Excellent for anyone that hates to travel with a laptop bag, Western Digital has announced a new hard drive that can slip into a pocket.

Explained in detail within a Western Digital press release today, the popular hard drive manufacturer has announced a new 500GB My Passport Edge drive for both PC and Mac computers. The PC drive is just 0.5 inches thick and the Mac drive, encased in an all-metal housing, is even smaller at 0.4 inches thick. Comparing that thickness to a popular smartphone, the Mac drive is barely thicker than Apple’s iPhone 4S. In addition to the slim body style, the drives are fairly light and don’t weigh significantly more than a standard smartphone. Either drive could easily be slipped into a pants pocket for transport and include shock tolerance features for rougher handling. In addition, both drives come equipped with a USB 3.0 interface for speedy file transfers compared to the older USB 2.0 standard.

The PC version of the My Passport Edge drive has a slightly different design with a light gray color on top along with a familiar pattern of dark gray circles around the logo. The PC version of the drive also ships with Western Digital’s SmartWare software that allows the user to setup automated backups in order to recover data in case of a hard drive crash in the user’s main desktop or laptop PC.

The drive has been formatted in NTFS for use with the Windows operating system. The 500GB version of the drive includes a three-year warranty from Western Digital and is currently priced at a MSRP of $109.99. 

The Mac version of the My Passport Edge drive was designed to blend into Apple’s lineup of Macbooks and offers a solid black top with a brushed aluminum finish around the edges. According to Western Digital, the drive is compatible with Apple’s Time Machine for data backup and have been formatted in HFS+. While My Passport Edge for Mac also comes with a three-year warranty, the drive is priced at a higher MSRP of $119.99. However, both drives can be purchased at a discounted rate when using the “Where to Buy” feature on the Western Digital site.

Ideal for many emergency situations where a call isn't an option, AT&T is testing the text-to-911 service prior to a major network launch.

Detailed within a press release earlier today, AT&T and representatives within the state of Tennessee are joining forces to start testing emergency 911 texting before a nationwide launch of the useful feature. In order to enable the new text-to-911 service, all 911 text messages from AT&T customers will be routed through Tennessee’s Emergency Service IP Network (ESInet) and send to emergency call centers around the state. As the new feature undergoes significant testing, AT&T and the state will get a better understanding of how useful the text-to-911 service is for the public in addition to measuring how efficient call center operators will be at handling the flow and distribution of emergency messages. AT&T hopes to develop a set of rules and standards that will help guide emergency call centers within other states. 

This new service will be particularly helpful for anyone that’s physically lost the ability to vocalize their emergency with a traditional voice call through 911 emergency services. In addition, the hearing impaired community will be able to communicate problems vastly quicker with a text message through the text-to-911 service.

Another scenario where a text-to-911 service would be vital would be a home invasion. A young child hiding within the home could easily text the emergency to 911 in order to avoid making any noise by speaking during a typical voice call. In addition, a text-to-911 service could be particularly helpful for customers that get poor voice reception in a remote area and have significant problems with dropped calls.

During August 2011, the Federal Communications Commission announced plans to push forward on the text-to-911 service and include the ability to send photos and videos to call center operators. A year prior to that, the FCC has started the initial planning on the project, namely because of the tragic shootings on the Virginia Tech campus. Apparently students were sending text messages to 911 during the shootings, but call centers weren’t equipped to receive the messages.

When asked about the trial run of the text-to-911 service, AT&T Business Solutions VP of Public Safety Solutions Mel Coker stated “AT&T is committed to working with standard bodies, national, state, and local public safety organizations to determine how best to integrate SMS text messages and other advanced communications into future 9-1-1 systems and wireless networks. This trial will be vital in evaluating Text to 9-1-1 solutions with the goal of providing reliable, universal access for our customers.”

Announced during May 2012, Verizon is also working toward providing a text-to-911 service to customers. Verizon customers will simply need a wireless phone capable of sending messages in addition to the wireless service plan that supports text messaging. Based off prior plans, Verizon representatives will launch the new feature within several major metropolitan areas during the first half of 2013 prior to launching the feature across the entire nation. A future planned addition to the text-to-911 service is the ability to automatically include a link to the user’s location. However, the phone would have to utilize a built-in GPS chip in order to relay that specific information to emergency services. 

All of Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablets will feature ads on the lock screen, with no option to opt out. If you were interested in one of the new devices from the e-commerce giant, does this put you off?

So there we have it. Jeff Bezos has spoken. Amazon is coming at you with four new Kindle Fire tablets, with a refreshed version of its original 7-inch model selling for $159 and, at the other end of the price scale, an 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD 4G LTE, with a $499 price tag.

Prior to the event in Santa Monica on Thursday, there had been talk of Amazon launching two 7-inch Kindle Fires – a lower-priced one with ads and one without.

During his spiel, Bezos made no mention of the situation regarding ads – or as Amazon likes to call them, ‘Special Offers’ – though a look at information on its website about its new products reveals that in fact all of these new tablets will be coming with ads, with no option to opt out – for now at least.

The ads will appear on the lock screen of the tablets and will include “special offers and screensavers from brands like AT&T, Discover and Intel, such as a special offer of a $10 Amazon.com Gift Card when a customer uses their Discover card to purchase a digital product on Amazon,” the e-commerce giant explained on its website.

Of course, ads on the lock screen are hardly obtrusive, but there will be those who would rather not be confronted by a special offer or promotion every time they switch on their tablet, preferring instead to have the ability to customize all parts of their device. For Amazon, it’s a way to keep costs down, and let’s face it, for the specifications of these new tablets, they really are going for a song. In fact, if the new products are anything like the original Fire, they’re being sold at below cost price, with Amazon banking on making money from users buying content for their Fires from its well-stocked online store.

“People don’t want gadgets anymore, they want services,” Bezos told those gathered before him in Santa Monica on Thursday. They probably don’t particularly want ads on their lock screen either, but if it means they can get their hands on a Kindle Fire for a dirt cheap price, then plenty of them will quite happily live with this minor inconvenience.

Amazon's latest batch of e-readers and tablets signals its true intention: Crushing Apple's iTunes content ecosystem with a consumption device for every buyer and budget.

Amazon’s exclusive event in Los Angeles Thursday saw CEO Jeff Bezos unveil a number of new devices. He kicked off by talking about the fact that a lot of Android tablets have come out, but no one bought them. Why? Because, “People don’t want gadgets anymore, they want services.” Amazon spent last year proving that: The Kindle Fire has accounted for 22 percent of tablet sales in the US since it was released. 

Bezos contends that the Kindle Fire is so great because it’s ultimately more of a service than a device. This is the key to Amazon’s offerings. It’s not just about producing great hardware – it’s about creating a whole ecosystem that serves the customer every step of the way. And because this Amazon we’re talking about, it can do so at incredibly competitive price points. So, while Samsung wants to take on Apple by trying (and mostly failing) to convince us  that tablets should be productivity devices, Amazon is not only churning out pure consumption devices… it’s betting it can beat Apple at the consumption game. By getting affordable hardware into the hands of consumers in each price bracket, Amazon can focus on selling content. The proposition it is offering as a complete service is straightforward, easy to grasp, and very attractive.

Three devices to rule them all

Thursday’s presentation included the Kindle Paperwhite, an updated Kindle Fire, and the Kindle Fire HD in 7-inch and 8.9-inch form. Each one credibly takes on all comers in its respective market tier, beginning with the e-reader tier that Kindle essentially created way back when it seemed like Amazon was happy to cede the top end of the tablet market to Apple. The new Kindle Paperwhite is lighter and thinner than previous devices, with a patented light guide feature, which sheds an even LED light on the screen for reading in the dark. That helps Amazon to compete with the Nook GlowLight. This new Kindle also has amazing battery life and it looks like a great device for $119. There’s also a version with international 3G for $179, and that means the entry-level Kindle without the touchscreen will drop to just $69.

The original Kindle Fire has been upgraded with a faster processor, a bigger battery, and more RAM. It’s supposed to be 40 percent faster than its predecessor and it will cost just $159. That’s a clear shot over Google’s bow, as the Nexus 7 went on sale at $199.

The biggest news is the Kindle Fire HD, which comes in two sizes. There’s a 7-inch device and an 8.9-inch device. The larger tablet looks like competition for the iPad. The 7-inch 16GB version of the Kindle Fire HD goes head-to-head with the Nexus 7 at $199. The 16GB version of the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD is an attractive $299. Then there’s the 32GB 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD with support for 4G LTE, which will cost $499.

These are extremely aggressive prices and Amazon knows it. “We want to make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices,” Bezos said.

Content is king

Amazon is a strong position when it comes to content. Amazon Prime has over 25,000 movies and TV shows. The Kindle store has 1.5 million e-books. The curated Amazon Android App Store boasts over 50,000 apps now and over 30,000 of them are compatible with the Kindle Fire. Meanwhile, iTunes has about 4,500 movies, 2,000 TV shows, and iBooks carried only 150,000 titles in March 2010 — Apple hasn’t released any figures since then. Apple’s App Store does notably outsize Amazon’s with more than 725,000 apps, and more than 100,000 specifically for the iPad.

When it comes to pricing, Amazon Prime looks like a real winner. Prime started off as simply a way to get free two-day shipping on anything Amazon sold, but the with Kindle it’s evolved into something far more impressive: instant access to streaming video with no ads, and access to thousands of books through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, all for a flat $79 per year fee. You can share that membership with your family, and there’s a free one-month trial. 

That’s a lot of content and it’s seamlessly integrated through Amazon’s Android interface. It gives people access to movies, books, games, and apps from a brand they already know and trust. If Apple has always been about keeping things simple and having services “just work” across devices, then it could learn a thing or two from Amazon’s approach to content. To get the same content through iTunes would necessitate multiple purchases and be a lot more expensive.

And usability is queen

All this focus on service doesn’t overshadow the fact that the Kindles are evolving quickly in the features department. Front-facing HD cameras with pre-installed Skype, as well as improved email syncing and exchange integration on the Fire HDs provide the communication functions consumers expect from tablets. Whispersync is enhanced with audiobooks and can now sync your place between devices – a function that works for games as well. The X-Ray search feature now works not only with books, but also movies, and Amazon’s ownership of IMDB further enhances movies by integrating actor and actress information into pop ups that can display as you watch. Support for multiple profiles and a set of parental controls round off a thoughtful feature list that’s sure to be a hit with a wide audience. That mix of features and an enticing content deal hits a real sweet spot for families. 

Setting the tablet market on fire

It’s a space that’s really been heating up in the last few months and with rumors of that Apple iPad mini still on the horizon there’s plenty of fighting left to be done. All of this competition is great for consumers. Amazon has released an impressive line-up here that represents real value for money. From the basic Kindle up to the Kindle Fire HD, Amazon has a device for every budget. It wants to make sure that there’s a device for every kind of buyer, that those devices are as affordable as possible, and that they are always connected to the content pipeline. Whether through higher speed Wi-Fi or the latest 4G LTE, Amazon is equipping customers with affordable windows to its content store.

As a complete ecosystem, a one-stop, all-you-can-eat, content buffet, Amazon’s offering is a very real threat to Apple. It doesn’t feel the same pressure to turn a profit on hardware because the hardware is just a vehicle for the content, and that’s where the battle for customer loyalty and the rolling profits kick in.

If you don’t have time to type it, we don’t have time to read it. Let’s call “passive sharing” what it is: social media spam.

Social media can be a great way to keep in touch with friends, find out what’s going on in the world, or just catch up with the latest memes. It can also be a hellish stream of drivel which reminds you of a roomful of people all competing to see who can shout the loudest and completely ignoring everyone else. People have always made jokes about the pointless nature of much of what is shared on social media, and there’s some kernel of truth there. I don’t care what anyone had for lunch, unless you ate a monster truck and you have a video of yourself doing it.

The thing is, most people know better than to share inanities nowadays. We are becoming more sophisticated in our use of it and social media can actually be a powerful outlet sometimes, a cultural conduit on the world. Sadly, despite a certain maturing of our social-media habits, our streams remain clogged with unwelcome entries. The problem of feeds full of irrelevant nonsense is fast becoming much, much worse and it’s all thanks to spam advertising by the back door, otherwise known as passive sharing.

Passive sharing has gone too far. It’s time we rose up and demanded less spam in our social media. Who’s with me?

What is passive sharing?

You’re passively sharing on social networks whenever some information about your life is broadcast out to friends without any initiation on your behalf. For instance, configuring Spotify to share what you’re listening to at any given moment is passive sharing.

You could look at passive sharing a number of ways. Passive sharing is narcissistic commentary for egomaniacs who are too lazy to post their own status updates. Passive sharing is the automation of completely pointless information. Passive sharing is a cheap form of targeted advertising. Passive sharing is a wonderful way to get recommendations on great new things to read and buy from the people who really matter to you.

Personally, I think it’s a mixture of three of those statements. I’ll let you guess which ones.

Is passive sharing always bad?

Yes. If you can think of a situation when it isn’t, then please post a comment. I understand the potential utility of finding out what my friends and family are doing, or what they like, but if they can’t be bothered to share it themselves, then it doesn’t look like a resounding recommend to me. The trouble is what we’re really talking about here is a running commentary on what they are doing. The fact they listened to this song, completed this achievement in a game, or read an article on something does not tell me what they thought about it.

The first time I can really remember seeing passive sharing was in MSN Messenger when it would tell me what songs my contacts were listening to. I guess BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) would do it with involuntary read receipts, so whoever just sent you a message would know if you had read it. That read receipt has been rolled out into most messengers now, and it’s arguably the most useful application of passive sharing that I’ve ever seen, but I still hate it. I’d gladly stay in the dark about whether someone has read the last message I sent yet, than feel compelled to quickly reply to messages I receive because the sender knows I already read them.

Advertising spam

Apps on all sorts of platforms now want permission to plug into your existing social media accounts, and the problem of passive sharing has exploded. All of these apps are just looking for opportunities to advertise their wares.

It’s like that screen you get when you buy anything on Amazon now that says – “I just bought: ‘Sewing Machine Oil’” and gives you the option to share with Facebook, Twitter or by email (I used it to quiet down a computer fan, in case you’re wondering). At least this prompt gives you the chance to think “No one wants to know what I just bought on Amazon” and choose not to share it.

Passive sharing in most apps is turned on by default. They ask for permission to access your Facebook account, Twitter profile, or whatever else, when you first install them. Some apps can’t even be used without a Facebook account. When you accept this and give the app access, it starts broadcasting your actions to your friends and contacts.

Who wants this?

Who does this serve? Do you want people to know what you just read, what you are listening to, what you just bought, that your farm needs more goats, or you just slayed a troll? Even if you do want to share some things, surely you don’t want to share everything? Wouldn’t you prefer to be able to choose?

Think of all the people on the other end. How many of your Facebook friends are interested in your reading habits, or how you just awarded someone +K in knitting on Klout, or beat Aunt Bessie at SongPop? I’m going to hazard a guess at “none.”

The truth is, only app developers and publishers see any benefit from passive sharing, because they are using you to get to your loved ones, friends, and even casual acquaintances. They are using you to broadcast ads for free. The result is timelines and streams that are full of junk we don’t want to read. The social media experience is genuinely degraded by passive sharing. I used to get curated information from my friends, now I get automated dross.

Why does social media allow it?

This is the big question. If social media sites and services want to make money from advertising, and Facebook definitely does, then why allow advertising spam to sneak into our feeds when they don’t earn on it? If they won’t kill passive sharing because users don’t like it, then maybe they’ll kill it because it dilutes their potential to sell advertising.

Perhaps platforms like Facebook are now realizing that the easy integration that has made their brands ubiquitous is a double-edged sword. Is there an easy way to get it back under control now that the horse has bolted? Maybe. Put it this way – if they offered a tick box tomorrow that allowed you to turn off all passive sharing, outgoing and incoming, how many of you would tick it?

We go hands on with the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Fire HD to see how Amazon's latest armada of mobile devices really perform.

Amazon announced big upgrades to its Kindle family today in Santa Monica, and we were there to try these devices first-hand before they ship later this fall. While improvements to older models and dropped prices were great news to those looking to pinch a few pennies, the real superstar today were the Kindle Paperwhite e-reader and Kindle Fire HD — the latter of which is now complete with a 4G LTE wireless upgrade.

Kindle Paperwhite

With the Kindle Paperwhite, the latest from Amazon’s budget e-book is tiny but powerful. The added feature tools are available by tapping the top of the page, bringing down a menu with options like Home, Search, X-Ray, and Backlight. The graphics are soft, and with a 212 pixels per inch spec, the total visual experience is crisper and easier on the eyes. All this, for eight weeks of battery life per full charge. E-ink has honestly never looked better.

The most buzzed-about feature here is the X-Ray function, which allows you to search through the book for recurring terms or characters, highlighting in a timeline where in the book they appear. Clicking on the names of each character brings up blurbs of where they are mentioned, the pages that accompany that storyline, and tapping takes you to that specific paragraph. You can search either through the entire book, page, or just chapters if you need a reminder of what’s happening in the book.

The illuminated display, sharp text, high contrast and white background take legibility to another level here. You also have the option of several font faces and sizes to fit your reading preference. Like former versions of the Kindle, highlighting a word brings up the definition from the Oxford American Dictionary to help those who may be unfamiliar with particular vernaculars.

If you are wondering how long until a chapter or the book is over, a “Time To Read” feature also estimates how many minutes are left in the chapter or book, so you can decide whether to continue reading to the end of the chapter or take a rest for the moment. Like previous Kindles, it will also display a percentage of where you are in the book to track progress.

At 7.5 ounces, the Kindle Paperwhite is no paperweight; the device is tiny and lightweight, comparable to heaviness of a wallet or cardholder. You can also store books on the Amazon Cloud for backup purposes when switching devices and retrieving books from your library.

The Kindle Paperwhite is available for order today and ships October 1, starting at $120 for Wi-Fi and $180 for Wi-Fi and 3G. 

Kindle Fire HD

The biggest waves from today’s announcement undoubtedly came from the new Kindle Fire HD, thanks to its amazing price structure. With the Fire reportedly accounting for 22 percent of tablet sales in the United States, the Fire HD is slated to be a huge competitor to the Google Nexus 7 and the rumored iPad Mini.

Compared to the original Kindle Fire, the Fire HD is slightly bigger — with visible stereo speakers wrapped across its back casing. The weight is unnoticeably different than the old Fire, while the Fire HD is just a tad thinner with more rounded corners and a matte body finish.

The Fire HD’s ultra-vivid graphics are truly impressive for a budget-price device. The 7-inch version has resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels, while the 8.9-inch version boasts a full 1920 by 1200 pixels, giving it density of 254 pixels per inch.

TI’s OMAP4 processor felt swift, quickly loading content without delay. Amazon’s anti-glare technology has definitely improved; I didn’t find myself having trouble angling the device for the photographs to not get awkward spotlight reflections. 

Of course, X-Ray technology is also available in the Fire HD — this time for movies, textbooks, and e-books. In the movie setting, you can tap the movie as it’s streaming for a list of actors currently on the scene. Tapping again on a particular actor pauses the film and brings up an IMDb summary of the actor’s profile, including movies he or she is recognized for and recent appearances. I’m not sure how many people will actually use this feature, but it’s definitely neat especially for someone like me who likes to IMDb movies after I’ve seen them — if only to read goofs and trivia.

X-Ray for textbook works a bit more like a glossary. You can search recurring terms mentioned in your textbook, and the Fire HD can bring up instances of appearance as well as show relevant photos or links to YouTube videos.

Amazon has tried to drive home that the new Kindle devices are made to be a “service,” a gadget that you don’t just buy, but use for commerce. For example, you can play a video game and pause to see relevant products to the game, such as a toy of the main character. If you have your Amazon account set up, you can one-click buy the item as well as earn power-ups and special add-ons in the game thanks to that purchase. This is one way Amazon is integrating all aspects of what it offers into one remote application, making people more likely to buy — and buy from Amazon. 

The Kindle Fire HD is available in 7-inch and 8.9-inch displays, both with 16GB of storage, priced at $200 and $300, respectively. The Kindle Fire HD with 4G LTE wireless and 32GB of internal storage is Amazon’s top-tier gadget, priced at $499. Customers have the option of purchasing a whopping 250MB of data per month, 20GB of cloud storage, and $10 credit to the Amazon’s Appstore for just $50 a year.

We put Amazon's new Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch up against Apple's third-generation iPad with Retina Display in this spec showdown.

Amazon announced today two versions of its new 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD. The first is a $300 Wi-Fi only version that comes with either 16 GB or 32 GB of storage. The second version includes 4G LTE connectivity, and costs $500 plus $50 per year for 250MB/month of data usage, as well as 20GB of cloud storage. But the real selling point for the both versions of the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD is its high-resolution display, which has nearly the pixel density as the third-generation iPad with Retina Display. Another perk is the Kindle Fire HD’s MIMO (multi-input/output) functionality, which Amazon claims will give the Kindle Fire HD 40 percent faster Wi-Fi than the iPad. Below, we’ve put all the specs of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 and the third-generation iPad head-to-head. Which one do you think is the better deal?

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch vs Apple iPad (Retina)

*Cheapest plan options reflected

More than a year after its teasing E3 2011 debut, Insomniac is starting to show off its debut multiplatform game Fuse.

Insomniac is slowly sneaking out from under the Sony umbrella it’s sat comfortably in the shade of these past 15 years. Starting with Spyro the Dragon and continuing up through 2011’s Resistance 3 and Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Insomniac has churned out games for PlayStations only. Even though the Californian studio prepared the industry for its new life as a multiplatform developer, it was still surprising to see OverStrike announced for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 during Electronic Arts’ E3 2011 press conference. That initial surprise has faded in the past year though, since neither studio nor publisher has made a peep about it since.

OverStrike’s been changing behind the scenes though. In fact, it’s not even called OverStrike anymore. Now it’s Fuse.

So this:

Is now this:

Insomniac shared that mission briefing video on Wednesday as well as the screenshot at the top of the page as part of its tease for next week’s proper unveiling of Fuse.

For a company that’s so great at naming—just look at the Ratchet & Clank series’ sexual innuendo-laced subtitles—it’s mystifying that it traded a generic name like OverStrike for an even more generic name like Fuse. I don’t care what EA’s marketing data, says, guys. You can do better.

Konami has continually fallen behind EA’s soccer-sim giant, FIFA, with its own Pro Evolution soccer franchise. But 2013 could prove lucky for the perennial silver medalists, as the latest installent in the long-running series is already shaping up to be quite the title contender based on our recent hands-on preview.  

I’m what you would call a die-hard Football fan. Yes, I’m fully aware that it’s soccer here in the states, but it just feels so wrong every time I’m forced to say or write the “S” word. I get up at ungodly hours of the morning to watch games live, I relentlessly absorb every tidbit of news I can get my peepers on, and I’m unhealthily invested in the well-being and success of the clubs I support (North London’s Arsenal FC, and The Old Lady herself, Juventus FC of Turin, Italy). So you can imagine my excitement and delight when this part of the year rolls around and my oh-so-generous colleagues in the video game department here at Digital Trends let me, the resident gearhead gamer, take a crack at the latest soccer (*shudder*) franchise to roll out, which just so happens to be developer PES Productions and Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2013.

Now, as we continue our march to the eventual release of latest entrant in the PES franchise we can’t help but ask one question: Will the once mighty Pro Evolution Soccer be able to wrest the crown sat firmly atop rival FIFA’s head, or will it be doomed to warm the bench for yet another year?

Having only spent some time with the preview build of PES 2013 the only thing I can say with certainty is that I’m hopeful, very hopeful. So far, PES 2013 is shaping up to be quite the title contender, which is no easy task given EA Sport’s FIFA franchise’s continued yearly dominance, not to mention its robust licensing deals.

Part of that optimism stems from PES 2013’s improved control mechanics, which are the true bread and butter of any soccer-sim. For PES 2013, PES Productions has managed to add a layer of realism by giving players more control over their virtual Ronaldos and Messis. Manual passing helps eliminate confusion over who you are passing to with a dedicated arrow displayed at the feet of your player. Here you can adjust the power, direction, and type of ball you wish to play. Smooth step-overs and an arsenal of tricks are also at your disposal. Indeed, passing and dribbling has been beefed up, so expect more masterclass with subtle touches on the ball and a greater array moves and tricks that can utilized for beating that last defender.

Dribbling isn’t the only area that’s been given attention, though. So far it seems PES Productions has added some depth to the shooting mechanics as well, with proper weight and balance taken into account for any given situation. For PES 2013, PES Productions has even added the ability to send a screamer of a shot with the laces of your boot by tapping the shoot button right before you make contact with the ball. Similar to the manual passing is the manual shot mode. Skilled players will no doubt be able to make great use of this feature (along with manual passing) for increased accuracy and pin-point net placement. Another small, but awesome, new feature centered on giving you more control and choice in your attacking play is the ability to nutmeg a keeper (passing the ball through an opponent’s legs) during one-on-one scenarios, helping lend a greater degree of realism and depth to the overall gameplay. What’s more, it’s not some canned animation that sees you beating that defender, but instead relies entirely on your input and timing.

From what we can tell so far, graphically, PES 2013 impresses. Player animations are smooth and fluid and a great degree of trouble seems to have been taken to recreate not just the look of the star players, but their attitudes and personalities, too. For example, new cover-boy Cristiano Ronaldo has been meticulously recreated in all his sun-soaked glory. Everything from this perfectly kept hairdo, the way he dribbles the ball, his shuffled sprint, right down to this unique free-kick stance. It’s all here, and it looks great.

Of course, the proverbial monkey on PES’ back has always been its licenses, or lack thereof, when compared to the FIFA franchise, especially for the Barclays’s Premier League. And that doesn’t seem like it will change this year. What PES does include, however, is full league and player licenses for the Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, and a host of other individual clubs across Europe that Konami has also secured deals with, including: Manchester United (England), Bayern Munich (Germany), FC Porto (Portugal), FC Copenhagen (Denmark), AEK Athens (Greece), Galatasaray (Turkey) , Shakhtar Donetsk(Ukraine), Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine) , Zenit Saint Petersburg (Russia), CSKA Moscow (Russia), RSC Anderlecht (Belgium), and Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia), among others.

Also, for the first time ever, South America is getting some love and attention. Konami has secured the license for the Copa Santander Libertadores, which pits the continents finest teams against one another in order to be crowned kings of South America’s most prestigious club competition.

Needless to say, we’re really excited with what we have experience from PES 2013 so far. The last few years have seen FIFA sprint ahead of PES in virtually all categories across the board, but this year is shaping up to be a different story. While we haven’t had a chance to play the final build yet (check back with us for a full review in the coming weeks), we can already tell that choosing between FIFA and PES this year will cause soccer fans a welcome headache. And who knows, perhaps 13 will be Konami’s lucky number?

The vanilla Kindle Fire will get more features and a lower price of just $159, while the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD 4G LTE will go head to head with Apple's iPad.

The Kindle Paperwhite wasn’t the only big debut at today’s Amazon event. In addition to the all-new, supe-slim Paperwhite e-reader, Amazon also revealed a huge upgrade to the Kindle Fire, and unleashed a whole new lineup with the Kindle Fire HD.

The original Kindle Fire will see improved aesthetics, a more rounded body, a faster processor, twice the amount of RAM, and better battery life. It will ship September 14 for a dropped price of $159.

The newer and more notable Kindle Fire HD will include two sizes: 7 inches and 8.9 inches. The larger Kindle Fire HD sports an 8.9-inch screen, 1920 x 1200 resolution (254 PPI), and a polarizing filter that should cut down on any glare while improving contrast and sharpness. It’s a mere 8.8 mm and weighs in at 20 ounces.

It runs a TI OMAP 4470 processor, and with MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output — this implementation is a first in tablet land), Wi-Fi use should be much snappier. According to Amazon, MIMO will offer Wi-Fi performance 41 percent faster than the iPad and 54 percent faster than the Nexus 7.

Also new to Kindle with the HD models is a front-facing camera, Whispersync for Voice (so you can pick up right where you left off in audio books), Immersion Reading for book narration, and X-Ray for movies – a very, very cool addition that lets you look up information about the actors you’re watching without having their names. There’s also a new feature called Kindle Free Time, so parents can monitor and limit kids time spent using the tablet.

The 7-inch, 16GB Kindle Fire HD will cost $199, while the 8.9-inch model will sell for $299. They both ship November 30.

Just to thoroughly round out the Kindle Fire family, Amazon is also revealing a 32GB, 4G LTE Kindle Fire HD, which only comes in the 8.9-inch size. The kicker: Amazon will offer 4G LTE data service for $50 a year, providing 250MB a month. It also comes with 20GB of cloud storage, and will cost you $499 – competing head to head with Apple’s iPad. It ships November 20.

We’ll be bringing you hands-on coverage with the new devices shortly. 

Techland and Ubisoft's fourth Call of Juarez game heads back to the old west, looking to fix the series' retail and story woes.

Techland refuses to give up the Call of Juarez ghost. The first game in its series of Western shooters was novel, but it didn’t work. Its sequel, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, did a better job, casting the player in the roles of degenerate brothers seeking fortune in the post-Civil War US, but that game’s blend of dour storytelling and deliberate shootistry failed to connect as well. Call of Juarez: The Cartel meanwhile doubled down on the nihilism for a unforgivably ugly modern day story of drugs and murder.

Ubisoft and Techland seem to think that the fourth time will be the charm though. Call of Juarez: The Gunslinger was announced on Thursday at Ubisoft’s Digital Days event in France. Rather than send out an original, unlikable protagonist in search of the Maguffin gold that’s fueled the franchize, Gunslinger puts players in control of historical figures like Pat Garrett, Billy the Kid, and others. The play will be different as well. Rather than the slow, styled gunplay of previous games, Gunslinger will be an arcade-styled first-person shooter where the player must rack up points based on speed. The goal is to be the fastest gun in the west. Naturally.

The shift in style and subject is reflected in the change in Ubi’s business strategy as well. After striking out at retail with each successive Call of Juarez game over the past 6 years, even as the series shifted to budget pricing, Gunslinger will be a digital-only game.

“[Ubisoft] is our long-time partner on this series,” Techland brand manager Blazej Krakowiak told MCV, “They’ve always been champions of the digital format, they’ve done some excellent games that I don’t think other publishers would risk, like From Dust and I Am Alive. We are happy to be part of the digital revolution that everyone is talking about, and we have high ambitions in terms of quality. We want the game to look outstanding, we want to push the quality of digital titles. We have a great story to tell and this is the format where we’re going to do it.”

Bold words considering the lamentable quality of storytelling in Call of Juarez: The Cartel. Krakowiak and his company are a bit more free with The Gunslinger to make a game that is less troublesome than The Cartel though. The burden of competing at retail means second string franchises often have to appeal to the lowest common denominator. If you don’t have the marketing budget of an Assassin’s Creed, shlock is one of few ways to distinguish yourself. Shlock failed Techland though. Maybe substance will be the result of this shift to digital.

Amazon's new Kindle Paperwhite line boasts an illuminated screen, sharper display and better touchscreen, while the ,ost basic Kindle will now sell for $69 and gets a host of improvements as well.

The new Kindle hardware inarguably stole plenty of attention at today’s event. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezo’s waxed lovingly about the lineup as well as users’ love for it before introducing us to the Kindle Paperwhite, the latest addition to the Kindle family.

“We love to invent. We love to pioneer,” he said. “We even like going down alleys that turn out to be blind alleys.” Bezos also explained that while Amazon is a risk-taker, it’s also perfectly happy when it strikes gold – and that it certainly has with the Kindle.

The Kindle Paperwhite is a significant upgrade, and features plenty of what we all thought it would: It’s a frontlit, E-Ink reader, with much higher resolution and contrast. The screen now boasts 212 pixels per inch, which is 62 percent more resolution than the last version, and contrast has been increased 25 percent from current Kindles. What else? The Paperwhite also gets rid of the Kindle’s infrared touch technology in favor of capacitive touch, and includes patented light guide technology (which Bezos called highly adjustable). It’s a slim 9.1 mm and 7.5 ounces, with eight weeks of battery life (even with the light left on).

And those are just the hard specs. Amazon has done a lot of work on font display, and the Kindle Paperwhite is able to analyze your reading speed and tell you how much time it will take you to finish a chapter or book. Other new features include author bios, and as you’d expect you can switch between content saved to your Kindle, connect to the cloud, and use X-Ray content analysis for tracking characters and story development.

The Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi model will cost $119, and the 3G-enabled version $179. You can order both now, and they will ship in October. In addition to the new devices, Amazon also has an upgraded its entry-level Kindle and cut cost from $79 to $69. The new version has better contrast and resolution, crisper fonts with more text, and faster page turning. It will ship September 14.

Of course, this is only a sampling of what Amazon is announcing today. We’ll be at the event and bringing you more news throughout the day.

Thanks to the discovery of a new exploit, hackers are hard at work building a homebrew loader for the PlayStation Vita.

“Vita is bridging a gap between the PS3 and the PSP, not only from Sony’s point of view, but also because hackers from both the PS3 and the PSP are interested in the new device,” Half-Byte Loader creator Wololo told us back in April, “For now there, there is no Vita homebrew, just PSP homebrew made compatible with Vita. People are excited to try and use the full power of the Vita though, but that hasn’t happened yet.” Sony’s reprieve is over, though. As of Thursday, the PlayStation Vita has been hacked. The homebrew is on its way, but will Sony’s aggressive anti-piracy measures stop basement tinkerers just as they’re getting started?

Yifan Lu, a capable hacker that’s built tools for jailbreaking Amazon’s Kindle as well as Sony’s first PlayStation certified smartphone the Xperia Play, discovered an exploit in the PlayStation Vita that could be used to make the device’s first homebrew loader—a tool for launching unsigned applications like homemade games, apps, and, yes, pirated games.

Eurogamer reported on Thursday that work on that first loader, the Userland Vita Loader, has started up at github. Userland is “based heavily” on Wololo’s Half-Byte Loader for PSP.

Back in April, a couple of PSP games available in the Vita’s PSN Store could be exploited to launch Half-Byte Loader so at least PSP homebrew software was running on Vita. Sony immediately removed Everybody’s Tennis and Motorostorm: Arctic Edge from its storefront in Japan and the US to block even PSP homebrew from its platform.

Sony’s great fear of course is piracy. Software pirates savaged publishers that supported the PSP. Dissidia: Final Fantasy for example was downloaded illegally an estimated 5.2 million times during its first year on shelves. Publisher support for Vita is already so weak, that Sony is naturally paranoid that this handheld will suffer the same fate as PSP.

Indie developer Wolfgame confronted Yifan Lu on Twitter saying that the exploit he’s discovered is an “open door… for people who want to destroy us.” Lu responded, “I apologize, but what can I about what others may possible do in the future?” That’s a familiar response from hackers when they’re hassled by the makers of software and hardware that don’t want their goods tinkered with.

What else can they say though? People are naturally inclined to tinker with gadgets for no other reason than the joy of it. “Jailbreaking” a device to run homebrew software is also perfectly legal according to the US government. It’s the responsibility of users not to steal things.

Now that the social deal heard 'round the Internet has filed all the necessary papers, how will the partnership play out?

This past spring, we were thrown for a bit of a loop when Facebook scooped up app darling Instagram for $1 billion. Since then, the FTC has approved the deal and Facebook has integrated the photo-sharing platform exclusively into its network. And now, officially, the two are combining their efforts.

“As we said from the beginning, we are committed to building and growing Instagram independently,” VP of engineering with Facebook Mike Schroepfer wrote this morning. “Instagram will continue to service its community, and we will help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook’s strong engineering team and infrastructure. We also can’t wait to work with the talented Instagram team to improve the mobile experience.”

Instagram had similarly glowing words to say about the partnership, also mentioning the app has just surpassed five billion photos shared. “What makes this even more exciting is that our deal with Facebook has closed, which means we can now work together to evolve and build a better Instagram for everyone. While our term is making the short move to the Facebook offices, Instagram isn’t going anywhere.”

Despite both companies’ positive outlooks, it’s more than fair for users to be skeptical in the wake of an acquisition likes this. Facebook has a made a name for itself as an acqui-hirer, scooping up companies and folding their teams into its own products, slowly extinguishing theirs in the process. But since the very beginning of this deal, and really since the startup’s origins, we’ve all known that Instagram is an exception to the rule. To say it’s user growth and content shared has passed all expectations is a huge understatement, and a significant part of Facebook’s need to acquire it.

The particulars of the deal saw Instagram net $735 million, and its worth will now depend on Facebook’s – which at the moment, is a bit in flux. News about Facebook shares has nearly become synonymous with “all-time low.” Last week, they dropped to $17.55 – you guessed it, another all-time low since peaking at $45 on day one of trading. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced he doesn’t plan to sell his shares for the next year in order to promote some confidence in his eyebrow-raising company’s value.

Still, Instagram’s fate seems safe. While the deal has been in the process of being finalized, Instagram has continued to issue big iterations and grow its user base. There are a few questions worth asking – like how or even if Instagram will ever make its way to the Web and how that would look and integrate with Facebook. Other questions remain as well, like just what it’s  roadmap for a Windows Phone app is, how will its own photo development line up with that of its new acquisition, and whether Facebook will try to take Instagram’s mobile success and introduce any sort of marketing or advertising structure?

For now, news of the deal’s official status will have to suffice. The rest remains to be seen.  

Twitch TV and Alienware announced the pro-gaming student winners of $50,000 in scholarships on Thursday.

TwitchTV is doing the gaming television thing right. At least, that is, more right than past attempts. G4’s online coverage of the video game industry notwithstanding, its television network has never managed to drag itself out of the juvenile persona it was founded with at the end of the ‘90s. The less said about Spike’s game-based programming, the better. Say what you will about the Academy Awards, but at least the Oscars isn’t a glorified showcase for commercials. Web television like GameTrailers.com does a yeoman’s job, but it’s still very much based on an old-school, core audience’s perspective.

Twitch meanwhile has found its niche in devoting itself to eSports. Competitive, multiplayer gaming is just the sort of focus gaming television needed to grow out of its shell of teenage male perspective. Twitch is also doing good work outside of solid television programming. Twitch teamed up with gaming PC maker Alienware to distribute $50,000 in scholarships to eSports competitors based not just on their professional gaming careers, but also academic achievement.

The five winners of the Twitch & Alienware Scholarship were announced on Thursday morning. Antonio Revard (pictured) is currently enrolled in Michigan State’s game design program and is a pro Counter-Strike player; Kevin Carlino of Arizona State is the host of Diablo Daily; League of Legends and StarCraft pro Joey Yurgelon is earning his degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Nevada; John Stockwell’s day job is getting a computer science degree at Penn State while kicking ass in Team Fortress 2 at night; and PhD candidate Kelli Dunlap, a Halo competitor, is currently finishing her dissertation research on the connection between games and mental health at the American School of Professional Psychology.

All five will receive $10,000.

“Live video game streaming is gaining momentum quickly as evidenced by the traffic to Twitch as well as the increase in pro tournaments, partnerships, charity drives, developer showcases and sponsor interest,” crows Twitch CEO Emmett Shear in a company press release, “The avid professional gaming and spectator community has helped us thrive with more than 20 million visitors a month, and this scholarship is our way of showing appreciation for their passion while reinforcing our commitment to what we view as a legitimate sport.”

Yes, yes: Twitch is popular. Huzzah. Marketing speech aside though, these scholarships will do more to legitimize eSports than any number of sponsors for pro gaming events.  Fostering video games as a respected part of the academy is noble work.

Congrats to ye winners.

Microsoft's manufacturing partners were hired to produce 10,000 microchips for the Xbox 720 in January. Only hundreds are said to work.

GameStop CEO Paul Raines and Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter have both hinted in recent weeks that Sony and Microsoft will avoid a head to head battle in the next-gen console market in 2013. Either the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox 720 will sit out next year, waiting for a free and clear 2014 to make a move. Microsoft’s next console codenamed Durango looks the likely candidate for a 2014 release. This move may be less about strategic placement and building a library of games than it is about production issues with the machine.

Tech website SemiAccurate (via MCV) reported this week that Microsoft is having problems producing the Xbox 720’s Oban. Rather than a delightful scotch with a smoky finish, Microsoft’s Oban is the GPU/APU microchip powering the new console’s slick visuals. Three factories are producing Oban for Microsoft but as of now the yield rate is bordering on catastrophic.

To clarify, the yield rate in microchip production is the number of chips produced that actually work. For example, back in January when Oban first went into production at what one source hinted was IBM, Microsoft placed an order for 10,000 chips with the expectation that yields would be around 20 percent. That’s just 2000 Oban microchips, just enough to produce, say, a fleet of development kits.

The problem today is that Oban yields are “painfully low.” SemiAccurate’s source indicated that the yield of functioning microchips for the Xbox 720 may be below single digit percentages. This means that for thousands of chips produced, mere hundreds work.

SemiAccurate’s sources say Microsoft is gunning for a fall 2013 release for the Xbox 720, but unless Oban yields are improved, Microsoft’s machine will indeed slip into 2014.

This rumor illuminates Pachter’s Tuesday comments. “We have heard no word yet from Microsoft or Sony about their plans to launch new consoles, but both manufacturers are widely expected to launch consoles by year-end in 2013,” said Pachter, “Although we believe Microsoft could delay a new console launch until spring of 2014 in order to accommodate what is certain to be overwhelming demand among hardcore gamers.”

Microsoft certainly wants to avoid the typical shortages that accompany the release of any new console. (The Xbox 360 was difficult to find in stores for months after its initial release in 2005.) Unless it remedies these production problems in the next eight months though, there’s no way Microsoft will be able to have a successful launch in fall 2013.

In the face of app store bans by Facebook, Google, and Apple bans, Grooveshark has launched an HTML5 mobile browser-based application.

What do you do when you’re banned from the Facebook App Store, Apple’s App Store and Google Play? By launching an in-browser mobile player, of course! And that’s exactly what controversial music streaming service Grooveshark has done.

Long suspected of shady music practices that both music labels and musicians, Grooveshark has been in and out of lawsuits for suspected violations of copyright infringement and failure to pay royalties for years.

Grooveshark’s browser app has been built in HTML5, and leaves behind crash-prone Adobe Flash. According to the company, users can search, discover, and play more than 15 million songs from any mobile device, or listen to genre-based stations and listen to tracks shared by friends.

In one respect, the app stores bans are a blessing in disguise. Managing the app and implementing new features on the browser app doesn’t require the hard coding and different languages that would otherwise be necessary to maintain native apps for Android, iOS and, soon, Windows Phone 8 devices. Rather, the company will simply have to add additional code depending on the browsers supported.

When testing out the app ourselves, we noticed that the app sticks the user experience that we’re used to from a native app. We can sign into our profile and view our existing content, from saved playlists, to favorites, followers, and users that we’re following. All said, it functions much like it would like a Spotify app. But as a browser app, it has its limitations. Features like the ability to slide your fingers to move pages from left to right or visa-versa is lost, and there’s a slight but noticeable delay when interacting with the app.

If you like the convenience of a button that opens up the app, you can do so by adding the site to your Home Screen on your iPhone.

Unlike Spotify and Pandora, which negotiate and pay for the rights to stream libraries of music from music labels like Universal Music, EMI, Sony and Warner Music Group, Grooveshark enables its users to upload their own music onto its platform and share that content with other Grooveshark users. The company claims that this strategy allows it to bypass the need to pay royalties to musicians and music labels. Theoretically, Grooveshark imparts the accountability of uploading infringing music to its users. Of course in practice, the accountability may ultimately lie with Grooveshark, which claims to abide by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) — a belief backed by the courts on at least one occasion so far.

There hasn’t been an official explanation for why Grooveshark has been banned from app stores, but it’s evident that the very public copyright infringement claims mounting against the service, Apple, Google, and Facebook aren’t taking any chances with supporting Grooveshark. Still, Grooveshark hasn’t been deterred as its browser app first launched in the United States on Wednesday, with an international launch due in the coming months. 

Samsung's Galaxy S3 is still flying off the shelves, with 20 million units sold in its first 100 days.

The Galaxy S3 continues to sell at great speed, with Samsung announcing Thursday that 20 million devices have now been sold since it made its debut 100 days ago. The phone is the Korean tech company’s fastest-selling handset to date.

Samsung was confident from the start that the high-end S3 would do magical things for the electronics giant, with its head of mobile communications, JK Shin, claiming on launch day back in May that it would sell 10 million units before the end of July. It managed the feat with more than a week to spare.

This week it was reported that in August the S3 outsold Apple’s iPhone 4S for the first time since the 4S hit the market in October 2011 – though of course, this could be down to some Apple fans holding off buying a new iPhone until later this month, when the so-called iPhone 5 is widely expected to make its debut.

Sales of the S3 may be impressive, but if the expected iPhone 5 sells like the 4S did earlier this year – 35.1 million units in the first quarter – then it’ll soon slip back behind Apple as the smartphone of choice for the majority of users. Some analysts predict sales of the new iPhone could top 10 million within a week of going on sale.

Also, there’s a chance that sales of the S3 could drop to zero overnight – at least in the US – if Apple succeeds in its attempt to have the device banned from sale over the matter of patent infringement.

For the time being though, the Korean company will be more than happy with the way its Android-powered S3 is moving off the shelves. Consumers have been attracted by its sleek design, large 4.8-inch screen and array of features, including face-, gesture- and voice recognition functionality. A powerful 8-megapixel camera which, among other things, allows you to take photos while recording video, has also helped it to stand out from the crowd. Now, how long before it notches up its 30 millionth sale?