RIM report losses of $125million

source:http://bit.ly/H35HXw

The maker of Blackberry smart phones RIM has reported losses of $125million for the first quarter of 2012, compared to last year when the company made a profit of $934million. RIM suggested that they will refocus their market to businesses instead of the consumer market. This comes due to stiff competition from Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android phones which outsell Blackberries. As a Blackberry user I hope this does not mean the end of services like BBM which I use every day and find a very useful tool for contacting my friends. What do you think about this move by RIM let us know by leaving us a comment below or sending @leatstechcorner a tweet.

By Robert Leat

Editor in Chief

feel free to leave a donation your donations help to keep the site running. 

UK's First Gamer Dating site

A dating site aimed solely at gamers launched in the UK yesterday. The site is called DateaGamer and it is the “brain child” of entrepreneur and TV presenter Tom Thurlow. The site already has over 150k members.

image found at: dateagamer.co.uk

By Robert Leat

Editor in Chief

Temple Run Review

Temple run is the highly addictive iOS game that everyone is playing. It was created by the Washington D.C. based developer Imangi Studios. It can be acquired for free from the apple app store. It is soon to be released on the Android platform.

Source:http://bit.ly/y4l9LS

The basic premise of the game is that you are running from a temple whilst being chased by demon monkeys, you have to maneuver around corners by swiping your finger left or right, you also might have to jump over gaps or obstacles by swiping your finger upwards.   There are also vicious flames and deep tree roots that you have to duck under by swiping downwards with your finger. The further you get the higher your score.  The game features a store which allows you to purchase upgrades which help you to improve your score; to purchase these upgrades you must collect coins in the game by tilting your device towards the coins.  This game is highly addictive and you will spend a lot of time trying to beat not only your score but your mate’s score.   The game also features achievements that you get by completing tasks such as getting a new high score, or by collecting a certain number of coins.  The game also integrates apple’s game centre system which allows you to view your friend’s high scores and also the top scores in the world.

The main downside I have found to this game is that sometimes after pausing the game it doesn’t give you enough time to recover and continue playing so pausing usually results in me dying straight away. Another downside I have found is that the game doesn’t always respond when you swipe across the screen and this has resulted in some very frustrating games for me.

Overall I would thoroughly recommend this game for hours of fun gameplay and competition with your friends as you try to beat their high scores.  This game will keep you entertained on long journeys and will help to combat boredom.  I would give this game a rating of 8.5 out of 10.

By Robert Leat
Editor in Chief

Skyrim PC gets High Res Texture pack

Bethesda the developer behind titles such as Skyrim and the fall out saga today announced that a Skyrim High Resolution texture pack is available for free on steam, alongside the creation kit. To run it, you'll need Windows Vista or Windows 7, a minimum of 4GB of system RAM and a DirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with at least 1 GB of RAM and the latest drivers.

By Robert Leat

Editior in Chief

SOPA- My View

As you might be aware the American government is trying to pass an act called SOPA, which stands for Stop Online Piracy Act. SOPA is intended to clamp down on “rouge websites” such as piratebay which host illegal content.  

source:http://bit.ly/xD2Dyu

But many people are saying this act could be the death of youtube because under this act you would not be able to post footage of games without the developer’s permission, and the same goes for song covers, it is for this reason I am against SOPA. I think that no country should not be allowed to”censor “the web, this act would mean the end of my youtube career as I have built a channel based on “lets plays “of games. Many big companies’s such as Google and Wikipedia are against SOPA, Wikipedia are temporarily shutting down the site in protest against SOPA, Google will be displaying an anti SOPA message on their website in protest of SOPA as SOPA would censor Google search engine results.  Facebook and yahoo have also expressed their opposition to SOPA by sending letters to key members of the American senate.   Let me know what you think of SOPA by leaving a comment or by tweeting @leatstechcorner , use the hash tag #leatstechcorner



By Robert Leat
Editor in chief

New Year Re-Launch

New year Re-launch

You might have noticed that Leats Tech Corner has not been posting many articles. This is due to a number of reasons. I have had a very busy social life as I have been going out with friends more and spending time with my girlfriend. Also I have taken up a new sport; I am part of my school’s rugby academy and with training and games not finishing till the evening.

But come New Year I will be re-launching the site, new articles, new features and more reviews. I will also be posting a weekly roundup of the week’s technology news. If you have any suggestions for the site or you would like to become a guest writer or reviewer contact us on twitter, facebook or drop us an email leatstechcorner@gmail.com

Robert Leat

Editor in Chief

Modern Warfare 3 campaign act1: Black Tuesday

Check out my play through of the first mission on campaign mode on MW3.

Modern Warfare3 launched

(c)Activision

The highly anticipated game Modern Warfare3 was launched at midnight on 7^th of November.  UK launch took place in Old Billingsgate market, London and was streamed live on youtube to 1000’s of fans. The launch featured a tournament which where the winner went up against the best players in Europe and it was won by a British gamer. Example also performed a live set, as did chase and status. The event was also attended by many celebrities and the media.  Another highlight was the celebrity tournament , the UK was represented Joey Barton, the QPR player he wasn’t great and described himself as a “camper” this was followed by a huge boo from the crowd. 

The live stream was well presented by 4 presenters, David bass known on youtube as daveyboyz, Rick Edwards the T4 presenter, Graeme Boyd of Xbox UK and Danny Wallace, a journalist and radio presenter.  Trailers and unreleased footage of the game were showcased at the launch; Graeme Boyd went to the Oxford Street game store where some fans had supposedly been queuing since last week just to be first in line to get a copy of the game.  Soldier’s abseiled down the side of the building with the first copies of the game.  I ordered my copy of the game from Amazon and I will be posting videos on my youtube channel as I have obtained an easy cap capture card. Full review to come stay tuned.

By Robert Leat
Site founder

Left 4 Dead 2 with ExtremeBritishGaming

Check out my dual commentary with Extreme British Gaming two up and coming commentators. They make gaming videos about Minecraft and various other games. I discovered them after they messaged me on YouTube and asked if I would like to make a video. go and check them out they're awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ExtremeBritishGaming

RIM Explain BlackBerry Black Out

BlackBerry Bold.

RIM the company behind the BlackBerry has finally explained why BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India have not been able to use BlackBerry Messenger and other internet services.  RIM has said "The messaging and browsing delays being experienced by BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina were caused by a core switch failure within RIM's infrastructure,"

"Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested. As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible."  The statement ended with “We apologise for any inconvenience caused and will keep you informed”

BlackBerry Services have been disrupted for 2 days, let us know if you are still having problems with your BlackBerry, Tweet @leatstechcorner or go to our Facebook page, leave a comment below.

By Robert Leat

Editor in Chief

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

BlackBerry Server crash affects millions

RIM had an outage at one of their BlackBerry servers, which has caused BBM, internet and emails to be taken offline for many BlackBerry users. The outage began at 11 AM Monday. The outage has affected BlackBerry users across Europe, the Middle East and it has also been reported to have affected some users in Canada.

RIM has said “We are working to resolve an issue currently impacting some BlackBerry subscribers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

"We're investigating, and we apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused while this is resolved."

By Robert Leat
Editor in Chief
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Steve Jobs Dies Age 56

Steve Jobs the Co-founder and former CEO of Apple has died aged 56. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer for some time and it was because of this that he stepped down as CEO of Apple.  In his time at Apple he has revolutionised technology, coming up with the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and of course the Macintosh computers. Steve Jobs also co-founded Pixar Animation studios. Google paid tribute to Steve Jobs by putting Steve Jobs 1955-2005 at the bottom of their homepage. Apple has a huge picture of Steve Jobs followed by 1955-2011. Steve Wozniak said he will remember Steve for “knowing what made sense in a product” he also described him as a “visionary”. Steve Jobs will be sorely missed, a grave loss to the tech world.

By Robert Leat
Editor in Chief
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Apple Announces iPhone 4s

Apple's iPhone 4S

Apple has unveiled the iPhone 4S at their Let’s Talk iPhone event.  It will feature the same processor as the iPad2 and upgraded ram. To the disappointment of myself and a lot of tech community Apple did not announce the iPhone 5, the iPhone 4 has instead been upgraded and redesigned. Apple has done this before, with the iPhone 3G and then later the 3GS was released so this is nothing new.  The Screen is the same size as before (3.5inch) and features the same high resolution touch screen but has an upgraded A5-processor. What do you think of the 4S let us know.

By Robert Leat
Editor in Chief
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Apple expected to announce new iPhone at press event

Tim Cook Apple CEO.

 

Apple has invited the press to an iPhone event in California. It is expected that Apple will announce the iPhone 5 at this event. The event will be hosted by the new C.E.O. of Apple Tim Cook. Others believe that Apple will instead announce the iPhone 4S which will be cheaper than the iPhone 4.  In preparation for the launch of a new product Apple have temporarily taken down the online store. Follow us on Twitter to be kept up todate with the latest iPhone and Apple news.



By Robert Leat
Editor in Chief
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Ridge Racer Unbounded Preview

My Preview of Ridge Racer Unbounded , Special thanks to Thomas Lindsay who plays the game in this video

Amazon Unveil iPad Challenger

Amazon unveiled their iPad challenger; it is called the Amazon Kindle Fire. It is a 7 inch Android tablet and is set to be released later this year. It was unveiled at a press conference in New York.  The tablet will cost a mere $199 (£127) which is a lot cheaper than $499 (£325). It will ship with Android 3.0 Honey Comb.

 

Spec

7 inch Touch Screen display with Gorilla Glass and a resolution of 1024x600.

Dual core Processor and 8GB internal memory                                                                   

8 hour Battery Life.

Built in WI-FI

Weighs  413g

It will be released in the US on 15^th November for $199, Amazon has yet to announce a UK release date.

By Robert Leat

Editor in Chief

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

3D or not to be?

      So, we've kind of reached the stage where a reflective view on 3D films seem suitable, with hindsight on our side. Although the first 3D film was actually released back in 1915 it has been the blockbusters of the 21st Century which have captivated consumers interest in 3D-ism. We've reached an epoch of immense digitalisation and technological advancement, but are 3D films really the pinnacle of this ever-growing industry. Are they Dogs, or even just perhaps a Problem Child?

 No difference at all  
         A new UK film poll by YouGov has revealed some discouraging statistics. 41% say 3D films are a 'gimmick', with just 19% agreeing that they enhance a film. Furthermore, just under half of the participants said it made no difference at all. Are you shocked yet? To be honest, I'm not either. The poll also gives some interesting opinions concerning the cost of a ticket for a 3D film. If the price of a 3D ticket was the same as a 2D one, the poll suggests that cinema goers would still prefer to watch the traditional format. The survey did suggest that if 3D was possible without the glasses, over 52% of viewers would prefer it to 2D.  In conclusion, we prefer no glasses and are not yet prepared to take the risk.


Desirable concept
        Where does this leave the 3D industry? For one, the creators seem certain its a futuristic and desirable concept, with the introduction of 3D gaming and 3D TV's. With 3D's huge costs to produce ( it is the equivalent of filming something three times) it could be seen as a risk, but premium prices for TV's and cinema tickets seemingly being able to compensate for this. It is an innovative idea and has done well to move away from the 'jump-out-the-screen' picture to a 3D effect which makes it seem like we can see 'around' a person. From my experience, wearing glasses to watch a film is perhaps a step too far. They are irritable and just seem to add an unnecessary screen between you and the film, perhaps the worst thing that could occur when you are trying to immerse yourself in the storyline.


     It's hard to say where the future lies for 3D. It's a subjective topic which I'm sure has so many people being prescriptive of its purpose. I like it but I just don't love it, or loath it for that matter. Perhaps that's the problem. We should wait some time and see its true capabilities, but it's OK, it's simply OK.






What do you think of 3D films? Are you surprised of the statistics from YouGov? What are your experiences? Feel free to comment below or pop me an email. More stuff coming soon.






Glen
Contributor

Robert Leat at The EuroGamer Expo

I attended the EuroGamer Expo on 23rd September. I took a lot of footage here is the highlights.





 

Euro Gamer Expo 2011 Round up

On Friday 23^rd of September I attended the Euro Gamer Expo at Earls Court in London.   The event was sold out. I was fortunate enough to have been given a press pass which allowed me early entry to the expo before it was open to the general public. I didn’t have to queue to get in and there was a separate entrance for the press. When I was first arrived there were very little queues for all the booths. I went straight to Olive booth as they were giving away free Micro Consoles. I queued  for about 20 minutes , I got my Onlive console which came with a free issue of PC gamer magazine and vouchers for a 3 month trial if you’re a BT internet customer which I am.  After that I went to the AlienWare booth which featured all of the latest AlienWare  PC’s and a very difficult driving simulator which had hydraulics , a gear stick a steering wheel and 3 screens and it was playable in 3D with Nvidia’s 3D vision technology.  

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to play Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3 as they were in the 18 + area and when I tried to gain access to that area it was being guarded by security so I couldn’t get in. But I got to play some awesome games including , Uncharted 3 the sequel to Uncharted 2  Among  Thieves which was awesome  I played the multiplayer mode which was great and highly addictive.   I also played a game called Rage which was made by Bethesda, The mode I played was arena mode where hoards of enemies were sent after you and you, the aim was to survive as long as possible, I also played Forza 4 motor sports which was good, you had about 4 cars to choose from and you could do a 2 lap race, the graphics were pretty good. Samsung had a booth there where they were displaying many of the TV’s and Gadgets they were releasing ,I got to have a go on the new Samsung galaxy tab and I was pretty Impressed , I played fruit ninja on it and the touch screen was very responsive.  There was a press exclusive room that only people press passes could go in, it had free WIFI and they provided us with lunch, I felt very amateur compared to everyone else as they all had broadcast quality cameras and macbooks.  One of my friends even over heard someone say that they worked for IGN.

There were several cos players (people dressed up) and some very hot gamer girls.  There were quite a few games I would love to have seen but the queues for them were just too big, Counter Strike GO’ for example and Batman Arkham City. My favourite game that I played was defiantly Uncharted 3 and I am going to pre-order it.  I had hope to get round to doing some interviews with developers but I was just having so much fun that I didn’t get round to it. Next year I think I will go to more than 1 day as there was so much I would have liked to see / play but couldn’t. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to next year . You can see all my pictures from this year on my personal Facebook fan page.

By Robert Leat

Editor in Chief

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Yahoo CEO is fired amid 'dull' growth

“I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board”. These were the last words from Carol Bartz, the 62-year-old former CEO of Yahoo. The email, sent on Tuesday, saw her sacked after a “lack of a turnaround for the business”.

1 Billion US dollars. Enough to buy infinite Yahoo memberships, as free as they are. It seems that is all Yahoo is renowned for now; many email accounts and abnormal bulletins on the homepage. Yahoo had a revenue of $1 Billion last year, and was still described as being “largely flat in recent years” by The Wall Street Journal. Carol Bartz was therefore sacked on Tuesday (6/09/11) after two and a half years as CEO of the once market-leading company of the dot-com generation. So, why?

Stock increase

Bartz had one year left on her contract so the decision to dismiss her now seems to suggest change was needed immediately. In fact, the day after her departure saw Yahoo’s stock close with an increase of 5.4% the next day. Optimism is on the rise again it seems, almost rather embarrassingly, as soon as Bartz was deemed unfit for her duties. Does it come has a surprise? If you look on Yahoo, or have followed its existence, you’d know that it hasn’t changed too much. From being the no.1 search engine at the beginning of the last decade it has, in recent years, lost ground to Google and been slightly damaged by the surge of Facebook. In fact, the number of visits onto the site from U.S viewers has dropped by 33% since Carol Bartz arrived.

However, Ms. Bartz must have some credit. She overhauled the organisational structure to make it more decentralised and challenged the efficiency of the business. Unfortunately, her response to a reporter back in 2010 seems rather ironic nowadays.

Reporter: Why isn’t Yahoo as hot as Facebook?

Bartz: Remind me, what’s their revenue?

Where now?

Yahoo is to now focus on organic growth. Organic growth is growth which is achieved ‘naturally’, usually from sales, and not from external sources such as mergers or acquisitions. It needs to think of innovative ways to regain its market position, with the stand-in interim CEO Tim Morse given the go-ahead to steer the turn-around. Expect in the very near future features from Yahoo to engage the late teens/young adult demographic which Facebook has done so well to draw in. Hotmail might be an example of such developments with its unlimited storage capacity and connections with MSN messenger. Or maybe this really is the beginning of the end of Yahoo, with competition becoming increasingly competitive. It’s safe to say, Yahoo’s dominance is now over and the expulsion of their CEO seems to indicate they feel the same way. This is a new beginning for Yahoo and new possibilities for the market. Watch this space.

Glen Gostlow

Contributor

More stuff coming soon. Any suggestions please leave a comment below or email me.