GeekwithEnvy

Rumors

Will Mac Pro Get a Much Needed Refresh?

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Mac Pro

The Mac Pro hasn’t seen an update in quite a while and it’s really starting to show it’s age. Pro users are getting quite impatient with Apple by now and some have even sent emails directly to Tim Cook complaining about how they feel that Apple has essentially forgotten about it’s pro users and has decided to focus purely on the iPhone and iPad business.

It makes sense that Apple would focus most of their attention to these products since they are by far their most popular but it’s time for the Mac Pro to get some love and Tim Cook actually responded to the email by saying that there are some updates in store for 2013.

USB 3.0, Thunderbolt and CPU upgrades are just a few of the much needed updates to the Mac Pro line. Hopefully, we will get an announcement next week at the World Wide Developers Conference which begins June 10th and continues through to the 14th. Macrumors has mentioned that supplies of the Mac Pro have decreased significantly among various suppliers which does seem to hint toward a refresh.

No Charge for Used Xbox One Games

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There has been a lot of buzz going around on whether or not Microsoft’s new next-gen console, the Xbox One, will charge a fee to “re-activate” used games on other consoles. If this were to happen this would likely send most gamers into a frenzy and likely lead to many angry emails and maybe even console boycotting. Let’s not forget about businesses who basically exist because of used games, like GameStop, they wouldn’t be very happy either.

Thankfully, it seems that there will NOT be a fee, at least according to Polygon who also mentions that the games will still need to be authenticated from time-to-time through random checks done online. The system is said to authorize and de-authorize systems once the disc is loaded up in to a console. That means one specific disc for one specific console, period, until someone hacks it.

It’s pretty easy to get all up in arms over things, especially when we don’t get all of the details and when it involves something that’s close to our hearts like our games, but we don’t know everything just yet. Microsoft still has a lot more to talk about before the actual release of the console and we won’t truly know what this or any console will be like until it’s in our living rooms.

The Next Generation Xbox, We Have Questions

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(Image Credit: International Business Times)

We are now only one day away from Microsoft’s May 21st event that will begin at 10 AM PDT on Xbox Live, Xbox.com and Spike TV.  This event is where the next generation Xbox is to be unveiled and of course we are all just filled with anticipation and feeling anxious as we await any new details about the PS4’s competition. If you haven’t already you can check out Major Nelson’s latest podcast which will fill you in a bit on how things are going come together in the next few weeks for Xbox.

Here’s few questions to get us thinking about the next-gen Xbox:

Many Xbox fans are hoping that the new Xbox isn’t “Online Only” and there are a few rumors that say it won’t be and hopefully that’s the case. I think a console that locks you into online only mode at this point in time is self destructive, I don’t think that the gaming community is ready for that yet.

Will Microsoft include a Blu-Ray player in the Xbox (infinity, 720)? There’s no way to know unless they tell us but I’m rooting for “yes”, because it makes sense and it would be nice to have the extra benefits of being able to play Blu-Ray movies on your console along with having the extra capacity for gaming media.

Will there be Skype integration? This would be a great social feature to add into the mix and I hope it makes it’s way in. Besides, Skype and Microsoft are now one in the same.

Will there be Solid State Drives? I haven’t heard any rumors on this but it would be really nice to have an SSD onboard especially with an increased focus on downloadable content. Faster load times and just overall better performance, let’s keep our fingers crossed.

What about a new version of Kinect, what will it look like and how will it be integrated? Some rumors say it will be built into the console itself. If you missed our earlier post you can check out Illumiroom, which is an augmented reality device that projects images around your television and it works with Kinect technology. This could very well be an accessory for the new Xbox.

Finally, what will it look like and what will be under the hood? Will Microsoft show off the goods? How much muscle with the new console have and will it best the PS4?  Maybe we will see a console this time, Sony has yet to show us the PS4’s hardware, which is kind of a let down, even though it probably shouldn’t matter but heck, we want to see it!

Be sure to check back with us as we will be rolling out a rundown of the next-gen Xbox in the days to come.