If you missed it: E3, Halo 5, possible Surface Watch, and Kinect for Windows Phone

Ron

If you missed it: E3, Halo 5, possible Surface Watch, and Kinect for Windows Phone

Much of the news this week was dominated by Xbox One. There were lots of big games were unveiled at E3, including Assassin’s Creed and Forza Horizon 2. Xbox 360 owners will soon been able to get their hands on the first four Halo games, while a beta version of the fifth installment, Halo: Guardians, will be made available as a beta on Xbox One in December. Also on the horizon is none other than GTA V. To tie in with World Cup fever, there’s FIFA 15 to look forward to, but if football is more your thing, look no further than Madden NFL 15.

Other games to look forward to include Fable Legends, Sunset Drive, and Scalebound. There’s also downloadable content for Tom Clancy’s The Division on the cards, and a raft of new titles from ID@Xbox indie developers. If you missed the media briefing when it was happening, you can catch up on demand at your leisure.

All of the handset bases were covered this week. The redesigned Skype 5.0 was announced for iPhone users, and was subsequently released. Android users were granted access to a pre-release version of Outlook Web Access. Windows Phone users don’t have long to wait until they can get their hands on that essential media player VLC. In more Windows app news, Microsoft just made it easier to push apps to the store and custom lock screens are on the way to Windows Phone handsets. We heard back from Microsoft about how the company deals with fake apps, copyright infringing apps, and other similarly questionable titles in its stores.

Could the HP Pro x2 612 be a Surface Pro 3 replacement? It’s shaping up well! There’s also a lot of other interesting tech to start saving up for. HP’s Leap Motion keyboard goes on sale very soon, and if you’re yet to be convinced by Windows Phone, how does the sound of Kinect-like gesture support sound? Filed under V for Vague Rumor is the story of the Surface Watch that was allegedly found in New York. A patent came to light that shows Microsoft is working on a Google Glass alternative.

This month’s Patch Tuesday addressed a number of critical problems with Windows and Internet Explorer 11, and Windows 8.x users were encouraged to upgrade to Windows 8.1 Update in order to keep receiving updates. Someone should have a word with ATM manufacturers — too many of them are still running Windows XP, it seems.

That’s it for now. Coming up this week we have the official launch of the Surface Pro 3 — head down to your local Microsoft store on the day for a hands-on session or to pick on up to take home.