Computers

Microsoft officially unveiled the new Xbox One yesterday, and while there's still details we don't know, there is one we can shed some light on. Independent game developers are going to be unable to self-publish games on the Xbox One, and must get a publishing deal either through Microsoft or another company. It's the same way indie games are handled on the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade, but a stark contrast to what Sony, Nintendo, and Valve are currently doing. In a recent interview, Matt Booty, general manager of Redmond Game Studios and Platforms, responded with the following statement when asked if developers need a publisher on Xbox One: "as of right now, yes. We intend to continue to court developers in the ways that we have." He did add a little later: I would also expect that for this new generation, that we're going to continue to explore new business models and new ways of surfacing content. But Microsoft Studios is a publisher that works with a wide range of partners, as do a lot of other people, to bring digital content to the box. That "new business models" bit is decidedly open-ended, but it could be years down the road before any of us have an idea of what it entails. For now, it looks like indie devs are going to look towards Sony's PlayStation Store, Nintendo's eShop, and Valve's Steam service to get their games out to the masses. Sony and Nintendo both are even bringing the Unity engine to consoles (Sony with the PS4, PS3, PS Vita, and PS Mobile; Nintendo with Wii U), which is going to open the door for an impressive number of indie games on consoles. Just not Microsoft's Xbox One.Comment on this article (0)

Investors were happy enough with HP's beat on its earnings-per-share to drive the stock up over 13% in after hours trading (so far). But there were still some shocking numbers in its quarter, like how PC revenues tanked 20% year over year. Back in January, 2012, Whitman was saying about Windows 8, "We have to stick with this. I am a believer." On Wednesday, during a conference call with Wall Street Analysts, Whitman played up HP's non-Windows devices every chance she got: the $339 Pavilion 14 Chromebook laptop launched in February, and the $169 Slate 7 Android tablet launched last month. She explained that her strategy in the PC business is now to use "multiple operating systems, multiple architectures and multiple form factors. We are moving quickly to produce the devices that customers want," she said, adding: "Following the launch of our first Chromebook in February, we launched the new Slate 7." Later, when asked about how HP plans to grow revenues in 2014, Whitman mentioned these non-Windows devices again. "Listen, if we have the right product priced right, the channel still loves HP, and they want to sell in our [PC] products whether it's to small businesses, medium-sized business or the enterprise. And, frankly, having Android products helps a lot. This $169 Slate helps covers a segment of the market we didn't have before." Notice that she didn't mention Windows. Here's the chart shared with analysts today: SEE ALSO: 15 Enterprise Tech Rock Stars You've Never Heard Of But Should Know Please follow SAI: Enterprise on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »

Microsoft's new Xbox One video game console, announced with fanfare on Tuesday and set to arrive for the holidays, is certainly a step forward -- but the early reaction has been mixed at best. Much of the massive attention it caught from Twitter users, for example, seems to be anything but positive. Though the Xbox 360 has topped the NPD sales charts for video game systems for an impressive 28 months, it's coming up on its eighth birthday -- an eon in the video game world -- and it is long overdue for replacement.

Qualcomm, which has been struggling to market its futuristic Mirasol display technology, demoed the product at the 2013 Display Week conference being held in Vancouver, Canada. The company displayed a 5.1-inch panel with 2,560 x 1,440 pixel resolution. It also put demoed a 1.5-inch panel embedded on a smartphone and on a smartwatch, but these were apparently mockups. "This technology has been chasing a moving goal line for awhile, which has made it very difficult to market," said Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group.

This week we take a look at the top five must-have social networking tools for the Mozilla Firefox desktop environment. Social networks have taken mobile by storm, but the PC is still a player -- particularly based on its copious screen real estate. Aggregation across social networks, one-click helpers, easy search, sharing, and the killer app that is image viewing in detail all present themselves well in this field. Our five faves: Yoono, Facebook Toolbar Button, Twitter Address Bar Search, Thumbnail Zoom Plus and Add This.

Company of Heroes 2 is actually pretty close to launch, with June being just around the corner and all. Today's video offers something a little different; not gameplay, but a more cinematic trailer, comprised of various bits from the campaign. The basic idea here is that war is a terrible thing. Yeah, not that we need something so obvious explained to us, but it's always interesting when a game about war actually tries to deliver that message. Sure, you're playing a war game and likely getting a kick out of it too, but the soldiers that fight those wars are never quite the same. That's the story being told in the trailer. War leads us to do horrible things, and good men cannot just sit idly by and forget. Cinematic trailer - YouTube The most recent Company of Heroes 2 announcement we heard involves the addition of a new mode, the Theater of War. This mode basically goes through a series of missions that cover some battles between the German and Russian forces not included in the main campaign. Co-op and single-player options were mentioned. Awesome.Comment on this article (0)

The ASUS Transformer Book TX300 offers a premium design, a full HD detachable display and great battery life, but it's on the heavy side.

Square has lost two executives in a move that sees their roles consolidated under a single individual. As reported by All Things D, and confirmed by the company, Vice President of Partnerships Alex Petrov and Vice President of International Alyssa Cutright have left the company, seeing their jobs move to Francoise Brougher, Square’s Business Lead. What makes the management changes noteworthy is that Petrov hadn’t even stepped foot into Square’s office — he was one of the newest hires to help the mobile payment processing company expand internationally. In Cutright’s case, she was the one that was responsible for Square’s expansion into Canada, its first international country. With the consolidation of power around Brougher, no word yet on whether the company’s third executive hire, former Deputy US Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis, will be affected.

Clear, a simple and incredibly beautiful productivity app for iOS and Mac OS X, has been updated today with the ability to send to-do lists to another user by email. When TNW’s Matthew Panzarino first looked at Clear on the iPhone back in February last year, he gave it a pretty glowing review. “There are apps that make you re-think the way that you’ve been using apps altogether, breaking the mold and re-forming it with just a few minutes of use,” he said. “Clear is that kind of app.” It’s a straight-forward, if relatively limited list app for managing your workflow and getting things done. It’s separated into three levels – a main menu, list view and item view – where users can create tasks freely and dismiss them with a single swipe. That’s basically all there is to it. A bright color gradient conveys the priority of each item and a handful of intuitive gestures can be used to create, dismiss or rearrange them at anytime. The development team then launched Clear for Mac in November, bringing over the same polished design with an entirely new control method for the mouse or touchpad. Both apps were also updated with iCloud integration, adding some basic cross-device sharing functionality. Today’s update takes that feature one step further, however, by giving other Clear users access to your lists. Just shake the iPhone and hit the ‘Email List’ option at the bottom of the screen. Clear then packages a file that can be opened up through both the mobile and desktop version of the app, retaining all of the items and the user’s ordering. If the recipient isn’t using Clear, it’s not a problem either. The list is shown as a standard image embedded in the email, allowing anyone to take a quick glance and take action on the relevant items. Emailing a list from the desktop version of the Clear app works in much the same way. Head to the Actions menu and hit the Email List option to send your agenda into someone else’s inbox. Clear hasn’t changed an awful lot since its conception, but that’s okay. It’s charm and success can be attributed to its sheer simplicity, removing much of the noise associated with complex productivity and note-taking apps. For that alone, it still deserves your attention. ? Clear | App Store | Mac App Store Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our Terms of Service.

Some new information has surfaced regarding Intel's upcoming Xeon Phi Co-processors.