PS4 vs. Xbox One: Who Will Win The Living Room?

Nintendo has relegated itself to the sidelines, so it's a two horse race now. Here's how Sony and Microsoft will go to war.
The PlayStation 4 made a dramatic entrance Monday at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) — and Sony had way more tricks up its sleeve than anyone could have anticipated. With Nintendo rendered mostly irrelevant, it's a two-party fight between gaming consoles these days.

(See also: The Road Home: Rebirth Of A Sony PlayStation Fangirl)

So how does Sony's successor to the PlayStation 3 stack up against Microsoft's Xbox One? Here are the raw specs, with some further thoughts below.

PlayStation 4: The New Gamer's Console

When it comes to the next generation of gaming hardware, Sony didn't show its cards quite as quick as its rival, instead calculating a pitch-perfect rebuttal to Microsoft at E3. Playing to each and every one of the Xbox One's high-profile weaknesses, the PS4 is exactly everything that the other console isn't.

If you're a gamer at heart, the new PS4 has your needs in mind. In a departure from a controversial new precedent set by Microsoft, Sony will not enforce DRM on the PS4. That means not only does the PS4 support extended offline use (the Xbox One needs to phone home once every 24 hours), but used and shared games get the greenlight too, just like they always have.

The PS4 will offer specs very much on par with its rival and may even have a slight edge when it comes to graphics, but that will become clearer at launch. Still, gamers interested in motion-based controls will have to purchase Sony's own Kinect-like PlayStation Eye separately for $59. Notably, Sony's PS4 will be priced at $399 — a full $100 less than the Xbox One.

Xbox One: A Casual Crowd-Pleaser… For A Price

If Sony has built an excellent gaming console, Microsoft is effectively positioning itself to sell an all-in-one entertainment central command system. With the launch of the Kinect back in 2010, Microsoft made a savvy move to capture the hearts and homes of not just gamers, but the whole family. Motion-controlled Kinect games were fun and interactive, not the stuff of the hardcore gaming set. With its family-friendly (and eminently hackable) new accessory, the Xbox 360 suddenly took a big bite out of Nintendo's piece of the pie.

Now, Microsoft will bundle each Xbox One with a Kinect — a telling sign that Redmond is intent on wooing the mainstream. The Xbox One puts a big emphasis on non-gaming entertainment, with baked-in support for live TV, big broadcast events and sports. All of this comes at a cost, of course, and the new console will sell for $499 — a considerable jump from the last generation.

The Xbox One will require a periodic connection to the Internet so that Microsoft can be sure that you own all of the content you're playing. Beyond DRM issues, the Xbox One won't offer backwards compatibility, meaning that gamers' existing Xbox game collections will be relegated to the shelf.

An Epic Showdown

With the Xbox One, Microsoft may have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. While its robust set of exclusive titles (Halo, Gears of War, Fable, etc.) will still be a lure for its core gamer demographic, Sony's PlayStation hits all of the gamer-friendly notes than Microsoft seems to have stopped caring about.

Still, with its mainstream entertainment features, Microsoft may not need gamers to sell its console any more. Meanwhile Sony has fashioned itself into a pied piper of sorts — and the lure of its affordable, DRM-free PlayStation 4 may prove irresistable for serious gamers.

Lead image via Flickr user CesarCardoso, CC 2.0. Console images via Sony and Microsoft

How To Downgrade The iOS 7 Beta Back To iOS 6 The Easy Way

Confused over how to downgrade your iPhone back to iOS 6? Follow these simple steps to purge Apple's newest beta operating system.

Upgrading to iOS 7 is a pretty painless process. All that's required is an Apple Developer account and the time it takes to download the install file. Going back, however, isn't quite so easy. 

Unlike instances in the past where upgrading to Apple's new beta OS was a one-way road - which will likely be the case again once iOS 7 is released to the world at large - you can in fact still revert back to iOS 6 if you've upgraded to the iOS 7 beta. 

(Read more: How To Download And Install Apple's iOS 7 Beta)

If you're like me, you may have thrown caution to the winds by loading iOS 7 on your iPhone without much more than a vague hope that you could restore it to its prior (and fully functioning) glory. Fortunately, it's a lot easier than various online guides are making it out to be.

Step 1: Download The Proper iOS 6 File

In order to install iOS 6, you must pick the proper version or iTunes will spit an error back at you. For the iPhone 5, you must download iOS 6.1.4. For everything else, it is iOS 6.1.3. If you use the wrong file for your device, iTunes will not allow you to restore it.

To review:

• For iPhone 5, download iOS 6.1.4. Depending on what cellular carrier you use, you will have to download a different version of iOS 6. Make sure you get the proper one for your network: GSM for AT&T and T-Mobile customers and CDMA for Verizon and Sprint. More info and a full list of worldwide carriers here. 
• For iPhone 4/4S & iPod Touch 5: download iOS 6.1.3. 

Step 2: Plug The Device Into Your Computer, Cancel The iTunes Automatic Sync Process (If It Starts)

When plugging in your smartphone back into your computer, the iPhone may begin syncing its data with iTunes. This could happen even if you had previously had it set to manual sync. This could be problematic if iTunes tries to make a new backup of your device with iOS 7. 

You should cancel the sync just to be safe. While I did not let it happen with my device, having an iOS 7 backup could supersede your old backups and keep you from restoring your phone as it was in iOS 6 with all your content - apps, settings, music, photos - intact. Despite that, you should still be able to, at the very least, setup the device as a new iPhone. 

Step 3: Do Not Put Your Device Into DFU Mode, Just Hit Restore

The popular notion when downgrading from iOS 7 to iOS 6 is to put you iPhone into DFU (Download Firmware Update) mode, which is Apple's version of recovery mode for iDevices. It turns out that this is completely unnecessary and your iPhone can be downgraded without that extra effort. 

To put your iPhone in DFU mode:

• Hold down the home and power button for 10 seconds.
• Release the power button while continuing to hold the home button for eight seconds.

(Read more: Apple's New iOS 7: What You Need To Know Now)

This process sets up your phone automatically for a restore. It is not technically required to downgrade to iOS 6. At the same time, using DFU mode will not have any negative effect on restoring to iOS 6. You can use it if it makes you comfortable.

Once your iPhone is recognized by iTunes, simply hold the Alt/Option button on a Mac or the shift key on a Windows machine and click "Restore iPhone..." The option to choose the iOS6 .ipsw file will pop up, the same way it does when upgrading to iOS 7.

Find the proper file, click it and wait. If you don't hit any annoying road blocks, your device should be back on the iOS 6 train. At this point, choose to restore it from a backup and pick your most recent iOS 6 backup. Hopefully, you made that backup the same day you took the iOS 7 plunge.

A Special Case: iTunes Error 3194

If you run into an error immediately following the process of the restore where iTunes says it's verifying your iPhone's eligibility, you might have simply downloaded the wrong iOS 6 file, noted above.

But if you're absolutely sure you have the right file, then you may just be running into a common iTunes error. Cult of Mac detailed how to fix it.

Here's the step-by-step breakdown:

• Navigate to the Finder, and select Go in the menu bar
• Click 'Go to Folder...'
• Type '/etc' and find the 'hosts' file
• Copy the 'hosts' file and paste it your desktop, then open it in Text Edit
• At the very bottom of the file, find a line that reads, “74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com” and delete it
• Drop that file back into the '/etc' folder, choose replace (your Mac may ask you to authenticate the decision). 
• Go back to iTunes restore using the methods described above

Let us know in the comments if you successfully downgraded from Apple's newest beta. And don't hesitate to let us know if you used a different method from the one described here to downgrade from iOS 7 to iOS 6.

Handbrake, The Best Video Conversion Tool You've Never Used

For some bizarre reason, you've probably never used Handbrake, arguably the world's best video transcoder. Maybe you're too young to have ever used a DVD ("Grandpa, tell me about the time when Netflix sent those DVD things via that thing called 'the mail'"). But more likely you just didn't know that there was a free, open-source tool that you could use to rip your DVDs to your computer, your Android device or whatever you happen to own.

Now, you do. You can thank me later.

Don't worry about being late to the party. You're not alone. I'm always surprised by how few mainstream computer users have heard of Handbrake.

But if you've missed up until now, you're in luck: it just got even better. Handbrake just shipped version 0.9.9 of powerful video conversion tool. While 0.9.9 comes with a slew of new features, including improved conversion presets and better audio remixing support, anyone who remembers earlier versions of Handbrake will be most impressed by one thing: blistering speed.

I've been using Handbrake for years, and while I've long appreciated its simplicity and the sheer usefulness of being able to rip a DVD to my hard drive, Handbrake used to be somewhat slow. To help speed it up, I'd generally shut down all other applications and devote my CPU to Handbrake's transcoding.

Not anymore. Today to test it I ripped Napoleon Dynamite (a movie roughly an hour and a half in duration) to my hard drive of my MacBook Air. It took less than 15 minutes to rip a movie that previous versions would have taken an hour or more to convert.

Not that Handbrake is truly a DVD/Blu-ray ripping tool. It's not, as its developers are quick to point out. It doesn't strip out copy protections that the movie studios might include on a DVD or Blu-ray disc. That said, I think I've only ever had one DVD that Handbrake couldn't handle.

Instead, Handbrake is a super-easy video conversion tool. Have a video in MPEG-2 format and want to optimize it for your iPad or Android phone? Handbrake is your tool. In fact, you can feed it just about any video format and it will transcode it into a modern format perfect for your Android or iOS device, or to play on any number of other devices.

In the olden days, I'd use Handbrake to rip DVDs (sorry, I can't think of a better word) to my hard drive so as to save battery life and luggage space while traveling. Today, given that you may not actually ever own any physical media, but instead download movie files, Handbrake is still your best friend, helping to convert these files and optimize them for different devices.

If you've never used it, download it now and give it a try. It's 100% awesome, and yet 100% free. Enjoy.