Xbox 720 in the next 18 months, job listing divulges

The next Xbox has been pegged to go on sale next Christmas by a revealing Microsoft job listing.

The job details, which were spotted by PCWorld and have since been deleted, explain that "over the next 18 months Microsoft will release new versions of all of our most significant products," going on to list "Windows (Client, Server, Phone and Azure), Office and Xbox." We already know about the new Windows gubbins -- that's Windows 8 of course. But so far Microsoft has remained tight-lipped regarding a new games console.

18 months would see a new system released early in 2014 at the latest, though it's far more likely that Microsoft would try and get the new Xbox -- reportedly codenamed Durango -- on sale in the run up to Christmas next year, giving cash-addled parents the opportunity to stuff their offsprings' stockings with a brand-new console.Microsoft has already stated that there would be no new console out this year, ruling out a surprise 2012 unveiling. Not much is known about what Microsoft's follow-up to the popular Xbox 360 will look like, though rumours tip it to feature a Blu-ray drive and to require a constant web connection in order to play games.

If we're talking about excluding gamers who don't have an Internet connection, then perhaps we could also see Microsoft ditching physical media altogether and having games accessed solely through downloads. Another recent Microsoft job ad spied by Techradar suggests that the company responsible for Clippy is already working on a second round of Surface tablets.

[Source: cnet]

Sky Movies on YouView as Now TV arrives with 30 days free

Cut-price dish-free Sky channels are now available on YouView -- for free. You can watch Sky's online service Now TV on your YouView set-top box, bringing Sky Movies to your goggle box without coughing up for a Sky subscription.

Now TV is free for the first month -- so that's 30 days of movies from Sky's film channels, long before they reach other TV channels or online services.

With Now TV, you can watch Sky programmes on your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad and selected Android smart phones -- not the Samsung Galaxy S3 or any Ice Cream Sandwich phones, though. You can currently watch Sky Movies from Disney, Fox, Paramount, Sony, Warner, Universal and more, on demand or as part of a £15 monthly contract. Classic films cost 99p to rent and newer releases are £3.50.

Sky Sports is set to follow shortly for Premier League, Test cricket, and Formula One action.

When you sign up to Now TV, you can watch on two devices, such as your YouView box and a phone or tablet. I can understand why the folks at Sky would limit the number of devices -- they don't want you logging in on your friends' phones for free films all round -- but two is a bit tight. If you own a TV, a computer and a phone, you're stuck, let alone if you have a tablet or a laptop as well.

[Source: cnet]

London 2012 closing ceremony celebrated with Google doodle

It's the last day of a two-week run of Olympics-themed Google doodles. And fittingly, today's marks the closing ceremony of what has been a triumphant games.

We've seen plenty of playable games during the run, including piloting a canoe through a slalom course, a basketball shootout and the hurdles.

Today's shows a party in full swing, as all the stars of the doodles over the last two weeks celebrate around the word Google. There's the archery woman who kicked everything off (that's another string to her bow, ahem). There's the man kicking the football at the goal in the playable penalty shootout. The synchronised swimming team, fencer, pole vaulter and all the others are there too.

The doodles started the day of the opening ceremony, then it wasn't long before we had some playable games to waste time with. Hurdles was first on 7 August, then basketball the next day, slalom canoe the day after and then football.

The closing ceremony will start tonight at 9pm. It's not too late to get tickets either. Once the set has been moved into place, between 200 and 1,000 seats will go up for sale online. No fewer than 3,500 performers will take part in the Olympic stadium. There's also talk of an extra special musical guest making a performance, to show the world we've got more rabbit than Sainsbury's. Please, Seb Coe, make it so.

Team GB has won a phenomenal 62 medals, including 28 gold. And it's not over yet, with more medals guaranteed today in the men's boxing. The women's modern pentathlon is still yet to be decided, as is the men's marathon and men's cross-country mountain biking.

[Source: cnet]

Gmail results in Google Search now available to some field trial participants

One of Google's bigger announcements at its search-focused event earlier this week was the integration of personal Gmail content into Google Search — users will soon have the option to see Gmail results integrated right alongside other search results. The feature isn't publicly available yet, but Google began accepting sign-ups for a limited field trial along with the announcement, and now some Gmail members are receiving notifications that the feature has been activated for their account. Several tipster have written in to let us know that Gmail has begun popping up in their searches after receiving an email notification saying the feature was turned on; we've been able to confirm that with a few personal email accounts, as well.

It works just as Google explained a few days ago — search results from Gmail show up in the upper right of the screen, above Google Knowledge Graph content. They're hidden from view by default, but you can click to quickly see a snapshot of your Gmail conversations relevant to the search term. Upon clicking a conversation, it brings up a dedicated view of the whole relevant email thread rather than simply moving the user into Gmail, but there's an option to click and view the messages in the native Gmail interface as well. Strangely enough, this feature doesn't appear to be supported in Safari right now, though it works fine with Chrome and Firefox. If you want to participate in the trial, you can sign up right here.

[Source: The Verge]

Google to downrank sites hit by valid copyright claims

Google has been dogged by claims that it facilitates the piracy of content through its search results pretty much since day one. Starting next week, the web giant will be taking a much more aggressive approach to sites hosting pirated material by downranking frequent offenders. The new results algorithm will take into account the number of valid copyright notices received against a site and penalize them appropriately in the rankings. Google says that this will allow consumers to more readily find legitimate sources of content such as Hulu and Spotify, but it's hard not to see the move as one intended to appease studios, content producers and government officials that routinely threaten to hammer companies like Google with lawsuits and restrictive legislation. Mountain View was also quick to highlight how responsive it's been to industry concerns -- citing the fact that it receives and processes more copyright complaints in a day than it did in all of 2009 combined. For more details, hit up the source link.

Update: The MPAA has issued the following statement from Michael O'Leary, Senior Executive Vice President for Global Policy and External Affairs, in response to Google's move:

We are optimistic that Google's actions will help steer consumers to the myriad legitimate ways for them to access movies and TV shows online, and away from the rogue cyberlockers, peer-to-peer sites, and other outlaw enterprises that steal the hard work of creators across the globe. We will be watching this development closely – the devil is always in the details – and look forward to Google taking further steps to ensure that its services favor legitimate businesses and creators, not thieves.

[Source: Engadget]

Motorola to cut its workforce by 20 percent, shutter a third of its offices worldwide

When Google acquired Motorola Mobility, Larry Page said the move would help "supercharge the Android ecosystem," but first, the firm needs to reorganize. That seems to be starting -- the company just announced that it will be closing a third of its 94 offices and laying off 20 percent of its workforce, including 40 percent of its vice presidents. The move will scale back its presence in Asia and India, says the New York Times, and will center its operations in Chicago, Sunnyvale and Beijing. The new, smaller Motorola will be working on less devices too, focusing on releasing a few high quality handsets each year as opposed to several dozen. Less phones means less parts, of course, and the firm says it will be dropping some suppliers and will be buying half as many components as a result. We're all for the new Moto's less-is-more approach and the potential it has to breed a new Nexus device, but Google's already made it clear that it isn't playing favorites with OEMs. Either way, it's a start.

[Source: Engadget]

Google Knowledge Graph coming to all English-speaking nations tomorrow, adds lists to results

Google launched its contextual and intelligent search service, Knowledge Graph, only a few months ago. Till now, it's been limited in its availability and, while most nations will still be left out, tomorrow it will be coming to all "English-speaking" countries. The ability to discern your intended search goal and present you with relevant information immediately, as opposed to just a page of links, is the next step in search technology and the secret sauce powering the somewhat creepy Google Now in Jelly Bean. The Graph has also received a few enhancements and tweaks, including the ability to answer queries with collections and lists. So, say you're looking for rides in Disney World, a thumbnail of every attraction will appear at the top in a horizontally scrollable list. How much longer till our Spanish, French or Chinese speaking pals can get in on the action? That's anyone's guess. But, if English is the native tongue of your home, then rest assured your flavor of Google has just gotten a little bit smarter.

[Source: Engadget]

Stock Talk: HTC's problem is getting worse

Late last week, HTC posted its Q2 results for 2012, and they weren’t pretty. Profits are down 60 percent year over year.  But perhaps the most visible sign of decline comes from revenue. After all, consumers don’t necessarily know if a company makes money based on what it sells. But if HTC sells fewer phones, it’s a highly visible change. And that’s exactly what has been happening. HTC revenues dropped by more than 25 percent in Q2.  This week the Taiwanese manufacturer posted results for July, and sales were down by 45 percent. This is worrisome because it suggests HTC’s revenue woes are accelerating, not easing.  

The problems faced by HTC are serious. With Android having gained so much market share over the last couple of years, the only way to explain HTC’s performance is a loss of consumer appeal. When people think about Android, the brand that comes to mind is clearly Samsung.  The smartphone market, at the high end, has essentially consolidated around Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy families. Then, waiting to duke it out for a slice of the action will be Microsoft/Nokia and the Windows Phone 8 Lumia phones, along with Research in Motion’s BlackBerry 10 (neither of which have hit the market)...

[Source: To read the full article visit Android Central]

After ‘Genius’ Fail, Apple Back to Promoting iPad in Olympics

Apple, which discontinued its much-panned “genius” ads during the Olympics after their short run, is back with a more traditional approach, promoting its latest iPad.  The ad above, which ran during Tuesday night’s Olympics telecast on NBC, touts the new iPad’s Retina display and the ability to tweet articles you like. The “product-as-hero” style of the TV spot is more in keeping with past Apple ads than the three “genius” spots, which put the brand’s Apple Store VIPs in the spotlight. In contrast with “Genius,” which divided fans, the latest spot seems to be gaining wider acceptance — with more than 26,000 views, the new ad has 10 times more likes than dislikes.  However, the creative retreat by Apple is uncharacteristic. The brand rarely kowtows to fans and a tacit admission that the previous ads weren’t working is a rare occurrence for a brand known for its uncompromising vision and untouchable marketing prowess.  What do you think? Do you like the latest ads? Were the genius ads unfairly maligned? Sound off in the comments.

[Source: Mashable]

Apple Temporarily Halts Over-the-Phone iCloud Password Resets

Wired reports that Apple has ordered its support staff to temporarily stop processing AppleID password changes over the phone.   The move is a response to the experience of Wired reporter Mat Honan who had his iCloud account hacked which resulted in the remote-wipe of his iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air. An Apple worker with knowledge of the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Wired that the over-the-phone password freeze would last at least 24 hours. The employee speculated that the freeze was put in place to give Apple more time to determine what security policies needed to be changed, if any. Wired was able to confirm the policy change by calling Apple Support and attempting to reset the password on an iCloud account.   Meanwhile, Amazon has also changed their policy in the wake of the hacking report. Amazon no longer allows people to call in and change their credit card or email address settings. Hackers had taken advantage of Amazon's policies in order to expose the last four digits of Honan's credit card which was then used to take over his iCloud account.

[Source: Mac Rumours]

Starbucks switches to Square for payments, invests $25 million and will support Pay with Square

While Square's mobile payment processing platform has already picked up some major players in retail to go along with more than a million small businesses, its biggest shot in the arm to date is a new partnership with Starbucks. The chain will use Square to process credit card payments in nearly 7,000 US locations along with investing $25 million in the company, while Starbucks president, chairman and CEO Howard Shulz is joining its Board of Directors. Also notable for Square is that this fall Starbucks will be pushing features like its Pay with Square app that lets customers pay via iOS and Android apps, as well as the Square Directory of local businesses. In a letter, Square CEO Jack Dorsey pushed the platform as a way enhance local businesses and communities, but we'll see how friendly your local coffeeshop employees are when a familiar green logo shares their payment processor.

[Source: Engadget]

Would You Wear an Internet-Connected T-Shirt?

T-shirts are great outerwear, especially in the summer. But they’re just so, you know, analog. That may change, though. Ballantine’s, the brand behind the tattoo-based “Human API,” has a new idea it calls “T-Shirt OS.”  The concept: A T-shirt with an ultrathin LED screen that’s connected to the Internet (via your smartphone) and can display tweets, your Intstagram feed and even take photos. Though the technology to do all this is available, it’s not clear whether consumers want such an item. Hence the video above, which is a sort of trial balloon for the concept. If you like what Ballantine’s is proposing, then visit the brand’s Facebook Page.  

[Source: Mashable]