How about owning the “undisputed ruler of the night skies”? Blizzard is offering up the Armored Bloodwing mount for purchase from the Blizzard Store for $25. The Armored Bloodwing is a giant bat with blood red eyes and a very dark and awesome look. The mount, when purchased, will be available for all of your characters on a single account.
Windows
Microsoft Introduces New Sculpt Mouse
With Windows 8 beginning to really settle in, it seems that Microsoft has decided to launch a new mouse to make the whole experience feel better. The Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse is designed to work Windows and it also has some features that are specifically for Windows 8.
The most obvious feature on the mouse is the Windows Touch Tab, which is the big blue strip on the side mouse that allows you to quickly return to the Start Screen when pressed in the center. With Windows 8, if you swipe up on the blue strip you can switch between open apps, if you swipe down it will show you all open apps. The stripe can also be used to open the Start menu on older versions of Windows.
The wheel offers up four way scrolling and the mouse movement is captured using Microsoft’s BlueTrack technology. This mouse is wireless and uses bluetooth which will also allow you to connect it to a tablet. You can also get a mobile version of this mouse which boasts many of the same features except that it lacks the blue Windows strip on the side.
The Sculpt Comfort is selling for $39.95 and the mobile version is selling for $29.95. You can read the full hardware specifications on Microsoft’s hardware page.
Microsoft Heating up the War on Apple
It’s quite obvious that the iPad is successful but what about the competition? What about the ASUS Vivo Tab RT? We see it but why should we buy it over an iPad? There hasn’t been a lot of companies, including Microsoft, that have been willing to make direct comparisons to the iPad, we don’t see a lot of the “I’m better than you and here’s why” type of advertising. So, you can imagine that it would be kind of refreshing to see an ad like this pop up on TV every now and then, and that’s exactly what’s happening.
Full disclosure, I own an iPad and love it, but I know, and I’m sure all of you know, that’s it’s far from perfect and it often seems like the competition just completely avoids talking about the iPad and it’s limitations.
You may be thinking, why do we care and as an iPad user why do I care? Well, the simple answer is that we will all benefit from intense competition. The more back and fourth there is the better the products get, it creates an environment that’s favorable for innovation and creativity. Remember the Space Race? Sometimes we even see price drops because of aggressive advertising.
This latest commercial is bold, to the point, and makes a direct comparison the iPad. Will it work? Who knows? but it definitely makes things interesting and can cause these companies to re-think things and possibly add new features just to try to silence the competition. You can see the commercial below.
Xbox One Specs
Microsoft did a great job revealing to us the new Xbox One, here are some of the specs that will be in this system coming later this year:
This “all in one” system will work seamlessly together for games, entertainment and television.
Microsoft promises that you’re “going to have a relationship with your TV.”
Voice commands can be used to go from TV to game to internet without any lag, as was demonstrated. You will be able to use universal gestures such as swipe, and grab and pan. Skype will also be a part of Xbox One.
With the new Kinect, you won’t need to log in manually, it will recognize you and log you in. Microsoft says that it will be able to read your heartbeat and has a better understanding of rotational movement.
TV on Xbox sounds like its going to be pretty cool. Not only can you use it to watch regular channels it seems as though they are creating a channel of their own, as Steven Spielberg announced a new Halo TV series. The NFL has also joined Xbox and showed us some interaction with fantasy stats and using Skype with NFL broadcasts.
There will be 15 new games within the first year, eight of which will be brand new franchises. Forza 5 was shown, and a new game called Quantum Break.
For XboxLive they promise 300,000 servers for Xbox One
This is all just some of the info we got, more coming at E3 June 11-13.
Xbox One
Kinect
Controller
Diablo III Anniversary Brings Gifts
It’s hard to believe that it has already been a year since the release of Diablo III (May 15 2012) but it’s not time to sit and reflect, it’s time to celebrate. Blizzard is offering players who login to Diablo III between May 15 and May 21 a 25% boost to their Magic Find and +EXP stats plus your magic find bonus will stack above the 300% cap. That’s a pretty sweet deal.
To make your desktop look a little less lame and a little more evil, Blizzard has also put up some new Diablo III wallpapers. Blizzard also has a few other fun things going on in celebration of the anniversary including live streams and having you spread the word by showing off your love of the game by taking a picture of you and your friends holding a “Happy Birthday Diablo III” sign and then tweeting it, and if they like what you send them they will re-tweet it.
*Interesting Fact: Diablo III sold 3.5 million copies in the first 24 hours after it’s release, making it the fastest selling PC game.