Women gamers make a statement at Electronic Entertainment Expo

Women showed their emerging presence in the video game world at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) this week.

The three-day event at the Convention Center in Los Angeles, California, is home to the world’s premier trade show for computer, video and mobile gaming. The conference is attended by software developers, programmers, distributors, entertainment industry representatives, venture capitalists, and video game consumers. Big name companies in attendance include Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.

And this year, whether it be programmers or fans, women were in high attendance at the traditionally male-dominated expo. 

Video game console, Xbox (owned by Microsoft) had a plethora of their gaming presentations operated by female leaders and executives, according to NBC News Los Angeles.

RELATED: Feminist critic forced to cancel lecture after gun threat

“Sometimes, girls feel as if video games aren’t meant for them,” said Erica Hampson, a game developer for Virgini to NBC News. “Games used to be very sexualized but it’s been getting a lot better.”

With a strong increase in female attendance at the conference, more female characters were displayed in new game releases.

Emily Kaldwin, the assassin in Bethesda Softworks’ “Dishonoured 2,” Rae, a blind female character in Microsoft’s “Beyond Eyes,” and a female hunter in Sony’s “Horizon: Zero Dawn,” were some of the new heroines presented, according to the Associated Press. These characters all joined established female lead characters like Lara Croft of “Tomb Raider” series.

Meanwhile, Bethesda’s “Fallout 4,” EA’s “Mass Effect: Andromeda” and Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate,” gave players the option to play as female characters. In addition, “FIFA ’16” is introducing women teams, as the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup is currently underway.

A small all-female gaming development group from South Carolina called 3 Queens also made an appearance at E3, to introduce their new game “Creeping with the Crudashians,” a mobile game parody of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” according to MTV News.

Before “Creeping with the Crudashians,” Cara Florence, Nicole Young, and Maureen Coffey-Edri created an mobile platform application called WeConsent2, which established affirmative consent for women who are at risk of being sexually assaulted.

The positive vibes at the expo served as a counterpoint to the prevailing image of the gaming industry as sexist, and even potentially dangerous, for women. Just last year, Anita Sarkeesian, a feminist critic who has written extensively about misogyny rampant in video games had to cancel a planned lecture at Utah State University after mass murder threats were made.

“I think that women and young girls have a different perception of gaming or even anything in technology or software-related. I think the perception is off, and if they could see more and be exposed to these types of events or opportunities and even see other women, like us, who are actually being successful at these types of opportunities, that would really inspire them. I wish that they could see that more,” Cara Florence, a co-founder of 3 Queens, told MTV News.

“Just do it, and be open to collaboration with other women too,” her fellow co-founder Nicole Young added. “Don’t be intimidated by the male dominance of this industry.” 

Google zooms in on smart-home vision with Nest Cam

Nintendo is in a time of transition, Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America’s president, said Tuesday in the company’s Digital Event video released for the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo. Nintendo is making a push into mobile gaming and it’s working on its next console, the NX, but details of those two efforts won’t come this year, Fils-Aime said. They’ll come in 2016.

This year, Nintendo is using E3 to focus on the games it has for its two current platforms: the Wii U console and the 3DS hand-held. The big star of the video, which Nintendo released online instead of an arena-filled live event like Microsoft and Sony held yesterday, is “Star Fox Zero,” the new Wii U space shooter.

Star Fox Zero marks the return of the franchise, which hasn’t been seen on a home console since 2005’s “Star Fox: Assault,” on the Nintendo GameCube. The game creatively uses the Wii U’s tablet-like GamePad controller’s built in 6.2-inch touchscreen to display a cockpit view of the fighter-pilot action that the game centers around. A more traditional third-person view is shown on screen, and Nintendo expects gamers to switch their gaze between their TVs and the GamePad while playing the new title.

Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s famous game designer, concocted the dual-screen gameplay. The company is collaborating with Japan’s Platinum Games to finish Star Fox Zero, which should be in stores this holiday season. Playable demos are available at the E3 expo in Los Angeles this week.

The game is graphically impressive, filled with starscapes and planetary scenes of mountains, ancient ruins and oceans. But, while the game looks good for a Wii U title, it falls short of the visual breakthroughs happening on rival consoles such as Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4.

In a press event Sunday, Miyamoto said that the point of Star Fox Zero is the gameplay and the visual style of the game, which is somewhat cartoony. It was made that way with a purpose. “A lot of games nowadays look so realistic that they all look the same,” Miyamoto said.

The famed designer is right–many casual gamers might have trouble telling the difference between a “Call of Duty” and “Battlefield” game. But Nintendo’s strategy also reflects that the Wii U has far less graphical horsepower than rival home consoles.

The Wii U is also set to get another title centered on one of Nintendo’s longest-running and most successful characters: Mario. To mark the 30th anniversary of the Super Mario Bros. series, Miyamoto and other developers at Nintendo created a title called Mario Maker, set for release Sept. 11. In Mario Maker, players can design their own slide-scrolling levels in the visual style of both old-school 8-bit consoles and modern Wii U graphics.

The company showed an especially difficult level created at its Nintendo World Championships e-sports competition, which was hosted Sunday at Los Angeles’s Microsoft Theater  as a part of E3. Miyamoto said he had another reason for creating Mario Maker: “I still just love making games, it’s my favorite thing,” he said. He wanted “to let other people enjoy the experience of making games themselves.”

Some Best Buy stores in the U.S. will let gamers demo Mario Maker for themselves this week. Other Mario titles are on the way as well, including Mario Tennis Ultra Smash, which will hit the Wii U later this year. Nintendo is also launching a website called LetsSuperMario.com, where people can upload their own Mario-themed videos to celebrate the game’s 30 years.

Also Missing: Zelda on Wii U

Nintendo, meanwhile, has plans for its hit line of amiibo “toys-to-life” figurines. They will work with Mario Maker, so that characters like Zelda and the Wii Fit Trainer can appear in the game with the tap of a figurine on the GamePad controller. The new “Skylanders Superchargers” Wii U game also will work with special Bowser and Donkey Kong amiibo. And the coming “Yoshi’s Wooly World,” a beautiful platform adventure game in which the dinosaur runs through a world made of digital yarn and cloth, will have plush amiibos when it goes on sale this October.

The 3DS portable console got some love at E3 as well. Nintendo has a new “Hyrule Warriors Legends” adventure game coming early next year for the hand-held, and “Metroid Prime Federation Force” is a four-player shooting game that lets friends play online. There’s also a “Legend of Zelda” game coming this fall called “Zelda Triforce Heroes,” which lets players solve puzzles and traverse through dungeons with other players online.

One thing Nintendo disappointingly made no mention: the new Zelda title for the Wii U, which it showed a brief trailer of last year at the big show. The unnamed game is still under development, but it’s a no-show so far this year.

Nintendo CEO Apologizes After Lackluster E3 Showcase Leads to a Collective Fanboy Meltdown

PS4 gamers and Xbox One gamers were given a lot to be excited about at this year’s E3. Many Wii U gamers, on the other hand, feel like they’ve been given a big lump of coal.

RELATED: Every New Game Trailer Nintendo Showed Off At E3 2015

There’s no one exact reason why so many Nintendo fans walked away from E3 disappointed but this comment from a Redditor at /r/nintendo sums it up nicely: “Basically every big title for the Wii U that we saw, we’ve known about since 2013 (correct me if I’m wrong) with the exception of Star Fox. Heck, the 3DS selection came across as a bunch of B-Teams putting together spinoff games to pad out a drought/make easy cash. Almost shovelware with the exception of a few titles.”

Essentially, it looks like Nintendo isn’t putting much of an effort into releasing first-rate Wii U games even as the Xbox One and PS4 are gearing up for major new exclusives such as Halo 5 and The Last Guardian. In fact, MCVUK.com reports that the fan disappointment has been so acute that Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata actually issued an apology on Twitter and vowed to improve his company’s efforts in the future.

“We take opinions of this year’s Digital Event seriously and will work to better meet your expectations,” Iwata said.

So, just how intense was this fanboy meltdown? This comment posted on a massive NeoGAF thread might be the single most overwrought comment we’ve ever seen about video games, and that includes all the comments we saw from rage-consumed BioWare fans about the ending of Mass Effect 3:

OK, so, wow. There is no way anyone should ever get this upset by anything related to video games. This sort of meltdown would be over-the-top for a 10-year-old boy, let along a supposedly grown up 31-year-old.

And it doesn’t stop there. Many fans were particularly outraged by the announcement of Metroid Prime: Federation Force, which marks the first time Nintendo has worked with the Metroid IP for years. Unfortunately, this game isn’t a AAA Wii U game but a four-player co-op that will be released for the Nintendo 3DS.

Outraged fans who wanted a new Metroid for the Wii U have started a Change.org petition asking Nintendo to cancel the new game and have almost reached their goal of hitting 10,000 signatures.

“With the release of the Wii U and its greater technological capabilities thousands of fans were expecting a new and improved Metroid game,” the petition reads. “What we got however is a disgrace of a game with the name “Metroid” slapped on the title. It has no elements at all of what Metroid is about and its a disrespectful manner to old and new fans of the series of showing them that the Metroid franchise is not dead afterall.”

Again: No one should ever take video games this seriously. On the other hand, it seems that Nintendo has really, really angered a big portion of its fan base, which is exactly what it doesn’t need right now.

Nintendo Re-Confirms Zelda Wii U is Still Launching on Wii U

In a sea of underwhelming or expected announcements at Nintendo’s E3, the elephant in the room remains The Legend of Zelda on Wii U. Many have despaired to have not seen it in Nintendo’s Digital Event, despite promises earlier by Eiji Aonuma to the contrary. Despite fears that the game might be delayed to the upcoming NX, Shigeru Miyamoto told IGN that it is still on track for Wii U.

We’re here to talk about Star Fox but Zelda is still coming to Wii U, so don’t worry about that.

My thing with E3 is that we always focus on what’s coming out in the immediate future. We have some really great Zelda footage and, at some point we will be showing that off, but not today.

Reggie Fils-Aime reaffirmed this in a later interview, once again with IGN, stating that the company doesn’t believe in showing long-term propositions, as we’ve seen with Microsoft and Sony this week.

it goes back to the statement I made earlier about how we view E3. We just fundamentally don’t believe in showing content at E3 that is going to be a long term proposition. We like to show content that typically will launch in the upcoming Holiday and maybe extending into the first half of the following year. And at this point, the new Zelda for Wii U is not a 2015 project.

He added that even if they had shown Zelda, he believes it wouldn’t have made the wait any less frustrating for consumers anticipating the title.

In fact, in separate interviews [Shigeru] Miyamoto has reinforced that it’s a 2016 game, and I also believe he’s reinforced that it’s a Wii U game because I know that there is that thinking floating around. …Our mentality is more near-term when we think about E3. And, yes, we take it on a case-by-case basis. There’s also a recognition that we didn’t want to frustrate the consumer. We could have scored a lot of points and showed some little tidbit of Zelda Wii U, but in our collective opinion the belief was, in the end, that would cause more frustration than benefit.

Google’s Nest adds home-monitoring camera to suite of smart-home products

Nest Labs, the home automation company owned by Google, has announced the Nest Cam, the newest addition to theirrange of connected devices.

A connected home-monitoring camera with microphone, speaker, motion sensors and night-vision, the Nest Cam is a redesigned version of the highly regarded home camera manufactured by Dropcam, which Nest acquired in June 2014 for $555 million.

Shooting video in 1080p high-definition with a wide-angle glass lens and three megapixel sensor, the Nest Cam retails for €199, and can upload 10-30 days worth of continuous video to the newly announced Nest Aware cloud service. The additional Nest Aware cloud service costs either €10 or €30 a month for the different storage options.

Nest also announced a redesigned version of the Nest Protect, a fire, smoke and CO2 alarm, with new sensors to detect fast-spreading fires.

Software announcements included upgraded software for Nest’s original learning thermostat, first launched in 2011, as well as version 5.0 of its mobile app for controlling and interacting with Nest’s suite of products.

Co-founded by former Apple vice president Tony Fadell and former Apple engineer Matt Rogers in 2010, Nest Labs was acquired by Google in January 2014 for $3.2 billion.

“At Nest, we always wanted to build more than a thermostat,” said Nest chief executive Fadell. “Our vision was to create a thoughtful home, a home that takes care of itself and the people in it. Five years later, all the pieces are in place.”

Nest’s general manager for Europe, Lionel Paillet, said “We have three products today, they work well on their own, they work better together, and they work great with third-party products.”

The so-called Internet of Things category of internet-connected devices has long been seen as a major growth area by technology companies, with numerous manufacturers now developing home automation products.

In recent weeks, both Google and Apple have focused on the area with software announcements – Google unveiled Brillo operating system for connected devices, while Apple revealed details about its HomeKit framework for communicating with and controlling connected accessories.

Microsoft Corporation Digital Assistant Cortana Is Coming On Google Android This July

After announcing Cortana for the Xbox One this fall, Microsoft has revealed that Cortana will be making its way to Google’s Android next month

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is looking to bring its digital assistant Cortana to Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS and Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating systems. The release date has not been announced, but many suspect that the app will be ready for Android users around the time Windows 10 is released.

On Tuesday, the company announced in a blog post that the beta version of the Cortana app for Android will be available in July, “to test as a companion to Windows 10 PCs.” Being one of the prime features of Windows 10, the company does not want to shut out iOS and Android users from fully experiencing what Cortana can do with Windows 10. During the company’s E3 2015 conference, it announced that Cortana will be making its way to the Xbox One console as well, in the US and the UK “this fall”.

The way Cortana works is that if users set reminders on their iPhone or Android smartphone, it will sync on all platforms. For instance, if one is busy playing games on the PC or Xbox One, the notifications will still pop up. It is a way of keeping users connected 24/7, and to make sure that they are able to access information across all devices owned by them.

Even though the company has still not announced a release date, Android users now have a time frame to work with. Windows 10 launches worldwide on July 29, and the beta app will most probably be ready around that time, although Microsoft has not announced the app release date for Google Play Store and Apple App Store. It is important to remember that Cortana will be available on Windows 10 only in selected markets during the initial launch period.

Cortana was initially built as a rival to Google Now, providing users with important information quickly, but Microsoft has taken it to the next level. Even though it will be available on the iPhone and Android smartphones, the experience will still be a little limited as Cortana is heavily tied to the company’s apps and services. Nonetheless, important functions like reminders and the ability to sync data across platforms will be enough to satisfy Android and iOS users.

Microsoft Corporation Shakes Up Leadership Team

In an e-mail to employees, Nadella said the change will allow Microsoft to “deliver better products and services that our customers love at a more rapid pace.”

He also emphasized that Microsoft has three interconnected and bold ambitions: (1)reinvent productivity and business processes,(2) build the intelligent cloud platform, and (3) create more personal computing.

Changes to Microsoft senior leadership team

According to Nadella, he made a decision to organize Microsoft’s engineering efforts into three groups to work together to deliver on the company goal and strategy.

Terry Myerson will lead Windows and Devices Group (WDG), which combines the engineering efforts of the current Operating Systems Groupo and Microsoft Devices Group (MDG) led by Stephen Elop.

According to Nadella, the WDG brings together all the engineering capability required to drive breakthrough innovations that would bring the Windows ecosystem forward. It would also position Windows as a service across Microsoft devices including Lumia, Surface, HoloLens, Surface Hun, Band, and Xbox.

Scott Guthrie will continue to lead the Cloud and Enterprise (C+E). The team is focused on building the intelligent cloud platform of Microsoft. It would also concentrate in building high-value infrastructure and business services that are unique to customers such as data, analytics products, business processes, security, and management offerings.

The Dynamics products development teams will join the C&E team to accelerate further the company’s work on ERP and CRM.

Qi Lu will continue to lead the Application and Services Group (ASG), which is focused on reinventing productivity. The team is leading the development of productivity services for digital across all devices. Nadella said Microsoft’s engineering efforts to build a solution for education would be transferred to the ASG team.

Stephen Elop retires

Nadella also announced that Stephen Elop’s retirement. Elop led the Operating Systems Group and Microsoft Devices Group when he returned to Microsoft after its $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V)’s devices and services business.

“Stephen and I have agreed that now is the right time for him to retire from Microsoft. I regret the loss of leadership that this represents, and look forward to seeing where his next destination will be,” said Nadella.

Three other executives including Kiril Tatarinov, Eric Rudder, and Mark Penn also decided to leave Microsoft to explore other opportunities.

E3: Virtual Reality, Mobile Games Change How People Play

The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo is the top venue for companies to announce new video games, but the event's big news this year is how mobile devices and virtual reality will reshape those digital fantasies.

The conference, also known as E3, will showcase 270 exhibitors and more than 1,600 products between Tuesday and Thursday, but the convention's greatest draw, virtual reality, is a market that isn't mainstream yet. Many virtual reality devices will not be released for nearly a year, making it hard to determine whether they will be affordable and engaging enough to be a popular option, explains Brian Blau, who analyzes the video game industry for technology research firm Gartner.

"It's hard to tell right now since there is not a market yet – all we have to go on is hype," he says.

Traditional consoles may get an extra life when virtual reality devices hit the market and stave off competition from less-expensive cloud-based devices, including Valve's online Steam platform.

The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, built by Facebook-owned Oculus, is scheduled to launch on Xbox One at the start of 2016 but a price for the visor has not been released yet. The HTC Vive headset which uses software designed by Valve will also go on sale by the end of the year. Game makers Ubisoft also revealed it is developing several VR games and plans to announce details later this year, and Sony is developing its own headset called Project Morpheus for PlayStation 4, scheduled for release in 2016.

The virtual reality devices are likely to have a life beyond gaming: sthe headsets could be used to watch online movies or take virtual tours of far off places. Microsoft is also planning to bring virtual reality to its new Windows 10 software through partnerships with both Oculus and Valve, though details have not yet been released. On Monday, Mojang showcased a version of its "Minecraft" simulator that is playable with Microsoft's HoloLens headset.

Games designed for Wi-Fi accessible phones and tablets are another trend changing the entertainment industry, aimed at casual players who only have a moment or two to play a quick puzzle or battle a friend in "Clash of Clans."

Mobile games are predicted to generate more revenue than traditional consoles in 2015, according to market research firm Newzoo, which projects the growing sector will make $30 billion worldwide this year, compared with $26 billion estimated for console games. Driving the trend: Anyone with a device running Apple's iOS or Google's Android have instant access to app stores, making it easier for mobile users to get games, Blau explains.

"There are more people playing mobile games than any on other platform," he says. "Developers of PC-only games are going to think more about mobile game development."

Bethesda Software, for instance, showcased "Fallout 4," the latest in its role-playing game series about a post-apocalyptic America, but also released a simpler city-building game for tablets and phones called "Fallout Shelter,"​​​​​​ that allows faster game-play. Electronic Arts announced "Star Wars Battlefront," due in November ahead of the new movie "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," but it also announced a trading card game for mobile devices called "Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes," that takes less time to play.

Nintendo bowed to player demand for more smartphone games in March by announcing a deal to become the second-largest shareholder in mobile video game company DeNA. The company is not revealing new details during the convention about plans for that deal or about its new console system, dubbed the NX. The past few years have seen Nintendo fail to jump out of third place in the gaming industry behind Sony and Microsoft, largely due to the lackluster performance of its Wii U console, so adopting new trends like mobile gaming could be their chance to advance to the next level. 

Pushbullet launches Portal, an app to transfer files between Android and your PC

Pushbullet also touts that Portal serves as an easy repository for finding any of your transferred files. No need to dig through Android’s file manager—just open up the Portal app and you’ll find everything you’ve sent over.

While Pushbullet has a similar capability for sharing files to your phone, it’s much faster to go the Portal route, which sends them directly over your local network.

Additionally, if your device has an SD card and Android Lollipop, you can specify the transfer go directly to your external storage.

The impact on you: Pushbullet is a hugely popular Android app because of how tightly it integrates your phone and computer. Portal is a nice add-on to have if you want a simple way to send a picture, video, or document directly to your device. No need to use the old-school method of emailing it to yourself or waiting for it to sync through a cloud service.

Xbox, PlayStation present new games ahead of E3 conference

Videogame console titans Microsoft and Sony vied for attention ahead of the industry's annual E3 conference, giving fans sneak peaks of the latest Xbox and PlayStation games. 

Microsoft also told gamers that new Xbox One consoles would have "backward compatibility", meaning they will also be able to play games made for the older Xbox 360. Fans were shown clips of upcoming Xbox games - "Halo 5: Guardians","Rise of the Tomb Raider" and "Gears of War" - at an event at the University of Southern California Galen Center on Monday. 

Meanwhile Sony unveiled the newest games for its PlayStation 4 including "The Last Guardian" and "Horizon: Zero Dawn", at a separate event in Los Angeles. It also told fans a deal with Activision would allow PS4 owners to be the first to play the upcoming "Call of Duty: Black Ops III" this summer. The two console makers held the events ahead of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which takes place on June 16-18 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Photographer: Pau Barrena/Bloomberg One Tiny Number Can Reveal Big Problems at a Global Smartphone Maker

Tucked away in a corporate earnings report—past the data on profit margins and revenue growth, hidden deep inside a balance sheet—is a number that can tell you a lot about a mobile phone maker's health. In the global smartphone war, brands are routinely measured by market share, revenue, profit, and the coolness of their ads. But one line item called finished goods inventory, which refers to the percentage of materials that were manufactured into phones but went unsold, can give insight into whether a company's fortunes are changing.

The latest company to let phones pile up in warehouses and on store shelves is HTC. The Taiwanese company's stock just fell to its lowest point in a decade after lowering its sales forecast on June 5 and announcing a NT$2.9 billion ($93 million) writedown, though it's recovered some of that loss amid speculation the decline could make it a buyout target. HTC's finished goods inventory had climbed to a record high 2.35 percent of total assets at the end of last quarter. During the company's heyday, that figure rarely nudged above 1 percent.

“The rise in finished goods inventory could be a sign that HTC's latest high-end phone, the M9, is not selling as well as expected,” says John Butler, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “The phone has received rather negative reviews from tech critics and may not be faring well against some very competitive, feature-rich phones on the market from rivals like Samsung with the S6 and Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.”

Inventory, sometimes used by data divers to peek into the bowels of a company, is generally divided into three types: raw materials, which are the bits and pieces that get fed into the production line; unfinished goods, the stuff still in production; and finished goods, the devices sitting in warehouses, on trucks, or even on store shelves. The distinctions are important. Having a ton of materials or unfinished goods isn't necessarily a disaster. Many materials can be switched around between products, so even if one incarnation of a smartphone faces low demand, the components can be swapped into another product pretty easily.

Leaving unsold products lying around, however, is an especially bad sin in the consumer electronics industry. Once a smartphone is assembled and leaves the production line, the clock starts ticking. In the high-paced technology business, consumer devices lose their luster fast, which makes the chance of actually selling the product decline with each passing day as newer models come onto the market. Steve Jobs saw this when he returned to Apple in 1997—at a time, he had said, when it was near bankruptcy—to find that finished goods inventory had climbed to 7.7 percent of assets. Jobs hired an operations guru from IBM named Tim Cook to clean up the mess. A year later, in June 1998, the number had dropped to 1.7 percent—and hasn't crossed 0.9 percent in the past few years.

When Motorola got into trouble at the end of 2008, its finished goods inventory peaked at 6.1 percent. That same quarter, it posted a record $3.6 billion loss that precipitated large-scale layoffs and the eventual breakup of the 80-year-old company. Having lots of unsold stock isn’t always a bad sign, though. Nokia's figure climbed above 14 percent in 1995 before it kicked off a decade of exploding sales—creating, for a time, the world's biggest mobile phone maker. But HTC isn't seeing explosive growth, which makes its record inventory figure a red flag for investors. HTC declined to comment.

Too low a stockpile, coupled with insufficient production capacity, can also be a problem. Qualcomm ran into this three years ago, forcing various smartphone makers to push back their product launches due to a lack of available chips. HTC faced a shortage of components in 2011—when it was topping even Apple in the U.S.—prompting the company to sign long-term supply contracts to secure supply and favorable pricing. In an expensive display of irony, this month's writedown was a response to some of those 2011 supply contracts. None of it was for unfinished goods. Yet.

iOS 9’s Notes App vs Evernote: Can A Revamped Notes Take On Evernote?

Apple has completely revamped Notes inside iOS 9, here we take a look at how it compares to the mighty Evernote

In 2001 a company called Karelia released a piece of software for OS X called Watson that allowed users to search for information on various websites on the Internet without using a web browser. Watson quickly became a user favorite on the Mac platform–that is, until Apple introduced Sherlock 3 in 2002, which seemed to “borrow” heavily from Watson. Ever since then the term “Sherlocking” has been used whenever Apple adds features to its operating systems or apps that heavily borrow from popular third-party apps.

With iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan it appears Apple is Sherlocking once again with the introductions of the all new Notes app. There are many who have said that the new Notes will be an Evernote killer. But are they really that similar? We take a look to find out.  

Notes vs Evernote: Features

Lets start with the new Notes app in iOS 9. Notes is getting a huge overhaul in iOS 9–which is good, because the app has hardly been updated since the first iPhone. Now in Notes in iOS 9 you’ll be able to easily create a checklist right in a note. This is a godsend for those people that use Notes to create a list of things to do–although, that’s kind of what Reminders is for too. But now in Notes users will be able to make a list and turn it into an interactive checklist with just a few taps, then check off those items at will.

Notes in iOS 9 also allows you to add a photo, a map, or a URL directly into a note and see it formatted in-line. By this I mean is that you can drag in a web URL and that URL will appear with a box around it with a thumbnail image and a description of the URL. Map addresses and directions get a similar look.

Another really nice feature of the new Notes app is the ability to use your finger to sketch your thoughts down. The new Notes app offers a variety of brushes and colors–as well as a ruler to keep your lines straight–so creating sketches in Notes is a breeze.

Moving on to Evernote…it’s a bit tricky to compare Evernote directly because there are three different versions of it: Basic, Plus, and Premium. Only Basic is free–as is Notes–so lets look at that version first.

In Evernote Basic you can take notes and create lists in them and then turn those lists into interactive to do lists you can check off when done. You can also save URL and other clips from the web directly into a note. So far, both Evernote Basic and the new Notes app have similar features. But Evernote Basic does have one big advantage: it allows you to share and discuss your notes with other Evernote users via the app. This is a HUGE feature for those that want to collaborate.

The drawback to Evernote Basic is that you need to have an Internet connection to read your notes, so if you’re on a plane and your Notes haven’t cached, you’re out of luck. However, that limitation goes away with Evernote Plus, which also add the ability to save emails into Evernote and set a passcode to keep your notes secure. Then upgrade to Evernote Premium and get the ability to turn notes into presentations, scan business cards, annotate PDFs, search through attached Office documents and PDFs, and get unlimited note uploads.

Notes vs Evernote: Platforms

The new Notes app will be available on iOS 9 devices (iPad, iPod touch, and iPhone), OS X El Capitan Macs, and via the web on iCloud.com.

Evernote is available on iPad, iPod touch, and iPhone, Android devices, Macs and PCs, Blackberry, Windows Phone, and Amazon devices.

Notes vs Evernote: Price

Notes is free. It comes as part of iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan.

Evernote Basic is available for free. However, upgrading to the more advanced features of Evernote Plus will cost you £19.99 a year. Going all out and upgrading to Evernote Premium will cost you £34.99 a year.

Notes vs Evernote: Verdict

If you just need a simple note taking app and collaboration isn’t important to you, then iOS 9’s and OS X El Capitan’s new Notes app is going to be all you need. It’s a beautiful looking app with deep OS integration and one that anyone could learn how to use in a matter of minutes. For 95% of users out there, Notes will be more than enough.

However, if you’re a notes power user and find collaboration or the ability to annotate PDFs, search through attached documents, and scan business cards are important to you then Evernote is the clear winner. However, be aware that with the exception of collaboration, all those extra features are going to come with an annual cost of either £20 or £35. Evernote also wins on the platform front. It’s available for all smartphones and desktops. If you use multiple devices (say a MacBook and an Android phone) then only Evernote is going to work for you.

For business users, the advanced features of the paid tiers of Evernote–as well as its multiplatform support–may be enough to justify the subscription costs. But for your average user who just wants to record simple notes and save simple items to them the new Notes app from Apple will be more than enough.

Mass Effect: Andromeda due out Christmas 2016 – watch the trailer here

The first trailer for the new Mass Effect has debuted at EA’s pre-E3 media briefing, showing the Mako in action and… Johnny Cash?

Although they did showcase the pre-rendered trailer below EA didn’t say a word about Mass Effect: Andromeda at their press conference this week, and it’s not expected to be on the E3 show floor later in the week either.

However, developer BioWare has written a blog introducing the game, and confirming that you play as a human male or female (earlier rumours had suggested you were an alien) and that the new game takes place in a different galaxy some time after the original trilogy.

‘You’ll be exploring an all-new galaxy, Andromeda, and piloting the new and improved Mako you saw. And through it all, you will have a new team of adventurers to work with, learn from, fight alongside of, and fall in love with,’ says BioWare.

‘We built this trailer in Frostbite, our game engine, and it represents our visual target for the final game. We are thrilled by what we’ve already been able to achieve in bringing Mass Effect to Frostbite and by putting our entire focus on PC and current gen consoles. With the time remaining in development, we’re excited about the possibility to push things even more.’

Unlike E3 2014, EA had a lot to show off this year, with some stunning footage of the Need For Speed reboot, a free story expansion for MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, new puzzle platformer Unravel, the much rumoured Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, the gameplay debut of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, the licence to print money that is Star Wars: Battlefront, and of course all their usual sports games – including the new Rory McIlroy PGA Tour.

We’ll have detailed reports on all of these (well, maybe not the sports games) as we play them at the show and speak to the developers over the course of the week.

Sony starts Kickstarter for Shenmue III game

Sony has unveiled a $2m (£1.3m) Kickstarter campaign to fund the making of Shenmue III.

The countdown to the start of the fund-raising campaign took place on stage during the Sony press conference at E3.

Within minutes of it being announced more than $400,000 had been pledged to the project.

The press event also saw Sony announce that long-awaited game The Last Guardian would soon be released.

Open world action games Shenmue I and II are well-known among gamers and regularly feature on lists of the best games of all time.

Creator Yu Suzuki appeared on stage at the Sony event to say that he chose to crowd-fund the project to let fans have more of a role in bringing the game to life.

Planet fall

Other well-known games also featured during the press conference.

Many were surprised to hear that The Last Guardian was almost ready for release as it has been under development for almost a decade.

It is being put together by the team that worked on the widely praised Shadow of the Colossus, and involves the adventures of a young boy and a giant bird/cat hybrid creature called Trico who must escape from a derelict and dangerous castle.

Footage from the game showed Trico and the boy working together to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles as they make their way through the castle.

Sony also generated much comment among attendees by announcing that Final Fantasy VII: Remake will be coming first to PlayStation 4. The game will be a complete overhaul of the original that was first released in 1997.

Analysis by Dave Lee at the E3 show

Maybe the expectation was too high. Maybe it's being saved it for another special event.

Whatever the reason, the VR -shaped hole in Sony's PlayStation conference will perhaps go down as something of a disappointment.

Andrew House, head of Sony Computer Entertainment, came on stage to announce that Project Morpheus - its VR headset - would allow multiplayer.

That means several people can sit in the same room, each with a headset of their own, but all playing with each other in the same game.

And that was it. 

Imagine playing Morpheus with friends, Mr House said - except very few in the room could, as the gaming public hasn't yet experienced Morpheus without friends.

The headset will come out in the first quarter of next year, we're told, but we're still yet to get a firm date, or, crucially, a price.

But to be fair to Sony, we don't know for sure when we'll see VR headsets from anyone, be it the Oculus Rift or Valve's Vive (although they've promised this year).

VR gaming is coming, just not yet. The tentative steps made by all the major players suggest it's a technology all are nervous about unleashing to the public - an atmosphere of managing expectations.

Sony's game line-up was impressive, if a little light on genuine exclusives - save for exclusive add-ons, or extra content only on PS4.

The undoubted high point was the announcement of a remake of Final Fantasy VII. The room went utterly bananas.

British-made No Man's Sky - a "universe-sized" epic where thousands of worlds are automatically generated to be discovered - was staggering in its ambition, but the challenge will be in making it not feel repetitive.

The BBC will have its hands-on with the title later this week.

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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There was also news about an expansion for role-playing shooter Destiny called The Taken King. that pits players against a new powerful foe called Oryx and introduces new character classes. It is due to be released on 15 September.

Media Molecule, best known for Little Big Planet, unveiled the game it was working on called Dreams that lets people collaborate to make games or interactive stories.

The conference involved an appearance from the UK's Hello Games which said its No Man's Sky title would put players in a "universe-sized sandbox" throughout which players could explore and fight.

In a demonstration, the firm gave a sense of the scale of the game by showing space combat between rival factions, the map of the universe in which it was set, exploration of a previously unvisited system and planetary landing.

There were also a series of entirely new games on show during the press conference.

Horizon: Zero Dawn is a survival game set in a post-apocalyptic world in which all wild animals are strange robot hybrids.

In addition, Agent 47 will also return in a new instalment of the Hitman game that will be released on 8 December.

The press conference ended with a six-minute game play clip from Uncharted 4: A Thief's End which sees Nathan Drake make a hair-raising escape by driving a jeep through a busy town set on a steep hillside.

Everything You Need to Know About the Halo 5 E3 Demo

Halo 5's E3 spot was short but impressive, including a monumentally grand multiplayer revelation

Mincing no words, Microsoft led its E3 2015 press conference with Halo 5: Guardians, segueing to in-game footage moments after the curtain came up. The watchword for the demo: scale.

Here’s a breakout of what we saw.

It looks like Halo multiplied by Battlefield wrapped in Jupiter Ascending

Halo‘s looked pretty much like Halo since its inception, so what’s Microsoft doing to make the franchise’s Xbox One debut momentous? Blowing stuff up, as in way up. After the demo’s corridor-crawl through trademark neon-glowy environments crosscut by tracer fire, we caught glimpses of giant screen-crowding enemies, crazy-big spaceships, and cyber-insectoid-thingies I wouldn’t want to have to fight with a whole battalion of Master Chiefs.

Master Chief is in the club, Locke is not

The demo was from Spartan Locke’s perspective, but when Locke ran into a glowering Forerunner enemy, we learned Master Chief is in the game’s mythic skull and crossbones club. Locke? Not so much.

It’s all about cooperative play this time

Microsoft calls Halo 5 its “biggest, most ambitious Halo yet,” with “seamless drop-in, drop-out cooperative play.”

And Warzone, a new multiplayer mode, looks epic

Instead of player versus player, Microsoft’s hyping this as “player versus everything.” Think 24 players, vehicle, mech and infantry combat, A.I. controlled adversaries, two squads — one led by Master Chief, one led by rival Spartan Locke — and environments four times the size of any previous Halo map. Microsoft calls it a “giant leap” forward for the franchise.

IBM to Invest ‘Hundreds of Millions’ in Free Data Technology

International Business Machines Corp. will invest “hundreds of millions a year” into a free data analytics technology, according to Beth Smith, general manager of the company’s analytics division.

The move, announced by the company Monday, follows the hiring of about 20 people for a new technology center in San Francisco to improve and extend a University of California at Berkeley-developed free software project named Spark, which lets people analyze large amounts of data more rapidly than with other technologies such as Hadoop. Bloomberg reported the creation of the technology center last week.

Smith said that over time she expects the center to grow to 300 people, along with other teams in the company’s laboratories around the world.

As part of the effort, IBM will make a research project named SystemML free. This lets people spot patterns in data via a technology called machine learning, on top of Spark. It bears similarities to a project called MLlib, which is backed by DataBricks Inc., a Spark-focused company spun out of Berkeley by some of the academics behind the project.

“It will not be a competition,” Smith said. “The design point is one that does not cause overlapping features, functions, projects.”

What to expect from Microsoft's Xbox One press conference

Microsoft's super-soldier Master Chief, from the venerable Halo game series, will have a busy schedule on Monday.

That's because the software company and video game console maker will kick off Electronic Entertainment Expo, the game industry's largest annual trade show, with a press conference dedicated to Xbox. The company will devote much of the show to Halo 5: Guardians, one of the most anticipated games of the year. It launches in October.

E3 serves as one of the best opportunities for Microsoft to grab gamers' attention for the next Halo game, as well as set the tone for its Xbox One game console. The Xbox One has finally found its footing with consumers over the last year thanks to aggressive price cuts and a more robust game lineup. Much of that progress has been making up for time lost against the competition.

Tune in: CNET's live blog of Microsoft's E3 event on Monday

Before launching the console in November 2013, Microsoft faced heavy criticism for shifting away from game playing and toward television, with a large focus on cable box integration and other media capabilities. It didn't help when the company attempted to impose new restrictions on how players connected the console to the Internet, requiring a sign-on once a day to play games, and limiting how people could lend games to a friend or sell them back to a retailer. Many of those policies were nixed leading up to the launch.

Microsoft has spent the time since rebuilding the Xbox's image under the leadership of Phil Spencer, the former head of Microsoft's in-house game production team. Spencer shifted the Xbox division back to more serious game-playing, even as he made tough decisions about the platform itself, such as making the Kinect motion camera a separate accessory. He's also been candid in outlining where the Xbox One has needed to improve -- including such as making it easier for developers to create games -- and where the company had strayed from its mission.

It's been quite the turnaround.

After Sony's PlayStation 4 handily beat the Xbox One in US retail sales for more than 12 straight months, Microsoft managed to inch ahead in December 2014 thanks to a $50 price cut that put the console at $350. That effort has paid off: Sales of Xbox hardware in May were up 81 percent from the same time a year ago, according to market researcher NPD Group.

But maintaining that momentum isn't a given. Sony remains an industry leader in promoting the best and most promising games from independent developers, like the highly anticipated No Man's Sky, a space exploration title, and the upcoming puzzle game The Witness from indie superstar Jonathan Blow. While Microsoft is expected to give more airtime on Monday to indie developers, it still lags behind Sony.

Sony has also secured high-profile deals with game makers to bring exclusive game add-ons to the PlayStation. These include special maps and weapons for the space shooter game Destiny, which Xbox owners still don't have access to. These exclusive deals remain a powerful force in the console industry, where deciding which platform to choose often boils down to which one your friends play and what platform delivers the most for your money.

Microsoft also seemed to be on the sidelines of the virtual-reality race. That changed Thursday, when it announced a surprise partnership with Facebook-owned Oculus VR that will bundle Xbox One controllers with the Oculus Rift when the headset ships next spring. Xbox One games will be also playable in a virtual home theater thanks to Windows streaming technology now being developed to bridge the PC and the Xbox platforms.

Microsoft will talk about these and other developments Monday when it gives us a snapshot of Xbox's present and future. Heading into the event, here are key themes to look out for.

Halo 5: Guardians front and center

This year's E3 marks the moment Microsoft can flaunt Halo as the biggest strength of the Xbox One platform.

The sweeping epic space opera remains the closest analog to Star Wars in the video game world. The exploits of Master Chief as he participates in intergalactic warfare still rank among the most iconic gaming experiences in the industry, alongside the likes of Nintendo's Super Mario, Electronic Arts' Madden football and Take-Two Interactive's Grand Theft Auto.

Halo 5: Guardians marks the second major Halo installment made by Microsoft's in-house studio, 343 Industries, instead of series' creator Bungie. The studio delivered a hit with Halo 4, proving it can develop successful Halo games and setting the franchise up for another trilogy of titles.

Bethesda announces new Fallout, Doom games as it jostles its way to becoming a top game maker

The video game maker announced a newly created specialized social network, and new games in its most popular franchises at a conference in Los Angeles.

There's competition to be the next big video game maker.

Bethesda Softworks, the company behind some of the most popular video game franchises in the world, is launching a specialized social network connecting game players together to compete and discuss its games, as well as share modifications they'd made, such as custom multiplayer maps.

The new software, called Bethesda.net, is similar to efforts by other major game makers such as Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard and Valve, whose social networks have helped to expand their influence.

"It will be at the heart of all our games going forward," said Pete Hines, head of public relations and marketing at Bethesda.

The new announcement is part of a larger effort by the video game maker to elevate its position within the industry. The company's major presentation kicked off E3 in Los Angeles, the largest showcase event in the video game industry.

The game maker discussed new instalments for some of its top games, including the first-person shooter Doom and the post-apocalyptic adventure game Fallout 4. The games, first released in 1993 and 1997 respectively, have become some of the most influential in gaming. Doom's last instalment was released in 2004, and Fallout's in 2010.

For Doom, the company discussed new ways for gamers to create their own levels to play with one another. The company said its new feature, called Snapmap, makes it easy to create levels and change the way monsters in the game interact with one another and the players.

For Fallout 4, six years in the making, the company said it had created intricately detailed new features to help make the latest instalment more immersive and fun. The open-world roleplaying games, set in the United States after a series of nuclear blasts nearly wipe out the population, are among the most popular in the industry. The newest title in the series will launch November 10, 2015.

One of the newest features of the new game is how it begins. Bethesda said that, rather than the traditional opening on the ruined Wasteland, the game begins in the world that existed before the bombs fell in Boston, Mass.

Todd Howard, head of the team that made the game, said the company built the game to allow players to choose however they want to progress, exploring the game's world to whatever degree they like. They can also build villages or use parts from various toys or tools they find to create up to 700 different types of weapons.

"Player freedom remains our absolute number one goal," he said. "We like to fill our worlds with thousands of items so you can interact with them, and now they have purpose."

Following a trend in the industry, Bethesda also announced a companion smartphone game with Fallout: a fully functional in-game inventory management system players can use on their phone while wandering the Wasteland.

As part of the marketing effort for Fallout, Bethesda also built a separate game for tablets and smartphones meant for managing the fallout shelters that the game's protagonists live in. "The goal of this game was to do something we want to do on our phones," Howard said. It's being released for free on Apple and Google-powered devices Sunday, he said.

Apple MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2015) review:

le's MacBook Air and Pro lines have remained steadfastly rock-solid in their look and feel for several generations. Each year brings a handful of tweaks and updates, typically only to internal components, from better hard drives to faster Wi-Fi to new processors. It's only because both the Air and Pro designs were so far ahead of the curve when first introduced that these laptops still look so up-to-date.

For 2015, nearly every MacBook has received an update of a some kind, although these have largely been of the blink-and-you'll-miss-it variety. Both the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro have moved up to Intel's fifth-generation Core i-series processors, also known by the codename Broadwell, while the 13-inch Pro also added Apple's new Force Touch trackpad.

That clickless touchpad, which uses four sensors and some haptic feedback rather than a traditional hinge, was one of the highlights of the new 12-inch MacBook, a low-power, 2-pound ultraportable that was Apple's sole new laptop design in years.

Compared to all the changes listed above, and the entirely new 12-inch MacBook, the 15-inch MacBook Pro feels like it's been slighted in the update department. The 15-inch Pro gets the Force Touch trackpad, and a faster solid-state hard drive, plus updated graphics in the form of an AMD Radeon R9 M370X GPU. But arguably the most important component upgrade is missing, as the Core i7 CPU here is the same as last year's model (the fifth-gen Core i7 chips from Intel are only starting to trickle out now).

Despite the lack of major changes, the 15-inch MacBook Pro remains Apple's biggest and most powerful laptop, and a great all day, everyday productivity machine, especially if you need the extra GPU power for photo or video work, or the generous screen real estate the 15-inch Retina panel provides.

Prices stay the same, at $1,999 for the base model (£1,599, AU$2,799) and $2,499 (£1,999, AU$3,499) for our upgraded test unit, with a bigger 512GB hard drive and the AMD graphics. That makes this a major investment, especially compared with the 13-inch Pro, which can be had for as little as $1,299 (£999, AU$1,799). Unless you specifically need the size, power or features of the 15-inch MacBook Pro, that 13-inch model is our current pick for the most universally useful all-around MacBook.

Design and features

With only some minor internal changes, this MacBook Pro looks identical to the one we reviewed in mid-2014, and in fact the product design has only slightly changed since 2012.

Aside from being a year older, most of our impressions about the design of the last several iterations of this laptop remain the same.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro is slim, but with a wide desktop footprint. Especially compared with newer, lighter laptops, it feels denser than it looks at first glance, but with that comes a certain sense of indestructibility, thanks to the flex-free aluminum construction. It's not a carry-all-day-every-day package, although one could tote it around to and from work, or on the occasional day trip without much trouble.

The keyboard remains essentially the same as seen on the last several generations of MacBook. Other laptops have matched, but not surpassed, the backlit Apple keyboard, with the possible exception of Lenovo, a company that invests heavily in keyboard design and development.

New for this year, however, is Apple's Force Touch trackpad. Already available in the 12-inch MacBook and the 13-inch MacBook Pro, the Force Touch trackpad eliminates the top hinge that previously required you to physically depress the glass top of the pad, usually from somewhere on the lower half to register properly. Instead, the new pad places four sensors under the pad, one under each corner. This replaces a design some describe as a "diving board" with one that's a simple, flat surface.

The four sensors make it so you can "click" anywhere on the pad's surface with identical results, and the Force Click effect, which combines the sensors with haptic (or "taptic") feedback, allows you to have two levels of perceived clicking within an app or task. That deep click feels to the finger and brain like the trackpad has a stepped physical mechanism, but in fact, the movement you feel is a small tactile haptic tap, which, even when fully explained, still feels like you're depressing the trackpad two levels.

On one hand, it's a brilliant bit of engineering that will help future laptops be thinner, with fewer moving parts. On the other hand, it's so seamlessly done, you might never notice the difference.

The biggest video game conference of the year is becoming the virtual reality show

The video game industry is embracing virtual reality like never before. Major game makers from Sony to Microsoft and Ubisoft are preparing new products based on the emerging technology even as tech giants including Facebook, Google, Samsung and HTC have plunged into the virtual waters.

Now the industry's Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 -- the highest-profile video game conference of the year -- will launch the technology into people's living rooms.

As many as 27 exhibitors will showcase virtual-reality products, up from six last year, according to the expo's organizer, the Entertainment Software Association. What's more, the conference is sold out (it has not always been so), and it attracted 50 more exhibitors than it did last year.

"It's been a really fabulous shot in the arm," said Mike Gallagher, head of the ESA, speaking of virtual reality's impact on the market. "We're months away from being in the marketplace and in consumers' hands."

But virtual reality could do more than give an economic boost to video game makers. It could also deliver another leg of growth to the broader tech industry. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says VR could eventually become our primary mode of interacting with computers. Movie makers, television producers and musicians say it could transform how we experience entertainment.

"It's this huge new medium that people have only started to imagine where you could go with it," said Rob Coneybeer, managing director of Shasta Ventures, which led a $4 million investment last year in VR company Survios.

One thing that drew him to the technology is its potential to place players smack in the middle of a 3D world, as action literally swirls around them. "People's excitement is well founded."

March of the game makers

Without question, Oculus --the virtual reality company Facebook bought for $2 billion last year -- will be one of the most prominent game makers on the show floor. The company made consumers care about VR after unveiling its first prototypes three years ago.

Since then, it's been a virtual march of VR game makers, as companies including Samsung and Google have either revealed upcoming products or talked about their research efforts.

Microsoft, maker of the Xbox video game console and the Windows software that powers most of the world's PCs, on Thursday announced a partnership with Oculus to play Xbox games on the headset. "Oculus had such a head start," said Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft's Xbox group. "It's good for Windows, and it's good for Xbox."