The survey of 1,006 adults found that 61% of current Facebook users have taken a break from the social network that lasted several weeks or more. 21% of these users said they took their break from the site because they were too busy to visit, while 10% said they took a break because they just weren’t interested in the site. 9% cited too much drama as the cause of their departure, while 8% recognized that they were spending too much time on Facebook and decided to give the social network a rest as a result.

The survey told us some other interesting things, including that 67% of the online adults polled use Facebook. Of the online adults who don’t use Facebook, 20% percent said they did at one time in the past but don’t any longer, while 8% said they would like to start using it in the future. We’re not sure what’s stopping them from just opening an account now, but it seems there are some folks who aspire to have a Facebook account of their own someday.

The survey was carried out in December, with adults from across the continental United States polled. It’s interesting to hear that so many users say they’ve taken a break from Facebook, especially when it seems like everyone uses Facebook these days. Have you ever needed to spend some time away from the incredibly popular social network?

We heard a rumor that claimed Nokia will bring 41 megapixel sensors to standard smartphones, and learned that Jelly Bean is now running on 13.6% of devices. Huawei has a press event coming up at MWC 2013 and its invitation suggests we’ll see the Ascend P2, while AT&T added new markets to its 4G LTE network today. Redbox Instant will soon be rolling out of beta on Xbox 360 soon, and Jawbone UP will now connect you to Facebook Open Graph after today’s update.

Apple has launched Breakout Books to highlight indie authors, and BlackBerry 10 Android Jelly Bean integration was confirmed today. Dead Space 3 launched today with Electronic Arts announcing the first DLC for March, and the iOS 6.1 Jailbreak has seen some massive traffic since releasing. We learned that some lucky BlackBerry 10 developers are receiving a limited edition red BlackBerry Z10 handset for free, while at the same time hearing that the BlackBerry Q10 may not launch in the US until sometime early this summer.

The Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook is looking to take on the Macbook Air, and NASA announced that it will broadcast the Progress 48 resupply ship launch. Skeletal remains discovered under a UK parking lot have been confirmed to be King Richard III’s, and The Witcher III: Wild Hunt has been announced. Twitter is reportedly looking at two-factor authorization after a security breach, while Take-Two reported some strong financials for its fiscal Q3 2013. Finally tonight, we go hands-on with the new web-based Instagram feed, and Chris Burns tells us why HTC’s “new sound and camera experience” may simply be deja-vu. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of the night folks!

That puts earnings-per-share at at $0.66, up $0.50 from the year-ago quarter. All in all, Q3 2013 was a pretty good one for the company, and it was good enough that Take-Two is now increasing the low-end of its projections for fiscal year 2013. The company expects non-GAAP net revenue to land somewhere between and $235 and $285 million in Q4, while it’s projecting net revenue of $1.15 to $1.20 billion for fiscal year 2013 as a whole.

Take-Two performed well on the digital front, as digital revenue grew 244% year-over-year. Borderlands and its DLC was given the nod for the increase in digital revenue, as were XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the Grand Theft Auto franchise, and NBA 2K13. In the end, digital revenue accounted for 23% of Take-Two’s total non-GAAP revenue, which certainly isn’t anything to stick your nose up at.

The company has a big fiscal Q4 2013 coming up, thanks to the launch of BioShock Infinite next month. Following the end of the fiscal year, Take-Two and Rockstar will be launching Grand Theft Auto V on September 17, while the XCOM reboot that had fans up in arms will be arriving sometime during fiscal year 2014. Stay tuned.

[via Take-Two]

In an interview with the Associated Press (via ABC News), BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins gave us a rough idea of when we can expect the Q10 to launch in the US. He didn’t give specifics, but he did say that the Q10 probably won’t start popping up on carrier shelves until 8 to 10 weeks after the Z10 has launched. With the Z10 not arriving until mid-March, it could be summer by the time we see the Q10.

Of course, what Heins said isn’t set in stone. It’s more up to the carriers than anything else, as they will all want to test it before deciding to offer it. So, there’s a possibility that the Q10 will launch at some carriers in the US earlier than this May-June window. In the end, we’ll have to wait for each carrier to announce their own release dates for the BlackBerry Q10.

It certainly sounds like the BlackBerry Q10 has a lot to live up to, as we’ve been hearing that the Z10 has been selling out in some areas in the UK and posting excellent pre-order numbers in Canada and UAE. Reviews seem to be generally positive as well, so if BlackBerry can hit it out of the park with the Q10, the company will be in good shape. Be sure to check out SlashGear’s hands-on with the BlackBerry Q10 to hear our initial impressions!

Those who are subscribed to Game Informer might like to know the game is this month’s cover story. That’s how NeoGAF user INDIGO_CYCLOPS found out about it – his digital copy arrived a bit early and gave away the surprise. Some of the more interesting tidbits from the cover story include the fact that The Witcher 3 will be an open world game, and that it’s in-game world will be around 20% bigger than Skyrim‘s.

In the official announcement, the company didn’t say The Witcher 3‘s world will be bigger than Skyrim‘s, but it did say that it will be 30 times bigger than The Witcher 2′s world. Make no mistake, that’s one massive world to explore. Players will also be treated to a revamped combat system, but at the moment, details on it are slim. The game will be launching in 2014 for “all high-end platforms,” leading some to believe that The Witcher 3 will be releasing for next generation consoles.

After all, REDengine3 has been developed specifically for next generation consoles, and since many are thinking that we’ll see the reveals of the next PlayStation and Xbox this year, it would make sense for CD Projekt RED to put the game on the new platform. We’ll just have to wait and see what the studio announces in the coming days and week, but it’s definitely an exciting time for series fans. Stay tuned.

[via Joystiq]

Normally, it seems like each title is going to be priced at $1.49. In celebrating the launch of PlayStation Home Arcade, Sony has made Icebreaker and WipEout 2D free, offering up a free demo of Scribble Shooter alongside those two titles. PlayStation Home Arcade is launching with more titles beyond those three though, so check out the full list below:

• Icebreaker (Free)
• WipEout 2D (Free)
• Scribble Shooter (Demo available for Free) – $1.49
• Frogger – $1.49
• Time Pilot – $1.49
• Asteroids – $1.49
• Centipede – $1.49
• Astrosmash Gen2 – $1.49
• Shark! Shark! Gen2 – $1.49
• Mad Blocker – $1.49

Sony says that if you have already purchased any of these games as an arcade cabinet within PlayStation Home, you’ll be able to download it for free within PlayStation Home Arcade. So, if you’ve already been using PlayStation Home to get your classic arcade kicks, you’ll have a bunch of games waiting for you on your PS Vita after today. The company has also released a launch trailer for PlayStation Home Arcade, so give it a look and see if it’s something you’re interested in.

The PlayStation Home Arcade app should be available for download now on the PlayStation Store. While it isn’t anywhere near as exciting as a new game announcement would have been, some PS Vita owners will definitely like the idea of taking old school arcade games with them on the go. Are you going to download PlayStation Home Arcade on your PS Vita?

[via PlayStation Blog]

For those of you unfamiliar with Guardians of Middle Earth, think of it as League of Legends with Lord of the Rings characters. There’s a little more to it than that, of course, but you get the idea. Normally Guardians of Middle Earth is $14.99, so while it isn’t a full retail release, you’re still saving a decent chunk of change by picking this up free.

Guardians of Middle Earth isn’t the only deal on tap though, as Sony will also be offering Karateka for PS3 at 50% off, bringing it down to $5.00. Big Sky Infinity and Knytt Underground, both for PS3 and PS Vita, are also seeing their prices slashed by 40%. Big Sky Infinity has come down to $5.99 for this promotion, while Knytt Underground will be $8.99. It’s worth pointing out that both of titles are cross buy enabled, meaning that if you buy it on one platform, you’ll get it on the other.

As always, you’ll only have access to the free games you download for as long as you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, which would be the catch to this otherwise great deal. Sony is currently running a promotion on PS Plus memberships, giving three free months to everyone who buys a year. The PS Plus update will be going live on February 5 – are you excited, or does this latest round of deals leave something to be desired?

[via PlayStation Blog]

In a new Q&A session posted to the Windows Blog, Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Financial Officer Tami Reller talks about Windows 8 and how the company feels about it after 90 days. Reller said that Windows 8 sales – 60 million licenses sold as of the beginning of January – are on par with what Microsoft saw in the early days of Windows 7. “We feel good about our start with Windows 8 – and of course there is still much more to do,” Reller added.

Reller also reiterated the fact that the Windows app store recently crossed the 100 million mark, which is an impressive feat indeed. Talking about the rather steep learning curve that has been associated with Windows 8, Reller claimed Microsoft is finding that people are “successfully and quickly learning” the new OS. She said that 50% percent of users “get through the out of box experience in less than 5 minutes,” while nearly everyone finds the desktop, uses an app, and finds the charms on the first day.

Whether or not that’s true (or even really matters), it definitely seems that Microsoft is confident in Windows 8, even if we’ve been hearing reports that say it isn’t living up to the success of its predecessor. If you have a few minutes to spare, be sure to head over to the Windows Blog and read the full Q&A. Just as well, take a look at our review of Windows 8 to see what we thought!

HTC has done the same thing before with the One X, so it wouldn’t be all that shocking to see it do something similar with the DROID DNA. As Droid Life points out, however, this may not have anything to do with the DROID DNA. Instead, it could be Verizon’s version of the rumored (and at least semi-confirmed) HTC M7, considering that it sports similar specs.

According to @LlabTooFeR’s information, this new device will come packing a 4.7-inch screen displaying at 1080p and it will be running a 1.7GHz Qualcomm APQ8064 under the hood. That processor will be accompanied by 2GB of RAM, with the DLXPLUS sporting a 13MP rear-facing camera. We also see that the DLXPLUS will come with 16GB of internal storage, Jelly Bean, Sense 5, and a microSD slot – something the original DROID DNA was famously missing.

Aside from the screen, which has shrunk by 0.3-inches, this would offer a number of improvements over the DROID DNA. On the other hand, these specs are quite similar to what we’ve been hearing about the HTC M7, so it’s possible that these leaked specs confirm the device for Verizon. We’ll just have to wait and see if HTC announces anything in the coming days and weeks, but to be frank about it, the suspense is killing us.

[via Android Community]

Best Buy told Game Informer that it isn’t likely to receive the game until Wednesday, February 6, while GameStop said its shipments might not come in until Friday, February 8. Of course, it’s impossible to check with all GameStop and Best Buy stores, but the GameStop stores we called up they told us the same thing: no shipments until later this week. One GameStop employee said that the games may arrive by Wednesday, but Friday is probably the safer bet.

All of this, it seems, can be blamed on some kind of shipping error. We aren’t entirely sure what’s preventing these stores from receiving their copies of the game, but the problem is big enough that its retail release is now being pushed back a couple of days in some areas. In any case, there are probably still some stores receiving the game today, so if you’ve been hankering for some Fire Emblem action, call up the game stores around you and see if they’ve got it available.

There’s always the digital release too, with the game available right now through the 3DS eShop. It’s a shame to hear about these delays, as Fire Emblem: Awakening is being lauded as one of the best games on the 3DS. Did any of you manage to secure a copy of Fire Emblem: Awakening today, or are you hearing similar things from the store you pre-ordered it at?

Misek said that major UK carriers like EE, O2, and Orange are seeing high demand for the new handset, while Carphone Warehouse is actually experiencing “widespread sellouts.” He also claimed that sell-through rates could be as high as several hundred thousand in the UK, which is definitely a good sign for the struggling BlackBerry. Canada and UAE are two places where the phone is enjoying high pre-order numbers, though Misek didn’t talk specifics.

If Misek’s estimates are accurate, then the BlackBerry Z10 is off to an excellent start. Apparently, the white variant of the device is a bit more popular than the black variant, with the white ones in particular selling out at Carphone Warehouse. That doesn’t mean the black variant is unpopular, however, as that one is also experiencing limited stock in some places.

BlackBerry 10 is the company’s best shot at climbing out of the rut it’s worked itself into over the past few years. It used to be that BlackBerry phones were all the rage, but then Android and Apple came along to steal massive amounts of market share. Can this new OS and the Z10 help BlackBerry regain its former glory? It’s definitely a long shot, but things are looking good at this early stage. Stay tuned, and be sure to check out review of the BlackBerry Z1) to see what we thought of the device!

[via CNET]

This means Dragonborn will go live on February 13, with Hearthfire and Dawnguard following afterward with respective release dates of February 20 and February 27. That isn’t very bad at all, provided you can ignore the fact that Skyrim DLC was missing from PSN for months while Xbox 360 and PC players enjoyed it. Unfortunately, Bethesda says those with German, French, Italian, or Spanish editions of the game will have to wait a bit longer, as its currently finalizing a few things with Sony.

We still don’t know the exact cause of these delays, but we do know that Bethesda struggled quite a bit in bringing Skyrim‘s DLC to PS3. This, naturally, got a lot of fans upset, with many continuously asking Bethesda and VP of PR and Marketing Pete Hines when the DLC was going to arrive. Until just recently, Bethesda wasn’t able to provide answers to those questions, making fans even more angry.

For now, these problems seem to be solved, but if there’s more DLC on the way, there’s no telling if Bethesda will experience the same problems. In any case, it’s good that Bethesda finally figured out its issues, since at one point it was suggesting that PS3 may never see Dawnguard if it couldn’t figure out how to get the DLC working. Are you going to buy Skyrim‘s DLC when it releases on PSN, or is this a case of too little, too late?

[via Bethesda]

Of course, there isn’t that much of a difference between 1-3 business days and 3-5 business days, but the important takeaway here is that it seems the stock issues Apple has been facing are getting better. Apple has been struggling to meet the demand for the iPad mini, but Tim Cook seemed hopeful that these stock issues could be resolved quickly when the company delivered its financial results for Q1 2013.

With those quarterly earnings, Apple reported record iPhone and iPad sales, but there were some things about the report investors didn’t like. It wasn’t long after the quarterly earnings report landed that Apple’s stock was taking a tumble, and though its price has been fluctuating since then, it hasn’t come close to making up the ground it lost. Perhaps Apple’s stock will get a boost if these improved shipping times do indeed mean an end to the supply constraints?

In any case, the iPad mini seems to be selling well, even though we don’t have hard numbers. We imagine it was responsible for quite a few iPad sales in Apple’s record-setting quarter, and Apple said that it moved 3 million units in its first weekend. Are you going to pick one up now that shipping times have improved?

[via AppleInsider]

That puts net profit at NT$1 billion ($34 million US) for the quarter and earnings-per-share at NT$1.21. Despite the drops over the year-ago quarter, HTC CEO Peter Chou said that the company will continue to focus on innovating. According to him, HTC is optimistic as it heads into 2013, thanks to its “outstanding handsets” coupled with some improvements to its marketing execution.

However, while HTC may be confident about 2013 as a whole, things aren’t projected to get much better in the first quarter of the year, which ends in March. Looking forward, HTC expects revenue to land somewhere in the range of NT$50-60 billion, while gross margin should come in between 21% and 23%. We should be seeing operating margin settle near the same area it finished Q4 at, with HTC projecting between 0.5% and 1%.

HTC said that it saw “momentum” in Japan and Taiwan during Q4 2012, while sales in the US and China met expectations. HTC has the Butterfly to thank for that momentum in Japan and Taiwan, while we’re thinking that the DROID DNA had something to do with expectations in the US being met. With a shift in focus and fighting attitude, 2013 should be a pretty exciting year for the HTC fans of the world, so stay tuned.

[via HTC]

Interestingly, ASUS chooses not to focus on the tablet’s specs in the video, but there’s probably a good reason for that. After all, the tablet starts at $149, which means that ASUS isn’t able to outfit it with the best equipment around. Instead, we’re shown a number of apps ASUS has included with the MeMO Pad 7, like ASUS Studio, BudyBuzz, MyPainter, and SuperNote Lite.

There are more apps on display other than those, but we don’t want to ruin everything about the video. Though ASUS keeps talk about hardware features brief, it does make sure to point out that the MeMO Pad 7 comes with a microSD slot. The company also reminds us that those who purchase the MeMO Pad 7 will get 5GB of free cloud storage with ASUS WebStorage, which will be a handy feature to have indeed.

Though the MeMO Pad 7 looks pretty similar to the Nexus 7 (which ASUS also made), its specs don’t exactly match up. The MeMO Pad 7 features a 7-inch screen displaying at 1024 x 600 resolution, a 1GHz VIA WM8950 processor, 1GB of RAM, and a relatively beefy 4,270mAh battery. The tablet is also running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box, so while it isn’t the best tablet on the block, it may not be a bad idea for those who are looking for an inexpensive slate.

[Thanks Alex!]

Samsung’s rumored 1080p smartphone has been tipped with an Exynos 5 processor, and Google has started a €60 million French digital publishing fund. New reports are saying that the PlayStation 4 will indeed be on store shelves this year, and that it will include a controller with a touchpad, among other things. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 has made an appearance in benchmark results and appears to be ready for an MWC 2013 reveal, while the ESA is proposing 3D printed buildings on the surface of the moon.

GameStick’s Kickstarter campaign has ended with $647,658 in funding, and sources are saying that word of a Dell buyout could come as early as Monday. We found out that gun manufacturers make money from the sale of some video games, and we caught a glimpse of KIA’s new “Respect the Tech” Super Bowl commercials that feature sexy robots and space babies. We ask if Android is really crushing the iPhone, or if it’s all just hype, and unfortunately Sea Launch’s latest mission has failed, destroying the rocket and satellite in the process.

The Sound City Players have a set a new show in NYC for a film celebration, the Call of Duty championship is kicking off on April 1, and Bethesda has announced release dates for the incoming Skyrim PS3 DLC. Finally tonight, Craig Lloyd tells you how to prepare for the iOS 6.1 jailbreak coming up on Sunday, I tell you what Sony needs to do to make the PS4 a success, and Cory Gunther takes the 2014 KIA Sorento for a test drive. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the weekend!

That’s not bad at all, and Honda seems to have struck gold with the 2013 Accord. Other cars, like the Pilot SUV and the Crosstour, saw sales grow too (a 38.2% increase over a year ago for the Crosstour), but none of them were able to top the growth of the Accord. Things were looking pretty good for Honda’s Acura division too, as the RDX set sales records once again last month, and the MDX retained its position as Acura’s top-selling model.

This isn’t the first time today we’ve been talking about the Accord. Honda announced earlier today that it will be offering Siri Eyes Free technology in the 2013 Accord along with the Acura RDX and ILX. Siri Eyes Free will obviously help drivers keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel, which is important given the recent cut down on distracted driving coming from the government.

With the announcement of Siri Eyes Free and now the excellent sales report, it seems that Honda is off to a pretty good start in 2013. It’ll be interesting to see where 2013 Accord sales go from here now that Siri Eyes Free has been announced, if the feature has any sway on sales at all. Stay tuned.

[via USA Today]

First and foremost, Sony needs to get even more serious about securing exclusive games for the PS4. Throughout the entire generation, Sony has offered some excellent exclusives to PS3 players. Microsoft had some good exclusives for the Xbox 360 throughout most of the console’s life, but these days it seems that the company would rather make timed-exclusive DLC deals. That’s all well and good, but timed-exclusive DLC is a poor substitute for exclusive full games. Sony not only needs to make sure the PS4 has a solid exclusive games library, but it also needs to kick it up a bit.

In the next generation, Sony can’t be stingy with its money – it needs to go out there, find good titles, and then plop down the cash needed to make those games exclusive to PS4. If it can offer a large number of exclusive games, that will drive consumers to the console, especially when its still in the early days after launch.

To give you an example, I have a friend who recently went out and bought a PS3 so he could play the US release of Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. It’s hard for gamers to resist the lure of a really awesome-looking game, which is why I’m willing to bet he isn’t the only one who bought a PS3 for Ni No Kuni. Good games that players can’t find anywhere else will always pull in more consumers than fancy technical specs, despite what the technophiles of the world will tell you.

That being said, Sony needs to get better at recognizing when a franchise doesn’t need any new releases. God of War: Ascension seems to be the God of War title no one was asking for, while a number of Ratchet and Clank games released this generation have been a far cry from the Ratchet and Clank games of the PS2 era. Instead of putting money into franchises that could use a rest, Sony could take that money and invest it in exclusive titles from promising third-parties, or it could even take a risk and develop some new franchises of its own. The temptation to keep milking a franchise with a loyal fanbase is definitely great, but by releasing title after title, you end up alienating gamers who have fond memories with the series. Unfortunately, many of those gamers aren’t going to come back when you’ve finally figured out how to bring something new and exciting to the franchise.

I think Sony should look to Japan more often in the next generation, too. We’ve got a lot of interest in Japanese games at the moment – Persona, Ni No Kuni, Xenoblade, Pandora’s Tower, The Last Story – all of them have been popping up left and right here in North America. They’ve all been getting attention as well. Sony has an advantage over Microsoft in this case, as Japanese developers aren’t making too many games for the Xbox 360. Until Microsoft learns how to effectively tackle the Japanese market, that will remain to be the case, leaving Sony with a flood of unique and interesting titles for its own console.

Why not publish more promising Japanese titles with the intention of bringing them to western markets in the next generation? There seems to be a belief that western gamers aren’t all that interested in Japanese video games, but I think this generation proved that’s more a misconception than anything else.

Sony also needs to pay more attention to indies in the next generation. PSN is already a great place to find indie games, but it seems to be more or less on par with the offerings over on XBLA. It needs to be better with the PS4. Indie games exploded this year, and Sony needs to take a bigger slice of that pie for itself. It needs to make a PSN where it can try new and different things, unlike the by-the-books nature of Xbox Live. Granted, Sony is already doing better than Microsoft in the online market area, but I’d like to see it take even more risks with PSN in the future.

Above all else, though, Sony needs to admit when things just aren’t working out. When you launch something like Move or PS Vita and it doesn’t do much else other than fester, the correct course of action is not to pretend everything is okay and let it fester some more. Move is a cool peripheral, and as far as the other motion control peripherals go, I think it has the Wii remote and Kinect beat. However, that doesn’t matter much when there aren’t any games for it. The same is true of the PS Vita – here we’ve got some excellent portable hardware, and it’s not doing anything but collecting dust because no one’s buying it and no one’s making games for it.

Staying the course doesn’t help in cases like these. If something isn’t working with the PS4, Sony can’t just leave that problem hanging there and hope it gets better on the promise of cool things to come. It needs to get creative and shake things up a bit. I’m not entirely sure how you fix the problems with the Vita, but I’m positive that Sony’s current way of handling these issues isn’t working. Let’s not allow that to happen with the PlayStation 4.

Bethesda will release Hearthfire, the DLC that tasks players will buying up a plot of land and collecting the materials to build a house, one week later on February 19. The trio of releases wraps up with the launch of Dawnguard on February 26. Dawnguard was the first Skyrim DLC to launch on Xbox 360 and PC, giving players a chance to join up with the vampire hunting group of the same name or throw in with the vampires instead.

Of the three, Dragonborn is the largest and seems to be most popular. Perhaps the only proper expansion to Skyrim, it adds the island of Solstheim to the game, and takes players through a story line that involves meeting the first Dragonborn. All of that extra content comes with a pretty hefty price tag, however, with Dragonborn costing a pretty significant $20.

Bethesda has struggled in bringing Skyrim DLC to PS3, leaving players to wait months while those on Xbox 360 and PC received regular DLC releases. Possibly as a way to make peace with understandably angry PS3 owners, Bethesda has announced that each DLC will be 50% off for the first week after release. Unfortunately, the dates announced today are only for North America, with Bethesda saying it’s working with Sony Europe to “finalize certification.” We’ll let you know when Bethesda announces those European release dates, so keep it tuned here to SlashGear for more.

[via Bethesda]

That’s interesting enough as it is, but Edge’s sources go on to say that the new PS4 controller will also feature a share button that users can press to share gameplay screenshots and videos online. As you’re playing your PS4, the console will record 15-minute videos. The idea is that if something cool happens, you can go back to the video your PS4 recorded, edit it, and then put it up on the Internet for the world to see.

These sources also claim that the PS4 will indeed launch this year in the US and Japan, but unfortunately European consumers will have to wait until early 2014 to get their hands on one. This seems to match up with a report we heard from the Wall Street Journal earlier today, which claimed a 2013 launch for the console as well. We’re also told to expect a new version of the PlayStation Eye to come with the PS4, boasting some improvements over its predecessors.

Next up, we’ve got the hardware. People apparently close to the project claim that the PS4 will ship with 4GB of GDDR5 RAM, though Sony might consider bumping that up to 8GB by the time the system launches. The PS4 may also have an eight-core CPU sporting AMD’s ‘R10XX’ architecture, so it should be a pretty powerful game machine. Edge has spoken to someone who claims to be familiar with both next-generation consoles and says the PS4 is “slightly more powerful” than the next Xbox. This person also claims that the PS4 is easy to work with, which should do something to draw third-parties in.

All of this is very exciting, but at the end of the day, none of it has been confirmed by Sony just yet. With that in mind, it’s probably a good idea to remain skeptical of these claims until we have some official details from the company. The PS4 is expected to be revealed at a Sony event later this month, so stay tuned.

Starting right off with mobile platforms, some of the things the FTC recommends include providing “just-in-time” disclosures and asking for a user’s “affirmative express consent” before allowing apps to access sensitive information. It would also like to see mobile platforms require app makers to make privacy discloses, and recommends an icon or something similar that can show when user data is being transmitted. One of the most intriguing recommendations is a “Do Not Track” list users can add their name to, saying they don’t want to be tracked by ad networks as they use apps.

On the app developer side of things, the FTC would like to see privacy policies that are accessible via app store listings, along with more just-in-time disclosures when an app is about to collect data. The FTC also recommends that app developers join self-regulatory programs that can help them make privacy policies that are clear and easy for users to read. The list of recommendations for app developers is quite a bit shorter than the list for mobile platforms, with the FTC clearly thinking that most of these privacy concerns can be solved by platform holders.

While mobile platforms and app developers play a big part in privacy concerns, there’s also advertising networks to worry about. The FTC suggests that ad networks and other third-parties work with app developers to make sure users are seeing truthful privacy disclosures. The organization is also pushing for advertising networks to implement the aforementioned Do Not Track list and make it work.

The FTC “strongly encourages” everyone in the mobile space to begin following these recommendations, but whether or not developers, mobile platforms, and ad networks will listen is another story entirely. The FTC makes some good recommendations in its report, but in the end, they don’t mean much if the parties at the heart of the privacy debate don’t follow them. There are more recommendations other than the ones mentioned here, so if you have a moment to read through the entire thing, you can find the FTC’s release through the source link below.

[via Federal Trade Commission]

We’ll probably be waiting for more details beyond that suspected launch event too, as there’s a chance Sony will wait until E3 2013 to talk about pricing and a release date. In any case, the Wall Street Journal‘s anonymous sources – who are said to be “familiar with the matter” – claim the next PlayStation will be arriving this year, with Sony targeting a pre-holiday launch. They also claim that Sony was considering ditching the optical drive in the PS4 at one point, be ultimately decided against it.

Good thing too, since many gamers these days still don’t have their consoles connected to the Internet. There’s also the problems of large download files and storage space, so requiring players to download their PS4 games probably wouldn’t be the best idea. Luckily, the optical drive has since been restored to the work-in-progress console, or so these sources claim.

WSJ‘s write-up also says that Sony is focusing on the social aspects of gaming with the next PlayStation, so it sounds like Sony may be taking a few cues from Nintendo here. Just as well, apparently the company is putting more importance on improving the way people interact with their console than it is on improving hardware. Perhaps Move will play a larger part in Sony’s next generation console? We’ll hopefully be finding out soon.

The CEA is seeking a new Best of CES partner after the Dish Hopper situation with CBS, and something fishy seems to be going on behind the scenes over at Kim Dotcom’s new site Mega. Nintendo said that a Wii U price cut isn’t going to happen despite sales that were below expectations, and Apple announced that it will be discontinuing the Mac Pro in Europe starting March 1. BlackBerry 10′s app library might just be 40& Android apps that have been repackaged, while Netflix and Hulu AdZone access will be free on Xbox Live this weekend.

Amazon suffered a bit of an outage this afternoon (but things are good now), and the LG Optimus L7 II Dual leaked in new images today. Grand Theft Auto V‘s spring release was delayed to September 17, while the Angry Birds Star Wars Escape from Hoth update landed today. We learned that the Wall Street Journal was also recently attack by Chinese hackers, and Electronic Arts announced that its next Madden game will be arriving on August 27.

Ashton Kutcher talked about what he hopes fans take away from his new movie JOBS, and Samsung announced that it had purchased a 5% stake in Wacom for almost $60 million. Apple has blocked the latest version of Java 7 from Mac OS X browsers, the Motorola X-Phone has popped up in a new job listing, and Sony announced that it will bringing the Garnet Red PS3 to North America after all. Finally tonight, Chris Davies goes hands-on with the Fujifilm X100S and X20, while Chris Burns tells us why BlackBerry 10 has a bleak future and what three steps RIM would need to take to make a BlackBerry 10 tablet a success. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!

In a NVIDIA Blog post, the company explains that Eurora managed to reach “3,150 megaflops per watt of sustained performance,” which just so happens to beat the efficiency of the highest-ranked supercomputer on the Green500 list by 26%. That isn’t bad at all, and it’s thanks to Eurotech’s Aurora hot water cooling system.

By using hot water cooling, the Eurora doesn’t need to be cooled by air conditioning, obviously saving on energy costs. NVIDIA describes the benefit of using hot water by pointing out that it can be “re-purposed to heat buildings or drive absorption chillers, and then returned back to the supercomputer at a cooler temperature.” The Eurora is equipped with 64 compute nodes, which are each made up of two Intel Xeon E5-series CPUs and two NVIDIA Tesla K20 GPU accelerators. Since the water cooling system allows Eurotech to save space in the Eurora, NVIDIA says it’s able to fit 256 CPUs and GPUs into a single rack.

While the water cooling system helped the Eurora meet its efficiency goals, it didn’t do all the work along. The Telsa K20 GPUs are also quite efficient too, with NVIDIA pointing out that they’re four times more efficient than x86 CPUs. The Eurora made its way to the Cineca supercomputer facility in Bologna, Italy this week, with NVIDIA and Eurotech predicting that it will save 2.5 million kilowatt hours and eliminate 1,500 tons of CO2 emissions over the course of its 5-year life. That, ladies and gentlemen, is one efficient machine.

Like all good teasers, Sony’s doesn’t give away anything. All we see are the classic PlayStation button symbols and the February 20, 2013 date at the end. The post on the PlayStation Blog is similarly short on details, but the title does invite us to “See the Future.” There’s also a link users can follow to leave their information to “Be the First to Know.” Naturally, we can’t be sure of Sony’s intentions, but it certainly sounds like the company is gearing up to announce its next console.

This event will be going down at 6PM Eastern on the February 20, and if Sony is planning to use it to reveal the PlayStation 4, it’ll probably be getting quite the jump on Microsoft. The Xbox maker has been just as secretive about its next console, but recently, Major Nelson posted a countdown clock to E3 2013 on his blog. That suggests Microsoft will reveal the next Xbox at the expo in June, meaning that Sony could have a number of months on Microsoft if it chooses to go all-in on February 20.

We’ll just have to wait and see, because you can bet Sony won’t let any new details slip out before it holds this event. We’ll naturally be covering Sony’s event, so you’ll be able to find details on whatever the company announces right here at SlashGear. Do you think Sony is getting ready to announce the PlayStation 4?

The only update to the Twitter Status page says that the issue causing the outages, which were happening for a three-hour block this morning, has been resolved. “We apologize to users who were affected by this, and we’re working to ensure that similar issues do not occur,” the update reads. Other than that, we don’t have any details on the cause behind the problems.

Looking at previous posts on the Status page, however, it becomes clear that being specific isn’t really Twitter’s way. The other two days Twitter experienced outages this month, updates said something similar to what we’re hearing today. It looks like the reason behind Twitter’s outage will remain a mystery, though it is good to hear that Twitter is trying to prevent this from happening moving forward.

While Twitter didn’t go down for everyone today, it did seem to go out on a significant number of people. We’ll be keeping an ear to the ground and listening for more details from Twitter, but at this point it seems that the company is ready to move on from today’s problems. Is Twitter still down for you, or is everything running normally on your end?

[via ComputerWorld]

According to MacGeneration and this thread on the Apple Support Communities site, Apple has blocked this latest version of Java using its Xprotect software. Apple uses Xprotect to keep malware out, and this is the same software it used to block Java earlier in the month. Just as it did before, Apple has made Xprotect block a version of Java that doesn’t yet exist, meaning all earlier versions (including the current one) are blocked as well.

Apple isn’t the only one taking issue with Oracle’s claim that the security concerns have been addressed. The Department of Homeland Security is still recommending that consumers refrain from using Java after the update, saying that all of the security flaws have not yet been fixed. The flaw could potentially allow unsigned applets to run without permission, which in turn means that some of the more undesirable people of the world could potentially take control of your computer.

So, with the Department of Homeland Security still warning against using Java, it may not be such a bad thing that Apple has restricted access to the browser plug-in. This will naturally prove to be headache for a lot of different Mac users considering that Java is everywhere these days, but until Oracle provides another update, there doesn’t seem to be much that can be done. Stay tuned, because we’ll probably be hearing more about this soon.

[via MacRumors]

If you think that sounds like a lot of games, you’re right – you’ll be the owner of six God of War games if you choose to pick up this bundle, thanks to the inclusion of the God of War Saga. The God of War Saga takes the first two God of War games for PS2 and gives them a coat of HD paint, tossing the PSP titles Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta in for good measure. It also features God of War III, which was the only game in the series made for the PS3 prior to the announcement of Ascension.

The Garnet Red PS3 in this pack will come equipped with a beefy 500GB hard drive and a matching controller. Aside from the entire God of War series and the PS3, purchasers will also get 30 days of PlayStation Plus, which is just enough time to tempt you into paying for a full year. Sony has given the bundle a price of $349, which doesn’t seem to bad considering the sheer amount of stuff you’re getting.

Of course, God of War: Ascension isn’t out yet, so this bundle won’t be available immediately. It launches on March 12, 2013, the same day as God of War: Ascension. Are you planning to pick up this bundle, or are you already set as far as PS3 is concerned?

[via PlayStation Blog]

After all, Motorola could have filled the position, but it also may have taken the listing down because someone made a mistake and mentioned the X-Phone before the company was ready to talk about it. Either way, the fact that this job ad was posted by Motorola Mobility and mentions the X-Phone by name will be enough confirmation for some folks. Unfortunately, since the listing is no longer active, the amount of new information we can get from it is next to nothing.

However, that may not be all that bad, as Phandroid says the listing didn’t contain much information to begin with. The one thing that was pointed out is that the listing made it sound like the X-Phone is still in the early development process, when the rumors we’ve been hearing say it’s close to finished. Perhaps the sources of these rumors were mistaken and Motorola is just now beginning to ramp up production on the X-Phone?

Whatever is going on, the X-Phone is rumored to be the first team up between Motorola and Google. It’s said to come with a 5-inch screen and maybe even running Android 4.5 or 5.0, which is definitely exciting. As always, you should take every rumor with a grain of salt – including this one – but it seems that Motorola may just be working to bring us the fabled X-Phone. Stay tuned.

[via Android Community]

In a presentation to investors after Nintendo revised its sales forecast, president Saturo Iwata said that the company isn’t planning to drop the price on the Wii U any time soon. Some were expecting a price cut if Nintendo found itself in hot water with the Wii U, since it implemented a price cut when 3DS sales were lagging. Iwata said in his presentation that he “would like to make this point absolutely clear,” so it seems Nintendo is holding firm on the issue.

One of the reasons Nintendo doesn’t want to cut the price on the Wii U is because it’s already offering the console at a loss. Dropping the price below where it’s at now would definitely widen that loss, so it may not help that much. Instead of dropping the price, Nintendo says it will try to better communicate the value of the Wii U as we wait for the console’s software line up to improve.

Software will also be a major focus for Nintendo moving forward. During the most recent Nintendo Direct livestream, Iwata revealed a number of exciting Wii U games, announcing an HD remake of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and informing us all that the company will have new Mario and Mario Kart games for the Wii U on display at E3 2013. We’ll see how Nintendo addresses Wii U sales that are below expectations soon enough, but after today, a price drop just doesn’t seem to be in the cards.

[via Joystiq]

It would seem the problem lies with sites that index the content on Mega, with one site in particular – Mega-search.me – getting some attention today. Users can submit submit links for their Mega files to Mega-search.me, allowing others to access them. Apparently, these copyright holders are finding their content through indexes like Mega-search.me and then issuing takedown requests.

That all appears to add up, but now we run into another problem, as content that’s completely legal is also being taken down. Many of the links on Mega-search.me have gone dead in just a matter of hours, with users seeing their legal content disappearing after receiving a DMCA takedown request. This isn’t very easy to explain, but TorrentFreak suggests that someone out there is filing fake DMCA requests and Mega is complying with most of the copyright warnings.

Another possibility is that Mega itself is targeting these indexes as a way to prevent users from finding and sharing copyrighted content uploaded to the site. Whatever is happening, it’s got some Mega users understandably upset, and the rest of us scratching our heads. We’ll be keeping an ear to the ground for more information, so keep it here at SlashGear for additional details.

Of course, there were plenty of other headlines to cover throughout the day, with Dropbox announcing a new feature called Documents Preview. Speaking of Dropbox, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer had some not-so-nice things to say about the service today. Zynga’s chief game designer has left the company after four years, while Twitter has improved photo and video viewing in its website interface. Nintendo slashed its Wii U sales predictions today, and the white Nexus 4 took some time to pose for the camera once again.

A trio of Galaxy Tab user agent profile worked their way into the spotlight today, and Toyota has recalled 1.1 million vehicles. Rovio was spotted teasing its new “Escape from Hoth” update to Angry Birds Star Wars, and Netflix is planning at least five new shows a year to compete with HBO. A giant asteroid will be zooming past the Earth on February 15, while Apple has secured a trademark for the layout and design of its stores.

Qualcomm shared quarterly earnings today, as did Facebook, Electronic Arts, and Lenovo. IBM’s Watson will soon be heading off to his first university, while a new trailer for INJUSTICE: Gods Among Us dropped today. Foursquare delivered a bunch of different Best of Foursquare lists today, while Ticketmaster has announced that it will be ditching CAPTCHA. Finally tonight, Cory Gunther spends some quality time with 2014 KIA Forte, Chris Burns delivers his review of the Acer Iconia W510, and Chris Davies asks if RIM even realizes what went wrong with its business. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!

The company posted a non-GAAP net income of $176 million, while non-GAAP diluted earnings-per-share actually fell in line with guidance, coming in at $0.57. While that’s decent, the GAAP numbers tell a different story. The company posted a GAAP revenue of $922 million but a net loss of $45 million, which results in a diluted loss-per-share of $0.15. That doesn’t sound great, but one good point about these losses is that they’re actually smaller year-over-year, and by a significant amount too.

It seems that the losses this quarter can at least partially be blamed on Medal of Honor: Warfighter. Launching to middling critical reception, Warfighter‘s sales were lower than expected, and Joystiq has confirmed that EA will be taking the series “out of rotation,” meaning that it isn’t going to be making any new Medal of Honor games for a while. Also remember that we seem to be closing in on the end of the current console generation, which is usually a time when players don’t buy as many new games in anticipation of upcoming consoles – something that probably affected EA’s sales too.

However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom about EA’s franchises, as the company also says that Dead Space 3 and Crysis 3 pre-orders are outpacing those of their predecessors. Battlefield 3 Premium also earned some recognition in EA’s report, pulling in $108 million over the course of the quarter. FIFA 13 sold a whopping 12 million copies during the quarter as well, with digital revenue from the game topping $100 million for the period. So, while there were some things about the report that weren’t so great, EA’s biggest franchises are definitely in good shape.

[via EA; via Wall Street Journal]

Though 529,000 copies is better than what was originally claimed, it still isn’t great. Unfortunately, the game received mixed reviews upon release, which we can’t imagine is something that helped slow sales. Officially, Disney says it shut down Junction Point as “part of our ongoing effort to address the fast-evolving gaming platforms and marketplace and to align resources against our key priorities.”

It wasn’t too long ago that Disney also shut down Black Rock Studios, so Junction Point is just the latest developer to be closed by the company. The fact that Disney has shut down two studios doesn’t mean that it will leave the console space, though, as it recently announced Disney Infinity. With Infinity, Disney will try to tackle the market for Activision‘s Skylanders series, which has blown up into a massive franchise over the years.

Just as well, Disney announced the acquisition of Lucasfilm last year, meaning it now owns the Star Wars license. There’s a rich history of Star Wars video games, but Disney says it will probably focus more on social and mobile games based on the property. For now, all attention will stay on Disney Infinity, and you can bet more details are coming soon. Stay tuned.

[via Forbes]

Amazon delivered its Q4 2012 results today, posting a net loss of $39 million for the year. Just the same, Gameloft’s Q4 2012 saw record sales, so the company is looking pretty good going into 2013. The EFF clarified the new laws against jailbreaking today, and this week retailers gained the ability to charge you for credit card purchases. XMBC 12 is now available with support for Android and Raspberry Pi, while Google is donating 15,000 of the inexpensive computers to UK students.

The HTC HD2 has been hacked to run Windows RT, while Electronic Arts announced that SimCity will be coming to Mac this spring. We learned of some rather strange-sounding fixes to the iPhone 5′s “greyed Wi-Fi” issue, and Samsung has announced that it will buy medical imaging company NeuroLogica. After a bit of a situation involving adult videos on Vine, Twitter has remedied the problem, while YouTube is said to be considering paid content in 2013.

500px is now back on the App Store after a porn problem of its own, and the ban on unlocking phones has resulted in a petition on the official White House website. New interest from the US Department of Justice will probably result in delays for the Sprint/Softbank deal, so don’t expect to close very fast. Acer is hinting at some new budget tablets to take on the likes of Google and Amazon, while we also heard that the iPad 5 will be smaller than previous iterations. NVIDIA has released a new beta driver in time for the Crysis 3 multiplayer beta, Pinterest is readying a new site design, and Hawken showed us some fancy PhysX graphics in a new trailer. Finally tonight, we have a review of the Dell XPS One 27 for you to check out, along with a first drive of the KIA Sorento and Forte. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of the night folks!

Regarding the changes to navigation, Pinterest is keeping its description short. The company only says that it’s made navigation more “intuitive” and faster to boot, showing off a half-image of the new interface. We can see a new drop-down menu split into plenty of different categories on the left of the page, so look forward to that once this new design lands later on down the road.

Pins are also getting something of an overhaul in this redesign, with Pinterest making them bigger in general. Users will also see more information related to the pin they’re viewing, as the new site will show related pins as well as additional ones from the same board. In other words, expect to lose track of time while browsing Pinterest more often than you already do.

There’s no word on when these new features will roll out for everyone, but for now, Pinterest is only going to be testing it with a small group of users. If you want to join this elite few, you can submit your information to Pinterest to be considered as a tester. The company seems to be keeping most things under wraps for the time being, so hopefully we hear a bit more about this redesign soon. Keep it here at SlashGear for more.

With PhysX Turbulence, Hawken‘s developers are going to turn the particle effects up to 11. Turbulence uses velocity fields to show particles-in-action, which will make things like health pickups, fires, and shields look even cooler in-game. The developers have teamed up with NVIDIA to launch a new trailer showing off what Turbulence is capable of in Hawken‘s world, and it can check it out below.

While you won’t be missing anything from the core gameplay experience if you don’t have PhysX (and by extension Turbulence) turned on, the feature definitely makes for some impressive visuals. In the trailer, you’ll get a side-by-side look at Hawken’s visuals with Turbulence turned off and on, and the differences are pretty obvious. If you’ve got a rig that can handle it, playing with PhysX enabled definitely seems to be the way to go.

The only problem is that Hawken doesn’t support Turbulence just yet. Though support for other PhysX features is already there, Turbulence functionality is still on the way. Adhesive Games says the feature is coming soon though, so you can bet we’ll keeping an ear to the ground for more information. Stay tuned.

Luckily, today’s the day, so if you’ve been holding out for it to return to the Google Play Store, you’ll probably want to head over there sooner rather than later. After all, there’s no telling if the Nexus 4 will sell out again, but with so many people waiting to buy one, it might not be long before stock is tight. At the time of this writing, the listings for both the 8GB and 16GB variants say orders will be shipping out in 1-2 weeks.

Hopefully that shipping time doesn’t get extended as more people order a Nexus 4, but you never know. The Nexus 4 proved to be incredibly popular upon release, packing in solid hardware at a price that’s too hard to ignore for many smartphone users. The 8GB Nexus 4 only costs $299.99, while the 16GB model is $349.99 – keep in mind that you’re getting an unlocked Nexus 4 when you order directly from Google, so that sweetens the deal further.

The Nexus 4 offers a 4.7-inch display at 1280×760 resolution, 2GB of RAM, a Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, and a 8MP rear-facing camera, so it’s pretty easy to see why folks are going nuts over it. It’s also one of the few devices to be running Android 4.2, and having the latest version of Android along for the ride isn’t bad either. You can grab one now by navigating over to the Google Play Store.

[via Android Community]

This also happens to be NVIDIA’s first driver release of the new year, and with the company claiming improvements in 17 different games, you could argue we’re starting the year off with a bang. While the main focus will definitely be on the improvements made for the Crysis 3 beta, others like Assassin’s Creed III, Black Ops II, and Far Cry 3 are also benefiting from single-GPU and SLI performance boosts. So, if you’re not planning on participating in the Crysis 3 beta and are playing some of 2012′s biggest games instead, you’ll still want to grab this driver.

Of course, part of the problem is that Crysis 3 isn’t even out yet, so it’s hard to know what to expect from the beta. NVIDIA has compiled a list of recommended settings for a handful of its GeForce GTX 600 series cards. Again, keep in mind that you may need to change a few things depending on your hardware setup, but NVIDIA says that these recommended settings should serve as a good jumping off point. Sorry to say, but if you’re using a GTX 650, it looks like a lot of your settings will have to go down to low. Check out the full chart below.

This chart is just the tip of the iceberg though, with NVIDIA posting a series of performance bar charts to show how a number of its GPUs performed before and after installing the driver. NVIDIA has Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows 8 packages available for desktop setups, while those on laptops will have access to Windows 7 and 8 package donwloads. If you’re interested in downloading the driver, you can grab it now from the official GeForce site.

The trailer doesn’t give much about the game away, but it does set the stage nicely for the story. Interestingly enough, the trailer has that ’70s or ’80s feel, even though the events in BioShock Infinite take place long before then. So, it would seem that Mr. Bloom is looking for clues about Columbia quite some time after the events in the game go down.

It’s been a long wait, but BioShock Infinite is nearly upon us. After a number of delays, the game will now be releasing at the end of March. Two more months may seem like an eternity to those who have already been waiting years for the game, so here’s hoping that it isn’t hit with any additional delays. We can’t imagine this new trailer does much to quell the anticipation, but it’s worth a watch for any BioShock fan nonetheless. Check it out below.

We have to say, while this is certainly an odd direction for a video game trailer, we like it a lot. Perhaps we’ll see more Truth From Legend segments that give us a look into Alistar Bloom’s search for Columbia? One can only hope. BioShock Infinite is out on March 26, 2013 for Xbox 360, PC, and PS3.