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Samsung Android slider leaked, likely en route to AT&T (Update: new photos)
Looking at AT&T's current lineup of Android QWERTY devices sure instills a feeling of depression, doesn't it? When the best handsets in the category are the HTC Status and Pantech Crossover, there's plenty of room available for something a bit... well, fancier. A new Samsung slider recently leaked by BGR may be on its way to remedy the carrier's ailment "in the coming months." The render (displayed above) shows off the phone's standard four-button layout, front-facing camera, and a four-row keyboard; sadly, the leak didn't include any other specs. The likelihood of this being the Attain -- the AT&T-branded version of the Galaxy S II -- is low, since the layout on front doesn't match up with the global model in the slightest. So it may not be that phone, but it'll at least do a better job of Rethinking Possible than its QWERTY brethren. Update: BGR added more photographic evidence of the mystery slider, sporting Android 2.3.4. The photos show off the model number as I927, causing speculation that this is indeed the Galaxy S II on AT&T. We still remain skeptical, since the layout is completely different from the global version: the front-facing camera is on the right instead of left, the rear camera is designed much differently, and the navigation buttons on the front are the same style as the Captivate. If it is the Attain, AT&T has mandated a complete redesign (beyond the obvious addition of the keyboard). The new images can be found after the break.
HTC Status now available on AT&T: 'update' your phone for $50
You've seen the images and the hands-on, and now it's sitting on shelves, tempting you with that blue button with the mysterious glow. We're referring to the HTC ChaCha -- er, the Status, as it's known when Rethinking Possible -- which is now available for purchase on AT&T for $50 on contract. This "Facebook phone that's not a Facebook Phone" is the very first Gingerbread-packing handset on the carrier's lineup. So don't be shy, socialites -- if this is the phone you're destined to be in a relationship with, now's the time to make the move.
HTC Status hands-on (video)
As you can imagine, AT&T was eager to show off its newly minted HTC Status at its holiday preview event, right up there along with a blue Xperia Play and the HP Touchpad 4G. If you'll recall, the Status is the HTC ChaCha that was announced a few months back, and what makes it stand apart from other Android handsets is a dedicated Facebook button for liking things on these very internets. In AT&T's case, it's also the carrier's first phone running Android 2.3. We're taking one home to review, but in the meantime we couldn't resist giving it the full hands-on treatment. You know the drill: photos below, video and early thoughts past the break. %Gallery-128231%
HTC Status ships July 17th, currently in a pre-order relationship with AT&T
Following the usual leak + wait-and-see saga, AT&T has today confirmed that it'll be the exclusive home to one half of HTC's Facebook-infused duo. The so-called Status will be making its way onto Ma Bell's airwaves on July 17th, with eager social networkers able to get their pre-orders in today. It'll sell for $49.99 on a two-year agreement, with that tally netting you a dedicated Facebook "Share" button that'll allow photos / videos /websites to be instantly uploaded to your account. We're also told that it'll ship with Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) onboard, with an "enhanced version" of HTC's Sense overlay. Other specs include a 5 megapixel camera (with autofocus and LED flash), a 2.6-inch touch panel, 480 x 320 screen resolution and capacitive navigation buttons. Oh, and if you're uninterested in the hue you see about, Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile standalone stores will feature an exclusive mauve edition in due time. Fancy.
HTC Status for AT&T announced on Facebook, risks being tagged in embarrassing pics
The HTC Status (formerly known as the ChaChaCha, the ChaCha, and "the Facebook phone that's not a Facebook phone") is inching ever closer to its AT&T debut. It's already been pictured, sashayed its way through the FCC, and now it's been revealed for all the world to see, appropriately enough, on Facebook. As we were already aware this social networking-focused, QWERTY candybar has had its CPU bumped up to 800MHz, but otherwise it's the same Sense and Gingerbread packing device we saw back in February. Unfortunately, all we can tell you is that the Status will land on AT&T shelves at some point -- price and availability are still as much of a mystery as ever. There's some refresher PR after the break.
Xbox Live adds cloud saves, 'beacons' that tell friends what you want to play
These may not have made the cut to appear in Microsoft's E3 keynote earlier today but gamers will probably appreciate two new features mentioned in a letter from Xbox Live General Manager Marc Whitten. "Cloud Storage for Game Saves and Live Profiles" is first up and provides access to ones profile and saves from any console, at any time with the option to save to XBL servers instead of a memory unit or hard drive. It all sounds very similar to the service offered for PlayStation Plus but as Joystiq notes, so far exact details are scant. The other feature mentioned is support for "Beacons" which go one step further than broadcasting what you're playing or watching right now by allowing users to flag what they want to play, and lets friends on XBL or Facebook see that so they can meet you for a game. Check out the full letter after the break or over on the 'stiq, we'll sit back and dream of a future world where bringing our XBL profile by a friend's house to keep track of our beatdowns is as easy as just logging in.
RockMelt browser resurrects itself as iPhone app
Remember RockMelt? Neither do we, mostly, but the "social browser" -- which debuted for the Mac and PC late last year -- is back and more portable than ever. The minty fresh iPhone version plays nice with Facebook and Twitter, as well as a few other social-type things you're probably doing with your phone already. If you're a devoted user of the grown-up version, however, the networky app is probably worth a download for its ability to sync with its desktop counterpart. Peppily-soundtracked video after the break, a must-watch for those who believe in second chances. [Thanks, Mikey]
iPad as desktop status monitor
Imagine this: you put your iPad into its dock next to your desktop (or laptop), and it transforms into a heads-up display of all the important stats from your machine. Maybe add some news and weather, and your "Today" list from your favorite to-do app. I'm sure there are a good number of people who could care less about this kind of thing, but ever since I saw Steve's post on Air Display, I started pondering the possibilities. This is my proof-of-concept. See the gallery for less-blurry images of the results. I set up ScreenRecycler on my MacBook Pro and used iTeleport to turn my iPad into a third monitor. That part was easy enough, and I found a few screen resolutions that work pretty well. Next, I opened up GeekTool 3 and duplicated a few of my Geeklets (little widgets that run shell commands and scripts to print data onto your desktop). These were dragged to the iPad to create a workable display configuration, including: Time and date Calendar for the month with current day highlighted Current weather (with icon) Heaviest processes by memory and CPU usage 5-minute average system load Some uptime and memory stats. I'll tell you outright that I don't recommend trying this, at least not using currently-available tools. GeekTool is strange enough about dragging Geeklets around, you don't want to try it on a network-attached monitor with a terrible refresh rate. It's downright painful. For you, dear TUAW reader, I persevere. When it's all said and done, the iStat iPhone app starts looking pretty darn good on the iPad. What I want to see, though, is a dedicated app come out with configurable modules. It doesn't need to be as flexible as GeekTool, and I really would rather not have it run as an additional monitor. I'd just love to see something similar to iStat, but with more customizability and an iPad-optimized display. A build-your-own HUD, if you will. Have at it, intrepid iPad developers. %Gallery-93640%
Modern Warfare 2 map update leaves Xbox Live in a world of hurt
We've held off as long as possible, but the tips just keep flooding in -- Xbox Live has a problem, and evidently it's a rather noticeable one. Word on the street has it that a new Modern Warfare 2 map update has made a number of Xbox Live features unusable, including online MW2 gameplay. We're also hearing that the Xbox Live Marketplace is off-and-on, and even Microsoft admits that quite a few other things are acting quirky. The good news is that a fix is on the way, so we'd suggest grabbing that lunch you've been denying yourself and trying again later. Hey, aren't you supposed to be working right now, anyway? P.S. - Let us know if you're running into any issues in comments below, cool? Update: Things seem to be working their way back to normal. Phew. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
App Giveaway: Emoti puts a face on your Facebook updates
It's not easy to make your Facebook updates stand out from the crowd; lots of text and not much visual stimulation may mean that your friends just pass right by the critical details of what you ate, saw, supported or enjoyed today. Giving those wall posts and status updates a bit of eye candy to make them zing isn't that hard (the Funmail app I reviewed a few months back can do it), but if you want to have your choice of 70+ emoticons to decorate your Wall, your best bet is probably the new Emoti app from nodconcept [$1.99, iTunes link]. Emoti couldn't be simpler to use; once you authenticate it with Facebook Connect, you can pick from the scrolling pages of icons to find the one that perfectly matches your message and mood. One tap, and you can begin writing your post, then send it up to the service with another. The app automatically downloads newly available artwork on launch, so you'll see supplements to the existing 74 images over time. Maybe every single update doesn't deserve its own pictorial expression, but when you can't say it any other way, Emoti has what you need. Of course, TUAW also has what you need: five promo codes for Emoti to give away to our readers! Thanks to nodconcept for sharing. Just leave a comment on the post telling us your most pithy Wall update, and you'll be entered in the giveaway. Read on for the rules. Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older. To enter leave a comment on this post letting us know your most pithy update to your Facebook Wall. The comment must be left before Tuesday, 1/19 at 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. Five winners will be selected in a random drawing. Prizes: each winner will receive one promotional code for Emoti (ARV $1.99) Click Here for complete Official Rules.
Blizzard investigating login issues [Updated]
Many people, including myself, are having troubles logging in. The error we are getting is that the login server is busy and to please try again later. As the message states above, Blizzard will inform us at 1pm PST of any further details. Those of you who are able to get in, we salute you! The rest of us will wish we were in-game, starting our Feast of Winter Veil activities. We'll keep you up to date of any further developments. Update 2:29pm: I and many others are now able to login. No official update at this time. Also, authenticators had nothing to do with it.
Dead Space 2 entering production in 'next few months'
LinkedIn continues to provide our only link to the status of a true sequel to Dead Space. A recent job posting on the professional networking site, created by EA senior recruiter Jeff Ballard, reports, "The previous installment in the Dead Space franchise received numerous awards ... and the same core team is in place to create an even better follow up." The posting adds, "The game is in the later stages of pre-production, ready for production in the next few months, with many of the navigational and combat mechanics in place."With the point-n-shoot spin-off, Dead Space Extraction, releasing this week for Wii, confirmation that the core-series sequel (expected for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC) will soon roll into production phase comes as welcome news to fans looking for the franchise to stay the traditional course. Hopefully, EA and developer Visceral Games' transmissions will continue to pick up from here on out.[Via superannuation]
Maintenance for select realms tomorrow
Maintenance came and went today, and many people were initially pleasantly surprised to see their realm up early. However this quickly became a thing of disappointment as they found the instance servers were laggier than normal, and the realms themselves were rather unstable.While there were a series of quick restarts to correct many of the problems, several issues still existed. And of course another maintenance period has gone by without any fix to the dreaded "Additional instances cannot be launched, please try again later," error. Those words are nearly burned into my monitor now.Tomorrow morning from 5:00 a.m. PDT / 8:00 a.m. EDT until 8:00 a.m. PDT / 11:00 a.m. EDT the following realms after the break will be down for additional maintenance and hardware upgrades. These short downtimes usually mean that nothing too special is happening, but in case there's a cataclysmic event we'll be sure to let you know. (See what I did thar?)The list of affected realms after the break!
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The Tuesday Morning Post: Later, losers!
Danny Whit is usually the one sitting here writing this thing up for your maintenance day entertainment, but he's out of the office today. Where is he? I wish I knew. Last time I saw him he put on a pair of shades, gave me a thumbs up, then jumped out of our office window and landed on a sweet hog three stories down. He yelled something in Greek, then rode off into the sunset. So... here I am. The craziest part of it all? The window was closed. He didn't even have the decency to open it and now there's a draft. Thanks a lot, Danny.Servers are down, and will remain down for a number of hours as patch 3.1.3 rolls out and many servers receive significant hardware upgrades. As long as you're here, you might as well make the most of it. In case you've missed it, here's the best of WoW.com from the past 7(ish) days.Hot News and Features Blizzard revealed a few big details regarding the upcoming Patch 3.2, entitled Call of the Crusade. Speaking of Patch 3.2, it's going to bring us one of the most anticipated updates to the game in the last year or two. New Druid forms! Okay, okay, so only some people were looking forward to those, but still. Totally anticipated. First they revealed the Tauren bear forms, and then the Night Elf bear forms. New cat models still TBA. WoW Europe now has the option to merge their World of Warcraft accounts with a Battle.net account! Speaking of our European friends, some of them are now experiencing cross-language battlegroups.
Maintenance for Tuesday June 2nd
Maintenance, you say? Unheard of! After all, what is wrong with a Paladin standing upright while riding her horse? Or what's wrong with constant errors telling intrepid adventurers additional instances cannot be launched?Well, okay. Something might be wrong with those things. Hopefully tomorrow's maintenance will bring fixes to them. But more importantly based on all account it'll be bringing patch 3.1.3 with it as well.Maintenance will last from 3:00 a.m. PDT until 11:00 a.m. PDT. Unless, of course, you on one of the few dozen realms listed after the break. For those special realms, maintenance will last from 12:01 a.m. PDT until 12:01 p.m. PDT. Why is it starting at the :01? Because Blizzard wants you to have an extra minute to complete raids tonight. That's how much they care. And you know what? So do I... (Click it... I dare you.)The full list of realms under the extended maintenance after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Three days' grace
The one little problem with having a nice 3-day weekend is that getting back into gear after it's over can be a bit tough. But here we are, back on the chain gang, nose back on the grindstone, and all that good stuff. Anyway, there are rolling restarts, as well as some minor maintenance on a handful of servers. If you're reading this from work though, it probably doesn't matter as much, since you can't play WoW regardless. Unless you're one of those lucky dogs that has a job that lets you play WoW. In which case you may have trouble doing that this morning. Okay, anyway, if you're on those servers or can't play for some other reason, you'll want something to pass the time until you can play, which is where we come in. Here's a roundup of some of the best and most interesting stuff from the past 7 days or so:
Rolling restarts, some maintenance
The opening in game announcement tells us that there will be rolling restarts tomorrow beginning at 5:00 a.m. PDT / 8:00 a.m. EDT. Each realm will be down for about 15 minutes, and all the restarts should be done by 7:00 a.m. PDT / 10:00 a.m. EDT.This is important in that shows patch 3.1 will not be going live tomorrow. No server downtime means no patch, so everyone can relax and enjoy the game as is for another week.There is a possibility a few more realms will be down for an extended amount of time – and if that turns into anything major we'll let you know here.
Realm maintenance for Tuesday March 31st
The winds swept across the frozen plains making swirling geometric patterns in the snow laden prairie grass. This was a cold day in the northern land, both in weather and in heart. For it wasn't only the snow, but the chilled waters which were causing the kingdom concern; up and up they went, rising over the rivers banks. The land's people thought they could hold them at bay but none could be sure.The engineers flew over the homesteads of their countrymen, working diligently in their flying machines to hold back the mighty waters. And while things were quiet now, it was predicted by those with foresight to not be quiet for much longer. More movement in the waters was coming, and it was something that no man wanted to see. The kingdom was under the protection of the councilmen and councilwomen, yet they were impeded in their efforts at every turn by the maniacal Lich King, laughing and taunting them with his powers over the frozen wastes. "Petty mortals, do you really think you can withstand the power of the mighty Scourge?" he chided the citizens who dared brave the cold north. Sitting atop his ice crowned citadel there was nothing he couldn't see, nothing he couldn't do. For the domain of the north was his and his alone. Except upon this day the voice of the gods and the wizards of Dalaran opened up their mouths and spoke in unison.
The restarts, they will be rolling
In game announcements have let us know there will be rolling restarts tomorrow morning. The restarts will happen at 5:00 a.m. PST / 8:00 a.m. EST. Each realm is usually down for only 15 minutes.There will be additional realms that will be down for longer maintenance. Currently Tichondrius and Proudmoore are listed as needing to be down for an extra hour. Additional realms will eventually be listed on the official Service Status Forums, although nothing is up there just yet.We'll update this post, and keep you updated throughout Tuesday morning if this turns into anything else other than just a restart.
Realms are being brought back online [Updated at 11:50 pm EST]
The opening announcement just told us all that realms are coming back online now. All the realms will be completely back up by 10:45pm EST / 7:45pm PST. Realms have been down today for an overly-extended maintenance period.There will be an in-game mail sent to all players concerning the mail issues today. For those that are unaware, all mail that was in the mailbox prior to the downtime today was gone when the servers came up for a brief time today. We have covered everything we currently know about this. The mail will be reimbursed.Let's all say a silent prayer that this is not how the next couple of days look. I don't know about all of you, but I actually want to play Wrath of the Lich King when it's released.Update 11:50pm EST - All the realms are coming back up. We'll have more on fallout of this tonight and tomorrow.Update 11:30pm EST - We've sent word to our contact at Blizzard asking for more information about today's issues. We'll let you know the response we get.All previous updates are being kept after the break, check there to see a log of what's been going on.Are you ready for the challenges that await you in Northrend? WoW Insider has you covered with our 8-day guide to Preparing for Wrath. Also, check out our feature on AddOns new, old and outdated and Essential AddOns for Wrath written especially with the expansion in mind.
