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Facebook plans to brief Congress on the Cambridge Analytica scandal
Facebook is obviously in some very hot water in regards to Cambridge Analytica's use of its users' data. US Congress, the UK Parliament and even the FTC are looking for answers and Facebook is now agreeing to answer them. A company spokesperson has told us that Facebook representatives will be in Washington DC today and tomorrow meeting with staffers for the House and Senate Intel Committees, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Senate Commerce Committee and the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. Bloomberg reports that details on committee briefings are being worked out.
Congressman requests Meltdown and Spectre briefing from chip makers
US Representative Jerry McNerney sent a letter to Intel, AMD and ARM today requesting a briefing on the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities and the companies' handling of them. McNerney, a California representative and member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said, "I am looking to better understand the nature of these critical vulnerabilities, the danger they pose to consumers and what steps your companies plan to take to protect consumers."
Watch Microsoft's Xbox E3 event in under 15 minutes
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}If you want to see what happened at Microsoft's E3 2016 briefing without sitting through all the game trailers and yada-yada, you're in the right place! In under 15 minutes, you get a video wrap-up of all the excitement, including the launch of a smaller Xbox One S, a powerful 4K model (Project Scorpio) and Xbox Design Studio that lets you customize your controller. Game-wise, you'll see a beta launch of Halo Wars 2, Dead Rising 4 and Forza Horizon 3, among many others. Check it out, and if you still need more, hit our Xbox E3 wrap-up here, or check out all of our E3 2016 coverage. Follow all the news from E3 2016 here!
Win a chance to ride along with Engadget for a private briefing on Panasonic's 2012 home entertainment lineup!
As you probably know, we're in a lot of exclusive, behind-closed-doors briefings of products that won't find their way to retail availability for months to come. We do our best in every post to give you the full experience and virtually bring you along with us, but for the first time we're doing something different. Next week, Panasonic will be giving the media an up-close look at some of its biggest home entertainment products shipping later this year, including the 55-inch WT50 IPS LCD and the VT50 plasma (successor to last year's HDTV of the Year). This time, we've been given permission to take a lucky few of you along for the ride.The event takes place next Tuesday, March 27th in New York City at 7:00pm. To get a chance to attend, you need to email nycevents [at] engadget.com with your full name. If you make it, we'll respond back with details on the event, but it'll be up to you to find your way to Manhattan.Winners will not only get to check out Panasonic's 2012 line of cameras, HDTVs, Blu-ray players and other home entertainment products but a few particularly lucky attendees will get to take some of them home. Yes, there will be giveaways, and they'll be good ones.Here are the deets: The event is open to those 18 and older. The event begins at 7:00pm and will run for approximately two hours. This is not first-come-first-serve, so there will be no need to line up. Please bring a photo ID and your confirmation with you for admission.Send those emails in soon, and we hope to see you next week!Update: We've received more than enough entries, so we're halting acceptance of new ones for now. We'll let you know if we need to re-open the flood gates!
Iwata addresses Wii's future and 3DS at investors briefing
Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata recently spoke to his close circle of super best friends -- hereafter referred to as Nintendo's investors -- about the future of the company's gaming hardware, and how said hardware will translate directly into monies for their wallets. According to Andriasang's translation of the briefing, Iwata shot down the possibility of revealing a successor to Nintendo's home console any time soon, adding, "we believe there's still more we can do with the Wii." Sure there is! You can paint it different colors. On the subject of the Nintendo 3DS, Iwata explained the seemingly random March 23 announcement date was set to give third-party developers a chance to come up with something for the platform in time for E3. He mentioned these developers may incur a bit more development costs on these projects due to the "trial and error" involved in creating 3D games, but wouldn't comment on how these costs might translate over to consumer software prices for the console. He also revealed that "the announcement of the formal name [of the 3DS] will not be too far off," meaning it's time to go place your bets with your friendly neighborhood Video Game Technology Marketing bookie. (As of this writing, even money's on "Nintendo Virtual Boy 2.")
Report: Console life cycles grow as big three share the market
We've heard from a few non-Microsoft sources that the Xbox 360 is heading for an extremely long console cycle, but last week's CES found Microsoft saying exactly that. David Hufford of Xbox product management mentioned during a briefing that the 360 is "the console of the long future for us," and that he doesn't yet know "if we're at the midpoint" of the console's timeline. Which sounds pretty amazing, since the console actually released in 2005, but the numbers support that theory, with adoption only recently passing the rates of the last generation. In other words, the mad dash from 8- to 16- to 32- to 64-bit and beyond gaming has apparently relaxed for the moment, and Jack Schofield of The Guardian says it's because all three major companies at the moment (Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo) have all achieved a viable place in the market. Without feeling constant pressure to outdo each other, the major console companies can settle into their own niches and expand their own markets. Which, as Hufford said at CES, is exactly what Microsoft is planning to do in the coming "Natal era."
Financial Briefing: TV guide videos, gift channel, and more
Nintendo has transcribed a Financial Results briefing given by president Satoru Iwata. Being a Financial Results briefing, it of course focuses on sales history, but it is also loaded with information that may be of interest to you beyond the charts and graphs detailing how awesome Nintendo is.* This includes Iwata's new philosophy of the roles of Nintendo's gaming systems. The DS is now being seen as a "machine to enrich its owners' lives," in ways beyond gaming. Nintendo's plan for new DS-based utilities is an instantiation of this idea, allowing users to carry their DS systems around for many purposes, improving the quality of their lives. The Wii, on the other hand, is seen as the "Machine to put smiles on people surrounding it," meaning that entire households should be encouraged to interact with the Wii, even when not playing games. You are free, of course, to moan about this being the death of gaming or whatever.Spreading happiness is the goal of the two new updates headed to the Wii. Check pages 6 and 7 for video of the gift-giving function of the Wii Shop Channel, which will work for both VC and Wii Ware games, and a demonstration of an early version of the TV Program Schedule Channel. It allows users to search by genre or keyword, and to mark their favorite programs with a color code.*For an analysis of the charts and graphs detailing how awesome Nintendo is, check out this Gamasutra feature from our own Eric Caoili!
Xbox 360 pre-TGS briefing set for Sept. 20
IGN reports that Microsoft has scheduled an Xbox 360 press briefing two days ahead of the Tokyo Game Show September 22:Officially, the company plans on showing off its Japanese Xbox 360 titles for the rest of the year and sharing its strategy for the Japanese market. We presume there will be plenty of long-awaited details on Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, but there should be some big surprises as well.How about some news on the Fall dashboard update. Speaking of updates, what's on your wish list?
Complete transcript of Nintendo management briefing
Nintendo has gone ahead and transcribed the entire management briefing, which consists of a rather large, and thankfully in-depth, question and answer section in which all aspects of the company are discussed. Iwata reiterated that we wouldn't see an exact release date and price for the Wii until in or before September, commented on increased R & D budgets, and proudly proclaimed his choice for the name Wii as the console's title. OK guys, no more paraphrasing from me, you'll have to put in the work and read the rest yourselves.[Update:Fine reader sotiri has informed us that an English transcript is freely available via Nintendo's Japanese site. The links have been adjusted and balance has been brought back to Nintendo Wii Fanboy.]
