Image courtesy of Engadget

While the PSP requires you to install external plugins in order to take screenshots from your PSP games, the Vita has made it significantly easier for you to take screenshots on your Vita.




Requirement:

• A PS Vita memory card

Here’s how to take a screenshot on your PS Vita:

1. Simply press the PS and the Start button together.
2. No more step two! that’s it!

You will be able to view the screenshot you just made with your Vita in PHOTOS.


Note:
For some weird reason, not all games and applications allow you to take screenshots with your Vita. Which is a bummer if you ask me.

It’s interesting to watch as things change and devices become unnecessary or even undesirable. Think about your digital camera. When was the last time you used it? I haven’t seen mine in a while. Why? My phone takes high quality pictures, leaving me with one less thing to carry.



Canon, the world’s top camera maker, has decided cameras are still necessary, and that they weren’t going to shy from from the consumer market. There will always be a need for high end photography equipment, and Canon is certainly a leader in that niche. But has the age of the consumer grade point and shoot passed?

It appears the answer is, maybe not. Canon took the challenge and may have found some success in the new Canon N. 

I splurged and bought the camera, and was pleased with the results. It was almost instant that I knew Canon was onto something. 

First and possibly foremost, the zoom capability is far superior to that of your existing phone. In fact, it’s light years ahead of any digital or optical zoom featured in a cell phone. Next, it simulates the design features of your phone, making it feel oddly familiar, although I’m sure I’m accidentally going to try to answer it at some point.  These features are great, but the biggest bonus of having a smartphone is your ability to instantly forward the photos to friends or post them to social networks. The N has this functionality as well.

The Canon N has a more sensitive sensor, and a much bigger lens. While the lens is still only 0.4 inches diagonally, it’s much bigger than the one in your phone, leaving you with higher resolution photos and added clarity. 

The design and operation is intriguing, much more so than your smartphone. It is to a square shape, with a black and white exterior consisting of only 3 buttons: Play, power and connect to phone. The device doesn’t come with the typical shutter button, instead you snap a picture by pressing up or down on a ring that goes around the lens. 

The design is simple and works like a phone. You can hold it upside down, right-side up or at an angle. Just like your phone it detects which way you are holding it and adjust accordingly. As an added bonus, the screen flips to 90 degrees, allowing you to take pictures at interesting and exciting angles. 

Now, are those features enough to make you dump the smartphone in exchange for a “real” camera? That’s sort of like asking if you need a “real” accountant or if Quickbooks can handle your taxes. The answer? It depends. Can I do a simple return myself? Of course. But when it comes time to ask “How do I rollover my 401(k)?” I’m afraid Quickbooks simply isn’t going to be up to par. This camera is no different. If you’re a light user that likes to use Instagram and post photos to Facebook, then your phone is probably more than enough.

I suppose if you’re looking for a real answer it all depends on your level of photography geekiness, but the feature set is certainly impressive for a camera in the sub-$300 market. Will that lead to widespread consumer adoption? I’m not sure, but Canon is certainly on to something by creating a consumer grade point and shoot that has most of the features that we love from our phones, while taking better pictures to boot. Only time will tell.

Taken during the MLG Columbus StarCraft 2, Halo: Reach, and Call of Duty: Black Ops Tournament.

However, one trend that’s taking place is that more and more gamers are starting to branch out to games that involve money in a more direct way. Some are making the switch from Professional gaming to playing poker or casino games in a professional level. One notable player is Griffin Benger, he is one of the best Professional Counter Strike players to ever play the game. He was known as “shaGuar” and made the leap towards playing poker because of the lure of big money. He made news last year when he played into the money at the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event.

It’s the lure of the potential money is what drives gamers to make the leap. And it’s not hard to practice and hone your skills with today’s technology, one can access a lot of casino games available for pretty much every modern gadget you have. Sites like www.iPadcasino.ca is one example of the ease of access to casino games with your favorite tablets such as the iPad.

To some gamers, the skills in playing video games also helps them with making quick decisions while playing poker and casino games. Although these games are different; winning at them still requires strategies and the ability to make on the fly adjustments to their playing style.

Image courtesy of Giz

However, due to the slump of camera sales, he and his team decided to turn it into a mobile phone operating system. In 2005, he and his team acquired members who had experience working with companies like Orange and T-Mobile to target Windows Mobile. Apple and its Flagship iOS was still not in the scene since it was introduced in 2007.

Rubin has also revealed that despite changing direction, Android has kept its core software, JAVA. And has resulted to an ongoing lawsuit Oracle filed against Google.

In an economic Forum in Tokyo, Rubin has stated that

“We decided digital cameras wasn’t actually a big enough market,”

And that:

“We wanted as many cellphones to use Android as possible. So instead of charging $99, or $59, or $69, to Android, we gave it away for free, because we knew the industry was price sensitive,”

It was the best move they could have done, because as of writing, Android has already 750 million devices activated to date. In with the help of tons of free android apps, and lots of users love the Android platform on their mobile phones.

Like on the iOS ecosystem, it’s the abundance of available apps that’s what users love. From games, office apps and important apps such as Android maps are all available for download for your Android device.

Right now it seems that the Android OS is returning to its root, Samsung has launched a Galaxy Camera that runs Android. Not to mention Companies like Nikon and Polaroid are also offering cameras running the Android OS.

Image courtesy of Gizmodo

Google ran a contest back in February offering winners to become “Glass Explorers” that will let them be the first to buy the Glass and be able to test it out. And yes, the Glasss would not be given for free, but essentially winning the contest only gives the winner a chance to buy the Google Glass for $1,500. Which is pretty expensive is you ask me. Despite the price range, this is still a pretty neat experience to be part of the exclusive group able to test out the Google Glass.

One winner, a guy named “Ed from Philadelphia”, had a different idea after wining the contest, he planned to auction off his Google Glass on ebay in the hopes of being able to pay his student loans. The starting bid for the Google Glass was initially only for $5,000. And within only 4, days the bids reached $95,300 for the Glass. This would have been a huge bankroll for “Ed” but after learning some news he had to shutdown the auction.

Obviously, Ed wasn’t so happy about this as he released this statement:

The auction is being removed, due to finding out that Google Glass cannot be resold once obtained.

Since I have not received anything other than confirmation from Google that I have been selected for the #ifihadglass contest, I was not given the terms of service agreement that those who received the first batch did indicating the device could not be resold.

So, all of you who apparently have no life aside from posting in forums about this auction can sleep well tonight knowing that the glasses will not be sold.

Sorry for being a recent college graduate that was hoping I could possibly resell my Google Glasses to help pay down my student debt. Yes, I am everything that’s evil in the world. Anyway, nothing to see here anymore. Take a screen shot, it will last longer!

According to Forbes, he also said that Google did not contact him in any way about the auction and removing the listing was done “voluntarily” because he “didn’t want to jeopardize my getting a pair of Glass”. This was after reading the TOS which states that:

If you resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person without Google’s authorization, Google reserves the right to deactivate the Device, and neither you nor the unauthorized person using the Device will be entitled to any refund, product support, or product warranty.

Well that’s too bad, it seems that you cant even try on a friend’s Google Glass.

Using your iPhone, you can buy ringtones from iTunes and each tone costs around $.99 just like your typical iTunes download. But sometimes, it just not the ringtone we want. Sometimes we want to have a customized ringtone for our iPhone. So here with a few taps in your iPhone, you can create your own customized iPhone Ringtone for free.

Before we proceed, we need to download a Ringtone Maker App on your iPhone. Here we use this free app simply called – Ringtone Maker.

Go to the App store and do a search for “Ringtone Maker”, it’s the first result you get and it’s just a small 7.4MB download so it should not take long. You can also try this link.

Now when the App is installed, here’s how to create a ringtone for your iPhone for free:

1. Open the Ringtone Maker App and you will be presented with this simple screen:

2. Tap the icon with the picture of a note and you can select the song from your playlist you want to create a ringtone with. (Here I choose “All is Well” which I downloaded for free when I created my tutorial on how to create an Apple ID without a credit card)

3. Now we are presented with the next screen. Here we can adjust the sliders to choose what part of the song you want to use as a ringtone. Here I choose the ringtone to start from the 43 second mark.

iPhone Ringtones has a maximum of 30 seconds, but there is an option to add 10 more seconds but you need to pay in order to unlock this and other advanced features. See image below:

If you ask me, A 30 second ringtone is already good enough.

4. You can tap on the Play icon to test how your ringtone sounds, you can also add a fade effect on the ringtone, the fade effect will be for the start and end of the ringtone.

5. When your’e already satisfied on how your ringtone sounds, tap on the save icon to save. (The one with the disk icon)

This takes only a few seconds

And it’s done!

Now you’re probably wondering where’s the Ringtone you just created and how do you use it? Here’s how:

1. Connect your iPhone to your computer and load up iTunes.

2. On iTunes, select your iPhone, go to Apps, the scroll down to the bottom.

3. Under “File Sharing” select the RMaker App and you will see the ringtones you saved.

Now select the Ringtone you want to use and then click “Save to…”.


Then choose the folder on where to save the file, I suggest somewhere easy to remember:

4. Now go to the folder where you saved the ringtone.

Select the file and then click and drag it into the iTunes Library where it will be automatically added to “Tones”

5. And there you have it, now you can select the tone from the iTunes Library and add it to your iPhone!



If you have any questions feel free to leave them on the comments below and we will try to answer your questions.

Some have already seen the preview units, and they aren’t too happy about the console. The console maker said this was expected of sorts, as the system is not ready to undergo a proper review at the moment.


GamesIndustry was issued a statement recently, which informed the preview period that has been getting negative reviews was for refinement and testing, so the creators can gather some user views on the console before the June release.

However, it must be noted that 60,000 of those who backed up Ouya made a lot of investment to the Kickstarter campaign of the console, and many of those investors are from blogs, online businesses and websites that are geared towards making tech reviews of new technology, similar to Ouya.

David Pierce from The Verge received a preview unit, and it got a score of just 3.5 out of a total 10 from him. He thinks every backer who made a contribution to the campaign unintentionally become a beta-tester for a console that’s used for gaming. This product may do well in the future and does include some well-thought out ideas, but it’s not getting labeled as something that consumers are going to find worthy of spending their cash on, anytime soon.

The console just misses the point, even if the concept was initially right. There’s a lot to be improved; the interface is cluttered, the controller requires more work, and David isn’t sure if the concept is even right; there are so many good Android games to play, but how many would actually work well with a console? Not many, and gamers are only going to find a little portion of games suitable to play on television.

Despite criticism received from a majority of backers, the console did receive a line or two of optimism. Tim Stevens from Engadget hopes the console ultimately gets released as a product that provides more value to the user after a couple of months.

His thoughts are that Ouya not a revolution in the gaming industry, and it’s still young. There are only two months left till the system goes on sale at retail stores, and he hopes that would be enough for the creator to get the controller fixed, the interface back together, and perhaps line up a few Android titles that creates buzz and excitement. David also says to do a full review of the final version when it comes out. He also asks to consider him as skeptical; someone who would look at the early reviews and think guys behind Ouya have no way out within a couple of months.

Nvidia is also going to release Project Shield (more on this later), which will allow gamers to stream Android games and PC games directly from PC to television. Ouya already has some competition before release.

The review units will be out in May for the press. Do you think Ouya creators can turn it around? Feel free to leave comments.

Requirements:
A USB Flash drive (Must be big enough to accommodate the installation files) or an external HD
A PS3 running any cfw (this means this work on Rogero 4.21, 4.30, 4.30 V2.05, 4.40 v1.02 and Rogero 4.40 V1.03)

Here’s how to downgrade to 3.55 from any CFW:


Download the Rogero downgrader PUP here. (Mirror here)(And another here)(And one more here)
Download QA Toggle pkg here

Here are the steps to downgrade to 3.55 from any CFW
IMPORTANT!
Remove any discs inside your PS3 when performing the update.

1. Download the “3.55 Rogero Downgrader RSOD.PUP”, and rename the file to “PS3UPDAT.PUP”
2. In your USB flash drive or external HD, create a new folder and name it “PS3″
3. Inside the “PS3″ folder, create a new folder and this time name it “UPDATE”
4. Copy the 3.55 Rogero Downgrader RSOD.PUP (which is now named “PS3UPDAT.PUP”) inside the “UPDATE” folder
5. Insert the USB or external HD on to your PS3 and on the XMB, go to “System Update” and select “Update Via Storage Media”
6. Follow any onscreen instructions that would come up.
7. Once the update is finished, you will now be on Rogero CFW3.55, it wills till show the old CFW on the system settings, this is normal.
8. Now you can either stay on 3.55 or update to a higher cfw version.

Important!: Before installing any higher OFW or CFW, you need to Toggle QA first. The reason your PS3 still shows the old CFW version is because the syscon version will still have the old cfw version. Hence we need to Toggle QA first because if you update your PS3 without toggling QA will results to problems such as bricking (and you don’t want that).

Here’s how Toggle QA:

1. Download the QA Toggle pkg here.
2. Copy the file to the root of your USB or external HD
3. Insert your USB/External HD to your PS3
4. On your PS3, go to “Install package Files” and install the QA Toggle PKG
5. Once installed, run the “Rebug Toggle QA” on your PS3, (The screen will go Black and you will hear 2 or 3 Beeps and when finished it will go back to the PS3′s XMB, and if error comes up, just repeat this step.)
6. Go to “Network Settings” (do not open it) then all at the same time, press the following key combo : L1 + L2 + L3 (press left stick) + R1 + R2 + dpad_down (its hard you might want to get an extra hand for this)
7. If the QA Flag was done correctly, you will see Edy Viewer, Debug Settings, and Install Package Files. (if not, repeat step number 5, 6 and 7)
8. Now you can update to any CFW you want.

To make it short:
1. Install the downgrader PUP
2. Toggle QA
3. Install install any CFW you want.

Credits to Rogero and the Forums at Tortuga Cove

“This CFW was tested on most PS3 Models by different testers and no problems were encountered. But as any CFW release you must install it with caution and by following proper instructions, No one will be held responsible for any damage caused.” – Rogero

Here’s how to install Rogero 4.40 v1.03 on your PS3:

Installation Files:
Download Rogero 4.40 v1.02 cfw here (Mirror Here) (another mirror here)(and another mirror here)

Requirements:
A USB Flash drive (Must be big enough to accommodate the installation files) or a PS3 External Hard Drive or just a plain External HD
A PS3 running Official Firmware version 3.55 or
A PS3 running on any CFW ver: 3.55/4.21/4.30/4.40
This also works for PS3′s running Rogero 4.40 V1.02 (this is an update duh)

This will NOT WORK on PS3′s running any Official Firmware higher than 3.55 (you will need to downgrade to 3.55 first.)
Also, if you come from a downgraded PS3 (you were on an official firmware 3.60 or higher and then downgraded to 3.55) you would need to Dehash your PS3 first. (no need to dehash if you are already on any of these CFW versions: 4.21/4.30/4.40)

Here are the steps:
IMPORTANT!
Remove any discs inside your PS3 when performing the update.

Note: If you are installing from 3.55, remember to Toggle QA Flag first for a safer install. If you do not know how to do it, here is a tutorial on How to Toggle QA Flag.

1. Download the file “Rogero_CEX_4.40_v1.03.PUP“ and rename it to PS3UPDAT.PUP
2. Create a new folder on the Root of your USB flash drive or External HD and name it “PS3” ( it would look like this: x:PS3 where X is the drive)
3. Create a new folder inside the “PS3” folder we just created and name it “UPDATE” . ( it would now look like this: x:PS3/UPDATE)
4. Copy the PS3UPDAT.PUP file we renamed and place it inside the “UPDATE” folder we just created. ( it should now go something like this: x:PS3/UPDATE/PS3UPDAT.PUP)
5. Insert your USB or External HD into your PS3
6. Turn on your PS3, go to System update and select “Update via Storage Media”
7. Just follow any on screen instructions that would come up.
8. And you’re done!

Alternate installation via Recovery Mode:
(Note: This is assuming you already have the installation files ready on your USB flash drive or External HD , if not follow steps 1 to 5 from above before proceeding)
1. While your PS3 is on, turn it off by pressing and holding the power button until it turns off
2. When the PS3 is OFF, press and hold the power button until you hear two beeps
3. When this happens, the PS3 should boot up in recovery Mode (if it does not, repeat steps 1 and 1)
4. While on recovery mode, select option 6 (System Update)
5. Just follow any on screen instructions that would come up.
6. And you’re done!

Important!
Older versions of Multiman will not work on Rogero 4.40 V1.03, and you would need to update to the latest version of Multiman which is 4.30.00. Here’s the link on How to install Multiman 4.30.00.

Change logs with the Rogero 4.40 v1.03 update:

Rebuilt the CFW with minimal patches needed for similar OFW Stability, also adding full compatibility with multiMAN Tools.
All known issues from v1.02 are fixed now (XMB PS2 Game Saves, Sequential Video Playback, Media Server always on)
Removed Cinavia Patch used on v1.02 because of some compatibility issues (When DEX4.40 is public it will be added properly again)
Added the ToolBox to [app_home/PS3_GAME] to restore multiMAN/StealthMAN launch mode from ToolBox.
Updated the ReactPSN patch to work offline without the need to log into PSN at all (Credits to Team Rebug for their original 4.30.1 Patch)
Added both noBD/noBT patches to allow installation on consoles with broken BluRay Drive or Bluetooth board.

Credits to Rogero over at Tortuga-Cove

“This CFW was tested on most PS3 Models by different testers and no problems were encountered. But as any CFW release you must install it with caution and by following proper instructions, No one will be held responsible for any damage caused.” – Rogero

The trailer was first introduced during this year’s GDC. The the game reveals that Snake has just awoken from a 9 year Coma, the game is supposed to be set after the events in Metal Gear Solid 4, but he looks somewhat younger than he did during MGS4, but maybe its due to better graphics?. Anyway, the game boasts some really photo realistic graphics and its really interesting so see how the Xbox 360 would be able to handle the graphics.

This confirms Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will be released on the PS3.

Since the PS4 will be launched before the end of the year, lets hope the both Metal Gear: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will also be released sometime early this year.