Technology

Technology

Call Of Duty: Ghosts Tops $1bn (£621m) On First Day

6 November 2013 7:15 PM
Call Of Duty: Ghosts - Poster

Call Of Duty: Ghosts – Poster

The latest Call of Duty video game made more than $1bn (£621m) from its first day on sale, its publisher has confirmed.

Call of Duty: Ghosts went on sale worldwide on Tuesday and its debut eclipsed that of Grand Theft Auto V, which raked in $800m (£496m) on its first day in September. Call of Duty: Ghosts has already been branded ‘lazy’ for reusing Modern Warfare 2 cut-scene.

At the time, the game beat the record for single-day games sales held by the last Call of Duty game, Black Ops II, which made $500m (£310m) in November 2012.

Fans queued overnight at hundreds of stores across the UK, which were open at midnight for the release of the 10th Call of Duty instalment.

The $1bn figure represented sales to retail store, which may not reflect consumer purchases, according to publisher Activision.

Eric Hirshberg, chief executive of Activision, said the game “has delivered yet another epic thrill ride in the campaign, and what I think is our best multiplayer game yet“.

The company claimed the series was “the largest console franchise of this generation“.

The latest military shooter series is set in a desolate US, devastated by a satellite-guided “kinetic” weapon strike on San Diego.

Ghosts can be played on PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo’s Wii U and Windows computers, and will also be available on other consoles in future.

The game is also compatible with smartphones and tablet computers.

Many reviewers agreed that the game did not take the franchise in a new direction or break from the old format.

The Computer and Video Games website said: “There is an overwhelming sense of familiarity one gets from playing Call of Duty: Ghosts and that’s probably because an iteration of this series drops every year without truly reinventing the wheel.”

Ghosts will also be the first Call of Duty game available on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, as launch titles for both consoles on November 15, 2013 (November 29, 2013 in Europe) and November 22, 2013 respectively.

Source: news.sky.com

New Fancy Subscription Box from Kelly Rowland!

18 October 2013 2:16 AM

Kelly Rowland Fancy Box Subscription

Fancy has just released their latest celebrity subscription box featuring Kelly Rowland! Of course I immediately signed up.

The Deal Get A Collection Of The Coolest Products Hand-Picked By Kelly Rowland Every Month. Each box includes $80.00+ of products. You will receive a new box with top Fancy goodies each month.

How much does it cost a month? The deal will set you back $39 USD (Approximately £24 GBP) a month. *

Orders placed before the 16th of the calendar month will ship on the 30th of the same month. Orders placed after the 26th of the calendar month will ship on the 30th of the following calendar month. All charges are billed on the day of original purchase and every 30 days thereafter. Subscription may be cancelled by updating your subscription preferences under your Fancy Box subscriptions.

You can cancel your Fancy Box within 10 days of your last payment. If you cancel after 10 days, you will still receive your Fancy Box for that month, and your subscription will cease in the following month. Thank you for ordering the Fancy Box.

Rather a Ashton Kutcher Fancy Box Subscription? Go on! Treat yourself we promise not to tell Kelly Rowland.

Ashton Kutcher Fancy Box Subscription

* Don’t forget: You should allow 10 days from date of shipment for delivery.

Evernote: Two-Step Verification Now Available to Everyone

5 October 2013 1:22 PM
Evernote / Two-Step Verification

Evernote / Two-Step Verification

Two-factor authentication isn’t an extra or optional layer of protection, it’s a necessary one. Today, all Evernote users—whether paid users or those with free accounts—can turn on this important security feature.

Back in March, after a security breach, Evernote announced it would roll out two-factor authentication. The problem is, when they did, it was only for Premium or Business users.

The company is rolling out optional two-factor authentication today for all user accounts. To turn it on, head to the Security section of your account profile. You’ll also be able to generate one-time codes in case you don’t have access to your phone. (Two-factor authentication often, as in this case, sends a unique code to your mobile device for additional security if you try to log in from an unknown device.)

Two-step verification, also known as two-factor authentication, adds an additional layer of security to the login process, requiring you to enter a special code from your phone, in addition to your regular username and password. The goal of this extra step is to combine something you know (your password) with something only you would have access (your phone).

Setting up two-step verification is straightforward. Just follow the steps in the Security section of Evernote Web. Free users will be required to install an authenticator app on their phones. We recommend Google Authenticator. Premium users can choose to have the code delivered as a text message.

One very important thing to note. As part of the set up process, you will be given a set of one-time codes to use in the event that you are unable to access your phone. Don’t keep these codes in Evernote since you’ll need them when you don’t have access to your Evernote account.

Full Guide: Set up Two-Step Verification »

Apple releases Chrome and Firefox extensions for Windows for iCloud bookmark syncing

19 September 2013 7:07 PM
iCloud Bookmarks - Firefox

iCloud Bookmarks – Firefox

Apple has quietly released extensions for the Chrome and Firefox desktop browsers for Windows. The extensions allow Windows users to sync their Safari iOS bookmarks across the two browsers. Prior to the Firefox and Chrome extension release, iOS Safari bookmark syncing was limited to Windows Explorer via the iCloud Control Panel (v2.1.2) for Windows app.

Users can download the Chrome extension from Google’s Chrome web store. According to its release notes:

Keep your Chrome bookmarks up to date with the Safari bookmarks on your iPhone, iPad and Mac.

iCloud stores your website bookmarks, so they are everywhere you go — on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and PC. So when it comes to your devices, you can switch things up without mixing things up.

Note: iCloud Bookmarks extension for Chrome is for Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Similarly, users can download the Firefox extension from Mozilla’s Add-Ons site. Its release notes read:

Keep your Firefox bookmarks on Windows up to date with your Safari bookmarks on iPhone, iPad and Mac with the iCloud Bookmarks extension for Firefox.

Unfortunately, it looks like these extensions are Windows-only for the moment and will not work on Chrome or Firefox for the Mac.

Story: tuaw / aol

Rumor: Leaked GTA V Config Code Reveals PC, PS4 Versions?

17 September 2013 12:45 AM

Grand Theft Auto V isn’t technically out until tomorrow (it’s out **), but it hasn’t stopped pirates from getting their grubby little hands on it. And pirates, being the crafty little buggers they are, aren’t just playing the game, they are disassembling it and poking around in its guts. As such, code from a configuration file allegedly coming from a pirated Xbox 360 version of the game has appeared on pastebin, and apparently points towards a PC and PS4 version of the game. Here are two screen-grabs of the relevant sections of code:

GTA V Source-code?

GTA V Source-code? (full size version)

The PC code is fairly obvious, and if you’re wondering what the hell “Orbis” is, it was the original code name of the PS4 back when the dev kits were being handed out to developers. Take this all with a grain of salt however, it is after all, the word of a pirate, and could have been entirely faked. But given GTA’s history of releasing on PC, and the fact that the PS4 and Xbox One are right around the corner, it does seem pretty likely that we will see a next-gen release of the game at some point.

* The code comes from a pirated version of Grand Theft Auto V for Xbox 360.

** The cheapest place to order Grand Theft Auto V currently is Amazon and eBay. – As of the time of writing.

Source & Images: Dualshockers