Steve Wozniak, known to most simply as "Woz" was part of the original Apple team alongside Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne, and although the Cupertino co-founder prefers to spend his days enjoying all forms of technology, giving seminars and following philanthropic ventures, it was always written that he'd return to the Apple fold in one way or another. While he won't, of course, be chipping in on how to move forward with iOS, or mulling over the hardware implementations of the next MacBook, he will be gracing the App Store next week as a character in a shoot-'em-up title for the iPhone. Sound interesting? More after the jump!
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Everybody likes free stuff, and if that particular item of "stuff" happens to relate to something you've been enjoying for a decade, well, even better. To commemorate ten years of Xbox LIVE, Microsoft has been really generous to some ardent users of its online gaming service, and has, it would appear, begun sending off free, limited edition versions of the Xbox 360 console to some of those who've been playing all along.
Apple has led the way in removing optical drives from notebooks - a pattern followed by Windows OEMs with the ultrabook - and with the latest iMac refresh also eradicating the optical media slot, it's fair to say its days are numbered. With improved connections, most music, movies, and software can be downloaded and shared in a much more convenient fashion via the Web, but it's fair to say optical media isn't the only piece of once-essential hardware leaving our computers and notebooks in an apparent hurry. Improved online services have seen native storage space become less and less relevant, and with many consumers now relying heavily on Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud and SkyDrive, are we going to see an increase in Chromebook-esque devices which all-but omit the hard drive / flash storage?
Now Halo 4 and Call Of Duty: Black Ops II are done and dusted, perhaps the next most anticipated title will be Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto V. Up until recently, the developer has been dropping bundles of screenshots and images intermittently, but with pre-orders having officially begun and a Spring release date now confirmed, the level of excitement for the next version of GTA is reaching fever pitch.
HTC recently agreed to pay Apple 300 billion won (US$276 million) in a settlement over a number of patent disputes, but Samsung's mobile chief has chipped in to remind us that his company has no intention of following suit. Apple recently announced the settlement of an ongoing patent dispute with the "quietly brilliant" Taiwanese outfit, which has seen both parties put pen to paper on a decade-spanning worldwide licensing agreement that not only covers patents currently in existence, but also future patents.
After a great deal of toil, the CyanogenMod 10 stable ROM has now been made available for those running the LG Optimus Black, along with owners of the Samsung Galaxy S II and Galaxy S III. In addition, those in ownership of the Samsung-made Google Galaxy Nexus, the ASUS-manufactured Nexus 7 slate and the HTC EVO 4G can also join in the fun; more details below.
Since the release of iOS 6, the flaws of the Maps app have stood out like a sore thumb in an operating system which, otherwise, is fairly polished. When it first made its appearance along with the iPhone 5 back in September, people were tripping over themselves to pour scorn on an implementation which was supposed to be the center piece, but following an apology from Apple CEO Tim Cook by means of an open letter, the issue has petered out as consumers have sought alternatives.
The iPad mini is a highly sought-after device, and if you thought the $329 starting price was a little steep, things just got a whole lot more expensive. London-based Gold and Co. has released a limited edition set of 250 24kt gold iPad minis, so if you have lots of disposable cash and want to offload it somewhere, this looks like a viable avenue.
In terms of holiday season gifts, those of generations past may have received little more than an orange in a sock, but nowadays, electronic gadgets are at the very top of most people's "want lists." In anticipation of this, Apple puts out its "perfect gift guide" annually to help consumers decide which iPhone, iPad, iPod, or MacBook to purchase, and today, that day has arrived once again.
November is certainly a month for the major franchises. With gamers around the world having queued, currently queuing, or about to queue up for the special midnight release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the numbers are starting to trickle through with regards to last week's release of Halo 4. In selling a reported 3.1 million copies of Halo 4 in the first 24 hours, the title also earned $220 million on day one, and with Microsoft tipping the global $300 million to have been surpassed by tomorrow, we're looking at the biggest Halo launch in history.
