We are now less than 48 hours from the launch of the PlayStation 4, and excitement levels are quickly approaching fever pitch. But while it's easy to get a little bit carried away amid the hype, we're still learning of potentially significant tidbits pertaining Sony's fourth-gen gaming machine. Since the preceding PlayStation 3 featured a Blu-ray player from the get-go, it was a given that the PS4 would also support Blu-ray playback, even before the announcement. But now, it has been revealed that there will be no 3D Blu-ray support, meaning those with 3D panels at home will need to find a separate, compliant player if they want to kick back and enjoy their favorite three-dimensional flicks.
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It has been reckoned for a while now that Apple is in the process of developing a so-called "iWatch" product to be worn on the wrist. The rumor itself is certainly believable, particularly with the release of Samsung's Galaxy Gear back in September, but the reports surrounding the product itself have ranged from the plausible to the far-fetched. Today arrives perhaps the most outrageous claim that Apple will be creating two different specifications of the iWatch - a smaller model for women, and a larger version for the predominantly larger wrists of the male population.
With the announcement of the iPhone 5s last month, the feature many were talking about was the new gold color configuration on offer. Naturally, some held out hope that the iPad range would follow suit, but while both the Retina iPad mini and iPad Air both got such niceties as the A7 processor and M7 motion coprocessor, the lovely goldness seems to have been reserved for the company's flagship smartphone at this point in time.
Whenever a new device is released to market, the benchmark tests begin almost instantaneously. Today, the iPad mini with Retina display made its long-awaited debut, and although it still appears in very short supply, it has already been put through its paces and compared with some of the other marquee devices in the iOS product line. As it transpires, it's almost identical to the iPhone 5s in terms of speed, although both the iPad mini 2 with Retina display and the Touch ID-enabled handset fall slightly behind the iPad Air, which is faster than both.
The Xbox One will be hitting stores late next week, and although we've been dealt a deluge of information from both official and unofficial channels already, new revelations are being made on an almost hourly basis. In the latest, the guys over at NeoGAF have been looking into game install size and discovered that some titles will command up to 43GB of storage space, which is a colossal amount of real estate by anybody's standards.
Google's Project Glass is one of the most fascinating developments in the technology industry, and with the Big G having recently released the big Google Glass XE11 update for the wearable tech, things seem to be pushing along just nicely. The progress continues in a similar fashion with the news that music playback features are headed to Glass. As of today, the search giant has added new functionality that allows users to find songs, browse playlists and enjoy their music, and the whole system will be controlled by voice commands. Furthermore, the company will also be selling stereo earbuds by the end of the month especially tailored to Glass. Full details after the break.
The Xbox One will hit shelves next week, and Microsoft is diligently planning in advance to ensure all of the associated services have been primed and are ready for the big release. SkyDrive, the Redmond outfit's fledgling cloud service, is one such entity, and today, Microsoft has delivered a fairly detailed blog post regarding the video and photo streaming element of the stock dedicated SkyDrive app for Xbox One will play out.
After a lengthy period of rumor and speculation, the Google Nexus 5 smartphone, along with Android 4.4 KitKat, is now upon us. The handset itself has been the subject of rave reviews, and while the updated software includes a hatful of useful enhancements, there remains, as ever, one or two nagging issues. Notably, the battery percentage option is still non-existent in stock Android, and although there's now a less-than-perfect workaround for those looking to dig out this almost essential feature hidden within KitKat's chocolatey exterior, we do hope Google plans to properly implement it in the near future.
Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto 5 has been the biggest-selling console title of this year, breaking several early sales records since its release in September. Many millions of gamers had been waiting years on its arrival, and barring a few technical glitches with GTA Online and whatnot, most have deemed the latest in the popular free-for-all classic series to have been worth the lengthy delay. To supplement the title, iFruit for iOS (and rather belatedly), Android, have given those running either of the two main mobile OSes an even richer experience, and although Windows Phone, as ever, remains bereft of any official support, a new third-party app for Microsoft's platform could serve as the perfect accompaniment to GTA 5.
I don't think it's too much of a statement to make that when the Xbox One finally arrives later on this months, relationships are going to be affected. As avid gamers go out and possibly queue for hours to pick up a console that has been several years in the waiting, some other halves will be feeling as though they've been replaced by a plastic box that, to them, just plays games and streams movies as the last console did. But while the general demographic of the console gamer tends to be young males, the latest Xbox One ad flips things a little, with the female taking the traditional position of the guy. It's mildly humorous, and we've embedded the 30-second clip below for your viewing pleasure.
