So much for AT&T not having a high-end Android. AT&T announced has finally announced that they are officially entering the  high-end Android game (meaning that they are finally launching an Android phone on par with Sprint’s EVO and Verizon’s Droid Incredible) by getting the Samsung Captivate on their side. And wow is the Captivate high end.

Running Android 2.1 with a custom Samsung interface (though one that is by far not as drastic as HTC Sense on the recently announced HTC Aria), the Captivate will also be the first AT&T Android phone to have a 1 GHZ processor (which Samsung calls “Hummingbird” and may be Samsung’s version of Apple’s A4 processor), which is a great particularly when you are running multiple apps. Among these AT&T firsts, the Captivate has a numerous amount of handy specs, such as:

• A 4-inch Super AMOLED multi-touch touchscreen– Remember those great AMOLED screens on phones like the Samsung Impression and Moment? You know, ones with insane clarity? Not only is this screen much bigger than those (it’s pretty much on par with the EVO’s minus .03 of an inch), this does all of that but in a much thinner design– which when you look at this phone you can tell it’s paid off, as well as fix one of the biggest problems facing AMOLED phones, the horrible quality they produce when in outdoor or bright light areas.
• 3G, WiFi and GPS– With the WiFi supporting the latest wireless N. Oh, and the Captivate also is loaded with Bluetooth 3.0, something we have yet to see a lot of (or pretty much at all) in phones (Bluetooth 3.0 should make for things like wireless transfer between say a computer and phone much quicker among other things, but we also have yet to see many devices take advantage of the new Bluetooth, so take that as you wish). 
• 3D graphics with gyroscope for better gaming
• Support for Google Maps, YouTube, Android Market and other standard Android apps– Though we couldn’t tell if AT&T is allowing Google Maps Navigation to be put on the phone. Let’s hope they do.
• 5 Megapixel camera with autofocus and 720p HD video recording– On par with the iPhone 4
• 3.5mm headphone jack for listening to your favorite songs
• 16GB of built-in storage, with the ability to add another 16GB via a microSD

Wow is right. I personally am really excited for this over the upcoming HTC Aria because the captivate is AT&T’s first really good Android phone (just look at those specs!), and I plan to get it. Of course, we will have to wait until this phone comes out to see how the Hummingbird processor and Super AMOLED handles in real life and if this is more this just talk, but until then, my plans for the Aria have been shelved and I am waiting anxiously for this phone.

The Samsung Captivate will be coming out “in a couple of months, for an undisclosed price” according to AT&T. In the meantime, check out AT&T’s “Coming Soon” page for the Captivate here. So, anyone else planning on holding off on getting their AT&T Android fix Sunday with the Aria for this?

Activision officially announced what we all knew was coming– Guitar Hero 6, or as Activision calls it Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. Activision promises a more rock centric soundtrack, and with a rocking soundtrack you need a rocking new guitar. So Activision announced a new type of guitar specifically made for shredding. This guitar has the electronics in the neck instead of the body so you can swap your favorite guitar bodies instead of buying more plastic instruments. To see a picture of the new guitar or to see the new trailer, hit the more link.

Freaking Awesome.

That’s what I think of the new Call of Duty: Black Ops. In this trailer, we see soldiers rappelling down enemy buildings, enemy buildings blowing up, and a crossbow that shoots dynamite? Freaking awesome.

From what I can gather, this game will be built around quite a few clandestine missions. Think Metal Gear Solid strapped with 20 sticks of dynamite and machine guns and you get Call of Duty: Black Ops. Oh, you also get to blows things up in a Helicopter. November 9th can’t get here fast enough! See for yourself in the trailer below.

Boy, if you have Verizon, and you are thinking about getting a new phone, you are going to have plenty of options. Between the Kins, the HTC Droid Incredible, and the possibility of a new iPhone this summer, Verizon is certainly pandering to the teenage community. For those who want a more simple yet solid phone (that don’t necessarily need constant internet or apps), the Samsung Reality is certainly going to be a big contender and with specs like these, you can’t disagree:

• 3-inch touch screen with TouchWiz interface. TouchWiz allows you to completely personalize your phone through special widgets. For instance, the communities widget allows you to post videos on YouTube, update your status on Facebook, and go to ESPN in a snap.
• Horizontal slide-out keyboard
• 3.2 megapixel camera with a slew of editing features such as: single, multi, panorama, mosaic and frame shot modes; and video capture capabilities, photo editing features, including Dynamic Canvas, which supports flash animations in pictures. Y’ know, just in case you ever need to edit entire movies on the go
• Bluetooth technology
• Corporate E-mail, support for Microsoft Exchange so you can e-mail on the go
• Micro SD slot with support for 16 GB
• Visual Voicemail, for those lazy moments when you just can’t lift your phone to hear the voicemail

The Samsung Reality is set to come out on April 22nd for a not-so-expensive $79.99 after a $50 mail in rebate and a 2 year new customer contract. However, as with many new phones coming out with Verizon, in order to get the most out of the Samsung Reality, you will have to purchase a 25 MB data plan for $9.99 (yes, on these new “feature phones”– or phones that don’t run a smartphone OS like BlackBerry, Android or iPhone– Verizon has begun adding in the requirement of a data plan in order to get the subsidized price).

So, are you going to go with the Reality? Or will you wait for the Droid Incredible or Kin to come out? Sound off in the comments.

Lovers of blood, gore, and killing the Greek gods are waiting anxiously for next Tuesday, March 16. That’s the day that God of War 3 is coming out and this game will conclude the biggest and toughest path to revenge that has ever been written into a video game. Click to read more on what’s new, whats old, and what is just plain awesome in God of War 3.

Just a note of caution, this game is rated M for Mature, so you will need to be 17 to buy it in a store.

What’s the same

• Combat: I know I speak for many when I say that this is a combat system that works flawlessly and Sony Santa Monica, the developer, agrees. So aside for a few tweaks with the L1 button, the combat system has not changed. Weapons: You will, of course, have the God of War staple, The Blades of Chaos. This is pretty much the only weapon that you have used with before. Puzzles: There are going to be a few times throughout the game where you’re going to be thinking about something else besides killing gods for once. These will be simple puzzles, things we have seen before.

What’s New

• Graphics: this is the first God of War game to be released for the PS3 and made for the PS3, and it looks absolutely stunning. Imagine fighting enemies on top of a titan that is taller than the Empire State Building. These situations lead to some incredible battles and the power of the PS3 is definitely on display in these epic fights. Not only that, but Kratos is incredibly detailed. You can even count the number of scars on his stomach. Sony has truly created one of the most detailed video games of all time

• Items: Apollo’s Bow, which might be an upgrade to your fire bow, and Hermes’ boots, which allow you to run at super fast speed, are all new in this new game.

What’s just plain awesome

• Magic: that’s right, you will have five magical abilities. The Helios Beam, Army of Artemis, Hephaestus Fury, Solar Flare and Warriors of Deimos. The only magic ability that we know about in detail is the Helios beam. Basically, after you rip off Helios’ head you can use it as, essentially, a flashlight in dark places.

• Scale: The titans provide a great landscape to fight on. Not only will you fight on them, you will fight the titans themselves. Just thinking about fighting something that’s larger than the Empire State Building is incredible. But to see it and play it is a whole different thing. The screenshots of these epic battles look absolutely incredible and I can’t wait to get my hands on this game just to get to these levels.
• Graphics: The graphics are one of the best I have seen in a game in a long time. The blood and gore that God of War has been known for looks absolutely stunning. Ripping out a cyclops’ eye has never been more satisfying, visceral, and just plain fun.
• Quicktime Events: Sony Santa Monica has re-done Quicktime events so that the buttons you need to push are at the edge of the screen. The reason for this is that now, instead of looking around for a button to press, you can now focus on the awesome beheading that you just did.

From beheadings to fighting on giants, God of War looks absolutely incredible. Any PS3 owner looking for an awesome, intense new game should definitely add this game to their game library when God of War 3 hits shelves tomorrow.

If you haven’t been able to get any trophies, load any data (or lost any data like trophies or saved games), sign onto the PlayStation Network, or even play any games on your PS3 over the last 24 hours then you’re probably confused as I was initially and pretty upset. What happened? Its because you have a “fat” PS3, otherwise known as any PS3 that is not a PS3 Slim. The error (Error 8001050F for those who want specifics) is why us ”fat” PS3 users have noticed that our date has gone back into the past to the mystical year of 1999, or 12/31/99 to be exact. Y2K anyone? This internal clock error has been the cause of failed PlayStation Network logins, and even the inability to play certain video rentals and games! Sony has given updates saying that they are working as fast as they can to fix this problem, and are predicting this error to be solved by tomorrow morning. Has your PS3 caught the time traveling bug or are you still here with us in 2010? Leave a comment below. We will post any updates that come our way on this post.

Update (8:30 PM EST): People have been testing out their PS3′s and they are running fine. Not everyone’s PS3 has lost trophies and other game data, but if you did then here’s what you do to get it back: just launch the game that has lost trophies, and the game automatically links with your PSN account online and all your trophies should reappear. You also can go to Settings and Date and Time and set your PS3 to sync the date and time online.  Sony also has officially confirmed on their PlayStation Blog that PS3′s should now be good to go, and judging from the amount of people that are playing Uncharted 2 online, we’re gonna go ahead and say its once again safe to turn your PS3 on.

When you want a slim, cool, phone you used to think companies like LG, Motorola, and Samsung. But recently, HTC has been continuously releasing phones which compete with the big phone companies. The Google Nexus One, myTouch and HTC-branded Hero, Touch Pro2, and Imagio are just a few of the big name phones that HTC has released over the last year; and at Mobile World Congress last week, HTC unleashed a few more phones that are sure to be ones you will want to be in your pocket when they become available later this year. Read on for all the details.

The HTC Legend is a very sleek phone, but at its core it is really a refinement of the HTC Hero mixed with some of the awesomeness of the Nexus One. It has the same screen size (3.2) and resolution as the Hero, but it gets an all new AMOLED screen with multitouch as seen on the Nexus One. Now you’re probably saying, I have heard of LCD  and LED, but what on earth is AMOLED? Basically, this allows you to have a sharper, brighter, more vibrant screen, while saving you battery power. The HTC Legend also has a number of other cool features:

• Android 2.1– Like the Nexus One, just this is coming with an updated even sicker version of HTC’s custom Sense UI for Android (making the homescreen a lot nicer and adding a bunch of features and apps, which we’ll get to soon), and the usual Android 2.1 goodness like Google Maps with Navigation, and the Android Market.
• WiFi, GPS and 3G (though sadly, no US 3G)
• FM Radio
• Aluminum unibody design– Yes, like that found on the MacBook Pros, just here on your phone. The new design also allows for an Optical Joystick instead of the usual trackball like on the Hero and Nexus One.
• A 3.5 mm headphone jack for listening to all your tunes on the go using normal headphones.
• A 5 megapixel camera that will include flash, auto focus, and widescreen photo capturing

Now for those of you on Sprint listen up– according to the Boy Genius Report, Sprint may be bringing the Legend to the US as the actual Hero2 (which is said to be it’s name), and like the initial Hero, will be slightly modified in look and feel from what you see above (just keep that aluminum design please!). Now before you jump for joy, remember– right now this is just a rumor and Sprint and HTC have not said anything on the possibility of the Legend coming to the US.

The HTC Desire looks even more like the Nexus One. It has a 3.7 inch AMOLED multitouch screen, a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor (to keep everything running really fast), WiFi, GPS, FM Radio, and 3G (though also not US 3G), a normal 3.5 mm headphone jack, as well as Android 2.1. However the Desire has one thing the Nexus One does not have, and that is HTC Sense (to be discussed below). The Desire also has a very nice web browser. Like the HTC Legend, the HTC Desire also has an Optical Joystick.

Now for those on AT&T listen up as this rumor, also from BGR, is directed at you. According to the same Boy Genius Report post, AT&T will be picking up the Desire in time for a May or June release. Keep in mind, this too is not official and only a rumor at this point. Of course, both of these rumors we’ll make sure to keep you posted.

Now let’s take a break in the phone coverage to talk about HTC’s updated Sense UI coming to all the phones mentioned here.

HTC’s Sense, is an HTC custom user interface that was made for Android and Windows Mobile, and is really a friendly and different take on what the homescreen and parts of the phone should look and feel like. This new version of Sense has a lot of features that allow for cooler homescreens and awesome new apps and features, like:

• Groups– which allow you to put your contacts into groups depending on what they are, say co-workers, classmates, teammates. It is really the bold interface that makes this application so slick and great. Friend Stream which allows you to see Facebook, Twitter updates, and Flickr updates all in one place. Leap (as seen in the pic below) is very much like Expose on the Mac; when you pinch the screen all home panels (weather, messaging) become smaller and go to the center of the screen. From there you can choose which panel you want to go to.

• HTC Sense also has features like animated weather (such as if it’s raining outside, you’ll see animated rain drops on your screen and then a virtual windshield wiper come and wipe them off), agenda– which is basically a glorified to-do list, and a mail application that allows you to see all of your mail in list form instead of just one message.
• When you lift up your phone, the volume automatically lowers, so no one hears that your ring tone is Party in the U.S.A.
• If you lie your phone on a flat surface it automatically mutes, as seen with the Touch Pro2.
• And of course, the essential Twitter app, HTC Peep, which allows you to update your Twitter on the go.

The HTC HD2 has already been available in Europe and Asia since last year, but now T-Mobile is bringing this huge (both physically and in awesomeness) smartphone to the U.S. I say huge because the screen is the equivalent of a PSP screen, which is 4.3 inches! This 4.3 inch multi-touch screen is great for writing documents, looking up scores on the web, checking Facebook, watch movies– you name it! This feature packed smartphone also comes with:

• Windows Mobile 6.5– With a Windows Mobile version of HTC Sense as seen in the pic above, with all the usual Windows Mobile goodies you’d expect like the Windows Marketplace for Mobile app store. No word though on if this will be upgradable to Windows Phone 7 Series when that launches later this year.
• WiFi, GPS and 3G
• Barnes & Noble eReader app, which allows you to read over one million books, newspapers, and magazines that you can download directly to your HD2 with this app
  
• Compatibility with Blockbusters On-Demand video app. While you won’t be able to watch the downloaded videos on your phone, you can hook your phone up to your TV and watch it on your big screen.
• A 1 GHz Snapdragon processor to make your phone super fast (such as with the Desire)
• T-Mobile is shipping the HTC HD2 with a 16 GB memory card already loaded with both Transformers movies. Both movies are optimized to look their best on the screen, so you should be able to see every explosion crystal clear.
• One of the coolest features, 6 months free in-flight WiFi. Which means you can be on Facebook while you’re 30,000 feet in the air (that is when you fly on a inside the US flight with WiFi– though a lot of airlines such as Virgin America, Delta and American Airlines among others have begun rolling this out across their fleets, making those long cross country flights much easier).

T-Mobile plans to release the HTC HD2 this spring. They have yet to release the most important detail, the price.

If carrying around a 4.3 inch long phone isn’t your idea of an ideal phone, HTC is releasing a smaller version of the HTC HD2 called the HTC Mini HD. The Mini has a 3.2 inch touch screen as opposed to the 4.3 inch the HD2 has.

Also, the Mini HD will be running a more finger-friendly updated version of Windows Mobile– Windows Mobile 6.5.3, and not only that, but also HTC Sense as well as some other solid features:

• WiFi, GPS, and 3G (though not US 3G)
• FM Radio with microSD card slot and 3.5 mm headphone jack for music
• A multitouch screen, for zooming in and out of web browsers
• And HTC Sense of course

All of these phones, except the HD2, right now, are not available in America, and it has not yet been revealed when they will come to America, but let’s hope that some of these do come, and soon.

Info and pix from T-Mobile and CNET

Have you ever wanted your own DJ? One that is so smart that it can pick from literally thousands and thousands of songs, the perfect songs, customized to your music preferences? Imagine, a DJ that will create a whole playlist of songs based on songs you like, even comprehending the elements of the song that cause you to enjoy it so much. No I’m not talking about Genius, Apple’s attempt to create your own DJ, but something you can run entirely off the internet, for a mere price tag of $3 a month. I’m talking about Pandora One, which is an attempt to bring the very successful Pandora (known for their great iPhone, Android and other mobile apps), to your desktop.

A screenshot of Pandora's interface

In case you don’t know, Pandora is an online radio station and calls itself the Music Genome Project. Basically, you tell them one song or artist that you like, and based on the qualities of that artist, Pandora chooses the playlist. However when I say qualities, I don’t mean just the genre; I mean harmonization, vocals, riffs, and even the tone of the song. The best part of Pandora.com is that it offers two plans; a free plan and a paid plan which allows for more skips, and no ads.

Pandora One's interface

If you don’t like a song you can skip it or hit thumbs down to never hear that song again. However due to music license laws, there’s only a specific amount of skips you can get a day. Also, since this is a radio station, you get to make your own stations. However there is one catch to Pandora One, it costs $36 a year. But for the amount of variety you get in your songs, $3 a month is a steal. If you want to try out Pandora One for yourself, there is a free trial.

The Nexus One Google smartphone (for more info see here) got a lot of buzz when it was released last month for T-Mobile. Now, you can also buy an unlocked Nexus One, but you only get EDGE or 2.5G, not 3G when using it on say, AT&T instead of T-Mobile. However, CNET and other sites are now reporting that Nexus Ones have been ordered with 3G for WCDMA bands that will allow for 3G on AT&T (which has 3G in many more places than T-Mobile).

Not only that, but CNET also reports that Google has said that there will be versions of the Nexus One coming out in the spring for Verizon (which Google and Verizon mentioned at the Nexus One launch) and possibly Sprint as well.

So are you pumped for the Nexus One coming to a network near you? Or are you satisfied with your current phone? Let us know in the comments.

Yes its that time of the year again. Its time for a new facebook layout. Will it be a welcomed update or will stir up a storm of complaints like the last update? Read on for more.

For those of you that don’t know, Facebook has undergone some controversial site redesigns that were not always welcomed with open arms by the Facebook community. The last update introduced the new homepage which brought arguments against Facebook for privacy invasion. Basically, you were able to see everything your friends were doing on Facebook, whether it’s their wall posts or their approval of someone else’s status.

Now, Facebook wants to add a few more changes, but none that will cause such a stir as the last update. (keep in mind, this is only rumored information)

A shot of what the rumored new Facebook will look like.

• A new emphasis on the search bar - could mean an enhanced searching experience
• Removal of redundant “your name” link to your profile on the top right side (the profile link serves the same purpose)
• Removal of the bottom screen, pop-up navigation bar, leaving only the chat box – personally, I never used the “navigation bar” except for chat and notifications
• Notifications have been moved to the top left of the screen right next to the facebook logo
• Sidebar has been cleaned up a bit – so you don’t need to sort through meaningless categories of news feeds anymore.

So, are you excited for this new Facebook update, or are you satisfied with the experience as it is right now? Sound off in the comments

Info and pix from Switched.com