No Android Update Or New Nexus At Google I/O - A Good Move by Google

I/O is admittedly Google’s biggest event every year for the past 6 years now. It is during these 3 days that Google shows of the future of Google and its products. These three days in the past have seen some of the biggest announcements from the Mountain View Company - from the Nexus 7 to Google TV, Chrome to Glass and everything in between.

The Google I/O 2013 began yesterday, and the opening keynote stretched for more than three hours (it began at 10 PM IST). The earlier rumors were pointing for a refurbished Nexus 7, Android 4.3, maybe a Nexus 5 or the Motorola X phone. But as the keynote progressed, with new features and updates dropping left and right, it became more and more evident what this year’s I/O was all about: Google services and apps. And that does not make the I/O a failure, rather this move was a good thing by Google.

For the past few year’s Google has been giving its OS an upgrade nearly every 6 months. This has led to an already fragmented market getting worse. As a developer, for your apps to reach the majority – one has to support devices from Android v2.1 and up. If Google shifts to an annual cycle, by releasing new Android versions in December along with the updated tablets and mobile. It will not only help reduce the fragmentation on Android, but also launches during the holiday season could be beneficial to the OEM’s (If they can keep up with the demand).

This also makes the I/O event more for the developers and a bit less for the consumers, which in my eyes is exactly what this 3 days event is about. For me Google I/O has been about new services from Google and how a developer can use them. The few new hardware/software launches that I appreciated were revolutionary (Chrome, Glass, even the first Nexus 7), rather than being just evolutionary. The launches (of upgrades in products) should occur at press conferences and not at a developer conference.

The focus of this year’s I/O was on all the kinds of things Google is doing for developers so that they can write better things. It showed how Google services are doing amazing things on top of Android (and also Chrome). For a complete round-up of this year’s I/O – Click Here (Android Police) or Here (The Verge).

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[Update] Jack is Back - 24 Returns For 12 New Episodes

Come May 2014, Kiefer Sutherland (a.k.a Jack Bauer) will be back as an agent of the Counter Terrorist Unit, as he races against time to stop various terrorist plots. Kevin Reilley the broadcasting chief at Fox announced that 24 will be returning in 2014 via his twitter account.

But this time the season (ninth) will consist only of 12 episodes according to Brian Stelter of The New York Times. This is a big deviation from its longstanding format, where each hour-long episode represents an hour in realtime. It was the unique approach of "real time"that had caught the attention of the public back in 2001 when the show began.

Fox plans to switch things up for Jack Bauer's ninth day-long adventure. "What they'll be able to do is go in chronological order of the day, but skip hours," Reilly said. That means each hour viewers see will still be "real time," but 24's writers will be able to tell a tighter, more engrossing narrative. Apparently that idea came fromshowrunner Howard Gordon, who told Reilly that each 24-episode season of the show ultimately contained about 12 episodes of compelling storyline.

Reilly says the show is likely to return to Fox at some point in May 2014.

Update: According to Zap2It the 12 episode series will be called "24: Live Another Day"

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Wolfenstein: The New Order announced

Today Bethesda Softworks unveiled their latest offering Wolfenstein: The New Order. Wolfenstein remains as one of the most iconic first shooter games till date, and a reimagined take on the classic first-person shooter is under development at MachineGames.

"As fans of the series, working on this game is an honor, and our team is driven to create an unforgettable action-adventure experience that will make FPS fans proud," said Jens Matthies, creative director at developer MachineGames.

The game is set in an alternate history in the 1960’s, in which the Nazis won the World War II. The game will also feature the return of the protagonist B.J. Blazkowicz. The first trailer also shows indication of robotic enemies.

The publisher announced the title today, tentatively setting a Q4 2013 shipping timeframe for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and next generation consoles.

With a childhood filled with memories of the original title, I'm really looking forward to this game! 

Source: GameSpot

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Next Xbox Will Play Games Offline - Leaked Email

With 21 May coming even closer, the excitement around the new Xbox grows even higher.

First the discussions were mainly about the name with Xbox 720, Xbox Loop and Xbox Durango (which turned out to be the internal testing name for the device). The hocus-pocus around the name soon died with most people anticipating it to be called just “Xbox”. This make a lot of sense to me as it conveys a powerful sense of commitment. It says that it isn’t the next Xbox, or the latest Xbox, or anything like that — just simply the definitive machine. This would be similar to Apple’s strategy of naming the most recent of its tablet offering simply as “iPad”.

A now-former Microsoft employee was even caught defending the controversial feature 

The topic that stirred up quite a storm on the internet was the “Always on, Always Connected.” rumor about the next Xbox. I’m not so sure where it originated, it was about the requirement of active internet connection to use any feature of the next Xbox. Right from the start I was against this, and I always thought of it as a gigantic mistake by Microsoft. It would hand the business to Sony with its PS4, and basically tell people with unreliable internet that they shouldn’t buy the console.

It was quite a relief to see an internal letter pop up onArs Techina. “There are a number of scenarios that our users expect to work without an Internet connection, and those should ‘just work’ regardless of their current connection status,” the email says, it also goes on to state single player gaming to be one such scenario. The fact that it’s a mass email suggests that this is a recent change, or at least a recent clarification, in Microsoft’s official policy. A company however big it might be never sends an e-mail to everyone to say, "Just FYI, the policy we've had this whole time is still the policy. Keep doing what you've been doing."  

How good the next Xbox will be? We still don’t know. Will it be better than the PS4? No idea. But luckily the fears that the console will be completely useless when your broadband goes down have been overblown.

Source: Ars Techina 

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