Author: Zach Walton

It was revealed last week that the Galaxy S 4 would be available for pre-order with AT&T on April 16. It was assumed that the launch would come sometime in May, but a new leak suggests that we could be seeing Samsung’s latest flagship device hit retail, at least in Europe, in late April.

SamMobile received a leak that says Samsung will start shipping the 16GB Galaxy S 4 3G in two weeks. The leak says that the shipments will hit Eastern Europe, Russia and the Ukraine first.

What’s disappointing is that it seems the 3G Galaxy S 4 will be released first with the LTE S 4 scheduled for the week of May 19. If that’s the case, we could see the 3G variant of the Galaxy S 4 released before the LTE variant in the U.S. as well.

Beyond AT&T’s announcement, there’s been no other carriers announcing pre-order plans for Samsung’s latest flagship device. At T-Mobile’s Un-Carrier event, the carrier said that the S 4 would be available on its network in May. AT&T would most likely get it before T-Mobile so an early May release in the U.S. seems likely.

We may still see the S 4 launching in the U.S. in late April, but FCC regulations may prevent us from seeing the S 4 before our friends in Europe get their hands on the device. Either way, it’s only a few more weeks until the Samsung faithful will be able to get their hands on the S 4.

Red bands typically indicate that you’re about to watch something that’s intended for a “mature audience,” and the latest trailer for The Last of Us does not disappoint in that regard.

The red band trailer for The Last of Us is an expanded version of the TV spot that aired during the season finale of The Walking Dead over the weekend. Expanded may be an understatement, however, as the new trailer is a full two minutes long compared to the original 30 second TV spot.

As the red band moniker implies, The Last of Us is pretty mature as far as games goes. It’s also looking to be one of the best stories to grace the video game medium this year. Whether or not it can stand up to, or even surpass, the ridiculously high standards set by BioShock Infinite remain to be seen though.

In mid-March, Andy Rubin stepped down as head of Android to start a “new chapter” at Google. In his place, Google appointed Chrome OS head Sundar Pichai. This led to some thinking that the Android and Chrome OS would cross pollinate, but Google has said the two products will remain separate.

The software behind Chrome OS and Android may remain separate, but a new report out of Digitimes suggests that Google may be launching Android notebooks in the third or fourth quarter of this year. Digitimes also speculates that Pichai is the one behind the move to bring Android to Notebooks.

Even if this rumor is true, it wouldn’t be the first time that Android has made its way into Notebook computers. A quick search of online retailers will bring up a number of cheap Chinese-made Android Notebooks that were made possible by Google making Android open source. There’s also pseudo-Notebooks, like ASUS’ Transformer Prime, that blurs the line between Notebook and tablet.

Like most of Digitime’s rumors, you should probably take this report with a massive grain of salt.Of course, there’s always the possibility that the next version of Android will introduce support for traditional computing environments, much like Android 3.0 introduced support for tablets. Still, it seems strange that Google would compete with its own Chromebook line by introducing Android notebooks.

If there is an Android notebook on the horizon, we might hear something about it at May’s Google I/O. It’s already rumored that the company will reveal the next Nexus 7 at the event, and an Android notebook reveal would not be out of place at an event where Google’s co-founder introduces a new product with skydivers.

[h/t: BGR]

One of the highlights of Tokyo Game Show last year was Puppeteer, a new game out of Sony’s Japan Studio. We got a quick look at the title then, but there hasn’t been much said about it since.

That all changed today as Sony announced that the game would be hitting American PS3s on September 10. The publisher also released a new trailer detailing more of the story that was only vaguely hinted at last year:

If you can’t watch the trailer, here’s the synopsis released by Sony:

One dark moonlit night, a young boy named Kutaro was carried away by the maleficent Moon Bear King to a black castle where the unlucky lad was transformed into a puppet.

Kutaro displeased the terrible tyrant, who devoured the boy’s wooden head and cast away his body.
But the headless hero was not alone, for he had discovered a very special pair of scissors to help him on his harrowing adventure to find his head, and his way home.

Puppeteer is a brand new franchise developed exclusively for PlayStation 3 by SCE JAPAN Studio. Set in a magical puppeteer’s theatre, this title will introduce you to a strange and fantastic world, where the environment is constantly changing. Players will enjoy a rich, dark fairytale where surprises lurk around every corner.

Puppeteer will get a retail release, but it will only cost $39.99 when it launches on September 10. The cheap price should help ensure that the game gains more of an audience, especially with other heavy hitters like Rayman Legends and Grand Theft Auto V launching in the same month.

Firefox 19, which launched in the middle of February, shipped with a built-in PDF viewer. Its successor, Firefox 20, comes with something even better – an update to the browser’s outdated download manager.

Firefox 20 launched today, and the updated browser comes with a new download manager that makes Firefox much more visually appealing. If you used any previous version of Firefox, you’d know that the download manager was contained in a separate window. Now the download manager is contained within a drop down menu on the top right of the browser.

Another addition in Firefox 20 is per-window private browsing. In other words, you can open a new private browser window without having to restart Firefox.

Firefox for Android also gets an updated private window mode with the ability to open a new private tab without having to close the app. The Android app also adds the ability to customize the home screen with your most visited sites.

Finally, Firefox for Android is adding support for devices with ARMv6 processors. Mozilla says that popular devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Next, HTC Aria, HTC Legend, Samsung Dart, Samsung Galaxy Pop and the Samsung Galaxy Q all now support Firefox for Android.

You can grab Firefox 20 for desktops here. Firefox for Android is available on Google Play.

The HTC One is the Taiwanese company’s latest attempt to dethrone Samsung and its super popular Galaxy S line. It has the specs to succeed in this endeavor, and now we know it will be launching before the Galaxy S 4 hits stores.

Both AT&T and Sprint announced today that the HTC One will be hitting their respective stores on April 19. The latest smartphone will retail for $199 at both carriers with a two-year contract. Interested buyers will be able to place a pre-order for the device on April 4 at AT&T, and on April 5 at Sprint.

If you’re in between contracts, you may find yourself stuck between choosing the HTC One on AT&T or Sprint. If you care about 4G LTE coverage, AT&T definitely has the larger network. AT&T will also be the exclusive home of the 64GB HTC One for $299. To sweeten the deal, AT&T will throw in a free HTC Media Link HD wireless HDMI adapter with any HTC One purchase as well.

If you want more info on the unique features of the HTC One, AT&T threw together this short video detailing the new device:

The HTC One presents a sizable threat to Samsung in a few key areas, but consumer interest will be the deciding factor in the latest war of the smartphones. HTC will have to pull out all the stops in its advertising if it wants to go head-to-head with the Galaxy S 4. Samsung has the deep pockets to just bombard all communication channels with its advertising so HTC will have to get creative if it hopes to undermine the competition.

Do you find yourself hounded by obnoxious or offensive people on Skype for Windows 8? You would normally block such unwanted guests, but Skype for Windows 8 shipped without the functionality. Thankfully, Skype has finally decided to fix that little oversight.

Skype announced that its latest update, which went live on March 29, added the ability to block, report or remove contacts. Some Skype users abuse the service to send spam or malicious messages so the block functionality is much appreciated.

Of course, blocking contacts in Windows 8 is a little different than usual, but it’s still pretty easy to do:

To block a contact, select the person’s name to open up the chat window. Bring up the command bar by swiping at the top or bottom of your screen (or right click), and select block. You may also choose whether you want to remove or report the contact request as spam.

If you find yourself needing more help, you can check out Skype’s handy tutorial on blocking and reporting contacts here.

Beyond the newly added contact blocking functionality, Skype for Windows 8 also received a number of bug fixes for the following issues:

If you have yet to upgrade, you can grab Skype for Windows 8 from the Windows Store.

A single robot can accomplish great, and terrifying, feats. What happens then when the robots start working together towards a common goal? One researcher aims to find out.

Dr. Roderich Gross, Head of the Natural Robotics Lab at the University of Sheffield, and his team have created 40 robots that can work together through the use of advanced artificial intelligence. The robots are programmed to meet up and work towards a common goal, even if they’re initially separated. For now, the robots can only perform basic functions, like moving a box, but the hope is that they can one day used in military, medical and science applications.

Check out the video below to see the robot swarm in action:

What’s interesting is that these robots may one day be shrunk down to the microscopic level and be inserted into the human body. The robots would then work together to improve functions of the body. Of course, the hard part would be convincing humans to let doctors inject hundreds of tiny robots into their bloodstream.

[h/t: Telegraph]

Mozilla, creators of the popular Firefox Web browser, turned 15-years-old on March 31. The non-profit looks to celebrate it in style as it looks back on what it, and the Web at large, has accomplished over the past 15 years.

Mitchell Baker, Chair of the Mozilla Foundation, wrote a short post today explaining what spurred Mozilla to rethink the Web 15 years ago:

Looking back, Mozilla’s plan was as radical as the Web itself: use open source and community to simultaneously create great software and build openness into the key technologies of the Internet itself. This was something commercial vendors weren’t doing and could not do. A non-profit, community-driven organization like Mozilla was needed to step up to the challenge.

Baker emphasizes the importance of keeping the Web open multiple times, and says that Mozilla will play a central role in making sure the Web remains open for future generations:

In the coming era both the opportunities and threats to the Web are just as big as they were 15 years ago. As the role of data grows and device capabilities expand, the Internet will become an even more central part of our lives. The need for individuals to have some control over how this works and what we experience is fundamental. Mozilla can — and must — play a key role again. We have the vision, the products and the technology to do this. We know how to enable people to participate, both by contributing to our specific activities and coming up with their own ideas that advance the bigger cause of enriching the Web.

It’s an exciting time for Mozilla and the Web. Another two billion people will join the Internet community in the coming years. It’s critical that these people all have access to the openness and empowerment that the Web has brought to date. The browser is a necessary piece of making sure this happens; yet we need to do more.

Baker also mentions a couple of upcoming projects from Mozilla that he feels will help more people become intimate with the Web. The first is Firefox OS, Mozilla’s mobile operating system. The second, and personally more interesting project, is Webmaker. This particular project will help people who have no experience in coding move from Web consumers to Web creators.

Looking forward to the future isn’t the only thing Mozilla is doing on its 15th anniversary. The non-profit will also be sharing 15 facts about Mozilla throughout the day with the #Webstory hashtag. Mozilla encourages users to share their own stories about Mozilla, Firefox or just what the Web in general means to them with the same hashtag.

The Web has changed tremendously over the past 15 years, and Mozilla is no longer the only major alternative to Internet Explorer. In fact, the browser market is more diverse than ever before. Regardless, Mozilla and its Web freedom allies still have an important part to play as the Web continues to grow over the next 15 years and beyond.

Last night, zombie fans got a taste of a world where the infected run wild and the remnants of humanity fight over what’s left.

During the season three finale of The Walking Dead, Sony showed off the very first TV spot for Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us. It was an excellent chance for Sony to show off the world of The Last of Us to viewers who were already tuning in for post-apocalyptic drama.

The Last of Us will launch exclusively on the PS3 on June 14.

The Play-Doh playsets of my childhood were kind of like 3D printers. You would put the Play-Doh into the machine, turn a crank, and shapes would come out. It’s this very same idea that has inspired Think Geek’s latest fake, but I wish it was real, April Fools’ product.

Think Geek revealed the Play-Doh 3D printer today alongside other great April Fools’ day products like a Creeper Body Pillow and an Aliens Chestburster-in-a-Can. What sets the Play-Doh 3D printer apart, however, is that it could be a truly educational device for children if it were ever made a reality.

Of course, the machine’s listed specs make sure that this machine remains firmly within the realm of fantasy for now: