Playstation 4 & Xbox 720 Release Date Rumored for 2012

Posted by James in Gaming, Technology

Playstation 4 & Xbox 720 release date rumored for 2012.

If the rumors are true (and there is no way to verify, Sony and Microsoft are keeping tight lipped about any dates) then having both the Playstation 4 and the Xbox 720 release date at the same time could be very interesting.

Even if we have to take these rumors with a pince of salt, the mere fact that the Playstation 4 and the Xbox 720 are being talked about suggests that things are really happening behind the scenes. This in turn suggests that the hardware development may already be done.

Playstation 4

One rumor that makes sense is that the Playstation 4 will have an upgrade to its move controller.

The move controller is a great device but Sony were basically playing catch up with the Wii controllers.

Microsoft on the other hand took it a whole stage further and produced the ground breaking kinect system.

It is rumored that the Playstation 4 will have similar whole body movement control available at launch.

I would also suggest that Sony were annoyed that Microsoft got the jump on them and launched early in the marketplace with the Xbox 360.

This allowed it to gain market traction by stealing Sony customers. The Playstation 3 didn’t come along until later.

I would make an educated guess that they won’t let this happen again and will be keen to steal a march on their competitors.

Xbox 720

With the Xbox 720, expect major graphical and sound upgrades as well as a move into Playstation multi-media territory, for example with built in direct video recording.

Some of the biggest changes are coming in the next few years to the TV sector with Apple, Google and Sony all trying to get a piece of the pie. Don’t expect Microsoft to be any different with the Xbox 720.

Also expect some changes to Kinect, more than likely this will be integrated directly into the console.

One console already confirmed for the E3 trade show in 2012 is the new Nintendo Wii U which we featured last year.

What do you think about all the rumors? Do you believe the hype or not? What features do you think they will have? Let us know in the comments below.

Year in Review 2011 (Part 2): Royal Weddings, Scandal & The Worlds Most Wanted Man

Posted by Jeff in Opinion

Year in review 2011 (part 2): More incredible stories from the second quarter of 2011 emerge.

Year in Review 2011: April

April was all about a Royal Wedding between Prince William and commoner Kate Middleton. She apparently had posters of Prince William on her wall when she was younger, we don’t know if that is true or not but it goes nicely with the dream Princess story. Although some may say she was upstaged by her sister, Pippa Middleton, who had a facebook page dedicated to her derrière.

Sony faced one of the biggest problems in its history when the playstation network was hacked and millions of users details stolen.

Barcelona and Real Madrid seemed to be playing each other every week at this point in the year with Mourninho turning up the heat.

We lost the controversial Indian spiritual leader Sai Baba in this month and also on the controversial front, did we finally see proof of Aliens at Roswell crash? I’ll leave you to decide.

We also took a look at some cool iPhone apps and at a show jumping cow…. yes we did.

Year in Review 2011: May

This month Microsoft took the plunge and bought Skype for $8.5 billion and Google launched the Chromebook, while over on Twitter Lady Gaga made history by reaching 10 million followers.

Both Barcelona and Sebastian Vettel carried on winning everything while Sepp Blatter started to feel the heat over some dubious goings on over at FIFA.

We looked at whether cell phones were dangerous and we were promised that the world would end on the 21st May. That didn’t happen, unless I am now living in a parallel universe (well you never know), my guess is we might see a few more of those predictions in 2012.

We saw Ratko Mladic finally arrested in Serbia after years in hiding and the then IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrested over sexual assault, charges that were later dropped.

Charlie Sheen went a bit, shall we say ‘off kilter’, and was replaced on ‘two and a half men‘ by Ashton Kutcher.

Golfing legend Seve Ballesteros passed away and President Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden was killed when US forces stormed his hiding place right under the noses of the Pakistan police.

Barcelona took the Spanish La Liga trophy and the Champions League while Manchester United sealed the English Premiership title. Chelsea sack their manager (again) and Azerbaijan won the Eurovision Song Contest.

It was a very busy month of May.

Year in Review 2011: June

While Apple unveiled their iCloud service, Nintendo announced the Wii U in Los Angeles. MySpace was off loaded by News Corp for a fraction of what they paid for it.

Rafael Nadal was winning the French Tennis Open and Li Na made history as the first Chinese winner of a Grand Slam. Later in the month Wimbledon got underway and Germany prepared for the Womens World Cup. Chelsea also got their new manager, Andre Villas-Boas.

There were all sorts of goings on at the X Factor USA as Cheryl Cole was effectively sacked as a judge and replaced by Nicole Scherzinger. Beyonce closed Glastonbury in style but not before U2 and Coldplay had rocked the stage.

The Lunar eclipse seemed to foretell the up and down lunacy of the markets as Greece came close to defaulting on its debts while child vaccination got a massive boost in the arm by GAVI and the Gay Marriage Rights Bill was passed in New York.

There was Weinergate and JK Rowling teased us with the pottermore website. A Picasso painting fetched $20 million, Marilyn Monroe’s white dress sold for $4.6 million and a rare Billy the Kid portrait reached $2.3 million.

Read more in Year in Review 2011 (Part 3) here.

PSN Welcome Back Pack Details Announced by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

Posted by James in Sony, Technology

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) have announced on their blog the details of the Playstation Network (PSN) Welcome Back Pack for PS3 & PSP users.

As mentioned in our previous article, Sony were gathering together a welcome back pack for the users who have been affected by the PSN hacking incident. They have now confirmed the details of the PSN Welcome Back Pack on their European Playstation blog.

Users will be able to choose 2 PS3 games from the following list:

• LittleBigPlanet
• Infamous
• Wipeout HD/Fury
• Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty
• Dead Nation

For those with PSP accounts, you will also be eligible to download 2 PSP games from the following list:

• LittleBigPlanet PSP
• ModNation PSP
• Pursuit Force
• Killzone Liberation

Also available are 30 days free PlayStation Plus membership for non PS Plus subscribers. Any existing PlayStation Plus subscribers will be given 60 days free subscription.

For existing Music Unlimited subscribers, they will get 30 days free subscription.

To receive any of the offers users would have to have been registered on the Playstation network prior to the 2oth  April 2011, and it is possible that in some territories, one of the games titles may be swapped for another.

The news was generally welcomed by Playstation users, but it will take time before the fallout in terms of reputation becomes clear.

Sony Playstation Network (PSN) Getting Ready To Go Back Online

Posted by James in Sony, Technology

Sony have announced that their Playstation Network (PSN) is to be brought back online by the end of May, starting in the US, Europe, Middle East and Australia.

The move comes almost a month after Sony took down it’s Playstation Network after a severe security breech in which it is thought to have had around 100 million customer details stolen by unknown hackers.

Playstation users will have to have the firmware of their PS3 upgraded to 3.6.1, which is available for download now and Sony have also taken steps to increase their security, citing:

• Increased levels of encryption
• Additional firewalls
• New early warning systems

They are also offering free insurance against identity theft where available for customers who want it.

A ‘Welcome Back Pack’ is also promised for users although the contents are not yet public knowledge, Sony have used a premium service before to offer users exclusive access to new content, demo’s and information. It would be an obvious step to include a this service in the pack for a limited time.

Sony have angered alot of people over this incident and it is expected that they will have to be generous in order to restore their reputation and keep, what was, a very loyal customer base.

Sony Admits Playstation User Information Stolen

Posted by Jeff in Sony, Technology

In a statement on their European blog, Sony have admitted that Playstation user information was compromised between April 17th and April 19th 2011.

They believe that the following information has been obtained by an ‘unauthorised person’.

• Name
• Address
• Email
• Birthdate
• Logon
• Password
• Online ID

Sony have also mentioned that purchase history, billing address and security questions may also have been obtained and that they cannot rule out the fact that credit card information may have also been taken.

The statement said, “While there is no evidence that credit card data was taken at this time, we cannot rule out the possibility”.

The Playstation network has around 70 million users worldwide and they have been warned to look out for attempted email, postal and telephone scams. It is not clear how many users have been affected.

It looks like this story could run for along time, we reported it here Sony Playstation Network still down, people are asking why it has taken a week to be told their information was compromised. Losing customer data also has precedence in many countries, for example in the UK, a few years ago Zurich Insurance was fined £2.28 million by the financial watchdog for losing the details of 46,000 of it’s customers.

You can read the Sony statement here.

Sony Playstation Network Still Down – ‘External Intrusion’ Blamed

Posted by Clive in Sony, Technology

The Sony Playstation network (PSN) is still down after Sony reveal on their US blog that an ‘external intrusion’ was to blame for the outage.

The Anonymous group has previously said that it could cause problems for the company in light of it’s legal action over the jail-braking of the Sony Playstation. Anonymous have since denied that they are to blame.

The Playstation Network and Qriocity services have been down since April 20th and is rapidly becoming a PR disaster for the company.

The timing has also been bad for the network as there is a slew of high profile titles hitting the Playstation this month, including the long awaited Portal 2 game which utilises the Playstation Network heavily.

Sony revealed that they are rebuilding the system in order to strengthen their network infrastructure, meaning that it is taking longer than they initially thought.

Re-building a system usually entails restoring backups and in this day and age, is a much quicker process than it used to be, which would suggest that they are doing alot of other things with their infrastructure and investigation.

If it is true that they have been the target of an attack on their systems then there are questions that will need answering, the Playstation network holds the personal details of all of it’s members, from email addresses to credit card information.

Was any of this information compromised? Are peoples personal details now in someone else’s hands?

Questions which Sony will have to face sooner rather than later.

Microsoft Claim 8 million sales of Kinect in 60 days

Posted by James in Microsoft, Technology

Microsoft said at the ICES (International Consumer Electronics Show) this week, that they have managed to shift 8 million units of the Kinect motion sensor controller for it’s Xbox games console, all in the space of 60 days.

The kinect was one of the must have items over Christmas for Xbox users and it allows interaction with any software on the Xbox games console without having to hold a physical controller.

This sort of interactive experience was pioneered by Nintendo with it’s phenomenally popular console the WII, and later Sony with it’s move controller for the Playstation 3.

But neither go as far as Microsoft and Kinect which actually reads where all the points on your body are and translates all your movements into the game.

The success means that Microsoft will continue development apace with new features being added such as reading facial expressions and software such as Netflix and Hulu which allows direct access to their services.

Photo: Microsoft