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Video game industry analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan says the upcoming Xbox 8 will likely sell at a huge discount since it will come with a two-year contract.

The biggest feature of the new console will be its ability to be "all-encompassing" for media entertainment needs.

Says Pachter (via CVG): "Console will have to be multiple purpose devices. The Xbox 720, this is my prediction, is going to be your television as well [as your game console]. You'll be able to tune into television through it.

You wont need a 'smart TV' when you've got an Xbox 720, it will be your television and your internet. It's going to be open architecture and I think it's real trick will be that one Xbox will be able to display television to as many screens as you have in your possession."

If true, Pachter believes the console will be completely integrated into Windows and Windows Phone, making for a wonderful ecosystem:

"The next Xbox will be Windows for sure, and you'll be able to open up multiple TV channels in different windows and you'll use SmartGlass to shoot off different channels to how ever many screens you want. That is happening, that I'm certain of.

It's official, Windows 8 is coming at the end of October.

According to Microsoft's Tami Reller, the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) will be available the first week of August, with a retail date at the very end of October.

The company is supposedly "on track" to finishing up the final copy of the new operating system by its internal roadmap, in early August.

In May, the company said it expected the RTM by the end of July, so there appears to be a slight delay but nothing too major.

One of the major revisions from the Consumer Preview will be the removal of Aero Glass from the desktop UI.

The Nokia Lumia 900 is finally ready for Windows Phone 7.5.

Nokia's flagship device will not be getting the upgrade to Windows Phone 8 this fall, but AT&T has promised it will be getting the watered down version, firmware 7.8, after 7.5.

AT&T would only say the update was being readied "in the coming weeks," which could be a large range.

Additionally, the carrier is adding a usage tracking counter and "new contact sharing feature."

Finally, the phone will soon be available in pink.

A massive collection of video games has just sold for $1.23 million on eBay.

French video game collector "Andre" (no last name), put the auction up last week and it included just over 7000 video games from classic gaming consoles.

The consoles in question are from Famicon, NEC, Sega and Nintendo and has 22 full sets.

"I perfected some full sets by getting every title of them factory sealed, just for the challenge of it," Andre said in an email. "Some titles are extremely hard to come by brand new when they're 25 years old. Now that the mission is complete, maybe it's time to move on."

Many of the systems include every game ever made for them, and Andre says the rarest game he has is "Go-Net" for Sega Mega Drive. He has one of only two copies on earth, says the collector. Kunio-Kun Dodgeball Gold for the Super Famicom is one of just eight copies in the world, making it extremely rare, as well.

Aluratek and Coby have settled and will pay royalties to Microsoft over Android devices.

The companies are now added to the huge list of companies that pay Microsoft whenever they sell an Android device.

Microsoft proudly boasted that it now collects royalties on 70 percent of all Android phones and tablets.

Coby makes low-end tablets and netbooks (among other items) and Aluratek makes cheap Android e-readers and tablets.

Microsoft has long held that Android and Chrome OS infringe on their patents, and it is becoming clear that whatever patent they have is strong enough that no company is even risking taking it to court.

After once being a rising star, the Firefox browser has quickly lost its luster while losing share quickly to Chrome and to a lesser degree, Safari.

Mozilla dev Jono DiCarlo has admitted this week that the browser's rapid release cycle has killed Firefox's reputation and is leading to its demise.

The company has alienated plugin makers and annoyed users, says DiCarlo, and that has led to many defecting to Chrome: "Ironically, by doing rapid releases poorly, we just made Firefox look like an inferior version of Chrome. And by pushing a never-ending stream of updates on people who didn't want them, we drove a lot of those people to Chrome; exactly what we were trying to prevent."

Until they tried to mimic Chrome, Firefox would make major releases once a year or so, but they have now flown to version 13 from version 4 in less than two years, forcing users to update with intrusive dialog boxes that pop up while you are browsing.

"After years of aspiring to improve software usability, I've come to the extremely humbling realization that the single best thing most companies could do to improve usability is to stop changing the UI so often! Let it remain stable long enough for us to learn it and get good at it. There's no UI better than one you already know, and no UI worse than one you thought you knew but now have to relearn," adds DiCarlo.

According to new figures from Needham & Company, Android continues to dominate China, with Apple still trying to play catch-up despite major growth.

Apple had sales of $7.9 billion in the last quarter from the region, up over 300 percent from the same quarter in 2011. It wasn't enough.

Android still controls a full 70 percent of the smartphone market, with iOS at just 17.3 percent.

Apple has been hurt due to the fact that it is not on the largest carrier in the nation, which also happens to be the largest carrier in the world, China Mobile.

China Mobile has 655 million subscribers and is expected to be a partner when the iPhone 5 is launched in October.

Despite being left for dead by Nokia, the MeeGo operating system has been revived by a group of former employees.

Jolla, the Finnish-based startup, will bring a handset to the market later this year. Chief Operating Officer Marc Dillon worked for Nokia for the last 11 years, most recently as the principal engineer for Meego.

Says the company:

The Jolla team is formed by directors and core professionals from Nokia's MeeGo N9 organisation, together with some of the best minds working on MeeGo in the communities.

Nokia created something wonderful - the world's best smartphone product. It deserves to be continued, and we will do that together with all the bright and gifted people contributing to the MeeGo success story.

Verizon has confirmed that the Galaxy S III will finally reach the carrier on July 12th, after a slight delay.

The carrier had initially announced the phone would launch online and in retail stores on July 10th.

If you pre-ordered the phone, you will still get it (or already have) but for those that like to actually feel the device in-store, you will have to wait a couple more days.

The phone sells for $199 with two-year contract via the carrier.

Read our review of AT&T's version of the new flagship here: Review: Is Samsung's Galaxy S III worth all the hype?

RIM has announced a significant milestone for its line of BlackBerry devices.

The company says the BlackBerry App World has reached 3 billion downloads, growing from 2 billion at the beginning of the year.

App World only has 90,000 apps and customers are downloading at a rate of 2.5 million per day.

While the milestone is certainly significant, it pales compared to Apple and Google. The Google Play Store recently saw its 20 billionth download and Apple announced 4 months ago the iOS App Store saw 25 billion downloads. That number is likely over 30 at this point.

Each store also has significantly more apps, with Google having over 600,000 and Apple having over 650,000.

According to sources close to Samsung, the company is planning to release Windows RT tablets in October.

Windows RT is the upcoming version of Windows 8 built for hardware running on ARM chipsets.

The haul is huge for Microsoft, who has struggled to have partners sign on to back Windows RT. Many long-time partners, such as HP, have only announced devices that will use Windows 8 Pro, made for hardware running on Intel chipsets.

If accurate, the Samsung device will use a fast Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, but there is always the chance Samsung will decide to use its own Exynos processors instead.

Microsoft is also in the business, announcing their own Surface tablets, one that runs on W8Pro and one that run on Windows RT.

RIM, struggling to survive in the ever-evolving mobile market, will need to spend a significant sum to make sure their upcoming BlackBerry 10 even makes it into consumer's hands.

The company currently has $2.25 billion in cash, but may need to spend up to $1 billion of that cash to ensure the launch of the operating system, say certain analysts.

Barclays had a brighter outlook, claiming the cash "burn" will only be $677 million, over the next three quarters.

Other analysts believe the company will need to spend up to $400 million for research and development and another $600 million in sales.

The operating system is expected to flop, after over a year of delays.

According to multiple reports, Samsung will release the sequel to their popular Galaxy Note smartphone in September.

The reason for the September release will be to beat the new iPhone to the street, say the sources.

Samsung's original device has a massive 5.3-inch screen, but the new device will go even bigger, up to 5.5-inches. The device will feature ultra-thin "unbreakable plane display (UBP)," which is "a precursor to flexible display technology, and leaves room for a thinner design without sacrificing internal hardware."

If accurate, the device will also come with 2GB RAM, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, a 12MP camera and a Samsung quad-core processor.

Finally, the Note 2 will have significantly imporved memo and document editing features including "professional writing features for several specialized fields," says VR.

Gaming developer Square Enix has stated that next-gen consoles will need much more RAM if they want devs to create "better experiences."

Creative Director and Senior Manager Takeshi Nozue says memory size is the biggest challenge for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and he hopes the console makers will improve on this important aspect.

The company showed off some very impressive tech at E3 this year, including the Agni's Philosophy tech demo for its Luminous Engine. The demo ran on an expensive high-end PC with a GTX 680 video card.

Enix believes the PS4 and Xbox 8 will need as much RAM as possible if they want to match the experience of PCs with ever-evolving hardware.

The next-gen consoles are expected to be released for the holidays next year.

According to new reports, Best Buy is looking to convert some of their stores in Apple Store look-a-likes.

Best Buy is looking to change 60 of their 1100 branches in the United States into outlets that look and feel like the popular Apple retail shops.

Dubbed 'Best Buy 2.0,' the new converted stores will have a large help desk similar to the Genius Bar, focus mainly on mobile devices like tablets/smartphones/e-readers and let shoppers pay from multiple locations around the store.

Best Buy's version of the Genius Bar is called 'Solution Central' and will be occupied by Geek Squad. The desk will have chairs for customers, allowing for a better connection between employees and customers.

Finally, the stores will be 20 percent smaller than the average size of a Best Buy location, and will move away from the standard yellow and blue color scheme to a blue and white one.