Sony unveiled the PlayStation 4 at an event just over a month ago. Their plans for the next generation gaming system include incredible graphics and exclusive content. However, you will have to wait until the Holiday Season 2013 to get your hands on it.

In the meantime, Sony’s PlayStation 4 spot at the Game Developers Conference helped provide a better idea of what will go into the PS4. More specifically, the new system will be centered around an updated Blu-Ray drive. The new drive will be three times faster than the drive on Sony’s PS3.

As you may know, Blu-Ray has been Sony’s claim to fame in the gaming world, providing some of the best graphics around. Now that the Blu-Ray drive is going to be updated, one can only hope that the graphics will advance even more.

In addition, Sony is planning to remove the 100 friend limit in the PlayStation Network. The new limit has not been announced but Sony is also changing how they will display your name in PSN. Instead of automatically displaying your real name to your friends, you will have to decide which of your friends can see your “True Name”.

However, your name will automatically be shown if you become friends with another user via a social network where your name is provided.

Are you excited for the next generation of gaming consoles? Can you wait until the Holiday Season to pick one up? Let us know in the comments below.

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It seems that Samsung just can’t stay out of the press. Just over a week after the Galaxy S4 was lauched, rumor has it that Samsung is working on a Galaxy Tab 3 Plus with a whole lot to offer.

SamMobile is reporting that the Plus tablet will be a high end tablet with a 10.1″ or 11.6″ Super AMOLED HD display. Although the latter choice sounds a bit large, it is still a possibility with pixel resolutions going through the roof.

Moving to the inside, SamMobile has confirmed that this tablet will be carrying the full Exynos 5 generation chip. This chip was supposed to be the main feature of the Galaxy S4. However, the North American version was instead loaded with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chip.

The new chip, if it is featured in the Galaxy Tab 3 Plus, would offer 8 cores and superior processing ability. Sam Mobile also mentioned that it is highly likely that “Samsung could unveil the Galaxy Tab 3 Plus at IFA 2013 in Berlin, along with the Galaxy Note III”. IFA 2013 is scheduled to take place from 6 to 11 September 2013.

Has the tablet war already ended, or is it just getting started? How do you think a high-end tablet will do in a market moving towards low-end devices? Let us know in the comments below.

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In a press release Friday, Barnes and Noble announced that they would be having a special limited time offer on their tablets. More specifically, when you purchase a Nook HD+ between March 24, 2013, and March 31, 2013, you will also receive a free Nook Simple Touch E Ink reader, a $79 value.

The Nook HD+ will run you $269 and you can pick it up both of your new Nook tablets at any Barnes and Noble retail store or online at www.nook.com. If you are not familiar, the Nook HD+ comes with a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor, a 1920×1280 display, and 16GB (32GB @ $299) of storage. It’s counterpart, the Nook Simple Touch, has a 6-inch E Ink touchscreen and a battery life of up to 2 months on a single charge.

It is possible that Barnes and Noble is using this offer to clear out for a new line of devices. In fact, it’s been a while since we last heard from the book giant. And with Amazon’s fire finally cooling off after the holiday season, this could be Prime time for a new device.

Did you find the two Amazon puns? Will you be picking up a Nook HD+ and a Nook Simple Touch this week? Let us know in the comments below.

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In an official Google blog update, CEO Larry Page announced that Andy Rubin would be moving on from his role as head of Android at Google. In his place, Sundar Pichai will lead Android, in addition to his current spots at Chrome and Apps.

Sundar Pichai has been at Google since 2004, the same year that “Rubin came to visit us at Google”. Prior to today, Pichai was Senior Vice President of Chrome and Google Apps. Now, he is also the Senior Vice President of Android. The switch is significant because Andy Rubin co-founded Android Inc. in 2003 and has watched it grow to over 750 million devices since then.

The shake up in Android management is also interesting because there have been rumors about Chrome and Android merging together. Putting Sundar Pichai in charge of Android and Chrome pretty much seals the deal on that rumor and more or less confirms it. Page made references to both Chrome and the Nexus program in his blog post. Keep an eye out for these two parts of Google to be coming together in the future.

“Andy’s decided it’s time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google”. Page made sure to tell us that Andy Rubin will not be leaving Google, but instead he will be working on new developments at the Mountain View campus. In short, “It’s an exciting time to be at Google” (Larry Page).

What do you think about Sundar Pichai and his new role at Google? How do you think that it will affect Android, if at all? Let us know in the comments below.

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After missing out on the iPhone yet again, it looks like T-Mobile will be doing more business with BlackBerry in 2013. More specifically, a report from N4BB claims that T-Mobile will be carrying the BlackBerry Q10 come May 2013.

Since the release of BlackBerry 10, the Z10, and the Q10, it was believed that T-Mobile would have the BlackBerry Z10 while Sprint offered the BlackBerry Q10. However, a representative from the BlackBerry Experience Forum revealed to N4BB that the Blackberry Q10 would be arriving on T-Mobile sometime in May of 2013.

If you have not been keeping up on all things BlackBerry, here is the rundown on the second smartphone to have BlackBerry 10:

• Full QWERTY keyboard (physical)
• Dual-Core 1.5GHz – Snapdragon S4 Plus
• 3.1”, SuperAMOLED display, 720 x 720 resolution at 330 PPI
• 8MP rear facing camera, Auto Focus, 5X digital zoom, 1080p HD video recording, 2MP front facing camera, 3X digital zoom, 720p HD video recording
• 2GB RAM, 16GB Internal Storage, microSD Slot up to 64GB
• Dual Band 802.11 a/b/g/n, 2.4/5GHz, 4G Mobile Hotspot
• Assisted, Autonomous, and Simultaneous GPS
• BlackBerry NS1, 2100mAh Removable Battery
• Accelerometer, Magnetometer, Proximity, Gyroscope, Ambient light sensor
• NFC, microUSB, microHDMI-Out, Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy, 4G LTE
• Dimensions (LxWxD): 119.6mm x 66.8mm x 10.35mm

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Intel has been trying to push into the mobile market for a while now. Although they have not made much progress, a deal with Apple would completely change that. Instead of trying to make their own device, providing chips for one of the largest mobile manufacturers may be Intel’s entrance into the mobile market.

According to a report from Reuters, Intel could be striking a deal with Apple in the near future. Less than 2 weeks ago, Intel made a deal with Altera that would be their biggest chip manufacturing customer in history. This deal foreshadows Intel’s future in that it could open up the Silicon Valley company to other contracts with big name mobile manufacturers like Apple.

Apple only made the switch to Intel x86 processors for Macs in January of 2006. The switch was a huge turning point in Mac computers and by 2009, with the introduction of Snow Leopard, the PowerPC architecture was completely replaced by Intel.

Would you like to see Apple and Intel working together in the mobile computing market? What kind of effect do you think that this deal would have on the mobile devices of tomorrow? Let us know in the comments below.

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Once in a while, you hear about a boy or girl that racked up a huge bill through in-app purchases. For example, one boy managed to build up £1710.43 in charges playing freemium hit ‘Zombies vs Ninjas’. Despite their previous decision to not refund those purchases, it seems like Apple will be handing out a good deal of money instead.

An Apple spokesperson had this to say about the matter:

“All iOS devices have built in parental controls that give parents and guardians the ability to restrict access to content, eg internet access and age rated content such as music, games, apps, TV shows, movies etc.”

Now, Apple has agreed to give 23 million iTunes users a $5 credit. Although this may sound more like an insult to injury, it is most likely the amount of money that these users lost in the first place. The credit will be given to those users who “made a Game Currency purchase in one or more Qualified apps”.

If you’re looking to get in on this deal, Apple is not providing anywhere to sign-up. However, you can probably make your case with Apple via their support website. According to 9to5 Mac, the claim will not be followed through until later this year or even until 2014.

Have you been affected by an in-app purchase mishap? Perhaps you’ve had a child that overspent on in-app purchases? Let us know in the comments below.

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From watches to glasses and even a twitter bubble t-shirt, wearable technology is poised to be the next big thing. Google has been making a push for their Glasses with models, videos, and a whole lot of Sergey Brin.

Although Google’s augmented reality head-mounted display is making good press and being received well, Steve Mann had mixed feelings.

On one hand, it’s immensely satisfying to see that the wider world now values wearable computer technology. On the other hand, I worry that Google and certain other companies are neglecting some important lessons. Their design decisions could make it hard for many folks to use these systems. Worse, poorly configured products might even damage some people’s eyesight and set the movement back years.

It’s astounding to me that Google and other companies now seeking to market head-wearable computers with cameras and displays haven’t leapfrogged over my best design (something I call “EyeTap Generation-4 Glass”) to produce models that are even better. Perhaps it’s because no one else working on this sort of thing has spent years walking around with one eye that’s a camera.

If you do not recognize him by his actual name, Steve Mann is the “father of augmented reality and wearable computing”. He is also General Chair of the IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society.

Google recently closed a Glass Explorer Edition pre-order competition on Twitter. It was open to the public and all you had to do to enter was tweet your idea to #ifihadglass. Google and Sergey Brin hinted at a 2013 release with developers already receiving their glasses.

Did you enter to become a Google Glass Explorer? How do you feel about Google Glass and wearable technology? Let us know in the comments below.

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Not including a long 563,000,000 km (350,000,000 mi) journey, NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity has been on Mars for nearly 7 month now. In this time, Curiosity has been gathering data about the “Red Planet”. Up until now, the journey has gone smoothly. However, corrupted memory could be putting Curiosity at risk.

Yesterday, NASA’s Curiosity’s Twitter feed read: ”Don’t flip out: I just flipped over to my B-side computer while the team looks into an A-side memory issue”.

The source of this hiccup is corrupted memory files on the A-side computer. In response to the rover failing to follow through with it’s normal daily tasks, Curiosity was put into a minimal activity state known as “Safe Mode”. This move, in addition to the switch to the B-side computer, will keep the rover on hold until it is properly updated.

Richard Cook of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. says that ”We’re still early on in the process. We have probably several days, maybe a week of activities to get everything back and reconfigured.”

The main goal of the switch to safe mode and the reconfiguration is to get both the A and B computers health. Although this issue will slightly delay the rover, Richard Cook also noted that it will have no affect on Curiosity’s overall long-term mission.

Have you been following the Curiosity rover? Do you think that we should be spending more time and effort in space exploration? Let us know in the comments below.

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On Wednesday Sony hosted their ‘see the future’ of PlayStation event. The event revealed incredible graphics, new controllers, and even the next game console, the PlayStation 4. To go along with all the new, Sony threw in a revamped version of an old toy.

Sony has been toying around with motion recognition ever since the EyeToy in 2003. Later, Sony would bring it back as the PlayStation Eye in 2007 with the PlayStation 3. Now, sony looks to perfect the device as the PS4 Eye. Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida gave us information today on how it works.

The PS4 Eye comes with two 1,280 x 800 cameras, an 85-degree field of view, and four microphones. The two cameras work together with the new Dualshock 4 controllers to track movements.

Shuhei Yoshida also went on to add that ”It’s (PS4 Eye) an extension of the PS Move technology that we incorporated into the DualShock so that the camera can see where it is”. Not only will the PS4 Eye help to bring the PlayStation 4 up to par with Kinect and the Wii, but it also has four built-in microphones that will be used in games and for voice-commands.

Microsoft and Nintendo are going to have to work fast if they want to beat out Sony and the PS4 Eye.

What do you think about the PlayStation 4 and the PS4 eye? Will you be picking one up at the end of this year when it goes on sale? Let us know in the comments below.

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