Diablo 3 release date pushed back to 2012, Beta extended

The greatest game of all time, ever, Diablo 3 (or III, if you prefer), is being pushed back to the start of 2012, that is if you trust the list we got to peek at all the way back in December of 2010. On the other hand, it could all be according to plan, that list being smacked in the face after it was leaked and those responsible sacked. All we need to know is that Diablo 3 is only months away, and that yours truly is going to have to try his hardest not to completely dismiss the outside world and live in a cave with internet connection for the next few years playing.


Blizzard Entertainment isn’t known for their quick game turnarounds, but they certainly ARE known for turning out hits. The Diablo franchise is over a decade old and has essentially had people playing online via Blizzard.net non-stop since the late 1990s. The new information we’ve got today comes from Mike Morhaime, chief executive at Blizzard Entertainment, who has some slightly discouraging news if you were hoping the Beta would turn into a Release before the end of 2011 – the humanity of it all!

“We commonly use the term “soon” when referring to Blizzard releases, because we know that no matter how hard we’re working to reach a target, we’re not going to compromise and launch a game before it’s ready. While this news might not be a complete surprise, I know that many of you were hopeful that Diablo III would ship this year. We were too.” – Morhaime

This puts the other gigantic MMORPG game coming out soon, Star Wars: The Old Republic, from Electronic Arts, in a fantastic position for a monstrous release. SW:TOR has already broken EA’s record for highest number of pre-orders in their history, they say, back in July noting that over 200,000 reservations had been placed in just 6 days.
But here’s the thing, ladies and gentlemen. We want to play. Beta is out there, we’re all looking for keys, and it’s just as much a quest to get early entry into Diablo III as it is to actually play the game. Can’t wait!

BMW grabs Nuance TTS for in-car email, Facebook, more

BMW drivers will soon be able to have their iDrive ICE systems read out messages, social network updates and RSS feeds, using the same voice control system as is expected to feature in the iPhone 5. A new deal with Nuance will see iDrive gain complex text-to-speech functionality in addition to its existing voice-dialing and music search, able to read SMS and emails – among other content – in a choice of 14 different languages.


That’s more than anyone on the SlashGear team can handle, which officially makes us less capable than a car; among the choices are both US and UK English, German, French and Italian. BMW’s ConnectedDrive system can access Facebook and Twitter, reading out new updates and messages, as well as allow you to subscribe to various RSS feeds and have new content read out to you.
Triggered by the Play button, ConnectedDrive is being billed as both a safety and entertainment system. It’ll hook into your iPhone Calendar, too, calling out your appointments for the day, week and month; while your iPhone is connected, the iDrive system can also stream internet radio.
Apple is expected to use similar text-to-speech (and speech-to-text) technology from Nuance in iOS 5, as part of the well-rumored iOS Assistant. Expected to debut on the iPhone 5, itself tipped to launch imminently, this will allow users to make spoken commands including navigation requests, new messages, media playback and more.

Sony Walkman Z, Android y Nvidia Tegra 2

El Sony Walkman Z se atreve con Nvidia Tegra 2 con doble núcleo a 1GHz, y 512MB de RAM. Vamos a conocerlo en el siguiente vídeo:

La versión Android elegida para la ocasión es la última disponible en el mercado para Smartphones, Android 2.3. Destacamos la posibilidad de acceder a Android Market, con la consecuente conectividad WiFi.
Hablando de conectividad, el aparato anda bien servido, tenemos salida micro HDMI para disfrutar de nuestros contenidos en pantalla grande, además de Bluetooth, y soporte DLNA. Para los amantes de la radio, tenemos acceso a la FM. Por cierto, nada de cámaras.
Los reproductores aparecen este mes en Japón, pero teniendo en cuenta sus posibilidades los veremos pronto traspasando las fronteras niponas. Los precios están comprendidos entre los 265 y 400 euros, al cambio.






Se dejó ver en el pasado IFA 2011 como prototipo de reproductor multimedia con sistema operativo Android. Hoy ha tenido lugar su presentación oficial en Japón, con el nombre de Sony Walkman Z.
La multinacional japonesa ha decidido estrenar el sistema operativo de Google en sus reproductores, dándole unas posibilidades que los hace mucho más interesantes de lo que un principio nos puede dar un gadget para consumir multimedia: aplicaciones, servicios, posibles actualizaciones, etc. En el artículo hablamos de la versión Z1000, es de suponer que tendrán que llegar más.

Como es de esperar en Sony, el buen diseño y variedad de colores está asegurado, y el hardware tampoco tiene mala pinta: pantalla de 4.3 pulgadas (WVGA), versiones de 16 a 64GB de memoria, y lo que parece más importante, un hardware potente.

VIA VL800 four-port USB 3.0 host controller for PCIe slots surfaces

Yesterday I mentioned that VIA had a new USB 3.0 host controller that was on a card made to go inside a USB 3.0 hub. VIA has announced another new USB 3.0 host controller today and this card is designed to go inside your existing computer using a PCIe slot and it gives you four USB 3.0 ports to connect your new high speed peripherals too. The new host controller is called the VL800.


The card is designed to operating in a PCI Express x1 slot and will work with PCIe 2.0 and 1.0 slots. The tech will work for PC host cards and add-in card applications as well. The VL800 is complaint with xHCI specifications and supports older USB ports so that gear not complying with USB 3.0 can still be plugged into the ports and used.
The controller also supports the Battery Charging Specification to allow for fast charging and the exchange of data with the computer while charging takes place. The new VL800 USB 3.0 host controllers is aimed at desktop and notebook use. The card is also able to be used in the server environment, docking stations, and as add-in cards for notebooks with PCI Card slots.

HTC Jetstream hands-on

Providing the grunt inside of various gadgets lets you take certain liberties, and in Qualcomm’s case it’s an HTC Jetstream on its Snapdragon stand, flown into Istanbul especially from AT&T. The 10-inch Honeycomb tablet was sharing deck space with its 7-inch Flyer sibling, though aesthetically it’s more reminiscent of the harlequin-style Salsa to our eyes. Read on for some first impressions.


Neither as thin nor as light as, say, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Jetstream does feel more expensive in the hands thanks to the metal used in its casing. Unfortunately we soon missed the Galaxy Tab’s only minor heft, since one-handed use of the HTC quickly became a chore. On the back is an 8-megapixel camera, which puts the slate at the top of the pack for tablet optics, and HTC’s Photobooth app for mangling your images uses the front-facing webcam.
HTC hasn’t been able to resist reskinning the Jetstream’s Honeycomb OS, and the result is a sometimes curious mixture of smartphone UI and core Android. The five pane desktop – which can be pinched down to a helicopter-view of all of the panes – can be filled with HTC’s phone-style widgets, each roughly the same scale as you’d find on the Sensation’s display, and not really taking advantage of the larger panel on the Jetstream. The Notes app looks good, though, with a cute ripped-paper animation when you start a new page, and there’s support for clipping images, adding audio recordings and making handwritten or text notes.

Unfortunately, Qualcomm didn’t have the special active stylus for the Jetstream, so we weren’t able to check out whether or not the inking experience is better than that of the Flyer. While the 7-inch slate’s pen is enough to jot down a note in a margin or quickly mark-up a screenshot, it’s not precise enough to entirely replace a paper notepad. Hopefully that’s all changed with the Jetstream, since our playtime with the Galaxy Note proved that Samsung is snapping at HTC’s stylus heels.
Connection issues and some other problems meant we weren’t able to benchmark the Jetstream and see exactly how well Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor – now found inside the HTC Sensation XE, too – performs. Navigating through the apps was lag-free, and HTC’s often-demanding weather animations were smooth.

We’re expecting a Jetstream review unit any time now, so will be able to run some benchmarks and generally put the tablet through its paces properly.
We’ve got video uploading and will add it in as soon as it’s ready!

Netgear's N900 dual-band router hits 900Mbps top speed, pats itself on the back

Stopping just short of bundling its announcement with an "Eye of the Tiger" MP3, Netgear's rolling out the hyperbole carpet for its now available N900. Heralding it as "the most advanced wireless home router," the sleekly-designed $180 box packs six antennas for an extended WiFi range, and is capable of speeds up to 900Mbps -- that's with both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands delivering data at a full 450Mbps. Sure, TRENDnet's already called First! with its own 450Mbps concurrent dual-band device, but the real focus here is on the added extras. In addition to the two USB ports -- capable of 30% faster transfer rates -- Netgear's thrown in a suite of goodies, like its Genie network monitoring application, Live Parental Controls, printer sharing, video stream optimization, DLNA, gigabit wired ethernet, guest access, WPA and WPA2 security protocols, usage meter and, lastly, a shutoff timer. Clearly, this isn't your ordinary wireless router, and that's exactly the company's point. Click on past the break for the official presser.

ZiiLabs unleashes Jaguar3 super slim slate reference design

ZiiLabs' first foray into the tablet market, the ZiiO series, didn't exactly get our gadget senses tingling, but that hasn't stopped the company from churning out reference designs for OEMs looking to cash in on the tablet craze. The latest in its line of Jaguar designs is the Jaguar3, a 10.1-inch tablet packing the company's 1.5GHz dual-core ZMS-20 or quad-core ZMS-40 SoC and both front (of unknown resolution) and rear facing cameras (up to 12 megapixels). Sporting a magnesium case with a svelte 8.1mm or 7.4mm-thin profile depending on your preference and pocketbook, it packs a 1200 x 800 capacitive multitouch display running Android 3.2. In addition to the menu of hardware options, ZiiLabs is offering audio upgrades courtesy of Creative's Sound Blaster technology, plus custom software for HDR support and panoramic picture-taking. That's quite an impressive menu of options for you OEMs to choose from, now let's get some of these things to market, shall we? PR's after the break.