march
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Google may launch Android P's developer preview in mid-March
You might see a glimpse of Google's next mobile platform very, very soon. Evan Blass, a well-known source of tech leaks, has tweeted that Mountain View is targeting a mid-month release for Android P's first developer preview. We don't know what "P" stands for yet, but since March 14th is Pi Day, some people are speculating that Android's upcoming flavor is "Pie." According to previous reports, Android P will have the power to prevent idle apps from being able to access your camera and mic. That added security measure can protect you against against malware that can record background noise or take images without your consent.
Nintendo's fastest-selling console ever couldn't top 'Zelda'
Nintendo has been proclaiming that the Switch is its fastest-selling console ever since the system launched, but now it has numbers to back that up. Based on NPD reports, it says the Switch sold 906,000 units in the US in March. What's surprising, however, is that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is not just its fastest-selling launch title of all time, its Switch version actually outsold the console, moving 925,000 copies (add 460,000 for the Wii U and you have 1.3 million total).
Mechwarrior Online has big plans for March
March is upon us! March has actually been upon us for a handful of days, but those days were lame. Now is the time of awesome days, and those days will be full of updates and new features for MechWarrior Online. Creative Director Bryan Ekman has laid out the team's plan for the coming month. Training grounds, an offline game mode that loads a player into a random map with eight enemy targets to test out their current 'Mech, will be made available. This game mode is "just the beginning" of an incoming wealth of training options. Consumables will extend the module system and will be available for C-Bill and MC purchase. A host of UI, user controls, and statistics-tracking improvements are coming in, as is Tourmaline Desert, MWO's largest map to date. The ability to acquire fuzzy dice for one's cockpit has been hinted at. You know what to do, soldiers.
Guild Wars 2 WvW changes delayed until March
For those of you anxiously awaiting the upcoming WvW changes slotted for this month, Guild Wars 2's Game Director Colin Johanson jumped into the forums today to let players know that the update will come in March instead. But the good news is that we get a significant glimpse into the crystal ball of GW2's development as Colin details upcoming improvements such as the continual optimization of game models and data compression to reduce performance problems plus ways to draw more people in to the WvW feature. Be sure to read Colin's entire post over at the GW2 community forums.
Ngmoco shutting down some titles March 31
Ngmoco announced on its website earlier this week that some of the game maker's biggest iOS titles, including We Rule, Godfinger and Touch Pets Dogs 2, are going to be shut down for good on March 31. The games will be off of Apple's App Store later this week on February 1, so no new users will be able to download them, and the servers for the games will go offline at the end of next month, effectively ending the games completely. Ngmoco didn't give a clear reason for the shutdowns, but it's not hard to guess: The company, once one of the biggest app developers on the App Store, has been fairly steadily transitioning over to Android titles in the past few years, and has seen a sharp decline in popularity on iOS. Not to mention that many of the figures who made the company so large, including former EA exec Neil Young, have left the company in recent days. In other words, it's finally game over for Ngmoco on iOS. Ngmoco was purchased by Japanese network DeNA a little while ago, and that company is still steadily trying to grow its own iOS sales and popularity. But Ngmoco as a brand is effectively done on the App Store, especially since these once-thriving games are shut down. One of the biggest names of the App Store's first generation is finally on its way out the door.
TUAW Year in Review: March 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. Apple announces third generation iPad starting at $499 (updated) After months of anticipation, Apple has announced the third generation of the iPad. Prices are (all USD) $499/$599/$699 for Wi-Fi-only models in 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB. Models with LTE 4G cost... This is not our review of the new iPad There are lots of reviews of the new iPad. Lots and lots. My review? In deeply abbreviated form, here it is: The screen is amazing. You must see it before you make up your mind. It's pretty... Retina display Macs, iPads, and HiDPI: Doing the Math (updated) Love Apple gear? Like math? TUAW's Doing the Math series examines the numbers and the science behind the hardware and software. The rumourmill has been busy lately with claims that we might get... Windows 8 tablet versus the iPad, side by side comparison Yesterday, Microsoft held a press event at Mobile World Congress which showcased Windows 8. It's Microsoft's next generation operating system that'll run on both desktop machines and tablets. If... Apple announces new Apple TV with 1080p support, still just $�99 After weeks of seeing the Apple TV slowly disappear from retail shelves, Apple announced the third generation of its "hobby" device today during the live press event. The new Apple TV is... Also: Apple is Fortune's Most Admired Company for fifth year in a row Family, tech and the joy of Apple's iPad 25 billionth app downloaded from the App Store (Update) iPad embraced by small businesses; use quadruples in one year iPad 2 remains in lineup with $399 price point iOS 5.1 available, you can finally delete photos in Photo Stream Steve Jobs memorial: A Dawn Redwood in Tompkins Square Park iWork.com to be discontinued, Apple suggests iCloud as a replacement Conan O'Brien pokes fun at iPad Retina display Grandma wants an iPad: the multigenerational buyer's guide Apple: Treating celebs like regular folks since 1976 Apple stock soars, market value close to entire retail sector Whoopsie Daisey: This American Life episode on Foxconn's iPad factories 'partially fabricated,' retracted On buying iPads for your kids Apple: Three million new iPads sold since Friday's launch New iPad already five percent of iPad web traffic circleof6 app aims to prevent sexual violence NYT: New iPad screen could be too good for the web The rumors have begun: next iPhone to get a bigger screen? Finding the 'Magic hour' with your iPhone for the best photos 25 billionth app downloader flown to Beijing by Apple Removing walls: how the iPad inspires new content creation Macworld says the new iPad's screen is underrated
Breakfast Topic: Have you ever protested about game issues in game?
So as I logged in each and every character recently to sync up all my goodies in preparation for Mists, I rediscovered a strange little level 1 gnome tucked away on Blackrock. Argent Dawn players, do you still have a thing going with the players on Blackrock? I haven't played on AD in years now, but back in the days of unstable launch-era servers, the "Blackrock kiddies" chose Argent Dawn to torment with their server-crashing antics whenever their own realm would crash. I'm not sure how making the AD players miserable with legions of profanity-blasting players shouting "Blackrock down! Blackrock down!" and taunting us for being roleplaying pansies was supposed to help their situation -- but it became a regular occurrence. Ironforge (best capital to hang out in because you could connect so quickly to Menethil) on Argent Dawn became a living hell whenever Blackrock went down. The lag was so bad you could guarantee you'd end up in the trench between the auction house and the bank. Then came the glorious day when Argent Dawn went down. I still can't believe I did it, but I did -- I joined the players flooding onto Blackrock to create level 1 gnomes. (Bad player. Bad.) We delighted in tacking on RP-esque "-eth" suffixes to the most ridiculous-sounding names we could think of, and we dogpiled onto the bridges of Ironforge for a naked gnomish dance party, chanting "AD down! AD down!" (Not sure what that guy in the screenshot shouting about drugs was all about. Looks like we didn't even manage to keep our main chant going. Oh, well.) I don't guess we ended up accomplishing anything of note -- we didn't crash Blackrock like their players did ours so many times, nor did we really intend to -- but it sure felt good to return the annoyance for just that little while. On a more serious note, WoW has been home to plenty of in-game marches, demonstrations, and protests of various sorts over the years. It was a very different era of customer relations back then, and many in-game protests were simply attempts to garner some attention from Blizzard over issues players felt strongly about. Today, of course, players enjoy much freer communication with Blizzard on the official forums, Blizzard blogs, and even Twitter and Facebook. Have you ever protested or marched in game over a game-related issue? Did you feel it was effective? Do you post in feedback threads and interact with the Blizzard blues outside the game now?
Angry Birds: Space logs 10 million downloads in 3 days
As spotted by The Verge, Rovio said in a Monday morning tweet that it recorded 10 million downloads of its Angry Birds Space in just three days. This is one of several recent iOS-related app milestones. Earlier this month, the iOS App Store climbed to 25 billion total downloads and the new iPhoto for iOS app logged 1 million users. Just last week, popular social app Draw Something announced it hit 30 million downloads and its parent company was acquired by Zynga. [Via The Verge]
Angry Birds Space now available for the Mac, iPhone and iPad
Today is a big day for Rovio. Angry Birds Space, the fourth spinoff of the Angry Birds series, is now available on multiple platforms including iOS and OS X. You can download the US$2.99 iPad version and the 99-cent iPhone version from the iTunes App Store. The $4.99 Mac version is also now available in the Mac App Store. Have fun!
NCAA March Madness Live app comes to iOS, Android by tourney tip-off
Following in last year's steps, the NCAA and Turner Sports have taken the wraps off their March Madness 2012 goodies for handsets, slates and PCs. Though, unlike its 2011 variants, you'll now have to part ways with a one-time $3.99 charge in order to catch your favorite college team in action. Paying such a fee will give you an all-access ticket to watch every game during the tournament, which gets rolling this Tuesday, March 13th. Moreover, you'll also be able to customize channels to your viewing pleasure, test your knowledge in live trivia and check out how the bracket's shaping up. The action-packed March Madness Live app is available now to folks on iOS, with the Android version coming to "selected" devices by the time the tourney is underway.
ICS update for Eee Pad Transformer delayed (again) until March
Promises, promises. That's what ASUS has been feeding those of you who choose to brazenly call the OG Transformer your slate of preference. In the past couple of months we were told to expect the ICS refresh in "early February," before quickly slipping a couple of weeks. Needless to say, that time has passed and although the update was said to be under the G-Men microscope waiting for approval, ASUS is bearing bad news again. Via its Singapore Facebook page, the outfit now says the TF101 tab will be ready to taste the latest Android goodie "within the Feb / March 2012 period." Naturally, customers aren't taking the news lightly and have taken the likes complaints to the status update. You can feel free to join 'em by hitting up the source link below.
Rovio announces Angry Birds Space, coming March 22
Just when you thought they were finally done -- they're coming back again. Rovio has announced that it will be releasing Angry Birds Space, and unfortunately, all we know about it, per the strange teaser trailer below, is that it'll be out on March 22. Presumably, this is just another iteration on the Angry Birds formula, albeit one that will likely play with gravity and maybe a few other space-related mechanics as well. There's also an official website for the just-announced title, but it's not any more informative than the trailer was. Given the enormous popularity of Angry Birds on iOS and other mobile platforms, it's not hard to predict that this will be yet another enormous hit for Rovio. Still, aren't we at all tired of the Angry Birds phenomenon yet? This will be the fourth spinoff for the game -- hopefully this one will show a little more innovation and growth than Angry Birds Rio, Seasons, or Magic.
Mists of Pandaria news coming in March with press sneak peek
Blizzard has announced that some information is coming about the highly anticipated Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's fourth expansion -- well, information with regards to when there will be information about Mists of Pandaria. In the middle of March, Blizzard will hold a special press event for members of the media to see what kind of progress has been made, in showable form, since BlizzCon 2011's impressively far-along demo. As Nethaera posted, information is coming, and we now have a date. This feels like Blizzard's taking a page from the Apple book. Pressers and hype events like these work incredibly well for a company like Blizzard that is very much an Apple of its industry. By calling its own press conferences, conventions, and press trips rather than announcing information amongst the rest of the gaming industry at conventions like PAX, the message is much more focused and clear -- the cacophony is removed. I'm excited to know when new information will be available. Of course, I'd rather have the information, but a day to hope for is better than nothing. It's gonna get busy in March.
Sony Ericsson: Xperia handsets to receive Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade by March
The Ice Cream Sandwich announcements keep dribbling in this morning, with the latest morsel coming from Sony Ericsson Italy. In a Facebook post published last week, the company's Italian outpost confirmed that its Xperia line will receive an upgrade to Android 4.0 sometime next year. Head of marketing Maurizio de Palma clarified this declaration in a follow-up post, adding that the update should "arrive by March." That's certainly more specific than anything the company has announced thus far, though we'll obviously have to wait and see whether this timeline holds up.
WiFi-only Xoom headed to Staples for March 27th release?
If you're still holding out for a Motorola Xoom, here's some good news. The folks at Droid Life snagged a picture of a Staples ad depicting March 27th as the targeted release date for the slate. In addition, the tablet appears to be retailing for 600 bucks -- one the cheapest models money can buy. A Xoom, TI-Nspire and a new pack of pens, all from one place? Man, that really was easy. [Thanks, Hector N]
HTC's 7-inch Android 2.3 tablet with new Sense UI still rumored for March
So far it seems like everyone but HTC has made an official tablet announcement in these early days of 2011. As such, we're reliant upon the rumor mills for every scrap of information we can get. So lean in close because the Chinese language Economic Daily has something to share. In a piece largely written about Pegatron, Economic Daily claims that HTC's 7-inch Android 2.3 tablet will ship in late Q1 (read: March, as we've heard earlier) with a new version of the HTC Sense UI. Our guess, is that HTC wants to get a tablet on the market now, rather than wait to customize Android 3.0 and have the Motorola Xoom and friends gobble up all the market share. The paper does mention two Android 3.0 tablets from HTC scheduled for 2011. Unfortunately, there's no word of the rumored "Flyer" brand name or whether those Honeycomb tablets will get the Sense treatment or not (we're guessing they will). Nevertheless, the Mobile World Congress event kicking off next week would be the perfect opportunity to make it all official, don't you think?
HP's first webOS tablet may start shipping in March, fulfill longstanding promise
Way back in August of last year, when temperatures were above zero and Honeycomb was still a great unknown, HP promised us the first webOS tablet will come "in early 2011." Just yesterday, however, our noteworthy exposure of the vanguard members of the webOS tablet family led us to believe that at least one of them, the Opal, would take until September to arrive. That may still be the case, but DigiTimes is bringing us back around to HP's original pledge, with word that Inventec has received instructions from HP to start producing and shipping a webOS slate (most probably the Topaz) in March. As usual, this comes from the (in)famous insider sources that tend to miss as often as they hit, but it does make sense for HP to follow up its February event with a relatively rapid product rollout.
Google's Honeycomb Android tablet release slated for March?
The only official timeframe we have for an Android 3.0 Honeycomb release is sometime "next year." A little too vague for our liking and for a seemingly infinite list of manufacturers chomping at the bit to release their fully sanctioned Android tablets onto the world. Now DigiTimes narrows things down a bit with an off-the-cuff comment about MSI preparing to sell its Tegra 2-based tablets in April or May "after Google releases Android 3.0 in March." Of course, a March release seems almost definite what with Acer hoping to ship its tablets with Honeycomb in April as well. Hopefully we'll get this confirmed at CES in early January.
Nintendo 3DS will launch 'in all major markets' by March 2011, design still being tweaked
When Nintendo of Japan first announced the 3DS (think: way back in March), it promised a release of the portable by the fiscal year ending March 2011. Given the DS and DSi's six-month global rollout window, however, we weren't sure if that applied to the world or just the company's backyard -- sure, we've heard rumors of a UK release in October, but nothing's been confirmed. Cue Nintendo of America's president Reggie Fils-Aime to give a definitive answer: "The one thing, for sure, is that we will launch in all of our major markets by March 31, 2011." Well, that about settles it in our mind. Fils-Aime also clarifies that what we saw on the floor is not the final design -- something that was mentioned during the press conference -- but we wouldn't expect anything more than slightly altered button placement (for its part, the official site lists "look," battery, pre-installed software, and supported languages as TBA). But hey, if you want to believe a third screen is possible, don't let us stop you from dreaming.
Apple retail store sales climb 8%
Apple just continues to ignore the bad economic conditions -- sales at Apple Stores have reportedly gone up 8% during the quarter that ended in March. That's a pretty wholesome figure considering no new Apple computers were offered -- before you protest and ask about the iPad and the new MacBooks, don't forget that that's all happened since April started. So there was more traffic in the stores even before there were new shinies to buy. This good news for Apple comes from analyst Charlie Wolf, from Needham & Company. He told investors that the March numbers followed 19.8 percent year-over-year growth of same-store sales in December. In March of last year, Mac retail sales were down about 22%. Same-store year-over-year March Mac revenues were up 31.2 percent, while non-Mac revenues -- including software, iPhones, iPods and accessories increased by 14.5 percent. Starting in September of 2003, Apple has opened 123 U.S. stores. Apple's U.S. market share went from 3% to 9% according to Morgan Stanley. Those are numbers any company would covet. [Via AppleInsider]
