Gaikai just announced a partnership with Meteor Entertainment to bring the upcoming title, HAWKEN, to Gaikai’s cloud-based gaming service ahead of the December 12th, 2012 launch date. If you haven’t heard of HAWKEN,  watch the videos below. HAWKEN is a free-to-play mech-based FPS built by an indy team using the Unreal 3 engine. It has been generating a lot of interest over the past few year, because.. everyone wants to be able to run around in a mech-suit and blast the crap out of things.

We reviewed Gaikai last year and everything was pretty decent and the latency wasn’t too bad, so I’m curious to see their improvements on the service.

Original Video:

April 2012 Cinematic Trailer:

Gaikai has partnered with Meteor Entertainment to bring HAWKEN to Gaikai’s open cloud gaming platform ahead of its 12/12/12 launch date. Developed by Adhesive Games and published by Meteor Entertainment, HAWKEN is an innovative free-to-play multiplayer online game where players battle giant armored mechs amongst the ruined cities of a toxic planet. Since HAWKEN was first announced on 2/6/12, over 200,000 players have signed up for the closed beta and trailers of the game have generated over 3 million views from excited fans on YouTube. To join the HAWKEN beta, sign up at www.playhawken.com.

Source:
http://www.gaikai.com/press/article/gaikai-signs-the-rights-to-pre-release-the-visually-stunning-hawken-video-game-from-the-cloud

Everyone has been waiting anxiously for years for the release of Diablo III. Now, excited fans will be able to play their (hopefully) preloaded copy of Diablo III – that is, if the servers respond..

Check out John’s coverage of what is included in the Collector’s Edition.

Google is rumored to be trying to acquire Meebo for a reported 100 Million US Dollars.  This purchase would hopefully improve (and unify) their currently splattered list of messaging clients;  Google Talk, Google Hangout, Google Voice, Google+, Google Googly Googles, et cetera,  into one program. Just pick one name and make one program for God’s sake Google. Call it Google One or something stupid like that and make a desktop program so I don’t have to switch to a Chrome tab to see get back into my chat. Yes.. I realize I can pin the tab or open in a new window, but I really want a desktop client like Skype that offers free group video chat & desktop sharing.

But seriously, if you think I’m kidding about the amount of separate Google social / messaging clients, look:

</rant>

We’ll be keeping up to date on this. Hopefully they do pull everything together and take what is great and free and make it into one working program that does it all.

Source:
http://allthingsd.com/20120511/sources-google-is-close-to-buying-meebo/

The Nintendo DSi and DSi XL will be getting a price drop on May 20th, in time for the launch of another 3DS color, Purple.

The DSi will drop to $99 and it’s mega-screen counterpart, the DSi XL is dropping to $129.

If you don’t like 3D, this deal should be tempting.

Source:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/10/nintendo-dsi-dsixl-price-drop-may-20/

Sprint announced their upcoming mobile hotspot device from Sierra Wireless, the Tri-Fi, which features WiMax, LTE, and their CDMA 3G modem onboard. The Tri-Fi is the first of it’s kind and is set to launch May 18th for customers who want to be ahead of the launching of Sprint’s LTE network, which is set to launch later this year in limited markets. The device is setup to be future proof for users who want to be ahead of the game and are willing to sit it out with Sprint’s mediocre coverage.

If you are in an area with Sprint’s 4G coverage, they do have some half-way decent pricing on data plans:

Sprint data plans for the device start at $34.99 for 3GB of combined 3G/4G data while on the Sprint network. Customers also can choose the $49.99 plan with 6GB of combined 3G/4G data or $79.99 for 12GB of 3G/4G data, which deliver 20 percent more data for the same price as AT&T and Verizon’s similar plans. - Sprint

Source:
http://newsroom.sprint.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=2270

T-Mobile just launched another 4G Comparison advertisement featuring Carly Foulkes in black and magenta leather. They show the speeds of an iPhone 4S on AT&T as riding a motorcycle, then show the speed of their 4G network as Carly on a ‘superbike’ (aka crotch rocket) zipping by.

The purpose is to show that users can get significantly better speed if the switch to a 4G device on the T-Mobile network. They then link to their online advertising campaign to “test drive” their network:

http://tmobile.com/testdrive

Source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pczODHEO23I

http://explore.t-mobile.com/verizon-att-sprint/

CTIA 2012 is broadcasting their conference right now, with the the US Cellular companies showcasing their upcoming network growth and plans for the future.

Even Order:

• Sprint - Dan Hesse
• T-Mobile – Philipp Humm
• AT&T - Ralph de la Vega
• Verizon Wireless - Dan Mead

Live stream from CTIA 2012:

T-Mobile is blowing up their 4G Network; adding several more 42Mbps towers, expanding their 4G into the 1900Mhz band, and working on a 4G LTE deal with AWS spectrum they recently secured from AT&T. The 1900Mhz HSPA+ deal would allow unlocked GSM phones, such as the iPhone, to have 3G or 4G coverage. Currently, unlocked devices are limited to 2G (Edge), with the exception of a few select locations.

T-Mobile has contracted a $4 billion dollar deal with Nokia Siemens Networks and LM Ericsson AB to push their LTE services to 75-percent of the top 25 markets in the US by 2013

Interestingly, since T-Mobile held off on pushing LTE for their 4G network and expanded their current HSPA+ cellular / data network coverage, they will be launching Release 10 LTE, which basically means the majority of the bugs already worked out of the service.

Getting “4G” HSPA+ Towers:

• Little Rock, Arkansas
• Hattiesburg, Mississippi
• Springfield, Montana
• Madison, Wisconsin

Getting 42Mbps Today:

• Fayetteville, Arkansas
• Little Rock, Arkansas
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
• Springfield, Montana

Sources:
http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/articles/4GNetworkEvolutionVendorsSelected

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/t-mobile-usa-picks-ericsson-and-nokia-siemens-networks-as-suppliers-for-new-4b-lte-network/2012/05/08/gIQAyhZf9T_story.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/08/us-tmobileusa-ericsson-nokiasiemens-idUSBRE84703020120508

http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Information/presentations/presentations_2011/2011_09_LTE_Asia/2011_LTEAsia_3GPP%20RAN.pdf

Yes.. we saw it coming, but now it’s finally here. Looks like you can get an Xbox 360 4GB Kinect bundle for $99 at a Microsoft Store when you sign up for 2 years of Xbox Live Gold at $14.99 per month. Obviously, you’d have to find a Microsoft store, but I conveniently linked their store locator there.

How does this add up?

Well, 4GB Xbox 360 Kinect Bundles are going for $299.99 ($289.99 on Amazon right now), you can pickup up an Xbox Live Gold 1 Year code from Amazon for less than $50. So $299.99 + $100 = $399.99 (or $389.99)

With the contract, $99 for the system bundle, $14.99  x 24 = $359.76 + $99 = $458.76. Essentially, for $60-70 extra – or a 12-15% price premium, you don’t have to pay quite as much for your Xbox up front.  The big question is, is it worth it to you? Personally, I think they should have went another route and made it a bit cheaper to do it this way. That way there would be more people interested in the program and you’d have guaranteed Xbox Live subscriptions coming in.

Sources:
http://content.microsoftstore.com/store/xblive2yr-offer/

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/Legal/xbox-live-contract-terms

Well look at that, guess Amazon took note on the article yesterday. Amazon now has the Diablo III Collector’s Edition available for pre-order for $99.99 with release-date delivery available on May 15th, 2012.

For an extensive look at what is included in the Diablo III Collector’s Edition box-set, check out John’s coverage on it.

Source:
http://www.amazon.com/Diablo-III-Collectors-Edition-Pc/dp/B0050SZC5U