The games and content of the Xbox One

Microsoft's new hope, the Xbox One, was announced today, but what you really care about is the games, right? Well, most of them won't be seen till E3, but Microsoft did detail quite a few. The launch lineup is pretty strong, but it better be amazing considering the lack of backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 titles.

• Halo TV Show: They're making a live action TV show based in the Halo universe. Steven Spielberg will be involved. I will be watching it. 
• Quantum Break: A brand new IP that's launching exclusively on the Xbox One. It's... confusing but interesting. There are two main characters, an older woman and a young girl with super powers, and it blends live action and rendered scenes quite well. The game is created by Remedy Entertainment, the studio behind Alan Wake and Max Payne. 
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• Forza Motorsport 5: Microsoft's prized racing franchise is, as expected, getting an Xbox One version. Shocking, I know.
• Bungie's Destiny, Ubisoft's Watch Dogs and Assassin's Creed: Black Flag,  Activision's Call of Duty: Ghosts, EA's FIFA 14, Madden NFL 14, and Square Enix's Thief will all have Xbox One versions.
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• EA Ignite is the brand new engine that is powering the next gen FIFA, UFC, Madden NFL and NBA games, and the graphics detail is truly stunning. 

The Microsoft Xbox One

Microsoft's Xbox 360 debuted in 2005, almost 8 years ago, but is still the best selling home console. Today, in a slick, polished presentation in a tent at the company's headquarters, the new champion of Redmond's gaming legion has emerged: The Xbox One.
Besides a new design with completely revamped internals, it has a brand new controller, redesigned OS, updates to Xbox Live, and every model will come with a new Kinect. Plus, it's now something of a set top box: It integrates live TV, with a custom channel guide that can be controlled via Kinect.

• Specs: The heart of the Xbox One is an 8 core x86 custom built AMD CPU with a 500GB hard drive, 8GB's of RAM(matching Sony's PS4,) a Bluray drive, WiFi 802.11n with WiFi Direct, and USB 3.0. The controller has been revamped as well, with vibrating impulse triggers and a redesigned weight distribution. Plus, the controller uses WiFi Direct now, instead of the old proprietary RF connection, so it should be stabler and easier to use with other devices. 
• Kinect: The new second generation Kinect features dual 1080p cameras(upgraded from VGA) with wide angle support and the capacity to sense your heartbeat during an exercise game. Plus, every Xbox One will come bundled with one. 
• OS: The new Xbox OS is based on the Windows kernel and includes Skype with support for group video chat, as well as the new Snap mode, which lets you run two apps side by side; The Xbox team demoed this by playing a movie and running Internet Explorer simultaneously. You can also use voice commands everywhere now, and saying Xbox On turns on the console
• Xbox Live: Xbox Live stays much the same, but you can now record gameplay and share it, and play a different game while waiting in a lobby to be matched for multiplayer. 

Unfortunately, the Xbox One will not be backwards compatible with Xbox 360 games; Since it uses an x86 processor and the 360 used a Power PC chip, it would be essentially impossible. In good news, the device will support used games and will not require an always on internet connection, unlike the rumors. 

Jolla Mobile unleashes their first Sailfish OS smartphone

Nokia's doomed MeeGo/Moblin platform held a lot of promise, but sadly was ditched when the company switched to Windows Phone. A group of ex-Nokia engineers formed the company Jolla Mobile in an attempt to revive the OS, and today they're announcing their first phone; It runs their custom Saifish OS, which was announced previously, and has a beautiful two piece design that will come in a variety of different colors. Unfortunately, the specs are... not great, and it'll cost 399 euros. Still interested? It has an 8MP camera, LTE, a 4.5" display, dual core processor, and will support Android apps. You can put down 40 euros now to get a tshirt and priority status for your order, or 100 euros for a free back plate, tshirt, and a limited edition device.

Youtube Live now available for all users with 1000 subscribers

Google debuted Youtube Live, which besides the obvious livestreaming capability allows multiple camera angles, more than two years ago, but it has been quite limited in scope. Today, that changes, as anyone with 1000 or more subscribers on Youtube can now sign up for Live and take advantage of the features.

Android Studio is the new Android development environment

Goodbye Eclipse, hello Android Studio. Google has announced their own custom development software for Android, which is based on IntelliJ. The program integrates the Android emulator, and reflects code changes in realtime as they're made. There's a multi screen view that seems quite nifty, allowing you to test on different screen sizes simultaneously, and a layout editor for drag and drop UI creation. There's even various templates for creating common Android design and feature elements.
Meanwhile, the Play Developer console has a number of new features as well, including a service that provides suggestions on ways to improve your app and a translation feature. Most importantly, however, you can now provide beta releases of your app before the main release.

Google revitalizes Maps with built in Google Earth, no interface

Google's completely revamped Maps, doing away with the normal interface in favor of an edge to edge map with a small search box in the corner. The "card" idea from Google Now is built into the new Maps, offering Street View, a revamped Google Earth, photos and Photospheres, Zagat reviews, and more in a beautifully sleek design.
There's also smart recommendations tailored to you personally(based on your history and your Google+ friends,) and it shows you your home, work, popular locations, and your friends locations automatically.
The maps themselves are now vector based, with a sleeker look and Google's Roboto font for all text,  and it's all built using WebGl. Roads are now grey, mountains darker, and the ocean changes from light to dark depending on if the sun is up in that part of the world.
The desktop redesign is available in beta now, while Android and iOS will be upgraded this summer.

Google announces Play game services, updates to Google Now and Voice Search

Among a huge host of announcements at their I/O developer conference, Google has announced quite a few updates to their various mobile services.
First off, Play game services is a set of API's for developers to enable achievements, leaderboards and messaging in their games. It'll also enable cloud saves, so you can sync your saved games across different devices.
Perhaps most impressively, it also supports Apple's iOS, so you can play against friends with iPhones or iPads.

Separately, Google Now has been updated with new cards and reminders. You can save a reminders to be triggered when you reach a certain location, along with the normal time trigger. And there will now be cards reminding you to get to the train on time or suggesting movies or music you might like.

And finally, you no longer need to interact physically with your phone to ask a question or search with Google. Instead, you can just say "Ok, Google, will it be sunny in Santa Cruz this weekend" without tapping anything on your device first, and your device will speak the answer back to you. Again, this is cross platform, so it'll launch on Android but come to iOS and the web, allowing you to use Voice Search(and it's underlying service, Knowledge Graph) on the web as well.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition is an S4 with stock Android

Samsung's Galaxy S4 is one of the premier Android devices available, but it doesn't actually run Android as Google meant it to be. Instead, it has a Samsung skin, that adds some features but will not get updates as quickly as a device with stock Android and has a lot of apps you don't need built in.
The new Google Edition of the Galaxy S4 fixes all that, essentially turning it into a Nexus device. It'll be available directly from Google, with an unlocked bootloader and cell radio, and will be usable with T-Mobile and AT&T with . Unfortunately, it costs a lot: $649 when it launches June 29th.
Google

Google launches Hangouts, a new unified messaging system

Google's had way to many different messaging services: Google+ Messenger, Hangouts, Voice, and Talk. Today, they're integrating them all into one service.

The new Google + Hangouts shows you your conversations in a web, Android or iOS app, with free real time text conversation or video chats with up to 10 people simultaneously, and it supports photo sharing as well.

Google Play Music All Access takes on Spotify, Rdio

Is this real, or is this fantasy? Introducing #GooglePlayMusic All Access, unlimited music from Google. Hint: It’s Real. #io13 #keynote
— Google Play (@GooglePlay) May 15, 2013

In a crazy 3 hour long keynote today during the opening of Google I/O, the company has announced it's take on subscription music streaming: Google Play Music All Access. For $7.99 a month if you sign up before June 30th or $9.99 a month afterwards, you have unlimited access to all music on the Google Play Store. It also integrates your music, both what you've bought from Google Play and music you've uploaded from other source, and it's all in 320Kbps MP3's. The Android app will play your local files as well as the cloud streaming music, a major advantage over Spotify or Rdio's Android app.

There will also be a built in  recommendation engine a lá Pandora, that can integrate with Google Now, and will be available on the web or Android. You can sign up for a free trial right now.

Google unifies storage between Drive, GMail and Google +

The world falls into two camps: People like me who have an almost-full 5GB Google Drive/Google+ Photos account but a mostly empty 10GB GMail account. And the opposite kind of user, who's never deleted an email in their life but doesn't use Drive. Well, either way, you're in luck: Google has unified the storage between the services, so that you now get 15GB's of storage total to split between the three services however you see fit.
The change will be rolling out to all Google account users in the coming weeks.

Google creates immersive AR skydiving game with web standards

The above video(seriously, watch it) shows Google's amazing new Maps Live Skydiving game, which simulates skydiving using Google Maps. You can make all the same motions you would if you were really skydiving, and you will fall down to real world locations, with Google Maps as the "virtual" world. Essentially, the incredibly immersive game works by runing on 7 giant displays, with a Kinect-like 3D camera to let you control your onscreen avatar by banking in your living room.Perhaps even more impressive, it's all created using Three.js, 3D CSS, Node.j and the HTML5-based Google Maps - all open Web standards. Therefore, you can run this using just Google Chrome on any computer, even a low powered laptop, on any platform. 

The full experience, with the 7 screens and Kinect-like camera will be demoed at Google I/O next week. The team plans to also release a modified version of the game, for a more normal control scheme and one monitor, as an open source project soon.

Sony debuts new entry level Vaio Fit and Fit E series

Sony's low end laptops, the E series and T series, are being replaced by the new Fit and Fit E series, and they're... pretty compelling. Sony says they are getting rid of low resolution 1366x768 displays, which is possibly the best statement I've ever heard from a laptop company, and it's true: The entry level 14" models have 1600x900 res screens, with 1920x1080 available as an upgrade, while the 15.6" version has 1920x1080 by default. Those are all touchscreens, as well. The devices themselves are made out of aluminum, come in black, pink or silver, and are powered by Intel Core processors with NVidia dedicated graphics. There's also a subwoofer on the 15" model, and software-enhanced sound on all of the models, along with a high quality webcam and a suite of content creation tools preinstalled.
The plastic Fit E starts at $549 for 14" or $579 for 15 inches, while the all aluminum Fit comes in at $649 or $699 for the 14" and 15" models respectively.

Adobe Photoshop, other Creative Suite applications to go subscription only

Adobe's Creative Suite, which contains industry standard multimedia creation tools such as Photoshop, Premier, Illustrator and Dreamweaver, is being replaced. The existing Creative Cloud service, which gives you access to all of the former Creative Suite programs for a subscription fee of $49 a month, will become the only way to access the applications. In other words, you will no longer be able to buy just Photoshop, or just Premier.
On June 17th, new versions of all of the Creative Cloud applications will be released, with no standalone options available. Photoshop has got a number of upgrades, mainly focused around fixing photos that turned out badly, and all of the applications are now integrated with Behance, a website for sharing and rating art.
The video applications in the suite are getting the option to sync settings across workstations, while Kuler, a program for choosing color combos and swatches, will now have an iPhone app that can use the camera to send a color to Illustrator.

LG's Optimus G Pro heads to American shores May 10th for $199

LG's giant, Galaxy Note II-competing flagship phone the Optimus G Pro, is coming to America. On May 10th, you'll be able to pick up  the 5.5" 1080p phone for $199 on AT&T. In case you've forgotten, it has a 13MP camera, 1.7GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and a gigantiic 3140mAh battery. As for software, it's running Android 4.1 with LG's custom skin.

Soul Fjord, a new game from Portal designer Kim Swift, comes to Ouya

The crowdfunded, Android-powered, $99 indie game console known as the Ouya is quite the intriguing device, but it is launching without a huge library of titles. That is gradually changing, however, as developers warm to the platform, and a new game named Soul Fjord is a big step in a great direction for Ouya. Kim Swift, the legendary game designer who created Portal at Valve, then left the company to start her own, known as Airtight Games, is behind it.
The game is a sort of rhythm-based shooter or dungeon crawler with a Norse mythology inspired theme and

Apple makes 9.3 billion profit, tells us to expect a new product category this fall

Apple is in a peculiar position - it's setting record profits, yet its stock is on a downward slide based on a perceived lack of innovation. Today, Cupertino's finest announced their Q2 2013 financial results, and they continue to be strong: $9.3 billion dollars profit on $43.5b revenue. Still, the breakdown of product growth was a bit worrying, as only the iPad grew in sales; The iPhone was flat and everything else slid somewhat.
In the investor call after the announcement, CEO Tim Cook teased a rather interesting bit of information: The company has an "exciting new product category" coming this fall, and though there's no official word on what that might be, speculation on Apple making an iOS-based wristwatch or TV has been reaching a boiling point as of late.

Google Fiber comes to Provo, Utah

Google Fiber is a truly amazing service, but so far has been available in a minute number of cities, namely Kansas City and Olathe, KS. Early this month, however, Google announced it will be bringing its 1Gbps symmetrical uncapped internet and TV offering to Austin TX, and now the next city has been named: Provo, Utah. Or to quote the Google Fiber blog, it will now be available on the silicon prairie, the silicon hills, and the silicon slopes. No word on when it might come to Google's own hometown of Mountain View in the Silicon Valley. But now that they've announced 2 new cities in one month, it's looking like it will soon spread further.
This coincides with the announcement earlier this week that the Fiber TV offering has added HBO, making 3 Fiber-related improvements this month.

First Google Glass unit rolls off production line, specs finally detailed.

The specs of Google's Glass headset have finally been revealed, now that the first production edition has been created. The headset will have bone conduction audio instead of normal headphones, a 640x360 resolution display, 5MP camera, 16GB's of storage, WiFi and "all day" battery life. It'll work with any phone with bluetooth, but only Android 4.0 and up phones will get the companion MyGlass app that enables full functionality, including GPS and text messaging.

Coachella returns to YouTube

Google, T-Mobile and the Coachella music festival have teamed up to again stream the weekend's music sets live on YouTube. Just like last year, you'll be able to watch any of the concerts online, for free, from the comfort of your tiny smartphone screen. Or, well, almost any other device with an internet connection, including a TV with nice speakers and no annoying 6'7" person with a kid on their back standing exactly in front of you, like at the actual music festival.
As for the lineup, it strangely has not been put up on the YouTube page as of yet, but it includes the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Vampire Weekend, The Lumineers, Paul Oakenfold, and many others.
You can also download a playlist of singles from some of the bands, all for free, through Google Play right now.

Facebook Home, HTC First now available

Facebook's audacious new mobile initiative, Home, which replaces your homescreen with a feed of photos and posts from your friends, is now available. It also revamps your notifications and adds the interesting Chat Heads messaging feature, which overlays Facebook Messaging/SMS over any app.   If you have a Samsung Galaxy S III, a Galaxy Note II, or an HTC One X, One X + or One, you can download the app from the Play Store now. Once it's installed, simply click the home button on your phone and there will be a pop up asking if you want to use Facebook Home or your normal launcher as your new homescreen. Click on Home, then click Always if you want that to be your new default or Just Once if you just want to try it, and you're off.
To use Chat Heads, just install Facebook Messager and it'll work, even if you don't have one of the above devices.

Love Facebook Home? The HTC First, the first phone to come with the service preinstalled, is available now on AT&T for $99. Don't like Facebook Home, but need a new midrange phone? The HTC First is still a pretty good option, given it's nice design, great screen and decent specs for the price, and it runs stock Android under Facebook Home, which can be easily disabled.

Google Fiber heads down south to Austin, TX

Google Fiber, the fiber optic-based, 1Gbps symmetrical uncapped internet service from  Google, is quite amazing. However, it has until now only been available in Kansas City, KS and Olathe, KS, which don't have huge concentrations of technology industry people or startups.
One of the biggest concentrations of those types of people and companies in the US is in Austin, TX, which Google has just announced they're bringing Fiber too, starting in 2014. There will be three different options available: Gigabit Internet, Gigabit Internet plus Fiber TV, and a 5Mbps connection that is free for 5 years if you pay the installation fee. As for pricing, that hasn't been established yet in Austin as of yet, though in Kansas City the Gigabit Internet plan costs $70 a month and Gigabit Internet Plus TV costs $120.

Accurately named HTC First is the first "Facebook Phone"

No, it's not actually made by Facebook, and Facebook Home, the new launcher/homescreen experience from Mark Zuckerburg's pride and joy can be easily disabled, making this into a normal Android phone. But the new HTC First was indeed designed in partnership with the Palo Alto-based company, comes preinstalled with Facebook Home, and even has their logo on the back.
Other than that, there's nothing particularly amazing about the First, despite it's name. But it's a nice midrange device that can quite easily run stock Android and has LTE, making it unique in yet another way. As for the device itself:

• It has a 4.3" 720p LCD, a lá the HTC 8X. There's also NFC, LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, a 5MP camera, HD front facing cam, and Android 4.1.
• In another first, it's powered by the new 1.4GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chip, which is lower end then the 600 or 800 series but still roughly comparable to last year's high end Snapdragon S4. 
• It'll be available April 12th on AT&T for $99 on contract or $449 unlocked.
• The First has a .35" thick frame and weighs 4.5oz. In a nice touch, it comes in your choice of black, red, blue(very nice looking) or white.

In other words, it's a very solid device considering it's price, despite the questionably desirability of Facebook Home.

Facebook Home: Facebook finally goes mobile first

Yesterday Facebook announced it's future. No, it's not yet another new News Feed or profile design, rather, the company is finally prioritizing mobile. They've been criticized for years for always rolling out new features to their desktop website, not making apps for new mobile platforms quickly, and only recently making the iOS and Android apps decent. Well, that all changes now with Facebook Home, a home-and-lock-screen replacement for Android devices. It makes a minimalist, beautifully designed new version of the News Feed into your home screen. In other words, your wallpaper will be a rotating collection of pictures, along with status updates. There's also a feature called Chat Heads that overlays an icon of your friends profile picture over your screen if they text or Facebook Message you, allowing you to reply to messages without ever leaving the app you're in.
You can also post a status update, photo or check in at a location from anywhere in the OS. Swiping up from the bottom of the screen shows you all of your apps, similarly to webOS or Blackberry 10.

Unfortunately, while the experience itself looks great, it all depends on having a collection of friends posting interesting, beautiful pictures and text at frequent intervals. Like Facebook's Graph Search, it seems perfect for someone who works for Facebook or otherwise has a large peer group who actively use the service, but not good for the rest of us.
Facebook Home will be available from the Google Play Store for the Samsung Galaxy S IV, S III, and Note II, HTC One X, One X+ and the new One, as well as the HTC First, which will have it preinstalled. It'll be available April 12th, as will the HTC First, which is
coming to AT&T for $99.

Ouya finally hits retail June 4th, ships to Kickstarter backers today

The crowd funded Android game console known as the Ouya has had a long road to availability, but it will finally launch soon. How soon? If you backed the project on Kickstarter, you should be getting a shipping confirmation email today, but if you want to pick one up at your local Best Buy you'll have a bit of a wait: June 4th is the day the Ouya will hit retail stores. That list includes Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Gamestop.

Samsung Galaxy S4 comes to AT&T for $249

Samsung's latest flagship, the beastly Galaxy S IV is set to launch on every major carrier in America, but only two have announced availability so far: T-Mobile, which will launch the S4 on May 1st, and AT&T, which will be the first to release the phone on April 16th. It'll cost you $249 on a two year contract, but we don't have any specifics on which storage capacity, processor and color choices AT&T's model will have as of yet.

Samsung Galaxy S IV headed to T-Mobile May 1st

T-Mobile's massive revamp this morning not enough news about the nation's 4th place wireless carrier for you? Well, the company has also announced that it will be getting Samsung's much anticipated Galaxy S IV, and even a release date: May 1st. Meanwhile, the HTC One is coming "by the end of April" and the Apple iPhone 5 on April 12th, so the three biggest phones right now will all launch on T-Mobile within the span of a month.

T-Mobile adds iPhone, gets rid of all contract plans, and lights up an LTE network

T-Mobile has long had several major disadvantages: Not offering the most popular smartphone, Apple's iPhone. Having a network that uses different, incompatible frequencies for 3G data then AT&T. And not having a 4G LTE network in an era where Verizon and AT&T have most important locations covered and even Sprint and MetroPCS have a network.
They've been solving problem number 2 by gradually rolling out HSPA+ in the same frequency band as AT&T over the last several months, but the other two have thus far been unresolved.
At an event today where the company is branding it self as the "Uncarrier," they have completely revamped the plans they offer, announced they will be offering the iPhone, and flipped the switch on a 4G LTE network in several major markets, and released a new hotspot.
Plans:

Their new plans emphasize simplicity: All of them have no contract, and the only thing you're choosing is how much data you want. $50 a month will buy you unlimited voice, texting and a measly 500MB's of data, while adding $10 a month to that gets you 2.5GB's a month. Another $20 a month, for a total price of $70 a month, will get you completely unlimited internet, texting and phone calls. As for family plans, you add $30 to all of the previous figures, meaning 500MB's for both lines will cost you $80 a month, 2.5GB's for each line will be $100, and unlimited is $120.
Meanwhile, mobile data plans for devices such as tablets or mobile hotspots to use your laptop with, start out at $20 a month for 500MB's of data. $30 a month will net you 2.5GB's, $40 4.5GB's, and so on up to $80 a month for 12GB's. If you also have a normal T-Mobile phone plan, you can reduce any of those prices by $10 a month.
Worried about having to pay the full price of a phone since the company isn't offering subsidized devices with contract plans any more? T-Mobile has a solution. Basically, it'll let you pay off the phone gradually, paying a down payment of anywhere between $10 for their low end devices to $199 for the Samsung Galaxy Note II, and then an extra $20 a month on your bill. In other words, it's like AT&T or Verizon's method of having you pay a small amount up front and then a more expensive bill, but it's transparent that you're paying for your phone, and if you do bring an unlocked device or pay the full price of the phone upfront it'll be cheaper every month.
Devices:

T-Mobile finely has the iPhone. Apple's pride and joy, the iPhone 5, will be available on April 12th for $100 up front and $20 a month. The older 4S and 4 will be $70 and $15 respectively up front with the 4S having the same $20 a month payment, and the 4 a $15 a month charge. Both will end sooner then the 5, though, as the devices are cheaper. The iPhone 5 will even be able to use T-Mobile's HD Voice service for, well, better quality voice calls.



The carrier has also announced that it will be getting the other most anticipated-by-mainstream-audiences phone of the year, Samsung's new Galaxy S IV, as well as the(in my opinion) slightly better HTC One, which is coming soon for $99 a month and $20 a month after that. The Blackberry Z10 is also coming to T-Mobile for $99 down and an $18 a month payment. Meanwhile if you have a Samsung Galaxy Note II or Galaxy S III, you should be getting a software update that enables LTE support.
LTE:

Speaking of LTE, the lack of that network was probably the biggest problem with T-Mobile, at least for people who use their phones for work and need high speed data. Today, they've lit up the following 7 markets: San Jose, CA, Washington, DC, Houston, TX, Baltimore, MD, Kansas City, KS, Las Vegas, NV, and Phoenix, AZ. There's also a new mobile hotspot, the wonderfully named Sonic 2.0 Mobile Hotspot 4G LTE, which will be $29 down with payments of $5 a month.

Samsung's Series 9 goes full HD

Samsung's high end Series 9 laptop was an Ultrabook before the word existed, and has continued to stay at the front of the Windows thin-and-light pack. Today sees a minor spec bump, with the old 1600x900 resolution display being thrown out in favor of a 1920x1080p 13.3" display that Samsung claims is 50% brighter then the other, comparable laptops. There's also an Intel Core i7, 256GB SSD and 4GB's of RAM, but you'll pay dearly to get all of those specs in the Series 9's 2.56 pound 1/2 inch thick magnesium alloy frame: It starts at $1,899 and goes up from there.

The company is also bringing their Ativ Smart PC Pro to AT&T's 4G LTE network, offering the Windows 8 tablet for a hefty $1,599. It has an Intel Core i5, 128GB SSD, 11.6" 1920x1080p display and detachable keyboard dock, but the Microsoft Surface Pro has roughly the same specs minus the LTE for $899.

S View Cover is a case for Samsung's Galaxy S IV with a window for notifications

No official photo's of the case available yet

The new Samsung Galaxy S IV was just launched, and it has some intriguing accessories. One of those is the S View Cover, a descriptively named flip cover case with a cutout for showing a portion of your screen while protecting the rest. This portion will show notifications such as new emails, texts or social notifications, while the rest of the phone remains in sleep mode.