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Report: PS3 getting cloud saving in firmware update 3.60
According to a recent report from Kotaku, unnamed sources in the game development community have received notifications from Sony telling of a feature which will be incorporated into PS3 firmware update 3.60: Cloud storage for saved games. According to the report, the feature (called "Online Saving") gives developers the opportunity to let players set up their save files on a remote server, preserving the precious, precious space on their own hard drives, and allowing players to access save data from multiple consoles. These developers also reportedly explained that the feature will only be made available to PlayStation Plus subscribers, or, as they'll henceforth be called, the "Save File Insured." This report sounds fairly believable -- remote storage was one of the rumored features of PlayStation Plus before its reveal, and there was also that Sony trademark for "PS Cloud" back in 2009. We've contacted Sony for a comment on this report.
Next PS3 update rumored to add 'Online Saving' for PlayStation Plus users
Say it with us, finally a PS3 firmware update that actually does something useful! We've grown so accustomed to Sony refreshing the software on its console just to spite jailbreakers that we almost started to believe that's all the word "update" entailed. But, here comes Kotaku with word that v3.6 of the PS3's firmware will come with a neat little addition: saving games to the cloud. This seems a very logical step toward delivering Sony's overall goal of giving users a holistic, integrated experience. Indeed, during the NGP presentation, guest speaker Hideo Kojima specifically referred to saving your PS3 game on the console and resuming it on the Next Generation Portable. "Online Saving," as Sony's reputed to be calling it, would be the conduit through which that can be realized, though it doesn't appear like it'll come for free. Kotaku's sources indicate it'll be part of the PlayStation Plus subscription, at least initially. Still, we like cloud storage, and if it means never having to see another hard drive again, we're all for it.
Google launches cloud printing for iOS devices
Google announced that it is rolling out Cloud Print support for mobile document and mobile Gmail users. Announced in April 2010, Cloud Print lets you print from any device, OS or browser without having to install custom software or proprietary drivers. The idea is simple. You open a Google document on your iOS device, select print, and the document is sent to your printer over the internet. The feature is compatible with devices running iOS 3.0 or higher. While this new service shows promise, there is one catch for Mac users. To set up the Cloud Print system, you need to connect your printer to Google Cloud Print. Currently, this configuration step can only be done on a Windows PC. Google confirmed that it is working on a solution for Mac and Linux users and promised that it would be available soon. Apple is also working on AirPrint, a similar wireless printing service that will let you print a document from your iOS device. AirPrint is slightly limited as it requires the iOS device and the printer to be connected to the same wireless network. There are also third-party solutions like Printopia and Print Sharing that enable wireless printing for iOS and Mac users. [Via MacRumors]
HP / Palm's 9.7-inch Topaz tablet to use 1.2GHz Qualcomm MSM8660, Adreno 220 GPU
Looks like those whispers we heard about HP's Topaz having a 1.2GHz Qualcomm CPU were true. The folks over at Pre Central just scored an internal document detailing presumed specifications of HP's forthcoming 9.7-inch tablet, and it looks like the aforesaid CPU will be joined by an integrated Adreno 220 GPU, 512MB of DDR2 memory, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera and dual-band 802.11b/g/n WiFi. We're told to expect an oleophobic Gorilla Glass screen with a standard XGA (1024 x 768) resolution, options for 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of storage, optional WWAN, an accelerometer, gyroscope, light sensor, microphone and a battery that'll last for around eight hours in ideal circumstances. Naturally, webOS will be onboard, and we're hearing that a WiFi-only model will indeed hit the market at some point. As for the connected versions? HSPA, LTE and CDMA variants are rumored, with the former two likely to be SIM-locked while all three carry A-GPS. It should be noted that these documents were apparently fresh as of last fall, so everything is clearly subject to change. That said, we're digging the reports that HP will be doing everything it can to fully support Flash on this here slate, and it may also consider a partnership with Blio for the digital bookworms in attendance. Naturally, cloud services is shaping up to be a huge deal, and it'll definitely support inductive charging via the Touchstone v2. These docs also affirm what we'd heard about integrated Beats Audio technology and Tap to Share, with the second-gen Touchstone to also handle wireless picture sharing, cordless audio streaming and tether-free video beaming (just to name a few). Hit the source link the full skinny, and feel free to pressure HP to move February 9th a little closer to today. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Neverware's Juicebox 100 squeezes new life into aging school computers (video)
Your typical school computer is probably not a machine you'd like to use on a daily basis -- perennially behind the curve in terms of technology, since educators can't afford smokin' hot video cards and primo processors year after year. Budgets and the resulting reluctance inevitably lead to stale hardware which then goes obsolete... but a tiny startup called Neverware thinks it can end the cycle of woe with virtualization technology. Its single product, the Juicebox a100, can serve up one hundred Windows 7 virtual desktops to existing hardware, pretty much regardless of its age -- all computers need is a working LAN jack, a 500MHz processor and 128MB of memory, so schools could keep their beige boxes and just upgrade the Juicebox instead. Founder Jonathan Hefter doesn't have pricing worked out yet -- and his tiny company only has three of the boxes working at present -- but he's piloted the technology in a pair of schools and is planning a beta soon -- all the while dreaming about how our mountains of e-waste could be transformed into useful computers for the poorer nations of the world. Good luck, dude! Video after the break.
Sony's Music Unlimited service infiltrates France, Germany, Italy and Spain, offers streaming tunes
See this message? You no longer have to if you live in France, Germany, Italy or Spain, as Sony's rolled out its Music Unlimited subscription streaming service in each aforementioned nation just yesterday. Basically, it's the same deal that launched in the UK last month, but at a slightly cheaper price given the exchange rate: €3.99 a month buys you a virtual radio station that streams millions of songs to your Sony TVs, Blu-ray players or PS3 -- with portable devices and phones on the way -- while €9.99 upgrades to a premium plan that lets you select tunes on demand and generate playlists. Next stop: North America. PR after the break.
HP / Palm tablet to feature Touchstone dock, cloud storage, Beats audio and Tap-to-Share smartphone integration
Now that the kitty's out of the gemstone bag, we're slowly starting to connect the dots that obscure the details of Palm's soon to be announced "Topaz" and "Opal" tablets. First up is information from one of our original trusted sources who claims that the Opal will measure 180 x 144 x 13mm (making it a bit shorter and wider than the 190.1 x 120.5 x 12-mm Galaxy Tab) and feature a 1,024 x 768 pixel TFT LCD display. We're told that the bigger Topaz tablet will ship about three months before Opal and measures in at 241 x 190 x 13mm (making it nearly identical to the 242.8 x 189.7 x 13.4-mm iPad) with a pixel resolution that could be the same as the Opal (our source wasn't 100 percent on this). We're also hearing that the "premium audio" we saw on that leaked marketing slide will indeed be powered by HP's Beats audio processing, and that the tablets will be provided with "tens of gigabytes" of cloud storage -- so much that it dwarfs the local storage on the devices. Good, because you're going to need it from the looks of some additional information we just received. Click through for the detail.
Lenovo setting up a specialist unit for tablets and smartphones
How far we've come. It was only a couple of years ago that Lenovo was closing a deal to sell its mobile phone business, but a quick re-acquisition in late 2009 and some recent heavy flirtation with the tablet form factor have led to the creation of a whole new unit in the company's hierarchy, one dedicated to the development of smartphones, tablets, TVs, and other internet-connected devices. Headed up by Liu Jun and working out of Beijing, this squad of designers and engineers will focus on harnessing the "tremendous growth potential of the mobile internet." Cloud computing will be a major feature of Lenovo's plans moving forward, which places its goals for the future right in line with just about everyone else's. Still, it's good to see one of the big desktop computing players diversifying its portfolio with gusto.
Buffalo launches an HDD into the PogoPlug clouds, outfits external storage lineup with USB 3.0
Buffalo's toyed with that newfangled idea of sharing files over the internet once or twice, but today it's stepping up to the plate, picking up a PogoPlug bat, and sending a hard drive coursing into the upper stratosphere fueled by good intent. Well, perhaps the reality isn't quite as exciting as that analogy, but Buffalo is indeed launching the first PogoPlug with internal storage today, which works just like your run-of-the-mill NAS in everyday use, but can also share files of your choosing with awkward acquaintances around the world through an online web portal. $170 buys you 1TB of storage, $270 doubles that capacity to 2TB, and the end of friends and relatives nagging you to upload Facebook photos is (hopefully) included free with every purchase. If all you're looking for in an external hard drive is improved transfer speeds, Buffalo's got plenty of options there too, as it's revamped four tried-and-true units with USB 3.0. You can nab the blue SuperSpeed connector in a four-drive, 4TB or 8TB DriveStation Quad with up-to-225MB transfer rates starting at $630, a two-drive, 2TB or 4TB DriveStation Duo starting at $280, a single-drive DriveStation Axis with 1TB or 2TB starting at $100, or a more portable MiniStation Stealth in 500GB and 1TB capacities starting at $90. Speedy rotating magnetic platters, anyone? PR after the break.
Pure launches Contour, One Flow and i-20, also debuts FlowSongs cloud-based music service
It's a heavy day at CES, and it's also a big day for the folks at Pure. Not only have they provided an updated release time table for the Sensia ("later in 2011" for an unknown amount) and Sirocco 550 (March for $499), but it's also branching out with a few unexpected launches. In order to get even more tunes to the outfit's blossoming line of WiFi radios, Pure has revealed its FlowSongs cloud-based music service -- put simply, it enables consumers to buy music directly from their radio and Pure's Lounge iPhone app. Users are instructed to 'Like' songs on FM or internet radio, and then within the same interface, they're able to click 'Buy' while simultaneously scratching that Instant Gratification itch. Customers can download high-quality versions of the MP3 onto their Mac and PC, and it'll work on any Flow radio. Currently, the service is expected to launch as a public beta in North America this spring, with individual tracks priced between $0.99 and $1.49 depending on the publisher. Unfortunately, there's a $5.99 yearly subscription to actually use FlowSongs, which all but guarantees failure in a world where $1.49 tracks feel too pricey on their own. Moving on, the company is also dishing out a few hardware announcements. Up first is the Contour (shown above), an iPod / iPhone-friendly WiFi radio that touts a black crescent shape (not too unlike Meridian's M80), touch-sensitive controls and a trio of video outputs (composite, component and S-Video). The One Flow ($149) is about as basic as it gets, rocking a truly retro motif, a 3.5mm auxiliary input and a pair of alarms. Wrapping things up, there's the i-20, which is hailed as the only digital iPod dock available that supports component, S-Video and composite outputs. In a nutshell, it's a video output stand for your iPod or iPhone, which may or may not be worth the $99 asking price. Head on past the break for specifics on availability, and tap that source link once your credit card is ready. %Gallery-112399%
Iomega Personal Cloud devices host your data, not your water vapor
Finally, a new flavor of Iomega that the EMC fanboys can find palatable. The bigger company consumed the smaller back in 2008 and, while we've seen plenty of products since then, none have really brought the two together like the new Personal Cloud edition of the Home Media Network Hard Drives. In theory, anyway. The idea here is that this is a smart NAS, creating your own little puff and hosting your data for general availability but avoiding the "careless computing" curse by retaining control of your data. It'll naturally play nice with the new Iomega TV and, if you buy two of the things, you can have one perform an automated remote backup to the other. That's the sort of feature that should make a tight-budgeted IT manager's ears perk up. How tight? The first two models of Iomega's Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition devices launch this month: 1TB for $169.99 and twice that for $229.99. %Gallery-112488%
PS3, PSP get Music Unlimited service in UK, Ireland
Sony's cloud-based, digital music service, "Music Unlimited" ("powered by Qriocity"), is now available in the UK and Ireland. Similar to Microsoft's Zune Pass, the service is also coming to the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia and New Zealand at some point in 2011. Two available plans are charged monthly, with the "Basic" service being £3.99 in the UK and €3.99 in Ireland; and the "Premium" service £9.99 and €9.99, respectively. The basic service is like radio, with preset playlists, but users can skip songs at will, while the premium option offers customizable lists and "premium Top 100 channels which are regularly updated with the latest hits." Music Unlimited's current catalog is approximately 6 million songs deep, with tracks from leading indie labels, as well as corporate behemoths like Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music. The service will be available on a wide range of Sony devices, including PS3, PSP and "Android-based mobile devices."
Sony's Music Unlimited subscription service ready to stream tunes to PS3s and Bravia TVs in the UK
The UK and Ireland are today the first to get a taste of Sony's big play for the online music market, the appropriately titled Music Unlimited. This new subscription service (£3.99 a month for Basic access, £9.99 for the Premium stuff) will let you stream a library of about six million songs to your PS3, Bravia telly, or web-connected Blu-ray player, while also offering the option to sync playlists from other music services like iTunes. PC support is available as well, with "a wide range of Sony's portable devices" and Android-based smartphones on the roadmap for future compatibility. Music Unlimited sidles up next to Qriocity as part of Sony's strategy to expand its influence in content delivery, presumably in an effort to thicken its revenue streams, and will be following up this British launch with arrivals in the US, Canada and most of Western Europe in the new year.
Dropbox celebrates version 1.0, throws selective sync into the mix
If you're like us, you've probably come to rely on Dropbox quite a bit in your day-to-day activities. Hell, our crowd-sourced fan sequel to The Social Network about that "Tom from MySpace" guy would never have got off the ground without it! Well, if you're as enthusiastic about cloud storage solutions as we are, you'll be more than excited to know that Dropbox 1.0 has just been announced. Among the new features that we're most looking forward to putting to the test are Selective Sync (choose which folders get downloaded to which computers) and Extended Attribute Sync (improved support for Mac apps like Quicken and Quark whose resource forks bedevil most sync applications and corrupt data in the process). But that ain't all! Hit the source link to get started.
Google Cloud Print is ready to spool in beta, if you have a Windows PC handy
Google blew the lid off of Chrome OS yesterday in a big way, and one of its key features is now ready to roll. Cloud Print was unveiled back in April, a method to enable Google mobile devices to print via nebulous networking, and it's now here -- with some caveats. The biggest being that right now the only host for a non Cloud Print-compatible printer (basically all but this one) is a Windows PC running Chrome 9.0.597.1 or greater. Set up the service through there and the browser will host your good 'ol printer to your Chrome OS device. Don't have a Chrome OS device? You will. Eventually more printers will support this natively, eliminating the middleman, and we're sure printing support will be coming to Android down the road too. When? In due time, fair reader. In due time.
Jolicloud 1.1 now available to download
You've already seen it on the Jolibook, but now anyone with a netbook or suitable computer can get their hands on the Jolicloud 1.1 operating system, which promises a number of improvements over version 1.0. Chief among those is the brand new HTML5 desktop, along with a simplified login process using Facebook Connect, a generally spiffed up UI, and a slew of other tweaks that promise better performance and battery life compared to the previous version. Hit up the link below to try it out for yourself, or revisit our Jolibook review for an in-depth look at the upstart OS.
World of Warcraft streaming and playable on an HTC Desire
Hey GameString! You guys need to cut it out. Yes, the tech demo you've been circulating for your cloud-based, game-streaming technology is wicked impressive, but the subject of said demo is just plain irresponsible. Using its own "Adrenalin Host Server" and a customized, touch-based user interface, GameString has managed to run a playable version of World of Warcraft on an HTC Desire smartphone. (Check out a video demonstrations after the jump.) Sure, we've seen WoW running on an iPad recently, and we've seen a few cumbersome attempts to put it on a mobile phone in the past, but we're concerned nonetheless. Until now, the only thing keeping the world from ... well, stopping, was the fact that you couldn't properly play World of Warcraft without sitting (or biking) at your computer. Just think: If GameString pulls this off, you could soon be able to grind, farm, raid and PvP your way through Azeroth using a thing that fits in the pocket of your skinniest jeans! That's gonna be it, man. That's gonna be the end of this great big beautiful experiment we call humanity. If you're looking to contribute to, you know, the apocalypse, you can sign up for the Adrenalin Host Server's public beta on GameString's official site.
GameString demos its streaming, custom World of Warcraft UI by raiding on an HTC Desire (video)
We're still not ready to apply the label "Gaming 3.0" here (or to anything, for that matter), but despite its boasts, GameString's making a compelling case for cloud-based play time. We've already seen the company bring World of Warcraft to Google TV, but now the company's showcasing its take on a challenge we've seen a few times before -- streaming a playable version of WoW to a mobile phone. (Gotta get 'em out of the house somehow.) The trick here is a streamlined UI overlay that makes for a every touch-friendly experience; there's translucent "thumbstick" spots and larger buttons for spells. The setup in question here is its Adrenalin Host Server from approximately 80 kilometers away (geographically) and an HTC Desire running over a home network that's 2Mbps down / 2Mbps up. And while there's some notable lag and parts of the interface that's still too tiny to really use, it's still an Alpha build that seems functional for all but the most intense of moments. See it for yourself after the break.
Beta Mac client for Evernote adds sharing controls, notebook stacks
The perennial TUAW favorite 'bucket app' Evernote has added two intriguing new features in the beta version of the Mac client: in-app notebook sharing controls and Stacks for notebook organization. Both are available immediately to free and paid Evernote users who choose to update to the beta (just check "include beta versions" in the application's update preferences to see the new build). The sharing controls in-app look much the same as they do on the Evernote website, and they provide the same level of custom access. You can decide whether to share a notebook with the public at large, or with specific individuals. Premium subscribers can also allow sharing partners to edit, create or delete notes if desired; they also get a history view of shared notes, so they can see exactly when things went off the rails. The organizational power of Stacks means that you're no longer limited to a flat list of notebooks; you can sort and group your notebooks into whatever piles you need, and collapse/expand them as needed in the app sidebar. Right now the only place you'll see your Stacks is in the Mac client, but as the new features roll out to the other Evernote flavors they will show up in those spots as well. I'd love to tell you how these new features are working for me, but unfortunately my notes database is hanging up during the upgrade process. You might want to backup (or redownload) the stable version, just in case. [Hat tip to DLS/Switched]
OpenFeint announces in-app content service, infrastructure to support freemium games
Social gaming network OpenFeint has finally unveiled its OpenFeint X service, which will allow developers on the App Store (and a few other mobile platforms) to add cloud-based microtransaction content to their games on top of Apple's own in-app purchase service. This is apparently a system that lives outside of Apple's own store, and allows developers to quickly and easily add in-app content without having to go through Apple's approval system. If that sounds confusing, it's because the system is still so new -- only a few developers have worked with it so far (though we're supposed to see it running in popular titles like Fruit Ninja soon), and the updates for providing virtual currency and goods aren't out yet. But this is the next step for OpenFeint -- after Apple released Game Center, OpenFeint's plan was to provide even more services on top of the Game Center functionality, and with the rise of freemium apps on the store lately, delivering this content is an important thing for developers to do. To kick off the new service, OpenFeint is holding what its calling a "million dollar challenge" -- the first 100 developers to sign up and use OpenFeint X will be able to earn up to $10,000 without sharing any revenue (which basically means OpenFeint is giving away $1 million of the money it would have made). After that, developers who use the service will enter a revenue sharing plan -- if you're a developer, you can find more details about that on the official website. This won't change things for most end users -- it likely won't matter to you whether you click one of Apple's buttons to make an in-app purchase or use code from another company. But it will be an interesting choice for developers to make. And given what we've heard about the growing revenues from in-app purchases, a service like this is showing up at exactly the right time.
