Cyber Info Scripter

XBOX ONE REVEALED

2013-05-24T03:01:00.001-07:00

Starting fresh Microsoft have named their new console the Xbox One.

Integrating the Xbox with voice controlled TV and game switching seems to be a significant focus. Lets take a look at some of the console images of the new XBox One and its controller...

The new Xbox One is keeping to its name and looks very boxed in style and shape. The new look certainly isnt boring though. Designed to be modern yet non-intrusive. It will probably sit very stylishly under your modern flat screen. Very few front facing features interfere with the shiny black facia.

Capitalising on the Microsoft ownership of Skype, it was obvious that the new XBox One would come with an integrated Skype feature.

The control mechanism, once the hand held gamepad, seems to have shifted over to remoteless voice activated commands.

Simply starting a command with the word "Xbox" followed by the specific requirement "Internet Explorer" seems to be the new way to browse the consoles features. Obviously we would have to try these features out ourselves to see how well the voice commands work when you have a screaming child in the room or music playing.

"Xbox, my child is too noisy for you to hear me" or "Xbox you cant hear me over the movie you are playing"

MS are claiming that the Xbox One is the beginning of truly intelligent TV and truly intelligent gaming

MS break down the Xbox One into 3 areas

The console - "The heart of the system is RAW power", 8 Core CPU, 5 Billion transistors, 8GB of RAM, Blue ray drive, wifi direct, native 64bit, USB 3.0.

"Practically silent operation. A powerful box engineered to deliver now and well into the future"

3 input devices - Kinect, controller, smart glass

Obviously that last part always leaves us wondering just how far into the future? Modern PCs are coming with 12GB and 16GB as standard, but we are impressed by the 8 CPU cores. Although consoles aim for a 10 year life expectancy and again we are not sure if 8 CPU cores will really look that impressive in 2 years let alone 10.

Android 4.1.2 update to Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus

2013-04-05T05:52:00.001-07:00

Good news for Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus owners. According to SamMobile, Samsung has started rolling out the Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update to this tablet.

The first country to receive this update is Austria, however, other regions should be getting the updates shortly. As usual, the Jelly Bean update would bring features such as Project Butter, Google Now and several other improvements under the hood.

If you are a Tab 7.0 Plus owner, check to see if the update is available in your region.

Source

Intel still on the tops of the semiconductor companies

2013-04-05T05:39:00.001-07:00

Qualcomm fastest growing semiconductor company, Intel still on top says Gartner

Qualcomm, designers of the highly popular Snapdragon series of chipsets plus a wide variety of wireless tech, is the fastest-growing semiconductor company according to Gartner. The two companies at the top, Intel and Samsung, were both affected by stagnation in the market in 2012.

Intel’s revenue slipped 3.1% year over year, but the company retained its leadership position for the 21st year in a row. Market share dropped a hair to 16.4% (down from 16.5%).

Samsung’s DRAM and NAND markets took a hit, but other segments picked up and the South Korean company managed a 3.1% year over year growth.

Qualcomm jumped into third position, up from 6th, with a massive 31.8% growth in revenue. That’s 18.2% better than analysts’ expectations. The company displaced Toshiba, who ranked fifth with a revenue decline of 9.8%.

Other than Qualcomm, only NXP managed to beat analysts’ expectations by over 10%. There are several companies that performed worse than expectations by over 10% too: Freescale, STMicroelectronics (who recently put an end to ST-Ericsson) and AMD.

Overall, Gartner gauged that the semiconductor industry declined 2.6% in total revenues in 2012 compared to 2011.

AMD has showcased their Radeon HD 7990

2013-03-29T22:35:00.004-07:00

AMD has showcased their Radeon HD 7990 at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco.

The GPU is said to be close to noiseless and would contain two cards from the 7900-series...

Various manufactures already released a GPU with two 7900-series cards on board, such as the Asus Ares II. These cards were mostly under-clocked in order to keep heat-issues suppressed.

AMD did not yet release the specs of the GPU, and neither were the clock rates announced. They did claim however that the GPU would receive different configurations than the GPU's from other manufacturers such as the Ares II.

The card will be powered by two 'eight-pin-plugs', whereas the current HD 7990 cards have three. The GPU will also contain four display-ports and one DVI-port. Furthermore, the GPU will be cooled by three 90-millimeter fans, which should make the GPU more or less noiseless, according to AMD.

Another point of interest are the expansion slots. Whereas current 7990-GPU's require three, AMD's upcoming GPU would require only two. These are all the currently available specifications, however AMD stated that the HD 7990 should be the competitor of Nvidia's Titan.

Galaxy S4 promo video

2013-03-18T07:22:00.001-07:00

The Samsung Galaxy S4 promo video gives you the features rundown in little over 4 minutes

Samsung has posted the firstGalaxy S4 promo video on YouTube. As usual the clips goes through the phone’s design, software and hardware perks, and does so with a catchy background music and a patterned background to match the pattern of the smartphone itself.

We get to see Air View, which lets you hover a finger over the screen and get a thumbnail preview pop up. Smart Pause, which can monitor if your eyes move away from the screen and pause a video for you. See the S4 operated with gloves and much more.

Here’s the video itself. It’s 4:24 long so you may want to take a comfortable seat, before you press the play button

Asus announced first AMD based PCI Express 3.0 motherboard

2013-02-25T22:01:00.000-08:00

PCI Express 3.0 technology was originally released a few years ago, but until now, it was only supported by Intel based motherboards. All the AMD based motherboards were using the reliable PCI Express 2.0 architecture for their dedicated video card needs, which wasn't as powerful as the newer PCIE 3.0.

The popular electronics provider Asus has recently announced the world's first AMD based motherboard that supports PCI Express 3.0 technology...

The Asus Sabertooth 990FX/Gen3 R2 is based on the AMD's 990FX chipset. It supports latest AMD's AM3+ processors which includes latest AMD FX series CPUs up to 8 Cores. It includes three PCI Express 3.0 slots allowing you to use multiple next generation video cards at their fully potential using Nvidia's SLI technology or AMD's CrossFireX technology. Asus has also equipped this motherboard with six SATA3 HDD ports, six USB 3.0 ports, twelve USB 2.0 ports, along with two E-SATA3 ports.

There have been no announcements yet about price or release dates.

AMD have traditionally been slightly cheaper than Intel; so this new motherboard will please longstanding fans who prefer their AMD products.

Nvidia Releases "Getforce GTX Titan" - Hardware Analysis

2013-02-19T23:26:00.004-08:00

Numerous were the rumours about a Kepler GK110 GPU joining the GeForce Family. It first started with GeForce GTX 685 - later forgotten since it seemed NVIDIA was done with the 600 Series. After that, speculation turned towards a possible GeForce GTX Titan which was allegedly GeForce GTX 780 Ti, to go with NVIDIA's naming convention. Now the speculation is done and this is it folks - I present to you GeForce GTX Titan!

AMD claims to be happy with their Radeon HD 7000 Series GPU and showed a roadmap claiming that the HD 7000 Series GPUs are to be stable throughout 2013 and that they would be focusing on improving driver support. However, that doesn't mean there won't be new Radeon HD 8000 GPUs in 2013.

Now, NVIDIA is not holding back the big guns and has released what, as of February 2013, we call: the fastest single GPU available.

GeForce GTX Titan is based on the Kepler GK110 Core used on the Tesla K20 Workstation, but with only 14 SMX activated and so it offers 2688 Shader Processing Units, 48 ROPs and 224 TMUs on a 384-bit interface of fast GDDR5. The central clock runs at 837MHz and goes up to 876MHz in Turbo Mode, while the memory clock operates at 1502MHz. GeForce GTX Titan draws no more than 250 Watts. Early GeForce GTX Titan benchmarks indicate its performance is up to 85% of GeForce GTX 690!

Looking at the specifications on paper and what seems to be expected from GeForce GTX Titan, I would say this GPU has many major pros but an enormous major con, as well.

If it really does offer 85% of GeForce GTX 690's performance, while consuming only 250 Watt (exactly what Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition consumes), it's clear to say it's an extremely energy efficient GPU - well we didn't expect less from a Kepler based GPU. Adding to that, it's expected to heat much less than GeForce GTX 690 and to rely less on driver support.

With Titan comes a new technology called Kepler Boost 2.0.

Instead of just the regular Boost in which the GPU's central unit and Shaders speeds automatically raise themselves to a certain frequency (known as Engine Clock), GeForce GTX Titan features an upgraded version in which the GPU dynamically adjusts voltage based on its temperature and allows for an even higher frequency than Engine Clock known as Max Clock. This means that the lower the temperature, the higher the voltage and the higher the Max Clock.

Everything looks good but we have noticed that GeForce GTX Titan is priced around 900 American Dollars. This makes GeForce GTX Titan extremely uncompetitive. It's obvious a GPU of this magnitude, with over 7000 million transistors, has an extremely high manufacturing cost. However, such a high price will make it obsolete in the market. It's much more worthy getting a solution of Radeon HD 7970 Crossfire, which ends up costing less than 800 USD and performs better.

GeForce GTX Titan's price might not be final yet. In our opinion, if it remains that high, GeForce GTX Titan might end up only being bought by extremely rich gaming enthusiasts or benchmarking fanatics with a pretty penny. Unfortunately, that's less than 1% of the GPU market.

Needless to say, if playing Crysis 3, on the Ultra Preset, with 8xMSAA, on a 2560x1600 monitor, is your dream, GeForce GTX Titan is your "girl". The 288 GB/sec of memory bandwidth plus the 2688 Shader Processing Units, ought to do the job well. Adding to that, Crysis 3 is optimized for NVIDIA GPUs.

Now, the big question is: is this trouble for AMD?

Considering all this true, here's the relative performance of the top high end solutions:

Yeah, GeForce GTX 690 still takes the lead...

Here is their price:

As usual, AMD's top high end GPU costs less than NVIDIA's top high end GPU.

Let's not forget about a performance to watt ratio:

As mentioned, GeForce GTX Titan offers the best power consumption/Performance. Almost all NVIDIA GPUs are more energy efficient than AMD's.

and last, but certainly not least, a price to performance ratio:

Radeon HD 7970 has a clear win on this one while GeForce GTX Titan is smashed - even by NVIDIA's own GeForce GTX 690.

AMD: HD 8000 videocards coming on late 2013

2013-02-18T04:46:00.000-08:00

As opposed to earlier rumours, AMD has stated they will be releasing their new videocard-series at the end of 2013, which will be based upon new GPU-architecture.

The previous rumours indicted that AMD would not release new cards with their new architecture until 2014. But AMD have gone to press stating Radeon HD 8000 will be with us by the end of 2013...

Computerworld states that AMD is sure to release a whole new Radeon HD-8000 series based upon new architecture. This means AMD will be rolling out their new high-end graphics cards later this year.

Vice-president of AMD: "Let me be clear: the new products will be based on a new architecture." This means their new high-end GPU's will be rolling out at the end of 2013.

One of their current most powerful cards, the HD 7970, was released at the end of 2011. Due to this, a release of a new series was already expected to take place early 2013, whereas in reality this will be at the end of 2013.

AMD already said to be focusing on improving and optimizing their 7000-series before releasing their new series of GPU's. They will continue working on new driver updates which should improve the overall performance of their current GPU's.

Sony Xperia Z used as an underwater cam, makes a cool 3 minute video

2013-02-16T04:57:00.000-08:00

Most smartphones don’t usually fancy dipping their toes in swimming pools, but not the Sony Xperia Z. The flagship smartphone was taken for some underwater action by an early adopter.

With its IP57 certification, the Xperia Z doesn’t even break a sweat shooting the 3-minute underwater video.

The video looks pretty remarkable, and as an added bonus the microphone manages to capture some pretty clear underwater sounds as well.

The owner of Sony’s latest flagship advises that if you take your Xperia Z on such an adventure, just hit the video recording button prior to jumping in the water, as the touchscreen, understandably, doesn’t work underwater.

Anyhow, here’s the video itself.

Opera acquires Skyfire Labs for $155 million

2013-02-15T23:30:00.002-08:00

Opera has announced that it has acquired Skyfire Labs, the company that made the Skyfire browser for mobile, for $155 million. The acquisition will allow Opera access to Skyfire’s Rocket Optimizer Software.

Rocket Optimizer works by compressing multimedia content such as images and videos on web pages on Skyfire’s servers and then sending them to the device, thus considerably reducing the bandwidth requirement on your device and the strain on mobile networks. This is similar to the way Opera Mini browser works, but Rocket Optimizer can also work with videos, something no other browser can.

This, coupled with Opera’s already excellent cloud compression, means you can expect even better performance and functionality from Opera’s mobile browsers in future. The company also recently announced that they will be slowly moving towards the WebKit engine for their desktop and mobile browsers, so things are certainly looking up for the company.

ASUS unveils 10-inch MeMo Pad Smart in Thailand

2013-02-09T22:57:00.000-08:00

Asus has officially unveiled the rumored 10″ Memo Pad Smart ME301T at the Thailand Mobile Expo. Asus also is expected to showcase the tablet at the upcoming Mobile World Congress.

Asus Memo Pad Smart comes out with a 10.1″ WXGA display, 1.2 GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor along with 1 GB RAM, 16 GB inbuilt memory and microSD card support. The tablet has a 5-megapixel rear camera, 1.2-megapixel front camera and runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

A review of the Asus Memo Pad Smart is already available on YouTube.

The 9mm thick tablet is priced at THB10,900 (about $360) and will be available in white, blue and pink color variants.

Game of the year announced by Dice Submit

2013-02-08T04:52:00.001-08:00

The D.I.C.E. Summit; a large annual event where all the big names in gaming gather to discuss the industry, the games, the successes and failures.

Last night was all about the successes though, as the D.I.C.E. Award winners were announced...

The full list of award winners:

Action Game of the Year - Borderlands 2 (Gearbox Software)

Mobile Game of the Year - Hero Academy (Robot Entertainment)

Handheld Game of the Year - Paper Mario Sticker Star (Intelligent Systems)

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Story - The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)

Outstanding Character Performance - The Walking Dead: Lee Everett (Telltale Games)

Downloadable Game of the Year - The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)

Casual Game of the Year - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Web Based Game of the Year - SimCity Social (Maxis, Playfish)

Family Game of the Year - Skylanders Giants (Toys for Bob)

Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year - Mass Effect 3 (Bioware)

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year - XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis Games)

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Sports Game of the Year - FIFA Soccer 13 (EA Canada)

Racing Game of the Year - Need for Speed Most Wanted (Criterion Games)

Fighting Game of the Year - PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (SuperBot Entertainment)

Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity - Halo 4 (343 Industries)

Outstanding Achievement in Animation - Assassin's Creed III (Ubisoft)

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering - Halo 4 (343 Industries)

Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering - XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis Games)

Adventure Game of the Year - The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Game of the Year - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Many games were nominated, and there were some expected winners, such as Borderlands 2 for Action Game of the Year, and Mass Effect 3 as best RolePlaying/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year. However, the real surprise is Journey - winning 8 awards and taking Game of the Year.

The Journey studio, ThatGameCompany, actually went bankrupt before releasing the game, but these awards prove that the game was a fantastic success for the developers.

Launch new version of the console every year by Ouya

2013-02-08T04:45:00.000-08:00

The Kickstarter funded Android gaming console OUYA is finally set to go out in the hands of anxious Kickstarer backers and eventually, regular customers. But turns out, a newer version of the console isn’t too far away from now.

Talking to Engadget, CEO of OUYA Julie Uhrman said that “There will be a new OUYA every year. There will be an OUYA 2 and an OUYA 3.” What OUYA is aiming for is a smartphone-like update strategy, where they will update the console every year with newer processors and more memory.

While a yearly update cycle might not seem too different than what phone and tablet companies do, it’s way too fast when compared to traditional game consoles that have a life of 6-7 years. Although it won’t be a major issue with OUYA since the games will be backward compatible, something that is often not possible with traditional consoles and your older games will carry forward since they are associated with your account. Also, with just $99 for the console, there won’t be too much of a buyer’s remorse even if your console becomes outdated a year later.

Still, it would be hard for the makers of OUYA to convince buyers to purchase the current console a few months down the line with the new model just around the corner. Especially since the NVIDIA Tegra 3 in the current OUYA is already pretty outdated.

via

A New CALL OF DUTY title gets schedules for Q4 2013

2013-02-08T04:37:00.000-08:00

Only weeks after the release of Call of Duty - Black Ops 2: Revolution, we have the announcement that another COD game is on the way.

In a Conference Call, CFO Dennis Durkin mentioned that the next title should land this year...

During the conference call Durkin said, "The Call of Duty franchise continues to set the bar for innovation and we expect a new Call of Duty game in development for 2013 to raise that bar even higher".

We don't think the game mentioned is Call of Duty: Online, since the talk of innovation doesn't sound like it will be multiplayer centric. After all, the current multiplayer seems to work well, and why fix what isn't broken?

We can however guess that the mysterious title will be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, given how Activision normally rotate their title releases. There isn't any firm information however, and probably won't be until we hear about it at E3 or the like.

New Xbox to be always online

2013-02-07T06:28:00.002-08:00

NEW XBOX TO BE ALWAYS ONLINE, NO SECOND-HAND GAMES PLAYABLE

Rumours about the new Xbox have struck the Internet once again, and this time they reveal some less appealing news.

The rumours state that the Xbox 720 will be required to be online at all times, and does not support second-hand games..

Sources who are said to be working on the console revealed the features stated above to Edge. According to the sources even physical copies of games will require an Internet connection in order to be played.

Another thing to note is that gamers who buy physical copies will receive an activation code that will only work on their account. Due to this, trading and lending games will be impossible.

Hardware

The new Xbox is also said to support Blu-ray, something that was bound to happen, due to the increased and still increasing size of games, that comes with improved graphical detail and game complexity. Furthermore the new Xbox is said to have an AMD x64 CPU with eight cores at 1.6 GHz clock speed, a D3D11.x 800MHz graphics card and 8 GB DDR3 RAM. It is also said that Kinect is built in the new Xbox, and that the system is improved overall.

More and more information is starting to leak about the next-gen consoles, as we presumably approach their reveal. Sony might reveal their console on a pres conference on February 20th, whereas Microsoft is most likely to reveal their new Xbox around E3.

PS4 COMING TO EUROPE IN 2014

2013-02-03T04:38:00.004-08:00

According to the newest but solid rumours, the PlayStation 4 should hit stores in 2014 in Europe. Japan and the United States should get access a little earlier.

Some fresh details about the specifications have also come out, which also states the specs compared to that of the new Xbox. Enough reason to take a look...

Sources from both Edge and Polygon state that the new PlayStation 4 will launch at the start of 2014 in Europe, whereas it will launch at the end of 2013 in the USA and Japan. The reason for the earlier release in the United States and Japan is to be able to compete with the new Xbox.

New controller and additional features

Sources also claim that the PlayStation 4 would have a new controller, which would have a touchpad instead of the start, select and PS-buttons. In addition to that, the controller would have an added 'share' button, with which people can put in-game screenshots and videos online. The PlayStation 4 would also record the last fifteen minutes of gameplay, without having to use any extra processing-power.

Hardware

It is said that Sony will be launching an improved PlayStation Eye (camera present in the PlayStation 3), which would work together with the PlayStation Move, just like the case is now. The hardware would look a lot more like that of the PC than the case is now. Due to this, it's easier for developers to develop games that can easily work on all platforms, and PC-ports will most likely be better due to this.

Also, the PlayStation is said to be slightly more powerful than the new Xbox. The Xbox currently has more RAM (8 GB) than the PlayStation 4 (4 GB), but Sony is aiming to reconcile this, according to the sources. Also, both consoles are said to have 8-core CPU's, with low clock rates.

Revealing the PlayStation

We've been saying that the consoles will be revealed for a couple of years now. This seems now to be closer than ever, as the parties themselves (Sony and Microsoft) have announced to be revealing their new console soon. Sony announced to be holding an event on February 20, in which the 'future of the PlayStation' would be revealed, as we said earlier today. One and one makes two, and it is likely the new PlayStation will be revealed at this event, which would confirm earlier rumours claiming the new consoles would not be revealed at E3, but on an own event of both parties.

Microsoft Office 2013 and Office 365 Home Premium go on sale

2013-01-30T10:36:00.003-08:00

The Microsoft Office 2013 and Office 365 are finally on sale. The Office 365 Home Premium is currently available for $99.99 a year as expected. For that kind of cash you get to install the software on up to five PC’s or Macs.

Office 365 is also available in a “University” version for all the college students and the variant is priced at $79.99 with a four year plan. Microsoft is giving away free 20GB of SkyDrive storage with each subscription.

Microsoft Office 2013 Home and Student is currently available for $139 and comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. The Home and Business package also adds Outlook and costs $219, while the professional package comes with all the above plus Access and Publisher for $399.

All these Office 2013 offers include one user lifetime license, but do not come with any free cloud storage space.

PlayStation 4 launch in May or June

2013-01-27T06:59:00.002-08:00

The next-gen Xbox countdown already started and Sony must be feeling the heat coming from its competitor.

The vice president of Sony Home Entertainment just couldn’t help himself, but tease the masses of PlayStation gamers with the upcoming fourth version of the console.

Hiroshi Sakamoto has hinted of a “big announcement” coming either earlier in May or at the E3 2013 in June. This means that if Sony doesn’t announce anything in May, then we’ll witness both companies debut their next-generation gaming consoles in June at E3 2013.

He also added that Sony “expects to deliver great news”, which are going to be a big step forward in Sony’s console roadmap.Sony’s upcoming gaming console is expected to pack NFC and rely a number of its key feature on it. The next PlayStation is also speculated to feature support for Ultra HD displays.

THQ Assets sold and Company Dissolved

2013-01-27T06:48:00.000-08:00

Multi-Million dollar company THQ is no more.

CEO Brian Farrell and president Jason Rubin have sent a letter to the employees stating that the company will be broken apart and their assets will be sold to different companies. They are also currently presenting their case to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court...

Their Assets were sold off as so:-

Relic Entertainment and Company of Heroes franchise - Sold to Sega Corporation for $26.6 million

THQ Montreal, including 1666 and Underdog - Sold to Ubisoft for $2.5 million

Evolve aka Metamorphosis - Sold to Take-Two Interactive for $10.894 million

Volition and Saints Row franchise - Sold to Koch Media for $22.3 million

Homefront franchise - Sold to Crytek for $544,218

Metro franchise - Sold to Koch Media for $5.8 million

South Park: The Stick of Truth - Sold to Ubisoft for $3.2 million

The fate of the Darksiders series and it's developer Vigil Games is still unknown. "We will make every effort to find appropriate buyers, if possible." said Farrell and Rubin.

The auction document also contained information about an announced game called "Underdog" by THQ Montreal. Along with this another game "1666" was also found.

The document suggests that High Voltage Software and Volition Inc. are working together on the development of Saint Row 4.

Most employees will be offered jobs by their new owners, but it is a little uncertain as all the positions might not be needed by all the companies.

Employees that are not part of the sale will be left unemployed, though a small number of staff will remain employed at THQ, Agoura Hills, California beyond 25th January to assist in the transition stage.

"While the company will cease to exist, we are heartened that the majority of our studios and games will continue under new ownership," Farrell and Rubin said. "We were hoping that the entire company would remain intact, but we expect to hear good news from each of the separate entities that will be operating as part of new organizations.

"For those THQ employees who are part of entities that are not included in the sale, we are confident that the talent you have displayed as part of THQ will be recognized as you take the next steps in your career," they said.

This is truly a sad day for gamers. What are your thoughts on this? Will the new owners be able to develop THQ's games to their potential and live up to the standards?

Microsoft reports final quarter of 2012 results

2013-01-27T06:41:00.003-08:00

Windows sales up, but income is down

Microsoft had an interesting final quarter for 2012 – the three months period that saw the launches of both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. As a result, the company is reporting record revenues but also a slight decline in operating income.

Sales of Windows saw a 24% increase from the year ago quarter, but the Windows 8 launch is behind the Windows 7 launch, which boosted sales by 76%. Even Vista brought a 65% jump in sales, though in terms of monetary value the Windows 8 launch brought in more cash (Vista replaced 5 year old XP, while Windows 7 is still relatively recent).

The Surface tablet, the flagship Windows 8 device, was not mentioned at all. Microsoft expects Windows sales to pick up as more touch-enabled Windows 8 devices hit the shelves (including the x86 Surface Pro).

Anyway, revenue for the final quarter of last year was $21.5 billion, up 3% from Q4 of 2011. Operating income, however, went down 3%.

The decline can be explained with reduced sales with the Microsoft Business Division and the Entertainment and Devices division. The Business Division is responsible for Office, which is due for an upgrade soon (the dip in sales is the calm before the storm).

The Entertainment and Devices division handles both Windows Phone 8 and Xbox / Kinect. The Xbox 360 is heading towards retirement (as rumors of its successors increase) and WP8 is picking up steam – Nokia, which is most closely aligned with the mobile OS, went back into profitability for its last quarter of 2012.

You can get the detailed numbers on Microsoft’s financial quarter from its press release.

Samsung showcases flexible OLED displays

2013-01-13T22:23:00.003-08:00

We have been hearing rumors of these for a while now but Samsung has finally come clean with their YOUM flexible OLED displays at CES this year.

Although no actual product using these displays have been announced so far, Samsung did showcase three applications of it. One of them had the design of a regular smartphone, with just the right edge being bent downwards. This bent strip displayed content in landscape mode, so that even if you have the phone in a case, you can see notifications and such from the side at a glance.

The other two designs included a device that couple be folded up in the middle and another one where the display could be rolled up and retracted.

Thanks to the flexibility of the display, we might finally start seeing some disruption in the design of smartphones, which have turned into boring slabs over the past years. The flexibility also means that these displays are a lot more shock resistant. It remains to be seen what product Samsung would choose to put it in first.

Google Maps accessible once again on Windows Phone browser

2013-01-13T21:59:00.003-08:00

Last week we reported that the mobile web version of Google Maps service was no longer accessible through the Internet Explorer browser on Windows Phone devices. Although the service wasn’t officially supported because Internet Explorer does not run on the WebKit engine that the site is optimized for, it did used to work somehow until Google pulled the plug, citing incompatibility reasons.

Now, one week and lots of outrage later, the Google Maps website is once again accessible through Internet Explorer on Windows Phone. Admittedly, it won’t run as flawlessly as it does on iOS or Android devices because it’s still optimized for WebKit but at least you can use it now.

No reason has been given this time as to why this functionality was suddenly restored.

Has the countdown to Xbox 720 just begun?

2013-01-05T04:31:00.002-08:00

Xbox Live’s head Larry Hyrb otherwise known as Major Nelson, posted a countdown on its blog to E3 2013. It counts the days until June 11 this year when the expo kicks off and the text says: And it’s on…

Since the Xbox 360 is nearing the end of its cycle it just make sense we see the next generation announced this year.

Nintendo already announced and launched its next-gen console – the Wii U. Sony has also spilled the beans on PlayStation 4, although we can only expect it to launch next year.

Unlike previous years, Microsoft seems to push the PR for E3 quite early and I bet we’ll be seeing even more within the next few months. There is one more thing – unlike most past shows, this upcoming one isn’t expected to bring some hot sequels or smashing new IPs to Xbox 360. Halo 4 is out, Gears of War and Mass Effect Trilogies are over, and there are just few announced games that seems to deserve the gamers’ attention. Oh, and none of them is an Xbox 360 exclusive. A new Xbox should definitely be on the cards then.

The rumors from last year also suggested the next Xbox will arrive in time for the holiday season in 2013, which adds more credibility to the current one.

I just have one wish – Microsoft, please don’t name this one Xbox 720, because I don’t want to wait another 8 years just to see how you’ll call the one to follow.

Via|Source

First picture of galaxy S4 is appeared

2013-01-05T04:24:00.005-08:00

The first picture of the Samsung Galaxy S IV has appeared.

This phone is probably the most anticipated piece of phone tech at the moment. Its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S III, was the most successful smartphone of 2012.

The photo was released by Sammobile. The design looks very similar to that of the Galaxy S III, however the screen is bigger. On the other hand the edge is narrower than that of the S III, making the phone barely a bit bigger overall.

On top of that, Samsung has stated on Facebook that the Galaxy S IV will not hit the stores before May. The reason for this release date is not clear. The Galaxy S III has been available since May 29, 2012.

There are also rumoured specs:

-Exynos 5450 Quad-Core CPU 2.0GHz
-Mali-T658 GPU
-2 GB RAM
-4.99" SuperAMOLED FULL HD (1080x1920) display
-13 MP Rear Facing Camera
-2 MP Front Facing Camera
-Android 4.2.1 (May be updated as newer releases become available)

Keep in mind these specs are rumoured.

Samsung announces Series 7 touchscreen monitor for Windows 8

2013-01-01T23:13:00.000-08:00

Samsung has announced the Series 7 SC770 touch monitor, the first of its kind by Samsung. The monitor has been designed with Windows 8 in mind and has a multi-touch display that supports up to 10 touch points at a time.

The monitor also has a adjustable stand that allows you to tilt the display up to 60 degrees, making it easier to use the touchscreen. The 24-inch panel has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 with a viewing angle of 178 degrees.

Other than that Samsung also announced a non-touch monitor – the Series 7 SC750 – which has a 27-inch, FullHD panel. This one does not tilt back like the SC770 but lets you rotate it sideways 90 degrees to be used in portrait mode for viewing documents and such.

Both models are expected to go on sale in the first quarter of 2013 but no prices have been provided so far.