ASUS unveils 10-inch MeMo Pad Smart in Thailand

Asus has officially unveiled the rumored 10″ Memo Pad Smart ME301T at the Thailand Mobile Expo. Asus also is expected to showcase the tablet at the upcoming Mobile World Congress.

Asus Memo Pad Smart comes out with a 10.1″ WXGA display, 1.2 GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor along with 1 GB RAM, 16 GB inbuilt memory and microSD card support. The tablet has a 5-megapixel rear camera, 1.2-megapixel front camera and runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

A review of the Asus Memo Pad Smart is already available on YouTube.




The 9mm thick tablet is priced at THB10,900 (about $360) and will be available in white, blue and pink color variants.

Game of the year announced by Dice Submit

The D.I.C.E. Summit; a large annual event where all the big names in gaming gather to discuss the industry, the games, the successes and failures.

Last night was all about the successes though, as the D.I.C.E. Award winners were announced...



The full list of award winners:

Action Game of the Year - Borderlands 2 (Gearbox Software)

Mobile Game of the Year - Hero Academy (Robot Entertainment)

Handheld Game of the Year - Paper Mario Sticker Star (Intelligent Systems)

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Story - The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)

Outstanding Character Performance - The Walking Dead: Lee Everett (Telltale Games)

Downloadable Game of the Year - The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)

Casual Game of the Year - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Web Based Game of the Year - SimCity Social (Maxis, Playfish)

Family Game of the Year - Skylanders Giants (Toys for Bob)

Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year - Mass Effect 3 (Bioware)

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year - XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis Games)

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Sports Game of the Year - FIFA Soccer 13 (EA Canada)

Racing Game of the Year - Need for Speed Most Wanted (Criterion Games)

Fighting Game of the Year - PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (SuperBot Entertainment)

Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity - Halo 4 (343 Industries)

Outstanding Achievement in Animation - Assassin's Creed III (Ubisoft)

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering - Halo 4 (343 Industries)

Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering - XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis Games)

Adventure Game of the Year - The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Game of the Year - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Many games were nominated, and there were some expected winners, such as Borderlands 2 for Action Game of the Year, and Mass Effect 3 as best RolePlaying/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year. However, the real surprise is Journey - winning 8 awards and taking Game of the Year.

The Journey studio, ThatGameCompany, actually went bankrupt before releasing the game, but these awards prove that the game was a fantastic success for the developers.

Launch new version of the console every year by Ouya

The Kickstarter funded Android gaming console OUYA is finally set to go out in the hands of anxious Kickstarer backers and eventually, regular customers. But turns out, a newer version of the console isn’t too far away from now.

Talking to Engadget, CEO of OUYA Julie Uhrman said that “There will be a new OUYA every year. There will be an OUYA 2 and an OUYA 3.” What OUYA is aiming for is a smartphone-like update strategy, where they will update the console every year with newer processors and more memory.

While a yearly update cycle might not seem too different than what phone and tablet companies do, it’s way too fast when compared to traditional game consoles that have a life of 6-7 years. Although it won’t be a major issue with OUYA since the games will be backward compatible, something that is often not possible with traditional consoles and your older games will carry forward since they are associated with your account. Also, with just $99 for the console, there won’t be too much of a buyer’s remorse even if your console becomes outdated a year later.

Still, it would be hard for the makers of OUYA to convince buyers to purchase the current console a few months down the line with the new model just around the corner. Especially since the NVIDIA Tegra 3 in the current OUYA is already pretty outdated.

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A New CALL OF DUTY title gets schedules for Q4 2013

Only weeks after the release of Call of Duty - Black Ops 2: Revolution, we have the announcement that another COD game is on the way.

In a Conference Call, CFO Dennis Durkin mentioned that the next title should land this year...

During the conference call Durkin said, "The Call of Duty franchise continues to set the bar for innovation and we expect a new Call of Duty game in development for 2013 to raise that bar even higher".

We don't think the game mentioned is Call of Duty: Online, since the talk of innovation doesn't sound like it will be multiplayer centric. After all, the current multiplayer seems to work well, and why fix what isn't broken?

We can however guess that the mysterious title will be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, given how Activision normally rotate their title releases. There isn't any firm information however, and probably won't be until we hear about it at E3 or the like.

New Xbox to be always online

NEW XBOX TO BE ALWAYS ONLINE, NO SECOND-HAND GAMES PLAYABLE

Rumours about the new Xbox have struck the Internet once again, and this time they reveal some less appealing news.

The rumours state that the Xbox 720 will be required to be online at all times, and does not support second-hand games..

Sources who are said to be working on the console revealed the features stated above to Edge. According to the sources even physical copies of games will require an Internet connection in order to be played.

Another thing to note is that gamers who buy physical copies will receive an activation code that will only work on their account. Due to this, trading and lending games will be impossible.

Hardware

The new Xbox is also said to support Blu-ray, something that was bound to happen, due to the increased and still increasing size of games, that comes with improved graphical detail and game complexity. Furthermore the new Xbox is said to have an AMD x64 CPU with eight cores at 1.6 GHz clock speed, a D3D11.x 800MHz graphics card and 8 GB DDR3 RAM. It is also said that Kinect is built in the new Xbox, and that the system is improved overall.

More and more information is starting to leak about the next-gen consoles, as we presumably approach their reveal. Sony might reveal their console on a pres conference on February 20th, whereas Microsoft is most likely to reveal their new Xbox around E3.

PS4 COMING TO EUROPE IN 2014

According to the newest but solid rumours, the PlayStation 4 should hit stores in 2014 in Europe. Japan and the United States should get access a little earlier.

Some fresh details about the specifications have also come out, which also states the specs compared to that of the new Xbox. Enough reason to take a look...

Sources from both Edge and Polygon state that the new PlayStation 4 will launch at the start of 2014 in Europe, whereas it will launch at the end of 2013 in the USA and Japan. The reason for the earlier release in the United States and Japan is to be able to compete with the new Xbox.


New controller and additional features

Sources also claim that the PlayStation 4 would have a new controller, which would have a touchpad instead of the start, select and PS-buttons. In addition to that, the controller would have an added 'share' button, with which people can put in-game screenshots and videos online. The PlayStation 4 would also record the last fifteen minutes of gameplay, without having to use any extra processing-power.

Hardware

It is said that Sony will be launching an improved PlayStation Eye (camera present in the PlayStation 3), which would work together with the PlayStation Move, just like the case is now. The hardware would look a lot more like that of the PC than the case is now. Due to this, it's easier for developers to develop games that can easily work on all platforms, and PC-ports will most likely be better due to this.

Also, the PlayStation is said to be slightly more powerful than the new Xbox. The Xbox currently has more RAM (8 GB) than the PlayStation 4 (4 GB), but Sony is aiming to reconcile this, according to the sources. Also, both consoles are said to have 8-core CPU's, with low clock rates.


Revealing the PlayStation

We've been saying that the consoles will be revealed for a couple of years now. This seems now to be closer than ever, as the parties themselves (Sony and Microsoft) have announced to be revealing their new console soon. Sony announced to be holding an event on February 20, in which the 'future of the PlayStation' would be revealed, as we said earlier today. One and one makes two, and it is likely the new PlayStation will be revealed at this event, which would confirm earlier rumours claiming the new consoles would not be revealed at E3, but on an own event of both parties.

Microsoft Office 2013 and Office 365 Home Premium go on sale

The Microsoft Office 2013 and Office 365 are finally on sale. The Office 365 Home Premium is currently available for $99.99 a year as expected. For that kind of cash you get to install the software on up to five PC’s or Macs.

Office 365 is also available in a “University” version for all the college students and the variant is priced at $79.99 with a four year plan. Microsoft is giving away free 20GB of SkyDrive storage with each subscription.

Microsoft Office 2013 Home and Student is currently available for $139 and comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. The Home and Business package also adds Outlook and costs $219, while the professional package comes with all the above plus Access and Publisher for $399.

All these Office 2013 offers include one user lifetime license, but do not come with any free cloud storage space.

PlayStation 4 launch in May or June

The next-gen Xbox countdown already started and Sony must be feeling the heat coming from its competitor.

The vice president of Sony Home Entertainment just couldn’t help himself, but tease the masses of PlayStation gamers with the upcoming fourth version of the console.


Hiroshi Sakamoto has hinted of a “big announcement” coming either earlier in May or at the E3 2013 in June. This means that if Sony doesn’t announce anything in May, then we’ll witness both companies debut their next-generation gaming consoles in June at E3 2013.

He also added that Sony “expects to deliver great news”, which are going to be a big step forward in Sony’s console roadmap.Sony’s upcoming gaming console is expected to pack NFC and rely a number of its key feature on it. The next PlayStation is also speculated to feature support for Ultra HD displays.

THQ Assets sold and Company Dissolved

Multi-Million dollar company THQ is no more.

CEO Brian Farrell and president Jason Rubin have sent a letter to the employees stating that the company will be broken apart and their assets will be sold to different companies. They are also currently presenting their case to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court...

Their Assets were sold off as so:-

Relic Entertainment and Company of Heroes franchise - Sold to Sega Corporation for $26.6 million

THQ Montreal, including 1666 and Underdog - Sold to Ubisoft for $2.5 million

Evolve aka Metamorphosis - Sold to Take-Two Interactive for $10.894 million

Volition and Saints Row franchise - Sold to Koch Media for $22.3 million

Homefront franchise - Sold to Crytek for $544,218

Metro franchise - Sold to Koch Media for $5.8 million

South Park: The Stick of Truth - Sold to Ubisoft for $3.2 million

The fate of the Darksiders series and it's developer Vigil Games is still unknown. "We will make every effort to find appropriate buyers, if possible." said Farrell and Rubin.

The auction document also contained information about an announced game called "Underdog" by THQ Montreal. Along with this another game "1666" was also found.

The document suggests that High Voltage Software and Volition Inc. are working together on the development of Saint Row 4.

Most employees will be offered jobs by their new owners, but it is a little uncertain as all the positions might not be needed by all the companies.

Employees that are not part of the sale will be left unemployed, though a small number of staff will remain employed at THQ, Agoura Hills, California beyond 25th January to assist in the transition stage.

"While the company will cease to exist, we are heartened that the majority of our studios and games will continue under new ownership," Farrell and Rubin said. "We were hoping that the entire company would remain intact, but we expect to hear good news from each of the separate entities that will be operating as part of new organizations.

"For those THQ employees who are part of entities that are not included in the sale, we are confident that the talent you have displayed as part of THQ will be recognized as you take the next steps in your career," they said.

This is truly a sad day for gamers. What are your thoughts on this? Will the new owners be able to develop THQ's games to their potential and live up to the standards?

Microsoft reports final quarter of 2012 results

Windows sales up, but income is down

Microsoft had an interesting final quarter for 2012 – the three months period that saw the launches of both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. As a result, the company is reporting record revenues but also a slight decline in operating income.

Sales of Windows saw a 24% increase from the year ago quarter, but the Windows 8 launch is behind the Windows 7 launch, which boosted sales by 76%. Even Vista brought a 65% jump in sales, though in terms of monetary value the Windows 8 launch brought in more cash (Vista replaced 5 year old XP, while Windows 7 is still relatively recent).

The Surface tablet, the flagship Windows 8 device, was not mentioned at all. Microsoft expects Windows sales to pick up as more touch-enabled Windows 8 devices hit the shelves (including the x86 Surface Pro).

Anyway, revenue for the final quarter of last year was $21.5 billion, up 3% from Q4 of 2011. Operating income, however, went down 3%.

The decline can be explained with reduced sales with the Microsoft Business Division and the Entertainment and Devices division. The Business Division is responsible for Office, which is due for an upgrade soon (the dip in sales is the calm before the storm).

The Entertainment and Devices division handles both Windows Phone 8 and Xbox / Kinect. The Xbox 360 is heading towards retirement (as rumors of its successors increase) and WP8 is picking up steam – Nokia, which is most closely aligned with the mobile OS, went back into profitability for its last quarter of 2012.

You can get the detailed numbers on Microsoft’s financial quarter from its press release.

Samsung showcases flexible OLED displays

We have been hearing rumors of these for a while now but Samsung has finally come clean with their YOUM flexible OLED displays at CES this year.

Although no actual product using these displays have been announced so far, Samsung did showcase three applications of it. One of them had the design of a regular smartphone, with just the right edge being bent downwards. This bent strip displayed content in landscape mode, so that even if you have the phone in a case, you can see notifications and such from the side at a glance.


The other two designs included a device that couple be folded up in the middle and another one where the display could be rolled up and retracted.

Thanks to the flexibility of the display, we might finally start seeing some disruption in the design of smartphones, which have turned into boring slabs over the past years. The flexibility also means that these displays are a lot more shock resistant. It remains to be seen what product Samsung would choose to put it in first.

Google Maps accessible once again on Windows Phone browser

Last week we reported that the mobile web version of Google Maps service was no longer accessible through the Internet Explorer browser on Windows Phone devices. Although the service wasn’t officially supported because Internet Explorer does not run on the WebKit engine that the site is optimized for, it did used to work somehow until Google pulled the plug, citing incompatibility reasons.

Now, one week and lots of outrage later, the Google Maps website is once again accessible through Internet Explorer on Windows Phone. Admittedly, it won’t run as flawlessly as it does on iOS or Android devices because it’s still optimized for WebKit but at least you can use it now.

No reason has been given this time as to why this functionality was suddenly restored.