News Round-up

Though I haven't written a post in a while, I have found the time to read through some interesting tech news.  At the moment, many eyes are pointed to E3 where all the latest games announcements are set to take place, with conferences from Microsoft, Sony, EA and so on. The two consoles will have their second unveiling since their respective initial ones. From the forums on the internet, Sony seems to have taken the lead in the two horse race, with the Xbox One receiving considerable criticism for many of its design choices, some of which seem to limit user's control. It will be interesting to see what Sony says with regards to its own console - it too may witness the wrath of the gamer horde if it says the wrong thing.

Otherwise Apple is holding its own conference in San Francisco where other than the new iOS, iRadio is to be announced/launched. Essentially its Apple's rather belated answer to Spotify, Deezer and the other music streaming services available. The tech giant does have a habit of launching a product after the herd, having taken the time to perfect it, like the iPod, iPhone... Having said that, Spotify and its competitors have been around for a considerable time now, so if Apple's intention is to compete with them, they may find it difficult. However, having iTunes and iRadio in one neat package may be appealing to some, myself included... It will be worth following to see how the implement it into their pre-existing hardware and software.

For the Windows phone users out there, Microsoft seems to be giving a slightly mixed message at the moment. Though it seems the software is no longer at the forefront of their priorities, they have announced a Halo Game exclusively for the system. Halo: Spartan Assault is a top down shooter for all Windows Phone 8 (no mention of 7) devices, with some stellar looking graphics and interesting gameplay. It's a bid to attract more users the platform, as well as developers. The Halo trick worked for the Xbox but the telephone not being a dedicated gaming machine means it may not have the same impact. Something like Angry Birds could work though...

Graphically not dissimilar to Halo Wars

It also seems a prototype of Windows Blue was discovered by a customer having bought what he initially thought was a developer kit of the Nokia 928. On his blog, he claimed that the programs for the most park worked well and that they had incorporated a notification panel to the metro tiles. It was subsequently bought back by Microsoft who even supplied the user with a brand new phone - much to his delight and surprise.

Finally, whilst this doesn't cover everything, a lot has been written about user privacy at the moment, with a number of worrying cases coming to light. Agencies around the world (USA especially) have been collecting phone data, in an attempt to combat terrorism but in what appears to be a breach of privacy. Google has also taken some slack and game consumers are concerned that Microsoft's Kinect bundled with the Xbox One is going to be listening and watching them, despite denials from the Software giant. As we put our lives online, our own privacy is becoming something we have less control over as telecoms and computer company giants store terabytes of information over us. It's a theme to be explored in more detail. It seems the faster technology progresses, the less control we have.