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Google appears to have moved on from their failed Google TV endeavor with a new TV interface that should make fans of content very happy: Android TV.

A new report from the Verge, citing exclusively obtained documents and pictures, claims Android TV is already in the works, with video app providers already building for the platform. "Android TV is an entertainment interface, not a computing platform," writes Google in the documents. "It's all about finding and enjoying content with the least amount of friction." It will be "cinematic, fun, fluid, and fast."

While Google TV tried to change how we watch TV and content, Android TV will just make it easier to find what you are looking for, using the Google formats popular to a billion Android device owners.

The platform will rely on simple TV apps (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu Plus, Crackle, VUDU, Plex and plenty more) and scrolling cards (think Google Now) that show off apps, movies, games, TV, etc.

A remote control with a simple D-Pad allows you to scroll through the content, which will include curated suggestions. Each category will have its own up/down/left/right options. Additionally, the controller will have "enter," "home" and "back" buttons for navigation and in the future there will be game controllers similar to Amazon's newly unveiled Kindle Fire TV.

Thanks to the new Wolfenstein: The New Order FAQ, we know the upcoming DOOM beta will only be available for the PS4, Xbox One and PC, leaving out older consoles like the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Developer Bethesda snuck the news into the FAQ, along with the news that codes for the beta that are included with pre-orders of Wolfenstein will be codes for the console you bought the game for. For example, if you pre-ordered Wolfenstein for the PS4, the DOOM beta code will only be good for the PS4.

Bethesda also says that pre-ordering is the only way to guarantee access to the beta. That guarantee does not include also retailers though: "Other digital retailers' processes and/or participation may vary. We suggest contacting your preferred retailer directly for additional information."

While Wolfenstein: The New Order releases May 20th in NA, it is still unclear when the DOOM beta will launch.

Source:

'DOOM' Beta Only Available on PC, PS4 & Xbox One Gamerant

According to a new leak, it appears that Amazon's oft-rumored unlimited streaming music service could launch as early as next month.

Sources have posted part of a licensing agreement, claiming it was obtained from a major music publisher, which states that Amazon is planning to launch "one or more digital music subscription service(s)."

In addition, the services would be made available as part of a "bundle with one or more other Amazon products or services." This suggests the service will be bundled with Prime, the $99 subscription package that gives access to the free Prime Video catalog, free 2-day shipping on millions of items, and free Kindle books and more.

The contract also says that Amazon could offer free access to the streaming music, but with limitations, likely if you do not want to be a part of Prime. The limits could be as low as one play per free track.

If accurate, the sources claim that the contracts must all be signed by May 1st, meaning the service could be available starting next month.

Amazon has unveiled its "Dash" shopping accessory this week, a stick that includes an LED scanner and microphone for voice search with the ultimate goal of helping you build a shopping list.

After using the accessory, the Wi-Fi enabled device will connect to your home network or your phone and allow you to view the items and purchase them via Amazon.

For the time being, the stick is available to AmazonFresh users, which means you are in Southern California, San Fran or Seattle. Amazon Fresh offers same-day delivery of groceries to your home.

The device works similarly to the Amazon smartphone app which allows you to scan barcodes but it could facilitate the process with one-click access and voice search.

Check the getting started video, and the promo trailer:

Following the resignation of Brendan Eich from Mozilla amidst a backlash over a donation he made to the California Proposition 8 campaign, Mozilla has come under fire again.

As you would expect, opponents of gay marriage in the United States sympathize with Brendan Eich, and are lashing out at Mozilla after he resigned from his position as chief executive, which he held only for a number of weeks.

One such group is the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), which is calling on consumers to uninstall Mozilla's Firefox browser as a protest.

Facebook has published an interesting research paper on its site surrounding new facial recognition technology called "DeepFace".

In a paper, eerily titled, "Closing the Gap to Human-Level Performance in Face Verification," the researchers detail a system that can confirm that two pictures show the same person accurately 97.25 percent of the time, compared to humans who have been recorded at around 97.53 percent accuracy.

The interesting thing about the technology detailed in the paper is that unlike other facial recognition systems (such as one Facebook currently uses itself), this system does not require a detailed frontal picture of the face.

Instead, it uses "3D modelling" to help it confirm an identity even when a head is turned somewhat in a picture. The DeepFace system conducts its analysis based on more than 120 million different parameters.

"We don't currently use the techniques discussed in the paper on Facebook," said Facebook spokeswoman Lydia Chan, reports CNN.

Intel has also developed technology that can use facial detection cameras and software to determine a person's approximate age and gender, and retrieve information, like ads, that suit.

The specs for Samsung's Galaxy S5 Zoom smartphone have been revealed in a SamMobile report.

Following on from the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, Samsung seem to be releasing a Galaxy S5 Zoom for those who want even better image quality than the Galaxy S5 can offer. The details were leaked in benchmark details, and SamMobile has revealed them.

• SuperAMOLED HD (1280x720) display
• SoC: Six Core Samsung Exynos 5 Hexa (5260), two 1.7GHz Cortex-A15 cores and four 1.3GHz Cortex-A7 cores
• Quad-core ARM Mali-T624 GPU
• 2GB of RAM
• 20.2-Megapixel (5184×3888) camera sensor with Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS)
• 10x optical zoom
• 2.1-Megapixel (1920×1080) front facing camera
• MicroSD
• Android 4.4 KitKat & TouchWiz
• 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct
• DLNA
• Bluetooth 4.0
• NFC

Microsoft's Larry Hryb (Major Nelson) has confirmed that the Xbox One console will get support for game storage through external devices in an update coming soon.

The Xbox 360 console got support for external storage in an update back in 2010. Since then the support has expanded to allow external devices up to 32GB in size.

Hryb confirmed that the Xbox One console would also get support for external storage in a comment made on the Xbox One subreddit.

"External game storage is coming soon....I need to check on media support," he said. When asked for details on the limitations for the storage devices, he could only respond, "When I have details on that , I'll let you know."


Sources:
Major Nelson: Xbox One getting external data storage support 'soon': www.joystiq.com
Xbox one - momentum, single comment: www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/

The new Xbox boss Phil Spencer took time out to talk to Larry Hryb (Major Nelson) about how the Xbox brand and technology will be shaped and used in the near-future.

In the interview, Spencer admits that he read plenty of articles and posts from forums about the things that he needs to change at Xbox after the news about his appointment went public. From those, and from gaming forums and social media, he said he received plenty of good ideas, and when asked if he copy and pasted them to his to-do list, he replied: "It sounds corny.. but yes."

As for the immediate plans, Spencer is focused on Microsoft's message and demonstrations for E3, because this year's event will be extremely important to use as an exhibition of changes.

In the interview, Spencer admits that he felt Microsoft made some bad decisions last year but there was plenty of moves in the right direction from the company too.

Check out the interview below...

A new Xbox One system update includes another firmware update for controllers to fix several problems that have been reported by users.

The latest 1404 update (xb_rel_1404.140331-2200) includes a bunch of fixes, among them a firmware update for Xbox One controllers to fix a variety of issues, the second time Microsoft has pushed out a firmware update for controllers since launch.

Users reported problems with controllers disconnecting and also issues with headset quality.

Here's a list of fixes so far from a NeoGAF thread...

• Ongoing fixes and adjustments to the user interface.
• Additional fixes to address audio crackling sound encountered when Dolby Digital is enabled.
• Fixes for Blu-ray software issues that can result in 0x21 or 0x87de07d1 errors.
• Update to address an issue where ejecting a Blu-ray disc after the drive is idle can result in the disc being pulled back in, requiring a second eject command.
• Fix to address Kinect not responding to "yes" or "no" after issuing the "Xbox, turn off" command.
• Updates to reduce or eliminate Blu-ray drive "seeking" sounds after drive is idle (experienced in the 1403 update.)
• *NEW CONTROLLER FIRMWARE UPDATE*
• Update to help address controller disconnect issues.
• Update to help address headset adapter audio quality.
• Fix for LiveTV audio outputting in stereo instead of surround sound.
• Update for the Blu-ray player to fix an issue where it can freeze if left idle or paused for an extended period of time.
• Update to fix an issue where fast forwarding or rewinding an external video source results in screen freezing when surround sound is enabled.
• Fix for video playback stuttering while audio plays back normally in several apps (Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, etc.)

• Game save progress bar will now display when syncing cloud game saves.
• 50Hz Blu-ray player support for content recorded at 50Hz.
• Improved GameDVR video quality.
• Online friends notification, including the ability to filter notifications to all friends, favorites only, or disable friends online notifications altogether.
• *NEW FEATURE* Requested by the update preview community: Manually install available updates. If a new system update is detected as available, a button will appear under Settings, System that will display "Apply Available System Update." Note: this feature is being enabled after this current update completes installation. This feature will be available to preview when the next update is made available.
• *NEW FEATURE* A new ability to automatically redeem a license code from console messages. For future console messages that include a 5x5 license code, a new option will appear to allow you to automatically redeem the license, versus having to copy and paste the license code.

YouTube was reportedly preparing to launch a subscription music service to rival Spotify and others by the end of 2013, but it was delayed.

A new report suggests that the service has now been delayed again until during the second quarter, or later. The problem, according to sources speaking with Billboard, is that Google higher-ups are insisting that the service is launched "right," and is an immediately viable competitor.

Historically, Google products have launched in limited, beta phases. Even one of Google's most successful services, GMail (which just turned 10 year old) spent a whopping five years in beta after it launched in 2004.

This time the feeling at the company is a YouTube rival to other subscription services must be competitive and must be "right" from day one.

"They feel that there's just too much scrutiny of this product, and that they need to get it right out of the gate," said an unnamed label executive, reports Billboard.

Slysoft owner Giancarlo Bettini has reportedly been found criminally guilty in Antigua of making Blu-ray ripping software.

Slysoft develops and distributes a bunch of tools for DVD, Blu-ray disc creation and ripping. One of those tools is AnyDVD HD, which can decrypt the contents of Blu-ray Discs so that the raw structure containing the content can be ripped from the disc.

According to reports, AACS LA targeted Bettini in Antigua, where Slysoft is located. Due to a clause in Antigua's copyright laws, it is possible to be fined or even imprisoned for distributing tools that circumvent copy protection mechanisms.

Bettini has been found criminally guilty and has been ordered to pay a fine of $30,000 or face imprisonment.

The decision will come as a surprise since Antigua is seen as a very lax territory when it comes to copyright enforcement.

Slysoft and Bettini intend to appeal the verdict, and as of now, all of Slysoft's products are still on sale from the company's website.

Qualcomm is aiming to drastically increase Wi-Fi performance, particularly on networks with a lot of users, with its new MU-MIMO chipsets.

The goal is to achieve better overall Wi-Fi speeds on networks by making more efficient use of network capacity. With standard Wi-Fi, clients are served sequentially; during this time, only one device is sending and receiving information, thus only a small portion of network capacity is being used.

The accumulation of these sequential events creates a drop in throughput and capacity as more devices join the network. MU-MIMO (Multi-User MIMO) enables simultaneous transmission to groups of clients, making more efficient use of available Wi-Fi network capacity and speeding up transmissions.

In order to extract the maximum benefits of MU-MIMO, it must be used on both sides of the connection. To accelerate the benefits of MU-MIMO for more Wi-Fi users, Qualcomm Atheros is providing a complete ecosystem of solutions for networking products, as well as smartphones, tablets, computers, consumer electronics and automobiles.

"Great connectivity is not just about increasing the absolute speed. It's about making better use of network and airtime efficiency to support the growing number of connected devices, services and applications," said Dan Rabinovitsj, senior vice president, Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.

Crackle has announced a multi-year agreement with NBCUniversal that will give it exclusive rights to feature films from the studios library.

Over the next three years, more than 140 titles will roll out from the NBCUniversal, starting from this weekend. The deal gives Crackle the exclusive ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) rights to a variety of feature films including Miami Vice, starring Colin Farrel and Jamie Foxx, Jarhead and Peter Jackson's King Kong.

The Sony-owned Crackle streaming service is available in 21 countries and features some exclusive content, including "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee," with Jerry Seinfeld.

Financial terms of the deal stuck with NBCUniversal were not disclosed by either party.

"As an ad-supported, over-the-top network we pride ourselves on having a prime selection of premium content. Bringing NBCUniversal's collection of library films to Crackle complements our original programming and reinforces our commitment to provide viewers with even more streaming choices," said Philip Lynch, senior vice president of Digital Networks & Games for Sony Pictures Television.

Apple has acquired the veteran automatic speech recognition (ASR) firm Novauris Technologies.

Novauris was split from the British research division of Dragon Systems, now known as Nuance Communications, popular for their voice dictation and voice search technology. The company is full of voice tech vets, including those who worked at Nortel, Aurix, Dragon and SRI (the company that helped build Siri).

Apple, as is their standard comment, says "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

Supposedly, Apple made the acquisition last year and the team has been working on improving Siri, which has its share of problems.

Novauris Technologies has a full list customers including Verizon Wireless, Panasonic, Samsung, SingTel, Alpine, BMW and many more.