To mark 25 years of dungeon crawling (and soft-resetting), Square-Enix has packaged together all of its core Final Fantasy titles for this elaborate fan-baiting package. Alongside discs for Final Fantasies I through XIII, the games-maker has packaged a numbered presentation plaque -- replete with new artwork from renowned character artist Yoshitaka Amano -- alongside a two-disc soundtrack and commemorative DVD. The price of a limited-edition slice of Final Fantasy heritage? A total of 35,000 gilyen, (around $450) will net you the compilation, which lands on December 18th. Japan residents can hit the source for preorder details, while global enthusiasts can read up on the full title (and format) breakdown -- there's no news of an international release just yet.
TVCatchup, our favorite and most-used TV-watching service has brought its app over to Android. The service, which we've found to be much more reliable than the BBC's live streams on our flaky connection, lets you watch nearly 60 free-to-air channels available in the UK. The ad-supported app is available for free on Google Play right now -- as long as you've paid your license fee, folks.
First we saw a supposed leak of the next iPhone's nano-SIM tray, and now we're seeing alleged photos of the nano-SIM itself. iFun posted an image of what it says is a new T-Mobile nano-SIM that has just started arriving at the German carrier. The package apparently came with a message telling carriers that these SIMs are for smartphones about to go on the market, and that they're not to be given to customers -- yet. Cupertino, of course, tweaked its nano-SIM design earlier this year, and this photo does come ahead of an Apple announcement event rumored for next week.
If you're a streamer who shuns plastic disks and their ilk, but still wants 3D, there's good news: Syabas has announced the Popcorn Hour A-400 network media player. Thanks to a dual-core video processor, the box can mulch through 3D Blu-ray content (ripped, presumably), while also supporting studio-level features like detail enhancement and debanding. Like its A-300 predecessor, the streamer can dock a hard disk for content storage, and connects to your network via ethernet or optional WiFi. Other connections include an SD card reader, HDMI 1.4, eSATA and USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 (pending confirmation). On top of giving you access to your own content, the Syabas Apps Market brings YouTube, BBC's iPlayer, and 90 or so other free or premium channels. It'll hit stores in October with a €289 price tag, so if that sounds like your bag of popcorn, see the PR for more info.
We've had furtive glances of Sony's upcoming NEX-6 before, but only in the very clinical space of a government test lab. Apparently, no mere agency can confine it: photography workshop director Vincent Kang has posted a photo of the pre-release mirrorless camera on Weibo for all to see. Posing next to 24mm and 50mm lenses, the NEX-6 looks to be very much the in-between camera we suspected it was, without as much dedicated control as the NEX-7 but still carrying an electronic viewfinder, a pop-up flash and a dedicated function key near the shutter release. The dedicated mode dial is also more conspicuous -- there's no question that Sony wants to free up controls on the back for the future camera's more experienced target audience. Between the new design and the already known inclusion of WiFi, it's looking as though the NEX-6 may hit the sweet spot for shooters who want more control than the NEX-5R without sacrificing all its newer features. We just need to wait for official launch details to make it all real.
Freesat, the UK’s free-to-air digital satellite television provider, today launches a new smart on-screen TV guide, available in its next generation Freesat+ boxes.
Called <free time> the service offers new features in a single, simple and easy to use guide:
A backwards TV guide letting you turn back time and watch programmes that have already been on, but you may have missed
An ‘at a glance’ Now & Next view to show what’s on the minute you sit down
A new Showcase section that offers recommendations on programmes to watch tonight, in the coming week and on demand
On Demand TV from BBC iPlayer and ITV Player with 4OD and Demand 5 launching before Christmas
Improved recordings that make it even easier to record TV at a touch of a button and find episodes automatically filed into series – just like a DVD boxset
The next generation Freesat+ boxes join the existing range of Freesat digital satellite HD boxes and integrated HDTVs and will be available to buy from John Lewis, Currys, Comet and other retailers and online later this month. Set top box manufacturer Humax is producing the first new box with <free time> and will be priced at £279. Boxes from Sagemcom, Philips and Manhattan will follow.
Connecting the box to home broadband will power the backward TV guide, give access to On Demand and the full Showcase. Freesat is also planning to launch additional movie and music services in the future.
Developed using widely adopted European open standards for hybrid TV including elements of OIPF, HbbTV and HTML 5 browser technology, <free time> will offer additional services and features in the future, including a companion app for smartphones and tablets to create remote control and remote record capability away from the traditional remote.
Emma Scott, Managing Director of Freesat said: “TV is a simple pleasure that technology can make even better, not more complicated. Our new boxes with <free time> give satellite viewers everything they get with freesat today and so much more in a single, simple and easy to use on screen guide. We want to help viewers find something great to watch the minute they sit down, so they can spend less time searching and more time watching the TV they love.”
“Having now exceeded 2.6m Freesat sales we’re thrilled to be launching <free time> today and offer satellite homes more quality, choice and value without a subscription.” [Advertorial]
Here at IFA, the Galaxy Note II's glossy plastic build is practically fading under the ambush of cameras snapping away at Samsung's booth, but clearly this phone is more than just a (super sized) pretty face, and it's time to take a look at what's under the hood. As mentioned in our hands-on, Samsung upgraded the original Note's dual-core 1.4GHz chipset to a quad-core 1.6GHz Exynos processor. We put the device to the test today to see how those amped-up insides reflect in the Note II's benchmark scores. As you'll see below, Sammy's latest handset fares significantly better than the original Note and the Galaxy S III.
Acer is touch-enabling its Aspire M3 ultrabook and Aspire V5 notebook this week at IFA 2012. We got to see non-touch display versions of the M3 and V5 at Cebit earlier this year, but the company is shipping displays on both laptops that support 10-points of touch for Windows 8. Acer's M3 touch series ultrabook features the same 15.6-inch display size as the M3 and an Nvidia GT640M GPU, coupled with a weight of 2.3kg and 22mm thin frame.
The Acer V5 touch series remain largely the same spec wise from the non-touch versions. The V5 touch will ship in 14-inch and 15.6-inch versions, but Acer appears to have dropped the 11.6-inch version that was available on the non-touch V5 edition. Both laptops will include Intel Ivy Bridge processors and optical drives. The 14-inch model weighs in at 2.1kg and is 21mm thick, while the 15.6-inch model weighs 2.4kg and is 23mm thick. Both will be available in a selection of colors, but Acer has not yet revealed pricing or availability.
Back in July, word got out that Huawei was prepping a revised version of its entry-level Android tablet, dubbed the MediaPad 7 Lite. As that name implies, this Android ICS tab's of the 7-inch variety and, thus, lends itself well to one-handed use for busy on-the-go types. Considering this isn't part of the outfit's top shelf portfolio, its mix of specs have been kept quite modest: there's a single-core 1.2GHz Cortex A8 CPU underneath that 1,024 x 600 IPS display. But before you knock it for falling short of even 720p territory, bear in mind this device's being marked at a 229 Euro price point -- so it's affordable and geared squarely for the budget segment.
An image of the Nokia Lumia 820 has been leaked by Twitter user evleaks. The 820 apparently has a 4.3-inch display, and if you squint you'll make out "Carl Zeiss" on the camera lens, but not much more is known at this point. It looks though this is the mid-range "Arrow" handset we reported on last week, which is set to launch on AT&T and T-Mobile in the US. A variant codenamed Atlas is bound for Verizon later on. Nokia has a press event on September 5th where we're expecting it to unveil the Lumia 820 alongside the just-leaked flagship, the Lumia 920 with PureView.
HTC will unveil its new smartphone, the HTC Desire X, at IFA, which runs from August 31 to September 5 in Berlin. The HTC Desire X is an affordable smartphone that delivers a state of the art camera, stunning sound and incredible processing power and speed, HTC said.
Tuned with HTC exclusive Beats Audio, the HTC Desire X comes with a dual-core 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, a 4-inch WVGA screen, a 5-megapixel camera, and runs on Android 4.0
The HTC Desire X will be available in selected markets across EMEA and Asia Pacific from September 2012, the company said.
HTC is also scheduled to launch an upgraded version of the HTC One X as well as Windows Phone 8-based smartphones in September, according to a Chinese-language Liberty Times report.
Well hells bells, it was only yesterday that the idea of an e-ink / LCD screen mash-up device was the stuff of patent dreams, and now it's a reality. The chaps at Stuff were shown the prototype handsets at a closed meeting at IFA, as expected with a regular screen on one side, and the e-reader-style display on the other. E-ink was apparently tight lipped about possible vendor interest, but they did confirm that one firm was working with the concept already. We're not about to make any leaps, but if we'd applied for the patent, we'd also want first dibs.
To mark 25 years of dungeon crawling (and soft-resetting), Square-Enix has packaged together all of its core Final Fantasy titles for this elaborate fan-baiting package. Alongside discs for Final Fantasies I through XIII, the games-maker has packaged a numbered presentation plaque -- replete with new artwork from renowned character artist Yoshitaka Amano -- alongside a two-disc soundtrack and commemorative DVD. The price of a limited-edition slice of Final Fantasy heritage? A total of 35,000 gilyen, (around $450) will net you the compilation, which lands on December 18th. Japan residents can hit the source for preorder details, while global enthusiasts can read up on the full title (and format) breakdown -- there's no news of an international release just yet.
