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Windows 10's May update won’t work on PCs with USB storage or SD cards
Microsoft notified its users that the May Windows 10 update won't install on PCs using USB storage or SD cards. The company says it's blocking the installation on those PCs because "inappropriate drive reassignment" might occur and could impact both external devices and internal hard drives. As a workaround, users will need to remove any USB thumb drives, USB-based external hard drives or SD cards and restart the update.
'Detroit: Become Human' will arrive on PS4 May 25th
Come May 25th you'll be able to explore David Cage's vision of the Motor City in Detroit: Become Human. When the game debuted in 2015, there wasn't even a release window, but with each successive trade show, the game's path toward your home became a little clearer. Last fall, Sony said the game would be out sometime this spring. Well, May is definitely in that window. What isn't? Spider-Man, which now seems likely to be one of Sony's AAA tentpoles for this autumn. If a choose-your-own-adventure tale replete with permadeath and a story about humanity's decline is a bit heady for you this time of year, there's always God of War which will be released on April 20th.
'Top Gear' gets an online spinoff called 'Extra Gear'
Later this year, there'll be two brand new motoring shows on our screens: Top Gear, led by Chris Evans, and an original Amazon series fronted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. That would normally be enough for any pertrolhead, but the BBC has found a little more room for some extra programming. Today, the Beeb announced that it will launch an online-only spinoff called Extra Gear, which will be hosted by Top Gear presenter Rory Reid and feature behind-the-scenes footage, interviews and "specially-recorded films" that aren't in the main show.
Potemkin, May, Venom and Chipp return in Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-
More characters have been revealed for Arc System Works' highly anticipated Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, and like the swallows returning to Capistrano, so too have series veterans May, Venom, Chipp Zanuff and Potemkin returned to the roster. This brings the game's list of fighters up to seven confirmed combatants, as Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske and Millia Rage have already been announced. We recognize that Guilty Gear's characters are not as ubiquitous as some other fighting game faces, so we'll break it down SAT style: If Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske are to Guilty Gear as Ryu and Ken are to Street Fighter, then this latest reveal is essentially like finding out that Cammy, Chun-Li, M. Bison and Dhalsim are returning – exciting, if not entirely surprisingly. Everyone's trademark abilities appear intact based on Shoryuken's ongoing translation of each character's move list, so expect plenty of Potemkin Buster-ing in your future. Arc System Works is set to begin location testing for the arcade version of Xrd -SIGN- in Akihabara sometime this month, though beyond that no release window or platform availability information has been made available.
May NPD: 3DS steals top console spot
The Nintendo 3DS finally edged out the Xbox 360 in May 2013 as the best selling console across hardware and portables, according to the NPD's monthly report on the retail sector. In what the NPD claims was a slow month overall, the 3DS landed three different games on the top 10 (including Donkey Kong Country Returns at number three, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon at number five, and Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes at number 10), and saw a sixty percent growth in software sales overall since last May. 3DS hardware sales were only even year-over-year, but that was enough to finally supplant the Xbox 360 as the top-selling platform. The other consoles didn't fare quite so well, with Injustice: Gods Among Us keeping the top spot for video game sales. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 jumped back up into the number two spot, and Battlefield 3 reappeared at number nine. Metro: Last Light had a relatively successful showing in the number six spot, while Trion's Defiance MMO fell right off the list, after starting off at number five in April. Accessories saw a six-percent drop to $115.3 million, according to the NPD, with most of that money coming from Skylanders.
Netflix confirms 14 new Arrested Development episodes, the Bluth family returns to screens this May
If you asked Netflix, it'd probably agree there's more money to be had from the Bluth Family's banana stand -- after all, it did buy the exclusive rights to it. After months of waiting and anticipation, the company has confirmed that the fourth season of Arrested Development will arrive in May. This run of the revived sitcom will consist of 14 episodes in total, all of which will only be streamable from the house of Hastings servers. All we can hope for in the meantime is that, Maeby maybe, just maybe, a certain Gob Bluth will finally get his act together.
TUAW Year in Review: May 2012
Welcome to TUAW's Year in Review. Month by month, we're running down the top stories of 2012, all day long on New Year's Day. "Nanny Computing" and the future of OS X Note to readers: I failed to add a "do not pub yet" note onto this post the night before last. It was inadvertently published during our overnight before it finished research and editorial review.... Apple VP of iOS Scott Forstall cashes in $38.7 million of Apple shares Tim Cook's salary came up in the news last month when he was awarded a million shares of Apple stock, and cashed out a few, in addition to his many other forms of compensation. And here's another... Steve Jobs plays FDR in this old Mac sales video It's not often you see Steve Jobs impersonating a former president, but leave it to the creatives who made Apple sales videos to make it happen. Yes, in this never-before-seen footage (well, never... New Maps for iOS? It's not exactly a surprise The latest rumor to get everyone talking is that Apple will drop Google Maps for their own proprietary software. Sources told 9to5 Mac that a new Maps app will debut with iOS 6 with an... Apple and Samsung earn 99 percent of mobile phone vendor profits While the two big smartphone vendors, Apple and Samsung, are battling it out in the courtrooms, they're still in total control of operating profits. Horace Dediu of Asymco has just published his... Also: Smoking iPhone emphasizes importance of authorized repair work Introducing a better mobile web experience for TUAW Videos of the new iPad's international launches New York restaurant adopts iPads, saves money OS X Lion updated: 10.7.4 fixes FileVault vulnerability DevJuice: Promotion from the Trenches iCloud to debut notifications? TUAW confirms mystery iCloud feature iPhone video lands actor on Star Trek Financial Times to discontinue iPad, iPhone apps, move to HTML5 Amtrak conductors to "punch your ticket" using iPhones Doing the Math: WWDC capacity MacStories looks at four years of the App Store Woz hired as technical advisor on Jobs biopic Beepocalypse: How Apple could improve multi-device reminders iPhone could have a four-inch screen, says Wall Street Journal Aaron Sorkin to pen Jobs' biopic, Variety reports Logitech's Ultrathin Keyboard Cover: The best iPad keyboard case yet (Updated) Bloomberg: Apple will debut new laptop lineup at WWDC 5 apps for Moms on Mother's Day Catch a glimpse of an iPhone assembly line Pitch Perfect is the perfect marketing primer for the indie developer Apple pulls Airfoil Speakers Touch from the App Store (Updated) Dear Aunt TUAW: How do I post a website on Dropbox? Some developers undeterred by a larger iPhone screen ITC rules against Kodak, in favor of RIM and Apple The Ultimate iPad Case Review Roundup and Giveaway The story of Apple's upside down logo Ars looks at 25 years of HyperCard Tim Cook meets with US congressional leaders How ESPN reporter covers NASCAR with an iPad
Microsoft's next major release of Windows Phone will be previewed on May 24th, and we'll be there live!
Been jonesing for more news about Microsoft's upcoming Mango OS update? So have we, and now all of us, VIPs and commoners alike, can circle the 24th of May as the date when Redmond will dish the full details of its next major software release. Notably, the mango(ish)-colored invite makes no mention of Windows Phone 7 anywhere, leading us to suspect that Microsoft will likely upgrade its mobile nomenclature as well as feature set. We'll be there whatever happens, liveblogging the full preview event and keeping an eye out for launch details for this fruity new OS.
RuneScape introduces sagas and more in May
The team over at Jagex always has several irons in the fire when it comes to RuneScape's future. In a recent behind-the-scenes article, RuneScape's "Mod Mark" provides us with an advance look at some of the team's plans for the game this May. Several new capes will be added to the game, including a five-year veteran cape and one for players who have tried out RuneScape Classic at some point. Each of the capes is not only stylish but comes with special emotes as well. Continuing with the fashion theme, the devs will also make available PvP "death hats" that change in appearance as you rack up the kills. Several other quality-of-life improvements are on the table, such as the Dwarf Lava Flow Mine becoming an actual mine for players working on that particular skill. But by far the most exciting plan in the works is the introduction of a fresh type of content in the game: Fremennik Sagas. These are replayable stories by which you step into the shoes of famous characters to experience defining moments in their lives. There are three such Sagas being developed right now, including one in which you hunt for a bandit on the run. You can peruse all of the proposed additions to the game over at RuneScape.
Mac sales still up, despite iPad release
If the iPad is going to cut away at the audience for more full-featured computers, it's not going to be the Mac audience, apparently. Even though Apple introduced a tablet earlier this year, Mac sales are still up 35%, showing that the iPad is much more a new category all to itself than a subset of desktop or laptop users. NPD data from the month of May hints that Macs may see 19-23% growth year-over-year this year, which would top Wall Street's estimates. If there's an issue in Apple's line at all, it's the iPod -- that device is set up to be down 13% year-over-year, which is a higher drop than expected. But that's not a huge worry -- the iPad sells for more than the older, smaller devices, and rumor has it that Apple is going to refresh that line with new functionality anyway, from a cloud-based iTunes to better camera integration. So it looks, according to the data so far, like Apple has done what it wanted to: successfully created a new kind of computer, something that sits in between the mobile functionality of the iPhone and the full OS of the MacBook.
Paid apps do better in the charts than free ones
Recently, we've seen a big trend of apps on the App Store going free because free apps tend to garner more attention and downloads (and in-app purchases mean that there's still a possibility of making a profit down the line). However, it turns out that there is one benefit of sticking with a paid app: they stay on the top of the charts for a longer period of time. Data (provided by a company called Distimo) for the month of May in the App Store shows that paid apps are "stickier" on the App Store charts; while free apps only lasted a little over a week, some paid apps stayed on the top of the charts for over a hundred days. Why is this? My guess is that it involves something that we've heard a lot of talk about, which is that the habits of paying customers are different from those of "free app" customers. Customers who pay for apps are more likely to leave thoughtful reviews and spread the word about a worthwhile app, both of which will extend the time that an app is popular. Customers who use a lot of free apps tend to buy and dispose of apps quickly, while customers who pay are more likely to find the ones they like and stick with them for a while. After all of the big news about free apps, it's interesting to hear that there are still reasons to stick with paid. As the App Store continues to develop, there are multiple working models for software sales unfolding.
Steam for Mac beta set for May 12
Steam for the Mac has been given a date: May 12th. We were hoping to see it by the time April ended, but they've pushed back the date to just a few scant weeks from today. So come the second Wednesday in May, you the public will be able to go and pick up the beta and see what the biggest digital distribution system in the world looks like running native on your Mac. Keep in mind that you'll have to have an Intel Mac running 10.5 or higher (and you might even need a more current OS for some of the games on the system), and of course this is the Steam platform, not all of the games along with it. But at the very least, the official Valve games will be Mac-ported, including the Half Life and Left 4 Dead series, and the very excellent Portal. Should be fun!
DirecTV raises its HD channels claim to 160, disses Dish for juking the numbers
We hadn't even finished counting Dish's 200 channels claim when DirecTV pops up with plans to add a whole slew of new HD networks as well. By its reckoning, tossing ESPNU HD, WGN HD, MSNBC HD, some additional DirecTV Cinema Channels and more puts it over 160 "around the clock HD channels", and executive VP Derek Chang couldn't resist tossing in a link to count them for yourself. He's laid the gauntlet down for Dish to put its channel lineup up for similar scrutiny, we'll see if the end result of this duel is more clarity in the channel/choices count wars. Check the full press release after the break.
Rumor: New iPhone by April
You TUAW readers came up with a long list of features for a possible iPhone 4.0, and now it turns out you might not even have to wait too long for a new revision. A few overseas providers of the iPhone have hinted that a brand new version of the handset could be coming out as soon as April of this year. Possible features this time include a video chat function, a removable battery, dual-core processors, and a better screen and camera (possibly with a flash feature, as we've heard before). That sounds like a lot of wishful thinking to us (I doubt we'll ever see an iPhone with a removable battery -- if Apple wanted to do so, they'd have already done it), but if not, that would be a pretty darn popular smartphone, and it would definitely answer the recent challenge of Google's Nexus One. But of course as always, rumors are rumors, so we won't believe it until we see Steve Jobs holding it on stage, and you shouldn't either. But sources have long said that 2010 will be a year in which we'll see a new iPhone, and while April (or early May) seems earlier than we thought, you never know.
Peggle on iPhone delayed to May 12th
Bad news for those of you who've been drooling to play Peggle on the iPhone. As you may have noticed, it didn't come out in March as we were originally told. The good news is that our friends at Joystiq have gotten a new date for the addictive PopCap game's release on the App Store, and it's close. The game will be out, we're being told, on May 12th. There's no price given yet, but we're with Joystiq on this one too: it probably won't be as low at 99 cents. At $9.99, it would probably be worth it (Peggle is awesome) but pricey -- we're guessing the price will end up right around $4.99.Joystiq's been playing the game too (lucky peg-hitters), and while they are saving their full impressions for an upcoming review, they hint that the game won't disappoint. We can't wait -- even though Peggle is pretty much everywhere already, from the Mac to Xbox Live to the classic iPod and even in World of Warcraft, there's still room for a little portable Peggle in our lives.
Nonsurprise: AoC top selling PC game last week of May
The NPD Group's sales figures for the week ending May 31 feature Age of Conan in first place. Funcom's MMO tribute to barbarism defeated Mass Effect, the highly anticipated single-player RPG from legendary studio BioWare. Most of the top 10 list is populated by various World of Warcraft and The Sims 2 retail packages, as per usual. The exceptions are Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Sins of a Solar Empire in the 8th and 9th spots, respectively.Go ahead and express all the criticisms about the game that you want (we know there are plenty to go around), but regardless of where you personally stand on AoC, it's impossible to deny that it's been a blockbuster hit when it comes to sales.
DS releases for the week of May 26th
Happy holiday weekend to those of us in the US! Looks like everyone not in the UK has at least a few games to look forward to this week. We have some particularly exciting titles ourselves, including the much-anticipated Super Dodgeball Brawlers, but importers may also want to cast an eye toward Japan, as there's some excitement to be had there as well. LOL Looney Tunes Cartoon Concerto Super Dodgeball Brawlers USA Today Crosswords %Gallery-14440%
DS releases for the week of May 19th
There are no DS releases this week for we huddled masses in North America, so instead, we've found a picture of a sweet and fluffy bunny for you. It's no replacement, but it is cute! And it's better than looking at the release lists for the other major markets hidden past the break. They have actual games.
AoC account registration begins for pre-order customers
Funcom has opened up Age of Conan account registration for customers who pre-ordered the game. This includes the Early Access service. For a $5 or €5 fee, all those who pre-ordered the game may gain access to the servers on May 17th, three days ahead of the North American launch and six days ahead of the European launch.Previously, Europeans who paid for Early Access could jump into the game on the 20th, but Funcom has announced that those folks may now begin play at the same time as Americans, so the 17th is the day for everyone now! Hopefully some of the performance issues will be resolved by then. It looks like they might be.[Via Ten Ton Hammer]
Pachter places prediction on May NPD numbers
No week is complete without a look in Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter's crystal ball. Now channel your chi (qi and ki are proper variants on the same concept as well), open up your chakras and let the Holy Ghost possess you, cause here's what Pachter predicts to be the NPD numbers for May. Humina, humina, humina, ding! May software sales will be up by $333 million or 16% due to the combined sales of last-gen and current gen hardware and software sales. And for the fanboys? The Wii will outsell the PS3 4 to 1. Pachter expects sales of 400,000 for the Wii and 100,000 for the PS3. The Xbox 360? It'll safely chug along at 225,000 according to the ball of crystal. The official NPD data will be released late this Thursday. We'll see how Michael did then, but expect the data to be similar to last month, and the month before that, and the month before that. Wanna see my Pokemans?[Via Press Release]
