Vodafone brings fiber optics to the Shard, gives you signal high above London

What good is a spectacular view if you can't use your phone to tell people about it? London's newly opened 95-story skyscraper, The Shard, measures 1,016 feet, making it the tallest building in the European Union. From the 69th and 72nd floors, you can get 360 degree views of the city, up to 40 miles out, according to the building's owners. But what happens when the 200 people who can fit on the platforms at any one time want to user their mobile devices? Vodafone'simplemented a fiber optic system that converts signal into light, allowing it to travel upwards at a rate of 100GB per second. Once they've hit the proper spots, its converted into a radio signal, which is then beamed to several antennas located on different floors.

[Source: Engadget]

PlayStation 4 gets closer as Sony teases 20 February reveal

The new PlayStation 4 could explode onto the scene in three weeks. Sony invites us to "see the future" at an event on 20 February, potentially gazumping the rival Xbox 720.

If the event this month does see the launch of the long-awaited follow-up to the PlayStation 3, then Sony will beat Microsoft to the punch by unveiling its next generation console ahead of the rumoured Xbox 720.

The PlayStation launch will reveal what the hardware looks like, whether there's an exciting new way of controlling games, and the line-up of exclusive titles. But we almost certainly won't get our hands on the PS4 until much later in the year. In the meantime, hit play below to see Sony's tantalising teaser:

The Wall Street Journal reports that the new console will be powered by processor built by AMD, instead of the current Cell chip made by Nvidia -- which could cause problems with your current games on the new console.

Much has changed in the world of gaming since the current generation of games consoles first appeared in 2006. Casual and mobile gaming and online games have eaten into the market for traditional games consoles and hardware. Sony has has to address the changing market with the PS4, and reports say the new console will feature more social gubbins.

One thing Sony is keeping is the optical disk drive, as Sony feels online downloading of games isn't ready for a mass audience, with some countries saddled with broadband connections that can't handle the required file sizes.

[Source: CNET]

Sony to stop making MiniDisc stereos in March

It's the end of an era -- Sony will stop making MiniDisc stereos next month, two years after it stopped selling its portable equivalents, the BBC reports.

MiniDisc stereos first went on sale back in 1992, so it marks an end to the 21-year-old format's life. Sony hoped MiniDisc would become the format of choice, seeing as it was a better quality equivalent to cassettes. But the rise of CDs put paid to that.

The MiniDisc stereo format struggled outside of Japan due to high prices, not to mention the fragility of the discs themselves. While Sony claimed recordings would stay intact for 30 years, a simple magnet placed nearby would wipe your whole Now 11 compilation.

The discs initially offered 74 minutes of audio, but this was increased to 80.

I have hazy memories of seeing some albums for sale on MiniDisc in HMV, but they never took off. I was strictly a CD man, myself.

Sony tried to relaunch the format as Hi-MD in 2004, but a certain Apple MP3 player was already available by then. So suffice to say Sony's efforts were thoroughly torpedoed, due to the iPod's far greater storage and convenience.

Sony introduced portable MiniDisc players a year before their stereo counterparts, in 1991, but put the kibosh on them a couple of years ago. The portable version was far more popular, selling more than 22 million units in its life. For one thing, it didn't skip, unlike the Discman I had. That was a waste of time.

[Source: CENT]

Twitter Attacked and 250,000 Accounts Potentially Compromised

Twitter is sending out emails to 250,000 users of the service that may have had their accounts compromised this week to change their passwords.

If you’re a user of Twitter and receive an email similar to the one you see above – as I did earlier this evening – congratulations, your account may be one of the 250,000 that were potentially compromised this week. In a blog post on the company’s site this evening the situation was explained as clearly as it could be.

This week, we detected unusual access patterns that led to us identifying unauthorized access attempts to Twitter user data. We discovered one live attack and were able to shut it down in process moments later. However, our investigation has thus far indicated that the attackers may have had access to limited user information – usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted versions of passwords – for approximately 250,000 users.

Twitter explained that it decided to be very public about this situation as it believes this was the work of a sophisticated group and that this isn’t the only attack that it has been orchestrated against companies as of late.

Should you be unfortunate enough to receive one of these emails, make sure to change your password immediately.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Sony Xperia Z pre-orders begin in the UK, free headphones offered

5-inch Sony phone available to pre-order at Three, O2, Phones4U and CPW with free £300 cans; launch slated for Feb. 28

Today sees the start of Sony's launch promotions for the Xperia Z in the UK. The 5-inch handset is can be pre-ordered through mobile networks O2 and Three, as well as retailers Phones4U and Carphone Warehouse. All four could earn you the chance to walk away with a set of £300 Sony MDR-1R Prestige headphones, though the promotion is limited to the first 1000 pre-orders at each retailer or carrier. The pre-order promo runs from now until Feb 28, when the Xperia Z goes on sale in the UK.

Here's a quick breakdown of what each Xperia Z launch partner is offering --

Three --

• Black and white colors
• Prices start at £34 per month on a 24-month contract, with a £69 up-front fee
• That gets you 500 minutes, 5000 texts and unlimited data
• Also selling on Pay As You Go (PAYG) for £449.99

O2 --

• Black and purple colors
• Wide range of tariffs; cheapest plan with a free phone is £47 per month on a 24-month contract
• That gets you 1200 minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB, as well as a 3-month early upgrade
• O2 is not yet offering the Xperia Z on PAYG

Carphone Warehouse -- 

• Black and white colors
• Selling on four 24-month contracts with O2 and Vodafone between £33 and £38 per month
• Best value plans are with Vodafone -- £38 p.m. for unlimited texts and minutes, plus 2GB, or £33 p.m. for 600 mins, unlimited texts and 500MB, plus a £29 up-front fee.
• No details of PAYG or off-contract prices yet.

[Source: AndroidCentral]

Sky Sports on Now TV brings Premier League to your iPad

When Saturday comes you'll soon be able to watch the match on your phone, tablet or computer without forking out for Sky. Sky Sports is kicking off on Now TV, Sky's online viewing service for those of us without a dish.

Starting in spring, you can nab 24 hours of access to the service for £10. That's okay value if you have a full day of Test cricket, Masters Golf or Formula One driving-in-circles to enjoy, although it might sound a bit pricey to watch a Premier League match. Then again, get a few mates to chip in and you've got yourself a footie feast with added top bants.

I doubt pub landlords will be too impressed by this development if it leads to more people watching games at home instead of heading to their nearest hostelry with a little pint glass in the corner of the screen. But it's certainly good news for armchair fans who hate having their G and T spilled by flying elbows when they're forced to venture into the local boozer to watch a game.

You can watch Now TV on your iPhone 5, iPad, Xbox, laptop or desktop computer. Sadly for Android fans, the service is only available on a very limited range of Android devices for now, including the Samsung Galaxy S3.

At the moment Now TV just features Sky Movies. You can pay for individual films  on your phone, tablet or computer, or subscribe for a month -- handy as Sky Movies has a stranglehold on new releases but charges a premium for a Sky dish and contract. Sign up now and you get a free month to try it out.

Sky customers can also now download Sky films and TV shows to their mobile devices to watch while out and about with Sky Go Extra, which costs an extra fiver over the usual Sky Go service.

[Source: CNET]

Google Nexus 4 delivery is less than 48 hours, not 1-2 weeks

Not only is the Google Nexus 4 back on sale, but it's already dropping through phone fans' letterboxes less than 48 hours later -- much less than the one- or two-week wait Google warned us about.

When we say the Nexus 4 is fast, we're usually talking about the quad-core processor, responsive 4.7-inch screen and slick Android 4.2 Jelly Bean software. But CNET reader Dan Tooth dropped us a line to tell us his 16GB Nexus 4 is pretty speedy at crossing the country too, arriving this morning less than 48 hours after he ordered it.

Like many keen phone fans, Dan was quick off the mark, completing his order just seven minutes after the phone returned to Google Play at 3pm on Wednesday. And he's not the only one, as other readers report that a new Nexus dropped through their letterbox too to brighten up this rainy morning.

That's a delivery time of just over a day and a half, much less than the 1-2 weeks currently estimated by Google -- and a far cry from the 6-7 week wait some customers faced last year.

The Nexus 4 is still available today, making this probably the longest uninterrupted period it's been on sale. LG, which builds the Nexus 4, and Google, which created the software, blame each other for the stock snafu: Google claims supply has been erratic, while LG says Google disastrously underestimated the demand. But the problem seems to have been sorted, and fingers crossed we've seen the last Sold Out sign on Google Play.

The 8GB Nexus 4 costs £240 and the 16Gb model costs £280. You can buy two of each at a time, and hey, you may have it within a day or two.

[Source: CNET]

The Walking Dead is 50% Off on Steam Today

If you’ve been waiting for a solid chance to get The Walking Dead, and the previous sales weren’t timed quite right for you wallet, Steam is giving you another chance today. The Walking Dead is available, in its full first season form, for 50% off its typical price.

Pencils down, it’s now $12.49.

I personally loved every bit of The Walking Dead. It was a game that rocked my expectations, and Telltale delivered something stocked with great characters, tough decisions and an odd sense of depression. If you’d like to look at the flip side of the coin, though, our own Eric Frederiksen was not such a fan of the game.

The Steam version of The Walking Dead works on both PCs and Macs. Buy it now if you’ve been waiting for a nice price cut.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

4G EE comes to 9 new towns from Southend to Sunderland

Nine more towns just had their mobile data speeds given a kick in the pants as EE, Britain's first 4G network, expands its 4G LTE coverage.

The lucky nine are Amersham, Bolton, Chelmsford, Hemel Hempstead, Southend-on-Sea, Stockport, Sunderland, Sutton Coldfield and Wolverhampton.

That makes a total of 27 towns and cities covered by EE, the phone network formed from the merger between Orange and T-Mobile. EE promises more towns will also be connected by the end of March, including Bradford, Coventry, Rotherham, and Watford, and West Bromwich.

Mobile coverage is never entirely certain so whack your postcode into EE's coverage checker before you shell out for a 4G contract.

EE has drawn flak for its pricing, or more specifically the amount of data you get for each pricy contract. The network responded this month by adding a new cheapest tariff and a 20GB data deal.

The latest addition to EE's LTE line-up is the new BlackBerry Z10, announced yesterday and on sale today. Other phones and tablets that connect to the Web pretty darn quick include the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE and Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.

[Source: CNET]

Sony Xperia SP and Xperia L Leaked

Sony already treated us to the beautiful Xperia Z during this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, but like any good phone maker it’s not slowing down. The company apparently has two new Android smartphones up its sleeves, dubbed the Xperia SP and the Xperia L. Both devices were recently revealed on an Indonesian telecom website.

XperiaBlog said it dug up information on both devices and suggested the Xperia SP will be the higher-end smartphone of the two devices. It’s allegedly equipped with a 720p display and a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor clocked at 1.7GHz. We presume it will also run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, although that’s still an unknown at this point.

Meanwhile, the Sony Xperia L will have a lower 854 x 480-pixel resolution and a dual-core Snapdragon processor clocked at 1GHz. It will apparently launch with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.

We have no idea when these phones will launch, if ever, but there’s always a chance Sony will discuss them during Mobile World Congress at the end of February.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Grand Theft Auto V Delayed, Release Date Revealed

Rockstar has delayed the release date of Grand Theft Auto V out of May of 2013. Instead, the open world blockbuster bound title will release for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on September 17th, 2013.

A PC version, unfortunately, was not announced. My first thought when I head about the delay this morning was that Rockstar was planning to release a PC version alongside the console edition, but that’s not the case. Instead, in the body of the email that announced the new launch date, Rockstar explained the delay with this:

The September release date moves the launch back from its original projected release window of spring 2013 in order to allow additional development time. The biggest, most dynamic and most diverse open world Rockstar Games has yet created, Grand Theft Auto V blends storytelling and gameplay in new ways as players repeatedly jump in and out of the lives of the game’s three lead characters, playing all sides of the game’s interwoven story.

“Additional development time” could account for just about anything. Perhaps the game wasn’t testing well, or perhaps it was a little more bug-riddled than Rockstar likes. Regardless, the four month delay from May to September should be enough to get the job done.

Of course, this now makes Grand Theft Auto V a massive contender in the holiday season for games. Rockstar hasn’t released a game in the fall portion of the calendar since before Red Dead Redemption, and the solitude they’ve found in May has lead to huge sales. Now, gamers will be picking between Grand Theft Auto V and the whole slew of holiday games set to launch near it.

What will you choose?

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

New shopping companion Stuffster launches to track and alert consumers of online price drops

Stuffster’s Fastest Fallers Index reveals that TVs and Cameras saw the biggest tech savings in January 2013*

• Stuffster launches today, a new online shopping tool that tracks items and alerts you when the price drops to what you want to pay
• Stuffster’s Fastest Fallers Price Index reveals that Cameras and Children’s Tech had the highest number of technology sales over the January sales period*
• Stuffster sees the average price of items online fluctuate by as much as 17.5% during the day
• The new The new price drop alert service features an easy to use bookmark function so consumers can add items to track in Stuffster from their web browser in just one click, helping organise their shopping

LONDON, January 31, 2013 – Following a wealth of new products announced at CES, Stuffster.com, a free online shopping companion, has launched today to help consumers buy the products they want for the price they can afford. The revolutionary new service tracks global price drops and will enable consumers to track products that they want to buy and set the price they want to pay, following which Stuffster will alert them when the price drops to their target price.

Supporting the news, Stuffster has also revealed the launch of its Fastest Fallers Index, which has tracked price fluctuations of 691 online products between December 2012 and January 2013. Using Stuffster to continuously monitor price changes, the site revealed that fashion, beauty and technology products saw the biggest price drops, as over a third (34.9%) of items monitored fell over this period, with savings of up to 80% on popular products. From the technology items and websites monitored, Cameras and Children’s Tech saw the biggest percentage of items drop in price, with brands like Currys and Amazon slashing prices over the past four weeks. TVs and cameras saw particularly high savings with prices dropping by hundreds of pounds on items like Sony’s Full HD 3D Camcorder and LG’s Full HD 47” LED 3D TV, which fell from £1,699.99 to £999.97 and £1,299 to £649 respectively.

Keir McConomy, CEO for Stuffster.com, commented, “Over the past few years we’ve seen a boom in online shopping as consumers log on in search of the best deals. There are big savings to be had online for the savvy shopper. With tech giants launching new products every other week, retailers often slash their prices on old stock, but we even see prices fluctuate by as much as 10-30% in the same day due to flash sales and changes in the market, so it can be easy to miss out on these great deals.”

Using Stuffster’s Trakology technology, the site did not only reveal price drops, but also price increases and dailyfluctuations. Online prices can vary by as much as 17.5% in a day, as retailers adjust their prices multiple times according to supply and demand. For example, Stuffster saw Samsung’s NX 1000 Digital Compact Camera drop from £399.99 on Amazon to £329.99, only to increase back up to £399.99 just 6 hours later.

Stuffster tracks prices of any product on any website in the world, including Amazon, PC World, John Lewis and Currys, and has been established to help consumers take control of their shopping so they never need to worry about missing out on a bargain. Consumers add items to Stuffster.com by clicking the +STUFF button which they add to their browser and then setting the price they want to pay. All items are stored in Stuffster in a “Stufflist”, a central Wishlist of items they want to buy, or they can organise them in “Stuffboards” – helping categorise items in any way they want, from gadget essentials, to clothes, to specific categories like tablets. 

Stuffster is a free service for consumers to use, and has launched following over a year in development.

Keir McConomy continues, “We’ve launched Stuffster to help put the power back into consumers’ hands. Stuffster helps take the stress away by constantly tracking the items you want, so you never miss out on a bargain if the price drops on an item or it goes on sale. By using Stuffster, you can regularly save 25-50% off many of the most popular gadgets you want to buy and in today’s economic climate that can make a big difference or allow you to treat yourself with the savings made. What’s more, Stuffster helps save you time and hassle by organising your shopping items in one central place, so you never have to make a manual list of items ever again.”

To get price drop alerts for your favourite items, visit Stuffster.com for more details.