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No midnight launch for Wii U at EB Games Canada
Before you pack up the 3DS, blankets and folding chair to go wait in line for Wii U in the Great White North, know that EB Games Canada has decided not to hold midnight openings for Nintendo's new console. Rather than opening in the evening for the Wii U launch, locations in five provinces across Canada plan to open early – at 9am or 10am local time – on Sunday, November 18.Joystiq has reached out to GameStop for clarification on its Wii U launch strategy stateside after several U.S. readers sent word that their local stores will not open at midnight for the console's arrival. We know of at least 500,000 people here who are directly affected by the uncertainty.
Chinese online retail giant 360buy spreads worldwide, may keep Amazon on its toes
Many of us who live in North America and Europe consider Amazon synonymous with online retail -- yet we forget that the company barely even registers in some parts of the world. That misconception is about to be cleared up now that one of China's largest online retailers, 360buy, is going global. A just-launched English version of the store is initially shipping China-made goods for free to 36 countries that include obvious candidates like Australia, Canada, the UK and the US as well as France, Germany and southeast Asia. You're unlikely to find a Kindle Fire HD equivalent in the selection, but the mix could still make Amazon nervous when the brand-agnostic can already find real bargains. Combined with long-term plans to set up local distribution points, 360buy's international expansion could get more of us comfortable with buying from China and heat up a retail race that some thought had already been won.
FTC offers $50,000 prize for stopping illegal robocalls, we could have used this a few months ago
Robocalling is considered a plague in the modern phone world, especially during an election year -- and while you likely won't get rid of all the pitches from political candidates anytime soon, most of the commercial calls are outright illegal. The Federal Trade Commission has devised a unique contest to help cut back on those law-breakers without having to chase down every shady debt relief offer. It's offering a $50,000 reward for the cleverest solution to blocking the banned variety of robocalls. The only requirement is that you be an adult US resident: if you can invent a surefire remedy in your basement, the FTC wants to hear from you. Entries will be open between October 25th and January 17th, with word of a winner around April 1st. We're hoping that the champion has a truly effective cure in use before long, because we'll undoubtedly have reached our breaking point on robocalls by... oh, around November 6th. [Image credit: SarahNW, Flickr]
Acer Iconia Tab A110 reaches North America on October 30th for $230, faces a tough fight
Acer hasn't had an easy mid-year: it trotted out the Iconia Tab A110 at Computex as a budget Android tablet that could still claim Tegra 3 speeds, only to watch the Nexus 7 arrive and leave virtually every other comparable tablet in a tight spot. It's North America's turn at the A110 this month, and the side-by-side looks aren't getting much easier. When the 7-inch Jelly Bean slate ships to the continent on October 30th, it will cost $230 in both the US and Canada for the lone 8GB version -- a better value than we see in Europe, but still a slightly awkward middle ground between an 8GB Nexus 7 at $199 and its $249, 16GB edition. We're guessing that Acer is counting on the microSD and micro-HDMI expansion to tempt would-be North American buyers away from a less flexible (if Google-blessed) rival. %Gallery-168615%
ComScore: iPhone grew to 34 percent US share in a pre-iPhone 5 world, Android still on top at 52 percent
Apple is all too used to the rumor cycle affecting its sales: the company just saw a dip in sequential iPhone shipments this spring as customers waited for what would ultimately become the iPhone 5. If you believe ComScore's US smartphone market share estimates, though, Apple wasn't the worse for wear this August. While the iPhone was in the doldrums this spring, it jumped almost a whole point versus an already positive July to hit 34.3 percent; we're wondering if last-minute discounts played a part in keeping iPhone 4S sales healthy. Google didn't have much to fear and saw Android climb to 52.6 percent, even if its ascent wasn't as rapid as that of its Bay Area neighbor. RIM took the brunt of the losses and dipped to just 8.3 percent of the market in what's increasingly a two-horse race, although Microsoft's Windows Phone held its ground at 3.6 percent. The wider US cellphone market tells a familiar story, with Samsung on top. There's signs that the narrative is very close to changing, however: LG and Apple are now close enough, at one point's difference, that Apple could seize second place by the time we see ComScore's figures for September. Before interpreting Apple's performance as some sign of a wider reversal of fortune, just remember that most of its challenges are on the world stage. There's no guarantee that the Android-focused markets beyond American borders have been as receptive to iPhone price drops and updates.
Toyota plans dialed-back launch of eQ and iQ EV city cars in December
Toyota's just-arrived RAV4 EV will soon get a much smaller cousin -- albeit a very elusive one. An electric version of the iQ city car will arrive in Japan (as the eQ) and the US (as the iQ EV) this December, but the automaker is significantly scaling back its 2010 promises of several thousand cars sold per year to just 100 fleet-oriented vehicles. The charging times, costs and range of EVs "do not meet society's needs," vice chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada says to explain the smaller ambitions. It's easy to understand the cautious approach after seeing the car's final details. While they're not out of line with the specs of other EVs, the eQ's 3-hour fast charge, 62-mile range and ¥3.6 million ($46,130) price wouldn't have regular customers flocking to dealerships. Most of Toyota's energy is instead being funneled into its tried-and-true hybrids, with 21 due on the market by 2015, as well as plans to deliver the company's first hydrogen fuel cell car by the same year. Eco-conscious drivers may be disappointed that Toyota isn't moving as aggressively into a pure electric realm as some of its rivals, but we'd rather see smartly planned baby steps than an overly risky plunge.
Obama, Romney get chiptuned in battle for presidential seat
The battle for the White House is an epic, intense drama to rival those of legend and myth, so of course it makes a great chiptune video game. The Gregory Brothers, creators of Autotune the News and all those viral videos about burgers and bed intruders, songified Barack Obama and Mitt Romney from the Democratic and Republican national conventions (respectively, in case you get those two mixed up).The video is titled "Patriot Game" and presents the presidential candidates side-by-side, comparing their talking points as if they were literal points in an 8-bit video game, set to an upbeat tune. Watch the piggy banks, (bleeding) hearts and American flags stack up over at The New York Times, and see who wins to be the fictional, autotuned President of Earths and Moon. It might surprise you.
Wii U priced, launching November 18 in US
Nintendo's Wii U console will launch November 18 in the United States, with a price of $300 for the white 8GB Basic set and $350 for a black 32GB Deluxe version. Nintendo announced pricing for Japan earlier today, with Europe not receiving a price, but penciling in a November 30 launch date.The 8GB Basic set includes a white console, matching white GamePad, AC adapters for both console and GamePad, Sensor Bar and an HDMI cable. Meanwhile, the black 32GB Deluxe set includes Nintendo Land, stands for both the console and the GamePad, a GamePad charging cradle and everything else that normally comes in the Basic set. Purchasing the Deluxe set also includes membership in the "Deluxe Digital Promotion," which rewards points for digital purchases that can later be used to buy eShop wares.
Shocker: smartphone users like bigger screens, market share may respond accordingly
There's been a trend towards big smartphones. Sometimes, really big. Even so, concerns have persisted that the cart is driving the horse -- that customers are buying big phones because that's what's available, not because they have a preference. Kantar Worldpanel ComTech might not put that issue to bed once and for all, but its latest study suggests that there's at least some appeal to all that extra glass. Among Android phones sold in the past three months across eight countries, 29 percent of them had a screen larger than 4.5 inches. Their owners were unsurprisingly more active as well, using the internet and watching videos more often than those whose phones have more modest displays. Market share might be following suit. Throughout the countries Kantar is tracking, Android still has roughly half or more of the market, ranging from 46.8 percent in Brazil to a staggering 86.8 percent of Spain. In Europe alone, it was up by just over a fifth from a year ago. We know iOS is taking a beating outside of the US as a result. Before anyone calls the trend irreversible, however, remember that we're on the edge of an unpredictable period: we know some mobile fans have been holding out for a new iPhone, and all the apparent rumors have Apple choosing a bigger screen that might satisfy some outstanding gripes with screen sizes. We're also anticipating at least a few Windows Phone wildcards that could shake up the status quo and make this a three-horse race.
FCC releases interactive map for latest Broadband Progress Report
The FCC has been providing regular updates on the progress of broadband rollout in the United States for some time now, but it's gone a bit further for its latest Broadband Progress Report. It's now also released in a new web-based interactive map that lets you zoom in on broadband availability county-by-county to get a better picture of all that data, with details on things like population, income and access to different types of broadband provided for each area. In case you missed it, the report itself found that 19 million Americans lack access to any sort of fixed broadband service, and that a further 100 million haven't subscribed to a broadband service even in areas where it is available. You can find an embedded version of the map after the break, or a larger version at the source link below.
YouTube's Elections Hub is a one-stop channel for the latest US political happenings
In case you haven't noticed, it's election year in the US of A. And while we already have a slight idea of which political party your beloved neighbors prefer, why not have an all-inclusive video hub to keep you updated with the latest action taking place on the road toward America's historical White House. Here's where YouTube comes in. The Google-owned service announced earlier today the creation of its Elections Hub, which it's dubbing as the "one-stop channel for key political moments" happening now and all the way until the final US election day on the 6th of November. Naturally, the social vid giant's teamed up with some of the biggest outfits around to bring live and on-demand content to the Elections 2012 channel, including ABC News, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and, for the spanish-speaking crowd, Univision. Regardless of who's landing your worthy, priceless vote, this should be a great corner of the internet to keep you in the loop during this year's Stateside political battle.
Remember Me's 'Neo-Paris' was a 'late choice,' US / AU both considered
The art style of Dontnod Entertainment's "Neo-Paris" in Remember Me is stunning, and the vision of a futuristic Eiffel Tower glimmering in the background of many images gives the game a distinctive look – not dissimilar from the beauty of modern day Paris. The city may be a staple of the game now, but Remember Me's development saw Nilin potentially memory jacking foes in the United States or Australia before settling on the dev team's home base."Since the beginning, I really wanted to have Remember Me not being all French, for instance," Dontnod creative lead Jean-Maxime Moris told us in an interview this week at Gamescom. "Neo-Paris was a late choice, because we wanted to stay away from it. We had that global warming element to the game," Moris added, a reference to the concepts we saw last year when the game was still known as "Adrift.""First we thought about Australia or the US, and then we were like, 'Well, let's just stick to Paris, because we have all the material, it's a great city, and it hasn't been done in the way we wanna do it,'" Moris said. Beyond just a thematic shift, the choice of Neo-Paris fits with the game having an international feel, he said."There are French elements to the game, but we wanted it to have some American appeal – kind of really extending the scope of the city, and the characters, and the scope of the robots. And at the same time, there is definitely a Japanese feel to it with the cyberpunk theme. Japanese have been eating cyberpunk for breakfast for 30 years now. Ghost in the Shell, and Akira and all those things," Moris added.We might've followed up to that question, but we were too busy thinking about Japanese people eating cyberpunk for breakfast. What a dangerous proposition!
Fujitsu's Stylistic M532 quad-core tablet ships to the US with toughened body, dash of security
Fujitsu's Stylistic M532 has had a protracted development process that saw it appear on our radar as early as January; imagine our surprise after it ships to the US with barely more than a knock on the door. Now that it's here, it looks to be on the sunnier side of average for an Android 4.0 slate. A quad 1.4GHz Tegra 3, a 1,280 x 800 display and 32GB of built-in space won't rock our world in mid-2012, but the rough-and-ready among us will likely appreciate the military-spec abuse tolerances and a year-long subscription to Absolute CompuTrace theft tracking, just in case it's pilfered from an open bag. Fujitsu's obstacles? Apart from not having much of a cachet in the tablet arena, the company also has to convince buyers that the extra safeguards are worth a $549 price -- for those who treat their tablets more delicately, there are a few tempting alternatives.
LG Optimus Vu coming to wide-minded Americans by summer's end
If you're enamored with the 4:3 ratio of the Optimus Vu but remain disappointed that there isn't an American model to call your own, LG is bringing some sunshine to your day. The Korean company has confirmed plans to port the LTE-equipped version of the extra-wide phablet to the US sometime during the third quarter of the year -- in other words, anytime between now and the end of September. Thanks to our friends at the FCC, we even know that it's headed to Verizon first, if not exclusively. Most of the other details are scant. The timing makes it likely that Android 4.0 will ship with Big Red's edition as a matter of course; LG's me-too Q Voice interface won't speak English until 2013, however. We mostly know that, between LG's American plans and Samsung's next Galaxy Note, the Great PDA Revival of 2012 is still very much in full swing. [Thanks, FT]
Census Bureau releases first mobile app, offers real-time stats on the US economy
The US Census Bureau just released its first public API last month, giving web and mobile app makers access to its vast stores of statistics, and it's now also gone the extra mile by releasing its first mobile app. Dubbed America's Economy, the app draws on data from the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor to provide a real-time picture of the US economy, offering details on everything from the country's gross domestic product to housing sales to the unemployment rate (all presented with the requisite charts and graphs). That's available for Android smartphones and tablets right now, while an iOS app promised in the "coming weeks." It's also the first of three planned apps from the Bureau -- the others are said to be coming over the next several months (both of which will also be available for both Android and iOS).
Akamai: peak internet speeds jumped 25 percent year-to-year in Q1, Germany tops the mobile world
If you thought world internet access speeds were facing a large-scale slowdown, you can stop fretting for now. Data from Akamai suggests that average speeds were just 2.6Mbps, but that was a healthy 14 percent improvement over the fall and a noticeable 25 percent better than early 2011. Average peak internet connection speeds surged just as much in the first quarter of this year: at 13.5Mbps, the average maximum was a 10 percent season-to-season boost and that same 25 percent versus a year before. The leaders remain Asian territories with that ideal mix of dense populations and high technology, culminating in Hong Kong's blazing 49.3Mbps typical downlink. Akamai attributes much of the growth in peak speeds to an explosion in "high broadband" connections, where 10Mbps is the minimum -- countries like Denmark, Finland, South Korea, Switzerland and the US roughly doubled their adoption of extra-fast access in the past year. Before cheering too loudly, we'd point out that mobile speeds are still trudging along despite HSPA+ and LTE making their presences felt. The most consistent speed came from an unnamed German carrier, which neared 6Mbps; the best regular American rate was 2.5Mbps, which underscores how far even some of the most developed countries have to go. There's also a clear gap in regular landline broadband quality if we go by the US' own National Broadband Plan standards. Just 60 percent of US broadband is over the 4Mbps mark, putting the US at 14th in the global ranks. We're hoping that projects like Google Fiber can raise expectations for everyone, but you can hit the source shortly to get Akamai's full study.
Strategy Analytics: Android lost US market share in Q2, isn't losing sleep just yet
Android is most definitely on the upward march when it comes to the world stage. But you might be surprised at how it's faring in the US: it's down, according to Strategy Analytics' estimates. As of the second quarter, Google's market share dropped from 60.6 percent a year earlier to 56.3 percent. No one would call it a moment of crisis for Android, but it implies that Apple was drawing in more of the customers jumping ship from other platforms -- the iPhone climbed to 33.2 percent while RIM and others lost ground. The real tests of where the market is going, we imagine, will come in the second half of the year. Apple will have to survive an American summer full of Galaxy S III variants, while Samsung and the rest of the Android camp may have to cope with a bigger than usual iPhone update as 2012 heads into the sunset.
US Navy deploys SeaFox submarines to Persian Gulf for universal mine control
Tasked with mine detection and eradication in the Persian Gulf, the US Navy has sent a fleet of unmanned submarines to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open in Iran. Dubbed the SeaFox, each vehicle houses an underwater TV camera, sonar and a dose of explosives. Tipping the scales at less than 100 pounds, the subs are about four feet in length and are controlled via fiber optic cable that sends the live feed back to the captain of each ship. SeaFoxes can dive to depths of 300 meters and boasts a top speed of six knots. The units are thrust into action from helicopters, small rubber boats and off the rear of minesweepers and are capable of disposing of the aforementioned weapons of both the floating and drifting sort. There is one small catch: the $100,000 submarine destroys itself in the process, making each successful trek a suicide mission of sorts.
Nielsen has Android near 52 percent of US smartphone share in Q2, iPhone ekes out gains
If there was doubt as to whether or not Android would soon become the majority smartphone platform in the US, that's just been erased by Nielsen. Google crossed the tipping point in the second quarter after getting close in the winter, with 51.8 percent of current smartphone users running some variant on the green robot's OS. As we've seen in the past, though, the increase is coming mostly at the expenses of platforms already being squeezed to within an inch of their lives, such as the BlackBerry (8.1 percent) and Windows (4.3 percent combined). Apple still isn't in a position to fret: it kept climbing to 34.3 percent and swung the attention of recent buyers just slightly back in its direction. The real question for many of us might center on what happens in a summer where Samsung has thrown a Galaxy S III-sized curveball at Americans and any new iPhone is likely still a few months away.
Apple granted patent for accelerometer-aided theft-detection system
Despite the added risk brought on by Apple's Find My iPhone feature, the iOS handset remains a frequent target for smartphone thieves, thanks to the device's resale value and compatibility with networks around the world. There's not much you can do to deter sticky fingers short of keeping your iPhone or MacBook in view at all times, but the issue does appear to have crossed the desks of Apple's design team, which was just granted patent number 8,217,792 for a sophisticated anti-theft scheme. The acceleration-based system would detect a "known theft condition" based on acceleration characteristics, sounding an alarm and disabling the device. The smartphone or laptop would ignore vibrations from passing cars or those caused by items being dropped onto a nearby surface, instead focusing on undisclosed scenarios that likely involve direct movement. The device owner would use a GUI to configure and disable the system, at which point the handset or computer would return to its pre-disturbed mode. Overall, it sounds like a fairly straightforward hardware/software solution, with the added benefit of a technique to filter out regular motion in an attempt to reduce the number of false alarms. You'll find the full patent at the source link below.
