Today Xtreamer Mobile Released new videos showing off the New Aiki via the Xtreamer Mobile AiKi vs. Galaxy S3 & HTC Sense XL and tour of the new 5 inch device shipping the 1st December priced at €199.
Xtreamer Mobile AiKi vs. Galaxy S3 & HTC Sense XL
Xtreamer Mobile AiKi – Introduction & Quick Tour
Xtreamer Mobile AiKi – Tour Guide
Xtreamer Mobile Aiki – Easy ROM Updating Process
Xtreamer Mobile AiKi – Playing Games – part1
Xtreamer Mobile AiKi – Playing Games – part2
A trailer for the new Skyrim DLC called Dragonborn has been released.
Here is the trailer:
Dragonborn is coming December 4th on the Xbox 360 for 1600 Microsoft Points for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Will you be getting it? If so leave is a comment below.
Apple announced that they have sold 3 million of the new iPad and iPad Mini models in the three days that they have been available, which is double the prior launch record of 1.5 million units achieved in the iPad3 launch in March. Read on for details.
Apple announced that they have sold 3 million of the new iPad and iPad Mini models in the three days that they have been available, which is double the prior launch record of 1.5 million units achieved in the iPad3 launch in March. Here is the press release from Apple:
Apple Sells Three Million iPads in Three Days
Wi-Fi Only Models of New iPad mini & Fourth Generation iPad Double Previous First Weekend Sales
CUPERTINO, California—November 5, 2012—Apple® today announced it has sold three million iPads in just three days since the launch of its new iPad® mini and fourth generation iPad—double the previous first weekend milestone of 1.5 million Wi-Fi only models sold for the third generation iPad in March. The Wi-Fi + Cellular versions of both iPad mini and fourth generation iPad will ship in a few weeks in the US and in many more countries later this year.
“Customers around the world love the new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis. We’re working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand.”
The new iPad mini features a stunning 7.9-inch Multi-Touch™ display, FaceTime® HD and iSight® cameras, ultrafast wireless performance* and an incredible 10 hours of battery life**. The new fourth generation iPad features a gorgeous 9.7-inch Retina™ display, new Apple-designed A6X chip, FaceTime HD camera and ultrafast wireless performance.Both iPad mini and the new fourth generation iPad with Retina display are available in 34 countries including the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and the UK, and will be available in many more countries later this year, including mainland China. Demand for iPad mini exceeded the initial supply and while many of the pre-orders have been shipped to customers, some are scheduled to be shipped later this month.
Pricing & Availability
iPad mini with Wi-Fi comes in either white & silver or black & slate, and is available in the US for a suggested retail price of $329 (US) for the 16GB model, $429 (US) for the 32GB model and $529 (US) for the 64GB model. Fourth generation iPad with Wi-Fi models are available in black or white for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16GB model, $599 (US) for the 32GB model and $699 (US) for the 64GB model. Both iPad mini and fourth generation iPad are available from the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.iPad mini with Wi-Fi + Cellular and fourth generation iPad with Wi-Fi + Cellular will be available in the US on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon in a few weeks. iPad mini with Wi-Fi + Cellular will be offered for a suggested retail price of $459 (US) for the 16GB model, $559 (US) for the 32GB model and $659 (US) for the 64GB model. Fourth generation iPad with Wi-Fi + Cellular for AT&T, Sprint and Verizon will be offered for a suggested retail price of $629 (US) for the 16GB model, $729 (US) for the 32GB model and $829 (US) for the 64GB model. Additionally, iPad 2 is available at $399 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and just $529 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G model where they are sold now.
*LTE is available through select carriers. Network speeds are dependent on carrier networks. Check with your carrier for details.
**Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.
This is good news for Apple! Are you planning on picking up a new iPad or iPad Mini?
Apple Sells 3 Million Units in Three Days!
DriveBender has left its beta phase and is now available as a released product in version 1.4.0.0. Read on for details.
DriveBender has left its beta phase and is now available as a released product in version 1.4.0.0. DriveBender was developed for Windows Home Server to add drive pooling features, and it is also available for Windows. Here are the product features:
Drive Bender is state of the art, single point storage pool technology for all versions of Microsoft Windows. From Windows XP through to the new Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. There is even a Windows Home Server 2011 specific version that is shipped with a native WHS dashboard addin.
Drive Bender presents multiple hard drives as a single pool of data storage, either as one or more drive letters, or a network shared drive. Drive Bender is able to do this with any drive recognized by Windows, including external drive such as USB, Firewire etc.
Management
Drive Bender for Windows is shipped with a metro style management dashboard client. This client allows for the remote management of the pool, mount point and hard drives. The dashboard also provides real-time information on file type usage, primary and duplicate file usage and read and write rates (for both the pool and the individual drives within the pool).
Drive Bender for WHS is shipped with a metro style WHS addin that allows for pool, mount point and drive management (classic WHS interface also available). Built upon the same platform as Drive Bender for Windows, the WHS edition offers a “best in class” WHS experience.
Performance
Drive Bender is built upon an enterprise grade driver that allows for high I/O throughput, and unlike some of the competition, Drive Bender continues to perform well even as the pool grows. In addition performance is further enhanced through our Smooth Stream technology. Smooth Stream is a feature that can improve file streaming performance (i.e. file coping or video / music streaming etc.) by caching a certain amount of the file being read.
Expandable
Drive Bender also provides the user with the ability to seamless expand their storage pool by simply adding a new drive. Adding a new drive expands the pool by the size of the new drive. Existing data within the pool is redistributed to the new drive to ensure the pool remain balanced.
Drive Merging and Converting
Drive Bender also offers a merge capability, allowing users to take a drive that contains data, and merge that drive (and its data) into the pool. In addition there is also a drive conversion feature. This can take and existing drive letter (mounted against a physical drive) and convert this into a pooled drive. Once completed, new hard drives can be added to expand the once fixed drive.
Drive Swapping
Drive Bender offers a drive swap feature that allow a user to seamlessly swap a drive in the pool for a new hard drive… thus making the upgrading a pool easier than ever.
Data Redundancy
To further ensure data safety, Drive Bender uses file duplication (optional down to the folder level) as its primary means of file redundancy. This means that any files written to the pool, is written to two physical hard drives simultaneously. And unlike software based RAID product, there is no major performance hit when writing to the pool.
Non-destructive
One of the key Drive Bender features is its non-destructive file system technology. In short, this means that all drives within a Drive Bender pool utilize the standard NTFS format, and can be added to the pool without being formatted. Again unlike RAID, all pooled drives can be removed and read on any machine capable of reading the NTFS format (this includes all modern Windows platforms).
Easy to Try
Because of our non-destructive file system, taking Drive Bender for a test drive is easy. Simply specify the drives to be included in the pool, and you are ready go. The drives are not formatted (unless specified), the only change made to the drive is the addition of a folder that holds the contents of the pool and a small number of configuration files.
Check it out here if you are looking for a drive pooling option for Windows Home Server or Windows systems.
DriveBender Website
Assassins Creed 3 has found itself at the top of the Xbox 360 chart this week, closely followed by WWE ’13.
The other big release from last week, Need for Speed Most Wanted could only manage 5th place behind Forza Horizon. I wonder what new game will be the New Number One Next Week, also 59% of the sells for Assassins Creed 3 was on the Xbox 360 with 41% for the PlayStation 3.
Last week Microsoft transformed the Principality of Liechtenstein by taking over some of the country’s most iconic landmarks, including a 13th century castle and a working mine, to create a real-life replica of the “Halo” universe within the heart of Europe to mark the launch of “Halo 4”. And tomorrow it’s London’s turn!
For one day only, the mountainous landscapes of the normally tranquil Liechtenstein countryside became a stage for an epic sci-fi saga as Xbox 360 created a mysterious alternate universe inspired by the video game franchise which has sold a staggering 46 million copies worldwide since launch in 2001.
Super fans and worldwide media from 16 different countries were catapulted into this off-world environment to take part in a theatrical experience which saw them travel to a top secret location before being unexpectedly thrust into a war zone which recreated brutal battle grounds through pyrotechnic explosions, thunderous sound effects and cinematic set builds.
You can check out the video below:
London will host a spectacular stunt the evening of Monday 5th November, down the River Thames from the Greenwich Peninsula to Tower Bridge – under the watchful gaze of the Master Chief. Fans should arrive at Butlers Wharf, adjacent to the Design Museum (28 Shad Thames, London SE1 2YD), no later than 7:30pm so as not to miss out on the action.
There will also be more than 350 midnight openings taking place the length and breadth of the UK, with the flagship London launch taking place at GAME in Westfield Stratford. Fans will have the opportunity to count down to “Halo 4’s” much anticipated release with developers from 343 Industries, get early hands-on time with the game, win coveted “Halo” merch and prizes provided by Samsung, the official TV launch partner for “Halo 4” in the UK, see the Master Chief in person, take photos with a replica Warthog vehicle, meet The Gadget Show’s Jason Bradbury, and sample Mountain Dew’s “Halo 4” themed “Game Fuel” drink and the exclusive “Halo 4”-themed pizza from Pizza Hut.
A limited number of fans can also board a free bus from the Design Museum to GAME Stratford at 8:30pm, immediately following the Butlers Wharf stunt. Spaces will be limited and available on a first come, first served basis.
The guys over at XBMC.org have posted details on what is included in their October development cycle, including details on XBMC 12: Frodo.
This is what they posted on their blog:
The rumors are true. As you may have noticed if you avidly watch XBMC development on Github, we have now entered Feature Freeze for the upcoming release of XBMC 12: Frodo.
For the average user, this means a couple things. First, you should begin to see XBMC Beta releases coming out very shortly. Second, given our fairly well documented open development cycle, there should be very few surprises from now until the release of Frodo. By definition, the features you see now are the same features you will see when Frodo is released with the possible exception of some smaller updates in the default skin Confluence. So if you’d like to see what XBMC 12 is going to look like, feel free to install the October alpha at the bottom of this post. As always, it’s important to remember that the alphas are definitely alpha software that you use at your own risk.
Release Manager
Spaceman Spiff spares no one!
Much as development for Frodo was dramatically different than development for Eden, so too will the upcoming Beta process be different. This year we’ve created the new position of Release Manager, who is in complete control of the Frodo branch from the time we entered feature freeze until the time XBMC has been released. The Release Manager will determine when a new Beta is released, when XBMC is ready to switch to release candidates and Gold status, and whether code changes are fixes (OK) or features (not OK). Needless to say, it is a thankless job and a job that requires a person who is both extremely well versed in the code of XBMC and not afraid to make people angry to get the job done.
Which is why we are excited to say that we’ve selected grumpy developer extraordinaire Spiff to be our Release Manager for XBMC 12. We are convinced that Spiff will do a truly fantastic job in the role, even if he does get a few white hairs in the process!
October Cycle
The current goal is to release the first Beta of XBMC 12 at some time mid-November. At that time, we will review all the many features that have been added since the release of Eden. Likewise, during the Beta cycle, we’d like to continue to highlight the work done by our Google Summer of Code students in one or two posts.
For now, we will simply review the new features submitted during the last dev cycle before feature freeze.
UPnP Update
Just as we hit the feature freeze wire, a significant portion of one of the remaining most frequently requested features was added to XBMC. alcoheca’s GSOC project, a massive update of UPnP to make XBMC a truly capable UPnP server is now part of mainline. While transcoding is not part of the update, all metadata, images, and library functions including watched and unwatched status are now available depending on your client – naturally, an XBMC client is best, though efforts are ongoing to work with the numerous alternative clients that all use slightly different specs from one another.
UPnP in action
Unfortunately, using XBMC as a UPnP server is still not the preferred method for an XBMC client. For one thing, Confluence and all current skins are designed to expect only a local database or a MySQL database masquerading as a local database, which means one would theoretically need to re-scrape the UPnP server into your local library for the TV shows link to show up in the home screen, which immediately cuts out much of the benefit of a dedicated UPnP server.* For another, at present while the server can tell the client what has and has not been watched, a major bug exists in that the client cannot tell the server the same thing. This means, if you mark Big Buck Bunny as watched on your XBMC client, the watched status on the server won’t be updated. For that matter, since you are using the server library, Big Buck Bunny won’t be marked as watched on your client either.
*For early testers, we highly recommend that you NOT Set Content, if that is still an option for you, as it will likely cause problems in the system.
As such, for now continuing to use SMB or NFS shares on your XBMC clients is still the recommended route, but we will keep you updated on the progress of UPnP, including any bug fixes throughout the Beta process. Additionally, skilled skinners, we are excited to see if and how you incorporate UPnP nodes into your design. To see an ongoing discussion of how UPnP will be improved now and in the future, feel free to visit alcoheca’s GSoC forum thread.
Advanced Filtering
If you have been reading the monthly cycle updates, you know that Montellese has been working on major improvements to the underlying XBMC library. A significant culmination of that work has been added this month in the form of the newly updated Filter.
The New Media Filter
Now those of you with an extensive library will be able to filter your library by any number of new, simple methods, including title, rating, year, actor, whether the series is ongoing, etc., and you can of course combine as many of those methods as you like for laser focus. Additionally, this filtering will occur in realtime, so the moment you narrow the span of years, your library will immediately narrow to meet the specification without any need of hitting the “OK” button.
Many More
Needless to say, because October was feature freeze month, numerous additional features have been added, including…
- numerous JSON-RPC updates, including PVR support, optimizations, better conflict handling, and better webserver support by Montellese
- PVR timeshift support (if the backend supports timeshift) – hat tip to non-team member Margo for this one
- improvements to the OMXplayer, the media player of Raspberry Pi by gimli
- Additionally, OMXplayer can now play back DVD ISOs if users have gotten the MPEG2 codec license thanks to user epideme
- the CD ripper now works in the background thanks to Spiff
- panoramic photo panning support by Montellese
- Dirty Region support is now on by default by TheUni
- Further improved image handling in the database, allowing one to select fanart, poster, banner, and thumb, rather than forcing the choice between downloading posters and downloading banners – kudos to Jonathan Marshall and Montellese for this work.
As always, this is a mere selection of numerous changes from this month. For a full list, feel free to check out the GitHub changelog. Or, if you are feeling a bit brave and a bit lucky, just start downloading.
I look forward to seeing what they do next!
Do you use XBMC? Tell us what you think of it by leaving us a comment.
Recently Microsoft launched a number of additions to its hardware range, including the Sculpt Touch Mouse which is designed to work with Windows 8. We’ve been using it for a while now and here is our review.
Looking for a portable mouse that helps you get things done? Sculpt Touch Mouse saves time in long documents and works virtually anywhere, with no cables or transceivers to connect. And it’s designed to fit comfortably in either hand.
The box contains the Sculpt Touch mouse, some batteries and some manuals.
Fitting the two batteries is easy and just involves you turned over the mouse – just be careful as the battery cover needs to be bent slightly to fit it back in place, don’t do it too hard or it might snap!
Connecting the Sculpt Touch Mouse to Windows 8 via Bluetooth is simple, and you can easily adjust the settings to suit your personal preferences.
This new Sculpt Touch mouse from Microsoft is designed to be portable, so you take it with you when you are out and about and use it with your laptop. You can use it at home on your desktop if you want, but because it is designed to be portable it is slightly smaller than the average mouse and so for prolonged use it might be a little uncomfortable.
Talking of size, it fits well into the palm of your hand and is fairly light weight.
It has the usual left and right mouse buttons, although it has been designed so that those buttons are not visibly obvious, but they work and they work well.
The big feature of this mouse really is the 4 way touch scrolling on the top of the mouse. Usually you get two way (up and down) but for this mouse you can also scroll left and right which is invaluable when using with the new Windows 8 Start Screen. It works very well too and only needed the slightest of touches, which felt very natural.
As usual with hardware that uses batteries, make sure you either have a spare set ready just in case, and in fact consider swapping the batteries for a set of rechargeable ones, it will save you money in the long run, although Microsoft do claim up to 9 months of battery life, but obviously we can’t test that just yet – ask us again in 9 months!
The Sculpt Touch Mouse works with Windows, Mac and also Android tablets via Bluetooth. If your computer doesn’t have Bluetooth built in, consider buying a little Bluetooth dongle as they are very cheap.
The cost of the Sculpt Touch mouse is £49.99, but as usual look around for a good deal.
If you have Windows 8 and you want a portable mouse that using Bluetooth rather than wireless then take a look at the Sculpt Touch mouse from Microsoft.
Activision have released a new trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops II – this one’s called Welcome to Nuketown 2025.
And here it is:
Nuketown 2025 is yours FREE when you pre-order Call of Duty: Black Ops 2! Download the bonus map during launch week and you’ll also get access to Double XP Launch Weekend, November 16-18.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II will be released worldwide on November 13 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, and shortly afterwards on Wii U!
A few days ago Apple released Safari 6.0.2, and a lot of people had problems installing it!
The update is a series of security fixes, however a lot of people couldn’t actually download the update, myself included.
After two days of trying and getting very unhelpful error messages, or nothing at all, the update finally installed this morning!
Have you had problems? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Apple has just updated it’s iPhoto for Mac application to version 9.4.2.
This update includes:
• Photos now can be added to shared streams or My Photo Stream by dragging them to “Photo Stream” in the source list
• Multiple email addresses can now be copied and pasted in the “Shared with” field for shared streams
• When more than five subscribers “Like” a photo in a shared stream, their names are now displayed correctly
• Contextual menu now includes an Import command to import all the photos contained in a shared photo stream
• Addresses the reliability of Shared Photo Streams when switching between iPhoto and Aperture with the same library
• Fixes an issue that could prevent Microsoft Outlook from being used to email photos from within iPhoto
• Updated national holidays are available for use in printed photo calendars
• Includes stability improvements
Do you use iPhoto? If so, tell us what you think of it by leaving us a comment below.
If like me you run Parallels Desktop for Mac version 8, then there is an update for you, and if you plan to upgrade your VM’s to Windows 8 you need it.
This update for Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac (build 8.0.18314) addresses issues related to upgrading Windows virtual machines to Windows 8.
If you have, or are interested in the Raspberry Pi, then you might want to download the new issue of The MagPi digital magazine.
This is how the Raspberry Pi guys describe the magazine:
The MagPi, a free online magazine dedicated to the Raspberry Pi, whose first issue was released a few days ago, is a perfect example of that. It’s been put together entirely by volunteers, guided by Ash Stone, Jason “Jaseman” Davies, Meltwater and other names you may recognise from the forums and comments on this site. I was broadly aware they were up to something, but I was amazed at the scope of what they sent me to look at earlier in the week, and I’ve been really, really impressed by the first issue. There are Debian and Puppy guides, articles on computing history, ideas for robotics projects, tutorials in Scratch and Python (with code you can type in yourself, just like in the good old days), features about the Raspberry Pi itself, and other goodies to dig into. I really can’t recommend it enough, and if you haven’t been lucky enough to get to the head of the queue, you don’t need a Raspberry Pi to find it useful (you might actually find the magazine good preparation before yours arrives).
It is a really interesting read – so go download it today, and let us know what you think!
Download the new issue of The MagPi here Check out the videos we made with Eben Upton Check out our unboxing of our Raspberry Pi
Features:
• Enjoy all of your audio and video podcasts in a single app
• Explore hundreds of thousands of podcasts including shows in over 40 languages
• Try the innovative new Top Stations feature to find new podcast series in a variety of topics, including arts, business, comedy, music, news, sports, and more.
• Browse by Audio or Video podcasts, or see what’s most popular in Top Charts
• Tap subscribe for your favorites and automatically receive new episodes for free as they become available
• Stream episodes or download to listen while offline
• Skip forward and back using simple playback controls
• Turn on Sleep Timer to automatically stop playing a podcast while listening in bed
• Share your favorite episodes with friends using Twitter, Messages and Mail
• Optionally sync your favorite episodes from iTunes on your Mac or PC
• Sync your episode playback for seamless transition between devices
• Tapping a podcast in Top Stations now reveals episodes you can play
• You can now easily turn on automatic downloads for all subscribed podcasts in Settings
• Addresses an issue where previously played or deleted episodes unexpectedly reappear as new
• Resolves an issue where Podcasts may unexpectedly play after a phone call or alarm
• Includes additional stability and performance improvements
I have tested the app and it’s very simple to use and now means I don’t have to sync podcasts through iTunes before syncing them to my device.
Have your tried it yet? Let us know what you think of it.
