The console wars aren't fought, and certainly aren't won on paper, but the developers of the PlayStation 4 claim that the forthcoming games and entertainment machine is 50% more powerful than its adversary, Microsoft's Xbox One. This mightn't have any bearing on the decisions of the masses, particularly given that the Redmond's console arrives with the incredibly popular Kinect peripheral right out of the box, but given how the PS4 is also one hundred bucks cheaper than the Xbox One, purists may feel enticed by the package offered by Sony.
We finally saw an end to the long drawn out affair that was Microsoft's courtship of Nokia a few days back when it was announced that the Redmond firm would be buying Nokia, or at least the interesting parts of it. Microsoft's biggest Windows Phone partner, Nokia, has arguably been the one OEM that has thrown all its weight behind the Windows Phone platform, and with good reason. Microsoft famously paid a small - or not so small - fortune to get Nokia to make Windows Phone handsets exclusively and it was perhaps only a matter of time before a purchase was made.
Voice assistants such as Siri have certainly risen to prominence over the past couple of years, and many companies beside Apple have tried to implement similar technology into their products. Microsoft, fresh from its purchase of Nokia's devices and services division, is reportedly plotting to do exactly that in constructing a voice assistant for Windows Phone currently codenamed 'Cortana.'
Well that didn't take long. Just hours after Apple announced the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, some of its competition is already beginning to launch the first attacks aimed to poke fun at the devices.
Microsoft's Surface tablet may still be a relatively new device to market, but already the company is looking ahead to the Surface 2, and with speculation having been on and off for the past couple of months, including a set of leaked Surface Pro 2 specs in the last few days, the company has officially announced an event in New York on 23rd September. Details after the break!
MSDN and TechNet users can now officially download Windows 8.1 RTM bits. It's fair to say that, as far as new Windows releases go, Windows 8 wasn't the most well-received. With plenty of criticism from users bemused as to the extent of the changes, Microsoft has somewhat gone back to the drawing board, keeping some of the new implementations while also offering a little more familiarity to proceedings.
Although the Xbox One has been revealed and, more recently, finally been given a release date, we're still learning new and exciting things about Microsoft's console every day. The official Microsoft support channels on the various social networks have been inundated with questions from eager gaming fans, and, slowly but surely, the Redmond company is getting around to divulging some of this important information. In the latest, it looks as though the Xbox One will be able to connect up to eight controllers at any one time, meaning those looking to enjoy extended family / friend multiplayer match-ups probably won't need to keep rotating. By the same token, the PlayStation 4 will only support a maximum of four, but given the limited support for more than four competitors, as well as the practical issues, this shouldn't be a deal-breaker.
With the Xbox One almost upon us, it's easy to forget that its predecessor, the Xbox 360, still has a fairly important role to play in the gaming world. With several key releases upcoming, including Grand Theft Auto 5, consumers will continue to purchase the console in their thousands. With that said, support for the older machine will eventually begin to dwindle as the Xbox One takes a stronghold, and Microsoft has just suggested that Xbox 360 support could cease in 2016.
We knew roughly when it would arrive, but until a few minutes ago we didn't know for sure. Now all the guessing is over with though, and we know exactly when we will be able to get our hands on the new Xbox One: November 22nd.
Hot on the heels of the news that Microsoft has spent $7.1 billion on Nokia, the company behind Windows Phone has had a go at explaining the acquisition by releasing a typically Microsoft PDF. With Nokia not exactly setting the world on fire with its handsets, and coming fully loaded with its own problems, the once proud phone manufacturer was already working extremely closely with Microsoft and with all its eggs in the Redmond firm's Windows Phone basket, talk of a buyout has been doing the rounds for a long time. The fact that it actually happened has still come as a surprise to many, however.
