AMD continue their roll, acquiring Sean Pelletier from NVIDIA, who leaves his post as NVIDIA's Senior Technical Marketing Manager. Pelletier will join AMD in a position similar to the one he left NVIDIA for, where he will initially focus on GPU's.

With AMD acquiring lots of talent over the last year or so, they truly are going to be a company to be reckoned with in a couple of years time. The staff acquisitions won't be apparent to consumers right away, but we should see the fruits of their labor over the coming year or so. The future is looking bright for AMD!

EA has teased that FIFA 14 will be making a showing at tomorrow's Xbox unveiling. TweakTown will be live-blogging tomorrow's Xbox unveiling and will have coverage of the upcoming FIFA 14 game. For those who don't know, FIFA is the world organization for soccer--or as most of the world calls it, football--and FIFA 14 will be EA Sports' latest addition to their soccer game franchise.

Make sure to tune into our Live Blog that will be starting at 10a.m. PST tomorrow!

Google has announced that Google Checkout will be closed in six months. Google is encouraging users to switch over to their Wallet product instead. Merchants who make use of Google Checkout will be able to keep using the service until November 20, 2013.

If you don't have your own payment processing, you will need to transition to a different solution within six months. To make things easier, we've partnered with Braintree, Shopify and Freshbooks to offer you discounted migration options.

 

If you are a U.S. merchant that does have payment processing, you can apply for Google Wallet Instant Buy, which offers a fast buying experience to Google Wallet shoppers.

If you're a merchant, Google is hosting a live webinar on May 23, 2013 to help you learn more. Google has also set up the following help center for merchants.

The world's only seven-star hotel has started offering 24-carat gold-plated iPads to guests for use. While this is certainly overkill and completely unneeded, it is most definitely cool and adds to the luxury feel of the device and hotel.

The iPads will be used as a virtual concierge and provide information on restaurants in the hotel, spa treatments, and butler services. The iPads feature the hotel's logo on the back and likely feel great to the touch. The hotel will also be selling the iPads in the hotel's boutique.

Pictures of the rumored Galaxy S4 Active have appeared online thanks to GSMArena. The Active is said to be a ruggedized version of the Galaxy S4, meaning it will be water and dust resistant. The device features a quad-core 1.9GHz processor with Adreno 320 GPU. This means it's likely using a Snapdragon 600 chipset.

The Galaxy S4 Active features quite a bit different styling. It uses a metallic shell and features three hardware buttons, something the Galaxy S4 doesn't have. We still don't have an official confirmation for the Galaxy S4 Active, so for now I would take this with a grain of salt.

Tumblr has updated their iOS app shortly after being acquired by Yahoo. The newly updated app features a redesigned user interface, with the biggest change being thebrand new post type chooser. It fans out vertically from the compose button, much like the fanning effect seen on Mac OS X's dock.

The interface is also similar to that of social networking app Path. Also new in the updated app is the ability to attribute posts made from a user's iPhone. It's not clear if the redesign is a result of the acquisition or if it was already in the works. The updated Tumblr for iOS app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store.

Today at Yahoo's press conference, the recovering Internet company unveiled an updated Flickr product. Flickr is Yahoo's photo sharing and storage offering. Yahoo's senior vice president, Adam Cahan, announced that Flickr will now offer a massive one terabyte of free photo storage space.

Flickr had become about words, little images, blue links. It was not about the photo anymore.

Flickr's new homepage does away with words. It features a clean photostream that makes use of full-resolution images and puts the emphasis on the pictures. New features also include iPhoto-style slideshows and new sharing options. Users can now push photos to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Pinterest.

Android will also be getting a new Flickr app that has similar features to Flickr's iOS app. According to Cahan, "Upload once, send to any device, any screen, any friend, any follower, on any service, and make it absolutely beautiful."

Ubisoft has confirmed that the Assassin's Creed movie will be coming to a theater near you on May 22, 2015. In just over two years, moviegoers will be able to flock to theaters to see a movie based upon the Assassin's Creed gaming franchise. The movie will star Michael Fassbender and is written by Michael Lesslie.

2015 is shaping up to be a massive blockbuster year. The next Avengers movie, Pirates of the Caribbean 5, Star Wars, Hunger Games, The Hobbit, and more are all scheduled to release in 2015. Disney is rumored to be thinking about releasing Star Wars on May 22, 2015 as well, so if Assassin's Creed's producers have any sense, they'll pick a different date.

Users on the older Samsung Galaxy S3 will be getting an infusion of life into their aging devices by way of an update to Android 4.2.2. The upcoming update has leaked out ahead of its official debut. Interestingly, this update will beat other current-generation flagship devices to Android 4.2.2.

The firmware isn't quite ready for release, but is reportedly as stable as any official firmware. Best of all, Samsung has packed in new features that debuted alongside the Galaxy S4 back in March. It's great to see a manufacturer bringing new feature to older devices instead of orphaning the older handsets.

The final version of Android 4.2.2 for the Galaxy S3 is said to be planned for June, meaning you won't have to wait too much longer to get an official update. If you can't wait that long, hit up the source link below to download and flash over the leaked version.

If you've ever tried using a video chat application on a mobile device utilizing AT&T's network, you know how frustrating it can be to get a message that says something like "You must be connected to a Wi-Fi network to join a video call." AT&T is looking to end that frustration by enabling all video chat apps to work over cellular data.

For video chat apps that come pre-loaded on devices, we currently give all OS and device makers the ability for those apps to work over cellular for our customers who are on Mobile Share or Tiered plans. Apple, Samsung and BlackBerry have chosen to enable this for their pre-loaded video chat apps. And by mid-June, we'll have enabled those apps over cellular for our unlimited plan customers who have LTE devices from those three manufacturers.

 

Throughout the second half of this year, we plan to enable pre-loaded video chat apps over cellular for all our customers, regardless of data plan or device; that work is expected to be complete by yearend.

 

Today, all of our customers can use any mobile video chat app that they download from the Internet, such as Skype.

How would you like to be the first person to lose a $1,500 set of Google Glass? Well fear no longer as someone has already managed to do just that. Say hello to Luke Wroblewski. Wroblewski admits to the fact he lost his set of Glass last night while heading through an airport. According to Google, this is a major first for Glass.

[It's] pretty nerve-racking. It's an expensive and still-rare item - plus I've been using them to develop Glassware. So [it's] not good on a number of fronts.

Just like losing a smartphone, Glass contains personal and sensitive information. In Wroblewski's case, his Glass was synced to various accounts, such as e-mail and Facebook, making the loss that much more painful. Google already has a remedy in place: Users can remotely wipe their Glass.

On Friday Lenovo launched a new Android based smartphone to little fanfare and I feel that it deserves to be covered as it packs some cool hardware. The Lenovo K900 utilizes an Intel Atom Z2580 2GHz dual-core processor which breaks the trend of Qualcomm and NVIDIA processors seen in other flagship smartphones currently on the market.

The K900 also packs a serious display. A 5.5-inch full HD 400ppi LCD produces a crisp and clear viewing experience, while a 13MP rear camera handles all of your selfie photon taking needs. The K900 runs Android 4.2 Jellybean and features mashup of stainless steel and polycarbonate to form a unibody frame, which weighs in at 162 grams.

The 6.9mm thick smartphone has no official launch date, and the company has only said that it "will roll out to international markets later this summer." There is no mention of a US roll out, or any indication that it will make it to the UK or Australian markets.

I use services like Dropbox, Box and Google Drive every day, and each one has a specific use case for me. Fox example, Box is my personal cloud storage, while Dropbox is used for syncing files to my phone, PC and tablet, and Drive is my place to collaborate on files with co-workers. For personal storage of files that I share with friends regularly, I have begun to rely on Mega, and today things just got better for Kim Dotcom's file hosting service.

This morning Mega announced that it has launched two new features to its cloud based file locker service. First up is Event Notifications, which collects and shares with you "relevant activity" data on what others are doing with the files you shared with them. Up next is maybe my most wanted feature, Zipped Downloads. That's right, now you can zip and share entire folders with your friends - users can simply select "download as zip" when viewing files, and Mega will package everything up and deliver it in a neatly wrapped package.

The company clarified the Event Notifications feature on its blog:

"MEGA no longer leaves you in the dark about what is happening inside your shared folders. Every user now has an event notification timeline, which shows you, how and when which folders were replaced, moved, accessed and every other conceivable way people can interact with them."

Futuremark announced the next version of the PCMark benchmarking software this morning. The new PCMark 8 has long been anticipated in the custom PC world, and Futuremark did not let us down. The new benchmark includes several long awaited features such as battery life and native application testing.

This marks the first time Futuremark has combined battery life testing with performance testing in PCMark. The new test can measure power consumption during benchmarks and estimate battery life, or testers can use the Battery Life Loop Mode to loop a test until the battery is almost dead, for more accurate results.

PCMark is known for its tests that are based on common use scenarios such as web browsing, photo editing, video chat and gaming. PCMark 8 steps this game up considerably by now featuring new testing based on productivity and creativity apps from Adobe and Microsoft.

PCMark 8 is now entering its final stages of development and is expected to release some time at the end of Q2 2013. The benchmarking software will be available in several flavors including a bare bones basic free version, as well as a fully featured Pro version intended for the serious testers who want access all of the data.

This morning Seagate unveiled the industry's first 3.5-inch 4TB hard disk drive that was specifically engineered for use in video applications such as digital video recorders, set top boxes, and the recording of video surveillance. The new drive can store up to 480 hours of high-definition content, making it ideal for video storage.

The Video 3.5 HDD is ideal for satellite and cable providers as it features capacities up to 4TB with the drive being able to support up to 16 simultaneous HD streams or 20 standard-definition streams as well as 24x7 operational uptime. This would also make an excellent HDD for those looking to record feeds from several security cameras at once.

"Leveraging Seagate's 10 years of experience understanding the requirements of the video market, we've combined our knowledge on heat, acoustics and power to deliver what we believe to be the most reliable DVR drive in the world," said Scott Horn, Seagate vice president of marketing. "Our commitment to deliver a drive with unrivaled reliability ensures the safekeeping of consumers' content as well as keeping DVRs, STBs, and surveillance systems in the field longer."

Ahead of Microsoft's Xbox event later this week, Sony has released a new teaser about its PlayStation 4. In this video we actually get fleeting glimpses of super close up shots of the actual PS4 hardware, along with a wide angle shot that is blurred to the point of looking like a black blob.

The video does allude to the fact that we will see the PS4 on display in some form at E3 which begins June 10th.

Personally I am not holding my breath as Sony has teased hardware in the past, only to show off very early prototype models. One thing is sure though, TweakTown will be at E3 and we will be sure to post the latest on everything PlayStation 4, so stay tuned for more information, images and video.

This week Samsung is set to launch a new "super-high resolution" display that just may set a new standard in laptop and notebook screen resolutions.

The new 13.3-inch display is said to pack an amazing 276 pixels per inch, setting the resolution to 3200x1800. With nearly six megapixels of resolution, this new display tops Apple's MacBook Pro with Retina Display as well as Google's Chromebook Pixel.

Samsung says that the new display will provide a power savings of 30 percent over existing displays, but has yet to announce what models and what manufacturers will be featuring the new display. I guess we'll just have to wait until the official announcement to find out more.

Last month LG vice president, Yoon Bu-hyun, announced that the Korean company had every intention of launching a smartphone that features a flexible OLED screen by the end of Q4 2013. This morning we are learning when we will see the first demo of that flexible screen.

LG is poised to show off the bendable display at the upcoming SID Display Week 2013 that will kick off later this week. LG says that the screen "comes at a crucial time when smart devices are being used more than ever and at increased risk for damage from drops, hits, and other accidents."

The display is said not only to be flexible, but quite durable and almost unbreakable, which is the only drawback to mobile phones with rigid screens currently in production. LG is not the only manufacturer eyeballing the technology either. Samsung showed off its Youm OLED tech earlier this year at CES as well.

On Friday I reported on rumors that Yahoo was in talks to acquire popular social blogging service Tumblr for a reported $1 billion. As it turned out, those rumors were quite true as the deal was sealed over the weekend. The once king of the internet purchased Tumblr for a reported $1.1 billion US, of which all will be paid in cash.

Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's CEO, stated that Yahoo and Tumblr will remain separate entities and Tumblr CEO David Karp will remain at the helm of the massive blogging site. In the official press release, Yahoo said: "Per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business." This announcement may have calmed some fears, but not all were sure.

WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg posted some tell-tell metrics on his blog last night that showed more than 72,000 post per hour were imported from Tumblr to WordPress last night, which was up from an average of 400-600 per hour. While this may sound like a massive migration, Tumblr says that it sees more than 75 million blog post per day, so 72,000 is but a mere drop in the ocean in comparison.

The day is nearly here, where we see the next-generation Xbox unveiled by Microsoft. We still don't know what to refer to it as: Xbox, Xbox 720, Xbox Infinity or Durango. Up until this point, no one knows what it is going to be called, and we don't have pesky insiders to tell us.

From what I've seen of Microsoft's strategy over the past twelve or so months, I'd like to see them flatly call it "Xbox" with no numbers near it. Then, two years from now, they could update it and release another next-gen console, making this Xbox the "2013 Xbox", just how the iPad naming goes. I expect it to pump out nothing less than 1920x1080 (1080p) at 60 FPS (frames per second). We should see Microsoft steer more toward an 'entertainment unit' rather than a pure gaming console, too.

What else should we see? Let's discuss that:

5.) Controller - The controller on a console is the center of your gaming experience, if it is shaped weirdly, is too heavy, or is too slow, the entire gaming experience can be ruined. We should expect an evolution, not a revolution, of the Xbox 360 controller. Something I expect is Kinect 2.0, or some form of augmented reality. I hope Microsoft actually push this and don't wimp out and just unveil a controller and throw the second option (Kinect 2.0/augmented reality) as a tack-on later in the year, or as a mid-life upgrade like Kinect was. Until this day there is still no killer app for Kinect.