Guild Wars 2, gets a release date!

The much anticipated sequel to Guild Wars has finally gotten a release date of August 28th.  This MMO is buy once play for free.  In other words you don't have to pay a monthly subscription in order to enjoy this game and unlike free to play games you do not have to buy certain items or abilities.  You simply pay once play forever.  Check out the release trailer below.

Viggle for Android finally available.

Viggle the tv companion app that lets you earn points for rewards by watching tv, is finally available for Android.

Simply install the app, sign up and let the app listen to what you are watching and start earning points.  It is pretty easy to use and I have myself redeemed several itunes gift cards.  There are a lot of things available for rewards and they change often.  You also get extra points for watching certain shows which Viggle will show you on the What's on button.

Download it and start earning your points today.

The Nexus 7 inch tablet from Google is real.

After many rumors and leaks Google today announced their competitor to the Amazon Kindle Fire.  You have here a Nexus 7 inch tablet made by Assus and being sold by Google for $199.  The specs on this tablet blow the Kindle Fire out of the water and pretty much make this a no brainer of a choice between the two.  Preorders start today and will ship sometime mid July.

The specs are:

1280 x 800 HD screen
Tegra 3 Processor
Front - facing camera
Wifi, Bluetooth, & NFC
8 and 16 gig models
1 gig of ram
9 hours of HD video


This tablet looks really nice and it is hard to believe it will only be $199 as it offers a lot more than the Kindle Fire does and will have full access to the Google Play store which the Kindle Fire also does not have.

Check out the introduction of the tablet below.

Gaming on the Go: Darkside

This is a fun free game for iOS that has you shooting up space junk and enemy ships while circling an asteroid.  The free version offers arcade mode, but it offers an in app 99 cent upgrade you get a few different modes of play.
The graphics of the gameplay look really great but the menu screens just don't seem to match up with the style of the gameplay, but other than that the game is really well put together.  After you get used to the gameplay it will be fun and addictive.  Check it out in the App store today.

Google Nexus Q

So Google had a lot of things to show off at their keynote today.  The most interesting is the Nexus Q.  It is basically Googles answer to the airplay that iOS devices have expect that it offers cloud streaming and control from anyone on your wifi who has an android device.  For $299, though this fancy music streamer is not worth the price to me.  They need to add a lot more than just this novelty to make me want to pay that much.  I would rather have an Appletv, or the new Vizio Googletv for $99.  Regardless though it is a great design and a neat concept so check out the launch videos below.

Dawnguard now available for Xbox 360.

Ready to get your Vampire on?  Well if you have an xbox 360 you are in luck as the first DLC for Skyrim has landed at your door steps.  If you are like me and have a PS3, or a pc then you have to wait a month.  I don't like waiting, but hopefully it will be worth the wait.

Is this the Google Nexus Tablet?

Gizmodo is reporting that the above picture is a leaked picture of the upcoming Google Branded Tablet that is being made by Asus.  It supposedly has a 1.3 Gz  Tegra 3 processor, 1 gig of ram, 16 gigs of onboard storage, a front facing camera, and an IPS display.

It is believed to be a 7 inch tablet to be priced around $199.  While these specs are no iPad killer it is definitely would blow the Amazon Kindle Fire out of the water.  This is probably their main target since the kindle fire does not use Googles own app store but Amazon's own personalized app store, which means Google doesn't get to see any of that money.

This is a nice looking tablet if this is what it will look like.  Will Amazon have a counter offer after the announcement come this wednesday?  We will just have to wait and see if these rumors are true and what if anything Amazon plans to counter this device with.

Spec Ops: The Line releases today.

Just watch this video and tell you me  you don't want to play this game!

Facebook just changed your default email address.

For the reason of simply no one ever used it, facebook over the weekend decided to change everyones default email address to their @facebook.com address.  I really do not see why facebook would try something like this without first asking for peoples permissions first.  Have you ever used your @facebook email address?  Yeah neither have I.   So, on your profile if someone was looking for your email address it wouldn't give them the address you actually use but the @facebook.com address instead.  This is annoying, and I assume you have to go back into settings in order to change this back for yourself.  That is if it will stay that way this time.  I have a feeling that facebook will get a lot of bad press for this and in my opinion it is well earned.  They have no right to change your information that you have specified on your profile page.  If they really wanted us to use their email service then maybe they should of made a better product to for us to want to use it.

This weeks FLOG.

As always make sure to subscribe to the Youtube channel of Geek and Sundry.  Enjoy!

The Windows Phone Challenge, 5 days in.

One week down and I can say I really like this phone.  The thing I have noticed the most about it is the fact that it is different from pretty much any other phone out there.  I also get a lot of comments from people about how much better they can hear me on this phone as compared to my iPhone.  Now that part kind of surprised me and it kind of didn't.  For all the awesomeness of Apple phones their call quality and ability to hear well isn't ranked all that highly.  I can also say that so far I do not miss my iphone at all.

Day one of using this phone took a little bit of time getting used to.  The phones operating system does have a few different mechanics as compared to iOS and Android.  But after I got used to them I actually started to like them.  Case in point if you are on your apps list or your contacts page.  Simply click on a letter and it will bring up the alphabet, tap the letter that the contact or app starts with and it will take you immediately to that section.

 This takes the one grip I had with the UI out of the equation, the fact that your apps are listed in order in one single file line.

Now to answer your burning question.  Does the lack of apps bother me.  This answer for me so far is no, but let me explain further.  First off, I have an iPad so any app I had on my iPhone I have a version of it on my iPad.  As far as games go most of the bigger games I liked to play on iOS I enjoyed playing on my iPad and not my iPhone anyway.  Next as far as the apps available to me.  Spotify, facebook, Netflix, twitter, Nokia's turn by turn navigation, Angry Birds, and Evernote are the apps I use a lot during the day especially at work.  They are all on the Windows Phone and so that is no problem for me there.  Also it was just announced that all the time waster games from Zynga will be coming to Windows Phone in a couple of months so there is that non issue.  Starting tomorrow, I will be back at work, and then we will have the true test of whether I will miss having some apps at my fingertips while at work.  

The things I like most about the UI:  Live tiles hands down are the best and most useful UI element in any mobile operating system.  They are beautiful and so informative.  They change to update you on relevant information pertaining to that app so that you don't even have to open an app to see what is going on with it or have a nasty annoying widget to tell you the weather.

The next aspect I really like is the people HUB.  Here you have your phone book, twitter feed, and Facebook feed all together in one streamlined interface.  So you technically do not even need to have a facebook or twitter app on the phone because all the info you need on the go is integrated into the phone.  It is a nice feature that was really thought out for a true integration.  You can also add your live account, and linked in account to the people hub as well.

If you look at the above picture of the people hub you will notice the contrast of the screen and how the apps are in general set up to be clean and informative to your needs.  To access other parts of the app you simply swipe left or right.  In this case if you swiped left you would see your recent section, which shows all the people you have recently contacted.  Another swipe will take you to your contact page where there is a list of all your contacts.

A side note that you may notice on the above picture, the resolution is not Retina Display but this is a limitation of the current version of Windows 7.5.   Coming from the iPhone it was noticeable at first but I can say I don't notice it much anymore unless I am loading a webpage with small writing in Internet Explorer.  This of course will be fixed in Windows 8 so any newer phones will have much better resolutions on their screens.  The bright AMOLED screen is beautiful though.  It makes the colors on the phone pop and makes it easier to see in bright light.

The next thing I was pleasantly surprised to find was the really great voice command service offered inside of Windows.  It isn't as "fancy" as SIRI and give you quirky comments and such but it can launch apps read your text messages, allow you to voice dial, speak your text messages and send them, ask sports scores, and search the web for you.  All of which Siri does as well (or will do, after iOS 6.0.)  I found this really handy while driving and having my phone hooked up to the bluetooth in my car.  The phone would tell me I received a new text message and who it was from.  I had the phone read it to me and I replied back to that person without ever touching my phone.  I really enjoy that feature.

All in all so far I have had a great experience with the Nokia Lumia 900.  It is a great phone and a cool UI.  The Appstore maybe lacking in exact copies of certain iOS apps.   But for what they don't have their a lot of other apps that do basically the same exact thing or that app will be available soon.  Once this app problem is fixed with Windows Phone it will be a great competitor for Android and iOS.  The UI is such a fresh take and welcomed from the stale never really changing face of iOS and Android.  I will give another update 15 days into using the phone to let you all know how it is still holding up.  I do consider myself to be a power smartphone user so I am interested to see how this app thing holds up during my everyday work  environment.

So far I would highly recommend this phone to anyone because it simply is a nice phone.  If you want the latest and greatest I would hold off on getting a Windows Phone until Windows 8 comes out in the fall.  If you are simply needing a phone that works well and can do most of the apps I have mentioned above then this phone is a definite buy.

What Google Needs to show us this week at I/O

Apple has had their week, showing us what it means to make an amazing Laptop.  Microsoft has had their week, showing the future of computing and how they plan to make their phones finally competitive.  Now it is Google's turn and here is what I think they need to do.

First off they need to fix their tablet problems.  The fact is that most Android tablets suck.  This doesn't mean that their hardware isn't there it's just that barely any developers write apps for Android Tablet's.  The iPad's ecosystem is just too strong when it comes to the quality of apps involved.  Also, now Microsoft has introduced one beautiful new tablet that is very promising, if they can deliver on what they showed off then Android Tablet's will have an even bigger problem.   If the rumors are true and Google announces a Nexus Table this week then hopefully they will introduce something that will make consumers look away from the iPad.  Something needs to be done to make Android Tablet's interesting to consumers.

The second thing they need to do is fix all this fragmentation.  Whether or not you agree or disagree that fragmentation is a problem, when you are about to announce your next version of Android and less than 10% of your users are on the current 4.0 platform, that is a problem.  Google should put their foot down and force their OEM's to get a better upgrade plan in place.  Also, and this is a personal note, I couldn't even tell you what Android 4.0 looks like because almost every android device has some sort of custom UI interface plugged in to what the Phone Manufacturer wanted.  Some of them are nice, but honestly I think it is annoying and sometimes makes Android look like crap.  Force them to change Google, yes you have a huge ecosystem with your Android operating system but do you really have brand loyalty.  Honestly, as annoying as it is that current Windows Phones will not get Windows 8, I think it would be even more annoying never knowing exactly when your phone will get the next version of Android, if it is going to at all.  Seriously the new Samsung Galaxy S III is just being released.  But in a few weeks, just watch and Samsung will release a new phone even better with Jelly Bean on it.  Even though Apple may be slow to update things at least you know that your phone is top notch at least for a whole year, and you know you will get an update even if it's limited (for no reason.) Google can easily fix some of these issues simply by laying down what phone companies must do if they want to continue using the Android operating system.  Don't believe me about fragmentation.  Just check out this picture below, it is a picture of all the devices that one developer must test their apps on to insure that they work correctly.  There are almost 400 devices here.  It shouldn't have to be that difficult.

To kind of some these things up, Google can fix their issues to maintain their current position simply by telling Phone companies what they can and cannot do, and get a regular updating system going for these phones.  Yes that might mean some of these custom skins of Manufactures would have to go, but seriously plain old Android is not ugly, it looks really nice I promise.  They also need to push their tablet market and make it relevant.  If they can show us this week that they can do some of these things or better then maybe they can deflate some of the steam that Microsoft has built for themselves this week.  Microsoft is gunning for them and they have the cash to throw around to make things happen, and even though they have been a sleeping giant in the past both Google and Apple need to not rest on their marketshares.  I am interested to see what Google shows us this week, hopefully it is enough to wow us. 

Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut DLC coming this month!

Bioware today announced the long anticipated "fix" the ending of the game.  On June 26th all three platforms will be able to download the DLC extended cut for free.

I for one thought there was nothing wrong with the ending.  For many people though, they thought it wasn't enough.  Even though it was a little cryptic this extended cut is suppose to elaborate  more on the ending of the game.  I do not think however people will get as  many options for an ending as some people would think, as this seems nothing more than an extended version of what happened with the original endings.  I guess next week we will figure out if it was worth the wait.

Nintendo Launched a new 3DS

Last night in a live stream Nintendo launched its new version of the 3DS called the 3DS XL.  XL meaning the screens are getting massive.  The larger top screen measures in at 4.88 inches while the lower touch screen comes in at 4.12 inches.  Another note is that this is a much heftier version of a portable gaming system and does not have a right thumb stick.  Why Nintendo did not announce this at E3 is a mystery, unless they didn't want to take too much attention away from the Wii U.

Sadly this is a pretty ugly upgrade without anything cool to show for it other than a larger screen.  If you live in Japan you better have your own AC adapter as this puppy will not come with an AC adapter.  Apparently this is done to save money, but will launch with an AC adapter in other areas around the world.  It is expected to laugh with a price tag of $199.99.

Blizzard is making some people very unhappy.

In the latest update of Diablo III, Blizzard has started a new policy as to where anyone who buys the digital copy of the game will be in restricted access for the first 72 hours of owning it.  Basically this means that you are stuck at level 13, no auction house, and limited interactions with other players.  This has already caused a lot of outrage but Blizzard is quoted as saying that this is a necessary step in order to combat fraud and to help keep everyone happy while playing the game.  I really feel like Blizzard could of came up with a better way to combat fraud other than this.  I mean they require you to constantly be online to play the single player game already.  You would think they could throw down the Banhammer whenever they felt like it.

Already angered by Blizzard, South Korea is making Blizzard issue refunds to players because of all the Error messages and inability to play the game when it was first released.  It seems that Korea is ran by gamers for sure.  haha.  I can only imagine what they will do once they hear this new twist to the Diablo III mess.

Anyone looking forward to Darksiders II?

Well if you are here is a new trailer video.  Enjoy!

More Assassin's Creed 3 game footage

Looks like we are just getting tons and tons more information coming from Assassin's Creed 3.  Below you will see some information concerning your typical stroll through Boston.  Pretty cool gameplay that falls in line with the other Assassin's Creed games.

Best geeked out babies room ever.

I would of totally have wanted a room like this when I was little.  The video below shows a great looking setup that a father did for his new born baby boy.  It is completely decked out in Legend of Zelda stuff and it looks awesome!

The new Windows Phone Start Screen.

Microsoft released a video showing in detail what sets the Windows Phone operating system apart.  Check it out below.

New iPhone's rumored to be dropping to a 19 pin connector.

Another rumor surfaced today saying that due to size contraints that Apple will be ditching the current 30 pin dock connector in favor of a new smaller 19 pin connector.  This as stated is a chance for them to save space so that they can cram more battery into the new phone.  This however would render pretty much all current accessories useless unless some sort of adapter comes out as well.  Even though that wouldn't be the best looking thing it would definitely make it a lot easier instead of having to go buy all new accessories for your iPhones.

Microsoft announces Windows Phone 8

Microsoft yesterday finally took the wraps off of it's upcoming Windows Phone 8 operating system.  While the future of the Windows Phone just got a lot interesting and promising, the current gen of phones are not getting as much love as they would like.

With the announcement yesterday, Microsoft said that the new Windows Phone 8 will be moving away from the CE core and moving to the NT core.  What does that mean exactly?  What it means is that it will share the same core as the actual Windows 8 operating system and the Windows RT tablet system. So you can in theory make an application for Windows 8 and with just a minor amount of tweaking make it compatible with all three platforms.  This is huge for developers and insures the strength and future of the mobile operating system.  This all comes at a price though as the current generation of Windows Phone 7.5's will not be getting the update to Windows Phone 8 simply because their hardware cannot support it.  But Microsoft isn't leaving you completely high and dry as they will be releasing an update for 7.5 to 7.8 which will give you some of the great features of Windows Phone 8.

Sadly other than the updated start screen there was not very much detail as to what exactly other features the current generation of Windows Phones will be getting.

As far as developers go any app that you have currently made for Windows phone 7.5 will work with Windows Phone 8 without anything needing to be done to them.

It is a bitter sweet move by Microsoft but it was one that had to be done.  If they want the Windows Phone to succeed they needed an updated and great core to their operating system that almost all developers know how to develop on.  With the Windows operating system being the largest and most used operating system in the world, they have insured that all these developers will already know how to make a great Windows Phone app simply by knowing how to make a program run in Windows.

Here is a quick rundown of some of the other features announced for Windows Phone 8:

*  With the addition of the NT core, this brings with it support for up to 64 cores of cpu power, SD card functionality and an increased resolution up to 720p.

* True NFC support in all phones.  Along with this they have made an app called Wallet where you can store all your coupons, credit cards, and giftcards and use the NFC technology to use them without having them handy.  This could mean a lot for NFC actually catching on and not just being a nice trick to have.

*  The updated start screen, where you can change the size of the tiles and add as many as 28 tiles on the start screen from one corner to the other if you wanted to do so, all while keeping the sleek clutter free design of the Windows Phone.

*  Full Skype and third part Voip support built into the operation system.

*  Nokia maps will be the main map application for all Windows Phones.  Currently the Nokia Lumia has a great advantage over most other phones because you get Nokia Maps free along with their outstanding turn by turn navigation app called Nokia Drive.  With Windows 8 all Windows Phone users will have access to these great maps.

As with their Surface announcement exact launch dates are not being discussed.  Only a "fall availability" has been announced.  This is a great and long over due leap for the Windows Phone Platform.  Hopefully with all these changes the Windows Phone app store will start seeing a lot more big name publishers moving in to take up residence. 

This platform is truly an original and stunning operating system that I hope truly catches on and truly compete with iOS and Android.  This operating system has a good chance at succeeding now and hopefully will not see the same fate as WebOS.

Microsoft is planning another conference about mobile phones for today!

Microsoft will hold a conference concerning its Windows phone 8 platform today at 12 Eastern time.  I will be bring you updates as I get them concerning everything announced today.  Looks like Microsoft is determined to make this their week for coolness.

Some of the rumored announcements for the Windows Phone 8 are:

* A move to the NT platform over from the current CE platform.

*Dual core support

*Higher screen resolution support

The thing I am hoping for most is the fact that they will hopefully announce tons more apps coming to their platform as well as my Nokia Lumia 900 getting the update as well.

Starcraft 2 could work on a Wii U?

According to Kotaku, a Blizzard Lead Designer has stated that StarCraft 2 could work.  Now he didn't say they were designing it or even started on a project like this so just calm down.  But it is an interesting statement none the less.  I am sure thought that Blizzard is still very skiddish when it comes to porting their games over to a console.  Even with the Wii U's tablet, there is still no replacement for a keyboard, which is almost mandatory for any serious gameplay for the majority of Blizzards games.  Hotkeys, anyone?

This is still a very fun thought though, what if Blizzard brought Starcraft over to a console?  They would definitely have to redo the control scheme to make it work.  Though I still would not know how they could replace the keyboard in this game.

Another idea would be a port of just the single player only option.  That would be interesting to see in deed.  But hey Starcraft is nice but give me my Diablo III on my PlayStation 3, NAO!!!!

A possible huge leaked document concerning the xbox

Looks like last week was Apples week and this week is turning out to be a good and bad week for Microsoft.  Rumors around the web for the last few days is that the image above was taken from a leaked document concerning the future of the next Xbox console.

Some of what is said is in the document fall in line with the current rumors of a release date set for the next Xbox for next year with a new version of kinnect, along with the just announced Xbox glass tablet apps.  It also mentions that by 2015 there will be an updated version of kinnect that will include glasses (as shown in the above picture.)  According to this document the Xbox is trying to be your complete living room device to include bumped up specs from the current 360, a DVR option, along with more integrated TV functionality.  All for the rumored price of $299.

One other very interesting thing mentioned in the document was Microsoft's plans to buy out the Onlive gaming service.  Who they deemed as a real threat to the console industry if they can get more mainstream.  Would this be to integrate it into the next Xbox or to simply just buy it out to keep it from being a competitor is not truly known from this document.

Whether this will be all true or not is left to be seen.  The original leaked document has been pulled from the website which it was on, but all in all there isn't too many things surprising from this document.  If it is just someones idea of an online prank it was a very elaborate one for sure.

Spotify to offer free streaming radio app.

Spotify just announced that with a new update to the iOS and Desktop applications, they will begin offering free streaming radio music service.  Similar to Pandora it will offer you to select stations based on artists that you like and then will begin playing songs from their music catalog to match that style of music.  It will be ad based (the same as Pandora) and will only allow you to skip a certain number of songs per hour.  It will work for free from their current apps and if you are a Premium member already you will not have the ads and you can skip however many songs you would like.

This is a nice move for Spotify as they have been lacking a true streaming radio station.  I have often wondered why they never tried to compete with Pandora more.  Spotify is an amazing service that I personally decided to use for the premium access and now I can use it for my random song listening instead of just having to open up Pandora on my phone.

This update is rolling out slowly for iOS and Desktop.  Android and Windows phone users, be patient as this update is promised for you guys as well in the near future.

Microsoft finally got their tablet PC right!

Holy Cow, Microsoft made something truly innovative!  This tablet is stunning.  Here is the back-story way back in the late 90's early 2000's good old father of Microsoft Bill Gates thought it would be a great idea to have a tablet PC.  Sadly, even though they  made software adjustments for touch, the OEM's just botched it up and it just didn't work well.  This tablet that was announced last night is basically what that original idea should of been, and I have to admit it looks stunning.  Microsoft just lite a fire under the OEM's to say hey this is what a Windows 8 tablet should be.  Now, go try to catch up to it.

Check out the announcement video below.

Now exactly how well will this go in the market against Apple and all the Google tablets out there?  Well here is the thing Microsoft for the most part is going a whole different route than Apple went with this tablet idea.  Apple believes that a computer and a tablet should be two different things for mostly different purposes.  So far this strategy has worked outstandingly well for them.  However, Microsoft is basically saying we think that the future of the PC is the tablet so their tablets will run Full Windows 8 mostly.  The reason I put the mostly at the end is that Microsoft is releasing two different versions one an ultra thin ARM based tablet will run Windows RT and the intel version will run Windows 8 Pro.  The difference is the ARM RT version will run Metro Apps only (similar to other tablet apps,)  but the fact that the intel version will run Windows 8 PRO means that not only will you have the great Metro style tiles for your tablet viewing but you will also have an actual PC under the hood.  Depending on the exact specs of these tablets (which hopefully we will now soon,)  you can do almost anything that you would do normally on Windows.

The design of this tablet is just great, very thin, very original design but what caught my eye the most is that cover keyboard.  Did you see it in the video above?  It is like Apple's smart cover but instead of just a felt lined inside to the cover you have an actual touch based keyboard built into the cover.  That is a great idea!  Apple please copy that for the iPad, stat!  haha.

Anyway back to the Surface Tablet,  We do not have exact specs, release dates, or price ranges yet, but hopefully we will have all that information soon enough.  (Update:)  We do know that the intel version will have in ivybridge processor and be similar in specs to all the Ultrabooks out there.  Both tablets have front and rear cameras, a full usb port, displayport, an SD card slot, and can come in a hard drive size up to 128 gigs.

Now, I have seen a lot of people talking about this online and saying great hardware but where are the apps!  Well, I do agree they should of spent a little bit more time explaining this concept but guys the apps are already out there (for the intel version.)  It's Windows, any windows app that will be compatible with Windows 8 will be compatible with this puppy.  I think they should of stated this a lot better in their presentation yesterday but the fact remains that this is a full fledged Windows Computer.  Now how will that all translate with the RT version?  I am not sure.  Simply translating Windows phone apps to the tablet may work but we have yet to find out exactly.   This may or not be worth it to the developers out there.  We will just have to wait and see. I for one do not understand why they wanted to make two tablets.  I feel like the true Tablet PC with intel will really take off but I am not sure about the RT version, with very little apps out there for the Mobile Windows platform I think it will be hard pressed to catch up with the iPad's and Android Tablet's out there.  But then again this true Tablet PC could really catch on and with this amazing design and innovation we can only assume it will sell like crazy!

This is a great showing from Microsoft.  How well will it compete will have to be seen, but keep in mind this is technically a whole different ball game when it comes to the tablet market or old ball game if you want to consider the original Windows Tablet PC's.  I am just excited to see Microsoft wake up and start really innovating here.  Finally someone other than Apple is making something really cool!

New FLOG for the week.

Hey guys sorry this posted so late but I am on vacation and my blogger decided not to release my scheduled posts today.  Sadly they are a little dated now (here's looking at you Windows tablet,)  so I will post up some things in the morning about the announcements today.

Anywho back to the point check out today's FLOG episode where Felicia and Robin try to make sushi, while reminding me that it's just easier to go buy it than make it yourself.  Enjoy

OH noes my Iphone go boom and how it will turn into an experiment with Nokia

So I knew that my trusted iPhone 4 was on her last legs.  The home button would take sometimes, 15 presses before it would recognize it and you can imagine how useless the phone is when that button doesn't work.  But I was really hoping that it would of held out till this fall so that I could pick up the iPhone 5.  I was crushed when today my phone (which pretty much is an apendage for me) was not responding to any of the actual button presses.  Turns out after taking it to the Apple store it was determined that something had caused the connection to all the physical buttons to stop working.  I could pay to have it fixed (not worth it by the way) or go ahead and get an iPhone 4s.  I will go ahead and say that I have no desire for the 4s, if I'm going to get a new iPhone it is going to be the 5.  Sadly, I have no extra phones laying around that I could use in it's place.  So the morale of the story is that I had to get a  new phone.  But which to choose.  I thought about Android but I have used them in the past and they are ok, very nice when it comes to customizable features but I don't like the fragmentation of updates for the OS.

To back track a little here in the story, I ran into an old friend the other day and she had a Nokia Lumia 900 (windows phone 7.)  I have talked about how nice the operating system looks and the phone is just stunning.  Well I got to play around with it for an extended amount of time and I really liked how Windows Phone operates.  It is a true, unique operating system.  I really liked it but the thought of the much smaller app store,  kind of made me think hard about that switch.

Here is a neat link that microsoft provides that will demo the operating system from your current phones web browser, check it out for yourself.  So when it comes to tech I really think things through before I make a purchase (OK, I admit sometimes with Apple products, I just buy, but they make it so hard to not do it.)  Anyway, I made a list of all the must have apps that I use daily on my iPhone.  When it came down to it, windows phone had about 85% of those apps and the rest could simply be replaced by apps that do the exact same thing.  I could get Spotify, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Netflix, and Evernote.  I thought that it sucked that a lot of the games I play had no Windows Phone app, but then I thought, Oh wait I have a New Ipad, I still have all of these apps and games.  To be honest, I mostly play all my games on the iPad because of the bigger screen anyways.

So I went to the AT&T store and looked at the phone and played with it for a while.  You just have to see one in person it just looks great.  After talking with the Sales guy, and I explained in our conversation that I have a blog and I could do a write up on my experiences with the Windows Phone, we came to an agreement that I could try the phone for 30 days (AT&T's normal exchange period) but not have to pay the $35 restocking fee if I did not like the phone.  So, considering I needed a phone desperately I bit the bullet and got this phone.  By the way it's only $99.

My thought process was if I didn't like it I could take it back in 30 days or also my Mother's contract, we share a family plan, would be up in August so I could use her upgrade for the iPhone 5 and give her this Windows Phone.  So I have a plan and now I am playing around with my brand new Windows Phone.  So far it has been extremely easy to setup, the one thing I do not like is the fact that you still have to plug it into a computer to update it's software, but that is for a different article.

I plan on giving a video review of what I think of the phone so far, sometime this week.  Then I will give an update next week to see how I am still liking it, and if I miss my iPhone and then again before the 30 day period is up.  So we will see if this Windows Phone is what it will take for me to leave my loyalty for iPhones.  This is my first non iPhone since the original iPhone was released in 2007.   Stay tuned for future updates on this experiment.

Oh look an actual single player trailer for God Of War: Ascension.

Looks like we can finally feast our eyes on a trailer for the single player gameplay of God of War:  Ascension.  Check it out below.

Microsoft Press Conference Scheduled for June 18th.

Microsoft yesterday sent out invites to a scheduled press conference on June 18th in Los Angeles.  It is rumored that they will be revealing there long talked about Windows 8 to ARM-based tablets.  Microsoft however is being silent on what exactly the press conference will be about.  

If this is what Microsoft has in store to be shown off it will be their first big push against the iPad and Android tablets.  They will have a lot of catching up to do, so hopefully they have a lot of coolness to convence people to switch from either of these platforms.  I will admit that the pictures of the Live Tiles look like they will be great and seem like they will be handy for using a tablet, which is the complete oposite of how it seems to work on an actual PC, (for the record I have tried it on an actual PC, the preview version, and it just seems to get in the way and you can't disable it.)  In my opinion Windows 8 is geared more toward a tablet so hopefully they will show how awesome it is at this press event.

Vizio Computers are now for sale!

Yesterday, Vizio had a press release for their new computer line.  We finally get to see what these guys have been cooking up for the last 6 months since their original announcement back at CES.  The most interesting thing is that all of these computers will start at $898.

That is an interesting start point I think.  The best deal here, from what little details we still have from the press conference, is the all in one computer.  Coming in at 24 inches and 27 inches with built in HDMI inputs for your cable box or video game systems and a sub woofer to boot, this is a great deal for $898.

You can tell that they have definitely taken their que from Apple and made these with very minimalistic designs.   I think all of them look very slick and well thought out in design on the outside anyway.  There will also be no bloatware on these computers, which is refreshing when it comes to a Windows computer.  They also seem to offer a pretty good line up of internal hardware including Ivy Bridge processors and Nvidia graphics chips.

On the notebook side some more details that we do know.  The notebooks will all have SSD hard drivers, and HD (1080p) displays.  They are referring to their ultrabooks as "thin and light,"  I suppose this is a way to differentiate themselves from all the other Ultrabooks out there.  It looks like the base price on all these will only get you an i3 processor and an i7 on the high end.  No word on the pricing of those high end models but it is a bit of a bummer that they start at an i3 for this price range you would expect more.

As these start trickling down into store shelves hopefully we will get more info and some detailed reviews of these products.  As they stand they are a fresh look on the windows platform and a welcome change.  I can't help but think for me I can spend $100 more and get an Apple Macbook Air or iMac which may or not be considered better products depending on your side of the Apple love/hate battlefront.  Regardless I am glad to see these finally available for sale and I hope it will reinvigorate the  stale PC design models.

Gameplay Walkthrough for Assassin's Creed III

Check out the video below showing a nice Gameplay Walkthrough of the frontier play in Assassin's Creed III.  The Assassin's Creed franchise have always been fun games to play and this one is shaping up to be just as awesome as the others.  Enjoy this nice walkthrough that will have you wanting to play the game yourself.

PetHub, a great tech friendly accessory for your pet!

PetHub is a new startup that offers some great and affordable features that can be used to keep tabs on your pets.  

PetHub, who recently got a nice $1.3 million in seed money to expand, offers some neat ideas on the whole pet tracking area.

You can get name tags or other accessories with info and a QR code that will allow people who find your lost pet to scan the QR code from their smartphone and you will be instantly alerted to the location of where your pet is at that moment.  They also have added an 800 number to the service for those that are less tech savvy to be able to contact you if they find your pet.  You can also have it tell the finder your information, the pet's allergies and medications, dietary needs, immunizations, vet insurance details, and more.

Now they offer a basic service, the details of which were just mentioned for a one time fee of $12.95.  They also offer a Silver and Gold offer with additional features like email alerts with GPS Data, shelter alerts, and insurance plans.   This is a pretty neat service and I for one am going to sign up for this service for my Husky.  Go to PetHub and check out what they have to offer yourself. 

iPad app of the week: Songza

Songza is a streaming music app for iPad, iPhone and android that provides 100% free music streaming with handmade playlists by music experts.

Some of the other key features are:  No audio advertisements & no monthly listening limits;  Stream thousands of original playlists;  Let Songza's "Music Concierge" find the right music for you at the moment;  browse all playlists by activity, genre, decade, & mood;  save your favorite playlists & share them via Facebook, Twitter, and email.

This app seems great and the fact that you can stream this app on your mobile device without having to have a premium account makes it very appealing.  

Did somebody say Transformers?

I hear they are more than meets the eye....  Ehh Ehh!?  Anyway dumb jokes aside I am looking forward to this game a little bit.  It seems just like the previous game the story will be told from the Autobots and Decepticons side of the story.  Pretty cool, but my favorite part is Dinobots!  Heck yeah!  Enjoy the video below.

So bummer news for you 3gs and iphone 4 users.

Looks like after playing around with the iOS 6 beta some developers are reporting that the 3D maps and turn by turn navigation will not work in the older iPhone 3gs and 4 models.  I guess since they don't get Siri that would make sense for the turn by turn navigation. 

Still a bummer though, I was pretty interested to see exactly what they meant that all iphones all the way back to the 3gs would support iOS 6.  I am sure we will be hearing more soon about certain parts of the OS that do not work with the older phones soon.

Nice Review of Batman Arkam City: Harley Quinn's revenge.

Gametrailers has a really nice video walkthrough and review of the DLC for Batman Arkham City gameplay action.  Check it out below.

Verizon finally announced their shared Data plans...

The problem is... It sucks!  Yeah big surprise here these new Data Plans really won't save you money.   Turns out that instead of just charging you one lump sum for a certain amount of data, say 3 Gigs or so, you are still charged per device.  Check out the chart below.

As you can see from the chart it is still a per device option so say for a smartphone it is still $40 per phone.  now to ad the amount of shared data you want refer to step 2 which is $50.  So basically if you were a small family with two smartphones you would be paying $80 for your line access and an extra $50 for the 1 Gig of shared data.  So pay a total of $130.  Now this may be about $10 cheaper than most people are paying now with Verizon, but look a little closer, you are also losing 1 gig of data.  Yeah not a great deal if you are asking me. 

So what is Verizon's intent on this?  Well it is basically a redesign on how they do data plans and how much you would get charged for overages.  Theoretically, if you say barely ever use any of your data per month and your spouse always goes over their limit then instead of getting dinged $10 each time you will get to share that data and hopefully avoid that overage fee.  So yes there is one way of saving money but remember again you are getting 1 whole gig less data when you share so possibly its not going to save you much at all since you would probably need to bump yourselves to a higher data amount so then again there goes that money you saved.

Now AT&T says they were thinking of doing the shared data plans as well.  Let's see how they end up doing it as well.  This is would be a good time for them to come in and actually save people money without actually removing some of what they get.  But that is in a perfect world and just like Verizon, AT&T wants the money.

Is Apple finally serious about gaming?

I know, I know, but it's really hard for me to not talk about everything Apple.  Especially when it's the week of WWDC and there is so much nerd candy everywhere one looks on the inter webs!  But anywho, with Apple showing off it's new retina display MacBook Pro with Diablo III, is it a sign they are serious about gaming?

I mean they are already a huge powerhouse in gaming even though they really didn't do anything to get there.  It would make sense that with this amazing new screen developers will think again about releasing their games for mac in a more timely fashion (aka not two years later.)  Apple though, really in the past has done  nothing to really drive game developers to its mac platform.  Could this all of changed with the introduction of the Retina Display?  

You could argue simply they could take advantage of it if people simply use boot camp and boot windows from there.  But can windows truly handle the retina display.  As of right now, no it cannot.  Will there eventually be drivers or some sort of update or hack made to allow windows to take advantage of it, probably but not as smoothly has it will run on OSX, I would think. 

It is all really just speculation at this point but it will be interesting to see if developers start paying more attention to Apples OSX platform for gaming.  I for one hope they do!

Why there was no mention of the Apple Tv at WWDC.

Even though everyone was rumoring, wanting, wishing, curiously awaiting an announcement about an update to the Apple TV we got nothing.  Here is why, Apple is a hype machine.  Simply put, part of Apple's success is the hype they build over their products.  They keep such tight security and control over announcements and any info on everything that they do.  This in turns keeps people on edge waiting and speculating what the next big thing from Apple will be.  This week was the Macbook, plain and simple so why take anything away from that juggernaut?  They wouldn't, if they want the hype to build even more they will do just like they have done for everything else.  Stagger the releases and announcements.  As it is right now we have the iPad in March, Computers and iOS in June, iPhones in September/ October.  To keep their hype train rolling they keep these things all spread out all year round so that way people are always talking about the new Apple products and here is the thing, it works.  All year round there is rumor after rumor, people lining up to buy their products.  So here is my prediction we will hear about this Apple tv either in August or more than likely post iPhone 5 announcement.  Besides they need something for the holiday season since the iPods are a thing of the past pretty much.  Just saying.  Oh and if I am right you all owe me $20 dollars!

Felicia Day wipes her butt with her tweets in this weeks FLOG..

iOS 6, What we got, what we didn't.

As always when it comes to our iPhones and iPads we get all crazy on our wish lists of what we would like to see.  Sometimes we get blown away and sometimes we get disappointed in what we didn't get.

For me all in all it was a good update to a good functional operating system.  My favorite announcement is that Siri will finally be coming to the iPad with this update!

Speaking of Siri, she is getting, well useful, haha.  You will be able to ask to to tell you the score of a game, stats on a player, or better details on a restaurant that you are looking for.  She can launch apps now!  Finally for all us lazy people who hate using your finger to find things, hah.  Also a neat part of this is no lists with possible answers here.  She finds exact info now, and will launch things straight up with out having to show you a list of things you might be asking for.

Next big thing was Apple finally introduced their own Maps App.  Now I know we can all say we saw this coming a mile a way with all the buying of the Map making companies, so bye bye Google Maps.  What we get with this new Map app is turn by turn navigation (finally)  and it is narrated by Siri herself no less.  It seems to be a very good implementation of a navigation app and shows you your ETA in real time based on crowd sourced traffic info and can even reroute you if you are coming up on a traffic jam.  You also can get 3D overlay of cities and a nice sky view.  Now the only thing I will miss from Google Maps would be street view, I can't tell you how many times this has helped me find an obscure place I was trying to get to but I had no idea what it looked like.  I hope Apple will implement their own version of Street View in the near future.

Next feature that I really like is the ability to block certain phone calls and notifications during certain periods of time.  Need to get some sleep or take a nap without being disturbed then you can easily set this up to be able to block phone calls or any notifications at all.  Or you can even tell it to allow certain numbers to come through but block the others.  Now this I can think of many uses for.  Now don't worry all you stalkers out there if you call enough times the iPhone will think it's an emergency and actually allow your call through.  A well needed addition to the OS for sure.

Another feature that I liked that has been a long time coming is the ability to text back an answer to any phone call.  Say you are busy and someone calls you can just hit an answer with message button and select the message you want to send.  For example:  I'll call you back later.  or What's up?

Here is a really cool thing and the beginnings of what Apple has planned for a mobile wallet.  It is called Passport.  You can store card information here, have plane ticket, and movie ticket info.  Say you bought a movie ticket online and you pull up to the movie theater, it will detect that you are close to a theater and bring up your ticket on your homescreen.  Or you are trying to catch a plane and you are delayed, Passport will notify you of any delays, or gate changes as soon as they happen.  Pretty neat and well organized app.  I can't wait to see this develop out.

Now there are many many more features being added to iOS 6 but these are my favorites.  Let's focus now on what we didn't get.   Biggest thing we didn't get a redesigned app icon, or layout change of any kind.  Now yes I know the iPhone layout and icon's are getting kind of old in the UI phone race.  But Apple is not one to rush in to too much change to quickly.  So it doesn't surprise me that we didn't see any major graphical changes with this iteration of iOS.  I'm still holding out that they do something similar to the live tiles on the Windows phones.  Those are just really nice and user friendly. We also got no mention of what this update will do to the Apple tv, but that is a post for another time.

The mother of all laptops is here and her name is Macbook Pro with Retina Display..

Ok so the name doesn't scream, LOOK AT ME I"M ONE SEXY BEAST, but the look and specs on this computer are just awesome.  When Apple announced this product today they basically said hey guys look what we are capable of.  Now granted this sucker is uber expensive starting at over $2,000.  Yikes! That is a lot of money but you are getting early dibs on a computer that in two or three years will be the standard for all laptops.

First thing first this bad boy has a full retina display coming in at 2800 x 1800 resolution at 220 ppi.  To put this in perspective the current Macbook Pro's measure up at a 1440 x 900 resolution.  That is a huge difference.  Now add that to the Nvidia's Kepler GeForce 650 M video card and you have one beast of a graphics powerhouse.

The other really nice specs:  a Quad Core 2.7 GHz i7 ivy bridge processor 8 gigs of ram (expandable to 16 gigs) and a 256 gig SSD hard drive (expandable to 768 gigs, SAY WHAT!!!) To round it out, it comes with two thunderbolt ports, hdmi, usb 3.0, and MageSafe 2 adapter.

This is one powerful laptop, definitely a powerhouse for gamers and graphic professionals alike.  As if that wasn't enough Intel introduced in these macbook's the turboboost option for their i series processors.  Tubo boost allows the processor to over-clock itself and increase your processor speed by almost 1 GHz if it feels like you need the power, then automatically re-clock itself back down to acceptable levels for less strenuous activities.  

To show you how far Apple goes into each and every detail of it's products they even spent lots of man hours getting the fan placement just right in order to make an even and very quiet cooling system for this powerhouse.

All in all this is just one amazing laptop with Apple flexing it's muscles for good measure.  To bad I would have to sell my kidney to get one.  Maybe one day, I have a bad one anyway...  Might as well sell it while its worth something right?

What are some things to expect from today's Keynote?

So the excitement is building for all you Apple fanatics out there!  In less than an hour the keynote will start and we will hear some really cool announcements for some upcoming products and updates to the current ones we are using.  Here is a list of some possible things to look for to be announced at the keynote.

iOS 6.

The first thing that will definitely be announced will be iOS 6.  Some of things that are rumored to be included is an updated maps app that will be in house instead of Google's map product.  Updates to the app store and better integration with the iCloud server.

What I would like to see is a slight update to the UI all over for iOS and some better ways to share audio files as well as an updated youtube app.

Facebook everywhere.

Rumors are bouncing all over the place about how integrated facebook will be with iOS.  Some have it just as simple as the current iteration of the twitter integration.  Others have it being completely part of the entire OS.  I feel that we will probably see a well balanced integration with facebook.  Easier ways to share pictures, videos, update your status and possibly a dedicated facebook app preinstalled.  What I don't want to see though is an integration with the facebook messenger and the current iMessages app.  That to me would be a total mess and I don't really use the facebook messenger at all anyway.

Updated Mac's and Mountain Lion.

We have already heard lots of rumors that every Mac will get a refresh come this week including the aging Mac Pro.  Considering a lot of Mac's are pretty low in stock across a lot of different venues, it would be easy to see how this will be a possibility.

Will they have retina displays?  That is a little iffy right now.  To make some of the larger 27 inch Macs a retina display, I feel that would be a pretty expensive upgrade.  Unless Apple wants to bend the rules on what they consider a retina display.  Of course they did make that term up themselves so I guess they have the right to do so.

Apple TV.

One of the biggest and most hyped rumors going around right now is that Apple has plans to make a TV of their own.  So here is hoping that one would be announced.  It could be anything from an updated current gen apple tv getting an app store to an actual TV set.  Either way I don't think it matters much whether it is a TV or the current tv box that they have now.  What matters is how they do this whole app thing and what kind of content they can provide, how you interact with the device, and how much content it will offer.  This could revolutionize the TV industry or just be a new "pet project" as Steve Jobs has always referred to it.

If you haven't heard next week is WWDC.

As if last week wasn't awesome enough with the announcements of some really cool games, today we will hear some announcements coming from Apple about some upcoming events.  The keynote will be tomorrow at 10am Pacific time (1pm, Eastern time.)  I'll have a review of the announcements and any new cool products later this evening so keep checking back to the blog later in the evening.  Enjoy you Monday!