Brian Fagioli

When I preordered the PlayStation 4 from Amazon in June, it felt like an eternity before I would actually receive the next-generation console. Like many people these days, I crave instant gratification and patience is not a character trait that I posses. However, the long wait definitely trumps being a sucker in a line on launch day.

As a kudos to Amazon, the entire process was painless. This is in stark contrast to my horrible experience pre-ordering the Xbox One from the Microsoft Store (which I ultimately did not do). The online bookstore-turned-everything-store made the process orderly and I received the PlayStation 4 yesterday evening. While I was tempted to rip into the box immediately, I used self control and instead waited until after dinner so the entire experience would be uninterrupted. After getting home from my favorite Thai restaurant, I took the enormous brown Amazon box to my mancave-slash-office and magic happened.

The Windows tablet market is starting to get exciting. Besides the venerable Surface line, there are new devices by Asus, Lenovo and Dell to name a few. However, a dark horse has entered the ring too -- Nokia. Yes, the Finnish handset company (which is being purchased by Microsoft) is releasing a Windows RT 8.1 tablet. While that in itself is not news (BetaNews reported on its existence three weeks ago), the release date was not known -- until now.

"The Nokia Lumia 2520 tablet will be available starting on November 22nd. You will be able to purchase the Lumia 2520 (in black) from AT&T for $399.99 with a two-year agreement, or for $199.99 with a two-year agreement when bundled with a Lumia 925, Lumia 1020, or Lumia 1520 Windows Phone", says Brandon LeBlanc, Senior Marketing Communications Manager at Microsoft. Of course, you can buy the tablet without a contract for $499.

When you buy a Bluetooth speaker, you do not expect it to evolve. In other words, you buy it from the store, it plays your music and there your relationship with the manufacturer ends, right? Wrong. Well, at least with Ultimate Ears. You see, the company announces a new firmware update that will teach the UE BOOM speaker new tricks.

"When we conceived of the UE BOOM and its updateable platform, our goal was twofold: introduce the world's first social music player and make sure it stays relevant with the ever-evolving world of music consumption. Social music enthusiasts have told us how much they love the 360-degree sound of the UE BOOM, its life resistant design and how it completely integrates into their lifestyle, and now we’re taking it to the next level, thanks to regular updates", says Rory Dooley, General Manager of Ultimate Ears.

When it comes to new and affordable Chromebooks, there are two standouts -- the Acer C720-2800 and the HP Chromebook 11. Even before the HP model was plagued with a defective charger and pulled from the market, I preferred the Acer for its better processor and increased RAM. Not to mention, the Acer is $249, which is $30 less than the under-powered HP.

Today, Acer announces that it is expanding its offering of inexpensive Chromebooks with the C720-2848. This laptop is nearly identical to the existing C720 model except for two things -- it has half the RAM (2GB instead of 4GB) and is $50 cheaper. The question becomes, is the cost saving worth the reduced performance?

There is a ton of valuable news and information on the internet. Unfortunately, this information is scattered across the web, which makes for a frustrating experience. Sure, you can utilize an RSS service such as Feedly to aggregate your news in one place, but that is not a visually attractive option. The solution to this dilemma for many is an app called Flipboard.

If you aren't familiar, Flipboard is a news and social media aggregation app which formats your desired information in a magazine-like format. This makes it ideal for use on a tablet. It is widely popular on Android and iOS. Sadly, to the dismay of many, this app was not available for Windows 8.1 -- until today.

While the subject of global warming is divisive and controversial, it is hard to argue with treating the Earth nicely. Everyone should recycle when they can and make sure not to litter. Unfortunately, in today's world of constant device upgrades, the tech-community is filling landfills with obsolete hardware faster than ever.

Today, Google announces that it is helping the environment by investing in solar energy. Hopefully, these solar panels are not at risk of overheating like the HP Chromebook 11 power adapters.

While I love Android, I am open-minded. Despite the fact that I collect Android figures, I am no "fan-boy" of Google's mobile operating system. My choice to use the OS is because I like it. Over the years, I have tried Palm OS, iOS, Blackberry, and Windows Phone -- all of these smartphone-focused operating systems are good in their own ways. However, I fell in love with the counter-culture aspect of Android -- hacking, rooting, flashing roms; it was fun.

The holy grail of this sub-culture of Android is the Nexus smartphone. You see, these phones are easy to tinker with because you can easily unlock the bootloader, plus they have a pure Android experience. The newest such smartphone, the Nexus 5, has the Android community giddy with excitement. The phone sold out almost immediately and it is currently on backorder for weeks. If you check eBay, you will find the device selling for more than MSRP. You must be thinking that this phone is amazing right? I am sorry to say it's not. It's just OK. It's also one of the best Android phones you can buy. Confused? Read on.

While I love Linux, quality magazines about the kernel are few and far between. Over the years, my favorite has been Linux Format. I was attracted to the magazine by the quality articles and interesting content. However, the price of the magazine was particularly high in the USA, which often deterred my purchase (it is printed in the UK). After all, Linux is free but the magazine cost about $13/month at Barnes and Noble -- a tough sell. Not to mention, with the explosion of tablets, reading paper magazines feels a bit outdated (I still enjoy a hard-copy of Reader's Digest on my toilet tank though).

Apparently, it is not all roses at Linux Format as many of the employees have jumped ship due to creative differences and are trying to form a new magazine called Linux Voice. Of course, to get the project off the ground, the former-employees have turned to crowd-funding to turn their dream into a reality. The question becomes, is there a need for another magazine?

Fedora recently celebrated a 10th birthday, but the Linux distribution is not done reaching milestones. Today, Red Hat announces that Fedora is launching the beta version of the upcoming 20th version of the popular operating system, dubbed "Heisenbug".

"Linux enthusiasts are encouraged to download the beta release of Fedora 20, take it for a test drive and help identify items that may need attention before Fedora 20 is generally available. With the beta release, the software is feature complete but may have some bugs. Real-world testing and reports from users are vital to help identify any new or undiscovered bugs so that they can be addressed before wider distribution", says The Fedora Project Team.

When an enterprise is looking to utilize a Platform as a Service (PaaS), there are many options. However, one of the more popular options that emerged in 2011 is Red Hat's OpenShift (the enterprise-class public Silver tier launched in June 2013). Amazingly, the user base has grown 259-percent, while the application count grew by 322-percent year-over-year -- a remarkable feat to say the least.

Today, Red Hat announces that it is not content with this growth, as the company looks to take it even further. "Red Hat is expanding Silver tier availability to 14 new Eurozone countries, including Greece, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Cyprus and Malta. With this expansion, Red Hat’s world-class technical support and additional platform resources is available for developers and application providers in more than 30 countries", says Red Hat Inc.

As the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launch days approach, the news and rumors about the consoles have been coming fast and furious. In the BetaNews newsroom, some of us are very divided as to which console is better which has lead to heated debates. While I ordered Sony's console, my colleague Alan Buckingham ordered Microsoft's. Expect in-depth first impressions and reviews in the coming weeks.

Today, Sony announces something that will once again tip the scales in its favor -- free stuff. Yes, the company will be rewarding initial PlayStation 4 buyers with vouchers for free access to digital entertainment. Let's be honest, who doesn't love free things?

When it comes to storage, the world is trending towards the cloud. However, I still have a soft spot in my heart for flash drives. They are small, convenient and heck -- they work without Internet access. In other words, if you need to work on a document in the cloud and your Internet is down, you are out of luck; a flash drive is still there for you.

It can be difficult to find the right flash drive; they come in different sizes, brands, capacities, designs and prices. Many people just try to get the highest capacity they can for a price that meets their budget. However, I would caution those consumers to focus less on enormous capacity (that they may not use) and more on quality and performance. I recently obtained two USB 3.0 flash drives from quality companies that are very different from each other -- the LaCie Porsche and Lexar Jumpdrive M10 Secure. I have benchmarked them, used them in actual practice and amazingly one of them even survived a trip through the washing machine.

When it comes to entertainment, I am mostly all-digital (although I still collect vinyl). However, like many people, I have abandoned optical media (CD, DVD and Blu-Ray) and instead choose to stream my movies and music over the Internet. This streaming-media trend has spawned a plethora of hardware devices such as Roku, Chromecast and "smart" televisions. I often find myself overwhelmed by the sheer number of devices with duplicate streaming functionality.

Today, Sony announces that the PlayStation 4 will also be adding this feature. "We know you’ve been waiting anxiously for PS4 to finally arrive and we have exciting news to share with you today. Starting Day One, a number of your favorite digital entertainment services like Netflix and Amazon Instant Video will be available with more coming soon", says Phil Rosenberg, SVP at SCEA.

People celebrate birthdays every year but the celebrations have expanded beyond humans. A search of YouTube reveals people baking birthday cakes and having celebrations for their pets. However, birthdays can be celebrated for anything, including Linux distributions.

Today, The Fedora Project (which is owned by Red Hat Inc.) celebrates 10 years of bringing open-source joy to the Linux Community. It is hard to believe that the operating system choice of the controversial Linus Torvalds is now 10 years old. That's like...a really long time in internet-years.

While the Nexus 5 is relatively inexpensive (in smartphone terms) at $349, you should still protect your investment. Android fans will likely want the official bumper case, but that costs $35 -- a bit expensive at 10 percent the cost of the device itself.

I decided to purchase an alternative, third-party case, so that I can compare the two. The Cruzerlite series of cases are quite popular on Amazon -- they are inexpensive, look good and get great reviews. And so, I chose the Cruzerlite Bugdroid Circuit Case which is almost a third cheaper at $12.95. The question becomes, which deserves your hard-earned money?