Windows Phone 7 Mango Xbox Live Features Detailed [Gallery]

Thus far, Microsoft’s official presentations featuring the revamped Games Hub in Windows Phone 7 has been rather uninformative. Seeing as how mobile gaming is exploding and that Xbox Live — hands down the best console gaming environment — is joining the fray, it only makes sense for Microsoft to beef up WP7 in this area.

With that said, the Windows Phone team updated their blog this afternoon with a slew of newly detailed features and images giving us a glimpse of what we have in store for WP7′s upcoming Mango update. The most notable features include: improved Xbox Live messaging, ability to edit XBL profile, integrated achievements w/ comparison views of your friends, improved Spotlight content, fully animated 3D avatars and improved game request notifications.

Is it the full Xbox Experience ported to the mobile world? Not yet. But it’s getting there. Full gallery after the break…

Crytek: Crysis 2 “Entry Level” Approach “Backfired A Bit”. Finally Catering To PC Community With New Update.

Makers of popular first person shooter Crysis 2 now say the more “entry-level” approach they took with the sequel backfired. If you recall, Crytek made headlines when it was revealed Crysis 2 would only use Direct X 9 — a technology that is years old — instead of the much new and graphically impressive DirectX 11. To please hardcore PC gamers, Crysis eventually acknowledged a DirectX 11 patch that would bring the much needed graphics boost to those seeking the latest visuals.

While we can understand Crytek’s attempt to appeal to a broader audience as they dipped their toes in the console scene, alienating their most loyal group of gamers was a poor choice in our opinion. At least Crytek is finally making it right.

Look for the free Crysis 2 1.9 update on July 27th.

LulzSec Releases Massive Dump Of Arizona Police Department Data.

The Lulz cannon keeps on firing. Today’s victim: The Arizona Police Department. The damage: police officers’ full names, addresses, training manuals, anti-terrorism documents, etc.

The name of LulzSec’s latest operation has been coined “Operation Chinga La Migra” which when translated to English literally means “Fuck the border patrol”. The data dump is as Lulz puts it, “in direct response” to the new anti-immigration law SB 1070 that is highly controversial for it’s copious amounts of racial profiling and expanded powers for law enforcement beyond what many would deem necessary.

PBS was fun and games. Sony Pictures — psh. The FBI, CIA, and Arizona law enforcement — look out.

LulzSec press release after the break…

Nanosys QDEF Displays Will Make Your Current Gig Look Like Junk.

We love pixels here at Gadgetsteria quite a bit. qHD, Reality, Retina — the list of names goes on. But only one will stand triumphant by the end of 2011/early 2012. A new display technology called QDEF by startup Nanosys claims that it produces the best, most accurate picture.

Compared to your standard LCD display whose NTSC color gamut chops register in the 20% range, Nanosys’ QDEF displays are other worldly with their 60+% color reproduction. Most surprising of all, however, is that there isn’t any complex or costly technology at work — it all revolves around quantum dots…

Archos Announces 8″ And 10.1″ G9 Tablets

Need a different tablet to poke and prod besides your usual assortment of Android and iOS hardware? Well lucky you. Archos has come out swinging today with two new G9 tablets in both 8″ and 10.1″ sizes.

Both tablets will make use of a dual-core OMAP 4 processor ticking along at 1.5 GHz, feature Android 3.1, and store everything your little heart desires compliments of a 250 GB hard drive. The 8.1″ tablet features 1024 x 768 resolution and a $249 price tag while the 10.1″ G9 pumps the screen res to 1200 x 800 and the price to $349.

As for the standard spinning hard drive (as opposed to NAND-based storage) — while HDDs aren’t a standard storage medium in the new age of ultra mobile devices, Archos has stood by them to keep costs down and boast more storage than competing products. On the flip side, users may notice slower overall system performance because of the lack of a fast SSD or flash-based chip. Nonetheless, it’s hard to find fault with a 10.1″ tablet with bleeding edge hardware (save for storage) costing a mere $349.

Sparrow Gains Twitter And Path Creators As Advisors. Secures Solid Future?

Think the popular 3rd party OS X mail app, Sparrow, is going anywhere after Apple revealed a highly improved version of Mail.app at WWDC? Think again. Today on the company’s official Twitter account, Sparrow announced that Loren Brichter (Tweetie/Twitter for Mac) and Dave Morin (Path) are now Sparrow advisors. While the immediate outcome won’t be noticeable by mainstream users, it signals a continued interest in Sparrow despite Apple’s recent Mail.app improvements. Both Morin and Brichter have experience in dealing with OS X app development which should in turn secure a continuing updates and new features within in Sparrow.

Sparrow’s most recent update brought among other things, multiple inbox support and the ability to sync with Facebook and allow FB friends’ photos to display alongside emails.

Sparrow is currently on sale in the Mac App Store for $9.99.

Light Field Camera: Edit Picture’s Focus After They’re Taken.

The digital age has allowed modern photography to hit new heights. The things we can do to a photograph (and video no less) are mind blowing. Reaching such heights, however, takes a great deal of skill. But things are going to get easier as technology will allow for the less technologically inclined to create complex effects quickly and easily. And it all starts here with Lytro’s the Light Field Camera.

The coolest feature of this spacey camera is that it gives users the ability to edit pictures after they’re taken. But not just things such as exposure, color depth, etc. We’re talking actual focal points!

The way it works is simple, really. Instead of grabbing a small chunk of light that enters its lens, the Light Field camera grabs all of it including color, intensity and direction of the rays of light.

Ready for a hands-on demo, hop past the break and get to it…