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Daily Roundup: Vivo Xplay review, Star Wars Episode VII, Expand NY prizes and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, 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.
Vivo Xplay review: $500 buys plenty of smartphone in China
A review of a smartphone that's primarily sold in China? Yes, that's exactly what this is, and with good reason. The Vivo Xplay merits attention because of the components it contains -- some of which are exotic, like its "HiFi grade" audio chips, and some of which are straightforward but desirable, like its huge, 5.7-inch 1080p display and Snapdragon 600 processor. The handset also helps to set a benchmark for what smartphone hardware is actually worth, since its $480 street price puts it closer to the smaller, Google-sponsored Nexus 5 ($350) than typical big-phones like the Galaxy Note 3 or HTC One Max, which fetch around $800 unlocked. Although US customers can import the Xplay for $520, it lacks the right bands for proper 3G support in North America and is actually more suitable for HSPA+ networks in the UK, where it costs £495. So, let's find out what China can deliver for that sort of money.
The Daily Roundup for 05.07.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, 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.
Vivo Xplay boasts 5.7-inch 1080p screen, dedicated audio chips and nifty single-hand mode (video)
Another 1080p quad-core Android phone, you say? Well, there's a bit more to it. Launched by BBK spin-off Vivo in Beijing just now, this 5.7-inch Xplay goes one step further than its smaller X1 and X1S cousins by packing one extra audio chip and the OPA2604 operational amplifier from Texas Instruments in order to add extra oomph to Cirrus Logic's CS4398 DAC and CS8422 stereo asynchronous sample-rate converter -- both of which are featured on the X1 series. If you're a DIY audio enthusiast, you might have already tinkered with an OPA2604 while making your own headphone amplifier; so in other words, Vivo is trying to save you the hassle. Before we dive into the audio performance, let's quickly look at the rest of the phone first. Underneath the 500-nit LTPS display lies a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core SoC (1.7GHz, 2GB RAM and Adreno 320 graphics engine), 16GB or 32GB of built-in storage, 3,400mAh battery and NFC. On the back you'll find a Sony 13-megapixel imager next to a pair of speakers (FLAC playback is supported natively), but flip the phone over and you'll be looking at a surprisingly generous 5-megapixel front-facing camera -- much like the one on Oppo's mid-range Ulike 2. Vivo's somehow managed to pack all of this into a 7.99mm-thick body with a screen bezel of just 2.3mm thick (which bests Pantech's thin-bezeled Vega Iron) and a large viewable-to-total area ratio of 75.11 percent. Alas, for 3G there's only WCDMA 2100, meaning the phone may have to rely more on GSM 850/900/1800/1900 or WiFi in many parts of the world. More after the break. Update: Hands-on photos added below, followed by a couple of video clips after the break. %Gallery-187693% %Gallery-187679%
Stockton: Max of 6 bosses per raid in Cataclysm
Some very important information was released about Cataclysm yesterday on a G4 Xplay segment, discussing a Cataclysm storyline preview. However, some awesome pieces of news came out unrelated to the story at all. Check out the video to hear Tom Chilton, Cory Stockton and others discuss some pretty cool reveals. The two new important pieces of information were: Auto-quest complete technology: Players are able to complete quests in the field and immediately begin the next quest in the chain, without running back to the quest giver for the next step in the quest, allowing multiple quests to be completed without returning home. Think of it as Archmage Vargoth's staff on steroids. Raid boss quantity limits: Every raid in Cataclysm will have no more than six raid bosses per instance. Instances like Icecrown Citadel and Ulduar in boss number are gone, and the Serpentshrine Caverns/Tempest Keep model is back in. With a reduced number of raid bosses per raid, three full raids will be available at Cataclysm's launch. Very interesting, especially the capped raid boss numbers. If you never played World of Warcraft during The Burning Crusade, you missed the proto-concept to these smaller, but more numerous, raids. Serpentshrine and Tempest Keep added up in boss numbers to a full 11-12 boss raid, but was separated into two encounters. Blizzard can now itemize across multiple raids instead of just one environment.
G4 original content now available on Xbox Live Marketplace
If you find yourself in the mood to pay to watch G4's gamer-oriented line of television programming, you can now scratch that puzzling itch on the Xbox Live Marketplace, where several of the network's original television programs have been made available for download. These programs include Attack of the Show, snowboard documentary series The Block, and animated comedy series Code Monkeys (which includes a free sneak preview of the show's second season).Oddly enough, X-Play is not one of the shows featured on Microsoft's service, despite the fact that the daily half-hour Sess-fest is one of the highest rated programs on the network. A shame, too -- we would actually dish out some Microsoft buckz to avoid wading through the countless reruns of Fastlane, Cops, Cheaters, and other "gamer-oriented" programs to watch the oft-renamed program. Alas, we must continue to suffer the seemingly limitless douchebaggery of Joey Greco.
Zero Punctuation 'previews' begin on X-Play Feb. 12
If you can't wait until Wednesdays to get your Zero Punctuation fix, G4's X-Play will begin showing "previews" of Yahtzee's adventures in game-review land every Tuesday beginning February 12 before the "uncut" reviews are posted on The Escapist the following day.Basically, G4 will probably be showing a watered-down (i.e. censored) version of the profanity-laden reviews before The Escapist gives us our quality fix the following day. Although its nice that G4 is presumably giving Mr. Croshaw some extra cash to spend on hookers with genetic anomalies, perhaps X-Play (and its revamped format) could come up with something original to grab viewers instead of riding The Escapist's coattails? But, this is clearly a win-win for both sides.
X-Play: The Musical ... yeah, you read that right
If there is anything that we've learned over the years: Musicals make everything better! Buffy the Vampire Slayer did it well and so did Scrubs, so why not the last video game review show (worth mentioning) X-play? The show has always been cheeky, like their The Breakfast Club episode and such, so this musical episode isn't really that insane. We're not even going to say it's part of G4's identity crisis. Honestly, this episode might secretly be designed to spite the network and its issues.The music was written by GameJew (Jonathan Mann) and produced by Brian Golub. The musical episode is the brainchild of Paul Bonnano, a writer on X-Play who obviously misses when the show was still in San Francisco, a place with some redeeming culture, instead of Los Angeles. The episode will premiere Feb. 5 at 8PM on G4, then will subsequently repeat ad infinitum on the network. X-play isn't taking themselves seriously here and neither will we, definitely worth a TiVo just to see Sessler sing.
