This round up will focus on the remaining news surrounding the CES 2012 technology event and a few important events occurring in gaming. Hopefully I will return to posting individual articles this week as news begins to slow down.

1) At CES OnLive announced a new cloud PC service which would allow users to sign into a Windows 7 machine complete with touch gestures, 2GB of personal storage and a full suite of Microsoft Office for free on an Apple iPad. I consider this as one of the biggest announcements of the trade show this year and news has quickly spread as the new OnLive app has skyrocketed to the top of the app charts this week. Frankly, an essential app for every iPad owner.

2) TV progression this year took a different direction as glasses free 3D did not appear in mass but rather the implementation of voice and gesture recognition for input, in addition to the development of Smart TV applications. Here is a video of a Samsung rep showcasing the functionality on their new TV’s. It is quite a cool feature although some may debate it adds a whole new level to the meaning of lazy.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/11/samsung-smart-interaction-gesture-controlled-hdtv-demo-video/

3) Popular industry news site MCV have published the results of the 2012 UK Games Industry Salary Review. The average salary for non executive staff is £33,123. It seems as though there are similarities between different areas of the industry, and interesting feedback on male vs female salaries. The full report can be read at the link below.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/mcv-s-2012-uk-games-industry-salary-survey-the-results/089686

4) Singer Adele takes the number one spot in the UK entertainment charts for 2011.  Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (2,814,609) outsold anticipated film Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2,532,551) back in November but Adele managed to have the last laugh with 3,924,985 copies of her album 21. It is notable that in terms of monetary sales over units, COD MW3 retains first place. The full list can be viewed at the link below.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/adele-demolishes-call-of-duty-as-2011-s-biggest-entertainment-property/089677

5) Susan Taylor, a victim in the latest press attention to the Xbox Live fraud scandal has made public the fact that she gets contacted by many other users who have been in similar situations and the problem is in fact widespread. This morning, someone claiming to know how to hack into accounts spoke about the issue.

…point the finger at Xbox.com – the website. This allows eight password attempts at a Windows Live ID before CAPTCHA is triggered – the system that presents those squiggly words. A simple password-generating script can apparently be used to exploit this system before CAPTCHA kicks in.

The Windows Live IDs come from playing Xbox 360 games online. Gather Gamertags and Google search them in the hope you’ll find related email addresses. Try these as Windows Live IDs and the Xbox.com website will let you know if they’re valid – “the email address or password is incorrect” – or not – “That Windows Live ID doesn’t exist.”

Using these methods you can apparently brute force your way into a near-limitless supply of Xbox Live accounts and use their saved banking details to buy Microsoft Points.

6) UK retailer GAME recently attended a press event held by EA. A tweet from the company revealed that the new Medal of Honor title and a yet unannounced Need For Speed title were being shown off behind the closed doors.

7) Early adopters of the PlayStation Vita can expect a promising start to 2012 according to John Koller whilst speaking to Gamespot.

What we really wanted to do, and I think we learned from past, most recent, handheld device launches, is that you don’t want to launch strongly and then go dark for three or four months and have nothing…So in subsequent months for Vita, we have launch, then we have MLB, then we got Mortal Kombat, then Resistance, then Little Big Planet, then Call of Duty, and Assassin’s Creed.

We already know from an earlier announcement that games are being pushed back and away from the initial launch date such as Resistance and LBP. If this order is true, we can expect Mortal Kombat in March/April along with COD and AC around June.

8) A new feature is coming to Facebook as part of their new partnership with music streaming service Spotify. “Listen With Friends” will post details about what you are listening to on Facebook where other Spotify users will then be able to join the original poster in a private chat room to listen to the song together. Other than the small issue of sharing your music preferences with Facebook, I wonder whether this feature will be used much by the Facebook  and Spotify communities.

9) Further to the announcement of Google implementing an official design brief for the skinning of Ice Cream Sandwich/Android 4.0, a new portal has gone live on the web to help developers learn about the new standards. Android Design is available to view at the link below.

http://developer.android.com/design/index.html

10) In a shocking announcement, Dr Dre and Monster Cable are ending their Beats By Dre partnership venture. The brand has been a major success for both companies but they decided not to renew their contract over disputes regarding revenue share and credit for the success. Beats Electronics will retain the rights to the design, sound signature and branding of the range so don’t expect much to change visually. It will definitely be interesting to see who Dr Dre partners with now and whether they will retain the quality components. Monster always overpriced their products but I don’t see a new partner leading to a drop in price for a pair of Beats. Monster are the biggest losers here as they will no longer have the incredible marketing push of the partnership. They do make a good set of headphones (Turbines) although the company has little to no market presence by itself and a poor reputation for overpricing.

11) The iPhone 4S has just launched in China and photos of the launch look similar to the London Riots. Fights started breaking out between large crowds of consumers as they were eager to purchase Apple’s latest device. There were many resellers looking to capitalise on the cheaper price and buy in bulk. The Apple Store ending up getting egged and staff had to close due to the violence. Apple have postponed the sales of the device in China while it evaluates its options.

12) Rumours are heating up surrounding the launch of a next generation iPad. The rumours suggest a March release, higher screen resolution, quad core processor and support for 4G/LTE mobile network speeds in the US. Apple do have a press event in the upcoming days where we will find out if these rumours are really true.

13) More rumours were circulated last night on Twitter suggesting that veteran game publisher THQ was in a poor financial situation and had cancelled their 2014 product line up. THQ have a range of successful titles under their belt such as WWE, UFC, Saints Row, Darksiders and Warhammer. Later today, THQ denied the allegations saying they had a great Christmas period in terms of sales with important new titles hitting stores in the upcoming months.

14) Another big prototype to grace the floors of CES this year was Samsung’s Transparent TV. It acts as a TV made out of glass with lighting occuring from the edges rather than the back of the unit to avoid the rear panelling. Definitely something we may see more of in the future although you may not want to place it on an exterior window if you do not want your neighbours seeing what you’re doing.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/15/Samsung-OLED-Transparent-Smart-window-CES-update/

15) Not much fluctuation in this week’s Video Game Charts as FIFA retains the number 1 spot. Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 was the only new entry in the top 20 at number 12. Just Dance 3 took second, Skyrim third, Battlefield 3 fourth, COD MW3 fifth, Zumba Fitness 1 and 2 at sixth and seventh, RAGE at eighth, Assassins Creed Revelations ninth and NFS The Run rounds off the top ten.

16) UK retailer GAME are the latest company to be the victims of a hacking attempt according to a list posted on PasteBin. The list is comprised of 400 user account emails and passwords and can be viewed at the link below. GAME have released a statement saying that the details listed are not reflective of any customer accounts and that their customer security is very tight. Customers need not worry although be reminded to use strong and varying passwords for individual websites.

http://pastebin.com/diff.php?i=Cb4nJfm0

17) Catalyst Gaming was also the victim of a similar hacking attack with 2000 user account information posted on PasteBin. They have not denied the hack attempt although it is worth noting that their passwords are all hashed making it slightly more tedioust for hackers to breach their customer accounts.

http://pastebin.com/Uj3ZTJWp

18) EA have announced details regarding the SSX Limited Edition. It will be available from GAME and GameStation for £39.99 and will give purchasers an additional location of Mount Fuji with 6 unique drop points and the classic character Eddie Wachowski. Eddie will have access to an elite snowboard and an attribute perk. Play.com are offering an Elise snowboard, HMV Mac’s snowboard, Thehut.com Zoe’s snowboard and Amazon Kaori’s snowboard as preorder incentives for the regular edition.