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Buy a Windows PC get an Xbox deal starts this weekend

Microsoft will be rolling out a deal this weekend that you may have heard of briefly the one time they did it before: purchase a brand new Windows-based PC for $699 or more and get an Xbox 360 for free. It’s one of those offers that just makes sense when it comes to the software/hardware company whose fortunes are based in both the Windows 7 and 8 (coming this summer) operating systems as well as the gaming machine, this deal made perfect for students coming up on the summer season. Imagine that, starting a gaming deal up right as school get left out – genius move, or would prospective gamers rather play out in the sun?

This deal will be starting on the 20th of May, that being this Sunday, with Microsoft requiring that students identify themselves a real live student sort of person before they grab the deal. Retailers joining in on this blockbuster deal include NewEgg.com, Best Buy, Dell.com, Fry’s Electronics, HPDirect.com, and Microsoft Stores galore inside the USA. Canada has its own line of stores jumping in on the deal including The Source, Best Buy (Canadian style), Dell.ca, Future Shop, and Staples.

Microsoft Communications Manager Brandon LeBlanc spoke this week on the new offer thusly:

“With all the hard work students put in for their classes in college, they need some downtime, right? That’s where the Xbox 360 comes in! To blow off some steam, you can just hop on Xbox LIVE and play some Halo with friends and family far away or just down the hall. Could be a great way to blow off steam and relax after a long day full of studying and classes. And this fall, Halo 4 hits – which you can now pre-order today! And the Xbox isn’t just for gaming – students will be able to enjoy a variety of entertainment options, including streaming movies and TV shows, sports, music and more!” – LeBlanc

You’ll want to head to our review archive to check out the massive amount of Windows machines already on the market and hitting the market imminently as well, these being the beasts you need to do the deed all summer long. Also as LeBlanc notes, this offer pumps up the release of Halo 4 as well – news pouring in on that release this week too! Head to our Review portals [Desktop Reviews] and [Laptop Reviews] to see what you’ll be picking up!

Buy a Windows PC get an Xbox deal starts this weekend is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Galaxy S III rooted before release

It’s basically a tradition at this point with giant phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S III that they get hacked and rooted before they’re released into the wild with final software – and it’s no different today. Developer and hacker Chainfire has posted information on how he and his colleagues have achieved root on the Galaxy S III by working through an insecure kernel code leaked by an intrepid “insider” who he’s saying will remain nameless. Inside the code for the Galaxy S III were found some rather odd bits that only developers would find truly interesting with a few surprises that everyone will love as well.

First and foremost, Chainfire revealed that unlike the Samsung Galaxy S original, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note, and more, the Galaxy S III uses what’s called a standard boot.img format. The other devices listed use a much more secure and harder to work with zImage format which is, for most developers, not nearly as easy to unpack and repack as the basic boot.img format. Another welcome oddity in the GSIII here is the fact that the recovery partition is being utilized, this allowing developers to flash recoveries completely separate from the kernel – helpful!

The most important bit of this whole situation is that Chainfire, generally accepted as an authority in matters such as this, reassures us that unlocking the Galaxy S III for modification is relatively easy. He notes “now, everybody say thanks to Samsung” for being what he says “are the only high-end Android OEM who aren’t complete *expletive deleted* in the unlock department!” In Chainfire we trust? You decide for yourself when the Galaxy S III comes to a hand near you this summer!

[via XDA]

Galaxy S III rooted before release is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Nokia Lumia 900 gets hammer and nails stress tested

This week a couple of engineers from Tech Craver busted out a hammer, some nails, and their own Nokia Lumia 900 review unit to do some stress tests. While what you’re about to see isn’t technically as scientifically viable as we’d normally like to see in a hammer-to-smartphone test, we’ll accept it – if only because they added what appears to be Stephen Elop calling them on the phone at the end of the video before the video stoppers up. This story has also been picked up by Nokia official Jason Harris of Conversations by Nokia – they’re fairly impressed by the whole situation too, to be frank.

The engineers behind this short film, Mike Myers and Chris Ruble, spoke up with Nokia about why they decided to take a hammer and nails to their beloved Lumia. They let Nokia know that it was quite simple, really: they saw someone else do it first! What they saw was the Sonim Mobile Phone which is also notorious for getting smashed by insane bits of destructive material without sustaining damage. Have a peek at the Lumia 900 video first and see if it’s stressful enough for you to start with:

Next have a peek at their inspiration, a mobile phone from the Sonim brand of “unbreakable” devices. See if you can find the broken example in our archives as a stress test of your own! Have a peek here at how Sonim and Nokia are now battling it out for who has the best smartphone that doubles as a hammer:

Finally have a peek at our Nokia 900 archive. Reviews and hands-on galore! No more hammering though, sadly enough, you’ll have to buy your own if you want to see any more of that!

Nokia Lumia 900 gets hammer and nails stress tested is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Facebook NASDAQ opening bell “hack” revealed

This week as Facebook goes public with their IPO with NASDAQ, developers at the social network have celebrated in their own special way – by hacking the stock exchange’s starting bell. What you’re about to see are some relatively simple behind-the-scenes images taken by a few developers working at Facebook specifically on the NASDAQ bell ringer Mark Zuckerberg used this morning to open the stock exchange as well as the listing of Facebook for the first time in history to the public. As it turns out, Zuckerberg wasn’t just ringing a bell, he was posting a Facebook status at the same time as well!

Because last night was also a Facebook Hackathon event, it only seemed natural for Facebook developers to take advantage of the event with a stock exchange hack of their own. What they did, and what the images below and above will show, is to connect the opening bell tapped by Zuckerberg this morning to his own personal Facebook page where a status was then instantly posted as he rung in. This status read, sensibly enough, “Mark Zuckerberg listed a company on NASDAQ. — with Chris Cox and 4 others.”

Have a peek at the bell ringing here in video form:

Then take a peek at the gallery below, it including images photographed and added to Facebook by Facebook developer Colm Doyle. The gigantic button is pressed and the bell is rung, the bell is rung and the status is posted. As Doyle repeated per what was almost certainly something the developer crew behind this project repeated many times after hooking up the final wires: “don’t press the button, don’t press the button!”

Two hours after the button was pressed and Zuckerberg was able to sit back down at a computer console of some sort himself, he went ahead and commented on his own status he’d automatically generated earlier: “This is a pretty awesome hack.”

Truly the simplest things are the best when it comes down to gigantic events such as this. Stay tuned for more Facebook IPO action throughout the day!

BONUS: The other people included in Zuckerberg’s IPO-ringing status were as follows: Cipora Herman, Dave Kling, David Ebersman, Sheryl Sandberg (COO Facebook), and Colm Coyle. Gotta catch em all!

Facebook NASDAQ opening bell “hack” revealed is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

HTC EVO 4G LTE postponed indefinitely once more

It appears that once again the HTC EVO 4G LTE has hit a wall when it comes to being delivered to the USA for sale, so says customers receiving the note that their pre-orders were once again stopped here at the end of the week. In the epic battle that has become HTC’s this summer in bringing their new line of hero smartphones into the USA, the HTC EVO 4G LTE has once again suffered a bit of a loss as Best Buy takes back what it’d reported earlier this week with a new announcement of delay. Though the press already does have its hands on review units of this device, it seems that that’s as far as HTC was allowed to go with getting said hardware into the states before patent infringement via Apple reared its head.

Best Buy pre-order users have reported to us today that they’re all receiving the same message, it saying essentially that Best Buy itself had received a note from the carrier of this device that they’d have their hands on it sooner than later, but that now they’d taken such a note back. In other words, Best Buy is caught with its pants down while the HTC EVO 4G LTE is sitting near the shore as US courts hash out whether or not HTC infringed on Apple’s IP with several elements in the software of these smartphones – not the best situation in the world for the smartphone makers at HTC.

Meanwhile though, we can report that case makers remain relatively confident in their push for the HTC EVO 4G LTE, the image you see above showing off the latest pre-production case we’ve gotten our hands on just this week. So fret not, ladies and gentlemen, this phone will see the light of day sometime – maybe not any time soon, but someday! Meanwhile have a peek at our HTC EVO 4G LTE full review while you wait as well – it’s pretty nice hardware, that’s for sure!

HTC EVO 4G LTE postponed indefinitely once more is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Halo 4 release promises next-level multiplayer action

This week we’re getting deeper than ever into the start of the next big shooter game series with Halo 4, tipped here as having multiplayer action like none that have come before it. For those of you new to the Halo series, you should know that the number “4″ at the end of this title does not mean that it’s the fourth in the series – even though it technically is. You’ll certainly be moving forward in game mechanics as well as graphics prowess, but the timeline is all different – but Master Chief is back!

Halo 4 will be bringing no less than an infusion of the best bits of both multiplayer and single-player into the multiplayer gameplay portion of the whole game environment. What you’ll be working with here is “Infinity Multiplayer”, or at least that’s what its called for now. This new mode of play will have Halo lovers working with cooperative “Spartan Ops” as well as “War Games”, two different ways to play, both of them kill-heavy. Spartan Ops has been tipped to lift a lot from the game Call of Duty’s Spec Ops missions. War Games on the other hand will have Deathmatch and Capture the Flag mode like all good multiplayer shooters should.

The Limited Edition of this game will have the same options for gameplay that the standard edition does, but will be including several more single-player maps for you to interact with. At $99.99 upon its release, we’re certainly hoping it’s more than just maps that we’ll be getting – that and some physical items such as a USNC Briefing Packet, some armor schematics, and a bluetooth of the Infinity. UPDATE: Also included in the Limited Edition pack will be such lovely bits and pieces like armor and weapon skins, Avatar unlockables, and a 90-minute video feature Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. This feature will have you gaining an understanding of the storyline like only a hardcore character would want!

Have a listen in on some Sountrack samples while you wait for the big day!

Stay tuned as we continue to hunt down and deliver all the Halo 4 details you can handle, right up until – and beyond – the big launch!

[via Complex]

Halo 4 release promises next-level multiplayer action is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft: Windows Phone legacy users update, or else

In an update that comes down from the top, straight from Microsoft’s Windows Phone officials that is, users will have to move to the Mango update for the mobile OS or get cut off entirely from the app Marketplace. This move is specifically for the smartphone-based software while large apps and games will still be able to be downloaded using Zune software as noted by Windows Phone’s Mazar Mohammed. This update is being pushed so that Windows Phone can have a uniform update to their Marketplace and so they can “pave the way for new store features and new apps in the months ahead.”

This update comes this week from Mohammed once again with no specific date mentioned but because it is indeed a second update, we can assume the cut-off is going to be imminent. For those of you running a version of Windows Phone before 7.5, you’ll want to head to the Windows Phone Update Central page to get pushed. The requirement for updating to keep access to both new apps and app updates is not today, again, but will be extremely soon.

It’s also important to note that this update and cut-off applies to both the phone and web storefronts and includes buying, downloading and updating apps from the Marketplace. This update hails a renewed dedication from Microsoft to making sure their software is uniform across their entire smartphone ecosystem, but has called up some complaints from users who’ve found bugs in their Mango builds with no help to be found. How about you, Windows Phone citizen? Are you on Mango yet?

[via Windows Phone Official]

Microsoft: Windows Phone legacy users update, or else is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.