Microsoft announces Xbox Fitness: Now get off your flabby butt and go...play Xbox?

Gamers are a slothful, portly bunch, prone to chronic acne and poor hygiene—or so the stereotype goes. In reality, the hundreds of millions of gamers across the globe come in all flavors, including fitness nuts. Microsoft's announcement of Xbox Fitness late Thursday should be music to their ears.

Kinect tracks your form and pace, measuring your workout.

Xbox Fitness is an online service exclusively for the upcoming Xbox One console, and it aims to get gamers into shape. Stop me if you've heard of these big fitness names:  Tony Horton (P90X) and ShaunT (Insanity), Jillian Michaels, and Tracy Anderson.

The service is free to Xbox Live Gold members through December 2014. More precisely, it requires an Xbox Fitness Pass, which is included free to Gold members. What happens after December, or what the Fitness Pass would cost non-Gold members, has yet been revealed.

The service provides interactive workouts with the famous names and brands listed above, among others. The new Kinect reads micro-fluctuations in your skin to track your pulse without even wearing a sensor, and it watches your movements to ensure proper form and evaluate your workout. Social Challenges pit you against your friends. Screenshots show something called "FP" ("Fitness Points" perhaps?) which seems like an analog to Gamerscore, but for sweating instead of shooting.

Microsoft has partnered with the biggest names in fitness.

Beyond that, the details are slim. Are all the fitness programs included for free, or are some of them free and some available for purchase? Will you earn Achievements for reaching workout milestones? Will the workouts be expanded throughout the year? Microsoft has set up an Xbox Fitness site, but it doesn't provide much info.

With the Xbox One, Microsoft is attempting to position its living room box as something not just for core gamers, but for everyone who uses the TV. It's insistence on including Kinect with the new console (thus raising its price), has drawn the ire of core gamers. If the Xbox One can also be a sophisticated workout machine with some of the biggest names in fitness attached, it help make the case that the body- and voice-tracking device is worth the $100 premium over Sony's PlayStation 4. Xbox Fitness will be available this holiday season.

Jason has written professionally about technology and video games for almost 15 years. His goal in life is to figure out how complicated technology works and explain it in a way anyone can understand.
More by Jason Cross

View the original article here

Valve announces SteamOS, an operating system built for the living room

It’s not Half Life 3. Not yet, anyway.

Valve announced details of SteamOS on Monday, the first of three announcements the company has promised this week concerning its Steam games retail service and Steam Box home console.

SteamOS is a Linux-based operating system “built around Steam itself,” according to the reveal site.

“SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen,” it continues. “In SteamOS we have achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing, and we’re now targeting audio performance and reductions in input latency at the operating system level.”

Presumably SteamOS functions as the interface for the console Valve is expected to reveal this week. While hooking a PC up to a television to play games is already common practice, Windows is clumsy to operate while sitting on a couch across the room. SteamOS, like Valve’s already-released Steam Big Picture Mode, should make it easier to get into games, install drivers, and the like in a living room environment.

Valve also promises, “With SteamOS, ‘openness’ means that the hardware industry can iterate in the living room at a much faster pace than they’ve been able to,” and that, “Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want.”

If only my living room looked this amazing.

Though SteamOS is Linux-based, Valve confirmed that Mac and Windows-based games will run on the new system. As expected, the operating system includes “in-home streaming”—your existing computer can stream games over your home network to your SteamOS machine. Latency has always been the problem with streaming games because they require a large amount of data and accurate input response; we’ll have to wait and see whether Valve adequately solves those issues upon launch.

Valve also reiterated its new family sharing plan, which allows titles to be shared across accounts, and announced it is working with “many of the media services you know and love” to bring them to both Steam and SteamOS.

SteamOS is free to download and install on any system, with a release date of “soon” according to the site.

We’ll hold judgment for now, though some developers are certainly excited:

Valve is saving the entire gaming world, but I all I can do is mumble passive aggressively about crowbars.

— Markus Persson (@notch) September 23, 2013

The original Steam Living Room site from last week has been updated with a slightly-larger picture of a blue sun and a new 48 hour countdown. Stay tuned for the second-of-three announcements on Wednesday.

View the original article here

BlackBerry announces Z30 smartphone with 5-inch display and large battery

BlackBerry today announced the Z30 smartphone with a 5-inch display and a larger battery for 25 hours of mixed usage.

A BlackBerry spokeswoman said U.S. carriers will announce pricing and availability soon, while a rollout in the UK and Middle East will begin next week. A company statement said nothing more than U.S. release would be during "the holiday season."

[ Also on InfoWorld: BlackBerry sale might not include smartphones. | Get expert advice about planning and implementing your BYOD strategy with InfoWorld's 29-page "Mobile and BYOD Deep Dive" PDF special report. | Keep up on key mobile developments and insights with the Mobilize newsletter. ]

The announcement comes just two days before Apple and wireless carrier partners begin sales of the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. Also, recent reports indicate that parts of the BlackBerry business could be sold -- although without the smartphone division -- potentially leaving support for Z30 buyers in limbo.

The Z30's 2880 mAh battery is the largest ever for a BlackBerry smartphone. The phone benefits from battery enhancements in an update of the OS to BlackBerry 10.2 and offers 25 hours of mixed use, which includes up to 18 hours of talk time. BlackBerry advised that actual battery results may vary.

The 10.2 refinements include a new BlackBerry Priority Hub that provides one place to manage conversations and notifications. Also, BlackBerry Messenger has been refined to offer a preview of any message when it arrives in whatever app is being used. The 10.2 version will be available to the already-released Z10, Q10 and Q5 smartphones in mid-October, subject to carrier approvals.

BlackBerry said the Z30 also has new Paratek antenna technology to dynamically tune reception to give a better connection in low signal areas. The result, BlackBerry claimed, will be faster data transfer and fewer dropped calls in low signal areas, but the improvements weren't quantified.

The 5-inch display is based on vivid Super AMOLED technology used in Samsung smartphones. The resolution is 1280 x 720 pixels with 295 pixels per inch.

A 1.7 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor is supported by a quad core Adreno 320 graphics processor. There is 2GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage and a microSD slot for expansion. An 8-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front camera are included.

Wireless connections include 4G LTE with global roaming bands, near-field communications (NFC), Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy and 802.11 a/b/g/n.

The Z30 device has much of the same shape and contouring as the Z10, which comes with a smaller 4.2-inch display. The Z30 weighs nearly 6 ounces and is 5.5 x 2.8 x .37 inches in size. With those dimensions, the Z30 is slightly larger in every measure than the Z10 and just over an ounce heavier than the Z10's 4.8 ounces.

This article, BlackBerry announces Z30 smartphone with 5-inch display, large battery, was originally published at Computerworld.com.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed. His email address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.

See more by Matt Hamblen on Computerworld.com.

Read more about smartphones in Computerworld's Smartphones Topic Center.

View the original article here

IDF 2013 keynote: Intel announces Bay Trail tablet CPU, slew of Haswell Chromebooks

Intel on Wednesday ended weeks of speculation by launching "Bay Trail," the next-generation Atom Z3000 chip that pushes tablets towards PC-esque levels of performance.

A few years ago, Intel launched the Atom processor, designed for an emerging low-power world.  But over time, Atom's performance has improved to the point that the most recent iteration, Bay Trail, has improved dramatically in PCWorld's hands-on tests.

On Wednesday, Intel touted Bay Trail, which looks like it will cut into Core-based PCs at the low end of the desktop and notebook, and the convertible tablets or "two-in-one" products that will use them. Intel also announced that OEMs would be including a Kinect-like sensor into future PCs, as previously reported, before touching on a wave of next-gen, Haswell-powered Chromebooks slated to land in the coming months.

Hermann Eul, vice president and general manager of the Mobile Communications Group, described how Intel is designing multiple components across the system. "[Mobility] connects us to our partners, to our friends, and to the cloud—even to our own bodies," Eul said.

Intel described its "soup to nuts" approach to mobility: a CPU, an imaging processor, as well as graphics connected to it all. That device, in turn, will be connected via short-range and long-range WWAN technologies, with security layered on top. And on that, Intel can layer its own software, with dozens of investments that Intel has made in the embedded space.

"This, we call a platform: from A to Z," Eul said. "And it all starts with a great CPU."

That core is the "Silvermont," the design revision that forms the underlying technology of the Bay Trail and other chips within Intel. Silvermont is a 64-bit architecture, which Intel revealed a few months ago.

"Bay Trail is architected for the best mobile computing experience," Eul said. It provides leading battery life as well as ample performance on demand, he said, plus a next-generation imaging core.

Intel executives showed off a Bay Trail miniature tablet running and editing video and invited Jerry Shen, chief executive of Asus to introduce the T100, a Bay Trail notebook with over ten hours of battery life. "We are very excited about the Bay Trail quad-core promise," he said.

Dell was also invited on stage. Neil Hand, vice president of tablets, introduced an eight-inch Bay Trail tablet that will "innovate and drive new capabilities," he said. Dell will be branding the new family of tablets with the "Venue" brand, unveiling the entire range of products on Oct. 2 in New York City.

Eul also characterized Bay Trail as a "wonderful gaming platform," optimized for both Windows and Android. Intel also brought up Victoria Molina, a former executive for Ralph Lauren, Levi's, and the Gap, to show off a Bay Trail-powered virtual shopping experience, where a shopper "tried on clothes" with a model who had uploaded her measurements.

Merrifield represents the Silvermont architecture in the phone, with all the performance, battery life, and security components of the Bay Trail platform. Advanced LTE is coming in 2014. Airmont will follow with 14-nm technology for the phone, Eul said.

Kirk Skaugen, senior vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group, then turned to two-in-one devices. In 2011, Intel launched the Ultrabook. "Now we've stopped counting [OEM designs], and assumed that the entire world has gone thin," Skaugen said.

More than 40 percent of all Core notebooks have been designed with touch. Seventy percenty of today's Ultrabooks are touch-enabled, on the way to 100 percent touch later this year, creating a "bow wave" driving touch PCs, Skaugen said.

Skaugen described the two-in-one as the "best of a laptop and the best of a tablet," with a 10-inch screen size, a "full PC OS" like Windows 8, and an integrated keyboard design.

More than 80 percent of tablet users say they want to refresh their notebook, Skaugen said, and the company said it believes it can capture a portion of the tablet market. Over 60 two-in-one designs will be in the marketplace by year's end, he said.

A on-stage display showed off the Sony Duo 13-inch slider, the Dell XPS 11, and a Sony two-in-one. An application from CyberLink will be provided on Haswell machines by the end of the year to facilitate content creation, presumably video editing.

Intel also invited Microsoft on stage. Tami Reller, the executive vice president for Microsoft in charge of Windows, said that Microsoft were "fans of the category".

More than 2 million people have downloaded Windows 8.1, Reller said, although she didn't say if that was simply those who downloaded the preview, or the final version via MSDN or TechNet. Microsoft saw the highest number of Windows 8 activations in August, a new record. (Read PCWorld's review of Windows 8.1.) A Facebook app is coming, Reller reiterated, while Foursquare recently released its own Windows 8 app.

GOOGLEThe next generation of Chromebooks.

Finally, Intel also said that a new, unannounced generation of Chromebooks would use the existing "Haswell" Core processor inside Chromebook and Chromeboxes from Acer, Asus, HP, Toshiba, and others. Toshiba and Asus are new to the Chrome family; Google says Asus will supply a Chromebox, rather than a standalone Chromebook.

"With today’s announcement, now six of the top laptop manufacturers are offering Chromebooks," Google's announcement bragged.

View the original article here

Here we go again: Samsung announces another huge phone with the Galaxy Note 3

Congratulations are in order for Samsung: The world’s most prolific smartphone manufacturer has managed to add yet another gargantuan device to its ever-increasing Galaxy lineup. The Note 3 phone-tablet hybrid naturally follows the Note II, adding a faster quad-core processor, a bigger battery, a higher-res display, and 4K video recording capabilities.

The improvements are minor, but they send an important message: The Note phablet line is a success, and won’t be going away anytime soon. We’re now looking at only iterative, generational improvements as these behemoth devices settle into the Samsung lineup.

The Note 3, which Samsung announced early Wednesday during the company’s IFA Berlin keynote, features a 1080p Super AMOLED display that measures 5.7 inches—just a bit bigger than its predecessor’s display, but less than an inch smaller than the display of the recently released Galaxy Mega.

Users can bring up Samsung’s Air Commands with the S Pen.

The Note 3 comes with a dockable S Pen stylus, as the Note models before it did, but Samsung has added “Air Command” features to the new device. When you hover and "click" over the screen with the stylus, Air Command brings up a circular menu that gives you quick access to Samsung’s proprietary pen apps: Screenwrite, Action Memo, Scrapbook, S Finder, and Pen Window (an app that allows you to draw a window on the screen to bring up an app you’d like to use). Most of the apps included with Air Command could be replaced with a more functional, likely cross-platform application from the Google Play store, though the substitutes wouldn’t be fully compatible with the S Pen. Samsung has clearly indicated that it intends to woo consumers with an all-inclusive package of custom apps, luring users away from the Google Play store and toward the proprietary Samsung ecosystem.

Power users will appreciate the device’s quad-core, 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, which Qualcomm announced earlier this year at its CES keynote. The new system-on-chip comes paired with 3GB of RAM and the Adreno 330 graphics processing unit, which will drive the pixels of Samsung’s demanding 1920-by-1080 screen, as well as enable UltraHD 4K video recording (which captures video at twice the size of 1080p). Note that this isn’t the first handset capable of capturing 4K video; earlier this week Asus announced its 6-inch Liquid S2 handset with the same Snapdragon 800 processor and 4K recording capabilities. However, you won’t be able to view the content at its full resolution unless you have a display that’s capable of playing it back.

The Note 3 comes in a variety of colors and designs.

Samsung stuck with its standard curved plastic chassis for the Note 3. It will also include a leather backing that houses a 3200mAh battery pack. Photo buffs will appreciate the 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, in addition to the Galaxy Note 3’s 4K video capture abilities. Samsung has also packed the Note 3 with Samsung Knox, a security suite that protects sensitive corporate data. On top of that, you’ll be able to use the Note 3 in conjunction with Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch.

The handset will be available in 32GB and 64GB variants on September 25 in most of the world. As for the United States, Samsung says only that the device will be available “later this year” on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

View the original article here

Duly noted: Samsung announces the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

Struggling Nintendo announces 2DS handheld, cuts Wii U price

These are desperate times for Nintendo, and so the game-system juggernaut will take a couple of desperate measures to get its hardware into more hands.

The more surprising move is the announcement of a Nintendo 2DS. Priced at $130 and launching on October 12, the handheld system is $40 cheaper than the Nintendo 3DS, and it plays all the same games. But as the name implies, it doesn’t have a 3D screen, nor does it have the clamshell design found on other DS handhelds.

The design of the 2DS is definitely weird—the tapering thickness almost gives it the appearance of a doorstop—but the lack of a hinge should keep kids from snapping the hardware in half, and the lower price makes it a more attractive buy for parents.

Nintendo’s 3DS has fared better than the Wii U, but worldwide 3DS sales declined 25 percent year-over-year last quarter—not good for a system that’s only a couple years old. Nintendo has felt the squeeze from phones and tablets, as more money is now being spent on iOS and Android games than on dedicated gaming handhelds.

In a somewhat predictable move, Nintendo will drop the price of its “Deluxe” Wii U console from $350 to $300, effective September 20. The Deluxe package includes 32GB of storage, a copy of Nintendo Land, a console stand, a GamePad stand and a GamePad charging cradle.

It’s unclear what will become of the $300 “Basic” Wii U model, which only included 8GB of storage and none of the extras listed above. Nintendo may silently kill off this model, given that most retailers stopped selling it months ago. (Nintendo had previously insisted that the Basic model hadn’t been discontinued.)

Wii U

The Wii U price cut certainly looks like a response to upcoming consoles from Sony and Microsoft. Sony’s PlayStation 4will cost $400 when it arrives on November 15, and Microsoft’s Xbox One will cost $500 when it launches in November.

Although exact pre-order numbers aren’t known, Sony says that more than 1 million people havepre-ordered the PS4, and GameStop says pre-orders of both consoles have been “much stronger” than the previous generation. Nintendo, meanwhile, has sold 3.61 million Wii U systems worldwide since its November launch.

While Nintendo has long argued that its own software and hit franchises will help sell the hardware, it never hurts to have lower prices along with it. A cheaper Wii U and DS handheld could help give Nintendo a boost as it heads into a fiercely competitive holiday season.

Follow TechHive on Tumblr today.

Updated at 2:48 p.m. PT with a video from IDG News Service.

View the original article here

Microsoft announces hefty list of AAA Xbox One launch titles

If great games make for a great console, Microsoft made its case for the Xbox One on Tuesday, releasing 23 launch-day titles that include several traditionally AAA franchises.

Although the list—which includes the Assassin’s Creed, Battlefield, Call of Duty, FIFA, Forza, and Madden franchises—is an impressive roster of games that Microsoft claims will be available at launch, the football-mad European market will receive EA Sports’ FIFA 14 as a bundled launch title, if Europeans pre-order the console. (Once supplies sell out, another “blockbuster game” will be made available.) And in addition to the top titles, Microsoft also announced a new program, known as ID@Xbox, designed to lure indie developers back to Microsoft’s console.

Microsoft made the announcements at the the Gamescom conference in Germany, the European equivalent of the E3 conference within the United States.

EAWith FIFA 14, gamers will be able to create an “Ultimate Team” of legendary players.

Microsoft’s Xbox console has been the top-selling console within the United States for 31 months straight, although Microosft only sold 107,000 Xbox 360 consoles in July, a low point as gamers begin putting their wallets away in preparation for the Xbox One. Microsoft’s list of titles are designed to lure them back:

Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag (Ubisoft, Ubisoft)Battlefield 4 (DICE, Electronic Arts)Call of Duty: Ghosts (Infinity Ward, Activision)Crimson Dragon (Grounding/Land Ho!, Microsoft Studios)Dead Rising 3 (Capcom Vancouver, Microsoft)FIFA 14 (EA Sports, Electronic Arts)Fighter Within (AMA Ltd., Ubisoft)Forza Motorsport 5 (Turn 10 Studios, Microsoft Studios)Just Dance 2014 (Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft)Killer Instinct (Double Helix, Microsoft Studios)LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (TT Games, Warner Bros. Interactive)Lococycle (Twisted Pixel, Microsoft Studios)Madden NFL 25 (EA Sports, Electronic Arts)NBA 2K14 (Visual Concepts, 2K Sports)NBA LIVE 14 (EA Sports, Electronic Arts)Need for Speed: Rivals (Ghost Games, Electronic Arts)Peggle 2 (Popcap, Electronic Arts)Powerstar Golf (Zoe Mode, Microsoft Studios)Ryse: Son of Rome (Crytek, Microsoft Studios)Skylanders: Swap Force (Vicarious Visions, Activision)Watch Dogs (Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft)Zoo Tycoon (Frontier Developments Ltd., Microsoft Studios)Zumba Fitness: World Party (Zoë Mode, Majesco)

(PC gamers, checck out our list of the ten most anticipated PC games for this holiday season.)

ActivisionInfinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Ghosts

Microsoft also said that FIFA 14 Ultiimate Team will be available on the Xbox One and Xbox 360, allowing gamers to create a “dream team” of footballers that they can place alongside their current teams. Microsoft named Swedish footballer Freddie Ljungberg and Dutch star Ruud Gullit as the first two members, and said that more would be added later.

Microsoft also announced special bonus content for the Call of Duty: Ghosts and Tom Clancy’s The Division, with a new “Blitz” mode for COLD franchise, as well as exclusive content for The Division.

Following Microsoft’s launch of the Xbox One—and its subsequent backtrack on the issue of DRM and digital games—Microsoft set out to win back independent developers, which had been turned off by statements claiming that they would need to find a publisher before they could make content available on the Xbox One. The first step was making the Unity development engine free to developers.

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced Independent Developers @ Xbox (ID@Xbox), a program that will allow independent developers not only the ability to publish games for the Xbox One, but to take advantage of capabilities offered to larger developers, including Spotlight, which highlights games; as well as placing them within lists of Trending games and among Recommendations, plus giving them access to  social discovery with features like Game DVR and Upload.

”At the end of the day, when you turn on your TV, we want Xbox One to have the broadest and most diverse content possible,” Xbox vice president Phil Harrison said in a blog post. “Whether you’re in the mood for a big budget shooter, a contemplative side scroller, or something totally different that we can’t even imagine yet. The best way to deliver that experience is by doing what we’ve always done: making life easy for developers, as they do the hard work of creating fantastic game experiences for us all to enjoy.”

Sony left the E3 conference sitting comfortably in first place with its PlayStation 4, at least among gamer goodwill. But Microsoft’s strategy shifts, plus its impressive list of launch titles, certainly seems to indicate that Microsoft has both the clout and commitment to remain on top.

View the original article here

Give thanks: Sony announces Playstation 4 is coming to North America on November 15

We've known that Sony was launching the Playstation 4 this holiday season, but now know exactly when it’s coming: November 15 in North America and November 29 in Europe. The company announced the Playstation 4 release dates and a few interesting bits of Playstation game news during its Gamescom press conference today.

After showing us a quick glimpse of the PS4 user interface, Sony started its conference proper with new trailers for Gran Turismo 6, backed by a terrible opera soundtrack. While Gran Turismo is traditionally one of the titles that shows off Sony’s new console hardware, GT6 is slated only for PS3 when it releases this December.

Sony also showed off some new upcoming games for the current generation. On the PS3 side, Little Big Planet Hub is a free-to-play entry to the popular user-generated content franchise, presumably coming later this year.

Murasaki Baby is one of many visually-interesting indie games coming to Playstation Vita.

They also dedicated a hefty amount of time to the Vita handheld. Like, a lot of time. Perhaps the biggest announcement was a Vita price cut, down to $200. Sony also revealed that Borderlands 2 is heading to the Vita. We’ll have to wait and see how the console experience scales to the handheld hardware, but if successful it’s a testament to the power of the Vita.

There were also two previously unseen games for the Vita. The first, Murasaki Baby, looks like Tim Burton made a platformer: you play as a girl with a heart balloon, who has a mouth in her forehead. The other, BigFest, is some sort of game/marketing tool hybrid. Your goal in the game is to set up and manage a successful music festival. The twist—every band represented in the game is a real-world, unsigned band. Promoting games in the band will give them a better shot at making it in the real world as well.

To reinforce the “Sony cares about independent developers” narrative, we got a whole slew of news about our favorite small developers. Pretty much every eagerly-anticipated indie game is making its console debut on the PS4: Hotline Miami 2, Volume, Rogue Legacy, and N++ are all on the way.

The Chinese Room, developers of Dear Esther and the upcoming Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs also teased us with a short trailer for Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, with the tagline “This story begins with the end of the world.”

Everybody's Gone To The Rapture is another striking Playstation 4 game that seems to have nothing to do with gun violence, modern military power fantasies or square-jawed and sullen male protagonists.

And Sony just kept announcing new games: a new adventure-esque game from Tequila Works titled Rime, a top-down shooter with space marines called Helldivers, a new Housemarque project called Resogun that looks somewhat like a 3D version of the arcade game Defender, and a remake/reboot of the classic Psygnosis title Shadow of the Beast.

In terms of big-budget games, Sony's Gamescom conference revealed…basically nothing. We saw new trailers for Infamous: Second Son and the new Killzone title, but nothing spectacular. They also announced the combat massively multiplayer game War Thunder is coming to the PS4.

Ubisoft showed off the PS4 and Vita’s cross-play abilities with a demo of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. In the midst of the presentation, the game was swapped from playing on the PS4’s screen to an (ostensibly) live demonstration on the Vita. Sony claims “nearly every” game developed for the system is playable on both the PS4 and Vita, though it gave no further info on what the exceptions are.

You should be able to play Assassin's Creed IV and many other Playstation 4 games on the handheld Playstation Vita console.

Watch Dogs, typically the star of the last few games conferences, underwhelmed at Gamescom with a lackluster trailer and the announcement that they’re making a movie from the franchise. Something about “counting your eggs.”

And in the growing realm of games streaming, Sony announced the PS4 will support Twitch compatibility in addition to the previously-announced Ustream partnership.

But of course, the news we all cared about came last: the PS4 will launch for $400 (or the local currency equivalent) this November in 32 markets, and has already sold a million preorder units worldwide.

North American users who preordered will receive their consoles on November 15, while Europeans will have to wait an extra two weeks until November 29.

If you haven’t already preordered, however, you’re probably out of luck. Amazon ran out of preorder units last week. I’m sure some friendly people on eBay will help you though—to the tune of a 400 percent markup.

View the original article here

Toshiba announces Satellite E series notebooks

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here