Google Reportedly to Launch ‘Google Me’ in May

Rumours began last summer that Google was gearing up to take on Facebook with a big social product codenamed “Google Me”. While no such fully formed product has emerged since, we’ve heard word today that it’s scheduled to launch at this year’s I/O developers’ conference on 10 and 11 May.
While Google CEO Eric Schmidt suggested in September last year that a ‘social layer’ was coming to all the company’s products, it’s yet to materialise.
That said, many of its products have had social features added in recent months. Place reviews in Google Maps, personalised news, increasingly social search results and experiments with Foursquare-like features are just some of the examples of late. Throw in the acquisition of socially focused apps developer Slide back in August 2010, and it’s clear that the company is planning a more social future.
So, could the service launch at I/O? For the past two years, Google has made big product launches at the conference. Two years ago saw Wave make its debut and last year, Google TV was unveiled. That said, Wave has since been effectively mothballed, while Google TV is yet to make a real mark. If “Google Me” does show its face this May (not necessarily under that specific name), the company will surely be hoping for ‘third time lucky’.
We’ve contacted Google for comment.
UPDATE: A Google spokesperson tells us: “We do not speculate on rumor and speculation”.

Rogers launches Wi-Fi calling in Canada for business customers

Rogers has just launched a new service that will enable business consumers to make calls over Wi-Fi while allowing the calls to be seamlessly carried over to the Rogers network when customers leave the home or office.
Wi-Fi Calling for Business offers customers unlimited local and Canada-wide calling without dipping into your monthly allotment. This doesn’t mean it’s free but it could potentially save you or your business from exceeding its monthly plan. The option to make calls over Wi-Fi would also come in handy if you ever find yourself somewhere without wireless network coverage (with Wi-Fi). A rare but possible predicament.
The add-on is now available for both business and individual consumers and users are able to take advantage of Wi-Fi anywhere it is available. It doesn’t limit you to choosing one Wi-FI network so you’re able to make calls from public networks found in coffee shops and hotels as well.
For the basic plan, customers/businesses will receive unlimited local calling for $10, an extra $5 will extend the unlimited calling across Canada. Aside from saving your minutes, the $15 a month plan also eliminates long distance charges within Canada.

When you hear the words “Wi-Fi” and “calling”, what immediately comes to mind? It’s likely you said Skype (Google Voice is not in Canada), a service that offers calling for nothing (or next to nothing) so the $15 charge for unlimited Canadian calling may sound expensive to you. Using Skype, users are able to make unlimited calls to anyone in Canada or the U.S for $2.99 a month.
The convenience of the Rogers add-on may have you sold although, there’s a limited amount of handsets that will work with this new service. Wi-Fi calling is only supported by uMa-enabled dual mode handsets. Rogers claims it’s available on a “broad array of handsets” but it’s not. The add-on works with a small number of devices including the BlackBerry Curve (8520), BlackBerry Pearl Flip (8220) and BlackBerry Torch (9800).
The device compatibility is the biggest disappointment of Rogers Wi-Fi calling — iPhone and Android are not supported.
Rogers uses UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) to successfully hand-off a call from Wi-Fi to its wireless network. Any Wi-Fi network capable of handling voice service will work however, Rogers may need to make some configurations to your network if your using an older router.
To learn more about Wi-Fi calling, check out Rogers’ site.

Foursquare partners with RCRD LBL for SXSW Music

Foursquare has been all over promotions and marketing campaigns at this year’s SXSW in Austin, Texas. For the interactive portion of the conference, the startup partnered with Big Boi, giving fans a chance to win free concert tickets. For the upcoming SXSW Music conference, taking place on March 16th-20th, Foursquare has teamed up with RCRD LBL, a sweet website that serves up daily free music downloads, to give music fans a leg up in the musical mayhem.
To participate, follow RCRD LBL’s Foursquare page and check-in to RCRD LBL-approved venues during Austin’s SXSW Music conference. Users will receive information about the shows, as well as free music downloads from select artists performing at each event. Users who check-in to at least five of RCRD LBL’s key venues will be automatically entered to win an iPad 2.

“I am very excited about RCRD LBL’s partnership with Foursquare, as it allows us to deliver the hottest free music downloads in a fresh format. It offers a new and unique way for consumers to discover music via a location-based social experience.”

Google users targeted by politically motivated Windows exploits

Highly targeted, politically motivated attacks that affect all supported versions of Microsoft’s Windows operating system are being carried out on Google users, requiring the search giant to issue a bulletin warning those who use its services.
Attacks on Google users utilise an unpatched MHTML vulnerability that, although disclosed in January, allows attackers to steal sensitive information by exploiting the way Internet Explorer users on Windows parses MIME-formatted webpages, also allowing trusted websites to be spoofed and actions to be performed without authorisation.
Microsoft has issued a temporary fix but it is unknown how long it will be until a full patch is released.
Google, worried that its users were at risk, issued a warning via its Online Security blog, stating that the company believed activists were the target of the attacks. Interestingly, the post noted that users of another popular social site (possibly Facebook, which will not confirm either way) were also being targeted:

We’ve noticed some highly targeted and apparently politically motivated attacks against our users. We believe activists may have been a specific target. We’ve also seen attacks against users of another popular social site. All these attacks abuse a publicly-disclosed MHTML vulnerability for which an exploit was publicly posted in January 2011. Users browsing with the Internet Explorer browser are affected.
For now, we recommend concerned users and corporations seriously consider deploying Microsoft’s temporary Fixit to block this attack until an official patch is available.

Google says that it has deployed “various server-side defences” to make the the MHTML vulnerability harder to exploit, adding that although the measures are in place, they cannot be guaranteed to be 100% reliable. With that in mind, the company is in contact with Microsoft to work on a solution for the issue.
If you are an Internet Explorer user and want to make sure you are not vulnerable to the MHTML exploit, head to Microsoft’s patch page and install the update.

iPad 2 Benchmarks Blast Competition, Show Less-than-1GHz Processor Speed

A couple of things have come to light over the past few days, most of these lovely little tidbits coming out over the past 24 hours where the iPad 2 has been release out into the wild. The first of which we didn’t touch on for more than a few moments in our [early iPad 2 review a few days ago] – as you’ll see in our Geekbench result below, one point stands out pretty hard: the Processor. Instead of the 1GHz CPU in its head that it’s supposed to be, the iPad 2 is running at 894 MHz.


In another couple tests by IOSnoops and AnandTech, as reported by Engadget, clocked the ARM Cortex a( in at right around 900HMz as well. Apple you scoundrels! We’re not too worried about it though, as this beast has continued to be put through the tricks and traps of benchmarking by not only us, but by others, and the fact that the tablet is running a dual-core PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU is quite encouraging.
While our pals have found the iPad 2 to render 57.6 frames per second in a GLBenchmark test, while the Motorola XOOM Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet worked at 26.7 frames per second and the iPad 1 moved a super speedy 17.6fps. Would you like to see a game that displays the complete excellence of the tablet’s graphics? Have a look at Infinity Blade! It’s fantabulous.

The iPad Failed Me As A Living Room Companion

I was recently sitting in my living room, thinking about what my next column topic should be here on SlashGear. I considered a discussion on Microsoft’s Kinect. I thought about talking about my experience with set-top boxes that have clunky menus. But then I remembered the iPad 2 is now on store shelves. And it quickly became clear that it was the perfect time to talk about my issue with Apple’s tablet.


I bought Apple’s first-generation iPad the day after the device launched. I reasoned at the time that it would be an ideal companion for me while I was on-the-go. More importantly, I thought it would also be a trusty companion in the living room.
See, I’m one of those people that performs research in the living room. If I’m watching television and want some clarification on something that was said in a show, I look it up. If I can’t remember the name of an actor or actress I like in a movie I’m streaming over Netflix, I head to the Web to get my answer.
Because of that, I thought the iPad would be great. I could keep it next to the couch and whenever I had a question, I could turn it on, go to Safari or an app, get my answer, and go back to my night of entertainment. It seemed like the perfect fit — the missing device that I so needed in the living room.
It gets better, I thought. When I want to quickly check out YouTube or listen to some tracks from my iTunes library, I could use the iPad. It would be my ideal living room companion.
But then I got it home. And although I did like the idea of quickly turning the iPad on and looking things up from the device, it didn’t do the trick. The browsing experience isn’t as appealing as it is on a traditional computer. And for the most part, listening to music or watching a video on a tablet instead of through the high-definition equipment in the living room that’s connected to a sound system just didn’t make all that much sense.
Over time, it quickly became clear that the iPad was my perfect mobile companion. But when it came to the living room, it fell short.
So, I found a solution. I first hooked up a Mac Mini to my HDTV to satiate my desire to find information whenever I had some questions. Granted, going to another input and using a wireless keyboard and mouse wasn’t as simple as turning the iPad on, but the experience has proven to be far more appealing. The browsing is better and the overall functionality of the Mac Mini appeals more to me.
Even better, I put all my iTunes music on the computer. And since I could access Netflix on it (as well as on the consoles or Apple TV connected to my television), the iPad’s chances of becoming an entertainment option in the living room was all but eliminated.
Now, before Apple fans try to say that this is all an attempt to bash the iPad, let me just make this clear: I’m a happy iPad customer. It’s with me everywhere I go. And I still use it every single day. It’s just that the tablet didn’t live up to my expectations for the living room.
Is that really a problem? Not really. The iPad is meant to be a mobile computer, not an entertainment platform for the living room. But if it could have satisfied my desire for a simple device that enhances my productivity in the living room, it would have been all the more valuable to me.
Oh well. I guess you can’t win them all.

Infinity Blade for iPad 2 [REVIEW]

Let us go forth and review an app made specifically for the Apple mobile platform iOS – this particular update coming hard and downloading fully optimized for iPad 2. This is a game that, in a way, takes everything we learned from games like Final Fantasy, Virtua Fighter, and even the non-video game Dungeons and Dragons, and breaks it down to a touchscreen-based, mobile operating system … masterpiece. It’s not the greatest game ever made, and I’ll give you a little preview in saying I don’t even think I’ll play it more than a few times, but is it worth the cash you could potentially lay down on it?

First Impressions

This game fires up to show several brand names that spell out “this is going to be amazing almost no matter what.” EPIC Games, UDK, ChAIR, and the mother of them all, UNREAL Technology. We’ve just reviewed a couple of games for the Motorola XOOM that had UNREAL involved, and oh my goodness let me tell you that we’ve essentially now GOT to crack our claws out for any new game that comes along associated with them. They’re good.

As this game fires up, it rolls past the start screen, hitting almost immediately the playing of the game via just a tiny bit of training. A mistake many games have been making in this transitional period with mobile gaming is to move a game that was on a console or otherwise larger system here to mobile without changing it a bit. You’ve got to make it work FASTER, because that’s what a mobile gamer not only expects, it’s what he or she needs. This game knows that, and it knows it hardcore.
The game launches instantly into a storyline and cinematic that are complicated enough to be engaging but simple enough that you don’t have to CARE what’s going on to play the game.
Perfect balance achieved!

Gameplay

This game consists of walking a distance, seeing if there are any items about your feet for picking up, making sure your health and person are up to snuff, and fighting. Fighting in this game consists of tapping and swiping across the screen, not unlike what you’d be doing in Fruit Ninja, but here with a level of complexity that again achieves a perfect balance. The balance is between response time, intricacy, and entertainment value. This fighting system has enough moves and advancements in moves as you move through the game that you will not become bored. This fighting system has a response time that, while not 100% perfect, is the best you’re going to find on the iOS platform. This fighting system allows you to hit, cut, dodge, parry, block, use magic, use special moves, and more and more as you move along and gain experience. It’s entertaining every single time you fight.

Storyline

The story here is that you’re a warrior whose father has been killed by this evil warlord. You need to go into the castle where your father war murdered (20 years earlier,) and beat your way through a series of monsters until you reach the head villain whom you must also kill. The first time we went through the game, it took about 20 minutes to find the throne room, and we scored a single hit on the head bad guy. He murdered the crap out of us instantly afterward. Once you die, at least by his hand, your quest begins again, but not as you, as your son. We’ve only done this a couple times so we assume it’s always a son, and the story always goes that it’s 20 years later once again. Your son, since he’s in your bloodline, inherits not only the power and experience you had when you died at the head of the top boss, but your gear as well. This isn’t the first place in the story where you’ll be questioning logic, and it’s not the last, but if you accept this oddness, you’re going to have one whole heck of a lot of fun playing this oddity of a game. Plus, it’d totally be horrible if you lost your awesome sword after a single death!

Wrap-Up

While I write this review, this game costs a total of $5.99 in the app store, and I personally have only tried it out on the iPad 2. It looks and acts like it’s the best game ever made for the mobile platform, and feels like a game whose format I and we have never before experienced. It’s a winner. It’s worth the $6 if only to experience this new format of game and learn what’s possible for the future. Plus there’s some unbelievably freaky monsters in here you’ve just GOT to witness.
Go buy the crap out of it [here]