Angela Ahrendts has officially taken the reins of Apple’s new Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores. Ahrendts’s last day as the CEO of Burberry was yesterday, and Apple’s website has been updated to reflect Ahrendts beginning her work at Apple today. Her biography, which can be found on Apple’s executive leadership website, explains her role at Apple.
Last week, Tim Cook announced that Ahrendts would “join the Apple team” this week, but the Apple CEO did not specify an exact start date. We understand that Ahrendts is already planning a presentation to retail staff regarding her plans for Apple retail.
Apple announced Ahrendts appointment last fall, and Tim Cook told Apple employees via an internal memo that Ahrendts is the “best person in the world for this role.” Her role is unique in that this is the first time that Apple will have a Senior Vice President covering both retail and online stores.
Follow our coverage of the Technology World one by one only on our social media.
For more, head to ourFacebookpage and throw us a like or follow us onTwitteror add us to your circle inGoogle +and also follow us onInstagram, so that you won’t miss out any breaking news.
Be the first to hear about exciting and greatprojectsin the works
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology new. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point.
This is the Daily Roundup on AkibaTech provided by @DSM_Corp, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Earlier Yesterday, Google unveiled Android Wear: a Nexus-like platform designed to power wearables, featuring contextual updates similar to Now and the same always-listening feature found on the Moto X. This mobile OS will focus on the smartwatch form factor for now, but Google says that’s just the beginning.
It looks like the rumors were true. An 8GB version of Apple’s iPhone 5c is available from several European carriers on multi-year contracts. And though the colorful handset has also arrived for Australia and China via Apple’s online store, we’ve yet to hear word of US availability.
Motorola’s new wearable, the Moto 360, takes smartwatch form factor back in time (har), boasting a seriously eye-catching design and circular watchface. Powered by Google’s Android Wear, owners can utilize the power of Now from their wrists. What’s more, this isn’t the Moto 360’s only design. It’ll come in a variety of styles once it launches this summer.
Sony’s officially jumping into the VR realm with “Project Morpheus.” Now just a prototype, the two-part headset has a 1080p display and packs a 90-degree field of view. And though it’s still unclear how the device will work with consoles, the hardware you see above will double as a developer kit.
Follow our coverage of the Technology World one by one only on our social media. And make sure to join us as we going to cover the Game Developers Conference 2014.
For more, head to our Facebook page and throw us a like or follow us on Twitter or add us to your circle in Google + and also follow us on Instagram, so that you won’t miss out any breaking news.
Sony has announced during its press conference at the Gamescom event on Tuesday that the PlayStation 4 console will launch in the United States and Canada on November 15 and in Europe and Latin America on November 29.
Sony also announced that the PlayStation Vita handheld console will get a price cut, and will cost US$199 in North America and 199 Euros in Europe.
Additionally, a PlayStation 3 console with a 12GB hard drive will also soon ship for US$199 in North America and 199 Euros in Europe.
The brand new Call of Duty: Ghosts has been leaked for quite a days ago, and now they just announced it officialy, with a new teaser trailer. This Call of Duty also sports a brand new engine.
A press release was sent out to media, which you can find in full fater the break down below of this post. The biggest details run in one single line of the release.
All-New World, Story, Characters and Experience, All Powered by New, Next Gen Call of Duty Engine from the Developer that started it all, Infinity Ward
The release also indicates that Call of Duty: Ghosts will ship for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and next-gen consoles.
Finally, the game will be revealed fully at Microsoft’s recently announced next Xbox event on May 21st, 2013. We’ll have more on this one as it comes. So stay tuned.
ACTIVISION ANNOUNCES THE NEXT GENERATION OF CALL OF DUTY® WITH CALL OF DUTY®: GHOSTS
Call of Duty: Ghosts will set a new Benchmark for the Next Generation
All-New World, Story, Characters and Experience, All Powered by New, Next Gen Call of Duty Engine from the Developer that started it all, Infinity Ward
For an Exclusive First Look at the Game, Tune in to Xbox: The New Generation Revealed, May 21 at 10AM PDT on Xbox.com, Xbox Live or SPIKE TV
Groundbreaking Title Lands on November 5
Santa Monica, CA – May 1, 2013 – Prepare for the next generation of Call of Duty®. The franchise that has defined a generation of gaming is set to raise the bar once again with the all-new Call of Duty®: Ghosts. Published by Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI), and developed by Infinity Ward, the studio that created the original Call of Duty and the seminal Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® series, Call of Duty: Ghosts ushers in the next generation of the franchise. The new title delivers a riveting all-new gameplay experience built on an entirely new story, setting and cast of characters, all powered by a new, next generation Call of Duty engine that redefines the series for the next generation.
“Infinity Ward set the gold standard for first-person action for a generation, and they’re going to do it again with Call of Duty: Ghosts,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, Inc. “Ghosts delivers an all-new story, all-new characters, an all-new Call of Duty world, all powered by a next generation Call of Duty engine, which is a leap forward for the franchise. Infinity Ward is going all-in to create the next generation of Call of Duty worthy of the world’s greatest fans.”
“Everyone was expecting us to make Modern Warfare 4, which would have been the safe thing to do. But we’re not resting on our laurels,” said Mark Rubin, executive producer of developer Infinity Ward. “We saw the console transition as the perfect opportunity to start a new chapter for Call of Duty. So we’re building a new sub-brand, a new engine, and a lot of new ideas and experiences for our players. We can’t wait to share them with our community.”
To see an exclusive first look at Call of Duty: Ghosts tune in to Xbox: the Next Generation Revealed on May 21 at 10AM PDT on Xbox.com, Xbox LIVE or SPIKE TV for the debut of the all-new game from Infinity Ward.
“We are consistently thrilled with the overwhelming response received from critics and consumers alike to the Call of Duty series, which has firmly established its home on the Xbox 360 with the game’s largest and most engaged community,” said Don Mattrick, president of the interactive entertainment business at Microsoft. “With Call of Duty: Ghosts, we have no doubt that our longtime partners, Activision and Infinity Ward, will raise the bar higher than ever before for this incredible franchise.”
Starting today, fans can begin pre-ordering their copy of Call of Duty: Ghosts at retail outlets worldwide.
“There’s no other video game property like Call of Duty. It’s the biggest game franchise on the planet that has had some of the biggest game entertainment launches in history,” said Tony Bartel, president of GameStop. “We are very excited for the launch of Call of Duty: Ghosts, as we transition to next generation consoles.”
Call of Duty: Ghosts will release on Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC on November 5. Call of Duty: Ghosts will also be available for next generation platforms. For the latest intel, check out: http://www.callofduty.com/ghosts, http://www.facebook.com/CODGhosts, or follow on Twitter @InfinityWard. Call of Duty: Ghosts is not yet rated.
We still have absolutely no idea what the PlayStation 4 looks like, but we’re getting a better picture of what’s within: Sony’s just released a list of tech specs for the console. Confirming months of rumors, the PS4 will primarily have AMD silicon inside, in the form of a “single-chip custom processor” with eight AMD Jaguar CPU cores, and a next-gen Radeon graphics engine capable of 1.84 teraflops of performance.
But let’s talk about what we do know, starting with the hardware. For the PS4, Sony is using an x86-64 AMD processor with an integrated 8-core ‘Jaguar’ CPU and GPU. The GPU is capable of delivering 1.84 TFLOPS of performance, which pegs it slightly above AMD’s Radeon HD 7870 desktop GPU announced last year. The PS4 will also have 8GB of GDDR5 memory with around 176GB/s of memory bandwidth.
Other specifications include a built-in hard drive (no mention of SSD or ability to swap the drive), 6x Blu-ray and 8x DVD drive, USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, HDMI, analog AV-out and optical S/PDIF audio output.
The PS4 will be sold with the new DualShock 4 controller, which looks very similar to the leaked prototype we saw last week. It features a two-point capacitive trackpad above the joystick and a three-color LED light bar on top, which changes color to identify player or even during a game to denote things such as player health.
The PS4 has dual 1280 x 800 resolution 3D cameras with f/2.0 fixed focus lenses, 85-degree field of view, 30cm minimum focusing distance and four-channel microphone array. These track the light bar on the controllers, they way the Move did. The DualShock 4 also has three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer, vibration, mono speaker, microUSB port, stereo headset port, extension port and a 1000mAh battery.
Moving back to the console, there are quite a lot more new features to talk about, including:
Ability to stream games, thanks to the Gaikai cloud based service. This could be used in future to stream PS3, PS2 and PSOne games to the PS4.
Ability to stream PS4 games to the PSVita. Sony is aiming to offer virtually every PS4 game on the PSVita through streaming in the future.Ability to play games while they are downloading.
Ability to try any new game before purchasing.
Ability to record and upload game videos while playing games. The processing is done by a separate background processor. You can view videos uploaded by other players.
Ability to download games and updates while the console is switched off using the background processor.
Brand new interface for the PS4 as well as the PSVita.
New iOS and Android PlayStation App will let you use your smartphone as a second screen to view game details as well as view videos and other content uploaded by other gamers.
What does it all mean? Looking at the existing PlayStation 3, it’s immediately clear that Sony’s playing to its strengths while trying to address some of its former weaknesses.
At launch, critics slammed Sony for charging upwards of $500 for the PS3, arguing that it had too many features. HDMI, Wi-Fi and optical audio didn’t come standard on the Xbox 360 at launch, but they all proved important over the years. Meanwhile, the fast XDR memory of the PlayStation 3 came in handy, but there was far too little at 256MB. Here, Sony’s seeking to maintain the speed with GDDR5, but ups the capacity to a generous 8GB. Similarly, gamers ended up appreciating the PS3’s built-in hard drive when they started downloading games or installing them, but the first-generation 2x Blu-ray drive made that a painfully slow process.
There will be no backward compatibility of PS3 titles on the PS4, a direct result of the new processor architecture used on the latter. The Gaikai streaming feature remains the only hope to play older titles on the PS4, although that feature hasn’t been officially announced yet. You will be able to play used PS4 games on the new console, something a lot of people do.
Speaking of games, we have a handful of confirmed titles, including ‘Killzone: Shadow Fall’, ‘inFAMOUS: Second Son’, ‘Destiny’ by Bungie, ‘Deep Down’ (working title) by Capcom, ‘DriveClub’, ‘Knack’, ‘The Witness’, ‘Diablo III’ and ‘Watch_Dogs’ by Ubisoft.
As mentioned before, we still don’t know what the console looks like or will cost. All we know is that it is expected to be released by the holiday season by the end of this year.
PlayStation 4 is here. Sony Computer Entertainment prez and CEO Andrew House announced the console with little more than a logo and a handful of concepts. We’re sure to hear more as the night goes on, and we’ll be updating this post as we learn more.
Lead system architect Mark Cerny — legendary game dev and, to us, creator of Marble Madness — came up next. He said that development of the PS4 started five years ago. Cerny said he’s been exploring how to evolve “the PlayStation ecosystem,” and he started by speaking to the limitations of PlayStation 3. Cerny said he’s been aiming to make sure “nothing gets between the platform and the game.” An image of an old-timey hunter shooting space invaders in the sky is used as an example — here’s hoping the PS4 doesn’t mean we’ll be taking plastic guns and shooting pixels in the sky.
“We were able to create in PlayStation 4 a system by game creators, for game creators,” Cerny said. As far as specs, he said it runs on x86 architecture, a “highly enhanced” PC GPU (with “almost 2 teraflops of performance,” he added), an unknown amount of local HDD storage, and 8GB of GDDR5 system memory. Cerny next unveiled the DualShock 4, which looks an awful lot like the leaks we saw recently — it features a touchpad, a light bar, and what looks like rubberized grips. Otherwise, it looks an awful lot like a DualShock 3 with some new bells and whistles.
Cerny’s talking software now — the PS4 can pause and resume mid-game, allowing players to multitask at any point. There’s also a second chip dedicated to managing uploads and downloads, meaning you can download games in the background or when the system’s off. More importantly, however, you can start downloading a game and begin playing it as the download goes — pretty great! As far as sharing goes, PS4 is heavy on social interactivity; Cerny said its social network will extend beyond the console to mobile and Vita. He’s ambiguous about which platforms that’ll mean, but it sounds like Sony’s aiming to make it platform agnostic. There’s also a Pinterest-esque social app for friends to share screens and video, which Cerny said applies to the PS4’s “personalization” angle. “You’ll see real pictures of your real friends,” he said.
David Perry went next, and he talked about Sony’s acquisition of Gaikai (he was the former head of Gaikai, but now he’s working with Sony). His game streaming service is being employed to run demos on PS4, allowing people to try any game they want instantly. He also said that both Facebook and Ustream are being employed on PS4, using the DualShock 4’s Share button. But how much? He didn’t say. Beyond just sharing games you’ve already played, you can also livestream — to the point that a friend of yours who is spectating can actually jump into your game, via streaming, and help you out.
But wait, there’s more! Despite Remote Play being a function in the previous PlayStation console, Perry said it’s also heading to PlayStation 4. A brief demo of Mark Cerny’s PS4 game Knack was shown — Perry said latency should be imperceptible, using Gaikai’s streaming tech. Perry gave one last tease: “everything everywhere.” He’s hoping that PlayStation Cloud will apply to more than just PS4 and Vita, but also to mobile devices as well. The service will roll out “in phases,” Perry said, without giving more detail, though he did say that Cloud will power PS1, PS2, PS3, and PlayStation Mobile games.
It’s tonight at midnight that Sony will launch a new PlayStation!? in his great show, with the obvious aim of finally submit its fourth generation, currently called Orbis. The conference can be followed live through the world and you can watch it down below.
Find us at 6pm ET (NYC time) or 11pm (GMT +0) live here for a pre-conference where we can come together to discuss our expectations for the conference and the Playstation 4.
Yesterday, a mysterious photo of what aimed to be of Playstation 4’s contoller has traveled the web. It showed a redesigned controller, but also the presence of a strange area on the front of the controller. Now comes a new photo on the web.
This is a photo of the same device, but taken from a different angle. A new “proof” of the existence of a touchpad how to handle the Vita? Others imagine a screen, simply. But let’s be crazy, why not both at the same time? We can also perceive what could be a 3.5mm jack at the base. As a microphone jack on the Xbox 360 controller?
We will in all cases set on February 20. We will obviously aware of the revelations made during the Sony conference.
So stay tuned cause we’ll let you know all like if you are in top of the event.
An PlayStation event will be held on February 20th as we can see on the teaser below delivered by the U.S. branch of Sony, which simply add a “Be the first to know,” while the Facebook page quietly balance “See the future.”
We generally wary of teasers but still feels that the PlayStation 4 will not take so long to show up.
Additionally, CEO Kaz Hirai has not so long hinted that Sony might repeat its last-gen approach : letting the competition go first, and follow up with a more powerful machine, just like what happend before.
Remember, the PlayStation 3 was released an entire year after Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which left Sony with an uphill battle to eventually catch up. Microsoft employee Larry Hryb ramped up hype surrounding a successor to the 360 earlier this month, too, leading many to expect an unveiling of the next Microsoft’s Xbox before Sony made its move.
However, Sony has a history of unveiling hardware well ahead of E3. Like the PlayStation Vita – known only by its codename of NGP at the time – made its debut on January 27th, 2011. So there’s precedent that points to a huge reveal on February 20th, though we imagine Microsoft may still be caught by surprise.
Furthermore, The Wall Street Journal reports that the next PlayStation will indeed be revealed on February 20th.
At the end, we’ll know much more when we attend Sony’s 6PM ET (US,New York City Time! for the record!) event on February 20th in New York City.
After the announcement of the Tegra 4 processor, claimed to be the fastest mobile processor in the world right now, NVIDIA went on to showcase their latest creation, Project SHIELD.
So what exactly is this Project SHIELD? It’s a handheld gaming console that lets you play Android games and will also let you stream Steam games from your PC to the device wirelessly. And that’s just the gist of it.
Project SHIELD basically looks like an Xbox 360 controller with a foldable display attached. The display is a 5-inch, 1280 x 720 resolution ‘retinal’ multitouch unit, with a pixel density of 294 ppi. If you think that’s not enough, you can output the video to an external display through the HDMI port on the back, that too in up to 4K resolution! Other hardware features include built-in bass-reflex speakers.
On the software side, Project SHIELD runs on stock Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and you can control it either through the touchscreen or the controller. You also get access to the full Google Play Store, so unlike something like OUYA, which is limited to its own store, you can download pretty much any app or game on Project SHIELD available on Google Play.
But that’s just half the story. Thanks to partnership with Steam, you will also be able to wirelessly stream games running on your PC with NVIDIA GPU to your Project SHIELD. The rendering will happen on the PC and then the video will be streamed to the handheld device, similar to the way the WiiU works. It remains to be seen, though, how well this feature works, what are the hardware requirements for the PC and which titles support it.
As you can tell by the name, Project SHIELD is still in development and what we saw today was just a teaser. NVIDIA is aiming for a Q2, 2013 launch for the device, so we should find out more about it then.
Akibatech31 