Author: Zach Walton

When Facebook revealed Home for Android, it also revealed a new phone called the HTC First to go along with it. The phone apparently didn’t do so well in the American market leading to rumors of its demise. Now it looks like the phone won’t even get a chance across the pond.

Mobile News reports that pre-orders for the HTC First in the UK have been canceled. Those who were hoping to get ahold of a “Facebook Phone” will now have to settle for one of the preexisting Android devices that support Home.

Interestingly enough, it seems that the decision to cancel the HTC First launch in the UK was made by Facebook. An anonymous source speaking to Mobile News said that Facebook’s decision was spurred by the phone’s performance in the US:

“The HTC First has been pulled and will never go on sale in the UK. Sales in the US were poor and Facebook has taken the decision not to give it a more widespread release.”

The presumed death of the HTC First doesn’t spell the end of Facebook Home, but it does show that consumers don’t want a Facebook phone yet. Home is available on numerous high-end Android devices so it makes little sense to buy a mid-range device when Home compatible devices, like the Galaxy S III, are sold for around the same price.

Of course, I fully expect Facebook to try its hand at an officially branded phone again when it adds more features to Home proper. Reviews are not good at the moment, but improved Home software could make a future Facebook phone more appealing to the average consumer.

The Xbox One and PS4 are still a few months away so a few of the finer details won’t be available just yet. Usually, the box art is one of the final things to be revealed with any new console, but it may have been revealed early.

The official Battlefield Facebook account was updated after the Xbox One unveiling to announce Battlefield 4 for the Xbox One and PS4. The graphic provided with the announcement features what may be the box art design for both consoles:

Of course, the designs could be placeholders for now. If it is legitimate, Sony seems to be keeping a similar box art design from what it has used with the PS3 while Microsoft will be adopting a more minimalistic design with its box art. It’s not a bad thing at all, and the deep green color looks really good.

We’ll probably see final box art design a few months before launch, but third parties, like EA in this instance, will probably leak the final box art design long before Sony or Microsoft does.

Now if only Microsoft, or a third party, would be more forthcoming about its plans for used games on the Xbox One. The official statement is that used games will be playable on the console, but Microsoft is being entirely too vague about the whole thing.

[h/t: theoneandonly283 via Reddit]

Ever wonder what Leonardo DiCaprio’s dad – George DiCaprio – looks like? Wonder no more:

Doesn’t he look awesome? It’s not just the looks either. Leo’s dad is also a comic book author and distributor. Now, he doesn’t work on any major releases. He works in the underground comic scene on series like Baloney Moccasins and Greaser Comics.

Fun fact – George DiCaprio is credited with giving Leonardo DiCaprio his name. The story goes that the unborn Leo began to kick in his mother’s stomach as George and his mother –
Irmelin Indenbirken – were admiring a portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci at an art gallery.

Leo’s parents split shortly after he was born, but he still remains close to them both. He even hangs out with his father at many events. Most recently, he was spotted at the premier of Leo’s new film – The Great Gatsby.

[h/t: OMG]

Two students were bitten by a fox at an elementary school today which has sparked a “fox hunt” in the area for the animal.

The AP reports that two male students were bitten by the fox after the animal found its way onto the playground at Rocky Plains Elementary School in Covington, Georgia. The two boys were immediately rescued by a teacher, and treated for the bites.

Now Newton County Animal Control is searching for the fox to make sure it wasn’t rabid. Even if they can’t catch the fox, the two boys will be treated for rabies just in case.

It’s reported that 50 kindergartners were on the playground at the time of the attack. More could have possibly been bitten if it weren’t for the teacher kicking the fox away. Unfortunately for the other schoolchildren, all outdoor activities were canceled after the attack.

It appears that rabid fox attacks are rather common. Here’s another attack from three years ago that saw two Georgia men bit:

Ellen DeGeneres is apparently riding high on the news that her day time talk show was renewed as she may have just bought a $26.5m mansion.

TMZ reports that DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, dropped $26.5 million dollars on a new home in Santa Barbara. As for the details, the house features over 10 square feet, has nine fireplaces, six bedrooms, six bathrooms and is spread across 13 acres. In short – this is the kind of house that you can only wish you had.

Of course, this is just the latest in a number of properties DeGeneres owns in the area. It’s reported that she owns homes in Beverly Hills and Hidden Valley.

In other Ellen news, the comedian will be reprising the role of fan favorite Dory in the Finding Nemo sequel – Finding Dory. We can only speculate that the advance from Disney for the 2015 film helped to pay for at least part of the new home.

Chocolate in and of itself is pretty magical. Now, what happens when you carve out multiple chocolate sculptures and put them into a zoetrope? Well, just watch:

Still confused? For a better explanation, here’s Pixar showing off its own Toy Story zoetrope. It’s just as, if not more, magical.

[h/t: wrestler1977 via Reddit]

Major Nelson (Larry Hryb) is the public figurehead of Xbox. If he says it’s true, you better believe it. That’s why it’s a relief to finally have him chime in on the confusion surrounding used games on the recently announced Xbox One.

In an update on the official Major Nelson blog, Hryb confirms that the Xbox One will be able to play used games. Unfortunately, he doesn’t say much more than that:

We know there is some confusion around used games on Xbox One and wanted to provide a bit of clarification on exactly what we’ve confirmed today. While there have been many potential scenarios discussed, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail.

Beyond that, we have not confirmed any specific scenarios.

Well, that’s nice to know, but it doesn’t really clarify anything. What’s keeping Microsoft from just coming out and discussing its used game policy with the Xbox One? Transparency is incredibly effective when gamers everywhere are tearing your new console a new one just because they think that it won’t play used games. The above statement confirms that used games will be playable, but it doesn’t serve to address any of the specific concerns being raised on message boards across the Internet.

Well, Hryb does address one specific scenario:

Another piece of clarification around playing games at a friend’s house – should you choose to play your game at your friend’s house, there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile.

Wait, so does that mean that there is a fee when not signed into the account that activated the game? How much is this fee? Is it the full price of the game? We need these details and Microsoft remaining vague only serves to frustrate.

At this point in time, it seems that we’ll have to wait for more details around E3. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll hear anything more at that point either. The mixed messages being sent yesterday makes it seem that those within Microsoft don’t even know the used game policy. We might not hear anything until we’re a month or two away from launch. Now that would be unfortunate.

Trevor Bolder, a name famous among David Bowie fans the world over, died Tuesday at the age of 62 after a bout with pancreatic cancer.

Bolder was one of the founding members of David Bowie’s band – The Spiders From Mars. He also joined with the band Uriah Heep in the 70s and played with them throughout the rest of his career. In fact, he most recently appeared on the band’s latest album, Into The Wild, in 2011.

Things were looking up for Bolder earlier this year when he underwent surgery to have part of his pancreas removed. The cancer was not completely eliminated, however, and it eventually took his life.

Uriah Heep issued the following statement regarding the loss of their band mate and friend:

“It is with great sadness that Uriah Heep announce the passing of our friend the amazing Trevor Bolder, who has passed away after his long fight with cancer. Trevor was an all time great, one of the outstanding musicians of his generation, and one of the finest and most influential bass players that Britain ever produced. His long time membership of Uriah Heep brought the band’s music, and Trevor’s virtuosity and enthusiasm, to hundreds of thousands of fans across the world. He joined the band in 1976 and, barring one short break, was a fixture until his ill health forced him to take a step back early this year.”

It is doubly unfortunate that Bolder was actually meant to play with Uriah Heep in concert in June. The remaining members will undoubtedly pay a fantastic tribute to him, along with fans, at the concert.

[h/t: Yahoo Music]

During the Xbox One unveiling, we only got a small glimpse of what the console is truly capable of. In a new video released today, the people behind Xbox go into a bit further detail on what gamers can expect from the new console.

Xbox executives discuss how Xbox built the all-in-one games and entertainment system for today and the decade ahead — Xbox One. Xbox executives Yusuf Mehdi, Phil Spencer, and Marc Whitten discuss how Xbox One puts you at the center of all your games, TV, movies, music, sports and Skype.

As an added bonus, here’s that “Xbox Anthem” video that Microsoft opened the Xbox One unveiling event with. It’s totally worth watching for the random appearances from Hideo Kojima and J.J. Abrams. Will they be creating content for the new console, like Steven Spielberg’s live action Halo TV series?

Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense, recently spoke on gay marriage and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell during a recent interview with Larry King.

On the issue of gay marriage, Rumsfeld said that he doesn’t exactly know where he is in the debate. He does wonder what would come next if gay marriage were to be legalized. He specifically says, “two people? three people?” as if he’s wondering if polygamists will be the next group demanding the state recognize their marriages.

King then reminds Rumsfeld that he was a proponent of civil rights in the 60s. He responds to King by saying that he doesn’t necessarily view gay marriage as part of a larger civil rights agenda.

It should be noted that he doesn’t have any animosity towards homosexuals. In a previous question on the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, he says that its repeal was only a matter of time. He points out that homosexuals have served in the military for decades, and that they served their country well.

That being said, he thinks that the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell will be tougher in certain parts of the military. He predicts that it will be easier to implement openly gay service men and women in the Air Force and Navy, but cautions that implementation among ground forces may be a little trickier. In other words, he worries that unit cohesion, or the ability of a troop to work together as a whole, may be impacted negatively if soldiers respond negatively to openly gay squad mates.

You can watch the relevant part of the interview below:

[h/t: Salon]

Do Xbox 360 owners still play games on an SDTV? Minecraft players proved they do, but it looks like Microsoft will be ignoring them with the Xbox One.

GimmeGimmeGames reports that the Xbox One only sports an HDMI out. That means the console will not be able to connect to displays with component or composite ins. Of course, there are converters that convert digital signals to analog for those still rocking a component connection, but Microsoft won’t be supporting it out of the box.

It’s hard to imagine that gamers still play HD consoles on an SDTV in this day and age, but a number of examples prove they still exist. They also may be interested in the Xbox One. That interest will require them to upgrade to an HDTV before jumping into the next generation of gaming. Thankfully, HDTVs are not quite as expensive as they used to be.

The last generation introduced digital audio and video to game consoles, but they still had support for analog connections. The Xbox One ditching analog signals may be a sign that the PS4 will be doing the same. We haven’t seen Sony’s hardware yet, however, so we don’t know if that will be the case.

Lack of SDTV support isn’t the only issue facing Microsoft’s latest machine. The company has been sending mixed signals regarding its stance on used games with the Xbox One. We’re still waiting on a definitive statement, but signs are pointing to it allowing used games within certain parameters.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft for confirmation on this specific issue, and will update if we hear back.

An attack in London has left one man dead, and two others injured, near a military barracks.

The AP is reporting that two men attacked another man in London this morning. Those on the scene said that the attackers employed a number of weapons, but it’s unknown if a gun was involved yet.

Police responded to reports of an assault where they found one man dead. The two other men were shot and taken to nearby hospitals.

The above scenario may seem like a random act of violence, but the authorities aren’t so sure yet. An anonymous government official said that the attack may have been “terrorist-motivated” and that the authorities are investigating the incident as such.

While it may pale in comparison, this isn’t the first time London has suffered a terrorist attack. In 2005, suicide bombers attacked the public transportation system in London leading to the deaths of fifty-two civilians and over 700 were injured.

More details regarding this latest attack will likely emerge in the coming days. We can just be thankful that not more were injured or killed.

Here’s a report with more details on the attack:

Being a ghostbuster isn’t easy. You may stumble upon some rather scary things, including your son having sex with your wife.

The Mercury reports that a 28-year-old woman recently pled guilty to five counts of sexual intercourse with a minor. What makes this particular case a bit weirder isn’t the fact that the minor was her stepson, but rather, how they were caught.

It all started when the father set up a camera in the house hoping to find evidence of ghosts. He forgot to turn off the camera when he left for work and came back to a surprise. On the tape was footage of his wife having sex with her stepson.

In the following days, she confessed to police that she had sex with her stepson twice. She also said that she knew he was 16-years-old. She tried to play off the latter by saying that she thought the age of consent was 16.

Even after being separated from the boy, the prosecution stated that she had traveled to a remote hotel room to engage in more sexual activities with her stepson.

Obviously, the events put quite the damper on the relationship between the woman and her husband. She is now working to repair their relationship.

She will be sentenced on Monday.

Oliver Burton is a 10-year-old boy who has been diagnosed with cancer for the third time. He’s dying, and doesn’t have much time left. His final wish was to meet Queen Elizabeth II, which turned out to be impossible, so Dame Helen Mirren stepped in to grant him his wish.

The Daily Mail reports that Mirren, who is currently playing the queen in a stage show, met with Burton in full costume and makeup recently. She had tea with him and then knighted him as Sir Oliver Burton. He even got to play with her two corgis.

It’s unfortunate that Burton didn’t get to meet the real queen, but he reportedly didn’t know the difference. To him, Mirren was the real deal, and he was thrilled to meet her. Burton’s parents were even happier saying that Mirren “stayed in character for the whole thing. Oliver thought she was the real queen, and well, that’s good enough for us.”

Unfortunately, Burton may just have weeks or months to live as his latest bout with cancer has been deemed incurable by doctors. That being said, he has come through two previous bouts where doctors said he had hours to live. He may pull through yet again.

Even if the worst comes to pass, Burton’s parents are determined to fill what may be his final weeks with wonderful memories. It’s gonna be hard to top meeting the “queen,” but his parents have some ideas.

[Image: Angela George]

After the PS4 was unveiled, the guys over at VideoGamer made an abridged version of the event that poked fun at everything wrong with modern gaming. Now they’re back at it again for yesterday’s Xbox One unveiling.

It may be a little unfair to call EA Sports Executive Vice President Andrew Wilson a “fist bump in human form,” but he did come off as a little too bro-tastic during yesterday’s unveiling. In fact, that seems to have been a theme during yesterday’s unveiling – entertainment for those who are classified as “bros.” Twitter seems to have picked up on it as well.

If you want to see a more true to life version of the unveiling (that’s still hilarious), check out the condensed version of the unveiling from this morning.

Fan Fiction is awesome, right? It’s a way for fans to better engage with their favorite brands, and some franchises actually gain new fans thanks to fan fiction. Amazon wants to capitalize on it while paying authors for their trouble.

Amazon announced Kindle Worlds today – a new publishing platform that licenses popular series and then allows amateur authors to publish fan fiction based on those series. Right out of the gate, Amazon has secured the rights to Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries. I can already see the latter inspiring plenty of fan fiction.

“At Kindle, we’re not only inventing on the hardware and software side of the business, we’re inventing new ways to create books,” said Philip Patrick, Director, Business Development and Publisher of Kindle Worlds. “Our goal with Kindle Worlds is to create a home for authors to build on the Worlds we license, and give readers more stories from the Worlds they enjoy. We look forward to announcing additional World licensing deals in the coming weeks.”

So, how will the payment system work? Here’s how Amazon describes it:

Amazon Publishing will pay royalties to both the rights holders of the Worlds and the author. The standard author’s royalty rate (for works of at least 10,000 words) will be 35% of net revenue. As with all titles from Amazon Publishing, Kindle Worlds will base net revenue off of sales price—rather than the lower, industry standard of wholesale price—and royalties will be paid monthly.

In addition, with the launch of Kindle Worlds, Amazon Publishing will pilot an experimental new program for particularly short works—between 5,000 and 10,000 words. For these short stories—typically priced under one dollar—Amazon will pay the royalties for the World’s rights holder and pay authors a digital royalty of 20%.

It’s not a bad deal for something that people generally write while expecting no monetary return. It might even be a great platform for an aspiring author to launch their own career. There’s numerous stories out there of fan fiction authors getting their big break after somebody discovered their work.

Kindle Worlds will officially launch in June with over 50 commissioned works from famous authors. After that, anybody can submit their fan fictions to the Kindle Worlds publishing portal. To get a head start, head over to the official site to learn more.

You may recall that Apple was on tap to testify at a Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing yesterday regarding accusations that it dodges taxes. As expected, Apple CEO Tim Cook denied the accusations. He did offer up his idea for tax reform while he was there though.

During the hearing, Cook slammed the current U.S. tax code for not keeping up with the “digital age.” He also said that the “tax system handicaps American corporations in relation to our foreign competitors who don’t have such constraints on the free flow of capital.”

So, what does Cook suggest the U.S. do about it? He says that the corporate tax rate needs to be slashed. His suggestion calls for a drop from a 35 percent tax rate to a mid-20s tax rate. He also encourages Congress to lower the tax rate on foreign earnings being brought into the U.S.

The result of the above, Cook says, would encourage more investment in the United States and create more jobs. He even explicitly said that Apple will not bring billions in cash back to the U.S. unless Congress lowers the tax rate.

There are many congressman who no doubt agree with Apple on this issue, but one vocally came out in defense of the company yesterday. The Hill reports that Sen. Rand Paul said the subcommittee’s hearing on Apple’s alleged tax avoidance was offensive. He called upon the subcommittee to immediately apologize to the company.

Even after all of this, Apple isn’t quite done defending itself against accusations of tax avoidance. Reuters is reporting that major European leaders will be meeting to discuss what it sees as tax dodging from major tech corporations like Google, Apple and Amazon. Investigations have found that governments within the EU miss out on over €1 trillion, or $1.3 trillion USD, in tax revenue.

[h/t: The Hill] [Image: lemagit/flickr]

Some would argue that yesterday’s Xbox One reveal was a little underwhelming. Some thought it was pretty great. Either way, you can’t deny that Microsoft may have emphasized one part of its conference a little too much.

YouTube user Darkbeatdk has condensed the hour long Xbox One unveiling into a minute and a half video that emphasizes what’s really important about Microsoft’s new console – TV.

There are bound to be a number of abridged parody videos of the Xbox One unveiling, but it’s going to be hard to top this one. Sometimes the truth is funnier than any parody.

[h/t: Kotaku]

Chris Brown is in the news again, but this time it’s for a car crash.

TMZ reports that Chris Brown was involved in a car crash on Tuesday after rear ending a Mercedes in his Range Rover. The accident occurred in Los Angeles near Toluca Lake.

Brown proceeded to exchange insurance information with the woman behind the wheel of the Mercedes. She will probably be able to fix what little damage was done to her car and then some.

This isn’t the first car crash that Brown has been involved in this year. ANI says that Brown crashed his Porsche into a wall back in February. Fortunately, this crash doesn’t appear to be anywhere near as bad.

Of course, there’s more to this than just the car crash though. TMZ is also reporting that Brown was driving with Karrueche Tran – a fling from his past. Brown just recently broke up with Rihanna in April for what seems like the ninth time. It wouldn’t be too surprising to learn that he was with an old flame again.

Anybody would be thankful to survive the massive tornado that recently wrecked areas of Oklahoma. The person, or deity, being thanked might be different though. CNN reporter Wolf Blitzer found that out the hard way as he was talking to survivors.

While on the scene of the destruction today, Wolf Blitzer began talking to a young woman about her experience. At one point he said, “I guess, you gotta thank the Lord, right?” The woman, no doubt finding herself in an awkward situation, responded that she was in fact an atheist. Even so, she says that she doesn’t “blame anybody for thanking the Lord.” In the end, they all had a good laugh about it.

After what she and thousands of others went through over the last few days, I don’t blame them either.

[h/t: Raw Story]