Here’s what we are watching:

• Spotify is now in Australia – and Chris Southcott has the pricing plans for you. Soon, we’re going to put up a comparison of all three major services in Australia.
• Facebook is nearly 11 percent down on second day of trade. One investor has even said that Zuckerberg’s attitude to the stock market is why the company is doing so badly, even going as far as linking his honeymoon as a sign of not caring about Wall Street.
• The EU has said that Google is in potential breach of antitrust regulation, with four potential concerns. It is negotiating with Google to sort these out, or else Google can face a hefty fine if it is indeed found guilty of abusing its market dominance.
• A judge in the Grooveshark lawsuit has ordered a blog – Digital Music News – to produce information about an anonymous commenter because it made claims about what Grooveshark employees had done (it’s apparently all hearsay). But it isn’t the record labels, it’s Grooveshark themselves wanting those records. Despite being overwritten, Grooveshark wants ALL of the data so they could see if its still recoverable.
• Hulu is adding ten new shows – three originals and seven from UK broadcasters – to its lineup. The new shows include its movie “revue” program with Kevin Smith, a travel series by Richard Linklater and starring Speed Levitch; and a new male comedy called “We Got Next”.
• Speaking about content, Google has revealed that it has invested in Machinima – one of the most popular channels on YouTube.
• And finally, we leave you with a Minecraft mod that lets you create an 8-bit computer. You can find the 23-minute tutorial on YouTube.

“We’re unbelievably excited to be here,” co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek says in the companies press release, “Australians are massive music fans and we’ve created a service that we know they’ll love.”

Now you’re probably wondering what the big deal is with Spotify. Well, there are a few major changes, the biggest being that Spotify has a truly free version. That’s not a free-trial. That’s a free-forever ad-supported version. There are major restrictions, such as the inability to use a mobile device, but the focus still remains on giving an alternative to piracy. And no other streaming service does that for free in Australia at the moment.

Spotify’s New York-based chief marketing solutions officer Jeff Levick reinforces Spotify’s focus, for now at least, with The Australian, saying “The real competition is piracy and our belief from the get-go is the only way to be successful in this market is that you have to have a better model than piracy.” And they’re doing this with the following.

For Spotify Free, you get unlimited free music listening on your computer. You can also sync your own offline library through Spotify with your iPod and some other “mobiles”. But there is no mobile streaming and there are plenty of ads, obviously, to support the service. But it’s still a great free account. Unlimited free streaming sounds very good to me compared to everything else. Infact, it basically replaces lots of the online-only services, or services with crappy mobile apps, like Songl.

Now the paid plans start. Firstly, is Spotify Unlimited. Basically, you get all of the above, but ad-free, for $6.99 a month. You can only access your Spotify streaming music, again, through your PC or Mac but if ads annoy you, I guess this is an alright plan, if not a little too expensive for what you gain compared to free.

The second, and final paid plan is Spotify Premium. And, as before, you get unlimited streaming, but now you can stream, just like every other streaming service on your smartphones. You also get to listen to Spotify music offline. Also on offer is “enhanced sound quality,” but whether that means 320kbps or lower isn’t said. All of this is $11.99 a month, which is less than one iTunes album price a month, but not too competitive with other streaming services. Some mobile apps are not fully available in Australia yet, so we’ll have to wait while they update each mobile App Store to have the app. Cmon Windows Phone!

Overall, if you’re looking for a new competitor to Rdio, JB Hi-Fi Now, Songl, Zune Pass and any other streaming services that I’m forgetting, Spotify looks like a nice alternative. It’s still expensive if you want  to actually use it outside of the house, but for $11.99 a month, it’s a steal if your pirating ways make you feel guilty or if buying music elsewhere is too expensive.

On its second day of trading, Facebook’s stock has closed to finish at $34.03, nearly 11 percent down from where it closed and wiped some $19 billion of its market value. Today was its biggest test after its lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley, decided to stop artificially inflating the price – something it is alleged it has done on Friday to make sure it did not fall below $38.

Things managed to pick up in the mid afternoon session of trade, before near close it slightly fell again.

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And now there’s increased speculation on why people are fleeing from the company after the hype.

Some are saying that the fall is due to its $100 billion valuation at launch, with many investors saw a disconnect between its valuation and its revenue and earnings – which showed some slowing down. Basically, Wall Street doesn’t want to pay $38 for what they have keep constantly calling – especially on the financial networks – Facebook ‘a great company’ with 900 million users.

“Look at the valuation on it. It might have said ‘buy’ to a few people, but boy it was awfully rich,” one broker told CNBC.

Others are pointing out the NASDAQ glitches, saying that those ‘spooked’ investors when they tried to modify their orders, resulting them to sell. There were also reports of increased insider selling, and the fact that GM pulled its advertising on Facebook – which Ford mocked. One has even said that it’s Zuckerberg that is pushing the stock price down, and has said that it could be trading $18 to $20 by the end of the year.

“There is an enormous overhang of shareholders wanting to get out, who have low cost basis or purchased in the past 18 months hoping for a more positive IPO,” IPO Desktop’s President Francis Gaskins told CNBC. ““Zuckerberg’s continued lack of credibility with Wall Street means investors won’t necessarily buy into company’s estimates.”

“Going on a honeymoon right after a disastrous IPO kind of confirms that he’s not fully committed to further enhancing shareholder value, seems to me.”

Yes, Gaskins, because Zuckerberg has to please Wall Street guys rather than his newly wedded wife. Because that makes total sense. (That was sarcasm, by the way. It’s hard to translate that into text)

Image: Dimitar Nikolov/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Back in November 2010, the European Commission launched an antitrust investigation into Google after two websites complained. Now, the results are in – and Google could face a suit on its hands, after it found four areas where it may be considered an abuse of its market dominance.

The four areas include:

• Linking of its own ‘vertical’ search services – or search engines that focus on specific topics (like restaurants, news or products). It notes that, “Google displays links to its own vertical search services differently than it does for links to competitors. We are concerned that this may result in preferential treatment compared to those of competing services, which may be hurt as a consequence.”
• How Google copies content from vertical search engines and put it in its own offerings “without their prior authorisation”. It says that by doing this, it is essentially “appropriating” the benefits of others and the Commission is worried that it could reduce incentives to invest of original content from others for the benefit of all internet users.
• Advertising is their third concern – most importantly, the “exclusivity” of the agreement which says that they have to obtain most or all of its advertising from Google. They fear that this will shut out other providers.
• Their fourth concern is the portability of advertising campaigns on its AdWords platform. Basically, they want Google to allow campaigns from AdWords to be easily transferable to other platforms so they could use another platform, but run the same campaign.

The European Commission, however, have said that they are willing to negotiate a “remedies package” – which means Google has to provide ways in easing the concerns of the Commission on the four areas. They have not started any case yet, and Google could stave off a massive fine if they negotiate and are able to find some agreement to the four areas of concerns.

“If Google comes up with an outline of remedies which are capable of addressing our concerns, I will instruct my staff to initiate the discussions in order to finalise a remedies package,” Joaquin Almunia, the Vice President responsible for Competition Policy, said in a statement.

“This would allow to solve our concerns by means of a commitment decision… instead of having to pursue formal proceedings with a Statement of objections and to adopt a decision imposing fines and remedies.”

And if not, then we could see massive fines – like Microsoft and Intel – and be forced to change their policies to comply (only for Europe, however). For Microsoft, the European Commission has basically forced them to allow more competitors – like not allowing Internet Explorer being bundled with Windows 7 (and giving you the option to choose and download another browser).

An article of the New York Times has revealed how the board of Yahoo came to a decision over its former-CEO Scott Thompson, who lied about having a computer science degree – which then started a proxy fight.

The board gave Thompson a chance to explain himself, and implicitly suggested he “should publicly admit it, apologize and offer to resign” – that way, the Board might have stood behind him.

Thompson, however, “said nothing more to clear up the matter” other than “fumed at [Daniel Loeb, the investor who revealed that Thompson lied about his degrees]“.

The revelations shook Yahoo, with board members getting calls from some employees and managers – all of them saying that lying about having a computer science degree is not a minor discrepancy in Silicon Valley. One employee said:

“It was a very emotional situation for employees,” one person involved said. “They were saying, ‘How can I work for a company that has a C.E.O. who claims to be a computer scientist when he’s not? I can’t work here if that’s true.’ “

Thompson appeared to salvage the situation by garnering up support within board members and executives, but also not offering more information about why he lied. According to the article:

Mr. Thompson began seeking pledges of support from some board members and executives without offering any further information, which bothered some board members. When a top manager, one of the people directly reporting to Mr. Thompson, said he couldn’t provide such support, Mr. Thompson told him not to reveal their conversation (the employee did tell co-workers, some of whom reported it to the board.) “Scott was trying to rustle up support, and when he didn’t get it, he tried to silence people,” a board member said. “This went straight to the trust issue.”

The final straw, according to the article, was when Thompson blamed the entire fiasco on the recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles – who promptly issues a statement saying that it was not true. A Yahoo board member told the NYT, “We never got this confirmed but I presumed he had given them a statement or resume that contained the false degree.”

It was at that time, the board met and all decided that Thompson had to go. However, three hours in, Thompson called his closest friend Brad Smith, CEO of Intuit and a board member on Yahoo, and told him that he was going to “part ways” with the company after he said that he has tyroid cancer. The board, while inclining to terminate him ‘for cause’ – meaning no severance and no stock options – they also didn’t want to be too harsh after revealing his medical condition.

You can read the entire article from The New York Times here.

Here’s what we are watching:

• Just days after Facebook had it’s IPO, Microsoft has quietly released their weird social network, So.cl, which was seen previously last year. A number of TECHGEEK editors are on there right now from the beta, but I don’t believe any of us use it. So.cl is, according to Microsoft, an ”experiment in open search” and you can login right now to the new service with your Facebook or Windows Live accounts.
• Samsung’s answer to Siri, S Voice, which was expected to release on the Samsung Galaxy S III, has been leaked, and works with, for plenty of other Android phones. And just in case you thought Samsung had learnt from their battles with Apple, then you should really see some of the screenshots which look almost identical to Apple’s iPhone 4S virtual assistant, Siri. If you’d like to see Samsung’s photocopy of Siri in action, you can check out the APK here.
• Meanwhile, last night was a bit of a slow news day, so may I recommend you check out The Verge’s Paul Miller’s latest foray into the offline world. It’s an interesting experiment, and it’s great to see his updates.

Facebook is now a public company; the Lumia 900 is coming to Australia; Apple to buy a TV company (though they say they’re not); and what Apple rumour has pretty much made Stewart angry? All this and more on TECHGEEK Weekly.

Terence, Stewart and Chris are your hosts for this week as we take a look at this week’s biggest tech news, rumours and the other weird stuff on the web.

Don’t forget to listen and subscribe!

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Show Notes

Stories

Facebook stalls on IPO – $42.05 at open, closes just above $38

Facebook is Going Public (and other stuff that you should know)

GAME Australia goes into administration – will it find a buyer like GAME UK?

GAME: Diablo III pre-orders uncertain, gift cards honoured (with a catch)

Nokia Lumia 900 and 610 coming to Australia, available on Optus and Vodafone

Report: Google to sell ‘portfolio of Nexus’ devices with multiple partners

Researchers Tackle Android Fragmentation, Find 4,000 Devices

Here’s what Android fragmentation really looks like

RUMOUR MILL: Apple looking to buy German TV maker Loewe, potentially for Apple HDTV?

German TV maker Loewe denies Apple acquisition rumour, says report has “absolutely nothing to it”

Apple readies revamped 15-inch MacBook Pro: Retina Display, ultra-thin design, and super-fast USB 3

Apple Said to Plan Thinner Mac Laptops With Intel Chips

WSJ: production of 4-inch iPhone beginning in June

iPhone 5 A5X chip tipped in testing plus new iPod touch

Kiss Aero goodbye: Latest Windows 8 build reveals minimalistic desktop UI

Intel Windows 8 tablets to hit retail stores in November

Windows 8 Pro PC Upgrade Cost is Just $15

Microsoft: No Windows Phone ‘Mango,’ No Marketplace

Twitter rolls out weekly e-mail digest of tweets, stories

Twitter Improves Privacy Options, Now Supports ‘Do Not Track’

Man surgically attaches iPod to wrist

Tom’s Stockings

Yahoo’s CEO is out after faking his computer science degree in his resume. While only being on the job since January of this year, he’s managed to make himself stand out – such as suing Facebook.

Diaspora, the social network that was created after Facebook’s privacy problems, is likely to launch this summer. The open source network, which lets users own their data, will add more features like letting users customise how they post photos, texts and videos. Though, being a Facebook competitor? Ask Google+ and see how they are doing.

HBO’s Game of Thrones is looking likely to be the most pirated show of 2012, according to tracking and analysis firm Big Champagne. The show, now in its second season, is getting more than 25 million downloads a month. Why? Probably because many people don’t have HBO.

Mozilla has released Firefox for Android Beta. It’s new update sees improved performance, a new design to tie in with the Android interface and native support for Flash. The beta is available in the Android Marketplace now, so go check it out.

After opening the trading bell at its headquarters at California, and a 30-minute delay pushing its expected 11:00am launch; Social networking website Facebook has officially become a publicly-traded company at 11:30am New York Time (or 1:30am Melbourne Time) at US$42.05 per share.

The delay was said to be because of an unexpected surge of retail investors – basically people, not corporations, who buy shares – trying to get their own stake in the company after initial indicators put the price at $42 or $43. In addition, reports were circulating that many were having trouble changing or even cancelling their orders ahead of the official start of the trade. According to CNBC, some 82 million shares changed hands within the first 30 seconds of trade.

Shares briefly gained at 11 percent to be at the $42 or $43 pricepoint, before quickly retreating to near the $40 mark – surprising many people. Within 20 minutes after trade, it dipped below $38 before recovering in the lunchtime hour. However, more people retreated before the close of the stock exchange – pushing the stock price down to $38.23.

That, however, is still up – ever so slightly – to the $38 asking price. Reports are also circulating that its underwriters made sure the price did not fall below $38 – which would be a very embarrassing start for Facebook.

Investors, according to CNBC and Bloomberg, are pretty much annoyed that it didn’t ‘pop’ like many other tech companies. However, it doesn’t indicate much if it didn’t ‘pop’ on the first debut – that was Wall Street trying to hype it as much as it can to get the price up so they could sell it on profit. Retail investors, however, appear to be looking to hold the shares for far longer.

Meanwhile, in the other tech stocks, it was basically seas of red. Zynga – hugely beneficial to Facebook – fell at least 13 percent during the day and was put on a trading halt. LinkedIn fell 5.65 percent to close in two digits, while Google also saw losses to close at 600.40 – 3.64% lower than yesterday’s trade. Many speculate that people were taking money from their investments and putting it on Facebook.

The financial markets were also down, due to fears of the US economy and the worsening European debt crisis that continues to plague the Eurozone.

Image: Tom Solari/TECHGEEK.com.au

Hours before Facebook finally kickstart this entire IPO process in New York, many of you are wondering what the hell is the big fuss? Unless you happen to be into technology, or just happen to work in either the financials or technology industry, you would have simply just heard it was going to go and offer its shares to the market.

Well, here’s a bit of a summary on why, and how will it change Facebook.

Money, Money, Money

Facebook’s main motivation is simply to get more money – and looking at the recent news on it, it could raise a lot of money with a price of $38 per share. While it currently relies on advertising for money, selling shares also gives some sort of additional revenue stream to spend on new acquisitions – which is pretty handy if it does want to improve its mobile strategy – and to work on new products to offer.

However, it is also give some sort of return to companies who had invested before the IPO. In fact, it is reported that 60 percent of all shares in the IPO will be existing shareholders selling it to the market – and there are some, like Goldman Sachs, selling at least half of its current holding of stock. But venture capital firms and banks are not the only people who own shares, employees within the company own some shares too. And once 11am hits, when Facebook starts selling, many will be instantly rich.

But they too will be able to sell their own shares in the stock market – and that poses a problem. How many employees are going to divest some or all of their shares? If they do it really quickly, then the shares will soon lose their value and that could be damaging to both Facebook and its new shareholders.

Facebook in the past has been really generous with its employees. In a Reuters’ report, Engineers with 15 years experience could buy 65,000 shares for $6 per share in 2009. A stock split in 2010 saw that increase up to 325,000 shares. But that has changed, with the company being “stringer in handing out equity to noncore employees”.

So, if we see the stock fall – don’t be surprised, it’s those who are selling their shares to get money. And with Europe’s crisis worsening, many could be pulling out within weeks.

Mixed Fortunes for Others

Facebook hasn’t been the only startup that has entered the stock exchange – though it is the biggest. Companies such as Yelp, Groupon, Pandora, LinkedIn and Zynga (which contributed to 15 percent of its revenue) are also in the game, but their fortunes are mixed.

LinkedIn, which launched at $45 per share, is currently trading at $100+ mark, though it has steadily lost its hype. Pandora, Groupon and Zynga, however, went up and fizzled back down. Groupon, which launched at $20 per share, is nearly half of that. Zynga ($10 at launch) is trading in single digits and Pandora ($14) is just above the $10 mark.

Facebook basically needs to maintain its hype – which it can do with such ease. It has over 900 million people on the site and has pretty much taken the throne as the king of social networking. But, it now can’t rely on the hype on the people, it has have hype within Wall Street.

By the Numbers

We could do it all in text format, but we’ve decided to source an infographic from KISSmetrics.

A Bit More Transparent

Going public means that Facebook needs to be more transparent in its earnings, meaning that they have to – like many other companies – report quarterly on how much they make, how much they spend and other stuff about the company. It basically has to do what Google, Microsoft, Apple and other companies have to do now.

But why haven’t they done this before? Financial laws in the United States allows a company to not disclose its earnings to the public if it has less than 500 shareholders. This has pretty much allowed Twitter and many other startups to basically not show how they are making money – though, the tech media is pretty good in getting a bit of information about their cash raising with venture capital firms.

However, there are loopholes within that – and were used by Facebook to make sure it didn’t have to go public (until now). This was evident in Goldman Sachs’ investment into Facebook back in 2011, where the bank created a “special purpose vehicle” to allow its clients to buy shares of Facebook without breaking the 500 shareholders rule.

Will it affect me?

For most, it will most likely mean that you could see more advertising, especially on mobile platforms. Currently, Facebook’s advertising model is on display advertising on the web – that sidebar on the Facebook News Feed. Mobile Advertising is different – mainly because of the screen size of mobile devices.

Theoretically, if Facebook has some sort of decision that a vast majority of users do not like – let’s say that they decided to start forcing all users to pay a monthly subscription fee, laced with advertising, and that you couldn’t do even the most basic features without being a subscriber. Well, Mark Zuckerberg could basically suggest the idea and it will get through since he holds more than 50% of voting power within the company.

But as well, he could also veto that idea if it was suggested by anyone else.

Motorola’s DEFY Mini phone is heading to Australia via Optus. And like I said when it was announced back at CES, it’ll most likely (and is going to be offered as) a pre-paid phone when it comes to Australia. And like the DEFY – it’s dust-proof, water-resistant, scratch-resistant and the screen is protected by Gorilla Glass, making the screen crack-proof.

The phone features a 3.2-inch display, a 3-megapixel rear camera and a VGA front-facing camera, GPS navigation and will have expandable memory via an SD card slot. The phone will also feature “MotoSwitch”, which apparently learns the songs you love, who you talk to the most and which apps you most use, and collate all of it on the home screen.

Because it is a pre-paid phone, it won’t run Ice Cream Sandwich – instead, it will run Gingerbread (2.3.6).

It will be on Optus’ network, and is on sale now from Dick Smith and Optus for $199 on prepaid and includes $30 of credit. Other retail outlets, such as K-Mart and Target, will sell the phone from next Monday (May 21).

Gallery and press release below.

Motorola Mobility Brings Style and Strength to Australia with the Motorola DEFY™ MINI

The smartphone that can take whatever your adventurous lifestyle throws at it, for a price you can’t beat.

SYDNEY, Australia –18 May, 2012 – Say hello to the smartphone that defies expectations. Dust-proof, water-resistant, scratch-resistant and featuring a powerful 1650mAh battery, the new, life proof Motorola DEFY™ MINI sets you up for social survival wherever you decide to go, making sure you stay connected for longer.

The phone’s crystal-clear, 3.2-inch Corning® Gorilla® Glass touchscreen display is great for email, texting and browsing the Web. It’s cool, compact design and long battery life means that only you decide when the fun stops.

Snap photos of your various exploits with the Motorola DEFY MINI’s 3-megapixel camera, or take advantage of the front-facing VGA camera to connect with friends while you’re on the train, bus or just relaxing at home. Featuring an intuitive interface with social and activity widgets, the DEFY MINI also allows you to instantly share all the fun you’re having with your friends.

Plus, if you’re on the move, the Motorola DEFY MINI’s GPS navigation will always keep you pointed in the right direction and make sure you get where you’re going.

Motorola DEFY MINI is the first device to launch in Australia with MotoSwitch, a handy user interface which learns the songs you love, who you talk to most and which apps you get the most mileage from. It then cleverly collects all your preferences and keeps them front-and-center, which means you’ll be so organised you’ll have loads of extra time on your hands.

But don’t worry… your boredom won’t last long. Since Motorola DEFY MINI is an Android™- powered smartphone, you’ll have immediate access to thousands of games, apps, music, books and movies available on Google Play ™.

“Motorola DEFY MINI is just the right mix of style, value, performance and toughness.” said Timo Brouwer, Managing Director, Motorola Mobility, ANZPI. “It can stand up to whatever your busy life throws at it, keep you connected and organised and capture and share your once-in-a-lifetime adventures – all with resilience and style.”

Gavin Williams, Head of Segment Marketing, Optus said, “Smartphones are becoming increasingly significant for Australians and our customers are expecting their devices to withstand more and more. As such, we’re excited to offer a great solution in the Motorola DEFY MINI, which wraps the latest tech innovations in a tough and robust package.”

Price and Availabily

Motorola DEFY MINI is available on Optus pre-paid $199 RRP which includes $30 of credit and a sim.

DEFY MINI will be available today from Dick Smith and from Optus retailers,as well as mass market chains like Kmart and Target from Monday 21st May.

Here’s what we are watching:

• Facebook releases a press release that announces it will price its shares at $38. It sell 180 million shares of Class A, plus an additional 241,233,615 shares from other shareholders.
• CNBC is reporting that 60 percent of all shares being sold are coming from the company’s investors and ‘insiders’. Bloomberg is also reporting that Goldman Sachs is set to reap $1.09 billion from selling almost half their shares from Facebook to the stock market.
• It is set to raise $16 billion via the IPO, according to Bloomberg, making it the largest IPO by a tech company in history. However, there are some concerns over the trends of ad revenue, especially since it admitted that many are logging on mobile – and mobile has pretty much no ads on it.
• Want to know how Facebook will celebrate its IPO? A Hackathon at its headquarters, starting at 7pm. Very geeky.
• ZDNet has the numbers on Facebook’s IPO – such as 15 percent of its revenue coming from Zynga, 28 companies acquired by Facebook and one trillion monthly page views.

Nokia’s Lumia 900 and Lumia 610 heading to Australia, as confirmed by Nokia. Both phones come just months after their sister phones, the Lumia 800 and 710, were launched in Australia – and surprisingly, Nokia Australia took a few months to get the Lumia 900 and Lumia 610 out the door to Australians. Both phones were only announced back in February.

The Lumia 900 is heading to Optus, and will be $0 upfront on its $60 Optus plan. This is a stark difference to the Lumia 800, which is currently available on all carriers. The phone, however, can still be purchased without a contract for $699 (still far cheaper than the iPhone 4S).

The Lumia 900, which has a large 4.3-inch display and a 1.4GHz processor, is not the LTE version that is on AT&T’s network, but rather the high-speed 3G version announced back in February. The phone also features an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash and Carl Zeiss optics, and a 1-megapixel front-facing camera.

The Lumia 610, labelled as the “most affordable” Windows Phone will be available via retail channels in July for a price tag of $329. It will be also available via carriers Boost Mobile in June, and Vodafone in July. No pricing details have been announced by Nokia, or the two carriers. The phone will have 8GB of storage, 5-megapixel camera, a 3.7-inch display and runs on a cheaper processor.

And I’ve said before:

But with that price tag, it’ll make a good pre-paid phone, or a phone if you simply want to try Windows Phone without signing a contract and if you have money to throw around (and if you don’t like it, you can simply return it within 14 days – win-win!)

Available for pre-order today comes the Halo 4 Limited Edition, packed with additional content to maximise your multiplayer experience, the Limited Edition will surely drop the jaws of many Halo fans.

Denouncing a Legendary Edition for the game, 343 explained that their main focus was on one special edition, rather than multiple editions. The reason for that is to give gamers an easier choice when buying the game. Do players want the stand-alone game, or the game plus a large handful of goodies?

Encased in a UNSC themed box, the Limited Edition comes with a whole lot of additions mainly for Infinity, the name of Halo 4′s Multiplayer experience. These Include:

War Games DLC Map Pack Access

Presumably a season pass to Halo 4 DLC Maps, this pass will give players access to 9 multiplayer maps (3 future multiplayer map packs), showing off new locations in the Halo universe.

Specializations

Unlocking new customisable options for your in-game Spartan, everyone will be able to access specializaions, but for those purchasing the Limited Edition, 6 specializations will be given to you early, giving you a head start for War Games. More information about specializations will be announced at E3, but it looks to me as if they act as ‘perks’ for your loadout, giving your spartan more ammo clips, or an extra grenade, changing up the gameplay.

UNSC Infinity Briefing Packet

Much like Halsey’s Diary in the Halo Reach Limited Edition, Halo 4 Limited edition will also include a packet/book of information based on the Halo universe, including Spartan armor customization schematics, information about UNSC weapons, an introduction to the UNSC Infinity, and an insight into the Spartan-IV program. Fans of the Halo story will especially enjoy this packet of informaion that provides ‘a glimpse into the indoctrination of Spartans aboard the Infinity’.

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn Special Edition

Recently announced Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn live action series, will be included in this edition of Halo 4 with additional scenes and special features. This live action series will take fans back to the Human/Covenant war, where Master Chief inspires a young cadet, who eventually becomes the leader aboard the largest UNSC vessel, Infinity

Bonus digital content through Xbox LIVE

The Limited Edition also includes:

• A unique in-game Spartan-IV armor skin
• A unique in-game weapon skin for the Assault Rifle, yes! weapons skins/ customisation is confirmed, I’m assuming it will follow similarly to Gears of War 3′s weapon skins.
• An exclusive in-game Emblem
• Xbox LIVE Avatar Prop
• Xbox LIVE Avatar Spartan IV armor set.

The Standard and Limited editions are available for pre-order today, Halo 4 will be released worldwide on November 6th. Are you guys excited?

The upcoming game Crysis 3 isn’t coming out til 2013, but EA has released some concept art and some screenshots from the game. If you haven’t already heard, the game sees Prophet returning to New York, only to find it encased in a ‘Nanodome’ by the Cell Corporation. The screenshots and art can be found below, after the jump.

Here’s what we are watching:

• The Wall Street Journal has said that sources have claimed the next generation iPhone will feature larger screen. Apple is reportedly ordering 4 inch screens for the ‘iPhone 5′. This isn’t too much of a difference in size compared to the likes of Galaxy Nexus, but is still an increase over the currently standard 3.5 inch screen.
• The Pirate Bay was offline around 24 hours yesterday as a result of a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack. The website, which most poeple visit to download material of questionable legality, have their suspicions as to who was behind the attack. This comes just a week after The Pirate Bay critised the actions of Anonymous against Virgin Media.
• Telstra, in response to Delimiter’s request for images of their network in pristine condition, have declined to share any photos. This follows an image gallery published by Delimiter in May outlining the ‘worst of the worst’ of our copper network in Aus. Instead of sending any images, Telstra sent a rather generic outline of their network.
• Finally, LG have released an update to their custom Android UI, Optimus UI, bringing it to version 3.0. This is seen as a catch up move in order to realign themselves with other custom Android UIs like HTC Sense. This update, which is only be available to Ice Cream Sandwich phones, brings some rather useless features. As you can tell, I’m not a fan of these custom UIs.

Looks very cinematic, doesn’t it? Microsoft has unveiled the multiplayer hub for Halo 4, called Halo Infinity Multiplayer. The entire hub is based around the UNSC Infinity, and you’ll be able to create your own custom super-soldier, and progress your carrier throughout its own story.

343 Industries is taking a new approach with its Spartan Ops storyline. Released in a series of weekly installments via Xbox LIVE, it will intersect the main storyline on Halo 4 and center around the leaders of UNSC Infinity and a new team of Spartans known as “Majestic Squad”. These missions can be played with up to three friends, or by yourself, and will be available for free for all Halo 4 users.

Another new feature is ‘War Games’, which is the “competitive multiplayer modes” for Halo 4. Though Microsoft has not revealed any more details on it, we can only assume that it will still be the Red vs Blue style of combats.

Microsoft is also touting that it has a “vastly expanded suite of new multiplayer modes, weapons, vehicles, armor abilities, a new loadout and player progression system”, and you will be able to modify your armor for the first time.

Halo 4 is set to come out internationally on November 6. You can see the gallery below.

LG smartphones are about to get a brand new user interface, with the Korean phone manufacturer pushing a new update on its custom UI – the aptly titled LG Optimus UI. Now hitting version 3.0, it brings several features that essentially play catch-up with its rivals own custom interfaces – HTC’s Sense and Samsung’s TouchWiz.

“With smartphone hardware becoming more and more similar, it’s important for manufacturers to differentiate their products from the competition through the user interface,” Dr. Jong-seok Park, the CEO and President of LG’s mobile division, said.

The new update, only available for its Ice Cream Sandwich phones, will include a new “powerful memo function” called Quick Memo, where users can jot notes on the screen with a finger and share them with friends via social network, text messages or email. It will also introduce ‘Voice Shutter’, which lets you control the camera with voice commands.

It also introduces things that you may have seen on Samsung and HTC phones with a new pattern lock and unlocking sequence, quick access to the camera, a feature that will choose the ‘best shot’ among multiple images, and a new ‘Download’ category.

It will be on the new LG Optimus LTE II phones – which launch in Korea this week, then on the LG Optimus 4X HD in June.

The Samsung GALAXY Nexus (Image: Samsung/supplied)

RUMOUR MILL: By Thanksgiving, we could see five new ‘Nexus’ smartphones and tablets – the title given to Android’s flagship phone for a particular version – being sold directly to consumers through Google, as opposed to the traditional carriers. Well, that’s if a report by the Wall Street Journal is true.

The paper notes that:

Google will work with as many as five manufacturers at a time to create a portfolio of “Nexus” lead devices that include smartphones and tablets, and it plans to sell the gadgets directly to consumers in the U.S., Europe and Asia through its website, and also potentially through some retailers, one of these people said. The smartphones are expected to be sold unlocked, meaning they come without a wireless contract and can run on multiple wireless networks by inserting a SIM card.

The phone will also run on the upcoming (and much rumoured title) Jelly Bean, which is expected out in the third quarter of this year.

However, the Wall Street Journal also notes that it plans to give many other hardware manufacturers to produce ‘Nexus’ devices, as opposed to one – suggesting that manufacturers aren’t that happy with Google buying Motorola, even fearing that Google “will try to boost the struggling Motorola business at their expense”. Previously, Google partnered with one manufacturer to create a ‘Nexus’ device – currently with Samsung, but previously with HTC.

Google’s plan to sell direct to consumers is also being said to “help supercharge the sale of Android-powered tablets”. Those tablets have been unable to find much of a market due to the dominance of the iPad, and the Kindle Fire’s attractive price tag (the irony is that the Kindle Fire is running Android, but heavily customised).

The plan also suggests that it wants to “exert more control” on the platform and “reduc[e] the influence of wireless carriers” over its phones. The plan does allow Google to have more control, since it will be selling and distributing the phones in addition to marketing the overall Android name – something that has always been left with the carriers.

Is it a good idea, however? It is. But it will depend on the markets, because if Australia or the United Kingdom aren’t allowed to purchase phones via Google, then it goes to show that the carriers have some power in that country.

Here’s what we are watching:

• Mozilla has released Firefox for Android Beta. It’s new update sees improved performance, a new design to tie in with the Android interface and native support for Flash. The beta is available in the Android Marketplace now, so go check it out.
• Research from the Harvard Business Review has found that university students no longer have to search for book reviews by professionals as Amazon reviewers are “every bit as good as professional book critics.”
• Once camera giant Kodak, had a secret nuclear reactor hidden in a US research facility for over 30 years. The nuclear reactor had weapons-grade uranium used but posed no risk to employees. The nuclear reactor was decommissioned in 2006 as Kodak wanted to pursue other methods of research.
• A tattoo artist in New Jersey has surgically attached his iPod Nano to his arm. Using four magnetic studs on his arm, his iPod Nano magnetically slots into place on his arm allowing it to be used as a watch. The tattoo artist has posted a How-To video on YouTube just in case you want to do it.
• Finally, Apple has had to repair a pretty serious Siri bug which would respond with Nokia Lumia when asked “What is the best smartphone?”. It simply gathered the results from WolframAlpha which ranks the Lumia 900 phone as the ‘best’ phone based on customer reviews around the web.

With all the Halo 4 related Game Informer news which have been coming up over the past few weeks we figured we’d sum it all up for you in a nice compact package.

Note: Most of the information being discussed are subject to change.

Campaign

So what’s the deal with Chief? If you haven’t finished Halo 3 on legendary then this may come as a little bit of shock to you. But the Master Chief in all his glory is stuck inside the Forward Unto Dawn when out of nowhere a Forerunner facility looms ominously followed by really dramatic music that makes you immediately think… SEQUEL. And so here we are with Halo 4 coming out 343 Industries have begun to flesh out more of the campaign sequences and the role the Chief will play in all of this.

343 are trying to humanise John-117 and make the story more personal whilst still maintaining the feeling of being a one-man army. The chief however has a few cosmetic changes as well, the noticeably missing cod piece and the change in the overall look of the armour have been pretty perplexing ever since we all got a good look at it last E3. However 343 has explained that this change in armour is as a result of Cortana’s tampering and upgrading of the Chief’s armour whilst he was in cryo. However that in it of itself is a bit confusing. Where did she get the parts? The ship? Maybe … I guess and how did she do that without waking him up from his Snow white-esque beauty sleep? I reckon its just kind of an excuse to make some more armour.

343 Industries also have stated that the events of Halo 4 are taking place 5 years since the destruction of the Ark and replacement Installation 04 facility. That length of time is also a big problemo. Not sure if you guys know this but Cortana isn’t getting any younger and even though she’s got a few more polygons in a graphical sense her 7 year Artificial Intelligence (AI) life-span is coming to a close. Halo canon associates this with Cortana being a “smart AI” basically the most elite type of AI humans have created, but because of this they wield so much knowledge that after around 7 years they need to be decommissioned before they become too rampant and convinced of their god-like power. 343 have stated that this will have a major effect on the way the story progresses over the trilogy.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!

Okay so you have some back story now let’s delve straight into the supremely awesome first campaign mission details. According to Game Informer the first mission revolves around the Chief waking up only to discover the Forward Unto Dawn collapsing around him. But then out of nowhere an elite comes swinging with an energy sword trying to kill the Chief… needless to say the Elite’s life expectancy dropped substantially. But wait did you just hear that (I mean read that)? Why is an Elite attacking the Chief? What happened to the truce and all that brotherly-feeling of camaraderie with the Arbiter?  Well it turns out that the elites and the subsequent grunts were part of a radical faction of Elites after the fall of the covenant. This ties in very closely with the novel Halo: Glasslands. This book is jam-packed with Halo 4 hints and background info, and provides some reasoning for the early attack in the game.

BOOKS SPOILERS!!!

In Halo: Glasslands, ONI (The Office of Naval Intelligence) is doing some pretty shifty things. Following the fall of the covenant the Elites struggle to find a unified government. Whilst the Arbiter appears to be the obvious successor -something exemplified by the end of Halo 3 and Admiral Hood’s support of the Arbiter during Halo: Glasslands-  ONI has other plans. During this time other Elites feel that the Arbiter should not take over leadership of the Elites. These Elites are apart of a fundamentalist Elite faction who believe in the worshiping of Forerunner relics prior to their interaction with the Prophets and before the formation of the Covenant. ONI was working with this faction and providing them with weapons but following the climatic cliff-hanger ending of the book, it appears the radical Elites may have double crossed ONI. Considering these events occur around 4 years before Halo 4, these new radical elites may have broken off from their brethren since the events of Halo: Glasslands. 

The final bit of news that we know is that after fighting through these radical elites. The Forward Unto Dawn lands on a Forerunner shield world called “Requiem” similar to that present in the events of Halo Wars. The Forward Unto Dawn breaks apart, and the Chief is on land once more where he encounters a new threat unlike anything seen before (see Adrian Cajili’s article on possible new enemies).

Multiplayer

‘UNSC Infinity’

So multiplayer huh, or should I say “Infinity” thats right infinity. Why is it called Infinity you ask? Well its fairly simple the UNSC Infinity is the largest ship ever created in human history, which comes in built with its own virtual reality simulator i.e. the multiplayer environment. 343 Industries have dubbed the multiplayer Infinity in an attempt to link multiplayer to the campaign.They have also announced that the UNSC Infinity will make an appearance in the campaign. 343 wanted to bridge the gap between multiplayer and campaign that has been lacking in all previous Halo games. The spartans you play as in multiplayer are Spartan IVs, who vary from Spartan-IIs and Spartan-IIIs in that all people who enrol to become Spartan-IVs are consenting adults of 18 and above.

Spartan Ops

The major tie from the campaign to multiplayer is Spartan Ops.These are different missions unlocked by Spartan Points earned whilst playing multiplayer and is being used by 343 Industries to get people who simply play campaign to jump into multiplayer to unlock this new content. This is mainly due to the fact that most people who actually play Halo, play campaign more than multiplayer despite multiplayer being very popular in itself.

There are also a few things you need to know about this, Spartan Ops replaces Firefight, that’s right Firefight is completely gone. These missions are also NOT DLC they come included in the game price and so you won’t have to spend excessive amounts of microsoft points to play through these missions. In total 343 believes that after all the Spartan Ops missions have been unlocked and completed it will become the equivalent length of the campaign itself. No plans for any future Spartan Ops missions have been announced so we’ll just have to see if they have more campaign goodies.

Spartan Points

I briefly mentioned Spartan Points above, but it basically just replaces the credit system from Halo Reach but gives it a slightly fancier name. Not to be confused with Experience points, which helps rank up your in-game Spartan.

Load Outs

Customisable loadouts. But wait? This is Halo, not COD or Battlefield? But people relax here’s how it works. Yes 343 have announced that starting weapons will be unlocked. Like the DMR or the BR, but I think it will just be for certain general gametypes. I say this because previous screenshots have suggested that old playlists like Team BRs are still present in the game so if you want your classic experience you can play that playlist. Playlists solve all problems in this scenario, if Halo Reach showed us anything it would be how many flexible options of playlists can be made available to you and I’m sure if you wanna play more of a classic style 343 will cater for you.

Armour Abilities

Armour Abilities are making a return but many returning armour abilities have been altered, however we  do not yet know of any of these changes.

Active Camoflague: Is coming back, from Halo Reach.

Jetpack: Is also making its return.

Hologram: Is once again returning, to test how dumb your opponents are.

Promethean Vision: A new armour ability which allows players to see through walls to view opponents. This one is a bit sketchy and 343 have said they will explain this in more detail as time progresses. The name appears to be a reference to the “Didact” a forerunner from the Warrior-Servant class who was prestigious enough to be termed a Promethean. This is depicted in the novels Halo:Cryptum and Halo: Primordium.

Sprint is not an armour ability but will be returning as a default setting.

Weapon Spawn

Weapon spawns are no longer in fixed positions but move to different areas on the map to create new focal points and to prevent weapon spawn camping.

Respawn Delay

Instant respawns have been introduced into certain gametypes, but NOT objective gametypes as this would over saturate the game with players and make claiming objectives very difficult. But again if this particular procedure is not all that fun a playlist with more classic themes can easily fix this issue.

Matchmaking

There are no plans to announce dedicated servers into Halo 4 however players will have the option of joining in-game sessions, basically like joining a quick match. 343 have not yet stated other ways to start games like waiting in lobbies for a full game but they will probably announce some of those details in the months to come.

And that’s a wrap, for any future Halo news make sure to come pay us another visit.

Confirmed by Franchise Development Director, Frank O’Connor, this will be the box art for Halo 4. The image shows Master Chief crouching next to what is left of the UNSC frigate, Forward Unto Dawn, and behind is the entrance to the shield world Requiem.

Also in recent news, images were leaked showing off some of the new toys from the Halo franchise, two of these figures were completely new and could be seen as the new enemies or wildlife in Halo 4. Dubbed the “Crawler” and “Watcher“, these figures give us an insight on the threats that we may encounter on Requiem, as well as the new gameplay that these ‘enemies’ may bring to the game. With the crawler looking to be a vicious canine-like enemy, and the watcher, possibly similar to the covenant Drone and may alert others of your position, these enemies are an interesting addition to Halo 4′s line-up of characters.

Along with these two new enemies, figures of Master Chief, an Elite Zealot, a Grunt Storm, and Spartan Warrior were shown. The toy box art also hints a “Deluxe boxed figure of an enemy unlike anything before!“, hopefully this new enemy will make an appearance at this year’s E3, along with more features of the game. Halo 4 will be released on November 6th by developers 343 Industries, and will be the start of a whole new Halo trilogy.

Image: Tom Solari/TECHGEEK.com.au

Facebook is reported to have changed its IPO price – again – before it is set to go public, rumoured to be on Thursday (Friday our time). Multiple sources, including CNBC and AllThingsD are noting that Facebook’s IPO price will be within $34 and $38. The new price will value Facebook between $92 billion and $103 billion.

As CNBC tweets:

BREAKING NEWS: Facebook revising range to $34-$38; expected to refile with with new range tomorrow - Source (via @KateKellyCNBC)

May 15, 2012 9:43 AM via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@CNBC

CNBC

(More) BREAKING NEWS: New range values Facebook from $92B to $103B - Source (via @KateKellyCNBC)

May 15, 2012 9:44 AM via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@CNBC

CNBC

Currently, Facebook plans to sell its shares between $28 and $35 – which valued Facebook around $80 billion. As well, reports are claiming that Facebook’s IPO is “well oversubscribed” – granted, it is the biggest social networking platform in the world.

Apologies for a slight delay in getting this to you today.

Here’s what we are watching:

• New MacBook Pro rumours have emerged. 9to5Mac is claiming a new thinner design, could lose the optical drive, support for USBO 3 and have a Retina Display. Bloomberg is also claiming thinner MacBooks and they are being said to run on “more powerful chips” from Intel – Ivy Bridge – but that’s expected.
• An anonymous source has told the Wall Street Journal that Scott Thompson had been recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer – and the decision to step down as influenced by the revelations. Thompson is alleged to have said that he wanted this kept private.
• Buffalo has announced its first 802.11ac wireless router and media bridge that is now available to the public. It is compatible with 802.11n devices as well. However, it should be noted while it allows speeds of 1.3Gbps (theoretically), it’s not been ratified yet and no device is using it as of yet.
• Apparently the new redesigned Facebook apps have taken some inspiration from Instagram.

GAME Australia’s administrators PwC has outlined what will happen during its period of administration. It has said that all trade will continue, and all existing gift cards will be honoured. If you have pre-orders, however, you’ll have to wait and see.

“We are still working to clarify the status of pre-orders. At this stage we are intending on honouring certain pre-orders placed on the Diablo III and Max Payne new releases.We will provide clarity on these and other new releases in due course,” its advisory said.

“We are not able to refund customer deposits and customers who have paid a deposit for a pre-ordered item at this stage should continue to monitor the website for further updates.”

On gift cards, it will honour all commitments for most products – but can only be used for 25% of the total price. Meaning that if you have a $15 gift card, then you have to spend at least $60 to redeem it. At least they are honouring it, unlike Borders when it shut down and filed for receivership. Customers are unable to claim refunds, but can claim – if they don’t want to follow the above criteria – can fill out a form. No new gift cards will be issued.

The stores will operate as usual until PwC get a clearer picture of what is the current state of GAME Australia. However, trade-ins and returns will be rejected.

If you work at GAME or know anyone who works for GAME, feel free to contact us: tips (at) techgeek.com.au. Anonymity will be guaranteed.