Verizon Fios on Xbox 360? Yes, thanks Microsoft

Microsoft has finally made good on its E3 pledge for live TV via your Xbox Live. Verizon Fios was download and we will have a full review later today. Standby..

UFC comes to Xbox live

Xbox means business this holiday season. Every year they have a great update to their system’s interface called the dashboard. This year is no different. Our sources alerted us to a new update that has UFC live events including tomorrow nights fight for free.

UFC fight card is very similar to the ESPN’s College Football Showdown. You pick who you expect to win. As tomorrow night is the first fight we are unsure if there will be a point system.

Microsoft Xbox 360 gets new media content providers; HBO go & more

Microsoft has struck deals with over 30 content providers on the Xbox 360. The full list of companies that Microsoft has brought together are leaders in the entertainment industry. Here’s a short list of those that stand out right away:

• Comcast: Only Xfinity On Demand
• Clear Channel: iHeartRadio will be the only digital radio service on Xbox Live, complete with Kinect support. So Last.Fm going away?
• HBO: A new version of the HBO GO
• NBC Universal: Content from Bravo, SyFy and more.
• Manga Entertainment: Very big catalog of streaming anime.
• Crackle: Sony Pictures Entertainment backlog of movies
• EPIX: MGM, Lionsgate and Paramount catalog of movies.
• UFC: Streaming fights and interactivity  like ESPN.
• Verizon: 26 channels from the Verizon FiOS

Microsoft’s existing content providers AT&T, ESPN, Netflix, and Hulu Plus. Microsoft also made friends with some International content providers as well such as BBC (UK), Canal+ (France/Spain), MediaSet (Italy), and SBS On Demand (Australia).

Heart radio festival on xbox live

What if you could put the perfect concert together. Who would you have open and close? That is an incredible questions. How much do you like music? Of course you said you love it. Who in their right mind could possibly hate music? This weekend’s iHeartRadio music festival Carrie Underwood, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, Jane’s Addiction, Kenny Chesney, Coldplay, The Black Eyed Peas, Steven Tyler, Nicki Minaj and many more.

It will be at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. What you Didn’t know about it and you can’t make it to Vegas? Relax, the festival will be streaming in HD on Xbox 360 through a partnership with Clear Channel Radio.

iHeartRadio will feature dozens of what the best acts in the world. iHeartRadio starts this Friday and runs through Saturday. Don’t worry you Silver members out there. Gold members are not the only ones that get to have all the fun. Both member sets will be able to access the HD stream through a special pane on the Xbox 360 Dashboard.

YouTube adds Google + Hangout: Watch videos along with friends. Could Netflix be next?

It seems that you can now watch a video with your friends on Google Plus’ Hangout. It works very similar to Xbox Live’s Movie Party. I was able to get 3 people to Hangout and watch a short clip. It worked very well without any issues.

Once Google + adds business to the to the mix. I see this feature becoming very useful for marking. You could debut a trailer to only very loyal fans or contest winners. Think how this might work for Superbowl ads. You could all do Hangout instead of flooding my inbox with links.  I mean other people’s inboxes with links.
So far I have not been able to find a video that Hangout does not work on. From Tech New Today with Tom to even the very limited movie selection that YouTube has. This is a feature I would love to see come to Netflix. Unlike the Facebook  Like button. The Google + Hangout only goes to who you invite to participate. Thus circumventing the whole its illegal to share the entertainment you rent law that is stopping Netflix from using Facebook.

Apple iOS 5: A detailed hands on review

It’s been a busy busy busy week! Between E3 press conferences and the Apple WWDC event. There was little time to do anything but take notes. Here is a review of the new iOS 5 on a iPad.

Safari Reader will remove all of the ads and other Web layout within a story so you can view the text as a single scrolling page. We now also have tabbed browsing and wireless syncing. Apple introduced the ability to use the volume up button as a camera shutter button. Android and Windows Phone 7 phones have had physical shutter buttons for a while now. Also you may remember there was an app that let you do the same thing but Apple pulled it. Funny, now they are doing what they pulled an app for doing.

Apple states that GameCenter now has 50 million users now and pointed that Xbox Live has 30 million users and it took them over the eight years to get there. If you look at this closely they left out some key facts. Xbox Live Gold cost money. GameCenter is free. GameCenter is on every iOS device. Xbox Live is only on Xbox 360 and now windows phones which just stated out. Apple is trying to match up GameCenter vs. Xbox Live but its not really a real fight since they are not the same service. In iOS 5, GameCenter will add achievement points for the first time. I look forward to how developers will take advantage of this feature. You will also have the ability to see friends of friends. You will have the option for game discovery through recommendations.

iMessage for iOS 5 plans to take on RIM’s aging BlackBerry Messenger platform. For that matter it plans to take on all messaging services. Let us take a closer look at this new service that will sure change the shape of messaging. The new iMessage lets you send messages to any iOS device even if it does not have SMS support. That means iPad and iTouch devices are able to come along for the ride as well. iMessage will tell you if someone has received, read your message and shows you when someone is typing. You are able to turn this off if you don’t want to give anyone a heads up. It also provides encryption to protect your communications. I will have a deeper review of just iMessage at a later time.

Twitter so synonymous with just out normal life that it has become a part of everything we do. Political figures use it to announce they want to be elected. Celebrities tell us their thoughts and ideas. Businesses use it for promotions. Everyone else speaks their mind on there. I use it on a daily on multiple devices. Twitter already had a great app for the iOS but Apple has gone ahead and integrated Twitter directly into its operating system. With iOS 5 you can send tweets such as Web links, photos, YouTube, locations from Maps, and contacts. A neat feature that is that it will scan your address book and add twitter usernames to contact information.

iOS 5 also adds Reminders to the mix but to be honest it is 100% copy of Androids pull down screen. I do however like the ability to add reminders based on locations. You can set a reminder to go off when you leave the office, when you land from the airport or anywhere else you want. The only thing is the location has to be one from your address book or your current location.

iCloud backs up and syncs Mail, Contacts, Calender, Reminders, Bookmarks, notes, photoStream and adds Find My iPad/iPhone. You also get asked to make a .Me account for free. If you backup to iCloud your iDevice will no longer back up to your computer automatically when you sync with iTunes. At the moment you can not by extra space even if you wanted it. When you try to delete your iTunes music the iCloud crashes back to the dashboard. It also seems to make a partition on your device space and upload to the cloud. So be warned if you have a small hard drive, your space will be limited for backups. Also the first backup over to the cloud takes a few hours.

All in all for this being a beta they did a great job in developing iOS 5. I think iOS 5 will be loved by everyone not just the Apple Fanboys out there. Look for it this fall.

Duke Nukem Forever goes gold. No it’s not April 1st

2K Games and Gearbox Software Announce Duke Nukem Forever Has Gone Gold. It can no longer be the butt of jokes. There is no going back after hitting gold status. This is it but there is more. Lucky players will be able to get a early hands on with a demo. The demo is for those that pre ordered. The demo will hit PSN, PC’s and Xbox Live on June 3rd. The game hit stores a week later on June 10th. It’s been 15 years. This game better be good. Keep in mind that that Duke Nukem Forever is rated M for Mature by the ESRB. So even though it may be a good game, high sales might not follow.

Christoph Hartmann president of 2K said what everyone is thinking right now; “Today marks an amazing day in the annals of gaming lore, the day where the legend of Duke Nukem Forever is finally complete and it takes that final step towards becoming a reality.”

The Press release [Short]:
New York, NY – May 24, 2011 – 2K Games and Gearbox Software are proud to announce that Duke Nukem Forever®, one of the most anticipated entertainment properties of all time, has “gone gold” and will be available at retailers on June 10, 2011 internationally and on June 14, 2011 in North America. The road to gold was paved over the course of 15 years and its legendary path climaxes on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC. Gamers who pre-order the title from select outlets will ensure that they are among the first to experience this legendary piece of gaming history when the demo* launches on June 3, 2011 for all platforms, exclusively for Duke Nukem First Access Club Members.

Created over the span of 15 years, Duke Nukem Forever was first developed with the intense passion and commitment from an inspired group of dedicated designers, artists and programmers at 3D Realms under the direction of game industry icon, George Broussard.

In 2009, after many believed that Duke Nukem Forever would never be completed, a small team of intrepid developers, known as Triptych Studios, resurrected the dream. Through their inspiring and steadfast commitment to the game and their exemplary talent and skill, they finally assembled the pieces to create an incredible, epic and cohesive gameplay experience. Under the production of Gearbox Software, Triptych Studios, Piranha Games and many other contributors joined together in a heroic effort to complete the long awaited game as a polished, full-featured triple-A title. Check out www.dukenukemforever.com/preorder/ to see exactly how much stuff could be crammed into one box.

Apologizing to no one, Duke Nukem Forever is the high-octane video game equivalent of a Hollywood summer blockbuster. Starring the legendary lady killer and alien slayer, Duke Nukem Forever brings gamers back to a blastastic time when games were filled with head-popping, bone-rattling action, brazenly crude humor, impossibly statuesque women dying for affection, and catchy one-liners meant to make you laugh out loud.

Duke Nukem Forever is rated M for Mature by the ESRB. For more information on the game, including where to pre-order, please visit www.dukenukemforever.com.

*Xbox LIVE, PSN or Steam, Duke First Access Club token and Internet connection required to access demo.

Hulu Plus vs. Netflix: There can only be one

Lets start this with some facts. I do my facts with Pros vs. Cons list. It helps me see the bigger picture.

Pros:

• Hulu Plus has a great list of shows and movies from top networks and studios. (More shows than Netflix)
• Hulu Plus cost only $7.99 (Same as Netflix)
• Hulu Plus works with Xbox 360, iPad & PS3 (when Sony is not down)

Cons:

• Hulu Plus has this little thing called commercials. (Netflix has no such annoyance)
• Hulu Plus content does not all work. There are web only content that only works on, well the web
• Hulu Plus is not on nearly as many devices as Netflix yet

Three cons may not sound like a lot but if one pays for a services than there should not be commercials. That is the whole point of paying for the new age of media content. It’s so you can control your own content. It is because of that single reason I will let the free week of Hulu Plus run out. It just takes away from the experience when a commercial pops up that you can’t skip. I feel like I am in the stone ages. When put up right next to Netflix Hulu Plus is not a winner here. Not yet anyway.

Only Xbox Live Gold members who pay the $60 yearly subscription fee will be able to use it. They’ll also have to subscribe to Hulu Plus at a cost of $8 a month. While PlayStation 3 users can use Hulu Plus for free. It’s a better deal than Microsoft’s offer. On iPad it’s a free app that works very well. Back to the Xbox 360 it seems that the implementation of a full controller-free Kinect future is just that. In the future. The motion controller can only be used to browse through a small selection of “popular” shows on Hulu Plus. You can’t search or view your queue using the Kinect. You will find that adding to your queue will be best done on the PC.

When it comes down to it Hulu Plus is a great service. Although since it is a paid subscription service, only the web site should be supported by advertising.  My shows and movies should not be interrupted by frequent commercials.

Minecraft: Phenomenon Now Has Sold 1M

Minecraft stats page shows that over 1 Million people have purchased Markus “Notch” Persson’s indie construction sensation. That’s  a lot of people willing to pay money to game still in beta.  That is like people on Xbox 360 or PS3 paying for a demo. If you’d like to get in on this phenomenon on the ground floor on sale. Speaking of; I wonder how long before this game makes it’s way to Xbox Live or the PSN?

Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light hit  Xbox Live and Playstation Network running. Skeptics soon turned into fans again. It was a surprisingly good top-down dungeon crawling game. It was easy to play and had a great co-op mode.

Square Enix has now ported Guardian of Light to the iPhone and iPad. It is and I kid you not; the very same game. The  graphics have gone down just a little and I am not a fan of virtual touchscreen controls. But that aside it plays just as well.

Pro: Great clone of the Xbox Live game with all the same achievements. Good enough controls and desent graphincs.                Should take you some time to beat this one. Even with the Co-Op you will keep playing it over again.

Con: The Co-Op is not as great as the home systems due to lag and crashes. That is the only con.

Cost: $6.99

Aye/Nay: This is a Aye. Great game and worth a buy.

iTunes Link: Lara Croft and TGOL