GameStick's UI and some extra games show up in a new promo video!

   A few weeks back you might remember that we reported that the Gamestick's creators PlayJam had decided to delay the launch of their product, firstly to make sure they had enough, which added about four weeks to the process and then they had to make sure everything was in good working order!

   Well their latest promo has turned up on YouTube and it would seem to us that the delay is definitely going to be beneficial to customers! It seems that the UI is now much more streamlined and smooth, although it still looks similar to the Xbox's interface, just like OUYA does too. There are also a few new titles supported now too! As you can see in the video below there's now games from Madfinger on board and that means Shadowgun! There's a few other things which will make you happier too; there's Hungry Shark Evolution, Blue Toad Murder Files, Grabatron and he hugely popular Smash Cops and the ever present Riptide!

   Does everything in the video look like it's going to be worth the extra wait? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and if you've ordered one are you excited?

Via PocketLint.

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GameStick update KickStarter backers: Release pushed to June.

   The second big Android-based Kickstarter project after the OUYA was the Gamestick. The Gamestick minds have just released their latest update on how their project is going and unfortunately there's not great news for everyone.

   PlayJam, Gamesticks owners have said that because they have had such a hugely positive response to their product:

"We now expect to complete mechanical tooling about 4 weeks later at the end of May. Then the units are assembled, tested and assuming there are no issues, packed prior to shipping to each territory. We expect to ship around the 10th June. The volumes are now too large for us to be able to afford to air-freight them, which was our plan, so now we are going to have to use sea freight to deliver them. That's going to take around 2 weeks. Then we have fulfillment in territory – which we estimate will take between 1 and 5 days depending on where you are located. This means we think the likely date of arrival of your hand crafted GameStick will be at the last week of June."

   This means that the device will arrive just in time to compete head to head with the OUYA which will be available to the masses at the start of the same month!

   Again the guys reiterated their deals with GameStop in the US and GAME here in the UK just to show that they are still working hard behind the scenes and given that these two have more than 5,000 stores between them, but they added: "We’ve now got 27 retailers around the world engaged and placing orders for our micro-console."

   It's not great news for backers, but if delays mean that the product arrives much more complete and perfected then everyone will be happier!
KickStarter Via PocketLint.

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In Other News: 02/04/2013.

• A couple of days ago GAME UK put the OUYA console up for pre-order and today it's been confirmed that the Kickstarted GameStick console will also be available from them! The device will cost £79.99 and it'll be available in June!
  Via PocketGamer.

• Amazon phone rumours will start again with the news that former Microsoft Windows Phone general manager, Charlie Kindel, has been hired by Amazon. His LinkedIn profile says he is directing of "something secret" so we have something to look forward to!
  Via TheVerge.

• Sony Poland has said that Xperia S owners can expect to receive Android 4.1 Jelly Bean in the 'next few days'. Sony have already missed their March deadline for the update, so fingers crossed things will be updated and worked out soon!
  Via XperiaBlog.

• Researchers at Stanford have found that Solar Panels are now getting more efficient! In times gone by Solar panels used to take more energy to produce than what they did they gave back in what they produced! That trend seemingly came to an end last year, so that's a great step forward for renewable energies!
  Via TheVerge.

• LG have confirmed that their Optimus G Pro has now sold half a million units within South Korea! Not bad going for a phone which has only been on sale since the end of February!
  Via AndroidCommunity.

• Yahoo and Dropbox have teamed up to allow people using Yahoo's email accounts to attach their files from Dropbox to outbound emails!
  Via TheVerge.

• Apple's A7 processor which could possibly be used in the iPhone 6 is rumoured to be coming from TSMC!
  Via PhoneArena.

And finally, is this the first image of the Nokia Lumia 950? The image below could possibly be a prototype of the device, but take this with a huge pinch of salt, because it could literally be anything!

Via WPCentral.

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01/02/2013: Windows 8 market share after 3 months. The impact of war games on gun sales, PS4 news and much more!

Microsoft's Windows 8 only has 2.2% of the market?

   Since the release of Windows 8 we have seen a complete barrage of devices! There have been literally hundreds released running the new operating system, but there's not been too much of a big dent made on the market share front.

    The new OS has exactly 2.26% of the OS market share, which after three months doesn't compare too favourably with the market shares which Windows 7, at 44.48% and Windows XP at 39.51% hold.

   To be fair we are only three months after the release of the platform so we can only learn so much from these figures, but it's safe to conclude that Windows 8 hasn't taken the world by storm, perhaps because Windows 7 is such a good platform already people just haven't felt the need to upgrade.

NetMarketShare Via Slashgear.

The impact of war games on gun sales!

   Apparently Call of Duty, Medal of Honour, Battlefield and any other war and shooting game series you can think of may well be having more of an impact on you than you think! According to an interview conducted by Eurogamer gun brands are very happy to have their guns included in the game because this will sooner or later transfer into actual sales of the weapons.

   It's somewhat surprising, from a British perspective, that playing video games can actually make you more inclined to buy guns from certain brands in real life. Although, it is in effect in game advertising and the real impact of this in-game exposure has been highlighted by Ralph Vaughn, the man charged with negotiating deals for the inclusion of Barrett branded weapons in games. He said:

   "It is hard to qualify to what extent rifle sales have increased as a result of being in games... But video games expose our brand to a young audience who are considered possible future owners."

   If you're interested in this subject we cannot recommend this article from Simon Parkin on Eurogamer, the source of this news, highly enough. It goes into fantastic depth and some of the reactions from games makers are somewhat concerning!

In other news:

• HP will be closing down their site in Ruesselsheim, south-west of Frankfurt, Germany by the end of October this year. This is reportedly part of a multi-year restructuring plan and it will unfortunately see the loss of around 850 jobs.
  Via Reuters.

• Sony's controller for the upcoming PS4 console will reportedly have a little touchscreen area for you to control certain games with. The whole thing will reportedly add in more social features too!
  Via TheVerge.

• Evasion are reportedly going to be releasing the first untethered jailbreak for iOS since May 2012 on Sunday! Check out their website on Sunday here and you can have full control of your device again!
  Via Slashgear.

• The Gamestick has had an insanely successful Kickstart and the funding wrapped up today with $647,658 raised in total. If you backed the project and everything goes nice and smoothly then you the first batch of units will be in people's hands at some point next month!
  Via Slashgear.

• Amazon have locked down an exclusive on the TV show Downton Abbey! This comes as Amazon and Netflix really try to step up their offerings!
  Via TheVerge.

And finally, the WSJ is reporting that Sony will unveil their plans for the next generation of Playstations on the 20th of February. Visitors will reportedly "see the future" at the event. The people the WSJ thinks are familiar with the matter believe the Playstation 4 will debut on February the 20th. We're not entirely convinced it will, but they will probably show off some details. It's only because the current PS3 debuted nearly two years after the Xbox 360, so it would be strange of Sony to shorten their product cycle so much compared to their nearest competitor! But, we'll have to wait and see!

Via WSJ.

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09/01/2013: OLPCA announce their new learning tablet and system, Facebook tease something they're 'building', WLM being retired and much more!

One Laptop per Child Association release their new learning system and XO tablet!

   In case you haven't heard of the One Laptop per Child Association then they are essentially a company with a dream, which you might have guessed is to put a computer in the hands of every child in developing countries to bring them up to speed on the expectations of the modern world! (You can read more about them here). The organisation has turned up at CES this year to show off two new products: the first is the XO tablet pictured above and they also exhibited the XO Learning System, which is also the interface of the tablet.

   Firstly, the XO Tablet is currently expected to pop up at your local Walmart and on their website sometime in the future. This will have the XO Learning System installed on it and essentially it's a software package made to help the child learn. It promises to channel creativity and divert energy away from annoying things to the 12 different 'dreams' which your child can then learn from.

   The 'dreams' are actually just jobs and they're introduced through the “I want to be...” and then a click will take the child through the things which make successful doctors, musicians, scientists and things of that nature!

   Each dream offers books, games, and videos which are tailored towards children from the ages of 3 to 12. Thankfully you won't have to cough up money for extra content because there isn't really any which is probably for the best seeing as the children will be using these!

   The XO Learning System, will be available for other manufacturers to license and Sakar International has already taken up that offer and is currently building one for its Vivatar brand. Sakar will soon produce a 7" slate, but we don't know anything about either the design or the specifications. Similarly price, availability and hardware specifications are currently AWOL for the XO tablet too. If we get hold of the details we'll be sure to let you know!
Via Slashgear.

In other news:

• Microsoft has announced that Windows Live Messenger will be retired on March the 15th and the company wants people to transfer over to Skype, which seems like a logical step given the better brand recognition and arguably better capabilities of Skype!
  Via Engadget.

• The Unwired View things that Verizon will be offering a the Droid Razr M and the Nokia Lumia 822 in lovely new purple and red hues especially for Valentines day! If you're interested then the guys think that they'll be offered for around about $50 on contract so you'll probably be able to find them at either Amazon or BestBuy for next to nothing!

• Verizon has announced that they have activated 9.8 million smartphones in Q4 2012, a new record for Big Red. The carrier was keen to point out that they activated a “higher mix of Apple smartphones” than normal. We will have some more concrete figures around January 22nd and we'll be able to see if AT&T sold more phones than Verizon in Q4! Just for reference in Q3 Verizon outsold AT&T selling 6.8 million to 6.1 million!
  Via TheVerge.

• Those of you living in the UK will soon see the closure of Jessops! The iconic camera brand has entered administration and currently we're not sure of the future for their 192 stores and around 2,000 employees. The troubles Jessop is facing is symptomatic of the move towards internet shopping instead of heading to the typically more expensive high street!
  Via Reuters.

• Adobe has rolled out security updates to their Acrobat, Flash, and Reader programmes. The hope is that these updates will fix the problems which have been causing computers to crash!
  Via Slashgear.

• The GameStick console from Kickstarter, which we reported on a few days ago, has now smashed through its funding goals and has $280,000 worth of backing, they only want $100,000! We'll give you more details on the device as it starts to become a reality!
  Via AndroidCommunity.

And finally, Facebook has sent out invites offering journalists the opportunity to 'come and see what we're building'. This sounds slightly ominous: we're not sure what it is at the moment, but we assume it'll be some sort of connected device, we're reluctant, and slightly concerned, to think that this could be a Facebook phone, but you never know! There's not too long to wait to find out either, the event is scheduled for the 15th of January!
Via Slashgear.

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02/01/2013: The Galaxy S3's 'sudden death' issue may be nearing a fix! The GameStick hits KickStarter, iOS Jailbreaking updates and much more!

The Galaxy S3's 'sudden death': Fix coming soon!

   A couple of weeks ago we reported that Samsung Galaxy S3's were randomly dying; there is a thread over on XDA which details the problem and where people with the same issues have been discussing their issues. 

   It seems that Sammobile stumbled upon a post from Samsung Benelux to Tweakers.net which explains how Samsung is busily working to fix the ”sudden death” problem which a select number of the 16GB variant have been suffering from. 

   Samsung again advises you to locate your nearest Samsung Care Point if you've had this issue and they will make everything as good as new! Hopefully we'll have more details on the fix soon!

Tweakers.net Via Sammobile.

There's a new KickStarter option for Android gamers!

   In the middle of last year a little Android powered games console came to the market called the OUYA! It was insanely popular and smashed through it's backing target! Fast forward to the first week of 2013 and Kickstarter proudly presents to you the GameStick!

   This is a tiny HDMI dongle-based game console that is designed to offer perfect portability and freedom while also offering a wide variety of games which we will come to in a minute! The whole device centres around the 'plug in and play' attitude and ease of access also extends to games as well. The creators have roughly 200 titles optimised from the Google Play store already and they're currently working with another 250 developers from places like Madfinger, Hutch, and Disney. Because you get the games direct from the Play Store GameStick are saying you won't be spending any unnecessary extra money on the games if you've already paid for them for your phone and/or tablet.

   You can currently back this project as an early-bird for $69 which will earn you a device and a controller, or if you aren't so lucky you may have to cough up an extra $10 to secure your pre-order. You can check out all the options here andHDMI dongle and a prototype controller embedded below. 

Via Slashgear.

In other news:

• Earlier in the week the iOS jailbreaking duo of Installous and Hackulous announced that they would be closing their doors because of their 'stagnant' forums and the challenges of moderating big forums. That doesn't seem to be too much of an issue though because of the emergence of Zeusmos and Kuaiyong, both of which offer one-click installs of pirated apps which don't require your device to be jailbroken.
  Via TheNextWeb.

• Google has teamed up with Kia to offer Google Maps and Google Places in your shiny new car! The deal includes Kia's UVO system which will be updated to allow users to send directions from their smartphone or computer to the in car system. The Google Places feature comes in useful if you need to find your nearest dealership and you'll keep the current assortment of music, hands-free and voice recognition features which should give you a comprehensive in car experience!
  Kia Via Engadget.

• A supposedly new smartphone by the name of the Sony C530X (C5303) or HuaShan, has been caught showing its stuff on the GLBenchmark. The tests showed up a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro MSM8960T chipset with Adreno 320 graphics.The smartphone will also supposedly have a 720 x 1280 display with onscreen navigation buttons and Android 4.1.2 if the benchmarks proves to be accurate. We're not sure whether we'll see this device in daylight at CES, but it will most likely be here by the time MWC has finished in Barcelona this February!
  Via XperiaBlog.

• Nokia is planning to lock down their firmware site Navifirm. The news is not surprising as it's been slightly strange that Nokia has let anyone waltz in and take the pre-release software they wanted anyway! If you want your Windows Phone 7.8 action earlier we suggest you head over to the download site and yet the programme and the firmware you need before the end of January when the site gets locked down!
  Via WMPowerUser.

   

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