be paying for it with high-powered games such as this!


GTA V requirements include 8GB install is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Xbox One Kinect Will Recognize Redeemable QR Codes

The Xbox One will recognize QR codes in place of the long 15-character codes.

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Xbox One to let gamers scan download codes using Kinect

Xbox One to let us scan download codes with Kinect, finally

Many console gamers know the drudgery of entering a download code with a gamepad or keyboard. Now that Kinect is part and parcel of the Xbox One experience, however, they’ll always get to skip that step: Microsoft’s Marc Whitten has revealed that system owners can scan the codes with the Kinect camera. While this is really an extension of what the original Kinect can do — Kinectimals takes advantage of QR codes, for example — it should be a big help for gamers who’d rather be playing than typing.

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Source: Marc Whitten (Twitter)

The Daily Roundup for 07.01.2013

DNP The Daily RoundUp

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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