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PlayStation 3 users finally get Skyrim DLC, Dragonborn now available
If you've been waiting around for the Skyrim DLC to come to PlayStation 3, your wait can finally come to an end. Over the next three weeks, Sony will be releasing one DLC pack per week. First up for release is Skyrim's Dragonborn DLC which is available for only $9.99 for the first week. After which, it will set you back $19.99.
Users will be able to pick up Hearthfire next week, so stay tuned for news about when that is released. The PlayStation blog has more details on the Dragonborn DLC, since it has been a while since it originally released on other platforms:
Continue reading: PlayStation 3 users finally get Skyrim DLC, Dragonborn now available (full post)
Amazon is most reputable US company, forges ahead of Apple
In a new Harris poll that sought the opinions of more than 14,000 people, Amazon has come out on top in two of the six categories. The poll asked respondents to rank companies based upon six criteria: social responsibility; emotional appeal; financial performance; products and services; vision and leadership; and workplace environment.
Amazon pulled out a win in the "emotional appeal" and "products and services" categories. Amazon managed to place in the top five for the other four categories. Overall, Amazon managed to come out with a grade of 82.62, which makes this the fifth year in a row that they placed above 80 out of 100.
"Our results show that Amazon has managed to build an intimate relationship with the public without being perceived as intrusive," Robert Fronk, executive vice president of Reputation Management at Harris Interactive, said in a statement. "And as the company that is so widely known for its personal recommendations, more than 9 in 10 members of the public would recommend Amazon to friends and family."
Continue reading: Amazon is most reputable US company, forges ahead of Apple (full post)
Plex media server app for Android gets a makeover, as well as media server capabilities
Plex is undisputedly one of the easiest to use media server apps available that is truly cross platform for all operating systems. Today users of Plex Media Server and its Android app will be able to upgrade to a completely overhauled UI and feature set.
Today a blog post by the Plex team has given us details on the new version. One minor hit, is the deletion of incompatibility for devices running Android 3.2 or earlier. Android users can expect to see a completely yet vaguely familiar UI along with some performance increases.
The new Android app also supports media server functionality, something that has been limited to Windows, OSX, Linux and NAS devices before now. This opens up a lot of opportunity to owners of Android set top boxes like the Pivos Xios DS, and even tablet owners who wish to stream their purchased movies to their TV's without the use of an HDMI cable.
Microsoft to launch premium interactive TV shows later this year
It looks like we can expect premium interactive TV shows from Microsoft by the end of the year, where we'll see the new TV shows launch on their Xbox Live service. This is all according to a top executive from Microsoft during All Things Digital's Dive into Media conference, in Dana Point, California.
Back in September 2012, Microsoft hired former CBS Network Television Entertainment Group president, Nancy Tellem, who would be responsible for a new production studio in LA and creating interactive content for the Xbox 360. We're now seeing the fruits of her labor, and the first things to grow from this seed.
We should expect the interactivity side of things to include Kinect compatibility, but it won't just be there to be 'cool', Tellem says "it has to be organic and a natural extension of what we are doing". She also declined to state just how much Microsoft are pumping into their original content, adding "we are certainly looking at a very robust content production schedule".
Continue reading: Microsoft to launch premium interactive TV shows later this year (full post)
Crytek wants to go all-in with free-to-play titles, will be there in a few years time
Crytek, the developer behind Crysis are no stranger to wanting to push free-to-play (F2P) titles, but it looks like we should expect the entire company to shift over to F2P titles in the next 3-5 years. Company CEO, Cevat Yerli told VentureBeat last week:
At the moment, F2P titles aren't anything to really write home about - sure, there are some great ones - but they don't compete with the likes of the big AAA games. Crytek on the other hand, is willing to throw big money at F2P titles, with production budgets of between $10 million and $30 million in order to help them actually compete on the AAA playing field.
Google reportedly paying Apple $1 billion a year to be the default search engine on iOS
Over the years, Google has forged their way into the english language, thanks to people saying "Google it" when asked a question. Well, it helps that iOS' default search engine is Google, but just how much does Google pay for this privilege?
Well, it looks like it could be as much as $1 billion per year. Scott Devitt from Morgan Stanley in a recent note to investors said "the next Google is Google", believing that the search giant's business has much more room to grow in expanding markets and subsidiaries such as YouTube could see as much as $20 billion generated by 2020.
Devitt estimated during the note that the Mountain View-based company could be paying Apple up to $1 billion per year to be their default search engine, with that figure set to expand over the coming years. Previous reports pegged the companies to be in a revenue sharing deal, but Devitt doesn't think this makes sense. He says that Apple would instead be much better off to do a fee per device agreement for the benefits of upfront payments and easier accounting.
Nokia is the top Windows Phone manufacturer, usage data says they have 75% of the market
Numbers from AdDuplex show that Nokia has roughly 75 percent of the Windows Phone market. AdDuplex's numbers are usage numbers from the company's ad network. While the numbers only come from 294 applications, which creates a fairly small and unreliable sample size, general questions, such as the top manufacturer, can be asked fairly reliably.
As you can see, Nokia holds just over 75 percent of the Windows Phone market. HTC comes in second with just over 10 percent. From there, the numbers drop off pretty significantly. It's no surprise that Nokia is leading the market; it's Lumia line of devices are solid and Nokia has worked closely with Microsoft.
We're always on the lookout for data and trends. We'll keep looking to see if we can come up with some interesting trends in the Windows Phone market.
ReportTT: iOS 6.1.1 being rushed out by Apple to fix 3G issues, other bugs
A German blog is reporting that Apple is rushing out the iOS 6.1.1 update to address issues with 3G connectivity and other bugs. iOS 6.1 has seemingly come with its fair share of issues, including a 3G data issue that has prompted carriers in Europe to suggest users not upgrade until it is fixed.
Other issues include people reporting a decrease in battery life. A beta version of iOS 6.1.1 has already been pushed out to carriers and developers to test and it looks like Apple is working diligently to push out this 23MB update in a final version. The reason for this is that major companies are encouraging users not to upgrade and this makes Apple look bad.
Yahoo has had to disable the ability to manage meetings in iOS due to a possible Exchange bug present in iOS 6.1. It's also possible that Apple will push out a fix to the vulnerabilities used by the Evasi0n jailbreak tool, though they could be so focused on fixing bugs that they don't find time to patch the vulnerability.
Australian government going after Apple & Microsoft over the "Australia Tax" that forces up pricing down under
As an Australian myself, it hurts so much to see products so over priced here versus other places in the world. The government here hates it, as they lose out because consumers purchase the goods overseas, bypassing the GST (goods & services tax) that they would normally make.
The Australian government are now stepping in, with the government's IT Pricing Inquiry into something that is known as the "Australia Tax", which is now going after the big boys in Microsoft and Apple. The committee has issued three summonses to appear before the inquiry today to three repeat offenders: Microsoft, Apple and Adobe.
These three companies will appear before the House Committee on March 22 at 9:30am to answer concerns raised by Choice and the ACMA in regards to the "Australia Tax" on goods sold across the country. Federal Member of Chifley, Ed Husic, said:
RumorTT: iPhone 5S, and bigger 5-inch iPhone 6 to launch this year
We should expect to find our news here at TweakTown to be filled with more iOS-based gadgets as news of the new iPhone's begins to circulate. A Chinese media site has claimed that Apple will release both an iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 this year, with the latter being a 5-inch device. Brightwire translates the news:
We've been hearing more and more reports of a "larger" iPhone, but just how much bigger should we expect? 3.5 inches is, in my opinion, too small these days compared to most Android-based smartphones being at least 4 inches now (averaging at over 4.5 inches). A 5-inch iPhone 6 would be interesting, but iOS needs to see some fundamental changes, too.
Continue reading: RumorTT: iPhone 5S, and bigger 5-inch iPhone 6 to launch this year (full post)
RumorTT: No new Radeon GPUs from AMD for most of 2013
During an interview with Japanese site 4Gamer.net, AMD's Product Manager for Desktop Graphics Products, Devon Nekechuk, revealed some startling information: that AMD won't be launching any new GPUs this year.
AMD will instead concentrate on their already great Radeon HD 7000 series, by adjusting the price and performance increases through driver releases. A slide released to 4Gamers.net shows that AMD's Radeon HD 7900 series (high-end), HD 7800 series (performance), and HD 7700 series (mainstream), will carry on the company's mantle "throughout 2013."
It looks like we're seeing a slowing down of GPU releases, which I'm guessing is because there's hardly any games that push GPUs anymore. It's also incredibly expensive in terms of R&D for GPU makers to continue pushing new GPUs out every 6-12 months, but I think the real reason is that a $200-$300 GPU will play most games at 1080p@60 now.
Continue reading: RumorTT: No new Radeon GPUs from AMD for most of 2013 (full post)
EA's Origin gaming software comes to Mac users today in the form of Alpha testing
EA's Origin game management software (a competitor against Valve's Steam) features some of the biggest titles in PC gaming and up until now, it has been limited to Windows PC users only. That all changed today as EA officially announced Origin for Mac (Alpha).
In a release this morning, Origin said "With Origin for Mac we'll be able to offer the same Origin experience and features that define our PC app - cloud storage, auto-patching, friends list, and more". While the alpha testing is open to the public, don't expect to download Battlefield 3 just yet. The game store is blocked until the official launch.
Jelly Bean beginning to roll out to Xperia devices
Owners of Sony's Xperia line of devices will soon be getting an update to Android 4.1. Known as Jelly Bean, the updated version of Android has started rolling out the Xperia T and Xperia V devices. The update includes redesigned media apps, camera features, and other enhancements.
In total, the updated operating system will be making its way onto 10 devices within the Xperia line of devices. The Xperia TX will have to wait until next month to get its update. For the remaining seven devices, no official plans have been confirmed, though it shouldn't be too much longer of a wait.
Some of the changes owners can expect are listed below:
Continue reading: Jelly Bean beginning to roll out to Xperia devices (full post)
Kent Smith of LSI explains SSD over-provisioning
Solid-state drives contain more NAND than is required to meet the listed capacity on the box. The reasoning for this is that the controller requires some of it for garbage collection and to replace cells when they go bad. The concept of over-provisioning an SSD is one that isn't always understood by the consumer, so Kent Smith of LSI has written an article to help you understand.
You can read the entire article over at EDN.
Continue reading: Kent Smith of LSI explains SSD over-provisioning (full post)
ReportTT: NVIDIA GeForce Titan outperforms GTX 690
There's a benchmark score floating around the internet that was reportedly earned by NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce Titan. The number shows the new GK110-based GPU besting the dual-GPU GTX 690 by a hefty margin. In 3DMark11, the card reportedly earned a score of X7107. For comparison, a GTX only achieves a score of around X6000.
The details can't be confirmed because the site reporting this won't release their source. The Titan is said to be coming with 6GB of RAM on a 384-bit memory bus. The naming scheme is said to retain the GeForce Titan nomenclature, possibly as a reference to the Cray Titan supercomputer that houses just shy of 19,000 NVIDIA Tesla K20X cards.
Pricing is said to be $899 with availability starting at the end of February.
Continue reading: ReportTT: NVIDIA GeForce Titan outperforms GTX 690 (full post)
Vine videos are actually 6.5 seconds long, who actually cares?
Twitter launched the video sharing service Vine to share short six-second videos that were akin in many ways to a tweet. Well, the truth has come out and those six-second Vine videos are actually six and a half seconds long. Not that that extra half a second makes much of a difference. In fact, it really just raises a bunch of questions.
For instance, who cares about this minor detail? I'm sure there are some among you that will care to know this tiny detail. However, the more important detail is did Twitter really think the videos were six seconds long? During development, the Vine team tested lengths ranging from four to ten seconds and eventually settled on "six."
As you now know, the number is actually six and a half. The question is whether or not they meant for the videos to be that length. If so, why did they settle on that number? If not, what technical bug causes the length to be increased by half a second? We'd love to hear your (not too) crazy conspiracy theories in the comments.
Continue reading: Vine videos are actually 6.5 seconds long, who actually cares? (full post)
Blackberry to stop selling handsets in Japan
Blackberry has announced that they have no plans to launch the new BlackBerry 10 devices in Japan. According to BlackBerry, "Japan is not a major market for BlackBerry and we have no plans to launch BlackBerry 10 devices there at this time." Part of this could be to the fact they have just 0.3 percent of the market currently.
After all, why launch a device in a country when they appear to not be very keen on your previous devices. This appears to be the logic BlackBerry is operating off of as they say the cost of translating BlackBerry 10 to Japanese is just to high for them to consider it a good investment.
Current BlackBerry owners can rest easy knowing that BlackBerry will continue to offer to support to existing owners in Japan.
Continue reading: Blackberry to stop selling handsets in Japan (full post)
Google Hangouts gets updated, now features adjustments for bandwidth use
Google Hangouts is a pretty cool product. A group of users can come together and host group video chats or performances for free. Today, the Google has updated the Hangouts product with a couple of new features. The first is a bandwidth slider. This new adjustment allows you to change how much bandwidth Google Hangouts has available to use.
This can be very useful if you're in a low-bandwidth area, such as on a metered 3G connection or at the local coffee shop. Another feature is the option to send and receive only audio. This will also reduce bandwidth requirements while still allowing a user to stay engaged in the conversation.
Grand Theft Auto V pushed back to allow a next-gen console release?
I've been meaning to post this for a while now, but I believe we've seen the recent delay of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V so it can be released on next-gen consoles. Yes, that's what I think and I'm sticking with it. I talked about it happening all the way back in April of last year, where I said
I said this because Grand Theft Auto is one of the, if not the biggest franchise on consoles today. The franchise has grown out of control, and is so big that it is truly a system seller. Why release one of the biggest games ever on current-gen consoles if next-gen consoles are only months away? So you read it here, we think Rockstar and Take-Two are pushing back GTA V to release it on next-gen consoles.
Continue reading: Grand Theft Auto V pushed back to allow a next-gen console release? (full post)
Half-Life or Portal film could see J.J. Abrams' help
J.J. Abrams already has his finger in a bunch of franchises, Mission Impossible, Star Wars, Star Trek and countless TV shows, but what about gaming? Well, Polygon have the scoop on the director and TV guru reportedly working with Valve, yes - that Valve.
The news comes from the 2013 DICE Summit, where Abrams announced with co-founder of Valve, Gabe Newell, that they two gods of media were in discussions together about making a video game together. Abrams said "there's an idea we have for a game that we'd like to work with Valve on". Newell adds "We're super excited about that and we also want to talk about making movies, either a Portal movie or a Half-Life movie."
At the end of the on-stage talk, Newell said that the DICE lecture was just a public rehash of discussions behind closed doors with Abrams, where he added "what we are actually doing here, we are recapitulating a series of conversations going on."
Continue reading: Half-Life or Portal film could see J.J. Abrams' help (full post)


