Alan Buckingham

Let the battle of the next-generation gaming consoles begin. Sony has unveiled the latest PlayStation in its ongoing battle against Microsoft for your gaming dollars. This is a race to be sorted out by consumers, and it begins this holiday season when both consoles will hit the market.

"We are proud to unveil today the most advanced gaming system ever created, PlayStation 4, which demonstrates everything PlayStation stands for -- a relentless focus on the gamer, an inspired community of developers equipped with the most powerful technology, and the long-standing legacy to building worlds without boundaries through one-of-a-kind gaming experiences," said Jack Tretton, President and CEO of SCEA

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At WWDC, Apple's big annual show, the company finally announces iTunes Radio, a service rumored and bandied about around the internet for some time. Apple, as it is known to do, builds this up to be the be-all and end-all of everything that came before. Is it?

To answer that we must first delve into what iTunes Radio is. According to Apple, customers "have access to Featured Stations, stations inspired by the music you already listen to, and more than 200 genre-focused stations — including everything from Hard Rock to Doo Wop. Your stations evolve based on the music you play and download".

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The next Xbox was a lightning rod of controversy between rumors and the official announcement (and even that came without key details). Today's E3 keynote address fills in the information we were waiting for. Microsoft took the stage at the world's gaming mecca to deliver important information such as pricing and availability, as well as the all-important games stuff.

The console maker refers to its new lineup of games as "blockbuster", though that is for consumers to decide. Unveiled games include Ryse: Son of Rome, Forza Motorsport 5, Dead Rising 3, Project Spark, Sunset Overdrive and Titanfall. The biggest related news, however, is the unveiling of "Halo Xbox One", the next chapter of the gaming franchise developed by 343 Industries, which launches in 2014.

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Grand Theft Auto remains a popular game for both Playstation and Xbox platforms, but creator Dave Jones has since moved on, launching his own nWay Studio. Now the company, in conjunction with Android game console maker Ouya, announces a brand new franchise is launching.

ChronoBlade will debut later this year as a browser-based, free-to-play, RPG featuring up to 4-player gameplay. However, Ouya tells us that it will get an exclusive on the new game. "Ouya will be the very first platform to offer the Chronoblade demo which will be available this week via the DISCOVER storefront and playable at OUYA’s E3 location next week", the company says.

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My favorite platform for shuffling media around my home and, most importantly, getting it to my Google TV, today gets a bit better. Okay, actually a lot better. Plex announces updates rolling out to its Media Server platform, bringing it to version 0.9.8 -- one step closer to the fabled 1.0 release.

While the software has not yet reached that 1.0 threshold, do not get the impression it is not ready for your home. The service has been full-featured for sometime now.

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It has taken some time, but Windows Phone slowly gets the apps that users really want. The latest arrival is Temple Run Brave, which plays off of the Pixar Animation Studios movie that was released through Disney. It is the first of two themed Temple Run games, with Oz later making its way to the mobile gaming platform, though not yet to Microsoft's mobile OS.

Microsoft's Michael Stroh tells us "in Temple Run: Brave, you play Merida, heroine of the Disney/Pixar movie, as she races, slides, jumps, turns and shoots across Scotland’s backcountry wilds -- all in gorgeous visuals inspired by the film".

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Despite the looming possibility of a buyout, Hulu continues to push its service forward with updates and new platforms. The latest version of Hulu Plus, the premium arm of the online TV service, today updates its iPad offering, with what the company calls an entirely new experience for your tablet.

"We’ve redesigned the app from the ground up, focusing on discoverability, efficiency, and our overall user experience", Hulu tells us. "We’ve really focused on developing several new ways to make your favorite shows, and your favorite new shows you never even knew existed, easier to find", the company further explains.

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The "browser you loved to hate" continues to try and find ways to push itself into prominence against the likes of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Now, on World Environment Day, Microsoft comes up with yet another reason why you should choose Internet Explorer over its closest rivals. And this is one of the most imaginative ones yet -- energy efficiency!

Roger Capriotti, Director of Internet Explorer Marketing, tells us that, according to the Center for Sustainable Energy Systems at Fraunhofer USA, "When compared to Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer uses up to 18 percent less energy". He also adds in some fancy numbers, to boost this claim. Unsurprisingly, the report was commissioned by Microsoft.

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Pandora, which has long been my music app of choice, is part of many set-top boxes and smart TV's -- it is even built into my DVR. Today the music service introduces an all new big screen experience, launching its official TV service -- another step towards making the radio app available virtually everywhere.

TV.Pandora.com hits the market aiming at Xbox 360, smart TVs, set-top boxes and more. According to Tom Conrad from Pandora, "The next generation of Pandora for the living room is an entirely new experience designed from the ground up for your television and remote control. This new initiative is standards-based and embraces next generation TV, game console, and set top box architectures that support open web standard".

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Have media files and looking for a better way to stream them? Good news then. Plex, the amazing little server/client that helps users send media to all sorts of devices (and which originally forked from XBMC) just got better for Apple TV customers.

Plex's developer announces a new PlexConnect app built on its API. The same API which is used to port the service to the web, Roku, Samsung TV, Google TV and more.

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Halo, the popular gaming series released back in 2001 by Bungie, is a big success for Microsoft. So much so that the company wishes to expand on the platform and port it over to other devices, both mobile and PC-based. The franchise has become a mainstay of Xbox, but the new version promises a refresh.

Halo: Spartan Assualt comes with new gameplay spanning 25 missions, an original story set between the events of "Halo 3" and "Halo 4", touch controls (in addition to keyboard and mouse), new achievements, integration with Halo 4 and more.

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Redbox Instant by Verizon debuted back in March of this year, after extensive private beta testing. The video service, even before that, announced it would be coming to Xbox, but now wishes to push the envelope just a bit further. That envelope today involves a foray into the set-top box market, utilizing Google TV.

Brad Bowers, Sr. Product Manager of TV Applications for Redbox Instant by Verizon, announces, in conjunction with Google, that "the app delivers the full Redbox Instant by Verizon experience right to your living room. This includes access to your subscription disc and streaming package, and ability to purchase and rent the latest new releases from the Redbox Instant store".

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Amazon continues to beef up its Prime video offering, making friends with major studios and networks in a race for content. Today the online retailer woos even more customers, building on the recent update that will introduce original content to the platform, by adding a new group of popular TV shows to its library.

New partner Viacom will begin providing hundreds of TV shows and thousands of TV episodes from Viacom to Prime Instant Video, including a collection of TV shows that customers won’t find on any other digital video subscription service.

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You are moving to the cloud, regardless if you want to or not. The world is just headed that way, and Box is one of the frontrunners in this race. To stay in front the company today announces new security measures, using CipherCloud. This is in response to a growing need to prevent malware in this burgeoning market.

Weisen Li of Box, tells us "I’m excited to announce the availability of CipherCloud Data Loss Prevention (DLP) for Box. CipherCloud DLP for Box helps admins apply corporate DLP policies on content in Box while keeping it simple for end users".

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I use Adobe Reader sparingly on any platform. Alternatives abound and mostly those are faster and more secure. Still, the company persists and owns market share for PDF, among other things. That is why, today, when Adobe announces a Reader app for Windows Phone, customers take notice.

"Adobe Systems, which invented the PDF, this morning published its official PDF document reader for Windows Phone 8", says Microsoft's Michael Stroh.

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