Microsoft to Release Xbox One with Another Big But

When the Xbox One was first revealed in May, Microsoft stated that users would be able to expand the system's internal hard drive with an external USB storage device. But, when it first releases it won't have this functionality because Microsoft are confused all the time.

Speaking during a live podcast recorded at PAX this weekend, Xbox Community Manager Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb said that, while the external storage feature is being worked on, "my understanding is that feature will not be there at launch because the team's working on other things. It's definitely on the list; I don't know when it will come in, though."

This will most likely result in most people waiting till next year before they buy the console because my guess is this will be one of many things for Microsoft to me up.

In comparison, according to Sony Head of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida, the PlayStation 4 will not support external USB storage for installed games, but PS4 users will be able to replace the 500GB internal hard drive in the system with expanded storage. (The Xbox One will not offer direct physical access to the internal hard drive for replacement.) Nintendo's Wii U supports external USB hard drives of up to 2TB in size.

Windows 8.1 is Ready. But.....

Yep, you guess it, it's a massive but! It will be unavailable to the average human being until October.

Only yesterday, Microsoft completed Windows 8.1 it has been seeded to manufacturers. But us less important must wait until October 18th. Strangely, MSDN and TechNet subscribers won’t get an early look in despite the face they ARE developers, but that's just how Microsoft rolls I guess.

The reason this matters to technological society is this means Microsoft get another shot at getting into the glorious tablet market as this will only be available for tablets. This also seems like Microsoft are slowing down the whole PC market thing as tablet's are supposedly taking over the pc (I personally disagree).

So yeah, that happens. Windows 8.1 in 2 months

Xbox ONE: First Thoughts

The Xbox's specs were briefly mentioned as an 8-Core CPU, 8GB RAM, 500GB hard disk drive, Blu-ray drive (FINALLY), Wi-Fi direct, USB 3.0 and 1080p wide camera. Basically the same as PS4 but with a camera. Microsoft had shown the Xbox and the controller straight away, the X(box) is just a box and the controller is another bog standard controller. 

First of all: NO!!

What I understand from the stream, is that the new features consist of an OS that makes use of Voice Control and gestures. I am not to keen on this as people like to talk freely and move there arms without wanting a response. They also talked about the Skype features and a new peek thingy which lets you do 2 things at once. STILL NOTHING ON GAMING

It also uses Explorer, Windows 8 and etc

They then went on to talk about their TV things. Basically, a freeview box. The problem is, I Smart TV can do all this and this doesn't work well when you have a subscription box.

The first piece of gaming news was that all games run on the cloud and it is constantly online. Does this mean I don't buy discs? or don't save games locally? I don't know. They also said that the Xbox Live still costs money and it will have 300,000 servers, so some good news.

They introduced an EA Sports guy with 2 watches but the stream broke. 

The last thing they did was show of Call of Duty: Ghosts first they showed a trailer and boasted their new engine along with a dog. When they said they will show gameplay, they showed another trailer, when that ended, the stream stopped. No goodbyes, No thank yous, NOTHING

Final Thoughts: If I want a TV I will buy one, a games console is not a TV, what did you actually change in terms of gameplay?, and what makes you think this is better than the PS4?

Please comment your thoughts below. Any pro Xbox comments will face my rage

I am severely disappointed in you Xbox

BBM For Android and Apple??

Hey Guys,

What are your thoughts on BlackBerry? Boring? Not innovative? Only good for BBM?

Well that will change soon..
Last week at BlackBerry Live, CEO Thorsten Heins announced that they will be making BBM available to download for Android and iOS devices. This basically means that BlackBerry is just turning BBM into a WhatsApp or Kik messenger service.

Heins tries to rectify his decision in saying that it is a "state of confidence" and “The BB10 platform is so strong and the response has been so good that the time is right for BBM to become an independent mobile messaging platform.”

The app will be free on both Android and iOS. Much like other messaging apps, it will be a standalone application. iOS 6 or Ice Cream Sandwich will be required.

To begin with, the app will only offer basic messaging and group features. But Heins promises that the rest of BBM will eventually make its way to the Android and iOS versions including screen sharing, BBM voice and the just-announced BBM channels.

Heins proudly stated "We are making the BBM platform more powerful than ever!" but he is obviously an idiot because people only buy BlackBerry's because of it's quick messaging and the BBM service. 

I will obviously downloading this app because it will support my argument in saying BlackBerry phones are pointless and only have the ability to browse and chat, making them an average instead of Smartphone. 

There is still no sign of BBM on Windows Phone but no doubt, they just forgot about it. It is likely that the Windows OS will soon have an app.

Thanks for reading! Please let me know your thoughts and your opinions by commenting below. 

Sony PS4 UK Price and Release Date Revealed. And It's Reasonably Priced!!

Prepare for some next-gen gaming, as a next-gen console will be coming later this year, the Sony PlayStation 4 is set to sell in October and according to a new report, you can get one for £300. Which is pretty awesome!!

View PS4 game trailers here

The Sun states that Sony will be launching its new console in October, which matches up with what Sony said when the console was announced last month, that it would be released before the end of the year. The launch price, however, looks to be a lot less than what Sony wanted for the PlayStation 3 when it first launched back in 2007 for a crazily priced £425. That’s a big drop, but it makes sense in a world where £99 Android consoles and the free to play businesses exist, threatening both Sony and Microsoft’s expensive consoles.

Although this is all speculation from The Sun, not the most reliable newspaper at the best of times, at this point all hints are proving it to be reliable info, and I'd be disheartened if I heard anything different later down the line. Sadly we still don’t know what the console will look like, as Sony is keeping quite about the design and some of the specifics, but we do know it’ll come with a revamped DualShock 4 with a new touch pad, stream down PlayStation games and let you brag to all your friends with that new Share function.

Will you be keeping October free in your spending calendar so you can get your hands on the PS4 or are you firmly holding out for the next-gen Xbox? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Nokia Reveals the Budget Smartphone, the Nokia Lumia 520

Hey Guys,

Nokia showed off the Lumia 520 at this year’s Mobile World Congress, and it’s shows that the Finnish giant has its sights set firmly on the budget smartphone sector. Following on from the reasonably-priced and pretty awesome Lumia 620, the 520 model offers even more bang for your buck, with an estimated retail price of around £120.

Surprisingly, the budget phone runs on Windows Phone 8. Most recent and lets admit it, the most favourable version of Microsoft’s mobile operating system. It also boasts a five-megapixel autofocus camera, 8GB of internal memory, microSD card support and a 4-inch touchscreen which is so sensitive it even works through gloves, this will possible lead to destruction of the new touchscreen, but will be a prime consideration during those cold mornings that hit my face everyday.

So... is there any bad things about this? Well to be honest, the only problem I have found is that the Lumia  isn’t coming to Europe right away. It will be first released in the Far East. But, with those kind of specs and that kind of price, I'm pretty confident that it will be worth waiting for, and it should make the 2013 smartphone decisions much harder to make.

There is also a beautiful promo vid below!

This is one of the best promo vids I have ever seen. It is perfectly composed will bright colours and happy music. It's just one of those videos that just make you smile and make the phones look elegant and more personalisable with all the different colours. I really think Apple just their book and learn how to create adverts, rather than creating monotonous ads with no life to them at all.

But that's just my opinion, and I want to know yours. What kind of ad makes you want to buy a product? Thinking of getting this phone? Please comment below to share your views.

BBC iPlayer FINALLY Coming to a Windows Phone Near You

Hey Guys,

Whilst Windows Phone's are cool, there’s no doubt that even two and a half years after launch, it’s still missing many apps, all the way from Instagram to Google Maps, but at least they have more than BlackBerry. Anyway here’s some good news for the mobile Windows users, at last, BBC iPlayer is finally coming to the platform... ish.

Shown on the BBC’s blog, business development manager, Cyrus Saihan, has announced that the BBC is teaming up with Microsoft to bring BBC iPlayer video streaming to Windows Phone 7.5 and Windows Phone 8. There’s no timeframe for a release just yet, but he says to look out for updates in the “coming months”.
There’s a catch though, BBC iPlayer on Windows Phone won’t be a full app. Instead, you’ll be have to download a Live Tile shortcut to your homescreen, which will then let you jump to the mobile website and catch up on your missed TV which you haven’t been able to do on Windows Phone until now.

This means the BBC are doing a quick botch job in order to make it's Windows Phone customers a little happy buy created a mobile website rather than taking the time to develop an app. I feel that the BBC should spend a little more time and to create an app rather than a mobile website, an application is a lot easier to navigate than an app and will make customers a lot more happy.

What are your thoughts?? Please leave your opinions in the comments below!

Next Gen Xbox Specs Leaked

Hey Guys,

VGLeaks are reporting an exclusive claim that they have the information behind the GPU that will be in the next gen Xbox, codenamed Durango. People are classifying this as a huge rumor, so keep that in mind. Until Microsoft releases any official information, we know nothing, but for those who are interested, keep reading.

"The following table describes expected performance of the Durango GPU. Bear in mind that the table is based only on hardware specifications, not on actual hardware running actual code. For many reasons, theoretical peak performance can be difficult or impossible to achieve with real-world processing loads," the 

report states. Take a look at the table below:

ESRAM

Durango has no video memory (VRAM) in the traditional sense, but the GPU does contain 32 MB of fast embedded SRAM (ESRAM). ESRAM on Durango is free from many of the restrictions that affect EDRAM on Xbox 360. Durango supports the following scenarios:

• Texturing from ESRAM
• Rendering to surfaces in main RAM
• Read back from render targets without performing a resolve (in certain cases)

The difference in throughput between ESRAM and main RAM is moderate: 102.4 GB/sec versus 68 GB/sec. The advantages of ESRAM are lower latency and lack of contention from other memory clients—for instance the CPU, I/O, and display output. Low latency is particularly important for sustaining peak performance of the color blocks (CBs) and depth blocks (DBs).

I have no idea what any of the above means.

For information on what all of this jargon means click here as I know nothing about the topic.

Get free Microsoft stuffs for Students!!

Hey Guys,
I know it's been a while since my last post and this isn't news but I'd like to enlighten you about a website that allows you to get free Microsoft Software if you're a student. All you need to do is create an account and enter your school/college/.etc and verify it. Then you are able to download tons of products from Small Basic to Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio. Microsoft Mathematics to Kodu Game Lab, XNA Game Studio 4 or Kinect for Windows SDK. The list is almost endless.

The website to get the software is here!

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Control Your Xbox With Your Phone

Hey Guys,

Xbox Smartglass is a genius app/program, made by Microsoft, avaliable for controlling your Xbox which can be used on your computer, phone or tablet, has arrived on Android. This means you can easily control your Xbox even when you're away.

Head on over to the Google Play store and you’ll see the app for Android available as a free download (Nothing known yet on the iPhone equivalent, I don't think it should be much further away). It works in much the same way as it does on Windows 8 and Windows 8 tablets: you can launch any of your apps and control them as long as you’re connected to the same network as the Xbox. You can also see second screen information about videos on supported apps, like actors on screen and more. 

Unfortunately, it will only work on Android phones running Android 4.0 with a screen resolution of 800×480 or higher. If you're lucky you may get a special review...


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Windows 8 Could be very bad for new Indie Developers

Hey Guys,

Markus Persson (AKA Notch), the creator of Minecraft and founder of Mojang, has echoed Valve and Blizzard on the negative repercussions of Windows 8 for developers.

In an interview with the Reddit community, Notch predicted a bright future for independent game developers as long as there are "open and free" platforms to support their work. However, he believes that Microsoft's plans for Windows 8 could be a serious hindrance.

"If Microsoft decides to lock down Windows 8, it would be very, very bad for Indie games and competition in general," he said. "If we can keep open platforms around, there's going to be a lot of very interesting games in ten years, mixed in with the huge AAA games that we all love."

I agree with Notch, Valve and Blizzard. For brilliant games to happen we need to have more free platforms. Minecraft for example has been pretty successful and we want more great games like that, so it will be a great help if "open platforms" are around.


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Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition Update

Hey Guys!


As you will most likely know, Mojang recently released Minecraft for Xbox 360. The one time I had played it at a friends house, I really struggled. There was poor lighting, poor mob AI and default skins.

Well, an update has just come out for and it has many features and fixes listed below!

Features:-

- Added Pistons & Sticky Pistons.
- Added Stackable fences.
- Added Shears – required to get wool from sheep, and to collect leaf blocks.
- TNT needs Flint and Steel or Redstone to detonate.
- Redstone wire will now connect to a repeater.
- New textures for Cobblestone and Brick.
- Added Character Skin Selector to allow players to choose their skin from the default skins, or from Downloadable Content skin packs.
- Added lighting improvements (brought forward from 1.8.2 update) and snow & rain improvements.
- Added a save file cache to improve the speed of displaying the saves list.
- Added ban list functionality to allow players to self-ban from levels they feel contain offensive content.
- Added a ban list section to the How To Play menus.
- Added an option for the host to limit online games to only players in their friends list (no friends of friends).
- Added a seed display to the level load screen (requires existing levels to be saved out again to add the display).
- Changed the tooltip display setting to in-game tooltip display, so that tooltips always display in menus.
- Added the crosshair to the list of things affected by the opacity slider.
- On using the quickselect bar, the opacity of the quickselect, tooltips, splitscreen gamertag display, and crosshair will be set to 80,
and will fade back down to the user opacity setting after 6 seconds of no quickselect bar use.
- Added some more Tips & Trivia to the loading/saving screen display.
Tutorial World changes & additions:-

- Added optional tutorial for Pistons and Redstone.
- Added a self-building bridge to the castle using Pistons.
- Added some sugar cane, cactii and clay to the world.
- Added a few other things for players to discover.

Fixes:-

- Fix for only the host being shown the pop-up when any player attempts to place lava near the spawn point.
- Fixed tooltip for Flint and Steel.
- Fix for Note blocks not showing notes.
- Fix for Leaderboard reads taking too long.
- Fix to block players re-entering a level they have been kicked from, until the level is restarted.
- Fix to stop players being able to join a game when they are not a friend of any player in the game.
- Fix for Netherracks re-appearing after being mined.
- Fix for a rare crash on entering the Nether.
- Fix for attacking enemies at a different level not damaging them.
- Fixed a problem causing some save games not to load.
- Removed Herobrine.

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Welcome to my Blog!!

Hi Everyone! I have just started my blog up again and from fresh! I will be writing posts at least once a day and  giving you the technology information you need! I hope you subscribe to this blog via RSS or E-Mail, I also have a youtube channel and a cafepress shop so please take a look at them too!

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