God of War: Ascension.

Prepare your PlayStations, for the all mighty God of War is coming back. Rumors of this game have been circulating for a while now but we finally have the full trailer courtesy of the PlayStation Facebook page.

The game will be called God of War: Ascension, unlike the God of War IV name that was being floated around till now. Also, unlike what I imagined, this doesn’t seem like a successor to God of War III but more like a prequel, where they show how Kratos came to be known as the Ghost of Sparta.

The series has briefly touched on this matter before in the first game and it seems Ascension is going to elaborate on that. I’m guessing we will have another game later that continues from the point God of War III ended. If you went through the full previous game, you know the game developers left a hint that there will in fact be another game. Perhaps the developers are reserving the God of War: IV name for that one.

Microsoft announces names of the Windows 8 editions.

Microsoft has released the list of editions that Windows 8 will be sold in. As of now, there will be four editions, Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows 8 Enterprise and Windows RT.

The first three will be available for PCs and tablet users running x86/64 processors and will be on sale whereas Windows RT will be exclusively for PCs and tablets running on the ARM platform and will not be sold but would rather ship built into the devices. According to Microsoft, all editions of Windows 8 offer a no-compromise experience, which has sort of become their slogan with Windows 8.

As you can guess, Windows 8 will be the base version meant for home users and is the equivalent of the Home Premium version of the current Windows 7. It will have all your basic features, including the updated version Windows Explorer, Task Manager, better multi-monitor support and the ability to change languages on the fly. You will be able to upgrade to this OS from Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic and Home Premium.

Windows 8 Pro will have all the features of Windows 8 but will add additional stuff such as encryption, virtualization, PC management and domain connectivity. You will be able to upgrade to this OS from Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate.

Windows 8 Enterprise will include all features from Pro and also have “features for IT organization that enable PC management and deployment, advanced security, virtualization, new mobility scenarios, and much more”. This version will only be sold to corporations with Software Assurance agreements. This means if you are a regular consumer, you can only purchase Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro.

Google Drive reportedly launching next week with 5GB free space for Mac, Windows, Android and iOS.

Rumors about Google’s own cloud file sharing service dubbed Drive have been roaming the Internet for quite a while now. There are strong indications the launch is imminent and, now we hear it will be happening as early as next week.

The guys from TechCrunch got their hands on the Google Drive app for Mac OS X, proving the search giant’s intention of launching its newest service in the nearest future.

The 5GB of free space on signup are confirmed by information Google has disclosed with its partners. You will still be able to get more space for a monthly/yearly fee, but there are no specifics revealed just yet.

Just as Dropbox, Drive will be available for both PC and Mac users and have a web interface, like Dropbox, plus a close integration with Docs and Gmail. Naturally, Android and iOS apps will be available at launch as well, which is firmly believed to happen some time next week.

Google promotes Android in India by teaming up with Reliance to offer 1GB free data.

In an attempt to gain some traction of the Android OS in India, Google has partnered with local carrier Reliance on what seems like a tempting offer.

Everyone who purchases an Android smartphone will get 1GB of data on the Reliance 3G network. Once you hop on the free data train, you’ll have a month to get through it, and you better, because it won’t be transferable to the next month.

All 13 of Reliance’s 3G zones in India will be participating in the mobile data giveaway including Delhi, West Bengal, Mumbai, Himachal Pradesh, Kolkata, Bihar, Orissa, Rajasthan, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir. The two companies will also market the promo on TV and on major Indian websites.

This is set to be the first from many steps Google will be taking to popularize the Android platform in India, 

Android dominates iOS in China.

A recent report by a Beijing analytics company rated Android device penetration in China to a whopping 68.4% by the end of 2011.

By comparison, iOS was only able to snag mere 5.7% of that same pie.

Such a drastic deviation may come as quite a surprise to some people, especially considering a recent report pointing to one in ten people in Beijing and Shanghai owning iOS devices. This same report also states that China has recently overtaken the US as the country where the most smartphone devices are activated, so one in ten people owning an Apple device is not exactly a drop in the bucket.

And we all remember that iPhone 4S launch fiasco at the beginning of the year, where Apple had to suspend sales of its latest iPhone in Beijing and Shanghai due to unruly crowds on opening day.

So why the huge disparity between the Android and iOS market share? Most sources point to price being the deciding factor, as Android is able to take advantage of lower-cost devices as vessels for the Google’s mobile OS. This is especially true for China, the backyard of price competitive smartphone manufacturers such as Huawei and ZTE.

Crysis 3

Electronic Arts spilled the beans on Crysis 3 right in their digital store Origin. Apparently the third part of the popular series is in the works and will be ready soon.

There were two options of the Crysis 3 Limited Edition game mentioned – for Xbox 360 and PC, so it’s still unclear if there will be a PlayStation 3 version as well.

$40 Aakash 2 tablet to get Ice Cream Sandwich update.

It’s as official as it can possibly get. Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of DataWind, the company responsible for the Aakash project, has announced that the Aakash 2 tablet will be updated to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Aakash 2 tablet is hitting the Indian market in two to three weeks and it’ll take another two months until users can experience Ice Cream Sandwich on their units. It’s yet unknown how the update will be distributed – over-the-air or as a PC download, but Singh Tuli is certain it’s coming.

What makes this ICS release so special is that the Aakash 2 only has 256MB of RAM, 2GB of storage and a single-core 800MHz processor, which doesn’t meet the Ice Cream Sandwich minimum requirements. You might remember Google refused to update the original Nexus One to ICS, and that one has 512MB of RAM and a 1GHz CPU.

Android app design guidelines updated.

The Googlers over at Android Design have just put up some new sections into their guide for Android developers.

Highlights include a brand new section on how to create a design layout for application settings, as well as how to link to other Android applications and how to navigate to your app using widgets.

India gets its first 4G LTE network, courtesy of Bharti Airtel.

India is about to join the list of countries with fully operational 4G LTE networks. And the company responsible for this is Bharti Airtel, which also happens to be the fifth largest carrier in the world by number of subscribers.

Kolkata, a large metropolitan area in Eastern India, is the first area to be blessed with 4G LTE service. It will be followed by Karnataka, Punjab and other parts of India in Q3 of this year.

Since 4G-enabled smartphones aren’t yet available in India, the Bharti Airtel LTE network will be initially only be used with 4G USB dongles, which will enable connecting your laptop or tablet to the fast network. Manufactured by ZTE, the 4G dongle will be priced at 7,999INR ($155), which seems rather steep, though.