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Tag: announcements

  • Bungie to Reveal Destiny on February 17

    Bungie to Reveal Destiny on February 17

    Ever since Halo Reach was released in 2010, fans of developer Bungie have been waiting patiently for the next major release from the company. Today, Bungie has finally begun to talk about its new project, Destiny.

    From the announcement at Bungie’s website:

    In a matter of days, we’re going to give you your first glimpse into the vision and ambition that’s driving the creation of our brave new world. To make room for the resulting chatter, we’ve launched some official social media channels.

    According to the new social feeds created for the game, the big reveal for Destiny will take place on February 17. The game now has Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ pages for fans to follow, and all of them contain the following message:

    In addition, a new Destiny sub-forum has now appeared on the Bungie forums. Currently, members of the forum are deciphering a Destiny-related alternate reality game (ARG) that Bungie began this week.

    Details on Destiny are sparse at this point, but leaked images last year teased that the game will be an ambitious science fiction game with spaceships.

  • BlackBerry Officially Launches BlackBerry 10 Smartphones

    During its big BlackBerry launch event, the newly renamed BlackBerry company officially unveiled its new BlackBerry 10 phones. BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins took the stage this morning to show off the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10.

    The BlackBerry Q10 stays true to classic BlackBerry devices by having a physical keyboard. The Z10 is more of a standard modern smartphone, and heavily resembles an iPhone.

    Where the phones really differentiate themselvesHeins and BlackBerry executives heavily emphasized the multitasking available using the BlackBerry 10 operating system. Many of the mobile OS’ features, such as the calendar and other updates, are heavily integrated into its interface through the “BlackBerry Hub.”

    The company also claims to have the “best typing experience” on any smartphone device, even on the Z10. The touch keyboard in the BlackBerry operating system features a system where most-used words can be placed into a text box by flicking the first letter of the words.

    The devices also feature quick account switching that moves between “Work” and “Personal” modes. Certain apps can be designated as work-only or personal, supposedly maintaining a user’s privacy while also allowing IT to control the work portion of the device.

    The company formerly known as RIM has designed its new operating system to entice business to move back onto BlackBerry’s famously secure device ecosystem. The upcoming months will tell whether businesses are still loyal to BlackBerry, or whether BlackBerry 10 is too little, too late.

  • Spotify U.S. Launch Coming Soon

    Spotify U.S. Launch Coming Soon

    Ready your headphones, kids. Spotify, the European music-streaming service, has officially announced it’s U.S. launch. No, not specifically, but we do know that it is “coming soon.”

    Go to the spotify.com site and you will be redirected to the coming soon page, where they announce –

    The award-winning music service that’s taken Europe by storm will soon be landing on US shores. Millions of tracks ready to play instantly, on your computer and your phone.

    There you will also find a box where you can sign up for and email invite that will allow you to be one of the first to be able to use the service when it launches for real.

    The American expansion of the Sweden-based service was expected after they scored $100 million in funding and reportedly signed licensing deals with UMG, Sony and EMI among others.

    Spotify currently offers a basic free streaming service, although it has recently been dialed back a little to encourage users to pay for premium packages. The free service still offers millions of tracks on-demand and is ad-supported, as you would expect. One subscription service offers unlimited music and is currently 5 euros ($7.22) a month. The more premium package lets users stream unlimited music to their mobile devices and is about 10 euros ($14.46) a month.

    The paid subscriptions also offer higher bitrate streams and offline music access.

    There’s no doubt that Spotify will have competition from other streaming online music services that have grabbed a corner of the American market. Services like Pandora and Last.fm have pretty fervent fan bases in the states. Not to mention the new cloud-services from Google and Apple that allow you to listen to your own music anywhere.

    But if there is anything to the rumor of a Spotify / Facebook partnership, that could catapult the service into the top spot when it comes to streaming music.

    There’s no denying that Spotify is much loved in Europe. Are you excited about their move to the U.S.? Tell us what you think.