Sony to launch PlayStation Now in Canada and U.S. simultaneously

The new cloud-based gaming streaming service from Sony will hit the Canadian and U.S. market at the same time. Sony’s Vice President of Marketing John Koller confirmed with IGN that the PlayStation Now service will be simultaneously released by around summer time.

PlayStation Now is designed to stream games over broadband connection starting with the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. Sony also plans to expand it to Bravia TVs, PlayStation Vita as well as other Sony and non-Sony tablets and smartphones.

Tumblr finally adds @Mention alerts to platform

Long after other social network sites have utilized the @-sign to call attention to a person, Tumblr decides it’s time to let you know if someone mentions you on their blog. The Yahoo-owned service initially let you autocomplete friends’ Tumblr names with the @-sign but now they’re letting you know if you have been mentioned by a friend. You will now receive an alert on your Dashboard when you are mentioned. However, the feature is being rolled out slowly so if it doesn’t show up yet, you have to wait a bit more. Besides, what’s a few more days of waiting at this point?

Source: Read Write

First look at Sony's Xperia Z1 Compact from CES 2014

Sony continues its rollout of Xperia devices at CES 2014. Here's the 4.3-inch counterpart of the flagship Xperia Z1 which also sports a 20 megapixel camera. Looking forward to seeing this practical mini smartphone come to market, but in the meantime, we can bask in the glory of the photos from the show.

Photos by Alex Davies

Why is no one selling the Moto G replaceable shells?

Talk about a missed opportunity.

When the Moto G launched late last year, one of the device's biggest draws (aside from a quad core processor, an almost Pure Android OS and a lower price) was the promise of removable colourful backplates called Moto G Shells, Flip Shells and sporty Grip Shells.

The standard Moto G sold in Canada ships with a matte black shell that's a magnet for smudges and I'm sure that outlets that sell the phone would easily sell one or two of these accessory shells to new users. I've been to various TELUS and Koodo outlets asking about the Motorola Shells only to be met with blank stares or offered other cases from Otterbox or generic manufacturers. Big box retailers? Forget it, they only seem to carry iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S device cases right now. Here's hoping we see these Shells in stores soon, it's been two months since the Moto G launched after all.