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Nintendo and The Cloud partner up for 3DS Wi-Fi deal
iOS 5 beta 5 tethered jailbreak arrives in just three days thanks to redsn0w
Acer Aspire 3951 Ultrabook leaked: a Windows-powered MacBook Air is born
LG G-Slate quietly receives Android 3.1 Honeycomb update
Nokia pulls N9 countdown: Is the first MeeGo smartphone delayed?
LG Prada K2 spotted in 10 second video teaser
Create your own Lion recovery USB thumb drive [free]
BlackBerry Colt: 5 things it needs to succeed
Final Fantasy Versus 13: not for Tokyo Game Show but coming soon?
Chrome OS tablets: Chromium touch UI hints at the future

Nintendo and The Cloud partner up for 3DS Wi-Fi deal

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 08:45 AM PDT

A new partnership between Nintendo UK and The Cloud will allow 3DS users to access more than 5,000 Wi-Fi hotspots for free. Starting today all of The Cloud's access points will allow 3DS owners to access content via the Nintendo SpotPass service, access the Nintendo eShop or browse the Internet. Nintendo also took the opportunity to call out the PlayStation Vita during the announcement, "this is what Wi-Fi offers compared to a technology such as 3G, which struggles to handle really rich, data-hungry video content.”

“The Cloud partnership represents another exciting step that will continue to expand its appeal and encourage owners to take their Nintendo 3DS systems with them wherever they go, offering different and unique experiences everyday,” said Nintendo UK marketing director Dawn Paine.

Free Wi-Fi access and an upcoming price cut will undoubtedly put Sony in a tough position when it launches the PlayStation Vita early next year. Whether or not Nintendo can meet sales forecasts is another issue altogether. Any 3DS owners planning on tapping into the 5,000+ free Wi-Fi hotspots with their portable consoles?

via GamesIndustry

iOS 5 beta 5 tethered jailbreak arrives in just three days thanks to redsn0w

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 08:15 AM PDT

On Friday, August 6th, Apple began seeding iOS 5 beta 5 to its developers. As OTA updates and manual installations commenced, the team behind redsn0w worked furiously to jailbreak the 700MB+ update. Redsn0w version 0.9.8b5 is a tethered only jailbreak for third and fourth generation iPod touch, iPad 1, iPhone 3GS and GSM iPhone 4 users.

Until Apple transitions to incremental updates distributed exclusively over-the-air, the jail breaking community will continue to thrive. iOS 5 beta 5 is proof that with enough determination and resources, the operating system is at the mercy of those who want to crack it. For those daring enough to attempt the redsn0w jailbreak, both a Windows and Mac version of the software are available for download.

As always, proceed with caution and remember to backup your device before proceeding. Download redsn0w 0.9.8b5 for Windows here and Mac here.

via Ubergizmo

Acer Aspire 3951 Ultrabook leaked: a Windows-powered MacBook Air is born

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:45 AM PDT

The first wave of Intel Ultrabooks are coming. A leaked photo of the Acer Aspire 3951 Ultrabook has the ultraportable market buzzing this morning. As the first legitimate 2011 MacBook Air alternative for Windows users, the Aspire 3951 will be an eminent threat when it launches this October. Not only will it nearly match the MacBook Air in size and dimensions, the Ultrabook will be priced less than £849.

It's no secret, Windows PCs and laptops are more affordable than their Mac counterparts. The 2010 MacBook Air represented a shift in this paradigm. By leveraging previous investments in memory and components, Apple was able to create an ultra slim laptop at a price far below the Windows laptop market. If the rumored price point for the Acer Aspire 3951 Ultrabook proves accurate, this will change very soon.

According to the report, the Aspire 3951 will include second generation Intel Core i processors, an option 160 GB SSD and up to six hours of battery life. If given the choice between the Acer Ultrabook or similarly spec'd 2011 MacBook Air which can run either OS X Lion or Windows 7 — which would you choose?

via Geeky-Gadgets

LG G-Slate quietly receives Android 3.1 Honeycomb update

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:15 AM PDT

Your favorite 8.9-inch Android tablet, the LG G-Slate, should start to see an Android 3.1 Honeycomb update roll out today. Over on the LG Forum, a forum moderator by the name of LG Product Pro broke the news yesterday saying "the update should start pushing out today or tomorrow." The Android 3.1 Honeycomb update had been expected since late June.

At the time of publishing this report, no users of the LG forum had reported receiving the over-the-air (OTA) update. With the Motorola Xoom receiving its Android 3.2 update last week, the LG G-Slate desperately needs to keep pace. We'll keep our eyes peeled for a manual download link, but if you happen to receive the OTA update notification, please do let us know.

via LG Forum

Nokia pulls N9 countdown: Is the first MeeGo smartphone delayed?

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 06:45 AM PDT

Last week over on Nokia Sweden the company's first MeeGo flagship, the N9, was featured with a countdown timer leading up to its launch. Today that clock should have read 45 days, but instead Nokia has pulled the timer altogether leading to speculation the N9 may be delayed. Will the Nokia N9 launch in Sweden on September 23rd?

Before we jump the gun, a quick look at the website's source code reveals the counter is active though not visible. It is entirely possible that Nokia is planning to launch the N9 sooner than September 23rd or it just pulled the counter temporarily. The N9 has been a long time in the making, especially for die-hard N900 users.

Since being announced in June, Nokia has toyed with the emotions of the MeeGo community. With Windows Phone expected to power the lion's share of Nokia's smartphones, the future of MeeGo remains in doubt. Do you think the Nokia N9 will be delayed or has the release date been moved up?

via Cellular-News

LG Prada K2 spotted in 10 second video teaser

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 06:15 AM PDT

The next of LG's 2011 flagship smartphones, the LG Prada K2, has landed itself 10 seconds of Mr. Blurrycam footage. The video, while painfully short, does confirm the device's ultra-slim form factor and matches up with a render we saw back in July. Let's recap what we know about the LG Prada K2, shall we?

The rumored specifications include a dual-core processor, 8-megapixel camera, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 16GB of internal storage, 21 Mbps HSPA+ connectivity, a 4.3-inch NOVA display boasting 1,000 nits of brightness and Android 2.3 Gingerbread. All of this power will be wrapped inside a slender 8.8 mm shell.

Other than the NOVA display and 8.8 mm thickness, the LG Prada K2 will face stiff competition when it launches later this year — presumably during the 2011 holiday season. Can the Prada K2 hold its own against the Droid Bionic, iPhone 5, and Nexus 3? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

via PocketNow

Create your own Lion recovery USB thumb drive [free]

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 05:41 AM PDT

Enjoying that fresh new MacBook Air or upgraded an existing Mac to OS X Lion, but in desperate need of a recovery disc for a fresh installation? Fear not, Apple has just published support documentation which includes the "Lion Recovery Disk Assistant". All you'll need is an external hard drive or a USB thumb drive with 1GB of free space.

Built into OS X Lion is "Lion Recovery", a service which lets you repair disk or reinstall the operating system without the need for a physical disc. Assuming you have OS X Lion up and running on your Mac then you'll have an existing Recovery HD. Simply download the "Lion Recovery Disk Assistant", select the drive where you want to install and follow the on screen instructions.

Simple as pie, right? Once the installation completes the new partition will not be visible in Finder or Disk Utility. To access Lion recovery, reboot the computer while holding the Option key and select "Recovery HD" from the startup manager. Congratulations you've just saved yourself $69 (£42).

via Apple Support

BlackBerry Colt: 5 things it needs to succeed

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 03:37 AM PDT

The BlackBerry Colt leaked out this morning, promising to be the first of RIM's handsets to use the QNX OS, as found on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. It doesn't look set to hit until 2012, but what does it need to do to succeed?

Click through for five things we don't think it can do without.

1 BES

So far, rumours abound the BlackBerry Colt will launch without support for BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server), allowing native email on the handset. Apparently RIM is working on a QNX-specific version of BES for handsets, but that won't be ready in time for the Colt's launch (the PlayBook lacked native email because the BES code had to be rewritten to support the new OS). For company email using Microsoft Exchange, you'll have to fall back on Microsoft ActiveSync, designed for Windows Mobile devices. Seriously. We can't see Blackberry owners being too pleased about that.

2 Flash

The PlayBook had its issues with Flash – updates were fed out to users to deal with the problems – but to compete with the iPhone 4 you really do need seamless Flash compatibility straight out of the box. Especially when almost every other rival seems to manage just fine.

3 More than a single core processor

Let's be straight on this: RIM has been slow out of the gate with a host of features rapidly becoming standard by other phone makers. Packing more than just a single core processor inside is one of these things, the compromise of RIM's (admittedly worthwhile) insistence on releasing phones with decent battery lives. But more casual users seem content to sacrifice battery for speedier performance, as opposed to BlackBerry's power users. Word is the Colt will ship with single-core, though multi-core QNX handsets are incoming. We can't see that going down too well in the face of the multi-core competition.

4 Better design

We got hands on with two brand new BlackBerrys last week – the Torch 9810 and Torch 9860, and while they were working well enough, the design is still seriously lacking some imagination. Admittedly BlackBerry's hardcore aren't going to want to ditch the QWERTY anytime soon, but there are still plenty of improvements to be made. An optical trackpad? In this day and age? It feels as old fashioned as a 1980s arcade joystick, so why has the Colt got one too? And the buttons on the 9810 are sitting in a tricky to reach recess. Compare these kinds of design flaws with the buttery smooth operation of the iPhone and its ilk, and the BlackBerry isn't going to come off favourably.

5 Apps, apps, apps

It's a little known fact that BlackBerry App World actually grosses more revenue per app than Apple's App Store and Android Market, probably due to the high pricing of some of its business apps. But that doesn't stop it lagging behind both in terms of choice – there are just 39,770 apps to choose from, compared to over 425,000 in Apple's App Store and more than 250,000 in Android Market. If RIM wants to build an ecosystem to rival Android and iOS, it's got a way to go.

Final Fantasy Versus 13: not for Tokyo Game Show but coming soon?

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 03:04 AM PDT

It’s been such a long wait for Final Fantasy Versus 13 that it almost feels mythical now. The game has been on the cards since 2006 and we heard in August last year that the Final Fantasy Versus 13 release date was unlikely to fall in 2011. Now, game director and Final Fantasy character artist, Tetsuya Nomura, has raised the game in an interview.

Speaking to Dengeki PlayStation in Japan, Nomura says Final Fantasy Versus 13 will not be shown at this year’s Tokyo Game Show in September which is disappointing. However, he confirms that a date has been set to show the game in public, once again raising the prospect of a release. Thankfully with Square Enix celebrating Final Fantasy’s 25th birthday this year, we can still expect plenty of announcements at the Tokyo Game Show to distract us.

Out TBC | £TBC | Square Enix (via Adriasang)

Chrome OS tablets: Chromium touch UI hints at the future

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 02:46 AM PDT

Despite showing a Chrome OS tablet concept early last year and evidence that a prototype codenamed Seaboard was being tested, Google played down the idea of Chrome OS tablets at I/O in June. That hasn’t stopped the open source types working on the Chromium project from toying with the idea.

Chromium (the browser rather than the OS) has been tarted up with a touch-friendly UI and captured on video. It includes far larger icons, widgets and a virtual keyboard which could all be used on a future Chrome OS tablet.

Though the Chromium implementation is experimental, it definitely hints at how Chrome OS could make the jump to touchscreens and is worth a look. See for yourself after the break and let us know what you make of it…

Out now | £free | Chromium (via Engadget)

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Wednesday, 10 August 2011

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