Techmeme: Xbox One review: a work in progress with surprisingly strong launch games, solid entertainment hub functionality (Polygon)

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November 20, 2013, 12:00 PM

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Polygon:

Xbox One review: a work in progress with surprisingly strong launch games, solid entertainment hub functionality — Xbox One: The Review — The Xbox 360 that exists in 2013 bears little resemblance to the console that Microsoft launched in 2005. It's so different, in fact …

Anand Lal Shimpi / AnandTech:

The Xbox One - Mini Review & Comparison to Xbox 360/PS4 — Earlier this morning Microsoft lifted the embargo on press reviews of the Xbox One. I've been playing with final hardware and near final software for a few days now and I wanted to share some thoughts.

Kirk Hamilton / Kotaku:

Xbox One almost reaches Microsoft's ambitious vision for a next-gen console — The Xbox One: The Kotaku Review — The Xbox One is a testament to Microsoft's towering ambition. It represents their desire not only to occupy a place in your home entertainment center, but to lumber straight into the center of it.

More: Yahoo! News, Business Insider, The Huffington Post and Gearburn

Richard Leadbetter / Eurogamer.net:

Hardware Test: Xbox One

Tweets: @fransbouma

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Overview: Here's how Skype will work on the Xbox One

More: Ars Technica and Gigaom

Dan Hsu / VentureBeat:

The Xbox One controller: Projectors, smells (!), and other stuff that didn't make it in (part 1, exclusive)

More: BGR, Engadget, Gigaom, destructoid, Wired.co.uk, Polygon, ExtremeTech and WinBeta

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Xbox One SmartGlass lets you snap apps from your phone or tablet

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

Bing Previews Its Role In Providing Natural Language Voice Search On Xbox One

More: Search Blog, Xbox Wire, TechNet Blogs, WebProNews, BetaNews, Gigaom, The Verge and The Next Web

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

The First Apple Store App For iPad Nails Tablet Shopping With Clever Gesture And Image Focused Interface — Today, Apple is launching its very first Apple Store app for iPad, bringing a gorgeous shopping experience to its tablet in a long-overdue move. The new app arrives just in time for the holidays …

More: The Next Web, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Macworld, Engadget, iMore, CNET, AppleInsider, The Verge, 9to5Mac, iLounge, Softpedia News, Ubergizmo, iPhone in Canada Blog, IntoMobile, Redmond Pie, iPhone Hacks, The Loop, MacNN, TUAW, Cult of Mac, POPSUGAR, iDownloadBlog.com, iClarified, WebProNews and MacStories

Tweets: @amyduty and @panzer

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

Cupid Media Hack Exposed 42M Passwords — An intrusion at online dating service Cupid Media earlier this year exposed more than 42 million consumer records, including names, email addresses, unencrypted passwords and birthdays, according to information obtained by KrebsOnSecurity.

More: Computerworld, Ars Technica, Guardian, Open Source Subnet …, Motherboard, Graham Cluley, The Register and Darknet

Tweets: @jeremiahg and @securityhumor

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:

Snapchat plans an API and experimental monetization with ads, emoticons, stickers, and virtual gifts — EXCLUSIVE: How Snapchat Plans To Make Money — Last week, news broke that a ~2.5 year old company called Snapchat had rejected an all-cash $3 billion takeover offer from Facebook.

Tweets: @jonrussell

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:

The Great Snapchat Mirage — We don't know a single useful number about the hottest company in tech . Why Snapchat may be much smaller than it sounds. — Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images — Every few months, since late 2012, Snapchat has released a new number to the public.

Tweets: @amir, @jwherrman and @karaswisher. Thanks:@mattlynley

TechCrunch:

Reverse Engineering Snapchat's Size Is Impossible...But Here Goes

Tweets: @jwherrman and @mattzeitlin

Lance Whitney / CNET:

Snapchat says it's delivering over 400M snaps daily while Facebook sees 350M photo uploads daily

More: TechCrunch, BGR, Forbes, Digital Trends, AllThingsD, TechSpot and Mashable

Tweets: @fmanjoo, @drew, @panzer and @fmanjoo

Joel Rosenblatt / Bloomberg:

Samsung Urges Mistrial Citing Racism in Lawyer's Remark — Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) accused Apple Inc.'s lawyer of making a prejudiced remark during closing arguments in a retrial over how much the South Korean company owes the iPhone maker for patent infringement and asked the judge to halt the proceedings.

More: Gigaom, 9to5Mac, BGR, CNET and MacDailyNews. Tweets: @danieleran

Bobby Sudekum / MapBox:

Mapping service MapBox demos 40-minute drone flight producing 100 acre map for OpenStreetMap — Drone Imagery for OpenStreetMap — Last weekend we captured 100 acres of aerial imagery at 4cm resolution. It took less than an hour to fly, and it was easy to publish the imagery …

Robert McMillan / Wired:

Gaming Company Fined $1M for Turning Customers Into Secret Bitcoin Army — A gaming software company has been slapped with a $1 million fine after secretly adding bitcoin mining software to a product update earlier this year. — E-Sports Entertainment Association (ESEA) …

More: Forbes, Help Net Security, ZDNet, CNET, Inquirer, Softpedia News, SlashGear, The Switch, Washington Post, Business Insider, VG247, Ars Technica and PC World

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Apple Receives Final Approval for ‘Spaceship’ Campus From Cupertino City Council — Apple today received final approval for its Apple Campus 2 project from the Cupertino City Council after gaining a unanimous initial approval back in October. “Go for it,” said Cupertino Mayor Orrin Mahoney …

Jim Cowie / Renesys:

The New Threat: Targeted Internet Traffic Misdirection — Traffic interception has certainly been a hot topic in 2013. The world has been focused on interception carried out the old fashioned way, by getting into the right buildings and listening to the right cables.

More: Ars Technica. Tweets: @benwagne_r, @tomchop_, @martinkl and @eqe

Sean Buckley / Engadget:

Hands-on with Logitech's PowerShell Controller, an iOS 7 gamepad that charges your phone — Remember that fuzzy-looking iOS 7 gamepad that leaked back in June? Turns out it's called the Logitech PowerShell Controller + Battery (a mouthful, right?), and it's one of the first iOS 7 certified gamepads on the market.

More: Logitech Blog, VentureBeat, BetaNews, Gigaom, TechCrunch, MacRumors, iPhone, AllThingsD, iDownloadBlog.com, 9to5Mac, Guardian, iMore, Gizmodo, TUAW, SlashGear, Business Insider and iPhone Hacks

David Pogue / A Note from Pogue:

Nest Protect: Another Unloved Appliance, Reborn — Tony Fadell! You've just spent 18 years at Apple, designed the iPod, and changed the world! What are you going to do now? — The answer, evidently, was “reinvent the thermostat.” Fadell founded Nest, created the Nest Internet-connected thermostat …

Edward Wyatt / New York Times:

F.C.C. Chairman Calls for Transforming the Technology Used by Phone Systems — WASHINGTON — Americans could soon be one step closer to getting that videophone they were promised in the 1960s. — The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday that the agency would begin …

More: FCC.gov, Digital Trends, PC Magazine, CNET, DSLreports, Wall Street Journal, Light Reading, TelecompetitorTelecompetitor, AT&T Public Policy Blog, Gigaom, Gizmodo and TheHill

Richard Lawler / Engadget:

Comcast's Xfinity TV Store brings movies, TV shows you can keep to its cable boxes and apps — First revealed in rumors last week, the Comcast Xfinity TV Store is now available, selling movies and TV shows. Until now the cable company has offered its traditional video subscriptions …

More: The Verge, I4U News and Electronista

Emerging Technology From the arXiv:

Liquid Metal Printer Lays Electronic Circuits on Paper, Plastic and Even Cotton — A simple way to print circuits on a wide range of flexible substrates using an inkjet printer has eluded materials scientists. Until now. — One of the dreams of makers the world over is to be able …

More: VentureBeat

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