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Mad Catz Intros M.O.J.O. Android Console

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The Xbox One and Playstation 4 giants might have overshadowed E3 2013, but such details did not stop peripheral maker Mad Catz to announce a console of its very own-- the M.O.J.O., an interesting looking Android-powered "micro console."

MadCatz MOJOWhile making part of a perhaps over-crowded market, the MOJO has a few features MadCatz hopes separate it from the likes of the OUYA or Nvidia SHIELD. First off, the palm-sized device runs on stock Android, allowing it to handle all games available on the Google Play app store without need for developer modification.

It also registers on existing Google Play accounts, meaning customers can transfer apps from Android smartphones or tablets to the device.

The M.O.J.O. demo unit seen at E3 2013 carries an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, but Mad Catz promises the retail unit will ship with a more powerful chipset (namely the Tegra 4).

Apple's WWDC 2013: OS Refreshes, New MacBooks... Cylindrical Mac Pro?

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Apple did all what was expected at its 24th Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)-- no Apple TV or iWatch were announced, but the company did unveil a handful of PCs together with at times surprising refreshes on the OS X and iOS platforms.

Mac ProIt also got around to do a bit of gloating, as it is customary at such an event. CEO Tim Cook took the stage to give updates on the newest Berlin Apple Store (housed inside an admittedly gorgeous historic Kurfürstendamm theatre building), the state of the App Store (5 years old, 5 billion app downloads to date), iOS device sales (600 million) and MacBook growth (100% CAGR over the past 5 years in the US).

Stealing the show is the new Mac Pro-- a high-power desktop computer inside a sinister-looking black cylinder. Introduced via rumbling bass and James Bond intro-style brass, it looks like something out of Darth Vader's office and packs the latest Intel Xeon chip (up to 12-core), ECC memory, PCIe Flash storage and dual workstation GPUs as standard.

Apple claims graphics performance is 2.5x faster than the previous Mac Pro generation, with 7 teraflops of compute power pushing visuals to as many as three 4K displays.

Wexler Intros Tegra-Powered Tablets

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Russian tablet maker Wexler launches one of the first tablets running on Nvidia's quad-core Tegra 4 chipset-- the Wexler.Terra, to be available in either 7- or 10-inch sizes.

Wexler TerraRunning on Android 4.2.2, the Wexler.Terra features IPS multitouch displays covered in scratch-resistant tempered glass handling resolutions of either 1440x900 (7-inch) or 1920x1200 (10-inch), as well as either 16, 32 or 64GB of built-in storage.

“After detailed analysis of the market, we came to the conclusion that users need affordable yet powerful devices," Wexler says. "We used the most advanced technology and design, but it kept the cost of the devices at an affordable level."

Smartphone+10x Optical Zoom=Galaxy S4 Zoom

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Samsung takes a second shot at the marriage of point-and-shoot camera and Android smartphone with the Galaxy S4 Zoom-- an Android 4.2 handset with a 16MP camera and 10x zoom lens grafted at the back.

Galaxy s4 ZoomThe device should remind readers armed with longer memories of the Galaxy Camera, the 2012 Samsung take on the Android-powered digital camera. However customers can make calls with the Zoom, a functionality the Camera lacks.

Specs-wise the Zoom is similar to the recently announced Galaxy S4 mini-- a 4.3-inch device packing a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 8GB storage (expandable via microSD slot), 2330mAh battery, LTE/3G connectivity and a slew of Samsung software additions.

CeBIT Goes "100% Business"

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A change in director brings a change in direction for the show we love to hate-- CeBIT 2014 goes "100% business," dropping the consumer segment in favour of a purely B2B event.

CeBit all business“We aim to more strongly leverage CeBIT’s core strengths by means of targeted enhancements,” CeBIT managing board member Oliver Frese says. “The event is being placed on a ‘100% business’ track-– exactly in line with the wishes of our customers."

Deutsche Messe rattles statistics from CeBIT 2013 to explain the reasoning behind such a change of heart. Reportedly 82% of CeBIT 2013 attendees were trade visitors, 33% were top-level managers and 60% of visiting professionals have no plans to attend another 2013 IT event.

Thus CeBIT 2014 will drop the four-pillar approach of previous years to instead assign topics to eight self-explanatory "clusters"-- Enterprise Resource Planning & Data Analysis, Enterprise Content Management, Web & Mobile Solutions, IT Services, Security, Communication & Networks, Infrastructure & Data Centers, and Research & Innovations.

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