Latest news

Sony planned to release the PlayStation 4 (PS4) console bundled with the PlayStation camera, and may yet still offer such a bundle.

President of Sony Computer Entrainment, Andrew House, said that the original consideration was to bundle a camera with the PS4 by default, but that the company just couldn't reach the magic price point of $400 and made a marketing decision to axe it.

"Certainly for the earlier part of the lifecycle, the vast majority of the audience that we speak to tells us that their primary wish is for the full controller interface and there's not necessarily a huge emphasis being placed on camera interaction," he told Business Spectator.

The magic price touted by Sony was always to be $200 less than the PlayStation 3 (PS3) was at launch in 2006, when it debuted for $600.

Microsoft made the decision to bundle Kinect with every Xbox One console, which added $100 to the price at launch.

House did indicate however that Sony may bundle the camera as standard at a later date.

Microsoft is working hard to have Steve Ballmer's successor as Microsoft chief executive officer in place by the end of the year.

According to Bloomberg, the board is probing options it has for Microsoft's third CEO in its entire history, after co-founder and chairman Bill Gates and current CEO Steve Ballmer.

Bloomberg sources say the board is being advised in its head hunt by former Cisco exec and current managing director of private equity firm Silver lake, Charles Giancarlo.

Among names being thrown around as a potential successor to Ballmer are former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, Ford Motor Co CEO Alan Mulally, EBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe, former Microsoft exec Paul Maritz and Microsoft executive VP responsible for Business Development, Tony Bates.

Whoever the successor is, they will have to continue Ballmer's strategy of focusing Microsoft on providing devices and services to pull back ground dominated by rivals like Apple and Google. The new CEO will also have to integrate the acquired Nokia phone business into Microsoft.

According to an exclusive report by Variety, U.S. broadcasters are preparing to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to examines their legal dispute with Aereo.

Aereo is a premium service that allows subscribers to view (and record) broadcast TV content. It literally assigns subscribers to miniature antennas that pick up the publicly accessible signals and broadcast them to play on a variety of devices. The company believes that this setup complies with laws and regulations in the United States.

Broadcasters on the other hand disagree, and have sued Aereo to stop the service form proliferating any further. So far, they have been unsuccessful in their efforts, with district courts backing Aereo and the refusal by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the case.

While the broadcasters have had no joy stepping on Aereo, they have had success in similar cases against Film On X in L.A. and Washington district courts. Film On X also uses antennas and provides digital streams to users.

Broadcasters consider the rulings in favor of Aero and against Film On X as evidence that circuit courts are issuing conflicting opinions, which is grounds for the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and examine the issues.

Microsoft's Major Nelson (Larry Hryb) has said that the next Xbox Console may support a keyboard and mouse if developers ask for it.

The Xbox 360 console has limited keyboard support for text input, but has never supported mice. In a Newegg TV interview, Hryb said that if developers would like support built in for the use of a keyboard and mouse, that is something Microsoft would be willing to do.

"We'll certainly have this great SDK for developers to do what they like. If that's something they're interested in doing, we'll certainly help them do that," he said.

Hryb did acknowledge however that PC and console gaming styles don't match up and that won't change even if you can use a keyboard and mouse for input.

"We kind of have this concept of when you're playing a PC game you're leaning forward," Hryb said.

"With an Xbox game, sometimes you lean back. You're just kinda having fun. And I don't want to incite the religious debate that will ensue, because I'm very aware. We want to provide a gaming experience that people enjoy, certainly with Windows--that's our other large gaming platform at Microsoft. So there's something there, but right now we're really focused on really the console space."

Microsoft continues to support the development of a Do Not Track standard across browsers, it has said in a public statement to the W3C.

The Redmond-giant has implemented Do Not Track (DNT) in its Internet Explorer 10 and Internet Explorer 11 browsers, but admits that DNT relies on stakeholders collectively agreeing on what DNT means and how websites should respond to the DNT signal.

The W3C's Tracking Protection Working Group aims to define a DNT standard to work across the entire industry.

As part of the ongoing process, the W3C asked members of the working group to respond to a public online poll by October 9. The Public Online poll offers five options for members to choose (they can pick more than one), which you can get more details on at: w3.org

Here is Microsoft's public comments on the poll and its support for the DNT standard:

Telecom firms in the European Union are asking the European Commission to reconsider plans to reform the sector across the 28-nation bloc.

Neelie Kros, European Commission for digital agenda, is championing reforms aimed at bringing the level of cellular and broadband services in the EU up to that of global competitors, like the United States. As things stand, in the single European market there are more or less 28 separate telecommunications markets.

The reforms are a mixed bag for telecoms operators. On one hand, they seek to end potentially lucrative charges in the European Union, such as roaming fees charges to EU citizens travelling across borders. On the other hand, the reforms will remove regulatory red tape making cross-border business in the EU easier, as well as harmonising the sales of mobile spectrum throughout the entire bloc.

However, telecoms operators believe that killing off roaming fees - while extremely popular with citizens of EU member states - will deprive operators of revenue that they need to modernise networks.

Additionally, they favor more consolidation in the European market as a way to return to growth. Neelie Kroes is probably not opposed to consolidation in the sector, but EU competition regulators are concerned that less carriers in the EU will reduce competition and result in higher costs to the consumer.

Despite a Microsoft rep indicating that the Xbox One console will record all achievements automatically, that won't be the case.

An Xbox Australia representative had said that the new generation Xbox console would automatically record the moment a player unlocks all achievements, but that has been denied by Microsoft director of product planning Albert Penello.

"It won't be automatic for every Achievement. It's a feature that developers can unlock for achievements, OR, for instance, have hidden in the game for doing something cool or discovering something hidden," Penello said on NeoGaf. "Basically, we allow developers access to Game DVR and they can put conditions on an automatic recording. But not every Achievement will automatically be recorded."

The Xbox One Game DVR feature will record footage of the game in the background, which players can later share Online. At launch, sharing will be limited to uploading to Xbox Live, but support for social services like Facebook will come after.

Mad Catz has announced that its M.O.J.O. micro-console running Android will ship December 10, and is available to pre-order for $249.99.

It also revealed some technical specifications of the console it previewed in January at E3. The M.O.J.O is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 4 T4OS 1.8GHz processor, with 2GB of RAM and 16GB internal storage. Storage is upgradable through support for SDXC, up to 128GB.

For connectivity, the M.O.J.O outputs via HDMI in 1080p, has a USB 3.0 slot, USB 2.0 slot, supports Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi.

On the software side, the M.O.J.O runs Android 4.2.2 and is compatible with games from Google Play, NVIDIA's Tegra Zone and the Amazon Appstore.

The M.O.J.O micro-console and its GameSmart C.T.R.L.R Wireless Gamepad (compatible with some other Android devices) ship on December 10, but will be available only in limited quantities.

More Info & Pre-Order: madcatz.com/mojo/en-us

Nintendo has launched its own online store in the United Kingdom, shipping out orders from its own stock rather than re-directing to third parties.

In the United States, Nintendo's online store lists its products but redirects users to third party retailers to make a purchase. In the newly launched UK store, Nintendo takes and processes orders from its own stock, provides free shipping with orders over £200 qualifying for next day delivery.

In addition to selling its home and handheld consoles; the Wii, Wii U, 3DS and DS, Nintendo will also sell exclusive bundles through its own UK store, and offer extended warranty.

There is no indication that Nintendo plans to bring similar in-house online stores to any other region at this time.

Visit the new Nintendo UK store at: store.nintendo.co.uk

(via: Engadget)

PayPal is to introduce a new feature that enables customers to pay for goods and services using a QR code or a PIN.

It works by using your smartphone with the PayPal app which allows you to enter a PIN or shows a QR code that a merchant can scan.

For the consumer, the benefits beyond the payment convenience include the ability to automatically redeem any special offers, gift cards, merchant rewards programs or other forms of payment that might be saved in their PayPal wallet in one quick transaction.

For merchants, the benefit is the ability to accept the digital transactions without the need to switch to new technology. Utilizing the millions of 2D barcode scanners already sitting on store counters and 40+ million payment terminals available around the world, this offers an easy way to give customers the benefits without investing in new technology.

If the merchant already has a mobile app, they can also integrate PayPal's new 'payment code' into the app for full support.

More details will be made available on this new system before its roll-out in Q1, 2014.

T-Mobile, which continues to be far-and-away the most consumer-friendly wireless carrier in the U.S., has unveiled its latest service, free unlimited international data and text services starting at the end of this month.

For customers with the new T-Mobile Simple Choice plans, the international roaming is free in over 100 countries, including countries that cover "pretty much everywhere people travel, about 95 percent of where people go."

Besides free data and texting, you can also make voice calls at 20 cents per minute. International roaming has historically been one of the bigger scams in the wireless industry with other carriers charging up to $18.99 per megabyte, and 15 cents per text sent or received.

T-Mobile does admit that the data will be very slow 2G speeds, just 128KB/s on average, good enough for emails, quick social networking, GPS mapping and basic music streaming but not too much else. You can upgrade to 3G roaming for a price, with daily, weekly, and two-week packages available.

Ubisoft has released the PC requirements for 'Watch Dogs,' after an incorrect leak last week led to confusion.

One of the most notable requirements is a 64-bit OS.

Requirements (via CVG):

Minimum requirements:

Supported OS: Windows Vista SP2 64bit, Windows 7 SP1 64bit, Windows 8 64bit
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66Ghz or AMD Phenom II X4 940 @ 3.0Ghz
RAM: 6 GB
Video Card: 1024 VRAM DirectX 11 with Shader Model 5.0
Sound Card: DirectX 9 compatible Sound Card
This product supports 64-bit operating systems ONLY.

Recommended requirements:

Processor: Core i7 3770 @ 3.5Ghz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0Ghz
RAM: 8 GB
Video Card: 2048 VRAM DirectX 11 with Shader Model 5.0 or higher
Sound Card: Surround Sound 5.1 capable sound card
Supported video cards at time of release:
nVidia GeForce GTX460 or better, GT500, GT600, GT700 series
AMD Radeon HD5850 or better, HD6000, HD7000, R7 and R9 series
Intel Iris Pro HD 5200.

Apple has announced global launch dates for the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S.

The devices will hit 35 new countries in the next month.

Here is the full list for October 25th:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, French West Indies, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion Island, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and Thailand.

Albania, Armenia, Bahrain, Colombia, El Salvador, Guam, Guatemala, India, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and United Arab Emirates.

The Anonymous-affiliated pro-Palestinian group KDMS has attacked the websites of WhatsApp, AVG, Avira and Alexa over the last 24 hours.

While claiming responsibility for the attacks, the group defaced the sites with messages that ended with "long live Palestine."

All the sites were hosting by Network Solutions, who is also a domain name registrar.

Avira, the Internet security group, was quick to respond: "It appears that our account used to manage the DNS records registered at Network Solutions has received a fake password-reset request not being initiated by anyone at Avira. Network Solutions appears to have honored this request and allowed a third party to assume control of our DNS."

Later in the day, KDMS also claimed responsibility for an attack on the massive hosting company Leaseweb.

While the DNS redirections and cyber vandalism are relatively harmless, there is the bigger issue of whether there was an data leaked, including emails. So far, there is no indication as to whether any data has been leaked.

In a very brief period of time, Rockstar's latest blockbuster, 'Grand Theft Auto V' has shattered entertainment records and made its way into the Guinness World Records book.

The hit game sold 11 million copies in its first 24 hours of availability, leading to $1 billion in sales within 3 days.

Among the records it has smashed are highest revenue generated by an entertainment product in 24 hours, the fastest entertainment property to gross $1 billion, the best-selling video game in 24 hours, the best-selling action adventure game in 24 hours, the fastest video game to gross $1 billion, and highest grossing video game in 24 hours.

The previous owners of many of those records were Grand Theft Auto IV and the Call of Duty series.

"GTA totally deserves to be recognised as an icon of modern British culture," noted Guiness World Records editor-in-chief, Craig Glenday. "Gaming is no longer a niche hobby, as GTA 5 has proved, and how exciting that it's taken on the might of Hollywood and won. I'm also doubly proud as a Dundonian to welcome this home-grown series back into the Guinness World Records book."