The optical output for the Xbox One will only play stereo through headsets at launch. Albert Panello Microsoft Director of product planning comments in a NeoGAF thread that full Dolby Digital support will be available post launch. Although Panello does not specify any sort of release date for the update. Unfortunately users that are accustomed to using Turtle Beach, Tritton, or any other expensive headset will have to deal with having stereo for the time being.

Microsoft Director of Product Planning Albert Panello in a NeoGAF thread: "Dolby Digital is coming post launch. This was a SW scheduling issue pure and simple, and I know people are disappointed, but we will have it. Anyone with an HDMI receiver should be fine, as we pass the uncompressed 5.1 and 7.1 through HDMI as well as DTS. Even if you have a Dolby only HDMI receiver, you will still get 5.1 or 7.1 sound since those receivers should accept uncompressed surround. For the Dolby only headsets, my understanding is that these will work but you will only get stereo audio since we only pass Stereo and DTS through the optical port. I have not tested this myself, but I'm told it works. Regardless, I understand this is an inconvenience, but again we're going to have Dolby coming."

Intel may dominate the CPU industry, but it doesn't do too well in the system on a chip (SoC) market, especially against the likes of companies like Qualcomm. Well, it looks like Intel is not just going to roll over and give up, if its new Atom SoC roadmap is anything to go by.

Intel is hoping to increase CPU performance by 5x, and GPU performance by a whopping 15x, all before 2016. The current Bay Trail-based Atom SoC will be replaced in late 2014 by the 14-nm based "Cherry Trail" silicon which will feature "Airmont" GPU and next-gen Intel graphics. At the start of next year, we should begin to see smartphone-bound, dual-core "Merrifield" Atom chips, with a quad-core version arriving in 2H 2014.

In late 2014, Intel will unleash its new Atom SoC, codenamed "Sofia", which is made for entry-level devices. There will be two variants, one released in 2014 which will feature an integrated HSPA+ communications chip, while the second model, to be released in 2015, will feature LTE capabilities. Funnily enough, at first, these communications chips will be ARM-based, but will eventually be converted to x86 architecture.

It's no secret that I love development boards, and that I also love backing awesome projects I find on Kickstarter. Today I had the pleasure of being introduced to something that combines both of those things along side my philosophy of empowering everyone to become a maker.

Early this morning a friend reminded me of a project I have briefly heard of a few weeks back. The 1Sheeld project was now on Kickstarter and it was already past its funding goal of $10,000 in just a few hours. The 1Sheeld is an ad-on board (or shield) for Arduino that allows you to connect your Android smartphone and access many different shields that have been recreated in digital form.

Not only that, but 1Sheeld is able access your phones hardware and sensors such as the LCD Screen, Gyroscope, Switches, LEDs, Accelerometer, Magnetometer, GSM, Wi-Fi, GPS. This allows anyone with an Android phone, an Arduino, and a $50 1Sheeld to prototype and develop with a full range of hardware, without investing hundreds into physical shields.

Today reports have surfaced that indicate that the industry's largest mobile music streaming service, Spotify, has managed to secure $250 million in financing which raises the company's valuation to the $4 billion mark. That is up more than $1 billion in just one year.

Unfortunately, even with a valuation of $4 billion, Spotify can not seem to make money. The cause of its negative cash flow stems from what many consider an antiquated business model that many big-name record labels are holding onto quite tightly. Spotify has managed to increase its revenue in just one year to more than $600 million, but its losses also increased to $77 million. Unless Spotify figures things out in the next few years, we may have to bid adieu to the streaming service we so dearly love.

Over the past few months Acer has been in a bit of a downward slide and in recent weeks we have seen both the company CEO and Chairman of the Board, J.T. Wang, and its President, Jim Wong resign their positions. This is the direct result of the $20 million operational loss and 20-percent slump in sales the company reported for Q3 2013.

Now it appears that the company's founder will be returning to its helm after more than eight years of retirement. Stan Shih retired from Acer in 2004 just as it was beginning to grow into a netbook monster with its line of eeePC line. Shih will take on the role of chairman and acting corporate president based on a press released issued by Acer today.

"Due to the situation that now faces Acer and my personal social responsibilities, I must stand up and take the rein without salary," Shih said in a statement. "I will honor and complete all the public affairs and event engagements that I have committed to, but I will also fully support Acer's ICT device business and carry out the company transformation. In addition, George Huang who is one of my co-founding partners of Acer will join with me and the management team to lead our company at this time."

With the Xbox One officially launching in New Zealand today, it was only a matter of time before the guys and gals over at iFixit got their hands on the next-gen console. The team from iFixit were on hand at the official Xbox launch party in New Zealand and managed to obtain an official Day One special edition console to tear down.

Unfortunately Microsoft chose not to hide any screws under the rubber feet and the team had to look elsewhere on how to begin the disassembly process. The Xbox One is disassembled by first removing the plastic grill much in the way one has to disassemble the Xbox 360. Once the Grill is removed, only a few plastic clips remain to hold things together.

Inside the Xbox One, the PCB and other internals are shielded inside a metal cover which is easily removed by extracting a few screws. Once the cover is removed the Blu-ray drive, cooling fan, and cooler are all prominently visible. The hard drive is also unveiled at this point and it appears to be a Samsung Spinpoint M8 ST500LM012 500 GB 5400 RPM with 8MB Cache SATA II 3.0Gb/s hard drive. With a form factor of 2.5-inches, this could easily be replaced with a large capacity SSD. You would void your warranty, so keep that in mind if you decide to tear down your Xbox One.

Yeah, science, b****. You all know the show, but science really is a magical thing, isn't it? Well, three Chinese scientists have found a new way to create metal, from liquid at room temperatures.

This metal can then be printed onto pretty much anything, as would ordinary ink. It will stick to surfaces such as rubber, paper, t-shirts, or even a leaf. Yes, a leaf, from an actual tree. The biggest thing to take away from this, according to the MIT Technology Review,e is that the alloy of gallium and indium that the scientists discovered.

It's printable at room temperature, compared to other circuit inks that require massive temperatures, upwards of 400C/752F. This is an issue when you want to print onto something that much catch fire, or perish, such as paper. The three scientists explain: "Different from the former direct writing technology where large surface tension and poor adhesion between the liquid metal and the substrate often impede the flexible printing process, the liquid metal here no longer needs to be pre-oxidized to guarantee its applicability on target substrates."

Tesla Motors' founder and CEO, Elon Musk, believes that his company will be able to produce autonomous, self-driving cars within 3 years. This is not speculation, this is something that he has said is currently in development.

Musk, when talking to the Financial Times, said: "We should be able to do 90 per cent of miles driven within three years. My opinion is it's a bridge too far to go to fully autonomous cars. It's incredibly hard to get the last few per cent." If Tesla Motors can do this, they will beat Volvo and Google to the self-driving car punch, with the Mountain View-based search giant finding it hard to secure a partner for its driverless technology.

Tesla will be offering a vehicle that would allow drivers to flick an "auto-pilot" switch, which would let the car drive itself. I think that this is a great idea, and it would stop a lot of the unnecessary deaths on roads around the world. I'm sure we would see breathalyzers installed, so you could drive to the pub, or to a friends place, enjoy your drinks, and be driven home in complete safety. The taxi industry on the other hand? Well, Johnny Cab's seemed to be popular in Total Recall...

Google has updated its Google translate app for Android. The update brings more supported languages, gesture, and better speech translation. The app has a "new sleek look" according to Google. Google says the app can now have good "fully translated back-and-forth conversations." The update's conversation translator has been improved greatly.

One of the new features the update brings is gesture support, you can turn your phone and it will switch between languages. Google has added Malay and Ukrainian to the apps camera translation, and Javanese, Hebrew, and Esperanto to the handwriting feature. The update is available to download through the Google Play Store, Google mentions the update is coming out today and tomorrow.

Google has released a credit/debit style card for Google Wallet. It does not include NFC, but you will be able to use your Google Wallet card at an ATM. It will also come in handy when you want to use your Google Wallet, but the retailer you're at doesn't have a NFC enabled paying system. Google Wallets can now allow users to transfer money to other users and access it quickly. The app will also notify you of your card activity.

Google has spent $300 million on making Google Wallets and it hasn't been extremely popular, maybe the ability to use an actual card might bring more users in. The card will have a $5,000 24-hour limit. The Google Wallet card is free to account holders and can be ordered through their Wallet account or on the release of the updated app. It is available to order now and should take 10-12 business days to ship. The Android app update will be available this week.

Google spokesperson speaking with Mashable: "The app will be rolling out to Android users this week, which has the option to order the card or users can order the card directly in their Wallet account now."