Watch us play Flockers on Twitch tonight for a chance to win your own free copy!
Every weekend, Windows Central streams an Xbox One game or two on Twitch for 1-2 hours and gives out free games to the cool people who join us during the stream. Last week, we streamed Defense Grid 2 and Funk of Titans and dished out codes to 12 lucky viewers.
Tonight, we’ll be playing Flockers from Team17. Flockers is a humorous puzzle game starring hordes of hapless sheep. We want you guys there, chatting along. So we’re giving out six Xbox One codes, plus several Playstation 4 and Steam codes!
Just follow me on Twitch.tv/Eastxtwitch, watch along, and participate in chat for your chance to win. You can also watch the event right here live or after the fact.
First Sons of Anarchy game trailer shows first-person smoking
In December, it was announced that the acclaimed TV crime drama Sons of Anarchy would be adapted into a upcoming game for mobile devices called Sons of Anarchy: The Prospect. Now the first trailer showing gameplay footage has been released, and it looks like it will contain some scenes of first person smoking.
That sequence is perhaps the oddest thing about the brief trailer, which also shows some first person shooting and motorcycle riding in a cel-shaded art style. The game’s developer Orpheous Interactive hasn’t offer much in the way of details, saying only that the episodic game will give “fans a chance to experience the treachery, graphic action, intrigue and life and death decision making they have come to anticipate from the show.” A specific release date for the game has yet to be announced.
Source: Orpheus Interactive (YouTube)
First Sons of Anarchy game trailer shows first-person smoking
In December, it was announced that the acclaimed TV crime drama Sons of Anarchy would be adapted into a upcoming game for mobile devices called Sons of Anarchy: The Prospect. Now the first trailer showing gameplay footage has been released, and it looks like it will contain some scenes of first person smoking.
First Sons of Anarchy game trailer shows first-person smoking
In December, it was announced that the acclaimed TV crime drama Sons of Anarchy would be adapted into a upcoming game for mobile devices called Sons of Anarchy: The Prospect. Now the first trailer showing gameplay footage has been released, and it looks like it will contain some scenes of first person smoking.
That sequence is perhaps the oddest thing about the brief trailer, which also shows some first person shooting and motorcycle riding in a cel-shaded art style. The game’s developer Orpheous Interactive hasn’t offer much in the way of details, saying only that the episodic game will give “fans a chance to experience the treachery, graphic action, intrigue and life and death decision making they have come to anticipate from the show.” A specific release date for the game has yet to be announced.
Source: Orpheus Interactive (YouTube)
Brazil’s enormous taxes chase Nintendo out of the country
After this month, Nintendo will halt all direct sales in Brazil. According to UOL Jogos, the company’s leaving the country due to the exorbitant taxes it has to pay to continue its operations. Bill van Zyll, the company’s general manager in Latin America, said in a statement that “Brazil is an important market for Nintendo,” but the company had to make this decision, as its “current distribution model [is] unsustainable in the country.” Chances are, some unauthorized sources are already selling imported consoles and games in Brazil. But if you’d rather buy a 3DS or a Wii U from stores that get its supplies from Nintendo’s local partner, Juegos de Video Latinoamérica, you may want to do so soon.
Brazil is known for imposing high tariffs on international companies in order to protect local ones, forcing corporations to pull out, like what HTC and Durham did in 2012. Another reason is to beef up local employment, because one way to avoid paying those taxes is to build factories in the country — something Apple did in 2011, so it can continue selling iDevices. Nintendo probably thinks that’s not a financially viable route, though Van Zyll swore the company will monitor the Brazilian market and evaluate how best to serve its fans.
Via: Venture Beat
Source: UOL Jogos
New Microsoft Phone Insider app may be a prelude to a Windows 10 preview for phones
A Windows Phone app from Microsoft called Phone Insider has been discovered today. The app could possibly signal that the company is preparing to launch its rumored preview version of Windows 10 for smartphones.
Samsung’s Nook tablets weren’t big sellers Holiday 2014
When Barnes & Noble announced that it had partnered with Samsung to try and salvage its endangered Nook line of e-book readers, things seemed mildly interesting. Samsung has an untold number of tablets available for purchase, so the prospect of a dedicated book reader seemed like it had some potential promise.
After the dust settled however, it was clear the results weren’t quite what some had hoped: the Galaxy Tab Nook was simply a standard Galaxy Tab 4 pre-loaded with B&N Nook software and the Nook UI replacing TouchWiz. The price was set at $199, significantly higher than the various offerings by Bezos and Friends. The duo then paired for yet another offering, this time a modified Galaxy Tab 4 10.1, but priced higher than the smaller Tab Nook.
It is perhaps unsurprising that a new report by the Wall Street Journal indicates Tab Nooks had a less than stellar sales situation this most recent holiday shopping season.
Specifically, the WSJ reported that revenue from Nook hardware and content (i.e. e-books) was only $56 million, a decrease of a whopping 55% compared with the same 9 week holiday performance measurement last year (ending January 3rd). More specifically however, it was the hardware that did most of the damage: both the readers and accessories saw sales drop by 65% to $28.5 million compared with Q4 2013. Digital content, interestingly enough, only fell by 25% to $27.4 million, a much more modest drop to be sure, but a significant one nonetheless.
Suffice to say this is a trend that doesn’t seem likely to stabilize as e-book readers approach commodity status and even higher end tablets are starting to slide under the $200 mark. Likewise, Barnes & Noble has been contemplating establishing its Nook brand as a separate spin-off company (related to the digital retail of college textbooks), something that may become increasingly difficult with these disappointing results. According to the WSJ, James McQuivery, an analyst at Forrester Research, believes users are “abandoning” the Nook, “Otherwise, you’d have seen stabilizing digital content sales” and then suggested B&N would be better off combining the Nook business with its online store, bn.com.
With such sour sales this past holiday season, it’s unlikely 2015 will see another such invitation.
Assuming that B&N wants to continue making use of the Nook brand for future products and/or services, something drastic needs to be done, and quickly at that. Meanwhile Samsung can’t be too happy either, given that its own situation is sliding and the failure of this once-possibly powerful partnership is no doubt on rocky ground at the moment, if not all but terminated.
We flew over the Nevada desert with Avegant’s ‘Jellyfish’ video glasses
Avegant’s video headsets are like buses. You wait all year for one, and then two suddenly turn up at once. That thing you see above might look a million miles away from the headphone-inspired Glyph, but it is in fact a very close relative. Codenamed “Jellyfish” the video headset/wearable display has a wider field of view than the Glyph (65 degrees compared to 45), which makes it better for things like simulators, VR and (as seen here) point-of-view drone flying. The Jellyfish is something of a side project right now, Avegant’s priority remains with the Glyph. But, the company told us that devices with a wider field of view are something on its developmental roadmap, just don’t expect to see a consumer-ready product any time soon.
I was lucky enough to get my head inside the Jellyfish out in the Nevada desert. I used it while flying a drone, experiencing its point of view. The results were pretty incredible. I’ve flown drones with FPV (first person view) goggles before, but this was much more immersive than anything I’ve used so far. Of course, it helps that the drone I was flying has a 4K camera attached, but the larger image in front of your eyes, and its sharpness, are a huge step up from most of the units currently on the market. I could make out individual blades of grass with the drone hundreds of feet in the air. The stony, arid surface of the desert leaping out in sharp clarity. After my short time with it, I was pretty unhappy about having to take it off.
Using the Jellyfish alongside DJI’s Inspire 1 (and its 4K camera) gives you a tantalising taste of what’s around the corner for immersive or remote-video experiences. As drone use continues to grow, demand for such products will surely follow. The whole experience reminded me of watching those first few bits of HD content after upgrading your SD TV, the leap is significant, you just want more opportunities to enjoy it. Avegant’s current product, the Glyph, was primarily designed for mobile media consumption, but I think the wider field of view on the Jellyfish really does show off the company’s micro-mirror technology to its full potential. For now though, we’re left wanting more.
C Spire intros rolling data for 10GB+ plans
U.S. mobile provider C Spire will soon be debuting a new feature for customers for its big data customers, shared rolling data, which it says is an industry first.
C Spire, which said it was the first to introduce rolling data plans last November, will be expanding these shared rolling data benefits to 10, 15 and 30 GB shared data plans beginning Jan. 19. Customers on these plans will automatically be converted to the updated version with rolling shared data at no additional cost, plus customers on other plans may switch to a rolling shared data plan also at no cost.
It’s simple enough to understand, but C Spire explained further in a media release, stating that the way it works is any unused data from the previous month will be rolled over to the next month for sharing among all users up to the plan’s included monthly data amount. C Spire does not force consumers to use plan data first or eliminate any unused rollover data at the end of each month, instead, rolled over data can be accumulated, shared and used among all individuals up to the plan’s included monthly data amount.
If C Spire isn’t your current provider, it’s nice to know that the provider lets customers use their data as they please, with tethering included in the smartphone plans, plus it includes unlimited talk, text and photos along with data overage protection and optional top-up data passes on the company’s nationwide 4G+ LTE mobile broadband network.
VIA C Spire
The post C Spire intros rolling data for 10GB+ plans appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Microsoft Studios allows ‘Let’s Play’ video creators to make money with its titles
Microsoft Studios now has a formal policy for YouTube and Twitch “Let’s Play” video creators to use when they want to feature the company’s titles in their streaming or video clips. In very basic terms, the new rules do allow those creators to make money off of videos based on Microsoft Studios titles, such as the upcoming Halo 5: Guardians for the Xbox One, but with some restrictions.
AIVAnet 