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PS4 release date, news and features

UPDATED PlayStation 4 is headed for a ‘Holiday 2013′ release date

The DualShock 4 pad will launch alongside the PS4

The PS4 has been announced by Sony! At long last we’ve had our first look at the new PlayStation and so far it looks very… next-geny.

Sadly, and almost unbelievably, we STILL don’t know what the PS4 looks like. However, we do know it’s coming out in the US in time for Christmas 2013, we know about the DualShock 4 controller and we’ve seen the new interface and a lot of the features it delivers. Here’s everything we know about the PlayStation 4 so far…

Check out our PS4 reveal video:

PS4: Hardware specs

AMD, as we guessed all along, is coursing through this new system’s veins.

Post-event, Sony revealed the system runs on a single-chip custom processor and utilizes eight x86-64 AMD Jaguar CPU cores, with a next-gen AMD Radeon based graphics engine powering the way.

However, with fewer redundancies than a PC has, the PS4 will certainly be able to make use of every single Watt of power it draws.

The “highly enhanced PC GPU” is another story. It’s another AMD part – something along the lines of a Radeon 7850 card – and packs 18 GCN units. That may sound a like a lot of techy mumbo jumbo but what it essentially means is that the GPU packs 18 processing clusters, each packing up to 64 cores. That provides a lot of parallel processing power, and will thus handle the majority of the PS4′s grunt work. It hits 1.84 TFLOPS of processing mojo. This is a far more powerful component than the Jaguar CPU and is rumoured to have the edge on the GPU inside the Xbox 720.

Memory

The PS4 will ship packing 8GB of GDDR5 memory. That’s some super-fast stuff right there and should enable lightning fast performance.

Indeed, Sony has revealed that you will be able to power down the PS4 mid-game and then switch it on again in seconds and pick up right where you left off. That’s the sort of loading power that this memory enables.

Other specs

We’re also looking at Blu-ray disk support plus good ol’ DVD, plus HDMI output support as well as Analog-AV out and an optical digital output.

PlayStation 4 Eye

What’s really grabbing though is the development of the PlayStation 4 Eye, a newly developed camera system that utilizes two high-sensitivity camera equipped with wide-angle lenses and 85-degree diagonal angle views.

Sony said the cameras (amounting to 1280 x 800 pixels) can cut out the image of a player from the background or differentiate between players in the background and foreground, enhancing game play handily. There’s also mention of logging in using facial recognition and using voice and body movements to play games “more intuitively.”

PS4 controller: DualShock 4

The PS4 controller comes in the form of the DualShock 4 pad. Very much a classic design, the DualShock 4 nevertheless offers upgraded vibrations, enhanced motion sensors and a Vita-like touchpad on the front.

Will the PS4 be 4K capable?

In a chat with Kotaku, Sony has revealed that the PlayStation 4 will be able to playback 4K/Ultra HD video. However, it will not upscale to 4K or play games at 4K resolution.

Backwards compatibility

The PS4 will definitely not offer native support for PS3 games. However, there will at some point be a service on the Sony Entertainment Network that offers server-side emulation and streaming of games from PS One classics right through to PS3 Platinum Editions.

PS4 release date

The PS4 release date is “Holiday 2013″. That’s the only detail Sony revealed at the launch and it’s unclear which territories it applies to. Certainly the U.S., almost certainly Japan. We have a feeling the U.K. and Europe may have to wait a little longer, maybe even until early 2014.

This is pretty much what happened with Sony’s previous consoles – the PS3 came out in the EU in March – and is backed up by various leaks and rumours. At least you’ll have plenty of time to save up if you live outside of Japan or the USA.

PlayStation Move

Sony has confirmed that PlayStation Move will play a big part in the PS4 ecosystem. However, it has not yet been revealed whether the PS4 will launch alongside a new PS Eye camera and new Move controllers or whether the peripherals are staying the same with all the enhancements made console-side.

Synergy with PlayStation Vita

Sony has revealed that the PS4 will launch with the ability to stream games directly to your PS Vita. In exactly the same way as the Wii U allows you to switch off your TV and continue playing on the tablet controller, the PS4 will wirelessly send your games to the Vita.

There will be similar synergy between “all Sony devices” which means Xperia handsets and tablets, Bravia TVs and BD players.

Sony hinted that there will be more announcements in this area, too. We think the obvious next reveal in this area is the ability to play PS4 games on your Vita from any location using a wireless connection.

PS4 Instant On

The PS4 will be one nippy device if Sony is to be believed. It will have an instant on/off feature allowing your to shut down during a game and then boot up from scratch in seconds and resume where you left off. The days of waiting 60 seconds as your console loads up are about to end.

PS4 price: how much will it cost?

No pricing details were revealed at the event, so all we’ve got to go on are various rumours from before the launch – but it might be that Sony has aprice point of around $400 in mind for the US release. That translates to around £255 so you could extrapolate that to around £299.

This is further backed up by a recent report in The Times which states that Sony is aiming for a price of under £300 in the U.K. Many people think it’ll be more than that though – we’ll just have to wait and see.

PS4 launch titles

A number of games have been revealed for the PS4. They Are: Deep Down(Capcom), Destiny (Bungie), Diablo III (Blizzard), Driveclub (Evolution Studios), Final Fantasy (Square Enix), Infamous: Second Son (Sucker Punch), Killzone: Shadow Fall (Guerilla Games), Knack (Sony), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt RED), Watch Dogs (Ubisoft).

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gaming/consoles/ps4-release-date-news-and-features-937822

Google+ Sign-In takes on Facebook Connect and frictionless sharing

Google+ has been on a steady path of iteration and integration since its debut in 2011, and now it’s getting a new universal login and sharing system called Google+ Sign-In. On one level, it’s an answer to Facebook Connect: a single login for websites and mobile apps that lets users bring along some of their social profile information. The set-up is familiar: you log in with your Google credentials and are told what information the site or app wants to access (along with Google+ profile information, Google’s other core services like Gmail or Google Calendar can also be utilized). You then choose what friends — or Circles — any related activities will be shared with, and you’re on your way. A “private” setting prevents anyone but you from seeing your activities, and the system does works with Google’s two-factor authentication.

The feature is available on the web as well as on both Android and iOS, though Android users get an added benefit: when logging into a site they can push any mobile app version directly to their phone. The real utility of this kind of service, however, comes with the social sharing functionality. Google’s drawing a clear distinction between two types of sharing: things that are passively passed to Google+, such as the stations you listen to on TuneIn Radio, and items you proactively decide to share with others.

The former don’t pop up in your friends’ feeds at all — Google says it wants to avoid spamming — though the activity is visible if someone visits your Google+ page with the correct permissions. Over time Google does plan on resurfacing the information in scenarios when it’s useful to users; when searching for music, for example, what your friends listen to could be a consideration. However, there are no specific features to that end being announced today.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/26/4030970/google-plus-sign-in-takes-on-facebook-connect-and-frictionless-sharing

Firefox phones to be sold by four hardware makers and 17 carriers

Competing in the smartphone market dominated by iOS and Android is one of the great challenges in the tech industry—even for companies with strong platforms and deep pockets like Microsoft and BlackBerry. For those companies trying to bring entirely new smartphone operating systems to market—like Mozilla with itsFirefox OS—it’s even tougher.

Mozilla has good news to report, though. Four hardware makers (Alcatel, LG, ZTE, and Huawei) stand ready to make Firefox phones to be sold later this year, from 17 carriers across the globe. Mozilla also said it has the first commercial build of its Firefox OS ready to be previewed at Mobile World Congress.

The announcement shows Mozilla is ahead ofCanonical’s Ubuntu for phones in terms of both the stage of technology development and ability to publicly announce partners. Still, there is far to travel. Firefox phones will hit the market this year overseas, but not in the US until 2014 according to Computerworld. And while the hardware makers on board are well-known, they’re not dominant players in the smartphone market. Samsung, the world’s most successful maker of Android phones, has reportedly said it has no interest in selling Firefox phones. Samsung already has an alternative operating system in the open source Tizen (which is being combined with the failed Bada OS).

The smartphone market is a big one, though, and perhaps Mozilla can gain a foothold overseas. “The first wave of Firefox OS devices will be available to consumers in Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela,” Mozilla said. “Additional markets will be announced soon.”

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/02/firefox-phones-to-be-sold-by-four-hardware-makers-and-17-carriers/

Twitter rival App.net aims to extend reach with ‘freemium’ model

App.net, the social networking platform that launched as an ad-free alternative to Twitter, is looking to expand its user base by offering a free-account option.

App.net launched last year as a paid service that offers a social feed and API (application programming interface) to developers. The service is a social network in its own right, but it also provides the back-end infrastructure to let developers tap into its feed and build their own Twitter-like apps.

The site avoids ads by charging subscription fees to end users and developers, but it’s now offering a limited, free service for invited users, the company announced Monday in a blog post.

Users can join the site for free if they receive one of the invitations being distributed to current, paying members, moving App.net to a “freemium” model.

Background

App.net was originally conceived as a freemium service, with both free and paid membership tiers, but its founders wanted to first make sure that a paid market existed for the platform, said CEO Dalton Caldwell.

“Since there are numerous examples of freemium business models which didn’t succeed, we wanted to be very careful in our approach to pricing,” Caldwell said in the blog post.

There are now more than 100 third-party apps built with App.net for platforms including iOS and Android, according to the company. Each client app provides access to the same feed of App.net contacts, and users can also share items to other services such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Storage limits

App.net has been analyzing data for a few months to come up with its plan for the free tier accounts, which set limits on usage. People with free accounts, for instance, can only follow up to 40 other users and can’t use more than 500MB of file storage or upload files larger than 10MB.

Both the inviting member and the invitee will receive 100MB of additional storage, however, if the invitee follows at least five other accounts and authorizes a third-party app, the company said. App.net accounts can be linked to other services such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Web hosting services GitHub and Dropbox, both of which offer free and paid tiers, were cited by Caldwell as models for App.net’s new freemium model.

App.net’s pricing options include $5 monthly and $36 and $100 yearly plans.

Some apps built using App.net include Buffer, designed to let people share more easily on App.net as well as on Twitter and Facebook, and Succynct, an App.net client for Google Chrome.

App.net was built to solve what Caldwell saw as some severe shortcomings with Twitter. Among its principles, App.net says it sells its service, “not our users,” and users can easily back up, export or delete their content at any time, it says.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2029374/twitter-rival-appnet-aims-to-extend-reach-with-freemium-model.html

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Aaron: Really psyched about Google Glass after seeing the updated site and the review on The Verge.

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The Geek’s Choice: Yestercades !! YAY!!

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http://evernote.com/hello/

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