In almost every special occasion, Google jazzes up its homepage with a nice doodle, and Valentine’s Day is certainly no exemption. Why, Google puts up a Valentine’s doodle almost every year. Courtesy of Mashable, here’s a look at Google’s Valentine’s Day doodles in the previous years!
Try out Google’s interactive doodle for Valentine’s Day 2013! Click HERE and give it a go.
G4 reports that the first DLC map pack of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will finally hit PS3 and PC on February 28. The content was first made available to Xbox 360 late last month.
The DLC pack, called Revolution, features four multiplayer maps. These are:
Revolution also features a Zombies map, Die Rise, in which players fight to conquer a zombie infestation in a dilapidated Chinese city full of crumbling skyscrapers. The new Zombie game mode, Turned, puts players in the shoes of the undead. The goal in Turned is to kill the lone human on the map, and once you’ve successfully done this, you respawn as the lone human and when the other players—the zombies—come to get you, you try to fend them off.
The pack also contains a bonus weapon, the Peacekeeper SMG.
Revolution costs USD $14.99, standalone, and is also available as part of the Season Pass deal at USD $49.99.
For those who have owned consoles and their successors, you’ll notice that some of them are backwards compatible—the PlayStation 2 could play PlayStation games, and initially, the PlayStation 3 could play both PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games. However, that all came to an end when the “thin” PlayStation 3 came out. The next generation of consoles wants to allegedly do away with backward compatibility completely.
“An important thing to remember is that next-gen consoles will most likely not be backwards compatible…and if you [play] multiplayer on a game, you’ll most likely not be able to play with someone on a different generation,” said Electronic Arts Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen, who was addressing investors gathered at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference.
The PlayStation 4 is rumored to have x86 architecture, which will make backwards compatibility much more difficult to install. In addition, the Xbox 360’s successor is also rumored to have a new wireless protocol, which might make it less reliant on controllers, although it is not known whether or not it will be backwards compatible.
“I will say that the trend in the business is to have that always-on connectivity and connect with a customer, and to the extent that the software identifies a certain customer, is going to create some issues going down the road in the used game market. But I do believe that the consumer likes it, and it’s been good for the retail channel,” Jorgensen added.
Sony is expected to (possibly) reveal the PlayStation 4 on February 20. There are no release dates yet for either the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox 360’s successor, but they are expected to compete with Valve’s Steam Box, which seeks to bring the PC into the living room.
Source: Gamasutra
A developer today has revealed a potential privacy bug with Google Play. Sydney app developer, Dan Nolan discovered that when customers bought his app from the Google Play Store, their details were sent to his Google Play Developer account. As Nolan says on his blog, “If you bought the app on Google Play (even if you cancelled the order) I have your email address, your suburb, and in many instances your full name.”
It seems that the bug is linked to Google Wallet, the payment gateway that Google uses for processing payments to developers in Google Play. It seems that Google Wallet does not distinguish payments made for actual physical goods and virtual payments, and nowhere does it state during the app checkout process that your information is being sent to a third party. Dan stresses that this particular bug has a large chance of being abused by unscrupulous developers and spammers, and should be fixed by Google.
Source: Dan Nolan
According to the World Risk Report published by Germany-based Alliance Development Works in October 2012, the Philippines ranks as the third country in the world that is most prone and vulnerable to disasters. This means that your data is, unfortunately, quite likely to get lost, corrupted or, given the nature of the Internet, compromised. The frightening reality is that the vast majority of SMEs do very little to protect and backup their data, and those who do often do so in a manner that leaves information in a location that can be easily compromised. Backups on flash drives, while hands, fast and convenient, will do little for you if the physical device is lost or stolen.
IP Converge Data Services, Inc. (IP-Converge), a wholly-owned subsidiary of ePLDT, Inc., announced that it is partnering with Symantec, a global leader in security, backup and availability solutions, to launch IPC Backup Cloud, the Philippines’ first and only cloud-based enterprise data backup service powered by Symantec NetBackup. This allows their services unrivaled reliability and access to SMEs and puts the smaller fish in the same league as the bigger players who have greater access to resources and manpower when it comes to data protection and backup.
The availability of IP-Converge to the SME means that they will now be able to business on a level playing field with large enterprises. IP-Converge’s infrastructure means that clients will be able to implement a business continuity plan in the event of a disaster, without the need to implement complex in-house backup systems, without a huge CAPEX to worry about; just a simple, predictable monthly fee based on the amount of data backed up. The archiving, backup and recovery software also allows users to keep mission-critical data safe and available for future reference, as well as backtrack and access archived data for reference to new projects.
The service is the first of its kind in the country, and gives cloud backup service to local businesses, along with servers stored in-country, as well as local service and support. HEad over to www.ip-converge.com for more info.
HP’s mobile dreams was dashed when it effectively shuttered WebOS a few years back, but it seems that the company is willing to go to great lengths to get back into the mobile game, which includes adopting an established OS to do so. Read Write Mobile is reporting that the company is adopting the Android OS for its mobile devices, and will start off by creating a hi-end Tegra 4 tablet. The company has no plans to make a smartphone this year, unfortunately.
According to ReadWrite’s sources, the tablet has been under development since Thanksgiving and should be announced by the company soon. HP’s attempts to get into the mobile market was an unmitigated disaster as WebOS was met with a massive “meh” from consumers. HP’s internal woes didn’t help the cause, and WebOS was effectively killed in 2011. By utilizing Android this time around, HP is tapping into the ecosystem of the most popular mobile OS in the world that’s already rich in apps and content, something that the company could never replicate in WebOS.
Source: Read Write Mobile
Ten episode action series Banshee will premiere this Friday, February 15, on CINEMAX at 10 pm, with new episodes airing weekly at the same time.
The series, executive produced by Alan Ball, Greg Yaitanes, Peter Madissi, Jonathan Tropper and David Schickler, includes a veteran cast of actors that have been in other well-known TV series and movies. Antony Starr (Rush) is Lucas Hood, an ex-con and master thief who is now the sheriff of Banshee, Pennsylvania, where he continues his criminal activities as he is also being pursued by the gangsters he betrayed years earlier.
Ivana Milicevic (Charlie’s Angels) is Carrie Hopewell, Hood’s former partner in crime. She has no idea about her past and lives in Banshee under a new name with her family. Ulrich Thomsen (The World Is Not Enough) is Proctor, an intimidating and wealthy local businessman who disregards the law. Frankie Faison (The Wire) is Sugar Bates, a wise ex-boxer and ex-con who owns the local watering hole. Hoon Lee (Premium Rush) is Job, a computer hacker who assists Lucas in his criminal activities. Rus Blackwell (Recount) is Gordon Hopewell, Banshee’s district attorney and Carrie’s husband. Matt Servitto (The Sopranos) is Brock Lotus, a long-time deputy of the Banshee sheriff department, who feels threatened by Hood’s new role as the town sheriff.
Other cast members include Demetrius Grosse (Justified) as Emmett Yawners, another deputy in the Banshee sheriff department; Trieste Kelly Dunn (Brothers and Sisters) as Siobhan Kelly, a female deputy sheriff; Ryann Shane (Blue Bloods) as Deva Hopewell, the rebellious daughter of Carrie and Gordon; Daniel Ross Owens (Prison Break) as Dan Kendall, the idealistic young mayor of Banshee; Lili Simmons (Fat Kid Rules The World) as Rebecca Bowman, who lives a dual life as a devout Amish girl by day and a rebellious party girl at night; and Ben Cross (StarTrek) plays Rabbit, a Ukranian gangster who has been hunting Lucas and Carrie, who were previously under his employ, for 15 years.
Tropper and Schickler conceived and wrote the scripts for Banshee. The directors are Yaitanes (Emmy winner for House M.D.), S.J. Clarkson (Hunter), Ole Christian Madsen (Flame and Citron), Dean White (Once Upon A Time) and Miguel Sapochnik (House M.D.).
After what seemed like an eternity, Nokia has finally revealed their local pricing for two of their newest Lumia devices – the mid-end Lumia 820 and the entry-level Lumia 620. The Lumia 820 will retail for Php 18,990 and should find its way to Nokia stores today or tomorrow. The smaller Lumia 620 on the other hand will retail for Php 11,600 and should hit Nokia stores on the weekend. If you didn’t catch our initial story during the Lumia 820’s unveil, let us refresh your memory – the Lumia 820 rocks a 4.3-inch ClearBlack OLED WVGA 800×480 resolution display, 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4, 1GB RAM and wireless charging capabilities, and is powered by Windows Phone 8. The Lumia 620 on the other hand, uses a 3.8-inch TFT WVGA ClearBlack display with a resolution of 800×480, and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor with 1 Ghz dual-core CPU with 512MB of RAM. Unfortunately, there is still no sign of the flagship Lumia 920, though local Nokia reps say it is still on track for a late Q1 2013 release in the country.
Who doesn’t like free? In a deal that people may think is too good to be true, Box is offering 50 GB of cloud storage to anyone—for absolutely nothing. All you need to do is register and you’ll have another 50 GB of hard drive space available for you to use on the cloud.
Box will sync across both Mac and PC, and also has mobile apps for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and many other platforms, all of which you can view here. As with all “free” things, there’s a catch—each file has a maximum upload of 250 MB, so you might want to split those high definition movies up and put them back together later on.
You can send entire folders into the cloud by emailing a link and turn your folders into an online workspace, so you can have an office in the cloud as well. If you’re on the go, you can also access your files through the various mobile apps.
Smartphone battery life is an issue that has yet to be resolved. Sure, handy features like the power to operate two SIM cards are good things, but they can drain your battery. That’s something you’d never want to happen, most especially in urgent situations.
Enter the Cloudfone Thrill 430x. With nearly thrice the battery life of most smartphones and a PHP 7,777 price tag, the Thrill 430x offers a possible (and affordable) option for a solution to the long-standing battery problem of smartphones. Plus, it’s also dual-core and dual-SIM/dual-standby, so it’s one of the most reasonable deals available within its price range.
Last night we had a chance to see it upclose. Check out the photos we took!
Inside the Cloudfone Thrill 430x is a 1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as its OS. It hosts 768MB RAM and 4GB internal storage that’s expandable via microSD to up to 32GB. Connectivity features include Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth 3.0, 3G HSDPA.
At a little more than four inches tall and roughly 2.6 inches wide, the Thrill 430x is compact, size-wise. However, it’s a little bit on the thick side and that makes it bulky—too much to fit in a tight pocket, we think. It’s also pretty heavy. The screen is roomy at 4.3 inches, and the resolution fares quite well at 960×540 resolution. Above the screen is a front-facing camera for video calls and selfies.
The 8.0-megapixel shooter (that also records 720p HD videos) out back comes with a double LED flash that sits nicely beside it. On the other side of the rear camera is the phone’s built-in speaker. On its side are the external volume controls and power/lock button.
As we mentioned, this smartphone is thicker than most, but for a good reason. It packs an unbelievable 4,160 mAh battery, which lasts you for about three days of moderate use.
The Thrill 430x is worth mulling over if you’re in need of a value-for-money smartphone that won’t send you running to the nearest plug or force you to pull out a mobile charger if you’re on the go.
Lovers of affordable dual-SIM smartphones and WiFi capability has not seen any kind of love from our friends from Nokia, until now that is. The firm from Espoo have revealed their newest Series 40 smartphone, the Asha 310 earlier today, becoming the firm’s first ever dual-SIM handset with WiFi capability. As expected with their newer Asha devices, the Asha 310 sports Nokia’s built-in EasySwap Dual SIM technology which allows consumers to use the external slot on the Asha 310 to insert a secondary SIM without turning off the device. The Asha 310 comes with a 3-inch capacitive display, and is will be sold with a suggested SRP of $102 (or about Php 4149) before taxes or duties. No word on local pricing or availability as of yet, unfortunately.
Valentines day (or single awareness day, for all you single people out there) is almost upon us, and what better way to declare your love to your iPhone 5 wielding significant other than to have matching iPhone 5 cases? Yes, Ozaki’s newest iPhone 5 O!Coat Lover allows you to show the world that the you and your significant other are in love. Ozaki O!Coat Lover + iPhone 5 cases come in rubberized coating for superior grip and comfortable feel.
Each pair allows easy access to all iPhone 5 ports and controls and maintains the slim and sleek design of the iPhone 5. Each pair retails for Php 1,895, and is available at the PowerMac Center.
With Mobile World Congress a few days away, the proliferation of device leaks are going to substantially increase. Today’s leak is brought to you by the same man who managed to leak the Padfone 2, Lumia 920 and Deluxe leak before everyone else – a mysterious Twitter user named evleaks. This time around, he has managed to leak to Twitter an official looking render of HTC’s upcoming 5-inch smartphone dubbed as the One (formerly known as the M7). As you can see in the image above, HTC has been busy redesigning the look of their device, and it’s probably not a coincidence that the new device bears a resemblance to the iPhone and BlackBerry’s recently released Z10 smartphone. What we’re not liking though is the positioning of the capacitive controls on the bottom of the device and the lack of a multi-tasking button anywhere. Of course this is all just conjecture at this point (even with evleak’s solid track record) until HTC officially unveils the device at New York event on Feb. 19.
Source: evleaks (Twitter)
As a kid we loved Robocop. But deep inside our ten year old selves, we were secretly wishing that the ten feet tall, executive liquidating ED-209 robot that Robocop had to fight would actually win (damn you, stairs!) So you’ll have to forgive us if we’re a bit excited to have stumbled onto this eBay listing.
Of course, this isn’t exactly a working, walking, shooting robot. Instead, it’s a movie replica that was used during the filming of the inferior sequel, Robocop 2. That doesn’t matter anyway – the ED-209 is ten feet tall, has pneumatic cylinders built into its legs and electrical wiring for the hydraulics to work with the leg extensions and to rotate the body portion. Unfortunately, the legs require wooden support to actually stand up properly and the guns don’t actually unleash a hail of bullets at unfortunate executives, but hey, the sheer awesomeness of this thing makes those little flaws worth it. It’s currently listed for sale at $25,000 or about Php 1017125 before shipping and handling, so, uh, we guess we’re going to have to pass on this. If you do have the money to buy it (and somehow get it walking), keep it away from stairs, won’t you?
Source: eBay
It was only a matter of time until LG unveiled a newer, refreshed version of their L Series of phones, especially since the Korean company reported that they’ve managed to ship 10 million L Series devices last year. The company has officially announced that they will be releasing the next generation of the Optimus L Series at Mobile World Congress, dubbed simply as the Optimus L SeriesII.
LG says that the new iteration of the L Series has a more refined touch, and the company boasts that the new design philosophy of the L SeriesII has been enhanced to include four new design elements. The new smartphones will still retain LG’s key L Series features which includes QuickMemo, Quick Button and Safety Care. The company also said that their next generation of L Series smartphones will come in dual-SIM variants as well.
The first device for the Optimus L SeriesII will be the Optimus L7II. This particular device will sport a 4.3-inch WVGA IPS display, 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8225 dual-core processor, 768MB RAM, beefy 2,460 mAh battery and up to 4GB eMMC. The L7II will have an 8-megapixel camera on the rear and a front facing camera and will come with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean when it comes out. The L7II will hit Russia first before becoming available at a later date worldwide, though no price has been set as of yet. LG has also promised that they will be announcing the availability the Optimus L3II with 3.2-inch QVGA IPS display and 1,540mAh battery and the Optimus L5II with a larger 4.0-inch WVGA display and 1,700mAh battery at a later date.