Microsoft finally announced the new XBOX One yesterday (21^st of May) in Redmond, Washington. There was a lot of hype surrounding the announcement as Microsoft promised to show the actual console in action (*cough*cough* Sony…). There were many online sites covering the event live and I decided to hop on to GameSpot.com to see the reveal for myself.

The previous XBOX 360 made its debut 8 years ago, which is a long time in the world of technology. The new XBOX One will most probably be around for the next decade, so for buyers the ONE (or PS4 – which ever you support) will be their longest-term consumer electronics “investment”. Thus this reveal will kind of set the tone for the next few years in console gaming. Therefore Microsoft had to pull out all the stops, and that they did! The reveal took on a Samsung Galaxy type of vibe, with feature after feature being thrown at the crowd. Will the new XBOX be the ONE?

Hardware Specs

Microsoft was very sketchy on details surrounding the hardware specs for the ONE and I guess some fans (the real technical ones – and the PC gaming inclined) found it a bit disappointing that Microsoft did not delve into the specs a bit deeper. It is fair to assume that Microsoft will reveal more detail at E3 and that some critical points like frequency and final performance specs won’t be revealed until Microsoft (and Sony) has nailed down the details and won’t be able to make any further tweaks. Here are the specs as presented at the launch:

- Processor:  8-core CPU (now confirmed to be AMD, so is the GPU)

- RAM:  8GB high performance RAM

- Hard Drive:  500GB

- Drive:  Blu-Ray Drive

- Connectivity:  WiFi (802.11N)/WiFi-Direct) , USB 3.0

-Display:  HDMI display interface

Looking at the high-level specs above, the ONE and new PS4 match each other quite closely. This supports the general feeling that the new generation console war won’t be around “hardware superiority” but around the ultimate user entertainment experience. That said, the hardware should prove more powerful than any PC you can buy at whatever price the console will be sold at (rumoured around $499), Microsoft hasn’t shared the particulars on that just yet.

Industrial Design

This is quite interesting; the design of the new ONE wasn’t at all what I imagined. It looks a lot bulkier than I would have expected. The box has a very clean straight look to it, but it reminds me of a modern day amplifier or Blu-Ray player. That’s just my opinion but I guess Microsoft wants it to look more like an entertainment console and not just a gaming console. The ONE will most likely evolve over the coming years and shed a bit of weight, but I think the reason behind going for a box like design is so that the console blends well with any living room. The controller hasn’t changed much, nor have they touched its layout. The XBOX controller in my mind has the most ergonomic design out there. They only applied a mat black finish to it this time round.

Features

With the recent acquisition of Skype by Microsoft everyone believed that they would integrate the communication software wherever they can. Skype for Xbox One looks set to be a real focal point, bringing a completely new, enhanced service for the ONE offering features such as HD video using the Kinect camera. There’s group video conferencing also thrown into the mix, and the Xbox ONE’s Snap feature, which among other things, will also let you partake in picture-in-picture calls while enjoying other activities.

Live TV is another feature of the ONE. You will be able to watch your favourite channels on your cable or satellite set-top box through Xbox One. Just as Google’s Glass seems to spring into action with the words “Okay, Glass,” the next-gen Xbox One will also allow users to control many aspects of the console using just the voice. The new dashboard is based heavily upon the Windows 8 OS, and Microsoft wants to build on the Xbox and Windows experiences to create a truly immersive interactive TV viewing experience.

Instant Switching, for example, allows the user to move through apps and TV streams with ease, nullifying the need for participants to engage in that cumbersome sport of fishing around for the remote. Gestures through the new Kinect take the voice feature to the next level, and although the original Kinect took the world by storm when it released a couple of years back, I suspect the best is still yet to come as the new Kinect can pick up slight rolls of the wrist and even the heartbeat of the user!

Games

A big shocker announcement was that the new ONE won’t be able to play old Xbox 360 games. Microsoft explains that the core architecture between the two machines is too different to allow for backwards compatibility. Microsoft’s new Xbox One uses a new x64 processor, as opposed to the PowerPC core of the Xbox 360. For this stunt to work Microsoft has to launch a lot of titles with the new ONE. Here is the list of the confirmed titles coming to the One thus far:

• Madden NFL            
• NBA Live ’14                
• EA Sports UFC
• FIFA ’14                       
• Forza Motorsport 5    
• Call of Duty: Ghost                  

- just to name a few. In fact, in the first 12 months after release, Microsoft has promised 15 exclusives, 8 of which will be a brand new IP.

Forza Motorsport 5

Release date?

Microsoft was tip-toeing around this subject, but they did however confirm that Xbox One will be available worldwide later this year. That would likely mean around November, 2013. All in all it looks like a great machine. Whether it will be the ultimate gaming console only time (and customer $) will tell…

Yesterday, photos of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active, obtained by GSMArena leaked online.

In addition to the Galaxy S4 Active, reports have revealed that Samsung is planning a new 8-inch Galaxy tablet and a 4.3-inch version of the Galaxy S4.

A variant of the Galaxy S4, the Android powered S4 Active comes with a similar look and feel to the flagship, although adopting a metallic shell and bolts, rather than hard plastic, and is also dust and waterproof perhaps putting it up against the impressive Sony Xperia Z.

According to various reports, the device boasts a quad-core ARM processor at 1.9GHz, a 1920 x 1080 screen resolution and a rear facing 8MP camera.

Now MobileTechReview has uploaded a video onto YouTube, provided by a secret source of course, that introduces the unconfirmed device.

The video does confirm the 8MP camera and a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU although confirmation of these specs remains to be seen when Samsung officially announces the device.

Take a peak at the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active in the video below:

GoGifting, launched in October 2012, allows users to send their friends gifts using their connections on social networks like Facebook and is growing maturity in South Africa, having already become a $100 billion market in the U.S. alone.

This week, South Africa’s social gifting pioneer, expanded its gift card and voucher offering to provide 40 gift cards from the country’s favourite brands including Carrol Boyes, Pick’n Pay, Cape Union Mart and Clicks.

Shoppers can now leverage the platform already popular with a large number of users to send gifts for any occasion. Having these available online lets gift-givers send gifts from where ever they are.

“We’ve had so many requests for a larger selection of brands from our users and we’re happy to oblige,” says founder Kevin Tucker. “There’s definitely a huge gap in the market to bring gift cards to online consumers. No more trekking to the shopping centre to find the right one.”

Gift cards are available in either physical or virtual format. Physical gifts are couriered to the recipient  with GoGifting handling all the fulfilment. Virtual gift cards are sent electronically and can be used immediately.

For a limited period GoGifting is offering free shipping.

GoGifting Card Mall

Flickr is one of those great sites of the past which was ignored for way too long. As Yahoo’s SVP Adam Caham puts it: “Flickr had become about words, little images, blue links. It was not about the photo anymore.” No Yahoo is hoping to finally rejuvenate the aging photo site with a brilliant new user interface and a massive amount of storage for users.

The boring old white page with tiny images has now been replaced with a image rich interface which is much more in sync with our current broadband age. There is extensive sharing options also built in – and of course it includes Yahoo’s new darling, Tumblr (which it bought for a cool $1,1 Bil).

The biggest way to get people back to Flickr is of course with online storage. While competitors still trade in gigabyte packages, Yahoo will now give all Flickr users a terabyte of online storage. To put that in context – you will be able to store 430,000 photos taken with your iPhone 5. Yahoo has not done away with add-on packages however. You can get opt for a ad-free version of Yahoo for $50 a year, or for $500 a year you can double your storage to 2 terabytes.

Go check it out: http://www.flickr.com/

JK Shin, co-CEO of Samsung, has told the Korean press that he expects the Samsung Galaxy S4 to pass 10 million units sold this week. He said he is “confident” the milestone would be met, also adding that “it is selling much faster than the previous model, the S3.”

The S3 launched in European markets first, and only a couple of months later in the US. The S4 benefits from having launched across the three major US carriers at the same time as the global launch. The S3 passed 10 million units a little more than two months after launch, so if they do surpass that mark with the S4 this week, it is in effect shipping twice as fast as the predecessor.

One thing is for certain, the latest member of the Galaxy S range is selling like crazy. Can anyone take a bite out of Samsung’s huge piece of the pie?

Source: Engadget

The City of Joburg Broadband Project will go live on 1 July 2013 after a 3 year build phase.

The completion of the fibre optic network covers all 7 regions of the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) municipality and will deliver a live network that will offer key services to all municipal buildings connected to the network.

This fibre optic network, that will be operated by BWired for 12 years,  was designed by Ericsson South Africa and uses world class leading technologies utilized in Smart Cities around the world. It marks one of the biggest rollouts of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere in terms of its 1.2Tb core capacity and 940km coverage.

The Johannesburg Broadband and Network Project (JBNP) is the realisation of the city’s long term vision of developing the city’s economy which will see the positive stimulation of opportunities for the business sector in terms of small to medium enterprises, effective access to public services, the development of the youth in Johannesburg and increased employment opportunities for all.

When the Network goes live on the 1^st July 2013 it will offer full WAN accessibility and VPN services.

“The principle behind this network was to provide ICT communications at a vastly lower cost, not only reducing the CoJ’s communications costs, but enabling the rest of the residents of the city to benefit from the network roll out,” said BWired CEO, Musa Nkosi.

The CoJ will only use a small percentage of the projected network capacity so other telecoms service providers, and the industry at large can plug into the remaining capacity on a wholesale and open access basis.

Sun International has announced the proposed purchase of Powerbet Gaming, the operator of interactive betting site Voltbet.com for R30 million, demonstrating the exponential growth of the online sports betting industry around the world and in South Africa and its current and potential impact.

A  hotel and gaming group, with properties including Cape Town’s GrandWest Casino and the Monticello Grand Casino in Santiago, Chile, Sun International has extensive experience of the land-based gambling industry and it has now recognised the vast potential of online and mobile wagering.

In the six month results posted on 28 February 2013 by Powerbet, Voltbet.com’s Gross Gaming Revenues (GGR) were reported to have improved by 51% over the comparative review period, posting revenue of R2.4 million at a 60% improved operating margin of 6.39%.

The figures are particularly impressive considering that Voltbet has yet to implement a horse racing product or a fully developed in-play offering. In-Play betting is now approximately 60-70% of turnover for online bookmakers in Europe.

According to the official announcement  “Voltbet.com is in a rapidly expanding industry in South Africa… Sun International is ideally positioned to take Voltbet.com through its next growth phase”.

News of the deal generated headlines in the international igaming press, with Gaming Intelligence and iGaming Business among the publications to report on the agreement.

Apple certainly has a reason to celebrate as it hit the 50 billion download mark today and that doesn’t include updates or re-downloads.

Apple.com’s home page opens with “50 billion app downloads. We couldn’t have done it without.” In an official press release Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue thanked the “incredible” customers and developers alike for getting the company to this historic mark.

“The App Store completely transformed how people use their mobile devices and created a thriving app ecosystem that has paid out over nine billion dollars to developers. We’re absolutely floored to cross this milestone in less than five years,” he continues.

The App Store opened in July 2008 with just 500 apps. Now it offers 850,000 apps for  iPhone, iPad and iPod touch in 155 countries.

The App Store hit 40 billion app downloads in early January, taking just over four months to get the 10 billion needed to reach this point.

To commemorate the achievement, Apple handed out a $10,000 App Store gift voucher to who ever downloaded the 50 billionth app. Brandon Ashmore from Ohio downloaded the free social word game Say the Same Thing to win the prize.

Google’s messaging systems have quickly become a mess – with the launch of Google Chat a decade ago they had a pretty decent headstart. But they quickly branched out into different channels with the launch of Google Voice, and later the Hangouts feature in Google+.

Google Talk was luckily built on the Jabber standard until now, meaning that you could quite easily integrate it with many different clients across many platforms. But Google never launched an official Google Chat client outside Android – until now. The new Google Hangouts app is meant to bring Talk, Hangouts video chat and Google Voice together into one product.

The new Google Hangouts app is available on Android, iPhone and also as a Google Chrome extension. Simply go find the Google Hangouts app in your relevant appstore, sign in, and off you go. On Google Chrome you need to install the Hangouts extension within Chrome.

We tested across multiple platforms and we are very impressed. Running the extension on a PC and a Mac, and then the mobile apps on iPhone and Android we were very quickly chatting and using video chat. It’s great to finally use Hangouts without having to have to deal with Google+ every time. The mobile apps have the typical sparse design we have grown to love from Google.

Have you tried it? What do you think?

After the recent launch of its new mobile shopping app for Android and iOS, TAKEALOT.com has now introduced a new initiative offering customers  savings on selected products on a daily, first-come-first-serve basis with SAVEALOT Daily Deals.

SAVEALOT Daily Deals delivers two new deals every weekday (9am – 9pm) with up to 70% savings on a variety of items across all 14 of TAKEALOT.com’s departments, including Electronics, Home and Kitchen, Sports, Pet Supplies and more.

The deals page is currently available on desktop with the mobi-site version to follow.

“Our Daily Deals offering is another way of treating our valued customers to even bigger and better savings across our wide range of categories, ” says Merchandise Executive, Grant Webster, “Each deal is open for a 12 hour period or while stocks are still available, meaning that customers will need to ‘seal the deal’ quickly to secure their order. The cherry on top is that all Daily Deals include free shipping, straight to your door.”

Users can also sign-up to the SAVEALOT Daily Deals newsletter to receive updates on the latest deals available.