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The War Z closed beta starts on Halloween, pre-orders get in early
The War Z, the upcoming zombie-themed PC MMO, will go into closed beta on October 31, publisher Arktos Entertainment has announced. The game is also now available for pre-order. Three packages are available, each granting access to the beta and offered at a discount until October 20*.The Survivor package is available for $19.49 and grants access to the beta when it begins on October 31. Meanwhile, the Pioneer package is $29.99, grants access to the beta on October 15, $15 of in-game currency, a special forum badge, one month of map server hosting and 3 guest keys. Finally, there's the Legend package for $49.99, featuring October 15 access, $30 of currency, a forum badge, 6 months of server hosting, 3 guest keys. Legend purchasers will also have their survivor names highlighted on leaderboards and in the game's chat.After October 20, the pre-order prices jump to $29.99 and $49.99, respectively. The game can be pre-ordered on The War Z website.*The War Z website states that the discounts only apply until October 17, but Arktos informs Joystiq that the correct date is indeed October 20. The website is being corrected.
HP CEO: New webOS products shipping weeks after February 9 reveal, another big announcement March 14
It's been a few months since Leo Apotheker took the top spot at HP following the Mark Hurd debacle, and it sounds like he's got some big plans for the company -- speaking to the BBC, he says he hopes "one day people will say 'this is as cool as HP,' not 'this is as cool as Apple.'" How does he plan on doing that? By speeding up ship times, for starters -- unlike the year-long wait for the HP Slate, Apotheker says that "when HP makes announcements, it will be getting ready to ship," and that the new webOS products announced on February 9 will ship just a "few weeks" later. Speaking of the February 9 event, Apotheker said the new product line of tablets and mobile phones will have a new name that falls under the HP brand, which sounds like the Palm name is done for. (If we had to guess, it'll be HP webOS, but that's just a guess.) On top of all that, the BBC calls February 9 just the "starting gun," because Apotheker's "secret answer" and "vision of what HP is capable of in the future" will come on March 14, where he'll try to pull together HP's vast product portfolio into a cohesive narrative. According to Apotheker, HP's size is its "basis of strength," and no other company sells everything from servers to phones the way HP does. Sounds extremely exciting -- and if Apotheker can pull it off, there's a chance we'll remember Mark Hurd's dalliance as the best thing that ever happened to HP. [Thanks, soydeedo]
SageTV puts $150 HD Theater 300 up for pre-order, breaks down the specifications
Whoa, welcome to the new decade SageTV! Nearly two full years after introducing the HD Theater HD200, the aforesaid company is hitting back with the HD Theater 300 -- and frankly, the timing couldn't possibly be worse. Last month, a $149.95 price tag on a no-name streamer may have looked attractive, but with the revised Apple TV and price-adjusted Roku line, we get the feeling this one will be a hard sell. At any rate, this new networked set-top box boasts a non-stackable design, a Toslink optical audio jack, HDMI 1.3 socket, a pair of USB jacks and an Ethernet connector. It also supports Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD/MA (which means you're cleared to bitstream to your HDMI 1.3 receiver), but you'll need to pony up an extra $29.95 for a WiFi dongle. Yeah, bummer. The outfit suggests that you turn this critter into a whole home DVR solution by running SageTV Media Center software alongside of it, but you should probably know that you'll have some trouble if trying to shove DRM'd content through it. It's available for pre-order down in the source link if you're interested. [Thanks, Tom]
Palm's official webOS 1.4 changelog leaked?
You know what's running out? February. That's a little alarming considering that Palm had promised that totally rockin' new cut of webOS, 1.4, before the month was out -- but while we wait for this thing to actually happen, at least we've now got an official (or official-looking) changelog of the build out of the good folks at PreCentral. Besides a host of bug fixes, 1.4 is said to have performance boosts within the phone and calendar apps, a handful of messaging enhancements, new email sorting options, custom alert sounds for reminders (finally!), and -- of course -- the addition of video recording and Flash support on the Pre. Interestingly, it won't have Flash out of the box -- you'll still need to download it from the Catalog, it seems. Head on over to PreCentral for the full log, and read really, really slowly just in case you've got a few more days to wait on this stuff.
Verizon-bound Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus specs leaked
And just like that, you've got specs. We'd already heard that the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus were headed to Big Red for some more EV-DO action, and now we've got a leaked image of the phones' spec list. Guess what? Nothing much to see here -- just a storage bump for the Pre to 16GB, and WiFi enabled on the Pixi, unlike its Sprint counterpart. As for release schedule, we've got nothing, but you can expect hear more about these two dudes at Palm's CES event tomorrow, which we will -- of course -- be covering live.
Walmart's $30 deal vaults Pixi from 'meh' to 'sure, I'll take three'
At $100, the underpowered Pixi doesn't look like a great value against its bigger, older brother -- but at the $30 Walmart is charging through its partner LetsTalk, the game changes a bit, doesn't it? Sure, $70 isn't that huge of a difference quantitatively, but emotionally, $30 is basically an overpriced meal or two -- and considering the old adage of "a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips," wouldn't you just rather have webOS? We've heard of some bad experiences with LetsTalk rebates in the past, but in this case, it's just an instant discount, so it seems like it could be a no-brainer for on-the-fencers. [Thanks, Snake]
