'Halo 4' Release date confirmed!!!

Halo 4 hits Nov. 6, Microsoft announced this morning, confirming earlier rumors that the games' fall launch will be "celebrated" tonight on Conan O'Brian's show.

Said Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios:

We are beginning a new saga with ‘Halo 4' and embarking on a journey that will encompass the next decade of ‘Halo' games and experiences. Millions of fans worldwide have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to step back into the boots of Master Chief, and, with ‘Halo 4' leading the charge, we're confident 2012 will be the most successful year in Xbox history.

Developed by 343 Industries, this will be the first major outing by the Master Chief not developed by Bungie. Bungie's Halo trilogy concluded in 2007, but ended with some unanswered questions about the Master Chief and his AI sidekick Cortana.

Tonight, Conan O'Brien will "help celebrate" the news of the Election Day release of the game with a special segment on his TBS show at 11 p.m. Pacific.

Diablo 3 gets official release date

Blizzard finally commited to a date.  We will see the awesomeness on May 15th so get your pre-orders in if you haven't already.  Here is the official Blizzard statement:

The End of Days approaches…. Diablo III will be unleashed from the Burning Hells on May 15, 2012, and you can be ready to play the minute the servers go live by pre-purchasing the game digitally on Battle.net today.

Beginning May 15, players around the world will be able to return to Tristram to discover the dark secrets of a fallen star and begin their quest to save Sanctuary from the impending demonic invasion. To secure your place as a barbarian, monk, demon hunter, witch doctor, or wizard right now, simply log in to your Battle.net account, and then purchase and download* Diablo III, and you’ll be ready to play when the game launches.

World of Warcraft players interested in getting Diablo III for free can still get in on the World of Warcraft Annual Pass, but the promotion will be ending at 12:01 a.m. PDT on May 1, 2012. When you sign up for the Annual Pass and make a 1-year commitment to World of Warcraft, you’ll receive a free digital copy of Diablo III, an exclusive World of Warcraft in-game mount (Tyrael’s Charger), as well as access to the upcoming World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta test. Learn more at the Annual Pass signup page.

For more details on the May 15 release of Diablo III, be sure to hit the official press release, or head to our new Diablo III game page to learn more about the game and pre-purchase your digital copy.

*When you pre-purchase Diablo III, you will be able to download an encrypted version of the game that will be unlocked upon release on May 15.

Blizzard gives 600 employees the axe

Blizzard Entertainment has announced this morning in a press release that they have laid off just over 600 employees from their Irvine-based video game company. Ninety percent of the cuts were not related to game development said the company in their press release. Blizzard does not expect the news to affect upcoming games Diablo III, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, or StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.

Mike Morhaime had this to say on the Blizzard forums:

In order to keep making epic game content while serving players effectively, we have to be smart about how we manage our resources, This means we sometimes have to make difficult decisions about how to best maintain the health of the company. We're in the process of making some of those hard decisions now. 

We're continuing to develop, iterate, and polish Blizzard DOTA, Diablo III, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, as well as other, unannounced projects. We'll have exciting news to share in the coming weeks regarding Diablo III's release date, and will soon be holding a private media event to showcase the latest work on Mists of Pandaria. It goes without saying that we're working hard to get all of these games in your hands as soon as possible.

Full Statment from Morhaime here

Apple previews OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion

Many of us thought that 10.7 Lion would have been the final step before OS 11, but we were very wrong.  Apple has announced a pre-dev build of theit latest OS slated to be released later this year (summer most likely). With more and more iOS like applications and overall feel, this looks like a very cool OS.  We here at The Geek Domain were not one of the lucky ones to get our hands on a build. But, our friends over at The Verge were so hit that source link to see their full run down of the new OS from Cupertino.

iPad 3 announcement to be first week of March

 Is the long, treacherous wait for the iPad 3 nearly at an end? That's what anonymous sources tell All Things D. The site caught wind that an Apple event next month will host the announcement of the company's latest tablet. The event is said to be slated for the first week of March at that popular Apple haunt, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco -- and seeing as how last year's event was held on March 2nd, that timing doesn't seem all that crazy to us. As for an actual release date, said sources are not so sure.

Letter From The Editor: We are looking for writers!!

We try and cover all the news in all things geek, but sometimes, pieces of news slip through the cracks. We need to fill those gaps with people like you. The Geek Domain is looking for some writers in certain areas. If you think you have what it takes and would like to be a part of the The Geek Domain team, fill out the form and tell us why you would like to be a part of our family. We are currently looking for writers that have knowledge in all of our categories. Fill out the form and we will review each submission and get back to you as soon as we can. There are some rules you MUST comply with and we have listed them with the form.  We can't wait to start working with you!

Click to fill out the form and read the guidelines!

Nintendo will add the "Nintendo Network"

Nintendo's third quarter financial briefing let us in on the rumored Nintendo Network, and we think it's about time. Company front man Satoru Iwata says the network will offer "competitions and communication among users, as well as the sales of digital content," and in the case of the Wii U, will introduce personal user accounts. Iwata stopped just short of confirming that the Nintendo Network will end the company's policy of tying downloaded titles to Nintendo hardware, rather than individual users, but mentioned that it packed an infrastructure that supports not only add-on content, but fully downloadable retail games as well.

"This concept was built into the design of the Nintendo 3DS, and we already have the necessary infrastructure," Iwata said, "We will prepare the same infrastructure for the Wii U. However, we have not decided the concrete timing of when we will start it." Iwata pointed to Mario Kart 7's community building features and DLC offerings in the upcoming Theatrythm Final Fantasy as an early look at how the Nintendo Network is trying differentiate itself from the outfit's existing Nintendo Wi-Fi connection services. Hit the link to follow the break and read the full release for yourself.

Full Release

RIM's CEOs step down amid turmoil in the company (VIDEO)

Well it would seem that the prediction I have been making for the last year has come to pass.  Both Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis have stepped down has co-CEOs of Research In Motion, the company behind Blackberry. They are replaced by one of RIM's two COOs, Thorsten Heins. Additionally, another board member, Barbara Stymiest, has replaced them as chairwoman of RIM's board. Lazaridis is now the vice chairman on the board and Balsillie also remains on the board, but "without any "operational role," according to Bloomberg. Both will retain significant shares in the company. More after the break.

Click to read more ...

Google unveils new Chromebox Series 3

The Chromebox looks a bit different than the model Google showed off back in May, but there's still no word on price or specs; a Samsung rep told me it was likely to launch mid-year 2012.

The new Series 5 Chromebook represents an iterative upgrade to the previous model; instead of running an Atom processor, it's now equipped with a dual-core Intel Celeron. Lightweight specs, to be sure, but definitely an improvement over the previous model. Design-wise, it shares a lot in common with Samsung's other Series 5 laptops, it's mostly plastic, but feels relatively well constructed. 

Apple 'Education Announcement' January 19th

So Apple decides to interrupt my CES action by sending an email about their press event. I knew this was coming, but not expecting the email while on the road.  Also, the event is going to be held in New York City of all places which is very bizaree considering all Apple event are on their campus.  The event takes place January 19th (just as we suspected) but since this is in NYC, it may be hard to attend.  From the invitation, Apple will have the event centered around education, so just as presumed, no hardware announcement, but rather software and other media.  Stay tuned to The Geek Domain for more as this develops.

Galaxy Nexus Officially on Sprint

Ads leaked out last week, but now Sprint's officially taken the cover off of the LTE-capable Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Unlike Verizon's model, Sprint is highlighting the Galaxy Nexus' NFC capabilities and Google Wallet software. There's no mention on whether the processor has indeed been bumped to 1.5GHz as we saw earlier, but we do know that the storage space has unfortunately been cut to 16GB. Other than that, it looks like the Sprint Galaxy Nexus could be the closest to Google's vision of what the device should be. There's still no word on when this device will be available, but we expect it'll be available when Sprint's LTE network goes live later this year.

It is official! The Samsung Galaxy Nexus on sale December 15 on Verizon Wireless for $299.99

Finally, it is official! Verizon has put an end to all the speculation and announced the release date and price for the LTE-capable, Ice Cream Sandwich-equipped Galaxy Nexus. It launches tomorrow, December 15th, and will cost $299.99 with a two-year contract.

HP puts webOS up for open-source

HP has decided the fate of webOS today, and it's an open one: the platform will be contributed to the open source community. The company says that it will be an "active participant and investor in the project."

As for Enyo, the app framework that underpins webOS 3 and the TouchPad, HP says that it will be contributed in the "near future" along with "the remaining components of the user space." There's no specific verbiage in HP's press release about what won't be contributed, but we wouldn't be surprised if there was some intellectual property here that the company wanted to hang onto.

It remains to be seen what (if any) hardware HP directly produces for the newly-opened operating system, but it says that today's move creates "the opportunity to significantly improve applications and web services for the next generation of devices," so it certainly expects someone to fill those hardware shoes — and in this model, of course, anyone will be welcome to do so.

Twitter begins rolling out new interface including Android and iOS apps

Twitter is rolling out a new version of its interface today, shuffling around all your information and compartmentalizing it into four distinct elements: Home, Connect, Discover, and Me. The interface is completely redesigned on the web, and comes along with updated versions of the company's mobile apps. It's clear that this marks a major initiative for the company to bring together disparate parts of its service, not only in web views, but to connect the dots between its online and app presence.

Additionally, the mobile apps have been redesigned (quite handsomely) to reflect to web changes. You'll find a similar stream of activity there. Android and iOS users can get the new version right now. iOS users may not immediately see the update, but can grab it by going to the App Store > Updates > Purchased. We checked out the Android app on Hoenycomb, and the new version hasn't added any screen size optimizations. It's still the same mobile app, stretched to fill the larger screen.

Hop over to their preview site to get all the info and read on after the break for the intro video.

Click to read more ...

Office for iPad in 2012???

Microsoft's released a few apps here and there for the iPhone and iPad but has kept one of its big ticket items out of the iOS family. According to The Daily, that all might change in 2012 with the launch of Office for iPad. The publication claims that this new release will play nice with Office 365's cloud-based service, and iPad documents should be compatible with the desktop versions of Office. In fact, this closely mirrors both Office for Windows Phone and iWork on the iPad, with document syncing and compatibility between mobile and desktop apps. Office for iPad's price point also is rumored to be similar to iWork on iOS's $10 per app pricing. The Daily claims a new Office for Mac will be coming out closer to the end of 2012, but the iPad apps are likely to launch much sooner. It looks like Microsoft's big 2012 is getting bigger.

Netflix to have new season of 'Arrested Development' exclusively!

Although Netflix has fallen on hard times lately, it appears the company has a few tricks up its sleeve to stay relevant in the face of falling subscriber numbers: exclusive content. The latest deal will bring new episodes of the much-loved show Arrested Development exclusively to Netflix customers in the first half of 2013, though only in the US. Naturally, the first three seasons of Arrested Development are available on Netflix today.

The deal is a shift from Netflix's standard procedure of signing deals for existing content — most notably the company recently shored up agreements with several studios for the UK and Ireland and the CW Network in the US — though Netflix will have at least one other original series coming later this year. For its part, Fox executives seemed bullish about "Netflix's bold entrance into original programming," which may mean that the studio could be open to similar deals in the future.

AT&T to expand LTE coverage this month

AT&T's starting to roll out their LTE network, as the carrier's announced that its first two devices with the true 4G will be ready to grab as of this upcoming Sunday. First we have the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket: the long-rumored device can be yours for $250 with a two-year commitment and will offer a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, Android 2.3.5, 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 8MP rear camera with a 2MP front-facing cam and 16GB of internal storage space. Next up is the HTC Vivid, which will be offered in both black and white for $200 and appears to match the specs leaked to us a couple months ago: it uses a 4.5-inch qHD (960 x 540) display, 1.2GHz CPU, 8MP rear camera with f/2.2 28mm wide angle lens and 1080p HD video recording. What about the "4G" branding? Contrary to the carrier's HSPA+ devices, neither device will have LTE or 4G as part of their official name. Both phones will be reverse compatible with AT&T's HSPA+ network, in case you're not using the phone in an LTE-capable area; in addition, AT&T also announced that the November 6th launch will also bring four additional markets live, including Boston, Washington DC, Baltimore and Athens GA. Data plans for AT&T's LTE smartphones will remain the same, with $15 getting you 200MB per month, 2GB going for $25 and 4GB with mobile hotspot connectivity for $45. Read on for a short video and the full press release.

Click to read more ...

Blizzard DOTA Trailer

Diablo 3 Collector's Edition Content/Box Art Photo!

WoW Annual Pass Goes live! Free Diablo 3, WoW Expansion, and in-game mount!

If you have a 12-month subscription, now being called WoW Annual Pass, you will be able to download the digital version of Diablo 3 for free, Morheim said this morning at the opening ceremony for Blizzcon 2011.  This means free games people.  Color me excited.  Free D3.  Bring it.

It also gives you a free in-game mount, Tyrael's Charger, as well as access to the next WoW expansion.